MLISunderstanding

Women's Money Week Giveaway

2012-03-02T09:39:00.000-08:00

Next Monday kicks off Women's Money Week 2012, and I'll be posting something each day on managing money (which, hey, I do as a woman!). I appreciate the chance to stretch a little as a writer, and I'm interested to see what others contribute.

Go check them out, spread the news, and enter their giveaway for a $20 Amazon card.

The Big Vacation

2012-03-01T16:38:00.000-08:00

I am so excited about this!!

These are things I've never done before (at least not as an adult responsible for my own travel plans):
-been on a multi-day road trip
-stayed in a hostel
-had a Spring Break vacation
-owned a (valid) passport
-been to Canada
-been on a cruise ship
-taken Amtrak

These are things I've done and want to do again:
-see plays at OSF
-visit Seattle
-take a week-long vacation

And I get to do ALL OF THAT in this vacation I'm planning! The catch is... I have to be patient, save up, and wait for the right time.

So in April 2014, I hope to have a position that I can leave for a week, coinciding with my sweetie's school break. We'll rent a car and drive it up the coast, vacationing frugally until we hit Seattle! (Then I really can't help myself... I'm going to splurge on food.)

Our basic itinerary:

As a graduate of Southern Oregon University (class of 2005), I've wanted to visit Ashland again and attend plays at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. My final semester there, I took a class that attended and discussed nearly all of the shows of the 2005 season, which was great because we got student-rate tickets. I'd love to be back on the bricks again during the day, maybe see a Green Show (pre-show public performance), and I want my sweetie to see what the Elizabethan looks like at night. We'll stay at the Ashland Hostel (which I did visit once as a high-schooler with a drama group) and cook in its kitchen. I can look around (and show off) some of my old haunts on and around campus, too.

Then we'll drive up to the Corvallis/Eugene area. Both my best friend and my godmother live around there, and I hope they can make some time to visit with us. I want to look around with a certain perspective, to see what it might look like to retire there, in a university community with a lot of rain and more space and greenery than the SF Bay Area.

We'd like to drive up to Portland next, which is just a short jaunt, and we can stay there in the Hawthorne Hostel (meeting up with some of her friends for sushi before enjoying Game Night). If I practice getting back on a bike, we might be able to squeeze in a short bike tour of a popular Portland area. In Seattle, the Green Tortoise Hostel caught my eye. (There's also one in San Francisco!) I would LOVE to take part in the Savor Seattle Food Tour if we time it right! Last time we were there, I found it so hard to choose from the excellent chow choices. Which REMINDS me -- we MUST visit the Crumpet Shop that was closed for renovations. Their hot crumpets with butter and blackberry jam -- heaven!

From Seattle, the cruise ship leaves for an overnight sail to Vancouver, BC -- giving us the opportunity to do some shopping. We have some buddies there to look up, too. And then, after getting all Vangroovy, we can take Amtrak back to Seattle! Or possibly all the way home to San Francisco. (To get back a day earlier, we'd take Amtrak from Vancouver to Seattle early Saturday morning and then fly back to SFO that evening.)

Is anyone reading a resident of the Pacific Northwest or a frequent visitor? Do you have suggestions for me? We don't need recommendations for places to stay, but things we simply must do or can't miss or ought to check out are welcome! If the schedule and the budget allow for them, I'll put them on the itinerary.

Goals Check-in: February

2012-02-29T09:35:00.000-08:00

It's already the end of the month! Sheesh, so much has happened in the shortest month of the year. My sweetie lost her job, I thought we might be moving (our application was turned down), I did my taxes and actually got a refund this year (thanks to the education credits for being enrolled in grad school), my cat got lost, I've been charging through another semester, the wedding venue we'd been expecting to book fell off the table, and all sorts of life changes!

Oh, and I made a bit of progress on my 2012 goals.

Read 100 books in 2012.
The count is over 30. Still no reviews. I started writing one review, but slacked off. It's easier to consume than produce, and reading is no exception.

Exercise for 90 minutes per week.
I forgot to wear my FitBit a couple of days -- I took it off to charge and then didn't put it back on until the next day. So I'm missing some data. :( I'm still not as active as I would like, and I'm considering modifying this goal to better express what I want to be doing.

Get rid of (sell, donate, recycle) 80 items from the house by the end of the year.
I joined the Declutter Challenge! And then I kind of ground to a halt - LOL. I do have a bag of old clothes to donate, and a whole bunch of books in a box, but they haven't left the house yet. I finally sold something on Craigslist! It was our large cat carrier, for $10. I listed the electric keyboard and had several people express interest, but they fell through before coming to take a look. I might lower the price a little.

Write 70 posts for this blog in 2012.
In February: 7 including this check-in. 21 total to date. I've slowed down while doing coursework, but I have some posts for Women's Money Week coming up! I'm also asking my sweetie to do a couple of guest posts. Topic suggestions are welcome -- what do you want to read about?

Volunteer 60 hours in 2012.
I'm still singing in the Sunday evening church choir, helping with services as a reader or Communion holder, and meeting with the pastoral search committee, but I haven't volunteered for anything outside of church so far this year! That's kind of depressing. (And then I look back at my schedule, and it's clear why.) These are some things that I'd like to do: feed people, read to kids, care for animals, cuddle babies, pick up trash. Not all of those have to happen during business hours, or even with a program. I might be creative and get some friends together.

Save or donate 50 percent of my take-home income.
In January, I saved 79% and donated 7% of my net income. (I'm counting the cash I applied to the accounts, not any interest earned.) This month was unusual because I received a bonus, and I am including that amount in the calculations.
Here's how it broke down:
Emergency Savings: 13.4%
Xmas 2012: 1%
Wedding: 4.1% (plus a large chunk that came from an outside source)
House Fund: 5.1%
Grad School: 17.1%
Roth IRA: 39.5% (the bonus check went in here)
401(k): taken from paycheck; 5% of gross income; not counted in this total
HSA and medical FSA: taken from paycheck; not counted in this total
Investments: added money from tax refund and a belated Xmas gift; not counted in this total
Church Pledge: 6.3%
Other Donations: <1% I bought breakfast for a man asking for money outside, but I didn't select a recipient for the monthly amount.

Distribute 40 business cards by the end of the year.
Okay, I finally ordered these and they have been delivered. I gave 2 to a coworker. Now, to start networking!

Spend 30 minutes per day in meditation.
This goal has completely fallen by the wayside. :( I'm finding it hard to scrape together 30 minutes of non-sleeping downtime at ALL, much less when I am alone and centered. I'm converting this goal to Spend 30 days without a phone or computer in 2012. I think this new goal will encourage me to relax, rest my eyes, and appreciate the world around me more, which is what the old goal was SUPPOSED to do (but instead made me feel more frantic about scheduling).

Be able to do 20 pushups at once by the end of the year.
I haven't been practicing!

Write 10 recommendations on LinkedIn in 2012.
I wrote 1 for an employee of our outsourced support vendor. She's been a big help to me, and I referred her to our HR department last year when they were hiring for customer support, but unfortunately for us, she lives in the wrong geographical area. If I can't work directly with her, I'm still pleased to see her move forward at the outsourced company.

BONUS:
Don't buy lunch at work. Done! I forgot to bring lunch a couple of times, but I had some cans of soup in a drawer at my desk.

No ice cream for Lent. Well, we've only just begun...

Attend Taize and Q-Sangha. I went to Taize last week (Ash Wednesday) and will go again tonight; I also attended Q-Sangha yesterday. Having a dedicated space and time for meditation helps me make room for it!

Take a break. I took my 4 days off at the beginning of February, but I didn't get as much done as I would have liked to. (Yes, I realize that looking at time off work as an opportunity to do schoolwork and chores is not much of a vacation, and possibly indicates a mild mental disorder. Have I ever claimed otherwise?) I have more than two weeks of vacation time on the books, and if it gets much higher, it'll stop accruing, so I'm being urged to take it when I can. Later in the month, I had a mid-morning appointment, and so I arranged to take the entire day off and ran some errands. It was nice to be away from the screen and out in the sunshine (although I burned my eyelids a bit and had to lie down with witch hazel pads over them).

March Bonus Round

2012-02-27T11:34:00.000-08:00

In addition to my goals for 2012 (which I will report progress on in a couple of days), I add bonus goals each month.

For March:

Don't spend.
My goal is to spend nothing on goods or services outside of paying bills, buying groceries, and taking care of the household chores (yes, I will probably get a roll of quarters for laundry and receive a shipment of catbox supplies -- but I won't be buying new cleaning products) for the entire month. No clothes, no restaurants, and no wedding supplies yet.

Continue not to buy lunch at work.

Continue with Lenten practices of attending Taize and Q-Sangha and not eating ice cream.

Get to work on time (or early!).
I struggle with punctuality, especially when my schedule is overcrowded. I need to get an adequate amount of sleep for my body and my health (this is generally more than the average person needs). I also need to perform at my best on the job, and that includes not feeling rushed in the morning and being ready to start work (logged into everything) at 9:00 on the dot. I could stand to spend more time getting ready before flying out the door, too, and a 15-minute walk to the train station would be nice if I weren't in a hurry (and therefore taking the bus).

Oh where, oh where has my little cat gone?

2012-02-19T13:26:00.000-08:00

Oh where, oh where can she be?

My little tortie cat disappeared yesterday. I heard a noise in the other room that sounded like she'd knocked something over, so I went to investigate. But I only found one cat, not two. I looked around the apartment a little, but I figured she was hiding (maybe because she got scared by whatever she knocked over -- I didn't find it) and would come out later.

But then she didn't. I turned the place upside-down and inside-out, looking under all the furniture, in the closets, even in the kitchen cupboards. But all that I found was an open window in the bathroom. And we live on the second floor.

Now, if you're a cat person (and if you're a librarian, I know there's a better-than-average chance), you should understand that I love my two cat babies. SO MUCH. They've been with me through a lot (over 10 years and 6 years, respectively) and have comforted me and amused me and frustrated me and just generally been awesome furry parts of my life (even if they do make me sneeze). I love them both, and I am worried about whether the little one is okay. Her buddy knows I'm upset -- he is being extra-lovey with me and occasionally crying from the kitchen to get my attention.

I have posted a notice in the common area of the apartment building; I've notified the building manager; I've circled the block more than once and chatted with the neighbor lady who feeds strays; I posted to Craigslist; I called all the local vets/pet hospitals (even though most of them are closed for the weekend) and left my contact information and a description; I then EMAILED the offices I could find addresses for; and I visited the Animal Control facility in person to file a lost cat report. A volunteer there showed me three rooms of stray cats, but I didn't have to look at pictures of any that had been found dead. I hope I don't have to. I hope she's alive and safe and that she comes home soon.

Read Aloud Roundup: February 2012

2012-02-16T20:15:00.000-08:00

Questions this month again brought to you by the tireless sweetie (who also read to the mixed 4/5th grade classroom). Selections were made with an eye to observing Black History Month.

K
Jamaica’s Find by Juanita Havill
1. Why does Jamaica want to keep the dog?
2. What do you think Jamaica’s parents mean about a girl like her?
3. What does her giving the dog back make you think about Jamaica as a person?

Hope by Isabell Monk
1. What is the best part of Hope’s visit to her Aunt Poogee?
2. Should it matter to anyone outside Hope’s family that she’s got one white and one black parent?
3. By sharing her story, does she ask us to share her story, or our own?
(Feedback from the reader indicated that this story engendered LOTS of discussion, but was just about at the limit of what kindergartners could handle in a short block of time. This was actually a good thing, because I'd been looking for selections that didn't seem too babyish.)

1
Fly Away Home by Eve Bunting
1. Why is it important to be invisible?
2. How hard could it be for them to live in the airport?
3. Where else could they live? Why don’t they live there?

My Travelin’ Eye by Jenny Sue Kostecki
1. Does the traveling eye make it hard for her to have friends?
2. If someone in your class had an issue like this, what would you do?
3. How does she act in the world? Does she get shy because of her eye, or is she proud of how special she is?

2
A Fine, Fine School by Sharon Creech
1. What happens to the school over time? Is it still a fun school to go to?
2. Would you go to school if it were like this school?
3. Who wins from going back to the old way of things?

Mrs. Toggle and the Dinosaur by Robin Pulver
1. What is the hardest part of having a dinosaur as a classmate?
2. What are some of the concerns the class has about the dinosaur joining them? How do they deal with them?
3. What’s the best way to ask if you think you heard something incorrectly?

3
Crossing Bok Chitto by Tim Tingle
1. What was Martha Tom’s fear? What was Mo’s? How were they similar? Different?
2. What was the worst part of separating the family? How would that affect them all?
3. Were the women brave? Was Mo’s family brave? Was Mo brave? Martha Tom?
I would have added here a comparison to Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad, because I know the school teaches the subject, and it's Black History Month.

Never Forgotten by Patricia McKissack
1. What happened to Musafa?
2. What helped him survive his ordeal? What helped his father?
3. What kind of story would you hold onto if you had to go through something similar?

4
John Lewis in the Lead by James Haskins
1. What was John Lewis’ biggest dream?
2. How did the rules of the South affect John Lewis and his family? What did that make him want to do?
3. What character traits did John Lewis demonstrate on the bridge on Bloody Sunday? What did seeing all those people getting hurt force others who didn’t live there to see?

4/5
Walking to School by Eve Bunting
1. Why does Allison’s family have such fear?
2. What do you think it took for the Protestants and Catholics to stop the fighting? What are some parallels you can make between this book and integration of schools in the American South?
3. Do you think Allison got to be friends with the girl she met? What would their lives have been like?

5
Talkin’ About Bessie by Nikki Grimes
1. List the obstacles that Bessie faced.
2. Which do you think were the hardest to overcome? Why?
3. What were some firsts of Bessie’s you want to accomplish for yourself?

Savings Goals update

2012-02-08T12:00:00.000-08:00

My biggest financial goal in 2012 is to save or donate a combined 50% of my take-home income. The savings are split among a handful of smaller goals. I keep these tickers going for inspiration, but here's a little more detail about each one.

Wedding Fund:

This is the most urgent goal, because it has the closest deadline. I've been setting aside biweekly payments to our SmartyPig fund since last year. Earlier this month, I closed out a savings account my parents started for me when I was a kid, for my birthday money and such. It sat there for maybe 15 years -- I'd actually forgotten all about it. But it makes up a big chunk of the budget -- basically all the stuff that my sweetie and I found necessary for our ceremony and reception. The additional savings we're building up is about equal to the old birthday money, and we'll use it for our rings, the church coffee hour, and our honeymoon.

Emergency Fund:

This is obviously an important goal for anyone to have, and we're building it up over time. Each paycheck I have money transferred automatically from my Chase checking account to my Chase savings account. That means it's easy to instantly transfer money (online or from an ATM) back to checking in case I need to pay for an emergency with my debit card. We should have a full 6 months' worth of necessary expenses saved by the end of the year (sooner if we stay in the current apartment with lower rent).

Xmas 2012:

This worked so well last year that I'm doing it again in 2012! Every week, I send $10 to an ING savings account. (If you have a large family or plan on a big party, you can of course save more -- just use what fits into your budget.) By the time holiday shopping season rolls around, I make my purchases on a credit card for the cash-back rewards, and then I know I have enough to cover the bill when it comes due at the end of the year.

Grad School Fund:

This is the largest short-term goal I have, and it also has a deadline: November 2013, when the interest-free period on my student loans runs out. I paid off my undergraduate loan in 5 years (including one year it was in forbearance while I was unemployed, so 4 years of payments) by paying several times the minimum payment each month. Once I paid it off in full, I applied to grad school, and I kept making that same monthly payment to a savings account. In addition to that regular savings (which I increased by ten percent when I got a raise at work; the rest of the raise went to retirement savings), I'm snowflaking all the little bits of money I save, find, or am given into the grad school fund. On top of that, I have some Series EE bonds that my grandmother gave to me "for my education" when I was just a baby (several over 3 or 4 years -- I'm not sure, but I think she might have bought some of the bonds with tax refunds). None are fully mature, but because they were purchased the year I was born and just after, they've achieved most of their 30-year value. I'm really grateful for her foresight, and I'm happy that I have the bonds to redeem for summer session tuition (which isn't covered by financial aid). Every month, I transfer a small amount from my checking account to a Chase savings account (to pay for incidental expenses like textbooks and anything that isn't covered by my financial aid disbursement, and to keep up the minimum balance that avoids bank fees), and a larger one to an ING savings account (so it will earn interest over the next year and a half or so).

House Fund:

This is a longer-term goal. I have been saving for a down payment since before my sweetie moved up to live with me. When her debt is paid off, she will also contribute to this fund. If we move upstairs to the new apartment, our rent will increase (although it's still reasonable for the high-cost area), and savings will probably be reduced in this area. That's okay, though, because if we have this larger space, I don't think we'll want to move for several years. Even if one or both housemates moves on, we could choose to replace them or pay more for the rent. Right now the plan is to split the total rent 4 ways (filling 2 bedrooms out of the 3 with housemates). If, say, we added a baby to our family, or we wanted to create a separate office, we could rent the third bedroom only to someone who would be okay paying a higher rent for more space (or trading child care for rent, depending on the situation).

Roth IRA:

I have multiple retirement accounts: a 401(k) with my employer, a Roth IRA through ING Direct, and a small starting investment at Betterment. I haven't saved a lot toward retirement yet, and that makes me nervous, because I know the value of compound interest. When I got a raise last year, I increased my 401(k) contributions to 4% of my gross income. (My company doesn't offer a match, so I'm not losing out on any "free money" by not contributing more.) This year I am determined to max out my allowed contributions to the IRA. Some of the extra funds from each paycheck go into the IRA, and I have a few chunks like expected bonuses and "extra" paychecks (the third in a calendar month when paid biweekly) that I've planned to add. If I come up with a surplus at the end of the year, I might add it to the Betterment account, or I might roll it over to a different goal, depending on what's needed then.

Other savings goals:
My laptop, which was a birthday gift in 2010, has been having difficulties for about a year now. Everything works fine except that it doesn't cool correctly. To keep it from shutting down with no warning, I have it on a chillpad with external fan, AND I point a desk fan at the overheating section (which means I'm always cold when I use the computer at home). Since I'm not just blogging or checking email, but also taking my grad school courses online, I need a reliable computer. So I've put some money aside to replace the laptop when it dies. It's over at Betterment with a high ratio of stocks to bonds, so that it will aggressively earn value (but I can adjust it if it starts to fall).

My sweetie and I are planning a roadtrip in 2014 (already! more on that later), and I want to save up for it. While it's not a pressing need, and I only have a basic estimate of what it might cost, any extra money that the household receives (gifts for the two of us, selling household items during the declutter challenge, etc.) will go toward this goal.

If I had $500...

2012-02-07T16:10:00.000-08:00

This is my entry post for the "Spoil Your Sweetie" contest at UltimateCoupons.com

I like playing this game with my sweetie. "What would you do if you had a thousand dollars? What about ten thousand? A million? What if you didn't have to work for a living?" It's a fun brainteaser, it stimulates imagination, and it helps us get to know each other, our money styles, and our priorities better. The question currently on the table is, "What if you had $500 to spend for Valentine's Day?"

The average person in the US, a survey just found, will spend about $126 on Valentine's Day. Between dinner at a nice restaurant (if you can make a reservation!), maybe flowers or chocolates, a special piece of jewelry, or even a night at a swanky hotel, I can see that adding up to $126 easily. And if you're dating multiple people, as many of us in the Bay Area are... scheduling as well as budgeting can take a toll. This Valentine's Day, my sweetie and I have been invited to join another couple and some of their friends at a steakhouse, and (after consulting the menu and our budget) we accepted gladly. The next day, I'm being taken to dinner by my other honey on our regular date night. While I'm sure that will be lovely, nobody is going all-out. We'll probably exchange cards, and maybe have a special dessert. Ta-daaaaa! Holidays with the frugal. :P

If I had $500 to spend, though, I'd make some big plans. The prize for the contest is split between $200 on a Visa gift card, $100 at wine.com, and $200 for See's candies. Pretty swank, huh? Here's how I'd spend it:

First, a skin scrub and massage for two at Imperial Day Spa (I have a gift certificate from Christmas, and I'd pay for my sweetie to have one, too). We need the relaxation and the pampering -- it's a real treat, and too pricey for all the time. Before that, we'd probably want to have dinner at a restaurant. My sweetie loves sushi, and since we're in Japantown anyway, there are a few options -- or we could go for Indian at Dosa, or revisit the delicious cornbread at The Elite Cafe. So many choices! If we're in the mood for dessert after our spa time, we could stop by Miyako's for a cone, or maybe extend the date by picking up croissants from Fillmore Bakeshop for the next morning. AND we'd rent a car for the evening so we wouldn't have to deal with public transit.

I don't drink wine, which is one reason I don't give it as a gift. However, Wine.com has a few other choices -- like their gift baskets of Godiva or Ghirardelli chocolate, or something more savory -- even this Big Kahuna. So I'd have one of those delivered to my honey with the broken arm (snacks are way easier than cooking a meal one-handed!), and also get her a lovely crystal decanter that would double as a vase for the flowers I'd present in it.

And then there's the See's! *rubs hands together gleefully* I think I finally have to crack and stop spending all the $500 on just one day. It's more in my nature to plan for the future, and I could really add to our wedding reception with a See's Candies gift certificate. See, we're getting married on Sweetest Day, and a few bowls or boxes or jars of candy would fit the occasion beautifully. Maybe these classic peppermint twists? Or chocolate hearts with assorted fillings? Or these luscious Black Forest truffles... yum!

All of these are possibilities if I had $500 to spend on Valentine's Day treats. But none of them are necessary. Even on a reduced budget, I will be chock-full of affection and happiness -- and that's the point, right?

Joining the Declutter Challenge

2012-02-06T13:33:00.000-08:00

I had some exciting news over the weekend: an apartment on the top floor of our building is vacant, and we just might be able to move into it! It's a 3 BR (as opposed to our 1 BR where we're sleeping in the living room -- that's really not as bad as it sounds -- and the sofa's in the kitchen), so there'd be a LOT more space (and one more housemate coming to join us... when we figure out who is the best fit). And even though it will entail a bunch of stair-climbing, it's still a really easy move! So keep your fingers crossed.

That brings me to today's resolution: I'm joining the Declutter Challenge inspired by the Single Saver.

My original decluttering goal was too small. I said I'd get rid of 80 things, but in January alone I managed to donate 46. Well, that's a prompt to set higher goals! I'm now committed to removing 366 things from my life/space by then end of 2012.

How do I benefit?

There will be less to clean! (Hooray!)

There will be less to move upstairs if we get this apartment. And even if we don't, we might be able to reduce enough that we can stop paying for a storage unit (if I can find a home for the big things like bookshelves and a dining room table that we want to hang onto for our next apartment or house). Honestly, there are office supplies, tablecloths, and a few other things that I have not used in the last 2 years since they went into packing boxes 3 moves ago. Do I really need them? Once I have less stuff to lug around, I'll be a bit more flexible when it comes to mobility in housing -- just in case!

I might make some money. I don't think I'll ever make it big on eBay. But I have no problem listing odds and ends on Craiglist for those who want to come pick them up. My old dance shoes? Definitely in this category -- they've got plenty of use left in them.

I can help out other people. I know that there are books in my apartment that I won't be keeping. They can go into one of the three lending libraries I have available (well, 2 and a half... still getting around to starting the one at church). I can find a friend or friend of a friend who might need extra kitchen utensils in their next apartment. My sister might want juice glasses when she gets back from overseas. And so forth.

I'll know what I own. That's actually a big one for me. I want everything I own to be useful in some way, and if I can't even say what's in that box I packed up 2 years ago, that's not contributing to my life! If I keep something I'm not using right now (like the dining room table), I want to have made that choice mindfully, after careful consideration of the options.

I'm excited about this challenge! I'll post a few updates as I sort through storage and figure out what all I have. Maybe, like Andrea, I'll have many trash bags full at the end.

True Blue to JetBlue

2012-02-02T20:10:00.000-08:00

There aren't a lot of loyalty programs that I participate in. In most cases, you'd need to be a heavier consumer of X brand or of stuff in general than I am in order to benefit from the points or other rewards. I have one that I stick with, though, because it's worth it to me. It's the JetBlue TrueBlue program -- and I am almost to my goal of 20,000 TrueBlue points for our honeymoon flights!

Back when my sweetie and I were conducting a long-distance romance, I flew fairly regularly on JetBlue from SFO (San Francisco) to LGB (Long Beach) and back. The flight itself isn't much more than an hour, and the airport hassle was minimal -- especially on the Long Beach side, where you walk out of the plane onto the tarmac at the tiny airport, and retrieve your baggage from the single (outdoor!) carousel. The prices were also reasonable, which is always the major factor for me. Sometimes I took longer flights cross-country to visit a friend in Florida (JetBlue flies to PBI and FLL). I got into the routine easily, and I figured that if I was spending so much time and money on air travel, I really should take advantage of the rewards the airline offered. JetBlue generally values one-way flights (of various distances) at 5,000 TrueBlue points each. You can pay for your entire trip with points, or use the points you already have and pay cash for the difference. So I tucked away my 300 points per flight and occasionally used them to discount the ticket prices to Southern California or Palm Beach even further.

And then I was offered a credit card application for the JetBlue American Express card. I applied because I could earn points from purchases made with the card. This was the last attempt I planned to make before opening a secured credit card to build my credit -- I had been turned down before not for bad credit behavior, but for my lack of a credit history. But AMEX decided I was credit-worthy and issued me my first card! So then I started racking up points for the purchases I would have made anyway (including extra points for purchases of JetBlue tickets booked at jetblue.com!).

But when my annual billing period was up and I was set to renew it, I asked American Express if they'd waive the $40 annual fee. I didn't think it was smart to pay for the privilege of having a credit card, when I paid off my balance in full each month and never paid interest to the company. The supervisor I spoke to on the phone said that it was against policy to waive the fee, so I asked to close the account. He transferred me to someone in the account retention department, who halfheartedly tried to change my mind with the offer of a few extra TrueBlue points (not enough to offset the annual fee). I had earned a whole bunch of TrueBlue points by then, and had in my hand an offer from Chase for their Freedom card -- no annual fee and $200 cash-back rewards after spending $500 in the first 3 months. AMEX was unable to match that and unwilling to accommodate me, so I bid farewell to my JetBlue credit card.

However, that didn't mean I had to stop using TrueBlue points! I found other ways to earn them -- for example, through the ShopTrue online store, which offers deals with JetBlue's partners. I signed up for Netflix (something I'd long resisted) because for $7.99, I got 2 months of movies and TV (first month free) plus 1500 TrueBlue points! And I also started answering surveys for eRewards, which assigns a dollar value to each completed survey (and usually 50 cents if you fail to qualify for the full survey). Once you get to $25.00 in eRewards, you can exchange that for 500 TrueBlue points or a bunch of other rewards. Plus I got 350 points just for signing up! Here's what my TrueBlue activity log looks like now (click for a larger version):

It took me about a month to earn my first $25.00, answering 3 or 4 surveys a week, and I just earned my second reward today -- that's about 6 weeks, but with fewer survey opportunities offered. It takes some time (the website says 6-8 weeks, but it took only about a week for me last time) to receive the credit in my TrueBlue account. For a few minutes of work, giving my opinion about subjects like health insurance, financial services, and radio stations, I'm racking up points toward my (and my sweetie's) flights to and from Long Beach this fall. Check out the blue thermometer to see how close we're getting!

Provided byFundraising Ideas Center

Soon it'll be at 20,000 -- and I won't pay for anything but a few taxes when we head to Knott's Berry Farm on our honeymoon. That's a reward that's worth it to me.

Goals Check-in: January

2012-01-31T18:30:00.000-08:00

So, how am I doing on those goals?

Read 100 books in 2012.
I've read 19 so far, but I haven't reviewed any of them.
I found out that keeping myself supplied with new reading material was tough when the local library was closed over the holidays! I even resorted to borrowing my sweetie's Kindle in the first week of the year... and found that I don't really like reading from an e-reader. I seem to absorb less information or something. Or maybe it's that I already stare at screens ALL DAY LONG.

Exercise for 90 minutes per week.
This was a hard one to keep track of, until I realized that my FitBit was already doing it for me! Along with counting steps and monitoring sleep patterns, it categorizes activity as "sedentary", "lightly active", "fairly active", and "very active" and tells you how many minutes you've spent doing each category at the end of the day. So I just added up how many "very active" minutes I logged over the week. How many? 216 / 181 / 147 / 202. Hmmm. I don't feel like I'm really moving around that much (most of my day is spent seated in front of a computer). Maybe I need a new measure.

Get rid of (sell, donate, recycle) 80 items from the house by the end of the year.
I started the year by sending 6 pairs of shoes and about 20 clothing items to Out of the Closet. Then, later in the month, I helped my sweetie prepare for a clothing swap at a friend's house, and found some more stuff of mine to add to the pile -- 20 more items. So that's a total of 46 items in the first month alone. I'm getting pretty good at this. Heck, I helped a good friend clear out a lot of her clutter, and it felt great! I wonder if I should sign up for a Declutter Challenge later in the year -- 52 items in 52 weeks? One every day for a whole month?

Write 70 posts for this blog in 2012.
In January: 14 including this check-in. I'm sure my classwork will have an impact on how often I post, but I'm also planning on writing up some more content beforehand for those times when I'm offline or super-busy.

Volunteer 60 hours in 2012.
Nothing so far beyond my usual church commitments (Sunday evening choir, helping with services as a reader or Communion holder, and occasional meetings of the pastoral search committee). I ought to see what Hands On Bay Area is up to.

Save or donate 50 percent of my take-home income.
In January, I saved 57.2% and donated 10.8% of my net income. (I'm counting the cash I applied to the accounts, not any interest earned.) Here's how it broke down:
Emergency Savings: 15.1%
Xmas 2012: 1.8%
Wedding: 5.7%
House Fund: 7.1%
Grad School: 23.4%
Roth IRA: 3.5%
401(k): taken from paycheck; 4% of gross income; not counted in this total
HSA and medical FSA: taken from paycheck; not counted in this total
Investments: taken from bonus; not counted in this total
Church Pledge: 7.3%
Other Donations: 3.5%

Distribute 40 business cards by the end of the year.
Crikey! I need to get those printed.

Spend 30 minutes per day in meditation.
This one has been tough. Finding 30 minutes a day where someone does not need my time/energy/attention... well, I can only imagine how much harder it will get when I have kids! Maybe I'll re-envision the goal by splitting it into 10-minute chunks.

Be able to do 20 pushups at once by the end of the year.
Um. Well, I can do 3 full pushups in a row. And a whole lot of wall pushups. It's a start.

Write 10 recommendations on LinkedIn in 2012.
None yet.

So we're off to a pretty good start!

Easy Investments for Beginners (or Lazy People)

2012-01-28T14:55:00.000-08:00

I'll tell you right out: I am NOT interested in playing the stock market. I don't have the nerves for it. I don't have the math skills to enjoy it. I don't have the money to have it really pay off. And I SURE as heck don't have the time.

However, one of my goals on the 101 things in 1001 days list is to invest in the stock market. I know it's good for my future to beat the inflation rate, at least. But where do I start with only a small amount to invest? How do I know what stocks to pick? How do I know when to buy more of something that's going to be the next Microsoft, or sell that Bear Stearns look-alike (I had to look that up, but it's not pretty) before it takes a dive? And what if I get it wrong? What if I get it RIGHT, even? What is that going to cost me in fees and in time?

So I tried a couple of investing baby steps. I opened a ShareBuilder account through ING Direct (and I got a $50 bonus for doing so -- if you're already banking with ING Direct, check the website for specials like that one). I picked just one stock (one I knew a little bit about because I used to work for the company), took an amount of money I could afford to lose, and bought a small number of shares. Then I watched it for a month. I watched it fall, actually. Since mid-December when I bought in, the stock has dropped 13 cents per share. I've lost nearly 12 percent of my initial investment. That sucks, right? Well, it was money I accepted that I could lose, after all, and the 50 bucks more than offsets the loss in the market. And I learned about how ShareBuilder works -- it has a pretty thorough Help Center with explanations of basic topics like "How do I place a trade?" and "How do I connect to my ING Direct account?" as well as a section to provide help selecting investments -- for free! There are actually lots of options for trading stocks and bonds, so this could be one road for the beginner investor.

I had a much better experience over at Betterment, though. I like playing with their user interface, honestly -- lots of buttons and dials and sliders. (Yeah, sometimes I take off my user design hat and play in the ball pit.) It was SIMPLE, which is what I needed. Yes, it's the stock market, but it's not complicated or confusing. Here's why: I transferred money over and answered some basic risk-tolerance questions (how long until I plan to retire, what my goal amounts are), and the Betterment system recommended a ratio of stocks and bonds, and then INVESTED FOR ME. I can look at the specific companies that were picked, and make manual adjustments if I feel like it, but I don't have to. Basically, someone who is smarter and more informed about these things than I am is providing investment advice, and I just say yes or no. I like that! I also like that the amount I started in December has returned 5.5% so far, and the larger amount that I tucked away for this year's taxes has already jumped 3%. Plus, it's nice that trading is inexpensive and scaled based on how much you have invested with them. You can try it out yourself -- there's no minimum amount to get started. If you have $500 or more to add (I didn't), you can get a $25 credit by clicking here and signing up.

That's it. It's nothing fancy, and it's just a start. But it IS a start, and now I can just check on it every now and then to see how my money is doing. Excellent for busy (or just plain lazy) investing beginners.

Bonus Round!

2012-01-27T16:34:00.000-08:00

I've decided to add a few challenges to the year's goals each month. In January, along with getting the whole plan started, I cleaned out my closet and got rid of a bunch of stuff. I also opted out of junk mail, including email and credit card offers!

Coming up in February, here are my special add-on bonuses:

Don't buy lunch at work.
This was also a goal for January, which I have so far met successfully. I have to remember to bring my lunchbox! (And I have to remind my lovely provider/homemaker person to pack it.) If I forget, there are lots of office snacks, but I shouldn't head out to the deli or the coffee shop across the street. Keeping some non-perishables in my desk drawer, too. Prior planning prevents penniless paupers! (It tends to help, anyway.)

No ice cream for Lent. (starting Feb. 22nd)
No, I'm not Catholic. I have, though, adopted the practice of making the 40 days of Lent a time of contemplation, and I usually find one thing to give up for that time as both a notable sacrifice and a test of will. Ice cream is a big one for me... I may have to banish it from the house entirely.

Attend Taize and Q-Sangha.
While this addition to a crowded work/school schedule will mean I lose out on some sleep and some social time, I think it's important to participate in my community. The weekly Taize-inspired service at my church is an excellent opportunity for reflection; I went to every service during Lent last year and focused on a theme of envisioning myself as a "beloved child of the Universe". This year, I'll be attending the Buddhist sangha (meeting) for the first time; it's really been growing after re-emerging last year. I'm not very good at quiet-mind meditation... so we'll see if this teaches me new things!

Take a break.
Because I worked the week after Christmas, instead of going on vacation like most of my coworkers (someone had to cover necessary functions, and I still got the 23rd, 26th, and 2nd off), I get to take my 4 days in the first week of February! I plan to visit the SJSU campus, hang out with my local friends, and get some rest before the semester really gets going.

Be weird.

2012-01-26T12:05:00.000-08:00

I have to confess that I've never really followed the Moses of personal finance. You know, that dude that everyone blogs about. The one they credit with their financial turnaround.

Dave Ramsey.

I mean, I understand the concept of "baby steps" and the "$1000 emergency fund", and at least half a dozen other principles I've seen referenced in my daily reading material. I've just never picked up one of Ramsey's books.

But I ran across a new reference today at Grand Per Month, in a post by Melissa of Mom's Plans and Fiscal Phoenix. Mr. Ramsey has said (and it's been repeated in bumper-sticker and window-decal format, if you feel the need), "Debt is normal. Be weird."

Well, heck. I LOVE being weird. And I've never been much good at being normal, it's got to be said. All the way back to toddlerhood, if you ask my parents. (Please don't ask my parents.) And I recognized myself and my anti-credit-based-economy soapbox in that slogan.

Debt is normal. Be weird.

Not having a credit card (as I didn't until 2010) is weird. Not having credit card DEBT (which I didn't, and don't) is weird. Not owning a car (never have; probably won't in the near future) is weird. Not having a big expensive wedding (which we won't) is weird. Not spending lots of money on coffee, gas, and TV is REALLY weird. And that doesn't even touch thrift-store shopping, coupon-clipping, or my other favored forms of minimizing materialism. All weird.

Guess what? I'M WEIRD.

But I'm not buried under debt.

Juggling bowling pins, chainsaws, and books

2012-01-23T14:43:00.000-08:00

As I go about introducing myself to a new crop of virtual classrooms, it becomes apparent that I've got a full plate this semester.

-I'm working full-time (40 hours/week) in the office.
-I'm taking 10 credit hours at library school (which they say is equivalent to 1.5x the number of undergraduate credits).
-I'm planning a wedding for October.
-I'm selecting books for the Read Aloud program.
-I'm reading lots of books for myself.
-I'm minding the lending libraries at work, home, and church (maybe! soon!).
-I'm embarking on some major goals, including saving/donating half of my take-home income.
-I blog here about all (most) of it!

I need either more hours in the day, or an ability to turn down interesting diversions. :)

Just a heads-up for anyone who swings by at the beginning of this semester: I may be busy elsewhere. I'll be around, posting (and writing more about those books I'm reading) when I'm able. The more you comment, the more incentive I have!

Update your resume!

2012-01-20T16:25:00.000-08:00

How many times have you heard -- from your professors, career counselors, parents, LinkedIn groups -- "Always have an updated resume on hand"? Oh, blogger boys and girls -- this tip paid off a whole bunch this week!

First: You just might need it in a hurry.

My sweetie's back on the market this week, and having to make only a few changes to the resume(s) she last used (and then saved online, in a Google Doc) meant less downtime. Aside from a few online gigs (check out Mechanical Turk or TaskRabbit if you haven't yet!), she's launched a new search for a full-time or part-time job in the area. Resume at the ready, she's set to network with friends, browse LinkedIn and Craiglist, and get her feet back under her FAST. Consider whether you'd be ready to knock on a temp agency's door tomorrow morning if today you were let go, your position was cut, your relationship or housing situation changed, or the company you work for closed their doors. In an uncertain economy, that extra bit of preparation can have big results.

Second: You never know when you'll stumble across a golden opportunity in a narrow timeframe.

Wednesday evening, my standing appointment was rescheduled, so I was actually home baking cookies and watching Netflix. Although the semester hasn't officially started yet, some professors are making their course pages public a little early. I figured I'd get a head start if there was anything new to look at, so I logged into D2L and checked the new emails from the SLIS list. Last week, an announcement for a student assistant position was posted -- someone to help with the debut of the Virtual Internships Program at SJSU (a collaboration between the records management folks at SLIS and the management info systems department in SJSU's College of Business, as I currently understand it). The assistant would work 10 hours a week (paid!) creating, populating, and updating a database for current and future interns and their supervisors. The work seemed right up my alley, but I was concerned that the position would itself be an internship, with concurrent enrollment in LIBR 294 -- and I won't be eligible for that course until after I finish the Spring semester. (Not to mention that most of the paycheck would go toward tuition fees for the course credits!)

So I emailed the head of the program to ask whether this was an internship, work-study, or what. (I phrased it a bit more elegantly.) When I'd had questions about the Virtual Internship program last semester, she'd been very responsive via email, so I was hoping to get an answer the next day. I was NOT expecting an email an hour later explaining that the position was not an internship (and therefore I could apply), but that the application deadline was THAT NIGHT! Resumes would be reviewed the next day, and "tomorrow will be too late". Yikes! Guess it was a good thing that I asked right away.

Thanks to the efforts of Dr. Larkin in last semester's LIBR 204, and the helpful input I received from Jill Klees at the SJSU Career Center, I had a resume suitable for this position at the ready. A few minor updates and a solid cover letter later, I'd applied for the position! Turn-around time from receiving the email: about half an hour. AWESOME.

As I write this, I don't know whether I'll be offered the position. But at least I'm in the running! I also think that I'm an excellent candidate for the job. The sense of accomplishment of finding a job opening that fits with my work skills and experience, and is also connected to the SLIS program, is a great encouragement to my fledgling job/internship search. So I'll repeat the wisdom, and gladly -- Always have an updated resume on hand!!

Month-by-Month Phone Plans

2012-01-13T18:20:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I added my girlfriend to my MetroPCS family plan. It saved both of us money on our monthly cell phone bill!

I'd been getting promotional notifications from MetroPCS for about a month -- add up to 3 more lines to your plan and pay $100! My individual cell phone plan was $50 (plus a few bucks for insurance; I pay $55 or $56 monthly), and hers was more, so purely from a budgetary perspective, it made sense to add her to my account. I'd been nudging her about it for a couple of weeks, and she's agreed that it was a good idea. Thing was, both of us had to be available at the same time, together, during business hours. This rarely happens. But yesterday I was home from work, and she came back from a meeting, and then her Blackberry died. So I asked her if she wanted to head to the store!

Now, this is why I love MetroPCS: there's no contract. There's no specific number of minutes I'm buying, like a lot of prepaid plans. (But you can do that if you want to.) I pay a flat fee, the same every month, and I get unlimited texts, unlimited calls, unlimited data. If I want a new phone (which I don't, more than once in 3 years or so, when mine breaks), I get a new phone. If I needed to cut back but want to keep my account active, I could drop to a lower-priced plan (I haven't done it in the 5 years I've been with Metro). If I wanted to switch to a different provider, I could do that -- no fees for breaking a contract. It's kind of awesome.

On the downside, sometimes I have to go into a MetroPCS store, and deal with staff. And I just don't think that's very fun. I generally know what I want, and would like to have it done for a minimum of time and expense. if I'm not sure what I want, I appreciate clear explanation of my options. And then I'd like the staffer to follow up on that. In the store, I always feel like I'm left staring at the wall while they enter information into a computer, punch buttons on my phone, and don't explain what they're doing or -- at the end -- what's been done. So that's not so great. But, yeah, that happens once a year, max. I pay my bill each month online, for free, and don't have to deal with people.

One useful thing that dealing with a person yesterday got me was a lower bill. Back in the day, I'd signed up for the $50 plan so I could get email on my phone. The guy behind the counter pointed out that my phone wasn't a smartphone (although it does have web browser access), so if I went down to the $40 plan, I would get almost everything I'd been using (minus direct email and the MetroNavigator GPS system) -- and that if I had two lines on a family plan, we'd only pay $70/month. Well, okay, downsell me. I went from $55/month to $35/month in 5 minutes.

My sweetie got a new phone, very similar to mine (a newer model of the Samsung Freeform) and a new number in our area code. Because her Blackberry was dead (no explanation for that; it just stopped charging), they couldn't port her old phone number to her new phone, or transfer her contacts. :( (ETA: Her Blackberry came back to life! So this may still be possible, with some hoop-jumping at both Metro and her old provider, T-mobile.) The new phone cost $49 up front, but it had a $30 mail-in rebate, so in a little while it will have only cost her $19. That's completely reasonable, in my opinion. And the salesguy tossed in a free case -- she picked a soft shell in a slightly different texture and color than mine. So now we both have little purple QWERTY phones! (Only I can't post a photo of the two of them together... because I'd have to use one of them to take the picture.)

Brooke's Books: The Brooke Jackman Foundation

2012-01-09T16:39:00.000-08:00

One of the books I read to kick off my hundred-book challenge of 2012 was Decade of Hope: Stories of Grief and Endurance from 9/11 Families and Friends, by Dennis Smith. The author interviewed many people who were deeply and personally affected by the 9/11 terrorist attacks, including Robert and Barbara Jackman, parents of Brooke Jackman, who was only 23 when she died in the collapse of the World Trade Center towers.

The stories in this book were all moving, but Brooke's seemed special to me. She had just started a new job at Cantor Fitzgerald, on the 104th floor of the North Tower, and was able to make one of the last outgoing phone calls from the WTC to say goodbye to her family. Her story tugged at my heartstrings. In some ways, I identified with her. Her parents describe Brooke as someone who "was always reading", someone who stopped in at Borders every evening on the way home from work. To honor her memory, they started the Brooke Jackman Foundation (TBJF).

The Foundation provides reading programs and literacy services for at-risk and underprivileged youth, to commemorate Brooke's love of reading, her helpfulness, and her desire to be of service. TBJF distributes brand-new books -- one for every child -- to the children participating in its programs. For several years following 9/11, the Jackman family and their community gathered together to stuff backpacks with books and school supplies, but now the operation has grown beyond that scale -- over 10,000 backpacks filled! In addition to providing disadvantaged youth in the New York City area with back-to-school supplies, "Brooke Packs" were also distributed to 200 children who had experienced the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina in the Southern US in 2004. The Foundation promotes parents and children reading together, an activity which strengthens family bonds and improves literacy skills. In partnership with the Books for Kids foundation, the Brooke Jackman Foundation has opened four small libraries in sites such as domestic violence family shelters and the Crimes Against Children Bureau at the Kings County District Attorney's office. On top of all this excellent work, TBJF grants funding to outside literacy service providers in schools and non-profit organizations.

This month, I donated the funds I earmarked for charity to the Brooke Jackman Foundation, because I believe that they are doing good work encouraging children and their families to love books. In my own life and career, I want to promote reading for everyone, especially children. What Brooke's family is doing though the Foundation is inspiring and uplifting. I hope that they will continue to grow even more in the next ten years.

Unsubscribing from Junk Email

2012-01-09T13:43:00.000-08:00

One of the extra steps I've taken this month to reduce STUFF in my life is to unsubscribe from email I don't need. It's not really "spam" -- that is, it's not entirely unsolicited or irrelevant to my interests. That stuff gets filtered into my Spam folder by my email client, for the most part, and I only see it when I skim over the subject lines to make sure I'm not deleting anything I need. I'm really talking about what still lands in my inbox.

Some of the email I get on a weekly or daily basis is left over from actual purchases I've made, or from a project I was working on last year, or from companies I like. I know where to find their websites! I don't need to be notified of every sale that comes along. So I'm using this month to weed out the (very few) promotional emails I want to receive from the larger mass of junk.

Easy steps to reducing junk email:
1. Open it.
Figure out who the email's from (and think about why you got it). Do you need it? Will you need something like it in the future? Would a browser bookmark or calendar reminder serve the same purpose?

2. Unsubscribe.
In most mass emails, an Unsubscribe link is located down at the bottom, in all the fine print. Thanks to hypertext, it's often easy to find, because there's a link highlighting the word Unsubscribe. Click that, and you'll be taken to a page set up by the company or by its email distributor. Then you'll have a few options:
- You may not have to do anything further; you'll see a confirmation message like "You've been unsubscribed from XYZ mail notifications. We're sad to see you go!"
-You may have to confirm the email subscription change on the website by checking a tickbox or just clicking a button that says "Submit", "I agree", or "Unsubscribe" or something like that.
-The website might offer you some choices, such as "send only one email per week" or only receive "special promotions". Depending on why you're unsubscribing, choosing one of these can still help you reduce junk email. But you should always be offered an option to stop receiving all emails if that's what you want.
-Often, the page will ask you for feedback: "Why are you unsubscribing?" There might be a selection of options like "too many emails", "not relevant to my interest", etc., or a free-text field for you to input your reasons. Usually, this section is optional, and you'll be able to unsubscribe without filling it out.

2a. Every now and then, there won't be an unsubscribe link in the email, or the link will be broken. In those cases, you'll need to contact the company directly. I recommend the following:
-Reply to the email.
Usually, it's not smart to do this, because mass emails almost always come from an inbox that's not monitored by humans. If you need customer support, don't respond to no-reply@xyzcompany.com, even if your receipt came from that address -- no one will see it! But these automated inboxes are sometimes configured with some basic filters, such as one that will notice unsubscribe requests and will either change your subscription or send a notification to a human who can do something about it. To have a better chance of getting the attention of the bot or human at the other end, change the subject line to UNSUBSCRIBE and make your first line "Unsubscribe email@yourdomain.com", inserting your own email address. You might also want to include a note afterward like "Unsubscribe link doesn't work, so I'm trying this route in case you have a filter set up." (I did this with emails from SaverTime.com, which had a broken Unsubscribe link, and received a confirmation notice from a support agent 4 minutes later.)
-Contact the company directly from their website.
If you go directly to XYZcompany.com, you should find a Contact page or Help page, with contact information displayed prominently. Usually, you'll see an email that looks like "support@XYZcompany.com" -- this email inbox will be monitored! Either forward the email you sent a minute ago to this address, or just send them a new email. Make it short and sweet; support agents deal with a lot of simple requests like these. Try something like "Please unsubscribe me from your mailing list. I no longer wish to receive any emails from XYZ Company. My email address to unsubscribe is email@yourdomain.com." You should receive a confirmation in the next 48 hours or so (sometimes much sooner!); if you don't, skip step #3 for that email and hang onto it for now. That way, if you get another email from the same company, you can follow up.

3. Delete it.
Guess what? You no longer need it! Feel free to delete the email and free up a little more space in your inbox. If these are frequent junk emails (I'm looking at YOU, Bed Bath & Beyond!), you might get one more email from the same company in the next day or two, because it may take time for the subscription change to be processed in their system. But do this every day for a couple weeks, with new emails that come in, and you'll see a dramatic increase in the amount of junk email you receive.

P.S.
I made an exception for one daily email from Yipit.com, even though I don't always read it. Yipit is an aggregator site that collects all the special deals from sites like Groupon, LivingSocial, and Google Offers (and many, many more!). I used to receive half a dozen emails a day from these sites, telling me their latest daily deals, but now I get only one. I can tell Yipit which categories I'm interested in (restaurants, massage, theater) and which to skip (wine tasting, golf, baby, skydiving), and select MULTIPLE geographical areas -- very helpful if you commute a long distance to work and want deals both near home and near the office, or if you visit your folks in another state frequently, or you want to keep an eye on deals where your grandkids live that might make good gifts. I'm even looking at deals in Portland and Seattle for when we go on vacation!

Librarians do the unexpected!

2012-01-07T14:50:00.000-08:00

So I provided Nelson over at Financial Uproar with some, uh, research for his recurring Saturday posts, and now I'm his new favorite person. He's fickle, though, so I don't expect that to last long. Go check out my contribution of Serena Williams, a babe loosely related to finance (What? She's loaded! Although I'd've used this picture to get a bigger reaction.), and enjoy the snarkiness of a fun personal finance blogger. Just don't listen to him when he writes about why you shouldn't go to university. You could end up driving a potato chip truck for a living.

Supermarket Savings

2012-01-07T12:40:00.000-08:00

I get a little excited about saving money. It's kind of weird to most people, but a lot of personal finance bloggers understand. So here's a long part-confessional/part-bragging sort of post about what I saved on the first grocery purchases of the year.

My sweetie and I spent the last week of 2011 and the first week of 2012 cleaning out the fridge and pantry -- by donating a few non-perishables we weren't going to use, tossing expired food and medications (yuck!), eating up leftovers that were still tasty, and making meals with what was already in the house. (Mmmmm, pot roast with "vegetable melange": baby carrots, a russet potato and two baby red potatoes, a withering zucchini, a mystery yellow squash, and frozen corn and green beans and peas!) We also tidied up the pantry (which is really a small bookshelf in the kitchen closet) and organized it into sections: pasta and sauces, soups, rice and dried beans, baking. That made room for new supplies!

Yesterday, she handed me the weekly ads for the two grocery stores closest to us and told me to make her a list. To be clear, we don't usually even look at those; we make up recurring meal ideas and pick up the ingredients as needed, or when they're on sale while we're shopping for other things. We buy store-brand for most items, because there's rarely a noticeable difference except in price. She does the grocery shopping and the cooking, but I am the picky eater, so she finds it important to run menus by me. I'm not a big one for clipping coupons, but I do love sales -- and groceries on sale are even better than other stuff! (See, the weirdness.) So I looked through the circulars and clipped all the interesting stuff that I thought was both yummy and useful -- for bento lunches, weekend casseroles to freeze, crock-pot dinners, and easy meals for when school starts back up. I figure the new year is a good time to start stockpiling canned goods, and to replace the household cleaning supplies we've used up. (I also have a weakness for drugstores that may be related to shopping the sales.) There were a few items that were offered at both stores, so I did the math and picked the better deal.

The original plan was for her to stop at one store on her way home from work this morning (she works night shifts on weekends, midnight to 8 AM), carry the groceries home, then sleep for a bit while I got my day started; then we'd go to the second store together and I'd swing by the drugstore nearby and fill some prescriptions while I bought garbage bags and laundry detergent and such. Well, she came straight home instead, found me passed out in bed and unwilling to wake up and go to the store immediately -- do you blame me? It's Saturday! So... unbeknownst to my sleepy self, she went right back out, picked up a City Carshare vehicle, and hit both stores at once! I got out of bed a little later and received her phone call asking me to put on shoes, come downstairs, and help her lug everything up to the apartment. Let's hear it for motivation!

Anyway, we got everything put away -- sort of. She'd rather overestimated the space left in the freezer, so we'll have to divide up some of the meats, and cook some other ones, before they'll fit in the icy Tetris of our little top freezer above the 3/4 fridge. I have no idea where we'll put the dinosaur bones. But it's beautiful! I feel abundance, which is an excellent sort of feeling.

I wasn't kidding. In there we have several kinds of frozen bagged veggies, the wheat-free flour and baking mixes that our housemate uses, leftover mattar paneer, chopped spinach, coffee beans, one enchilada, some chicken patties, beef patties, frozen raspberries, pine nuts, a turkey carcass, several containers of turkey-barley soup, ice cream (free with today's groceries!), microwaveable meals from Healthy Choice and Amy's, breaded fish filets, and pasta sauce. Oh, and a jawbreaker.

That bottom shelf is our housemate's stuff. She eats more veggies and less bread than we do, but sometimes we share food if it's "friendly" (gluten-free for her; dairy-free or dairy-light for me).

Top shelf: tortillas, leftover candy from Christmas, cottage cheese, yogurt (ick!), leftover sweet potato hash, hot dogs, string cheese, eggs. (I started liking eggs last year, after 20 years of only occasionally eating them hard-boiled and otherwise not at all. I also was diagnosed with a Vitamin D insufficiency in November... these things are possibly related.) Middle shelf: Brita pitcher, lactose-free milk (one of which will have to be exchanged for fat-free), the last of the eggnog (also ick -- it's for my sweetie, but I won't touch the stuff), coffee creamer (housemate's), and LOTS of meat ready to be divided and repackaged in Ziploc for the freezer: salmon, chicken breasts, ground turkey, ground beef, lamb shoulder blades, cross-rib steaks, and beef ribs! (There was a really exceptional deal.)

Our pantry shelves: oatmeal, unsweetened applesauce packaged for travel (sometimes it's the only thing I can eat without nausea), couscous, tuna, random squash from Thanksgiving, masala sauce, pasta sauce in red and white, various pastas. Canned soup (some to live at work in case I forget my lunchbox), chocolate, sugar, baking powder, cornstarch, sliced almonds, a tub of sprinkles. Ramen, chicken broth, rice, dried lima beans, more canned soup, canned black, kidney, pinto, and garbanzo beans. (Very important for meatless meals!)

Not shown but also picked up today: bleach, garbage bags, more Ziploc bags, some vitamins that were Buy One Get One Free. And some artichokes. :) I still need to get laundry stain remover, my prescriptions, and maybe some bleach shower spray to get the purple hair dye out of the tub.

So there's our stockpiling for the beginning of the year! It's all stuff one or both of us will eat, and it lets us plan out menus in advance to cut down on stress and waste. We have a couple of local farmers' markets that we'll visit once or twice a week for fresh produce, since we don't have the facilities to buy it in bulk and then can or preserve it. That ought to round out our grocery budget, which comes from her living stipend. And this was so easy to plan! It took me a maximum of 20 minutes to scan the ads, clip the coupons, and make the list; I did it while watching Grey's Anatomy. We got free ice cream! And some boxtops for education (without buying the products in the boxes). And you know what the best part is??

We got all this stuff, which we will use over the next two or three months, and saved 40%!

So that's about $260 paid today (including non-edibles), to be spread over an average of two months (the canned soups and beans will last longer than that, and so will some of the leftovers we freeze from this month's meals). $130 a month, plus maybe $10 a week for produce and fresh bread from the farmers' market, and probably some more milk. $175 a month, then -- and we eat great, filling, often very nutritious food. I KNOW that frugal housekeepers make do on less (sometimes much less), and there are definitely areas in which we could cut back if we had to (and we've done so in the past!). We don't have a garden or a chest freezer (or a car!), though, and neither of us is home during the day, so many of the money-saving strategies employed by others aren't practical in our situation. For now, this works for us.

Bear in mind, the most recent food cost estimates from the USDA say that a "thrifty" plan for a family of 2 adults should be $373.60!!! I think the USDA is off its rocker. I live in an area with a very high cost of living, and still can't imagine what I'd spend all that on! (I guess it helps that we don't drink soda or alcohol... but does the USDA include those??) Remember, they're just calculating costs for food -- not toilet paper, cleaning supplies, vitamins, etc. So I call today's shopping trip a huge success. *kisses the lovely household provider*

Textbooks for Spring Semester

2012-01-05T12:22:00.000-08:00

I'm seeing a lot of statuses on Facebook grumbling about textbook prices. It must be that time of year already!

I've already priced out my textbooks for the semester and found some good deals on used books from Amazon and on semester-length rentals from College Book Renter. (I'm waiting for payday before I buy mine, but I have them in my shopping cart already.) Even with reduced prices, it comes out to about $160 for 5 books. Oof. And I know that's really nothing compared to what I paid at the campus bookstore as an undergraduate. Why are textbooks so expensive??

This infographic explains some of the reasons:

Via: OnlineEducation.net

Okay, so say you're stuck with a list of expensive textbooks. How can you get textbooks for less?

First, try for used copies. Maybe the professor taught this course last semester with the same text -- do you know anyone who took it? If you live in a college town, you know a lot of students, and you probably know where they hang out. Can you post a note on a public bulletin board in the anthropology building or nearby coffee shop, or in the campus library? (Side note: maybe your LIBRARIAN knows where you can get used textbooks. You might be able to check them out from the library for a short amount of time (not the whole semester) or review them in the library before exams.) And there's good ol' Craigslis t -- pick up books in person and pay cash.

You probably won't find a lot of cheap textbooks online, but you can see how much the price difference is at a site like Amazon that sells used books. Sometimes the textbooks are offered by companies that buy bulk batches, or buy back from students; sometimes a book is offered directly by the student -- I've done that myself. With Amazon, you have a certain level of purchasing security that you might not have on Craigslist, and there's a much wider selection! If you see a good deal, especially if it's for a book you'll need to consult over and over again (the APA style guide, for example), scoop it up. After you're done with the course, you can either hang onto it or sell your book or trade it back in for Amazon credit. You probably won't make back the full amount you spent, but you're likely to recoup most of the cost if your copy is in good condition and it's still the most recent edition. Trying to sell a couple years down the line when a new edition has been published won't get you much -- so act quickly!

If you only need the textbook for one course, or it's a particularly expensive one, you might do best to rent it instead of buying it outright. CollegeBookRenter.com offers rental periods of 60, 90, or 130 days -- so whether you need to use your book for a full semester and study for finals, or just for one section of the class, you have pro-rated options. When you're done, just put it back in the box it arrived in, print the shipping label, and mail it back to CBR. You also have the option to extend your rental period, just by going online before the due date. And if you choose to keep the book, you just pay the difference in price -- it's pretty steep, but not unreasonable for a used copy. That's how they keep people from walking off with "rental" books. Staff also inspect the books when they are returned. If you damage the book beyond the point that it's considered rentable, you'll be charged full price as well -- but you don't get the book back! So if you spill water on your copy of Information Management for the Digital Age, you might be better hanging onto it, reporting it as damaged to CBR and paying up, then taking the book to Amazon and listing it as used and damaged -- if some other student doesn't care about a few wrinkled pages, you could get a chunk of change back instead of losing the money entirely.

If you're buying your textbooks for Spring semester now, or looking to sell some to those who are, be aware that College Book Renter has some special promotions through the end of January.

-If you sell your books on CBR, you get an entry form to submit in a drawing. The grand prize is up to $10,000 for a year's worth of tuition! (My mouth waters thinking about how much less I'd need to save in my grad school fund.)

-Submit an article to the CBR blog, and if you're chosen as a guest blogger, you get entered to win a CBR scholarship for your textbooks.

-Three winners will be chosen in the Golden Ticket Giveaway to have their order paid for by CBR. This is a bit of a gamble -- you have to place your order at CollegeBookRenter.com, and you'll only be notified AFTER CHECKOUT if you've won. But since there are good deals at CBR (cheaper than buying a new textbook!), you might want to do that anyway... and you have the exciting possibility of winning!

-Even if you're not selected for one of these prizes, everyone's a winner -- CBR offers FREE SHIPPING on used textbooks and textbook rentals ordered before January 31st. And here's a link to some coupon codes for College Book Renter... I can't guarantee that they'll work, but it's worth a try! 5% off, or $5 off -- so whether you've got a big order or just need one book, it should help. So you might want to get on that.

Strange Search Keywords

2012-01-04T11:47:00.000-08:00

Hack Library School, that excellent blog for LIS students, just posted their 2011 blogging stats. I'm impressed! They're definitely a popular location. (Go, check them out!)

Now, I'm just starting out on this blog, and it's a hobby I have to cram into little spaces of free time between work and school. But I do watch my traffic stats on the Blogger dashboard, and I keep an eye on which posts get the most views. One feature I hadn't noticed until last night is the Search Keywords (under the section on Traffic Sources). I guess some people are stumbling across my blog while looking for something in a search engine -- not just from the links I post to Facebook and LinkedIn.

For now, most of the search keywords that led users to click on my listing are from (presumably) other library science students: "libr 285" competency proposal and subject analysis "libr 202" head the list, and also someone's search for design and implementation of instructional strategies for information professionals. Boring stuff like that.

But the best keyword search so far?

does robert munsch pick his nose

Well. Gosh. That's a... very interesting question. And I don't know the answer! I know that Robert Munsch is the author of some of my favorite childhood stories, such as The Paper Bag Princess (a Read Aloud selection for first grade this past fall), Purple, Green, and Yellow, and Murmel, Murmel, Murmel (which has been translated into baby-babble in many languages). He also wrote the amusingly vulgar Good Families Don't, which will get giggles out of any grade-school classroom and possibly a challenge from oversensitive citizens who don't think farts are funny, and the classic bedtime story Love You Forever, which I still (after many years of reading it to family members, babysitting charges, and preschool kids, with my own tune to the song) can't decide if I like. (You can hear Munsch's version sung aloud at the website!) I don't know, however, about his nasal hygiene and/or manners. I rather suspect that if one of his children had picked her nose, we'd have a book about it. You could always ask him. (And maybe I will!)

Laptop Lunch #1 of the year!

2012-01-03T13:07:00.000-08:00

This was (some of) my lunch today:

I thought to snap a photo when I was mostly done with my entree -- leftover chili and rice and tortillas. The star-shaped things are biscuits, and my sweetie packed a little container of honey and some jellies we picked up at a hotel breakfast a while back.

I won't be posting every day, like some very organized people manage to, but I did want to acknowledge the cuteness of the biscuit stars and show off my new lunchbox in action. I am a lucky girl to have my lunch packed for me -- and in such a nice, eco-friendly purple box, too!

It's the little things...

2012-01-01T12:51:00.000-08:00

One other gift I received for Christmas was a lifetime membership to LibraryThing. (Check out the widget in the left sidebar -- that's LT!) While a basic membership allows me to list up to 200 books on my LibraryThing account, a premium member's listing limit expands to 5,000. Both annual ($10) and lifetime ($25) memberships are available, and my personal elf happened to pick up my gift from the LT holiday sale at only $15! There was a little hiccup in getting the membership code applied to my account, but an email exchange straightened that out.

This is such an excellent gift because now I can add all of the book titles that were donated to the HMCRA Read Aloud Program in previous years, and have them all in one place. Keeping a catalog at LibraryThing helps me (or any other volunteer for the program) in the following ways:

-It shows what books have already been donated, to avoid duplication when I purchase new material.

-It shows which grades received the books, so that those books or similar books can be assigned to higher or lower grades based on volunteer reader feedback.

-It shows the date of donation, so that if a particularly good title is repeated, it's spaced out in the memory of the students (preferably assigned two or more years apart, and to the other classroom for that grade level).

-It's a centralized location, so that if someone new takes over the program, they'll have full access to the records. That's much better than one person holding onto a spreadsheet or list that would be vulnerable to loss or data corruption, and it ensures a smooth transition in leadership when necessary. Also, it allows multiple people to make changes that are carried across the centralized catalog, or allows the same person (me) to update from multiple locations.

-It garners recommendations from the system and from other LT users who can see what titles and types of books are already in the collection. Examples of authors or specific titles are often more descriptive than a simple statement of theme. When buying upwards of a hundred books each year, new suggestions are very helpful!

-It provides suggestions for other readers and educators -- for example, Molly's Pilgrim is a great story to read at Thanksgiving, and Megan's Birthday Tree introduces the topic of open adoption to younger students. Many users post reviews when they come across a book that's been read. When listing the Read Aloud program books, I include the discussion questions I provided the volunteer readers, so those are available to anyone browsing the catalog.

I'm very excited about continuing the LibraryThing project for the Read Aloud classroom collections. I'm also starting a 100-book challenge on my personal LibraryThing account (still a basic membership). I hope to have others join me! Your suggestions are welcome.

P.S. As a little bonus, I received a check from the American Library Association. Back in September, I signed up for a student membership to get involved in the library services profession -- before I knew that all first-year students in the SLIS program at SJSU receive a free year's ALA membership as part of the LIBR 200 class. It took some time to process the free membership (which SJSU sent to ALA for all eligible students), but when that went through, ALA sent me a refund! Those funds go right back into my grad school savings. :)