Wrinkly Bits
A Blog by Gail Cushman
Bills! I Gotta Pay Bills
It is mid-month, my designated time to do all my household paperwork, you know, sorting and paying bills, balancing my checkbook, reviewing what’s arrived on the computer and what’s been delivered to my mailbox, snail mail some call it. Housing, electricity, gas, insurance, automobile, miscellaneous credit card bills, and of course I have a whole budget category for going out to lunch. You must remember that I was involved with schools in one way or another for 48 years, and ate school cafeteria food daily, or 9,120 meals and not one time did I sneak out for a meal at a restaurant. Enough is enough and I made eating out as often as possible one of my bucket list items. And I’m sticking with it.

Gail Decker Cushman

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Jun 19, 2023

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I’m not really a numbers’ person, but I must admit when I pay bills, I pay attention. When Tom and I first married, we voted and I won with a vote of 2–0, so I have been the Bill Payer at Large for many years. I can remember months when there was hardly enough to spread around and other months when we felt like a Rockefeller, who would be a pauper compared to today’s Bill Gates and Elon Musk, but never mind that bag of chips.

My credit card bill has fluctuated through the years but has always been manageable. My most expensive purchases have always been at one of the superstores, Costco or Sam’s Club, where everything comes supersized, mostly in 55-gallon drums, which is okay when I am buying wine or coffee or even clothing detergent, but do I really need a two-gallon package of olive oil for a dressing I make once a year? And the “use by date” is just sixty days away. I like olive oil, but don’t usually guzzle it. I don’t know if I’m alone here, but my superstore credit card expense has increased a bunch in recent days. I always said that I could not get out of Costco for under $100, but I have increased it substantially, even though I pull my hat over my eyes and race through the aisles so that I don’t see those tempting impulse items, like a twenty-five-pound bag of avocados or another one hundred AA batteries. I never have the right kind of batteries, and none of my flashlights take the same ones. I always try to use the flashlight in my phone, which, by the way, I used yesterday to locate the commode in a very dark women’s restroom, but that is another story. A true story, but you’ll have to wait for it.

Google had something to say about impulse purchases claiming consumers make three unnecessary purchases per week adding up to about $450 a month and over $5,000 a year. Good grief! That’s a lot of Guacamole, if you ask me.

But what is this bill for a 3M sealer? Oh, Cowboy is working on the boat and maybe he is trying to slip one by me. Not a chance, Cowboy, it is your boat and remember that I watch every penny. (At least he did not buy the 55-gallon-drum of sealer, although I did buy eight bottles of wine for our trip.) Shush, don’t tell him. We are going on a trip…Keep an eye out!

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