I live, write, and garden in the PNW with my husband of 28 years, disabled daughter, adult son, and my 84-year-old mother. We have paid off $250,000.00 worth of debt (if you include the interest) in the last fifteen years and as of 6/12/2020 are 100% DEBT FREE!!!!In the mail yesterday I got a Christmas catalog. No, that is not the shocking part. I get them every year at about this time, though I've never ordered from this one. It was a catalog for The Swiss Colony and I have been pre-approved for get this: $1000. Now I don't know about you, but to me a $1000 credit limit for chocolates, cheese, nuts, and meat type products means that there are people out there that actually spend that much money on this sort of thing. Ouch.
Even though consumable Christmas gifts kind of seems like a nice idea when you don't need any more stuff, my in-laws have made it clear they'd rather I make them a couple of my lasagnas for their freezer and some homemade fudge or cookies, then ever buy one of these types of packages, because my stuff tastes better to them.
The fact that they offer $1000 of credit to people who have a great credit score but that don't actually make an income of their own, well, that is kind of scary to me. It never comes in DH's name, who actually makes the income. This is probably part of why America is in such a mess right now. Anyway, I did look through the catalog, because it is very pretty and shiny, but then it ended up where it always does, the recycle bin. We don't need that kind of additive/preservative, nitrate/nitrite, fake foods in our lives.
Kind of Shocked, Though I Suppose I Shouldn't Be
November 9th, 2011 at 04:15 pm
November 9th, 2011 at 05:08 pm 1320858495
But I agree; the face that they offered it to someone without an income is - don't take this the wrong way - disturbing!
However, it is my credit score that my wife and I use, even though she is the one with the income.
November 9th, 2011 at 05:11 pm 1320858683
November 9th, 2011 at 05:28 pm 1320859724
But $1000 is pretty ridiculous. Holy cow!!! & they say it is hard to get credit these days. But, here's a $1000 for cheese?
The interesting thing is since we bought a brand new house in 2001, we didn't get a lot of junk mail for many years. So what we do get tends to be directly marketed at us. (All catalogs will have our name on it versus "Resident," for example). I have no idea how on earth we get on some of these lists. We get the funniest catalogs at time (can't remember any concrete examples - but at some point I think I got some like teen clothing magazine. & then we will get something like Eddie Bauer - lord knows why!). That said, since my identity was stolen in a credit theft I get a lot of jewlery catalogs - but at least I know where those came from (someone opened a Zales card in my name and maxed it out in 5 seconds). I suppose I should remember that is why *I* get some weird catalogs, but doesn't explain why my dh does.
November 9th, 2011 at 05:30 pm 1320859804
November 9th, 2011 at 07:44 pm 1320867878
November 9th, 2011 at 09:47 pm 1320875259
November 9th, 2011 at 10:31 pm 1320877890
But that's not true. No one supplied their income, and you can't find that info by checking someone's credit report.
November 10th, 2011 at 02:53 am 1320893611
November 10th, 2011 at 02:58 am 1320893924
Our family custom is to give home made gifts, and some part is often edible for the reasons you gave Robin. Home made tastes better and are chemical/preservative free. I'm baking [not healthy,all together too rich] made from scratch Red Velvet Cake muffins with generous topping of traditional Cream Cheese frosting as gifts feeling secure that recipients will not have to find a place to keep yet another bit of clutter. I'm not being cheap, home made baking using quality products is expensive and contains priceless buckets of pure love.
I'll bet your friends and neighbors would appreciate a frozen foil tray of your delicious, home made lasagna.