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Thursday things

February 16th, 2019 at 12:52 am

I was inspired by a recent story in The Economist (about the connection between rising education of women in undeveloped countries and falling global fertility) to more narrowly focus my future Kiva loans to women seeking money for their education.

I've made a few "seed" donations which, when repaid to me, I reloan out, so the money is continuously being repaid and then reloaned. But I get impatient waiting for the repayments! There are so many deserving young women on the Kiva website.

I finally got my taxes filed today. So glad to be done with that for another year. I wound up with a small $18 refund on my federal taxes but owed about $650 on my state taxes. I think it's mostly due to having done a backdoor Roth IRA conversion. So I'm not going to fiddle with my CT withholding yet.

It's late winter now...time to call my favorite mason. I scheduled time to meet with him next week on this year's projects. I have 3 in mind that I'd like to do, but will only do 1 this year. I'm also thinking about bulking up my attic insulation and replacing the garage door.

We've had a few good weather days for walking, so I'm trying to take full advantage. I usually get some sort of walking in, but it's harder to squeeze in 10,000 steps.

I recently decided not to renew my Amazon Prime account since the cost rose from $99 to $120. I buy from Amazon very frequently, partly because I earn $20 a month in Amazon gift cards by participating in a credit card forum that doesn't take much time. But without too much trouble I can still time my purchases to qualify for free shipping.

I used to also rely on Prime a lot for my TV viewing, but now that I have .99 a month Hulu through November, it seems like unnecessary overlap and I'm watching just as much stuff on Hulu as I am Prime. So between now and April, when the Prime membership expires, I'll try to catch up and view any "must see" movies on Prime.

I think it's better not to get too attached to any one subscription, or a discretionary spend gradually becomes a necessary one in a way you might not even notice.

4 Responses to “Thursday things”

  1. Jenn Says:
    1550287407

    I do the same with my Kiva loans. Sometimes the loan is to a mother using the money for her daughter's education.

  2. PatientSaver Says:
    1550324013

    You're right, Jenn. When I applied the filters of "education" and "women," I came up with 109 individuals seeking funding for either their own or their child's education. To make it more interesting, I try to spread my loans out among as many different countries as possible. I think I'm up to 9 countries now. I noticed I have 3 "delinquent" loans, but they are still paying, but are a little behind.

  3. rob62521 Says:
    1550435934

    You are wonderful for doing the Kiva loans!

    We don't do Amazon Prime although it was tempting with some of the shows, but I think I ordered one thing from Amazon last year. So, the shows wouldn't be enough to entice me. We have Netflix and get extreme pleasure from it and don't want to switch.

  4. PatientSaver Says:
    1550441100

    Rob, it's probably a toss-up between the 2; i may go to netflix in november when my hulu promo expires.

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