Journey Towards Financial Freedom

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?

Well, my picture above doesn't have anything to do with my blog, but I love it. It is not a picture of one of my furballs, though.

Well, here I am again. Another payday. More debt paid off and more money saved. Investments for retirement have gone up. Progress is being made, a little more slowly than I would like.

My other bit of success is that my hubby and I found another house to rent that is much nicer than where we are living and only a 5 minute walk away from work. Yes, I did say (or rather write) walk to work! It is very close and solves multiple problems, such as:

1) less money spent on gas

2) easier to get to work on extreme cold weather days when I can't get my car or truck to thaw out

3) I also think I will be less tempted to spend money on snacks and other things at convenience stores. The route I will have to walk to get to work does not go near a convenience store, so I will have to "rough it" with pre-packed snacks from home and whatever I can get from a vending machine.

Also, I will be getting a 3.5% raise in my salary beginning in July. I will not be spending my new-found loot on televisions and Coca-Cola. I will be paying twice as much as I am currently paying on hospital bill #2. I will also put twice as much into my savings as I am currently.

Wow. I feel very accomplished.

I thought I would give everyone an update on a weekly basis how I am doing with the 3x5 Account. See my earlier blog at

http://crazyliblady.savingadvice.com/2008/06/01/the-3x5-savi... for the details. It's really weird how having to write down every single purchase makes you really think about it and say to yourself "Do I need this?" and "What am I going to use it for?" Believe it or not, I think I have actually decreased my spending as a result of having to be conscious of it. I highly recommend doing this.



6/1 3 gallons of gas $10.11 on debit card
6/1 24 oz. iced tea and candy $1.09 cash
6/1 payment to credit card with lottery ticket winnings
6/2 20 oz soda and nuts $1.91 cash
6/2 snickers bars and 12 oz soda $1.10 cash
6/3 bottled iced tea $1.81 cash
6/3 32 oz soda and cookies $2.02 cash
6/4 20 oz coke and crackers $2.02 cash
6/4 cookies $.50 cash
6/4 took $60 out of checking to give my dh to buy a new shower head (we have separate checking accounts), but it turned out landlord had old, working shower head which was way better than what we had. And I got my $60 back!
6/5 32 oz iced tea $1.06 cash
6/5 12 oz soda and candy bar $1.10 cash
6/5 trip to Home Depot for weed killer $21.95 Debit
6/6 24 oz iced tea $1.17 cash
6/6 shipping supplies for bookmooch books $2.98 cash
6/6 shipping bookmooch books $5.16 cash

Since much of my expenditures are for iced tea or other drinks, I think I would like to get a big thermos to make iced tea and take that to work. That should cut down a lot on my trips to convenience stores on work days just for iced tea. I think I will also buy some bulk packages of crackers to take to work for munching. Much cheaper. Hmmm... Starting to think about things logically... Scary...

Well, last Friday was another payday. I have more debt paid off, more savings accumulated, and more retirement money invested.

We bought a lottery ticket about 2 weeks ago. My dh finally got around to checking it and it is a $3 winner. He gave it to me to do something with it. I cashed it in and promptly deposited it for sending to the cc. I guess $3 is not much, but it is something.

Another payday and I am more prosperous!

In an email newsletter I get, the author mentioned this news article from yahoo about the 3x5 savings account.

http://biz.yahoo.com/wallstreet/080601/sb121226759448935495_...

The gist is, in order to more effectively be aware of your money and eventually save money, to keep track of your income and expenditures for awhile on a 3x5 card. I think I will do this this month. Would anyone like to start a 3x5 Savings Challenge with me?

I got paid on Friday and paid off more debt. More money has been added to savings and retirement. Yippee! Slowly but surely as the tortoise said...

I recently went on a trip out of town for work. I received my reimbursement a few days ago and sent $50.00 of it to the credit card. Yippee!

Hi, everyone. I have updated some of my numbers. I update the cc balance to reflect what it actually is right now. It has been yo-yoing up and down. I think that is soon to change. One of the reasons that I was charging so much to the card is that when the hubby and I would go on a road trip, we would have to rent a car, because we were not confident about taking our cars on long trips. Anyway, read my previous blog about getting rid of a 1968 Mustang for more info. We now have a road-worthy vehicle when can get us where we need to go. The hubby is not going to like me paying so much on the cc, but I want it paid off NOW! I am tired of feeling like I have no money and can't buy things I want and need because of it. Savings account #1 is at a local bank and the other one is an online account. I just opened it.

My hubby and I moved to our current home in late April 2005. In July that year, we spotted a 1968 Mustang sitting in a parking lot of a grocery store. We bought it from the owner, who was a college student. In order to pay for it, we sold our Honda to a nearby car dealer. Here are 10 Things I Wish I Had Known Before Trading a 2000 Honda for a a Classic Car.

1. I wish I had known how much "skill" my husband had in working on cars. While my husband professed to be a decent mechanic and could do much of the work the car, I discovered after we bought the Mustang that he is not really that good at it.

2. I wish I had known to be a little tougher and stand up to my husband and "no, we will not sell the Honda for a non-working automobile." This mistake alone has cost me more aggravation and money that I accurately calculate.

3. I wish I had known that you need space like a garage and equipment to work on cars. We also did not have the space or equipment needed to work on cars. Tools are expensive and we could not afford to buy them.

4. I wish I had known what poor gas mileage old classic cars get. My 5-year-old Honda was not the greatest car in the world. However, it got excellent gas mileage. We used to joke that the Mustang got about 19 gallons to the mile.

5. Except for a bent wheel which needed to be replaced, our 2005 Honda was in excellent condition. We had never had any major problems with it. Our Mustang was in the shop for over 3 1/2 months getting major work (replacing the engine, front end, brakes, power steering, fuel pump, gas gauge, and gas tank) completed. In the meantime, we had no other car and I had to take the bus to work and ride my bike to do errands and shopping.

6. I wish I had realized the stupidity of getting a $500 cash advance for getting repairs done on the Mustang. Mind you, this was not all the repairs that had to be done, only a small portion. Oh, my lord, the enormous interest rates! Because of charging many things to the cc, including the car repairs, I have a cc balance and practically no savings.

7. The cost of repairs for an old classic car can be enormous when compared to a car that is in good, running order and needs only minor maintenance and the rare major repair. In other words, old classic cars are like the house in the movie, "The Money Pit," starring Tom Hanks.

8. Old classic cars that are not in good condition are probably not good for long distance travel.

9. The hubby convinced me that we could fix up the Mustang, sell it, and then buy two in much better condition that even the first one. I learned as a result of this experience that unless you sell to a collector and the car is in excellent condition, getting any money of the deal is not likely.

10. I wish I had known that I have be more responsible for myself and to keep some money separate and hidden from my husband. I am not trying to be secretive and I am not doing anything illegal, but when he finds out I have money, it just vanishes to buy stuff we don't need. He does not even know how much I have in my retirement and I will not tell him. He does not even agree with me having a retirement account, but I am doing it anyway, as I don't want to be standing in the Salvation Army soup line and clipping coupons when I retire. Statistically, because he is older than I am, he will likely die first. Should it happen otherwise, though, his name is on the POD part of all of my accounts.

It took 2 1/2 years to truly convince my husband we had to get rid of the Mustang. We were able to trade it to for a 1995 Pontiac Grand Am that is in good working order. (This is an interesting story in itself, because the guy wanted the Mustang, a car that does not even run, for the car we got. It was a straight trade.) The Grand Am is not perfect, but it is very good. His desire to get rid of the Mustang arose out of us trying to get custody of his granddaughter. In his words, we need something more reliable and family-like to drive the baby around in. I don't car about the reason he finally agreed to do it. I am just glad to have that albatross off my back. I will never again allow him to convince me to trade a good working automobile for one that is in questionable condition.

Hi, everyone. I realized something very important yesterday. When I met my husband in 1999, I had over $3000 in the bank in an ordinary savings account that was not earning a lot of interest, but I had it nonetheless. I was actually SAVING it, not spending it. For some reason, every time I seem to accumulate any money whatsoever in the savings account he knows about, it goes POOF! He has no access to the account, so I am not alleging stealing or anything. It's just that he has not capacity for hanging onto money. And he has a similar effect on others. Like yesterday, I had just gotten paid. He asked me "how much it would hurt" to buy a new dvd player. Not a lot, but it's just I would rather be out of debt before buying a bunch of junk. I am not convinced we are ready to buy a house or anything else like it. He is just a really crappy manager of money and has no clue of the state of our finances. When I have let him in on the process and where and how much I spend, he suddenly sees I have $500 or something in savings. Then, POOF! again. Just now, I opened an online savings account. Does anyone else have this problem? How do you deal with it? If this does not work for accumulating a short term (emergency) savings, I don't know what else to do.

Howdy, all. I have had a good couple of days. I got paid on Friday and immediately took the $14.00 leftover from my last paycheck and zipped it off the cc quickly before it could be spent on something else.

I also transferred $20 into my savings at the atm before it could be spent elsewhere.

I also just made another $75.00 payment on Hospital Debt #2, bringing it down to $2602.60.

A couple of months ago, I went to Walgreens and filled out a survey later. They recently sent me a $5.00 gift card for participating. Wa-hoo!

I needed some aloe vera juice yesterday from Walgrees. It costs around $10.00, but I used my gift card which brought my purchase down to $5.72 with tax.

Well, I am off the grocery store this morning to search for frugal, yet health meals. I am going to try to eat beef-free for a week or so, as I am having a lot of health problems and think they may be related to eating beef.

The picture of the cat doesn't have anything to do with my post, but it is a picture of my other cat, Morgaine. Merlin is the one at the left side of my page.

Hi, everyone. You may notice that in the left column, the numbers for my retirement have changed. I haven't really paid much attention to it and am very surprised it has done so well. I only started investing July 2006 and have been contributing 5% of my income every payday. I am supposed to meet with a financial advisor on April 30th to talk about what changes I need to make. I am 37 and want to retire well enough that I don't have to clip coupons when I am 70, you know. I know sometime in the future, I would like to start an IRA, but not until I have my debt paid off. My husband does not support me having a retirement fund, but he is disabled, 8 years older than me, and not currently working. Statistically speaking, I will live longer than he will and need to prepare for my potential future.

1. When you are in debt, you learn to put what's most important (rent, food, utilities, healthcare, debt) first.

2. Rather than focus hopelessly to make our debt decrease, I simply make the payments and don't focus on the debts with any negative emotion. If you focus on these things with negative emotion, you will simply get more of what you don't want.

3. Don't beat yourself up if you make a mistake.

4. If there something that you want or need, but have no idea how to get it, place your order with the universe. Tell the universe what you need, but don't try to figure it out. Let the universe decide how it will happen.

5. There's no such thing as a free lunch. If I go to a department store to buy a specific thing and the associate offers me a store card with a discount on purchases that day, I turn it down. Those cards have an outrageous rate and are not worth it.

Hi, everyone. Here is my Baked Chicken Recipe. I like to make this for lunches I take with me to work. It is much healthier and less expensive than eating out, and if you have food allergies like I do, it's not a problem because you cooked it.

Pieces of chicken (like chicken legs, chicken leg quarters, etc.)

Oil (I use organic olive oil, but any oil will do.)

Spices (Use whatever spices you like, but I find garlic, lemon pepper seasoning, rosemary, red peppers, salt, and pepper to be quite tasty. I change it up frequently just for interest.)

You can also add some kind of rice to your baking dish if you like.

I cook the chicken in a glass baking dish at 350 degrees for 1 hour. It is not only tasty, but I also get rave reviews from co-workers on how good it smells and wondering if I spent hours in the kitchen.

Hello. I thought I would write a post about my most recent win. My husband and I have made a deal to trade our 1968 Mustang for a 1995 Pontiac Grand Am. The guy with whom we are trading is a professional mechanic and wants a Mustang to make a present for his mother who had a Mustang many years ago but sold it. We really need a reliable family type vehicle because we are trying to get custody of my husband's granddaughter and need something better to get around than our 1990 Chevy Blazer. The heat and AC in our truck don't work very well and the front seats don't fold down to get into the back the way they should. The mileage is lousy. The Grand Am has smooth acceleration and braking, good gas mileage, brand new brakes, and good suspension. In short, everything works. We are so jazzed and blessed. The other guy is waiting for the title to come back from the state which should take a couple of weeks. Then, we will make the swap. In a weird sort of way, this will help us to accomplish a couple of things: reduce unnecessary spending and pay off debt in full. Whenever my husband and I have needed to go on any trip farther than a couple of hours away, we have usually rented a car. Yes, expensive I know, but we do not really trust either one of our old vehicles to make such a trip. I am so happy and content I can hardly speak!

While I had the day off today to handle some family business, I got a phone call from my doctor's office. It seems the remaining $149.19 on my bill is being written off. While I tried to tell the woman that I have every intention of paying for the bill in full, she told me to stop sending payments. The only thing that rubs me the wrong way is being seen as some kind of charity case. I hope it doesn't show up on my credit report with a black mark next to it. Oh well, instead of looking at it that way though, I will look at it as someone having done something nice for me and I will "pay it forward" to someone else when I have the chance. I may have the chance to do that sooner than I originally thought. My stepdaughter has lost custody of her two month old daughter to the social services people in my state. This was due to my stepdaughter's complete inability to learn how to be a good mom to a special needs child despite weeks of "tutoring" by nurses and other specialists who truly wanted to help her learn to be a good mom. Well, my husband and I went to a hearing today to make our wishes known that we would like be the baby's foster parents, but all the judge did was assign a lawyer to the parents and order a continuance. I see this as a true blessing for the child and for my stepdaughter.

As far as the debt goes, I feel like celebrating. One more down and three more to go!

Well, as I wrote in my previous blog earlier today, I have already spent the tax return. My hubby and I have been throwing around ideas on what to do with our $1200. We were discussing what are the problems that result in major holes in the checkbook. Well, our debt makes a big impact, of course, but I could pay that off without a big deal if we had less basic monthly expenses. We have been talking about finding a different house to rent closer to my work. If it was within 1/2 a mile of my work, I could walk to work without a problem. This would accomplish a number of things: less money spent on gas, not having to buy a parking pass, and an easy way to get to work if the weather is bad. As it is, I live 3 miles from work, which doesn't sound like a lot, but I have asthma. While I can ride a bike or walk, I come to work exhausted and sweat - not a good idea because I work in a library where I am supposed to look professional. So, when we get our $1200, we plan to start looking for a different house to rent. If we can't find something right away, we will just keep that money in a separate savings account and basically forget it exists.

Well, the tax refund thing didn't turn out exactly the way I hoped. Our tv (imagine 27" tube tv that is so heavy it requires at least two people to carry it) was about to croak. It has increasingly had lines on the screen as well as color problems for awhile now. Our tv is virtually our only source of entertainment. We rent dvds from Netflix, but we do not have cable or satellite. We had both done some research online and had a good idea of what we could afford and what we wanted. We went to Best Buy and wound up buying a floor model, which netted us about $150.00 off of the sale price. The original, before-sale price was around about $200 more. After we brought the tv home, I quickly determined we had around $41.00 leftover. I added that $41.00 to $5.00 cash I deposited to the checking account. Before I could spend it on anything, I wrote a check and sent it to my doctor's office to pay off a good hunk of my doctor's bill. Around March 7th or so, I should get a GlobalTestmarket check for $50.00, which I will use to pay off more of that debt.

I guess you all have probably heard about the impending "economic stimulus package." Well, I know that The Shrub is hoping that we all go out and spend it all on high-priced stereos and bottles of Coca-Cola. I don't know about you all, but I have a fairly specific plan on what to do with the combination of my tax return and tax rebate. Based on what my hubby has told me, we can expect at least $800 for a tax return, so here is my plan.

Assuming my tax return arrives around May, I will still owe about $135 on one doctor bill. First, I will call the doctor's office up and confirm that amount and send them a check right away.

Secondly, I want to pay off a large hunk of credit card debt, about $600.

Assuming we actually get an $800 tax return, that will leave about $65.00.

When the tax rebate check arrives ($1200 for me and the hubby and no kids), we need to replace our tv. I also consider this to be kind of a treat for paying off debt last year. It was old when we bought it at a thrift store more than 6 years ago and could not afford to buy anything else. The color is way off on the monitor and the whole thing needs to be replaced. My hubby wants an lcd tv. I saw a 26" lcd tv on bestbuy.com for $600.00. That sounds like a pretty good deal, because we don't need a real big one. In fact, I could easily go a lot smaller and have no problems at all. Anyone have any recommendations or advice on ones to not buy?

Anything that is leftover, which should be around $600 (and I plan to closely monitor this) will be sent at lightening speed to the credit card company.

Howdy, folks. I just updated my numbers on my medical debt. The numbers went up, but not because the actual debt increased. I found out I had either miscalculated or just entered it wrong. I decided that to avoid confusion, I would start keeping track of the medical debts separately rather than as a group.

Anyway, there it is.

1. Avoid unncessary temptation to spend money. If you know you are having a "lean" month due to exceptionally high utility bills or other reasons, avoid unnecessary temptation. Avoid shopping malls, catalog, internet or email ads, movie theatres, and the candy aisle at the grocery store, etc. Oh, and don't take other people with you to the grocery store. They will only add stuff to the cart you don't need.

2. Once a week, get some "mad money" from the atm or your bank. This money could be for the occasional snack, coffee, etc. I do this and it helps to avoid those mystery debits that I forget to write down in my check register. Best of all, when it's all gone, it's gone until I go to the atm again on Saturday.

3. Improve your health. I have decided to gradually give up drinking colas both for my health and my pocketbook. This amounts to probably around $2.00 or so a day, but added up over a whole year, it amounts to a lot of money I could use to pay off debt or save for the future. So far, I am down to drinking about 12 oz. of soda a day. I bought myself a mug today so that I can drink tea or water at work. Besides the dollar or two this costs us daily, I figure there are other hidden costs too, like being sick more.

4. If you know you want to do something that will cost money that you cannot come up with right away, first figure out what you want to do and when you want to do it. Find out how much you think it will cost and then create a plan for doing it. I did this last year when I wanted to go to a conference for work. Instead of adding to credit card debt, I set aside money for the trip for months and also cashed in survey points for check and gift cards for food. I also do this with property taxes. I have a Christmas Club account to which I add a certain amount every month. When the taxes come due, I just transfer the money and write the check. No sweat.

5. Mrrebate.com is my friend. Anytime I want to order something online, I check this website to see if the company is listed there or if there is another company there that has the product I need. Signing into mrrebate.com and then clicking on the company website frequently nets me a rebate or coupon code I did not know about. Once your rebates build up to a certain amount (I think it's $25.00), you can request a check.

6. If mrrebate.com (above) does not work, I go to Google and type in the name of the product and coupon code. If a coupon code is available, usually I will get a few websites that tell me what it is. This has saved me hundreds of dollars at least.

7. I do lots of surveys, which net me $5.00 to $10.00 here and there. When I get a survey check in the mail or by Paypal, I look around and see if there any bills that need to be paid and pay them with it. If not, it goes right to the credit card. When it gets paid off, it will go to savings.

Oh, and I really love this quote by Michael J. Fox.

I recently submitted a tip to Daytipper.com and it was published. Yippee! Whenever you submit a tip to Daytipper and it is publisher, they pay you $3.00. I should get my payment soon.

I also recently cashed in my points at Global Test Market, a survey company. Now, please understand that I do a lot of survey for different companies, which do occasionally pay with a $5.00 check here and there. I am supposed to get $50.00. Wow. I don't think I have ever gotten that much from a survey company before.

Not to worry, my savingadvice buddies. My loot will not be spent on shinies or bottles of Coca Cola. Both will go directly to the checking account and as soon as the deposit clears, they will be sent lightening fast to the credit card company.

Jeffrey emailed me several days ago and told me I had won second place in the "Things I Wish I Had Known" contest. I just wanted to say a big, heartfelt "Thank You" to everyone who voted for me. I was really surprise. You can be sure this money is going straight to the credit card.

Hi. Has anyone out there cashed in points at Global Testmarket. I just cashed mine in and am confused about the amount of check I will get. It's supposed to be 5 cents for point. So, if I'm doing my math right, I multiply .05 by 1000 and get $50.00. Can that be right?

I have never gotten $50.00 from a survey company before. This one is going right to the credit card.

These are just a few of the things I wish I had known when I was younger.

1. Credit cards are not like coupons. You have to pay them back.

2. To appreciate those early years in your life when the biggest decision you have to make is chocolate or vanilla ice cream. I wanted freedom to make my own choices. Little did I know with freedom comes responsibility. (That almost sounds like a line from the Spiderman movie.)

3. To tone down my wide-eyed ambition enough to stop and smell the roses. My mother told me from the time I was born, I was like I was on a mission to do something and had to do it now. She used to call me "bulldog."

4. To pay attention more to what my Dad had to say. He died when I was 10 years old, so I did not get much of a chance to absorb his wisdom.

Oh, to be as calm and without a care as these cats.

Well, it's almost the end of the year and it seems to be a good time to take a broad perspective look at things.

1. My b-day is tomorrow. Yes, that number on the left side of the screen will change to 37 tomorrow. I will be an old woman. ;P

2. My credit card debt has not decreased a lot, but it has gone down to $1658. I don't know what my balance was last year, though. I did get the APR on my card lowered by 3%, so this should help a lot. See my blog from yesterday about that.

3. My medical debt has gone down quite a bit to a total of $4041.18.

4. My retirement has increased to $9376.80. I am really impressed. I haven't really been checking on it or doing a lot with it and I have only been contributing since July 2006.

Cool. I am happy with what I have done with my finances this year.

My goals for the coming year include:

1. Find a way to increase the amount in my short term savings (i.e., emergency savings). I don't really like to call it emergency savings, because that puts it out there that there might be an emergency.

For some reason, I can't seem to accumulate the recommended $1000 that Dave Ramsey talks about. Something always seem to come up that snatches that money away. The most I seem to be able to get to is around $300.

2. Continue to pay off the medical debt. In July, I should get a raise, after which I will double the amount I am paying on one of the medical bills.

3. Continue paying off the credit card debt. I am making one big payment for the paycheck of the month, then a smaller one for the second. In between, I am also sending small payments when I get a survey check or something.

Howdy, folks. I know it has been a long time since I last posted. That thing with my mother kind of messed up my head for awhile. It took awhile and I am back.

I learned on the internet today how to lower your interest rate and decided to take advantage of it and see if it works. After waiting 20 minutes on the phone listening to elevator music, I was able to lower my rate from 17.9% to 14.9%. I thought you might all like to hear about this. Just click on the link. There is nothing to buy - promise !

I wish I had know about this months ago!

http://www.leoquinn.com/

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.