Figures

Being sick detached me completely from the figures. As I started feeling better, I started feeling a vague yet distinct sense of dread. Was it possible that we could have hemorrhaged money while I was in my achy daze?

So this afternoon, I took a look. And then I did some end-of-the-month accounting.

Between January 1 and January 28 we spent:

$1000 on groceries (supermarket, drug store, etc.); $140 on household (post office, stationery supplies, etc.); $80 on gas for the car; and $400 on health (before insurance reimbursement).

This was a pleasure to see because it comes in $100 less than what we had budgeted.

But, there's more.

We also spent:

$245 for Kinder's spring semester drumming class fee; $175 for early-bird registration for the NEU conference which will be in May; $60 for a family membership to a local museum which will get us into the much more expensive local science museum free of charge for the next year; and we had a $790 car tune-up and repair bill for which we borrowed $700 from my parents.

I guess only time will tell if the conference and museum membership were "worth" it.

In the meantime, I feel like I am going to have to dig a bit deeper, to temper the aspect of myself which feels so much is true and important in the moment, to wait and see how these numbers roll and flow...until I can see for real, whether we're making it. (And continuing the conversation in my head about what that we are spending our money on that we can live without. Because, no Holly, I really can't imagine sending these guys to school.)

Question: what do I do with January 29, 30, and 31? (They get folded into January, I guess...) I wish each month had four weeks...exactly.