Well, our economic stimulus check arrived on about June 8th. I quickly deposited it and $815.00 of it was spent on the first month's rent and deposit for the new house we rented close to my work. (See my last blog for more about this.) Part of the remaining $400 will be spent on renting a moving truck and other expenses with moving. We have asked one neighbor to help out and will probably ask a couple of relatives. To say thank you to all of them, we plan to provide a cooler full of ice water, bottled Pepsi, and probably pizzas or sandwiches. Anyone have any other ideas on good ways to say thank you for helping with moving?

Hello, everyone. I have survived what is probably the worst weekend ever. My hubby and I went to see my mom and other family. Mom does not like him and has not liked him since before she met him. She formed opinions about him before meeting him based on her warped notion of what she remembers me saying about him after meeting him. He and I have been married a little over 7 years and have been together about 8 1/2. While we have been through hell and back together, we are very happy and plan to be together for a long time. (We usually joke about 150 years.)

I was about to make breakfast for him in her kitchen this morning when I realized I could find neither olive oil nor real butter. He will not use or eat margarine or anything with soy in it. He said to me, "Well let's go get some," meaning get some butter from the store. She took this as an insult that her food is not good enough for us or something and told my husband to get out of her house and never come back.

Before I ever even met my hubby, going way back to my birth, my mother has had an extreme control issue with me. She never physically abused me, but she did allow my brother to beat me up. She constantly reminded me that I am not good enough for her in my career, my husband, my home, how much money I make, and any other topic under the sun. She has always treated me like I am still in diapers and incapable of making any decision on my own. She also told me today that she wants nothing to do with me while I am married to my husband. She forced me to choose and I think she thought I might choose her instead of him.

I am feeling pretty confused right now and not sure what I want to do about this. I am going to have to do a lot of thinking. Have any of you ever been forced to deal with a situation like this? I am not looking for advice, necessarily, mainly moral support so that I don't feel so alone.

Hi, everyone. I just read the following about Capital One on an email newsletter I get. If this is true, it is a big boon for those of us who have Capital One credit cards.
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Aug 15, 2007 -- Capital One gets a pat on the back from Clark
For the last few years, Clark has trashed Capital One -- one of the nation's largest credit card issuers and the purveyors of those memorable "What's in Your Wallet?" commercials that people either love or hate. Well, today the company gets some praise from Clark because it's agreed to change a policy about how it reports your information to the credit bureaus. In the past, Capital One would not report how much of your credit limit you were using. That way it always looked like you maxed out 100 percent of your credit, effectively destroying your score. According to Clark, this was an intentional move on Capital One's part because they wanted to hurt your credit and prevent other companies from poaching their customers. ...

Read the rest at http://clarkhoward.com/shownotes/category/7/40

A few people have posted comments wanting to know about survey sites. I participate in quite a few. Mostly, I seem to get checks or paypal deposits of amounts like $5 or $10 here and there. One time I had enough Harris Poll points build up to request a Samsonite laptop case for my laptop computer. It is probably worth at least $40 and I did not have a laptop case before, so I was very happy. Someone I supervise at work won a vacation from one survey company.

I have heard nay-sayers say that it takes a lot of time to do surveys. The truth is that most surveys I do take 5-10 minutes of my time that I do in the process of reading my email or postal mail. Others says that it's a waste of time and that you can never make money doing surveys. It is true that unless a survey entitles you to a contest entry for a lot of money, you probably won't make a lot of money.

Small amounts of money here and there doesn't seem like it would make a lot of difference, but that is money you can put into paying off debt, saving for a future expense, or putting into your retirement.

I participate in surveys at several companies, including Survey Savvy, NFO, NPDOR, Lightspeed, Global Test Market, Opinion Outpost, and E-Poll. Some of them have referral programs, which benefits me and the person I refer. Send me a message with your email and I will send you referrals.

Oh, if any of you knows where there is a banner of Pinecone, please let me know. I would really like to be on that list. I have heard that all of Pinecone's surveys pay and better than any I am on right now.

Hello, everyone.

After a great deal of thought, DH and I are selling our car. It is a 1968 Ford Mustang and we will be sorry to see it go. DH is having some health problems and we would like to pay off some credit card debt. We have set up an ebay ad for it, but for some reason it is not showing up. He has also listed it in craigslist. Here is the link to the craigslist ad. If you are interested, please click on the "Reply To" link at the top of the ad.

http://joplin.craigslist.org/car/281947105.html

I think it's important to not only think positively, but to laugh a lot. I think it takes your focus off of any problems you may be having, financial or otherwise.

I go to YouTube sometimes and look at funny videos about animals, kids, or other stuff. I just saw this funny video on YouTube that is hysterical. I thought you guys might get a kick out of it, too.

Fun With a Deer

A blogger named Autumn has a great blog on this subject at http://autumnxbutterfly.savingadvice.com/2007/01/06/money-online_20042/.

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Someone else posted a blog about online stuff they do for pay. I have surveys sites that pay me or enter me into contents to win money. I don't make very much money from these sites, but I do make enough that once in awhile, I am able to put a little extra towards the credit card debt. Hope this helps you all out in your $20 Challenge or just putting a little extra jingle in your pocket. I always stay away from the ones that demand my home phone number, as survey people can be worse than telemarketers about calling in the middle of dinner with seemingly endless surveys.

E-poll
http://www.epoll.com/epoll/clients/logout.htm
At E-poll, you can get gift certificates, gift cards, movies passes, etc. No cash as far as I know.

Opinion Outpost
https://www.opinionoutpost.com/index.php
You can get cash from Opinion Outpost and filling out enough surveys.

Ad Paid
http://adpaid.com/ptr/pages/index.php
Look at advertising online and when you accumulate a certain number of "clicks," you can redeem your clicks for cash.

Lightspeed Panel
http://us.lightspeedpanel.com
Lightspeed Panel is a survey site that surveys members about all sorts of topics. After collecting points, you can redeem your points for cash, gift cards, merchandise, and music downloads.

National Family Opinion
http://www.mysurvey.com/
NFO is another survey site where you collect points for doing surveys and redeem those points for cash, gift cards, merchandise, etc.

Harris Poll
http://www.harrispollonline.com/
Harris Poll Online is a survey site where you collect points and redeem them for merchandise. I have yet to see cash offered, but I could be wrong. I got a really cool case for my laptop from this place.

I took a survey titled What Kind of Shopper Are You? at http://www.memolink.com. This is what it has to say about me. This is very true, as I go to the store with a specfic list of what items I want, brands, sizes, quantity, and whether I have a coupon or it is on sale. This is not to say that if I see something else that is a better deal, that I don't go for it, though.

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We'd bet that if we ran into you at the mall, you're there to get something in particular - not to browse. You're probably the kind of shopper who ventures into the retail realm armed with an idea of what you want, where to get it, and how to get out of there as fast as you can.

Maybe you're on the hunt for a birthday gift for Mom or a housewarming present for your best friend. Then again, maybe it's a new outfit for yourself for a special event. Whatever the occasion, you're not too likely to make impulse buying or window shopping a standard practice. While some shoppers may get easily distracted, you're most likely to stay on track in pursuit of your intended purchase.

Well, after my "great day" blog earlier today, I logged into the credit card online to make an online payment. I discovered that the balance was up over 2K - again. I had had it under 2K, so this really ticks me off. My husband had purchased a cd online that tells you how to make money on ebay a couple of months ago. It seems that when he did so, he also inadvertantly signed up for some kind of service or membership. It is free for 14 days, then they charge. My husband tends not to read the fine print on these things. I have told him and told him to read the fine print on what is included, and not included, in the transaction when buying online. I also told him to stop using the credit card altogether, which he did, but we were not aware of this "membership." It was later this afternoon when I found this out and the business is not open until probably Tuesday morning at the earliest so that we can shut off this "service." It is really hard to think positively when stuff like this keeps creeping up on me. AArrgh!