Mental rolodex

In Virginia, while most of our taxes are low (relative to other places, that is) we pay a wonderful thing called a car-tax. They have a formal name for it, but basically we pay our county money each year for the "privilege" of parking our car here. Never mind that WE don't park our car (now cars) on county streets since we live in a development with reserved off-street parking.

For years we paid this tax in the fall. Wasn't sure when we paid it, but was almost sure we paid in the fall. Mind you, the tax is based on the value of the car. But as of today, we hadn't received a notice or the more-important sticker to place on the car saying we had paid the silly tax. I had a few spare minutes while our son slept so I called and actually got human voices. Turns out, our notice was mailed the first week in August AND its due Oct. 3!

Good thing I called.

In Virginia they will ticket the heck out of you without that sticker, despite the fact that our 2002 Ford Focus is now only costing us $50 (I shudder to think what the new car will cost). Sadly I learned the ticketing lesson the hard way when we first moved here.

The point of this post is simple. If you have standard bills, try to remember when you think they are due. I am not talking about the bills we have each month. I am talking about assessments, annual premiums, etc. You will likely pay them the same time each year. Mark on a calendar or set up automatic alerts in your Outlook. By doing this you avoid late fees, penalties...or worse, tickets. Heaven knows we don't need to give the states more money than we already do.

A Birthday Story...so to speak

I figure today is the best time to explain the story of the Blue Patched Couch. Why? Since most will likely be reading on Sept 30, and that is the birthday of our good friend Amber (who is the original owner of the couch), it just fits.

When my husband and I were just dating, we went through the standard "meet the friends" routine. This can be a dicey dance. If it goes bad, no matter how late into the courtship, it can be problematic. I believe with all my heart that even if my husband were never in the picture, Amber and Eric (her husband) would be my good friends. I have often joked, half-kidding and half-serious, that I had more trouble adjusting to Amber's move out of town (which horribly coincided with my roommate Kerry's move out of town) than I did to married life. I still miss them both terribly.

In the apartment I shared with Kerry we had what had to be the ugliest, least comfortable sleeper sofa on the planet. It was, not surprisingly, a hand me down. It was in excellent condition when we got it, but it really looked like what you might describe a migrane or nausea if you needed color coding. It was that bad.

As Amber got to know me, and by default my roommates, we all became fast friends. When Amber & Eric bought new furniture for their apartment, they offered to give us the old one, along with a matching love seat and a futon. The couch and love seat were blue with yellow check boxes. A nice comfy couch from Ikea, gently worn. No holes. No smells. Perfect for sleeping on, even if it wasn't a sofa bed.

That gift was six years ago.

Since then it has moved twice. I have patched three rips, and there are two more that are ready for work. My son has slept on it probably as much as I have. We have spilled every food and drink imaginable on it. It is wonderful. I love this couch. I slept on it a few weeks ago when the fog horn (read: my husband's snoring) went off full throttle. Even if we win Powerball, we will never part with this couch, its that comfortable!

If it weren't for Amber & Eric's generosity, we would likely still have the god-awful-ugly couch (the main theme was gold). Admittedly, Amber (and Eric) are two of kind. She co-hosted my baby shower. They put us on "scholarship" in Vegas and flew us to visit them in their new city. Since their initial move away in 2004, one could argue they have moved again ...(and again, and again, and again). But no matter how far apart we are, we see that couch and think of them.

The money saving tip from this is two-fold. 1) Find good friends who will literally share everything they have with you. If that's not possible, 2) scour Craigslist or freecycle.org, you are bound to find free items that you need, that others are willing to part with.

Happy Birthday Amber, we miss ya!

No Ironing, and no cost dry cleaning

I may have to resubscribe to Good Housekeeping, because I have always found them to be useful. I posted about an article from them earlier this month.

This tip I found shortly after we were married. Before anyone yells at me that my husband should do his own laundry, let me say up front I LIKE doing laundry. And I certainly like it a lot more than taking out the trash, cleaning the bathroom tub, doing the dishes, or any of the other multitude of things he does around here, so I am happy to do so.

In his old job he didn't need to wear dress shirts that often. This new one though, every day. Instead of either taking the shirts to be cleaned and pressed, costing at a minimum $1.30/shirt, I clean them as I normally would in the wash, gentle cycle. I dry on low heat so they dry completely but don't shrink. THEN, instead of ironing, I place a damp hand towel in the dryer with them, and depending on how many shirts are in there, put on normal heat anywhere from 10-30 mins. The steam from the towel will iron out the wrinkles and ensure they don't shrink.

The trick is, you can't let the shirts sit. Once the dryer goes off, take and out and IMMEDIATELY hang up. Works everytime, nice neat shirts, and no fuss.

Housekeeping details

Hope you all had a great weekend! We had friends in and the husband fixed our bathroom light fixtures. I guess this does boil down to a money saving tip because I put on Facebook I was looking for some electricionally inclined friends, and my old college roommate responded! The lesson learned, don't be afraid or ashamed to ask friends for help FIRST. This visit would easily have set us back several hundred dollars had we hired someone out. But the best part...we got to see some good friends and my son got some face time with other "little ones" and was thrilled.

You may have noticed the name change on the title page to reflect the web address and the main theme. It was suggested a few weeks back and I toyed with the idea for a bit before making the change. I think it works better and will hopefully be less confusing.

I also changed some of the text and background colors. This was an attempt to make things more readable.

Finally, I added a copyright notice. I welcome everyone and anyone to read and share this content, but all I ask is that proper credit is given...I guess that's the old reporter in me. You gotta site your sources.

Have a great week.

4 months < 24 hours

No, that's not a mistake. My Catholic school nun teachers would not be horrified, that's actually a true statement. We have spent more money in the last 24 hours than we did in the four-plus months we were dually unemployed. And while a fair amount of this money is a good thing, the other fair amount is, well, unbelievably painful. (Warning likely long post...sorry)

Last night we bought a new car! I love it, its Honda CR-V, 2009. It had 17 miles on it. Its not a fancy model, but its a safe model and my son is such a happy monkey in it. It has room galore for us. In my mind I had wanted to pay x a month, and we were able to get 60 months for x+$28. Since it's the most popular car in its class, the chances of the price going much lower are slim. We were able to get the car below sticker price though and the salesperson literally threw in a feature we wanted from one of the nicer models for free -- we had to meet in a mall parking lot though, so she could hand it off out of sight.

The difference in how we were treated from this dealership as opposed to the others is night and day. At no point were we pressured, and the nice saleslady even told us NOT to get the extended (read: expensive) warranty because we really don't need it. Ask me again in a year, but as of right now I would recommend this dealership in a heartbeat.

This afternoon though we got the bad news. The cost to fix our shower, which is desperately needed since when my husband took a shower Thursday morning there was still standing water in the shower when we went to bed, is more than (...wait for it, sit down...) $2500!

Why didn't I get into the plumbing business? Seriously, these guys make money hand over fist for nothing. The first plumber that came out here charged us more than $200 and all he did was tell us something was in the drain (really Sherlock!)

He determined he needed to go through the drywall of our neighbor's apartment to remove the item, but then he would not repair the drywall. We are not Mr & Mrs Villa here, so we certainly can't fix the hole. When he told us this, not sure if it was the lack of coffee or what, but I lost it. I had to excuse myself because I was sobbing in front of a plumber and my neighbor.

I called a different plumber off of a recommended list from one of my list-servs and while I don't like the price, I do like that they are doing everything (from removing the item to patching up my neighbor's drywall) all at once. His original quote was higher, but I was able to get $300 off because my husband will paint the bathroom instead of having the plumber do it.

If our shower issue had developed when we were both unemployed I am not sure how stable I would have been. As it stands our savings, which took a hit while we were both out of work, are now really hurting. We were able to arrange a payment plan which helps, and I know this is something we had to do because the shower could not continue in its condition. But still $2500+!!!! My husband is going to call the insurance company to see if anything in our homeowners policy will cover this. I'll let you know.

Hope you have a great weekend. As for me, I am off to enjoy some nice cheap Trader Joe's wine, while sitting on the couch as my husband watches Yankees-Red Sox.

Updated Master List

To sadly reflect Trader Joe's rising cost of eggs (now $1.19 vs. .99) and Ground Beef from Wegman's. You can find it here.

Practicing What I Preach

Last night my husband and I had a heart and soul conversation. For years I have desperately wanted to take him to New England in the fall where I went to college. I wanted to take him around campus, see the turning leaves and re-introduce him to some of my closest friends who he met for all of five minutes at our wedding. If he got the job, this WAS going to be the year.

Emphasis on was.

We desperately need a new car. I am increasingly less confident driving our son in the one we have, not to mention my husband gets parking at work so it seems like a waste to have him spend money on public transportation when that money could be going toward a car. Our shower plumbing is just atrocious and in about two hours the plumber will come and tell me what the damage is and I shudder to think, since we have been putting this off for years...literally. Finally the wiring in our bathroom has gone up, so we have been showering in the dark for more than a week. This weekend my college roommate and her family (who just moved to the area...yippee!) are coming over so her handy-man husband can help my husband figure out what the problem is, and if we have to shell out even more money to an electrician.

So this morning I wrote a sad email to the two friends we would have crashed with, saying that this year (again) our trip would not work. Between my husband's flight, gas, and at least one night in a hotel, not to mention food, the trip is just too much now. Making hard choices like this is what has allowed us to not be in debt, so I am trying to see the positive. Still, I am very disappointed and hope maybe 2010 will be our year, maybe?