timeline of stupidity

[lauralh]

4/19 - decide to pay my credit card off. Put -xx for that in planned budget

4/26 - credit card paid off. I underestimated by about $25, and therefore changed the budget to reflect this. Or at least I thought about it. Didn't.

5/6 - a check for about $25 goes through for my strep throat culture from January (got the bill in april); before this my bank acct matched my balance. Before I see it, I write a check for my bank balance+paycheck coming in the next day, for rent.

5/7 - the paycheck comes in with no problem and steve deposits my rent check.

5/11, 9am - I check my bank account and panic; it's under the amount the check I wrote last week by about $23.

9:30am - I wake up my boyfriend, still abed in my room, to inform him that I desperately need a loan (overdraft fees are like $60). I tell him he can go back to sleep till the proper wake up call.

11am - I call him again.

11:15 - He calls me; the restaurant holding his debit card hostage isn't opening till 4pm, so his only option is to use his credit card for a cash advance. They'll probably charge him about $20, but as that's less than $60 he goes for it.

12:15 - He drives downtown to hand it to me. He got $40, of course, as it's an ATM and he also wanted me to have some extra cash.

12:30 - I go to Wells Fargo to deposit the cash.

1:55 - the rent check goes through; I have $17 in my bank acct.

7pm - I transfer $40 from an online bank; it will take two days to go through.

YESTERDAY:

2pm - I notice that my domain name is expiring in under a month. I go to a site to renew it for $12.

4pm - I get home from work and decide to go to the grocery store, as I am mostly out of vegetables.

4:05 - I am halfway there and realize that 17-12=$5 which isn't really anything. But I will use the credit card option of my debit card, and maybe the other $12 won't have gone through yet.

4:45 - I get home, check my balance. $5. I panic, write myself a discover card check for $30, and walk the six blocks to my bank.

5:05 - The ATM claims my balance is $17 again.

5:30 - I get home all sweaty but relieved.

Comments

[hydrozoa.livejournal.com]

dude, i do this shit all the time, so i try to keep around $100 in savings at all times, reserved only for bank-balance emergencies. i dunno if it'd burn a hole in your pocket or what, but you could do $20 or whatever, squirrel it away in when you have it. comes in extra-special handy for those last two days before payday.

i guess it's kinda obvious, though, hunh.

[herbaliser.livejournal.com]

yeah, the budget helps, but again only if I register all my payments in the spreadsheet. Darrrrrr.

[twirlingtulip.livejournal.com]

THATS too confusing those credit card companies are evil

young kids are not supposed to leave their parents homes until well into their forties

[herbaliser.livejournal.com]

well, it was my own fault. I just need to make more goddamned money; I never had this problem when I was making 50K a year.

[twirlingtulip.livejournal.com]

its not your fault that the system screws the poor kids. Money managment is the toughest thing to deal with esp when youre young and there is so much that needs to be bought and not enough money.

[audiguy.livejournal.com]

A little late, but whatever.

Things I did to fix my tendency to make mistakes.

1.) Get direct deposit (or try to)
2.) Quit Writing Checks (most things you don't need to anyways)
3.) Use online billpay (money is taken out of your account immediately)
4.) Leave at least $25 in your bank account

Doing all those have kept me error free for at least 2 years despite the fact that a pay like a billion bills a month. Lately though I've stopped using my checking account for anything, but paying bills. Its easier for me make a large payment to visa every month and just use that to pay for food/entertainment/etc.

[vileinfestation.livejournal.com]

Time to start stealing things! Works for me.