Purging-it is not just for crawfish before you boil them

Over the holidays, my wife made me watch more fluff/reality shows than any man should have to endure. But one of them stood out as actually educational. Not sure what the name of it was but it consisted of frugal/cheapskates and how they live life by spending less money than most. A lot of the ideas were just ridicules, some were undo able due to living outside the city, but one idea in particular got me to thinking. So Cheryl and I talked and decided to give it try.

One fellow on the show talked about how his family does a "financial purge" from time to time. Basically, for one week the whole family does not spend any money. No going out to eat, no movies, no extras...no spending. So we did it. After this holiday's spending spree, it was the perfect time to stop spending; especially on the extras that we really didn't need. So, starting at noon last Friday, I quit spending money. We usually go shopping on Sunday after church for groceries but we passed on it last week. The point was to eat and use what we already had but usually passed on because we had other things we preferred. Cheryl cooked several nights and surprisingly we survived just fine without our weeks supply of groceries and other items.

There were several items I would have just picked up on the way home but didn't. I figured if I still needed it Friday, then I would go and get it. It was a good learning experience. I plan on doing this more often in the future. Maybe even a week every month. But even if you spend money on groceries, that is not the point. It is the extras that I wanted to cut back on and I did. Imagine, still having your paycheck in the account when you get the next paycheck. It was nice. I had a note due so I paid extra on it with the money I saved. It was a win-win for me.

So do yourself a favor and perform a financial purge yourself. You may just get something out of it that you can use all year long. Later.

Know your enemy

I have what some folks may consider a problem: I can't let things go. What I mean is if someone pisses me off, I can't just get mad/get over it and let it go. I never believed in "getting even" either. I always said "I'll get ahead".

Saturday we were headed to Sulphur to help a friend from work flip a trailer over with the tractor that he had been working on. I stopped by the local car wash to rinse off the tractor since the last time I used it was to bush hog and it was covered in dust. The owner of the car wash watched as I pulled into a bay and met me by the tractor. He proceeded to tell me I couldn't wash the mud off the tractor. The mud clogs the drain. We discussed/argued for a couple of minutes back and forth of rather or not I could wash the tractor there. I mentioned to him that this is a car wash; people don't bring clean cars to wash them. He told me that is was a car wash, not a tractor wash. I told him I was just going to rinse the tractor off and not clean out the bucket which had a couple of shovels worth of mud in it. He mumbled and grumbled as he walked off and I washed the tractor off. He was a real prick about the whole thing.

But it got to me. The more that I thought about it the more I just couldn't let it go. He could have handled it differently. He could have asked versus being a dick. Now, one good thing I can do is wait. I do not have to execute my attack immediately. I can take months to plan out just how I will get someone or a company back. So, today I went to the deer lease to sight in a rifle and do a little squirrel hunting. Normally, I get a little mud on the tires of the Tahoe running the logging roads at the lease. But today, I went mud ridding. There are plenty of mud holes to get the ole gal good and muddy and I didn't pass a mud hole without letting those Fierce Attitude mud tires eat away at some good ole gumbo mud and red clay. Of course, after a good day of mud ridding one must clean their vehicle off.

I pulled into the car wash with half of Beauregard parish stuck to my truck. $1 later, I left with a clean car from the car wash and a smile on my face. To make it even sweeter, someone left two dollars in quarters next to the controls. So not only did I get my satisfaction but I also made a profit. But I reckon the best of it all, was when I passed the security camera, I stopped, looked dead at it and said slowly "it ain't a tractor...it's a car". He underestimated his opponent. Never piss off a fool with more time and quarters than he has common sense. There is no telling what he will do to prove his point. Later.