Disneysteve's Common Cents Blog

We finally figured out our summer travel plans. In my last post, I said how we were looking at New Hampshire, Boston, and Rhode Island. Well, the more we researched New Hampshire, the more things of interest we found throughout the state. And after checking the Boston guides again, we realized that on our last visit, we had hit almost all of the sites that we were really interested in.

So the final decision is that we will be spending the whole 2 weeks in New Hampshire. We're starting with a 1-night stay in Hartford, CT to visit family. Then we will move on to Manchester, NH for 7 nights. We'll use that as our base for exploring the whole southern part of the state. Then we'll do two nights in Lebanon to see some sites along the western border before ending up in Franconia in the White Mountains for 4 nights. Everything but the Franconia part will be free with Marriott Reward points. So the grand total hotel cost for 14 nights will be under $400.

For anyone planning a trip to New Hampshire, the state tourism guide is pretty worthless as it is horribly disorganized. The site that we found that was extremely helpful was www.newhampshire.com. They break the state down into several regions and have a list of 10 things to see and do in each of those regions.

Now we just need August to come soon.

I realized that I haven't made an entry for a couple of weeks. It seems like we've been busy non-stop with one thing or another. I'm on a few committees at our synagogue, busy with work, attending some school things with DD, etc.

One thing we've started doing seriously is figuring out our summer vacation. We've been tossing around ideas for a few months but I think we've finally narrowed it down. Now that DW isn't working, we can do a 2-week vacation rather than 1 week. That helps a lot in the planning. My main criteria was that I wanted to use our Marriott points as much as possible. We usually use them every other year to pay for at least part of our trip. We currently have over 100,000 points. If we plan it right, that may well cover just about all of a 2-week trip.

Anyway, last summer we went to Stowe, VT and loved it so we want to head back to New England this year. As of now, we're planning to start in New Hampshire. We've been paging through the state tour guide (which is really poorly organized) and the AAA guidebook (which is very well organized) to get some ideas of what sites we want to visit.

A couple of weeks ago, DD asked if we could go back to Boston some time. We were there 3 years ago and though we had a great time and saw some neat stuff, we barely scratched the surface of all the area has to offer. So after NH, we will head to Boston for a few days.

Finally, as we move toward home, I want to spend a few days in Rhode Island - Providence and Newport. We've never been there but looking through the guide books, there are numerous places of interest that we'd like to see.

We haven't worked out the exact itinerary - how many days in each place - but we're getting there. The main thing I want to figure out is where we want to stay in each locale so I can book the rooms. So that's where we stand for now.

2/12 was DW's last day of work. Her last paycheck came a few days later. So we are officially a one-income household again.

I'm really not expecting it to change much on the spending side since we were investing 80% of her salary in her 403b plan (which I have to figure out what to do with). She was actually only bringing home $156/month, and some of that went into savings, too. I think we'll make that up in less gas usage, less clothing costs, more home cooking and more efficient food shopping. And having her happier and more relaxed already is well worth the lost income.

Where we'll take the hit is in our retirement accounts. She was putting $1,250/month into her 403b. No way we can replace that. Also, I may need to trim back what goes into DD's 529. It used to be $225/month but I increased it to $400/month a couple of years ago. I may drop it back a bit but I'm waiting a month or two to see how everything plays out.

Last year, our Rabbi Emeritus tried to put together a group trip to Israel. In a fit of insanity, I decided that we could go and we put down a $1,500 deposit. Fortunately for our bank account, not enough people signed up and the trip was cancelled. Also fortunate because the latest round of violence started the week we had been scheduled to go.

The Rabbi is now again talking about getting a group together. I'm hoping (and have told him so) that he will plan a more budget-minded trip this year. I think the main reason he couldn't gather enough people last year was the cost. He was doing first class accomodations all the way and the trip would have been nearly $4,000/person. Since there are 3 of us, that meant $12,000 plus expenses. I figured about $14,000 all together. Like I said, I must have been out of my mind when I agreed to that.

If he manages to trim costs and make the trip more affordable, we will give it some serious consideration. As much as I'd like to go, I have a tough time spending that kind of money on anything. We also have our daughter's Bat Mitzvah coming up next year and own 2 aging cars, so I see those costs on the horizon.

We'll have to figure it out when we see the actual price of the trip.

I started to work on my taxes today. I'm very good about putting all tax-related items in one folder in my desk drawer throughout the year. Then when tax time rolls around, all I have to do is sort through that one folder and put things together. Makes the job so much easier.

Once I have all my 1099s, I sit down and get organized. I do not do my own taxes. My father was an accountant. When he was alive, he did them for me. Since he died, my cousin, who now runs the family accounting firm my dad and uncle started, has been doing them. He does charge me, but at a considerably reduced rate. Last year, I think I paid $80. It is well worth it to me as i want to be sure it is done right and I have a professional standing behind my return.

My next step is to scan through my checkbook register and my CC statements to check for tax-related transactions. I started that earlier and will probably finish up tomorrow. Finally, I need to compile my ebay sales info. Then I'll call my cousin and set up an appointment to meet with him and give him all the data.

I'm hoping we come out about even this year. It seems that no two years are the same. Just when I think I've got it figured out so that we don't get a big refund or owe much, something changes in our financial situation. For 2006, it was my wife signing up for the 403b plan at work. Since she was putting 80% of her salary into the plan for the last 3 months of the year, that will certainly alter her taxable income. I'm hoping that balances out the $7,200 in dividends and capital gains that one of our taxable mutual funds paid this year. Time will tell where things end up. I'll report back in a few weeks after the returns are completed.

We happened to be watching America's Test Kitchen last weekend and saw a recipe we wanted to try ourselves - Pot Stickers. They made theirs with ground pork, which is out in our house since a) we're Jewish and don't eat pork and b) we're nearly vegetarians and hardly ever eat meat. So I took on trying out the recipe with a few modifications.

Thursday is my short day at work, so I stopped at the store and picked up supplies: shitake mushrooms, Chinese cabbage, scallions, won ton wrappers (wanted gyoza wrappers but couldn't find any - have to go to the Asian market next time).

Using the ATK recipe as a guide, I chopped, salted and drained the cabbage, chopped the scallions and mushrooms, added a couple of egg whites and, in place of the pork, mixed in vegetarian ground beef substitute. I assembled the pot stickers and froze about half the batch - it made lots! I held the rest aside for us to eat tonight. I also made the scallion dipping sauce that ATK had the recipe for.

While I was cooking the pot stickers, I also cooked up a pot of brown rice to eat on the side.

I was fully expecting my daughter not to like them. I even told her she could make Ellio's pizza as a back-up dinner if she didn't like them.

Well, there was no Ellio's eaten at our house tonite. My daughter ate 7 or 8 of the pot stickers, as did my wife and I. I even had to get up part-way through and cook another batch. One more recipe to add to the family dinner list. Plus, we have a ziploc bag full of frozen pot stickers that we can make next time. I have to figure out approximately what the whole batch cost to make, but I'm sure it wasn't a whole lot.

We are the cookie family this year, meaning we are in charge of ordering, storing and distributing the cookies for our troop. We just got back from picking up our initial order - 200 CASES!! That's 2,400 boxes of Girl Scout cookies! Our living room is stacked 5 high with cases of cookies. We can't actually sell until Thursday (we can take orders, but no money), but if anyone is in the neighborhood and needs cookies, come on by.
disneysteve
disneysteve
disneysteve

My daughter is a victim of Madison Avenue. As hard as we've tried to fight it, she keeps thinking there is something inherently wrong with store brand products. We still buy a bunch of them, but there are certain things she insists on brand name.

A few weeks ago, we were at the supermarket and she needed waffles, which she has for breakfast most mornings. I showed her the price difference between the Eggos and the store brand. She agreed to try the store brand. I told her if she didn't like them, she didn't have to get them again.

Guess what. She thought they were just fine. We only bought the small box (10) that first time to try them. When we went back the other day, we bought the bulk pack of 48 which made the unit price even cheaper. I didn't figure out exactly what that is saving, but since she eats 3 waffles a day, I know it will add up pretty quickly.

So the next time I want her to try something generic, I'll just remind her about the waffles.

I explained in my last entry that my wife would be leaving her job of 2 years and returning to SAHM status. That's official now as she spoke to the administrator yesterday and will hand in written notice today (as required by company policy).

However, that might not be the end of the story. Her job has been as secretary of our synagogue. Monday nite, she spoke with the Rabbi and let him know she would be leaving. She works closely with him doing his appointment scheduling, typing his dictation, etc., so she wanted to let him know. He has been pushing to get someone to help him part-time, maybe a couple of evenings each week, to do organizational stuff, as he is not the most organized person in the world. He said he would speak with the board about coming up with the money to hire her part-time.

Yesterday, when she spoke to the administrator, she said the same thing. Maybe my wife could stay on on a PT basis. Since our daughter attends religious school there, my wife is already in the building 2 nites a week while our daughter is in class. If they can arrange to pay her to work during those hours, and maybe one or two other times during the week, that would be perfect. Perhaps 8-10 hours/week.

It needs to be proposed to the finance committee, which will happen tomorrow. We'll see what they say.

My wife left her job in Dec. 1994 just before becoming pregnant with our daughter. She remained a SAHM for 10 years. We managed just fine on my income alone, even counting a short period of unemployment and a job change along the way (with a paycut).

Two years ago this month, she went back to work. It wasn't planned. She wasn't looking for a job, but an opportunity presented itself that she didn't want to pass up. She has never been entirely sure she wanted to work, so we tried our best not to become dependent on her income. I've put about 80% of her gross into savings each paycheck. She currently brings home $78 twice a month after the 403b contribution and taxes. We have increased spending a bit thanks to her income, and retirement planning sure got a big boost with an extra 15K/year going in, but overall we've been really good about managing that extra money.

She's finally gotten to the point where she just isn't happy at the job. When she first considered working, we agreed that if she wasn't happy, I didn't want her to feel she had to keep at it just for the money. So we talked over the weekend and she will probably be quitting in the near future.

We've talked about how we are going to have to tighten the belt a bit and go back to some more frugal habits that we have gotten away from the past couple of years. We've been eating out more, buying more convenience foods, food shopping with little regard to sales and coupons, taking nicer vacations, etc. We agree that her being happy is more important than having the extra money, so we're willing to work together to cut costs. Besides, a lot of the less frugal behavior has happened because she is working and we don't have time to do the frugal stuff, so I don't think it will be that tough to trim our spending. I'll definitely be rereading "The Tightwad Gazette" and paying closer attention to the weekly circulars and the threads onine about money-saving tips, so keep them coming.

Our garage used to be a total mess - barely room to walk through it to enter the house. A year or so ago, I finally buckled down and cleaned it out pretty well and it was great. Then my mom decided to sell her house (my childhood home). I still had a ton of stuff stored there. You guessed it. I helped clean out her house and all the stuff ended up in our garage. Back to just a narrow path from driveway to door.

It was a beautiful spring-like day today, 71 degrees in January. I took the opportunity to spend some time in the garage, though not as much as I had planned. I did manage to pack 4 carton boxes with stuff to go to Goodwill. I didn't get to drop it off today, but I'll get it over later this week. That barely made a dent in the appearance of the garage, but it got me motivated to keep at it. I'm not sure what we're up to tomorrow, but if nothing is going on, I will get back in there and do more cleaning and organizing.

ETA: My biggest problem is I always hold out hopes of selling the stuff we don't want. We've done a few yard sales in the past, and have done well with them, but the stuff piles up far faster than it sells, and last year we never managed to have a sale. At some point, I just get to the point where I'd rather have the space than the money. Decluttering is very therapeutic.

Just in case you had any doubts that the concept of personal responsibility no longer exists in this country, Pfizer just released a diet pill for dogs. Seeing as more than 2/3 of American adults are overweight or obese, I guess it should be no surprise that our pets are also getting fat. People overfeed themselves and overfeed their pets. And since people are sitting around all day rather than getting out and exercising, their pets are sitting around right with them.

There are lots of people who keep trying to come up with all kinds of excuses about why people are getting fatter (even though the answer is quite simple) but with dogs it isn't tough to understand. These are creatures that are 100% dependent on someone else for their nourishment. Feed them too much and they gain weight. If your dog is getting fat, stop feeding him so much and run around with him more. As a medical professional, I find the fact that any credible scientist even suggested producing this medication to be quite disturbing. I can only hope that one of these days people will wake up and start taking responsibility for both their own health and their pets' health.

I'm not one for resolutions, but I did start back using our treadmill today. I go on and off the exercise wagon over time. I've been off it for a while. Though I haven't really gained any weight, I've definitely developed a little stomach that didn't used to be there. I'm hoping getting back on an exercise routine will help out - it has before. So I will shoot for at least 3 times a week doing 30 minutes on the treadmill.

Did another 30 minutes today: 1/3/07

I knew we had a good year thanks to our savings and great market performance. But I was surprised how well the final numbers turned out.

The net worth I'm referring to is strictly financial assets minus debts. It doesn't include our home's value or any other personal belongings (cars, jewelry, collectibles, etc).

Our year-end net worth for 2006 is up 48.42% over 12/31/05.

During the year, we also boosted our stock/equity fund exposure from 67.3% to 71.9% of our portfolio.

Here's hoping 2007 brings similarly good performance for all of us.

I just compiled all of our credit card statements for 2006. One of the forum threads made me do that because I wanted to see our total charges for the year. Here's the breakdown.

Marriott Visa: $25,173.77
AOL Visa: $5,879.22
My Discover: $413.83
Wife's Discover: $309.75
-------------------------
Total: $31,776.57

To look in terms of rewards earned, with the Marriott card, we earned 27,698 reward points. That's enough for up to 4 free nights with points to spare. Even the cheapest Marriott runs about $69/night + tax, so those points are worth over $300. Add in the free AOL service we earned (until they stopped charging) and the cashback we got from Discover and our total rewards were probably in the $500-$600 range. Not such a bad deal.

As you know, I'm a physician. One of the few perks of that occupation is that I am frequently invited to participate in market research surveys which pay quite well. While most people are doing online surveys to make a few dollars, I'm doing ones that pay $50-$100 for surveys that I can sometimes zip through in 15 minutes or so.

Even so, I ignore 80% of the invites I get because some of the surveys are so incredibly boring and tedious that if I'm not in the right frame of mind, I can't stand doing them.

I decided to do one tonite while we were all sitting around watching tv. They said it would take about 35 minutes and pay $70. The opening screen said there would be about 50 questions. The questions weren't numbered and there was no progress bar indicating how far along I was in the study. So I got started. The format was incredibly boring and tedious, but I kept at it for what seemed like a very long time. Eventually, my family and I decided to play a board game, so I took a break. When I came back, I continued the survey and began counting questions. After 50, I stopped reading and just clicked randomly to see if there was an end to this torture. After 75, I just gave up. I e-mailed the survey company to tell them their survey was faulty and had no end. I also told them that I felt I was entitled to some compensation for the huge amount of my time they had wasted with their defective survey. I've done a lot of surveys for them, so I'm curious to see if I get a response, and, more importantly, if I receive a payment.

This is the first time anything like that has happened, though, so it is probably some software glitch. Oh well. Such is life. Earlier this week, I got checks for $60 and $80 for other surveys I have done recently, so I can't complain too much if once in 10 years something like this happens.

Ok. I've decided to take the plunge and start blogging. I don't know how often I'll add entries, but when the mood strikes me I will.

On to the topic at hand...

My mother is in the process of selling her house. She has lived there since 1955 and has never sold a house before, nor have I. We bought our home in 1994 and I remember what a pain that was. Well, selling is even worse. The house was put on the market June 1 with a realtor. One day before the realtor's contract was to expire, he received an offer. To make a long story short, the potential buyer was preapproved for a loan but turned out to have almost zero money to his name. He wanted my mother to finance the purchase. Even the realtor said that was crazy, so that deal fell through.

House goes back on the market with a new realtor. Many more people view the house, at least 40 I think. Finally get one offer. Again, the buyer is preapproved for a mortgage. Settlement was scheduled for today. My mother got a call from the realtor 2 days ago that the guy got turned down for the mortgage, so that deal has fallen through.

On her own, my mother had contacted a guy who advertised in the local paper that he buys houses. On the phone, without seeing the house, he made her an offer. She explained that she couldn't sell it to him yet as it was under contract, but she'd keep him in mind. He called her a few times over the weeks to see what was up. Finally, knowing the latest deal was done, we met with him yesterday. He still wants the house and came with contract in hand. I wouldn't let her sign it until her attorney reviewed it and we settled some other issues with the realtor. All of that got done. The buyer altered the contract based on the attorney review and my mother will be signing it today. So at this point, closing is supposed to be sometime on or about 1/31. We'll see what happens with that.

My mom is 76 and still pretty sharp and this has been outrageously stressful and draining for her. I can't imagine what kind of ordeal it is for someone older or infirm or less educated.

After I got home from meeting with the potential buyer and showing him the house, going to the lawyer to have the contract reviewed and going to the realtor to get a release from her contract, I came home and told my wife that we are never selling our house. We will live there until we die or we will give it to charity if we ever decide to move. It just isn't worth the hassle. Actually, what I'd probably do is call one of these guys who buys houses, just like my mom did. Even though the deal isn't done yet, the process is much more streamlined. The house is being sold as is. No inspections or certifications. No mortgage contingency. No prior home sale contingency. Just an outright sale. Why can't the deals all be that simple?

There! I've done it! My very first blog entry. I hope to post more soon.