Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Wednesday, Using credit irresponsibly

     My main teachers are coming over tonight to storyboard Cinderella.  I am sure it will be a late night. I also have to get  mid-term grades posted for the college.  Then I need to get the costumes figured out for the spring show.  What needs to be ordered and what needs to be made.  How much are parents going to pay and when.  Then I will get out a mass mailer before the end of the month.  People do not like surprises.
     I can hardly beleive we are almost to the end of the teaching year.  Oh I almost forgot.  I also have to get summer workshops set up by the middle of April.  Just one more thing to do.  I haven't even thought up a theme this year!  I think I will put the teachers on that.
     I sewed a great deal yesterday and I have so much to do today.  The state police have changed uniforms and I am busy hemming and replacing patches.  Also the first of many Prom Dresses came in today.  On Monday I only had about $120.00 worth of work in the shop.  I was a little nervous.  But $78.00 came in on Monday, $85.00 on Tuesday and over $100.00 has come in today by 11 in the morning so I have no end to my work.  Which is such a blessing.
     Hubby had a funny experience yesterday.  He had gone with 4 other foresters to an applicators school.  It was in a small town called Nez Perce.  After the conference all of the men were hungry (starving my husband said) so they stopped at a small diner and had burgers and fries.  When they went to pay the establishment did not take credit cards.  Hubby had his check book and he had about $35.00 in cash.  He had to pay for the whole meal because no one else had any money.  This place would also have taken hubbies check.  The ironic part of this is that we drive the oldest least expensive cars.  Take much less time off and really no expensive vacations.  We don't have any expensive habits, don't snow mobile, 4-wheel, down hill ski.  All really fun activities but expensive.  We do not own a boat.  We do not use charge cards, ever unless we are traveling and we put gas and meals on the card which is then paid off when we get home.  I also put all electronics on a CC for the warranty.  Hubby is older than most of his colleagues as the ones his age are in upper management. He was shocked to realize that these men all just plop a small burger on a CC.
     I told him that maybe they just do that and then pay it off at the end of the month.  He said no, he knows for a fact that all of them are flat broke all the time.  It just brought me back to 10 years ago when this was my life.  I was always racing to the bank and praying that Hubby would not use the card for any emergency as it would not work and he would find out how broke we were.  I feel bad for these families because I know that the State pays very poorly and no raises are in sight.  But the journey to be debt free is a private decision.  Not one you can make for others. It did open my eyes and make me realize how far we have come.
     I don't ever want to go back to using credit  irresponsibly.  The thought makes me shudder.........

     Out My Window:  Raining non stop and cold.  I hope that this spring is not like last spring when we could not plant until late May and it was cold and awful until the middle of June.  But I did notice that the back deck was so red and shiny in the rain really quite pretty.

     I need to get into the shop and get busy, I have at least $100.00 worth of sewing to do today before I leave for the studio.  Also the laundry is calling and I need  to take back the clean laundry (costumes) to the high school today! It will clean out the laundry room.

    I have been able to contribute several dollars worth of coins to my pig bank this week!

Have a great and productive day!

Kim

4 comments:

  1. Isn't it wonderful that you were able to change your habits and become the responsible spender that you are today! Proud of you!
    My poor little piggy only got 20 cents today :( It's very hungry.

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  2. Having a new normal can make you shake your head at others' choices. We're still paying for ours, but I already notice when others' are doing stupid. I sometimes wish I could stop them before they end up where we did.
    On another note, you're the hardest working PFer I know!

    Sarah

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  3. I know what you mean about wanting to show others how to avoid their bad spending habits.
    But most times, you just have to let them "go there" because most folks don't learn the lessons until they live them.

    It's insanity to have to put a hamburger on a cc! some day, maybe the rest of the world will see that too. ;-)

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  4. Not to go away from the norm, but I would prefer to put all expenses into either a CC (for reward points) or a debit card than to use cash, even though I always carry cash. I pay it off when I get home from my checking account, but I also prefer to pull up my CC and see what I've spent, where the money went and so on, instead of going through old receipts and not being able to account for everything. Awesome for your hubby and being the only one with cash on hand! Hopefully they pay him back.

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