DD’s Time Magazine Giveaway

Posted by Debt Destroyer on November 28, 2008

Happy Rock’s recent post with all the free stuff motivated me to add one to the list.

Seeing how I’m plastered all over the pages of Time Magazine (My family’s picture with President-Elect Obama is now also in the Special Commemorative Edition, full-page spread baby!) I figured I’d share the love by offering the gift of weekly news delivered to your mailbox.

That’s right folks a year of Time magazine can be yours!

All you have to do is send The Happy Rock an email and a lucky reader will be randomly selected. Use the contact button on the top toolbar to be entered. The winner will be picked on Dec 3rd(12-3-08), but be sure to allow several weeks for the magazine to start coming.

My conscious wants you to know that my generosity is not only motivated by THR’s post, but also by a postcard I just received from TIME telling me that I can give a free gift subscription when I renew my subscription.

There is also a free mystery gift involved. But I’ll be keeping that.

Until Next time,

-DD

» Filed Under Giving

“Black Friday” vs “Buy Nothing Day”

Posted by Debt Destroyer on November 28, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving Everybody!

And welcome to the official start of the holiday shopping season.

Back when I shared my Christmas budget, I said I’d revisit the idea of whether or not Christmas is becoming too commercialized or not. Well it’s your lucky day!

But first let me come clean about something.

I can be an idealist at times. Not all the time, but just enough that I can be rather annoying to be around when certain subjects come up. You know my type, we’re very passionate about something about a certain topic for awhile then we move on to something else.

Kind of like Oprah.

Some of my past causes have been:

Recycling
Breast-feeding
Ethical breeding of animals
Organic food
Supporting Local Business

You get the picture.

Now I still think all of those things are wonderful, but in the past I could give you an impassioned argument saying why you should see the light and change your ways. Whereas now, I just try to do what I think is right and set a good example.

A good example of this is “Black Friday” or as I used to call it, “Buy Nothing Day.”

At one time I used to subscribe to a magazine called Adbusters, and one of their claims to fame (if they have any at all) is Buy Nothing Day. It’s pretty much what it sounds like. You just refrain from doing any shopping on the day after Thanksgiving, otherwise known as Black Friday.

It was quite easy for me to participate in “Buy Nothing Day” for two reasons:

I REALLY like to sleep in, so I always would miss the sales.
I’m a guy. I did quite a lot of my shopping on the 24th.

In reality my protest was silent in nature because I never really told anybody about my plan except for my wife. But that all changed one year when we spent Thanksgiving with my wife’s family.

My mother-in-law was drooling over all the ads and asked if there was anything that she should pick up for me. So then I told her all about “Buy Nothing Day.” She looked at me like I had two heads.

Actually everyone did.

Our hosts that evening ( wife’s sister & brother in-law) proceeded to inform me that almost every electronic device in their house was from a previous Black Friday sale. And that they were in the market for a new computer that year. In fact my brother in-law was going to get up at 4 a.m. to go wait in line at Best Buy.

I wished him well and thought that was that.

But that night I had a miserable night’s sleep on an air mattress that deflated on my wife & I (probably a black friday purchase) so we switched to the couch. Problem there was that there were no curtains in that room and the street light shown right in on us.

So when 4am came around I was wide awake and offered to tag along with my brother in law.

I’m glad I did.

The line at Best Buy was already several hundred people long, so we didn’t even bother at that store. So we went to store #2, Staples.

The line was much more reasonable, probably only 100 or so(if that). But we had to wait for that store to open at 6am. So we waited in the cold for over an hour.

It was great!

Everyone was trading their old “Black Friday” war stories, making a plan for how they’d attack this store and then planning out the rest of the day. Everything was fine until “they” came.

These are the people who think they are too good for lines. Instead they show up right before the store opens and gather by the doors. Here these happy, go-lucky people who moments before where exchanging cookie recipes were now shouting some pretty horrible things at “them”.

When the doors opened it was a stampede, I think my feet were lifted off the ground for a moment, just like the old mosh pit days at Pearl Jam shows. My job was to save a place in the checkout line so we didn’t waste all morning in line. It was brilliant, not only did we save time, but it also gave me a front row seat to the show.

And what a show it was!

I finally got to see what I’ve been missing. And while it did get my adrenaline pumping for a few seconds, it also convinced me that I never wanted to do it again.

But I now have a better understanding of you “Black Friday” veterans out there.

I wish you the best of luck, and in case you missed them here are the deals. For those of you who are curious about “Buy Nothing Day” here is some info on that too.

Now that I’ve wasted 800 words on my “Black Friday” story, do you have any good ones? What were some of the great deals you got? Do you think it’s worth the hassle?

Until next time,

-DD

P.S. The idealist in me wanted to show you this clip:

» Filed Under Frugality, Psychology of Spending, Spending

Financial Thanksgiving List

Posted by The Happy Rock on November 27, 2008

In the spirit of gratitude and thanksgiving I wanted to list all of the financial related blessings of the last year.

Another year debt free, except for the mortgage
The ability to provide for two wonderful children
Second adoption paid for with cash
$11,000 adoption tax credit
$2,000 adoption assistance from my employer
Two flexible, solid, well paying jobs
$5/hour raise for The Happy Rockette
Income and symbiotic relationships from The Happy Rock and other projects
Top %1 standard of living in the world – Check yours at Global Rich List
Warm, comfortable, home in a good neighborhood
The means to give to multiple different people, family, and organizations

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

» Filed Under Financial Succes, Giving

The “Paying Cash” Experience – 2 Months Later

Posted by Debt Destroyer on November 25, 2008

Some of you may remember that at the end of August I decided that starting in September, I would start paying cash for certain items (groceries, household stuff, & entertainment).

Obviously I hoped that this would lead to major savings. Dave Ramsey professes that paying in cash will save around 12% or even more! I was shooting for savings of around $100 per month.

I have to admit that it was a little weird paying for stuff using cash after so many years of putting everything on plastic. Especially at the grocery store where the bill can easily be over $100. But very quickly I started to have fun in those situations. I think I surprise the clerk when I start flashing the AJs around (Andrew Jacksons).

As luck would have it, I’ve charted my expenses for 4 months (2 using credit cards, and 2 with paying cash). So how about we see how things are going so far?

In July & August we spent on average:

$507.62 on groceries
$145.66 on household items
$67.06 on dinning out

For a total of $720.34.

In September & October we spent on average:

$481.92 on groceries
$133.18 on household items
$81.31 on dinning out

For a total of $696.41

Paying cash has been saving me $24 a month.

I know that $24 isn’t all that impressive, but at least I saved.

Actually I have a hunch that November’s grocery expenses will be much lower than previous months. I think this for a couple of reasons:

My daughter’s food allergies improved enough so we no longer have to avoid wheat & dairy.
I hit some “sales” and stocked up on lunch items. I don’t think I’ll have buy lunch until mid December

But there’s plenty of time left, so who knows what could happen. It was mentioned in the comments of my last expense report , that I should try an envelope system to see real savings.

So that’s what I’m going to do.

Starting in December we’ll set aside $450 for groceries, $125 for Household stuff, & $75 for going out. The last two amounts will be lowered in January to $115 & $60 (I’m giving us a little bit extra for the holidays).

If we can make the January amounts work, that would be $620 for those three categories which would be $100 less than what we spent on those same items in July & August.

And that would be great!

Come winter, we need to save money any place we can because as I alluded to way back when in my Nitty Gritty post, heating costs are a killer! I keep meaning to sign up for the budget plan, but I never get around to it (I did fill out an online form requesting this, but that seemed to do nothing).

Enough of my ramblings…

Do any of you use an envelope system? Does it work? Was it hard to get used to? Did you stick with it?

I’m looking forward to hearing some of your experiences.

Until next time,

-DD

» Filed Under Cash, Experiments, Money Savers

Community In Action – Giveaway Edition

Posted by The Happy Rock on November 23, 2008

Here are some good articles I came across this week:

10 Tips For A Killer Resume @ SqaukfoxBunch of free giveaways

Debt Reduction 101 – A guide @ No Credit Needed

Home Water Conservation, Does it work? @ The Simple Dollar

80% of Resteraunt.com gift certificates still @ The Digerati Life

Unintended Benefits Of Budgeting @ Bible Money Matters

Brainy Smurf is Debt Free Again! @ Pants In A Can

And here are a few giveaways :

Free $200 Cash Giveaway for The Financial Blogger’s two year anniversary.

50$ Wal-mart Card Giveaway @ Kingdom First Mom

5 Sixpence None The Richer Christmas Albums @ Christian PF

Free Medium Papa John’s For Facebooks Users @ Money Smart Life

» Filed Under Bloggers

Gas Prices – The Silver Lining of the Recession

Posted by Debt Destroyer on November 20, 2008

I saw something tonight that I didn’t think I ever would see again.

Gas under $2/gallon.

This summer when we were paying $4/gallon, it was just understood that high gas prices were here to stay. With rising demands from China & India we needed to get used to paying these kind of prices. People traded in their gas guzzlers for hybrids. Others bought scooters.

Then the economy tanked and “cheap” gas is back.

It’ll be interesting to see if people maintain their new conserving ways or will they revert back to old habits where mpg was an after-thought?

History shows us that when the gas lines of the 1970s retreated, they took the fad of the “little car” with them. I for one hope that we don’t return to our old gas guzzling ways.

Don’t get me wrong, I prefer paying the lower prices. But if we truly want to cut our dependency on foreign oil, we need to increase our vehicles’ fuel efficiency.

It’s ironic then that the Big Three automakers are being raked over the coals in Washington (as they beg for a bailout) for not producing vehicles for a $4/gal world, when we are no longer in that world.

I also find it ironic that, according to the news, if it wasn’t for the credit crunch (which our trusty financial institutions helped create and were bailed out for doing so) that the automakers would be still OK. But their own bail-out isn’t looking as promising.

Sometimes I can’t tell if irony is supposed to be funny or sad.

For those of you employed by the auto industry, I sincerely hope you are able to weather this storm. Speaking as someone who was recently laid off, it’s not fun. But it’s not the end of the world either.

Hopefully this historic industry doesn’t become history itself.

I don’t think it will.

What about you? How long do you think “cheap” gas will be around? Do you think we changed our ways? Do you think The Big 3 will make it?

Until next time,

-DD

» Filed Under Cars, Money Savers

Fundamental Problem With Debt Consolidation

Posted by The Happy Rock on November 19, 2008

Putting debt on a 0% credit card or rolling high interest debt into a home equity line of credit may help save you money in the short term, but it is only addressing the symptom. The symptom is the debt; the debt isn’t the problem. The behaviors and attitudes that got you into debt are usually the problem.

Imagine a couple in a pool flailing around unable to swim or even tread water. You through them a lifeline and they are saved. The trick is though that they only stay saved if they don’t go into the water again. Unless they learn how to swim they are going to continue to have the same problems if they go in the water.

The same is true for money, although unlike avoiding water we can’t avoid spending, earning, and needing money. The only other option is to learn how to swim. We need to change our relationship and behavior towards money. Debt consolidation often helps people escape the symptoms of their problems without having to actually address the issues. Bankruptcy and bailouts usually have similar deleterious effects. People who roll their credit card debt into a second mortgage often find themselves with credit card debt again and now they have a second mortgage to boot.

The way issues get addressed is often by hitting rock bottom or the end of your preverbial rope and coming up with a real desire to change your behvaior and your financial destiny. Feeling pain promotes real change. Watching other people suceed inspires change. Hard work, discipline, and repitition change behavior. Focus on the problem not the symptom. Fix the problems and the symptoms will go away with some hard work.

» Filed Under Debt Elimination, Psychology of Debt

Dave Ramsey’s Baby Steps Review

Posted by The Happy Rock on November 17, 2008

I have stated before that I am huge Dave Ramsey fan. I think his approach to debt destruction is the simpliest and most straightforward approach. It has broad application across all income levels and focuses on motivating people and changing their behavior. I used the baby steps and the and free access to Dave’s radio show to eliminate $70,000 in 4 years.

There are officially 7 baby steps(1-7), but there is an unofficial pre-requisite that I like to put in there.

Step 0 – Stop going into debt : If you don’t stop the leak you will never be able to repair the damage. Simple as that.

Step 1 – Save a baby emergency fund : Pay minimums on your debt until you save $1,000. The purpose is to keep you out of debt when unexpected costs arise. If you deplete this fund for anything, halt the baby steps and start at step 1 again.

Step 2 – Pay off all debts, except for a first mortgage : Do this using the ‘Debt Snowball’ which is paying minimums on all of your debt except the smallest regardless of interest rate. When that debt is gone, snowball all available money into the next smallest debt. The point here is that small victories create confidence and motivation. It changes your relationship with money and spurs you on to attack the rest of the debts. This step is designed to be a full out frontal assault not a leisurely stroll through the park. Sell everything that isn’t nailed down, cut cable, movies, eating out and use the extra money for to grow the snowball.

Step 3 – 3 to 6 Emergency Fund : Relish in being debt free except for a house while using the money to quickly store 6 months of expenses. The purpose here is to shield you from major catastrophes which do happen like job loss, disabilities, fire, theft, etc. Personally, accomplishing this was the single greatest feeling, even better than paying off our consumer debt.

Step 4 – Invest 15% of your income into your retirement : Use Roth IRA’s and pre-tax retirement accounts to purchase good solid mutual funds with solid track records.

Step 5 – Fund College Savings : Skip this step if it isn’t applicable or you aren’t planning helping the children financially. Education Savings Account and 529 plans are good options.

Step 6 – Pay off the house. Use all extra money to pay off the house what will most likely only take a few years.

Step 7 – Build Wealth and Give.

I know that sounds simple and obviosuly there are nuiances to each step which aren’t covered like budgeting, insurance, and picking good mutual funds, but once you develop the discpline, control your spending habits, and change your money behavior during step 2 you will most likely have the energy and behaviors that will make all the rest seem like a cake walk.

» Filed Under Debt Elimination, Financial Succes

Get 25%(now 8%) Cashback On eBay Purchases Through Live.com

Posted by The Happy Rock on November 13, 2008

That’s right, it sounds to good to be true, but it isn’t. Microsoft has been pushing this unique advertising ploy off and on for months now and people have been saving a ton on online purchases mainly through eBay. Here’s how to take advantage.

First sign up for a Windows Live cashback account and then all you have to do is search for a product of your choice at Microsofts’ Live.com. At the top of the search there will usually be an eBay link that says Live Search Cashback in gold next too it. Just click the link and complete any Buy It Now purchase and save 25% up to $200 dollars. This is for US searchers only.

The only small glitch is that the cashback will only be available 60 days after completing the purchase when it is deposited into a paypal.com account. I have used this with success this Christmas.

They are also two other ways to save you money :

Smaller cash back percentages on a host of other stores(Gap, Foot Locker, Barnes and Nobles, …), just check out the Cash back home for more information.
Search Perks(Internet Explorer required), which is a limited user free points for searching program that lets you buy items with those points.

Microsoft’s willingness to compete with Google and Yahoo could in in huge savings for the masses.

For more information on the eBay cashback check out the Buy now on eBay for 25% cashback post(now 8%) on the Window Live Search blog.

» Filed Under Frugality, Money Savers

DD Meets Barack Obama And Time Magazine Captures The Picture

Posted by Debt Destroyer on November 12, 2008

I know it’s been racking your brain for months…

What does DD look like?

For those of you who’d like to take the next step in our relationship and turn into full fledged stalkers, today is your lucky day!

Actually you’re only in luck if you have the 11-17-08 issue of Time Magazine. If you do you can look at page 53 and see yours truly and my kids chatting it up with then Senator Obama.

For those of you who are frugal and get your Time fix at your local library, you can just click here.

The story behind the picture is that it was taken after an Obama campaign event during the primary season. He held a speech about a block away from my house, then took a stroll. During this stroll he was talking on his cell while walking across the street from our house. I thought that was as close as we’d get, but my 3 yr old took action into her own hands.

“Hey, Obama! Hey, Obama!”

I’d like to think we didn’t raise her to think it is polite to just shout out someone’s last name at them to get their attention. But if you’re a cute little girl and the person you’re yelling at is a candidate for political office, I think it’s OK.

He made a bee-line and chatted up my little girl for about a minute before talking to me. We exchanged pleasantries and he went on his way. It was a very cool moment.

Imagine my surprise when six months later I’m sitting in my living room, flipping through my copy of Time and low and behold I get to relive the moment again right before my eyes (My wife said she thought we won the lottery I became so excited).

This isn’t really related to personal finance. I guess I could suggest the idea of if you ever want a cheap thrill, try to have your picture appear in a national news magazine without you knowing it and then discover it yourself while flipping though it.

Let me tell you, you get quite a charge!

Until next time,

» Filed Under About The Debt Defier

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