Sick Days Bonus Pay
This is not a post about the cool deal my employer offers where I get paid out for not using all my sick days each year. This post is about the small but real pick-me-up that came along with the miserable cold I had the pleasure of enduring.
Recently I was struck down with a pretty hearty cold (actually it kicked my butt pretty bad!). This meant that I missed several days of work as to not infect my fellow employees and to bless them with my chipper attitude I’m sure I had during that time. To get back on my feet I took a total of three sick days off from work plus my entire weekend to get to the point I could be fairly productive again. The interesting side effect of being sick over this 5-day period was that I spent very little money. I because of that was able to make a small step forward toward our financial goals by taking advantage of the miserable situation. This sickness really worked out to my advantage and put a little extra cash between myself and future financial ruin.
I figured I saved approximately $48 during those several day, mostly on gas and food by not driving to work and not feeding myself at the office. That’s $48 saved after you deduct the $11.96 super-jumbo-Costco-sized economy pack of Nyquil I picked up to help me weather my personal storm.
So what did I do with my new found wealth you ask? I took advantage of this financial windfall by transferring the money I saved from out checking account into our six month emergency fund we’re working on (and making great progress I might add!) True this $48 won’t change our lives but it does mean the money will go towards something productive instead of vanishing like it normally would. Even though I was physically miserable for a week I was able to feel a little less financially miserable.
Please let us all know what odd tiny steps you’ve taken toward your financial goals recently? The more odd the better!
...."so when I got home we had a talk and decided this money situation had to change. I didn’t know how I was going to change it, we were barely making enough money to cover the monthly payments so how the H-E-double-hockey-sticks was I going to fix it?"
Saving money in small steps, you want to know? We recently got a house from a church auction for the weekend at the Ocean. Instead of going out to eat, we brought the food and used the kitchen, we also usually have a crab feast at the ocean, but had pizza instead this year.
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