forgiveness, liability, interest, mercy, networking,
STD, life plan, relationships, epiphany,
living will, fine wines, love, success, confidence,
credit, adventure, debt, trust, help, thank you, relax,
balance, abroad, litigate, sacrifice, retirement,
touchdown, sexuality, ROI, prayer, educated,
grace, ego, trend, tip chart, acceptance, wealth
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Saturday, February 5, 2011
A New York State of Mind...
As I sit and scroll through countless numbers of photos of New York City, it reminds me that New York is not only home but a true melting pot. Whether taking a daring hike through 'Chinatown,' whistling and skipping through Central Park, playing hop scotch between New York and New Jersey on the GWB (George Washington Bridge) or introducing someone to New York pizza, there is just no place like it in the world. Fashion, Broadway, Wall Street, Times Square, where shall we begin...
In March my husband and I will be taking a much needed vacation to the East Coast for a non-stop adventure. Living in LA, whenever we make it to the east coast, we have so much to do, so many people to see and just not enough time. During these 12 days, we will visit Atlanta, Raleigh, Greensboro, DC and my favorite city in the whole wide world, NYC. James (my husband) has never been to New York and I feel like we need to spend the whole 12 days in NY because I don't feel like I can be the great tour guide I am and show him everything NY has to offer. But because we live in the real world and there is a little something called "work," I guess we will have to make do. I am originally from NY, a small little town, a township to be exact, I don't think we have been given the title of 'city' just yet, nonetheless, New Rochelle, NY is where I call home. Being a poor child in New Rochelle, you couldn't image that this little town had so much to offer outside of your project community. I took the liberty to drum up little unknown facts about this town: home of "The Dick Van Dyke," tv show, Donald Trump built a world recognized Trump Plaza on Huguenot Street, New Rochelle resident J. Fred Coots wrote Santa Claus Is Coming To Town which is one of the biggest best sellers in American musical history (Yup, I did some research :-) and Denzel Washington is from a small city called Mount Vernon which is 10 minutes up Lincoln Ave (the main street in New Rochelle). Hey, we take what we can get.
That's a photo of New Roc City, which is the remodeled mall in New Rochelle. Now before I let this turn into pages and pages of me just blabbing about New Rochelle, I will use this post to highlight fifteen places we must visit while there.
15. The Statue of Liberty (Hey, we are there, might as well) 14. A Sabrett hot dog stand (You have to get a hot dog off the street) 13. Coney Island (just to go on the rides) 12. Yankee Stadium (which is now more known for those damn yankee fitted hats than anything else) 11. Each of the five boroughs (Bronx, Brooklyn, Staten Island, Manhattan and Queens) 10. Chelsea Piers (the lighthouse, the skyrink, my favorite pizza parlor, I can't wait) 9. The Hamptons (we are just too close to not go, I haven't been either, so we shall see what all the fuss is about) 8. The GWB (the George Washington Bridge, we will park in NJ and walk across the state line, just to say we did it) 7. Times Square (It won't be the same as if we were to visit on New Years Eve, but a great landmark nonetheless) 6. The AVE (you have to be a NY'er to understand, but one word: shopping) 5. The TOWNS (chinatown, koreatown, little Italy, another one of those 'just to say we've been' places) 4. MSG (Madison Square Garden to catch a Knicks game or heck, we will even take the Nets) 3. Central Park (I have to show him where they filmed one of my favorite holiday movies, "Home Alone" LOL) 2. Play Land (Sorry, it's a Westchester County thing) drum roll please .... 1. New Rochelle, NY (not only is it where I grew up, but it is also where my grandmother and mother are buried and I can't leave town without laying the prettiest and freshest flowers by their head stone)
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Waste NOT, Want NOT... Tips to save a little money...
We have all been told that there is money around the house, but the last time I asked my couch to borrow some, I didn't get a reply. Whether you have searched old purses for a few dollars, tore apart your couch in hopes of a shiny piece of silver or returned an item in your home to get the money back, all of these tactics I am sure have been short lived. We all rang in the new year with hopes of success and financial independence and whether or not the kiss at the stroke of 12 brought any luck, these tips will help you keep a little cash on hand.
Now the way that this is going to work is to actually SAVE the money that you were going to spend. I am going to give you some areas in which you can cut back and save, but the trick is, that the money you are going to save, must be saved, meaning, if you were going to spend $20 on one of the cut back tips, that $20 must be stored in the house so that you can see how easy it is to save. At the end of this trial period, which should be about 30 days, the money saved will speak for itself.
Let us begin in the kitchen... Why do you continue to go to the grocery store with a pantry full of groceries? At one point, when you bought the items, you had intentions of eating them right? So please, do... Go through your cabinets and pick out three to five items that can be eaten this week, either as a meal alone or an addition to another item. Promise yourself that you are going to clear out one shelf in your pantry this month by eating what you have already spent money on. Put these items on your grocery list as what not to buy. Think to yourself, what can I buy to go along with these items. For me, it was the cans of soup (that I must think make a beautiful collage in the cabinet) that I sacrificed and ate, for three days in a row. Did I want to, NO, but did it save me money, YES, and have I learned a valuable lesson, HELL YEAH! Now you ask, how can I calculate what I should save. If you live alone and think the microwave was the best invention since the cell phone, buy three less microwaveable meals and put that $10-15 in your saving jar/box/pillowcase/shoe, you get the point. If you have a family of three or four, maybe it's soup night for the whole family and instead of buying ingredients to make tacos, calculate the cost of what you would buy and put it away. This too works for the items in the fridge. When I go to the grocery store, my fridge is almost empty because I really make an effort to eat what I buy, thus wasting NOT and wanting NOT.
My next tip is the good ole reduce, reuse, recycle. I must admit, I am addicted to diet coke, in any form, bottle, can, fountain, whatever, I love diet coke and I buy the 12 packs whenever I run out. I sometimes have a trash can full of cans and bottles and in some states, I know you have to recycle those items to the green tin. Well for this month, instead of recycling the items in the green tin, put them in a plastic bag and haul them over to the nearest recycle center and trade them in for cash. I took one trash bag full of diet coke bottles, cans, diet coke of course, to the recycle center and got $6. Now six dollars isn't anything to write home about, but that was six dollars for a two person home, only diet coke products and in one month. If you have a large family or you entertain a lot, the beer cans, wine bottles, juice bottles, etc. weigh a lot more and can add a lot more weight to your bag, thus adding more cash in your hand. Why give that those recyclables to the city every month, that's money out of your pocket?!?!?!
Has it been a long time since you and your significant other went out on a date? Were you thinking of having date night? Are you dying to see that new movie that just came out? If you go to the movies every time a new movie comes out, on opening night, maybe you can cut back a little. Instead of going out to date night and spending at least $50 on dinner and a movie, do something a little different. A lot of restaurants have recipes for their signature items online, google your favorite hot spot and see what recipes are online. Instead of going out, you and your spouse can cook the meal together, desserts and all. So what about your movie, you can either rent or in my case, James and I love to watch a show called 'Masterminds,' it's a special that comes on MSNBC, I record those for date night and while we are cooking we watch about two or three episodes, saving money on food, entertainment and gas.
There are tons of little ways to, as the investors say, "watch your money grow," literally, you just have to sacrifice and stick to it. In the month that I put my money where my mouth was, I was able to save $65 dollars on those few tips alone. Another tip that I will share is the cash left over tip. I rarely ever carry cash, but when I do, I can't seem to figure out how a $20 bill turns into a five and a couple of ones. Well when that does happen, the five and a couple of ones are added to my savings jar, change included. I will do that for a few months and before I know it, I have $100 or more in my jar. In these uncertain times of our economy, we have to be prepared for whatever may come. Suze Orman says that people should have at least six months of savings, so, what's in your wallet?
Now the way that this is going to work is to actually SAVE the money that you were going to spend. I am going to give you some areas in which you can cut back and save, but the trick is, that the money you are going to save, must be saved, meaning, if you were going to spend $20 on one of the cut back tips, that $20 must be stored in the house so that you can see how easy it is to save. At the end of this trial period, which should be about 30 days, the money saved will speak for itself.
Let us begin in the kitchen... Why do you continue to go to the grocery store with a pantry full of groceries? At one point, when you bought the items, you had intentions of eating them right? So please, do... Go through your cabinets and pick out three to five items that can be eaten this week, either as a meal alone or an addition to another item. Promise yourself that you are going to clear out one shelf in your pantry this month by eating what you have already spent money on. Put these items on your grocery list as what not to buy. Think to yourself, what can I buy to go along with these items. For me, it was the cans of soup (that I must think make a beautiful collage in the cabinet) that I sacrificed and ate, for three days in a row. Did I want to, NO, but did it save me money, YES, and have I learned a valuable lesson, HELL YEAH! Now you ask, how can I calculate what I should save. If you live alone and think the microwave was the best invention since the cell phone, buy three less microwaveable meals and put that $10-15 in your saving jar/box/pillowcase/shoe, you get the point. If you have a family of three or four, maybe it's soup night for the whole family and instead of buying ingredients to make tacos, calculate the cost of what you would buy and put it away. This too works for the items in the fridge. When I go to the grocery store, my fridge is almost empty because I really make an effort to eat what I buy, thus wasting NOT and wanting NOT.
My next tip is the good ole reduce, reuse, recycle. I must admit, I am addicted to diet coke, in any form, bottle, can, fountain, whatever, I love diet coke and I buy the 12 packs whenever I run out. I sometimes have a trash can full of cans and bottles and in some states, I know you have to recycle those items to the green tin. Well for this month, instead of recycling the items in the green tin, put them in a plastic bag and haul them over to the nearest recycle center and trade them in for cash. I took one trash bag full of diet coke bottles, cans, diet coke of course, to the recycle center and got $6. Now six dollars isn't anything to write home about, but that was six dollars for a two person home, only diet coke products and in one month. If you have a large family or you entertain a lot, the beer cans, wine bottles, juice bottles, etc. weigh a lot more and can add a lot more weight to your bag, thus adding more cash in your hand. Why give that those recyclables to the city every month, that's money out of your pocket?!?!?!
Has it been a long time since you and your significant other went out on a date? Were you thinking of having date night? Are you dying to see that new movie that just came out? If you go to the movies every time a new movie comes out, on opening night, maybe you can cut back a little. Instead of going out to date night and spending at least $50 on dinner and a movie, do something a little different. A lot of restaurants have recipes for their signature items online, google your favorite hot spot and see what recipes are online. Instead of going out, you and your spouse can cook the meal together, desserts and all. So what about your movie, you can either rent or in my case, James and I love to watch a show called 'Masterminds,' it's a special that comes on MSNBC, I record those for date night and while we are cooking we watch about two or three episodes, saving money on food, entertainment and gas.
There are tons of little ways to, as the investors say, "watch your money grow," literally, you just have to sacrifice and stick to it. In the month that I put my money where my mouth was, I was able to save $65 dollars on those few tips alone. Another tip that I will share is the cash left over tip. I rarely ever carry cash, but when I do, I can't seem to figure out how a $20 bill turns into a five and a couple of ones. Well when that does happen, the five and a couple of ones are added to my savings jar, change included. I will do that for a few months and before I know it, I have $100 or more in my jar. In these uncertain times of our economy, we have to be prepared for whatever may come. Suze Orman says that people should have at least six months of savings, so, what's in your wallet?
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