Penny Pinching Mom

Money to Burn

I had a birthday earlier this month. I almost forgot about it myself. It wasn’t until a week before when Pumpkin said something about it that I realized it was so close.

As usual, my mom sent me a card. This year it was a little late, which was decidedly unusual, but she had planned to give it to me when I came to visit and I ended up not getting to go. Anyway, I opened it, and it was a beautiful, ornate card, as usual. But there was something else unusual: There was no check in it.

As badly as I needed the money, I was glad. She is on a fixed income and has a lot of bills to pay, so I’ve been telling her for some time not to worry about getting me anything or sending me money for my birthday and holidays. She had never listened before, but I though maybe I had finally gotten through to her. When she called the next day, I thanked her for the beautiful card.

A couple of days later, I was having trouble getting a fire going in the wood stove. I had burned up all of the newspaper we had, so I went hunting for more paper. I saw my birthday card in its envelope, but I didn’t want to burn the card, so I removed it. I went over to the stove, tore the envelope in two… and something fell to the floor. I picked it up to find that it was a check from Mom. It must have come out of the card when I took it out and remained in the envelope.

It all made sense then. Mom had called to make sure I got my card, because she wanted to make sure I got that money. And I came thisclose to burning it. Nice.

Well, I guess that’s one way to make sure you don’t spend money. Better than weight loss pills for the wallet, huh? I called Mom and told her the story, and she got a kick out of it. Then she fussed on me for not saying something about a check not being in there. Said I should know that she would tell me if she wasn’t going to send one. True enough I suppose, but I guess I was hoping that she finally listened to me. I ought to know better than that, though.