Archive for the ‘Money’ Category

Unexpected expense

Tuesday, February 13th, 2007

Oh, good. Just a couple more days and I’m done with speech class. Thank God! With luck, I should never have to attend another one. Don’t get me wrong, the class went fine. It’s the technology, the constant assignments, and everything else.

 

 

 

Today, I ended up having to burn $89 I was saving on one of my insulins (Lantus). I lost my medicaid on New Years day and to be honest, until today, I really didn’t mind. Medicaid was giving me nothing but grief anyway. But holy crap -! $89 God, burning that much money on such a tiny vial of liquid.

Y’know, world, a new pair of jeans would be nice, so would a pair of shoes. Maybe a new jacket, I’m wearing the same winter coat I did back when I was 18. Hey — here’s a revolutionary idea — howzabout a suit I could interview in? POOF. Insulin.

Yeah, I know… it’s stupid to be crying over this. I need insulin to survive. I can live without clothes. In another week or so, I should be getting a student refund check in the mail. I know this is just PMS making me feel all weird over something as stupid as this.

But now I just want to cry.

Damn credit cards

Thursday, December 28th, 2006

%$#^* credit cards.

Sometime either last month or this month, our credit card information was lost or stolen from a gas station we visited at some point. (We don’t even remember using a Wesco station, but apparently we did.) As a precation, Mastercard and our bank froze / canceled our credit card. We have a new card on the way, but it won’t be here for another 10 days.

Since we pay for our domain every three months, this month (December) was the month we paid. As a result, our domain has been taken down.

I’ve already checked with out host and they say all our data is intact. Once I clear the balance on my account, Luna will be fully restored. Overall, not how I wanted to spend my day after Christmas.

Just kill me now

Wednesday, September 20th, 2006

My books for college just officially annihilated me. Forget for a moment my tuition, lab fees, and other expenses for a moment.

English 301
Book: $132

Public Speaking
Book: $81
Video Camera: $88

Intro to Perl/CGI
Book: $65

Advanced HTML
XML Book: $14
DHTML & CSS Book: $18

Total: $428.88

Please…. just kill me now. X_x

Seriously, the most reasonable book prices are for the classes I actually want to take. The rest are kind “meh” classes for me, but I need to pass them for my degree. Thankfully I have a hard time failing English and public speaking has never bothered me. (I’m not even sure why I need a video camera, but – oh well.)

Going to try to finish up one last eFiction modification before my classes resume tomorrow morning and then I’m poofing for a while.

Welcome to the real world

Saturday, August 5th, 2006

$24.68

That’s what we have to live on until next week Thursday.

Why is it everytime I feel like I can relax, the world comes crashing down again? I feel really guilty about taking the summer off now. I have the feeling I should have kept the pressure up through the summer, no matter how I felt.

The mortage is going to be very late; hopefully not to the point we default on it. Mom’s going to have to call monday and beg for forgiveness. I wasn’t expecting them to cash our lot rent check so fast; so fast we ended up with a $66 overdraft fee coming out of mom’s check.

I’m nearly out of test strips, but I can’t afford to buy any more. I spotted a worm in Luna’s poop, but we can’t do anything about it right now. “We can’t do anything about it” seems to be the key phrase.

*sigh* Welcome to the real world, I guess.

My summer so far

Wednesday, July 12th, 2006

So far, my summer seems to be going well. I’m partipating in the eFiction Project actively for the first time in a long while, though probably not as much as I could be. (Actually, I’m probably being downright annoying.)

One of the large sites must have pissed people off again, my site has had a massive surge in visits and new authors. I keep checking my stats, but I can’t tell what site is referring them. I’m actually very glad I brought in all those extra moderators. I’m used to the sudden hush the RL/AR used to get; all this activity is a tab unnerving. ^^;

eFiction 3.0 is going to be very very cool, but I’m dreading switching us over. I’ve added so many extras there is going no easy way to upgrade. ^^;; But… ooh, it is awesome. There’s just so many new things in this release, it’s just going to be pure awesomeness. (Is that even a word??)

My Kiwi layout has hit a bump, since I don’t remember what I wanted to do with it anymore. I can’t find my original design sketch either, so I can check my plan. XD I might just trash it and work on Green tea instead.

While I’m thinking about it, I need up re-do my blog. I’ve begun posting my eFiction junk to it, which is kind of cluttering it. I also want it to have a more professional look, since I’m going to put a portfolio and my resume on it. (I probably should clean up the language too *grimace, laugh*)

For the first time in years, we have a garden. It’s nothing special, just some tomatos, strawberries, and some flowering plants that I’ve planted in pots so if I need to move again they can come with me.

Local news has me feeling a little more optimistic:

Google to bring 1000 jobs to Michigan

LANSING — High tech – and high-tech jobs — hits Michigan with Tuesday’s announcement that Google will open a facility in Ann Arbor.

At a morning press conference, Governor Granholm officially unveiled the project that will add 1,000 jobs to Michigan’s workforce.

The new facility involves Google’s AdWords unit, which handles “pay-per-click” advertising to Google’s users. To sweeten the deal, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation gave Google a high-tech business tax credit worth more than $38 million over 20 years. (more…)

I sincerely don’t want to move to Ann Arbor, that’s way too close to one of my mom’s aunts… who is just way too much like Sheba for my tastes. BUT if it means I can get a good job doing what I enjoy doing, then by the Gods of warfare — I’ll do it! (What Karla doesn’t know won’t hurt her me.)

Other than that, we’re holding on. Mom blew a tire last night on her way to work and had to get a ride from our neighbor, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. The local tire shop quoted her about $80 for a new tire plus installation, but then the owner decuded ti only charge her $50. ^___^

DTE Energy keeps calling, demanding their money. Maryann still wants her $600 back, plus we keep getting letters from collection agencies for some of the bills we incured trying to get out of Alpine Medows… so we’re not out of the woods yet. The pressure has just been let up a bit.

I’m trying to work with a lady who bought one of my books off from Amazon.com. There were 4 audio chapter review CDs that came with the book and I said they were included in my post. I remember putting them in the envelope with the book and so does mom and Jasson, but apparently the CDs didn’t make it there. The envelope was apparently intact, so they didn’t fall out. *sighs* Being good, I retraced my steps to see if I lost them on the way to the post office. Nothing in lost and found. I called the publisher and distribution center to see if could buy new copies, they’re only part of a bundle deal.

I’m more than a little dubious about the whole thing. First of all, she waited a month to e-mail me and is now taking anywhere from 5 days to weeks to write me back each time. She says she absolutely has to have those CDs for her class. I’ll admit that they were helpful in allowing me to study during the eviction and while moving, but they weren’t that helpful nor essential. I have no idea what’s going on. I finally offered her a refund and it’s going on about two weeks since I last heard from her.

Mom has come right out and wondered if she isn’t trying to weasel copies of the CDs out of me so she can have two. She’s also wondered if they CDs aren’t/weren’t in the bottom of the envelope. *shrugs* Her guess is as good as mine.

I swear, if I sell anything else on Amazon — they only thing I’m writing is the book’s condition. No information on infotrac or anything extra that comes with it. And then I’m going to mummify the damned thing so nothing falls out.

Anyroad, that’s my summer so far. Much love to everyone.

Sigh

Friday, June 23rd, 2006

*hugs* Thanks everyone for your support.

Well, my fight with Netbunch is getting me nowhere. They finally canceled my account after I wrote them and informed them that I would be reporting them to the BBB.

I am apparently reached the end of what I can do with them. In my first letter, I informed them that I had written and specifically requested that my account be canceled. Three e-mails later, I’m told that they’re “sorry” (bullshit) that my account was auto-billed. Did I tell them to cancel my account? *head-desk* YES, you idiot! I told you three months ago to cancel my account! I wrote them back and informed them that yes, it had, gave the support ticket number, and the person’s name who responded.

And that is it. They stopped responding. I swear, this is shades of AOL.

I suppose it’s officially time to begin my dialogue with the BBB and my credit card. yay. really. i’m really, super excited. …*sigh* I hate phone menus…

I probably should just buckle down and get an account with Paypal so I can begin accepting donations.

I suppose I should expect this, if you do a web search on Netbunch or Webhostplus and you get tons of results from people like me who have been burned by them. That’s probably one of the reasons they keep changing names every year or so. (My first suspicion being that they’re doing it to try and hide from the BBB/Attourney General due to the number of complaints they keep getting.)

Either way, avoid Netbunch / Webhostplus / Mesopia like the plague. If they buy out your hosting company, find a new one QUICK. They aren’t a good (or particularly safe) company to go with.

The hell!?

Monday, June 19th, 2006

*growls* Remember three months ago when I moved my server? Remember how I said I canceled my services with that old host?

Guess what? I just checked my old Jinxandjedi yahoo account where I used for my old domain’s contact e-mail. I was thinking I could safely let it die. When they answered my cancelation e-mail, I removed all my credit card and contact information. They didn’t need it anymore.

Instead, I checked it this afternoon and guess what I discovered?

Note the date that I indicate with the blue arrow; they’ve been charging our credit card for three months. What’s more, they charged me $12 for renewing my domain which they don’t even have anymore! All my credit card information was back on the account, even though I deleted it. But for some strange reason they had my address mostly correct too and I didn’t even give it to them!!! (They had me listed as #17; I’m at #47)

As soon as I calm down I’m writing a complaint to the BBB and seeing if the bank can refuse any and all future charges from those assholes. Originally, I wasn’t even going to bother, but now I’m absolutely livid!

Doubts

Thursday, February 16th, 2006

Nothing super-long like my previous entries. I’m just feeling suddenly worried that the bank will reverse their stance on our financing and that Parkwood Green won’t accept us. There’s just so much dramatic talk I can take before I start going nuts. And Patti has been doing that as hard as she can, telling us our credit is so bad we don’t stand a ghost of a chance.

I’ve just had so many bad experiences over the past year that I automatically begin feeling like something’s just going to go wrong. Things felt so bouyant earlier today and now I’m feeling cold, depressed, and worried. It just can’t go so right… can it?

Solution?

Wednesday, February 15th, 2006

Well, once again we blew Patti off.

Remember last entry when I mentioned numerous phonecalls? Well, one seems to have come through.

Today, we looked at a 1997 Dutch 16×80 trailer. For a repo, that thing was immaculate. It has no appliances, but we were told it was a 2000, so we’re hoping that the fact it was really a 1997 will sweeten the pot a little bit. But we loved it. It was clean, bright, and didn’t have a huge number of things wrong with it like the others we’d looked at. Aside from being told the wrong year, what we found were nitpicky things that could be fixed pretty quickly/easily.

We made an offer on it and put down our $200.

Then we took off and went to Parkwood Green, got an application, and checked out the lot that would be ours. Ed (aside from me misunderstanding that the park office was also his home) seemed to have no problem whatsoever with what was happening. The fact that the bank was willing to play ball with us tells me that our credit can’t be that horribly off. The only thing they said was that we’d be better off with just Mom on the mortgage, or else the student loans may mess us up. (No problem.)

So far, it looks like we’re going to be paying about $150 a month on it, on top of the $320 for base rent. Not counting any overages from the electric, that basically comes out to be just $5 more than what we’re paying at Alpine Meadows. However, we won’t be paying for water, sewer, or trash… nor will we have to pay for Luna or our cats.

When we got home, Patti was bent all out of shape because we didn’t drive back down to 54th street to place an offer on the tight thing she showed us.

I’m trying to be nice to her, but her pushiness knows no bounds. As far as we were concerned, there was no “thinking” — she basically told us we were coming in today at 4pm to place an offer. Not, “would [we]” or “if you would like to”… but told us we were coming in to place an offer. I told her we weren’t interested and why. (Too tight, master bathroom pretty much unusable to us, etc.)

She tells me, “We have other trailers, hun.” *growl*

“Yes, but our health is suffering… my grandpa suggested we should find an apartment and regroup once we’ve had a chance to rest.” Yeah, health as in Mom has almost had an accident every night this week since we’ve spent the better part of the day running from one end of the county to the other.

“With your credit, you won’t be able to get into anything.” Oh, really. How do you know? Have you checked our credit report without our consent?

I pitch my voice more aggressively, “Patti, we can not afford to keep driving to 54th street and beyond.”

At this point, she is not happy. Not happy at all. Oh well. I guess she’s starting to get it that we’re not going to be paying her an extra $2000 and she’s not getting whatever kickback she wanted to get by shoving us into Glenwood Estates.

Anyway, provided things go through okay we could be looking at only one or two days without a place to stay. We could move our things in (by next Wednesday possibly), but we can’t live there ourselves until all inspections are done.

Please keep your fingers crossed and prayers coming. There’s going to be a lot of prayers in this house until we figure out where things are headed. I’m so tired that I can’t even dredge up the hope. Patti’s deflating comments about our credit have gotten to me a bit. Everyone I’ve talked to has said to ignore her; she’s just getting a kickback from Glenwood… but I’m emotional enough that I am feeling discouraged.

Maybe this is a solution, but I’m just not sure. I’m discouraged/depresed enough that ambivalent really doesn’t describe me.

My life, in a pixel

Wednesday, May 18th, 2005

Well, the mess with Mesopia went easier than I thought it would. Still no word back on my domain, well, unless you just count the receipt of them charging us $12 for the domain. *sighs*

Today was a massive grocery getting day, a quick attempt to fill up the pantry until we can get another chance to catch out breath.

Well, it didn’t last long. Apparently, mom didn’t think for the last rent check she wrote and it bounced. All of five days before she cashed her next paycheck. Since I’ll be the only one home tomorrow, I suppose it’s up to me to go talk to the landlords and beg forgiveness for the check. I don’t remember for sure, but I seem to recall seeing a note in the rules we agreed to that says we now have to pay via money order. Oh well, that’s for tomorrow.

(Waiiit… wasn’t I avoiding money matters?)

First week of college went okay, I’m pretty sure I can do this. The group project they want for this next week is a little scary, but everyone seems pretty nice. I really didn’t do anything today with it, so tomorrow I have to check the class message boards again and make myself known.

It’s hilarious, Jass and I have become lurkers on every MB on the planet… with the exception of the school boards. Thing is, since we’re not appearing in person, we have to make significant posts in order to be considered “participating.” But it’s not that hard, the instructors give you essay questions you have to answer almost every day and since everyone is so nice; chit-chat is easy too.

The academic advisors already have my summer classes picked out. I get to take Composition II, Human Relations, File Management, and Internet and the WWW. Composition II sounds okay, I’ve needed it for a while and I’m not sure what to make of Human Relations. But taking me through Files and a introduction to the internet is just, well…. funny?

Yeah, my blog isn’t pretty anymore. I HAD to upgrade wordpress. So tomorrow, after the walk to the office and then school, I’ll settle down and rework my poison layout to work with the new version. I tried to get the LiveJournal auto-update program to work with Wordpress, but it’s not compatable. So, I’m still crossposting.

Much love to everyone