Filed under: life
Paying bills makes me feel so accomplished, probably since I took a kind of casual attitude to it there for a couple of years. Living paycheck to paycheck, as long as my rent was paid, I was doing ok.
Now, I’m still living paycheck to paycheck, of course, but I bought a car, and those payments surely can’t be neglected, and I have a pathological fear of my car insurance lapsing, so that one gets paid immediately as well.
(And speaking of car insurance! My monthly payment magically lowered itself this month. A couple of years ago, I would have taken a “woo hoo!” attitude and paid the lower amount, no questions asked, but being a responsible adult these days, I was immediately on the phone, demanding that Geico explain their damn selves, and promise me I wasn’t going to be suddenly uninsured halfway through the month because, suprise!, they were testing me and I really did owe them $30 dollars, and I would discover this, of course, as the exact moment that my insurance lapsed and the exact moment a bee flew in my car and made an attempt on my life, causing me to drive into a fire hydrant, cooincided. But no, no they weren’t testing me – I drive a 2007 Toyota Yaris (so cute!) and the 2007 models are the first to be offered here in the US, so it turns out that they had just gotten in a year’s worth of data and gave the car a higher rating, thus lowering my premium. After being repeatedly assured of my insured status by lovely Geico rep Bob, I felt comfortable enough to proceed with my woo hoo.)
Right, anyway, so… as I was saying. I pay my bills these days, and there’s not a whole lot left over. But lately, I’ve been taking a hard look at my budget, and where the money is going, and where some can be cut here and there (lots of places, apparently… what can I say, I’m a girl who is willing to pay for convenience) and I’ve discovered that by really really pulling it in close, I can dump about $300-400 a month into a savings account.
Now, savings, not really my thing. Which of course has bitten me in the ass several times, but I live in an expensive area, I don’t make much money, and I PAY my BILLS. But recently I’ve decided to take a trip. Me, a total non-traveller, never been out of the eastern time zone, distinctly unsettled with the unfamiliar, I have decided that at the end of this year, I will be going to New Zealand.
I’m young, single, childless, with, I’ve discovered, somewhat disposable income. If I don’t get off my butt and do some kind of travelling now, I don’t know when in my life I’m going to be in a better position to do so than I am at the moment. If I’m going to travel, and if it’s probably realisticly, knowing myself, going to be just this once, I’m going ALL THE WAY TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE PLANET.
Plus, it will be summer there, and they speak English. Big factors.
So today, after patting myself on the back for paying the last of this month’s bills, I am getting ready to open a savings account. I’m thinking of going with online banking, specifically, ING. If any of the zero people who read this have any kind of experience with that, I’d love to hear it. My choice is based largely on my thought of, “Who the hell even GOES to banks anymore?”
Part Tuesday of my week of misbehavior is coming up later, but for now, I must continue on with my grown uppiest of grown uppy days.
