Man Steals Money From Girl Scout!?

This guy stole over 400 dollars from a girl scout who was selling cookies! What kind of person does thing! yes it is nice that someone gave her the amount she lost plus bought cookies for the troops and she was given a bunch of prizes, but that DOES NOT excuse the evil person who did this! I was a girl scout and i would sell cookies like crazy and get so excited for every sale, even though none of it went to me, but if someone steals something that comes out of the girl scout. She owes that money to the charity. The man who stole the money was cruel and it shows the evil in this world.
It is sad that women have to hide their diaper bags because of thieves and cant feel safe with their children playing right outside their homes and it is because of people like him!
i am sorry but this makes me really sad and mad!

Budget

I have tried the whole credit card thing... good thing i learned at an early age cash is the best way i budget my money. I can see it and know how much i have for each thing. I have separate envelopes for saving, water/trash, electric, gas for the car, car maintenance, furniture, car insurance, kids stuff, groceries, date night money, credit card payments, student loans, babysitting, vacation, gifts, tithing, and a few others. I don't look at it as a lump sum, say i have 2000 i don't see that number i see that i have 600 in vacation, 150 in electric, 100 in gifts and so on. No more spending on things i haven't thought about and don't actually have the money for.

Our Money or Theirs?

Credit or Debit? We go over our limit to have the things we wish we could afford, we say we can afford the minimum payment and get excited when the minimum payment goes down and it turns out you are paying it off even slower. out of your 50 dollar minimum payment 35 goes toward the interest 5 goes toward you protection plan and you are actually paying 10 dollars off of your principle. Instead of building the credit we thought we were going to we miss a payment or two and owe an extra 60 dollars and soon you are so far behind on all of your 50 dollar a month payments from numerous opened credit cards that you start getting numerous calls a day from ruthless creditors that wont budge. Even if you pay them your credit is still scarred. You now find yourself paying more on every loan you have and it ends up costing you even more in the long run. How could we avoid this?
We can live one step below the amount we make, you will be able to pay for everything you need and you will have a surplus (even if not much) in case of emergency or for the future. We long for earthly possession and win people over with the fancy car or purse, the nice dress, the elaborate house. Instead we need to think about the families we have, the amount of room we need the furniture we will use, the car that will be most efficient for the children (if any) and husband. Do we need 2 car? Is it close enough to walk or ride a bike? Is the extra office in the house worth the extra 50,000 dollars.
Once our credit is ruined it is a hole that seams to get deeper and deeper. soon we are buried and we are avoiding the phone and throwing away mail before we open it.
When my husband and i were married we were negative without me even being aware of it. He had made many college mistakes that he didn't think would affect his future or his future families.
We now have a strictly cash budget which stops us from over drafting our account or getting deeper into credit issues. We have envelopes that we save and it only comes out if it is being used for that purpose. If you don't get holes in your pockets it may be a good idea for you.

Weddings and Long engagements

I have been planning weddings for almost 10 years and the long engagements seam to add more strain on the relationship and more stress in your life, there is only so much planning you can do, especially since most girls have been planning for this one day in their lives their whole life!
What i have observed is that the simpler wedding seam to be the marriages that last the longest and seam the happiest because they realize it isn't about the day it is about every day after the wedding. Getting through a ceremony and honeymoon and opening all of your cards and gifts, that's the easy part. Living together, finding each others flaws, realizing the things you thought were cute now drive you crazy! You seam to not feel the love anymore.
The number one reason for divorce is financial issues. Then why do we insist on spending 10's to 100's of thousands of dollars on this one day instead of invention it into the marriage. A beautiful wedding can come from a minimal budget. My wedding in total cost just over $1000 including my dress and it was a beautiful wedding, yes i got some good deals on things for being a coordinator but not that much, I just wanted simple! I will post some pictures so you can see, my dress was a replica of a very expensive dress i loved... 170 dollars made to fit me. My flowers cost about 150 for all of 6 bouquets 6 corsages, and 6 boutonnieres. My cake was made by a wonderful student at the culinary institute for 75 dollars.. and let me tell you it was the best darn wedding cake i had ever tasted! Decorations were about $250. Food was catered by el pollo loco and was delicious and about $350 (paid for by my husbands family, thank you). my cousin made my veil which cost about 3 dollars for the fabric and i already had a tiara. My gifts to my girls cost me 10 dollars each which were these adorable snowflake necklaces and earring. My theme was winter wonderland. I loved it! my photographer was a friend. If you need to splurge on something make it the photographer and make sure they give you the right to your photos, either the negatives or a disc with all of the pictures! it is worth the extra cost.
These are my views on weddings. Less is More. Also my husband and i were already married before the wedding so it was a lot less stressful. but i don't suggest everyone do that.

Your views?