Don't Ignore Your Hunches, People!

I'm a big believer in hunches. The problem comes with second-guessing them. Just go with the flow. Don't overthink.

Wednesday, I had written out some bill payments, and balanced the checkbook. I went ahead and wrote the check for The Pony's monthly expense allowance. I don't do his mobile deposit until the first of the month. Since that would fall on a Sunday, I was going to do it Friday. The thought popped into my head to go ahead and get it over with. Right then.

But then I thought, "I've already done all this other stuff today. I don't need to mess with it now. Besides, I don't want The Pony getting used to his money early. In real life, you get your payday on schedule." So I set the check aside for Friday. I log into the remote banking app for The Pony's credit union, take a picture of the check's front and back, and submit it with my phone.

Thursday, I thought about making that mobile deposit. "I could just take it to town and get it over with. It's ALMOST Friday. But Friday is still two days before the first of the month. No need to make it a day earlier than that." So I didn't. Even though my phone app works way faster in town than in the Mansion.

Friday morning, I got up and went to my phone first thing. I always do, but my intention was to make that mobile deposit of The Pony's money for July. Huh. That was funny. As I checked my phone to see what shenanigans it had been up to overnight, I noticed a couple of emails, a couple of apps updated, and a separate thingy. Like the logo of The Pony's credit union app. Not an email. Not a text. Not an update. I clicked on it, but it just took me to the app like normal. Huh. What was THAT all about? Pretty weird. Usually, I just tap its icon on my phone screen to get started.

So I did that, and I got a message. "-1/nUnknown Error"

No way. I did a restart on my phone. Tried again. Same thing. Huh. I called the credit union, out in Norman, Oklahoma. The gal said they were having a problem with their app, and that it should be working Saturday. Well. I guessed I'd try it on Saturday, then. I'm pretty sure you can guess what happened. On Saturday morning at 10:45, the app STILL was not working. Crap.

I called again, and a dude was very polite, explaining that their vendor was working on the problem, and HOPED to have the app running BY THE END OF NEXT WEEK! "We're open until noon. You can bring your deposit to our nearest branch..." I explained that I was 9 hours away from their nearest branch, and didn't think I could make it by noon. He suggested that I do a bank to bank transfer. So I called my own bank, and asked about it, and that darn girl said they could NOT do something like that. They'd both said that I could mail in a deposit, but The Pony has not gotten the two letters I mailed him LAST FRIDAY. So...I'm not taking a chance on a check floating around for nine days.

That's like working all month for your paycheck, and then your boss says, "Sorry. You're not getting one." The Pony was not going to have his money on the first of the month.

If I'd KNOWN that this app was going down, I would have mobile-deposited on Wednesday, like my inkling tried to goad me. I'd checked the credit union website on Friday AND Saturday. Saturday, they had a banner at the top about new changes with their app. I'm guessing they had planned to roll this out all along, and there was a problem. Would it have been so hard to put up a banner about the PROBLEM on Friday? Because then I could have made other arrangements.

Now's where it gets complicated.Friday, I took cash out of The Pony's local credit union college money. I normally deposit it in our bank account, to cover the check I write for the mobile deposit. Since it was the exact same amount this time as the weekly cash allowance I take out for our household...I just kept that cash to use for household.

The only way I could think to get The Pony that money was to deposit cash into his local bank account, and have him transfer it through online banking to his credit union account that he pays everything out of. But I had already split up that cash into the various segments that we use it for. SO...I raided the Christmas fund (from its secret hiding place), and RUSHED the 30 minutes to my bank, to make that deposit in The Pony's bank account at 11:48 a.m. They close at noon, too.

Of course, THEN I went through the ATM and took out the cash to put back in the Christmas fund. So really, that money was on a merry-go-round, from college fund to household, then Christmas to The Pony's bank account, then our bank account back to Christmas fund.

ALL THIS COULD HAVE BEEN AVOIDED, had I only known on Friday, and I would have taken the college fund cash straight to the bank to put in The Pony's bank account for him to transfer later.

Seriously. This is what happens when we rely on electronic gewgaws too much. It might have been easier to trade hogs and chickens.

This could have been MORE EASILY avoided if I had only taken a picture of that check on Wednesday, when the app was working.

Dang me for not listening to that little voice in my head.