So, I am about to turn 30, which to be honest is something that I am truly excited about. My birthday is on Thursday and even though I am in a complete financial shambles right now I am pretty happy with the idea of turning 30.
I have not been online much lately because I don't have internet at the moment and have been borrowing form a neighbor, the reasoning behind this is because I had my cable services shut off and currently owe them for a few months or service and definitely don't have the ability to pay them, I've barely been able to pay for the power, gas and rent lately and trust me when I say my husband and I have not been grocery shopping for at least 2 months and are living off ramen, oven pizzas, and macaroni and cheese, all things we get from the local bread basket. The reason behind this is a very long story that I hope you will take the time to enjoy.
Very few people here may know the story but suffice it to say that I had a very very large savings thanks to a settlement offer a few years ago that I managed to play with in the stock market and turn into about 150,000. I also had 15,000 in a small savings account in my hometown bank. Well, back in March I went to swipe my debit card for a small purchase down in Albuquerque, NM at the Sephora store when my card came back declined. I thought, the bank assumed that my card had to have been stolen as I live in Kansas and here was a purchase being made in Albuquerque. That was not so. I called my bank and they told me that the card was declined because I had no money. I choked and just was like "what? Why aren't you sweeping from the savings into the checking?" at which point they told me my savings all 15,000 was gone and I was 1500 in debt to my bank. Keep in mind this was the very beginning of March at which point I still had the 1900.00 in bills all out and about to arrive at the bank in a few days. So I called up my other bank with my MMA which was set to turn into a regular savings account in a few days and said "This is an emergency I need to write a 3900.00 check to cover my bills and expenses." I was informed that someone had called in with my information and had withdrawn the money from a bank in Kansas City. They knew my password, my account # the exact amounts I had, my date of birth, my social, my brother's social (I used that as one of the security questions as he and I are twins) and my husband's maternal grandmother's maiden name which was another security measure. Basically, this person had done their homework and they got away with my 150,000.00 and the 15,000 from my checking just by making a check out to cash at that bank turns out that they had just set up a bank account with the minimum cash needed to do so at that bank under my name and then they cashed the check and withdrew that minimum amount as well. They were smart. Anyway, I lost 168,000.00 to Identity Theft. Oh yeah, banks are insured for up to 100,00.00 and while they are given 6 months to investigate, most people never end up seeing their money ever again as to be honest with you most banks require absolute proof and when they don't get absolute proof of the physical perpetrator of the crime their insurance companies are not required to pay...wooo!
Topping this off is the fact that my husband was out of work for a few months (has a job at Best buy now) he was a GTA instructor at the university, but as that is a two year position and his two years were up, he had to find another job. Well, I kept getting sick and losing my voice which in my line of work basically means no work for awhile, and for me that's about a month of downtime. So every time it looked as if we were getting back on our feet I would get sick and we would be back in the hole to the bank again. They finally stopped accepting our checks and just sending them back. Every time it looked as if we were getting back on track something else would happen, either I would get sick and then it would be another round of bills just coming in and hitting at the wrong time. In July they refused to cover our rent check so we had to come up with 700.00 in like 10 days, my husband had to sell a lot of his movies cd's, graphic novels and boxed sets like Buffy and Angel (all of them, we had all 7 of Buffy and all 5 of Angel) and his paycheck all 500.00 went to paying our July rent by August 5 and then we had to pay August rent by August 15. Needless to say we finally this weekend paid rent for August so no worries about being evicted, just from now on we have to pay rent via money order rather than check, which I am actually thankful for in a way that way no worrying about when we are going to take that 700.00/month hit from the account as our land lady sometimes wouldn't send the check in until the last of the month and we would have 1400.00 come out at once. I have been able to work steadily for about a month plus now so that is awesome and we are now finally getting close to being back on track, granted we have a few bounced checks to still take care of but all in all we are only about 500.00 in the hole to the bank at the moment as opposed to the 3600.00 we were in the beginning and the 1200 we were in the hole this time last month. I hope that by this time in September I will be able to report that we have not been evicted. Things are still iffy though, my job depends on the whims of others. I make money if they call, I don't if they don't and I am definitely not making as much as I was making this time last year. This time last year my weekly take was about 1100.00; I am feeling the economic crisis most definitely as my largest week at the moment has been about 500.00. Granted that is still good, but it is that time again and all of our bills are coming due soon and my husband is making about 500.00/2 weeks at Best Buy so I have to carry the brunt of the earning and I am so stressed about making sure that we have the cash so that we can get the money order for our rent as well as pay the 400.00 cell phone bill (we haven't paid for awhile and they want to shut us off) by the end of next week and then the 150.00 gas bill also at the end of next week. So basically I need to make 1150.00 by the end of my shift on Sunday in order to ensure that the money will be in our account by next Friday with the direct deposit system my job uses.
Ya know though, long story and all kinds of other shit happening in my life right now but all in all I am feeling happy and blessed that I am turning 30 and will be spending the next several days partying with my friends, my brother, and my family and pretending I have not a care in the world.
I certainly hope that all is well with you in the SG world, I miss you all and hope to have reliable non-borrowed internet soon.
I have not been online much lately because I don't have internet at the moment and have been borrowing form a neighbor, the reasoning behind this is because I had my cable services shut off and currently owe them for a few months or service and definitely don't have the ability to pay them, I've barely been able to pay for the power, gas and rent lately and trust me when I say my husband and I have not been grocery shopping for at least 2 months and are living off ramen, oven pizzas, and macaroni and cheese, all things we get from the local bread basket. The reason behind this is a very long story that I hope you will take the time to enjoy.
Very few people here may know the story but suffice it to say that I had a very very large savings thanks to a settlement offer a few years ago that I managed to play with in the stock market and turn into about 150,000. I also had 15,000 in a small savings account in my hometown bank. Well, back in March I went to swipe my debit card for a small purchase down in Albuquerque, NM at the Sephora store when my card came back declined. I thought, the bank assumed that my card had to have been stolen as I live in Kansas and here was a purchase being made in Albuquerque. That was not so. I called my bank and they told me that the card was declined because I had no money. I choked and just was like "what? Why aren't you sweeping from the savings into the checking?" at which point they told me my savings all 15,000 was gone and I was 1500 in debt to my bank. Keep in mind this was the very beginning of March at which point I still had the 1900.00 in bills all out and about to arrive at the bank in a few days. So I called up my other bank with my MMA which was set to turn into a regular savings account in a few days and said "This is an emergency I need to write a 3900.00 check to cover my bills and expenses." I was informed that someone had called in with my information and had withdrawn the money from a bank in Kansas City. They knew my password, my account # the exact amounts I had, my date of birth, my social, my brother's social (I used that as one of the security questions as he and I are twins) and my husband's maternal grandmother's maiden name which was another security measure. Basically, this person had done their homework and they got away with my 150,000.00 and the 15,000 from my checking just by making a check out to cash at that bank turns out that they had just set up a bank account with the minimum cash needed to do so at that bank under my name and then they cashed the check and withdrew that minimum amount as well. They were smart. Anyway, I lost 168,000.00 to Identity Theft. Oh yeah, banks are insured for up to 100,00.00 and while they are given 6 months to investigate, most people never end up seeing their money ever again as to be honest with you most banks require absolute proof and when they don't get absolute proof of the physical perpetrator of the crime their insurance companies are not required to pay...wooo!
Topping this off is the fact that my husband was out of work for a few months (has a job at Best buy now) he was a GTA instructor at the university, but as that is a two year position and his two years were up, he had to find another job. Well, I kept getting sick and losing my voice which in my line of work basically means no work for awhile, and for me that's about a month of downtime. So every time it looked as if we were getting back on our feet I would get sick and we would be back in the hole to the bank again. They finally stopped accepting our checks and just sending them back. Every time it looked as if we were getting back on track something else would happen, either I would get sick and then it would be another round of bills just coming in and hitting at the wrong time. In July they refused to cover our rent check so we had to come up with 700.00 in like 10 days, my husband had to sell a lot of his movies cd's, graphic novels and boxed sets like Buffy and Angel (all of them, we had all 7 of Buffy and all 5 of Angel) and his paycheck all 500.00 went to paying our July rent by August 5 and then we had to pay August rent by August 15. Needless to say we finally this weekend paid rent for August so no worries about being evicted, just from now on we have to pay rent via money order rather than check, which I am actually thankful for in a way that way no worrying about when we are going to take that 700.00/month hit from the account as our land lady sometimes wouldn't send the check in until the last of the month and we would have 1400.00 come out at once. I have been able to work steadily for about a month plus now so that is awesome and we are now finally getting close to being back on track, granted we have a few bounced checks to still take care of but all in all we are only about 500.00 in the hole to the bank at the moment as opposed to the 3600.00 we were in the beginning and the 1200 we were in the hole this time last month. I hope that by this time in September I will be able to report that we have not been evicted. Things are still iffy though, my job depends on the whims of others. I make money if they call, I don't if they don't and I am definitely not making as much as I was making this time last year. This time last year my weekly take was about 1100.00; I am feeling the economic crisis most definitely as my largest week at the moment has been about 500.00. Granted that is still good, but it is that time again and all of our bills are coming due soon and my husband is making about 500.00/2 weeks at Best Buy so I have to carry the brunt of the earning and I am so stressed about making sure that we have the cash so that we can get the money order for our rent as well as pay the 400.00 cell phone bill (we haven't paid for awhile and they want to shut us off) by the end of next week and then the 150.00 gas bill also at the end of next week. So basically I need to make 1150.00 by the end of my shift on Sunday in order to ensure that the money will be in our account by next Friday with the direct deposit system my job uses.
Ya know though, long story and all kinds of other shit happening in my life right now but all in all I am feeling happy and blessed that I am turning 30 and will be spending the next several days partying with my friends, my brother, and my family and pretending I have not a care in the world.
I certainly hope that all is well with you in the SG world, I miss you all and hope to have reliable non-borrowed internet soon.
I hope your birthday brings new hope and cheer