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This weekend we said a sad goodbye to our freezer  We paid $150 (plus $25 for delivery) back in May for a 17.6 cu upright freezer, which I proceeded to fill and fill with food.  Well, our freezer began to cry for help, letting us know he wasn’t happy with his over-full state by refusing to keep foods on the bottom 2 shelves cold.  I’m going to post more on the freezer we bought and why at a later point, but suffice to say, we ended up with a lighter pocketbook. (more…)

I am almost up to full time hours at my regular job.  I haven’t quite gotten into the swing of it yet, so my blogging is suffering unfortunately.  I’m hoping to get back on track and start posting here at least 5 times a week.  So, those who subscribe and visit, don’t go away!!

I’m also hoping that once I find some more time, I’ll be able to update some stuff on the blog.  I’d like to update my blogroll and include some of my favorite blogs from around the web.  I’d also like to add some counters to the sidebar to track my debt reduction (does anyone know of any good wordpress plugins that will allow me to do so? 

I love some aspects of my job (like working with the kids I tutor) and I am good at my job.  I have done a lot of tutoring in the past and I have always achieved good results.  However, I am almost at the point of quitting and looking for a new job, as a result of ever-more-annoying exchanges with my boss.  So, for those of you out there who manage employees please take a minute to read these 5 tips.  At a minimum, maybe they’ll allow you to avoid having your employees out there blogging about how much they dislike you (more…)

I got my act together this week and submitted to a few carnivals (finally!).  My article on The Financial Lessons to Be Learned From Beverly Hills 90210 was included in the Carnival of Twenty Something Finances at We Like Money.  Check it out, and while you are over there be sure to read this other post I enjoyed that has a similar (albeit more modern) theme: Six Money Lessons Learned From Entourage at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity.

The Carnival of Living Cheaply included my post detailing my efforts with once a month cooking.  

The Mighty Bargain Hunter hosted the Finance FIesta and gave an A+ to my story about why I’m glad we’ve had some financial struggles.  

The Money Hacks Carnival included Attention Coupon Haters, a post I wrote extolling the virtue and savings of coupons.  

Sound Money Matters hosted The Carnival of Personal Finance, which includes my contribution to the Frugal/Cheap Debate.  

The Psychology of Getting out of Debt was mentioned as a great post about reducing debt in the Carnival of Debt Reduction (wow, I used “debt” 3 times in 1 sentence, I hope that’s not bad luck!)

I haven’t written too much about this, because I’m trying not to pay attention/ get frustrated.  I just don’t understand how this could happen.  Were there no regulations in place?  How did the underwriters of these loans and insurance policies not see the coming disaster?  How did all these educated, wealthy, supposedly intelligent people miss the warning signs that the U.S. was approaching the brink of economic disaster?  And what does this mean for me? (more…)

I called AT&T to cancel my phone the other day because I would rather have the $56 a month to put towards debt reduction, instead of toward a phone I hardly use.  I knew for an absolute fact I had no contract with AT&T.  For one thing, I got the phone through a panel I was a member of (the IMMI panel) and so I didn’t even speak to any Cingular Reps, go through any store, click on any click-thru contracts, or anything else of the sort.  For another, I didn’t get a free phone and the only reason that those ridiculous contracts are acceptable at all is because the companies allege that they give away phones and need to be entitled to protect themselves by ensuring you will stay a customer after this initial investment they make.  (more…)

2 days late… but here it is, my breakdown of our spending and income thus far for the month of September. The grocery spending looks a little high because I’ve spent a lot of money at Walgreens lately with all the good deals.  The number is skewed because it doesn’t take into account the $30 of Register Rewards Sitting in my Wallet.  Also, I’ve decided that instead of deducting the anticipated rebates from the grocery spending (i.e. if I buy something at Walgreens that is going to give me money back next month) I will only deduct the rebates after they come.  If that happens to be in the next monthly period, then that amount will be deducted from there.  Its less confusing for me that way, although still not the clearest way of figuring out exactly how much this stuff costs me.  Does anyone else who does rebates and tracks their grocery spending have a better tip for how I should account for this?  Please leave comments if you do! (more…)

I mentioned here that I was trying out a variation on once a month cooking in which I cook extra meals each time I make something, to store in my freezer for later.  Well, the whole process has been going quite well, but I’ve decided to refine it slightly and make more of a structured plan than just cooking extra of whatever I’m already making.  (more…)

I was in the drug store the other day and there were two little kids whose mom must have given them $1 to get candy.  They were standing by the boxes comparing.  It appeared they were making a decision based on 2 properties of the candy: the taste, and the amount per box.  It seemed the older brother was explaining that they should get the Twizzlers instead of the M&M’s because they looked them almost as well but you got more in the box for your dollar.  This, to me, is the essence of frugality (and good for their parents too for instilling this in them so young!)

I finished my drug store trip and went to the dollar store.  They had a cart full of 50% off items, and one of those items was a pregnancy test.  A lady there was grabbing then by the bundle to buy.  I would think that one place that I might want to splurge would be pregnancy tests… maybe a lot of stuff from the dollar store is fine, but I think that’s a pretty important thing to bank on a .50 discount no-name test.  Maybe its just me (and no offense to those of you out there who think this is a good idea), but I thought this was the essence of cheap. 

The Soap Network is replaying Beverly Hills 90210 from the beginning! I’m very excited about this because I was too young to watch it from the beginning when it originally aired.  So, now I get to relive a whole new series of Teen Drama, complete with 80’s clothes and catch phrases (nerdbommer, anyone?).  We’re about 2 weeks in now, and there are a surprising amount of financial lessons that I’ve been able to garner from watching these spoiled teens in the famous zip code. (more…)