I consider myself to be fairly thrifty when it comes to all things financial, and actually, as my time at the bank progresses, I consider myself handy with advice too. It's amazing what aspects of the trade you pick up just from working.

I have always been sceptical of taking out money from the bank and borrowing - only because I hate the idea of being at the hands of somebody, or anybody else. It makes me a little uncomfortable to feel that I constantly need to 'pay back'. But my time on other side of the counter - so to speak - has given me a chance to see how it works. Basically, a loan or loans aren't a terrifying prospect when you look at it. Sure, it's a debt, but with the right planning and system in place, it's certainly a debt you can pay off. Josh and I are looking at an instalment loan, which is a pretty common type of loan and would provisionally go towards a mortgage.

At the moment we are comfortable living at home, but as time goes on, we are going to start thinking about how to realistically invest in a place of our own. I know I have said that I don't want to completely settle down just yet; but I am now not adverse to the prospect of borrowing because I know Josh and I have the means to pay it back. I have checked it out with the guys at work, and even gone further-a-field to the internet and compared deals on websites like Alliance and Lester loans and mortgage brokers, for mortgages and other grown-up stuff that I didn't think I'd be doing at 19. But then, I didn't think I'd be doing a lot at 19 and my world has changed a significant amount in a pretty short-time. It feels good to be planning, and better to have something to plan for.

Posted by Kate on Tuesday, May 27, 2008 @ 6:16 AM

I had to go to the department of motor vehicle today to get my drivers license renewed. I always hate a trip to this government office, but today's trip was much worse than usual. I got there and got through all the nonsense relatively smoothly. It seems that some days are much worse than others in this place and it really seems to have no rhyme or reason. Some days there is a little wait and sometimes it is endless, but I have yet to figure all that out. In any case, I got through there in about an hour, which where we are is a relatively short amount of time. When I came out, I immediately noticed that my rear passenger's side tire was completely flat. I mean not just slightly but completely. Now I love to learn new things, but I grew up in a household where there was men's work and woman's work. It seemed like every time I would try to get my father to show me something he was doing, that he just really didn't think that I needed to know how to do it. It sounds a bit sheltered, but in my father's world building things, repairing things, car things, etc were all a man's job.

So here I sit only knowing what it is that my father taught me about changing a tire, which was buy a can of fix a flat and put it in the tire, but only one problem, I don't have a can of fix a flat, so I think to myself…Now What?! So the nicest man comes up to me and says to me, "do you need me to break the lug nuts for you?" Now I do know what he means, but I am too embarrassed to tell him that I have no idea whether or not I even have a jack in the car, so I just say, no thanks I've got it, when what I really want to say is "can't you just change it for me?" Well, I use my cell phone to call my father, but he is not answering, then I use my phone to call Josh, but I can't get in touch with him either. Well, finally I just give up and walk up to the nearest gas station and there I find it, a can of fix a flat. I walk back to my car and use the fix a flat to inflate the tire. The whole time I am feeling like an incompetent boob. That night at dinner, I really let my dad have it but very innocently he said, "I taught you what to do and you did it, you weren't stranded at least", his whole lassie fare attitude really annoyed me. Even now after this experience, he did not see that I needed to know how to change a tire. Well, after dinner I had Josh come over and show me what to do. It was so easy and everything I needed was right there in the trunk, I just didn't know what the jack looked like, so of course I couldn't find it. Next time I will be prepared, and from now on I will be sure to have Josh show me what I think I need to know and not just the "womanly things

Posted by Kate on Friday, May 23, 2008 @ 12:52 AM

I told Josh that we are definitely watching American Idol tonight. I absolutely love that show, but this season of it with school and everything I have missed a lot of it. I have seen the coming attractions and know who the top two are, but I actually predicted that David Archuletta would win way back in the beginning. When I said that, my parents who also enjoy the show, said that they didn't really see it that way. They were all hung up on that Carly girl, but she didn't really impress me. I really think that David A was the most naturally talented one. Sure some of the others could do cool things with their music and instruments, and several did have just amazing stage presence, however, now that it is coming down to the end, I do think that it is only fair to give it to the person with the best voice. I don't think that anyone would disagree that just based on singing David A would win hands down. David C on the other hand has an awesome presence and some incredible musical ability, and don't get me wrong he can sing well, but I think just singing alone David C would pale in comparison the David A.

In some ways, I think that American Idol has lost some of its excitement. I don't find it near as exciting this time, and I also felt that the few weeks I did watch that the song picks and artist's picks were bad. I don't think that the genres they chose this time around showcased the amazing talents that they were presented with. This whole season is just feeling a little flat to me. I guess it could be because I haven't seen every show, every week, or maybe that I have watched too many seasons of it, and it is getting old. I can't be sure, but I will watch tonight and see how these guys performs as chances are whoever does the better performance tonight will be the big winner. I don't think, though that that is the way to choose who is the best. Perhaps a better method of rating AI in the future would be to compile points based on votes and whoever gets the most points at the end of the competition wins, this was one bad performance would not get someone thrown off right away. It seems to me a more balanced method of choosing, but I guess these producers know best. It seems to me that each time I watch they are saying that "last night's voting results were the highest ever", I am not sure if this is a ploy to get people to vote or the actual truth.

I will watch the performances tonight and vote accordingly, I still enjoy the show a lot, but I hope that they find a little something to spice it up with next season, to give it a little bit of flavor.

Posted by Kate on Tuesday, May 20, 2008 @ 12:51 AM

Josh and I are in desperate need of a new car. Apparently, before we met, Josh's father had to sell Josh's car for some extra cash that he needed. Josh was devastated as it was the car of his dreams. Let me give you a little background information. Josh's parents got divorced when he was about 13. Josh's father, Ralph is a very nice man, with a lot of problems. He has a major gambling problem and that has caused him to loose everything. He owes the IRS a lot of money, I really have no idea how much, but I do know that it is a lot. He holds a really good job, and makes a lot of money, but manages to loose it all. Anyway, when Josh was 17 his dad bought him one of these guy muscle cars. I don't know what kind it was, but he loved it. I have seen pictures of it, but I still couldn't tell you what kind of car it is. When his dad got into financial trouble about 1 ½ years ago, he needed to sell the car, and in turn bought Josh a lesser car, promising all along to replace the car when he got the money. Well, I think Josh got tired of waiting for him to voluntarily do this, so he backed him into a corner and told him he needed a new car. Josh told him he wanted a brand new car, and that if his father would put the money he owed him as the down payment, Josh would make the payments, and so it went.

Josh asked me for my input and I told him that it should be a small car that gets good gas mileage and nothing too expensive as he would be the one making the payments on it, hopefully this would also mean we'd get a relatively cheap care insurance quote. We both had agreed that we had heard a lot of good things about Saturn, and thought this would be an inexpensive enough car that making the payments wouldn't be too big a headache. Well, he brought home his new silver 2 door Saturn Astra 2008, and it was a beautiful car. He was excited as it was his first brand new car. I told him congratulations on it, and he said "what do you mean?" this is our new car. He handed me the keys and let me take it for a ride. In comparison to the old hunk of junk I was driving, it was like floating on air. You could hardly even hear the engine it was so quiet. I took the ride around the block and thought to myself, this is odd, what does he mean this is our new car? When I got back to his dad's house I asked him about this, and he just replied "well, we are not going to be just boyfriend and girlfriend forever, are we?" I shook my head no, and thought to myself would this be the person I was going to spend the rest of my life with? I don't know, but I think Josh is really starting to believe that this is it and as for me, I think I am starting to come around to the idea.

Posted by Kate on Monday, May 19, 2008 @ 12:49 AM

Sara is my niece and the light of my life. This weekend Josh and I took care of Sarah so my sister and her husband could have a special night out. It was their anniversary, and my brother in law thought it would be a wonderful way to surprise my sister. He planned the whole thing out, a night of dinner and dancing and a stay in one of the most beautiful hotels in town. He just needed a sitter for Sara, and knowing how crazy I am about her, he asked me. I invited Josh along, and it was kind of a fun experiment. We arrived at my sisters about 3 and we also had some fun plans of our own in place. We were going to take Sara to Chuck E Cheese and play for the evening. We figured this would tire her out and give us the rest of the evening alone. Well we saw my sister and brother in law off and got Sara ready for her big trip to Chuck E Cheese. I told her where we were going and got her ready and changed and combed her hair. Sara was born bald, but now has a beautiful head of shoulder length brown hair. I am really glad that she is not one of those kids who stayed bald until they were two, that looks a bit silly and I am afraid a wig at that age would just look down right silly.

Anyway, we got her into her car seat, and took off for our adventure. I felt a little like an old married couple, but it was kind of nice. Sara kept throwing her sippy cup on the floor of the car and then whining to me so I kept giving it back to her which was a bit annoying, until finally I told her if she throws it again, I am not picking it up. So of course she had to test this, and I didn't pick it up, so of course she pitched a fit. The whole time Josh is telling me I should just pick it up, and I am telling him, no I warned her, and I am not picking up the sippy cup again. I tried to explain to him that you can't tell a child something and not follow through, they do understand what they are doing and they need to be accountable for their actions.

Well, I had never been to Chuck E Cheese before, but we had a blast. Sara played in the balls and climbed through the tunnels. Josh followed her through. She rode on those little ride-on animals and cars and she smiled the whole time. When we brought her up to see the Chuck E show, she was in awe, just staring at them. Then when we brought her up to see Chuck E after the show, I was careful thinking that she might be afraid, but not Sara; she jumped into his arms and hugged him. Of course, I got a really nice picture of them and I am going to have it framed for her mom. On the way home Sara fell asleep in the car and when we got back to my sisters house, I ran in and pulled down the bed as Josh carried her into the house. In that moment I knew that he would make an awesome husband and father. I felt kind of strange that I really had not seen it before. It left me speechless. We locked up the house and sat and watched TV for a while, just sitting snuggled together. We did not really discuss the evening at all although I think we both felt the same way, this just felt right. In the morning, we fed Sara breakfast, and her parents returned home, and we all got back to our normal lives, but not untouched by the experience.

Posted by Kate on Friday, May 16, 2008 @ 12:46 AM

Josh and I were talking travel planning again the other day. It seems we do that a lot; I think it's because we adore the idea of heading out somewhere completely new, somewhere where he and I can just totally be with each other and not have the distractions of cell phones ( we all know I hate those) or the mundane burdens that get in the way of just being.

Normally we discuss the joys of the hot, sea-breeze beaches. But this time we got to talking about destinations that were a little further-a-field. Josh works with this Irish guy, who is apparently the nicest guy in the world and talks about his home away from home much of the time, and I have to say he does paint a pretty lovely picture (Josh seems to think so anyway).

He heads of to Galway to see his family, in some small town part which is meant to be really pretty and full of great old castles, churches and cottages. You know, I didn't realise that so much outside my American landscape is so completely old. It would be a history lesson to say the least.

The whole thing would be kind of expensive, considering we are going half the way around the world. But, we are young and with time-off from work, it's something to consider. A summer holiday potentially in cashmere sweaters instead of my usual sarong and swimsuit, is an alien concept, but it's still romantic. Josh and I can check out the cosy pubs and the ocean and eat some really amazing food. I really want to go to Dublin too and maybe do some shopping. There's a Harvey Nichols which is like Neimen Marcus I think and I can stock up on a few things. Dublin's nightlife is meant to have such a buzz, which will be fun to sample, not to mention the fact that I don't need to get carded on the door all of the time.

It's one of those trips that will take more planning than you think, and I'm not sure we can fly direct to Dublin from here. We'll probably have to get to London, stay over, and get an Irish airline like Aer Arann, (I did some research already) for cheap flights. It may be nice to have the stop-off anyway. These are all pretty much just pipe dreams for the moment, but I do think it would be cool. I've still got Bermuda in the plans so if not this summer, then perhaps the next. Watch this space I guess...

Posted by Kate on Monday, May 12, 2008 @ 9:39 AM

Cell phones are all the rage, and having the best looking phone with the most features seems to be a status symbol. Although I do appreciate my cell phone for emergency situations, I think that the use of cell phones in general in public is a very rude trend. In case you haven’t noticed just about everywhere you go, you hear someone ringing. These are not just normal rings either; they range from classical tunes to popular music songs. Most are very obtrusive, and most people don’t even have the common sense to shut them off when they are at a show or in a meeting.

I have noticed that lately more and more establishments are putting up signs asking people to turn off their cell phones or at least to not use them while they are receiving service at a window. I think that they should not have to tell people not to do this. People should realize that carrying on two conversations at one time is just a rude practice and should be avoided at all costs. Doctor’s offices, hospitals, and even pharmacies have put up these signs and even when you go to shows there are reminders to shut your phones off. I don’t want to watch a movie while listening to someone talk on their cell phone, if you don’t have time to go to the movies because you are so important then please just stay at home. I can see if you are in the grocery store and need to call home and check on something, but don’t do your entire grocery shopping while carrying on an entire conversation on your blue tooth, this is just rude. I think some people do it to seem like they are more important than they really are. If your life is running you to the point where you can’t be away from the phone for a few minutes to get some of life’s tasks taken care of, then you really need to take a look at that. For the most part, I just think that people don’t realize how rude it is to be waiting on someone and have them paying you no attention at all.

Take yesterday for instance, I was at the bank and this guy came in. He was on his cell phone when he entered the bank. No, we are not an establishment that has signs posted about cell phones, so we just have to deal with it. As he stood online he continued to talk and continued talking as he approached my window, he smiled and mouthed hello, so as not to let the person on the line know that he was carrying on another conversation. He handed me his 4 transactions and I began processing them. One check he had forgotten to sign, so I had to wave the pen in his face and point to the check so he could sign it. He was receiving back $2000.00 in cash, so I wanted to ask him how he wanted it, but I couldn’t, as now I am left feeling like if I interrupt his conversation then I am being rude. I count out his money, which I put mostly in large bills. Then he counts it, still on the phone and actively talking, and starts waving two one hundred dollar bills in my face which I go ahead and cash out for him. Then he mouths the words thank you at me and off he goes. How Rude!

Posted by Kate on Saturday, May 10, 2008 @ 10:23 AM