Lesson 1: When Not to DIY

In the past year, we only went out an average of 1-2 times per month to run errands and our garage door therefore got very little exercise. One day last month, when I was leaving for my monthly grocery shopping trip, the door wouldn’t close. I left it to Madoline to figure out, and when I got home I found the door stuck halfway down and slightly slanted, having come un-aligned and with 2 of the upper wheels fallen out of the track on one side. Being confirmed DIY-ers, we tried to see if we could fix it ourselves, which involved me standing on the back of a sofa we had purchased at Goodwill (with the plan of re-upholstering it) and wrestling with the door, but soon decided it was best left to a professional and we made to by putting the wheels back in the tracks to keep the door from sagging and damaging the entire contraption.

Our biological father came to visit last week, and although I told him we needed to call a professional repairman, he thought he could fix it to save us some money. One and a half hours later, the door was more crooked, we had lost 3 more wheels, the tracks had been knocked out of place and the door was literally hanging. Furthermore, I found out after the fact that my father had severely endangered his own life, and even worse, MY LIFE, by unwinding the tension cable. And worst of all, he had damaged the door further so that what might have been some minor repairs became major repair, including replacement of the tension rod.

Lesson 2: The Price of Not Sticking up for Yourself

The only garage door specialist in our area is located about 40-50 miles away and they seemed uninterested in the job as they didn’t want to talk to us over the phone but instead told us to submit a request online, which we did twice (4 weeks apart) but to no avail. Fearing a total collapse resulting in further damage and expense as well as the insecurity of a half-closed garage door, we resorted to local handymen.

I went through the list of handymen in our area, and the first one I reached that wasn’t a voicemail told me he could fix ours for $150. He came over to take a look and said that he couldn’t fix the tension cables, which required specialists, but that he could re-align the door so that we could at least open and close it manually, and he might need to replace a few of the wheels and 2 brackets. He then gave me a quote of $225 for replacing 5 wheels and 2 brackets. So we agreed on 10:00 AM the next morning.

I got up at 9:30 AM the next morning (which wasn’t easy for me because I was up until after 4:00AM working on the computer) in anticipation of the handyman showing up at 10:00, but he didn’t show up until 10:30, using the following excuse: the weather and its effect on one’s desire to sleep in. So he fixed the garage door – replacing 1 wheel and 1 bracket – but told me after that we actually wouldn’t be able to open the door due to the damaged tension rod, which also requires a specialist.

We then had him fix a sprinkler leak in our front yard as well, a job he had agreed to do for $75, after which he gave me a total of $325 for the two jobs. Being somewhat muddle-headed and tired from lack of sleep, and even worse, a pushover (one of my worst traits when dealing with strangers), I wrote him a check for $325 without much argument except for asking, “So the garage door was $250?” to which he, of course, replied “Yes.”

After he left, I couldn’t stop thinking about the whole affair and kicking myself (mentally) for having been such a pushover. The quote of $225 had been for if he would have to replace 5 wheels and 2 brackets. Instead, he only replaced 1 wheel and 1 bracket, and he charged me $25 more than the price he had quoted me. To add insult to injury, we still can’t open or close our garage door as he had promised beforehand. (Not to mention his showing up a 1/2 hour late for having slept in.) If I had argued with him about it, I probably could have paid at least $50 less.

That night, I couldn’t sleep for thinking about all this and decided I would call him up the next day (yesterday) to ask about this and tell him I didn’t think what he did was right. But the next day, the check had already cleared our bank account (he must have driven straight from our house to the bank) and I decided it probably wouldn’t have done much good anyway and the conversation probably would only have aggravated me more. So I decided to just chalk it up to a valuable lesson learned about the price of being spineless. And also to never hire this handyman again.

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Originally posted 2008-05-15 22:10:22.

I participate in a couple of online forums where members have been eagerly discussing the various ways in which they plan to spend their tax rebates this year — $300 for retirees, $600 for most individuals, $1,200 for married couples and $300 for each child per family. While some have spoken of saving it or paying down debts, others have begun dreaming of the things they’re going to buy and planning vacations. Before you book those flights to Italy or start checking out HD TVs, I’d highly recommend that you read an article by Liz Pulliam Weston on MSN Money, “America, don’t blow this rebate.”

The main points covered in the article are:

• Spending Money is Not Your Patriotic Duty
  The U.S. Government is hoping Americans will spend their rebates and give the economy a temporary boost, but you should not consider this your patriotic duty, and instead look to your own finances first.
• Credit card rates are on the Rise
  So if you have credit card debt, this is the time to pay it off rather than put more on it.
• If you are going to buy, buy American
  Buying something made in China or taking a vacation abroad will not be doing your patriotic duty. If you are going to buy something, let it be American made, and if it’s a vacation you’re after, let it be a local or domestic one where the money spent goes to the U.S. economy and not a foreign one.

My suggestion would be to put it all in a high-yield savings account if you don’t have debts to pay off. If there is something you or your family really needs, by all means do what you need to do, but if it’s only something you want then I’d think twice about it first. This could apply to all money and not just this tax rebate.

For more information, I’d highly recommend reading the entire article. And be sure to file your 2007 taxes by April 15th to get on the tax rebate mailing list.

America, don’t blow this rebate by Liz Pulliam Weston

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Originally posted 2008-03-03 17:39:46.

For years, savvy travelers have been booking flights as many as 6 months ahead of time to take advantage of early booking discounts. This year, however, what used to be a smart move could end up costing travelers more money as airlines begin to cut back and cancel flights this fall. According to Airline Cuts Hit Fliers Who Planned Early by Matt Phillips of the Wall Street Journal, many travelers have already been influenced by this situation.

Some of the ways in which these flight cancellations are affecting travelers’ plans and pocketbooks are:

• Disrupting carefully planned schedules and itineraries
• Added hours or days to trips
• Longer hotel stays
• Missed connections (flights, cruises, etc.)
• Required use of more vacation days than planned
• Nonstop flights being broken up (adding layovers)

While the airlines offer to change flights or refund the airfares, they will not cover additional associated expenses.

One example of how some travelers are being affected is a couple planning a wedding and honeymoon this fall. They had booked a flight that arrived in South America in time for them to board a cruise, but their original flight has been canceled, and the flight the airline wanted to put them on arrives a day later – too late for the cruise. The only other option the airline could offer was putting them on a much earlier flight, which disrupts their plans for spending time with family members who are traveling especially to attend their wedding. Not only will the earlier flight cut in on their family time, but it will add several days’ worth of hotel stays while waiting for the cruise’s departure.

Another example is a family planning a trip with small children. To make the trip easier on the young children, the parents had booked a nonstop flight with traveling times suitable for the children. Now their flight has been canceled and the only option the airline can offer is a flight with a connection that arrives late at night, which will be hard on the children.

The airlines say they are doing their best to contact and accommodate all customers being inconvenienced, but many travelers only found out that their flights had been canceled by checking their itineraries online.

If you have booked a flight for after Labor Day 2008

• Go online or call your airline to check your itinerary.
• Don’t wait for the airline to call you. There are a number of reasons they might not call you – a wrong or outdated number or they may have already tried to call once and may not try again, etc. The longer you wait, the harder it will be to work out a solution.

If your flight has been canceled or changed

• Check your contract of carriage for the terms on schedule changes and cancellations. (Don’t expect too much.)
• Contact customer service to ask about your options.
• If they do not offer you a suitable solution, cancel and request a refund.

Remember, they might change your flight for you, but they will not cover added expenses associated with the schedule change, so be sure to go over the rest of your plans for before and after the flight.

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Originally posted 2008-07-07 06:30:29.

Next to the TV, DVD, flushing toilet, hot shower, computer and properly working automatic garage door, the internet is one of the best inventions ever. In fact, living in the desert as I do, I couldn’t get along without the internet. Even with the rising cost of internet service, the number of things it allows me to do makes it totally worth the cost and actually helps me to save money. Here I will share over 30 links to my favorite websites that provide free products or services. I will also include my favorite shopping sites for saving money. (Note: All links open in a new window.)

Productivity

• Check out one of my earlier posts Save Hundreds with Open Source Software for a list of open source applications with short descriptions of their functions and links to the websites for free downloads. These are not free trials but completely free programs that stay free and upgrade for free.
• Google Calendar is a handy online calendar that can send alerts to you by email or pop-up reminders. The program allows you to share your calendar with friends and family who also use Google Calendar so you can coordinate schedules with each other.

Computer Protection

• ZoneAlarm Free Firewall can filter all traffic in and out of your computer. The most secure setting will warn you of even legitimate access to the internet and of every attempt by a program installed on your computer to access the internet to check for updates, etc.
• ZoneAlarm Spy Blocker Toolbar protects you from spyware while surfing the net.
• McAfee SiteAdvisor warns you of bad sites and has profiles for each tested site with details on downloads, spam email count, and user reviews. It also shows the safety rating for web search results with a small icon next to each link: green for safe, red for unsafe, yellow for caution, and gray for untested (you can submit a test request for gray sites).
  

Communication

• Skype allows you to make free computer to computer video and voice calls, and calls to phones for a small charge. We use the free computer to computer calls to talk to our overseas relatives
• If you use Hotmail, you can also use Windows Live Messenger for voice and video chat sessions with your contacts. You can also send mobile text messages to contacts in your address book.
• Gmail is my favorite free web based email program because, not only does it give you ever increasing storage (6.76 GBs as of this writing and counting), but it lets you forward your email to a desktop email client such as Outlook or Thunderbird. If you access your mail online, it has a nice filtering tool to help you sort your mail and also has a built in chat program, Google Talk, that allows you to chat with your online contacts without having to download anything.

Entertainment

• Hulu has an ever growing collection of new and old television programs and movies which you can watch for free online with a very reasonable amount of advertisements. The commercial breaks are shorter than you would have to sit through (15 or 30 secs) when watching a show on TV. For some newer shows, only the last 5 or 6 episodes are available, but there are also full seasons and full series of episodes for some shows.
• Network channels all have websites that let you watch the last 5 or 6 episodes of their current shows online. Here is a list of links to the home pages:
  • NBC
  • ABC
  • FOX
  • ABC Family
  • Sci Fi
• SHOUTcast is a free internet radio site that has a large selection of genres and stations and good sound quality.
• Joost is a player that allows you to watch thousands of TV shows and movies on your computer.

Reference