Hello, hello my good friends! It's Friday and it's gonna be a helluva good day :) Some of you might have forgotten, but a few months ago I wrote about charity and giving back, and asked if you'd share some of your own favorite charities with us. Well, I'm happy to tell you that a new project is finally in the works!!! I can't give away all the details right now, but I'm INCREDIBLY excited about it and I really REALLY think you guys will like what it's about.

This last year and a half at Budgets Are Sexy has been amazing, and every day your comments, emails, tweets, posts, and life lessons inspire me that much more. I love what this community's about, and I can't thank you enough for allowing me into your life. Seriously, I'd give each and every one of you a hug right now if I could. Or even a beer, depending on your sex ;)

My hope with this next project is to give back as much as possible, and to inspire people to keep coming together and making a difference. This economy has taken a toll on a whole bunch of our lives, and we need all the love we can get!

So get excited friends. We're gonna make this world a better place, and I need each and every one of you to help me out with it. I'll keep ya posted...

Labels: blogging, charity, thank you, updates

1 year, 3 months, and 500 posts later, this little blog is still around baby! Never in my life have I continued a hobby for so long ;)

I must give you all MAD LOVE for coming out and supporting this site each and every day, you guys are so wonderfull! Without you I'd just be another mumbling fool on the internet - so THANK YOU.

While this blog has transformed into an umbrella of finance-related topics, it was my good friend the budget who got the party started. So it's only fitting that I drop some knowledge about them to commemorate this most beautiful day ;) An excerpt from my feature in The Art Of Manliness blog:

"Maintaining a budget is key in becoming financially studly. If you know where your money is coming and going, you'll know your strengths & limitations. And if you know your strengths & limitations, you can outwit your opponent at any time! Plus, you'll be able to make quick decisions on the spot which girls love. And you know what else girls love? Confidence. And this,my friend, is what the budget gives you."

Yup, I still owe it all to the budget ;) That booger's gotten me to stay on track and allowed me to keep doing my financial thing! And so has a lot of other bloggers around town - their advice and point of views have created a wonderful learning environment for all, and I'm proud to serve on the same internets w/ them (you can find my favorites in the blogroll).

So with that, I leave you with some nifty little stats from these 500 posts, along with this week's financial round up & carnivals. God bless you all!

Current subscribers: 812
Twitter subscribers: 1,562
Total EVER page views: 234,145
Total EVER visitors: 137,460
Number of times I check these stats on a daily basis: 15 (down from 792)

I also gotta give due credit to all those bloggers who continue to send over some great traffic! Here are the TOP 10 all-time refferers (minus google, stumbleupon, etc) along w/ previous rankings:

1. My Money Blog (1)
2. Give Me Back My Five Bucks (2)
3. Bargain Briana (6)
4. Fabulous Financials (-)
5. MSN Smart Spending (3)
6. Clever Dude (4)
7. Chicky Finance (5) *no longer blogging :(
8. Single Guy Money (8)
9. Dinks Finance (7)
10. Always The Planner (-)

And Now, My Favorite Reads O' The Week:

1. Un-Broke: What You Need To Know About Money - Don't forget, the ABC "Money 101" special airs TONIGHT from 9-10pm! Check the link above for awesome-a$$ sneak peaks - Christian Slater, Will Smith, Seth Green, and more. Can't wait.
2. How To Spend Like A Frugal Millionaire - This piece from Yahoo Finance is all over the pf blogosphere, and for good reason. The author interviews 70 millionaires for the inside scoop.
3. Are You Doing Bad Things With Your Money? - Haha...that title says it all, brilliant.
4. 10 Revealing Q&A's By John Chow & Shoemoney - 2 online money-making masters share their answers side by side. Pretty interesting stuff.
5. "Amazing Grace" video - A heartwarming 32 sec. commercial from Salvation Army :)

And lastly, the Carnivals O' The Week:

1. Carnival of Personal Finance #206 - "Memorial Day Stars & Stripes" by Greener Pastures.
2. Festival of Frugality #179 - "Memorial Day" ed. hosted by Suburban Dollar.
3. Carnival of Debt Reduction #139 - "New Credit Card Rules" ed. hosted by PT Money.
4. Carnival of Money Stories - "A Road Map to Money Health" hosted by WalletPop.
5. Money Hacks Carnival #66 - "Family Summer Vacation" ed. by Passive Family Income.
6. Carnival of Pecuniary Delights #9 - "Organic Gardening" ed. by Passive Family Income.
7. Carnival of 20 Something Finances - "May 25th" ed. hosted by How I Save Money.

Thanks again to each and every one of you!!! May we have another 500 posts to look forward to! But for now, it's time to go celebrate Mrs. Budgetsaresexy and I's 1 year anniversary together ;) For anyone still around from those days, here was my wedding day post. haha....

Now if you'll excuse me, I have some babies to make relaxing to do.

Labels: awesomely awesome, blogging, budgets, link lovin, thank you, updates

I know this is old news now, but seeing as how I missed it the other night (AND it's freakin' brilliant!) I couldn't pass up the chance to share. This is a video of the 3rd portion of the whole show Thurs. night, but it was my favorite part. Mainly because Stewart sounds smart as hell and has the balls to say what everyone's thinking. That, and it's uncensored ;) Have a good night everyone!

Labels: awesomely awesome, crazy economy, updates

"I'm bringing budgets back (yup)! Them other non-budgeters don't know how to act (yup!)" Haha...right Mr. Timberlake? ;) What, you don't think that's the same as bringing sexy back? Well check the calculation my friends:

Budgets = Confidence = Sexy!

Aww yeahh! Okay, so maybe YOU wouldn't swap it in, but this frugal ba$tard sure will. After all, it's what got me started blogging! Well, that and buying a house and all, but it definitely kept me on track. And to this day I've been a good little boy and continued to stick with it month after month. I mean, you *have to* know where all your $exy money goes, right?

What I haven't been doing, though, was keeping it updated here on the blog for all to see. So going forward my budget will be updated the first week of every month! And, as always, you're more than welcome to borrow/steal any part of it:
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• Download via Excel: Budget Template
• Check out in Google Docs: Budget (filled in)

I tend to be budget happy up in here, so it has plenty of room to track a few different budgets - like one for your paychecks, "house", credit cards, etc. I also like being able to see my net worth and any other cash funds I may have laying around, so that's also included. The whole spreadsheet is really like a "financial snapshot" if you will. It certainly won't satisfy everyone's needs, but it's a great starting place for anyone who's ready to get down and dirty.


*Updated: 3-1-10: My current paychecks are bit wonky right now as I'm contributing 90% of all my paychecks to 401(k)! Yes it's crazy, but yes I want to become a millionaire faster ;) So you will see a lot of negatives here until I max out, and in the mean time will be pulling cash from my side savings account to "pay myself."

Here's the paychecks portion above. It took me a while to figure out what works for me and what doesn't, but keeping it updated and refreshed every month helps to nail it all down. You can find the rest of the spreadsheet here, but this is the most important portion of it in my opinion...If you can come out in the positive every 2 weeks, you're awesome as hell! Here's the average breakdown of what's included in these "paycheck budgets" (I keep it avg. as my paycheck usually fluctuates a bit):

Paycheck #1 ($2,249.18):

• Mortgage $$ ($848.24) - 1/2 of my portion of our mortgages. We have a 30-year fixed, along w/ a maxed out HELOC as a 2nd mortgage.
• House $$ ($300) - We tracked and averaged our other house expenses (utilities, groceries, etc) over a good 4-5 months, and eventually came up with our own "house budget". This $300 covers 1/2 my portion, and the Mrs. puts in the rest (you can see the breakdown in the spreadsheet).
• J's Credit Card ($638) - Like the house stuff, I tracked everything i spent over a handful of months (clothes, gifts, work lunches) and then averaged them together to come up with my own "c/c budget" that gets paid off in full each month. It doesn't work for everyone, but I freakin' love it! I get mad cash back rewards, and it's super easy to manage.
• Cash Withdrawal ($100) - I *have to* have cash on hand all the time :)

Paycheck #2 ($2,249.18):

• Mortgage $$ (848.24) - the other 1/2 of my mortgage portion.
• House $$ ($300) - the other 1/2 I contribute to our "house budget".
• Insurance: All ($143.42) - homeowners, auto, computer, and bling insurance for the Mrs. and I.
• Insurance: Life ($55.56) - life insurance for both the Mrs. and I.
• Cash Withdrawal ($100) - to cover the next 2 weeks ;)

In a perfect world, I'd like to ALWAYS have my expenses budgeted below or at least even to what I bring in every 2 weeks (but sometimes I go over in one paycheck, and over in another). Luckily I've been able to come out in the positives each month, but when I don't I just pull the difference from my savings account and throw it into my checking to make up for it....not the worst thing in the world to do, since that's why I have that padding there to begin with, but it's still a dirty habit that I should get out of.

So there you have it - J's new & improved 2010 budget :) Again, feel free to steal any part of it! It may look a bit confusing at first, but it's totally cool once you get the hang of it. It's all a matter of what works for YOU though, so if you already have a great method down pact, then by all means keep rockin' it out!


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PS: Be sure to check out my list of Best Free Budget Templates too, you might find something that works a little better for you there. If you don't, you must really despise 'em ;)

Labels: budgets, money management, paychecks, tools and resources, updates

Up $4k - not a bad way to start the year, eh? I have a REALLY good feeling it's gonna be a good one, so get ready everyone - 2009 is the year of mad financial skills!!!

It's also the year I finally man up and combine Mrs. Budgetsaresexy and I's finances here on the blog :) Oooooh, ahhhhh, how exciting! What, oh what, will our net worth look like now?! (you can hardly keep it in, i know)

It's also a year for new resolutions - although unlike many of you, i have yet to figure out what these will be :) I'll def. holler once they pop into my brain though...i'm thinking a lot of blog stuff in general, but we'll see.

I guess I should also review last year's sexy sidebar goals too while we're at it here. They're now updated again, but as you can see I didn't do as great as my actual '08 New Years resolutions :( I'll have to leave them up until they're completed before swapping them out again. Here's a quick summary on how I did:

1. Pay off all credit card debt: 100% A+ bustaroo! I actually accomplished this twice - once in the first half of the year, and then again in the middle when we added on more wedding expenses. But, luckily enough, we used our wedding booty to knock it all off again!
2. Pay off cars: B. Since the above was scratched off, I decided to replace it w/ this category in late '08, except i pretty much new it wasn't gonna be wiped away before the end of the year ;) but ya gotta give it a shot, right?
3. Emergency Fund to $5,250: B I didn't quite make it all the way, but i sure as hell followed my plan...just turned out our work bonuses didn't pan out like i expected :(
4. Net worth to $100,000: Fail. Pwned. Jacked. Not even close...but again, way out of my hands really. I dutifully paid off debt & made my 401k deposits like a good little boy, but it just so happened the stock market didn't want to cooperate this year.

Not my best end to a story, but I definitely gave it my all!...and momma always said you gotta feel proud for that ;) haha....ah man, good ol' moms always have our backs don't they?

And here's how Dec's Net Worth breaks down:

CASH SAVINGS: Not too shabby considering it was the holiday season! It's all about that holiday budget, baby...well, that and an xmas bonus....but i still had to save it ;)
ROTH IRA: I'll take that $200 any day - a nice break from all the down months recently.
401(k): WOOHOO!!! Up $2.5k! I'm sure many of you noticed the same right? Or are you one of those who stopped looking altogether? ;) Who knows how long it'll last, but i'm enjoying every bit of it.
SAVINGS BONDS: One dollar, two dollar, three dollar SCORE! You can check out the breakdown of my bonds are here.
CONDO INVESTMENT: I stopped lending money to my brother months ago, and it looks like i'll be getting this leftover $700 sooner than i thought! My brother did some side work and gave me a pre-dated check to cash in Jan, 15th. I love it...and so damn proud of that guy! He's seriously come a long way since 2 years ago....*shiver*
HOME EQUITY: This amount still reflects our purchase price minus the money we accidently paid off the mortgage when our heloc froze. As always, i still don't know how to classify this, but it's on my New Year's resolution, so keep your eyes peeled.
AUTO WORTH (kbb): Zero loss? Well that's a first! Perhaps it's because my Caddy is now sixteen (16) years old! haha...but my damn is it ridin' nicely these days...ballin' like a mother ;)
CREDIT CARDS: This amount is from buying my Caddy and selling my Highlander (i owed more than i sold it for) a few months ago - that's it. No other consumer debt on this bad boy, just the car amounts. And to keep on track, I'm still applying my old $443 car payments (plus any other amounts leftover from my budget) towards the balance every month until it's paid off.
AUTO LOAN: Zilch, nada, nothing! But please see above :)

And that's it! 2008 comes to a happy end. This is the first year I've tracked my finances like this, and I gotta say it's interesting seeing all the ups and downs through it all! More ups are always better, of course, but as I mentioned 2009 will be full of 'em :) Keep doing your thang ladies and gentlemen...

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*The sweet & sexy side bars have been updated.
*And here are the past Net Worth updates.

Labels: net worth, updates

For the first time in 28 years i finally won! I can't believe it....I'm pretty sure if my mother was reading this she'd say something about pigs flying or hell freezing over, but luckily she doesn't so i may bask in my glory joke-free ;)

Now, they weren't the hardest or most fascinating goals in the world, but they were enough to get me believing in them again! My old resolution was to always have better handwriting, but needless to say i failed each and ever year...so this time it feels good!

Plus, it doesn't hurt when you write a personal finance blog...and you pick personal finance subjects to work on :) So really, i should be thanking YOU Budgetsaresexy.com, and YOU readers of Budgetsaresexy.com - you are the light that guides my financial way! haha.... So here they are, cut and pasted from my mid-year update back in May (and not much different too, i might add).

My 2008 New Year's Resolutions:

1) Start using a budget (a what?). A+
Yup, for the first time in my entire life i created, and stuck to, my budget. And in all honesty it wasn't as hard as i thought it would be...although i'm guessing that's becuase I a) kept the same job the entire year for once, and b) now "own" a home and forced to watch myself. A lot has changed since creating it back in Feb though, so I'll have to post a new one for 2009 here shortly.

2) Learn more about finances; stocks, mutual funds, reits, etc. B
Hum.....well i def. DID learn more about stuff in an "overall" kinda sense, but i didn't get down and dirrrrrty like i originally wanted to. I pretty much just did enough to get by and be happy with myself in this dept. I think i'll just leave the hardcore details alone until they actually play a part in my financial game plan.

3) Learn more about web design. A
Yep! Blogging away every day, and being our in-house designer @ work sure helped this one along :) I still think i could have learned more and applied myself, but overall i gave myself an A because i'm a helluva lot further than i was last year.

4) And finally, read more....helps 2 & 3 out, eh? A+
You know what helps this? Ordering 4 magazine subscriptions, and commuting via train for 2 1/2 hours a day ;) That, and having your wife go back to school and start studying all day and all night. Turns out you have a lot more time to yourself! But $hit, it got me to read again didn't it :)

So, another year gone, and another year wiser....and older :( This is my last year being in my twenties - yikes! I don't think it'll feel all that much different though - I pretty much act like a college kid and do as i please anyways ;)

You all make good this year? Even if you LISTED your resolutions somewhere i'll give you a virtual pat on the back though, that ish is hard! You know i got mad love for ya...

Labels: awesomely awesome, education, goals, updates

Yessir! Mr. D-head made contact within 48 hours of our blog launch ;)

How interesting, huh? It turns out people respond a lot faster when you market their name all over the internet ;) And it's a good thing too as we were slowly running out of options!

But our hard work paid off, and it's one less thing to worry about now. In fact, i might even miss all this drama! haha ... nahhhh, scratch that. For all enquiring minds, here are a few fun facts about the anti-blog...who woulda thunk it?:

• Within 2 days we receive 300+ hits!
• Dozens of comments and emails fly all over Facebook & Myspace.
• An old friend offers his skills to get d-head's name to the top of Google! (we decline, but keep this card in our pocket just in case)
• A DIFFERENT photographer offers to do a whole shoot of the Mrs. in her wedding dress for FREE!!! She hates when people give their industry a bad rap.
• Angry clients come out of the woodwork for this guy, and post their own reviews!
• Within 48 hours we receive the pics online, and a week & a half later the physical images.

So for a measly $9.99 (for the domain name) and a few hours of hard work, Operation Wedding Pictures was a sucess! I still can't believe we had to go through this whole thing, but at least it ends happily and we can now move on.

And you know I have to give you all guys mad love too! Your support and encouragement kept us sane throughout the whole thing, and we thoroughly enjoyed reading all of the comments...esp. the not-so-PC ones ;) It was definitely therapeutic using this blog to bitch, so THANK YOU times a million!

And just for $hits and giggles, i figured i'd post a recap of everything that's transpired. On last crazy story to wrap things up! Here it is, from start to finish:

• Feb 6 - We sign contract and PRE-PAY for all photography.
• May 31 - We get married!
• Jul 15 - Day our printed proofs are due, per contract.
• Jul 30 - Day our online previews are due, per contract.
• Aug 6 - We check on status. D-head says ready in 1 week.
• Sep 1 - We check on status. D-head says he'll call in 1 week.
• Sep 18 - D-head starts using our photos to advertise his company!
• Sep 22 - We check on status. D-head schedules time to meet.
• Sep 28 - D-head fails to show up at our house.
• Sep 30 - D-head says our proofs were repossessed with his car.
• Oct 9 - D-head says pics coming soon...moves across the country.
• Oct 12 - D-Head comes up with even MORE excuses...
• Oct 17 - We file a B.B.B Complaint.
• Nov 5 - D-head tells us to just "stop calling".
• Nov 6 - We threaten to take him to court.
• Nov 19 - We launch blog and market the hell out of it!
• Nov 21 - Pictures are uploaded online!!!
• Dec 3 - Pictures are securely in our hands :)

So there you have it, the past 2 months of craziness all rolled up nicely into 1 happy ending :) I'm not sure *why* exactly we were put to this test, but i do know things happen for a reason. Perhaps this guy has learned his lesson?

Thank you all so very much, and God bless the Internets!

Labels: cockamamy indeed, updates, wedding

Back by popular demand, here's an update on our wedding picture fiasco! I realize it's not the most positive thing to read these days, so feel free to X on out and move onto the next site you're addicted to ;)

So where did we leave off? Oh yes, we threatened our good friend d-head w/ court if he didn't send us our pics by this last Friday, November 14th. And, naturally, he didn't send them.

So we started researching court and mediation and stuff like that, but they all required an address to send the documentation to and all (which we didn't have) and stated that without it, the process could be severely delayed and hard to get started.

Now, i'm no judicial genius, but it seemed like we're pretty screwed without it. That means the little bastard has allllll the power! But before we could get down on ourselves, a very magical thing happened out of thin air!

An idea popped into my head! And this idea told me that if we could create our OWN power/leverage/bargaining chip, that we could get this resolved much quicker.

Know what came to me? The power of the internet! I mean, just blogging anonymously about it gets people riled up and passionate, but imagine stating all the names and company involved and all, right? And then plastering it all over the net, in other blogs, wedding forums, facebook, myspace, and even sending it to newspapers and tv stations! Talk about creating some mad leverage ;)

So that's exactly what i did this weekend - I spent 5 hours creating an entire blog around this issue. And let me tell you, it's not your ordinary one ;) I named names, attached emails and our contract, and linked the HELL out of the whole thing for better SEO and chances it'll rise to the top in Google and such. I even bought a domain name and everything, just to prove how serious i was!

I also talked it over w/ a lawyer friend of mine to make sure i can't get in trouble for slander or anything of that nature. I'm probably still on the border of that, but i was told that as long as i "stick to the facts" and not assume anything or lie or write anything that i can't prove and back up, that it's fair game (What do you think jessica?). I mean, if it works for Consumerist.com, maybe it'll work for me?

The point of this site is simple: We keep this horrible review online until we receive every last picture owed to us.

If we get them, we gladly close down the site. If we don't, his name and company name will be forever brandished online for all to see. (his name is in his company name, so he's pretty screwed even if he re-brands his company name).

And that's where we stand today. The website is created, and i'm about to make it public any minute! I seriously hope this does the trick, we're running out of ideas...

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ps: I'm sooooo sorry i can't post the site here, believe me i would LOVE that more than anything, but it would totally give away my anonymity!

Labels: rant, updates, wedding

The Dollar a Day challenge was all about dropping a dollar in my cup every work day (i stole the idea from Counting My Pennies), thus easily saving a few hundred each year.

I initially rocked it out, getting up to the early $100's, but sadly i have tuckerd out...You know that site failblog.org? Well, stamp a big ol' Pwnd on me cuz I ain't added a single $1 bill in over 5 months! I blame it all on my memory. It's a shame too as it was one of my first blog "challenges". Maybe you all had better luck?

At any rate, rather than give up on it 100%, i figured i'd give it another go - except this time taking a different route. I'm gonna try unloading all my $1 bills from my money clip each Friday, and putting them into a cup @ home.

Tweaking a similar idea from SmartSpending, I'll add them all up at the end of 6 months and pad my sexy Savings account! A bit of a twist, eh? The amounts would probably be lower than the $1 a day idea, but i'm hoping the "following through" part will take over, thus leaving me with MORE money than planned.

You see, the hard part about the other plan was mainly REMEMBERING to place a dollar each work day in my cup. This new route only requires me to remember something ONCE a week ;) And on a Friday, when i'm nice and relaxed. Plus, i don't have to worry about breaking a $5'er or $10'er if i don't have a dollar in my pocket every work day.

If i end the week with zero Washingtons in my pocket w/ this game plan, i simply deposit nothing in my cup. But if i have 8 singletons hanging in there, then i drop all 8. Nice and simple, just how i like it ;)

Will i tucker out like the last challenge? Perhaps, but at least i'm still hangin' in there.

Labels: challenges, saving, updates

Mixing Business with Pleasure?
I got a shout out from WalletPop.com yesterday, which was pretty cool in itself, but what's even MORE interesting is that it's own/ran by AOL! So what, right? Wellllll, it just happens to be that i'm currently working on a different project for that same AOL during my "real work" hours! haha...sneaky, sneaky ;)

Remember when i didn't know if American charged for baggage?
Well, they did. Twice. I was asked to pony up $15.00 for my 1 checked bag :( But it wasn't really that one that bothered me, it was the one on the way BACK! I had totally forgottne that i'd obviously be bringing it back home w/ me...so $30 for basically "nothing". poop.

I'm Hosting the Carnival of Personal Finance on Monday! *UPDATE
I almost forgot to mention that i'll be hosting on Monday! So if any of you bloggers out there have some good articles going on this week (and i know you do), shoot them on over. Just be sure to submit your article by Sunday @ 6pm EST. And if this is your first time, give it a shot, it'll be fun! After all, i'll be the host ;)

Carnivals I Participated In.
If you check out no others, at LEAST check out the first one. The pics are hilarious!!! It centers around the "post secret" theme - you know, the one where people send in anonymous postcards with dirty little secrets on them? Well, these are the money-related ones ;)

• Finance Fiesta #20 - "Financial Secrets Revealed" hosted by Broke Grad Student.
• Carnival of Personal Finance #174 - "Columbus Day" hosted by Greener Pastures.
• Money Hacks Carnival #34 - "Fall Into Savings" hosted by Where You Are Now.
• Carnival of Financial Resources #1 - "Birthday" hosted by The Financial Wellness Project.
• Carnival of Debt Reduction #161 - "Fall Colors" hosted by Gather Little by Little.
• Festival of Frugality #147 - hosted by Aridni.

Till next week my friends...

Labels: updates, weekly roundup

Painting Supplies: $50.00
Number of $1 bills: 48
Effort put in: 6 months (on and off)

Finishing your 1st painting since 2nd grade? PRICELESS.

There are some things money can't buy.
For everything else, there's Budgets are Sexy.
<--click to enlarge


Update: Wanna know HOW i created this? Check out the steps here :)

Labels: art, awesomely awesome, currency, randomness 3000, updates

1) I have created a few new icons, and I welcome you to grab them & support the site! The first is a 125x125 icon, and the others are 80x15 similar to others like mybloglog, pfblogs.org, blogcatalog, etc. I give props to Blog Coach for the idea :)

Copy: <a href="http://www.budgetsaresexy.com"><img src="http://www.budgetsaresexy.com/ads/budgets_are_sexy_125x125.gif" alt="Budgets are Sexy" border="0" /></a>

Copy: <a href="http://www.budgetsaresexy.com"><img src="http://www.budgetsaresexy.com/ads/budgets_are_sexy_80x15_1.gif" alt="Budgets are Sexy" border="0" /></a>

Copy: <a href="http://www.budgetsaresexy.com"><img src="http://www.budgetsaresexy.com/ads/budgets_are_sexy_80x15_3.gif" alt="Budgets are Sexy" border="0" /></a>

2) I'll have another wedding photo update soon!!! And believe me, it is NOT going to be good. He is seriously pissing me off :(

3) It's also interesting to know that my post on The FDIC the other day is already outdated! It's insane out there, that's for sure, but I revised it to include the new $250k limit along with some other details.

4) And now, it's time for the weekly carnival update! (i know you couldn't wait any longer). Here are all those that i participated in:

• Carnival of Personal Finance - the "173rd" edition, hosted by Girls Just Wanna Have Funds. (Brilliant blog name, eh?)
• Money Hacks Carnival - the "Oktober Fest" edition, hosted by Fix My Personal Finance.
• Festival of Frugality - the "Benjamin Franklin" edition, hosted by Dollar Frugal. One of my all-time favorite founders of this Nation! The 1st is John Adams - that guy is the MAN.
• Finance Fiesta - the "Oktoberfest" edition, hosted by Living Almost Large.
• Carnival of Money Stories - the "Cartoon" edition, hosted by Living Almost Large.
• Carnival of Financial Goals- the "October 4th, 2008" edition, hosted by My Two Dollars. A new carnival i'm trying out!
• Carnival of Twenty Something Finance - the "October 6,2008" edition, hosted by Lava.
• Carnival of Debt Reduction - the "Bailout" edition, hosted by The Happy Rock.

Till next week....enjoy the weekend everyone!

Labels: blogging, updates, weekly roundup

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 :)

Labels: bonds, 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.

Labels: link lovin, updates

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!

Labels: challenges, updates

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!

Labels: challenges, updates