Didn’t Plug in, Made it Okay

I didn’t plug in last night and made it through the night. I have decided to only plug in when I absolutely need to. Why? Well, when I plugged in on Saturday night one of those “white vans” I love so much gave me the hint.

The van pulled up to access their shop at 7:00pm on a Saturday night but didn’t talk to me at all. It seems they work all hours, as I figured that that late on a Saturday I would be safe and not bothering anyone. Had they needed to access the shop I would have happily moved to allow them to do so.

They stayed for fifteen minutes or so and then drove off, the next morning I found that my hitch light was on. I have a light on Wanda’s “leg pole” it is the pole which lowers down and has a foot on it. That foot is used to support the weight of the trailer when you disconnect it from the truck. Well, on there, there is a light which shines on the hitch and my truck’s license plate.

It is possible (but unlikely) that I have inadvertently switched it on and didn’t notice it until that next morning. It is also possible that this person driving the white van wondered who I was and wanted to report me (and subtly let me know this). I have, as yet, not been talked to at all about parking there, we shall see what develops.  It is also possible that I am just being a bit paranoid.

Once again if I get the official “don’t park there” I won’t, until then I will park there so I don’t freeze. But with Jenny and that new adaptor I will be fine, it may cost me more fuel but I could run Jenny, heat the trailer up, turn Jenny off and run the furnace and be fine all night.

I do need to get back on track with my spending and park my card again. I took it out for that Wanda repairs thing and haven’t quite put it away again. It is funny how convenient and dependant on those little plastic cards we are. I have also seen how easy it is to trickle spend and just buy this handy item or that interesting item.

I am determined to stick this out and pay off that second card by April. Yet at the same time I will keep out of the overdraft and keep that first card paid off. As with Wanda’ repairs it was needed, but I will pay it completely off on this payday.

That is the deal, that has to be the deal, or I get back into the mess that I was in in the first place. It is easy not to spend when you have every source of credit maxed out. Changing your thinking so that you don’t spend when you have available credit is harder than it seems.

There are always tempting things that you could want to get, yet in the end, don’t need. My last extravagant expense was a necessity (Jenny) but there have been other temptations, such as a new laptop.  

This process is a learning process and is more valuable than if I had just won a lot of money. If I had just won a lotto or inherited a bunch of money, I would have been cheated this learning experience. Struggling to slowly pay these debts off is teaching the value of paying this down.

I am earning my financial freedom by doing this and slowly learning how to handle money and credit. In so doing, I will be setting myself up to not get in this mess again. Changing my attitude about money and credit is vital in the success of this project. What is the point to pay all of these cards off if I run them up again?