August 7, 2007

I had a major scare with my unemployment claim. I got my award letter, and everything was zero. Amount of award, weekly benefits, wages earned in past quarters. Zero, zero, zero! Turns out that there is some question about my identity. Hey, it's me. Really. I think that the issue is that I forgot that in 2006 I was technically employed by Administaff. Easy to forget-I went to the same building, sat at the same desk, did the same work, but the company tried to be fancy and use Administaff. After a year they figured out that it wasn't cost effective, and got rid of them. So, I guess that when the People's Republic of CA looked up my records my employment history didn't match what I told them. I mailed off copies of the things they asked for today, I hope it gets straightened out.

So, now it's time to live frugally. It's pretty easy really. No new stuff-clothes, gadgets, shoes, etc. No convenience foods-no reason to pay someone to cut up your vegetables for you. Buy in bulk, but only if it's truly a better buy, is something that you need, and you will use it all before it goes bad. Example-today at Costco they had five pounds of peaches for $6.99. That's $1.40/pound. Last week I bought some at Henry's for 77¢/pound and I didn't have to get five pounds, two and a half which would have probably ended up as worm food in the compost bin. I have a source for cheap meat ($2/pound for flank steak which is $7/pound at Costco), so I won't have to resort to rice and beans for protein.

And, I use my credit card. If I spend cautiously and pay it off every month as usual the Amazon.com gift certificates will do my Christmas shopping again this year. I already have $100 stored up. I only have to buy things for my mother and sister. My brother and I have agreed to get over it. Last year I bought myself a new phone and told him what he got me. He was happy. Some people might find this offensive. It's not what you get, but the giving....blah, blah, blah. It stresses my brother out to have to pick out gifts and he pretty much buys himself anything he wants, so it works for us.

Here's a picture of the most recent canine resident here, Bentley. (Named after the cute little bend at the tip of his left ear.)