Taking Care of Business

Rambo Man started working on our taxes while he was home this week, I had some of the information pulled but lots more I was digging out as he ask for the numbers. Today I took on cleaning out the desk, getting everything in file folders, pulling the rest of the documents we needed to finish taxes and shredding lots of junk. One of the things I took the time to really take a look at was our bank statements, I usually just do a quick glance and file them away, what a MISTAKE!!

I found the bank has been charging us a maintenance fee for the past year GRRRR We should have free banking for up to 5 accounts. Long phone call to the banks customer service gave us back over $300.00 however she could only give us 6 month's worth of fees back, I now have to go sit in the bank for hours and meet with the local branch manager to get the rest back. We should be able to get an additional $300.00 back from the bank once I get up the energy to face the long wait with the little ones. Check your bank statement's over carefully, our fees were nicely hidden in with withdrawls. I am so mad at myself for dropping the ball but at least we will get all the funds back.

Today was also our annual termite inspection and quarterly bug spray contract. The termite inspection was $85.00 last year this year it jumped to $100.00, UGH. Our quarterly bug spray has been running $65.00 4 times a year, jumped to $95.00 this time. The fella assured me the prices were the same but I knew it had gone up by a lot. Had all our file folders in the den wher I had been working on them, so I quickly put my hands on the last statement and sure enough I was right. Bottom line is I had the termite inspection done but cancelled the quarterly bug spray, gonna have to watch coupons for a few cans of Raid if we start having problems with ants this spring. Add an additional $400.00 to our yearly saving this year, one more little way we can cut back.

So I figured to my embarrassment today I saved $700.00 by just paying closer attention to the little stuff. I need to do better!!!! We did finally get our $125.00 credit on the cable/phone/internet bill this week, what a pain in the butt that whole deal was!!! Tip for the day, pay attention to the details, skimming over bills and invoices can bite you in the buns.