My Year End Rant

 The little money I have — that is my wealth, but the things I have for which I would not take money, that is my treasure.   

Robert Brault,

Good morning.  One more day until New Year's Eve, and I am feeling the holiday blahs.  I always feel let down after Christmas passes, and it only gets worse in January and February when SADD takes over.  I especially felt down yesterday when I opened my bank statement and saw how low it was.  That tells me it is time to knuckle down and spend more wisely.  Easier said than done.

My social security went up by $20 but so did the rent and the cable bill.  Food stamps were cut down from $189 to $59 because of the raise in social security.  Doesn't matter that everything else went up as well.  Totally frustrates me.  One works for 50 years and has to struggle for every little bit, and a 26 year old man who sold drugs for a living, never worked an honest job, but knows exactly how to get over on the system, has everything handed to him.  He was my client and had no interest in work or school.  Why should he?  The system makes it too easy for him to idle around and do nothing.

I saw it every day as I went to work.  Our clients collecting their SSD checks and buying cigarettes or drugs and standing on the street corners selling them.  Social security gave them no problem, but remember all hubby had to go through to get his SSD?  The man has two terminal illnesses, but he was refused and had to wait a year to reapply.  And THEN he had to  fight to get his back monies released to him because someone made a mistake and marked him down as having mental illness.  My clients were receiving SSD for mental illness, but the system didn't give them a hard time. 

I called the cable company yesterday trying to lower my rate without having to give up the channels we enjoy.  No go.  I've been with them for 20 years, never missed a payment, and this is the thanks I get.  Every week I get offers in the mail intended for new customers.  What breaks they get!!!  You'd think they'd find some way to offer their customers of good standing.  Shame on them!

Fortunately the electric bills aren't so high in this apartment.  They average about $60 a month, about $100 a month in summer.  In my old place I was paying about $100 a month and $300 during the summer.  Turns out that the creep upstairs had the basement wired to my account, and he and his brother lived down there.  

I'd like a new cell phone, but forget about it now.  And, I don't know what I would do if my Kindle went down.  I already get so many free books on there.  My youngest gave me a $100 gift card, and I plan to use that to stock up on toiletries and other items I use regularly so I won't have to buy for a few months.  There will be no new clothes with my Christmas money this year. 

I know what I'll be doing on New Year's day.  I'll be digging out my notebook and going through my frugality books, jotting down ideas.  Next step will be setting up a strict budget.  It's the only way we'll survive.  

Have a good one.