What have your utilities done for YOU lately?

Considering I live in an area where we have not yet had to turn off our A/C, we pay a good chunk of money to our power company. So, I was pleasantly surprised when I found out that they were giving us $75 in free CFL light bulbs! Free!

While I’m always up for free things, I had put this offer off thinking that it would be complicated or time consuming. Then I got a reminder notice last week with a checklist for me to assess the type of lighting we have in our apartment. From that list, it recommended the appropriate type of light bulb. It had all sort of light bulbs- little ones that look like fake candles- to ones that look, well, like a regular light bulb. They even had flood lights and insect lights.

All I had to do to get my $75 worth of lights was to log on to my electricity account and denote how many of each blub I wanted. Shipping and handling was covered by my power company and they should arrive in six weeks!

How neat is that!?!

What does afford really mean?

I entitled yesterday’s entry “the other Broke Grad Student” in reference to Broke Grad Student’s blog. However, within minutes of posting an anonymous person commented:

“I'm so broke I can't even afford grad school.”

While this obviously is a serious and sad comment, it made me wonder:
When I was applying for grad school three years ago- could I really afford it?

Financial picture: I had an emergency fund and ROTH was partly funded (10% of my income always). I graduated without getting into any graduate schools that year, so I took a year off. During this time I moved north, worked the morning shift at a cafe making coffee drinks, and worked for free as a research assistant to a big name Psychology researcher at a local research institution. I worked hard, retook the GRE’s, got a great recommendation from this big wig and suddenly I was in at many graduate schools.

So could I really afford to go to graduate school?
Financially- not really.
I’ll be paying off these loans well into the next decade. I didn’t have the 16k I would spend on my graduate education saved in an account; I ended up borrowing that in interest-free loans from the government. I worked through my MA getting scholarships, grants, and stipends (euphemism for working lots of hours and getting paid very little) to pay the basics.


Professionally- I couldn’t afford not to go onto graduate school. If you actually want a Psychology-related job that pays well with some stability, then you’re going to have to get an advanced degree. An MA was all I needed to be able to teach Psychology at the local state college. While our move disrupted my career there, I’m still working hard to get colleges locally to notice me. It may take another year or so, but I’m confident something will come up.
Note: Academics tend to relocate to where jobs are, not relocate and then find jobs like I’m doing. (As if the thesis wasn’t masochistic enough, I’m adding this on myself….)

While I agree, there are plenty of people who would not be well-off enough to take this leap, I do wonder: if your career and happiness depends on it, can you afford not to go to graduate school?

Eyes on the money

I’ve been utilizing my newly acquired health insurance (regular physical- check!) and yesterday I went to the eye doctor. Needless to say, I haven’t gotten new contacts or glasses in over 4 years so I was certainly due. After my time with the doctor it was time to sit down with the stern lady in black who explains to you your bill.

Here was mine:
$10 co-pay
$65 not coverage by insurance for tests
$160 not coverage by insurance for 6 months of contacts
Total: $235

Thank goodness they take CC, because I only keep $200 in my checking account!

While we have the money to pay this, I was wondering at what point it would be more beneficial to have Lasik. While I would want to accomplish my other financial goals first, I have to wonder if the surgery was successful, how long would it take to pay it off in contacts?

Figuring that Lasik is about $3000, and my contacts cost me $320 a year, it would take a little over 9 years for the costs to even out. While the convenience is worth well beyond that (I’m almost blind- I can’t see faces at about three feet) it still doesn’t make it fiscally possible.

How about you? Anyone else had or is considering this surgery?

Oops- can you cut my bill in half?

When I was first planning the wedding, vendor coordination had taken up most of my time allocated to wedding planning. While the thought that I had been making more phone calls than normal flickered through my mind, I hadn’t seriously considered the ramifications.

That is until- the email came.

You know, the one from Verizon that states you have a bill that is coming due soon. This one said we had over a $400 cell phone bill.

$400!!!!!

In all honesty I was freaked. I’m not working (for a salary that is) and paying unexpected bills when I’m not in control of the money situation- is scary!

My fiancé was surprisingly calm.
Eerily calm
I thought he must be about to explode!
While he scanned the breakdown of charges, I dreaded the results.

The score out of 700 shared minutes:
Him- 600 min.
+Me- 800 min.
=$400 cell phone bill

Then, he said, “I’m not paying this.”

My mind raced- “What?!” I croaked.

“I’m not paying this- it’s ridiculous! If we had originally paid $20 more last month to upgrade our plan we would have been fine,” He said.

So he called Verizon.

Slowly, I realized that he wasn’t mad at me (or really even at himself).

No, he was mad at the system- which for all intensive purposes we had picked.
It was the timing he was worried about. If we had checked a week ago, saw that we were over, and called Verizon to upgrade we would have been covered. The boundaries between when the billing period was over and when we received the bill were the issue. Not the $400.

He got a hold of a middle-aged doting southern lady, Ms. Belle, and explained that he had a fiancé who was planning a wedding and that he was strapped for cash.

It turned out Ms. Belle was twice divorced. The first husband had cheated on her for 15 years. The second had been into drugs. She told him to get lost by dumping all his personal items out the window and into the street (just like in the movies- I imagined!). She knew marital bliss was precarious and said she’d see what she could do.

She pleaded our case to her manager and after a long time on hold the manager came on the line. It turned out that Keith, the manager, was also a recent divorcee. After hearing our story he advised my fiancé to check my cell phone usage everyday- EVERY DAY!!! He sternly cautioned. But after telling the details of his failed marriage, he told us he thought he could eliminate half the bill. But he had to check with his supervisor and would call back on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, the call came and went to message:

“Sorry, man. We can’t take off half the bill like I thought we could….
….. we’ll credit you the whole thing!
Happy early wedding present from Verizon! Now, don’t forget my advic- (cut off by machine)”

Thank you Verizon, Keith, and Ms. Belle for giving us our most unusual wedding present yet!

Have you ever haggled your way out of part (or all of) a bill? Tell me about it!