Amazon.com Sucks

I wanted to make sure everyone knew about Amazon's customer unfriendly practices. If you are frugal like me, you pay attention to prices. Well, I placed an order for a satellite radio with Amazon last week. A couple of days after placing my order, the price of the radio dropped by 10%. I contacted Amazon immediately and asked them to match the new price. Their response?

"We do not do that."

But what do they do? I can return the radio and re-order it at the lower price. And, Amazon will pay the return shipping.

That's absurd. Amazon still sells me the product at the lower price, but also has to shoulder the cost of return shipping. I have to wait for the new product to arrive.

How is this customer service?

Back Home

Enjoyed myself in the Tampa Bay area but it's good to be back home... I have lots of things I'm trying to get rid of. We looked at several houses but found nothing. At least I have some idea about the neighborhoods I want to live in and the prices I should expect to pay.

The rest of this week I plan to clean up the car so that it is ready to sell. I also will post more items to sell on ebay. Finally, I might look into mail services like The UPS Store. I'm considering moving to Florida now and living in an extended stay place, but would need to have someone aggregate and ship my mail to me. That's the only disadvantage to having rental properties - making sure all my checks get to me. I really wish there was an easy way to require my tenants to pay me electronically.

My Frugal Miser - May Expenses: $2,276

I wish every month was like May. I "only" spent $2,276 yet I enjoyed myself and didn't feel like I was sacrificing anything. Considering half that went to mortgages (both my house and my rentals), I didn't spend much, and that's with gas prices near $4 a gallon.

May Expenses

$410 Auto ($230 for fuel, $180 for depreciation)

$0 Bank Fees
$0 Clothing
$151 Food
$37 Entertainment (movies, gambling, alcohol)
$0 Gifts Given

$0 Household
$100 Health Insurance
$0 Medical
$149 Interest on Debt (not including Mortgage Interest)
$0 Miscellaneous
$414 Mortgage Interest (primary residence)
$791 Mortgage Interest (rental properties)
$0 Personal Care

$0 Subscriptions
$0 Taxes
$223 Utilities
$0 Vacation

Total May Expenses : $2,276

Notes

• My food budget was low because I was still at the restaurant most of May. It will probably be higher than that in future months.
• On the other hand, I was driving 90 miles to work each day, so my spending on fuel should go down (except in June since I drove to Tampa and back).
• Interest expense will benefit moving forward from me paying off the car loan.

My Frugal Miser - May Income: $7,973

May was another good month for income, even though I worked at the restaurant nearly the entire month without being paid. Mystery shopping improved and two of my tenants paid their June rent in May. I also sold quite a few things in preparation for the move to Florida.

May Income
$644 Mystery Shopping
$5,660 Rental Income

$000 Salary
$1,669 Other Sources
$7,973 Total Income for May


Notes:

• The category "Other Sources" includes non-recurring (or semi-recurring) income since I always seem to have a little something that doesn't fall into the other buckets. Last month I sold some assets as I start planning to move and earned some income from online activities.