12:49 a.m. - 2003-01-31
Circulating Wealth
My employment insurance finally arrived in my bank account yesterday. In addition, Elections Canada paid for more hours on my last assignment without me having to submit an invoice. The note in the comments section indicated it was an adjustment for the work already submitted. Apparently they felt the work was worth more than what I had requested and they had paid. Odd, but certainly nice.
Means I can now pay my Dad back and have enough to spend until regular pay flows in in a couple of weeks. I have managed to keep all my bills up to date, so what is left over is mine to spend as I wish. So....... I went and bought groceries. One of the positive things to come out of the past three months of non-employment, has been the reminder of how to manage my money better. Instead of prepared foods, I went back to fresh everything that was in season, and store brand water-packed canned and frozen products where it wasn't. Remembered too, to prioritize and only buy necessities. I did take orders from my guys for "treats" this trip though - requests were for yogurt, crackers, and extra fruit and vegetables.
It also meant we were eating a much healthier diet too, since prepared foods are where the extra fats, sugars, and preservatives are packed in. The one day I went shopping with my two sisters and my Dad, for example, one of my sisters asked me about the quality of one of the hot dog products offered by the store. I had to clarify what she wanted to know. Taste or food value? Tastewise they are good, but then I showed her the nutrition breakdown that is required on the packaging here. Three hot dogs cooked, no condiments and no bread, had more than her daily fat allowance just to maintain her weight. Was that how she wanted to "spend" those fat grams? If so how was she going to feed herself the rest of the day?
Shopping reminded me about the expenses of working too. I haven't had to buy pantyhose or extra personal care items, for example, for three months and that bumped my bill way up. Add in $130 for two monthly bus passes for number 4 son and myself - still the cheapest form of transportation though - and the final bill was nearly triple what I had been spending on my bi-weekly trips in the in-between jobs period. Good lessons.
I received an odd call today too. When I got home from shopping, there was a message on my voicemail from someone who was cleaning out their basement and found a book I had lent them about ten years ago. Truth is, I'm always lending out my best books, because I think it's important to circulate a diversity of perspectives and ideas to as many people as want to hear them - even ones I don't personally agree with. More ideas to draw from means a more resilient and creative person or population. If I loan someone a book, I do so with the idea that it might not be returned to me - pass it on. Besides that, I usually forget what I gave to whom. Means that I've given away boxes of books over time. I still have enough books collected over my lifetime to fill a small room, so its not as if I'm deprived. Anyway, the book in question had been a gift from the psychologist I mentioned a couple of entries back for the volunteer time I had invested in the clinical services he administered and that does make it a special case. The name of the caller was very familiar, but I can't remember exactly which project we had worked on together. I will call him tomorrow to thank him for his thoughtfulness though. He had driven cross town while I was out and left the book in my mailbox.
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