Today I paid $3.50 in a sanity tax.

I remembered going into this evening that we were going to have dinner at our church. They offer Wednesday night dinners, which is wonderful because it saves me the time and hassle of getting the kids home, fed, and back to church before their Wednesday evening activities. We don’t go all of the time because I don’t want to pay for them to go if I know they aren’t going to eat what is being served, but I thought we would be pretty safe with taco salad, at least they could eat chips, right?!?

On the way home I realized that I didn’t have time to stop at the ATM to get cash out for dinner, so I would have to get the money after I picked up the kids. And so began my dilemma. 7-11 offers a free ATM for our bank, so going there is always the best option, but the busyness of the store and the position of the ATM inside make me very hesitant to leave my kids in the car for the two minutes I would be inside. A trip to 7-11 would mean getting my three hangry children out of the car, drag them into a store with food options, and then tell them they couldn’t get anything. Sure, I could buy them something, but then that defeats the entire purpose of going to the free ATM, right? So… I opted for the ‘sanity tax’ and used the ATM that charges $3.50 for a simple withdrawal, but it is a drive through located right across from the church.

So technically I spent $3.50 this evening to not take my cranky, hungry children out into public. That may seem silly, but for me, it was money well spent. And to the patrons of 7-11, you are welcome.

Have you ever paid a sanity tax? I’d love to hear what it was!