Credit Card Peek

After my recent bike splurge, I figured it's time to re-convince myself that the title "Miser Mom" actually fits me.  After all, I deliberately splurged during October, a month that two of my favorite bloggers celebrated (?) as a "No Spend Month".  I did not so celebrate the month, but I admire Northwest Edible and Dogs-or-Dollars for what they did.  Go, Dogs, Go!

Unlike them, I did spend money.  A bunch, in fact.  And yet I want to defend my Miser status.  So, in my defense, here's a peek at my most recent credit card statement:  money I spent in September and paid for in October.  On the face of it, the total ($2218) is a fairly hefty tag.  But $1141 of that amount was business travel expenses that will be reimbursed by the people who invited me to come speak.  Another $210 of that was charitable donations.  So the $866 part that I spent on me and my family is really this:

• $520 to fix the wheel-bearings on my 11-year old car.
• $57 for canning jars.
• $38 for gasoline.
• $196 for my two sons' visit to the dentist.  
• $42 for two months' newspaper delivery.
• $14 for a razor.

And that's it.  At least as far as the credit card goes.  What don't you see on this list?

• Clothes.  The last yard sales of the season were last Saturday.  My clothes-shopping season is basically over until May; but even when yard-sale season is in full force, I pay with dimes and quarters, not with a credit card.  I figure I spent less than $4 on clothes in October.
• Food.  I write in too many other places about how much my husband and I spend on food.  My own food purchases during the past month were all cash:  $138 at our local market and at Millers' Amish store.  My husband spent more than that:  $238.  We're going into our low-spending winter months, so our food costs are likely to be fairly low for the next several months.
• Toiletries.  Well, aside from the razor, I spend nothing this past October on toiletries.  I think I'm going to do a whole separate post on this.
• Malls, stores, etc.  I bought the canning jars at a store, and I get my sons' meds from a pharmacy.  But those are the only regular stores I went to last month.  I try not to go to stores if I can find an alternative.
• Utilities, house payment, cell phone, all of which I pay on line.  We're trying to pay off our house early, so the total for this set of categories is several (many?) thousand dollars.  
• Other charity.  We donate regularly to our church by check, and I've started giving irregular donations to our local food bank on-line.   I won't give the totals here, but I will say that this part of spending out our money is important to me.  Let's just say: this is more than food and clothes and toiletries and malls combined, but less than utilities and house payments.
• Childcare expenses and music lessons, which totalled about $700 this past October.  I could ditch these if I wanted, but I actually sort of like tossing my money toward other people instead of toward things, so we intend to keep doing this.  Plus, it gives me a reasonable way to put your tax dollars to work.  

******

The next credit card bill (money I spent in October and will pay for in November) is likely to be lower: it will be about $500 (about $100 of which is charitable donations, about $100 is reimbursable business expenses, and the rest is indulgence of the medical/gasoline/childcare variety).  

But that's a cheat, because my husband put my new $1447 bicycle on his own credit card.  Which means, as much as I protest and try to wiggle away from this, the fact is, I splurged big.