Archive for the ‘Finances’ Category

Timeshares


12 Aug

We have a timeshare. Buying the timeshare was not one of the smartest things we’ve ever done, but I don’t regret it. It made our week long trip to England financially feasible. We’ve had some great weekends in the Vancouver and Victoria, BC areas because of it. Honestly, no regrets, even when I pay the dues.

But sometimes we need to remember how to say No. Timeshares give away free trips if you just attend a presentation because its not that hard to get people to say Yes. Remember, when you need to say No, say it, and no regrets.

I Almost had a New Phone


31 Jul

A little over a week ago, I dropped my phone in a puddle. Water damage is irreparable. New pone for me. Because I’m not even a year in to my contract, I wasn’t about to pay full price for a new phone. I bought a used on off of eBay- replacement phone for under $30 instead of $300.

Except, Sprint won’t allow me to have a BlackBerry without having a BlackBerry data plan- at $30/month. I didn’t pay that much for the phone, so… No.

So back on eBay. Another $20 for a non-smart phone.

Anyone want a used BlackBerry?

Weddings & Money


29 Jul

It is wedding season. Not just in real life, but over at Your Money as well, where a number of posters are engaged, getting married this year, or just going to weddings.

Active threads this week have included What is considered expensive for a wedding venue? (self explanatory), Wedding Debt? (a discussion about whether people would go in to debt for their wedding), Wedding UGHH (talk about how much to spend on wedding gifts), Our Wedding Gifts Breakdown (again, fairly self explanatory), and a Spin off of wedding gifts thread (about useless gifts, whether received at the wedding or otherwise).

Become Debt Free with the Women in Red


22 Jul

I’ve mentioned the Women in Red message board here before, but I’m going to plug it again, as we’re trying to grow our membership. We used to have members directed to us via MSN and MP Dunleavy, but since we’ve had to move to a new site we don’t get a lot of new traffic.

Do you want to be debt free? Do you need motivation, maybe some help figuring out your personal strategy to achieve that goal? Head on over to the Women in Red (you don’t even have to be a woman) and put yourself on the path.

No More Cable


19 Jul

We’re considering giving up cable television. I should rephrase- we’ve decided to give up cable television (once I get through the shows saved on our DVR) and not replacing it with anything, except, perhaps, Hulu Plus.

Between Hulu’s paid service, Netflix streaming, and the cable websites themselves, we think we might not miss out on anything. Well, with one exception- I have yet to find full episodes of the current Mythbusters season online. And that’s honestly a pretty big deal for us.

But our Comcast bill is $150/month. That could drop to $20-30 with just internet. Wouldn’t that be nice.

How do you decide?


15 Jul

Is it worth it?

For many people, money, which seems so concrete in its value, does not really hold value in and of itself. That can get them in financial trouble if they don’t have another way to value goods and services.

This thread talks about the system on person used after filing bankruptcy to determine whether something was worth it or not. In his case, he used his time- is this worth working X number of hours?

Other people use favorite goods- is this worth 5 cases of beer?

Whatever system you use, it’s a way of assigning value.

Hiding your success?


08 Jul

Even on a money message board where we are all there to talk about money, it seems that a lot of people are afraid of actually talking about money.

I got a promotion a year ago. It came with a significant raise.

If I were going on a cruise, it would never occur to hide the information in case friends and family looked up my trip to see how much I spent. If they wanted to know, they could ask me.

I do not think money should be a taboo subject, and I’d actually like to work toward changing that.

Is the Recession Over?


01 Jul

One of my husband’s favorite sayings is “we’re all going to be eating rats”. He uses it whenever we go out to a shopping center or restaurant and there aren’t many people there.

Things do appear to be picking up. Is the economy that much better? Are people just tired of not spending? Is it that there are now fewer places to shop/ eat, so there’s a higher concentration of people in the places that are open?

I still don’t think people are back to spending “like the good old days” as this thread asks, but consumer behavior is changing.

Love your job?


26 Jun

Young adults get a lot of career advice, advice along the lines of “find your passion”, “love what you do and you’ll never work a day in your life,” etc. It sounds great, but for most of us, I’m calling bullshit.

For one, no matter how much you love your job, some days will be work. And for others, turning their passion into their job just causes them to lose the passion.

So, no, for those of you who are wondering, you don’t have to love your job. You have to like it well enough to go back on Monday.

Don’t quit your job without a plan


17 Jun

This is an older thread that I wanted to link back to because I think it contains some very good information.

The gist: even if you’re unhappy and not working to your potential, it’s not a good idea to quit you job if you don’t have another job lined up or savings in place to cover your bills.

Also, people lose a lot of sympathy for you when you play the I’m too special, you don’t agree with me so I’m going to take my ball and go home card. Everyone is unique- the corporate world doesn’t care; grow up.

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