Five Grand in Eight Days

I would like to write about how I hustled up an extra five grand in eight days.

Someday I hope to, but this is not that story.

I have certainly added five grand to my bank account within that span of time on numerous occasions and will do so this Friday when both my wife and I get paid and I transfer an additional $3,300 from other accounts ($2,500 from my son’s 529 account and $800 from my Capital One savings account) into our checking account.

This is about something far easier to do — spending.

I am the primary breadwinner for a solidly middle-class family in the northwest suburbs of Chicago and a long-time economic development professional with a stable but not particularly high salary for a fairly well-educated forty-nine-year-old.

My wife works extremely part-time, overseeing the lunch hour at the magnet school that both of our children attended through eighth grade. For the entire school year, she makes between seven and eight grand, or just over the five grand that we will be spending from Christmas Eve through New Year’s Eve about a week from now. That number excludes all presents.

Last year, I thought it exorbitant when we spent $3,700 during the same week when we traveled to and from Lake Havasu City, Arizona, via Las Vegas to visit my wife’s father and his wife…