10 on the 10th April 2021

One day late but here we go...joining Leslie over at Once Upon a Time & Happily Ever After for this month's Q &A all about money.

10 QUESTIONS ABOUT MONEY

first job

What was your first job?  How old were you when you started working?  I was seventeen when I first started working as a cashier at our local supermarket.  Mum and I were out shopping and she saw the Help Wanted sign and encouraged me to apply.  It was Friday night and all day Saturday which worked great with my college schedule, we were paid in cash (with an earnings slip) in an envelope, and I loved working there.  There was a group of us who were hired at the same time - one went to the meat counter, one to the cheese counter, one to fruit & veg, and I was a cashier.  I used to love my customers, they were so sweet, and I always had a cheery greeting for them.  One lady tried to tip me one day but I told her thank you but I wasn't allowed to accept.  We had a great canteen where we would eat our lunch on Saturdays; the canteen staff would shop in the supermarket in the morning for the food they were preparing, I remember the most amazing cheese and onion sandwiches.  When the store closed, we had an hour left to work, stocking shelves.  We sometimes ran the box cutter a little too forcefully along the seam of the box when we were opening potato chips and we had to take the damaged items to the warehouse.  The damaged package was always a little emptier than it was when we first broke into it!

BEST JOB/WORST JOB

Tell us about the best job you’ve ever had.  And the worst.  Best job is at my current workplace but it was in 2016 before I moved with Vic back to Virginia.  I worked for the Executive Director as his Executive Assistant and in five short months, we built an amazing working relationship.  He was the nicest man and so complimentary of the work I did for him.  I loved that I grew to anticipate what he needed for a meeting or an upcoming visit, he never had to ask, everything was always ready for him.  My worst job was as a cashier in a toy store at the mall.  It was the holiday season and I stood on my feet ALL DAY and then the store manager expected us to clean the store.  I walked out and never went back.

SAVING MONEY

Are you a saver or a spender?  What about your significant other?  I used to be a spender, a make a dollar and spend five spender which had disastrous results.  My husband is a saver, he was a cash-only man when I first him.  It has taken some work to get us on the same page.  How do you save money?  Do you save change?  Christmas Club or vacation accounts?  Time-share?  I use the "every dollar has a name" type of budget and I'm the Queen of Excel Spreadsheets.  Right now I have the family budget where every dollar is allocated to a variety of categories including Household (mortgage, utilities, maintenance, etc.), Insurance, Groceries, Entertainment, and a host of Savings accounts for things like Christmas, Travel, and Major Purchases.  I use our credit cards that give reward points - Amazon.com or airline miles - but pay them off each month.  I save the change that I pull out of pockets in the laundry room and I take it to a change machine to cash it in.

MAKIN’ DA MONEY

Have you ever played the stock market?  Do you play the lottery?  Ever gambled?  Ever won big?  No to the stock market.  We play the lottery at Christmas if you count a couple of scratch-off cards in everyone's stockings.  I went to Lake Tahoe and gambled once but there are so many other things I can do with my money that gambling it away was of no interest to me.  No, I've never won big.  Is there anything you collect or save thinking it might be valuable some day?  Not really, I have a few collectibles but only because I enjoy them, not because I think there might a return one day. 

SPENDIN’ dat money

What is your favorite way to splurge?  What do you dislike spending money on most?  A massage would be my favorite splurge, a weekend away at a spa would be even better.  I dislike spending money on things like insurance and the dentist.

Who pays the bills?  Who does the taxes?  Do you file early or last minute?  I'm the CFO of our family.  Vic has always been gone a lot - deployments, travel, now an unaccompanied assignment so for continuity, I started handling the finances and never stopped.  He's perfectly ok with that.

FRUGAL OR SPENDTHRIFT

Name brands or generic groceries?  Favorite stores to shop?  Have you used grocery pick up?  Delivery? Coupons?  Name brand for the most part, I'm a bit of a grocery store snob.  I love Whole Foods and our local gourmet grocery store.  I've never used delivery although I did do grocery store pick up at the height of the pandemic.  I coupon when I remember to take them but we don't buy a lot of processed food so most of them are useless.  Do you shop thrift stores and yard sales?  Ever used Poshmark or eBay?  I can't really say I shop at thrift stores, I've been in to a few for odd sort of things (looking for something to remake into a costume for a school event, for example).  I don't go to yard sales, just not my thing.  I haven't used Poshmark but I've bought and sold a few things on Ebay.