Maybe The Conversations Finally Sunk In?

I've posted before about my neighbor and her money issues.  She has told me more than I want to know about her finances, and has asked for my opinion on a variety of issues.I  try not to preach, I try to educate and inform. The biggest money drain she has had the past few months has been to support her college aged daughter by paying for her apartment, utilities, as well as paying a chunk of change towards her tuition and related expenses.  Not a big deal IF you have the money, but my neighbor does not. My biggest gripe (and I've told her since she asked) is that her daughter had done next to nothing to contribute to the upkeep of the apartment. She was not going to school full time, nor was she working even close to part time.  The daughter is a nice kid, but seems to spend an awful lot of time hanging out with friends and not doing much. 

My neighbor finally told her that the checks were stopping as of the middle of June.  She was not going to pay the utilities and would only fork over 1/3rd the rent for July and none for August.  She told her daughter that if she wanted to keep the apartment, she would have to pay for it herself, utilities included!  Getting a $500 electric bill for ONE month of service (did I mention the daughter left the electric heat on 73F even when she was not home so she could keep her lizard warm?) My neighbor's kid was shocked and angry. I know she was very happy to accept the money and happy to not have to work.  Getting a wake up call was not in her plans.  Neighbors daughter has her boyfriend sort of living with her too and he is not paying anything towards the rent and utilities. He still "lives" at home, but spends most of his nights at the apartment and contributes nothing toward the apartment, from what I've been told, he does not even buy food. Oh dear....

My conversation with my neighbor was that IF she could afford it and IF her daughter was contributing to the costs an IF her daughter was going to school full time and IF she was making a valiant effort to find work, then support away. BUT none of the IF's were happening.  My neighbor can't afford it, her daughter was not making an effort to find work (she told us her last job interfered with her boyfriends band practice......) and she was not going to school  full time. In fact, she was going to take a semester off and fully expected her parents to pay for her living expenses while she "took a break".   My neighbor wants to help her daughters, yet her own finances were greatly suffering.  I know she paid her own mortgage late, she is on a repayment plan for all her utilities, she pays the cable bill weekly to keep it from getting cut off,  I know she maxed our her credit cards, and please don't get me started on the Plasma TV they bought on credit...........

My last money conversation with my neighbor revolved around me reworking my budget for my reduced weekend job. No additional weekend job hours, a complete rethinking of how to spend my money and how to allocate funds.  My neighbor was shocked when I told her that I pretty much live on a cash only basis.  I use my credit card and within two weeks, I pay off the balance. Mind you my credit limit is only $500, but still, I use the card because I'm thrilled I have a credit card again, but I'm not going to go down that slipperly slope of huge credit card balances again.  I told her if I don't have the cash, I don't buy the product.  My neighbor was wondering how she was going to make it though July since she had maxed out her credit card.  Sigh, I had no answer.  I could have told her that all those months of paying for her daughters apartment would have made a huge dent in the credit card balance reduction, but I did not.

I know it was a hard thing for my neighbor to cut the funds. I think it was the right thing to do. I know her daughter was upset, I could see her storming around the house. She has decided to move back home and stops by to drop of her stuff and is looking pretty bitter about it.  If her daughter truly wanted to live on her own, she could have gotten a roommate or asked her boyfriend to contribute to the rent (but wait a real job would interfer with band practice...). 

I am proud of my neighbor for making the tough decision about her money.

Mystery Shopping

I did my secret shopping yesterday for the vet clinic. While I went over my allotted reimbursement, I'm glad I went. Poochie needed a complete exam, her elderly owner was never able to give me her vet records and supposedly the vet that had been treating her "retired" and I could not track down her records. Total cost of the visit was $180, total reimbursement including my shop fee was $125. I've shopped this clinic before, but did not spend $180. Oh well, paying $55 out of pocket for the visit is far less than what I would normally pay and I know she is current on her vaccinations, et all.

I have another shop scheduled for today. It's for a local chain store and I'm happy to have the opportunity to do it. I'm going to be around the store running some errands. I just wish there were more shops available. Even though there is a delay in reimbursement, getting paid to eat out on the occasional basis or getting "paid" to shop in one of my regular shops would be nice. Ah well, it is what it is!

Buy The Flowers Now

I used to live in the Washington DC metro area in my previous life. One thing I would do on a regular basis was go to Eastern Market. Listening to NPR this morning was a feature on the re-opening of Eastern Market. I've been sadly out of touch with local DC happenings. Most of my friends who lived and worked in Washington have either moved away or we have lost touch.

While it was sad to hear the Market had a devastating fire a few years ago, I'm not surprised. The building was old, very old and while the merchants,vendors and folks worked hard to keep it up, it did have it's issues.

One thing my friends and I used to love to do was to meet in the Market area. We would take the Metro, ride our bikes, some would drive to the area. We'd meet for coffee, go for a beer at Tunnicliffs Tavern (is it still in exsistence?), wander around the vendors, look at the art work, grab a bite to eat (I remember this great stand that sold homemade empanada-yum). One thing I did each time I was at the Market was to get a large bouquet of flowers. There was a flower vendor that was always out on the sidewalk on the 7th St side and sold these great bouquets of flowers. You could get the small bunch for $6 or $7 or the large bunch for $10 or $12. I honestly don't remember the exact price, but what I do remember is that each boquet had a nice variety of flowers, always had a star gazer lilly, some lovely greens and lasted at least a week and the cost was not much more than a cup of coffee and a pastry at one of the local coffee shops. I would bring the flowers home and put them in a vase on a table in my apartment. I would get a great sense of satisfaction looking at the flowers.

Saving Veronica has a post here where she says that when she gets out of debt she is going to buy herself flowers. My advice to her, buy them now! Even when I was at my lowest point in my finances, I would scrape up a buck or two at maybe get even one stem of a flower. Just having something lovely to look at would lift my spirits. I'm not advocating large bunches of rare orchids, but if you feel the need for a flower or two, treat yourself!

Two Secret Shopping Assignments!

Funds are low this month and options for additional income sparse. I did log into both Mystery Shopping company sites and signed up for two shops. One is for a vet visit. The Poochie that needs a home (like last month) needs a check up. This shop will pay for her check up and my gas. Since I’m not getting any funds for her care from her elderly co-owner, a free check up is just my cup of tea! The other shop is to a retail store with a low spending limit. The store is on my way to my weekend job, stopping by to do the shop will not be a challenge at all!



I also e-mailed both companies and told them that due to weekend work, I was available to shop in the areas other than my immediate area. I'm hoping SOMETHING crops up. Being fairly rural, there are just not a lot of mystery shopping opportunities in my area. I’ll take what I can get. Money is money!

Now I Need a New Lawn Mower

I was mowing the lawn last night and all of sudden, one of the rear wheels wobbled and fell off. My first thought was it came unscrewed, easy enough to fix. Nope-review of the mower showed that somehow the metal around the screw sheared off. I had a gaping hole where the screw went in.  Somewhere on the lawn is a large shard of metal. 

The guy at the local hardware store told me that the body of the mower is rusting out and any patch would be very temporary.  He did say that it probably would not be worth my time and money to repair the mower body. I'd have to get someone to weld on a huge metal patch, if they could weld metal onto the rusting body. He's right too. I got the mower at Wal Mart of $89 when I first moved into my house. It was the second least expensive mower they had.  Plus it's had 9 years of hard use and a bit of abuse by me. 

Oh well, I'll keep my eyes open on Craigslist and at the box stores. I'm hoping lawm mowers will go on sale like soon! 

What Comes Around....

A couple weeks ago I blogged about my frustrations trying to get a co-worker to cover a shift for me at the barn. We finally got it sorted out, but I was annoyed by the extra-ordinary (to me) time it took to get back to me with yes I can work or no I could not. Oh well.

I got home last night to a message on my home phone. Said co-worker needs to have a shift covered-like this Friday, she has a not-to-be missed MD's appointment for her old injury and wanted to know if I could work for her. BUT what I found funny was her offer-I could work her entire day or I could just work the half day. Just the half day-I don't think so.

Co-worker knows I don't live close by, she only lives 30 minutes away and to make it fiscally worth my while, I'd have to work one day. I'd prefer two, but one on the odd occasion I'll do one day (like when I went to my conference, I worked just one day that weekend).

I think she was taken aback and or surprised when I returned the call about 10 minutes after I got home and stated I could work for her, but would have to take the full day, a half day is not good for me and I'd sent our boss a reminder e-mail. Her reply was "Oh, you don't have to e-mail him" and my reply was "yup I do, just to let him know it's covered." I can use the extra funds given the fact that I'm giving up a weekend to do a volunteer project. Ah well. I hope co-worker appreciates the prompt response. And I can get my laundry done for free!

Easy Weekend.

My weekend work was drama free this past weekend.  Good I needed a drama free weekend!  The barn schedule is hopping with shows, clinics, summer camps, all sorts of things.  It is oddly quiet on Saturdays. Most of the borders at this barn show horses, so they have been away the past few weekends. 

The only down side is I have one weekend this month that I won't be working, I forgot I agreed to do a volunteer thing, which falls on a Saturday.  I think when I agreed to the volunteer thing I thougth it was on a Sunday so I could have the best of both worlds.  No such luck. Oh well.  Jill said she can cover the barn for me and my boss said he may be home that weekend and is not worried.  I'm just missing out on the weekend of pay. 

I've cut way back on my volunteer activites and I do want to do this function, so I'm out a little cash.  I'm not thrilled about it, but it is what it is and I'll manage somehow!