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Archive for August, 2006

Poverty quote

August 29th, 2006 at 03:16 pm

I've been reading all the posts about poor people lately, and I just got this quote in my email, from Discovery Health no less:

When the stomach is full, it is easy to talk of fasting.
- Saint Jerome

I just felt it was appropriate.

Clearing my conscience

August 27th, 2006 at 04:57 pm

Okay, so I finally decided to start a public blog as a way to actually admit the problems I am having with sticking to my budget.

I paid two hospital bills last month, one for $640. & one for $1640. Well, I ended up having to go to a funeral, which cost me about $125 to go to (gas, tolls, etc.), and $100 for a donation to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in lieu of flowers. I knew I didn't have that money budgeted, but this person was very important to my family, and I really wanted to donate.

Knowing that would overdraw my checking account, I transferred $200 from my ING account (leaving just $600 after having to buy a new *used* car last month). I also had my nephew for an unexpected week, and spent more than I had planned. The $1640 hospital check bounced because I wasn't paying attention to my account during the time around the funeral. I transferred money from my savings account to cover that, leaving barely $100 between my two savings accounts at the credit union.

Then, I'm checking my account, making sure I have enough money to cover the bounced check when it comes back in, and out of nowhere I see a $240 check cashed. I found out that it was a check that I had written at the beginning of June before I started using MS Money, and I thought it had already been cashed. So, now the only way I can cover that bounced check is to transfer almost all my ING savings into my checking account and I don't want to do that even though I know I should. Leaving myself no emergency money at all just won't work psychologically for me, especially after all the emergencies I've experienced lately.

So, if the bounced check comes in after Wed. at midnight when I get my direct deposit, it will be paid. If it comes in before that it will be sent back to me, and, here is where my guilty conscience kicks in, I am only going to pay part of it and make monthly payments on the remaining balance so that I can keep some of the money. I know I should just transfer some of the ING money, but I just can't bear to do that. I worked really hard to save money, and all of a sudden my car breaks (frame, so it couldn't be fixed) and I have an out-of-state funeral to attend, and my savings are virtually gone. I feel very vulnerable with only a couple hundred dollars in savings, so I am most likely going to avoid paying the hospital the full amount all at once by letting the check get returned. I know. That's really horrible.

There it is, my guilty conscience.