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Sep 28, 2006    |      1 comment

Frugal Glasses No More…

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Back in May, I revealed a trick I used when my glasses broke. I called them my frugal glasses.

Well, not too long after that post, they broke. I shopped around, and couldn’t find a pair of sunglasses that would work with my lenses. Luckily, my mom sent me some of her old frames and I have been using them ever since May. The lenses did not fit well at all…but I was buying more time before I had to spend money for brand new ones.

Things were working out well. I had a few pairs of contacts I could put in when I ventured out of the home, and at home I would wear my glasses. I just had to be very careful with the lenses.

Well, last week a lens popped out and my vision is very poor without my glasses. I’m not sure what happened, but when I found my lens there was a big scratch on it. Upon further inspection, there are tons of little scratches all over the lenses. No wonder I have been squinting so much.

I made the appointment last Saturday and my appointment was today. I thought for sure I would cancel the appointment, but I did go. I knew I couldn’t buy any more time and I just had to spend the money.

The total bill came to $249.00 at Wal-Mart for the glasses and the eye exam. There’s a bit of good news, my eyes didn’t change much at all. Now that I know my vision is fairly stable, I plan on buying a new pair of glasses with my current prescription before it expires in two years. That way if my new glasses break I’ll have a back-up. And, I picked frames that have smaller lenses so I have a better chance of finding sunglasses that would work as frames if I have to do that again 😉

Sep 27, 2006    |       11 comments

Tricia…Read the Darn Credit Card Statements!

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In the mail yesterday was the statement for Credit Card #6. That’s our store credit card that we applied for and received to take advantage of 10% off the purchase of our stove. Saving over $60 seemed like a great deal so we went ahead and applied. As an extra bonus, the card came with the offer of zero payments and 0% interest until March 2007.

Anytime a store credit card offers a deal like that, you should make sure of two things…

1.) If you still have a balance on your card when the special offer expires what is your interest rate?

2.) Will you be charged back-interest (meaning they will go back to when your charge(s) originated and charge you interest) when the offer expires and your balance is not paid?

I asked the sales lady those questions and she said that “their” card is different. They do not charge back-interest and when the offer expires there is an interest rate of 24%. The interest rate wasn’t a good one, but we were planning on paying the card off before the offer expired. Everything seemed straightforward enough for me.

This was back in March. We received our first statement in April and I looked at it. Everything seemed fine and I saw the terms of zero payments and 0% interest and all looked well. The months passed by and I opened the envelopes but didn’t really look at the statements. For some reason I looked this month and I was shocked. I was being charged a finance charge!

As it turns out, our stove was under the special deal, but the cord we purchased for $14.00 to go with the stove was subject to finance charges! I’m not sure at this moment if it’s because the sales lady rang up the two items separate or because the special offer only applied to major appliances.

In either case I am upset. Upset at the store because I feel duped. Upset at myself for not noticing this sooner. It’s only been $1.00/month (due to the minimum finance charge being assessed), but I really feel like I should have known better.

It is my fault for not being vigilant with my statements for that card, but I still feel like going into that store and compaining since I was under the impression the whole purchase would be under the special offer. The sales lady was very misleading (and, as a sidenote…she’s the owner of the store).

I was going to wait until January or February to pay off Credit Card #6, but in light of this recent development – it’s now next on the chopping block to get paid.

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