Weekly Wrap Up March 16-22

Another week just flew by. I think with all the things I have been trying to do lately I have bitten off more than I can chew…but I have a really big mouth so I am still workin’ on it, bear with me while I work out my kinks 😉

So lets get on with things. These are just a few of the great blog articles I read over this week:

Wisebread had an article that had a pretty interesting perspective on customer service, or rather the pros and cons of different means of communicating with customer service when placing an order for something. Ordering Online VS Calling. Maybe the best point hit here was:

And in running between the phone and the computer, we wonder how badly we really need that service or product after all.

Stephanie at PoorerThanYou had a really great article about Learning to Love Generics. This really hit home for me because I grew up using generic products but when I got married I had to teach my wife about them, and the fact that they are pretty much the exact same product in a different wrapper. Not to be confused with a wolf in sheep’s clothing. My wife and I still don’t see eye to eye on some products but as Stephanie stated:

No one’s asking you to switch everything you love to generics right away. And even if you do switch, you might have a “Raisin Bran Crunch” scenario on your hands, and find that you like the name brand better for that particular product. But the best feeling in the world is knowing that you’re buying a product because you like it, and not because you’ve unwittingly become a victim to advertising and branding.

Those of you who know me with more of an intimate view than this blog gives, you know I am a huge Seinfeld fan. I even slip in a Seinfeld joke, reference or even a whole article now and then so I can’t pass up another blogger who mentions Seinfeld in a post. David at PimpYourFinances took inventory of his own wallet, quipping about George Costanza’s wallet from the episode and how eventually George’s wallet was so big that a small scrap of paper from a “learn guitar” tear-off ad on the street caused the wallet to explode:

He continued to stuff it so full that one day, it exploded in the street. He lost everything! The receipts, the chair, and the tiger poster.

That tiger poster really cracks me up 😉 David also had a more serious post about the economy and the things consumers continue to buy which are apparently; Canned Goods and Condoms 😉 Way to go Family Planning!

Scott at ThePassiveDad covered a local radio ad for a car dealership that was calling for consumers to Buy a New Car to Help Jumpstart the economy.I wonder if the car dealership considered the consumer when begging for their business again. Scott asks and answers these three questions:

What happens if a customer loses a job?

Is a used car a better investment?

What about your current debt?

PaidTwice talked about some of her internal struggles that I am sure many of us have had to deal with as well; Debt Elimination VS Increasing Savings. I am still struggling with my decision to save first because I know some of the expenses I will be seeing in the near future. What do you typically do? PaidTwice has some good points to look over.

NoDebtPlan had an interesting and eye opening take on the way he views his expense list as a bit of a learning tool and that the most important thing on it is the thing he should not have bought:

I am now convinced that the most important expense you make every week is the one you shouldn’t have made. It is this expense that teaches you more about spending than any other. So what are the two biggest changes you can see in your spending habits as a result of such a practice?

I am sure NoCreditNeeded will be happy to see me spreading around his post about how he made some big mistakes at the grocery store. But hey, we all make mistakes and this is yet another learning experience:

Remember that really cheesy television game show… What was it…  Here, let me ask my wife… Oh, yeah… Supermarket Sweep! Yeah, that was me.  I was just up and and down the aisles, piling things into the cart.  Paying for my haul took ten minutes, and I think I heard my debit card scream in pain as I swiped it though the little card reader.

He also had a great post about his Kid’s Fun Fund, as an alternative to allowance which my wife and I have been using (on) ourselves since the beginning of our finance turnaround here. I will talk more about what it is and we use ours in a future post in the coming weeks.

That just about wraps it up for this weeks reading.

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Tags: big mouth, blogger, clothes, customer service, eye to eye, finance, generic products, george costanza, habit, handful, intimate view, job, jobs, joke, kinks, perspective, pros and cons, raisin bran crunch, seinfeld fan, sheep, wallet, wolf