iMBROKE
December 7th, 2012Comment answering!
Dear Poppy, the BB cream I used and loved except it burns my eyes is L’Oreal Paris Magic Skin Beautifier BB Cream. I conveniently linked to Wal-Mart, where you should get it because it’s cheaper. I can’t take credit – I heard about it from Jonniker on the twitterz.
Annette, thanks for your story. What a ray of sunshine that was.
Okay, I’m still not posting any pictures of my face. And I don’t know what that thing is where you look in the mirror and think “I am so fresh-faced and youthful looking for my age!” And then someone takes your picture unexpectedly, perhaps holding a shot of Jager and you are like “THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE HAS BEGUN oh that’s me.”
So here’s a picture of Holly, dirty socks and all, who saved up her pennies and bought herself an iPad last night. Greeley’s in the picture too, but he blends in.
I’ve had a lot of comments on Facebook about “HOW THE HELL??” and “I CAN’T SAVE SHIT!” Hey, let’s talk about money! I love talking about money because my beliefs about allowance and savings and paying for things always make some people judge me and get indignant.
As you all know, Paco and I got serious about money about two years ago. We save like motherfuckers, we pay cash for everything, and the only debt we carry is a home mortgage. We pay cash for Elliot’s college and have the cash saved up for Holly’s. No child of mine will carry a student loan. We have been very open about money with Holly. It’s sometimes hard for her because many of her friends come from “wealthy” families and spend a lot of money on things, but we are up front about what things cost and why we don’t believe in credit.
For a while now, Holly has had $40 a month deposited into her savings account, just for being alive. She does not have to do chores to get the money. She has to contribute to our household when we ask her to and not because we pay her. No one pays Paco to make my dinner every night. Oh dear. I just gave him ideas. All of y’all who only give allowance if the kids do chores, though, you go right ahead. I don’t care what you do. Everyone has different family philosophies. It’s just that mine’s right and yours is wrong, but whatever.
Periodically Holly wants something that I don’t want to pay for, like a game for the Wii or a non-essential clothing item like $200 Uggs or whatever and I say, “I’m not buying you that, but I’m happy to transfer some of your own money over and buy it.” She almost always looks horrified and says, “NO!! That’s my money!” and she gets over whatever crap it is she wants. I think it’s just in her nature to hoard.
So for years that $40 per month has just sat there growing until she had this huge pile of money. She had a laptop on her Christmas list and I just flat out said “You’re not getting that,” because goddamn. We have like ten computers in the house including two laptops and I’m sorry if there isn’t one specifically designated as hers. Then she said, “That’s okay, I really want an iPad,” and I said, “Well you’re sure as HELL not getting that, ” because GOOD GODDAMN. Then Paco said, “You could buy it with your own money,” and she thought it over and said, “Yes, I want to do that.” In keeping with the money lessons, Paco eschewed the Apple Store and made her buy it at Target since we get 5% off with our Red Card (you should get a Red Card-it is FREE MONEY) plus we had a $5 off coupon plus we had an additional 5% off card we got from getting five prescriptions filled. She basically got her case or portfolio or whatever it is for free with all the discounts.
I might add that Paco is also a money-hoarder. He and I give ourselves allowance every month and that bastard was saving his up for an iPhone 5 (which he isn’t allowed to purchase yet because he’s a Sprint employee) but then he got his current phone fixed this weekend and decided to wait for an iPhone 5s, so he took his iPhone savings and ordered himself an iPad too!
I’ll just be over here with thirty-nine cents and a scratched Kindle Fire.
I need you to convince me about the Red Card. We’re all Ramsey kool-aidy at our house, too, but for some reason I can’t work out why I need that Red Card, despite the fact that I feel like I’m at Target every other f’ing day.
PLEASE EXPLAIN.
Dave Ramsey is my hero. 5 more student loan payments and we will be doing the FREEEEEEEEDDDDDOOOOOMMMMM scream.
I have a red card as well. I don’t use it as often as I should when I go to Target but besides the 5% off for using it they also put a percentage (I believe it’s 5%) toward the school of your choice. And then on your statement they’ll let you know how much has been given to said school.
And if you go with your own reussable bags you get a whole 5 cents per bag off your purchase. Ha! I know 5 cents, really, but hey 5 cents is 5 cents.
Growing up we kids didn’t get an allowance, whatever money we had it was from our work, i.e. paperroutes or babysitting. If we wanted something or to go somewhere with friends we paid for it ourselves. It definitely makes you think twice before spending money.
What do you like/dislike about the Kindle Fire? I asked my mom for a plain old Kindle for Christmas, but now I’m worried I really want a Fire or something. May have to trade up later without telling her, because I think she’s already done her shopping.
Karen, the Red Card is a debit card, not a credit card, so it draws straight from your bank account. And when you use it, your total is magically reduced by 5% when you swipe it. It’s free money. If you’re going to Target anyway, why would you pay 5% more? WHYYY
Gretchen, I love everything about the Kindle Fire, but I don’t watch movies on it or stuff like that, thought I could. I’m just not interested in watching movies in my lap. I’d rather read. I like to use it to look at Facebook and Twitter and other internet stuff and play games. It’s not like an iPad, at all, but for the price it’s handy.
Love the target red card – i do a lot of shopping at target – including groceries frequently so it made sense. Love that it’s linked to my checking account. Love the 5% savings. You can also designate 1% to go to the school of your choice.
If you can be so benevolent as to gift us with daily entries, then I’ll return the favor with comments, as it’s the least I can do in gratitude. Granted, I’m a week behind, which is why I intend to make up the difference with the following, protracted entry.
Your C25K inspired me to get off my arse last Jan. and convert my now unused hybrid into a trainer.
We moved out to the sticks from a Major Metropolitan City a few years ago, so actually exercising on the roads puts my body in great jeopardy with the Crazy Redneck Drivers and logging trucks.
Every night I’d read of your trials and accomplishments while feeding my own; you were an entertaining inspiration.
But having begun following you (thru’ Uncle Bob) way back when your journal had a section entitled “What I’m Mad About Today” (A fave that I co-opted for my own, very brief attempt.) and Holly was just a wee thing, I knew your pearls could be sporadic, so I took them when they came and was glad for it.
That was a crazy blog-following phase I’m past now, save for yours.
Other than age and mellowing dispositions, our similarities pretty much end there, which is why I think I enjoy your content so much.
You spin captivating and smart yarns of truth, poignancy and witty observations in a world far removed from my own.
So, thanks for that and I look forward to future musings.
SSS
I wish comments had an edit, because the above isn’t altogether true.
We’ve a few more things in common, such as cats, politics, and a fondness for cursing, among them.
I don’t do much of my shopping at Target, but will definitely look into getting the card next time I’m there.
Generally, though, my attitude on shopping is that the fewer stores I visit each month, the less I’ll spend, because I’m susceptible to having random items (that are not on my list) ‘jump’ into the cart.
Yay, money talk! Second only to healthkick talk.
My SIX-YEAR-OLD daughter has over $200 saved up from birthday and Christmas gifts and money I pay her to do yardwork and sign all of our Christmas cards and shit (totally worth it). Last year she bought herself a Nintendo DS. Classic money hoarder. We don’t do the allowance thing but I am totally willing to pay for chores or other random tasks at well above the market rate.
And the Target Red Card really is free money.
I’d love a link to your Facebook, as I’m too damn stupid to find it on my own.
I think what y’all are doing, money wise, for your kids is awesome. I’ll be paying student loans until I die.
Sorry about the previous entry. Just had to add I just ran into my neighbor outside. She gained three pounds back in one week. She feels so good she is volunteering at her church every day. We live in a Hurricane Sandy effected area. The chemo is not bad because of new anti nausea medications. She said the Fosladex (sp? that’s what it sounds like) was just declared to be life extending at a conference they just had. She is very up to date on her info for a 68 year old without a computer. She has family and church friends and the Cancer Society support group in her corner. She also has great faith and has people pray over her and believe it helps. I’m not sure about that but if she believes it then it must help her. She had a down attitude before but she has turned it around. I’m happy for her. My father calls me the bone digger (because I read obituaries, etc.) and the crepe hanger as in “I come from a long line of European crepe hangers” (Direct quite from my Polish Aunt and I am also like that too often). I have to shake off the negativity that has been 2012 and believe that 2013 will be a new and very different year!
My BB cream is Cover Girl. Maybe I should try it anyway. It was a bogo deal and I got the lip product I bought with it half off so it wasn’t a bad deal.
We don’t go to retail stores to buy the items. We go there to mock the items. And then we find a used one on Craigslist, make one ourselves, or get the f over whatever it was because we don’t really need it. Although for the record, I do own an iPhone. So that makes me a hypocrite as well as a cheap yankee bastard.
The closest Target is 30 miles away and I am only in that vicinity once or twice a month. Is it only for shopping at Target? Nvr mind, I’ll Google it. I hate the thought of not getting free money.
Given that everything (well, everything that I might do regular shopping for) at Target is about 15-20% more expensive than it is at my usual supermarket, the 5% thing is more “penny wise, pound foolish” than “free money” IMO.
Reminds me of my parents who got a credit card for a specific gas-station (Shell maybe? Whatever), because if they used the card to pay then they got a 5 cent/gallon discount. There was a Whatever station right around the corner from their house, so they filled up there and never paid attention to gas prices elsewhere. My mom nearly shat herself when she finally noticed how much more the Whatever stations were charging. (IIRC it was close to 20 cents/gallon more than average.)
Boring tangent: The closest gas station to my house – a Circle K – is also usually one of the cheapest; today it’s $3.13 a gallon. But I had to do an errand after work yesterday, took a different route home, and noticed that the Circle K about 2 miles up the road is $3.07. The Circle K ~1 mile away, in the opposite direction, is $3.17 (about average) – and the Chevron station directly across the street from THAT Circle K is $3.43. Go figure. (Another Chevron station I pass frequently was always exactly 30 cents/gallon more than its directly-across-the-street competitor; last time I went that way, they’ve shut it down. Makes me wonder what the fuck Chevron is up to.)
ANYWAY, point being, a 5%-off-of-everything discount doesn’t register as “free money” to my ears – it registers as “they’re overcharging customers to the extent that they can throw 5% of sales away and still make a healthy profit.” (Car dealership ads drive me bonkers. “This week only, take $7000 off the invoice price” – HOW do people not realize that this is not a indicator of great savings, but an insight into how much they’re inflating their prices to start with? When I bought my car, the dealership that runs all the “amazing deals!” radio ads held firm at a certain price, telling me with a straight face that they’d be taking a loss and that it was several thousand dollars less than I’d find anywhere else. The dealership I wound up buying from – which seldom does any advertising other than billboards – gave me a price that was $1300 lower than the other guys. And I probably could have held out for even lower but I was happy enough with the price and just wanted to get it all over with.)
tl;dr Target would need to lower its prices fairly dramatically across the board before the 5% discount would draw my interest enough to make me consider shopping there for anything other than the occasional “forgot-it-was-the-boss’s-birthday” emergency.
Buying stuff at a discount does not equal saving money. *Not buying stuff* equals saving money.
What are you a retard? Why do you keep putting titanium dioxide in your eyes?
Iambrokenalso.
~K!
Jesus, these comments are the biggest mess I’ve seen in years. It’s just like the old days!
You’re doing it right! As a kid, we always lived in renter houses; one of my MAJOR life goals was to own a home. And I don’t mean with a mortgage. By age 36, my late husband & I paid off our mortgage (but we did have kids either)! Then we started saving for renovations/improvements. By our 40s, we were completely debt-free and rapidly saving for retirement/whatever. And fortunately, he had a good pension.
Now, as a widow, I live comfortably…not wealthy (by most of the USA standards) but no debts and still in that home we paid off years ago.
Hang in there!
Um, I meant we DID NOT have kids, in the interest of full disclosure! Can’t type today, ha!
I have this thing where I think “hey I am looking pretty good & thin” until I happen to see a photo of myself and think “who is that frumpy overweight middle age lady”. Oh wait. It is me! It is some sort of weird reverse body image thing or maybe too much self esteem – I don’t know. I am not morbidly obese or anything but carry around at least 20 extra pounds. Back in the day – in my youth – I was always thin and that image is burned in my brain. I still think that I look like I did when I was 25. That is until someone gets out a camera.
I am so impressed by Holly’s saving for her iPad, as I said on Twitter. When I was her age I got an allowance (with which I could buy lunch at school or save and bring my own food from home) but I pretty much always bought lunch and used the the remainder to buy those teen magazines every week. But hey, I practically wallpapered my room with pictures of Mark-Paul Gosselaar (Zack from Saved by the Bell) and a very young and very cute Leonardo DiCaprio.
Nowadays I work two jobs (one is fun, I swear, and the other gives me benefits and is with one of the very few companies expanding in this bad economic climate) and try to put aside my paycheck from my “fun” job. I was saving for a new car (in cash – no payment plan fot me) and was almost there until I chose to convert from oil heat to gas heat. I don’t do the Dave Ramsey thing but I know it works and I try to incorporate it into my savings plans.
I am so impressed by Holly’s saving for her iPad, as I said on Twitter. When I was her age I got an allowance (with which I could buy lunch at school or save and bring my own food from home) but I pretty much always bought lunch and used the the remainder to buy those teen magazines every week. But hey, I practically wallpapered my room with pictures of Mark-Paul Gosselaar (Zack from Saved by the Bell) and a very young and very cute Leonardo DiCaprio.
Nowadays I work two jobs (one is fun, I swear, and the other gives me benefits and is with one of the very few companies expanding in this bad economic climate) and try to put aside my paycheck from my “fun” job. I was saving for a new car (in cash – no payment plan for me) and was almost there until I chose to convert from oil heat to gas heat. I don’t do the Dave Ramsey thing but I know it works and I try to incorporate it into my savings plans.
MichelleM: please give me an example of a “fun” job. Asking for a friend.
i have to make connor put his money in the bank he has a ‘cash jar’ and has enough $$ now that it shouldn’t be sitting around.. though interest is a joke pretty much. he also wants high priced items but will never spend his own money. he is getting old enough to just go with out i guess. if he doesn’t want it enough to buy it..why should i..
We gave our kids an allowance until they started working (15/older boy 14/younger boy). When they started getting a paycheck, we required that they put 1/2 of it into a savings account that they COULDN’T TOUCH until college. We also made them put every cent they got for birthdays into the bank. We paid for their school lunches and filled their gas tank 2x a month to help out. And they were boys and didn’t give a crap about clothes so got off easy there except for sports specific stuff – shoes, etc.
The oldest bitched about the 50% rule regularly until he left for college – with over $8k in his savings account. The younger (he’s a senior this year) has worked at the local diner since he was 14 and is quite the waiter. He has $22k in the bank and still manages to get stuff he wants.
Our college rule was simple – we’ll pay for INSTATE tuition and books (thankyajeezus for Chegg – saved us literally thousands of dollars on books) – they’re responsible for room and board. We decided long ago that if we could possibly swing it, our kids would be in the small minority of students that graduate with no debt. Sure – they don’t drive fancy cars, we wouldn’t let them put money into the cars except for tires and maintenance (the rims and stereo crap is ridiculous) and didn’t take expensive spring break trips, etc. and certainly did NOT have a credit card.
If you don’t set a good example and teach your kids about money management, you’re setting them up for failure. Period.
Cy – I work part time in a sports arena in a big city on the East coast. We have an NHL team (when they’re not locked out), an NBA team, a lacrosse team, an arena football team, as well as all the big concerts and stuff like Disney on Ice and the recent Olympic gymnastics tour of champions. We get paid fairly decent money and they pay me to watch sports and stuff, so I find it fun.
Sorry for my double post last time – if this double posts too I’ll stop using my phone to comment.