Serious Business

I hate thinking about money, I hate talking about money, just the entire enterprise of finances drives me insane. In a general sense, I keep track of where my money goes (rent, student loans, food, and blockbuster pretty much), but getting right down to the details and breaking down exactly how much I make and what percentages go where...well it combination depresses me/freaks me out.

#1 because I make way less than I should for the amount of work that I do, so actively not considering the hard numbers makes me less depressed and more likely not to quit my job and join the food stamp line for my share of that delicious government cheese
AND
#2 because when it comes down to it, I waste a lot of money on really frivolous things.

This was brought into sharp relief this last week when I had to budget my entire weekly allowance on the $17 dollars that were in my wallet. There was a payroll mixup at my office, so I was only paid about a third of what I was owed at the end of the month. At the time, because I am the fool that is immediately parted with his money, I thought I had enough money saved up to tide myself over until the next payday.

This was something of a miscalculation, as when two unexpected bills came due on Monday I had no cash in by bank account. Since physically declaring bankruptcy tends to be frowned on in polite society, I instead emptied my beautiful Car Fund Savings Account to cover the difference. Which satisfied the bill collectors, but robbed me of my plans to go to the VW dealership on Saturday and return with a car that a) had air conditioning, b) had a working gas gauge, and c) contained shocks that kept your teeth from rattling out of your skull while driving down neighborhood roads in Dallas.

It also left me again with no cash in my bank account, and no way to cover day-to-day expenses without resorting to my credit card, which at this point is like getting a loan from the mafia, except my credit card company wouldn't just stop at my kneecaps. So I had to go from Monday to Friday on $17 dollars. This should not be hard, right? There is food in my house, the cable & internet bill is paid up through the end of the month. Just stay indoors.

Yeah, so it turns out that my life revolves around throwing away money. There can be no going out for lunch, there can be no movies, no getting Dr Pepper or Coke, there can be no filling up the TOM with gas to drive anywhere, there can certainly be no going out with people for coffee or dinner.

The only things there can be: Buying new kitchen sponges to replace the last one we had (which had to be thrown out due to plague), getting a 99 cent chicken sandwich from Wendys and making it into a full meal by taking really small bites, and putting $8 dollars worth of gas in the TOM and reeeally hoping that you can keep track of the MPG ratio in your head because of the aforementioned gas gauge malfunction.

And y'all? Sponges are expensive.

I made it through, though, and still have $4.75 to my name. So, y'know score.

Now begins the reconstruction process for my beloved saving account, because seriously, I really want a car with air conditioning. But now that I know that I can make it through the week on $12.25 dollars, I think I can speed the process up a bit.

And I'm pretty sure that I won't have to buy new sponges every week, so that'll make it go even faster.