Single Guy High Impact Saving

... well... pretty much just the best of times. At least it was today. One of those days that has "ugh" written all over it, and at the end it was a "wow, could anything else go right?" day. Well that was today. (If you read to the end, there is financial info - honest. Or just skip to the end if you like - it's labelled.)

I was supposed to telework today, but was asked to go in so I could attend a branch lunch. (I love teleworking) I wouldn't be able to workout at lunch due to this. Overnight the winds picked up, and by morning it was bitter cold outside. My body was miserable stiff getting up, as I had worked out last night, and was still feeling it. It was not a good start to the day. (I know what you're thinking: "Be happy you have a good paying job" - I am, honest)

The morning at the job was good, as I was having luck figuring out how to make the technology do what the users needed for their auditing reports. With that good feeling we went out to lunch, and I had a wonderful meal, quite relaxing. The afternoon was the same, good work was done. Since the day went well, I decided to workout at the gym after work. Then things started to pick up. First I saw a box I could use to send one of my ebay sales. It was an odd size and just what I needed. Next I was feeling better than usual while working out, and I see on the gym TV that my baseball team has amazingly signed the best pitcher available this off season. Super wow - but wait, it gets better.

(OK - financial part follows

And then it kept going. Once I got home, I see a UPS envelope at the door. I have no idea what that could be. Also in the mail I get a letter from one of my DRIP investments. After I get in out of the cold, I open the DRIP letter. My quarterly dividend notification has arrived, and it has a 7% increase - super! OK, the day is going great - it can't get better, right?

Nope, the best comes last. I see the UPS letter is from my old employer. I never get anything from them via UPS - what in the world is this? Inside I find a letter from the company saying they want to buy back the stock from all the employees (it is a small employee owned company - no public stock). It doesn't explain why (I seriously wonder about this), but they paid for a third party to be an independent manager and come up with a "best price" for the employees. Now the company is going to pay us almost double what they had been saying the stock is worth. Unfortunately I didn't work there too long, but they had been saying my stock was worth $4,500 for a few years, and now they will pay me $9,000 for it. I used profit sharing money of about $3,000 to buy the stock about 8 years ago. A nice ROI.

OK, I didn't win the lottery, get an inheritance, or find the love of my life. But short of those things, I wish every day could be this good.

The same people that brought us

"Squeaking by on $300,000" have apparently decided that another in the series is appropriate. It seems this time they couldn't find anyone dumb enough to put themselves up for deserved ridicule, so this one has a hypothetical family making $250,000 and they show how "impossible" it is for them to save. "Where does $250,000 a year go?" The story shows this family of 4 living in various locations around the country, and determines how much they'll spend in each location.

Ignoring the bad math in some spots, they have this family (may as well call them "The Stupids") doing the following:
- Paying extra for a house close to the city center where their jobs are going to be, and then ignore any public transportation. Instead they will use two cars, and then not only pay to drive back and forth, they will also pay an extra $3,000 (in my area) just to park.
- And speaking of cars, they allocate over $7,500 for gas during the year. Ok, lets make gas @ $3.00/gal. That is 2,500 gallons for the year, or 1,250 per vehicle. Assume 15 MPG (pretty poor I know), and that comes out to 18,750 miles per year. Ok, they have a short commute (see above), where the hell are they driving? Are they doing a cross country trip? Who comes up with these numbers???
- They're paying $5,000 just for cleaning, because well... you know... they're so Stupid they can't do any cleaning themselves.
- They have to eat out every day at work for $10 lunches and they eat takeout of $25/week (a meal on the weekend? So we're talking 6 dinners, 7 breakfast, and maybe 1 or two lunches each week. Their food should be less right? The family of 4 pays $13,659, or over $1,100 per month just to eat at home. WTF are they eating????
- Even the dog is costing $1,571 a year. Is the dog having surgery every year? I would have to estimate even with vet vists (admittedly infrequent as my mutt was fairly healthy) I spent no more than $2,000 total over 11 years on my dog.
- Phone, cable, and internet is coming in at $200/mo. Apparently the Stupids never heard of bundled service. And if they're so busy making this great money, why do they even have cable?
- Gas & Electric comes in at $5,280, or $440 per month, every month. Did they buy a home with no insulation what so ever????
- Oh, btw, there is under "Leisure" an entry for "Eating Out". Another $200/mo. for that.

If you go and read it, there's more (really!), but I think I have overwhelmed anyone reading by this point. Apparently the Stupids make an amazing amount of money, yet can't for the life of them figure out how to stop the continual wasting of money. These people would have to be dumber than the average American when it comes to finances, yet in the top 3% earners in the richest country in the world, which is just amazing there could be people like that. In fact, they have them overspending by $5,000 to $24,000 per year!

... the guilt ... errr, I mean the innocent. I tend to talk finances with a co-worker, who last summer was talking about getting a new car. He admits he doesn't save nearly enough (and he is amazed at how much I save and how little I can spend and still get good things), and he is nearly my age with a wife and one child still living at home. His house is falling apart (his words), and he has been spending money like crazy to fix various issues. I haven't kept track, but it had to be $10,000 or more this year alone.

Anyway, as he started to look for another car (he felt his latest new one was having issues) he looked at various models, including an expensive car he had wanted since he was first driving (you know - a super sports car). He had mentioned it to me, and he already knew I would say "Are you crazy, what a waste of money". I did try to be even handed with it, mentioning that I had read where some frugal types would say "save your money on what you don't care about to spend it on what you really want". "If that reallllly makes you happy, then maybe its worth it to you." That said, I *did* think it was crazy to spend that type of money (and said that too).

Later I heard that his wife kept saying "get the car, you deserve it". She didn't go to college, works but doesn't make that much, and doesn't worry about finances, or how it can stress him. Ugh. And so he bought the car. He told me that even while buying it he kept hearing in his mind what I would think of it. (And he was right! :P) Not sure on the price, I think it was around $35,000. The expense was so much, he had to get a 6 year loan, and even then his payment is (I am estimating here) almost half his mortgage payment.

Since then I have kidded him, asking if he has his first scratch yet (yep), and how often is he going to get pulled over (once already). Yowza. Now this past week we were at the office Christmas get together. There different people ooh'd and aaahhh'd about the car. They all loved the car, and asked what the wife said about it. He told them she was the one encouraging him to get it. I then hear lots of "oh, what a great wife". The whole time I am cringing inside. No concern about if he can afford it or about how "helpful" she is with the bills. Ugh. I think most of the people there are in two income households, but even so, no one was concerned if he could afford it? What's the saying, "If you still have a job, there is no recession."? Some people still live in their own bubble of fantasy, even today I'm afraid.

I guess more accurately I rolled it over, but still... It being an old 401k plan worth near $11.5K. Not earth shattering, but its now into an IRA I have (that was empty). Friday I plan on stopping by the broker (Scottrade) and transferring it over to an existing Roth IRA. Then I need to figure on what I want to invest in with the funds.

With tax rates looking like they're not going anywhere in the coming years, this'll work perfectly. With my mortgage dropping off in ~1 year, I will have more money to pay the extra taxes needed in 2012/2013 due to this. I know there's the debate on whether the Roth IRAs will be a good thing when you retire, but I figure that having various sources of funds with different tax implications means I will be able to pick and choose each year how much to take from each pile of money to optimize what will be best for me.

In other areas I now have 4 book sales for December. I'm not sure of the "profit", but I should be clearing about $35 from the sales. Hey, it works for me. Three ebay sales left me clear another $45, probably $30 after I net out the cost of the items. A little less clutter is sure nice.

Over T-day I got my jacket fixed (from a prior posting here). Came out great, and its perfect on cold (but not super cold) days. Of course with the cold front that came in this week I'm using the winter parka instead. Still, its nice to have it back and useable.

Nothing special on my exercises - I am keeping up with them, and thats good enough. I think I have held my weight constant over the holidays so far, and maybe I'm a little stronger to boot.

Nothing extrodinary here, but after about 3 weeks with no Half.com book sales I was beginning to think the book sales had stopped. Tonight I got one sold, and a nice one too. A $30 sale for a book I paid $0.50 for this summer. I was reluctant to buy it initially, but I convinced myself I could give it as a present in a year or two if it didn't sell. Its a sports reference book that lists for $80 (yeah, its big - 3,000 pages!)

I'll probably end up using the money to pay for sending out Christmas presents in a week or so. Oh well, easy come, easy go.

This is strictly a financial entry. On Friday I deposited a small check at the credit union and noticed one of their advertisements. A Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) for 2.99% for 12 months, then 4.99% thereafter. In addition, if you get a $50 gift card, or a $100 gift card if you take out more than $10,000.

It turns out my mortgage is over 6%, and I was hoping to finish paying it off by the end of next year, or early in 2012. I looked at the amount of interest I would pay next year, and compared it to what I would expect to pay if I took out a HELOC for the amount of the mortgage, and used it to pay the mortgage off. The difference was around $500. Oh, and the tax benefit should be the same (as I understand it) as both should be tax deductable.

So that leads me to the question - Is there any reason I shouldn't get the HELOC and pay off the mortgage? Legal issues? Anything? Should a HELOC have some type of a setup charge? I never looked into it, so I don't know how that works.

No I haven't won the lottery, and technically, I am not debt free at the moment. This is just something that popped into my head this weekend while seeing some estate sales with all their cr@... However that point (being debt free) is no longer a mystical nirvana for me, I can see that point will come not too far down the road. Already I have more in liquid savings than I owe on my mortgage, so I *could* take out everything and pay it off (and be 100% debt free), though I'm not going to do that for now. My one big concern (my car) looks like it may have an easy resolution. My mother wants to upgrade her car next year and I will probably pay her for her very low milage car at that point (based on whatever a reasonable trade in price will be).

So say I'm at that point (house is paid, car is paid and in beautiful shape, no debts). Now what?

========================================
Go for another job? I like what I do, low stress, decent pay, good pension, even has a gym to stay in shape. There's no reason to leave that.

Travel? Heck, I lived overseas for a few years and truthfully I have no burning desire to do that again.

Get in better physical shape? I'm already trying to do that. Plus you really don't need that much money to do it anyway.

Buy the latest and greatest gizmos? I work in high tech all day, I have no desire to be around it 24/7. I don't even watch TV (except for some sports, and I even have less desire to do that than I used to). I've got a computer, 2 TVs, and DVD player, what more do I need?

Fix up the house? Yeah, there are some things to do (replace driveway, new carpet, cut down a tree out front, maybe get a new water heater or furnace though they are working fine). Those are nice, but they won't cost that much to have done. Maybe one or two pieces of furniture could be replaced, but again, I don't need much (most of my furniture I made by hand, and is still very solid). And I have all the dishes, utensils, cookware, bric-a-brac I will ever need (thanks yard sales!).

Invest? Well you can see I have some investments, though not nearly enough to quit my job. I figure to continue investing, though it certainly won't take up all my earnings.

Hobbies? I already have enough to be happy. I'm sure I will buy more, but I doubt all that much. And actually I have started to sell some excess on ebay as I would like more space in the house.

Sell this house and get a house closer to where I work? This idea has intrigued me, but I doubt I will consider it for a few years at least. If I do it, it will be no sooner than 2015 as I think this area's prices will be improved by that time.

Volunteer? I'm not that big on that, though I do some already. It is more than enough to keep me fulfilled already, I don't need to do more.

Go to Vegas and gamble? Ummm NO! Going to shows - yeah that I could see, but gamble? No thanks.
==============================================

This wasn't meant to brag, nor to complain. Just sorta a train of thought. Most people that work towards being financially independent (I think) have a major goal like doing something different for a living or travelling (or not having to move in with a child when they retire because they have no money!). For me, its been the simple matter of not being a slave to others, and being in a position where if someone really ticks me off I can tell them to take a hike and not worry about the consequences. Now that I can see that time coming on the horizon, it makes me wonder what is next.

About 2 months ago I picked up a Christmas Train set for $2 (originally sold for about $45 in the 90's). I took a chance on it, and when I tried to use it, the wheels weren't moving on the engine. After I took the motor apart (three times!) I found a gear was loose, so I superglued it back in place and it worked just fine then. Jump to today and I sold it for $20 (and there was lots of people writing for it too). A 'lil ingenuity and a dab of superglue, wait a few months, and some easy money comes out of it. Nice way to help pay for a little of my latest DRIP purchase.

Today was a annual leave day (for me), which makes it a good day. I mean, getting paid and not driving 50 min. each way and not having to sit in a cubicle, how can that not be a good day?

I stayed in all day (no sense going out in the rain here on the east coast) and got lots done (including a number of financial goodies).

Non Financial:
Made 2 apple pies from apples from backyard tree, made lunches for next week, survived a hard weghtlifting DVD routine at lunch, plus did the weekly kitchen cleaning. (Now I have nothing to do this weekend!)

Financial:
* Bought $750 more of my local utility DRIP stock. Currently it is giving over 4% in dividends and given the gov't wants to keep interest rates at zero for the foreseeable future, saving the money in a bank seems a major waste.
* Setup my monthly mortgage payment, setup my monthly credit card payment (only $310!!), paid my semi-annual car insurance payment, and setup a transfer of money to a higher paying online account (all done online of course).
* Called my local phone company due to their letter asking me to consider switching to their service. For a few minutes we discussed rates, and there was nothing they had that was nearly as inexpensive as the local cable company's service. For my time, I am supposed to have activated a $5 Subway gift card that came with the letter. We'll see if that happens, though they are usually good about following through.

Financial / hobby:
* I see a rechargable tool battery pack (still new) I bought at a yard sale last weekend and put on ebay is bid up over $18. Not bad for a $1 purchase. Hey, this will pay for my two slot car sets I got this past month ($10 & $4)!
* Also used for the first time today some weights I bought last weekend (yard sales of course). Got them at about 10% of their in store prices. Fancy brand name stuff - gotta love it

Random thought: I found something good coming from washing dishes by hand (other than the savings and cleaner dishes part). My muscles were tired / sore after today's workout, but doing the dishes seemed to help the shoulders and biceps by having them do easy work and helped loosen them up. I feel much better now.

One of the best ways I have found over the years to save is to learn how to do things yourself. Don't be afraid, put a plan together and do it. I used that motto this weekend as I replaced not only the front brake pads on my car, but the rotors as well. Its the first car repair I have done without Yoda (i.e. my dad). I had a large repair manual for the car, and asked a friend from work over to help. I ended up doing most of the work, but he did bring some tools I needed. Plus having support there was nice, as was having a working car in the driveway in case I needed to go and get something was a nice peace of mind feeling. The parts cost $55, where as a local (and less expensive) garage wanted $220 to do it. I'm sure the dealership would have said $350 or more.

I just was determined to try it and see it through, and I survived (as did the car). I am adding this to the list of things I have figured out over the years. Its much more effective than trying to save quarters all the time (though maybe not as much fun).

Oh, and to make sure he knew how much I appreciated his help, I gave him $50 in gift certificates for a restaurant I used to do mystery shopping for. He said he went there that night and had a wonderful meal.

As for the weekend yard sales, to my amazement I have found more things to get for my mother and get for myself lately. Now a month ago, I picked up a hard to come by and very expensive slot car set that amazingly was never opened (

Its mentioned here). Now that was an wonderful find for me. When I went out the door Saturday I thought wow, why couldn't I find one like that again. Part of my mind said back "Sure, like that's ever going to happen in your lifetime again. Dream on."

So I went out and spent $2 at the first two locations and then saw a sign pointing back to near my house (missed it on the way out), and decided to backtrack. I walk up and there amazingly is a box from the same manufacturer with another set. I figure "Well I'm sure this time its going to be beat up. Just be happy you found another one in any condition, there's no way that could be in great shape." I pull the box lid off, and there is another set, still new, still in the wrapper - again! Ok, final straw - the price has to be extremely high, right? - nope, he's selling it for $10 (This set is bigger than the last one, it definitely sold for around $200). After the $10 exchanged hands, I walked away thinking, wow its Groundhog Day, how could I hit that twice in a month??? Should I start buying lottery tickets???

Guys don't have a thing for fancy clothes, or buying the latest fad, but when they have something they like... they hate to let go. Which leads to my jacket. I have a number of leather jackets, but there is one I have worn religously for years (probably around 10). Its a Wilson's Leather jacket, insulated, and has a removable extra insulated liner. Its a little rough on the edges, but I have used leather shoe touch up dye to make it look nearly like new in the past years. But last year the zipper started to come apart occassionally for no reason, and when I tried it during the first cold snap this month, the zipper wouldn't work right.

Heart broken (ok, maybe thats a bit much) I decided to freecycle it as maybe someone wanted to try to fix it up since it was still nice. I had photos taken ready to post it, but I hated to see it go. Then I looked at the zipper and decided it couldn't be that hard to replace, so I decided to look and see if I could find a replacement zipper. I must say ebay has everything, even zippers, and some were the right length.

Ok, but how do I get it fixed? Time to call in a favor with mom. I have been finding yard sale items for her this year, so we worked a deal. I buy her some replacement machine needles, and we'll try fixing it. I'm looking at a total cost of less than $10 for the fix. Admittedly, I have seen some nice jackets at sales in the $15 - $20 range, but I want MY jacket, as it works just right for me.

As for dating, nothing has been happening, but during a relative's wedding this past weekend I got asked the question of why I have no girlfriend / significant other. It was many hours out of town, in the back woods, so to speak. They said "you're good looking, you own your own home, make good money, nice mannered, ... so what's the deal?" I try to explain the problems with the women round here, how it nothing like where they live, but they think I'm exaggerating. Then today the Wash. Post comes up with a great article about modern dating. I say great, in that shows (inadvertantly) just how deluded some women are in this area. Good god, what attitudes. Anyway... if you'd like to read, go

here. The reader comments are especially amusing. This article will be saved for me to take along on my next trip, so they can understand better the attitudes I have to deal with.

Now I love the idea of going green when it saves you money. Less trash, better for the environment and less money spent on trash removal. Less water usage, better for the environment, and less cost. And on and on... you get the idea.

But lots of people promote green industries, which I agree is the best way to go long term, but too often I think people look at it as a "pain free" way to soothe their conscience, instead of doing what is really best (i.e. finding ways to use less, and *then* using renewable sources).

This thought came up with the arrival today of the latest electric bill. (btw, this month's bill was $36, not bad for 1/2 of August, 1/2 of September) In with the bill were as usual a number of inserts, including one where you can commit to purchase renewable electricity certificates. I looked into these in the past, and basically you just pay extra which subsidizes purchases from renewable sources so that the providers' costs are more in line with other power sources. This just never struck me as a good way to promote this. If renewable is good, and I agree it is, then the company should commit to purchasing some percentage of this power and spread the cost across all consumers, while trying to increase this percentage over time. Then people could concentrate on cutting down on their own usage, which would help the environment more than just buying these credits. And for those that don't conserve, well at least they are buying some renewable power as part of their overall utility cost.

Sorry, just a rant here, as I figure if I can cut down on usage, I'm helping myself *and* the environment, which is really the better way to "go green" all around. I'm not up for subsidizing green power for other users, which is what buying these certificates look like to me.

Some interesting items from the week/weekend.

The numbers 1 & 8: Latest natural gas bill came in this week. My experiment for minimizing my usage seems to have been a success. This past month my usage was 1 therm (therm being the unit of usage used for billing). Normally my summer usage is 7 per month. With no effort, other than lighting the gas pilots when I needed hot water or the stove to cook, I saved about $8 for the month. One thing I really liked on the bill is the line item for "consumption tax: $0.02" I love it when I can pay as little tax as possible.

The numbers 3.5 & 8: This was my favorite laugh from Saturday's yard sales. I got to one where they had DVDs and were marked at $3.50 each (they normally sell for around $2 each in the local market), but wait... the sign says you can buy two for $8. (What a deal!). LOL. Serious math fail there.

The number 3: The cost for a brand new car cover I picked up today. (I was thinking "Only $3? Really?) Unfortunately it is too large for my car, but my mother wanted one, so she gets it instead.

The number 1 (again): Another great buy this weekend was an unopened canister of protein mix you can get from GNC. Sticker was still on it ($30), and I got it for $1. I already have some bags of this I got at BJ's club, but this will be added to my stockpile, saving money long term.

Lots of other good yard sale buys today, including plumbing supplies I needed to get to redo the drains on my tubs. This should save me some good money over buying these at the hardware store, and lots more than bringing in a plumber. This is the type of yard sale finds that make going to the yard sales oh so worth it.

Yard sales this year have been either a feast or famine situation (usually famine). Not sure if thats due to me needing so little any more, or the economy, but it is something I have seen this year. Last weekend I spent 35 cents total on a workout Tee-shirt, replacement vacuum belts, and a mid 30's lithographed American Flag shield that clamps to a car's radiator and can hold 5 flags (mucho cool - looks like you would use it at parades). I'll call that famine. Now the prior weekend I got only 2 things - a workout inflatable ball for $1, and a still new, still in the shrink wrap, slot car race set for $4. The set is one of these large scale sets made in Europe that sells for $200. That was my feast week.

And for those of you that like financial articles, this I think is a great series where they try to come up with just what has happened in the past 40-so years in America for the middle class. I don't agree with all of it, but it is thought provoking:

The U.S. of Inequality

Before I get onto the theme for today, let me pass along my latest utility bills (read savings): $16.85 for nat. gas, under $50 for my electric, and my quarterly water bill (for 2nd quarter) was $12. I also spent some time today repairing some items around the house, so this was a good weekend.

OK, remainder of this is very unfinancial ... you have been warned.

Friday night I went to one of these singles dinners, where we had 4 guys, 4 gals, at a table. Evening didn't start too bad, we got our food (and as none of us had eaten there before we were kinda clueless on how to eat this type of ethnic food which was amusing), and started with various chatting. About 30 minutes into the meal one of the women brings up the movie. A quick discussion starts to see who saw it (4 women, 0 men - big surprise), and one woman says of course this is a chick flick, you can't expect the guys to have seen it. OK, fair enough.

No big deal right? Well not so fast. Instead of trying to talk with the men, the 3 women to my left continue on discussing the finer points of the movie, while the guys just sit there and eat and listen. The other woman talks with me on various things, but while we talk I can hear this conversion about the movie going non-stop between the three women. Just after it finally ends (20 minutes? Maybe more?) I decide to test the woman to my right. "Oh wow, the other women just finished a discussion about Eat Pray Love." "Really, Oh wow, I should have been talking with them, I so wanted to discuss the movie with others." Hmmm, make that "failed test".

About another 20-30 minutes later they had the guys swap tables so we could meet other women. But at the end of the movie discussion I had already "checked out" from this group of women. Good Lawd, WTF are they thinking? Go to a dinner designed to get you to know and maybe meet someone of the opposite sex, and then just go on about something the others don't care about, and you know they don't care about? Maybe us guys should have started a round robin discussion about the NFL for the upcoming year. At least we knew enough not to do something that dumb. "Oh they're single you say? At this rate they're going to stay that way."

I left that table and didn't look back. The other women were better, though that's faint praise in this case. Nothing sparked with them, but at least they knew why they came. Still, what a waste of time and money. After this I am going to change my way of trying to get with women, because after this third time its obvious the women at these dinners are single for a reason.

I had not been going to any grocery stores lately ('cept Aldi's) but yesterday I ran out of the last of my almond milk I've been using now to get in shape. Aldi's doesn't carry this type of thing, so before I head to Safeway (and spend $3 on a single carton) I decide to check online to see if there are any deals I should try to get while I'm there. And what do you know, there is a great special on the stuff. Buy a carton and box of cereal, and get $3 off your next purchase. As I look I see there are other specials like that, such as the Nature Valley Granola bars are $1.49 each when you buy 4 boxes, and if you buy five, you get $3.50 off your next purchase. (I think you can see the coupon rolling possibilities here!)

Ok, so far so good. Then I am directed to sites online (coupons.com, ecentives.com, target.com) where I can get great coupons on the granola bars. Same for Multigrain cheerios which are on special too (needed for the milk offer). I just happen to have some coupons for the milk as well (I got them from a blinkie a month ago, and almost lost them). I went to the nearer store (1 mile) and got the last of the cereal they had, and used up my milk coupons, but now I had two gallons of the milk (say hello freezer!). As I started to look for coupons to get some things at Rite Aid, I found more granola bar coupons. As well I was able to find more online Cheerios coupons. Time to reload!

OK, now to store number two (better stocked) 5 miles in the other direction tonight. Here they had milk with coupons stuck onto the milk cartons! Jackpot. More cereal, more milk, more granola bars. And about $1 out of pocket tonight.

Now I have 3.5 gallons of the milk, 10 boxes of the granola bars, enough cereal to last me until Thanksgiving (at least), I have 6 dollars in coupons to use on anything at Safeway, and my out of pocket was about $10.

I love it when a plan comes together.

Retire @ 50 had a posting about how using coupons through Wednesday could be very good money makers, so last night I looked up where the coupons were, and went there after work tonight. I used the coupons, and did strategic purchases to minimize the out of pocket costs.

Here is the outcome:
Total spent on credit cards (which give 5% back too!): $11.04

What I got:
2 bottles of men's multivitamins
2 boxes of Special K cereal
Fusion razor
Big bottle contact lens fluid
2 boxes of crayons
Bag of 20 washable markers
Birthday card I needed to buy for co-worker birthday

Other benefits of purchases:
$9 in register rewards are remaining
$3 mail in rebate for the washable markers
$2.40 reimbursement for the birthday card

After rebate/reimbursement, the cost out of pocket will be $5.64.

Even more benefits:
$0.55 in cash back from credit card
$3 is my usual yard sale price for the razor (and they sell well at that price.)
$2.50 is my usual yard sale price for the contact lens solution (again, I have sold out at that price)
Crayons & markers go to cousin for his children (good will never hurts)

So in the end if I get the money back from all my sources, that will pay 100% of the costs of today, and I will have 2 bottles of multivitamins, 2 boxes of cereal, and $9 in register rewards. Too bad these types of deals only come by once in a great while.

... and I think its pretty good. I received my electric bill for mid June to mid July on Saturday. the usage was almost exactly what I used this time last year, but this year was supposedly one of the hottest ever here in the DC area. We've been suffering with high 90's for what seems like forever around here.

Anyway, the bill came in at under $47 for the month. Not bad for a 4 bedroom house. Now if only the temps would give us a break I would be really happy.

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

When you have cut down everything you can think of, its hard to find a new way to save money. This past month I did find a new way, though this method may not work for many people, it worked for me.

It started with a trip out of town to visit relatives. I would be gone for 5 days, and after my neighbor's latest house fire (read my previous post for details on that), I decided it would be best to turn off the natural gas feed to my stove. This stove has pilot lights for the stove top, as well as for the oven. One time I did come back from a trip to find one pilot light was out, so its not like it couldn't happen and cause a problem.

Turning off the gas to the stove was easy to do. I just pulled the stove out about 6 inches, reached over the top and turned a lever to close the line. When I returned I decided I didn't need the stove on for another 4 days, so I left it off. After using it on a weekend (I cook lunches for the week on the weekend) I turned off the gas feed line again.

So for the month I probably had the pilots off for 14 or so days. I got the bill this weekend - the usage, which has been the same every summer month for the past 3 years, was down about 20%. It didn't save me much, I estimate about $3 in gas costs, plus maybe another dollar or two in air conditioning electricity savings (less heat to cool). Still, it was a free $5 savings, with the effort of a minute or two to turn off and on (lighting the pilots takes the most time).

If you use the stove every day, don't use gas, or your stove doesn't use pilot lights, then this won't help you. But it you have a situation like mine, you may want to try it. Its not like it costs you anything to do this.

Anyone who has a clue what either item in the title is referring to has gotta be a psychic. That said...

I decided late tonight to use some store coupons that expired tonight at a grocery store a about 4 miles away. As these were special "not available at the store" coupons, but only mailed to your home, there was nothing marking the items in the store that these were the items the coupons matched up with. As you can guess, occassionally the items to use the coupons on might not be perfectly clear. So, after checking out I saw that one coupon never registered, and went to the service desk. It was for a pack of turkey hot dogs. Looking at the coupon I saw that the brand was right, the size was right, even the style was right (bun length), so I couldn't have the wrong item, could I? I show the guy behind the counter the receipt and the item, and he says "oh you didn't get the right type."
"I didn't?"
"No, see these are for meat hot dogs. These aren't meat."
"Um... I'm sorry. Turkey isn't a meat?"
"No, these coupons are for meat hot dogs only."
"Huh? Do you mean beef hot dogs? I don't think any of the packages are labelled 'meat hot dogs'."
This went on for a bit longer. The guy was pleasant, and returned the money when I asked, so I'm not complaining. But this was like I was on one of those "Jay Walking" segments on the Tonight show, where people say the most absurd things, and seem to mean it.

===================

As for my house, why wouldn't it be standing? Well... I returned home yesterday from my doctor appt. (shoulder got a clean bill of health) to find the street blocked near my house, and fire trucks parked out front. Turns out the neighboring house had been on fire (again!). About a decade ago they had a decent fire, and now in almost the same location of the house (closest to my house - of course) another fire started, again when no one was home. This time was worse, melting sliding, blistering paint off a car out front (as well as melting the head lights), and buring off a good chunk of the roof. Even the tree between the houses has a nice chunk of brown leaves now on it.

You could say they are unlucky (you could), but lets see. After the last fire, their family (not professional contractors) seemed to be involved with a lot of the restoration of the house, and then after moving in they seemed to come into a sizable chunk of money that went into buying a very expensive motor home they park out back and use for (I don't know - going to NASCAR races perhaps?) And now a fire starts in the same part of the house the family did the work. Hmmmm, relatives do house work, then money appears, then fire starts in same spot - you don't think they are related, do ya? (I'll leave any conclusions up to the readers)

Lets just say I won't be bringing up the neighbors to my home insurance company any time soon. I don't need my insurance rates going up, thank you very much.

... for sale that is. As I have bought DVDs at yard sales I have gotten a better handle on which ones are most likely to be hard to find and therefore money makers with online sales. In the past week I have one sale of $9 for a DVD set I got for $3, and then another $9 sale of a set I got for $0.50. I bought a few other $0.50 DVDs that I wanted to get for my own viewing, and I see online they sell for around $15 each. Nice, but I want to watch them first! (and maybe keep them?)

Don't try this without some experience first, otherwise you'll end up with a bunch of DVDs that will get you a dollar or less (and probably net you zero). Generally the most popular DVDs sell for the least - go figure. Supply and demand I guess.

On other news...

Shoulder therapy hit the end today - with pretty good success. I give it a 90-95% success rate. Still some pain is left, but only at the extreme range of motion. Of course with the good has to come the bad - today I re-aggravated a leg injury I had last year. I won't get into how it happened, it was really a wierd way to hurt it, but I almost couldn't walk mid day. Still in pain tonight, but walking is slowly coming back - maybe in a day or two this will be cleared up or at least I will be able to walk normally.

In the "exercise can sure make a difference" vein, a week ago I met up with a worker in another building that I had worked with a few years ago. We started talking, and I could see she was straining to read my ID badge, and then she finally remembered who I was. She said I looked so different, much less weight and looked younger (of course the missing beard made a big difference too). She said the change was something, she had no idea who I was at first. While I know exercise makes a big difference, its nice to see it confirmed.

... just make lemonade (did you really expect something different to finish that statement???)

Anywho... I was planning on visiting the relatives for Memorial Day weekend, leaving Friday morning to make a very long weekend. Last thing I do Thursday night is make a quickie stop to Aldis for a few items for the trip. Almost home, I go to shift, and the clutch falls to the floor and stays there. I'm outta gear, but rolling. I avoid stopping at two stop signs and make it all but the last 100 yards to my house. Unfortunately it was hot and sticky so pushing the car even that little bit was awful. So towed to a local repair shop, I find out the next day my whole clutch assembly needs replacing. Well, the car is really old ('98) and has had no repairs for over a year, so I'm not complaining. But it really screwed me up. Now I can't leave, or do much of anything on a day off. So when I find out Friday afternoon it won't be ready until sometime Saturday, I go into overdrive and prepare to have a yard sale.

I've meant to do this all year, but I hate to not go about looking for treasures (and rarely finding any! ). So I decided to make the best of the situation and get my things ready Friday. Saturday came and I sold alot (and I mean alot) of my CVS/Rite Aid/Walgreens stockpiles (along with some other junk I wanted to see gone as well!). Probably 2/3 of the sales were the stockpiles, but I really wanted those gone too. Turned out my take for Saturday was about 40% of the repair bill, soooo... be happy for small favors I guess.

On other items....

Physical Therapy is almost over. Its made a major impact, I'm probably 90% back to what it was before the problems. Now its much more exercise and less stretching and twisting the shoulder. The therapist loves how I put more effort into it than just about anyone she's ever worked with. I work so hard I have to change shirts part way through as the first one is soaked. Two more weeks, and then a doctor's eval, which will probably be the end of it. With only paying co-pays, this has definitely been worth it.

The semi-long distance trip this weekend showed what I can do when I don't push the car. I tried to keep it at 55 (most of the time!) Instead of my usual 38-39 MPG, this time at my fill up, the MPG came in at 42.3. Not bad for a 12 year old, 190K mile car. Nothing special, just a plain hatchback.

My experiement with using almond milk is still going well. The stuff lasts a long time, so I don't have to freeze the milk to make it last, and with coupons the price is about the same as buying 1/2 gallons of regular milk. And it actually blends better with the 100% whey protein mix I have been drinking to help with my after workout recovery. So I am giving it a thumbs up.

I think I got my lowest electric bill ever this past month. While this time of year I usually have a very low bill (it would have been $22+) my utility had a rate case and had to rebate some money based on usage for the past 6 months. So my bill when I opened it was.... $5.00. Exactly. At first I thought this was some type of request for a supplemental payment, but nope, its this month's bill. I know this summer the bills will approach $100, but still its nice for one month.

That's all for today - stay cool.

In a minor burst of doing something I should have done a year ago, I placed two items on Craigslist this past week. Nothing major (a Tonka toy and a grinding machine). The toy took up space, and really wasn't that great, and the grinder was now a duplicate, as I inherited a bigger one. The nice part is while I got a total of $11 for the pair, I paid $8 for them at yard sales 2-3 years ago. I really love getting money to temporarily own items. I really need to list more items for sale (hint to myself).

=== Other thoughts in my life ===

Yard sales were abysmal today - only bought two sweaters for my grandmother. Thankfully my pickups the past two weeks were above average.

Shoulder therapy is coming along. While not perfect, I barely ever think about babying the shoulder any more, it feels so good. Of course right after therapy it feels awful, but that goes away in a few hours.

Oh, lets not get into the stock market. I suppose it will be good in the long run that prices dropped so much now, but it doesn't make me feel better in the short term. This is why day trading wouldn't appeal to me.

Oh, and finally, I'm one month closer to my true independence day - the day I don't have a mortgage and even the oh-so-minor concern that "a job loss could cause me problems" will be gone. (BTW, its currently scheduled for July 2012) While barely having enough in CDs and savings to match what I owe on the mortgage, I really don't have the "just what mortgage worry are you talking about?" feeling yet. By the end of this year I think it will start to kick in though.

It was a year (or maybe two) ago I wrote how going to yard sales can give a very interesting view on how some people fritted away money left and right on erm... c!&p, and now don't have money for basic needs like utilities, or even housing. Of course this was while I was visiting with relatives living "in the countryside" as I like to call it.

Quite possibly (make that probably) in the past year I have come across people moving out of the area I live in due to financial issues as well. But yesterday I came across one, that while they didn't say it directly, must have blown some serious wads of cash, and now had nothing but bills to show for it. It was late in the morning, so I probably missed some interesting items, but lets see - what did they have?
* Padded chair with speakers built in
* Some really expensive looking furniture
* Brand new wrought iron curtain rods and unopned very nice curtains (these are what I bought and installed in my kitchen)
* Some type of mini electric arcade (like you would find at Brookstone - are they still in business?)
* Fancy glassware
* Nice dresses
* Lots more high end bric-a-brac.
* Nice jukebox
* And last but not least - *TWO* cars sitting on the front lawn for sale. Both very high end cars, one some type of sports car, the other I think was a new BMW of some type. New fancy rims, new tires, nice and shiny. They wanted $35,000 for each one. Whew!

And the house, for this area anyway, would probably sell for $750,000 now (make that well over a million a year or two ago).

While I was looking someone that was helping this woman sell things commented "Well its not like you're going to have room for these things when you move into your condo." Yikes. While condos can be extra nice around here, most of them are just glorified apartments. Just keep the money spent on the junk I saw (and buy one reasonable used car instead of the two there) and I swear you would have enough money to pay a couple *YEARS* of mortgage payments, even on a house that size. I guess they thought the good times would never end. She even talked like she was well educated, but obviously some common sense was seriously lacking.

Quite often when I try to enourage myself to do the "right" thing (financially anyway) I try to look at the finances from a different point of view. Which is sorta what I am doing when I answer the question in this post's title.

As I have paid my mortgage down, I have looked at how much of each month's payment goes toward interest, as the remaining amount goes back to me as it ups my "equity" ownership of the house. I am now at the point where the monthly interest is only $180, or just $6 per day. Of course there are other bills on the house (utilities, insurance, taxes). Those I estimate are monthly $75, $50, and $250. That totals $375, then add in the $180 and I get about $550, or about $18 / day. That's certainly better than renting a small apartment where I would pay at least $1,000 a month (around here anyway). Its just a different way of looking at how the extra payments on my mortgage help accelerate my payoff, and it makes the extra payments feel more worthwhile.

Now for extra items (if you're up for a long read)...

Physical therapy is going fine. Extra painful during the sessions, as my yelling out in pain at times can attest. Only two weeks in, and my range of motion is almost back to where it should be (ok, in some directions that's true, others I still have a ways to go).

Oooh, I just put in the last $2,000 for my 2010 Roth IRA. Its now maxed for this year (before May no less!). Not sure what I will put that money into, but I have an idea. Now I need to roll over an old 401k into a Roth, and I will be cooking.

In my efforts to eat better, and still eat cheap, I have started to use almond and soy milk in place of the skim milk I have used for years. Regular milk seems to go bad fast, too fast for me as I live alone and don't use it much. The other types of milk last much much longer. But these milks seem thicker to me, so I have been diluting them with water, maybe 25-33%, which tastes better, and brings the price down close to real milk. And with it not spoiling so fast, it may be just as cheap now. Something to consider.

At least thats the pronosis going forward for me as far as I can tell. I had an X-Ray and MRI of my shoulder that has gotten terrible in the past few months, and at today's doctor appt. I figured I would hear that the rotator cuff was a mess and surgery was needed. Nope, a very minor tear, but the big issue is extreme inflamation and capsulitis. So no surgery (which is good), but a long bout with physical therapy (good I suppose, but painful). Now I need to find a therapist close to work or home, and start into the cult of pain.

I need to keep telling myself "No surgery = good prognosis", other wise I'll probably go crazy.

Not sure if everyone knows this or not... but with all the changes coming in the next few years due to the health care overhaul, one thing that is going to look less appealing are Flexible Spending Accounts. I used to put in a certain amount, knowing that if needed I could spend on many over the counter items and stockpile if needed. Well this year is the last for that. Coming next year, most (or is it all?) OTC items will NOT be eligible for flexible spending. I'm not really complaining, I was surprised a few years ago when they expanded the elibility to include OTC items, so I'm just dissapointed now. With everything else going on with healthcare, costs are supposed to go down overall. I hope so, but we'll see. I'm betting my costs will go up, though not horribly. (Actually I'm fairly sure it will go up, since now I will have to pay taxes on my health insurance premiums - now this sucks!)

I've been watching for many months now my retirement accounts refill after last year's free fall. I never lost faith in the accounts, though I was surprised at how quick everything bounced back. With my plan to supersize my early year retirement account deposits (which I started in 2008), last year was a super year for my accounts (I deposited a lot early in 2009 when prices were at their lowest). My retirement sites show my "Personal Performance" for last year at over 50%. Oh, if only I could do that every year! (Can you imagine? You would only have to work a few years, then retire on your earnings. That would be crazy.)

The accelerated pay-down of my mortgage continues. I put in an extra $325/mo., and with the current payments already 80% principle, the end is in sight. The accelerated payoff date is currently mid 2012. I suspect if my finances are pumped up enough, I will probably just pay it off totally late 2011 / early 2012 and look at the payoff money like a short term CD earning the mortgage rate.

The Roth IRA is over half funded for 2010. When my 2009 tax refund arrives (any day now?) I will probably put the last $2K in. The refund is way more than I meant for it to be (I was aiming for a $0 refund), but due to the timing of my end of year paycheck I put much more into taxes for 2009 than I intended. Oh well, the overpayment was at year end, so its not like I gave the free loan to the government for all the year.

Finally - sorry for the rambling - this was more of a train of thought post. This is what happens when you write up something late at night.

Gambling is just one of those things I never saw the fun in. I guess its from my math background, I just know that its just a fancy way to throw away your hard earned money. A lottery isn't so bad, at least you are told up front what the odds are. But casinos are ... well... not my cup of tea, to put it mildly.

Anyway, if you feel like I do, here is the perfect comic strip to show those that think going to a casino is a great way to spend some time. You need to select Saturday March 20 to view it, and it will probably be there for only 10 days, so don't wait...

Pearls Before Swine

Just a quick note from something I was pointed to online. Here is a link to a bank that doesn't want money. Seriously. If you withdraw money from your account (which by the way is earning 0%) and its a large enough amount of money, they'll pay you to just go away. Now that is just crazy.

Here it is

A person's discussion here on their water and trash rates got me to check my last 12 months of trying to live with minimal utilities. OK, maybe it was a little extreme keeping the house just below 60 this winter, but it was me testing how I could live with minimal usage.

Anyway, here are the results for the last 12 months of bills:
Trash: $0 (I compost & recycle, and usually end up with at most two grocery bags full of trash a month which I can take to a friend's house about once a month)
Water & sewage: $61.79 I shower at work in the gym as well as work out there which really helps (the gym cost $100 last year). If I read the bills right, my usage was around 500 gallons last year. And over half the bill was just fixed service charges, little of the bill was for the actual water.
Electricity: $451.54 (Considering my dividends from stock in that same company was just over $200 last year, that's pretty good!)
Natural Gas: $563.68 I use this for heat, heating water, and the stove.

Grand total of $1,076.92 (or about $90 per month)

Although I've mentioned them before, how do I keep the costs low?

Insulate everywhere you can. I did that the first year I bought the house.
I hand wash dishes twice a week. As I live by myself, this isn't as bad as it sounds. It ususally takes two or three gallons to do all my dishes.
I try to use the stove in the winter, microwave in the summer. That way I add heat to the house when it benefits me.
No clothes dryer. I use a large drying rack, as well as a special sock hanger.
The aforementioned showering at the gym at work. By doing this I not only use less water at home, but I can keep the water heater at very low temps during the week. And showering instead of a bath uses less water as well.
Installed new windows in the home. Doing it myself cost maybe 1/3 of the cost of having someone come in and do it. These were not cheap windows, but good low-E, double pane windows.
No central AC, I use only window AC units where I need to be cool. Last summer my largest electric bill was just under $50. The AC in the bedroom works like white noise, helping me go to sleep. I use fans in the rest of the house to make it liveable.

I'm not sure how long I can keep low rate of utility usage, but as long as I can, the money will go to buying more DRIPs, which means more financial independence for me.