Single Guy High Impact Saving

Getting freebies is nice. Saving money is great. Converting freebies into money by combining both techniques - priceless.

With that said, here's the plan.

Step 1) I was able to sign up for a credit card associated with an airlines rewards program that gave me 50,000 miles for making my first purchase. Well I have the card, made the purchase, and now have the miles. Most of the things you can buy with the program are terribly overpriced, but you can get gift cards. OK, I shop about as much as the pope swears, but if I cash out that way I can get $500 worth of gift cards, which seems like the best bang for the buck (or in this case - mile).

Step 2) I have signed up at work for the flexible spending account (FSA) for medical expenses for years now. Usually in the past I have spent as much as I saved in this program, usually less than $1,000, so no problem. Its a nice tax saver, to say the least. This past year I ended up with over $400 still to spend. (BTW, my work gives you a grace period through 3/15 the following year). So I have spent some of the $400 getting needed glasses (at WalMart), and so now I still need to spend almost $300. Hmmmm, what to do?

Step 3) Here's where 1+1=3. I would love to get cash, not gift cards from the rewards program (cash always beats gift cards). And for my FSA I need to spend money, probably on more glasses (it seems like the best way to burn off the remainder). And it dawns on me --- Combine these together! The rewards program allows cashing out in WalMart gift cards. I need to check, but I should be able to use gift cards to get my glasses. If so I (1) get the glasses, (2) submit the receipts to the FSA, and (3) get paid back in cash. Voila! I turn gift cards into coin of the realm.

Yes, I love it when a plan comes together.

Prologue) Previously on Single Guy (SG) - SG finally decides he needs to upgrade his falling apart 12 year old ride, and comes up with the money and finds a nice low milage car that is a very basic model, but does what he wants for a good price. Little does he realize the car comes with only one key - no duplicates are provided. As he drives away from the dealer he thinks "No problem, I'll get a spare when I have time. Its a basic key, nothing special about it."

Act 1) Months after his purchase, we find SG stopping at another hardware store. "Can you make a copy of this key?" Book is pulled out. Shuffle, shuffle. "Hmmmm, let see if we have it." Looks all through the stock of keys. "Sorry, it looks like we don't have that key blank in stock." SG heads out of the store with a familiar refrain in his head. "How can no one have this key blank? I sure don't want to spend $30/key at a dealership." Grumbling, he heads off for his car, still with his lone car key.

Act 2) That evening SG tells his girlfriend he's stuck out getting a key again. "Looks like the dealer is my only option." "For $30??? There's got to be a way to do this. Hey have you tried buying the key blanks yourself?" "I never thought of that." And sure enough, key blanks are available, 2 for $10 delivered. And we pull away as he makes his online purchase of key blanks.

Act 3) Key blanks in hand, we see SG driving toward a hardware store he rarely goes to as it is out of his way a few miles. However this time he has decided that he will try this store as it is a small hardware store that could use his patronage. He then pulls up to the store and walks in and is quickly greeted by the lone salesman in the store.

"Can I help you?" "Yes, I'd like to make a copy of my key here. I've had trouble finding any place that carries this key." "Here I'll do that, I'm doing most everything here tonight." With that they arrive at the key cutter. Book out, shuffle, shuffle, page with the needed info is found. A look to the board with tons of keys on it, looks at a blank spot where the key would be. "Nope, no key here sorry. You know the easy solution would be not to lose the key." SG does a double take at that comment. "Well this was a used car purchase and it came with only one key, so I didn't have a choice in the matter."

He then pulls out two key blanks. "Can you make copies with these blanks?" The person looks incredulously at the blanks. "You have blanks?" "Yeah, it seemed like it was the only way I was ever going to get keys made." "Where did you get them?" "Online, I had them sent to my house." "I've never had anyone bring in their own blanks before." Sort of in shock at this change to his routine the salesman starts to work on one key, only to realize he has no idea if he should do this, or if so how much to charge. After a few calls to management explaining the situation, he is told to make the keys and what to charge.

After a quick 2 minutes both keys are made and ready to go. As the salesman walks with SG towards the registers SG comments "Looks like we learned something new today." "You?" "No you, you know how much to charge someone that has their own blanks."

"Well I think bringing blanks is like taking a steak to a restaurant." Non-plussed, SG replies - "I was going to buy the keys from you if you had them in stock." "You couldn't get them at the dealer?" "For $30 per key, I don't think so."

The salesman stops. "Too many prople right away go to a store to get a key. They should go to the dealer or a locksmith." Surprised where this is heading SG tries to keep a non-commital face, waiting to see where this is goes. "There's this whole industry, locksmiths, yet no one will go to them to get their keys made. Its a real problem today." With that he heads off into the bowels of the store. We pull away as we hear SG thinking "Locksmith???? Really? I should go to a locksmith when all I want is a copy of a key? WTF???"

Epilogue) SG is seen heading out of the store, newly paid keys in hand. He starts to open the door with his old key, then realizes he should be using a new key to test it. It smoothly works the door lock, then once inside the ignition behaves like this key has always been used with this car. Driving away we hear this thoughts as he reviews what just happened. "I go out of my way to give this store some patronage. After a few minutes of work they earn a few dollars, yet the salesman behaves like getting the key done there was the worst thing in the world. I guess that saying is true, no good deed ever goes unpunished."

This year for the holidays it seems like all I can do is make money / figure out ways to save money. Its odd how this is working out. (ok, maybe bragging a bit)

A few weeks ago I decided to try and get rid of some of my excess hobby items (mostly electric trains). No sense in keeping them if I know I really don't want them, and in fact have better versions. So Craigslist here I come. In the past month I have sold: 4 HO (small) electric train sets, 2 Thomas Tank Engine lots, a large scale electric train, a large scale battery ran train, 5 books on Half.com, and a 40 year old football game(large). I brought in over $250 and probably made over $150 profit - and I cleared out space! On top of that money I won $45 in gift cards for Best Buy at work. I never go there, so this should be a new experience.

And now for something everyone can use.... I just bought $200 in Exxon/Mobil gift cards. Why??? If you do that by the end of this year and register them online, they will send you a $10 gift card for each $100 you buy. I'm already notified that they will be sending out my $20 GC soon. An effective 9% discount on gas never hurts.

However, I set it up better. I got a new credit card with the promotion of $100 back on your first $500 in purchases (if done in the first 3 months). I used this card to buy my $200 in gift cards. And now I will buy another $200 of the gift cards for me, but register them for my girl friend so she gets $20 in GCs, and after that I will only need to buy another $100. One or two utility bills on that credit card and I'm golden.

If I go back another month I see I sold my old car ($1000 thank you very much & save $300 on car insurance & now I can park my good car in my garage), and the warm weather of late has my utility bills coming in at about 1/2 of normal.

Finally a superior at work connected me with a local real estate agent / broker that is looking for someone that can upgrade his specialized software. We've talked and it sounds promising. It shouldn't take too long to do, but who knows, maybe I can make another $500+??? That would look good added to a dividend producing stock portfolio (ok, I need to start an account at a broker this year! I guess that's my resolution for the upcoming year.)

Once you hit the point of no mortgage payments life is so.... Oh I don't know.... relaxed. Oh I still have property taxes (boooo!), income taxes, and yes - I have yet to pay off a nice 2010 used car I bought this summer. Still, not sending out that big chunk of money every month still is so odd. Its like I work for me now, instead of others. What a concept!

This hit home when I left for a week's vacation to near DisneyWorld. Yes, I paid my mother to use her timeshare, but that was almost all of the expenses for the trip. There was gas (using gift cards I earned, the balance put on my credit card was about $100), food ($40 @ Aldi's in the Orlando area), eating out was nothing (used gift cards I got for free for Subway and Burger King), and the parks were free (excess tickets my mother had that she gave me and my girlfriend). And then when I returned home there were no bills, just a regular paycheck from work. I even had the power off for the week, so no expenses at all! Only bad part was returning to the office on Monday.

Yes, there will be expenses coming down the road (take down some trees, replace the driveway, replace the flooring in the house, and I'm sure there'll be more), but when you know you don't have to keep running on that hamster wheel you can live life in the moment so much easier - it's great.

Oh, and to make this a finance posting --- If you get to the point I am (no mortgage), seriously consider an umbrella insurance policy. I hate paying money for this but.... intellectually I know its a good idea, and for about $10/mo. its not going to kill me.

... isn't supposed to happen inside your own house. Yowza. What a day to telework! This afternoon I thought for a few seconds the house was going to come down on me. I decided heading outside would be a safer bet.

FYI, I live probably ~50 miles from the epicenter, and the house sure sounded like the 50 years old that it is.

With all the uncertainty in the market, last week I decided it was the time to put some money in my Roth IRA for this year and see if I could get something on the cheap. Yeah, I know, the market could crater, but if it does it probably won't matter where my money is. And with the mortgage paid, its not like I will be thrown out on the street if I make a bad bet. So this Monday $2500 was put in.

In my efforts to be a more economical investor I have stopped using market orders, and instead have started using limit purchase orders, and Tuesday I put in two of them. One for an industrial company I heard good things about, and one for a REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust). 100 shares each, which took all but $20 of my free cash. For each I put in for a price I felt was really, really low, but plausable if the market had a major hissy fit.

Today I got home and found to my surprise one of the two executed today. Apparently there was a mini "flash crash" in the REIT market, and my selected stock just got low enough for one minute to execute my purchase order. Its back up to almost where it ended yesterday, so I got the stock at a 6% discount. And at this lower price my effective dividend rate is over 17% (assuming no decreases in dividends, which could happen of course). And long term, it could still go lower, so this euphoria may be short lived. Still... 17% return in a Roth with no tax hit, can you say Yahtzee?!!

I decided to make a quick check of my ROTH IRA accounts for an end of the month checkup, and at first I didn't notice it because it was sooooo far off, it just didn't register. Finally I noticed my account was a few thousand off what it should be. One stock I owned had dropped dramatically (say 40%!) in one day, and I had no idea what happened. (BTW, it is MRO) At first I thought it was a glitch, but I quickly saw it wasn't. After some research I found out they spun off part of the business and I should be getting some stock of the new company. So far my account isn't showing the new stock, so I added in what I should get for the new company, and my overall account went up slightly.

Man, I just don't need shocks to my system like that.

... hazelnuts that is. Visiting girlfriend asked to get a tour of the back yard, which is mostly fruit trees, and when I pointed out the lone hazelnut bush I saw strange growths on it. After further inspection I see it is finally producing nuts (its 6 years old). Woohoo, more food coming from the back yard - gotta like that.

Whew, it feels like I broke the bank. I went out to buy a used car this weekend, went to a number of places, and finally settled on one (2010 Hyundai Accent). Another 0% credit card check was used to pay (mostly) for it. Sorta hurts to see the credit card debt increase, but now I know I have no more large purchases until next year (and maybe not even then!), and almost no monthly bills any more (just CC's and utilities).

Hmmm, lets see, if I add in the CD maturing in August, I will have more than enough to pay everything off by December. I have a paid for one week vacation for November set up already, another 2 week one ready to go in July, and I have $10,000 in CDs maturing next January.

Yard sales were good today as well. The visiting girl friend spent most of the money, but she is psyched about her purchases. And she was a big help in getting the car (Can anyone say good cop / bad cop in car negotiations???) Not sure if we got the best price we could, but if not it was pretty close. Man, I'm so glad that's over with! Now just 10 days until vacation starts.

I can go online now and see that as of Friday, the mortgage balance is now $0. For course they had to tack on some type of documentation fee of $65. Errrr, really??? Someone always has their hand grabbing for your money, don't they?

On my mystery medical bill, the doctor's billing person said it wasn't done right, and they will fix that, after I fax them the bill (which I did). Hmmmm, I suspect I'll have to contact them again - it never goes away that easy.

Today was nice weather, yet yard sales were sparse, to put it mildly. Is there a holiday I wasn't told about? I spent $2, yet I found a dollar bill near my car, so total outlay was $1. Yeah, I can afford that.

Went to the car dealership today, but they didn't have the cars they said they had in stock online. Almost felt like a bait & switch. Seriously, the lot out front looked half empty. I went to do a test drive on a used car, and as the saleman got the car to the side of the showroom for me to get in, another saleman comes out and says that car was just sold. WTF??!! Is this the new reality with car sales? BTW, this was a Hyundai dealership, so I'm not sure the Japanese problems should have any effect on them.

The $40 gas gift card arrived today. Unfortunately I needed gas yesterday (I was on fumes), so this will have to wait to be used for a week or two.

Oh well, if this is the worst of my complaints on life, I should be happy. Right?

CVS has not been the best place to get the super deals the past year or so, but every once in a while they come through. Today I spotted a $5 off coupon in the paper, and I was able to pick another one up off the recycling heap before leaving work, so I was ready to research the deals when I got home.

After some research, cutting out coupons, and making a quick trip, here was the haul using some strategic buying:

* 4 boxes Raisin Bran
* 3 Boxes Fiber One
* 6 2-Liter bottles of Diet Pepsi
* Hydro 5 Razor (Yard sale item)
* Motrin 20 Ct. (Maybe yard sale)
* Zyrtec 5 Ct. (Maybe yard sale)
* Bayer Advanced 20 Ct. (Maybe yard sale)
* Digiorno Pizza
* $10 Gas Gift card

All total it cost me $3 in cash back coupons and $12.15 cash. If you net out the gas gift card of $10, everything else cost me about $5. And the items I have marked as Yard Sale will probably sell for $7 total. Soooo... happy, happy days.

... and not for what I found. This was the first time I had my girlfriend along, and she loves yard sale-ing like I do. I found very little for me (booo), but she found some nice items she had wanted, so that made up for me not getting very much. I did get a Pyrex cobalt blue pie plate and a Pyrex 1 quart measuring cup (all for $3). I had no idea measuring cups got that big.

After making me dinner, my girlfriend said how great that measuring/mixing cup was. She could measure and then mix in the same bowl. Very convenient.

On the finance front, I just got my first paycheck after (almost) paying off my mortgage. Its cool looking at the checking balance, and not wondering if I will have enough for my next payment. Of course now my retirement accounts dropped more than my paycheck - I guess I need to realize its just a temporary pullback.

Well the mortgage has hit the dust (more or less). I left a few hundred in to pay this coming month, so I would have time to contact the credit union and get from them the list of what paperwork I should be able to expect from them, and to know if I need to go there in person to get anything. I figure that late payment will cost me less than $2, so I can live with that.

What to do with the excess funds? Next month (July) I have the half year property taxes due, which if they are similar to last year... will be about $1,500. But I get 3 paydays in July, so that should make up for that expense.

And other news...

Markets look to be going haywire today. Shame I don't have a ton of money to put into a Roth IRA today, although I guess it would be a day until the funds cleared, and who knows, the market may go flying back up tomorrow.

Looks like summer has finally hit in the past week. I've been feeling drained most days by the afternoon, I guess my body hasn't gotten used to the hotter temps yet.

And lastly I changed the contributions to my 457 plan. Since they now have the option to have a Roth 457, I have split my contributions 2/3 traditional, 1/3 Roth. I want to see how much of a tax hit that causes, then I will adjust until I hit a comfortable split between the two. I figure I'll probably do a 50/50 split when its all said and done, but for now this is an initial test.

Don't know how long this will be out there, but....

If you have a Discover card, and have cash back just sitting there, here is a great deal. You can get a $40 Shell gas gift card for each $20 of your Discover cash back balance. I only had $35 in my balance, so I could only get one. This is of course limited availability, so get them while the gettin's good.

Last weekend had to have been the first weekend where the weather was good for yard sales. I spent $5.50 for a number of good items, including one book for $0.50. Listed it on Half.com for $6 and it sold in one day. I should net about $5 for the sale. Got an accessory to go with my drill press for $.50, retails at $35-$60. And a box full of expensive cleaning supplies for the house & car for $2 - cool. Hopefully this weekend will be good as well.

And just a few more days for my mortgage. Early next week I put in my last mortgage payment (extra large, but still...). OMG, what am I going to do without the mortgage in the months ahead? (heh, heh, heh Ok, so the next few months will be to replace my 200,000+ mileage car. And then there is the insurance, and property taxes, and plane tickets for my son, and funding my Roth IRA for this year, and on and on it goes . Oh well, probably by the end of the year I may hit the end of these extra expenses. Still, its better than the alternative, right?

And nope, that's not a typo. I just got a 0% rate, $0 transfer fee offer in the mail from one of my credit cards. In fact I don't even have to transfer the money from another card, they sent me checks I can write to myself. Hmmmm, lets see... they are limiting it to $7,000, I have a mortgage balance of $8,850... you know, I think I can do this. In fact I *KNOW* I can do this.

The offer says I have to pay it back by April 2012, I have over $10,000 in CDs maturing between now and then, soooo.... pay off the mortgage this month, pay maybe $800 per month on the credit card until the CDs mature and then pay the balance at that time. Yep, that sounds like a plan.

Woohoo, more ways to save money. YESssss, I like it.

Sorry, the two subject items are not related (certainly would be interesting if they were).

I may as well start with the mystery. Its not medical, in that I am not sick, but the more common one now a days. That is: What the F*** is this bill I got from a hospital I never went to? Seriously, what is someone to think when they get a bill from a hospital they didn't go to, for a service that comes under the name of "Pathol/Hystol"? Actually, I have an idea what this is about, though it really is a surprise. On the "day of service", I had a cyst removed at a doctor's office about 30 miles away from the hospital. Could this be some test of what was removed? Perhaps, but the doctor didn't tell me that was going to be done, they never informed me of any results from this mystery test, and the hospital never informed me of any results of this mystery test. I won't get into my opinion of having these mystery providers bill you seperately instead of through who you went to see in the first place. I have a number to call if I have questions (and I *WILL* be calling).

Assuming what I am guessing above is correct, would I be out of line to insist getting a copy of the results otherwise not paying? This is why I want to stay in the best shape possible - crazy F bills appearing out of nowhere for who the F*** knows what. GRRRRrrrr.

I can afford it, but thats not the point. Are people supposed to pay every crazy bill that appears when there is no explanation for the bill? Sorry, but my brain doesn't work like that.

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As for the garage door, I can't open it right now. I don't know about you, but I see that as a bit of a problem. (Thankfully my car was outside the garage when this happened) My door has these extra large springs to give an assist when opening - well one broke this week. It was probably the 1960 issue door spring that came with the door. The door is solid wood and super heavy. Oh boy. I know they sell replacements (I should go tonight and get it), but raising and keeping the door up by myself is going to be a challenge (I know - I had to repair the pulley system 2 years ago)

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Another house payment is in the books. Now the total in my savings (not CDs, just savings and checking) is a match to my mortgage balance. I would pay it off, but I have car insurance payment this month, then a property tax payment in July, so its better if I keep some money liquid for a few more months. Still, its crazy to my mind when I compare my savings to my mortgage. Its like there is a mistake, it can't be right.

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Participated at a local church / community yard sale today. It was very disappointing - I probably brought in $60 for the day. I've done better doing it in my own driveway, and the prep work was much less. At least it was a wonderful day weather wise.

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And last (and in no way least) my relationship is still going great (ergo the change in my personal info). There have been a few rough spots, but each time we seem to work it out and make things even better. This is the part that is truly encouraging. The communication has been great, both of us have been trying to not let anything slide, but instead we let each other know what we're thinking about absolutely anything. That was something I never could get out of my ex, and it is really refreshing. We don't always agree, but we make sure to resolve it by communicating.

Hmmmm, I should go get that garage spring (and use my coupons that expire today at the grocery store). OK, gotta go!

I never knew it was so hard to blog when things were going well. Nothing to complain about, no struggles, I kinda like this. Having nothing to struggle with makes any post boring. Sorry.

With that said, what has happened in the past month?

I have scheduled another large mortgage payment for the end of April. After this one my balance will dive under $10,000, and my savings after that payment will be a close match. It'll be so weird without that taking a huge chunk of my earnings every month.

Yard sales have finally started. Last Saturday I was going to go buy a lawn mower after my rounds, instead I found a nice walk-behind mower. A couple of years old, it was a bit of a mess when I got it home. I needed to tighten all the bolts holding the wheels (they were wobbling awful) and the handle was at a height for someone under 5 ft. tall (really, what was the deal with that?). Once I figured out that reinstalling the handle backwards would fix this, it was a 5 minute fix. Self propelled craftsman model (not that I care), runs nice, all for $30. Nice score.

I got another $5 gift card (for Burger King) from the local phone company. All I had to do was call and listen to them for 5 minutes. I love easy free money.

Two of my stocks in my Roth IRA had huge jumps (~40% each) this past month after earnings were reported. Super cool! Of course the others are basically flat (but nice dividends!), at least overall they're going up.

And my biggest (and nicest) shock is I reconnected with an old flame from college, and we've gone from just talking to a relationship that is way better now than it was then. I'm trying to keep my expectations in check, but this had made me believe in life again.

And not that this is my ultimate goal, but I've increased my daily workouts and I'm down to "fighting weight", if you will. Basically a match to what I weighed in HS, only now there is lots more muscle. I don't cringe when I look in the mirror any more.

Life ain't perfect I suppose, but it almost feels that way right now. I really have nothing to complain about (ok, I need a new car, but I can survive my current one for a little while longer). And spring is here.

Life is good.

I was checking the retirement account website tonight (yeah, I probably go there too much), and I saw something that caught my attention. With all the "sturm und drang" in the financial markets the past three years, all the talking heads have said forget about 8% returns in the markets, that the with the new normal we would be lucky to get 6%. So what do I see for what they have computed for my "return since inception" (2003 in my case)? 7.75%

The majority of my deposits have been in the past 4 years too (basically during all the chaos). Not sure what this means, if anything. I'm a good and steady investor? I was smart enough not to bail when the market tanked? I lucked out on the right funds? I'm just average? Hard to say. Even at this rate I won't get rich, but with a pension and SSI, I think I will survive just fine. Anyway, I thought this was an interesting counterpoint to all the market gloom on the news the past years.

... of the telephone. Not literally (of course), but since for the past two months I have had MajicJack on my computer I've used it the few times I wanted to call anyone, and I've had the land line phone unplugged for that time, sooooooooo..... I called and of course they could now offer me a promotional rate of 25% off. I could get upset at that (why didn't they do that before?), but I know the game, so it didn't bother me in the least. So no more phone service. I'm going to miss the phone number most of all, but I'll get over it.

Now what to do with the $25 saved each month? Go out to eat once a month (nah)? Use it to pay my rising gas expenses (boo)? Buy more dividend producing stock (yay)? Use it at yard sales (great!)? Now if only the weather would get warm enough for yard sales....

Made a quickie trip to the local CVS & Walgreens. Making strategic use of coupons, cash back, register rewards, etc...I got the following:

- 15 2-liter Coke (diet) bottles
- 9 bubble wrap mailers (the right size for mailing books with Half.com - normally sell for $1 each)
- 3 Irish Spring body wash bottles
- 1 Irish spring deodarant
- 2 Reese cup packs
- 1 gellatin package
- 2 bags of honey wheat pretzels (I love that stuff)
- 1 bottle Crest Prohealth mouthwash
- 1 tube Crest ProHealth toothpaste
- 1 Neosporin paste (I neededthis already)
- 1 Specialized active wear bandages

Whew. The total out of pocket came to about $11, at least half of that was taxes I couldn't avoid. A few items I figure to sell for $6 or so, and keep the rest. Nice haul - I suppose I could do this more if I put the effort into it, but why get greedy?

Well it finally came - the federal tax return - so the end of this month I am putting in an even larger mortgage payment. Years ago I would have kept the money in savings - when the rate of interest in savings isn't that far off of the mortgage interest rate, why force the paydown? But today, getting such miserable savings rates, I may as well push forward and get it all paid off, and save some money in the process.

On the frugal front, nice weather can't come soon enough. Paying less to heat the house will be nice, but being able to start yard sale-ing again will be nicer!

Well I did it, I put in an extra large payment for my mortgage this month. That dropped what I owe from $19k to $16.3k. When adding that payment to all my other bills, my outflow for the month was probably $750 more than my inflow. If I get my tax refund in the coming weeks, even with another large mtg. payment, my cashflow should probably be positive for March which would be nice (to put it mildly).

Other tidbits...

I get to enjoy having surgery next week to remove a cyst on my back (yuck). Needs to be done, I wonder how bad I'm going to feel after this .

I signed up for the discounted 3 months of eHarmony. My "matches" so far seem to be an interesting group. While I don't say "OMG" when I read too many of them, I have to wonder what I said that makes them think these are good matches. Do they let me review my survey answers? I need to check. I love how they recommend that you write to everyone - that its a matter of numbers. I understand the logic behind that, but still... doing that would just make me feel desperate. Perhaps my attitude will change with time.

And life goes on...

That's actually the title to a TV show. I'm surprised I never heard of it before this weekend. If you want to explain how people waste so much money and then don't understand where it all went, this is it.

I watched one episode this weekend, and decided I needed to post it here. Its a BBC comedy of sorts, written like a documentary, but its oh so true. If you know anyone that watches too much TV (or even a "normal" amount of TV), this would be a great show for them to see. I can't recommend this one highly enough, though there are some spots that I am fairly sure are real TV shows, but they look so absurd you have to wonder what they were thinking. In any case, if you were on the fence about dropping a cable subscription, watching this should push you off the fence.

This could be subtitled: Is the American man willing to do anything for himself any more?

WARNING: Sorta frugality / sorta rant ahead...

During a discussion a few days ago I mentioned how I had built from scratch / built from kits / refinished most of the furniture in my house. During this I remembered how it had been many years since I bought a solid wood kit to build (probably 6-7 years). I figured there would be more kits out there available now. I mean, there is the internet now, everything is more available if you search for it, right? But just about every link to a place selling kits was out of business, sold their items on Amazon at crazy expensive prices (they're kits for crying out loud!), or they sold only a few kits any more and now sold mostly finished items

Now I don't think the companies have changed their focus on selling fully built items just because of higher markups. I'm sure its because so few people want to build their own items, while saving money in the process. When I was putting together my first collection of furniture, this is what I did. I refused to buy fiberboard junk. Now you can't do it, even if you wanted.

Sorry, it just bothers me you can't even get kits of good furniture any more. Considering how the economy is rough right now, I figured more people would want to do what I did to get good furniture for decent prices. But nope, it looks like the "I want it now, I don't want to have to do any work for it" philosophy is still going strong. Ugh

Not that I have ever had money designated as the "emergency fund", but I have kept money in savings (much in online savings) and checking accounts just because I liked to be flexible. Usually that meant I needed to pay for something large (read: car repair) with a credit card, and then I quickly paid it off (read: No interest). In the past days I have read a few blog posts where the issue of keeping or not the emergency fund has been discussed. Good arguments are made to not have one, as long as you have credit cards you can use in an emergency, and you have other less than 100% liquid funds you can access in a short amount of time. (CDs and brokerage accounts)

The above seems to describe me to a "T", and I have already been considering doing something like this. Plus I overdid paying taxes at the end of last year, so now I should be getting a refund of over $1,500.

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What follows is a train of thought going on as I mull this over. (oh, btw, I *was* a math major in college, so I love these type of math puzzles)

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After this month's mortgage payment my savings will be over half my outstanding mortgage, and unless my car dies I'm not going to have any emergency needs, at least nothing my credit card can't easily handle. Soooooooo... I have been putting $2,000 a month for a few months on the mortgage and it hasn't killed me. Maybe I should up that amount? I have a CD maturing in August. I have another one I could break - its only earning 2.3%. Those two CDs would give me another $2,500. Add that to the tax refund of $1,500, and that's $4,000. I have savings of $11,000. Together its $15,000, and I only need $19,000. If I go for a last payment at the beginning of September, that makes 7 more payments. Let's see, $2,800/mo. would just about do it. And doing this would save me another few hundred in interest payments. Oh man, I'm tempted. Soooooo tempted.

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When the mortgage payment is made for the begining of March, I will have to come back and indicate what I did

Maybe this is common, but if so I must live an isolated life (could be - I don't go out shopping much at all).

Tonight I stopped at an intersection and a neon light in a store window across the street caught my eye. I thought it said "gold". I looked again. Sure enough it was "Sell your gold here". Odd, I don't remember a pawn shop there. The light turned green and the truck next to me moved out of the way and I see I was right - its the laundromat that has always been there. Laundromats are now buying gold? Are people really taking gold to a place like that to get money? ????

Of course the real solution is to not waste money on stuff like gold when you could have more pressing needs, but really, why would you sell your valuables there? I guess thats where the economy is today though. Ugh.

People make resolutions every year it seems. I can't say I have anything I would call a resolution, just areas I want to work on. One is cutting down the few bills I still have (and getting extra money whenever possible). Towards that end I already have done a couple tasks these first two weeks of the year.

First I was going to cut down my newpaper bill. I think it was coming in at $3.50 or so a week. I really didn't need anything but the Sunday paper, but I had let this ride for at least half a year (boooo), and today I finally dealt with it. I called, and of course they tried to convince me to keep my service for 7 days a week. After I couldn't be convinced, all of a sudden they had a great sign-up offer that they would let me in on. Now, my last payment which was only good for 2 months (into March), now has me paid until mid-July (6 months)! Of course I'll have to go through this again, but at least I got the lower price now for just making a phone call. Savings of about $25 a month.

Next I signed up for a $25 from a Bank of America credit card I got in the mail. I need to spend $250 in the coming 3 months to get it. I then paid my online phone and cable bills, as well as made two online purchases of my nutrition drinks. That combined to over $200, so not much to go. I will keep track of the purchases, writing them on the paper offer that was sent to me, then when I have enough, off the CC goes back into storage.

Next I started with the install with MagicJack, a replacement phone service over IP. If this works well, I will cut off my land line service saving $25 / mo. If I need emergency service, I can use my pay as you go cell phone for that use.

And last night I went and bought 20 lbs of chicken leg quarters for $10 yesterday (nice sale price) and spent the evening removing skin/fat (yuck) and freezing them. Now I have enough meat (and high in protein) for my after workout lunches for a few months at least!

And as a final goal for the year (no, not a resolution), its a big one. I am trying to pay off my mortgage by the end of the year. This means taking about 60% of the money I take home after taxes, health insurance, and deferred compensation and paying that amount monthly. I don't know if I will be able to keep up this pace or not. The remaining money will cover my other expected expenses without a lot extra left over. This is going to be a challenge. 2010 taxes are the first year where I don't get any benefit from having a mortgage, so now is the time to put the pedal to the metal and get it over with.

So here's to 2011. Financial freedom is in sight (Total zero debts). Its going to be hard to make it to the finish line this year, but whenever I get there (this year or next) its going to be strange having extra money.

Wasn't that the Exxon marketing pitch way back to show how great their gas was? 1980s or 90s???

Anyway, for quite a few years I have been brand agnostic when it comes to gas for my vehicles. I have kept track of my MPGs and I never really saw a difference in MPG I couldn't attribute to some effect (long distance driving, cold weather, or some such). That is until this past month. I ended up buying gas at a regional convenince mart / gas location that I hadn't gone by in years (I just happened to be in the area). The gas cost about 8% less than other stations in the area, so I quickly filled up. After that fill up I noticed the fuel guage going down quicker than usual. I was concerned I had a problem with the car, but then I remembered I had bought gas at an unusual location.

After the next fill up at a brand name location, I checked the MPG from the prior fillup, and saw the MPGs had dropped 10%. After using up this next full tank, the MPGs went back up to where they had been previously. And have held steady since.

I guess this shows gas is not a universal commodity, there is some difference to the brands, and getting cheaper gas may not be the deal you think it is.

Hmmm, a new year - and maybe a new set of goals based on my prior year's goals? I'm going to list mine for this year, then a review of what I wrote last year and how I did.

First for the upcoming year (2011):

Financial:

•Fund Roth IRA fully. No date this year as I will be having some competing expenses I didn't have this past year. It may take all year to complete this.
•Continue max contributions to 457 plan (a 401k plan for gov't types) so that I max out contributions by end of September. I'm keeping this from last year.
•Be happy with spending once in a while (yeah, not frugal, but I need to have a life - so to speak). This is another good one I want to keep.
•Sell more books and other junk to help free up space at home (and make money!). I did well this year and I should be able to keep it up.

Personal:
•Finish cleaning the house - Part way there, I should be able to finish this year (Yeah, I'm slow, but I'll do it - honest!)
•Try the online dating again - I can't quit, can I?
•Continue to volunteer and donate blood. At work there is supposed to be some new program for volunteering - I will need to see what thats all about.
•Start / finish repairs & tasks about the house. - I already started one project today - if only I can keep it up.
•Continue my exercise routine at home. - hopefully the nagging ailments will subside.
•See if I can finish paying my mortgage by year end. This will be tough. I have CDs maturing Jan 2012, so if nothing else I will be able to finish the mortgage by then.
•Get a new (to me) car. - This is going to hurt my finances, but it can't be helped.

Long Term (Post 2011):
•Get my retirement savings to $250K by my 50th birthday (late 2012). My (401k, 457, Roth IRAs) are at $197,000 now so if I can put in $16,500 in the 457 and $5,000 in the Roth each year, this could happen.

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And now lets see how the goals worked out last year (2010) This should be interesting...

Financial:

•Fund Roth IRA fully by June 30 - I met this goal - finished by mid May
•Continue max contributions to 457 plan (a 401k plan for gov't types) so that I max out contributions by end of September. - Another one that worked out, I maxed out in mid September.
•Be happy with spending once in a while - hmmm... hard to say - I did get some great items at yard sales, and I didn't stress over the prices (much). So I'll give this one an ok.
•Sell more books and other junk to help free up space at home (and make money!). If I can get this year to at least be a wash it would be tremendous. - I don't have exact numbers, but I believe my ebay/half.com sales paid for all my ebay/yard sales purchases this year. If not it was close. And I have cleared out some room. So I count this as a success.

Personal:
•Finish cleaning the house - I did ok, but still have a ways to go.
•Try the online dating again, of course trying to keep more of a zen philosophy while doing it. - Ugh. At least I tried for the Zen. The rest - total failure.
•Continue to volunteer and donate blood. - Kept up the blood donations anyway.
•Start / finish repairs & tasks about the house. - Did some - so-so results.
•Re-start my exercise routine at home. - I did workouts at home, usually one or two nights a week - still not as good as I would like - but I see the changes - my body looks close to my high school years now.
•Look into applying for the team lead position opening at work at the end of the year. - That didn't fly - oh well I tried.

Long Term (Post 2010):
•Get my retirement savings to $250K by my 50th birthday. It was around ~$150,000 at the beginning of the year (401k, 457, and a Roth IRA). - I ended the year with my accounts totalling $197,000 - A very solid increase from last year. Barring a market downturn again, this looks like it may happen.
•Determine within 3 years if I want to finish my working career at my current job, and if so find a house to live in closer to work. - no change
•Finish paying off of current mortgage by 50th birthday. - I've upped the payment amount, now I hope to finish January 2012, possibly earlier.
•After the mortgage is paid, buy a new (new to me) car. My current one is getting long in the tooth, hopefully it can last to 2012. - The car had a bad year, its still running but I don't know how long, but I already have a replacement car in the wings that should be available by this spring. Hopefully it no major repairs will happen between now and then.

Whew. Sorry, that was a lot of stuff to read. I know its a lot, but if I can do that, I'll be pretty well set. But isn't that was being frugal is all about? Having a life you can enjoy without worries?