Wednesday, March 23, 2011

looking forward to that first paycheck

With bills piling up around me, and with no tricks left up my sleeve, I find myself looking forward to the miniature double-whammy of pay coming my way this weekend. In theory, I'll get my final paycheck from ETS this coming Friday; it won't total more than $130 for a single day's work (unless there's a forgotten half-day tucked in there somewhere). My first paycheck from YB is supposed to be mailed on Friday, so I might not see it until Saturday (if it gets here fast) or Monday/Tuesday. The check won't be for more than four days' work, given how pay periods begin and end at YB.

The money will be a relief, but unfortunately, it's all spoken for. Land line* and cell phone bills, a Comcast internet bill, an electric bill, not to mention my several creditors, who have been very patient (they could have been more like this).

My second paycheck-- actually, it'll be a direct deposit-- will be for a full two weeks of work. A goodly chunk of it will go to rent and the aforementioned creditors, but that's not a problem, as I've got three paydays in April. Pitiful as it sounds, I'm looking forward to doing stuff like buying a few new shirts and pants instead of washing and re-washing my only two dress shirts and pants, over and over again. (Now you understand motivation behind the Dryel post, which was about my slacks.)

Being able to buy a greater selection of food will also be nice. You've probably realized by now that all the shit that's bad for you is also cheaper, and I'm tired of living on cheap food. About the only cheap vegetables are carrots and cucumbers, but a man can live on just so much homemade oi-kimchi before he's driven irrevocably insane.

*Some have asked why I maintain a land line at all. It's a good question. For now, the answer is faxing, which I've had to do more often than I thought necessary. If you know of a way to fax things without using an actual fax and land line, let me know. I'm aware of online faxing services, but question their reliability.



Justin said...

This might be informative:

I used one of the free online fax services last year when I went home and it worked brilliantly for both sending and receiving.

hahnak said...

just curious but why do you feel online fax services are unreliable?

when i worked briefly doing light accounting for a school, sometimes we would have to either send or receive faxes. while we did have a real fax machine (which got HEAVY USE in 2007-08 when i worked. apparently LOTS of people still use them for work. i had no idea), i also did send and receive faxes online.

never had a problem. and different companies used different services from what i could tell.

did you have a one time or more than one time horrible experience?

to me online fax services are as reliable as email.

Kevin Kim said...

I had a bad experience with online faxing back in the late 90s/early 2000s during grad school. That may have colored my perception.