Rat thoughts

I am sooooo far in the hole right now. I'm having to buy all kinds of stuff for work, then file an expense report to get reimbursed.

One credit card is nearly maxed out, another 1/3 gone, and my checking account is half-way through my emergency reserve.

Good news is payday is Friday, all that money will be reimbursed some time in the next week or two (as soon as the lady in Accounts Receivable returns from vacation), and Thursday I'll be talking to the company VP about getting a raise. My responsibilities here have more than doubled in the past 15 months, so I'm going to ask for double the money. Whooo.

I've been gathering up salary surveys and stuff to help make my case. Damn but they are WAAAAAY under paying me. I like working for this company, but they've got to start paying me a decent wage, or I'm going to have to find someone who will.

Hotel reservation canceled. No FC this year.

I just couldn't see spending $600 (minimum) to go to a con when I've got $900 worth of taxes due in 2 months, $400 worth of bills sitting on my desk and only $1400 in the bank.

EDIT: After paying off all the bills and the property taxes (which are technically due Feb 1, but they don't start fining you until April), I've got about $270 left in the bank until next payday (the week after FC). Definitely no con this year.

I'm wondering if I should skip FC this year.

It's going to cost about $400 for the hotel room, and at least $100 in gas.  And even if I cheap out and bring my own food, that's going to cost a good $50-100 more.

And what will I end up doing at FC?  Sitting behind a table all day, selling art that nobody is interested in and comics that everyone already has.  The people who I really wanted to spend time with aren't going to be there.  Without my SO  there to motivate me to do stuff, I'll just end up sitting in my hotel room the rest of the con.  And I'll probably get sick, like I do every year.

 

Or I could be just as bored and lonely at home, use that $600 to pay the property taxes, and save up my vacation time at work.

 

Anybody want a table in the dealer's room?

When I opened my bank account last year, they threw in a box of checks. I'm down to my last book, so I went to the bank to order another box. They wanted $50 for a box of 200 checks.

No. Way. In. Hell.

I'll close my account before I pay $50 for one lousy box of checks.

So I hit the web and found the website for the company I'd bought checks from in the past, Checks In The Mail. They only wanted $8.00 a box, and I was able to get them in more than just the plain blue.

That's a lot better.

18.917 gallons (82% empty)
$3.119/gallon (91 octane)

$59.00 total

New personal worst.

Been researching loans and stuff lately, and finally got around to getting my FICO score.  Not too great, but not too bad, only 688, but the web site indicated that was mostly because my "currect balance" is 48% of my credit limit.  It doesn't take into account the fact that I've paid off the full credit card balance every single month so far,  or that this was an unusual month.  Loan guy at the bank had told me it was OK to use up to 50% of my available credit.  I wonder if he delibrately gave me bad information hoping to drive up my loan rate.  Anywho, if I keep my credit balances at about 5-10% (that's about $50-100), my credit score should jump up to between 730 and 780 by next month.  Yay! Not using the credit cards at all and keeping a 0 balance would improve my score, but not by as much, only about 710 to 750.

Apparently my credit report still contains the credit card I applied for, got approved for, signed for, and then immediately closed when I learned that the bank lied to me about the fees (different bank, but I'm beginning to see a pattern here).  This turns out to be a good thing, because it inflated my FICO score by increasing my credit history, even though I only had the account for less than 5 minutes.

On to the loan.  Ditech claims they can offer me a 30 year fixed at 5.875% with 0 points and a $3100 closing cost.   I can afford the closing cost, and the monthly payments would be about $1480.  If I pay 2 points, I can drop the rate down to 5.375%, which translated to a monthly payment of $1400, BUT I'd have to fork over over $8000 in closing costs.  An extra $5000 to save $80 a month?   That's over 5 years to make up the points.  I don't plan on moving any time soon, but I don't think I could afford $8000 in closing costs.

Of course, all of this is contengent on either my getting a raise and/or increase in hours, or my SO returning soon and getting employed and helping with the payments and/or bills.  At my current salary and hours (32 per week), I'd have enough to pay the mortgage, insurance and taxes, but nothing left for bills.  Fortunately, events happened Friday that should help prove the need for my being there 5 days a week instead of 4.

 

Latest SDG&E bill:

Electric Energy: $39.55
DWR Bond Charge: 3.36
Transmission: 5.01
Distribution: 46.51
Public Purpose Programs: 4.59
Nuclear Decommissioning: .41
Trust Transfer Amount: 5.99
Competition Transition Charge: 5.95
Reliability Services: 7.99

Total Electric Costs: $119.36

WTF??? $40 worth of electricity, and $79 worth of fees? What the hell?

(And that's not counting "franchise fees" and taxes.)

I went out pricing carpet for the master bedroom. The cheapest, crappiest carpet I could find will cost at least $300 to have installed. A nice carpet, similar to what is currently in the room, will run almost $600, just for one bedroom (18 square yards).

But before I can have new carpet put in, I'll need to paint the room. I'm hoping I can get started on that today, but I've still got stuff to rearainge in the living room, so I probably won't get started until tomorrow.


Earlier this week, my grandmother was moved from her old studio apartment in the "assisted living" area into the "Life's Neighborhood" area (for patients who require greater supervision. The new apartment is smaller, so there wasn't room for her sofa so I was originally going to borrow a truck from work to move it home, but they called me and told me they could deliver the soda for free. I should have picked it up myself, because it arrived in a landscaping trailer, the sides all scratched up and the underside completely torn out. This WAS a very expensive leather sofa, now it's all beat to hell. Thanks guys. It's still nicer than the Blue Behemoth that was in my living room.

I have SOOOO much stuff I need to get rid of. If there is anyone in the So. Cal. area who could use a large sectional sofa, a recliner that needs some repair work, a 30-year old portable dishwasher, a refridgerator/freezer with ice and water in the door, a very large wheeled storage cabinet or a treadmill, let me know.

I mailed off a check to the IRS on Friday the 8th. It was cashed Tuesday the 12th. 4 days. Wow.

They cashed that check so fast, I'm surprised it didn't catch fire!

Tomorrow is PAYDAY! Yay! With this paycheck I'll finally get the taxes and bills paid off, so I can throw my next paycheck at a new PDA.

I've been without a PDA for nearly 2 months now, the longest I've gone without one in over 10 years. It's been driving me crazy not having information at my fingertips all the time.

I'm strongly considering the Dell Axim X50v. I've had no experience with Dell handhelds, though I've been extremely happy with my Dell laptop, and all the Dell desktops around here work quite well. The only handheld I've ever been diappointed with was the Toshiba, but everything they make seems to be crap anyway, so that's no surprise.