Manage your money!

DAMN! At this moment, I have nothing but supreme disgust for Bank of America. I know I know, how unpatriotic of me, but for a bank that just spent $50 BILLION (!) dollars to buy Merryl Lynch I would assume they aren't hurting enough to take me to the cleaners.

I withdrew $40 from my ATM, not knowing all my billpays had just been sent out (my fault, I know), so my account ended up being overdrawn by about $6. Now, the ATM I hit was not an official one, so they charged me a small fee. Apparently BoA also charges a small fee every time I use another ATM.

So, the forty bones I grabbed, now cost me $44. I am ok with that I guess - the charge for fat lazy American convenience. Now here is the kicker, they charged me $35 per instance, which means once for the withdrawal and once for each fee. This means that the bloodsuckers charged me $109 just to pull out a forty spot. Shortly the manager of the nearest BoA has a little hell to deal with and a bag of dicks to eat.

Now there is a lesson to learn with this - LOSE YOUR ATM CARD! If you are trying to simplify your life, and operate on the cheap then use only cash. Starting this morning I am journaling all of my expenses and subtracting them from my total cash stockpile, which as soon as the BS BoA account is canceled will reside under my bed.