Have you ever noticed when you’re working really hard at something, Old Murphy (as in Murphy’s Law) will inevitably come along to mess you up? It was that kind of day yesterday.
First, I forgot to put the roast in the crockpot for dinner. My kids had soccer practice yesterday afternoon, and I knew we wouldn’t make it home until nearly 6:00. My kids are used to eating around 5:30, so I knew they’d be starving and ready for dinner by the time we got home.
If you’re new to this blog, I have challenged myself to not eat out for a month. So far I have done really well. It was a huge temptation yesterday, though. Instead, I called my husband and asked him to pick up a rotisserie chicken from the supermarket on the way home. As soon as the kids and I got home from soccer practice, I heated up some green beans, made some instant mashed potatoes, and put some cranberry sauce on the table. It was a really good dinner, and it cost only $6.99 for the chicken. Not cheap, but much less than the $20 it would have cost us to eat at McDonald’s. And it tasted better, too! All in all, I think I handled that glitch pretty well.
Unfortunately that wasn’t the only thing that went wrong. Before we headed out to soccer practice I decided to see what Dr. Phil was about. Don’t laugh. It’s my one guilty pleasure. Anyway, I hit the power button on the remote, and the television made a few clicking sounds, but never fully came on. I tried the actual power button on the TV. Still nothing.
I unplugged the television and left it until after soccer practice, hoping that would fix the problem. After soccer practice I tried again. Nothing. Bummer.
At first I panicked. What kind of deal could I find at Circuit City? We could use our credit card! But wait. The credit cards were in the freezer. It’s amazing how well that little trick worked. I knew it would only take about 5 minutes to defrost the cards under hot water, but remembering the reason I froze my cards in the first place stopped me in my tracks.
Credit cards were not an option. How about the emergency fund? Wait. I just blogged about emergencies. This wasn’t an emergency. I went back and read that post. I also read Pinyo’s guest post about questions that keep you frugal. Buying a new television was not an option, at least at that moment.
All of those thoughts took about 5 minutes to run through my head. And yet, because I was prepared for Murphy to strike, I was able to make wise decisions in weak moments. What contributed to my success?
- I was accountable to someone. Lots of people, actually. I knew that if I ate out or went deeper into debt for a television, I’d have to post about it here. And you all have been so great about cheering me on, I didn’t want to let you down. Not that I won’t make mistakes, but these would have been pretty big mistakes.
- I made going into debt difficult. Defrosting my credit cards will take at least 5 minutes. That’s 5 minutes to think about what I’m doing and why I’m doing it. It’s enough time to prevent an impulsive decision.
- I studied up on ways to avoid debt when Murphy strikes. I know that I can search on Craigslist or Freecycle for a new to me television. Better yet, we don’t really need two TVs. We can do without the one that died and make do with our smaller TV. TV may feel like a necessity at times, but it’s not.
I learned a lot from this experience. Though I’m getting better about making good financial decisions, I know I’m still susceptible to impulsive decisions. I’m not safe with a credit card yet, and I may never be. Had my card been easily available in my wallet, I probably would have bought a new TV right away. Actually, my husband would have probably talked me out of it, but still, it scares me that the desire was still there.
I’m getting better, but I’m nowhere near where I want to be.
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Considering you JUST blogged on this situation, albeit slightly differently, it does NOT surprise me that this happened!!!
Hey! Great job on both fronts!
The importance is what you *did* not what you wanted to do. I want to do lots of things :)
Good save on the dinner, Lynnae!
As for the TV, I’m so proud you didn’t give in to your first impulse. Now you have more time to think about it and look at Freecycler or CL for something cheap or free.
Thanks! So far no luck on Freecycle, CL, or Goodwill. The more I think about it, the more I’m not in a hurry to replace it though. I think I’ll give it two weeks, and if we don’t replace it by then, I’ll send the extra satellite receiver back to Dish Network and save the $5 a month.
After talking with my husband, I know he’d rather replace the TV with a cheap or free TV, but in a couple of weeks, he may change his mind.
Great story about the TV. You might find more stuff on Craig’s List over the weekend. We were so excited to get rid of my husbands “extra” bass amp last night through Craig’s list! I give almost all my extra stuff away on Freecycle (I feel it is my duty to bless others when I have been blessed with abundance) but with a big ticket item it was nice to make a little money, especially during an uncertain time.
I LOVE those rotisserie chickens. You can’t make that at home, but they are affordable!
I’m glad you could sell the amp on Craig’s List, Heidi! It’s always nice to make a little extra money.
And I know what you mean about wanting to bless others. I just gave away a bunch of kids clothes. I probably could have made some money off eBay, but we’ve been blessed with so many hand me downs lately, I wanted to pass the blessing on.
I really enjoyed your post! The chicken does sound good, I have been meaning to try one. Wtg with the cc’s too.
Wow, great story. Freezing the credit cards sounds pretty funny. A lot of tv shows are online now. I’m not sure if Dr. Phil is one of them, but ABC has a lot of shows that they show online for free. My hubby and I rarely watch TV now anyway. So I’d say as long as your computer is still okay and you can still blog you’re fine!
Oh yeah, the computer died earlier this year, before we were serious about getting out of debt, and we’re still paying the credit card bill. So the computer should last for a while. I’ll definitely have to look into TV shows online. I never thought of that. Thanks!
And Heather, the chicken WAS really good! I highly recommend it as an alternative to eating out!
Way to dodge the bullet girl!! Maybe the TV could be fixed? Just a thought. Probably costs as much as a new TV these days. When you go to purchase, an option is a TV repair shop. Sometimes they sell tv’s that were brought in for repair and never picked up (like clothes at the cleaners). We got one for just paying the $75 repair fee. That was years ago and it is still working like a charm!!
Great idea! You guys are all so great about steering me in the right direction!
I honestly don’t think it would be worthwhile to fix it. It’s a pretty old TV. But asking TV repair shops if they have any for sale is a good idea!
WTG on the chicken and not giving in to buy a new tv. My dh would flip if our tv died. I don’t know if I could hold him back LOL.
I think you handled a broken tv really well. Me–well, I would’ve probably yelled and then cried and then gone to Target and put one on credit (all the wrong things to do). Ask around, there’s usually someone who has a spare tv they are willing to unload because they just got a new plasma tv. I got two free tvs this way (from family though). One sis had a 32” tv still in the box never used her husband won free and was happy that I took such a large object off her hands.
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