Day 105: A Busy, Budget-Busting Day in the ‘Burbs

Ugh.  Another crazy-busy day involving much driving and sitting on butt-numbing metal bleacher seats and cheering myself hoarse.

I started out the day with a 45-minute drive all for the privilidge of forking over $4.00 in cash to some massive-mega church to watch my son play in the first game of a tournament.  We spanked the other team.  It was good.

After the game I had to dash back home where I touch-tagged The Husband who turned around and did the same 45-minute drive down to watch what turned out to be The Son's second and then third games in the tournament.  He, too, paid $4.00 to the mega-church for admission.  He also dished out $5.00 cash to the mom of a teammate who'd agree to keep an eye on The Son and feed him during our parent trade-off.

In the meantime, The Daughter and I took off for the 1-hour drive to her tournament game.  We left a few minutes early so we could stop at T.J. Maxx to return the Lee jeans I'd purchased for The Son -- and to look for another iPod FM transmitter do-hickey.  They didn't have any do-hickeys but I did get $16.13 credited back to my credit card.

Once we'd made the drive up to the middle of nowhere for the tournament, I thought I had sailed through without having to cough up another admission fee.  We got there early and the kids hadn't yet manned the admissions table.  But no such luck -- about 10 minutes into the practice, an emergency call went out among the girls for a tampon.  No one had one so I volunteered to do a tampon run.  My act of generosity cost me $8.68 at Walgreen's and $4.00 for admission to the games.   [Oh, I'm just grousing -- I was happy to run the errand and only a little peeved about paying the fee.]

Being Saturday, The Husband had to feed both The Son and his special needs son from his first marriage.  We usually do a nice home-cooked meal but since I was in the middle of nowhere watching a bunch of high school boys do their thing (the girls were done but they all stay to root for the boys), The Husband loaded his boys into the car and went to Taco Bell.  That fine dining experience set him back $17.00.

And, of course, The Daughter, having missed out on the Taco Bell cuisine, needed to be fed.  We girls stopped at Noodles & Co. on the way home for $3.98's worth of carbs.

Other than the insane amount of miles we put on our vehicles today, our expenses, though numerous, really weren't all that large.  The problem is that today's expenses caused us to go over our budgeted amounts in those budget categories.  Our dining budget is blown to bits and we've exceeded this month's entertainment budget too.

Related posts:

1. Day 147: Food, Food, and More Food
2. $$: Gas, Food, & more Gas
3. Day 295: No-Spend Day
4. $$: Meat and Potatoes
5. $$: Gas, Juice, & Small Loan