A Zip (Buy Now, Pay Later) Review

        My computer is still being an asshole since Windows 11 has been installed and so is my internet connection for some reason (still) and I am hoping that sometime soon things will get straightened out but today is not that day. I am still kind of new to the whole buy now pay later scene. For the longest time, I was only able to get my foot in the door with Afterpay and I have been using that for about 3 or 4 years. Thus far, it seems like Afterpay is still the easiest to get your foot in the door with. I still can't get my foot in the door with Klarna, Paypal pay in 4 or Affirm and I am okay with that.

     In the past couple months, I somehow managed to get my foot in the door with Zip and Sezzle and I was never able to beforehand. I haven't used Sezzle yet but I have used Zip. There is a reason that I am reviewing Zip today. Some of the reason why I wanted to use Zip was for the times where I need to pay my cellphone bill and didn't quite have the means to pay it. Afterpay has never let me pay my Verizon bill through them. I can buy cellphones, gift cards and giftcards if I went to Verizon through the Afterpay app but was never "allowed" to pay my cellphone bill for some reason. With Zip, I have the ability to do that.

     While it is a great thing that I can pay my cellphone bill on Zip and I am sure that I probably could pay other bills through Zip, I have only a $150 limit. To get a higher limit, I would have to pay off 5 orders. I am working on my last 2 orders to pay off and even then I wouldn't know what kind of limit I would have afterwards and it would raise my limit to probably $200. It kind of helps but it doesn't, I would rather pay my entire cellphone bill if I need to on Zip but a $340 cellphone bill is quite a bit. I have the top of the line cellphone plan and 3 brand new cellphones that I am paying on. But I have been able to pay at least part of my cellphone bill with Zip and this is mainly what I am going to be using Zip for.

     There are some big differences between Zip and Afterpay in terms of getting things. More often than not, Afterpay doesn't have a minimum threshold when using Afterpay. If I spend $15 at Ulta and use Afterpay, I am only paying $3.50 every two weeks. With Zip, the minimum threshold is $35 but the biggest thing that I have noticed with Zip, there is a $4 surcharge with every purchase that I would make and have made. Let's just say that I am a little hesitant to use Zip because I am not exactly so willing to pay an extra $4 for every purchase that I am thinking of making. So if I am making a $35 Walmart purchase, I am actually paying $4 on top of that $35. Yes, for every order, Zip tacks on an extra $4 surcharge for every order that I make using Zip. I haven't used Sezzle yet and don't know if they do the same thing. But Zip is giving me more of a credit card kind of vibe without really being a credit card.

     I am intriged though on when I pay off my two other orders on what my limit would be afterwards. I am not expecting too much of an increase. With Afterpay, the limit increases start out pretty small. When my limit was $100 and after about 6 weeks my limit was raised to $200 and was increased by $100 until I hit $1,400 and then I was looking at $250 to $500 increases in one sitting and I am thinking that Zip might be more of the same way but I haven't been using Zip that long or that often. For me, Zip does have a purpose but it's probably not going to be my primary BNPL go to, that's why I use Afterpay because I am not a fan of surcharges or added fees tacked on to my purchases. While I might be okay with having what I have with the whole BNPL, which is the fact that I have options if I need them.

Feeling a Little More Depressed Than Normal

 It seems like I have been back sliding in lots of ways at the moment. It seemed like I was doing alright with starting to save money for a bankruptcy lawyer and the nonsense that goes along with it but I am not fully sure what happened though. Maybe I started to get a little reckless. The recent Luckyscent purchase of Pichola was reckless and it doesn't matter if I used Afterpay or not, it was still reckless. My budget was a whopping total of $50 and it was a gift card through Afterpay, That was a little on the reckless side, I probably could have made due with only $25. But there were a couple Ulta orders that would be okay but would have been better off not spending that at all. I will admit that it felt good to actually pay my cellphone bill in full and on time for 2 months in a row. I struggled with the cellphone bill. I would always be waiting until a week after my cellphone bill was due to make a partial payment and then on my next paycheck, pay the rest of it.

The last of my packages came today, I am going to see what I can do to get myself back on track. First thing is to work on paying off my Afterpay balance. While I am working on the Afterpay balance, I have to work on getting back to basics in terms of spending. That means that I either have to fully stop any kind of frivolous spending or cut way back on it. I am not fully sure on why my depression felt worse. Every time my depression gets the better of me, I do have the tendency to do some retail therapy. Getting a package in the mail can give me something to look forward to but I can't do that so much anymore. The only thing is that my dad's birthday is in August and I am still picking my brain on what to get him. So I am working on banking my Rewarded Play point balance so I am able to pick out something on Amazon. I was thinking about an Xbox game but something else might catch my fancy.

This is some of the issue with Afterpay, you would be amazed on how many things become more "affordable". Yes, there is no  interest but it lets me pay for things in 4 installments and I have to pay every 2 weeks. It's great until you have a bigger balance and all these payments to make. It might be a wise idea to take the Afterpay app off of my phone when I pay Afterpay off. Then I cannot use Afterpay if I have less access to it.

The health insurance that I have only covers so much. I don't know how mental health has become to be viewed as something that should be limited. Just like I have teeth that need crowns, health insurance considers that cosmetic. So I am limited on where I can go when it comes to therapy if I want to get as much therapy as I can possibly get.

Not Exactly Amused

I have blogged about having my Afterpay account frozen and wanting to pay it off before I thawed it out? I decided to pay the rest of the stupid thing off a week early and thawed it out. Because I was stupid and needed to make a payment arrangement to make sure it was paid off, Afterpay has reduced my limit to $100. I fully expected them to reduce that $1,400 limit to maybe $200 at worst and maybe $400 at most. Between those two numbers, it was a usable amount  and very workable amount. I just wasn't expecting something that severe. Afterpay's reasoning was to "encourage responsible spending" but after reading tons of posts on Reddit, Afterpay seems to be on everyone's shit list. People who have never paid late or made excessive purchases are getting denied for orders or their limits reduced. Some are only getting a limit of $50 and that isn't a usable limit at all. I am going to use the $100 that I have and maybe use that for gift cards and then get the things that I will need. Maybe by March or April, May at the very latest, I might have a $300 limit. So perfume purchases have been pushed back and probably way back. I am okay with that though. With having Afterpay paid off and the rest of my cellphone bill will be paid next week, I can rework my budget and I am a little more relaxed at this point. Paying $75 every two weeks was starting to kill my bank account. But it looks like Afterpay might not be doing all that great if orders are being denied or limits being slashed to something unusable along with taking away the no upfront payment feature.

Tax season has started in the US and I got my W-2 in the mail a few days ago. I could have filed it yesterday or today but I am being a little lazy about it right now. I don't want to file it right now, even though I am going to receive a small refund. The extra funds would be beneficial to me but I have to wait until what others decide what is about to happen with the cellphone business that we have going on. Are they getting their own plan or wanting to stay on my plan and just upgrade their phones? And this is another first world problem. I had let someone know that if she wants an iPhone, she either pays for the entire thing upfront or she goes and gets her own plan, my budget doesn't support an iPhone. What I would really love to do is upgrade my phone, pay the activation fee and just bank the rest of the money.

I am trying not to go out and get back ups of anything this year and mostly succeeding at this point. I would love to get a backup bottle of Chanel no 5 in extrait form. Even though Sephora has it and will have a spring sale around April, I must remind myself that I have tons of no 5 already and I don't need more of it. I want to finish up another bottle or two of no 5 and must finish the extrait bottle that I already have before I can consider getting another extrait bottle. This is a year were I am more motivated to make some changes to my life. To have a better relationship with money, to use up more things (like candles and perfume) and actually go out and do more. By trying not to buy stuff, means that I can save some money to actually go out and do things. At the end of the day, I just want to enjoy life a little more. I am tired of being invited to go out and do something but have to turn down the invitation due to money. I would like to live a little bit more and live a little better.
 

It's Been Two Years

It's been two years that Jake has been gone and the grief hasn't lessened too much. In some ways, I can't believe that Jake has died. I am still waiting to hear him "talk" to me about feeding him his dinner a little earlier than normal. There are so many things that I did with Jake that miss terribly. The funny thing is the last few days that Jake was still alive, we had a pretty big snow storm and we just got through one yesterday. Every night, I still have to wish Jake goodnight before I fall asleep. I still remember how his coat felt under my hands when I would pet him and the look he would give when I stopped petting him. I still do not regret taking those calling off work for those two days to spend that time with Jake. It was extra time with Jake. What I miss the most is just being with him. Even when we were not doing anything, it was the being together that meant the most. I have been trying to keep myself busy the past few days to keep from not stewing about the things that I might have been able to do differently the last couple months that Jake was alive. At the end of the day, I don't think that it would have bought me extra time with Jake or improved his quality of life. The most important thing is that Jake was loved all of those eleven years that I had with him and we gave him the best quality of life we could give him.

I am just two payments away from paying off my Afterpay balance. I am debating on if I should keep my account frozen for a couple weeks after it's paid off or unfreeze it and make a Luckyscent order. I keep window shopping Luckyscent website and I have taken to window shopping the Nordstrom website. I keep promising myself that I wouldn't go and buy more than 2 full bottles of perfume this year. With that resolution, even though I haven't bought any new bottles of perfume, I am wavering on it. I want the back up bottle of the Chanel no 5 parfum. I doubt that it's going to discontinued any time soon but with Afterpay, I have the "funds" to get a bottle. My whole New Year's resolution is mainly to spend less money and not be living paycheck to paycheck so much. I am seeing some results of not spending so much. I am not quite as worried about being so thin on funds by Monday. I might have hiccups along the way but I really want to work on building a better relationship with money and shopping. I would love to  be able to take a short trip in the next year or two and if I can build a better way to spend money, a short trip is possible.
 

It Shouldn't Be This Hard

 For a long time, I have said that I was actually going to finish that bottle of Chanel no 5 edt. I keep saying it and it never seems to happen. I have no real idea on why I         can't just finish the damn bottle and be done with it. There is only two more wearings in the bottle so I think that by Wednesday, I should have the bottle finished.

Let's think about it, I have more Chanel no 5 in various concentrations than I know what to do with. So there is no freaking reason on why I should be hoarding this stuff. Especially since no 5 hasn't been discontinued and I don't think that no 5 will be discontinued in the near future. I don't think that it has been reformulated but reformulation is always a threat when it comes to perfume, especially the longer that a perfume has been in the market. Chanel no 5 in various concentrations is pretty easy to find.

Granted Chanel no 5 might not be the cheapest perfume out there and I have spent far more on other bottles of perfume. But for probably most people, the price of a Chanel perfume is the most they can spend on any kind of perfume. I do wish the the extrait version of Chanel no 5 was a little more affordable but I know Chanel can set their prices on whatever they sell. The extrait is the one that I have the least amount of and that is the only formulation that I kind of do hoard due to the expense. Eventually, I will get another bottle of extrait. At this point, I think that might be when Sephora has their spring sale sometime in March or April. And that is when I take Afterpay out of time out.

For me, Afterpay was an awesome idea when my limit was at $600. Since I am at a current limit of $1,400 it's not so awesome for me. It's too easy for me to get into the habit of just buying things since I make payments every 2 weeks. It's just all of those little purchases that seem to get to me. With those little purchases, I can find myself making 6 or 7 payments in the same week when I really don't pay attention. So my account is frozen until my payment plan is complete. I still do think that the BNPL concept is pretty cool and possibly a better option than credit cards. I think that a bottle of Gris Charnel extrait and no 5 extrait are still in that cards but I am going to have to wait until I get Afterpay all squared away and move out of the holiday season.

End of Vacation

Today is my last day of my vacation and it will be back to reality. I am not looking forward to going back to work tomorrow. Monday is a day I normally have off but it's a holiday and I need to go in. It was a week that I didn't do a whole lot.

On Monday, my parents and I went to a winery for my mom's birthday and it was nice. I have noticed in Northeast Ohio that wineries and breweries have become a big thing. So I think that my parents have been thinking about hitting those a little more since they are both retired and quite a bit of the COVID restrictions have lifted.

Thursday was the day that we went to the natural history in Cleveland not realizing that it was undergoing renovations. All they had going on was the outdoor wildlife exhibit and a small 3D movie thing. We saw the Lucy reconstruction and a full triceratops skeleton. Yes, we did see the movie and went outside to see the animals but all in all, that trip was a bust. I have been trying to find free or low cost things to do since I was low on funds. Yesterday, my dad and I went to see a Civil War reenactment and it was alright but there are probably better ones that are coming up this summer.

I am finishing up two candles and will be starting 2 more on Tuesday. So this week I was only able to get through 4 candles. Weather wise we had sunshine but a couple of those days were pretty chilly and I was a little paranoid about having candles burning with how my mother is always complaining about it. I am trying to whittle down my collection a little bit more before I start adding to it again.

There is some good news on the financial front. That Afterpay balance was paid off and the account had the freeze removed. But what do I do? I made the plunge and bought that bottle of Gris Charnel. Sure there are things that I want but I don't want to find myself in the same situation that I just got out of. At this point, I am sitting on my hands and not going over to Luckysent or Bath and Body Works to load up on things that I don't need. I probably shouldn't have gotten that bottle of Gris Charnel but it's something that I have been wanting for a while and the extrait was a little to rich for my blood even though it is a 100ml bottle. Now if I could get a show on the road to finishing up decants a bottles of perfume.
 

It's Finally Warm Out

Well, it's Easter and I am happy to have the day off. Having an actual holiday off in retail is worth it's weight in gold. Especially after the shit show that I have dealt with the past 2 days at work. It was the whole thing of constant interruptions, too much to do and not enough time to do what I really need to be doing. Now I just need to get myself moving on Easter dinner but that really doesn't need to be started right now.

It's finally warm out and you know what that means? I can have my windows open and start to get going on having some candles lit. Currently, I have a Pink Lavender and Espresso candle going. Since it is going to be warm the whole week, I am hoping that I can finish off that Pink Lavender and Espresso candle and start a couple other ones.

Every time I seem to make progress with my candles, there is a really good sale from Bath and Body Works and I seem to pick up more candles. So it's to the point of where I don't have anymore space for candles and now have to start using them. My hope is to get my candle collection to well under 40. And this is part of the reason on why I haven't bought too many decants in a few years.

Let's think about it, when TPC and STC would have sales, I would load up on decants and it's the same way with candles. I just can't resist a good sale. But I have to start resisting sales with the cost of food going up. Even the price of dog food has gone up. So everything has become a big price comparison. With a nephew turning 2 in May, I'm looking at some gifts to get him. I've made the plan to only get him one gift and it's a good thing that he is going to be 2 and toys are fairly cheap. He's not going to be able to tell if I spent $15 or $25. As long as he has a gift that isn't clothes, I think he will be happy.

Even though Sephora is going to have their spring sale coming up, I am probably going to have to give this a miss too and I am not even mad. Even though Afterpay is awesome, I put a freeze on my account since I was starting to really abuse it. Afterpay is good in it's place but when you start to view it almost like a credit card, it's time to take a break from it. Besides, there isn't a whole lot that I really want from Sephora at this point.

Let's Talk Afterpay

 Here is something a little different. It seems like layaway has grown up or at least changed a little bit. Klarna, Affirm and Afterpay is the new credit/layaway type of deal. The retail scene has changed over the past 30 years. Online shopping, recessions, credit card meltdowns and now the pandemic has changed things.

For a while, I kept seeing Klarna, Affirm and Afterpay being offered when I've been doing some online shopping. I've always been a little curious on how those things worked and what they were. After checking them out, I liked the concept of them. I'm working of paying off credit card debt and trying not to use credit cards so much. It's not an easy thing to do. But I was ready to give Afterpay a shot.

Outside of an initial down payment of whatever I am buying, I have 3 more payments to make every 2 weeks before whatever I bought is paid off. The first place that I tried out Afterpay was Ulta. They were running some sort of sale type of things and I decided to bite the bullet and just try it out. I figured that if I didn't like Afterpay, it wasn't a huge deal, the balance wasn't huge and it would be paid off fairly quick. Yeah, I had bought another bottle of Chanel no 5 and something else that I really needed. After I made my initial payment, what I ordered was shipped to me. Layaway used to be that you had to pay the entire balance off before you could get your items. Afterpay doesn't work like that, after the initial payment is made, said item is shipped. I did like that aspect and I also like the e-mail and text reminders of when the next payment is due.

Besides Ulta, FragranceNet and Luckyscent both offer Afterpay and I think that I really shouldn't have looked to see who else might offer Afterpay. I think that it would make things a little easier to spend way too much money but I am working on using Afterpay sparingly. I will admit when Christmas rolls around, having something like Afterpay as another form of payment might come in handy. Especially since Afterpay doesn't charge interest and only an $8 late fee if you forget, even with reminders. I haven't forgotten payments but I was curious in the off chance that I forgot or a big bill just popped up. Even though my limit is up to $600, I do have the chance to have that limit increased but in my case, that might not be the wisest thing to do but if I ignore that and not use Afterpay too much, I think that it won't be a huge problem.