- A really productive day
- Discovering that I have good credit and being granted the line of credit I was hoping for
- A really helpful, polite guy at the bank
- Take out Chinese food
- time with family
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Daily 5 - Day 140
Today's Daily 5:
A Very Good Meeting
I had a very good meeting at the bank this afternoon.
Actually, I've had a very productive day all around. I went to the bottle depot and returned the empties I'd collected from work and home and emerged about $9 richer. I did the recycling. I grocery shopped. I bought supplies for George, and filled George's gas tank. I bought hair styling product to help straighten my hair. I updated my budget - twice. I paid a bunch of bills. I made jello, and bought Chinese take-out for lunch. I put some important letters in the mail. I got my daytimer/calendar for 2010 in useable, working order. And I had the meeting at the bank.
Turns out that in spite of a decent amount of debt - the credit card debt I mentioned this morning, and government student loans, I have very good credit. So good, in fact that the line of credit I applied for was immediately approved. Apparently, according to the guy I met with, that's very rare. And I have a credit score that's one of the highest he's seen. Sweet!
I was so thankful for the guy I met with. While I appreciated the lady I met with at the beginning of the month to open my new accounts at this bank, she was a little bit demeaning in her manor, and not very patient with my infinite number of questions in an attempt to make sure I understood exactly what was happening with MY finances. (I personally think it's fairly reasonable that I would want to understand that!) The guy today was totally not like that. He answered all of my questions quite patiently, showed me what I needed to see, and went above and beyond as far as I was concerned. He was personable, and amiable, and generally didn't make me feel at all like I was stupid or an inconvenience for having questions.
So, in a couple of days, once a payment I made this morning (pre-line of credit) goes through on my credit card, and I have an exact balance, I'll be credit debt free! Or at least credit card balance free. Since I'll still owe the money and everything. But hey, the line of credit is less than half of the interest rate I was paying on my credit cards, so that should be absolutely fantastic in terms of helping with my goal to get rid of all of that debt as soon as possible. And for that, I'm also so incredibly grateful.
It's been a good day - the kind I'm always thankful for. And I'm especially grateful that I have had this week off of work to catch up on these myriad of other tasks that would have eaten whole portions of much needed evenings and weekends otherwise. It's nice to be able to accomplish all of these little things, but to do them at a pace that doesn't leave me feeling frantic or exhausted at the end of the day.
Actually, I've had a very productive day all around. I went to the bottle depot and returned the empties I'd collected from work and home and emerged about $9 richer. I did the recycling. I grocery shopped. I bought supplies for George, and filled George's gas tank. I bought hair styling product to help straighten my hair. I updated my budget - twice. I paid a bunch of bills. I made jello, and bought Chinese take-out for lunch. I put some important letters in the mail. I got my daytimer/calendar for 2010 in useable, working order. And I had the meeting at the bank.
Turns out that in spite of a decent amount of debt - the credit card debt I mentioned this morning, and government student loans, I have very good credit. So good, in fact that the line of credit I applied for was immediately approved. Apparently, according to the guy I met with, that's very rare. And I have a credit score that's one of the highest he's seen. Sweet!
I was so thankful for the guy I met with. While I appreciated the lady I met with at the beginning of the month to open my new accounts at this bank, she was a little bit demeaning in her manor, and not very patient with my infinite number of questions in an attempt to make sure I understood exactly what was happening with MY finances. (I personally think it's fairly reasonable that I would want to understand that!) The guy today was totally not like that. He answered all of my questions quite patiently, showed me what I needed to see, and went above and beyond as far as I was concerned. He was personable, and amiable, and generally didn't make me feel at all like I was stupid or an inconvenience for having questions.
So, in a couple of days, once a payment I made this morning (pre-line of credit) goes through on my credit card, and I have an exact balance, I'll be credit debt free! Or at least credit card balance free. Since I'll still owe the money and everything. But hey, the line of credit is less than half of the interest rate I was paying on my credit cards, so that should be absolutely fantastic in terms of helping with my goal to get rid of all of that debt as soon as possible. And for that, I'm also so incredibly grateful.
It's been a good day - the kind I'm always thankful for. And I'm especially grateful that I have had this week off of work to catch up on these myriad of other tasks that would have eaten whole portions of much needed evenings and weekends otherwise. It's nice to be able to accomplish all of these little things, but to do them at a pace that doesn't leave me feeling frantic or exhausted at the end of the day.
Congested with a Chance of Snow
I suppose it was inevitable. At work, everyone was sick. At Christmas, at least three or four relatives had ugly head colds, including two immediate family members. And now, I seem to have caught it as well.
Thankfully, at the moment, it seems to be restraining itself to the mild annoyance sort of head cold, and I'm praying that it will limit itself to this, and not feel the need to really go for broke and make me feel sick and miserable for my last several days off. To that end I've beefed up my already extensive vitamin routine, and, like I said, I'm hoping and praying for the best.
In other news, it's snowing. Because the feet of the white stuff we've already had this winter wasn't enough. Should make doing errands for a large portion of this day good fun.
My paycheque (after a bit of worrying and trepidation) actually made it via direct deposit into my new bank account overnight. Which means that today I can do things I've been putting off, to make sure there remained enough money in my bank account to cover rent, just in case. Things like buying a few groceries, getting a few supplies for maintaining George, and other super exciting moments. Groceries, recycling, an auto parts shop, the bottle depot - all of these are definitely favorite locations of mine.
Oh, and the bank. I have a meeting at the bank today, to inquire about loans or lines of credit. Because, you see, after returning a few years back from my trip to Malta, I sort of relied on my credit cards to live for a while, until paycheques started coming regularly again. And the credit card debt sort of spooled from there a bit, and now I'm paying huge interest as I budget and try to pay that debt off. So I have a meeting at the bank today to see if I can get a line of credit or a loan, to reduce the interest percentage I'm paying, and hopefully get out of debt quite a bit faster. Sweet. Here's hoping it's someone personable that I meet with, and not someone who treats me a little bit like a fool for having credit debt in the first place, or for not being some incredibly financially savvy individual. Because I've met a few of those types of people as I've been navigating some of these banking changes, and there's nothing quite as frustrating as being demeaned by a person you're sort of dependent on for service.
And after all those things, I'll be home again, tackling more items on the list for the week, and updating my budget. I think I may have been a bit overzealous in my list making, so I'm trying to pick out the things that I really think are priorities. The rest can be relegated to evenings and weekends in the coming month. Especially since some of them are just things that I want to accomplish before the quite likely reality of moving again at the end of February. Things like going through clothing and belongings and paring down a bit again. And sorting through some grocery and snack food items that have sort of collected, so that they can be eaten before more are purchased.
And with that, I'm going to venture up and out and start doing things like online banking, and errands. Or maybe I'll just start by crawling out of bed, where I've been sitting and eating my breakfast while writing this post. Clothes instead of pajamas would be good - they'll probably help my chances of not being treated demeaningly at the bank later. And brushing my hair, that'll also probably help. And then I'll start doing things like online banking and budget updates and errands.
Thankfully, at the moment, it seems to be restraining itself to the mild annoyance sort of head cold, and I'm praying that it will limit itself to this, and not feel the need to really go for broke and make me feel sick and miserable for my last several days off. To that end I've beefed up my already extensive vitamin routine, and, like I said, I'm hoping and praying for the best.
In other news, it's snowing. Because the feet of the white stuff we've already had this winter wasn't enough. Should make doing errands for a large portion of this day good fun.
My paycheque (after a bit of worrying and trepidation) actually made it via direct deposit into my new bank account overnight. Which means that today I can do things I've been putting off, to make sure there remained enough money in my bank account to cover rent, just in case. Things like buying a few groceries, getting a few supplies for maintaining George, and other super exciting moments. Groceries, recycling, an auto parts shop, the bottle depot - all of these are definitely favorite locations of mine.
Oh, and the bank. I have a meeting at the bank today, to inquire about loans or lines of credit. Because, you see, after returning a few years back from my trip to Malta, I sort of relied on my credit cards to live for a while, until paycheques started coming regularly again. And the credit card debt sort of spooled from there a bit, and now I'm paying huge interest as I budget and try to pay that debt off. So I have a meeting at the bank today to see if I can get a line of credit or a loan, to reduce the interest percentage I'm paying, and hopefully get out of debt quite a bit faster. Sweet. Here's hoping it's someone personable that I meet with, and not someone who treats me a little bit like a fool for having credit debt in the first place, or for not being some incredibly financially savvy individual. Because I've met a few of those types of people as I've been navigating some of these banking changes, and there's nothing quite as frustrating as being demeaned by a person you're sort of dependent on for service.
And after all those things, I'll be home again, tackling more items on the list for the week, and updating my budget. I think I may have been a bit overzealous in my list making, so I'm trying to pick out the things that I really think are priorities. The rest can be relegated to evenings and weekends in the coming month. Especially since some of them are just things that I want to accomplish before the quite likely reality of moving again at the end of February. Things like going through clothing and belongings and paring down a bit again. And sorting through some grocery and snack food items that have sort of collected, so that they can be eaten before more are purchased.
And with that, I'm going to venture up and out and start doing things like online banking, and errands. Or maybe I'll just start by crawling out of bed, where I've been sitting and eating my breakfast while writing this post. Clothes instead of pajamas would be good - they'll probably help my chances of not being treated demeaningly at the bank later. And brushing my hair, that'll also probably help. And then I'll start doing things like online banking and budget updates and errands.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Daily 5 - Day 139
Today's Daily "5":
- My cheques finally arriving in the mail. Since they were supposed to be here well over a week ago, and I was needing to write some first of January cheques for a few people (including my rent!) I was getting a little nervous and scheming about backup plans.
- Straightening my hair on my own for the first time - not stellar results, but not bad either.
- Lunch and shopping with a friend from high school
- new sweater - suitable for work or casual wear
- instructions from dad on what little items I need to purchase before he shows me a few things about maintaining George later this week
- watching a movie while I worked on a bunch of stuff tonight
- finally being able to write postdated rent cheques to our landlords and leave them for pick up - so nice to have that item off of my list
- really enjoying having the house to myself this week that I'm off while L. is out of town
- laughing at little ironies
- thankful that the cold I've caught (quite a few people were sick at Christmas) has for the moment stayed in the mild annoyance range, instead of becoming a problem.
Not a Bad Way to Spend an Evening
I'm spending the evening doing exciting things like writing post-dated cheques, updating my budget, addressing an insurance claim, and various and sundry other little necessities that have stacked up.
I spent 25 minutes on the phone with the phone company, working to get a bill adjusted. (They were going to charge me an extra $200 as a non-return fee for something I mailed back to them in October, and still had a copy of the tracking number and bill of lading as proof.)
I'm sore today - clearly my massage therapist did a good job on the muscles in my neck, shoulders and back yesterday. They're still much looser, but they hurt like I've been through a long workout.
So I'm sitting here, working on a long list of little things that I want to accomplish this week while I'm off work, and watching a movie all at the same time.
It's not a bad way to spend an evening really.
I spent 25 minutes on the phone with the phone company, working to get a bill adjusted. (They were going to charge me an extra $200 as a non-return fee for something I mailed back to them in October, and still had a copy of the tracking number and bill of lading as proof.)
I'm sore today - clearly my massage therapist did a good job on the muscles in my neck, shoulders and back yesterday. They're still much looser, but they hurt like I've been through a long workout.
So I'm sitting here, working on a long list of little things that I want to accomplish this week while I'm off work, and watching a movie all at the same time.
It's not a bad way to spend an evening really.
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