Penny For My Thoughts

Does the decline of the Christmas Club indicate something larger about society? An older co-worker was discussing her Christmas Club and Vacation Club accounts for savings. It’s the same principle as my Vacation Fund, but it is kind of like a CD in that you can’t access it until a certain date. Anyway, it got me thinking about the lack of Christmas Clubs among myself and my peers. I can think of only two incidents when I’ve come across Christmas Clubs-on an episode of the Golden Girls, and in the pamphlet for a credit union I was eligible to join at my high school retail job. I’m wondering-does the lack of a Christmas Club in my generation’s consciousness indicate something about our attitude with money? Is the typical under-30 more inclined to reach for the credit card rather than a Christmas Club? Would we be better savers if ING or HSBC offered a hip cyber high-interest Christmas Club?
How about you? Do you have a Christmas Club?

While discussing plans for the summer, my mother and I last night were reminiscing about the trip to New York City we took to New York City in 2000 for my sixteenth birthday. We had a great time-stayed at a great hotel, went to see a Musical (Kiss Me Kate, with Brian Stokes Mitchell) and had dinner at Planet Hollywood. We also grabbed breakfast at a coffee shop, walked around Times Square (back in the old days when you could get great knock-off bags and such really cheaply there, although it wasn’t as seedy as it had been when I was there in 1998 with my school), and shopped at the various Broadway and New York stores in that area. My grandmother joined my parents and I, it was a really nice time, and a great memory-my mother and grandmother are both from Queens, so they liked going home, in a sense. Also, on this trip I had my newfangled digital camera, which needed no film. I still remember taking pictures of Rockefeller Center, and viewing them instantly, plus taking as many as I wanted.
If you’re heading to New York city this summer, or several other travel destinations, including Washington dc sightseeing, check out Trusted Tours & Attractions’ site for tours and other great resources. I checked out their online travel guides, and found that they have a shuttle service at the Vegas airport I’m thinking about using on my next trip there.

Be sure to sign up for their Newsletter. Not only will you get an in on the lastest on their site, but you could win a GPS just for signing up!

So, I said my vacation was good, but not budget friendly.  Let’s review the good things I did for my wallet, first:

1.  Brought my own cans of Coke and water

2.  Did not sucumb to the “buying something more to use a coupon” risk.

3.  Picked up a nice rashguard wicked cheap.

The bad.  I’ve had foot trouble for a bit, so I figured my old shoes ( a pair of Teva flip flops and LL Bean’s version of Crocs) will do.  Wire my LL bean shoes first day-fine.  Teva flip flops next day.  Around 12 it was “gee my feet hurt,” around two o’clock it was “I might get new shoes,” at four it was “I saw do able shoes in the store yesterday…I should probably buy them.  By the end of the week, I had two pairs of new shoes, bought retail (sob!). So my budget vacations tip is-double check your shoes

Just got back from a fabulous (if wallet unfriendly-more on that later-yipes!) trip, to some news that bumming me out. Disney has announced that they are closing Pleasure Island. Why is this a personal finance issue? Well, because while at WDW in December, I had one day and some pluses (read-Pleasure Island admission) left on my ticket, so I paid to have it not expire-the $130ish was cheaper than paying for pluses for my nest few trips when I only went to the Adventurer’s Club anyway. But now that Pleasure Island is gone, I have the ticket with one day and some plusses, but no more Pleasure Island admission. Boo.

My post on paychecks is in the #158 carnival

Last weekend, my mother mentioned to me that she had gotten an e-mail from one of our local focus group companies. I had not gotten the opportunity e-mail, but I did note that I’d signed up for a focus group company that I’d seen near our house, and recommended that she do the same. Mom commented that she’d got me into the whole surveys and paid focus groups when I was little-there was a focus group place at our local mall, and she took focus groups, and had signed me up for one. There’s not much better to a five year old than watching commercials and getting paid $5 or with a Barbie.

Nowdays, while I do focus groups, my main source of survey income is through Sunshine Rewards. Not only can you get paid for two surveys a day, you can also get cash back for shopping. Through July 31, if you sign up through my link, and earn at least $5 (easily done through surveys), you’ll get $2.50 (as opposed to the normal $2 bonus-you’d be halfway there already!). And, if I’m among the top three mebers getting a referral, I’ll get a $26 gift card..and you might, too.

So with the million “Recent College graduate” posts cluttering the personal finance blogosphere, I thought I’d hit upon my big confusion when I graduated-something I believe the kids who use LOLspeak would call “I has a paycheck, what do I do wif it?”  I mean, I knew I had student loans to pay, credit card debt to pay, and I wanted to save a little.  So I sat around and came up with things I knew were expenses, as well as things I wanted to save for:
Expenses:
1.  Visa card #1
2.  Visa card #2
3.  Student loan #1
4.  Student loan #2 (due to a medical leave I took my junior year, I had already used up my grace period on my loans, and did not want to defer my loans if I did not need to do so).

Things I wanted to save for:
1.  General emergency fund
2.  Move out fund
3.  Travel
4.  Roth IRA

So, I figured I’d pay myself first, or at least see what that looked like (I didn’t want to get into the trap of paying myself first at the expense of racking up debt).  So I set up the following scale:
General Emergency fund-10% of net pay
Move out fund-1/3 net pay
Travel fund-5% net pay
Roth IRA funding-10% net pay

I ran the numbers out of my substitute teaching/temping paychecks, and found out I would have enough if I paid one bill a week.  This worked out well for me.

One thing I will caution recent college graduates, is not to fall into the trap of “I’m getting a job, so I can charge x/y/z.”  Is it horrible to charge some start up costs?  No, not ideal, but not horrible..  But don’t put extras on your credit cards.

Last year, I was rear-ended at a stoplight by another vehicle. I was very fortunate in that despite the fact that my car was totaled (whaa), the person who hit me’s insurance was very good about working with my insurance-so there was no loss of wages or unnecessary expense on my part. However, I’ve heard stories of people who weren’t so lucky. For those people’s, there’s great body shops such as auto body yorba linda that are willing to simplify the claims process and work with your insurance company.

But I just made Fisher-Price My First Bid on Priceline.com. I just needed a quick airport hotel. I picked a three star hotel, punched in a low bid just for the heck of it, and bam! I got the Sheraton at the airport for $35-they’re $99 on the hotel’s site. I’m not sure I’d use it for a longer trip, but it fits my needs. I’m very excited.

Imagine if you had a Myspace or Facebook for your blog persona. Now, imagine that not only was there a social networking site like those sites, but it also gave you great paid blogging opportunities. Such a site is a reality with SocialSpark. As soon as I read about Social Spark on other blogger’s blogs, I knew I had to join and create my profile. While my blog is not old enough to be considered to for Social Spark opportunities, I look forward to applying when I am eligible. I think my profile will enable me to get great blogging opportunities, as I can list brands and topics that interest me. I also enjoy the opportunity to connect with fellow bloggers. My profile is here, if you add to add me (Social Spark me? Socially Spark me? LOL). The one big thing I’d like to see Social Spark do is make it more common for those bloggers of us whom try to be anonymous to do so, perhaps by allowing us to opt out of fields such as the “Last Name” field on our profile and the descriptive blogger quick stats. But on the whole, I’m thrilled by the Social Spark concept.

This is a sponsored post.