Our stimulus check arrived last week. I just transferred about $540 to our emergency fund to bring it up to $5000 again. This was our first Dave Ramsey goal that I talked about in a previous post. So it’s not official yet (since technically the money isn’t in the account), but it’s in the process! It feels great, but I will feel better about it once I have secured another part-time work-at-home job to bring in income over the summer (I currently tutor online, and the hours will be decreasing soon). I don’t want to have obtained our goal...
Saving Money
Angel Food Ministries
Wow – I wish I had heard of this sooner! With the rising costs of gas and food, I know of quite a few people who are having trouble making ends meet. Please let others know about this program – I am including information below that is taken directly from their website: Angel Food Ministries is a non-profit, non-denominational organization dedicated to providing grocery relief and financial support to communities throughout the United States. There are no qualifications, minimums, income restrictions, or applications. Everyone is encouraged to participate. Some churches even encourage participants to apply the money they saved...
MagicJack review
I mentioned before that I ordered a MagicJack. I would highly suggest not wasting your time with one. After receiving ours, I followed the directions. I couldn’t get a local number, so went with one in Pottstown PA – this was amusing to my friends when they looked at their caller ID. I placed several calls, and all of them sucked. It was like talking to that Max Headroom guy from the late 80′s. Not only did the voices get digitized, but there was a lot of stuttering and cutting out. Although it may work well for some, my...
Thoughts on Dave Ramsey
I recently finished Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover, and it is a quick and easy read. I would recommend getting it from your local library – I would not buy it just because there are enough blogs and information on his methods on the web (and you can use the cost of the book as your first snowflake!). I think that Get Rich Slowly has a nice synopsis of the book here if you want to get the basic idea before investing your time reading the whole book. Is Total Money Makeover going to change our lives? I’m not...
Get $10 off a $25 purchase when using a Visa card at Lowe’s
I thought that I would share this – we’re not spending a lot on home improvements right now, but this will definitely help to fill the kids sandbox and get us some mulch for the yard! The coupon is good through July 30,2008, and will be e-mailed within 24 hours, according to the website. Here’s the link: http://www.loweswinners.com/LifeTakesVisa/ Enjoy!
Decreasing 401k contributions to offset health plan increase
After finishing the taxes, we decided to decrease my husband’s 401k contributions from 20% to 10% with the intention of putting this money into our Roth IRAs. The next day, we get a letter in the mail with regards to our health care plan. They have changed the salary tiers and the contribution limits. My husband now falls into a higher tier (if he made $1 less, he would still be in his lower tier). The contribution limits have also increased. When all is said and done, he is now making less than he did before his raise after...
How would you like your tax refund? I’d like mine medium-rare this year…
Tax refunds are like steaks – everyone likes them different. Some people like theirs well-done, and blow their huge tax refund on crap they don’t need. Others like theirs rare – they see no reason to give Uncle Sam a free loan. Someday, if both my husband and I have a more predictable income, I would also like our tax refund to be rare, but not to the point that it sends us to the hospital (ie. penalty and interest fees). This year, I am content to see that our taxes are more of a medium-rare affair. I haven’t...
The Story of Stuff
photo credit: Manuel.A.69 A friend of mine sent me a link to a site with a 20-minute video called “The Story of Stuff” with Annie Leonard. It took me over 3 months to follow the link an get around to watching it, being that if I don’t do something right away, it takes me awhile to get to it. I’d highly recommend watching it, and sending it along to others (who hopefully get around to things before I do!). Here is a short excerpt from the website regarding what “The Story of Stuff” is about: “From its extraction through...
Setting goals for April
I feel like February and March kind of flew by. I know that I have been sick, but I also feel like I have been busy. The problem is that I am not sure exactly what I was busy with. There’s all the daily things that have to do with life in general, but this is the first time in awhile where the fruits of my labor are not really tangible. This is why I’ve decided that it is time to set some general goals for April. It’s going to be more like a long list, but I...
Watch tv and movies for free with hulu.com
I have a confession to make. This weekend, we splurged and picked up some potato chips and Oreo cookies at the grocery store. They were real Oreos (not generic), and for the record they were absolutely delicious. Both cookies and chips are an extremely rare find in our household – neither my husband and I really watch our weight (thankfully, we are both at a healthy weight), but we usually keep all junk food out of the house and only have healthy snacks (granola bars, yogurt, etc.). After the kid went to bed, we pulled out the junk food...
