I have oil heat in my house. It works well for me. And if anything ever goes wrong, I have a service contract with my oil delivery company. If I do have problems, I can just call and they’ll come immediately. I’ve been glad to have that arrangement. I need them a couple of times each winter. But there’s a problem: the service contract renews in February. It’s just about the worst time ever. Usually by then I already owe the oil company for delivered oil. The extra money makes my bill too big to pay all at once.
Yesterday I called the oil heat people and canceled my contract. (I hadn’t paid for it yet. My current total with them is pretty big. I’m chipping away at it.) My intention is to renew the contract in July. Then the $450 won’t hurt as badly.
Yay, for me figuring out how to make it work better! Yay for me remembering to actually call and arrange it!
Yay for remembering to make an important call!!! I am so impressed with you! That seems like the kind of painful thing that I would just ‘do later’ but you did it.
Way to go!!
I wonder if you could do that with the IRS?
Have you set a post for July 15 to remind Brad of the Future to renew?
That really seems smart, Brad – from now until July, I can’t imagine you’d need any oil delivered, particularly as it’s been up to 81 degrees out this month already.
The bad cycle for us is usually in mid-summer, though: first installment on annual property tax (this hits the poor slobs who don’t have a mortgage; your day will come!) plus both house and car insurance renewals. Now that we’re on 10-month installments for the latter two, we don’t grimace as much as we used to, but it can sure put a crimp in the ol’ vacation mad money, I tell ya’.