Organizing Kids Toys
October 16, 2006
We all have piles and piles of toys that we have collected throughout the years. This is mainly due to the fact that Christmas is always just around the corner or we have another birthday.
After her birthday my daughter would rush to open her gifts. By the time I looked all the pieces were scattered all over the place and if she got one of the same kind, Polly Pockets specially, forget it; they would never see their box buddies again.
I came up with an easy solution to fix this problem…take a pic! What I do now is that we open the gifts one by one; we put the toys together, and take a picture of it. I have a computer file just named “toys”, where all the toy pictures go. When it is time to ebay it or garage sale it I know what items went with what toy. Perfect. I also try to keep the box, if I can, and the instructions.
Look at it this way, you can be making a little bit more money by knowing the name of the toy and how it looks went it is put together. Once I saw a garbage bag full of Power Wheels pieces sell for just $5 because the owner did not know what pieces went with what.
Next time, since you will most likely have your camera handy, take a pic as you put the toys together, it will save you a lot of time in the future.
Labels: General
Paying Bills Online
October 02, 2006
This is a really good idea, but what about doing away with paper bills? And automatic payment of bills online?
I personally pay all of my bills online, thus saving stamps, envelopes and checks.
It is a good idea to be able to look at your bills, it also gives you an incentive to pay them off quicker.
Just for a moment do something for me.
1. Pick up one of your bills.
2. Look at the "Monthly Payment amount", what do you see?
3. How about "Amount Past Due?"
4. "Late Charges?"
5. "Total Payment Due"
6. "Please Pay This Amount By"
7. "Principal Balance"
8. "Interest Balance"
9. "Payment Applied"
10. "Ending Balance"
#1 Currently, I am looking at a client's Credit Card bill.
#2 This month it says they owe nothing, RED FLAG!!! Actually, they still owe $7,160.00. Do you realize how much interest will accrue if they don't make a payment this month? Look at the fine print, here goes: "Please note: Interest will continue to accrue on this loan. "
#3 Fortunately, this client is not past due but if you are, you will need to play catch-up, in other words, try and find even more money that maybe you thought you would have this month. Do you have it this time?
#4 Try never to be late on a payment. These charges add up quickly. Some people actually pay more on late charges than the actual bill.
#5 After all of those "other payments" due here is the grand total. Don't you wonder sometimes, WHY????!!! What have I done???!!!
#6 Are you ready to pay this bill on time, (for a change) this month? Or are you, once again, short on cash?
#7 How much you have left to pay on the loan.
#8 The total amount owed on a loan before any payments are made.
9. This is last months amount you paid, did you pay it? Was it tight?
#10 Your total now.
I calculated this client's bill. If they pay the minimum on this credit card, like they were doing, it will take approximately 183 months (15 years) to pay off this one credit card!
In that time they will have paid $21,045 including interest. That is if they never used the credit card again.
If you have credit card debt, you need to pay it off as soon as possible!
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Post written by Brenda Ludecke from
No More Mortgage.
Labels: Finance
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