As you may know from some previous posts, we have a $250 self-imposed budget for Christmas this year. We had a budget left of $227, and I have definitely made a dent in it. Here’s the breakdown: $41 – the Christmas shopping for all of our little friends. We have three little ones that...
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Personal Finance
I just finished the fun Christmas shopping
Our mortgage company sent us a check for $180
In addition to getting an e-mail today letting me know that my credit limit increased on one of my credit cards (I thought things like this weren’t supposed to happen anymore?), we got a check from our mortgage company today for $180. Our escrow account was a little too high (hence the check). In...
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Woodburning skills lead to frugal Christmas gift!
My husband has been a casual woodburner crafter ever since we met. He’s not a master artisan, but he has made some really great plaques and gifts for friends and family over the years. I’ve mentioned in a previous post how craft stores can be great resources for gifts. I was in our local...
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Keeping our heads up in today’s economy
Everything seems to be in the crapper. With election politics heating up (and not necessarily in a good way), an economic bailout that I am pretty sure no one has a real clue about, and the American dream becoming less achievable for many, things seem to be “not so great”. Or is it? I...
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The irony of our wonderful government
It’s not very often that I burst out laughing when we get the mail. I’m usually annoyed at the amount of junk mail, or ticked off at the unexpected bill (ie. is it time to pay the garbage bill again?). But today, on the day where all us common folk are wondering just how...
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Get $10 when you sign up for Ebates
With the holidays approaching, I’ve been on the prowl for some good deals. Although I try to make most of my purchases with gift cards, I do like using ShopDiscover (when you make the purchase with your Discover Card, you get cash back), UPromise, and Ebates. The basic idea with all of these sites...
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Last day to sign up for free TransUnion credit monitoring
TransUnion is offering free credit monitoring as part of the settlement in a class-action lawsuit, since they violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act and sold consumers personal and financial information to marketers. Good stuff! According to the site: “The Settlement Class is defined as: All consumers who had an open credit account or an...
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Prosper no longer allowing PA residents to lend money
I haven’t discussed Prosper.com much on this blog, but it is a peer-to-peer lending site that I have been thinking about getting involved with. I was looking into the tax implications of peer-to-peer lending before getting started, but I guess I don’t have to worry about that anymore. This morning, I got an e-mail...
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Our temporary computer compromise
Well, our Dell is still dead. Because we had to deplete our emergency fund to pay for truck repairs, we’re not comfortable with buying a new computer before restoring our savings. In addition, there is a good chance that we are going to have to make a trip home this month for family reasons,...
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Saving money on our natural gas bill
We all know about some of the ways to save on our energy costs – having good windows, sealing up leaks, insulation, etc. But once that is all said and done, how can we save money on our actual bill? Until now, we haven’t worried too much about our natural gas bill. We do...
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