I Tried, Dave Ramsey, I Tried

This week began what feels like 4 weeks straight of travel. Really, there are a few breaks, but not many. Travel is never easy on the budget, but the fact that I have 5 different trips in 4 weeks makes it even harder. Combine that with the fact that my June budget is already shot (June/July is like the perfect storm of weddings, showers, travel, etc.), and you can see why I’d try to cut corners wherever I could.

I have a conference this week in Philadelphia. My cousin has to be there for work, so they are paying for her hotel room…so they are paying for my hotel room. Score. But I still had flights, the conference fee, and food to pay for. I decided I’d bring breakfast with me to save money there, so I bought the breakfast of champions – granola bars and peanut butter. I figured it got me through the village in China; it’ll get me through this week.

I get to the airport and go through security, which is always fun. Oh, and I also decided not to check my luggage. I’ll mooch off of my cousin and buy a razor there. I’m not paying $50 to bring my face moisturizer and razor. The end. So they rescan my suitcase, which typically happens because I shove it full of crap and they can’t tell what the heck is in there.

Well then they decide they need to open it. Sure, whatever, take a better look. So the lady starts looking through it and pulls out my peanut butter…my unopened peanut butter. She tells me that it is not allowed.

“Oh,” I said, “I didn’t realize peanut butter was a liquid.” (I was totally respectful, I promise.)

She replied with something like, “Yeah, it’s liquids, creams, pastes, etc.”

In my head, I’m thinking, “It’s peanut butter. It’s peanuts, salt, and oil. It’s not even hydrogenated – all natural. What am I going to do, get on the plane and make some sort of peanut butter napalm?” But I refrained from saying that.

Instead, I gave a simple explanation, “Oh, I didn’t know that. I was just trying to save money on breakfast.”

Then, as serious as she could possibly be, she replied, “Well, if you want you can go back out and eat as much of it as you can now. I’m sure you could find a knife or spoon at a restaurant.”

Yes, that is exactly what I want to do. Shove my face full of peanut butter and then get on a plane.

And that would really help serve the purpose of saving money on meals…because I’d probably not want to eat for at least a couple days, with all the puking I’d be doing.

“No,” I replied, “That’s ok. You can have it.”