September 25, 2008
After the pleasantly sub-$100 electric bills of the past few months, I thought we’d finally nailed down some of the basics in reducing our energy usage. This past month should have been even better than the summer months because we didn’t use the air con once all month, and we were down to two people in the house for half the month while Mom was away visiting family. That should have made for a stellar-ly low bill, not a 120% increase!
Perhaps this is something electric companies just do, perhaps it’s something that I’ve simply failed to notice and is considered “best business practices.” Whatever the case may be, I’m fairly, oh, not ok with it. Our electric company has deemed it acceptable to send me a bill for more than twice the amount of last month’s, based on an estimated usage. An estimated 40% greater usage. What the heck is that all about?
You know what? It doesn’t matter what they think that’s all about it, because that’s completely out of the question. I sent in a request for a meter re-read because if they think I’m just forking over nearly $200 because they think I used that many kilowatts when I know I didn’t …. !! Hmph. The nerve of some people.
As I scroll down my usage history of the past few years, I see that there’s a spike every September billing period, and wonder if I foolishly missed the part of the bill where it states “Estimated read” every year before. Then again, I do have bills from November of last year, and it couldn’t have been that hard to miss. I suppose it doesn’t matter now, it’s too late to go back to last year and 2006. For now, though, I’m going to make sure that darned meter is actually read.
Note: They initially refused to come out saying that it was “in line” was previous billing history and that a re-read was “not justified.” Uh-uh! A firm note telling them exactly what I’d do if they continued to balk convinced them of the error of their ways. Guess what? The re-read of the meter two days ago resulted in a total read of 100 kW LESS (halfway through the next month) than their estimated amount for the last billing month. See?? Jerks.
August 22, 2008
Not wholly unexpected, I’ll admit, but somehow one of the DMV registration bills slipped through the cracks and wasn’t entered into my planner. While filing an already paid registration bill, I realized that the one at the top of the file was one coming due today. That’s another $145 deduction from the auto maintenance fund. Rats. I cannot wait until I’m only paying registration and insurance for one or two cars, not three.
June 21, 2008
Of all the indignities. I’ve been trying to pay my Verizon bill for weeks now, after I changed the account to my name, and they simply won’t let me do it. I called a few times, and was left on hold for a full thirty minutes. No joke, thirty minutes.
When I finally got to someone, they told me that I didn’t have a new account number yet, and no bill either, so I couldn’t pay. But, I protested, I want to pay my OLD bill. Please?
No go. They put me on interminable hold, as well.
I even tried emailing them, pleading for them to let me pay my bill already. Four days later, I still haven’t received a response.
This is infuriating!
Edit (five minutes later): Oh. Duh. I could just write them a check. I’m so trained to pay everything online that I completely forgot that I can actually just …. pay the bill manually. Huh.
June 5, 2008
Ugh, my neck. I was on the phone with Verizon again. This time, I was having them switch the account to my name so that I could block all incoming collect calls.
After trying to get through their monstrously aggravating voice activated system no less than 5 times trying to make this happen, I was fed up and determined that this was going to be resolved today.
Would you believe after 35 minutes on the phone, and countless previous calls, this CSR sprang the news on me that they were going to charge set-up fees for the name change??
For-ty six dollars.
They didn’t have to do anything except change the name and run the credit check, and they wanted me to pay $46 for the privilege of having access to the bill that I’ve been paying for years. They have my credit card number and bank account numbers on file, I’ve paid that frequently, and they want to charge $46 to give me access to my own danged account! Oooooooh. NO. Not after all the trouble I’ve gone through to reduce costs to stretch my budget. I was furious.
Lest anyone think I’m consumed by a sense of entitlement, that I expected the phone company to care about my budget and expenses, I was primarily angered by the fact that not one of the other CSRs I’d spoken to had ever mentioned any fee to change the name on the account, they’d all assured me it could be done quickly and easily once I had the accountholder’s authorization.
I lost it a little bit. I might as well cancel the service entirely and just start up service with a company of my choosing if I was going to be stiffed with a set-up fee that’s meant to cover their cost for installing new phone service!
He lamely offered to break up the charge into three monthly payments, but I was adamant. I was not going to pay some trumped up charge that had never been discussed in any of the previous conversations I’d had. Period. It honestly makes no sense, they’re keeping me as an on-time paying customer, and they want to spring a charge on me after wasting how much of my time? He put me on hold again and finally came back ten minutes later “Good news!” offering to waive the charges.
I did apologize for being so stern with him, and thanked him for the help.
Then it turned out that there’s a one time fee for initiating a block on collect calls and a monthly fee on top of that. He quickly offered to waive the one time fee, though. Guess I made an impression! *sigh* I’m so not willing to pay even more to avoid possible future charges. I haven’t made up my mind yet, so I guess there’s more phone time to log with Verizon in my future.
May 29, 2008
[Image Credit: lifestyle.hexus.net]
Had a nice chat with my ISP this morning. They’ve been increasing my bill from the promotional $14.95 to $17.99, and now to $21.99. I politely let the cancellation department know that I’m not happy with the sporadic billing that increases every so often without warning, and I’ve not been particularly satisfied with their service, so I’m considering other service providers. Before I change, though, I’d like to give them a chance to keep my business.
Without skipping a beat, the CSR offered me the cheapest price on the current service I have: $14.95 for a year, with a free month. I can totally live with that. I should be expecting a partial credit on my bill for this month since they bill a month ahead, and a free month next, and $14.95 thereafter.
There were a couple of collect calls on the phone bill, and while I’m not going to get into the details or get upset, I’m putting a stop to that immediately. I’m going to have to get the phone bill transferred to my name first since it’s still in my brother’s name, go figure, the guy who’s not paid a bill ever, and then block all incoming collect calls.
Nice to get all that out of the way.
May 13, 2008
There’s got to be a flaw in my planning somewhere here. There’s money in the bank, so why do I feel broke? Because it’s all spoken for? Because I’m shifting money from one account to another to cover the rent check? Probably. I worry that I’ve been reckless and irresponsible somehow, and that’s why I still have to pull together funds, and why I feel so danged broke. Is this my rainy-day version of Bag Lady Syndrome?
I have a certain amount of money that I’m allowed in my expense account per paycheck, and then everything left over goes to rent. I must be sorely underbudgeted in the rent department, because I’m coming up short part way through the month, and the expense account has to make up the difference.
This is me freaking out a little. Again, money is in the bank, but it’s all for real emergencies or upcoming expenses. I’ve got nothing freed up for the here and now. But my planning couldn’t have been that far off. It’s supposed to be really quite close to my actual expenditures, so why the difficulty in pulling it all together?
Hmmm ….. ok, here’re the problems: The bills for the multiple deductibles are all coming due at the same time. The truck still hasn’t been sold. This is the first time I’ve got a surplus set aside for auto insurance, so I’m still feeling the effects of juryrigging that into the system, as the last payment is on the same credit card. And PaDucky was in a tight spot last month and I had to lend him a substantial amount, only 60% of which he’s paid back in time for me to make up the rent.
So, $2120 of the $2227 credit card bill I’m about to pay is on actual bills. Honest-to-goodness, had to pay ’em, BILLS. Another $50 is for medical stuff; I’ll be reimbursed from my FSA. That means I spent $50 on myself. Ten to eat out, seven to treat a friend to Pinkberry, and $33 on an outfit I’m still feeling guilty about and haven’t admitted to buying until now. *oooops!*
*deep breath* So I was only $33 irresponsible. There’s still a juggle, and I’m still going to be struggling to make the ends meet because I’m NOT allowed to delve into other funds for expenses, but at least it wasn’t because I was careless. Silver lining?
April 30, 2008
| Retirement Savings |
Rollover IRA: $1,357
Roth IRA: $3,669
401(a): $3,742
403(b): $16,129
Total: $24,897
|
| Emergency Savings |
15,004
|
| Goal Oriented Savings |
Car Maintenance: $21
Savings for taxes: $4,800
Total: $4,821
|
| Investment Loans |
Prosper-ish: $12,630
Personal Loan: $5,000
Total: $17,630
|
| Total Assets |
Non-Liquid: $24,897
Semi-Liquid: $17,630
Liquid: $19,825
Expense Acct: $3,691
Total: $66,043
|
| Debt and Liabilities |
Truck: $5,847
Citi: $2229
American Express: $153
Chase: $358
Rent: $1,360
Total: $9,589
|
| Net Worth |
$56,454
|
Most of my gains were due to retirement contributions during the two months between this and the last snapshot I put together. I’m surprised that I, at least, kept the amounts I contributed, considering the market’s performance. Still need to re-examine my allocations, using Moom‘s Madame X series as a guide.
I’ve paid my tax bill, which was offset by a state refund, so the cash situation is half settled. I haven’t received my rebate yet. At that point, I think I’ll decide what to do with the lump sum of tax savings money. It’s mainly going to be divvying it up between the other smaller savings/expense accounts that have been neglected until now: auto maintenance was drained, insurance is perpetually lonely, the intermediate emergency fund has been languishing, and a little has to be set aside for upcoming Con. If there’s anything left after those are taken care of, I’d love to open a vacation/fun fund. That’ll be a first!!
Oh, and I need a moving out fund. I vaguely envisioned funding that from paychecks and miscellaneous income through the rest of this year, since the other major savings goals may be set. Regardless of the source, I need to set an actual number for that.
