What $35 Means To Me

$35

It’s not much.

For my birthday, back in May, my grandma gave me $35. And I still have it.

I don’t know what to do with it.

I know that sounds silly, but in my head, it represents so much more than just $35.

My grandma and I aren’t close. In my entire life, I think that’s only the second gift she has ever given me, so I feel like I should do something special with the money. But I don’t know what.

I could always get a pedicure, buy a new pair of shoes, or go to the movies, but I haven’t. I don’t know exactly what I’m saving that $35 for.

I’ve thought a lot about saving it until I am nearly credit card debt free and using it to pay off the rest of my credit card debt. I still think that’s a good idea, but it’s so far into the future.

I don’t know. I guess my thoughts here are, when is $35 more than $35?

To me, the value of the money is more than $35. And I don’t know why that is. Cash is not something I receive very often so I want to make sure and spend it wisely, I guess.

I want that $35 to mean something.

I want that $35 to be used for something tangible.

I want to be able to look back on that $35 and say, “I got ________________ with that”, or “I used that $35 for __________________”.

I want that $35 to matter.

And since I don’t know what to do with it, there it sits, on the bookshelf in my bedroom, underneath a stack of magazines.  I often forget about the money until I move the magazines and a $5, or $10, or $20 flutters out reminding me that it’s there.

Reminding me I haven’t made a decision.

Reminding me that sometimes $35 is more than $35.

Kitchen Update

We are hemorrhaging money at an alarming rate. Our credit card bill closes in the middle of December and it is over $10,000. This will be the first time in over 5 years that we have to carry a balance. We just can’t come up with all the money to pay the bill.

In fact, we have to borrow from our kids, use all of our savings, and then some to pay off what we can.

Our kitchen is very close to completion. Hopefully today our plumber, AKA my brother, is coming over to hook up all of our plumbing and our gas line. Once that’s done we will actually have a functioning kitchen. As it stands right now, we have moved everything out of the office and into the kitchen, but we can’t actually cook in there because there’s no water or stove.

This process has been longer and more arduous than we expected. We never imagined we would be heading into the Christmas season and still trying to complete our kitchen; but that’s exactly what has happened. Now, in addition to finishing up the kitchen, we are trying to get ready and decorate for Christmas and host a huge party on Saturday… good times. With the kitchen not yet fully put away and Christmas boxes everywhere, our house needs a lot of love but we are hoping we can pull it off, without spending too much more money.

Our current bill has two of our priciest purchases for the kitchen: granite counter tops and new appliances. Those two things alone account for over half of our current credit card bill. I was very sad that they had to be on the same bill, but that’s just the way it worked out.

Our granite is beautiful and I’m very excited to be able to use and cook in the kitchen. Although we didn’t add any square footage in our kitchen, by reconfiguring things we added both counter and cabinet space. I love the new layout and think our kitchen is going to be imminently functional!

We decided to go with stainless steel appliances; we had a very difficult time picking those out. All stainless steels do not match so we decided to by a “suite” and get all the same brand.  As we checked reviews, the range would be rated super highly but the fridge would have terrible reviews. Finally, we stopped looking at reviews altogether and just went with what we liked.  It remains to be seen whether or not that was a good decision, but they sure do look good.

In addition to all the kitchen expenses on the bill, we also have normal daily life and Christmas. On Saturday we will be hosting our annual Christmas party.  I have yet to buy the food for the party. I will probably add another $400-$500 to our credit card bill before it closes.  However, I only have a few things left to buy for Christmas and I am trying to wait until after our bill closes to make things a little more affordable. Wish me luck.

Once our plumbing and gas lines are hooked up, we are pretty much done working on the kitchen until after Christmas and even then we only have a few small things to finish up. We still need crown molding on the cupboards, baseboards, windowsills, and door handles and drawer pulls. We would have loved to have everything done before our party and Christmas, but we just couldn’t make it happen.

In the coming new year, our goal is to cut back so we can quickly pay off the remaining balance on our credit card and pay our kids back. We do have some trips planned that we will need to pay for, but other than that, we should be able to quickly recover from our kitchen money pit!

I’m very sad that once again, we are needing to borrow money from our kids. We really don’t want them to be our emergency fund, but that is our current reality…  We will get caught up on our credit card and then our next priority will be to pay back our kids.