Did anyone else do this back in the day?

My daughter uses that expression: "back in the day." Not sure what day she's talking about, but in this case I'm talking around the 1960s.

I don't know why this memory popped into my head this morning. When I was in grammar school, I can remember that we often made corsages for our friends' birthdays. My sister, who is 4 years older than me, probably did it in high school, too, but by the time I got there it was the 1970s and nice little things like that just weren't 'in.'

We would take one of those cheap bows you stick on top of packages and add either a piece of gum (always Bazooka!) or a mini Tootsie roll to each loop until we had the number of years old the friend was. Sometimes, you had to add streamers for more ribbons. I think we sometimes did this with pennies. Hey, back then 8 cents actually bought something.

Did anyone else do that? Or do they still give out handmade candy corsages?

:)

Frugal Friday: CC warning

There are lots of great tips for living frugally over at "Life as Mom," so go check them out here:

http://www.lifeasmom.com/2009/07/frugal-friday-save-money-on-birthdays.html

Here is my tip. If you are lucky enough to be able to pay off a credit card, there is something you need to keep in mind. Just because the card is 'closed' doesn't mean there won't be some charge on it!

I have recently been able, thanks to the best husband on earth, to pay off most of my big, fat debt. As I pay off a card, I also close it. But I double-checked the next month to make sure the balance was at $0. Well! To my surprise I found out this isn't always true. Yes, there will be no more charges from outside sources. But what about the CC's own finance charges?

You could pay off the current balance on a card, without knowing that your finance charges weren't scheduled to show up for a day or so. Those charges go on your card. And there you are, happily thinking of $0 balances, while those sneaky charges lay in the dark, waiting to make your life miserable!

So...take a second look at any CCs you close and make sure they really are finished and done!

BTW, IMHO...credit card companies are legalized loan-sharking establishments. Thank goodness there will be regulations to stop this nonsense in the next few years!