Count your blessings. We didn’t even have a bag. And we were thankful!
So can I have a comeprehensive set of rules about what I’m allowed and not allowed to pit? I was hesitant about mentioning the job and gifts, but they seem like important factors in the story. It wouldn’t have been worth the bother of pitting all it meant was that I had to ask my boyfriend to buy me food until monday. I guess in the future I’ll be more vague- “I lost my ATM card on a particularly bad day for it” or “I might not be able to give Christmas presents, but not because I lack the money”. But I’ve gotten some helpful advice and hopefully provided a reminder to some people to be exta carful on the commerce-full week to keep track of their stuff.
I’m a hotel desk clerk. The hours are long and the pay is low, but the work is ungodly easy and there is nothing quite like getting paid to eat, sleep, have friends over, play video games, read library books etc. We all live for the days our bosses go out of town because then we get paid 24 hours a day, and often have an expense account for delivery food (this isn’t the usual place I work, and I’m not sure if they’re gonna do that this time). My bosses were going to be out the entire month of Janurary and that would have been sweet, but they changed there plans at the last minute to be gone only a week during Christmas. The Department of Labor would be probably throw a fit, but I’m happy for the income and for once don’t think I deserve a penny more.
I’ll look in to the check cashing thing. I never really knew what those things were for. Ah the joys of adulthood. Now that I think about it, I know my bosses sometimes cash their employee’s paychecks. No credit card though…do you guys think it would be worth it to get one even with annual fees or bad terms for emergencies like this.
I’m a lot calmer now after the OMG my credit card is missing and OMG what about Christmas shock has worn off. The moral of the story is KEEP EMERGENCY MONEY and ALWAY DOUBLE CHECK THAT YOU HAVE YOUR CARD.
We’ve a mixed lot of ATMs here in the USofA. Some of them hold the card until you’re done with all of your transactions. Some you slide in and slide out before continuing the transaction. Haven’t yet encountered one that returns the card before the cash but I think all the ones that hold your card beep at you until you take it back (or I guess until it sucks the card back in; never happened to me).
If you have $20,000 in the bank why can you only buy one present?
I have a credit card I use only for emergencies. A few years ago, when my old ATM card expired, the bank sent the new one to not the last address I had, but the one before that! So, I had to wait about two weeks to get a new one.
A credit card might also be a good idea to help build your credit. I have no idea what your credit report looks like, but if you put very small amounts on the card that you can pay off at the end of every month, it will help you establish credit, which you’ll need at some point anyway.
Lots of cards have no annual fee and no interest if you pay before the grace period is up. You do have to pay interest on cash advances from day one, but if it’s a choice of not being able to eat, or getting pregnant because you can’t buy birth control, then I’d say to heck with the interest and take the cash advance.
I still don’t understand this. Are you the only employee and forbidden to leave the premises AT ALL for the next week? Surely that can’t be, since you have to sleep. Do they allow you to sleep at the front desk with the hopes that you’ll just wake up if anyone should walk in? If you are not the only employee, as you seem to imply by the use of “we,” then there must be 1 hour in there somewhere for you to go to the bank and withdraw cash from a teller.
To gobear (who was born a poor black child): Bravo.
I am not sure about BiblioCat, but I’m pretty sure gobear may be referring to this past treasure of a thread.
And IIRC, Guin, somewhere in that above mentioned monster it was noted that even sven has used $5,000 of her money, knocking her down to a paltry $15,000.
If that’s not the thread, I stand corrected. Yet many of sven’s threads refer to her “o woe…how poor is me” status, so I’m guessing you could do a search and get an idea of what they mean.
What I love about the Straight Dope is the chance to learn knowledge that you never knew you never knew and teach others about your little corner of expertise.
Nearly every hotel has an apartment behind the front desk for the managers (almost always an Indian husband-wife team) and their family. They are on duty 24 hours a day and can never leave the house together unless they hire someone- kind of like having a baby sitter- to watch the place. I have to hire someone (approved, of course) to cover me during Christmas. The most you can be out for is maybe five minutes to run down the block for a burrito- and even then there is the constant threat that the property owner will call, or something will catch on fire, or six angry customers will be standing at your door demanding extra pillows. While most of the job is easy, the desk clerk is the ultimate authority and has to handle a constant stream of minor and major emergencies. It’s a fun and challenging yet easy-going job and an interesting industry.
I have an inheretence, but I owe a good deal of it in student loans and I do not think it is a good idea to live above my income. I recognize that any hardships this brings on are my own choice and I accept them gracefully. However, in this case it would be odd for me to spend a lot of money on gifts for my family out of the money they’ve given me for the purpose of investing in my future.
Having studied cinema, you will of course know that he can wire funds via Western Union.
Take a bus or rent a car.
Buy or make some presents for the other members of your family while you are at it.
Use the down time to earn money on piecework.
How 'bout some of those gift baskets of little soaps and shampoos?
heheheh…and some nice fluffy towels? and the old favorite, a selection of breakfast pastries from the continental breakfast.
Muffin, I’m not stupid. Greyhound takes five hours to do the three hour drive, and it wouldn’t be worth it for me to travel ten hours to see my family for a few minutes. I do not have a driver’s license, or else I’d be tearing all over the streets in boyfriends’ car. Your going to have to trust that I have good reasons to not choose the obvious answers.
And I am spending the time right now to sew some warm winter hats and scarves. The piecework market just isn’t what it used to be in ummmm 1905.
Anyway, off to work…
I’m sorry but judging by the posts of yours I have read I don’t have any confidence in your decision making.
Your boyfriend is 1625 miles away and you’re worried about getting pregnant because you don’t have any birth control pills?
And I’ve never, ever heard of this 24 hour a day thing from any person I have ever known who has worked in a hotel, which was a considerable portion of my friends in college who took night duty at the front desk to pay expenses.
According to the OP in this thread, she uses them to avoid cramps.
(I wouldn’t know if that makes sense or not, though.)
Sorry, my confusion was based on the fact that she said the boyfriend is 1625 miles away and:
If her boyfriend is 1625 miles away, then who’s she giving up sex with?
But somehow it is worth taking six hours of another person’s time to come and fetch you and then return you.
So you have a medical reason for not having a license?
Then I look forward to hearing that you have found something remunerative to do with your time rather than sitting on your ass playing video games, reading books, and whining about being so poor.
No speculation on catsix’s inquiries re: birth control needs, but sven, if you ever find yourself in such a dire financial condition that you are unable to pay for your pills at PP they will almost certainly help you out in some way if you explain your situation to them. If your local clinic(s) are anything like mine, anyways. (Since you are in Santa Cruz I imagine they wouldn’t be terribly different.)
Except for the one at my actual bank, most of our local ATMs have the slide feature rather than the one where you put your card in, and have to wait til your transaction is over until you get it back.
That said, I’ve left my card in the bank ATM before.
That said…SHEESH folks even sven is pretty out of it concerning life’s little skills, but a lot of people that age are. And I know that she’s had quite a few threads on her poorness.
And, I KNOW, I KNOW, this is probably a case of the little boy who cried wolf, but DAMN…
And hell, at least she ADMITS where she has no clue, even if it does come across as a little whiny, unlike some one trick pony folks who seem to think they’ve the answers to the world’s problems treis and a few others similar to his one track mind, one size fits all thinking come to mind.
Whiny can grow up and out of it, not so harsh spoken know it alls. At least in my experience.