Bit by bit. . . . .

Today is payday!! And today, I was fortunate enough to receive two checks, one from my day job, and one from my night job. The entire "night check" went towards my credit card (aka 'emergency card') debt, leaving me with a grand total of $171 to pay off! This, I know, I can do before the end of the month.

Technically, I could send the money now and get rid of this last little bit of consumer debt. However, I'm going to be away at a professional conference the week after next, and since the university doesn't hand out advances on travel funds, I'll have to cover my meals and transportation with my own money, and receive the reimbursement after I return. I want to have a cushion of cash in my checking account, so I'm not tempted to use my "emergency card". Invariably, when I travel for business, I end up spending more than the university per diem rate, and that would end up sitting on the card until the following month when I could pay it off.

Anyway, I'm ecstatic to be $171 away from my goal, almost exactly a year after I began my frugal experiment! In December, I'll need to start thinking about how to use that 'extra' money. I know I'll start putting money back into my 403(b) retirement account, and I know I'll pad my emergency fund, but the real question is whether I should start making at least the interest payments on my gargantuan student loan debt---right now, the interest is accruing and being added to the principle, so I'm basically going into more debt by not paying at least the interest. . .

Call me crazy, but. . . . .

I find it difficult to feel much sympathy for the wives of husbands who work on Wall Street, who have seen their incomes shrink significantly. For example, in this LA Times article, one woman's husband was making $400,000 a year ($200,000 base salary, and, I presume, $200,000 in bonuses). Now he's down to "just" $200,000 a year. No bonus, poor guy.

Am I seriously supposed to feel bad for people who were earning---on one salary---more than I'll make in ten years?? I'm usually not this snarky on this blog (I'm plenty snarky in real life), but $200,000 is a ton of money. If you move out of your giant house with the giant yard in the great neighborhood, and maybe trade in your giant cars for one efficient one, and consider NOT spending $500 on a 3-year old's "back to school" clothes, perhaps, just perhaps, it won't hurt so bad.

Now, I know everything's relative. My salary is pretty good, and my income is actually right at the median for Portland when I include the earnings from my second job. I've got it pretty good, in spite of the crazy fun I've had with credit cards in the past (one more month to the Big Payoff, folks!). There are people out there who would look at my life and think it's pretty luxurious, frugality notwithstanding.

Truly, though, I don't think I can stand to read too many more articles about Wall Street wives (or employees, or whatever) who were making upwards of $200,000 and more a year, who are now forced to (gasp!) clean their own houses and make their own meals.

There. That's my rant. I hope to be less snarky as the week goes on!

Overheard on the Max. . . .

A woman having a conversation with her seatmate about her husband, who was laid off months ago, and hasn't been able to find a job since. She talked about the "tight market", meaning that even though he has years of experience (in what, she didn't mention) he's not receiving many responses to his resume.

She commented that she hadn't been sure they could live on just her salary, and that they were making drastic changes in what they spend money on. It appears that they're 'making it', for now, but if her partner doesn't find a job soon, they could be in trouble.

It was interesting to hear this firsthand account of the troubles that Oregonians (and Americans) are facing right now. As I wrote on Tuesday, I feel somewhat insulated from economic woe because I work for a large public university. Barring a complete meltdown in the government, my job is fairly safe.

My eavesdropping emphasized (for me, at least), the reality that folks are struggling. They're losing jobs they've held for years. They're having a lot of difficulty finding other work. Hopefully, this new economic reality will force all of us to think twice before pulling out the credit card and making unnecessary purchases; especially when that credit card might be needed for a true emergency sometime in the future (I wish they were called 'emergency cards').