Another Mini-Vacation

Posted by The Happy Rock on December 27, 2007

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!

» Filed Under Misc.

Merry Christmas With A Lesson From Ebenezer Scrooge

Posted by The Happy Rock on December 22, 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 during this precious time of year.

Accept that we can not change the past, realize that the past doesn’t dictate our future, and strive to leave a legacy that brings joy to those that we come in contact with. Scrooge changed his scrooge like ways, so can we.

I am off to spend a wonderful few days with family celebrating Christ, exchanging gifts, and reflecting!

Merry Christmas!

If you are looking for some finance advice to hold you over, feel free to search the archives.

» Filed Under Holiday Wishes, Living with Purpose

Christmas, Debt, and Spending – Our Example

Posted by The Happy Rock on December 19, 2007

In 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 children. I remember walking into the gift room and not even being able to sit down, because of the huge collection of gifts. I think we spent well over a thousand dollars that year in gifts.

Things had to change. We started some conversations about doing a name exchange between the adults, and a year later we did it. There was a $50-75 range for each person, each person could get quality over quantity. The following year, the children still went home with a truckload of toys. This year, we also did a name exchange between the children with a $20 cap. We will see how it works out, but it is another step in the right direction.

The Happy Rock’s Family

For my side of the family, we also went through a similar progression. A few years back we moved from buying smaller gifts for everyone to a $50 name exchange. My Grandmother still buys for everyone, but I think that is just the way grandparent’s are! This year we are not actually giving gifts to one another, but we will pool our money together to buy an animal for a deserving family in need. Click here for the Hiefer Project catalog, if you want to learn more about what they do. I think it is a solid organization with a great philosophy.

In all, we have more than halved our Christmas expenses(and stress), and we feel more fulfilled.

Tips For Changing Christmas Spending.

Here are a couple of key observations that I gained while we changed our family traditions:

Changes, especially changes to deep rooted traditions take time. Focus on the direction of the ship more than the destination. Life is a journey.
Real people are involved. Sometimes relationships are messy. People can get frustrated, upset, and offended. We need to approach each other in love, courage, honesty, and patience. You may need to spill the beans about your debt struggles, or walk your family through the exact reasons you can’t do gifts. You may even need to reassure them that this doesn’t change how you feel about them. Those type of conversations will probably deepen the relationship more than gifts ever would.
People who naturally show love through gifts will be more affected than those like me who are on the cheap miser end of the spectrum and show love in other ways. This underscores again the need for patience and love.
Shifting your focus onto those that are more needy through donations of money or services can really help change perspectives. Activities like doing Angel Tree gifts as a family really bring people together.

That is how Christmas has been changing around here, what about you?

» Filed Under About Me, Giving, Holiday Wishes, Materialism

Can We Buy Meaning During The Holidays?

Posted by The Happy Rock on December 16, 2007

Consumers 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 don’t spend ourselves into a frenzy to cover over our lack for the deeper things in life. Do we buy more to cover the lack of depth in our relationships with friends, children, and spouses? Do we spend enough time telling and showing people how valuable they are the rest of the year or are we trying to recover from a deficit with gifts? Maybe we don’t feel like the holidays have much meaning, so we buy to try to imbue the holidays with meaning through consumerism. I am not saying all or any of this is true, but I think it might be worth asking the questions.

Does it have to be this way? For those that want something more, what can we do?

Sources :

» Filed Under Holiday Wishes, Living with Purpose, Psychology of Debt, Psychology of Spending

Call Comcast and Save On Your Cable Bill

Posted by The Happy Rock on December 14, 2007

I 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 can I help you today?
The Happy Rock: I would like to cancel cable.
Comcast Rep: May I ask why?
The Happy Rock: Because it is to expensive and I don’t want to watch it.
Comcast Rep: Oh, how about if I could get you a cheaper monthly bill?
The Happy Rock: No, I would like to cancel cable.
Comcast Rep: I suggest keeping basic cable, since it will keep your bill lower.
The Happy Rock: Actually, my phone bill expensive I would consider switching to Comcast for phone is the deal was good enough.
Comcast Rep: Well, I can offer you a deal on internet and phone.
The Happy Rock: Ok
Comcast Rep: I can offer you our unlimited phone deal for $24.99 for six months.
The Happy Rock: Sounds good.
Comcast Rep: I can also upgrade your internet from 6 megabits per second to 8 for the same price.
The Happy Rock: I don’t really need faster internet.
Comcast Rep: Ok, I can offer you internet for $19.99 for six months.
The Happy Rock: That sounds good, I will take it.
Comcast Rep: The earliest I can have someone out to hook everything up is next Monday from 2-4.
The Happy Rock: That’s fine.
Comcast Rep: There will be a $47 installation fee for hooking up the phone and canceling your existing account with Verizon.
The Happy Rock: I am not interested in paying for stuff that I can do myself.
Comcast Rep: I can’t do anything about that fee.
The Happy Rock: (Silence)…ok, how much was basic cable again?
Comcast Rep: (Silence)… hold on please.
Comcast Rep:(After a 30 second wait)… Ok, we can waive that fee.
The Happy Rock: Sounds, good thank for you the help.

Bill before = $124(cable and internet) + 60$(phone) = $184
Bill after = ~$47 (phone + internet)

Following a similar pattern, I have no doubt that most customers will have similar results. It is worth a try, they can only say NO…….and they probably won’t.

» Filed Under Frugality, Money Savers

Quitting Cable – The Deed Is Done

Posted by The Happy Rock on December 11, 2007

After 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! I searched for a solution and found a converter that would allow AppleTV to work with RCA jacks, but that added another $150 to the solution. Needless to say, the solution died.

In late November, the issue finally surfaced again and I was ready to cancel the cable again. This time I was ready to pull plug and even forgo the few shows that I watched. With the support of The Happy Rockette, I called Comcast. I held firm and canceled cable while saving a $100 across our phone, cable, and internet bills. We still have basic channels for reception sake, but hopefully the TV will be off mostdays. I will report back on how things have changes in a few weeks.

If you want to know what finally caused us to cut the cable, it wasn’t just one thing. It was the sum total of multiple inputs that lead to the courage to finish the job. Here is what I think contributed:

Discussing the issue and attempting to quit in July. Without that, I don’t know if would have been able to follow through. It is so easy to find a reason to keep the cable on. I mean, we have to watch that next episode of Heroes.
Having full support and encouragement of your spouse really goes a long way.
The responsibility for protecting and raising our son. Even at 27 months, he still doesn’t watch TV for more than 5 minutes at a time, but we did. Now the TV won’t be on, and I will teach and play with my son more.
A healthy respect for the amount of money spent over the years and in the future. Thousands!!!!
Filling my life with more important tasks. I found that I often would watch TV for an hour or so which caused me to go to bed without something I wanted accomplish undone. Ultimately, I want accomplish the other tasks more than I wanted to watch TV. The addiction often clouds that judgment though.
The Hollywood writer’s strike. It really did provide perspective on how much our culture is wrapped up in TV.
I knew that once I broke the addiction, I won’t miss it.

If anyone else is considering the same thing, feel free to post a comment and get some support.

» Filed Under About Me, Chasing Dreams, Productivity

Golf Ball Giveaway and a Personal Update

Posted by The Happy Rock on December 11, 2007

I 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 golf balls. He has the best golf game improvement blogs on the net. Click here for the contest if you are interested.

» Filed Under Misc.

Skip The Baby Carrots. Cheaper, healthier, and better.

Posted by The Happy Rock on December 7, 2007

Recently 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 cost of baby carrots.
Taste. Regular carrots taste better.
Texture. I actually find the dry raw qualities of the regular carrot more enjoyable.
Last longer. Instead of getting slimy and gross after only a few days, regular carrots stay dry and crisp for a lot longer. The carrots seems to last even longer if you buy carrots with the leaves still on.
Not as much work cutting and peeling as I thought. It takes only a minute or two to make a whole batch of crunchy sticks.
Healthier. More beta carotene. Source

Don’t be scared, give them a try next time you are at the store. You will get more carrot for your money, and better product to boot.

» Filed Under Food, Frugality

Debt Reduction Tip – Divide and Attack

Posted by The Happy Rock on December 1, 2007

Are 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 simple and manageable. As the debts begin to fall, you start to feel that the end is actually attainable. You behavior is changing and you get more courage and energy with each debt that is eliminated.

The divide and conquer approach not only works well debt destruction, but also on any task that seems too big to accomplish.

» Filed Under Debt Elimination