JustLisa

My Bill IQ is 71% / C which surprises me a lot. I am not one to worry about debt or financial planning. Unfortunately, it shows right now as gas prices skyrocket and the budget gets so tight I can't breathe. I swore off credit card debt yet I have it again. Citibank keeps sending me a fake check to ease my financial strain just by calling this 800 number to consolidate debt.

On the bills.com website, I read that if I pay only the minimum on a credit card, it will take 15 years or more to pay it off if I stop using it today. Wow! I also learned a lot about savings versus paying down debt. It does make more sense to put funds towards paying down a 17% interest credit card than it does to stick the same money in savings and earn 2 or 3%. These are the things I just don't think about. I’m also completely guilty of using extra, unexpected money for trips instead of paying something off.

One of the Bill IQ questions was about shopping around for best insurance rates. In a small town, most people buy insurance from their insurance man without shopping around. I've never checked rates anywhere else and have had the same insurance man for 20 years. I am sure a big company could beat the rate but I am not sure about the service.

I guess it’s a matter of priorities. Checking into the insurance is a good idea but I don’t think I will give up the trips. That is something new to me and I find I quite enjoy being irresponsible sometimes! In the instance of unexpected money, I’d rather die knowing I saw new places and made new friends than I would knowing that my credit card was paid down some more.

I've been in a foul mood the past month or so, getting worse every day. Part of it is the music I listen to I think. I've drifted away from happy music since Eva is gone and back into my angry music. There are many other factors at play too but isn't it something how music can affect a person?

One of my friends, funny girl she is, asked "Why the FOWL mood, ya turkey?" Oy. I have weird friends too but dammit if I dont love every last one of ya.

Today getting a nose job is a common surgery for improving a person's looks. Just mention rhinoplasty, nose surgery, nose job and I cringe. In 1990, I was dancing around on a wet tile floor because I'm crazy like that. One minute I'm laughing and entertaining people and the next I'm out cold. My feet went straight out from under me and I had no time to react. Smashed my face and my nose ended up taking the brunt of it. The ER doc kindly shoved it back into the center of my face but there was lots of damage to my sinuses and a sizeable bump began to appear. I had to have the rhinoplasty surgery so I could breathe.

Reading about the procedure as it's done today seems better than when I had it done. Mine resulted in a great deal of pain and I had to stay in the hospital two days. Now it says there is little pain and it's generally done as an outpatient procedure. I've never had complaints about the cosmetic features of my nose but I've been able to breathe a whole lot better - even better than before I broke my nose. I would go through the pain again just for the breathing benefits.

The article addresses pricing and the sums surprised me. I always thought it was a very expensive procedure. I never saw the bills for mine as workmans comp covered it all but if I had a big nose and was self conscious about it, I don't think the price is that unreasonable for an improved self esteem.

I always say Christopher was weaned on Def Leppard because I listened to a lot of it when he was a baby. The other day he told me that his earliest memory was of me cleaning the house with Def Leppard blaring on the stereo while I let him jump on the couch. I love that. I hope all the kids have some crazy, lighthearted memory like that.

He's been watching VH1 Classics during the day and today we watched it together on my lunch break. This led to a heated debate about Poison, whom I loathe, and why they suck and why Brett Michaels is disgusting. Unskinny Bop was the video in question. Now you tell me, what the hell is unskinny bop? I've been accused of not giving Poison a chance so to prove that I've endured plenty of Poison in my life, I sang the whole song AND danced the same lame dance moves as Brett. But again, what is unskinny bop? I'd love to hear what you think it means.

After that piece of steaming crap was over, Cowboys From Hell - Pantera came on. Now that is some good music.

Every morning I get up and check the savings sites online for good deals. The last great deal I got was an iHome docking station for the kitchen. It mounts under the cabinet so I can put my iPod in it and play music while I am chained to the sink. Okay, so I’m not really ever chained to the sink but it sure does feel like it when the kid decides to purge his room of dirty dishes.

With gas prices threatening to bury us all, most can no longer afford to pay full retail on anything nowadays. For clothes I use Gap coupons or Old Navy. For work/techy things, the NewEgg promo code comes in handy.

I meet myself coming and going nowadays and barely remember my name so it's nice to have othere people deal watch for me! With savings.com I can get deal alerts and newsletters emailed to me so I don't even have to take the time to browse around myself. Of course I will because any kind of money savings becomes addictive and you never know when you will run across that item you just have to have.

My favorite feature is the free shipping tab. Again, gas prices bite us all on the butt with the cost to truck freight around too. Sometimes you can save the cost of your mechandise in shipping alone!

The boy takes after me in terms of stubborness. Remember the great experiment last year with the trash and the car? Every so often Todd would go back and do a room sweep and dump the contents into the Oldsmobile and we'd go through the fit of having to clean it out again. I didn't think the kid was ever gonna get it.

Well Friday he comes out with a garbage sack of trash and said he'd cleaned his room. I said "Did you smoke crack for breakfast?? Since when do you clean your room???" He said... and oh how I loooove this...

"I go to my dad's tomorrow and that's when Todd fills my car with trash."

HAHAHAHAHAHA Ten months later he FINALLY got it!

The kid and I are road trippin' this weekend. Destination unknown. We have a tendency to drive each other completely nuts in a small space. My car is very small. Say a prayer.

See ya!!