Vent Your Frustrations • Page 106

Thank you for this. I will probably read it several times over. You write beautifully like a natural story teller or author by the way. I appreciate the story and all of the advice. I have so many more thoughts but not the energy to put them to words right now but thank you again.

 

Landlord STILL hasn't given us the 2nd half of our deposit back after we moved out last February. Our deposit was $1500. We got $750 in May and said he'd give us the rest the following week. 7 months later still nothing.

Background. Our apartment was on an old horse farm that had a few houses on property that were converted to apartments. It was owned by this family, but mostly run by the daughter (the horse business went under cause dad has a drug problem and fucked up). But the daughter was amazing the entire 3 years we were there. Quick to fix issues. Dependable. Everything was great. The month before we move out, due to the ongoing family issues, she removes herself with having anything to do with apartment and family from that point forward.

Uh oh. What about our deposit? This drug addiction is gonna fuck us.

Now this guy isn't a BAD guy. He lived on the property (in between benders) and was really nice to us. Animal lover. Gave us free stuff etc. But shit, we knew once the daughter was out ×÷ were screwed because drugs are a hell of a thing.

And sure enough we were right.

He ghosted us from July until tonight. He finally responded and apologized for neglecting us and said he can't pay us until at least next year. Ughhhhhhhhhhhh drugs! Godddddd damnit.

Thank God we left when we did though. He can't afford $750. Don't wanna know what happens if the heat goes out or the driveway needs to be plowed.

 

I could be wrong, and it could depend on the state, but doesn’t a landlord owe a tenant a penalty the longer they refuse to give them back their deposit after the time frame ?

 

I'd assume only if that's written somewhere in the contract, which ours doesn't have much language. Originally we didn't even have any contract but thankfully we had the foresight to say "no no, just in case" (so we made a basic one)

I think he/they were trying to avoid something by keeping the apartments sorta off the books

 

I went to exchange a curtain rod at Walmart. The one I got is too small in diameter and I couldn’t make it work. I get there and the greeter says cs is closed. Nothing is indicated on the receipt? What I’m frustrated about is the fact that I just wasted a bunch of gas. Out of my control their hours, but it would be nice if it was indicated somewhere. If I had known I would have gone earlier, but I don’t like too many people and it’s Walmart so there’s always a long line with a slow as snail employee. This Walmart is about 15 min away and first I forgot my wallet so I had to go back and get it and then drive back to get told “exchanges are closed”. Guess I have to go after work tomorrow.

 

I am saving up to buy a house and I cannot fucking wait. Fuck this apartmenttttt. Like who doesn't have a mail box at their apartment???? Me for some reason. So I have to go to this random street where they have these metal boxes set up to get my mail every day. And they have lockers for packages but the keys are never marked properly or, like what happened today, just don't work. So now I have a package I can't get bc the key doesn't work, and the post office of course is open the exact hours I work so who even knows when I'll be able to bring them the key to get a new one. So sick of the mail situation here.

 

careful though! A lot of subdivisions have a specific section for mailboxes even for homeowners. There’s a very weird cult-like village near my city and the houses are all around $250K and they have a specific section for mailboxes. If I pay that much I want a fucking mailbox on my porch or at least at the end of my drive way lol

then again this place has rules on what color you can paint your house, what plants you can grow and how tall they can be in your yard, etc. like I said, weirdo and cult-like

 

This sounds just like this little area by my apartment. It’s a bunch of condos and someone my mom knows lives in one. All she talks about is everyone constantly arguing over the dumbest things bc you have to get approval from the group to do the smallest stuff like plant a shrub. Sounds like my worst nightmare. I will definitely be avoiding anything like that! I’m looking in a really specific area (bc it’s cheap and all I can afford tbh lol) and there isn’t really anything like that there so I should finally get my own damn mailbox on my porch!

 

It's United States Postal Service policy to have cluster mailboxes for pretty much all new development. The developers may have no say in the matter at all. I think this became widespread policy in 2018 or 2019. It's mainly so that the USPS can be more efficient (time savings, gasoline savings, less wear & tear on vehicles, etc.).

Here are some relevant links:

- https://about.usps.com/what-we-are-.../operations-developers-and-builders-guide.pdf

- What to Know About Neighborhood Cluster Mailboxes - NewHomeSource

 

yeah it makes sense from a lot of perspectives but sucks for homeowners, or at least most since at least one house or two is super close to where they’re kept.

 

Fuckkk health insurance in this country. I helped my mom sign up for it this year and they straight up lied to her. Their website had a whole search function to see how much your medicines would cost. Hers were all supposed to cost her $0. They had a search function to see what doctors, hospitals, pharmacies were in network. We even called them to verify we had all the info straight and they said yeah, that's all right. Yes, it's for that exact plan, etc. etc. Well today she had to call them about something and she just wanted to make sure her pharmacy was okay to go to (the website said yes, the agent on the phone earlier said yes). This lady says uh no. Only 1 in your area is accepted and it's like 20 mins away. So my mom is freaking out and asks them if her medicines are going to be covered. Nope, they lied. None of them will be free. And they will cost more than what she is currently paying. So she was very upset and was crying and called me at work bc she won't be able to afford her meds. Thankfully it's still open enrollment so I canceled that shitty plan and signed her up with her old plan. Absolute bullshit. This should all just be free. My 62-year-old mother shouldn't be crying and scared bc she doesn't know if she can afford her medication. This country is truly the worst.

 

It is too cold and I can't live like this!!!

 

I spilled coffee on my sofa (again kinda). Last time I spilled soda. It went right through the slip cover that in now have to wash, but won’t have time until I get back from being away for a few days. I tried the upholstery cleaner that suppose to work on the material again to see if it helps. Last time it still left a stain. I wanted a waterproof slip cover to go over it for this exact reason but the one I ordered was too small and I returned it. Haven’t found another one that I liked

 

Every time I see one of these self-help, motivational speaking, wealth-mentality bullshit posts on IG with a dab of that hyper-individualist “nobody owes you anything!” rhetoric I want to [redact] myself. But then I just go on Twitter and rant about it.

 

I hate how unachievable financial literacy feels. I have finally paid off all my debts and am looking into investing some money but I don't understand it at all. Even websites I look at to break it down just don't make sense to me. It feels so inaccessible. It's like my eyes gloss over and my brain cannot absorb the information.

 

I thought so too but it's not nearly as intimidating as it looks. I think the best thing for me was I started learning with a friend who had a bit more experience so I had a nice go to.

You do have to be careful with like some Reddit forums (i.e. wallstreetbets) because with the COVID and meme economy a lot armchair investors are just spewing the wrong advice.

 

Thanks! I was looking at r/personalfinance but idk how much to trust it. I screwed up and tried to roll over my previous employer retirement into my current retirement without checking first and didn't realize I couldn't do that, so they cut me the check and penalized me for accessing the funds early, even though I didn't want or meant to! So now I have those funds sitting in a higher yield savings account but it's not that high yield so I wanna do something else with them but idk what. Its not a ton since it was pretty gutted from the penalty. I'm already very poor at numbers and lack confidence in that area so I'm just super overwhelmed.

I have a retirement plan with my state employer where i think i contribute as much as i can, and a 457b which I don't rly know what that is and I don't understand what I contribute to it cause I just sort of guessed when i signed up. And then the funds sitting around in my savings. If you ask me any questions about any of these things and what I get from them I have zero answer.

 

I don't know if this will help or not in your case, but this series of articles "Investing for Beginners" helped me understand a lot. https://www.thebalance.com/investing-for-beginners-4802693

If you seek out a professional for financial advice, make sure they're a "fee-only fiduciary" (i.e. you pay them by the hour or appointment, not a percentage of your assets).

TBH, a lot of personal finance stuff seems to be marketed as more complicated and full of jargon than it should be. It's annoying.

 

Thanks! I think it's hard cause this seems like white collar rich people stuff and I don't associate with that lol. Which seems intentional! I feel like it's similar to taxes where they overcomplicate it so the average Joe doesn't understand it but the wealthier have access to knowledge or accountants. And I've watched too much vh1 Behind the Music where ppl trust a financial advisor and get screwed out of money. Not like I'm a millionaire but I am dumb and vulnerable lol

 

I don't want to spam this thread about financial stuff, but if you have any questions, feel free to stop by the Investing Thread.

 

Thanks, didn’t even know this existed

 

What do you do if your mental health clinic - the only one you know of w/ affordable rates for the expensive medication you're dependent on - literally tries to extort you for "missed payments" amounting to hundreds of dollars, even after you show them your statements proving you paid them? lol

 

tell them just that. They saw the statements you paid and you’ll report them to the better business bureau if they don’t fix it?

 

Forgot to mention they also have a reputation for cutting patients off from meds and services whenever they feel like it, out of spite even. It almost happened to me a few times, probably because they overmedicated me for so long and fear some ramification for it so they want me to go away. I don't want to be involved w/ any of that, I just don't want to be cut off from the medication I'm still dependent on, at least long enough to safely taper off.

There's like sixty google reviews of patients (many of whom don't seem fargone crazy at all) confirming similar experiences lol. If I have to switch clinics I'll go from paying forty a month for meds to hundreds-over a thousand at every other nearby clinic I know of.

 

Lighthearted one but I re-caulked my bathroom today and it's always frustrating when you're doing something that's you fundamentally need to do perfectly (removing the old caulk) and it's nothing like it goes in the videos you watch (1.5 hours of scraping only to have to say fuck it and leave some before doing the caulk)