Alpine Village Family September 28th, 2007
I’ve been thinking about money a lot lately. Just because both kids are now in school full time and I’m pondering getting a job outside the house. Naturally that leads to me wondering how much of a wage I want to earn and to figure that out I need to know what my family expenses are.
It wasn’t too tough to figure out. I just took into consideration the mortgage, property tax, utility bills, phone and cable bills, transportation, food and entertainment… then it dawned on me that I have to include insurance.
There’s really no way around it, though it’s a fair chunk of money out the door, it’s necessary for peace of mind. 7 years ago our van was stolen and man was I glad we had car insurance!
The other insurance that is necessary is home insurance - though it never ceases to amaze me when I see articles in the newspaper telling of families who’ve lost their homes in a fire and had no insurance. I know it may seem less necessary than food on the table but why roll the dice if you possibly can afford not to??
Last one I thought of was life insurance and this one is the one that I see the most controversy over. The decision between Term and Life is a tough decision but whatever one you go with, I really think it’s necessary to have “just in case”. Why add to a tragedy with money worries??
All told… well, lets just say my calculations shed a light on just how expensive it is to live 
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Alpine Village Family September 25th, 2007
I had heard of online book exchanges - last week actually - but I had never heard of an online video game exchange until today. It’s a pretty interesting idea for anyone who, either likes playing video games, or has kids who do Games can get pretty expensive, so any way that gets new-to-you games into your house, and I’m-so-done-with-that games out of your house is pretty cool 
The process isn’t complicated but they do have a patent pending on it - you can check it out for yourself. Basically you get credits for games you send in and pay credits (and a very small fee) for games that get sent to you. As playerchain.com explains it, you:
“can freely participate in trading without the restriction of a game-for-a-game trade and, most importantly, without the money loss of the trade-in for “store credit” method”
The way I see it, if you like to buy used video games, this is for you - and membership is free
Alpine Village Family September 23rd, 2007
Well, I called PC Financial and asked for a very low amount of overdraft protection. They asked me a bunch of questions, put me on hold for a while and then said “no”.
I was astounded. I really thought I’d be fine since I always pay things on time etc. but apparently this isn’t all they take into account. Upon having a credit review done I’ve been told that I have too many credit cards. Go figure. Some of the credit cards I haven’t used in years but because I still have access to them (I never actually “closed” the accounts), I have access to too much credit. Interesting eh?
There I was thinking that I’d need a company like CreditNet.com to help me repair my credit but it seems I just need to preen back on the cards LOL!! I may still go check out their resources for credit repair etc. (they have live chat too ) but I think I’m on the right track - phew!
Alpine Village Family September 23rd, 2007
I really want to write “cheques” but for my US readers, and most of you are ;), I wrote “checks”.
Aaaaaanyway, I have to vent a bit. I have a President’s Choice bank account. I started it because I could earn free groceries - a nice bonus - each time I used my debit card there. They advertised that it was “free banking” meaning that there are no fees. I’d say that was true…
…until I bounced a check :shock:. Now don’t misunderstand, I’m a good girl. I pay my bills on time and most of the time I know how much money I have in my account. Unfortunately though, I have the memory of a gnat and THIS time, I totally forgot about the check. It had been almost two months since I wrote it. I really thought it had gone through weeks ago - it hadn’t.
So, when I went to make a deposit, imagine my surprise when my balance was off by $35 dollars. I went home to check online and low and behold I had bounced that old check and my PCFinancial bank was lovingly charging me $35 dollars for it!!!!!!!!!!!!
Apparently I need some overdraft protection to compensate for my pitiful memory
Alpine Village Family September 21st, 2007
There was a time when I would have thought that loans couldn’t be a bad thing but, nowadays, I’d have to say that they really can be pretty bad for us. While they may not be that easy to get from every bank, there are some that are happy to loan us money in the hopes that it takes us YEARS to pay it back - so they get to enjoy some great interest payments
Personal loans along with secured loans, can be helpful of course, but when you find yourself unable to pay it back and debt consolidation is necessary things can get scary!
The best thing we can all do is live within our means as much as we possibly can
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Alpine Village Family September 21st, 2007
Recently I purchased some sites from a colleague. One of them is momsmoneytips.com and I’d like to invite you over to sign up for our tips :) I’m having a lot of fun with the site and plan to have an assortment of articles up in the coming months. If only I didn’t need to sleep LOL, I’d get it done a LOT faster 
Alpine Village Family August 17th, 2007
A friend emailed me a couple of days ago to share a GREAT chore chart she had found online. I was SO excited to check it out; my kids need a chore chart badly. I really think it’ll help them to remember what they are expected to do each morning for school - without my reminding them every 30 seconds.
ANYWAY, :D, When the page loaded I realized, GASP, it was a chart for…. me! Specifically, those of us in charge of our homes - cleaning, organizing etc.. I was disappointed at first, just for a second, and then I realized that a lot of moms out there would LOVE a chart to remind them of what to do each day of the week to keep their homes in order
The best part is, it’s really reasonable at only $4 for a year’s worth (if I remember exactly). If you give it a try, please let me know what you think It’s at www.motivatedmoms.com
Enjoy
Alpine Village Family August 4th, 2007
I have a thing for recipes and money saving ideas and… okay, I suppose I love to read all “tip-related” articles and newsletters. We all have our faults right? LOL!
Each Monday I get my email newsletter from Mommysavers and I love it! It really has a category for everything and anything you might be interested in as a woman. Whether you are a mom or not, a wife or not etc.
The recipes are great but I really like the craft ideas and to-do’s. The older my kids get - and they are 6yrs & 8yrs now, the more I need to think up new ideas
Alpine Village Family June 25th, 2007
Mom’s Money is a new podcast for Moms and the topic is her Money!
Carrie Lauth hosts this week’s Mom’s Money show and she has interviewed Pat Del Rey, someone she has had the chance to meet and learn from right in her own area of the country. Pat del Rey is a Financial Coach who works with women in the Atlanta, GA area. In our discussion, she shares:
Alpine Village Family March 9th, 2007
Last night I happened to catch a PBS special of Suze Orman, about Women and Money. I just love watching the Suze Orman show when I can catch it and her show last night was Suze on stage talking to about 30,000 about their relationship with money.
It was awesome. I’ve never heard Suze’s story before either and it was fascinating to hear about how she was a waitress for SEVEN YEARS before she decided she wanted more and decided she wanted to open a restaurant. She called her mother up and asked if she could borrow $20,000 to open a restaurant and her mom told her she didn’t have that kind of money.
Then as Suze was working her shift the next day she told a man named Frank when he asked why she didn’t look happy that day. She told her she wanted to open a restaurant but couldn’t and at the end of his meal and discussions with a bunch of other men he was with he handed her checks totally $50,000!
The story goes on to where she lost all of the money to an unscrupulous investor who lead her wrong, and then ending up working for the institution that lost her money and suing them while she worked for them!
Anyway, this just tells us that even though she’s rich now, Suze Orman knows money troubles, and she just has an awesome way of being true and effective.
Pop on over to her site to see if she’ll be visiting a town near you, it would be awesome to see her live:
http://www.SuzeOrman.com
