So, this message came into my in-box today:

Pay tuition with any American Express® Card now through September 30, 2008 and enjoy savings from 15 participating merchants in retail, travel, technology and more, available especially for students and parents during the back-to-school season. Visit On Campus and get these offers and many more.

Since the home equity line has dried up, might as well charge it and earn discounts on buying More More More. Put it this way, consumers who resort to charging tuition do not need a reminder that they can do so.

And while I’m ranting, creditors, if you are reading this, I am not interested in your “convenience” checks. A week doesn’t go by without a mailbox full of these offers. Just yesterday, I received a snail mail reminder from a credit card with a zero balance that my credit limit is $12,000 and I should feel free to start charging. Start shredding is more like it.

Maybe we should start “whiny Wednesdays” on Ka-Blog!

Readers, what’s getting your financial goat these days?

Inspired by a past blog post and my 32nd birthday, I wrote last week’s column on birthday deals.

Here’s a link to the b-day offers I highlighted.

Of course the phone calls and e-mails came in from readers telling me I missed their favorite birthday freebie have been rolling in.

Kristin B. told me that you’ll get a free entree priced up to $15 if you join Houlihan’s e-club.Bill has enjoyed a free birthday meal at Joe Senser’s sports bar without lifting a finger to the keyboard. That’s a good reminder that saying “it’s my birthday” can be enough to get something for free.

According to Jean, I committed a cardinal sin when I forgot to mention a free slice of pie from Baker’s Square. “Shame, shame, shame,” she clucked in a voice-mail. I could not find details online but my guess is that you have to order an entree for your “free” slice of pie. Please correct me if I’m wrong.

Finally, here’s a deal I went to the trouble to call about only to forget to list it on my freebies chart! Parents can order a free 7-inch cake from Lunds or Byerlys for their pride and joy’s first birthday. It’s an ongoing deal that’s not advertised, so don’t go hunting for details. All you need is Junior’s birth certificate to cash in.

Sorry I haven’t written lately. I’ve been dreaming about what to do with my stimulus check. I just received my letter from the IRS on Monday saying that the check should be in my mailbox by this Saturday. How time flies.

I’ve been thinking about what we should do with that $1,800 for months now and still haven’t made a decision. In fact, we have the rare occurrence of having an additional $10,000 burning a hole in my checking account from a finished a freelance gig.
And since the crystal ball is cloudy, keeping it liquid but away from evil Splurge’s reach (isn’t that a great name for some monster villain?) is my priority. ESPECIALLY after watching my parents’ flat screen TV for the first time yesterday. Golly is that nicer than my buzzing relic from the late-90s.

So I started to hunt for CD rates, beginning with bankrate.com. I picked a nine-month duration, just in case I owe Uncle Sam more than I expect.

Surprise! You are still not rewarded for locking your money away any more than you are for depositing it in a high-yield savings account earning around 3 percent online.

To be honest, I’m bored with high-yield savings accounts, though. I know that safe savings isn’t supposed to be exciting. But curious to see what other relatively risk-free options are out there, I hit the web.

I’ve mentioned Everbank’s world currency CDs before. And while I have enough money to invest in certain flavors, I could lose principal if the price of the currency I’m invested in takes a dive.

I could help finance someone’s business in a third-world country through Microplace, but nine-month terms yield less than 2 percent. Feeling good might be worth the 1 percent I give up, but if I needed the cash, I’d be out of luck.

So readers, the sum sits in my ING account, twiddling its thumbs at 3 percent. Any other ideas?

I had a four day weekend, which was quite lovely and gave me a chance to realize the following:

1. I’ve decided to have a garage sale. We want to sell our patio table, a couple of bikes, and an assortment of household items and kids clothes. I don’t know where most of this stuff came from, but it’s time for it to go. I haven’t had a garage sale for a half-dozen years and still consider this one to be an experiment. Will it be worth the time and effort? Should I have donated the lot to charity? I think I found a pretty exhaustive list of garage sale “dos,” but do you have any tips for me? Do I need fancy signs?
2. Even though we drive relatively short distances, the price of gas finally caused me to cringe this morning, when I filled up the grocery getter for close to $80 after a $2.65 discount despite the Cub Foods/Holiday gas promotion.
3. I have too many accounts. Currently, I have three high-yield savings accounts, a brokerage account, a plain old checking account, an interest-earning checking account and 7 credit cards. Many were opened up to receive promotions, such as $100 credits, $25 gift cards, 0 percent interest for 15 months, 6 percent worth of rewards points for gas and grocery purchases. But it’s really an unmanageable number. How many accounts do you have and why? (more…)

I’ve always struggled with regular exercise. Once I’m doing it, it feels great. But if I’m not already donning gym shorts and tennis shoes, I’m more likely to reach for a drink or hang out than hit the running trails.

So…a few weeks ago I wrote about Stikk.com, which helps you to keep your commitments by pledging money to a person or a cause. Read the entire post here.

I said I’d exercise four days a week. I knew it was going to be tough. At first, I ran in the rain, got up at 5 am twice a week and did all I could to ensure that none of the readers who signed up to accept my failure money got a cent. But then I went to LA for a wedding and spent more time sitting by the pool than swimming in the pool. Last week, I made it to three times, but not the fourth.

So…I lost $40 because I pledged $240 for 12 weeks and have $20 on the line each week. And I randomly picked a winner from the people who emailed me to receive my money. Congrats Soren24! I’ll pick another winner if I fail again. To get in on the action, send an email to kara@startribune.com with the subject line: Stikk.

I only ran once so far this week which means I have to work out today through Sunday or I owe more dough.

I really thought I was so cheap that this incentive thing would work. But I’m learning that when time and money are competing as precious commodities, time can win out.