I received an email last night from my daughter’s middle school orchestra teacher reminding us the instrument rental contract and fee was due today. This was news to us since we had received zero previous correspondence regarding the contract and fee. We knew it was coming, but this year has been different from other years. Every other year the teacher has been at schedule pick up day at the end of Summer. We pay our fee then along with all the other beginning of the school year fees. Except this year, she wasn’t there. There was a sign that indicated that we should expect information about the rental fee and contract the first week of school. The email was the first notification we received.
A quick email exchange with the instructor gave us some information:
- The rental fee is $80.
- Our daughter’s instrument had been at a different school for quite awhile, thus was not in the instructor’s inventory list. She didn’t have her contract ready, but would hopefully have it complete today.
Let’s review what happened here. For an unknown reason the instructor was not at schedule pickup day so we couldn’t pay our fee as we normally did. We were to expect information the first week of school, but the first information we got was a full month into school which was telling us to send $80 and a signed contract by the following day. Except we never got the original email because our daughter’s contract wasn’t ready.
The contract situation is what it is. Other than being a little irked at the lack of communication we’ll get it signed and back to the teacher as soon as we can. But the fee is another story. I knew we were going to have to pay a fee, but I didn’t know how much. It’s hard to budget for things when you don’t know what the cost will be. Getting an email that says, “Pay me $80 by tomorrow,” is a little difficult to shove into the budget.
Today I’m doing a bit more of a “fist in the air” than a fist pump….but I guess close enough.
Posts That Make Me Fist Pump
- Budget “Date”? Not Even Close! from Prudence Debt Free
- Choose Your Own Financial Adventure from Blonde On A Budget
- How to Set Up and Streamline Your Joint Budget from Couple Money
- The Sprint vs Marathon Mindset When it Comes to Money from Young Adult Money
- If You Balance Saving and Living in Your 20s You’re Doing it Right from Frugal Rules
- Money and Marriage: Paying off Debt When Your Spouse Isn’t on Board from The Frugal Farmer
Shameless Self-Promotion
- Three Lessons Learned Being Broke via MoneyNing
Frustrating!!! I don’t blame you for being annoyed – talk about poor planning on the part of the school/instructor! Either way, I hope you guys have a great weekend – and thanks for the mention!
Annoyed indeed….but we’ll have to deal with it. This isn’t out of the normal behavior for this particular instructor.
Ugh!! I hate when stuff like that happens. We had something like that happen a few months back and it never ceases to amaze me how some lack to plan and then expect you to act right away. That being said, thanks much for the mention sir and hope you have a great weekend!
I would almost call it a lack of respect…..except she probably doesn’t even realize the position she’s putting parents in by her actions.
Well as long as the fist is in the air…that’s still good! I feel like it would be easy for something like this to happen, and it’s easy for people to say “it’s ONLY $80,” but if you are on a budget ANYTHING unexpected can be annoying and throw a wrench in things.
Thanks for including Erin’s post in your roundup. She has been doing a great job publishing 2x a week on YAM while I try to finish the marathon of writing my book. Her posts are so good that it really forces me to write MY blog posts better – the bar has been raised!
Fist is definitely in the air, DC…..it’s great having someone that pushing you to be a better blogger, isn’t it? Great things going on at Young Adult Money!
Very frustrating! You could raise a stink about it – but when it comes to these situations, there’s always the chance it could backfire on the child. All the best in making that unexpected $80 work out. Thank you very much for including my post.
The only reason to raise a stink is if it would change the behavior……it won’t. This is just how this instructor operates. It’ll work out…just not an optimal situation – thanks for stopping by!