Rudely Awoken......

I was sound asleep at 6:30 am when the telephone rang.  It's right beside me, so picked it up and it was a voice recording telling me that someone was trying to use my credit card for an E-Bay transaction and an international transaction.

In my sleep induced stupor I thought "NOPE!" and hung up the bloody phone........by this point though my mind is now working overtime, as yes I had made an International purchase.......thank you Mark's and Spencer's for having a 20% off sale😁  However I never ever use E-Bay.

So I get up and call my credit card company to double check and everything is fine.  I hate those stupid scam calls......

We do still have a home phone..........not sure for how long though........they will be a thing of the past no doubt before long!  Do you have a home phone line?

Well that's not nice!

Someone has hacked into my credit card and used it!

It turns out this has been going on since February 23rd and my credit card company only alerted me yesterday, when something called Instacarts, decided to try and get $1500.00 for the THIRD time.  Luckily they had failed the first two times, but they were "lucky" the third time. UberEats also got through a couple of times. A few other things tried to get through but didn't.

All these charges are from companies I have never ever used or even know about, and I am sure the credit card company knows that.  I may have to sign an affidavit to say none of these are my charges the guy said as the $1500.00 one is quite large.  He told me not to worry about it,; but how can you not worry about it, when this is something that has never happened to me before?  I don't want to be stuck paying these charges.

Of course they cancelled my card, which is a good thing, but a pain in the butt, as I now have to call various companies that I charge things too on a monthly basis to change my credit card number, when my new one arrives, in 7 to 10 business days!!!  Meanwhile I am on a credit card "diet" which sucks but won't kill me, I guess😉

By the way, still have no idea how "they" got my credit card number.....

Have you had this happen to you?

Got some freebies in the mail on Wednesday......

I have had a run of bad luck with some products recently and have had to call up companies a couple of times to ask about their products.

At the top of the photo is a flyer telling me that next time I use my credit card I will get 10,000 bonus points which I think is worth $10.  Mind you in the small print it could be next April before I get the points.    Regardless that's a bonus.

I then got a coupon for a free bottle of Dove "Style Care" Frizz Proof Cream/Serum.  Which I will say is more useful in the Summer with the humidity than this time of year.

I bought Blue Water's Simply Bake Haddock.  When I cooked it it shrank by more than half.  Dh wondered what he had done wrong when I plopped this tiny bit of fish on his plate.  Even I looked in the bag to see if it had broken in two and the rest was in the bag!!!  Anyhoo, turns out the company has had shrinkage problems and have changed the cut of haddock it uses and were more than happy to send me a free product coupon, which I thought was awfully nice of them.

However will say General Mills gets the gold star for customer service.  I have recently discovered Old El Paso's Extra Mild Taco Kit  It is not at all spicy so I am a big fan of it.  The first time I bought it when I come to open the taco package most of the taco's were smashed to pieces.  So I called them to get a suggestion as to what to do with it.  The lady told me to smash the rest up, heat them in the oven for a few minutes then pour the ground beef mixture on top along with the rest of the toppings.  It was okay, but not as good as the original way of serving them.  She also sent me a free product coupon, along with a $1 and two 50 cent coupons off of any General Mills product.  So I was more than happy.

Went out and got another box from the same store as before and you know what's coming next.......the tacos were broken, not as much as last time.  So I call them again to see if this is from the same batch.  She didn't know but insisted on sending me the same coupons as before.

Do you call to complain when you are not satisfied with a product?

I posted a couple of book reviews here yesterday, really lovely books.

Bit of a mystery solved..........

For the past week or so every time I passed the dining room, I swear I could hear sobbing or crying. Very puzzling if you ask me. Finally I figured out where it was coming from. I tracked the noise down to my purse and discovered it was my credit cards crying. I mean the poor things were distraught when I pulled them out of my purse.

So I asked them what was up and they told me, they thought I had abandoned them, as I haven't used them in a couple of weeks. I was actually taken a back by this, as one, I didn't realize I hadn't used them and two, who knew credit cards had feelings?

So I sat down with them patting them on their heads, mind you it could have been their bottoms? And I told them, that yes I still loved them, yes I get great pleasure in using them, but I thought they needed a well deserved rest with all the exercise they have been doing these past few months. So I was giving them a break, not sure how long of a break, but a well deserved break.

That settled them down a bit, although my MasterCard wasn't as thrilled as the rest of them, as he gets used the most. Hopefully they'll all survive during their rest, I know one thing, Mr. Bank Balance will be a happy camper, as he gets a bit fatter!!!!

Seriously though, I have actually stopped using my credit card's, although as I said before the one I use the most is my MasterCard. I do have some bills charged right onto my credit card each month, as its easier and I can get the points. So I will never ever have a zero balance on my monthly statement, but at least it will be under $100.

One goal I have for myself this week, is also to do an inventory of the freezer and pantry, to see what I have in there, and hopefully eat out of them over the next couple of weeks, therefore reducing my grocery bill.

All this is going towards reducing our outgoing money and increasing our bank balances. I want to increase our emergency fund from 3 months living expenses to 6 months living expenses. That is a big goal, but is achievable if we put our minds to it.

How are you getting on with your money saving goals?