Weekly Roundup – March Madness Edition
Even though my team (Auburn) was shut out of the big dance, I still look forward to March Madness every year. I love watching the early round games and seeing a #12 seed knock off a #5 seed, or an even bigger upset. To me, it is the thing that separates college basketball and college football. After all, it is not very likely that a football team from a small school in the northeast could knock off USC, but in basketball anything is possible.
My son is just starting to take a real interest in sports, which means I might be able to sneak in a game here and there on Saturday between cartoons. He doesn’t quite grasp the tournament play; to him it is just another basketball game, but he enjoys it nonetheless.
Who are you pulling for in the tournament?
The Fab Five
Unethical or Bargain Hunting? The Bargain Babe really had me thinking with this one. Is it ethical to take advantage of deals just for the sake of getting the deal? I picked up a prescription tonight at a grocery store pharmacy (my pharmacy was out of the medication) and they were offering a $25 gift card if you switched your prescription to them. Hmm….sounds like easy money to me. Then again, I like my current pharmacy and I do still believe loyalty works both ways. Tough call.
20 Free Online Finance Courses. Just yesterday a reader emailed looking for information on how to learn more about investing, money management, and other personal finance issues. I think I’ll forward on this excellent resource for free, online finance courses.
Steps Towards A More Sustainable Life Of Less. I really enjoyed this post and the list of ideas contained. Walking more, building communities with less sprawl, and living in smaller homes are all things I’d like to see us move towards as a way of creating a simpler existence.
Quality of Life and Consumer Spending. Is our quality of life really determined by the things we spend money on? And who determines if those expenditures are “excessive?” Do we not determine what is and what is not excessive according to our own personal budgets and the value assigned to things? All interesting thoughts generated after reading through this article.
Certificate Of Deposit Ladders. Jim shares an excellent video post on the difficult-to-understand-on-paper concept of creating a CD rate ladder. Like he mentions, rates are extremely low, but in most cases CDs (particularly those with longer terms) fetch a better rate than savings accounts.
The Best of the Rest
- Stop Hurrying! Live and Enjoy The Present Moment
- Three Things You Do to Cut Down on Waste
- 25 Ways to Live 25 Hours a Day
- Getting Started In Real Estate Investing
- 10 Places You Don’t Need A Good Credit Score
- Get The Best Home Loan Rates With These Tips
- First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit
- Giving a Lasting Gift to a Baby (But Not the Parents)?
- Preparing for Snap Decisions
- Free Taxes & Trading E-Book from TradeKing
- It’s A Great Time To Buy Your First House
Carnivals
The Festival of Frugality: St. Patrick’s Day Edition
Thanks for telling your readers about my video, I think CD ladders is one of those things that is difficult to explain with words on a page but simple if you can draw a picture!
As always, thanks for the link love.
I love some of the articles you linked to here.
The bargain hunting one is very interesting – if you’re taking advantage of something (Wamu) that’s also taken advantage of people in the past, does that make it better? Probably not, but I don’t think it’s stealing if it’s offered. Wamu assumes that some people are going to take the money and run.
War Eagle! Are you an Auburn Grad?
@Jeremy: No, but I attended for 2 1/2 years. I finished up via online program at Troy U. War Eagle!
I work at a pharmacy, and I have to tell you, people who switch their prescriptions back and forth just to get the gift card drive us crazy. If it’s a one-time med–an antibiotic, for example–fine. But please, please, please don’t do that with maintenance medications, especially if you take more than one. It’s imperative that your pharmacist know ALL of the medications you’re on, so that he or she can be on the look-out for possible drug interactions.
Boiler Up!
Go Purdue.
Good Deal. Although Auburn didn’t make the NCAA tournament, an NIT #1 seed is a great improvement. As sad as that maybe. Really enjoy the site, keep up the great work.