"We are the 97%" - OMR

Update 1: Today I started my first day of not being able to use debit and credit cards. At lunch I drove to the bank and took out a lump sum of money. I don’t really know what I expected but part of me thought it was going to be a big deal that I was taking out hundreds of dollars. While I was standing in line I was thinking of all of these crazy stories I could tell the teller as to why I was taking out this money…but it turns out the teller didn’t care. I know I won’t have a problem with not using my credit card because I don’t use it very often but I use my debit card at least once a day so I can see where not being able to use it might get tricky. I appreciate all the feedback people have given me. I received a lot of tips from people who use cash a lot and even some reasons as to why using cards is better. That being said I am excited to try this out and hopefully by the end of the month I will still have some money left over :)

Update 2: After a lot of thoughtful consideration I have decided that I am no longer going to get Netflix DVD’s in the mail. I thought about cancelling all together but I just couldn’t do it and I still do stream movies sometimes. I wanted to be able to say stick it to the “man” like everyone else but I can't quite kick my movie habit all at once. As a few of my friends know I have talked about starting a “We are the 97%”…you might ask how I came to that number so I will tell you. 1% is DVD rental stores, 1% Netflix and 1% Redbox. Who knows maybe I will start an Occupy Movie Rentals. I remember “back in the day” when companies would answer to their movie customers not to their wall street investors. They all have failed me in one way or the other so all I have to say is...watch out OMR may be coming to the city near you!

Update 3: Due to the fact that I no longer will be getting DVD’s by mail I am sad to say I have to stop my movie critique. I will still watch movies it just might not be all his. It is hard to find older movies these days…I can’t believe I am saying this but I kind of miss Blockbuster.

Until next time...

Life without Credit Cards

For the month of November I am only going to use cash to buy things. I am going to say goodbye to my debit and credit cards and say hello to dollar bills and change. I started thinking about this idea when Bank of America announced all of their extra fees they are going to start charging people to use cards. That being said, I don’t use Bank of America so the extra fees don’t affect me. I have received mixed reviews from the people I spoke with about this idea. There responses were: “How are you going to do that?”, “How much are you going to have to take out?”, “Why?” etc. After hearing all of these reactions I knew I could call one person who would be able to support this effort. That person would be my dad; my guess is that he has probably used a credit card maybe 4 times this whole year. Since I was little he has always used cash to pay for everything; my mom on the other hand...that is a different story. :)- He told me that he knows I can do it, I just have to really budget how much I am going to spend.

This is where it becomes tough…a budget. I think half the reason I am doing this is to really start to think about what I am spending my money on. I do have a habit of not even looking at prices sometimes and I thought maybe if I start thinking more about it I could save some money. The second problem other than the budget is trying to figure out how much I should take out. I looked at my bank account and started to figure out how much I have spent for the past 3 months. It made me realize this is going to be tricky becuase I have spent different amounts of money each month…I also have to take into account that its a holiday month.

Here are my rules:
1. I can only take out money once
2. If something really bad happens (i.e. hospital visit) I can use my cards
3. I am paying for bills via direct deposit/cards i.e. Rent, Direct TV, Taekwondo ext.

So I will keep you updated on my ventures. I still don’t know how much I am going to take out. It should be an interesting month.

If It's Not Broke....Fix It?

Change: to make the form, nature, content, future course, etc., of (something) different from what it is or from what it would be if left alone.

I hear people say “if it’s not broke don’t fix (change) it”. My first thought is “yeah you’re right” why would you want to change something if it is working. After thinking about it a little more I have realized that I don’t fully agree with this mantra anymore. I am starting to think that anything worth keeping needs to constantly evolve or it will die off to the next best thing. I think maybe that’s the problem congress is having right now. We have so many programs that for awhile have worked and people at one point said well why re-think or re-look at this program when it is working. Well now we see that we need to re-work and re-think and “change” many of these programs. I think without change you can’t grow and that fear prevents a lot of things in life from being great. So this week my goal is to think of things that I would like to change. First order of Business: should I get rid of Netflix all together because prices have gone up or should I stick with just the DVD or just streaming or both?

Blind Spot – James Franco
Funny story about this movie, when I got Blind Spot in the mail my first thought was “this movie doesn’t sound that interesting to me”. I ended up watching half of the movie, it was a documentary about fossil fuels and basically scientists and researchers telling everyone that we are bound to run out and are screwed. Don't get me wrong I think this is an important issue and that we need to look into renewable resources. Well it wasn’t until I was half way into the move that I thought "where is James?”. I then look at one of my favorite sites (IMDb) and realized that I was watching the wrong Blind Spot. That being said I hope to watch the real Blind Spot soon. I am also no longer going to post a movie every blog because it prevents me from blogging more since I sometimes cant find time to watch movies (crazy I know).

Special Shout out to Avery…I hope you have a Happy 1st Birthday!