Saturday, February 9, 2008

Real Life

It's not that I don't have anything to write about, I just haven't had much time to write it. If you add in my commute, my work day is about 11 hours long, then by the time I do what I need to get done around the house and spend some time with Kat and Shane, there isn't much time left over for blogging.

Except for that 3-week temp job back in November, I haven't done the 40-hour-week routine since the summer of 2000. It's taking me a while to get back in to the swing of it. I figure I'll have my energy level up and all the kinks worked out of my daily routine by the time they lay me off for the season in May or June.

Until then, I'm going to try to write some things on the weekends and post them occasionally throughout the week.

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On an entirely unrelated note, I made a careless (and thankfully relatively small) mistake in our finances. A few months ago, we opened a new interest-earning checking account. However, we left the old account open because I'd already submitted paperwork to my employer to have my check directly deposited into it (I work for the guv'ment and it's a hassle to change something even that simple), and also because we want to keep my money separated, for the most part, from our general living expenses.

Anyway, the account is open, but only has a few dollars in it right now. But somehow, in switching everything to the new account, I forgot about our Netflix account. So when they took the February payment out yesterday, it caused an overdraft and a $25 charge.

The OD charge has been taken care of, and Netflix has been moved to the other account, but I guess we're gonna have to watch an awful lot of movies this month to make up for it.

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I filed our tax return last Monday and should be getting the refund deposit within a week or so. It should make a noticeable difference in the stats on my sidebar.

As for the "economic stimulus" rebate check most of will be getting later this year, I think we've decided to be "good patriotic Americans" and go ahead and spend it like we're being told to do. But we aren't going to spend it on frivolities. We'll be buying more of the materials (hopefully the rest of them) that we need to build a second bathroom in our home. We're adding a second bathroom primarily for our own convenience, but most of the home improvement articles I've read state that a second bathroom could add as much as 9-10% to the value of our single-bathroom home.

Seems like a great way for us to spend that money.

6 comments:

Seals said...

We're in a bit of a financial pickle right now too. I forgot to record a car payment into the checking account last month and it took us a while to realize the mistake.

Stupid check charges are like $30 now! That one mistake cost us a fortune.

We're trying to refinance our house to get rid of all the credit card debt and do something different with our cars too. I'm tired of dealing with all of it.

Have a nice weekend. :)

Sheila said...

I've owed on my taxes the last couple of years... I used to get nice refunds to help pay off bills.

Do you think outhouses increase the value of a home, because I don't have a place to put another bathroom in here? ;)

DadGuy said...

I am pretty annoyed by the "rebate" we are getting this year. From what I understand it will all be re-payable next year on our taxes, so it's more like a no-interest loan. I'd rather count on a tax return than have it now. We'll probably use it the same way regardless (More money in the pot for the basement) but still, it's kind of annoying that they're not up front about that. It's one thing to give people a kick to stimulate the economy, it's another to sent the general american populous further in debt. Ah well, I'll get over it.

Glad the job is working out!

Bob said...

The rebate is not added to next years tax liability. CNN had reported that it was, but retracted their statement and corrected it. It is actually a tax cut for 2008.

Hopefully our check will come right around vacation time. If so, I'll probably spend some of it at Six Flags. But a second bathroom seems like a good idea too. We already have one in the basement, but it needs a wall to separate it from the laundry area, and a ceiling. Floor tile would be nice too.

Donna said...

Well Sweetie, sounds like your "plate" is rather full right now!! I'll be checking on you throughout the week for new post..don't worry...I'll Be Back...(I'm an Arnold fan) lolol Have a great week!

Tug said...

So do we have to DO anything for this tax rebate thing?

I used my refund this year to pay bills and pay off my credit cards - it didn't last, but the debt is gone & that's awesome.