Kids and savings

Getting my son to develop a regular savings habit is important to me. If you start out with good habits, chances are you will continue them, because habits are hard to break.

Now, I already give my son an allowance. He gets $15 twice a month, plus lunch money every week when school is in session. I wanted to give him this money so that he would have a chance to learn to manage and budget money. He also earns a little bit extra each month by doing a chore that we would otherwise pay someone else to do. He gets money from relatives for things like birthdays and holidays too. So he uses all this money to pay his cell phone bill, go out with friends, buy lunches, snacks and gifts, save for a car and for college, etc. He does a good job with it too.

But I felt like there were a couple things missing: long-term savings and retirement. I told him the story of The Wealthy Barber, and he seemed interested. He was especially interested in the results of saving regularly. (He wants a lake house with a boat when he gets older too, just like the wealthy barber had.)

So I made him a deal. If he would agree to save at least 10% of the money he was earning now, up front, for long-term savings, and then add an additional 10% for retirement when he got a job, I would increase his allowance to $20 twice a month. He'd also immediately come out ahead with that deal.

He thought this was a good idea and agreed. So I set up an automatic savings plan for him with ING for the 10% of his allowance, and we agreed that I would transfer 10% of the variable amounts that he makes manually. (He would do it, but for some reason when we try to do that using his login, it doesn't work. I think because he is a minor.)

He agreed to start by funding an emergency fund. I told him that usually it should be 3-6 month's worth of expenses, and so he should probably aim for at least 3 in there. He said he may as well do six. Six months of expenses for him would be close to $300. At first he wasn't sure why he needed an emergency fund, since his money was coming from me and it wasn't like he could lose his job. I asked him what would happen though if I lost my job and couldn't give him his allowance, and so he saw the point of it. I'm happy that he is making smart choices, and willing to listen to all my money talk.

Should I get a paying job or not?

We've been living here for about two months now, and I've had a couple of job interviews but haven't heard back from them, and at this point I am wondering if I should even bother with trying to get paid employment. It may not be worth the hassle. It might. If I get hired with either the company I interviewed with two weeks ago or the tax preparation firm I worked with in Virginia (surprisingly, employment is NOT as portable as they'd have you believe), I'll take the position, but I'm trying to decide if I should even try for more.

Reasons I should get a job:

• Boredom! I have quite a bit of free time on my hands, and while I am engaged in volunteer activities, I could easily handle a part-time job and not sacrifice any family time or fail to accomplish any of my regular errands.
• The gap in my working resume is only getting longer with every day I fail to work. Same thing with my salary history.
  
• A supplemental source of income would provide Mr. Dimes and me with greater ability to fatten up our short-term and long-term savings (and a matched 401k would be totally awesome if I could get it). We've got the three-month emergency fund taken care of, but a car-replacement fund or home down-payment fund would be great to get started on.
• My student loans, which I have earnestly been paying off with my income, are now starting to become my husband's responsibility with no earnings coming into the household from my efforts. Even earning $200/month would enable me to fully cover the loan payments.

Reasons not to get a job:

• Potential lack of flexibility. I am doing hundreds of practicum hours for my AFC certification, and a full-time job would cut off my ability to do those at the pace needed to complete them on time. A part-time job is ideal, and what I'm looking for, but even some part-time schedules are unworkable with my volunteer commitment.
  
• Interference with family planning: Mr. Dimes and I are thinking about starting a family within the next year or two. It would be difficult if I were to start a job and then immediately get pregnant, as I have no plans to work after giving birth.
• Possible relocation. As I mentioned a few posts ago, we might be relocating onto base housing. Currently we live about 20 miles away from the base. If I had a job close to where we currently live, it would be just as far from our new residence as his workplace is from our current one. In that case, we'd just be trading commutes. My car gets better gas mileage than his does, but do I want to drive so far every day for supplemental income?
• Allegedly, there is a lot of nepotism in this area for jobs. I've heard that a lot of people get passed over due to internal hiring decisions or choosing friends or acquaintances instead of the most qualified applicants. While this wouldn't keep me from applying for jobs in general, it would probably cause me to throw in the towel sooner than if I weren't thinking the process was rigged.
  

So I'm not sure. I guess another thing to keep in mind is that Christmas is coming, and a new job might keep me from being able to go and visit family in December, though I'm not sure that's necessarily a bad thing. ;-) We'll see what happens.

House Flipping In The Real World-Part 5-Guardian Angels

Randy summed it up pretty well-it was a mess. Too much for me to contemplate so told everybody I would be back Monday to start the renovation.

Wasn't there twenty minutes on Monday when Alice and Cynthia came over. I had started hauling stuff in the yard toward the center to make a pile to do something with later. Bumpers, trash bags full of stuff and a bunch of broken up, cheap stereo cabinets along with the bed of the truck. Alice said, "We can put all this junk on a truck and haul it away, cheap." The cheap part caught my attention. I asked for details. "50 bucks. Everything but the truck. We know somebody that will want that--no charge." Things that sound too good to be true, usually are but this was worth a try. I said see you tomorrow and left. Came back the next day and everything was gone, except the truck. Alice was looking a little sheepish, saying her friend said they needed a title to take it. Obviously, I had no title and we all stood around thinking how to get rid of two 400 pound inert pieces of steel. Alice finally said, "I got it...but I'll need 30 bucks for gas." I thought, ok, here's the scam. (After dealing with Freddy, I was a little down on humanity.) But the truck was a problem that had to go so went to the bank, got thirty bucks and left Alice and Cynthia to do their work.

Back the next day and the truck was gone, where I have no idea, but it was gone. Cynthia came over indicating that Alice didn't feel too hot after the two had spent most of the day dragging the truck around--it seems sliding the truck parts around wasn't too hard but getting them up into another truck to be hauled away was a bitch, quoting Cynthia. "Need anymore help?" I have no illusions about my ability to patch drywall holes. I can do it, they just look like patched holes. We reviewed the holes. "How much? "Thirty bucks." Deal. And so on and so on.

Freddy had really screwed up the wiring so Cynthia had to call in a consultant, Randy, who did the job for $25. Then Cynthia offered that the inside really needed painting, the peanut butter brown made the rooms look small. Seems Cynthia has a bit of the interior decorator in her. How much for the paint job? $150. Ok.

At that point my curiousity was greater than my greed and I blurted out "Why are you guys so cheap?" Cynthia didn't even blink. "We're on parole." Oh, great. Parole and cheap, how do these go together? Cynthia gave me a short tutorial on the American criminal justice system. "See when you go to see your parole officer every week they ask what you have been up to and the more jobs you got, the better. So I have a lawn service, I fix up rentals for Mr. Barlow and now I'm contracting for you. Like I said, the more the better." The cheap part was due to the fact that it is hard to find the jobs because most people don't want ex-cons hanging around the house. Made sense to me. Finally, Cynthia enjoyed the work. At least she said she did.

Went home and said to Sue, "Hey, you won't believe this..." as an intro to asking her if I should not take any risks and dump Cynthia and Alice as having ex-cons as your work force may have some liability attached. Sue came back that I had so much bad luck with tenants and Freddy that maybe it was my time for some good luck. I said, "Or maybe they are more bad luck." She retorted, "Maybe they are your guardian angels." Maybe but I was still a bit nervous.

Alan Schwartz "Judiciously" Deciding Between Sag Harbor And Seaside

Like many of the former Bear Stearns workers not currently employed, erstwhile CEO Alan Schwartz will be taking the summer off to plot his next career move. (Things are slightly different for Schwartz in that he has actual job offers, but whatevs.) Supposedly he's deciding between staying with the newly formed Bearpont Morgan Chase, where the slot for a "We are drowning in liquidity" guy remains unfilled, or heading over to private equity, possibly with Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. According to the Post, Schwartz has told friends that he's being "judicious" about the decision, though that quote was surely taken out of context and has less to do with Big Al's career trajectory than a late season summer share, having missed the deadline to join Jimmy Cayne at bridge camp.

Bear's Schwartz To Mull Bids Over Summer [NYP]

Watchlist and Stock Portfolio Update

Let's start with the hottest stocks that have been on my watchlist over recent weeks:

CLR - Continental Resources Inc.,

• Young Stocks Moving on Volume
  
  

  “CLR - Continental Resources, $46.54, +43%”

  
  


• My latest Stock Watchlist
  
  

  “CLR – 38.38, yes, this stock is extended but I like it near $30 or the next base”

  
  


• Highest Rated IPO’s
  
  

  “CLR – Continental Resources Inc., $26.57
  
  This is the first appearance of the stock on this blog as it has had a nice run from $15 to $28 in four months. The stock is extended but trending higher. An ideal entry is above the 50-d m.a. Set up a favorable risk-to-reward trade before entering”

  
  

SD - Sandridge Energy Inc.

• Top Rated Stocks
  
  

  “SD – 55.00, Sandridge Energy Inc., made another new all-time high this week and it continues to trend higher on increasing volume. A couple late day reversals to end the week sent up a red flag (minor at this point in time).”

  
  


• Young Stocks Moving on Volume
  
  

  “SD - Sandridge Energy Inc., $47.01, +30%”

  
  


• My latest Stock Watchlist
  
  

  “SD – 44.28, made almost every screen I ran this week (buy near $40)”

  
  

GTLS - Chart Industries Inc.

• Top Rated Stocks
  
  

  “GTLS – 41.89, Chart Industries Inc. is trading near new all-time high territory as the trend is higher. A move above $43 will trigger a triple top breakout on the point and figure chart (a positive sign if it comes on heavy volume and without a reversal).”

  
  


• Young Stocks Moving on Volume
  
  

  “GTLS - Chart Industries, $41.05, +45%”

  
  


• My latest Stock Watchlist
  
  

  GTLS – 35.48, poor ending to the week but a buy near the 200-d m.a. is fine

  
  


• Chris Perruna Stocks in Review 2007
  
  

  “Listed are the thirty two covered stocks in alphabetical order:
  
  BIDU, BKC, BX, CSH, DVR, EDU, FCSX, FSLR, GRMN, GROW, GTLS, HMIN, HWCC, ICON, JASO, JSDA, LDK, LOOP, MA, MFB, MPW, MR, OMTR, PRXI, PTR, ROCM, SHLD, SLW, SMOD, SNCR, SSRX, VMW”

  
  


• Market Leaders!
  
  

  “(GTLS) Chart Industries Inc. - Fresh IPO Ideas $32.45″

  
  


• Leading CP Stocks
  
  

  7. GTLS: 37%, $23.05 to $31.54, 6/13/07

  
  


• Make Millions Trading IPOs
  
  

  “GTLS has gained almost 35% while institutional sponsorship has increased 55%. The most attractive number of the group is the jump in shares held for GTLS which increased by 102%. Institutions bought 16 million more shares than they were selling for an 8-to-1 ratio. The value of shares bought closed just shy of $500 million while the value of shares sold was only $65 million. The stock looks good long term.”

  
  


• Chart Industries (GTLS)
  
  

  “GTLS was Featured in these posts in June 2007:
  
  6/13/07: Fresh IPO Ideas, GTLS – Chart Industries Inc. - $23.05
  
  6/20/07: Young Guns Taking Off, GTLS - $24.73″

  
  

TITN - Titan Machinery Inc.

• Top Rated Stocks
  
  

  “TITN – 24.30, Titan Machinery Inc. is still making new all-time highs but did run into some selling pressure near the $26 level. The trend is higher and I am holding until told otherwise by the charts.”

  
  


• Portfolio Stocks on the Move


• Portfolio Snapshot: Growth


• Young Stocks Moving on Volume


• Titan Machinery (TITN)

IPI - Intrepid Potash, Inc.

• Intrepid Potash, Inc (IPI)
  
  

  “Can Intrepid Potash (IPI) follow in the footsteps of Potash Corp. Saskatch, Inc. (POT)? I will not hesitate to jump on a trend if IPI starts to run higher because crowds are persistent and I don’t like to fight them.”

  
  

Current Portfolio Holdings - Growth:

(MA) - Mastercard, (V) - Visa, (JASO) - JA Solar Holdings, (GU) - Gushan Environmental Energy, (CPLA) - Capella Education Company

EDU, New Oriental Education & Technology Group: I sold my final shares last week based on price and volume at the 200-d moving average. Here's a look at some of the more popular EDU posts on this blog over the past 16 months.

• Portfolio Snapshot: Growth


• Friday Morning Education (EDU)


• It Pays to Learn English


• China Super Stars


• Weekend Trender - EDU


• Learning about New Oriental Education (EDU)


• EDU Breakout on Huge Volume!


• Intercontinental Education – The 20% Rule?


• Top 10 Stocks to Watch: Trend Buys

OK how dorky am I...

I got all excited because Boyfriend asked me if I would do his taxes. Normally he mails his things home to his father, who has an accountant do them. Which is really silly, because Boyfriend has exactly one W-2 and an interest statement. It took us about half an hour, at least ten minutes of which was consumed by such activities as trying to get TaxCut to open in a browser (doesn't work in Linux or Firefox) and printing out the sheet he has to sign and mail in because he doesn't know his AGI from last year (which is what TaxCut asks you for to prove your identity.) We then went to the Ohio e-file site and filed that - hells no I would not let him pay thirty bucks to let TaxCut do it! He's getting a couple hundred back which is pretty nice. I have also been telling several other people that I will help them do their taxes, because I just don't see the point in paying a couple hundred for someone at a tax place to do what will take us and the programs in Free File half an hour. And maybe some chips. I do like chips.

I won't file my own until April, although they are done, so I can hang onto the money a little longer.. plus TaxCut still does not have the Ohio form that assesses me a penalty for underpayment. (I probably should have looked into this earlier, since the estimated tax payment deadline was Jan. 15th and I could have made that and saved some bucks. But, since I have no idea what they are going to charge me, I might actually earn more in interest than I will pay in penalty.)

Frustrations

1. I really want to be home at my condo. I miss it. But walking in there while it’s still under renovation depresses me. It also doesn’t help that I nearly had an asthma attack the other night because of all the dust. The contractor did not tape off the hallway as I requested. He left a 3-inch gap at the top. I’m actually quite angry about that. I told him repeatedly that I could not and would not clean up the cave-in and dry wall myself because I feared an asthma attack.

2. Because I can’t be home, I feel like I’m out of control with my finances. I rely on Quicken to help me plan out my spending. I open it up every few days, if not every day, and update the balances. Access to my desktop is key for good financial management. I am veritably crawling the walls because I am addicted to my finances. It’s partially why I am hoarding cash like crazy. I was a little afraid of sending my federal tax refund to my credit card company but I looked a Quicken on Monday night and see that it’s ok. BOOM! That’s $2500 I can pay off this month. All the rest of the cash I’m hoarding is for my contractor.

3. I feel fat. I may not LOOK fat, but I can’t fit into my Lilly skirt (purchased 2 yrs ago). I was hoping to wear it to a beach-side wedding last month, but I had to settle for an odd fitting dress. Way to go. All my pants are cutting into my stomach at work while I’m sitting. I am constantly uncomfortable. I admit, I haven’t made a lot of effort here since frankly I am lazy and exercise isn’t on the menu. My own vanity is getting the best of me and my wallet.

BLAH. June will be better. I can feel it.

How much is a thousand dollars worth?

Asking how much a thousand dollars is worth might seem like a no-brainer question, but it isn't really. You see, a thousand dollars might be pocket change to one person, and several years' worth of savings to another.

It's probably more useful to ask how much a certain amount of money is as a percentage of your income, and the time it takes you to earn that money.

Suppose you want to go on a trip that will cost you $1,000. If you bring home $500 per week after taxes, that thousand dollars is close to 4% of your net income. If you bring home $2,000 per week, it's closer to 1% of your net income.

Why does this matter?

It helps to put things in perspective. If you know ahead of time that you're planning to spend 4% of all the money you're likely to make this year on something — and it'll take you two weeks worth of work to get that money — you're more likely to question the value of what it is you plan to spend the money on.

It's too easy to get into the habit, otherwise, of thinking “well, that's a lot of money, but it's really not that much compared to _____” — especially when you see ads every day for big screen TVs for $700 and cars for $18,000.

It helps you find your own affordability point, along with your own priorities, so that you can align your spending with the things that you value.

Join the business, drink the koolaid!

During the first meeting, I learned that I was talking to a sort of affiliate marketer.? I also learned that there was a startup fee, as well as a monthly fee for the program.? Once you are in the system, you can make money in two ways.

First, by selling stuff and collecting an affiliate fee.? Secondly, you can recruit others to sell the junk and collect a referral fee.? And it's only going to cost you a set up fee of $126 and a monthly fee of $50 to keep your website running.? I don't know about you, but this has bad idea written all over it.? Especially when I got to the second meeting.

This time there were two people involved in selling me this system.? The same person from the previous meeting, and someone higher up the food chain came to talk to me.

They began talking, and half an hour later they were repeating themselves profusely; however, their circumlocutory speech was not the real issue.? They mentioned that setting up your business, and getting sales would pay for itself in the first month.? “Okay,” I asked, “So how do you get sales on your site?”

The two looked at each other, then at me before saying, “Well, how would YOU get sales?”

I mentioned I would find some relevant keywords and bid on them in Google Adwords to direct people to my targeted pages.

The two looked at each other, then at me.? They had no idea what I was talking about.? So I asked again what they did.

The way they get products sold from their site is to buy it themselves.? Now at 10% to 50% commission that means they are buying somewhere between $100 and $500 on their sites each month.? All this was to gain some sort of PV (or Point Value in their strange little world) witch somehow gets transformed into cash back.

The money with this is made of course once you get enough noobs under you to buy their own products.? Then you will get a small chunk of change from their sales.

I asked to see the backend of one of their sites.? I wanted to take a look at how much control the pupetmasters gave them.? But of course this must lead up to another meeting!? So I'll let you know what happens if this meeting ever does.

I feel bad for all of the people who drink the koolaid without knowing what they are getting themselves into.? Which sounds like a lot of people are doing with their ‘pie in the sky' wishful thinking.

Baking Bread

Frankly, it’s a lot easier than you think it is and it kind of makes me wonder why I pay $5 at the farmer’s market for a 1lb loaf of bread. Since I haven’t bought a loaf from Grace’s Bakery at the farmer’s market in almost a year, it was time to give it a try. (Plus the yeast sock puppets on Alton Brown’s Good Eats show make me laugh.)

I’ve made one batch of About.com’s Master Bread Dough recipe. It’s nothing to be afraid of.

The top 3 things that scare me about baking bread:

1. Killing the yeast so the bread doesn’t rise.

2. Overkneading.

3. Impatience.

I’ve had some bad experience in Home EC as a kid so I always thought yeast bread was hard to make. But one of my close friends made yeast bread in the dorm kitchen all the time for awesome late-night bread and honey snacks. All of these fears can be overcome fairly easily.

1. Killing the yeast so the bread doesn’t rise: The recipe I used says heat the milk, water and butter till there are bubbles around the edges, which is how people did it before they had home thermometers. But don’t be stupid like me, just BUY AND USE a thermometer and don’t add the yeast if it’s more than 130 degrees F. Trust the recipe. I heated the mixture till there were little bubbles on the edges and it worked just fine.

2. Overkneading: If the recipe says knead it 20 times, or 10 times or 5 times, do just that. If it says knead for 8-10 minutes, do it just for 8. If you want to knead bread for therapy, make a separate batch or divide your recipe in half since many recipes are for 4+ loaves. (NO KIDDING! I read like 10 recipes before I found one for just two loaves, i.e. the recipe above.)

3. Impatience: Ah Grasshopper. This is what timers and internet surfing is for. Give it at least an hour to rise on the second rising, but the dough is forgiving here. Often recipes say to let the dough rise till it’s doubled. But I’ve found it’s actually up to me. I can put the bread on the counter and run a few errands. I can put it on the fridge and get slightly shorter rising time. Or I can put it on the front porch in Sunday afternoon heat and get an even shorter rising time (like 30-45 minutes).

Some other notes:

1. I used Silk Vanilla Soy Milk because we ran out of regular cow’s milk. This is premium soy milk that we usually don’t have at the house. We usually buy Rice or Soy Dream. But the enriched soy milk and extra vanilla flavor was alright. There was no gross vanilla flavor on the bread, just a hint of sweetness that was good for sandwiches and for French toast. (yum!)

2. Time is your most expensive ingredient. I made the recipe knowing I would only make 1 loaf and freeze the other half. That was fine for me. I had a bad headache last week and came home early in the afternoon. It was enough time to make a loaf of bread for dinner. I had no idea when I’d bake the second loaf. I thawed it out in the fridge on Saturday night into Sunday morning. I thought I’d wake up early and have fresh bread for Sunday brunch. But I didn’t wake till after noon and we left the house to hit the farmer’s market. Instead I shaped the dough and put it ON the fridge before we left. When we returned, the dough was still cold and hadn’t risen. I put it outside with a tea towel on top. In the heat of the day, it rose 75% in 30 minutes. Because I was pressed for time to complete another errand before dark, I baked it without the full doubling, but the texture of the bread was equal to that of the first loaf.

How cheap was it? Honestly, I couldn’t tell you. But if Sistah Ant’s statistic of $3.30 a loaf is any indicator, then it was damned cheaper to make my own. Everyone keeps flour, sugar, and salt around. I’m sure it’s not hard to have some milk and eggs either unless you’re vegan. (eew.). If you make a grocery list, getting some yeast at the supermarket can’t be too hard. Remember, a lot of recipes are also for multiple loaves, not just one. So even if I spent the equivalent of $3.30 on ingredients for this recipe, I got two loaves at $1.65 each which were tasty and delicious. (As of this week, Hodgson’s Mill yeast was 52 cents a packet or 3 for a dollar at their website. But I have a preference for Fleischmann’s. I feel like the packets have a longer shelf life.)

The other thing is that I’m much more inclined to eat the whole loaf if I make the bread myself. Often in the summer heat, cheap bread goes moldy on me before I can eat it all. I can assure you that every crumb of my two loaves was eaten and never had a chance to grow mold.

My next experiment in bread baking will be with whole wheat.

2008 NMFA Fellowship Program available

Hey everyone, I'm writing to let you know that the Military Spouse Fellowship for the Accredited Financial Counselor Program for 2008 is now accepting applications. From now through the end of April, the application will be available online through the National Military Family Association website. It's a great program and at the end of it, the selected applicants will have attained the certification of Accredited Financial Counselor under the guidance of AFCPE and FINRA. Please see the linked website if you're interested in learning more or applying to this program. It is definitely worth the effort.

And on a more personal note, tax season will be over in less than two weeks, and I look forward to blogging again!

Hope you weren't counting on that extra half-percent raise

... cuz you aren't going to get it, at least not for awhile.
Remember the National Defense Authorization Act, which President Bush vetoed a couple of months ago, with the 3.5% military pay raise? Well, our pandering and inept congresspeople were unable to revise the bill such that it would be passed before the start of the new year, so military personnel will have to settle for a 3.0% raise across the board. However, plans are "in the works" to assure that "the half-percent raise will be applied to military pay retroactive to January first, 2008," but I wouldn't count on seeing it for a couple of months, at least. Luckily, for most families, this amounts to a difference of $20 or less per month; however, it's hard to plan a budget when something as basic as base pay hasn't even been established. Keep this in mind next time you go to the polls.

Thank you for shopping at SmallMart

Not very long ago, I listened to an audio-lecture on NPR about shopping and investing locally. This was from a man named Michael Shuman, he is the author of the book ‘ The Small-Mart Revolution.' In this book he talks about the benefits of a locally owned and operated businesses. During his lecture he talked about these issues as well as some of the problems involved in attracting local investors in a fiscally responsible way.

Each community needs to develop its own self reliance and maximize the opportunities presented. This will help them to grow in a sustainable and reliable way.

Michael currently runs the site Smallmart.org and I found this article. About halfway down he has a list of things that will help you appear attractive to local shoppers.?? This list includes...

1. Being locally owned - The most needed part of the equation!


2. Develop a local identity - Let people know that you are local and be proud of it.


3. Behave Responsibly - Respect the workforce and the environment if you want anyone to respect you.


4. Give back to the community - Let them know your business cares.


5. Maximize ‘Local value added' - Do more than locate your headquarters here, put your factory or do your business here as well.


6. Cater to local markets - You can still sell to the rest of the world, but make sure you sell to those around you first.


7. Develop local partners - This could be contacting other businesses for one time events, or perhaps shopping in local stores for any supplies you need.


8. Grow deep - Expand your offerings to the local crowd.


9. Avoid predatory behavior - Just because you offer some of the same goods or services doesn't mean that the other company is your enemy, just your competition.? Perhaps possibly even a local partner in the future.


10. Exit locally - When you close up shop, who will take over your business?

I really enjoyed the lecture that he gave, but I think I'll need to pick up the book in order to extract as much of his ideas as possible.

Getting online discounts and coupon codes

Whenever you buy anything online, it’s always a good idea to do a quick search for coupons or discount codes. You can often easily find 10% off, 20% off, and free shipping. Many times the values are even higher than that.

With many purchases or just large ones, these discounts can add up quickly. Whenever you are checking out and see a box for a promo code, it's always prudent to take a quick look for some codes before submitting the form.

You can find some great discounts with Adobe coupons. (Although university students can get very cheap education packages from their campus bookstores) If you need to get a copy of Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, Acrobat, or any of Adobe's other products, then you should check it out

You can get discounts with Kohls coupons or Macys coupons. This could save you a chunk of change, versus shopping at their department stores. And if you wanted, you could even go take a look at the items in the brick and mortar stores beforehand.

Hopefully you will be able to find some great bargains and codes that will save you money today and down the road.

This post has been sponsored by ‘Coupons for Everyone’.

How Much Money Does Opec Make in 6 Days?

Enough to buy General Motors.

Off To A Wedding

We are taking the off-road vehicle because we’re going to a beach that allows them. WHEE!

It’s not fuel-efficient to take this car, but in the name of fun, we spend extra.

My friends, Mr. and Mrs. Peanut, will be tying the knot on the beach. Very exciting stuff. Mr. Peanut and I met 5 years ago at work. He’s one of my totally awesome co-workers and I wish him all the best. When I first met him, he was kind of a freewheeling kid playing the field. Mrs. Peanut is really nice and I can tell they are going to be mega happy. My old boss will be there too! (He’s still Mr. Peanut’s boss. I left a few months ago.)

I have a super special wedding present for Mr. Peanut. It’s a gag gift, but it’s going to be great and it cost me less than 5 bucks! I’ll tell you what it is when I get back since there might not be internet access this weekend. (Rumor says yes, Gut Feeling says no.)

Have a great Memorial Day holiday!

Back From Vacation!

Thanks to SFOrdinaryGirl of SF Money Musings for stepping in with a guest post for me. I read her blog regularly, partly because I miss San Francisco so much. Wish her luck on her new roommate search. It’s tough to find a good roommate with all the kooky people out there. You have run a serious screening process or else you’ll end up with candles all over the house that will nearly burn the place down. (Happened to my friend.) But of course, you could end up meeting someone cool through the traumatic process. (Happened to the same friend.)

As far as my vacation goes, I’ll have to write that up later for you. It isn’t tracked down to the penny, nor the dime, but it does elucidate what spending is like these days.

Summer Reading List

Learning about Stocks (Fundamental and Technical Principles):