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I’m pretty focused when it comes to finances. I have my debts, my monthly bills, my charitable giving, and my cash spending. It’s all fairly organized in my ‘perfect’ little world.
I didn’t care to think outside the box… until this morning.
I’ve been whining lately about my inability to run as a form of exercise. While out walking, a marathon group ran by and I was tempted to join. I watched as they gleefully jogged down the street, smiling and enjoying the beautiful sunshine day. Sigh. I trudged at my slow pace and frowned.
When doing my yoga routine, I am angered because, even though my stomach isn’t huge, it gets in the way of a really great bending stretch. My balance is also thrown off and my ‘Standing Trees’ look more like ‘Standing Trees in a Hurricane’.
Even though I’m overjoyed about the wonderful growing baby, I get frustrated when my body doesn’t move like it used to. The only thing keeping me sane is the fact that I’ll have a bouncing baby soon and my body (hopefully) will return to normal.
I was watching the news this morning and it featured a new sports center for the disabled. Only 1 out of 10 people with disabilities exercise since their bodies limit the amount they can do. Often, they don’t know how to work out with bodies that refuse to cooperate. This sports center works to train people how to exercise while working within their limits. The news anchor interviewed one of the employees who suffers from muscular dystrophy. His athletic body was slowly turning into one that didn’t work and he was helping others overcome their difficulties while dealing with his own.
My whining suddenly seems sooo… um.. wow. There isn’t a word mean enough to describe my whining.
The news station was taking donations to help buy some much needed equipment for the facility. No, I couldn’t pigeonhole this expense into my very strict spreadsheet of spending, but I guess I learned to be a little more fluid.
I may not be able to ‘give like no one else’, but I can still give.
Think outside the finance box.
This will come as a surprise but… I broke a dental crown and needed emergency dental work.
Oh who am I kidding? I ALWAYS need dental work.
Was I eating a steak? Nachos? Rocks? Nope. I was eating a slice of warm fresh bread from the oven. Leave it to me to break a crown on a silly slice of bread.
After spending approximately 10 seconds popping the rest of the crown out, my dentist informed me that whoever put in the crown, simply glued down a temporary. ‘This is some pretty bad work’ she said from behind her mask ‘Hopefully it didn’t cost you much.’
‘I paid $1,100 for that crown. I remember. I had to finance it’ I said.
How much is the replacement? $800.
Thankfully insurance is covering $500. Ugh. But that still leaves me with a $300 bill.
I hate teeth.
Throughout this year, and likely into the next, I will be shipped off for work training. These training modules run anywhere from a day to two weeks and are scattered across the country.
I’m excited about the training. It’s new, it’s interesting, and it allows me to see states I’ve never been able to visit. But… with this excitement comes a pretty high level of perfectly legitimate terror.
These training modules are conducted by high ranking federal officials. Officials who could oh, say, re-evaluate your taxes, make your job disappear, or… make YOU disappear.
I had ONE goal (OK two goals if you count ‘learn something’ as a goal), don’t let them learn my name. I figured in a sea of 40 trainees, it wouldn’t be hard. Blend. Easy right?
‘Alright guys, I’m going to bring an unlucky staffer up here and we’re going to dissect federal regulations together. I want to see how much you know your stuff’ the trainer said as he wandered the front. He glanced around the group while I silently prayed, ‘Please God, not me.’
‘Rebekah! You are the unlucky victim!’ he said with a smile after reading my ID badge.
Of course.
Thankfully, his questions were fairly easy and I think I was vaguely able to cover my terrified knocking knees.
Naturally, I thought I would be in the clear for the week.
Naturally, he continued to call on me every day – and some days, I was the ONLY person he called on.
‘Rebekah, since you’re so great at federal regulations, let’s check your algebraic skills!’
‘Rebekah, would you like to share your feelings on state regulations?’
By the end of the training module, I was ready to move my chair to the front to save time. On the last day, he asked if I was attending the next scheduled course. When I told him I was, he smiled, ‘Good.’ He paused then said, ‘Look, I hope you don’t think I’m picking on you. On the first day, I gave you a question that throws everyone off, but you got it right. I wanted to see if there was something you’d miss but you didn’t miss a step the entire week. It’s refreshing for trainers to see that. See you next time.’
My feet didn’t touch the ground for a couple hours.
When coming off the low of job loss, it’s hard to feel like you matter anymore. You apply for jobs and spend hours trying to sell the fact that you have value. And even when you get a job, especially a job several levels lower than you were before, you wonder if your work life will ever return to ‘normal’.
It will.
And, I guess in this case, I don’t mind if the feds remember my name.
My company has a very generous per diem rate for traveling employees. You’d think after all this time spent penny pinching, I’d be pretty awesome at spending other people’s money – especially on the one item I tend to pinch the most… FOOD.
On my first night out, at a restaurant chosen by my coworkers, I could have ordered the filet mignon.
Totally covered in my per diem rate? Yes.
Something I love and haven’t had much of… OK, OK, haven’t had any of for as long as I can remember? Yup.
Something I didn’t order because I couldn’t wrap my silly little brain around the concept of spending nearly $40 on instead of the$12 veggie plate?
Yes.
The veggie plate was fabulous by the way.
In the whole scheme of things, our company is HUGE and very few employees are paid to travel. Will my week of penny pinching someone else’s dollar make a difference? Not in the very least.
Admittedly, I should have loosened up and ordered something I REALLY, REALLY wanted at least one of those days but I guess my frugality isn’t as easy to ditch as I thought.
I haven’t been running lately, not because my doctor told me to stop, but because I feel weird about jogging down the road while my poor kid gets jostled like a smoothie in a blender.
My overactive dog likes running. He does NOT like walking. To prove it, he pulls relentlessly at his leash to show his annoyance that I’m now moving at the speed of a sea turtle. I let him get away with his antics for a few days until my sore hands could take it no more. I tried ‘delicately’ tugging back, stopping when he pulled, and outright begging him to stop but nothing helped.
I went to the pet store and purchased a $17 collar that promised to stop all tugging. I did exactly as instructed in the directions. I let him sniff it, gave him treats, let him wear it with no leash, gave him treats, put on a leash with no pressure, gave him treats, and grabbed the leash ready for a good pain free walk.
Given the fact that the $17 came out of our grocery budget and we’d be eating ramen for 2 days, I had fairly high expectations.
Ha.
He planted all four paws firmly on the concrete, completely unwilling to move. ‘Oh. So mature Hutch!’ I yell. I dragged him about 3 feet or so until he suddenly started walking. ‘ I win!’ I thought… until I looked back in time to see him throw himself on the neighbor’s lawn, roll over onto his back, and whine loudly as if I had kicked him.
The neighbor, of course, picks this opportune time to walk outside and wave hello. ‘Congrats on the baby’ he says over my howling dog, who now has his paw caught in his collar. ‘Thanks!’ I say, trying to ignore the fact that my dog is giving a better death act than most Oscar winners. I pause. ‘Um. I promise I’ll be a better parent than pet owner’ I say loudly as my dog walked over to my neighbor’s feet to throw himself at them… still howling. ‘Uh huh’ the neighbor says doubtfully.
I quickly pick up my wayward dog, STILL howling, and walk down the street before suffering further embarrassment.
It was a slow hour long process with lots of whining – mostly mine – but I think we finally figured out how to walk in peace.
Now, off to figure out how to make my husband not throw a similar tantrum in the neighbor’s yard when he hears we’re having Ramen for two days.
My husband has a very common first name. Paired with his somewhat common last name, it’s fairly easy to confuse him with another person on paper. Over the last year, it has started to cause problems.
I’ve mentioned before, there is a person with my husband’s name who has awful credit and is in collections on multiple accounts. We live less than 15 miles from each other.
Lazy collections companies do searches based on first and last name and proximity to the last known address resulting in…
My husband getting A LOT of collection calls lately.
He has to call each one, straighten out the confusion, and pray they stop calling. Some do. Others don’t. But whenever one stops, another starts.
I thought we were the only ones who suffered from this annoying problem until I shared my annoyance with my dentist. She laughed and said she and her husband had the same problem – they even had to fight a lien against their home!
Based on the sheer annoyance and time spent fighting this never-ending battle, we’ve decided to name our child 457983. That way, our kid won’t have annoying collections calls that don’t belong. Sure, they may struggle through elementary school but they’ll thank me later.
Is it just us? Or do you have the same problem?
A few months ago, in a visit to my bank, the teller encouraged me to sign up for text alerts for low account balances (you know you live your life close to zero when the teller suggests this option). I haven’t bounced a check or incurred an overdraft fee in years but I thought it might be a good idea just in case – despite my ineptitude dealing with technology.
I completely forgot about this service… until this morning.
I received a text that read, ‘Your account balance is $2.14’ and gave directions on how to transfer funds directly from my phone from my savings account. Sometimes I pay bills a little too far in advance and they clear my account before the paycheck they are intended to be paid with. I transferred $100 as per the directions and put my phone back into my purse with a smug smile because I had conquered technology.
60 seconds later, I received another text that read, ‘Your account balance is $8.14’ and repeated the same directions.
“What happened to the $100?!?” I shouted at my phone in a full panic. Assuming someone had stolen my identity and my debit card, I thought they were clearing out my bank account. “Ahhhh!!” I screamed.
I tried to log on to my bank account from my work computer but the bank wouldn’t let me without a special code since I was logging on from a computer other than my home computer. I tried to get my special code but it was connected to an e-mail account I closed a month ago.
I called my husband, “Help! Someone is stealing all our money from the bank account!” I cried as I explained what was happening.
He calmly logged in from his computer and explained that no one was stealing, it was simply two checks for utility bills clearing back to back. It was close, but we had enough in the account to cover it.
‘Oh’ I responded.
Technology is lame, stressful, and… great?
If your bank has this free service, try it out. It might help save a bounced check.
About This Site
My Debt
- Original Debt: $38,495.86
- Added Debt: $1,781.50
- Total Debt: $40,277.36
- Paid: $36,084.36
- Remaining: $4,193.00
- Broken Down
- Auto Loan 1: $0.00
- Credit Card: $0.00
- Student Loan: $4,193.00
- Auto Loan 2: $0.00
- Vet Loan: $0.00
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