I'm baaack! Did you miss me?

Well, the lady at the phone company lied to me. My phone line was cancelled on Tuesday but miraculously the internet never died. I was happy and sad about it at the same time. Happy because I could still check my email, my online bank statements and google search anytime I wanted. Sad because I didn't have the self-control to live without those things for a while. I did make an effort to spend way less time at the computer and was able to cut most of my consumption.

To fill the void of non-internet time I went to the library and picked up lots of financial-type books. Sometimes, when I go to the library I wonder what the person checking out my books must think as I am getting all these money books. But as Jerome would say BAH, who cares what they think. ;)

So here is what I have been reading lately:

Financial Peace Revisited by Dave Ramsey

Die Broke by Stephen M. Pollan

Think Like a Billionaire by Donald Trump

How to Get Rich by Donald Trump

I've been reading bits and pieces of all of them here and there. I find with books like these it's not necessary to sit down and read them front to cover. I definitely don't read every word of them because most of these books (except the Trump books) do a good job of getting their point across in the introduction and just use the rest of the book to ramble on and give support for their arguments (I guess thats what most books do, right?).

Anyways, all of these books have been entertaining and motivating. One thing that surprised me was that even the richest of the rich are "penny pinchers" too!

"Call if penny-pinching if you want to; I call it financial smarts."

~Donald Trump

Once I have had more time to read each one of them thoroughly, I hope to be able to have more to share!

Out of Commission for a While

In my attempts to simplify life, we are getting rid of our extra phone line. I'm not sure why we even have it. We got the additional phone line years ago pre-cell phone and pre-DSL. Now that I make most of my calls from my cell phone and we don't have the crappy dial up 56K modem, the additional phone line is just a waste of money. Unfortunately, the DSL line is connected to the additional phone line that is going to be cancelled so I will have to transfer the DSL service to the main line. This wouldn't be so bad except that it will mean an interruption of DSL service for a week! So that means the only internet access I will have will be from work and I will have to find something else to do with my time at home other than surfing the internet.

People used to live without the internet for their whole lives; can I live without it for a week? We shall see. Maybe, I'll like it so much I'll get rid of it for good. :)

Motivation

Everyone has got to have some sort of motivation pushing them to do things. Saving money takes a lot of things (discipline, commitment, hard work) but without strong motivation I think most will fail in the face of temptation. There has got to be something bigger and better out there that will justify continually making sacrifices. For some, it is the desire for financial freedom, the freedom to quit their job, or a hatred of their creditors. For me, it is my dream of owning a chateau and living a simple and uncomplicated life.

I know that may sound like an oxymoron, "A simple life in a chateau," but I assure you it is not. The reason that I really want a chateau is so that I can run it as a sort of bed and breakfast, or a "gîte" as they call it in France. You can buy a chateau in France for probably about the same amount you can buy a nice house in southern California. The property that I am absolutely drooling over at the moment is "La Maison Verte" which has 16 bedrooms and 9 bathrooms PLUS 4 indepedent apartments on the grounds. Can you guess how much this would cost? Only $1.2 million! That may seem like a lot but I checked around to see what $1.2 million would buy you in my town. A nice 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom house! So, the French property sounds like a great steal in comparison.

So, whenever I start feeling the urge to spend some money or get disillusioned by my debt, I quickly start looking at pictures of nice chateaux for sale. The open countryside, the gardens, the beautiful buildings, all make me start fantasizing of my life in my chateau. A typical day: Waking up to make a nice breakfast for my guests. Having breakfast in my dining room with people from all over the world. Spending some time in the garden. Lounging by the pool. Making tea. Perhaps planning a trip to visit the Mediterranean Sea or the mountains nearby. Bike riding. Wine tasting. Reading a book by my fireplace.

Then I start getting even more pumped up to make my debt go away as fast as possilbe. I look around and think of what I can sell. I scrutinize my budget to see what expenses I can get rid of. And hopefully with all of this motivation, I can make my debt go away in just 9 months!

Are you prepared for a disaster?

I couldn't imagine having to go through what the people in Louisiana and Mississippi are going through right now. It is such a terrible tragedy and I hope that I will never have to go through it. Each of us can make a contribution so please, make a donation of money or blood to the Red Cross.

The fact is, it could happen to any of us so we need to make sure that we are all prepared. Every household or family should have both an emergency disaster kit and an emergency plan. Make sure you take care of this or else you may regret it later! Don't put it off as one of those things you'll eventually get around to. An emergency (earthquake, flood, hurricane, terrorist attack) can happen at any time and won't wait for you to get prepared.

Here are some tips for getting prepared taken from Department of Homeland Security.

What you should have in your emergency kit:

Water and Food

* One gallon of water per person per day, for drinking and sanitation.
* Children, nursing mothers, and sick people may need more water.
* If you live in a warm weather climate more water may be necessary.
* Store water tightly in clean plastic containers such as soft drink bottles.
* Keep at least a three-day supply of water per person
* Store at least a three-day supply of non-perishable food.
* Select foods that require no refrigeration, preparation or cooking and little or no water.
* Pack a manual can opener and eating utensils.

Choose foods your family will eat.

o Ready-to-eat canned meats, fruits and vegetables
o Protein or fruit bars
o Dry cereal or granola
o Peanut butter
o Dried fruit
o Nuts
o Crackers
o Canned juices
o Non-perishable pasteurized milk
o High energy foods
o Vitamins
o Food for infants
o Comfort/stress foods

First Aid Kit

In any emergency a family member or you yourself may be cut, burned or suffer other injuries. If you have these basic supplies you are better prepared to help your loved ones when they are hurt. Remember, many injuries are not life threatening and do not require immediate medical attention. Knowing how to treat minor injuries can make a difference in an emergency. Consider taking a first aid class, but simply having the following things can help you stop bleeding, prevent infection and assist in decontamination.

Things you should have:
* Two pairs of Latex, or other sterile gloves (if you are allergic to Latex).
* Sterile dressings to stop bleeding.
* Cleansing agent/soap and antibiotic towelettes to disinfect.
* Antibiotic ointment to prevent infection.
* Burn ointment to prevent infection.
* Adhesive bandages in a variety of sizes.
* Eye wash solution to flush the eyes or as general decontaminant.
* Thermometer (Read more: Biological Threat)
* Prescription medications you take every day such as insulin, heart medicine and asthma inhalers. You should periodically rotate medicines to account for expiration dates.
* Prescribed medical supplies such as glucose and blood pressure monitoring equipment and supplies.

Clothing and Bedding

If you live in a cold weather climate, you must think about warmth. It is possible that the power will be out and you will not have heat. Rethink your clothing and bedding supplies to account for growing children and other family changes. · One complete change of warm clothing and shoes per person, including:

* A jacket or coat

*Long pants

* A long sleeve shirt

*Sturdy shoes

*A hat and gloves

*A sleeping bag or warm blanket for each person

Things it may be good to have:

* Cell Phone
* Scissors
* Tweezers
* Tube of petroleum jelly or other lubricant
Non-prescription drugs:
* Aspirin or nonaspirin pain reliever
* Anti-diarrhea medication
* Antacid (for upset stomach)
* Laxative
* Battery-powered radio and extra batteries
* Flashlight and extra batteries
* Whistle to signal for help
* Dust mask or cotton t-shirt, to help filter the air
* Moist towelettes for sanitation
* Wrench or pliers to turn off utilities
* Can opener for food (if kit contains canned food)
* Plastic sheeting and duct tape to shelter-in-place
* Unique family needs, such as daily prescription medications, infant formula or diapers, and important family documents
* Garbage bags and plastic ties for personal sanitation
* Emergency reference material such as a first aid book or a print out of this information
* Rain gear
* Mess kits, paper cups, plates and plastic utensils
* Cash or traveler's checks, change
* Paper towels
* Fire Extinguisher
* Tent
* Compass
* Matches in a waterproof container
* Signal flare
* Paper, pencil
* Medicine dropper
* Feminine supplies
* Personal hygiene items
* Disinfectant
* Household chlorine bleach

You can use bleach as a disinfectant (diluted nine parts water to one part bleach), or in an emergency you can also use it to purify water. Use 16 drops of regular household liquid bleach per gallon of water. Do not use scented, color safe or bleaches with added cleaners.

Having an Emergency Plan

Probably the worst part about a disaster is not knowing if your loved ones are o.k. You could be anywhere when a disaster strikes, at work, at home, at school, in a mall (hopefully not in a mall, because that would mean you are spending money, hehe). Here are some good things to have in place just in case you and your family are separated:

* It may be easier to make a long-distance phone call than to call across town, so an out-of-town contact may be in a better position to communicate among separated family members.

* Be sure every member of your family knows the phone number and has coins or a prepaid phone card to call the emergency contact.

* You may have trouble getting through, or the telephone system may be down altogether, but be patient.

As is illustrated by the disaster caused by Hurricane Katrina, you can't always rely on government officials and aid agencies to help you out in a disaster. Make sure you have done all you can to take care of yourself and your family in a disaster.

43 things

One of my fave sites out there is 43 Things. Basically, the whole site is a list of things that people would like to do. I'm not sure why I love it so much. Maybe it is because I love making lists. Or maybe it is because I love thinking of new, fun things to do (that maybe one day, eventually, I will actually go out and do).

Of course, the #1 thing on my list is to get out of debt. When I added that to my list there were just about over 900 people on the list. What I've noticed, is that the number of people who have added that to their list keeps growing and growing. Total number of people who counts "Get out of debt" as a goal is 1,221 people! The total number of people who has actually counted that as a completed goal....only 71.

I'm not sure if the growing number of people on this list is a good thing or a bad thing. It could mean that more people are recognizing the evils of debt and are making an effort to become financially stable. GOOD. It could also mean that no one is actually ever succeeding at getting out of debt and are just losing the fight against the credit card companies. BAD. It could also just mean that the website is attracting more members and thus the numbers mean nothing. NEUTRAL.

At any rate, I hope that soon, I will be one of those who can claim "get out of debt" as one of their accomplished goals.

Going to the movies...

Movie ticket prices have been steadily increasing in price, to the point now where I really must want to see a movie to go see it. I mean, really, ticket prices are just out of control. Why would I pay $10 to go see a movie that I might not like? If I'm going to pay $10 for 2 hours of entertainment, it better be the best movie ever made.

Movie studios are always whining about people pirating movies and using that as an explanation of why ticket prices have sky-rocketed. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't buy it. Part of it has got to be inflation as well, but in my eyes, movie prices should be going down, not up. Why? Because movie theaters have managed to cram in as much advertising before the movie starts that their ad revenue alone should be able to cover the costs of the movie.

I want my movies for free if I'm going to be subjected to continuous advertising while I wait for the movie to start. FREE. Like TV. I don't have to pay the television network so that I can watch "24" or "Survivor" or whatever else comes on TV. Why? Because I am forced to sit through commercials (well I used to have to sit through commercials and then Tivo came along). Ad revenue pays for the programming. In the movie theater we are being screwed because we are basically paying the movie theater to make more money off of us by subjecting us to annoying commercials.

It's not that I hate advertising so much. O.k. I do, but I think there is a right way and a wrong way to go about it. I remember when the advertising in the theaters amounted to a few non-obtrusive slides that rotated innocuously on the big-screen against the subtle drone of some bad elevator music. That was cool because at least you could get to the theater a little early (to make sure you weren't sitting in the front row) but still carry on a conversation without having to scream over loud, flashing commercials.

Advertisers like Coke, M&Ms, Levi's, television networks, cell phone companies, etc, etc. must shell out beaucoup bucks to have their names paraded around in front of a captive audience waiting patiently for their movie to start. That drives me crazy.

What is my solution? Luckily for me, there is a theater nearby that is independently owned and still charges only $3 for a matinee movie and $5 for a prime showing. They only have 3 theaters (very limited movie choice here) and the theaters are pretty crappy but you get what you pay for. To make it even better, they don't play any crappy commercials while you wait for the movie to start.

If a movie that I absolutely must see is not playing at my dear cheap-o theater we always try to go matinee. Ticket prices are cheaper and afternoon showings are typically less crowded so you don't have to show up as early to get good seats.

Also, I haven't done this, but I know that you can buy discounted bulk movie tickets at Costco. 5 tickets to AMC will run about $37.50 and 5 tickets to Regal will run $34.99, so you can get matinee prices at any time.

And last but not least, I Netflix any movie that I may be interested in seeing but am not dying to see right away.

The Simple Life

I admit, I used to want a lot of crap. DVD's, clothes, shoes, books, perfumes, make-up, you name it. I loved the feeling of going to the mall, looking at all the things to buy, giving myself over to the abandon of choosing whatever I wanted, watching the cashier ring up all my purchases and then handing over the credit card so that I could finally possess all of these "things". I got a rush from carrying around loads of bags and then rushing home so I could go through all of the stuff again. The rush, however, was like any drug, and only lasted a short time and so it was necessary to repeat, repeat, repeat. Until of course, your whole life is just FILLED with crap!

Crap here, crap there, crap everywhere so that you don't even know what crap you have, so you have to go out and by the crap again. Then you end up with crap to the third power because crap breeds crap. You run out of room to put all the crap. You hide the crap under your bed. You trying to get creative with how you arrange it in your closet. You have to buy storage systems (more crap) to organize all of your crap.

The crap takes over but somehow you just can't part with it. You think, "Well someday I might want to wear those pair of shoes" even though you have not worn them for 2 years. Or "someday that book might come in handy" because you never know when you will need to look up info on the nomads of the world.

You know its bad when you go through the closets and it feels like Christmas. "Oh I forgot I even had that". Even though you probably haven't looked at it or thought about it for 5 years, you just can't part with it because "you never know".

Well, I have definitely stopped acquiring new crap but haven't done a thing about getting rid of the old crap. Ok, well I did get rid of the old laptop and I have been selling books. But I am taking it to a new level. Cleaning out the closet. Cleaning out the garage. If I haven't used it for a year, it's gone.

I think there is something to be said about living simply. Only buy what you need and put it all to good use. No waste. Less stress about things breaking. More mental clarity. Better feng shui. More money in the bank.

I'm going to clean out the closet and try to sell whatever I can. If it doesn't sell, it will be donated to the Good Will and hopefully someone else will be able to put it to good use, because its not doing any good sitting in my closet!

Caring for Our Furry Loved Ones

I have two sweet precious kitties, Isabelle & Samantha (yes, they are named after soap opera characters). They are both very special to me and I fear the day that they will get sick and leave me. I take them in regularly for all of their vaccinations, make sure that Samantha (the outdoor cat) is in by her curfew so that she won't be eaten by coyotes, and generally make sure they are well taken care of and loved.

But lets face it: pets can be expensive. If anything does happen to the precious furry ones you could be paying thousands of dollars out of pocket for surgical procedures, treatments and medication. Pet medical insurance is available but costly. I haven't done a lot of shopping around but at one site they would charge about $35 a month for full coverage which works out to be $420 per year. If you have 2 cats like me, that would be $840 a year!

Well, Isabelle and Samantha are both due for their vaccinations. I was ready to call the vet to schedule them for their annual torture (they hate the vet) until I read this article on Smart Money called "10 Things Your Veterinarian Won't Tell You". In it, they claim that vaccinating your pet on a regular basic can be more harmful than helpful. Really, it makes sense for your vet to encourage you to bring in your pets every year for their vaccinations, because they make tons of dough on these routine visits. But before you go in make sure you ask the vet to take into consideration your pet's:

• age
• current health situation
• lifestyle (indoor/outdoor)

Doing so may ensure that your pet is not receiving unnecessary vaccinations that could cause cancer or epilepsy and saving you money at the same time!

Also, make sure that you check into low-cost vaccination clinics that may be available. Our veterinarian offers half-price vaccination clinics on Saturdays. Clinics may also be available at your local pet store.

Long Term Financial Goals

Now that I have finally gotten up some momentum and am paying off my debt at lightning speed, I feel like I might finally be able to see the light at the end of the credit card debt tunnel. I feel like I have had this burden on my shoulders for as long as I can remember and don't know what I would do without it. So, I started thinking of what my financial goals are for when I have finally defied my debt and decided I should lay out some of my long-term financial goals.

1) Pay off the Student Loans

When I started aggressively paying off my debt, I decided that I would think of my student loans as completely separate from my credit card debt. I pay about the same amount of interest on my student loans as I do on my credit card, but my reasoning was that credit card companies are way less forgiving than the U.S. government if I was late on a payment. Plus, I can use the interest I pay on my student loans as a tax write-off.

But alas, it still needs to be paid off. Write now I have $9,823 in student loans and pay only $106 every month. I hope to be able to pay this off in a year after my credit card is paid off.

After the student loans are paid off, I will be completely debt free!

2) Save up a $10,000 Emergency Fund

After I pay off all my debt, I want to make sure that I never ever have to be in debt again (aside from a home mortage). I think $10,000 would be a good amount of money to have for those emergencies that always tend to pop up (i.e. an appendix bursting...oh wait, I don't have an appendix!). Not only that, but having $10,000 in the bank would mean that I would never have to feel financially insecure again. If for some reason I hate my job and wanted to quit, I would have the power to do that. If I lost my job, it would not be the end of the world because I would have enough of a cushion that I could live comfortably for a few months while looking for a new job.

3) Save up a down payment for a house

This will be a doozy. Housing in California is ridiculously expensive. I was looking at condos thinking maybe I could find something for $300K. The only condos I could find within that price range were ghetto 1 bedrooms. I'm not sure how young people ever buy a home in southern California but I'm hoping in 2-3 years that my boyfriend and I will both be able to save up $25K to buy a condo/home somewhere!


4) Save for retirement & Pay off the mortgage

Once all that is taken care of, its just a matter of making sure that we are set for old age. It would be lovely to be able to retire early, sell the house in so cal, and buy a French Chateau where I can enjoy my time relaxing, drinking wine, having a vegetable garden and tending to my 20 cats. That would be the life!

What people will do for a $50 laptop

O.k. so you might have already seen this but wow, I just had to say something about this. Apparently a mob broke out when they were selling laptops for $50.

"People threw themselves forward, screaming and pushing each other. A little girl's stroller was crushed in the stampede. Witnesses said an elderly man was thrown to the pavement, and someone in a car tried to drive his way through the crowd."

What the heck is wrong with some people? I may be nuts but I'm not going to kick someones grandpa just to get a cheap laptop! Geez. Get your heads checked people.

It reminds me of the time that Ikea had a promotion at their stores where the first 50 people who showed up to their stores dressed up as a Christmas present would receive a $100 gift certificate. My boyfriend and I thought it would be fun to go and we were willing to get up pretty early for $100 gift card each! So we can some big boxes, wrapped them up in gift wrap and headed over to the Ikea store at 5 a.m. By the time we got there, there were hundreds of people already lined up. People had tents, sleeping bags and had set up camp right out there in the Ikea parking lot. At first we were just going to keep driving, but I really wanted to get out and talk to these people. They were some hardcore folks. Some of them had been there camped out for 2 days! Others were waiting in line in the freezing cold even though they were clearly not the first 50 people. One lady was freaking out because she was number 51 and was duking it out with numbers 49 & 50.

But c'mon! Lets get real people. $50 laptops and $100 Ikea gift cards is nothing to get worked up over!

We're in the money...

I'm doing the money dance right now cuz I'm in the money! My money making "schemes" are finally coming through!

First of all, I finally got rid of my broken laptop. I sold it to some freaky guy on craigslist for $300. He told me he was going to use it to do some medical research in Cuba and at first I thought, wow thats great, it will be put to good use. But then he kept talking and talking and was getting a little looney, telling me that this medical device that they would be using could be hooked up to anyone, the device would scan the persons body and it would tell you exactly what was wrong with them. If that wasn't cool enough, he then said that the device would "heal" whatever was wrong with you by sending out electrical energy waves. Whatever! Apparently, he has to do all of this "research" in Cuba because the FDA and the drug companies have him on their hit list because of this ground breaking technology. Hmmmmmm....well later I checked out his website and found out that he was selling these things for $12,000 and he was throwing in a "free" laptop with the purchase. Ha! Now I think I've figured out where my broken laptop is going! Regardless, he did pay for it and now I am $300 closer to getting out of debt.

Also, the auction ended for the cell phone that I won in my sweeping days. I got about $120 for the phone which is pretty dang cool!

And...if that wasn't cool enough I have been selling some of my old books on half.com. So far only about 5 books have sold out of about 40 but I think that since school should be starting soon a lot of people will be looking for books for their classes!

So grand total for all of my exploits has been about $410!

I do have a comment to make that is totally unrelated. I went to the gas station today (and paid wayyy too much for gas) and decided to buy some gum. I was feeling adventurous so I thought I would try this new flavor called "Cherry Chill" from Eclipse. I'm not quite sure what exactly I was expecting but I was not expecting to get a piece of gum that tasted like a cough drop! So please, whatever you do, don't waste your money on this crappy ass gum!

Getting All Gazelle Intense

I'm sure a lot of you have already read or at least heard about Dave Ramsey's book the Total Money Makeover. Well I finally got around to checking it out at the library and started reading it yesterday. I can't say that the book has taught me anything new or radical but it is a great motivational book. Ramsey talks a lot about "getting gazelle intense" about paying off your debt and saving money and while I think I have been super focused for a while, the book has reaffirmed my craziness and reassured me that it is o.k. to be a little whacky and a little maniacal about getting your finances in order.

So with that in mind I started to think about how else I could speed up the debt elimination process. I decided to finally try to sell some of the books that have been collecting dust or sitting in the garage for some time now. I kept all of the books from my college years and thought perhaps one day they would come in handy so never wanted to get rid of them. Truth is, there is probably only .01% chance that I will ever need or want to read these books again, and if I do I could just go to the library and check them out. So I went through all my books and came up with a total of 37 books that I have put up for sale on half.com. If they all sell I could take in about $275. I predict that a lot of them will probably not sell but money is money and besides that I'll have gotten rid of some unnecessary clutter.

I'm also stepping up my efforts to sell my broken laptop. It is a good laptop that just needs some repair so I am pulling for $300. I also have the cell phone that I won up for sale on ebay and right now the bids are up to $90 and there is still 2 days left on the auction. I am crossing my fingers! If all of my plans pan out, I could get a maximum of $675!

On another note, today is the 3 month anniversary of my blog! So happy birthday to the blog. When I started I was $19,794.23 in the hole. Today I am $15,688.50 in debt so in 3 months I have been able to pay $4,105.73. If I keep it up at this rate I will be out of debt in less than a year!

Update: My Identity was NOT Stolen

Everyone can rest assured that my identity has not be stolen (me most of all)! Disaster has been averted and the charges should be taken off my card soon.

This is what happened.

After writing the blog post I told my boyfriend all about my little fiasco (yes, you guys get the news before the bf) and he was like "thats weird, I just paid my Cingular bill". He looked up the exact amount of the bill he just paid and it matched exactly to the new charges on my credit card. He said he paid his bill online and that normally when he goes to pay his credit card info is already in there and he just has to verify the amount and click o.k. So he goes back to the page where he paid his bill and MY credit card number was there. We haven't really been able to explian why my credit card number was showing up on his account. I have tried to run through all the possibilities and ruled them all out:

1) I have never used my credit card to pay for anything on his computer (I haven't even used the credit card for over a year)
2) We have never shared a cell phone account
3) I don't even have an account with Cingular
4) Our cell phone numbers are no where near being similar

The only thing I can think of is that we share the same address and they somehow mixed them up. Either that or my boyfriend thought he could pull a fast one on me. :P

At any rate, he called Cingular had them reverse the charges and all should be well. They couldn't offer an explanation either (no surprise) but it worries me that my credit card information could so easily be accessed by another account. Why do they even still have my credit card on file? Perhaps I'll have to have my credit card number changed!

What the F*^%&*?

I am so lividly mad right now. I was checking my online credit card statement as usual tonight and noticed something that sent me into a fury. The balance was as it should be, $15,788.50, but when I looked down at the pending charges I saw a charge for $52.36! I don't know what this is all about as I have not used this card for purchases in over a year. I don't even keep the card on me. It is tucked away in a drawer somewhere so that I never ever use it. Not even for internet purchases. So where the heck did this charge for $52.36 come from?

I called my credit card company and asked them why there were these pending charges on my account. He said that it was a charge from Cingular and that it posted to my account with a valid authorization number. WHAT?!! Cingular?? I'm not even a Cingular customer! Well, I used to be but then they got on my nerves so bad that I switched to TMobile. So what the heck are they doing charging my credit card when I haven't been their customer for 9 months now??

The guy said that he basically couldn't do anything at this point because it hasn't yet posted to my account and I should call back in 48 hours and I could either file a fraud claim or enter a dispute. I'm sure that will be 48 hours of pure hell for me. I've asked them to put a hold on my account just in case any new freakish charges try to show up on my account. Knowing me, I won't be able to sleep because I'll be thinking all night how someone is trying to sabotage me and steal my identity! ARrghghghgh.

I won, I won!

Before I started blogging I had this other little obsession that I thought would help me get out of debt quick. I have a confession to make; I was a SWEEPER. Sweeper as in sweepstakes enterer. You would not believe the inordinate amount of time I spent searching for sweepstakes and entering them. I had a whole system going. I had software that swiftly entered in all of my contact info, spreadsheets of all the sweeps I was entering. I was Sweeps Crazy. I hoped and hoped I would just win a car or some grand prize cash jackpot and my debt woes would be over. I entered sweeps while watching TV, while talking on the phone and basically any free moment I had. Until one day, my spreadsheet file got corrupt and I was devastated at the loss of all that time and effort I had put into it. I mourn the loss of my spreadsheet.

So for all my blood, sweat, and tears of entering sweepstakes the fruit of my labor was basically a $1.00 cash prize from Webstakes and an XXL t-shirt from Sirius radio.

Until today...

I got a package in the mail today and was positively perplexed because I hadn't ordered anything recently. I opened it and there it was. The 2004 Nascar Nextel Cup Series i736 cell phone. I had totally forgotten that I had won this on an instant win sweepstakes I had entered months ago. Now, I am not a Nascar fan, nor do I need a new cell phone, but I can try to sell it on ebay and get at least (hopefully) $100 for it.

This will definitely not get me out of debt but it makes me feel like I at least got something worthwile out of my sweeping days.

How to get yourself into $30K of debt

I've received enough comments that express mild amazement and puzzlement at the magnitude of my debt that I feel it again time to explain how I got myself into this mess in the first place. My very first post does a good job of setting the scene but I can't expect all you late comers to sift through all my posts to get the full story. So here goes...take notes; it's a skill to accumulate so much debt in just a few years.

It all basically started when I was 19 years old and did a study abroad program in Paris. I had received a Platinum credit card with a limit of $5,000 not too long before my departure. At that time I was pretty responsible with my credit cards; I used them but always paid off the full balance every month. Why they decided to give a 19 year old full time student with only a part time job is beyond me...but they did.

I had loads of fun while I was abroad. Too much fun in fact. Money wasn't real to me. The ATM never told me what my balance was and I wasn't receiving any statements or bills in the mail so I was completely oblivious to how much I was spending. I went out all the time and could easily blow $50-$100 a night on dinner, drinks, and taxi fare. WTF was I thinking? I don't know. Anyways, I would aslo travel on the weekend going to other cities and spending money on hotels, souvenirs, more drinking and going out, clothes, who knows what else. My rationale was that I would only be able to do this once so I might as well live it up while I was there. Instead of using cash for all of these things I ended up using my credit card and it was all downhill from there.

By the time I came back I had amassed a couple thousand in debt. Can't remember exactly how much. Problem was was that I didn't have a job so I had to borrow money from my credit card to pay for the credit card. Smart, I know. Even smarter was that when I came back my spending habits were still out of control. More shopping, more going out, more stupidity.

I also went back to Europe to visit some friends and backpacked for about 3 weeks. I didn't have the money to do it so I just put it on the credit card.

By the time I was going to transfer to UC Berkeley I think I had about $6k in debt and I was living off of financial aid. I finally got my act together but was living off of about $17k/year paying $800 for one bedroom sharing an apartment with 4 other people, tuition, books, and a credit card payment to boot. So I didn't make much progress on paying it off. In fact, it just got worse because I had to pay for furniture, dental work, lord knows what else. I think once or twice I had to put rent on the credit card. But I was living honestly like a monk; I never went out; I never bought clothes. It was crap. By the time I graduated I was about $11k in debt.

So when I graduated I didn't have a car. I bought a car. And it wasn't cheap. I think I paid about $18,000 for my car. Please don't say anything. I eventually transferred my car loan to my credit card so I could get a lower rate and so I would only have one bill every month.

So there you have it. All my stupid mistakes laid out for all to see. But I've reformed and am determined to learn from my mistakes and try to start over with a clean slate. Initially I wanted to pay it off in 2 years from when I graduated college but instead I've revised my plan to do it in 3 years (2 years from when I started this blog).

I hope you've enjoyed this little blast to the past and don't think I'm too crazy. ;)

You all are just so predictable

How did I know I would get my ass handed to me if I mentioned that I might move out thus crushing any dreams I had of paying off my debt in a timely manner. Thank you, thank you. You will have your way. I have had the "moving out bug" thoroughly chased out of me (much to my boyfriend's chagrin). I guess I will have to "suck it up" and be patient until I can exorcise my financial demons.

Tips to Help You Save Energy - Part II

I don't know where you live but it is dang hot outside where I live. Here are some tips to help you stay cool and conserve energy (and money) at the same time.

* Schedule regular air-conditioning checkups. Just like your car, your air conditioner needs a regular tune-up. With proper care, your air conditioner will last longer, operate more efficiently, and save you more money.


* Get off to the right start. Read the owner's manual and follow the manufacturer's instructions before turning your system on for the first time. The following spring, have a trained service person do an annual checkup.


* Keep it clean. Keep your air conditioner clean, inside and out. Check, clean, and replace the filter regularly (do not operate the unit without filters). Clear away accumulated dirt and debris from the outside condenser units annually. (Follow the manufacturer's instructions for your specific model.)


* Install your air conditioner in a shady location. Air conditioners exposed to direct sunlight use up to 5% more energy.

* Precoolers can reduce your cooling costs if you have a central air conditioning system and live in a hot, dry climate. A precooler is a water-cooled device that attaches directly to the front of the air conditioner's condenser unit. The precooler draws hot, outside air over water-saturated pads. Water evaporation from these wet pads lowers the temperature of the air before it enters the air conditioner. This precooling enables the air conditioner to work more efficiently and use less energy.

* If you live in a hot, dry area, an evaporative (or "swamp") cooler can be an inexpensive way to cool your home, either replacing or assisting regular air conditioning. Evaporative cooling is much simpler than air conditioning and uses much less energy. An evaporative cooler uses a simple fan mechanism to draw hot, dry outside air through wet filters. The resulting evaporation cools the air that the fan then directs inside.

* If you live in an area with a moderate climate, you may be able to use a whole house fan for most of your cooling needs and reserve your air conditioner for the hottest hours of the day. Because whole house fans depend on cool outside air, coastal areas (and other locations that are cool in the evening) are ideal. If your neighborhood remains hot in the evening, a whole house fan isn't right for you.

Whole house fans are usually installed in an attic, flush with the ceiling of the house. When outside temperatures are cooler than inside temperatures (usually at night), the air conditioner is turned off, and the windows are opened, the whole house fan pulls cool, fresh air into the house through the open windows and pushes the hot inside air out through attic vents.

* During the summer, heat trapped in your attic can increase the temperature throughout your home. Though not as effective as a whole house fan, an attic ventilation fan pushes hot attic air outside, reduces the attic temperature, and cools the rooms below.

* Simple and functional, ceiling fans are one of the most decorative ways to control the temperature in your home and are effective during the summer and winter. In hot weather, a ceiling fan on high speed can lower a room's temperature by as much as 10 to 12 degrees. This reduces your air conditioning needs substantially. During the winter, a ceiling fan set to a slower speed moves rising warm air around the room.


* Know your numbers. If you have central air conditioning, set your thermostat to 78°F or more during the summer, 85°F or more when you leave your home for more than four hours. Unless you have furniture, art or equipment that could be damaged by excessive heat, turn your cooling unit off when you leave your home for more than 24 hours.


* Don't overcool. Don't turn your thermostat lower than normal to cool your home faster. It won't work.


* Keep heat-producing appliances away from your thermostat. Heat emitted by television sets, lamps, and other appliances will make your cooling system work harder.


* Use zone cooling. To avoid wasting energy -- and money -- cooling a room you're not using, close doors and/or vents to that room. (To avoid damage to your central cooling system, close off no more than one-fourth of the area of your home.)


* Use your shades. Closing drapes and shades -- especially on southern windows -- will help keep the sun out and your home cool. Cover eastern windows in the morning and western windows in the afternoon.


* Beware of humidity. When outdoor temperatures rise, avoid activities that generate humidity, such as cooking, bathing, laundering, and dishwashing. Wait until the early morning or evening. Your kitchen's exhaust fan will help get rid of heat and moisture, in addition to cooking odors.


* Use air conditioning wisely. You can still control your cooling costs on days when you have to use your air conditioner. Keep all your doors and windows shut and avoid using a humidifier or evaporative ("swamp") cooler at the same time you run the air conditioner. The leaks, drafts, and moisture added by humidifiers and evaporative coolers force the air conditioner to work harder and use more energy.


* Consider your landscaping. In the summer, leafy trees provide cool shade. In the winter, bare branches allow the sun to warm your home. Small shrubs can block heat reflected from patios and pavement. And planting vines over southern windows can reduce the effect of the sun's heat.

I suck so bad

Ugh, I've been so bad about updating this blog this week. Everytime I try to start I get perturbed and disgruntled and have to take a break. I always think if I walk away from it later it will come to me easier but it never does.

I HAVE A DILEMMA

I need to move out of my familial home. It is just too much for me. I have been living at home for over a year now and I feel as if I will go bonkers if I don't get out of here. The lack of space, privacy, the long commute are all enough to drive a person mad. But lets face it, rent is not cheap. Then you have to think about all the bills....the electricity, the water, the phone, you know.

I figure if I move out I will only be able to pay half of what I am paying towards my credit card debt every month. At my current rate I should be out of debt in about 16 months. If I move out I won't be out of debt for another 32 months which is almost 3 years. I would have to change the name of my blog and I would feel like a total loser.

So what's worse? Living at home or living at debt?

I did make a concession. Earlier I wrote about my Thai vacation that I was planning on for November. I have been looking forward to this trip for a long time but I really can't justify spending $2k on a vacation when I live the rest of my life stressed out about my debt. I am going to wait until I'm out of debt and can truly enjoy the vacation to go.

Sorry if this post is a little sporadic. I just had to purge it out of me! ;)

$5 GC From So Cal Edison

Just found this on the Southern California Edison's website. They will give you a $5 Target Gift Card for taking this 15 minute survey. You need to be a Southern California Edison customer to participate and have your account number handy. The survey will ask you questions regarding your household and your energy use. At the end they will give you customized energy tips to help you cut back on energy usage that you can download and save in PDF format.

Also, you can save 20% off of your electric bill if you reduce your energy consumption during the summer months by 20% compared to the previous year with the 20/20 Summer Savings Program.

Not to fear my non-Edison readers. Here are some energy tips that you can all enjoy (from Edison's website):

Refrigerator/Freezers

The recommended temperature for your refrigerator should be between 10°F and 42°F, while the recommended temperature for the freezer is between 0°F and 5°F.

Don't let the frost in your refrigerator get more than 1/4" thick. Frost acts as an insulator and forces your fridge or freezer to work harder. Auto-defrost refrigerators take care of this problem for you but use more energy.

Turn Power Save to OFF and set the Humidity Control to DRY. (These switches control a heater that prevents sweating or condensation around the refrigerator door in humid geographic areas.)

Make sure your refrigerator and freezer doors seal airtight. Close a dollar bill or piece of paper in the door. If it pulls out easily, your refrigerator may need a door hinge adjustment or a new gasket.

Vacuum the refrigerator coils twice a year (or more if you have long-haired pets). Dirty coils make the refrigerator work harder and use more energy.

Automatic Dishwashers

Run your dishwasher only when full.

Use your dishwasher's automatic energy-saving cool-dry cycle. If your machine doesn't have this feature, turn it off manually after the final rinse and let the dishes air dry. Air-drying your dishes reduces your dishwasher's energy usage by 40%.

When purchasing a new dishwasher, use the EnergyGuide labels to compare the annual operating costs of similar models. Also look for these energy-saving features:
Short cycle selection for lightly soiled dishes.
Less hot water usage.
Automatic air-dry cycle.

Ovens and Stoves

Get a pan ready to go and place it on the burner before you turn on the heat. And don't forget to turn the heat off when you're through using it.

Use the right pan for the job. Foods will cook faster and at a lower temperature if you use pots and pans with flat bottoms and tight-fitting lids. Oversized and undersized pans waste energy.

Don't pre-heat the oven unless you need to. Preheat only for baked foods that require precise temperatures, such as cakes, cookies, and breads. Casseroles, roasts, broiled foods, and other dishes don't need to go into a warm oven.

Follow the recipe and use the oven light as your guide for timing. Every time you open the oven to check on your dish, about 25 degrees of heat escape.

Turn your oven off about five minutes before the allotted cooking time is up. Leave the door closed to retain heat.

Microwave ovens use approximately half the energy of conventional ovens.

More to come later!

What I could do with my interest money

Every month I'm always shocked when I check my credit card balance and the total has gone UP instead of DOWN. I flip out and think that I have become the victim of identity theft and that someone has been using my card to buy sexy lingerie (do you remember those commercials?). In a panic I check my transaction history and realize that the balance has gone up because they have added my finance charges. Geez, I hate that!

At this point I am paying a little more than $50 every month just to finance my debt. And that is a lot of money! I started thinking of all the ways I could be spending this extra $50 every month and I got really sad.

1) I could be putting that money towards paying off even more of my debt every month instead of racking up more. If you think about it $50 x 12 = $600 which would be more than half a month off of my debt repayment plan!

2) I could ALMOST buy a new pair of shoes every month, or at least not feel guilty about buying these.

3) I could save up a down payment for my chateau. In about 30 years I might have saved up half of what I need.

4) I could buy a big SUV and spend an extra $50 on gas every month.

5) Have a fancy dinner at Chez Panisse every month (alone and without drinks).

6) Drink about 15 Black Forest Coffee Drinks from the Coffee Bean every month.

7) One night out on the town with cover charge and 3 apple martinis.

8) 5 extra movies every month.

9) I could buy that really cute sweater I've been drooling over at the GAP.

10) Buy one pair of underwear from Victoria's Secret (yeah right).

Until I pay it off, that $50 will have to go to the interest! At any rate, I made another $100 payment on my card so I won't be tempted to spend it. New balance = $16,788.50.

Strangest Money Saving Tips

There are tons and tons of websites dedicated to helping you save your money. I've learned quite a lot from these websites but I am sometimes baffled by the hard core money saving ideas that people have come up with. Some of them just make me laugh so I decided I would post some of them here.

1) Flea Control

Plug a night-light into an outlet and place a bowl under it that is filled with water and just a touch of dish detergent. The fleas will jump at the light and get stuck in the water. (The dish detergent prevents them from jumping back out.) It was less than a week and our (1700 sq ft) house was clear of fleas.

Call me crazy but I just have a bad feeling about putting a bowl of water near an electrical outlet.

2) Keeping bacon, deli meats, lettuce etc fresher longer!

Don't toss those cereal bags from inside your cereal boxes! They're treated with a preserving agent (kept your cereals fresh, right?) and if you remove bacon from its original wrapper, rinse it all and place it into a cereal bag...voila! No gungy, goopy bacon, ever! The same with deli meats, lettuce, anything you want to keep fresher longer!

You want me to put my bacon...where?

3) Vinegar for your hair.

Used as a hair rinse, vinegar neutralizes the alkali left by shampoos.

And it leaves your hair with a nice vinegary aroma, mmmmm.

4) Car Tip

To prevent corrosion on your battery posts, apply some vaseline to them. Make sure that your car engine is cold before attempting this.

Because if it's still hot you'll probably have some medical bills to pay.

5) Use of the last bit of a bar of soap by putting it into an old sock and tying the end and using it to bathe.

I just wouldn't feel clean rubbing myself with an old sock.

You don't have to be a hermit

Sometimes I lose sight of the fact that having fun doesn't always mean having to fork over the big bucks. Let's face it...it's not always easy being social when you are trying to save money. Just a night out for dinner and a movie can cost $20 per person and a night of drinking can end up costing $50 if you're not smart about it (martinis are not cheap!). So per my sister's suggestion, I decided to post some cheap or FREE ways to have fun this summer.

1) If you live in L.A. or New York or any other big city, go check out free tapings of T.V. shows. If you live in Chicago, even better. Go see Oprah and heck you might even get a free car. Not sure how easy it is to get tickets to Oprah as I'm sure there are thousands of rabid women looking to get a piece of the action. Personally, I was able to visit the Jay Leno show when my favorite singer, Bjork, was on and also got a glimpse of Kevin Spacey and was able to harass the evil Bill O'Reilly (yo, he was dissing on Berkeley peeps). Better yet, why not go on a game show! Ha, wouldn't that be great if I went on Wheel of Fortune or the Price is Right and won beaucoup bux!

http://hollywoodtickets.com/
http://www.tvtix.com/

2) Get into the great outdoors. A lot of these activities cost nothing if you already have the right equipment. Find a good bike trail, go hiking, or play some volleyball at the beach (sorry to all you inlanders). Snorkeling was my personal pick. I bought some fins and mask for about $40 last year and I'm sure they will last me for many snorkeling trips. Not only are outdoor activities cheap or free but they will usually get your blood pumping so you can pass on your pricey gym membership.

3) Take in some culture. I must be a real nerd but sometimes I love going to the library. They have a lot more than books; think free magazines, newspapers and free a/c. Stop subscribing to all those mags and just take a day to go hang out at the library and get it all for free. Museums also will usually have one day out of the month (maybe more?) where they offer free admission. Go look at some paintings or artifacts and make everyone think you are really smart. Also, check out your local event calendar for free activities like festivals or outdoor concerts.

4) Volunteer and put yourself to some good use. Get off your butt and go do something good for humanity. If you are a pet lover, why not donate some of your time to the local humane society and play with the under-loved animals. Or if you happen to care about people as well, visit a convalescent home. Or if you don't like animals or humans, you can do the environment a favor by cleaning up a beach, a river, or some place where us nasty humans have decided to trash.

5) Invite your friends over. You don't necessarily have to leave home to have fun. Make dinner together or do some baking. Have a flour fight and cover each other with icing. As far as I remember, this was really fun when I was 12 years old, so it might still be kind of fun. After dinner, play some board games. Further evidence that I am a nerd, I love board games. I will kick your ass in trival pursuit any day.

I'm sure there are tons more fun ideas. I'd love to hear what you have to say.

Today was a good day

Fridays in general are just good days but today was especially nice. Not only was it Friday Payday (woohoo) but ING Direct announced that they have raised their interest rates (double woohoo). ING Direct now pays 3.15% APY, up from 3%! My paycheck this period reflected my new raise and my bonus so I am celebrating by making a $600 payment to my monstrous credit card. The debt is down to the 16k's. I love reaching those benchmarks but then again everything is a benchmark in my book (the 18ks, the 17ks, etc).

I really should pay more than $100 extra than I normally do. I am tempted to go shopping and buy lots of new clothes. ::sigh:: I was coerced into going to the mall with my coworker yesterday and saw some really cute things at Banana Republic. I don't think anyone should be allowed to go to the mall on their lunch hour because you end up finding ways of spending your money before you actually make it. I'll try to resist the urge and be a good girl.

Free Money with 0% Interest

Yes, you read right. I said free money. I don't know about you but I get tons of low APR checks from my credit card company every month, some of them offering 0% interest for 6 months. I get them so much that I started thinking of crafty ways that I could use them to my own advantage. If you are a regular reader (haha, all 2 of you), then you'll probably know that I have used those checks to lock in low rates for all of my other debt. That's all fine and good but it's not FREE money.

Well here's my idea. What if you write the check to yourself, deposit it your ING Direct savings account that earns 3% interest (yes, you should have a savings account with ING Direct and if you don't you should email me so I can hook you up), and then once the 6 months are up just pay the money back. Depending on how high your credit limit is that could be a nice chunk of change.

Let's say for example, once I have paid off my credit card balance I will have a credit limit of $23,700 and I write myself a check for $23,000. If I deposit that money in a savings account earning 3% interest over 6 months and I have to pay a transfer fee of $50 max, than I will end up with $305.50 or about $50.91/month. That is $50 a month for doing absolutely nothing! Not bad I say.

Be careful though that your credit card company doesn't charge fees that would work out to be more than the actual interest you would be earning. My card is great in that there is a max to how much they will charge for balance transfers. Others do not have a max and so there would be little point in trying to pull this off. Also, if you don't pay it back on time the interest rate will shoot up to the max they can charge which is usually about 23%, and that would just not be good at all.

I need to hurry up and pay off my credit card so I can start earning free money. :)

I'm a money extrovert

Ever since I started this blog I get comments from people who think its a great idea but say that they could never do it because they wouldn't want people to know their financial situation. I know that sharing one's personal life isn't for everyone but I think it is the most bizarre thing ever that people hide their financial lives in the closet like its a big bad secret that no one should know about. I must have missed that day of social indoctrination school when you have it ingrained in your head that money is a no-no subject. I don't go around talking about money all the time or telling everybody I meet how much money I make or how much debt I am in but I'm sure if they asked I wouldn't mind telling them.

I was reading an interesting article here about the way that most Americans lie about money and debt. They say that 75% of people claim that they don't make any major purchases with their credit cards but 74% say they are worried about not being able to pay their credit card bills every month. What is even more bizarre is that 58% of the people surveyed said they actually paid their credit cards off of every month while in reality that number is closer to 40% and that we believe that only 3% of other people pay off their credit cards. So basically everyone is living in denial and thinks everyone else is the problem, except me of course, ;)

My thinking is that at least if I talk about it maybe someone else won't make the same mistake I made. Everyone makes mistakes but its all in how you learn from the mistakes that will keep you growing in the right direction. At the risk of sounding totally cheesy, you're net worth is more than what you have in the bank account or on your credit card, its who you are and what you do with your life.

On another note, I was reminded of how insignificant all these little money problems are. I went camping at Catalina Island (camping is a cheap alternative to a vacation!) and saw the most amazing sunset. Check it out:

I got a raise

I don't know if I should be bitter or if I should be happy. I had my annual review today and was kind of nervous about the whole thing because I didn't know what to expect. This is my first job since I graduated from college so I feel totally naive and vulnerable when it comes to salary and raises. It's hard to get any straight advice about salary or raises because money is such a taboo topic with people and they get all weird and freakish if you ever bring it up.

My supervisors had nothing bad to say about me. They went on about what a great job I was doing, how I make a great addition to the team, and that I take a lot of initiative to improve upon myself and make improvements for the company. I was stoked and though there were a few akward questions that took me a while to answer I made it through o.k. (i.e. what about your job can you see yourself doing in the long term? ummmm, nothing? )

After all that I was offered a little more than 4% raise. They said that that was pretty much the cap they were allowed to give for people on raises but they also offered a small bonus. As far as I can tell, a 4% raise isn't anything to write home about and I kind of have mixed feelings about it. I accepted it without argument but now I kind of regret that I didn't push for a larger raise. Arghghhghg. Maybe I'm destined to be in debt forever?

Debt-to-Credit Limit Ratios

I thought I was being real smart when I transferred my car loan to my credit card. My logic was that I would be shaving off about 1% interest on $14,000 over a 2 year period which would save me about $280. What I didn't plan on was that this would screw up my FICO score. Your FICO score is basically a rating of your credit and determines what kind of interest rate you will get when you apply for a loan. If you have a high FICO score (720-850) you will get the best rates available whereas if you have a low FICO score (500-589) you're probably going to pay up the wazoo in interest.

Part of your score is calculated by determining what your debt-to-credit limit ratio is. This is the combined amount of debt you owe on credit cards in relation to your total credit limits. Notice that it only combines credit card totals and not your total debt (excludes student loans, car loans, home loans).

For example, before I transferred my car loan to my credit card I had a total credit card debt of about $10,000 and a credit limit of $23,700 which gave me a debt-to-credit limit ratio of about 42%. Once I transferred my car loan to my credit card to take advantage of the lower interest rate my credit card debt shot up to $22,000 and my ratio soared to 93%.

All of a sudden the bank saw me as a threat. My interest rate shot up to 22% but thank god my interest rates for any balance that I carried was locked in for the life of the loan. I was baffled that they would raise my interest rate so high considering I had not acquired any new debt (just moved it around), I had never been late on a payment, and was steadily paying 2-3 times my minimum every month. Even after whiddling my ratio down to 73% those bastards won't lower my interest rate to anything less than 21%. Its probably all for the best though because its a great deterrant to accumulating any new debt.

One way to off set the high debt-to-credit limit ratio is to simply ask them to raise your credit limit. My credit card company is retarded and they won't let me raise my credit limit either but perhaps it will work for you!

Did you notice? I made another payment bringing my debt to a measley $17,436.31. Yeah!

Traveling on a budget

I'm long overdue for a vacation. It has been years since I've been anywhere interesting and I'm chopping at the bit to get the hell out of here. After college my friend joined the Peace Corps and moved to Bangladesh and for years we've been planning our trip to Thailand. We were originally planning on going in the beginning of this year but then the tsunami happened and we didn't think it would be a great idea to go at that time.
Traveling is a major cause of my current debt situation. I've partially financed two trips to Europe on my credit cards and even though they were more than 3 years ago I am still paying for them. This will be my first trip that I won't be paying for with the plastic. I know you think it counter-productive to go on vacation while I'm in so much debt but things like this are what keep me going back to work every day.

So stay tuned for money saving travel trips. Here are a few to get you started:

Avoid traveling around the holidays. Most airlines have "blackout days" around popular holidays, when fares are more expensive and passengers cannot use frequent flyer miles. However, flying on the day of the actual holiday (Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day) generally means low airfares and plenty of seats.
Sign up for fare special e-mails. When airlines get into a fare war, the cost of a plane ticket can fall overnight and the discounted fare may be sold out by noon the next day. Get on the mailing list of airlines and other travel Web sites so you can be notified immediately if fares drop.
Look into booking your vacation as a package. You might be able to save by booking your airline tickets along with your hotel room or rental car.
Buy your tickets at least 21 days in advance. There are usually four different timetables for advance purchase: 21-day, 14-day, 7-day, and 3-day. The further in advance you book your flight, the lower the fare you're likely to find.
Keep your airline options open. Use a travel Web site to search for fares instead of the individual airline sites, and choose "none" as a carrier preference.
Consider another airport. Find out about all the airports that are near your destination city. You might be able to fly into a smaller airport or neighboring city at a much lower rate.
Stay over a Saturday night. Airlines quote the highest fares to business travelers, who fly during the week and spend their weekends at home. If you plan to leave for your trip on a Wednesday and return on Saturday, your fare would be considerably higher than if you extended your trip to Sunday morning.
Fly on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays. Some airlines offer cheaper fares on specific days of the week. Generally, it's cheapest to fly on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday. Remember, though, that a Saturday stay is necessary to receive the lowest rate.
Be flexible about the time of day you travel. If possible, let the fares dictate the day and time of your departure. Often the less popular early morning or late evening flights have lower rates.
Pick a flight with plenty of open seats. Seats in a flight are divided into "classes," and each class has its own price. Since the cheapest classes sell first, the fewer seats that are left on a plane, the more expensive they are.
Sign up for a frequent flyer program. If you are a frequent traveler, it may make more sense for you to fly consistently with the same airline and accumulate frequent flyer miles, rather than base your criteria strictly on which carrier has the lowest fare for a particular destination.

Sprint PCS Employee Discounts

Sprint PCS offers customer discounts to employees of certain companies (see list below). In addition, any of you that work in any healthcare setting (doctors, nurses, janitors, receptionists, you name it, etc.) may be eligible for savings of 10%-25% off of your monthly bill.

Call 1-888-252-2930 or *2 from your PCS phone and ask to get a business or healthcare employee discount. They will switch you to the business section and get your employer's information. Depending on where you work, you can get anywhere from 10 to 25% off of your bill. Some have dropped their bill to $15/month.

I've also heard that ING Direct customers receive a 15% Sprint discount. I do not currently have Sprint and can't switch over right now but if you do its worth looking into. Check it out at www.ingdirect.com/sprint or call 888-788-4727 if you are an existing customer to see if you qualify. And if you're already a Sprint customer, just dial #ING on your Sprint phone to reach an ING Direct Associate from the hours of 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Hope this helps out.

Heres the list of employers who are eligible for the discount:

Aetna 12%
American Airlines 25%
Army/USAA/Military/Air Force/... 12% (Or 5%?)
Arthur Andersen 20%
Bank of America 23%
Best Buy 13%
Boeing 25%
Capital One 12%
Cerner Corporation 15%
Chase 25%
Chevrolet 12% (Or 25%?)
ChevronTexaco - 20%
Chevron Credit Card? 25%
CircuitCity 12 or 18%
Cisco Systems 9%
CitiGroup 25%
Citrus Valley Health Partners 25%
Costco 10%
Discover Card 12%
Electronic Data Systems (EDS) 25%
Ernst and Young 15%
Ferguson Enterprises 15%
Ford 25% (Or 23%?)
Freight Liner Corporation 12%
General Electric (GE) 25%
Hewlett Packard 20%
Hospitals (also see VA below)? 25%
H&R Block 10%
IBM 25%
Johns Hopkins University students and staff 15%
K-Mart 15%
KPMG 12%
Lane Bryant 8%
Law Enforcement 25%
Lockheed 8%
Lowe's 9%
Lucent Technologies 23%
Merrill Lynch 20%
Metro 1 15%
Motorola 25%
Northwest Airlines 25%
Northwestern Mutual 13%
OfficeMax 13%
Oracle 10%
Raymond James Financial 11%
Raytheon 20%
Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) 10%
Sears 25%
Sherwin Williams 18%
Southwest Airlines 15%
State Farm Insurance 22.5%
Sun Microsystems 20%
SunTrust 18%
Target 15%
Time Warner 24%
Tricon Global(Yum Foods) 11%
United Airlines 25%
United Parcel Service (UPS) 25%
University of Missouri 13%
VA Medical Center 25%
Verizon 25%
Walgreens 8%
Wyndham International 15%
Xerox 15%

My Next Career Move

It's about time for me to make a strategic career move...to the wonderful world of professional eating. Think about it: you can win loads of money just by stuffing your face with ding dongs, ho-hos and goodness knows what else. With a little practice and determination I can roll with the big dawgs and start winning as much as $10,000 per event.

My idol is Sonya Thomas aka "The Black Widow". Look at her! She looks like she weighs no more than 100 lbs but she can pack it away like food was going out of style. Here are just some examples of her incredible talent:

• Acme Oysters: 46 dozen (552) in 10 minutes.
• Hard-Boiled Eggs: 65 in 6' 40 seconds.
• Downtown Atlantic Cheesecake: 11 pounds in 9 minutes.
• Buffalo Wings: 162 (5.09 pounds) in 12 minutes.
• 84 Lumber Baked Beans: 8.4 pounds in 2' 47 seconds.
• Zocalo's Tacos (Soft-shell Chickem): 48 in 11 minutes.
• Cheese Quaesadillas: 31 1/2 (four-inch size) in 5 minutes.
• Soft-shell Maine Lobster: 38 (9.76 pounds) in 12 minutes.
• Lulu's Crawfish Jambalaya: 9 pounds in 10 minutes.
• Chicken Nuggets: 80 in 5 minutes.

If Sonya can do it, so can I. Just a few competitions and I will be out of the red and on my way to owning my first chateau!

Vice & Virtue

Getting out of debt is all about self denial, saving money and cutting back on unncessary expenditures. I'm always looking for ways to cut back but I still have my weak spots.

For instance I could save loads of money if I could live without:

Guilty Pleasure #1: Netflix $19.47/month
Whoever came up with Netflix is a genius. The worst thing in the world is going to a video rental store and having to spend hours browsing movies because whoever you are with can't make up their mind what movie they want to watch. Netflix is video store liberation. As great as Netflix is I really don't need it. I could be doing better things with myself like learning a new language or reading a book but its just so much fun to rent every episode of Sex and the City and spend an entire weekend catching up on the episodes that you missed.

Guilty Pleasure #2: Audiobooks $14.95/month
My iPod gets very hungry and demands audiobooks on a regular basis. Audiobooks make my life worth living when I commute to and from work. Such great literary classics such as "Confessions of a Shopaholic" and "The Devil Wears Prada" may have saved my life by dulling the urge to commit road rage or from dozing off while driving on the freeway.

Guilty Pleasure #3: Tivo $12.99/month
TV with no commercials. Nuf said.

Although I have my guilty pleasures, I must say that I do deny myself plenty of things.

Sacrifice #1: Having my own place

This is the mother of all sacrifices. Living at home is like subjecting oneself to constant torture. Its the torture of having no space for any of your things. The torture of having to go through the doggie obstacle course because you are forced to live with 4 horse-sized dogs. And the torture of having no privacy. All of it is worth it though especially if you live in southern California and you can't even get a decent studio apartment for $700.

Sacrifice #2: Nice hair-cuts, manicures, pedicures, new clothes, make-up....
You can imagine how fugly I look!

Sacrifice #3: Eating Out
I hate eating my money. Imagine how much money we could save if we didn't have to eat. I have a love/hate relationship with food. Some of it is soooo good and yummy but we have to eat so often (3 times a day!) that it becomes a chore. I try to minimize the damage by packing a lunch every day to work and eating at home as often as possible.

So those are my little vices and virtues. What are some of yours?

If only I could get my hands on this...

Great Deal at Amazon

Amazon.com is currently offering a $50 rebate when you buy certain Kimberly-Clark and Unilever Products (Cottonelle, Huggies, Dove, Kleenex, All Laundry, Scott Paper Towels, Q-Tip, Viva Paper, Degree, Lever 2000, Kotex, Vaseline, & Pull-Ups). This is a great time to stock up on all those items you use around the house. All the items qualify for free shipping (shipping would have cost a whoppin' $43 if I actually had to pay for it). I was able to buy tons of stuff I would have bought otherwise.

You always need toilet paper, paper towels, Kleenex, body wash, laundry detergent etc so you might as well stock up while its 50% off!

Offer good from July 1- July 31.

Get Your $50 Rebate

Trash Into Cash

I've been thinking lately about water bottles. More specifically, I've been thinking about how much water bottles are worth. I have this terrible habit of leaving empty water bottles lying around and letting them accumulate in piles in my car and in my room. Gross, I know. Today was cleaning day so as I was looking at my collection of bottles I wondered if like aluminum cans, I could cash in on them at the recycling center. After doing some research on the net I realized that all this time I've been giving away my money to the city (the city collects the recyclable goods with the trash). Evidentally this whole time I could have been cashing in on the CRV (California Refund Value) on almost all my plastic and glass containers.

I've always been a fan of recycling for environmental reasons but now recycling will really start paying off for me. Granted, you probably won't get rich off of recycling but if you're going to do it anyways (and you should), then you might as well get paid to do it. What's amazing is that more than 1 billion water bottles are ending up in the trash every year in California and that’s about $26 million in unclaimed California Refund Value (CRV) deposits annually. All those plastic bottles also add up to a total of 194 thousand yards of cubic landfill space each year, enough to cover an area 50 yards wide by one inch deep from the coast of San Francisco to San Luis Obispo (source: EMA).

Heres the low down:

CRV RATES
4 cents per container less than 24 ounces
8 cents per container more than 24 ounces
For juice containers above 48 ounces, no deposit is collected or paid back to you.

Examples of CRV items
Soda bottles
Soda cans
Beer cans
Beer bottles
Water bottles
Sports drinks
Tea and coffee drinks
Juices ( less than 48 ounces )

Items NOT included in the CRV program:
Wine bottles
Milk jugs
Juice boxes ( Tetra Pak )
Juices in foil pouches
Juices ( more than 48 ounces )
Diet drinks

Don't be surprised if you see me dumpster diving for bottles and cans!

I made another payment today to mentally psyche msyelf out. Now I've got the debt down to the $17k's!

Current Debt: $17,936.31

My Annual Review

Finally it's time for my annual review. I've been slaving away for a whole year and the time has finally come. It feels like its been more like 5 years and that I have aged 10 years since then. I was thinking this morning about time and working. It seems as though I have been willing the time to pass by as quick as possible and I am constantly measuring my time in paychecks. It's not that I'm living paycheck to paycheck necessarily but I get such a great joy out of making another payment on my credit card because it means that much less time that I will be working solely to pay off my debt.

Part of the process of the annual review is to do a self evaluation. The questions are pretty generic but are amazingly difficult for me to answer. Its easy to list my accomplishments and talk about all the clever ways I have overcome obstacles and been of use to the company. It's the questions about the future that really stump me. How am I supposed to answer the question, "What are your professional plans for the future?" "What skills would you like to acquire?" "How do you see yourself growing in the company?"

My honest answers to those questions would probably get me fired. "Well, I am really only working here until I get out of debt. As soon as I get out of debt and save up some money, I'm outta here!"

My only other real goal for the future is to buy a chateau (yes, a chateau), have a little vegetable garden and knit or paint or write for the rest of my life. I don't think this would sound great as a career goal either.

As this is my first job, I'm not sure what to expect as a raise. I would be happy with 10% but I'm not sure if this is low or high? My sister seems to think that I should ask for another $15,000 and then at least they would give me $10K but somehow I think she is crazy. The better my raise, the sooner I can get out of debt.

These stupid future questions are delaying my much needed raise. I've had the paper for 3 days and I'm still not done with it. I keep thinking about skills, skills, skills....what skills do I want??? And then I think about Napoleon Dynamite and his bow hunting and numchuck skills and contemplate putting that on my review just for giggles.

Current Debt: $18,036.31

(stupid finance charges)

To Save or Not to Save?

Let me just say that I am terrible at saving money. Big surprise? Ok, Ok, I know what you are thinking...its not because I have out of control spending habits. Its just because saving money is so boring. I'd rather put my money to good use instead of hoarding it away in a dark corner like a squirrel hoards acorns for the winter. With such a huge amount of debt wouldn't it be better to pay off my debt than to put it in a savings account?

I did some research and found this cool calculator that can tell you how much money you would save or lose if you paid of your debt as opposed to putting your money in a savings account.

If for example, you are a slave to your credit card as I am and owe approximately $17,981.00 with a 3.5% APR and pay approximately $1,000 towards your debt every month it would cost you $839 over a period of two years if you put that into a savings account with a 3% interest rate.

A little savings is necessary to have around for emergencies. I've decided to put away $1,000 for life's little hiccups. They say that you should save at least 3 months salary in case of unemployment but this will obviously vary from person to person. I live at home and don't have dependents so I can get by on a small cushion while I dig myself out of my mess while other people with families and mortgage payments should plan on saving considerably more.

Saving money doesn't have to be all bad. I previously had my savings account with Wells Fargo and was earning not even .06% in my savings account every month. I finally looked around and found out that ING Direct pays loads more at 3% and offered a $25 bonus just for signing up through a friend and will give $10 for every person that you refer. So far, so good. I have referred 3 people plus the $25 sign up bonus and have made $55 just for saving my money. If any of you are in the market for a savings account, let me know and I will send you the link.

Current Debt: $17.981,00

Another payday....

another credit card payment.

Current Debt: $17,981.00

Driving sucks...why not rideshare?

Driving is a dirty habit. Not only does it really make a mess out of Mother Earth but it costs a fortune. Gas prices are only getting higher and I've already put an extra 18,000 miles on my car it just one short year.

To make it even worse, it is time consuming. I am going out on a limb here to say that southern California is the traffic capital of the world....well maybe not considering China. At any rate, even though I leave my house at 6 a.m. everyday I still end up sitting in traffic for an hour to get to work and an hour just to get home. If we break it down that is approximately 500 hours = 20 days = nearly 3 weeks that I spend every year in my car just trying to get to work.

Today was like any other day. I was basically parked on the I-5 on my way to work when I spotted a van speeding by in the carpool lane. On the side it read www.vanpool.com. "Muy interessante," I mused to myself. So being the good employee that I am, once I got to work I immediately checked it out.

Apparently, I can have someone else do all the driving while we cruise in the carpool lane laughing at all the suckers in the non-"HOV" lanes. For all of you out there that aren't down with the rideshare lingo that's HOV for High Occupancy Vehicle. Awww yeah.

The cost for the rideshare is approximatley $75-125/month. That's about how much I spend on gas right now but if you subtract all of the additional costs of oil changes, insurance, wear and tear on the vehicle it is not a bad deal. For example:

A commuter driving a 1997 Nissan Maxima 50 miles to and from work pays approximately $40.17 in maintenance, $15 in additional insurance, $63.91 for gas and $147.92 in car depreciation each month, making his/her total approximate monthly commute cost $267.00.

* Depreciation is typically the most dramatic commuting cost and most difficult to recognize. A car's value is based primarily on its age and mileage. Therefore, the older a car and the higher the mileage, the less it is worth.

* Fuel alone in your own car is usually more expensive than the total monthly cost of a vanpool or carpool, and the current standard pump rate for gas is over $1.50 per gallon (ok, thats old, I admit).

* The need for maintenance increases in accordance with wear and tear. By using your car to commute to and from work, you increase the frequency of scheduled maintenance (e.g. brakes, oil change, etc.) as well as the likelihood of increased unscheduled repairs.

*Almost all major auto insurance companies offer significant discounts (10% to 30%) to drivers who designate their cars as a "recreational vehicles only," which means to be used solely for purposes other than driving to work.

Even better, there are tax incentives for ridesharing. The tax incentive will allow you to defer up to $100 a month to pay for commuting related expenses. That is insane!

Vanpool here I come.

Bonuses and Taxes

I'm rich! Woohoo! Well not exactly. My employer offers a $2,000 bonus if you refer someone who is hired by the company. I really wanted that bonus. I told everyone I knew to get a job at my company. I begged. I pleaded. JUST GIVE ME YOUR RESUME. I WILL GET YOU A JOB. It amazed me how hard it was to convince people to let me get them a job. I almost resorted to putting my own ads on Monster.com.

After sweating and toiling and losing most of my self dignity, I was able to get my friend a job and today I got the first half of my bonus (I will get the next $1,000 after 3 months). The only problem is is that after taxes my $1000 bonus turned into a measly $550.

Don't get me wrong. I have no problem paying taxes. I think taxes are necessary to ensure that we continue living in comfort with roads, schools, and police officers. On a side note, I just want to say that I think its really contradictory for people to claim to be patriotic, support the war in Iraq and then bitch about taxes. You can't have it both ways people. But I digress.

The thing that really erks me is that I know that the HR person took out too much for taxes. Eventually, I will get this back in the form of a tax return at the end of the year, but in the meantime I am giving the government an interest free loan while I am paying interest on my credit cards. I used to think that overpaying on taxes was a good thing because I didn't notice it was gone and at the end of the year I got a nice lump sum of money. It was like painless saving. The only difference is that at least with my savings account I can earn 3% interest. If I overpay in taxes I get zip, zilch, nada.

I am done complaining now because regardless of how much I have paid in taxes I am still $550 richer. To celebrate, I made a nice little payment of $700 to my credit card bringing me to a new total of:

$18,481.98

Raising the Minimum Payments

So have you heard yet? I hate to be the bearer of good/bad news but banks are starting to raise the required minimum payments from 2% to 4% every month. Currently, my minimum payments are approximately $383...soon they say my minimum payments will double to a whoppin' $767.28! Not that I mind or anything. I already pay more than that every month anyways. But I live at home and don't have to pay any rent and have a full time steady job. I feel bad for all those people living paycheck to paycheck who are struggling to pay just their minimum every month.

So far, Bank of America, Citigroup, Discover Card, and MBNA are among those planning on raising their minimums. JPMorgan Chase plans on experimentng with higher minimums later this year on a small portion of its customers.

I'm sure this will be great for most people as they will end up paying less interest overall. I was reading an interesting fact that a $10,000 balance at 18% would require about 58 years to pay off and cost $28,930.64 in interest at the 2% minimum payment rate. If the minimum payment were 4%, it would take 15 years to pay off and cost $5,915.67 in interest... a savings of over $23,000.


For now, lets just hope that nothing major happens that would stop me from being able to pay nearly $800 a month on my credit card. I guess quitting my job is definitely out of the question now. Damn.

Making Multiple Payments a Month as Opposed to One

I might be able to do this in just another short 18 months. Based on my current debt of $19,181.98 and my average interest rate of 3.5%, I should be able to pay it off by December 2006. According to a debt payment calculator found here I can shave 3 months off of my time by making bi-weekly payments and save $60 in interest payments. Yahoo!



http://www.free-financial-advice.net/time-to-pay-debt.html

10 Ways to Save Money on Gas

From www.gasbuddy.com

1. Avoid High Speeds
As your speed increases, your aerodynamic drag increases in an exponential fashion. Driving 62 mph (100 km/h) vs 75 mph (120 km/h) will reduce fuel consumption by about 15%.

2. Do Not Accelerate or Brake Hard
By anticipating the traffic and applying slow steady acceleration and braking, fuel economy may increase by as much as 20%.

3. Keep Tires Properly Inflated
Keep tire air pressure at the level recommended by your vehicle manufacturer. A single tire under inflated by 2 PSI, increases fuel consumption by 1%.

4. Use A/C Sparingly
When the air conditioner is on it puts extra load on the engine forcing more fuel to be used (by about 20%). The defrost position on most vehicles also uses the air conditioner.

5. Keep Windows Closed
Windows open, especially at highway speeds, increase drag and result in decreased fuel economy of up to 10%.

6. Service Vehicle Regularly
Proper maintenance avoids poor fuel economy related to dirty air filters, old spark plugs or low fluid levels.

7. Use Cruise Control
Maintaining a constant speed over long distances often saves gas.

8. Avoid Heavy Loads
Remove the sand bags from your trunk in the spring and pack lightly for long trips.

9. Avoid Long Idle
If you anticipate being stopped for more than 1 minute, shut off the car. Restarting the car uses less fuel than letting it idle for this time.

10. Purchase a Fuel Efficient Vehicle
When buying a new vehicle examine the vehicle's rated fuel efficiency. Usually choosing a small vehicle with a manual transmission will provide you with great fuel economy.


Sidenote: So, if you're not supposed to use the A/C... and...you're not supposed to roll the windows down...how are you supposed to breathe??? Hmmmmmmm

I will prevail against my evil foes….

I knew I wasn’t just being paranoid. Someone is out to sabotage me and my efforts at getting out of debt. How else would you explain me running over a 3 inch spiky thing in the road causing me to get a flat tire? Why was a 3 inch spiky thing just chillin in the road anyways?? There is a time and a place for 3 inch spikes and it is not in the road in my driving path. Ughhh!!

So now I have tire problems in combination with my laptop problems…which I might add still hasn’t been resolved even after I spent $130 on a fancy new AC adapter. I know, $130 is a lot for an AC adapter but it was the only one that I could find at a physical store with a normal return policy. I just wanted to make sure that buying a new AC adapter would work before I bought a cheaper one off the internet and would have to pay shipping and handling both ways plus 15% restocking fee if I had to return the booger. Why an AC adapter for a laptop would cost $130 is way beyond me but the dang thing is going back and I am going to buy a cheaper one.

At least I know it’s not just me that is having all of this bad luck. I swear the planets are out of alignment as everyone I know is having some sort of misfortune happen to them (laptops being stolen, car accidents, etc). What gives?