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Last week I got a paycheck of $300 for some work I had done. These days every check, no matter how small, is greeted with applause. More money is always going out than coming in. Expenses go up and interest rates are so low that you might as well stuff your money in your mattress and save the cost of the gasoline you use up going to the bank.

Newspapers and magazines are folding up right and left in this economic downturn, so jobs for writers are hard to come by. Two of my friends, a book reviewer and a reporter, just lost their jobs due to bankruptcies at newspapers. So, yes, a $300 check is a big deal. With my eye on an ever-growing pile of bills, I hurry to the bank to deposit the check.

That day, the icemaker on my refrigerator broke. This is not an essential thing, I decide. I'll go to the hardware store and buy two ice cube trays, put them in the freezer, and save the expense of fixing it. Unfortunately, it isn't that simple. For some reason, the icemaker, with a mind of its own, decides to squirt water without making ice. There has to be a valve somewhere to shut it off. I am not mechanically inclined and have no idea where to look or what to do. "Replace the 15-year-old refrigerator," my friend says. "It's time already."

Sounds like a plan. A glance at the appliance ads in the newspaper tells me that a replacement would cost about $1,800. No way. I call the repair service, fully expecting to be told that parts for this old fridge are no longer available. I am lucky. Parts are available and it gets fixed. The bill is $324. There goes my $300 check before it could even have cleared the bank. But, you might say, the repair only cost me $24, right?

Two days later, I am at the local jewelry exchange. In response to ads urging people to sell jewelry they no longer want or use, I am there to sell a ring. It's a diamond wedding band my husband bought for me on a milestone anniversary. Somehow, I had lost it. After a year of turning the house upside down and searching everywhere, we concluded that it was gone permanently. My husband replaced it. Two weeks later, lo and behold, the missing ring turns up.

Do I need two diamond wedding bands? Obviously not. I asked the jeweler what I can get for the ring. $150 he says. Outrageous! Highly insulted by this offer since I know the original purchase price, I marched off in a huff to the next stall. After going to two more dealers at this exchange, and four dealers at another, I left with the ring and no money. The offers are all the same -- little better than giving the ring away. The money I expected to get was a pipe dream.

Then I won some raffle prizes at fundraising luncheons I attended. They are not things that suit me, but might be attractive to larger women. A friend sold them for me on eBay. Income from these is $275. Found money. It covers the phone bill and Macy's. Score one for my side.

Then I went to the doctor. Supposedly, Medicare and my secondary insurance should cover everything. Somehow, I required two items not covered by either policy. Kindly, they gave me an itemized bill to use for tax deduction, but in the meantime, I was stuck paying for entirely unexpected things.

A friend inherited some money just before the recession. He used it to buy several condo apartments in a new, fashionable area. He hoped to make money selling them after a while. Now the economy is no longer booming. Not only can he forget selling them in his lifetime, but he is grateful to have them rented. When one of his tenants on the fourth floor was disturbed by the sound of the elevator at night, the tenant disabled the elevator mechanism until the morning. Irate neighbors complained to the management. The nutty guy is evicted. Once again, that apartment is vacant. My friend was stuck paying the expenses of an empty apartment.

A man buys a dream home on the water. It has a boat slip and a swimming pool. He has worked hard to be able to do this while sending two kids to college. The company he works for folds up under him and he has to take a job at a much lower salary, grateful to have a job at all. He has to sell the dream home. The glory years are over -- for him and most everyone else.

A guy goes to law school. He wants to do corporate law. When he graduates, jobs are scarce. "Temporarily," he takes a job with a firm that does negligence law. He is not happy but assumes things will change. Years pass and he's still stuck in the same job. He has a wife and family now. The dream of corporate law work fades. He has a paycheck and glad of it.

All of us learn that life has become a Monopoly game in which nothing is for certain financially. Every time you pull a card, there is an expense, tax, or penalty. Why can't we pull the card that says "Pass Go, Get $200" a little more often?

Toby Rosenstrauch, an award-winning columnist, lives in Boynton Beach, Fla.