Recession Busters # 60: Food, Fun & Frugality

1. I watched Clara's video on the poor man's meal. She fried potatoes and onions together and added in hot dogs. My husband makes an adaption of that: broiling hot dogs and adding mashed potatoes to make hot dog boats.

2. Recession busters: on tv they are always talking about grouping errands together to drive less; eating out less or eating out at places that give deals; using different energy companies to save money on electricity; maintaining vehicles; recipes to make to feed your family.

3. Tips for saving money: I do try to group errands together to get everything done in one trip (husband does this too); I try to maintain my car; I try to remember to use coupons (I get coupons through the supermarket and through marketing companies and combine them to get things cheaper); I use the library (of course) but also go to half price books for things on sale; I unfortunately re-gift in the hope that someone else will appreciate what I do not.

Money & Finance #59: Credit, Money Management, and Saving

1. I read the article, How Credit Scores work, and I took the Credit Score Quiz. I got an 80 per cent on the quiz mainly because I flubbed an answer that I actually new. The question I got wrong was on insurance and credit scores. I found the article interesting. I learned how the credit bureaus figure out your credit scores. They take into account different aspects of your history not just what you owe. It was eye opening.
2. My husband and I have tried budget plans a few times. It has never worked. We tend to overspend and not use credit wisely. We do not have credit cards any more. This works for us. We have our monthly expenditures: mortgage, utilities, insurance, gasoline cards. We have weekly expenses: food, dog items etc. Once our income went down we had to cut way back. I am not interested in trying to make a budget plan now.
It has never worked for us.
3. I went to the TCDRS site. I found the contact information helpful. I liked their chart on retirement dates, when to get applications in and first check. I do not remember my pin and did not want to check my information on line. If I need to contact them I will do it over the phone which they suggest doing anyway.

Money & Finance #58: Banking, Budgeting, and Spending

1. My bank does offer online banking. It is free. It appears to be a secure site -- There is that little lock symbol to let you know it is secure. We also have a special security gizmo that plugs into a USB port. We always log onto the bank through this security. I like the fact that this is a convenient way to balance the various accounts we have. We can see what checks came through and what deposits were made. We can also transfer money between the accounts. There is also a bill paying feature but we have not used that. We also had bad experiences with a previous bank that made automatic payments to charge accounts without us authorizing. I am wary about setting up any type of bill paying. We also need to remember to logout when the banking is done and close down the browser. That completely disconnects any kind of connection.

2. I looked at Mint and expensr. They appear to be similar. Both claim to take a few (5?) minutes to register. They both want bank account info, credit card info, etc. My husband and I have our information in one place and review our spending through our checking accounts. I did not register with Mint and expensr because I did not want another account on another website and I did not want to put this information on another website. I could see possibly using Mint but I do not want to put this information out there right now.

3. I took the spending quiz. I scored a 50 -- not so hot. Then I read the article from Consumer Reports on Spend less on everything. Two things I am going to try: 1. using the light bulbs they recommend and 2. store hopping when shopping to get the most value for certain things. I did notice that cereal, batteries are cheaper at Walmart than Kroger BUT milk is cheaper at Kroger than Walmart and I am not talking Bordens! Go figure!

Pot Luck #57: TXT U L8R - Texting

1. I have never sent a text message although I have received them and deleted them immediately.
2. I watched the video and reviewed the steps to send a message. I think I can do it. However, my husband and I have this function turned off to prevent our daughter from doing it.
3. I am not a regular texter.
4. I do not use text lingo. From what I saw I think Lingo 2 Word would help.
5. I read the New York Times article on texting and driving. I found it thought provoking. Cell phone usage of any kind takes your attention away from driving. The driver's attention should only be on operating the automobile. Personally, I feel there should be a law against text messaging and fines/penalties charged to people who get in accidents because they were too busy texting. People should know better.

Potluck #56: To Tweet or Not To Tweet...Twitter

1. I browsed through Twitter and checked out some of their apps and Celebrity Twitter. I would not adopt this for my personal use. I do not want to stalk celebrities. I could see becoming easily addicted to this and not doing what I am suppose to be doing. I do not have anything I want to Twitter about. I want to keep my stuff private.
2. I did a Twitter search on Golden Retrievers. I got over thirty blogs from people who love Golden Retrievers. I also did a search on picture post cards and got one blog which I am not sure is legitimate.
3. I was not impressed with Twitter. If I want to communicate with a friend I use the telephone, send an email or write a letter. I don't need this constant bombardment of information. I don't use my cell phone for text messaging. I would never give out my number on any of these sites. I think to myself: don't these people have anything better to do, like work?
4. I am not establishing a Twitter account or a feed. I have enough to do with Facebook.

Pot Luck #55: Getting the Most Out of Facebook

1. I created a Facebook account. I would not have gone on Facebook except it is a requirement for #55. It was surprisingly simple to create an account.
2. I added 2 friends to people you may know. I work with them. Some of the people in my address books are not on Facebook. I did not want to bother them with this so I did not contact them.
3. I created a badge and put it on my blog.
4. I added (Lil) Green Patch and Pet Pupz to my Facebook profile. I contacted my friends through (Lil) Green Patch.
5. I am not sure if I will keep using this. Currently it is a novelty because I have never done it before. The one thing is that it is slow and bogs down the computer.

Books, Readers and Beyond: #54 Social Networking Through Books

1. I was a member of a book club. I did not like it because I felt pressured to read the book even though I did not like it. I felt like I was back in school. Some of the books were Oprah books and I hated them. I decided there was something wrong with me because I did not like Oprah selections. If I did not read the book I did not participate. Consequently, I did not try an online book club.

2. I viewed some of the sites. I think it would be fun to have a club that reads a book and then watches the film adaptation. A discussion about the pros and cons and likes and dislikes could arise. Some people could just read the book and others could just watch the film. A discussion of how close the adaptation came to the original would be fun. Also watching a film and then reading the book that derived from the film would be fun. I think the Da Vinci Code would be a fun one to try with this.

3. I checked on Good Reads and Shelfari! for my book of choice: One for the money by Janet Evanovich. The ratings were similar on both sites. Good Reads gave One for the moeny a 4.10 avg. rating out of 5. Shelfari! gave it 4 stars out of 5. I wasn't surprised. I read One for the money and I was hooked--I became a Stephanie Plum fan for life.