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
8 comments:
It seems I get a lot of my 'news' from your writing. So, the fine folks in congress, with their perks, their pensions, their salary, their little 'fact finding tours' who have sold out our jobs to outsourcing, let huge companies shield their wealth in offshore accounts, pay seven digit bonuses to their top execs and come whining to the govt for bailouts...these fine folks have decided they have been generous enough (with our own damn money incidentally) that it is tough shit if you are out of work and no jobs?
Actually, it is far worse than you have desribed, but your description is certainly sufficient.
What didn't set well with me on the subject of eliminating extended (for the record: unemployment benefits are not going away, they are receding to the to maximum benefits as they were before this recession began) ....... is that the Republicans found it a sufficient and palpable platform to stand on to reject a further lifeline, yet everything else is status quo. Democrats have nothing to stand on with their decry that the GOP has taken a stand against out of control spending - a health care plan that will, in the end, costs TRILLIONS of dollars and also will, if it makes it that far and in the end, leave it up to the governement whether you live or die, it outrageous at best.
I have no collusion sentiments for either party - they all got us into this mess. But - the mess has greatly increased with the current administration and I see no end in sight. Government will control everything with any impotence if Obama has his way. If he still resides as president after 4 full years, it will not be the America I grew up in. The land of the free will be the land of the oppressed. I would say mark my words, but you know full well. If this man is not impeached, the consequences will be improbable.
I'm curious to know how exactly you think you're are, or are going to be, "oppressed" by Obama? I thought he was helping low income folks like you, i.e., his loan modification program. BTW, republican administrations have ALWAYS outspent democratic administrations by a large margin.
http://news.techworld.com/security/3228198/obama-internet-kill-switch-plan-approved-by-us-senate/?olo=rss
I'll be glad to discuss my view of it when you reveal who you are. I am not going to entertain anonymous discussions with a person that is apparently an Obama lover. I'm guessing someone from KCL. If not, then please refrain from commenting on my blog.
ben
The link posted is just one example of an oppressive government having overly --- far overly reaching powers to trample on the rights of the citizens it is supposed to be serving. Another is a trillion dollar health care bill where the truth is finally starting to come out: A large percentage of companies will have to opt out of private plans because they will not be able to afford it, meaning government run health care. Obama himself has made statements saying that there is nothing wrong with bigger government. It goes on, and on, and on. This IS becoming an oppressive government - that's my view of it and I don't care if anyone agrees with me or not.
ben
Really, thinking about it further, the government, and more specifically, Obama, would have us hand to him all of our money. We are not capable of running our own lives or thinking for ourselves, he and his cronies apparently want to do it for us. When people started saying that we are heading towards a socialist nation with this president, I balked at that at first. In reality, it is going WELL beyond that point and well away from the intentions of the founding fathers and the Constitution. What business does government have owning private businesses? Why should government be controlling wall street? Let the chips fall where they may. While we're spending all of this money that we don't have and won't have for generations to come, our borders are virtually wide open in certain areas, Nogales police force has been threatened by Mexican drug cartels; people living along the border on both sides are in fear for their lives.
I, for one, am hopeful that an initiative is started after the November elections, if the election results are what many believe they will be, to dump the health care bill. The cost of the bill is going to be far greater than anything any of those people - liars - said it was going to be. I knew this before they said anything - there is no way you can add tens of millions of people to health care and not see the costs skyrocket. There is also no way to have the Federal Government running it without it tripling or quadrupling in costs that normally would be associated with it. It will become an open target for abuse and the day will come when the government will decide whether we live or die in any complicated, high-cost type of surgery or medical treatment.
Oh, and finally before I get offa here and get junk done around my house, how about this little deal with Congress not passing a budget until AFTER the elections? Please explain that away.
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