Crystal Groves

I called up my Uncle Ronnie to see if he could find out how much new back tires for my dads John Deere would cost. I’m hoping to get these for him for Christmas this year and have been saving up for them. However I don’t really know how much they would be so I could be way off. He’s going to get back to me in a few days with a price and location.

I also called up my USAA account and added my dads name to that credit line of mine (up to $5500). This is the account I’ve been using to pay off his loan with as well as any other debt he has. I’m hoping this will supplement any of the crappy accounts he has opened in the past so I can get him to close those and use this as a replacement. That way I can keep better track of what he spends and he’s not suffering through those ridiculous 29.9% interest rates.

I think also using my card will kinda deter him from wanting to overspend or “abuse” this access I’ve given him. Let’s hope anyway. Trying to break him of his spending habits has been a chore and a half, but I’m getting there slowly. I did speak with him about it when I came home and he’s agreed to get rid of the Tractor Supply account and use my card instead.

I’m still trying to debate with myself on whether or not I should take over the Tractor Supply debt now or later. I may way and see if the rate goes up again in April, in which case I’ll take it over immediately. I just don’t like the idea of taking over his debt in case 1. I lose my job and am unable to pay, meaning I ruin my credit or 2. something happens to him and I’m stuck with his debt by myself.

I decided yesterday that I’m going to reduce my 401k contributions until I’m finished paying off dads debt. That’ll give me like an extra $200 or so a month and I can easily raise it back up once I’m done. I’ll probably still contribute a minimal amount, but not as much as I was. My Roth IRA contribution was already lessened once we knew we were going to have to move. Mainly because that was an after-tax contribution.

My dad and my uncle are going to raise some broiler chickens this year. I’ve been wanting to do this for a while, and I think having my uncle help out will make it easier on both of us for now. I do still eventually want to have my own brood of broiler chickens here, as well as laying chickens. We are also raising some turkeys and I’ve already been taking orders for fresh turkey for the holidays.

Going to be an exciting spring this year, lots of planting to do and animals to take care of and the interest accruing debts will be gone

I’ve been keeping track of the transactions for my fathers Tractor Supply account, which is where he locally gets feed from. The balance hovers at around $600, and this is the account I’ll be tackling next once his $5k loan is gone. I’m making sure he doesn’t get anymore late fees, which are $39 a pop, by the way. I was looking through the transaction history, and I noticed a pattern in that every month his interest rate would go up. December it was 22.16%, in January it was 26.16%, February was 28.9% and now March is <strong><em>29.99%</em></strong>. I’m not sure I understand why it has the ability to raise so often, though I’m sure all creditors have the ability to do this. But to raise significantly every month? Maybe I’ve just always had a different type of credit account, mine have never raised, and I’d pitch a bitch-fit if they did. I’ve tried to google what this is called and why it happens, but have had no luck so far. Seriously though? 29.99% interest rates should be illegal.

(religious)

I mentioned before while learning more history of my new hometown Gettysburg, that there was only one civilian killed during the entire battle.

One of the Gettysburg blogs I frequent, the Gettysburg Daily, just posted a segment on the house she was killed in (not lived in), including pictures of the damage left behind of the fatal shot that killed her.

I love reading this blog everyday.  It gives great insight on the history around here, which I deeply want to learn about.  I’m amazed that living in Westminster so long, I never once came up to Gettysburg.  Honestly I never knew it was so close.  Now that I live here, at least I’ll have all the time in the world to explore and learn.

Living Almost Large asks: “What was your first financial mistake?”

I made a lot of financial mistakes when I was younger, it’s hard to tell where my first big one started. I I’ve had a job since I was 14, so I could easily say that wasting the money that I earned throughout my teen years is a mistake, but most people do that and it wouldn’t have made much of a difference now.

My first huge mistake was probably moving onto the Naval Base when I was 19. It cost money to move, it cost money to rent, pay utilities, and pile up credit card debt, only to eventually move back home in 2001 after my dad’s stroke.

If I had stayed up here I could have saved a lot more money and probably had a better job. But I doubt very much I would have changed my financial habits. I never changed them when I moved back home to be with my dad until only a couple years ago, and that was mainly because I couldn’t buy a damn car.

I can’t say that buying the mustang was a mistake, because I did get it cheap enough and new enough for what I needed. I needed something reliable that I could wear down driving to the Grove and to work regularly. It’s been a very good car the last 3 years.

And I can’t say the house was a mistake either, because we were homeless and this was the perfect place that we could afford.

I will say that I did avoid a HUGE financial mistake by not buying the condemned estate we were living on. That would have been a disaster financially.

Of course I’m going to bring up the topic of gaming during a recession, and not just to give props to my own game, I swear!

Granted, gaming is probably one of the cheapest hobbies out there, depending on the type of game. Spending thousands of dollars on Magic cards……not so much. But there are ways to game for absolutely free.

1. Existing Games. If you’re the RPG type like I used to be during my WW days, and you already have gaming books, it’d be a lot of fun to start up a game with friends and family and have a potluck meal.

If you’ve already sold all of your gaming books (like I’m planning to do), then there are supplements online with the basic rules for reference that you can access for free.

In addition to table-top gaming, emulate some old school games. I started playing some NES Dragon Warrior a while back on my computer just for old-school kicks. Free, accessible, and easy.

And don’t forget pulling out some old consoles and playing some of your old games. I’m tempted to break out my SNES any day now and play some Zelda.

2. Free Games. I knew a person once that blogged about how they were at risk of getting thrown out of their house and couldn’t afford food, but they had a WoW subscription. You’ve got to be kidding me. There are a lot of free games out there, or even games that have just a one time fee, rather than a subscription (Counter Strike: Source comes to mind, which I love).

But for those that like the MMORPG feel, you should check out MUDs (Multi-User Dungeons). Think of them as a text-based WoW, where you interact with players from around the world to build up your character in strength or level. You can involve yourself in all kinds of fun like taking over cities and towns, interacting with DemiGods, warring with other countries or races.

You have all of the perks of games like WoW and EverQuest and Star Wars Galaxies, but just without the graphics, and best of all FREE. There are some MUDs that will charge to play, but 90% of the MUD’s out there are completely free to play.

MUDs are a pretty old-school method of gaming from the late 70′s and early 80′s, but it’s stuck around for it’s versatility and being so economical. You can download free MUD clients to access any MUD, so there’s literally no fee to play and immerse yourself. And a bonus to playing a MUD is it will help improve your typing skills, as well as your spelling and grammar

My particular MUD that I run, Advent of the Mists is one of those MUDs. It’s based in a medieval fantasy world I created myself, but there are sci-fi, cyberpunk, and even White Wolf themed MUDs out there as well. You can browse through a hefty database of MUDs over at The MUD Connector.

If you’re interested in trying out a MUD, but don’t know where to start, feel free to leave me a comment

I received my first tax notice for Fiscal 2009 on Friday. I wasn’t sure what it was at first and then realized that in PA you have to forward your property tax bills to your mortgage holder to pay out of your escrow account if you have one, which I do.

Right now my escrow account has like $1600 in it, and this bill is for $503.97 if paid by April 30th, which is a 2% discount. Normal price is $514.26 if you pay by June 30th, and the penalty price is $565.69 if I pay by December 2009. Naturally I want the discount so I mailed this off Monday.

I’m very very new to property taxes and escrow though, being as this is my first time owning property. I’m curious, does the $1600 currently in my escrow account mean that I have over $1,000 overpaid in it? Or should I expect another tax bill soon for some other crazy PA tax that would take over the $1,000. Or do they split property tax bills into several payments throughout the year and this is just the first quarter or something? And even so, I’m still paying into my escrow account every month, so the account is just going to keep getting bigger and bigger, so that wouldn’t make sense.

These may just be questions for my mortgage company, but if anyone has any insight, I’d be all the appreciative for it.

Silly PA taxes.

I’m going to set up a reminder on April 1st to verify the payment was received from my mortgage company because 1. I don’t trust mortgage companies to do anything right, and 2. The tax collector does not send a receipt unless you mail a stamped addressed envelop with the payment, which I can’t because I’m not sending the payment.

I checked my credit report on Sunday since I hadn’t checked it since last spring, though technically I was given a copy from my mortgage lender in September. Regardless there’s been a lot of activity lately with buying the house, the identity theft, etc, so I was curious.

For those of you that don’t know, you can get your free credit report with Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion at annualcreditreport.com. It’s the only place you can get it for free unless your bank offers you the ability to send you your credit report, which I know some do. This doesn’t give you your FICO score, those you have to pay for, but it does give you a list of credit items in your credit history.

I personally suggest checking one of those every 4 months, instead of all 3 at the same time once a year. That way you can keep tabs on your credit throughout the year. A lot can happen in a year, and a lot of damage can be done in a year.

Anyway, I can’t check Equifax until the end of April (my big one), so I decided to check Experian, that way I can check Equifox sometime this summer.

Everything looks kosher, still only one negative item on my account from 2004, which probably won’t drop off till 2014. But I don’t need credit for anything right now, or maybe even ever again I don’t know.