Money, Love, and Change

We all know about some of the ways to save on our energy costs – having good windows, sealing up leaks, insulation, etc.  But once that is all said and done, how can we save money on our actual bill?

Until now, we haven’t worried too much about our natural gas bill.  We do what we can to save on heating costs, and have enrolled in our provider’s budget plan to make life easier.  The budget plan is really nice – you pay a fixed amount 11/12 months out of the year, and then pay the remaining balance on the 12th month.  We’ve been pretty happy – our monthly bill is about $95, and our remaining balance last month was less than $50.

We got our updated budget plan today, and were a little surprised.  We expected an increase, but were taken aback by a new amount of $150.  This increase is due to the expected rise in energy costs this winter.  Wow!

After looking at our provider’s website, I found that we have the option to choose our natural gas supplier, and that some of them offer fixed rate plans.  One supplier had a fixed rate plan for this year that was already 0.13 cheaper/ccf than our current rate, and it would be locked for one year.

I know that this isn’t going to add up to a lot of money if the rates stay where they are, but it is reasonable to expect that rates are going to steadily rise as winter approaches. I’m thinking that it might be a good idea to lock in a rate now.

Do you have a fixed rate plan for natural gas?  If so, I would love to hear about your experience!

I saw this posted at Meishien.com this morning when dropping Entrecards, and thought that I would spread the word.

Basically, Caring.com will donate $10 to the Alzheimer’s Association for every blog or website (up to 1000) that creates a purple ribbon and puts it on their site. You do need to click on the ribbon once in order to activate it (I’m assuming that upon activation, the ribbon is validated and the donation will be made).

Seems like an easy thing to do for a good cause! If you like, please take a moment to create your own ribbon today.

Is it Alzheimer’s?

Get a Web Ribbon

I’ve reviewed Boomertowne in the past, and talked about how it used to be a legitimate place to earn gift cards.  Even after June 1, when they made some changes, I still thought they were pretty good.  Now I would like to change my opinion.

They currently owe my husband and I over $500 in gift cards, and nothing has been sent for orders placed after May 9.  Apparently communications are starting to break down (checking the Discussion Forums on the Boomertowne web site is one indication).  There are reports that some people have gotten a gift card here and there, but the overwhelming majority of people are wondering if the site is going to tank.

So for now, I would not recommend this site.  Hopefully they will get things back on track, but the lack of communication is, in my opinion, a very bad sign.

If you’re a member of Boomertowne, when was the last time you received a gift card?

It was an interesting weekend, to say the least…

On Friday evening, our tv and light started turning on and off on their own, as if possessed.  Upon investigation, we found that a switch that is used to turn on that particular outlet was extremely hot and making popping noises.  This didn’t seem good.  After cutting the circuit and letting things cool down,  we took the switch out of the wall.  It looked like it was from 1950 (when the house was built) and smelled awful.  Ironically, we smelled this earlier in the week, but thought it was the computer that had just died.

After avoiding an electrical fire on Friday, we hit the road early Saturday morning to look for a new computer (and stop at Lowe’s for a new switch).  We carried the cell phone with us, since we were hoping to pick up my husband’s truck on the way back – it was in the shop for an oil change and to have the brakes looked at (it started shimmying when going down hills this week, so we wanted to have it checked on right away).

On the way to the store, we got a call about the truck.  I knew the news could not be that good, as my husband used words such as “Really?”, “Wow”, and “Sure, Monday would be fine…” when he was on the phone with the mechanic.

“So, what’s the damage?”  I asked, after he got off the phone.

Basically, the tie rods were about to come off – the mechanic said he was surprised that my husband had not been in an accident – they were that bad.  We were also going to need new rotors, as the old ones had been machined a couple of times already.  Coupled with the annual inspection and emission test, along with a radiator flush, I knew things weren’t looking too sunny. The price tag?  Close to $1000.

My husband cringed as he broke the news – I think he was waiting for the four-letter words to start flowing, which is rare now that we have a kid.  But in old times this situation might have warranted at least a couple of them.

I kept silent for a minute, and then asked him if he thought they would let me use my $30 off $300 coupon.  We both burst out laughing.  Even the kid started laughing from his car seat, as if the idea was hilarious.

The way I see it (and my husband agrees), we are very lucky.  Our house didn’t burn down, and I much rather pay $1000 in car repair bills than have a husband in a car wreck.  We’re thankful that we have the emergency fund – a couple of years ago, this would have been a pretty big financial hurdle.  Now it’s just a bump in the road.

We’ll still put the bill on the credit card (to get the rewards), but will pay it off in the same day.  Needless to say, we’re going to put off purchasing another computer for a couple of weeks (at the very least).  I know that we still have a lot of debt, and are not close to true financial freedom yet, but it’s so nice to be able to laugh at things like this and easily see the bigger picture.

What about you?  Could you laugh this off?  Or would it have been a string of expletives?

It’s almost official.

We decided not to extend our warranty on our Dell Inspiron 9100 (from 4 years to 5 years) because of the cost. It would have been about $350, and we had just gotten a new hard drive, DVD drive, and motherboard while it was still under the 4-year warranty. What could possibly go wrong?

Maybe the CPU could die?

That’s a possibility. At least, that’s what the error code said yesterday. I reseated the CPU in a lame attempt that it might have been knocked loose. This process took a little over an hour and countless numbers of tiny screws, but I still got the same error message after putting it all back together (hey, at least I didn’t break anything in the process).

So here’s the question: Should I purchase a refurbished CPU for about $120 and hope that this is what is wrong? It could also be memory, but I reseated both individually to no avail, and I doubt that both of them went bad at the same time. It could also be the motherboard, which isn’t even worth replacing (in terms of cost). From what I can find online, if purchasing a CPU doesn’t work, I would have to pay the shipping to send it back as well as a 20-25% restocking fee.

We could also start looking for another computer. This behemoth of a laptop is almost 5 years old, and my husband hates it (he’s the one that is the primary user). Ideally, I would like to find a new computer, and then try to repair the Dell and sell it online.

I want to be frugal, but at the same time I don’t want to pay money to temporarily revive a dying horse. What would you do?

If you’re looking for a free tool to help you at your first attempt at making a budget, I would recommend taking some time to check out The Money Case.  After taking a couple of minutes to put your initial information in, you are given a breakdown of your budget by percentages.  After taking the time to input your actual expenditures, you are able to compare them to your budget.  Good stuff!

This software is very visual, with graphs that make it easy to see where your money is going.  I currently use Microsoft Money, and most of the time the graphs aren’t accurate – this software does a better job.

If I could change anything about this program, I would like the ability to enter monthly income (as opposed to yearly).  Although my husband’s salary remains constant throughout the year, mine changes monthly.  Therefore, the accuracy of the percentages is off for our budget.

I would highly recommend this program for anyone just starting out with a budget, as well as anyone considering going from a double income family to a single income family.  Being able to look at percentages can really help one to see where extraneous expenses can be cut, and whether or not it is realistic to be able to afford to live on one income.

I am really happy – I just got myself some “free” babysitting!  I have a neighbor who is studying for a math exam she needs to pass for teaching, and I offered to tutor her.  She’s got the concepts down, but just needs some help with test-taking strategies and finding some ways to solve the problems a little faster.

For me, it’s been some time since I have tutored math, and I have forgotten how much I enjoy it.  When my neighbor insisted on paying me, I felt that it wasn’t fair to charge an hourly rate, since we discussed our kids and other topics between math problems.  So we worked out a deal where she will watch the kid (she also has a son who is close in age to mine, and the kids play well together) in exchange for my services.

This is so great for my husband and I – we really can’t justify paying for a babysitter since money is tight, but we haven’t been out on our own in a really long time (I can’t remember the last time… definitely not in 2008!) since we don’t have family in the area.

Have you ever exchanged services?  Has it worked out well?

…and it’s for a whole night!  Wisebread posted about the Super 8 promotion, where you can book a room for $8.88 if you’re one of the first 800 people to make a reservation after 8PM EST.  This promotion lasts through August 15th, and I can verify firsthand that it works.

We were able to book a room for our Arizona trip – we’ll be staying in Sedona for one night, and had budgeted $70 for a hotel room (rooms in Sedona go for anywhere between $100 – $150, and we were going to split the cost with our friends).  Since we’re just looking for a place to sleep, Super 8 will be just fine for our needs.  After taxes, the room came to $9.97 (regular price $150).

This is so great, because I’m going to take the other $60 and put it towards the car rental (see my post here on the August financial challenge).  I owe a big thanks to Wisebread for saving me quite a few bucks!

OK, I dropped the ball after being bamboozled.  I had one heck of a headache yesterday, and took a day off from everything internet.  I did the same thing for most of today.  It was a nice break.

Why was it so good to get away?  Perhaps it has something to do with watching the Olympics at night.  It might also have something to do with the nice weather – the kid and I have been outside all day today (as well as yesterday).  I also took some time to finish reading Tolle’s “A New Earth” (would recommend getting it out at the library – a bit verbose, but the concepts are interesting).

But now I’m back, I think.  Stay tuned

It was a hard toddler head that inadvertendly hit my nose.  There was no nosebleed (although I kept checking, since my entire nose was numb), but I have one heck of a headache despite two tylenol.  I’m just hoping to make it through tutoring tonight, and will sleep this one off.

Until tomorrow…