The Chinese have a clever saying for how Americans live. They call it the "American kill line" and it's a term from video games. A player is close to the "kill line" when their personal power is so low, that any attack or misfortune will kill that character.
Americans live this way. 90% of us are one or two missed pay checks, an auto accident, an injury or illness, away from becoming losing everything and living on the street.
So why tempt this with bad money management?
The day started with my checking the two envelopes the mailman had put in through the slot, one being a water bill that's overdue and needs to be paid by the 30th, and one an electric bill that needs to be paid before this Tuesday. For the water will, the 30th is far enough in the future to not worry about right now, but while I can work here without water and things just get less convenient, without electricity I can't do any work and that means Ken loses the sales that keep this place going. We piss off some customers, our rating goes down, etc. It's not good. It's approaching the kill line.
I had 4-5 small things packed and on my way up to the post office I thought this out. It turns out there are places I can pay the electric bill, including the Walmart I go to all the time. They don't take checks but they take cash, which is good because if I pay using my card I'm afraid the electric company will set my card to be the payment account and I'll have to get Ken to reimburse me each month. It's enough of a hassle to just get paid.
Since I've been lazy and not kept a cash stash lately, I figured I'll do cash backs at places and in that way amass the $248 I needed in short order. Since I got a bit of an early start, I went up to Dai Thanh Market first since they close at 7.
It turns out Dai Thanh does do cash back, but it's limited to $40 and the cashier really didn't want to give me $40 cash back on the $3 purchase of a can of black coffee and a couple small bundles of cilantro. So I just forked over $3 cash and moved on.
I went over in front of Tram Coffee where it's fairly quiet and told Ken about the bills and that I could pay the electric bill and he could just pay me back, since things are tight right now. He thought that idea was great, and "I can just pay you back next week". So now to just collect the cash.
99 Ranch is now limited to $40, so that's new. I got $40 there, cash back on some boiled peanuts.
I stopped at H Mart to hang out and eat my boiled peanuts and drink my can 'o' coffee, then went over to Sprouts. They ought to allow $100 back since Whole Foods does, right? Wrong. They're limited at $40, although I did that twice, getting some beef sticks for the weekend and then some sausage I've wanted to try.
I went over to Lowe's next and gt some batteries which I need anyway, and yep, limited to $40.
This is ... not so great, I thought. I might as well ride over to Whole Foods while it's cooler and the traffic is calmer, so that's what I did. I got some hazelnuts and $100 back there, and counting is all up, I have enough for the bill and "walking around" money besides, plus a $20 bill to put in a new cash stash I can add $20 to each week.
I'd spent the night taking stuff apart, and as usual had put the scrap metal out front. Overnight people had picked through it but when I left there was still plenty out there. So when I came back here I thought I'd have to hitch up the bike trailer and take the stuff out by the side of Old Bayshore so it would get picked up, but when I got back here the stuff was all gone, so that was great.
The thing is, Ken told me last night that one of his bank/checking accounts was closed on him because he'd gone into overdraft too many times, and he's changing over to the same bank his employer uses, in the hopes that his pay checks won't be held for so long. So he's been paid, but it's the usual thing with people who don't manage their money well; delays and holds and deciding which overdue bill to pay first etc.
I wish I'd understood the money game better when I was young. Don't set foot on the huge scam that is every college campus, as college is only worth it if you're already so wealthy that you can afford to toss 4 years of your life and these days, maybe a quarter of a million dollars down the drain. You make the same minimum wage with a degree or without one. And save, save, save money. Never have any debt, and save, save, save, And amass self-sufficiency skills, survivalist skills, etc. But at least I don't manage money as badly as Ken, who seems to never worry about it because somehow, it's always coming in. Except it's not, as much, these days.
I practiced before bedtime last night, and will spend tonight taking more things apart, and practice, and am glad to be in out of the rain, which started as I was almost all the way back here.
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