My parents own an American Staffordshire Terrier (read: pit bull), who bit our next door neighbor a few years back.  Said neighbor also happened to be our tenant, who was two weeks late with his rent and brought only half of it (my family lives in CA, and his wife, a teacher, had been issued an IOU instead of a paychec...more

When I lived and worked in DC, public transportation was no problem.  It made so much sense, and I didn't have a car.  When I started working in Fairfax, I had to get a car; the commute was 2.5 hours each way.  I had to leave the house at 5:55 to catch the first bus of the day to get to my destination by 8:30, and if w...more

I'm going to get flamed for this, but oh well.  Mothers need to take responsibility for some of this foolishness.  If you're in a two-parent household, then two parents need to be actively involved.  No, I'm not always going to be the one to leave what I'm doing if our child is sick.  Yes dear, I know you're at the hos...more

@ rosyone:  What does what they're taking out have to do with what you're paying?  My provider dropped my payments across the board because the amounts paid would pay off the loans in 17 years instead of 20.  So every 4 months, I send them that excess to pay off the principle on one of my loans.  The lower monthly paym...more

"I'm one of those people that refuse to sign the back of my card. Reason being, if I lose it . That just gives the thief a way of practicing signing my name! especially since you don't ask for ID! Make sense?"   I love that rationale.  You don't sign it because if you lose it a thief has to practice signing your name...more

When I worked retail, I asked for ID only when the customer hadn't signed their card, or wrote "check ID" on the back.  Credit cards are required to be signed, which many customers don't do.  I need to see something with a signature, and the only time I've ever had a problem was with someone who refused to sign the car...more

"I may be wrong as I have never bought from these companies but don't you have to submit to a credit check to get such payment plans. The point of the article is that many people who cannot qualify for credit cards are flocking to Rent-A-Center because RAC can qualify them by offsetting the risk with higher interest ra...more

I do it every month as well.  I don't have much so it only takes me a half hour to do it.  I also input the numbers into networthiq.com, which gives me a nice graph of my progress.

I do follow Dave's advice, but I do still have credit cards.  I only take one out of its folder when I'm going on vacation or a road trip or something of that nature.  Normally, however, if I can find an ATM machine I'm okay, because I have an ATM card for my MMA, which serves as my baby emergency fund.  When I had to ...more