May 2010 Net Worth Update

It is the 1st of the month again and it is time for my net worth report card. I had a good month yet again. My house is now done and appraised higher after my remodel. The stock market had a good month too.

As of today my current net worth is ($12,999.72). That is an increase of $2,135.68 over last month. The major contributing factors were a higher home appraisal, good month in the stock market, and more debt repayment.

I expect next month to be a slower month since I have no more major changes coming my way and a tighter budget after refinancing my remodel costs. Things are looking up at works a little bit so I can get my old pay reinstated hopefully sooner than later!

Alternative Income this month:

IT Consulting: $30

Organization: it IS worth the time!

I recently had an appraiser out to my house since I am refinancing my mortgage. I did a lot of cleaning and organizing as a result. I found it astounding just how quickly things can get messy and how much time I can waste just trying to find something.

I am now starting a new habit of trying to put things in the proper place when I am done with it. I know this is not always possible so I try to have an "organization day" every 3 months or so where I simply take the time to put things away properly. This is akin to spring cleaning but simply more often. Nothing is more frustrating than spending 2 hours looking for your insurance document when you could have spent 5 minutes to scan and file it digitally as a PDF in the first place.

Paperwork builds up fast and I shred everything I don't need monthly. I hate paper clutter and am as paperless as I possibly can be. I am also getting into the habit of refusing receipts unless I need them and not taking bags if I only get a couple of items. Less clutter means less recycling, less waste, less time spent cleaning, and more productivity!

As a result of making a conscious effort to be more organized you can reduce stress, wasted time, and save money all in one shot. We all want more time and money to do the things we really want to do and staying organized plays a big part in it. The more clutter you have the more overwhelmed you feel--whether you realize it or not!

Coupons + Deals this week

This week has been another slow one for coupons but I still got a couple great deals.

Here is what I have found:

• 4/25 Sunday Paper: Look at the coupon inserts for Red Baron pizza. They have a free after mail rebate offer for their new "slices" product.
• $29.99 - 3G USB Card wifi router from 1saleaday.com.

Hopefully next week will bring more deals!

Weekly Blog Roundup

This is a series where I link to my favorite blog posts from the financial blogs that I follow and read directly. These are the articles I found particularly useful or good in some way. I hope you enjoy my choices and learn something too!

Week of 4/19/2010:

• New $100 Bill @ Bargaineering. Jim writes about the new $100 note that will come out soon and has a picture. I have always been fascinated with how our money looks and changes over time to attempt to combat counterfeiting.
• Reader Story: Our Financial Turnaround @ Get Rich Slowly. This is a guest post from a GRS reader who tells a pretty amazing story of how they were deep in debt and how they got turned around and are well on their way to becoming financially sound. Good read!
• What do you really have to lose? @ The Simple Dollar. Trent goes in depth in how people think when they finish college and how the should think. Very interesting read and wish I read it a few years ago when I finished school. How different things could have been!
  

These are my favorites for the last week. Feel free to comment and share some others that I may have missed or not even know about. Have a great week!

My House is DONE!

I am celebrating this week. I am FINALLY done with the remodel of my house. It has been a long 9 months and I am happy with the results. I am getting my final cleaning done today and my appraisal tomorrow so I can refinance my mortgage. This is a big milestone.

Some stats:

• Materials cost: $13,500
• Time: 9 months working only evenings and weekends
• Lessons learned: Countless!

This remodel was a test of my own patience, skill, project management, and forced me to learn a lot about construction. I am glad I did it and would do it again!

For those who do not know I bought a foreclosed home in dire need of remodel. It was built in 1981 and everything was original. It is now a nice, updated home that is worth twice what I paid for it. I did almost all the work myself and it only cost me materials (no small cost!).

I can now move on with my life!

Happy Earth Day and Getting Greener

Happy Earth Day to all!

Earth Day was created as a holiday to remind everyone that we all need to do out part in order to help reduce the use and damage to the earth. The government created it to promote recycling and conservation of natural resources. It has, of course, become yet another reason for advertisers to try to make more money.

Here are some steps we can all take to lessen your impact on the environment:

• Install CFL light bulbs in your house
• Stop using paper/plastic dishware
• Wash clothes using cold water
• Line dry clothes
• Start composting
• Install a programmable thermostat
• Do curbside recycling if available
• Reuse containers when you can
• Drive less and bike or walk more
• Combine trips to do errands
• Eat more organic foods

The list of things you can do goes on and on. The above list are generally easy to do and cost nothing or even save you money! Keeping our consumption down will lessen the overall impact over time and make the world a better place for everyone. We all live here let's keep our "house" clean!

What do you do to be more "green" these days?

Coupon deals this week

This week has been a slow one for coupons but I still got a couple great deals.

Here is what I found this week:

• Buy one get one Lay's Kettle Cooked chips. (Free printable coupon from Facebook fan page via coupon cravings)
• FREE Rayovac batteries. (Via printable coupon for Walmart at coupon cravings)
• $0.25 each for (2) Green Giant frozen boxed veggies (Via cellfire and printable coupons thanks to the grocery game)

This stuff adds up! I used to think coupons were a hassle and not worth the time or effort. I now utilize them, the grocery game, coupon cravings, and my own research to save me hundreds per year. Every coupon I use efficiently is more money for savings and debt reduction!

The Grocery Game: Update

So I have been doing the grocery game for 3 weeks now. I am building my reserves of food and I am saving quite a bit along the way! I am glad I have done this as my food cost has gone down. Here are the steps I took:

• Signed up for a free trial at the Grocery Game
• Subscribed to my local Sunday newspaper
• Kept all coupon inserts from the paper
• Utilized the online coupons from the Grocery Game site
• Printed the weekly list and got the items I need!

So far I have averaged about 50% off of all items that I normally buy just by using the list. I have gotten some really great deals such as: 25 centers per can for Campbell's cooking soups, 25 cents per box for Green Giant frozen veggies, 1.99/lb boneless chicken breasts, and the list goes on. Coupons take almost no time for me and save me a great deal.

The Grocery Game makes it much easier to spot the best deals. Their database does it all for you so you just print your list, clip specified coupons, and go to the store. Well worth the $10 every 8 weeks. Even with the cost of the service and cost of newspapers I come out way ahead. Saving money on food goes a long way. Give it a try!

Weekly Blog Roundup

This is a series where I link to my favorite blog posts from the financial blogs that I follow and read directly. These are the articles I found particularly useful or good in some way. I hope you enjoy my choices and learn something too!

Week of 4/11/2010:

• Reader Story: How (and why) I moved my money to a local bank @ Get Rich Slowly. A reader of GRS explains why he ditched a big bank for a local one. I agree with this one!
• Don't pay taxes with credit cards @ Bargaineering. Jim writes about why paying off your taxes is a bad idea. Fees fees fees!
• Finding your own value balance at the grocery store @ The Simple Dollar. Trent writes about why he thinks the cheapest option is not always the best. I agree!

These are my favorites for the last week. Feel free to comment and share some others that I may have missed or not even know about. Have a great week!

I am officially a part of my homeowner's association!

My neighborhood had it's annual meeting last Wednesday. Roughly 25 owners turned up and it was an informative meeting. The result was I am now the treasurer of the association. I will be handling all of the books and financials for it.

This was one of the items on my 101 goals in 1001 days list that I can now cross off! It will be a lot of work to begin with but will be much more manageable over time. I plan to use my finance and IT background to make things as easy as possible. I will be done with the transition in early May.

It will be nice to see where my HOA dues are going. Being the treasurer means that I get to see and control the flow of money. I also think it will look good on my resume and bode well in job interviews. It is a win-win for me!

Happy Tax Day

Today is tax day. I hope everyone has their taxes done by now and not scrambling to file on time. I am sure the lines at the post office will be a mess and I plan to stay far away from it!

Make sure to check out the food deals today! A lot of various restaurants are doing free stuff or buy one get one free for tax day. Here is a short list of what I found:

• McDonald's: Buy one get one southern style chicken biscuit (breakfast) or sandwich (lunch)
• Boston Market: Buy one get one individual dinners (coupon, valid 4/18-18)
  
• Starbucks: bring in your own mug for a free cup of coffee
• Many more!

Have a great day!

April 2010 Prosper Lending Update

It is the middle of the month again and it is time for my update on prosper.com lending. I had 1 more loan payoff and 4 have gone slightly late. One more went to collections 3 days ago so it is written off in my eyes.

I am no longer bidding on prosper loans unless they come from my lending group. I am drawing down my account for now. I "write off" all loans in collections as a loss.

Here are my stats as of today:

Outstanding Loans:

Late: 4 (< 30 days)
In Collections: 3 (written off)
Current: 40

Closed Loans:

Charged Off: 3
Paid Off: 14

Open Bids: 0

Total currently invested: $1,398.46 (Principal Value)
Cash in Account: $73.50 (includes open bids)

Total Principal: $1,471.96

Coupon deals this week

This week I got a couple great coupon deals. I plan on doing more regular posts like this to share the extremely good deals that I find online and utilize. I am always on the lookout for great deals that save me money.

Here is what I found this week:

• FREE TGI Friday's frozen potato skins at Walgreen's (after printable coupon at coupon cravings)
• FREE Scotch-Brite sponge at WalMart (after printable coupon at coupon cravings)
• $1.99 cooked rotisserie chicken at Kroger (after $2 off eCoupon loaded onto Kroger card at Kroger.com)

This stuff adds up! I used to think coupons were a hassle and not worth the time or effort. I now utilize them, the grocery game, coupon cravings, and my own research to save me hundreds per year. Every coupon I use efficiently is more money for savings and debt reduction!

Tax Day is tomorrow!

Don't forget that tomorrow is tax day. You must have returns or extensions post marked by April 15th or you are considered late and may have to pay penalties and interest.

Don't miss the deadline!

Refinancing my mortgage!

I have started the process of refinancing my mortgage. It is a lot of paperwork and coordination but will produce some good results for me. I am dropping my interest rate by 1%, dropping mortgage insurance, paying off all of my remodel expenses, and simplifying my financial life all at once.

As an added bonus I am not required to escrow my property tax and insurance. I will set up a savings account and escrow it myself so I can earn the interest instead of a bank. I will also get some of the escrow "required surplus" money back that I can use as I wish. It will be added to the emergency fund.

This time I am using a local credit union for the mortgage. They were the best deal I could find and I like the idea of keeping it local. I also have some savings with them so I like the idea of moving to them for the mortgage. They are very easy to work with and treat me more like a person and less like an account number.

I have come a long way remodeling my foreclosure purchase. I am 98% done with the house now and the only remaining variable is the appraisal. Once that is done I can lock my rate and continue onto closing the new loan and consolidating. It will be a great feeling to have this done and over with!

Weekly Blog Roundup

I am starting a new series where I link to my favorite blog posts from the financial blogs that I follow and read directly. These are the articles I found particularly useful or good in some way. I hope you enjoy my choices and learn something too!

Week of 4/4/2010:

• When Financial Change is Overwhelming @ The Simple Dollar. Trent writes about how you start small, set a goal and plan, and methodically reach your goals.
  
• How I Generate Income by Letting Strangers Pay my Rent @ Get Rich Slowly. JD's guest's post was a very interesting idea to me. Good read and thought provoking.
• 2009 Richest Counties in America @ Bargaineering. Jim has an interesting write up on wealth stats of the USA. I was surprised by the numbers!

These are my favorites for the last week. Feel free to comment and share some others that I may have missed or not even know about. Have a great week!

Target: Free CFL Light bulb and Airwick this week!

Lately I have been really into coupon deals and this is one of the best I have see in a long time. All you have to do is print off the coupons from the 2 sites and you get the items for free (plus tax). In my case I got the CFL bulb and Airwick for 35 cents out the door!

Follow the instructions here to get you free stuff at Target!

Enjoy!

Tax Day Reminder: Today is April 8th!

Today is April 8th! That means you have 7 days left to file your taxes or extensions!

Don't forget and be forced to pay penalties and interest. It is better to file an extension so you don't have to rush and potentially miss deductions, credits, and other items or worse make a mistake. Take your time and try to get it right the first time!

I highly recommend buying and using software such as H&R Block at home. They usually pay for themselves many times over because of deductions and credits you may not know about. It is also nice to eFile and have a digital copy of your returns.

Lastly you can bring information over for years to come as it saves you time and effort in future years. Let's make paper a thing of the past and get our refunds faster!

American Express Cardmembers: Free Credit Report and Score!

Attention American Express card holders! AMEX is offering a free credit report and score from Experian if you are a current cardholder. I already got mine and I can confirm it is 100% free!

Go here to get your free report from American Express.

Part of everyone's spring cleaning should be to check up on your credit report and clean up and errors or problems sooner than later.

Is your report accurate?

InboxDollars.com: Money for looking at ads

InboxDollars.com is a new site that I am trying out. You earn money for signing up for offers on their site, playing games, reading emails, and other activities. Once you reach $30 you can request a payment via check. I am giving it a shot to see if they are "real" or not.

I have read good things on other blogs about this site and I will take every extra dollar I can get! I have $6.12 in earnings so far and their paid emails give you $0.02 each and take literally 1 second to do. That works out to $72.00 per hour if you had enough paid emails to fill it. It costs me nothing to click a link to get paid.

I have made actual money from other sites such as youdata.com and ebates and upromise. I am hoping that InboxDollars will be another supplement that I can get every once in a while! I will report if/when I get real money from it.

You won't get rich off of one or even multiple of these types of sites but it is a good way to pick up a few extra dollars here and there that you otherwise wouldn't have. I usually take my earnings from these sites and add to my emergency fund. Every penny counts when an emergency comes up!

Half Off Depot & Living Social

I recently found two Groupon-like sites that offer great deals. They both offer good deals on restaurants and other services around major cities and offer great savings. I use them all the time to lower my dining and entertainment costs by 50% or more!

Two other sites:

• Half Off Depot
• Living Social

You simply buy a deal you like and print the coupon. Some they have to mail you at an added cost but it is still a good deal. I like to use them to try new places without having to pay full price. If it is not good or what I expect at least I got it at a big discount! Give it a try today and enjoy the savings!

April 2010 Net Worth Update

It is the 1st of the month again and it is time for my net worth report card. I had a great month this month financially. This was definitely a deviation from the norm in a good way!

As of today my current net worth is ($15,135.40). That is an increase of $3,552.94 over last month. The major contributing factors were State Tax Refund, Mortgage Escrow surplus, and a good stock market. I used my windfall cash to pay down my debts.

I expect next month to be a slower month since I took a 10% pay cut at work and am now adjusting to the lower income. My home remodel is about 95% complete now so I am nearing the end of that extra spending! My dream is to have it all done by May 1, 2010 which looks very feasible at this point.

Alternative Income:

IT Consulting: $40
Focus Groups: $125