[Gemme]

Originally Posted by Bit

I make lunch for Gryph and pack it along with a couple of drinks in his backpack for work. He prefers his Gatorade watered down a little, and his tea boiled strong; also takes a cup of coffee to work with him. The Gatorade is $1.50 a day at work and I only pay at most $2 for a week's worth at the grocery store, so there's $5.50 a week right there.

Days when I just cannot get it together enough to cook in time, he spends anywhere from $5 to $8 on lunch, so I make a pretty big effort to cook ahead and make sure there's always something lunch-worthy in the fridge. I normally get three lunches out of $4 worth of ingredients, so a conservative estimate would be that we spend $8 a week and that saves us approximately $17 a week--or more.
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A very kind soul *kisses to you!* sent me a gift card to Dollar General and I got a ride over there today. Wow, I found Crest Prohealth in the big tube for a dollar less than the grocery store and it came with a freebie sample of the rinse. I also got Glucosamine Chondroiten--Gryph says it really does make a difference with his knees--for half price. Then I found some hair squinchies for me (mine have finally all given up the elastic ghost) and some eeensy rubber bands for his braids (he wears braids to honor his Native American heritage) for a dollar apiece!! It was great!
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So, Gryph and I splurged and had a fast food dinner the other evening. I would tell you it was our anniversary dinner, but lol!! We FORGOT!!! (can we count it in retrospect?) Ah well. Anyhow, I asked to go out because we needed to talk away from distractions, interruptions, and tension. It was kinda hard to get the conversation started... how strange to have an attack of shyness after being together for three years, eh? and over such a prosaic and mundane topic, too.

We needed to talk about money.

Gryph thought I was nuts. He said we do fine, that he's good with how I handle the budget. I think he was pretty concerned until he realized I just needed input. There were things we hadn't talked about, yanno? So we spent a couple hours talking about the priorities of life.

What sparked it might seem silly or even inconsequential to others. Two magazines are up for renewal. They're more expensive than most of our magazines--and they're Native American magazines. So instead of just deciding to let them go, I needed to know what kind of priority they have in his life, whether the content makes a difference (yep, it sure does!). That led us to a discussion about what's important and in which ways.

I discovered things which surprised me, like a museum membership would be a really bad birthday gift because he really doesn't care about museums (what threw me on that one was the one N.A. magazine, since it's from the National Museum of the American Indian)... but on the other hand, he wants to decorate That House to be respectful of the Craftsman era, so if I find copper Craftsman-style lamps or mailboxes or furniture that we can afford, I should get them. And while landscaping the yard is a low priority for him, making me happy is a high priority, so it's okay with him if I spend money on a food garden even when the budget is squeaking. (He wins, I bought a raspberry vine today!)

Anyhow it was an interesting discussion, as much for the things we forgot to talk about as for all the things we did talk about. We started with a given: That House must be repaired, and all the bills must be paid. After that we ranked things low, medium, and high priority in terms of spending money--there were a few things that are high priority in terms of time and energy that are medium or even low in terms of money--and while we talked about ways to improve our lives, we completely forgot to talk about things like a new computer or cell phone service.

Like I said, it was interesting! And now I have a much clearer idea where our money should go, and what is most important in our lives.

Isn't it funny how a seemingly small thing will create big waves of communication? I just did this with myself, concerning my Women's Heath magazine. I already have two others, so I've opted to let it go and go veg at the library once a month to catch up. If I see any articles I just CANNOT live without, I'll copy them or bring a notebook to jot ideas down in.

I've already decided to venture more into the library now that I have little to no internet at work and I usually have a good chunk of down time.

I've gone through my finances a LOT in the past few days. Getting my hours cut at work is costing me quite a bit, so I've been looking at ways to trim my budget. Next month, since it's too late to cancel it for this month, the Y membership goes. Since I won't be driving across town 4-5 days a week, my gas will be less too. My cell plan is getting cut to the bare bones and texting will be nixed or minimalized as much as possible too. I have a credit watch program that I'm cutting (it's not like I can do anything now anyway to repair and restore it).

I already did the bring your lunch thing and I rarely go out. Last month, I stopped for an order of California rolls and that was $5. That was it as far as going out goes. Now, my food and miscellaneous budget are being cut in half. So, toiletries and hygienic things are going to change as far as brands go and I am going to have to give some things up. Regular moisturizer instead of defying gravity and free radicals stuff, for example. My food budget is implemented by the food bank (I think I mentioned that already), which is a Godsend. Some days, I can get fresh produce there.

It's *definitely* all about what's important to you. Making the reunion is important to me, so I'll be showing up with graying hair instead of the fabulous color job I wanted, more wrinkles than I wanted, paler skin than I wanted, stubbier skin than I wanted (man, giving up the waxing hurts.....I didn't realize how much I enjoyed the results), and just looking crappier than I would like to but I'll be there and that is more important than looking good to me. I miss my community.