After posting my summary for the last half of March, I am feeling a little more at peace with myself. Not really because the budget was great, because I only started really tracking the expenses on March 16th when I started this blog. But seeing my debt get reduced by quite a bit since I started has been a tremendous psychological help. I am trying to stick to the practice of snowballing my debt, and I think it will work.

That said, I am proud to announce that when my FFB Credit Card receives the check that I am mailing tomorrow, it will officially be paid off! It was the smallest of my cards with a balance of $2,280.78, but it is so NICE to know that it's going to be gone. Plus, they didn't offer a way to pay online without a $9 fee, so that will eliminate one more stamp & bill to pay every month.

Now I only have two cards left to pay on, and I am focusing on the Discover Card next. It has the lowest balance left, and they both offer easy payments online. I've updated all of the amounts in My Debt Tracker if anyone is interested!

I called my apartment complex (again) today to find out exactly how much I need to send them a check for. I was told that I'd need to call back at the end of March to get the amount of my last month's water bill, as well as the exact amount I'd owe for breaking the lease. I called a week ago (as I posted in my blog I believe), and was told the property manager was with someone, that she was the person who would need to help me, and that they would have her call me back. Never got a call. So today, I called 30 minutes after the office opened and spoke to someone, who said the property manager only works the first Sunday of the month. I explained what I was hoping to find out, she said she could do that for me, give her 30 minutes because she was in an appointment and she'd call me back. Two hours go by, still haven't heard from her.

I called back, and was told that she was just calling me at the exact same moment (what a coincidence). Then she told me that she'd only been there 3 weeks, but from what she understood, breaking the lease required 30 days notice, which I had already done, and then 2 months worth of rent. Since I was paying $489/month, that would total $978.

BUT... then she said she wasn't positive, so she would check with the property manager tomorrow and one of them would give me a call and let me know. I told her to leave me a voicemail if I didn't answer because I had to work.

My question is, what incentive is there for them to put me off like this? Maybe it is just a coincidence that I am not getting an answer, but it seems fishy to me. I am two states away, and I just want to pay them what I owe!

I would love to think that she's right, and that I'll only have to pay the $978. That would be about $1,000 LESS than I expected, and all of that could go to either my credit card debt or savings. However, I don't think that is the case.

When I called prior to making my decision to take this job, the person that used to work there (that I signed my lease with) gave more detail:

2 Month's Rent
+ Specials or Discounts I Had Received
+ Last Water Bill
+ Damages That I Caused To Anything

I know I didn't cause any damages, but I'm always nervous that they are going to try and pin something on me. I was receiving a special on the rent, which was $489 instead of $540/month. I received that special for January-March, and I got half of December's rent free when I moved in. So if I add up all the discounts I had received, that is:

$540-$489= $51 * 3 Months = $153
$540/2=$270
Total: $423

I also had my pet deposit on a payment plan, and had only paid $50 of the $200 it was supposed to be. Also, I think they would calculate the "2 months rent" based on $540/month, not the $489 she was talking about. That is an extra $102.

If they end up charging me for the rest of the pet deposit, and the discounts, that's an extra $828 on top of what she told me today. Plus the water bill, which should be no more than $30.

So we're talking [$978 + water] versus [$1,806 + water]. It sure would be nice to know the exact amount so that I can get on with the rest of my budgeting!!!

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Alright, done with the rant. I'll give them until tomorrow, and if I haven't heard from them when I get off at 4, then I won't be so nice.