Monthly Archives: September 2019

Put Your Money Where It Matters (to you)

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Money is always a game of juggling your priorities.  I became extra aware of it this weekend when I was talking with my father about my aging and ailing Toyota Prius.  The trunk doesn’t open on my Prius.  The latch broke a couple of months ago and my father asked me why I hadn’t had it fixed yet.  And I blathered something about not having time and money.  But then I realized that fixing the trunk just wasn’t my priority right now.  I find the time and money to go see my favorite bluegrass bands.  I always find the time and money to enjoy dinner out at my favorite brewpub on Friday nights.  I have the time and money to take a class every semester to work toward an academic goal.  It’s just not that important to me to be able to open the trunk on my Prius.  I will get it fixed eventually.  But it’s pretty easy for me to work around for now, so I just haven’t made it a priority.

I guess the tricky part with money is defining your priorities and making sure they’re not out of balance.  Making bluegrass festivals more important than repairing the broken trunk latch on a car that is otherwise fine isn’t a problem.  Making dinner out at the brewpub more important than paying the rent is a HUGE problem.  It’s a matter of making sure your NEEDS are met before you start throwing money at your WANTS.  And then you can decide how you are going to prioritize those wants.

I want to get my trunk repaired.  I just don’t want it more than I want concert tickets.  At least not this week.

Lost: One Credit Card

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I lost my credit card two weeks ago.  I had it in my pocket while I was at a music festival.  And then next day I couldn’t find it.  I checked my purse.  I checked all the pockets.  I dug through my camper (that we were staying in at the festival).  I just can’t locate it.  And at the end of the day, this is really no big deal.

As soon as I realized the card was missing in action, I logged into my account on line to check for recent activity.  I found there were no charges that I hadn’t made.  Then I put the account on “pause,” which allows regularly recurring charges to continue but any other charges will be blocked.  This has given me some time to continue looking for the missing card, in case it is just misplaced and not really gone.  The idea of cancelling the card and changing the number everyplace that I have recurring charges is less than appealing, so I want to give my camper one more good overhaul in case it’s hiding in the mattress somewhere.

In the meantime, I’ve been really glad that I have another card that I’ve been able to use instead.  Without a backup card I would have been in a bad place (adulting really seems to require plastic payment these days!).  I’m thinking it’s probably a good idea just in general to have more than one credit card.  Not just because of situations like mine, but because not all places take all cards.  Some merchants will accept MasterCard, but not Visa.  Some will take MasterCard and Visa, but not American Express.  And so on and so on.  I like to be prepared for just about any situation, and having multiple payment options helps with that.

My plan for tonight is to pull everything out of the camper and really search for the card one more time.  If I don’t find it, I’ll cancel it and get it reissued this week.  But luckily, if it really is gone, it’s no big deal.