Figure out what you want to buy, then look for a deal to match your needs. If you wade through the muck (random L@@K! HOT BUY! posts), then you are definitely wasting your time and money.
The first e-book, The Unconventional Guide to Working for Yourself, is amazing. I myself live a very unconventional life. I wake up bright and early for the stock market, make a few trades, then spend the rest of my day at various coffee shops around town blogging about what I am passionate about.
It's a great way to network, meet locals, and escape.
The banking industry has enjoyed steady growth year over year over year for decades. The question really is how many checking accounts and loans do people need? Isn't there a saturation point?
Just before the recession, I believe that the banking industry had some very loose requirements for getting loans. In fact, my neighbor pointed out that he and his wife were able to secure their home without either one of them having a job! Now, however, the pendulum has swung so much to the other side that people are struggling to preserve the lines of credit they thought they had.
Many of my friends and acquaintances feel as though the banks are Indian givers when interest rates rise to ridiculous amounts or shut down their credit cards altogether.
It will take years to recover from this recession but sometimes it's important to break something down to build it back up. I'm optimistic that we'll recover, but I just hope consumers are more mindful to live within their means and corporations become more mindful of feeding consumers fluff.
As far as advertising is concerned, it may not be a bad approach for corporations to send the message of cautious optimism.
I admit it, I have gifted gift cards to my nephews because I simply don't know what they want. For their birthday this year, I knew that they wanted a new video game each but I didn't know which was the latest and greatest video game, I didn't know what their mother would approve of, and I didn't know what system they were using at the moment.
It's a cop out, but I decided to give them a gift card and let them pick out what they wanted.
Problem is, it's neither personal nor memorable. I won't remember their birthday gift this year and either will they.
Gifting is tough for 10-13 year old boys, in my opinion, and gift cards are easy.
Great Tip. It can be challenging to stop all the chaos in your head even for a few minutes sometimes, but if you do it and just let everything go for a few minutes, empty your mind of Everything, get away from the tv,computer,etc go sit on the couch or the floor and just start thinking of all the things you want or would like to do, accomplish, be, have (Forget about not having the money or time or whatever to have it) just think about the things you would like to have or be or do and write em. Get the creative juices flowing and you'll start to recognize some dreams you may have long forgotten and ones that have come up frequently. If you don't have any dreams what do have to strive for? to motive-ate you? You've got to have specific reasons to change your life, once you have the reasons/dreams then you've got to sit and think about how you can get them. You've got to formulate a detailed plan starting at your vision/dream/goal and backtracking to right this minute! If you take a long road trip in a foreign land(and don't have gps) What do you need to get to your destination?... A road map! It's the same with your dreams and goals, if you don't have a detailed plan for getting to them it aint gonna happen. First you gotta have the dreams and goals. Start w/ dreamin, and dream big. Do this exercise and go from there. Good Luck!
I've been to lifetime fitness myself, and it's certainly a nice gym. The only issue I have with gyms is that you're surrounded by the "public" and that they aren't always convenient. Granted, the lifetime fitness by me is open 24 hours, 7 days a week, but it's still a hassle to drive up there at times. That being said, when you DO get there you certainly get down to business.
I also had no idea they offered that many savings!
When my daughter was a teenager, we just could not buy clothes that she liked. But she knew what she wanted. The first time we gave her a $50 gift card for Christmas, she brought home bags of clothing. She found items she loved on clearance and accessorized and created a complete wardrobe. She is a better shopper than her parents!
Also, my parents are at a stage in life where they don't want more "stuff" when we give gifts. But dinner and a movie or their choice of a good book at Barnes & Noble are welcome gifts.
So I am now sold on gift cards.
As long as its to a place they know I frequent, gift cards are great for me! At this point in my life, cuttind down on expenses is more important than having a nice new candle or bath bubbles. I give them if I think someone is in a similar situation, but prefer handmade or more personal gifts when it's appropriate.
I, for one, love gift cards, especially if they come from a specialty store that I like (i.e. bookstore). I can buy something for pure entertainment and enjoyment value. Cash and generic GC's like Visa and MC cards are good, but I confess I have used them in the past to pay bills or buy groceries, so it's not much fun. It's like receiving the gift of irresponsible and reckless spending.
I would rather have the cash instead of the gift card. I have received gift cards to movie theatres (I hate the idea of spending money to see a movie), Wal-mart (I don't like to support that company with my business), the local mall (I rarely buy anything there), and so on. I find that I am having to work awfully hard to spend these gift cards. If somebody thinks they need to give me a gift (which I don't endorse anyway) then I would rather just have the cash so I can spend it in a place and a way that is meaningful and helpful to me. I rarely give them, either, for the same reasons.
Nobody has said anything about specifying sizes. I'm a gal who's "built for comfort, not for speed" and I've always had a problem finding larger sizes that have any real style at all. Big seams to always be blah.
Do any of these sites have a larger than normal range of sizes?
I didn't know until last year that your bank will give you a visa gift card without the activation fees you pay at supermarkets and places like walgreens.
I think they are the best gift ever. but I don't usually use store gift cards. I prefer to do visa gift cards because they can be used anywhere.
Submetering is the semi-scammy way the landlord pushes off utility bills on residents of apartments without individual utility meters - most often water/sewer and trash service. The residents of a building end up splitting the utility bills for that building supposedly by either occupancy numbers or square footage. Most often you suffer from others wasteful habits or unlisted occupancy numbers.
The apartment owners prefer submetering since it allows them to push off costs which used to be included onto the residents and keep the advertised rental rate low. The landlord contracts with a submeter service which usually doesn't break down the bill per gallons or percent per apartment nor any profit for the submeter company but sends an official looking "utility" bill.
Non-payment of a submeter bill can also result in the tenant being evicted as it is usually considered part of the "rent" even though this is buried in leasing contract fine print. Another issue is that landlords start submetering but do not retrofit or provide units with ways to reduce costs such as insulating crawlspace hot water pipes, low flow shower heads, low water use toilets, free recycling of non-garbage items to reduce garbage costs, etc.
Last apartment complex we lived in started submetering for water/sewer and residents ended up paying evil rates - $30+ per month for a single retired guy in a one bedroom since his building had several one bedrooms occupied with couples w/ one/two children and several units unoccupied. This rate contrasted to an entire 3 bedroom house per month water/sewer rate at $50!!! Luckily our lease renewal was signed right before the submetering started and we managed to skate under the requirement to pay before we ended up moving out.
Actually getting a gift card, helps me do two things I love. It can help me get a great deal. And I love giving to others, for me it really is a treat. So gift cards rule for me
I have found that the ONLY way I can take a vacation is to QUIT my job. Enjoy my "time off" then go out and find a new job.
I am not kidding. Companies expect their employees to have NO LIFE AT ALL outside of work. They want me to be on call 24/7 and be working my butt off for them 7 days a week. I've noticed every company I work for always uses the same excuse for this such as "we are working on a BIG project and we need to push though this to get it finished on time" or some similar excuse for why now is not a good time to take a vacation.
If you let a company know your interested in taking Time Off then you are very likely to go on the **** list and end up getting fired. They will start LOOKING for ways to get rid of you if you act like you want ANY time off. I'm not kidding.
I just play their game for about 6-8 months out of each year then I just walk into my bosses office and QUIT!! It fells so good to quit a job and be FREE again. Each time I do this, they ALWAYS say the same thing; "Well WHAT are you going to do now???" As if I am just LOST if I'm not working 50 hours a week as their slave.
Work is for those who don't know any better way to live their life. You DO NOT have to work 50 hours a week to live in America, you just need to learn how to stop spending every paycheck on Credit Card bills, Cell phone crap and designer clothes.
America NEEDS to get back to the old days of paying CASH and only spending WHAT YOU HAVE IN YOUR POCKET. STOP borrowing money. Stop financing everything and STOP living beyond your means. Live SIMPLE. Stop making your life harder than it has to be by pursuing a foolish American Lifestyle. YOU DO NOT NEED A MERCEDES or a Mini Mansion that has 15 recessed 150watt lights in each room running your power bill to $500 a month!!
A gift card is a fine gift -- it's still more thoughtful than cash, and unless you know what someone wants really specifically, it gives them a variety of choices.
@Travis: taking pix before you move in to protect your security is //GOLD//. That is probably one of the best renter's tips out there.
Another thing that works for me: try to find buildings that are owned by actual human beings, not management companies. Human beings can be reasoned and negotiated with as though they were human beings. To a management company, you're just a number.
For example, a human being might drag his feet on fixing something, but if you end up fixing it yourself you can negotiate reimbursement or rent credit -- not only for the cost of meterials, but you might even get him to throw you a bone for your work. Especially if you offer to do this for other tenants -- or for him.
On the flipside, once you establish a good relationship with a human being, he or she will be more likely to cut you some slack if you are late paying the rent instead of kicking you when you're down with fees and threats. In this economy, that's been a big help for me!
What's more, a management company would NEVER respond to a request like "can I paint my living room blue if I promise to paint it back when I leave [unless you like it]," or "I need a ride home from the dentist and my girlfriend is working, can you give me lift?"
I personally like receiving and giving gift cards.
We have lots of friends and family who choose to shop online. Some companies waive their shipping costs so the person gets to choose their gift without extra cost and can get more with online deals.
Sure it's more fun to rip off wrapping paper and ribbons, but for mailing things long distance, (all our relatives are), nothing beats gift cards. Some family members are always strapped for cash and if I can "earn" gift cards from survey sites, we can give them bigger, more flexible gifts (think Kmart or Walmart) than we could with just the cash we have. We still send a little homemade something with the cards, so it's not impersonal, but we don't end up blowing our entire gift budget on postage either. Some years have been heavy hitters, where postage is more than the gift. OUCH
I think an obvious piece you should keep in mind on these social sites is to keep your personal information general. ie - don't include your house number, the city you live in is close enough. Be careful about sharing your phone number as well and above all - NEVER give out your social security number under ANY circumstance.
PS - lmao at this picture i posted of you on my blog, click on my name to see the whole thing
Figure out what you want to buy, then look for a deal to match your needs. If you wade through the muck (random L@@K! HOT BUY! posts), then you are definitely wasting your time and money.
The first e-book, The Unconventional Guide to Working for Yourself, is amazing. I myself live a very unconventional life. I wake up bright and early for the stock market, make a few trades, then spend the rest of my day at various coffee shops around town blogging about what I am passionate about.
It's a great way to network, meet locals, and escape.
Good post.
The banking industry has enjoyed steady growth year over year over year for decades. The question really is how many checking accounts and loans do people need? Isn't there a saturation point?
Just before the recession, I believe that the banking industry had some very loose requirements for getting loans. In fact, my neighbor pointed out that he and his wife were able to secure their home without either one of them having a job! Now, however, the pendulum has swung so much to the other side that people are struggling to preserve the lines of credit they thought they had.
Many of my friends and acquaintances feel as though the banks are Indian givers when interest rates rise to ridiculous amounts or shut down their credit cards altogether.
It will take years to recover from this recession but sometimes it's important to break something down to build it back up. I'm optimistic that we'll recover, but I just hope consumers are more mindful to live within their means and corporations become more mindful of feeding consumers fluff.
As far as advertising is concerned, it may not be a bad approach for corporations to send the message of cautious optimism.
what banks are doing now is "extend and pretend" for various loans, residential and commercial
What we have is a lot of toxic loans sitting on banks' books, that the Fed has brought in house to the government (public's) balance sheet.
ALl those bad loans and debts need to be cleared out, and housing prices lowered, to SOLVE our collective economic problems.
Too much debt > need to pay off and clear out these debts, not pile more on with endless buyouts, bailouts and stimulae
I admit it, I have gifted gift cards to my nephews because I simply don't know what they want. For their birthday this year, I knew that they wanted a new video game each but I didn't know which was the latest and greatest video game, I didn't know what their mother would approve of, and I didn't know what system they were using at the moment.
It's a cop out, but I decided to give them a gift card and let them pick out what they wanted.
Problem is, it's neither personal nor memorable. I won't remember their birthday gift this year and either will they.
Gifting is tough for 10-13 year old boys, in my opinion, and gift cards are easy.
Best,
Kim
Great Tip. It can be challenging to stop all the chaos in your head even for a few minutes sometimes, but if you do it and just let everything go for a few minutes, empty your mind of Everything, get away from the tv,computer,etc go sit on the couch or the floor and just start thinking of all the things you want or would like to do, accomplish, be, have (Forget about not having the money or time or whatever to have it) just think about the things you would like to have or be or do and write em. Get the creative juices flowing and you'll start to recognize some dreams you may have long forgotten and ones that have come up frequently. If you don't have any dreams what do have to strive for? to motive-ate you? You've got to have specific reasons to change your life, once you have the reasons/dreams then you've got to sit and think about how you can get them. You've got to formulate a detailed plan starting at your vision/dream/goal and backtracking to right this minute! If you take a long road trip in a foreign land(and don't have gps) What do you need to get to your destination?... A road map! It's the same with your dreams and goals, if you don't have a detailed plan for getting to them it aint gonna happen. First you gotta have the dreams and goals. Start w/ dreamin, and dream big. Do this exercise and go from there. Good Luck!
I've been to lifetime fitness myself, and it's certainly a nice gym. The only issue I have with gyms is that you're surrounded by the "public" and that they aren't always convenient. Granted, the lifetime fitness by me is open 24 hours, 7 days a week, but it's still a hassle to drive up there at times. That being said, when you DO get there you certainly get down to business.
I also had no idea they offered that many savings!
When my daughter was a teenager, we just could not buy clothes that she liked. But she knew what she wanted. The first time we gave her a $50 gift card for Christmas, she brought home bags of clothing. She found items she loved on clearance and accessorized and created a complete wardrobe. She is a better shopper than her parents!
Also, my parents are at a stage in life where they don't want more "stuff" when we give gifts. But dinner and a movie or their choice of a good book at Barnes & Noble are welcome gifts.
So I am now sold on gift cards.
As long as its to a place they know I frequent, gift cards are great for me! At this point in my life, cuttind down on expenses is more important than having a nice new candle or bath bubbles. I give them if I think someone is in a similar situation, but prefer handmade or more personal gifts when it's appropriate.
I, for one, love gift cards, especially if they come from a specialty store that I like (i.e. bookstore). I can buy something for pure entertainment and enjoyment value. Cash and generic GC's like Visa and MC cards are good, but I confess I have used them in the past to pay bills or buy groceries, so it's not much fun. It's like receiving the gift of irresponsible and reckless spending.
Those ideas are the right ones. Especially paying on time, and tracking the interest rates charged.
John DeFlumeri Jr
I would rather have the cash instead of the gift card. I have received gift cards to movie theatres (I hate the idea of spending money to see a movie), Wal-mart (I don't like to support that company with my business), the local mall (I rarely buy anything there), and so on. I find that I am having to work awfully hard to spend these gift cards. If somebody thinks they need to give me a gift (which I don't endorse anyway) then I would rather just have the cash so I can spend it in a place and a way that is meaningful and helpful to me. I rarely give them, either, for the same reasons.
Nobody has said anything about specifying sizes. I'm a gal who's "built for comfort, not for speed" and I've always had a problem finding larger sizes that have any real style at all. Big seams to always be blah.
Do any of these sites have a larger than normal range of sizes?
I didn't know until last year that your bank will give you a visa gift card without the activation fees you pay at supermarkets and places like walgreens.
I think they are the best gift ever. but I don't usually use store gift cards. I prefer to do visa gift cards because they can be used anywhere.
Submetering is the semi-scammy way the landlord pushes off utility bills on residents of apartments without individual utility meters - most often water/sewer and trash service. The residents of a building end up splitting the utility bills for that building supposedly by either occupancy numbers or square footage. Most often you suffer from others wasteful habits or unlisted occupancy numbers.
The apartment owners prefer submetering since it allows them to push off costs which used to be included onto the residents and keep the advertised rental rate low. The landlord contracts with a submeter service which usually doesn't break down the bill per gallons or percent per apartment nor any profit for the submeter company but sends an official looking "utility" bill.
Non-payment of a submeter bill can also result in the tenant being evicted as it is usually considered part of the "rent" even though this is buried in leasing contract fine print. Another issue is that landlords start submetering but do not retrofit or provide units with ways to reduce costs such as insulating crawlspace hot water pipes, low flow shower heads, low water use toilets, free recycling of non-garbage items to reduce garbage costs, etc.
Last apartment complex we lived in started submetering for water/sewer and residents ended up paying evil rates - $30+ per month for a single retired guy in a one bedroom since his building had several one bedrooms occupied with couples w/ one/two children and several units unoccupied. This rate contrasted to an entire 3 bedroom house per month water/sewer rate at $50!!! Luckily our lease renewal was signed right before the submetering started and we managed to skate under the requirement to pay before we ended up moving out.
Actually getting a gift card, helps me do two things I love. It can help me get a great deal. And I love giving to others, for me it really is a treat. So gift cards rule for me
I have found that the ONLY way I can take a vacation is to QUIT my job. Enjoy my "time off" then go out and find a new job.
I am not kidding. Companies expect their employees to have NO LIFE AT ALL outside of work. They want me to be on call 24/7 and be working my butt off for them 7 days a week. I've noticed every company I work for always uses the same excuse for this such as "we are working on a BIG project and we need to push though this to get it finished on time" or some similar excuse for why now is not a good time to take a vacation.
If you let a company know your interested in taking Time Off then you are very likely to go on the **** list and end up getting fired. They will start LOOKING for ways to get rid of you if you act like you want ANY time off. I'm not kidding.
I just play their game for about 6-8 months out of each year then I just walk into my bosses office and QUIT!! It fells so good to quit a job and be FREE again. Each time I do this, they ALWAYS say the same thing; "Well WHAT are you going to do now???" As if I am just LOST if I'm not working 50 hours a week as their slave.
Work is for those who don't know any better way to live their life. You DO NOT have to work 50 hours a week to live in America, you just need to learn how to stop spending every paycheck on Credit Card bills, Cell phone crap and designer clothes.
America NEEDS to get back to the old days of paying CASH and only spending WHAT YOU HAVE IN YOUR POCKET. STOP borrowing money. Stop financing everything and STOP living beyond your means. Live SIMPLE. Stop making your life harder than it has to be by pursuing a foolish American Lifestyle. YOU DO NOT NEED A MERCEDES or a Mini Mansion that has 15 recessed 150watt lights in each room running your power bill to $500 a month!!
A gift card is a fine gift -- it's still more thoughtful than cash, and unless you know what someone wants really specifically, it gives them a variety of choices.
@Travis: taking pix before you move in to protect your security is //GOLD//. That is probably one of the best renter's tips out there.
Another thing that works for me: try to find buildings that are owned by actual human beings, not management companies. Human beings can be reasoned and negotiated with as though they were human beings. To a management company, you're just a number.
For example, a human being might drag his feet on fixing something, but if you end up fixing it yourself you can negotiate reimbursement or rent credit -- not only for the cost of meterials, but you might even get him to throw you a bone for your work. Especially if you offer to do this for other tenants -- or for him.
On the flipside, once you establish a good relationship with a human being, he or she will be more likely to cut you some slack if you are late paying the rent instead of kicking you when you're down with fees and threats. In this economy, that's been a big help for me!
What's more, a management company would NEVER respond to a request like "can I paint my living room blue if I promise to paint it back when I leave [unless you like it]," or "I need a ride home from the dentist and my girlfriend is working, can you give me lift?"
I personally like receiving and giving gift cards.
We have lots of friends and family who choose to shop online. Some companies waive their shipping costs so the person gets to choose their gift without extra cost and can get more with online deals.
My dad usually slips in some "bonus" gift cards for grocery stores or WaWa or something at Christmas time - they are the best surprise!!
Sure it's more fun to rip off wrapping paper and ribbons, but for mailing things long distance, (all our relatives are), nothing beats gift cards. Some family members are always strapped for cash and if I can "earn" gift cards from survey sites, we can give them bigger, more flexible gifts (think Kmart or Walmart) than we could with just the cash we have. We still send a little homemade something with the cards, so it's not impersonal, but we don't end up blowing our entire gift budget on postage either. Some years have been heavy hitters, where postage is more than the gift. OUCH
You've failed to mention the BEST 419 site of them all - www.419eater.com
They've got email convos and pics on here that will make you pee yourself laughing!
great points !
I think an obvious piece you should keep in mind on these social sites is to keep your personal information general. ie - don't include your house number, the city you live in is close enough. Be careful about sharing your phone number as well and above all - NEVER give out your social security number under ANY circumstance.
PS - lmao at this picture i posted of you on my blog, click on my name to see the whole thing
J/K ! !