I've been battling with Verizon Wireless for over a week now. One of the issues has to do with a billing problem. I was told that I had to move from a 450 minute plan to a 900 minute plan when I last upgraded my phone. Well, a customer service rep told that I didn't have to do that at all. So, long story short, I've been paying $20 more per month than I should have been for quite a while. Verizon gave me a $276.78 credit today to make up for it. It's definitely not the total amount that I've overpaid because they lied, but I'll take it. Verizon's customer service is notorious for being awful, especially with billing issues. I'm just happy that I got them to credit something. Of course, it took about a week dealing with the regular customer service people and then I emailed the CEO. That got results ;-)

It's kind of interesting. I know that the email doesn't go directly to the CEO, but if you use this link to email the CEO, it shows that you mean business. The link to his contact page is at the bottom of that page.

The trip to Atlantic City was fun!! It's definitely not Vegas, but the Madonna concert was awesome (much better than I expected) and I got to gamble a bit. Ok, more than a bit. I went over my gambling budget by about $70. But that's okay. I don't gamble very often.

We ate at PF Chang's, so dinner was cheaper than I expected. I guess I threw the money I saved in the slots.

My friend and I are going to Atlantic City this weekend to see Madonna in concert!! I'm really excited even though the whole trip is going to cost an arm and a leg. The tickets to the show were about $380 each with fees, we got a hotel room at the Tropicana for $280 (so $140 for me), and I figure about $100 on gas, $100 on food and drinks, and $200 to gamble with. I usually only spend $100 when I go to Atlantic City for one night, but I figure $200 was a nice comfortable number. I don't have to spend it all.

That's a grand total of $920. Wow. Definitely not the smartest move money-wise. Oh well. It should be a blast!! And maybe I'll even make a little money in the casino.....

My car was up for it's annual inspection this year. I went over to the inspection station and was pleased that there was only one car in line. Usually it's a lot more and takes hours to get to the front of the line. When I was my turn, I gave the guy my car and went to the waiting room.

I chilling and playing Tetris when the guy came back in and asked to talk to me. All he said was that there were "issues." Well, he showed me that the wheels had a little shake in them and I would probably need to repack the bearings and possibly need a brake job. I knew that something was wrong with the wheels because it kind of clicked if I turned the wheel all the way in one direction. And I don't know anything about cars, so he could have told me anything. But what he said made sense, so I gave him the thumbs up.

In the end, they gave me front brake pads and front grease seals for a total of $377.47. Ouch. That hurts, but I feel really good knowing that my car is up to snuff.

I've been lusting after the Blackberry Storm ever since it was announced. Yesterday, I received an invitation from Verizon Wireless to a "Private Sale" from November 17-21. And The BB Storm is on the brochure!!!

An official release date and pricing details haven't been released by Verizon yet, but there's buzz all over the internet that it will be available on the 17th and will cost $220 with a new two year contract. Signing a new contract isn't a big deal for me, but that's a lot of money to spend on a phone, even if it is more than just a phone. I currently have a Razr, so I'm thinking that I can sell that for about $40 on Ebay. I'm going to buy a Storm no matter what, but I'm just wondering if that's a smart move or not. The "Private Sale" says that there will be special pricing too. Maybe it'll be cheaper than $220....

I mentioned before how I'm questioning if Prosper is a good investment or not being that the economy is what it is right now. I just logged into my account and one of my loans is past due. The payment was due on October 30th and today is November 7.

I know that I'll make more money on this because I'll get a slice of the late fee, but part of me is still concerned that this person may just not pay at all or declare bankruptcy. Being that these types of loans are unsecured, I would have no recourse in that situation. The positive side is that I don't make large loans to people....only $50. Still, it's $50.

Is anyone else seeing an increase in the number of late payments through peer-to-peer lending services?

I am probably one of the most impatient people in the world. One of my pet peeves is figuring out what everyone owes at the end of meal or at a bar. I usually like to get separate checks to avoid that situation, but it's no possible in some cases.

This past Saturday night, I went out with my bf and a pretty large group of his friends in order to celebrate his birthday. Dinner was relatively cheap and the group was smaller, so paying there wasn't a problem. We met up with a very large group of people at a bar afterward. With that large a group and in that setting where people are just kind of all over, it wasn't possible to get a separate check or even keep track of who had what.

Long story short, the easiest thing to do was for my to charge the entire bill and have people pay me what they think they owe. Yes, I realize that I'm not very likely to get paid back exactly what I'm owed, but it would have taken at least an hour to sort the bill out. I'm okay with that. So, I charged the full $836.15 (which included an 18% tip) and people threw money at me like I was a stripper. I got about $530 because not everyone had cash. They all seemed very good about it and people came up to me and said that they still owe me more or that they'll get a check to me next time they see me.

I think that it worked out rather well because we weren't there forever figuring out who owes what. And I may lose some money, but it saved me the headache of the alternative. And I actually got more cash than I expected right then. I figure if my portion of the bill was $100 and my bf's was about $100, then it worked out just fine.

And it will actually be interesting to see who follows through with giving me more money like they said they would. These are my bf's friends, so I don't really know quite a few of them.

Does anyone else end up paying because they're too impatient to deal with sorting a bill out among a group of people?

I set my passive income goal to be $110 for the month of October. Let's see how I did:

ING Direct Account Interest: $31.64
Online Surveys: $51.70
Ebay: $1,055.00
Total: $1,138. 34

This isn't a realistic view of a typical month. The money that I made off of Ebay was from selling 4 tickets to a Madonna concert. And really, those 4 tickets cost me $1,098.65. So, I actually lost $43. 65. How should I count that? I'm going to take the optimistic view and say that it was a profit because I actually sold the tickets and didn't eat the entire cost.

As for the online surveys, I don't count that money until I request a check from them. Should I be counting it each time I complete a survey and earn money? I can't request that money until I've earned a set amount. I don't really think of it as mine until I request a check.

Am I doing this all wrong? FAIL? How do others handle this type of account?

This weekend is definitely not so frugal. Last night, five of us went to The Capital Grille. The meal was awesome, but it ended up being just under $100 for each person!! And that was with the $50 gift certificate that my boyfriend had. Probably not the best decision, right?

I'm justifying it in my mind because we went and had a great, expensive dinner and then went to a cheap bar for a couple beers and then went home. As opposed to most people on Halloween that go out and have a cheaper dinner but spend tons of money in a bar. We wanted to avoid the masses and keep it low key and I'm thinking that I probably spent the same amount of money as I would have if we went to dinner then to the pub crawl through Georgetown. And it was much more relaxing.

One a side note, my boyfriend and a couple other people wanted a bottle of wine with dinner. He asked for something "moderately priced." My jaw fell open when the waiter suggested a $60 bottle. And I think I went into shock when they finally agreed on an $85 bottle. My friend's boyfriend and I don't drink wine and made comments all through dinner about the sacrifices the other were going to have to make because they wanted that wine. It's probably a good thing that I don't drink wine!

And tonight will be even more money because we're going out to dinner with friends for my boyfriend's birthday and then to some other bars. And my bf wants a Nintendo DS Lite and I can't decide if I should get him one. It is his birthday, but that's a lot of money. It' $130 for the unit and $40 for the game he wants. Aah....decision, decision.