Sticker shock. That is probably your first thought, I know it was mine when The Happy Rockette first told me about the stroller. A little more than 3 months later, we own one! See the picture below for a quick look or click here for an in depth look at PhilandTeds.com. Here are the criteria I used to evaluate and review our Phil and Ted stroller purchase and why I think it was a great purchase: Pay Cash. The Rockette had been working every other Saturday to help out at her former job and decided she wanted that extra effort [...]
Read MoreApril 2008
With the car breaking down on Sunday and still having a ton of work to do for the 149th Carnival of PF, I ended up only getting 8 hours of sleep on Sunday night. I can survive, and ten years ago I wouldn’t have thought twice about it. The thing I noticed for the next 48-72 hours was how much that lack of sleep effected my whole life. I was much more pessimistic, less energetic, less patient, less productive, and grumpy. Since I have been getting fairly consistent sleep for about two years, I didn’t realize how good I felt. [...]
Read MoreAs we were driving home from watching some of our nieces and nephews for the weekend, I realized that pushing on the gas pedal of our Nissan Murano was not doing ANYTHING! I quickly pulled over and coasted to a stop. I figured I would try a restart and see if that fixes anything. Nope, the dreaded low battery cranking and then clicking. We were stranded! Deep breath, stay calm. Call The Happy Boulderette(Mom) and arrange ride. Call AAA to get towed. Entertain The Happy Pebble and The Not So Happy And Hungry Pebble Jr. for about 45 minutes. Luckily [...]
Read MoreIf this is your first time visiting, feel free to look around. You can join the others by subscribing to my RSS feed or you can receive updates via email so that you don’t miss The Happy Rock’s articles! Welcome to the 149th edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance! Below are 86 personal finance articles from the last week or so. In the articles you will find awesome information, but the real question is…”why do we care”? What motivates us to spend less and save more? Without being lead by our dreams and desires our enthusiasm and motivation can [...]
Read MoreJust a reminder that The Happy Rock is hosting the 149th Carnival of Personal Finance. Come back on Monday to view a collection of 100 or so of the best personal finance articles from the last week. The guidelines for submission can be found here. Use this form to submit your articles. I also have a special request to help support the theme of the upcoming article. If you could post a short comment on what your reasons are for trying to get on top of your finances? What dreams are you chasing? I appreciate the help.
Read MoreThe IRS lists the schedule of the stimulus package checks for tax returns processed by April 15th. The dates are determined by the last two digits of you Social Security Number and whether you are using direct deposit or paper check. According to the schedule our $1500 rebate should be direct deposited on May 9th. We plan to comply with the stimulus directive and do a couple of projects around the house. Click Here for the Stimulus payment schedule. Update – It looks like the checks will start shipping on Monday the 28th of April, a week earlier than the [...]
Read MoreI thought this was a useful little page provided by the IRS. With you Social Security Number, Tax filing status, and the refund amount you can find out the status of your 2008 Federal Government taxes. I got this message: We have received your tax return and it is being processed. Unless we find mistakes or you owe other taxes, you should receive your refund by April 29, 2008. I will be surprised if the direct deposit takes that long, but I did file closer to the deadline when it is busier. Click Here to check your status.
Read MoreJust $15 for a plethora of great coupons. For those that don’t know, the Entertainment book is a local book of coupons for everything from fast food to casual dining to theme parks and golf courses. It is $35 dollars when it first comes out, but gradually drops throughout the year. The current $15 and free shipping deal is set to expire on 4/30/2008. We normally buy the book early in the year, but figured we don’t really need it in the winter and would get better value later. The book contains more than enough great coupons to be well [...]
Read More“Symptom – A characteristic sign or indication of the existence of something else” Source Picture yourself driving down a familiar street. Out of the corner of your eye you see a huge nail in the road. You swerve, but only enough to drive directly over the nail with your tire. Arghhhh! You don’t hear a pop or a hissing, so you continue on. Everything seems fine until two weeks later when you go to leave for work and your tire is flat. It has been long enough that you forget about the nail, so you borrow an air compressor from [...]
Read MoreI have never had any love for Verizon Wireless, and I was quite relieved when my two year contract was up. They hadn’t done anything really bad, but they certainly didn’t ever do anything earn my respect. Nothing had really been post worthy until the last stunt they tried to pull as I closed my account. I had already activated my $60 a year Virgin Mobile service, when I called to cancel my Verizon account. Everything was fine, until the last thing the agent mentioned as I was about to hang up. Verizon Agent: You’re account is set to close [...]
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