Planning Ahead

Some changes have to come about in this house, I think, so we can have a smoother routine going here - particularly in the department of computer usage!

With my daughter, Mandy, the 17-year-old and me all vying for time on the computer, having just one computer is a difficult thing to share the time involved so each of us can get a turn online to do the things each of us enjoys doing.

The 17-year-old has a My Space account, along with her e-mail stuff -and who knows what else that can keep her busy online. Mandy has a My Space account as well as Facebook plus she belongs to several Autism Support groups online too and then, can't forget her frequent perusing of Craig's List and E-bay, looking for good bargains as well as trying to sell things that the kids have outgrown and which are still in excellent condition.

And me -I've got my blog, my Reader which is loaded with near to 200 blogs that I get notified if there is a new post there to read plus my Facebook and e-mail as well. My reader can take me upwards of a couple of hours every day if it is a day that oodles of bloggers have decided to add a new post. Facebook is just a fun thing for me to try to keep a little bit of contact going between family and friends so it doesn't take quite as much time out of my schedule as do the blogging things for me.

But, what to do? That is the big question.

I suppose we could reconnect my old computer but it would have to run on a dial-up service as I'm not sure it is capable of handling a high speed connection and that wouldn't sit very well with either Mandy or the 17-year-old and I sure as heck am not willing to give up high-speed for my stuff either.

So I think about the only solution is for me to start looking about at laptop computers so that I have a little idea of what the capabilities of those things would be along with the costs and such and then maybe, just maybe, I can start to plan ahead and save towards such a purchase sometime in the future.

Unfortunately, with the finances here being pretty tight these days, and every time I think I'm gonna have a little extra this month or that, something else comes along and knocks those plans all to H**L!

Between issues like needing fuel oil for the furnace, gas for the jeep, increases in my medicare payment for Social Security as well as in my health insurance bill too and the reduction in my Social Security check last January after the nice raise recipients were given (a long story there but although I received a nice $73 a month increase -on paper -in my Social Security, because that increase took me to a higher level annually that the base poverty level, I lost the assistance I had been getting which paid for my medicare payment so I ended up receiving a cut in my check to the tune of $36 a month and now, with the increases in the base medicare payment and my insurance, it will mean another $36 a month taken off the top of my check so that I will then be receiving $9 a month less than I was getting six years ago when I first qualified for social security!)

I know that those figures don't sound like me to some folks reading this -gee whiz, only $72 a month ya know I'll be missing, but on Social Security as your only income, $72 a month might as well be a gold mine!

So, guess I'll have to figure a way to earn a bit of extra money somewhere along the line in order to be able to start saving for a laptop computer sometime before I croak!

Wish me luck on that endeavor, will ya?