When I created the No Credit Needed Network, I did so with moments like this one in mind -

Debt Hater, who joined the No Credit Needed Network in February of 2006, just paid off her credit cards!

Click here to view her completed No Credit Needed Network chart and here to visit her site and read her inspirational and celebratory post.

In a world where we are inundated with bad news and depressing stories, isn’t it fun to read about someone doing well?

Debt Hater… You Rock!

If you are trying to get out of credit card debt - consider reading the No Credit Needed Debt Reduction Guide. And, if you would like to share your progress with the world, consider joining the No Credit Needed Network.

• 2 Comments

Here are some of my favorite articles from the Money Blog Network -

All Financial Matters calculated the impact that rising gas prices will have on the cost of the family vacation.

Consumerism Commentary has some thoughts and questions about the proposed gas tax holiday.

Five Cent Nickel asked readers to provide feedback on their favorite online brokers.

Free Money Finance reminds us that he loves index funds - and so do many professors.

Get Rich Slowly tries to find solutions for a reader who is living on credit.

Mighty Bargain Hunter details how to save money when shipping online via USPS.

• 0 Comments

Today, I went shopping for Mother’s Day gifts. As I was checking out at one particular store, the woman behind the cash register asked me if I wanted to apply for a credit card and receive a 10% discount. As I’ve written about before, I’m not interested in credit cards, especially high-rate store-branded credit cards. But, I’m also not interested in being a jerk, so I politely declined her offer. But, I couldn’t resist asking her if she ever tired of trying to get people to apply for the cards. She sighed and said yes. Then, she went on for about five minutes about how she and the other customer service people were required to produce a certain number of applications, every week, or they would be ‘written up’. Having worked in retail when I was in high school, I was familiar with that type of company policy. Apparently, her particular manager asks each CSR to get 2 credit applications, per week. I asked her what she thought about credit cards - in general. She cocked her head, slightly, and said - almost at a whisper -

“They tell us if we can get someone to sign up, and be approved, that we have guaranteed that that customer will shop at our store, on average, three times more often than they would have if they didn’t have a card with our store’s name on it.”

I hope those customer’s enjoyed their 10% discount.

(As a side note: I have no idea if what she said is true or not, but I am inclined to believe that part of the allure of the store-branded card is that it gives its owner a false-sense of belonging. Think about it. When you sign-up for the card, what type of process must you go through. Ah - an approval process. Interesting word, don’t you think?)

Cool thing about cash - no approval necessary. I don’t need a ‘cash’ score. And, I’m not paying for my shirt, three years after it went out of style, at 23% interest.

• 18 Comments

Baby number three is now three weeks old.  She is beautiful and is doing great.  Mommy and I have spent many of the hours since she was born just holding her, enjoying her little baby sighs.  She sleeps four to five hours at a time and enjoys her baby swing.  Big sister and big brother love her - and are ready for her to “play dolls and ride the hot wheel”.

We find that we are spending less on gasoline, because we are staying home instead of going out.  But, our electric bill will probably be sky high.  It’s getting hot down south and we wash about five hundred loads of laundry a day.  I find that I spend a little more on toys for our other kids, in order to entertain and reward them while we care for ‘little bit’.  We have well water, so we buy baby water to mix with baby’s formula.  And, formula is expensive!  Thankfully, we have a closet full of diapers - gifts from our baby shower.

All in all, I’m not quiet sure what the final impact of the new baby will be on our finances.  We created a budget, based on our assumptions, before she was born.  Over the next few months, we’ll be able to better shape our budget, to match the actual realities of our expenses.  But, no matter the ‘costs’ - she’s worth it!

When creating our budget, I always tend to overestimate our expenses.  That way, at the end of the month, I always have a little money left over that can be deposited in our savings account.  Since we are living on one income this month, it’s more important than ever that we stick to our budget.  If we have ‘extra’ at the end of this month, we will have done something!

One nice thing about having two other children already, we didn’t have to buy a lot of new baby items.  We are using our first daughter’s baby crib and our son’s baby swing.  We did purchase a few things for the new baby, like a stroller and a new changing table, but most of the new things we have came from friends and family members, as gifts.  By the way, our friends and family members did a great job of buying us quality, useful items for the baby.  We received diapers, baby bags, outfits, and gift cards - practical items that we needed.

I printed out our baby announcements today.  My wife has a little printer that makes awesome 4 X 6 prints.  I downloaded three pictures from our digital camera and used them to create a neat little announcement card.  My wife purchased some envelopes from a local shop and I’m going to print addresses on them tomorrow.  We’ll send out the announcements Friday.  While baby announcements aren’t ‘necessities’ - they ARE important to my wife.  And so, baby announcements are in our budget and baby announcements are going to be sent!

• 10 Comments

I recently sold an item on eBay.  When the buyer tried to make payment via Paypal, the payment was rejected.  I contacted Paypal, via the customer service number listed on their website and within two minutes, I was connected to a customer service representative and the problem with my account was promptly corrected.  (For some reason, when setting up my new account, I checked a box that needed to be unchecked.)

Normally, we only read about bad customer service experiences, so I thought it might be nice to report a good experience.  The CSR was polite and she knew how to fix the problem.

One note - The welcome message asks for an online pin number.  This number was assigned when I opened my Paypal account, online, and clicked the ‘contact’ tab.  Also, in order to bypass some of the voice prompts and get to a real person, I repeatedly pressed ‘zero’.  So, before you call, login to your account, click the contact tab, acquire an online pin number, make the call, enter your pin number, and then press ‘zero’ until you get a CSR.

• 3 Comments