About sixteen years ago, I met him for the first time. My trainwreck sibling brought home this adorable puppy he had no business adopting because he had not one thing in his life that wasn’t a mess. I was furious at my sibling – he didn’t even take care of himself, how could he drag
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December 4, 2009
Free Vistaprint card design
I was recently roundly scolded by my mentor for not having business cards when we met a potential professional contact.
Me: But .. but .. we’re on vacation!
But she’s right: you should always have some sort of contact card to give to people you meet in case you’d like to keep in touch. Even if they don’t keep the card itself because they input the information into their preferred electronic device like FB does, they will have gotten your information. That’s the idea, anyway.
I’m so of the electronic age that I’ve just gotten by exchanging phone numbers via email or inputting a phone number on the spot and calling the other person so they can save my phone number. Who hasn’t done that? That’s just not good enough for professional purposes, though, it’s just too informal for certain contacts.
Ordering cards had been on my list of things to do anyway, so what was I waiting for? I hopped on the computer that same night and took a quick Twitter poll about whether or not Vistaprint was any good. My main concern was that the cardstock would be some cheap shoddy material, but …. (thanks @gingercorsair and @punchdebt!)
It seemed worth the gamble so I clicked through the Vistaprint options and ordered a set of 250 business cards with blank backs ($1.99) instead of their printed logo, 21-day slow shipping ($5.67) and matte finish (free) for less than $8.
My other options were Uprinting.com and @TheyCallMeCheap recommended that I try Moo which I’d never heard of before. If I didn’t like the cards Vistaprint produced, I would try Moo next.
The cards were ordered on the 18th and delivered on the 27th – less than 2 weeks! That’s pretty good for someone who neurotically tracks shipping as soon as an order is placed.
The cardstock is average and acceptable for my purposes – they’re not flimsy but they’re not the super thick 100-lb weight premium paper that could inflict a life-threatening paper cut either. Best we keep it that way.
December 3, 2009
Little Miss Moneybags
tagged me forever ago and it’s taken this long to come up with seven things I haven’t already shared. And then Rina of Gotta Little Space
tagged me, too, but you’ll forgive me if I don’t double up on the work.
The Rules:
1. Link to your original tagger(s) and list these rules in your post.
2. Share seven facts about yourself in the post.
3. Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged.
What you shouldn’t know about me:
1. I want food I don’t already have. There’s a sweet spot between wanting and having a snack in which it’s delicious, but it’s a very small window. This is how Oreos last as long as they do in my house. It’s also why I don’t buy potato chips. I’d never finish the bag before it went stale.
2. I’m a one-trip shopper: Everything has to be unloaded from the car in one go. Once I’m in the house, I’m not coming back out. [Except when it’s nearly impossible but it’s always too late to change my mind. Like the one time I bought 20 pounds of pork ribs and 20 pounds of chicken. In hindsight, that was just flat out dumb.]
3. I just yelled “LIFESTYLE INFLATION!!” at a 19-year-old contemplating an iPhone vs. Palm.
4. I’m related to crazy people who think that ionized water is a cure-all. This makes me sad. Then kind of mad.
5. In my head, dresses should always be step-in-able. That over-the-head business just doesn’t jive with me. Also, when tailored to fit and both zippers and buttons are involved, I often have trouble getting dressed.
6. It seems like the above incompetency should be mentioned to all mothers who ask me to babysit their darlings. It frequently isn’t.
7. But I still do remarkably well babysitting the under-3 age group. Performance drops slightly around bedtime prep, but the number of diapers I’ve changed should more than offset that loss.
Alright darlins, please tag yourselves because you’re going to hurt my feelings if you don’t follow through and I’m going to hurt yours if I didn’t pick you. And let me know so I can link back to you! 🙂
December 2, 2009
Here’s a What would you have done? scenario.
I got a call from my girlfriend recently. She and her husband were looking at cars to replace both their beater car and the truck he’d crashed into a telephone pole one icy night, several months ago. He was fine, thank goodness, but their car was most decidedly not.
I worry about their finances as she’s described them to me. He’s been unemployed on and off for months, though always diligently hunting and trying to bring home income one way or another. He wasn’t too proud to go back to delivering pizzas while training for his paramedic license, trying out for the sheriff’s department, and basically beating every bush possible. She’s gone back to a desk job even though she hates it and she’s not physically a desk job kind of gal – it knocks her back a-kilter something fierce. But she deals, as well.
It took several weeks but they found their “deal”: a 2000 4-door sedan for $8,000. It seemed like a great price if they could get decent financing in her name. [He’d declared bankruptcy a year ago, and so they won’t be putting anything in his name for a while.] With a mid 700s credit score, I wasn’t terribly concerned about their chances.
Except the shady dealership offered them 15% APR! And then “gave” them a “discount” to make up for the fact that as they were signing the papers, the shady salesman revealed that the car had been in an accident that caused structural damage.
/headdesk/
At that point I really wanted to
a) beg them to walk away;
b) beg them to consider alternate financing options, and find another car that didn’t have structural damage;
c) beg them to walk away, consider better financing options, and find another car that didn’t have structural damage.
She told me, in the crickets-chirping silence as I debated the above options, that her brother in law the mechanic had checked the car and deemed it driveable, but I still felt uncomfortable with their decision to proceed with the sale.
Am I paranoid? What would you have done?
December 1, 2009
| Retirement Savings |
Total: $35,309 (34,001)
|
| Emergency Savings |
Total: $36,535 (36,468) |
| Short Term Goals |
Car Maintenance: $2,225
Insurance: $2,003
Travel/Con: $550
Taxes: $3,594
Moving: $2,798
Total: $11,170 (11,696) |
| Long Term Goals |
House Down Payment: $102 |
| Investments |
TradeKing: $1,095
Prosper-ish Loan: $12,630
Personal Loan: $1,500
Savings Bond: $362 (current accrued value)
Total: $15,587 (15,587) |
| Total Assets |
Illiquid: $35,309
Semi-Liquid: $15,587
Liquid: $36,535
Expense Acct: $7,656
Goals Savings: $11,170
Total: $106,257 (105,181) |
| Debt and Liabilities |
AmEx: $799
Chase: $670
Rent: $1,360
Total: $2,829 (3,593) |
| Net Worth |
$103,428 (101,315) |
A few thoughts …..
Excel and I will have to become buddies to locate exactly when the e-fund tracking went off the rails, but in the meantime, I’ve reset the past numbers in parentheses for both the e-fund and grand total back to the correct September numbers for now.
The total NW is up again due to the uptick in the stock market and sort of controlling my expenses.
A note about the Tradeking account: as I’m a buy and hold investor, that total will only reflect the cash deposited, and not any gains or losses for now. I’m tracking that differently than my retirement accounts because I don’t have those assets in hand until I sell. Does that make sense?
Probable Upcoming Expenses:
1. Christmas gifts — $150-200 total?
2. Another pair of online courses — $1100
While I’m happy to see the NW slightly rebound, I’m not thrilled that it’s on the back of so capricious a creature as the stock market. Cash is my preferred net worth driver, unless it’s being invested purposefully. I look forward to the time when I’m generating substantive income again.
November 27, 2009
Reminder: I’m hosting the Carnival of Personal Finance this week, be sure to submit your best articles by Sunday!
Of course, you can’t cook every meal when you’re vacationing in Hawaii for the first time ever! We had some very nice meals out and the prices reinforced our decision to be frugal at least half the time.
Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck on the North Shore: $13 per plate of shrimp scampi, $1 drink
Dole Plantation: Plate lunch ($9) and Pineapple Whip dessert ($4):
Happy Hour at Kona Brewing Co.: 4 beers, 1 6-oz. sampler beer for me, 3 appetizers ($33 after tip; party of three)
Dinner at Cafe Sistina: $41 per person, included 4 shared appetizers and 2 bottles of wine; party of 9
Buffet lunch at Indigo in Honolulu: $25 per person; party of 7 [You might not be able to tell, but there are about 15 different items on that plate. I was stuffed.]
We also had a mindblowing dinner at Lucy’s but I forgot my memory card at home. *heartbroken* We were treated to that meal by our local friends, and the entrees were around $25 each. The ahi tower was beyond fresh, the braised lamb just feel off the bone, and the coconut cranberry rice was amazingly moist and flavorful.
The costs were shared for a number of meals – we took turns treating each other so that the spending was relatively even across the board. Still, you can see how quickly you could spend hundreds just on eating! Luckily, that’s what a vacation is all about. 😉
November 25, 2009
Thanks to our generous living arrangements, my travel companions and I economized on the food budget by taking advantage of the local Safeway two miles down the road, and the kitchen stocked with cooking supplies.
We made more than one grocery run but the first $250 worth of groceries yielded three days’ meals for three to five people.
Sunday dinner
I cooked dinner for five on Sunday night: green salad dressed with a balsamic spritzer, green beans and red potatoes, baked basa (fish) with roasted tomatoes and pesto. The leftover fish made excellent fish sandwiches the next day with a dab of mayo, a couple slices of cheddar and crispy lettuce.
Daily breakfasts on the balcony
Tuesday’s Dinner
I cooked lemon chicken to go with rice pilaf, steamed broccoli, and used the remaining potatoes and green beans. Groceries are remarkably expensive. Even on sale, we paid $1.99 a pound for chicken! Three half breasts and seven thigh pieces yielded six dinner servings and a chicken sandwich lunch.
More on the expenses of eating out in Hawaii next!
November 24, 2009
Hamauna Bay (Ha-na-oo-mah in Hawaiian)
I’m home! Or am I?
All good things must come to an end. I’m back from this month’s travels and amazing though it was, I’m glad to be home. My body’s been frantically waving the white flag for a few days now. It’s had trouble coping with the demands of travel and living with a large mixed group so I had to make allowances like checking baggage which costs extra money. With United, you can check your bags online and pay a reduced fee, but make sure that your credit card is accepted! My friend’s wasn’t, and she ended up being recharged at the counter for a total of $70 instead of the $55 we were quoted online.
Meanwhile, my brain is still in Hanauma Bay. For $7.50 per person, and another $9 if your face is too freakishly small to use borrowed gear and must rent a kit, you can go snorkeling! Turns out, if you sink like a stone without snorkel gear, you will also sink like a stone with snorkel gear. But if you have a swims-like-fish friend who’ll tow you along, and can get over sounding like Darth Vader underwater which totally freaked me out (*shiver*), then it’s not so bad.
Meanwhile, back “home,” the brother left an envelope with $200 in cash, I wasn’t attacked with updates of bad news upon walking in the door, and I settled in rather peacefully. Even managed to vacuum an entire room without more than two interruptions. Seriously, where am I?
