Financial Peace - I'm Ready to be Wierd! (Part 3)

I know that Christmas is not an Emergency, according to Dave Ramsey. But, we are postponing our Financial Peace mission until January.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

I just watched Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, via Netflix. I must say that I was rather disappointed. I know that Harrison Ford is 66 years old and he's a good looking old man. It totally wrecked my image of Indiana Jones to see him old like that! He has too many wrinkles and he was moving a lot slower and more painstakingly than the Indiana Jones that I know.

Beside my image of Indiana Jones being smashed, the whole movie was cliche'. The lines were bad and the jokes were worse. Nothing was a surprise. I knew as soon as Shia LeBeouf's character said his name was 'Mutt', that he was Indiana's son. First of all, because he chose his name and second of all, Indiana Jones chose the name 'Indiana' after the family dog and now his kid chooses a name that indicates a dog. The overall storyline was somewhat intriguing - the thought that aliens spawned and intelligent super-civilization 500 years ago is a great concept. I just don't think that they delivered.

The first 3 Indiana Jones movies centered on more widely acknowledged ideas and beliefs: Raiders of the Lost Ark was about finding the Ark of the Covenant; Temple of Doom was about the Sankara stone and a cannibalistic tribe; Last Crusades was about the Holy Grail and the Nazis. This movie was about a crystal skull and "inter-dimensional beings" (as George Lucas calls them). So, while that's an interesting concept, it really doesn't fit in with today's, or the 1950's, pop-culture.

I probably won't be adding this movie to my collection.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am thankful for:

• My Wonderful Husband, who is a kind, loving husband and a great partner to me.
• My Son, who is so sweet and smart and funny.
• My oldest Daughter, who is clever, smart and imaginative.
• My youngest Daughter, who is a beautiful challenge.
• Being able to stay home and take care of my family and my nephew.
• The rest of my family, who are loving and supportive.
  

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

The Mary Kay Ladies that Just Don't Get the Hint. (AKA: My I-Story, Part 3)

So, I had decided that I was just going to do MK on a personal use basis. I found that I still didn't 'need' enough to place that $200 order every 4-6 months. So, I just filled in the order with extra stuff, that I would eventually 'need'. Which meant I 'needed' less and less with each subsequent order and more and more stuff was going into the bathroom cupboard.

In March, a former customer of mine contacted me, saying that she wanted to return her products for a refund. I looked at my records, the products that she wanted to return were from over 2 years ago! She wanted me to refund her $400. I can think of NO retailer that refunds cash on used consumable products more than 30-90 days after purchase. Plus, on the MK receipts, it says that the customer has 3 days to cancel the order. I would have even given her a full refund 30 days after and I would have exchanged her products for something else within 90 days after her order. I told her that there was nothing that I could do for her (based on my interpretation of the MK receipt) and that she should call MKC if she wanted to pursue it further.

I had my baby in April. I got home from the hospital and found a letter from Mary Kay Corporate in my mailbox. Saying that they paid Ms. Customer $400 on my behalf, and now I owed them $400. ARE YOU EFFING KIDDING ME!?!?!? I called them and told them they were crazy, and that NOBODY has refund policies that lax. They told me that the customer comes first, no matter what, and if I wanted they could cut the price in half so that I only would 'owe' them the wholesale value of the products. How generous.

Fast forward a few weeks. I actually had enough people wanting enough stuff to justify an order. I went online and attempted to place that order only to find that I am not allowed to order until my debt is paid off. EXCUSE ME? I can actually sell some products and make some money and you aren't letting me? How dumb is that? I emailed my sales director and gave her a summary of the situation. She offered to let me place an order in her name, which totally violates company policy and pissed me off even further. NO THANK YOU! So I went onto Pink Truth and bought the products from people on there.

Fast forward another few weeks and a consultant from my former unit emails me, looking to buy some products from me. At this point, I haven't ordered in so long, that I don't even count as a unit member anymore. Fine by me. I emailed her back and gave her a summary of my situation and recommend that she checks out Pink Truth. She emails me back, basically telling me that we all pay consequences for our decisions (duh!) and she wished me well.

Fast forward another few months to last week. My former sales director has been sending me newsletters which praise people for ordering, not sales, and for manipulating the truth to recruit new 'blood'. Why? I don't know, none of that could entice me back to MK. Then, last week, she sends me this little package with a little note card and some samples in it. The note card says something to the effect of, "Can you believe that its been more than 6 months since you ordered?", and "Place your order now so that you can get the Fall/Holiday products!" Yeah, because people always want the holiday products. Of all the holiday products I'd ever stocked, only 1 ever sold.

I wrote, "RETURN TO SENDER" on the envelope and sent it back to her. Do you think she'll get the hint? This week will be the true indicator of whether or not she did. The end of the month is always a heavy email week.

Too bad she won't be able to enjoy the holiday and the weekend, worrying about unit production.

I'm thankful that I will.

Financial Peace - I'm Ready to be Wierd! (Part 2)

The wierdness has begun! We just completed our first week of our re-launch in our Financial Peace Planner. I did well with my goals. I prayed every day to be a good steward of our money. We did the Cub Scout activities and had a couple of nice dinners together. I did not exercise - I ended up coming down with a cold after getting my flu shot. I finished Chapter 2 by Sunday.

Chapter 2 asks many questions:

1. Do you have stuffitis? Surprisingly, no. Things like getting rid of extras, buying brand names and top of the line purchases left our way of thinking a couple years ago! We do, however, tend to spend a little bit more on something that we REALLY want.


2. Are you using money to camoflage your feelings? Another somewhat surprising no. This is another line of thinking that has almost died in our past. Sure, it would be nice to go on a shopping spree. But I'd much rather have heat in the winter, gas in my tank and food in the fridge.


3. Are you vulnerable to get-rich-quick- schemes and bad investments? Not any more! I fell for Mary Kay, hook, line and sinker. I'd rather get rich slow than dump money into MLMs and other schemes and get nowhere but further into debt.


4. Are you a lazy money manager? Yes, and I'm trying to get better. I used to let my husband have total control over the finances. He's such a pleaser though, that when I asked if we could afford something, he would mentally tabulate which bills we could put off, so we could get what I wanted. THAT wasn't what I was asking for! So, we are trying to work together as a team, and discuss our finances weekly.


5. What would you do with $1,000,000? a. Give 10% to our church, b. Pay off all our existing debts, c. Set up college funds for our kids, d. Set up a retirement fund for us, and e. Have some fun - buy a house, travel, etc.

We were also challenged to set a date that we will have a $1,000 emergency fund established. My Wonderful Husband thinks we can have it done ny December 22, 2008. So that's what we're working for!

Our Weekly Goals

• Spiritual - Continue to pray daily for financial wisdom.


• Relational - Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving with our families.


• Physical - Work out at least 3x a week.


• Mental - Read Chapter 3 by Saturday, 11/29.

I'M READY TO BE WIERD!!!

The Mary Kay Ladies That Just Don't Get the Hint (AKA: My I-Story, Part 2)

So, I went to MK Seminar in August that year. It was well over 100 degrees with 99% humidity - in Dallas. And, we were expected to be wearing clothes that complied with Mary Kay's dress code - skirt, hose, close toed shoes, white blouse and black or red jacket, depending on our 'Career Level'. I actually had a really good time, and I came back with stars in my eyes. I wanted to be a director and win all the cool jewelry and drive a free pink Cadillac. So, I went to work. I booked appointments 5 days a week, I went to every MK function, I had guests at a lot of meetings, I passed out fliers and free samples all over my neighborhood, I hung business cards on cork boards, I handed out business cards at every cash register and drive thru I visited. I also reinvested every single dollar into my inventory to grow it to profit level - $3,600 of wholesale product.

Let me be very clear: I made absolutely NO money that year and actually even took money out of our regular household income to buy even more inventory. Even though I had at least one of every single item, people didn't want the random items that eventually collected dust. They wanted the regular stuff like certain shades of lipstick, mascara and foundation. If anyone would have been truthful in ANY of their inventory speeches, they would have told us to stock up on those items and the main skin care products and just order the other random things. The problem is, a consultant that does not order unnecessarily is not putting money into her sales director's pocket.

I worked and stretched and invested for about 18 months. About 1 year after I signed up, I was diagnosed with an acoustic neuroma. I went in for surgery to attempt to remove it in May of 2006. That surgery and the 4 weeks of recuperation time following really brought my MK business to a grinding halt. I also began to reevaluate things. I ended up feeling pretty lost when I was able to return to working MK.

My warm-contacts (family and friends) were already tapped. I didn't have very many or very good cold contacts and I just couldn't get any traction. It was worse than starting from scratch. I was about 10 steps behind starting from scratch. The sales directors began shoving some of the 'movers and shakers' - women who had made it to NSD quickly, such as Dacia Weigandt and Allison LaMarr. If they could do it, anyone could. Right? So, I still wanted to reach my goal of being a SAHM or WAHM. Since I had hit a huge wall, I decided to do a google search on Dacia, to get any tips or information on how she did it.

I ended up finding a website called Pink Truth. At first, I was appalled by the stories that were told on that website. Surely, MK was bad or deceitful...Then I read an article on the total overhaul of the color line. This overhaul was scheduled to happen 9 months after I had read about it on Pink Truth. Why hadn't my trustworthy sales director told us about this? Why was she pushing inventory ordering if she knew that everything we were ordering was going to be obsolete in less than a year? So, I watched and I waited.

In the meantime, I was trying to get my MK business back in gear, with no luck. Seminar time came around again. I decided to spend the $2,000 to go and get recharged and geared up to work my business again. After all, there had to be different ideas offered than last time right? That's what all the sales directors were promising. WRONG!!! I totally wasted my $2,000. I was hot, sweaty, shared a bed with a women who has nightly night terrors and talks and kicks in her sleep, I ate overpriced crappy food and learned absolutely nothing.

And nothing was said about the product line changes that I had learned about only a couple of months prior from Pink Truth.

Fortunately for me, my husband got a different job shortly after Seminar. It required him to be out of state for 3 weeks for training and then his schedule for quite sometime after was extremely variable. At that point, I had decided to tell my sales director that I was unable to work the business as a consultant any more and that I would only be personal use. I figured I could continue to order the products for myself and for a few customers who were loyal to the product but didn't want the pushiness. Then, I sold EVERYTHING. I sold it all on eBay - the products, the shirts, the bags, the tacky jewelry, the samples...EVERYTHING.

The Mary Kay Ladies That Just Don't Get the Hint. (AKA: My I-Story, Part 1)

So, I back in January of 2005, I had my second child, my first was 2 1/2 years old. I was invited to my very first Mary Kay party in April that same year. Right off the bat, the MK lady says that she is moving to NJ and wants to make sure that her contacts are well taken care of with a consultant in town. If anyone is interested, to let her know. So, I'm thinking, "Cool, she's already done some of the leg-work. What an easy way to get started with this business." I was also currently working 50+ hours a week as a Glorified Babysitter Restaurant Manager with Taco Bell.

The idea of staying home with my babies and earning full-time income just working 10 hours a week or less very much appealed to me. And, I figured that it would help pay off some of our quickly mounting debt. (Thanks to predatory lenders and adjustable rate mortgages) So, I went home to my wonderful husband and spoke to him about this terrific opportunity I heard about at the makeup party. He says, "Go for it," and I called the consultant the next day. She invited me to a MK meeting to meet with her director and to fill out the paperwork.

This was about a week after I had called her with my interest. In the meantime, I went on the Internet and did various Google searches including: Mary Kay, I hate Mary Kay, Real Mary Kay, etc. I wanted to know what I should expect before I got involved. I wanted to keep my head and succeed as quickly as possible. I stumbled across several sites, equally positive and negative about MK. I read many times about people feeling taken advantage of for being pressured to order a lot of inventory right when they signed up. Mental note, don't buy a ton of inventory.

I went to the meeting and sat there with some very made-up ladies in very professional attire to be applying makeup to the housewives and roommates and mothers that were brought as guests. I didn't understand alot of what was going on, but they seemed to be having fun. At the end, the director asked people who were interested in the opportunity to stick around, so she could answer their questions. Apparently, I was a "sure thing," because she didn't bother to spend much time at all with me, yet she was very devoted to several of the other women. I barely had a chance to ask her even one of my questions, and she really made me feel rushed. Anyways, later that night, she emails me the agreement link and I signed up.

$114.65 later, I had ordered my Starter Kit plus taxes and shipping. Then I was redirected to the MK consultant website screen and was encouraged to spend another $25 on my own personal, professional website. After all, it was half-off for the first year, who could afford to pass up that opportunity? After I signed up for that, I was redirected to the MKConnections website, where I was encouraged to purchase my Beauty Coat, product reorder stickers, address stamp and Business Cards. After all, what kind of professional doesn't have business cards? And that beauty coat just made sense: Who wants to get makeup all over their nice clothes? So, I spent another $50 or so there. So in less than 2 hours my $100 investment had nearly doubled.

I went to the next unit meeting the following week, wearing black slacks and a nice shirt. The point was made quite clear that MK Independent Beauty Consultants do NOT wear pants to MK functions. So, that weekend, I went out and bought a couple of skirts and a purple and a melon colored blouse, some cute heeled sandals (its hard to find ANYTHING decent in a size 11) and pantyhose. I went to the next meeting in my brand new outfits and the point was made at THAT meeting that MK Independent Beauty Consultants are only supposed to wear black skirts with WHITE shirts and CLOSED-TOED shoes. So that weekend, I went out and bought 2 white blouses and some close-toed heels. All-in-all, that was another $150.

After my first official meeting as a consultant, she had "the talk" with me. Inventory. If I wanted to be successful, I needed to have inventory at my house, ready to go, the minute someone ordered something. She showed me all these showcases ranging in price from $600 to over $4,000 in wholesale inventory. According to her, the quickest way for me to become a work at home Mom was to purchase $3,600 in inventory. She even told me that she would host my business debut, but only if I ordered at least $600 in products.

Now, this was all at the end of the month. And there are certain time-limits on the "bonuses" that you receive on different level orders based on when and how much you order. MK active status - the status that you must be to receive the wholesale prices - is only applicable for up to 3 months after your last $200 order. Now, this could be as many as 92 days or as few as 62 days. How? Because, no matter what day of the month you order on, that month is considered your first month. So, even if you order on April 30, April counts as month 1. May 1 counts as the beginning of month 2. Kind of slimy.

There was also a bonus Color 101 with orders of $600 or more. I spoke with my wonderful husband and he and I decided that the $600 would be the best option for us, but to not order it until the first week of May. Oooohhhh, did she push me hard to get that order in before April 30! And, I wasn't even "allowed" to place my own order - she had to do it for me. Very odd. Then, a few weeks later, I was told that if I wanted to succeed that I HAD to go to Seminar in Dallas. That's another $2,000! Off I went. It was alot of fun, but I certainly didn't need to go more than once.

You see, they are very manipulative people. They figure out your "hot buttons" and just play on your insecurities to make you think that the only way to succeed is to do exactly what they say. After all, who better to learn how to be a director from than an existing director. Problem is, they NEVER, EVER speak about any of any of the problems or issues that they encountered along the way. They are very strict about having absolutely NO negativity associated with anything MK, especially at meetings. We wouldn't want to scare any of the potential recruits away, now would we?

We also ended up filing for bankruptcy that year. The bills were growing too big, too fast and my wonderful husband and I just weren't mature enough and controlled enough with our income. We're both spenders, and it got us into alot of trouble. MK was supposed to be a way to help us get out of debt quickly. After all, there was a promise of full time income with MK, plus both of our regular full-time job income. As a result of all the extra work I did building my MK "career", I was barely around for my #2's first 18 months of life.

They had me convinced, "Short term sacrifice, long term gain." That if I stuck with it for a couple years and really "worked my business", she would never remember and I would have tons of time with her at that point.

Financial Peace - I'm Ready to be Weird!

My husband and I are getting ready to re-start Financial Peace baby steps. We recently paid off many, many thousands of dollars in debt and only have about $4,000 left! Problem is, the end is in sight and we are slacking off a bit.

I kind of gave myself, and him, a kick in the pants when I started mapping out all the things that we want to do within the next 10-15 years. I realized that we need to kick it into gear if we ever want to have these amazing experiences:

• Go to Disney World twice - next winter and when our youngest is 5 (probably in 6 years).
• Go to Hawaii for our 10 year anniversary - in 2011.
• Buy a new, somewhat larger, house within the next 5 years.
• Go to Europe for our 25th anniversary.
• Pay for 4(?) college educations.

And of course, save up a nice chunk of cash for retirement. I really want to be those people who live VERY modestly now and just have tons of money in savings for the emergencies and the fun. That means that WE NEED TO QUIT PISSING OUR MONEY AWAY NOW!!!

So, I hauled out the dusty Financial Peace planner, erased all my marks from before and we're back at it. One chapter per week, until we're done.

This week's goals:

• Spiritual - Pray EVERY day for help with finances.
• Relational - Continue to work on Boy Scout Activities and have at least one nice meal per week, all together.
• Physical - Exercise 30 minutes per day, 5 days a week - taking Wednesdays and Sundays off.
• Mental - Finish reading Financial Peace, chapter 2 by next Saturday 11/22/2008.

I really want this! We have been paying for our credit mistakes for the past 10 years and I am sick of having debt hanging over my head!

So, in the words of the awesome Dave Ramsey, "Call me weird - Just don't call me broke!"

I'm ready to be weird!

It's Not Fair

So, I guess kids get really interested in sibling equality at about age 6. Ever since his birthday, my son has been ever so kindly informing me of all the injustices in his life.

Here's the "Unfair List" so far:

• His younger sister gets to go to Grandma's overnight every Wednesday
• We stay home and have fun while he's at school all day (yes...cleaning, laundry, taking care of a 4 year old and 1 or 2 babies is ALWAYS so much fun).
• We get to go to 'fun' stores while he's at school (yes...Meijer and Walgreens are SO much fun with a 4 year old and 1 or 2 babies).
• Sister gets to play outside all day while he's at school.
• Sister got to go to Grandma's today while he had musical practice.

Let's see the things that he DOES get:

• $80 on a Cub Scout uniform
• Cub scouts with Dad every other week
• Field trips
• Going to 4 friends birthday parties in the past 3 months
• Boy Scout hikes with Dad
• Free pizza coupons just for reading 20 days a month
• Swim lessons

I actually think that my daughter gets the short end of the stick right now. It's total middle child syndrome. Son is involved in stuff. She's not going to school until next year. Baby is well, a baby, not very independent.

It surely isn't the same, but it is definitely more than fair.

Frustration...

I never cease to be amazed at how much money people spend on their kid's birthday parties. My son has been invited to 4 birthday parties of his classmate's. The thing is, the invitations are handed out to the entire class! I would not, even in my craziest moments, invite sixteen 6 and 7 year old kids to a party. Can we say insanity? And these aren't little at home, cake and ice cream parties...they are huge, all out parties: The first one was a joint party, 2 brothers a year apart, parents welcome too. There were no less than 40 kids there. They had a cookout and a huge Bonzai slide for the kids to play on, plus games, pinata, bounce thingies, etc. The second was a Chuck E. Cheese party. The third was a Bounce Party. The fourth one, today, was a party at a Martial Arts studio.

The invitations were sent out a month ago, which, to me seemed a bit early for birthday party invites to go out. Anyways, they said meet at the studio, the party goes from 3-5. Then, this week, my son brings home a note saying that there will be pizza, so maybe just give your kid a snack for lunch. We arrived at 2:50, they arrived at 3:10 and said that the party had been changed to 4-6pm, didn't I get the note? Ummmm, no. That's why I was waiting here at 2:50! So, I told birthday boy's mom that we would be by to pick up my son a little early because we had dinner plans with my mother-in-law.

I told my son that he should only eat 1 or 2 slices of pizza and only 1 piece of cake, so that he would be able to eat dinner with my M-I-L. She is the type of person that has an opinion about everything, including portion size and what kind of food is eaten. We get there and, of course, my son tells Grandma ALL about his exciting day and the fun at the party. And he says, "I had 2 pieces of pizza, so I'm not going to eat a lot of dinner." To which she replies, "I know, I'm very dissappointed." I can't fault him, he's a 6 year old, brutally honest kid. She on the other hand could have exercised some tact. She is never completely satisfied with anything.

He did eat his entire dinner.

But I digress.

On a happier, more wallet-damaging note...I found a couple things while Diaper Hunting that I simply MUST order. GoGo Natural, Hiney Lineys, Blue House Soaps all have terrifically tempting websites.

The Great Cloth Diaper Hunt

WOW! I never knew that there were SO many cloth diaper, natural wear, organic, BPA-free websites! I have recently been introduced to the Great Cloth Diaper Hunt and have been having so much fun trying to find the little owl/diaper icon. And I've been finding lots of other neat stuff along the way! (Too bad my favorite CD store, Pinstripes and Polkadots isn't involved) Almost all the sponsors involved even offer discounts to GCDH hunters. I actually force myself not to look too closely, otherwise, I'd be a broke mommy by now.

I have actually been, secretly, toying with the idea of starting my own Internet business (of some type) for quite a while now. I just don't know if it is something that I would be very good at or if I would actually make any money. It just seems like something that would be fun. I guess my previous stint with MK has me a little gun-shy to even do the research.
Maybe I'll take the time now.

Election Day

I know, it gets said for every Presidential election cycle, but this is THE most important election in American history. I voted 12 hours ago and am now just getting a look at the early results. As of right now, Obama is winning. It IS still early, and I am crossing my fingers and praying that the race turns around in McCain's favor. I have a very real fear for my family and my country if Obama wins. I have never had this kind of anxiety over an election before.

I do have to say that I am VERY glad that there is such high voter turnout this time around. I do believe that it is every adult's obligation to vote on election day. Its a freedom that people take for granted.

Here's hoping that common sense overrides trendy circle talk.