Crystal G

Each month I want to see how many $0 days I can get. All costs are rounded.

June 01: Bi-Monthly Bill Payment Day + $31 for gas
June 02: $0
June 03: $0
June 04: $0
June 05: $31 on gas $19 on lunch with co-workers
June 06: $40 on pizza
June 07: $180 on groceries
June 08: $125 to sign my dad and myself up for road-side assistance
June 09: $31 on gas
June 10: $0
June 11: $0
June 12: $0
June 13: $0
June 14: $31 on gas
June 15: Bi-monthly bill payment day
June 16: $0
June 17: $0
June 18: $34 on gas, $40 to my dad for gas, $100 to my dad to even out his bank account and $14 at dinner with co-workers
June 19: $0
June 20: $163 on groceries
June 21: $0
June 22: $0
June 23: $0
June 24: $32 on gas and $180 taken out to cover the speeding ticket by money order and $65 to dad for gas and $10 to dad for prescriptions
June 25: $0
June 26: $0
June 27: $16 on food for Midsummer and $1760 on deck supplies
June 28: $29 on gas for dad
June 29: $34 on gas
June 30: $0

Days in June not spending money: 16.

I decided to go out to eat this month (unlike in May), to see how much it adds up extra. I didn’t go out a lot, but that’s normal for me. The total cost for going out for 3 meals this month was $73, which would buy a hefty set of groceries, definitely more than 3 meals worth.

See also: May, April, March

A year ago today is when my father and I received the notice from the estate that all three farms were being sold, and we had 30 days to get out. As many will remember, the next few weeks were a perfect hell for me. Two of my worst fears in life had just come true.

That I would not be able to support my father, and I would not be able to support myself. We were about to be homeless with no place to go and no money to go there with. I had my meager savings and I was still workin hard to get debt-free, but I was not there yet. To top it off, I still had a car payment.

When we got the eviction notice, it was kind of a surreal shock. We’d lived there off and on for 29 years. We were great tenants and we had a great relationship with the landlord. Unfortunately he died in 2006/2007 and didn’t leave a will to divvy up his estate. With no children, it had to turn into a huge legal battle among nieces and nephews. His other two farms sold for 3 million a piece. Big beautiful farms in a big beautiful expensive Carroll County. Our farm was meager, and our house was condemned and not worth anything. They wanted $200k for it, and I couldn’t afford that. I originally offered $100k, then $150k, they turned down both. I guess 6 million from the other two wasn’t enough.

Looking back now at how emotional I was, I know it was all just shock and panic, and those are fairly natural things. Once I was able to make a decision about what I was going to do (buy a different house) it was more like a light switch was turned on and I was able to mentally regain control of the situation. I don’t even think dad really knew what was going on, we just sorta surrealed our way through it (I’m aware that’s not a word).

But as most tragedies seem to end up, this one ended up a blessing in disguise. A fresh start on a better life. I am happy with that.

I tell you what, it absolutely does not feel like a year has gone by since all of that. It’s still all very fresh and new to me. I still remember how I felt a year ago today, I remember how it felt not having a home for 2 months and living with relatives, I remember what it was like packing up 30 years of crap in 28 days, I remember what it felt like coming home the next day and feeling how different the house felt knowing it was no longer ours, and I remember settlement day signing the papers for our house here in Gettysburg.

And even with all the pain I initially felt, I really can’t say I’d change a thing about what happened. You learn a lot about yourself during times like these. You learn your strengths and weaknesses, how to truck on even when you want to just give up, how to step up to the plate and accomplish something you know nothing about. And most importantly, how to take responsibility when life throws you a curve ball, and learn to be prepared for anything instead of hiding behind the thought of “that’ll never happen to me”.

1. My dad worked concrete for 40 years. I consider him one of the “blue-collared” Americans.
2. Because my dad was in construction, the guys were always trying to top each other on who was strongest. My dad always won.
3. My dad could carry 16 8-foot 2×4’s uphill, that was one of their “strong” tests. The next guy down could only do 14 of them.
4. My dad could also do this while jumping into a ditch, which is partially why he has such bad knees now.
5. My dad was hired by nerds in highschool to protect them. One guy paid my dad $20/week to keep the bullies away from him.
6. My dad used to drag-race his 1969 roadrunner all over Baltimore and Harford County. One time in the middle of the night they were all set up to drag-race over this bridge, and when the cars were going by, some idiot threw a gas can on fire under the cars to be funny. My dad walked over, picked the guy up, and dangled him over the side of the bridge with one hand.
7. My dad used to do push-ups with me on his back to help with strength training.
8. My uncle says my dad could reload a black-powder faster than most men can reload a regular rifle.
9. My dad’s 1969 roadrunner was so fast, cops had to set up a road block in order to stop him at one point.
10. My dad used to be a heavy drinker before I was born, and had a rope tied to the stick-shift in his 69 roadrunner that his friends could hold onto to prevent him from shifting it out of 2nd gear if he was drinking.
11. My dad had a stroke November of 2000 that left half of his body paralyzed (which is when I decided to move back home from the naval base). When he had the stroke he also fell off a roof and landed head-first onto a metal beam, cutting his head open. He made a full recovery of both.
12. I met some of my dads friends that he used to run around with, they quoted him as the “John Wayne” of their generation. Not only because he was a bear, but because he never let people get pushed around or be mean to women.
13. For instance..dad and mom were at a gas station, and there was a group of women there (I don’t know if they were friends with mom or what), and a guy was standing around bad-mouthing and cussing people. Dad told him to stop and he wouldn’t so dad said he just got tired of it and knocked the guy out. Mom tells me she felt the wind as my dad’s fist went by.
14. A girl was staying with the family who had left her ex-husband. He showed up one night and was giving my grandmother (dad’s mom) a bunch of grief and my grandfather and my dad both chased him off and drove after him. They caught up with him at a stop-sign and my dad jumped out of the car and ran over and knocked the guy out. No one cusses out grandmom.
15. My dad has the most awesome fumanchu-like mustache. He always get compliments on it.
16. At our old house, my dad’s nickname was the “Salem Bottom Angel” around the neighborhood because it’s a mostly elderly neighborhood and he’d help everyone out with keeping things in order and fixed.

It’s a bit awkward pulling $1760 out of an ATM machine. It’s fun to play with afterwards though

My uncle is going to be paying for the wood day for our deck (with that money), and probably digging the footings later on this afternoon. So construction will have officially started, which means I need to start taking some pictures as it progresses.

The founder of my church (who happens to be the same age as my father) had a stroke Saturday morning (hence all my tweets updating people). He seems to be doing good and I feel positive that he will make a full recovery. I want to visit him one evening after he gets home, but usually when I go to visit we do some drumming or something. I’d rather avoid having him feel down if he’s not able to do some of those things very well for a while yet. I’ll have to be careful.

Dad’s hyperbaric chamber treatments are finished, but we are still working on healing the ulcers. The chamber helped out a lot, but just didn’t run long enough to finish. I’m not sure what treatments they’ll be doing next, someone mentioned possibly another surgery. I still think maggots would be pretty cool.

• is finally home from Midsummer. Will is in stable condition, no real changes. I might be going to the hospital tomorrow Visitors welcome. #
• Is inspired by the people who came to the grove to help out in wills honor #
• Will is at baltimore wash medical center, room 543-a,stroke still in progrss but ok #
• Update on Will: They definitely think he had a stroke. No new details but I will update Twitter and Facebook from my cell if I hear anything #
• Grove people, please read the forum as Will is in the hospital #
• Secret Spider crawling down the monitor attack! Now where did it go? #
• avoids the people that are full of themselves. It’s not as if they have any room for anything else but their ego #
• QoTD: Democracy: Where any two idiots outvote a genius. – Unknown #
• is up to $1200 extra made this month doing side work. That money is gonna stretch sooo much. Mostly for dad, but I’m getting them shoes! #
• Desktop of the Day: http://zfhi9.tk #
• is having difficulty deciding between Summerlands and Rhythm Fest #
• is making a list of random badass facts about her dad #
• just found out she has A+ blood. Never knew. Same as dad. #
• is excited that we are purchasing the wood for the new deck on Monday Might even be delivered on Monday. Viva la Insurance! #
• “To ensure perfect aim, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target” – Unknown #
• Favorite Michael Jackson song (Thriller is close 2nd): http://bit.ly/1drGS #
• what the heck, is Michael Jackson next? #
• is pondering major year-long fundraising ideas for the Grove. #
• A goal without a plan is just a wish. – Unknown #
• RIP Farrah Fawcett. #
• thinks PA cops are hardcore. They hide behind trees and offorad in fields when setting up speed traps. MD cops have nothing on them. #
• Another Desktop of the Day: http://bit.ly/6tMyK #
• Desktop of the Day: http://emg4g.tk #
• some days ponders deleting all blogs, social networking accounts, etc. But I usually have too much to yammer on about to do that. #
• is amazed at the human body’s ability to be in such pain one day, and such little pain the next. We are interesting creatures! #
• hangin out in limbo kinda sucks. But at least I have plenty to keep me busy I reckon. #
• is grateful that Twitter and Facebook can alert her quickly of celebrity deaths. RIP Ed McMahon. #
• PotD: I want to go here: http://2qb4e.tk – Road Trip! #
• may actually have to go to the doctor about this knee stuff if it’s not better soon. I feel like I need crutches. #
• So. Speeding Ticket. Do you plead guilty or not-guilty? (haven’t had one in years). Someone mentioned a “no-contest”. Wtf is that? #
• has finally enjoyed the first fruits of her labor with Job #2. Shame that part of the first paycheck is going towards the speeding ticket #
• is a limpin fool this morning, no wonder I was a few minutes late to work #
• did something to her knee yesterday cause it hurts like a mofo #
• Watch the “Un-broke” feature on personal finance – http://bit.ly/17Dr3a #

Microsoft Money, my favorite personal finance tracker, gives you a lot of different types of charts and comparisons to go through.

The chart below is my net worth over the last year. It does include money put in (not actual value) of my retirement accounts, so that may skew the chart slightly. Click to enlarge.

June 2008: This is when we found out the estate was being sold and we had to move.
July 2008: Had a big jump because of the $7500 that was donated to me and my father for the down payment on our house.
August 2008: A slight decrease for the good faith payment on the contract for our house (About $1500).
September 2008: A big decrease due to the actual down payment on our house.
October 2008: I believe this started going up because my dad and I started making mortgage payments into one of my accounts to prepare for our first mortgage payment (so we had backup payments).
November 2008: Started our first actual mortgage payment.
December 2008: I’m not sure why there was such a drastic drop here. Probably the spending of the Christmas funds I had saved up throughout the year. But it wasn’t -that- much money so I’m not sure what the difference was here. I also paid back 3 of the 5 people back that had donated money for out down payment.
January 2009: I started saving money back up again.
February 2009: A huge tax refund which I used to pay off the mustang, thus reducing my monthly payments. I also paid back another person who donated money for our down payment.
March – June 2009: I see a gradual increase in my network due to not having anymore of my own debt, plus taking on a second job to pay off my fathers debt. The second job is really helping to push the net worth higher even faster so far this month, but I am not putting anything into savings until after October.

I looked at the offer again that USAA sent me regarding balance transfers and gas purchases.

In addition to a 0% APR for 12 months -and- 3% cash back on all gas purchases up to $150 a month, they are also giving me 7 cents off per gallon (in addition to the 30 cents off per gallon a month I get from my grocery store) -and- no balance transfer fee (which are usually like 3% or $75, whichever is less).

So essentially I’ll be getting around 37 cents off per gallon from now on for gas, and I’ll have absolutely no fees or APR associated with the remainder of my fathers debt I just took on.

If there’s one thing I’m grateful for regarding my previous marriage, it’s the hook-up to military insurance/credit.

I’m not one that actively seeks out incentives just to have them. I don’t have a cash rewards credit card because I don’t want anymore credit cards and am fine with the one I have because I don’t like using them anyway. My USAA card gives cash rewards on occasion, but generally nothing significant.

Right now they are doing 2 programs that I am taking advantage of however.

1. 0% APR on all balance transfers for a year. I immediately switched the remaining balance of my dad’s Tractor Supply over, because 0% is way better than his 29.99%.

2. 3% back on all gas purchases up to $150 each month (you don’t receive the entire balance of what you save until May 2010, but hey it’s free money). So I’ll be using the card for all of my gas purchases now, and probably getting my dad to do the same since I don’t spend $150 on gas every month. Naturally I pay these off every month so I don’t have any lingering balances.

In addition to these two incentives, our local grocery store does one all year long where for every $100 you spend in groceries (and use your uber special Giant savings card, which is not a credit card it just lets you get their special discounts at checkout), you get 10 cents off per gallon of gas on your next gas purchase. You usually have a month or two to use it. Right now I can get 30 cents off per gallon at my next fill-up. But we don’t really buy that many groceries, at most $300 a month so I expect 30 cents off per gallon is the max I’ll get. With rising gas prices, 30 cents off per gallon is just fine with me.

At the end of May, I talked about the preview video I saw of Seth Green in the upcoming feature “Unbroke” which talks about good financial decisions in a…….more down-to-earth tone.

Seth Green’s clip was about buying a house you can afford, which I thought was brilliantly done. He also touched on buying a used but financially friendly vehicle, buying items off craiglist instead of brand new, and keeping an emergency fund.

Watching the full feature, with stars like Will Smith, Antonio Banderas, Cedric the Entertainer, Samuel L. Jackson…I’m really happy to see people that the majority of society seems to “look up to” trying to get across the right message.

Will Smith’s message was mainly about ignoring the media’s charts and bogus input that make people panic and confused.

Antonio mainly focused on how uneducated children are about finances when they leave the nest.

Cedric the Entertainer talked about how people look at credit as the easy way out, when in reality it builds a nagging relationship instead of a clean exchange like cash would. He also talked about only needing one card, instead of some of the people they interviewed who had like 10!. He also went on about sub-prime mortgages and how people just buy larger than they need because the banks manipulate the people into thinking they can afford what they can’t.

(On a personal note here, I was approved for well over $200k for a house by various lenders, but there’s no way I could have afforded that. I’m glad I figured it out on my own and then told -them- what amount I wanted a loan for).

Marisa Tomei and Antonio talk more about emergency funds and how important that is for a person.

The E-trade babies naturally gave input on stocks and bonds and how there’s no quick-rich way with either, both being long-term investments.

They brought the Jonas Brothers in to talk about the different stock markets, NASDAQ, Dow Jones, and S&P 500 (I actually learned from this one, cause I really don’t follow any of that).

Oscar the Grouch followed up on the stock markets with investing when the stocks are low, and people who panic and get rid of their stocks when they are low and that people need to be patient and think in the long-term.

Christian Slater touches on 401k plans and free money with company matches.

Of course they saved Samuel L. Jackson for last, and he tells a story (as a character) about being “Broke as Hell, and not gonna take it anymore”. Mainly focusing on being honest and waking the hell up.

If you’re interested (and you should be), [Watch Un-Broke!] (or just search for Un broke on Hulu.com.

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