The Millionaire Next Door…

Posted by Beks on September 1, 2010 at 10:17 PM
in Book Reviews | 4 Comments » |

I had the opportunity to read ‘The Millionaire Next Door’ by Thomas Stanley this week during my commute to work.

The book is in one word… amazing. I mean really, if the guy can make a book entirely of statistics about a group of people I can’t even relate to and keep me interested, he’s a pretty good author.

Stanley covers the gamut of what makes a millionaire different from others. From how they manage marriage, to work, to frugality, to children, it’s all there.

The most shocking statistic? Most millionaires drive used domestic cars worth less than $30,000. The most popular model? A Ford F-150. Now every time I see an old Ford, I wonder if a very wise person is behind the wheel.

His main point – The gross majority of millionaires don’t care what you think of them.

Sounds like something I need to work on.

Rent this book from the library. It’s FASCINATING!

Paying bills non-conventionally?

Posted by Beks on August 31, 2010 at 9:10 PM
in Living Frugal, Spending Money | 14 Comments » |

I received the credit card/vet payment bill today for Hutch’s hospitalization (He’s doing WONDERFUL by the way. I went running with him last night and it was awesome!!)

$1781.00

I lost my breath.

But hey, according to the paperwork, if I make minimum payments…I can be paid off in 13 years. It annoys me that this credit card company hopes my debt may outlive my dog.

As I stared at the bill, I was annoyed with myself. Dave Ramsey encourages people to live outside the box rather than have a natural reaction to accrue more debt.

I didn’t think outside the box. I threw in the towel – and quickly at that.

The fact is, there will ALWAYS be a reason to jump back into debt. Car repairs, hospital bills, home repairs… VET BILLS.

I know it’s only a two month hiccup but I can’t help but wonder if I had offered to scrub dog poop, would have let me?

I’m working on changing the way I think. I’m slow – but I’m getting there.

What I really wonder is…

What is the strangest way you have paid a bill?

Have you cleaned your dentist’s home? Have you cooked for your mechanic? Have you babysat for your plumber?

My husband installed an exhaust fan for a 6 pack of beer so trust me – I know you folks are out there.

Advice…

Posted by Beks on August 30, 2010 at 5:00 AM
in Confessions, Money & Relationships | 16 Comments » |

A reader asked for some advice regarding her husband. My husband never hid debts so I don’t have any experience in this area.

How would you deal with this?:

Can you provide any suggestions for someone whose spouse is still in denial about their spending addiction? My husband has been hiding his debts from me for a long time. Now, because his bills are out of control, he can’t hide it anymore & pay his share of the household bills. I have offered to help, suggested counseling…does anyone have any suggestions?

Garage Sale!!

Posted by Beks on August 28, 2010 at 4:15 PM
in Making Money | 3 Comments » |

My grandparents moved from Arkansas to California to live with my parents a few months ago. Since my parents live in a rural area and I live in the city, mom thought it would be a good idea to have a garage sale of her and my grandmother’s duplicated items at my house.

My mother flew in my sister, the family garage sale expert, from Kansas to help her assemble the wares. Yes, it was a pretty transparent excuse to get my sister to visit, but we didn’t mention it.

I haven’t hosted a garage sale at my home before and wasn’t sure if she would get the traffic she needed.

Judging from the stack of cash she had sitting on the kitchen counter…

My area is very garage sale friendly. Mom earned just over $1,000, my brother made $150, and I made $10.

Clearly, I didn’t keep a good eye on mom’s bookkeeping.

It was a learning experience and if I had anything to sell, I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

Want to borrow my pen?

Posted by Beks on August 25, 2010 at 10:08 PM
in Life Experiences, Living Frugal | 18 Comments » |

I went shopping with a friend over the weekend – and by ‘shopping’ I mean she shopped, I watched.

As she went to purchase a stack of clothing, she pulled out her shiny credit card and tapped it on the counter excitedly while she talked about how cute the clothes were.

The cashier ran the card but couldn’t find a pen for the signature. My friend looked at me and asked, ‘Do you have a pen?’

I pulled out the only pen I had, my Financial Peace University pen from Dave Ramsey.

As she gleefully signed at the bottom, I couldn’t help but laugh as I imagined the Financial Peace pen bursting into flame the second it touched the credit card slip.

Surprisingly, it didn’t.

I miss spending like that. I miss buying what I wanted. But…

I don’t miss the credit card debt.

Stop Acting Rich…

Posted by Beks on August 24, 2010 at 12:00 PM
in Living Frugal | 5 Comments » |

Or so says Thomas Stanley’s August 19th blog (and his newest book) – and I love the title.

Thomas Stanley, author of The Millionaire Next Door, must be a fan of mine. His most recent two blogs talk about frugal folks who shop at thrift stores for clothing and come home with remarkable finds.

I mean really, why wouldn’t a NY Times bestselling author read my blog?

Don’t answer that.

My favorite quote stolen from this blog series: “Any idiot can pay full price”

But if you have time (time AFTER you read my blog of course), check out his at http://www.thomasjstanley.com/blog.php.

Diving into our Emergency Fund…Again

Posted by Beks on August 23, 2010 at 10:00 PM
in Home Ownership | 18 Comments » |

We received an interesting letter from our insurance company. They ‘asked’ us to install safety flood lighting in front of our home due to the continuation of the seemingly never-ending legal battle we’re in. If changes are not made by the date listed, we would be dropped.

Murphy’s Law has moved in to our home.

Let’s see, the incident happened nearly three years ago, didn’t happen on my property, and wouldn’t have been prevented by flood lights but…

Sure. Now seems like a great time to demand a change (To be fair, there are 5 watt nightlights brighter than our porch lamp so I can’t exactly fault them for saying we are inadequately lit).

My husband knew how to run the wire and install the fixtures but the $300 price tag for materials pushed us over the edge. We had to…

Dive into our emergency fund.

The whole weekend, as my husband made repeated trips to Lowes, I tried to figure out how we could possibly pay for it without dipping into our emergency cash.

When the job was done, my husband suggested we recycle the stack of cans he had been saving and I thought, ‘Sure. $5 of recycling is going to save us’ but went along anyway to help him sort the bottles and cans.

30 minutes of sorting in 95 degree heat really helped my attitude problem.

How much did we net at the recycling place? $477.85.

How? My husband took the $27.85 earned from recycling and, since neither of us had our wallets, lifted the lid to put it in his truck center console and found a $450 check payment from a side job he was paid for a month and a half ago and forgot about. (Yes, that was a long run-on sentence)

If I wasn’t so happy about putting it back into our emergency fund, I probably would have smacked him for forgetting about it in the first place.

Emergency floodlights and part of the vet bills… covered. Whew!

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