by Tricia
This morning I took my husband a little off-guard. I woke up and exclaimed to the world that it was FRIDAY! This week seemed like a never-ending week and I felt so very happy it was Friday.
Now here’s some articles that caught my eye this week:
First up is D. She share some scoop on an Oprah show that was on this week about people taken over by clutter. My mom gave me a head’s up about this show but I didn’t get to watch it. One woman had 75 TONS of garbage!
Next up is Bob. He shares some tips on how to have a debt-free Christmas. I’m still working on the first tip of saving money ahead of time. I thought about setting aside a “Christmas Fund” earlier in the year but I didn’t do it. I’ll try again next year.
Lastly we have Jim. He discusses do-it-yourself wills and trusts. A will is one thing my husband and I really need to take care of. I’m pretty sure our debts would eat any assets we have at this point. But, if something happened to the both of us, I’d want to make sure our son stays out of the courts and goes to someone we designate. I’ve been reading more lately on the do-it-yourself kits, so Jim writing about this was very timely. Thanks, Jim! 🙂
With that, I think I am going to go get some shut eye. Have a great weekend everyone!
Seriously, do a Christmas fund, you won’t regret it. Just figure out how much you’d like to have at your fingertips at Christmastime for gifts. Divide that by 12. Take that amount out of your account, in cash, each month and set it aside in an envelope. Trust me, once the holiday season arrives, you’ll no longer dread figuring out how you’ll get to Chrismas without going bankrupt.
You need to watch the Oprah show, that was amazing. The transformation was even better. Plus, the hints for all of us to live a less cluttered life.
I think we all have some issues like this, maybe not to that extreme, but we are all a little crazy.:-)
The will sounds like a great idea. I have a will, but because it is with my ex-husband, I need to update it.
Thanks for the reminder. We have Nolo software and updated our wills after our daughter was born but never got around to getting them signed/witnessed in front of a notary. I’ve scheduled a time to do that this week!
I happened to be working at home on Friday, and for once when I’m working at home, Oprah actually had a good show the same day. I could not believe the clutter the featured guest had in her home. Shoot, you can’t even call it clutter – it went way beyond that. When they walked into the home, it was like walking on a sidewalk with 6 – 8 ft or higher snow walls – it was unbelievable. In the end, after trashing the unhealthy items (due to black mold, etc), they had enough items to fit in a 10,000 sq. ft. warehouse. Granted the items weren’t floor to sealing (like they were in her home), they were nicely laid out on tables, bins under the tables, and racks, but either way – a 10,000 sq. ft. warehouse – and the featured guests home was only around 3200 sq. ft. When the featured guest saw many of her possessions laid out in the warehouse for sale, I thought she was going to hyperventilate, shoot, I think she did. I actually felt bad for her at that point. Thank goodness her children called her on this & forced her to clean up. And it’s amazing her husband allowed this to happen, although he apparently was a paper hoarder (he had bank statements that went back 30 yrs and was having issues disposing of them, although, not as bad as the wife). I’d love to see a follow-up show on this family in 6 – 12 months, see if she was able to continue with the clutter-free life or revert back to her old ways. I hope not – it was not a healthy environment.
I forgot to mention. The items in the warehouse where sold in a rummage sale – in the end, they made $13,000 on the sale. I figured she’d get more, considering she had 3,000 pairs of shoes and 3,000 hand bags amongst all sorts of other clothing (she said that when she bought something of one color, she had to get in a bunch of other colors as well), however, they did make some money. The show never delved into the couples’ personal finances, so we don’t know how her hoarding may have affected their finances. It would’ve been nice to know this because throughout the show, I couldn’t help but think how much her hoarding lifestyle may have affected their finances.