Well shoot. I forgot to pay our HOA dues this month. They’re due by the 15th, and if they’re not paid by then, there’s a $25 late fee. Which I will be paying tomorrow, along with the actual dues. That is a big fat bummer, but it’s also shown me that we’re in a much better place financially than we used to be, and that I’ve got a much better relationship with money than I used to have. When I realized today that we were going to have to fork over the $25 late fee, my first thought was something not suitable to repeat on a family-friendly blog. But my second thought was something along the lines of “oh well – if this is the worst thing that happens to me today, I’m having a pretty good day.”
I can remember a few years ago – when we were at the height of our debt – we got a $20 parking ticket. I think I cried for about an hour that night. We were working so hard to get out of debt, and I was crushed when we got that ticket. But no matter how much debt you’re in, $20 is not worth crying over (and wasting an evening being bummed). At that time, I was obsessed with getting out of debt. I thought about money all the time – how to earn it, how to save it, how to not spend it. And small setbacks seemed like huge obstacles. Now that we’re out of debt (except for the mortgage), I still think a lot about money. But it’s much more positive thoughts these days. Funding our son’s 529 plan, adding to our emergency fund, paying extra on our mortgage, saving for retirement – these absolutely give me pleasure. But I think that my level of obsessiveness about the whole thing has come down a notch or two.
Mistakes happen. We all make them. Forgetting to pay the HOA was a mistake, but I’m not going to freak out about it like I would have three years ago. I’m looking at the bright side – at least it wasn’t the mortgage or the credit card bill. This won’t be reported on our credit history, there will be no black mark out there against us – I’ll just go pay the dues and the late fee, and carry on with my life. We don’t get a bill from our HOA – we just have to remember to pay it every month. And they don’t do automatic bank drafts or credit card payments… I just have to take them a check. I have it written on my calendar, but I just missed it this month. Life goes on. Sure, I wish I could spend that $25 on something else. But I can’t. So there’s no use being sad about it. There will be days in the future when I’ll wish that the worst thing that happened to me was a $25 late fee from our HOA. So while I’m still my same frugal self, I no longer obsess about money the way I used to. And for that, I’m proud of myself.
m- says
ask for the late fee to be reveresed. When I worked at a bank we had the ablitity to reverse one late fee in a 12 month period. The worst thing they can say is no…
April says
I agree with the last post. I forgot to pay a credit card bill once, and it was a day overdue, but when I called to pay it over the phone, I got them to remove the late charge. They’ll do it once a year or so.
I have to watch getting obsessed over spending and saving, too. It’s important to remember that we’re still better off than the majority of people on the planet and sweating the small stuff is just silly. I think to myself that I have my health, my family (and their health), shelter, and food. That usually puts it into perspective for me.
Saph @ Walk With Me says
I know how your feel. We’re not out of debt yet but now when something unexpected happens that requires cash to be paid out, I’m upset for maybe a few minutes. Before, I’d panic, cry and wonder how we’ll pay our other bills. Now that we have a small emergency fund, I have peace!
MP says
Oh Thank You for this post!
I got a call yesterday from the mortgage lender of the condo I live in – seems when I was doing “bill pay” on-line at the beginning of the month I forgot to pay the mortgage. (Fortunately, I did remember to pay the mortgage on the rental unit.) I hate having a late fee, but am glad for the reminding phone call. And, of course, it means that I was not in as great a financial position at this point of the month as I thought. Anyway, your posting reminds me that this mistake can happen to anyone.
RetiredAt47 says
I agree with the others about asking for the fee to be waived just once. The worst they can do is say no. I got a new credit card a few years ago and didn’t realize that it has a really short payment cycle. I was mad when I was charged a fee, so I called and asked politely for the fee to be waived, and it was.
But I do understand how you feel! A few days ago I drove past one of these stupid “Safe Speed” vans and worried that I might have exceeded the speed limit, and could be assessed a $40 fee. I really need to let that go :-)
pidgeon92 says
I forgot to set up the online payment for my Discover card which was due a few days ago. I noticed it yesterday, processed the online payment, then called right away. They were kind enough to remove all of the late fees and interest charges.
Definitely ask them to waive the late fee.
Mrs. Accountability says
Bummer! I agree with the others to ask if they will waive the fee. It can’t hurt to ask. This reminded me to check and see if my bank’s BillPay will allow me to set up automated check payments.
FrugalBabe says
I paid the HOA dues today, along with the late fee. I am a big fan of asking that fees be waived – every year since we’ve had our house we’ve gotten Wells Fargo to waive the $75 annual fee on our HELOC. When we were in debt, I called our credit card companies and got all of them to lower our rates. And when a required purchase didn’t post to our Discover bill by the end of the month several years ago, I spent what seemed like forever on the phone with their customer service people, convincing them to reinstate our zero percent rate (which they did).
But in this case, I just paid the fee. I know that our HOA is struggling financially. They send out a statement every year, and it was pretty rough last year. They increased the dues by $10/month this year, and we’ve seen a huge improvement. The HOA has been making everyone (including us!) paint, clean up, and generally spruce up the neighborhood. They’ve also fixed fences on community property, and put in a lot of effort on the irrigation system. But I know that there’s still a budget shortfall, and I know that our $25 will be put to good use. Nobody is making a profit at our HOA – all of the money goes back into maintaining the neighborhood, and that’s a cause worth supporting (as opposed to fattening the profit margins at Visa and Wells Fargo, which is not high on my priority list).
So while I won’t be making a habit out of paying the HOA late, I’m ok with paying the extra $25 that I had to fork over today.
Kaye says
CONGRATULATIONS! You have won the Mrs Nespy’s Frugal World Bronze Medal for August 22nd. Go to http://mrsnespy.googlepages.com/grabyourmedalhere to get the code to post your medal if you’d like. Thanks for the great writing!
Kaye
http://mrsnespysworld.blogspot.com
MITBeta @ Don't Feed The Alligators says
Can’t you use online billpay to set up an automatic payment? Billpay systems try to make payments electronically, but when they can’t they just send a check. You can prove this to yourself by sending yourself or someone close to you a small payment. I used to pay my rent this way to a guy who only had one rental apartment (in other words, he wasn’t affiliated with Citibank or something like that…).
Online billpay is easy (as I’m sure you know), and automatic, so you can’t forget — especially with something for which you don’t get statements.
FrugalBabe says
MITBeta – sadly, we bank with Wells Fargo, and online billpay is only free for three months. I know we could switch banks, but I’m just not motivated to go through all that. We have our business accounts, personal checking, HELOC, and credit card with them, and I do pretty much all of our transactions on their website (that part is all free at least). I’ve got pretty much everything automated, except the HOA. Anything that can be paid with an automatic bank draft or credit card is set up to do so. I write a check for the mortgage every month, because we increase the amount we pay every month. I pay our credit card online each month. I do still send a quarterly check to our car insurance company, and I write a check for the HOA every month. This is the first time in five years that I’ve missed an HOA payment, so I doubt it will happen again anytime soon.