Dear So and So

[tulip]

Dear software developers,
THANK YOU for developing such awesome software to help me keep track of my pennies. Your software is making being financially responsible actually fun! I look forward to getting my mail, and I'm amazed that I've managed to "find" several hundred bucks this month. Bucks that would have been frittered away before I found you.

So thanks alot, it's making a big difference already!
-Your Friend and now smart money chick, tulip

[sgtiger]

Tulip, please do tell what you're using?

[tulip]

Tulip, please do tell what you're using?

You Need A Budget (ynab.com). Very aptly named.

Truly revolutionizing for me (I have never been good with money, and this is helping me be really good with money).

PM me if you want more details of how it's helping me.

[bmccasland]

Like figuring out how to pay mortgage, rent, and now a whopping VISA bill for the auto repairs that I'm getting?

[jessmarimba]

Dear eyes -

Please stop conspiring to bankrupt me and/or keep me from running and biking. I can take the bad vision, but being allergic to my own sweat is not cool!

Or - Dear work - pleaase please please please, I'm begging here, will you look into a vision plan that covers something besides 15% of lasik? any sort of prescription coverage would be fantastic! (to compare, the cost of breaking my back was about equal to two years of eye care)

Thanking you blindly.

[Owlie]

Dear health insurance company--
You majorly suck.

Dear pile of stuff--
Please fit in the car!

Dear bike--
I'm sorry that I'm not taking you back. It's going to be icky until April, there's nowhere to put the trainer in the apartment (or the car!), and I don't want to risk taking you on a four-hour drive in potentially nasty weather, particularly with all the salt around. Remember Thanksgiving?
If the weather over spring break is good, DBF and I will take you and your "boyfriend" out for lots of long rides to make up for it, okay? Oh, and we'll have you tweaked to fit me properly too!
Me.

[limewave]

You Need A Budget (ynab.com). Very aptly named.

Truly revolutionizing for me (I have never been good with money, and this is helping me be really good with money).

PM me if you want more details of how it's helping me.

I tried the YNAB free trial for a month. I really liked it. I haven't made the leap to buy it yet, but your recommendation is swaying me in that direction.

[tulip]

I tried the YNAB free trial for a month. I really liked it. I haven't made the leap to buy it yet, but your recommendation is swaying me in that direction.

I bought it last year but I didn't stick to it. I thought I'd give in another shot this time around...and I'm serious it's paid for itself several times over already. For the first time in a very long time, I'm looking at not being broke at the end of the month--I've already got a buffer of a few hundred and could end up with even more if all goes according to plan. And I'm not starving myself or anything, either.

I'm combining with some very important lessons by Dave Ramsey. It's waaaaay overdue for me.

[sgtiger]

I'm actually pretty good with budgeting but I'm in the process of shopping around for something other than Quicken. Not that I'm not happy with it but I'm forced to upgrade every couple of years and it's getting annoying. I never end up using all the bells and whistles that they add. Their helpful suggestions are a pain to deal with sometimes too.

[jessmarimba]

WOOHOO!

Work answered my pleas - we're going back to the health insurance we had until this past year, and glasses are soooo much cheaper!!

[Melalvai]

Not-dear-at-all ex-friend,
Blast it all, why do you have to be the one giving the bike/ped advocacy workshop here? I thought at last I could safely participate in all the bike/ped advocacy I wanted without risking running into you since we've both moved to different cities. Once again I'm faced with that awful decision of foregoing a bike/ped advocacy opportunity that I'm passionate about--or interacting with you. You can have all the rest of the world, just leave my little town for me. Will my own mistakes 4 years ago ever stop haunting me?
Frustrated Me

[limewave]

Dear Recession,

I hate you. I despise and loathe you. We had a plan, we were on good career paths. We were just getting started and then you had to sweep the rug out from under us.

I'm tired of working two jobs. I want my life back. I want to spend time with my kids. I want to take a day off of work to take a day off--not to work another job. When my kids are sick, I want to be able to stay with them, not send them to yet another babysitter. I'm exhausted from working 7 days a week.

I miss vacations. I miss being able to buy something when I need it.

You are crushing me. I have never claimed to be super-woman or to be able to do-it-all. I'm not one of those amazing mother's that we hear about all the time. I just can't do that much.

Please let up. Give us a break. We need it. I need it. My kids need it.

I know there are many others out there much worse off than we are. I feel selfish for even writing these things. If you could just let up for a moment, I'm sure I can rally again for the long haul.

Limewave

[limewave]

Dear Sleep,

Thank you, I needed that. Feeling a lot less desperate and ready to tackle what's ahead.

Limewave

[redrhodie]

(((Limewave))) I hear ya! C'mon, economy!

Glad you got some sleep.

[channlluv]

Dear Today Show:

I'll admit it. I'm not a regular Today Show viewer. I'm a children's librarian and I spend every morning in an elementary school library reading great books aloud to some of the kids who are our nation's future. I also spend time helping kids choose books. "Miss Roxy, can you recommend a book for me?" I hear it all day long. The kids in my school are hungry - HUNGRY - for quality literature, and there are millions of kids just like them all over the country.

I had the pleasure and privilege of attending the ALA Youth Media Awards ceremony on Monday morning. I sat a few seats down from the brilliant and funny author Lisa Yee, whose books I regularly recommend, and to one of the most powerful publishers on the planet, Arthur Levine, who helped bring Harry Potter to American kids, among many other high quality literary works. I also sat next to a librarian from Pennsylvania who joked about not being in a big hurry to get back home to the snow. We talked about the books we enjoyed, and as the lights went down and the ceremony commenced, the energy in the room was one of excitement and anticipation. With each name that was called, there were cheers and hoots of joy. These people, these librarians, writers, editors, publishers -- these READERS -- they love their books. These are the people who are influencing America's future. These people. These wonderful, smart, funny, thoughtful, LITERATE people are the ones creating and promoting the books our children read.

Thank god.

What you did, to promote this trashy reality TV star and her faux book at the expense of sharing two new, wonderful, smart, funny, thoughtful, literate creators of high quality children's books is an act of aggressive stupidity. One that is more a reflection on you and your producers than the state of children's literature.

I'm still not going to watch your show. We only have so many minutes on the planet. Why in the world would I want to waste any of my precious minutes on someone like Snooki? No thanks. I'm going to go read Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool, the 2011 Newbery Award Winner.


(I posted this on their viewer comments section, too, but I doubt anyone there actually cares enough to read those comments.)