Day 13: I Just Gassed Up
Have you noticed our fun money hasn't been adding up long enough to be spent on anything fun? Probably because the method I'm following suggested $15 per day, but that didn't amount to as much savings as we'd wanted. We've worked in a couple fun extras along the way, like the kids' face paintings and an ice cream date. We should probably re-title it "Gas Money," but where's the fun in that? Today we took the fun money, today's money and tomorrow's to put $30.00 of gas in the van. Thanks to a mechanic friend, I realized that cars are more efficient when you keep the tank above empty, which I'd thought only applied during cold weather. So borrowing from tomorrow's money, since we rarely spend on Sabbath anyway, would get us further in the long run.
All of this seemed sound. I filled up just before fetching my mom from work, downtown. But when I tried to pull out of my parallel parking space, I had no power steering. None. I'm a strong girl, but it was all I could do to get out of that spot. I wrestled the van into a Jiffy Lube parking lot for my free top-offs, hoping I'd let the fluid get low, but it was full. So my sparkling van will sit until we can find out what's wrong, with $30 of gas in it.
I cleaned out Brian's car and he put the kids' seats in so we have weekend wheels, that will take us fun places. I'm not really down about the Fun Money balance. Partly because the goal we are saving for is purely fun, which I'll reveal soon, and partly because we've been way better at planning fun into our lives. One side effect of my obsession with being productive is I'm not usually good at planning fun. Maybe being intentional about one area of life can leak into other areas until we're living life thoughtfully and therefore, in a way we actually like.
Total spent: 30.00
Fun money total: -10.51
All of this seemed sound. I filled up just before fetching my mom from work, downtown. But when I tried to pull out of my parallel parking space, I had no power steering. None. I'm a strong girl, but it was all I could do to get out of that spot. I wrestled the van into a Jiffy Lube parking lot for my free top-offs, hoping I'd let the fluid get low, but it was full. So my sparkling van will sit until we can find out what's wrong, with $30 of gas in it.
I cleaned out Brian's car and he put the kids' seats in so we have weekend wheels, that will take us fun places. I'm not really down about the Fun Money balance. Partly because the goal we are saving for is purely fun, which I'll reveal soon, and partly because we've been way better at planning fun into our lives. One side effect of my obsession with being productive is I'm not usually good at planning fun. Maybe being intentional about one area of life can leak into other areas until we're living life thoughtfully and therefore, in a way we actually like.
Total spent: 30.00
Fun money total: -10.51
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