She changes by the hour. When she's industrious, bustling around the kitchen, it might be in the guise of a young housewife eager to learn.  Sometimes she's the seasoned veteran barking at my dad for hovering nearby anxiously in case she should slip, trip or burn herself.  Then she turns around and she's confused and angry. Why has he been keeping her at home?  She needs to go grocery shopping. She needs to buy things, anything, right now.  Why won't he take her?  They didn't just go that morning, she would remember if they had!  He's just trying to keep her prisoner. He's just trying to hide money from her.  Fine. Fine! Don't take me, I hate you!

She sulks.

Then, slyly, she sneaks out the front door, racing for freedom.  *pat pat pat pat* Her slippers slap the concrete and she makes good the escape and exults in tricking her captor.  She stops to talk to the neighbor.  Nonsense and gibberish pour out, the neighbor nods understandingly and pats her shoulder. As soon as Mom heads to exit the cul-de-sac, the neighbor knocks on the door: "She's out again!"

Another weary race to hunt her down. This time she's in a grocery store trying to sneak a toy past the cashier, that time she wandered into a strange neighborhood and couldn't remember where she wanted to go.  Still others she's trying to find a park where she can play with the other kids.


Karen was kind enough to send me this link to this Help Guide for Understanding Respite Care. From there I found the Family Caregiver Alliance (FCA): National Center on Caregiving.

The FCA page provides links to the Area Agencies on Aging (AAA) which service the state on a county level.  They've also got links to a number of other resources:
     General Information & Assistance
     Services for Family Caregivers
     Services for Care Receivers Living at Home
     Resources on Living Arrangements for Care Recipients
     Government Health & Disability Programs
     Legal Help & Advocacy
     Disease-Specific Organizations
     Family Caregiver Organizations

I've got the phone numbers for our local county, and will call to see what services are provided in this area.

As riddled with error, delay and obfuscation the county health system has been, I'm foolish to hope for better from the caregiving resources that are also state-funded, but that's all I've got left right now.  Just a little bit of hope.

That's all I can do on this front for now, wish me luck tomorrow.

Hey hey, it's Saturday!  We're reminiscing, updating and swooning over puppies today.  You're welcome to join!

My last report of getting better was a bit ambitious, I still sound like a warthog. I imagine that a warthog rumbles and coughs something like this anyway. 

Remember when .... 

phone calls at a phone booth only cost a quarter?
Or are you from the dime generation?
I'm from both. (35 cents)

Updates

Round One: Unemployment has run out this month, and I'm still in post-application, post-interview limbo, so Extended Benefits FAQ say:

Once you have exhausted your entitlement to your regular UI claim, you may be eligible to file the first extension. If you are eligible to file the first extension, EDD will automatically file the first extension and send you an additional Continued Claim Form, DE 4581. No action is required on your part.

Meh, I'm not terribly enthused about relying on someone else to take care of my business, but I don't believe in universally painting everyone on the government payroll with the same brush so I'm going to shet up and fill my wait period of ten days landing a job so I don't need the extension.

Settling accounts today ... 
Some invoices have been paid, others have not.  Just in time to log some income on this month's ledger before I show up terribly in the red!

Chegg didn't deliver one of the books I'd ordered and it turns out I don't need it anyway so that order's canceled and a return processed ($56).

Meet the Boerboel South African Mastiff puppies [Ustream live here]

It's official: I've been sick for over a week. Dear friends, I'm a terrible invalid. I whine. A lot. Between racking coughs, I whine and mentally grumble about how much money's been wasted on those elephant pills that haven't done a lick of good. The really gross, wild-cherry flavored Robitussin has finally alleviated the cough enough for me to cook again.

But this morning? The sun literally and figuratively came out: it's gorgeous outside, and half my coughs don't sound like a dying warthog. Glory be!

I'm getting back on the exercise horse ASAP. Every time I moved faster than a slow shuffle these past several days, I've keeled over with the cough so I've neglected the Daily Exercise Regimen sadly.

Dogfood Provider linked to this beyond-awesome pasta sauce recipe posted at Smitten Kitchen.

I modified the recipe like so:
28 ounces canned diced tomatoes with peppers and onions
5 tablespoons butter
1/2 yellow onion, peeled and halved
Salt to taste

Combine the tomatoes, onion and butter in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Bring the sauce to a simmer then lower the heat to keep the sauce at a slow, steady simmer for about 50 minutes. Stir occasionally, crushing the tomatoes against the side of the pot with a wooden spoon. Remove from heat, discard the onion, add salt to taste.

I actually didn't add any salt as both the sauce and the butter contained salt. The rich, melty melding of flavors was absolutely perfect with the modified Garlic Lemon Chicken recipe. (Besswess, I used the juice of ONE lemon, ditched the herbs and rind, and baked with plenty of garlic. It turned out sans bitterness.  Might be worth another go if that was your only objection.)

Sauce: $4, 6 generous servings
Chicken: $4, 6 servings
Asparagus: $2, 2 servings


Surprisingly my love affair with asparagus is suspended - I've got to find another veggie to round out the meals for a while.

I'm blushing right now. I've talked about dipping my toe into building a modest portfolio before. Bought my first set of shares, decided on a Watch List of about ten stocks with decent dividends and sat back to wait. I was waiting for: more money to spend, and lower prices all around. After all, I'd learned from my 10 share experience, right?  

Nope.

I knew that Berkshire Hathaway was going to split the B-shares 50-1 on Thursday and that put individual shares within reach starting in the $60s per share.  A little knowledge, my friends, is indeed a dangerous thing.

Kinda like Mapgirl, except I had the warning in her comment specifically about BRKB: I jumped too soon.

With just over $500 sitting in the account, it's not like I was flush with cash but ... *ducking head*  I was bedazzled by the brand name of BRK.B and bought 7 shares.  I know! I know!  Of all the things to impulse buy!  I've been seduced by a name and a deal. And 7??  What is that number about?

Feels like this is the beginning of a slippery slope, innit?  The buying strategy for this investment account was to buy more than 10 shares at a time of a good company at a low price that paid decent dividends.  Watch List, remember?

Ah well, not really.  There's a simple solution to that mistake.  I have no more ready money.

Thus ends my foray into investing through the Trade King account until I scare up an income and have the cash flow to divert.

Ed Note: Yes, BRK.B is under $70 and has been since I bought the stock. Le sigh. I have no one but myself to blame. Myself and this horrendous cold that won't go away. 

By request: 

Right on schedule, meaning a month into the year, I've put together my new handy-dandy budget tracking template for 2010.  It sounds super fancy, doesn't it? 

Not at all. It gets simpler every year.

I have so many minor objections to the existing templates out there, and I'm almost positive that it's because once you start tweaking a template, the temptation to customize the life out of it is irresistable. That way lies madness, you can't ever stop thinking: this would be perfect if you just changed [insert one more thing you dreamed up overnight].

I used to love Pearbudget BUT.... 
The categories were too limiting.
I couldn't make a note by every transaction so I'd be able to identify it easily. 
I couldn't add categories.
I could only add one item per day, per category.

I used to love MSN Money BUT... 
They discontinued it as soon as I started using it.

It's like account aggregators ... everything is just almost good enough.  So this year, I'm just opening up a new Excel Spreadsheet. The first page is the Monthly Summary.

And the following sheets will be 1 sheet per month with all transactions listed. Because I pay for any and all expenses with a credit card for easier tracking, I can easily access 99% of my transactions online. Much quicker than inputting from receipts, even though it's really the same thing. Doing it this way also means I can ignore all credit card payments and bank transfers.


Most templates keep the summary at the end but I prefer to have the big picture numbers front and center and the drill-downs to follow.  If I get really fancy, I might even figure out how to do more than just use the Sum function to total up the expenses. 

I dropped off the tracking wagon mid-year in 2009, partially because of my travel, but the information that I do have is incredibly helpful in compiling my tax data.  This year, I'll keep records both on and offline so that I always have access to it and will always keep it updated. Pinky swear!

A few allowances were made in the creation of this new template:

• I agreed (with myself) to be more "big picture" about this version. Meaning, I'm not going to go back and reconcile six months of expenses and income just to get completely up to speed before starting this sheet.  If I had to do that, I wouldn't even get started!  Barrier removed.
  
• I'm ignoring all the seasonal purchases (Christmas and birthday gifts, eating out), and lump sum expenditures (school related) of last month,
  
• But I'm not ignoring the irregular income earned last year and paid this year. It'll even out within a few months. Again, big picture focus. 

Suggestions for prettifying and formulizing are always welcome, Excel gurus!

The Carnival of Personal Finance is up at My Journey to Millions!  My article, I don't want to retire, was included as an Editor's Pick.

A friend and I were catching up the other day, when the subject of work came up.  She works in an animal clinic, and she told me about this sad case they recently saw where a woman brought in her new puppy for an exam.

This wasn't a typical puppy wellness exam that comes with adopting an animal from the local shelter, or just because the pup was new.  The poor puppy had contracted canine parvovirus, commonly referred to as Parvo or abbreviated as CPV. Parvo's a pretty miserable disease, and left untreated, especially in young dogs, can be fatal.  It basically causes the gastroinstestinal problems (sorry to the squeamish!) of vomiting and diarrhea which leads to dehydration and of course, it doesn't take long for that to take out a young'un.  So it's a serious matter when you bring a Parvo pup in for treatment, they have to be on fluids and medications, sometimes for weeks, until the virus clears out.  Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't.  The only guarantee is that it's a lengthy and usually expensive process unless someone foots the bill for you.

Your choices are limited: treat at the hospital and hope for the best, treat at home and hope for the best (while bleaching everything that comes into contact with the puppy), or decide to euthanize.

Confronted with this diagnosis, the woman didn't know what to do.  This is a common response.

"I don't have a job, my husband just lost his job, and I don't know how I'm going to feed my (2) kids," she wailed.  This is, unfortunately, a far more common response than it should be.

I have the biggest soft spot in the world for animals and have worked to pay the vet bills since I was 17, paying hand over fist for medical treatments for my dogs on occasion, but I have never put them before my family's wellbeing, either.

On the one hand, I wanted to shake the woman, reach right through my friend's narrative and give her a good shake: what were you doing bringing home another mouth to feed when neither breadwinner has income and you can't feed your own children?!??

On the other hand, the damage is done and I fully believe "You are responsible, forever, for what you have tamed." (Antoine de Saint-Exupery) That part of me wants to say: you find a way.  You will buckle down and you find a way.  I know that unemployment, especially now, is really not a choice, but picking up the responsibility of a domesticated animal that now relies on you, literally for its life, is your choice. And once you've made it, you'd better find a way to fulfill your responsibilities.  

A lot of people choose to go into debt using Care Credit which Miss M has written about before, a lot of people use regular credit cards, and a few of them will give the pet a fighting chance at home.  On occasion, some will opt to euthanize the pet.

What would you do? 

I'm taking one today, sort of, because I've got the worst sore throat and set of aches and I still can't help but feel like I've got to get some work done today.  Even in the freelancing life, I feel guilty not working. 

This suck-it-up attitude isn't rare, unfortunately, and rarely serves us well except in an environment where taking sick days is institutionally frowned upon. No joke, I've worked in offices where the rule was: "You can go home if you feel sick, but I don't and the big boss doesn't, we're always here no matter what, so I don't know why you'd feel the need to."  Even then, it's not good to bow to that unreasonable culture.

I'll tell you why you should use those sick days!

Full time employees with benefits have sick and vacation days, and a defined set of ways they can use them. ie: You should take a sick day when you feel ill, or have a doctor's appointment.  Part-timers and freelancers do have to worry about not getting paid for taking a day or three off, but that's another argument for saving your pennies against a rainy day.   

1.  INFECTION  Caring is not sharing. When you're feeling sick, especially when you're at the beginning of the illness, you're likely to be contagious.  This means you're very likely to pass along the germs to your colleagues and keep the sick cycle going.  Even if you're conscientious about washing your hands, there are usually communal eating/gathering areas and you'll leave them teeming with germs. Gross.  It's even worse if you don't have a desk job and have contact with lots of moving parts that are subsequently handled by others. 

2.  PERFORMANCE (short term) Who does their best work when coughing, sneezing, sniffling, and feeling run down?  Show of hands, anyone?  Don't kid yourself, people, if you can't even sleep in that state,  you can't do your work effectively.

3.  PERFORMANCE (long term) It's a set-up. What's worse than sucking it up and trudging to your desk through your day of misery?  Having it come back to bite you.  You may make mistakes, poor judgment calls or just plain forget to follow through on the commitments you made.  And two weeks later, what people remember isn't that you were sicker'n' a dog and showed up anyway, they'll just see the aftermath of your Sickie performance.  And be ticked off because they're sick now too.

4.  HEALTH "If you haven't got your health, you haven't got anything."  The Princess Bride was right about many things, and this is no exception.  Even if you don't have a compromised immune system, routinely neglecting your health repeatedly takes a toll on your body and triggers untold stress long-term.  If nothing else, the habit of ignoring your minor health issues can lead to missing important changes that may indicate greater problem than chronic colds or flus.  My junior high math teacher ignored a persistent cough for months, and it was months before she went to the doctor and was diagnosed with end stage lung cancer.  They might have been able to treat if she'd come in for the cough almost a year earlier.

If you have sick days, use them. If you're saving them for a payout (Funny about Money did), use other days if you have to, but don't save your days and sacrifice your well-being.


So how many sick days do you get?  And how many have you used? 

            Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
4 cloves garlic (chopped)
1 pound shrimp (shelled and deveined)
1/4 cup white wine
1 lemon (juice)
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 pound regular penne to avoid leftovers, I would probably use a whole pound next time for a better pasta/shrimp ratio.
Parmigiano reggiano (garnish)
Chopped tomatos, basil (garnish) 

             Directions
1. Heat the oil and melt the butter in a pan.
2. Add the garlic and saute until fragrant, about 1 minute.
3. Add the shrimp and saute until cooked, about 1-3 minutes per side.
4. Remove the shrimp from the pan.
5. Add the wine and lemon juice and bring to a boil.
6. Simmer the liquid until reduced by about half, about 3-5 minutes.
7. Add butter, wait for it to melt and turn off the heat.
8. Add shrimp, pasta and toss to coat.
9. Serve with a garnish of parmigiano reggiano, tomatos and basil.

Notes:   On a shampoo and loaf of bread trip to Costco we were surprised by a showcase of gorgeous White or Black Tiger Prawns for $8.99/lb. [Nothing like Frugal Scholar's $2.98/lb shrimp!]

We bought a pound (17 shrimps) to make tiny appetizers to accompany the chicken bites I'd planned to serve at a housewarming, but we ran out of time.  Which was all to the good for me and my pasta ambitions the following day.

I would recommend serving with fresh tomatoes and basil.



Ingredients
8 drumsticks
3 lemons
15 cloves of garlic, peeled
Salt & pepper to taste
2 tablespoons fresh thyme Italian parsley leaves (it turns out Trader Joe's does NOT have thyme)



Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. In a bowl, add the chicken pieces. Slice the lemons in half and juice them. Add the juice and the lemon rinds to the bowl, along with the garlic, salt, pepper, and thyme.
3. Mix well with your hands, then dump this all in a large baking dish.
4. Put the dish in the oven and bake the chicken for 30 to 40 minutes, basting every 10 minutes.
5. When the skin gets crispy and the meat is cooked through, it is done.

Notes: For my fat-fearing companion, I skinned the drumsticks ahead of cooking, and used a foil shield over the pan to protect the chicken from drying out.

Verdict:  Both are absolutely delicious, but the shrimp scampi ringing up at more than $3/lb and using white wine is too decadent for a frugal budget. We'll use 2-buck chuck, of course, but a bottle has to be drunk within a few days of opening.

The chicken, however, at $1.29/lb isn't terribly cheap but is quite a bit more affordable for an everyday dish. 
Daily Exercise Update:  Nuttin. I was paying the price for procrastinating on homework and other needful things.  As penance, tomorrow, ANKLE WEIGHTS.

I forgot to add the Lending Club account to my net worth snapshots, so I'll be adding them this month under the investment services tag.  I've had the account for about 5 months and forgot about it since I only funded it with $50 of promotional money. 

Pictured above is my 2009 year end review.  So far, my only note, a Grade A paying 7.74% note is coming along nicely. I wish I'd had a chance to help fund MoneyFunk's loan, it would have been nice to help out a fellow blogger but she whipped up 85 borrowers and fully funded in 16 hours!

I'll go ahead and check out potential new loans this month to commit another $100 or so to it.  I'm sticking to A grade loans, I don't have any need to take major risks for an additional 5% at this point, 7-9% is perfectly adequate.
_________________________________________
Daily Exercise Update:  Ran many errands in the cold and wet. If I were in this for the weight loss, I'm sure I burned many calories trotting from store to store, and a bonus sum from shivering.  I'm not so I'm counting it as stiff upper-lipping in nearly-extreme weather conditions instead.

and I'm aiming to be rich.  Like, filthy never have to worry about money again rich.  (Except maybe not the filthy part -can't you be uberrich without being dirty? That might be a discussion for another day.) 

The two go hand in hand- I don't want to retire in the traditional sense of the word: work until 65 or 70, then creak back to a paid-for home with a modest financial cushion to live out your days.

I do like a little of that picture, the paid for home and the comfortable cushion, to be sure.  But I want much more than just moderate wealth because I have a huge goal.  I want to have boatloads of money by developing many income streams so that I can concentrate on what really matters to me which, incidentally, will cost a lot of money and would probably never break even. 

I'm a huge fan of adoption: children and animals alike. I've witnessed the tearing difficulties of adopting a child and am under no illusion that it's all rainbows and kittens, but I still believe in the principle of giving an orphan a home.  There's something about bringing someone into your family by choice that resonates deeply with me. I think everyone should have a place to call home, and someone to remember their birthday. But that's a different discussion for another day.

My far-off, one-day-some-day dream is to open a pet rescue/adoption ranch.  Ideally, my family would be supportive of this as well, and be hands-on in the place, but you never know.  I kind of always dreamed that my family would be composed of fostered and adopted kids, and a love of animals is more nature than nurture.  (Especially when it comes to allergies.)

It would be a nice facility, clean but not sterile, not soulless like some animal shelters can feel sometimes.  They do good work, and I used to volunteer for the Humane Societies, but there was something so dismal about the place knowing that every animal brought in was on a timeline.

The ranch would have wide open spaces for the dogs to play during the day, room for the cats to roam, a paddock or two for any potential horses or pigs. 

I don't know how big it would be- after all, the bigger the place, the harder it is to maintain. And we'd need grooming facilities, of course.  But even when money was no object, I'd have to find the balance between taking in everyone and providing the best possible care for each. 

I want all those boatloads of money to support not just the ranch, but medical facilities on the ranch. Perhaps employing several full time veterinarians would be unsustainable, but I think that sponsoring a year of a veterinarian's education in exchange for a year or two of commitment to the ranch in some form or another would be reasonable.  Same thing for animal technicians, they could exchange work time for tuition payment.  I really like the idea of the ranch being a home for animals and fostering education at the same time. 
This ranch would just bleed money, it could never be self-sustaining even with reasonable parameters on spending and fundraising so it stands to reason I'd just have to be trust-fund wealthy.

Yep.  I want to be rich (pass on the famous) someday so I can spend my life working with animals.

What's your dream?
Related posts from 'round:Mrs. Micah doesn't want to retire either

Since writing this, I watched Animal Planet's Pitbulls and Parolee's show and my heart was breaking.  The work is hard, and may seem thankless, but that's exactly what I want to do.
Daily Exercise Update: Held an 18 pound baby in my arms for more than 20 minutes. More efficacious than lifting weights!

Daily exercise update, Friday:  Ankle weights were not the death of me but they were put up for the day.  No use tempting fate, after all. Walked many many blocks in kitten heels post-meeting searching for the perfect grill pan, and even did one set of these stairs. Never found the pan and was pooped the rest of the day.


Daily exercise update, Saturday:  Walked to an enormous park with muddy hills and watched dogs chase each other and other various oddments for hours. Stopped at a mall and discount store afterward and logged a few more almost leisurely miles.

Helping abroad:  The devastation in Haiti breaks my heart, and the ensuing chaos of trying to get aid to the island and set up infrastructure has been frustrating.

After much contemplation about the donation options available, I've decided to support the Haiti cause by donating to Doctors without Borders.  I'm skipping the quick and easy donation options like texting because I need to know the money is being sent directly and immediately to the right people.  I'm willing to do whatever it takes to minimize the time and maximize the money.  To further stretch the donation dollars, I've asked a friend whose company matches donations up to a certain dollar amount each year to donate through his work for me. It'll be in his name, but that's a worthwhile trade-off of a tax deduction for essentially doubling the pot.
Doctors without Borders on Charity Navigator.

Helping at home: Another blogger/entrepreneur has lost her husband, and is selling everything in her shop Feather Your Nest at 25% off because she needs to shut down the shop and make a steady income to support her boys. 

I'm selecting something from her shop this weekend. If I can't find anything that would be a suitable gift for a friend, I'll buy something for myself and call it Happy Valen-Birth-mas.

Things to consider:  I love The Lost Goat's timing and thoughtfulness on this subject.  She covers some essential concerns I had to address before making my donation decision.  Number four is why I'm not donating to the American Red Cross and several other charities during this time.

Also, be sure to check Flexo's post on Safe Donations to Victims of the Earthquake in Haiti.

Back in November, I enjoyed the pleasure of my friends' company in their well-appointed timeshare in Hawaii.

There are many financial reasons not to buy a timeshare: they're expensive, they require a substantial upfront fee, they require substantial annual maintenance fees, and unless you're willing and able to buy a more premium tier in whatever program you buy into - they're very hard to unload.

My friends, Dee and Jay, don't have any of the above problems.  In their previous lives as relatively high level executives more than ten years ago, Dee purchased three timeshares which they enjoy to this day.

Another friend Bea, my age, bought a timeshare back in 2005.  The math she described to me didn't sound like a wise purchase but I have the benefit of hindsight.

She took out a loan for $14,000 for the base cost of the timeshare, and pays an additional $1200 per year for maintenance fees.  Her timeshare works on a points system so for her purchase she receives 7,000 points per year for redemption towards any property in the system. Redemption works much like hotel points.  She has the flexibility to hold points from one year to the next, and to borrow and advance from the upcoming year so she can essentially triple her buying power in a trio of years.

The problem here is that at 23, she owed $60,000 in school loans, and at least $20,000 in credit card debt.  When she earned her Master's degree and was making $60,000/year, not an awful lot of that money was paying down the debts, and she was continually spending more money.  She admits that a good deal of that money frivolously, like that time she blew through the mall on a $300 shopping spree. I witnessed that one, she told me about a few others of varying costs.

With that shaky background, she finally hit the skids when she was laid off for several months last year and had to live off her modest savings - unemployment just covered her rent.  And now that she's found the guy she wants to marry (this year), the timeshare costs are keeping her from saving because she's not making enough to pay all the bills and debts and save.

Worse, due to the stint of unemployment, she's currently upside down  on the loan so she must sell it for the amount she owes which is much more than other owners are pricing their 'shares.  It's definitely a buyer's market.

From what she's told me, I can identify the basic warning signs that were ignored:

1. Her existing debts were quite significant.
2. There was no plan to quickly eliminate that debt.
3. She hadn't factored the cost into her cost of living in case she lost her job.
4. The timeshare wasn't considered "high value" which has more options and can be more easily sold.
5. An insufficient emergency fund.

My instinct when people are in financial difficulties is to jump in and offer to help, but we all know how well unsolicited advice is often taken.  If she wants my help, she knows I'm more than happy to lend an ear and a hand, but in the meantime, I'm wondering what I would advise to start her on a debt-free journey.

As a salaried employee, she can count on the paycheck to be consistent but at the same time, that means that she has to look elsewhere to make extra money.

1. Accept that money will be tight for a while
2. Honestly evaluate all wants and needs, and decide what level of commitment you're willing to make towards paying down the debt
3. Hunker down and start cutting away any fat in the budget (there IS a budget, right?), putting all the money toward debt and savings
4. Make some realistic decisions about the prospective wedding
5. Consider ways to generate extra income to put towards the debt
6. Start an emergency fund

I'd say that given her career choice in the education field and the non-existent hiring she's described, this is probably enough to work on for the next six months.

Daily exercise update: About 15-20 minutes of brisk walking, skipped the weights.
Back in 1998, I sat down for a career chat with my history teacher.  Thinking he'd have some insight, and privately perhaps even be flattered, I asked what he thought of my majoring in history.

He laughed. 

It probably wasn't that I was bad at the subject, though in hindsight, I certainly lacked that spark of brilliance you associate with the historians with a scent for the stories behind every door.  It was that, as he baldly stated, unless I wanted to teach high school level or below, or was prepared to make very little money for the kind of education I'd need to pursue a Ph.D. and then have to fight and scrabble for years in academia for the scraps towards a tenured position -- it's not worth it.

As a Native American, he said, he had the benefit of the Indian scholarships for college and his graduate degree. Without that, he would have been deeply in debt and doubtlessly would have had to make more than a few compromises in terms of lifestyle and career choices.  He wasn't living in high style by any means, but he and his family were comfortable because his education had been paid for and he had more freedom to choose from good programs without concern about repaying undergraduate debt.

Nice circumstances that we can't all replicate of course, but that's not the point.  The point is that that's the first and only time I ever encountered a teacher specifically counseling for or against a particular course of action by taking into consideration the real life circumstances. 

No generic platitudes or pie in the sky rationalizations that vaguely assure you that people will retire and hand over their cush jobs for me.  Just the truth, thanks. 

This article in the Chronicle of Higher Education (via Moneyapolis) with its handy list of financial qualifications for pursuers of higher education in the humanities further supports my eventual decision not to take a Masters in English Literature or some other liberal arts program.

Personally, I'm grateful. At that point a reality check was no bad medicine because it got me thinking about practical things like making a living and sustainable professions.  Not a bad seed to plant in a 16 year old's mind.

Ten years later, everyone remembers him as the loud and mean history teacher, I remember him as the guy who reminded me that once you get out of school, you're in the real world with consequences and bills.

Daily Exercise Update: Speed-schlepped 500 yards carrying about 15 pounds of bulk in my turtle shell-like backpack.

Genetically anomalous tidbit:  I have a male friend whose mother and aunts are all color blind. All the males descended from that matriarchal line are colorblind, except him.  Oh, chi square, what happened?

Posts in other places: Read the post up at the Carnival of Personal Finance site about my fun times with having my identity exposed. (I had to reword that so as not to imply the CoPF site did the exposing.)

Daily exercise update:  My legs were screaming at me, I had to pass.
Pure indulgence I always thought Amazon Prime was, for the infrequent buyer like me.  While free two-day shipping and zero minimum orders would be awesome, I'd never really had an issue with bundling orders and filler items. I avoid filler items, actually, but that's beside the point.

That $79/year may not seem like a whole lot over the course of a year, it's just under $7 a month, but I always knew there were better uses for my almost $100.  It seemed kind of like the skip to the front of the line pass at an amusement park. I don't mind lines so much in good company, so it never seemed worth it. 

So I never knew, and none of the reviews I'd ever read of the service ever mentioned, that an Amazon Prime membership holder can actually invite up to four household members to use their services.  You could potentially split that membership more than two ways to defray the cost of a Prime membership to a more reasonable $20 or $30/year if you really wanted the luxury of fast and awfully cheap (you are still paying the membership fee, after all) shipping.

This could be useful if you've got family members away at college: they'd be able to save on shipping for *ahem* textbooks, and such.  You know, the school type stuff. ;)

Daily Exercise Update: I spent 20+ minutes at the park playing with a friend's 15-month-old daughter. Aka, chasing tiny little gigglefest around sand and dirt.  I feel creaky.

Please check out this week's Carnival of Personal Finance at Darwin's Finance!

I'm due for a good overhaul.

Not only have I done nothing about the previous list of repairs, I've gone and racked up another couple To Dos: the heater's gone out since we last discussed the ole horseless carriage, and it's time for another oil change.  Already. 

This is the flip side of loving an old car.  And I doubt I've got time to rack up enough Driver's Edge purchase point credits to apply towards the repair costs because I derailed that plan with the credit card promotions I wanted to fulfill.  Ooops. That was my fault, I just didn't think about the poor timing and make a better final decision.

Keeping the two plans separated should not have been too difficult.  Typically I'd accomplish one goal, earning points on the Driver's Edge card first with only normal spending, and then move on to the next set of credit cards.  But while we're second guessing decisions here, let's calculate the cost-benefit of splitting up my spending across the three cards for promos. I've got a nice spreadsheet for tracking the promotions:


Chase Sapphire:  $100 cash ($6 spent)American Express: $150 in GCs ($1100 spent)
Citi Forward: $100-110 in GCs ($250 spent)  

Had I collected that spending ($1356) on the Driver's Edge card, I would have earned 1356 points, which translates into $13.56 in Driver's Edge dollars.  That frees up the same amount of Drive mile dollars ($13.56).

On second thought, the net gain is higher this way because even doubled (by adding the existing Drive miles points in dollar value), I'd still have less than $50 to spend on repairs.  The Chase promotion, paid in cash, more than covers that amount.  

I made the right decision there, but that doesn't change the fact that I've still got to get the car to the shop.  We're only a few thousand miles away from a 100,000 mile check, too, so I should gird myself for spending a fair chunk of the car maintenance fund on this set of repairs.   Wish me luck!

Well-Heeled's sort of convinced me to join her small army of Jillianators. Almost.  There's something creepy about the name "Shredders."  Oh, right, Shredder a la hunter of Ninja Turtles!  No no, I can't be part of that.

I don't have any interest in losing weight, or getting toned 'cause I'm happy with the shape of my body.  I am interested, however, in regaining some of my lost stamina.  Y'see, I just realized that I've been saying, "when I was in shape, I could ...." for ten years.  That's right, this year is my ten-year reunion. Not that I'm going ....

My physical activity's just fallen off a cliff since high school.  I did martial arts, I rode horseback, I ran track, and I remember being 17 years old, swearing that my workout routines would not change one iota once I started college.

I meant well, and hung on for a few more years.  Then life got in the way. Between my joints, which had been steadily deteriorating, and 80-hour work and school weeks, I couldn't keep up the active lifestyle. After graduating, work consumed my life, and the constant joint pain meant high impact was off the table. All I knew was high impact, I was the fishy not allowed to swim anymore! [Ironically, I can't swim.]  I blinked, and my ability to exercise for three hours at a time was just ... gone!

It felt like it happened overnight, but that's not the case.  It's taken this long to accept that getting back to exercise means starting at the very beginning like I'm a freshman in high school but with the joints and fatigue of an 75-year-old and finding a new level of fitness.  Not acting like I can do everything just like when I was 18.  That was the key to my failure every other time I worked out.  Haunted by ghosts of What I Used To Do, I'd push myself far beyond my abilities and end up flat on my back. 

Older and wiser, I'm going to join the periphery of the group by taking up my own challenge of working from 20 up to 30 minutes of free form cardio activity each day.  It's nice to have a sense of solidarity, even if it's virtual.

As a tester, I did 20 mins of wind sprints with a dash of free weights yesterday.  I'm going to hang at 20 minutes for a while because my knees were like jelly afterward.  But I didn't reach the point of severe bedridden pain. 

As hard as it is to start over, I can't wait to experience the joy of exercise again.  The endorphins, the hard-earned sweat that clears out your pores, the yellow cake I'd bake from a 99 cent mix and eat afterward.  Awesome.

If anyone is interested in the Shred, head on over to Well-Heeled's and join the group!  If you just want to hang out and chuckle at my geriatric efforts, you're more than welcome.  Chime in at any time if you have low-impact activity suggestions to add to the mix. 

Oh, and don't be surprised if my daily updates all start with "I almost died."  I'll mean it, every time. 

My best bud, Robin, was up for a promotion at work.  But he's not getting it.

They're considering sending him to another level over the one he was proposing!

This new promotion's gone through most of the C-level execs for review and approval and it's awaiting final approval and parameter-setting. 

I'm so proud of him! He took the initiative, wrote a proposal, and he took a risk in sending it off without consulting his current manager.  It was such a good proposal that upper management recognized that he was proposing great ideas, and told his current manager that his proposal saves the company at least $25,000 which makes that manager look *really* good. 

Please cross your fingers for Robin!  :)

TGIF!  Does everyone have exciting weekend plans? I might, a few of us might meet in the middle and visit with a friend back in town from one of the Dakotas.

It's funny, back when I was working 60-, 70-, and 80-hour weeks, I had completely forgotten what leisure looked like.  My hobbies were eating and sleeping until I worked again.  Nowadays, I spread out my fun throughout the week since I'm living a somewhat freelance life.  In no particular order ....

1.  Hulu
Instead of watching real TV, I poke around on Hulu for a few shows to eat watch while I'm eating lunch or dinner at my desk.  Sadly, the selection has been poor lately.  It might just be because we're between seasons or post-holiday or some such but I also wish they would have more past seasons available.

2.  Library
I've been a regular at our local library these past months for the free wi-fi when my internet was down, and for the books.  Our library is pretty populated during the days, more than I would have expected, but then again I was never in there when I still worked full time.

3.  Fighting with the TreasuryDirect site
I always forget my password, I hate checking on my bond there.  I should never have bothered to convert, cashing out the bond or checking on the current price online was so much easier when it was paper.

4.  Job Hunting, related jobby activities
It's only mildly entertaining but I do it every day.  And it's free.  So there you go.  (Actually it doesn't belong on this list at all since I don't do it for FUN.)

5.  Blogging, twittering, reading online
Major time killer, and I'm even mildly productive.  Some days, wildly so. 

6.  Coupon clipping
Yes, it's a precursor to spending, but not always my spending. Sometimes I'm just collecting coupons for MoneyMateKate's Robin Hooding.  I only CVS/Walgreen's Rewards if my deals are all-inclusive: the coupons cover what I need and the rewards generated are used for another upcoming deal for something I need. My attention span's short these days so I don't commit to big deals and rounds.

7. Walking
If I have to run errands within a 1.5 mile radius, I'll walk to and from.  As I work on my stamina, the amount of time spent in transit will improve.

8. Playing with my finances
Most everything's automated really, so I take the pulse every few days and keep an eye out for possible improvements or possible revenue generators.

9. Grooming the dogs
Very gently and very carefully; that dog's a walking fluff-ball and loves to be loved on.

10. Pro bono work 
Friends and family often call on me for assistance in my areas of expertise: organizing moves, bargain hunting, setting up relatively new tech (not that I'm any expert, but I do have the time to figure it out), vetting college or med school applications, drafting official letters for Causes, spending time with lonely folk, etc. 

As you can see, it's not terribly exciting over here, but I keep pretty busy without spending much money.  I am getting itchy feet again, though, I had a quick Chuck-style flash about spending some time overseas last night.  If that could be managed while avoiding airports and flying entirely, I'd totally be in.

I've always heard that Craigslist was a great place for bargains but is notoriously populated by flaky people, buyers and sellers alike so I was more than a little trepidatious when I embarked on this furniture buying adventure with my New Home friend who needed to furnish a new 2-bedroom abode.  It sounded like we could look forward to spending way too much time to try and save money, followed up by spending way too much money.     

I'm eating my fears now: it was well worth it financially to sift through the offerings, even though I bored of furniture shopping weeks ago! 

We found the following deals on pieces (targeting those made by CB2, Room and Board, and West Elm).

Total:  $1385 after tax





There was a lot more in the way of appliances and furniture purchased in good, or almost new condition, but I was only allowed to share these two as the best of the bunch.

The shopping strategy was as follows: 
1.  Make a list of the absolutely necessary needs of each room:  seating, sleeping arrangements, storage
2.  Brainstorm how to make the most of each piece.  If you can, opt for either a futon/daybed style sofa for the second bedroom/office, or choose a sofa that includes a fold out bed, so you can minimize the amount of space filled.  Use a bench in place of (some) chairs, so it can be stored under the table.
3.  Browse retail stores in your area so you can actually inspect the furniture in person.  Things that look great online aren't always going to be as soft, comfortable or supportive as you imagine.  Target pieces that aren't too new: you'll have better luck finding the used counterpart on Craigslist if they're about to replace that collection in stores than if it's brand new.
4.  Take your wish list to Craigslist, and search by location and store name.  This will narrow down your search considerably and very quickly.
5.  Spend 30 minutes a day checking for the best deals.  People post every day, and postings change constantly.
6.  Understand your market:  Depending on how metropolitan the area you're perusing, you may have the luxury of picking the best quality for the lowest price.  Conversely, you may have to jump on a posted item immediately to have a chance to even look at it.

Most importantly: Have patience.  If you're on a tight budget and buying new isn't an option, this process could take some time.  It helps to have a friend to bounce ideas off of during the selection period, too, because when you get burned out it's tempting to just buy that table, or any table, and be done with the whole mess at the cost of your budget or your sanity when you have to replace the rickety, broken or ugly thing.

To be fair to the objects in question, they themselves actually do serve a purpose. They’re not tchochkes, per se, not dust-collectors like those small, poorly formed animal statues with questionable faces and even more questionable beady eyes. Folding stools and wee little plastic chairs, little packets of bamboo sticks and such, they each and all serve distinct and perfectly justifiable purposes. For other people. But I can’t actually name one instance in which I wished I’d picked up one oddment or another from 99 Ranch, that ubiquitous Asian market, so why am I always become possessed of this nearly atavistic need to purchase a dozen small plastic bowls, or spoons?

My first reaction is to blame the prices: “$8 for a folding stool? It’s a steal! You can always find a use for a stool - people need to sit! Never ye mind which people. Or where.”  But that’s not it because it’s even worse with Tupperware. I yearn for the snapping lids, the squareish, roundish, stackable plastic containers with an almost palpable need – I’m not safe alone in a Target and their aisles of plastic containers. And those things are not cheap, so this whole problem of mine can’t be dismissed as simple bargain-basement fever.

I am convinced that this is a close cousin to the hoarder’s syndrome: a pathological grasping after items that serve fine purposes in anyone’s household but your own because you really don’t need the darn thing. It’s not that farfetched, I’ve definitely got the hoarding blood. Even as a five year old, I was more preoccupied with collecting practical items like finger-sized glasses that no one could ever drink out of than I was with using them to play with dolls. Incidentally, the dolls were always hidden in the bottom drawer as punishment for creeping me the heck out. Like clowns: good idea, poor execution.

My parents laughed at my refusal to get rid of any container, paper or plastic, or any wrapping paper because I might reuse it someday. “Just like Grandma,” they said.

Guys, my favorite pastime at age 17 was to drive to the local bargain shop and bring home table settings or sets of glasses! Besides being a waste of money, didn’t they have an analog version of Intervention or Hoarders back then? Didn’t they know this could become full blown madness?? It wasn’t until, years later, a friend’s mother had formed precarious towers of bargains that turned into pillars which solidified into walls that blocked them out of rooms, that it seemed like a good idea to cut back on the "steals."

For lack of (much) outside reinforcement, I’m left to police myself. And wonder why on earth I know better, but still can’t stop walking up and down the aisles petting the household goods.

I’m weak.

Readers' successes: 


SS4BC - I was shopping at REI for some shoes. I had a $50 giftcard that needed to be used (this was a rebate giftcard from buying merchandise from them the year before).
     I found a beautiful pair of Merrells that I wanted. With my $50 GC, I would pay around $36 out of pocket for them. Not too bad.
     I went up the the cashier and smiled. Then I said "Hi, I would like to buy these shoes, but I don't want to pay full price."
    To which he replied (I kid you not): "How about a 20% discount?"
    Me (astonished that this actually worked): "Sure! That sounds great!"
    He rings them up - $86 with a 20% discount, we're down to $63. I hand him my $50 giftcard. I pay $13 for my $86 pair of shoes. And could not have been happier.
    All because I ASKED.


RainyDaySaver - Today alone, I got a free cupcake because it was my birthday and had a jeweler take links out of my too-big watch for free. And a follow up post here.

Sense to Dollars -  When I complained about my dental visit a little while ago on this blog, I also put my sentiments into a letter written on the Lumino site feedback form. I very nicely explained my disatisfaction with my visit, and how horribly inept I found the dentist's technique to be.
      Read the rest here:  Complaining pays off in more ways than one


Success! There were issues with my seats (reading light out, sound was out) to and from HNL last month.  I emailed United informing them of the malfunctions, and left it at that. I suppose this doesn't really count as asking, so much as speaking up. They replied with an apology and a $150 courtesy gift certificate good for a one-way or round-trip fare, expires in a year. 
Success! I've been helping a friend move into a new place.  When we picked up furniture in the city, we had to park in a neighboring structure to go into the store.  It wasn't until we were committed to the $6 parking fee that we found out that the folks in the storage area would be willing to carry out and help load our packages in the car only if we pulled up front.  They wouldn't help if they were brought out onto the sales floor. I asked the parking attendant to let us pull out and pick up the stuff, and then come back and park, explaining that we had no idea they'd only help us if we were pulled up out front. The attendant decided to be kind, giving us the first hour free so that we could leave and come back after loading up the car. 

Success! My missing rebate finally arrived.

It's fun keeping track of these wins, big and small.  If anyone wants to join in the fun, or submit their own for inclusion, please email me!

A belated recap

'Twere the hours before dinner,
and strewn along the cushions,
all the people were lounging,
including this lout:


These gorgeous cuts of pork and fish were our main entrees in what I thought was a slightly ambitious menu.
 

It turns out that I completely underestimated the other cooks in the family because their post-Christmas dinner was worlds away better than mine.

Had I known they were going to serve tri-tip, baked green bean casserole, jalapeno cornbread, red mashed potatoes with a shrimp sauced noodle starter and two kinds of soup, no matter how much of it was pre-made or from the box, I might have insisted on something more elaborate than my all-from-scratch meal followed by my first homemade pie ever.


Actually, my peeve was that despite my careful coordination of the cooking and plating, the dinner guests milled about so long that the food all got cold.  And I hate cold food.

The pork needs a little more work the next time we make it; lower heat and longer cook time should do the trick, but the apple with pancetta topping was an absolute hit.  At least two people went back for seconds and thirds of the topping to go with the quinoa or the Crescent rolls we served.

I hope everyone had at least one good holiday meal.  We might not be big on traditional Christmas around here, but we do believe in good company, good food, and sometimes good wine.

(Don't worry yourself!)

It's that time again for some year's end/year's dawn clearing out.

In an effort to keep my nomadic lifestyle from derailing my money lifestyle, I had to take a day to clean up and keep up after the past two weeks of running about.

Paying Bills 
-- Yodlee insists on mucking about with improvements that don't help functionality like adding the option to mark a bill "Skipped."  Real responsible, Yodlee, encouraging skipped payments.
-- Remember that it doesn't really matter when the money goes out.  Interest rates are negligible, late fees are not. I used to pay bills for a 7-day period, but I'm changing to a 14-day period since my focus sitting in front of the computer isn't on mundane stuff like paying bills. 

Health
-- Once a month, I'll do a meds check to make sure that I've always got enough on hand.

Financial Records
-- Two more Citi cards were canceled due to inactivity.  They weren't my top tier rewards cards so it doesn't matter to me.  I just removed them from the online interface.  The credit cards will be scanned for my credit report records check (I've had a lot of cards, and it's easy to forget which ones I had. Should probably Excel spreadsheet this too.)
-- Doublechecked to make sure an erroneous subscription to Credit Protector was for the canceled card.  That saves me a follow-up phone call.
-- I had three sets of promotional credit card offers:  The Chase Sapphire reqs have been fulfilled and I've gotten my reward ($100); Citi FWD reqs were just fulfilled recently so I'll be claiming those Thank You points at the end of the next statement (11k points); and the AMEX reqs were also recently fulfilled.  All three cards have been removed from my wallet to prevent further confusion.

Examine new offers
-- Citi FWD: Cell Phone Protection; pay your monthly cell phone bill with your Citi Forward card & receive:
• Automatic cell phone protection from damage or theft
• Coverage on phones and PDA
• Up to $250 per eligible claim (with a $50 co-pay)
This might be worth switching over my autobilling.  Maybe.


Housekeeping
-- 3 loads of laundry, lest the temptation to chuck it all and buy all new overwhelms and send me screaming to the mall.  Not very likely, but you can't take chances.
-- Vacuuming

I think that'll do for starters.

I'm weak.  I swore that I'd stay within budget this year, and wouldn't buy any supplemental gifts.  Usually I'm great on that score -- I don't allow myself to feel guilty about "underbuying" if I've been surprised with a gift.

But this year's a bit different than the usual. This is our first Christmas without Mr. S, and his son's heart is sore.  I had to do something, anything, to help.  How about .... a cosmic entity of Doom?  For those unfamiliar with the Cthulhu mythos, I'd say this little guy is a handcrafted knit godlet of Doom, Cthulhu's cuter, younger cousin.  Thanks to Mrs. Micah!


And then we went to the "Premium" Outlets I tend to avoid because outlets really aren't that much of a deal.  Then I saw a vest like this one at Gymboree: 

Baby clothes are irresistably cute.  It was marked down substantially, though (60%), to all of $8.25 after tax. 

I almost spent $30 on these shoes so my nephew and I could match, but settled for taking pictures:


And because one cannot show up with gifts for the wife and the child, but nothing for the husband, Harry & David got my business for their aromatic chocolate covered espresso beans.

I think I'll be happy that I only went ten dollars over budget instead of being upset that I went over at all -- the gifts weren't overly pricey and they are pretty perfect for the giftees. If I do say so myself.
:)

How did everyone do this year?  Over, under, on budget?