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Archive results for “May of 2007”
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Back in November, I did a little interview with my son (he was four at the time) and asked him some basic money-related questions. I decided to ask him the same questions again now that he is five to see if anything has changed. I hope you enjoy 
1.) How old are you?
Five.
Previous answer: (no answer, just a gesture of four fingers)
2.) Do you like money?
Yup.
Previous answer: Yes.
3.) What do you like about money?
Because I want to buy something.
Previous answer: That why I can go somewhere with dollars.
4.) How much money do you have?
One hundred thousand.
Previous answer: One hundred.
He added on a “thousand”…I love it!
5.) How much money does mom and dad have?
Zero.
Previous answer: Zero.
Not sure what to think of this repeat answer 
6.) How much money is there in the world?
One hundred thousand eighty ninety thousand.
Previous answer: One hundred eight in all the world
LOL - sometimes I wish I could get inside his mind.
7.) How do you get money?
From the bank and from mom and dad.
Previous answer: From Grandma.
To his Grandmas…breathe a sigh of relief, you are officially off the hook now
8.) What is a bank?
A bank is a place you can make dollars out of pennies and make your money bigger.
Previous answer: Keep your pennies safe.
Yay! He’s learning!
9.) If you had $100 dollars what would you do with it?
Buy stuff.
Previous answer: You can buy a four wheeler.
Well, he still wants to spend it, but at least he’s out of the four wheeler stage LOL.
10.) How much money would you like?
One hundred thousand eighty ninety thousand.
Previous answer: One hundred.
I guess my little guy wants all of the money in the world (Question #6)
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Don’t stress about getting money for college. There are many different ways to set up a payment plan and payback any kind of loans no matter how daunting they are! Take care of your student loans soon!
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The other day, when I was able to share with everyone that our debt was under $21,000, it felt so good. I felt like we were making some progress again.
For quite a while there, it seemed like I was sending oodles of money towards our credit cards. I felt like I was showing the debt beast a thing or two and then I even started wondering if we could pay off our debt way before our goal date. Life was good.
Things stalled a bit when I decided that we should have a rainy day savings of $2,500. We were no longer was sending $500 payments toward our cards. Instead, for a while there we was paying the minimum payment and that was it. To put it into words, I felt like we were treading water again when it came to our debt. I knew that having some money in savings was a good thing, but it did hamper our debt reduction progress.
Then our income took a hit…we owed for 2006 taxes…we owed for a mistake in our 2005 taxes. BAM…BAM…BAM. Talk about trying to keep it together. I’ve never been one that could handle a whole bunch of setbacks at once with grace.
But I did this time.
Sure, I did break down and had a good cry. I was upset and I had to get it out of my system. The biggest difference was that we had a little over $2,000 in our savings at that point. We paid our 2006 taxes with that. We paid our state 2005 taxes in full with that and sent a partial payment to the IRS (the other portion of the IRS debt we are going into a payment plan for). Our savings account did dwindle down, but we were able to do something we have never been able to do before…we were able to handle some of these financial set-backs with cash.
No filling out a credit card cash advance check. No putting the groceries on our credit cards because we needed the cash in our checking account for other things. None of that this time around.
It felt pretty darn good.
It’s funny because for the longest time I have been against saving up money in an emergency fund. I wanted to attack the debt so hard and to take away funds to put in a savings account was crazy to me. Heck, if there was an emergency I could always rely on my credit cards…right?
As time passed, I started thinking more about it. Thanks to the lure of a $20 bonus at Virtual Bank, I made the plunge and saved $100. In January, our health insurance bill made me decide to at least save $350 in our rainy day fund. Then, in February I suddenly decided it was time to save more money in there and set a goal of $2,500.
I’m not sure what prompted me to suddenly decide it was time to beef up our savings. But I can say that I am very thankful things worked out the way they did.
I think most of you know it’s not my style to tell you what you need to do because everyone’s situation is different. For us, though, I believe having that emergency fund saved me from really losing it and getting too discouraged.
Next step? Time to get our savings account replenished 
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Don’t stay in the dark about your credit card debt, make sure to learn all the facts about different ways to consolidate debt and choose the option that’s right for you. Take care of your debt today!
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I am very excited about this! A little while ago, I reviewed On My Own Two Feet: A Modern Girl’s Guide to Personal Finance. I have been in contact with their PR person about the possiblity of the authors, Manisha Thakor and Sharon Kedar, answering some of your questions!
Today, I received word that it is officially a go!
So, here is your chance to ask questions to have the authors answer. Now, they probably will not be able to answer every question, but they will select some of them to answer.
To join in, all you need to do is leave a comment on this post with your question. Sunday night, I will email the questions to the authors and await their reply.
As a little hint, you may want to keep an eye out for when I post the answers
Thank you for stopping by for this week’s Festival of Frugality, a festival dedicated to helping you get the most value from your money. I decided to give out 12 awards to spice things up a bit and vary from the traditional format. I hope you enjoy!
BEST OF SHOW - this award goes to the article that made me think and I love that! How Frugal Are You?
BEST PICTORIAL OF FRUGALITY IN ACTION - what a difference a coat of paint makes! Saving Money With Paint
BEST ANALYSIS TO FIND THE BEST DEAL - what a thorough article researching tire prices! Which place sells cheapest tires?
BEST CONNECTION BETWEEN FRUGALITY & EXERCISE - get more bang for your buck with exercising! The Most Cost Effective Ways to Stay in Shape
BEST USE OF A POOH BANK - Winnie the Pooh isn’t just entertaining, he can help you save money! Pooh Bank as Fun Money.
BEST IMMEDIATE FRUGAL ACTIONS TO TAKE TO GET THROUGH A ROUGH PERIOD - sometimes you go into despiration mode due to a financial situation. Here’s some great tips to get through it! End of Your Rope? Tie a Knot and Hang on Tight
BEST FRUGAL WAY TO KEEP THE KIDS OCCUPIED THIS SUMMER - summer vacation is right around the corner and what’s better than a few free (or low cost) movies for the kids! Free Summer Movies for Kids
BEST FRUGAL VS. CHEAP COMPARISON - this article comes complete with a chart! Frugal vs. cheap
BEST MYTH DEBUNKER - very good argument against the common belief that a baby costs a lot of money! Six Common Myths: Adding A Baby To A Household Costs A Lot Of Money
BEST ARGUMENT FOR BUYING SOME STORE BRANDS - buying store brands can save money, and here the authors detail some that work for them! Saving Money By Buying Store Brands - 7 Products That Work For Us
BEST WORDS OF CAUTION REGARDING FRUGALITY - if you confuse being cheap with being frugal, it can cost you more money in the long run! When Being Frugal Can End Up Costing You A Fortune
BEST ARTICLES ON HOW TO SAVE ON ELECTRICITY - there was a tie here, good tips from two articles! I lowered my electric bill even though it’s late spring! & Frugal Friday #9: 10 Ways to Save on Your Summer Electric Bill
And here are the rest of the participants, in the order of when they were received:
10 Reasons Why Everyone Should Keep Chickens
Tips for buying second-hand stuff
Quick & Easy Ways to Lose Money
Such a Deal When You Love Your Job
How to Use Yahoo Answer to Save Time, Money & Reduce Stress
Free Cell Phone & $100 Free Money With Sony Ericsson W810i Phone!
How To Get Free Membership At Costco
The Perfect Hobby: One That?s Cheap, Makes Money Or Becomes A Business
My Attempts at Frugal Mattress Shopping
Question: Would You Eat a Squirrel?
Yard Sale Tips What to buy there
Donate to Charity and Save on a Fancy Dinner
Thank you to everyone that participated! Next week, the Festival of Frugality heads on over to My Two Dollars.
For more reading, also make sure you check out this week’s Carnival of Personal Finance over at Money Smart Life
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Want to keep closer track of your money? Look into online bill tracking and fill out credit card applications that offer online payment. Also be sure to check out cash back credit cards.
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This weekend, I spent a lot of time looking at our finances and figuring out our cash flow for the next few months. Things are still tight, but thanks to some money received for a project my husband is working on, things are looking up.
I paid some more on our credit cards today, and our credit card debt now stands at $20,951.
I am proud of the progress that we have made. I decided to chart it out so I can see graphically how we are doing:
With looking at that graph, I see that we are nearing the halfway point. There’s a few more thousand dollars to go before we hit it.
Sure, things have slowed down a bit around here with paying off our debt, but I am keeping focused and positive. There will be a point where we will see that line hit zero!
A reader sent me a link to an article on Yahoo Finance:
Why Smart People Make Bad Financial Moves
Basically, those with a high IQ are more likely to bring home bigger paychecks, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they have more wealth than the average Joe down the street.
“Those are significant numbers of very intelligent people who don’t have control over their finances,” says Zagorsky. “If you’re not in the top 5 or 10 percent, it’s comforting to know there are really intelligent people making mistakes, too.”
Mensa is an organization comprised of individuals where the only requirement is to have a high IQ score. What they state in their information page is similar to what the Yahoo study article mentioned:
“Mensans range in age from 4 to 94, but most are between 20 and 60. In education they range from preschoolers to high school dropouts to people with multiple doctorates. There are Mensans on welfare and Mensans who are millionaires. As far as occupations, the range is staggering. Mensa has professors and truck drivers, scientists and firefighters, computer programmers and farmers, artists, military people, musicians, laborers, police officers, glassblowers–the diverse list goes on and on. There are famous Mensans and prize-winning Mensans, but there are many whose names you wouldn’t know.”
I think I find the above so interesting because I would think that someone with more intelligence would be better suited for building wealth. But that’s not necessarily the case.
After thinking about it a little bit more, I think that someone’s success for building wealth is based on two things: knowledge and desire. You need to learn about personal finance and then have the desire to put what you learn into action.
Thoughts?
First, the Friday blog highlights:
NCN hosted the Carnival of Debt Reduction over at No Credit Needed.
Jags Mollu shares about her notepad. This is something that I have been trying to get myself to do but so far have been unsuccessful in sticking with it. I think it would help me greatly.
MBH discusses how a gas pump closure in Wisconsin makes national news. With gas for us around $3.50/gallon, we aren’t feeling it too much. Our fuel efficient car was one of the best purchases we ever made. Looking at our past monthly spending report, we only spent $55 in gas last month.
Now, next week, the Festival of Frugality will be here! So, if you are a blogger and have a frugal article, please submit it via the Blog Carnival Form.
Enjoy, and I hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable holiday weekend!
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