• 3D
• Calligraphy
• Decorative
• Graffiti
• Handwriting
• Medieval
• Old English
• Typewriter

To install the free font, click on the appropriate button:  Download Win Font or Download Mac Font.  A small pop-up will prompt you to Open or Save.  I do not have a Mac so anything beyond this is for Windows users only.

Click Open then Extract All Files to a destination folder that is easy for you to remember.  Frankly, I put all my downloaded stuff to my Desktop first and move it somewhere else later. 

Next, go to the Control Panel (Start -> Control Panel).  If you have Vista, change the folder view to Classic View.  In the Control Panel folder click on Fonts. 

Right click anywhere in the opened Fonts folder and click Install Fonts.  If you saved the font on your Desktop go to C:\Users, then to whatever your username is, and then Desktop. 

The font installer will list the fonts available for installation from that folder.  Highlight the fonts and Install. 

You should be able to use your fonts from within Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, Publisher, and any other editor that uses the Windows fonts!

While this would have been enough to elicit a reaction years ago, the number of people getting rid of their cable or satellite TV subscription has been steadily increasing in recent times.  The most common reasons are:

• It costs too much.
• There is nothing to watch.
• To watch what you want when you want it, it costs extra.

A computer we purchased in December 2007 came with a TV tuner, and that has been such a wonderful device!  If you have a relatively new computer, check the connections in the back.  Find a port that has no cable connected to it yet.  Check out its labels.  My TV tuner card has “DTV Ant”, “FM Ant” and “Analog Ant” underneath the ports. 

This is the indoor antenna I have sitting on top of my computer.  It is a Philips High Performance Amplified Indoor Uhf/Vhf/Fm/HDTV Antenna.  I connected the antenna cable from that to the port on the back of my computer marked “DTV Ant”.  Then came the fun part of trying to get the right orientation.

My computer has Windows Media Player and it made setting up the indoor antenna so much easier by providing feedback on the antenna strength of each channel available to me.  Click here to check if your computer already has Windows Media Player.

Another thing that helped me find the right orientation is a website called antennaweb.org.  I entered my address (and made sure I unchecked any subscription opt-ins) and it gave me a listing of the stations in my area plus their compass heading, frequency assignment, and distance from my location. 

If you do not have a TV tuner card on your computer and you know what you are doing around electronics, you can get one like this Hauppauge 1128 WinTV-HVR-1800 Internal Hybrid TV Tuner/Video Recorder.  You will need to install it in your computer and set it up.  I recommend you get a techie to do that for you.  A computer is expensive and you don’t want to mess it up!

More “Cable and Satellite TV Alternative” articles to come.  Check back soon!

I did not have much money for gifts this year and told the kids so.  They are wonderful, understanding kids and for that I am thankful.  They only got one item this year:  an MP3 player.  Now they are busy ripping CD’s and downloading MP3′s.  Luckily, there are tons of legally available FREE MP3′s from digital download sites, and you can listen to snippets of the songs before you download them.

A note of caution about file-sharing websites:  the file-sharing service is legal, but sharing copyrighted files (such as songs and movies) on these legal file-sharing websites is still illegal.  Know the difference.

As of this morning, Amazon.com has 684 FREE MP3′s available for download.  If you sort the list by “Bestselling”, most of the songs in the top 25 are geared towards the holidays but that is just because of the season.  Browse through the list.  You might find an old favorite artist with a new song, or an entirely new favorite artist.

It is past midnight and I had been asleep for over two hours when I was woken up and felt the urge to go online and search for Quicken.  This is very strange in itself as I know what Quicken is and where to get it, and had no reason to Google it at all.  The first website displayed by Google was Intuit’s Quicken site, and lo and behold, the word “FREE” caught my eye.  “Quicken Online – Now FREE”, it screamed.  I had to check for more information to make sure it wasn’t free only for the trial period.  As far as I know, it is not a trial account and there doesn’t seem to be any hidden charges.  If you have evidence that it isn’t so, please let me know!

So I signed up, all the while expecting to be accosted with “Aha! Now here’s the catch!”  So far I haven’t encountered any.  What freaked me out was it asked for the login and password of my bank account, and I had to make sure that I was still on Intuit’s Quicken website by checking the URL.  Once I provided that, Quicken contacted my bank’s server and loaded all my transactions.  Just like that, everything was in place.

I am excited with the Quicken Online.  I love that I can access it from any computer with internet connectivity.  It seems easy to use, and it has financial tools for budgeting and setting up financial goals.  I was also pleasantly surprised that Quicken Online comes with Quicken Beam, a beta service that sends alerts to your mobile phone.  It can send you your account balance, your last 5 transactions, when your balance dips below your set amount, etc. 

If you have never used a financial tracking software before, now is a great time to start.  Get your free Quicken Online account now!

• Nine children aged 1 through 17 who were abandoned by the father after the mother died last year and he lost his job this year. He allowed his 18-year old daughter to stay at home.  His in-laws lamented that he should have approached them first and they would have been happy to help.  They are now fighting to gain custody of the children.
• A 14-year old girl from Iowa who was driven to and abandoned in Nebraska by her grandparents in to “teach her a lesson”.  The grandparents later changed their mind and got her back.

Read the entire text of the Nebraska Safe Haven Law  here.

Experts now say there is great potential for this law to be abused, and with how badly the economy is doing nowadays, they fear that many more children could be abandoned.

Image from Stephen & Karen Conn’s Nebraska Travel Tips.

In one of the blogs to which I subscribe, the author talked about a friend who “had a modest job yet always has the latest gadgets”.  Intrigued, the author asked the friend how she was paying for all that stuff.  The friend confessed to the author that she’s been selling naked pictures of herself on the Internet.

The post was astounding to me for several reasons:

1. 1. The blog was a money-saving blog and I was not expecting the authors to address ”less mainstream” ideas.
2. 2. The author had the nerve to ask her friend how she pays for stuff.  What would Miss Manners say?
3. 3. The author described the friend as “pretty but a bit pudgy”. Wow.
4. 4. A woman would want indecent pictures of herself all over the Internet.  What if a friend or family member saw it?

The blog post went on to say that there are adults-only auction sites where a girl can try to sell not only Playboy centerfold-type … umm … “spreads”, but also their high-heels, outfits and even underwear.  If it hasn’t been washed, would it fetch a higher price?  Hmmm.

That author’s friend claimed that her annual income from this online venture is around $6,000.  Not a bad haul. I sure could use an extra $6,000 a year, couldn’t you?  However, though not a prude, I don’t think I can do something like this.

How about you? Have you or someone you personally know got naked for money?

To read the blog post that inspired this, click here. The naked woman in the photo isn’t me. Some random woman can now claim that I bought her naked photo from here, which is NOT an adult-only site.

This article was originally posted at Single Scoop, where I am a guest blogger.

One of the most thought-provoking questions I recently encountered was this:  “Are you poor or are you broke?” 

Like many people, I use the two terms interchangeably.  I am, of course,  speaking exclusively of one’s financials.  One can have no money but feel rich in spiritual or other ways.  So let us not touch on the mushy “we are rich because we are healthy and we are together” stuff. 

“Broke” is a temporary condition that manifests itself when you need or want to spend money on something  but you cannot afford to do so at that moment.  “Broke” is juggling your bills, putting off paying one bill in favor of an overdue payment.  “Broke” is that time riiiiight before payday when you have almost nothing in your wallet and in your checking account.

Broke people still have the fundamental things:  food, clothing and shelter.  In fact, these fundamental things are sometimes the reason people are broke — they spend too much on them:  they eat out too often, they have too many clothes or are into expensive stuff, or they live in a house that is above their means.  The current wave of foreclosures is a testament to that.

The best thing about being broke is that there is usually room for improving the situation, like increasing one’s income or decreasing one’s expenses.  A broke person most likely has the power to make himself or herself un-broke.  If the broke person does not make any changes, the situation can only get much worse:  they become “poor”.

“Poor” are the ones with the bare minimum of life’s necessities:  food, clothing and shelter.  They are in this situation because of circumstances beyond their control, or have spiraled out of their control.  Maybe they got hurt and can’t work and is on a very limited income.  Maybe they have some mental ailment or addiction that they could not overcome.  A good percentage of any big city’s homeless population belong in that category.  Maybe they have just been knocked down too many times and just cannot catch a break. 

Whatever the reason for poverty, the “poor” do not usually have remotely easy and legal means to increase income or reduce expenses.  If they were to get out of the situation they are in, they are going to have to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.  Rags-to-riches stories are not just in fairytales.  They do happen in the real world.

So, which one are you:  poor or broke?

Possibly related topic:  Poor Ohioans Are Having Trouble Affording Food

Read Gail Vaz-Oxlade’s blog post that prompted my thoughts on this matter.

For a struggling woman who is trying to rebuild a career, lack of money for clothes shopping is a big frustration.  It is a blessing that I do not feel the need to have designer clothers and accessories.  However, I am old enough and wise enough to realize that cheap clothes look cheap after only two washes.  By cheap clothes I mean those clothes that have cheap original prices.

I prefer to head for the clearance racks in decent department stores and specialty stores at the mall.  This way I get to have good quality items at a price that fits my budget better.  I choose clothes that are classic and span seasons because I can’t afford to have a separate wardrobe for spring, summer, fall and winter.  Because I wear them a lot, I take steps to ensure that my clothes last.

At the risk of sounding like an advertisement (this is NOT a paid post, by the way), I confess that for over a decade now I have washed my clothes only with Woolite.  I have noticed that it does not fade the colors of my clothes, making them look new-ish.   I once made the mistake of sorting my pajama pants in the regular detergent pile while the pajama top went in the Woolite pile.  The next time I wore them, The pajama pants were two shades lighter than the top!

I always use cold water in the washing machine, and set it on Gentle Cycle.  The dryer is set to the lowest temperature setting.  It takes much longer to dry clothes that way, but they don’t come out of the dryer looking like they have been baked. 

Taking care of my clothes this way have helped make my clothes last quite a long time, which in turn helps me save money while looking great in the office.  I think the extra dollar spent on Woolite and on the longer drying cycle are well worth it.

I came across an article from UK’s The Sun titled “How To Snare a Billionaire”.  It was incredulously preposterous.  The GIF below is a screen capture of the article’s sidebar.

Moscow has a popular seduction school that teaches women in their 20′s and 30′s on how to get a man, preferably a rich one.  Wear a short skirt and bend over a lot seems to be the main advice.  I guess Elle from Legally Blonde wasn’t far off with her “bend and snap” routine! 

The students are graded on their perfume, manicure, and hair.  They role play.  They strip down to their bras and thongs and sashay all over.  They practice lapdancing to Shakira’s music. 

Shockingly, majority of the women taking this course are beautiful, educated and hold decent jobs.  What, I wonder, could drive such women to give up a weekend and pay good money to attend such a school?  It wouldn’t be poverty.  Greed perhaps?  The desire for luxury and maybe fame?  Maybe bragging rights for snaring a rich one?  It is hard to say.

I suggest the next class they take is a crash course on Law, preferably pertaining to prenups, divorce, alimony and, just in case, child custody.

Read the Sun Article here. | digg story

My little girl is not so little anymore. She has grown so much that she has outgrown most of her clothes. She’s an incoming high school freshie, and is now starting to be very conscious about fashion. With school starting soon, we are starting to prepare her school wardrobe. The problem is, I’m broke. 

Scouring the newspaper yesterday, I came across a $10 off $50 coupon for a department store. They are having a huge sale. I happen to have a $50 gift card for that same department store from a few months ago. Considering the fact that $50 will probably only buy one or two items there, I had to come up with a plan.

Preparation is key. I asked Teenage Girl to check her closet and find out what she needs the most. She came up with “jeans” and “shirts”. She knows and understands the financial situation, and was therefore not surprised when I laid down the boundaries: $60 at the most, we eat at home before we leave for the mall, and she needs to try the items before she buys so money and/or gas is not wasted on items that do not fit well.

She rose to the challenge.  With comfortable clothes and shoes, we set out after having snacks at home.  Having to stick to a budget, Teenage Girl chose carefully and deliberately, making sure she was happy with each item she chose.  She kept track of the price of each item, and before declaring that she was ready to check out, she reevaluated the items to make sure she chose well.  In the end she got two pairs of jeans and three shirts, all from decent brands.  And we had $14 left in the gift card.  Way to go, girl!

It was a good financial exercise for her, she got some new clothes, and we spent a quality afternoon girl-bonding.  It made my day!