I haven’t used a check at a grocery store in years. I have always used a credit or debit card when I’m out because it’s 1) faster and 2) more convenient. Chris and I have a collection of checks built up just so we can send off our cable, electricity, and gas bill every month but other than that, we never use checks.

There are more frustrating things that go on at the grocery store, but when you’re stuck behind someone who is writing a check it can also be quite irritating, especially if you only have a few items and you have your card ready. Of course, incidents like that have really become less frequent than a few years ago, but every now and then you will get the person who wants to write a check.

Really, when you think about it, writing a check at stores like Wal-Mart have become a moot point. After all, when you write a check, even if you fill the whole thing out and waste everyone’s time, the store runs the check like a debit card. It is electronic now and this way the stores are protecting themselves somewhat from check fraud.

I get annoyed when I see someone pull out a check book at the very end of their grocery store trip. Once everything is rung up and it’s time to pay is NOT the time to look for your checkbook in your gigantic purse; if you’re going to go ahead and pay with a check, perhaps you should have it ready before the entire order is finished. It’s not a surprise that you have to pay at the end. /end rant

I wish stores would ban checks for a number of reasons. I know that there are a few arguments in favor of check writing, like it is easier to keep up with your bank balance when you write a check. However, even that argument is somewhat flawed because you may record a deposit in your check book, but now banks are depositing checks whenever they want to and not necessarily in the order that you actually put them in the bank.

A spendthrift is someone who spends money; a lot of money and it can be considered wasteful the way he or she spends it.

Have you watched the movie Confessions of a Shopaholic? I watched it a couple of weeks ago, and while my shopping habits haven’t really gotten THAT out of control I have made a couple of splurges in the past that I know haven’t been the best shopping decisions.

It can be difficult to go from being someone who buys what they need and picks up a few extra things as well to someone who buys the bare minimum of what they need from the grocery store, often foregoing their favorite brands for the cheaper, generics, brands that are on sale, or the brands that have the coupons out that week.

The best, and easiest way, in my opinion, to go from someone who spends money to someone who saves money is to watch the flow of cash out of your bank account, closely. If you can watch that balance drop, then you are going to be far more likely to put down the debit card and head for the door.

Of course, there are times when shopping is more of a habit than a hobby and sometimes you may actually need to talk to someone about your “problem.” In the movie I was talking about earlier, there is a scene toward the beginning when the main character, who has maxed out her credit cards and can’t pay the bills, sees a really expensive green scarf on a mannequin and the mannequin starts talking to her (in her mind). The mannequin tells her that she needs the scarf and somehow she pools the money together to get it.

Thiis is just one example, even though it is a fiction example, of how shopping can actually become an addiction.

My biggest tip that helps me though, and I know I’ve said it a million times, is to MAKE A LIST. If I have a list, I won’t spend as much. If I have a list, there is a lesser chance that I will bring home things that are not on the list. If I make a list and arm myself with coupons, my savings are even greater (however, you have to remember not to buy something just because you have a coupon, make sure that you need it).

Okay, so as some of you may know, we have been having some serious issues logging into Chris’ E-Bay Account. So far whenever we go to log in to his account it says

“Welcome Half.com member. Please read important information below:

Because of the closer alignment between Half.com and eBay, you will need to review and accept the eBay User Agreement before continuing to use Half.com and eBay. Just click the Continue button and complete a couple of steps, and you’ll be able to bid and buy on eBay and Half.com.”

It then goes on to ask for  a credit card number to register with the site. This has been happening ever since our bank canceled our previous debit card due to fraudulent purchases happening with the card numbers with other bank customers.

Since this issue began, Chris has tried to contact Ebay, staying on the phone for HOURS at a time trying to fix the situation. He also has called many times to try to resolve the situation.

The problem arises because Chris has almost $200 in Ebay fees to pay (Which he is MORE THAN WILLING to pay), but he is simply not allowed to because he cannot log into his Ebay account. When he is on the phone with the company, they tell him over and over to log in to his account and pay from there.

Chris has been getting emails from the billing department at Ebay saying that if he does not pay that his account will not only be closed but they will also send the bill to collections. COLLECTIONS for a bill that he wants to pay them and has contacted them repeatedly to do.

This entire situation has gotten completely out of hand. Ebay has failed us and if this goes to collections, I don’t know what we’re going to do because a ding like that on his credit report is going to look bad for both of us.

While it’s been a few years since I found myself angry about overdraft fees in my own bank account, after reading a few articles on the internet about other people incurring fees (and accumulating them over the course of a few days) I have once again found myself angry at banks for allowing people to incur these fees.

First of all, I know that banks make most of their money on fees that they charge their customers. I also know that it is a bit of an unsavory business practice to allow a customer to incur fees on top of fees all over the same few days.

How much do you have to put on your debit card until your bank decides that it’s time to start rejecting the card?

It works with prepaid cards, and I believe that debit cards should also work this way…If there isn’t enough money on the card it is declined. If there is enough money on the card, the transaction goes through flawlessly.

Perhaps banks think that they are doing their customers some kind of favor by allowing customers to get the insufficient funds fee on their bank account rather than just being declined in line at the grocery store.

You never hear stories about people getting NSF or overdraft fees on big purchases like the weekly grocery trip (which can be quite expensive for some) or even for purchases for over $20. It seems like every time I hear a story about someone getting overdraft fees, it’s typically on a cup of coffee or something small and under $10.

However, I do know someone who was allowed to overdraft their account by $500. This is why I have to ask the question, At what point does the bank say, “Wait…you can’t do that.”

Overdraft fees are stupid.

$23,148,855,308,184,500.

That is one expensive pack of cigarettes, and apparently, a lot of things. VISA has a bug in its system that recently charged several debit card owners 23 Quadrillion dollars.

A New Hampshire man says he swiped his card at a gas station to purchase a pack of cigarettes and was charged that outrageous amount of money. He went to check his online statement and noticed the huge number and was floored.

To say the dollar amount outright it would be twenty-tree quadrillion, one hundred forty eight trillion, eight hundred fifty five billion, three hundred eight million, one hundred eighty four thousand, five hundred dollars.

He spent two hours on the phone with Bank of America trying to sort out the multi-quadrillion dollar expense and the $15 overdraft fee associated with the bank error.

But, this isn’t the only case like this to be reported. Yesterday the Consumerist reported an eerily similar situation in which a teenager with a Visa BUXX card was able to go to a CVS store and buy $23,148, 855,308,184,500 worth of stuff.

In that case, Visa charged her a $20 over the limit fee and has yet to waive the fee.

Visa needs to stop trying to blame everyone else because they are the only link between the reports. And I personally don’t think that anyone would even be able to buy something (or a group of somethings) that totaled 2,000 times the national debt.