My Last $100: Parsley and Pet Toys

Photo by Steffen Petermann on Unsplash.

I’ve never written for the Billfold before, but I am a big “Last $100” fan. Most of my expenses lately are wedding-related and/or stress shopping, but this week in particular has been heavy on the latter.

Sprouts Farmers Market: $5.42

Sunday night, I made spaghetti and meatballs for my dad — and about an hour before he was supposed to come over I realized we were out of both garlic and parsley. I also picked up some eggs, which completely saved my meatballs from being meat lumps.

Half Price Books: $4.32

Also Sunday night, I picked up a copy of The Devil’s Music: A History Of The Blues for my dad’s birthday. My intention was for dinner to be his present, but I chickened out of this at the last minute. I was hoping to spend nothing this week in anticipation of some big expenses coming up, but didn’t want to seem cheap. Plus, this book was originally $7.99 and I was able to use a 10 percent coupon and $3.45 in sales credit to get it down. If I had been better at planning, I would have used the Half Price Books gift card I got for Christmas for the remaining balance.

Incredible small town diner: $9.51 (includes tip)

I go to this diner once or twice a month, this time for a Texas toast breakfast sandwich and coffee. It’s one of my favorite places because you can order anything off the menu “dirty” and they will smother it in sausage gravy. Eventually I will work up the nerve and appetite to order their star entrée, the Garbage Breakfast, which is a small mountain of breakfast foods (served dirty) on top of an Indian taco (or fry bread, depending on where you are from regionally). It is the size of a toddler.

Patreon: $6.00

I support a couple of Patreons (hi, The Billfold — obviously), and follow a lot more Patreons that I wish I had the discretionary funds to support. After a favorite website of mine (RIP The Toast) closed down due to lack of funding, I felt a ridiculous amount of bystander guilt and vowed to support as many of my favorites as I could.

Discover payment: $50.00

I am usually a “pay the balance off each month” type, but was hit with an unexpected four (4) new tires expense in January. I’m trying to whittle the balance down in drips and drabs, but it is absolutely monstrous and I hate it.

Westlake Hardware: $19.52

My state got hit with an unexpected cold snap and I decided I absolutely had to have a fire. My apartment has a small fireplace in the living room, which we use rarely, but I bought this absurdly expensive wood and we used approximately a third of it before deciding that nudging the thermostat up was way less work and calling it quits. The rest of the wood has been standing in front of the fireplace mockingly the whole week.

Petco: $15.73

My cat, Artemis, has recently discovered how much fun drinking water out of plants can be. In an effort to curb this habit, I filled a medium sized vase with fresh water and let him drink it and think he’s getting away with something. All that to say, he has been going through litter like it’s his JOB. (Is this gross? I’m sorry.) So we refilled the 30-lb bucket (initial cost $10.99, refills $9.99 I THINK) and picked up some Movie Franchise About Space Battles themed toys, because I have poor impulse control and we get a 5 percent discount.

So yeah! That’s my last hundred and change. This is a lucky week because every other this year has been like “Wedding Expense: Eleventy-Bajillon Dollars” and that would just be the whole post. All in all the combination of rewards and discounts I used soothes my anxiety about over-spending, see! I’m savvy this is fiiiiine, even though this list is mostly a testament to my lack of planning and susceptibility to impulse spending.

Megan is a legal assistant in central Oklahoma, where she lives with her fiancé and cat. 

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