Money... where the hell did it all go?!

Seriously difficult time for me at the moment. I don't think I realized how much the wedding and preparation for it threw me back. Before the money's earned, it's all been spent.

PSE&G waited 2 weeks to finally cash the check I sent them and Netflix whacked me way later then they ever do (they're almost always exactly on the 15th or 16th). If I get any other charges before I get my check in the bank I am fucked. If I get any charges before next week, either, I am pretty fucked too.

::thunk::

It's going to be very difficult financially for a while now. I did a September calculation to see how much money has gone from my bank account and the number was staggering. Depressing and staggering, and a bit guilt-inducing.

I can't do any major new theme shows that will cost me money (there was nothing to buy for Shock Treatment and it still cost me almost $100). Also I can't buy any new clothes or CDs or songs on iTunes. I splurged too many times. Small times but they added up to pricey.

I am appalled and a little scared at how much money has been spent on food considering that it's not even been a month. I like my flavored water but I may to severally limit my intake of that... and I gotta stretch the meals that I'm buying food for.

I haven't been to the gym in months and it's still costing me $59 a month, wasting away for nothing. Montreal also really kicked my ass.

My cousin waited almost a month to cash the check I wrote out to her for her wedding present, which isn't terrible, but was a surprise to see.

Factor in PSE&G, my new computer that I'm paying off in installments with my Capital One, rent, and my phone.

I just want to punch myself repeatedly. And then fuck for cash.

There's a bunch of shows on Broadway that I'd like to see, as there usually is. The Threepenny Opera is closing on the 25th. I really like Nellie McKay, Cyndi Lauper, Alan Cumming, and Ana Gasteyer, and it's incredibly odd and wonderful they're all in the same show. I went on the Roundabout Theatre website to see ticket situations. It's a bad month. July would be worse, but June is almost half over, and the last two weeks are filled with different events, especially on weekends, the only likely time to go.

So I check out next Sunday, which is stretching it, but all the same, I want to know what's it going to be like. Mezzanine tickets, which is fine, fine, fine... $91.25 each. Well, whomp on that. And I just out the seats together (I try "2" to get my odds), and sure enough, 2 seats are available in entirely different rows. Well, score.

I try a few combinations, but rear mezz is useless to me. I decide to try "3" for the ticket number. $273.75 is the would-be total price of death. Sure enough, seats together. Now, really, how does that work? 3 but not 2? 2 people is fewer than 3 people!

I can, in theory and in practice but not in morality, afford this exorbitant ticket price. But "3" is not a number doable. I'd settle on 2, but I don't even think I could convince Matt that it was a show he should go see. He likes to know plots and scores long before, and I don't even _know_ the precise plot. It's almost beside the point for me, strangely.

Blech'ers. I am shelling out for Les Miserables' all-too-soon revival, if only because Daphne Rubin-Vega is going to be Fantine, which is fabulously weird. And while the music of Les Miserables has not remained among my very top faves, it's been something familiar and easy to love since Michelle first got me into it, some fifteen years ago.

Final payments on bills are a beautiful, fabulous thing.

Today was a pretty full day of work. It wasn't really stressful or difficult or anything, but it was pretty busy. I ended up being very, very tired by the time 5 o'clock rolled around. Sometime after 6, I even laid back in my chair, cranked up Aqua, and apparently fell asleep. The nap did nothing but make me cranky when woken up.

Matt and I did food shopping in two parts. The first part was him walking around and putting things in the cart. The second part was me actually being alert and putting food for myself in the cart. It ended up being $170, which was pretty obscene, and I still haven't exactly thought about the inexcusable shopping cart rape that was so blatant and unforgiving... Money's not exactly tight, and most of the things we were getting were for pretty general consumption (I did end up getting two boxes of raspberries simply because they were there and not a bad berry in the bunch). I have to say that I don't really want to live in a world where an individual water filter is $10.

Two websites that I frequent like the dickens are bugging the hell out of me. I got into the habit of updating directly from Livejournal.com, using that embedded text box they have, after about two years or more using one of their stand-alone clients. I just hated that I couldn't change the mood icon that I wanted to use if I was feeling a different adjective than the pre-determined 130-some. Anyway, now when I'm typing, the window keeps expanding, and making that horizontal scroll bar, and part of my entry obscured. Fuckers.

The second is last.fm, which is taking a very long time to load my total artists list. As someone who acknowledges that it doesn't matter what my music stats are as long as I am enjoying the tunes, I am also someone who really likes to know "who's in the lead" or whatever. It's all still uploading, but the artists are updating individually as opposed to the whole chart. After Yes, Virginia's release on Tuesday, there's a good 60-some tracks that haven't been added to my list for the Dresden Dolls since then. Nellie McKay is listed on my weekly charts as having 52 plays last week, but my overall hasn't even updated her past the otherwise anemic 40-some that came before that. Blargh.

Matt and I watched another episode of Lost yesterday, which was very interesting. Only one for tonight; Matt has a registration system to make functional by tomorrow.

I'm alone in my section of the office, tomorrow. That sucks.

My shoulder still hurts, but only really now when I touch it. Jamie thinks it's a pinched nerve. That sucks, too.

Taxes are done. Matt did them. Because that is a benefit of sleeping with a business owner who knows how to.

Turbo Tax basically nullified the $40 I was getting from the state, because while I'm getting $810 from the federal, I was charged with a $60 fee from Turbo Tax and the bank they use. Fuckers.

Still, it's about two weeks of paychecks that I didn't have before, so I guess it's ok.

-$129.11

::sob::

Yes, Charlie Brown-- there will be a Christmas this year!

Random scam... I went to Charlie Brown's with Matt; the one in Clifton. It was an okay meal. The waiter was decent enough; I tipped him $7. In total (with tip), the check was $49.98. I just checked my bank balance. They charged me an additional 31 cents.

...I'm not so much outraged as baffled.

And I don't know if I should really care.

My hair is shorter now.

I don't really have any money right now. I took $440 out of the bank. It's for rent, which is due Tuesday, but worth getting rid of 'cause those DVD sets for Desperate Housewives, Veronica Mars, and Lost are looking good enough to buy frivolously. Granted, I am getting $200 worth of payroll into my bank account in a few hours (when it clears).

But still. Expenses are piling up. I have to see doctors, get contact lenses, pay my credit card bill (which is not a big deal-- in fact, having fake money has been really helpful lately), and if I get Sunday off (judge still out on that one) from the show, I hope to have a number of drinks that taste like melon. Plus I just joined that gym, Matt and I have been eating at restaurants a lot lately, and well, I should have cash in general. I wish I had gotten like $50 or something for my birthday from my parents. Thinking back, I didn't get anything from them in the end. Probably time to stop expecting it.

I tried selling more shit on eBay, but it's--well--shit... Besides the Tori t-shirt, I just don't expect anyone to buy anything from that lot. Playbills and random magazines are just not that exciting.

::tries to pay Capital One bill again, online::

Fuck, why won't you fucking work?!

Yay, technology... where's my paper checkbook?

Ok. Never mind about the money woes... I apparently get paid vacation days.

I feel better now. I'll woe about money later. First, a step at eBay!

Kidding. Unfortunately.

Meanwhile, it took all the strength I had to get out of bed this morning. I was in no mood for the walking or the thinking.

I figure nestled comfortably between posts about sexy and expensive trips to Las Vegas, I'd say that I have no money... It's all gone. And accounted for. When I get more, that is.

I have about $100. And when I get paid this week, because I only worked two days last week, I'll only get about $80 after taxes... And when I get paid the week after, I can't spend it... And I have to hope that it's more than $250... 'Cause I have to pay rent.

::thunk::

Yay vacation aftermath!

I paid off most of the balance of the credit card, though, so I do have another intangible $400 or so.

::thunk::

Ok. So much in so few hours! Whoot!

I woke up casually around quarter after 12. I showered and hung around downstairs, in the office entertaining Jamie while Matt showered and stuff to prepare for our night out.

We headed out to the Palisades Mall, where we ate at the Outback. I love the Outback primarily for it's bacon and cheese covered fries. They're like heart attack in a potato.

Afterward, we went shopping. Like... extreme shopping. I dropped $200. Very easily... it just fell out of my hand and into several white plastic bags filled with CDs and clothes.

I finally went into an H&M. I had written them off as trendy and expensive crap I'd never want... gay club kid wear. But, they're not! They had earth tones and everything! I got some really great shirts. Also, they're not that expensive... I mean, I've spent more on clothes at Bob's. Granted, it was all shirts... I didn't look at jeans. Jeans have a habit of being obscenely expensive. As it is, I keep changing sizes and the ones I've got now just gotta work for now. However, it's going to get colder soon, so I consider most of them sensible purchases. Actually, all of them. Go me.

I also got a bunch of CDs... CDs I wanted and were far enough on my Amazon wishlist that I felt secure in getting: the Queer As Folk season 5 soundtrack, the Joseph cast I'm familiar with from Dad used to play it, Placebo's best-of, Avenue Q (present from Matt), a Queen tribute album (possibly more to come about that...), and the K's Choice best-of. Huzzah to that!

We then went to see The 40 Year Old Virgin. I expected, initially to completely avoid it, but Genevieve said that she caught a chunk of it at our theatre one week before the show, and it was legitimately funny. Sure, I'd give it a shot. It was actually really quite funny. I don't have lots to say about it as yet (if ever, on LJ)... but it was the most sexually brazen film not by the Farrelly brothers. And not as gross (temporary vomit excluded) as it could have been. Also... why is it that Catherine Keener keeps starring in films that have incongruous song/dance numbers to end otherwise unendable films?

And that was my birthday, but with more sex, cheese and bacon, and mall than I can really get into depth about. Very, very satisfying.

I have a credit card now.

Be afraid.

My bank makes me very nervous sometimes. I had over $300 in my account, and I gave Matt a check for $200. That makes have a good $100+, and I withdrew $40. My account registers that I withdrew $40, but says nothing about the $200.

That makes me really nervous, because I hate not being able to pay for shit, and especially not being sure if I can pay for shit. If I get screwed out thinking I have the money and then get charged $30 for overdrawing, then I'll be really upset.

Narrrggnnahh.

So many bitches got permanent accounts on Livejournal.

All of them. Bitches.

As if they don't have anything else to do with their lives.

...I want one so much...

::sigh::

My hands smell like lemon!

Lemon-scented productivity!

Since 4 AM!

More joy: More than $25 made on eBay items! More than half didn't sell... but $25+! For shit I didn't want!

Hot. I'm guaranteed to make at least more than $10 for my eBay bids. I'm a regular entrepreneur.

An entrepreneur that would go out of business in days, and mocked for the rest of his natural existence, but certainly an entrepreneur.

(Sadly, I am not much of a collector. And I don't really want to give away/sell the things that could constitute more considerable dollars.)

Selling things on eBay is likely as addictive as buying.

What else do I have that I really don't need, or really even want anymore...

Only one bid so far, of 12 auctions. Oh well. 6 days left. And I'm already guaranteed $4 with that one sale.