Maria's Random Rants

The current economic crisis has left few unscathed, myself included. My husband’s business is rather slow to say the least, but I’m thankful we continue to stay in the black, as opposed to many of our counterparts who aren’t even in the game anymore.

We’re fortunate that I have a great job, receive a pretty adoption stipend, and that I know how to budget up the wazoo. It’s never easy to feed a family of six, all of them hearty eaters, but we make it work. Determination is always a plus.

Sure, we’re lucky enough to manage but every now and then, like when a car unexpectedly needs work done or your son comes home with a lacrosse registration demanding $500 payment, it’s a challenge not to scream, or beat somebody up, or incite some other grand measure of self destruction to express my frustration or mask my desperation.

I no longer acquire the Christmas need-to-spend-spend-spend bug every year, but I do like to put a few things under the tree for the kiddos. I still want them to be able to participate in the back to school recess discussions of who got what. I’d hate to rob them of the five minute claim to fame with classmates “oohh”ing and “ahhh”ing at the cool gifts they received.

As of late my method for paying bills has been as follows. The first bills I pay are the services that can be shut off, next are any items that can be foreclosed or repossessed, and whatever’s left gets distributed accordingly to groceries, gas, lunch allowances, the rest of life, and if we’re lucky, our once a week dining out for dinner. I always make a good effort to avoid the late fees, but I’ll admit I’m not always successful.

As I watch the bills mount on my home office desk, I’ve begun to consider taking a lotto approach in choosing which bills to pay first. I can roll each bill into a neat ball and throw them all into a good sized fish bowl. Each time we get a check we’ll gather in the office and someone will dip into the bowl and randomly pick a few rolled up bills. I’ll pay those bills and the bills-to-pay selection process will repeat each time we get another check.

Now if a bill collector calls me before his bill is chosen, I’ll have to tell him, “Sorry, it’s just not your lucky day, try again next time.”

Something tells me that won’t stop him from playing next week.