Money Matters
jtmh2012
mod
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Anybody still alive?
Re: Anybody still alive?
I just did the least MM thing ever and spent $45 on printing/shipping to have our Christmas cards overnighted so I can get them in the mail this weekend. That's on top of the cost per card. MM fail.
And then I realized I haven't ordered the photo book for my parents like I was planning... so that's going to be another expedited shipping charge.
I just need to admit that Outlook runs my life, and if it's not on my calendar it doesn't happen. I'm going to add holiday alerts for next November.
This year I started with snapfish, and the print quality was so bad they actually gave me a refund after reviewing it (on a nonrefundable item). I finally just sucked it up and used Tinyprints because I know they do a good job. It's expensive though.
Next year I'm just going to budget for Tinyprints or Minted out the gate and order them early enough that I'm not scrambling at the very end.
Also, H's book was released this week: http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920061977.do
I do love tinyprints. Every year I'm like, "I'm not going to spend that much." And then something happens, and I end up spending that much. I just need to budget for it better. At least this year I should have enough postage leftover from last year!
I can't help it - I'm super picky about stationery and paper. I spent way more time picking out wedding stationery than I spent on my dress...
Minted is my new love, but they are even higher than tinyprints. They have really excellent quality though and lovely designs. We just received the most gorgeous baby announcement and save the date for a wedding, and sure enough - both used Minted.
I got our Xmas cards at Walgreens for over 50% off, so only paid $20 for 40 cards. They are the glossy photo cards and I'm happy with the photo quality.
Me three - I like that this board is conversational and chatty. And I'm not saying anyone on this board doesn't like it that way. But I can see where it could be frustrating for others when things go especially off topic.
For example, I'm glad there is a post specifically for MMers and their pregnancies/TTCing/fertility challenges. I know there are other forums on TK but, for me personally, I'm not in those categories, so I don't frequent them. But I do care about the folks on this board and that is a good place for me to "lurk" and keep up with that aspect of my "MM Internet" friends' lives.
I'm here, too! And check this board most days to see what's up. I'm in a lot of financial turmoil, at the moment, for a lot of reasons. Good and bad. But especially due to my impeding layoff. Most of it, I've already mentioned/talked about in various posts. Not "in trouble", thank goodness, but a lot of uncertainty of what the future is bringing. Which frustrates me because it makes it hard to plan, lol.
One bad habit that has caused me to pick up is I've become really miserly with my credit card payments, whereas I used to pay them off. Still make at least the minimum payments (of course). However, I can't keep myself from stockpiling money in case I need it. Looking logically at my finances/budget/income streams, I've gone off the deep end, lol. I'll be fine. But I just can't let the money go while I'm feeling in such "limbo".
But when you log on and see 8 responses in the Monday Accountability thread, and you go click on it and they're ALL about babies, then it gets to be annoying, especially when there was already a thread to discuss it, and other boards on this site to discuss it, and TONS of other places where everyone talks about babies 24/7.
I'm around, I've just been lurking lately.
I'm almost done Christmas shopping. I need to get H and my father something. I find my father to be the hardest to shop for.
I'm on track to have my student loans paid off March 16th as long as we get a tax return like we did last year (not very MM, I know, but we get usually get a decent chunk back).
I also just got a small raise at work, $1700 which isn't terrible considering I've only been here 7 months (5 at the time the performance ratings were done). I'll likely be getting a COL increase in January which will be nice.
I'm here, I just haven't been able to relate to a lot of the posts on here lately so I'm just lurking....
Nothing new and exciting with me though, just looking forward to next week off from work! My Christmas cards are out, I'm finishing up my gingerbread house I make every year, and need to finish up shopping. We are planning out our next year's house projects. Once January comes around, I will start a good cleaning in house and start painting all the trim white (it's now a dull cream/white color)
MM wise I haven't spent a ton of money, but DH just flew to Dallas for a football game. He will likely spend a decent amount this weekend.
Also, I am just waiting on the medical bills from my recent miscarriage. I had to go in a few times and now I have an HSA....which kind of sucks. Overall, better option, but in the past, I never went to the doctor other than once or twice a year. Go figure, I have gone to the doctor 4 times since starting the HSA in October.
I made a huge (60ish page) scrapbook for my Dad's 80th birthday on Friday, made some wood & vinyl signs for our small group couples, made some etched wine glasses for a white elephant party (HUGE HIT!!!!) and I'm still working on 4 sets of Yardzee (Yahtzee made out of 4x4 blocks and a 5 gallon bucket) that don't need to be finished until New Year's Eve.
We are hosting DH's family Christmas so I'm also doing prep for that.
On a more exciting note we booked our resort for our post-funeral vacation. I was able to get a travel agent rate at the Hard Rock Resort in Punta Cana that saved us $1,000 over our next favorite resorts and saved us $2,000 over staying at that resort without the discount. That place is pretty expensive!!!! We are waiting on final approval from our bosses before we book the airline tickets, but it looks like we will have 7 nights at an all inclusive resort for less than $3,000 including airfare, insurance and the small expenses like parking, taxis, etc. Not super cheap, but worth it to get away from an Ohio winter.