Doing something for myself

As a father and husband to both 3 boys and a wife with special needs, sacrifice has been part of my life for a long time. Sacrifice is something that is not exclusive to me but instead common to most parents. Having said that, as special needs parents, the sacrificing is much more frequent and will happen for a much longer period of time.

I think this is all pretty common knowledge.

However, despite all the sacrifices I still have the need to feel like I can still do things for myself. It promotes a sense of normalcy. For many years, my special things was renewing my XBOX Live account. It renewed on my birthday so that was my birthday present every year.

I sacrificed my XBOX awhile ago in order to better take care of my family. When you have something like an XBOX, you can always sell it to bring in some extra cash. It’s like a liquid asset.

The last couple of years I have one thing that I do for myself every year or so. As many of you know, I do most of my blogging from my smartphone. My absolute favorite phone is the Samsung Galaxy S series of phones. The one thing I do for myself is that I try to get the new model when it’s released. I know it sounds silly to many of you but to me, it’s something I really look forward to.

Sometimes I am eligible for an upgrade and other times I have to be a bit more creative.

This year the Galaxy S3 gets released on June 21st, despite Apples attempts to ban the sale. I will be first in line at Best Buy Mobile next Thursday. This year I was lucky because I was able to use my reward zone points I have been saving up. Best Buy let’s you trade in video games and things like that and give you a gift card in exchange.

Right now, they are offering a 100% trade in bonus on all game trade ins. Basically, if your game is worth $25 in trade, they give you $50 instead. This is a great deal and made up the difference between my available reward zone points and the cost of the Galaxy S3. This meant absolutely no out of pocket expense and I got rid of some things I didn’t use anymore.

Part of the fun is figuring out a way to reach my goal, without having to spend any money. Honestly, that’s the only way it would ever really work out. I couldn’t justify the expense if I had to actually pay for it.

I’ll probably have to hold off on a case for it but I’ll survive.

Is there anything that you do, just for yourself? Is this something that you really have to work for, like my phone or is it simpler? Please share with the class.

**Thanks for reading**

-Lost and Tired

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