Overheard at Work

[mm1970]

I think the idea behind a push present is sweet, getting something for your wife to say thank you, most all of the pregnancy happens to and in her body.

I would think a lovely bouquet of flowers that are her favorite, or her favorite dessert brought to the hospital, something sweet that says you were thinking about her and you appreciate her efforts and sacrifice. It's the dumbasses that have to outdo each other that keep getting a present bigger and bigger, soon it will be a new Caddy or something else equally stupid and unnecessary.

It really bugs me in general when a husband or wife "gets a present" and really it's just a new payment plan in the form of a shiny newer car? that doesn't make any sense.

Best thank you I got was after baby #2.  I got to my room at 10:30 am and my husband went out for a turkey sandwich from my favorite deli.

[LennStar]

Again, an assumption of mine, but are you male? I guessed yes, and probably 75% of my male friends wouldn't have a clue what a "blue box" meant.

That is unfair. Most males know what a blue box is: It is a device for recording voice or data, commonly fond in airplanes and ships.

But can you please explain that push present thing to a non-english speaker?
My current guess from your posts is: Present for pushing the baby out of mums inside

[arebelspy]

Again, an assumption of mine, but are you male? I guessed yes, and probably 75% of my male friends wouldn't have a clue what a "blue box" meant.

That is unfair. Most males know what a blue box is: It is a device for recording voice or data, commonly fond in airplanes and ships.

But can you please explain that push present thing to a non-english speaker?
My current guess from your posts is: Present for pushing the baby out of mums inside

That's a black box.

And your inference on the push present is correct.  :)

[LennStar]

That's a black box.

And your inference on the push present is correct.  :)

Oh d*** thats the reason why I am color blind :P I get even confused with the colors names LOL

[Zehirah]

That's a black box.

And your inference on the push present is correct.  :)

Oh d*** thats the reason why I am color blind :P I get even confused with the colors names LOL

And a black box isn't even black.  It's bright orange to make it easier to find after a crash.

[Ascotillion]

A blue box is used to hack pay phones!

[arebelspy]

A blue box is used to hack pay phones!

Phreak.

;)

[seanc0x0]

Our blue box goes out every other week with the recycling in it.

That's what it means to me too, though we've switched to a blue bin now that the city contracts it out to a single-stream recycling firm. I wonder if that's a Canadianism?

[Primm]

Again, an assumption of mine, but are you male? I guessed yes, and probably 75% of my male friends wouldn't have a clue what a "blue box" meant.

That is unfair. Most males know what a blue box is: It is a device for recording voice or data, commonly fond in airplanes and ships.

That's called a black box. At least it is here. Even though it's not black, it's dayglo orange so they can see it after a crash.

But can you please explain that push present thing to a non-english American speaker?
My current guess from your posts is: Present for pushing the baby out of mums inside

Correct. I've only ever heard of it in the US context though, don't project that shit onto the rest of the English speaking world!

[Kriegsspiel]

A blue box is used to hack pay phones!

Phreak.

;)

AFAIK, phreeking is most often overheard at work if you work at the NSA.

[zolotiyeruki]

Holy cow, it's getting foamy in here.  But I certainly have enjoyed the previous page's explanation of blue/black/orange boxes, and some nice alternative blue boxes to consider!

[Zamboni]

A blue box is used to hack pay phones!

What's a pay phone?

[larmando]

.

[FrenchyMustache]

Same here, the second i read a blue box, i was just thinking of the tardis.

[hdatontodo]

A blue box is used to hack pay phones!

What's a pay phone?

If bad words don't offend you, this Cleveland video has a pay phone in it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysmLA5TqbIY

[RetiredAt63]

Same here.  And if it is small and blue, it is from Birk's.  Probably not as expensive as Tiffany's, but expensive.

http://business.financialpost.com/2014/07/09/birks-and-tiffany-co-battle-of-the-blue-jewelry-boxes/

Our blue box goes out every other week with the recycling in it.

[Primm]

That's a black box.

And your inference on the push present is correct.  :)

Oh d*** thats the reason why I am color blind :P I get even confused with the colors names LOL

And a black box isn't even black.  It's bright orange to make it easier to find after a crash.

Didn't we have this conversation already?

[FoundPeace]

Not exactloverheard at work, but I thought this one was pretty good.

One of my wife's childhood friends got her apartment, groceries, bathroom supplies, plane tickets home, etc. paid for through college and even after she graduated and got married. Her parents decided they should stop supporting her and started to wean her. She knew that my wife and I were doing well with ourselves even though I was going to school and my wife was a low-paid teacher. So we went grocery shopping with her a few times to teach her how to look at prices and plan meals. Even though they still spend a lot, they don’t spend the $1500 per month they used to for groceries.

(Apparently it is possible to feed a family with 13 kids with only around $1200 per month http://www.madfientist.com/how-to-retire-early-with-13-kids/).

[crispy]

I just got rid of my flip phone and moved to the Moto E with Republic Wireless.  I was showing it to another coworker who also uses a flip phone and was explaining how Republic Wireless worked, the cost of their plans, etc.  Another coworker overheard the conversation and wanted to look at it because she is currently paying over $100 a month just for her phone and said she needs to cut back on expenses.  She looked at it for about 10 seconds then dismissively handed it back to me and said that it would NEVER work for her because she NEEDS her iPhone for her business (the MLM business where she begs coworkers to buy junk on a regular basis).  This coworker works is divorced, and her alimony is about to run out.  She works 10 hours a week at the same place I do and then runs her "business."  Basically, she has very little income coming in and seems to have no plans for when the alimony runs out.  Yet she NEEDS an iPhone with a $100+ plan.  My mind just boggles.

[rocksinmyhead]

OMG I HATE push presents. The baby IS the fucking present you morons. Gross!!!

hahahaha agreed.

also, kind of embarrassed that I DID know what the blue box meant. *hangs head in anti-Mustachian shame*

[Chranstronaut]

Blue box?

What a shitty present.

I'm reading this on my small phone and got all excited because I thought it was a Tardis. Best present ever!

It's the TURDIS

[chrisgardner73]

For instance, there are roughly 5,000 employees at my building. Walking through the parking lot, I'd wager that 80% of vehicles are less than 5 years old. Of those 80%, I'd estimate MSRP on 70% of them to be somewhere north of $30k, and there are a lot of expensive trucks and SUV's as well. I would say less than 1% of vehicles are truly "beaters" (over 10 years old, not in very good to excellent shape, etc.). When I am pi$$ed at my car for whatever reason I'll think "hey, all these people have newer BMW's, etc., why can't I?". That feeling goes away pretty quickly but for the average not-financially-savvy person, they buy in to it, and think that it's ok (which, it is, if you are financially stable, understand your long term goals, understand the trade-off's - which most people don't).

I hear you. My company parking garage is filled with BMWs. There's also a Trek FX bike (MSRP $700) locked to a railing. The Trek is mine and I paid $400 for it. I don't have a car payment, or insurance, or gas, or service on it. And I bet I enjoy my ride to work more than they do in their BMWs going 15 mph in the clogged highways. All these people with their expensive cars are nuts.

I just signed up on here, and this is my first post!

I totally see where you're coming from here.  I am a contractor, working for the governement, and it's a similar situation.  I don't think there's a vehicle in our lot under 5 years old.  Maybe a small percentage, but not much.  I commute by bike every day.  My bike was a bit pricier, but I'm a pretty big bike geek, so that's where I splurge a little.  I was walking out the other day, and as one of the guys was getting into his BMW, he asked me, "Hey, don't we pay you enough to drive a car like normal people?"  I said yes, but I choose to save it so I don't have to work here as long...

[Sylly]

Again, an assumption of mine, but are you male? I guessed yes, and probably 75% of my male friends wouldn't have a clue what a "blue box" meant.

That is unfair. Most males know what a blue box is: It is a device for recording voice or data, commonly fond in airplanes and ships.

I think you're mistaking blue for black.

And I didn't know what a push present, baby moon, or blue box was.. This forum is so educational!

[jrmrjnck]

I totally see where you're coming from here.  I am a contractor, working for the governement, and it's a similar situation.  I don't think there's a vehicle in our lot under 5 years old.  Maybe a small percentage, but not much.  I commute by bike every day.  My bike was a bit pricier, but I'm a pretty big bike geek, so that's where I splurge a little.  I was walking out the other day, and as one of the guys was getting into his BMW, he asked me, "Hey, don't we pay you enough to drive a car like normal people?"  I said yes, but I choose to save it so I don't have to work here as long...

You could never pay me enough to drive to work everyday. It's so soul-crushing, especially the last five minutes you have to spend circling up the parking garage looking for a spot. I love being able to glide right up to the bike rack and hop off.

[dragoncar]

Again, an assumption of mine, but are you male? I guessed yes, and probably 75% of my male friends wouldn't have a clue what a "blue box" meant.

That is unfair. Most males know what a blue box is: It is a device for recording voice or data, commonly fond in airplanes and ships.

I think you're mistaking blue for black.

Didn't we already have this conversation?

[arebelspy]

Again, an assumption of mine, but are you male? I guessed yes, and probably 75% of my male friends wouldn't have a clue what a "blue box" meant.

That is unfair. Most males know what a blue box is: It is a device for recording voice or data, commonly fond in airplanes and ships.

I think you're mistaking blue for black.

Didn't we already have this conversation?

Didn't we already have this conversation?

[senecando]

Again, an assumption of mine, but are you male? I guessed yes, and probably 75% of my male friends wouldn't have a clue what a "blue box" meant.

That is unfair. Most males know what a blue box is: It is a device for recording voice or data, commonly fond in airplanes and ships.

I think you're mistaking blue for black.

Didn't we already have this conversation?

Didn't we already have this conversation?

Yup, it's right there in that blue box that says "Quote from..." on top.

[frugalnacho]

Just an FYI guys it's called a black box

[plainjane]

A new consultant was introducing himself at a meeting, "Hopefully I'm not late in my career.  That would mean that I'm going to die soon."

[solon]

Just an FYI guys it's called a black box

Yeah, but did you know they're not actually black? They're bright orange, so they can be seen better.

[ender]

Just an FYI guys it's called a black box

Yeah, but did you know they're not actually black? They're bright orange, so they can be seen better.

I thought it was called a blue box?

I'm so foncused.

[arebelspy]

Just an FYI guys it's called a black box

Yeah, but did you know they're not actually black? They're bright orange, so they can be seen better.

[infogoon]

Just an FYI guys it's called a black box

Yeah, but did you know they're not actually black? They're bright orange, so they can be seen better.

I've never seen a bright orange box from Tiffany's.

[GuitarStv]

There is only one orange box.

[gopackgo2]

I work with a woman who is in her mid-70s and can't retire because she says she doesn't have enough money.  She probably makes about 65K. 

She shops exclusively at Whole Foods, won't give up her cleaning lady and buys $100 organic facial cleanser.

She thinks I'm "lucky" to be able to retire in 17 months at age 45.  Sure, there was luck involved, but it also included the sacrifice of soap for a facial cleanser.

[Josiecat]

New coworker drives a Hummer.  Now he says he is buying a sports car to be his 'commuter' car.  Apparently the Hummer doesn't get very good gas mileage.  Huh, who knew?  And he intends to keep the Hummer so he'll have two cars.  Made my head hurt.

[4alpacas]

I work with a woman who is in her mid-70s and can't retire because she says she doesn't have enough money.  She probably makes about 65K. 

She shops exclusively at Whole Foods, won't give up her cleaning lady and buys $100 organic facial cleanser.

She thinks I'm "lucky" to be able to retire in 17 months at age 45.  Sure, there was luck involved, but it also included the sacrifice of soap for a facial cleanser.

WHAT?!  As a reformed product fanatic, I have no clue what she is washing her face with.  $100 for a face cream, sure.  But a cleanser?  No way. 

[robotclown]

The blue box is the thing from Animorphs. 

[VirginiaBob]

I work with a woman who is in her mid-70s and can't retire because she says she doesn't have enough money.  She probably makes about 65K. 

She shops exclusively at Whole Foods, won't give up her cleaning lady and buys $100 organic facial cleanser.

She thinks I'm "lucky" to be able to retire in 17 months at age 45.  Sure, there was luck involved, but it also included the sacrifice of soap for a facial cleanser.

Does she look 70+ years old with that special facial cleanser?

[Louis the Cat]

Ok, I'm just gonna drag this thing back on topic:

I had a conversation with a woman who I am friendly with after a concert we played together on Saturday where, in the natural course of things, I mentioned that I wanted more paid gigs because I have $30k in student loans to pay (closer to $22k now but I still use the $30k number in conversation for some reason).

Her: "Don't talk to me about student loans, I owe $200k!!" (From previous conversations, I know that these are loans she took out for her kids who are a hair younger than me.)
Me: "Who's fault is that?!"
Her: "My kids!"
Me: "Different choices could have been made."
Her: "They refused to go to Front Range [Community College]!"

At that point, I abandoned ship because what person in their right mind says to mom and dad, who are prepared to pay your full tuition, apparently without scholarships, that they refuse to consider a reasonably priced option.

Other things I know about this woman:

1. When I first met her, she was devastated because her husband's truck had just broken down irreparably and she didn't know how they were going to afford the payment on the new car. Model year of dead truck? 1985!!!!! Who doesn't at least acknowledge that they SHOULD have planned for a 30 year old vehicle to break down even if they didn't ACTUALLY plan for it.

2. She mentioned on Saturday that she wouldn't take a job in a city about an hour north of us because she didn't trust her minivan with 287k miles to make the drive. (The job in question is a position with a part time orchestra. This is a perfectly reasonable expectation in this line of work.) I'm not sure she's good enough to get a job with this particular orchestra and she may just be saying that to lessen the blow of not getting the job but still, if you honestly think your vehicle is holding you back in your career, REPLACE THE VEHICLE.

3. She's taken a second job although I'm afraid to ask why exactly. I do know that she used the first check from the second job to buy Halloween costumes for the whole section (4 in total) for the Saturday concert at, I think, $40 a pop. I tried to pay her for mine and tried to suggest cheaper alternatives. She wouldn't hear of it.

4. To cap it all off, she was trying to talk another musician into going with her this week to get a foot massage (I didn't know you could pay to get just a foot massage) because "I deserve it after all the work I've been doing".

She's a substitute teacher and DH is a Senior Software Engineer. She probably doesn't make much but he and my DH are in similar work except he has boatloads more experience than DH so I can guess what he makes and it should be $100k-$120k as a conservative guess; in a highish COL area but not insane.

I've been saving this up for a while, thanks for letting me getting it out!

[BlueHouse]

I think I might be the person at my job place that people "overhear".  I'm working on increasing my frugal factor, but not quite there yet.   I've been buying a lot of high-price items lately while I outfit my house, but I budgeted for all of it.  I also moan and complain about "how bad I have it" just to try to fit in and seem human - I don't start the conversations, but I do try to "be one of the guys" by adding in my own "woe is me" story.  I know I'm not perfect, but when people talk about money, I have no intention of saying "I'm on the right path" or even "I'm doing okay".  If I do, then someone would perceive that as I make too much money.  I have a nice car, but it's 8 years old (and it's going to keep getting older as long as I'm with this job).  I have a nice house, but I won't let anyone see it because they'd make assumptions.  People tend to make judgements about whether your pay is equitable based on whether or not they think you "need the money".  and that makes me fib about how much certain payments "hurt" my wallet. 

[Elderwood17]

I found myself scratching my head after this interaction today:

CW1 - We've been in our house so long we can actually imagine getting the thing paid off soon!
Me - Congratulations!
CW2 - I can't afford to ever pay my house off, I need the interest deductions too much.
CW1 - Oh, what is your interest rate?
CE2 - I don't know, I don't really pay it much attention.

I couldn't come up with any pithy comment.  I understand some people are clueless but why not just admit it and say "I'm clueless about an area as important as my personal finances" versus the "I need the tax deduction " smoke screen?   

[AlanStache]

I found myself scratching my head after this interaction today:

CW1 - We've been in our house so long we can actually imagine getting the thing paid off soon!
Me - Congratulations!
CW2 - I can't afford to ever pay my house off, I need the interest deductions too much.
CW1 - Oh, what is your interest rate?
CE2 - I don't know, I don't really pay it much attention.

I couldn't come up with any pithy comment.  I understand some people are clueless but why not just admit it and say "I'm clueless about an area as important as my personal finances" versus the "I need the tax deduction " smoke screen?

And can someone explain the "I need the deduction" thing, last year I thought I "got back" like a third of the interest I paid on the loan; so for every 1$ I paid; Uncle Sam 'gave me back' 0.33$.  How would I not be better off not paying the dollar and not getting the 0.33$ back - seems I would be .66$ better off?  Honest question what I am I missing?  Or does mortgage interest lower your taxable income so that someone with high income and who paid lots in interest could come out ahead?  Or would a lower income tax payer get a higher percent back of what they paid in interest?  All this ignores investing the difference etc but purely on a tax level what am I missing when people say "I need the deduction"?

On topic: Overheard a senior guy asking the company accountant to review what he was invested in and what to do to get his house in order.  Accountant asked some basic questions like 'who do you have your taxable accounts with' that he could not really answer.   +1 for being willing to ask for help.

[dragoncar]

I found myself scratching my head after this interaction today:

CW1 - We've been in our house so long we can actually imagine getting the thing paid off soon!
Me - Congratulations!
CW2 - I can't afford to ever pay my house off, I need the interest deductions too much.
CW1 - Oh, what is your interest rate?
CE2 - I don't know, I don't really pay it much attention.

I couldn't come up with any pithy comment.  I understand some people are clueless but why not just admit it and say "I'm clueless about an area as important as my personal finances" versus the "I need the tax deduction " smoke screen?

I'm guessing it's more like "my financially savvy spouse/parent/whoever told me we need the tax deduction"

[sol]

How would I not be better off not paying the dollar and not getting the 0.33$ back - seems I would be .66$ better off?

I suppose coworker could be up against one of the income phase outs.  Like "if I can't deduct this $5000 in mortgage interest, I don't qualify for my $5500 Earned Income Tax Credit" but that seems pretty unlikely, coming from someone who apparently doesn't know what those words mean.

[Kira]

If you make charitable deductions, you might not get any benefit from them if you don't have enough deductions to make it worth itemizing.

[zolotiyeruki]

And can someone explain the "I need the deduction" thing, last year I thought I "got back" like a third of the interest I paid on the loan; so for every 1$ I paid; Uncle Sam 'gave me back' 0.33$.  How would I not be better off not paying the dollar and not getting the 0.33$ back - seems I would be .66$ better off?  Honest question what I am I missing?  Or does mortgage interest lower your taxable income so that someone with high income and who paid lots in interest could come out ahead?  Or would a lower income tax payer get a higher percent back of what they paid in interest?  All this ignores investing the difference etc but purely on a tax level what am I missing when people say "I need the deduction"?

your understanding is correct. And not only would they be saving the tax-deductible interest, they would also be freeing up the cash flow that was going toward principal!

[HappierAtHome]

Just overheard a coworker complaining about how her toddler throws major tantrums, and that she's "leaving that up to daycare to fix - that's why I work so much and put her in daycare, it means I don't have to deal with these things".

[johnintaiwan]

Just overheard a coworker complaining about how her toddler throws major tantrums, and that she's "leaving that up to daycare to fix - that's why I work so much and put her in daycare, it means I don't have to deal with these things".

This happens all the time with students at my school. Often when we tell a parents that their child (6-10 years old) is not bringing books to class or finishing homework or is being disruptive in class we get the  "it's your problem." They think because the school is so expensive they can simply let us take care of all of their parenting.

(FYI - this is an after school bushiban. A mix of english classes and a daycare of sorts)

[tofuchampion]

Just overheard a coworker complaining about how her toddler throws major tantrums, and that she's "leaving that up to daycare to fix - that's why I work so much and put her in daycare, it means I don't have to deal with these things".

That is really sad for the kid.  :(