It's been ... some weeks since we've last met in this space, this space being a blog post where I tell you that 1 thing I'm going to get done that I have to get done, and then you, if you play along, tell me the 1 thing you got done that you have to get done, and then we all feel satisfied and accomplished for a day, or a moment, or no time at all.

Do 1 Thing.

My most recent discovery is entirely credit score related—perhaps not as exciting as pizza drug deals, but also maybe for some people far MORE exciting.

1 thing to do today.

Thursday is a great day to do that 1 thing you don’t want to do but also don’t want to continue thinking about doing.

Today I called one of my debtors to figure out how it was possible that last month’s balance on my credit card was lower than this month’s balance on my credit card, DESPITE the fact that the card no longer exists and I do not use it.

The employee of the credit card company helped me out not at all, but what I figured out on my own after some very hard thinking and window toggling because of course I can’t just see all the numbers on one page, was that the balance I recorded last month was the balance right after I made a $250 payment … but then later that payment was rejected for “insufficient funds” (happens). THEN when I was able to make the actual payment, I only made it for the minimum, not for the inflated-I’m-trying-to-pay-off-this-card amount from earlier. So my 1 thing was spending 27 minutes learning nothing except how much I cannot wait to just be done with this mess. AND YOU?

I've changed all my addresses on all my accounts. I'm pretty sure. I'm mostly sure.

Thursday is a great day to do that 1 thing you don’t want to do but also don’t want to continue thinking about doing.

Low energy day. Low expectations. Low stakes. I’m not calling anyone. Not going to any banks. Not looking at any statements or doing any math. I will make a list of things that I need to do sometime, but I will not do any of them now. That is enough. Okay.

1. Research banks 2. Switch banks 3. Find tax person/call tax person 4. Expensesssssssssssssssss 4. (for taxes) 5. After switch banks, set up all new billpay etc etc 6. Call non-profit debt consolidation place to see if they can help me even though I don’t think they can since I’m not delinquent on payments but wouldn’t it be nice to not be paying huge amounts of interest every month, yes it would.

WELL THAT WAS EASY.

That 1 Thing.

Pay a bill. This is where we're at now. Pay a bill is the thing I have to do.

Thursday is a great day to do that 1 thing you don’t want to do but also don’t want to continue thinking about doing. (Friday is also an acceptable day.)  

Last month I got charged the first overdraft fees I’ve had in many many months. I knew I’d spent too much money at the beginning of the month, but I dealt with that by hoping it would all work out. It usually does! This time it did, too, except in addition to working out, it also worked out into three $30 overdraft fees on automatic payments, plus an additional $25 from a credit card. I got the credit union to refund me one of the overdraft fees and the credit card company to refund me the fee on this part, but still: I do not have $60 to be throwing away. I mean, $60 could cover all my ATM fees for the month! (Not really.) (But kind of.) (I’m going to fix that.)

So my 1 thing for this week was that I cancelled all of my automatic payments so overdrafts will not happen again. (A previous 1 thing was to set up all those automatic payments.)

BUT this is a great first step towards changing banks, a think I’ve been talking about for … a year.