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Cosmic's Corner of the Space Time Continuum

Tag Archives: money

Walking/Running/Hobbling Gear I Love

11 Thursday Jul 2013

Posted by cosmichomicide in Cheapskate, Health, Stuff that Works

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goals, health, money

I’m not a big “go out and buy a bunch of stuff” person.  I’m actually more of a “haunt the thrift stores until good quality clothes show up” person.  But I never buy second hand shoes (or a few other things because it’s just a bad idea) because they mold and stretch to the wearer and because well – ick.  There are a few other things that don’t show up in thrifts as well.  So, what did I actually buy?

I already have an article on my Merrell barefoot runners so I won’t rehash that here.  I do consider music to be absolutely essential and I can see on my Endomondo graphs where the BPM affects my speed (and distance if my playlist runs out before I do).  So I’ve invested in a running sleeve to hold my phone (Nokia 920), an Endomondo premium account (which has the cool feature of showing you which songs were playing at what points along with tracking distance, speed, personal bests and routes) and my Xbox music pass.  I use JogFM to find playlists and songs with the right BPM for various goals (free).

Other than that and a few pieces of cold weather gear I picked up on sale, it’s a pair of shorts, a good sports bra (I love my UnderArmor, but this is definitely a category for finding the best fit and brand for the individual) and one of my gazillion technical t-shirts.  I do wear a bright, white or reflective item any time I’m out before or after full sun (which is constant in the summer).  And a hat.  The only thing I don’t compromise on at all is the footwear – I track the mileage and replace whether I think my shoes need it or not.  I figure my feet are something I’m going to want to have around and functioning as long as I am so they are worth the investment. 🙂

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The Rest of the Year

04 Thursday Jul 2013

Posted by cosmichomicide in Changes & Progress, Health, Home

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certifications, health, home, money

I was going month to month and even though I was slack on posting it, I had it running in my Outlook To-Do list.  So, to somewhat stay on track, here’s the “rest of the year” to set the tone for upcoming articles.

Home:

  • Paint the exterior – scheduled for early August, hiring a contractor for that one
  • Paint the porch – to expensive to use a contractor, so that’s on us
  • Master bathroom – needs painting, grout cleaning and plants over the tub
  • Kitchen – needs painting (walls & cabinets), countertop repair, new microwave (done), tile cleaning, sink resurfacing, curtains
  • Back hall – needs painting, floor refinishing
  • Halls & stairs – painting, floor refinishing (upstairs hall)

Career:

  • ITIL Service Operation
  • ITIL Continuous Service Improvement
  • Upgrade MS MCSA
  • Upgrade MS MCSE
  • Renew MS MCT – complete in April
  • Update Resume & LinkedIn

Finances:

  • Update wills
  • Comparison shop insurance – home & car
  • Cut food & dining spending
  • Increase retirement savings – (2% contribution increase in May)
  • Comparison shop wireless – switched to T-Mobile ($360/2 year savings, blogged)

Health:

  • 3 5Ks – Rock ‘N’ Run (August 10th)
  • Endomondo – develop a habit
  • Kinect – develop a habit
  • Weight – 135 goal
  • Stress Reduction – streamlining, reading goals
  • Visit somewhere new – bucket list

The War on the Food Budget

30 Sunday Jun 2013

Posted by cosmichomicide in Changes & Progress, Cheapskate, Health, Home

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goals, health, home, money

Yep, we spend way too much on food and eating out.  I mean way too much.  This is the biggest and easiest way for us to save money.  The harsh truth is we used to eat out once a week as a family night, now we do it because we just don’t feel like cooking.  And it’s costing us.  As in about $600 per month which is ridiculous.  And a good chunk of that isn’t even on good food.  So… July we revert on the eating out, August we tackle the grocery store spending.  Beginning with this upcoming week – 1 (good) family meal out per week, no fast food, 1 lunch out at work.  Monthly dining out budget we’re starting at a 50% cut to $300 (yes, it should probably be less, but let’s see how it goes).  That should save $3600/year which puts us on the road to that $12000 per year goal.

In June we saved $180/year with the cellular provider change.  This should move us to $3780/year.  We might see some increase in the grocery bill as an offset, but I expect that would do nothing but improve the quality of what we are eating, so it’s a fair tradeoff.  Then again, eating at home may well make us more efficient at the grocery store as well – but that’s for another month.  My bank provides Quicken FinanceWorks as an online service, so I’m setting the “Dining” category limit to $300 and will be checking our progress every week.  This afternoon we’ll have a family discussion on which night we want to reserve for eating out and how food that comes through a window isn’t really food. 😉

January Update – Taxes & Paper

30 Sunday Jun 2013

Posted by cosmichomicide in Changes & Progress, Cheapskate, Minimalist, Paperless

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minimize, money, organize, paperless

More updating of completed stuff plus some new things added in along the way.  Back in January, I set out to get the finances in order to make tax preparation (and everything else) easier.  Traditionally I was sitting in the midst of paper in April dreading sorting, totaling and organizing so that my taxes would be fast and (relatively) painless.  This year, believe it or not, I succeeded.  The January goals were:

Finances – Tax Preparation

  • File all 2012 receipts, bills, etc. for tax filing. – done
  • Shred all unnecessary old records by schedule. – done
  • Set up 2013 file folders. – modified
  • Save online statements as needed to archives.  (No paper) – done

Last year I went mostly paperless.  This year I was nearly 100% with the exception of medical bills and I still haven’t figured out a way to get those digital nor do I think I ever will without a complete overhaul of the insurance and medical system.  As a result, there was nearly no filing other than to put the supporting documentation for what went on the tax form into the “tax binder”.  Every year I start with a 1/2″ binder labeled for that tax year – deductible receipts and “important tax information” goes into it as it is received.  What I discovered is that I didn’t actually need the majority of my 2012 folders, nor did I need to set up 2013 folders – I did have to set up a CD to save off critical tax records and put a CD sleeve into the tax folder.

Shredding is always fun, but I’ve been consistently shredding for some time – the key thing is to know what records to keep and what to nuke.  Most people keep things that just aren’t necessary.  Example – unless you are claiming a home office, why are you keeping your utility bills?  Unless you are running a kennel or showing and breeding dogs is your occupation, why are you keeping vet receipts (other than rabies certifications and pedigrees)?  I’m down to one filing cabinet and working on emptying it with the goal of eventually having nothing but my safe deposit box, home fire safe and a collection of CD/DVDs with cloud backups.

Truth is – paper is time.  You have to organize it, file it, staple it, sort through it, think about it.  If no one has asked you for your vet bill from 5 years ago, they aren’t going to – get rid of it.  Find an online guide to retention schedules and use it – ruthlessly.  Feel sentimental about a piece of paper?  Scan it or take a picture.  Lighten your load and make it easier to find what you actually need.  Free up the time to analyze what you need to do.  Paperless is truly excellent – save what you need, let someone else send the reminders (or, if you can afford to, set auto-payments – I do love auto-payments) and focus on how to reduce or eliminate the bills instead of how to store them.

In any event – this goal seemed correct in light of previous years, but turned out to be nothing more than a day of shredding and scanning and an afternoon of filling out, signing and mailing the tax returns.  I am setting as a follow up goal for later this year to put each major expense category into a month and use that time to check competitors and analyze bills for ways to save money – I’m pretty sure I’ve not squeezed everything out of my bills yet, though I did refinance and change cellular providers this year, which saved substantial amounts and let me pay off two loans and my credit card balances.

The major long term goals are to make sure that my son can go through college without coming out with massive debt and that I can retire with a paid off house and a living income.  And that still needs some work.  Like finding about $1000 per month either through increased income or reduced expenses.  Which will be the topic of the next post as I start looking for the soft expenses to cut.

No Contract, Unlimited Everything – Too Good To Be True?

14 Friday Jun 2013

Posted by cosmichomicide in Cheapskate

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money

Not so far, nope.  Years ago my favorite wireless company (Cingular) was absorbed by AT&T, throwing me back into 2 year contract, ever increasing fee hell.  Every time it came up, I looked around annoyed that I was paying extra for texting (really, folks?), limited phone minutes (that I never used, but still) couldn’t afford to put the guys on decent data plans and every 1 MB over the “data limit” was a ridiculous charge.  Most of all, I hated the idea that I was basically paying for a phone over a 2 year period but at the end of that period I just kept paying – no drop in my bill.  Insult to injury, when I went to look at “upgrades” when this contract expired, my “old data plan” was no longer available – please pay more.

Nokia Lumia 521So I looked with interest when T-Mobile started advertising their no contract, unlimited everything plans.  I was paying about $130 (including taxes and fees) for our lines, only one smartphone in the bunch with 2 GB of data and constant fear of “going over”.  I never used my “rollover minutes” and I was paying $30 for unlimited texting, without which I would go broke with a teenager.  Off we go to T-Mobile to check it out.  $50 for the first line, $30 for the second – unlimited talk and text, 500 MB for each after which the bandwidth throttles (but doesn’t cost more).  An extra $20 gets me 2.5 GB for each phone with the same throttle. Now for the phones – the guys were happy with the Nokia 521 which, had I financed them over 2 years would have run me $10/month after which that would have dropped off my bill.  I went ahead and bought ’em.  Total monthly bill – $115 (including taxes and fees).

So to compare:

  • $15 less per month for a 2 year savings of $360
  • 3 GB more data and no additional data charges
  • 2 smartphones instead of one

Heck, I even feel good about spending to buy the extra data.  The signal in the house isn’t as good, but it’s not like AT&T was great (one downside of a metal roof) but everywhere else is about the same.  And to give the guy at AT&T credit, when I called to cancel my account and he asked why – I said “T-Mobile” and he said, “Yep, we’re hearing that a lot.  I used to be with them, they will treat you right.”  No argument at all.

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