I have purposely avoided this blog because I have spent thousands of dollars in the past two weeks on big ticket items. Mini van, 40” flat screen TV, Blu-ray DVD player, Tempurpedic bed… that’s a shit load of money in a very short period of time. Hey, when it rains it pours. I happen to love the rain.

For the need to write this entry, I have to view my bank account for the first time in over two weeks. I feel anxiety as I type this, because as I type this, I haven’t actually looked at the account yet. I’m saving that step for last.

I don’t regret, per say, spending this money. However, it feels strange and naughty to do so. Like, I should be saving for the next disastrous event in my life that is bound to happen and cost the exact same amount of money. And I can’t even go to the space of questioning, “And why do I want these goods???” I certainly can acknowledge not needing them… there is always a way to get by “without.” And really, I don’t see these items not being in my life as going without.

I just realized that I have another reason for keeping this blog. 1.) is to keep track of what I spend. 2.) is to work on spending less/smarter. And the newly discovered reason, #3.) so I can learn to feel better about the money I do spend - to stop feeling guilty. In the grand scheme of this spending life, my dollar amount falls pretty low. However, I could definitely spend wiser in some areas. In this regards, I can not wait until thrifting becomes easier to do (two kids under the age of three in tow at garage sales and thrift stores? Not my idea of worth it).

It just so happens that we recently received large chunks of change. My husband and I have the mentality that we should update our goods while we have the chance because next year the surplus of cash may not be there. Not sure if this is the right way to look at it, but it is how we look at it. It will probably be another 6-8 years before we spend this kind of money again - as this has been the amount of time since our last series of large purchases for the same items.

Of-course, we also are making sure we have a huge chunk of change left in our savings account. It's important to have a strong safety net.

Monday, June 23rd:
Publix - $54.91
$43.47

Wednesday, June 25th:
Target - $32.10
CarMax: $7,000.00 (down payment on a used mini-van [1]. Only 4,000 miles on it! The sticker price - which is non-negotiable and already set at the lowest possible price - was $13.995.00. I shopped around A LOT and found this lowest possible price/no haggle pricing to be great and true. We got the best extended warrenty offered and our monthly payments came out to $187.00/month. I highly recommend buying a used car from CarMax.)

Thursday, June 26th:
CVS - $18.00 (Bella's medicine)

Friday, June 27th:
Best Buy - $159.74 (can't remember, something electronic)

Monday, June 30th:
Best Buy - $1,299.28 (40" flat screen TV)
$169.83 (blue ray DVD player)
Target - $186.47 (Stuff I don’t even remember but apparently needed?)
Chick-Fil-Lay - $13.92 (the kids and I needed to get out of the house and I saw this as our best option! Oh. My. Since Bella is now a fully independent little lady, this was harder than I anticipated. She wanted to run around all over the place making it very hard to keep an eye on both kids. When did this happen??? Like, overnight, dude.)

Wednesday, July 2nd:
Mobile - $45.00 (This is what it cost to fill my tank up half way. I’m filling it up when it reaches half a tank so I never have to put a full tank in and I never get close to running out of gas. That’s the plan, anyway.)

Thursday, July 3rd:
$69.69 (Wouldn’t you like to know.)

Friday, July 4th:
Walgreens - $4.38 (Candy for the movies! Hal paid for the movie stuff so I’m not recording it.)
CVS - $18.00 (Max & Bella’s medicine)