Africa on hold
The economy continues to crumble and with it goes something I’ve grown very excited about over the last few months.
Longtime readers may remember my parents announced around Christmas time that they wanted to take the family to Africa during the 2010 World Cup to celebrate my step-mom’s 60th birthday and my little brother’s graduation from high school.
Being the super-planner I am, I’d started forwarding travel articles about South Africa, ideas gleaned from people who’d recently traveled there, recommendations of travel agents specializing in this area, etc. to my step-mom.
She hadn’t really responded so I assumed she was just filing them away in a South Africa file (which I’m sure she had since we’re very much alike!) until she started planning in earnest.
Well, you know what they say about assuming…
I recently received an email from my step-mom letting me know they still want to go to Africa, but that they are considering putting the trip on hold for several reasons:
1) They’re concerned about press reports saying that South Africa isn’t as far along as it should be at this time for the World Cup. If South Africa does manage to actually pull it together, my parents wonder what the quality would be.
2) My parents were in Germany for the World Cup a few years ago so they’ve experienced the crowds, but they think the infrastructure in Europe was much better than South Africa will ever be.
3) They’re concerned about how much they’ve lost in the stock market and whether they should be spending $40,000-$50,000 at this time. Even though the world economy may be in recovery by next summer, they’ll have to spend the money today to hold reservations.
4) They’re also concerned that with the global economic meltdown, they may make deposits to companies in precarious financial straits (even if they’ve been around for decades), which could potentially put their hefty deposits at risk.
Checking out the financial condition of service providers in South Africa could be a lesson in futility, and they don’t know how or if they should buy insurance to cover such a potential loss.
While I’m disappointed, I completely understand their reasoning and support their decision. To be honest, Africa always seemed like such a far off reality since we were talking 2010 and I knew anything could happen between now and then.
All that said, I will continue to save up my alternative income for this purpose because hopefully things will turn around and Africa will become a reality. Maybe not in 2010, but one day.
Filed under Economy, Finances, Travel | Comment (0)Starbucks going out of business
Okay maybe not on a nationwide scale, but the Starbucks I always go to could be in danger of closing because I may soon be switching my loyalties to another coffee shop.
My three-year love affair with Starbucks has been nice but in the back of my head I’ve always felt like I’ve been settling. Today, though, on the way into work I saw a simple sign that read “The Bean is coming.” My heart literally raced as I held up traffic to scour the area for more information.
And YES, there it was - The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf logo! Sure it’s not on the most convenient route into work, but their creamy vanilla latte is well worth the extra mile out of my way.
Since moving to Texas, I’ve always had my list of California places that I miss and that I have to visit whenever I go home:
1. Islands
2. Ruby’s Diner (found one in the Houston airport)
3. Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf
4. In ‘n Out
5. BJ’s Pizzeria
6. City Bagelry
Now if only I could convince Islands, In ‘n Out and City Bagelry (not likely since this is a small mom & pop bagel shop) to move to my city, living here for the rest of my life could be possible.
Filed under Finances, Food/Wine | Comment (0)All this for just $4.99?!?
Sometimes I manage to amaze myself when it comes to saving, and last week’s shopping extravaganza at Walgreens might just be my most impressive yet.
But before I tell you about the amazing deals I managed to score, I first want to apologize for being MIA this week. Work has been super busy and I finally flew back home this morning after traveling all over Texas. I’m actually headed to San Antonio this weekend so it’s not all over, but things seem to be winding down at least.
Okay, back to Walgreens. Last weekend, I practically devoured the newly launched EasySaver booklet and the deals in the Sunday newspaper. I’m weird, reading the circulars and coupons with a Starbucks caramel macchiato is my idea of an ideal Sunday morning.
I’ve been going to Walgreens now for about six months and I finally feel like I’ve got a handle on the EasySaver rebates and coupons, Register Rewards and Walgreens coupon and how everything can be combined for even more savings.
After reading the circulars and combing through my coupon files, here is what I was able to get for a grand total of $4.99:
Sunday:
-Bought 6 oz. Colgate Max White for $3.29 (received $3.50 in Register Rewards, which are basically like a gift certificate or credit that can be applied to a future purchase)
-Bought Memory Formula 45 Soft Gels for $19.99 (eligible for a $19.99 EasySaver rebate so FREE)
-Bought Walgreens Extra Strength Headache QuickGels for $2.99 (eligible for a $2.99 EasySaver rebate so FREE)
TOTAL SPENT: $26.27
EXPECTED REBATES: $22.98
Tuesday:
-Wal-Zyr 24-hr. Allergy Relief tablets for $3.99 (eligible for a $3.99 EasySaver rebate so FREE)
-Pantene shampoo for $2.99 (on sale for $2.99 + coupon for $1 off two Pantene products + $3 EasySaver rebate on two Pantene products)
-Pantene conditioner for $2.99 (plus rebates/coupons mentioned above)
-Vaseline Intensive Care cocoa butter lotion for $4.11 (25% off regular price of $5.49 + $1.25 coupon + $2 Register Rewards
TOTAL SPENT: $8.69 after subtracting the $3.50 Register Rewards
EXPECTED REBATE: $6.99
Wednesday:
-2 boxes of Barilla pasta for $2 (FREE after using the Register Rewards from the Vaseline Intensive Care)
TOTAL SPENT: $0
So to recap, I got 9 items for $4.99 after all the rebates. Dang, I’m good :-) And you can be this good too if you hurry since most of these deals are valid through Saturday, March 7…
Filed under Deals, Finances, Saving Ideas | Comment (0)Baby steps for ChasaMu
As a loyal 14-year customer of Washington Mutual, I was at first happy to hear that JP Morgan Chase had agreed to charge up on its white steed (not to be confused with Wells Fargo’s horse-drawn stagecoach) to rescue the ailing bank.
I even took advantage of a $100 bonus offer to open a Chase checking account, figuring I might as well get the free money since I’d become a Chase customer soon enough. But as I explored and experimented with being a Chase customer, I began to find a few chinks in the bank armor.
First, in order to have completely free checking I had to set up direct deposit. This I didn’t really mind because it was easy enough to do, but it somewhat chafed since WaMu had free checking without all the small print.
A bigger annoyance was when I wanted to move some of the direct deposit money in my Chase account over to WaMu. Simple enough, right? I thought so too until I saw a $3 online transfer fee show up on my statement. Who charges for online transfer fees these days?!? I wrote customer service about that one but to no avail, they upheld the fee to transfer money between my Chase and soon-to-be Chase/WaMu account.
Today I went into Chase and mentioned this and they noted that transfer fees between WaMu and Chase had been eliminated at the end of January 2009 (maybe they really do read customer service comments). A little too late for me, but a step in the right direction for the ChasaMu hybrid.
I was perfectly polite but I did mention to the Chase bank employees that their parent company really needed to enter the 21st century and look at such fees for transferring money online to other bank accounts. I was able to transfer money online through WaMu with little effort and no charges, so suddenly having to pay would be the end of my relationship with Chase.
Hopefully Chase isn’t counting on the fact that WaMu customers will stay with them simply because it’s easy. I was loyal to WaMu because they made my banking easy and free, but as far as I’m concerned I will be starting over with Chase. That is, if they can offer the same benefits. If they can’t, I may be starting over elsewhere.
Filed under Finances | Comment (0)I gave in to peer pressure
It’s official, I’ve joined the ranks of the millions – or is it now billions? – of Facebook users out there! User might be a generous term for what I do on there since I’m still trying to figure out all the bells and whistles, but I now have an account and I’m pleased to already have 15 friends.
I can’t check Facebook at work (probably a good thing) so who knows how addicted I’ll become, but I can already see it’s kind-of fun to read the updates and what people write on your wall.
Since I’m a late-adopter when it comes to Facebook, what advice do y’all have for me? Is there some super-security feature I need to enable? Do I really have to write an about me blurb, or can I leave that part blank? Is there any Facebook etiquette I need to be aware of?
Filed under Personal | Comment (0)