Zombie Eater budget and a reborn monster truck

I put our budget on paper earlier this week. In the past 12 years I’ve had the budget on my head. And I did a great job with the budget. Now I’m facing a kid on the way and a temporarily unemployed wife. The first thing I noted when I put things on paper was how much we were spending on dining out. I immediately scratched all dining out from our budget.

We dropped the monster truck off at the mechanic’s on Monday night because 1) it was overheating 2) it has an oil leak 3) the air conditioner is broken and 4) the accelerator pedal was sticking.

After dropping the truck off I hopped into the other truck with Elise. She said she was hungry for a hamburger. It was then that I explained to her that I had created a tangible budget. She immediately agreed with my financial goals and set herself to prepare the fish that has been stinking up the fridge for the past week and a half for our dinner. I caved and suggested we go out like frivolous gang busters. We spent our last romantic dining out evening as a childless couple in the company of a car hop at the Sonic in Oak Hill. Elise had the #1 combo with mayonnaise, small fries accompanied by a seasonal 2006 cherry limeaid. Yours truly had the double jalapeno cheeseburger and onion rings with a subtle, unsweetened iced tea.

We picked up the monster truck tonight. It runs like new. What’s funny is the repairs on the truck cost half of what I actually paid for the truck two years ago. That’s better than a car payment considering how little I actually paid for the truck. I love my monster truck. I’m going to search for a monster decal to put on it now that it’s been risen from the near-dead.
Short term goals: 1) Have one last nice dinner with the Zombie Eater’s mom 2) Have the child and send it to Bangalore to either a) work for Dell or b) fabricate shoe lace tips for New Balance 3) put 500,000 miles on the monster truck.