by Tricia
Those who are close to me sometimes tease me because I have a thing for mail. After the mailman goes by I’m usually the first one out there to see what he brought. You can imagine the mailman jokes I get 😛
Mr. Mailman didn’t disappoint me today. I finally received the payment I was owed from an advertiser. It was postmarked a week ago so it was definitely sent late. I haven’t received a reply to my emails, so I have no idea if they just sent it late or if they ended up sending a new check. I guess I’ll have to keep an eye out for next month.
With that check, we are definitely okay this month. While our spending freeze has been nice, I am pretty glad the money came in. Quite a few months ago, I told my son we would go see Pixar’s Wall-E (which opens tomorrow) in the movie theater as a special treat. He’s at that age where he 1.) Remembers everything we say and 2.) Really understands ads that state when a movie is opening. So deep down I was hoping our financial situation improved so we could partially lift our spending freeze so we could go see the movie. I’m not sure if we’ll see it this weekend, but at least I can set the money aside now.
I should have done that when I first told him we could go see it but I am still trying to adjust to the “setting money aside thing” for occasional treats like entertainment. If I was really on the ball, I should have set up a jar to place money in every week as we saved up to go see the movie (for the three of us, a matinee will cost $17). We tell him all the time at the store that he needs to save his money to get the toys that he wants. But seeing mom and dad actually saving money will have a lasting impression on him, I think.
We really need to be doing more to help our son learn the financial habits that we are learning as adults. I think that as a family we should determine our next “treat” and save up for it. I think it will be a nice and rewarding experience for all of us.
