Grappling With Groupon

I think I'm going to cancel my Groupon account.

It's not really a problem with Groupon persay. Well, it is and it isn't.

I thought it was for coupons, not discounted gift certificates. The name is a little misleading.

Every day a new promotion is delivered to my inbox, tempting me with the siren song of heavily discounted wares. 50% off event tickets. 67% off spa services. Marked down dinners out, clothing and hair care. Everything I would spend money on, if only I had it.

Today's Groupon was my final straw. 50% off my favourite Indian restaurant. Only $15. It's just $15, that's not such a big deal, that doesn't hurt. Oh, but what about that spa package that's only $40, that's such a steal, I really should get that too. And on, and on... Next thing you know my debt payments aren't digging me out nearly as fast as they should be. Bugger.

If it was a coupon, it could sit in my envelope, patiently waiting until the cash reserves build up enough that I could use it. Instead, it's a limited time offer, like a sale sign in a store window screaming "BUY ME NOW WHILE YOU STILL CAN!!"

If I avoid the mall to get away from shopping temptations, why should I be allowing it in my inbox? At least at the mall I get to stretch my legs.

But anyway, Ta Ta for now Groupon. See you when I have money.

Up and down and up and down…

While my paycheck did come with an unexpected downfall in the form of overtime paid out as straight time, I completely missed something else on it. I got a raise. It wasn’t earth shattering, but I’m certainly not going to turn my nose up at another 3% annually. The last time I got a raise, I pledged to save it and not adjust my standard of living to include it. All was going well until my property taxes were adjusted for the year, and my mortgage (which includes the property taxes) went up another $50 every paycheck. Good bye raise savings. It’s time to institute the raise savings again.

The beef came in cheaper than expected, but the groceries and dry cleaning came in over. My coupon that would have saved me $10 on the dry cleaning (bringing me under the budgeted amount) expired 3 weeks ago, but I found 540ml cans of tomatoes on sale at the grocery store for $1 a piece (60% off!). So far over all I’m still under budget on this pay check.

Actually, that’s not entirely true. I had an unexpected expense related to work that I may be able to get them to pay for. I’m applying to the university to take a couple courses which will increase my usefulness to the company. All going well they’ll pay for it. If not, it will just increase my raise potential and hopefully get me some more interesting work to do. The application fee was $75, which went on my credit card. It didn’t wipe out the entire payment I put on it this pay check, but pretty close. Hopefully work will decide to cover that.