Finances: Two steps forward, One step back
I lent my father my new ING debit card to get some groceries. This would have been the virginal expenditure for the account, but instead, he lost the card. Most likely somewhere in the grocery store.
I’ve already ordered a new card and cancelled the old, but it’s still a bit of a pain because now I have to fill up on gas on a credit card. And I hate using credit cards.
In addition to that debacle, my father had already rung up the groceries, so he paid with -his- debit card, overdrafting probably $100 or more. I’ve now had ING send him a check for $150, which concludes the invariable “fuck up Crystal’s finances” for this month.
I’m not too worried, honestly. I have a decent emergency fund for just such an occasion. But I would seriously like to get him on his own ING account where he’s not dealing with NSF fees.
In other financial news, I start my 401k at my current company next month, and I -was- going to do the RothIRA thing this month, but I suppose that will wait till July 1st as well.
A year ago I would be more panicked about my financial situation. But I have worked to set up a good niche and secure my finances so that if something crazy does happen, I’m still well off. My next step is paying off the mustang early and then putting all of that money that I’m used to shelling out in a car payment into maxing out my Roth IRA contributions and adding additional to savings.
In other financial ramblings, I now have a new FREE Dell laptop, and wireless set up at my house via my cable. I mainly wanted the laptop for Grove business, which it’s perfect for, but I just didn’t want to shell out $600 for one. Thankfully Angelo was able to get me one for free, with a super nifty (and hardcore) case. He helped me set up the Wireless at the house, it’s tested and works (and is encrypted, yokels). Savings: $750 at the very least.
I also purchased my father and I a fireproof safe for all of our titles and important documents, as well as to store my external harddrive in with all my file backups.
Two other purchases I’ve been thinking about, but can’t yet justify is two flat-screen monitors to clear up some space on my desk from this huge old CRT, and a new digital camera. But the monitor I have now works sufficiently, and I’m using duct tape to hold my current digital camera together. So I can’t legitimately purchase replacements and consider it a sound financial decision.
Entry viewed times. Posted in Finance
One Response to “Finances: Two steps forward, One step back”
June 17th, 2007 at 5:46 pm
Wow, that really stinks about losing the card - I really hate using credit cards too. The charges and fees associated with them are crazy and rates are usually just as bad. There’s been a lot in the news recently about how people are calling for more accountability when it comes to the credit card companies practices and hopefully something will get done. Groups like http://www.unfaircreditcardfees.com are great sources for info on hidden fees like interchange fees and its important that regular consumers find out about them. I actually do some work with them and can’t stand the way some of these credit card companies make it so easy for people to get into debt.