Which is good, because the Niemans are officially on a
budget.
Everybody in the Walters family is a cautious spender,
and wildly averse to credit card balances. My parents paid cash for their
retirement spread in Arkansas as well as their car, and I know for a fact I'm
considered the most profligate spender of the four of us kids by virtue of the
fact that I spring for organic eggs at the grocery store.
Seth and I finally switched our accounts around to have
the bulk of our paychecks going into a joint account (due to the baby-driven
increase in household expenditures), but I admit I've been too busy to check
account balances for the last couple months, and had been forgetting to pay my
personal account my "allowance," as agreed. When my Fayetteville
house came due for some big repairs last week, I finally had to sort out my
finances and went to collect my "backpay."
It was then that I noticed that our joint account was
dangerously low.
I set about combing through our accounts, trying to
figure out what had happened, and then I remembered. Seth is not a cautious
spender. At all. Nor is he averse to using his credit card, which debt I had
had to insist he pay off before we got married. He had not only done that, he
had paid off his new truck, and I didn't give the momentary red flag a second
thought.
Until now. It turns out that Seth spends more on vitamins
and supplements in a month than I do on shoes in a year. I couldn't bring
myself to even total the green fees and shotput accessories. AND we had just
purchased an insanely expensive new Sleep Number bed. I. Was. Furious. Some
belt-tightening was going to have to happen.
Now that I've calmed down I can say I'm grateful that
we're not destitute by any means, and I'm sure it's something every couple has
to work through. It's probably even good for us, and it's definitely partly my
fault for not having caught the issue sooner. Still, I spent the latter half of
last week and much of the weekend sulking because cleaning up our spending
meant no budget for the occasional maid service I had finally decided I would
indulge in. And quickly become extremely excited about.
But it was a good reminder not to get too complacent. I
frequently get notes from friends and acquaintances who remark that Seth and I
have the perfect life or family or marriage, and it's grounding and humbling and
healthy to have to think "no. No, nobody does. And if you only knew what
my husband spent at Cabela's last month...!"
That thought did not make me feel a ton better about
scrubbing bathrooms, though.
Luckily, our week had plenty of light moments too.
Finley helped her Dad grate a bowl full of cheese for
enchiladas Tuesday night, and she helped herself to a sizeable handful. We
laughed until we were rolling on the floor.
She also made it clear that she adores the new expensive
bed. Weekend family snuggle time is now roomier, with softer sheets and a
massage function. Not to mention a Dad so happy about having finally gotten a
decent night's sleep that he's willing to share his breakfast.
On Saturday she "helped" Dad clean up the man
cave while watching football.
And on Sunday was rewarded with a bike ride and a picnic
on the canal.
All in all, not a bad week. Especially not for Finley,
who is still throwing bedtime temper tantrums but is sleeping much better at
night. There is light, it seems, at the end of that particular tunnel.
My favorite photo of the week is this one, from Sunday's
(beautiful and finally fall-like!) bike ride. Finley can take or leave sippy cups, but is
obsessed with sport bottles.
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