The best seventy-five bucks I ever spent

I just bought a Bissell Steam Mop at the BX. The cost: $75.99. I have been wanting one for quite a while, but I have been trying to be frugal lately. I don't know if you've noticed, but the economy is not so great these days. Why, even the thrift store has raised prices!

In the not-too-distant past I would have just snapped up the steam mop as soon as I decided I wanted it, but for the last six months I have been operating under a cash budgeting system. Every payday, I take out cash for household expenses and put it in labeled envelopes: groceries, wine, thrift store, child care, donations, miscellaneous household, cash for me, and cash for Lloyd. You'll notice there is no 'Steam Mop' category, and so the $75.99 had to come out of the miscellaneous household envelope. It wasn't looking like I was ever going to get one, but today my babysitter came down with the crud so I hit the jackpot: I saved the babysitter cash and also the thrift store cash I would have spent while she was sitting, so it was Steam Mop City, baby!

As soon as I got it home, I mopped the kitchen, hallway and bathroom, and it is really great. I really like it, and started thinking about how it was the best $75 I ever spent. As I thought more about it, I wondered: is it REALLY the best money I every spent? Really, truly?

More tomorrow. I'm going somewhere with this, I promise.