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A Good Day

August 24th, 2010 at 11:36 pm

Today was a good day on the money front.

- Had a dentist appointment and everything checked out clean so no expensive dental bill
- Turned in our bottles and cans and got $3.36. Pretty good haul for only about a month.
- Talked with my insurance agent and sent her information about LoJack on our car. I'm expecting a refund on our premium.
- Got a free credit score from myFico.com for following them on Twitter.
- When DH gets home we will apply to increase our credit limit so we can reduce our credit utilization

The only negative thing today was having to pay the AAA renewal. Seems like there always has to be one expense.

The Power of Advertising

April 9th, 2010 at 07:28 pm

So DH and I live in a largely ad free world. We only watch TV on Hulu (one ad per break) and we mostly frequent webcomics and blogs on the internet. Usually most of our advertising is video game related.

So somehow I received a copy of [url http://www.thenest.com]The Nest Magazine[/url]. It really is a fun magazine aimed at newlywed yuppies. They are trying to aim at both husband and wife, which I think is a good goal.

So last DH comments at dinner that he was looking through the magazine. Suddenly he is talking about how much he want to buy a multipart screwdriver and Japanese saw that he was in an article. I incredulously asked him why he would need these things in our dorm-apartment! I proposed maybe when we buy a house we could get them and he actually said that he wanted them now! What for? This led us to talk about the power of product placement and advertising.

I used to frequent sites like The Knot and Martha Stewart when we were getting married. Now I'm on sites like Saving Advice and Help Me Financial. Then I wanted to make my house look amazing. Now I want to scrimp and save as much as possible. It just shows how you environment can effect your expectations for yourself.

H's Housing Conception

March 15th, 2010 at 03:19 pm

So a couple weeks ago I was talking to my Husband about when we buy a home trying to pay it off quickly. He was completely confused. He thought that the entire reason you own a home is so that you can borrow the appreciation...well I was floored. I was in such shock that I ended up spluttering about how that was a bad idea before I could finally point out that paying off a house means no housing payment.

I realized where this idea comes from though, our parents. His parents and mine have used their homes to finance business ventures, their children's college educations, and home repairs. They treat their homes like they already own it entirely as soon as they moved in.

This whole thing has me thinking about inheritance and my goal for my future children. I explained to H yesterday that I treat children as a luxury good. This stance means that I must first plan for my needs, such as retirement and housing, before I have a child. I do not want to burden my children with my debts. My greatest hope is to leave my children a payed off home, a leftover IRA, and maybe something more upon my death, not debt. Sadly I fear our parents have not followed the same philosophy. My parents say that they hope one day to leave us their beach house, but that will be impossible considering they just refinanced at the age of 60 so they could afford the payments.

Benefits of School

March 9th, 2010 at 04:04 pm

I thought I'd list some of the extra benefits offered by my school for those who might be pondering returning or those currently in school:

- Free Gym membership w/ subsidized childcare, personal training, classes, & massages
- Subsidized student housing
- Career Counseling
- Free food & coffee at various events
- Free lectures on various topics including financial planning
- Subsidized physical and mental health care (my old school had subsidized over the counter drugs)
- Free turkeys at Thanksgiving
- Sustainable Transportation benefits
- Subsidized public transportation passes
- Reduced price tickets to movies, attractions, and concerts
- Free concerts and theater productions
- Free campus shuttle to the beach
- Zip Cars and Zip Bikes for cheap rentals
- Free public banquet spaces
- Free Access to libraries around the world

Save Money: Using Your TV as a Monitor

February 25th, 2010 at 03:43 pm

Here is a money saving tech tip for people currently paying for or wanting a game system or DVR. First how hooking your TV to a computer saves you money (Only legal ways listed. Piracy is a crime):

1) Free, low commercial television is available easily online. Hulu.com, cbs.com, and tnt.com are places I regularly go to watch TV. Many of these offer HDTV as an option.

2) Netflix offers their Instant service for free with all but the lowest subscription. This includes even more TV and thousands of movies.

3) Bluray drives for computers cost half that of a standalone system.

4) Some old video games are offered for free for computers (liberatedgames.org) and programmers are constantly offering free flash games.

5) cheap video games are offered by companies such as Steam (down to $2). These are full games and the download is protected and can be transferred to a new computer.

NEXT TIME: How to Hook your Computer to Your TV