Sometimes you go with the best of intentions, and things don't work out. Then other times you aren't even trying, and things just fall into place.

The above was certainly the case tonight. I went to the local Safeway with the plan of getting the 10 bottles for 80 cents each sale (the store is less than a mile away, so I can go just for sales). I had two buy one, get one free coupons, so I figured... 8 X 80 cents is $6.40 + tax (for 10). Not great, but I wasn't in the best mood, and just wanted to spend a little on something I thought I would like.

When I got there I found four bottles of Propel that had coupons on them, so I picked them up as part of my purchase. At the register the on bottle coupons doubled, and the lady used the original price for the amount off of my BOGOF coupons (instead of the sale price). At the end I paid $1.04 (4 Sobe, 4 Propel, 2 Fuze). The lady at the register said "wow" four times. I was afraid she was going to redo everything because I was paying too little. Its weird how these things work sometimes.

Here is an interesting article dealing with some people saving too much for retirement.

How much is too much?
While I can feel there can never be too much saved for retirement, it does make the point that you need to enjoy your money a bit, if you have it to enjoy of course. Before I used to think that if I kept saving as I did, once I hit 50 I at least wouldn't feel like I had to be saving more. I would have enough that as long as I wasn't wasteful I would be fine. Now I'm not so sure about that time frame (for the obvious reasons). My home should still be paid off for before I hit 50, so thats good.

Anyway, after saving so hard for a few years, and knowing that I have a solid job now and semi solid savings, I would be happy to splurge a little, but there is so little I want now, and no one to enjoy it with, eh - what am I to do? No crying here, but sheesh, boy do I feel out of sync with society as a whole.

Boy, its been a long time since I wrote anything here. Alot of crud going on in my life, and that sort of leads to the title of this. While I was out cutting the grass tonight, I did what I always do, sorta get into a mental zone, let my body go on autopilot to do the work, and let my mind go through a little self analysis. OK, maybe a lot. Anyway, as I was going over the mess of my life at the moment, I realized this is probably much more productive than going to a psychiatrist (Actually I am very much against going to one, unless you have severe problems ... but that is MHO). And of course the cost is $0 too.

My alternate title for this was going to be "I'm living in a Billy Joel song". Basically the song is (and I'm guessing the title here) "Only the good die young". Everyone "good" in my life in the past year has either died or gotten very ill. Not looking for sympathy, but really, for so many years I had so little of this go on close to me, and then wow, WTF happened? OK, I gotta stop going down this road.

One last thing - not to be an advertisement, but if you are looking at workout routines, and see the one called P90X, OMG is that insane. I thought I was in, well... maybe passable shape. After doing this for a few days I feel like a wimp. If you're not in so-so shape don't try it - I think they have an easier (and older) version called P90. Thats good to get started - I was using that as I found it at a yard sale last year. If I can keep up with this P90X, even if I don't do it as hard as they make it out, I have to get in better shape. I'm hoping I will be able to walk ok tomorrow morning. Aghhhhhh!

... with a couple of "your milage may vary" warnings thrown in. If you're the type that is diligent in paying off your credit cards so you don't pay fees, here is one that could be for you.

http://www.citibank.com/us/cards/exmbl/promo8.htm

It gives you 30 cents back in rebates per gallon (only for 2 months!). This was obviously set up while gas prices were high, but they are still honoring this offer now that prices have dropped. I signed up and now my net cost for gas this holiday will come in around $1.50 or so a gallon. Not too shabby!

Of course if you don't pay your bills right away, or just hate credit cards, then pass on this. Otherwise, hey, save some money! With my planned driving this December/January, I figure to save over $100. This I can like!

No, not MTV (for those that remember the song), but DTV, Digital Television. If you're crazy like me, and I don't have any cable or satellite service, you need to pick up a digital signal TV converter box. And of course you need to get the $40 vouchers for buying the darn little things.

I picked up one last night, and installed it on my TV. Well I found out you need a fairly good signal (though not great) to get digital TV. Turns out only 1 of 4 local network signals were strong enough, as well a 1 of the other 7 local channels (actually I think only 4 of them even have a DTV signal yet). It was certainly interesting. The two channels I did get were either crystal clear, or on occassion were pixelated (like when you lose a satellite signal). Even with that problem, the picture upgrade was amazing. Now if I can only figure out the right setting on the antenna to get the other channels...

Anywho, if you haven't gotten them yet, you need to go online and order the DTV vouchers. My converter box cost just $10 when I used one.

Well, I guess thinking outside of the box can apply to anything, but in this case it applies to my yard sale-ing. I was out yesterday, and stopped at one last spot. I saw a wall display for golf balls. Very nice, cherry, felt backed, but I'm no golfer. Probably a $15 - $20 item. However I have been wondering all summer how I could display those little gumball football helmets I have.

Hey wait a second, the helmets could go in this! I had to convince the woman I wasn't interested in other golfing gear ("you don't want this stuff to clean golf clubs?"), so I told her why I was getting it, which she thought sounded good. I got it home and set up. Turns out it would hold 30 of them, so I put the final two on top. Great display for $1. (BTW, I got most of them at yard sales as well)

And finally I'm vested in the pension plan. I certainly can't retire yet, but its good for 10% of salary at this point, so thats a start!

Well, this past month (or so) I have finally gotten around to selling items on ebay (ok, just 2 things - but still...), had a yard sale, and have sold things through craigslist. Not that I needed to make money, but I couldn't just throw out perfectly good items.

So how did it work out? Well the ebay items had cost me $2.50 and sold for $30, the yard sale brought in over $240 (and maybe 2/3 of that was pure profit from items I got free at CVS/Rite Aid/Walgreens!), and I sold four items (two child toys, desk, and coffee maker) using craigslist for a total of $45 (my cost was $25 for the same items in the past 5 years at yard sales). Total revenue of over $300, and mostly profit. And I am now organized to have another yard sale before winter comes. And some extra space is now free in my house! Now if I could figure out how to sell all these books my wife left with me to make some reasonable money on them.

I guess I am bad though, in that I have probably spent about the same $300 this year on my hobby. Oh well, I guess I have to take the glass is half full view - at least my hobbies cost nothing this year!

and they were more impressive than I could have imagined.

Due to various life issues I have been concentrating on work, dealing with life problems, and saving money. Not fun, but there are times you gotta do what you gotta do. Anywho, this summer I have tried to see how far I could go without a/c, without a major heat stroke, or something similar. Not something I would want to do every year, but since there have been lots of days I have come home late, been gone weekends, and so on, well... it seemed like the time to do it. I have CFLs through the house, I use no a/c while I am at work or away, and use window a/c units upstairs only as I feel the need. In the swampy DC area that can be alot of the time! And just for reference, I have a four bedroom house.

Starting this summer, the May bill was $19, a very surprising (low) bill. My June bill almost doubled to $29. The July bill came in at a staggering $35. (ok, extreme sarcasm there in case you missed it) I was really surprised how low I could get the bills, as is my co-worker when I show him the bills. The last few days have been cool at night, so I have been able to go with a window fan which should help as well. I guess this shows you can really save money on electricity if you try - not that I want to do this every year, but its nice to know it can be done.

So what have I done with the money I am saving? Buying more stock in my local electric company (of course!). I don't have a ton of their stock, but based on this usage, and the current dividend rate, my yearly dividend covers about 40% of my yearly usage. I'm working my way toward financial freedom.

Added the next day: Wouldn't you know the next electric bill was waiting for me at home. The mid-July to mid August bill was $46. I think I made it through the summer! I figure the temps should start dropping in a week or two.

I have a pension now. Well technically, I am not vested in my employer's pension plan yet. However I have so much built up vacation time and sick time that can be used towards pension calculations, that if I had to leave for some strange reason today (not bloody likely), I could just get in over the five year requirement for the plan.

I wouldn't get all that much in 20 years (10% of today's salary, which would be worth perhaps half or less of today's money then), but still, it's a start. Add that to SS (whatever that is worth then), and my retirement savings & investments (currently around $150K), and I think it just might work out.

My plan (as of a year and a half ago) is looking like it might happen. I want to hit 50 (4.5 years now) with $250K in retirement accounts & investments (I think I can make this number), my house paid off (should happen when I'm 49), and my pension will be worth 18% of my salary. At that point I won't be financially independent, but with no debt I won't even worry about major bills any more.

OK, maybe I'm bragging, but I worked for this. It wasn't easy.

Not that I am wishing for or happy about a slow economy, but sometimes good things can come from the strangest places. And for me, it was almost like a Christmas present last Friday.

This actually starts a decade ago when I bought my home. I got a good price for a 1960 home that needed some repairs and upgrades. I figured I could do it as time permitted. Anyway, the house came with what turned out to something I never got rid of. A dead natural gas fueled air conditioner. I didn't know if it worked when I bought the house, and it turned out it didn't. I disconnected the gas and electricity to it, but it was sooooo heavy, there was no way I could remove it. So it stayed there and rusted. I tried to dismantle it, and was partly successful, but the main unit was still too heavy. I figured I would need to pay someone $100 or more to get it out of there, but I just didn't get to it.

Fast forward to Friday, and I get a knock at the door after work. The man tells me he saw the rusting unit out back and asked if he could remove it. I asked what he charging for it, and he told me no charge - he was taking it for scrap metal. He and his crew of two helpers did house repairs (roofs, siding, etc...) and now that work was hard to come by, they were on the lookout for anyone with scrap metal that they could remove and salvage for scrap metal recycling.

I'm standing there thinking "ok keep a straight face, don't look too happy". "Umm, sure, that would be fine." Boy were they shocked when they tried to move it. I had to wonder if they were ever going to get it out, but I was determined they would get that outta there! So I pulled out from the garage a heavy duty dolly, and they used that to get it to their flat bed they were towing about. They were nice, and tried to be ok moving it, but they made a bit of a mess out back. I'm not complaining, it was well worth the trade, and it certainly can be cleaned up.

And here I thought those strangers knocking on my door were always a nuisance. Not so! (I still can't believe its gone.)

Actually this is hardly anything new to most people reading these finance blogs, but I thought this was funny/amusing/sad (take your pick). I had this thought before, but dealing with the sharp cold snap here on the east coast, it brought it back to mind.

This past summer I was visiting relatives up north, and since I had a free Saturday morning with my son, I decided to travel about with him and check out the yard sales. Nothing extrordinary there, we picked up some items at good prices, at some places they wanted way too much and left. My total expense was probably $15. Odd part was there were two places, many miles apart, that each had a sign up saying they were selling items so they could pay their heating bills this fall.

You know, there are people who would feel so sad for people in such a situation, and its certainly isn't funny. That said, as I stood at each place, looking at table after table after table of - I'll be kind and call it junk - I wasn't sad for them. The only thing in my mind was to ask them if they could be that stupid. "You don't have money? Well, duh, take a look about, here's your money. Don't buy half of this and you would have enough to pay multiple winter heating bills."

I knew better and kept my mouth shut, but jeeze, no wonder some folks don't have money. They do it to themselves.

OK, this is a bit of a re-hash of something I wrote about a few months ago, but hey, why not.

To buy Kelloggs stock online (after your initial purchase into the DRIP), you can only do it by setting up monthly purchases of their stock. To justify the automatic purchase of stock each month I have cut off my monthly garbage pickup (which locally costs $30/Mo.). To do this I have been cutting back on buying junk, composting as much as possible, recycling paper, plastics, and metals, and a week ago I had a yard sale (that's one way to get rid of junk!).

Anyway, since the summer I have been getting Kelloggs' stock each month, and just using money that went into garbage. And the net cost to me has been $0.

Since I wrote my prior message, I figured I should go over some things I do to save on electric usage. Soooo, here goes...
Use power strips with instant on items like TVs and computers.
I use window AC units and only cool the rooms I will be using. I mostly use them upstairs and let the cooler air drift downward
Use CFL bulbs through most of the house. I still have some incandescent, but I using them until they run out.
I run my clocks on batteries - OK, not a big saver, but it just happens that is what I have
When I am away I make sure everything is off except the fridge, even work days.
As I use my stove maybe once a week, I turn off the gas pilot light. Saves on gas, and electricity to cool as well.
I have no dryer, but use a rack to dry my clothes.
I have grown shade trees in useful locations around the house. Shade trees can really help with cooling costs
I rarely if ever watch TV - ok that may not work for a lot of people, but I use the internet almost exclusively now.
In the summer I let my gas water heater set on "Vacation". Since I use little water, it heats it more than hot enough. And as it heats less, I pay less to cool the house as well.
When I bought the house I insulated the walls and attic, and replaced the decades old windows with double paned argon filled window inserts. Doing it myself save me tons of money.
When I re-roofed the house, I got light colored shingles. I'm not sure how much that saves, but its got to be some.
That's all I can think of. I really do believe the window AC units are where I save the most money. Try some of these, and the savings will appear.

... but until the price to add solar to a house is more economical, I think I will work on keeping my electric usage reasonable.

After looking at this summer's electric bills, the thought above came to mind. Not that I am complaining about my bills, its just that if people use some sensible techniques, your electric bill can really be small. I have a 4 bedroom house in the DC area, so summer can be hot and damp. The summer wasn't awful, but it wasn't cool either. With that said, here are my bills for June-July, July-Aug, and Aug-Sep (mid month to mid month) - $42, $42, $37. I used AC as I needed it, quite often over night. Still, the usage was minimal.

Anyhow, I thought I would brag about that for a minute. If you want to see what I have done to allow this type of usage, check some of my older entries. If you have questions, just ask.

This may come under the category of "Well duh!", but I try to take something I do (or want to do), and use that tendency to build on other good habits. That is, using psychology in your favor.

Anyway, I have been avoiding a $30/mo. charge for trash pickups by cutting down on trash by recycling and composting, and then taking what little I have (usually a single plastic grocery bag a week) along to the county trash offload station, right near where I work. Its not much work, but sometimes you want to just stop and put it ouside and let someone else deal with it.

So how does psychology help here? Well, I have started a new DRiP (thats a direct re-investment program) and the only way to make investments online is with equal monthly payments from my checking. No optional payments So I have decided to make my trash savings go for this DRiP. I now have a $30 monthly stock purchase, which gives me a reason to keep my trash level down so I don't spend that $30. I have dubbed this my "Trash DRiP". (OK, I like the name anyway!)

Lately I have been amazed at how its now possible to not only get an item for free (free coupon or free after rebate), but now if you do things right you can get paid for buying something.

With that said, I have my entry for best payment for buying something.

There were coupons and mail in rebates for the new Aleve gel-caps in the paper a few weeks ago, and now Rite-Aid has a free after rebate offer as well. As Rite-Aid doesn't require you to use the receipts, I can apply for both rebates. Plus there was a $2 coupon!

Here is the final calculation on my Aleve buy:
Purchase Cost: $3.99
Rite Aid Rebate: -$3.99
Mail-In Rebate: -$3.99
Coupon use: -$2.00
Submit for flexible spending account. Save taxes at 25% marginal rate: -$1.00
Postage to mail in rebate: $0.39
5% cash back with credit card usage: -$0.20

Cost to buy: -$6.80

The mail in rebate may only give $1.99, though the text on the form didn't indicate it. Even so, this is a great deal. Of course I don't need this stuff, so its going to be a gift to my mother when I visit in a few weeks. Another plus.

If you're reading this it may be too late, but I was just at my local Wal-Mart (ok, I rarely go there, but I had a reason) hoping that they would mark the Easter items down from 50% off to 75% off. Well they had just done that maybe an hour before I got there. I was able to pick up a decent amount of candy and toys. Yep, they have those big baskets with toys in them for kids. I picked up three of them, one for this year, and two for next year.

My kid & I are gonna have a blast with the small slot-car race track I was able to get for $5. Anywho, if you're near a Wal-Mart you might want to go there today and see if they've lowered the prices and if anything is left.

Just a few random ideas & observations on how to extra frugal. This is another of my sorta long posts. As always YMMV.

Idea #1) Always look for multiple ways to get a benefit from something. My latest example: I wanted to use coupons (from a mail promotion + doing a survey for what I thought of their store) to buy some cat food. It was on sale, and I had two children staying with me last weekend. I went while the kids were here and spent a long time (close to an hour)going around to all the animals they had - it was like going to a mini-zoo for them. I then bought the food, which was on sale. After sale and coupons, the 10 lb. bag dropped from $19 down to $7. (yeah, it was the expensive type).

Idea #2) Don't be afraid to try and be super frugal, especially if you live by yourself. There was lots of ice & snow built up the past week. I used my buckets and a hammer and filled them up with ice, and after they melted I have been using them to fill the toilets. OK, that may sound nuts, but my last 3 month water and sewage bill was $10. How many people can claim a $3/mo. water bill?

Idea #3) I'm finding more of these survey requests attached to receipts. I have done them now for Burger King (Free chicken sandwich with drink & fries purchase), Pet Smart ($3 off any purchase), and JCPenny (15% off any purchase). OK, I don't shop much, but sheesh, it is getting easy to get things for much less (see my last post on getting gasoline cheap).

Idea #4) Getting items free after rebate is just amazing, even after I have done it so often. The past weekend I bought enough shampoo to last me for a year, and I should get all the money I spent back, plus some extra (I had a coupon for the stuff too!).

Idea #5) Finally, I have been reading ideas for college students to save money, so here is one of my own. One idea I never see is for the kids to learn to dry their wash in their room, instead of paying to use the clothes dryers. When I went to college, the washers didn't cost much, but the dryers sure did, and they were usually busier than the washers! I took to school a small drying rack I stored under my bed (thanks, grandma), and I also strung up a line I could take down quickly from one corner of the room to another. This saved me about $2/week. OK, it doesn't make you rich, but you should be there to learn, not go out and party. And I had very little money, so that extra really helped.

I just wanted to enter this little thought for the day (or month in my case). If you're anywhere responsible with credit cards, get the ones that pay you back for your gas purchases. I mean really, why pay more for gas when you don't have to? I started my quest for cheaper gas last July by getting a Chase card that gives me 5% back for gas purchases. Its still my backup card when I don't have better options. I followed that up in September by signing up for a Shell CC. It gave me $40 back on three gas purchases. I ended up getting $70 of gas for $30. After that ran out, I got a Citgo card that gave me 20% back on the purchases. That ran out the end of the year (yeah, the good rates don't last long). Now I am on my new Citgo card (Citgo Plus). It gives me $5 back on every purchase over $15 - basically a 33% back card. This one lasts through the end of March. Next in my sights is a Hess card (10% back) or Chevron (I forget, but I think it was 20% back). Hopefully after that there will be one for Exxon/Mobil or Texaco. And maybe by next year I can start the cycle over again?

I will say having a fuel efficient compact probably helps my expenses more, but I like saving money easily whenever possible.

To avoid another entry talking about my 0% bank transfers (actually there is no news), here is some odd places I have found coupons in the past two months.

I took my dog for a walk before Christmas and saw an envelope that a $10 off a $10 purchase coupon normally came in. On a lark I reached down and opened it expecting nothing inside. It was wet, and stepped on, but the coupon was still inside. I took it home, dried it and took it to the store, and they accepted it no problem. Extra free Christmas clothes for me.

Last week I was entering a store where I was going to use some coupons for free items, and I saw one of those insta-print coupons you get at the registers. I picked it up, hoping it was for something I liked. I was surprised by a $2 off any purchase coupon. I definitely used that one right away.

And for high impact saving, I did better than getting items for free - I got paid to get items for free. Early in January there were a few get "item for free" coupons in the Sunday insert section. After using them, I checked the recycling center for more. In the three weeks since then I visited 5 times and came away with 11 unused inserts. On a lark I checked the Rite-Aid site where you can get rebates online. Well one item I could get for free had a $2 rebate in both January and February. It was a max of 2 rebates each month. So I am getting $8 in rebates. I had extra coupons, so I bought more there and then applied for rebates for my grandmother and a friend. Now thats what I like, coupons that I can make money with.

In my case it seems to be half full, but you can make your own determination. Last week on Tuesday my car broke down on the way to work. In goes the clutch to shift, the clutch stays on floor board. Ohhh boy, what do I do now?

Fortunately I was less than two miles from work, and only had two traffic lights between me and a parking spot. All I needed to do was keep the car moving. As I had been moving when I tried to shift, I was able to force the car into first gear and limp it to work. (I'm sure two miles in first gear really helped my car's MPG!)

I won't get into the towing bill fiasco (an EXTREME aggravation), but after getting the car to the garage I waited at work for the bad news. It turned out not so bad, a $330 bill for it. (ok, still bad, but that dealership is expensive!) But they had been after me to have the timing belt replaced, and after two years I gave in and had it done as well. My total bill was about $1,100. Yeah, a nice Christmas present.

But through it all I wasn't that upset (except for the part of catching a bus, and then riding with a co-worker to work for two days). In the past this would have stressed me something bad, but not this time. Was it due to my Ex not being around? Well that certainly helped. But here is what I think was the big difference.

For the past 6 months I have started making money with the 0% bank transfers using credit cards. And I estimate my earnings through the end of the year to be about $1,000.

So I guess I looked at the situation thusly: Have I lost all my earnings from the 0% efforts this year (glass is half empty), or through some extra easy work was I able to have the money ready to pay a bill that would have happened sooner or later, and not hurt my savings efforts (glass is half full)? I have to think I am seeing it as half full. And while I hate paying that money, it sure is nice to have something that bad happen and not stress about it. In my mind I was prepared for it and the pain was minimal.

Yep, that works for me.

... or an idea single frugal guys should consider.

Based on my comment at the beginning of the month, I started the month with an unobtainable goal - no food expenses for the month. Of course I knew the food cost something, even if bought before the month, but I was looking to spend nothing new for the month.

It didn't last long, nor did I expect it to. I finally went to the store Thursday (the 14th) and spent $20, a little under what I used to spend weekly. The effect seemed to be I was able to do without one week's worth of grocery shopping.

OK, so what did I learn? Actually a number of things. As someone that tries to buy when on sale, sometimes things are put away and forgotten. No surprise, but my effort to do without groceries forced me to dig into things I had forgotten, and now wouldn't go to waste. Like the frozen loaf of bread I forgot I had. And the iced tea mix. Certain canned veggies. I even used the noodles from Ramen noodle packages my ex-renter left as noodle filler to help my pasta mixes go farther (I use them for lunches). While it wasn't a ton of food used, I am happy to use them when they may have just gone to waste.

Well, as I still have a lot of food that should be eaten and is sitting in the back of cabinets, I am thinking of making this a monthly event. Instead of buying food once every week, one time each month I will now try to go two weeks between store visits and force myself to dig into the back of cabinets and use what is there.

Save money and be less wasteful. Now that sounds like a plan.

Also, this can be subtitled "or how I got tipjacked." Trust me, that does make sense, you just need to hear the whole story.

Last night, in the near hurricane winds of a cold front moving through (think 30 mph winds with below freezing temps), I went on a dinner cruise where I had won a cruise for two. The paperwork said "taxes and gratuities are not included", so its not like I wasn't prepared, but.... At the end of the meal I get the bill, and I give the man the certificate. He comes back a few minutes later with the bill, and very, very pointedly describes how I need to write down the gratuity for the bill, and the amounts have been calculated "for your convenience", and he would return. Well on the left are the what I thought were "recommended" tip rates, all calculated very nicely. When I am given recommended tips I am not a happy camper. If I want to be told what to do I can go back to living with my mommy, thank you very much.

The rates were 15%, 20%, and 24%. The calculated tip amounts are there as well, and they are based on the whole charge for the cruise and dinner ($80/person). Hmmmm, when you use percentages, isn't tipping supposed to be based on the charge for the dinner, not the trip? You mean the cruise was free??? (yeah, right) Anyhow, I am there with a bit of a quandary. I felt that basing the tip on the tax and overage ($15 total) wouldn't be right, but those amounts were exorbitant. While the service was nice, I get better service when I do my mystery shopping at restaurants. And that type of meal I could normally get for around $40 maximum, probably less. I talked with my date and she agreed what they are expecting is too much and so I put an in between amount for the tip, based on the realistic $40/meal amount.

Shortly after the guy takes the credit card, he returns very "concerned" that I didn't understand how to tip. He explained how the tip should be against the whole expense, not just a lower amount. He keeps this up and says something about not being able to put it into the computer that way. I ask him if he is saying that the computer won't accept a non-standard tip. Instead of answering he starts in again to explain how the tips are calculated on the standard charge for the cruise. Here I am, I have a Bachelor's in Mathematics, a Master's in Computer Science, and I'm having to listen to this drivel on how to calculate percentages. I was so tempted to explain to him I was willing to go and reprogram his computer so he would never have to enter tips into his system again if it would help him.

While I think my date would have liked for me to tell him that, I decided valor was the best part of getting the h*** off the boat, and just circled the 15%.

I hate to come across as someone that wants to find something to complain about. The trip was nice, the food was good, and they sure kept the boat warm. My date agreed that it was nice, but there was no way she would spend the amount they expect people to pay for that trip. And she was more than happy to leave as soon as possible after their poor performance. While its not likely, if I ever win this from them again, it goes onto craigslist for sale. Once was enough.

As a postscript, we had a fair amount in common, talked the whole time and really did enjoy it. She said she would be happy to go with me when I do my next mystery shop assignment. While I don't see us ever getting into any serious relationship, it is nice to have someone you can talk with and relate with in a casual setting.

Just a quick follow up. There is a free breakfast sign up site now available, you might want to try.

http://www.freebreakfastnow.com

If you have problems (like I was), if you check the box that says: Click here if you would like to receive future communications from Chick-fil-A® it may work. I don't know if it was intentional or not, but having this checked was the only way it seemed to work for me. Oh well... I can live with this.

OK, now that's just impossible. That said, I am looking at my food bill for the coming week (or two) to be probably $10 (at most).

Here's the deal: First I got a turkey before thanksgiving very inexpensive ($5 for a large turkey). It came out great, and I have been eating lots of turkey the past week, and have enough to last another ?two? weeks (probably more). I also have plenty of drink (milk, juice) to last another two weeks. I am still working my way through all the soda I got for free with the Coke & Pepsi rebate offers a few months ago. They should last 'til the middle of January. I still have cereal from the buy 8 boxes, get $20 rebate offer from a month ago as well. And other things like ingredients for making my lunches are in plenty supply as well.

And now I have this: I just did a mystery shop of takeout food at a good restaurant tonight. That food will probably last me the whole weekend. (crab cakes, grilled chicken, ceasar salad, popcorn shrimp, more...)

And then next week is the topper. I have a free dining and river cruise certificate I will be using one evening next week. It is a five course meal where I will be getting rib-eye steak. I have set up a *mostly* blind date with a friend of a co-worker for the cruise, so I hope to have a good time with her (I say mostly blind, because I have a picture and talked with her on the phone).

If you add in a train show I will be working at the following weekend, where we will get basic food for free, and well, I think you can see my food bill for the near future is going to be scraping the bottom. And its not like I will be eating junk either. You gotta enjoy times like this.

A little background...

While I was away from the blogs, I needed to make a semi long trip, about 2 hours each way. As I was on my way I found (via call) I would be arriving way too early and would need to wait maybe a half hour for the person I was going to visit. What I have done in the past on this trip is about half way I switch from highway to a parallel road that is four lanes and maybe 5 traffic lights for 40 miles, then I get back onto the super busy expressway for the last 10 miles to her house. I do this because the other road is not travelled by many people and it makes for a relaxing ride.

Anyway, I had a choice. Stop somewhere for maybe an hour, or drive slowly to get there when I needed. I went that route (the parallel road) and drove maybe 45 MPH instead of 55 to 60 on this stretch of my trip. It worked out right and I arrived after she did. On the way back I did the same, taking that road and enjoying the relaxing portion of the drive only going 45 MPG.

So when I stopped and got gas I found that my MPG had increased to 40 MPG for the last tankfull. This surprised me and got me thinking.... How much was my MPG for just driving a very relaxed, no stop light 45 MPH. Using some general guess-timates, here is what I came up with.

(Boring math analysis alert)

Start with my normal MPG. This tankful had lots of highway driving, and that will normally come in at 36 up to 38 MPG. I will go with 37 MPG for what it normally would have been. The overall trip on the tank of gas was 420 miles, but lets round down to 400 miles. My "slow" portion of the tank was 2 times 40, or 80 miles. So that means only 20% of the trip was at the higher MPG rate. That would mean that whatever increase I see in my overall MPG, I would need to multiply by 5 to get the increase for just the 20% of the trip. My increase was 3 (40 - 37) MPG, so for the time I was doing 45MPH, I was getting an increase of 3 times 5 or 15 more MPG. Normally I get 37, so this means I was getting 52 MPG for that portion of the trip.

OK that was a lot of assumptions, but I don't think it will be that far from the truth. Think of it, I can up my MPG to over 50 by driving really smoothly at a leasurely pace.

I dunno, but this really surprised me when I worked the numbers out. Maybe it will give you pause when you think smooth slow driving doesn't help the fuel efficiency of your car.

Dang, its been a while since I posted anything. Of course I have excuses By the way, instead of splitting all these stories up, I left them all in here. So this is a loooong post.

My computer died on me about a month ago and I have been trying to restore my system. I have everything working but my wireless router connection Hopefully that will be resolved soon.

Rant #1) I will never, and I do mean never, buy anything from Tiger Direct again. My old computer was from them and it had more problems than I could believe. I would fix one thing from them, and others would start. And previously I bought a computer from them, only to find out they sent me the wrong parts (the CPU wouldn't work with the sent motherboard - even though it was a package deal!). When I called, the rep even said that yes, they knew they sent the wrong CPU. I didn't ask why they didn't contact me, that instead I had to spend a month researching the problem before I realized it was their fault. I'm a patient customer, but thats it with them. No more.

Rant #2) I got to read an article in the paper today that I was stunned to read. In the business section, this person said it was ok to tithe at your church before paying your debts, even if you are in bankruptcy. Click here to read. Now I am no fan of credit companies, but if I was owed money and instead the money was being sent to a church and they couldn't pay me, you might actually see the steam coming off my head. Some people may disagree, but I see that article as worse then irresponsible. Unreal.

Rant #3) I bought my new computer at Circuit City. While there a nice guy helped me with some questions I had about this computer, and after he headed off to do some stocking, I decided to get the computer. As I couldn't find him again, I caught some other guy, and yes, he could do my order. Seems this one was the manager of the store. As we're going through this he asks if I decided on the extended warranty. "Oh I don't know, what is it?" Now I knew I wasn't going to get it, but I thought I should hear it out anyway, just in case. Well this guy was surprised I didn't know about it, and went through the details, giving me lots of reasons, and even antecdotes of why it was the best thing ever to do. I declined (multiple times!), and at different times the guy was muttering how he was upset the other salesman didn't bring up the warranty and that he would have to talk with him. If I wasn't in a bad need to get the computer I would have walked out then and there. Its bad enough how pushy they ask salesmen to be about those things, but to go on how he would have to deal with the salesman in front of a customer, that was just plain stupid. Triple Ugh.

Found Money #1) I was checking my online credit card bill, and saw I had over $40 in cash back, which surprised me, as it should have been less than $10. After checking the numbers, I realized it was from my computer purchase. Discover has quarterly specials where buying from certain retailers would give you 5% back. Well I signed up and forgot, figuring I would never go to those stores. Well one was Circuit City, and thats where I got the computer from. So good for me!

Found Money #2) I found out last week that for the branch christmas party there will be a gift exchange where the presents should be $20-$25. I'm not a big fan of doing this, but it makes other people happy, so ok I suppose. Well I was out seeing if there were yard sales yesterday, and I found only two. But one had a nice item, still in the original plastic wrap, and I got it for a dollar. I thought I could use it for the swap, and last night I checked the only store it sells at, and it goes for $20. Score! (ok, not found money, but it avoids spending money, so it works for me)

Found Money #3) I stopped at the book store last night. When I drove up I could have sworn I saw a shiny dot as I went in to park. I got out and didn't see anything at first, but then I saw it. A quarter right next to my tire. That plus some pennies found in the store and shoot, there's money everywhere!

Frugal doesn't always work) While at the book store I went to use a free coffee coupon I had been sent. I'm not a coffee drinker, but after talking at the register I found I could only use it on coffee or tea (not hot chocolate - damn). Well I thought lets try the coffee. How bad could it be? Ugh. It was a cappachino, and I could only take a few sips before I gave up. When I got home I drank some fruit drink then used mouthwash to get the taste out of my mouth. I think that will be my last coffee for the next decade.

Why do they send me this stuff?) If anyone remembers, I like to get credit cards so I can get start up rewards, or 0% money for investing. Well I keep getting these preapproved stuff from different companies, especially now from Capital One. I guess pre-approved means I am breathing, because I sure am not approved. I applied to Capital One, and got a letter back saying I wasn't approved, and gave a list of reasons why. I'm not complaining, its their money. The reasons probably make sense to them, but come'on, why are you sending this junk out if you're just going to reject me anyway? Stuff like this is why I don't have much sympathy for credit card companies. Dumb, dumb, and dumber.

More found Furniture) During yesterday's yard sale travel I came across one of those fibre-board with fake wook laminate shelving system left outside. You know, the type with four shelves that sell at Wal-Mart for maybe $50. It was too large for fit in my hatchback, but then I realized I could take it apart and I could fit the pieces in. (Get out the tools time) It was in great shape (almost new) and the people even had left the extra hardware inside in a bag. While taking it apart the person came out and we started talking some. Then she offered me a matching unit if I would come back in a few weeks. She was very happy someone would take them, and gave me her name and number. Hey, that works for me.

Or maybe make that "easy frugality". People always are looking for ways to save money, and sometimes miss the easy ways. I thought of that today as I took my a/c units out of my windows. This keeps them out of the elements for the winter - actually I use them maybe 4-5 months (May - October), and with the windows now closed correctly less cold air gets in. By removing them from the windows, the units last longer and stay cleaner too.

And then I took my 3 box fans, removed their face plates, cleaned the accumulated lint and dirt out of the motors (and everywhere else I could clean as well), oiled each one, and put them back together. If you clean fans occasionaly, and oil them, they will last almost forever. My oldest one is 22 years old and still works fine. Not paying for new items when simple cleaning of old ones will do saves so much more than trying to scrimp on things here and there.

Just a few thoughts before I talk about the water bill.

I've been reading some personal finance bloggers and some talk about they feel bad sometimes in that they can't get everything they want, and how savings is a drag. They talk about seeing things on TV, and wanting them badly, but stopping themselves. Well here's a thought: save money, don't pay for cable, and watch less! You'll see less commercials, want less, and live a better life. Duh. I guess you gotta give them credit for working on their finances while torturing themselves by seeing all those commercials. I think the behavior is dumb, but then again I've never been considered one to run with the majority.

I set up my latest online banking with E-Loan today. 5.5% interest, not toooooo shabby. One of these days I may hit the point where I have too many accounts to track, but I haven't seen it yet!

The dresser I rescued a few weeks ago is now finished and in service. Not perfect, though you would have to look close to notice the problems. That's the problem when you have made furniture - you notice flaws others wouldn't care about.

Finally, I got my water bill for the third quarter yesterday. I'm certainly not complaining, it was only $20.50. Now I do try to not be wasteful, but its not like I don't use water. Anyhow, with the bill was the company propaganda, including a rate hike for next year. It comes out to about a 3% increase, and I certainly can't complain about that. The interesting part was they described how this would effect an "average" consumer's bill. I am guessing a consumer means a single household. Based on the numbers I back-tracked and worked out the average usage. It is 8 times what mine was! Now my bill was for two people, but you gotta figure the average household is around 4 people. What does this average family do to use 4 times what I do per person? BTW, that average bill would be $125! You mean a lot of homes pay more than this??? Maybe this isn't earth-shattering, but it sure was surprising to me when I ran the numbers.

Today I took my recycling along with me on my way to work. Also took two small bags of garbage that were left by my renter (he moved out yesterday). I don't know what he was doing, but he filled up by himself two big bins just full of bottles, and they could barely hold them all. Doing this and not paying for garbage pickup saves me $30 a month.

Anyway, thats not what "paid" me today (although it is a help in the finances). The smaller of the two garbage bags I took seemed extra heavy, and I couldn't understand how it could weigh so much. It was a tied up grocery bag, and it looked like there were papers inside. So, I thought... "Why don't I open the bag and put the papers in with the recycling?". (See, I am a good person sometimes) At the next light I untied the bag and pulled out a number of apartment guides he had been using. Then I noticed a zip-loc bag at the bottom. I picked it out and it was full of coins! No wonder the bag was heavy.

Apparently he kept the coins in case he travelled toll roads or went through tunnels (He was going through Baltimore). This bag had coins, and not that many pennies either! At work I took the coins out and counted. It came up to $8.73 I'm not going to get rich with them, but hey, it was certainly worth the trouble.

So you never know. Recycling can come up with furniture for the house (see my last post), or even coins of the realm.