Taxable Accounts: $2,331.07 - Liquid Savings - 4.50% APY HSBC Savings Account $25,128.31 - Savings - 5.30% APY Countrywide Savings Accounts $15,731.53 - Stocks - Misc. Direct Investments $5,861.64 - Stocks - Ameritrade Izone $2,657.18 - Stocks - Zecco $2,647.58 - Bonds - TreasuryDirect $54,357.31 TOTAL Retirement Savings: $17,555.93 - ROTH IRA - Vanguard $1,115.42 - ROTH IRA - Scottrade $55,011.88 - 401K - T. Rowe [...] ... (more)

I have been trying somewhat unsuccessfully to earn a bit of extra cash through side projects. I have a pretty decent computer background so freelancing seems like my best bet. I have done some work for local businesses but have not received any new work in quite a while. I’ve been tying sites like rentacoder.com and guru.com, but it seems like I am getting bid against by South American programming outfits whose prices make it not worth my time. On Friday I saw a part time position on Monster doing something I specialize in - telecommuting and a very nice ... (more)

Sears is having their 10% off just about anything in the store VIP sale this weekend - on Sunday November 11th from 6pm-9pm. To sweeten this deal even more, Sears also currently is running 20% off any Kenmore appliance which is stackable with the 10% off, making an effective 28% off! Could be a good time to buy if you are in need of a new appliance. They are also going to be offering some of the Black Friday deals during this time (unfortunately not the early bird doorbuster sales though). Sears VIP Sale Share This ... (more)

The 99th edition of the Festival of Frugailty is up over at Learning to be Frugal. There are some great posts over there including my cheapo eyeglasses experience so if you have the time you should check it out. Share This ... (more)

Well after just switching from HSBC Direct to Countrywide, Countrywide has lowered their APY from 5.50% to 5.35% on the heels of the latest federal reserve interest rate announcement. Its slightly disheartening but compared to most of the other online banks its still a good rate. ING Direct is 4.2%, HSBC is 4.50% (for now), GMAC is 4.50%. I will be sticking with Countrywide for now but as always will keep my eye out for something better. Share This ... (more)

I came across a most excellent tutorial today How To Actually Search Craigslist via Lifehacker. I am a huge fan of Craigslist for those who didn’t know, and I often find it difficult to manage searches on their poor engine. Craigslist does offer RSS feeds (which I am also a huge fan of via Google Reader) however you can only have 1 search term per feed. So if you are looking for 20 different items you have to have 20 feeds in your RSS reader which can become quite messy. The tutorial shows you how to use Yahoo ... (more)

Taxable Accounts: $3,806.66 - Liquid Savings - 5.05% APY HSBC Savings Account $25,021.28 - Savings - 5.50% APY Countrywide Savings Accounts $16,393.20 - Stocks - Misc. Direct Investments $6,105.13 - Stocks - Ameritrade Izone $3,089.63 - Stocks - Zecco $2,647.58 - Bonds - TreasuryDirect $57,063.48 TOTAL Retirement Savings: $18,111.93 - ROTH IRA - Vanguard $1,306.73 - ROTH IRA - Scottrade $56,051.88 - 401K - T. Rowe Price $75,470.54 TOTAL Debts $3,094.84 - Student Loan - AES (3.625%) $4,395.00 - Credit Card BT - Chase(0%) $17,995.28 - Credit Card BT - BOA NEA (0%) $7,420.18 - Credit Card BT - Juniper (0%) $20,094.00 - Credit Card BT - Upgromise (0%) $52,999.30 TOTAL Housing / Automobiles $266,406.71 - Mortgage - ... (more)

Here in the US, the day after Thanksgiving is known as Black Friday. Its when retailers gear up for the holiday season to move from the red to black (financial wise) and have huge sales to attract customers. Its a great time to do some holiday shopping there are many door buster specials where you will see products at their lowest prices ever. Rather than wait till Thanksgiving day to get your newspaper with the sales ads, you can usually find the flyers online as much as a month in advance. This year is no exception. My ... (more)

After doing quite a bit of squinting lately I decided it might be time to update my eyeglass prescription. My insurance only provides for an eye exam and either eyeglasses or contacts every 2 years so I went to the local Empire Vision and had an eye exam and ordered some contacts which I use for sports since those are more expensive than the glasses I had in mind. I asked them for a copy of my prescription and was on my way. Ordering I had been following this Slickdeals thread for a while on cheap prescription glasses and finally ... (more)

Lowes is currently offering a $10 off $25 coupon through their fan website to kick off you fall project. I signed up and used this coupon today at my local Lowes so can verify it scans and works! Thats up to 40% off your next purchase so if you need something this coupon would certainly sweeten the deal. Sign Up For $10 off $25 At Lowes Advertisement: UK Payday Loan fast payday loan online Share This & ... (more)

Some of you have been wondering why I have not been posting as frequently as of late. Unfortunately over the last few months I’ve been having some health problems that needed to be addressed. I was having constant stomach problems and weight loss over the last year or so which was progressively getting worse. I was finally diagnosed with Celiac disease about a month ago and have had to make some lifestyle changes to accommodate this. What Is Celiac Disease? Basically Celiac is an allergy to Gluten which causes damage to the small intestines and in turn creates stomach problems. ... (more)

Now that all the heat seems to have died down from the latest Fed interest rate reduction I have decided to switch my high yield savings account. I was very happy with my HSBC Online Savings account, however they lowered their interest rate from 5.05% to 4.5% which is now a lot less competitive than some of the higher yield accounts. I’ve decided to go with Countrywides 5.50% APY savings account which is up there with the highest rates out there. I do give up a few luxuries I had with HSBC though - there is a 10k minimum ... (more)

Taxable Accounts: $32,476.06 - Liquid Savings - 5.05% APY HSBC Savings Account $16,416.72 - Stocks - Misc. Direct Investments $5,772.37 - Stocks - Ameritrade Izone $3,067.39 - Stocks - Zecco $2,625.52 - Bonds - TreasuryDirect $60,358.06 TOTAL Retirement Savings: $17,559.20 - ROTH IRA - Vanguard $1,369.42 - ROTH IRA - Scottrade $52,575.18 - 401K - T. Rowe Price $71,503.80 TOTAL Debts $3,137.06 - Student Loan - AES (3.625%) $4,484.00 - Credit Card BT - Chase(0%) $18,176.28 - Credit Card BT - BOA NEA (0%) $7,495.18 - Credit Card BT - Juniper (0%) $20,400.00 - Credit Card BT - Upgromise (0%) $53,692.52 TOTAL Housing / Automobiles $266,866.99 - Mortgage - Countrywide $339,900.00 - Approximate Home Value $10,380.00 - Approximate Car ... (more)

PenFed is offering a new mortgage which is kind of an interesting concept. Here are the highlights: 5.625% Rate (5.377% APR) Low rate that only adjusts every 5 years for 30 years Rate would adjust up to 2% or our prevailing rate, whichever is the lowest Maximum lifetime adjustment that will not exceed 5% above the initial rate The loan features all the usual PenFed advantages as well - no points, no closing costs, and 90 day rate lock. Seems like a good deal for those looking ... (more)

Taxable Accounts: $35,015.16 - Liquid Savings - 5.05% APY HSBC Savings Account $15,919.44 - Stocks - Misc. Direct Investments $5,689.86 - Stocks - Ameritrade Izone $2,934.27 - Stocks - Zecco $2,611.74 - Bonds - TreasuryDirect $62,170.47 TOTAL Retirement Savings: $16,816.75 - ROTH IRA - Vanguard $1,522.11 - ROTH IRA - Scottrade $49,795.59 - 401K - T. Rowe Price $68,134.45 TOTAL Debts $3,178.81 - Student Loan - AES (3.625%) $4,575.00 - Credit Card BT - Discover (0%) $18,359.28- Credit Card BT - BOA NEA (0%) $20,400.00 - Credit Card BT - Upgromise (0%) $46,513.09 TOTAL Housing / Automobiles $267,324.71 - Mortgage - Countrywide $339,900.00 - Approximate Home Value $10,588.00 - Approximate Car Value - Edmunds.com $83,163.29 - TOTAL (Approximate Equity) ... (more)

It seems like the price gouging for a passport photo keeps getting worse and worse. The Post Office now charges $15 for a quick shot, and most other places charge between $10 and $20 for it. Occasionally you can get a coupon at Right Aid for a couple bucks but that is increasingly rare. So what are us frugal folks with a digital camera to do? Make your own passport photo of course! I just renewed my passport with a photo I created and have received the passport so I can vouch this works. So if ... (more)

Kashi is currently promoting their new line of snack foods by giving out your choice of 3 different snacks for free! Follow the link below and click ‘get your free snack’. You can click ’skip all this, gimme my snack’ to by-pass all the questions they ask. You have your choice of the following: Oatmeal Dark Chocolate TLC Cookie Original 7 Grain TLC Crackers Trail Mix TLC Chewy Granola Bar Kashi OutReach: Free Snack Share This ... (more)

My wife and I have been going to Gold’s Gym for about 8 months now. Its important for us to exercise and stay active so the gym membership has been helping a lot. However every time I look at our monthly expenses that expense pops out as something that could be reduced. Gold’s Gym has a lot of options over most of the other gyms in the area. There are free classes (yoga, exercise, spinning, etc), plenty of equipment so even at its busiest you don’t have to wait for a machine, a private tv in all the ... (more)

After checking the mail today I was delighted to find my Chase United Mileage Plus Business Card. During my latest 0% app-o-rama that was dicussed a few times here I also applied for this card in order to take advantage of the 25,000 free miles they were giving away with it which is enough for a free round trip domestic flight. However my experience with Chase was less than stellar. I was called by their fraud prevention department and asked to fax my business license to them which I did. A few days later a rather crass representative ... (more)

Here is another update on my latest credit card app-o-rama. I’ve just about wrapped the application phase up and am ready to get on with the tedious payment phase. I applied for all these cards on July 20th and have had mixed results between the card providers. Here is the current status on the 0% card applications: Card ... (more)

Taxable Accounts: $8,799.41 - Liquid Savings - 5.05% APY HSBC Savings Account $15,380.75 - Stocks - Misc. Direct Investments $5,659.35 - Stocks - Ameritrade Izone $2,883.03 - Stocks - Zecco $2,605.46 - Bonds - TreasuryDirect $35,328.00 TOTAL Retirement Savings: $16,496.58 - ROTH IRA - Vanguard $1,492.28 - ROTH IRA - Scottrade $47,853.92 - 401K - T. Rowe Price $65,842.78 TOTAL Debts $3,220.43 - Student Loan - AES (3.625%) $6,658.00 - Credit Card BT - Discover (0%) $7,110.00 - Credit Card BT - Citi (0%) $16,988.43 TOTAL Housing / Automobiles $267,779.86 - Mortgage - Countrywide $339,900.00 - Approximate Home Value $10,774.00 - Approximate Car Value - Edmunds.com $82,894.14 - TOTAL (Approximate Equity) Networth Breakdown ... (more)

I thought I would update you all on my progress for my latest credit card app-o-rama. I’m sure some of you are aghast at this, but I plan to simply take advantage of the “free money” from the credit card offers and not to rack up debt against them. I applied for all these cards on July 20th and have had mixed results between the card providers. Some were very speedy where I still have not received anything back from others. Here is the current status on the 0% card applications: ... (more)

So you want to sell an old computer? Well there are a few things you need to know first to keep your personal information private. We keep a lot of things on the computer that could be used for identity theft… tax returns, quicken records, internet passwords, etc so its important to make sure whoever inherits your PC doesn’t hijack this information. Deleting Files Doesn’t Work The solution isn’t to simply go into Windows and delete the files. When you delete a file all it does is remove the reference from your system, the information is still available on ... (more)

To introduce their new Halmark Saturdays greeting card line Walmart is offereing a free greeting card by mail. You get your choice of one of the following cards: Paper Doll Cat Head What Up Dog Monty Just click on the link below, click the ‘free sample’ button, and put in your information. FREE SAMPLE GREETING CARD Cards That Make Our Boss Nervous Our new Saturdays cards by Connections from Hallmark are quirky. Topical. Irreverent. The kind of funny that steps up to the line. Ripped from the gossip rags or the ... (more)