Show me your tips!

When you live in a neighborhood that's notoriously bougie, such as Park Slope, you are prone to great amounts of criticism from the media masses. Our 'hood is known most aggressively for entitled parents of brats and over-protective helicopter moms with strollers that cost as much as an used car. Regardless, every so often a piece of legit factual reporting comes out (gawd forbid!), such as the NY State Dept of Labor Report's special investigation which revealed that 23 of 25 restaurants and coffee shops along 5th and 7th Aves in Park Slope were found to be commiting "wage theft" and totally screwing their employees.

To quote:
"In total, 207 workers were underpaid more than $910,000. Some of the worst violations were for delivery employees working 60 to 70 hours per week and paid a salary of $210.00 to $275.00 per week. At one restaurant, workers were paid as little as $2.75 per hour."

I guess this shouldn't surprise me, although the two greatest transgressors were two of our local faves--Rachel's and Coco Roco--both owned and run by Hispanic men who were rabidly effing over their own peoples. For shame, guys.

Regardless of the craptastic ethos of these establishments, it's a good reminder to tip and tip heavily those guys on bikes who schlep you your scallion pancakes in the dark, rain, and crazily driven streets of the slope (saw two car accidents since Thursday!). As the holiday season's upon us, here's my list of hired help I always tip well, but tip particularly well during this time of year:

1. Delivery guys: Sure they didn't wait on you like in a restaurant, kissing your derriere and telling you it's okay if you kid smears yogurt all over god's creation, but they rode their bikes to YOUR HOUSE, usually in the dark, often in weather that prevented you from doing a pick up...They are target to teenage theft for their small amounts of cash, to whack drivers, and you know their hourly wage is not the minimum wage in most places. Their job sucks. Be nice.

2. Waxing ladies: You would think it would make sense to tip the Russian ladies to rip out your hair on your legs and other unmentionable places with hot wax, but upon questioning my lady I was surprised that many leave only a few bucks. Seriously? You want her to remember how cheap you were next time she has hot wax dripping over your eyeballs for an eyebrow wax or next to your girl parts for a bikini wax? Those Russians might not be the best at small conversation or smiling, they they can wax like nobody's business. Tip them. Or face the consequences of no eyebrows for your holiday party.

3. Daycare providers: The holidays are the time to show those women who work tirelessly changing your kid's poop and singing annoying kids music with them how much you care. Don't give them a cheap ass present from the drugstore or bake them cookies, give them cold, hard cash. Daycare providers and early childhood educators really do make crap for money. Unlike a teacher K-12, they have no union, no rights, and although they might have a master's in Early Childhood Ed., their salary in comparison to a teacher's sucks. And, with the amount of poop, pee, vomit, tantrums, and time outs they have to administer--they deserve a nice holiday cadeau of money.

Just food for thought as the holiday season officially begins this week.

Loan Consolidation is Bulls**t

My dear husband got some notice from our loan providers that he qualified for consolidation b/c he's made x number of payments on time, blah blah blah. it reduces his payments per month because of a lower interest rate, and every penny helps as we are about to enter of the world of paying double daycare. So I decided to call the loan folks to see if I could consolidate. Ugh.

First, I read all the info online and printed out all my loans from my two lenders. I studied the info. I could make no sense of it. Seriously. I needed to talk to someone, and I have ELEVEN years of higher education behind me. Wth?

Then I called Direct Loans and got a lady, we'll name her Sherry, on the phone. She had quite the chip on her shoulder and didn't laugh at any of my jokes. She accused me of giving her false info quite strongly once, and after about an hour on the phone (during which I broke a sweat), she broke it down to me like this:

Consolidation would = monthly payments of approx $300 for the next 25 years.
Currently loans = monthly payments of approx $550 for the next 8 years.

Why does consolidation look like a worse off deal? Granted, making our loan payments the next few years might = me selling a kidney or becoming a surrogate for some rich celebrity (actually, I think I'm too old now...), but do I really want to lock myself into a 25 year payment plan when I only have 8 years left of my current sitution?

Hellz no.
I don't get it.

Student Loan Debt Stimulus

Many of you have heard me bitch and moan about rich and/or ignorant folks getting bailed out by the government with the proposed stimulus package. Upon chatting with my midwife the other day over the woes of money, daycare, etc, she said that she wished they would consider student loan forgiveness as part of the stimulus package. I exclaimed and enthusiastic, "That's brilliant!"and the idea has lingered with me.

Currently, between my undergrad, Adam's master's degree, and my doctorate degree we pay close to $1000 per month in college loans. That combined with rent, food, bills (life insurance, cell phone, electricity) and daycare leave us barely scraping by each month. It's a sad state to live in, especially when you feel you have done what society tells you to do (go to college, get multiple degrees, establish yourself firmly and successfully in a profession, don't do anything stupid like get a mortgage you can't afford) and you're still financially struggling.

If the government were to grant student loan forgiveness as a part of a stimulus, even if they just gave any/everyone with outstanding student debt 20K that could ONLY be used to repay loans, all that money would go back into banks and/or the government (our loans are currently from the government and a private loaning company in NC). And then, those of us who are financially paralyzed by college debt would have that much extra money per month to put back into our flailing economy. I really see it as win/win situation.

But, of course, I'm not holding my breath on this one. Instead, we'll bail out a bunch of douchebag bankers and financially irresponsible home-buyers so that they can simply go out and repeat their same mistakes. You know they will. Because they'll just wait for a second hand-out, I mean bailout, to fix their problems.

So, again, no bailout for us folks here on 8th Street, Brooklyn, New York, USA.


More info on college loans forgiveness bailout idea.

great description of the forgive student loan movement here