I swear there are days when I feel like giving up blogging completely.

Here’s my advice to each and every blog reader out there:  If you don’t like my blog . . STOP reading it!

I blog because I like to write and I like to “journal” my life.  There’s no way I’d get up every day and read a blog that aggravated me or whose writer I didn’t like, or whose spending habits I didn’t like, or whose ideas I totally opposed.  If you don’t like me or my blog, as my friend Elaine would say:  GO AWAY!

Last week I was accused of bragging OFTEN about the “stuff” I have.  Maybe all of you see it as that . . I do not!  I blog about my life.  I discuss my life.  I discuss everything I do . . where I go . . what I eat and SOME of what I buy.

There was another one ranting about something I’d done last week . . I’ve already forgotten what it was.

Today, I get this:

I wonder how we think we are helping the already poor economy by canceling our subscriptions?

Can this person not read or does she just want to complain?  This is what I said:

I’m certainly not saying don’t subscribe to these magazines.  They need us now more than ever but  . . I’d be careful about long term subscriptions.

Some days I wonder why I continue with my blog being public and this very comment has me re-thinking it all.  I’ve challenged this commenter to show me where she got the idea that I was suggesting canceling our subscriptions and I doubt she responds.  NEVER on my blog will I tell anyone what to do but I was simply stating that this company is having financial problems.  If you want to buy a 2 or 5 or 50 year magazine subscription tomorrow . . go for it!  If you are the type person who would rather know the financial solvency of a company you’re about to make a commit to doing business with, then read the article I linked and then make a decision.

There’s been a discussion on the quilt designers’ list for a while about designers not getting paid by magazines. It’s been a very respectful discussion and no names of magazines have been mentioned, though it was easy to google the names of the designers who hadn’t been paid and see which in magazines their articles/designs have recently been published.

This morning, this link was shared.  As far as quilters, they publish Quilter’s Newsletter, Quiltmaker, Quick Quilting, and several others.  I’m certainly not saying don’t subscribe to these magazines.  They need us now more than ever but  . . I’d be careful about long term subscriptions.  They may be in business longer than any of us are around or, they may not.

Recently XM Radio called me and wanted to extend my subsciption.  They were offering a hard to believe deal but I declined.  Just a few days later, I heard about their economic problems.  They also may be in business forever but they also may not.

Except for American Quilter which comes with my membership to AQS, I’ve let all my magazine subscriptions expire except for the few that will expire within the next few issues.  I do look through the magazines while at Wal-Mart or on the occasional trip to a bookstore and I get anything that interests me then.

Hopefully CK will be able to pare down the number of magazines they publish and continue to provide great magazines to the quilting, scrapbooking and sewing community.

On another issue a bit similar that you may want to be aware of — my credit card cycle closes near the first of the month and payment is due around the 20th.  I always check my statement online and pay it online and never open my statements that come in the mail.  Because my credit card is through one of the banks that we’re not hearing a lot of good news about, I went in last month and cashed out all my points for cash.  But, yesterday, the 24th, I received a statement which was not the time of month I should be receiving a statement so I opened it to see what was going on.  It was the statement that was due the 20th!  If I had not been keeping up with that – checking it online and paying it early, I would have been stuck with late fees and interest.  This was the statement that had tuition, dorm, meal plan and books!  I would not have wanted to have been stuck with interest on that amount!  Not sure if the statement had been lost in the mail . . it didn’t look like it had been damaged; or if the bank is behind in sending out statements.

But . . please be aware of things like this.  It could cost you . . even if I had been able to call and explain and convince them it wasn’t my fault and they had agreed to waive fees, it would have wasted a bunch of my time.

This is really the time to be responsible for your own self and family and not depend on others to do what they’ve always done or even what we think they should be doing!

One last thing . . when you are dealing with companies who have having financial problems, don’t forget you’re probably talking to someone who is in great fear of losing their own job, didn’t have any responsibility in whatever got the company in whatever mess they may be in, and that employee is probably receiving calls from irate, frustrated and fearful people all day.  Be a bright spot in their day and understand that they are probably doing all for you that they can do . . no matter how inadequate it may seem.  These people who are in “customer service”, though we see far too little of it these days, are in a rough spot when the companies dictate what they can and cannot do for us.