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Way to go wife!

November 14th, 2008 at 10:47 pm

Well I checked the online bank statement updated daily yesterday and find the Hilton double charged my wife for her stay at the conference last week. errrr. Now we don't have credit cards but use our debit card for everything so it shows up instaniously. The Hilton is a pain to deal with. Here is the history of the last week with my wifes stay at the Hilton in Indianapolis for a conference.

11/5 Arrive in Indy at Hilton. Sharing the room with 3 women to reduce cost of trip. Hilton charges $800 to my debit card upon arrival even though I was told it was only going to be $50. Room was only $500 total for 4 nights anyways.

11/6 Call wife in AM to tell her to go talk to the manager about the situation. Wife calls back they admitted their mistake and refunded it all

11/7 hold for $16.97 on the account from Hilton, what ever not enough to piss me off.

11/8 Another hold for $103 on the card, no big deal room was to be $171 anyways.

11/9 Wife calls got her bill they billed all 3 of them $103 each. Figured they got another discount as all received the same bill.

11/10 All charges gone from account no more holds. Figured they would bill it on Tuesday.

Yesterday 11/13 check online statement as I do every morning upon waking up. 2 finalized charges for $103 for a total of $206 charged to my account. Wife call them up and they say the person in charge will call her back tomorrow.

Today she gets a call back saying that it was because she wasn't billed properly and that they were just fixing it and taking the extra money. Ah, no not even a phone call just taking the money with out notification. Wife tells them that this is there mistake and that they screwed up twice on this trip and she wasn't paying the difference as the final printed bill and receipt were for $103. Wife tells them about their bad service, guy says he needs to talk to the manager. Guy calls back and says she will only be charged the $103 as it was their mistake.

Now I was fine with paying the extra $68 for a total of $171 as that is what was originally expected. Now after them taking more than that with out any notification they can say good by to the extra $68 for their bad service. Manager O.K.'d it and they are taking full responsibility for their mistakes.

Now on the budget front:

Got my qoutes from State Farm. I will be saving $2 a month for switching car insurance over but will save $196 a year on my renters insurance by switching all together I will save $220 a year by switching.

Ate out Lunch yesterday, felt bad about it as I was trying to not eat out but I was sick and needed something other than a sandwich for lunch at the job site.

Also splurged $40 on my fishing stuff today as I needed new line for my reels and picked up some lures that I had lost earlier this year.

Tomorrow I have a guy driving 4 hours to look at my fish room as he is interested in half of my equipment, equipment can't go till all the fish do but he is willing to wait and put down a deposit for the tank, filters, etc...

Well I need to get back on track.

November 11th, 2008 at 09:11 pm

Well I need to get back on track and should get a blog going to help remind myself.

Well the last blog was 2 years ago, I still read everyone elses' blogs.

Here is my current situation. I'm 28 years old been married for 2.5 years and have no debt, other than my wifes sallie mae loan. I also have no saving shame on me. I need to change that. I've been splurging way too much the last few months since the move. We moved in the begining of May to a wonderful apartment complex that has many features we both fell in love with 1050 sq ft., balcony with court yard view, club house, pool, quiet neighbors and superb sound proofing as you can't hear the neighbors above/ below/ or next to us unless your in the hallway. We also have Heat and Water paid for aswell as central air, storage unit provided next to the laundry room, 2 garages, and a laundry room in the lower level. Now compare this to my old cottage house built in 1910. It had been added on to 5 times very shoddishly, only 625 sq ft., basement leaked, roof leaked, no central air, drafty, etc...

I currently am working as a brick layer averaging about 28 hours a week at this time in the year as I do most years in the winter time. My wife is a massage therapist that works 4 days a week averaging from 12-20 massages, the most she can do with out killing herself. We have very few bills right now: (Monthly Totals)

Rent w/ 2 Garages -$720
Cell Phone -$130.51
Internet/ Wifes Buisness number -$78.34
Electric Bill -$106.18 thats with all electric appliances and central air, fish tanks
Renters Insurance -$23.91
Car Insurance Full coverage both vehicles $500 deductible -$93.48
Food -$500
Eating Out -$280
Cats -$20
Rabbits -$25
Miscllaneous- ???

Now food and eating out are our biggest expenses as I work construction I've been lazy and eating out with the guys so cost is between $5-10 daily. We also buy alot of high quality food suchs as organic milk, fish, etc...

I've found a few ways to save some cash here is what I accomlished today and if I can keep it up will be a millionaire in 60 years Smile.

Car Insurance and Renters called another place and got qoutes taht will save me a little more than $25 month for the 2.

Eating out- I'm now brown bagging and using my soup thermos again for a hot meal.

Food- Only spent $80 for the 2 of last week to make breakfast, lunches and dinner for the 2 of us.

Well my head hurts now.

Craig

Somewhat back on track

November 5th, 2006 at 03:20 am

Well I'm somewhat back on track for the month. I did go and purchase Quicken 2007 Home and Buisness as I've needed some good accounting software and since the wife is starting her own massage buisness I figured I would go with what I wanted to use. It is great for what I have figured out all ready, now to figure out all the little stuff. Tracking our 5 personal accounts and her 1 buisness account from 1 page is great. Now to find a place to invest some money. Anyone have an ideas? I will start investing after the first of the year as to make sure I don't get laid off (I work construction). I need to find the best method of starting out with a couple of small investments of around $1k. By the end of next year I plan on setting up a Roth IRA for both the wife and I. I'm leaning toward the Vangaurd Retirement 2030 for my wife and
the Vangaurd Retirement 2045 for me. They look like easy to run investments and I would like to invest a little more else where as well but not sure where to go with it. If anyone has any good ideas on investment I would love to hear them as I'm reading all I can to find the best places to invest. Thanks for the wonderful site and the great blogs.

Craig

Novembers budget already shot down!

November 3rd, 2006 at 02:25 pm

Well I have already shot down my November budget as I've missed 22 hrs of work out of 24 since the start of Nov. due to me coming down with bronchitis. Top that off with the visit to the chiroprator for and adjustment, accupuncture, laser therapy, and natural supplements for a total of $155 should have been $250 but since my wife is a Massage Therapist there I received a disount. Part of the bill can be claimed to insurance so I should get back about $80-90 from them. I do have insurance but don't care for western medical practices so I end up spending more when I get sick. If it wasn't for my wife and I wanting to have a child in the near future I would just cancel it and put the money into savings as I could have more in savings as the only thing it gets used for is 2-3 Chiropractor visits per month, but the dental has been great though. Well that's my rant for now. I did do fairly well last month as far as the budget goes since it was the first I figured kinda low and wasn't over too much, except for the vet bill. Now to figure out how to make some more money this month. How long does money have to sit in ING before I can transfer it to my emigrant and not lose my $25 sign on bonus? Well sorry for the long post but I feel better now.