Kat's Notebook

With the grave economic recession right now, we need to be more conscious on our budget. I got this tip from an email: Effective immediately, the following economizing measures are being implemented in the “Twelve Days of Christmas” subsidiary: 1) The partridge will be retained, but the pear tree, which never produced the cash crop [...]

In the US, the biggest sale in most stores happen on 2 important dates: the day after Thanksgiving and the day after Christmas. These are the times when it’s best to buy electronic goods. After Thanksgiving would be best to buy Christmas gifts – that is, if you can get that best deal amidst hundreds [...]

I’ve never realized how bad the economy was until I’ve been informed by my boss that last friday the DOW plunged to almost below 7000. I still didn’t understand that. He explained the gravity if the DOW really did go down below 7000, the economy will crash and burn. But came Monday the DOW bounced [...]

Wall Street is in big chaos. The $700 billion government bailout plan was denied. Wachovia was bought by Citigroup. All stocks plunged down. So what happens now? Would major banks go bankrupt one at a time? My boss said when the banks go kaput, credit will freeze. So no one can borrow money or use their credit cards. That’s good [...]

Ok so JPMorgan/Chase bought WAMU on Sept 25, 2008. The following day news reports of WAMU customers withdrawing their money from WAMU out of fear that they’ll lose money. I just heard a while ago that about $17 billion were withdrawn from WAMU in the last 2 weeks. I’m one of those who withdrew my [...]

It’s confirmed. WAMU is gone and is now bought by JPMorgan (official Sept 25, 2008). The good news is my banking in WAMU still remains the same. Cool!! I can transfer my money back from Bank of America to WAMU and enjoy the 4.00% APY!!!! Whoopppeee! For those WAMU account holders, here are the FAQs [...]

I’ve never imagined that I would own so much cards in my wallet. To wit I have: 3 debit cards, 1 credit card, 3 shop member cards, driver’s license card, and 1 unused gift card. Some people have many more. I removed some of the cards that I don’t use that often so that my [...]

This blog is not about those online survey sites that promises you free gift card or cash or item reward when you answer their surveys but in the end you need to enroll in some credit card or subscriptions before you get your reward (wow that’s a mouthful!) If you like shopping, like me!, keep [...]

The Wall Street these past weeks until now are in such a great financial turmoil. Big old lending companies are going bankrupt – Freddie Mac/Fannie Mae, Wamu, AIG, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers…. I don’t usually get myself updated with this kind of news (I still live a “sheltered” existence) I’ve just heard about them in [...]