Can I Get You A Blackeye With That Big Mouth, Old-timer?

I was telling the lovely Mrs. Sneed today that she is likely to get a call soon from a hospital to come and get my battered body out of their joint. This is because, despite my rapidly advancing years, I continue to mouth off when a more prudent man would keep quiet. I was at a Circle K store this morning getting some coffee. If you are unfamiliar with Circle K, it is a national chain of convenience stores. As I waited in line, I began to pay attention to a young guy, maybe 22 or 23 years old, who was having a rapid escalating dispute with the clerk over a dollar seventy something. This fellow had worked some convoluted transaction involving a purchase made in part with cash and in part a debit transaction. He thought he was owed the change and the clerk said that she had debited the difference between what he gave her in cash and what he owed, so no change was due. The guy in front of me grew tired of waiting and left, so I moved up. The clerk finally gave the fool the change he was demanding to move him along, but told him that he was still wrong. This really set him off and he threw some coins and the receipt at her, began shouting insults, calling her an ignorant bleep who had failed to learn simple math and pounding the counter. This is the point at which I told him to shut the bleep up and get his bleeping bleep out of the store while he still could. I am not sure what I meant by while he still could , but that is what just flew out of my mouth. Perhaps I was thinking while he still could before he pounded me silly and the cops locked him up or before some burly young guy, possibly in line behind me, beat him to the floor. It was more advice than any act of intimidation by yours truly. Anyway much to my relief he left, stopping long enough outside the door to scream some stuff and rattle the remaining change off the front of the store. This caused the two homeless guys lurking in front to sprint to collect the coins, so some good came out of the episode. The lunatic tramped to a waiting truck and sped away. I was a weeny when I was young and the decades have not toughened me up, so I have no illusion I can back up my big mouth through physical means. I have just decided that I am sick to death of jackasses and their rude behavior, so I am speaking up. Plus, I rely on the hope that even thugs would be reluctant to beat up an old guy, no matter how obnoxious he is. I have really good health coverage, just in case I'm wrong. When I opened my email at work this morning there was a message reporting the death of one of my coworkers. She has been battling cancer for about four years and it finally got the better of her. She leaves behind a young daughter. For about the first hour or two, every chance meeting in the hall elicited, "Did you hear about...?" By this afternoon it was business as usual. Two decades of working at a place and you get an hour or two of acknowledgement. I have worked at the joint for thirty-eight years, so my demise will probably require a week's shutdown of the business or at least incite a mad rush to get my deluxe cubicle. In other news, I was listening to Dave Ramsey's show today and he was talking about credit cards and overspending. Dave always recommends a written budget. He says that even though he is worth several million dollars, he and Mrs. Ramsey make a written budget every month detailing how they will spend every dollar. That strikes me as overkill and something he does, because he feels obligated to do it, not that he needs to do it. Dave is also death on credit cards. The lovely Mrs. Sneed and I have a hybrid budgeting system. We have always operated on the premise that obligations always come before wants. We have our retirement savings deducted from our pay before we get it. Next we pay our bills, then we spend what we wish from the remainder. Anything that is charged is deducted from the remainder as it is spent or gets a spot at the top of the obligation list, to be paid when the bill arrives. For instance, I have some credit card information on file with companies that we use all the time. Southwest Airlines is an example. I buy tickets on line and they have my number. I could use my debit card, but I choose not to, because with credit I can dispute a mistake. With debit they take the money immediately from my account and I have to wait to get the cash back if there is a mistake or dispute in the transaction. It is a matter of preference. Dave was pointing out that studies have repeatedly shown that people that use credit cards spend more than if they use cash. This must be true because even fast food joints are taking credit. This is a practice that I would never use, but I guess people do it. I suppose that the bottom line is that if you are accustomed to living beyond your means you will find ways to do so. If you aren't so inclined, you don't. Merle. Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgemental and cranky Tag: Daily Life Personal Finance Humor