Candied Jansen is heading up my budget for the year and asked me to save my receipts so we can assess where my money is being spent. It has only been a month and a half so I don’t have results yet, but I do look forward to finding out where it all goes. My amateur prediction is that I will find out that I have too many kids. That and I like to eat. But those are just my first thoughts.
On January 20, I bought a book on my kindle. I bought another two on January 25 and one on January 29. February 7, 8, 10, and 11 all also saw book purchases. I spent a total of $40.65 on 8 books. Maybe I should guess that my money is being spent on books, except before the January 20th purchase, it was 2 books in November, one in June, and one last January. Not really something I did very often. I’m currently itching to buy something else, but I’m not even looking at books so I don’t have any idea what I’d want to purchase. I just know I’m in the mood to read and I now have a financial planner to answer to! I will also add that I love that financial planner with all of my heart and love that I’m stopping to think before I make purchases. Sometimes I think “who cares…I’m buying it” and sometimes I think “Careful, remember the budget”.
I’ve also purchases a few gifts. $35 here and $7 there. It adds up.
I paid the guy who mows my yard $100 because he’d come several times when I wasn’t home so he didn’t get paid. When he came this past weekend, I asked him how much I owed him for past services, and he said $100. I totally trust that he’s telling the truth, because he isn’t mowing regularly since it’s not prime grass growing season. The fact that he is willing to mow when he sees that it needs it and then trusts that I’ll pay up the next time I see him even if that next time is actually 4 yard mowings later makes me think he is fairly honest.
I had toll violations from when Candied Jansen and I first started dating. When I realized the fastest way to Candied Jansen’s house was over a tollroad, I immediately ordered a sticker, BUT I couldn’t handle not seeing the woman I was falling madly in love with immediately so I took several trips over the tollroad before my sticker showed up at my house. The fact that they just sent me a bill for toll violations that occurred a year ago surprises me, but it is what it is. There goes $70.
I could keep going, but I think I’ll quit now before I figure out that I can’t blame my money disappearing on my kids! (Well, there is the one kid in college who happened to ask me for money on the day that I was at my wits end with my students so he got $75 out of me because he was smart enough to make it to college! I’ll blame him!)
Midlife Natalie 