This is the 3rd chapter is a series of posts showing how the little things can add up. Here is part one & part two. You might have missed it, but I dropped some subtle hints in my recent snowblower post that I can from time to time, be a pretty big baby. Well one night after a frigid shoveling adventure, my wife took pity on me (FINALLY!). I told her that I’d like nothing more than to have that night’s hot chocolate to be accompanied with some nachos. But you need chips for nachos and we had none. Luckily [...]
Read MoreFebruary 2009
Now that I’m trying to limit my family’s Grocery spending to $450 a month, I’m looking for ways to get the most for my money. I’ve already mentioned a few ways I’m doing this in a couple of previous posts (here & here). But earlier today I realized that I had another tool at my disposal that I probably haven’t been using effectively enough. Our Deep Freeze! At lunch time today my daughter informed us that she wanted burritos. My wife looked in the fridge and said we were out. But that triggered my memory of buying a bunch of [...]
Read MoreAfter two months of procrastination, I finally called Chase to ask that they fully remove any finance charges related to my first time late payment offense. Did I ever mention that I hate making phone calls even if it is just calling a service rep that I don’t know to get late fees and finance charges removed? The introvert in me often hopes that avoiding the calls will make them go away…that rarely works. The thing about this charge was that it left me seething. Every time I thought about it, I got upset. Upset because: One 8 hour late [...]
Read MoreTeaching Toddlers about Money: The Pebble and the Dollar received editor’s pick at 96th Carnival of Money Stories @ Funny Money How To Create A Zero-Budget @ No Credit Needed Dave Ramsey’s 7 Baby Steps: Step 2 – Pay off all debt using the Debt Snowball @ Bible Money Matters Emotional Bank Accounts and Valetine’s Ideas @ Gather Little By Little $8,000 First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit @ FiveCentNickel USPS Postage Stamp Increase To $0.44 on May 11th @ Kingdom First Mom – Stock up on Forever stamps Killing Scared Cows Book Giveaway and Review @ FreeFromBroke
Read MoreIf you listen to the news or our politicians, we should live in a constant state of fear. Our government just spent $800 billion in fear, because the politicians didn’t know what to do and were afraid of were the US was headed. If you don’t think it effects your life and your decisions, you are probably mistaken. FEAR IS NOT A PRODUCTIVE WAY TO LIVE! A few weeks back I wrote a guest post for Jeff at My Super Charged Life that explored seven different ways that fear can negatively impact your life and your decisions. Here is the [...]
Read MoreI thought I was prepared for winter. I took some steps to winterize my house, we’ve added insulated curtains, and have been wearing our smart wool socks we got for Christmas. But now I hear that according to Punxsutawney Phil, we’ll have 6 more weeks of winter. Thank goodness! I can’t wait for Spring to get here. I’ve already mentioned how my back is tired from all the shoveling, now my wallet is ailing from the high electric bills. I don’t know what the first thing you would do if you got a $485 electric bill, but the first thing I [...]
Read MoreBest Finance Posts Of 2008 @ Darwin’s Finance Save Credit Card Interest By Paying Early @ The Consumerist How We Shed $200 From Our Monthly Grocery Bill @ Passive Dad 7 Simple Ways To Start Improving Your Life @ Gather Little By Little The Behavior Gap: Pyschology Of Investing @ Get Rich Slowly 18 Everyday Hacks For Cooking From Scratch @ Simple Mom – I like 8, 10, 11 Is Frugality The Anti-Stimulus? @ Frugal Dad Job Hunting Costs Are Tax Deductible @ Bargaineering Free Game Downloads From Amazon @ Thrifty Jinxy
Read MoreMillions of us just watched the Superbowl and its tradition to have a player yell at the camera and say that he’s going to Disney World (This year Ben Roethlisberger and Santonio Holmes got to go). We here at the DD household have also caught Disney fever. You won’t be seeing us scream into cameras or anything like that. But we are very excited none-the-less. In fact, we just added it to our Wish List. Yep, well be there sometime in…2016. Well, we figured there’s no rush. I’ve been there a couple of times in my life. First with my family and then [...]
Read MoreThe Happy Pebble(age 3) couldn’t contain his excitement as we pumped up a 3 foot long ‘rocket’ balloon and watched it sputter around the room. For him it was the joyous culmination of a life money lesson that he didn’t even know he participated in. The story begins with the Pebble and I making a few homemade thank you cards for gifts received at Christmas. It took us a few weeks after the holidays, but gratitude is better late then never. We mailed the cards off and in not too long he received a surprise letter in the mail from [...]
Read MoreHere is the latest installment of my family’s monthly expenses. Without further ado here’s the breakdown: $830.00 – Mortgage $759.00 – Daycare $664.10 – Health Insurance $484.69 – Electricity $452.50 – Groceries $180.00 – Pearl Jam $175.00 – Student Loan $158.23 – Misc Household $146.84 – Clothes $117.01 – Gasoline $84.19 – Water, Sewer, & Garbage (quarterly) $60.00 – Medical Co-Pays $51.93 – Dog Food $25.92 – Eating Out $11.67 - Vehicle Expenses $4.60 – Movies For a grand total of $4205.68…Yowsers! Even though I used to freak out when we were this high, I have a feeling that the $4000 range [...]
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