I like to bring a flash light to the movies and just have all the rows move down for no reason.  I know it’s bad.  My friends think it’s funny, but my girlfriend says it “mortifies” her. She loves me.

She really got upset that time we were in the city and there was this mime guy doing his thing. I thought it was really embarrassing for him, so I stood up and did narration. She didn’t like that either.

But there is a reason she sticks with me. I’m a genius. Secretly, but a genius nonetheless. When she had a problem with money a few months ago, she wanted me to lend her $400.  I don’t have $400 sitting around, but I didn’t tell her that. I said, sure, but you will have to make me dinner every Friday night for a year as interest.  It totally worked.

I got the money off the value of my car.  I went the Wheaton Title Loans, where I got that cash in one day. So in the end, she is further convinced of my studliness and intellect, and I get a fine meal every Friday instead of me having to pay in a restaurant somewhere.

Next time someone gets out a flashlight at the Wheaton Grand Theater and asks you to move — say hi.

By the way Wheaton is near Warrenville, Winfield, Glen Ellyn, Lombard, and Naperville.

There are some questions for which I have no answers: Like, are snakes afraid of other snakes? Why is it that most irons have a setting for ‘permanent press’ garments? Do hermits ever suffer from peer pressure?

I tell ya, I was worried about that last one for my own sake a few months ago.  Lost my job, home equity loan maxed out, credit cards maxed out too. Was down to my last unemployment check when I figured out something I had never heard of before.  Your car, if paid for, can be collateral for a loan.  That was me.  I was truly down to not knowing if I would have money for food or the mortgage/taxes. So I went ahead and contacted Warrenville Title Loans.  They were willing to lend me $3000 on my old car. Which was more than what I needed at the time.

Now, things are turned around.  I’m working again, paying the bills, and even paid off that car title loan. It helps to consider the questions for which you have no answers (yet).

By the way Warrenville is near Eola, Marywood, Naperville, Warrenville, West Chicago, and Wheaton.

I had a good job with good authority.  But then I learned what they say, if you think you’re a person of some influence, try ordering somebody else’s dog around.

Which has kinda been my situation since losing my job last year.  My wife works still, thankfully, and when the kids are off at school it’s just me and the neighbor’s dog and the fish.  The fish pretty much keeps to himself (herself?), but that dog  has a mind of his own.

I also found that my finances were more in control of me than me of them. We could keep the regular expenses covered with my wife’s income and what severance and unemployment I was drawing, but then we got hit with one thing after another.  The cards were maxed out and I didn’t have the money needed to fix my car — what I needed to go on job interviews.  That’s when I did something people don’t talk about much in DuPage County.  I searched on the internet for a car title loan.

I’m here to say it’s a smart strategy under certain circumstances.  I’m using my car to fix my car.  And it was a relatively pain free process: I went to Glen Ellyn Title Loans online, a car title loans company that gets you your cash in under 24 hours, electronically transferred into your checking account.  I’d recommend it to anyone — even my dog.

By the way Glen Ellyn is near Lombard, Wheaton, Carol Stream, Addison, and Villa Park.

I’m getting a little sick of all this fitness stuff. If you ask me, I don’t want buns of steel. I want buns of cinnamon. I’m just being honest.

Last year my husband bought me a membership at the Curves here in Geneva. And that was after he went to Chicago Home Fitness to buy “us” a treadmill. That’s the way he spends money — always on a hope and a dream. Me, I’m happy to be part of the mainstream majority in America that is overweight and comfortable with it.

But another way we’re part of the mainstream is in our household debt. It’s gotten bigger than what we’re comfortable with. So when we got hit with a home repair bill (the boiler went out), we didn’t have the reserve or cash to cover it. And I’m not the kind of girl who can take cold showers.

So on the Internet I found Geneva Title Loans. It’s a car title loan company that uses your car for collateral. That would be our minivan. I was able to get the $1200 we needed to get a new space pack heater, which is more efficient (uses less energy) in the long run. It was a good investment, and we were able to do it pretty fast because that car title loans company gets you your money in a day. After that, I sold the treadmill on Craigslist and that helped too.

By the way Geneva is near Naperville, Wheaton, West Chicago, Winfield, and Batavia.

There are lot of things in life I don’t know. Like, what hair color do the put on the driver’s licenses of bald men?

But I recently learned an important lesson in personal finance. I had allowed my credit card charges to build up. Here in DuPage County, we’re a little too caught up in keeping up appearances, so this economic slow down doesn’t stop many of us from spending money. My husband and I decided we still deserved vacations last year, and some good clothes for work, and dinners out in restaurants in Chicago. And then wham!, all of a sudden we ran into some big financial hits that took away our ability to pay some credit card bills on time. It was then that I noticed our interest charges had climbed to 28%!

So I went on the Internet and learned about car title loans. Both our cars are older (five years and six years), but the good thing is they’re paid for. We figured out we could borrow against our car title and do better with that than carry those big credit card balances. My friends couldn’t believe it. So I sent them to our car title loan lender, DuPage County Title Loans. Two of my friends did the same thing we did. It’s easy, takes about ten minutes to do, and you get your money fast — in time to pay off the ugliest of bills.

Bald men and their driver’s licenses are something I still don’t know.  But car title loans I understand and recommend.

By the way Dupage County is near Batavia, Warrenville, Wheaton, Glendale Heights, and Bloomingdale.

My hunky husband is great to look at. Etcetera. And I’m a happy woman. But no one pretends he’s the sharpest knife in the drawer. When we were first dating, I told him I would only engage in safe sex. His response? “You mean that’s when we lock the door?”

So needless to say, he’s also not the breadwinner around the house. Typically, that’s my job. And it doesn’t hurt that I’m a lawyer. Except late last year I was laid off and in this economy my area of specialization doesn’t offer a lot of jobs. Before we could manage costs down to what we could afford, the bills got ahead of me. I was determined not to let my credit rating go into the toilet because of this temporary situation.

So one month when payments due were about $2500 greater than available funds, the big lunk actually had a good idea. A friend of his at his gym on Army Trail Road in Glendale Heights had used Bloomingdale Title Loans to get cash from his car. My Chrysler is paid for, so I have value in it – but I wasn’t about to sell it because I’ll obviously need it when I get a new job. I went to their online application, filled it out in about ten minutes, and in a day I had the cash needed to cover the bills. A car title loan makes sense sometimes under special circumstances.

I’m working part time again in Chicago and paying off that loan just fine. And with more time at home, I get to enjoy my marriage a little more. With the door locked, and sometimes not .

By the way Bloomingdale is near Glendale Heights, Carol Stream, Glen Ellyn, Lombard, and Wheaton.

Lessons in marriage learned recently: The most effective way to remember your wife’s birthday is to forget it once.

We got married in early July (1992). Her birthday is in late June. And I tend to mentally lump the two together, sometimes trying to get in one present for both of them. But the trick there is to hit the first event (her birthday), which then covers you on the second. It’s the 25th, but I was thinking the 28th for some reason. So once I figured out the slow burn taking place in our home, I knew I had to make amends.

Ever the penitent husband, I offered to go to the Kane County Flea Market with her the next week. She usually goes with her mother and sister from Batavia. I figured, “how much could this cost?” What I discovered is, PLENTY. Just because I had the pick-up with us, she decides this big honking chest was “perfect” for our living room. But for a mere $1000 we have become the proud owners of this fine piece of old furniture.

Which led to a little cash crunch for the past few months. My solution: go to Aurora Car Title Loans, for a short-term loan against my truck. It was a great fix: done entirely online, a car title loan is easy and fast. I had the money in a day.

A well-timed box of chocolates could have averted this whole thing.

By the way Aurora is near Montgomery, South Park, Naperville, Bolingbrook, and Wheaton.