Annoying Bills, Bills and More Bills!

[The Budget Man]

Annoying Bills, Bills and More Bills!

Electricity, insurance, loan repayments, phone… the list goes on and on.

I sometimes get frustrated and angry that so much of my money goes in bills. Then I have to tell myself that bills are what I get for choosing the lifestyle I have chosen. If I didn’t have an electricity bill I wouldn’t have much of a lifestyle. The same goes for just about every bill.

Which bills annoy you the most?

Enjoy Your Money
The Budget Man
www.PersonalityBudgeting.com
The home of the “Budgeting Workshop”

[lrjohnson]

I'm okay with my bills. I have electricity, rent, phone, cable/internet, and Netflix. That's it. I can handle five. I do have two charitable donations automatically deducted monthly. Keeping my life simple has been the key for me.

The electricity is the only variable amount, and it can be frustrating when rates rise, but I do my best to reduce consumption regardless of rates, so I'm mostly at peace with that too.

[aurielle]

It would have to be rent for us. The real estate market here in our area exploded a few years ago, now we're priced out of buying a house on our income.

[tinapbeana]

old debt, without question. not even the cards that are active, i'm talking the ones where the account has long been closed, and the bill still keeps coming like some sort of zombie in a bad horror flick!

next to that: gas bill (which is why i silently told the natural gas co to bite me and decided to heat with wood) and the water bill (how can my sewage charge be 2-3 times that of my water charge?)

[Broken Arrow]

Originally Posted by The Budget Man

Which bills annoy you the most?

Haha, why student loans of course! The rest, I sort of understand because I too chose to live in civilization. However, I was rather surprised at my water/sewer bill though. $40 for just one guy seems rather high.

[genmed]

Definately the gas and electric. It's annoying to take all these steps to drastically decrease your energy usage (set thermostat lower, fluorescent lights, insulation), but still have to the gas and electric increase because of large rate hikes. One day it will be lower!

[34saving]

Any bill that's wrong. The most common (lately) seem to be medical bills from offices that have incorrectly billed the insurance company. Anytime anybody in the family sees any doctor/dentist for any reason I give it a 1 in 3 chance that I'll have some phone calls to make to get things right. I've also had a misread gas meter, incorrrect newspaper bills, double billed garbage, etc. etc. I wonder how many people just pay the errors because they don't find them or don't have the time to fight.

[LuxLiving]

Insurance!!!! A - Nnoy-ing!!!!

[Snoopy2645]

The one that annoys me the worst is water it used to be $70 every 3 months then the city went to a new water sysytem now its like $90 every month!!! But what can you do they got ya & they know they do should I put in a well??? LOL!!!

[getforfree]

The bill I hate the most is garbage-sewer bill. It's about $112 every 2 months, $70 of it is a sewer charge ,and 39 is for garbage. It's too much!!! I think they should have some kind of meter for sewer and garbage. Than maybe I would try to condence or burn some of it. They just make me mad. Usually I have less than half full bin of trash, so I just throw the recycle in there too. Of cource, I recycle the bottles and cans for $$, but throw everything else in garbage. Less work for me, and it costs the same anyways. That way I don't have to drug 2 bins to the sidewalk, just one.

[rduell]

Originally Posted by Snoopy2645

The one that annoys me the worst is water it used to be $70 every 3 months then the city went to a new water sysytem now its like $90 every month!!! But what can you do they got ya & they know they do should I put in a well??? LOL!!!

Wow!

Our water & sewage bill is $46 a month and then we get a bill every quarter for any amount of water we use above their limit. The overage bill used to run us about $28 a quarter but now that we have a front loading washer that has decreased to $18.

The bills I hate to pay most have to be the CC bills. It's no one's fault but our own but I can't wait until they're paid off!

[Diolla]

The one that bugs me is DS's Whole Life Insurance, because of the divorce I can't get rid of it (although he can when child support ends May 08) It is stupid and a waste of money.

[scfr]

I don't know if this qualifies as a bill, but the quarterly estimated tax payment to my good ol' Uncle Sam kinda grates on my nerves, because I know that if everyone paid what they were legally required to (rather than lying & cheating & underpaying), my payment would be less.

[MonkeyMama]

Amen on estimated taxes, it amazes me the attitude that it is okay to evade these taxes. IT harms everyone else - I was self-employed at one time and the taxes were insane.

I was thinking I just hate our insurance and property taxes - they are insane. About $20k this year in insurance and property taxes. & for a healthy family with perfect driving records, etc. I can't imagine if we actually USED our insurance. Property taxes just went up $600/year - I am beyond peeved. But health insurance is the kicker.

I really could care less about all of my little bills in comparison, but reminds me I am not too fond of our garbage/water/sewer bill. It is about $100/month. IT annoys me because the water is not metered and being very conservative I know if it was metered the bill would be much lower. They are getting around to metering it in the near future, but with a full family now. There were years I Was the only one living in the house and I have been paying well more than my fair share for a LONG time. Same with the garbage. We have the lowest rate because we have the smallest garbage can, but it is still crazy if you ask me. In the city I moved from water and garbage was dirt cheap - you were rewarded for conserving water and producing less garbage. So it bugs me here.

Well you got me started - LOL.

[tinapbeana]

when i lived in atlanta, they would only pick up your garbage if you put it in special bags the city sold for about 50 cents apiece. i think i generated a bag of trash every 2 weeks, because recycling was free!

[Elgin526]

I can't believe these water bills! I pay $23 a month or so. And garbage pickup is free (well, it comes out of our taxes, I should say!), they even let us sweep our leaves into the street in the fall, the just send out street cleaners to suck 'em all up! They also have "unlimited junk day" once a year, we can toss out as many large/unusual items as we want and don't pay extra.

Our electric isn't bad right now, but the 10 year rate freeze is about to end, so they anticipate that rates may jump 50% or more. I don't blame ComEd, after 10 years they should be able to raise rates a bit. If they'd been allowed to phase in rate increases slowely over time, we wouldn't see a huge jump all at once!

But the bill that anoys me the most is DH's truck payment. He bought it before we met, he was upside down on his trade in, so between what he owed already and the new loan, the payment is sky high! We can't even get rid of it because he's STILL upside down on the loan. We're stuck with it until it's paid off (another three years!).

[JanH]

Aside from the credit card bills, I think cell phone bills are too high. I love having the security of being able to contact the kids and Hubby, especially if we are traveling, but I don't use it otherwise. And I pay all kinds of extra fees and taxes on it. I also think my cable bill is too high. You can't pick the channels you actually watch and not have to pay for a channel that shows the lunch menu for another city's school's on it. I wish I could pay for just the channels I need.

[DayByDay]

Originally Posted by 34saving

Any bill that's wrong. The most common (lately) seem to be medical bills from offices that have incorrectly billed the insurance company. Anytime anybody in the family sees any doctor/dentist for any reason I give it a 1 in 3 chance that I'll have some phone calls to make to get things right. I've also had a misread gas meter, incorrrect newspaper bills, double billed garbage, etc. etc. I wonder how many people just pay the errors because they don't find them or don't have the time to fight.

I know exactly what you mean! The biggest nightmare for me lately has been AT&T:

I got a letter in the mail from them saying my 1-year contract for DSL was due to expire and I better call and tell them what I want or else I'll get automatically converted to $49.82/month-to-month. So I called, dealt with the phone menues, etc. Finally, I was connected to someone and told them I do not want my contract renewed and to cancel my service at the end of the term. I was told they cannot take my request to cancel yet because I called more than 30 days before my term expiration date!!!!! Had to call again the next month to cancel!

Later on my AT&T bill charged me $49.82 for the month I had NO service. Had to call again. Was told that it would automatically be credited back to me on my next bill. Got the next bill.....It never got credited back to me. Had to call AGAIN.

After a month of no DSL, I called AT&T to sign up for DSL again. Several times I had to tell the rep I wanted their DSL Express for $19.99/month. He confirmed my order.

The other day, while calling again to try to get the $49.82 charge off my bill, I found out that the new DSL service I ordered is wrong. I was told I have DSL Pro for $24.99! I explained that that was NOT what I ordered. I was told I had to be transferred to another department. I again explained the latest problem. Was told I was transferred to the wrong department. Got transferred again. Explained the problem all over about getting the wrong DSL service. The rep starts talking about the $49.82 charge instead. I said, "No, no no! Don't touch that! Someone else already helped me with that separate problem."

Also, I couple of months ago I called both AT&T and my long distance company to let them know I want separate bills from them so I will no longer be charged a "single bill service fee." All I accomplished was getting double-billed from both companies. Neither company seems to be able to fix the problem after several phone calls.

Can't wait to see my next AT&T bill.

[sakigt]

I dont really dislike any of my bills. I need a house and Im young, so my mortgage is acceptable. My electricity/cable bills arent too high, plus I split them with a roomie anyways. My car and health insurance is dirt cheap also. My credit card (with tuition/books on it) and student loan payments stink, but then again, school is very important to me.

I guess the only one that annoys me is my cell phone bill. Ive gotten it down to $40 a month, splitting an $80 bill with my mother. But combined we use 100 minutes a month. Even those pay as you go plans cost $1 a day + minutes, so even that isnt cheaper. Oh well.

[tinapbeana]

Originally Posted by Elgin526

I can't believe these water bills! I pay $23 a month or so. And garbage pickup is free (well, it comes out of our taxes, I should say!), they even let us sweep our leaves into the street in the fall, the just send out street cleaners to suck 'em all up! They also have "unlimited junk day" once a year, we can toss out as many large/unusual items as we want and don't pay extra.

we get it pretty easy in the world of trash. it is rolled up into our water/sewage bills and paid every 3 months, but it's like $8-15(?) each time. put out as much trash as you want. rake your leaves to the street and put your downed tree limbs out: they bring by a truck w/ a giant vacuum attachment and a frontloader! you can even put out large items (appliances, beds, yadda yadda) at no charge, as long as you call & let 'em know ahead of time so they can come prepared.

ironically: i recycle and compost almost everything and only generate a bag of trash every week or two. all big stuff gets donated or freecycled, so the yard debris is the only thing i can really take advantage of!