The material presented
here is not Al-Anon Conference Approved Literature. It is a method
to exchange
information, ideas, feelings, problems and solutions on a personal
level.
We are on a fixed income of $734 a month. Some times we have more money , doing sales, recycling aluminum cans or my 2 or 3 days of work. Not alot of money to splurge.
Our arguement is we get a monthly credit at a local little country store/ gas station. We are able to fill up the gas tank & fill it the following month. Today is Monday July 1, the cost of gas at the station is $2.89 a gallon. In town it cost $2.71 a gallon.
Tina thinks that we should purchase all our gas at the local station because we are low on cash. The store will credit us and we pay the bill entirely the next month. It runs somewhere around 300 +/-. I think this is great if we are just running around here. We do not have to go somewhere everyday of the week so some days we don't even leave the yard. But if we are in town, I think we should fill up the tank with the cheapst gas we can find.
This is a big disagreement in our home. I think we save more in town , she thinks it saves us at the end of the month when we have no money.
I BELIEVE THERE IS NO QUESTION---A PENNY SAVED IS A PENNY EARNED...(MAKES ME SOUND OLD)
BASED ON YOUR $300 CREDIT THAT YOU PAY OFF EVERY MONTH---THAT SAME AMOUNT OF GAS WOULD ONLY COST YOU ROUGHLY $280--SO YOU SAVED $20 EVERY MONTH---AND YOU STILL CAN USE THE STATION'S CREDIT IF YOU GOT IN A BIND AT THE END OF THE MONTH
THE ONLY THING I WOULD WATCH OUT FOR IS THAT I WOULD SET ASIDE THE CASH AT THE BEGINNING OF THE MONTH AND MAKE SURE IT ONLY GETS USED FOR WHAT IT WAS INTENDED
$20 A MONTH SAVINGS IS ENOUGH TO MAKE IT WORTH WHILE---I THINK
SO THEREFORE I VOTE FOR $1.71 PER GALLON WITH DISCIPLINE...
TAKE CARE----JUST NOTICED---MAKE THAT $2.71 PER GALLON
the money to pay the gas credit at the local store is always there. The local store is who we use to cash the disablity check when it comes in on the 3rd. He takes the debt out of the $734 a month. btw I am 46 , she is 43. I think she is oblivious to saving money. hmm if she saves the cash she can then use it to buy her booze. lol she buys it at the other local store not the store we use for credit & she has it in her mind that all change is hers. :rollingeeyes:
however, she did just say that the money she is earning as housesitting for 8 days, she is thinking of using it to get the dogs shots up to date & whatever else they need. oh she has not been able to drink while there maybe this is clear thinking? crossing my fingers. there is my hope.
In my experience, an A will always take the easy solution which puts off having to deal with a problem. Yes, there is also probably a little conniving thinking going on there - "How do I get more booze" is the underlying idea behind most of their actions.
Your path is to fight the fights that matter, and let the others go by. I found that I would fight those tiny little issues as a way of blinding myself to the huge boundary crossing that I was allowing - "Sure he wakes me up the scream at me for a couple of hours every night, but I'm making him recycle all his beer cans".
A really good alanon strategy is to stop the talk, and ignore the discussions, and just make sure that YOUR actions are the ones you agree with. When you are buying gas, you buy it where you like. When she is, it's none of your business.
we recycled 800lbs of aluminum cans early this year. there were from about 8 years worth of collecting. Now she goes to the local dumpster & climbs in & out to collect them. I think we have about four 55 gallon containers filled now. We put the cans in the driveway and run over them to crush them so we can carry more condensedly. costs is up to 55 cents a lb here. in NC it is $1.00 if you have more than one hundred pounds you get more money.
oh she has not been able to drink while there maybe this is clear thinking? crossing my fingers. there is my hope.