The Mystery £3

Bear is normal for his age.  This means that when Sunday evening rolls around and all the reasonable shops are shut and the window for next delivery has closed he can pipe up with, 'I need a mask.'

And I have a perfectly normal reaction.  I say, 'Wut?"

Apparently bear needs a mask for something something something school, something something something drama something something something by Tuesday.  What about the skeleton mask in his room? I ask, but that is apparently completely inappropriate.  He needs me to somehow magic up a mask.  Making one out of cardboard was not an option.

So this morning I had a driving lesson - truly awful, nearly ran a red light and almost got a magpie - then dived into town, headed into a fancy dress shop and asked where they kept their masks.  Do you know how many masks are kicking around at this time of year?  I was already overwhelmed after the utterly appalling driving lesson, and now I had to chose between masks.  I picked a plain one.  Then out to Aldi and home where I sort of deflated.  It really was a disastrous driving lesson.

I did have one thing to look forward to, however.  When bear got home I finally got to find out why he needed £3.  That was another Sunday Night Surprise.  Apparently he needed £3 for a fundraiser.  I dug out my purse and asked what the fundraiser was for.  He looked at me blankly and shrugged.  It turns out it was for a One World Fundraiser (still no idea) and bear got a doughnut out of it. 

So bear and I talked over all that we had paid out for school.  I was being careful to make sure that he knew that he wasn't responsible for all that was paid out, and I think that most high schools can get expensive, but we added it up and it came to around £800 and some.  That's uniform, bus pass, school dinners (some of it hasn't been used yet), school shoes, stationery, the residential and the kit for that, the school trip that bear has coming up on Wednesday, one non-uniform day already and I was petty enough to add in the £3 I paid for a mug when they wanted donations for the Winter Fair.  We are edging towards £1000 and it isn't even half term! 

I know I could have been thriftier on some stuff, and the blazer, the most expensive item of kit, will last all year, but even so, I felt like whimpering.  This is a non-paying grammar school.  It is open to those who can pass the exam.  However, there is still a lot of money in that school and I think a lot is expected. 

As soon as I can pass my test (around 2023, by today's showing), I am going to have to pull myself together and sort out budgets and plans and basically act like a grown up. 

Writing stuff - Timothy Bateson's 31 Days of Halloween is still going strong and you can find today's book spotlight and yesterdays top 10 Halloween movies here and I've added a graphic of a quote from my contribution to 'Glass and Ashes' - coming soon!