September 27, 2014

Free Museum Day 2014

The Smithsonian Magazine is holding Museum Day on 9/27/2014 (today!) which is a great opportunity to get 2 free tickets to any participating museum. You can sign up for free museum tickets here. Also, it is National Public Lands Day...
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September 20, 2013

Buy The Cheapest Baby Crib

My wife and I have learned and experienced a lot in the past four wonderful years of parenthood. My advice to future parents out there - buy the cheapest baby crib you can find. I believe when you are...
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September 8, 2013

Free Museum Day 2013

The Smithsonian Magazine is holding Museum Day on 9/28/2013 which is a great opportunity to get 2 free tickets to any participating museum. You can sign up for free museum tickets here. For folks with young children this is a...
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August 3, 2013

Using Ooma Overseas To Save On Long Distance Calls

As long time readers now, I love my money saving Ooma VOIP telephone. I purchased the 1st generation back in 2008 and have was grandfathered in with the no cost plan. I estimate I have conservatively saved ($20/mo x...
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November 15, 2012

Term Life Insurance VS Universal Life Insurance

With our 2nd baby here I've been more conscious that my wife and I have inadequate life insurance coverage. Mainly due to procrastination, we currently don't have any life insurance for my wife. Our objective is to ultimately self-insure, so...
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August 11, 2012

ALDI - My New Favorite Grocery Store

I finally had an opportunity to shop at an ALDI for the first time recently. A new ALDI store opened close to our home and I checked it our when they were have they're grand opening specials. Since then I've...
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April 25, 2011

Eat For Free @ IKEA

Ikea is running an Eat for Free Promotion April 22-April 25 where you eat in the Ikea Restaurant and receive a coupon to reduce your furniture purchase of $100 or more by your food bill. I've never eaten at the...
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March 28, 2011

Save Money on Kid's Outdoor Playsets

My wife and finally bought an outdoor wooden playset for our daughter's upcoming second birthday. I was surprised at how much these swing sets cost - anywhere from $700-$3,000+ seems to be the typical price range for a wooden swing...
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March 21, 2011

Save Money on Appliance Repairs

It was perfect timing, my in-laws were visiting this weekend, and our oven began to improperly function when my wife tried to put dinner in the oven. Luckily we rescued dinner by using our neighbor's oven, but the larger issue...
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March 9, 2011

The Big Payback for Air Sealing Our Home

I was not sure if my recent focus on air sealing our home was going to be really worth all the effort. Sure, the monetary investment has been very small (about ~$20 for caulk and Great Stuff expansion foam) so...
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February 13, 2011

Replaced Our Refrigerator

A few weeks ago we noticed that some of the frozen foods in our freezer were thawing out. A cursory investigation on my part turned up little opportunity to fix it myself. Rather than call a fridge repair person it...
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January 31, 2011

Reduce Household Energy Expenses

Reducing our energy expenses is a current focus for me. With the recent 50% jump in our propane heating expenses I've begun investing significant time in trying to reduce our heating expenses. Our home was built in 1994, and when...
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January 24, 2011

AAA Emergency Road Service Subscription Worth It?

AAA membership is a nonprofit driving club that is a subscription service and largely identified with its key benefit of emergency roadside assistance for drivers in the event that you had problems while traveling in your car. Its a very...
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December 28, 2010

Tips for Saving Money on Car Insurance

There are lots of lists on how to save money on car insurance that at least cover the obvious ways. I haven't seen all these suggestions before so here are my tips on how to maximize your savings on car...
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October 22, 2009

Health Insurance For High Risk Individuals

Being a diabetic I have long been in favor of health insurance reform. Right now the biggest unknown in my path to financial freedom is my ability to afford health insurance if I was no longer working for a large...
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March 11, 2009

How We Have Reduced Our Expenses

As a homage to the times I wanted to rehighlight what my wife and I have done recently to reduce our expenses. As we have gone to basically a 1-income household in a bigger house we have established the following:...
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September 3, 2008

August 2008 Net Worth Update (+$14,078)

August turned out better than expected for us despite a 5% decline in IBM stock which we made up for with better than usual cash savings thanks to timely expense reimbursement from my employer. Its feels good to get back...
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October 15, 2007

Suspending Home Phone Service to Save Money

Bellsouth offers a suspend/vacation service for your telephone line. If you aren't going to use your home phone for more than 30 days you can request that they suspend your service and they will even put in a forwarding number...
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March 28, 2007

Home Improvement on the Cheap:Remodeling

On my 1st house (now a rental property) I converted the house from 1.5 bathrooms to 2 full bathrooms. It was a fairly major project that involved gutting both bathrroms and relaying out the space to squeeze an extra bathtub...
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March 26, 2007

Home Improvement on the Cheap: Landscaping

When I bought my current home, one of the 2 biggest issues with the house was the landscaping (or lack thereof). I am working to convert the house into ship-shape so I can rent it out while I am...
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March 22, 2007

Directory of Free Online Classes

Stumbled across this over the weekend. Its a directory of free classes online. Doesn't appear to be comprehensive, but has a pretty good list of links. I am in the middle of a Intro to Chinese speaking course at work...
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February 23, 2007

Bargain Shopping on the Internet

For the most part I rely on 3 deal posting web sites to do my bargain hunting: Slickdeals.net Fat Wallet Ben's Bargains My strategy is to have a running list of things I plan to eventually buy (without an immediate...
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January 10, 2007

Save Money With HDTV

It sounds crazy, but you can actually save money by trading in your old television for a big, new HD TV. I just bought a new 32" LCD HDTV for $463 but expect to get that money back and save...
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December 18, 2006

Airport Lounge One-Day Passes

Looking for ways to travel in luxury without paying a small fortune? While I am all about keeping costs to a minimum when I travel, my fiancee isn't the budget travel warrior I am. The challenge for me is to...
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November 22, 2006

Car Repairs On The Cheap

Back in September I reported that I had a minor accident. My years of faithful MacGyver watching paid off and with every handy man’s tool (duct tape) I was able to return my busted headlight to a working position until...
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October 31, 2006

Investing in Candy after Halloween

If your like me, you like to indulge with a little candy every once and awhile (if not, candy is also a good tool to use in the workplace, but more on that another time). Regardless, this next week...
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September 6, 2006

Saving Money the MacGyver Way

Last week, during a downpour, I had a fender bender. As I was slowing down, my car hydroplaned and I ended up hitting the guard rail. Luckily, no one else was involved and the car was drivable after the accident....
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August 28, 2006

Managing Vacation Expenses

After a couple of weekend excursions earlier this year, I was really nervous about our week long engagement trip in the beginning of August. I tend to treat vacations as a get away, and don't worry about money management during...
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August 23, 2006

Free Schick Quattro Titanium Razor

Got to love useful free stuff. Fill out the form to get a free Schick Quattro Titanium Razor. You can never have too many free razors because everyone has to shave (well at least they should).Credit goes to Slickdeals....
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July 17, 2006

Airfare Shopping Tips

While I have traveled a fair amount for my employer, I will now be flying home to NC on my own dime on a regular basis.This calls for a different routine to purchase flights as I want to keep the...
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June 9, 2006

Cheap Low Hassle Checks

I hate checks. Checks are expensive, I usually have to use a stamp to give someone a check, and they are a hassle to use. If I need to pay someone I always try to pay with a credit card...
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June 2, 2006

Buying New Shoes

Maybe Im getting old, but I have one pair of good shoes that I wear day in and day out. After a year, they are pretty much worn out and I need to replace them.Since I buy the same shoes...
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April 12, 2006

Earn Airline Travel Vouchers

This week I am on a business trip for work and have already earned a $250 AA travel voucher and a $10 meal voucher from American Airlines. All I had to do was volunteer to get "bumped" off the flight...
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March 28, 2006

Maximizing the Blockbuster Free Trial Offer

As you probably know, Netflix and Blockbuster both offer these great 30-day trials of their monthly rental subscriptions. I recently completed my free trial at Blockbuster and wanted to share my experience.1) Sign up - (see below for details), No...
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March 27, 2006

Free IAMS Dog Tartar Treats

Sorry, I am on a freebie kick today. If you have a dog (my girlfriend has one so I am a proud parent too), sign up for these free samples of IAMS Tartar Treats.Free IAMS Tartar Dog Treats...
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March 26, 2006

Money Saving Tip: Free Valvoline Maxlife Oil

Change your own oil? Get 5 Quarts of Valvoline Maxlife Oil free after rebate.5 Quarts Valvoline Maxlife Oil RebateI typically change my own oil, but thats only because I have a stockpile of oil I have gotten for free after...
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December 5, 2005

Money Saving Tip: Buy Parts Yourself and have Mechanic Install Them

About 1 month ago (ironically just after I finished paying my car loan off), I started having trouble starting my Nissan Sentra. I am not even close to being a mechanic; about the limit of my car knowledge is that...
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November 9, 2005

Just shaved 23% off my girlfriend's wireless bill

This actually has been on my todo list for awhile, but I had been putting it off since my girlfriends Cingular account is not technically mine so I wasn't sure if I could even get her a discount.However, yesterday I...
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October 22, 2005

Inside Wire Maintenance Service Plan

What a rip off. I spotted this on my girlfriends latest phone bill from Bellsouth. She had a line item Inside Wire Maintenance Service Plan for $5.95/mo. I laughed when I saw this.While I guess this could make sense for...
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October 5, 2005

Money Saving Tip: Ask them to keep your valve stems when you get new tires

After discussing my recent tire purchase with some coworkers I was enlightened of another way I could reduce the expense of getting new tires in the future. Apparently the new tire valve stems aren't really needed! I just assumed they...
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September 19, 2005

Reducing Dining Expenses

I spend a fair amount every month on dining out expenses. I go out to eat lunch everyday with a group at work and my girlfriend and I usually go out 1-3 nights a week and I typically pick up...
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A personal finance weblog of my journey to reach my goal of $2 million + the value of my primary residence.
Current Net Worth: $1,938,393

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