Well, that was a fail of a week

Posted on October 3, 2020 by A Dreamer

I managed to get near nothing done around the house, and the water folks are still coming in two weeks.

I cannot help but suspect my need for a root canal has contributed to my general sluggishness – will be getting that confirmed Monday morning and will likely be on a course of antibiotics before the actual work is done as I am quite certain that tooth is infected as fuck, despite all my attempts to stay healthy. (What I had written off earlier in the week as tension headaches…yeah, that was the tooth starting to fire off.)

But, that all being said, the world still spins on its axis and I need to get shit done… I know from experience that if I just shoot for 10-20% of my “fucking off” time as cleaning time – it will make a difference.

It’s just getting off my ass and getting started that is the problem.

I did get *one* tiny thing done this week – Lily’s feeding station. (Thank you again Home Edit ladies for giving me the idea.) It’s nice and neat and everything is right in one place. Oddly soothing.

A black metal basket with cat food and treats in it
So organized!

So, time to set the timer, work in small chunks, and believe that I will soon see enough results to keep me going.

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It’s always fucking something, isn’t it?

Posted on October 1, 2020 by A Dreamer

The check engine light went off in my car, so it may have just been a glitchy thing.

Paid off the care credit balance before the 0% offer expired.

Now need to make a dental appointment, cause I am 99% sure I need a fucking root canal and possibly a crown.

In a pandemic.

Trying to find the positives…

I do have insurance, which will cover a sliver of the cost.

I have a ton of room on my care credit account again and it should qualify for a 6 month 0% deal.

I have $1250 in flex spending money.

Maybe I’ll get super lucky and it will just be a root canal.

Let’s all say a prayer to the dental gods that it’s not another fucking implant, cause I cannot afford that shit.

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So, those non-vacation routines

Posted on September 26, 2020 by A Dreamer

Still haven’t come back AT ALL. That being said, the water company is coming to fix the broken meter on October 17, so at least I have a deadline to get me going. (We will try not to dwell on needing a deadline to accomplish anything.)

Tody app showing 29 items due and 0 done.
Ugh.

On the financial progress front… Fuck. My. Life. So, we had pandemic pay cuts, and they will thankfully end with the next pay period.

And of course, OF COURSE, today the check engine light on my car came on.

I was able to pull the code and it appears it is the throttle position sensor, which does not seem to be an ungodly expensive replacement, thank god. I also need to have them check the damn oil pressure sensor again, it was just replaced like 3 months ago and it still occasionally flickers on and off. I’m wondering if they replaced the bad sensor with another bad sensor, which is what I ran into with the thermostat this summer. (I did just check the oil level itself, it’s fine, so it’s the sensor, thank you sweet baby jesus.)

My brother owes me a fuckton of money, and I should have it shortly, it’s not like he’s holding out on me or anything, but I was going to take that and turn around and get my Care Credit balance taken care of and out of the way – but yeah…we’re gonna hold off on that until we get the final car bill.

The potentially good news here, is that thanks to USPS informed delivery where they give me a picture of the mail I will supposedly be getting later in the day and my brother & I both have envelopes from our local auto shop – fingers crossed for a coupon!!!

But, seriously, this year – it’s just always something. Massive car bill in January. Pandemic in March. Pay cut in April. Another car bill in June. Big ol’ tax bills in July *and* August. No stimulus $$. My bar bill has gone down, but every other damn bill has stayed steady and the grocery bill has gone through the damn roof.

It’s just hard to stay positive and that lack of positivity has pretty much put me into the fetal position.

But, onwards.

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Getting back to non-vacation routines

Posted on July 23, 2020 by A Dreamer

Is not easy. AT ALL. As in, I haven’t been able to do it in the slightest.

Work? Sure, haven’t missed a beat.

House? HAHAHAHAHAHA.

And I have to get back on top of things here as the water company needs to come out and fix the broken meter.

Wheeeee.

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The interwebs tell me

Posted on July 16, 2020 by A Dreamer

The credit limit slashing is a response to the pandemic.

I get it, but it’s still a shitty response.

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And another thing…

Posted on July 16, 2020 by A Dreamer

It’s bad enough that I’m thinking of this on vacation.

Now I have to re-prioritize how I’m paying things to unfuck the ratios.

Getting the ratios unfucked could take at least six months.

I have to go back to hyper monitoring my credit score. (It had been going up, even through today – the next reporting period should be delightful.)

I also have you hyper monitor all my other accounts to see if they decide to follow suit and slash those limits down to the balances, further fucking my credit score.

30 years. Never missed a payment. Never went over limit.

I’m going to go try and enjoy my last day here and worry about fixing it all this weekend when I’m back home.

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Well, fuck you, too, Citi.

Posted on July 16, 2020 by A Dreamer

First, we made it to the beach for our annual getaway and it’s lovely and I’m more determined than ever to get here permanently.

As you saw from the week in charts a bit back, I have debt. I’d love to blame it on being a wastrel, but since I started grad school in 2011, I’ve managed to incur 6 figures worth of dental expenses. I didn’t get a decent paying gig until 2016, so yes, there is debt. I’m not proud or pleased with it, but it is what it is.

Three cards are owned by Citi. It wasn’t always that way – one was always Citi, the other two were bought by them.

I don’t really use them – one has a monthly $14 charge, one has an annual $140 charge, and one has my annual Costco dues. I’ve just been plodding along paying them down.

I have a fantastic Amazon Visa card I use for daily expenses that is paid in full every month. It’s not a high balance card, but perfect for the day to day stuff with a great reward program.

As of last week, the Citi cards had over 8K in available credit. As of Tuesday, it was $230. Spoiler: I have not spent $8,000 in a week.

I had decided to use one of the Citi cards for vacation expenses just to keep it on one card and not blow up my Amazon Visa. There was TONS of room on the card and those expenses were going to get paid on top of the next payment.

Friday I used it at the gas station before we left and it locked up for fraud when I tried to buy smokes. (Don’t @ me.) By the time I got back in the car, I had a text from them and unlocked it.

Used it a few times once we got here – morning coffees, a couple dinners, nothing extravagant. It flaked on me at the gas station again yesterday. I didn’t think anything of it, assumed another fraud lock, and used my Amazon card.

Logged on today to discover I was maxed out. Those fuckers dropped the limits on all three cards to the point where the balance was 97.5% of the available credit.

The reasoning? High balances in relation to limits and not large enough payments. SO YOU MAKE THE RATIO OF CREDIT USED EVEN WORSE?

I’ve also never missed a payment, EVER, not in 30 years of having credit cards.

But sure, please fuck my credit score in the middle of a pandemic.

They also had the balls to do the “is your income correct” pop up. Yes, cause I didn’t update it when I got my raise that evaporated with the fucking plague coming to town.

I can only assume that the fact that I decided to actually USE one of the cards is what triggered it.

I got paid today, so I immediately made payments on all three to bring that ratio down, but jesus fucking christ.

Fuckers.

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Well, would you look at that…

Posted on July 6, 2020 by A Dreamer

Screenshot_20200705-193134_One UI Home.jpgAs you can see – it’s been a productive day.  Hell, a very productive long weekend in general.  I suppose it’s easier when you don’t have anywhere to go or anything else to do…

While things aren’t exactly where I’d love them to be, they are at a state of good enough for the moment, and I’ve gotten enough taken care of that if I have to work some long hours the next 3 days, it’s OK, I won’t be up until midnight Thursday trying to get things done before vacation.

Lots of visible progress, which is important for me – if I can *see* that taking this time is making a difference, the more likely I am to keep it up.

The bathrooms are sparkling, the kitchen is… half-sparkling, LOL.  Laundry is pretty much all caught up.  Bedroom still needs a fair amount of work, but that’s OK, I’m getting there.

It’s all good.

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Well, that’s a stupid problem

Posted on July 4, 2020 by A Dreamer

The trash bin is just about full from all the cleaning…

And they only pick up once a week now. Which is Thursday.

And because of the pandemic, they won’t pick up anything not in the bin.

I’m not going to stop cleaning until trash pickup (but it’s very tempting) but I guess I’ll just have to find a place for all the non-food trash bags until post-pickup on Thursday.

But really, what a dumb problem.

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Success!!

Posted on July 3, 2020 by A Dreamer

Hit the 10% goal! Up and down over the course of the week, but over 10% total. House is starting to look fractionally better. Powder room is sparkling! Kitchen is getting there! Main bathroom is halfway there. Bedroom looks *slightly* less like a tornado hit it.

Very, very pleased with myself, but I do need to figure out how to not crash immediately after work – that was a problem this week, and a big one. (If I hadn’t had today off, I wouldn’t have made it.)

But, it’s all progress.

So…when can I move?? 5.6 years
When can I retire? 12.9 years

Net worth is going up, debt down, so we’re going in the right direction.

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