Spending Money, Saving Money

It sure has been an expensive month so far.  My brakes weren’t the only thing that needed fixing.  It turns out my car also needed a new caliper, hubs, and wheel bearing.  Some parts were under warranty, but when all was said and done, I still had a $532 bill.  Yikes.  Some good news is that I did leave the shop with a coupon for a free oil change.  The business owner was kind enough to write it for synthetic since that is what we used before, and he made the coupon valid until the end of 2020.  He gave me this for helping out with setting up their Christmas tree.  Not like I didn’t have the time during my three-hour wait! Lol

We finally received the bill for our deck repair.  I was stoked that it came in quite a bit under the $3,800 estimate.  The total came to $2,312!  Woohoo!  If you recall, earlier this year I spent $3,000 from our insurance check to purchase a $5,500 certificate to use towards our deck project and other projects.   So, not only do we have money left from the insurance company (an awesome start to our bigger emergency fund!), we also have a $3,188 credit with the contractor!  I must admit that I was a bit apprehensive going into the contractor’s office armed with this certificate.  Even though I thoroughly checked out the deal, it still seemed too good to be true.  There were no problems.  I left the office with a paid-in-full invoice, which also reflected our $3,188 credit!  While I was there I also met briefly with a member of their design team and set up an appt for January.

Yesterday, I was still mixing my days up and almost forgot I had to take care of the kiddo!  I seriously pulled into the grocery store parking lot, thinking that while I was in town, I might as well get my groceries.  Good grief!  No time for that!

Since I ran out of time yesterday, I headed back to town today.  My first stop was to the post office to mail a baby gift to my new grandson. I also had a Christmas gift to send to the 4-year-old special needs kiddo (or maybe he is 5 now?) that my SIL and BIL are raising.  They are both in their late 60s plus have my 92-year-old MIL living with them.  Fun times…for them!

My state likes to gift us with a bill for our birthday, which I took care of today.  So, after paying for two of our car registrations, I am now $292 poorer.  My birthday is still a couple of weeks away, but since the office is never open on the actual day, I figured I might as well just get it over and done with.

Somehow (cough cough) I managed to spend $161 at Meijer.  For those of you not in my part of the country, Meijer is similar to Wal-Mart, so yes, spending $161 is easy to do.  In my defense, I did stock up on a lot of sale items and bought both the kiddo I take care of and his four-year-old sister each a Christmas gift.  Even though I seldom take care of his sister, you really can’t buy for one and not the other.

My final stop of the day was back to the auto shop for lug nut retorquing.  I also wanted to drop off a cash donation for one of the mechanics who has been in the hospital for almost three months.  A mold spore almost killed him and he still has a long recovery ahead of him.  We’ve known him ever since we started taking our vehicles there, which is over 4 years ago.  We’ve always been givers, but I feel even more of a need to do so when it is for someone in your own community…and someone who genuinely could use the help.