My Dream Vacation

I love being able to make money online. It allows me to be able to afford things that I never would have normally been able to buy. One of the things I'm saving up for a flight to Australia now.

It's definitely my dream vacation. I want to pet the koala's, go snorkeling and watch the kangaroos up close. The Land Down Under is enticing. I'm saving for a flight separately since I want to go to Adelaide. I have a friend that lives there so they will let me crash with them.

I can't wait. I plan on going next year for spring break. That gives me a lot of time to save spending money.

Where Were These Commercials On Super Bowl Sunday?

Today is the second day that I've seen a commercial that I really like. These commercials are brand new. We could have used some of this creativity on Super Bowl Sunday instead of some of the dry commercials that we did see.

The first new commercial was for Capital One where the family is in a snow globe in nowhereville. It was pretty good. Then today I saw the WAMU commercial where all of the bankers are on the roof like they're about to jump. Then all of their wives come up on the lift. One says "But who's gonna pay for my plastic surgery?". I love this commercial.

I hope the advertisers are paying attention so next yeat they get it right.

I Can Still Grill Outdoors Even In The Freezing Cold

With this great new wireless meat thermometer. I can sit inside and the thermometer will announce when the meat is done. How cool is this? First of all, as I said, I can sit inside and the belt monitor will let me know that the food is done. This is important since it's about 15 degrees here in Pittsburgh. Who wants to stand outside and watch the food cook?

Secondly, the thermometer will let you know that the food is not only cooked, but cooked to your liking. So if you want your steaks well done, you don't have to stay outside and keep checking them. By the same token, you don't have to worry about your meat being overcooked. So you'll have perfect food every time.

Too bad my birthday is not until the end of summer because this is what I want.

Off Day

I haven't done anything on my off day. It was just wasted. I haven't even studied yet. I need to do that. I should get no less than a 12 on my quiz. I did do laundry but that was it. I'm watching tv now. I don't see that changing anytime soon. I'll probably wait until 11 pm to study.

Spring Shopping

I can't wait to start shopping. Spring will be here before you know it. I need all kinds of stuff. A new haircut and make-up to look fabulous. Clothes, shoes and sun-glasses. And I can get Prada Sunglasses at BestBuyEyeglasses. Can you believe you can find designer glasses at such affordable prices? To be honest, I was quite shocked to see such low prices. The best news is that I can afford to get more than one pair. Now to accessorize and find multiple colors. Shopping is so much fun.

I Have A Tummy Ache

I'm like a little kid. If you put a bunch of junk food in front of me, I will eat all of it. There's no saving some for later. Just munch, munch, munch until it's all gone. That's exactly what happened to me today. Pepsi, Doritos, cupcakes, you name it, I ate it. And now I feel it. I need to go lie down.

Check Out New Artists At Unsigned.com

There's a great new site out there for people trying to break into the music biz. If you've ever considered a career as a musician, you know how hard it is to find a forum to be heard. Unsigned.com has music from pop to Reggae Bands to hip hop, it's all here. Any kind of music you could think of.

They have a music player where you can listen to the artists music. People like Trish Monaco a folk artist. The player loads pretty fast and the sound quality is good. You can browse by genre or by artist. The link rotates artists so you won't see the same people everytime and you can find some great new music that you wouldn't have ordinarily found.

Come on and support the musicians. Who knows, maybe you can tell your friends about the next big artist that came off of unsigned.com.

My Grokodile Community Link

This is my Grokodile Community link. It will take you to my area: Pittsburgh PA. Surf the site, find local bloggers, and have fun.

Edit: Link removed

Grokodile A New Blog Community

Grokodile is a new blog community. It lists all blogs according to your regional area. So any Pittsburgh bloggers would see my site in that area. This site is different from other blogging communities because instead of focusing on the category of your site, it focuses on your area. It makes it easier to find people that are close to you that may blog about the same thing, but at the same time, you can find people that blog about topics that are totally different from yours.

Another thing that separates Grokodile from other sites is that they don't require that you link back to them. Most other directories do. They request that you don't but don't require it. When you register, they send out a verification email. Verified sites are listed before unverified sites. It pays to verify your site, but it's even more important if you live in a big city like Philly, LA or NY.

Try this new community and drive some fresh eyes to your site today.

This Week Was Hell

I had the worst week at work. Everything that could possibly go wrong, did. The day it snowed, we had less than 50% staff. That wasn't that bad because we didn't get a lot of mail. But most teams only had 25% of their staff. The guy that talks a lot wasn't there and I was happy because he's loud. He can be nice, but sometimes mostly he's annoying because he doesn't know when to stop and he takes jokes too far.

Anyway, I'm glad it's Friday and I have a 3 day weekend. I didn't get my snow day, but I still have an extra day off.

Interactive Blogging With Free Podcasts

Did you know there was a service out there that offers a Free Podcast for your website? Yup, you can get them free with mypodcast.com. Each podcast offers up to 30 megabytes for each episode. That's a 1 hour podcast at regular mp3 quality.

They even have software that will let you record your podcast and allocate space for advertisements that you can add later. Their free software takes care of uploading for you. They have no flashy ads and best of all, no spyware! That's huge because other companies may offer a similar service, but you can best believe there will be some spyware involved.

If you have a podcast affiliated with your site, why not join mypodcast.com and get unlimited bandwidth, unlimited storage, and free membership.

Work In Progress

This blog is a work in progress. I'm still adding and updating things. I just noticed that I don't have a next or previous button for viewing posts. So if you want to read what I previously wrote, you have to go by the month. I don't know if I want to change this or not. I really just noticed it today when I was looking around another site.

PayPerPost Ups The Ante

And they've upped the ante big time. How many people do you know that make money blogging? I do, and so do over a thousand other people at PayPerPost.

How have they upped the ante? They've implemented segmentation recently. With the new segmentation system, high traffic blogs can make big money. There is one opportunity called the Rock Star Startup that pays $1000 for a single post. But it's reserved for the top bloggers, you have to have a PR (page rank) of 8 for this opportunity. My page rank is pretty low, I have a pr of 1 right now but I'm working to get it higher.

There are plenty of opps for posties, (that's what they call us bloggers), with lower page ranks. And they pay well too. So this makes PPP the ideal situation for a high traffic blog or a lower traffic blog. Everyone has the chance to make some extra money. And since you can post up to 3 times daily, that extra money can really add up fast.

I've only been blogging with PPP for just about 1 month now and I'm liking it more every day. Officially, my 1 month anniversary will be Saturday. Why is that significant? Well, you get paid for each post 30 days after it gets posted. That means that this Saturday, the money comes rolling in.

The service fee is only 35%. Now compare that with ReviewMe which charges a 100% markup. That's a big difference. This of course benefits us posties because you can get higher paying opps which puts more money in your pocket.

PPP does require disclosure, but it's really easy to do. Some posties choose to put a note on each sponsored post. I chose to just go with a disclosure button that appears on each page. PPP doesn't have a preference as long as you make disclosure visible.

So what are you still doing here? Get on over there and make yourself some money.

I Need A New Blog

I'm getting ready to get a new blog here on blogger. I can't find a name though. I don't want it to have my name in the title of the new blog. I want it to have a totally seperate identity from this blog. The ideas for names keep coming, but they're all taken.

The new blog will be about any and everything. This one is supposed to focus on money, investing, banking etc. but I have gone astray. So I can get back to basics on this one.

New York Here I Come

I'm planning a late spring/early summer trip to New York. The main purpose is for a baseball game. I know that tickets are hard to get. But I have friends that live there so they're going to get them for me. Since the team I want to see never comes here, I have to go there. I don't mind they're worth it.

I have other things planned during my trip. First, I'm going to a spa, then do some shopping. I also plan on seeing a New York Chiropractor. I work on a computer and I hunch over. Since my insurance will cover it, I can see a doctor. Besides, one of the doctors specializes in sports medicine and athletes get hurt, so.... Hey, I gotta meet them anyway I can.

I Want A Snow Day

I was hoping for a snow day today. I woke up and grabbed the phone to call our emergency hotline. No snow day. Business as usual. Everyone is expected to be at work. We could use an approved absence day or a vacation day. I need to save those absence days for when I really get sick. I can't take them off just because I don't want to go out in the snow. A girl can always hope can't she?

My Apartment Is Dark And Dreary

I need new lights. My apartment is so dark. I've had 3 bulbs go out in the past 2 days. I can't believe all of the bulbs are blowing out at the same time. I have a floor lamp in my living room. My living room is shaped like the letter L so half of the room is dark which is the reason for the lamp. Did I mention that I almost fell off of a chair trying to change those lights. I felt the chair moving and had to shift my weight to catch my balance.

I have 2 Bathroom lights. It's still not bright enough in there. In the morning, I can't always tell that my skin is dry and flaky. So I walk out of the house crusty looking. I have to dash in the bathroom at work and lotion my face. Crusty is not a good look.

I'm going to install my own fixtures to brighten this place up a bit. It looks sort of like a dungeon.

Oh The Weather Outside Is Frightful

Actually, it's downright nasty. It's snowing like crazy. Nothing like they've had in Western New York though. (I believe they're up to 100" or so) Now, on top of the snow, we're getting freezing rain. So travelling is a mess. I feel bad for people that have a long commute home from work. I live in the city and this is one of the main reasons why. When the weather is bad, I'm never more than 1/2 hr from home. If I drove to work, it would take 10 minutes. But since I go to Pitt, my school id is a bus pass so I catch the bus free.

I hope this stops soon. I don't want to have to deal with slush in the morning. Maybe I'll change my major again so I can move to a warm weather place sooner rather than later.

My Mama's Moldy

Ok. Well, her house is anyway. She moved some stuff from down in the basement and found mold everywhere. It was pretty gross from what she told me. We think it was from a flood she had a few months ago. I told her she should have a company come in and do mold testing. There is a company in New Jersey that specializes in this. And get this, they use dogs to find the mold! How wild is that? The dogs are specially trained to find the source of the mold. But she really needs to get it done soon. I don't want to go home to moldy-ville.!

Holy Moly

Look at the size of that picture. I might have to try and resize that thing. It's taking over half of my screen. And I'm still forgeting to put tags in my posts. I just don't remember until I have already published. But I won't do anything until I eat. It's almost 9:30pm est and I still haven't eaten. I'm starving.

Hey Why Not - Just Say Hi

Well it's almost here. The dreaded Valentine's Day. Well, dreaded for those of us who are single with no significant other. If you're looking for someone special or just want to meet new people check out this Free Online Dating service.

That's right, the site is 100% free. No credit card needed ever. You can look for a one time date or look for someone to build a relationship with. And here's the best part for me: if you're too shy to build a profile and/or email people, there's a forum section. The forum is a great way to meet people without the dating pressure.

I like the forum section a lot. The first section I visited was the jokes & funny stories section, of course. After all, a person with a great sense of humor is a must. They also have general discussion, a section for parents, an adult section, and a sports section. It's really a great site and since it's free you should definitely check it out.

Website Changes

I have enough problems with my website. Now one of the sites that I post for is adding major changes. I have to add all kinds of html code to my site. That's not even the hard part. They usually tell you exactly where to put the code. Cool, that's easy.

Then they start telling you about all of these changes. Of course, I have no idea what they are talking about. They add tacks to rate you, but you have no idea how many people have rated you. So my rate is a 3 but did 1 person give me a 3 or were there multiple votes?

I might just wait until they fix their bugs before I post for them again.

Who Are You?

I hate when I get those unknown cell phone numbers. They always seem to call early in the morning when I'm at work and can't answer my phone. Or I call back and it's a telemarketer. I hate that. It's bad enough that they call you at home, but now they call on your cell phone too.

Well, you can use this site Reverse Cell Phone Lookup to find out who owns the phone number calling you. You can also look up all kinds of records. You can look up criminal records, bankruptcy records, arrest records and the like. These records can be especially useful if you are thinking of employing someone as a sub-contractor and need to investigate their backgrounds. Or even a a potential mate. How about the person that doesn't have any children. Then you check him out and find out he owes back child support. Hmmm. Now you can use this site to check people out because, unfortunately, everyone doesn't always tell the truth.

Brrrrrrr

I is so cold here right now. The temperature is 10 but it feels like -2 (yup minus 2). Ok now I could understand this in Chicago or Minnesota, but Pittsburgh? Geeze, it just doesn't get that cold here. It was even colder yesterday.

I didn't go to school today either. I was not about to stand outside in that bitter cold waiting on buses. I think I ran home too. Shivering all the way. Come on spring!

Hmmm A New Host Perhaps?

I think I described the trouble I've been having with my online host provider thoroughly. I have had a couple of comments and plenty of emails giving me suggestions. I think I may have found something with this site: 'Name Your Price' Web hosting.

It's a site run by Unified-Hosting.com. Their premise is really simple. You tell them the specifications that you want for your site: # of websites you want hosted, subdomains, how many MB of space, # of SQL databases and so forth. Then you can tell them what price you want to pay. There is also a space to let them send you back a quote telling you how much your package is worth.

What a concept. Pay for what you need and none of that other stuff like other companies. Your initial offer can be as low as $1.00 per month. That's insanely cheap for hosting. You also get 99% uptime, a 30 day money back guarantee and 24/7 customer service help.

The best part is they also offer regular hosting packages. The starter packages are as low as $3.98 per month. You can also buy domains names there as well. I guess I need to get over there and check them out.

Super Bowl Ads-No Credit Needed Blog

Check out this post over at No Credit Needed. This post sums up the entire second half of the game. I totally agree with his assessment of the Nationwide K-Fed commercial. I think this will probably be the most talked about commercial of the night.

Surf around his site. He has posts where he critiques all of the commercials of the night. It's a great site with lots of info.

Give Me Strength To Deal With This Website

I'm going crazy. I really am. I can't get my website up and running. I have a blog. I need another. But more than that I need a business site and Business Web Site Hosting. I had an online business for a while, but because I had horrible hosting, I was loosing business. My hosting just wasn't reliable at all.

I have a new host, but they don't seem to be much better. So any help that I get is greatly appreciated. This site seems to have a lot of information available. I've found some great articles to help me out. It's good to know that there is plenty of information out there to help the less tech savvy people like me.

Super Bowl Commercials Part II

The commercials in the second half seem to be a lot better. Maybe they decided to run all of the lame commercials first?

I like the Career Builder promotion pit. That was original.

The Nationwide commercial with K-Fed was good. I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. When I first heard that he was getting a commercial I started with the predictable rant about "who was he" and "his 5 minutes are up". But I will admit that I liked the commercial.

The Budweiser commercial with Jay Z and Don Shula was pretty good too. Jay Z seems to have a lock on Budweiser commercials and that "Don't Hold Back" beat. That deadpan expression at the end of the commercial was a nice touch when he told Shula that the next time they played for Shula's rings.

Superbowl Commercials

I don't think the commercials are living up to the hype this year. I'm looking at every other commercial and saying "stupid", "dumb", and my all time favorite "are you serious?".

I think most of the companies should go back to their ad agencies and get some money back. It's been reported that GoDaddy.com spent over 2.5 million bucks for their spot. They better sell a lot of domains after showing that dumb commercial.

I have liked most of the Bud Light ads. The best commercials seem to be for beer and/or alcohol.

I Don't Like Exchanging Presents

I hate gift giving holidays. You know, birthdays, Mother's Day, Father's Day. My least favorite holiday is coming up now. Valentine's Day. Yuck. Let's face it ladies, most gifts that you get from your man, are really for him. I mean lingerie, yeah that's really for you. I think he gets the eye candy pleasure from that. And it's even better for him if he gets to unwrap that gift, if you know what I mean.

Well, I have a fool-proof present this year. A subscription to Sports Illustrated. Of course he gets the vaulted Swim Suit edition featuring Marisa Miller, Molly Sims, and a very svelte Heidi Klum. I swear that woman is superhuman. She gives birth and weeks later is modeling lingerie on live television. She's my shero!

He can choose to also go to SI Mobile and get ring tones. Whenever someone calls, he can see video clips from old photo shoots. There also wall paper that comes straight from the SI photo shoots. What man doesn't want a supermodel staring back at him from his phone. Especially since they're only $1.99 each and are available for all major phone carriers. I think this is a great idea and a fool proof present this year. I just know he's gonna love it! Especially when you have women looking like the one's in the picture.

Now I'm Ticked Off!

Ok so I'm having mad problems with my hosting account. Now my domain name totally doesn't exist. They told me to change my domain to a blog account. To do that, I had to change my domain name. It takes 2-24 hours but usually 2. So they say!

It's been 16 hours and my domain is just hanging in the balance. Meanwhile, the blog account is only free for 1 month. What!!!! I have hosting so I don't need a separate blog account. I would be paying for a blog, domain name, and hosting. Oh hell no. I don't think so.

I think I'm just going to totally cancel this account and start over with another company in a few weeks. If the company put more emphasis on customer service and less time worrying about Super Bowl ads, maybe they would have happier customers.

When You Need Funny Pick Me Up

Some days I feel like this. Everything just seems to go wrong. Well, sites like this make it all better. It's a site about cartoons by Oliver Gaspirtz. I love dark humor cartoons the most.

He is a really talented artist who has been published in the Sun, National Enquirer, and the Saturday Evening Post among other papers. In 2000 he decided to publish his cartoons exclusively on the internet. He also draws all of his cartoons by hand, then scans them onto the computer and lastly they get colorized in Photoshop.

There really is something for everyone on this site. You should check it out. But be prepared to laugh. You have been warned.

WooHoo Phil!

Every year thousands of people descend upon the town of Punxsutawney PA to see if the famous groundhog will see his shadow. The town is 65 northeast of Pittsburgh with 6100 residents, but more than 15,000 people pack the streets waiting for Phil's prediction.

Since he didn't see his shadow spring is just around the corner. Considering we've had snow and freezing temperatures for the last 2 weeks, that is very welcome news.

The prediction is based on a German superstition. According to folklore:

"The Germans believed that if a hibernating animal cast a shadow Feb. 2 -- the Christian holiday of Candlemas -- winter would last another six weeks. If no shadow was seen, legend said spring would come early."

I really don't care how spring gets here, I just wish it would hurry up!

I Need Financial Aid

I can't believe this. I can't get financial aid. It used to be that you could take 6 credits and get aid. Now you need to be a full time student. I can't afford that right now. I do get tuition reimbursement from my job, but it's easy to use that money up.

My last year I plan to just suck it up and take 1 full term to finish. I will need to look into a Student Loan Consolidation first. I can't afford to pay all of that money up front plus pay for my student loans that I already have. So I need to consolidate my loans to lower my payments so I can still afford to eat. Sigh, I guess it will all be worth it in the end.

I Have Angered The IT Gods!

I can not get this website to upload. My cousin is a administrator at his job so he's been trying to help me. I've been at work and couldn't really work on it because I can't access my blog from work. I can get to my new site but not this site. All blogs with the word blog in the title or with blogspot in the title are blocked. I keep my tech people at work busy. hehehe. But I'm still ticked off, my cousin works hard all day and now he has to help me with my stuff too.

Tax Time And Ebay Headaches

Now that tax season is upon us, I have started pulling together my shoe boxes full of business related expenses. It is a nightmare! I thought my personal taxes were bad. These are even worse.

Small businesses have such a hard time keeping track of everything. Things like: whether you can deduct home office expenses or internet and phone usage. Don't forget postage and employee wages. Yup, I have a small business with 1 other employee. I was dreading doing my taxes. So I started an internet search to get help and found Accounting Paradise. They specialize in bookkeeping for small business. I read through their materials and they have very reasonable rates and great customer support. They don't have you sign contracts and even do payroll. Maybe if my business grows, I can look to them for payroll support as well.

Sorry If You Couldn't Access My Blog

Ugghhhh!!!!! I told you I am having problems with blogger and my hosting right? I had my publishing pointed to my new domain and hosting. Except, it isn't up and running yet! So you got the "Website coming soon" page. Whoops! Now my page is up and running again. I don't like being a webmaster!

Looking Out For My Bottom Line

I love my bank. I really do. Never mind that I have relationships with 3 different ones, including a credit union. However I'm always on the look-out for something new. Today I found Savings-Accounts.com a guide to finding your new high yield savings account. This site has links to all of the banks and credit unions paying high yields.

Now as I said, I love my bank. But if they only want to pay 1.5% and I can get 5.5% somewhere else, well a looking I will go. I don't want to lock my money up for the long term right now with school expenses fluctuating. And while I do have money in the stock market, that money is for the long-term not something that I'll need within the next few months.

If you're looking to make your savings grow even faster, check them out. It can't hurt. And who knows, you just might find yourself a new bank.

Hosting Purgatory

I thought I was in domain purgatory. It turns out, it's hosting purgatory. I'm going crazy. I can't figure out how to upload files, transfer files, or anything. I'll have to wait until Saturday to figure this out because it seems like it's going to take some time. Wish me luck, and hope I don't lose my mind in the process.

My Cousin-The Baby Gil Grissom

Some people just know what they want to do when they grow up. My cousin has dreams of being a csi. He loves watching that show. All of the technical information that just goes over other peoples heads is fascinating to him.For his birthday, I bought him a microscope. I expected it to be a hit. But it went better than expected. He loved it. He's already spent hours with that thing. He's checking out plants, bugs, samples of juice, anything.

I'm glad to see him take such a serious interest in something early. He's 15 but has already had a passion for science since he was 10 or so. So I feel that as family, I should help nurture him and encourage him to learn.

It was cool buying it too, because I found other cool stuff like goggles, a telescope, and even sunglasses. (Uh, the Bolle's are for me!) I got free shipping from ups with a ton of stuff to choose from. I need to check to see if I can get gift cards, because I know he's going to need more stuff for his growing collection. I'm cool with that because education is important and it's better than him watching junk on tv all day.

I'm Stuck In Domain Purgatory

This is ridiculous. I just signed up and I'm having trouble already. I'm trying to move my blog to my own domain name and had 2 or 3 names set up. After I set up the account it told me my domains were all taken. Now, I have a extra set-up for email that I don't need and I'm trying to get that deleted off of the acct. To top it off, I still don't have a domain name.

Wanna Talk Hockey?

Do you like hockey? Wanna talk about with your fellow fans? Well, for the past 5 years this has been the #1 NHL Forum. You can talk hockey to your hearts content here. There are over 7 million posts on a variety of subjects. You can also talk shop with over 28,821 registered users.

The lastest hot topic is the All-Star Game that just took place this past Wednesday. How are the young stars doing? Did they live up to their billing? You can also talk about the possibility of the Penguins leaving Pittsburgh. If they do, should they go to Kansas City or Houston? Both cities are trying hard to get a team. Although hockey has already failed in KC, I guess they wanna try again.

Some of the best players in the league right now are the young stars that have been drafted in the last year or two. If the draft were tomorrow, who would you take with the 1st pick, in the first round? Check out the site to weigh in with your opinion.

I Won't Meet One Of My New Years Goals

One of my goals was to save an additional $500. Because of my finances that is very questionable. I'll get close and may even make it, but it won't be easy. My goal of adding 26 additional shares of stock, not gonna happen. No way. That's almost double my $500 goal. And I just don't see myself getting that money. I still have my regular bills to pay. School is also a factor. Books, tuition, everything. I'm still going to save something in the stock, but I think it will be less than 10 shares.

My VCR Is Getting A Workout

One of the things I really miss about working in the evenings is all of the day time shows I miss. Soap operas in particular. I love The Young and the Restless. The Abbott's crack me up. I love watching the soaps and seeing their dysfunctional lives.

I do tape each episode. But some days, I'm too tired from work and school or doing homework to sit through every episode. My solution? I go to soaps.com. They have updates on every major soap opera. They also have a spoiler site which I can go to and see what's going to happen the next week.

The message boards are also a fun feature. It seems that most people posting want Lauren to let Sheila die. Wow. Rooting for a character to die seems harsh, but it is Sheila so....

The Brad and Victor story line is getting kind of lame. I can't even believe these two are working together. And of course Victor is the hero, yet again. Can you tell I really get into these shows. Blame my mom. Every time I go visit, she has them on. As much as I try not to watch I start all over. Now I can get internet updates and still know what's going on with everyone.

My Weight Loss Resolution

One of my New Years' Resolutions is to lose some weight. I don't want to go on a strict diet or take stimulants. But I think I found the answer in the hoodia diet. Hoodia is a all natural cactus-like product grown in South Africa. Since it is all natural you don't get the jitters or increased heart rate like some other products.

You can see results the same day although most people won't see results for up to 3 weeks. You don't have to go on a stressful diet because Hoodia makes the body feel like its full. So you don't have cravings and overeating. Each batch is also certified to be 100% pure with no added fillers. I've heard nothing but great things from people that have taken hoodia and I can't wait to try it and start dropping the pounds.

I Can't Sleep

Right now it's only 9:45pm est. so it's not quite bedtime. But I'll probably be woke until at least 3 am.

As some of you may know, I worked evening for 12 years. So I was used to going to bed at 3am and waking up at 11am. Now, I work a normal day job and this is killing me. Yesterday I had to leave work because I was falling asleep. That's the first time that's happened.

When I first started working days, I was cool. I adjusted fairly well, or so I thought. But about 3 months ago it started. I fall asleep as soon as I get home and sleep for 2 hours. Then I'm up half the night and get 2 or 3 more hours before work.

Can anybody out there recommend a way to get my body on a permanent sleep schedule? I would greatly appreciate it.

Now I Ain't Saying She's A Gold Digger

You find the funniest stuff on the internet. Dating sites are popping up all over. You can find Black singles, Christian singles, Asian singles, singles singles. It's ridiculous all of the sites that are out there.

Now I'm not putting down any of these sites. I work with someone, 2 people actually - a guy and a girl, who met someone online and have successful relationships. The guy got married this past September. So I know that online relationships can be lasting and successful.

But this new site I found takes the cake. The tag line is "Find Your Sugar Daddy". The Site? Wealthy Men. Everybody on the site is out there looking for a millionaire. Hilarious. Read some of the profiles, the people are not ashamed to tell you that they are gold diggers. "If you can't afford to give me expensive gifts, don't bother". Some of these people are bold.

I just want to remind everybody out there about the show "Who Wants To Marry A Millionaire". Yep, technically he was a millionaire. But he wasn't about to spend any of his money. He was super cheap. And if I remember correctly, most of his net worth was tied up in real estate so it was all paper profit. Be careful out there people. And remember that all that glitters isn't necessarily gold!

Edit: The site is actually called Date A Millionaire.

Football Fans Check This Out

I was surfing the web looking for info about Mike Tomlin, the new Steelers head coach. You know him right? Well, neither do I. I mean I know he was the defensive coordinator for the Vikings and that's about it.

During my surfing I found a great site. A football message board actually. I like the way it's set up. Each division has it's own site. The top section is for football news in general. Superbowl talk, the draft, etc. There is also a whole forum for college football. Some conferences like the Big East, ACC, SEC and PAC 10 have their own section. Some of the small conferences are lumped into one broad category.

You can talk fantasy football, NFL Europe, CFL and there's a feedback link in case you have any problems. There is also a Lounge to talk about anything other than football, but why would you want to go there? This is a football site. I love reading other peoples opinions or conspiracy theories and it's all here. Check it out!
P.S. I totally forgot all about Mike Tomlin. lol

Blogger Is Driving Me Crazy

I've been trying to post something all day. My friend emailed me with questions about a couple of internet sites that I go to. Several people want the information so I decided to write a blog post and they can access it anytime they want. Plus it makes them visit my site. lol Two birds, one stone and all that jazz.

Each and every time I made a post, blogger timed out on me. It's driving me crazy. It's not like this is a 1 or 2 line post. It's a couple of paragraphs long. I finally saved it as a word file and emailed it to my list. I might try to post it again in a day or two.

Can I Catch A Break?

My financial aid never came through for school. So even though I knew I needed money, I grossly under-estimated the amount that I would need. I now owe another $600 on top of the rest of my bills. I thought I had everything under control buy now I'm not so sure. I might have to take another Payday Cash Advance Loans to get by. My mom has already said that she would help me pay it off. But she doesn't have the money right now either.

There are a number of offices in my area and some of them are affiliated with a local bank. That gives me a little more piece of mind.

I would feel a whole lot better if my financial aid would come through though. I sure do miss my old job and all of the overtime. I sure could use it right now. But I'm sure I'll find a way to make it. I always do.

My Ebay Mail

Lots of people have been asking me questions about Ebay. Mostly people are concerned with safety. After you buy and/or sell something, the other person has your home address. Well, I avoid that situation. I use remailing services. It's not that I don't trust people. Well, okay, yes it is. You just don't want too many strangers having your home address.

These services are also professional looking. You're assigned a mailbox at that particular location. So you have a street address which gives your business more credibility. They will also sign for express or courier packages which generally do not deliver to post offices boxes.

For the small yearly fee, you can't beat the convenience of these services. So if you're looking to make your home based business more professional looking and add privacy at the same time, I would advise you to look into these services.

Checks Came In The Mail

I was expecting some money to come through. Some of it finally did. I got a check and a paypal which I wasn't expecting until next week. Unfortunately, most of this money is already set aside to pay bills. I do get to pay for a hair cut. Big Whoop! My hair is a mess. My split ends have split ends. The rest of the money goes to bills. Sigh. Maybe one day I'll actually get to keep some of my money that I work so hard for!

My Mom Is Thinking About Moving

I can't believe this. I just got off of the phone with her. She's really thinking about doing it this time. I guess the healthy dose of winter is really catching up with everyone this year.

My mom has really bad asthma so her doctor is advising her to stay indoors all winter. Not bad since it's freezing cold, but she has to stay indoors the majority of the summer too. My family has a history of bad lungs. My grandfathers lungs collapsed twice. Just the right lung but who needs that.

So instead of her heading to Florida (my choice), she looking into Cave Creek Condos. They're located in Scottsdale Arizona. Gee just how far from NJ can you get?

The condos themselves look gorgeous. And I was expecting these super high prices but they have some reasonably priced condos. I'm glad she is leaning towards a condo instead of a house because she really doesn't need to be worried about maintenance.

Sigh, I guess I'll have to get used to the thought. I just hope she thinks this through and doesn't rush to judgement. Besides, I'm a brat and I want my mommy close!

Putting Labels In Posts

I keep forgetting to "tag" my posts. You can put labels on them at the bottom. Then if someone clicks on say "school", they can read all of my school related posts. But everytime I finish a post I forget to tag it. I don't even know what to tag half of them. Do I call it stuff, blogging, personal, junk or what? I know I sweat the small stuff too much. And I should be studying.

Also since school has so many quizzes and assignments, I think I'll only update that once a week or less. Otherwise I'll have titles like school 15, school 27. Who really wants to see that?!?!

I'm Not Co-Signing

I posted about being put on the spot by my boyfriend. His bad credit is causing him financial difficulty. I know he needs a car because of where he works, but I think he should have gotten a late model car or either a cheaper car. He didn't get a luxury car but I still think he paid too much. Add to that the fact that he got a crappy interest rate and it's really a recipe for disaster.

Well, I knew he had bad credit. But I didn't really realize how bad. I went over to his place to get him to lay his cards on the table so to speak. When I got there, he was looking for Bankruptcy Lawyers. What?!?! Are you serious? It's that bad. Oh no way am I co-signing even if it is a refinance. We are keeping our finances totally separate. I have worked too hard to get mine back together and I'm not letting a car bring it down.

Thanks to all of the people who left comments and emailed me with advise. I do listen sometimes :-)

Super Bowl - Super Game

I am so glad the Colts won the AFC Championship game. Yes, I am a Steelers Fan. As such, I hate the Patriots. I could not root any harder against the Patriots than I did today. I cringed in the first quarter when Samuel got that int. But I was happy that Indy pulled it out in the end.

Why Didn't I Think Of Ebay?

I talked about needing a new phone a couple of days ago. I've been searching different carriers websites but I had never even considered ebay. What was I thinking of? Wirefly Mobile sells their excess inventory on ebay. And the best part is that I'm not locked into a contract when I buy the phone. They also have free phone on wirefly but you have to commit to a two year contract. I like the idea of not being tied down for two years.

They're power-sellers on ebay so you know your dealing with a company that has a solid reputation. Plus they have phones compatible with Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile, Cingular, Sprint and Nextel. So no matter who your carrier is, you should be able to find a phone. Check them out.

It's Cold Here And I'm Jealous Of My Aunt

I called my aunt on Friday to wish her a happy birthday. I called her 3 times before she answered. Last year she was upset because I left a message and didn't call back. Anyway, she had her phone off because she's on vacation. My uncle took her on a cruise for her present. I am so jealous right now because winter finally hit us. We have snow and ice cold temperatures. It's no big deal to them because they live in Florida where it's warm all year long. But this is her first cruise and I'm really happy for her.

I Hate Being Put On The Spot

My boyfriend has bad credit. I know this, which is a good thing. It's good because we can work on it before we make any large purchases together. He bought a car a few months ago and has a horrible interest rate. His payments are crazy high. Now he needs to look into a Car Refinance.

He's looking into a site called rategenius. They have some pretty low rates for car refinancing. They have customers in 40 states. But what I really like about them is that they offer to let you skip a payment for up to 60 days. They don't have any refinancing or application fees, and they offer gap insurance. It's a pretty sweet deal. So how does that put me on the spot? Refer back to his bad credit. He needs me to co-sign. I am very reluctant to do so. If I do, I will make sure I have my name on the title. And I will have him give me the money and I make the payment since my credit is on the line. However, he should not take this post as an automatic yes. I really need to think about this.

My Technorati Ranking II

Well, it's no where near close to being in the top 500K. It's not even in the top 1 million. That's right my blog ranks way down at number 2,940,000. Rounded up of course. Ok, I really need traffic, readers, comments...everything. That's a pitiful number. To be fair and honest though, my blog was started almost a year ago, but I didn't really post or update a lot. Then in the summer I went without a computer for almost a month so no posting then either. Now that I'm updating at least twice a week, I should see my numbers steadily rising.

What Do I Have To Do To Get A Raise?

A lot I guess. We're supposed to have reviews once a year. Well, I got one last year and I got one for this year already. Crazy right? Well, in order to get promoted to a higher grade level, my manager wants me to work on learning some new things.

I'm not opposed to learning new jobs, however some of my coworkers that are a higher level than I am actually know less than I do. I've even had to train them on some of the stuff that I know. I think my boss needs to invest in Performance Appraisal employee review software because she's horrible at reviews.

I still don't understand how I can be this "great" employee and be performing well above expectations for a new employee blah blah blah and still need to learn more in order to go 1 grade higher. It makes no sense.

Can somebody out there help me understand this?

Grrr Template Changes

This is becoming annoying. I've been sitting here for the past hour trying to add some stuff to my site. The changes are not taking for whatever reason. When I go into my template I can see the code that I've pasted in but I must have it in the wrong spot or whatever because you don't see the resulting changes on my webpages. This is sooo frustrating.

Maybe I'll Take Another Personal Loan

I got to thinking about my financial situation while watching Jim Cramer on CNBC. I talked in my post earlier tonight about needing money. I had some unexpected expenses, and some that I knew where coming, but the money never materialized.

A personal loan would help me out of a temporary bind. I am caught up on most of my bills, but I do still have over $1k to pay for tuition by March. Plus I have my credit card bill due in a week and a half. I'm at little leery about taking out too much additional credit because I will start preliminary shopping for a mortgage soon. My rent is going up again so it's time to start looking for my a place of my own. And we all know that applying for loans is scary.

How Soon Until Payday?

I am so broke. I can't believe this. I was expecting $200 that someone has been owing me for months to finally come through. Well, they paid me all right. With a bad check! Can you believe it? So not only did I get hit with that, but tuition was due along with the rest of my bills. Luckily I can apply for a Online Cash Advance to get me through until next payday. Geez, the nerve of some people though.

American Savings Rate For 2005

Savings facts, figures, tips:

The American savings rate for 2005 was negative 0.5 percent, the lowest since the Great Depression. The annual savings rate has been negative only twice: in 1932 and 1933, during the Great Depression.

Tips to help consumers save more:

Pay yourself first
Re-evaluate everyday purchases
Assess how you can redirect spending to personal savings
Make your savings automatic

Wow, we as Americans need to get on the ball.

I Need A New Phone

My contract is up with my current carrier and I'm looking around for the best deal. I currently have T-Mobile but I'm not opposed to going back to Verizon.

The new Motorola KRZR phones are awesome. They have a camera that you can use for video clips, built-in mp3 players and are blue-tooth enabled. I think the feature I like most is the color. They come in silver quartz, black or cosmic blue. Blue is absolutely my favorite color so they had me sold on color alone.

It also has Edge high speed data. So I can use my phone to access the internet on my laptop when I go home. If I get this phone I won't need to buy a separate wireless access card. I guess I'm already sold and need to start looking for where to go buy one.

Technorati Ranking

I'm about to claim my blog and find out my Technorati Profile Hopefully it's higher than 0. I read one blog that just cracked the top 1000. That's insane. Especially when a friend of mine has a blog in the top 480K. Sigh, I can only hope my is that high.

Sometimes I Miss Home

Just sometimes though. But I guess everyone who moves away deals with this at times. It's good to be away and independent but I do love my 3 trips home every year. My mom always cooks me a homemade breakfast at least once during my trip. What could possibly be better than moms home cooked food. Oh and did I mention that she brings it to me in bed. Absolute heaven.

We also take at least one trip to Atlantic City Casinos. We always stay at Trump Taj Majal. They have it all in this casino. Great food including a Hard Rock Cafe in addition to the casinos' own restaurants.

Another thing we do is stroll the boardwalk and go into all of the new shops that have opened up. There's also an off boardwalk shopping district with great stores, restaurants, and a movie theater.

I can't wait to go home again. Now I'm really homesick. I think I'll look into booking a surprise visit really soon!

School Is Not Going So Well

I am rusty as heck with school. I had my first in-class assignment the other day. It didn't go too great. We have to work with a partner or in groups. I partnered with the guy next to me. Holy heck. I even had him confused! I had stuff labeled wrong. My graph looked like a kid drew it. The points didn't even line up. It was seriously jacked up.

I'll get my grade on Friday. I'm hoping for a 7 out of 10 at least. I have it figured out. If I can get a 7 on all of my in-class assignments, 12 on all of my quizzes and 120 out of 150 on my final, I can get a B-. Hey that's good enough for me. This class is hard as heck. I need to buckle down and study a lot harder. I'll probably also hit my teachers office hours next week as well. Now I remember why I had trouble the first time.

My Aunts Birthday Is Friday

With MLK Day being Monday, I didn't get out to get her a card. So I'm going to send her an e-card.

I'll choose one with animation and have some kind of goofy character singing and dancing all over her screen. I know she'll love it. I can personalize it with her name and let her know that this message is just for her, not some generic card I got from the grocery store.

And since it's a ecards, I can totally send it last minute and know that she'll still get it on Friday. I can also create the dreaded Valentine's Day card today and schedule it to be mailed on February 14th to as many people as I want.

There is a small fee of only $13.99 per year to try the service. But here's the best part, you can try the service absolutely free for 30 days. This includes an unlimited amount of cards. So you can send one to your best friend wishing them a happy Wednesday if you want. And who doesn't like getting cards?

I Guess The Man Can Hold My Blog Down!

I tried to sign into my blog at work today and got the dreaded error page. It seems the IT guys went in and blocked a bunch of stuff. Anything with the word blog in it is now taboo. So if blog is in your title, you use blogspot, or if you have to sign into blogger to create new posts, access is now denied. Two out of three of these apply to me so I'm not a happy camper.

Now before anyone gets into a uproar about using company resources, I blog on my lunch hour. Since I don't have comments to moderate (hint, hint), I just focus on getting out a short post. They usually take less than five minutes to write. So I have plenty of time to eat.

I've been thinking of investing in my own domain name and hosting for a few months now, this is just another push in that direction.

Looking For Online Coupons?

If so you can save a ton of money. There's a awesome site out there that can save you big bucks.Couponchief.com has coupons from great sites like Gap. Now I don't know about you, but I have a wicked inseam. I'm only 5'6" so my inseam should be around 32". But I need a 33 1/2" inseam which is a nightmare to find. So I end up buying a lot of my clothes online because I can find tall clothes. Also everything fits great especially the boot cut jeans. I can dress them up with a sweater and a pair of boots, or go for a casual jeans and sneaker look.

You can also find coupons for Dell, Amazon, and Target. There's also the option to sign up for emails so you can get the deals as soon as they're posted. Check out the site, go shopping and save tons of money. What could be better?

Disclosure Policy

This policy is valid from 17 January 2007

This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. For questions about this blog, please contact sabrinasmoneymadness@gmail.com.

This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation. The compensation received may influence the advertising content, topics or posts made in this blog. That content, advertising space or post may not always be identified as paid or sponsored content.

The owner(s) of this blog is compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. Even though the owner(s) of this blog receives compensation for our posts or advertisements, we always give our honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the bloggers' own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question.

This blog does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest.

I Don't Even Need The Book!

Ain't that a blip?!?! I went through all of that trouble to get the darn thing and don't even need it.

I got to class and our teacher said that she basis her questions on lecture notes, not the book. I have 11 in class assignments, 11 quizzes and the final exam. 1 in class assignment and 1 quiz score will be dropped. In class assignments are worth 100 points total. Quizzes are worth 150 points and the final is worth 150 points for a total of 400 possible points in the class.

The assignments will be for the current weeks reading and the quizzes will be for the prior week (based on the assignments). The final is cumalative. And the absolute worse part of it all is that the questions are all short answer. Helen (my professor) does not believe in multiple choice exams. So much for winging it, I better study my behind off. Hard to believe this is an introductory class. I'm so out of it as far as school is concerned. I don't really know what I was expecting but this surely wasn't it. Especially not for my first class back. I was really hoping for multiple choice and true-false questions. At least we get partial credit for showing our work.

I have decided to keep the book. That way I can read ahead and have a basis for the material as she is going over it. Also, I can try to stay away from the falling behind trap. I should be able to read at least twice a week for 1/2 hr at a time. That should cover the next weeks materials. Staying ahead of the game will help me so much when it comes to exam time.

Later gators.......

I Hate Tuesdays!

Tuesday is my busiest day of the week. Since we were off yesterday, that makes it even worse. Don't get me wrong, I love having days off work. But the next day is hectic since we have 2 days worth of work to catch up on.

I do 2 jobs that are very heavy at the beginning of the month. Then I still have my regular work to do. My desk is overflowing right now. Papers are flying everywhere. My cube-mate just came over and offered to help me out. I told her I was cool but if I need anything I'll be sure to holler.

Too bad the Federal Reserve is open, otherwise we would have off work today. I mean federal buildings, the post office and the stock market are all closed. Banks should be closed too dammit! On a better note, it's a short work week.

Happy New Year?

I guess this is supposed to be a happy day, but my 2006 sucked so I'm glad to see it go. I guess I have to reveal my resolutions for the year, so here they are:

2007 New Year's Resolutions

1. Save at least $500 more
2. Buy one or two $75 savings bonds. One EE and/or one I.
3. Add 26 shares to one of my drip stock accts.
4. Lose one pants size.
5. Get no grade less than a B in school.

These all seem fairly easy but they all present some challenges:

1-3 I'm paying for school myself. No financial aid or student loans. I do get tuition reimbursement from my employer and that will help. I still have to pay all fees and for books.
4. I don't plan on dieting but cutting back on junk food and exercising more. My biggest challenge with exercising is that if I miss one or two days it's hard to get back into it. Last year I went an entire month without exercising once. Even if it's only 1 or 2 days, I have to exercise every week.
5. My gpa sucks right now so anything less than a B is disastrous. I need good grades to boost the gpa back up.

Well, that's it. My list for the New Year. I'll try to keep everyone updated. Here's to a great 2007!

Spring Semester Book Update

I went online and found my book way cheaper than the Pitt bookstore was offering it for. I went to Alibris and found the book for $50. I paid another $7 and got the study guide. My grand total with shipping was $64 a savings of $16. Hey that's $16 bucks I can spend on something else. I'm sure I'll go online for books every semester since Econ books are so expensive.

Where oh where to spend my windfall?!?!? I'm sure I'll think of something : D

Books For Spring Semester

Pitt thinks they're slick. They wait until the last minute to put books up online so you'll have to buy them from the campus bookstore. There's a huge mark-up naturally. I'm only taking 1 class this semester so I only need 1 book lucky for me.

It's a paperback book with about 300 pages. Brand new is $105, used is $80.25. I'm about too do an internet search to see if I can find the book cheaper. Wish me luck!!!!!!

Feliz Navidad

I just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy Holidays!

I'm home right now visiting family. Every once in a while I wonder why I moved away. Then I come home for a visit, and boy oh boy do they remind me. My family is jacked up! Issues out the wazoo! I'm actually leaving today to go home and it's not a moment to soon. But I still love and miss them and after all, you can't pick your family.

It's all love. Peace and enjoy!

My Duh Moment

Have you ever watched Carlos Mencia? Well I definately feel like the "dee-dee-dee". I had a loan payment due to my credit union. If you belong to a credit union, you know that there is usually only 1 office. Of course the office closes at 4:00pm and I get off work at 4:45 so stopping by the office is not an option.

So I decided to put my payment through the mac machine. I went to the machine, put my card in and started looking for the loan payment button. There wasn't one. So I had to mail my payment in. Luckily it was 3 days before the payment was due so I knew it would be on time.

Fast-forward 2 days later when I go to the mac to get money. While looking on the screen under deposits it says ...... PAYMENTS. Big as day. How did I miss it? My dumb ass was straight looking for LOAN payments!

Go ahead and laugh. I know you are anyway. All I can do is shake my head and wonder in amazement at my goofiness.

The Man Can't Hold My Blog Down

By the time I get home from work everyday, I am entirely too tired to blog. After staring at a computer screen all day, I'm leery about staring at one at home. So my blog suffers and I only post entries every 2 weeks if I'm lucky.

The IT administrators at work have blogs and newsgroups blocked so I couldn't check my blog. BUT.... I just found out that I can actually write and submit my posts. Hot damn I'm back in business! So now I will be blogging at least once a week. Woohoo!

Stew on that IT guys!

I Love Southwest!!!!!!!!

I thought I was going to have to pay an arm and a leg in order to go home over the Christmas holiday weekend. I just went to the Southwest website and booked a round-trip ticket for less than $100 including tax! I went to a competitor site just to make sure it was a good deal. Cheapest ticket on that site is $250 and I would have to travel either early morning or late at night on Christmas Day. I plan on spending at least half of the day with my family. Southwest is awesome!

Arghhh...Just Let Me Register Already!!!

Ugh, it took me forever to register. I get to Pitt to register and I had a feeling that I should stop in student accounts to make sure they applied my payment. Nope. Not only did they not apply the payment I sent 2 weeks prior, they didn't even know where the check was!! WHAT?!?!? My account is now delinquent because the payment was late. Meaning no registration because they have a hold on my account.

After arguing and throwing a temper tantrum they admitted that the person who was handling my account was on a leave so the payment was probably on her desk. So they tell me to come back in an hour. Great, except my registration appointment is in 20 minutes. I talk to my advisor and explain what happened. We set up a new appt. for Friday at 5:45pm.

I still have to pay my bill before the hold can be taken off. A quick call to my credit union and they tell me that I can put a stop payment on the check for $26 and they'll give me a new one. Ok, so I can get to the credit union and back in a little over an hour and have the hold off today.

I pace around in circles for 20 minutes, then go back to student accounts. As soon as I walk in, the lady handling my account looks up and says "oh, we found your check. You can register now." Did I mention that I used a vacation day from work for this so now I'm super ticked because the day was wasted?

On my way to the elevator I decide to stop back up at the advisors office and see if she can squeeze me in. The receptionist pulls up Ms. M's schedule and tells me she's booked for the rest of the day. But....her 11:00 hasn't gotten there yet. I run (yeah I literally ran) down the hall to her office. I ask if she can squeeze me in. She tells me that she can see me but if her 11:00 shows up, they take precedence. Ok by me. I sit down and give her the class code that I wanted. She types it up and prints it out. As I'm signing the paper, her 11:00 knocks on the door. I'm done I say to her as I stand. Sweet victory.

With registration in hand, I head to the Panther Center to get a new student id. I even took time to look presentable. I curled my hair (rare occurrence), and put on some lip gloss. I give the guy my drivers license. Oh, spring registration can't get a new id until after December 1st. But they're open 24 hours and give out id's until 10pm. Friday is December 1st so I'll just head over after work. Mission almost accomplished I head home. Now I just have to find out what books are required for the class.

You're An Advisor?

My advising appointment was a joke. I already know what I want my major to be and the classes that I want to take so there wasn't anything my advisor could tell me. She was like well here's the major sheet. I had that and a copy of my transcript so I knew what classes I needed. All she could say was "oh, well that's your advising appointment". Great, and I have to go through this every semester. I have another appointment in a week and a half to register.

I'm looking at 1 class on for 3 hours per week. I can handle that. It still gives me plenty of time to study. Since my gpa is so low I want at least a B in every class. Hopefully I can still pull a B- for an overall gpa when I'm done. Wish me luck!

Why Do So Few People Vote In The U.S.?

Check out this article from aol on voting. Only about 40% of the voting population votes in a nonpresidential election year. According to the article: Participation, paradoxically, is highest in states where making it to a polling station can be misery on a wintry day. Minnesota, Alaska, Maine, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Wyoming are among states that lead the nation in getting voters out.

Let your voice be heard! Vote Tuesday November 7th.

Get Out And Vote

It's that time of year again. Tuesday November 7th is election day. There are state senate seats and governors races that are very close. Some of them will be decided by a few thousand votes.

How many times have you heard someone say what a poor job an elected official was doing but then add that they didn't vote because "it's only one vote" or "my vote doesn't really count"? Now multiply that by all of the thousands of people who say the exact same thing. Hundreds of thousands of people miss voting. These people could have possibly changed the outcome of the election.

It doesn't matter what your political affiliation is or who you plan to vote for. Just get out there and vote. Let your voice be heard.

Reinstatement Completed

My reinstatement was approved for the spring term. Since I work full time the I need a night advising appt. The first available appt is 11/13. I go in and talk to an advisor and then get scheduled for a registration appt. I will probably use a vacation day at work for this since I will have so much to take care of that day.

I'll have to pay my back bill, register, get a new id and scout for cheap books for the class that I'm taking. I'll probably order the book online since I'll have over a month to get it. I also need to go to the financial aid office and see if there is anything that I qualify for. I doubt it since I'm only taking 1 class and you usually need at least 2 to qualify for aid. But it never hurts to ask, right?

Later......

Hooray Free Money...Boo Fine Print!

So I get a letter from Allegent Community FCU, my local credit union. They just changed their name so to celebrate they had a bunch of promotions going on. One was to open 2 accounts and get $50 bucks free. I already have 2 accounts so I decided to take advantage of their cd special. $2500 minimum deposit for a 1 year cd with a 6.00% rate.

I took a look at it and thought "hey great rate" so I started the paperwork. Then I read the fine print. The promotion was only good for money not already on deposit at the credit union. Well, I have the opening deposit but I don't have that much in another bank as well. Sheesh!

Well, I found a vacation club that I could open with a $5.00 minimum deposit and still qualify for the $50. It should be credited to my account within 3-4 weeks. Sweet!

Lesson learned: When you see a great deal or promotion, read the fine print first. Or you could miss out on the deal.

Back To School Time!

Well, I finally did it. I went to Pitt to apply for reinstatement. It's been so long since I've been in school that they have to totally rebuild my academic record. I had to write my high school and have them send a copy of my high school file as well.

That's crazy, I know. I'm as old as Methuselah going back to school. Well, not quite that old. Maybe as old as the late great Strom Thurmond. lol. That's the answer to every trivia question. You can't go wrong with good ole Strom as the answer.

One of my friends asked me if I was scared to go back to school. Nope. Anxious. Yeah. I can't wait to start and get it over. I just wish I had more money to able to take more classes. The first semester I'm only taking one class. Then two classes every semester including the summer. The last semester I'll have three classes. It should take me two years. My major is Economics. I'm not sure about my minor. I have enough credits for it to be several things. I only need 9 Econ. classes, one English Lit. class and two math classes. Yuck! I did everything in my power the first time around to get out of math and now I need two. Business Calculus and Statistics. They will probably be the worst classes I take.

I'll keep you updated on my advising appointments and the registration process. It should take between two and three weeks for my reinstatement to be completed then I can move on. Oh and I get a new id. Great, a new picture to take. My favorite thing in the whole world. Not!

Till next time...

Pittsburgh Bloggers

So I found another new site Pittsburgh Bloggers. It's a social organization that brings local bloggers together. Both online and in person. It's available for all blogs in the Greater Pittsburgh vicinity.

Not only can you get more readers to your blog, but you can connect with local people while doing so. And you can find some cool blogs to boot. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Blogshares Is Addicting!

I found a new and addicting website Blogshares.com. You can buy and sell shares of your blog or others blogs. It lists blogs by industries and rankings. Imagine my surprise when I went to the profile for Free Money Finance and saw that my blog was listed in his top 100. #81 to be exact ; ) That just blew me away. I mean he has over 300 incoming links and my relatively new baby blog still made it into his top 100.

You can check all of the sites that you link to and see who links back to you. There's also the ability to earn chips and karma points. What's I like most about this site is that you can see where your blog ranks in the grand scheme of things. It's also a great way to get your blog out there. So sign up and have fun!

Disclaimer: The above link is a referral link and will give me 5 chips if you sign up under me. Feel free to go straight to the site and sign up.

Find The One - Credit Card That Is

Did you know that there are more than 30,000 credit card programs among the five major brands (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, and Diners Club)? There's an excellent article on Fool.com discussing how to pick the best card for you and your spending style.

The article is broken into 4 categories:
1. Have a balance you are trying to pay off.
2. You never carry a balance, always pay on time, and make complete stops at every stop sign.
3. You occasionally carry a balance, spread your spending across a number of cards, or pay cash.
4. You have little or no credit history, or have one that is riddled with blemishes, and can't seem to qualify for any credit card.

Under each category is a list of things to look for in that card, as well as a list of things to watch out for. Each type of card has its pros and cons so be sure to look for the card that works best for you.

Moochers

So my mooching cousin called me this week. Yeah you. You know who I'm talking about. No I'm not putting your name out there. I'm so ticked, I don't even wanna think about your name.

I get home from work and there's a message on my machine. After the usual sucking-up and I haven't talked to you bull, he goes "oh I don't need money or anything I just haven't talked to you in a while." Well no you haven't. That's because the only time you call is when you need money! And is there anyone out there who falls for the old I don't need money line. If they mention not needing money, they want money.

I ain't giving you a nickel. Nope, not one thin dime. Don't call. This bank is closed, no more withdrawals for moochers.

1 and 3

Are you kidding me? I stayed up to watch this. I'm glad I kept my money and decided not to pull a Pete Rose and bet on any sports this weekend. First the Yankees now this. I'm glad I'm off work today. I need a moment. Sad, just sad.

Long Time No See

I know, I know, I know... I promised updates more often and I haven't delivered. I have good reasons, I promise.

First I've had a really tough time lately. Stuff I really can't get into on the internet. It's personal and not really pleasant to talk about. I'm dealing with it the best I can.

Then, as if that's not bad enough....My computer died!!!!!!! It took me 3 weeks to get a new computer. I was going crazy. I can't access the site from work. They block out any kind of blogs or message board type sites. So now I'm the proud owner of a new Compaq laptop. My first new computer in 7 years. I'm not too good at typing on the laptop yet, so bear with me and any typos.

Updates more often, I promise....

Pittsburgh Steelers Tickets Vent

Ok so this is not exactly money related but bear with me. So, I didn't get any tickets this year. I got my check back with the note sorry blah blah blah, oh yeah preseason games are available. Well yeah I bet they are. I don't want to go to a preseason game. It's just a televised scrimmage where the starters play at most half the game but usually only 1 quarter.

This bites. I mean really. Tickets are really hard to get unless you know someone who's not going to the game or willing to go to a scalper. The only way to buy tickets is through the team. You can't go to ticketmaster or anything like that. Most of the tickets are for season ticket holders. Ok fair enough, can't argue with that. The rest are first-come first-served type of deal. By the time they got my order form all games were sold out.

Yeah I know I know...Super Bowl champs blah blah blah. These tickets are always hard to get. Tickets are always sold out. And you know what? Turn on any game throughout the season and look at all of the empty seats. People that don't show up or leave the game early. Better luck next year.

Grrrrrr!!!!!!!!! Ok vent over!

Updates

Wow, wow, wow. I can't believe it. It's been over 2 months since I updated my blog. I really haven't thought much about it. I didn't think anyone was even reading it. Well, I was wrong.

A couple of friends have emailed me asking me why I haven't kept my site up to date. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. As I said, I didn't think anyone was really reading it. They told me that they liked some of my articles and to please continue writing. Nothing like good old flattery to get the juices going again!

I'll try to get in here at least once every two weeks for an update. Sometimes more often, sometimes less often. I have had a hectic time as of late, so the updates may be sporadic. But I will make a more concentrated effort to post something, anything. So keep reading, and I hope you're enjoying the articles I've written.

Feel free to leave comments or email me with feedback. Also, if there are any subjects that you would like to see me cover, let me know.

See ya soon!

Drivers Switch to Public Transit to Avoid Costly Gas

What are you doing to combat high gas prices? According to an article in todays USA Today, Public transit systems across the USA are seeing an increase in ridership.

You can read the entire article here: Drivers Switch to Public Transit to Avoid Costly Gas

Popular Cars - Most Expensive To Insure

America's most popular vehicle, the Ford F-series pickup, is also the most expensive to insure according to a report released by the insurance website Insure.com. The least expensive - the Chrysler Town & Country minivan.

Insurance is the third largest cost of owning a new car, after depreciation and fuel, according to Insure.com. Insurance premium costs, now averaging almost $900 per year, have risen 27 percent since 2000, according to the report.

See the top 20 cars here: Popular Cars: Most expensive to insure

Of Course It Works

Would you be willing to buy used electronics for a substantial discount? That's what people who buy refurbished products do everyday. A refurbished product is one that may have been damaged during shipping. A production defect or even a scratch can send an item back to the company. All items sent back are tested and repaired by the manufacturer. After they pass the quality assurance team, they returned to the market place with a discount and the "refurbished" label.

So should you buy a refurbished item? Well, here are some points to consider before you do.

Price - Make sure the price of the refurbished item is discounted enough to take the risk. A similar new item may cost the same. In this case it would make more sense to go with the new item.

Brand - Stay with brand name items. These manufacturers are more likely to stand behind their product.

Warranty - A refurbished item should still come with a manufacturers warranty.

Refurbishing Policy - Read the fine print to find out exactly how the item is refurbished. Make sure it is subject to final inspection. And make sure all manuals, software, cables, etc. are included.

Return Policy - Adhere to the return policy in terms of length and the conditions that it comes along with. You want to be able to thoroughly test the item before you find out that you only had 7 days to return the item.

Refurbished items can save you lots of money, but be sure to do your homework and buy from a reputable vendor.

Till next time...