Archive for February, 2010

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How Will Credit Card Reform Affect You?

Monday, February 22nd, 2010

There are a number of ways the new laws restrict credit card companies. Credit card companies have had constraints placed on them in certain ways and have had to figure out new ways to rip people off. Yes, I said it. I guess it’s plain to see that this is how credit card companies work. They’re sneaky, they like fine print, and they will do things to harm you when you least expect it. Here are some bullet points about the new rules:

  • Credit card companies can no longer raise rates on existing balances
  • Companies can no longer charge a fee for going above a credit limit unless you sign up for a service
  • Bills must be mailed at least 21 days before the payment is due
  • Companies must provide 45 days notice prior to changing fee amounts or other substantial account characteristics or term
  • Credit card companies can still cancel you or lower your limit without giving you notice

There are also a number of other changes and other things that have not changed. I recommend reading the below links to read all about the changes. One thing is for sure – when you deal with credit card companies, you are playing with fire or you are playing with snakes. In either case, the fire can become out of control or you will be bitten.

USA Today story on Credit Card Changes

US Credit Card Charge Offs Up, Deliquencies Down

New Credit Card Rules Allow for Maneuvering

Posted in Personal Finance | 96 Comments »

My Week Long Disappearance from the Blogosphere

Saturday, February 20th, 2010

This past week I had a few matters that prevented me from writing and also I took the time to plan how I’d like to continue the blog. Being the mother of three takes a lot of time. Our family is involved in church activities and my husband works two jobs. This makes me fairly busy keeping up with all the household tasks and extracurricular things. I’ve blogged almost every day for the past year and I’ve had a very good time. However, considering how my schedule will be in the next year, I’ve decided to scale back down to around 3 entries per week. I think this will contribute to a higher quality of postings and also allow me to have a little more free time. Our friend who has helped us with our websites will be designing a new layout scheme in the next month or so and you’ll see some changes soon. Thank you so much for following me here and I look forward to providing you with entertaining or informative posts in the future.

Posted in "What Is The Crafty Dollar?" | 174 Comments »

Spring Consignment Sales Are Right Around The Corner

Friday, February 12th, 2010

Spring is right around the corner, and that means that the spring consignment sales will be here in no time. If you plan on participating in a consignment sale, now is the time to start planning and preparing your items. This will be my second consignment sale, and now that I know exactly what to expect, it doesn’t seem near as intimidating to me. Check in your local paper or do a search on the internet for a consignment sale near you.

Once again, I will be participating in a local consignment sale held by Pass It On here in Edmond, Oklahoma. The sale takes place March 5th and 6th and will give me the opportunity again to make some extra money, save myself some time by not having a garage sale, and allow me to pick up some items that my kids may need.

Just Between Friends is also another organization that holds annual fall and spring consignment sales. The fall sale offers consignment events in twenty two states.

If you are planning to participate in any of the fall consignment sales I recommend collecting your items now, preparing them for the sale, and getting your tags ready. It does take a little time and effort on your part to get ready for the sale, but it should be worth it in the end. Just remember when preparing your items that they don’t have to be perfect, but ask yourself if you would purchase the item at the price your asking.

Posted in Simple Living | 279 Comments »

Make a Great Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

The good thing about being able to bake well and turn out quality baked goods is that everyone in your family can depend on you to bring something good to a family function. The bad thing about being able to bake well and turn out quality baked goods is that everyone in your family depends on you to bring something good to a family function. I am not saying that I don’t enjoy baking and making desserts, I’m just saying that once you start, realize that your family will come to depend on you to bring a dessert or two, or three. I usually rely on a handful of tried and true desserts that I like to make because I am familiar with all of the steps.

We had a family function on Sunday and I was asked to bring a dessert, which was fine, except that I didn’t have all of the ingredients on hand to make any of my standard desserts. I searched the pantry and came up with a few options, but wanted something that would be decadent. I settled on making a Pineapple Upside Down Cake that turned out to be much better than I expected. The cake was incredibly moist, even though the intended texture of the cake was dense. I followed the recipe to the letter, except for a substitution for the cake flour which I did not have on hand. I found an easy substitute for cake flour by combining cornstarch and all purpose flour. I was pleased that I finally had another use for cornstarch, and that I actually keep it in my pantry.

The cake was super simple. I used a round spring form pan and sprayed the inside with cooking spray so that the cake wouldn’t stick once it came time to release it from the pan. I also placed a sheet pan on the rack just below the spring form pan in anticipation of any leaking from the cake. My foresight paid off, because the sheet pan caught all of the drippings that would have ended up making a huge mess at the bottom of my oven. I actually covered the sheet pan in aluminum foil since I was also not interested in cleaning up the mess there either. This one is definitely being added to my list of desserts I can whip up in no time flat.

Posted in Baking at Home | 267 Comments »

Get Ready To Go Green

Wednesday, February 10th, 2010

I didn’t watch the Superbowl, but I do like some of the creative commercials that companies come up with to use during the Superbowl. This one had a special place place in my heart, and kept me laughing the whole way through. I don’t necessarily want the new vehicle, along with the price, but I did enjoy all of the green references.

While there are literally hundreds of ways to go green, not all of them will save you money. If you’re interested in only making changes that will save you money up front without spending anything out of pocket, make a few simple changes that are low cost or no cost up front like:

  • Use your own bag at Target for a 5 Cent credit for every bag you use
  • Use your own bag at CVS and get $1 in Extra Care Bucks on every 4th visit (must purchase a bag tag for $.99)
  • Compost and recycle to reduce the amount of garbage bags you need
  • Adjusting your thermostat in the winter(68°) and summer (78º)

When you’re ready to spend some money to save some money, you can still start with baby steps by:

  • Replacing your incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs
  • Get routine maintenance on your heat and air unit so that it runs efficiently

When you’re ready to spend some more money to save money over the course of a few years, here are a couple of pricier options:

  • Replace old appliances that aren’t Energy Star rated
  • Replace windows with energy efficient windows

Posted in Energy Conservation | 190 Comments »

Dave Ramsey’s Valentine’s Day Cheap Date Ideas

Sunday, February 7th, 2010

dave-ramseys-plasectomy

Dave Ramsey has posted a brief list of ideas for cheap dates on his website. If you aren’t familiar with Dave Ramsey, he is a personal finance guru. He isn’t the type of guy talking about advanced high finance or anything along those lines. The main principles he talks about are simple – avoiding debt by saving, using good behavior with your money, and doing what you love. He is also a Christian although you’d need to listen to his radio show or podcast for a while to really hear that. His books are very encouraging if you are looking to pay down credit card debt or debt in general. Follow this link here for his Valentine’s Day date ideas. I highly recommend listening to his free podcast that you can get at the iTunes store as a free download.

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Posted in Personal Finance | 123 Comments »

Free Auntie Anne’s Pretzel:Saturday February 20th, 2010

Friday, February 5th, 2010

Auntie Anne's

Don’t miss Free Pretzel Day on Saturday, February 20th, 2010 from 10:00 a.m. through 3:00 p.m at Auntie Anne’s Pretzels. This is a free, no strings attached, pretzel, but I’m sure as with all things that are free to the masses, it will cause pandaemonium somewhere. Limit of one original or cinnamon sugar pretzel per person please.

Also, if you like their pretzels as much as we do, sign-up for Pretzel Perks to receive monthly emails which include coupons, and other great offers.

Posted in Brick & Mortar Deals | 6 Comments »

Soups On: Potato Soup

Thursday, February 4th, 2010

Most of the time we eat pretty simple meals around our house, and yesterday was no exception. I had the ingredients on hand for potato soup which is one of my family’s favorites. I never plan on potato soup; it’s just one of those meals where I need to use something before it goes bad and potato soup is one of the easiest and fastest things to make. It does require a little preparation time since it requires cutting all of the vegetables, but it is well worth it end the end.

Potatoes are a staple at our house because they provide an inexpensive side dish, are easy to store, and can stretch a meal if you need a filler. We almost always have carrots, celery, and onions on hand which are the base of any good soup. I actually can’t stand the taste of celery, but will tolerate it in soup since it practically melts aways after I dice it into tiny pieces. Since the main star of the soup is potatoes, I dice all of the other vegetables up into small pieces as well. Our young son is not a fan of many of the meals we make, but I was able to get him to eat the soup last night after I removed most of the carrots from his bowl of soup; oh the joys of motherhood.

The soup is pretty basic, and starts out just like I would be making a spaghetti or ragu sauce. I toss all of the chopped celery, onions, and carrots into a stock pot with butter to sweat the vegetables before I add the liquid and the potatoes. After just a few minutes, it’s time to add the liquid and the potatoes. The liquid can be whatever you have on hand. My potato soup is never the same twice since I don’t do a lot of measuring, and don’t really follow a recipe. Yesterday I used chicken broth, water, and a can of evaporated milk for the liquid, but I’ve used heavy whipping cream or half and half, and even 2% milk in place of the evaporated milk.

After many attempts at trying to make my potato soup thicker, I actually discovered by accident that leaving the lid off of the pot while cooking reduces the soup and causes it to become slightly thicker after I’ve added the milk. I am not the best cook in the world, but I love when I figure out how to do something, quite by accident.

Posted in Home Cooking | 2 Comments »

Request Your Free Credit Report – But Watch For Strings

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

I’m sure you’re familiar with the odd commercials done by FreeCreditReport.com, I try to resist the urge to watch them because they are so annoying, but yet, they are entertaining. What’s not completely apparent is that the free credit report isn’t entirely free. I wouldn’t call it false advertising, but it is just a tad misleading. The commercials are powered by Experian, one of the three major credit bureaus, and while you do receive a free credit report, do be careful about the strings attached to the offer.

Requesting the free credit report through FreeCreditReport.com actually enrolls you in their Triple Advantage Credit Monitoring program. If you don’t request to cancel your free 7-day trial membership, you will be billed $14.95 for each month that you continue in the program. Their monitoring program watches the three major credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion) for any key changes that occur in your credit, while allowing you unfettered access to your Experian credit report any time you want.

Save yourself $15 every month and do the monitoring yourself. The federal government allows by law a free credit report from each of the three credit bureaus each year at http://annualcreditreport.com. You can spread these three reports out through the year. You can do it yourself! Monitor your credit yourself and don’t fall for the sales pitches.

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Posted in Personal Finance | 3 Comments »

Aldi Spice Club Peppercorn Grinder vs. McCormick Peppercorn Grinder

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

SpiceClub

Sometimes we like to go with the cheap product over the one that costs $0.50 more and it all works out. However, this is a case when ALDI’s product just doesn’t cut it. It’s not because ALDI’s peppercorns taste bad. The peppercorns are great and in a taste test I wouldn’t be able to tell between their black peppercorns and McCormick’s. We had used ALDI’s grinder for a few days when we noticed how difficult it was to grind the pepper. Granted, these are disposable grinders, but some level of quality and durability is expected. In this case, we decided to go ahead and spend an extra $0.50 when the time came to replace the grinder. We bought a McCormick’s grinder and it was evident how much better the grinder was. McCormick’s product cuts through the peppercorns with ease. We tried the ALDI product again and it was just a little laborious to use. This is a good example when spending a few extra pennies is worth it.

Posted in Aldi Grocery Store | 4 Comments »

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