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). **Noticed just yesterday that the hotel never charged our credit card, for our insanely low "advanced purchase" rate.
I called today to verify. Reservation is in the system and they seem surprised I hadn't been charged. BUT, said they would just charge us on checkout. Well, okay then! 
I just wanted to make sure the reservation was still there!
**Tried to make a school lunch deposit - which was an exercise in futility. Did I ever mention that I HATE PayPal??? Ugh. They switched to PayPal, which was a real PITA. I also don't understand why I Couldn't put it ALL on my card. Dh is in the middle of a few sales, and they pulled most of it from the PayPal balance, which was also annoying. Why do I want it on my card? For cash rewards!!!
Stupid PayPal! Which also costs more - of course.
On the flip side, the new system is much nicer, overall. BM really has not been buying much lunch. But it's insanely cheap for the well rounded meals. & he will eat the fruits/veggies. I assume he may be buying more with dh laid up in bed.
**Today I dropped off BM at before-school care. I hadn't really tried it because it meant getting up even earlier to get him all ready and such. BUT, dh hadn't communicated to me that he couldn't take him to school today. So I dropped him off for 15 minutes. IT seemed silly, but there were a lot more people dropping kids off after I. I suppose it's how it will go. It only takes me 10 minutes to drive to work, but allows me to drop him off at school and get to work on time - even just those 10 minutes. I can't drop him off at school until 8:00 otherwise, when I should be at work! Though, during tax season I will probably drop him off closer to 7 once in a while. He's an early bird, so no biggie. & he LOVES it.
**Cable update. So, DISH has finally grown on us, I suppose. Not thrilled with it, but let's face it, it's the cheapest thing out there. WE got a new DVR at some point, which has had a lot less issues. So I have toned down my negativity on Dish.
Anyway, we have had a free trial with Surewest for MONTHS (haven't used it) because they kept insisting we have to try their new DVR when it comes out. We briefly tried the old one, and it sucked. Dh has heard really good things about the new one, so he figured he could wait and try. We hate Dish anyway.
So it's been forever, but the new DVR has finally arrived! Thing is they told him the monthly charge would be $90/month. Something like that. Just for TV!
Ugh. I told dh that since DISH was $65 - taxes and all - that I wasn't really happy about this. I pretty much said - if you want the TV that bad, then we need to get a slower internet speed. HEck - that is just a promotional rate, though I presume so is our DISH rate.
The thing is, Dish is far more expensive than our old cable company (which was bought out by Comcast). I suppose I should just appreciate that we had such dirt cheap cable for so many years. *sigh*
Honetly, whenever I read that you have to cut out things like cable, to be debt free... I just roll my eyes. I often think cable gets a really bad rap. To us, it has always been cheap entertainment (compared to say - going to the movies???). & for dh - it's just a priority for him. Though when we were broke, we never wasted our money on cable. I just don't see why it is so bad to put less than 1% of our income to cable, as we have more means, etc. (Even dh would never pay for cable if he were in debt).
BUT. IF these are the going rates for mid-range cable? I suppose I *get* the sentiment a little more. I Wasn't quite aware in my "mom and pop cable" bubble.
I will probably let it be while dh has surgery and everything. But we will have some serious talks about this in the near future. I tried to get dh to consider dropping the gardener when we signed up for the super high speed internet. I kind of feel like something can give.
On the flip side, LM will be done with preschool in just a few months. & another $50 to internet/cable, still means a big bump in our overall savings. So, will see. I suppose I just want to make sure dh REALLY Wants this and there is really nothing else that can give. & he is going to have to realize that it will be a long time before I let him upgrade this stuff, again!
For now dh told me, that he agrees it is insane, so he is just hoping he hates it. But he has to TRY it!!! I suppose if it is far superior to Dish, that I could maybe talk him into cutting the internet bill a bit. Will see! But yeah - it better be REALLY GOOD!
Quick Updates
January 13th, 2010 at 05:52 pm
January 13th, 2010 at 06:49 pm 1263408588
January 14th, 2010 at 05:09 am 1263445785
Not saying I disagree with you about cable, but if you are drowning fiscally, some monthly cost has to be gotten cheaper or cut entirely. Focus on what is important to one, let the rest go. It could be cable, it could be cell, it could even be the car (first or second) or even life insurance. I think what happens is the immediate "I can't" - everything is important. As if there's a secret technique for keeping it together.
January 14th, 2010 at 05:52 pm 1263491521
We are just very reluctant to raise our expenses, willy nilly. Usually we wait until we get a raise, and then decide to add some luxury we long awaited. Which I suppose is sort of happening this year (or might happen - real raise possible this week). It's just kind of backwards, and though fine for one time, is not a habit I want to get into. (OR maybe the internet AND cable upgrade feels a bit *wrong* all at once).
I just think it is a good idea to sit down and see if there is anything we can cut to allow for these. BEcause, that's how we do these things! But dh's brain goes out the window when it comes to TV! But I can usually talk some common sense into him.