Shopping weekend, financial concerns
Aug. 7th, 2006 02:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
robotech_masterWell, here I am back at work again, getting ready for the Big Weekend. This weekend was a Big Weekend of another sort, as it was the annual "Tax-Free Weekend" in Missouri and a lot of other states, where states voluntarily forego their chunk of the 6% sales tax in the name of Education, saving a decent chunk of change for back-to-school folks (and people who are not going anywhere near schools but can still use the same stuff). And there were some purchases I'd been needing to make anyway—my numbers of slacks and shorts have been dwindling, and my shoes were just about to fall to pieces around my feet. And there were also some things I needed to buy for trip prep. And Saturday was the only free day when the buses would be running on the schedule that would let me catch a return trip home without having to go 3/4 of the way around town to get there. So Saturday was it.
I started the day by getting my PDA working again. It wasn't syncing for some reason, so I reset it, cleared some programs out, and generally gave it a good going-over, trying to get it to work again. I use it as my check register, when I can think of it, and it's easier to do that when I'm actually able to get some decent use out of it. After that, it was time to go to my checking account's online page and see how much money I had left. It was a little less than I thought, when I took into account my rent check, the bills I had to pay, and the $85 traveling-doggie ticket, but I could get by. However, there were those necessary purchases pending, so it was time to go out into the world and make them.
Late Saturday morning, I commenced my prep by finding a 6-month supply of Frontline Plus for my cat for sale via eBay for the price of a 3-month supply. Not only was this good for my budget, but it also meant that I would have to make one fewer stop in physical shopping, which was always a plus. So I acquired it.
I set off with my bike, and rode the several miles down the street to the cluster of shopping plexes where I would find Best Buy and Kmart. I actually stopped in at the Deal$ (or, as I call it, "Deal-string") dollar store first, picking up a steno pad for if I feel like writing on the trip, and some moderately-enjoyable-looking paperbacks for reading and perhaps Bookcrossing on the trip back. Then at Best Buy I grabbed a package of microcassettes to go with my trusty microcassette recorder, and batteries for same; hopefully I can get decent-quality recordings of any con panels that interest me, such as the Robotech presentations for instance. Got some audio cables I needed, and other odds and ends, and even a couple of DVDs—Dazed and Confused and Men In Black, which Best Buy had marked at $4 each. They were decent movies, and might go over well next time I have to do a BioKinetics study. And maybe I can present Dazed and Confused to my parents, prefacing it with, "If you liked Napoleon Dynamite…"
I also picked up a Linksys wireless router, which was priced at $50. I was a bit reluctant to spend the money on that right now (I had passed up new printer cartridges for a similar reason), but on the other hand the router I currently have is just too unreliable right now. It cuts out at least once a day, usually when it's going to be several hours before I can get home to fix it. This is exacerbated by the fact that I'm running a MoonEdit server for the use of my friends in the RP Congress, where they can write and collaborate on stuff. I really want to have it up 24/7 for their benefit, not to mention to be able to connect reliably from when I'm at GenCon to check my mail. Besides, hey, tax-free. But more on that in a bit.
After that, I bicycled on up to Kmart, where I spent an hour or so doing some shopping for supplies there. Shoes, clothes—I bought 2 pair of slacks and 2 pair of slack-style shorts reasonably cheaply. I was tempted to buy more, but at this point I was beginning to realize how thin my finances were becoming. I also bought a travel-sized pillow for use on the traveling-doggie, but it took me some time, and assistance from two different staffers, to find where the travel-sized pillowcases were. It was a kind of nostalgic experience seeing some of the people alongside whom I used to work, getting help from them a couple of times. There was even Price, the mildly-disreputable-looking gofer, still pushing heavy stuff around at the behest of management. I wonder if he'll ever get a better job, or just keep working at Kmart for the rest of his life.
Finally, with heavy bags suspended from both handlebars, I wobbled my bike down across the street to the bus stop, just in time to catch the return bus.
When I got home and dropped off my stuff, I checked newegg.com to see what their price was on the router I just bought. And I noticed that they listed it at $40: $55 minus $15 mail-in rebate. At this point, I was also starting to regret having put it on my debit card, rather than my credit card. Granted, I had just paid off a $500 balance on my credit card with my BioKinetic proceeds, but on the other hand the interest rate on the credit card was a lot less than the cost of an overdraft fee if I'd forgotten some transaction in my catch-up calculations. And finally I realized that I had forgotten to have Best Buy attach the purchase to my "Best Buy Rewards" card, which gives me $5 back if I spend $150 there or something.
So ten minutes later, I took my bike, the router, and the Best Buy receipt, and went right back out to catch the bus again, on its southbound leg. A quick stop at Best Buy got the router returned (and they advised me that I could just do the Rewards thing at home via the phone or computer and it would be faster than doing it there, so I handily agreed). After that, I bicycled down the street to Wal-Mart, to look for one major thing that I hadn't found yet: sunglasses. I've been going around without sunglasses lately, and that's really not good for the eyes. I finally found what I needed there: a pair of $19 polarized Solar Shields that would slip over my prescription eyeglasses. I was a little bit less than sanguine at the price, but on the other hand, if I can manage to keep from losing them, they should last me a good while—and what price to put on cataract-free vision in my old age? So I bought them, a couple of interesting-looking books from their cheapie book-pile, and a $5.50 copy of an old John Wayne movie that was supposed to be really good—and then spent five minutes standing in line at customer service as I realized that in my rush to get good sunglasses, I had actually bought ones that were a size too large. I got the right-sized ones, then headed out.
Now I biked on west to National, where lived A&B Cycle, the bike shop where I had bought this bike a year or so ago. I had managed to bend my rear derailleur out of true yet again (it's not hard, all you have to do is put the kickstand down on an unsteady surface and the bike goes right over and lands on the derailleur with a thump) and it was giving me shifting trouble. I had also broken another spoke on my rear wheel (this was something like the third one I'd broken since getting the bike) and, it turned out, my rear axle was broken, too. So I ended up buying a new wheel and having it put on, at a cost of $53. At least they straightened the derailleur for free with the wheel purchase instead of charging $15 for it as they'd been going to.
By this point, I was getting pretty hungry, so I biked on north along National to the best BBQ place in town, St. George's Barbecue. It's a great little place, paired with a donut shop of the same name and run as a sort of public face of a catering outfit. There are about three small tables in the front of the place, and the rest of it is all kitchen. I had a nice beef brisket sandwich, baked beans, and potato salad—a very filling and delicious meal. The proprietor of the place, with whom I'm on good terms since having eaten there several times, then presented me with…a pair of sunglasses that someone had left in his lost-and-found. Very nice-looking sunglasses, too; probably expensive ones. Not the kind that fit over one's glasses, though. I thanked him and took them with me.
By this time, it was late enough that the last bus had probably already gone (they stop around 6 Saturday evenings), and it was starting to cool off, so I biked on back north to home, with my small Wal-Mart sack dangling from my handlebars. When I got home, I placed an order to newegg.com for that router, and for an inexpensive pair of noise-cancelling earphones (my current pair was out of warranty and had developed a short), on 3-day delivery that should hopefully get to me Wednesday, Thursday at the latest. Then if I can get it set up properly, everything should be cool.
At work this morning, I arranged to get my paycheck this week a day early, so I can deposit it on my way home Thursday and have it officially hit the bank account Friday afternoon. That way I'll have the money in hand in case of emergencies, or in case I see anything I've just Gotta Have at the dealer room.
I've estimated the amount I can afford to spend, and I should be okay as long as I stick with it. It will probably mean passing up a lot of tempting purchases, but on the other hand I'm not really going there to buy stuff anyway. In the worst possible case, I may have to put a couple hundred dollars more on my credit card, but I can pay that off with the next BioKinetic study.
Alas, when I have to worry about conserving my finances, what a time for me to rediscover a company with which I had become acquainted in the past, a company formerly known as JerryCo but now known as SciPlus. A salvage and surplus seller, they had a newsprint catalog full of hundreds of interesting items, each of which was accompanied by a line drawing and a quirky, amusing write-up. I could spend hours reading through the catalog, about electric motors and gears and lenses and things in which I had no interest whatsoever, just to chuckle at the jokes. Their catalog is on the Internet now, but it's still got the line drawings (and color photos for some items) and the quirky write-ups. And there's so much tempting gadgetry and gimmickery there that I could easily have blown $30, $40, $50 or more on the stuff—if I didn't have to worry about the upcoming convention trip. Ah, travel frugality is such sweet sorrow…
I started the day by getting my PDA working again. It wasn't syncing for some reason, so I reset it, cleared some programs out, and generally gave it a good going-over, trying to get it to work again. I use it as my check register, when I can think of it, and it's easier to do that when I'm actually able to get some decent use out of it. After that, it was time to go to my checking account's online page and see how much money I had left. It was a little less than I thought, when I took into account my rent check, the bills I had to pay, and the $85 traveling-doggie ticket, but I could get by. However, there were those necessary purchases pending, so it was time to go out into the world and make them.
Late Saturday morning, I commenced my prep by finding a 6-month supply of Frontline Plus for my cat for sale via eBay for the price of a 3-month supply. Not only was this good for my budget, but it also meant that I would have to make one fewer stop in physical shopping, which was always a plus. So I acquired it.
I set off with my bike, and rode the several miles down the street to the cluster of shopping plexes where I would find Best Buy and Kmart. I actually stopped in at the Deal$ (or, as I call it, "Deal-string") dollar store first, picking up a steno pad for if I feel like writing on the trip, and some moderately-enjoyable-looking paperbacks for reading and perhaps Bookcrossing on the trip back. Then at Best Buy I grabbed a package of microcassettes to go with my trusty microcassette recorder, and batteries for same; hopefully I can get decent-quality recordings of any con panels that interest me, such as the Robotech presentations for instance. Got some audio cables I needed, and other odds and ends, and even a couple of DVDs—Dazed and Confused and Men In Black, which Best Buy had marked at $4 each. They were decent movies, and might go over well next time I have to do a BioKinetics study. And maybe I can present Dazed and Confused to my parents, prefacing it with, "If you liked Napoleon Dynamite…"
I also picked up a Linksys wireless router, which was priced at $50. I was a bit reluctant to spend the money on that right now (I had passed up new printer cartridges for a similar reason), but on the other hand the router I currently have is just too unreliable right now. It cuts out at least once a day, usually when it's going to be several hours before I can get home to fix it. This is exacerbated by the fact that I'm running a MoonEdit server for the use of my friends in the RP Congress, where they can write and collaborate on stuff. I really want to have it up 24/7 for their benefit, not to mention to be able to connect reliably from when I'm at GenCon to check my mail. Besides, hey, tax-free. But more on that in a bit.
After that, I bicycled on up to Kmart, where I spent an hour or so doing some shopping for supplies there. Shoes, clothes—I bought 2 pair of slacks and 2 pair of slack-style shorts reasonably cheaply. I was tempted to buy more, but at this point I was beginning to realize how thin my finances were becoming. I also bought a travel-sized pillow for use on the traveling-doggie, but it took me some time, and assistance from two different staffers, to find where the travel-sized pillowcases were. It was a kind of nostalgic experience seeing some of the people alongside whom I used to work, getting help from them a couple of times. There was even Price, the mildly-disreputable-looking gofer, still pushing heavy stuff around at the behest of management. I wonder if he'll ever get a better job, or just keep working at Kmart for the rest of his life.
Finally, with heavy bags suspended from both handlebars, I wobbled my bike down across the street to the bus stop, just in time to catch the return bus.
When I got home and dropped off my stuff, I checked newegg.com to see what their price was on the router I just bought. And I noticed that they listed it at $40: $55 minus $15 mail-in rebate. At this point, I was also starting to regret having put it on my debit card, rather than my credit card. Granted, I had just paid off a $500 balance on my credit card with my BioKinetic proceeds, but on the other hand the interest rate on the credit card was a lot less than the cost of an overdraft fee if I'd forgotten some transaction in my catch-up calculations. And finally I realized that I had forgotten to have Best Buy attach the purchase to my "Best Buy Rewards" card, which gives me $5 back if I spend $150 there or something.
So ten minutes later, I took my bike, the router, and the Best Buy receipt, and went right back out to catch the bus again, on its southbound leg. A quick stop at Best Buy got the router returned (and they advised me that I could just do the Rewards thing at home via the phone or computer and it would be faster than doing it there, so I handily agreed). After that, I bicycled down the street to Wal-Mart, to look for one major thing that I hadn't found yet: sunglasses. I've been going around without sunglasses lately, and that's really not good for the eyes. I finally found what I needed there: a pair of $19 polarized Solar Shields that would slip over my prescription eyeglasses. I was a little bit less than sanguine at the price, but on the other hand, if I can manage to keep from losing them, they should last me a good while—and what price to put on cataract-free vision in my old age? So I bought them, a couple of interesting-looking books from their cheapie book-pile, and a $5.50 copy of an old John Wayne movie that was supposed to be really good—and then spent five minutes standing in line at customer service as I realized that in my rush to get good sunglasses, I had actually bought ones that were a size too large. I got the right-sized ones, then headed out.
Now I biked on west to National, where lived A&B Cycle, the bike shop where I had bought this bike a year or so ago. I had managed to bend my rear derailleur out of true yet again (it's not hard, all you have to do is put the kickstand down on an unsteady surface and the bike goes right over and lands on the derailleur with a thump) and it was giving me shifting trouble. I had also broken another spoke on my rear wheel (this was something like the third one I'd broken since getting the bike) and, it turned out, my rear axle was broken, too. So I ended up buying a new wheel and having it put on, at a cost of $53. At least they straightened the derailleur for free with the wheel purchase instead of charging $15 for it as they'd been going to.
By this point, I was getting pretty hungry, so I biked on north along National to the best BBQ place in town, St. George's Barbecue. It's a great little place, paired with a donut shop of the same name and run as a sort of public face of a catering outfit. There are about three small tables in the front of the place, and the rest of it is all kitchen. I had a nice beef brisket sandwich, baked beans, and potato salad—a very filling and delicious meal. The proprietor of the place, with whom I'm on good terms since having eaten there several times, then presented me with…a pair of sunglasses that someone had left in his lost-and-found. Very nice-looking sunglasses, too; probably expensive ones. Not the kind that fit over one's glasses, though. I thanked him and took them with me.
By this time, it was late enough that the last bus had probably already gone (they stop around 6 Saturday evenings), and it was starting to cool off, so I biked on back north to home, with my small Wal-Mart sack dangling from my handlebars. When I got home, I placed an order to newegg.com for that router, and for an inexpensive pair of noise-cancelling earphones (my current pair was out of warranty and had developed a short), on 3-day delivery that should hopefully get to me Wednesday, Thursday at the latest. Then if I can get it set up properly, everything should be cool.
At work this morning, I arranged to get my paycheck this week a day early, so I can deposit it on my way home Thursday and have it officially hit the bank account Friday afternoon. That way I'll have the money in hand in case of emergencies, or in case I see anything I've just Gotta Have at the dealer room.
I've estimated the amount I can afford to spend, and I should be okay as long as I stick with it. It will probably mean passing up a lot of tempting purchases, but on the other hand I'm not really going there to buy stuff anyway. In the worst possible case, I may have to put a couple hundred dollars more on my credit card, but I can pay that off with the next BioKinetic study.
Alas, when I have to worry about conserving my finances, what a time for me to rediscover a company with which I had become acquainted in the past, a company formerly known as JerryCo but now known as SciPlus. A salvage and surplus seller, they had a newsprint catalog full of hundreds of interesting items, each of which was accompanied by a line drawing and a quirky, amusing write-up. I could spend hours reading through the catalog, about electric motors and gears and lenses and things in which I had no interest whatsoever, just to chuckle at the jokes. Their catalog is on the Internet now, but it's still got the line drawings (and color photos for some items) and the quirky write-ups. And there's so much tempting gadgetry and gimmickery there that I could easily have blown $30, $40, $50 or more on the stuff—if I didn't have to worry about the upcoming convention trip. Ah, travel frugality is such sweet sorrow…
