Work musings

Today is my one year anniversary at work. I'm not surprised that I made it to one year. I am surprised that I'm in my same department. I had planned to leave at the post out mark (6 months). Then I decided to stay and have 1 solid years worth of experience. Well, 3 weeks before my 1 year was up I got a promotion. But it wasn't a real promotion. They just gave me the next job grade along with my regular raise.

Hopefully, my plans will work out and when my next six months are up I can jump at least 2 job grades. That should be a nice little raise.

Edit: How the heck did I post this with no title? Doh!

The most boring weekend in the world

I didn't do anything this weekend. Nothing at all. None of my friends were around to hang out with. My friend that was supposed to have a cookout went to Baltimore instead. So I didn't have a cookout to go to. None of my other friends had one. I tried to talk my friend that always cooks into having one, but she wouldn't go for it.

In the end, everyone just decided to stay home. Maybe I'll do something next weekend. If none of my friends has anything planned for the 4th of July, I'll plan something on my own. Staying home for 3 days is a total drag. Especially since all of my neighbors are early birds and I didn't even get to sleep in.

High school graduations

Sigh, the season is upon us. I'm happy that my cousin is graduating, I'm not happy that I'm getting ready to pay out of the wazoo for his present. He wants an ipod shuffle. When he said ipod, I thought I was going to pass out. Then he threw the shuffle in their and I breathed a big sigh of relief.

I still have some other small stuff to get him too. He's a twin and they don't have a lot of pictures from when they were smaller. I have a boatload of them, so I'm getting one of the nicer ones framed. His twin isn't graduating this year because of health problems. So next year a present and the following year the baby graduates. Now if I can only talk them into college.

Women get your money right

First let me say that I understand that men want to get their money right. But it's often assumed that men are better investors than women. While I know that's not always true, most financial planners seem to believe that as well. When couples or women alone go, they often get spoken to in a condescending manner. They usually asked questions like "Did you ask your husband?" or "Maybe we should wait for your husband and see what he thinks". Truth be told, women are just as good as investing as men are.

That's why I'm happy that I've found a woman who is not only a financial planner but she also specializes in helping women reach their financial goals. Elizabeth Potts Weinstein is a independent fee-only Certified Financial planner and the owner of TheWealthSpa.com. On her site you can find tips such as the types of people that should work with her (people that want to learn more about money) and people that should not work with her (people that want get-rich quick schemes.

You can visit her site to get her free weekly e-zine. There's also a free teleclass each month focus on various topics. If you want to learn how to "Stop Procrastinating About Your Finances", stop on by and sign up.

I've been sick for 2 days

This sucks. I still don't feel well. Of course it happened during the holiday weekend when I'm supposed to be relaxing. My stomach has been topsy-turvy like crazy. I couldn't even sleep last night, I tossed and turned trying to find a comfortable position all night long. I just hope this ends soon. I have a lot to do around the house this weekend. So laying around waiting for my stomach to calm down just won't do.

Having bad credit sucks

I already talked about my mom and her credit card. I just found out that she was considering getting a credit card balance transfer to pay off her debt. I thought that was good until she told me what kind of interest rate she was getting. It was something outrageous line 22.9%. For a credit card that's not unusual, but a balance transfer? You can usually get 0%-3.9%. She has bad credit so that makes a big difference. You can't really be too picky with the rates you since the banks don't really have to compete for your business. They know they have you between a rock and a hard place. Most people with bad credit are really in a bind and will do anything to get the money.

You really can't blame the banks though. That's how they make their money. If everyone had good credit, the interest rates would always be low. I just feel bad for my mom because she lost her job and went delinquent on 2 credit cards. Instead of working with the companies, she tried to charge the cards off. She owed too much money and the credit card companies were not going to let that go. In the past year, she paid the accounts off, but she still has to deal with the low credit rating for the next few years. We've talked about it and she's decided not to get the card. I told her when I come home the next time, we'll look online and compare rates and fees before she applies for any more credit.

I'm not going home

I went to two different websites, the cheapest ticket I can get right now is almost $200 or double what I want to spend. I'm kinda upset but not really. It would be nice to go home again but at the same time, I hadn't had anything planned so it shouldn't matter. I just really didn't want to sit in the house all weekend. None of my friends are doing anything or their going over other peoples houses so I really don't have anywhere to go. I guess I'll figure something out.

I did miss the start of the game

And that post is on the wrong blog. When I was saving it, I wondered why the categories looked weird. I write a ton of sports posts on my other blog so they take up a lot of the categories. I try not to write too many on this blog so I have no sports related categories. So to get this back on track of finance I will say I'm trying to find a baseball game to go to this year. My neighbor offered to take me to a game but it didn't work out so maybe we'll try again. Except this time, I'll buy my own ticket.

Orlando is more than just the house of the mouse

I've seen some great advertising for Orlando Fl. I've wanted to go visit for quite some time. It's also on my list of places to move when I get done with school. That's a very short list. There are several reasons why I am considering Orlando. First, they're close to all of the theme parks and attractions in Fl. For visiting family and friends this will be a great plus. The second reason is most definitely the weather. Orlando is nice and sunny all year round. Because of where it's located in the state, it doesn't fall into the hurricane belt. You do get some of the storms and hurricanes, but you don't get the full brunt of the storms. Most times, you only get the excessive winds and rain. The last reason, is because there is so much culture and diversity in the region. That is very important to me.

When I visit, I will plan way in advance so I can get a great deal on Orlando hotels. Since Orlando is such a popular place to visit, it's never on sale. You have to look around to find affordable rates. I will also need tips on entertainment and dining. Since there are so many luxury hotels in the area, I can turn this into a spa visit and shopping trip too. A girl must have her priorities in order.

I won't miss tonight's game

I will not miss the beginning of the Yankees vs. RedSox game tonight. I missed the start of the game on Monday and I missed A-Rod hitting a homer. Of course, yesterday's game was nothing to write home about.

I was just thinking, I have 3 teams that I root for. For whatever reason, the majority of times their wins and losses seem to sync up. I know it's just me paying more attention to the scores on certain days. But whatever.

This holiday snuck up on me

I totally forget that next week was a holiday. I don't have any plans either. I might go visit my family again, if I can get a ticket for less than $100. I highly doubt it since it's so close to the travel date but you never know. Sometimes you can get a last minute deal. If I don't go home I have no idea what I'll do this weekend. Probably just hang around the house.

Gimme an A

My niece is a cheerleader. It's almost a year round responsibility anymore. During the school year they cheer during games and school functions. Now that summer is coming, they have competitions and summer camps to get ready for next year. It's mind boggling how much time they put into practice.

It's also more expensive than a lot of people realize. There's a lot of travel involved. Plus the cost of pom-poms, uniforms, and shoes. The school does provide some financial support but for the most part the kids have to do a lot of cheerleading fundraising. The most popular item this year was the customized flip-flops. The flip-flops are purple and gold, our school colors. They're not gaudy. They're purple with gold weaved throughout. The students love them, especially since they spend a lot of time at the beach. The flip-flops have the school logo on the bottom, so when you walk on the sand, the school logo shows up behind you. It's a neat concept.

I gladly support their efforts. I know it gets expensive and most parents can't afford to pay for all of their kids' activities. I consider this a small price to pay to have the kids in positive after school activities.

People want me to loan them money

No way Jose. Been there done that got the t-shirt. I've been burned before. I feel bad when someone needs money. I've been there myself. But I've had to dig myself out of the hole I was in because I didn't want to ask anyone for money. I know it's hard especially when you have kids. But if I've loaned you money once and you don't pay it back or it takes you 2 years to pay back $100, don't ask again. The answer will always be no.

I am confident

Ok, well not as confident as I would like to be. I mean I'm no turtle hiding in my shell, but I do think I could project a more powerful presence. Not overpowering, but not a shrinking violet either.

I've read that you can order subliminal CDs that will help you with a variety of issues. You can improve your confidence, develop patience, lose weight, or even alleviate impulse eating. That would go perfectly with the lose weight cd. Subliminal-cds.com offers these cds and more.

If you're asking just what is a subliminal message, it's a method of sending message directly to the impressionable subconscious mind. Sound confusing? It's not really. You just listen to the cds. Once a night for the first week, then once a week for three weeks. That's it. Easy. If you order the product in mp3 form, you can even have it in minutes.

Order it today and be more confident tomorrow.

My previous post

I hope my previous post doesn't make me sound greedy. I'm not looking for a ring that costs a lot of money or the rock of Gibraltar. I do want the ring but it's more what the ring symbolizes than the actual ring.

I hope this is making sense. I re-read my post and it seems like I came across as a money-grubbing gold digger and that is so far from the truth it's not even funny. I've always had my own job and my own money. Like I said, it's more what the ring symbolizes than anything else.

Buy me my diamond already

My boyfriend and I have been talking about getting engaged. I know it's a serious step and neither of us takes it lightly. I'm just ready to get my diamond engagement ring. I know that sounds terribly selfish but I'm not putting any pressure on him. I don't want us to rush into something.

I have found a perfect ring though. I've been doing my research and I found a jeweler that offers great products. While doing my research I printed out the 4 C's guide and I've narrowed down a price range. I would love a huge rock but I know that it makes more sense to get a smaller more perfect diamond than a huge diamond with visible flaws.

Just hurry up with the proposal man.

Some people have all the luck

I didn't hear the entire story, just the general jist of it. A woman found $10. Hey that's cool. I've found money before. Anyway, she decided to take the money to the store and buy a PA Lottery scratch ticket. I don't know if most people would have done that but hey, I guess she figured it was free money so what they hay. Anyway, the ticket was a $1 million dollar winner. Can you imagine?!?!?! Nothing like that ever happens to me.

I love when my money makes money

I have all of my emergency fund in my savings account. I want to keep the money safe and easily accessible. There's nothing better than having your money earn additional money. When you have a high yield savings accounts, you can really rack up the extra money.

I don't think you should take chances with your emergency fund because you never know when something may happen and you might need that money. You don't even need to have your money in a traditional bank. My money is in my credit union account. Credit unions in general pay better interest rates than banks. However, you can't just assume that the banks will pay lower rates. That's why it's so important to visit a website like emoneycentral.com and compare rates. You may find that there is a difference of several percentage points. And that could end up earning you a lot of extra money.

I'm thinking about getting a summer job

I need to make some extra cash for school. It's a lot more expensive than I thought it would be. I knew it was costly, but I underestimated how much I would need each semester.

For the upcoming fall semester, I estimate that I'm close to $700 short. I know I could make that much and a lot more by working a part time job this summer. Sigh, I don't know what I'll do. I'll have to look around and see what I can find.

My mom and her credit card

I just found out that my mom got one of those awful high interest credit cards. To add insult to injury they have both an annual fee and a monthly maintenance fee. Ugh. I wish she would have talked to me first. There are some great Credit Cards out there, but this bank definitely does not offer one. Her bank specializes strictly in cards for people with bad credit.

I told her that that's no reason to get robbed blind by the credit card company. She can apply for a secured credit card. That's where your balance is determined by how much you have in their banks' savings account. Most legitimate companies will release your deposit after one year and give you a unsecured card.

Either way I think it's a great way to rebuild credit. After all, most people don't qualify for 0% or low interest rate cards. But that doesn't matter that people should be raked over the coals either.

Another Alexa rant

How in the world does this stuff update. I've had multiple people visit my blog today. I know this because they've sent me emails commenting on posts I wrote. But my silly Alexa rating keeps going up instead of down. What in the world is going on?!?!

Alexa is important because sponsors and web-masters use it to determine your sites popularity. Some sites won't even link to you if you have a low pr (less than 3) or a high Alexa rating (where mine is now). I need higher pr websites to link to me. They actually leak some of their pr to you. It doesn't hurt their site but it sure helps your site.

I guess I just wish I knew what made these meters jump the way they do. That way I could do more of the good things and less of the bad.

I want to go to the Caribbean next year

I haven't even gone on this years vacation and I'm already looking towards next year. I always plan at least 6 months in advance to make sure I have the money I need and the vacation days from work.

I want to go to the Caribbean next year. I have my sights set on the Dominican Republic. Most of the people that have visited the island have great things to say. The Dominican is becoming one the fastest growing destinations in the Caribbean. I'm planning on booking a all inclusive family vacation. All inclusive is definitely the way to go when you visit the Caribbean. Most of the food on the islands is imported so it's very expensive. Also, booking airfare and hotels separate is just asking to pay more.

Packages also make sense because you often get extra amenities in the package. The reason for that is the resort figures you spent so much money that you won't want to leave their property. Non-motorized water sports and activities are usually included. That includes snorkeling and banana boat rides.

Vacations.net offers all inclusive vacations, in-depth reviews on your destination, and hotel reviews from travelers who have actually visited the resort. Add to that their hot deals, free nights program and percentage off promotions and there's no reason not to visit and book with them.

I work hard so I should be able to relax and/or play hard. That's why I love vacation so much. A week to totally get away and just forget about everything. I can just imagine that umbrella drink now.

I might have to take Kontera off anyway

Yesterday I wrote about my Kontera showing up incorrectly. I might have to take the program off anyway. I have a "hack" in where the links aren't supposed to show on certain posts. The links don't show in IE but they do show in FireFox and I don't want them to show in any programs at all.

I'll leave them on for another couple of days to see whether the kinks work themselves out.

Kontera is driving me crazy

My Kontera links are not showing up. They're not supposed to be in some posts because I have a filter in them. But the links aren't showing anywhere. They kinda goofy looking on my other blog too. This is driving me crazy. I'm not going to even talk about the fact that people aren't clicking on the ads.

You can't click on ads that aren't there. Grrrrr.

My cousin is in the market for a new van

My cousin has severe leg pain. She looks bow-legged but her legs almost turn the in the opposite direction. It's really hard to describe how it looks but you can tell it hurts. She's had problems with her legs since she was a child. She would never take the medicine that they gave her because she didn't want to. The doctors also suggested surgery but because our family is poor she couldn't afford it. Now a days she could qualify for one of the charity programs for medical care but back then those programs weren't available.

As you can imagine getting around is very hard. Even though they have pretty decent bus service where she lives, all buses are not handicap accessible. Some of the buses that are supposed to be are malfunctioning. The lifts don't work or the seats don't actually lift to fit the wheelchair. So they need to look into getting their own handicap van. They can't afford to buy a new van, so they have to really do their homework when buying a used van.

Is the van interior large enough to fit the wheelchair? Has the van been in any accidents, floods, or had any claims against it? Is this a reputable dealer that they're buying from? These are all of the questions that they have to answer before putting down their cash for the van. I told them to just make sure they do their homework first to make sure they're getting the right van for their needs.

This was not a good week at work

I got this awful promotion. It came at the same time as my regular merit increase was due. They gave me 3.5% and a job grade increase. That sucks! 3.5% for a raise I understand, but for a promotion?!?! What a joke. Of course, with the higher job grade comes additional responsibilities. So a lot more work, but not a lot more money.

I would have turned it down if they would have given me the chance to. I'm trying to leave my area anyway and this slows down the process. Now I have to stay an additional 6 months unless my manager lets me leave early. I hate the idea that she can stop me from taking a better paying job.

I really don't like my job very much.

I'm debating getting an mba

I know I don't have my bachelor's degree yet, but I'll have it next year. I have to start thinking about graduate school now. I need to get my gpa up and take foundation classes to make me a more attractive candidate. I don't need financial or managerial accounting but when you want your mba, those classes are important.

One school that I'm researching is Capella University. It's an online school that was founded in 1993. They offer a graduate program in business as well as technology, education and information technology. Sara Orem PhD is a adjunct faculty member in the school of Business and Technology. She also serves as a coach, owning her own coaching firm. That makes a program seem more legitimate to me when they at least name some of their faculty members so you can research them yourself while making a decision.

As part of my research I'm considering online schools because I work fulltime. It's often hard to find classes to fit into my schedule after work. With online classes, I can go during my lunch hour at work as well as at night. The more convenient it is, the more likely I'll go with it.

A vote for community college

My neighbor is thinking about going back to college. He went right out of high school but only stayed one semester. Our job offers tuition reimbursement so he feels that he might as well take advantage of that benefit. I totally agree that he should go and get his degree. A degree can open so many doors for job opportunities especially when it's virtually free.

He wants to go to a 4 year school. I'm trying to convince him to go to the local community college. Tuition at the community college is $400 per class, the 4 year schools charge more than $400 per credit. He can take all of his elective classes in 2 years and have it totally covered, then transfer to the 4 year school for his last 2 years.

I just hope he listens.

Do you use Pingo?

I do. It's simple and it's easy. Pingo offers global virtual calling cards. A friend of mine could have recently used prepaid calling cards to call the philippines. I know I used the card when I used to date my ex. He lived in the Bahamas. Most phone companies block calls to the Bahamas because of fraud. Luckily I heard about Pingo and was able to get a calling card. It was really weird, I had a hard time calling him, but he had no trouble at all calling me.

Right now when you sign up with Pingo you get $5.00 in free International calls. And as an added bonus, they're offering a $25 gift card giveaway that's good at 9 online merchants. More than 90% of their customers love the service so much that they re-order additional time on their cards. That makes Pingo the leading prepaid calling card provider.

In this day and age of cell phones, it's amazing when you find someone that doesn't own one. I know several people that don't have cell phones. They just don't feel the need to have one. But they do have calling cards in case they are out and need to make a call. Whether you need a card for travelling or as a emergency back-up, Pingo is the way to go.

I never figured out a new feature for my blog

I thought about it all weekend. I ran the idea by my family but nobody had any ideas. I don't really know where to start. I want something finance related but I don't know exactly what I want it to be. Maybe a stock quote or an update on the Dow Jones.

I'm usually good at stuff like this. But I am drawing a complete blank for this blog. I had originally thought of something with commercials. Ones I love and/or hate. There are a lot of them to choose from so that might work. However, it doesn't fit into the overall theme of my blog. I'm trying to get it back on track so that won't work. I'm still thinking though.

Visiting family in Florida

My aunt wants me to come and visit her and my uncle during the Memorial Day weekend. I'm debating it right now. I'm not doing anything during the holiday weekend so it's a tempting offer. However, I still need to save money for my regular vacation.

She's trying to tempt me by buying Universal Studios Tickets. She can also get discounted tickets to Disney World. I have never been to Disney and I've always wanted to go. We can pretty much get discounted tickets to any theme park in Orlando. OrlandoFunTickets.com also sells discounted tickets to dinner shows. I've only been to one of these but they are a nice night out. You get to eat while watching a show and being entertained in general. Tickets are so expensive which is always a factor in deciding where to go. But OrlandoFunTickets guarantees the lowest prices so we can have fun and save money. My kind of vacation.

My tuition reimbursement is already in

I can't believe it. At my old job you had to wait at least 2 pay periods in order for your tuition money to come in. I got my check today and it was way to much. When I looked to see why, it was because my reimbursement was already in there.

I turned the papers in 2 weeks ago so I'm surprised that it's in there already. Unfortunately it's just going right back to Pitt for fall semester. I don't get to spend that money at all. Oh well, at least I have half of the money for fall.

I am not the grammar queen

I am definitely not the grammar queen. I've been looking at some of the post titles that I have used and they are atrocious. They consist of run-on sentences, sentence fragments and incorrectly punctuated sentences. I believe that as long as my posts are coherent, they don't need to be perfect.

I want my blog to be personable. I don't want it to look like a drone wrote any of the posts and I want my personality to shine through. It's easy to come off as stiff and unfeeling and I'm trying to avoid that on my blog. I do put a lot of effort into what I write and I hope enjoy reading it.

Having silver as part of your portfolio

I'm really trying to diversify my portfolio. I have cash, mutual funds and stocks. As the amount of money I make increases, I add more slices to the portfolio pie. One thing I need to add is precious metals. I'm thinking of adding silver in particular. For investment purposes, I can get silver in both coins and ingots. The Monex Deposit Company has been America's silver and precious metals investment leader. World demand for silver is exceeding annual production. If demand exceeds supply, your investment in silver could potentially soar. That makes now the time to get in on the action.

The best part is, I can either take possession of the silver, or let a bank or depository hold it for me. I'm a control freak so I can't imagine letting anyone else hold my silver. I may put it in my banks' safe deposit box but knowing me, I would put it in my lockbox at home.

My clothes reek of cigarette smoke

My mom smokes like a chimney. Add to that the fact that we went to the casino over the weekend and all of my clothes smell like cigarette smoke. It's awful. Even the clothes that were packed in a separate bag smell bad. I had one pair of jeans that I didn't wear so I figured I would wear them to work today. Bad idea!

I didn't notice the smoke smell at first. But about an hour after I got to work, the smell started bothering me. I don't smoke at all so I really notice the smell of smoke. My stomach was upset and I just all around felt bad. I ended up leaving work early because I was getting nauseous. Those clothes went right into the washer as soon as I got home. Now if I could only get my stomach to settle down.

Would you like to win a date with a celebrity?

I know I would, and Gofish.com is making it happen. Right now the featured date is with Mirelly Taylor. She's one of the new up and coming beauties in Hollywood. She played on Las Vegas and Serving Sara. Right now you can see her on the show Numb3rs.

How do you win? You go look at Free videos at GoFish.com. Mirelly will tell you what kinds of things turn her on during a date. Then all you have to do is make a video taped seduction that will knock Mirelly's socks off. Viewers get to vote for their favorite video with the top three making it to the finals. Mirelly will then look at the final 3 and make her choice. The winner gets to fly to L.A. for their date. Who knows, you could win a date and get discovered at the same time.

I love this idea. Where else can you win a date with a celebrity? The video idea puts everyone on equal footing. Anyone can participate. It's not like a lot of other programs where you have to travel somewhere to audition or know somebody in the business to get the inside track on auditions. This one's open to everyone. And all it takes is a killer video to increase your chances of winning.

I really want this contest to be a hit. That way, they will sponsor another contest with a male celebrity. You can best believe I'll be waiting for that one. And maybe we'll get lucky and get one of the hotties from Prison Break like Wentworth Miller. Now there's a celebrity I'd like to seduce!

I really enjoyed my weekend

I haven't updated my blog in almost 5 days. I went home to visit my mom. I had a great visit. It was really weird, I didn't get exasperated with my mom like I usually do. We were pretty cool the entire time.

I didn't see any of my family. Everyone kept saying they were going to come visit, but they didn't end up showing up. My mom cooked a ton of food, as usual. I always tell her not to cook a lot but she doesn't listen. There was way too much food there. We had two neighbors come over and eat and there's still a lot of food left. My mom is going to freeze some of the food that's left over.

I can't wait until August for my next visit.

I can't wait for HDTV Tuesday

I'm excited about this promotion. And it's super easy. First, all you have to do is blog as usual for PayPerPost. Now you already know that you get paid for that. Some of the opportunities pay quite nicely too. But on Tuesday, you get an added bonus. On Tuesday you can win awesome prizes from HDTV all for putting ads on blogs. Are you wondering what kinds of prizes? Well let me tell you. Two people have already won an Apple TV and a PS3. Now those posties are super popular at home.

Some of the next prizes coming up are a Slingbox, a Nintendo Wii, a Yamaha Surround Sound Stereo or a Logitech universal remote. Are you waiting to hear about the HDTV? Well, that's the prize for the end of the month.

You're probably wondering how you can qualify for these great prizes. Well, the first thing you have to do is sign up to be a postie at PPP. Then take opportunities as usual. The special promotion is buried in with the regular opps. So just take an opp as usual, and you might win a awesome prize. Bid4prizes is the sponsor of this promotion. Make sure you stay on the lookout for this great promotion. And if you're not already a postie, get on over to PPP and sign up right now!

I'm looking to add a new feature to my blog

I really don't know what to add though. On my other blog, I do a joke of the week. I made that an every Thursday feature. I can't think of an idea for this blog though.

I don't want to do a joke on this blog. I don't know if I can find that many jokes. I wouldn't want to put up the same joke on both blogs. Also, I know I would definitely repeat jokes across blogs.

I'll have to really think about this. Whatever it is, I need it to be something that I can sustain. I thought of some kind of money tip, but I would need a lot of them. I'll ponder it this weekend and run it by my family and see if they can help me come up with something.

Feeling the love for PayPerPost

I really do love PayPerPost. I actually found them by accident. I was surfing around through other blogs when I saw the name come up. The first 2 or 3 blogs just had affiliate links. I was curious but I didn't pursue it right away. I started reading one of my "must read" blogs and they mentioned payperpost. They went on to describe the company and what it was about. I went to the website and surfed around a bit to get more information.

I eventually signed up with them in January of this year. I was very surprised to see how easy it was to get paid for blogging. I had been blogging just for fun, and now I could get paid for it. Cool with me.

It took me until mid March to find and sign up for the forums. The Posties signed up there are great. Everyone is willing to lend a hand to help you find whatever information you may need. One even went so far as to make a video explaining how ppp works. A postie! He didn't get paid for that. That was his time and effort, just because he wanted to. That's how the posties roll.

Since mid January I've earned over $500 at PayPerPost. And believe me, that's on the low end. Plenty of posties have earned over $1k. We have one Super Postie who's already earned over $10,800. For blogging. Something that she was doing anyway before PPP came alone. Seriously, you need to get over there and check it out yourself. You could start raking in the cash too.

I guess I need to update my profile

Especially since it says Sabrina's Money Madness not Sabrina's Place. I also need to describe how I came up with that name. Even though I don't really know myself. I considered several other names but I didn't like the way they sounded ultimately. One of them sounded quite vulgar and that definitly won't work on a public blog.

I didn't go shopping this weekend

I want to lose weight. I've lost some weight but not enough. A month or so ago, I couldn't button this one blouse. Now it's a tight fit, but I can get it closed. I'm going to keep plugging away and doing my exercises.

I figure if I keep buying clothes in these big sizes, I won't be as motivated to lose weight. Right now I don't have a lot of clothes. But I plan on buying quite a few pieces once this weight starts coming off. I have my eye on this cute summer dress that I think it will really look nice on me.

I'm ready to travel this summer

Boy am I antsy to get going. My uncle is sending me, my aunt and my mom on a cruise. But he still hasn't booked it so we don't have an exact date. I'm ready to go now. I also have a free airline ticket. I plan on using that to take a weekend trip to Las Vegas in October. I plan on Caesar's. I love the Forum Shops.

I love travel and leisure. I work hard so I should be able to relax. There are places that I would love to go to that I just can't afford right now. Places like Turks and Caicos, Barbardos and Trinidad. I would love to go to Trinidad during Carnival. I can't wait until I get done with school so I'll make more money and be able to travel even more.

Blog name change

Sabrina's Money Madness is now Sabrina's Place. The main reason is because the name existed across two seperate blogs. One blog on blogger and one hosted on my own domain. It's hard to promote your blog and drive traffic when both blogs have basically the same url and the same name.

This blog will still talk about money, finances, savings and investing. But the blog on my own domain will talk about my private financial affairs. Well, that's about it...I hope you enjoy my new place!

Venture Alliance Partners

Looking out for the interest of entrepreneurs is not on the mind of most venture capitalists. They want to invest their money, get a quick flip on it and get out. ButVenture Alliance Partners wants to work with entreprenuers to look out for each others best interests.

Venpar is one of the leading providers of private equity. Starting a business can be daunting, and sometimes gettting that all important venture capital can be next to impossible. It's great to see a company like Venpar working to provide support and confidence to a start-up team.

Site Sponsors

I'm now a publisher for TLA (Text-Link-Ads). I won't get any text links until I get my pr higher. I'm a pr3 but that's too low for them. I do understand that they want higher pr sites, but I also know other bloggers that have a pr3 site and are able to get links. I think it also depends on your Alexa rank. Mine is too high.

It's weird trying to keep track of all of the online tools. Page rank should be high, while technorati and alexa should be low. Right now, I'm just happy that I finally have some page rank back. I was a pr 1 but dropped down to a 0. I guess fluctuations are a part of the game with Google. You can fluctuate with every update. I just hope that with each update I stay the same. If I can't go higher, I'd rather just stay where I am.

CRM software

Sales are the backbone of any company. If the sales team is not good at bringing in new customers, the business will eventually fail. So why do so many companies implement crm software that has a steep learning curve and that generally goes unused?

First, you're probably wondering what crm software is? It's customer relationship management software provided by AIMpromote. It allows you to streamline the sales process by doing most of the work. That leaves your team more time to concentrate on sales and less time on learning software. AIMpromote only takes days to implement. It also only makes features available that are actually needed. No needlessly learning software that doesn't apply to you.

Your firm can gain a competitive advantage right now by trying AIMpromote free for 14 days. With email and telephone support plus web analytics and visitor tracking, why not try it now and see for your just how easy it is to use and integrate.

I have a lot to do this week

I didn't go to the bank yesterday. I hemmed and hawed around the house and by the time I got dressed, it was too late. So that's one of the first stops that I have to make.

I also have to stop and get scratchy tickets for my mom. I put some in her card on every holiday. She loves those things. I'll get 2 or 3 different kind to give her some variety.

Laundry is a must sometime this week. I need clean clothes for this week, but I'll also need clean clothes for next week when I get back. I don't want to get home Monday night and have to worry about laundry.

Last but not least, I need to stop by Fashion Bug. I don't have a lot of summery type tops. Pants I don't worry about, because I just wear slacks almost every day. I have to stop buying those little cheap cotton tops from those stores. They shrink and they wrinkle like crazy. I have 3 shirts that I bought last year that I can't believe I ever wore. And I've lost a little bit of weight since last year. So I should be able to wear everything that I bought then.

I think I'm going to break everything down and do one thing a day so I don't get overwhelmed.

A good bookkeeper is hard to find

If you read through some of my old blog postings, you'll see the trouble I had with my taxes and accounting this year. It was a nightmare. Mainly because I had income from quite a few sources last year. I had income from multiple jobs, blog income, unemployment, auction income, and dividends. That was a lot of numbers to crunch. I really needed to get some quickbooks help to help me along the way.

There's a company called Accounting Paradise that will help you with all of your accounting needs. You can get help with payroll or bookkeeping. They work especially well for small businesses. You can get help with your payroll for as little as $60 per month for 10 employees. The best part is everything is done online.

I might need to use their services myself. I may only work one job this year, but I still have online income, dividends and interest to worry about. With quickbooks software, keeping track of everything will be a snap.

I have to go to the bank in the morning

One of the things that sucks about where I work is that we're not close to a bank. We have 1 mac machine for 2 buildings, but that thing is constantly down. I remember about a month ago, we had a repair man there every day for a week straight. I don't understand why we can't get a new machine instead of the hand-me down rejects.

Anyway, I have to go to the bank because I need to break a couple of large bills down into smaller bills. I need transportation money for my trip home. I have to catch the airport shuttle here. Then a train and bus when I get home unless I call my cousin and have him pick me up.

I also need a checkbook register. I only write on every other line so I go through them fairly quickly. I also withdraw money for lunch twice a week. That makes the entries add up quick.

Even though it's Saturday and I don't have anything else to do, I hate making plans. I feel like I have to rush to get everything done even though I'll have plenty of time.

Check out Vonage-Forum.com

One of my favorite commercials is the Vonage commercial where the woman is talking about the program and benefits and her husband is dancing in the background. Among the benefits that Vonage offers are click to call, number portability, and virtual phone numbers.

A great resource to finding information is the Vonage Forum. You can find information about products and promotions including a free month of service. You can also find in depth industry articles as it pertains to Vonage. I didn't even know that Vonage had a investor relations website until I read it on the forum. The forum is updated daily, with multiple postings on most days. This site has been providing news and reviews for over 4 years. This site can be an excellent resource to keep up to date with the stock and see what's happening with VoIP internet phone service.

Deal or no deal

I get so mad watching this show. I know it's different when you're on the show and your adrenaline is flowing, but some of these people make me want to scream. I don't know what they're thinking. The girl on the show I'm watching had 2 large cases, but only 6 cases total. She knocked out the highest case left that had 300k. They offered her 23k, but she still had 100k in play. What does she do? Pick a case of course and she knocked out the 100k. Now the highest amount she can win is 200. I know I shouldn't get so worked up over these shows but I do.

Protect your computer

You've spent a lot of money on your computer, so you should make sure you take care of it. It's important to have antivirus software on your computer. I know we've all got those annoying forwards telling you to send it to 27 people with 2 minutes and on the next full moon after a tornado, you'll meet a person of the opposite sex. Those things drive me crazy. But the worst part about them is that people hide viruses in them.

I don't know what pleasure people get from spreading viruses but they do. And they keep coming up with new, more destructive viruses all of the time. That's why everyone needs good antivirus software on their computer. And what's better than free Antivirus programs? Not only are these programs free, but it's provided by Google. You can also choose to download a Google toolbar, a Mozilla Firefox toolbar, Google Picasa or many other programs.

You can protect and scan your computer for viruses and spy ware. If you need any more convincing, the software is Windows XP and Vista compatible. Norton also includes unlimited virus definitions for free.

I don't know about you, but I'm lost without my computer. The last thing I need is to have my computer go down. I downloaded my antivirus software months ago. I think it's one of the smartest things I've done with regards to my computer.

My raise was supposed to take effect today

But I didn't get my pay stub. For whatever reason, my mail gets redirected to another person with my first name. Now mind you, our last names are not even close. Add to that the fact that she works in Kentucky, and I don't understand that at all.

I could just go on-line and look up my pay but I haven't yet. I'm weird like that. I had a bad experience once with a raise that didn't go through, so I only look at my pay stub. I don't think it will be all that different, it wasn't like a got a fantabulous raise. My bills increased so much over the last year that I didn't even raise my 401k percentage like I was supposed to. I need all of that money and then some.

Find weather conditions on AccuWeather.com

This is a crazy time of the year for weather related occurrences. You have tornadoes and twisters touching down on parts of the country. Then in other parts, the weather is 80 one day then 60 degrees the next. I never know how to dress going out of the door in the morning.

Who really wants to get up and watch the news in the morning or right before they go to bed when all they really want to know is the weather. You don't want to start or end your day with all of that depressing news. But with a widget from accuweather.com you can constantly keep track of the weather right on your desktop. I keep my computer powered on constantly so I can always see what the weather is. Widgets are easy to install, so you can have it up and running in no time. You can also check international destinations. Vacation coming up, no problem, you can easily check to see what the temperatures will be at your destination. The site is free and will easily integrate right onto your blog.

You can also go take part in the accuweather video challenge. You can make a trial video with the grand prize being $5,000 and a chance to do a real video forecast for accuweather.com.

I got my ticket for Mother's Day

It cost me $100. Not too bad. I was hoping it would be cheaper but I'm happy with that. I paid a lot more for my ticket last year. I have to leave work early because if I leave on time, I won't get to the airport until 6pm and my flight is at 6:30pm. That's pushing it. Sometimes you can get through security quickly, sometimes it takes a while. Also, since I have to take the airport shuttle, I don't want to take the chance that the bus gets stuck in traffic. I'm really excited to be going home.

On another note, I totally misinterpreted what my neighbor said. I thought he was saying that he would take me home for Mother's Day. He meant in general that I could catch a ride if he was going home. I'm glad I went ahead and got my ticket. It was right after I got my ticket, that I realized what he had said. I would have been so mad at myself if I had waited to get my ticket.

On-line bidding with a twist

A unique twist in my opinion. What's so unique? How about the lowest bid wins. How's that for different? bid4prizes has come up with an interesting concept. You can bid by cell phone individually or you can sign up for a monthly subscription. You can also bid on-line.

When I first heard about this, I wondered how exactly it worked. The lowest unique bid wins. So no going out and bidding $.01. That's it, make a low bid and win a fabulous prize. You can win a BMW, a cruise, a Apple I-Phone, or $1 million dollars. Whoa! They're great prizes, but they're not the only ones. There are plenty of other prizes to win.

I would love to win the money. I mean really, who wouldn't. But realistically, I could see me bidding for the cruise. I'm already going on a cruise this summer, but another one would be great. What's better than a extra vacation? I would bid something crazy. Maybe something like $104.42. I think that's a good amount to bid. I'm really excited to bid and win something great.

No more late night pizza deliveries?

In the Swissvale area of Pittsburgh, they're trying to ban night time delivery of food. I do understand the point. Someone was shot and killed a few weeks ago. The shops want to keep their employees safe. What sucks is, most people order late because they just got off of work or just got home. I do understand the drivers' hesitation though.

I need to get my eyes checked

I usually buy my contact lenses on line. They are much cheaper that way. I usually get them for almost half of what my doctor is charging. I've been thinking about getting Lasik surgery. I'm really afraid of it though. You know how everyone has a phobia? Well, mine is anything to do with my eyes. I even hate getting eye drops.

My friend Betty works at an eye doctors office and she's had lasik. She loves the fact that she doesn't have to wear glasses anymore. I actually know 3 people who've had lasik and none of them have had complications afterwards. Only 3% of people have problems after 6 months. Since lasik has such a high success rate, I'm definitly considering it. I hope they still give you a muscle relaxer though.

I need tax help

Not really with my taxes but with my exemptions. I went to an on line calculator that estimates what your pay check should be after taxes and benefits. My check is way lower than that. It's because I'm over with-holding. I know most single people claim 0 to get a large refund. I claim 1 and usually get a small refund.

According to this site, I should claim 2 and just about break even at tax time. It would be better for me to see the money in my paycheck instead of getting a refund. But I worry about not holding out enough and owing at the end of the year. I owed money 2 years ago (because I sold some stock) and I did not like it at all. I should probably just leave well enough alone and take the refund.

Big Web Links Directory

Have you ever looked up your blog on a search engine directory? Even with great keywords, your blog can still end up on page 4 or 5. Let's face it, most people use the first page of rankings. Occasionally they may look at page 2 but not often.

So how do you get people to constantly see your site. There's a service that lets you decide how high your site ranks when you bid web sites. How does this work? You bid an amount and the higher your bid, the higher your site ranks on the directory. What's even better is anyone can donate to your site.

If you're into monetizing your site, this is a great tool for you. You can control how high your site ranks. Also, the top 10 sites overall are listed on the Big Web Links homepage. And did I mention that all links are permanent, so you will always have linkage from a high pr site.