The Happy Rock and family are heading up to the Adirondack Mountains of New York for a small vacation. The Happy Rock will be back posting again after the New Year. This vacation will be a good time to get away from the daily grind, gain some perspective, assess the year, and decide on some changes going forward. Happy New Year!
Read MoreDecember 2007
“A merry Christmas, Bob!” said Scrooge, with an earnestness that could not be mistaken, as he clapped him on the back. “A merrier Christmas, Bob, my good fellow, than I have given you for many a year! I’ll raise your salary, and endeavor to assist your struggling family, and we will discuss your affairs this very afternoon, over a Christmas bowl of smoking bishop, Bob! Make up the fires, and buy another coal-scuttle before you dot another i, Bob Cratchit.” – Ebenezer Scrooge (A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens) The Christmas Carol contains some deep messages that are worth visiting [...]
Read MoreIn the last post I asked some questions about the nature of Christmas spending and what we could do to change. I wanted to share some of the changes that my family has undergone in the last for years to fight the consumerism onslaught and then a few lessons learned. The Happy Rockette’s Family To set the stage, my wife is one a five sisters. Four of them are married, and we have 8 nieces and nephews(ages 1-6) between us. We do Christmas morning with at the Rockette’s parent’s house, and everyone was buying gifts for each other and the [...]
Read MoreConsumers planned holiday-related spending increased to $923.36” in 2007. Gift card spending alone was 24 billion dollars last year while the national spending average rises about 4.76% year after year. The money that gets tossed around on Christmas is staggering. Debt keeps us paying for Christmas well into the New Year. Gifts are often relegated to impersonal gift cards, because we don’t know what else to buy. We keep on buying though. Stress and frantic running are hallmarks of the season. Sometimes you can’t wait until it’s all over, so you can rest and recover. I often wonder if we [...]
Read MoreI wanted to share an abridged version my most recent cost cutting conversation with Comcast customer service. The dialogue is specific to my current situation, which was canceling cable, but it is representative of responses I have gotten in the past. They are willing to cut your bill. First, I dialed the Comcast customer service phone number from my latest bill, and follow the menu to the ‘Cancel’ services option. You then proceed to wait on hold for enough time that you consider hanging up, and then a service rep finally greets you: Comcast Rep: My name is Sandra, how [...]
Read MoreAfter some months of deliberation, I finally canceled cable. For those that don’t know the background, I put out a request for some support while I was considering dropping the tube in July. Then I posted some reasons why I should cancel cable backed by studies, and then finally provided a small blogosphere roundup on the issue. The support was tremendous, and in August I got the nerve to cancel cable and buy an AppleTV. I still wanted to catch a handful of my favorite shows. To my dismay, my TV does not have component video jacks to support AppleTV! [...]
Read MoreI just wanted to let readers know that I will be back out of hibernation soon. I had been focused on three papers for my MBA classes for the last few weeks. I was quite interested in two of the papers and they took me quite a long time. It is amazing how different it feels to do school that is relavant to my goals. Both papers will pay dividends in the future. I will be back full force in the next day or two. Also Double Eagle over@ Life in the Rough is giving away an expensive box of [...]
Read MoreRecently we started buying regular carrots instead of the organic baby variety that we have loved for many years. I must admit the idea wasn’t mine; it was something I became willing to experiment with after reading this wonderful article from Andrea Dickson over at Wise Bread. The article gives a really interesting history of the baby carrots and than shares her experiences. I won’t share too much, because the article is worth the read. What I will do is relay our experiences with regular carrots. This is what we have noticed : Savings. The price is about half the [...]
Read MoreAre you overwhelmed by the thought of trying to dig out of $15,000, $30,000, $60,000, or more of debt? Whenever the task at hand doesn’t seem possible, step back and divide the problem into small pieces that you can conquer. $25,000 may not seem possible given your current financial habits, but I bet most of can picture wiping out that $800 balance on a department store credit card. This is why the debt snowball strategy works so well. Listing your debts smallest to largest, putting them on display, and then attacking the smallest one with a vengeance really makes things [...]
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