(This article was written 2 weeks before it posted, don’t try looking for the mentioned deals today. See, I’m helping you!! LOL!)
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
That feels better, I’ve wanted to scream all morning. It’s currently 12:12pm and I am astounded by the temptation I’ve been fighting today, I knew I should have slept in!
I don’t know how many people know about this, but I kind of have a spending problem…a big spending problem. I consider myself to be in recovery but wowza, it really takes work. That’s a story for another time though.
7am: I woke up and hopped onto Facebook to get some *cough* work *cough* done. The first thing I see: Target is having their July Toy Clearance sale today. You must go TODAY. This sale is TODAY ONLY! HURRY, it’s 70% off!! TODAY ONLY!
Urg. I didn’t exactly resist temptation since I did check to see if the sale is online (it is not) but thus far I’ve resisted driving to the store, but it hasn’t been easy. Oh, hey Meg, your kids don’t need any more toys, and neither do any of your friend’s kids!
8am: I received an email from eBay informing me that something on my watch list was relisted. Well, I do need to stock the home library and I do have an unreasonable weakness for book buying….but I was good and said no (honesty disclaimer: I did win a lot of 56 kid books yesterday & it came to $18.99 with shipping, I think we’re good on books for now)
8:17am: I got an email from the Homeschool Buyer’s Co-op informing me of all the great new deals this week. I deleted the email without even looking, I know it’s dangerous for me to look, especially around this time of year. I do have enough reward points to exchange for freebies so I may go there later today and look around, as long as my debit card is in the other room (I really am too lazy to get up and get it, bad for my body but good for my checkbook!)
10am – My 16 year old took a test via phone with her history teacher (SHE GOT AN A!!) but this means she’s now awake, which means she’s going to start asking to go to the store in about 3 minutes. It only took 2 minutes. I informed her that the only place I was going today was the grocery store, only once did she ask to go to another store, two if you count Subway.
10:30am – I’m in the grocery store. There are clearance school supplies. There are fresh, delicious, hot subs. Fried chicken. Thankfully the grocery store is one of my least favorite places to be with kids in tow, and I was armed with a list and coupons. I managed to save $90 off total AND I got out of the store with only 2 extras (BOGO highlighters the oldest needs for a school project, and by school project I think she really means something she saw on Pinterest). I still spent too much but I stocked up on all the non-food stuff we’ll need for the next 4-6 weeks, and even with coupons that stuff is ex-pen-sive! Have you seen how much sunscreen is lately??
12pm – I finally have the groceries put away and the kids are fed. I put my lunch in the oven and head to the office & find out something ahhhmazing. I can trade in my 9 year old (& completely paid for) Yamaha Clavinova (it’s a piano, not a motorcycle) in for a NEWER MODEL. Ohmigosh. All I wanted to know was the name of a repair tech, but now I’m dreaming of a new piano. I don’t think I’ll succumb to this unless the repairs are ridiculous and more than, say, 70% of the cost of a new model.
12:24pm – I’m now almost done with this post and in the last 12 minutes I’ve gotten emails from Groupon, two grocery stores and a movie club. And my kid asked me to take her to a clothing store.
Four years ago this month we had over $150,000 discharged in bankruptcy. 90% of the debt was in the form of medical bills but I can’t use that as an excuse because that still left an astounding $15,000 in credit card and credit account debt. This is not something we’re proud of or talk about, but it provided an education. I knew things would be difficult after the bankruptcy, I knew we wouldn’t be able to get a credit card or loan for a while. I had no idea people would turn our rental applications down because of it. I had no idea it would take a year before a bank would let us have a checking account.
We now have credit cards, 3 cards between us with a total credit line of $1300. We vow to never owe more than $300 total, and to never increase our limit to what it would take more than one year to pay off. This gives us wiggle room for big emergencies (as in car accident big, not we’re running low on food big) but it also leaves us with a plan we know we can live with.
Is it fun? No, usually it sucks, actually. There are months when we really struggle to get by but we always do. We know that if we have to eat beans and rice all week, we’ll eat beans and rice because it’s 100% better than ending back up where we were four years ago. The temptation just isn’t worth it.
<a href="Money Fight by Frits Ahlefeldt” target=”_blank”>Featured image is public domain and used with permission
Wow, I didn’t realise how far you’d come from (only a recent reader!). I swear advertising makes it SO much harder, esp when they email you, so I work hard to not get even the very enticing emails now days!
Right?? I’m trying to filter everything to junk now. If I miss a good deal I miss it!! Nothing is a good deal if it’s not budgeted.