This & That...My Silly Life

It's true...I'm a penny pincher. I look for every way possible to save a dollar here and there. Over the weekend I singed onto a new site and I can already tell it's going to save me a few bucks here and there and who wouldn't be ecstatic about that!!!

I do a lot of online shopping. It's actually my preference to shop for stuff online. It keeps me from buying more than I planned on, saves me gas money, and most of the time arrives at my door for free. Who wouldn't like online shopping?

My new money back find...Ebates :) I have already tried it out. I was ordering Winston a few shirts from American Eagle so I signed up for a account. Basically you sign up for an account and certain stores offer cash back on purchases through Ebates. So you sign onto Ebates and then go to the store site from there. I bought $50 bucks worth of stuff from American Eagle and earned $1.65 on ebates. I know, I know, it doesn't sound like much. I do a ton of online shopping for Christmas and I am sure that my Ebates money will rack up fast. Plus I have some other ideas on how to use Ebates to my advantage. Example: We buy the oil for our cars from Advance Auto each time we change our oil. Advance Auto offers 6% cash back through Ebates so I can order my oil online to pick up in the store. I will earn about $2.50 just for buying my oil online instead of just walking in the store!

So I look at it like this... If I can buy it online and get free shipping it is in my favor to just buy stuff online and make it work for me. I LOVE FREE money!!! I might not get rich off of it, but maybe it will earn me enough money for a nice dinner with my husband a few times a year :) Ebates pays you your cash back quarterly. They will issue you a check, a credit to your paypal account or you can donate it to a charity. If you don't have the minimum amount to be issued cash back your total will be rolled over to the next quarter.

So if your interested check it out!!! Why wouldn't you want to bank a few extra bucks? You can click the link below and allow me to refer you :)

So with all the media attention I have finally decided to put my two cents in on the Big Banks new fee's for checking accounts and debit card use...it is ridiculous!!!

The economy is bad and average families are scraping every penny and now all these big banks want to take more of our hard earned money. They can suck it!!! I who have accounts at 3 different banks first found out about this about 2 months ago when I received a letter saying they were changing their checking accounts and listed out my options. Yes, this particular bank is one of the "Big Banks". I hold accounts at a credit union, a "Big Bank" and a small community bank. The account at the so called big bank is one I added my Mom onto a few years back and she uses it mostly for herself. However it worked out with both names on the account because we end up transferring money back and forth quiet often.

The letter stated that I had a 3 month time period to choose another account or the basic one would be chosen for me. Note that this is a free checking account where I pay no fee's and receive no interest on my balance. The letter stated that if I didn't have a direct deposit I would be charged $7.00 a month and then an additional $5.00 a month for using my debit card. I almost fell out in the floor!!! It seems to me that banks are the ones who pushed the debit card because they wanted to get away from processing checks and now here they are penalizing folks for using a debit card which has become a standard practice every where.

I thought this was really sad because not all businesses offer direct deposit. If you work for a small company you would be penalized for no direct deposit and be charged an extra fee. What about the high school and college students who work part time jobs for small pay and have these accounts? Do you think they can afford these fee's? Heck NO! What about elderly people living on small amounts of money or the single parent like my mother who works 3 jobs to pay her bills....? This is the most selfish thing I have ever herd of! So to have a checking account at this particular bank it could potentially cost you up to $12.00 a month. That is almost a week lunch money for a school aged child.

So after seeing this letter I feel defeated, but I will not lay down and pass my money over to some big money bank. I take action :) I called the community bank which I have used as my main checking account for around 10 years. I have always loved this bank and they offer all the services I get from my checking at the "Big Bank". The customer serveries there has always been way more personal and they always take care of any problems with lightening speed. I asked them if they had plans to start this fee based practice and they reply...NO! Here is why...these banks are smaller and are run on basis of taking care of their customers. They are not out to make a ton of money by allowing you to have a checking account.

All I can say is that we have moved the other account over to this bank and I will be closing my checking account at the "Big Bank" before the end of the month when the changes are due to go into effect. So take that...I am a consumer and you can't force me to keep my account with you. Your services are not worth $12.00 a month actually there are not even worth half of that!

I will also say this about the credit union banks..they are great offer great serveries. I don't have a checking account there because I don't like the online banking but I do have savings there because the rates are way better than a normal bank. I can tell you about their fee's though. A my credit union you pay a $1.00 service charge on your account but you also earn interest which actually makes that fee smaller or non existent depending on your balance. You are able to sign up for an account if you work for the government or if someone in your immediate family does.

So for now I will keep enjoying my small community bank. If they decided to start charging fee's you will be the first to know. Then I will have no checking account because I will just choose to hide my money under my mattress (LOL)

Don't let these banks get the best of you, there are other options out there. It's your hard earned money and you don't have to give it away...they will learn eventually!!!

So it's Sunday night and I am already dreading tomorrow, just like everyone else in the world I would guess. It has been a full weekend, but also a fun one so at least I am not in a awful mood :) The house is clean, the laundry is done and put away and everything in the house is in order...it's a lot of work being a wife! I am spending the last few hours of my night paying some bills, watching my TV shows, and writing this blog.

Off to our weekend...I have some pictures that I will try to put up one day this week but for now I will give you a quick run down.

Wednesday was my wonderful husbands birthday. So one of our good friends Dusty wanted to surprise Mark with a little get together Friday when we got home from work. Actually it was perfect because I really wanted to do something for Mark but I couldn't get off work Friday and we had Bronson birthday Saturday so I knew there was no time. So I was happy to hear Dusty's plan to come to our house Friday while we were at work and cook for Mark's birthday and when we got home our good friends would be here to surprise him...perfect!

With a few hiccups somehow we managed to keep it a secret and it worked out just right. Mark had no clue and he was sooo surprised. It had been a bad day at work and I know he was so thankful that everyone wanted to do something for him. So to Dusty, Katie, Matt and Megan I love you guys and appreciate you guys making Mark feel special (muah!)

Saturday, I got up and got ready to run some errands. Grocery store, Home Depot, bank and then I met Mom at Kohl's for a little retail therapy. The rescue was selling chicken plates so I went by there to pick us up some plates (luckily Jamie held 2 for me since they sold out early) they were yummy!!! Then back home to get a few things done and off to Bronson's birthday party.

We had a good time celebrating Bronson's birthday with our wonderful friends. I have a some good pictures to put up later :) Fun times!!! As the sober one at the party I had to take a few friends home which is always interesting. Dropped my sweet little Matt and Meg off :) Then I had one more who apparently split a cup of some type of liquor drink in the back of my car. I didn't notice that much until I got in my car this morning...whew it smelt! Aired my car out all day and I hope it doesn't smell in the morning :(

Well that's about it. Hope you all have a great day!