Anyway, this payday I'm going to have to be late on my car payment. I have rent to pay, and with the money I have left, I'll need to hit some bills before next payday. If I pay my car note this Friday, I'll have nothing to cover at least two payments that come automatically out of my account, which, as I've discussed ad nauseum, the bank happily still pays for even though I clearly haven't enough money to cover it, then slams me with a 35.00 surcharge. "We choose to pay your bills for you as a courtesy to you," if I recall correctly. That's the kind of response that makes guys go into the belltowers with the high-powered arsenal. For the past three paydays they did and still I've survived. I've taken responsibility and did not grow homicidal. No, I haven't learned how to avoid it yet, but this is just me. I have no credit cards to cover what I can't afford, so I get overdraft charges. And life rolls merrily along. But I'd rather not have to just 'survive' in the next two weeks, so car payment people, save your autodial system please? You're not getting any scratch for at least two more weeks.
My solution for beating the draconian car payment is to just pay it off early. I doubt I'll get a refinance on the loan, credit rating not improving as quickly as I need it to be, so one or two late payments is not going to devastate me.
How am I going to get that extra scratch up to early-pay, you ask? Well, my resume is ready and printed up. I found my two-year-old contact list from when I was searching for part-time NYC therapy work. I'm ready to re-apply. I know I'm ready because all week I've been turning on my television and vegetating all evening into the midnight hours, and going to bed late. I've hated that. I've liked the stuff I've watched, evidently, but I hate having had given so much of my time and potential over to the TV. I could have done a dozen things that were productive, like working a second job hello, but instead I've only woken up dizzy and regretful.
TV is the mindkiller. But like all good drugs, we love it!
Meanwhile, as I speak of financial responsibility, I am still planning to buy a digital camera and a few sets of good, going-out-on-the-town clothes this payday.
I need the camera to begin to sell my comicbooks and Doctor Who books on the internet. Hello 3rd source of income. :-)
And too, I'm going to post another picture of another handsome man.
Self-confidence; All-Time High.
Stay tuned ...
2 comments:
Have you thought about developing a budget? I find them helpful in managing money better. Just a thought. Hope it's not intrusive.
:-)
Intrusive? Naw, if I put it out there, I'm open for comments on it.
This blog of mine is filled with my budgeting efforts--accompanied by my explosive rants when I fail to succeed.
I have come to believe that I'm mathlexic. For the last year-plus I had been using a spreadsheet to show to myself when my payments would be due so I could know how much I would have left over at any given time--and when to expect more money ala paycheck. Sometimes it would work very well, but I didn't use the math capabilities of the spreadsheet--cuz I dunno how.
It helped me keep my commitments to pay off all my credit cards and personal loans successfully, though! So that's good!
But then I'd gamble on when the odd direct payment would come through and overspend on some stupid luxury food, only to be beaten every time by the bank. It seemed that the bank was just waiting for me to give in to the gamble of overspending, as if they knew that if they left a payment undrawn long enough, I would take the money. Then of course, the minute I did that, they would pay out the biggest bill first, taking the account to the negatives, then tack on the overspending for 35.00 bucks each.
And sometime, I just forgot that a payment draft is due. Like there was a tumor clinging to my brain, eating my memory. I just would lose the information.
The bank had an All-Star Game one weekend when I had a positive balance on a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and so I was steadily using my debit card all weekend, happy as a clam, and then on Monday, discovered they payed out something on Friday without showing it, reducing me to the negatives retroactively, then made all the weekend's purchases overdrafts.
Fun times.
What I need is to make more money to afford the things that I buy. That's the only key to success that I can see without credit cards.
Oh, that and curb my rapacious appetite for crap. I did extremely well for the past three weeks. actually, four. I haven't hit a Starbucks in about a month. :-)
And hello there, by the way! You have a blog like Pinknest's! I love what you say there-- "I love to eat, so I cook" That's the other key to my financial success. Cooking at home instead of eating out.
Welcome, Nirmala!
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