Finance Gets Personal

Yes, that’s right, everyone. I have something special to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, and it ain’t turkey.

It’s termites.

No!!!!!

Monday night, my husband and I went to the Smashing Pumpkins concert. On our way out, we ran into a friend he used to work with. So, we joined the friend and his girlfriend at the bar next door for a drink. Only they knew the bartender…and people kept handing me free drinks…so pretty soon I was trashed.

It was not pretty. Since I have no alcohol tolerance anymore and since I’m on medication that I technically shouldn’t be drinking with, I proceeded to throw up in the passenger’s seat of my car on the way home. And again in my bed. And in the earshot of my father, who was babysitting for us. Again, it was not pretty, and I’m extremely embarrassed about the whole thing.

My husband cleaned out the car as best he could that night, but I needed to give it a more thorough cleaning. So after work tonight, I went to the car wash with the free vacuum cleaners, and took one of each type of cleaning supply I own. My stepson was dying to get out of the house, so I took him with me.

Of course, after going through the car wash and vacuuming, my stepson was about ready to pee his pants and there was no bathroom there. So, we headed home.

Of course (again), it’s dark, cold and my side of the garage still has a lot of leftover crap from our June garage sale in it (Yes, June. Have you seen the Oprah episode about the Messy House Tour? I’m totally working on that now). So, in order to have enough light to clean up my crusty car, I needed to make room for my crusty car in the garage.

One hour into cleaning the garage, I discovered intruders…termite tunnels running up the side of the garage foundation behind some ladders.

This is horrible! Horrible, horrible, horrible! And what timing!

But I don’t think they’ve been there long since we just reorganized the garage in the Spring, and I’m sure I would have noticed the tunnels then (there are just three of them).

So, I guess you could almost argue that getting so drunk that I puked in my car and called in sick to work the next day might have actually saved me a lot of money.

We shall see.

Photo Credit: angel by ilselieve, used under Creative Commons licensing.

I’m afraid that my plan to transfer prescriptions between pharmacies for gift cards has turned out to be a little less lucrative than I originally thought.

Friday night, I took $40 worth of change to the CoinStar machine at CVS, thinking I would get an Old Navy gift card to take care of a few Christmas presents (plus, I’d get an extra $10 gift card in the mail with the CoinStar holiday bonus program). Alas, Old Navy was not one of the gift cards offered at that location. No problem, I thought - I’ll just get a CVS gift card and use that to buy an Old Navy gift card, since I knew they sold them inside. Only…no. Apparently, you are not allowed to use a CVS gift card (or ECBs, but you probably already knew that) to buy other gift cards.

No!!!!!

Since, I assume, you get an actual $25 CVS gift card when you transfer a prescription to CVS, there is no way to turn that gift card into anything besides CVS merchandise.

What about Walgreens? Well, it turns out you are still safe with that one, because Walgreens typically gives you a $25 gift check, which you can use to purchase other gift cards. But, like at CVS, you can only buy other store’s gift cards with cash or a credit/debit card.

At least I know there will be plenty of Black Friday deals to spend my CVS gift card on! And since my stepson busted his chin open while ice skating and had six stitches yesterday, there’s no money left in the health care spending account now anyway :).

Photo Credit: ClearRx prescription bottles by bartificial, used under Creative Commons licensing.

eBay sells tons of new items for prices lower than you can find in stores (even on Black Friday). Right now, you can get 25% back on eBay purchases through Microsoft Live Search’s Cashback Program. You might also be able to save 10% with the code CHOLIDAYNOV2008. For more details (and an explanation better than what I’d be able to provide), check out this post at Living a Frugal Lifestyle. You can also read more about it here in the SlickDeals forum.

To give you an example, I purchased my stepson’s Christmas present, the PSP Ratchet and Clank bundle for $143. It normally retails for $199.99, and the best deal I’ve seen on it so far is $199.99 at Target with a $20 Gift Card on Black Friday (and you know that’s the last place I want to be at 5:30 a.m. the day after Thanksgiving!).

In other news, my work has been crazy for the past week or so. I’m hoping to get back to more frequent posting soon!

Yes, it’s already November 10! I suppose my procrastination has something to do with the fact that my net worth is continuing to fall despite my extra debt payments…

Net Worth as of October 3: $67,364
Net Worth as of November 1: $64,030

Here are October’s highlights:

• At the beginning of the month, I discovered the concept of the anti-charity. With that in mind, I decided that I would contribute $25 to the National Rifle Association if I did not maintain a calorie intake of 1679 each day for the month of October (which would put me on track to lose one pound a week). Well, I did very well for the first half of the month, but then I started sliding. And once I knew I’d gone over my limit for two days, I figured there was no point continuing (stomach’s logic, not brain’s). So, did I donate $25 to the NRA? No, I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Yes, I know - I’m a bastard. In the future, I think daily rewards/punishment might be more effective (i.e., $5 for every day I go over). Along with greater accountability.
• Fourth grade tackle football turned out to be a big expense, especially since my stepson broke his finger at practice. Luckily, we managed to finish the season without too much more financial damage - other than the pizza party where we got screwed by the whole “split the check” thing and *probably* ended up paying the coaches’ and other parents’ bar tab (never actually got to see the bill because there were so many people - and we drank Coke, people!).
• I was incredibly excited when gas fell below $3 a gallon on October 2, but now it’s down to $1.65. That has definitely helped with the budget!
• October was a three paycheck month, which means that I was able to get a head start on Christmas shopping. However, I’ll be transferring prescriptions for gift cards like crazy for the next two months to supplement our Christmas budget, which has run into a little snag - I forgot about our $588 personal property tax bill that’s due by the end of the year (how do I always forget about that when it happens every year?!?).
• Oh, and there is one other possible reason why our Christmas budget is tight. After spending a lot of money on clothes and home organization, I’m now operating on a cash envelope system again.
• One other reason for the budget shortfall: I think I got ripped off when I had my brakes done. At least, that’s the only logical explanation I can come up with for why it ended up costing nearly three times what my coupon was for.
• Despite all that, my student loan balance is down to $4,280 and will be paid off by the end of the year.

Our retirement accounts are bringing down our net worth, so I’m now going to take this opportunity to remind myself that we paid off $2,754 in debt last month. Yea!

Photo Credit: Good Wine, Bad Economy by MotherPie, used under Creative Commons licensing.

While I’m trying to curb my deal-shopping a bit, it gives me some satisfaction to pass on what I consider the best deals on the web!

• Free 8×10 Picture from Walgreens (Through Saturday, 11/8)
  Order one online using the code FREEPIC and pick it up at your local Walgreens.

• Free 5 lb. Bag of Science Diet Dog Food at Petco (Through Sunday, 11/9)
  Technically this isn’t an online deal, but it’s too great to pass up! 5 lb. bags of Science Diet dog food are on sale this week at Petco for $5 for P.A.L.S. members. Print a $5 off coupon here, and join P.A.L.S. at your local Petco store if you’re not already a member (it’s free!) to get it for free. Choose from Adult Original, Adult Light, Puppy Small Bites or Senior Small Bites formula.

• 75% Off Halloween Costumes at K-Mart with Free Shipping
  Do yourself a favor and get your Halloween gear for next year now! K-Mart is currently offering free shipping on everything except furniture, TVs and computers. Check out their clearance Halloween costumes for boys, girls, adults and infants, plus their selection of masks and accessories. Shop through Upromise to get 2% college savings.

• Personalized Photo Ornaments for $1.99 Each with Free Shipping
  Christmas gift alert! Artscow has 3″ white porcelain circle, oval, star and heart ornaments that you can personalize with any picture (in color or black and white, imprinted on the surface). A red ribbon hanger is included. Use code ORNAMENT199 at checkout to reduce the price to $1.99 with free shipping.

• 2 PSP Games for $20 at Walmart Plus $3.97 for Shipping
  This is a great deal for video games. See the available PSP games here and shop through Upromise for 1% college savings. Select Wii, XBox 360 and DS games are also available for 2/$30 (it appears PS3 games are no longer available for this deal).

As my husband and I were searching the Internet for free hobby ideas, we came across a comment from someone about “geocaching.”

Apparently, geocaching is an outdoor high-tech treasure hunt using GPS. People hide “treasures” in containers throughout the world, then post the coordinates and other clues online at geocaching.com. When you find the geocache, you usually sign a log book and replace the treasures (often special coins or other unique but inexpensive finds) with your own, then go back and post your pictures and thoughts about the experience.

I think it sounds really cool!

You can do a search here to see how many geocaches are hidden near you.

Obviously, this hobby is frugal, but not entirely free unless you already own a GPS. My husband and I plan to each save $20 from our personal “allowance” every paycheck to purchase one. Assuming we can find one for around $100, we’ll be up and running in another month.

I think it’s a great solution for us because it’s something we can all do as a family (including the dog!) and is an active pursuit. Plus, we live within a few miles of a lake/state park and own a Jeep that hasn’t seen much off-road action.

Have any of you heard of geocaching or tried it before? I’d love to hear your experiences.

<Photo Credit: Claxton Crossroads by Thomas Powers, used under Creative Commons licensing.

Here we go again.

It started with a few innocent purchases at Ann Taylor for 50-90% off.

Then, I started buying anything I wanted that was on sale since I had a $50 off $100 promotion code.

After the promotion code expired, I spent $6 at T.J. Maxx on “The Everything Home Storage Solutions Book,” and started organizing our bathroom and walk-in closet. Of course, this required a new ironing board ($20), bins for the closet ($30), a row of hooks ($16), a recycling container for under the sink ($7) and a wall cabinet ($50). So that’s $123 so far, and I haven’t even bought wooden hangers for the fourth of the closet that still needs them, or bins/boxes/shelfs for the toiletry stockpile under the sink.

I’m out of control.

My husband called me on it last night, as I was sitting on the floor of the bathroom with a million pieces of the wall cabinet I was trying to assemble (with no success, I might add).

“How much did you spend tonight?”

“Um, $70.”

“I thought you weren’t going to spend very much money on this!”

“Yeah, well we need a cabinet to keep all the medicine in instead of having it in a big heap under the sink!”

“Look, that’s great that you want to organize the house, but don’t you remember the talk we had last time this happened? We can do this kind of stuff when we’re debt free.”

“What, in three years? I can’t take it anymore! Our house is always a mess and I’m embarrased to have people over!”

“We just need to clean the house. There’s no need to buy all this stuff!”

(Crying now) “But the reason our house is never clean is because we’re unorganized! I can’t organize stuff when we have nothing to put things in!”

“Have you been taking your medicine?

“Yes!!!!”

“Are you almost out or something?”

“No!!!!”

“Are you bailing on me?”

“No.”

“Well, it’s not fair. You know, I’d like to buy a new computer or go on vacation, but you don’t see that happening! I know it’s for the good of the house, but you need to find something else to do.”

“But I’m bored!

“So get a hobby. I’m going to get a hobby.”

“Everything I like to do costs money - photography, fashion, decorating…”

“So let’s find a free hobby”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know, let’s look online. But, I think I need to take your debit card.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right. It’s in my purse.”

(Holds up credit card) “You’re not using this are you?”

“No.”

“OK, well I’ll leave that in here for emergencies. Where’s all your cash? You only have like $25 in here? Did you already spend all your money?”

“No, I just haven’t gone to the ATM yet.”

“OK, well go to the ATM tomorrow, then give me your card. If you put all the cabinet pieces in a pile and put all the little pieces in a bag, I’ll put it together Wednesday night after work.”

“Really? OK.”

So, it’s back to cash only for me…

Photo Credit: Reorganizing my closet by Melilotus, used under Creative Commons licensing.