The Ant vs. The Grasshopper

I am an ant. Not "aunt", although I am one of those to ten wonderful nieces and nephews. I mean an ant as in the parable of "The Ant and the Grasshopper". As someone once put it to me, "I will try to squeeze the blood out of a penny if I can." It's true. What can I say? It stems from my upbringing when my family went from having a lot of money to practically nothing. I remember it all too well and not fondly. It was right during that awkward stage of teenager years when clothes and "stuff" matter. (In fact, having a date pick you up at the local KOA where your family is living . . . . NOT COOL!)

Anywhoo . . . Because of all of this if I don't have a certain balance in my checking account, I truly do panic. I won't tell you that balance because for some it is a lot of money. For me, it's my "cushion" that I need in times of emergencies or my "safe money" as I like to call it. Whenever we get close to it or below that limit, I panic and go into "survival" mode. Yes, it drives my husband crazy.

Part of this is because of how he was raised. He grew up in a home where money was never an issue. They had housekeepers come in and clean their house and even to this day his parents spend an exorbitant amount of money on "extras" that just makes me cringe.

So, we have these "ant" and "grasshopper" discussions on a regular basis. I have to say I am glad he is around to help provide the balance, especially right now. I just discovered that our "wonderful - NOT" medical insurance will not cover any of our ultrasounds that I have to do to see if there is even 1 follicle around to even try to get pregnant. When you consider that they run around $200 each and you have about 3 - 5 a month, it adds up pretty quickly. Not to mention medication, shots, and the IUI procedure that - nope they don't cover. (What is interesting is that they did with Tre. We just didn't get "caught".) Stupidly, I thought they did cover them since they did last time. Ummmmm, NOPE! And because they usually take at least a month to process anything, I just found out about last months bills and we haven't even started on January's.

So while my "ant" self is in the process of a freak out because this was so not in my budget or my plans of things I wanted to do this year/spend money on and wondering how I can sell a kidney, my "grasshopper" spouse shrugs his shoulders and says, "Yeah, so?" Oh, how I love him!

By the way, anyone wanna buy a kidney?