Reviews by Cole » money

Extreme Green

Cole — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 03:24:59 +0000

I was watching Extreme Makeover: Home Edition earlier and I really like the show as it helps out some good people and folks in dire straights and I usually tear up but Ryan is nice enough not to make fun of me.. too bad. And I had several thoughts that I usually have when I watch the show. One, of course, is that sometimes they just go too far. I know it’s “extreme” and that is what sells but just imagine how many more people they could help or how much money they might be able to save if they tone things down.

This home housed 8 people, I believe and sprawled like a mansion. I’ve noticed there’s a tendency for the show to build only single story homes and I’m not sure why but it definitely gives the impression that the house is much larger than it need be. In the end, there were 5 bedrooms. The parents had their master bedroom (of course), and a pair of girls and boys shared bedrooms while the other 2 children had their own rooms. Honestly, I think that shrinking the “great” room and building another bedroom or two would be ideal, especially in the future. 7 year olds can share a room with ease but.. 17 year olds? Not so much. And that’s another bone to pick. Most of these homes do not seem like they would fit the family well in the future. The bedrooms are customized to the max but peoples’ preferences change over time.

This episode, however, they did make some efforts to be more environmentally conscientious, which I like. I wouldn’t mind seeing that more often. Instead of a wood frame, they built the house with a steel frame, something of which I’d never heard. I got the impression that it was recycled from cars (maybe), instead of tearing down a forest and I imagine it might help make the house a little more fire resistant. Anyway, when the house was all built you couldn’t tell. It’s not like living in metal buildings. Another green thing they did was to have cement floors. There was mention that it might help with electricity bills, too, and that’s all well and good but.. it’s cement. It’s easy to clean, but ugly. It may save money but it will do hell on your body (many of our back problems are due to walking on pavement as humans were never meant to do that). It may be environmentally friendly but I bet it gets cold or slippery, when the weather permits. Plus it’s ugly. I honestly would be most displeased and spending money to add carpeting in that house.

Luckily, no one is building me a house. d=

One is the loneliest number..

Cole — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 02:42:40 +0000

Unless it’s your new PageRank and you’ve spent over a year having none at all. Guess what? That is exactly the case for Reviews by Cole. I forgot all about the new year also being a new quarter until I saw a post by Damita on her blog and went to check. So congratulations to me. Hopefully, the increase in PR eventually means more payoff when it comes to opportunities (reviews, giveaways and paid blogging). Y’know, the way life insurance always has a big payoff in murder, mystery movies. ;) Probably not, though. It just makes me a little happier.

What’s your life worth?

Cole — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 00:47:00 +0000

This past summer, my mother’s brother in law died and he had decent life insurance which went to my mother’s husband. He was able to pay for his brother’s funeral as well as make repairs on their mother’s home and pay off hospital bills as well so it really did go far but not everyone is so lucky. Whether insurance is simply too hard to obtain or keep or a person is uneducated about it, it can be an awful surprise to try to make ends meet without it.

After hearing that our car had been totaled, you can bet that matters of money shot to the forefront of our minds so it’s a good thing that we don’t have to worry about paying for affordable term life insurance or anything – at least for the time being when Ryan is in the military. What the future holds, who knows? I certainly hope it’s good to us.

Book Me!

Cole — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 20:47:00 +0000

Actually, I already did. And what did I book? Tickets for home next month from the 10th until the 31st. Seeing as I don’t have a lot of reason to be here I figured I might as well go home for an extended stay to while the time away. Luckily, mom’s new house has lots of room so I didn’t need to browse around for any extended stay hotels. I also got lucky by using my miles for my ticket so I only had to pay a $30 booking fee. Of course, the money I saved will go to paying a pet sitter to check on my babies on a daily basis.

Money, Money, Money

Cole — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 11:31:00 +0000

Despite the alluring drop in gas prices, money is always an issue. I recently filled out my FAFSA and program application for school and I think living overseas is a bit of a thorn on my side with all that because it really appears like we made much more money than we did, considering exchange rates and such. It’s almost enough to make me consider truck driving school. (Ha! Not really)

I also want to go home next month which is becoming increasingly more expensive as the days go by. Added with the need of some bookshelves in our dining room, a new laptop for Ryan. my recent computer repairs and an annoying “check engine” light coming on and off again on the car, we certainly wouldn’t mind a rich uncle passing on.