You know, just when you're feeling sorry for yourself and think you've got problems someone else comes along and makes you really thankful that you're not in their situation.

I have a librarian friend who is in a really tough position. Her husband has been in prison for as long as I've known her and she's raising 2 teenage girls on her own. The library board pays her $7.75 an hour for 30 hours a week. That's it. She's trying to make it on $232.50 gross a week! Last year she had no heat for a while until my boss took over a pickup load of wood for her. She has not had a car that works for well over a year now so she walks over a mile to the library and home in the dark. She has no phone because she has not been able to pay the bill.

This week the electricity in her house is not acting right. At first everything was extremely bright and then it browned out. She woke up in the night to the DVD player humming. So she woke her girls up and they got the things they would want to save if the house burned down and spent the rest of the night sleeping in the living room in case there was a fire so they could quickly escape. They've been sleeping in the living room all week now. She has brought her family pictures to the library in case her house burns while she is at work.

She called the electric company and they came out but told her it's something in her wiring so they're not responsible. Her neighbor has looked things over and found what he thinks the problem is, but said a certified electrician needs to do the work. She can't afford that. She already has bill collectors calling her at the library because she is behind on all payments.

This electrical problem has ruined her refrigerator.

Things like this sure make you thankful for the situation you're in. Things don't look so bad to me now. I wish I had a ton of money to help her out.

Well, the exam is over with. By the time I took it I was so sick of the subject that I just wanted it done. LOL!

Now onto the next chapter which is about bonds and present and future value of money. That will be interesting and practical for me.

The only money I spent today was for gas. Had to fill the car up after running to work and doctor's appointments this week.

I got my term life insurance application in the mail today. Got most of it filled out. It's not too complicated. The only problem I have is under "Contingent Beneficiary". There's only room for 2 names and I wanted to put the 5 kids. I don't know if I can just attach a sheet with the names or not. I was just going to put "children" but they want names, SSNs, etc.

Tomorrow I take my accounting exam that I was supposed to take last weekend. It never arrived. Turns out my professor sent it to the wrong library for proctoring! So I've been studying like mad to keep all the info in my head so I can pass this thing. It just threw me all off when I couldn't take it the day I'd planned on.

So now I'm running behind on the next lesson and hope to catch up on that one after the exam tomorrow morning. Like this isn't a busy enough season as it is!

But what's new? I'm a librarian and I'm always reading a book. :-)

The book I'm reading now is Jane Bryant Quinn's Smart and Simple Financial Strategies for Busy People. I have already found some things that I don't agree with 100%, but there are some good tips in here. It seems to be geared more toward those that haven't given a thought to their finances yet. But if I come away with a few good pointers, it will be worth it.

I also have Personal Finance for Dummies in the reading pile.

I forgot to mention that I may have a 2nd part-time bookkeeping job.

It would be for another of the libraries in the System that I work for. I love to do bookkeeping work, and that's why I'm taking the accounting classes, so this would be wonderful. My side business would double!

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