Friday, December 12, 2008

Virtual Identity Crisis

I have been stuck in eBay/Pay Pal hell for the past two hours.

So, suddenly, tonight, when I go to list an item, I get an error message saying that I can't list it because my email address that I use for eBay and the email address I use for Pay Pal are different. So, I go to my eBay account information and try to change my email address so that they would match, but then, I get an error message telling me that I can't use that email address because my user name for that address is the same as my eBay user name. Alrighty. I think of changing my email address with Pay Pal, but don't really want to because my clients use that information to pay me for freelance work. So, I decide to check out the live chat help for eBay to see if they have a solution. So, I wait in a queue for a rep and when she gets online, I start telling her my situation and of course, she keeps jumping the gun... first suggesting that I change my email address on my eBay profile, then suggesting that I change the address on my Pay Pal profile.... She won't let me get my whole story out. Okay, so then I finally tell her that I've tried all that and the errors that I'm getting and then she tells me that you can have more than one email address on your Pay Pal account. Yay! An advancement! So, I dash over to Pay Pal and try to add the email address that is on my eBay account and it tells me that there is already a Pay Pal account with the email address. Hum. I don't remember making one, but it's possible, so I log out of Pay Pal and then try to log back in with the other email address trying all my passwords. I finally get into the account, $0 balance, hasn't been used since 2005, so I think that I'll just close it, thereby freeing up that email address to be added to my real Pay Pal account that's verified and whatnot. So, I try to close it but in order to close it, I have to enter in the credit card number of the credit card associated with that account. Unfortunately, I no longer have that credit card and have no idea what the credit card number is. So, I try Pay Pal's help page and it just keeps directing me to the directions to close an account, so I decide to give them a call. They have the worst automated help system of all time. It also wants my credit card number that I don't have and in the middle of all this frustration, it randomly asks me if I want to add the number that I called from to my account. WTF. So, anyway, it keeps on asking me irrelevant questions and giving me irrelevant options to choose until finally it says that it's going to direct me to a customer service representative. Yay! BUT, then I get a voicemail saying that they are observing holiday hours (Is it Hanukkah? What holiday is this? Should I be celebrating?) and that I should try their website. Seriously. Then, it hangs up on me.

So, despite my best efforts, I'm in a Catch 22 and no closer to a resolution. Sigh. So frustrating. At least my birthday is Sunday!

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Project Mayhem

Wow. It's not easy being a creative genius.

It seems a lot of people are thinking that I'm "crazy" right now. I didn't know that so many people had so little faith in me or in my ability to succeed. I always thought it strange when people would say that no one believed in them or people told them they wouldn't make it, but wow, do I understand that now!

Personally, I feel as though I have never had so much potential or excitement about my future. I feel free from the rat race and like my options are endless. Sure, I'm taking some chances, but while playing it safe all these years got me some dollars in the bank, it did not get me happiness.

I want to make money- don't get me wrong. I have an obligation to make money. Responsibilities. Etc. I'm not running off to join the circus here, but I found myself in this situation and instead of being devastated, I am using this time to regroup and not continue further on the path to a sad meaningless life.

I am still in the process of deciding what I'm going to do next, but let me assure you that whatever I decide, I will be successful at it. This isn't the first time in my life that no one has believed in me, but yet, still, somehow I managed to put myself through college, have a successful career in television, have another successful career in public relations, buy a house at 25 and achieve many other goals that I set for myself. I can take care of myself and in the wise words of The Real Housewives of Atlanta's Kim, I'm going to let my haters be my motivators.

I am not Jack's khaki pants.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Jen Cougar Mellencamp

Reinventing one's self is hard.  Sunday is my 31st birthday.  I'm not sure what this MEANS.

I'm weighing out the pros and cons of getting a subscription to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.  I read it almost every day, of course, since I'm a local news junkie, but I previously read the copy that came to my jobs and since then, I've been reading online, which is sufficient, but I'm thinking of just getting a Sunday subscription for the coupons.  I've never much used coupons unless they basically just fell into my lap, but since part of my job as a stay at home is saving money, I'm trying to decide if this would be a good investment.  It's $12 for two months worth of Sundays.  Would I save that much money?  

My sister says that every time she goes to the super market, they have to bring the manager out because she has more that $100 worth of coupons.  I don't even buy $100 worth of groceries at the super market.  My husband eats mostly fresh foods from the farmer's market and we get things like detergent from Sam's, so would I get my money's worth in coupons?  I guess it's not that big of an investment if it turns out not to be worth it.  As long as I don't buy stuff I don't need just because I have a coupon-  those sly coupon makers-  trying to make me buy swiffers and air fresheners!  

Also, thanks to a tip from my friend Kelly, I was able to keep my mindspring email address. She told me that she had recently downgraded to an email only account for $3, when I had been paying for 10 hours of dial up that I never use.  So, I called them up, and despite the fact that the guy could seriously barely speak English, I managed to change my plan.  

I'm also looking at cutting off the home phone and instead of getting our DSL through the phone company, switching to cable Internet access.  It's looking like I could have about $50 a month doing that.  We don't really use our home phone anyway.  

And finally, I think I'm going to switch to Metro PCS.  It's not like I'm doing a lot of traveling these days.  

Monday, December 8, 2008

I Heart CVS

After reading my friend Anny's blog, who is a guru of frugality, I was referred to this site.  Apparently, CVS is the place to be for saving money.  I immediately went to the CVS website and signed up for their Extracare card and I'm about to embark on the process of getting my toiletries for freeish.  Apparently, the way it works is you buy stuff at CVS that are on sale or that you can get a coupon for or that are rebateable that also give you these extracare dollars that you can spend at CVS.   So, you try to get stuff for free or really really cheap, that gives you these dollars that you can use to buy other stuff that you actually need.  It's like a game.

I'm also looking at cutting costs.  My husband and I have already cut most of our costs before I quit my job.  We're not big spenders to begin with, but there's always room to cut.  The first and most obvious cut I need to make it my old email.  It's an email address that I don't use anymore, but still pay $10 a month to keep.  The reason that I haven't already let it go is because it's a mindspring email address and mindspring doesn't exist anymore.  I've had this email address since 1996.  For some reason, I associate a certain prestige with have this anachronistic email address, but that's just silly.  I need to go in there and save all the stuff I'm archiving there and then cancel the account.  I will do that this week.