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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November 6, 2007
A. BoyDucky’s father is still in the hospital, and we’re spending all our phone time discussing his father’s condition and the tens of conversations he’s having with family members, doctors and other medical professionals in the pursuit of consistent, high-quality medical care. It’s been two months after a “routine” procedure, and his dad is bedridden, hooked up to machines unable to eat, drink or get up, and delirious due to an infection that the doctors can’t get on top of. He is NOT getting better.
B. I’m supposed to be editing his letter to hospital administration, taking out the highly emotional language and replacing it with professional Take-Us-Seriously verbiage. Halfway through, I just don’t have time.
C. 8 hours is not enough time in the day to make progress on one of my work projects, much less the ten I’m coordinating or managing. So I’m tearing my hair out, rushing from one project to project, desperately trying to keep up, and maybe maybe maybe get ahead.
D. I still haven’t followed up with MaDucky’s medical appointments.
E. Financially hurting. How to get through the next several months on what I’m making? I definitely don’t have enough in the Expenses fund to cover the next three months of expenses without raiding any of the other funds. I’ve been trying to figure out how, yet again, to pare down those expenses. This means I have to confront the dang truck and insurance issue. One solution: Cut my brother out of the insurance: he’s not paying and I don’t have the money to cover his @$$. I am so frustrated with always having to deal with this, him, stuff.
F. My neck has been hurting for months and the massage therapy works for about ten minutes after the the therapist is through with me. Not a good return on investment, and driving is NOT safe when I can’t turn my head. I’m finally getting a referral to Physical Medicine for medical therapy. Except they’re only open 8:30 am-12pm, and 1pm-4:30pm Monday through Friday. If that’s not the most useless schedule for employed folks, I don’t know what is! Fine, so I could take a half day off, but that’s just going to make Problem C even worse! AND, even if I do take a half day, both Ma and PaDucky work so I have to try to work out a car arrangement so I can get to the doctor, back and to work.
G. Bridal shower invitations are still not done. STILL. It’s on Thanksgiving, and I still haven’t completed the invitations: I need to design the insert cards and address the envelopes, and print on the actual invitations. Recipe cards! I need someone to buy a box with blank recipe cards to go into the invitations!
*silent screaming*
About the only good thing I can see from that list above is that my health has moved up a grand total of one slot from the bottom of the list.
And I blog to get away from it all, except I really don’t have time to blog, I just need to blow off steam and NOT be kneedeep in all of that, all the time.
I know it could be a lot worse. It really could. But … *sigh* Can’t it be better, either?
Every time I use an ATM, I always have this almost irrational need to position myself in such a way that people behind me can’t see the screen. With a screen that shows all of the accounts to pick from, with the account numbers and account balances for each, and because all the savings accounts have between three and four digit balances, it’s always seemed wise to try and keep the screen covered up. Of course I look like a twitchy spaz when there’s more than one person behind me, and even worse when the people waiting are spread out to the right and left of me. I’m sure I make them nervous with the neurotic glances over my shoulder and such.
BoyDucky went with me to the ATM yesterday and noticed something, “You know, I’m standing right next to you and can’t see anything.” Intrigued, I looked at the screen from his angle: nothing. I looked at it from the opposite angle: still nothing! Wow, I’ve been a total dork at the ATM this whole time for nothing!
Then, he experimentally leaned over: “I can’t see anything from this angle … this angle … not unless I’m looking straight on … ” at which point he caught sight of my Expenses account balance: “and just from that one second, I can see you have FIVE TIMES more money in your checking account than I do!” *chagrin*
LOL, silly BoyDucky, that’s not my checking account, that’s my Expenses account for the year. I have $13 in checking; I’d never keep that much money in my checking account, it earns so little interest!
He takes this as proof that I’m a better money manager than he. If I am, it’s because I know better than to keep a lot of money in a low-interest bearing account, not because I have much 🙂
November 5, 2007
Highlight: Being stopped on the way to the staging portable by the security guard. *pointing to the left* “The line to take the SATs starts over there.” I couldn’t even stop laughing long enough to answer him, I could only shake my head.
Student highlight: “Are you the teacher for this classroom? Cause it says ‘Mrs. C’ on the door. [So you’re trying to say I LOOK like a Mrs. C? I know that’s not true.] Are you a teacher at this school? No? Are you a college student? No? A high school student? No?” At this point, she paused very seriously as though considering how much lower she should go.
It wasn’t fun, did you know that the SAT now has TEN sections?, but it wasn’t as nerve-wracking as I feared. I managed to keep them under relative control, and had a script to read from so I didn’t freak out when I had to talk to them. I mostly talked at them. But I made it through ok, and this might actually be a worthwhile way of getting over my speaking jitters.
It did help that I only had one cheater-wannabe. My friend had one kid who was trying to use his cell phone during the test, and another who actually brought the SAT practice book for use during the test.
All in all, if we’re being paid approx. $98, we made about $10/hour after taxes since we left at 6:30 am and didn’t get out until 1 pm.
| Retirement Savings |
Rollover 401(k): $1,456 *Have not received an update for this past month yet.
Roth IRA: $3,557
401(a): $1,711
403(b): $10,239
Total: $16,963
|
| Emergency Savings |
$11,989 |
| Goal Oriented Savings |
Car Maintenance: $638
Savings for BT repayment: $17,015
Savings for taxes: $3,792
Total: $21,445
|
| Investment Loans |
Prosper-ish: $12,630
Personal Loan: $5,000
Total: $17,630
|
| Total Assets |
Non-Liquid: $16,963
Semi-Liquid: $17,630
Liquid: $33,434
Total: $68,o27 |
| Debt and Liabilities |
Truck: $7,755
BT (Brother): $17,015, due 02/08
Total: $24,770 |
The flipside to having a boring set of paychecks through the end of the year is seeing a huge jump in my retirement savings: I’ve finally passed $10k in one of the accounts! I’m finally playing a little catch-up and it feels great. Retirement savings increased 6% overall.
Debts were reduced by 5%, and liquid savings jumped up by 45% but that’s offset by the ongoing drain on my finances due to the truck and taxes due. You’ll see a new category up there: savings for taxes. It’s exactly that. The tax man’s going to come calling for his share of my bonus and I aim to be prepared.
Emergency savings have increased substantially (88%), and I’m very close to achieving the goal again. That wasn’t any amazing feat (other than self control) on my part, though. Soon, the house fund shall rise again!
I wonder if it’d be a good idea to add another section that tracks the debts I’m owed. They’re at the back of my mind, but should it play a role in the Snapshots?
I love that some progress has been made, and might actually even make a net worth goal in the near future. Once I kill this debt and settle accounts with the brother, we’ll talk. We’ve still got the house-buying venture to flesh out, so I’m going to need down payment money in SCADS by next July. Can we do it? Tune in next time! Same Ducky time, same Ducky channel!
November 2, 2007
Time, in this case. Probably money, too, but today’s topic is time. Ever since the OT tap was turned off at work, I’ve had two extra hours every night to myself. The routine was, for time immemorial: Get home at 8:15. Eat dinner: 15 minutes. Take shower: 15 minutes. Tidy up, and get into bed: 15 minutes. Talk to BoyDucky? Some time between 9 and 10 pm, if it works out. My schedule used to frustrate him because we had a short window in which we’d get to talk, or miss each other completely because I had to sleep as close to ten as possible. Getting up before 6 am just isn’t easy. Yes, the whole 8 hours a night thing seems terribly spoiled, but I promise that it’s for the greater good. The more sleep deprived I am, the punchier I, and the worse the arthritis, get. In the pursuit of non-sausage fingers and the avoidance of bum knees, I try my best to get the eight hours in.
Now that I get home around 6:15, there’s a whole lotta futzing around on the internet that accomplishes absolutely nothing. Inevitably 9:15 rolls around and there I am, unshowered, unfed, and unready for bed. The morning alarm is still set for predawn because I still have the 1+ hour commute so it’s not like I’m getting off all that easy with the “8 hour day.”
I have GOT to get it together and either do something useful with that extra time like exercise, cook, or actually get some wedding planning done! *igh* I don’t wanna, though. Maybe I’ll let myself have a few more weeks of doing absolutely nothing useful after work. After all, I’ve got about three years of downtime to catch up on!
November 1, 2007
While mulling over the car repair options on the way to train station, I was struck by a realization: I’m 25. I can now rent a car without paying a supplemental fee!
I think that, and a looming sense of deadlines, are it. That’s all we get. Happy quarter century!
One Frugal Girl and Mapgirl recently blogged about the existing and perhaps unacknowledged abundance in one’s life. They both point out that clothing that’s hidden or stashed is a waste of money if you never using it; likewise with other resources like books or yarn. This is a great reminder of the WWII motto: Use it up, wear it out, make it do!
Ironically, I’m probably more in line with WWII than I am with my own generation on that regard. The ability to buy something new and not wearing it immediately was my private, adolescent idea of personal (closet) wealth. Then, as now, I only bought something new if I had to: if I had to replace something else worn and discarded, or simply couldn’t show up to another school/work event wearing the same thing I wore the last three times. But in high school, I had a girlfriend who always found the best deals, and was a nice medium-large size so she could find at least one of everything that fit her perfectly. She was the queen of buying things without ever trying them on, and so was always in possession of a surplus of lovely attire. She had a Mary Poppins closet: every time she reached in, something so new it still had tags on came out! I positively lusted after her ability to always have something new in that closet of many colors. That, back in the day, symbolized financial stability: buying things because you wanted them, not because you needed them.
Years later, that impressionable little self still wishes that I were “wealthy” enough to buy and stash clothing that’s not immediately pressed into service one I get home. Since it clashes with my need to have a perfectly honed, no-waste-here closet, and I don’t truly have the means for a cornucopia of clothing, I artificially cultivate that feeling of having, instead of needing.
The NY trip yielded the two long sleeved shirts and nice sweaters that I needed for work. I’ve defeated the purpose of having shopped specifically to fill those needs by hanging up the clothing and refusing to wear them for at least a week. Sort of a, “hah, I have new clothes but I don’t have to use them right away!” Since I’ve pruned out the old and worn clothes already, I find myself falling back on some really old stuff that probably shouldn’t be seen in public anymore (like this black shirt I’m wearing from high school), but in the meantime the shiny hasn’t been rubbed off the new stuff.
At the same time, I try to clear out my closet regularly and to root out any article of clothing or shoes languishing in the back of the closet, and that helps keep my eye “fresh.” It’s really too easy to stare at the same things, the same way, and thinking “I have nothing to wear!”
In essence, I’m prolonging the sense of newness for as long as I can. It’s a standing shopping moratorium to help combat the I-wants.
Does anyone use this sort of trick to keep themselves from overconsumption?
