I am metformin hcl and pregnancy going to drop a wad of dough today. I swear, hundreds of dollars are going to pass from my wallet to greedy hands across the United States today. Hundreds. What am I saying? THOUSANDS. I’m just that serious about Black Friday.
Here’s my list:
2 Jeep payments to Chrysler Financial – 1 current, 1 past due
3 electricity metformin side effects 500mg payments to Xcel Energy – 1 current, 2 past due
1 water payment to my Apartment management company so that they don’t turn off the water (it’s that late)
2 Cobra payments to ensure I continue my medical insurance coverage – 1 current, 1 almost past due
1 rent payment for December
Fun, huh? Like I said, THOUSANDS of dollars will leave my wallet today. I look at that list and I cringe. Past due payments. All of those finance charges.
It’s not easy being unemployed.
Those aren’t even all of my bills. The list doesn’t include the payments I’m not owing at this moment, such as internet connection, telephone, and my three credit cards with low balances (Thank God for small mercies). The bills in the list above are the ones that I can sort of fudge without hurting my credit score…but are sort of necessary to live. The sort of scary ones.
How might I find a couple of grand to go on my shopping spree today?
Easy. I won the lottery. A lottery of my own money.
Desperate times call for desperate measures. I cashed out my 401(K).
Extreme? Absolutely. Necessary? No doubt.
I admit that I do not cut all the corners I can, money-wise. I go for lunch and buy coffee. I download the new Weezer song into my iTunes. I buy the new cookbook and issue of InStyle. Not spending that money could definitely add up to a hefty sum, but not a hefty enough sum to cover rent, Jeep payments, and medical insurance.
Yes, I took a hit. There’s a penalty. Taxes were taken out. I no longer have my retirement savings. Those are facts not to be glossed over. But, it’s not a decision I’m going to choose to regret.
Though I’ve never had this much money in my bank account–ever–it’s time to make careful decisions. It’s time to make sure that my unemployement does not leave me with big, bad financial scars that require seven years of recovery. It’s time to pay up and it’s time to save deliberately (rather than just passively receive less per paycheck as abstract money is rescued from my grubby clutches and ferreted away from my own bad judgment).
It’s all the money I have in the world and there’s no promise of a job or a real lottery win in the near future.
So, this Black Friday, I give thanks that those 401(K) checks I deposited on Tuesday night didn’t disappear from my hands as I feared they would, but made it into the bank and finally showed up as real money in my account this morning.
Now, I shall attack my Black Friday shopping list and take no prisoners.
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19 Comments
Those “greedy hands” provided you a service in advance and you reneged on the contract by not paying in a timely manner! Who’s the greedy one?
Oh, I’m the greedy one.
It was mostly a glib writing technique to draw a parallel between money I was going to spend on Friday and the consumerism of Black Friday. You caught me. It wasn’t such a parallel.
Andy you are the typical American….just continue to piss your money away on what you wish….don’t save for the future…or take responsibility….I’m sure by the time you need to retire other Americans will bail your dumb ass out. That’s what my contributions go toward…right?
Niiiicceee……. punctu….ation……>x.
If someone with puctuation like mine can hold a job, what is Andy’s problem?
Kristine, where do you work that punctuation like yours is tolerated?
I didn’t read that Andy was either not saving for the future (she was contributing to a 401K) or not taking responsibility (she cashed it out so she can take care of her bills).
“I’m sure by the time you need to retire other Americans will bail your dumb ass out.” Do you really talk to people like that? Do you talk to elderly women, many of whom were not in the workforce a day in their life but still get Social Secuity benefits? You come off as a horrible human being. It’s really quite sad.
“What is Andy’s problem?” Seriously? Her problem is having been laid off in a tough economy that is even tougher for people in her field. Her problem is talking about the tough choices she has to make as a result. Oh wait, that is not her problem, that is her gift to her readers.
Andy had retirement savings because she made the good choice to put that money away. Now she is making the best choice she can in a difficult situation– paying bills with HER money that she had hoped to put to a different use. With the uncertainty of her situation, it is perfectly understandable that she put off this difficult and costly choice. You can be sure that the businesses she owed have figured out how to make money from late payments.
I appreciate that Andy shares her experiences, decisions, and insights here. She shows courage by putting her private life out there, revealing imperfections and vulnerabilities. That courage is a rare and special thing, in sharp contrast with cheap shots and nastiness. Saying what not to do with no realistic alternatives doesn’t help anyone. If you can’t be nice, try at least being helpful, and if you can’t be helpful or nice, leave people who are both alone.
Oh, I’m sorry, was Andy asking for help? Was she asking for leads on open positions? What I took from her novel was that she is a current recipient of unemployment and still splurges on InStyle magazines, Starbucks and lunches with gal pals. I don’t feel sorry for her.
It’s great that you appreciate her insights, but guess what, I don’t. If you want to blog and spend your time flaunting every detail of your life don’t think that you will only get responses from brain-washed libs like yourself.
Secondly, (note that comma was used appropriately!) what Andy does with her 401K is none of my business. What she does with her unemployment should be. I agree that unemployment should be a benefit available to all Americans, especially during these tough times. I just wouldn’t flaunt that you are sitting at home on your fat ass, blogging with your Chai Tea Latte in hand, expecting me to feel sorry for you.
Hugs & Kisses,
Kristine
Kristine, I didn’t read that she was asking for help in this post. She was sharing her story. And you’re within your right to have feelings about it. I take issue with the way in which you chose to express those feelings. So far on this thread you’ve hardly shown a stitch of compassion. Perhaps you’ve not been in her shoes, being unemployed. It’s no fun. She admits to not cutting out every single thing she can; who of us can say without having been there that they wouldn’t do the same, keep some semblance of normal life in a crappy situation.
“What she does with her unemployment should be.” Nope. I call foul. None of your business. Andy, through her taxes and her previous employment, paid into unemployment for in excess of 10 years. None of us wishes to ever have to draw from the state/feds to help us along but it’s there for just that reason. That’s the way it works.
Hugs & Kisses? I like STFU better.
Please, share your bolg! We’d love to read about your perfect life.
Kristine-
Let me guess……………………………(hope those periods help) you go around from blog to blog making yourself feel better by being a bitchy skank in the comments. STOP IT! I hope Andy finds out who you are and sends you some carmels so that there is someting positive in your life.
4 yourself, please leave
0 is the number of times you should come back to this blog
1 is the number of my middle finger
k is for kite. Go fly one.
Andy-
I love your blog! I love your writing! And I love your ass!
wow
Love ya, Andy. That’s all.
Yep. Troll. Unreal.
Andy – Just wanted to tell you that I admire your honesty and humor and that I hope Kristine finds herself in a similar situation one day!
Good for you, taking care of business. You have years to worry about retirement. You need to get through the issue you are facing today first. Keep at it and hold your head high. There are many people today doing the same thing you are.
I’m unemployed too and while I’ve given up the dog walker (I’m home with the dog for goodness sakes), I still go to my hairdresser every 7 weeks and have my housecleaner come twice a month. I’ll give up a lot before I give up the hair color. And I’ve used the house cleaner for years and she’s not very expensive. She’s got an unemployed husband and two kids in college so she needs my money. It’s a trickle down effect. Everything that I’m not buying that I used to, pedicures, car washes, fresh flowers, is hurting someone else.
Besides it’s not about being able to “hold down a job”. I’ve held down jobs for 30 years and paid my share of unemployment (and believe me, the amount you get does not pay your living expenses no matter how much you economize). But the bad luck of getting laid off can happen to anyone these days and good luck finding a job. I’m looking full time for a job as an accountant with years of experience and have had one interview in 5 months. It’s just really tough right now.
Good luck Andy is all I can say. I’m right there with you, only 20 years older!
Good luck Andy, indeed. I think it is so brave to be spilling your guts out here, being honest about a horrible situation… the kind of which many of us are experiencing in one way or another. I realize that when you choose to put your thoughts out in public like this, you’re asking for comments. But I would hope that comments would come from an intelligent, constructive place instead of a place of vitriol, ignorance and… well, obviously needing to get… something… you’re missing.
Kristine:
I wonder what it must be like to go through life with such ugliness inside. You certainly have every right to your opinions, and to express them. I wonder, though, why you feel the need to express them with such little class and with such a lack if common decency. I’m guessing it’s because you are living a sad little life. Truly happy people don’t treat others in such an ugly manner. What goes around comes around; maybe someday something will teach you how to be compassionate, how to treat people with some courtesy, and how to use better grammar. The comma you were so proud of using appropriately should have gone after the parentheses.
*of*