When the girls arrive on Friday it seems as if the week stretches endlessly before me. All too soon it's the next Friday and I haven't spent time with them, asked them to do their chores, or gotten around to some of the outings I think it would be fun to experience. Last night I took my oldest to the grocery store on a cereal run. It's the kind of thing that isn't that bad, but after going through my check register this morning I realize I could have been more frugal. My oldest and I really enjoy steak. I don't buy it often because of the expense, but as I sit here I'm seeing that a couple extra dollars on steak is better than the same amount of money spent on Lucky Charms.
After I got divorced my sister said I should stick half of the money I received into savings as soon as I received my monthly check. There was no way I could live on that paltry sum I thought to myself. I did try and save here and there, but it wasn't the priority I could have made it. Consequently I have a couple trips to the mall behind me, new hub assemblies for the car that I no longer own, and not as much in savings as I could have had if I had only taken her sage advice. My neighbor told me the same thing the other day. I need to pretend like I am paying rent, transfer that money into an account and leave it alone.
Today I opened up my checking account and made that transfer. I paid extra on my bill from school. That's depressing since the interest accumulates and gets charged on the entire balance if you fail to pay it in full by its due date. I've been carrying around my check register, but forgetting to write in each debit card transaction. I need to carry cash, or use my card. The register system will work for either system, but the way my brain works, I can't accord for both expenditures in the same register. I have just over four hundred dollars to last me until the end of the month. Tough, but doable. I just bought groceries, those should last me, I'll just have to remind myself that I can do it and find ways to earn more while spending less.
Good news on the job front. Yesterday I had two phone interviews. The first went very well. I could think clearly and felt as if the conversation was interesting and dynamic. The second one started with a dropped call which was embarrassing and annoying. The woman was very kind, but at the end of the call she said she wasn't the person in charge and would pass along my resume to the woman who was. May not necessarily mean anything significant, I had trouble thinking, it was one of those interviews where every other thing I said didn't come out the way I had anticipated it. Things like that happen, I'm going to chalk it up to experience and move forward.
A cool thing happened with the chapter I was writing. I got to chapter 16 and saw the plot problems I had created earlier so I went back against my better judgement and started fixing things. I'm very glad I did. Now that I have an idea of what will happen I can slow down and think when I'm writing. Things are much clearer and more cohesive. I'm still spending more time writing than I would like. I really need other things for balance in my life, but I took a walk and ran errands yesterday, things like that help. Our new glasses are in, but the store was closed when we arrived even though they had called us the day before to tell us they were ready. Such is life.