About sixteen years ago, I met him for the first time. My trainwreck sibling brought home this adorable puppy he had no business adopting because he had not one thing in his life that wasn’t a mess. I was furious at my sibling – he didn’t even take care of himself, how could he drag
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August 16, 2009
- I have comfortable shoes to wear when trying to run/jog/walk/gasp my frustration and claustrophobia off, so my feet don’t hurt. Just the rest of me.
- Vinegar seemed to make my laundry a bit brighter?
- Oiling the locks DID make my key work without the usual wrist-grinding, finger-jamming frustration and yelling at the door. And the occasional kick. Awesome.
- I am super out of shape.
- Considering internship + education route, something I’ve wanted for a long time but is now the right time? Can’t sit still for much longer, but it won’t be the massive change I crave.
August 14, 2009
FB’s post on keeping up with her credit card transactions explains a very similar technique I used when my family was still involved in my finances.
They had credit card debt, half of which had been balance-transferred to my name, they had regular rent/utilities bills which weren’t always covered by their income, they had loans from me, the list ran on for some length.
My finances became this huge non-linear web: income (mine) – outflow (mine) – income (parents) – outflow (theirs) + income (mine) to cover their outflow – outflow (brother’s) + income (mine) to cover his inadequate or non-existent income.
To make things even more complicated, there were debts I’d forgiven, there were new debts accumulated, there was irregular income, irregular overtime, and periods of non-payment. The budgeting calendar was a hot mess!
Eventually, the best way to coordinate things during the time before business credit cards (to divide and track our purchases by user) was to tally each deposit and outgoing check by highlighter and separate transactions.
Every single payment from the family was labeled by name (Dad), amount ($50), reason (loan), and type (cash). While the check ledger was never reconciled in the traditional sense, each outgoing cash loan was recorded, and later struck through once a payment was recorded and
color-coded.
Nowadays, payments are only bundled when I’m scheduling them for bills to be paid out within the same week, preferably in the same day.
As long as a quick glance shows that each transaction is accounted for, I don’t have to worry about running short on funds, overdrawing, or any such thing. Saves me time and fuss, it’s my form of automation.
Ms. Ginger touched on this yesterday in her combo confessional and fix-it post. She and I must be channeling each other this week. 😉
August 13, 2009
Aside from the spending reports from my recent travel, let’s just say I’ve … been paying so little attention to my cash flow that I have no idea how much I’ve spent this month. But that’s not the worst part – I’ve been going out sporadically, but no more than once or twice a week, and for pretty low-key stuff. Local burger joint, and suchlike.
No, my real stupidity is located in the travel reservation part of life. During my most hectic lead-up to two weekends ago, I made reservations at a Best Western for a single night stay in the middle of nowhere because that’s where an old friend was getting married. After days of squeezing in hotel and rental car research between other obligations, my travel companion and I came to the realization we just couldn’t afford it.
Cue: cancel the hotel reservation. Right? RIGHT???
Oh no. THIS idiot forgot about it completely.
Seriously. 100% completely forgot it until a note of the $98 transaction popped up on Yodlee charged to my trusty new credit card. When the truth dawned on me, I was as wordless as a much less cheerful Andy Runton’s Owly …..
“????” I said.
Then “!!!!!”
You may not think it’s physically possible to kick oneself and hang head in shame at the same time, but it is. Oh, it is. (“!!!!!”)
Now I’d better creatively replace that money. (“……”)
This is what happens when you stray from routine: mistakes that cost you big money. Normally everything that has a cancellation date is recorded meticulously on the day of the call, as well as on the day that I have to make the cancellation call by. My planner, however, has been languishing on my desk since July 1st, and that’s all my fault.
August 12, 2009
Evidently, according to reader K of Frugal Zeitgeist, only those unemployment claims filed before June 15th are eligible for the massively extended benefits.
Since K is in NYC, I figured I’d better check out the CA site to make sure I know what’s what. According to the informational PDF, Miss M is right that the claims balance is the amount I can claim before running out of money:
The maximum amount of a regular UI claim is either 26 times the claimant’s weekly benefi t amount or one-half of the claimant’s base period wages, whichever is less.
Both the Federal government and California have their own extended benefits programs that will kick in:
only when unemployment is very high. This program pays additional benefits to those who qualify and have collected all of the benefits on their regular claims and
who are not eligible for any other UI claims. The EDD will notify individuals by mail and/or through the media when they become potentially eligible for these benefits.
Under Fed-ED, claimants who have exhausted their regular UI claim may be eligible to collect up to 13 additional weeks of compensation if a Fed-ED period is in effect. Once activated, the Fed-ED period must continue in effect for at least 13 weeks. When the program is deactivated, it must remain inactive for at least 13 weeks.
And then for California:
California has its own state-financed extended benefits program. The benefits paid under this program are from the state UI fund. The trigger mechanism for the Cal-ED program is similar to Fed-ED. Under either Cal-ED or Fed-ED, an individual receives up to one-half of the regular UI base claim. Therefore, any claimant who has
received the full amount of extended benefits on a Fed-ED claim cannot qualify for a Cal-ED claim based on the same base claim.
Obviously I don’t PLAN to remain unemployed for so long that I need to use the extended benefits programs, but it’s best to be informed.
August 11, 2009
On the matter of delaying my COBRA coverage: I knew there was a reason I kept all the paperwork!
It turns out that I was just delaying the inevitable. According to page 7 of my rather fat stack of papers here, I am NOT (and I assume that includes you, Funny) exempt from making the retroactive payments on these intervening months since leaving my former place of employ.
As they say …
This initial payment premium is for the retroactive coverage period from the date of loss of coverage to the date you elect continuation coverage.
That’s disappointing.
Even though my authorial participation in carnivals is low, I haven’t found my stories yet, at least, not the stories that fit into each specific carnival, I still want to remain engaged with the pf blogging community at large.
I’ve found a job for myself that is more in line with my behind-the-scenes style: helping Flexo manage the Carnival of Personal Finance!
I’m excited about this opportunity, and hope that I’ll be a good fit on the other side of the curtains!
August 10, 2009
Fast on the heels of my declaration of independence from one kind of family tie, I face another.
What does one do, when simply listening to the cadence of another’s speech, the emotion, knowing that the little tears in the corners of the eye, the breaking voice, were all just cues built in meant specifically for manipulation [to my ears], drives you into a hands-shaking rage?
No, that’s not healthy. But that IS family.
I’ll be honest. I’ve been avoiding my brother via the cold shoulder and various other defensive-shunting techniques for the past few months because every time I even consider having a sit-down with him, I get angry. It took two months to pen a response to his most recent outrageously audacious “I’m trying ever so hard, and btw, can I get a little more free rein around here if I help out some more?” missive. Are you kidding me? Because I’m pretty sure that was followed up by a distinct period of doing less. I never sent it because I wanted to be sure this was a battle worth engaging in.
Frankly, I just didn’t want to hear it. Not the excuses, not the whining, not the plaints that he’s trying soooo hard. None of it. Don’t care. Haven’t seen it, and don’t care. Patience hath boiled over and boiled off in this little pot, and the last thing we needed was steam in this already sweltering heat. Yet, how long can you ignore a family member who lives feet away from you? [At last count … three and a half months. We’re restarting the clock.]
Seriously, though. He actually came and apologized for being too loud, which he was, but really, it was an apology because he’d gotten caught. And for what? For the dumbest thing — I wasn’t out to catch him! I’d just remembered to take out the trash! [Serious. Check my Twitter. I’d just gone out to get the trash and ran into him outside.]
Jeepers. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear I was living in a trailer park, about to get shipped out to Jerry Springer.
So now I feel obligated to give the real verbal thrashing for the real issues I’m angry about – of which there are many, and of those many, all are justified – since I had to listen to his idiotic sob stories despite doing my darndest to avoid them and the angry rant I’ve got to deliver. It’s only fair. If he’d just left me alone, I wouldn’t have to play the parent role again. Jerk. *scowl*
