We have bats above the ceiling in our attic. I don't even want to begin to explain the lengths to which we have gone to try to rid ourselves of these RIDICULOUSLY RESILIENT pests, so I will just tell you that they are slowly but surely sucking every. last. dime. We have already shelled out $800 to have all their entrance areas sealed, but we have to get additional roof work done, and we have to rip out the ceiling and walls in our attic (until recently Lucy's room) so everything can be removed and sterilized. And THEN, Rick has to rebuild it all.
Awesome.
Upon realizing the situation, we've had to take some rather drastic measures, because, as you know if you've been reading for very long, we are working our tail-ends off to get out of debt, and as we do with everything, we will be paying cash for this venture. We have cancelled our family vacation (which nearly killed me), we have brought all non-essential outings to a screeching halt, and in short, we have quit spending money that we don't absolutely have to spend.
So last week, I gave myself $89 (because I had $9 leftover from the previous week). Our regular grocery budget is $80, so that meant I had $9 to spend...period. I tried to be as conservative as I could with the grocery, but we had Freezer Cooking Night (another post) on Thursday, so I had to spend just about every dime. So I put the $9 in a jar in the kitchen and set to work making more. I started listing things around my house that I didn't need anymore on Facebook and slowly started making some money. By the end of the week, I had enough to take my son, nephew, and self to the movies and to ice cream afterward (with a coupon). I also had enough to buy a very small Father's Day present for daddy, and thanks to a gift card we saved and drinking water, we were able to eat Father's Day lunch at Red Robin for $1, including tax :)
Lesson? I CAN DO THIS. I used to live like this all the time, and then somewhere along the line I got used to spending money. Not an exorbitant amount, but some. Now I pretty much have to bring it back to nothing. I went through my closet (a chore I needed to do anyway) and listed enough clothes and things to bring in $40 yesterday - AWESOME! Of course I can't do that every week, but Rick is going to go through his closet and I'm going to repeat the process with his stuff. And he has nice clothes, so I'm hoping those sell as well.
The bat guy comes on the 1st to tear stuff out...
Isn't it scary how comfortable we get spending money so quickly? I mean, you lived on a major budget for a really, really long time and did it WELL. You could have a blog completely dedicated to not spending money and getting rid of debt. :) My husband wishes this trait of yours would rub off on me.
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