2024, Uncategorized, work

Precision

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It is budget planning time for the next biennium for State agencies in ND. The legislature meets every other year here, so the planning has to be imaginative. You have to think ahead for two years of expenses.

I was asked if there would be any major budget items for our Psychology Department apart from what they have to normally budget. There actually is one this year. There is a new version of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, 5th Ed. One test kit in a soft sided case will cost $1565.10. It is essential to have.

I sent the information to our budget person, and giggled. It struck me as funny that the company selling the test tacked on the 10 cents for the cost. Really? They couldn’t absorb the dime, or just charge an extra buck for the kit?

I suppose if your business is psychometrics and the precise measure of cognitive functioning, the 10 cents tacked on the price makes perfect sense. I still think it is silly.

What is your budgeting strategy? Any silly perfectionist things you have encountered lately?

38 thoughts on “Precision”

  1. The IRS rounds of to dollars but SS pays to the penny. However, my mother would have been sure they were cheating her if she did not see some Pennie’s on the check. Do you think we should take Pennie’s out of circulation?

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    1. I follow a blog in which one of the two presenters is rabidly against pennies. In fact in their very large charity collection every February, one of the perks is pressed pennies. I have several years worth.

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    2. Social Security sends you a rounded dollar amount. They quote you a number with cents, but the cents they quote you always equals the number of cents on the Medicare part B premium. So Social Security never sends you any cents.

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  2. Unfortunately, my budget strategy is “If we’re not overdrawn, I can buy it.” Fortunately, my tastes run simple, I have no space for much new stuff, and I shop at thrift stores.

    I’m about to – I got “front-ended” at a stop sign yesterday (guy in front of me backed up to turn around), and I have to call AAA this morning. I’m sure there will be paperwork that I have to get just right.

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  3. Ahhh, that marketing! Gasoline sold with the 9/10ths. Just because. And now tradition.

    Silly perfection is a hallmark of the Duolingo language learning app. There are week long “leagues” into which users are placed so as to stimulate use by encouraging competition. Points are accumulated by completing lessons and by purchasing certain items that give double points. I’ve succumbed to the marketing ploy several times and now attained a place in the highest league. I’ll never win it. With a full hour and a half each day, I can put up a thousand points and not buy anything. But there are users whose daily profiles show winning the league with twenty to twenty five thousand points per day. Last week’s winner of the league I was in cleared one hundred thousand points and has a cumulative total of nearly thirty million. I was fourth with just over six thousand.

    On second thought, maybe this isn’t about silly perfection but instead is about silly competition. I think I’ll set aside winning and be satisfied with learning.

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    1. I’m in the diamond league… I do work to stay in the top ten. I have seen all the ways that you can pay money on Duolingo, but I have always resisted. And I’m pretty stingy with my points too.

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    1. from JacAnon,

      While I am not a proponent of too much testing, the information gleaned from the Wechsler (WAIS) can be vital for diagnosing stuff–neuro problems, ADHD, Learning Disabilities, etc. What is it that you see that is a primal driver for social services career path? I don’t understand what you see. Can you clarify?

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        1. In the world of psychology and helping professions, Antisocial tendencies pop up in a variety of places. It happens so often it never occurred to me that you made a joke.

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  5. We have no overriding budget, as such. We take our required minimum distribution from our IRA at the beginning of the year and that, along with social security, is enough to carry us through the year. The IRA more or less replenishes itself each year.

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  6. Rise and Shine, Baboons, from JacAnon,

    I am an intuitive budgeter. When Lou and I first married and established a budget, he would undergo precise procedures about how we should split expenses. I would say, “Well, that feels like a 60/40 split to me,” and he would figure all these numbers and it would end up 60/40.

    Now my budgeting is a lot like what Bill described, although the IRAs distribute on various schedules determined by the financial gods, I guess.

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  7. I have a fixed monthly income in four payments spread over the month, and I have about a dozen fixed payments spread over the month. I have to, therefore, budget somewhat carefully, although I do have a sizable reserve in my savings account. I budget with a spread sheet, but not that tightly, just the larger items and groceries.
    Over precision: the reporting I do to the county for Sandra, which comes up again in July.
    Clyde

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  8. When they first calculated the height of Mt. Everest by triangulation, it came out at 29,000 feet above sea level. They thought people would think they were guessing or rounding off, so they reported it as 29,002 feet.

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  9. I’ve wondered why the price of something is always $xx9.99. Why not just round up? That has always seemed silly to me.

    My budget used to be a really rigid, strict taskmaster. I could barely make ends meet. I started some habits that I still have today, even though it’s not as important now. I made a list of all the bills that would be due each month and cross them off as I paid them. I would subtract the amount I owed each month from my income and whatever was left was for groceries and gas. It wasn’t much.

    I’ve never been one to use Quickbooks or even spreadsheets reliably though I know it would help.

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    2. For 30+ years I got program budgets from the design department and one of the ways that they could tag an expense in a program was “WAG” which meant that they really didn’t know the cost at all.. Grrrrrrr.

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  11. A great “budget” song.

    I did not say I was a millionaire.

    If I’d kept all the money that I’ve already spent, I’d have been a millionaire a long time ago.

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  12. Mankato is starting flood control measures on the river. Closing parks and trails, put up one closure in the river wall, regular watch on the river level, ready to go to the full level closures, including the major one.

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  13. I do have a very loose budget. I am more or less know what I need to be spending and not spending. The past few months and the next few months coming up are pretty tight around here because YA and I are trying to pay off the kitchen and the bathroom projects.

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  14. I started off with a little date book calendar, on which I wrote down the amount I would be paid on a specific date, and the amounts of the bills that would need to be paid after that date and before the next paycheck date. Then calculating the balance still available. My way of dealing with projecting how much of paycheck 1 would need to be saved for the rent so it wouldn’t exceed paycheck 2.

    I always loved those months in which there were THREE paychecks.

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