It's been a while since I had one of these, I think. Most expenses have been related to the dog and his surgery, but a smaller subset (eating out/buying prepared meals and renting videos) have been devoted to keeping me together and sane while being his nursemaid and working full-time-plus.

Henry is mostly feeling back to himself, though he's still having the occasional bout of the digestive problem that led him to surgery in the first place. That was diagnosed by biopsy and on Wednesday we'll get the details and get him put on the right medications to hopefully stop the episodes altogether. I'll also be looking for the right diet to keep him on now that he's been diagnosed with a chronic digestive ailment. This means additional expense because we'll end up doing some combination of an ultra-premium food and home cooking, I suspect. My buying food in 40 pound bags and stockpiling bisquits when they went on sale means only that I have about $100 worth of food to donate to the local shelter. But anything to keep my baby healthy!

Not yet ready to do the bills and face all the damages--I'll map out a plan by the end of the month for the additional $4000+ in unplanned expenses Henry's illness has cost me.

After a week devoted mostly to my dog Henry and his surgery (and incidentally to work), I finally stopped and tallied the week's and the month's expenses. My usual monthly outflow is 2400, and that was the price of Henry's surgery, so I doubled expenses there. Then there have been ancillary costs--things like additional meds or things to keep Henry from scratching at his stitches, plus stuff for me--a bit of money eating out because between the dog and my cold, I've not been cooking; money renting DVDs since sleep has been erratic and sporadic, etc.

Henry is finally done with the post-surgical pain, but he is beginning to lick and scratch a bit at his stitches, which is a no-no. Still have yet to get the biopsy results but so far he's only had about one minute of one of his digestive "episodes" since the surgery. Since I've been sick, I stayed at home all weekend monitoring Hen, catching naps when I could, doing a bit of prep work for the week, and finishing going through the second season of Grey's Anatomy (a show I hadn't even heard of 10 days ago, which I've now seen two complete seasons of).

Life has been "abnormal" in many ways since Hen's illness (not least of which has been that I've been sleeping on the living room floor to keep an eye on him). Hoping things move back towards normal and the high level of spending normalize this week.

The surgeon called himself just now to say that things went well and that Henry (basset hound) is already awake. The biopsy results will take 3-4 days. Henry will stay overnight in the hospital and I'll be calling to check on him every few hours.

I can tell I've been stressed because I'm developing a cold. My throat has been getting scratchier thoughout the day. I was going to ask my boyfriend to stay over tonight to comfort me but I don't want to make him sick too.

I'll get to bring Henry home tomorrow after work. Praying for a quick recovery, not too much discomfort, and good news from the biopsies!

My Henry is going in for surgery this morning. He’s going to have two large bladder stones removed, biopsies done on his G.I. tract because of repeated bouts of tummy ache/nausea, and a gastropexy (tacking the stomach to the abdominal wall so that if he starts going into bloat, he won’t torsion). He’s otherwise in good health so should pull through the surgery well, but it’s a pretty big operation (10” incision). Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers. Hopefully the surgery will fix things but at least it will give us a better idea of what steps might be next if the initial pre-bloat symptoms continue and will prevent the symptoms from becoming life-threatening.

The surgery is costing $2400--on top of the $1300 I've already spent on diagnosis, medicines, foods and vet visits for this problem. My mom is loaning me some money (and giving me a bit) so that I don't have to put this on a credit card--which is the only real option given that I wiped out the emergency fund over the summer and have only had one paycheck from my full-time job so far, which has gone towards paying off accumulated credit card bills.

I have $3600 in debts between what remains on the credit card bills and what I'll owe to my mom that I want to wipe out by the end of the year. I was looking at a nice winter coat in the Lands End catalog, but I think that's just going to have to get put on hold. The living room rug (because the floor is cold) and a new pair of walking shoes are other expenses that I'm going to move forward with. And hopefully the surgery will mean an end to the big vet bills.

Off to go rub that wonderful belly of Henry's since he'll be too sore for belly rubs for the next couple of weeks (he's a dog who flops over for a belly rub almost as soon as he's getting attention from someone--it's funny taking a walk with a dog who spends a portion of that walk rolled over on his back on the sidewalk when he meets someone who offers a pet!)

My Henry (basset hound) has been sick and that's been taking most of my free time, so I haven't been here much. We have a surgical consult on Monday. The surgery should help but by itself won't stop the initial symptoms, which could be due to diet or pesticide exposure (not at MY house but while walking). Bills are adding up: so far have spent about $1300 on this illness; the surgery will probably double that. Also Henry woke up one morning with a bad limp--it's gone now but I also invested in a child's wagon so I can get him out to the car (it's a ways and I felt horrible making him walk it when he was in pain) and a set of portable carpeted dog steps so that he doesn't have to jump up onto the sofa and risk injuring his joints. This is SO like me: I'm generally conservative with my money and then my dog gets sick and all thoughts of thrift are out the window. So the credit card bill is back up again, and that's still before the surgery.

I did a bit of grocery shopping this morning (plus 23 minutes on the elliptical at the gym), then cooked in the afternoon while grading (I gave three exams last week). For the week, I made a Portuguese potato-kale soup with sausage, roasted squash/carrots/brussels sprouts, and baked apples, and a big salad. Groceries also included a nice crusty Italian bread, a loaf of pumpernickel, deli-sliced turkey and cheese for sandwiches. I also have a couple of pieces of salmon in the freezer that I'll probably cook up over the week.

Unfortunately the plastic container that I transferred the soup to started to leak and I lost about 1/3 of the broth and made a big mess in the fridge before this was discovered.

I also cleaned the floors, did the laundry, and cleared the tabletops of their clutter accumulation, plus left the kitchen cleaned up for the week ahead.

I've finished grading one exam and am now pretty wiped, so I'll go to bed shortly. The term really gets busy once grading kicks in.

To my disappointment, I didn't get to go to Rosh Hashanah services (although I did make a R.H. dinner at a friend's house on Friday night) at all because I made the grading a priority; nor did I get to go at all to the "Celtic Classic" festival going on half a mile from my house.

One of these years my life will find more balance. Until then, I muddle through as best I can. I do feel that I've been giving the social and especially the spiritual short shrift of late.

One thing that got overshadowed yesterday by my dog's illness was the package that arrived in the mail from Amazon.com. My sister had emailed me a week ago and told me to expect a package from them--a slightly belated birthday present.

For a few years now, my sister and I have settled into a "routine" of birthday and holiday presents. For the holidays, I renew a magazine subscription for her, and for her birthday, she'll usually let me know about one or two items available on Amazon.com that I then order for her for about $40. And my sister will often buy me a decent pair of earrings, since I have pierced ears. The problem has always been to keep it down to just one pair (since she can't abide the thought of buying "cheap jewelery.")

So--the package. I've been talking for a while about wanting an MP3 player, as I've gotten hooked on listening to audio books and my library now offers ebook downloads. For me, it's been a fun kind of thing to dangle in front of myself as I got through my difficult summer without an income--I told myself that I'd buy it after the debts were paid off. Obviously I'd talked of this plan to my sister, since exactly the model I'd decided on was in that package.

It's lovely to have and I'm sure I'll get good use out of it--but I do feel a bit like the wind was taken out of my sails and a bit ambivalent that she's ramped up the spending on gifts a bit. I've checked out the price and she spent $70--a good deal more than our gifts have cost of late. I'm such an ungrateful wretch--worrying more about how much it will cost ME to buy her an equally valuable present the next time gift-giving comes around.

For my sister, giving a gift is to be something personal and symbolizing her caring for the person. I guess I'm miserly but to me presents really represent mostly obligation. Every once in a while I'll delight in buying someone a gift that is "just right"--as when, five years ago, I bought my boyfriend a nice down comforter and duvet set for the holidays because I knew how cold his bedroom gets in the winter and that the comforter would keep him much warmer than the pile of blankets he was using. I guess the problem is that finding such a "just right" gift for my sister will be difficult--and out of my price range if I find it. Her tastes are MUCH more expensive than mine.

Poor Henry, my basset hound, has had a tummy ache today. He was fine when he woke up, but his first taste of food this morning sent him running outside to start desperately eating grass. He was drooling copiously and the initial meds I tried giving him had no effect, so after 3 hours of periodic bouts of tummy upset, I canceled class and made a vet appointment.

The vet said his vital signs were good and offered me two options: give him a shot to calm his tummy and take him home, or do an x-ray and blood work to see if there was an underlying problem to deal with. Since Henry has had episodes of this type before (though not so badly), I opted to have the tests done so that I know what I'm dealing with.

The good news is that x-ray only showed gas in his digestive system and no problems. Blood work indicated that kidneys, pancreas, and liver are fine.

The x-rays also picked up two large bladder stones which have to be dealt with before they cause problems plus indicated that his hips are not in great condition (arthritis down the line). Plus he has an ear infection. So I left today with two tummy meds, two ear meds, and chewable glucosamine, plus a week's worth of special low-residue food.

Henry has been doing mostly ok since he's been home but has had two short bouts of his tummy bothering him. He's sleeping now. Nothing upsets me like my dog being sick (Bassets are vulnerable to Bloat, which is deadly, and he was displaying some of the symptoms). I'm exhausted but wired and hope that *I* sleep tonight--I really need it.

The long drought is over! The first paycheck since May 20 (that's 112 days ago, folks) is sitting in my checking account this morning!

It's the one from my part-time teaching job, which pays on a biweekly schedule. My "real" paycheck for the full-time job arrives on the 20th--it comes monthly. Most years, I get my 9-month salary budgeted out over 12 months for me, but this year it wasn't since I was only part-time last fall and didn't go back full-time until January.

I knew I had to budget ahead for the summer, but came up about $2400 short because of tuition expenses (I took 3 courses over the summer), a major car repair, and a big vet bill. That $2400 has been sitting half on a credit card and half as a loan from my mom. Now I can begin to pay off the credit card--I'll pay it in full when the real paycheck arrives--and then, next month, begin to start putting money back into the depleted emergency savings account (Mom is expecting repayment in December; that gives me 3 months in which I can put some money towards that debt and some towards savings, and then begin to put the full amount in the emergency fund as of Janaury.

I feel quite relieved to know that the income stream is flowing again.

One thing about academia is that decisions are generally are made pretty far in advance. At the beginning of the fall term, departments finalize the teaching schedule for the spring and are well along on any job searches for the next fall. Thus it was that I arrived home to a call inviting me a teach a class next term at School Y. I currently have a full-time but temporary job at School X and this term am teaching one class part-time in the Evening College at School Y. The Evening College and the Day Division at School Y are run separately, so I very well may be asked to teach another part-time class in the evening at School Y. That would be two courses on overload at Y, on top of 3 classes plus supervising honors theses, advising, and committee work at School X. Since I have no idea what I'm doing for income after next August 20th, more money is always nice. But then I kind of have to hope that I only get one offer, not two, from Y. Doing two courses on overload will be a bear. But I hate turning offers down, since there's going to come a time--might not be next fall, but could be the fall thereafter--when I'm back fully on the adjunct, patch-together-one-course-here-and-one-course-there
path, and saying "no" means that somebody else gets rotated in.

I'll have to think about this...sitting here at 12:30 a.m. after putting in a full teaching day and spending 6 hours preparing my night class for tomorrow, my brain is all but fried.

Offers of employment are always better than not having offers of employment, and if I overload heavily in the spring, then I'll feel freer to completely forgo teaching next summer and to again concentrate on taking classes as I attempt a mid-life career change.

One other good point about an offer from School Y: it's only 1.5 miles from home. Last fall, I taught 5 classes at 3 different colleges and commuted 250 miles a week. The driving was in itself exhausting. School X is 8 miles away; even if I taught 5 days a week at X and 3 at Y, I'd be putting in less than 90 commuting miles.

Also have to take the dog's schedule into account. He had me by his side almost continually all summer and things are hard on him now that school is in session. He's over there whining for my company, so good night.

Now that September's here and the prospect of a paycheck is in sight, some of the tension over mounting debt is loosening--maybe a bit too much. After all, I don't want the credit card bill getting too much bigger before I pay it off! I *did* find a great deal on 8 o'clock coffee and bought $10 pounds for just under $30 today. I already have about 3 pounds at home from an earlier (not quite as good sale). Coffee addict though I am, I think I'm good on coffee at least through the end of the year.

The first paycheck from my part-time job arrives Sept. 15; then a full-fledged infusion of cash comes with the first regular paycheck on Sept. 20.

I've done a little grocery shopping the past couple of days; I'm hoping I can pretty much make it to Sept. 15 without too much additional grocery spending (I know that I *will* need about $30 more for soymilk, sliced turkey, and yogurt, my basic staples.

But I've got about 6 frozen chicken breasts, 6 frozen turkey meatballs, 2 veggie burgers, 3 salmon patties--there's 10 meals right there. Just bought a big box of oatmeal so that takes care of breakfasts; also bought a loaf of bread and will bake one next week. I froze half a batch of split pea soup (about 3 meals worth) 10 days ago, and there's still 2 pounds of spaghetti and half a pound each of red lentils, brown lentils, and split peas, so it looks as though more pasta and more bean soup will tide me through the last of this really lean patch.

I know that there will be some "rebound" spending once the paycheck comes--hopefully not too much. One thing I know I'll buy once money is in the bank again is a bit of clothing--I'm in need of some new lingerie and the walking shoes I've been using since January are absolutely without spring. I'll try to let those be my "rebound splurge."

and that means that a paycheck, at long last, will not be far behind. My full-time teaching job pays monthly and I won't get that check until Sept. 20th--but the good news there is that they gave me a 3.6% raise (as a temporary faculty member, one is never sure what the raises will be). I have a part-time one-night-a-week evening job as well, and that one pays biweekly. I'm hoping the first check comes Sept. 8th--if not, it will arrive the 15th. There's just over $1000 sitting on the credit card bill right now, and groceries still to be bought, so I'm looking forward to getting cash in, paying off debts, and starting to save again after draining my liquid funds this summer.

Oh, today was a no-spend day, too.

I've not been terribly good during this so-called no-unplanned spending week. School is about to start, which has a number of concerns (and related purchases) bubbling up. Those total about $30, plus I had a library overdue fine of $4 and had to contribute to a wedding gift for my boss for $25. So only 3 true no-spending days this week. I think this next week will go better.

I just got online and made sure that all my bills are set up to be automatically paid when due for the next month, and I set up automatic transfers from savings to ensure that the money is in the checking account when it needs to be.

I'm on my way out of the house and I will stop and buy a $50 gift card for the local convenience store which usually has the cheapest gas and is on my way to work, and a $125 gift card for the grocery store, and then when I get home tonight, I'm taking my ATM card out of my wallet.

So I'll be able to get gas and groceries with the cards--and I have enough cash in my wallet to pay my $4 library fine (oops!!) and dine out one night at Musikfest--and that's it for the month.

Staying within those limits really will be a challenge.

Money is really tight right now--haven't had a paycheck since May 20, don't get another until Sept 20 (41 more days--almost 6 weeks!), so I really had to struggle over a couple of expenditures when I was setting up the automatic billpay. I decided to cancel Netflix just before my next billing cycle on the 20th; I'll start it up again around Thanksgiving. I should be too busy this fall semester to watch many movies anyway! I *was* going to cancel the newspaper, too--but I decided to keep it for a few reasons. In particular, there's a big decision coming down locally this fall about whether or not my town is getting a casino; that news will only be in the local paper and not in my beloved online NYTimes, and not all of the relevant stuff (notices about community groups, etc) even gets into the online edition of the local paper. Plus after an event like yesterday's thwarted terrorist attack, I do get more news hungry. Thirdly, I'm on a special plan where I get the paper for half price; if I stop it now, there's no guarantee that I'll be eligible for the special rate again. I figure I'm just going to have to use at least $21 worth of coupons in the next 13 weeks so that the subscription will pay for itself!

This month will be a real challenge for me. I was told at the beginning of the year that I'd receive my winter semester paychecks from Feb thru May (rather than through the summer) because I worked part-time at this school last fall, and thus was not a full-time employee for the entire year. I'm a teacher and I'm used to having my 9-month salary paid to me over 12 months, but they only do that for full-time employees for the entire academic year (which I am again now). I planned ahead and managed to save $7250 in my savings during that time, and have been living off the savings since.

However, it's still 45 days until my next paycheck, and the savings account only has $640 left in it. Summer tends to be my most spendy time of year, and this year was no exception. I took a trip out to L.A. to visit my mom, am taking 3 summer school classes, adopted a dog and made purchases to accommodate his needs, took care of some minor home repairs, and had one large car repair bill during this time, in addition to the usual monthly expenditures.

Thank goodness my mother still has the means to lend me $1200 (which I will repay in full by December) to enable me to pay my August bills (the September paycheck arrives just in time to pay the September bills).

So I've got to be good about adhering to the budget this month--I've got $967 on the credit card at the moment, and I *usually* pay in full every month.

So here's the budget for the month, which will all but exhaust the savings and the loan from mom, leaving just $100 in the savings accounts to keep them open and as a wee bit of buffer.

Budget
Mortgage/escrow 723
Gas (budget plan, spreading payments equally over the year) 150
Electricity 70 (guessing)
Water/Sewer 73 (quarterly bill due)
Phone 50
Health Insurance 95
Disability etc Insurance 40
Groceries 300
Gasoline 50
Pet Needs 20
Gym 29
Entertainment (including dining out) 50
Household supplies/goods/repairs 23
Credit Card payment 67 (leaves 900 balance)

Total 1740

I'll so look forward again to having money coming in! I've got the rest of the year planned out to pay off the credit card and the loan from mom by year's end, and to start rebuilding the emergency fund. I've concentrated my savings the past several years on building my retirement fund, but this experience (plus the fact that I am a relatively new homeowner) makes me realize that this year's savings needs to be addressed to establishing more liquidity in my accounts.

I was originally told by my HR department that I would have to pay my full health insurance contribution ($360) this month rather than my usual $95/month contribution because of an oddity in my contract situation. They told me that back in January so I've been expecting it for months. Yesterday before sending the payment in, I asked one more time why that was, and finally got told that I'd just have to pay the monthly contribution. So that's $265 I don't have to pay out this month--a real relief as I try to make it four months without a paycheck.

I think (hope) I have this mostly resolved. So far it's taken an hour and 4 phone calls, with one more phone call I'd like to complete but I'm getting a busy signal at the moment.

I finally traced the charge to Agora Solutions, a (purported) voicemail service, which claims I signed up for their service via an internet click on an ad for coupons. Now first of all, how dishonest is THAT?! Second of all, I'm not much of a couponer because I limit the amount of prepared products I buy and get more coupons than I need from the Sunday paper, so it's pretty unlikely I clicked on that coupon site anyway. But even if I did, it was with no intention of signing up for internet voicemail!!!

If you google Agora Solutions, you find that they pull this scam all the time. (There is also a UK company by the same name which appears legitimate, but the US company shows up mostly under "Rip-Offs."

When I was on the phone with Agora, they "cancelled" the service and said they would credit my account and that it would show up on my phone bill. They did send me a confirmation email, which says that the charge may not be removed for *2 to 3 billing cycles*. Hah. So I'm going to call Verizon and ask them to remove it immediately. The Verizon employee whom I spoke to earlier was helpful and told me that I should ask for the Toll Billing Department and have them do a "recourse adjustment." So I'll be doing that once I stop getting the busy signal from Verizon!

Followup Followup Got in contact with Verizon, got their assurance they're taking the charge off my bill so I won't be charged finance charges. Good! But they did try to sell me (a) wireless phone service; (b) DSL; and (c) DirectTV while I was online with them!
****************

Check your phone bill for charges from "The Billing Resource," "Integretel," and "Agora Solutions." These are the names that are associated with this scam.

My monthly phone bill for August arrived and it was bigger than expected. I see a new unknown $9.19 charge from "The Billing Resource" and a notation that "new services were added this month." I didn't authorize any new services!! Looking around on the web, I find both indications that this "Billing Resource" is a legitimate company, part of whose function is--get this--fraud prevention, but is also listed as involved in a scam.

Of course since it's the weekend, no one answers the phone numbers when I call to inquire. I don't see much hope/information about how to get out of this in my web browsing, either. Lots of the people say that the phone company representatives tell them that they can't help them.

What are my legal rights? If I don't pay that part of my bill but pay the rest, do I get hit with late fees? Any one have any ideas about where to start looking to resolve this?

I'll be on the phone to this purported "Billing Resource" 8 am tomorrow!!!

Maybe I'm still in the "honeymoon"/novelty period, but the toaster oven I agonized about buying last week

My accounts need that! I've gone over budget in virtually every category this month--so far I've spent $447 more than I'd budgeted for. (I don't need to spend much if anything for the rest of the month, so I should end the month about $500 over plan). That's the bad news.

The good news is that July's budget was really restrictive (since I'm living on savings at the moment), and that in fact, I'm spending less than I usually do, particularly for food. A semiannual car insurance payment, a large car repair bill, and an unexpected veterinary bill added hundreds to my expenses beyond what I'd planned to spend.

I'm putting a bit on the credit card and borrowing a bit from my mom to make it through the summer. I hate having debts but they'll be gone by year's end, and I'll be launching an aggressive savings program once the paychecks resume Sept. 20th.

Well, it's halfway through the month, and all my bills are scheduled through automatic billpay, and my pantry is stocked, and the gas tank is full, and I should need to spend very little else this month, so I took an assessment.

On the one hand, the news is bad: It looks like I'm going about 20% over budget overall--mostly due to (a) an unexpected vet bill; (b) an unplanned household purchase (see my entry on Thursday); (c) higher electricity expenses (for running the A/C); and (d) higher than planned food expenses. There's a lot of red in the Budget vs. Actual column--that's the bad news.

The good news is that my budget for the month planned to cut expenses significantly from usual since no income is coming in at the moment, and that compared to my "normal" spending, things look good and I'm spending less than usual. It's hard to enact large cuts all at once; hopefully working even harder to be frugal now will pay off with better habits once the income stream resumes in September.

Today was another no-spend day--I think that's the third this week.

Tomorrow won't be. The dog's been having repeated tummy troubles so I've scheduled a vet visit for tomorrow morning. That won't come cheap. That's going to be another item added on to the VISA bill that won't get paid until paychecks resume in September. (I almost always pay my VISA off immediately, but I'm having to live off of savings/without a paycheck for 4 months, and while I have enough for the bills, this will be the second "emergency" item that goes on the VISA for a couple of months.

Hopefully they'll have an answer to my poor baby's troubles and that answer won't cost too much!

On a daily basis, my biggest struggle is keeping my food expenses down. I'd like to think that as a single person, I could spend $50/week on groceries, but I routinely spend twice that, and my eating out expenses sometimes spike up to $150 in a month. Usually this is when I'm busiest, so instead of the dining out money going to nice restaurants I enjoy, it's going to sub shops and fast food joints where I can have someone else cook for me when I'm too tired to do it for myself.

On the more global level, there are two challenges I struggle with. The first is to develop a more steady income stream for myself. Things have been going well the past few years, but a year from now, a long-term contract I've had will expire, and I'll be struggling with income again.

The second challenge is to learn to do more things myself rather than to throw money at the problem. This is particularly true when it comes to any type of physical or mechanical work. Not only do I find this type of work distasteful, but I have no confidence in myself and my abilities. Case in point: yesterday, I "accidentally" turned my thermostat higher when I meant to turn it lower (left-right dyslexia kicking in?). A couple of hours later I feel the radiators blasting heat and go down to the basement to find the furnace chugging away. Instant panic attack!!! I had no inkling that this was connected to the thermostat turn I'd made earlier, but thank heavens my boyfriend was at home and he suggested checking the thermostat first thing. If he hadn't been there to suggest it, I would have called a repair person and had a major expense because I was terrified that the furnace was about to explode and I have no idea how to turn the thing off by myself. As it was, I ended up calling the gas company and spending $99 for an annual service contract so that any future "emergencies" will be covered.

Is that stupid or what? I know it is, but when I get panicky, all concern about money goes out the window and getting the problem solved becomes first priority.