I'm not getting my ipod this year

I have the money but I'm just not ready to spend it. I have over half of the money in gift certificates and the rest in cash. I've been eyeing some other purchases though so I haven't pulled the trigger. Besides that I'm just really cheap and I don't want to spend the money right now so I haven't.

I know I can do a lot of other stuff on the ipod but I'm just not ready to get it. I'm sure by the time I actually buy it, a new model will get released because that's just my luck.

Doing Work

Guest post from: Kent Lara

When I found out the price of electricity per kilowatt hour in my area I just about had a stroke – how could I be paying that much for energy? I did some shopping and found the cheapest provider and that sent me off on a tangent – I had to find a way to save where I could. Anyway, I’ve gotten my water bill down as well as my cable and I think I’m on my way to really streamlining my household bills. I think it’s important to know what you’re paying when and at the end of the day I want to be financially responsible, not beholden to anyone (or any bank) because I can’t afford what I’m buying each and every month. I’m even thinking of cancelling my credit card to avoid charging things I don’t need to – there’s no sense in living outside your means and I’m working hard to become the most frugal person on my block. That’s a title you can be proud of!

I almost have enough for my Ipod

I've been coveting a Ipod Touch for a while now. They come in 3 sizes, an 8gig, 32 gig and 64 gig models. I want the one right in the middle. It's 32 gigs and $280 with the accessories that I want, I'll end up spending $295 which includes free shipping.

I've been saving my money and slowing adding it to my fund. Right now I have $180 saved with another $15 to go in the account leaving me $100 short. I'm so close but so far. I wanted to get the ipod for myself for Christmas but I won't have the money until the middle of January. I'll be like a kid in a candy store when I finally get it. Once I have the ipod paid off, then I'll start saving in my itunes account.

I can't wait!

Cleaning out my teenage daughter's closet

Guest post written by Shirley Cobb

My daughter is just as bad as I am about hoarding clothes that she's never going to wear again. Each time that I try to convince her to let me clean out her closet, she doesn't let me take away any fo her clothes. Even any of the stuff that she hasn't worn in years. But then again, I'm the same way. However, I can at least try to convince her differently and maybe I'll do the same with my closet.

I went online to see if I could find some cool way to organize her closet that would appeal to her. When I was doing that, I ran across the website http://www.cleartvbundle.com and after I looked through ti a little bit I decided to change over our home internet service to one of the packages that I saw on there.

It was a little hard convincing her to go through with the closet cleaning, but I was able to make it happen. It also motivated me to do the same with my own lcoset. I think that I may need some bet organizational stuff for my closet though.

I won at the casino

I know I shouldn't gamble because it's a long shot and believe me, I'm not one of those people that has a "system" but I did win at the casino last week. I won over $300 which is pretty cool. I have a few things that I want to buy so I have to whittle down my list to see what's the most important.

I don't know whether to make the list from most expensive to least expensive or from the item I want or need the most to the least. Either way, I'm going to knock at least one or two cool things off of my list just in time for the holidays.

I can't wait for my cell phone contract to expire

Ugh I feel like they're gouging me. They have a new plan that I can't switch to because you don't get the equipment discount that I get now. Since I got a new phone last year and added my niece to my plan this year, also getting her a phone, I have to wait until next year before my contract is up. Technically it won't be up but if you're within 5 months of your contract ending, they don't hit you with a early termination fee.

Once my contract ends, I'm going with a plan that is a little cheaper than I pay now. I'll save about $35 per month if not more. As far as phones go, I can always grab a cheap phone from somewhere. I do love my phone but I can get by with anything similar, I don't need the newest model.

Hopefully these next few months will fly by and I'll have a newer, less expensive plan before I know it.

Living Together

Thanks to Roman May

I love living together more than I ever thought possible but to be honest, it’s a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. I can’t imagine why people act like this is the easiest thing in the world but to be honest, it’s nearly broken us up a few times! I love my boyfriend to death but he’s got some really annoying habits I just can’t seem to break him of and geez if I can’t get past them all. We get into little arguments about the stupidest things like the Alarm System and the dog’s walking schedule and all kinds of things like that. I know it’s dumb but sometimes it’s just really tough getting rid of all the things you pick up living alone for so long and we’re just having a hard time getting adjusted to each other. There’s nothing like being able to adapt to living with another person successfully and we’re going to get to that point one of these days, I just know it!

I'm almost halfway there

With my house savings account that is. I need $2k and I have $890 in the account. I should have more than $110 go in by the end of this month so I will definitely have 1/2 of my goal.

Just for clarity, I will have more than the total of $4k when I'm ready to buy my house. It's just for this particular program, they require that you save $2k. I chose to save over a one year period. The program allows you to save up to 3 years and then you have another 2 years to use the money. I wanted to get my savings out of the way instead of dragging it out.

It feels good knowing that I'm almost there.

Lawsuits don't always make it better

There is a school of thought that thinks that getting money is always a good thing. They don't care or even stop to consider where the money may come from. It could be a car accident, a slip and fall or a Actos lawsuit. While an Actos lawsuit may seem harmless it's really not.

Actos is a medication used to treat diabetes. The problem is that it can lead to serious complications such as heart attacks, heart failure and even an increase in bladder cancer. Of course all of these things can lead to an Actos Lawsuit. If you see the medication, Pioglitazone, just know that it is the chemical name for Actos and was sold under the trade names Actos, ActoplusMet, Competact and Duetact.

Knowledge is power.

I'm almost there with the extra money

I haven't had a lot of overtime lately because I had vacation and then there was the holiday thrown in there. All of the hours that I worked that week are being paid at regular time. It's ok though because I'm almost at my goal.

I did miscalculate how much I would owe by over $700 but I'm still able to make the payments and it's scheduled to be paid off early. I was just trying to get it paid off even earlier so that I could squirrel the money away on something else.

I guess I'll have to find another way to bring in a few bucks to pad my savings and knock this debt off.

I need 1 more large paycheck

We've had overtime available for the past few months. I didn't jump on the bandwagon until late because I didn't want to start depending on the money. Instead I've been paying extra on a bill to get it paid off sooner and adding money to my savings account for my house purchase. I've also started saving 10% of my overtime money in a separate account just to add to my savings.

If we work at least 2 more weeks of overtime, I'll be in a very good position to pay my loan off earlier than expected. If not, I'll still be on track to pay it off but paying extra is the goal. Of course, anything over 2 additional weeks of overtime will just be gravy.

I'm making progress with my savings account

I just realized that I'm a fourth of the way there to my goal and I'm literally a fourth in terms of my actual savings please. I didn't realize that I had saved that much until I looked at my bank balance. I still have a few extra weeks to get totally ahead to make sure that I make my goal.

I will be so happy next summer when I'm ready to move into my own house and out of this apartment.

Sending my daughter to an out-of-state school

Guest post written by Tom Thurman

There have been a lot of things that I've worried about for my daughter's sake over the years. It's simply worrying about her growing up and getting all that she hopes for and dreams about. Right now I'm worried about her starting her freshman year of college. She starts classes in just a few weeks and I'm dropping her off for freshman orientation right before her classes begin.

I've been working a lot on getting all of her stuff together before I take her to school. While we were looking up some last minute things like her class schedule and general college tips a few weeks ago, I ran across the website WIRELESSINTERNET.net. After I looked through it some, I decided to change over our home internet service to one of the packages that I found on there.

I think that we have her as prepared as possible for her life as a college freshman. I'm just not sure that I'm prepared for it. But I don't think that I can do anything to prepare myself for it. I'll just have to deal and look forward to parent weekend.

I don't want to walk to the bank in the rain

Ughh and it's raining pretty hard outside too. I generally deposit money every two weeks into my house account. I just realized that I have a few extra dollars laying around so I wanted to run it to the bank but it's pouring down raining and the bank is not as close as I would like it to be.

Because of the way the account is set up, you don't have a debit card for atm transactions but I can get direct deposit set up. I'm pretty much on the fence as to handle this account right now.

I'll figure something out because I'm not sloshing around in the rain.

I't's time to start saving like a madman!

My account is finally open. I don't know what the hold-up was and at this point I don't really care. All I know is that I need to start stashing some cash in the account and fast. This is the money that I'm going to use for a down payment on my first house. I have 1 year to save but I also want to pay down some debt. The program will only match what you put in (up to a certain dollar amount), so I want to max out the account.

I'll set up automatic drafts to make saving that much easier.

My house account is still not opened

A little over a month ago I talked about opening up a house account. I'm at the point in my life where I'm seriously either ready to move or ready to buy a house. If I stay where I am, I'll buy the house within a year.

I sent in my paperwork a little over 3 weeks ago to have my house account opened up. As of today that account has not been opened and the initial deposit check has still not been cashed. I'm pretty antsy about the account being opened because I want to start saving while I have the money. I figure even if I add relatively small amounts in addition the savings schedule that I've started, I should be able to meet and exceed my goal.

Now if I could only find out who was holding up the paperwork and get the account opened already.

My hair needs help

I generally only get my hair done once or twice a year. By the time I get around to getting it done, my hair is extremely damaged. I've thought about going to a beauty school to get my hair done. Columbia beauty school would be an excellent place to go. Their students study and learn how to style hair. While there are campuses in South Carolina, Arizona and Colorado, there are none here in Pennsylvania. I could go to Ohio since a few of there campuses are only an hour away.

The reason I would consider a beauty school is because as part of their training, each student provides discounted salon services to the general public. These services are high quality and are provided under expert faculty supervision. So I wouldn't have to worry about a hatchet job since my hair is fairly long and really easy to cut.

I may just have to take a ride this weekend and get my hair done right.

This blog post was based on information provided by Blogitive. For more information, please visit Blogitive.com or contact Regency Beauty Institute – 260T Harbison Boulevard – Columbia, SC 29212

I want to open a house account

The only problem is that I don't have any extra money right now. I've been looking for a new higher paying job forever with no luck. Until I make more, I can't save more. At least not for the next year or two until I pay some debt down. Having a higher salary would just make saving that much easier.

Hopefully everything will work out and soon.

I need a vacation in the worse way

I am so tired. Just run down and tired. I haven't had more than 3 days off from work in over 4 months. And that doesn't really count because I missed most of that time attending a funeral and cleaning out my Mom's house, etc. That was definitely not a restful or relaxing time for me.

Unfortunately between trying to just pay regular bills and attempt to save a few pennies to buy a house, it doesn't look like I'll be going anywhere again this year. I need to get my little duckies in a row because I need to go lay on somebody's beach and chillax!

Lawsuits are not always about money

Right now there is a Topamax lawsuit going on. Most people assume that people sue for the money. Often times it's not about the money but to compel people to do the right thing when they other wise wouldn't do so.

Topamax is used as both an anti-convulsant for children and adults to battle the effects of epileptic seizures while also being prescribed as a migraine relief. But there's a bad side effect to using the product. It causes a cleft lip or a cleft palate. It can take the form of a small notched lip or be so severe that it runs from the roof of your mouth all the way up to your nose.

The attorney's below can help you and your child with your product liability claim. Contact them today.

O’Hanlon, McCollom & Demerath – Personal Injury Lawyers – 808 West Avenue, Austin, TX. 78701 – 512-494-9949

Identity fraud can happen to anyone

I was talking to my cousin last week and we were discussing the fact that we're both in the market to buy a new home. I have to wait until I have a larger down payment but my cousin has to clear up her credit before she's eligible for a mortgage.

She had excellent credit until she became the victim of identity fraud. The person was vicious too. They ran up medical bills, bought all kinds of electronics and was even trying to buy a car when they were finally caught. Now she had to fight with credit bureaus, credit companies and who knows else until everything is cleared up.

It just goes to show that you can never be too vigilant in maintaining your credit.

I'm having tax issues

It's mainly because there's something funny going on with my 1099's. I don't have one and when I called the company that I was supposed to get it from, they don't show any records of them having mailed it out. Good thing right? No not exactly because it should have been mailed out by the end of January. Now I have to wait for this one form to file my taxes.

I want to get this out of the way and see what my damages are. I don't want to be surprised come April 15th. I always owe the state so that's never a surprise but this year I will owe the fed too. I just hope it's not a lot.

I bet lawsuits will be flying because of the snow in Dallas

I'm sure by now everyone has heard about the ice and snow that fell in Dallas during the week leading up to the Super Bowl. 6 people got injured and required hospitalization from the snow that fell off of the new Cowboy's stadium. There is a Austin Personal Injury Attorney firm that specializes in injuries and they represent clients all over the State of Texas. So even though that incident happened in Dallas, the attorney's will aggressively fight for their clients. Since they're experts in personal injury cases, there should be settlements reached fairly quickly.

Anyone who may need an attorney to preserve their rights should contact them at:
O’Hanlon, McCollom & Demerath – Personal Injury Lawyers – 808 West Avenue, Austin, TX. 78701 – 512-494-9949

I spent too much on sports this year

I didn't use that money to buy sports paraphernalia or tickets either. I used it to play football pools. I really don't mind because it's only a few bucks but my 2 Super Bowl pools ended up costing me $25.00 total. That's not a bad amount but I forgot that I had played until both people sent out mass emails letting everyone know that the money was due today. I wound up paying both people on Wednesday but I had forgotten to put that money in my budget. Luckily I had extra money this paycheck so it didn't mess up my savings or anything else.

But I certainly won't complain if I win.

2011 is here and it's time for new goals

I did not make any of my goals for last year. I almost made my savings goals but then I had a death in the family and I had to totally wipe out my savings and add to my credit card debt. I do have some money coming in that I can use to pay myself back for the money that I spent last year. Unfortunately this year's expenses have already started to come in and I'm going to have trouble meeting my savings goals.

If I don't find a new job soon, I'll have to take on a 2nd job to bring in some extra cash.