Vagaries in Increments
December 29, 2011
Money has been a weird thing of late. And weird in odd chunks. Mostly me making mistakes. I haven’t paid the stupid tax in a while but it burns me up just like days of yore. Even if it doesn’t immediately cause me to miss other bills anymore, it still gets my goat because it’s going to get in the way of other goals.
* I saved myself 10% on a big order from Ann Taylor by reordering everything at 50% off instead of 40% off. Except carelessly, didn’t notice that at 50% off, my order was $25 shy of the free shipping (no code needed) minimum that I usually never miss and cost myself an extra $13. Kicked myself up and down the street for that and couldn’t get a reprieve from the company. I’m going to have to return most of those items because only one thing fit well so I’ll have saved myself pretty much nothing.
* Bought PiC two pairs of potentially really nice sneakers from Amazon’s sister deal site at a steep discount but made the mistake of letting it charge to my credit card instead of using the rest of my gift card balance. Ended up having to return them both as neither fit well and now I have a whole lot of extra Amazon credit. Which I promptly dug into.
* I tried to transfer a large amount of money from one Chase account to another ING account. Carelessly slipped when selecting from the dropdown menu and grabbed the wrong Chase account – the one that never has real money in it. !!! @(#*$(#!!!
* Received a bill from the dentist, which rather annoyed me because if my recent visit was going to incur cost above and beyond, I am accustomed to having the amount estimated at the time of the visit. I planned to drop by the office to pay it by CC. Frankly, I’ve been a little busy. A lot busy. It’s also only been about two weeks. Another bill came in the mail and they’ve adjusted the price downward by $53. No reason given. Hrm.
* I have GOT to get on the ball with figuring out creative flight financing for our honeymoon. Those prices are giving me heartburn like a … well. You know.
Is anyone else’s dander up?
Oh yes. I am familiar with all these vagaries. My problem has been my recent shopping spree in dresses and bags. And my inability to just do my auto renewal and return it.
Regarding the honeymoon… maybe a night in Honolulu would make it worthwhile? But I think inter-island flights are just expensive no matter what.
Oh, definitely. I’ve done OK, though not perfect, and I’m not sure I like my budget being as tight as it’s been. And, other non-finance things have been stressing me out as well so dander is definitely up.
I think I’ll do some monthly meal-planning for January, since food is where I tend to over-spend when I plan poorly. Thankfully some other spending I’d planned hasn’t actually been done yet, so I can scrap some of that as well.
Oh man, $13 probably isn’t worth the heartburn! I guess you’re not at level 4 of personal finance based on our Monday levels. (But maybe you could be!) Sunk cost!
Back when these kinds of things still gave me heartburn, DH would offer to pay the $13 or whatever out of his allowance if it would make me feel better. (And sometimes I let him… and sometimes it did make me feel better.)
That dentist thing irritates me too. My last one came with a “this bill is 90 days past due” which was a mistake on their part. I asked DH to take care of it because I was so annoyed. I think he just paid it, but in order to save my gentle sensibilities all he told me was that it wasn’t 90 days past due and they’d made a mistake.
I recently received a bill from the dentist too, and I also hadn’t been told at the time that insurance wouldn’t cover that cost. It was only about $30, but I was still a little irritated that I ended up being charged.
@WH: Yeah, I’d actually be less peeved if it were a choice I made to spend and got something in return.
I’m considering the cost benefit of staying with friends on the Big Island a day on either side but it depends on inter-island flight costs plus the savings on the main round trip.
@Kris: That would be a great idea, just to give me something to control in actuality plus costs. Plus I like eating well. 🙂
@nicoleandmaggie: I’m split level. I have a huge emergency fund but my income is middling in relation to spending requirements (my dad plus us). Still, the slip up isn’t going to break up.
It’s just the principle of the matter – I can tolerate spending pretty well now, but waste drives me batty. And fees are oh-so-wasted money. I’ll get over it but it just makes me a bit crazy for a while.
@Bryan: Yeah, it was just the unexpectedness. And the dental bill was $150 AFTER adjustment. UGH.
I hate it when I try to be smart and end up costing myself more money.
I totally sympathize.
I hate those stupid drop-down menus that you end up changing because you scrolled. I have done this paying our credit card, and we once ended up with $50 left in the account we pay rent out of because I did that.
My dentist once tried to charge me $150 for a cleaning. I finally went there, refused to leave until they explained it to me, and got it knocked down to $0 because they sent the billing company the wrong information. Oy.
I’ve been making silly mistakes like that lately. Probably because I’m distracted? Are you feeling distracted or stressed lately? Maybe you need a vacation?