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May 31
Each month I want to see how many $0 days I can get. All costs are rounded.
May 01: Bi-Monthly Bill Payment Day + $20 for dads new cellphone + $35 to dad for gas
May 02: $25 on gas
May 03: $0
May 04: $0
May 05: $0
May 06: $0
May 07: $26 on gas and $50 donation for Lakota Quilt Raffle
May 08: $0
May 09: $0
May 10: $0
May 11: $14 to dad for new fuel filter, $190 on groceries, $68 investment purchase
May 12: $0
May 13: $27 on gas
May 14: $0
May 15: Bi-Monthly Bill Payment Day
May 16: $0
May 17: $25 on gas
May 18: $142 to dad for new fuel pump and feed, $21 at the grocery for things like toilet paper
May 19: $25 on gas
May 20: $0
May 21: $0
May 22: $0
May 23: $0
May 24: $0
May 25: $0
May 26: $31 on gas, $70 on health items, $10 for dad for medication and $26 for dad for gas
May 27: $0
May 28: $0
May 29: $0
May 30: $31 on gas
May 31: $0
Days in May not spending money: 20.
This month was fairly difficult, only because I made it a goal not to order food delivered or go out to eat at all this month. There were several instances where I wanted to, like for a friends birthday, or yesterday I had the urge for Chik-fil-a, but I managed. 20 days out of 31 is ridiculous, but I’m happy about it. I don’t expect to hit that mark again.
See also: March, April
Tags: $0 Days, Finance
May 29
As noted on my Twitter and Facebook, the insurance company came back and approved our estimate for the porch, minus $250 for the tree. They are granted $3525, which is realistically $2525 due to my $1,000 deductible. The money will be in my account in 3-5 business days, so next week. Then we can get started on the new deck.
I’m not sure how much a new deck will raise the value of the house, but I’m hoping it’s considerable. I will have to do some research on what something like that does for the value of homes.
The most important part of this deck, is actually going to be a ramp at one end, that declines faintly onto the ground. The reason for this is because my dad’s legs hurt him a lot, and he often struggles with stairs. Should he ever be really sore, or hurt himself, then he can use the ramp instead of any stairs in the house at all, which I’m -very- happy about. It’ll be especially nice if I ever have to get him a golf cart or something to do things around our place on.
So I guess the tree is somewhat of a blessing in disguise. I need to take pictures of the carpenter ant damage at the base of the tree, and I plan to plant a maple in its place once I’ve destroyed the carpenter ant colony.
This entire insurance experience was ridiculously easy. I’m going to write a letter of praise to my claims agent and to the insurance company. Literally all I had to do was submit a claim through the website, talk to the agent for some details, submit pictures through their website, and submit a pdf of the estimate from a contractor of -my- choic through their website, and everything else was done for me. She even had my account number on file because I use it to pay off my dads loan, so she knew right where to put the money.
I thought dealing with insurance companies was supposed to be hard?
Tags: dad's health, Finance, gettysburg house, House Upgrades, insurance
May 28
I have a lot of motivators in my life, one of which is money, obviously. And I’ve been trying to come up with incentive to do somethings I need to do. Eating healthier, for instance. I do a pretty damn good job at it already, but still run into moments. Exercising more is an issue sometimes too, though trees falling on your house tend to provide involuntary exercise  And working towards getting projects done around the house is another one I need more of a push on. Sometimes I even try to do too much at once and end up less productive than if I had just focused on one thing.
There are also things I want to use money for, but have a hard time convincing myself that it’s okay to spend money.
So to help both the issue of motivation and spending money, I’m going to try and combine the two, and use money as a motivation. To do this I want to start paying myself an hourly rate. Something like, $5 for every hour of exercise, $5 for every hour of productive work, $2 for any pounds lost, maybe take away $2 for every craptastically unhealthy meal. And put all of this money away to spend on something I really want. Like the women drummers weekend in California which will cost about $1100. Or saving up to buy my dad a new pre-owned car with cash. That would be a treat to myself for doing all of these things.
It’s the same concept of treating yourself for doing well at a difficult task, but on more of an organized level. And it would take a lot of discipline just to not cheat on the payments, but I can see it working for someone who is really determined.
The way I’ll figure out prices is to look at my budget and see how much I’m comfortable with parting with each paycheck (this can go up and down as needed), and then divide that up into how many hours I’d like to spend doing things like exercise and being productive, and how many meals I generally eat in a day. That way I’m not overextending my wallet if I happen to push harder one week versus the next.
And of course this might very well be a stupid idea, but I think it’s one that might work for -me-. I’m at least willing to give it a shot, because there are also some things around the house I want to spend money on
Tags: Finance, Health, productiveness
May 21
Most of you are aware that the Senate has passed a new bill that restricts unfair credit card practices called “The Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act“, which could very well be on Obama’s desk by Memorial Day. This is shortly after the “Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights” that was approved last month.
Now here are some of the cool things that could come from this bill, according to The Simple Dollar:
Existing balances: Issuers cannot retroactively change the rate on an existing balance unless the account is 60 days delinquent.
Payments: A consumer payment above the minimum applies first to the balance with the highest rate. (Before this legislation, banks could apply your payment to the balance with the lowest interest rate first—so your more costly balance just kept racking up interest. Now, payments in excess of the minimum amount owed must first be applied to the balance with the highest interest rate first, and then to remaining balances in descending order.)
Teaser rates: Issuers cannot raise rates for the first year after an account opened. Promotional rates must last at least six months.
Bills: Issuers must send a bill 21 days before the due date.
Over limit: Issuers cannot charge over-limit fees on credit cards unless the consumer has signed up to allow such transactions.
Minors: For consumers under 21 years old, a company must get the signature of a parent or another to take responsibility for the debt, or it must obtain proof that the under-21 consumer can repay credit.
Disclosure: Cardholders must get 45 days notice of change in terms.
Fees: Issuers cannot charge fees to pay by mail, phone, and electronic transfer or online, except for expedited service.
Gift cards: All gift cards must have at least a five-year life.
Some other things it addresses:
Account closings: The Senate bill doesn’t address it, but the House bill requires an issuer give you 30 days notice before it closes your account.
Universal default: Both bills eliminate this practice, which allows a card issuer to raise your rates if it learns that you were late on another card.
Penalty periods: If you are late and your rate goes up, the Senate bill states that if you pay your bill on time for 6 months in a row, you can reclaim the lower rate.
Now I -like- all of these and think they are great for consumers, but it’s going to suck for some consumers who rely heavily on credit cards and being in debt (in which case they have other problems they need to work on anyway). Now if only they would allow consumers to opt-in to overdraft protection instead of forcing it unwillingly 
The problem comes from bankers supposedly trying to figure out more tricky and dishonest means of making money out of this. According to The Consumerist, some bankers are threatening to “charge interest immediately on a purchase” or “reinstating annual fees” or “removing reward programs”. I think and hope that most of that is just letting off steam, and not actually going to happen. But if it does, I can’t imagine those particular banks are going to keep customers very long.
How does it look for a bank to lash out at its customers when forced to treat customers fairly for a change? Tsk tsk. That’d be a bad move on their part, and I’m actually fairly disgusted that it’s even being brought up as an issue by the bankers, whether they go through with it or not.
I can’t say it really affects me all that much either way, at least it won’t for much longer. Once dad’s debts are paid off I don’t plan to use my credit cards much at all, and if I do the balance will be paid off immediately, in which case the “charging of interest immediately” might be a problem. But I never worry about reward programs, and if they start charging an annual fee, I’ll just switch to a different card.
Tags: credit, Finance
May 18
I talked to an amazingly helpful representative today from the insurance company, and the process is in motion for getting this tree out of here and the deck taken care of. Surprisingly they -don’t- send an inspector to look at the damage. Instead they ask you to send pictures (obviously I had plenty!), get a contractor estimate, and send it in to them for review.
They do not require any sort of licensing or bonding, or even certification on the contractor, which I made very clear to double check, as I plan to have my uncle (who is a contractor anyway) do the work. Since they don’t have any requirements for the contractor, this should be fine.
Hopefully we can get the simple deck that we wanted out of this, and have a better roof over it than that aluminum one from before.
I do have a $1,000 deductible, which is exactly what an emergency fund is for, so I am covered there. They also cover around $500 for hauling of the tree, which my uncle will probably also quote and do. He has a friend who owns a local bluegrass place that has a mulcher that he’ll borrow to take care of all the little limbs.
So I’m not sure when all of this is going to be started, but I’d like to have it sooner than later cause this tree is a bit of a hindrance. Although all of the young strong men stopping by to offer to haul it away certainly isn’t a bad thing
Tags: Finance, gettysburg house, homeowning, insurance
May 18
- Dads hyperbaric chamber treatments seem to be going well. He has to go to them 5 days a week, and it’s about a half hour/40 minute drive to and from every day. They say the color of the skin is looking a lot better, and the ulcer has gotten slightly smaller in one direction, but looks a little bigger in another direction.
- His truck is also still having troubles, which we think is the fuel pump. He’ll be getting that today on my dollar and hopefully that’ll be the end of that for now.
- As shown yesterday, a tree fell against the house. My insurance company is not open on Sunday’s so I should be receiving a call today about my claim for the porch and whatever damage there might be to the house. The thing I like about my insurance company though is how advanced their website is, as I was able to submit a claim through there. My hope is that they’ll give enough that we can build the new deck we’ve been wanting, since we can get it done on the cheap. My other hope is that my uncle, who is unemployed right now, can bid on the job. But if everything else fails, we at least got some free firewood out of the deal.
- My other hope is that we don’t have to use all of the money, if we get any, and I can put it towards something else (like dad’s debt, or the new animal pens dad wants built behind the garage).
- An ex co-worker has hooked me up with a fella I’m doing sidework for in order to bring in some extra cash. The guy seems to like me and has already said he has more work for me through June. It requires me working 11 hour days by doing more work at nights, but I’m certainly not complaining.
- I think I’m going to really smash my $0 day goal this month, as I’m already at 12 days, and last month I was at 16. I mainly contributing this to unfortunately not being able to travel as much this month, so I’m saving gas. I may still keep count in June, but I don’t know whether I’m going to be as severe about it, because even though it’s not a hard thing to do, I still feel a little deprived.
- I’ve been enjoying the blender that the sweetheart got me. I make a mean mango + apple + flax seeds smoothie for breakfast. Now I just need to send the juicer off to get fixed, since I burnt it up I guess.
- Dad and I have a TON of stuff in the garden this year. I don’t think I can remember it all. Onions, Potatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, at least 2 varieties of squash, different peppers, corn (as of this week anyway), radishes, tomatoes, and more I just have to remember it. I’m going to be doing a lot of canning this year, I’m very excited.
- One of my uncles turkey’s had some babies as well (which is not an easy thing to do, honestly), so we’re going to have more turkey’s than we originally thought. Not complaining though, as I love eating a good turkey.
- The guineas are still not quite big enough to release, but they are growing bigger every day. I’ll be glad when they can roam around and eat up all these damn ticks.
Tags: Dad, farming, Finance, Health
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