duty calls

On a weekend in August in Portland, there is any number of fun things to do. The rain is gone, the heat settles down and the days become our reward for putting up with the rough year-round weather. For example, on this weekend, they're holding the soapbox derby on Mt Tabor near my house. I've been invited by a handful of different people to attend with them but duty calls.

My friend Jen from Country Fair has a five year old son named Sam. Earlier this year, Sam was diagnosed with brain cancer. He's been in the hospital for months now undergoing chemo. While he's in good hands in Doernbecher's Children's Hospital, his mom has been with him the whole time and they will be facing a lot of bills when they get out so my friend Stacie organized a yard sale for this weekend to help raise funds for him.

It began early in North Portland this morning so I had to wake up earlier, load up last minute donations on my bike, and head up there but it was all totally doable and I was glad to do it to help out. Cancer is such a daunting disease and there's nothing I can do about that but I could help in this way. I got there this morning, set some stuff up and helped manage the rush that followed shortly after we opened. A lot of awesome people donated, including the widow of a guy who owned a whole lot of new and nice athletic wear. Two of the first guys to come to the sale were THRILLED and bought a lot of it up before we really had time to research the value. However, they also gave us some tips on what to price some of the other items so it all worked out. In one day, we made around $800 and there's still another day of sale to go!


If you'd like to donate to Sam's fund, here's a link to a site that was set up to help raise money for him. Thank you in advance.

Even if they hadn't needed help at the yard sale, another friend needed help cleaning out her house that she is selling since she was recently widowed. It can be a shitty world sometimes but it's nice to have friends that will pitch in and help out. Plus these hard times remind us to remember and value the good times.

What else?

 A good number of people showed up in the early afternoon to help out at the yard sale so I was able to leave a little bit early. I managed to get home and have enough time to walk Dean up to Mt Tabor quick to catch the very end of the soap box derby. Apparently, Sophia and Jen took him up to the derby last year so I was happy to be able to keep his tradition. I wish I could have seen more of it but there's always next year. I don't regret a bit of today.

a debt-free man

As of today, I don't owe anyone a damn thing. :)

Today I paid off my student loans from my undergrad schooling and my bill for my laser eye surgery.  It feels good to be free.

giving credit what credit is due

I moved to Portland thanks to unemployment checks and credit cards. I got a credit card shortly after starting at the UNK years ago and initially, I was paying off my entire balance each month. However, upon moving to Portland, I got further and further into debt. At one point, I was living off a package of veggie dogs a week and the rest of my money was going to credit card companies (and the bars).

However, I called my dad who knows a thing or two about finances and he told me to keep transferring my balances to one card and then try to transfer that balance eventually to a card that had a 0% APR on balance transfers. As soon as that introductory offer runs out, move onto the next card. And that's what I've been doing. And today, I finally paid the fuckers off.

We watched a documentary about the secret history of credit cards tonight and it made me feel like a dolt for even having one card so I checked what I had in the bank and determined I could get it all paid off tonight.

I still have debt due to student loans and eye surgery but now I have one less bill to pay each month for the first time in a LONG time. Wooo-Hooo!

house hunting

Today, we took the first step to being serious about possibly getting pre-approved for a loan to buy a house. This is going to be such a difficult process that will probably age me five years.

Owning a house just makes sense. Rent is flushing money down the toilet when you could actually be putting your money towards something that you will eventually (waaaaaaaaaaaaay down the road) own. I like Portland so I could definitely see living here through the duration of a mortgage loan but I can't see living in the same spot for that long.

We went to a real estate loan officer at Advantis and were told that we need fair amount more paperwork before we can get pre-approved so we will be coming back on Friday. The house in the picture above is one that we are sort of considering. I don't think that I can spend the next 30 years living three blocks from 82nd though. Why do we have to live in a system where everything is so damn complicated and expensive and...committing?

the kicker

I don’t understand taxes all that well. I know I have to pay them and I hate the fact that they are such a significant portion of my paycheck. I always use a tax program on-line to do my taxes every year. It’s super-easy so I don’t need to know a lot about it. I just need to be able to read the numbers off my W-4. As I said a couple of posts ago, economics was one of the classes in school that I got a D in.

Today, I got my first kicker check in the mail. They included a letter with it that said when the state of Oregon is over it’s expected revenue by more than 2%, they divvy up the excess. I still don’t get how they split it up or exactly how they’re over what budget but hey, I got a check for $372! That’s all I need to know. I cashed it quick-like just in case they decided they made a mistake.

making bank

Today I cashed in my coins I have been saving up. I made over $70 for the first time. It was 12 quarters, 410 dimes, 342 quarters and 1451 pennies. I needed a haircut and I couldn't afford one otherwise. Plus my coin jug thing was full so I had to turn it in. I went to a coinstar at a Fred Meyers which sucks because they take 9% out but at least I didn't have to count it myself.

I needed a haircut because it was starting to poof out and I was afraid that, with my glasses and shaggy hair, I was starting to look emo-riffic. And I couldn't have that.