Tag Archives: saving money

A Woman’s Guide To Everything: The ‘Brat Ban’ Movement and The Golden Rule

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The other day I was listening to a well-known talk show. The subject that day was ‘brats’ and the wishes of many to ban them from public places, namely restaurants. As can be imagined, feelings were running very high in audience members, especially in those who have children and insist that their children need ‘their space’, they harm no one, and who say the people who object to their child’s behavior are kid haters; and in those who don’t have children, but resent the loud, unruly presence of someone’s uncontrolled fruit of the womb. They are part of what is known as the ‘brat ban movement’.

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American Institute of Consumer Studies (AICS) Field Interviewer Position-Scam?

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The American Institute of Consumer Studies, in partnership with LHK Partners offered an opportunity as a potential field interviewer. I was searching for supplemental or full time employment because, not being incognizant of the passage of time, I could see summer and a subsequent lack of employment on my immediate horizon.

‘Voila!’ I thought to myself. I had worked as a field interviewer for three years, and have years of experience in sales, customer service, travel, and communicating with people from diverse cultures. The job sounded like a good fit for me, being a knock-on-strangers’ doors around the country and asking them to go through an hour or more of a consumer survey, so I applied. Let me state before I start that I was not paid by the American Institute of Consumer Studies for the first, and most difficult steps of the hiring process.

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A Woman’s Guide To Everything: Back To Work After Being Mom

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This last week on ‘A Woman’s Guide To Everything’ radio show on Blog Talk Radio (http://www.blogtalkradio.com/gigijwolf/2012/01/05/a-womans-guide-to-everything-a-long-island-christmas), I talked with a friend who has been a stay-at-home mom for the last twelve years, and will soon go back to work outside the home. She has found a job, and I jumped at the chance to get her insights on the show, because she has turned some of the tenets of the recent surveys I’ve read on their ears. What was especially encouraging was that age didn’t appear to be a disadvantage, and her experience seemed to count. (The browser address for the episode keeps reflecting another episode I did with Carl Dascole, but it is actually the ‘Back To Work’ episode).

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A Woman’s Guide To Everything: Addiction and the Pursuit of Pleasure, Part Two

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The study of addiction, and why some people become addicted to substances after just trying it once, whereas others do not, is in a sense the study of moral luck, according to Adam Levanthal, director of the Health, Emotion, and Addiction Laboratory at USC. He says we are wired to want to feel good, so becoming addicted to something is not just crazy behavior, it is ‘evolutionarily adaptive’.

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A Woman’s Guide To Everything: Where’s There’s a Will, There’s Willpower

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Most people don’t like waking up in the morning. If you are one of those disgustingly cheerful, energetic beings who bounds out of bed in the morning, ready to go to work at the drop of a toothbrush, and never has a problem with your weight, or giving into temptation of one kind or another, then go away and read something else. Come back later when I have something for you.

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A Woman’s Guide To Everything: Money Matters

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 Every few weeks or months, someone writes an article about money matters. These articles incorporate a few different themes; how the marketing guys mess with our psychological makeup, and how businesses routinely try to pick our pockets.

Lately, businesses have been imposing fees for services that have been free up until recently. Similar things have been happening in Nevada. Suddenly, registration fees for cars have doubled. If you use the roads, there will be a fee, and if you move out of the state, there will be higher fees for those remaining. If you don’t use the roads, or people move to other locations, the state will try to make up the shortfall by penalizing the remaining residents. Because so many Nevadans are now going greener, and using less electricity, we are looking at another 20 percent hike in our electric rates.

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A Woman’s Guide To Everything Radio Show: On Blog Talk Radio!

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 A new radio show has aired called ‘A Woman’s Guide To Everything’. There will be recurring segments on chocolate, health, fitness, weight loss, government policies, various charities and causes, new beginnings, family, kids, husbands, friends, social mores, skewed people, things we like and things we don’t, our flying experiences with Pan Am, and any other subject we can get our hands on. There will also be a recurring segment called ‘Let’s Ask a Man!’ Listeners will be able to call in with questions about car repair, investing money, relationships, etc.

Wednesday, November 02, we ladies will be back on Blog Talk Radio talking about Pan Am, and other matters. Linda Patrick Garver will be on to tell us about skin care. She is a consultant with Clinique and used to fly with us. Deborah Thorne will also talk about diabetes, and how Xocai Chocolate can help women avoid or deal with this serious condition.

It will be broadcast at the same time and channel every week, Wednesday at 6pm, PST. It will also be tied to this website. It is going to be a hoot! At least for me and the few guests and co-hosts I manage to drag into my schemes, and I sincerely hope it will be a hoot for our listeners! Here is the link: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/gigijwolf/2011/10/27/a-womans-guide-to-everything-breakthrough-in-business

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A Woman’s Guide To Everything: Channel Your Heroine Or, What Would Kinsey Millhone Do?

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Recently I exchanged comments with Sue Grafton on her fan page. Maybe because I am a writer too, or because Kinsey Millhone has been such a literary favorite of mine for the last twenty years, making her a staple in my life, with a relationship to me (albeit fictional) that has lasted longer than some real ones, I am naturally grateful to, and curious about, her creator. There are many people of course, who enjoy her books. Reading everyone’s comments about Kinsey Millhone gave me the impulse to ponder exactly why we like her so much.

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What’s In Your Old Sofa?

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I always told my mom never to commit homicide, because the Badges-That-Be would find her crumpled Kleenex somewhere at the scene, and nab her in a heartbeat. Later on, when I thought there may be a chance I would become my mother, I swore I would not be like her, and leave crumpled tissue by the sofa. As you will see, that ship has sailed. We all become our parents in one way or another. Today, we were cleaning out an old sofa we are giving away, and here is what we found in the cracks, crevices, and frame:

At least fifty crumpled tissues; two magazines; a back scratcher; pens; a bag of dried fruit; an assortment of hair accessories, and some catalogs. Also, someone’s retainer from the seventh-grade, and a little old lady from Leningrad. Ok, one of the last things wasn’t really there. We have straight teeth, and don’t need braces.  We also didn’t find any spare change, or the secret to life.

It all filled a large, empty tub of laundry detergent.

A Woman’s Guide to Everything: Saving Money On Driving and Cars

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AARP put out a very comprehensive guide on how to save money in many different ways, including saving money on driving and cars.  I know that there are millions of people out there in my age group (which is in one of the upper boxes you check for age categories) who probably have this guide already. Too bad, I am going to write about them anyway. And there are plenty of unfortunate ones among us, who are still struggling upward, toward the rarified atmosphere of the long-lived, who haven’t seen this guide. AARP hasn’t sent them that invitation on their fiftieth birthday that gave the rest of us such a shock. Who needs enemies, when you’ve got AARP to remind you that these are your twilight years?

Our illustrious guide says that cars with stick shifts get more miles per gallon than cars with automatic transmissions. Did we all learn stick? I know I did, in an orange Gremlin. My girlfriends and I would take it to downtown Portland, Oregon, and cruise the streets on Saturday night, ala American Graffiti. I don’t think you can do this anymore, and what a joy teens are missing out on! Portland is a hilly city, so when I needed to stop, I would have to have one of my friends put their foot on the brake while I shifted and changed gears. Eventually, I learned how to do this all by myself, but what a rush it was, until I mastered it! Especially when trying to parallel park.  On the up side, I did save a lot of gas driving that stick, especially since fifty cents would take care of our gas needs for the entire day and night back then. Continue reading →