Gasping for Breath

I am all tapped out of ideas. Here's the deal. I went on a mission trip that some friends of mine organized last May/June. The only thing we had to pay for was the plane tickets. Well, thanks to the World Cup the ticket price doubled. We trudged on ahead thinking we'd still be able to come up with the excess. But that was not the case unfortunately. We were still short before we left, and because we'd committed to buying the tickets, regardless of whether or not we went we still would have had to pay for them. (Some people had told us perhaps we shouldn't go since we didn't have enough money but we were past the point of no return money wise so we went) The excess that we were missing, one of the gals put on an empty credit card with the intention of continuing fund raising when we got back.

And we did. We got back, more money had come in, it got sent to the credit card. But it wasn't enough. Now we're just contributing personally to send in the monthly minimum payment every month because we're all tapped out resource/idea wise.

I do not have anyone else to ask money from. I've written all the letters I can, received all the money I'm going to. The balance on the card is about $6k.

Now this isn't all me, I'm not the only one trying to raise this money. Just we're all in the same boat.

The rainy season is here, car washes are out of the question as are garage sales. I'd thought about talking to various restaurants about fund raising options (ie slow week nights all sales that come in with a flyer we get 10-15% of) but one of the places my friends are boycotting besides the fact that the nearest location isn't conducive for high volume traffic. I do not have a workplace where I can peddle candy bars, well I have a workplace just not a big one and I've done it before and it doesn't work well.

I don't know what else to do. Except perhaps make tshirts/sweatshirts that just say 'Please give me $1 Thanks!' and spend weekends wandering around downtown and see what happens. Sort of a low key pan handle (which I absolutely loathe but if it would work...)

The other thing is...we all really want to go back and work on the project again in May. If this doesn't get taken care of, we can't. Argh!

Oh my other idea I'm going to pitch is for everyone to scour Craigslist for odd one time jobs and just donate the cash to the credit card, especially if it's Independant Contract work since it's tax free. For example, I have (I think, it's a little confusing with their correspondance so I don't really know) a 6 hour job on Sunday promoting Sun Chips at the finish line of a race, handing out samples and cheering on the finishers. Pays $14/hr.

So I started this whole Bed Fund idea right, thinking I'd just throw extra cash at it from things like the occasional babysitting gig or survey. Now look what it's turned into...

Starting Sept 25th I'll be doing child care for two hours on Monday nights, for six weeks potentially, pay is $20/night.

I had an interview this morning for a church that has a paid child care position, two hours a week on Sunday afternoons, ongoing with potential for nights off if they know in advance, pay is $100/mo. They'll get back to me in a couple of weeks but I think I've got it.

Because of the interview and knowing I would have to give references, I contacted one of my friends who I babysit for on occasion and asked if she wouldn't mind being a reference for me. She said no problem and oh by the way, if I want more steady babysitting she and her husband are thinking about having an every week Date Night and if I'm up for it I can sit for them too. They pay me varing amounts of money. Because usually the kids are asleep by the time I get there and I'm just in the house and check in on them on occasion, I just take whatever they give me. Usually it's anywhere between $15 and $30 a night depending on how long they're gone and how much cash they have on hand.

So that's three nights a week now that I might be doing child care. Potentially. I went over to a friend's work after the interview to kill time before work, and she mentioned that our mutual friend had also told her about the Date Night babysitting so we're thinking perhaps we can trade off on it so it's not an every week commitment for one of us. That's fine by me, she really needs the cash more than I do.

If this all comes to pass, I think I'm going to rethink the bed fund. Either stash it all away and once I hit my goal start using it for something else, or change my goal to be max deposit of $100/mo and once I've hit that send the rest of the money to something else (EF or CC) Going to wait and see what actually comes about first.

I have learned a very important lesson. I think. I cannot be trusted to have CC2 in my wallet. Originally, the idea was to just use it for grocery and gas purchases since I get 5% cashback and I don't spend more than my budget. But it's become my emergency and what the hell I'll pay it off soon enough crutch just by being in my wallet. I don't need to freeze it or give it to someone else but just keeping it in my drawer and not in my pocket is enough.

Since Citibank is doing away with 5% cashback on grocery and gas purchases sometime in October, I was going to stop using it soon anyway. I am going to continue to use it until next week when I get paid again for groceries. Then it goes back into the drawer.

What happened? Simple. My favorite band came through again, this time doing a bunch of nearby in-store, free, shows. I filled up on gas a few times to get to the shows as one was in Olympia (110 miles away) and another was in Seattle (150 miles away). Plus I worked in between so it's not like I went to one, stayed for a couple of days, then went to the other. Then a bunch of us went out to dinner at a place that wound up being more spendy than we'd anticipated. And knowing how everyone's on a tight budget, I just decided to pick up the tab for the four of us. To the tune of about $58 after tip and taxes. Then, I decided to pick up 5 copies of the new cd, one for myself and the rest as gifts. Although, one of the guys I gave one to paid me for it. Still, that's another $65.

I have not adjusted my habits enough to have the card in my wallet. I realize this now. In a week, it will be put away.

I glanced through my friends Ikea catalog to get a better idea of bed frames. I think I've decided on a platform frame, something where you should only have a mattress and no box spring. They mostly had twin or queen no doubles. I know what trouble my friends have with their queens as far as finding room in their rooms for anything else beside the bed so I was thinking I'd just go for a double but I may end up with a queen after all.

So prices range from $149 - $369 for frames. About what I was thinking really. I don't think I'll be buying the mattress there though, from what I've heard of Ikea mattresses they're like futon mattresses, good in the beginning but not so good as time goes on. I think $400 is probably a safe estimate for a decent mattress isn't it? I've never bought one so I really don't know. But I'm thinking on the high end/worst case senario.

Another thing I hadn't factored into costs is new bedding. I have no sheets for anything that's not a twin. Although my main blanket in the winter is definately large enough to fit on a queen bed.

So I'm thinking perhaps I should up my goal for my bed fund to 1,000 just to be on the safe side. And actually, I think this is totally do-able. I've got 6 weeks (potentially) of babysitting at $20/night and I'm going to be interviewing this week with another church that needs childcare on Sunday afternoons for $100/month. Since we're looking at about 11 months between now and when I'll be buying it, if I get the regular childcare job that'd be $1,100 saved just from that. But once I hit $1,000 I'm not going to put any extra in instead I'll divert it to regular savings or something.

Anyway. Honestly, I didn't see anything in the catalog that totally jumped out at me as 'I must have this one!' but I'm expecting there to be more of a selection by the time their store is in place here. Especially considering it's to be their largest North America store.

I walked to the library and the store today. I didn't have so much shopping to do that it couldn't be carried home in a backpack plus extra to be carried by hand. And the store is only a half mile away.

I forgot about the Street Fair going on today. Looked through the stalls but nothing jumped out as a must buy.

At the library I picked up a cd, a movie for my roomate, and The Millionare Next Door. Can't wait to start reading it. I have some cards to write today still (I write til my hand cramps up then I find something else to do) so maybe later this evening I'll start it.

Soon as I walked into the store the table of 60% off clearance jumped out at me. My first thought was 'gifts! I might need something later' since everyone here has been talking about that sort of thing. But alas, it was mostly kids stuff, and I don't know that many kids. However, the last table is what really held my attention. On that table was Scene It the TV Version. I love the Scene It movie game I have, but I'm good at memorizing things so it's not something I like to play with people who haven't played it. I've wanted the TV version as well for a while now. And with the 60% off clearance it made it only $14 or just under.

I walked all over the store with it in my cart. Pretty much forgot about it really until I got back to the checkout stand. And I realized two things. A] I was walking, it wouldn't fit in my backpack, and it would be uncomfortable to carry home and B] I really don't play games all that much, even though I like them a lot. So I put it back on the table. *sigh*

It's probably just as well. What I did go home with was heavier than I'd anticipated and the game would have just made for more uncomfortableness.

My friend's baby is getting dedicated in October. I have not been down to visit since they moved over a year ago. They live in the Bay Area. I looked up flights to see what the damage would be and I'm looking at about $166 just for flight. Not sure if I'd need to rent a car, or go in on a rental with other people that might be flying down, etc. Haven't gotten that far in thinking yet.

Then I remembered that for my trip to Croatia I signed up with United's Mileage Plus program because every leg of the flight, except between Vienna and Split, would earn air miles. Just for kicks I logged into their site to see how much a flight would cost via air miles to the Bay area. 15,000 miles. How many miles do I have? 15,168. Hmm. That definately makes a difference as to whether or not I could make this trip. I guess the question now is to find out who else is going and if they'd be interested in sharing a rental.

But it also means I probably won't be going to my dad's for Christmas. But I wouldn't have enough air miles for a free trip anyway (costs 25,000 miles).

Something more to think about.

I started thinking about this more and have decided to start diverting any extra cash I earn to my currently non-existant bed fund. So not only babysitting money, but any mystery shops, any odd jobs, any paid surveys, any paid to click/read payouts, etc will go into this bed fund. I have about a year to build it soley on that sporatic extra income. I think I can do it. I will continue to put money regularly into EF savings, anything that I sell will go to my EF savings since it was originally something I spent money on. It's the best way I can think of to differenciate between what should go in as an emergency and what should be saved for a needed big ticket item.

This morning I realized that it had been six days since someone had won my eBay auction but had not paid yet. Umm. That's a little long isn't it? I couldn't remember so I consulted eBay's help section and found where it said it was ok to email the buyer anywhere between 3 and 30 days after the auction ended. Good deal. I also looked at his feedback. At least one item that had recent feedback for he bought AFTER mine. Tsk tsk. So I emailed him a couple hours ago. He replied just a bit ago to say he would be paying via PayPal in the next couple of days, probably today. If he does pay, I don't really see giving him any negative feedback but it would have been nice if he knew ahead of time that it would be a week before he could pay to contact me so I wouldn't sit and wonder.

I really need this one to come through because I have three other auctions that I relisted and if they don't sell I'm going to owe eBay out of pocket money for it. And his winning bid ($41 when the rest are going for $3) will more than cover that extra cost.

My step brother just called. I've been debating the best way of handling things with him, ie how often to call and remind him that I need payment soon. He's been fairly good about being proactive and calling me about it so I decided to wait until the 10th to say 'hey, don't forget my cc payment is due on the 14th). But he called me today so I don't have to worry about it! Of course, this weekend is a drill weekend so he's pretty much going to be stuck there the whole time. But he's pulled out cash and we are making plans to meet up this evening or tomorrow. When we do meet up, I'll give him my account information so he can set up the allotment. And until then he will give me cash. Totally fine by me. I never told him that my regular budgetted minimum payment totally covers the increase from the money I borrowed for him. He needs to be responsible to make a payment to me before the bill is due. I don't mind making an extra payment on my cc since the sooner the balance transfer is paid off the sooner the interest on everything else will stop getting added back onto the total.

I just checked my email and I have another Pinecone Research survey waiting for me and a response back from a posting I saw on Craigslist about a one day event that pays $13/hr as an independant contractor. Don't know if they'll want me to work for them but I might as well try.

And I start babysitting for some church classes on the 25th. Since they don't know how many kids they're actually going to have, I might not actually do it for the whole two months, but I'll take the nights they need me!

I'd actually considered this a while ago, and then forgot. But today in the mail I got a letter from the local Zoo saying that a 14 month membership would only be $59 if I bought it before December 8th. The level of membership that is $59 includes one free guest once a day and includes a ticket to the concerts they have in the summer.

I know what you're thinking, will I actually use it? I think I would. If I had it. It's normally $9.50 plus $1 to park. That means that if I went once a month for 7 months, by myself, I would save money. Not to mention the concert tickets or the specialty things they have during the year, like ZooLights and stuff. Oh and the membership includes parking.

But I don't go now so would I go? I really think I would. What stops me from going now is in part the cost and in part, I forget about it but that has to do with the cost. IE if it costs I conveniently forget about it. But I do have people who visit from out of town on occasion, and it'd be nice to have some place to take them 'for free'.

Not to mention, the animals are just darn cool. But where am I going to come up with the $59?

Well my birthday is coming up in November. People always ask me what I want and I never know. Usually I say nothing but this year I can say, I want a Zoo pass and it costs more than I expect anyone to pay individually, so why don't you all go in together on it? Between DB2, DB1 & SIL, DF & DSM I think they could swing $59.

Now that that's settled, I just need to remember to remind them when the time comes.

Roomate comes home tonight so I am tidying up the front living areas after my explosion of boxes from storage that I was going through. Finished up last night, took out 5 more grocery bags of paper (3 just recycle, 2 shreds) and one 13 gallon garbage bag. The end result of things to keep (either to really keep or to keep for sale at some point) mostly fit into one of my 12 gallon boxes. Now to find room for that.

While tidying I found an offer from Citi. Normally I'd shred/toss these but the 0% APR on balance transfers until Sept '07 was really tempting. So I tried applying for it online and it claimed I put in a wrong number. Hmm. Ok so I think I'll just mail it in. But first I check to see what the regular APR is and *shock* it's prime plus 23.99%! Hello? I don't think so. Even if I was only going to use it for the balance transfer, I'm not applying for that card.

I finally got ahold of someone at the clinic where I usually send in $100 towards my dr bills and tests. I was pretty sure I was ahead of the game temporarily but wanted to be certain. She said there wasn't a balance because they were still waiting to hear back from my insurance. Last time it took about 3 months for them to reply about my Echo so I think this month and next month are fairly safe to use the money for my dentist bill. Fortunately I'm on a go see the dr every three months rotation now instead of once a month (or in the beginning, once every 2 weeks). So I can expect that once my last Echo is paid for, I won't have a bill from them for a while. Which will be nice. More for savings or debt repayment!

I've been saying ever since Ikea has been rumored to be coming to Portland that I'd buy a 'big girl bed' once they are here. Well, after the furor over the store died down at any rate. I am very much in need of a new bed. My twin mattresses were purchased by my grandmother, new and they were the cheapest she could find, almost 20 years ago. My frame broke the last time I rearranged my room. It's ok to sleep on but if I move, chances are it won't go back together once it's taken apart.

I tried looking online to see what options they have but they don't put too much online by way of stock, they just have too much. The one frame they did have didn't look bad and it was only $129. I expect to pay at least $250 for mattresses, although I'm not sure if I'll get a bed/box set or what. Probably depends on the bed.

I want to pay cash for it. I expect it to be about $500 at least. I don't want to pull it out of my emergency fund, I'm already going to be doing that for tires although that's somewhat justifiable.

I haven't figured out exactly how I'm going to save for it. If I end up doing more babysitting, perhaps that money could go towards it. I could open another ING account, or perhaps an Emigrant (sp?) account. Keep it seperate but perhaps earn a little extra while I'm waiting for Summer 2007 to roll around.

I could totally have $500 saved in that time. Hopefully more, in case my estimation is too low. The question just becomes, what money do I set aside for the bed fund? I don't want to take from my regular savings until I've gotten my EF up to goal. Something to think about.

I was going to make this a comment but decided it was getting too long so I made my own entry. It's in response to her post about the fact that in southern california, a mother with two kids can expect to receive only $753/mo from the state.

When my parents divorced my mom went on welfare. Not right away but after a while when she was having a hard time finding work and my dad wasn't regular with the child support. She worked really hard to be able to get off of it and in the end the state garnished his wages so we had a steady payment every month of $696. For my mom and three kids. She stayed on food stamps, that was the only concession she made to any state help. She did what she could to find a job she could work, child care wasn't an issue since we were older.

Our rent, for a really crappy but large three bedroom two bath apt: $435/mo It was kept low by my mom's refusal to let them put in new carpet to replace the nasty green shag stuff. Well, not like we could have stopped them really but the apartments kept changing hands so stuff like that got forgotten.

I don't know what our other bills ran, but I do know that we never used the AC between 2 pm and 6 pm, the hottest times of the day and the most expensive time to run anything electric. Instead we would go to a store and wander around enjoying the cool air, or go to a fast food restaurant and just drink free refills for an hour or so.

When I was in jr high, I started babysitting so I could pay for my own school clothes and help relieve my mom of the stress of finding the money for it.

We were also supported by a friend of my grandmother who spent a lot of time 'dumpster diving' for clean trash, the stuff on top nothing that had to be dug for. She collected rebates, used her garbage finds to gather UPCs, and certain stores (like Longs Drug) didn't list anything but the price of items and the date purchased so she'd keep an eye out for stuff like that to send in with the rebates. She would give us a few every week to send in, and once they started coming back it was nice to get the small checks every week or so.

That was living in Redding, CA between 1990-95.

When my mom died, I assumed guardianship of my teenage brothers. I graduated college, couldn't find a job, needed to be working to provide for the family so went back to Burger King. Made $800/mo plus child support from my dad (don't recall how much that was) and my brothers got about $93/mo each from social security for survivorship benefits. We made it work. Granted I got snowballed by debt trying to keep them in clothes since they were still going through growth spurts. But we survived.

It's not a lot of money. I've heard that comment over and over again, how can people exist on minimum wage. I know I got lucky with my fast food job, the manager knew the position I was in and did what she could to make me the highest paid non management employee.

Somedays I consider myself a failure. I have so much more coming in than my mom did yet I still live paycheck to paycheck. And my definition of paycheck to paycheck is as soon as I get paid the money gets allocated and there's no breathing room. Yes, I save some. Generally $45/mo between two savings accounts. But the money that goes into my local bank savings account usually ends up getting drained by something every few months. And when that goes usually something else comes up that drains my ING account.

I know I need at least two new tires before the rainy season hits. That's November. It'll cost at least $140 for two tires because the rims I have are specialty. That's just how it was when I bought it from a friend of mine, not something I did. I'm hoping that when the time comes I can get a better price but I'm afraid that when the time comes, they'll tell me I really need four new tires. Which is essentially a planned spending of savings but still it'll put a dent in things.

And I've totally lost my train of thought so I'm ending this post here. I've read it over too many times.

I didn't do as bad as I expected. I headed out this morning with $41 in my pocket ($36 from garage sale and $5 from money I pulled out to go out to lunch at the garage sale but never spent). I came home with $21. Not bad at all. Still gives me some breathing room since I had to cut out my personal budget this next pay period.

I found out after church that the couple I rode with to the fair were going to treat me to breakfast so I didn't have to worry about that. I did pay for dust masks*, water from the store, parking**, fair entrance fee, and a deep fried snickers bar***. My friends bought a funnel cake but couldn't eat it all, even between the two of them, so I got some of that as well.

Animals were looked at. Llama show (agility maybe) was viewed. Small dog agility was viewed. 4 H exhibits were viewed. Food was consumed. Exhibits featuring items my friends had entered in the fair were viewed (bread, jam, dried herbs, and a bunch of different knitting things). Bunnies were looked at, and my friends purchased an orangeish angora bunny (that took 3rd place even) to replace their recently departed angora bunny. They have to go back tomorrow though to pick it up after the fair is over.

*the dust masks had nothing to do with going to the fair however we stopped at a Fred Meyer's for water on the way and I figured since I was there and I wanted it for this evening so I could continue working on the paper monster without having alergies that I should go ahead and get them.

**the fair does offer free parking however the line of cars and traffic lights to be gotten through to get to it, not to mention the winding through the parking lot to find a space, was just more than we wanted to deal with. We saw a small parking lot offering parking for $3 and decided it would be worth the money and the walk to avoid the headache. And it was. I paid for parking instead of contributing to gas. When we left there were bottlenecks in the parking lot trying to get out and the line to get in was just as long.

***I had to try it to say I've tried it. I didn't like the fried shell. It was almost like a corndog batter, very thick, that encased the candy bar. I was expecting something more along the lines of fried ice cream in terms of the outer bit. Although the inside was a nicely melted gooey mess of chocolate and carmel with peanuts. And the powdered sugar and chocolate sauce was a nice touch. I'd still like to try the fried twinkie and fried oreos but not for at least a year.

Wow it's amazing how fast money can go once it gets into your hands. Or at least my hands.

I found out on Monday that the gal I rent a garage from was having a garage sale on Saturday. I asked if she minded if I join in and try unloading a few things. She said no problem so Saturday morning I headed out there (it's about 45 minutes away) armed with stuff from my apartment that I already knew I wanted to sell and an idea of stuff from my garage that I wanted to attempt unloading.

In the end I wound up selling $153 worth of stuff. The $100 was to a friend of my friend's mom for this set of collectable wolf plates/music boxes that I've been trying to get rid of for a while now. But she's going to be making payments so I only have $35 so far. I spent $5 on a funky keyboard for my computer from the other person selling stuff because she was trying to raise money for her dog's surgery and I wanted the keyboard so I felt it was the best of both worlds.

We skipped past lunch somehow while packing up and by the time all was said and done it was just about 3pm. From 3 to 6 is Happy Hour at a restaurant we used to go to often so we headed over there for food.

I ate way too much. Cheeseburger ($2.95), Spinach Dip ($1.95) and a smoothie ($3.75). Add in tip and I spent $10 total. But that counted as lunch and dinner. Of course I spent cash so that brought my total down to $38 cash and $35 check.

When I got home, all the chance went into my coin bank so that leaves me with $36 cash $35 check.

I already know what I'm doing with the check, it's going into savings. But, I got invited to go to the state fair today. It was a last minute deal (email that got sent out last night). I've not been to the state fair here, the friends I'm going with have won ribbons so I'm curious to see what they won. Admission is $9. I'll be carpooling with them so I'll probably give them a couple dollars for gas. I can't really go on any rides (nothing adrenaline inducing anyway and what's the point if it's not?). I am downsizing my crap so I won't be buying anything from the vendors. Except possibly a deep friend snickers bar or twinkie. I've always wanted to try one of those. And there's a good chance we'll stop for food before we go to the fair because it'll be cheaper than fair fare.

At any rate, I totally see my $36 cash being reduced to well, nothing by the end of the day. I wouldn't have gone to the fair if I didn't have money from the garage sale. I don't get paid technically til Tuesday, though the bank shows my pending deposit so I have an idea of what it will be.

At least the $35 check will be safe in my savings. I think.

I have not received a bill yet from the clinic. Usually I should have received one by now. I'm thinking that means that I don't need to send in a payment this month. When I sent in $100 last month there was only $71 left on the balance, but I also had a dr's apt ($20 copay) and an echo cardiogram ($145) in July that wasn't on that bill so I knew it would be coming up. I'm guessing that they didn't need to bill me for the dr visit since I already paid it and the echo they haven't heard back from insurance on yet. That's just a guess though. The gal I need to talk to is out of the office til Tuesday so I won't know for certain til then.

The reason I want to know is...I got a bill from my dentist. I did read the insurance paperwork correctly and they paid less than the dentist expected. *sigh* Don't get me wrong, I totally appreciate the fact that I have insurance. But until now my dentist has been really good at estimating how much my insurance will cover and how much my responsibility is. It's a struggle when they tell me the bill will be one thing and then two months later I find I have to come up with even more.

If I am correct on my clinic bill, that I don't owe anything right now, then I'll take that $100 I would normally pay to the clinic and send it into the dentist. They want $210 total. I would call and arrange payments but I don't know yet how much I can actually pay and I'm annoyed at them for waiting a month to bill me for it and showing it as 30 days past due. Although in their defense if they only do billings once a month, the insurance payment came after their last billing statement went out.

I am not going to whip out the credit card and just pay it off.

This looks worse than it actually is. Really. Credit cards went up significantly because of the balance transfer loan I did for my step brother. He's in the process of paying me back so that'll give me extra to pay it down faster. Also my time share transfer has not officially gone through yet. It will go through next month. Once it does, $7600 will be gone from my responsibility to pay back. Also with the whole Student Loan mixup I'm still just only paying interest on my big loan. Once that gets caught up my student loans will start decreasing faster.

Assets $ Diff % Diff
Cash $318 ($14) -4.22 %
Retirement $22,811 $864 3.94 %
Cars $2,380 ($75) -3.05 %
Total Assets $25,509 $775 3.13 %

Debts $ Diff % Diff
Student Loans $36,462 ($31) -0.08 %
Credit Card $18,040 $2,520 16.24 %
Other $16,970 ($267) -1.55 %
Total Debts $71,472 $2,222 3.21 %

Net Worth ($45,963) ($1,447) -3.25 %

I have these action figures that I originally bought off of eBay years ago. I finally decided to part with them so I put them back up on eBay to see if I could dispose of them easily. Especially since I never opened any of them so they're all New In Box. There wasn't much of a presence on eBay anymore but I had hopes that perhaps I could still get a nibble or two. There are seven action figures all together. My initial asking price is $3 and the shipping is the actual shipping costs so no money to be made there.

In actuality though, if I got 1 bid on each one I still wouldn't make $3 on it. If they pay by credit card, PayPal will take $0.50. Plus there's the $0.35 listing fee (I'm cheap and wouldn't spring for any extras to list it). So that makes the total profit on each, if each got one bid, $2.15. Multiply that by 7 and you get $15.05. Not much but it's something.

Last night, I had one bid on one (I'm putting them up one per night just to spread it out a little and not have all of them end at the same time) with 10 watchers and one watch on another out of the three I'd put up so far. Wake up this morning to find the one with a bid is now up to $41 with 2.5 days left to go! Umm. Ok so even if that was the only one that sold, taking out the fee for credit card on PayPal ($1.23) and the listing fees for all 7 ($2.45), I'd still make $37.32 on just one.

If that's the only one that sells, I'll be happy.

The people I babysat for last night said they'd write me a check later and I told them not to worry about it. They've got enough stuff to sort through right now with the house getting rebuilt and all. They protested saying they had every intention of paying me and I protested saying I had every intention of refusing payment. After all, they gave me dinner, and I had time to write the draft of a letter I want to send out in September. Something I've been meaning to do for a while. So in my mind it all evens out. I'm sure another time I babysit they'll try to make it up to me and I'll let that slide. But for right now, they have bigger fish to fry.

I'm babysitting tonight, it was a last minute thing. The gal originally slotted to do it couldn't so I got the call. I really don't mind calls like that, I'd prefer not to be someone's primary sitter since my schedule is so crazy sometimes. Though it does mean that the paper monster will have to be dealt with another night.

Whatever I make from tonight, if anything, I will put in my dollar jar for emergencies. I say if anything because the couple I'm babysitting for lost their home to a fire a couple weeks ago, fortunately no one was injured. At any rate, I would gladly babysit for free but if they choose to pay me I'll take that too.

I've also offered to babysit for my church on Monday nights for a couple of months. They've got some classes that they need sitters for and they pay $20/night. Its only for a couple of hours and I can totally do that. Every little bit helps no?

My roomate left me with her bus pass when she went on vacation since she won't be back until the new month starts and therefore has no use for it. I was debating going home and getting my car, or just heading over from work via the bus. It would save on gas but then what about dinner? Well, my friends just called to say they were making extra mac n cheese so I can eat there tonight. So even though I don't really have anything with me to keep me occupied once the kids go down (no book, etc), I think I'm just going to hop the bus and save on gas. Might as well. Especially when the bus I take to their place is the same that goes by my place making the ride home simple.

I had a feeling it would come up again this month. Simply because my brother's job started almost two weeks after he got informed that he was to be hired. Rent is due on Friday. He got money from doing some presentations at Costco a few weeks ago and got caught up on his phone and electric bill. That leaves him with some money but not enough for rent and definately not enough for rent and food for the three weeks or so between now and payday.

I know I can loan him $200. He needs $275. Once he starts getting paid regularly I know he'll start paying me back. He's pretty annoyed with his own situation (other brother taking his time paying him back for something) and I know how much he hates/dreads having to ask for help. I'm going to check and see if I have enough to give him when I get home. Actually, I know I do. I can pull from my regular savings account any difference. *sigh* I just didn't want to touch that if at all possible.

Everyone counsels me against helping him out. If I didn't have the money, I wouldn't. I do have it, it just means I don't have extra to throw at debt right away.

Ohhh! I finally thought of a good use for Google Spreadsheet! I just created a small spreadsheet of what he owes me so far and emailed him a link so he can view it. That way he doesn't have to ask me how much he owes me or when the last time he gave me money was.

I got a letter yesterday from Citibank stating that starting sometime in October they're changing the 5% cashback for grocery/gas purchases to 2% and the only 5% cashback will be at participating network stores. Which would be ok if I could buy food and gas at Target but I don't/can't. So starting in October I will go back to using cash for food/gas and leave my Citi Dividend card for playing Balance Transfer games to get things paid off sooner. At least in the mean time I should have enough to get a cashback payout before they switch. I think I'll wait to get the payout until I stop using it for food/gas purchases that way I don't have any potential reward just sitting there not able to be cashed out because it's not at least $50 yet.

I deposited another $5 check from Pinecone Research today into my local savings account which brings that account to just over $100! Yay! Unfortunately I really need new tires, at least two. I was hoping to get my savings up to $400 before the rainy season hit just in case I go in to buy two and they insist that I need four. *sigh* The downside of having specialty rims means specialty tires. The car came that way, it's not something I added. The last time I was at the tire store to get a flat fixed they said one of my tires really needed to be replaced and that for two it'd be $140. I will shop around once I have the money and try to find a good deal.

Just out of curiosity, since I can't view it, does my bio show up on the right? I was curious to see how it looked but even if I log out it doesn't display it. And I can see everyone else's.


ETA: Figured out the Bio thing. I didn't have anything in the Author Name field and once I put something in there it showed up.

My step brother just called about setting up a payment plan for paying back the money I gave him so he could keep his truck. The absolute minimum he will be paying is $100. Chances are he'll be able to do more at some point but until then he will be setting up the following:

$50 from each check on the 1st and 15th set up as an allotment that way I always know when I'll have the money and don't have to worry about missing a payment (I borrowed the money as a balance transfer on one of my credit cards at 3.99% interest).

For now, since the 15th just passed, he will get me $50 from that check and another $50 from the 1st. Hopefully by October the allotment will automatically go through.

I considered telling him not to worry about it right away since my regular minimum payment is only a couple dollars less than what they increased it to with the balance transfer. But then remembered that Dad and StepMom had offered to also help him out with paying me back so I figured he could figure that part out on his own.

It's hard for me to not continue to 'help' but I need to step back and let him figure it all out on his own. At $100/mo it'll take almost two years to pay back. *sigh* So hopefully he will increase it when he can.

Just got an email from the gal I'm transfering my timeshare ownership to. She mailed the paperwork today! It'll still be mid-September before I expect to hear from the company verifying that the transfer took place, but it makes me feel a little better that it's officially underway! Yipee!

I talked to my friend with the car problems. Turns out the idiot who talked to her had turned in his 48 hour notice earlier in the week and that was his last day. They not only appologized profusely, but they offered to do the 60k mile checkup on her car for free, dropped the fee for checking out her car down to $25. She needed an oil change as well so since they needed to keep her car to do that, but she needed a car to get around in, they gave her a loaner car also for free. It's an '04 bright yellow mustang. There's some other things wrong with her car too, not sure if it's accident related or not. At any rate, it sounds like they got really screwed by that guy but are bound and determined to not let customers get away because of him.

I got a $10 check from NFO today. That'll go straight into savings tomorrow. Yay!

I tackled the paper monster sitting in my living room again tonight. I spent probably an hour or so sorting (recycling, shred, file). I have been working off and on on this for a while so it's not just tonight's work that caused this, but I did take out two full brown paper bags to the recycling bins. One full just of recycling and the other full of shreds. The file pile is staying relatively small. That's a good thing.

I talked to my current roomate about the potential move. L says I don't need to move in til November or December, if I'm going to move. So I let my current roomate know what my option was, and what I was thinking about it. The thing that it boils down to is, if my current roomate stays around town then I'm not going to move. Yes, it might save me a little every month but it's not worth it to me to just up and ditch my current roomate. If she happens to find a job that requires her to move (something she's anticipating but she hasn't actually started looking for work yet) then she knows I'm taken care of.

I've got this mildly awkward situation where my youngest brother's ex-fiance has asked me to be a bridesmaid. I haven't said yes, but I haven't said no yet. The wedding is not til Sept '07. But today she sent me a link to the dress. Honestly, I don't really care to be a part of her wedding. I'm not really a part of her life and I don't really see that changing. But I don't know how to let her down easy. *sigh* Part of me is hoping that the wedding will be canceled. But I should probably address this at some point soon so she can find a replacement. I really don't need to be spending $165 on a dress that I definately will not be wearing again. I already have a dress from my brother's wedding (different brother) and it is something that should the occasion arise, I would wear again.

*yawn*

Time for me to head to bed.

Ok senario. Friend (we'll call M) was involved in a car accident. Not her fault. She got her car back finally since it wasn't totaled and they fixed the damage done. Her cruise control was working before the accident, is not working now. Because of the long commute to work this is something she uses every day.

She took it back to the shop that originally fixed it from the accident, they couldn't figure out why it wasn't working. Said to take it to the dealership and if they determined that it was accident related then it would be covered under insurance.

She got a call today from the dealership where she was very rudely instructed on the way to engage her cruise control, as they found nothing wrong with it and it worked just fine (according to them). To top it all off, they're charging her $150 for two hours of labor.

Ok they're going to be condescending to M about the proper way to use cruise control (something she's been using in that car for four years) yet it took them two hours to figure out it was fine? That does not strike me as ok. I do understand paying for an hour of labor even if it only takes 10 minutes, because that's how the labor gets billed sometimes. But two hours?? I told her to call and complain and she will but she says there's nothing she can do about the payment since her sister will be picking it up for her.

I disagree. Since she can't have it picked up til tomorrow anyway, I think she should call and complain today and have them alter the bill accordingly. Or am I just getting riled up over something that can't be changed?

I realize that it'll take a couple weeks to process the paperwork. I told them I'd take care of September's payment for the timeshare. But they're waiting to send in the paperwork until the end of the month so they are certain they won't have to pay til October. She says they have the paperwork all notarized and ready to go. All I can do now is wait a week and hope she emails me when she mails it in like I asked her. It just makes me nervous that 'something' could happen in the interim and they decide not to go through with it.

Not much I can do about it between now and then though, except cross my fingers.

Edit: Ok so I've been emailing with the gal I'm going to transfer with all day. She's going to mail the paperwork in early next week since it'll take so long to process and by the time it does my payment will already have been made. We had an interesting exchange where she stated that she was really overly cautious about the process because doing things via mail is sort of scary. I replied that I understood what she meant since I've already paid for the transfer to take place. I think that little exchange helped both of us calm a little. She assured me that they aren't going to back out of it. That actually does make me feel better.

I still haven't talked to my current roomate. I think I'll do that tonight since I plan on being home. Part of me doesn't want to move. I hate moving. But I really wouldn't mind helping out my friend with her mortgage payment.

Friend (I'll call her L) just texted me wondering if I was still interested. Now, I haven't seen the place yet. But I am still interested. I keep saying how I want to consolidate and get down to the point where I can exist in one room. This would be the perfect opportunity to do just that. She also changed her original rent statement. Before it was $200 for the room plus 1/3 of utilities (water/electric/cable/internet) and possibly 1/3 of home owners dues. With the inclusion of the dues I was looking at about what I was paying before. Now she's saying a flat $300/mo including my portion of utilities and other community stuff like dish/laundry soap, tp, etc. Which is fine by me, I'm currently buying all that stuff now usually out of habit.

It would mean a savings in rent/utilities of $50/mo. It would still mean (I think) that I'd use all of my gas budget ($80/mo) as opposed to now when I only use half of it but I still budget it all just in case. I might be able to get away with it being cheaper to take the bus and carpool. Just will have to see. One of the gals I'd be living with gets off work about 30 minutes before I do, and works near me. So it's possible an arrangement could be made where I catch a ride home with her some evenings.

L also says we can shoot for a move in date of November/December which would give me time to continue consolidating stuff. I am going to aim to not only not have my storage unit anymore (including what I'm stashing downstairs at my current apt that is included in my rent). That would mean another $60 saved a month.

I think I can pull this off. The hardest part will be leaving my current living situation. I love being able to walk to work and I have no issues with my current roommate. Plus I'd hate to put her in a bind to have to find another roommate. Guess I'll just broach the subject and see what her thoughts are. Since she was expecting to have to move out of the area at some point to get a job in the field she just got a degree in anyway.

The weekend was fun. Was rather annoyed by the rental company, they didn't have ANY cars even though I had a reservation. So I got a minivan instead. It was nice to have the room but the gas mileage sucked! I paid for half of the gas (because of how we figured out who would pay for what leg of the trip and I had one quarter leg all to myself) and my fellow travelers paid for the other half. My friend bought a ticket for the second show from me because she didn't have one yet. I thought she had two and was only using one so that worked out well. My uncle paid for the room. I paid for the minivan (at the car rate I had secured) because I hadn't paid my uncle back yet for the first show ticket. All in all after all the settling up was done I got about $50 cash. And had put $150 on my credit card. *sigh*

No more using the credit card! My time share transfer isn't going through until October so I don't have that money to throw at CC2 yet. It's supposed to be paid off but it now has a balance of over $500. I can account for all of it, me just thinking 'oh I'll pay it off really soon when my time share transfer goes through' for some of it, paying for the transfer for other of it. Argh!

Whoops. I guess I didn't click post this morning. Anyway. We'll see how well I do with the whole no more charging bit. I have $30 now in cashback dividends but I can't request a check til its at $50. I am still putting groceries and gas on it because I pay that off right away plus I'l l have extra to put on it on the 5th. The hope still is that when the dividend balance reaches $50 the card will already be paid off and I can use that check for savings or just something else in general.

I love a particular band. I have gone to 24 shows (roughly) since the first time I saw them September '03. Usually I go to more than one at a time, making a roadtrip out of it. I've even traveled to the east coast for three shows, and flown down to San Diego to follow them back up to Portland. I finally toned things down. Decided that even though I split some costs with my uncle (who turned me onto the band) it was a little too much to be spending that sort of money on. So I stuck mainly to in the area shows (Oregon and Washington) and then dropped it to only Portland shows where I could work merch and get in for free plus get a free tshirt.

This weekend will be the first time since November I've seen them. They're playing a music festival in Seattle today with Shawn Mullins and the BoDeans. Tickets for reserved seats are $60. I didn't know what the cost was going to be when I originally said I wanted to go, just knew my uncle would pick up the tab and I could pay him back later. Tomorrow they're in Bend, tickets are a bit better there, only $17.50.

I'm renting a car (my uncle is paying me back for it) that'll cost $60 for two days including taxes but not gas. Since I haven't paid him back yet for my Seattle ticket I figure that will probably just balance out. I will be driving up to Seattle, picking up a friend there, driving back to Portland, then onto Bend with my uncle and friend and back to Portland. During various times there will be multiple people in the car. I'm expecting that they'll pick up some of the tab for gas.

I bought three tickets to the Bend show, one for me, one for my aunt, and one for my uncle. Now I'm working the merch table, so I don't need my ticket. My aunt's not coming after all so we don't need her ticket. Though my uncle did say he'd pay me back for both his and his wife's ticket even if she didn't go. The show in Bend is not sold out so the chances of our being able to sell the tickets we don't need are slim. Although, they are front row. We'll try but who knows. I didn't originally sign up to work merch because it's not a show in my immediate area. I try to not be totally gung ho about working merch in other cities because I want to let the local fans have the opportunity. But it got down to the wire and no one had volunteered so I picked it up.

The hope is that we can find a place to camp for the night. Bend is very limited in it's options for hotels so they aren't cheap. Worst case I think we might have to pay $80 for the night. Which my friend and I would split but my uncle would get his own room.

I pulled out $40 cash to have on hand as just in case money. I didn't spend all of my 'personal' money last payperiod so I'm taking from that and from some of my 'personal' money from this payperiod. Everything else will go on a card for now, to be paid back pretty much right away, at least from what my fellow roadtrippers donate.

We are driving back to Portland after the show tonight, my friend and I will crash at my place. So there's no potential hotel charge tonight. I don't really have food on hand for breakfast, at least not that anyone else would want. Plus I was expecting to be staying at my Uncle's tonight so hadn't planned on a guest. We'll probably hit McD's on the way out.

We're heading out early so we can go explore a volcano natural park before the show. I know it'll cost $5 for parking, but past that shouldn't be too bad.

I'm planning on eating out for at least one meal tonight (dinner, probably at the festival unless I stop at Subway or something and bring in my own food which is still eating out technically but it would be cheaper). Tomorrow I plan on eating out all three meals, but everyone's watching their pennies so it should be cheap.

I'm really excited about going. There's something about a road trip that makes me smile and think of all the fond memories of the past three years. The band members and crew recognize me now. They even expect me to 'follow' them when they get in this area and act sad when I tell them I can't (which has happened a couple of times).

They have a new cd coming out September 12th and I haven't even pre-ordered it yet. With this trip and all I just can't justify one more expense. If I come home with enough cash to pick it up then I'll order it. Otherwise, it will just have to wait til my next payday. There's an indie radio station (online) that has 7 songs off the new album though so it's not like I haven't heard any of them yet.

And now I'm rambling. So I'll leave it at that.

Oh and if you're curious...the name of the band is Carbon Leaf and they can be found at http://www.carbonleaf.com

I rarely buy new clothes. I wear the same thing over and over and over again until it totally gives out or it doesn't fit right. But even if it doesn't fit right chances are I'll keep it for when it does fit right again.

The last item of clothing I purchased new (not counting the shoes I bought recently as part of a mystery shop) was a pair of jeans from Old Navy last September. I needed a pair of lightweight jeans for a work trip to Kenya (we'd be working on an orphanage so I needed the protection of jeans but light weight enough to be worn in the heat). My brother and I just happened to be killing time before going to see a movie, there was an Old Navy so we wandered in and I found exactly what I wanted for only $20. They finally gave out on me in May. That was ok, summer was coming up and not really jeans weather.

This weekend I'm going on a road trip to see my favorite band. I'll be working the merchandise table for them at one of the shows even. So I decided a new pair of jeans was required since I don't really have any right now. What I've been wearing are convertable kakis (y'know the kind that you can unzip the legs and make them into shorts) and they aren't the most flattering but they work in a pinch.

Old Navy was having a sale, all adult jeans under $25 so I wander into the closest store tonight to find the 'highest' waist jean that they carry is just under at waist, that they only carry stretch jeans, and the boot cut is more like a taper to the knee then straight/slight flare at the bottom. Which looks absolutely horrible on me.

*sigh*

So I went to Ross and Marshalls. No dice. I'd also decided I was overdue for a fun tshirt, so I stopped in at Hot Topic because I knew they had Daria shirts and of course, they were all out. I popped in on Lane Bryant hoping they had stuff on sale. Well yes in a way, jeans were buy one get one half off. But that would mean spending $60 to get the deal ($40 for the first pair and $20 for the second) and I just can't justify that.

By this time I was really hungry and I didn't see any mall fare that looked good so went to a little pizza place nearby and just had a slice ($4) and stopped into Goodwill. Nothing. Not a blessed thing. ARGH!

Back to the mall, since I had to walk by there to get home, and made Sears my final stop. Finally found jeans my size, in my price range, that didn't have an elastic waistband, and they're all SHORT. I'm a tall gal (5'11") so short just doesn't do the trick.

I leave Saturday at noon. I don't know where else to go. I'm kinda depressed about this. Why is it so hard to find something I like that fits when I really need it?

If I did move..my roomates would both have cars. I could sell mine (put the money received towards debt repayment), not have to pay $93/mo for insurance or $80/mo for gas. Would then pick up a bus pas $74/mo which is still a savings of $100/mo. If I went anywhere that needed a car, chances are I could get a ride from one of my roomates. And getting to/from the store for major grocery shopping wouldn't be that difficult with their cars accessible. The new place is right next to MAX (light rail).

I'm not so concerned about the whole gym thing (ie giving it up) because I do have workout videos I can use at home (I mainly joined Curves so I could have someone else measure me and keep track of all that stuff). Plus I still think I'd be walking plenty, if I did go the bus route, the light rail stops about a mile from work so I'd still walk that bit.

Ok more thought is required on this.