I can’t think of a better time for See’s Candies to do their flat-rate-or-free shipping deal than right before next week’s election. It’s not quiiiiiite what I’d call “flat-rate” since it does in fact vary—but it’s $6.95 for orders $30 and under, $5 for orders between $30 and $65, and free over $65. It used to be you could pick your exact delivery date, but now you can pick a range—and when I placed my order this morning, the earliest range is November 8th-11th. Wouldn’t it be PERFECT for it to arrive ON Election Day??? But arriving for the aftermath is good, too.
We have had our credit card number stolen AGAIN. I get so frustrated with this. This time we found out because packages addressed to someone else started arriving to our house, four packages so far. At first we thought it was just a shipping error, but then Paul remembered that some places will only ship to the address connected to the credit card, so we checked and sure enough: $600 to a MILITARY TACTICAL SUPPLIES site. OH GOOD. Then Paul was like, “But how did he think he could GET these packages?”—and then we both remembered the car that’s been parked across the street from our house several days this week, in a place there is never a car parked, so that we’d both noticed and commented on it. So thaaaaaaat’s great. I have a feeling we will be dealing with this mess for awhile. Today I keep hoping to see that car out there again; we’re both kicking ourselves for not jotting down the plate number. And now we’re waiting 5 days for the new cards to arrive. I hope they will actually arrive in more like 2 days; usually it’s more like 2 days. I hate that this has happened often enough for there to be a usually.
I am ALMOST DONE filling out the FAFSA (college financial aid form). There was a big pause in there because the FAFSA asked for our checking/savings account balances, but I knew we had an orthodontist evaluation and a window-replacement appointment in the near future, so I didn’t want to put in the numbers for financial aid and THEN take out thousands. But now I am back on track. I just have to wait for Rob to get home so we can sign it and submit it.
I took the two littler boys trick-or-treating last night (older three kids were either at home or with friends) and really enjoyed it. I used to haaaaaate it: I felt so sure we were going to lose a little kid in the dark, and I was nervous about traffic, and I was trying to keep everyone from stepping in dog poop, and I was frazzled from having to get everyone fed and into a costume before 6:00, and the whole thing was an ordeal. But now everyone can for the most part get into their own costumes, and everyone can walk independently with just a periodic reminder to “Are you kidding me?? Get out of the ROAD,” and everyone remembers to say thank you, and I’ve found that sturdy little apple/cranberry juice bottles (like these or these) make PERFECT pocket flasks, so I would now say it isn’t even slightly an ordeal and I find it fairly fun.
Furthermore, I’m sure I’ve written about this before, but I get so sentimental and weepy at the whole Halloween THING. Look at all the expense and trouble people in a community go to, just to make a fun event for other people’s little children. And many of them are so FRIENDLY and CHEERY about it: “Oh, look at you! What a great costume! Here, you can take THREE things! Happy Halloween! Have fun, be safe!” *SOB* There were tears leaking out of my eyes pretty much the whole time, so good thing it was dark.
I get weepy on Halloween too! I thought I was the only one. We had some teenagers come to our door last night, trick or treating as a group, with everyone in costume. Sniff!
Both my kids (15 & 10) still go, but they go by themselves while the adults stay home and hand out candy. I kind of miss the days of going with them.
Halloween is SO MUCH EASIER with older kids. It’s not my favorite in the first place, and herding small children, coaching them on what to say/do at each house, etc. is just exhausting. Thankfully now the 14yo goes off with his friends and we just basically trail after the 8yo. Lots of houses around here offer wine (and the occasional jello shot!) to the parents…but good call on the flask. Totally doing that next year.
Halloween is topping my list of holidays now, for that very reason! Some of the people on our street were WAITING for my daughter, and had special candy reserved for her! And one of our neighbors had regular candy, fruit snacks, and gluten free snacks just so that anyone who visited her house could participate! And there was a dog dressed as a spider! And there were multiple groups of older girls who were SO NICE to my daughter, letting her go first, reminding her what to say, helping her choose candy. SOB! What a great holiday!
Halloween is my favorite Facebook day as well. 99% fun, positive posts! Hardly any political stuff!
I had to apply for a second credit card to keep on standby, since my main card gets “compromised” SO OFTEN.
Also, your credit card fraud situation sounds like a NIGHTMARE. We’ve had our number stolen a few times but never to the point of packages being delivered! That’s crazy.
Your post is so timely–my debit card was compromised for the first time last night. Luckily the bank caught it after major purchases at Children’s Place and Gymboree ten minutes apart. There are weasels in the world!
That makes me even more mad since it sounds like a mom with young kids did it!! Ugh.
I just wanted to say, I hope your children appreciate everything you do for them, especially with this college stuff. I very clearly remember the frustration of filling out my FAFSA alone, trying to get my parents tax return information out of them, and ultimately getting myself to college two hours away completely by myself. In my case I was highly motivated to be gone. Anyway, I guess I wanted to say that I appreciate you, at least.
Also with my own two small kiddos, I was tearing up last night as well! Especially at the older folks who obviously got so much JOY out of the trick-or-treaters. <3
We went to a local farm thing and it was just so great. We got to ride a train through the park and see all kinds of animals (deer, cows, bison, birds) and then ride a carousel, feed a baby goat a bottle (!) and then there were elephants we didn’t even know about. Surprise elephants! There was a DJ and people were group dancing to Thriller and the chicken dance and all kinds of things. My 3yo thought it was the greatest. And we did all this on Saturday so we did not have to do a damn thing yesterday.
So for your credit card thing, you’re saying someone not only STOLE your numbers, but then tracked down your actual house in an attempt to retrieve all the things they ILLEGALLY bought with the stolen numbers?? I have never heard of this but am so creeped out.
It may not be that way, but it does seem weird. We wondered if it could be a local skimming situation, where the scammer is in our town and getting numbers as a clerk or at a gas station. But maybe the person who ordered the things just didn’t realize everything would be shipped to our address, and the strange car is a pure coincidence.
Ugh. I hope it is a coincidence just because otherwise the creep factor is more than I can bare!
That credit card fraud, with the person waiting OUTSIDE YOUR HOUSE for packages, is super creepy. Lock your doors!!!!
My husband’s card has been compromised a few times. Most recently during the NBA finals, when someone bought a pair of tickets online for $6000. The police were able to catch the guy, because he was dumb enough to put the tickets in Will Call, under his own name. When he picked them up, he was arrested.
The last time my card number was stolen, someone used it buy AIRLINE TICKETS, in HIS OWN NAME, to AMSTERDAM. Yeah, that didn’t work.
I just had the massive identity theft thing happen. They took out over $20,000 in credit in two days. They charged over $15,000. They tried (and were rejected) to buy a car, a ski-doo and some building supplies.
The real jerks in all of this were (in descending order): Wells Fargo, Macy’s and Sam’s. Wells Fargo wanted me to go to the social security office and get a sworn affidavit saying I am who I say I am. When I asked them why they didn’t ask the person charging thousands of dollars of electronics with freshly opened credit cards (that were obtained with only partially correct personal information) to provide some form of identification, their reply was that I should be grateful that they were even going to consider not holding me liable. Jerks of the highest magnitude. I mean – super jerks. Macy’s knew they were scamming, but let them buy $1200 of ugly clothes anyway. Sam’s just won’t stop harassing me about my “membership” and all of its perks.
The winners – Victoria’s Secret, Toys R Us and the auto loan people. They could smell the bs and said no.
I hate people.
That is terrible. That is TERRIBLE. To make the VICTIM prove identity FAR BEYOND what they asked of the criminal, and ON TOP OF the considerable inconvenience this whole thing ALREADY put you through, is just…it’s just…I CAN’T EVEN.
I used to get so stressed about Halloween for no good reason that I can now recall. It feels like it just got fun and my part in it is over. Oh well, I like seeing the little kids in costumes, and there were lots of nice messages about how polite all the kids were, even the teenagers, on our community Facebook group.
The credit card thing is massively icky. I always write down license plates when it’s useless, never when it would be smart.
I miss when my little guy would get SO excited for Halloween…at 22 now, it’s not a big deal. *SNIFF*
But I have to say, I feel gypped out of Halloween this year. When we moved into this neighborhood in February, we knew it was chock full of kids. So in the weeks running up to Halloween, I bought bags and bags of candy, in anticipation of the hordes of children that were going to show up. In the end, I had 5 HUGE bags of candy and we got a total of five children! And? The majority of the neighbors on this street had turned off their lights (BOO to them).
The downside? I now have five HUGE bags of candy. The plus side? I have five HUGE bags of GOOD candy.
So sorry to hear of the credit card fraud – I think this is the “norm” now. We’ve been hit a couple of times now – I’m actually thinking it might be better to go back to cash – except then I’d need to actually have to remember to get cash.
Omg all these card theft stories!
Last night was the first time we took out daughter out in our neighborhood. We too, came home with warm fuzzies about people/community/neighbors s
I’m having a terrible time with a stolen credit card situation. This evil genius bought high-dollar gift cards from a store online with my cc #, then listed the gift cards on a legit gift-card-selling site (because he had legit cards to sell!). Non-fraudulent people bought the cards, used them, and now I’m having a heck of a time proving all this legitimate commerce IS NOT MY RESPONSIBILITY. (Because my credit card agreement SAYS it’s not my responsibility!) The number of affidavits I’ve signed… I’m pretty mad about the whole thing. It’s the store the gift cards were purchased from (which is in Australia!!) that is fighting so hard. I’m not saying I blame them for not wanting to be out money themselves (I’m not sure exactly how that works), but seriously. I have not shopped in Australia.
Ug, what an unfair MESS. I feel like there MUST be some better way to prevent this sort of thing, especially when the thieves are getting so WILY about it.
I am surprised by the credit card fraud situation, only because both times my card has been frauded (I don’t think that’s a word but I want it to be) I have gotten calls from the credit card company saying “you weren’t trying to reserve 7 different hotel rooms in Miami at 7 am this morning, were you?” and I say “uh… no” and they say “cool, we denied it because it seemed fishy. We’ll send you a new card next week!” and that’s it. They have always caught it for me and taken care of all the work other than saying yes or no to a list of recent transactions.
That being said, they also flagged and denied my transaction when I WAS trying to buy tickets to a concert in Milan, from my home in Virginia. BUT I would way rather jump through the annoying hoop to spend my money than to recover it after someone else spends it.
Credit card and creepy car: ick!
Halloween! The first house we went to didn’t have candy and his fiancée pulled in as we were heading out. They’d miscommunicated who was supposed to pick it up (he’d just pulled in a minute or two before we showed up) and they felt so bad! We laughed and wished them a good night, then went on our merry way. Several houses told us to wrap up back at their house because they always have candy leftover. So sweet! We’d been going about a half hour and the fiancee’s car came around a corner and drove right up to us. The guy jumped out of the car and had the kids take handfuls of candy! He apologized for having not been ready when they came by and we parents just stood there getting teary-eyed.
Our friends manage a senior care center and asked us to bring our kids down for Halloween. Watching the seniors light up when the children walked in was the best! The kids loved the attention and it was just so heartwarming.
I was just telling my mom, after a night of sugar-related tantrums from the 3-year-old, that I understand why she used to hate Halloween so much. But the cuteness of kids in costumes! The friendly neighborhood feeling! The novelty of an after-dark walk with a kiddo! The pumpkin-carving, sidewalk-chalking fun!
I had the SAME teary-eyed reaction to trick or treating this year! I got all emotional about how amazing it is that all these grown-ups (many without kids) get all dressed up in costumes and decorate their homes and go all-out and it’s so much FUN. Like if some alien saw it he would think we were all nuts, which makes it this sort of vulnerable thing to do, you know? But we do it, and it’s so great. Our nation could be going down in flames, but everyone can unite for one evening and enjoy candy and lighthearted fun, and it’s lovely.
Of course after five minutes of watching my child get mowed over by rowdy teenagers and FULL ON ADULTS who were trick-or-treating, I felt less misty-eyed about it, but still.
Tell me more about the pocket flasks. Wine? This is borderline brilliant. Scratch that. Full-on brilliant.