perspective

Most months, our electric bill is about $100ish.  In the summer/hot months, the highest it gets is about $150.  (We don't ever really turn the thermostat below 72.)

This month, I saw this:

Our bill was literally $200 higher, and it isn't the dead of summer.

I called Larry and had him immediately go up to the office to get it straightened out.  Turns out, they had applied somebody else’s bill to ours and overcharged us by $220.  They got it fixed and are going to cut me a check.

All I could think was “What if this had happened 10 years ago?”  When I was teaching, I lived paycheck to paycheck, and I didn’t even do that very well.  If I had been overcharged that much back then, pretty much every other bill I paid would have bounced and I would have racked up overdraft and late fees.  They would have fixed it, but not before it did a number on me.  I would have had to borrow money to get gas and a few packets of ramen.  It would have been embarrassing and humiliating and not even my fault.  Seems like a lifetime ago, but it really wasn’t.

So today, I am so very thankful that I had the extra $220 in my account and only noticed it because I happened to be online on the exact day it posted. I’m glad it happened to me and not somebody else.