Just a 46-year-old mom of 2 in Northern California. My kids are Monkey Monkey(MM) and Drama Llama (DL). I am married to Monkey Hubby (MH). **I pulled off a $152 cash bonus with the Capital One Bonus today. Woohoo! That was $152 for about 5 minutes worth of work. (I usually don't pay much attention to bank sign up bonuses, because WAY too many hoops to jump through. But, *this* was about as simple as it gets).
In 30 days I can transfer the money back to my checking account and will no doubt close the account. Though the interest rate is very slightly better than my credit union savings account, is not enough to warrant the increased risk of bank failure, nor the pain of dealing with a "big bank" (which I mostly boycott, except to take their bonuses). So, I will pass.
Oh, I did read some of the fine print on the checking account bonus, and decided to pass. Though I could come up with 5 checks to deposit this month (I am expecting 5 checks), the amount I could transfer out was pretty much "subject to the will of Capital One on whatever given day." So yeah, screw that. I could work around it, but the hassle factor was getting to be WAY too much.
**While in "bonus raining down" mode, I almost pulled the trigger on some credit card sign ups. $400 for the Chase Sapphire really is not bad. BUT, it was recently $500, and I could just see it going back to $500 the minute after I applied. I am going to wait that one out a bit... I also have my eye on the American Express Gold card (neither of us have had for maybe 2+ years). So, these are all double dips that were recently $500/each. I am hoping to get $500 x 3 on these deals. (I already double dipped the Chase, so that one is just for dh).
Waiting and being greedy may fail me. Time will tell...
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**Surviving the heat. IT's getting easier as we get more used to it. 2 more days and nights of this...
Oh, and our AC faltered, but kind of sort of in a good way. We have a dual-zone system in our house, but it stopped working today. The downstairs AC was cooling the whole house. I really thought the kids had turned it on upstairs, until dh explained to me it wasn't working. Is probably working too hard, and murder on our electric bill. BUT, of all the problems to have... We won't bother to get it fixed until it gets WAY cooler. (In fact, I just hope it resets itself tonight once we turn it all off. I can hope).
I have just been crossing fingers that AC powers through, and that electricity stays on. I have heard endless horror stories about $$$$ emergency AC fixing; neighbors and friends. I don't remember ever working our own AC quite this hard. !!
{If our thermostat is the problem, seems it would be pretty easy to fix. Heck, if it keeps doing that tomorrow, we might try to self diagnose the problem. I do really think something crossed and when we turn it all off it will just reset}.
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**Speaking of fixing things...
We got our garbage disposal changed out. Man, what a NIGHTMARE.
I learned some, and invested in some better tools, but I mostly remembered why we don't "DIY." Of course, I expected that to be on the easier side of things, which was the only reason we even bothered the DIY route. (I should have taken up neighbor's offer to do it for free - doh).
I suppose it's good we got that changed out. Because the garbage disposal stopped leaking, but a worse leak (or at least a more awkward/harder to keep dry leak) has developed.
My dad told me it had probably been leaking for a while (masked by the disposal) and that his experience is changing out water faucets every 8-ish years due to the hard water. (This is Mr. "Keep Everything FOREVER"). Gah! Well, the faucet is 12 years old, so I suppose it is about time then. I've been saving to replace all of our (12-year-old) appliances, but I can't say "sink fixtures" was on my list. (Nor would I expect it to be so costly, but my dad may have been quoting "high cost of living" labor factoring how long the same job took with his inexperience. Let us just hope).
Today I found a plumber online, and dh said the leak is getting worse, so he will take care of that, hopefully this week. Will just see what they think the problem is, and go from there. I trust my dad more than any stranger, BUT, am curious to the professional opinion. & if they say that's it, well, I have a good idea that is the problem. (But maybe it will be something simpler?)
It did occur to me that today's bank bonus would at least pay for a fixture replacement (the parts). I'd sure like a nice credit card bonus to cover the labor. That is my other motivation for finding some bonuses. But yeah, I don't really think it will cost as much as my dad thinks it would. We will see.
This & That
July 3rd, 2013 at 03:59 am
July 3rd, 2013 at 12:41 pm 1372855289
July 3rd, 2013 at 01:05 pm 1372856744
I'm not a DIY-er either. I feel that in the long run, you're better off hiring professionals. I've had to fix too many DIY projects I inherited from previous owners.
July 3rd, 2013 at 02:30 pm 1372861849
July 4th, 2013 at 05:53 pm 1372960387
I am in Financial Services too. I passed CPA exam in 2003 but I don't do public work. I am currently studying for CIA certified internal audit exam, passed Part I, failed Part III last week which made me quite upset because I made a 90% on Gleim practice exam just 3 days prior to taking exam. Test was rigged in my opinion, no doubt about it.
July 4th, 2013 at 09:15 pm 1372972527
July 5th, 2013 at 02:34 pm 1373034847
But I am still curious what his suggestions might be? Usually when we run the downstairs zone (one AC) there is no cold air - nothing of notice - upstairs. Lately it has been coming through, not full force, but lots of cold air blowing through the vents. Moreso in one room than others.
The last couple of days was not as much. Like, it was 78 in our upstairs bedroom a few days ago (when we first noticed this), but subsequently it has been 83 (when usually it would be 85-ish). IT doesn't seem to be anything major at this point. IT might have fixed itself. But if it's a worrisome sign at all I'd want to get it fixed. As is, we are feeling kind of "meh" about it. Google has only taught me that these systems never worked very well. Maybe we should just be grateful it worked so well the first 12 years. (Have never had any issues, I am sure it has saved us a ton of energy as we never cool the whole house at once. Just downstairs during day and then we cool off the upstairs before bed).
July 12th, 2013 at 02:39 am 1373596789
When you turn on the upstairs stat only (turn the other OFF completely) and crank the AC do you get cold air then?