Saturday, August 6, 2016

We're less poor

We got four checks in the mail this week:


$5.60 from Prudential. They were my life insurance carrier until I forgot to pay the premium for two consecutive quarters. But apparently I'm still a "stockholder," so I still receive teeny checks from them every so often. I'll take it--it's a black-and-white milkshake. (I have no idea who my current life insurance provider is; I should probably find out.)


$7.70 from Penguin Books. This was a royalty check for my first book, which was published six years ago and apparently continues to sell at least seven copies a year. Worth a cheeseburger from Shake Shack.


$59.31 from Banana Republic. Jen opened a BR credit card about a year ago and set up a monthly auto-pay of $59 through our online checking. When I got a new job in January I paid off the balance, but I can't figure out how to turn off the auto-pay. So we continue to make monthly $59 payments to them, followed by receiving $59 checks in the mail a few weeks later. But psychologically it seems like we're making $59 every time.


$333.33 from the State of New York's unclaimed funds office. This was the big windfall of the week, and it would've seemed even bigger if this hadn't been the week we made Samuel's first tuition payment to Trinity College. 

Apparently when I worked for AMC Networks ten years ago I submitted an expense report. AMC apparently cut a check but then forgot who I was or where I lived. And I apparently forgot I had submitted it. Incompetence all around. 

They eventually sent it to the state's unclaimed funds escrow account. I discovered it out of curiosity about six months ago when I went to the site and typed in my name. Lo and behold.

Jen and I are not great money managers. Have you noticed that? I like to say that we focus on the big picture, not the minutiae.

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