Banking and Shopping

Oh, jeez.

I've had one unemployment check for a few days, maybe close to a week, and I got another yesterday. A responsible person would deposit them as they arrive. Or check the mail early when they're expecting a check and take it to the bank. (I don't direct deposit them for a few reasons.) But I really like sleeping in.

Today I went to the theater (classy!) and I stopped at the grocery store close to my apartment. I was just going to run to the ATM inside and grab cash to take to brunch with friends tomorrow. But I decided that since I'm trying to eat healthier I should buy some vegetables and get cash back when I paid. I got supplies for salads, sandwiches, and omelets, and headed to the register. My debit card was declined. Twice. My credit card was declined. The girl ringing up my purchase saved the transaction while I ran to the ATM. The ATM told me it wasn't going to give me any money and that I don't have anything in my savings account.

But I have something in my savings account. I have a lot of somethings in my savings account.

I went back to the register and asked if she could hold the transaction a little longer and that I'd be right back. And I walked up the hill to the ATM at the bank, figuring I could move money from one account to the other there. But when I got there it told me the same thing the ATM at the store had told me.

I remembered back a week and a half to when I was depositing a check and a very eager bank teller had me upgrade my savings account. I'd get a higher interest rate and she assured me that I didn't need to have a minimum balance for it. She neglected to tell me that I apparently can't access the account from an ATM.

I ran home, stole some internets (thanks, neighbor!), transferred some money, grabbed those two checks, went back up the hill to the ATM at the bank, deposited the checks, got cash, and went back to the store.

When I walked in I saw one guy who worked there dropping off some empty bags at another register and I just knew. I stepped up to the register and told the young man working that I'd left a transaction that I'd like to complete. And he apologized and said that they'd just taken everything back. "Yeah, we waited a half hour...sorry."

So I said I hadn't realized it'd been so long or blah, blah, blah, and thanked him and started walking back to the produce section. But the thought of walking through the store, picking up the things that some guy had just returned to the shelves, was just too much. I felt really embarassed. I was probably going to start crying any moment. I felt my shoulders drop and I tried to plaster on a brave face and turned around and walked back out the door, hopefully with an expression on my face that conveyed a sense of, "well, I have terribly important things to get to, la-dee-dah," but probably just looking like i was pursing my lips to keep the tears from forming.

At least I'd grabbed a sandwich from a cafe on the way home from the show. And I'd paid cash.

Lessons learned: deposit my effing unemployment checks as soon as they arrive, when running from a store to a bank to home to a bank to a store to home, wear comfortable shoes. My feet hurt.