Carelessly planned projects take three times longer to complete than expected. Carefully planned projects take four times longer to complete than expected, mostly because the planners expect their planning to reduce the time it takes. And sometimes your plan is about as useful as toilet paper.

I should know, I’m a planner.  And the best laid plans … well, you know. I had our family finances all planned out. My husband works full time, I work part time since the kids are in school.  We take two vacations a year.  We would replace our old 1970s kitchen within five years of buying our house.

What screwed that up was this Bush economy. My husband lost his job at Motorola. I had trouble finding work at the payscale I was used to. Our daughter is a prodigy and they tell us she needs to go to a special “genius camp” in North Carolina next summer that costs $8000 for a month ($5000 after a scholarship).

So the question is, can I forget the kitchen until things turn around, and send my daughter to this camp? Her heart is set on it, so we looked into borrowing the $5000.  Forget banks, they’ll take your home away from you if you’re not careful. I found a car title loan company online, Schaumburg Title Loans, that valued our Escalade at worth $7000 in a loan. OK, not in the plan, but we did it. And I’ll do it again if the “plan” calls for it.

By the way Schaumburg is near Des Plaines, Elgin, Hoffman Estates, Rolling Meadows, and Roselle.

Something I learned while studying at Oakton Community College and working at the same time was that bills travel through the mail at twice the speed of checks.

And when the money comes up short, man, that’s when the problems start.  I can’t believe the banks get away with that stuff, those overdraft fees.  And god help you when you get behind on a credit card.  The interest rates are more than 20%.

Even with my degree, it’s been touch and go with money for me, and this economy is not helping anything. I thought I had it all covered and then I had a fender bender on the Eisenhower a few months ago.  Sheesh, people in this town forget how to drive once things start icing up. So while I had my car insurance payments up to date, I still had a $500 deductible to cover for the repairs and no way to do it.

So I did what made sense.  I used my car’s value to pay for the car repair.  A perfect system.  I looked for a car title loan store and found Prospect Heights Title Loans online.  For anyone whose looked into getting car title loans, you have to appreciate the simplicity of doing it this way.  And speed. I had my money in one day.

Bills travel fast, but the title loan did too.  Amazing.

By the way Prospect Heights  is near Wheeling, Northbrook, Des Plaines, Mt Prospect, and Arilington Heights.

A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking.

And in this economy, I come to a lot of conclusions.  I conclude that a Saturday night at home is easier than finding a way to do something for under $25. I conclude that I like my job even though it gives me a headache every single day and my boss is a lunatic.  I conclude that living in Park Ridge is paradise, even though I grew up in Florida and married the man who grew up three blocks from Hillary.

I also conclude that there are times when you do things with money you never expected to.  Last fall, our daughter was set to start at Loyola University and we learned we didn’t get the financial assistance we thought she was going to get.  Classes were going to start in three weeks, but we didn’t have the cash to cover that first semester’s tuition.  We didn’t know where to find it, since my husband’s commissions were low all year and I was worried about a layoff. So we went online and found a fast loan source – a car title loan through Park Ridge Title Loans.  I would never have done this if I had to go to a currency exchange or one of those other places.  But this is based on the Internet.  You get your money in like two days and that’s just what we needed.  I’d recommend car title loans to anyone who needs cash fast for important things.

By the way Park Ridge  is near Wilmette, Des Plaines, Lincolnwood, Glenview, and Harwood Heights.

My husband thought it would be good for the kids to take up camping.  You know, the tent, kerosene stove, everything packed on top the car, sleeping bags, trying to stay dry in the rain, the whole thing.

I say camping is nature’s way of feeding mosquitos.  But I lost that argument. So there we were, scheduled to head out to Yellowstone in four days, leaving our nice air conditioned house in Des Plaines behind us in July.  But Hal took the SUV in for servicing and we get hit with a $2300 estimate. For that kind of money we could have flown to someplace without bugs, snakes and mountain lions.  But the kids had their hearts set on it.

Anyway, that was not a good time to get hit with that bill.  So in a rush, I went on the internet and found Des Plaines Title Loans, where I found the money we needed.  And in a way, it was a perfect solution, using the car title loan to fix the car.  But the important part was we got the money the next day, and the approval in one hour.  That way we were able to get the car repaired at his favorite mechanic’s on Rand Road in time for the trip.

In the end, the kids and Hal had a good time.  And I get to chose where we go next year.

By the way Des Plaines is near Mt Prospect, Park Ridge, Wheeling, Glenview, and Northbrook.