Monthly Archives: January 2012

Jan30

Ethics

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I’m writing a paper for my business ethics class.  It has to be 4-5 pages long and about an ethical decision I know of personally or something I read in the paper.  I decided to write about Martha Stewart and her insider trading conviction.  I finished the paper in about 1 page.  So, I started digging deeper to get more information and make my paper more interesting.  There are two things I’ve discovered about myself from this paper.

One! I’m not so sure I believe what Martha did was unethical.  Was it wrong and did she break laws?  Sure!  But, did you know she only gained $51,000 from selling her stocks early?  That’s pocket change for a billionaire like her!  She gives that out as Christmas presents each year (I’m assuming).  The company who she owned the shares of stocks in is a pharmaceutical company who primarily does research on cancer drugs.  Martha’s early payout didn’t bankrupt that company and didn’t ruin people’s retirement dreams the way Enron did.  I also think Martha is super smart and I don’t believe she did anything sneaky.  And, maybe I’m saying that because I get details to things going on in my company all the time and it’s never a big deal until someone makes it a big deal.

Two!  Why can’t I write papers like I write in my blog?!  I can sum up the facts about an event so well but teachers put these requirements that papers have to be a certain length.  Why?  Who says?  You will know what I’m talking about in a 2-page paper.  Oh well.

I’m determined to improve my writing skills with the blog and with that have something to write in the blog from my school experiences.

The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe. — Gustave Flaubert

 

Jan26

D3 vitamins

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Last summer a coworker of mine told me that she may have found a vitamin to help with her mild rosacea.  She said it was D3 and she buys the liquid form and put drops under her tongue.  The maximum daily amount shown on most pill bottles is 4000 IUs, which is four drops for her.  She really noticed a difference in her skin and the redness and breakouts were not as bad as before.

I went to Walmart and bought my own D3 but I got it in the pill format.  I decided to only take 2000 IUs each day and see how that worked.  It took some time but at about four weeks of using it I realized I had not had any deep, bruising pimples I used to get.  And, any tiny blemish I did get was gone within 24 hours.  I continued to use the pills every day and never had an outbreak.  About 10 days ago I ran out of the vitamins and just held off on buying more until I went to the store over the weekend.  Five days passed and I got a breakout.  The deep, bruising pimples were back.  When I got home with the pills I immediately took 4000 IUs (4 pills) and then kept up with my daily 2000 IUs.  My skin is better again but it was amazing that just only 5 days of not taking the pills I broke out.

I’m not a medical doctor or involed in selling pharmaceuticals.  I’m just noting my own personal experience with these vitamins.  You can research vitamin D and see that it has a major play in skin and diseases that affect your skin, like psoriasis.  Besides helping the skin, vitamin D can help with rheumatoid arthrits, blood pressure, and PMS.  I also just read an article that researchers are in an early discovery to see how vitamin D can help out with Lupus and you can read it here.

If you want to try vitamin D3, be sure to follow the instructions on the bottle and if you have any questions, contact your doctor.

Jan26

More ways to save!

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I have mentioned in some of my recent entries that I love reading a blog called Daily Worth.  It a special blog designed for women who want to save for the future, whether it’s for their kids or for a trip to Italy.  I can’t remember how I stumbled upon it but you can sign up to receive blog posts, which come once or twice a day.

Daily Worth was also one of the places I had heard about www.mint.com.  More recently, they announced a $1,000 sweepstakes for those using mint.com to set goals and budgets.  All you have to do is to set a goal to save $1,000 using Mint’s goal features and send a print screen of the goal to dailyworth.  You’ll immediately get entries into the drawing.  Then, if you actually save $1,000 you could be one of three winners who will win $1,000.  You double your savings!!

To sign up for the Daily Worth, go to www.dailyworth.com.  To read more about the sweepstakes, go to here.

Jan24

Goal #2!

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Today I did it!  I woke up at 6am when Jacob jumped in the shower and talked my sweet butt into getting up and going on a walk.  Every night when I’m going to sleep I try to see myself getting out of bed the next morning full of excitement for a walk and it never works.  I told Jacob what I was doing and he told me it was cold outside.  It didn’t seem cold inside so I checked the weather.  It said 55 degrees but was supposed to rain.  I ran downstairs to check the weather myself.  Cool but no rain.  I ran back upstairs to get ready and get the dogs ready to go with me.

We started our walk.  The dogs have to do their business before we can actually get going.  Once they’re done and I get onto the street, here come the sprinkles.  I keep on going.  While I’m trying to speed up my pace, and keep the dogs from smelling every blade of grass, there are random drops just falling from the sky.  I tell myself to start jogging a bit to hurry.  Katie doesn’t feel like running so I’m basically pulling her along with me.  I get maybe .5 miles down and the sprinkles get heavier.  We turn around.  Now, Katie is ready to sprint back home.  (Keyword: treats) So we run all the way back.

When we get back in the house I thought I’d do some sit-ups since my walk was shortened.  While I’m laying on the ground, Ginger keeps dumping her frisbee on my chest to throw it for her to fetch.  I only end of doing about 100 sit-ups, but again, it’s better than nothing.

I’m proud of myself for not letting too many excuses get in the way of me actually exercising a bit this morning.  Tomorrow it’s supposed to be pouring rain so maybe I’ll dance in the living room to Wii.

Jan23

Unsubscribe!!

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One of my hoarding habits is keeping emails, especially the ones that offer discounts or coupons from retailers and online stores.  You just never know who may be offering a great deal right when you need that perfect birthday present for a friend or just need a new door mat.

New front door mat I bought from zulilly.com. Just arrived!!

I read on my new favorite blog, Daily Worth, that one way to help you save money is to avoid being inticed by sales and new products from emails.  I probably spend an hour of my day shopping online simply because of these emails.  In the back of my mind I’ve always known the emails made me spend more than if I never received them but I couldn’t stop receiving them because WHAT IF I MISS A SALE?!?!  This time I made a deal with myself.  I will give up all the emails until I pay off my debt and then I can subscribe to those that I really make purchases from.  Over the weekend I worked on this project and unsubscribed from all the notifications I receive except for two and the Groupon and Living Social sites (they are coupon sites, after all!)  Today the number of emails I received was minimal and I didn’t even go into withdrawl!  I feel a little liberated, too, like I’m no longer a closet shopper.  I’m another step closer to paying off my debt sooner!!

Just don’t unsubcribe me!!

 

Jan22

Dollar bills, y’all!!

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We all want more money and sometimes the best way to get more of it is by changing our spending habits and paying off debt so we have more cash.  I wanted to share a couple of financial websites that are easy to use and will help you with any financial goals whether it’s paying off credit card debt, saving for a trip, or just budgeting better each month.  Both sites are free to use.

The first one is www.mint.com.  Mint.com has been promoted by TurboTax and another blog I read called Daily Worth.  When you sign up it will ask you some basic questions and then you provide all of your financial information.  You have to have  online access to your financial institutions in order for this to work.  It will also pull any savings including your 401k and if you own your home it will put a value on it, too.  It will pull every single transaction made on your checking account and credit cards and then itemize it.  You have the opportunity to change the itemized category the way you want and then it will put them in pie graphs or bar charts, whatever you want.  There is an opportunity to have your credit report run but I did not do that because you have to pay for both the experian and transunion reports each month.  The site will also give you credit card offers that may have a lower APR% or offer rewards.  One last piece is you can set your own budgets and goals for the month, year, or whatever you want.  Check it out!

The other website is www.creditsesame.com.  I signed up for Credit Sesame about two months ago and it does the same thing as mint.com but not as well.  It shows you ways on saving money on mortgages and credit cards and you can do some budgeting.  What I love about this site is it monitors my credit score for free and sends me notice once a month so I can see if there have been any changes.  My score went down one point this month thanks to the Christmas shopping so I paid off the debt quicker than I probably would have in hopes it will go back up next month.

If you decide to use these sites, or already are, comment back on your two-cents when using these websites.

Jan18

What? A new year?!

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Oh man!  My last post was before the Thanksgiving holiday.  How time flies when you’re working overtime, finishing projects for school, shopping for the holidays, and taking care of your broken husband.  I can’t even believe we’re more than half way through January already.  So, HAPPY NEW YEAR to all my followers.

This year I will be talking about weddings (and all that comes with that), scuba diving (a current fear of mine), school, and new goals and changes.  I’m not making any new year’s resolutions this year.  Instead, I’m making goals that are reasonable.  The first is paying off debt. I even applied to write about my story to a financial blog that helps women get ahead in their finances.  They only need 2 and over 1,000 applied, fingers are crossed.

The second goal is to watch my weight, not focus on losing.  That said, I want to figure out how to get my mind motivated to run or at least workout.  I have to stop using every excuse in the book.

The third goal is to just be happy.  With every decision I make and choose to do, I want to make sure I’m still happy.  Nothing too hard about that but I’m a pro at letting the little things get to me.  No more!

And now, my first thought for the blog this new year:

I am going to just be a social drinker this year.  This includes: when I talk to myself, talk to the dogs, and read facebook posts.  Cheers!!