Well sort of how the song goes! My mini van has been resurrected! It lives! Hallelujah! We bought a new battery for it & some new spark plugs & other piddly stuff that will only crack the surface of it's needed repairs, but it RAN! After sitting for over a year it needs far more work before I will drive it to the Post Office, let alone the grocery store, but it is a start!!! Still needs a visit to my trusty mechanic for new everything underneath (break lines, transmission fluid lines, leak of anti-freeze somewhere, etc.). I am wondering if it was undercoated? Guess we should have asked. I figured it would be since it came from a Buffalo NY dealer, but who knows where it was before that. Our roads are harsh on vehicles & the Chipmunks weren't kind either.
I am estimating $400 for the repairs, but who knows. Maybe my repair guy will take pity on me, he usually does! Might take more than a bourbon pecan pie this time...
We spent Saturday wandering Wal-mart, always fun with 2 kids & the hubby. I stick by my theory that I should have gone alone I would have spent a FRACTION of what we did as a family & still gotten everything on MY list!
Breakdown:
School/Office supplies : $24.48
Household/Food (trash bags, bread,toothbrushes,snack food): $28.39
ME (clothing, socks, undies, etc): $49
Hubby (clothing): $61.25
Boy (clothing, shoes, socks): $48.82
Girl (Shoes & socks): $26.10
Car (battery, spark plugs, oil filter, misc fluids): $96.10
One paycheck bites the dust (mine that is). I'm not sure how DH managed to sneak $61.25, he didn't even get the much needed socks that were on the list. I picked up a pair of swim trunks & a shirt, that's it...sneaky bugger. I have been putting off buying summer shirts for me until the sales started so I managed to get 4 tank/shirts, pair of mesh shorts, 3 pack of sports bras, 4 pack of undies, 10 pack of socks, a night shirt for my money! Hubby picked up 5 shirts for the boy, I picked out 1 & a pair of clearance mesh shorts. At least all the shirts were clearance, but still. I didn't realize there were 6 shirts in the cart until we got to the check out (and the one I picked up was a 2 piece button up over t-shirt, so really 7 shirts!) They are at least a size bigger than he wears now, so if he hits a growth spurt we are covered!
The girl only got 2 pair of shoes & some ankle socks. One pair is school sneakers, the other was a pair of clearance flip flops, she is a shoe freak what can I say! Of course she doesn't need anything, that's why she didn't get anything else. Still benefiting from my major yard sale score.
We are canceling our weekend trip. Hubby says we'll be able to go later in the month but i doubt it. Finances are looking up, but we are still playing catch-up with bills & debts.
It doesn't help my outlook to realize that what took me 24 1/2 hours to make minus taxes was spent in 2 hours at WAL-Mart. Maybe I should buy some stock, it'll make me feel better!!! I can say on a happy note that it was only about 10% on highly consumable goods (food & household) the rest won't have to be replaced in a month. And we accomplished 90% of our back to school shopping. Now I don't have to worry about not finding the right stuff at the right price in a few weeks. Think I am going to have the Grandparents help out this year. They somehow got out of last year. After 3 years of the same backpack it is time to replace. I will keep it to use for other stuff (overnights, picnics etc) since it is only a little worn out. The Boy wants a pair of Heelys, my Mom offered him a pair last year, but I think he might be ready now. Bonus the wheels come out & he'll have a nice pair of school shoes.
Other stuff:
5 minutes for Mom is giving a 37" flat panel away, ends August 17th. So jump on over, link up & leave a comment!
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