Author Archives: Unsigned Podcast

Emergency Cash

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My step daughter had borrowed one of my cars for the past week as hers was broken down for some unexplained mechanical problem. I don’t mind letting her borrow the car for short periods, but she makes it very difficult to keep my resolve to close down the “Daddy ATM.” Her mother and I decided at the first of the year that we must stop shelling out hundreds of dollars each month to “help out” as long as she continues to choose this path down the wrong road.

As I was cleaning out the car upon it’s return, I noticed a paper stuck between the seats and the console. It was a paper receipt for a payday loan. I was shocked and dismayed, but then again, since we told her in no uncertain terms that the cash handouts from our wallets are over, I suppose she thinks she has no choice but to use those types of cash advances to tide her over.

The problem with this is that she never seems to have enough money to pay the loan off and she ends up renewing the loan, putting herself farther behind. This is exactly the type of behavior that we are trying to discourage and she must be even more hard headed than I thought if she is not learning this important financial and independent lifestyle lesson.

Payday loans are a great tool for a one time emergency cash advance. It is supposed to be used for things like emergency car repairs and emergency medical expenses, with the key words being “emergency.”

Now I know I just said that her car was broken down, but I’m not sure I believe her. The car was in excellent condition when we bought it for her last year. I check it over once in a while to make sure the oil is changed and the fluids are OK, the tires are OK, etc. I hadn’t noticed anything going wrong so I have to wonder what the emergency repair was for and she has managed to not share that information with us. If it is true, I hope she is going to handle this payday loan as a responsible adult and pay it off with her very next paycheck.

Oil Change

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An article on Yahoo News says that the adage of needing to change your car’s oil every 3,000 miles is no longer true. With modern advances in the types of oils and the new engines, most cars do fine with an oil change every 5,000 or 7,000 miles – some even at 10,000 miles. What a blessing that would be for my wallet.

It used to be that you could get an oil change for $19 at Firestone or one of the regular car and tire places. Then the price went up to $24 but you could sometimes score a $5 off coupon from the Sunday paper. Now it’s gone up to $33 and I haven’t seen a coupon in ages. So, like gasoline, the cost of oil changes has gone up quite a bit these past few months and to be honest, I think we’ll have to start pushing the envelope on the amount of miles in between. Instead of every 3,000 miles I’ll see if we can get by on every 5,000 for a while.

Comparing Notes

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Talking with another District Manager last night we were comparing notes on how our out of pocket expenses have been increasing the past few months. With our contract renewals right around the corner, we are looking hard at how much money our current rate really nets so we can arm ourselves with information for our next contract negotiations.

One of my biggest expenses is gasoline, as I live exactly 22 miles from the office and there’s no way to shave that expense. I’m not moving out of this house – I love it here – and I’m not able to use a smaller vehicle and get the same same payload.

My next big expense is all the paperwork and all the route sheets, invoices and payroll information that I have to print on paper every week. We go through a case of printer/copier paper every week. Tommy says he buys his paper one or two packs at a time for $2.50 per pack. I told him that a case of 10 is only $21.0, so he can save a little that way.

I bought a low end HP laser printer that goes through one laser cartridge every 2-3 weeks. Tommy is using the Lexmark printer that came with his Dell computer system that he bought online last year. It uses the little inkjet cartridges and he goes through those like string through a duck.

I told him to try using the refilled inkjet cartridges – there’s a lot of money to be saved by recycling your empty inkjet cartridges and buying refilled cartridges. The refilled HP cartridges that I buy cost 40% less than the brand new ones. I’ve used them for 2 years now with no problems at all and I’ve saved a lot of money. Tommy says he had thought of that but was concerned that the refilled inkjets might hurt his printer. I had to laugh – he is so gullible if he believes that he has to buy new inkjets!

Bible Covers

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Love my new mini laptop that we bought a couple weeks ago. It is everything I need in a tiny, thin box about the size of a bible and weighing only about 2 pounds. I carry it with me everywhere and often leave it in the car under the front seat or on the front floorboard. Which suddenly gave me pause about the possibility of someone looking into the car while parked with the thought of stealing my stuff. Then I hit on a great idea – buy a bible cover to use as a carrying case. Who is going to steal a bible from my car?

So we headed to the Christian bookstore and shopped for a bible cover. They had a great selection of different styles and colors, and I picked one with a bible verse blazened on the front to go along with the camouflage idea. It’s actually quite handy – it is the perfect size for the mini laptop and it has inside pockets for pens, highlighters, business cards, and a small zippered pouch for money or credit cards.

A Nice Stink

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The wife has a funny saying that pops out every once in a while. When she smells something good that she really likes, she’ll announce, “That’s a nice stink!”

The first time I heard it I thought she was very weird. Well, maybe she is, but I love her anyways. But the story behind that saying is: when she was a very little girl and trying to learn the English language with all the subtle differences between similar words, she had heard her granny say on a Sunday drive that the smell of a dead skunk that they passed in the road was a “bad stink.” Then later that day, when they passed some honeysuckle on the side of the road, the wife (she must have been only 4 or 5 years old back then) announced that the fragrance from the honeysuckle was a “nice stink.” Of course, the whole car burst out in laughter at her mis-use of the word stink. And from then on it became a family joke and she still says it once in a while, bless her heart.