Navigating life and finances
Inspired by blogger One Family One Income.
Compared to a lot of people, I’m not a huge online shopper, or at least not when it comes to grocery items. When I’ve thought ahead, I have purchased dog food from Walmart as I love that it comes right to my door and I also save a little via going through Swagbucks. For my dogs, their food is very much a grocery item! Walmart also happens to be the cheapest store to purchase their food. [Read more…]
How I felt seeing my Mac working again!
My Mac computer was returned to me today! I must say that I am impressed by Apple’s service. One of their techs called me yesterday and although they couldn’t duplicate the issue I originally had, they thought it was most likely an issue with the operating system. It was exactly one week ago today that my technology world felt like it came crashing down. Pretty impressive to have it sent out, worked on, and returned back to me in just one week. Now other than needing to update all my passwords, all seems to be well. [Read more…]
October is now here, and here at A Dime at a Time, we have officially hit what I refer to as our season of financial famine. While thankfully Hub’s income remains healthy, what I now bring home is anything but that. In all reality, the income from my seasonal position wasn’t all that great, but at least it was something! [Read more…]
Choosing to look past the negative and focus on the positive. September was a tough, tough month. Between the costly phone issues with Straight Talk (and then needing to buy a second phone), uber expensive vehicle repairs, balance transfer fees, $195 chimney cleaning/inspection, and finally my 11-month-old Mac crapping out, just keeping our heads above water was a challenge. So how did we do? [Read more…]
Completing my day with not one, but two paperweights.My nightmare service with Walmart’s Straight Talk cell phone service has continued. Yes, even after receiving a replacement SIM card. Ugh! Over three hours on the phone with four different reps, and the problem remained. No, sadly that was not a typo. The last instructions I received were to do a factory reset. Sure, why not? At that point, I felt I had nothing more to lose. To me, the phone was nothing more than an expensive paperweight. [Read more…]
You win some; you lose some. No, I haven’t lost my position. What I did however lose was several hours of anticipated pay. With the canceling of the final event of the season, the focus will now be on closing things down. At best, for me, this probably amounts to only a few hours of filing, checking the mail, and the updating of a report I created earlier this month. [Read more…]
No Internet made for a productive day, but wow, did I ever feel disconnected!Only a few hours after publishing Friday’s post, my Internet went down. Based on the storm we had, it was surprising that was all that went down. Our lights flickered a few times, but thankfully we never lost power. Not much our provider could do as it was the transmitters that had no power. It was pretty much a matter of waiting for the power company to make their repairs. [Read more…]
Not that I really needed another reason! How in the world does a $1,500 balance transfer (with a zero percent interest rate) go from $1,545 (including the 3% transfer fee) to $1,547.53? Well, according to the first representative I spoke with, the interest charged is for the $45 transfer fee. And so my day began. [Read more…]
Two more irregular bills to add to our sinking funds.Today we had our wood stove inspected and cleaned. Having this done is a yearly expense and is also something we cannot do ourselves. We have a vaulted ceiling not only in our living room but also on our second-floor level. These ceilings make for a very steep and high roof and not one that I want either one of us to climb. I’m not sure why (and I’m not complaining!) but this year the bill came in at $195 which was $30 less than what we paid last year. While I didn’t like writing the check, chimney safety is paramount, especially given that the wood stove is our primary heat source during our long Winters. The cost involved is also worth it opposed to potentially breaking who knows what if we were to fall off the roof. [Read more…]
Still searching…sigh.No, I am not still searching for a provider, my provider can’t seem to find service and make a connection. Grr. As I mentioned in a previous post, I made the switch (not by choice) to another phone provider. In trying to be frugal, I went with Walmart’s Straight Service. BIG mistake. [Read more…]