"I'd like to live as a poor man with lots of money." ~ Pablo Picasso
I'm sure you all know that it is tax season. Have you got your W-2's yet? Taken all your paperwork down to the local H&R? Filed on-line? Well, we have already filed our taxes and have our return in the bank. At first I had a thrill of excitement to be getting a large chunk of change. I mean, it's not exactly unexpected money or free money. But it's still extra money aside from the normal paychecks. But the thrill didn't last long. As usual my mind starts whirling with all the things we NEED to do with the money, all the things we WANT to do with the money, and which items from both of those lists are MOST important. All I can say is that it sometimes sucks being a responsible adult.
But besides the stinky, boring, adult-like fact that we have to spend the money on things we NEED instead of things we WANT there is something else. A strange phenomenon that seems to happen every time we have extra money in our pockets. Things start to break. Just like that. As if they were waiting for us to have the extra money. As IF the universe just cannot allow us to have any fun money what so ever.
Some of our extra money is going towards fixing my husbands teeth. We have been putting it off simply because it is going to cost us a pretty penny. We were glad to plunk down the money to get it taken care of...like GOOD ADULTS. We were suppose to have a little bit left over. Maybe to buy ourselves something fun and frivelous. But, oh no. Instead one of the prongs on my wedding ring broke off. I got in my car to take the ring to the repair shop and my car wouldn't start. You have got to be kiddng me, right? This is a joke, surely. My car cannot be dead! I just had new tires put on it. My husband got the car running again...for now. So I took the ring to the repair shop and was relieved to be quoted just $25. Not too bad. Until they called to inform me that they had to remove the stone in order to fix it and THAT was going to cost $55. With tax and all it was nearly $60. Ok, fine. The ring is fixed. Now we have to worry about my car and why it was giving us trouble. It needs an oil change, new filters, new windshield wipers, and the spark plugs need to be cleaned. Another $50-100 gone, I'm sure. And we haven't even made it to the dentist appointment yet. That's on Friday.
So, in short, all that money will probably be gone by next Monday. And none of it will have been spent on anything remotely fun except for the new curtains we bought. That's it.
The good news: I have a bonus coming at work.
The bad news: I'm sure we can come up with more things we NEED to take care of.
oy vey
ReplyDeletebut...what if you didn't have the refund? then you'd be very unhappy. So I think everything worked out, even though it doesn't feel that way.
I see these wealthy people all over the place. Women in chinchilla floor length coats, men driving their humvees or whatever glam car. I have to wonder: are they happy? And most of the time I think: they must feel like they should be happy.
All too often our outside worlds don't mesh with what's going on inside. I like your Picasso quote. I, too, would rather be not so well off, but still feel the luxury of life. In the end, compared to most, we don't have it too bad.
Isn't that always the way? As soon as you get a little windfall, stuff breaks or wears out.
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