-Spending-
Gas For BF's Car: $25 ($25/$635.02)
Pup's X-Rays Shipped: $5.45 ($5.45/$325)
Pup's New Crate: $246.93 ($252.38/$325)

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Our fresh start for the second half of the year has certainly started well for us.

First, BF got a good call about work this morning. They are giving him full-time with benefits at $9/hr. That is more than we thought they would do! The way they were car-dealing about the pay, I figured they wouldn't go for BF's $9/hr and 40 hrs/week minimum. Apparently they thought he meant full-time with benefits or nothing, so that's what they gave him!

I'm excited for him, and he seems genuinely enthused about it. It's good to see him like that, because it seems like he has a purpose to work towards now. And apparently they are really expecting alot of him, the head manager (who he actually got to meet today) told BF that he'd like him to be the "second man" for the Grocery Head, because BF knows what is supposed to be going on.

Even so - BF has said that when we get settled in a year or so (when we're done moving for my job), if his job isn't advancing or if it's not going to be enough for the future, then he will go back to school to at least finish his Associate's Degree. He already has some credits under his belt, and he left with good grades, so the only issue will be time & money. He will continue to work full-time if he goes back to take classes, but at least he is admitting that it's something he may need to do.

He starts work tomorrow, and unfortunately, will have to work until 10PM on Independence Day. So no fireworks for us. But that's okay, I think he gets paid extra because he's full-time and it's a holiday, and I think it's a good sign that his first official day on the job will be the first day of the month.

With BF working comes a predicament, though. We have no idea what we're going to do with the pup while we're both at work. He can still fit in his cage for our short trips out to the grocery, but I feel bad to leave him in there for that long. He can stand up in it and turn around, but he has to kind of lean his head down a bit. I guess if we have no other choice, he will survive a few days.

We did order the bigger crate from PetSmart this morning. I had budgeted $250 for it, and it was $246.93 with shipping, so pretty close. It was supposed to be here by Saturday I think.

THEN, when I got to work, I thought to ask if we ever special-ordered large items like that. (We carry some pet stuff, but not a huge variety.) And to my surprise - YES! We looked through the catalog and found a crate that has the same dimension as the one from PetSmart, and because it would be shipped at the same time as our regular stock orders from that vendor, I wouldn't have to pay shipping at all!

The total for the crate from my work will be about $130. COMPARED TO $246.93!!! I couldn't believe it. So the first thing I did when I got home was go online and try to cancel the PetSmart order. No luck. It said you couldn't cancel, you just had to ship it back to return it. That would have been pointless, because the shipping itself would be $100 both ways. So I called their customer service, and the lady said she would send a request to cancel it at the warehouse. I am supposed to get an email to let me know whether it was successful or not. If not, she said I could return it at a retail store (again, opposite of what the website said) and then call customer service for a credit on the shipping. That would be the longer route, but I'd theoretically still get all my money back, and end up saving the $110 on the crate.

So, I'm going to go ahead and order the crate at work tomorrow, and it will be here on Monday of next week. I'm off Thursday/Sunday, so we just need to figure out what to do with the pup for this Tues/Wed/Fri/Sat/Mon. Stress!

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I'm listing his old crate on Craigslist tonight. I've also emailed the guy from my pet-sitting ad on Craigslist again. Apparently the week he needed someone was the week I am going to be out of town for a work conference, so that sucks. But he said they might need someone for a few days before then, so I emailed him the amount I would charge. Maybe that will work out.

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Well, I'm off to wash my (and BF's!!!) work clothes for tomorrow. Oh - forgot to mention that I had a free lunch today because we had a retirement party at work for one of the guys. Lots of good food, and free! So the soup I brought from home was saved for tomorrow.