digging out of a stinky pile of debt after realizing we are well past fucked

Ah, so much for “luxury” apartments! The building we live in is almost exactly 6 months old. Just 6 wee months. And right now it appears that there is a problem with the roof of my building. Ah, fine American craftsmanship.

Construction workers with tall ladders and loud equipment are banging on something on the roof. Do I know for sure that they are on the roof? No. I do know that a really long ladder is leaning against the building outside of our window. And in my opinion that ladder goes to the roof. And all that banging I hear - what else could it be? Nevermind the fact that the group of workers were huddled outside the window looking up and pointing before getting the ladder out.

Considering the rain we’ve had the past few days I’m *really* glad to not be on the top floor.

This place really makes our previous luxury apartment seem like the Taj Mahal - except for all the fire alarms we had to deal with there. At least I’m assuming there are not rampant fire alarms going off at all hours at the Taj.

The Bumblefucked household always uses TurboTax for federal tax filing. It is super easy to use (we are not affiliated with Turbo Tax in any way).

If you want to use TurboTax you can get a 25% discount through the Fidelity website. You do NOT have to be a Fidelity customer to get this discount.

Check it out if you’re interested.

If you have a need for TurboTax Business 2009 you can download it for free at this link. You can download this if you used TurboTax Business last year, but this free version will NOT allow you to import in last year’s info. So, if you don’t mind keying it all in again you can use this for free!

It is only for Windows.

I just signed up and was approved for a new account with TradeKing. I logged into my account and was prompted with “Enchanced Security Registration” where I have to set up my security questions and answers. This is no shock as a lot of websites require it.

What I do hate is that I have to pick three of these and the choices are absolutely horrible.

Do people really remember the name of their college dorm and other stupid questions? I like sites that let me write the question. That makes it so much easier to remember.

If you are using ING Direct’s high yield savings account you may have seen people mentioning having sub-accounts setup in their ING account. This can be helpful if you have one savings account but you want to allocated it for different things like a vacation fund, a Christmas fund or a new car fund.

Setting up sub-accounts on ING is actually a pretty simple process.

Just log into your ING account. Click on the button to open a new account and select “savings account.” Give it a name, like “new car fund,” and fund the account using your existing ING account or linked checking account. Once the account is funded, you will be able to see it under “My Accounts.”

If you want to change the name of the sub-account just click “change nickname” while viewing the ING sub-account.

ING Direct is the main bank used by the Bumblefucked household. I think yo ucan’t go wrong with high yield savings and a checking account that also earns interest. Of course, these days the interest rate is laughable. But anyways, if you have an ING Direct account that you want to be able to manage with Quicken you can set that up real quick like.

You will need to open up Quicken on your computer and create a new account called ING (or whatever you want to call it) for your ING account. Be sure to select ING Direct from the list of banks.

Go through the New Account Assistant screens to get everything setup.

Once your account is created you want to click on “Lists” and the select the new account you just created so that you can edit it.

This is when you will need your ING login info to connect to the website and log into your account.

Click on the download button and key in the dates of the transactions that you want to download into Quicken.

Then you need to click on the Quicken button and select that you wanna download into an existing Quicken account. Clicking Continue enables the ING Web Connect and starts the download. And now, you will be all set for Quicken to connect with ING Direct each time you are in Quicken.

I have had a checking account since I was 16 and I have worked at two different banks in the past. I am well aware of the fact that sometimes when you deposit an out of state check that it can get held up a few extra days. What I was not aware of was that Wachovia takes advantage of this in an extreme way.

You see, yesterday we went to the bank to deposit a check for a few thousand that Riley had won in a contest. A contest done by a major magazine. The check was directly from said magazine. Well, as soon as the teller started asking questions I knew the check was going to be subject to a hold policy. The teller, or Sally Do-Gooder as I like to call her, just couldn’t wrap her mind around the fact that the check had “prize winner” listed and wanted to know if we had actually entered a contest and such. She told us that she did not know how long of a hold would be put on it.

After getting home I pulled up the account on the Wachovia website to see the funds release date listed as 12/03/09. And yes, I deposited it before the cut-off time yesterday, which was 11/17/09. I hoped that it was just a fluke and that the date would change after midnight processing.

Not only did I get up today to find that 12/03/09 is still the release date, but they have not even made the $100 available from it, which federal law dictates that they do.

We are taking a little trip to speak with the branch manager after lunch and hoping to at least get the hold time shortened.

UPDATE: A calm, friendly conversation with the branch manager got the entire amount of the check available immediately today.

I’ve mentioned before that, in my opinion, they rented out my apartment building here at the Parkland View luxury apartments in the Breingisville / Allentown area far too soon. I say this mostly because of all the things that have needed fixed since I moved in and the fact that they are still readying the parking lot! Yes, it is still not complete. It did get paved but they randomly started painting lines in the lot on Monday without telling anyone. So, we go to our car and there is a note on it that we need to move the car before Tuesday morning so that they can finish. It’s Thursday and they haven’t finished. But, on to today!

Now, on Sept. 28, 2009 I wrote about finding a construction worker with a hot plate on my patio. I was assured that it would not happen again. Well, about 45 minutes ago there was not one, but two construction workers on the patio! And they had a crock pot plugged into my electrical outlet! Riley opened the patio door and they were clearly surprised to see someone was at home. And they showed no signs of getting up until she actually said “can you leave?” to them. Amazing!

They probably just went to someone else’s patio when they left ours. They probably thought we were at work as it is obvious someone is living here since we have a bag of potting soil on the patio.

When you are paying almost $1000 a month to live in a “luxury” apartment this is really unacceptable. Nevermind the fact that is is not exactly a safe situation for women.

I signed up for Inbox Dollars about a year ago and get little “paid emails” from them every so often. The way that it works is that you get an email from them and when you click on the link in the email you get “paid.” Cash-out is at $30. You get mere cents for clicking on the links and make real money by completing offers, like a Netflix trial offer. I’ve been doing it since January 2009 and have almost $14 doing no offers and only clicks. So it is a long way to that $30. But, if you want to sign up, click on this link and get a free $5 to get you started. Anyways…

Just now I got an email from them that I went to click for cash and was humored when I opened it.

Note how the subject is “Paid Email from Inbox Dollars” yet it says “You will not receive a reward for completing this offer.” Clearly, they are confused.

I moved into my building at Parkland View the first week of September. It is now the first week of November and the area around my building is still under construction. Here’s what happened in October.

On Thursday, October 17th, we got the following email:

Parkland View tenants:

We are getting the roads repaired and re-paved. They are starting the repairing Monday the 19th and continuing on Tuesday the 20th. They are paving on Wednesday the 21st. They will be doing this in sections. We will let you know when they will be in your section. Please keep checking your email and we will keep you updated! Thank you! If you have any questions please feel free to call at the office!

Now, we never got another email about this whole paving thing. In fact, paving never happened that week. Flyers ended up getting posted on the door to the building only, but then there was some rain and the paving never happened.

On Thursday, October I woke up to a lot of noise outside and looked out to see the paving crew…and my car in the way. Imagine my surprise! I got dressed and ran outside to move the car and noticed a new note on the door that had to have been placed there after 5 p.m. (which was the last time we had entered the building). When I got back inside the phone was ringing….at 8:25 a.m. It was the apartment office asking me to move the car. I told that that I had just moved it and had not seen the note on the door as we had been in the apartment since 5 p.m. Supposedly an email was also sent out but neither of us received that one. Ah, gotta love the incompetence.

Keep in mind that my phone call was at 8:25 a.m. (before telemarketers are allowed to call you) - and the freaking paving didn’t start until after noon!!!!! What the hell? And of course, they stopped promptly at 5 p.m. and didn’t get much finished.

Friday afternoon we got the following email from the apartment office:

Attention Tenants!!! Due to the weather not cooperating with our paving schedule, we are sending out another schedule! Monday night please park your car behind the buildings. Again this is weather permitting! They will begin paving 7 am Tuesday morning! Thank you!

Yesterday, a note appeared on the door to the building telling us that paving would begin on Tuesday and to park behind the building.

Around noon today, I started hearing the paving trucks outside. Yep, they’re here and parked right in front of the building. Joy. So, I was sitting here waiting on a call from the office since my car is in the lot. That call just came.

Now, the story is that the paving for our building will be done tomorrow and that we can no longer park behind the building as they are going to pave that too. Instead, we have to park behind or on the side of the clubhouse. Why there? Because someone had the genius idea to also pave the circle entrance drive tomorrow, which means that the only way out of the complex is by building A, which is way the hell down at the far end of the complex.

Again, I wonder why this apartment complex thought it was a good idea to rent out apartments in buildings that were clearly not ready for habitation. I mean, for Christ’s sake, I’ve been here two months now and my building is still not complete, hence the paving tomorrow. I would advise anyone looking in this area to avoid Parkland View Apartments in Breinigsville, PA.

Nevermind that fact that, in my opinion, this place was thrown together quickly and shoddily. The door handle for our bathroom came off by itself yesterday. And the toilet paper holder is so barely attached to the wall that any time you move the roll it wants to fall out of the wall and onto the floor. And those are just the new problems as of this week.

Ah, Parkland View Apartments in Breinigsville, PA - I’m *so* glad that I have 10 more months left on my lease with you wankers.