made it through September

First month of school done.

A milestone birthday done

and my first Health 'murphy'

My arm had been bugging me in mid September. Came home after school and it got worse. By midnight I couldn't move my arm and severe pain. Only would grow worse over the weekend.

Three hospital visits later including 2 pain shots, an Xray and a cortisone shot...… severe tendinitis in the shoulder. I missed a week of work. Couldn't do a thing without massive pain.

It took 14 days until I could lift my arm shoulder height  and that was probably only because of the cortisone shot.

I feel like I am starting all over again with a very tough class.

Physio 2x a week now until I have full mobility and zero pain.

Murphy listens

You know that urban legend gossip that Facebook listens to your conversations and the 'ads' that pop up reflect your conversations???  (I totally agree with this by the way).

Know what else listens to your conversations? Murphy.

No sooner had the garage sale money been applied to the college loc, than my washing machine, my 23 year old machine, gives it up.  We have done little fixes to it over the years. a pump. a hose clamp.

This one was the final straw. It ended with the machine barfing out 2 inches of water across the floor of my laundry room. It was done.

Luckily I have been tucking little bits of money away over the past few years for the moment when I would need a new pair. We went down to our local furniture store and within 15 min the old units were gone and the new ones were installed and a load of towels was going.

This unexpected expense wiped out my emergency appliance replacement fund. It would have been nice to have the garage sale money to offset it.

I will have to begin the little bits of cash here and there to restock it in case something else decides to go. It was sure nice having that money there, ready to go, though.

Boom!

It's like an old episode of Unsolved Mysteries

Tuesday.... noon... a woman decides to better use her noon time for errands when her tire blows.

Thousands of miles away.....(and three days) her oldest son is driving and boom! his tire blows.

coincidence??? or another unsolved mystery??


Long story short I ran errands on Tuesday at noon and my tire light comes on to say it's low.  I run to the gas station to put air in it. When I unscrew the air cap, WHOOSH!! it goes flying across the parking lot to parts unknown, while the little brass valve flies out and lands a couple feet away. As I ran to grab it, my tire donates all it's air to the atmosphere.

I had to get DH to run over and swap vehicles to handle this or I would have been late for afternoon classes.  He took it to get fixed and $135 later it's apparently better.

The same thing happened to another of my tires the night before we were to drive down to see DS last fall.

DS2's tire blew yesterday in the same manner. I am glad it happened while he was still in his college town and not starting the 17 hour drive home to Canada.

His bill was $110 US.

I know I have an Emergency Fund but it's really my TFSA. I need to start a real emergency slush fund that is accessible easily for things like this.

AWOL

It all started with report cards...that magical mystical time where I disappear to the school for hours marking things, most of which I had to beg to get handed in.  Then we had 2 nights of parent teacher interviews. Then I turtled for a whole weekend, exhausted and slept and slept with small doses of Netflix.

In the meantime.... my VISA was hacked.  I had been about to log in to check the balance. DH had taken my vehicle in to the shop for some very expensive repairs that had something to do with the spark plug kit and all it's wires. Honestly, my SUV had heard that my tax refund was in and thought it would spend a little of it. But I digress.... So I am about to log in when the house phone rings. It is one of those robot calls along the lines of "This is VISA's security department". I hung up before they finished. I get one of those a week from 'BMO'.

I log in and my balance is exactly what it should be. It isn't until I expand the details when I see that there is an interesting charge for $1.79 US at some service station in Barlow, Ohio. The change was made and then immediately voided. A test charge.

Well I'll be darned, that might have been an actual call from VISA. I phone and go through all the motions of getting the card cancelled. I had two charges that had been put on it and I wanted to be sure they would go through if I cancelled it.  I had also prepaid the vehicle repairs on it and wanted to be sure that payment would go through. They assured me they would.  That was on the 25th. I am still waiting for my new VISA to come. I assume that when it does and I activate it, I will see all those things go through when I check in online.

I use this VISA for very few things. The same things each month, pretty much. Netflix. WW when I was on it. Amazon if I shop there. The shop where I got my repairs done (not each month but a trusted source) They all get immediately paid off. It makes me wonder at what point it was compromised, if they were all known places.

I had to explain to my  husband what a test charge was. He thought that since it was refunded at the vendor that my card wasn't really hacked.

Murphy - sigh

At least I trained him well. When I got the call last night at 10:30 he started with "mom, I am ok"

The vehicle wasn't. Nor the deer.

 

I get the joys of figuring out how insurance will work between Canada and the US.

 

I know this is going to cost me $$$$

Waiting for all the money pieces to fall together.

Money is whipping in and out of my accounts like crazy and to be honest, I will be happy when both boys are settled in to school. Then I know the tuitions are paid and I can get back to whatever my new budget will be.

DS2's tuition was paid yesterday. The RESP money is in, so as soon as it shows up on my MasterCard, I can take care of that.

DS1's tuition is still pre-scholarship so we are waiting for that to be applied. I forget how long that took last year. The online College account says the 20th of August but I know full well it was in September before it actually was applied. So we are waiting to see how much that is, and if any of his accommodations are covered.

DS1's MC bills for his travel down are finally posted. He stayed in a hotel last Wed night and the charge just showed up on the MC today. So that is all paid. What a difference in gas prices between the countries. A fill here was about $50 and down there it is high $20.  It does annoy me that it takes that many days for the charges to show up on the card.

My laptop is still in the shop. I stopped by yesterday and talked to the guy. It made it to their bench Friday.  The Trojan is deeply embedded in my system and they are having trouble wiping it out. So it will be another couple days.

Funny thing - I noticed the weird popups (Trojan) when I was ordering shirts for DS1 from Holister.ca (Abercrombie and Fitch). Hey, $10 Tee shirts!  And good quality ones too. He has one and loves it. Anyhoo, that is when this popped up.

Enter my school laptop that I brought home with me last week. DS2, who hates clothing shopping, said he liked his brother's shirt and since they were cheap, could he get a couple since he needs new shirts anyways.

I never even 'thought' and went to my school laptop to the webpage and after picking a couple, I went to start the check out process and the SAME popup came up. Coincidence???? I think not.

I shut it down and restarted it. Apparently the school has better virus protectors because it is gone. I checked with the techie at school.

I called the company to tell them what happened from their webpage on two different occasions. They could not have cared less.

The money for DS2's hail damaged car came through. I put that in  a savings account. It will be there when we decide what his new to him vehicle will be and find one we can afford.

And that's the money poo.

It's payday today so it feels like a brand new start to things. 

oh boy! a trojan

Coming to you from my school laptop. My home computers managed to pick up a lovely Trojan called Hiloti on Monday.  Despite every effort, I could not get it out of my system so off to the computer shop they went.

Cost per device $117.50 for removal

Gotta love viruses.

I don't even go anywhere interesting to get a virus :-)

There goes the vehicle

DS2 phoned from his camp last night.

A massive hail and wind storm went through last night. They had a group of little Scouters out and got them to safety just in time. So much damage done up there though. Trees uprooted. Tarps and tents torn. Windows smashed. And vehicles.

DS's vehicle is  badly damaged, as were many of the other leaders' vehicles. Windshield. Roof. Hood. Side panels.  Everyone is fine, but we now begin the journey of how much damage his car has.

The earliest we could get into the claim center is Aug 4. Tons of storms last night. Kerrobert, SK, I am thinking of you.

It will either be fixable and I will pay the deductible and it will take time for all the body work to get done, or it will be written off. If that is the case, we will get paid out a sum and then we have to decide if we want to buy it buy to fix or if we begin the hunt for a new vehicle.  If we are looking for a new vehicle, then I will be out a few thousand, as the payout for a write off is never as high as the cost of a new to him, safe vehicle.

But everyone is fine so I will take it as it comes. Annoys me though after all the money we put into this darn vehicle to get fixed over the winter. lol

Vehicle repairs

For awhile now my vehicle has been making some odd noises in the front end. Crunching noises I called them. Like something was almost broke in two.

I took it to the repair shop last Friday and I was right. There was a problem with the suspension in the front; sway bar, bearings etc.

They had the parts in stock so I settled in at the dealership to get  the vehicle fixed.

This SUV has been pretty darn good repair-wise. I bought it new in 2009. Since then I have replaced the tires and had oil changes and that is pretty much it.

Repairs cost $599.85.  Labour was over half of it.

Unexpected costs, but it sure is nice to not hear that sound when I drive it.

I am syphoning $ from different budget lines to get this paid off before the end of July, as I will NOT have a balance on my CC.

I know I should have a budget line for vehicle repairs. I should have a lot of budget lines for different things.

The Car. Again. update

So we got DS2's car back yesterday from his millionth trip to the dealer/repair.

They replaced the transmission with a refurbished one from SGI (sask govt insurance). It comes with a lower price and a year's warranty.

They replaced the rear lower control arms again. Less than two months after they did it the first time. Zero charge for that.

The total for the bill was just over $3700.

The policy covered all but $300. (deductible plus some things like transmission fluids etc)

I certainly have gotten my value out of that policy that I regretted buying. This car has cost more than it's purchase price now, in 13 months.  A good part of it from not being fixed properly when we take it in and our concerns not being taken seriously.

I have zero confidence in the sales staff who assured us this car was in mint condition, and the repair staff who aren't able to fix things properly. 

I know that I will never buy another vehicle from this dealer again, or one that needs to go them for repairs.

DS left for the weekend to his scout camp so hopefully when he actually gets home and drives it, it is all as it should be. properly. 

The $300 comes out of my backpay.

I am sure glad I have it.

One third of the way through 2015

Hard to believe it's already May. It never ceases to amaze me how fast the months (or years) seem to fly by as one gets older.

The first third of the year has gone by and I would have to say that it has had a lot of rough patches. I thought I would do a quick glance at how things have gone.

Health

Well it could be worse, but it definitely hasn't been great. I finished off 2014 recovering from a big cold and flu and went pretty much straight into my neck being out and locked, which threw off about 2 weeks of my January.  Chiro visit and two ER visits.  I had about a month of decent health before my colitis symptoms started coming back until it hit full flare. This past week marked 2 months of my flare in all it's glory. I was off work for almost a month (including one week of non school over Easter). The steroids are reversing/keeping the symptoms at bay, but the side effects of the steroids are not fun: dry mouth, numb lips, chest pains, increasing bruising, tight joints and muscles, esp the knees, swollen /puffy face and feet and super dry skin. Oh and increased appetite. Good times :-)

I am hoping for a much better spring. It's finally nice outside and I want to be out walking and doing things.

Murphy and money

Murphy  has been a royal pain the ass this year, especially around vehicles. Oh the things I could have done with the cash I have had to put out for vehicles and mechanic inspections. At least I can say I am getting the value back on the warranty I was kicking myself for buying.

College costs continue to stress me out. Aside from going back in time and putting more money away, there isn't much that can be done but keep on keepin' on. I really wish DS1 had been eligible for Canada student loans, even to help out a bit. I have three years left with DS1 and 2-4 with DS2 so I need to find my stride and figure things out and keep myself as stress free as I can to avoid bringing Mr. Colitis back.

The backpay and income tax refund will definitely help. I appreciate those two amounts so much.

It could be worse. I could have never saw the light with budgeting and money and been up to my tonsils in stress and debt.

Family
Being sick has kept me from a few family functions. I don't like that, especially on missed moments with my great nieces and nephews. They are super fun and I would like to be doing things with them.

I am glad I gave DS2 that trip. I just see so much more maturity and confidence in him and that makes me smile to my soul. I miss DS1 so darn much. By the time he gets home in June, it will be 6 months since I've seen him. That is far far too long. I need to plan a trip down to him next Feb or March to break that up a bit. He needs it and so do I. He is really homesick at this point, especially with hockey done.

Goals

I have a couple of my 2015 goals in progress. My TFSA goal of $2000 is getting closer. I have the grad money saved and have started doling it out for a few things.  My summer planned spending money is close as well.  Still, a lot of goals not started.

It will be interesting to see what my second part of the year shows at the end of August.

The car heard me talking

I really should know better than to talk about windfall money coming in. Appliances, vehicles and such hear you when you do.  Murphy hears.

Last week DS2 took his car in AGAIN to a mechanic to have it checked for the same things we went  in for in Feb/March. Estimate from them for a transmission and everything else $6600.

That's more than we paid for a car we were told was in pristine condition.

So back we went to where we bought it (and where we have this warranty through), info in hand. The ladies in the parts department were pissed.  I was really calm and really well prepared with my info and didn't swear or anything. DS said I had a bit of 'that tone you get when you are trying to be nice  and sound nice but you're angry". Not sure if other people heard that too.

So back this car goes tomorrow to where we bought it so THEY can inspect it and see what is wrong and then they have to submit that info to the policy people to see what they cover.

I just want it to , be fixed, properly, and not have to go back. I am sure they want to see me, as much as I want to be there.

Between the policy and myself, we have spent $3000 on this car in less than a year.

le sigh

After driving the car for 2 days...

DS2 hears some more crunching noise coming from the back driver's side of his car.

Back we take it to the dealer and they inspect it. Verdict - the rear lower arm control and his happy little bearing is shot.

I am not a happy woman at this point. Didn't we just get this fixed?  Apparently not. Apparently there are both upper and lower control arms for front and back.  I really hate being not smart autowise. I feel like I am at such a disadvantage.

Why didn't this get noticed the first time? I wonder. They were in there messing with the rear upper arms. They can't be that far apart.


I go back to the original statement to see if the Dodge dealer had this on their estimate. If I found it there and then the Toyota dealership didn't fix it, heads were going to roll.

Alas, it was not on their list (wonder how THEY missed it)

So we ask the parts to get ordered in and I ask about the insurance/warrantee policy. "Well we will have to see if they will cover this." is the answer. I am thinking "excuse me??? They covered the front lower arms and they covered the rear upper arms so they sure as heck better be covering the rear lower ones.

She says they will have to ask. I will have to pay the $250 deductible AGAIN (each new policy submission pays) along with the taxes and shop supplies. I request very nicely that all the arms on this stupid car be checked because I am not going to be doing this arm by arm, new deductible by new deductible.

She says "You know if the bill is approximately $399 not counting tax, it really isn't worth it to put it through the policy"

I blinked.

What do you mean, I ask calmly.

Well really the difference that you would 'save' is only about $150 ish so it is not really worth putting it through.

Not worth it for who? I ask. It has to be fixed and $150 saved is a significant number to me.

I think Murphy and I should see different people :-)

So at the dealer...

(sorry for the delay. It was report card week, and my colitis came back in full flare. sigh)

So at the dealer the total came to $2002.30.  The policy covered $1070.60.

I had to pay the balance of $929.70. That covered:

• the deductible of $250
• the taxes
• the struts (apparently it is hard to get a policy to cover struts)
• shop supplies

At least the car was done. and safe. with no more issues....

(mhm, you see where this is going)

So then Monday morning....

I called first thing to DS2's garage to see if they could send me an estimate of what was covered and what was not so I could see the breakdown. Neither DH nor DS could understand my need to see that separate breakdown.

In my head, I am wanting the policy to cover at least to the amount that I paid for it. Don't ever let me do that again, ok? It's been bugging me since I did it.

I asked for a fax to be sent over to my school and I waited (im)patiently for the fax,

Meanwhile, by early afternoon DS2 sends me a text with the total of his adventures down the icy hill. Including the tow, as well as the labour and parts, his bill was $320 USD .  He put it on his BMO US Credit card, which gave us a couple days to figure out the repayment allocation. I am working hard at teaching him to use it sparingly and only if it is something that can get paid off in full at the end of the month.

At 3:30 I made one last trip to the office to see if the fax had come through. It had not.

So off to the dealer I went....

And just as we got home....

....we get a phone call from DS1 in the States....

HIS alternator belt went. We  hadn't even told him that his brother's had gone so we can't even accuse him of being a copy cat.

His belt was completely gone. As in shredded. While he was driving in his little city, which resembles San Francisco, only the hills are glare ice. He managed to get things to stop and turned into a gas station at the base of the hill just before it gets to the freeway (and the river). By this time it's late.

Oh goodie. broken down vehicle. In a different country. In the dark. In 30 below weather.

Fantastic.

So I call CAA to find out how to access AAA where he is. They give me the right number to call down there so we text that to DS so he can get towed. DS would call the number. They would take his Canadian CAA number. Hang up. Call some center to verify his CAA is his and an active account, then call back to make arrangements to come get him.

Problem is the child never took his CAA card with him.  Without it being on his person they can't verify squat.

Super.

So we agree that at this time of night in these temps we have to suck up the cost. So he calls the tow truck. While he waits for them to arrive, we have to decide where to take it. Taking it to his dorm is silly because he will have to get it towed again when we need to take it to garage.

I tell him to call the handful of his teammates who are local to the city and find out what garage is good.  That's all we need is some unscrupulous business taking advantage of the car clueless Canadian.  Turns out that was a good idea I had. His Captain's gf's dad runs a garage in the city. Quick calls were made and the owner said 'yes bring it there right away"

He will drive down to open the big doors and they can put the car inside for the night. The team takes care of their own, he says.

Whew.

At least the car is safe, the kid is safe, and we will get the best deal we can.

So now all we had to do was wait for Monday, and the news from the US garage, and the Canadian one.

And, yes, it was $

After that...

.... DS2 calls after supper saying he believe his alternator belt was being wonky. He is just pulling into town so we head over to my dad's, where they have a heated garage, to take a peek.

It was the alt. A good read from DS. He remembers my last vehicle and how that belt kept freezing up every time when snow got underneath it and how we had to fix it. Dad happened to have a spare at the house. no clue why.

We were able to get that bad boy fixed without an extra cost, which was a good thing because....

And then...

DS2's car has been having issues. Clunking kinda issues. We took it into the local Dodge dealer (that's the make of this car). We bought it used at the local Toyota dealer (just the way it worked out)

The Dodge dealer came back with a scary statement. Struts, a few control arms..and the pieces that go with this plus the labour and it was close to $2800.

Ouch.

The cost for this 'diagnosis' was $169.  sigh

So then we went to the Toyota dealer where I bought it. I had stupidly (STUPIDLY) purchased an extended warranty when I bought it ( I know, I  know.....bad money decision) to see what was covered under this policy. They asked us to bring it in so they could examine it themselves. Thankfully there was no charged for that. They came up with their list of costs and then had to call to see what was covered under the policy....



.....and thus began a weekend waiting game.

So Murphy started with....

....the new kitten needing to be fixed. I mean NEEDING. He was doing that thing you do when you need to get fixed :-)

Our other cat, well she was not impressed, and getting stressed.

So off he went to the vet. When DH dropped him off, he also told them to get his shots, so the grand total of that visit came to $179.

Needed? yes, it was.

But I wasn't planned $wise for it. Bad me.

And so began Murphy's long term visit with me.....

Contract Settled

Well we have been without a contract for a year and a half now. Over the months there were two votes which were not accepted by the majority, so the bodies went to conciliation. It was a whole lot of "we are having meetings" without anything real details coming to us.

 Nothing changed work wise. There was no job action. I appreciated that both parties agreed to media blackouts. I really hate when it gets to each side publicly slamming the other. The whole story never quite seems to be heard that way.

So about two weeks ago, apparently our contract was settled. The two sides felt they had done as much work as they could and it was simply accepted by our governing body. It honestly feels very weird not having a vote.  I am not saying it was good or bad.....just weird.

Our raise is less than 2% each year and will officially appear on our paychecks at the end of March. The raise does not meet currently cost of living estimates for our province. (does anyone's?)  It will be interesting to see what the net is, after deductions. Deductions are approximately 42% of my cheque (taxes, CPP, EI, membership fees, and our money that comes off our cheque to go into our pension plan).

My hope is that the net takes me back up to where I was two years ago, before all the deductions  increased.

As for the backpay, we will get that at the end of April. There is one full school year (10 months) plus the 6 months of this school year. Again, no real clue what that net will be after deductions.

Of course this meant a small windfall was coming into our house. You know what that means.................. Murphy came! (with a vengeance)

To be continued....