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Archive for October, 2014

Tough November Ahead

October 28th, 2014 at 08:41 pm

Some of the changes I'd been dealing with recently are coming to fruition. It looks like I will indeed be moving out in December (my choice due to some personal events). I've only just started the apartment hunt, but as you all know, my moving fund isn't really as established as I'd like. There is 300 in there which should cover the deposit or amenity fee at most places I'm looking at. With the rent and the remaining upfront costs, I am guessing I'm going to need about 2400 by the beginning of December. Looking at the numbers, I can wedge out 1850 from my regular paychecks which leaves me with finding another 250. Hopefully, I can find a place under that amount, but if not, I need to be prepared. I plan to start selling stuff. I also have $195 cash for the month for gas, groceries, and miscellaneous. I'm hoping to keep that as low as possible to be able to use some of that money. (The bonus is eating the pantry stuff I have on hand, so I won't have to move it!!) With such a tight timeline, I most likely won't be able to afford the pet deposit and extra pet rent up front, so I'll have to wait another month or two to bring my dog up to live with me, but I am kind of excited to be starting out on my own.

Focus on the positive

October 24th, 2014 at 04:34 pm

Sometimes, I get so caught up in the bad stuff, I forget to focus on the things I do right...

This weekend, SO and I are going to a drive-in movie theatre. They have all sorts of fun costume contests for people, pets, and even the cars. I have a Princess Jasmine costume and thought it would be really cute if we were Jasmine and Aladdin with our car-pet. Get it? Smile Rather than buy SO's costume, we were able to finagle everything from stuff already on hand. I have a sword and spare craft containers and red fabric for his hat (imagine a butter tub turned upside down for the fez). He has the vest (not purple, but it'll work) and gray sweatpants which I'll attach a yellow piece of foam to for the patch. My boss even donated an orange tiger and I have a little monkey. I really wanted to spray paint my dog blue and make him the genie to really seal the deal, but he unfortunately doesn't live with me. Oh well...We'll still have an awesome theme going for our drive-in date and we won't have paid for any of the costumes!

When will I learn?

October 24th, 2014 at 04:22 pm

She's doing it again. I understand her mom is dying and it's important to her, but if it were really that important, she'd have been saving since last time. I won't go too much into it, but long story short, my mom will be going to say goodbye to her mom one last time. IF, for whatever reason, she decides to hold on again, my mom's on her own.

In other, much happier, news...my car account no longer shows when I log into Wells Fargo! This means, the account's been closed. However, it is a bit concerning that I can't see the final applied payment and how much overage I paid, so I know what to expect back...

What an ordeal!

October 22nd, 2014 at 07:01 pm

So, this morning when I checked my bank account, I saw my paycheck had more than enough to cover the remaining car balance, so I was super excited when I got to the office to make the last payment and be done! Despite clearly stating on the website what my payoff amount was and the wording 'Please make a payment in this amount to pay off the loan,' when I hit submit, I received an error that my payment could not be more than the remaining balance. Thinking the amount was incorrect on the website, I called the company. After 15 minutes of transfers and holds, I got the right person only to hear that they no longer allow payoffs online. Since I didn't want to pay the fees to do it over the phone, I decided to visit a branch as there is one right up the street. My boss knew this was important to me and let me go right then rather than waiting until lunch. So, I drive up the street only to find out...

The branch moved! Once I made it to the new branch, the guy spent 10 minutes on the phone with the same system I'd already been through only to communicate that my payoff was more than it stated online. He explained that he was trying to account for residuals, so I let it slide since that overage money is supposed to come back to me. He then says, 'Are you paying cash?' I said no because I have a debit card. His response is the bank doesn't take debit cards...WHAT?!??! I have never encountered a bank that does not let you make a bill payment using a debit card, regardless of whether it belongs to that particular bank. In the end, the lady that processed the payment did a cash advance against my card (ridiculous given it's a debit card...) and then applied the payment. I'm not sure what, if any, fees are associated with the cash advance from my bank's side, but the phone payment would have been much less hassle.

BUT AT LEAST MY CAR IS PAID!!!!!!

Fingers crossed, they don't try to tack on some other ridiculous non-existent fees.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

October 20th, 2014 at 07:10 pm

I can't believe I'm so close to getting my first car paid off (1131 left!!!); I haven't carried a card balance in months; and I was able to fully finance a four-person vacation to Vegas! I've come so far in this past year, it's unbelievable. This only pushes me to continue moving forward. But there's something new, I found out SO and I are on the same page regarding our future even though it's only been 3 months. This will require some thinking through as I want to be best prepared for us moving forward. I don't think it effects anything short-term other than my moving. I'm still planning on my own place, but SO will be a part of the decision making process and location will be a factor as I'm looking to move closer to him. Long-term, it will be a much bigger adjustment and unknown and SO's job will probably require one (or more) moves. I will say that I'm so incredibly happy he's in my life and I'm confident whatever comes, we'll handle it together!

It's so close I can practically touch it!

October 17th, 2014 at 07:32 pm

I'm about 2 weeks away from being able to call my car all mine! Just sent in another big payment. With my next paycheck, 2/3 of it are going to the car and that should do it. I can't believe it!!

I'm back! (And I didn't lose my shirt...)

October 8th, 2014 at 06:01 pm

I've actually been back from the Vegas trip for a few days, but it's been a struggle adjusting back. I'll have to do a formal numbers update this weekend once all the smoke clears, but for the sheer amount of stuff we did, I think we came out pretty well. One of my favorite things was the $10 credit we got each day at the Planet Hollywood restaurant from the Power Passes (bought with my mom's credit card points). Combining all 3 got us $30 to spend there each day (2 t-shirts, 2 tall beer glasses, 4 shot glasses = all sounvenirs).

In other news, I was able to clear the credit card my mom ran up (and I took it away). I worked out a payment plan with her, so everything she gives back goes into the moving fund. I also just made another car payment. I think (fingers crossed!) that I may actually be able to pay it off this month!! October was my original goal before Vegas happened, so that would be really amazing to be able to stick to it.