Well, it’s official: I’m now living with my fiancée, and it’s certainly quite interesting. It’s the first time I’ve really had to share my space and my things with another person. Back in college, I lucked out and usually had room mates who stayed to themselves and when I was back at my childhood home, my mother and sisters generally gave me plenty of space. My dear Sondra, on the other hand, likes to spend her free time with me, which is making it harder to find time to get online to update my blog (to say nothing of searching for a new and better job.)
To make things worse, as far as getting blogging done is concerned, I made the mistake of bringing my graphics tablet along with my computer when I came to live with her, which combined with the Adobe Photoshop (c) program on my computer, means that she is almost as interested in using my computer as I am. (Of course, what really bothers me is she is much more talented at drawing on it than I am….) I had to all but wrestle it out of her hands in order to write this post.
But I’m sure we’ll find a way to share; after all, we intend to live together for the rest of our lives. I’ll have to try to get more of my blogging and job hunting done while she is at work. And speaking of blogging, here are some of the good blog entries that made me think this week (when I could steal my laptop back, at least):
How to be a Horrible Credit Card Customer – One of my favorite subjects, using credit cards in a way that benefits you and not the credit card companies, being covered by Broke Grad Student. As long as you don’t charge more than you can afford and pay off the total each month, using a credit card (particularly a reward card) can be a good financial decision. As one of the commenters noted, though, credit card companies charge the retailers a fee when you use your credit cards; some will pass the costs onto you, so you have to watch if the price is higher for credit card purchases (and use cash at those locations).
Credit Card Rules for College Students – Or anyone else, for that matter; Studenomics shares some good advice for using your credits and not letting them use you. His comments are mostly right on, especially always paying off the balance and not spending more than you have available. That said, unless you always spend up to your limit, I would not apply his advice to have a lower credit card limit; you’ll hurt your credit score, both by having less credit available and by using a larger portion of available credit when you do spend money. My advice: keep a higher credit limit, and find some way to limit your spending to a small portion of that limit.
8 Tips to Avoid Scams on Craigslist – Over on Poorer Than You, Stephanie shares some tips to avoid scams on Craigslist. I’ll be the first to admit, sites like Craigslist make me nervous, and articles don’t help. Still, given how popular and useful Craigslist can be, I will likely use it at some time in the future. When I do, I’ll keep her tips in mind (the one on not accepting strange forms of payment especially sticks with me).
What Do You do If You Need a Payday Loan? – An interesting question, one I’ve never had to consider (luckily). On Green Panda Treehouse, you can learn some of the alternatives to taking on payday loans (which are one of the worst things you can do financially, by the way). In general, if you find yourself regularly taking payday loans to meet ends meet, you need to find a way to rearrange your financial life so you don’t need to rely on incredibly high interest, short term loans. One of the suggestions I liked (and probably would not have considered for my own needs) would be to take out a loan via Lending Club; just make sure that you don’t get yourself into more debt, as you’ll defeat the purpose and have to both pay back the Lending Club loan and the new debt.
Use Twitter to Find a Job – Every so often, I read an article that just seems to come out of left field; this one from My Life ROI falls into that category. I’ll be honest, I never would have considered trying to find a job using Twitter as a resource. (In case you haven’t picked up on it from my comments about Stephanie’s post, I’m not the most internet savvy twenty-six year old.) However, now I’m highly intrigued to try it out, and hopefully find something good near my new location. Thanks, MLR, for the heads up!
That’s it for this week; I’ll share more fun links that make me think next week. Enjoy my normal blog entries until then!
- Thoughtful Thursday: New Job Hunting
- Thoughtful Thursday: Cats as Stock Analysts?
- Weekly Round-Up: Alexa Challenge Heats Up!
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