Two ways I paid the Stupid Tax
I wasn't sure how to illustrated the whole stupid tax concept, so, um, here's this.
I've actually never read any of Dave Ramsey's books, but quite a bit of his stuff floats around the blogosphere; enough for me to pick up on his Stupid Tax concept (which is basically any really dumb financial decision you make).
It's always fun to read about other people's stupid decisions, so I thought I'd share two of mine.
1. BlueHost
(which I never used)
I used Dreamhost to run this blog, and a few years back, their service got kind of hicuppy. I was pretty patient about it at first, but after a really bad week, I got frustrated and signed up with BlueHost. I think I paid $100, which would have covered a year's worth of hosting*.
*that was when my blog was a lot smaller...$100 doesn't even cover one month's hosting now.
I know Bluehost is a good company and I knew the service would be good.
What I totally underestimated, though, is how complicated it would be to move everything from Dreamhost to Bluehost. I can do some back end things on my blog, but this was over my head.
This would have been no big deal if I'd had my wits about me enough to cancel my BlueHost package in the first 30 days. But somehow, that deadline slipped right by me, and so I ended up paying for a year of hosting that I never even used.
Anyway, Dreamhost has stepped up their game and I've had very little downtime in the last year or two, so I've decided to just hang out where I am.Although, now that I think about it, I might be paying a stupid tax by not shopping around to see if another web host could offer me a better price. If I could save a lot of money on my hosting, I could even pay someone to do the dirty work of moving my blog.
Hmmm.
2. A Slideshow Program
My photo-editing software library pretty much consists of....Picasa.
And that's all.
(I am sooo professional.)
Picasa does have a feature that allows you to make picture slideshows with music, but it was lacking some features that I wanted. And when my niece was stillborn (more on that story and the happy ending that came a few years later), I really wanted to make a lovely CD slideshow for her mom and dad, using the pictures I'd taken.
And at that point, I thought I wanted to spend more time doing photo sessions (I have since changed my mind), and I figured it would be a good tool for building my photography business.
So, I paid for the software (I think it was $100. My stupid taxes seem to always be $100!), and got to work, only to realize that the software only let you make slideshows to share on the web.
Oops.
I did eventually end up figuring out how to make Picasa do what I wanted it to do, so I gave my sister-in-law a CD slideshow after all, and I also made a scrapbook of the pictures.
In that sense, it all worked out fine in the end, but I do try to be a little more careful to pay attention to what I'm buying now!
So, there you go...two dumb things I did with my money.
Care to embarrass yourself along with me? Feel free to leave a stupid tax story of your own in the comments. 😉
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P.S. Gina is the winner of the $75 Cozy Wall Art giveaway. Congrats, Gina!
OMG, I'm having the SAME thing with Bluehost right now! The hoops they make you jump through to transfer a domain name away from them is beyond ridiculous. They do everything they can to keep you (and your money). I also paid the $100+ stupid tax with them. NOT doing it again this year!
I used online tutoring for a couple of months, but got too busy to keep up, and forgot to cancel it, and paid for three extra months at $20 a month. The other Stupid Tax I pay is when I forget to check to see if Amazon carries what I am going to order online, as I have paid for Amazon Prime, and shipping is free. A couple of times the "good" deal I got elsewhere loses its advantage when the shipping charges are added.
I always check Amazon first. Love the "Prime Eligible" feature to filter the choices . My Prime subscription has more than paid for itself, and I also am using Subscribe and Save for household items like toilet paper, dishwasher and laundry detergent, etc. after much research to make SURE these were less expensive than the grocery store with a coupon, or Sams Club.
You can also use another website to check to see if the price on Amazon is a good one. http://www.camelcamelcamel.com/ provides charts showing the price of items over time, and you can set up alerts so you pay the price you want to pay for things online.
I use a Chrome Extension called "Magic Hand." If you're on a site that has something for sale, it searches the web and alerts you if it's a better price elsewhere. You have to weigh that price against shipping and timing, but it has really helped me find the best deal.
My most recent stupid tax? I didn't realize a savings account we had would charge us below a certain amount and lost $20 before figuring it out.
Not as big of a tax, but Meijer will often have a "save $8 when you buy 8" of something and I meant to get 8 items to save the $8. I left and realized I had only bought 7 items. No discount for me. Doh!!
Thanks so much for sharing these. It's so easy to get frustrated about "not being perfect, like those people on the [internet/tv/magazines....]" because usually we get an idealized, edited version of Life.
My most recent stupid tax comes in the form of poor purchasing decisions. First, my BF bought me an oooooold (think 1950s) sewing machine and invested in total about $100. But I still can't use it, because (a) I don't know how, (b) it needs a little more work still, and (c) I have a feeling it's going to be more trouble than it's worth. I feel terrible about this one, because it's a gift to me.
My other stupid tax is a +$200 pair of jeans. Yes. But luckily, I still can return them!
I'm pretty sure everyone pays a Stupid Tax at least occasionally. I know one time I scheduled an online bill payment for the wrong day so I had to pay a late fee (on a credit card bill).
When I flew to a realtive's funeral a couple months ago I talked to an agent and she booked me a Compassion Fare. It was no cheaper than buying online but was more flexible. It was unlikely I needed the flexibility but when the bill came I paid $25 to book through an agent versus booking online myself. No mention was made to me of the fee but I just didn't feel like fighting over it.
I also lost money on a Groupon. The company went defunct and I tried to follow Groupons instructions on receiving a refund but when they didn't work I didn't contact them, I just ate it.
Unused Groupons. That's mine. Some friends were trying to plan one of those "wine and paint" parties, so I jumped on and bought the half-off groupon for $25. And then the plans fell through. And the Groupon expired. There were 2 other Groupons from this spring (total of $15 for those) that expired, too. I still feel rage-y thinking about all this, and I have unsubscribed from Groupon.
I have expired Groupons too, but you can always use the voucher for the amount you paid if it expires.
I've done something similar....I forgot to click the very last "confirm payment" button while paying a bill online so the payment didn't go through. I had to pay a late fee for that one. Ugh...too many clicks if you ask me!
Oh, I've done that before too. Just FYI, if you have a good history of paying on time, the company may give you a grace refund of the late fee...so if it ever happens again, try calling and politely asking.
It's truly amazing what you can get, just for asking politely.
I can relate. I just paid a late fee when I signed up for automatic payments for a credit card, but I forgot one leetle number in the bank routing number. So nothing got withdrawn until I finally figured it out. Sheesh!
I signed up for a discount veggie box delivered to my house, but forgot to cancel it and another full-priced one turned up at my house the next week. Since I live alone, that was a lot of food to eat up!
Oh one very expensive ($1500 plus) treadmill I bought years ago when I was in my twenties and was sure I would use every.single.day.of.my.life....comes to mind here.
It became a VERY expensive coat/cloth hanger instead...I sold it for a good price later but still lost a bunch of money.
The gym... which I finally cancelled after 2 years of almost no use! It was cheap so I convinced myself that it was a FAT tax!
I am just about to cancel my gym membership as well. I can't remember the last time I was there-just throwing money away every month!
Oh, so many Stupid Taxes I've paid....lately, two smallish ones come to mind. My hubby needed appropriate clothing for job interviews, but doesn't need a suit, so we went shopping and found a lovely pair of dress slacks + jacket. I tried to press out the wrinkles in the slacks, and ended up "scorching" them near the hip pocket (it's "shiny" where I scorched it, not dark or brown). It's really hidden by the jacket, but the hubs is too self conscious to wear them (I really do understand).....so, that's $40-50 down the drain. Plus he needs to go buy another pair of dress slacks. The second one was the Halloween costume debacle for my son....he wanted to be Mickey Mouse, but none of our local stores except the temporary "Halloween costume" type stores carried that particular costume - they do not accept returns. We ordered one online, then the hubs decided he liked a different one better, we bought the wrong size, etc etc - long story short, we ended up with three costumes, none of which could be returned (my husband and son liked the mouse ears hat from one costume, and the "body" of a different costume. ) Ridiculous, all because we didn't pay attention and compare notes before we bought anything. My son had a great time as Mickey for the day, but next year will be different. It drives me crazy paying the Stupid Tax, when I try so hard to save money and be frugal. Having said that, I know I'm not perfect, and glad to know I'm not the only one.:-)
I've often thought if only I could recoup all of the "stupid taxes" to use your words I've "paid" in my life I could take a wonderful vacation!
But then, I try and remember all of the things that worked out in my favor--saving me money. Like the neighbor who removed our azalea stump for us (that would have cost a lot of money); the guy who ground a stump for us (would have cost about $300, but we ended up not needing to pay--long story); the friend who loaned us a Halloween costume so we didn't need to buy one; the 20% discount I got on my entire food order yesterday since I got my flu shot at the grocery store...etc. So I hope it balances out all of the "stupid taxes."
You are really right KS!!!! Good choices are awesome! I got my flu shot too, that one caught my eye. (I missed 2 weeks worth of work last year and countless associated expenses) I never missed a flu shot before last year and will never one again!
If I only had a dime for every stupid tax I've paid! I'm happy to report I am making fewer poor choices these days.
There was the $1.200 on room filtration devices because my daughter has horrible asthma. We found that dusting twice or three times a week was a free and better alternative. (I donated the air filters last month to Salvation Army)
The unused gym memberships. The juicer. The all in one home gym. Paying the mortgage company $25 to TAKE my money by phone (that one REALLY kills me!)
My most recent involves library fines, which I am notorious for racking up. However, I borrowed library materials from another town. I was developing homeschooling curriculum for my kids-trying to save a few bucks instead of purchasing a ready-made program. Well, forgot about the materials and ended up with $75 in fines!!!!!!! Now that is a stupid tax. I paid my fine and I have learned my lesson. (mostly)
Nancy,
Download your books from the library ( to your computer or tablet). When they expire, the books magically go away, no late fees.
Thanks for the reminder! I have a package sitting by the front door that I need to call about and try to return, I just haven't done it yet for no good reason.
You know the girl at the mall that just wants to buff your nail? To show you how shiny it can be? Yeah her. I bought the whole line......hook, line, and sinker as my Dad says. Waaaaay too much money to "erase the wrinkles". Hopefully it will really work.
I bought that too! 🙂 But I liked it as an alternative to nail lacquer - I am terrible at painting my nails.
Walmart sells a similar nail buffer for under $2. It made my day when I discovered that. And since then, I have found them at my local dollar store for $1.
My stupid taxes are probably too numerous, but on the picture editing front, I have two suggestions in case you need them in the future: Windows Movie Maker is free to download on the Microsoft site and I used it to make a wedding slideshow with music on a DVD for my brother's wedding this summer (though I ended up using an older version of it because the newer version seemed to be a little glitchy on my computer). Also, if you want more picture editing capabilities, try out GIMP, which is an open source program very similar to Photoshop. There are lots of programs out there for free if you type in what you want and opensource.
I bought photoshop and could never figure out how to use it correctly. I gave it away to my sister and then had to pay someone to complete the photo collage I needed.
1. Signed up for an efax service to send one fax and didn't cancel it for 18 months - hello totally wasted $189.36, I really should have just paid the post office's exorbitant one off charge.
2. Paid for hosting & domain name registration for a potential client who didn't end up selecting me to do the work. I cancelled straight away but what a waste of money.
3. This isn't really a stupid tax but just not paying attention to actual costs. I got all excited the other day because I found a bag of 20 pigs ears' for the dogs for $39.95 and thought I got a great bargain. Yeah, I pay $10 for 5 so actually only saved myself 5c. Granted I would have ended up spending that anyway, but I'm glad I didn't go through with my thought to buy 2 while they were a "good price".
Unused gym memberships seem classic. I am sure there are others. One year we put down a deposit on a condo because we thought we would lose it. We had not thought thru any of it and could not go, money gone.
I forgot to renew my College of Nurses membership on time and payed over $100 in late fees. In my defence they said nothing about renewal being in December when I signed up after graduating in June. I figured I had paid for a full 12 months. Still it was expensive.
Hmmmm...I think I could call my two years of eHarmony "stupid tax." Most recently however, I paid for an extra month of my "between jobs" health insurance because I was too lazy to make the phone call to cancel the last month. That cost me about $78.
HoHo Sarah, this one made me laugh (sympathetically, of course)! I was single until I was 54. I used eH off and on over the years. I did not find my DH there, though. My take on eH is that it helped me learn how to spot "The One" when he finally came along.
Side note: I used to pray like crazy over this. The answer that always came back was "He's busy right now". Didn't like it, didn't understand it. Turns out the man sent to me was a recent-ish widower. He really was busy all those years. So, please don't give up hope and don't think of eH as a stupid tax. Maybe more like tuition. Good luck to you!
I met my husband on eHarmony. When my coworkers convinced me to sign up, I was sure it was a waste of money. It's the best $50 I ever spent. 🙂 It turns out the my husband signed up because his twin met his wife on there too. I only paid for a one time 3 month membership but my husband paid for over 2 years of fees. I'm so thankful he didn't give up. 🙂
I had to think for a while about my most recent stupid taxes . . . I think I have been making an effort to not have to pay those, but they still creep up from time to time. For example - the other day I got an overdraft fee. In my defense, I thought a check I mailed a month ago was lost. I was considering paying the fee to cancel it, when *poof* it got cashed and put my account in the negative. Oops! Then the one day I *had* to park my car, and I *knew* I was short on the meter. Yes, there was a ticket when I can came out later. I guess I can only be mad at myself here and my lack of foresight to bring actual change with me.
Then there was the bottle of milk from the store the other day. Even though I had two gallons in the cart, I ended up buying my son a single serve (expensive) bottle of milk. He had been good, we were running errands, and I hated to say no when he had really asked for nothing else and been very patient. Still it feels like a stupid tax. If I hadn't been in such a rush to get things done, I could have avoided the cost altogether and given him a drink before we left. Grrrr!
On the day of my last swimming lesson, I paid for one month fee to use the swimming pool for me / my family. $145 later, I didnt go there even once. I should have just paid for a one time use on the day of last lesson as I certainly knew of my self-disciplined (NOT!) ways.
Lesson learnt:: Wishful thinking is good, only when there's no money spent on it.
the most recent that comes to mind: $6.50 in fees for $20 withdrawal from an ATM that doesn't belong to my bank. All because I needed cash for a slice of pizza. That slice of pizza ended up costing $8.50. Never again.
I hope it was REALLY good pizza!
I don't want to sound competitive, but I think I have everyone beat: we put $10,000 on a house and then I realized I hated it. I really agreed to it because I watched my husband look around when we walked in and say softly, "My mother would be so proud that I could afford this house." My heart broke hearing him want affirmation from a woman who still criticizes him for "wasting" his money on a Ph.D. when other jobs pay more than he earns as a teacher. I just wanted to make him feel proud. When I finally confessed why I agreed, it was too late to get the earnest money back, so we just ate it.
Lindsey,
I wouldn't consider that a stupid tax, but more of a soft-hearted tax. And if being soft-hearted is a crime, then count me in as a fellow perpetrator. 🙂
Ok, you get the crown, hands down!
Lindsey you are a wonderful wife, and our teachers are vital, appreciated, but underpaid. My dad was a teacher in the Chicago public high schools and he was a intelligent and wonderful-guy, too. The right home will come along-the money hurts, but it may have been a blessing in disguise.
I found that story very touching. I know it's hard to lose so much money, but the love you showed your husband is beyond price.
Really stupid tax story is I had an account with Ameritrade which I lost track of, and the company went bankrupt. How could this happen you say? All's I can say in my defense it was work, getting my child to and from school, picking up from the after-school program, cooking, school projects, weekend soccer, homework, ect, It was a loss of 700 x $100 really really dumb. The only consolation prize is that I can use the deduction on my taxes. Sigh. Don't sweat the small stuff. On that note, I'm always interested in the way many of you are really mindful to avoid food waste. That is great, and I share that goal, also. At the end of the week, however, I don't have any regrets. All of us work hard to provide our families with healthy and varied meals, and to avoid unnecessary waste, but life is too short to feel guilty and take photos. Love the blog!
Argh! Not 700 x 100, but 70 x 100. A very stupid tax
Wait... you pay over $100/month just to host this blog?!? I rent an entire server with 5TB of bandwidth and a 100mbps port for that amount! I have about half a dozen sites on my server - several of which are highly taxing image hosting sites with lots of traffic and high bandwidth usage, and I could easily handle 10x the traffic I currently get. Methinks you could be getting a better deal!
Mine is actually my husband's.... while visiting our families in our home state, he renewed our membership to the children's museum---2 more years---did I mention that we were on our way to moving to the UK for 4 years, where we knew we wouldn't be able to visit our home state much (if ever)? Oops... he isn't allowed to renew memberships anymore! 😉
You might be able to put the membership on hold - call the museum, explain you're moving out of the country for a few years, could you please put the account on hold till you return? (Then don't forget the account number, or keep the confirmation email/letter.)
Or maybe you could transfer your membership to someone else?
I budgeted for a lot of stuff when I bought a house in August, but failed to budget for the stupid taxes that came with it.
There was the $35 cat door I ordered in July that doesn't fit quite right. The packaging is long gone and I am way past the return period anyways.
There was the $27 bedskirt I bought to spruce up my new bedroom, which didn't really go with my bedding, and which is non-returnable on the website I purchased it from. I failed to read the return policy before ordering.
There were the $20 electronic mice repellant devices that hummed loudly and bothered one of the cats and which I couldn't return because I threw out the packaging weeks before I actually tried to plug them in.
Most expensive: the $100 jigsaw I bought for a project only to find out that I struggled to handle it and ruined 2 of the blades in the process. A friend did the job for me with his own saw. For free.
Most embarrassing: Paying $60 for a service call for a plumber because my bathtub was taking forever to drain only to find out I had left the flapper up. Duh!
My stupid tax is clothes - whenever I'm worried about my work I obsess about whether I've got the right clothes to wear to a meeting etc and end up buying something else! Stupid yes! Not actually tackling my worry about work and just costing me money.
Welcome to the club: me, too. After spending my 20's only ever shopping Goodwill and discount racks, in my 30's I had a good job and needed clothes for customer calls. Also, I wanted to look professional, and in my 20's I could get away with funky and unique whereas in my 30's I needed to look professional. If I add up all the outfits that were uncomfortable, I would guess over the 'lost clothing decade' it would total $4000. I know for some that's not much, and for others it's a fortune. For me, I am sorry for the waste, and I now in my 40's try to keep my wardrobe minimal and always comfortable.
Jury is out on whether Bluehost will be a stupid tax or not for me. At the time, I was super excited and paid for 3 years worth. Yeah, probably not the best idea unless I stick with them for the whole 3 years. If I managed to do that though, I'll have saved a decent amount on the monthly hosting cost.
I do this more often than I care to admit. Probably the most common is buying a duplicate of something because I either can't find it, or didn't know I already had the item!
Want to hear something ironic? I paid $100 for a year subscription to Dave Ramsey I only used a few times. Our church promised to foot the bill if you brought them your completion certificate. I didn't quite get my completion certificate...so I was stuck with the $100 bill. : )
Ok, that's funny!
Hmmm. Stupid Taxes:
A month before I moved from South Louisiana to Reno, Nv I went to the eye doctor (America's Best). KNOWING there wasn't one in Reno I still signed up for a THREE YEAR MEMBERSHIP- it gives a discount for people who don't have vision insurance and is a good deal if you use it. Thinking "oh yeah I'll just go to the eye doctor when I go home to visit family" yeah... no... hasn't happened yet. Ate $139.00 but at least I have vision insurance now that I'm married
I'm sure I've conveniently forgotten my stupid tax moments. My husband and I were gifted a Dave Ramsey course before marriage, and it has been enormously helpful. (I wanted to suggest you obfuscate the restaurant name from the adorable photo of Zoe, to avoid negative association with the brand. In my feed reader, I see the title if the post next to the first photo in this post. So, it looked like the restaurant mentioned on the cup was associated with the idea of stupid tax.)
Ooo I enjoy this post Kristen. 🙂
My stupid tax is delaying to change my cellphone contract to Prepaid one for years. The good news is I finally did it last month.
By the way, per recommendation of our videographer friend, we have been using Pinnacle Studio video editing for years and like it.
I have been too tired/busy to get my lunches fixed for the week, so yesterday and today I will have to purchase my lunch at work. I WILL make it tonight (for the remainder of the week)!!!
Even tho it has cooled down considerably in the evenings, I still haven't shut down my a/c. Another thing I need to do tonight.
🙁
I'm sure I'm doing something stupid right now that I haven't even realized yet...
My take on this subject is the same as the one I hold for parking tickets. Try not to get them, but if it happens, just pay it quickly and forget about it. No one is ever going to get every.single.thing.right, so why beat yourself up? If you have a steady frugal lifestyle, a little bobble here or there is not going to break you. Some of these comments are indeed doozies, but overall, everyone deserves a pat on the back for keeping their "stupid" stored in a small, (repurposed) container.
My biggest stupid tax came after a visit to the library. I was a new mom and as I approached my car with baby in car seat carrier, diaper bag, and stack of books in tow. I set my stack of books on the car roof and proceeded to load my baby boy into the car. Then I proceeded to drive home . . .
When I arrived home I could not find my library books. (DOH!) I rushed back to town (20 minute drive back) and found my books scattered throughout the snowing, slushy streets leading to the library. One was unscathed, two had telltale tire marks over a two-page spread, three were . . .well . . . unrepairable.
Stupid tax = buying books I destroyed before reading.
On the other hand, at least you put the most precious cargo in the car! 😉
We just had our septic located and pumped for around $500. They had to pull part of our deck up to get to it (stupid tax caused by people who originally owned the house.) When it came time to pay, I asked did they take credit card because hey, why not earn points since we pay it off each month? Yes they did, so I gave over my card and signed my name. My stupid tax: Not reading the fine print, which stated there would be a % fee for using credit card. Ugh. They are a local, very reputable company, and it was written right there by where I signed my name.
My most recent one is discovering that I'd left the floor tiles in my bathroom heating for almost a year! All because no instructions came with the device when we moved in here, and I couldn't figure out if it was on or off. If I'd gone online and looked up the instructions when I we first moved in, I could have saved a year's worth of tile-heating (including all summer, when cold tiles would have been kind of refreshing...)
Ooh, bummer! And yes, cold tiles are awesome in the summertime. Not so much in the winter, though (we don't have heated tiles.)
Hi Jan,
I'm over here with my hand waving in the air. This happened to us, too. Fortunately, it only took two cycles to figure it out. Let me guess - Was yours a short sale with no instruction manuals included??
We still can't figure out why the &^%$# alarm beeps at the same time every day and won't stop until you press the cancel button... I've heard it's something the alarm companies do to goad you into continuing their service, but it sure is irritating and I wonder if it's even legal...