On Friday night, I heard a high pitched squeal and about 15 minutes later the refreshingly sweet aroma of burning rubber wafted through the house. The belt on the washer has broken. Again.
Since it's after 10 on Friday night, this means at least 3 days without a washer while I arrange for service, tell them the belt is broken, they come out, confirm that the belt is broken, tell me they need to order one because they didn't bring one with them and come back 2 days later (while I'm taking another day off work) to replace the belt. I can hardly wait. I called the home warranty company we use to schedule a repairman, and found out from an exceptionally rude customer service rep that they had the wrong expiration number for the credit card on my contract and so my warranty wasn't in effect and would I please go ahead and authorize a $600 charge? Um... no.
So I found a local repair company and they came out Monday morning and for only $64 told me that I needed a new belt and pump, at the discount price of only $300. For that, I might as well just go buy a brand new washer, much as I hate to have thrown away the $200 we dropped 6 years ago on our Amana dent and ding special. Son, happy birthday, you get a new washer! (No actually I took him to Game Stop and he got a new Playstation and DS game)
We found one at Lowe's, a Whirlpool WTW5500SQ Top Load Washer that we got for 10% off a reasonable $440 with free delivery and disposal. I was torn between paying that or the $499 for the 5700 but decided to go midline. Now I've been home and checked out the reviews, it looks like I'll either love it or completely hate it. Kind of wish I'd paid the extra $50 and gotten the more expensive one that everyone loves. It's not set to deliver until Wednesday, so maybe I'll call Lowe's tomorrow and see if they can change it.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Wake Up!
A few months ago I bought Quicken 2007 as an upgrade to my previous 2002 version so I could connect to my bank and do online updates. It didn't really work so well with my file created in 2000 and eventually I just had a big mess of uncompleted, improperly categorized transactions that told me what my balance was - sometimes.
I got disgusted enough with the situation that I decided to spend a day and set up a new file in 2007 with our last 3 months of financial data that I can get from WAMU online. So glad I did!
I found out how to use features I didn't know the program had and using them finally discovered why we never seem to have enough money. We're paying $1000 a month for debt. It's a lot of debt, I'll grant you, over $20K from J's 3 year period of self employment (paid down from $30K in January when he got a new job) but it's the 29% interest rate that's really killing us.
One of Quicken's other features is an ability to download information on your investment accounts, including retirement accounts. I'm not 30 yet, so I barely even glance at statements that come my way from the account managers, but I'm not able to ignore $25K so easily.
After a little research I found that I can take a loan on half of the balance in the account at a very reasonable 5% interest that is paid back to my account. $12K will go a long way to getting revolving debt paid off much sooner than our previously anticipated 2011 goal. Now we're looking at late 2009. Assuming credit ratings can be resolved, now that all our valid collection accounts have been paid off, that new, more fuel efficient vehicle is on its way!
I got disgusted enough with the situation that I decided to spend a day and set up a new file in 2007 with our last 3 months of financial data that I can get from WAMU online. So glad I did!
I found out how to use features I didn't know the program had and using them finally discovered why we never seem to have enough money. We're paying $1000 a month for debt. It's a lot of debt, I'll grant you, over $20K from J's 3 year period of self employment (paid down from $30K in January when he got a new job) but it's the 29% interest rate that's really killing us.
One of Quicken's other features is an ability to download information on your investment accounts, including retirement accounts. I'm not 30 yet, so I barely even glance at statements that come my way from the account managers, but I'm not able to ignore $25K so easily.
After a little research I found that I can take a loan on half of the balance in the account at a very reasonable 5% interest that is paid back to my account. $12K will go a long way to getting revolving debt paid off much sooner than our previously anticipated 2011 goal. Now we're looking at late 2009. Assuming credit ratings can be resolved, now that all our valid collection accounts have been paid off, that new, more fuel efficient vehicle is on its way!
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Giving up on cleaning
I've finally recognized defeat (at least temporary anyway) and set the flylady yahoo group to stop sending me emails. If nothing else it was filling up my gmail account so I didn't see other stuff, and besides I haven't had the time or energy to actually do anything with it in months. I was hoping it would be a motivator to declutter the house, but it ended up just contributing to the clutter in my inbox... Oh well, maybe another time.
Ooooh, shiney
Courtesy of Engadget
Guitar Hero: On Tour technically went on sale on Sunday, but who launches a game on Sunday? Anyway, the DS version of the rocker franchise is now available, goofy Guitar Grip accessory included, for just $49 of your hard-fought dollars. Reviews of the control system have been pretty positive so far, and the game itself looks like it's a solidly fun time -- even if that insanely bad promo video had us convinced otherwise for a while. Rockers -- to arms!
http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/24/guitar-hero-on-tour-for-the-ds-now-on-sale/
Guitar Hero: On Tour technically went on sale on Sunday, but who launches a game on Sunday? Anyway, the DS version of the rocker franchise is now available, goofy Guitar Grip accessory included, for just $49 of your hard-fought dollars. Reviews of the control system have been pretty positive so far, and the game itself looks like it's a solidly fun time -- even if that insanely bad promo video had us convinced otherwise for a while. Rockers -- to arms!
http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/24/guitar-hero-on-tour-for-the-ds-now-on-sale/
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