Trying to Meet New Financial Needs to Pay Off New Vet Bill

Ever spend some or a lot of money on things you don't really need but wanted to get, only to turn around and find you suddenly have a huge, necessary expenditure? Yep-that happened to me. There's a vet hospital bill to now pay. We charged it to Care Credit (thank heavens we have it for emergencies such as this) but that means a large monthly payment for six months of interest free payments (or else interest is retroactive-not a bad interest rate if we were not able to pay it off in time but who wants to pay more if you can avoid it?) I didn't spend nearly as much, not even 1/8 as much, as the vet bill but still I felt guilty: two beauty magazines for about $12; some clothes from TJMaxx for my nieces (love the store; Shhhhh...don't tell them); and something else that was also minor in cost which I can't recall at the moment. In general, these expenses didn't take money away from the vet bill necessarily, and the expenses were covered in the regular budget. But still I suddenly felt guilty. And then came home and turned off most of the lights; tried to figure out where to cut expenses; and revamped the budget for the next six months; and when I bought groceries, stuck to the list and decided "Do I really need to buy a can of tomatoes, that box of crackers, that bag of chips if they are not part of the menu this week?" It was very basic, simplistic thinking but when one is feeling overwhelmed with financial needs, and facing two cats with HCM, and the possibility of five others someday needing expensive vet care, sometimes simply turning off the lights and not buying crackers just helps you feel that you are meeting your financial goals.