If you’re a regular reader you may know that we recently cashed in the last of the change from our “puppy jar,” which is actually a large water bottle (5 gallon), since we were ready to cash in all our change for a puppy.
Part of the $650 in change we saved over 2 years went to purchasing the dog ($400), and part to supplies ($250). We budgeted $250 for supplies and would have been under budget, but I insisted on purchasing a travel crate since Appa is still little. I figure we will sell it on Craig’s List when he gets too big for it. We spent a total of $298 on supplies. The travel crate put us over.
I’m happy to say that our puppy is home, we brought him home yesterday. He is a WONDERFUL addition to the family, and we’re thrilled to have him. He has a playful and fun temperment, but isn’t full of crazy energy.
We will have additional expenses over the next few weeks including a visit from a trainer, training classes, and a vet visit. Then not long after we will have him neutered. Considering how much we saved, those expenses are easier to budget for.
We considered turning the puppy fund into a fund for a swingset, or a vacation to Disney. As it turns out we were able to find a spectacular deal on a swing set at nearly a third of the cost from Costco. We decided to go ahead and purchase it, since we will have extra money this month from our refinance. I feel that this is a good balance since about half of the extra money will go to debt, and half will go to something that rewards us all by encouraging the kids to be outside more.
Am I justfying the cost of something that’s not a neccesity? Yes! Money is not meant to be something that you can’t enjoy (something I’m only learning now). With all the smart moves we’ve made over the last year we are ahead on bill, so having that extra money really doesn’t change our day-to-day living the way it would have maybe a year ago.
So now the puppy jar has officially become the Disney World jar! We’re all excited about it, and it’s fun to see the kids put their change in the jar and talk about what we might do when we do finally get our vacation. My youngest daughter saved a dollar from her allowance to add it to the Disney fund. She said it would get us there sooner!
Hopefully by the time we are debt-free (within the next 2 years) the jar will have enough to cover a large part of the expenses.
What do you save your change for? Where do you keep it?
Kelly
