June 18, 2009

Budgeting




The Mission Beach Plunge looking South out through the main doors, 1983.



Himself: Counting the days: 7. Two RAC’s are hiring, and he’s checking those out now. After a rigorous budget cutting, it seems we will be fine for the long haul.

Herself: Amazed before we were half way through. One of those AA catch phrases that really is true. Eyes vastly better. Finished latest Dresden….sometimes that world can be way to real.

Reading: The Dresden and what I wrote. I wrote so much that my mouse hand wasn’t happy.

Balance: The budget.

I spent the day hacking and slashing on the one piece I wanted to read today in the Poetry Group while starting a new essay on learning to swim. All the while my brain was muttering to itself about cutting our spending.

Slash here……..cut Marta totally and we save $120.00, half we save 60. Hack at long distance calls and the cleaners to save fifty. Look for Mission Beach Plunge pictures everywhere all the while thinking…….what else can be cut.

And the Plunge pictures were everywhere. Nothing orderly about me at all. Now they are in a folder marked Plunge. That’s a start. What isn’t good is that the essay now has few words but eleven pictures. Most blog readers won’t suffer through that.

Don’t eat out three days a week, don’t renew anything, don’t shop……oh, the horror of that for a shopaholic, and plan frugal menus. All the articles I’ve read say start cutting now not when he is laid off or you are broke. We actually started cutting a month ago, and we eat frugally anyway. We will do the kitchen counter and the dent in Grumpy’s door, and we will put aside the money for the bathroom and Grumpy’s much needed tires. We will set aside a year’s worth of monies from the re-finance for insurances, taxes, CPA, and other absolutes also.

My friend K from Florida, who was hired just before I was at the Plunge, is coming to town to visit her sister, M, next month. M also worked at the Plunge. We are planning a mini reunion, and not only am I putting the pictures together for the swimming article but for all the Plunge friends. After looking at pictures for much of the day, I note we were all young, slender, and innocent looking those years.

I put together a Snapfish slideshow of the plunge pictures, but I couldn’t make it work here. Ah, reality. I did manage to cut almost nine-hundred from our monthly expenses and felt triumphant, young and innocent again with my skinny budget.





The Women’s Locker Room Lost and Found bulletin board illustrated in my hardbound 11x14 journal, 1983. So few ever claimed their lost things. Making a living bulletin board from the clothes and other stuff, sure drew attention to our problem. Lots of stuff went home again too.

5 comments:

  1. Cutting the budget is really hard when one is already at bare bones. I tried cutting the food budget, but food is actually pretty cheap, and we eat so little now that we are in our 70's that it doesn't make a lot of difference what we eat, so long as it isn't stuff like lobster and caviar.

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  2. Ah, Mage, to have you here to teach me to swim properly! Congratulations on your skinny budget.

    20th Century Woman--Ah, to have you here to teach me to eat less now that I am in my 70s. Somehow my appetite just will not be managed! *sigh*
    Cop Car

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  3. Ah, cut books, weight watchers and chocolate. LOL We did not cut the Y.

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  4. please! more drawings!!! xoxo c

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  5. Mage, about the phone service. Wanted to tell you about Vonage, which is the phone service we use and it costs us about $30 a month for UNLIMITED local and long distance and even some international dialing as well. Don't know what your budget was, but we've been very pleased with our phone service so far.

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