Thursday, August 14, 2008

Yet another money post.

I have very very good intentions on working on that budget of ours - when I get some free time, that is. As my dear momma would say, "stop playing Scrabble with your husband!!!"

But, what I want to know is this: Why, when I'm finally ready to take a really good look at our finances, tighten up the belt strings, and plan for a future full of college tuition (mine and Mateo's, because I have plans, baby, plans), mortgage refinancing, and maybe, just maybe a really neat vacation in the upcoming year or two, things happen. As they always do. And I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

So here goes the breakdown:

1. Speeding ticket incurred by dear husband. He got this about a year ago, but because the cop didn't fill out his paperwork correctly then, the error wasn't caught until now. The ticket came in the mail two days ago. $144.

2. Traffic school. I was under the assumption there wasn't a charge for traffic school. Isn't paying a $144 fine enough? Or being stuck for 8 hours learning about something you should already know, since this is your 16th year or so of driving? Well, this is coming from a gal who never had detention (that she remembers - did I? Now I'm vaguely remembering be in a lunchroom and not being allowed to talk....) or put on restriction (I'm a goody two shoes) or gotten a ticket for anything. $188.

3. Blinds for living room. Mateo has this fun habit of grabbing onto the slats and twisting them and yanking on them and hitting Zoe (a cat) with them. We have not been able to convince him to stop, no matter how we approach it. Usually I just have to push the blinds back against the wall. The other night Mateo started up again, and my husband went to stop him, and three slats immediately fell down. We have more gaps than slats now, and luckily our gate in our back patio is high, and people really can't see into our living room. $100.

We just gave a monetary wedding gift, Christmas (yes, CHRISTMAS) is coming up (I really do think about it in August, I always have), and both our car registrations are due in the fall. I have my eye on a bundled Adobe software package, but at this rate, I don't see that happening, even with a student discount.

Now I have three things to figure into everything else, which doesn't make me too happy, but what can you do. That's life. That's how life rolls. So either now our faithful dirt mobile will completely die or we'll win the lottery. Either way, we're still winners while losing. Or is that losers while winning?

3 comments:

Neece said...

Go to court on the ticket. It has been a very long time, and it is a good chance that the cop won't show up.

Nut Nut said...

He can't even keep a dental appointment - I can't expect him to go to court. Totally out of my hands, unfortunately.

Nut Nut said...

Oh, I forgot to mention, they sent in a correction to the ticket, all stamped and official, so I don't think it can be contested at this point.

We got that a few weeks ago.