Dark Days

Well today was hard.  I had some good news; I found out that I had an old small 401K plan that was available.  The company that I used to work for, merged with another company, and all of the plans were frozen until the merger was complete.  Now, I could roll it over or cash it out.  Rolling it over sounded like the best thing to do.  It was the smartest thing to do.  After all, I am a Frugal Diva.  It was only a couple of thousand, and I am at the age where I need to save as much as I can.  Also, when I had that job, I had taken a position with lower pay (10k pay cut), because it was supposed to be one of those Temp-to-Perm deals (It didn’t work out, but I got a job reference from my boss out of it.).  However, I still did the 401K.  Working in DC is expensive, but that pay really hurt my budget.  The only saving grace was that I got paid weekly.  I have found that you can make it on a lower salary, if you get paid weekly, because you just have to make it to the next check.  However, this year was harder.  It was 2008, yep right before the bank crisis.  I am sure everyone remembers that summer because everyone’s pay kept covering less and less.  And, a lot of people started borrowing or withdrawing from their 401K, just to pay the bills.  So, the fact that I was contributing to a 401K at the time was amazing, because my budget was tight.  I didn’t buy any clothes.  I had to take the MARC train and the Metro into DC every day.  I took the MARC because it was cheaper.  Train tickets were $10 roundtrip and I didn’t have to pay to park.  Also, if I purchased the monthly pass I saved $75 and I could ride the train as much as I wanted.  I didn’t go out to lunch a lot, because it could be expensive.  If I did go out, it would be on Fridays at Potbelly’s.  I also saved money on gas, because the train station was only 15 minutes away, so I would only use about ¼ of a tank a week.  Also, I ate a lot of vegetarian meals and what my grandmother used to call “Depression Dishes” (This is going to be a separate blog.).   But, I digress.  My point is that I sacrificed to save that little money.  I called this blog Dark Days, because I decided to take the penalty and withdraw the money this morning.  I hate doing it, but I feel like I am back in 2008 and my check just isn’t going as far.  I am trying to keep my head above water all over again.  And, since I refuse to lose this economy, I have to take the money and try to do some catching up.  It took my 3 days to make this decision, partly because I remember how hard it was to save that money.  I don’t feel that much like a Diva today...