Chicky Finance

The Cash and Accrual accounting methods are the two principal methods of keeping track of a business's income and expenses. I don’t have a business but I do have my budget every month which needs to be accurate as much as possible. In a nutshell, these methods differ only in the timing of when transactions, including sales and purchases, are credited or debited to your accounts. Since I’ve started snowflaking, I’ve been trying to decide which method to choose for my earnings. The cash method: Under the cash method, income is not counted until cash (or a check) is actually received, and expenses are not counted until they are actually paid. That means I can only record my PayPerPost income when the money is in my checking account. On the other hand, the accrual method, income is counted when the sale occurs, and expenses are counted when you receive the goods or services. You don't have to wait until you see the money, or actually pay money out of your checking account, to record a transaction. Under this method I can record my income through Payperpost as soon as I complete an opp. Yesterday when I mentioned I made $26 through Payperpost, I basically used accrual method because I counted for the money when I performed the service. Now I am changing method. From now on I will use only cash method while forming my budget. I hope I make sense and didn’t confuse you more.

This afternoon I wrote Desperately Need Running Shoes post and in that post I said " Today I will try to make $39.00 through PayPerPost to purchase well needed running shoes "

Result? Ok I could not make $39 but I got really close! And for sure I scamed you guys all day long with my ppp posts..I apologize for that but it was an experiment so I had to try my hardest. Even though I didn't make $39, I still made today total: $26 yay! I can not complain.. I wrote total three reviews $5, $10, $11. I think it is pretty good if you consider I wrote these 50, 100 word buzz articles in between my work at office! I love PayPerPost

You’ve heard about the man who gives away his social security number on TV and radio commercials right? Until a week ago I didn’t know he was the CEO of Lifelock identity protection company and he was all over the news because someone stole his identity and used for payday loan. Many people reacted as if Lifelock is an unsuccessful company. I don’t necessarily agree with that. There are crooks everywhere and even if we try to protect someone if intelligent enough can find a way to steal and use any of our identity. I think one should look at if lifelock fulfill their contract in case there is damage in any of their customer’s credit. According to news Experian is fighting with lifelock alleging that “credit laws do not provide for a third party to place fraud alerts on behalf of a customer.” It is kind of confusing; I would assume that two bodies would work together to protect our identity instead of suing each other. I watched the CEO of Lifelock’s interview on CNN video and found definitely worth watching it.
Here is the link, you decide! CNN Money Video

Yesterday after work I headed to our local library first time ever. I followed many pf bloggers' advice and decided to look for the book called “ Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, by Carol S. Dweck.” Spilling Buckets recommended on her blog. First of all, I went to our local library with all good intentions but when I entered to the place.... this weird smell, not a book smell….I passed on that I thought maybe someone farted as I entered the library. Sadly, I couldn’t find the book I was looking for not only that all the books looked very old to me. There were not many places to sit. In fact there were more computer stations than study tables which I could not understand. Anyways, I am really disappointed.. I guess I will back to Borders to sip my coffee and read latest magazines and books..ohh By the way, my hubby calls me Borders Bug!

Not kidding! I am not the one giving away ipod nano though. :) I love my ipod Nano! If you are working at executive level in health care industry, you can win Ipod Nano. Development Dimensions International (DDI) is offering an opportunity to win Nano to participants who fill out a brief online survey. They are targeting HR executives in hospitals and health care delivery systems to respond their survey. At the end of the survey, participants will be asked to provide their email address and contact info. Please take the survey only if you are working in those areas mentioned above. To take the survey, click here.

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I desperately need running shoes. I will be running my second 5K on June 5th but my running shoes are terrible..Not only looking terrible but also inside my shoes is messed up. I found a nice looking running shoes for $39.00, although I don't have money..Here is my experiment today: I will try to make $39.00 through PayPerPost and if I can, I will go ahead and buy the shoes. At the end of today I will let you know how much exactly I made on PPP. Wish luck to me!

Beginning of this year I promised myself I am not going to purchase any make up products until I already have is gone. So far so, I have not bought single product and I have plenty. However when it comes to skin products, I'd like to make sure I dont have spoiled product. For example I would not want to use eye cream a year old. That's why reading reviews, checking out diffrent websites about skin products is important for me. iDerma offers scientifically advanced skin care products ranging from Anti-aging Cream, moisturizing creams, cleansers and sunscreens, to mineral makeup and more. Selected brands are recommended by leading dermatologists and beauty experts, such as iS Clinical, SkinMedica, Remergent, NeoCutis. They offer free shipping over $75 and even better %115 price match guarantee!

As you might remember currently I have a "I need & I want list". The list helps me out to see what is important and necessary to buy what is not. The only item I didnt buy on my need list is jeans because I've finally figured out the way to get rid of the stubborn stain on my jean. Therefore I don't need it anymore. What about want list? I had only one item on my list which is Digital Picture Frame. I bought my frame from Macy's!!! Believe it or not it was the last one. Including tax I paid $75.. I know it is kind of expensive but I thought after 5 months suffering, I can spend $75 for something on my "List". I already loved it! I put 500 pictures in it and put in slide show mode so that I can see all the people I really love and to bring good memories back.

Ok I dont want to turn this blog into diet blog but It looked so delicious I wanted to share with you. Also I thought this picture motivates you to bring your brown bag to work again..I only put strawberry, blueberry, yogurt and berry granola. Yum!

This saturday my husband and I went to one of my good friend’s birthday party in Laguna Beach. You know what “Laguna Beach” means; it basically means spending a lot of money. We were invited dinner at Mosun, Club M and later on clubbing at the same place. We decided to pass on dinner since we don’t want to spend $$ on food. We've realized that when we go to this kind of places the bill usually is being shared which never works out our advantage because we don’t eat a lot and we don’t drink much so generally we end up paying for other people’s extravagant meals and cocktails. Anyways, as I said we didn’t go to dinner this time but we went to the club afterwards. Since we were invited to this BD party we didn’t have to pay anything for admission. It was fun! Good crowd, good music! Our friend group was around 15 people and listen this; we were in VIP seating by the DJ! I guess my friend’s friends are super rich. All night long a waitress served our section so we drunk drunk and drunk more, paid nothing! Well this weekend was fun definitely fun and free, we’ll see rest our memorial weekend goes…

Wikipedia: Socks? A sock is a knitted or woven type of hosiery garment for enclosing the human foot. They are worn on the feet but why do I buy only white socks? Even though I love colors; hot pink, red, lime green…But why do I keep buying only white socks and no other? Few months ago I had all kind of colors of socks in my drawer and I realized that I always run out socks because I always miss one pair..I mean there were times I had to wear hot pink pair on right lemon yellow on left foot. How ridiculous is that? Anyways on the other hand my husband seems to have bunch of socks ready to put on whenever he wants and one day I noticed his little secret they are all the same color and brand. I know it because I am the one doing laundry :) After debating with myself how to solve my socks problem, I decided to follow my husband’s method. Now I buy 20 white socks from Walmart usually $7.00 whole pack of them and put on which ever I whenever I want. Sometimes I change them three times a day and still never run out socks, I have always a clean pair! Every two months I go back Walmart buy new pack for $7.00..This emethos works perfect for me, strongly recomended. My Problem solved!

This is a very easy meal to make. Prep time 5 min, cooking time 15 min and it is healthy and delicious.
Ingredients
1 bag of baby spinach
1 onion, chopped
¾ cup extra virgin olive oil
¾ white rice

3 easy step Preparation
1- Roast olive oil and chopped onion
2-Add the rice and ¾ boiled water
3-Add the spinach

Cook for 15 min. (until rice is cooked)

I want it now! I deserve it, am I not? No matter what!

Instant Gratification is like an addiction that stimulates our brain with instant reward. The reward is so appealing at the moment that most of us don’t think long lasting consequences of our actions. Today’s society is all about instant gratification. Advertisers spend their days and nights to convince us how we can live our dreams instantly without delay or sacrifice. I had and sometimes still have problem with self control. I know other pf bloggers who have this issue especially when it comes to money. We want to pay off our debt but then we want to see results immediately because we are craving for instant gratification. Unfortunately there is no easy way to get out of debt.. I always look for ways to grow. Let me tell ya, starting this blog and continuing help me to learn enjoy delayed gratification. How? I knew that the first I started this blog no one really read it because no one knew about it so I had to keep writing writing everyday just being consistent to reach the point where I was getting feedbacks from people and believe it was satisfying and it still is. I am still learning to be patient and consistent towards my goals. In this matter two philosophies I implement in my life helped me a lot.
I think surrounding yourself with “investors” (not in financial sense) instead of instant gratification types. The closest person to me is my husband and he is big time investor. We’ve been together for 5 years and learned from him a lot. However rest of my family is instant gratification type. :( I think that where I learned to be one too.
Go back to nature and appreciate how many million years took this world to be created for us. It didn’t happen instantly, right? And last focus on your ultimate dream, passion and it will become reality because as long as we take the right steps, finish line will be there for us to reach our goals.

Zero Spend day! It was not that difficult at all. I think I got used to the idea of not spending a penny and still be fine. The key factor was my lunch preparation. The day before I prepared spinach salad which by the way was delicious. Ingredients; spinach, corn, can tuna, blue cheese crumbles. As you can see in the pictures, I put everything in ziploc bags so when it is time to eat, everything is fresh, ready to be mixed. It takes me literally 5 min to prepare. I will come up with different salads like this one so I don't have to eat spinach every lunch.

As you know I live in Orange County, CA. The reason the name was given Orange County because of zillions of orange trees. Whenever I hear news from Orange, Texas it makes me wonder if they got their name for the same reason. I will probably visit that city and find out from first hand. If I go there the one of places I certainly plan to go is Stark Museum of Art. This museum supposedly houses one of the nation’s most significant collections of American Western art. They have wide variety of art collection, such as; western art, American Indian art, decorative art even rare books and manuscripts. When I visited their website I could not believe how much admission is, ready? It is FREE. Perfect for PF bloggers:)

Western Art: In the early nineteenth century explorer-artists such as George Catlin, Alfred Jacob Miller, John Mix Stanley and Paul Kane traveled across the continent. From their perspectives they recorded and documented American Indians in portraits and scenes of their customs.

Decorative Arts: The Decorative Arts collection features primarily glass and porcelain. It includes numerous items from Steuben Glass, including the only complete set of The United States in Crystal, a series of bowls engraved with scenes representing each of the 50 states as well as Puerto Rico and the Union.

The Rare Books and Manuscripts is my favorite. You will find The Birds of America and letters and journals by John James Audubon and even more rare items. The museum also provides a number of educational programs individuals, schools and researchers.
Along with opening this musuem, H.J. Lutcher Stark and his wife Nelda C. Stark established a non-profit organization for charitable and educational purposes. According to their website the mission of Stark Foundation is “ Improve the quality of life in Southeast Texas by encouraging, promoting and assisting education, the arts, and health and human services.”

They are open Tuesday through Saturday 10am to 5pm (just like any other museum hours) and you can find complete direction on their website.

Life is not always easy..And you've been witnessing my journey since January'08. I just received my cpa exam result..I failed :( I got 65, passing grade is 75...You know I was expecting this but seeing the official result hurt my feelings...

Today I turned 29! My husband said it I'm at the edge of 30, I dont want to know what that means :) When I arrived to work this morning, my office was all decorated with baloons, presents and cards so I felt really special all day..I didnt do much work today b/c people came in to my office all day long and my phone never stopped ringing; I can not complain..:)

Until I'm 30, I have couple more things to accomplish in my life if I can, I will feel wonderful..How am I feeling now? Being 29 and looking back on my life, I think I've done darn good so far; except CC debt :) which is going down steadily every month. Right after I graduated university in my home country in 2002, I came to the States (without any support, my parents are not rich) and learned English ( I could not even say "My name is..."); in fact, I learned pretty much every little thing from scratch..Worked my ass off as a waitress to make ends meet, went to UCLA (without any monetary help)...So I think I've done very well for an immigrant in this country...My plans while approaching 30 are too long to list. However, my priority is to pass CPA exam, change my job and finally have a killer 6 pack abs ! ohh and also run half marathon..:)

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Yesterday I received email from PayPerPost customer service. I thought the email reflects PPP's business practice very well so I decided to share with you.

A couple months ago when I revised my 2008 goals, I told you that I was going to pick a charity and donate $10.00 every month. This month I picked German Shepperd Rescue of Orange County as my deserving charity. I have a very good friend who volunteers for this charity and I've heard so many good things about them. When I was a little girl, my parents had a German Shepperd. He was lovely, sweet dog..One day he ate something while my parent took him a walk and he got poisened, next say he died...Even though I was only 4 that time, I was really upset still I am...
Also if you live in Orange County, you can register your Ralphs Club Card with German Shepherd Rescue of Orange County, and you can help orphans every time you buy groceries at Ralphs! There is no cost to you, and the dogs will benefit, so please sign up today. It's simple. Just send your name, address, phone number, and your Ralphs Club Card number (which is on the back of your card) to GSROC Program Administrator at mailto:chowski681@yahoo.com?Subject=GSROC. Next time you use your Ralphs Club card, Ralphs will automatically donate 4% of your purchase to German Shepherd Rescue of Orange County! With our help, this can be a fantastic fundraiser for needy dogs! I've just done it. What are you waiting for?

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