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Pagan savings challenge, week five: park this!

This week I received an unpleasant surprise in the mail:  a parking ticket.  Apparently I had failed to hit the meter quickly enough one time while waiting for the Maetreum of Cybele's day in court, but the ticket itself didn't manifest until four months later.  What would have been a $65.00 fine (outrageous in its own right) has now been hiked to $115.00, plus the usual warnings about me never being able to park in this town again.

Honestly, the things we go through for our work . . .

Approaching this in the context of the Pagan savings challenge, the money that the city of Albany is demanding is more than eight times what I have tucked away during this project.  However, in just ten weeks (that's less than a season), I'll have that socked away, and five dollars to spare.

In truth, Hermes would have played this little joke on me whether or not I was saving money for a grander scheme.  There will always be unexpected expenses that threaten to undermine a savings plan.  I look at this parking ticket, and I feel incredibly fortunate that I feel annoyed at having to pay it, rather than terrified that I won't have the money to do so.  Indeed, it is a cause to celebrate.

My week five savings:  $15, of which $5 (one-third) I contributed today.

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Terence P Ward is a business writer and journalist who blogs under the rather cumbersome moniker of True Pagan Warrior.  He can generally be found at home, tending to his gardens and the many demands of his cats; in the alternative, follow TPW on Facebook. 

Comments

  • Greybeard
    Greybeard Sunday, 02 February 2014

    Cities lose more money from parking meters than they make in fines and collections. People are unable to vote for freedom to park, so we vote with our choices of where to shop. People go where we are welcome, and that is not any place that charges us and then fines us for parking to shop. Cities that care about their downtown stores, restaurants, and other businesses have ripped out those red flag bandits and have been trying to welcome business and customers back down town. Parking meters are a lose-lose for the city, and its businesses, jobs, and people. There are plenty of other places we can go where we are welcome.

  • Terence P Ward
    Terence P Ward Sunday, 02 February 2014

    I think it's one of the effects of "running a government like a business" -- since municipalities usually collect more in meter fees and fines than they pay for meter readers and maintenance, city workers consider it a "win" and move on. There might be an argument for limiting how long someone's car is allowed to occupy a given space, but I agree that the larger economic costs are invariably ignored.

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