For The Ladies…

Before I started writing again I read through some of my older posts and I realized that I write a lot about the taboos in life such as BM’s, vomit, miscarriages, etc.  One thing I’ve yet to write about until tonight is our monthly friend.  That’s right, I’m going there…where riding the cotton pony has nothing to do with a horse, the crimson tide isn’t referring to football, and aunt flo isn’t some long lost relative.  So if you have dangly parts, you’ve been warned….Now just a little big of background on me.  I got my period young.  Like really freaking young.  I went through puberty in the summer between 3rd and 4th grade, when I was just 9 years old.  That’s 3 years earlier than the average girl in the US.  In fact it was so early that schools don’t even have sex education that even hints at periods until 5th grade and they didn’t go into detail about it until 6th grade.  My sister who is just over 2 and a half years older than me didn’t yet have her period so it never occurred to my mother to discuss it with me.So while on vacation with my family in Kansas, I got my period.  I thought I was dying.  I’m not kidding — I was freaked out.  But I didn’t know what to do about it and I was terrified that my family would think I did something wrong or my sister would make fun of me, so I hid it.  For 3 days I lived in this hell of not knowing what was happening to me and being sick with dread.  I would take long strips of toilet paper and fold it end over end into my panties and most often it leaked through so then I had to try to wash the panties in the sink before putting it in the dirty clothes or if they were too stained, hide them in the trash.  Finally on the 4th day I took my mom into the bathroom and showed her my panties.  I remember her being surprised and then trying to explain it to me but after I realized I was going to live, I was just mortified.  She asked me if I wanted to go to the store with her to get some pads and I was too embarrassed so my sister went with her instead.  When I got back to Phoenix, I told my friends but was terrified of anyone in my class finding out for years.  Eventually, all of my friends got their periods and I didn’t feel like such a freak but for a lot of years it was this horrible, shameful thing I had to deal with month after month.

Fast forwarding to today….  I have long since moved on from pads and tampons have long been my method of choice for dealing with this fun event every 28 days or so.  Tampon technology has even changed over the years.  They now have plastic applicators, tampons for active lifestyles, perfumed tampons, and now they’re even one step up from a fortune cookie.  I kid you not, I recently bought a box of Playtex Sport and the first tampon I grabbed had this phrase on the wrapper, “Get out there and show em’ what you got.”  So I started reading through the box — Here’s a sample of the motivational quotes from my tampon box…

“You’re in control here.”  “Winning isn’t everything.”  “If at first you don’t succeed, try again.”  “Pursue your dreams….without fear.”  “Be Proud.”  “Keep a clear head.”  “Go, fight. Win!”  “Walk like a champion”

Who the hell are these people hiring in their marketing departments?    It reminds me of Always and their TV commercials telling me to “Have a happy period.”  I used to have sudden urges to show my middle finger to the TV every time that commercial came on.  Have a happy period…..  Seriously.

As you can tell I’ve lost all shame discussing periods, much to ‘S’ dismay.  I think he would prefer that the word period was never mentioned and that the phrase, “Can you go get me a box of tampons…?” was never uttered in this house.  And he very will might get his wish on the second part cause I’ve now found a new method of dealing with my monthly friend that I thought you ladies might find interesting…

I actually found out about this in a rather round about way.  ‘S’ and I were watching Family Guy a couple of months ago and they were doing an episode where Peter & Lois were trying to cut back expenses because of the economy and save some money.  Lois is sitting at the table with these strips of white cotton pulled out from a couch cushion and and she says something like “There!  I’ve saved us another 20 cents with this homemade tampon.”  So later that night I got curious and I googled homemade tampons.  Not because I had a sudden desire to rip open my couch cushions, but I was curious if people actually made their own tampons.

Apparently there are people who do this cause there were sites that had the supplies for such an endeavor.  I’m all for saving money but I have to draw the line on this one, but more power to you if you’re one of the few who do this.  What caught my eye though was something called Menstrual Cups, and I’m like really?  What the hell is a menstrual cup….?  Here’s a picture of the MeLuna brand.

So I had to do more research.  At first I was intrigued and to be honest a little repulsed.  Because while I’ve had a period for almost 20 years now (Gee, am I really that old) I don’t exactly stare at my tampons once removed.  You pull and drop, and in goes the next one.  That’s about it.  Second, there is the “reuse” factor.  In other words, you empty said cup and then reinsert.  “Ewwww” is the word that came to mind.  Lastly, all I could think of was holy crap those things are HUGE!  There is no way that could fit comfortably.

But I continued to read… I read review sites, the pros, the cons, the people who got them and loved them, and the people who absolutely hated them and felt they were a huge waste of money.  Then I started calculating my personal costs for my monthly tampons and all the clothes and sheets I’ve ruined with tampons that have leaked due to a heavy flow and how these cups can reduce and eliminate leaks if handled correctly.  Let alone the discomfort I get from pulling wads of cotton in and out of my hoo hoo.  I go through just under 1 box of tampons per month at the average cost of $6.50, cause I buy the cheap brand.  Times that by 11 (since I don’t go through a full box each month) = Approx. $71.50/annually.  Since these little cups can last anywhere from 5 to 10 years tampons would cost me a total of $357.50 – $715.00 over 5 to 10 years assuming the price never went up.

But there was still that Ewww factor.  So I asked my friends, only 1 had ever heard of them and she wouldn’t try it but had a friend who owned one and swore by it.   I looked into the price & brands.  I figured in the very least I could say I tried it.  There are several different brands and sizes and so I ended up choosing one based on reviews and price, as for size to be honest I just guessed and chose medium.  The above black one is now the one I own.  MyLuna is not yet available here in the US and so I ordered it from the UK.  After the conversion my total price with shipping was $23.36.

So my period arrived while at work a couple of weeks ago so I took my cup into the bathroom to try to insert.  There are a bunch of different folds but I tried just the basic fold I read about and it slipped in fine and popped open.  Pushed it in a little further and then just in case put a pad on just in case it went horribly wrong.  After a couple of minutes it didn’t feel any different than a tampon.  An hour later I went back to the bathroom and no leaks.  So time to remove it.  You can actually keep it in for about 8 hours depending on your flow but I was curious to try the removal before it was full.  I thought my hands would get bloody but because the cup “catches” everything your hands remain clean.  I pushed on the side and broke the suction and pulled gently and it slipped right out.  Seeing one’s menstrual blood is a little gross but I just emptied it out in the toilet and then hobbled over to the sink rinsed it out and then reinserted.  After the first day I was sold.  After the first night of not having to get up once around 3am to change a tampon I was ecstatic.  Now after a full period I’m damn near a spokesperson for them.  I tell ALL the women I know about these things.

To run the numbers on it in 4 months I’ll have broken even as far as cost.  This year I’ll save $52.  And every year after will be a savings of at least $71.50.  If this cup was 3 times it’s cost or even the same as tampons I still think it’s worth it.  Check it out.  This is the site I purchased mine from —  http://www.femininewear.co.uk/

So go have yourself a Happy Period….

Air Filter Rebate

I ran across this a little while ago but as I hadn’t been posting, I had almost forgotten to let all of you know.

Filtrete (the brand) has a mail in rebate that is good until March 15 (only another 2 days) for $3 off any single or multi-pack of Filtrete air filters with a 1000 micropartical performance rating or better.  If you’d like the rebate form it’s available here – Filtrate Rebate Form

Menu Planning

This weekend was my first attempt at menu planning.  I figured I would start small and since ‘S’ hasn’t moved back yet and so one meal has at least 1 or 2 leftovers as well.  The way I’m doing the meal planning is based on what is for sale for the week plus whatever coupons I may have.  I’ll then combine this with items I may already have in the house.  The theory being that even thought I’m buying more than I need some weeks, I’ll use them in upcoming weeks for other meals and since I bought them on sale I’ll be ahead.  I thought about listing it all out what I got but I thought a photo would be more impressive.  I got all of the food below for $32.96.  (The milk is 1/3 used cause I was cooking & didn’t think to take the photo until after)  The most expensive item I purchased was Ham Salad ($6.65) from the deli at Weis for my lunches.  It was the only item not on sale.  If you remove that item (it’s on the far left in front of the brownies) the total for the remaining items is $26.31

Now in order to determine if I was getting a good deal or not, I started a database.  Some people can remember what the prices are for items but I have almost no memory for numbers.  So I wrote out a list of all of the normal items we buy and then went to the 4 grocery stores (Walmart, Giant, Weis, Shurfine) in the area and wrote down the prices for each item or price per pound.  That way when there is a sale on that item or something comparable, I’ll know if it’s a good deal or not.  This is not a light undertaking to do in just 2 weeks.  Just to give you an idea time wise — I’ve invested about 8-10 hours total in this endeavor.  My hope is that it will pay off in the long run.  I won’t do this for every trip but here’s the savings per item by comparing the amount I paid to the lowest price between all 4 stores.

Betty Crocker Brownies – $0.49 per item x2 =$0.98

Hellvagood Sour Cream – $0.37

Turkey Hill Ice Cream – $0.50

Eggo Waffles – $0.10 per item x2 = $.20

Milk – $0.00 Savings (All 4 stores have the same price for store brand milk)

HillshireFarm Beef Sausage – $3.99 (was buy one get one free)

String Cheese – $0.40

Chuck Roast – $4.61 (was buy one get one free)

Total Savings = $11.05

So not a ton of savings but once again, this was on a small scale and I haven’t been getting the paper for about 6 months now so didn’t have any coupons stocked up.  And for all those Walmart haters out there (although I’m not one of them) all the items were purchased at the local chain grocery stores.  Also, please note that no coupons were harmed during this shopping trip.

 

Telephone Plumbing

I was a dumbass a few weeks ago.  I had been out in my garden after it had been raining and got mud all over my shoes.  Since my outside spigot needs to be fixed and I haven’t called a plumber yet I cleaned off the shoes the best I could with a stick and then took them inside to rinse in the sink.  I put the drain cover on to capture any big stones and then turned on the water.  I rinsed them off and thought everything was fine…until the next time I turned on my disposal.  I heard some bad grinding and as I went to quickly shut it off it stopped on it’s own and then just made a bad humming noise from the motor running.  Crap.

Turns out that some little pebbles had fit through the drain cover and went into the disposal.  I found this out after I stuck my hand down the disposal (with the switch off) and pulled out a couple.  My dad completely freaked when I told him I had been sticking my hand down the disposal without flipping the breaker first.  ‘S’ too was not real thrilled when he found out.  I think they both watch too many horror movies.   Because I thought they had a pretty good point about why I would want to flip the breaker, in order to keep all my fingers, I flipped the breaker then set to work tearing apart the disposal.

But then I got stuck so I sent my dad the photos below.

We decided that I couldn’t take it apart from the bottom so I’d have to attack it from the top.  I sent him the below photo and then had to painfully remove each and every little pebble and he helped by blowing up the below photo and telling me where he saw stones.

The tally at the end:

Total Calls – Approx 5

Total Hours – 2 1/2 Hours

Total Cost – $0.00

4th of July project

I had a couple of plumbing projects to tackle in the past couple of weeks (see below post for the 1st one) and the big one on the 4th was the toilet in our 1/2 bathroom downstairs.  I had shut the water off a few weeks before because the water was running nonstop due to a leak.  After talking to my step-dad he thought that it may just be the rubber flapper that is at the bottom of the tank.  So I took myself off to the store and bought a new flapper for a couple bucks.  When I went to install it I realized I had a bigger problem than original feared.

 

The overflow, tube had been broken for awhile and was just hanging on by the a mere 1/4 inch (the clean edge of the broken tube).

In order to repair this I had to remove the whole tank from the back and replace the entire gasket and tube.  I figured, that doesn’t sound too bad, I’ll save myself the plumbing bill and doing it myself….. So, on my first (notice I started counting) trip to HomeDepot I went and got a new overflow tube & rubber gasket.

Here I’ve taken the tank off the bowl and now have to remove the plastic nut from the bottom of the tank.  This is what connects the tank to the bowl.  It also became the bane of my existence.

I started by trying to unscrew this by hand.  HAHAHAHA – Yeah that didn’t work.  Talked to step-dad who recommended a wrench.  So I got back into my car and went to HomeDept again (Trip number 2) and talked with someone in plumbing who recommend an adjustable wrench.  I also got a new large gasket to go over this plastic nut since the one I had removed was half rotted.  Took the wrench home and to my excitement the nut started to turn.  Kinda.  Put some elbow grease in and it was really turning.  Then it stopped about halfway.  Called step-dad again who recommended that I lube it up with some oil and then make sure the rivets were clean.  Well maybe I got that order mixed up cause I put some veg oil on the nut and then took a pocket knife to clean out the rivets and it immediately slid off the nut and stabbed myself in the finger.

I was inventing swear words and sweating like crazy at this point.  Called step-dad again, he didn’t answer, so I called my dad who recommended a hacksaw.  Now that’s my kind of suggestion!!  Went to HomeDepot (Trip number 3) and got myself a Jr. Hacksaw.  I thought for SURE this would get that *bleeping* nut off.  Turns out that the nut is actually in a little bit of a depression (you can’t really tell from the photo above) but the hacksaw only got to the top of the nut.  In frustration I cut that part off.  I called my step-dad again who at this point was out of suggestions.  In sheer desperation I finally took a flat head screwdriver and a hammer and gently tapped until the screwdriver bit in and finally started to cut into the top of the nut until it got to the tank and finally popped off.  Here’s what the nut looked like by the time I got it removed. At the very bottom of the first photo you can see where the screw driver finally cut the nut off.

So finally 3 HOURS later I can get to repairing the toilet.  The rest was pretty standard.  Just replaced the parts that I had removed and then put the whole thing back together again.  Here’s what it looked like at the end.

There was a lot of sweat, a little blood, but no tears.  Here’s the tally at the end:

Total calls to parents – Approx 15 (some just to bitch about the nut)

Total Hours – 5

Total cost – $18.00

Trading Money Saving Ideas

A couple of posts ago I mentioned that ‘S’ and I are trying to tighten up on some of our expenses.  However, I’m running out of ideas of how to accomplish this.  First, we don’t have a lavish life style.  While we have nice things we either saved for them and we don’t buy on credit (unless it’s X months same as cash) in which case we always have it paid off before the interest kicks in.  Second, we’re already doing the typical money saving methods.  Below is an example of the ideas I read in articles that we either already do or it doesn’t apply to us.  Perhaps you’ll find an idea for yourself.  However, if something comes to mind that you already do or have thought of doing that I didn’t mentioned, please, please please either comment on the post (so others can see it) or email me, cause I really need some unconventional ideas.

At the end of the post I have some ideas listed that I’m considering and would like to know if anyone has ever them and if it worked/made a difference.

1) Combine your cable, internet and telephone service.  We actually bundled our cable and internet and then added a house phone (we haven’t had one in years) and broke even with the taxes, however because we now have a house phone we were able to reduce our minutes on our cell phones and drop extended night and weekends which saved us about $15 a month / $180 a year.

2) Send away for and follow up on rebates.  Doesn’t everyone do this?

3) Convert to a gas water heater.  I even looked at getting a Water Heater Jacket (they cost about $10-$20) to keep the water hot longer but we have an updated water heater that already has good insulation and they only recommend them for older water heaters where the outside of the unit is warm.  For those who have an electric water heater you might want to look into getting a timer put on the hot water tank.

4) Get your books from the library. I do this before purchasing any book (aside from my romance novels) so that I can see if it’s going to be a one time read or something I’ll want around for reference.  I also get all my romance novels at a store called the Paperback Exchange where they are 50% off and then I trade them back in for 25% – so my end cost is just 25% of the list price.

5) Never pay checking account fees.  We actually just switched banks after 10 years with the same bank due to the fact that one of the local banks around here was offering 4% on checking accounts.  When interest rates are better I even rate shop with online banks and will move our savings based on who has the best interest rates.

6) Request a discount on trash service. We have our service through our condo and it’s built into our association dues.

7) Don’t pay interest on credit cards.  We either always pay ours off during the same as cash promo period or don’t use them at all.  We haven’t paid interest in years.

8) Replace incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent light (CFLs) bulbs.  I watched for sales or bought them with coupons and replaced all our bulbs in the house.

9) Pay car insurance annually.  Most insurance companies charge extra to pay your bill monthly or even quarterly.  You should also be shopping around every year to make sure that you’re getting the best rate.  Be sure to know what your coverage is and that the companies you’re shopping are doing an apples to apples comparison.

10) Increase insurance deductibles.  I know it sucks to have to pay deductibles but by keeping your deductible as low as $100 or even $500 means that you’re paying a larger premium.  Keeping it as high as you can handle will save you lots on your premium.

11)  Shut vents in unused rooms.  We don’t really have unused rooms but we do force the air condition upstairs only during the summer and heat downstairs during the winter.

12) Take advantage of employer 401(k) matches.  ‘S’ has a 401K that he maxes out but my company doesn’t offer one at this time.  I really should be maxing out my IRA contributions but with us trying to save the max amount for a home it doesn’t make any sense since you can only withdraw for your first home purchase without penalties.  I’ll start doing this as soon as we have the down payment that we need saved up.

13) Use flexible spending accounts. I really wish our employers offered this.  It’s tax deferred money that you can put in an account to use for medical expenses.  The down side is if you don’t use it all during the year then you lose it, but even a small amount set aside can really help.  So far this year alone we’ve spend 2K in medical expenses and I go in for surgery on my leg in September to have the hardware removed which will be another large bill.

14) Keep tires properly inflated.  I try to check ours about every 3 months.  Not only is it safer it but properly inflated tires improve your mpg.  The recommended PSI for your vehicle is normally on a sticker on the drivers side door.

15) Stop smoking. Duh.

16) Drink less alcohol.  It’s expensive and is loaded with empty calories.

17) Buy generic over-the-counter medicines. We do this for a lot of products but not all.  Depends based on how effective they are.

18) Get organized and avoid missed payments.  We don’t miss payments very often but I’ll admit that occasionally one slips by.  Once ‘S’ moves back we’ll be re-organizing our bill paying method since that’s one of his new jobs.

19) Use online bill paying.  I actually rarely see this on lists but it can actually make quite a difference.  Many banks in the US will actually send out the checks for you free as part of the perks of banking with them.  Consider this — ‘S’ and I pay about 6 bills a month (most families mail more).  At .44 a pop for a stamp that comes out to $2.64 a month or $31.68 a year. Add our 4% on our checking and that’s another $1.16 = $32.84 a year just to mail bills.  And that’s not counting the cost of checks either!  It also cuts the time of paying bills down about 75%.

20) Buy online when it saves you money.  I do double duty with this.  For example — I’m a member of Upromise which means I can make money from different manufactures when I used my registered shopping card to buy certain manufacture’s products, when I buy gas with my debit card at certain gas stations, and even at sponsored restaurants with that same debit card (although there are only a couple here in central PA).  So when I know I’m going to be making ANY TYPE of purchase on line from ebay, amazon, southwest airlines, even hair products. I shop around first for the best deal then I log into upromise.com and see if that website, manufacture, etc is a sponsor.  9 time out of 10 they are and so I’ll find them on upromise and then click their link through the site and make my purchase.  It’s that easy.  Then after about 90 days I’ll see a percentage (whatever they advertise) of my purchase in my upromise account.  I can then have them send me a check or have it go directly to our college or even have them make a payment to our student loan.  You won’t get rich but every penny helps.

21) Buy a programmable thermostat.  Both of my bosses actually had one of these and while they said it saved them money I guess I was a little skeptical.  Not anymore.  ‘S’ and I bought one (Honywell Brand) 2 years ago at about $35.00 from HomeDepot and installed it ourselves.  The very first month our electric bill was 20% less over last years with the same temp outside!  It paid for itself in about 5 months and we’ve just been saving since.  Here’s how we scheduled ours seasonally.  Summer – we have the unit set at about 75 degrees while we sleep and in the mornings when we get up.  After we leave for work it’s timed to allow the temp to get up to 78 degrees (cause of the cats) and then 30 min before we get home it drops down to 75 degrees again. Winter – it’s set to heat at about 72 degrees while we are home in the evenings (cause it’s easier to bundle up) and then while we sleep it’s set to go down as low as 65 degrees and then 30 min before we wake up it goes back up to 72 degrees and then once we leave the house it’s back down to 65 degrees until 30 min before we get home from work it heats the house up to 72 degrees.  We could easily do this manually but we’re the type that would forget to either turn it up or down so it’s well worth the money.

22) Eat out less or share a meal.  We eat out a lot.  This is one area that I know we can easily save money by making more meals at home.  I have some ideas below on how to save while doing this that I’d like to know if anyone does them.  Another thing I recently read was because portion sizes are so large at restaurants to just order just one meal and split it or order an cheaper appetizer and then split one meal.  Great idea!

23) Brown bag it.  On average I will run to the grocery store or pack a lunch more often then I’ll buy out.  However, I’m costing myself extra money by not planning ahead so this will be something to work on so that I’m not making extra trips or buying things when they’re not on sale.

24) Drink water when dining out.  I almost never drink soda but I normally order lemonade at restaurants.  I recently went out with a friend and she had what I would call the “Poor Man’s Lemonade” but I think I might try it.  It’s a glass of water, and she requests several lemon wedges (they’re free) she then squeezes all the lemon juice into the water and adds a little bit of sugar (also free) and has sweetened lemon water.  I think I’m gonna have to try that next time I’m at a restaurant.

25) Loose Change – Save up all the loose change in your house and cars and put them in a jar and then once a month or so deposit them in the bank or use it for a special day.

Okay so there are my ideas either that I currently do or things that I’ve read about and thought they had some merit.  Now I have a few that I’ve been thinking about and wanted to know if any currently do them and had some thoughts or as I said before, please feel free to email or comment if you have some ideas of your own.

1) Check the insulation in the attic.  So I’ve read different amounts as to how much insulation you should have and I’m not quite sure what’s a good amount (inches) without being overkill.

2) Bottle in your toilet tank.  This is a different spin on putting a brick in your toilet tank which can actually flake off and damage the system.  You fill a bottle with water, pennies etc. and then it takes up space in the tank which saves you water.  How much water do you think this actually saves and does it effect the efficiency of the toilet?  I’ve heard different accounts.

3) Hanging clothes outside to dry.  I have a large energy efficient gas dryer that automatically shuts off when it senses the clothes dry, but I’ve wondered if hanging clothes outside to dry would be worth it in the long run.  A clothes hanger would run me anywhere from ($80-$150) that could fit outside or inside my condo unit.  I’m afraid I wouldn’t even break even in the next two years before we would end up getting a new house where I would want a different kind of clothes line.  Any thoughts?

4) Standby Power.  I’ve heard a lot about standby power or phantom loads that most electronics use electricity even when they are powered off.  There are actual devices that run about $25 that will tell you how much each device is using but I’m wondering if it’s worth the investment or to run around my house and unplugging everything until I need it.  I’ve heard that standby power accounts from as much as 15% of all household electricity bills to as low as just 2%.  Does anyone know if Phantom loads are really an issue?

5) Homemade Cleaning Products.  I’ve recently be fascinated by the idea that some people make their own laundry detergent and even dish detergent and have been tempted to try it myself.  Does anyone currently do this and if so what recipes do they use and how efficient are they?  I’ve even thought of making my own cleaning products for around the house as well, but haven’t done any research on it yet.

6) Meal Planning. I’ve thought about starting to plan a full 7 days of meals a week ahead and base those meals on either sales that are running or a combination of sales and coupons.  Even if that means that in one day I have to run to two different stores to get the best deals (most are right next to one another) That way I’m not buying food that could go to waste and I’m not buying things ahead of time (unless it’s a great sale) that I may not use for months and could be earning interest on the money instead.  Does anyone do this and is it a serious pain to plan and do?

I appreciate any feedback.  I know some of my ideas are a little out there and sometimes they take more time, but we pay for convenience and it’s just a matter of evaluating what that convenience is worth to each person.

A Penny Saved, Is A Penny Earned

With ‘S’ and I doing pretty good we’re starting to get some plans in order for the future.  Some of them are very aggressive plans.  One of the largest goals is that we want to save as much money as we possibly can in the next year or two as we would like to buy our dream home to raise a family.  In order to do this we need a very large down payment as we don’t want a mortgage of more than $1,000 a month.  To accomplish this we need to really track where our money is going and cut any excess that we can.  Not to say that we’re going to live like paupers but we really need to be aware of any extra expenses that are unplanned.  It sucks for the short term but long term it’ll be worth it.

Earlier this year I had purchased Quicken 2009 which is a personal finance management software.  It’s great for tracking any category of expenses you want, as well as paying bills.  I’ve just scratched the surface of what this software can do since we recently moved banks and I finally started spending time setting everything up.  It’s got a great time saver feature in that it ties in with thousands of banks across the country so you don’t even have to put in the transactions manually (unless it’s cash) and so for people like ‘S’ and I where 95% of our transactions are electronic it makes it super easy.  So far I like the categories, and if you don’t like the default categories you can easily add your own such as books (since I buy a lot) names of specific credit cards, etc.  Below I’ve attached a couple of the graphs and reports (there are many more) that I think are really cool.  These aren’t my own expenses, but I’ve generated these same reports on my own.  (Click on the photo for a more detailed view)

Forever Stamps

This is your public service announcement for the day.  
The US Post office announced today that on May 11th they will be increasing the cost of First Class stamps to .44 cents, up 2 cents from the current .42 cents.  The post office estimates this will cost the average family about $3 more per year.  So now would be the time to go out and buy some Forever Stamps.  For those who don’t know what they are, they are stamps that hold their value at whatever the First Class postage rates is regardless of what increases may have taken place since you originally purchased them.  For example, if you buy them today at $.42 per stamp then when the increase in May takes place you won’t have to be searching frantically for (2) 1 cent stamps, 5 min before the postman arrives.  Just slap one of those babies on there and you’re good to go.  You are protected from having to pay the additional 2 cents and dealing with the hassle of 1 cent stamps.

At a lot of post offices they don’t sell Forever Stamps in the automated machines, this is the case at the post offices near my home.  All you have to do is go to the counter and ask the person behind it for a booklet of Forever Stamps.

Some of the other changes taking effect May 11:

~ The postcard stamp increases 1-cent to 28 cents.

~ The first ounce of a large envelope increases 5 cents to 88 cents. The first ounce of a parcel increases 5 cents to $1.22.

~ New international postcard and letter prices are, for one ounce, 75 cents to Canada; 79 cents to Mexico; and 98 cents elsewhere.

Lessons

Have you ever thought you learned a lesson in something and then come to find out you apparently didn’t learn it well enough cause you in the same damn situation again.  I’m having such a déjà vu moment now.  When I first left home a few months shy of 17, I lived with a guy, <shudders> named Michael.  Now I had a very modest savings then and even though I had rent to pay I still worked 40 hours a week AND went to school.  That lasted about 6 months before I gave up on school so I could work even more hours cause there was just never enough money and my savings was dwindling.  These were the days of the budding meat sandwiches if you’ve read that post before.

Well Michael was a very materialistic guy and while I am not, I let him talk me into buying all sorts of stuff.  When I finally dumped his ass, I SWORE that I would never find myself being that poor again and that I would ALWAYS make sure that I had a very comfortable safety net of money.  Anyone who has lived under the constant pressure and stress of just getting by for longer than a couple of weeks can relate to how horrible that feeling of desperation is.

Yet here I find myself again.  While I am not yet at the level of desperation that I’ve resorted to budding meat, and I can pay my mortgage.  I find myself without a very large safety net of money.  Now I am not laying blame at ‘S’ door for this, cause while we do have nice things between the two of us, and we did save, we just never saved enough for me to be on my own with the same level of bills for 2, at the same time that I lost 40% of my pay.

I want you to think about that now.  If you suddenly lost 40% of your salary tomorrow, could you pay your bills, groceries, gas, mortgage or rent and whatever extras you might need?  That’s the stress I’m under right now.  Now I can in theory make up that 40% and then some in commission.  However for me to make large commissions, people need to be buying.  And with the economy in it’s current state, not a whole lot of people are buying from the companies that I work with, so in turn they are not buying from me.  This is a serious problem.

So while it irritates me that I have to rely on ‘S’ for extra money to help pay the bills, even though we are separated and suppose to be responsible for ourselves, beggars can’t be choosers.  Maybe when the economy picks up, things will be better and I can start making some decent sales.  And THIS time I PROMISE I’ve learned my lesson.

Housing Market

I went down and snapped this photo at the entrance to my condo complex this morning.  I’m thinking now would probably be a bad time for me to try to sell.  And then you run across scary stories like this on CNN and you wonder if you’ll even be able to sell anytime in the near future.  BTW — Most of the homes that are being advertisied in this picture have been on the market for 3-8 months.  I have yet to see any sell.