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Home > Archive: February, 2014

Archive for February, 2014

Getting Financially F*****d

February 7th, 2014 at 05:16 pm

Every year in January I get a cost of living raise in my SSDI. This year I got a raise of $11 a month. Because of this, I just got a notice saying my food stamps were being cut by $8 a month.

Why do they even bother giving me the raise if they are just going to penalize me in some other way?

How the hell am I supposed to ever get to a point where I don't live in debt or on CC's when this is how the government helps me?

If I could work, believe me, I would. I hate being on disability. I feel worthless and useless and like I'm a burden and a drain on everyone. I have to listen to "well-intentioned" people complain about people on government assistance because we are "all lazy drug addicts who don't want to work". I have to rely the government to help take care of me b/c I have a disease that has no known cause and no cure and gets no recognition or sympathy because it's not life-threatening.

And then when I do something to help my situation, like moving from a place I loved to one I hate so I could have cheaper rent and afford to pay all my bills every month and not rely on my CC's, I get my benefits cut because all they see if that I now pay less in rent, so therefor I "must" have extra money now. So now instead of being in a good neighborhood in a place I love and living on CC's, I am end up in a shitty neighborhood and a place I hate living on CC's.

It just seems like there is no way to get even, let alone ahead.

Gift Cards

February 3rd, 2014 at 12:44 am

I love my gift cards! (I had to laugh when I saw someone else had the same post this weekend Smile ).

I had gotten a DnD gift card for Xmas and used that (plus a coupon) to pick up a $.99 coffee yesterday on the way to the mall with Mums. Since I used the GC, I don't count that towards my Weekly Spending.

At the mall I returned a dress that just didn't fit right, even after I tried some non-permanent and non-damaging minor alterations. It had tags on it, but since I didn't have the receipt (it was in my old wallet, which was stolen last month) they wouldn't take the charge off my CC. I can understand it because they need to make sure I didn't steal it, but since they could have just looked the purchase up on my CC history, I was pissed that they insisted on giving me a GC and not the refund. I'm going to call the company on Monday and see if they will transfer the GC amount to my CC even though you can't usually use a GC to pay a CC bill.

If they won't, I'll have a $59 GC to a store I like. I will use it, but I would have rather had the $59 taken off my balance. But hey, at least I can say I tried and then I can buy a new pair of shoe without feeling guilty, right? Wink

I also used a GC to Amazon today to buy a book I've been reading. I borrowed it from my BFF, but I know I'll reread it several times. It's humor, and not much makes me laugh these days, so when I found myself cracking up this afternoon, I knew I had to get it. It's written in short chapters, and each chapter is a little memoir-type story. There are crude and funny drawings with it, and it's the type of book you can pick up and read all the way through or just one random chapter at a time. I bought a used copy and after shipping spent $10.97, which is a great deal since it would have been $17.99 new.

So basically, I consider this a No Spend Weekend, even though I did buy a coffee and a new book. How about you guys? Do you consider GC's "free" money?

Weekly Spending Sunday January 26 - Sat Feb 1st

February 2nd, 2014 at 03:11 am

My Weekly Spending tracks non-necessary spending, so I can get a better idea of where my financial drops are coming from. Things like bills, groceries, gas in my car, etc don't get counted here.

Week of Sunday January 26 - Sat Feb 1st

Sunday: $9.25 at Panera during Writing Group on lunch and coffee
$.75 air for car tire

Monday: No Spend Day

Tuesday: $1 air for car tire

Wednesday: $5.99 Magazine for sister (gift)

Thursday: No Spend Day

Friday: $.75 air for car tire
$5 on 2 used books, one which I can resell for anywhere from $20 - $50!
$13.45 at Walgreens (snacks and face moisturizer)

Saturday: No Spend Day

Total Spent: $36.19
Unavoidable: $2.50 (air in tires)
No Spend Days: 3

Ha ha ha

February 1st, 2014 at 05:11 pm

I just looked up one of the books I bought at the consignment shop yesterday to see what I should list it for online. I see books through half.com and there is only one listed there. For $3,272.97! I paid $1 for mine!

Things like this crack me up. I used to work as an appraiser for an antiquarian and rare book dealer, so I know my books. This book is NOT worth that. It's worth more than $1 yes, but not even anywhere close to the listed price.

It does help with my listing though. When someone prices a book ridiculously high like that, I can then list mine for a reasonable cost of it's value (like $20) and anyone who wants it will see the discrepancy and think "Wow, what a deal!"

$3,272.97 lmao Smile

CC payments

February 1st, 2014 at 04:58 pm

I got my check today (sometimes I get it he first, sometimes the third...gotta love the government!) so I went ahead and made Feb payments onto two of my CC's. Neither one are due until the middle of the month, but I like getting them out of the way as soon as possible so I make sure they get paid and I don't have to worry about coming up with the money for them later on.

TCC
Balance: $248.49
Due: $25
Paid: $30
New Balance: $218.49

LBCC
Balance: $1003.34
Due: $20
Paid: $30.34
New Balance: $970

Right now I'm on a repayment plan with my LBCC so there is no interest on it and I'm only required to pay $20 a month. Next month is the last month of that plan, but I should be able to get that extended for another 6 months. On the plan I can't use the card, but since it is for Lane Bryant and I no longer need to shop there for clothes, I don't mind not having it anymore. Since there is no interest on it, part of me wants to throw money at it to get it as low as possible before interest kicks back in, but I really need to throw money at my main CC, which has a balance near $5K.