Just when you think you can make ends meet...

Someone moves the ends!

This month I have car rego $640, phone bill $288 on which I owe $213 as I'm in credit (the phonebill is capped at $200, but during the flood and this past 30 days I've been a bit heavy on the calls - and I've just found out about the call rate 40C/50 seconds, with a 37c call connection charge - rip off!).

I've received the water rates, $69, but there was no water supplied in that as I have a tank and haven't used a Ml of water in the last six months, and I was in credit, too.

Rates will be due soon, too. Another $700 odd, or more. And I'm sure there's a power bill due soon, too.

I've just been to the dentist and it cost me $245 for a "surgical extraction/part bone", no wonder the sucker hurts so much, and a filling @ $172. The health fund paid $204 and I had to find the balance.

And I got the apprentice dentist. I always get the apprentice dentist. I really don't have a lot of confidence in dentists because the young ones look in my mouth (and some of the older ones, too), and exclaim at the number of fillings I have. When I was a child I had fissures in my molars and in those days your dentist would drill and fill them. These days they clean them and put a clear resin on them and they are protected from decay. I am angry now that so many of my teeth were filled needlessly as there was no decay and that now, 40 plus years later, my teeth are falling apart. I've had ongoing problems with my teeth because of decay near old fillings. It all makes me really cranky. But unfortunately that was the dental practice taught in the 40s and 50s.

But I digress, back to the whinge of the moment...

So, just to make my joy at the state of the Kae finances this month complete, I read the insert in the phone bill which tells me that Telstra are changing their billing of timed calls so that instead of billing in 30 second blocks they'll be billing in 1 minute blocks. WTF? I mentioned this to MDFD and she sent me this extract via email:

There are reports that Telstra will bring in an extra $100 million a year if it implements a plan to charge customers by the minute, rather than in 30 second blocks.

According to the herald Sun, the telco giant is reportedly planning to bring in the new charges in late March.

Under the new pricing structure, customers would be charged a minimum 80 cents a minute for mobile and international phone calls instead of the current 40 cents for 30 seconds.

I can tell them, they've implemented the plan.

I hope it goes the same way as the charge for paying your bill by credit card.

Update:
Did I mention the electricity bill? It's gone up, too. A lot. This quarter it is $321.51. It arrived in the mail today - I was lamenting the outgoings this month on the phone with Mum when it arrived!
Anyhoo, the good news is that I've managed to overpay the last bill and I am $1.01 in credit with the electricity bill.
The ambulance levy seems to be rising all the time, too. What the hell are they doing with that money? I am in a health fund which paid my ambulance fare if I needed to use one.

iPhone

I got a deal from Telecom with an iPhone.

If I can only get the sim tray out of it, I might be able to use it.

I've looked at the instructions and they're a bit, um, without detail.

Poke the tray removal tool into the hole in the sim tray and push firmly until the tray comes out.

That's it.

Update:
Okay. I asked MDFD. The instructions are not very clear. They don't tell you that the tiny hole you have to poke is in the TOP of the phone and that when the sim card tray is in the phone you cannot tell that it is there, it's like something from a SF movie, it just vanishes seamlessly into the top of the phone. I was messing around with the bottom of the phone. Arrgh!

I've got it going now, and it's pretty good.