My Financial Journey

I just got a call the other night from a friend of mine. We were talking and the conversation ended as he and his wife were going to go pick up their taxes from their tax accountant. One hour later I got a phone call from the same individual asking me questions about the best computer and digital camera to buy. Turns out his accountant told them that they would be getting a refund and they were busy spending the money before they even officially filed their taxes. They were going to buy a new computer, digital camera, PDA, and possibly a new tv. I have no idea what they got for a refund, but my guess is that their expenditures are probably going to outweigh their tax refund.
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Now this is going to be one of those, “no kidding you dufus why are you even posting this - it’s pretty obvious” kind of posts, but honestly I always forget about it and well it just saved me money this weekend. I actually don’t read books, for whatever reason I can’t just sit down and read a book. I usually get bored out of my mind after the first chapter and the only book I know that I have “read” since school (even then it was slim pickings (cliff notes)) is “The Little Book that Beats the Market” by Joel Greenblatt. The only reason I finished that book is because it was maybe 100 pages long, the pages were very small, and it actually was 90% substance instead of having to read 200 pages of fluff to get to the good stuff. I don’t know if I have ADD or am just an unintelligent caveman who can’t read books, but I just don’t read books.
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I’ve been sick for most of the week and last couple days I have had a really bad sore throat. I had been sucking on cough drops and other common things to try to relieve my sore throat, but it kept getting worse and worse, to the point where I could barely manage to swallow. As a kid I had tonsillitis and strep throat probably on average 5-6 times a year, but back then it was taboo to take your tonsils out so I spent a fair share of my time at the doctors office and on amoxicillin and other antibiotics. Well I hadn’t had strep in a long time and was worried that this had to be strep again. I was just dying so as usual I went to the internet to find a solution.

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor and I am only posting this because I heard such great things about it and had such wonderful results myself, please consult with your physician before trying this magical elixir.
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Sorry for another rant, but I’ve been spending a little more time at yahoo lately and have been actually reading their finance articles and it’s amazing how far from reality some of these articles are.  Ok maybe they aren’t crazy because they can find lots of people to interview for them that back their articles up, but they are are far from reality for people who have common sense.

This latest article, talks about the cost of raising kids.  I’ve always been one to think that the figures out there for the costs of raising kids were completely out of whack.  Yes you can spend that much (if you try), but just like anything (cars, house, landscaping), if you are smart about it you can probably get better results with spending a fraction of the the money.

Maybe I’m the weird guy, but does any of these quotes from the article stand out as completely crazy?
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If there is one thing I don’t understand is, how much people care about gasoline prices. If a news story came out today that said tomorrow all gasoline prices are going to jump by 10 cents, there would be lines wrapped around the block waiting to fill up for gas. I mean it would be great if people were actually that concerned about their finances, that the extra $1.20 (12 gallon gas tank) it was going to cost them just was unacceptable, but it’s not it’s something else and I don’t get it.

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In Part I of this series I talked about some high level things you can do to save you money and increase your chances of success when going about landscaping.  In this part I am going to talk about where to get some of the supplies you will need and how to save money on them.

Mulch
Mulch is an important part of most frugal landscaping plans.  Mulch is not only a cheaper alternative to things such as gravel or stones, it is a lot less likely to cause you issues if it creeps out of your landscaping and into your lawn which it most likely will do.  Think 2 inch rock in lawn mower versus piece of tree bark.  Mulch is also much better for your plants and flowers as it is a natural material which will help retain moisture (less watering) and slowly break down and release nutrients for your plants and shrubs.
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Well my blog has been around for over a year now so I guess I can start highlighting some posts from a year ago. I think this is kind of nice because I can occasionally see what I was thinking a year ago. See if my attitudes have changed, if I’ve learned anything new since then, etc. I probably won’t do this too often as well my blog hit a dry spell for a while last summer, but one year ago this week was a pretty good one for my blog.

• It’s common sense, but I’m an idiot - realized how to do simple math to decide whether to pay off HELOC or not
• $100,000 by Age 30 - came up with my first financial goal. It’s been a popular post for me.
• PFBlogs.org - Site was born about this time last year and MFJ has been a friend of ever since - best aggregator around
• Credit cards better for my net worth than high yield savings like ING Direct? - Realized the joys of rewards cards
• Wal-Mart wallet photos for a whole lot less - Method I came up with to save money on wallet photos.

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