Monthly Archives: September 2016

debt

We received an ironic notice from EDD yesterday

For those of you who don’t know, California “upgraded” its EDD payment processing system on September 1. It didn’t work any better than the Obamacare exchange, consequently, all Californian’s on unemployment did not get a benefits check until about September 23. By October 15, 20% still had not seen a benefits check since August 23 (we were in that group.) By October 23, they had ‘caught everyone up’ through benefits to the end of September. BTW, we have exhausted our state unemployment with that Oct 23 payout. Fun times.

Here’s the ironic miracle. Federal unemployment was impacted by the sequestration. If you started Tier 1 between April 23 and September 22, your unemployment drops 17.69%. If you start Tier 1 September 23 or after, you are at normal (what you got from State.)

Due to the start/stop of DH working for that company 3 weeks, and the CA software brouhaha, guess when we are counted as starting Tier 1? September 29th. So we still get the same amount as when we were on state, rather than nearly a $90 a week drop. $360 a month would have been a lot to try and make up. So I am grateful for small miracles.

So here’s my question. My odds and ends are keeping us afloat bill payment wise (particularly since DH’s unemployment which covers most of rent has kicked back in.) My O&E money doesn’t quite jive with when cc bills are due, example, I missed the WalMart due date by 1 day, so it got skipped this month. (I’m going to get the $25 late fee tacked on anyway, so I might as well let that payment go towards not being late somewhere else.)

It got me thinking. After 4 walls and car stuff (payment, insurance), should I just start saving up and paying things off? I have a few CCs whose balances are like in the $200-400 range. Rather than make minimums, am I better off skipping a month and just paying 1 off entirely? I know I would rack up, say, $100 in late fees in a month (6 cc x $20ish), but by the time I got to month 4 or so, that would be negligible, and I would be almost entirely out of debt except for 1 CC and the car loan.

Thoughts?

bonds

We all expect our kids to say or do cute things when they are little

After all Art Linkletter said it best “kids say the darndest things.” Yes, Art had the show first for you younger kiddos.
But every so often my adult children still have me rolling on the floor in laughter. Today was one of those days. I’ve not been online for a couple of days due to storms and internet issues so I was running behind on all posts and especially facebook. So I caught about 3 days of their posts all at once and I was soon laughing so hard I had tears running down my face.
DD started it off talking about how she loved Halloween so much as a child because we always had great costumes for her (thanks Sammi) and then went on to now she has nothing to wear because she dresses so outlandishly every day. The way she worded it had me in fits of giggles, but to others it wouldn’t be as funny I’m certain.
So my multi-colored hair daughter who may show up to work in anything from Steampunk to medieval clothing regrets she can’t dress up for Halloween now. And before you ask, her dressing outlandishly at work is the norm for several of the employees so her career is not in danger.
Not to be outdone ds is “bemoaning” the “Smurf blue” outfit he’ll be wearing the next several weeks as he does walk downs at a gas plant. He went into a whole routine about being Papa Smurf, and then thinking he was going to have to shave off five pounds of his unruly red beard, then relief for all responding friends when he found out he doesn’t have to, but that he will have to be prepared to shave at any time “just in case.”
This lead to him saying he was going to have to carry Barbasol and a razor on a tool belt as he mapped and measured and wondered if he’d need a concealed carry license to do that. It disintegrated from there to the point I could hardly see from laughing so hard.
I’ve decided both my kids are certifiable and I love them for being that way.