Holiday money moans
The Sirloin steak ponged, the vouchers went missing, the smoothie maker broke, the rental car company over-charged, the mobile data plan ran out and I forgot to pay the deposit on a bach.
To be honest, that's only the tip of the sun-umbrella when it comes to my holiday money moans.
Five-year interest rates on deposits have got me in a right ratty mood, as has drip-pricing by airlines and pop-stars that cancel concerts.
In the last six weeks I seem to have lost my financial mojo through a catalogue of errors and forgetfulness. Laugh and learn.
1. Rental Car Hire: A one-day Christchurch to Nelson hire cost $241 with Hertz. They dutifully email a receipt three hours after dropping off the car. Do I read it? Err, No. We are charged $441 and it's gone unnoticed for two weeks. The car was back bang on time at 5pm. They say we were several hours late and added a days hire. Will Hertz believe me two weeks later? Thumbs-up to their customer service team, they did. Note to self: read receipts immediately.
2. Missing vouchers: Restaurant vouchers for in-laws in the UK go down a treat. Local restaurants will mail them out; job done. Yet some swine swiped them from the post and poor old father in-law thought we'd forgotten him this Christmas. I hope they choke on their pork scratchings. The restaurant kindly reissued them. Note to self: do not send vouchers without telling the recipient to expect them.
3. Insurance on Christmas presents: The new mountain bike is roped on the back of the car. Over the Whangamoa Hill we head, towards Blenheim. Another vehicle loses control on a corner, narrowly misses my bike and smacks into the van behind us. It's messy, but no one is injured. My stomach sinks. I've not added the bike to our policy and its value is higher than the standard cover. Note to self: holiday brain-fade can lead to insurance problems.
4. Stinky Sirloin: Christmas Eve, 8pm. A $150 half-metre-lump of Sirloin must be cooked. Disaster strikes; it stinks to high heaven. We are saved by late night shopping at Countdown and a couple of sorry little Rib-eyes no one else wanted. A funeral for the rotting evidence is held at the bottom of the garden, along with a photo-shoot of the Sirloin in the soil. What have I done about it? I forgot until I started writing this column. Note to self: complain in a timely fashion to be assured of a refund. Hopefully the photo will still suffice.
5. Monitor the mobile data plan: After a week of reading Stuff online and downloading holiday photos with no Wi-Fi, my $20 monthly mobile plan runs out. Spark helpfully lets me purchase more. How big is a gigabyte? No idea so I buy several (a large over-purchase). It costs $89 and automatically sneaks up and renews a month later. Note to self: watch out for nasty little rollover features designed to catch out inattentive middle-aged women.
6. The broken appliance: The smoothie machine was only a few weeks old when the cup jammed in the motor, snapping a vital piece. Harvey Norman says we can't have a new one. Apparently it's more likely we dropped it. It will be sent to the smoothie-police for several weeks and a smoothie-less Christmas is imposed. After explaining this was unfairly forcing us to buy a new one, a new cup was handed over. There was much huffing about not being able to sell the rest of the unit in the box. Note to self: expect to be treated like a lying imbecile when returning goods.
7. Forgetting to pay the deposit on a bach: Oops, it seems the $100 deposit on the bach in the Marlborough Sounds was never paid. A frantic apology is penned and we enquire whether our booking still exists. The lovely woman in Little Ngakuta Bay doesn't get huffy. She's kept our booking. Note to self: nice people exist.
8. Pop stars cause travel insurance woes: Hubby is in love with Brooke Fraser - she's one of those nice people. I buy the flights, concert tickets and seal them in his Christmas card. It all fizzles on Christmas morning when he informs me I've just given him two tickets to a cancelled concert. The refund comes, but two useless flights remain. Our annual travel policy with Southern Cross doesn't have domestic cover. Note to self: you fool, you un-ticked the insurance box and Air New Zealand would have covered this.
9. Drip pricing: How does an airfare from Bristol in Geneva start off at $280 and end up $540? When you book with easyJet and suffer through screen after screen of 'drip-pricing'. A suitcase is $60, my bike another $140 and every seat number has a price. I resist speedy boarding, parking and the lounge with 'free' nibbles. Note to self: The Commerce Commission are looking at Air New Zealand for automatically adding insurance. At least that is something useful.
10. Term deposit rates: Stop hollering about mortgage rates and have a look at the economic consequences of falling savings rates. My five-year term deposit just matured. Old rate, 6.85 per cent. New rate, 5.10 per cent. Gosh, that's only 650,000 pensioners getting a 25 per cent pay cut. Note to self: time to move some cash.
Janine Starks is a financial commentator with expertise in banking, personal finance and funds management. Opinions in this column represent her personal views. They are general in nature and are not a recommendation, opinion or guidance to any individuals in relation to acquiring or disposing of a financial product. Readers should not rely on these opinions and should always seek specific independent financial advice appropriate to their own individual circumstances.