My treasure's newly found value.

I WON THE LOTTERY!!! j/k....oh well, so what if Operation Panera is now down the toilet, it'll happen one day :) I DO have good news though!

Thanks to E.C. (& Tom's) post on my treasure chest find, I now have some answers regarding my savings bonds! Seriously thanks guys, there was no way i was gonna find that site myself w/ everything going on this week.

First, what are EE Savings Bonds? Directly from: Treasurydirect.gov

EE Bonds are reliable, low-risk government-backed savings products that you can use toward financing education, supplemental retirement income, birthday and graduation gifts, and other special events.

They are purchased at half the price of the face value, and mature over a certain amount of time. If redeemed in the first 5 years, the 3 most-recent months' interest will be forfeited, but anytime after 5 years is free from penalization. The interest gained are also state & local tax free, but you do have to pay federal tax.

Now, would you like to know the juicy details of how much mine are worth? do ya? do ya? Have you been good? okayyyyyyy, here we go!



Not bad, right? What was interesting was the fact that they were all purchases for only $25.00, i had no idea that's how it worked! Not only that, but that some are now worth 6 TIMES the original price! Sweetness for sure. The two under valued under $50 i wasn't expecting, but whatever it's totally a great deal.

After debating the last few days what to do with them, i think i'll hold onto them until each reaches 30 years (the limit at which interest will stop accruing). I *might* convert them into electronic bonds through that same website, so they're at least up to modern times, but either way those bad boys will remain in my safe for a bit.

Thanks everyone for the nice comments, and be sure to check out the site yourself and see what YOUR'S are worth!!! it's sexciting, that's for sure :)

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Referral Lovin' and Updates

Hot Dogs, this site's been up and running for over 1 month now! And so far i'm lovin' it :) Not only is it fun unloading all this info onto the finance world, but you guys are helping me learn a lot at the same time. I think that's the best part....that, and i can actually talk turkey w/ people who WANT to listen ;)

So, THANK YOU all commenters & fellow pf bloggers, it feels great to be alive and bloggin'! Here's my shout out to a few of you below. I've seen this around on a few blogs, and thought it was a pretty cool way to acknowledge people.

The top 5 referrals to this site (in order):
1) Krystal at Work
2) Chicky Finance
3) A Dollar a Day
4) The Simple Dollar
5) No Spend Zone

And, just cuz i'm feeling extra spicy today, here's a quick update on all the challenges i'm up to:

- No buying random crap (for Lent): not a thing since my initial mess up! i gotta say, it's been a lot easier lately as i'm now used to it. although, i won't complain once Easter has passed ;) This time next week i'm allowed to buy anything i damn well please! not that i will. i am getting frugal'er as the days pass. haha...

- A Dollar a Day: the George Washington's are still piling up in there! i have now amassed...drum roll please... $21.00! that sounds about right. i'm too lazy today to verify the total ratio of days worked vs. non-workdays this time around. but since i am still going strong here, i say we're doing alright.

- No spending $ on work days: a. big. fat. failure. i lost on day one as i happily conceded in a past post. turns out this isn't my forte. BUT, i've only eaten out 2 times in the past 6 work days....so that should count for something.

- *Days in a row NOT eating McDonalds: 1225 That's like what, over 3 years! CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT??? not that there's any real point to this to be honest, but it's still an unbelievable feat for me. keep in mind this was my favorite place in the world, and has since been replaced w/ Wendy's. But even these days i've been skimping on the fast food. to this my body adds, "THANK YOU"... i think it's pretty happy on that one.

See you happy campers tomorrow!

*random.

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It's Friday and my stomach is full :)

I've been getting slammed here at work the past cple hours, so figured what better break than giving my friends a shout out?! By the way, have you heard the joke about the jump rope? Ahhh, just skip it...

Seriously though, get this. So remember i was trying to not spend any $ during work hours? Well, that lasted 3 days. BUT, the funny part is that as soon as i gave up, i had no problem w/ it! Check it:

DAY 1: i snuck off to a bar during the day to have a drink and relax for 20 mins...i had forgotten.
DAY 2: i ran out of bread for my PB&J's and went out to Chipotle w/out even a thought.
DAY 3: i was craving the new chili bowl @ California Tortilla. *this is the point when i realized i had to give up.

Then, get this:
DAY 4 (yesterday): ate 2 mighty fine PB&J's. $0.00 spent.
DAY 5 (today): boss-man took us out to eat (@ a fancy place too!) and again $0.00 spent.

I'm not sure if it's just the way the stars are aligning or what, but i gotta say i'm pretty happy w/out the challenge. Don't get me wrong, it's GREAT if you can do it, but i've been perfectly fine the last 2 months bringing lunch 2-3 times a week. I think i'm just all "challenged" out lately.

Krystal at work, aka "give me my five dollars back" will be posting another challenge in April, so perhaps i'll give it my all on that one? Either way, for all of you who's doing swimmingly on this work challenge though, keep on keeping on!

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Are my challenges challenging enough?

I thought today would be a good day to check in w/ all the challenges i'm working on, and note my progress (or lack of). Here's everything i currently have going on:

A dollar a day A- : As i empty my trusty cup, i count $10.10! This may be surprising in two ways. The first, and most obvious, is that little 10 cents at the end. How can there be 10 cents in it if the name of the game is "dollar a day". Well, i found a dime at Starbucks this morning :) Normally I just ignore coins on the floor (unless it's a quarter), but then i figured why not drop it in my dollar cup? So it is now officially the cup of savings at work. The second going here, is that I initially wanted, and tried, to save exactly 1 dollar a day. This ended up becoming an issue of logistics due to days off and the weekends. It's very hard to put in $3 in one day as it starts getting rather annoying, and that's IF you even remember to do so as it usually falls on a Monday. That, and it's not that smart, per se, to lave a cup full of cash on your desk so that others may peek into it. Hiding this cup now also helped hide it from my memory. At any rate, my plan is now to put in a Mr. Washington only on work days. No need to be hardcore about it, right? So, calculating from the day i started (minus the weekends, the holiday, and the day off) I SHOULD have a total of $11.00 in there. I'm not that much off :)

No buying random crap (for Lent) B+ : This is hard to rate, as i never stipulated anything about using my "fun money" stash at thrift stores! I'll post about it soon, but it's basically a stash I have at home of cash earned from selling things on eBay/Craigslist, etc. I allow my myself to buy anything I want from it as it is extra $ created just for that. So, I did indeed by a cple items for our guest room from a thrift store using that $, but it never really added any expenditure to my budget. On the other hand it does fall under purchases "not needed", ya follow me? I guess if i'm going by the title of the challenge, however, "No buying random crap", then I have to count it as a failed instance. One time ain't bad considering it's already been 22 days!

No buying lunch/drinks/snacks @ work F+ : Ha ha... just kidding. This hasn't even started yet (I'm a sneaky one)! I actually start March 1st, and go for an entire month. I started getting in shape, however, by bringing in peanut butter & jelly sandwiches 2-3 times a week, and so far so easy. It's like elementary, middle, and high school all over again!

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