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After my son goes to school, I sit down on the couch with my laptop and try to answer a few emails and/or work on a post before starting work. Last Friday morning, the telephone rang at 8:00 a.m. No one calls us that early.
The first thing that came to my head was that something happened with the bus and my son. I put the laptop down on the couch and got up as quickly as I could to go answer the phone.
If you have ever been around a mother that was concerned for the safety of her child, well…just the sheer force is amazing. Just ask my laptop adapter plug.
My foot caught on the plug and yanked it a good one. I didn’t even look back to see if the laptop fell off the couch, I was focused on answering that phone. Why a delivery company is calling at 8:00 a.m. in the morning to just find out directions to your house for a delivery next week is beyond me.
Anyways, after the phone call it was time to look at the damage. The laptop was still on the couch so that was a good sign. It was no longer plugged in, and when I reached down to grab the plug a feeling of “Oh, crap” came over me.
I said that you don’t mess with a mom that is concerned about the safety of her child, right?
That plug was mutilated. The prong was all bent up and the metal around it was twisted around. I looked at it and wanted to cry. Our laptop battery doesn’t hold a charge longer than 15 minutes. So, that adapter is its lifeline. And what’s on this computer? All of our financial data. Has it been backed up recently? No.
My husband looked at the damage, and the first thing he said is that hopefully we can find a new adapter because it’s an older model. I wasn’t too worried about that, because eBay is wonderful for finding hard to find things. I was worried about the time it would take to get a new adapter. My Quicken file is my financial lifeline and without it I am lost. I don’t keep track of my balances, my non-check transactions or deposits in my actual check register with my checks.
I started looking for the adapter and did find it on eBay and at an online retailer I wasn’t familiar with (therefore I was ansy about purchasing there). By the time I was done searching, the adrenaline rush subsided and I could think a little clearer. I took a look at the plug and decided to try to bring it back to life with some pliers.
And it worked! Yes! The plug fits tighter now too (it used to jiggle a little bit before). Crisis averted. I still have my laptop and access to my Quicken file.
New Year’s Resolution #206 – make more backups!
For your reading pleasure, here are the carnivals for this week:
The Carnival of Debt Reduction is over at No Credit Needed Blog.
The Carnival of Personal Finance is over at My Personal Finance Blog.
Enjoy! 
We deviated from our normal family Christmas, and instead of making dinner at home we ventured out and had dinner at a friend’s house. While it was nice, and we appreciated being invited, I think next year we are going back to making our own Christmas dinner. We usually have ham and homemade cheesy potatoes, and I still find myself hungering for that meal.
Anyways, since this is a personal finance blog, I should divulge that we totally blew our budget for Christmas. We thought we’d spend about $150 on our son, but it ended up being more. The most expensive gift we purchased was $35, but by the time you add up all of the stocking stuffers and batteries (oh, my…those batteries), it quickly became a lot more.
I do not have the official numbers yet, because I am still waiting to receive my husband’s receipts. But, I know it is close to $250.
Overall, the total for all Christmas gift spending is more than $500. I’m thinking it will easily be around $600 total this year when everything is entered. Thank goodness we received a total of $350 in Christmas bonuses. That helped tremendously.
This is the first Christmas that we’ve had since embarking on this debt reduction journey, and I really thought we would have done better than we did with our spending. I will have to spend some time looking at where we went wrong.
I’d like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy Holiday. I completed some last minute Christmas shopping today and tomorrow we will spend Christmas morning with just the three of us. In the afternoon, we will go over to a friend’s house for food and games. At night, we are going to relax and watch a few movies at home.
I’ll be back on Tuesday. Take care everyone!!
I love giving gifts to those who make a difference in my son’s life. The teacher(s), bus drivers, etc. It can be expensive, but there’s something that I have been doing for the past two years that has saved me money and enabled me to give a nice gift.
A few days after Christmas, I go to the local department store. They always have holiday items at half off. I browse what they have left, and take a good look at what’s there. I may purchase a few things that I feel may sell out, like cute teacher ornaments. But for the most part, I’m just scoping out their inventory.
I go back every few days and watch and wait. I know they will be marking the holiday inventory to 75% soon. When they do, I purchase more things. I wait, though, to purchase anything that they have a lot of because it gets better.
A little while later, they mark things to 90% off. BINGO! That’s my cue to start buying like crazy. Sure, these are things that may have been less desired this year, but who knows? They could be in high demand next year
When I get home, I put everything in a box and put it in a safe and dry spot. It sits there till next Christmas.
I spent $40 last year for at least $120 worth of items. I was able to make 6 gift bags (which I bought those on clearance too) filled with ornaments, stuffed animals and candles. Just a nice gift that doesn’t break the bank.
A while back, I mentioned a site called ModestNeeds.org. It’s a place where people can go to get a helping hand for those emergency costs that can sometimes derail a family living paycheck to paycheck.
I think the site is great and I will be supporting the site monetarily and through a banner on my blog. If you are interested in donating, I wanted to let you know that they have someone matching every donation throughout 2006…and it has been extended through 2007! That is wonderful news.
In a nutshell, I do have advertising on my site. However, that does not affect my content. I do not make money through “paid posts” on this blog. I sometimes put in affiliate links within my content but I will clearly denote it from this point forward (some older posts have amazon affiliate links not marked – I started marking everything a few months ago).
There are also occasions where I have received a book for free to review. I will note how I received the books and my reviews will be honest regardless of how I aquire reading material.
Here’s my official disclosure policy:
This policy is valid from 22 December 2006
This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation.
The compensation received will never influence the content, topics or posts made in this blog. All advertising is in the form of advertisements generated by a third party ad network. Those advertisements will be identified as paid advertisements.
The owner(s) of this blog is not compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the blog owners. If we claim or appear to be experts on a certain topic or product or service area, we will only endorse products or services that we believe, based on our expertise, are worthy of such endorsement. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer or provider.
This blog does contain content which might present a conflict of interest. This content will always be identified.
To get your own policy, go to http://www.disclosurepolicy.org
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About This Site
My Debt
- Original Debt: $97,293.06
- Paid: $1,927.89
- Remaining: $95,365.17
- Emergency Fund: $1100
- Broken Down
- Line of Credit 2: $0.00
- Line of Credit 1: $0.00
- Credit Card 1: $0.00
- Credit Card 2: $245.00
- Credit Card 3: $405.00
- Credit Card 6: $1,785.00
- Credit Card 7: $2,381.17
- Consolidation Loan: $11,000.00
- Credit Card 10: $14,519.00
- Auto Loan 1: $16,093.00
- Credit Card 11: $23,873.00
- Auto Loan 2: $25,064.00
Finance Blogging Buddies
- Beachgirl’s Budget Blog
- Becoming and Staying Debt Free
- Boston Gals Open Wallet
- Debt Free Hispanic
- Debt Kid
- Debt Reduction 101
- Dual Income No Kids
- Everybody Loves Your Money
- Financial Hack
- Free Money Finance
- From the Brink of Bankruptcy
- Generation X Finance
- GRACEful Retirement
- Grad Money Matters
- It’s Your Money
- Josephsangl.com
- Kick Debt’s Butt
- Lazy Man and Money
- Low Income Life
- Make Love Not Debt
- Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge
- Mighty Bargain Hunter
- Money, Matter and More Musings
- My 1st Million at 33
- No Credit Needed
- One Million and Beyond
- Personal Finance Advice
- pfblogs.org
