Wednesday, May 31, 2006

My Opinion Counts

She Said

I have been a member of a national survey organization for over a year now or more like I have been taking online surveys on their website.Somebody told me about this website long time ago and I have been taking a few surveys when I get time.It is free to enroll and you get points for taking surveys.When you get 1000 points you can redeem $10.They also send you products to try out.I recently was sent a bottle of Easy Off BAM for my feedback.

Well it's easy enough to do and though takes time to get stuff ; it is something to do in your spare time and I don't complain when I get products for free.

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Deal or No Deal ?

She Said

We have been looking for furniture for our new apartment for about a week now.We came across an offer on Craigslist for a living room/dining room set which included a dining table with 4 chairs,a 3 seater sofa,a sofa chair,2 glass end tables and a glass coffee table(below are the pictures)for $ 750.After we were done negotiating we settled for $ 650 with them delivering the furniture to our apartment(which was so great) for no extra charge and the lady threw an area rug in for free.The sofas come with a lifetime warranty and though it needs some cleaning he and I are very happy with the whole thing.

We wanted to know your opinions on it.Would you call it a deal or no deal?





Friday, May 19, 2006

HSBC Rate increase..

She Said

This came in my email

Your HSBCdirect Online Savings Account rate just increased to
4.65% APY* for new and existing deposits, effective May 18, 2006.

With HSBCdirect, there are no fees, no minimums, no risk - now at an even higher rate of 4.65% APY. That is more than 8x the national savings average.**

Good for me :)

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Dream Home Certificate

She said

He and I just opened a 60 Month Certificate from Digital Federal Credit Union (DCU).It needs a minimum starting deposit of $100 and the maximum amount is $25000.

Some of the highlights:

* The interest is variable currently 5.2% will be adjusted according to maximum current rate.
* You can keep adding to your deposit till you reach your goal amount which is at max $25000
*If you borrow against it for the downpayment toward the purchase of your new home there is no withdrawal penalty.

We are planning to buy a house in a couple of years(when prices are not as astronomical as they are now) and there is no time like now to start saving for it!

Let us know if any of you have come across similar schemes with other banks or financial institutions.

More details here

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Food posioning

Caused by: bad food

Symptoms: Nausea (basically anything eaten after the bad food) and stomach pain (frequent)
Duration: Usually the effects last 24 to 48 hours. The vomiting starts within 2 to 6 hours of eating the bad food and as time progresses, it becomes infrequent and diarrhea sets in (which stops after 48 hours).

Treatment: Fresh air, drinking ginger ale/Gatorade (to avoid dehydration), Wal-Dram II (Meclizine tablets, antiemetic) and crushed ginger mixed in water.

Lessons learned
Mistake 1: Despite feeling odd about the food, I ate it - Never will I eat something that tastes different.

Mistake 2: I took a lot of time before heeding to advice, thinking its just a simple stomach upset - Take advice at the earliest.

Also I decided to lower the alcohol intake. Infrequent high doses of alcohol must be bad for the stomach.

The story
I got poisoned after dining at a Chinese restaurant (Fort collins, CO). Although general tso chicken I ordered, looked and tasted different, I ate the whole thing. I even remarked to my friend’s that that was no general Tso that I know of!. After dinner we headed out to a bar and had three shots of vodka. Usually I get the buzz after three shots (my safe limit), but not this time. A bit perplexed, I went to bed and started throwing up around 5 in the morning. I assumed it must be the alcohol. Frankly I don’t like to be disturbed in sleep, so I went back to bed. Again at 7 i vomited. Now for some strange reason, I felt stupid that I drank three shots of vodka. So I drank around 1.5 liters of water to compensate for the alcohol. Promptly came the water. That made me conclude that it should not be the alcohol. The thing with alcohol is that you vomit only once and its done. I assumed that my stomach is upset for some strange reason and drank water mixed with ginger. Also I took some butter milk to compensate for the acidity, no effect. In Panic mode, I started listening to advice and concluded it was food poisoning. Went to the drug store and took 2 tablets of Wal-Dram II. By the time I visited the drug store the condition was near stable.

References
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001652.htm
http://www.emedicinehealth.com/food_poisoning/article_em.htm

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

I just lost a bunch of money on my credit card :(

She said

I have commited the ultimate no-no in credit card history(well that might be a tad bit exaggerated) .The fact remains that I missed a payment on my credit(a measly 15 dollars) and now am slapped with a $35 late payment fee etc etc..The credit on the 0% apr card is so low I don't even know why I have it..I was hoping for them to increase my limit soon but now I guess I better just sit tight.

It's not the worst thing I just feel a little foolish..after all the reading i have done from pfblogs I should have known better.

Note to self:
1)If you rarely use a cc pay off everything on it and suspend it or something
2)Not all that is 0% apr is gold
3)Link your CC's using some software (MS Money) so you don't have to be so lost in this day and age !!!