scfr's Personal Finance Blog

Quickie Price Comments

persimmon_juice@yahoo.com (scfr) — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 09:34:53 PST

1. Gasoline: Yesterday I finally saw a price below $3 ($2.989/gallon for 87). Wouldn't you know it, I had filled up a few days earlier. Oh well, I guess the laws of dollar cost averaging apply to gas fill-ups as well as mutual fund investments ... Maybe the next time I need to...

Frugal Weekend Plans

persimmon_juice@yahoo.com (scfr) — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 05:56:50 PST

1. Doggy play date at the park (fun for the humans as well as the dogs)!

2. Free breakfast and coffee at Ikea. Available at most locations this weekend (Sat, Sun, and Mon) until 10:30am.
http://info.ikea-usa.com/seizethedays/

While there, get some doggy clean-up bags. I reuse my newspaper bags, but it's never enough. Ikea's price is 3-cents per bag ($1.49 for a roll of 50), which is the best I've found anywhere.

3. Watch a Netflix movie on-line. That's a feature they added awhile ago, and I haven't done it yet, but should in order to take full advantage of my membership since there's no extra charge.

4. Renew my library books on-line (gotta avoid those fines). Read same books.

5. Introduce DH (who has been out of town again, coming back today) to the new chart on the refrigerator for tracking Food & Drink expenses (both consumed at home & eating out) ... I added a cute (free) clip art picture to it, hoping that would be the spoonful of sugar that makes the medicine go down.

Will he get on board with the idea of squirrelling away $25 a month for 3 months from the alloted amount so that I can fulfill my wish of having a very expensive Sunday brunch ($29.95 per person plus tax & tip) at Fonda San Miguel before we leave Austin?

6. Wash my down comforter. I love having a front-loader machine. Used to take my comforter to the cleaners, but now I can do it myself. (Note to newbies to the world of frugality: A diehard frugalite would rather wash a comforter in the tub than take it to the cleaners. I'm more a "moderate frugalite".)

7. Make Soap Balls using the little slivers I save from the ends of soap bars. (I've been doing this since I married DH. I'm the type of person who will use a bar of soap to the very end, perhaps squishing the last little bit on to the new bar. But DH doesn't like that, so I go ahead and replace a bar when it gets low, but I save the slivers and make balls.) I may not have balls when it comes to investing, but I do when it comes to keeping clean!

Hope eveyone has a great weekend.

The Cost of a Speeding Ticket

persimmon_juice@yahoo.com (scfr) — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 20:06:45 PST

There I was ... happily living my law-abiding life ... 30 years driving a car with zero moving violations ... Then one day last week I was not paying enough attention, did not realize I was in a school zone, was going under the regular speed limit but 5mph over what is allowed during...

What John Bogle Has to Say

persimmon_juice@yahoo.com (scfr) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 06:16:09 PST

John Bogle (founder and former CEO of Vanguard) appeared on CNBC's Squawk Box this morning. The moderator described him as a "patient, long-term investor" which makes him my kind of guy and I'll admit to being a bit of a "Boglehead" (fan). Based on my notes (of which I do not guarantee...

I Know Enough to Know What I Don't Know

persimmon_juice@yahoo.com (scfr) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 14:23:04 PST

No secret around these parts that I am a conservative investor, so this may surprise some, but right I am feeling some urges to put more money in to the stock market. (Bet you never thought you'd hear me say that, right?)

My great-grandfather did pretty well putting money in to...

Great Event!

persimmon_juice@yahoo.com (scfr) — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 16:05:26 PST

The organization I volunteer with had it's big annual event today, and it was a stunning success. All attendees seemed to have a great time.

One of the best things about our current living situation (living very cheaply ... I'm only working off & on at temp jobs and not looking...

New Parlor Game: Who Owns My Bank?

persimmon_juice@yahoo.com (scfr) — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 09:04:43 PST

Wachovia now wants to sell to Wells Fargo, but Citi is objecting:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122303190029501925.html?mod=...

I hope the parties involved can work this out amongst themselves. (The thought of legal wrangling and court injunctions ... ugh.)

Still Around

persimmon_juice@yahoo.com (scfr) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 08:50:29 PST

No, the fact that 2 of my banks (WaMu & Wachovia) went buh-bye within a period of 5 days did not cause me to take a long walk off of a short pier. I'm still around. It's just that DH's business and my volunteer activities have really kept me hopping, and I did not want to crank out...

Customer Appreciation Day at WaMu

persimmon_juice@yahoo.com (scfr) — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 06:23:45 PST

Yesterday my WaMu branch had Customer Appreciation Day. (It had been scheduled before WaMu failed and was purchased by JP Morgan Chase.) I got a goodie bag that had a T-shirt, a BBQ spatula, and an ice cream scoop. All had "WaMu" printed on them. Also got chips, cookies, and a...

If I Were Queen of America...

persimmon_juice@yahoo.com (scfr) — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 10:34:42 PST

I would put every single American on "time out," explain the difference between a Money Market Account and a Money Market Fund, over and over again if necessary, and not let them leave time out until they really understood it.

So much for the Fed only seizing banks on Friday nights

persimmon_juice@yahoo.com (scfr) — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 20:20:56 PST

By the time anyone sees this, I'm sure you'll have heard the news. JP Morgan Chase Buys WaMu:

http://www.fdic.gov/news/news/press/2008/pr08085.html

http://www.jpmorganchase.com/cm/BlobServer?blobtable=Documen...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09...

Well, baselle and Paulette Goddard's son (and anyone else who has an account with WaMu), I suppose this is about as good of an outcome as we could have hoped for.

I just checked my on-line account, and I can still log in. Nice. Not anything in particular I wanted to do with it, just wanted to see if it was still up and running.

I suppose this means I can go back to writing checks on my WaMu account, tho' I may wait a few days on that.

What I'm most curious about is how much the interest rate I am earning will change. When people started pulling money out of WaMu, they started offering pretty sweet APYs. I'm pretty sure I can kiss those good-bye, but again I'll just wait and see. I know we looked at Chase once, but weren't all that impressed with their rates.

My WaMu branch was going to have Customer Appreciation Day tomorrow with goodies ... I wonder if that's still on? If it looks like they are being mobbed (and no reason they should be), I'll stay away. But if it's on and the lobby is empty, I'll go in just to offer my moral support to the nice gals who work there ... If I were in their shoes, I'd be relieved, but of course when an employer changes it's stressful.

So ... Why San Diego?

persimmon_juice@yahoo.com (scfr) — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 08:15:31 PST

After all of the effort to relocate to a lower cost part of the country (from Seattle to Austin), why are we now planning to pack up and move yet again to San Diego?

Short Answer: Becaue we can, so why not? If you have to ask, you probably haven't ever been to San Diego! It's...

How My Boring Portfolio Did: Today vs. Friday

persimmon_juice@yahoo.com (scfr) — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 19:37:42 PST

Typically, I wait to check our mutual funds' balances until the end of the month. But when I heard the news over the weekend about Lehman & Merrill, I thought it might be "fun" to check our balances at the close of business Friday and the close of business today, in order to share...

Sign of the Times: New "What If's?" to Ponder

persimmon_juice@yahoo.com (scfr) — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 08:33:14 PST

Here are 2 "What If's?" I pondered yesterday that never would have crossed my mind even 6 months ago:

1. "What if WaMu fails while DH is overseas on one of his month-long business trips, like the one he's getting ready to go on? Will I have to wait until he gets back to recoup...

Like Kashi? Get to Super Target!

persimmon_juice@yahoo.com (scfr) — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 15:59:50 PST

Super Target's offering a pretty good deal. 4 Kashi items for $11, and you get a $5 Target gift card at the register. So that translates to $6 for 4 Kashi items, or $1.50 each. You can buy any combination of Kashi item: cereal (hot or cold), granola bars, cookies, crackers, or frozen...

What I Did on my Summer Vacation

persimmon_juice@yahoo.com (scfr) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 17:08:29 PST

As mentioned previously, one of the things I really wanted to do while I was visiting my mom was fill in her "Letter of Instructions." Mom has the "proscratination paired with perfectionism problem" that I sometimes struggle with, and had been promising for several years to fill out...

Any major news in these parts the past 15 days?

persimmon_juice@yahoo.com (scfr) — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 21:22:58 PST

Hello all,
I am back from a great visit with my mom. Haven't been able to check the blogs for 15 days. Any major news around here?

Off to Mom's / San Diego Plan

persimmon_juice@yahoo.com (scfr) — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 16:25:03 PST

Off to Mom's: I'm heading off to spend a couple weeks at my mom's ... all of my siblings will be there at least briefly (the 3 sisters all live in different parts of the country). Of course my darling brother (who lives with my mom) will be there the whole time, and I am looking...

Put Out On The Streets (not me, a neighbor)

persimmon_juice@yahoo.com (scfr) — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 17:00:53 PST

Today when I was returning to my apartment I noticed what I thought was moving activity at an apartment. Later when I walked back that way to pick up the mail, I realized it was 4 apartment complex employees doing the "moving," nothing was packed, everything was just being piled up...

Before I Leave Austin ...

persimmon_juice@yahoo.com (scfr) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 22:07:24 PST

I had a very long list of places I wanted to visit here in Austin (and nearby cities), but thinking that I would have a lot of time I have only visited a few so far. Today I pared down my list to a manageable size and it's now posted there on the left.

This will involve spending...