Well, now that I’m home and working, I decided to ditch my Bank of America student checking account because they do not have a local branch or ATMs anywhere close to home. I only went with them 4 years ago because they had ATMs in my school. At home, Chase has 3 branches within a 5 block radius – supporting their ads of “the most ATMs in New York City”.

Interesting posts:

• The Cost of Being a Dude at Budgets Are Sexy. I love how this article fuels the war between genders. J. Money compares the typical expenditures of a guy versus a gal and points out how the guys will often come out spending less – mostly because we (the guys) demand less in the beauty department.
• 10 Attributes Of The Perpetually Broke at Bible Money Matters. Here is another post answering the question: “why are we not rich?”. Certainly, even the best handlers of personal finance have some of these traits. Those who realizes that they have them will have the chance to eliminate them. This post puts them in your face and hopefully will make a difference.
• 5 Steps to Closing Old Bank Accounts at No Debt Plan. Kevin got this post up just in time for me since I was in the process of switching banks. It plans out a solid procedure one should take when closing a bank account because it isn’t always as simple as saying “I want out”.

Carnivals and mentions giving some love for Realm of Prosperity:

• The Carnival of Personal Finance #228: Halloween 2009 Edition at Money Crashers
• The DoughRoller Weekly Roundup (Zecco $50,000 Practice Forex Account Edition) at DoughRoller
• Boo! Halloween-edition links and update at MoneyCrush (revamped BluntMoney)

You’ve thought about it. I’ve thought about it. And, everyone else has thought about it.

About what? – “what I would do if I won the lottery”…

While I’d probably become the most ecstatic person in the world that I am finally rich, there would also be plenty of concerns that do not regard how I would spend the money. With great power comes great responsibility. With a lot of money comes a lot of headaches.

Becoming a millionaire overnight may be worth some media attention and hitting the jackpot or even just second place is a way to end up in the local news. When people know you have money, it is a bitter sweet feeling when people befriend you but with the primary interest of your money.

As a result, I’d be fairly worried over how winning the lottery could be detrimental to my life:

• So-Called Family and Friends
  Money attracts anyone who thinks they can perhaps have some of it. There would probably be a continuous stream of phone calls and Facebook wall posts congratulating me in hopes that I’d be generous enough to share the wealth. Here is an article of a winner of a recent UK lottery and how an ex-boyfriend was able to get piece of the prize.
• Safety of My Family
  Movies depict those situations all the time but that doesn’t mean it’s fictional. We must not avoid the fact that we live in a treacherous society and bad things do happen. Kidnappings occur all over the world to hold loved ones as hostages to trade for ransom.

  For example, Leandro Barbosa, an NBA guard for the Phoenix Suns, expressed concerns last year over a threat to kidnap his mother who was residing in Brazil.

  If I was in the media because I won the lottery, people can find out a lot about me and think of bad things to target my winnings.

• More Money To Spend
  One of three lottery winners have gone broke after 5 years. The more money I have, the more money I can lose. As spending power increases, the tendency to spend can sometimes overcome previously instilled habits of saving and smart spending. Plenty of lottery winners have seen money pour out of their bank accounts and claimed that everything disappeared with little resistance. Here are 8 lottery winners who shared their story of rags to riches and back to rags again.

So many people had wished they never won the lottery because it destroyed their lives. That winning ticket could be a personal Pandora’s box and after reading the horror stories of ruined lives, I would be overly cautious (another symptom of lottery winning – paranoia).

It is amazing what a difference it makes when one earns their wealth and when one wins their wealth. People will tend to cherish the money that they worked hard for through blood, sweat, and tears rather than the money that fell onto their lap. That is why developing stable financial habits early on could possibly prevent self-destruction when luck is on your side.

(Photo credit: Robert S. Donovan)

What is the biggest difference between buying a new DVD and a used/rented DVD? The new plastic wrapping around the disc case. If there aren’t any scratches, it is the same as every other functional disc out there, including the new ones. It is the same game or movie in the same quality.

This post was sparked by a recent video game shopping spree I went on. I saved $40 on $110 worth of games and they still feel new to me because they are. They were old and used to the previous owners but not to me. Since they all played fine, I have no complaints.

During the few occasions that I visit a store such as Best Buy, the movies section never gets any of my attention. Even though aisles are filled with newest and hottest movies and TV shows, I could care less about them. One thing I might get out of it is to know what the retail prices costs so I know how much I’ll be saving when I buy it used from some place online. As for the video games sections, I just take a look at what games are out and then I’m out as well.

That’s why I feel that it isn’t worth it to be the first one to own a new movie and pay full price for it. It is futile to have to go to popular electronics retailers and buy brand new movies and games. Of course, if shoppers realized that they could get all their movies and games used at a lower price, major retailers would be out of business.

When visiting game or video stores, always ask if there are used or pre-owned inventory. Stores like Gamestop or EB Games always have used games for sale. They always cost less and play the same. These stores check that they work before putting them back up for sale.

My top 4 places I go to get my entertainment:

1. Forums. Yes, forums. I’ve been part of sneaker forum, since back in the days when I collected sneakers ravenously, where people talk, live, and dream about sneakers. The great section of the forum is the marketplace, where users sell their stuff from shoes to clothes to electronics. The ability negotiate a lower price is what makes buying from these places a much better place to shop.
2. Craigslist. Another great site to find other people who put up stuff they don’t want. One perk here is that these people are in the local area and you can meet up and check on what you are getting before actually paying for it. Once again, there is the option of negotiation and bargaining here. Used movies and games are all over the “for sale” section.
3. eBay. The home of where one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. The opportunity to get some great steals still exists in the most popular auction site on Earth. I always ask about scratches and problems if the seller doesn’t specify product condition.
4. Amazon. Although there is no way to work with the seller to get a lower price since the listing price is set, Amazon has prices that can be lower than anywhere else I look. I shop here the least because I rarely get to see a picture of the actual disc and it is difficult to haggle for a lower price.

Be careful not to overspend because it is understandable how easy it is to go on a shopping spree when you keep finding bargains and deals. I got lost a little bit when I spent $70 on PS3 games but I realized it early enough to let it get too out-of-hand.

(Photo credit: DeclanTM, William Hook)

We all flash that smile when we know that we purchased an item at a bargain price. Saving money never made a customer unhappy. But, just because we caught a deal from coupons, discounts, or sales does not necessarily that we are practicing the sound financial principle of saving.

Deal and Bargain Finding Websites
I’ve discovered that I’ve been frequently visiting sites such as FatWallet.com, BensBargains.net, and Slickdeals.net in search of any deals I may find for things I need. Now, I no longer consider them deal and bargain finding websites because they are shopping websites in actuality. It is a place with products and services presented to potential customers but at great prices. With a constant stream of updated deals, it is easy to get lost in a shopping spree.

“Can’t Miss This Deal” Mentality
Consumers tend to buy stuff they don’t need. It is also common that most of the unnecessary things we buy were purchased at, what we perceive as, a discount price. We were lured into buying many things we didn’t need through coupons and sales. It feels great to have bought something for a cheap price but it is no different than throwing money away if it is useless to you.

Enables Compulsive Spending
Some people tend to allocate the savings on a particular purchase towards another purchase. So, if I saved $20 on this item, I could use it for whatever I’m going to buy next. After continuously applying a previous saving to a future purchase over and over again, I would have a racked up a good amount on my credit card without realizing how fast and easy it was to do so.

Some well-known tips are to:

• Ask yourself: “Do I really need it?”
• Get what you need at a good price and get out.
• Close the browser, computer, or just walk away from it.

Much like my proposed Infomercial Copycat method of debt reduction, coupons, discounts, and sales provide the feeling that you are losing money in tiny amounts so that you don’t see the BIGGER PICTURE – which is: you just spent a lot of money on crap.

(Photo credit: The Consumerist)