Saturday, June 26, 2010

Saturday

A person in Carefree is giving away his Koi and Goldfish today. I wish I had the desire to drive 40 miles one way to get them, free is always good.
No biggies, I just wanted to add some Koi with the goldfish I have in there already.

I haven't eaten since sometime yesterday afternoon, about 17 hours ago. No way do I want to get off track the weight that keeps falling off of me, I tend to kick it into high gear by not eating for a while and then eating very small portions. It has been working so far, see if it does any good by the time the weekend is over. I will not be able to weigh myself again until work Monday morning.

Female tenant left for 2 weeks. She is watching her mother's house while they are away on vacation. Gotta love the people that rent out a room in your house, then tell you they're going to be gone for 2 weeks and then hint at not paying rent since they won't be there. Not the first time, probably not the last. I refuse them every time. The room is rented whether you are staying here or not, that isn't my problem. I'm sorry you're having finanial difficulties, tell me about it, I have plenty and consistent, on-time payments are the only thing that are going to do anything for me right now.

Great sales on food at various supermarkets right now. This is when I wish I had a freezer, I would fill the thing up with cheap - but good - chicken breast and other goodies that are on huge sale. I will buy some, of course, but not that much.

There isn't much more I can do right now to save additional money on electricity. Only if everyone leaves - then I can turn the thermostat up 4 or 5 degrees. I do have a standing, posted rule at this point that no laundry is to be done between the hours of 10:00 pm and 6:00 pm to help keep the indoor heating down.

Well, the first month of hell heat is almost over - and from the records, June is the highest use of electricity, it tapers down a bit in July and August. Still, 2 more months of excessive energy use - this is going to be a struggle to make it through this unless, by some miracle, my company decides to give us our hours back. From the looks of it, that is one of those things you might all a pipe dream.

For the news, although it is going to be hell for many people, I am in full agreement with this money train running out and not extending unemployment benefits. Is anyone in the Federal government even the slightest bit afraid of the consequences of unbridled, runaway spending? Obviously not - excepting those Republicans that stood up against the unemployment free for all. Look, I have great sympathy for those people, but you're talking people that have been on unemployment for a long, long time now. Sooner or later, the gravy train has to end. I hope I don't ever have to face such, even gave some consideration to that before even writing this - I have contingency plans if it ever happened. Very unpleasant contingency plants, yes, but I do have a nuclear fallout plan that includes living in my own back yard and renting every room in the house.

Preposterous, maybe. If you have no money, you can't stay anywhere. You live on the streets. Well, I would rather live in my back yard than on the streets. Renting all 5 rooms would pay the mortgage, electricity and water. I don't know about anything else - keeping on internet and satellite might be a difficult road to ho.

However, in the industry I am in, junk, cheap jobs are available if nothing else. OTR is always there as well. Yup, life would suck, but it would be better than the alternatives. I can't imagine driving a big rig for $10 per hour, but there are those that are doing it.

Enough of that - though I expect the desperate people posting on Craigslist here, locally, to multiply exponentially. As for me, I am still considering paying off one of the 401k loans and getting another one. I owe around $800 on one and $1,200 on another. I have enough money in my 401k account that I could turn around and take out around $2,500 or so. You can only take out a percentage of what you have and that percentage drops every time you get a loan. Minus the $800 to pay it off to get another one, that's $1,700 left over. I have absolutely nothing for an emergency - which really, I'm in the middle of one right now. Financially, that is. I will be doing a new budget - again - haven't done one since the beginning of this year - and see what I need to do to stay afloat. Food is always a thing that can be "adjusted". Mac and cheese; cheap tuna fish; peanut butter that's on sale. Ramen noodles and hot dogs. Most of that junk is high sodium, fat calories and pure garbage, not so good for your health, but it is food. I am not saying I am there yet, I am going to do a realistic budget as soon as I'm done with this entry.

Temp tenants are headed to Walmart to cash a check and give me money. They are outta here today or tomorrow morning, apparently they found an apartment. It's $75 I didn't have, they have only been here 4 or 5 days and they haven't been here that much. Straight to electricity is where that money plus the money the female tenant gave me last weekend will go. I hate living like this, but, I know that I am most certainly not in this boat alone.

And, I'm very glad not to be an occupant of another boat: unemployed and benefits running out this month. That would TRULY suck is all I can say about that. I truly feel for those people. I wish I had some extra funds that I could start up the feeding thing again, it's going to happen - people that at one time were bringing in 5 and 6 figures will be so desperate they will literally beg on Craigslist for food help. I can't currently justify spending the money it takes to have a large group of people over eating, I can't afford it right now.

Anyway, the bug is in, I must get to scribbling out my budget, what I am getting and what I need to do to float.

G'day.

ben

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