I'm So Mad at Me!

Let's start with the cutesy stuff first so I can calm my BP down before I write about the stuff that has me going... (No paragraphing going on now, so I will start new paragraphs with **. Probably need to reboot, but I'm not going to do that in the middle of a post.) **Okay...so my grandchildren came yesterday afternoon (to their mother's, where I am now) so I could watch them for their President's Day off. All they did was play World of Warcraft on laptop computers, so it was no problem at all to babysit--except there was this one incident... Robin and Ryan were sitting next to each other, each on his/her own computer. Ryan did something annoying, so Robin slapped him on the face, and he hit back. There were no tears, so I don't think anyone was desperately hurt, but I did ask Robin why she slapped her brother. "I didn't slap him. I hit him." Grandma asked, "What's the difference between slapping and hitting?" Her response? "I don't know, but there just is!" Point made. **I turned on my cell phone today because I was going grocery shopping. (It should be obvious by that statement that I almost never have the cell phone on. It is purely a travel device for me.) I noticed that I had three voice messages. Two of them were from my bank. I figured they were checking up on some charges that I've made while visiting here because I am out of my home area, and I didn't tell them... They asked if I had authorized certain charges. The very first one the gal asked about was for $12 for "Complete Savings". Uh...no. All the rest were legit. I told her that I wanted to do some research to get to the bottom of it and that I would call her back. **I immediately logged onto my online account info and saw that the debit had a phone number attached to it. I called the number and determined that the Complete Savings thing came from the Just Flowers website where I had ordered flowers for Megan maybe two years ago. It had a box that asked if I wanted a $10 discount. "Click here." I guess I did, and that somehow authorized them to automatically deduct $12 a month from my bank account! I'm usually pretty careful about that stuff. I would never have knowingly given permission for someone to take money out of my account unless it was for a bill that is fairly constant. (For instance, my water bill and my phone bill come out automatically because they are usually within just a few dollars of a certain amount every month.) **Megan got to looking on my online bank account info. She could only get the history of the account to go back to October, but sure enough, the Complete Savings deduction has come out every month. I'm thinking that it has been coming out for a couple of years, AND I NEVER CAUGHT IT!!!! Yes, I saw stuff from Complete Savings, but not the debits...and/or I was confused about what it was. Ridiculous! I got the deduction cancelled and will be refunded the money for this month. Will have to follow up with my bank to see if any of the back stuff can be retrieved, but I'm guessing not. That's what I get for not paying close enough attention! Ran into another little detail about my debit card that I'll have to take care of in short order. (Bank is issuing new ones that need to be activated, but I ignored the memo, I guess!) Lesson learned. Ya know, $12 isn't going to kill me, but $12 a month for NOTHING over a long time really adds up! **Megan did my taxes online yesterday, and I will be getting a chunk back in refund. It seems that I don't make enough SS to pay income taxes on it, even though I have it automatically deducted from my benefit. Forced savings! Actually, it's a wonder I survive on what little money I do bring in. I certainly am not starving... **And speaking of starving, Reader's Digest indicates that my heart medicine creates weight gain because it slows down the metabolism. (Did I mention this before? I'm getting so senile, I forget!) Like I needed help in the weight gain department? Anyway, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it. **I'm still in northern IL for a few more days. I just keep on pluggin'.