So a couple of weeks ago I posted that I was in a bit of a financial struggle and that I’d put myself on a strict budget for this month, and a non-essential-spending freeze until June.

Today I was so proud of myself because I’d made it to the end of the month adhering to my budget. I was even going to head out to the grocery store for a round of not-as-restricted-as-last-time groceries. So I got into my car, and…it wouldn’t turn on. Gah!

I know what has happened – the battery is dead. I’m pretty sure that it’s because a door wasn’t properly shut and I haven’t been in my car since Saturday (more than 72hrs by the time I was heading out to the grocery store today). The dome light in my car would have been on the entire time, which drained the battery.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: call someone for a boost, Rebekah! But the thing is, my car is in my (rather small) garage at the moment. You can’t reach it to boost. And because of anti-theft features, you can’t just pop it into neutral and push it out of the garage, either.

So…after smacking my head against the wheel a few times (and uttering some unsavoury language – c’mon, it’s the truth), I headed back inside to call the tow truck company to come and give me a portable boost. As I said, this has happened before. The thing that made me really mad was that this was going to cost me $50, which was not in my carefully planned budget. Grrrr.

While I sat here waiting for the boost and stewing about the cost of it, I thought of CAA. See, after the last time this happened, I thought I should sign up for membership. But within a short time I forgot about it completely, and I never did anything about it. As I waited, I thought I’d better sign up for CAA now. That made me even angrier, because the cost of a membership wasn’t in the budget, either.

But then I thought of something. If I was going to pay for the CAA membership anyway, wouldn’t it make sense to cancel the boost, put off the grocery shopping for a couple of days, and then get a boost from CAA once my membership is active?

And that is exactly what I did.

Little hiccups in life like this one sometimes drive me slightly crazy. I give them more energy and attention than they deserve. I stress about them more than I ought.

So tonite I am taking the time to count my blessings when the hiccups come. Todays blessings:

• I am actually stupidly proud of myself for figuring this out so that I didn’t end up double spending (on the boost and the CAA membership).
• I am deeply thankful that I live right next door to my work and that the only appointment I have ‘off campus’ in the next two days should be fairly easy to re-locate to a walk-able distance (or get a ride to).
• I have enough food in the fridge and the freezer that I don’t need to panic about not getting to the grocery store.

They might seem small – but those are actually pretty big blessings in the scheme of things!