Poverty, Paychecks, Progress, and Pain...
Well, the past week has been full of its ups and downs that's for sure.
Two weeks ago, I had a couple of emergency bills come up that needed to be paid. I went ahead and paid them, thinking that my DORS paycheck would arrive before they cashed (or hopefully before they even received) the checks. Well, the paycheck deposit was late, and the checks came in early, and I wound up being overdrawn on my account due to 2 seperate late and overdraft fees being applied.
Poverty
When I paid my bills, I budgeted about $20 to have leftover to play with for the next couple of weeks. But with the overdraft fees, that got sucked up before I had a chance to take it out of the account and I was stuck with just what was in my wallet and the change in my change jar. How pathetic is that?
All in all it was around $10. But, I still managed to have fun, spend time with my friends, and keep myself busy and entertained for the past two weeks here. And the funny thing is... I spent two weeks with only about ten bucks to my name, and as of Friday, I STILL had $10 bucks!! I survived almost 2 weeks without spending a dime. That is what you call being well-stocked and prepared... not to mention a healthy dose of self-discipline. So all in all, I am very proud of myself and although I was broke (actually I was BEYOND broke), I made the best of it and still had a good couple of weeks.
Paychecks
Well, I basically went from being broke, to getting a good amount of money last friday. I got my paycheck from DORS and Bergners at the same time plus it was a fairly large paycheck since we started getting two trucks a week and I took a personal day at Bergners... all of which padded my paycheck nicely.
Of course, after all the fees were paid, and I paid a couple more bills, most of it was gone. But I still managed to budget a little bit away for having fun. Plus, my family gave me a little money for babysitting my nephew and to take him to go see a movie.
Progress
Well, despite money problems... things in my life have been pretty good lately all things considered. I am getting to spend more time with my friends. Some old friends are (hopefully) getting their lives back together and becoming a part of my life again. I got to spend Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday hanging out and babysitting my nephew Tanner.
He is a pretty good kid for the most part. But being a 7 year old, and an only child... he can get a bit bratty at times. But for the most part, he is an extremely sweet, good-hearted, and fun little kid and I love both of my nephews as if they were my own kids. And luckily, he loves his Uncle Rod a bunch too... if not mostly cause I take him to fun places, treat him with respect, and let him play with all of my cool stuff *lol*. The couple of times I babysat, I let him play my Spiderman 2 game for my X-box and he had a blast playing that (he's a big superhero fan). And since I had to help him on a couple of the harder parts... I wound up getting re-addicted to it myself and have been playing it on and off all weekend *lol*.
I've also been playing a goofy online "Vampires VS Werewolves" role-playing/Message board game called BiteFight that one of my friends introduced me to. Its mostly a click and forget little game where you try to build up your vampire or Werewolf and fight them against the other players and getting money to buy stats, weapons, hideouts, etc... here is the link;
http://s2.bitefight.org/c.php?uid=111885
(warning clicking on the link will get you bitten by me ;) *lol*)
Friday, I took the money I got from babysitting and took Tanner to go see the Transformers movie. I got him popcorn and a large slushie and I kind of regret it since I had to take him to the bathroom every half hour or so *lol*. But he enjoyed the movie and had a good time and so did I. The movie was just as good (if not better) the second time I saw it and I noticed a few little things here and there that I kind of missed the first time I watched it. But after the movie, I took Tanner back to my parents house and stayed there for a little bit before heading back to Richards (the blind man I am a live-in assistant for).
Speaking of which, yesterday I took Richard shopping at the newly built, just opened Super Walmart. He got a lot of exercise walking around the entire store thats for sure and he had a lot of fun shopping and it put him in a little better mood since he was being kind of grumpy after the cable got cancelled. But since neither one of us want to spend $50 bucks on crappy cable tv... its just something we both have to learn to live with for a while.
Buit he bought a new BIG stereo system so that he can listen to his cds, talking books, tapes, and radio better, and it was actually a pretty good buy. But I had to spend about 2 hours setting the whole thing up (connecting speakers, moving things around so it'll fit, etc.) and helping him figure out the controls (luckily it has very few buttons, so its a little more blind-friendly).
Pain
I got some Kitchen Cooked potato chips when I went over to Walmarts yesterday and I accidentally bit my tongue and cut a little cut from a particularly sharp piece of chip that jabbed itself into my gum.
Edit: Oh and I just burnt my mouth on a microwave burrito... my mouth is not having a good day *lol*.
I also have a pimple right in the outside corner of my nose and another one in the crook of my neck... and they have been a bit annoying.
But I guess the most painful thing coming up is the year anniversary of when Phyllis and I broke up. On July 26 last year she dumped me... and its still a little rough on me. Luckily we are still good friends, even though we haven't seen each other in a little over a year, but I loved her with all my heart, so its still stings a little every time I chat with her or hear her voice.
Even so, I was really looking forward to going up to Chicago next weekend for a Heathen picnic kind of thing that was going on and have a chance to see all of my old friends from up around Chi-town. Unfortunatly, it looks like I won't be able to go due to money problems still. So I'll have to cancel my plans with her for like the 10th time, and I am sure she'll be upset :(
But, there's nothing I can do at the moment, so maybe we can get together and do something for my birthday or something.
Oh well, I think I have rambled on enough...
Two weeks ago, I had a couple of emergency bills come up that needed to be paid. I went ahead and paid them, thinking that my DORS paycheck would arrive before they cashed (or hopefully before they even received) the checks. Well, the paycheck deposit was late, and the checks came in early, and I wound up being overdrawn on my account due to 2 seperate late and overdraft fees being applied.
Poverty
When I paid my bills, I budgeted about $20 to have leftover to play with for the next couple of weeks. But with the overdraft fees, that got sucked up before I had a chance to take it out of the account and I was stuck with just what was in my wallet and the change in my change jar. How pathetic is that?
All in all it was around $10. But, I still managed to have fun, spend time with my friends, and keep myself busy and entertained for the past two weeks here. And the funny thing is... I spent two weeks with only about ten bucks to my name, and as of Friday, I STILL had $10 bucks!! I survived almost 2 weeks without spending a dime. That is what you call being well-stocked and prepared... not to mention a healthy dose of self-discipline. So all in all, I am very proud of myself and although I was broke (actually I was BEYOND broke), I made the best of it and still had a good couple of weeks.
Paychecks
Well, I basically went from being broke, to getting a good amount of money last friday. I got my paycheck from DORS and Bergners at the same time plus it was a fairly large paycheck since we started getting two trucks a week and I took a personal day at Bergners... all of which padded my paycheck nicely.
Of course, after all the fees were paid, and I paid a couple more bills, most of it was gone. But I still managed to budget a little bit away for having fun. Plus, my family gave me a little money for babysitting my nephew and to take him to go see a movie.
Progress
Well, despite money problems... things in my life have been pretty good lately all things considered. I am getting to spend more time with my friends. Some old friends are (hopefully) getting their lives back together and becoming a part of my life again. I got to spend Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday hanging out and babysitting my nephew Tanner.
He is a pretty good kid for the most part. But being a 7 year old, and an only child... he can get a bit bratty at times. But for the most part, he is an extremely sweet, good-hearted, and fun little kid and I love both of my nephews as if they were my own kids. And luckily, he loves his Uncle Rod a bunch too... if not mostly cause I take him to fun places, treat him with respect, and let him play with all of my cool stuff *lol*. The couple of times I babysat, I let him play my Spiderman 2 game for my X-box and he had a blast playing that (he's a big superhero fan). And since I had to help him on a couple of the harder parts... I wound up getting re-addicted to it myself and have been playing it on and off all weekend *lol*.
I've also been playing a goofy online "Vampires VS Werewolves" role-playing/Message board game called BiteFight that one of my friends introduced me to. Its mostly a click and forget little game where you try to build up your vampire or Werewolf and fight them against the other players and getting money to buy stats, weapons, hideouts, etc... here is the link;
http://s2.bitefight.org/c.php?uid=111885
(warning clicking on the link will get you bitten by me ;) *lol*)
Friday, I took the money I got from babysitting and took Tanner to go see the Transformers movie. I got him popcorn and a large slushie and I kind of regret it since I had to take him to the bathroom every half hour or so *lol*. But he enjoyed the movie and had a good time and so did I. The movie was just as good (if not better) the second time I saw it and I noticed a few little things here and there that I kind of missed the first time I watched it. But after the movie, I took Tanner back to my parents house and stayed there for a little bit before heading back to Richards (the blind man I am a live-in assistant for).
Speaking of which, yesterday I took Richard shopping at the newly built, just opened Super Walmart. He got a lot of exercise walking around the entire store thats for sure and he had a lot of fun shopping and it put him in a little better mood since he was being kind of grumpy after the cable got cancelled. But since neither one of us want to spend $50 bucks on crappy cable tv... its just something we both have to learn to live with for a while.
Buit he bought a new BIG stereo system so that he can listen to his cds, talking books, tapes, and radio better, and it was actually a pretty good buy. But I had to spend about 2 hours setting the whole thing up (connecting speakers, moving things around so it'll fit, etc.) and helping him figure out the controls (luckily it has very few buttons, so its a little more blind-friendly).
Pain
I got some Kitchen Cooked potato chips when I went over to Walmarts yesterday and I accidentally bit my tongue and cut a little cut from a particularly sharp piece of chip that jabbed itself into my gum.
Edit: Oh and I just burnt my mouth on a microwave burrito... my mouth is not having a good day *lol*.
I also have a pimple right in the outside corner of my nose and another one in the crook of my neck... and they have been a bit annoying.
But I guess the most painful thing coming up is the year anniversary of when Phyllis and I broke up. On July 26 last year she dumped me... and its still a little rough on me. Luckily we are still good friends, even though we haven't seen each other in a little over a year, but I loved her with all my heart, so its still stings a little every time I chat with her or hear her voice.
Even so, I was really looking forward to going up to Chicago next weekend for a Heathen picnic kind of thing that was going on and have a chance to see all of my old friends from up around Chi-town. Unfortunatly, it looks like I won't be able to go due to money problems still. So I'll have to cancel my plans with her for like the 10th time, and I am sure she'll be upset :(
But, there's nothing I can do at the moment, so maybe we can get together and do something for my birthday or something.
Oh well, I think I have rambled on enough...