Money, Love, and Change

photo credit: craigCloutier

What’s a gal to do?  After a long conversation with the husband yesterday, we decided to ditch the idea of a netbook and shell out the extra money for a new desktop.  I had been researching desktops for awhile, and we took the plunge (We got a solid deal, which I’m sure I’ll talk about in another post).

Why so soon?  A big part of it has to do with my husband’s scanning project that he has been working on.  His grandfather was a photographer, and he is creating a digital archive of all of his work.  Not to sound morbid, but there are only a couple of relatives left who can help us document some of the images, and they really look forward to our trips home so that they can see the work my husband has done.  This is something that we can’t put a price tag on, and the laptop (MacBook) was giving us a bunch of compatibility issues when we would name and transfer files from one operating system to the other.  He has actually stopped working on the project for awhile, and has been anxious to start back up.

Second, I got a call yesterday from a friend who I have been wanting to collaborate with for awhile now.  It’s been one of those things where we get together and toss ideas around, but due to conflicting schedules, nothing has really materialized.  His schedule has freed up, and this is the kind of motivation I need to get back into programming.  He works on Macs exclusively, and I will need to upgrade to Leopard in order to work with him effectively.  Having another computer in the house will make the Leopard upgrade a little less nerve-wrecking.    In addition, with VMWare Fusion (which allows other operating systems to run on a Mac) taking up a whopping 40GB of my 60GB hard drive, it was time to put it on an “application diet” and reinstall it.  Having a new Windows machine makes this about 1000 times easier.

But now, I’m dealing with the nasty repurcussions.  Vista 64 has no interest in running my XP applications.  That’s a lot of fun.  Then, VMWare Fusion vomited today, (ironically, it was immediately after I tweeted someone about how great Fusion was) and I lost my OS.  Recovery was pretty lame, and reinstallation of the .NET framework to run the one program I need for tutoring was a complete failure.  Awesome.

Not to mention, we have guests coming for New Years, and I need to set up all my sites with HostGator within the next couple of days.

Any suggestions to deal with the technological chaos?  I’d love to hear them!

photo credit: milele

In a previous post, I mentioned that we hoped to spend $250 total on Christmas this year.  We had $95 dollars left and quite a bit to still get.  So in the end, how did things turn out?

• We actually ended up with $105 to spend, since my mom wanted to contribute to the gift certificate for my stepfather (we had budgeted $20, but only spent $10).
• We spent $15 on my brother – we redeemed $20 in gift cards from Amazon, and split the cost of a Wii game with my grandmother.
• We didn’t get my sister-in-law anything.  Things have been tough for her this year, and she didn’t want to exchange gifts.
• We spent $48 on the tree, which was $13 more than we expected.
• We spent $20 on a gift card for my sister-in-law’s boyfriend, and $20 on a simple train to put under the tree for the kid.  I also spend $5 for some alphabet foam stickers (the kids only request to Santa).

Overall, that put us at $3 over budget for Christmas.  I can live with that!

I would highly recommend a Christmas budget for everyone.  It really forced us to pick and choose what was most important to us, and as an added bonus, we don’t have a ton of useless crap after Christmas!

Did you follow a budget this year?  If so, how did it go?

photo credit: Stuart Chalmers

This is one instance where I am so glad that I was wrong.  Yesterday, I was wondering if our truck had finally reached the end of the road.  It turns out that the rear brakes had iced up (it’s a pickup, which explains why warming up the truck for 45 minutes had no effect).

In addition to a free tow (thanks AAA!), our auto shop didn’t charge us anything.  Maybe they felt sorry for us, or are full of the holiday spirit, but I am so thankful that we didn’t have to shell out any money.

This did serve as a huge wakeup call, though.  I don’t like the fact that we don’t have a huge down payment saved up right now, especially considering the economy.  I’ve been thinking about our 2009 goals, and am reassessing our priorities based on yesterday’s experience.  I really don’t want any car/truck loan if we can help it!

photo credit: clspeace

I woke up this morning to find that the car was gone, but the truck was still parked in the street.  My husband always takes the truck to work, so I knew that this wasn’t a good sign.

I called the husband.  He thought that the truck just needed some time to warm up, since it was cold this morning.  He said that he couldn’t get it to move.

I went out and let the truck warm up for 45 minutes.  Basically, it will start and shift into gear, but it won’t move.  At all.  I called AAA, and it’s been towed to the repair shop.  According to the tow truck guy, “The transmission’s locked.  That’s never good.”  Hmmm….

My husband is in denial that anything serious is wrong, but I have a feeling that the truck may be at the end of its road.  After dumping $1500 into it earlier this year, ponying up for transmission work on a vehicle with about 200,000 miles on it falls into my “money in the toilet” category.

We’ll see what the auto shop says.  Luckily, we can easily do with one car until at least the end of January.

Anyone got a nice reliable car for sale?

photo credit: bettyx1138

I have to admit, it is nice to have all of our Christmas shopping done!  The only thing left that I might look for is alphabet stickers (when I asked the kid what he was going to ask for from Santa, this was his response.  Who knew?)

We did pick up some good deals this week.  I ended up getting gift cards from Walmart using their $20 off $80 promotion.  I got $80 in gift cards for $60.  We combined this promotion with the American Express wish list gift certificate on my husband’s card, and we were able to get $100 in gift cards for $55.  Good stuff!  We’ll be saving these cards until we need them, but we did give one away – one of my husband’s coworkers is part of the Big Brother program, so we gave him a gift card to buy stuff for his “little brother”.

Other than a trip to the craft store for some yarn (we just found out our friends are having a baby boy – time to put my new knitting skills to use!), it’s going to be a cozy weekend at home.

How about you?  Will you be braving the malls this weekend?  If so, please follow a budget!

photo credit: inoc

Wow – it’s environmentally friendly, and it’s free!  Treat yourself to a one year digital magazine subscription from The Read Green Initiative. All you need to do is pick your magazine and enter your e-mail address.

Then, sign up for an account with Zinio, which provides sales and distribution of digital content.  When I signed up for my Zinio account, all I had to do was provide an e-mail address and create a password (no physical address or credit card information was required).

Being a personal finance geek, I picked Kiplinger’s for my free magazine, but there is definitely something for almost anyone (US News and World Report was one of the choices, for example).

I also installed the reader so that I can download the digital issues to read at my convenience (sans internet connection).  If you’re really into supporting the green initiative, you can also purchase subscriptions from Zinio.

If you decide to try this out, please drop a line and let me know what you think!

photo credit: ArtemFinland

As the year comes to a close, it is always nice to take a look at the finances.  Although I love tracking our finances using Microsoft Money, the level of detail doesn’t always provide a clear look at the underlying picture.

For example, our net worth is approximately the same as last year, but this is due to losses in our retirement accounts, which I am not overly concerned about.  Since we are in our early 30’s, we make regular contributions and reallocate our holdings twice a year.  It’s pretty much on auto-pilot.

But what about our debt?  And our savings?  Are we doing better than last year?  Again, it is hard to tell with Microsoft Money.  I have all of my business accounts listed, as well as our credit card that we use to make our monthly purchases (and then pay off in full each month).  These accounts can give a skewed representation of our financial picture depending on the circumstances.

This is where Mint.com enters into the picture.  Basically, it allows you to track your financial accounts online.  This morning, I spent some time entering the login information for all of our accounts.  Then, I used the “hide” function to get rid of all the accounts that were causing “financial static”.  Now, when I log in, I can easily see the totals for the accounts which represent our true emergency savings, our credit card debt, and our student loan/mortgage debt.

As an added bonus, I am also able to quickly look at our credit cards that do not carry a balance to make sure that no mysterious charges have appeared.  Given our recent experience with this, this feature alone makes it worth taking a look at Mint.com.

I wouldn’t use Mint.com for making a budget or tracking our detailed spending – I have already spent too much time with Microsoft Money to tweak it to my liking, and our finances are tracked in the program from 1999.  But now I have another financial tool in my arsenal to help us keep focused on debt reduction, and I’m really excited!

Have you used Mint.com?  If so, what do you use it for?  Are you happy with your experience?

photo credit: naviniea

Christmas is going to be so much fun this year. Our little one is almost 3 years old, and he’s going nuts with all the Christmas lights around town. He’s been asking about a “Kees-mas tee” all week long, and today is the big day!

Since all of our Christmas shopping is done, it’s going to be a very relaxing holiday season. Here are some of the things we plan on doing as a family this year. Some do cost money, but we feel they are well worth it!

1. Cut your own Christmas tree – Yes, we are buying a real tree again this year. However, we planned ahead and included this cost in our holiday budget. There is a wonderful tree farm near our house – we take the dog and make it into a big event. There is a petting zoo, and you can print coupons for free hot chocolate online. As an added benefit, we always get some of our best holiday pictures on this day!

After the holidays, we cut off a small piece of the trunk and woodburn the year on it. After placing a small hook in it, we have a great holiday ornament!

2. Go see the lights! – Consider both going by foot and by car. I would also recommend seeing if there are any local light displays. For example, we travel to Baltimore each year to see Hampden’s Miracle on 34th Street, where every house is decorated. While many homes here could be considered just “over-the-top” with lights, there is also local art on display, including our favorite Hubcap Tree by Jim Pollock. Luckily, we have friends on 33rd Street, so we get parking earlier in the day and have made a tradition of visiting our friends and taking cider on our walk.

3. Bake some of your holiday gifts – It does cost money for ingredients, but I pick one or two recipes and scale them up to keep things simple. The kid always gets a special job, and after all the cooking is done, we have presents in a pinch. Besides, it’s nice to turn on some Christmas music and smell cookies in the oven!

4. Make holiday crafts together – It doesn’t have to be complicated! This year, for example, we are making construction paper rings for our tree garland. The fun is in the creative process itself – the end product is just an added benefit!

What are some of the fun and frugal things you like to do over the holidays?

photo credit: Fosforix

There have been a couple of times where I have disputed credit card charges in the past, but they were relatively straightforward.  Once, I was charged twice for the same item, and could not contact the company via customer service.  I contacted the credit card company, and it was taken care of almost immediately.  The second time, I was charged 10 times the correct price, and had the original receipt.  Again, the process was relatively straightforward.

Once a year, I tend to make small charges to all of our cards in order to keep them active.  I did this last month, and starting paying our bills last night.  Imagine my dismay when I found that one card had a balance of $62.10 instead of $2.10!  There was a $60 charge for a subscription to American Quarterhorse.  Not only was I clueless about what an American Quarterhorse subscription entails, but I was surprised because the $2.10 charge is the first time I have ever used the card for anything except a balance transfer.  This particular card sits in a drawer at home.

I immediately called the credit card company, and they are going to look into it.  I hope it gets resolved in a timely manner like the others!

In general, even though some credit cards allow you to file a dispute online, I like to call and talk to a person.  Getting a name and specific information helps put my mind at ease.

Have you ever had a mystery charge on a card?  What did you do?

Hello! I am back from vacation, which was wonderful. I have many new blog posts planned, but I wanted to talk a little more about AIDS awareness today.

HIV and AIDS is a topic that is very familiar to me, as it was the topic of my doctoral thesis. I thought that I would just share a couple of interesting tidbits that I learned about while completing my studies.

1. There seems to be this idea that contracting HIV is no big deal, since the virus can be managed with anti-retroviral therapies. However, this is not always the case. First, the virus is constantly mutating in order to evade the drugs. Therefore, if you contract HIV nowadays, chances are that only some of the anti-retroviral drugs will be effective for your particular strain of HIV. Secondly, missing your medication just once or twice is enough to give the virus an opportunity to mutate (and therefore possibly make the drug ineffective). I can’t even remember to take an antibiotic for 14 days…

2. I always get asked about Magic Johnson – people always wonder if he has some miracle drug available to him. He doesn’t. Although I am not a medical doctor and don’t have access to his information, I would guess that he takes his medication on time, every single day. Also, he was infected with HIV a really long time ago, so the particular strain of the virus he contracted probably did not have time to evolve. As a result, more anti-retroviral drugs would be effective for him.

3. As of today, there is no way to vaccinate against HIV, and there is no cure.