Free $10

I love to share.

Ruelala is offering a $10 credit to anyone who joins between now and Dec 24. I talked about ruelala here if you are not familiar with the website.

Here is my invitation link (it's invitation only). Happy shopping!! (wisely of course)

P.S it says the credit should show up within 48 hours

What I did with the 10k

It's been pretty crazy at work. I am definitely looking into other options - working 7 days a week till midnight at this pay is not for me. Anyway, this has obviously impacted how often I can post as when i do get some free time, all I want to do is sleep.

I realized on my train ride back that I never told you all what I did with the money my parents offered. At first, I had told them I was not going to take it because they kept adding all these caveats (which made sense but made me feel like I was 12) and I thought there were too many strings attached for something that would not really ease my cash flow.

After thinking and thinking (and thanks to a comment by a reader) I decided to take it. However, I would use 5k to pay off a card (you can see my ML now says paid in full in the sidebars) and I would keep the other 5k in savings. I realized that it was best to think like i received a 5k gift instead of 10k because I would still have to pay 5k back albeit interest free. 

So now I am going to pay them back from the money sitting in my savings (and have it earn a little interest) and it gives me some extra money to play with each month. I put some of that extra to m groceries because $40 a month is not really allowing me to eat as healthy as I want.

I think I am going to try to write a couple of posts at a time an schedule them so that you have regular content. 

Oh, one more thing, my ebay stuff did not sell and I relisted them. Here they are again. Calvin Klein leather bag and Purple Prada bag. If any of you are frequent ebayers, fell free to give me tips on things I should modify or add to my listing.

Thanks

Oh what a tangled web we weave...

I have so many things to cover in this post that i just might have to break it into two. First of all, Welcome to all the new readers I got this last week. If you haven't yet, subscribe to my blog via this link.

Subscribe to Debt and the City by Email

I noticed that by posting almost daily last week, my readership grew so I guess I have to work on being more consistent. Okay, I have a bunch of personal updates. It's a mixed bag and I'm not sure how to take it all.

The first major thing is that my parents are going to be having a major impact on my debt. They have been hounding me for the longest time about my credit card debt. They kept saying they had a feeling I had a lot and wanted to know the amounts. I never told them, not because I had a problem accepting money from them (if indeed they wanted to pay it off) but because I knew if they paid it off, they would put numerous (understandable) restrictions and I didn't want to deal with that. I also didn't actually want to tell them how much debt I was in because truth be told, it's embarrassing and I didn't want to deal with a lecture. I resolutely told them, "I got myself into this and I'll get myself out." Fast forward to this past weekend, I got a call from them and the long story short is, she has decided to give m 10k to pay off my debt (I have more than that but that was the amount I was willing to admit to) and they would forgive half and I would pay back the other half over one year. The point of this she said, was so that I would avoid paying interest on my debt.

Now I know some of you have issues with "free money" but I'm not really trying to discuss that. I have heard that point of view and I see your point but I don't feel the same way. The downside of this is since I didn't' admit how much debt I have, I actually end up paying more each month b/c I still have to make payments on the other CC's I didn't admit to. Paying 5k back in one year adds up to $420 a month. So while I will pay off my debt faster (and be debt free before 30) but my monthly situation has not really changed. Now I (almost) which I had told the truth. I say almost because I truly think my mom would have had a massive attack if she knew how much debt I was in.

Second thing is not pf related but it also relates to lying. My mom is having a landmark birthday this year and they wanted to go to Europe (and bring me along). However, my friend is getting married on her actual birthday and I've known about this wedding for a year and a half. Knowing my folks, I couldn't just say "hey, I'd rather go to s friends wedding" so I told them I could take 3 days of work but I'd have to leave the day before her bday. I blamed it on my crazy work schedule. My mom was a bit disappointed but I assured her that we could celebrate the day before and it would not make much of a difference. I thought I was in the clear...until I got a message that plans had changed and the whole family would come to NYC to celebrate since I couldn't get that day off.

*sigh*

I can't win. Now I don't get to travel AND I miss the wedding I wanted to go to. What do you guys think? I am a bad daughter for wanting to go to the wedding? At this point I might make up a story and say "oo, now I can make it to Europe."

Dear bloggers, what would you do?