August 2007 - Posts
I tuned in to
NPR yesterday and caught a majority of this week's installment of
The Infinite Mind. The topic of the broadcast was
Money and the Mind. Have a
listen, it's pretty interesting stuff!
I figured since I've been treating this blog as a bit of a personal finance blog, it made sense to mention this to you all.
In other news, I've been contacted regarding sign up bonuses for ING Direct. So far I've only heard from one person about Electric Orange (the checking account) but I have referrals for both the checking and savings accounts. So, do
email me! Thanks to the woman who contacted me with a referral request! Hopefully you're enjoying your new account, and your $25!
Not much else to report, really. I've still been tracking my expenses on
Walletproof. I think the one problem is that I pretty much just spend and then track, but I don't know if this is curbing my spending habits. I've still been ordering lunches at work a few times a week, and some things I'm buying for the long term (clothes, beauty supplies), but I think I end up bottling up lots of my spending until all at once. I went to the mall last weekend because I had to buy bathing suits for a trip I was going on. I hadn't bought bathing suits in a year or two, so I was due to get one. The good part was that because it was the end of season, and I had a $10 off coupon, I got 2 bathing suits for less than $20 at The Gap. I've decided that my Gap credit card is actually worthwhile for me, since I opened it when I bought some nice pants before (yes, it should have been a bigger purchase) I've been getting percent off and $ off coupons from them, and I pay the whole balance off every time. I think I only go there for biggish purchases (maybe I save up my spending for those, too?) like when I desperately needed new bras, or this time for bathing suits. I don't go without a coupon. Of course, getting me into the store was the need for bathing suits, but I walked away after also buying a pair of khakis. I think I treat dressy pants as a necessity, since I have barely any khakis, but lots of jeans (and I feel like a slob when I wear jeans to work).
I think that the whole don't spend-spend a lot problem partially arises because I don't have a car. My roommates were driving somewhere, so I asked for a ride to the mall so I could shop. So while I was there for the bathing suit, I ended up buying two bathing suits, and khakis from The Gap (like I mentioned), then picked up some tank tops and headbands from H&M (I always buy tank tops there, I'm into layering, at least in a kind of non-crazy way). Then to the CVS to pick up random things I needed. I spent almost $100! Well, at least I wont have to buy some of those things for a while.
Phew, this post was meant to just mention the Infinite Mind show. Well, there's my money confession for the day.
So I opened an I
NG Direct Electric Orange checking account. I had been thinking about doing this for a while, but I didn't like having to change over any of my direct deposit/autopay accounts or anything. But I now HAVE to do it, because Bank of America apparently lied to me recently. I originally opened my Bank of America checking account with my mom as custodian (I guess I started young...or needed a place to put birthday checks). I never took her off of it. I've called and also "chatted" with a representative (they have popup chats when you're on the website too long, it seems) and while I got two different answers (you have to close this one and open a new one vs. here's paperwork to fill out), when my mom tried to go to Bank of America to have the paperwork notarzied and dealt with, they completely shot her down. So, if in fact it is possible to merely remove her from my account, the people she talked to wouldn't let her do it. So now I have to open a new account and close the first one, so I might as well switch some autopay accounts. So, I'm thinking I'll pay my utilities as well as my rarely used credit cards (I'll keep my more often used cards on my BoA account) and put the average utilities cost in my Electric Orange, so I'll earn interest on that. I figure this is just a way to increase my savings, since I probably won't touch it too much. It's just a more easily accessible savings account that the regular
ING Direct Savings Account.
I do still have ING referalls if anyone is interested. If you open an account with at least $250, you get an extra $25, and I get an extra $10. Not too shabby! Leave me a comment or shoot me an
email if you want one!
I saw this promotion where if you post a paragraph, you can win $2500. I don't know if it's true, but I figured I might as well try it.
Over at
Ashwin’s blog,
you will find one crazy blog owner!! You can win $2500!! To enter just
copy this text and paste it in your blog!! But hurry, this competition
will not last long! So get posting!
So, I realized I should disclose something now before I post about some things (and I'll probably re-disclose if I post about things like this again). I've been using a site called
BzzAgent, which is a word-of-mouth generating site. Basically, when you join (it's free) you are invited to participate in surveys and test out new products. The idea is that if people try out new products, and they like them, they'll tell friends, family, etc. about it. So I joined it...I haven't gotten too active in it, but they just recently started a separate page for website recommendations called
Frogpond. I've started checking it out, and one site that I realized I should post about (because it's a personal finance related site) is
Walletproof. I still have to look through it a lot more, but it looks pretty easy to use, and you can track your income and expenses, categorize them, and share ideas with the community. It's still in beta, so I'm guessing there are plenty of kinks to work out, but I'm going to try it and see how it goes. It seems less annoying than Microsoft Money, and more interactive that my spreadsheets.
Let me know what you think of it!
Oh, and the first link I had for the site should take you directly to
walletproof.com (but I guess it gives me referal credit? I'm not even sure, it's what Frogpond suggested I link to), then just go through the normal link at the begining of this sentence.