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Home > Archive: March, 2008

Archive for March, 2008

Networth drop

March 31st, 2008 at 10:21 pm

Went to Walgreens yesterday and bought 4 packages of the Mr Clean Magic Erasers for $10 and got $4 back with a Register Reward. I also had a .50 cent coupon so 4 for $5.50. I love this product, especially for cleaning showers and sinks and flat-top stoves. Wonderful.

Got a Colgate toothbrush for 2.99 which is free after rebate. Had a $1.00 coupon so paid for taxes, postage and bit more.

Also purchased a 20ct of Advil PM for $3.99. Recieved a $3.00 register reward plus had a .75 cent coupon so .24 cents + taxes.

I now have $7.00 in Register Rewards I need to spend by 4/14

At King Soopers I purchased two Claim Jumper frozen dinners that were on sale 2/$5. I got a $1.50 coupon to use on my next order of anything at King Soopers. Good Deal.

I stopped my 401K contributions since I've already reached the 6% that my company will match. I prefer to keep the cash for the rest to use when I retire later this year. So my next paycheck should be significantly larger since it will include my raise and the 25% I was contributing to my 401K.

My networth decreased 3% since December. I hope by the end of the year the economy picks up and I get most if not all of this back.

I finished reading the library book Live Your Life for Half the Price by Mary Hunt. Financial. OK. It had some interesting web sites. No new money saving ideas. The thing I found weird was how often she gave information about products to buy to do financial things for you that you could do yourself. Such as purchasing a Price book. Or buying other books or products. Strange advice when advising people to save money.

I also re-read my book Getting a Life by Jacqeuline Blix and David Heitmiller. Financial. Excellent. I like to re-read this book every year. It tells the story of people who done the steps from the Your Money or Your Life book and have either retired or are in the process of getting there. Inspirational.

misc

March 30th, 2008 at 02:56 am

I got my DirectTv bill today and they've raised the price to 47.99 from 44.99. I looked at that and thought 50 bucks a month for TV that's ridiculous. Do I watch $50 worth of cable TV each month? So I started to think about what I watch on TV. Mostly it's food shows, decorating shows, History and news. Did I really want to pay $50 for that? Nope. So I'm going to call Monday and cancel. If I find I really miss it, I can always purchase it again. But I'm going to try doing without for now.

For the Food shows I can always get the Chef's books from the library. History and Discovery often have their DVDs which I can get from the library also. I don't think I will really miss it.

I got several free samples in the mail today. Dove Intense Damage Therapy Shampoo and Conditioner. Enough for at least a week.

Pledge Multi-Surface wipe. This also came with a $1.00 coupon. I have a rebate to refund the full price of this product, so if I buy it and use the coupon it will pay for tax and postage also.

Tide 2X concentrated laundry detergent. It says it's for one load, but I can probably get 2 or 3 out of it.

Tide 2X concentrated with Dawn. Again 1 load, but I will probably get more.

A very good haul today Smile

I got my tax refund deposited yesterday. $406. It took about 5 weeks.

I modified 2 of my mutual funds to quit re-investing the dividends and instead post them to my checking account from now on. I got those posted yesterday too. Before I always just paid the taxes on the dividends each year. Now that I plan to retire, since I have to pay taxes on those I will use them to cover some of my living expenses.

Lots of questions regarding Cobra and health care. I have lots of questions too. I had Cobra when I was outsourced about 12 years ago. I worked great, just like my empolyment health care. I was re-employeed before the 18 months ran out so I never had to look for independant health care. I have done some research on what it will cost for health care once Cobra ran out. I expect to get a high deductable package. Current estimates are $250 - $300. So obviously Cobra is the best choice for as long as it's available to me. Cobra is an option when you voluntarily leave employment, but of course every employer is different so everyone will need to check out thier own situation.

I have several other employee related questions about retirement and plan to meet with HR about 2 months before I plan to give my notice. I don't want to discuss it too soon and have word get back to my manager just yet.

Finished reading the library book Many Bloody Returns Edited by Charlaine Harris. Vampire short stories. Very good.

Retirement prepping

March 28th, 2008 at 06:55 pm

I checked with HR and found out I need to give a two week notice in writing when I'm ready. After that they may decide to let me go immediately or have me work out my time. I'm fairly sure I will have to work out my time. Smile

I also found out what COBRA will cost after I retire. 182.26 a month for health insurance for up to 18 months. This is excellent.

I've been checking eHealthInsurance.com and most online quotes are between $250 - $300.

I went over my budget once again and on paper I have more than enough, will just have to see how things go after I retire. I expect to live on between $1500 and $1750 per month in retirement. No house payment.

I need to find out how to deal with a very small pension left from 10 years ago before we were bought out the first time and it was froze and also how the 401K is handled.

retire@47 and 8 months

March 27th, 2008 at 08:29 pm

Busy, busy week. Trying to finish up my last release and prepping for the next one at the same time. In their infinite wisdom the company decided since we have so much trouble getting 3 releases out a year, we should do 6 instead. ARGGHHH.

This is the last straw. Instead of retiring at 50 I am now going to retire at 47 and 8 months. I plan to give my notice late July and retire the sometime in August this year. I would have liked to have more in reserve, but I am at the point where I hate my job, hate the way the work load is going and hate the policies that don't allow me to be good at my job. So it's better to just quit now.

I went to Walgreens Tuesday and got two 24 ct bottles of Excedrin for .15 cents each. The cost of the taxes. I had coupons for $2.00 off and they were 1.99 each.

Went to Goodwill and got a book for .50 cents

Went to a used bookstore and got a school course book on Homemaking written in 1942. It should be interesting. Paid $10

Got a free sample of Curel moisterizer in the mail this week.

Finished reading the library book Into the Forest by Jean Hegland. After civilization fails type book. Didn't really care for it. It always ruins it for me when characters do illogical, stupid things. For example, the two girls worked all summer to grow and can/preserve vegetables and then decide to burn their house down without taking those out to preserve them. Considering they almost starved while waiting for the vegetables grow, it was pretty stupid.

I also read the library book Rural Renaissance by John Ivanko and Lisa Kivirist. About a couple who start an organice B&B in the country. This was quite good and very interesting.

I finished my book Bitter Waters by Wen Spencer. Sci/Fi. Excellent, very good interesting, unique story line.

I am a radish farmer

March 22nd, 2008 at 06:43 pm

I got 14 radishes out of my last batch so doing better. I think I'm still planting them too close together. Eventually I will figure this out. My green onions are looking good, probably get a few of them in the next month. My cherry tomato plant is about 6" tall and my regular tomator plant about 3". Planted another cherry tomato today and some more radishes and carrots.

My company added 2% more to our 401Ks for last year as part of the company incentive program so instead of matching 6% last year, they matched 8%. Good deal Smile

Finished reading the library book The Unatural Inquirer by Simon R. Green. Sci/Fi. Very good.

Finished reading my book The Sky People by S.L. Stirling. Sci/Fi Good, but like some of his others better.

Finished reading my book The Complete Tightwad Gazette for about the 10th time. I usually re-read it every year. It always excellent. It always inspires me.

If at first you don't succeed

March 18th, 2008 at 02:43 am

Walked with mom at Walmart

Finished reading the library book Stretching the Family Income by Robert and Helen Cissel. This book was written in 1953, but the attitudes are so familiar it is quite interesting that 50 years later people are still dicussing the same things. The rising cost of inflation, how real income doesn't keep up with prices. How saving small bits of money add up. How doing it yourself saves.

Speaking of which one of the chapter titles is "The Home Barbershop, If at first you don't succeed..." I love this. Then they go on to say, "While a little merthiolate will mend any surface cuts from misguided snips, only time will replace the patches of hair that should still be on the victim's head"

Very interesting read.

weekend shopping

March 17th, 2008 at 01:37 am

snowing again so walked at Walmarts today. It was beautiful with blue skys yesterday and did a longer than usual walk outside. Very nice.

Today I used the 2 Register Rewards I got from buying soap a Walgreens last week. I like the gift cards better than the RRs. The RRs expire in 2 weeks and if you don't have anything you want to buy at Walgreen during that time, you spend them just to use them up. Instead I bought a Red Lobster gift card for $10 with one of them. I also got two razors that are FAR and that came with free $4.00 cans of shaving gels. I couldn't use the RRs on them because when you try to do rebates that show a total less than the amount you are asking to be rebated a lot of companies won't rebate the full amount. Both razors and the shaving cream will go to brother for xmas.

Went to Red Lobster for lunch with parents. Had the popcorn shrimp which I adore. Red Lobster is still a great bargain for lunch. $6.75 for a large portion of popcorn shrimp, a salad, a baked potato and the biscuits. Plus i had a coupon for $3 off 2 meals.

Visited one of the Thrift stores by the Red Lobster. Found 3 sealed boxes of 150 count Glad sandwich bags for .99 cents each box. The boxes looked like they had water damage, but since they were plastic bags there was no damage to the bags. That's a very good price. The cashier said they got a whole shipment and they had sold out in 2 days. I got the last 3 boxes.

Went to Borders and got one book and one magazine. I had a 30% off coupon and used a gift card I got for xmas.

I see walnuts went up another $1. $3 in 3 months - unreal.

I'm reading a financial management book written in 1953 and it's really funny to read about the high cost of inflation. She talks about bringing home a big box of soap for .23 cents instead of the normal .25 cents and how the small savings repeated hundreds of times adds up. It's always so intereting to see how people think alike regardless of the times they live in.

I finihsed reading my book Alien Taste by Wen Spencer. Sci/Fi Excellent. This is one of the most interesting and unique story lines I've come across in a long time. All of the characters are very well written and fortunately it's series so I can read more of them Smile

squeaky clean

March 9th, 2008 at 12:27 am

i had yesterday off and went to Denver with mom and dad

Got one book at Borders for 25% off. Made a list of 10 more to get from library.

Went to Container Store and got a Laundry hanger and a very cool watering can.

Went to Walgreens and got 16 bars of Ivory Soap for $8.60 and got two $4 Register Reward reciepts. Soap breaks out around 4 cents per bar instead of the normal .50 cents. That's how you beat inflation Smile but you need to do it hundreds of times on the various things you buy.

I also picked up Colgate Total toothpaste which is FAR and I had a .75 coupon and I got Garnier Nutrisse moisturizer FAR with a $1.00 coupon.

Went to Claim Jumper for lunch. I had a baked potato and apple cinnamon muffin. Cost was under $10.00

Went to Target and got 1 book at 25% off and I bought A Tree Grows in Brooklyn for my oldest niece's bday. They had a new version out. It's one of her favorite books after I loaned her mine last year. I got 1 lb of walnuts for $5.99 - higher than last year, but cheaper than recently by .50 cents.

Got two $25.00 Borders GC from Discover for my cashback reward in the mail.

I finished reading the library book Blog Understanding the Information Reformation That's Changing Your World by Hugh Hewitt. Non-fiction. Pretty good

I read the library book Sizzle and Burn by Jayne Ann Krentz. Romance. Very good

I finished the library book Strangers in Death by J.D. Robb. Romance/Mystery. Excellent.

more inflation signs

March 2nd, 2008 at 05:52 pm

I took my niece to see Spiderwick yesterday. Good movie. The matinee tickets has gone up a whole dollar since xmas. $6.50 now. Almost 20% increase

Walnuts have gone up 50% since xmas.

Went to Rosie's Diner for dinner and got the Breakfast combo. Used to be $4.99 and now it's $5.49 and comes with 2 pieces of French Toast instead of 4.

There was an article in the paper how pizza chains are getting hurt because wheat and cheese have both gone up so much. At least triple for wheat.

Walked with mom outside yesterday - 60 degrees and sunny. Today it's snowing and 27 degrees. Life in Colorado. Smile

Stayed and played games afterwards. Heard the news at 9:00 calling for snow today so hit the grocery store on the way home. Buyinig groceries at 9:30 at night is interesting. No shoppers there, which is nice, but also no help to ask for missing items, such as radishes.

Put in a purchase for $9000 in stocks to occur first thing Monday morning. Buying while they are down and hoping they go back up towards the end of the year.

Finished reading the library book The Newman's Own Organics Guide to a Good Life by Nell Newman. Non-fiction. This was pretty good. Straightforward without a lot of new-age, hippy-dippy stuff Smile

I finished reading the library book Blood Dreams by Kay Hooper. Mystery. Very good

I finished reading my book Athyra by Steven Brust. Sci/Fi. Very good.