We’ve hit the road each of the last three weekends. The weather was gorgeous and we had fun destinations to look forward too. But one thing we didn’t have was air conditioning. Luckily it wasn’t too hot yet, so the suffering was kept to a minimum. But I knew I wanted to get it fixed the next time I went in for an oil change. I figured it would just need a freon recharge and that would be that. Ha! We ended up having a relatively large hole in the A/C condensor. Price tag $650. I of course didn’t think twice about [...]
Read MoreMay 2009
The following is a guest post by DebtKid, who writes about his journey to get out of debt, and achieve financial stability. He runs a small software development company in Seattle and just launched a new coupons section on his blog. For consumers who are barely getting by, the concept of building wealth in the current economy may be low on the list of priorities. After all, if you are struggling to keep the bill collectors at bay or prevent your credit rating from dropping like a stone, it gets a bit tough to see the “big picture”. Unfortunately this [...]
Read MoreBack in September I wrote about how it took me two days to fix a screendoor. Guess what? It’s broken again. I bring this up to show that I’m no handy man. With all the Bob the Builder that my kids watch you’d think that something would rub off on me. But nothing does. In fact when the kids break something they always run to “Mommy” to get it fixed. But I don’t blame them. I married a female Red Green. Ok, that might be a bit of an overstatement. But sometimes I wonder. Take our refrigerator for example. Our [...]
Read MoreQuality home photos wasn’t something that we gave much thought to when we were signing our first selling real estate agent, but it is something that we are keenly aware of now. Our house has been on the market for over 6 months and we have since changed Realtors. The amazing part is that it didn’t strike us that our pictures were not doing our house justice until a co-worker put here house on the market an had an amateur photographer shoot the pictures for her house. The difference between her old pics and her new semi-professional pictures were night [...]
Read MoreLately I’m becoming an expert on the psychology of spending money, and it’s all thanks to my trusty radio. Last month I wrote about a story I heard on NPR which said that we can save money by carrying big bills. Earlier this week I heard another story which goes hand-in-hand with the big bill story. According to this story, not only will we hold onto a $100 longer than five $20′s, but we’ll also keep a $1 longer than we will 4 quarters. I did some head scratching while listening to it. They talked about a couple of studies which [...]
Read MoreI haven’t been hiding our expenses, but the truth isn’t we haven’t really been paying attention. Since we’ve gotten rid our debt except for the mortgage and established a fully funded emergency fund, we have earned the right not to budget. Pants in a Can and DD post their expenses and take flak for it, so I figured I am not above that type of scrutiny. I don’t want to be throwing money away when there are many other good causes and uses for that cash. Let’s get right into it. The Happy Rock’s expenses from 4/1/2008 to 4/1/2009: Notes [...]
Read MoreAs I’m quick to remind you long time readers, I took your advice and switched phone/internet carriers a few months ago. One of my complaints was that we no longer could get a separate voicemail box anymore for my wife’s business. But we decided we could make do with paying $5/month for just one vm box. But then we went shopping. One reason our “Household Misc” category was so out of whack in March was because we spent $70 on a set of two new phones. The handsets matched our old phones so that was nice. But the best [...]
Read MoreShort answer = Yes. Let’s start with the basics first though. A US savings bond is note representing a US government debt. The government agrees to pay back the money you give them in exchange for interest paid to the bondholder when you redeem the bond. Currently in 2009 the savings bond rates are 0.70% and 0.00% for EE and I bonds respectively, so that makes them terrible investments right now. Know that you know what you are dealing with, take them to the bank and get the bond value plus their accrued interest. There are a few things to [...]
Read MoreHere are a few of the best article’s from a year ago on The Happy Rock that are still very relevant: The Myth Of The Bi-Monthly Mortgage Debt Is The Symptom – Fix The Problem Breakdown – Is Triple A(AAA) Worth The Money? The $400 Phil and Ted’s Stroller – Dissecting The Purchase (65 great user experience comments and counting) A big thanks to the April Blog referrers: Smart Spening (Karen Datko) @ MSN Wisebread Pants In A Can ABCs of Investing Mighty Bargain Hunter Moolanomy FIRE Finance Ask Mr. Credit Card Frugal Babe Frugal Homemaker Plus
Read MoreWe probably were the last people in the world to see it, but Mrs. DD and I finally got a round to watching “An Inconvenient Truth” this past weekend. It was a very inspiring film (hard to believe a power point by Al Gore would be described that way) and it’s important message will no doubt have an influence on how we live. But earlier today I saw another film which told an equally disturbing story about our national debt: IOUSA Actually it’s the 30-minute version of what must have been a feature length film(that I missed). It does a [...]
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