Electronic Budgeting

Steve provided a link to his notes, which has links to all the other sites featured in Tuesday night's presentation: ideaharbor.org/budget. Some highlights:

Personally, I recommend each family complete a Cash Flow and Balance Sheet at some point, to get a good overall picture of your financial standing. For a lot of people, that's all you really need for peace of mind.

If your cash flow is positive, you probably don't need to track every expense, but it's still a good idea to know where most of your dollars go. Our favorite tool for tracking and analyzing (helping us to control) our spending is Mint.com. I recommend signing up immediately and entering your credit card (and perhaps checking account) information. Even if you don't manually input or modify transactions until the Resolution bug bites in January, you'll be building up a history of credit card expenditures. Mint is not something that needs to be typed into every day, every week, or even every month; the beauty is looking back after 6 months of not entering receipts and being able to easily see where your money went. You can also set up email or text message alerts if you go over-budget in a category.

Similarly, you can 'set it and forget it' if you're not in danger of overdraft fees: arrange for bills to be paid automatically, and automate transfers from other accounts to replenish your checking account once you have a good idea of how much you usually spend.

While not in-depth about budgeting, a good guide for getting out of debt and saving for things like retirement is Smart and Simple Financial Strategies for Busy People (not read-able online, but available from King County Library).

Different budgeting tools will appeal to different people. Please do comment here if you try any of the resources from ideaharbor.org/budget, with questions for me or encouragement for others.

Skills for Hire

Our dear brothers and sisters in the Spanish Branch have been hit hard by the recession. Most of them are in the service industry. Here is a list of skills, names and phone numbers of members that are in need of work. If you are in need of construction or housekeeping please keep in mind that they are available for hire. I'm sure they will appreciate any help they can get.

Another way to help the Spanish Branch is to donate your used MP3 players. They are using them to use to practice English. If you know of anyone that is getting rid of an old one please call Sister Welsh 425-235-0326 or Sister Birdsell 253-639-6678.

Thank you for all your hard work on your sisters' behalves.

Great Popcorn Recipe

Mikey’s Popcorn
60 Kraft Marshmellows
1/4 C. Oil
1/4 C. Butter
Melt butter, oil & marshmellows
Add 1 lb white chocolate
Pour over 3-4 bags microwave popcorn
Option: cut up gum drops, add your favorite nuts or
candies, food coloring. (Mikey loves almonds)

Free Personal Real Estate Seminar

Free Personal Real Estate Seminar

Sample topics include:
Buying and Selling process, Preparing for House Purchase, Bank owned properties, Short Sales, Foreclosures, Tips in selling a house faster.

Call for an in-home appointment:

Ferdinand Pinpin
Real Estate Specialist
Skyline Properties Inc.
425-985-2642
ferdie_pinpin@hotmail.com
If you can't see the phone number, hit F5.

Daughters of Utah Pioneers

For all those interested in learning about the pioneers whether you have relatives who crossed the plains or not, come join us for Daughter's of the Utah Pioneers meetings every 3rd Thursday at 10:00am at the Factoria Building. Contact Bonnie Stowell or Mary Ann Harvey for more information!

Tutoring ESL in Bellevue

I teach ESL classes in the Crossroads neighborhood. My students are all adults, from a variety of countries. Many are anxious to learn English quickly, and could use more help than I can give them. I can help you find materials to work from, and answer your questions, but you would be a great help simply by chatting with these people. Please contact me if you're interesting in helping out for a couple hours a week.

Another option would be to assist me in classes. For instance, I recently got about 8 new beginners (i.e. still need to learn the alphabet) and would really benefit from an improved instructor to student ratio. I'd love to hear from you if you have available hours

--Tiane H.