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May 13, 2010, at 6:00 am If you're new to BFS, please subscribe to my RSS feed. It shows me a vote of support and keeps me motivated to keep your attention. If you have any questions or comments for me, please contact me and I'll get back to you asap. Thanks for visiting! I read Frugal Scholar’s post, Virgin Mobile: Worst Customer Service Ever: Move Over Chico’s, and thought this would be a great time to bring up the companies I truly despise and the ones that I sincerely appreciate.
Crappy Companies:
- Fedex – My most recent experience has convinced me to avoid them as much as possible in the future. There will be a post about it as soon as everything is wrapped up.
- Comcast – Multiple awful customer service experiences regarding glitchy hardware after Time Warner was bought out by Comcast caused us to move to AT&T U-Verse.
- General Motors – As I posted earlier this week, I will never give Chevy my money again after the multiple problems due to poor materials on my Aveo in the last 6 months even though it has less than 42,000 miles.
- Chase – When we were moved over from WAMU, Chase double-charged our $900 mortgage payment and took a little more than 3 weeks to credit it back to our account. We actually received the credit exactly 5 days before our next mortgage payment was due.
- Gentle Dental – Wiggled while they gave me the shot for pain (that hurt ALOT) and then kept accidentally spraying me in the face since the doctor and assistant were too busy talking to each other to notice.
Front-Running Favorites
- ING Direct – Unknown to me, ING accidentally paid a bill 3 days before my scheduled billing date last year, called me to explain their mistake as soon as they notices their error, offered to waive any overdraft fees that might occur (not a problem since we have $1000 padding built-in to our checking accounts), and credited my account with the lost interest. I was most impressed by the actual call explaining the mistake mere hours after they found out.
- Discover Card – Two businesses have accidentally double-charged my card and Discover was easy to use online and over the phone.
- AT&T U-Verse – I called to extend my discount rate since my salary had been frozen for another year, but they had already extended it an extra 2 months. The rep also secured me an additional $10 one-time discount just because I called and “AT&T is trying to help out customers that are suffering in this economic climate”. The icing on the cake is that the next bills were actually for the stated amounts and continue to be correct! That never happened when Comcast offered us a credit.
What companies have lost or earned your continued business?
May 12, 2010, at 6:00 am
I covered the main ways of diagnosing your financial health in this past post. I’ve been using Wednesdays to go further in depth on each point since I truly believe that financial health leads to less stress and happier lives. I have already covered the first four points - Spend Less Than You Earn, start an Emergency Fund, review Retirement Savings, and Debt. The fifth point was to diversify your investments. This means making a list of your investments and the amount invested in each one. Type of Accounts First, I’d highly suggest investing in different types of accounts. For example, compound interest in a 401k is taxable when you start making your retirement withdrawals since you contribute pre-tax income. The compound interest of a Roth IRA is not taxable since you contribute post-tax money. By investing in taxable and non-taxable accounts for retirement, you can balance your withdrawals to stay in the lowest tax bracket possible in your later years. We invest in a 401k and a Roth IRA (hopefully two soon) in order to cover our retirement years along with my husband’s pension. We also make investments in individual stocks in a Scottrade account to cover the years between our target retirement age of 52 and our “normal retirement age”. By diversifying accounts, I hope we have our retirement bases covered. Type of Investments The second really important part of diversification is to make sure that you aren’t too heavily invested in any one company. CNN Money and countless blogs suggest never investing more than 10% in any one company/stock. I agree with never putting all your eggs in one basket, so this seems like fantastic advice. Honestly, do you want your retirement on the line if a company doesn’t do as well as expected or crashes completely? We are invested in about 15 different individual stocks in our Scottrade account right now. We are currently breaking the 10% rule for Johnson and Johnson and Pepsi since their prices had crashed low enough to really gorge, but a combination of investing more elsewhere and selling some for profit will rectify this situation within the next year. The 401k and Roth IRA are in separate target date mutual funds that are spread out through a ton of domestic and foreign stocks and a few bonds. We’re in our mid-late 20′s, so our retirement accounts are heavily invested in equities. As we near retirement, our investments will be moved to less risky categories since we want our money to be safely waiting for us down the road. By diversifying in as many categories as possible, all of your money as a whole will be safer in general. Are you safely diversified? Or are you in a similar Pepsi or J&J-loving position as us?
May 11, 2010, at 6:00 am
After reading other blogs and seeing the comments left on this post, I realize that my husband and I have a very different food budget than most others in the personal finance world. That spurred me to come clean.
Here’s where our food money has gone in 2010:
1. Kroger’s – We spend about $125 a month for perishables like whole milk, Country Crock margarine spread, real butter, potatoes, tomatoes, bananas, other fruit that is in season and cheap, Digiorno pizzas, hot dogs, Manager Special steaks, frozen Tilapia, and necessary parts of a menu that we don’t buy in bulk.
2. Sam’s Club – We spend about $30 a month on steaks, boneless skinless chicken breasts, pork chops, frozen green beans, frozen corn on the cob, Honey Nut Cheerios, Nature’s Own Honey Wheat bread, and potato chips. I usually make a Sam’s Club run once every 2 -3 months.
3. Angel Food Ministries – Whenever we like the monthly menu for their Signature Box, we buy 1 or 2 boxes at $30 each. Each box gives us enough food for at least 10 meals and sides for a few more.
4. Walmart – We spend about $50 a month on cleaning supplies, hygiene products, hamburger meat, sandwich meat, and miscellaneous food items that are cheaper there than at Kroger with my coupons.
5. Restaurants and Fast Food – We eat out at least 1-2 times a week and it adds up to about $200 a month. It would be more if I wasn’t such a fan of value menus and soups.
Altogether we spend about $400 on food every month, which is actually down from the $600 a month we were spending last year. We’ve started eating at home much more which allows us to buy in bulk and throw less away.
I do use coupons, but not to the extent of true couponers. I simply spend 20 minutes at work every week cutting out ones that may come in handy and putting them into my wallet. Before checking out, I pull my cart over in a vacant aisle and spend 2 minutes grabbing out the coupons that match cart items. I do not even look at the coupons until I’m done shopping since I don’t want the coupons to entice me to buy something that wasn’t on my list or buy a different brand.
Our dinners usually consist of a grilled protein seasoned by hubby and two sides. Most frequently, these sides are mashed potatoes, green beans, corn on the cob, carrots, or rice. We also make salads, Pizza Hut Sandwiches (the most delicious and fattening toasted sandwich ever), soft tacos, chili, pasta, taco salad, hamburgers, and hot dogs every month or two as well. We try a new recipe every once in a while and add it to the normal rotation if it was good.
As you can see, our diet isn’t the healthiest ever, but it looks way better than last year. Please just take this as the food confession it is and a quick summary of our personal food budget.
Does your food budget include more organic and free range choices? Or does it look similar to ours?
May 10, 2010, at 6:00 am
About a month ago, I mentioned car problems. Here’s the whole story of my crappy car so far.
The Car
I own a 2005 Chevy Aveo that I bought brand new for $11,200 on a 5 year loan. I ended up paying a total of about $12,800 by the time I paid it off 2 years later. It’s currently 5 years old and has driven about 42,000 miles. I bought it because I needed an inexpensive car, I was young enough to think that used cars sucked, and I only needed a commuter vehicle. This was 3 years before I figured out how to buy a car properly or how to sell a car on Craigslist.
For 4 years, my Aveo did its job with only a few minor problems. It slowly leaks about an inch of brake fluid every 4-6 months which I refill on my own now for $2 a shot. It also wears down good tires every 2 1/2 years or 20,000 miles.
I’ve stuck to the maintenance schedule in the owner manual since I first bought it, so I thought I would be okay until at least 2012.
The First Situation
Last November (2009), my check engine light popped on while I was heading to work. I was worried, so I stopped by my mechanic who was 5 miles away. It took him 10 minutes to find out that my 02 sensor was broken and my serpentine belt was cracked. My car had less than 39,000 miles at this point.
Luckily, my husband had the day off and drove me into work. My supervisor lives in my direction and was able to drop me off on his way home. Since my mechanic could get the parts from a dealer nearby, I was able to pick up my car that afternoon but had to fork over $540 total with tax. But it worked, so I swallowed my annoyance and hoped for the best.
The Second Situation
This April I was driving home from work and my A/C started blowing hot air that smelled a little. It took me 2 miles of feeder road before I noticed that my car’s thermostat gauge was reading a big fat H for hot. After pulling over and calling my husband, I opened the hood and it looked like some icky liquid had exploded all over the place.
I called my mechanic and asked what I should do. Obviously he suggested having it towed in so they could take a look. I wrote down his address. I then called our car insurance company to see if I had towing on my policy. I did and she sent out a tow truck to my location. By that time my husband was waiting with me and I was so proud of not freaking out. Let’s just say I don’t usually handle stress very well.
My mechanic called me the next morning with the happy news that my thermostat housing had cracked in half. I knew this was coming since I had googled “Chevy Aveo Overheating” the night before and the first page of results all mentioned broken thermostat housings for the 2004-2006 models. Why? Because they used cruddy plastic housings instead of metal ones like everybody else.
My mechanic quoted $375 plus tax, which was similar to mentioned prices online, so I gave him the go ahead. It was ready that afternoon and cost $343 total. My crappy plastic thermostat housing was replaced with a much better metal one and now the car is driving fine again.
The Official Complaint
Call me crazy, but I do not think I should have to spend $900 on major parts in less than 6 months on a car with less than 42,000 miles!
I emailed an official complaint to GM’s customer service department detailing everything. I received a phone call a few days later, went over the specifics, and was told that Paul would get back to me the next day. Paul did not call. I left a voicemail a week later and received a call back the next morning. Since none of the parts that were replaced were part of a recall or replaced by a Chevrolet dealership, there’s nothing they can do.
He was nice enough to tell me that there was a recall for part of the electronics system though – they need to reprogram my Engine Control Module. Fantastic. *heavy sarcasm*
I have filed complaints with the Better Business Bureau and Consumer Affairs. I also see a Hyundai Accent or Toyota Yaris in my future. Maybe a used Prius since my husband’s has worked out so well…hmmm…choices, choices.
Any car horror stories out there? Any suggestions for my next car?
May 9, 2010, at 6:01 am
We spent yesterday evening with my in-laws and we’re spending today with my parents. Hope my mom likes the two Double Knockout rose bushes I got her (that my lawn guy accidentally planted, sheesh)…
Along this line of thought, do parents really appreciate homemade gifts from their kids? Even the obviously crappy ones like the blue ash tray I made out of playdough for my mom when I was 5 even though no one in my family smokes? LOL
Hope everyone’s day goes well!
May 9, 2010, at 6:00 am
BFS is a member of the Yakezie Alexa Ranking Challenge! My ranking last week was 369,629. Now it is 291,555!
The ultimate goal is to be in the top 200,000 by July 4, 2010. I’m giving weekly rank updates in order to track our progress. Not too shabby for a blog that started at 8,531,858 when it joined the challenge in March 2010!
I would like to sincerely thank all of my readers and the members of the Yakezie Challenge. Obviously, this would be impossible without all of you.
In case you didn’t know, Alexa traffic rankings are determined by the numbers of hits a site gets by people with the Alexa toolbar. If you want to be part of this ranking community, you can download the Alexa toolbar here.
If you are a Yakezie member and don’t see yourself on my member list, please send me an email or leave a comment here to be added, thanks!
May 8, 2010, at 6:00 am
My Favorite Posts this Week
Blog Carnivals that Included BFS
Thanks! I appreciate all the time hosts spent on this process. It’s a great feeling to be chosen!
Carnival hosts, if BFS is in a blog carnival that you are running, please email me the link so it can be added to this weekly list. Thanks!
Guest Posts on BFS
No guest posts this week, but if you would like to submit a guest post to BFS, please shoot me an idea or the actual post. I’d also appreciate a one or two sentence introduction for the piece. I’ll get back to you quickly and will give you as much advance notice as possible on its posting date.
Other Info
- Jackie at Money Crush is hosting a $100 Contest until May 12th in honor of the debt snowball app she created. Please take a look!
- Mrs. Frugal at Cool to be Frugal is having a PUR Water Filtration System Giveaway until tomorrow, May 9th! She’s giving away one PUR Water Filtration System that includes one disposable filter!
- Free From Broke is having a Magic Jack Giveaway until May 14th! He’s giving away a Magic Jack and 1 year of service!
- Brad at Enemy of Debt is hosting a fund-raiser for Big Brothers Big Sisters. He’s selling the “I’m Debt Free” game and giving 100% of his commission until August 7th to Big Brothers Big Sisters!
Feel free to email me if you have any suggestions. I’d love to add a few more blogs to my regular reading list or at least give a shout-out for great posts or contests.
As always, thanks to all the bloggers that teach me something new every day. Thanks to all my commenters for making this blog the community I want it to be. Thanks to all my lurkers too. I hope everybody is enjoying this as much as I am!
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DISCLAIMER I am not a professional or a financial advisor. BFS posts are informational opinions only. Please make your own financial decisions based on personal research or see a financial advisor.
Also, there are paid links on this site. There is no obligation on your part to purchase any products advertised on this website.
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