It’s been a couple of weeks of painful charges to the card.
First, I finally got my business taxes done. That was $530 courtesy of H&R Block. I wasn’t thrilled about paying it, but I’ve tried to do my own business taxes before and… Well, there was a reason I was (begrudgingly) willing to pay more than $500 for someone else to do them. At least I got to pay with my Ink business card, so I’ll get some rewards. (I recommend comparing Chase cards if you’re looking for a good business credit card.)
Thankfully, that was the only large expense for that week, but it was bad enough to ruin my financial view of the whole seven days. And this week has been even worse.
Our annual auto insurance was due. To the tune of $1,340.40. Granted, we save up for it all year, so the money is in our Capital One 360 account But it still hurts to see a $1,300 charge on the card. I comfort myself with the knowledge that we’re getting $26.81 back from the Citi Double Cash card.
Next up was a new stove for the guest house. The oven portion went kaput some time ago, but Nadine said she didn’t care. She uses her NuWave oven for just about everything anyway, so I didn’t make it a priority. Alas, it’s finally bothering her, thus the time had come to take action.
I looked into getting a repair, but Sears charges $99.99 just to come out and take a look. The stove only cost about $350 to begin with, and it wasn’t the highest quality. Our luck, the repair person would come out and pronounce it beyond repair.
So I started looking at stove options.
That alone was a huge pain because the space requires a 20″ stove. There isn’t a big selection in that size range, and the prices didn’t exactly stay as small as the stoves. The cheapest ones start around $470, but most were $550 to 800. Almost none of them being name brands.
Sigh.
Since the space for the stove is quasi-teeny, we also had to take depth into account. I actually went through with an online purchase at Sears, only to discover that the appliance would’ve stuck out 2.5″ beyond the counter. Not only would that have looked weird, but the kitchen is already narrow enough (even when it’s not for two people who sometimes use mobility aids). So I had to go back and cancel the order, then desperately look around for more options.
Eventually, I found one from Home Depot. It’s Amana, which isn’t the nicest brand in the world, but at least I know it (vaguely). The other ones I found with the right dimensions were by Summit and Premiere, neither of which I’d every heard of before.
The range was on the lower end of the price spectrum and was 10% off. So the total was just under $550 after tax. That includes installation and hauling away the old appliance. Plus I got $9.34 back through Mr. Rebates. So that’s something. But still…. $550? Ouch.
Then there was the matter of our personal taxes.
I often just do them myself, but Tim wanted to have a tax professional do them. (He’s still a little gun shy after the whole SUTA/FUTA debacle.) We compromised by having me use TaxAct, which keeps us both happy. Him because he knows I won’t have missed anything; me because we’re not paying H&R Block rates.
But it still wasn’t cheap. We have to pay for a higher package thanks to my S-corp and the guest house rental incomes. So it was $79.94 total for our state and federal. taxes. At least we’ll get 10% cash back through Mr. Rebates. And I can celebrate its finally being done.
We’ll actually be getting a refund from both state and federal — more than enough to cover the cost of my business taxes, which was a pleasant surprise. But the $80 tax charge still stung a little.
That settled, I went over to Walgreens.com to take advantage of the 25% off sale. We’re running dangerously low on toilet paper. By that, I mean that we’re down to our last 12 rolls. Which, with my penchant for stocking up and given how much toilet paper you go through with two people home all day, is practically the same as our being out of toilet paper.
So I picked up another four to five months’ worth (12 packs) at $4.50 per 12-pack. The total was $58.89, but we had $20 in Walgreens rewards left from our glorious balance rewards spree. In the end we paid $38.89 for 144 rolls of toilet paper. A great deal, but still not the smallest outlay in the world. Or maybe I’m just a little overly sensitive after the rest of the charges from the past two weeks.
Have you had any nasty big charges lately?
teinegurl says
Nothing really to nasty. I had to get the kids school supplies which cost me $102 for two kids. Not insane but I expected it to be around there. I missed 2 items they ran out of which was headphones for a computer and 4 black expo markers. i’ll see where else I can get that. That’s a pretty good deal for toilet paper I would love to pay that for that amount of TP. LOL im officially excited over toilet paper
Catseye says
I’m about to buy a new computer tower, I don’t like laptops. I’m searching for a full time job and need Windows 10 software to submit resumes. My current computer is ten years old and just not software compatible any more. *sigh* I HATE this!
Penny @ She Picks Up Pennies says
Our property tax bill is due at the beginning of September. $4,000. ::cries:: I have SO MANY LIBRARY BOOKS to read to break even 😉
August has started out so spendy for us as well. I keep looking at the calendar thinking we are fast approaching the end of the month. Alas.
I love how for so many of these you manage to make the most of the spending. It stings but you find a way to get rewards and and strategize!
Revanche @ A Gai Shan Life says
Oddly enough I can’t think of anything but I’m positive that’s due to leaky-sieve brain and not because we didn’t have anything. Or I’m still numb from $3000 in vet bills.
Fall will bring us the fun of property tax bills of course but that’s not a surprise so much as just painful. But we’ve mainly been prepared. It’s just the lurking unknown out there that I’m bracing for!
Revanche @ A Gai Shan Life recently posted…Snippets from the past
Donna Freedman says
Well, I did just spend $477 on a plane ticket…. 😉
Donna Freedman recently posted…Need something? Buy Nothing.