Wednesday 18 December 2013

66 Cents Saved Me

66 cents prevented something happening that hasn’t happened to me ever . . . (okay it might have happened once in the early nineties, but I can’t be sure).
 
So there I was last night, I decided to go to the grocery store to get a few essentials. Nothing too drastic mind you but I was out of peanut butter . . .  gotta have peanut butter! I was feeling a little down about the uncertainty of my destination yet still resolved to hand in my notice this Friday the 20th. This is when I expect to get paid, and thereby pay the rent/ hand in my notice.
 
Like I said I was at the grocery store and had picked out about thirty bucks worth of small essentials. There I was at the “self-checkout,” I scanned my items and dutifully put them in the bag. Then came the time to pay, I pulled out my debit card and waved it over the “tap to pay” scanner. I do like that little toy . . beep and you are done.
 
Well, this time it beeped but the screen said “transaction not complete”  . . . I tried again . . . same response . . . This time I inserted the card in the slot and paid the old-fashioned way . . . again it didn’t work. I was sure that this was a glitch with the store’s system or what have you. I pulled out my ace in the hole, my Visa with a smidge of room on it. I waved it over the “Tap to pay” and this time it did go beep and was happy.
 
I was already out of the store by the time I had successfully logged into my online banking using the app on my phone and stared in disbelief that I only had 65 cents in my account. Okay, to be fair I only had 65 cents from the rock bottom of my overdraft.
 
I blinked and scanned the transactions, fearing fraud or some other crime, as I thought I had at least six hundred more than that. There I saw it . . . my truck payment had gone through with only 65 cents to spare.
 
My decision to renew my: License, Insurance, and Registration had almost bounced my Truck payment. Heck, one more fast food meal on a whim would have done it. Let this be a lesson to all of us . . . if you make a budget and a plan (as I had) stick to it!.
 
I had intended to renew my: License, Insurance, and Registration after I had gotten paid, but I got a bit discouraged by the size of the rent in comparison to my estimated paycheck and decided why wait. It wouldn’t give me much extra cash and I wanted to do something to further me on this path.
There is a reason why I put off most expenses till after the fifteenth . . . there are three things in this world you don’t mess with: Rent, vehicle payments and Insurance premiums. You can eat less, drive less, piss off any other creditor of your choosing, but you don’t mess with a place to stay or your way of getting around.
 
I now know what I will be doing over my one week of Christmas break (well, that is unless the boss decides to make us work a half day on the 23rd . . . that is still up in the air). In any event during my time off I will be sorting through all of my belongings and packing up what I want to keep.
 
I have decided to buy a number of “Bankers file boxes” and use them to store my stuff. They are a standard size, stack well and not too bad, I found a place where I can get them for 2.50 a box. I know that I could go to various stores and pick up boxes for free but they are usually falling apart and of all kinds of different sizes, thereby they don’t stack well. 

Since I have limited space in my storage unit, I decided that the uniform size is worth the cost. In addition I will label each box on two sides with what is in them then shrink wrap them to prevent moisture damage in the two years this stuff will be in storage.
 
This will be the hard part, deciding what to keep and what can simply be bought again. Space is at a premium and I don’t want to store and keep crap.

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