Back in the day, Grandma always saved my ass. I went to a live-on-campus high school* where there were penalties charged for, among many other things, being late to class. Unfortunately, I was not (and frequently am not) a punctual person. About once a month I'd have racked up about $25 in fines for all those two, five, ten minute lapses between the beginning of class and me walking through the door. Although I never told Grandma this, and never asked her for money, about once a month she'd send a $25 check which I would promptly sign over to the vice-principle or whoever. Now, I could calculate how much it would be if I'd have gotten my shit together ten years ago and saved all that money and put it in a kick-ass interest account. But I won't, because I don't want to know, and I want to continue with my story.
Darling Grandmother sent me a check earlier this month which I just rediscovered under a pile of crap on my desk. $100 is a lot of money! To be honest, two days ago, before I started this blog, I would have though….wohoo!! Drinks on me! New shoes! But now…that's my emergency fund! Kabam! I put it in the bank (less $10 for laundry), and mentally drew a line at $105. That's for the $5 my bank requires to keep the account open, and $100 for an emergency fund. Do you think that's safe enough, or should I open a new account? At a new bank even?
And what did I do with the $10? I drove directly to the laundry mat and put it all on my little laundry debit key. I like this laundry place because they use keys that you charge, not quarters. That way, quarters don't disappear into soda and candy machines.
As I learned from my recent-ish fairly successful weight loss, it's frequently as important what you are not doing to reach a goal as what you are. Maybe I'm just negative. For example, when I was trying to lose weight, I could think, "Oh my god, I just at a salad for lunch. I'm still hungry!" But then I would think, "What I did not do was have a gigantic bowl o'crap full of empty carbs and sugar. Yay!" With my financial budget, when I think, "Oh, boo I'm so broke and I want a pony," I will try to think instead, "I did my laundry for $6…and what I did NOT do was eat at the Mexican place next door while I waited, or shop at either of the TWO international food stores in the SAME plaza, or buy a cup of coffee across the street. Yay!"
*To call it a "boarding school" would make it sound more sophisticated than it was. It was a self-sufficient religious institution for the manic and repressed. Did not like.
