Working with a spaghetti wordpress site makes me wanna scream. I don't even know if my changes have no effect because I fucked something up or there is some absurd caching system that thwarts everything I do.

Probably cache.

I ran into this on some rando ass Wordpress install the client had on GoDaddy. If memory serves there was a "Clear GoDaddy Cache" plugin I ended up using.

Alternately they could be using some caching plugin of their own.

Stupid as shit, but meh, twenty bucks is twenty bucks.