Stop Effing Yelling at Me!

I hate our new UPS lady. I get a package delivery at least once a week now that we are in the holiday season and her thing is to swing our downstairs door open, yell "UPS!!!!" and chuck packages into our stairs. Not onto, into. I got dog/cat food last week and it was fucked up, the box was super dented. Sure that could have happened in transit but I doubt it.

I get that I sometimes get crazy heavy things but part of the job of a UPS delivery person is lifting said crazy heavy things.

For reasons unknown to me, she must get bored and started putting things in front of the downstairs door. The downstairs door goes to the first floor apartment owned by my brother-in-law and he rarely uses it. I didn't know about a package my mom had sent as a gift until days after it had been sitting there because of it.

I don't even know how to complain about this. My husband also recently found a package sitting on the ground next to where he pulled in. He gets home when it is pitch black out now thanks to Daylight Saving Time and I was damn lucky he didn't smash it because it was part of something for my Reddit Secret Santa that wasn't easily replaced. That one was USPS, so I'm not quite sure if they are taking hints from new UPS lady or what.

I looked up getting a package locker so that they know where to put things but the cheapest one I found was $200, it isn't super super secure and one of the delinquents on my street could easily walk off with it. I suppose they could easily walk off with the packages too but they haven't so far.

I bet it doesn't help that my dog is pretty aggressive with the UPS people. She liked the guy from a few years ago but the one that replaced him and now this woman are not her friends. She'd never hurt them, but she runs out the dog door and barks like mad at them. From their perspective, they are out here on a weekly basis and she's being a pest, so I wonder if it is irritating for them or if they are used to it.

I know I can't tip them so I'm not quite sure how to express my gratitude that they allow me to have items delivered to my home that make my life easier, but this lady is quickly earning my ire rather than my favor.

This Is Not A Deal Blog

I consider myself somewhat frugal (says the woman who just spent $300 on a phone*) and I've gotten a little ribbing for this.

I don't usually buy something without price matching it. I am a pain in the ass when it comes to this and I know I've tested my husband's patience more than once because I have to check things.

Frugal doesn't mean cheap. It means smart. I didn't grow up with a ton but we didn't go without because my mom was frugal. She clipped coupons and planned shopping trips and got us things we needed for holidays, not just toys. Most of what I've gotten my son that I've managed to not open and give to him straight away is practical stuff because I know his relatives will be getting him clothes and toys and what have you.

There are sites like Slickdeals.net that I'll browse but I find that sometimes, people get overwhelmed with "deals" and buy things they don't need. My house is way too small and packed with stuff already. I don't need to wind up on Hoarders clutching a mountain of toilet paper.

I see some people in my life who absolutely suck at finances and I want to help them but I feel it is overstepping my boundaries. Not everyone is comfortable with a financial system. I personally use Microsoft Money and my bank's online banking. That's it. No magic involved. Microsoft Money is free to download as it is no longer supported (*sniff sniff*) and I personally don't use it for anything but balancing my account. It is really handy for categorizing purchases and seeing where your money goes.

I love the "split" option, for example if I order on Wag/Diapers/Soap.com and get say, $50 worth of diapers and wipes, $30 worth of cleaning stuff and $50 worth of dog or cat food, I can split the transaction into those three categories.

I also use my PayPal Debit Card for almost every purchase I make. 99.9999% of my purchases are online as my husband pays from our joint bank account. I'm not a fan of credit cards, having fallen into the "trap" at a very young age and spending years digging myself out, so I only use debit cards. I don't like cash because I lose it, but I occasionally have some of that on hand too. The PayPal Debit Card gives me 1% back monthly which isn't a lot, but since I'm feeding in a lot of our household expenditures into it, I get a nice little bonus.

The only trick is matching stuff up - it comes through on my bank as just "PayPal" and sometimes there is a bit of a delay, so I do have to keep on top of it.

I also use sites like Ebates to get more cash back from my usual online shopping places. Unfortunately Amazon doesn't really do cash back year-round but they occasionally do. I'm an Amazon Prime member which means that many items they sell are able to be shipped in two business days. It is $79 a year and paid for itself over and over, especially when I had under the $25 total for "Free Super Saver Shipping".

*Said phone is the Galaxy Note II in white for my husband who requested it even before he knew our carries (Verizon) would be getting it. I saved up and purchased it today for him, it should be here next week and I'll be getting his old-new Google Nexus phone that was ordered a couple months ago after his 3 year old Droid X was "misplaced" at his work.

Peas in a Pod

My inagural post is of course, one about complaining. I hope it doesn't set the tone for the whole blog, but I needed to get it out somewhere.

I occasionally use the grocery service Peapod. For those unaware, it allows you to order groceries online and have them delivered to your house. I'm also a big user of Amazon Prime for things that are harder to find or more expensive locally, so the UPS and FedEx guys know my house well.

Peapod is different. They will lure you in with "FREE DELIVERY" and things of that nature. Where I live, the grocery store paired with them is Stop and Shop. I don't mind Stop and Shop so much, we have a "Super" one in our town and while it is close, we are a one car family and I don't drive. I'm working on this but even so, Keenan doesn't get back from work until 6:30 and the idea of carting an infant around a grocery store doesn't exactly appeal to me right now.

Having groceries delivered seemed like an ideal solution, especially since I am still in the post-op recovery period after my c-section to get my stubborn kid out. I sat in my living room and looked at the ad online and added things to the Peapod cart. I saw an ad for "30 cents off gas" if you bought six items in a category and there were things in the category we normally use, so I added those too. Stop and Shop does gas points - some stores, like mine, have gas stations and they are also partnered up with Shell gas stations to offer these discounts. You get a point for every dollar spent and 100 points equals 10 cents off gas per gallon. I try to be frugal and spending $100 isn't unheard of for groceries in my house but I try to keep it lower than that, so when one of their "X cents off gas" deals pops up for items I actually use, I go for it. Keenan drives about 50-60 miles round trip to work so any money saved on gas is nice.

After sending the login info to Keenan to go over the list, we checked out and I agreed on a delivery time. Unfortunately it was on a day he was working late and wouldn't be home to help me put the groceries away. I figured I could handle it as long as the delivery guy brought the items up the stairs for me since we live on the second floor.

I didn't have free delivery and paid $6 for that. I did, however, get a dollar off because I use "direct check" - linking my bank account to the service. My total was a little over $85. I didn't get a ton of items but I did get things we needed.

Keenan and I agreed on a $3 tip and I set the cash aside on a shelf so I'd remember when the guy came.

A text message arrived the next morning updating me on my delivery window - they'd be there between 6:30 and 8:30PM. I went about my day and the kid was asleep just after 6. Great, that way I wouldn't have a crying baby and a rowdy dog to deal with.

I heard the delivery truck pull up and put the dog out back, shutting the door so she couldn't get through the dog door. I waited at the top of the steps and the doorbell rang. The downstairs door was unlocked, but the guy was just standing there. It's pretty clear that there are steps that go up, but it was also clear that he had no desire to open the door. I figured "maybe it is policy not to" and slowly went downstairs in my sweats and t-shirt.

When I opened the door, he stared at me and I greeted him. He looked around and started grabbing the bags he'd set on the outside steps and looking for somewhere to put them. At this point I realized there'd be no help from him getting things up the stairs, so I moved over and told him he could set things on the steps. I'll admit to not using Peapod a lot but every time I have in the past, the delivery guys have always offered to bring whatever I ordered up the stairs for me. I typically decline as I'm stubborn but the one time I needed it, the guy just did not seem interested in doing anything.

I still tipped him, because hey, he probably makes ten bucks an hour and he did bring eight or so bags up my driveway, but I wasn't too thrilled about attempting to carry probably more than my ten pound weight restriction up my stairs. I did manage to do it but only put the "cold stuff" away and left everything else out while I went to shower.

Oh it doesn't end there. Nope.
A couple days later, I was REALLY excited to eat some strawberries and kiwi. Fresh fruit was a big craving of mine while pregnant and unfortunately after the pregnancy, I haven't had much of an appetite. I'm breastfeeding, so obviously eating is very important to fuel that and while I'm not eating bad food, I do have to force myself to eat a lot, so really wanting something was surprising in a good way.

No sooner did I grab the carton did my face fall. There was a big splotch of mold on the bottom. Many four letter words came out of my mouth when I looked at the top and saw a huge patch all over a nice juicy strawberry in the center of the carton as well. The kiwis were okay, but dammit. I tossed the strawberries in the trash and walked into the bedroom to complain to my sleepy husband.

I wish I could say this is the first time this has happened. I get that someone else is shopping for me and they are probably trying to get their oldest produce rotated out but I feel that is like sticking it to the consumer. I am kicking myself for not checking things but I don't even know if there would have been recourse if I had seen the condition they were in when the guy dropped them off. Could I have refused to take them? I don't know.

Either way, I won't be using Peapod again. Between the unhelpful delivery guy and this latest produce incident, I guess I'll be carting around an infant and a husband to the grocery store.