I’ve Paid For This Twice Already…

Archive for the ‘M-Network’ Category

The furnace hasn’t misbehaved since that second time, but still, we can’t trust that it will fire on when needed and fire off appropriately. This wouldn’t be as much of an issue if it was just the “heat” relay, but it seems that when the furnace gets stuck “on”, it won’t respond to anything until it decides to turn off. The second night it mysteriously turned on, we couldn’t get the a/c or the heat to come on at all, just the blower ran (and wouldn’t turn off). Once the blower turned off, then everything went back to responding as normal (including the blower). Odd. The last thing I need is for the a/c to be stuck on for days at a time. Hello, electric bill.

The good news is, we found the estimate that our service company did for the previous owners 4 years ago among the other house paperwork they left for us. The nice thing about that is not only do we have some idea of the price (although we are sure it has gone up) but also, we found out a furnace similar to ones we’ve been looking at online the past few days would be at 38% improvement in efficiency over the one we have now. Whoa. That rules. 38% improvement. Considering that, the furnace upgrade will pay for itself in less than 10 years based on our natural gas bills last year.

Not that I am looking forward to spending $4000-$5000 right this second, but we have a plan, a FIRM budget, a way to pay for it all (including some incredibly fortuitous timing as far as paychecks and stimulus payments) and it will be okay. We’ve got three different companies scheduled for next week to come give us estimates on the cost and show us different options as far as models. Now if it just wasn’t going to SNOW tonight I would be pretty mellow about the whole thing. April isn’t a bad time for a furnace to break down, all things considered.

On to the link love! My in-laws are visiting this week, so I haven’t had a chance to completely keep up with my reader, but here are some articles I browsed through this morning:

• My Two Dollars: Rules To Follow In Times Of Inflation. This kind of freaks me out. I’m supposed to keep debt and not save? Well, of course not completely, but I’m still confused.
• Plonkee Money: 21 Resources for Budget Travel. I want to travel, and I want to do it on a shoestring. Here are some idea how.
• Mrs. Micah: Learning To Love Water, the Frugal and Healthy Beverage. I actually have a very similar story. I used to drink gallons of milk. Now I drink a lot of water.
• Single Guy Money: When a Second Job is Not a Good Idea. This would be like me working at a scrapbook store! However, hmm. Maybe a job at a scrapbook store would be a good idea… I could generate a new income stream and get more stuff… oh, wait.
• Being Frugal: What Do You Make From Scratch? I used to make jam from scratch all the time, I really need to get into that again and paid it with homemade bread… yum.
• Cash Money Life: Do You Really Need a New Computer? Frugal Tips to Extend Your Computer’s Life. Adding more RAM to our computers and my parents iMac really extended all of their lives. I am a huge fan of RAM now. Although my computer is maxed out and starting to slow… bah.
• Gather Little By Little: The Secrets Credit Card Companies Don’t Want You To Know. Yikes. My brain now hurts.
• Moolanomy: 25 Ways to Save Money on Healthcare. Especially with health issues potentially looming, saving money in this arena is important for us. You might find a tip too!
• The Dough Roller: Home Equity Line of Credit May Evaporate in an Emergency. And here is why I refuse to even remember I have equity.
• No Credit Needed: Debt Reduction Guide: Getting Started. NCN has started a great new series of how to get out of debt - check it out!
• Blueprint for Financial Prosperity: My Best Financial Moves In College. Jim was an enterprising young man. I have to answer this meme too and I still haven’t come up with anything, but Jim was a bright guy.

Well, I am neglecting my visitors so I should return to being sociable! Have a wonderful Sunday!

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This week, I started a Carnival of Snowflakes.  The first edition will go live at Snowflake Revolution on Thursday, and is designed to highlight great snowflaking-related articles from the past few weeks.  Submissions must be directly related to and mention the snowflaking concept, but are certainly not limited to debt reduction in the least.   I’m looking forward to a fun carnival on Thursday!

In my “other” life, offline, I am a taekwondo instructor, and this week, that part of my life somewhat took over.  My head instructor hosted a tournament here yesterday and I have spent the majority of the past few days completely immersed in helping with that.  Besides being part of the host schools, I also am on the tournament staff for our region, so I had many hats to wear this past week.  So I really didn’t get a chance to read much of my feed reader at all and have a lot of great blog posts to catch up on this week!  I did want to mention a few articles that caught my eye this morning while I was starting to catch up:

• Plonkee Money:  Supercharging the Debt Snowball.  Plonkee explains how moving money can make the smallest balance also the highest interest.  I did a bit of this when I moved my credit card debt to a 0% interest card, but nowhere near the amount explained here.
• Mrs Micah:  How Micah Sent Me Roses In Italy For $30.  Awww.  New love is cute. 
• Single Guy Money:  Setting Up A Special Savings Account.  SGM is saving up in a special account for a few purchases - he’s using ING like my spouse does for his Playstation account.

Have a great Sunday and if you are having nice weather, take advantage of it!

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On the greener topic, I came across this post on Wisebread yesterday:

• Walmart Celebrates Its Own Green Efforts With Free Reusable Shopping Bags. Maybe the checkout people would be nicer about using their own reusables versus the ones I bring in - they’re always cranky when I ask them to use mine. I will be snagging one of these free to try it out! I need another reusable anyway, I am about 2 short on a normal shopping trip.

And here are some posts I really liked from the M-Network and beyond this week:

Plonkee Money: Giving and the Gift Economy - I want to win a game show too

My Two Dollars: How We Managed to Survive After I Left My Corporate Job - and I am glad because I like his blog!

Mrs. Micah: What is Wrong With Being Middle Class? - I aspire just to be comfortably middle class.

Being Frugal: Getting Back on Track - I’ve felt like this a lot. Especially during the car repair.

Gather Little By Little: 10 Things To Not Do During An Interview - I never even thought of some of these things!

Mighty Bargain Hunter: Watch Unit Prices At The Grocery Store - peanut butter is like this for us, the small jar is cheaper per ounce than the large one.

Quest for Four Pillars: Cross-Border Shopping - lesson here: do not buy liquor and try to bring it cross-border.

Remodeling This Life: Snowflake Your Way To A Better Self - snowflaking can be applied to so many things!

Sense To Save: This Is What Our Debt Looks Like - I don’t have enough monopoly money to illustrate our debt… but I love the idea. Maybe that is my new goal…

Must now go count more monopoly money… have a pleasant Sunday morning!

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My birthday was nice and mellow - I got two gift cards to Hobby Lobby totaling $35 to buy scrapbook supplies, and since they were having a 50% off sale yesterday on most scrapbooking merchandise I went there to use the gift cards right away. The albums I usually buy were excluded from the sale (of course) so I went with a different brand of album and bought two, plus extra inserts and a pack of paper, all for $34.93. I don’t think I’ll be using the 7 cents left on my gift card and I was pleased to get so close to my target spending without going over at all.

Also on my birthday, Free Money Finance started the Final Four Round of the Personal Finance March Madness. My Snowflaking: A Primer post is against a great post from Brip Blap, and if you’d like to cast your vote for the finalists, make sure to click on over today! I appreciate all the votes thus far!

And as a pre-birthday anti-present, my team in the NCAA Men’s basketball tournament was totally destroyed by Memphis in the sweet sixteen round. There’s always next year Spartans!

On that note, here are some of the posts from the M-Network and beyond I really enjoyed this past week:

• Gather Little By Little: Gazelle Intensity - How Fast Is it?
  • Gazelles go in spurts but are always watchful. Here’s one perspective on how their gazelle intensity works.
• My Two Dollars: A Simpler Way to Budget
  • This is a guest post from Four Pillars and I really enjoyed it and the perspective on budgeting. Although I am too much of a nitpicker and analyzer to let it work for me right now.
• The Dough Roller: Here’s the Real Deal on Dave Ramsey and Debt
  • I don’t know that I agreed with all of it but it certainly gave me loads to think about.
• Being Frugal: Tightwad Tuesday - More Homemade Cleaners
  • I love the idea of homemade cleaners, but don’t use enough of them. There are a few here I am going to try, specifically the dishwasher soap.
• Blueprint for Financial Prosperity: Harness the Power of Impulse Saving
  • This is a really nice idea and relates to my paying twice for impulse purchases, in a saving kind of way. But with dice! I am a nerd, I want a 20 sided die…
• All Financial Matters: An Interesting Piece on Target
  • Are Target and Walmart practically the same? Why does Target seem so much nicer?
• No Credit Needed: Moving Debt Is Not the Same as Paying It Off.
  • Indeed. I didn’t consider my credit cards paid off until the one I moved the balance to was done.
• My Dollar Plan: Analyzing Our Energy Use
  • I wish my utility companies had these awesome tools!
• Antishay Ventenne: More on Quality vs Cheap
  • Some more thoughts about what is worth the money to spend and what is not, for her, and ways to think about the difference.
• The Simple Dollar: An Ode to the Inexpensive Bean.
  • I love beans. And they are so cheap! These are some ways to use them. Don’t use the math in the post - it is in the end correct but presented incorrectly, but still beans are very cheap.
• Frugal in the Fruitlands: The Mystery Cash Box and the Sunken Cost Fallacy
  • This happens to me too, which is why I generally try to not take cash out at all unless I have to. Half price drinks at Sonic anyone, with the change? Argh. This post is great!
• Advanced Personal Finance: Did Stocks Return 0% Over the Past 9 Years?
  • The answer is yes, and no, depending on how you look at it, and made my head hurt at first but then I decided it was okay. I’m a nervous investor as it is.
• This Wasn’t In The Plan: The Raise
  • I tend to do this too, even when I say I won’t, I upwardly adjust to use new money coming in and don’t end up saving it - until I started really focusing on debt reduction. My spouse may get a raise at the beginning of May, and we’ll see if I can buck the trend and devote it all to our debt reduction goals.
• Are You Going To Be This Way…: Shrinking Package Sizes Screw Up My Recipes
  • I am a more off-the-cuff cook so I hadn’t noticed but - argh! Now I am irritated. Less food for the same money. Bah.
• Clever Dude: I’ll Refund That For You This Time
  • This makes me mad! I hate when companies try and take advantage. And after I rented from Enterprise and they gave me a car that the brake lights and blinkers didn’t work - I’m not too fond of them anyway.

And in the PaidTwice Rewind: I’m not a gazelle, I’m a cheetah. Although a few Ramsey fans got riled up by the idea, I stand by my thoughts that I tend to be a straight line kind of gal, for better or worse. My prey isn’t people though, it is that debt I keep chasing.

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Happy Easter everyone! This will be a more abbreviated link love edition so you can get back to enjoying the holiday with your loved ones if you celebrate it, or just enjoying Sunday.

First off, my Snowflaking post is in the elite eight of March Madness right now, against a great thoughtful post from Single Guy Money, and it is currently losing by a vote! If anyone wants to pop over and vote for the snowflaking in the comments, I would appreciate it! Thanks again for the support thus far, and if I win in this round, my charity, the Make A Wish Foundation, is guaranteed at least $100. Yay!

With that, here are some posts chosen as great this week:

• No Credit Needed: 5 Ways to Teach Your Children About Money
  • I loved this and bookmarked it to use with my kids!
• Blueprint For Financial Prosperity: Your Take - Pay for Academic Performance for Children
  • Did you get paid for A’s? Will/Do you kids?
• Mommy Gets Paid: Snowflaking the Mortgage
  • An unexpected tax return leads to mucho snowflaking! Read the process.
• We’re In Debt: A Few of Our Credit Missteps
  • I’ve made more of these than I’d like to admit…
• Credit Withdrawal: Newest Subprime Victims: Renters
  • When landlords feel the crunch, renters can be a casuality
• Single Guy Money: How To Buy a Reliable Used Car
  • Want to buy used but afraid of the lemon? Read how here!
• Moolanomy: Seven Key Factors to Build Alternative Income Streams
  • Diversify your income just like you do your portfolio
• Being Frugal: There’s No Shame in Renting
  • A response to the guest post here, Lynnae talks about why renting is right for her, and could be for you.
• Gather Little By Little: Finding a Budget That Works
  • A budget is a process and Gibble shares his with tips along the way for anyone searching
• Quest for Four Pillars: Vanity Scams
  • These scams prey upon our vanity… think impossible beauty product
• Remodeling This Life: 10 Things To Eliminate From Your Life Today
  • 10 things to let go of and make your life happier and more serene
• Mrs. Micah: Yoga Hack: Fitness Improvement
  • Mrs M combines her skills and passion and comes up with a program that works for her
• My Dollar Plan: UPromise Rewards - Free Money
  • UPromise hasn’t done much for me but maybe you can earn some free money!
• DebtFREE-Revolution: Idiot’s Guide- Stagflation for Dummies
  • A nice explanation of a concept I’d never even heard of before a few weeks ago, and hopefully we are not headed towards
• Prime Time Money: Millionaires in the Making
  • A profile of a couple working towards being milllionaires, their finances are similar to ours, except they have a 10 year head start…

Enjoy your weekend and have a mellow holiday!

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