The other bit of unexpected money came from a savings account I’ve had for a couple of years. Since I open savings accounts in order to get the bank bonuses, I usually have several accounts. I knew I had this savings account, but I hadn’t checked the balance in over a year because I had forgotten the password and security key. To get the password and security key replaced required calling customer service which is usually a pain. Since I was thinking I only had about $5 in the account, gaining access to it wasn’t a priority. On Monday I finally got around to contacting customer service and was pleasantly surprised to find out I had over $400 in the account. This was my own money and I always had it, but since I had forgotten about the money, it seemed like I had just made $400.
My first thought was that I could now afford to attend FinCon. After just a little more thought though I decided to stick with my original decision to skip FinCon and use the unexpected money to pay down my debts. Attending FinCon would have used up most of the unexpected money. Since I had already accepted the fact that I wouldn’t be attending, it wasn’t that difficult to decide not to attend even though I now had the money. Paying off my van loan is my priority for my money now.
I did splurge a little with the money though. I bought an Acer 10″ tablet for $150. My reasoning is that this will be a good entertainment source when I’m living in my van. I can view Netflix and other movies on the tablet and easily recharge it from the van battery. Since I got such a good deal on the tablet, I can probably resell it for the same price if I decide it isn’t worth the money.
I think I did pretty well with this unexpected money. How do you spend unexpected money?
We don’t have a plan in place for found money – a mistake – so it just goes into our general savings account for the moment. We just moved, though, and are realizing we need to buy a few pieces of furniture for storage purposes, so probably we’ll make a goal for that and throw found and leftover money there.
As for your ad payout, don’t forget about taxes!
That sounds like a reasonable plan.
I will have to pay taxes on the ad payout, but not until next year.
I’m new to your blog, and I’m puzzled about the comment “when I’m living in my van.” Are you planning to live in your van? Why?
I am now living in my van because it is something I wanted to do.
When we get found money, we put it on bills. I wasn’t expecting it, so I won’t be missing it.