Lauri Ann's New Life

No matter where you turn these days the economy is more than in a downhill slump. Between people losing their homes, their jobs and having to turn to local shelters for food, it's pretty scary. Not quite sure what to expect when Obama takes office. I know a lot of what he talked about while campaigning scared me. We had a business that made $300,000.00 (gross) a year and went broke. There's no way we could afford to pay medical for everyone and pay higher taxes like he wants to do to small business making $250,000.00 or more.

Whether the problems are caused by our own lack of education, lack of discipline, or deceptive business practices (like many of the mortgage problems), if you're in the middle of it it's not fun.

Luckily, when it comes to education there is so much free information on the internet for anyone who wants to learn almost anything.

One of the things I've learned about since wanting to learn to do business and marketing on the internet is about "Giveaways". Giveaways are where many marketers get together in one location and give all kinds of stuff away. It may be ebooks, it may be club memberships, it may be software. Some are all about marketing, but many cover other subjects like self-improvement, etc. This time of year there are a bunch of them and a lot of them have some really neat stuff like Christmas Cookie Recipe books, decorations you can print and have children color, all kinds of things.

I have put together a "debt and credit" package for one of these giveaways. There's software for figuring numbers before taking out a car loan, etc. A book on a "Debt Free Lifestyle" another one on "100 Legal Ways to Fix Your Credit", etc. If you would be interested in getting this package and maybe seeing some of the other stuff they have, you can just click on the banner below. Registration is free. In fact everything is free. LOL. You do usually have to give your name and email address to get whatever gifts you pick out, but you can always "unsubscribe" at anytime (it's the law). I hope you enjoy and find lots of useful items.

Nothing ticks me off more than a gift card that deducts charges from the face value of the card

1. If you use it


2. If you don't

Either way, the store is cheating you and the person that bought you the gift card out of it's full value. This year we have something new to worry about.

For the first time in my life you have to be careful about buying a gift card (in the old days "gift certificates") for a particular store for Christmas gifts, because they may not be in business after Christmas. I first heard about this at a point where it actually registered in my brain, on the CBS news a couple of weeks ago. I hadn't really thought about it much except when I ran across the Mervyn's gift card in my purse that I have from 2 years ago. (They're going completely out of business after Christmas, in case you haven't heard).

Then as I was doing a little research found out you actually become a "creditor" of the store when they file bankruptcy because a gift card is a "loan". So you could file with the bankruptcy court to get your money back, but more often then not, those cases don't get paid because gift card holders are at the very bottom of what's usually a long list.

So if you were thinking about buying someone a gift card for Christmas, you may want to check and see how strong they are. Retailers are dropping like flies and if they don't make good Christmas numbers, you may see a lot more go under after Christmas.

Below is a partial list of stores that you need to be cautious about.

Circuit City (filed Chapter 11) Ann Taylor- 117 stores nationwide closing Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug , Catherine's to close 150 stores nationwide Eddie Bauer to close stores 27 stores and more after January Cache will close all stores Talbots closing down specialty stores J. Jill closing all stores (owned by Talbots) Pacific Sunwear (also owned by Talbots) GAP closing 85 stores Footlocker closing 140 stores more to close after January Wicks Furniture closing down Levitz closing down remaining stores Bombay closing remaining stores Zales closing down 82 stores and 105 after January Whitehall closing all stores Piercing Pagoda closing all stores Disney closing 98 stores and will close more after January Home Depot closing 15 stores, Macys to close 9 stores after January Linens and Things closing all stores Movie Galley Closing all stores Pep Boys Closing 33 stores Sprint/Nextel closing 133 stores JC Penney closing a number of stores after January Ethan Allen closing down 12 stores. Wilson Leather closing down all stores Sharper Image closing down remaining stores K B Toys closing 356 stores Lowe's to close down some stores Dillard's to close some stores Steve & Barry’s Bennigan’s Grill & Tavern

If you like to be able to shop by gift card, here is one company that is not going under. You can give a small dept. store to someone right in their home. Just click here now to get rid of all that holiday shopping stress. If you are looking for ideas, take a look at this gift guide here.

This is soooo cool!

It's getting to be that time of year again, where the days are getting shorter, school's back in, and Halloween is fast approaching. It's just a fast downhill slide to Christmas from here! There's always some smart ass in every crowd that knows exactly how many shopping days are left. Usually I'm the first one to tell someone to be quiet when they mention the Holidays, because I am one of those last minute shoppers in the stores till the last possible minute on Christmas Eve.

If you want to make life easier on yourself this year and want to give a gift that will be remembered forever, you've gotta take a look at this! It's called the "Ribbon Program". The person you give to receives a 'gift album', sort of like a catalogue. They go thru and pick out what they want (there's no prices, because you've already paid for it), and use the number on the gift card to go online and order. There are 21 different gift albums in a wide price range (if you buy 4 of the Variety Albums @ $25 you get 1 Album FREE!)

These are perfect for the person on your list that has everything, or someone who is just hard to shop for. It was great when my kids were teens. (They're so fussy and this gave them lots of choices so I couldn't get the 'wrong thing') I've gotten the "Wedding" one for my getting married friends, the "Variety" one to have on hand in case I need a gift at the last minute, and the "Baby" one I gave to my Neice and Nephew for their first child. Everyone that I have ever given one of these to just loves the gift and the experience.

To take a look just click on the link http://www.lbeamish.ordermygift.com/ If you want to shop, just register under "My Account" and your set to go! Instead of fighting the crowds, bring the store to you this year.