My ING Referrals
As many of you might know, ING Direct has an ongoing offer: if you open either an ING Orange Savings Account with $250 OR an Electric Orange Checking Account with $250, ING will give you $25 for free. Anyone who opens an account through one of your links gets you $10 each time. As always there is a slight catch which I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone mention with their links; the bonus money is actually counted as interest. In the long run you will pay taxes on this, but I’d still say that it’s worth it to open and get the account. The Savings account is giving about 3% interest which isn’t a lot, but it was more than I was getting with Bank of America.
So, here are some links to open your own account. Remember that you have to open it with at least $250 or you don’t get a bonus.
ING Orange Savings Account:
I have more than those, so if you try clicking and it’s already been used up, please leave a comment or e-mail me at livingpaychecktopaycheck at gmail dot com and I will send you a link for whatever you want.
My Grammie’s Birthday
In a recent post I mentioned that when I cashed out my e-rewards, I received a $10 gift code to Proflowers.com and that I planned to use it for my grandmother’s birthday. I estimated that it would cost around $25 after the code because I had no idea how much flower deliver costs.
Well, first I found almost no promo codes that I could open on my work computer, so I gave up and started the order process. The website is sneaky by not giving the final price until right before you’re to submit the order. I was surprised that my total was over $33.
I went to Mypoints.com and found out that THEY had a deal if I linked through them, so I exited from the Proflowers webpage and went home. This deal was 500 Mypoints points and an upgrade or discount on the flower pot/vase. In my case, I ordered a baby orchid in a terra cotta pot, so it reduced my cost by $5 because they couldn’t give me a glass vase. It may have given some other small discount, too, because this time my total was just over $26.
I remembered then that I should check out my company’s employee discount website to see about any other deals. Sure enough, they had the same deal as Mypoints, but with a 15% discount instead of 500 points. My total came to $24 and change. It took me a while to figure all this out, but it was worth the $9 to me.
On a side note: When I checked my e-mail a few hours after I’d exited from the webpage the first time I was going to submit the order, I found an e-mail from Proflowers imploring me to finish my order and they’d give 10% off and that pot/vase upgrade. In the future, it would definitely be worth it to not finish an order if I can’t find a discount somewhere else.
My Jack Wasn’t Jacked
Well, I feel silly. My jack and everything else (minus the lug nut key) was beneath the back right passenger seat, under the floor. So the good news is that I don’t have to get a new tire change kit; the bad news is that I still dropped about $149 yesterday for: inspection, emissions testing, new lug nuts, labor for the lug nuts, and miscellaneous stuff.
Then I dropped $78.50 to the state of Virginia (actually, we’re a commonwealth, not a state) for the Inspection / Emissions for the next two years.
So, over $200 went to car stuff yesterday. More good news, though: if I ever have a tire problem, I know how to solve it.
My Outer Banks Vacation
Ah! I suppose that it’s good to be home, though I had a lot more fun LAST week. Some highlights of my trip:
1. Awesome tan
2. Four-Wheel Driving on the beach (only female in my family to go from the main road several miles on the sand to the house)
3. Deep Sea Fishing (also the only female to do this, with 11 of my male relatives) – I caught seven dolphin fish and one tile fish
4. Relaxing and having a wonderful time with the family.
Since my father’s side of the family all live in Northern Virginia, we see each other a fair amount, plus or minus a few people (usually the college kids), and everyone gets along with everyone else (except one cousin who didn’t show for the vacation). I love watching the older cousins hanging out with their younger cousins or playing games in and out of the pool. Everyone talks to everyone else, laughs at family stories, and is genuinely happy to be around the relatives. So I love getting together with my family even more than getting together with my friends (minus B, of course). If he’d been able to come, I might have had a lot more fun, though I probably wouldn’t have gotten to go fishing.
Anyway, I did pretty well money-wise this trip. My dad filled my tank up before we left for OBX, so I only paid for a tank and a half of gas…and the gas was cheaper down there! My total spent was $88.85(on gas) plus $4 (tolls), but I received $40 from my aunt and uncle (they gave each of the cousins that amount as a 2008 birthday gift), so my real cost was $52.85….Unless you count the groceries I bought…I brought a family size box of Special K and a bag of 24 small potato chip bags…So my total cost was under $75 (for reals!). Not bad for an entire week’s vacation. Also, I’ll probably get a few pounds of fish out of it, so if I get enough, that’ll drive down my real cost.
Anyway, that’s it for now. This afternoon I’m going to (finally) get my inspection/emissions done (with coupons up to $5 off). This will include them destroying my lug nuts and installing new ones or some such thing for nearly $100. I’m also worried about my brakes…they passed inspection last year, but the mechanic said that I’d need to get them fixed in the next six months or so…clearly that time has passed. Wouldn’t you know that all this comes right before my three-paycheck month? I bet I know where it’s gonna go.
My Half.com Experience
Last summer when I was unemployed, I started listing a bunch of textbooks on Half.com. Then after reading an article about hoarding in Marie Claire magazine (I think), I went nuts trying to get rid of things I didn’t need. This led to me listing about twenty paperback Harlequin romance novels and a couple other novels that I didn’t plan on reading again. Since last summer, I think I sold two textbooks and maybe four novels. Altogether I made less than $100 (but close to it) what with also having to buy the envelopes (Half.com reimburses you for the shipping).
I haven’t made a sale since February, though, and I’ve often idly wondered if I should manage my inventory. Today I did and discovered that most of my books were the high price of what was available. I changed prices, so I hope that it will help bring in some cash sooner than it otherwise would have. Since I probably won’t get to it sooner, when I get home from the beach the week of the 27th I’m going to try to go through my books again and see what I can sell. There are so many books that I keep for nostalgia that I don’t need at all, like a book of Flannery O’Connor’s letters. In college I took a Flannery O’Connor class, taught by her only biographer, and now I keep this book that I’ll never use again because of it. Realistically, I should discard it and keep the biography written by my prof and the book of her complete works instead. Either way, it’s time for a bookshelf cleaning!
As a side note, the reason that I have so many Harlequin novels is that I adore them. Not the ones that come out today (though I’m sure they’re great, too) but the ones from the 1960s-90s. They are short reads and awesome. The older they are, the more hysterical the females are and the more chauvinistic the men are. I love them because they are so ridiculous. A few are actually pretty good and I keep those. The others I get rid of on Half.com. I usually pick these books up from a Good Will in my old college town for about 75 cents apiece. The last time I was there, back in March, I bought about 13 of them. I’ve been to other Good Wills, but none have the selection of this series that this particular location has and has had for at least four years. When one of my friends who lives there has her baby in September, or whenever the christening is, I will plan my trip around hitting up that store.
What I like, though, is that I pretty much come out even on the books, since they sell for 75 cents (lowest price allowed at Half.com) and I’m reimbursed for shipping. Sometimes the shipping reimbursement is more than I pay, too (not by very much, though). So I’m going to keep it up and enjoy my reading.
My Cell Phone Bill
Argh!
So I knew that I was overusing my cell phone this past month, with the new phone and all. First I signed up for the insurance ($1.99/mo.?) and then I bought a few ringtones. After that I signed up for what I thought was $9.99/mo. for VZ Navigator. I knew that even by downloading ringtones I had to pay a small fee for the megabytes downloaded (total should have been less than $5); also, I’ve sent and received a few texts for 20 cents each. This should have only been a few bucks, too. So even including all of those things, my bill was still $20 higher than I expected it to be. I’m embarrassed to say that the total bill was just under $100…usually I pay just under $50.
I looked over my bill, but I still don’t quite get it. The only other thing that I can think of is how many times my thumb got too close to the Mobile Web button and started it up. The front of my phone is set up similar to an iPod, and it’s rather sensitive. I could adjust the sensitivity, but I prefer it being a little easier for times when I’m in a hurry / distracted. So I keep brushing too close and turning on the internet. It also looks like I went over on my minutes? I think that they charged per minute on the four days between the new billing period and the set-up of the new phone. I wonder if I can get that $10 or so taken off….
I’m debating whether to go whole hog on this damn thing. For $40/mo. more than I’ve been paying each month (but only about $25 more than I was planning after getting this phone), I can get unlimited everything (except minutes…that would stay at 450) and not have to get ticked everytime I get a text, and not have to call someone everytime they text me, too.
It’s not ideal. I’m really not a huge fan of paying so much, but does it make it better if I use the services attached to it? I’ve used the gps constantly since downloading it and I’d love to be able to look up information on the internet when I’m on a long car trip when B’s driving. Actually we did that once…maybe that added to the bill, too.
I guess I’ll wait to see what my bill is next month…if it’s lower than what I’d pay for the premium plan, I’ll keep going as I do. Otherwise, maybe I’ll switch.
So, in conclusion, argh.
My Vacation
I’m leaving for the beach on Sunday!!! Because of this I’ve saved a few posts that will appear on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of next week, so please come on by and have a good read. When I get back I’ll let you all know how 29 people survived in a 14 bedroom house for a week…especially since I just checked Weather.com and saw that scattered thunderstorms are predicted for EVERYDAY!!!! Ahh! I was planning on sweating off all my alcohol calories in the sun, but now I might have to actually work out in the tiny gym in the house…not drinking will not happen. 
If I don’t update after the vacation is over, you may assume that I drowned.
My Jack’s Still Jacked
Well, B said that he’d call the car repair place and complain for me, so that’s pretty good. Cowardly, yes, but he doesn’t mind doing it and I mind a lot. I know that it won’t change anything, but at least an attempt is being made.
So once I replace the tire change kit and the stupid wheel locks (the lug nut key I ordered does NOT work) I’ll have paid around $200. And I still have to get the car inspected…since I’m doing it for two years instead of one, it’ll run me around $79. I just paid my car insurance up for the next six months, too, which means that I don’t have a lot of cash to spare.
Unfortunately, today is the birthday of one of my pals. She didn’t invite me directly to dinner and a showing of Dark Knight, but did through my best friend, R. I told R on Wednesday that I wasn’t sure if I could make it to the movie and that I definitely couldn’t make it to the dinner because I’d be at my parents’ house. I also knew that it would be expensive because they’re going out in Ballston (even though food/drinks/movies are cheaper out where we live). I also didn’t want to go by myself, so I thought that maybe I’d go if B could, but he can’t.
So I e-mailed R just now saying that I can’t go and giving the excuse of too much to do before I leave on Sunday morning for the beach (true) and the money thing. It’s just that she always gets on me about being lame and poor or for not being around. I haven’t been around this summer on weekends, but I still see her and her husband about once a week (except when they were on vacation themselves). So I think that I see them enough. We haven’t gone out as a big group in a long time, though…well…THEY have. There have been times when I heard later about them going out on double dates with the birthday girl and her fiance, though they never invited B and I. I figure that this is because B is hardly ever available on Friday nights, and they assume that I’m with him or something.
She sometimes complains that I’m crapping out on them, even when I never agreed to go somewhere, so that’s another thing I’m concerned about having cast up to me when she responds to my e-mail. For all I know, I’m worried for no reason–she might just respond saying that she understands and they’ll see me soon. I get the feeling that I’ll get a snarky response along the lines of, “Fine. We just won’t invite you to do things anymore since you’re too busy for your friends and can’t afford $10 for a movie.”
Of course it’s not just the movie. It’s the movie, the parking, the food, the gas it takes to get there, etc. And it’s just not a good night for me. If they wanted to do it last night, I might have overlooked the money thing (out of guilt) just to show that I CAN show up to things.
I’m going to enjoy being at the beach where there will hopefully be less drama.
My Jack’s Been Jacked
I have to get my car inspected and the emissions testing done by the end of this month, so I went yesterday to take care of it. The guy asked me about my wheel lock…which I apparently don’t have. Last week at Jiffy Lube the guys couldn’t rotate my tires because the lugnut key was missing. They couldn’t get my tires off. This also means that if I got a flat, I’d be sitting on the side of the road for quite sometime.
So I bit the bullet and ordered one online that I’m hoping like heck will fit. Anyway, it’s supposed to arrive by tomorrow afternoon. Well, I couldn’t get my inspection done yesterday because they need to be able to remove the tires. When the guy went to look in the back of my car to see if he could find the lugnut key, he told me that my jack was missing.
Yup. The jack AND the lugnut key are missing and I KNOW that they were both there a year ago when my car was inspected last time. Ugh. I can NOT drive over anything sketchy or get into any accidents! So I’m a bit screwed. My dad suggested calling the place where I had my car worked on back in March to see if they could help me out. We’re assuming that they were taken from there.
I don’t wanna. I don’t want to be an adult and take care of this. I’m not assertive enough so the end result of me calling will still be the same: that I have to buy a new jack and a new lugnut key if this one I ordered doesn’t work. If it doesn’t, then I’m going to have to pay the guys at the tire place to remove the locks and switch them with studs, something that they estimated would cost around $90.
It’s completely cowardly of me, I know, to try to avoid taking care of this, AND a waste of my money. Ugh. Super duper suckage. I don’t know what I’m going to do.
