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
Read MoreDecember 21, 2007
The recurring theme of MY turn to be “roasted” at the Christmas lunch was: work ethic. How hard I work. How MUCH I work. How WELL I work. How much I should be remembering to have ME time amidst all that work, because if I dropped dead tomorrow, the office would just have to replace me and move.
Hooboy, I knew that office would be the death of my budget.
We were given Apple iPhones for Christmas. *sigh* It looks ridiculously awesome. It’s shiny, and lovely, and the thought was so very generous. Breathtaking, really. I mean, an iPhone! Not one of us in there could ever have afforded one on our own. But …. there’s a good reason for that.
Upkeep and Maintenance is Unaffordable
I have T-Mobile. My current plan ROCKS. 1000 minutes, and 400 text/picture messages costs $45 a month, and the text messaging is my little splurge. I normally use it to the fullest.
The closest equivalent for just the basic phone and text messenging is 900 minutes and 200 text messages for a total of $60+$10 = $70 pre-tax. That’s half the messages for twice the price, by the way. This doesn’t include any data plans, either. And of course, what’s the point of having an iPhone and no data plan? Well, I’ve lived without it this long, so I don’t consider it essential. I’m just calculating all potential costs.
First Generation Technology is Usually Terrible
I’ve never wanted any first line products because it’s usually got all sorts of bugs and is upgraded within about twelve months, anyway. I don’t like being a technology guinea pig; I lack the necessary tech-geek genes that make me all starry-eyed over brand-spankin’-new to the public gadgets.
Having done my research …
I’m fighting hard to be a gracious gift recipient while resisting the pull of glamorous lifestyle inflation. After all, how gracious will I be when I’m broke after paying bills every month?
1. I can get a 14% discount through my university for AT&T phone plans. I hope it applies to iPhone plans .. they seem to have a lockdown on all kinds of iPhone related discounts. (Meaning, there aren’t any!)
2. I could possibly get the plan through one of those Asian stores that give you a bonus on just activating a plan without taking a phone. I’ve never used them before, but a friend of a friend might be able to help me out.
3. The office has offered to pay my early termination fee, and for any skin or case or holster that I want. Also, they’ll pay for an extra travel charger since I’m neurotic about leaving my one and only charger at home on business trips.
December 19, 2007
Ok, I knew I shouldn’t have flipped through the catalog, much less logged online to check the website for better clearance deals. And definitely shouldn’t have checked Fatwallet for coupons. I figured my willpower was stronger than their blandishments. But I did. And I did. And I did that, too. Oops. So much for only using my gift card.
So, the least I can do is share the coupon code spoils so that you, too, can get a Very Sexy bra and pair of underwear for $10.70, shipped, using an Angels card.
I ordered a bra that I’d been wanting, but refused to pay more than $20 for, from the Very Sexy line. It was on clearance in the catalog for $24.99, but I had to enter the product code from the catalog because it’s not searchable otherwise.
Then I added a pair of underwear at $3.99 because the order was a penny under the $25worth of coupons I was going to use.
I used the December birthday code since I never used my birthday code this year:
FA78017 for $10 off the order.
Second: PASS1207 for $15 off any Very Sexy bra.
Add the $6.95 shipping to that, and take out all the discounts, and you have one bra and panty set for $10.70, shipped!
December 17, 2007
An electric bill that’s $10 lower than last month’s. It’s been at least 20 degrees colder than I can tolerate, morning and night, for the past month, so I’m pretty excited that the bill isn’t exponentially higher.
A three and a half day work week. I’ll be bowled over by the workload when I come back, but I’m getting some time off! Yay! Will try to get a lot of *stuff* done.
150 signatures on 500 office holiday cards done. I’d LOVE Ultra Fine Point Sharpies in metallic silver, do they even make those? Signing with just the regular fine points leads to my mashing the felt tips within 60 signatures. On the bright side, you can’t tell as easily when I leave letters out of my lengthy formal name. You CAN, however, tell when I’ve started writing someone else’s name entirely. I need to stop listening to other people or thinking when I’m signing because I write what I hear or think. Does anyone else have that problem?
December 16, 2007
I’d say “around the house” but I’m not going to exaggerate: it doesn’t go further than the front door right now. Since the latest big brother debacle, I’ve decided to proceed with changing the locks on the doors. However, it turns out that the door is old enough that the locks used are not the standard size, and so I returned the two sets of Kwikset locks that BoyDucky and I purchased a few days ago. That was silly, I’m not going to be able to find smaller, non-standard locks from Home Depot or Lowe’s.
My only real option is to sink more money into this project than I wanted to, and enlarge the existing holes. This does mean that I’ll have to leave our lovely new locks behind when we move. (I don’t know when that is, but things are so bad in the family that I’ve been seriously considering moving.)
On the bright side, I can now learn how to use a door lock installation kit to drill a larger hole into the doors and replace those locks. I’ll be one home-improvement project point closer to being ready to own my home someday. After all, the intimidating thing about owning a home for me is all the possible repairs that inevitably pop up.
I’ve wasted a couple trips to Home Depot thanks to poor planning, but will be able to save a bit on the locks.
First, I’ve used a $20 gift card at Home Depot to purchase an Irwin-brand bimetal door lock kit, and paid $2 out of pocket.
Next stop will be Lowe’s tomorrow night where my best friend’s lil brother works. He can double check the installation kit for me, help pick out some good locks, and rekey them so that all three locks use the same key. Also, I should get it all at a ten percent discount, as he’s an employee. Most convenience packs only sell a lock and deadbolt together, not two locks and deadbolts, so I’ll need to pick up an extra lock for the steel outer door.
I’ll let you know how this goes.
December 14, 2007
1. I’m boycotting Christmas gift shopping this year as I’ve been more than overwhelmed with recent events.
2. I’m confused about my standing in the office. I usually have a decent rapport and line of communication with Little Boss, but reflecting on my sort-of review a few months ago, I realize that not much has changed since we had our last sitdown. He felt I wasn’t fulfilling what he sees as the responsibilities of his second in command (a position I don’t officially hold). The reason ticked me off.
He’s never laid out the terms of what those responsibilities are because he thinks that they’re “obvious.” He says they were when he was in that position supporting his first in command. Obvious? Hmph! What? I should think NOT. I can accept that he and I didn’t see eye to eye, but not telling me what he wants and then chastising me for not doing it is just wrong. During the past year, lest you think I was being a slacker, I was managing the daily activities of 3-5 staffers because he was too busy, and because that was my perception of what obviously needed doing.
This isn’t a relationship, this is a job. Assisting Little Boss is a job; what I was officially hired for is a job. If you have expectations for a position, you have to tell me what they are. I’m not in the business of reading anyone’s mind, not even BoyDucky’s, but even less so in my workplace.
I told him that I only wanted the position if I could fulfill the responsibilities well, but I can’t do that if he expects me to just read his mind and/or guess. Jobs aren’t based on instinct! Since then, I haven’t had any substantive feedback, nor a response to whether or not he thinks mentoring is worth the trouble, or if he’s just written me off as a dead-end, ambitionless staffer. In other words, have I been slow-tracked?
So we’re going to have to have another talk.
3. At some point, I need to sell the truck. Maybe look into a cheap, used car as a third vehicle for the family. It’ll be in my name so if anything happens, I can do something about it. I need to take my brother off the family insurance as well.
4. Car insurance shopping: I need to do that during my break.
5. Renter’s insurance: ditto.
6. Holy crap! I have to plan a bachelorette party for ONE WEEK from now. I’d told the other ‘maids that I was turning responsibility over to them but I haven’t heard anything since. *sigh* See? This is why I become a micro-manager! Ok, I’ll just check in with them first, and see if they’re already talking about what to do. Then I’ll freak out, if I have to.
7. Ditto the holy crap, for the local bridal shower.
8. I’d like to take a day trip. Just … something fresh, easy, fun, and quiet. Something that has nothing to do with every-crazy-thing that’s been going on, to refresh my spirit.
9. I’ll take a day with a litter of puppies, though. Puppy breath is the BEST.
My $100 Macy’s gift card came in the mail yesterday – thanks Citipoints! I can look at gifts for Best Friend’s wedding, soon.
And … wait for it …. I FOUND MY NECKLACE!!!
It promptly went back around my neck, and I felt like all was right with the world.
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