BeverlyBrongersma.com

I don’t know how many times when offered the additional warrantly plan offered by a store I thought…. I don’t need this. But, I’m a sucker for safety.

And I’ve needed it 9 out of 10 times. You want to know why? Because nothing is made like it used to be. I mean really… why bust your butt on quality when the consumer will purchase it regardless. And in the name of America they will buy it again as soon as a better one comes out.

My XBOX 360 got the red ring of death 3 times. Or should I say 3 out of the four XBOX 360’s that were replaced with the extended service plan offered by Best Buy.

My 52″ DLP TV busted a bulb in a little over a year.

Smartphone stopped working properly.

And most recently my HP Pavilion laptop of less than a year blew the harddrive.  Exactly one year to the day of my initial purchase the damn thing died on me. What are the chances that it would happen the day the one year manufacturer warranty expired. Seriously?!

It was under “repair” for two weeks with HP. But, Best Buy issued me a new one. Or should I say a newer one. Eveything was better than my initial laptop. 2GB of Ram is now 4GB. 160 GB drive is now 320GB. 32 bit OS is now 64 bit…. you get the picture.

There are certain items I would say are pointless to buy the extended plan such as a DVD player. Anything where the cost of the plan is more than half of the purchase price… As a rule, I don’t buy the plan. Most of these items have a 30 day guarantee by the store or some form of a manufacturer’s guarantee. This should be sufficient.

What is your experience in this area? Any suggestions? Any particular retailers better than others? I happen to prefer Best Buy…

The second piece of software I would like to introduce you to is GnuCash. I use it as a bookkeeping tool for my checking account. It is a great and powerful alternative to Quicken. [IMHO]

The most important thing in personal finance is to always be aware of your financial position. If you utilize a service like GnuCash to budget, you will become more aware of how you spend your money. I have found that by being more mindful and intentional I have been able to keep my finances under control.

If you are not aware of what you are spending you will incur debt without even thinking twice. Start taking control of your checkbook today… you won’t regret it.

GnuCash will run on virtually any OS Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windows (2000 or newer).

I use Vista and have not had any issues with my installation of GnuCash. If you are in the need of financial-accounting software… I recommend you check out GnuCash before you spend your money on the alternative.

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One of the ways I save money is by utilizing the vast amount of Open Source freeware available.

I’ve decided to start a series of blog entries dedicated to the Software I use. I know that this has been done before by many bloggers… But, there are still a few people who may not have come across this information.

For example; rather than pay $149.95 for the least expensive version of Microsoft Office… I use OpenOffice.Org.

I admit that I was skeptical at first as to whether or not it could stand up to it’s well known competitor. At this time… the only inconvenience I had was having to remember to save the file in a *.doc format before sending it off to an Office user. But, I discovered that you can set the *.doc format as a default!!

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In Kentucky, a woman is in jail and awaiting charges for allegedly trading her sexual services for gas! She was arrested last weekend with her John. They were caught in a stakeout last weekend.

Local law enforcement were hoping to catch people in the act of trading sex for money. Imagine their surprise when the John paid with a $100 gas card.

From NKY.COM “When people are selling their bodies for gas, that’s pretty sad,” said Ken Easterling, chief prosecutor in the Kenton County Attorney’s Office.

On a related note The Shady Lady Ranch brothel in Nevada was offering gas cards to high paying customers. If you were to spend $500 on a “Lady” they would give you a $100 gas card. $50 gas cards to go to the cheaper clientel who only spend $300.

Photo from CORYPINA on Flickr

payperpost

I recently signed up for Social Spark and Pay Per Post. My blog was not originally intended to be a source of income… But, after being laid off last July and the housing market being so terrible… I needed to find an extra way of paying the bills!

I have decided to only write about items that either interest me or would be a good thing for my readers.

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