An ugly era in our country is right around the corner.  Spending is out of control.  The misunderstanding of our own Constitution by our own representatives is reprehensible.

If fact, it’s become apparent that our representatives really aren’t representing any longer, they simply vote to keep their jobs.

In that light, please let me send a bit of a warning to our fellow Americans in Washington.  When the taxpayer no longer sees their money as being spent frugally, they stop paying taxes.  Laws be damned.

Our government is one of the most corrupt in the World.  It should become obvious when labor unions sway votes even though the general public doesn’t want legislation.

My good old Ford F150 has been a bit ill lately.  I’ve had a persistent but not constant misfire in the #4 cylinder that’s been giving me fits for the last couple months.

Spark plugs and wires have been changed in the recent past, and a local shop even replaced a computer they said was faulty, along with an ignition coil.  That seemed to fix the problem for about a week, and then the misfire came back.

So today was truck fix’n day.

Some guys on a Ford F150 forum suggested that I check the heater hoses that carry hot coolant out of the heater core.  If those hoses had a leak, it could drip right down onto the #4 spark plug and cause a short in the plug well.

So today I checked that.  No drips from the hoses, and considering the temperature outside, the hoses weren’t even perspiring; I wish I could say the same for myself.

As a last ditch effort, I pulled the #4 spark plug out and replaced it with a spare I had sitting on the shelf.  Voila that seemed to fix it.

A good test drive down the highway revealed no evidence of a misfire, so I’m slightly relieved.  If I can go several days without a problem, I’ll just assume it was a bad plug.

Money Saved?

I vowed that if I couldn’t find the problem today, I’d make an appointment at Ford for a quality diagnosis.  I’ve taken the truck to my local mechanic, and while I thought he fixed the problem, it showed back up less than a week later.  That was after he spent nearly $700 in parts (the computer, plugs, wires, etc) to fix the problem.

The local Ford dealer will charge me at least $75 for a diagnosis (refundable if I have them do the work to fix the problem) and while I have a high level of confidence they’d find the problem and fix it, it will surely cost me a fortune!

So the fix really cost me about $8 for the spare spark plug I already had, and a half days worth of my time.

Not bad for being a tightwad, do-it-yourselfer…

Perhaps if my current career hits the skids, I could go on to be a mechanic… but only if truck driving school doesn’t work out!

I’ve got two neighbors and a good friend out of state that have put their house on the market for no other reason than “they just want to move”.

All three couples have two kids, and all three live in good sized, three bedroom houses.  After pinging each of them that it’s really a great time to buy a house, so long as you can sell your existing one, they all followed with the same response: “we’re just bursting at the seems in our existing house, so it’s time for a change”.

Honestly, I can’t say that I agree that “we’re bursting at the seems” is a good enough reason to sell your house.  Two of the three couples will only get their money back from the initial purchase three years ago, and the third stands to make about $5,000.  And that’s if they get their asking price.

I can’t help but think that these three families are busting at the seems, not because if the increase in the number of kids they have, but because of the increase in “stuff” they have.  One has a basement that is packed so full of stuff you can’t even walk around in it; none of it is kids stuff.

I’ve gone to great lengths to get rid of the “stuff” my wife and I don’t use.  If there’s a box in the storage closet that hasn’t been opened in 5 years, there’s probably no good reason to keep it’s contents around.

What does every square foot of your house cost?

The way I look at storage is in mortgage payment per square foot.  Take the overall monthly house payment (add in taxes and insurance) and divide that number by the total square feet in your house.  Mine comes in at $0.65 per square foot.  So those Tupperware bins stacked up in the basement holding all my wife’s college t-shirts is costing me about $4 per month to store.

When you put it in those terms, those t-shirts sure would make good rags to wash the car with!

I am a self proclaimed tight-wad, verified three fold by independent sources.  With that, it’s inevitable that I would shop around for the best deals possible, saving pennies along the way.  I am not, however, penny rich and pound foolish, and I understand the value of my time.

So it should come as no surprise that I’m a coupon guy.  Every Sunday I look through the paper and pull out the coupon brochures (as well as the Best Buy ad) and go through them, pulling out coupons for items we use routinely.  Toothpaste, toilet paper, shampoo, green beans, frozen pizza; all fair game.

I read with interest today from an article in the Wall Street Journal about the natural progression of coupons in the digital age.  From the report:

“In the past four months, coupon usage has surged about 10%, according to Inmar Inc., a coupon-processing agent. And increasingly, shoppers are skipping the scissors and getting coupons online or having discounts sent to their smart phones and rewards cards.” -Source

Really.  I could go digital!

Kroger has come into the digital light by sending its free text messaging coupon program to the national level.  The program, provided by Cellfire Inc. sends deals via text message to your cell phone on a regular basis.  All you have to do is click on the link in the text message and the discount is added to the Kroger discount card.

Then there’s the good old internet.  I’ve used coupons.com before to find deals on toothpaste, which is a bit more forgiving because I’m not really particular on brand.  Colgate, Crest, whitening, tartar control… it really makes no difference to me, so long as its the price leader on the aisle.

Coupons.com has been hit and miss with me, because the coupon selection is fairly limited and focused.  The site usually has some coupons for Bausch and Lomb products, which we frequently use, and some various cleaning products.

One major deal they have right now is 35% off the Entertainment Coupon book with free shipping.  The book is typically $20 and we usually get ours from the neighbors kid who sells them for school.  The book easily pays for itself, plus some.

As always, the key to using coupons is to only use them on products you would typically buy.  Using a coupon on a product just because you get 35 cents off is like buying a $100 coat because it was 10% off.

Yesterday I called up AT&T and asked them to disconnect my second phone line that was a dedicated fax line.  Over the past year I think I’ve sent one fax, and naturally that can’t justify the $26 per month cost to maintain the line.

I’m not at a point where I’m trying to cut expenses, but it’s as good a time as any since no ones job is really secure.

So I disconnected the fax line, but left my main phone line intact.  For some reason I like having the old copper, twisted pair line running to the house.

Some people have gone strictly wireless, and for good reason.  But I like the ability to give out my home phone number on applications and when filling out forms that “require” a phone number.  It’s much easier to let the answering machine screen my calls than get bugged in the middle of the day by my credit card company with the latest and greatest offer for its best customers.

One good outcome of disconnecting my fax line was that the customer service representative at AT&T was able ot convert my main phone line to a more basic program that cost $4 less per month, but gave me features I didn’t have; namely caller ID and call waiting.

To be honest, I could care less about caller ID and call waiting.  I’ve never had either of them in my life, and considering how much we use the land line, I probably won’t get much value out of them.  I will however get the $4 per month value out of the new program, and that part I like.

So I’m still wired, and not willing to give up the “old style” land line, but I’m also not spending money on service I don’t use.

What are you doing to save money these days?

I finally went out and started my Christmas shopping yesterday, and before I even made my way to the checkout line in Kohls I had found I came down with the funk.  You know, that feeling that on some level even larger than one man can comprehend, there’s something wrong with Christmas?

I have a feeling that the state of our country’s economic affairs has somehow infiltrated my emotional side, as hard as I try not to let it.

At some point in time while in that store I took a step outside the box.  I just sat there and watched what people picked up for others for Christmas, what they talked about, the expressions on their face.

I’ve found that I’ve become very pragmatic about what I give others for Christmas.  If you don’t have a list of what you want for Christmas, you probably won’t get much from me.  I’m not about trying to pick out something for someone else, hoping they will use it.  Chances are, they’ll pack it away in the basement only to collect dust.

I’ve thought about giving consumables (not edibles) this year like toothpaste, toothbrushes, toilet paper, etc. You know, stuff people can actually use and then throw away, spit out, or flush.  It takes up space only for a limited amount of time, and then goes away.

I’m also an anti-clutter type of guy (just ask my old college roommate, MJ).  If it doesn’t have a spot for storage, or if it never gets used, it must go. Trash, Goodwill, garage sale…  I don’t care, but it ain’t staying here.  There are very few tangible items I’m emotionally attached to, and I have no problems making donations to the local landfill.  In fact, I actually look forward to Thursdays… (trash day).

Anyway, while standing in Kohls, I noticed that the majority of stuff people were carrying around (besides clothing) was junk.  You know, the gimmicky cocoa frother who’s only purpose in life is to put a head on your cup of hot chocolate. I’ve got a wire whisk (actually two) that will do the same job and take up less space.  It also does eggs, jello, pudding, cake mix… a true multi-purpose tool that costs less that $3.

What about the smoothie maker which is really nothing but a blender with a tap in the bottom. Can you not make smoothies in a regular blender?

The thing I watched most people carry around was a giant insulated mitten with the head of an ice scrapper attached at the end.  $17.99 for that bad-boy.  I guess a pair of gloves that you can even use when your windshield isn’t icy and a $1.99 truckstop-version scraper just won’t due these days.

Just let me sulk, I’ll be alright.

It seems the spirit of giving has morphed into “giving for the sake of giving’.  And the opportunities started popping up two weeks before Halloween (soon Christmas will be a year round holiday).  Three months worth of Christmas music on the radio, and I’m burned out three days before the actual event.

In an age where we’re strapped for money, or so the media seems to indicate (I don’t know who to trust any more), it seems like Americans are still spending money on crap.

Perhaps I’ll just stick to sending out Christmas cards.

Does anyone else have a case of the Christmas funk?

P.S. If you get a Christmas card from me this year, I expect you to have thrown it away by February 1st next year.  I’ll send you another one next year, I promise.

Last week I dropped by the Verizon Wireless store to snoop around a bit. My 2-year agreement was up, and my existing cell phone had taken a beating. In fact, the outer LCD display was cracked and non-functional from the time I put the phone in my pocket and then smashed my keys (in the same pocket) into the phone. Now I had options. Lots of options, and that is a good thing from a consumers standpoint.

At any rate, I had also been looking at my monthly cell usage. Between my wife and I, we rarely were using more than 200 anytime minutes per month, yet our plan allowed us 700 anytime minutes, and in return we paid about $85 per month after taxes and fees.

You get what you pay for, but don’t pay for something you don’t get.

As frequent readers of the Corner Office Blog know, I absolutely hate paying for something I don’t use. The way I saw it, I was paying for 500 minutes per month that I wasn’t using.

An online inquiry through the Verizon website returned an answer I really didn’t appreciate: “… sorry sir, you’re on the lowest cost family plan we offer.”

It is rarely fruitful to eArgue, and making a deal face to face is much more productive. So in addition to looking for a new phone, I was also looking for a new plan, and if that didn’t work out, a new cell provider.

Being polite will get you further…

I walked into the store, and the sharp dressed sales rep stepped right up to the plate. “What can I help you with today…” I’m looking for a new phone, and a new plan, and I explained why.

Naturally the sales rep tried to sell me a new phone first. Smart on his part: Get the customer to fall in love with something tangible, then talk money.

So I found a phone I liked, but was still willing to walk away from the whole deal if we couldn’t somehow my monthly costs.

After pounding through the computer for a few minutes, I got the same response as I did from the rep online; I’ve already got the lowest cost plan they offer. I was getting a bit aggravated, but I kept my cool and told him that I might have to go home and research the competition.

Sensing I was the type to walk right across the street to AT&T, he went and asked his boss if there was “Something we could do”. It turns out, there is a little-known plan hidden deep down in the computer for cases just like this. It’s called the Nationwide Loyalty Family Share plan, coming in at 550 minutes per month, and for $10 cheaper than the previous plan.

Interesting how they throw a loyalty plan at you to keep your business, isn’t it?

Sign me up.

It’s a step in the right direction. Instead of wanting “more for less”, I wanted “less for less”. While the 550 minutes per month is still overkill, the $10 reduction in monthly cost ($120 per year) helps.

So, if you’re looking to reduce your monthly cell phone bill, this might be a step in the right direction, if you’re a Verizon customer that is.

To be clear, if my wife and I were using the 700 minutes per month, I wouldn’t feel right about arguing for a lower cost plan that would still cover my usage. But if you’re not even coming close to maxing out your wireless plan, at least find out what your options are to pay for something more appropriate.

I read a post by Robert Frank at The Wealth Report blog hosted by The Wall Street Journal Online today that left me scratching my head.

It might be my engineering background that had me thumbing my nose at the post, but generally it’s my propensity to question what they’re not telling you that really had me intrigued.

The author noted that as evidenced in the book “The Millionaire Next Door,” it’s those who pinch their pennies, drive old pickup trucks and make conservative investments that end up getting ahead in the financial game.

The author goes on to say that this philosophy is contrary to his experience in observing the wealthy. He says that it’s those who are willing to take more risk that end up with all the money, meaning multi-millions of dollars.

The author goes on to quote a Barclay’s report, stating:

Today, Barclays Wealth released a report along with the Economist Intelligence Unit that found 60% of individuals with investible assets of $1 million or more said “a high appetite for risk has been an important influence in their wealth creation.” That compares with 36% of those surveyed with assets under $1 million. -Source

From this, Frank drew the conclusion that those who wage lofty bets end up with all the dough.

I think there are two things to remember here:

1. Risk is relative. Bill Gates can invest $1 million in the startup down the street, lose it all and not feel too bad about the deal. His quality of life hasn’t changed much. I, on the other hand, would go back to eating Ramen Noodles every night like I did in college… while I worked off the $1 million loan from Bill Gates.

2. For every person that bet the farm and made millions, there are at least 5 who bet the farm and winded up eating Ramen every night.

3. As a general observation, we tend to highlight the successful entrepreneurs, and brush off the failures. Much like the weight loss commercials: Here are 5 people that tried our program and lost 100 lbs… and boy don’t they look great. Never mind the hundreds of others who gained 30 lbs and dropped out…

So what is your definition of “Risk”?

In general, I don’t think we can talk about risk without using a sliding scale. Appetite for risk is based on a number of different variables, and it’s rare that you can take two success stories and compare them without someone making an apples to oranges analogy.

And then there’s luck…

Now. Back to finding the next buy-it and forget-it stock that’s going to make me millions!

I was in Best Buy this afternoon looking to upgrade my Norton Internet Security program to a newer version.

After checking out the latest in big screens, I strolled over to the computer section. For the women out there, regardless of why us guys go to Best Buy in the first place, checking in at the television and computer department is a requirement for every trip. Gotta keep up with the latest and greatest you know, even if it’s only for informative purposes only…

I digress.

So I stroll over to the computer department, and low and behold, they don’t have a single computer on display. Not one.

Shocked, I had to find out if Best Buy is getting out of the computer sales business.

Story goes, since Windows Vista is making its debut this Tuesday, they sold all of their computers (desktops and laptops) on clearance. You heard right, all of them. I couldn’t buy a computer today if I had to! This is according to the sales rep. I talked to, who, by nature tried to sell me a computer they didn’t even have…

Anyway, if you’re in need of a new computer, now is the time to buy, since lets face it, Windows XP is old news! Another great example of how shopping a generation behind will save you money.

Andy posted a comment on my recent eBay shopping experience revealing to me that there is more to eBay than just entering a maximum bid value and hoping no one comes along at the last minute and beats you by mere pennies.

Introducing eBay sniping.

Sniping is really a method of having a program automate your bidding.  As I mentioned in my previous post, with two days to go I placed a bid for a set of sun visors for my wife’s Honda Accord.  In reality, I just jacked up the price on myself, allowing others to see that I’m interested in the same product they are forces both of us into a bidding war that neither of us want to be a part of.

If you automate your bidding, you effectively place the bid at the last possible second to avoid entering a long, drawn out auction.

The program I found was AuctionSniper.  You enter the maximum bid you want to enter for a particular item on eBay, and the program takes care of the rest, entering your bid as the last seconds of the auction come to a close.  This undermines your competitor as you capitalize on sneaking your bid in at the last possible second.

If items are available from multiple sellers, you can implement a group bid in which the bid is placed against a group of items, and when you win on one item, it quits bidding on the rest.

While I didn’t take advantage of this new “technology” in the online auction world, you can bet that if I had, I’d have probably saved about $10 on a pair of replacement sun visors I paid $25 for. 

Of course I still made out like a bandit compared to dealing directly with Honda!

Thanks for the tip, Andy!

I’m in search of a drivers side sun visor for my wife’s ‘95 Honda Accord.  Our local Honda dealer wants naming rights to our first born, and the local salvage yard wants naming rights to Honda.  Get my drift?

I’ve found that a great place to find old auto parts is, none other than eBay.  But there’s a trick to not only finding the parts, but getting a good deal on them as well.

I found the parts I need with a few days left to go in the bidding process.  The one and only bid was for $0.99 for both the drivers and passengers side visors.  A heck of a deal, even if you double the bid!

I figured that paying $10 for the pair wasn’t too bad of a price either, considering what the dealer wanted, so I entered my maximum bid as $10.

So, naturally, today I received the email a day later:  You have been outbid.

I’ve learned through this experience that, as in many sports, clock management is crucial to the outcome of the game.  By placing a bid with three days to go in the auction, I gave my worthy opponent ample time to outbid me and in effect, I raised the price on myself. 

Lesson learned: if you’re opposed to paying top dollar for used parts (or anything else for that matter) on eBay, wait till the last possible second to place your bid.  Cancel your appointments, hold your calls, close your email…

What Mr. $0.99 doesn’t know is that I’m completely free when the bidding ends…

…and I have a twitchy bidding finger!

Increases in energy costs are not isolated at the gas pump.  Electricity costs are rising as well, thanks in part to higher natural gas prices and scalding hot temperatures across the nation.  As demand for energy rises, power companies switch on additional power plants which use natural gas rather than coal.

So it was no surprise yesterday when my flat black mail box not only looked hot, but heavy as well.  Reaching inside revealed an electric bill for $138 for last month.

Actually, the numbers were a bit better than I had expected, since the sky high temperatures throughout the Midwest have kept my air conditioner working overtime.  Hearing numbers from neighbors north of $250, I wondered why my bill would be so low.

It’s all in the thermostat.

My neighbors keep their thermostat set at a cool 72 degrees, while mine sits 10 degrees higher at 82.  At 10pm the temperature goes to 85 overnight.

In a marriage of technology and energy, my local electrical company is offering to install digital thermostats to those customers whose A/C unit is compatible in an effort to cut back during times of peak demand.  The neat part is that these digital units allow you to adjust the thermostat from anywhere via the internet.

Go on vacation and forget to adjust the temperature? Just login to your box.

The catch?  While the electric company is giving you this new thermostat for free (a $300 value), they are also retaining access to your thermostat.  On high demand days, the electric company can dial back your settings by a maximum of 4 degrees.  They will only do it on weekdays in the afternoon, and won’t touch the unit on holidays or during the evening.

You get to opt out of the program once each month.

So while it seems like a great way to help curtail energy demand during peak hours, you’re also giving big brother the password to your environmental control.

I think I’ll pass for now, and go take cold shower.

Here are some tips to save you some money by adjusting your household habits and making some changes around your house:

Light bulbs

Replacing your regular incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) will require 70 percent less energy, and while they cost more than regular bulbs, they will last much longer.

Install dimmers on light bulbs to save energy and extend their life. Timers work well for front-door and security-related lights; sensors, which turn on lights only when needed, are ideal for outdoors.

Potential Savings: At least $90 a year.

Total Energy Savings: If every American home swapped just five incandescent bulb fixtures for Energy Star CFLs, it would keep 1 trillion pounds of greenhouse gases out of the air and save $6.5 billion in energy costs.

Electronics

Unplug DVD players and TVs, or plug them all into a power strip you can switch off. Sixty to 80 percent of the electricity they use is consumed while they’re idle, powering light displays and “instant on” features (such as the remote’s ability to talk to the TV).

Unplug “wall warts,” or plugs attached to a black transformer box (like a cell-phone charger). If they are plugged into an outlet, they are sucking up electricity whether charging another device or not.

Ideally, unplug or turn off your computer when it’s not in use. If you can’t do this, use its power-saving sleep mode, which uses 60 to 80 percent less energy than full-power mode. Visit www.energystar.gov to learn how to activate your computer’s power-saving mode or to download free software that enables these options on computers that don’t have them. At the very least, turn your monitor off instead of using a screensaver.

Turn off printers, copiers, and fax machines when they’re not in use. Don’t rely on sleep mode.

Potential Savings: As much as $175 a year.

Green Point: Using power management on your desktop computer could save 900 kilowatt-hours a year. That amounts to 1,500 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions, the equivalent of driving a medium-size car from New York to Salt Lake City.

Appliances

Replace a top-loading washing machine with a front-loader, which generally uses 50 percent less energy and a third less water. With those savings, it will pay for itself in six years and should last for 10.

Do several loads of laundry in one stint every week, and dry the loads back-to-back to capture residual heat in the dryer.

Run only full dishwasher loads. The most efficient machines use a third of the water of hand washing. About 80 percent of a dishwasher’s energy use goes to heating water. Select “unheated air-drying” to cut that by 12 percent.

Potential Savings: $400 a year.

Green Point: A front-loading Energy Star–certified clothes washer saves enough energy annually to light your entire home for a month and a half, and it saves as much water in a year as the average person drinks in a lifetime.

Source: Real Simple Magazine

Of all the morning rituals, shaving is the worst.  What’s not to like about taking a razor blade to your face and removing a layer of skin while wobbling in a half awaken stupor?

If only we had a razor blade that would remove hair to the skin on one pass, making the art of face sculpting much less demanding.

It seems the shaver wars are still raging, as Gillette has added their 5 bladed Fusion to the shelf for a whopping $11.99.  That’s just for the handle and a single cartridge.

Need a refill pack?  Get eight cartridges for only $28.99.

Rather than spend a fortune on the new technology razor blades, why not buy the previous generation Mach 3 Turbo?  Buy the handle and 2 cartridges for only $8.99 and pick up an 8-pack of cartridges for $17.99.

If you’re like me, that still sounds like an awful lot just to remove hair from your face, but it’s not as much as you would have spent when the Mach 3 first came out.  Much like used cars, you’re going to get a deal on the previous generation product when the new stuff hits the market.

Or, thanks to Jonathan at MyMoneyBlog.com, you can hit up Schick for a free trial of their Titanium razors.

It’s never good when you have to take your car to a mechanic for repairs.  It will always cost you an arm and a leg, no matter what kind of work you have done.

Recently, we took my wife’s Honda Accord to a Honda dealer to service the air conditioner.  The result:  A leaky evaporator, a leaking Schrader valve, a bad o-ring, a leak in the….  I quit listening at that point, all I wanted to hear was how much it was going to be to fix the darn thing.

$826.79

Ouch! Smoke started pouring out of my ears, gears were moving at warp speed, the grip on the phone was starting to cause damage…

The reason I was so irritated is that just 6 months before, we’d had the car in to the dealer for the same symptoms.  At that time, we needed a new compressor, some new hoses, and a new drier, all of which totaled around $850.00.

Six months later, the same shop is telling me we have three new leaks that they didn’t find last year…  how convenient.

So now it will cost nearly $1,700 to get the air conditioner working again, which is more than the value of the car.  I told the supervisor I wasn’t happy, and was going to get a second opinion.

So I took it to my local mechanic for a look-see, and he can replace everything for $525.

Ah the value of a second opinion:  $325

That 411 service provided by my cellular service provider has come in handy on more than one occasion. Of course, on that first occasion, I was a bit surprised as to the cost of that handy service, making me think long and hard about how badly I needed that telephone number or address information in the future.

Now, however, it appears that the “Google-esque” advertising business structure has made its way into the 411 realm.

By dialing (800) FREE-411, you get the same service as dialing 411, only for free.  The way they make their money is by playing an advertisement when you request the phone number for a business.  The service will give you the phone number you request, but it will play a short 10 second advertisement for a competing business prior to giving you the phone number you need.

In addition, if you request the number for a business that doesn’t advertise with the service, the business you dial will get a solicitation from FREE411, asking them to advertise with their service.

It’s interesting to see how many companies are adopting the advertising revenue structure that Google has revolutionized.  It makes a guy wonder what other services will convert to an advertising income structure, reducing the cost of their product…

All in all, we made about $100 on our garage sale this weekend.  I’m a bit disappointed, but considering that 90% of the stuff we sold was priced at $0.50 or less, we got rid of a bunch of stuff, which means we have to haul less stuff to the Goodwill and Salvation Army.

It probably wasn’t worth the time to do a garage sale, and I’m convinced that it’s all in what you sell, but making an extra $100 in a weekend isn’t too bad.

We made more money on Friday than we did on Saturday, which was a bit of a surprise, and it wasn’t even worth opening on Sunday.

Our neighborhood garage sale started today, and for a Friday the turnout wasn’t bad.  We had about 60 people stop by, and ended up bringing in about $60.

Even better, though, is that we’re that much closer to getting rid of all the stuff we’ve been stockpiling in our extra bedroom for the last year.

We should see a little better traffic tomorrow due to the weekend, and by Sunday all our old stuff should be gone.  If it doesn’t disappear, it’ll find a new home at the Salvation Army!

We just got a postcard in the mail listing the dates of the annual neighborhood garage sale.  Usually, I don’t get too excited about this kind of stuff, but this year I’m going to make out like a bandit, guaranteed.

At last years sale, we sold about $200 worth of our stuff.  It doesn’t sound like much, but it also doesn’t include the huge deduction we were able to account for on last years taxes by donating all the stuff we didn’t sell.   All told, we had what amounted to $500 in deductions, just from the charitable donations in stuff we didn’t sell at our garage sale.

An even bigger effect of this years garage sale is that it will free up an entire room in our basement (read this MSN article about the cost of too much stuff).  We’ve been sorting out stuff throughout the year and throwing it in a pile in one room, but now it’s time to reclaim the room.

Jonathan at MyMoneyBlog has a good post about being attached to stuff you don’t use.  A garage sale is a good first step to the cure for the disease.

Just remember, to get the most out of your garage sale, you have to keep track of what you donate to charity (the IRS may want to see your documentation!).  Check out the Charitable Contributions Publication from the IRS for details donations of your stuff.  You can get values for the items at the website of your local charity, such as the Goodwill or Salvation Army.

Happy Spring cleaning!

I pulled the latest issue of Comcast Cable Finance Monthly out of the mail box today, only to find out that the rates have gone up; enough to put us over the century mark ($100) for the month.

One of the problems I have is that with the basic cable tier, we have about 80 channels.  If you’re the type of person who watches TV for a living, that wouldn’t be such a bad thing.  However my wife and I don’t watch much television, and we probably watch 14 of those 80 available channels.  Of those 14 we watch, 7 of them are local broadcast network feeds, the same stations you can still get with a set of rabbit ears for free.  So all in all, we utilize less than 10% of the stations that are made available to us, yet we pay $50 per month for that “luxury”.

The real problem is that Comcast, outside of satellite providers, has absolutely no competition in our area.  None.  So they can charge what ever they think their customers will pay. 

I finally picked up the phone and went on an economic rampage.  I’m no longer willing to pay for a product we hardly use.  I politely shelled out my angst to the customer service representative, and suggested he find a way to lower our bill or they would lose me as a customer.  It’s funny how those magic words have such a dramatic effect: …lose me as a customer.

In the end, the representative was able to lop off $10 per month for our cable television service, and put us on a reduced rate for the internet for six months.  All in all, he cut about $23 off our monthly bill.

The real irony behind all this is that, even after reducing our bill by $23 per month, Comcast is still making money of us, albeit not nearly as much as they used to.  However, they don’t make a dime if they lose us as a customer.

We’ll let the discount ride for six months, but if we get sent back to our old rate, Comcast will get another phone call.

After thinking about it for a little while, it was the psychological effect of us paying more than $100 per month that really set me off.  If our bill would have been raised to $99.99, I probably wouldn’t have a problem with it.

What a difference a penny makes.