Five Midsummer Goals

Funny about Money challenged me and other bloggers to come up with five new goals or ideas to improve our financial life, here in midsummer 2008. Then we’ll see, come the end of the year, whether any of these bear fruit.

Five new goals, huh?

Hmmm.

Okay, here’s we go…

1. Increase deposits to savings account by $250 per month. On the surface this should be easy since I’ll be saving the $200-$250 per month I was paying for Son’s preschool. Then again I am about to quit my job, so it’s a good goal.

2. Monetize a blog. I’m not sure if this one should be monetized, but I’ve been wanting to start a profit-making blog for awhile.  Stay tuned.

3. Sell all of my saleable stock. I have a bunch of baby clothes, toys and other miscellanea that needs to go on Craigslist or be sold in some other way. Gee, wonder why no one’s buying it. Oh, that’s right. It has to be listed so they know it’s for sale…

4. Get Quicken, or another money management software (suggestions welcome!). It’s embarrassing that I have not done so yet. I have my own method of random organization bolstered by masses of receipts. It’s quite effective, as you can imagine. I’d like to be able to get my taxes ready for filing by February 1 next year, instead of this year’s April 13th chaos (hey, I was two full days early!).

5. Cut restaurant spending. This is the largest area of waste in our budget. Between Husband ordering lunches and me having pleading that I’m too tired/busy/pre-menstrual too cook, we could save considerable moolah by cutting down this unnecessary spending. My new goal will be two dinners and two lunches per month. Think I should run that by Husband first? Nah.

Those are my five midsummer goals. I’m going to tag five more people, and they’ll tell five friends, and they’ll tell five friends, and so on and so on and so on…

If you aren’t tagged and would like to participate just link back to this post and I’ll post your link here. Ifyou don’t have a blog go ahead and tell us your goals in the comments!

Five bloggers who will have terrific goals and ideas:

• Emily at Remodeling This Life
• Alison at This Wasn’t In The Plan
• PaidTwice at I’ve Paid For This Twice Already…
• Moolanomy
• Frugal Babe

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The Unknown, One Word Meme

I started this Meme three months ago and never got around to finishing it. I don’t remember who sent it to me, and I don’t remember the rules.  But it’s 10:15 on Saturday night and I just threw a dinner party for eleven people and I have no post for tomorrow.

1. Where is your cell phone? table
2. Your significant other? working
3. Your hair? frizzy
4. Your mother? Connecticut
5. Your father? Drinking
6. Your favorite thing? book
7. Your dream last night? None
8. Your favorite drink? water
9. Your dream/goal? house
10. The room you’re in? dining
11. Your ex? unchanged
12. Your fear? death
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? home
14. Where were you last night? family
15. What you’re not? cruel
16. Muffins? corn
17. One of your wish list items? svelte
18. Where you grew up? Jersey
19. The last thing you did? call
20. What are you wearing? capris
21. Your TV? off
22. Your pets? comforting
23. Your computer? entertaining
24. Your life? lucky
25. Your mood? content
26. Missing someone? yes
27. Your car? Durango
28. Something you’re not wearing? jock
29. Favorite store? Target
30. Your summer? busy
31. Like someone? yes
32. Your favorite color? green
33. When is the last time you laughed? ten
34. Last time you cried? yesterday
35. Who will repost this? Patty

Please tag yourself!  Me? There are some brownies just calling my name.

My Personal Finance Confession Project – Credit Card Rates

I’m starting this project because I have a confession I wanted to make, and after I wrote it out I thought it would be great if others would share theirs so we can all learn something. Or point fingers and laugh.

So, please share your confession and any related thoughts, plans of action , justifications and/or consequences. Then tag 5 others to share theirs. You don’t have to link back here, but it would be nice. If you do I’ll post a link to yours… And if you don’t have a blog, please share your confession in the comments!

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I have a confession to make.

I have absolutely no idea what the finance rates are on my credit cards.

I know, that’s blasphemous in the personal finance community. Since I pay my credit cards off each month it’s never mattered before. Who cares if I have a 21% rate if there’s never a finance charge? All I ever cared about was that I had no membership fee for the card. The rate has always been irrelevant.

But in the wake of layoffs at Husband’s job and the continuing downturn in our economy I realize that anything can happen. Illness, loss of job, civil unrest could all be on our horizon.

So, even though I have a very healthy emergency fund and would not want to accrue any debt unless absolutely necessary, I should be prepared in case it becomes absolutely necessary.

That means I need one card with a really good rate, and it should be a Visa or Mastercard since they are accepted in more places than American Express or Discover.

So, first thing when I get back from my vacations I’m going to check out my credit card rates, and check them against the best available rates out there. I’m loathe to apply for a new credit card when we’re hoping to buy a home soon, so here’s hoping I have a good rate on at least one of my cards, or can call and negotiate a better one.

Gee, that felt good. Confession is good for the soul…

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I’d love if these wonderful bloggers would help start this off…

PaidTwice at I’ve Paid For This Twice Already…

Mrs. Micah at Finance for a Freelance Life

vh at Funny About Money

Anna at To Be Debt Free

Pinyo at Moolanomy

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Other Personal Finance Confessions:

1. The Personal Finance Confession Project: Do as I say… at Funny About Money
2. Confession at Done To Zen
3. Personal Finance Confession Project at Mrs. Micah
   

The Five Things Meme

I was tagged by Good Fountain to do a meme. I love memes because they help me out when I’m blocked. So now you know that today I can’t think of a darn thing I want to write. 🙂

Five things found in your bag:

1. A picture of Son.
2. My three small wallets (one holds money, the credit cards I use most and my insurance cards, one holds the rest of my credit cards and one holds discount and gift cards). Hey, it works for me.
3. Purell.
4. Halls Sugar Free Cough Drops.
5. Colonoscopy Preparation instructions. Aren’t I lucky?

Okay, technically that’s seven things, but whatever.

Five favorite things found in your room:

1. My grandmother’s antique bedroom set. I love it, even thoguh the drawers stick and it’s a bit banged up. When Husband moved in he couldn’t sleep in Grandma’s double bed, so it lives beneath the king bed we bought together.
2. My dog Jonah. He, or rather his ashes, reside in a box on my bookcase. I know it’s morbid, but I loved him so very much that when I go I want us to be buried (or have our ashes spread) together.
3. My parents’ wedding album. Even though they only stayed married for ten years it has pictures of them when they were young, and pictures of their parents, siblings, cousins, etc.
4. Bunny and Cubby. They are the only two toys from my childhood that survived the maybe-she’s-allergic-to-stuffed-animals purge that preceded my tonsillectomy four days before my seventh birthday. Bunny was my first toy and my Mom let me keep it. Cubby was my first post-tonsillectomy stuffed animal/birthday present (no party for me that year), and I remember clearly going to the ToysRUs and buying it. Bunny and Cubby sit next to Jonah on the bookcase.
5. Husband.

Five things you have always wanted to do:

1. A cartwheel. Couldn’t do one to save my life. Being able to do anything athletic well would do.
2. Have an artistic talent. I’d like to be able to bring on goosebumps when I sing, but in a good way for a change. I’d like to draw something recognizable or sculpt something that doesn’t look like a lump.
3. Be able to eat anything I want without having to worry about my weight.
4. Visit Siberia. I’ve wanted to ever since reading The Endless Steppe as a child. Seriously.
5. Meet Helen Keller.

Five things you are currently into:

1. Playing with Son. He is currently very into driving his trains into his trucks and cars. And so am I.
2. Packing my Dad’s house.
3. Rummikub.
4. Blogging.
5. Fuzzy socks.

Five people you’d like to tag:

I think perhaps I have tagged some of these friends before but, hey, what can I say, my circle is not that big.

1. My friend Patty
2. Mrs. Micah
3. This Wasn’t In The Plan
4. Frugal Babe
5. Twist & Skewer

The 7 Random/Weird Things About Me Meme

Emily from Remodeling This Life has tagged me to participate in a fun meme. I get to share 7 random/weird things about myself with you and then tag 7 more people to do the same.

Here we go.

1. Seven is my favorite number. Why? When I was a kid I noticed that whatever age I was became my favorite. When I was five my favorite number was five, etc. When I was seven, of course my favorite number was seven. So I decided to conduct an experiment. I was going to try to hate the number eight and see what happened. So I went around saying to myself, “I hate eight! i hate eight!” To this day seven is my favorite number, and while I won’t say that I hate the number eight (it’s even sillier to hate a number than it is to love it), it is my least favorite.

2. I once went tubing naked (except for my life preserver) on Lake June.

3. I love onion flavored things (onion bagels, onion dip) but I hate onions. Too slimy. Blech. I’ll even cook with onions because I love how they flavor food but I won’t eat the onions themselves.

4. I don’t think penises are pretty. Really, does anyone?

5. I’m fairly loud, assertive and clumsy. I’ve often wished I was more soft and graceful, like Audrey Hepburn. When I’ve tried to be people ask me if I’m sick.

6. I’m fair, as in objective. My best friend tells me that I’m the most fair person she’s ever met, but to be fair she hasn’t met everyone. I tend to see all sides of issues, much to the chagrin of Husband, who wants me to agree with him on all things all the time. Even when I do agree I can see the other side of the coin, see how the other person might feel, and can see how the issue or person’s feelings can be valid. At times it’s caused some strain in some relationships, as some (including Husband) think I’m being disloyal. I can see why they feel that way, but I don’t think that pointing out the other point of view, or having a different point of view altogether,  is being disloyal at all.   Besides, I can no sooner cease being what I consider fair than I could cease wanting chocolate. Neither is gonna happen in this lifetime. That doesn’t mean I love or respect the other person any less. Just so you know.

7. I hate 99.5% of rap music. I can take the Sugarhill Gang. And Will Smith. A little Pink. And that’s about it. Have you noticed that every generation thinks the next’s music is the worst ever, and wonder how bad music will sink in the next generation? Yeah. I’m already thinking about what’s going to be worse than rap.  I get those thoughts when I can’t get back to sleep at 4am. Really, I’m scared.

And there you have it. Me. It.

I will tag some terrific people I know:

1. Jennifer at Good Fountain.

2. Kate at One More Thing….

3. Patty at Our Life as an Air Force Family.

4. Lisa at Ramblings of a Pseudo Intellectual.

And some people whose blogs I enjoy and would like to know better:

5. LJ at Mommy Gets Paid.

6. Funny About Money at Funny About Money.

7. Learningwoman at Learningwoman’s Weblog.

Here are the rules:

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog. Some random, some weird.
3. Tag up to 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog. Well, I’m not doing this. You’ll see the pingback! I may comment on some other post, though. 🙂

Friday, er, Saturday Evening Book Meme Fun

I got tagged by Emily at Remodeling This Life to participate in a Friday Evening Book Meme Fun. I am supposed to grab the nearest book and look to page 123 and the 5th sentence and then type the next 3 sentences. Good thing there were none of my husband’s comic books graphic novels (insert eyeroll) lying nearby or I may have fallen asleep by the 2nd sentence.

Luckily I went to the library today and checked out the latest Stephanie Plum novel by Janet Evanovich, Plum Lucky.

If you’ve never read any of this terrificly fun series, I urge you to do so.

Anyway, here we go. Page 123:

When I got out, I felt energized. “I got an idea while you were in the shower,” Diesel said. “We need money, right?”

Not the most exciting or representative three lines, but I’ll take ’em.

So, now to tag someone else.

Who to tag? Who to tag?

I shall tag:

Learningwoman (My guess is we’ll either hear a little bit about Poetry or Australia)

Good Fountain (I have a feeling we’ll be hearing about hyperlexia)

Ramblings of a Pseudo Intellectual (Porn. Definitely porn.)

One More Thing (Depends on where she is when she writes it, but I’m guessing it’ll be How to Knit a Shroud for your Mother-In-Law)

And you. If you’re game…