Don't People Ever CALL anymore?

I got my mobile phone bill and almost choked.  It was $100.  Like I have not had a bill that high since last year when I had to call into work from the UK (and work reimbursed me for all the calls).  Granted part of this bill was an outgoing call I made to a friend in Italy, but most of the overage charges have been to text messages.  Last fall I upgraded my calling plan and it worked fine for me. I was keeping within my minutes and life was good.

UNTIL-most of my friends became text addicts.  I mean they text all the flipping time, even when they don't even need to.  I'd get two or three texts for something that a 10 second phone call could cover.  I've fallen into the habit of responding to these texts, sometimes with those silly emoticons and abbreviations.  you know,  :)  :(   ;)  C U L8r.

I know I'm showing my age, but do we really need to document every movement with a text?  I've made a promise to myself to really restrict my texting to the absolute minimum and then it will only be a response if need be.  I'm going back to phone calls.....and yes, I still hand write letters too!

Bills Paid~Money In and Money Out~

I paid my car note, electric, phone, mobile phone, some hobby expenses and the last part of my homeowners insurance this week. I also posted a payment to my Credit Card. I had hoped to get my second job pay check and use part of that for the remainder of the credit card, but I forgot to submit my hours and missed the pay cycle. I want to keep cash in my account.

I hate when I do that, I've done it before. Since it is my fault, I don't like to ask for an exception and get a check cut. I just spaced since I had done my volunteer thing I had not submitted my "time sheet". Plus the boss has been flat out busy with events all over New England, and the upper Mid-Atlantic States and for what ever reason, he will remind me if he does not see my hours in the "to be paid" file. Ah well, most of that money has been earmarked for my new gutters anyway.

I probably going to upgrade my mobile phone plan. The past few months I've really been using my phone and have had two really large phone bills because I've exceeded my minutes. The plan I currently have is the most basic, mainly lots of minutes on the weekends, which was fine as I mainly used my phone on the weekends in the past. For reasons unknown to me, my weekday usage in slowly creeping up (I looked at the past six months of bills) and the per minute charge if I go over my alloted minutes is outrageous. I think I'll be OK if I go one step up in billing plans. I won't have to renew a contract as I've been a long time customer (read-over two years). I'll also check out other phone carriers and see if I can get a better deal. Now that I can keep my phone number if I switch carriers, I may be able to find a better plan!

The New Steps for July For Me and For Others

Step one, use some sort of money tracking software.

Here is the insane part. I did a very sketchy budget spending plan based on my income and you know what, I'm supposed to have an additional $200 left over each month AFTER I pay my monthly bills, put money into my E-fund, and I have given myself liberal amounts of money to cover things like food and hobby. AND this is on my reduced income. WHY don't and did I not I save more? Because as I've pointed out before, I'm not an aggressive saver at all. I'm barely a passive saver. I could have fully funded my E-fund on the money I spent on wants this past spring, but I've decided to stop beating myself up over this and move on.

I can hear you all saying, but Betty aren't PF blogger supposed to use things like Quicken,Mint, or some fabulous spreadsheet. The truth of the matter is there is a segment of us that don't. I fall into that segment.

Part of me just did not or could not face up to my spending. I had all my bills paid, had my needs taken care of, and was able to get some wants. It was the excessive wants that did me in this past May.

The Mess of May did disturb me. I took out my frustrations in my life by spending money and even by keeping all my receipts and looking at them, I still really did not have a true sense of where I spent my money. Actually, I did not want to admit to myself where and what I spent my money on. I was keeping my head in the sand, so to speak.

I need to take the next few giant steps in my bouncing back from bankruptcy stage. The next steps will make or break my progress.

I need to become more aggressive about saving money. It could be paying myself first, it could be curbing my spending and then taking the extra money and putting it into my Credit Union account.

I need to be better about a budget spending plan and sticking to it.

I need to stop rationalizing my choices and not just talking the talk, but walking the walk.

Maybe, just maybe, this will be one way to stop feeling so stuck and to continue to bounce back.

Why I Read My Supposed Junk Mail- I got Slammed by my Own Phone Company

It's not because I have some sick fascination with letters, it's because many times legitimate letters and bills can be disguised as "junk mail'. Like the letter I got yesterday from Sprint welcoming me as a 'new long distance customer".

New customer? I don't have long distance phone service from anyone. I had it turned off about 2 years ago when I discovered that I got better rates using a calling card for my inter and intra state long distance phone calls. The basic Sprint fees alone were $7.99, less any usage charges. For $8 a month, I get something like 300 minutes of talk time on my calling card. I really don't use my land line all that much. 300 minutes of talk time can last me a very long time,like a couple months.

I called Sprint ASAP and they told me that my local carrier, ATT, set up the long distance. I did get Sprint to cancel the account, telling them that I never authorized any one to set up an account and I sure as hell did not and would not be responsible for any charges. I then called ATT and sat on the phone for 30 minutes while the "customer service" agent insisted I set up the Long Distance service. I told him that I never did, I used a calling card, and my last Long Distance company was MCI. The customer service agent said if I dialed Long Distance on my phone, I'd be using Sprint, unless I had all Long Distance turned off. I sighed and said, Yes, exactly, I can not dial ANY long distance inter state or intra state, I HAD the Long Distance turned off, you, ATT have without my permission, signed me up for Sprint Long Distance. I want a block put on my line. You, ATT, have slammed me. If you are not able to put a block on my line, then lets get a manager who can. It's very simple, I don't want ANY long distance service unless I call in to authorize it.

I was not in a mood to deal with ATT. I've had to call them several times and each time it was a miserable experience. First, they wanted to sell me all sorts of calling plans and services I don't want, and then they want to know why I don't want these "fabulous" plans. I guess they have a hard time understanding the phrase-No, I'm not interested. Their revenge-to slam me!

The funny thing was the last time (like last February) I called ATT I was assured that the notation on my bill stating Sprint was my chosen carrier was a default statement and I was assured I did not have any Long Distance Carrier.

I'm not happy with the waste of 40 minutes of my time calling Sprint and ATT. I know I had a block on the line to begin with and pretty much, ATT over rode the block as a 'service' to me it's 'valued' customer.

The lesson here is even though that envelope may look like junk mail, you do have to take a few moments to open it and read it through. Had I just glanced at it and tossed it in the recycle pile, I would have had an account and related fees I never authorized or wanted.

Pay Day So Bills Got Paid

Payday was today, I get paid on the 15th and the 30/31st of each month. I paid the car note, the student loan note, the telephone bills (land and mobile), paid back the last money owed to a friend for some real estate fees (yeah!), gassed up the car (gas is $3.55/gal in my area), I transferred money to my HSA and I will pay my health insurance tomorrow. The middle of the month I usually pay my mortgage, my car insurance and my electric bill. I may pay it this week to get it out of the way. I just want to see my bill in-basket more on the empty side rather than the full side.

I'm working my second job this weekend, so I won't be food shopping for a lot of food (my meals will be covered). I do have a food shopping expedition planned for next week. Time to load up on various pantry staples that I am getting low on. That will help me with my meal planning that has gone to the wayside this past month. Not having various pantry staples makes me want to NOT cook or be a creative cook. Uninspired pasta and rice dishes very rarely satisfy the palate, don't make for good lunchovers, which leads to buying over priced food at our local (and only) deli/market close to work. A pint of soup costs $4. I can make 8 quarts of chicken soup for $6.

I will say, it does feel good to have the bills paid early!

Why I Don't Automate My Fiscal Life

Lots of people in the PF world are big into auto payments and auto debits. I'm not. Maybe it's my generation, maybe it's me, but I'm not really into auto payments that I don't have control over. The one time I set up an auto payment, it was a disaster. I did it with my old mortgage company and one month they triple debited me. Let's just say the chain reaction of bounced checks was insane. My bank was good enough to realize the error was the fault of the mortgage company and paid a number of checks without increasing my overdraft, it took three days for the mortgage company to refund the extra debits. Actually if I remember, they just asked if I wanted the extra debits credited for the next two months. I remember shrieking NOOOOOO. They did pay the overdraft fees as well, but needless to say the whole experience left me a little jaded on the auto debit feature.

I auto debit on two payments, one is my EZ Pass ($25 at a time and maybe once every couple months depending on my travel) and my mobile phone bill. Everything else is either paid by check or with me having control over processing the payment from my checking account to the merchant.

I am very leery about giving any one my bank information, even another bank. I make the time twice a month to sit down, look at my bills write out the checks, and mail them. It gives me a sense of satisfaction to write out the checks and send them off. Lest you say "Betty aren't you afraid that you mail might get lost and not make it on time?" Yes that is always a real possibility, but anything of great importance (like my car note right now), I send with a tracking number. I'm a little leery of my car loan bank, they don't have the best reputation, so I'd rather be safe than sorry. I've had freakier things happen with auto debits than with the US Mail.

So Lets Take A More Upbeat Approach

As I re-read some of mys post, I realized they were DEPRESSING. Yup, plain old DEPRESSING. Time for a more upbeat post. While I am going through this process I've been reading a ton of other blogs, and the theme I keep seeing this week is about de-cluttering your life.

All in all, I think de-cluttering is a good thing. I live in a really small house it is 476 sf, yup thats 476 sf of tiny. No garage, no attic, no basement, one very small garden shed outback. When I pick up and organize I feel so much better, in control, able to face the day. Some of these tips may make me sound like your mother, but so be it, they work.

1) Put away your clothes. I'm serious, fold your laundry and put it away (closet, dresser, wardrobe). I spent two weeks looking at my laundry basket of clothes to be ironed. I spent an hour ironin my clothes and put them away. One less pile to stare at and I know I have something clean to wear at work.

2) Do a clothes purge. Go through your closet and look at what you have in it. Be ruthless, do you really need all those pants, shirts, tops? If they are in decent shape you can sell them on
e-bay, give to a consignment shop, donate to goodwill or post on freecycle or craigslist, or have a clothing swap with friends. This way you will have room in your closet to put away your clothes.

3) Take a couple hours one evening and clean off your desk or bill paying area. Don't do this after a couple glasses of wine, have the wine after. I'm a bit of an organization freak and part of what drove me to bankruptcy was allowing myself to become un-organized, seriously, I lost control of my life. Get either one of those expandable files or a set of file folders if you have a filing cabinet and organize your bills. If you are computer literate, sign up for electronic bills, save them to your computer and "file" the monthly statement. Even your power company may send you an e-bill. Having a clean desk is not the sign of an unproductive mind it is the sign of someone who knows whats going on in their life. This is also handy for planning your budgets (more on those later)

4) Sign up for the do not call list and eliminate the junk mail from your life as well. By spending about 10-20 minutes on line, you can drastically reducde the amount of unwanted e-mail, phone solicitations, etc in your life. I use a PO box for most my mail and when I pick up my mail at the Post Office, the junk mail is immediatley put into the recycle bin. I find the mail I pick up at my mail box will sit on my desk for days until I actually get around to dumping the junk mail.

5) Get rid of your old magazines, newspapers, books, etc as well. Books you can donate to the local library. I sell some on half.com .

6) Now this one may sound really wierd, but clean out your refridgerator. I like to cook and I have a bunch of half opened jars of all sorts of condiments, sauces and things just sitting in the fridge. I grabbed the garbage can and went through everything. If I did not use it in the past 3 months, out it went, check those expiry dates, salad cream with an expiration date of October 2006~ Dump it. I also wiped down the shelves, etc. I have less garbage in my fridge, not less food. And less chance of giving myself food poisioning. :)

Now you may say, why the cleaning frenzy? It's all about getting and giving yourself some space and clarity in your life. I tend to feel very overwhelmed when I look at my un-organized desk. Even just putting my bills in files, dusting, making neat piles of paper allows me to tackle one project at a time and not feel like I'm tripping all over myself.

Putting my laundry away means one less pile of "stuff" to look at. Giving away or selling things I no longer need,use,want, wonder why the hell I bought it means these items will go to someone who can actually use a fondue pot (yup I had a fondue pot and never used it, it moved with me 3 times in 8 years).

AND at the end of the night, yes I did treat myself to a nice large glass of wine.