Archive results for “November 2007f 2007”

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Contingencies and a Challenge

I cannot believe that it will be December in less than an hour. Time is flying by and so much is going on in my head right now. Hopefully this weekend I’ll have a chance to get some of it out on here. For now, here’s a few articles that caught my eye this week.

JW discusses contingencies. JW and his wife are striving to become debt-free, but they keep coming across hurdles.

“For us the fact remains that for every triumph we have in reducing our debt we will inevitably have some set backs.”

With our recent triumphs of paying off half of our debt and fully funding our emergency fund…I can’t help but wonder what’s around the corner and if it is going to cost a lot of money. Two steps forward…one step back. I try not to think that way, but it’s hard not to.

Arduous has almost wrapped up her November shoe challenge (thinning out the collection) and December is going to be a month of no pre-packaged dinners and no eating out. Wow. That’s a tough one and I will enjoy reading about the challenge and hopefully picking up a few pointers.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Posted by Tricia on November 30, 2007 at 11:32 PM in Blogging Buddies | 8 Comments »
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Last Carnival Reminder

The Carnival of Debt Reduction will be here on Monday. If you are a blogger, please get your submissions in soon!

NOTE: I have been looking at the submissions and a lot of them are articles about saving money or making money. Some of them don’t even contain the word “debt.” That information is great, but this carnival is about debt reduction. Articles must be related to debt reduction to be included front and center in this carnival.

Thanks!

Posted by Tricia on November 30, 2007 at 1:37 PM in Carnivals/Festivals | 4 Comments »
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What Started as a Joke Turned into $40K/year

There are certain types of stories that I am drawn to. One type involves regular people who have an idea and have it blossom beyond their wildest dreams. I recently found one about a woman who created website as a joke.

Imagine her surprise when she started receiving emails from people wanting to order products on her site.

What is she selling? Assorted sizes of tumbleweeds.

Linda Katz finds her tumbleweeds right outside of her house and she is making thousands of dollars a year as income from them.

…the orders just kept coming — an average of 15 per week. Though sheâ€™s coy about her annual income from tumbleweed wrangling, she says it is over $40,000 a year.

[Via People of the Web Story (warning - a video will start right after the page loads)]

I imagine the press her company has received lately will help bring that income up a little bit. Even if it stayed at $40K/year, that’s pretty good money from something that started out as a joke!

Posted by Tricia on November 28, 2007 at 10:31 PM in Making Money | 17 Comments »
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Guess What’s Arriving on Monday

The one…the only…Carnival of Debt reduction will be here on Monday. If you are a blogger and have written an article that is about debt reduction, make sure you visit the Carnival of Debt Reduction site and submit your article for inclusion. Your submission is due by 5 PM EST on Sunday, December 2.

In the meantime, feel free to check out this week’s Carnival of Debt Reduction at BeingFrugal.net. You will learn about debt as well as Christmas around the world.

Posted by Tricia on November 28, 2007 at 10:00 PM in Carnivals/Festivals | 2 Comments »
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Our Emergency Fund is Fully Funded

We recently received a minor windfall when we surrendered a whole life insurance policy. The timing of that check ($1,300) enabled us to hit the halfway mark with our debt. For the past few days I have been debating what to do with the rest of it.

I finally decided to go ahead and use some of it to increase the amount in our emergency fund to $2,500. That was the amount that we were aiming to have in there some time ago, but we never made that goal. For now, we will leave our emergency fund at $2,500 and concentrate 100% on paying down our debt.

There is still some money left from the insurance check. My son’s recent unexpected visit to the doctor gobbled some of it up (he’s okay – the doctor thinks he caught a bad bug going around). We will probably put a few hundred more towards our credit card debt and keep the rest around for a little bit. That will give us some breathing room for Christmas-time.

I still can’t believe that we actually have thousands of dollars in the bank at this very moment. I can get used to having money stashed away like that. It gives you a sense of security knowing it is there if you need it.

Posted by Tricia on November 28, 2007 at 7:33 AM in Saving Money | 18 Comments »
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Personal Finance Forums – A Collection of Ones I Have Found

Last week, I wrote about Debt Forums. After receiving a comment (thank you!) listing a general finance forum, I thought it would be a good idea to do another list for Personal Finance Forums.

Note: I am listing the forums in alphabetical order and by listing a forum here I am not endorsing it. This is meant to be a reference piece that you can use to find a forum that you enjoy. And if you don’t join them, you can always read through them for more information

Cleveland.com Finance Forum – This finance forum is not very active. So far in November, there have only been five posts.

Fat Wallet Financial Forum – Fat Wallet has been a great place to search for deals and their Financial Forum is hopping with activity. This is a great place to learn about new banking bonuses.

Finance Forums – This personal finance forum has over 14,000 members (over 5,000 active) and has quite a bit of activity. Their sections include Insurance, Credit Cards and General Personal Finance.

Get Rich Slowly Forums – JD, the blogger behind Get Rich Slowly, opened up his own forum not too long ago. With almost 900 members, this board is fairly active. There’s a section for Personal Finance and then a section for Fiscal Fitness Journals (where you “use this space to post your goals, accomplishments, and setbacks on your path to get rich slowly”).

Kiplinger Forums – the popular financial magazine, Kiplinger, has their own personal finance forum. With over 19,000 members, it has some activity but not as much as you would expect with so many members. There’s even a section to discuss Kiplinger articles.

Military.com Finance Forum – As the name suggests, this forum is geared towards financial issues for those that serve in the military.

Money Saving Expert Forums – This UK based site has many members (over 250,000) and many sections. It looks like they have a little bit of everything.

Saving Advice Forums – This forum has over 13,000 members and is hopping with activity. The sections include Financial Chit Chat and Budgeting Resources.

The Finance Forums – This personal finance forum has over 1,800 members but isn’t very active. The sections consist of a Finance Section and a General Section.

Topix Personal Finance Forum – This forum is a little different because it mostly discusses news topics and doesn’t appear to be a place to go to ask questions. However, it could be worth reading to learn a few things.

I’m sure there are more out there, so if there is one that you know of please contact me (you can try leaving a comment, but it might get filtered out by my spam filter). I will add them to this list.

Posted by Tricia on November 26, 2007 at 10:30 PM in General Personal Finance | 10 Comments »
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A New York Times Writer Takes the Leap Into Personal Finance Sites

I guess when it comes to managing my finances, I’m a bit “old school.” I prefer to use Quicken installed on my computer and enter in all of my transactions manually. I get uneasy thinking of my financial information being tied to the internet. But that’s just me.

Michelle Slatalla, a writer for the New York Times, is due to have her adjustable rate mortgage adjust soon. Instead of paying 4% interest, it will be a lot higher and her mortage payment will increase dramatically. This prompted Michelle to get a handle on her finances.

After looking at some personal finance sites, such as Mint, Wesabe, Clear Checkbook and Yodlee, she signed up for Mint.

Mint logged into all our bank and credit card accounts on my behalf (with just the user names and passwords, and no account numbers) to get updated information on the previous quarterâ€™s balances and transactions.

…I went to the pie chart. Mint had categorized each transaction â€” a $25 payment to Malugani Tire was described as service and parts under the auto category, for instance â€” so I could see where our money went.

[Via NYTimes.com]

If you are on the fence on whether to try out one of the new personal finance sites, you may want to read this candid account of this new Mint user. While it ~~peaked~~ piqued my interest in perhaps giving Mint a test run…I’m still a nervous nellie and I’ll stick with my “old school” methods for the time being.

Thanks Chris for the link!

Posted by Tricia on November 25, 2007 at 12:30 PM in General Personal Finance | 21 Comments »
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