Velcrometer
Throwing stuff at the internet to see what sticks
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M. Giant's Velcrometer Throwing stuff at the internet to see what sticks |
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Thursday, January 14, 2010 Big Ticket Timing Like a lot of people, Trash and I really made an effort to save money last year, and plan to continue this year. We tracked our expenses, we cut down on eating out, we found ways to save on our utilities, we even clipped coupons. And of course, we held off on major purchases whenever possible. Well, sort of. After I posted the entry about having broken my snowblower, Trash suggested I call the used snowblower place to see if they had another used one cheap. They did, so I went and picked it up, with the understanding that when I (okay, my dad) got the current one running again, I’d try selling it back. Probably not at a profit, but hopefully not at too much of a loss. Plus I got an upgrade, buying a nice two-stage for the cost of my old one-stage. Better yet, I don’t have to mix the gas and the oil, so I'm not going to break it by failing to do so. So that doesn't really count. And we needed a new couch and love seat. We've never actually bought a living room set for ourselves, believe it or not. Our first sofa was a wedding gift from my parents, and the sofa and love seat we had after that were hand-me-downs from Trash's dad and stepmom, who deemed them too old for their further use. We got several more years of use out of them ourselves, but when we realized that only one side of the cushions could be used any more and we couldn't lean against the end of it without risking a poke from a loose nail. We were going to go to IKEA when we got around to it, but Trash spotted a sweet buy-couch-get-love-seat-free deal at a furniture chain, so we couldn't pass that up. Now the old furniture set is out on the curb, where it's been for three days. I know that Jawa is a seasonal occupation, but you'd think someone would have snagged a matching set by now. Before we bought them, Trash expressed surprise that we didn't know anyone who had an old couch and love seat to get rid of. "Well, maybe we do," I said, "but they aren't going to give them to 39-year-olds." Obviously we needed them either way, and they were a great deal, so that doesn't really count either. And then, before Christmas, M. Edium heard all about his cousin's gymnastics classes, and he wanted a piece of that. Trash set him up for a trial session at a place where kids from teens all the way down to foetuses get to go and, as M. Edium put it, "Learn new moves." For weeks afterward he was looking forward to gymnastics more than anything, even more than swimming lessons, which was what he used to look forward to more than anything. The trial session was a huge success, so we signed him up for a full-term class that ended up costing more than my new snowblower. But it's for his long-term physical development, confidence, and self-actualization, and maybe he'll fall off chairs less often, so that doesn't really count either. Oh, and there's the air fare. See, we're going to fly down soon to visit my parents while they're in Florida. But it's going to be just me and M. Edium going, since Trash is going to be teaching a class then, so that's cheaper than flying all three of us down. Plus my parents are putting us up, so that's free room and board. Also, it's important for a boy to spend quality time with his grandparents, and I'm not about to put him on a plane by himself. So that doesn't really count either. Maybe I'm just looking at this wrong. We tracked last year's expenses, and we're tracking this year's. So maybe we should just decide that expenses that fall between Christmas and January 7 don't count. That's a good system. I think I'll start putting together my shopping list for a year from now. posted by M. Giant 7:45 PM 2 comments 2 Comments:Hey, cool! What is Trash teaching? (I don't know her, but I just get the sense she'd be a great teacher.)
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"M. Edium heard all about his cousin's gymnastics classes, and he wanted a piece of that." LOL!! I'm a little behind on my reading!!!
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