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Archive results for “March of 2008”
On this page you will find the search results for the search term that you queried.
I loved searching for things using Blingo.com. I’ve won prizes two times so far and I shared the site with all of you.
I have to say…I was not happy with what I saw while searching for the spelling of a word. Blingo has switched from using Google for the search results to using Yahoo, Live and Ask.com.
How does that affect the results?
When I searched for blogging away debt on Blingo, every other result within the first 10 hits were ads (see image). Written to the right in gray are the words, “Found on Ads by Yahoo!”
In comparison, when you do a Google search for blogging away debt, you get a list of search results on the left side and there are ads on the right side (or sometimes I see them on top too). The ads are clearly on their own. The same goes with a regular Yahoo search. The ads are on the top and to the side.
With Blingo, I’m not pleased with how ads are intermingled in with the other results. It can be very misleading and now you have to sort through what is a true search result versus an ad.
I know this is a bit off-topic, but a few of you have signed up for Blingo using my link and are my friends on there. I introduced Blingo as a great way to search and win prizes. By doing that I recommended using the site. Unless something changes, I will not be using Blingo anymore and I no longer recommend using it. I really wish they didn’t make this change.
I am hoping that things will go back to the way they were and this is just a very bad glitch. I haven’t been able to find any news as to why they changed things. Hopefully there will be an announcement soon.
I saw this story on Yahoo today about a little box that some subprime borrowers are getting installed on used cars that they purchase:
When the light starts to flash, you had better have the cash.
That’s the reality for millions of subprime borrowers whose used car purchase is contingent upon having an unusual option: a little box mounted underneath the dashboard that forces them to make their payments on time.
[Via Yahoo.com]
If you don’t pay…your car gets shut off and won’t start. The only way to get it back is to make your payment and receive a special code. If you don’t pay, then the repo man comes for a visit.
I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing. When my husband and I bought our first vehicle together, our credit wasn’t that great at the time but we did end up getting a loan with the help of a co-signer. If we had the option of having one of those boxes instead of having a co-signer, I would have gone for the box.
What about you? What do you think of the boxes?
We stuck with our plan yesterday and went out shopping so I could buy a pair of jeans. Our first stop was Steve and Barry’s. Thanks Adam for the suggestion since I didn’t even think of trying there and we have one close by!
To my delight, everything in the store was on sale for $8.98. We ended up finding a nice spring jacket for my husband and I browsed through the jeans to get an idea of what was there. Then we headed over to JC Penney. They had some $17 jeans, but none in my size. Not even close.
At this point, we could have headed over to Walmart or I could swing back by Steve and Barry’s and try a pair of jeans for $8.98. Since I’ve never purchased jeans there, we went back and I tried on a few pairs and decided on one pair. Now I have my ratty pair for around the house/working in the yard and I have my new pair for going out and about.
There’s something else I want to touch upon here. Arduous brought up a good point about not buying quality this time because I may need to wear new sizes soon if my weight loss journey goes well. I completely agree that a cheaper pair might be better if I were to lose weight.
But going back to the debt reduction vs. weight reduction issue that I briefly mentioned yesterday, I do find it much easier to reduce our debt than reduce my weight. I am very confident that we will reduce our debt. I definitely wasn’t that confident back in the beginning but after two years of doing it, I just know that we will do it. Sure, there will be some set backs, but it is a goal we can reach. When it comes to my weight, I don’t have that confidence. Maybe it’s because I’m still “new” to weight reduction and perhaps given time I will gain some confidence with that too. I’m not sure.
All things considered, I went with a cheaper, but perhaps not the cheapest, choice. I do hope there is some quality to the pair I bought. Like Adam said, I guess time will tell. But I’m hoping too that given some time I’ll need a smaller pair of jeans 
Another payment for some work my husband did arrived in the mail this week. It was long overdue and I was starting to wonder what happened to it. That check was what we needed to be able to get our debt under $13,000 for March since our tax refund is delayed. Our credit card debt is now $12,998 
Now here’s some inspiration from Pants In a Can. He has paid off ALL of his credit card debt. How much? $28,000! Congrats!
Bjefferies is finding that it’s easier for him to reduce debt than lose weight. I’d have to agree. My thought is that with paying off debt you see that total go down immediately. It can take a little while for that scale to go down from eating healthy and exercising.
Arduous has an awesome list of changes she has made since starting her blog. There are quite a few things on her list that I’d like to try.
Tomorrow…I am going shopping for a pair of jeans
Since starting our debt reduction journey, we have spent very little on clothing. The only exception is my son since he is growing like a weed. Even that spending has been minimal thanks to some hand-me-downs from a relative and from shopping second-hand and clearance sales.
I am officially down to one pair of jeans now. And that pair needs to be retired soon since they are getting very shabby (I’m having a flashback of being in school and having my stonewashed jeans rip down the inside seam because they were too frayed - I’d rather not repeat that very embarassing moment!).
In general, I don’t like shopping for clothes because I don’t like to try things on in the store. I also don’t like spending money on clothes. I remember one year when I found jeans on sale at Walmart for $5 a pair. I tried one pair on, they fit okay, and I bought three of the same exact kind and that was that. I haven’t seen a deal like that in a long time.
That means that I will be going shopping for jeans this weekend. I’m going to do something a little different, though. I’ve been thinking about the value in finding deals on well-made clothing. Over five years ago, I purchased a pair of jeans from JC Penney for less than $20 on sale. Those jeans fit well and they lasted a long time. I was very sad when I had to say goodbye to them. I was so sad that I went back to JC Penney to see if they still carried that brand/style. They didn’t, and no longer had any sales, so I went back to Walmart for buying jeans.
While the Walmart jeans I usually buy are okay, they don’t last very long. They fray quickly and develop holes. Did I mention how awesome that one pair I bought from JC Penney was?
I think you know where I am going here. I am going to stop by JC Penney first and see if they have any sales on good pairs of jeans. Even if the initial cost is more than a pair of Walmart jeans, they can be a better value if they last longer. I am going to take the cost and the quality into consideration.
It’s hard to do, because (I’ll admit it…) I’m pretty cheap. But I think I need to transition into a more frugal mindset with buying quality items for less. Not just cheap items for less.
Just a note…we do have second-hand stores in our area, but I have not been able to find jeans in my size in good condition. Hopefully that will change soon!
According to the IRS representative I talked to yesterday, our federal refund isn’t necessarily delayed. The automated system did say I was due to get the refund this week, but I guess they changed their mind with the delayed message and the representative said we should have it next week. Sort of a bummer because I wanted to hit below the $13,000 mark by the end of the month.
Times like these, I do the next best thing and pay as much as we can. That ended up being $200 for right now and that brings our debt total to $13,198. I’m hoping that some money will arrive by the end of the month and I hope to sell a few more things on Craigslist. If that happens, we could make it under the $13,000 mark without our tax refund.
There is a saying on the tip of my tongue…one that you sometimes say when you do the best you can even though you may not hit the mark? Hmm…it’s not coming to me.
In any case, I’m still going to try to do the best we can for March
Our state tax return arrived via direct deposit a little bit ago. I’ve been anxiously awaiting our federal refund because we would break below the $13,000 mark with that money. Unfortunately, our tax refund has been delayed and I don’t know why.
I’m on hold with the IRS right now and my wait time is estimated at 20 minutes. At least they have classical music playing, although it’s a bit too loud. You also have those moments where something sounds different and you think you are being transferred to a representative but it’s only that voice that comes on to let you know that everyone is still busy.
I’ve searched the internet for the code that they gave me to try to find more information as to why our return is delayed. After quite a few misses (mostly from Yahoo answers), I found a great resource that hopefully none of you will need. The IRS has a page that lists all of the reference codes for internet filers. My code is listed, but the status description is greek to me so that’s why I’m on hold right now.
I learned about our refund being delayed this weekend. It put a bit of a damper on things since I did already “spend” the refund in my mind to go towards our debt. I can be impatient at times when it comes to paying off our debt.
This reminds me of another year where our refund was delayed. We were all set to move to where we are now and the move depended on our tax return to be able to pay for somewhere to rent once we got here. Well, the tax return didn’t arrive and it was delayed. There was no way we were delaying our move, so we headed to the bank and practically begged for a $1,000 loan. We did get the loan and ended up moving on time. A few weeks later, we finally received our tax return and turned around and paid the loan.
Comparing that situation makes this delay seem pretty trivial. We are not relying on this money for anything other than an extra payment towards our debt. Instead of being bummed, I should be thankful. I feel better about this already. We may not hit below the $13,000 mark in March, but we’ll hit it in April
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Credit Card Debt
- Starting = $37,614
- Paid Off = $28,616
- Current = $8,998
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