Thursday, August 05, 2010

Wakeup calls

A crop-dusting plane passed over our house repeatedly yesterday.

Thank goodness the Culligan man is coming today to fix our water softener; as soon as I got the call yesterday I started loading up the dishwasher so it would be ready.  No more hard-water coffee for me, either.


Now that I'm starting to watch where our money goes, I've made a big discovery:  Most of our main bills... cell phone, house phone bundled with Internet and Dish, electricity, the propane level-pay, car insurance, gasoline credit card... fall in the first ten days of the month.  Not usually a problem unless it's that every-third-month when we make our quarterly house payment.  Like this month.
And it wouldn't really have been a problem this month except that I am putting money into envelopes that would normally be available to pay bills.  I could have skipped the envelopes and started up again later, but I didn't.  I'm anxious to get this thing to the point where it works; and work it will, once we're a month ahead.  So I used money I have tucked away here and there in savings accounts and proceeded.
Here's the thing:  Because Cliff makes good money and we don't have a lot of bills, I've been living it up through the rest of the month when all those pesky bills have been paid.  Need a birdhouse or a new printer?  Need to take a little vacation?  How about a new laptop?  Do it the last half of the month, we're good.
Then comes the crunch again as a new month rolls around.
This works fine at present; it won't float, once Cliff retires.
Can you believe I'm sixty-six years old and just figuring all this out?
On the plus side, we learned a long time ago about credit card debt, so that lesson is behind me.  

Did you know cows play hide-and-seek?

6 comments:

  1. The great thing is that you have months yet to figure it all out. By the time retirement comes you'll get it right. The cow behind the tree is a cute picture.

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  2. Anonymous11:54 AM

    I love the peek a boo cow...so cute!!!! and about the envelopes...maybe there should be one marked for "fun and games"...the latter part of the month??? or something like that!!!and that video of the plane was awesome....and by the way...things are a bit better today...thanks for caring...love and hugs...

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  3. Ora, there is already an envelope marked "Fun". I'm way ahead of you.

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  4. We had or shared a peek-a-boo game with a cow some years back. I thought I'd split a side laughing so hard. She'd duck her head behind the tree in now I see you now I don't. She'd never figured it while she might have hid her face her whole body still stood sideways to us.
    We let her play her game. So funny!

    Fernan

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  5. When we see a crop dusting plane we always pull to the side of the road and watch it. I don't know why but we just like to.

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  6. I love that picture!!

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