About a month ago we got an unexpected bill in the mail. Yes, we did purchase the new refrigerator, and yes we did take delivery of it, but really, we thought we’d already paid for it a couple of months ago.
Really.
I know this sounds incredibly irresponsible and very unlike anything you’d ever do, but we really just sort of forgot to …budget for it.
We needed a new fridge – the other one was really old and didn’t go with our new kitchen cabinets, so we had to have a new one.
(Do I sound a bit like my two year old? I felt like it. I WANT IT I WANT IT PLEASE I GOTTA HAVE THIS NEW FRIDGE PLEASE)
In my own defense, this was back before we cut up our credit cards and way before we started looking at only spending what we had. (What a novel idea).
If we wanted something back then, we charged it.
And each month the bills came and went. And each month we paid everything as best we could. Often we rotated our credit card charges to a newer lower interest card that came in the mail. (Have you ever played that game?) We moved money around we didn’t have, playing the ‘Beat the Creditor’ game.
So, it would be easy to think we’d already paid for the fridge.
Then the invoice came from our small locally owned appliance company. The had originally given us thirty days before charging our credit card.
Included was a nice note:
Uh, sorry guys, we thought we’d charged your credit card but it didn’t go through and here’s a new invoice please call immediately with a new credit card number.
Suddenly, we were stuck with a large bill and a newfound respect for budgeting and saving.
I tried really hard to find any place I may have already paid for the fridge. I went back through eight months of credit card receipts, all my bank statements, I was desperate.
No payment.
It was only paid for in our minds.
So, I did what any self respecting budgeting woman would do.
I sat down and cried.
And then I paid the bill, – out of our new emergency fund – just a few months old. It completely drained the fund, our bank account, our small savings, and we still had to charge a bit.
Now we have to play catch up.
What you should really do when buying a new fridge: