What Made you Smile/What Ticked you off Today?

[puke_face]

Trying to figure out way to cut back on spending so much money. I Tried seeing if my insurance would cover the cost of a window in my house that needs replaced very badly... it was original with the house in '54. Needless to say, it's about to fall out on it's own. I was told that unless it was damaged by the weather or some other extenuating issue, that it wouldn't be covered, that and it's a $1,000 deductible anyways, which would almost cover the cost of getting it replaced. On top of that, found out that I am apparently behind on my mortgage payment, so I have no ability to refinance. I am so fucking tired of finances that I could rip my hair out of my skull. I sold my truck last month too try and catch up on everything else, but it ended up being spent on other things we need, so noting really went towards getting us caught up. My entire financial situation is making me feel very hopeless and depressed. I really don't know where to go from here.

[Luke]

Trying to figure out way to cut back on spending so much money.

If you need financial advice I'm here to help.

[Ziggy]

Smile: I know I had some smiles today, but I forget what they are now.

Frown: So I'm in my house, after I got home from work, and I think I hear a beep every 10 seconds or so. So I quickly realize it's the carbon monoxide alarm that I keep in the basement next to the oil burner. It's old, dated 2005. I put it down there after getting a new one that's keep on the second floor (where all the bedrooms are). So the old one is suspect, just because it's old. So I think, maybe it's a fluke. Let me take the newer one from upstairs and put it downstairs to confirm. So that's what I did. The newer one is battery operated. So I started to take it downstairs into the basement to plug it in down there. I didn't even get all the way down the stairs before it started beeping, so I just bailed.

Now I'm home alone at this point, so I'm not really sure what I should do. The alarm isn't going off constant. It's just a single beep every 10 or so seconds. So I don't know what that's suppose to mean. Low levels detected? My first thought is to open all the windows.

Long story short, the oil burner service said that the fire department has to clear the house before the serviceman can come and check it out and that I should get out of the house. Uh, yeah, it's a little cold outside. So, yeah, a whole fire crew shows up and does their thing. One first responder, one fire truck with crew, then the fire chief. All with their lights flashing. And I can't stop thinking about A Christmas Story. "Holy cow! It's the fire department!"

No levels of carbon monoxide detected at all. So now I'm waiting for the serviceman to get here. Let me tell you, I'm starting to get fed up with this oil burner service. They came a few months ago to do some maintenance. Ever since then, they had to come back 3-5 times for repairs. Now this. WTF!

Everything seems to be OK. But I guess I'll know more once the serviceman gets here.

[MrPopo]

So if it was a slow intermittent beep my suspicion with the new one would be the battery is low. Any alarm that you're actually supposed to respond to in a timely fashion will make constant noise.

[sevin0seven]

smile: i now have two 64drive flash cart

frown: it will rain all week starting tomorrow (no playing basketball outside).....smile: i will sleep better at night.

[Ziggy]

So if it was a slow intermittent beep my suspicion with the new one would be the battery is low. Any alarm that you're actually supposed to respond to in a timely fashion will make constant noise.

Yeah, I don't know. I mean, it turned out that the one in the basement was dated 2005. The fire chief said it should be replaced. It might have been beeping once every 10 seconds to say that it should be replace, and not because it detected carbon monoxide. I accept that. That doesn't explain why the second one beeped when I brought it down stairs. The second one's battery might have been low, but it beeped when I brought it down stairs. It beep again when I was holding it and opened the door to the basement. It hasn't beeped since then. If it beeped because of a low battery at those two exact times, that's one huge coincidence.

I did check the battery with a volt meter. The battery was fairly new. It was bought a while back, but was only placed in the alarm just before the hurricane hit. Still, it read under 9v. I forget exactly, but it was over 8v. I guess the threshold for it isn't a lot.

The second one has a new fresh battery. It tested over 9v with my meter. I have it plugged in where next to the oil burner. The old one is in the garbage. I just got a new one to keep on the main floor. So, maybe it was nothing. But I'm not willing to take that risk. I still got the serviceman coming.

[MrPopo]

Oh, definitely, you want to take every precaution. You're just making me that much happier that I didn't go for a house with oil heat when I was house hunting.

[Ziggy]

There's pros and cons no matter how you get your hot water and heat, but yeah, oil burners are a pain in the ass. This is a fairly old one, too. I've heard the newer ones are so much more efficient. I think the oil is about $4/gallon right now.

I've actually been kicking around the idea of getting a small wood burning stove and a chainsaw. I could get free wood most of the time. Free wood = free heat!

[gtmtnbiker]

Frown: We'll probably get the "did you find a church yet?" speech again.

We're not that religious but we joined a church for the community. Have made some good friends that we can count on through the church.

My entire financial situation is making me feel very hopeless and depressed. I really don't know where to go from here.

Finance is really easy. You just need to look at your take home pay and track your expenses. Make sure that your monthly expenses are less than what you make.

For the next couple of months, you should track down every single purchase that you make. Since I use credit cards, I write down on a piece of paper every expenditure. You'll be surprised how quickly things add up. So let's say that your take home pay is $3000 per month. Subtract your regular monthly expenses such as the mortgage, electric bill, gas/oil bill, etc. Let's say that your mortgage is $1500, electricity averages around $50 and gas is $75.
So $3000 - $1625 = $1375.

You should try to save 10% so put aside $140. Then you might create some budget categories like:

auto - $200
groceries $300
household $100
car payment $250
insurance $100

So $1375 - $140 - $200 - $300 - $100 - $250 - $100 = $285 left over

So you have roughly $285 left over to do what you please. You should try to avoid spending it all the first week. $285/4 = $71 per week average.
So when you go out to the movies, it should come out of your $285 budget but you want to pace yourself so that it lasts the entire month. If you find that 1 week you spent $100, you need to scale back your spending the next few weeks in order to stay under the budget. I try to wait until the end of the month before making a big non-necessity purchase in case something unexpected comes up during the month.

If you can save more than 10%, you should do so. Your savings will cover major one-time expenses that will come up like the window you want to replace or a major auto repair.

[puke_face]

Frown: We'll probably get the "did you find a church yet?" speech again.

We're not that religious but we joined a church for the community. Have made some good friends that we can count on through the church.

My entire financial situation is making me feel very hopeless and depressed. I really don't know where to go from here.

Finance is really easy. You just need to look at your take home pay and track your expenses. Make sure that your monthly expenses are less than what you make.

For the next couple of months, you should track down every single purchase that you make. Since I use credit cards, I write down on a piece of paper every expenditure. You'll be surprised how quickly things add up. So let's say that your take home pay is $3000 per month. Subtract your regular monthly expenses such as the mortgage, electric bill, gas/oil bill, etc. Let's say that your mortgage is $1500, electricity averages around $50 and gas is $75.
So $3000 - $1625 = $1375.

You should try to save 10% so put aside $140. Then you might create some budget categories like:

auto - $200
groceries $300
household $100
car payment $250
insurance $100

So $1375 - $140 - $200 - $300 - $100 - $250 - $100 = $285 left over

So you have roughly $285 left over to do what you please. You should try to avoid spending it all the first week. $285/4 = $71 per week average.
So when you go out to the movies, it should come out of your $285 budget but you want to pace yourself so that it lasts the entire month. If you find that 1 week you spent $100, you need to scale back your spending the next few weeks in order to stay under the budget. I try to wait until the end of the month before making a big non-necessity purchase in case something unexpected comes up during the month.

If you can save more than 10%, you should do so. Your savings will cover major one-time expenses that will come up like the window you want to replace or a major auto repair.

Well said. I generally save 5% of each paycheck and put it in savings, but I don't have direct access to that account via credit/debit card. So if money is fairly tight, I can't get to it after 5 or on the weekend. My main issue at this point is trying to play catch up on bills that have added up when I got in a bind back when I had my truck. That and both me and my wife tend to spend carelessly, which is going to come to a screeching halt. Thank you very much for your explanation. I greatly appreciate it.