Monday, July 7, 2008

A very expensive carwash

Hubby took my car up the block yesterday morning. There is a do-it-yourself car wash there. It has power sprayers, soap, vacuums, and everything else you need to wash a car in a short amount of time. Usually this costs slightly more than a drive-thru wash, somewhere in the neighborhood of $6. Since our neighborhood has all kinds of deed restrictions and rules about what you can do when plus factoring in the complete lack of space due each of the three of us having a car, it's not a bad bargain.

Unless, of course, it costs almost $70.

Why did it cost that much?

Because as he was vacuuming out the interior hubby took out the stroller system. And left it there. And didn't realize until our shopping trip later. By the time we returned it was nowhere to be seen.

We left a message at the contact number they have posted on the door. I also checked all the businesses in the strip mall next door. No one had turned it in. A quick search revealed it hadn't been moved/stashed anywhere. I posted an add on freecycle, hoping that maybe someone has an extra one or one they've outgrown.

My fear is that I will be somewhat housebound with the baby now until we replace it. We have two strollers, one is a regular push stroller and the other is a jogging stroller. I don't know how to use either yet. I do know that baby is so amazingly good about traveling and will sit in a coffee shop with me and people watch for hours. Her attention span continues to impress me. But, I'm not sure that it will continue if she's closer to the grown and wants to try and get out. We'll have to see.

I know that $60 is a lot of money. Our July budget is completely dependent on whether or not I get enough massages to cover our basic expenses. We have some money socked away in case I don't... June and July usually suck. However, things will start to pick up again and when they do it's usually fairly quickly. Unless we dip into the emergency fund, there is no $60 just laying around.

Plan:
- See if stroller base can be recovered
- Failing recovery, see if I can find one for free on freecycle
- Attempt to use regular stroller
- Failing freebie and regular stroller, leave word at consignment shops that one is desired
- Failing that... If none of those steps result in replacing the stroller base, I'm going to buy one. I'll sacrifice something in the budget... not sure what. I do know that a large part of my enjoyment, and sanity, as a new mom is the ability to pick up and go whenever I want. She loves to get out of the house and see new people and things, I love to meet with my friends and be able to network and have a good time with business acquaintances, and we both need a change of scenery from time to time. Even if I have to reduce the grocery budget by $10 for the next six weeks well... that's what I'll do.

No comments:

Post a Comment