After looking for direction, I kept returning to the idea of a modified bucket list of sorts. The stuff to be done in a lifetime is not going to work for me, as I need something more short-term. Part of it is also defining priorities better, and breaking down some items into workable chunks.

I have my own set of rules – some of the items as I add them will be rather short-term, while others will take longer. There can’t be more than 40 items on the list at any one time. Some of the more long-term goals will be broken down. So here’s what I have so far:

Crafts:
1. Knit 50 squares for Knit-A-Square by 2013.
2. Create a heritage blanket.
3. Make wind chimes.
4. Learn how to use the sewing machine.
5. Knit a pair of socks.
6. Finish the monkey.
7. Finish making the bedroom rug.
8. Make bathtub rug.

Money:
1. Get out of debt.
2. Get life insurance money account closed.

Spiritual:
1. Listen to Zencasts.
2. Finish James Redfield books.
3. Look into Ayuvedic medicine.

Helping others:
1. Contribute to AOK – set realistic goal.
2. Donate to FreeRice – set realistic goal.

Travel:
1. Hike to bottom of the Grand Canyon.
2. Go to Canada again.
3. Hawaii.
4. Northern Lights.

Education:
1. Learn Spanish.
2. Finish MT Course.

Music:
1. Organize music collection.
2. Help Dave with list.

Total to date: 23

I know – it seems a little disjointed right now, but the ideas are in my DayOne journal and I needed to get them onto another medium. Next, I will start to explain them and provide links.

photo credit: Brett Jordan

…especially when it has to do with your financial future, and your security. I was talking with a best friend about a month ago; we have been friends forever, and we talk a couple of times of year. I am very blessed because he is someone that I can talk to about anything. Our phone conversation was rather depressing; we are both happy with our families and are comfortable in our jobs, but there is this overwhelming sense of unease. We don’t live beyond our means, but there doesn’t seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel, either. What happened to us? Why are we on this unending treadmill of bullshit with no end? And I’m the lucky one who pulled out of the stock market before the housing bubble burst, so at least I have a few options on the table.

And now there’s all this debt ceiling crap. And I watch as my good friends foreclose on their house because it was worth 50% of what they paid for it; they needed to move home to be closer to family and tried to short-sale the house, but the bank wanted more even though the sellers were willing to pay cash on the adjusted asking price. I wonder about my father-in-law, who passed away after working a tedious boring job as a forklift operator to put food on the table for his son; he was miserable before he died because he was constantly worried about money despite working 30 years in a union and saving for retirement.

I decided to become more educated about economics, beyond getting out of debt and saving religiously in a 401k using paper fiat currency that probably won’t be worth much except for toilet paper by the time I can touch it. I would recommend that you do the same.

I can’t make decisions for you, but I can share my journey. We’re in the process of an awakening of sorts; we have come to the decision that we need to become as self-sufficient as possible. We’re not moving into a fortress in the middle of nowhere, but we are trying hard to make the most of what we have and finding other individuals who are thinking along the same lines. I no longer think that saving money is the best method of obtaining a happy future, but rather it involves becoming an informed citizen and taking peaceful actions towards achieving independence.

Back when I started this blog at the end of 2007, I wanted to write about finance and chose a favorite song for a domain name. Little did I know that the “change” part would become so relevant!

photo credit: ryanmilani

I think that the times are changing, and as a result, so is the focus of this blog.  When I first started this blog back in 2008, I really wanted to obtain financial freedom, and I still do.  We still have a lot of debt (mostly as a mortgage and student loans, although we do have credit card debt as well), but I guess that over the past year I started to have an awakening of sorts.

We are very fortunate to have saved up some money (almost entirely in a 401k and Roth IRAs), but now we are coming to the realization that it may not ever be possible to “save enough” for retirement.  Even if we pay off our mortgage and all of our debt, and plan on living modestly (which we do), what do we do to prepare for a medical emergency?  What are our choices in terms of affordable medical insurance if we work for ourselves, or if we lose our jobs?  How do we protect ourselves from the declining value of the dollar?  Frankly, I think that our retirement savings may not be worth much as the price of finite resources continues to increase.

Which brings me to my next point.  The price of finite resources is going to increase.  I think that the writing is on the wall, and I don’t consider myself to be a doomsday type of person.  The population of the world is increasing, and natural resources such as oil are finite in nature. Oil and gas are going to continue to increase in price.  Food prices are going to continue to increase as well, especially if you don’t want to eat processed foods (which I would argue saves money down the road in terms of health care costs).

So, what is a person to do?  Specifically, in our case, what is a small suburban/rural family to do?  We’re not ready to move to the middle of nowhere, stockpiling MREs and waiting for the end of the world (although I have a lot of respect for people who are entirely self-sufficient, we personally want to raise our son right where we are for the time being).  I think that our current mindset is to improve our life by becoming less dependent on larger systems and more self-sufficient.  We also want to develop relationships at a more local level (think farmers markets, etc.).

I need to write about what I have a passion for.  I still want to save money, and be responsible fiscally, but I think that instead of “saving pennies for a rainy day”, there now needs to be a larger focus on becoming more self-sufficient.  This focus in my thinking will be reflected in future posts.  I hope that you understand, and decide to stay and follow along with or participate in our journey.

photo credit: ninjapoodles

Here is the Sunday Paper coupon insert schedule for 2011. Enjoy!

January
2— (2) Smart Source (2) Red Plum and General Mill
9— Smart Source and Red Plum
16 — Smart Source, Red Plum and Proctor & Gamble
23 — Smart Source and Red Plum
30 — Smart Source and Red Plum

February
6 — Smart Source
13 — No Inserts scheduled (Valentine’s Day)
20 — Smart Source, General Mills and Procter & Gamble
27 — Smart Source and Red Plum

March
6— Smart Source, Red Plum and Procter & Gamble
13 — Smart Source and Red Plum
20 — Smart Source and Red Plum
27 — (2) Smart Source, Red Plum and Procter & Gamble

April
3— No Inserts scheduled (Easter)
10 — Smart Source and Red Plum
17 — Smart Source and Red Plum
24 — Smart Source and Red Plum

May
1 — Smart Source, Red Plum and Procter & Gamble
8— Smart Source and Red Plum
15 — (2) Smart Source and Red Plum
22 — Smart Source and Red Plum
29 — No Inserts scheduled (Memorial Day)

June
5 — Smart Source, Red Plum and Procter & Gamble
12 — Smart Source
19 — Smart Source and Red Plum
26 — Smart Source and Red Plum

July
3 — No Inserts scheduled (Independence Day)
10 — Smart Source and Red Plum
17 — Smart Source
24 — Smart Source and Red Plum
31 — Smart Source, Red Plum and Procter & Gamble

August
7 — Smart Source and Red Plum
14 — Smart Source and Red Plum
21 — Smart Source and Red Plum
28 — Smart Source, Red Plum and Procter & Gamble

September
4 — No Inserts scheduled (Labor Day)
11 — Smart Source and (2) Red Plum
18 — Smart Source and Red Plum
25 — Smart Source and Red Plum

October
2 — Smart Source, Red Plum and Procter & Gamble
9 — Smart Source and Red Plum
16 — Smart Source and Red Plum
23 — Smart Source and Red Plum
30 — Smart Source and Red Plum

November
6 — Smart Source, Red Plum and Procter & Gamble
13 — Smart Source and Red Plum
20 — Smart Source and Red Plum
27 — No Inserts scheduled (Thanksgiving)

December
4 — Smart Source, Red Plum and Procter & Gamble
11 — Smart Source and Red Plum
18 — No Inserts scheduled (Christmas)
25 — Procter & Gamble

photo credit: disrupsean

ok.  I am a fairly reasonable person, but nothing irks me more than irresponsible and illogical customer service.  It’s especially frustrating when you make a point to shop at a store that has always treated you decently; but then you walk in one day, and they decide to treat you like garbage.

So here’s my story.  Right before Thanksgiving, my mom purchased a $69 vacuum cleaner at Lowe’s for me.  She was in town visiting and insisted on buying one for me when mine broke.  The previous model vacuum had worked well for me for 3.5 years before breaking down, so I went with the same model I had before.  It is now the week after Christmas, and the vacuum mysteriously stopped working.  The brush still rolls, but the suction doesn’t work.

Although I didn’t have the receipt, I wasn’t too worried.  Lowe’s has always been very nice to us in the past and reasonable with returns.  Until today.  I went in with the vacuum and asked if I could exchange it or receive an in-store credit.  I explained that I didn’t have the receipt.  Before I could barely finish my sentence, the lady said that she had to call someone.  She asked when it was purchased, and I told her that it was the week before Thanksgiving.

After hanging up the phone, she told me that I couldn’t return the vacuum because it had been more than 90 days and I didn’t have the receipt.  I said, “OK.  I understand the part about the receipt, but the week before Thanksgiving wasn’t even close to being 90 days ago.”  She responded, “You can’t return the vacuum without the receipt after 90 days.”  I repeated what I said before, making the point to mention that the week before Thanksgiving was less than 90 days ago (I was very nice by the way, mostly because I thought that this was a simple misunderstanding, and once she realized that the time frame was roughly 45 days off, everything would be fine).  She responded, “You can’t return the vacuum.”

I guess I was just kind of stunned.  I had my son with me, and didn’t want to be a jackass, quite frankly. I took my vacuum out to the car and purchased another model just like it.  I will be packing up the broken one in the box, and returning it with the  receipt.  It’s an awful lot of hassle, and leaves a bad taste in my mouth for my local Lowe’s.

Any reasonable person could have looked at the vacuum and realized that it was pretty new.  If you wanted to be particular, looking at the brush would have revealed that it hadn’t been used much.  After coming home and checking the Lowe’s return policy online, I now realize that the lady could have easily asked me for the credit card information or the phone number that was provided with the purchase (my mom paid cash, but I am 100% sure that we would have used either my phone number or her phone number at the register).  She didn’t.

I guess it’s even more frustrating because there is a Home Depot 2 doors down.  It’s not too hard to take my business elsewhere.  So thanks Lowe’s for making my day craptastic.  I’ll be returning your defective vacuum, and thinking twice before shopping with you again.

photo credit: Theodore Scott

ok.  I haven’t been great about posting updates, but I have been bogged down with work (and still am; final grades are due for this semester!).  I did want to post though, because we really worked to control holiday spending this season, and I think we did a decent job:

10/15/2010: -$195,311

10/21/2010: -$193,624 (+1687)

12/27/2010: -$191,896 (+1728, +3415 overall)

This includes all of the Christmas gifts that were charged to the credit card.  I know you may be thinking “Charged to the credit card?  Are you nuts?”.  But keep in mind that it will be paid off in full as soon as we get the bill.  We set a budget, stuck to it, and ended up going over by less than $25.  We won’t pay any interest, and we ended up earning cash back through Discover, so all is well.

photo credit: abbamouse

I had talked briefly about the Reading Eggs program a couple of months ago, and I just wanted to provide an update with some additional thoughts.  Overall, I think that it is a great supplemental program to reading, but there are some potential drawbacks that prevented me from purchasing the program.

First, I want to just say that my son loved the program.  He was very excited to “crack” the different eggs open, and would often ask to play.  For us, the main drawback was that he could guess until he obtained the correct answer without penalty.  If he played the game unsupervised, even for a couple of minutes, he could blindly plow his way through an activity.  When supervised, he would grow impatient with me if I would try to work through a problem area with him.  I set a firm rule, and blind guessing resulted in the loss of the privilege to play.  However, I found that even with this rule he just wasn’t making progress over time.

For us, it would have been extremely helpful to us if the program would adjust to student answers.  I think it would have also helped me, as a parent, to be able to “reset eggs” and make my son repeat the lesson.  You can go back and repeat a lesson, but adding the incentive of hatching the egg again would have been a nice feature.

Reading Eggs provided a wonderful opportunity to introduce our son to the different sounds that letters make.  The customer support was helpful, and I think that the program is worth checking out.  Overall,  for my son, I think that we are ready to take his knowledge to the next level, but will be looking into alternative methods and/or programs to get him on the road to reading.

photo credit: Theodore Scott

I have some ideas jotted down for new posts, but due to a nasty case of bronchitis, I am no longer caught up with work and will have to put them on hold. However, I wanted to post a quick financial update; I am very proud of our progress, especially because there was a “technical glitch” that prevented the processing of some consulting work I did (supposedly I will get paid next month for this).

10/15/2010: -195,311
10/21/2010: -193,624 (+1687)

Keep in mind that we charge all of our monthly expenses (gas, groceries, car repairs, etc.) to a credit card and ALWAYS pay it off in full every month. This balance reflects those charges, which I think really helps us get a better grip on where our money (and therefore net worth) is going.

Are you planning on tracking your finances, especially with the holidays coming up?

photo credit: Mr. T in DC

I have to admit that I have not always been a huge fan of Mint. In our particular case, we are not able to track our bank accounts effectively; my husband belongs to a credit union, and it has a captcha after the login, so we can never update the balance. His retirement accounts (401k, pension) are also not accessible despite putting in a couple of requests. I completely understand that Mint can’t obtain permission from every single bank/retirement plan, etc., but it can be a little depressing to see a bottom line that is in the red because not all of our assets are taken into account.

However, I have found Mint to be a wonderful way to track debt. As an added bonus, we are able to monitor our credit cards that are sitting in a drawer gathering dust and have a $0 balance. Thanks to the weekly e-mail showing my account balances, I was able to pick up on a fraudulent charge before my credit card company (apparently, someone was trying to register their thoroughbred horse using my credit card…)

Even if you use another program to track your finances (as we do), I have found Mint to be an effective tool. I am going to start tracking our bottom line in terms of debt only. Including our mortgage, student loans, and credit cards, here’s our total debt for the month of October:

October 2010: -195,311

Given that we recently had a huge financial crisis (which I have not disclosed in the blog, but it has to do with trying to help an immediate relative; he is no longer with us unfortunately, but I would not change what we did financially to try to help), I am actually encouraged by this number. Keep in mind that we have 401k plans, and Roth IRA plans, and savings accounts, and a house (which actually has some equity!) that more than offsets this debt.

I think that sometimes we try to rationalize our debt – as long as it’s student loans, or a mortgage – it’s ok. But ultimately, all debt (for the majority of people) is a burden. I want to be free from debt, and for me, taking a look at the bottom line keeps things simple. Would you agree?

Today’s Groupon deal is $25 for $50 worth of apparel at the Gap, which is a pretty great deal!

Here are the conditions:

1. Expires Nov 19, 2010.
2. Limit 1 per person.
3. Valid in-store at US and Canada Gap stores only.
4. Not valid at Gap Outlet, Factory, Generation, or online.
5. Not valid for GiftCards, tax, or w/other offers.
6. $50 minimum purchase.

The gift card can be used on any item in-store, including sale items.

These are the complete terms and conditions according to the Groupon site:

Offer valid from August 19, 2010 through November 19, 2010 in the U.S. (including Puerto Rico) and Canada only at Gap stores. Not valid online or at Gap Outlet, Gap Factory Store or The Gap Generation stores. Valid at babyGap, KidsGap, and GapBody. Not valid on Keds® and Robeez®, or diaper bags and strollers at babyGap. Offer is good for one time use only and Groupon must be surrendered at time of in-store purchase. Discount applies to Gap merchandise only, not to GiftCards or applicable taxes. No adjustments on previous purchases. The value of the merchandise purchased must be at least $50. Not valid for cash or cash equivalent. Offer cannot be combined with any other offers or discounts, including Reward Cards and the Gap Inc. employee discount. If Groupon is not redeemed by the expiration date above, it may be redeemed for a $25 Gap GiftCard in U.S. and Canada Gap stores only. Not responsible for lost or stolen Groupons. Offer is not transferable. Cashiers: enter the code in the bottom-right corner of the Groupon.

If you’re interested, check out today’s Groupon deal here!