At the end of yesterday’s Daily $$ post I mentioned that I’d received a quote of nearly $1,000 every 6 months (or almost $2,000 per year) to insure our 16yo daughter with her newly minted driver’s license.

After spending the entire morning on the phone with someone in our agent’s office, here’s what we finally came up with:

When you insure a new driver, you have to specify which car you want to insure them on.  Only a fool would choose anything other than their least expensive option — and I’m no fool.  So The Daughter is insured on The Tank.  The Tank is an ‘01 SUV that is completely paid off.  We do carry comprehensive insurance on it because we both think it’s nuts not to.  It’s the older of our two cars but with a lot of life left in it.  To insure The Daughter on The Husband’s not-yet-a-year-old Subaru would have been a much more expensive option.  Mind you, none of this bears any relation to the facts — The Daughter hates driving The Tank and we prefer her to drive the Subaru anyway so when she drives, she drives her dad’s car.

So, anyway, we put her on The Tank.  Next, because The Daughter is a high-risk driver (simply because she’s a new driver; no reflection on her driving skills), her policy is actually written by a subsidiary of Farmer’s — Mid-Century.  Because she’s actually insured by a different company than The Husband and I are, she and I can’t be rated on the same vehicle.  So they shuffled me over onto the Subaru with The Husband.

All of that was fine and dandy but we weren’t done yet.  The Husband commutes to work every day so his vehicle was rated as a “commuter” vehicle.  I, on the other hand, work from home and don’t have a daily commute.  Therefore my car, The Tank, was rated as a “pleasure” vehicle.  But now that The Daughter is rated on the car, it had to be upgraded to a commuter vehicle.

We should have been close at this point but we weren’t.  It turns out that the other woman in the office had somehow managed to classify The Husband and I as “race car drivers.”  [When I heard this I had a hilarious flash through my brain of Paul Newman — the only old man race car driver I know of.  Believe me, The Husband is old and, in my eyes at least, handsome, but he’s definitely not Paul Newman.]  It was a stupid error and I can’t help but wonder how much effort it will require to undo any effects it had on our rates.

Now that The Husband and I are no longer “race car drivers”, the clerk and I were getting closer to the end of our negotiations.

Now we discussed the “good student” discount and the Y.E.S. program discount — discounts can’t be applied to a policy until the policy has been written, apparently, so she couldn’t quote anything with the discounts applied she could only guess at how much they would be.

Yesterday this clerk had mentioned that we could also receive a 10% discount if we paid for the whole 6 months in full.  I was prepared to do just that today but was stymied by the other clerk’s second error — somehow she’d entered the starting date of the policy as being March 24th (the day The Daughter and I went into the office to watch that stupid, time-wasting video).  In order to have qualified for the payment discount I would have had to pay on that date.  I was ticked but it seemed pointless to make a stink about it.  [As I write this it occurs to me that I need to double-check with the office to confirm the starting date for this policy — or more importantly, it’s renewal date.  There is no way I’m going to pay for 1-1/2 months in arrears for time that The Daughter didn’t even yet have a driver’s license.]

At this point we were getting closer to finishing this thing.  The last bit of price-dropping changes we made was to up The Tank’s deductible from $500 to $750.  The Husband later mentioned that we should have taken it up to $1,000 but I’ll leave that detail for a later day.

The end result — after switching drivers, switching car usage classifications, applying discounts, becoming regular-old-Joe drivers again (I’m going to kind of miss being a race car driver — do you think I can put it on my resume anyway?), and adjusting our deductible, the final number came out to $675.50 due every 6 months.

Anyway you look at it, $1,351 per year is a darned sight better than $2,000.  I felt even better about the final number when The Husband pointed out that it’s not an extra $675.50 on top of what we already pay every 6 months.  We were already paying about $500 twice a year to insure The Tank.  In reality, this is only $175.50 more than what our old policy was costing us.  To be sure, an extra $350 every year is worth budgeting for and bearing in mind when deciding whether or not to buy that Starbucks treat next time she asks, but things are looking quite a bit sunnier than they were this time yesterday.

So, if you’re keeping score, today I officially spent $480 paid to Mid-Century Insurance – the minimum amount necessary to purchase this policy (I saw no point in paying the whole thing since I wasn’t going to get the discount).

I don’t know if it’s just me or not, but I tend to put a lot of thought into how and where I spend my money.  I prefer quality over quantity and nothing frustrates me quite as much as buying a product that fails to deliver the degree of quality I expect – except maybe a company that fails to deliver the level of service I expect.

On the other hand, I get an inordinate amount of satisfaction from experiences in which I feel I got an excellent return on my money.  I’m not talking about just those times where I find a great bargain though I do love a good 75% off sale as much as the next person.  I get a huge amount of satisfaction from a product that delivers, or better yet exceeds, my expectations.  Or instances in which I receive excellent customer service.

I’ve purchased quite a few products for myself, my home, and my kids over the past few months.  I thought I’d take some time today to share some follow-up information about my experiences with the products I bought and the companies I bought them from.

Amana French-Door Bottom-Freezer Refrigerator
I purchased this refrigerator on the same day I started this blog.  It was the first new ‘fridge I’ve ever owned.  The entire family loves it and we haven’t had a single regret about our choice of products, style, brand, or vendor.  The automatic ice maker, a mild bone of contention for The Husband, works great and I’m really glad I pushed for it.

Men’s Khakis from Aeropostale
The pants are nice enough. The Son likes them and they look pretty good on him. But I wouldn’t buy them again and I won’t buy any more. Why?  Because the waistband button came off in the first wash.

I know how to sew on buttons and I had all the necessary tools and materials on hand to get the job done — but I was busy and I hate sewing on buttons.  I put the pants in a “to do” pile, stuck the button in my shorts pocket, and forgot about them.  It wasn’t until last month that I finally got around to sewing the button on so it wasn’t until last month that The Son finally got to start wearing the pants.

Then, the second time I washed the pants, another button fell off.  This time it was the right rear pocket button.  That button is still sitting on my kitchen counter.  It will not be sewn on as I have neither the time nor the inclination to replace the second of three buttons to fall off this pair of pants.

The Daughter, who herself has owned several pair of Aeropostale khakis, informed me that the buttons always fall off their pants.  She just uses a safety pin instead.

I say “bull pucky”.  I say, “no thanks, Aeropostale”.  If I wanted build-your-own pants, I’d do just that — go back to making my children’s clothing by hand.  When I buy a pair of pants, I expect the buttons, clasps, and other fasteners to stay on for the life of the garment — or at least pretty darned long.  It’s the principle of the thing.

So, Aeropostale is on my “nope, won’t bother” list.  Improve the quality and I’ll come back but until then there are too many other sources of men’s khakis that don’t require me to keep a sewing needle and bobbin of thread at the ready.

Hanes Comfort Waistband Classic Briefs
If you followed along on my agonizing and expensive Great Underwear Search of ‘08you’ll remember that I ended up hitting righty tighty whitey paydirt with Target’s men’s Hanes Comfort Waistband classic briefs.  Despite the fact that The Son declared these the best fit, these purchases have not been unequivocally happy ones.  In fact, I have two complaints about this product/brand.

The first is just a minor complaint — they don’t come in white.  Colors are great; colors are fun; The Son is fine with colored briefs.  But white would be good too.

My second complaint is much more serious and, under normal circumstances would keep me from buying this product altogether.  They aren’t 100% cotton.  Well, let me clarify — only some of the briefs are 100% cotton, the solid colors.  The heathered colors are a cotton/poly blend.  And all of the packages contain at least some heathered colors.

I take my preference for 100% natural fibers pretty darned seriously.  The Daughter, in these recent years as an independently minded teenager choosing her own clothing, has chosen to purchase certain garments that contain synthetic fibers.  The Son and I, however, are strictly natural-fiber wearers.  And when it comes to underwear, cotton is a must — even for The Daughter.  Cotton breathes; nylon and polyester don’t.  Underwear, in order to maintain proper temperatures and optimal health of the areas covered, should be a breathable fabric.  Therefore, everyone in our family wears cotton underwear.  But now The Son owns and wears underwear constructed of blended fabric.  That is a compromise I never imagined myself making — and it hurts.

Cottonfield organic cotton briefs
These briefs are almost identical in cut, size, and style to the Hanes Comfort Band briefs discussed above.  There exist, however, huge differences between them.  The first would be price — I pay $9.49 for a package of 5 Hanes briefs at Target.  The Cottonfield organic cotton briefs run $17.95 — a pair!  The second would be the fabric.  As stated above, many of the Hanes briefs aren’t even 100% cotton much less 100% organic cotton.  For some people, that wouldn’t be an issue at all.  For me, it’s a huge issue.

In all honesty, if The Son were done growing and I knew he’d wear these briefs for as long as they’d last, I’d buy a couple pair at a time (to help spread out the expense) until we’d built up a full wardrobe of them.  But at 13, there’s no way he’s going to stay in this size for very long — even if he retains his skinny form.  So for now, we’ll mix the one pair of organic cotton briefs in with the cotton-blend Hanes briefs and I’ll just have to learn to live with it.

Company Store Cotton Flannel Sheets
Of all the purchases I’ve made over the past, well I don’t know how long, this is one of the most painful and disappointing.  It’s not just the expense involved — especially since I’m still within my 90 day return window.  It’s the degree to which I feel this product let me down.

As I wrote, I bought flannel sheets from The Company Store a couple of years ago that were nothing short of beautiful.  Even now, after several seasons of use, they are thick, soft, and as smooth as a baby’s bottom.  They are luxurious.

The new cotton flannel sheets don’t even come close to matching the quality of the older sheets.  These new sheets pilled extensively.  In all fairness, they’re still pretty soft because the “pills” aren’t as hard or defined as the pills on our old cheap flannel sheets.  Still, they pilled.  And that’s just not what I expected.  The old flannel sheet from The Company Store don’t have a single pill among them — three fitted sheets and any number of pillow cases.  Every single one of the new flannel sheets and pillow cases is covered with pilling.

I called The Company Store’s customer service phone number this morning.  The agent tried to help but there wasn’t much she could offer.  My original sheet purchase was no longer in the computer system so we couldn’t confirm exactly what those sheets had been called.  We did clarify that the original sheets are labeled as having been made in Portugal presumably of Portuguese cotton flannel while the new sheets were made in Czech Republic of German fabric.  We also clarified that their heavier-weight cotton flannel sheet currently offered in the catalog are supplied by the same company — made in Czech Republic of German fabric.  Thus, it’s a pretty good bet that upgrading to the 6oz flannel won’t solve the problem of pilling.  It seems to simply be a case of different suppliers between the two purchases.

I’m struggling with what to do at this point.  The new sheets are usable albeit disappointing in relation to what I expected and to my original flannel sheet purchase from the same company.  I can send them back for a refund (I’ll have to eat the original shipping charges and I’ll probably have to pay return shipping though.)  If I send them back, I’ll have to keep looking for a different source of flannel bedding because we can’t make it through next winter having only one sheet set for each bed.  I dread the thought of another Great Underwear Search — expending both time and money trying out products until I find something I like.  Flannel bedding is heavy and I could rack up some serious shipping charges in no time at all.

Whatever I decide, I need to do it soon.  I purchased the first batch of sheets (for the kids’ beds) on January 11.  I have a little longer on the sheets for our bed — I purchased those on Valentine’s Day.  But if I send some back I’ll want to send them all back so I have to decide what to do this week.

edit:  I’m editing this post to add a photo of the sheets in question.  On the left are the new flannel sheets (The Company Store, 5oz flannel).  On the right are the old flannel sheets (The Company Store, specific product name unknown).  Also, I’ve corrected the countries in which the two different sets of flannel sheets were manufacturered (sorry, forgot to fact-check before publishing).