6 Habits That Will Make You Go Broke

I found this article and thought it was worth sharing. One of goals for 2011 is to stop spending so much money on stupid stuff and start saving. Sometimes I look at my checking and savings account and think, where did all the money go. I'm guilty of a few of these habits.


1. Window shopping

It can be fun to browse the aisles and see what's out there. We all have our weak spots, like home goods, electronics or clothes -- even if you don't like to go to the mall. You don't even have to leave the house to window shop anymore; those catalogs, the Internet and commercials advertising the latest sale can be just as tempting.

Window shopping is a bad financial habit that takes some discipline to break. Staying away from your favorite retailers and not requesting catalogs or e-mail updates from your favorite stores is a good place to start. Before buying that latest item you pine for, ask yourself two questions: Do I need it, and can I pay cash for it? If your answer to either or both is no, walk away.


2. Carrying lots of cash

You know that paying with plastic is bad, but carrying lots of cash can be a bad habit too. Cash can give you the feeling of having extra -- fun money that's just sitting there.Online holiday shopping: 5 pitfalls

Carry only enough cash for what you need, and leave the rest at home. Avoiding plastic is great, but budgeting is just as important when choosing to pay cash.

If you like the green, try budgeting your cash with envelopes: one for groceries, one for entertainment, etc.


3. Saving your info with vendors

Those online shopping sites are so considerate to save your address and credit card information -- some even have one-click ordering buttons, so you can buy something in just a second. It's very easy and very dangerous. Not only does this easy shopping make you broke if you're prone to impulse shopping, it also eliminates the feeling of spending money, because all you do is click.

Don't allow vendors to store your credit card information. Avoid signing up for e-mails and catalogs if those tempt you to shop when you really shouldn't. It can be great to know about a sale, but if you didn't need anything, it's just another temptation.


4. Clipping coupons you don't need

We all feel the pinch in this tougher economy, especially when buying groceries. Clipping coupons is downright trendy today -- but is it really a good habit? Sure, getting 50 cents off that package of cookies or that brand-name detergent is a discount, but you may be surprised to find that your grocery bill isn't going down despite all your clipping.

The truth is that buying generic brands that are just as tasty is often cheaper; coupons can make us buy things we didn't plan for.

Start with a grocery list for the week, and then look at your clipped coupons. If you can use one, great, but try supermarket brands too for the best bottom line.


5. Shopping with your emotions

It was a rough week, or a good one, or you want to reward yourself for losing a few pounds, so you go shopping. You earned that new dress, that new gadget, that big pie -- it was on sale, too. Letting your mood dictate your buying decisions is the quickest way to go broke.

Sober up before shopping. Do you need these items, and can you afford them? Be honest with yourself. Reward yourself by doing something that doesn't cost, like taking a nice bath, or spending time with loved ones.


6. Not planning ahead

It's Tuesday, you're tired, and you have no idea what you'll make for dinner. A great night for takeout, right? Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, it's estimated that the average family of four spends more than $4,000 per year on eating out -- a very expensive habit that will make you broke in a hurry.

When you make your grocery list, make a menu for the week at the same time, so you always have ingredients for a meal. If your week is hectic, try cooking on Sunday and freezing meals for the week. Plan for lunches the same way; not only will you save money, you'll eat healthier by avoiding fatty restaurant food.

The bottom line

It takes some discipline to break these bad habits. With some planning, restraint, and avoiding tempting situations, you can break these habits -- and maybe even find you have a little extra cash at the end of the month.

This article was reported by Claire Bradley for Investopedia.
Published Nov. 10, 2010

Cute Fall Fashions...and Some Other Mess

Cute Fall Fashions

I Love LV...and these are beautiful. Anybody think Mo and Khloe will become BFF's? Mo's fiance Shannon Brown and Khloe's husband are on the same team.





If I could find this dress....oh wee...ok, I can probably find it, but there's no way in hell I can get in it. Don't judge me!




A Mess


I've never had a hankering to walk around looking like a bug. Her dress looks like the inside of a butterfly.




Ok...just LMAO on Joan from Girlfriends. Even the man in the back with the chuck's on is looking at her ass funny.

For Christy....The Black Men Shortage!

Commentary: The Black Men Shortage
by Demetria L. Lucas







If I could, I would climb under a rock. That's the only logical way I can think of to avoid the onslaught of articles, primetime TV segments, books, and countless blog discussions lamenting "The Black Man Shortage." (TBMS)



TBMS is something like the Black girl equivalent of those end of the world movies that come trotting out every three-day weekend to thrill us with CGI effects, remind us of the importance of family, and most importantly, churn out hundred million dollar returns for a big studio. Whenever anyone in media needs some sort of ratings bonanza or send their website's comments section into a frenzy, they-- the most recent being "Nightline" -- trot out a story about TBMS, a horrific tale of no love and lots of loss that depicts a single Black woman from [insert any urban center here] clinging to a half-empty apple martini, a Louis Vuitton Damier Speedy or a perfectly-coiffed girlfriends.



I watched the Nightline segment on YouTube the day after it aired (I was trying to avoid it, but my Blackberry Inbox blew up with emails titled "Have you seen this?") I yawned my way through all the stats that I've heard so often they run through my head like a CNN ticker:



*42% of Black women aren't married;



*If every Black man in America married a Black woman today, one out of 12 Black women still wouldn't make it down the aisle if they hoped to marry a Black man;



* 70% of professional Black women with B.A.s, M.D.s and J.D.s. are "still without the more elusive title: M-R-S."



I stared blankly at my Mac screen as yet another batch of extraordinarily beautiful (the woman with the dimples? Gaw- geous) and successful Black women lamented their loneliness. I kept staring, even added an eye roll, as Steve Harvey suggested single Black women date "older men." (Oh, that's all I have to do?) I watched, added a side eye for emphasis, and I wondered... three things. The first of which was, why are we still talking about this?



The Washington Post gave good ink to this topic two weeks back. Oprah covered it when Harvey's bestselling relationship guide dropped earlier this year. CNN dedicated the vast majority of its first "Black in America" to this subject. Terry McMillian's been talking about TBMS to the masses since at least the 1980s. The very first ESSENCE had a coverline, "Black Man, Do You Still Love Me?"... in the 70s. The Moynihan Report documented this problem back in the 60s when the Black marriage rate still hovered around 62%.



Fifty years later, we're still talking, but what are we doing about it other than re-hashing the same material? Where's the action? (And by action I mean more than advice like, "date older men.")



You know what else I wondered? Where are the news stories about White girls and Latinas and Asian ladies who can't find a good man? Don't they have issues too? Cause the ones I know are in my single boat, rowing around the Hudson River with me and looking for love too. There's this entire fictional franchise called "Sex and the City" (maybe you've heard of it?) dedicated to White women's search for love in Manhattan that women of all colors flock to in droves because its relatable. You know why it's relatable? Because 51% of American women are living without a husband, i.e: they are single. This is the first time in American history that more women are single than married. Fifty-one percent of Latina woman are unmarried, so are 45% of non-Hispanic White women, and 41% of Asian women.



So all that makes me wonder, where are the stories about all these American (ie, not just Black) women? Why are women who are hued like me always trotted out for national viewing as lonely (and sometimes desperate), with the not so subliminal subtext that Black men just can't show no act right? Why are we always the ones chosen to sit in freshly-permed groups in chic bistros discussing dating hardships like we're the only ones facing them. Why is what is largely an American woman problem being so widely portrayed as a Black woman's problem?



Last but not least, I wondered, where are the men in this discussion? I mean, yes, you have Steve Harvey on set, but he's a relationship expert and further, ineligible to date as a married man. I've never understood why in all the roundtables about why so many women are single, no one ever just asks a batch of men, "Hey, what's keeping ya'll from putting a ring on it?" Or better, why no one ever gets the single men and women who are supposed to be pairing off with one another into the same room to discuss why they're not getting together. Isn't talking about heterosexual relationship problems and attempting to solve them in same-sex groups absolutely pointless?



Which got me back to the point of wondering what the whole point of still just talking about single Black women and the Black Man Shortage was to begin with.



I Kanye shrugged, closed my Mac and turned on my TV to get my mind off Nightline.



Guess what was on?



An end of the world movie.


Read more: http://www.essence.com/relationships/commentary_3/black_women_arent_the_only_ones_looking.php?page=34#ixzz16FyyUntC

Watch Out Now...Caffeine and Alcohol

There have been a number of reports of college kids hospitalized after drinking something called Four Loko, an increasingly popular type of beverage that’s high in alcohol (12 percent, up to three times more potent than beer) and contains as much caffeine as a cup of coffee. Students at Ramapo College in New Jersey and Central Washington University consumed the beverage and ended up in the ER with signs of alcohol poisoning. And now alarm is spreading—and not just on college campuses—about the dangers of mixing alcohol and caffeine.




People are right to be alarmed, says Holly Phillips, MD, an internist in New York City. "Your body's natural response to intoxication is to become drowsy, and when you’re drowsy you have less of an impulse to drink." But when you add caffeine to the mix, you don't get tired and may not realize how buzzed you are. So you keep drinking rather than heading to bed or cutting yourself off.



But Four Loko isn't the only dangerous mix out there. Ordering a vodka-Red Bull or a Sparks (an "energy beer") can spell disaster too. You want to steer clear of any alcoholic drink that also keeps you stimulated and awake, explains Phillips.



That doesn't mean you need to totally cut out either coffee or alcohol, though. While it's obviously important not to overdo it on the cocktails because that alone can put you in all types of dangerous situations, having caffeine during the day and a glass of wine at night doesn't cause the same problems as Four Loko. "The alcohol and caffeine effects are most pronounced when they are being metabolized at the same time, especially in the same beverage," Phillips says.


http://www.cosmopolitan.com/celebrity/news/loko-caffeine-and-alcohol-dangerous?click=cos_new