I Get 27¢ Off Every Gallon Of Gas

Gas prices feeling kind of bloated? I may have the Alka Seltzer for your petrol allowance. After a few weeks of idle figuring, cutting whatever corners I could, I’ve finally come up with a fairly simple system to shave about 27¢ off every gallon of gas I purchase, or roughly 10%, depending on the price at the pump. Some of you can probably do the same thing.

Here’s how I manage it.

My Discover Card kept filling my mailbox with slick flyers reminding me I get 5% cash back on all my automotive purchases. Watching the illuminated digits rise on the gas station billboards, I decided to take them up on it. I’ve been putting gas on my plastic this month (making certain I already have enough in my bank account to pay it off). With prices bouncing around $3.00, I chuckled the first time I filled my car up, obscenely pleased with the $1.50 I saved. But.

After a while, it just wasn’t enough. I wanted more savings.

So I started to actually read the brochures at my neighborhood stations. Every store has their individual plan, but I finally settled with Super America. It’s where I go anyway because (and I’m embarrassed to say this) that’s where I do my banking, as they have a Wells Fargo ATM! I grabbed one of their Speedy Rewards cards. If you buy gas at Super America, you may as well get the Speedy Rewards card. You don’t have to fill anything out—just take one, run it through the pump, and you automatically get 5¢ off a gallon. I was gleeful, cackling in the aisles. But.

Not enough! I shouted. Well, I didn’t shout, but I did keep looking. Super America has fuel gift cards, also. If I buy a gift card for $50, I get $1 off (sometimes its $2!). Boring? Think of it as an additional 2%, and just wait, it adds up. Because by using the gift card, I get 3¢ MORE off a gallon.

Grand total?

By pre-purchasing a gift card (2%) for $100 with my Discover (5%), I save 7% at the outset.
Using the Speedy Rewards (5¢) with my gift card (3¢), I save 8¢ a gallon.

Today, at the pump, gas was originally $2.78. I paid $2.70, and as I already saved 7%, that made it, essentially, $2.51. At a 27¢ savings for 10 gallons, I saved $2.70.

Go me and my rockstar self.

ADDENDUM TO POST

I've decided that that there are people who can handle credit cards responsibly, and those who can not. I am the latter! However, I need to balance my lack of financial resolve with the advantages I can glean from using a credit card. Here's what I've done.

I checked with Discover, and the 5% cash back only works for $100 of gas a month. I set up a reoccurring payment with Wells Fargo to put that $100 in my Discover account. I have it set up for the day I get paid. On that day, I'll go and buy one of the SA gift cards for $100.

I like this methodology for someone like myself, who has credit card problems. I still get the advantages, but I keep myself on a short leash. It also acts as a budgetary device. I can keep track of my gas this way. I'm thinking of setting up similar methodologies with other regular purchases, in fact.

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Carnival Of Personal Finance -- And A Givaway!

For those who have arrived as part of the 111th Carnival Of Personal Finance (hosted by Plonkee Money this week)...

Welcome!

I am Starving Artist, a young(ish) writer sloggin' his way through this world, finishing up a novel, and slowly building my acumen of personal finance knowledge. Like many-to-most who start blogs like this, I wandered around for a long time, hoping something would eventually happen to cause my growing debt to disappear--something that preferably didn't involve work. Seven months ago, in a real panic, I started this blog as a way to rehabilitate my finances. What I've learned so far:

- the way you run your finances is probably indicative of the way you live your life
- paying off debt is much more satisfying than accumulating it
- paying off debt is like giving yourself a huge pay raise

Enough! You're here. Enjoy. The article that I've had highlighted for the carnival is this one. Before you go, however...

GET A FREE BOOK

As a thank-you to those who have made it to my site, and in the spirit of all things carnivalesque, I'm offering a chance to win a free book on personal finance, the bestselling Personal Finance For Dummies, by Eric Tyson. This is a $22 value, and I'll ship it for free. It was very helpful for me, and one of the reasons I've been able to get my finances on track. I'm still working on paying off my debt, of course, but I'm on my way!

What do you do to win?

I'm trying to get a comprehensive list of more personal finance books for my PERSONAL FINANCE BOOKS page. My goal is to create a well-categorized listing of the best finance books available.

This is where you come in: suggest a finance book to add to my list in the comments for this post. I'm looking for books you've read and loved, whether they are on budgeting, thrifty dining, real estate investing, buying cars... anything! I'll let you suggest up to five books, and every book gets you another entry. If you include a brief review of the book, I will include that review next to the book when I post it, as well as a by-line that will link back to your blog. I'll pick on Thursday!

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you enjoy my blog. I am, as always, indebted 2 you!

Here's a random link. Just because.

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Landlord

My landlord emailed me this morning. He was asking about a "precious sculpture" that he had found when he was digging around in my room. Backstory: the sculpture was a high school art project of his son's (a son who is now out of college), that involved him making a mold of his clawed hand, and painting it lurid green. It was hung on the wall, and I came home one day to find it had fallen and chipped. This had obviously happened before, as there were other chips on it. I put it in my room, intending to glue the chips back on, frankly glad that it was off the wall. He found it while digging through my shelves during a massive invasion of privacy I blog about in this post. As a quick recap for those who don't want to read about it: he sent a team of inexperienced painters into my room on Sunday, without my permission or knowledge, and competely trashed my room, spattering paint over everything, because there was some apparent dire need to paint that weekend.

This was my reply to my landlords current email:

Jack [name changed],
I'm deducting the following items from my rent this month:
$75 - jeans ruined by paint
$75 - sheets with paint on them
$200 - work relating to cleaning paint from the following items: shoes (2 pair), dresser, bed. Some of the paint is unable to be removed from my bed. I've included in this cleanup assosicated with the complete trashing of my bookshelf, which is my filing system for my research.

In about two weeks, I'm also commencing a lawsuit against you. I don't have time, now, because I'm trying to finish a novel, efforts that are constantly impeded by your management of your property. I expect to ask for around $2,100 for invasion of privacy (per fine structures set out in MN statutes), and half my rent back for the time I've been living with you, because of your complete negligence of duties. Total: ~$5,000

Furthermore, I will be posting a letter to the IRS, informing them that, as far as I can reckon, for the past ten (10) years you have collected monies for rent, and I don't believe you have paid taxes on them. I will inform them that at my current rate (x2 for double occupancy) the delinquent amount could be as high as $144,000. That constitutes somewheres around $45,000 in back taxes, not to mention interest, fines, and other sundry enforcement. Several of your past renters have agreed to supply affidavits testifying as such. This is, of course, not something you have to worry about if you have paid your taxes appropriately.

As to the "sculpture" (the high school art project) I came home and found it like that one day. The reason it's in my room was because I intended to glue it back together, but hadn't gotten around to it yet.

Best Regards,
Starving Artist

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Just Some Friday Words

Hey all. I'm going to be substantially quiet for the next few days. I need to go heads-down on my writing until I finish this up. A few things with respect to my personal finances:

I've been using my Discover Card the last few weeks, but I have money in my savings to cover every transaction, and I will pay off the balance diligently at the end of the month. I'm disappointed to learn that the 5% cashback only goes through September. I don't know why, but I thought Discover always did 5% cashback. Am I naive? I guess.

I've been eating out a lot because I've had so little time to do any cooking, what with the novel. Also, when my landlord was home I basically cleared out of my place, making it harder to cook food. I need to reconcile a few accounts, but I've kept half an eye on my checking, savings, and Discover balance, and things seem to be in line.

That's all for now. I'm heading to a coffee shop. Cheers.

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Advances and Passion and Writing. Oh My.

For those who don’t know, I’m working very hard to finish up the second draft of my book. An agent at a respectable house reviewed the first 100 pages, liked it, and asked to see the rest. I told them I would get it out by August 1st. The clock says six days until the end of the month. My characters are all standing on their own. The plot feels inexorable. I’m slugging through pages, and producing what I think-what I hope-is good content. I’m trying to be as honest to my work as I can. I’m almost there. I can see the finish line, but I’m just sucking wind, my lungs are burning, and my legs feel like lead.

I was reading through a post at Blogging Away Debt, and Trish mentioned how important it is to feel passion for your work. I posted the comment:

I hear you about the passion. I’m about to finish my book, after years of effort, and I would like to add one thing: PASSION feels exactly like WORK. People need to know that!

Another reader responded that passion doesn’t feel like work. It was late when I originally posted, I was tired, and I was speaking from my weary heart at that moment. I clarified things with this comment, which I decided was the heart of my blog entry today:

I guess I meant: don’t think that the heady high of passion will keep you going. Passion is great. You should do things that you feel passionate about, but passion is an emotion. After a while, the headiness will fade away, and you have to rely on the fact that you know, on a more intellectual level, that you’re doing something that you’re proud of. At that point, just like any job, it’s nose to the grindstone, get it done to the best of your ability. Everyone is wired a little different, but it is the rare person who is wired such that they feel passionate about every minute of every day. I’m certainly not. Don’t get me wrong, I love my life and wouldn’t trade it for any other… but am I driven by passion every day? Nope. I hope you can sustain that, but it’s not in my neurochemistry. I worry that people who are hardwired with an influx of passion, or those who can fake it, inadvertently deceive others into believing that they have to feel a constant emotional response to their profession of choice.

On a slightly different line of thought: a friend received a 40K advance for a book that will be out in a few months, and the publisher is flying them in and out of New York for meetings. It’s very exciting. They hoped for a larger advance, but this is a first book.

I would be very happy with a 40K advance.

I’m not one to sit and rhapsodize about advances and such, but I’m allowing myself the luxury this afternoon. If I get even half that amount, I would essentially wipe out all my debt. I would be free. Writing my book has always been a labor of love, but I won’t kid anyone—I want to make money off it.

Anyway, I don’t have any grand conclusion. I’m off. Best to all.

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Book and Landlord and It's Late

It's late. I've been working on my book all day, but I didn't make a lot of headway. Only about 1200 words actually written. It was important time spent, because I sketched out what's going to happen in the next few chapters. I'm VERY near the end! I still may make the end of the month!

My landlord never ceases to amaze me. After all the crap I went through last Sunday, after I called the police on him and yelled myself hoarse about his abuses of my privacy, I just found out that the same night he did the same thing to the woman living here, except he took her property and threw it on my bed to store for the night.

Apparently when she came home, after a long shift (she's a nurse), she went into her room, and all her stuff was gone. She basically kicked my landlords door down, and found out that he was storing it in my room.

Let me repeat, this was after I called the police on him for an invasion of privacy.

Nurse just told me about this tonight, and I had to go for a three mile run to cool down. My blood pressure shot up again. I'm suing him now, for sure.

I'm not going to think about it. I'm a little wired, so I'll write until I fall asleep.

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It’s Okay To Shop At Walmart (Sometimes)

OP-ED
It's a struggle. Big box shopping, or small independent? We’ve drawn our personal battle lines, somewhere, but right and wrong get so damn blurry in these retail wars. Of course we’re against the notion of minimum-wage slave labor, Union-busting working conditions, destruction of local economies, but really… how cool is contact solution for under $2?

The fact of the matter is however much we decry the cost-cutting, economy sucking, no-benefits antics of our nation’s most profitable retailer, we all shop there. It wouldn’t be the nation’s most profitable retailer if we didn’t. If you’re reading this blog, odds are pretty good that you’re already a penny pinching fanatic, yourself. You’ve probably run down the aisles of the big box, drunkenly singing the praises of cheap toilet paper and two-for-one macaroni and cheese. But when you get home, you’re a little hung over from all the sinfully fun spending, a little guilt stricken by your shameless chatter with the checkout girl, aren’t you?

Did those falling prices land on your conscience kind of hard?

I have a theory, however, that I’m now giving to the nation for the inexplicably low price of free.

Stop me if I sound crazy. But. It’s okay to shop at Walmart…sometimes.

I think a lot of people become so guilt stricken about going to Walmart, however, that they’re now afraid to show their face in the little family grocer down the block, fearing they’ll leave incriminating orange fingerprints from that economy-sized bag of Cheetos they’ve been snacking on, or that their new cost-conscious MP3 player will start beeping in their pocket like a tell-tale heart. But this isn’t a red state, blue state decision—it doesn’t have to be all or nothing.

One trip to those little stores, once a weeks or so, means a lot to them--a lot more than you might think. Do you always go to the large chain to buy your groceries? Is it really necessary to get the best deal every time? Probably not. Your budget, so buffered by $8 t-shirts and twelve packs of tighty-whities, can probably handle the occasional $5 frozen pizza from the corner store. Spending a bit of money at the small stores, and even the smaller chains, keeps valuable competition alive.

Don’t worry, it doesn’t have to be your life’s mission.

You don’t have to put on hemp sandals and always buy organic, but because you have to shop for food every week, why not take one or two of your five shopping trips a month, and splurge a little on the local economy? Think of it as flossing your teeth. Yes, the dentist wants you to do it after every glass of water, but for those of us who lie to their white-masked faces and keep an every-other-day routine, we’re still in pretty good oral shape.

About that guilt.

Conversely, while yes, you are supporting ‘ol Sam’s chain when you get your CDs for a song, you aren’t supporting them that much. While they’re too big to feel any huge economic loss if you personally stop shopping (that’s what you tell yourself, isn’t it?) they’re also so big you don’t help them that much when you step under their big tin roof. The geriatric greeter may make your feel pretty darn special, but to those baleful yellow smiles watching you from the tops of the sales racks, you’re just one of many brick in the wall(mart).

Let me put it another way (because the last paragraph probably only made sense to me). $10 isn’t going to make-or-break Walmart if you spend it at their store, so to keep your budget under control, go and buy a few bags of pretzels. $10 to the local grocer may make-or-break it, however, so make sure you go buy your Wonder Bread there, every now and then.

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My Credit Card Number Got Out On The Internet

Some GREAT customer service... finally!

Chase called me the other day to tell me that I had some odd charges on my account that they don't think I authorized. Which makes sense, because I used my Chase card for a 0% APR transfer, paid it off, and never put anything on it again. Somehow my card number got on the internet, and I had a few illicit charges. The representative was nice, and she didn't want to say the names of the companies that my card had been charged to. She said they would send me a list. I'm assuming it can't be good. Rest assured none of the charges were real! :)

Chase, however, showed the best customer service I have run into in recent days. They denied the charges, didn't make me pay for anything, cancelled that card, and sent me a new one that arrived in three days.

As I'm typing this, I guess one question does raise itself in my mind: I seriously never used my Chase card. I cut it up and threw it away. So how did my number get out there? Do companies use random number generators to attempt credit card transactions? That wouldn't work, would it?

Either way, it was taken care of quickly, and with no hassle, so I'm not complaining.

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Landlord

More problems with my landlord today. He hired some painters to go through the house, and didn't tell me he was having my room painted, too. I came home today to find a group of painters in my room, none of whom spoke English so communications didn't go so well, who had taken ALL MY STUFF and moved it to the center of the room. Hundreds of books were thrown in a giant pile. My papers, my drafts of my book, everything was in a jumbled mess. A 120 year old picture that my great-great-great grandmother painted of the port my family left from when the departed from Finland was casually tossed on top of a bookshelf, precariously balanced, with random books and objects resting on the glass, just waiting for someone to bump it or for something to get dropped on it. After I moved the expensive items I had to leave. I've literally never been so angry in my life. My blood pressure started to rise and I realized I was actually so angry that I might do some damage to myself, and I didn't want the poor painters to think I was mad at them (although they had tossed my stuff around, they were obviously just some guys my landlord hired, who didn't know what was going on). I walked around a lake and then called the police, and asked them what to do. They sent a really friendly officer out, who completely empathized. He told me I could sue my landlord in civil court for invasion of privacy, but my landlord technically hadn't done anything criminally wrong, although the officer, who was really bright, went into a discussion of Supreme Court cases that he disagreed with, that had stripped tenants of some of their privacy rights. He thought my landlord's actions should be a criminal offense, but he couldn't do anything about it. He also said I was handling it better than he ever would have.

I'm at my girlfriends now. She gave me some ice cream to make me feel better :)

I'm going to go through my stuff tomorrow, and deduct anything that was damaged off the rent. The pants I was wearing got a paint stain, so I'm deducting those, too. I'm not going to do anything else, although I had a talk with my landlord over the phone, the most severe rant I've ever had with anyone in my life, and I told him I was taking him to court, but I'm not. I don't have time to think of this stuff right now. I gained absolutely no feeling of moral absolution by yelling at the landlord. I almost felt worse afterwards. He's a perennial screw-up, and I know it's probably some brain chemistry issue and I honestly don't think he thinks he's doing anything wrong. Yelling was completely immature, I know, but I had to get it off my chest. I don't like the fact that I yelled at him any more than he probably likes the fact that he's always messing up.

This is a lesson for me, and a warning for anyone who jumps into a living situation without putting enough thought into it, just to save a few bucks. Money is definitely not everything.

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New Book Section! With Reviews!

I created a page where you can find books associated with personal finance, organized into specific categorise, with spotlighted reviews included next to each! I plan to expand this in the future, but here are the categories so far!

Index Page
Books About Basic Finances
Books About Basic Investing
Books About Kids And Money
Books About Budgeting Meals

This took a lot of time. I was originally going to just throw a few books into categories, but then I realized people would have to continuously click back and forth to the books' main pages and scroll around to find a review to get an idea of what it was all about, so I actually added a review next to each (which forced me to figure out how to use tables in Blogger--not an easy task!). I truly hope you enjoy this--it was not a minor achievement.

As you probably know, through the Amazon Associates program, I get a portion of any sales through these links, so if you purchase anything, thanks in advance!

Cheers and goodnight!

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Some Good Credit Card Advice, And Happy Friday!

I was cruising through Blogging Away Debt's weekly wrap-up, and Tricia pointed out a great post over at Single Ma's Fabulous Financial. Single Ma seems to have a good grasp on credit scores (a much better grasp than I!), and she wrote an article on how to close credit cards without affecting your credit score. It give some insight on credit score math. Very intuitive information.

I set up a subscription service and I'm thinking of writing an article for the Carnival of Personal Finance, but I'm still thinking of something to record.

I've been writing so much I'm starting to get a migraine! Gotta' go rest in a dark room. Catch you on the flip side!

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How To Get Multiple Pages On Google's Blogger

I took off yesterday and today to get some writing done. I have less than two weeks to finish the book and get it to the agent, which is such a giant task I don't even think about it--I just buckle down and write. Yesterday I wrote about 3,200 words, and I'm hopefully on track to write about the same today. I feel good about the material I put out.

In the meantime, I've been dinking with my blog and changing the format around. I'm REALLY happy with it! I hope you guys like it.

If fellow Bloggers (and by "Blogger" I mean "Google Blogger") are trying to figure out how I got multiple pages on this blog, the answer is: I didn't. Not really. Whenever you look click a link in the left taskbar, you actually navigate to a different blog, all under my one master Google account. Each blog has the same url as my main page, with simple additions to differentiate. I.E. - whereas the main page's url is "http://indebted2you.blogspot.com", my "About" page is actually a blog with the url "http://indebted2you-about.blogger.com".

The only thing I had to do to keep them together was use the same template, and put that navigation bar on the upper left corner of the screen. Easy as aces.

I'm off to write some more. Happy Thursdays.

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Simple Budget Calculator - Free Download

I'm making available the Excel spreadsheet I made for my budget (see below)--feel free to use it. I uploaded it to Keep My File, a service I've never tried. As a sidenote, watch out when you're looking for free file hosting. Let's just say, after reviewing the general content of the site, I won't direct you to the first service I uploaded the spreadsheet to!

This worked when I tested it out.

Donwload the file HERE.

This spreadsheet isn't all encompassing, but it's easy, and should give you a good start. I've included some examples and instructions--check out the "How To" at the bottom of the page, and scroll over the different fields to view my comments. DON'T TOUCH THE YELLOW BOXES! :) Unless you know what you're doing. Those are the calculation boxes.

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I created a budget calculator!

Wow. I never would have considered doing this a year ago. Last night, I stayed up until 1AM and created a simple budget spreadsheet on Excel, which helps me calculate my debt and expense payments over the long term. I can use this to shift numbers and perform "what if" scenarios. It's really helped me forcast my budget for the next year. It looks like I can have all my loans except my big school loan paid off by next APRIL! (And this includes a big trip to San Fran that I'm planning in March.)

Here's my tentative scenario, below. I'm still working on my "what if" for next October, but this helped a lot. I also still have to plan for the every-other-week payments, but this is a big step!

I'm happy to share a copy of this calculator if anyone wants it.

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Experian Customer Service And A New Credit Card

First, Experian Customer Service
Experian, one of the three big credit reporting agencies, has a really bad customer service model. If you email them, your email goes into a pool and is picked up by a random service agent, who obviously has a list of pre-arranged messages they can choose from in their replies. When you email that representative back, however, it goes BACK to the giant pool, and a completely different agent replies, usually just wasting everyone's time. I emailed them to explain that when I got my report today, it timed out when I was researching my score, before I had a chance to print it out. Here's the rather odd back and forth. Note that I never speak to the same agent twice. I removed my name but left theirs, as they don't really identify the person:

Hey Guys,
I was looking at my report when it timed out, and I hadn't printed it yet. How do I get access to my credit score again, or get a refund?
- Starving Artist


Dear Starving Artist:
Thank you for writing.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.
We were able to locate your transaction and have found that your transaction has been successfully processed. However, we regret to inform you that the Vantage score you ordered with your free credit report from AnnualCreditReport.com was only available for one-time viewing. Once you closed the browser window, the score was automatically deleted from our system.
We also wish to inform you, that as much as we would like to provide you with your Vantage Score, we are unable to, because it is no longer in our files.
To re-order your Vantage score, please go to www.Experian.com and click on "view credit report again".
Please enter your Experian credit report number and fill out the necessary form. Click on the tab that indicates you wish to buy a Vantage score. You should be able to immediately see your Vantage score.
Please be reminded to make a copy of your Vantage score, for future reference.
Thank you for your kind understanding regarding this matter.
Sincerely,
Mark U.
Customer Care Representative


Dear Mark,
You seem to be laboring under the assumption that I'm offering you my kind understanding. As your page timed out without any warning that I was made aware of, and as it does not state on your page that I should be aware that the site will time out, I fully expect you to offer me another glimpse at my score and report, for free.
I would also encourage you to pass along, to your supervisors or higher management, that your company should resolve this issue, for future users.
Regards,
Starving Artist

Dear Starving Artist:
Thank you for writing.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. Rest assured that your comments and suggestions will be taken into serious consideration to help us improve our products.
Thank you for your patience.
Sincerely,
Lowell S.
Customer Care Representative

Lowell,
Is it really that difficult to issue me a free report? Your system timed me out--I did not close your system down. Please explain to me why this should affect me, and why I should pay to view my score again.
I look forward to your reply.
- Starving Artist

Dear Starving Artist:
Thank you for writing.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.
We have initiated a refund to your account. This refund should appear on your next billing cycle.
Thank you for your patience regarding this matter.
Sincerely,
Joseph R.
Customer Care Representative

Thanks! I appreciate it.
- SA

Dear Starving Artist:
Thank you for writing.
It is our pleasure to have served you.
Thank you for your patience.
Sincerely,
Ralph T.
Customer Care Representative

It's actually kind of amusing to get these repetitive responses. They aren't any better than a machine. I kind of want to keep responding to collect all the possible ways they can reply.

Second, the credit card
I've been dinking around today, trying to help mitigate an upcoming budget crunch. In October, my pay period will change from the 15th of the month, which I'm used to, to an every-other-week schedule. In a feat of awesome corporate planning, my company will pay me for two weeks on the 15th, when I'm accustomed to a full month's salary. For a short period of time, I'm going to be shifting around funds, as I'm currently set up to pay all my bills on the 15th.

Eh.

I don't exactly know what I'm going to do, but I've been thinking about putting my groceries and gasoline on my Discover card, not only to help float those expenditures for two more weeks, but because I get 5% cash back on most purchases. This is not, by any means, the sum of my October plans! It's a small part of a rather large puzzle.

I'm currently holding a balance on the ol' Discover card, however. As I mentioned in my last two posts, I considered getting an Orbitz card to transfer the balance, erroneously believing the funds transfer was free, and thinking it would be cool to get the free mileage offered with the card. After reading the fine print, I saw my error in both the fees and mileage, and tossed the Orbitz application. I went online after work, however, and used the Smart Credit Choice's credit card search engine and found a card that suits my purposes: THE BANK OF AMERICA® PLATINUM PLUS® VISA® CARD. It has a no fee balance transfer, and a 0% APR for six months. I transfered most of the balance for the Discover card onto the Bank of America card, $3,400, and received a $6,900 line of credit. The normal APR is about 12% which isn't great, but I'm using it for the transfer, not the credit. The balance for the Discover card was currently 0%, however I had to make 3 purchases a month to keep that up--I was buying random songs from various vendors to do this (iTunes, etc), but this was getting annoying, and I wasn't listening to the songs. Even if I don't pay the balance on the B of A card by the end of the six months, which I think I will, I'm getting a large bonus in February (we're hearing whispers of over 18%!), and that will take care of the remaining balance.

This means I can start using the Discover card, and get the rewards. I'll set it up so I can quickly and easily pay off the balance for this card, on a reasonable basis.

Anyway.

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New Template!!!

Holy Cow, that was a snap decision. I wanted a 3-column template and downloaded this one from The Blogger WorkShop. I deliberately pressed the button to clear all my former widgets, and now I must live with this! :) This is going to take a while to get this back up and running. I think I'm happier with this version, however. We'll see if I have any luck modifying it.

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No Orbitz!

On my previous post, I contemplated getting an Orbitz credit card to flatten my debt, increase my credit line, and hopefully increase my credit rating. I scanned and re-scanned the offer over lunch and finally found the usual 3% transfer fee in some muddy fine print. It was on the back of a "terms and conditions" sheet, which was seperate from the main offer! Oh well. It's not worth it for me to pay $50 to transfer a loan already at a very low rate.

I'm getting nervous about October. My company is offering a 0% loan to make up for the gap in pay, but I'd rather not take it. I'm going to need some spreadsheets. I can't just figure this out in my head. It was going to be close, with me moving in October, but this damn pay change is really throwing a monkey wrench in my calculations. To top it off, I really doubt my current landlord will give me back my deposit without a fight. See my "landlord" posts to understand why--he's a bit unstable.

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My Credit Score Is 740. I'm Thinking Of Getting An Orbitz Credit Card.

I just used Experian to get my credit score.

My credit score is about 740.

I say “about,” because the damn report timed out when I was viewing it, and I have a crappy memory. They want me to pay $6 to generate another report. I sent them an email and I expect they’ll help me out. Anyway, 740 is pretty good. I’m a “Prime” borrower and about 19 points away from being “Prime Plus” (“Super Prime” is too far away to contemplate right now—I think I need a mortgage under my belt to get there.)

A few things that worked against my credit score:
- no mortgage
- my available credit is too low
- I think my credit card balances are too high, with respect to my available credit
- I have credit card balances

Also, about four years ago I had a few “past 30 day” payments, from my REALLY dark days of personal finance. They aren’t mentioned on my “negatives,” but I’m guessing they don’t help. During college I stopped paying for a card for about six months, but that was off my record before I even looked at my credit report! I’m sure that’s why I got such a crappy interest rate on my car.

None of this is too worrisome, as I don’t expect to buy a house in the near future, but I’m thinking of opening an Orbitz Visa card and transferring portions of my AMEX and Discover to them. That would increase my line of credit, and also lower my other debt ratios. Maybe not. I don’t see much value in the Orbitz card, except for the 0% APR, no balance transfer fee. The rate would last 6 months, but I will pay it off by then. It would be interesting to see what would happen to my credit score if I do the transfer. Would it go up or down? I was originally intrigued by the bonus points on the card, but I only get $100 per 10,000 points ($1=1point) which comes to 1%, which my Discover card blows away. Orbitz gives you a few thousand points to start, but still. Even in the dark days I never cycled $10,000 through a card, so I would never see the points, anyway.

Hmmmm... I'm just thinking. I’m going to have a small cash-flow problem come October, when my work re-finagles my pay period, and it might help to have my Discover card open at that point, to take on my miscellaneous grocery bills and gas. As I want to start using the 5% cash back they offer (Carefully! Blogging about it conscientiously!) this would be an ideal time to start.

I think I’ll open the card, transfer about half my Discover balance, maybe some of my AMEX balance to get it below the 50% credit limit. Then I’ll pay off the rest of my Discover balance (around October, after the car is paid off), and start using that for groceries and gas.

That’s my tentative plan.

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I'm Kicking My Debt In The Ass

With gas skyrocketing, we’re all going to have to get creative. I finally signed up for Holiday’s bonus program, because you get 5 cents off every gallon. I’m looking at freeing up my Discover Card loan next, or even transferring the balance, because I earn 5% cash back on almost every purchase. I can put my groceries and gas on it. I’m at the point where I want to get the numbers to work in my favor. With the 5% cashback from the Discover card, that would come to a little over 20 cents a gallon. Which doesn’t suck.

Regarding my car (my target debt for now), I have paid off 67% of the original $4,095 in 3 months! Feeling pretty good. I am kicking my loans in the ass. All this leave about $1,300 car debt, which puts me in good position to finish in September!!!

Anyway, I’m facing a couple budget issues which I have to blog through soon, but not today. One is my next move, which will be in October. The other is the VERY ANNOYING fact that coincidently, starting October, my work will switch to paying me every other week, instead of on the 15th. I hate this, but need to get scheduling.

So.
Here’s the monthly breakdown:

CASH ON HAND
$3,151

TOTAL OUTGOING PAYMENTS
$1300.00 CAR (!!!!)
$30.00 AMEX
$45.00 PHONE
$74.00 DISCOVER
$500.00 RENT
$55.00 MACALESTER
$130.00 MOM
$120.00 WELLS DAD
$106.00 WELLS ME
$90.00 AUTO INS
$1,150.00 (TOTAL OUTGOING BILLS)

EXPENSES
$100 - Gas
$500 - Food
$100 – Misc
$700 (TOTAL EXPENSES)


Debt Roundup

SCHOOOOL:
$12230 @ 3.875%APR - Wells Fargo (my account)
$3235 - Wells Fargo (my father's account -- money he took out for me that I pay back)
$1815 @ 8%APR - Mac Loan (money I borrowed from the school itself)

CAR:
$1380 @ 9% APR

CREDIT CARDS:
$0 - Wells Fargo Visa (wohoo!)
$0 - Chase Visa (wohoo!)
$3446 @ 0%APR – Discover
$1430 @ 2% APR - American Express (life of loan)

GRAND TOTAL DEBT!!!
$23536

$4876 in credit card debt.
$17280 in school loans
$1380 for my car

That’s all for now. I’m off like a prom dress.

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Debt and Writing

I mention, every now and then, that I'm a writer. I'm trying to get a book finished. I've worked very hard to complete a second draft. I'm targeting the end of July. I passed a few chapters to a friend, who passed them to her agent, who liked it and wants to see the final copy.

I'm TIRED. I work on this every day. I've sacrificed my summer to get this done. I have sacrificed most of my vacation this year to use for writing. But I haven't just sacrificed this summer; I have sacrificed the last SEVEN YEARS. This is my third novel. I graduated from Macalester College in St. Paul with a degree in Biology, and decided I wanted to start over. Wisely, I decided to start when I was still young. The reason I have The Loft displayed on the right task bar is because they were helpful in getting me started. The Loft is a non-prof institute, which, as they say on their website:

is now the nation's largest and most comprehensive literary center

I took a few classes with them to learn the basics, and was fortunate enough to be picked for their Mentor Program, which allowed me to work for a year in a class of about a dozen other "mentees" under some really phenomenal writers from across the nation. I didn't know at the time how lucky I was to get in the program. Selection was and is contest-based. It was basically like being in an MFA program for a year; in fact, several of the "mentees" had been through MFA programs and were teachers themselves.

Anyway. Where am I going with this? A couple different places. I'm not "in" with a regular writing crowd. I don't have a pack of schoolmates who got their English degree or MFA. I have friends who write, and are successful, but we all picked it up. I have a friend who edits at a well known newspaper in the city. I have friends who have published books of poetry. I know several people who have published novels. I don't think any of us have English degrees. I only have one friend with an MFA (from the Iowa Writer's Workshop) and he's currently unemployed. His last job was as a bellhop. And you know what? Very few of the English majors I ever met actually write.

I don't read that much. I'm around books all the time, but it's a stack of about 20 novels that I continually page through to figure out how the hell they did that. I dig through words, I mark how long authors let their characters talk, how often characters appear, what they say or don't say.

I'M TIRED.

I've been working seven years, writing, tossing, writing, reading, tossing, studying, writing tossing and againandagainandagain

I read a few copies of "Writer's Digest" last night. They've been lying on my counter for months, building in numbers. An aunt got me a subscription for Christmas. The only thing I could think as I read through them was

why would anyone who is trying to write read this?

Is this what that pool of English majors are doing? It's depressing. It's self-defeating. I read an article about a guy who's finally demanding he GET PAID for his writing.

Well no shit.

People occasionally ask me why I tossed my last two novels.

Let me be clear: I don't get down on my work. I LIKE to read my own words. I don't think my novels were bad, but they weren't what I wanted to publish. I started and finished them KNOWING they would end up in a drawer, because I was learning. I wrote thirty short stories, because I was learning.

I'm a patient SOB.

I started this book knowing, at the start, that I wanted to put my name on this thing and publish it.

Where am I going with this? A few places.

Why are the writers in this magazine schlepping around doing free readings all over town? Here's the way it is, people: if you're not good enough to get paid for that reading, to at least have someone pay gas and accommodations, then you should be writing more, not promoting old crap that's not getting you anywhere.

This is what I've learned from this blog: It's hard to get out of debt.

Here's something else I've learned: Debt is NOT JUST MONEY.

I have a debt of time. I was spending my time as badly as I was spending my money. I was tossing it around, putting it all on credit. I spread my time as thin as my money. I couldn't get writing done because I had to be with friends every night. I had to go to this dinner. I had to visit this town to see someone. I don't have time, I don't havetimeIdonthavetimeidontidont

Reversing that has been as hard, if not harder, than reversing my debt. We only have a limited amount of time and money in this life. Plain and simple. For that pack of English majors (and I'm sorry if this is a bad stereotype), you have to write. A few words a day, if nothing else. You don't promote yourself before there's something to promote. I can at least say this: I've been paid for everything I've published, and I've published quiet a few things, if in odd nooks and cranies. Even this blog pulls in a few bucks a month. Not enough to get paid every month, but a few dollars.

IT IS ALL ABOUT WRITING.

And if you're not a writer, this still goes for you, too. If you're a banker (and you like being a banker) THAT'S what it's about, and if that's not it, then get a different job. If you tied yourself down with life and kids AND a shitty job, well damn, not to be depressing, but you just wasted your life. I'm not saying people should be artists--far from it! I want as clear a field as I can have. But your job ISN'T that thing you do from 9-5, between the weekends when you really live. Your job, what you are, defines you, and you should work hard at it, and you should be consumed by it for those 8 hours a day, so you can go home and be proud of yourself. So you can make love to your spouse with vigor, because you earned it. I have great examples of success in my family. My sister is a surgeon at Harvard. My cousin is an investment banker who is about to retire at 40 with a string of wine bars in Singapore, for god's sake. Neurosurgeons and lawyers and architects, and none of these people, NONE OF THEM, would consider themselves geniuses. They just worked really really hard, and loved their jobs and their lives. And they planned. Not perfectly. They didn't, by far, get everything right. Maybe one in five things actually worked. But that's enough.

This is enough.

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Cleaning Up My 401K & Why You Should At Least Try To Budget, Even If You Fail

With respect to my 401K, I have diversified about $6,500 of my company stock across a range of investment options, thus clearing up that rather glaring hole in my investment portfolio. I'm sitting on my bad real estate investment for a while, as the stock rose a few points in the last couple of days, and if I can make it out of this year and break even, I'll consider myself happy!

With respect to MISSION IMPOSSIBLE, my attempt to survive 26 days off $184.66, I have essentially failed. It's been 23 days, and I'm about $60 over budget. However, this gets to the title of this particular post. I would have spent A LOT more this month if I hadn't kept this months spending within such stringent spending guidelines. I failed, technically, but I made an effort to keep things afloat. I sold a chalkboard I didn't need for about $100, mitigating my losses, and I feel really good about where I ended up. Now, when I started this month, I looked at my usual $700 in spending that I give myself, and I said ABSOLUTELY NOT, I can't do that. But I did a hell of a lot better than I would have imagined. So I'm giving myself a star for the month. OR, so as not to break open the champagne before the finish line, I'm anticipating a star. Because I've worked hard to spend as little money as possible, I'm on track for next month to live a little easier.

That's all. I'm at work and don't want to be, anymore, so asta-la-pasta, spaghetti-o's!

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401K Bonehead Investment Move: Part 2

Thanks to Luke and Beth for the advice on the 401K. Luke gave me some fairly comprehensive advice that Beth basically agreed with. Here's what he said:

IF you have future 401k investments going in, I would suggest starting from there, with future funds, to begin the process of diversification.

Having 50% in company stock is far to high, but it doesn't mean you should sell all of it and that goes for the other 50% wrapped up in a REIT. How much wiggle room do you have with selling company stock? Do you have free reign to sell $8000 from the REIT at any time? Are there any restrictions in your plan? What are the minimums for your selection of funds? What are some of your funds you can chose?

Let me know and lets see if there isn't something that can be done.

I would think you could slowly begin the process of picking funds for future monies as well as over time, liquidating your company stock and REIT positions down to 10% a piece.

Let me know a tad more.

I like Luke and Beth's advice to start by changing the future allotments. I was in a mid-level panic, and going to change everything at once, but this seems like a more measured approach. My company stock portfolio page gives some suggestions for "Short" through "Long" term investment mixes. This is how they suggest you split your allocation for a "Long-Term Portfolio":

Stable Value 6%
Large Company Value 11%
S&P 500 Stock Index 12%
Large Company Growth 11%
Small Company Value 8%
Small Company Growth 8%
International Growth Stock 24%
International Value Stock 10%
Real Estate 10%

I'm basically going to follow the above advice, but because I'm so heavy in Real Estate right now, I'll shift that 10%, for the next year or so, across the rest. And... DONE!

Now, in answer to Luke's question: I just confirmed that I do have the option to change over all my company stock, and I can diversify it across the other funds listed above. I can also change how I allocate all my past investments in REIT. So, I guess the question becomes: how fast do I move money out of the company stock and/or the Real Estate? Any advice is much appreciated.

So. I've been off the radar for a few days, and I spent a good portion of that in the Emergency Room. I FELL IN THE SHOWER, and did a bit of damage to my lip and bruised the entire left side of my body. That was late in the evening on the 4th. After we got home, I went to take a shower, slipped, fell, took out the shower curtain and managed to earn myself three stitches. All while sober. It was very sad. Then, the next day, my girlfriend had a bad fainting episode that required an EMT call, so I spent all of the 5th looking after her. Really, really shitty. I'm incredibly sore, and I can barely move my left arm.

So, how's the old spending? I'm not really sure :) There were some emergency cab rides and miscellaneous comfort items that I bought, in a very "screw it" mood. My account says I spent $37.38, so I'll go with that. With respect to "Mission Impossible" (this is Day 19 of 26):

MISSION REPORT
Total Spent: $168.66
Total Remaining: $16.00
Percent Spent: 91.33%
Percent Time Elapsed: 73.08%

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401K Bonehead Investment Move

I have about $20,000 in my 401K right now. 10K is in company stock, and 10K is in options of my choice. I'll get to the company stock later, but first... with respect to the money that I can shift between plans, at some point (I dimly remember doing this) I was getting more and more aggressive, and finally everything ended up in real estate. Yep. I know. That's the opposite of diversification. And, of course, real estate is doing really bad right now. My thought, when I was thinking, was that real estate might get bumpy for a bit, but eventually it would rise again. In retrospect (it's always in retrospect, isn't it?) it seems really dumb to ride the fund to the ground, only to see it rebound in a few years. I've already lost 11% THIS YEAR. Do I hold and wait for it to recover, or do I shift it? Any advice?

With respect to the company stock. My company was bought last year and all my stock automatically vested because of the merger. That means I can move it around, but the price of the stock, again, is way down. I just got the ability to diversify, but the stock is down from around $20 when we got it to $16. The stocks high was $45, and we're gaining share slowly back. People think it should recover in about three years. Not sure what I should do with all this. Any advice?

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Mission Impossible, Day 16 of 26

MY MISSION
To survive 26 days off $184.66. This is Day 16

Well, after I swore a bit yesterday, I decided to try and sell a giant slate chalkboard on Craigslist that I have no use for. I have a lead with a prominent restaurant owner in Minneapolis. He seems interested. I'm selling it for $100, so if he buys it, I should be able to stay even for the month. We'll see. I just replied back to him.

The obvious upside to this month is that, despite having very little money, I still get along fine. It's been a great learning experience. I'm running low on a few necessities (toothpaste, shaving cream) so I can't live off this little every month, but it really goes to show that you don't have to spend a ton to get by. My girlfriend and I go out for drinks, hang out with friends, and have the occasional bottle of wine. I'm taking her to an outdoor (free) concert this weekend at Lake Harriet in Minneapolis, and having a little picnic there. The Minneapolis Pops Orchestra. I listened to them the other day when I ran around the lake--they're REALLY good. I'm excited to see a full concert.

I'm learning that most of my money goes to really frivolous, and frankly selfish, things: eating out alone, daily coffee shop visits, beer beer beer. And don't get me wrong, I like my beer. It's just, I don't have to go out with EVERYONE.

Part of my ability to buckle down is a result of my need to get my book done in a short period of time. I don't want to sound like a cliche, but it's about having a purpose-driven life. I always wanted to write a book, and I work pretty hard at it, but now that others are showing interest, it makes it all a whole lot more real. I don't feel guilty when I tell friends I can't go out. I don't feel like a loser when I sit home and work. I'm not saying it's easy--I tried writing last night and couldn't get a damn thing done--I drove myself too hard for a few days and didn't get any exercises, and I drank too much work-coffee. I was essentially useless. I'm running and swimming after work tonight. I honestly hate doing that, because I fear I'll be too tired to get any work done afterwards, but I know that my productivity increases when I get out and run around.

That's it for me today. This is long and rambly. I didn't spend money yesterday. Wait, no, I spent $1.27 for breakfast.

Cheers.

MISSION REPORT
Total Spent: $131.28
Total Remaining: $53.38
Percent Spent: 71.1%
Percent Time Elapsed: 61.5%

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Mission Impossible, Days 14-15 of 26

MY MISSION
To survive 26 days off $184.66. This is Day 15

Okay. Damn it. Something happened to my accounts. I didn't carry the one, or I missed a decimal place, or I forgot to factor in pi, and the end result was I didn't have enough in my Wells checking account to cover rent. So the old Wells Credit card was automatically tapped, to the tune of $140, plus a $10 transfer fee. Shit. Added to that, for other unknown reasons, I don't have as much money as I thought I had. Not that I had much. So I transferred the rest of my cash, $120, into my Wells checking account last night.

So.

I had (theoretically) $93.65 left. I had to fill my tank, which cost $28. I spent about $12 on food and such, leaving $54.65. However, (reality) I actually have a $150 balance on my Wells Card, and $120 in my account. Somewhere I was off ~$85.

Damn damn damn damn damn.

Anyway, I'm going to try, as best I can, to stick with the original plan, however even that's behind right now.

I'm not going to think about it. I'll post about this later.

On the upside, I spent the last four days writing, and finished a little under 5,000 words, which is about the pace I like to work at. So that was a success.

MISSION REPORT
Total Spent: $130.01
Total Remaining: $54.65
Percent Spent: 70.4%
Percent Time Elapsed: 57.7%

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Pearls Before Swine... On Hiatus?

I haven't mentioned this before, but I'm a bit of a comic fanatic. It's my guilty-pleasurer, a holdover since childhood. Anyway, for those of you at a loss because the remarkably funny "Pearls Before Swine" by Stephan Pastis seems to have gone dark at www.Comics.com, I think you can find up-to-date comics on Pastis'(???) blog.

That is all for now.

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