Black Friday shopping (price, parking, place)

[mojokitty]

Originally Posted by sapphire

My in-laws won't change, but luckily my mom has. For the last 2 years, our gifts from her have been gift certificates for kiva.org. It's where you can make a micro-loan to someone in a third world country and make a huge difference in their life. OMG, it's awesome to put my $25 bucks in with a bunch of other people's money so a man in Peru can buy more cows and better support his family. The best part is, they pay it all back and you can re-loan it to another entrepreneur in Azerbaijan (I have a loan out to a woman with a little shop there and she's 93% repaid on her loan.) They truly don't want a handout, they just need a hand.

I SO want to do this now!!! Thanks Sapphire!!!

[Eleanor Rigby]

Ooh, can I make a plug for Heifer International?? It's a similar organization: you give someone a cow, or a sheep, or some other farm animal. Then, when the animal has its first female offspring, they pass that baby on to someone else in their village who has a need, and so on. It's fantastic. One example I read was of a woman in Africa who was given a goat. The goat produced so much milk that she was able to feed half of it to her children and sell the rest, which meant she could send her kids to school. The goat then had a series of kids; the male kids she raised to slaughter for meat for her family and to sell, and the first female kid she gave to a neighbor. The act of giving, of being able to do for someone else what someone else did for her, is an integral component of Heifer Int'l, because it gives people a sense of agency and control, that they are able to become active players in the lives of their village or town.

Back here in America, I just got a triumphant text from my cousin announcing that, after spending all night in line, she is now the proud owner of two Wiis. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

[luckygreeniii]

Originally Posted by sapphire

My in-laws won't change, but luckily my mom has. For the last 2 years, our gifts from her have been gift certificates for kiva.org. It's where you can make a micro-loan to someone in a third world country and make a huge difference in their life. OMG, it's awesome to put my $25 bucks in with a bunch of other people's money so a man in Peru can buy more cows and better support his family. The best part is, they pay it all back and you can re-loan it to another entrepreneur in Azerbaijan (I have a loan out to a woman with a little shop there and she's 93% repaid on her loan.) They truly don't want a handout, they just need a hand.

That is truely awesome! I have never heard of such a thing. I will have to check it out.

When I was little, my grandparents sponsored a child in Africa. They use to tease me that the little girl was their "other" grandchild and I would get so jealous but as a "grown up" I think it was so neat that they did that for so many years.

[mamatotex97]

Originally Posted by mojokitty

I am totally with you and the rest of the people posting on here about money! I listen to a certain financial somebody (don't want to mention his name, I'm not sure if I can without getting dinged for it) on talk radio. He has inspired me so much to start taking care of our finances more. Which is a huge reason that I"m sitting at home today instead of out and getting caught up in the moment. I seriously laughed about the washing machine thing. I KNOW people like that! It's just an immature or selfish way of thinking.

Also, I totally agree with you Lucky and Sapphire about enjoying your family and not the material things. I've been trying to convert my family to think this way and it hasn't worked yet. I told them, if they would not buy us anything and just spend the money on coming down to visit us, I would be beyond happy! Guess what? They aren't coming down this holiday season. I'm going to keep working on them though! I have been trying to tell them for years that we need to stop buying gifts for one another and enjoy the company that we spend with one another. Now that we are states away from each other, it seems like we are just exchanging gift cards for the same amount to each other. WHY??? It's really kind of dumb! If we would just invest that money in some plane tickets, wouldn't that be more worth it???

I've been trying to tell my family that for years. We live away from everyone as well, have done so for 9 years. We are at least now in the same state. Yep, it's like swapping gift cards. madness

[Bowie]

Originally Posted by mojokitty

I am totally with you and the rest of the people posting on here about money! I listen to a certain financial somebody (don't want to mention his name, I'm not sure if I can without getting dinged for it) on talk radio. He has inspired me so much to start taking care of our finances more.

Unless you are Dave Ramsey or work for Dave Ramsey, you can mention his name without fear.

I agree that he's probably not out shopping today, either.

[mojokitty]

Originally Posted by Bowie

Unless you are Dave Ramsey or work for Dave Ramsey, you can mention his name without fear.

I agree that he's probably not out shopping today, either.

Nope, just a total fan of Dave Ramsey! Oh, and how did you know I was talking about Dave Ramsey and not Clark Howard (another guy I love to listen to!).

[Bowie]

Originally Posted by mojokitty

Nope, just a total fan of Dave Ramsey! Oh, and how did you know I was talking about Dave Ramsey and not Clark Howard (another guy I love to listen to!).

You mentioned getting your finances in order. That's Dave's #1 focus. Whenever I've listened to Clark, he seems not to care so much about the family budget, he's more focused on getting a good deal on anything that costs money.

Unlike Dave, Clark was probably out shopping today.

[mojokitty]

Originally Posted by Bowie

You mentioned getting your finances in order. That's Dave's #1 focus. Whenever I've listened to Clark, he seems not to care so much about the family budget, he's more focused on getting a good deal on anything that costs money.

Unlike Dave, Clark was probably out shopping today.

Touche! You really know your financial specialists on talk radio!!!
To those who don't know who either of these people are, yes, I think we are officially nerds!

[luckygreeniii]

Originally Posted by mojokitty

Touche! You really know your financial specialists on talk radio!!!
To those who don't know who either of these people are, yes, I think we are officially nerds!

Yes, maybe....but you are smart nerds!

More people need to pay attention to their finances.

Did you guys hear that a worker at a walmart in NY was killed by a crush of shoppers this morning? Just be careful out there!

[firstclassflyer]

Originally Posted by luckygreeniii

Yes, maybe....but you are smart nerds!

More people need to pay attention to their finances.

Did you guys here that a worker at a walmart in NY was killed by a crush of shoppers this morning? Just be careful out there!

Yes..and here's a link to the sad story...savages!!! This was on Long Island. Valley Stream.



Wal-Mart clerk dies as crowd rushes in - Life- msnbc.com