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today's moment of BLINDING PANIC ...
Jan. 15th, 2002 03:27 pm... has been brought to you by the letter G.
It's actually quite the meandering story.
So today is payday. Bueno. I record my direct deposit in the ol' checkbook, and I go to pay the cell phone bill. Wonder why those guys don't cut me off, since I don't pay the bill on anything like a monthly basis. Go to pay the Visa bill. Yikes! Christmas presents, and the trip to Florida, have made this a big fat Visa bill, and grad school applications have made this a skinny little bank balance, so that ain't happening just yet. Will deposit Christmas gift money, which -- combined with a little graft from the savings account -- should both cover the Visa bill and keep me afloat until the next paycheck, out of which must come the rent. Terrific.
Let's go over this checkbook balance, just to be sure.
Oh, gee. Not only does the bank say we have about $200 less than we say we have -- and that's after I've subtracted the cell phone bill and they haven't, so make that closer to $300 the bank doesn't think I have -- but two checks haven't yet cleared!
Remind self that actually, the cell phone bill and the two uncleared checks sort of cancel each other out, so the difference between what I think the balance is and what the bank thinks the balance is comes out to about the $200 it looked like originally.
Take moment to be appalled that a $200 gap seems like Pretty Good Math.
Examine checkbook to see which checks haven't cleared. One is last month's phone bill -- but Verizon is stupid, and that'll clear just fine.
The other is a grad school application fee.
[beat]
Let me repeat that.
The other is a grad school application fee. ONE OF THE CHECKS THAT DIDN'T CLEAR WAS A GRAD SCHOOL APPLICATION FEE. More specifically, the application fee for my first-choice graduate program has not yet cleared.
( Read more... )
It's actually quite the meandering story.
So today is payday. Bueno. I record my direct deposit in the ol' checkbook, and I go to pay the cell phone bill. Wonder why those guys don't cut me off, since I don't pay the bill on anything like a monthly basis. Go to pay the Visa bill. Yikes! Christmas presents, and the trip to Florida, have made this a big fat Visa bill, and grad school applications have made this a skinny little bank balance, so that ain't happening just yet. Will deposit Christmas gift money, which -- combined with a little graft from the savings account -- should both cover the Visa bill and keep me afloat until the next paycheck, out of which must come the rent. Terrific.
Let's go over this checkbook balance, just to be sure.
Oh, gee. Not only does the bank say we have about $200 less than we say we have -- and that's after I've subtracted the cell phone bill and they haven't, so make that closer to $300 the bank doesn't think I have -- but two checks haven't yet cleared!
Remind self that actually, the cell phone bill and the two uncleared checks sort of cancel each other out, so the difference between what I think the balance is and what the bank thinks the balance is comes out to about the $200 it looked like originally.
Take moment to be appalled that a $200 gap seems like Pretty Good Math.
Examine checkbook to see which checks haven't cleared. One is last month's phone bill -- but Verizon is stupid, and that'll clear just fine.
The other is a grad school application fee.
[beat]
Let me repeat that.
The other is a grad school application fee. ONE OF THE CHECKS THAT DIDN'T CLEAR WAS A GRAD SCHOOL APPLICATION FEE. More specifically, the application fee for my first-choice graduate program has not yet cleared.
( Read more... )
