I’ve Paid For This Twice Already…

Archive for the ‘M-Network’ Category

One of the new things to me about being a homeowner vs being a renter is all the yardwork. We don’t have a huge yard, and we don’t have a ton of landscaping, so it is not an incredible amount of work. But sometimes we have to just reserve a day to deal with everything past the normal mowing and trimming. Today is one of those days. I didn’t schedule my normal Sunday tutoring hours so we could spend the day weeding the flowerbeds, putting in new mulch, repainting our outside doorframe, assembling and installing some solar garden lights to replace the ones from the previous owners that don’t work any longer, trimming the hedges, and other miscellaneous outdoor tasks.

With that, I hope if the weather is nice where you are you get some outdoor time! Here are some great articles I came across from the past week:

Being Frugal: Goodbye Citibank! Lynnae paid off her credit card debt! Hurrah! Now she will move on to the student loan, just like me.

Gather Little By Little: Lies, Money and Marriage: What Can You Do? How would you feel if your spouse was lying to you about money in a significant way?

Frugal Dad: Maxed Out - Old Pumps Finally Hit Limit. Poor old pumps not configured to handle a 4 in the dollars column…

Millionaire Money Habits: Is Frugal A Bad Word? I am always looking for thoughtful commentary on frugality and cheapness.

Consumerism Commentary: Sallie Mae Reporting Incorrectly to Equifax, Dropping FICO Scores. This makes me so mad. I don’t have that kind of loan with Sallie Mae but it just strengthens my resolve to get rid of them once and for all. Only about $19,500 combined to go…

Five Cent Nickel: Our Allowance System, New and Improved. I have been pondering different systems as my son turns 4 this year.

Blogging Away Debt: Finishing Up A Not-so-fun Task, Creating a Will. I was supposed to finish this already and I haven’t. Need to get on this…

Bright Side of Debt: I Have 79 Cents in My Snowflake Account. Snowflaking big, small, and inbetween - it really does work!

Richer By The Day: Can You Ever Be Debt Free? I actually ponder stuff like this a lot. Makes me want to just live completely off the grid (not that I would ever be able to manage it myself).

And in the PaidTwice Rewind, this isn’t rewinding very far, but someone commented last night and did a huge price analysis on my ArtsCow free prints offer post. Although I haven’t verified any of the math yet on the prices or shipping, I found it interesting. I did wonder if they work for ArtsCow though…

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The nice people at SmartyPig sent me a $50 gift card to give away to my readers, so I have been doing some research into SmartyPig and what they’re about. I’m working on a review of what I think about it, and when I am done, I will publish it with a giveaway of the gift card. I’m not promising a particular day, but keep your eyes peeled for it sometime this week!

With that excitement (I love giveaways!) it is on to this Mother’s Day edition of link love. The links don’t have much to do with Mother’s Day, but it is today and I am a mother, so I mention it. Here are some of my favorite articles from the past two weeks from the M-Network and beyond:

Plonkee Money: Could You Afford To Lose Your Income? Plonkee considers insurance alternatives, and ponders what we all should - what coverage does she want, need, and can afford?

Mrs Micah - Finance for a Freelance Life: Starting From a Million Dollars - Forming Concrete Plans. The age old question of what to do with a million dollars shows Mrs. Micah that it really can be a question that helps you define your goals and dreams.

Single Guy Money: One Year Later - How Have My Finances Changed? I love these looking back perspective type posts.

My Two Dollars: Ten Quick Easy Ways to Reduce Your Debt. Snowflake! yay! Awwwww

Being Frugal: Top Ten Emerging Influential Blogs. This is a list to other blogs so not something I would normally highlight - but I think it is a great idea. Catch those up and comers before they break out and go crazy! Then you can say you were there when…

Cash Money Life: The Real Cost of Withdrawing Retirement Funds Early. This is why I pretend there is no way we can withdraw them at all.

Moolanomy: Roadmap to Better Financial Health. Save, spend less… but more! Pinyo identifies ways we can improve where we are and where we are going.

Gather Little By Little: Dealing With the Debt Timebomb. A guest post perspective on debt reduction that resonated with me.

Dough Roller: How to Turn Mistakes ito Opportunities. Looking at how we react to our mistakes can really make a difference.

No Credit Needed: An Interesting Conversation about Store-Branded Credit Cards. This had me amazed. Yikes! What will we do to feel like we belong…

Five Cent Nickel: Saving Money With CFLs. I love when the numbers come out and get crunched - and this one made me feel great about the 32 CFLs we have in and outside our home. Yes, 32. We have a lot of fixtures.

Blueprint for Financial Prosperity: Ask the Mole - CNNMoney’s Undercover Financial Planner. I just love the idea of this, and I am hoping reading the column will help me pick a financial planner myself.

Remodeling This Life: Tips for Making Thrift Shopping Thrifty. This is something I want to get more into as I start to acquire an adult wardrobe - I still dress like I am an undergrad. Not cool.

And in the PaidTwice Rewind, I do shop for myself sometimes, but only at Goodwill it seems… but now I shop for my spouse there too. And he’s learned to accept it.

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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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