May 18, 2018
I first heard of this money management tool called HoneyMoney from J. Money some while ago and it described a system that’s very similar to what I put together for ourselves.
It’s awesome that someone out there’s thinking along the same lines and providing this as a service for people who don’t want to have to re-invent the budgeting wheel. I signed up for a free 30-day trial of this service to see how close it comes to meeting my personal needfs and to share with you in case you’ve been looking for something like this. Let’s dive in…
STEP ONE: Entering accounts
This is all manual! I love that. My current system is all manual. I don’t want to link my accounts to any site for importing. Once upon a time, I loved Yodlee, and then it got old and crochety. I moved to Mint. That worked for a hot minute and then it stopped being useful.
It’s prone to connection errors. It’s prone to getting confused about the data. It keeps giving me “I can’t connect to MAKIN’ YOU BATTY account, please try logging in again to confirm your credentials.”
It’s all a waste of my time! Plus with all the data breaches, I don’t want any other institutions to have access to my account log ins anymore. I’m over it. Out with the account monitoring, in with the manual inputs!
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January 19, 2015
You might have heard of MOLESKINE+MILK. I didn’t until I ran across a deal on MyPoints, and maybe that should have been a red flag, but I let the MOLESKINE name and the initial look of the site lure me into buying a voucher.
Likes
The book binding was awesome.
The paper quality was lovely: thick, high quality glossy paper.
The book was delivered a little bit faster than I expected since they didn’t communicate a real expected delivery date (so I guess this is also a dislike because if I were ordering a gift, I’d need to know when it was going to arrive).
Dislikes
You can work in the expanded page view which takes up your whole screen or your regular browser. Both choices turn out to be frustrating. I always prefer working in my regular browser, but it turns out that you can’t scroll to the relevant stuff at the bottom of the screen to make selections of the style or color sets at the beginning of the book. There’s also no easy way to change your viewing selection when you figure this out so then you’ve got to get back to the homepage and start over. Frustratingly you may also find, as I did, that the full expanded page view STILL doesn’t show you all the options at the bottom of the page but you’re SOL as you STILL can’t scroll. Good luck figuring out how to select your color palette.
Image upload. It takes forever to upload high-resolution files, and you can’t reorganize or filter them in any really sensible or useful way. How they get uploaded is the order in which they appear.
Creating pages and layouts. You can’t shift a created Page 2 to Page 12 if you decide it fits better there. If you add a page, you have to add a full 4 page spread after the spread you’re working on. If you decide to delete a page, the whole spread has to go. It would be MUCH better if you could add 2 pages at a time or delete one at a time and sort out the total number of pages at the end when you’re Previewing to order the book.
Using the images. The used photos are marked with a check in the Edit pop-up box but you’re limited to the 9 images per screen view – they don’t have a handy way to scroll through the images along the bottom of the page so that you can grab all photos of a particular theme while you’re working on a particular spread. You can also only add photos one picture at a time to a spread, so if your layout requires 4 pictures, you have to click on Edit Image for every picture. Shutterfly, again, and other companies do this MUCH better.
You can’t delete a photo from the page without deleting it from the entire uploaded content menu. Instead you have to go into Edit and select a replacement photo right then and there, so you can’t just decide to remove the misplaced photo and come back to the spread later.
The spread options are extremely limited with only a few layout options per grouping of 1, 2, 3, 4, etc photos per page.
You can’t customize the image sizes in those layouts. You can only pick the image and increase the size from 100% to 200%.
You can’t decrease the size to better fit a layout, you can’t crop, brighten or edit the photos at all in the interface. If you didn’t know this and had uploaded all your photos in bulk, then your pictures aren’t going to be of uniform brightness or hue, you have to have edited them all beforehand. And you don’t have any real guide as to how to edit the sizes other than knowing they can only be square, landscape or portrait but if you load a larger landscape image into a square box, you can just shift it up, down, left, or right but you can’t make it smaller so the whole of the image fits.
There’s no option to fade images and create backgrounds, of course, so the really cool thing that PiC did with fading a full landscape photo with images on top for our other photo book? No can do.
Inviting contributors. They should really let you set the type of permissions a contributor can have or at least have more than one level of permissions where someone can basically be a co-owner and make independent decisions vs someone who can make decisions that have to be approved. It was immensely frustrating to PiC to be given contributor access but have to have all his edits require approval.
Overall
It’s a neat idea but on the whole, my experience with it was incredibly frustrating. I’m glad that we have our memory book but getting to that point was so time consuming, I couldn’t do it again.
It’s a shame, the books are beautiful and the interface looks like it’s going to be modern and easy to use but honestly working in Shutterfly or one of those more common book creation sites will be both much cheaper and much less aggravating.
My book specs: (1) Large 60-page Landscape book
Paid: $50 for the book, $9.99 for shipping to the US.
Full Price Value: $125
There are usually sales and coupons but that may just be during the earlier growth period. I can’t say that I could stand the level of frustration that it takes to complete a full book even for 30-40% off.
April 7, 2010
To counter my tales of woe and angst fomented by Bekins and their “services” this week, I’d like to take a moment to praise a company for responsiveness.
I hate checking luggage: my poor suitcase gets so abused! But it can’t be helped on some trips and on one such, the pull tabs on the zippers had been snapped right off. The zipper itself worked but it’s become a dexterity challenge pushing the little zipper nubbin along the track. I intended to do something about it, but stored my suitcase after a trip and forgot about it until the move.
I tied ribbons where the tabs had once been, and that worked as a temporary measure but only roughly so – the zipper track would become warped if I insisted on using a MacGyvered method too long.
In cases like these, I’m glad to be a bit OCD about tags, because I still have the original tags with the warranty/lifetime guarantee/contact information in the side pocket. I sent off an emailed query to Victorinox Swiss Army’s customer query department about what I could do to solve the problem. I received an email from customer service asking for the model/style number, responded to that email, and received a confirmation of a shipped order for new pull tabs, no charge, within 24 hours. Those pull tabs were delivered to my door without another word.
Bravo, Victorinox. Under no obligation, and without even being asked, to replace parts that were broken in the normal course of wear and tear with such rapidity is worthy of acknowledgment. Most companies would see such a little thing and stonewall the customer. Instead, you’ve cemented the value of your lifetime guarantee by providing good service as a matter of course.
*Now I just have to figure out how to attach them.
September 10, 2009
My usual glee at a) getting something in the mail, b) getting a new toy to install, and c) finally getting something to take care of this MESS was slightly dampened by the fact that I’m home to receive it ’cause I don’t feel good. Blech. I’ve leached out the grumpy, crabby commentary for your convenience.
Yep, the plastic remains on the display panel. No, I don’t know if I’m taking it off. Doubt it, though. My desk is a bloody mess, so if you’d like to see a ton of photos, feast your eyes on this guy’s documentation of every single step. His was free (I think) – thus he has more responsibility on his plate, or at least a more complete review.
Set up: As long as you followed the instructions on the screen, with an occasional referencing of the manual, the set up is mild. The spiciest part is when you realize that you must use an Ethernet connection first to set up the wireless connection. Since my router is most inconveniently located a few rooms away, and this printer was h-e-a-v-y, having to set up an Ethernet cord for all of ten minutes made me crabby.
The installation guide naturally assumed that I’d have to manually confirm my network connection before beginning to scan, but that wasn’t the case at all.
My first test print, though, was horrifying. First of all, the printer/feeder is LOUD. I mean, startle you from a deep sleep loud. And it jammed up first thing with a hideous bone-like crunch.
Program installation: There were about four other programs, including some Arcsoft stuff that I’m unfamiliar with, that were downloaded early in the installation process. I might have to spend some time removing those later if it turns out they’re not essential to the printer’s basic functions.
First print page: After the mangled mess of a first test print page, I conducted my own test print. Apparently Epson’s only on board for one go at it – you’re to shut off the machine and free up the works before continuing, but the software just assumes everything was hunky-dory. My draft print of some text worked just fine, but again, the noise factor is rather unbelievable.
Be aware that draft print seems to be quite the ink saver as the text prints out gray and pixelated – they do indeed skimp on that setting. That’s fine. I’ll just go grayscale next time. I notice that the Properties screen also offers a “Quiet Mode” option, but I’m not sure what that means. Since I don’t have any immediate printing needs, that’ll have to wait for later.
On to the scanning!!
Scanning: My goals are to scan in all mailed documents as PDFs so that’s the setting on the LCD. Thus, to the Auto Document Feeder!
Test subject was a set of T-Mobile bills. The scanning process was very very slow. It asked for settings – which I prefer to customize at this time with each scan to be sure it goes where I want and does what I want. I skipped the preview option and went straight to scan. After feeding (or scanning from the screen) a box pops up asking if you want to Add Page, Edit Page, or Save File. I like this option – you can cram as many pages as you want into a file incrementally.
When you just Save File, it converts, and then sends the file to FineReader to “process,” then it savesto the file designated for these test scans.
The feeder is also quite loud, and slow: it feeds one page about half or a third as fast as a regular standalone fax machine, possibly slower.
The clarity is pretty decent at 300 dpi resolution, and it’s smart enough to rotate horizontally when it encounters landscape pages among the portrait. Not smart enough to differentiate between right side up or upside down, but that’s asking a bit much anyway.
Cost: Originally priced at $179, I wouldn’t have looked twice at this guy, but on sale at $129 and free shipping, decently priced OEM ink carts (though I will definitely look for better alternative pricing), I could deal. Wouldn’t call it a steal, but it may be worth the money.
Overall: Outlook is promising – I’ll revisit the issue in about three months to see how we’re doing on the printing and scanning. It was a bit of a waste to get a five in one for my purposes since I don’t intend to use the fax or photo printing options (ink is expensive!) but for a printer, scanner (with ADF) this best fit the profile.
June 4, 2008
On my bank and grocery run today, I swung by the customer service desk to ask if they still had their produce guarantee. I wasn’t decided if I wanted new oranges or my money back, but I just wanted those oranges outta my house. The gal at the counter seemed to think she had to look it up, but the produce fella was on top of the things and waved me over after he peeked at my creepy mutant orange evidence.
Not only did he pick out a few really nice large navels to replace the two puny specimens I’d brought back, he took the time to explain how to pick better oranges next time. Then he whipped out a knife and cut a chunk of a third orange he’d picked out for me to sample, and explained that the dryness in that orange was due to coldboxing. It’s a similar dehydrating effect to having frozen fruit after it’s thawed where the moisture leaves the fruit during the thawing process, except not to that melty extreme.
And then he took me back to the cashiers and asked them to refund me however much I’d paid. Of course I was honest about the amount, but he never asked me for a receipt, none of them did, so his assumption that I’d be honest was appreciated. It’s a gracious gesture I didn’t expect at all, really, since he’d already replaced my oranges.
It was well worth the trip: I get my Vit C tomorrow, and two dollars to stash in my wallet for emergencies. Won’t get me too far but I’m not complaining! 🙂
June 3, 2008
The oranges I bought on Sunday? Ewwwww. I peeled one today and found a large weird green spot just under the skin. When I pulled away more of the pith from that area, it opened up to reveal stringy black and green grossness. Not only am I not eating that, I’m calling Vons on their produce satisfaction guarantee and taking it right back there. Mostly because I am So. Grossed. Out.
I’ve never seen anything like it. Ugh.
March 19, 2008
Remember the birthday shoes? I cannot emphasize enough how much I love flats, and how much I loved these flats in particular because they conformed perfectly to my feet and didn’t make my knees hurt like some flats do.
Sadly, Boy Coworker pointed out that the heel had come off the right shoe on Friday morning, and then the left heel fell off that night!
They’re a shade under six months old, so I checked NineWest.com to see if they have any sort of quality guarantee, but came up dry. This stinks, I thought their quality was supposed to be better than your average shoe. I’ve never lost heels off any shoes, even my cheapie shoes from Payless! It’s times like these I understand the love of stores like Nordstrom with their insanely good return policies, or Levenger with their satisfaction guarantee.
