Saturday 6 April 2013

Another one of life's lessons...

They say women marry men who are like their fathers. As Husband and my father get on very well, I can definitely appreciate some similarities. I did not realise, apparently women also marry men who are like their grandfathers. My mother's father was born in 1920 and grew up during the Great Depression. When he was 18, he joined the army and later fought in World War II. Both events had a profound influence on the rest of his life. He refused to waste anything. Many people turn bottles upside down to get out an extra serving or two, he would cut open a plastic bottle of ketchup to spoon out the accumulation in the corners. He would cut into a near empty tube of toothpaste and insert his toothbrush to scrape our every last bit. He would check the change bin every time he passed a pay phone or vending machine trying to find any unclaimed coins. He always insisted on getting value for his money. When I was 8 years old, we went to an all-you-can-eat buffet. He itemised the food on my plate and sent me back to get more so that he'd come out ahead of what he paid. This didn't include the dinner rolls and packages of crackers that he had my grandmother stuff in her purse. I actually still cut up bottles of shampoo or lotion in order to stretch out as much as I can, not out of necessity, but as a way to honour the memory of my grandfather and his greatest generation. It appears Husband does his part to give tribute by refusing to pay for anything that he doesn't have to.

He recently went on his own to pay our taxes. I was quite grateful that I didn't have to give up any precious time on a weekend to listen to the accountant at H&R Block coo over Husband's accent and comment how he sounds like the Geico Gecko. We actualy ended up getting money back from the state of California, which is almost unheard of, but ended up owing the Feds $34.00. He had the option to pay with a credit card at that time, which carries a 2% surcharge. Not wanting to pay one penny more, he took the return home, wrote out a cheque and placed it in our postbox. Long story short: someone stole the return from the box and we became victims of identity theft.

Epilogue: Thanks to attentive personal at XYZ bank who worked with the post office, the thief was apprehended and an arrest was made. He did however manage to change all the contact information in Husband's online bank account and set up new bill pays and he ordered a set of cheques with his name and mine. We had to change all our accounts and order all new credit cards and signed up for Lifelock. Huge inconvenience and hassle, but it could have been much worse.

Once we figured out how the breech of security occurred, I was infuriated with Husband's thriftiness. It's a family joke that I don't like to do maths before 9 AM, but I could have easily figured out that 2% of 34 dollars is 68 cents. Seriously, you can't even get a pack of gum for 68 cents. For 68 cents, we could have been done and dusted with our 2012 tax return. Honesty, they could have charged me 6 dollars and I would have paid it just for the privilege of not having to think about the tax return anymore.

So what, if anything did we learn from all of this? Firstly, pay everything online and if we are sending anything out containing a cheque (reminder to self to send little Myrtle's christening gift) take it directly to the post office. This was the most expensive 68 cents we ever saved.





11 comments:

  1. I've had identity theft as well, and M is absolutely paranoid about it. He shreds everything, and refuses to do anything online unless it's absolutely necessary because he doesn't trust the security of computer systems. I'll have to use this as an example of a time when it's actually better to do things the fast electronic way! We usually end up waiting forever to do things the old fashioned paper, get-in-line way and it drives me absolutely nuts!

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    1. My husband shreds everything too, so we found it ironic that he was victimised, but this was a case when his cheapness outweighed his security savvy

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  2. Ugh. I can't believe you had to go through that over 68 cents. I always mail stuff from a post office, but that's mostly because our mailman never picks up our outgoing mail for some reason. That is so fantastic that they caught they guy. One of my former neighbors turned out to be a thief and stole money from the bank accounts of other neighbors. Even with all the information and proof of who did it, the police won't do anything about it. I guess they have better things to do or he didn't steal enough money. I don't know. It seems a little crazy to me that he just gets to get away with it.

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    1. It was alarming for us, as there have been some break in around our neighborhood, we realised that thieves can enter without getting in the house. I can't believe the police in your area didn't prosecute!

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  3. Oh I'm sorry for the identity theft! I am always fearful that something like that will happen to us. I'm afraid it's only a matter of time. My husband is the exact opposite! He doesn't think it will ever happen to him and be careless about stuff like that. I'm the one that shreds everything! I'm glad it was relatively easy to get it cleared up, although quite inconvienient I'm sure. Also glad they caught the moron who did it!

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    1. Especially since Husband is so careful, I had the 'it's only a matter of time' attitude, you almost expect it will happen to you eventually. I can't really blame him for posting the cheque in the postbox, as who really thinks that someone is going to steal your mail? It's the fact that he was too cheap to pay 68 cents. I mean I know we're saving up for IVF an all...

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  4. oh my gosh that sounds sooo stressful! so sorry you had to deal with that! it gave me anxiety just reading about it!!

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    1. It could have been so much worse, just can't beleive he's so damn cheap!

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  5. Actually, I just realised that with the cost of a stamp, his savings was only 22 cents...

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  6. Mu husband once refused to buy new sunglasses when one of the stems broke off the pair he had. He continued to wear the one-stemmed sunnies, despite the fact that he looked like a cyborg at certain angles, because they were still functional. THAT is taking thrifty a little too far (although I also cut my toothpaste tubes). :)

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  7. Oh my gosh, I am like your husband. I have a need to save every last penny too. I am working on it though.... :) I hope everything got taken care of with the identity theft. I would worry that something might show up down the road.

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