Saving A Life: Priceless

My family has a history of leukemia, and I have known many others who have had the disease or one of the other ones affiliated with it: lymphoma, hodgkins, etc. It is nasty stuff, and it scares me to death. But then all cancer scares me. I have been fascinated with how a baby's cord blood can help treat these diseases plus many more, including diabetes and cerebral palsy. It is just amazing. It involves stem cells, which we have all heard about.

When my nephew was born, I told my sister about cord blood and was hoping she would save his. She didn't, and I don't know if it is because she forgot in the midst of the birth or if it was too expensive. I am sure the expense is what keeps many families from storing cord blood.

If this is something that interests you, you might want to think about companies such as Cryo-Cell.

Mystery Shopping Foibles

I have done mystery shopping for a little more than a month, and in some ways the honeymoon is over. I have had a lot of success--I have made about $400 or more during this time. The checks will start coming in next week or the week after, and I will gladly deposit them in my credit union account. I am going to keep on doing mystery shopping as long as it is fun and profitable.

But there have been a few glitches in the past week:

1) A woman from a mystery shopping company called me and asked me to do a couple of bank shops for her. I was excited, because they are easy to do and are good pay. I was supposed to look over the contract and send it back, and then call back the next morning for a quick training. I did all of that, but when I called her back, she told me the job had been assigned to someone else over night. I was astounded, which I think I had a right to be, but I let my astonishment and disappointment show. I think I actually hung up on her (not sure) which is really bad. I couldn't stop myself. I am sure she will never hire me for another shop now.

2) The gas shortage situation was so stressful last week in Nashville that I actually went to the wrong grocery store for a mystery shop. It was the right store, but wrong location. I emailed and apologized and said I had no excuse except the whole city was going crazy, including me, about this gas shortage.

3) I had been hired to do some kind of job. Not sure what to call it, but it wasn't mystery shopping. It might fall under the rubric of merchandising, which mystery shoppers also sometimes do. I was supposed to count the number of certain products in two grocery stores. It sounded like fun and something different, so I agreed. Well, apparently I really stink at this. I counted the way I was told to count, but the scheduler seemed upset and wondered why I hadn't done the job. "But I did the job," I replied in my email. "You can see from my fax." The grocery store didn't carry some of the items, so that might have been part of the confusion. But no more of these kinds of "counting" jobs for me.

Despite these glitches, I am still getting good work. I guess the longer you do it, the easier it gets. And I can use the money, at least until I pay for my cruise and build up my emergency fund. Notice how I put my vacation first!!

No Gas In Nashville Causes Financial Problems

There has been no gas in Nashville! Literally the pumps have run dry. A few stations got some gas today, but it has been hit and miss. Once a station gets some gas, it runs out in a few hours, because there is so much demand. On Friday, I was desperate to get some gas. I ran out to Sam's Club in the afternoon and filled up. But because they don't take cash--I had plenty of cash with me--I had to use my debit card, and I overdrew my account Friday night. That is upsetting to me, but the alternative was not to get gas, and that was not an option right now. Hope things get back to normal very soon.

How To Keep Your Cool When Your Home AC Goes Out

My home AC has gone out for the second time this summer. Yes, it is still summer until tomorrow. Here in Nashville, no AC can be deadly, since temps go so high. At least, the temps have not gotten above 85 this week. I have found a pretty good way to keep cool in a pinch. I am sitting here on the sofa sweating. Not fun. But if you take a cold pack and wrap it in a towel and put it next to your neck or mid-area, it actually cools you down. It is not perfect, but it helps, and it is cheap.