Money mistakes

 One of the fun things about travel is making dumb, often expensive, mistakes. Here's this week's collection:

• We signed up for a Schwab debit card because it refunds all the ATM fees that non-Schwab banks charge you. This worked great, right up until the day I was running on autopilot and pulled out my regular bank's debit card to withdraw some cash. And then I put that card back into the slot where I usually keep the Schwab card and kept using the wrong card for the rest of the month without thinking about it. $123 in fees later, I finally noticed.
• Tom went to pay the electrical bill at the grocery store (as one does here) and misread the note about how they charge 3% if you pay with a credit card. He paid with a credit card. $15 later, his brain finished processing what the note had said too late.
• Nearly all the curbs downtown are painted yellow, which would seem to indicate "no parking" except that people constantly park on all of them and we haven't seen a parking cop in all the time we've been here. [You can already guess where this story is going.] We parked someplace and came back to a $45 parking ticket.
• The kids have lost or broken three water bottles in three months. I'm buying cheaper and cheaper replacements. 

Tom has tried to make up for some of the silliness by spending some time arguing with the electrical company yesterday. They double-billed us for two months, but nobody on the phone seemed to understand the company system enough to do anything about it. He trekked over there in person and finally found someone to talk to who could give back our $200. He marched home like a hero.

Speaking of money, is this not the cutest bill you have ever seen? All money should have axolotls.