Our cross country banquet is tomorrow night and it is a potluck with my husband and me providing ham for the entire group. We are expecting around 150 people. My husband gets paid for being a coach and we take some of the money to pay for the ham and some other things related to cross country. We are living in an area that has been hit by the tough economy with layoffs and since we have been blessed with him having a good job plus the extra money coming in each fall from his coaching, we are happy to be able to supply the meat for the banquet.
We also supply the tableware. This is where couponing and planning ahead have thoroughly paid off for me. Every time throughout the year that there has been a sale on Chinet plates, I buy them. I nearly always have a $1.00 off coupon (go to the Chinet website and register and they will let you know when there are coupons). Also, at holiday time Chinet plates go on sale. So from last Thanksgiving through this summer I have been buying plates. Most were on sale for the low price of $1.00 or $1.50 for a pkg. of 15 plates and having a $1.00 coupon brings them down to free or 50 cents. I have more than enough for everyone. Same is true of the plastic cutlery and napkins. Marcal 250 count napkins have been on sale for $2.00 and I used $1.00 off coupons. The plastic cutlery went on sale this summer during “picnic season” and I stocked up. Yes, planning ahead is big for me. If any of these supplies go on sale months ahead of the banquet and I have coupons, I buy them.
My husband takes all of the digital pictures that he takes over the season and makes a dvd with added background music as a gift to each team member. He also puts together a booklet that has all of the race results and copies of the newspaper clippings in it from the season. The booklet is about 40 pages in length and each is bound with a nice report cover. As I am writing this post, he is sitting next to me at our dining room table and he is writing a personal message to each runner.
So with all of this in mind, I had to really think about if taking this temp job was going to work for us this week. After all he has to make 45 booklets and burn 45 dvd’s which is time consuming and I help him. But, he told me that I should do whatever I wanted to do and not to worry about the banquet as he will stay up late and get it all done.
Working a couple days will be a nice break and I will earn a little extra money, but I have no intentions of seeking full time employment. A temp job every now and then is fine, but I really enjoy my life at home too much to change at this time.
What will I do with the extra money? It will go towards an emergency vet bill. On Saturday I woke up and went downstairs to make myself a cup of coffee. Our dog met me in the kitchen and she had to go outside really bad. I let her out and I could tell she was very sick. She had been a little sick the day before, but I figured it was just one of those things and since she had been eating and drinking water, I decided that she would recover in time. But that was not the case and by Saturday I thought she was going to die. Why is it that kids and pets get sick on the weekend? When I say sick, I mean sick. I really thought she was going to die. I took her to the vet and they ran some tests. She evidently ate a mouse that had died from poison. One of our neighbors put out mouse poison in their garage and a mouse ate the poison and died in our yard and Griffey ate the dead mouse. They gave her two shots and antibiotic pills to take over the next few days.
Fortunately, she will be fine and the bill was only $108. Not too bad for an emergency office visit, shots and pills – oh and yeah they had to test the nasty sample I brought in. Griffey is worth it and while I would have preferred to put any money I earned towards new kitchen chairs, I am grateful that Griffey didn’t die. She has and continues to be a great dog and companion. The new kitchen chairs can wait. The goal of eating from the pantry and freezer has been to save money to put towards extra expenses and since we weren’t really planning on having a sick dog, I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to earn the extra money.
1 comment:
Every cloud has a silver lining, so there was definitely a reason for the temp job. I,m so pleased to hear that a family member is feeling so much better ( your dog )Who would think that trying to poison mice would lead to your pet getting sick. I,ll bet your neighbour is devastated.
I,m sure you will enjoy the couple of days out in the big wide world again, and that your husband can manage on his own.
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