Pain in the Gas

In 8 days we have spent $161.08 on gas. And that is regular gas, which is all we can find around here right now. I think I am going to vomit.

I am looking at the check register, trying to figure it out. Yes, I am insane for insisting the girls stay in piano and ballet, but please! My outrageous expenses lately have been an $8 lipstick and $28 shoes at Walmart, and some songs I downloaded from Amazon for history class! Oh, yeah and the $4 parmesan cheese. I feel like I am living in a completely different world from a year ago. I see lots of problems, but I am blaming most everything on gas. This makes me dizzy. I am going to vomit.

We always made fun of my grandparents: never using new dish clothes or undershirts, living without central air, hanging the clothes out to dry, never replacing worn-out items - when they could afford to do so if they chose. But now I see it in a different light. They knew what it was like to live in a time when things were bad. They expected to go without, make do and grow their own food. And finally having a comfortable financial situation did not change the truth of the lessons they had learned before. My parents tried to teach me the value in frugality, but when you grow up in the 80s and 90s - well, everything I saw around me was fast and new. I heard something about gas lines and a joke about "Where's the beef?" but it had nothing to do with me. Hmmm...now I think my grandparents were right. Why get the newest, fastest thing available when you can get by with the old one? I have taken too much for granted. You won't be disappointed if you don't expect so much. Maybe that is the lesson here.