Single Guy High Impact Saving

Previously in Ham Wars, (which can be read about

here - near the bottom) I was able to pick up a great spiral ham for $5, as well as another picked up by my girlfriend. That ham was great for me, feeding my lunches (and some breakfasts and dinners) for at least 2 months. That was a great hit.

In episode 2 today I was at Aldi's picking up some items for a visit by the girlfriend this weekend, and there were the same hams again. I had seen them discounted for the last 2 weeks. Well now they were getting close to the day they needed to sell them, so I guess (maybe today?) they lowered the price to $5. So I decided to pick up one again and enjoy ham for another 2 months. Then things got wild. After waiting in a 15 minute line I got to watch the checker check me out. The ham she had to manually price into the register. I saw her put in a value that wasn't $5 (lots more). As I pointed it out, she said something about $5. I assumed she was saying the full price was put in, and she was putting in a negative of the price (less the $5), so I didn't question it.

After bagging the items I check the receipt, and sure enough I was charged way too much for the ham (she took $5 off instead). Not to take this sitting down, I put the food in the car, and returned to the store to verify the price (I was right), so I went to another checker (who happened to be the manager). At first he tried to tell me the ham was selling for $5/lb (what???) and after I pointed out that was crazy, he said would check it (once he emptied out the line). After waiting a few more minutes he saw I was right.

After all of this I was expecting my overpayment back. Not quite. Instead he gave me the full price I paid back and said "enjoy your ham". OK, the price for the ham now dropped to $0. Oh yeah - "Triple word score" for me . (BTW, is it an Aldi's policy to give you the item when incorrect prices are charged?) More free food - I can dig it.

Last year (in April) I had the mystery bill from a local hospital I never went to (and posted about it

here) and then I had to fight with them to get them to submit the correct type of procedure they did to the my insurance. All the time I was getting bills saying I had to pay or they would report this to the credit bureaus and send this to a collection agency (basically threatening me).

Once they filed it properly my insurance had me pay a co-payment, which made no sense as it was part of the procedure done at a doctor's office. At that point I didn't care any more and paid it, happy to let it go. Now just two weeks ago I get a letter from the insurance saying I shouldn't have been required to make a copayment and they went and paid the hospital my $25 copayment.

Of course the hospital didn't send any reimbursement of the copayment. I knew that would happen, so again another call to the hospital this Wednesday where I get "Oh, you'd like the money back? Sure we can do that." however, what goes through my mind is to say "No, actually I like paying extra, don't you?" GRRRR.... I just say "yes", and leave it at that.

Funny how their systems work great one way and not the other. Ugh. Oh well, I guess I should be happy about the extra money.

Well ... the end of my debts arrives tomorrow. Admittedly I've had enough free cash to pay it off for a few months now, but tomorrow its official - my last outstanding debt balance goes buh-bye. My free cash has been dropping slowly the past few months as I've paid this off before the 0% promotion runs out, but next month its going to start building back up. Debt burning par-tay anyone?

On other financial news and notes, this past month I went and swapped my homeowner's insurance. The difference was amazing, the change saved me 50% with no change in coverage. They had been raising the rate the last few years, but I had enough this go-around. I guess they figure people don't want to change, so they up it whenever you renew. Ugh.

I have here a letter from Bank of America for one of my (many) credit cards. Apparently they felt that sending me all of these "offers" where they send "courtesy" checks wasn't enough. Now they sent a four page letter where they itemize every single offer previously sent, each listing the promotion codes, start and end dates, and APRs involved before and after the end dates. I guess my cutting up these checks and burning them wasn't good enough to indicate my feelings about them. Oh, and how many offers do they show? Try 17. Hey guys - here's a thought - if you're not making enough money on me, how about stop wasting your money on these mailings. No wonder these banks aren't making money - .

Oh, and lastly - yard sales are starting up. I didn't get much for me last weekend. A pair of sneakers that once I steam cleaned at home look like new was my main purchase at $2 - Amazon has them for $50. I did make a better score for the girlfriend. She asked about finding a reel mower a few weeks back. I found one used once (yes it was dusty and looks brand new) for $20 - Amazon price is $140 - so she's a happy camper now.

Enjoy the summer (once this cold front moves out of the area!)

On the way home tonight I realized its now been over a year using the Magicjack for my phone service, saving me a little over $200 for the past year on phone charges. The last time I made that type of an ongoing savings (dropping my unneeded trash pickup a number of years ago...) I decided I needed to start investing the saved money.

Now with the phone savings, I decided its time to add it to the trash pickup savings. Tonight I've changed my monthly DRIP amount to account for the phone savings. It will now be titled the Phone-Trash DRIP account (aka, the PTDRIP). With this extra money, it should start growing at a nice clip.

Also a few days ago I got to see my 457 plan amount cross the $200k barrier, though now its dropped down below it again.

And finally, this is it - the month will be the last payment to wipe out the credit card balance that was used for the car purchase. When that's done, no more debts, unofficial or otherwise.

Now its time to go celebrate, or at least check out this week's yard sales.

This might sound like a silly question, but it is what came to mind as I drove about one night a few weeks ago. Once you have your home paid for, as well as having a decent amount of retirement savings, (and assuming you're single) then - at least for me - the urgency of working just seems to go to the wayside.

Now I spend more time looking at what I am working on and thinking about how much sense this makes (or often *doesn't), instead of just doing the work. And often it feels like I am there for just the paycheck (which is true - well that plus the health insurance).

So far this year I have gotten a combination of statement credits, bonuses, and gift cards (from credit card sign ups, brokerage sign ups, and banking sign ups) of a little over $1,000. Add to that ebay profits of about $250 to this point. When I compare that to my recurring expenses (house gas, electric, water, phone, internet, food, car gas) of about $800 so far - my bonuses are paying for all my basic expenses. The ongoing expenses the bonuses haven't covered are insurance (car & home), property taxes. If I stopped working I could cut the car insurance down by 1/3, as well 1/3 of my current gas bill - saving maybe $100 / mo. The only thing the above doesn't cover is health insurance that is mostly paid by my employer. OK, it would be a spartan life (just living off freebie bonuses), and I'm not going to go that route, but I'm just saying it could be done. It makes 'ya wonder.

If I could get my insurance free or cheap.... then I would really have to start asking myself just why am I working. I don't know... I know I have expenses coming up (replace floor in house, cut down a tree or two, replace driveway, maybe even replace the furnace), but once those are paid... its going to be hard to justify to myself why I go to work some days. I think for now the structure of getting up every day, and working out at lunch time is something I need, but long term I may start questioning this rationale.

I still have $100 in unused gift certificates and $125 in unused CC statement credits, and at the rate I am buying things (about $0 outside of the grocery store) this could take a while to burn off.

*** Random thought ***

I got a CC statement from CITI (I've since stopped using it since I did enough for my latest $100 bonus) and on the payment coupon it has the credit card showing in the format "****-***-9999". It shows they are concious of security, right??? Well right above it on the coupon is a long line of numbers used to scan the coupon in by their computer - and in the middle is the complete CC number. They call this security???? I am not surprised they needed gov't money to stay afloat if this is their idea of security (what idiots). Oh well, I've already made $200 from them this winter, perhaps they'll be kind enough to send me another offer.

Living life for no expense would be great, but sure, its just fantasy, at least for most people. Still, in the past week I've gotten freebees of all types. (A non-coordinated list follows - you've been warned!)

I think it started last week when I was going to pick up some almond milk at BJ's. I waited in the dark parking lot for 5 minutes while I listened to the end of a "Marketplace" daily show. No one came or went the whole time. Then I went out to get a cart, and there I found a lonely (and big!) bag of munster cheese. Obviously no one was coming for it (after 5 minutes no one had shown up), so I added it to my almond milk purchase for the trip home.

Then this weekend with my girlfriend visiting, she got the urge to keep searching the "Free" listings on Craigslist (I don't usually bother), and she found one about 4 miles away that was a "stop by and take anything" listing. Normally I wouldn't bother, but I knew she would enjoy the trip, so away we went. Arriving we found that someone was remodeling a house, and the stuff they were pulling out was really junk. .... Oh, wait a minute, there is some tupperware, including a few peices she was looking for. Then I spotted an old dirty Barbie doll case. Then a matching original 1961 doll box with fabulous graphics. Then a rusty lunch box I knew was worth good money when in decent shape - hmmm... would it sell for anything? After we arrived home we found inside the doll case: 2 original dolls, over a dozen original clothes, and some accessories. She had a blast cleaning the dolls up, and we listed them Monday. Hard to say how much they'll go for, but the total minimum bids are over $50, and we tried to price them low so they should sell. Oh, and the lunch box has multiple bids already.

My girlfriend had been talking about buying flowering bulbs for the house where she lives, so I told her not to spend money on that, she can take them from my yard (as I have some I don't want). I provided perfect plant containers for them (they were left from the prior owner), and we spent some time out on a warm day digging up ones I didn't want. She loved them, and they're now waiting to be planted at her house.

Now tonight I was able to get free furnace filters on Freecycle. They match my furnace's size, and are much better than the ones I have (these are HEPA type filters). After stopping to get the filters I decided to go to a store that had soda on sale (last day!). (BTW - yes, I only bought diet soda.) On the way out to my car there is a new bottle of vegtable oil on the road in front of the store that cars are going around and no one wants to pick up. No sense in having a (vegetable) oil slick, so I take it. I find its perfect and brand name too.

Even buying things in stores has been good. We went to pick up my latest glasses purchase (used free gift cards and will be reimbursed from my flexible spending account). Afterwards we decided to go to the mall next door (though we didn't plan on spending any money). There I found the 2012 art calendar I usually buy every year (but didn't find at all this year). It normally goes for $15, here I find it for $1. Super score.

On the way home we stop at Aldi's one or two things. What do you know - they have large spiral sliced hams for $5 (jackpot). We ended up getting two, one for each of us, each one over 10 lbs. We cooked mine, and now I have meat to last me for weeks. Not free, but a dang good price.

Oh, and lastly I stopped over at M&T bank and made my initial deposit so I can get a free $100.

Yep, free is nice - I hope I can keep this streak up.

After my very good and professional dealings with Scottrade I figured other stock trading companies would have similar (if not same) abilities and professional web sites. So when I went to setup a brokerage account, I decided to "play the field" and check out other companies, as it wouldn't make a big difference, right? Sheesh, have I found out wrong.

** Rant follows **

It all started a month ago when I signed up with Sharebuilder to take advantage of their sign up bonus. That worked like a charm, money went in, the web site showed the funds, and then showed the bonus money. Then I found out their "$4 trades" (originally a big selling point with me) are ... ummm... like what one poster said... "like a weekly blue light special available for a short time". Otherwise you pay more for your trade than you do with brokers that have manned offices. Not very impressive.

Next I find out they have bonus codes for free trades (of the cheapo variety). OK, I can live with that. I put in the codes, and sure enough, I get emails stating all of these free trades my account has accumulated (about a dozen). So what to do? Lets make a trade or two...

Or so I thought. I go onto the site, log in, and no where are the free trades listed. So thinking they show up automatically when you order, I go to setup a trade. When I get to the point where the final cost is listed, there is nothing about free trades, just their $10 charge. Here I cancel the order, and do some research. I look about the site more, and find absolutely nothing.

OK, well lets see... ok, there is a big help FAQ section. OK, nothing related to my issue (big shock there), but there is a place to write with your questions. So I write there, asking where I can determine my free trade balance, and... for good measure I copy along one of the emails from them indicating my account number along with the free trades I should have.

Today I get a email with a canned message cheerily directing me to the place to find this information listed. I was pretty sure I checked there, but I go again. Yep, they didn't bother to check, and there is still nothing showing right where they said it would show.

OK, so now I need to decide....

Either I go with company that has a web site that misses things, they only have canned help, and the trades are expensive

-- OR --

Start over with a company that has a site that has worked great with my Roth IRAs for years that shows up to the second balances, they have people (locally!) I can talk to for help (only happened twice), and less expensive trades.

I don't know... this could be a hard decision. (OK, maybe not :P) BTW, I should be able to get the money out no problem, so I'm not sweating this, but they have pretty much lost a customer with this fiasco.

So often I read how people want to declutter and how good it is to do that, and lord knows I'm no different. I shan't go into the details, other than to say that ebay and craigslist are my friends. Extra space and extra money to invest (or spend on hobbies), who can complain about that?

Anyway, I have decided to see how much I can "earn" this year from credit card (and savings account) sign up bonuses. The decluttering comes in as I need to start to kill off some unused credit cards so I have more "need" for credit. Once your credit lines grow large they start to stop giving you new cards (boooo). While I got a new credit card this week (as listed below) I was told I was nearing a limit on what they would give on the credit cards, so I need to start pruning back my collection.

In the past four months I have gotten 50,000 miles for signing up for a Southwest Airlines card (good for $500 in gift cards), $100 bonus from Capital One (arrived today in the mail), $100 balance credit from Citi (fullfilled that by buying Exxon gift cards that gave me bonus gift cards!), and now I just signed up for another Citi credit card with another $100 sign up bonus. Now if I can trim off some unused CCs (especially from Chase), maybe I can get another bonus or two in the next few months.

And locally I can get a $100 bonus for signing up for a checking account at a regional bank (hmmm... I see myself visiting the local branch this Saturday). Keep a $500 balance for 3 months - yeah I think I can do that.

OK, that gives me $900 in less than half a year, I need to see if I can keep it going.

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!