Owning up to Debt

Which headlines are you reading in the paper or online these days? Which are alarming and which are putting you in fear and giving you anxieties? ….Probably all of them. There seems to be this heavy cloud above our nation these days, whether it be for our economy or our election or even the war. YIKES….where do we turn? Here are some of the headlines the past week: “Stocks Loses Ground Amid Financial Uncertainty”, “Dollar sinks sharply to euro”, “Bailout Bill Passes–Now the Hard Part”, “IMF predicts a Recession”, “US Retails Report Decreased September Sales”, “Retirement Account loses near $3 trillion”, it goes on and on. People are panicking, people are hopeless, people are looking to bankruptcy, to bailouts. What is this world coming to?

Is it time to save money now?

Do you feel the heaviness of our nation, our economy? We use to be worrying about tomorrow but I think the worry goes deeper and the worry is more widespread. It’s totally overwhelming. What are we going to do? Should we sell our home? Should we pull out our money from this bank or that bank? Should we transfer our money somewhere else? Where’s the safe bet? Should I buy a home? Do we stuff our savings money in our mattress? Should we be riding our credit cards or continue to pay them down? College? Retirement?

Recycle on Craig’s List

First of all, forgive me of my lack of posting. Life is just taking me away….. Even with this post, I feel like I’ve written this before but I can’t find it. So…since that’s the case, I’ll post this regardless (hehe).

My Challenge

I was in the dentist’s office waiting for my boys to get their 6 month exam. In the lobby they had a lot of different magazines to chose from. I had read somewhere else that you should make yourself read other people’s success stories with money, you should subscribe to money magazines or even read the Wall Street Journal every now and then. If you care about your money, you need to invest on learning about money & how to make it grow and last. Instead of picking up People, I picked up a business magazine. I started glancing at the different articles, I flipped to the one that was a little interesting. It was about how you can get a better grasp on how you spend money. Sometimes it’s hard to get a good concept on where all your money goes from paycheck to paycheck. You write a check to Target, to the grocery store. You use your debit card to Starbucks and for lunch. How much money are you really spending daily? We already know that most paycheck cycles, we’re spending our entire paycheck and possibly more with the credit cards. The article suggested using only cash on your purchases for a week. It also suggested only going to the ATM to withdraw cash once a week. When you think about it, who ever pays cash for groceries anymore? You use your debit card and oftentimes get cash back. Later the cash flies out of your hands without a thought on where it all went. $20 doesn’t take us a long way anymore. Paying cash for gas, maybe we’ll think twice about a leisurely drive when we just dropped $80 on gas. Who knows what will happen when we take this challenge?! I think I’ll do it, use cash only for the next week. Hopefully it’ll be a positive experience and I’ll be able to understand where all that money goes from week to week. I’ll let you know what happens.

Reap What You Sow

I told you we started a compost pile, didn’t I? My husband and I were in the kitchen last night. He saw me put aside some old coffee grounds that would later be put in the compost pile. He told me that he was at my dad’s house the other day and saw my dad putting his coffee grounds right in his plants. I shared with my husband that I didn’t have as much trash anymore, that I’m putting a lot of the vegetable/fruit peelings, egg shells and coffee grounds in the compost pile. I also shared with him that growing up I remember that my dad would put aside egg shells and coffee grounds to bring them outside for his plants. This ritual was just part of his life style. It was a discipline to him. And I must say that my dad has a green thumb. I don’t think there is anyone else who can garden as good as him. He has fruit galore in his backyard, and he can nurse a dying plant back to life in no time.

Don’t forget!

Tomorrow is the BIG DAY! It’s the kickoff for the big celebration of California Coastal Cleanup Day! Do your part and have fun while you’re there. Meet people with the same goals. Here’s my older post with the links for more information, if you missed it the first time.

I’ve noticed they’ve added more days and more places, so that means more opportunities. Don’t miss out!

Are you Missing Anything?

Yesterday I surfed the web on the available downloads. There’s a great website out there, Cnetdownload.com. The site breaks down the downloads, ones for Windows, MAC’s, Mobile and Webware. It then breaks it down by popular downloads (you don’t want to be the last one to know about things), favorite downloads (what are people liking out there), the editor’s picks (some possible upcoming cool thing), etc. It has all kinds of software available. It has reviews on the different downloads, it has tips and forums when you can’t find answers. Get lost in the site and see what’s out there in cyberspace. Have fun!

More Free Online Software

My son is in 5th grade. A couple years ago he learned how to do a slide show using Power Point. He always wanted it on his home computer but I didn’t want to buy software. I kept putting it off and putting it off. What a bummer for him! I’m stopping him from growing in the computer world because I don’t want to spend money. I figured all he really needs is a word processor. We barely had a typewriter when we were growing up. Not everyone has a computer, right? Can they dock points if they don’t have a computer? It’s rather unfair. But why do I have to be thinking this way? Shouldn’t I be finding ways to give my kid an advantage so he can get ahead in life?

Bored with Work?

Sometimes we need to sit and work. Sometimes we just don’t feel like it. Sometimes we get so sidetracked that what would normally take 30 minutes to do, takes the whole day. Arghhh! I use to work at an insurance company and I would have to process medical claims all day long, sometimes 10+ hours because we were so backlogged. Back then if we had the resources we have today, it would have been a breeze. We use to bring “Walkman CD players” and a case full of CDs to help focus and get the work done. My friends and I use to trade CDs for a bit so we could have a variety and not get bored of the same ol’ songs. Now they have unlimited free music and video online, they even have lots of sites that give free downloadable songs, videos and comic relief. There are so many websites to choose from: Slacker-Your Radio Everywhere, YouTube, AOL Music & Radio, Spiral Frog, MP3.com, Free Music Download Spot, Kazaa, and it goes on and on. Sometimes I even wonder why I even buy CDs and songs on Itunes. Music is free online. You just have to look…and be careful. Make sure you know what you’re downloading. One time when my son downloaded a song, it bombarded my computer with all these poker sites. That was frustrating. I would stick with the bigger name, reputable companies. (Hey, did you read in the headlines yesterday about BestBuy buying Napster for $121 million? — Let’s see how that pans out.)

Do your kids value money?

My husband was jogging while my 9 year old was riding his bike. My husband had to stop to see what was slowing down my son. When my son reached my husband, my husband asked, “Why did you stop?” My son answered, “There was a penny on the ground that I picked up.”

This is the same son that I overheard talking to his 6 year old little brother. Little bro says, “If you want that game, just ask mommy if you can get money from your bank account.” Big bro says, “No, I’m saving for college. Do you know that college costs a lot of money?”

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