Tire Trouble, Kind Of

Certain things in my life are going swimmingly. Our marriage is great. Our dynamic is going well. Our animals are all healthy. Parts of my family and I are getting along great.

But.. then there is everything revolving around money. Yes, our finances are tight. I'm sure anyone reading this blog for more than a month knows that already; and is maybe even sick of hearing about it.

But today that damn subject came up again. We only have one car. Now where that saves a lot of money because there is only one car to put gas in, do oil changes on, etc. it also fucks you over if anything happens to said car.

As a result Master and I get nervous when we think something, anything, may be wrong with the car.

Well, today I drove our car to work as the driver in our car pool had taken the day off. No big deal. I check everything over just to be on the safe side. Everything was fine. I get myself and the other person in the carpool to work safely with nothing going wrong. Awesome.

I go on my lunch break and go outside to get some fresh air and I see that the back passenger wheel is flat. I'm like "What the fuck?"

I didn't want her sitting on her rim or anything, so I limped her to a local gas station and put air in it. It holds and everything is fine. I go back to work. The other person in the carpool asks if I want to leave early. Well, I already have eight hours to make-up between now and Sunday. So at first I was like nah. But then I started to worry about the tire and I said okay let's go. Fuck it. I'll just make that hour up as well.

I go outside and both of us check the tires. They all seemed fine. But just to play it safe I ask if he would mind playing navigator so we could take city streets home. I didn't want to run the risk of the tire blowing out or anything on the damn interstate. He agreed and off we went. Even though my job is one county over from us it was relatively easy to use the city streets. I didn't break 40mph. I was cautious as hell.

We get to his place, he hops out and says the tire still looks good before heading into his home. I drive to our place and get out of the car. I check all the tires and they seem fine.

But I know that sooner or later the car needs a new set of tires. It's just so damn expensive. That's why I freak out when a tire goes flat. I can't afford two tires right now damnit! (You put the two new ones on the front and take two of the best ones out of the original four and put those on the rear set.) Now, two tires don't sound like a lot but I don't want used tires, those always made me nervous when I got them before. They are used after all and they are a part of the whole safety while driving thing.

Master could tell I was stressing. He stood up and opened His arms, motioning for me to hug Him. I slide my hands under His outer shirt and hugged Him tight. He wrapped His arms around me and rubbed my back while He kissed the top of my head a few times.

I actually felt a lot better after that. I'm calmer now. However, both of us are going to keep a closer eye on the tires just to be on the safe side.

Scratch That Itch

I'm sure most of you know how strapped for cash Master and I normally are. Finances are always extremely tight and so we don't have a lot of "free" money to spoil ourselves with. This month I get two what we call "middle of the month" paychecks. The first paycheck of the month is used to pay rent. After that we have enough for groceries, things we need for the animals and some gas in the car. That's it.

The second paycheck of the month is the one that is used to pay our other bills. Once that is done we can splurge a little bit, but honestly not all that much. Something small, but enough so that we feel a bit of breathing room before the first paycheck of the month again.

This month, as I said, we get two middle of the month paychecks due to how to pay days land. As a result I paid our bills on this one and we spoiled ourselves yesterday by getting a few things we both wanted. That was really nice and it was like a sigh of relief. We spend about $80 on just spoiling ourselves. It felt great. I know that doesn't sound like a lot of money to spoil ourselves with but for us it felt like we had won the jackpot.

And honestly we still have more "free" money to play with. Which is awesome! As a result my brain started ticking away. I'm addicted to tattoos. I have 11 currently and want two more at minimum. And they are both already planned. One is an anklet tattoo. The other is a stylized version of Master's initials. We had tried picking out the placement for the one of His initials before. We finally landed on my right wrist. I wear His cuff on my left wrist. So His initials on my right wrist makes a lot of sense. It'll only be an outline tattoo because I want it to somewhat look like a brand. (I'm not brave enough to actually get a brand done and they normally don't heal the way people hoped they would.)

So since we have more free money I started wondering if I could get it done this month. So I tried calling one tattoo parlor that we used last time. They didn't answer their phone. Since I'm an impatient bitch when it comes to ink I called another place that a lot of people rave about. I've seen their tattoo portfolios online and they do damn good work. Plus this is an extremely simple tattoo it should be great. I talked to a woman on the phone and I explained how I already knew exactly what I wanted and I had it saved on my computer but I don't have a printer. I asked her if I could e-mail it to someone and basically get an over the phone price quote. She said not a problem. So she gave me her e-mail address and I sent it to her. She said simply because it is on the wrist it'll run a little bit more. Placement does effect the price and I already knew that as I've run into it before several times. She also told me it would have to be a bit bigger than I had it so the lines wouldn't be too close together. Again I agreed with her. So she told me it would be $80. Sounded about right to me. Most tattoo parlors minimum price is $50. Since this is a bit bigger and will be on my wrist $80 sounded right to me.

So I did the math. Yes, we could afford it. No, it wouldn't strap us for cash. But they are closed tomorrow and I won't be able to get it during the work week. Next weekend is out. So I talked to Master and He said that maybe on my next paycheck we could get it. So now I'm excited. But if we can't do it I'm not about to go ahead and do it anyway. I'm not that stupid. But I know damn well if I don't get it this month it's going to be quite a while before I'll have that kind of spare cash again. You have to tip after all. So I'm really hoping that I can get it done on my next paycheck. I've wanted His initials done for quite a while now and I know Master wants it done as well. Like I said I really hope it works out this month. If not, I'll be disappointed but there isn't much I could do about it.