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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June 19, 2008
No sooner do I mostly clear up the bloggy debacle, I get an email from my cell phone company saying that access has temporarily been blocked from online access because someone repeatedly, unsuccessfully, tried to log onto my account.
What???
I called, and apparently at 12:28, today, someone was trying to access my accounts.
Either someone really has it in their head that they need to snoop, or Yodlee was trying to log on. I can’t tell which, but I’ve changed all my passwords again. *aigh*
Let this be a lesson to you, folks, protect your passwords and make them nonsensical to anyone but yourselves!
For $3.50, I got some real mileage out of my small pink messenger bag from Target. Gosh, I bought that bag years ago, though it was after college. Well, it’s on its last legs: when reaching for a cable in the side, cell phone pocket, my hand went right through into the main part of the bag.
Just in time, a colleague came to the rescue! We’d been talking about where she gets her bags (she has at least a dozen, probably more, good-sized tote bags) because I’ve just been keeping an eye out. She mentioned that she was planning to get new makeup from Lancome, and they had a free gift of a large bag, and makeup bag with purchase. Since she’s got so many (ahem, high priced) totes, she had no use for the free bag.
It’s absolutely no frills: canvas, with nylon lining inside. No pockets, just the two shoulder straps with a minimal drop. I like it! It’s not the dream bag, of course, but who cares? It’s colorful, it’s sturdy, it’s free!
This will get me through a few more months, and even beach days. With the temperature in the hundreds, I’m not really worried about needing a closed-top bag.
Walking out the door, I caught myself glancing at my closet and assessing what kind of day it would be, and what outfits I could put together for the rest of the week. It seems my lunch organization is bleeding into other areas of my life.
It also seems like after being on a spending and splurging cycle for the last three weeks where I couldn’t stop the budget bleeding out on little things I’d normally control very carefully, I’m back to being content with what I’ve got, and even in the mood to go through and clear things out. Thank goodness!! I’m not into self-flagellation over this stuff, but it’s such a relief to be back in the right mindset that doesn’t undermine my efforts to keep it together.
While my personal damages weren’t on a large scale, it definitely turned into a hefty bill when combined with the insane gas prices. I think the gas expenditures have gone up to about $300+/month! I’ve been diligently trying to reduce other fixed costs to compensate, but I’ve been spending like I have money: going out, the trench coat ($23), going out to lunch last weekend ($10), new shoes ($11), buying a graduation gift for a work friend ($24), and having to give my cousin a fat $50 check for graduation. In short, enjoying life a liiiiitle more than I can afford.
Ok, that last one was not negotiable, I’m the only cousin who came to the graduation and it’s only fair that I give him what I gave his sister. It’s a family tradition that at least one older cousin will gift the younger cousins a check for their graduations.
It might not seem like much, but when the budget’s stretched tight, it makes a difference. The end of the splurge cycle comes none too soon, because I hate the feeling of treading to keep my head above water.
I had to wonder, why is it so hard for someone who is normally so at peace with being frugal to break out of a spending/splurging mentality? Sure, I figured it was temporary, but heck, I felt like I was in the grips of a six armed bear for a while! I knew I needed to NOT spend money, but there was always a reason that overrode my “Uh, well, you don’t have the budget for that …” hesitation.
And if it’s this hard for me? When I’m accustomed to self denial and maximizing returns and stretching every resource to cover the necessities? Heck, I spent half an hour deciding whether or not to get a haircut this week. Then I realized that after spending over a hundred dollars I shouldn’t have, I should pass on my $14 cut. *sigh* How incredibly hard must it be for people who haven’t had to practice this?
June 18, 2008
After making sure that I’d asked for refills on everything I needed, and asked for a new note for my fibro treatments on Monday, I thought I was set for at least two or three months.
Turns out I forgot one. Dangit! I like the pharmacy that’s attached to my medical building, but it’s a good 20 miles away and I really don’t want to make another drive out there solely to pick up one medication.
Experimentally, I logged onto the Kaiser website to test their pharmacy order option and found that they have a mail delivery option. Huzzah! I don’t like that they won’t show me the price before I order because there’s no mention of shipping charges, but I can cancel the order if I decide that the emailed price is too high for shipping costs. Likely, they just won’t show a price because they have to check for the copay when they fill the RX.
Note: I wrote this last Friday before all the hullaballoo. A week later, I have only been charged my copay, and I have a three month supply of medication without having to spend another $5-7 on gas. This is wonderful!
is Sense to Dollars who says she can put up with anything for 4 months. I sure thought I could, but it seems that other people have other plans for me. Like driving me HALF MAD.
Frustrating person: “So that big stack (of about 200-300 pages worth of work) that you took with you, you’re not done with it all?”
Me: “Uh, no, did you expect me to be? That’s a LOT of work.”
FP: “Well, no, but you took it all over there.”
Me: “Yes, but I always take all my work so that if I’m working faster than usual, I’ll have all my work there and ready.”
FP: “Well, so you’re saying you’re not done with all of it?”
Me: “No, that’s a LOT of work. I just put in 3 hard hours on the two hardest chunks of work (100 pages).”
FP: “Well, you said that you had to do all of it.”
*sizzle*
How in the Good Lord’s name am I going to manage to get through months of this? Or days of this?
I don’t think it’s healthy to have your blood pressure skyrocket at least two times a day.
June 17, 2008
Oh, my goodness. I never thought that our sometimes grossly extravagant tradition of prom would take on such a life of its own in England. This Wall Street Journal article talks about proms becoming popular thanks to “movies like “American Pie” and television shows such as “The O.C.,” and they want the chance to dress up and rent limousines themselves.”
P’raps I’m just an old fuddy duddy now, or our prom just wasn’t that fun, but I can’t recall prom feeling like it was worth more than a couple hundred, all told, much less willingly spending the kind of money these parents are spending on their high school children for a single night:
Sue Clarke and her husband at first balked when their 16-year-old son, Michael, begged them to rent him a bright yellow Lamborghini plus driver for prom night. But they gave in after their son promised to study harder in return.
“We didn’t have proms or things like that when we were younger,” says the 39-year-old Ms. Clarke, who, all told, spent $1,180 on Michael’s prom. She says it was worth every bit of it to see her son so happy.
June 16, 2008
and running.
I briefly considered updating the scenery too, but I’m sort of exhausted from all this other Damage Control work.
Thanks to all!
