Berenstain Bears books on Kindle

Very recently, Jan Berenstain of Berenstain Bears fame passed away. Her husband passed on a few years ago and with her passing, I wonder if these iconic bears will carry on teaching children life lessons.  I can remember back 30 years or more to our librarian reading us Berenstain Bears books during library time.  I remember when there was just Sister Bear and Brother Bear (and when Mama Bear's lap disappeared for some reason).  I feel a sense of loss, perhaps because my children enjoy this series, but mainly because it feels like an old friend has died.

Since a lot of people are moving toward e-readers, I was glad to see a good many Berenstein Bears on Kindle.  Perhaps one day soon we'll see a Berenstain Bears book featuring Brother Bear or Sister Bear reading books on an e-reader?  I'm sure there's a life lesson in that. What's really interesting is that when I was younger, I could relate to Sister and Brother Bear... and now, I'm the Mama Bear preaching about too much TV, too much junk food, and why we need to share.  It's funny how life circles back around....


This post does include an affiliate link. 

What's costing you more in 2012?

I ran across this slide show of 6 things that will cost more in 2012, courtesy of CNN Money.  One of the items that made the list was meat products!  Oddly enough, my husband and I were shopping at Walmart the other day and he was quite put off by the cost of hamburger.  Mind you, he used to cut meat in his college days, so he knows what a good cut of meat is and what a good price is it as well.  We actually came home sans burger because he declared the price of it too high!  I guess I'll have to catch a sale at another grocery store. 

We even had a discussion the other day about trimming our grocery bill.  The thing is, I told him, is that everything has shrunk in size or jumped in price (or both).  I feel like I'm buying doll house sized boxes of cereal because all of the boxes have shrunk.  They're almost the size of play food that my kids played with with they were younger. 

Fortunately for us, hubby's skill as a meat cutter has not diminished and he is able to purchase those big hunks of meat and properly cut them down into roasts, chops, stew meat, or whatever we might need.   I found this video showing how to cut pork chops done by a chef.  Save money (in his instance, $1.50 per pound) by learning to cut your own!

Netflix now available in the UK, Ireland...

I don't get all too many international visitors, but I found this press release today that announces that Netflix has launched in the UK and Ireland.  Why did this catch my eye?  Because I'm a fan of British TV!  I suppose my sense of humor runs along that dry kind that they like over across the pond and I am hopeful with the addition of the UK market that the offerings here in the U.S. will increase.

The price for streaming in the UK is 5.99 British Pounds Sterling, which, according to Google when I searched for a currency converter, is about $9.24 USD.  Ireland is 6.99 Euro (or about $8.88 USD). Those in the U.K. and Ireland can sign up for a 1-month free trial at Netflix.com. 

Here's hoping some more Britcoms will become available here due to this new market being added.

Flexible Spending Plans (FSA) - if you have one, did you use it less this year?

I was cruising the WSJ online and found a Smart Money article about FSAs being less flexible (and will be more rigid in the years to come).

We have used a FSA for the past several years to help offset the costs of care.  What attracted us a few years ago was being able to save a little on our tax burden by using one -- who doesn't want to save a few hundred bucks a year?  At that time, I was receiving allergy shots all the time at about $30 a copay.  Going once a week meant $120 in copays a month and once we added on the cost of allergy meds and everyone else's medical/dental needs, it actually made a lot of financial sense.  Even more so since OTC drugs were included at that time, though for this year, they were not unless you burdened yourself (copay) by visiting your doctor to get a prescription for them.  Granted, if you were sick and they prescribed an OTC medicine for you, that's different than having chronic pain that you use OTC pain relievers for versus opting for pricier brand name analgesics that actually would be eligible for reimbursement. 

The ability to plan for health care needs has basically been stripped from us.  We seriously cut back on how much to sock away and we never maxed out on the total amount you could defer.  What saddens me is that costs just keep going up.  Over the past few years, I've noticed higher premiums and an edging down on covered services and higher copays too. 

But even more than that, our FSA provides a valuable service in that once we are signed up for it, we can file (or they automatically process) claims, even if we haven't contributed that money to the account just yet.  Case in point:  My hubby had a root canal early in the year because a silver filling cracked.  The upfront cost of the root canal and crown was a lot to bear after Christmas.  However, the claim was filed and the dentists paid.  We are still "paying" it off via FSA contributions each pay period since that event pretty much maxed out the money we did sign up to have set aside in a FSA.

Lowering the cap next year will hurt a lot of people by shifting more tax burden on them at a time that their premiums are likely going to continue to rise.

Bank of America fee backlash reminiscent of Netflix. Lesson to be learned?

You'd almost have to be living under a rock to not have heard the news that Bank of America plans to start charging its customers $5 a month for the pleasure of accessing their money via a debit card.  This fee would be the same whether or not you use your card at the register as a debit (inputting pin) or as a credit.  Customers are outraged, according to a WaPo article discussing the back lash. 

While $5 may not seem to be a lot in the grand scheme of things (and certainly not as much as the 60% fee hike that Netflix inflicted upon their customers), customers are pretty irate.  I have seen numerous Facebook discussions about this and you know, consumers are aware that it's a privilege for a bank to have their money.  Many (myself included!) are touting credit unions over a standard bank as a solution to avoiding potential fees since credit unions are user friendly and typically don't rake their customers over the coals fee-wise.

You just don't raise fees during a bad economy.  Didn't BofA read up on the Netflix debacle?  Customers were so irate over the price hike that they left Netflix and sought out other alternatives.  Note that Amazon offers free streaming to its Prime members (and that's only $79 a year ($6.58 per month), though they don't have the library that Netflix does.  Dish Network will soon be offering an exclusive Blockbuster option to its customers that has a plan of $10 a month available.  The lesson here is that customers who are already pinching their pennies as it is don't appreciate any fee hikes and they are willing to vote with their feet, while other competitors are more than happy to take someone else's unhappy clientele.

Recently, when Netflix CEO Reed Hastings sent out his email apology (followed up by his blog post on the Netflix blog), the backlash was almost worse than the initial 60% price hike notice that subscribers received.  Sure, he started off with "I messed up."  But that wasn't followed by a "Let me make it right."  Companies that spring fee increases that seem to do nothing but take money out of our pockets and put it into theirs aren't seen favorably anymore by their customers.  Times are tough and you know what, that means that a lot more people are willing to shop around instead of just eating a fee increase.

Ho Ho Ho! TRU releases it's 2011 Holiday Hot Toys List today

I know, I know... it's not even October and here I am posting about Christmas.  Today, Toys R Us released its 2011 Holiday Hot Toys list... take a peek, I know you want to! 

There are a few items on the list I'd consider... the Ninjago Lightning Dragon Battle, the LeapPad Explorer, and the Power Wheels Dune Racer.  I don't have any idea where I'd put a Dune Racer... but we gave our daughter's outgrown Barbie jeep to a family that had recently adopted a 3 year old girl, the perfect size for the jeep.  I just couldn't bear having my little man tool around in a girlie looking jeep. 

What's on the list that you would want to learn more about?

Netflix divorce: Qwikster to be DVD only and Netflix the stream option

Did you wake up to an email from Netflix's Reed Hastings?  In his email, Mr. Hastings apologizes for angering subscribers by splitting the DVD and stream services and charging for each, raising the cost enormously for a good many of us.  He apologized not for price hike, but for failing to communicate with subscribers in a more effective manner, going into details as to why the decision to divorce the two into Qwikster and Netflix was made. 

Citing the short-sightedness of Borders and AOL Dialup for failing to adapt and move forward with the next great thing to keep their business model's alive, Mr. Hastings explains that the decision to split the two services apart from each other was meant to ensure the future of Netflix streaming, while giving the dying DVD portion the ability to be marketed separately from stream via rebranding into Quikster.  He also promises no more price hikes, by stating:

"There are no pricing changes (we’re done with that!). If you subscribe to both services you will have two entries on your credit card statement, one for Qwikster and one for Netflix. The total will be the same as your current charges."

Netflix is still receiving a barrage of complaints via their blog, where they added some meat to the email subscribers received to explain their reasoning for divorcing the two components better.  One big drawback will be that you'll need to search both sites for movies and TV series since once the services are cleaved apart into separate sites, you won't automatically be told when something you want to rent is available on stream.  Queue management will be a bit more tricky as a result.  Check out the comments --- and responses from Mr. Hastings --- on the Netflix blog.

Star Wars BluRay at Amazon for $79.99 (Episodes 1-6), but should you buy?

The menfolk in my house are Star Wars fans in a huge way.  Anytime one of the six episodes airs on TV, they have to watch it.   So when I heard about the new release of Star Wars on BluRay, I asked my husband if it would be something he'd want (you know, thinking ahead to Christmas).  The answer was, "Noooooooooooo!"

Why such a long, drawn out no?  I checked the reviews at Amazon and the fans are unhappy with the tweaks done by George Lucas.  Many of them echoed the same issues that my husband cited as the reason he was begging me not to buy it (yes, I said begged not to buy).  Fans want their Star Wars to be pure and unadulterated.  I'm not saying you can't enhance a video, but adding extra elements into the storyline in past issues does tend to pollute the future time line and change the movie saga completely.  In case you still want to buy, a link is below so you can read the reviews yourself.

Star Wars: The Complete Saga (Episodes I-VI) [Blu-ray]


Note:  The link above is an Amazon Affiliate link.  If you happen to shop through the link and complete a purchase, Pinching Abe could benefit by receiving a commission.

Post office financial fix: Are you willing to pay for home delivery?

There were roughly 112 Million households in the United States between 2005-2009, according to USA QuickFacts from the US Census Bureau.  That's a lot of ground to cover for home delivery of mail, don't you think?  If you have a postal service approved mail box to receive mail at your home, the mailman will gladly bring your mail to you for free.

But many Americans and businesses actually choose to pay to receive their mail at a post office or other mail facility.  In checking local rates, the cheapest box that I could rent would cost me about $26.00 per year.  Yes, I could pay $26 for the privilege of having a secure mail box within a postal mail facility where the onus is on me to check for mail on a regular basis.

Then I got to thinking.  Should we be paying for home mail delivery?  Perhaps we should.  Charging even a modest fee would help offset the deficit that the post office faces currently.  I'm not saying that they don't need an overhaul.  I know that I've mentioned before that I'd be OK with Saturday delivery going the way of the do-do bird to cut costs.  And now they're considering ceasing overnight mail as a cost cutting measure.  I have been following the developments (and spoken to postal employees) enough to know that an overwhelming portion of their costs is labor related, but that union contracts have tied the postal service's hands so tight that they're literally bleeding money with no real hope of a transfusion.  I don't want to see another government bailout; instead, I want to see fiscal responsibility and a true good-faith effort made to find a workable solution to cut costs, just like any other business must do to survive.

Why not pay for home delivery of mail?  A delivery fee is built into the cost of your newspaper, yet you are glad to have it delivered to the box just under or next to your mailbox, or, if you're lucky, to your front stoop.  Have you checked your utility bill lately?  I would bet that there's some sort of delivery fee billed separately from your killowatts or cubic ft of gas usage.  What about your cell phone bill?  Are you paying a modest 911 fee each month?  There are many other delivery fees that we don't even think twice about paying, from postage and "handling" for online purchases to the $2.00 delivery fee that pizza delivery joints tack on, but don't actually give to the delivery boy.  I gladly pay to have pizza delivered, especially when the weather is bad, because I don't want to go out in it.  Yet postal workers do it every day.

My 9th Grade teacher, Mr. Wilson, first introduced me to Economics.  One of the many quotes that he had us memorize was that there's no such thing as a free lunch. Perhaps the postal service should be charging its consumers for home delivery.  Even a modest $25 per year x 112 Million households = nearly 3 Billion dollars.   That amount certainly wouldn't solve their cash flow problems, but coupled with other strategic structure changes, I think it would go a long way toward getting the post office back in better financial shape.

Are you willing to pay a modest fee to maintain home delivery of your mail?  Leave a comment and weigh in!

Flooded out Christmas trees

Would you believe the water came even higher?

If you follow me on Facebook, you might have noticed a flood related post last weekend.  My little town got caught by "training" with TS Lee and Hurricane Katia off the coast several hundred miles.  What this training meant was a lot of rain, nearly 21", for the storm event.  What it meant for me was flooding that I've never seen at my home to the point where our sheds went under about 1 foot of water and they were up on blocks to begin with.  With the rapidly rising waters (not caused by the Potomac River flooding - this was all a case of too much rain on saturated ground with inadequate draining for such a massive amount of water), we quickly cut the power to our sheds because we knew we had items plugged in, like our chest freezer and perhaps a power tool or two.

Before dark, when it rose a lot more.  The water's already up to the door.

The water rose so fast and we weren't expecting it to go as high as it did since it had never done so before.  We kept our eye on the weather radar and kept watching the storm re-boot right on top of us for several hours. Every time we thought it would end, the radar showed it just start right up again. 

We and our neighbors rushed to save our vehicles.  My husband jacked his low little Versa up at least twice to get it out of danger.  Our neighbors jacked up their cars too and put them up on blocks to avoid the flooding. 

In the end as we sorted out the water logged items in the days after, we knew we were fairly lucky. We didn't lose precious items like pictures or baby items that could never be replaced, but we did lose all three of our Christmas trees.  Aside from smelling a bit, the electrical components got wet (pre-lit bulbs, power adapters, etc.) and it wasn't worth the fire risk to attempt to dry them out.  At first I was angry.  The kids each had a tree, a gift from their grandparents, and it's a family tradition that the kids get to set up their own tree in their own room with their very own ornaments.  Santa even leaves a present under their tree.  The sadness on their faces when I told them we would have to throw them away was painful.  Did they think that the loss of our trees meant Christmas wouldn't come?  

As I heaped them into the dumpster at one of our county trash collection sites, I felt a pang of sadness, but I knew that it would be OK.  We'll get the kids new trees and continue the tradition. We'll either buy a new artificial tree for our living room or opt to go large with a big, fat cut tree like we always said we'd do at least once.  We'll make this Christmas as shiny and new as Rudolph's red nose.  Others in our country are suffering flood losses far worse than losses than Christmas trees, a chest freezer, 2 lawnmowers, and various other items.  I think what made the loss of our trees so depressing to me was just fatigue.  In just a few short weeks, we had a good sized earthquake rock our world, Hurricane Irene come through with her winds, racking our nerves at the same time I received bad news about my mom, and now a once-in-500 years flooding event that has washed out roads and dams throughout my county, leaving us with more clean up work to do. 

So here's to sunny skies, terra firma, and no acts of Mother Nature for a long time to come!

No more paper U.S. Savings bonds starting in 2012

Do you own savings bonds or even buy them occasionally as gifts?  Starting January 1, you'll need to give up the idea of going to a bank to buy them in paper format.  Instead, they'll be electronic only, a move that is reported by CNN Money to save $70-120 million dollars over the next 5 years (their article wasn't entirely clear on that point).  The one exception:  You can still use your tax refund to buy paper bonds, which in my humble opinion defeats the purpose of going all electronic.

Have paper bonds now?  Hold on to them because you'll still be able to redeem them at banks.  You can also convert lost bonds into electronic ones if you've misplaced them.

I can appreciate the cost-saving measures, but I wish they'd still allow an easy way to buy a paper bond.  Granted, if you bought one as a gift at a bank, it took a few weeks for the actual bond to show up in the gift recipient's mail box.  As a gift now, I just don't see it as an easy, viable option.

What do you think of this move?  Are you comfortable with the idea of not having an actual piece of paper to redeem when mature? 

Happy Independence Day!

Pinching Abe loves Independence Day!  Perhaps that is because it was always a time to gather with my parents' families while we were growing up, which usually meant a picnic with lots of food, not to mention games with the tons of cousins that I had.  I actually feel bad for my kids because the cousin nearest in age to my youngest is 10 years older than him!  People are having smaller families these days, I guess.

Speaking of cousins, my children have a new little second cousin!  My nephew became a daddy on Sunday.  Well, I guess that makes me a great auntie.  All of my great aunts growing up had a head full of gray hair, but I might just buck that familial trend for my nephew with some (still) brown locks.  I sure don't feel old just yet and I can't wait to meet the newest baby in the family.

Take the time today to remember what Freedom means, remember it wasn't and isn't free, and pray for our troops stationed throughout the world who are working for you every day so that you might breathe the sweet scent of freedom each and every day.  While you're toasting marshmallows and getting bitten by mosquitoes, some soldier somewhere is likely freezing and wishing he or she were home roasting wienies this holiday.  Enjoy your picnic, but remember those who can't be home to celebrate too.

Let Freedom Ring!

There's an app for that... seriously, there really is! Print from the road...

I swear, there seems to be an app for just about everything.  I'd be hard pressed to come up with an original app idea because it literally seems that there's an app that will do just about anything that I'd want to do.  I saw tonight that OfficeMax now has an app that will let you print from your mobile devices - even Google Docs - all sent to the store of your choice (handy store locator built in).  Wow, how cool is that? 

I've found myself desperately trying to get printer access when traveling.  Once, we had to make a side trip to my sister's house because I happened to notice our insurance card was out of date (though paid!).  We just didn't want to risk getting pulled over or having an accident without a current card.  I can see lots of applications for this app.

By the way, this app is free and is downloadable via iTunes.

(I wasn't paid for this post... I just seriously loved the idea!)

Disappearing Brand Predictions: What do you think? I'd say dead wrong about Sears!

24/7 Wall Street has made some predictions and provided a list of ten brands that it doesn't think will be around a year from now.  One of the unfortunate ten is Sears, and there are other brands on there that I recognize such as Nokia, Kellogg's Corn Pops, Sony Ericson and more.

I don't know about you, but I'd have to disagree.  Sure, Sears has had some issues.  I remember when Kmart came under the Sears umbrella and though I wasn't too sure about that, it turned out alright.  I would have to say that the local Kmart I shopped at at the time actually started carrying merchandise instead of empty shelves!  Being shored up by Sears was definitely a good thing for those of us who shop the Blue Light specials.

I grew up thumbing through Sears' Wishbook.  My parents would drop us off at our grandparents and then drive the long distance into Erie to go Christmas shopping.  I would also have to say that the Wishbook was my first real introduction to Sears.

Sears was also my first ever credit card.  I applied for and received a Sears card when my car broke down at a mall and I needed some tools to fix it.  That's the beauty of Sears - it is like a Walmart in many respects, only the clothing and other goods are of a higher quality.  It was via Sears that I got a Novus Card, which eventually turned into my beloved Discover Card.

Sears knows how to build brand loyalty, so I'm not too worried about seeing them shuttered up at the mall a  year from now.  They'll make course corrections in this turbulent economy and sail their way to a better berth as our economy recovers. 

As for Kellogg's Corn Pops... Rice Krispies recently went to a gluten free product offering, so why not Corn Pops?  I loved them growing up, but can't eat them now.  Gluten free fare is a fast growing industry and Kellogg's should reformulate to dump the gluten and market the product to a niche audience.  I would love to eat Corn Pops again.  One thing I don't want to see is a smaller cereal selection to accompany the doll house sized boxes already displayed on the shelves.

Extreme Couponing premieres April 6; Why I am not sure the show is a good idea...

The net is buzzing about Extreme Couponing which will premiere on April 6 with two back-to-back episodes airing at 9 and 9:30 PM on TLC.  The premise of the show is that it follows around those "coupon ladies" and shows the extreme side of couponing.

Why does Extreme Couponing bothers me?  Well, I get enough eye rolls, thank you very much.  Granted, I don't hop in line with a fistful of coupons like the women of this show do.  Cashiers rarely are happy to see you push your cart up to their register with a stack of coupons, particularly when their computers may not be programmed to accept a large number of them.  I can understand the high people get when they save, save, save!  I have been there myself.  Freebies and extreme cheapies do have a way of giving you an endorphin rush.  However, I worry that such a focus on massive coupon users will ultimately lead to stores placing their own limit on coupon usage.  If more people do doubles and triples, then will these grocery stores (who only get reimbursed for face value, plus 8 cents per coupon) feel the financial pinch?  Will they limit you to two coupons per product?

It's bad enough that when you do show up at the store with multiples that cashiers start the inquisition.  How'd you get so many of these coupons?  I buy extra papers when the coupons are good and I can justify that the price of the paper is more than covered by the savings that I will reap.  I've even had cashiers accuse me of wrong doing when I used a legitimate printable coupon.  I worry that cashiers will become even more nitpicky and make coupon usage on my end a nightmare.  Will they start to scare away casual users based on the rep that those who use 100 coupons in one trip have as a result of the show?

I'd really love to know your thoughts on this... if you are a couponista, do you think a show like Extreme Couponing is a good thing?  Do you worry about the same things that I do?  Please share by leaving a comment.

Mortgage help for states hit hard by unemployment/homeowners unable to pay their mortgage

I read States: Let Taxpayers Cover Your Mortgage over at CNN Money and if you are unemployed and underwater on your mortgage (or know someone who is) it is probably worth the read.  Basically, some states are going to use Federal money to help out the unemployed and underwater folks in certain states.  Is your state on the list of the ones who plan to use taxpayer money to bail out those unfortuante folks?

I see both sides of this.  No one wants to be homeless and when the economy is bad and there are no jobs and you fall behind on your bills... you don't want to be in that position at all.  In a previous life, I worked with an attorney who filed foreclosure actions about quarterly for a local bank.  It always broke my heart knowing that it had to be done.  Of course, times were different then... we're talking over a decade ago.  The economy wasn't busting and the housing bubble hadn't even thought of growing.  Believe it or not, getting someone out of a foreclosure home can be pretty time consuming.  There are ways to delay the process... the party could wait until the last day to ask for a face-to-face meeting and then push it out a good distance too.  It's all a legal game of cat and mouse and an expensive on for a bank to undertake.

The four states poised to use taxpayer money to help the unemployed/underwater folks pay their mortgage are Florida, California, Michigan and Arizona are high foreclosure states.  Something needs to be done, but does it have to be a free handout?  Will the residents of those states be grateful to help out their neighbor because foreclosures drag down your own property value?  Bear in mind, too, that California is well-known for its own budgetary problems.  They already spent too much money!

I don't know what the solution is... but I know that if you keep handing people money, they'll keep coming back. I'd rather see the states offer to lend the money to those underwater or unemployed.  How about enticing banks to restructure more loans?  Back decades ago, farmers could get government backed loans that were for a forty year term.  Most people don't stay in home that long, but lengthening out the term and giving a low rate should help some.

What are your thoughts on this?