Finances hit him

It's finally happened. Quentin's wondering why he can't ever contribute anything to the savings account, and I told him flat out, "If you quit smoking, you can probably put $300-$400 a month in there." He told me that was nuts, no he couldn't. So, I went online, looked at the statements there, and wrote down all the times he'd bought stuff at the local smoke shop. Then I tallied it up, gave him the list and showed him how many times over the last month alone that he'd been at the smoke shop in town and how much he'd spent each time. The total? $314 and change. That's just over $75 a WEEK, folks. He was stunned. $20 here, $30 there, it doesn't seem like so much. But when you add it all up, he's literally sending almost $3800 a YEAR up in smoke. He's now convinced to cut back until he quits completely, because he can see that much money going into other things, not just a downpayment on a house.

Such as new jeans, which he kind of needs a pair or two. A new TV, which he desperately wants. New tires for both vehicles. Proper rear rims for my car (it's a Chevy, and the rear rims are currently from a Honda - they FIT, but they're an inch smaller than the Chevy rims, and you can feel it). And much more. Not that I expect him to ever quit or even slow down. He'll feel ashamed for a while about the money, and then go back to poof-poof-poof because it "makes [him] feel good." Seriously? I have never smoked in my life, so I don't understand how sending money up in smoke can make you feel good. There are a lot of things you can do with the kind of money to give yourself an endorphin rush other than burn it.

Okay, PSA over. Time for good news. My move to tenders went well, and while it's incredibly boring (I expected that) and time kind of drags most of the time (I expected that, too), I finally got out of work without my tenonitis screaming bloody murder at me. This is a major relief, because it means I keep my job without going to a doctor and getting put on medical leave and therapy until it heals up. Then it would be back to sending my arm into orbit again. No thanks, I'll just skip that part, and deal with being bored. I can go off into my own little world in my head and entertain myself with daydreams all day, which make the job go fairly quickly.

Tinkerbell and Raffles are about ready for a trap and spay session. Tink is often meeting me on the deck in the morning, as she did today, and she's progressing nicely back into "humans are good things." Yesterday, as I left for work, she actually came up to me and sniffed an outstretched finger without fear, and this morning, she was waiting on the deck again and let me pet her quite a bit before breakfast was demanded. Raffles is letting me pet her a lot as well, without flinching or pulling away. Once again, I am The Bringer of Good Things for Kitties. They have both discovered that petting feels nice, and that even if they pull away, I won't take away the food, so the tolerate being touched in favor of free chow. It sure makes the process of domesticating them a lot easier.

But now it's time for me to handle my daily influx of email (my Kindle Freebies group is growing by leaps and bounds - around 10-15 new members a day!), find books for everybody, eat, get ready for work, and get other Starting To Pay Off type work done. The sooner I get things paying enough to quit that place, the happier we will both be, honestly. I love my job, but we've got plans that do not include me working outside the home for the next twenty or thirty years until I'm old enough for Social Security (if it even exists at that point). Off to my at-home job stuff! Hugs, all!

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