When I was a child, I noticed the Morton Salt container on our kitchen table. On it was a picture of a young girl, carrying an umbrella in the rain, also carrying a bag of salt with her other arm, but the bag was carried sideways with a hole in it, and the salt was pouring out behind her as she walked. Near it was the caption, "When it rains, it pours."
In those days, I didn't understand it. I finally figured it out but recently wondered if the Morton Salt people invented it. (Google says it's a twist of an old English saying, "It never rains but it pours.") Some have suggested that the Morton ad was an effort to point out that their salt pours freely no matter the moisture in the air. But I digress.
My reference to raining and pouring is actually budget-generated. Once my house mortgage was paid off three or four years ago, I knew I had an extra $600 or so to play with in my budget. Since property taxes and insurance had to come directly from me instead of from the escrow included in my mortgage payment, I calculated how much of that "extra" money I needed to save per month in order to make everything work. For awhile, it worked. I could save some, and then things would hit, unexpectedly. Everyone knows the drill, unless they are well off.
I was just sure I could put $500 in savings this month, but, well..."things" happened. I had two medical bills come in for my share of services, to the tune of $358. Then my bathroom toilet was bubbling when the washing machine drained. (Not a good sign! It has happened before. The result of ignoring it is a sewer backup and overflowing toilets.) Plumber call to dig out tree roots in my sewer: $130. If my math is correct, that's almost $500. So much for savings this month! Maybe next month?
Oh, wait. Property taxes are due next month, plus my grandson's 18th birthday, plus Thanksgiving will happen. The next month is Christmas.
Well, drat! When it rains, it pours! Maybe 2022....
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