Goin' Broke

I am not, as readers may have noticed, particularly gifted when it comes to handling money. It doesn't help that I deeply distrust large institutions and nearly always find interaction with them frustrating at best.

This is a plain ordinary whine, not a bleg. I don't have a tip jar. I do this blogging thing merely to amuse myself -- if any of you enjoy it, that's gravy.

All that said, it's looking like the lowest part of my home-ownership trajectory is upon me and there is a lot hanging on how accurately I can keep my checking account balanced. It is likely to approach zero sometime in the next ten days; I've got a check for my Arisaka (I was going to take it off consignment; instead the shop sold it while I wasn't looking. I made a profit and that's okay) to run by the bank and I have a few outstanding bills. I'm not gonna be able to do my usual brute force trick of roundin' 'em all up to the nearest $10 or $20 and getting them all overpaid in the first week of the month. I may not have all of them paid by the due date. This is a source of no small stress. (It also would not be happening if the malevolent scum with whom I have my mortgage would recalculate my escrow based on my actual taxes; but they have the legal ability to do that later and will not be budged).

So if I am a little meaner-snarking and less cheerful than usual, that'd be why. And yeah, I've got a budget and I've seen this coming; but I have been a little improvident and now must pay the price. It's not the fall, you know, it's the sudden stop when you hit bottom....