Money Matters
jtmh2012
mod
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Nickel and dimed?
Not sure if I can start this off without it coming off as too whiney, but since it's been quiet here, I thought I'd try to see if I could generate some activity.....:)
Sometimes it's not the one big expense that gets you, but the death by a thousand cuts.....
So where do you feel like you're being "cut"?
Re: Nickel and dimed?
Ok, so here's my "whine"......
Wife and I took a trip up to DC yesterday to renew her foreign passport. Not sure how many are familiar with the DC area, but they now have these flexible HOT lanes. If you have less than 3 people in the car, you can pay a toll to use them. 3 or more and you get a free pass, but only if you have a special flex transponder which we don't have.
I've looked into getting one off and on, but with where we live, we don't really have a use for it. There's a couple toll roads here, but they don't go anywhere that we need to go and none of them have the HOT lanes on them. I can get a flex transponder, but if you don't use it once every six months, they force you to trade it in for a normal transponder or pay a one time $10 fee. Yeah, I know it's not much, but it's the principle of the matter. Also found out that if you don't incur a toll within I think a year they'll close your account. Yeah, don't feel like running down the toll road just so you can charge my account.
Which kinda brings me to my death by a thousand cuts.....I've noticed that there seems to be a growing trend to having to keep funds on accounts. The ezpass mentioned above keeps a minimum account balance even if you attach it to a credit card. You can never spend this money as it'll automatically reload. And Starbucks does a similar thing (without the mandatory balance), but if you want to use the reward points, you have to pay with their card requiring periodically loading the card with funds. Other companies seem to be following the trend.
Sorry for the vent. In a mood this morning......:)
I'm glad airfare moved to that more transparent pricing, it is much easier to compare now.
I'm in charge of the phone family plan for 5 total people, divided 4 ways and with phone numbers from 3 states. I'm not even bothering trying to figure out each person's exact charges. Dividing and rounding is good enough.
The ezpass thing gets me for sure- I travel 2-4 times/month for work (about 150 mile round trip) and the tolls are $3.80. Whenever my ez-pass gets below $10, they auto load $25 to it... but my max trip has been $3.80 for 4+ years with ez pass.
One other thing is stuff for DD#2's day care- we spend over $1,000/month for pre-k and wrap around day care for a 4.5 year old. They come to us for party food/supplies, field trip expenses, dance lessons, etc.- all of those add up. I just keep telling myself 4 more payments and we'll be done.
My solution is to buy tickets in advance to spread out costs or try to buy passes if the money works out. My absolute favorite thing about Paris was the museum pass - it covered nearly everything we wanted to visit, so I didn't feel nickled and dimed while we were there. We got to skip lines, return to places that needed more time (Louvre), etc. Sounds weird, but it made me feel like I was actually on vacation a la all-inclusive, and that was pretty sweet.
I also feel nickled and dimed with respect to charity events. I know that sounds bad, but I attend a lot of them because my firm and my H's firm sponsors them and are always trying to fill tables. We have no kids, and H owns a tux, so we get tapped for these kinds of things a lot. About half the time I end up renting a dress because we see the same people all the time. Then we get there and things like parking/uber, drink tickets, silent auctions, etc. add up. We don't donate separately until we have vetted the organization, but even without an independent donation I feel like it's $50/pop each time. I have attended a charity fundraiser each week for the last three weeks. It adds up.
My irritation is this electronic tolling is essentially being forced these days. Most new toll roads don't even have a booth. So if you don't have a transponder, you get billed more for not having it. And to get one, you have to pay for it. So you force me to buy something so I can pay you, but oh yeah, I don't really own it.
I also hate the nickel and diming. Generally speaking, I'd much rather pay a little more and have typical stuff included.
Fast food restaurants in downtown areas are notorious for doing that. I cancelled my order and walked out of a downtown McD because they were going to charge extra for even one dipping sauce. It wasn't even the money, it just pissed me off, because it's so out of the norm.
I went to the Harrah's food court in Atlantic City and went to a pretzel place. I got my order and was looking around for mustard. I asked them where it was and they told me mustard was extra. Plain mustard was extra...at a pretzel place. I have never in my life seen or heard of anything like that.
Some airlines are starting to get crazy with extra fees for every little thing. Bought the cheapest ticket? Now there might be a fee for your carry on. Oh, are you specifying a window or aisle seat? Extra charge for that also.
This discussion is reminding me of the commercial with the little girl who has a lemonade stand that says, "$1". A guy walking his dog swings by and orders a lemonade and she tells him it will be $2.37. He questions it, because her sign says $1. She whips out his "bill" that itemizes the add-on fees for his lemonade My favorite is the "standing on my lawn" fee.
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I think that was the biggest shock to me when we went to Europe. I mean I knew about it ahead of time, but really? My wife is from Thailand and it's the same thing there in some places.
Our McDonald's aren't that bad, but they're close. Not sure what the formula is, but if you request more sauces than they think you should need for your order, they charge for it.
Airlines get me too. Ok, I get the new bottom barrel fares. I just don't book those. But a regular ticket should include at least one checked bag. Like seriously, how many people fly and don't have at least one checked bag? Apparently, you only need luggage if you're traveling internationally.
I hate searching for airfare now with a toddler. Those cheap don't include a seat fares keep popping up. Like I'm sorry, at least one of us needs to sit with him.
I'm going to have to go find that commercial......
NOLA is currently in full Mardi Gras swing and people largely have to pay to pee here also, lol. The city does provide a lot of free porta-potties, but they are only in a few prime places. And, unless its early in the day, they can be horrifying. I'd rather pay $5-$10 to use a restaurant or church's bathroom.
There are businesses/churches along the routes that will either charge you "per use" or sell you an all-day wristband. Seriously, lol. An all-day wristband to use their bathroom.
There are some "entrepeneurs" who live on the parade route, or stake out a spot, that will rent a porta-pottie and then charge for use.
My personal spot I watch parades is near the Harrahs casino. They have clean, free bathrooms. And, as long as you are over 21, they don't side-eye you when you walk in/out throughout the day either.
But I'm assuming you're talking about public toilets on the street that cost? Even we don't have that here.
jtmh2012, I fly all the time without a checked bag! It is much less frequent that I check a bag, actually.
I actually like the paid bathroom system over there. It's usually $0.20-$0.50 and they are so much cleaner/nicer than free bathrooms. Some of them have attendants that clean in between "visitors." I kind of wish we would adopt that here because gas station/fast food restaurant bathrooms skeeze me out.
I know it sounds stupid, but don't tell me it's $25/ticket + $10 processing fee. Just charge me the $28.33 for the stupid ticket. Not asking for it to be free. Just asking for it to be upfront.
I don't expect airlines to transfer my luggage for free either. But don't sell me a $200 ticket and then charge me $25 for my bag when I show up. Sell me the ticket for $225 if that's what you need to do.
Must be nice to be able to fly without a checked bag. There's no way I could manage it. But we're usually gone for a week or more at a time and don't want to be doing laundry while we're away nor do I want to spend my vacation time trying to find a store for the stuff I can't take through TSA and the kid supplies that would get left out to make the bag smaller.
I'm a light packer though. I would rather not pay extra so people who haul the kitchen sink can do so for free.
Most airlines have cc's that let you check bags for free. They usually have an annual fee, but if you fly a specific airline often it can be a good deal.
Our movie theater in town converted to one with the big comfy chairs, and reserved seating. Awesome, except for if it's a popular movie, you'll want to reserve online ahead of time so you can reserve some decent seats and guarantee to get 2 next to each other. There's a $3 fee to do that. Very annoying.
And also very much yessss on the tolls. I use the toll road to the airport every week to take H there, so I get below the "threshold" pretty often. I also will use the toll road in bad weather to get to work, so on a week where I have to do both, I get dinged TWICE for $25 because I hit the threshold. Don't even get me started about the tolls themselves. Over by me, the tolls are reasonable, and they take really good care of the roads in bad weather... ie a whole fleet of full size snow removal trucks like CDOT uses etc. Well, on the side over by my office, they charge way more, and they contract out the snow removal to a landscaping company... who I saw using PICKUP trucks to remove snow from the road. It sucks.
I both understand and absolutely despise the new way some airlines are constructing their fees and tickets. I just feel like the baseline costs for these no frills types of seats are not very different from a seat with all the so called "extras" and the airlines are raking in the extra profits hand over fist.
It's funny you mention the $50/week. I noticed one of the signs said $18.95 to what I assumed was a common destination from that entry point. I realize it's variable based on traffic and time of day, but that's like $190/week if you paid that both ways and 5 days a week.
There are other brands, but I like these because the mesh lets clothes breathe.
EDIT: they help compress clothes, keep things organized, and they are stackable so you can pack multiple layers.
I'm always on a rant about utilities where I live, but they are the worst for very expensive fees. Some of which look to me like erroneous, legal scams.
For example, there is a monthly water meter fee. That's the fee for just having a water meter at your property. The "small" meters are $19/month and the "big" meters are $38/month. Yep. Just having a meter at your property. Even if you don't use one drop of water, is $19 or $38/month.
The small/big choice is based on how many water outlets are in that unit. But small meters handle as much water as you want, just fine. It has nothing to do with actual water usage, though the assumption is that more outlets will be more water. For example, my personal duplex is grandfathered with a "small" one, but if I ever cancelled my service and then re-instated it later, they'd bring me a "big" one. And that is all in addition to just...you know...paying for the water a property uses. It's outrageous.