The Weight of Money

I haven’t updated my debt meter in quite some time and it’s no longer in the $13,000-range. In fact, we started off the year at $15,000 in credit card debt, so I’m betting that meter hasn’t been updated since June of last year when we were battling down debt in order to buy a house. The purchase of said house stalled all progress in reducing our credit card debt - something we expected for the first year of home ownership.

We were doing pretty good for a while in keeping things in check, but there were several instances where we chose to increase our credit card debt instead of reducing our emergency fund. The only reassuring thought about this increase is that these are not frivolous purchases - there is no going out to eat on credit or buying unnecessary items. Unnecessary items is an “eye of the beholder” situation; I’m sure that we’ve charged some items that others would not agree are necessary. Our plane tickets to attend my grandmother’s 75th birthday party last year, for instance, could be considered an unnecessary expense. But, I’m comfortable with that charge knowing that my grandmother is getting older and attending this event, that I also organized for her from 1,000+ miles away, was worth the credit increase for us. Not knowing if or when I’ll get back to see her again made the trip worth it.

Today I’ve been filing away papers and bills and have updated our credit card spread sheet. We currently have $17,300 in credit card debt at the moment. This is costing us a little less than $100/month in interest charges and we’re paying a little over $300/month in payments (this is the debt maintenance plan, not a debt reduction plan). Of the $17,000, $7,000 is currently under a balance transfer agreement and we’re not paying interest on that, which is a significant savings - this savings will end in October. The scary thing about our credit balances is that we’re still using less than 30% of our available credit - wow, what a scary thought. The $2,000 increase from January is mostly attributed to my business purchases and two rounds of car repairs.

I’m currently waiting to see what, if any, pay increase the partner gets this year to see where we can start reducing credit card debt. As I’ve mentioned several time, we knew that our first year of home ownership would put all positive financial progress on hold and would be a difficult year in making things meet. However, due to the ongoing financial struggles at the partner’s company, I’m not too confident that this year’s raise, even with a very positive annual review, will do much to alleviative our current finical struggles. But, we’ll take whatever it is in stride as we’ve learned to do this past year and continue to make compromises as we barely make ends meet.

Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in the things you want. Sometimes, your brain plays tricks and makes you think that getting what you want is a good idea even when it isn’t — especially when it comes down to money. We’ve made and need to make several purchases for our house and garden this month. Thinking about our current purchasing needs, the partner started wondering if he could get a good deal on a few items purchased in bulk - specifically some EMT. We need some for the vertical garden support, but suddenly he was asking me about how many poles we’d need if we finally got a shade structure we’d been considering for a couple years.

The shade structure idea wasn’t an out-of-the-blue thought. We’ve been discussing getting a good structure for several years and somehow manage to talk ourselves out of it each time. We have a big party coming up in a couple weeks where we could certainly use a nice sized structure - but is that reason enough to get one? He almost had me convinced and those lovely little “Buy It Now” buttons on ebay can be awfully tempting sometimes. But, before clicking that button, my mind started to wonder about some of the details.

I’m a bargain hunter - I hate to pay extra for anything I think I can get for less somewhere else. Considering shipping costs, I’ve began wondering if we couldn’t get some of the structure elements cheaper, closer to home. This threw a kink in the whirlwind of activity - not so much because I was questioning the savings, but because I was taking longer look at the situation. What started out as a conversation about getting a bulk discount on EMT had turned into definite plans to buy the kit and the EMT without even knowing if a discount was possible. Having the shade structure for the party would be great, but having the cash to pay for everything would be even better and thats where the problem comes in.

I can justify needed expenses that are necessary. We have to get vertical supports up for the crops (now!) and I don’t mind forking over cash to make that happen. However, we don’t *need* a new shade structure for the party - no matter how nice it’d be to have. Also, we’re currently looking at options for buying another vehicle - one with 4-doors and a/c - and now is not the time for buying frivolous items. Once I started adding up the shelter details, all I could see was that adding up to the 6-month or 12-month increase in auto insurance we’ll be paying for a 4th vehicle.

It’s easy to get pulled along by ideas, but sometimes you still need to hit the breaks and really look at the situation. We may end up with a shade shelter, but it’ll get a lot more consideration than the 2 hours of talk we gave it last night. Also, before we make that decision, we’ll need to finally decide if we’re going to get another older car for the cash we can spare, or it we’re going to add a car payment to our already tight budget. I’m already leaning toward the first option, but am not sure the partner is on board with that idea just yet so we gotta talk it out a bit more first.

I get very uppity about money and bills. Sometimes I wonder if I spend too much time fussing over some of these little details. But when someone is trying to come between me and my money, I take notice and action. We’ve been going through lots of homeowner stress the past two weeks and have dropped lot of money on repair and treatment products in the mean time. I don’t really mind the money spent since it’s been to fix things that needed fixed, but it makes me much less tolerant of any unexpected bills that show up at the same time.

Our house has a 30+ year old boiler that supplies our heat and hot water. On Saturday or Sunday last week, we suddenly had no hot water. This isn’t really a big deal since the partner is pretty good at fixing things; the complicated part is figuring out what is wrong. But, it threw a kink in our regularly schedule programming. At this time, we also noticed we were finally almost out of fuel (see below) and thought that might be contributing to the problem, but turns out that it was just a coincidence and we managed to solve the broken boiler before solving the lack of oil.

One of our in-progress projects was replacing our ancient oil tank with a newer tank. We’d placed all our oil deliveries on hold so that we could run the tank empty and switch them out. However, while we’d finally run low enough to make the switch, the heat, broken boiler, and the impending baby arrival made us rethink that plan and decide that late fall would be better timing. So, we called our oil company for a delivery and let them know we hadn’t switched tanks yet.

The oil company insisted that the tank had to be inspected before they’d deliver oil. This made no sense and I argued about it being the same tank they’d been filling, but they insisted and I finally shrugged it off and agreed. We had a tech out that afternoon. The tech takes two seconds, a quick swipe of his hand on the underside of our tank, and fails it. Crap! Then, he gives the partner a $50 bill for the inspection - what?! No one said anything to me about charging me $50 for the inspection — I was pissed and immediately called to refuse to pay it. The reasoning: no one told me that there would be a charge for the inspection. Had they mentioned it upfront, I would have hemmed and hawed until the dropped the inspection requirement in general. It also didn’t improve my spirits that we now had to switch out tanks.

Fuel oil companies are very competitive with each other and there is nothing holding me to this particular company. Also, because we’d had our oil deliveries on hold for so long and were still on monthly budget billing, we have a sizable credit with them that I was more than willing to take elsewhere. I immediately called the company and got an agreeable CSR on the phone who was a bit stubborn at first but quickly realized I was much more stubborn. She wasn’t able to cancel the charge, but she gave me an extra $50 credit on our account to cover it - problem solved.

The tech that failed our tank said that they probably wouldn’t be a charge for the to reinspect the new tank that we now had to put in. This wasn’t the case when it came time (the next day) for that inspection. But, the person on the phone did let me know about the charge ahead of time and I was going to let it go. That was until the oil company dropped the ball…

When the new tank passed inspection, a delivery should have been ordered right then. The tech called in the passed inspection as he was supposed to, but a delivery order wasn’t placed. Around 4pm this afternoon (on a Friday) I noticed we still didn’t have oil and called to find out if the truck was running late. Since I called so late, I was told there was nothing they could do and it’d be Monday, maybe, before a delivery could be made. Also, I was told that I have to call back first thing on Monday to make sure an order is placed (why do I have to call again?) and that it may still be another day or so after that since they only travel to my area once or twice a week during the summer - most customers use oil for heating only and they reduce their trucks and staff in the summer.

So, considering this issue too - I’m going to write a letter about the entire ordeal to the company and will expect some sort of corrective action (in financial form) for this entire ordeal. In the meantime, I’m thankful that I’ve got such a talented partner and know that we’ll have hot water even with an empty oil tank over the weekend - of course, I don’t need to let the fuel oil company know that.

I’ve written many times about how much my tendency to procrastinate has cost me - it’s usually not a pretty site when the reality dawns on my that my laziness has a dollar value. It’s one thing to make foolish choices and lose money; it’s another to lose money for doing nothing. But a couple weeks ago, that same tendency actually earned me extra cash.

We’re still dealing with the car accident, slow and steady, and have finally reached an agreement on the settlement amount. The best part is that it took no work on my part. The week of the accident, the insurance company offered me $2,100 for my car if I wanted to keep it. As I previously mentioned, we’d just put a lot of work and money in the car just 3 months prior and I wasn’t happy with that amount. What did I do? Nothing.

Life was very busy at that same time with vacation and three shows I was working on for my sewing business. I didn’t have the time to devote to this issue, so I just let it slide. The insurance company called several times, usually catching my voice mail, but I kept brushing them off. At one point they also called the attorney I retained to deal with the personal injury side of my claim and he directed them back to me as I had asked him to do. He also sent them a letter stating that I was managing the property damage portion of my claim and that I was also unsatisfied with their current offer.

About a week after that letter, I get a revised offer letter that gives me another $550 for my car. Now, this isn’t a huge jump, but it is enough for me to be content. Would I like a little more for my car? Of course, but I’m also not interested in jumping through more hoops to get it either. In my mind, this extra cash almost covers the new clutch we put in my car and is a fair offer considering the actual value of my car. Also, during this time, we’ve established that my car is drivable and the partner has done lots of work to make the body look better. The partner is now driving the car daily because of my vanity issues and because he commutes 75 miles a day and my car gets 35mpg and our other vehicles only get 15-18mpg.

I finally called the claims agent back and I’ll be driving over to sign some paperwork and leave with a check this afternoon. I originally rejected the in-person idea since I hate driving, but as I was writing this post I realized their office was 2 miles from the bank which I need to visit anyways.

This timing works out well because the partner and I finally agree that we need to purchase another vehicle, soon! In a couple more weeks we’ll have a new little one in the house and our “family” car options have almost evaporated. I don’t trust my car, safety-wise, to use it as a family car, plus the partner will be driving it, and our Blazer has had problem after problem lately and I’m stomping my foot hard on putting another dollar into that thing. We’re now deciding on what type of vehicle to get, but thats a whole different post.