Tight Fisted Miser

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Would You Fall for this IRS Scam?
2008-05-07 19:42:00
I received the following in my email yesterday. Even if I hadn’t already received my refund in March I don’t think I would have fallen for this. The sad thing is there probably are people out there who are stupid enough to get scammed by an email like this.
More About: Frugality , Scam , Fall

April Investment Income- $27.50
2008-05-06 19:14:00
This is not my actual investment income. To get this figure I first add up my retirement accounts, emergency fund, and any other money I consider permanent savings.  What the total of my savings would earn at 6% interest for a month is my monthly investment income. The 6% figure is the highest interest I ...
More About: Investment , April , Income

April Expenses-$1581.53
2008-05-05 16:06:00
Here is a breakdown of my expenses for April . Rent/Household $441.27 Utilities $94.28 Transportation $184 Entertainment $454.50 Food $133.48 Student Loans/Education $274.00 Total $1581.53 Expenses were way too high for April. My goal is to keep my expenses under $1000 not counting optional debt repayment. If my entertainment expenses wouldn’t have been ridiculously high I would have been on budget. Most of the entertainment expenses was in the first week ...

I?m Getting Fat
2008-05-04 17:28:00
More accurately, I’m getting fatter. One of my goals for this year was to lose 20 pounds. I weighed myself earlier this week and I’ve gained eight pounds since the beginning of the year. Now I’ve got to lose 28 pounds. My main problem has been eating too much fast food and junk food. I’m ...
More About: Goals

Quitting Law School
2008-05-03 17:24:00
I’m not actually quitting law school but the idea is somewhat tempting. I can’t say I’m enjoying law school at all. At this point I feel like I have too much time and money invested to quit though. I’m hoping that once I do some actual legal work this summer that I will like it. ...
More About: Law School , School , Quitting

Freebie Friday
2008-05-02 15:28:00
Here are some free deals for you. Tomorrow is Free Comic Book Day. This is celebrated the first Saturday in May each year. Go to FreeComicBookDay.com to find a participating comic book shop in your area. McDonalds is giving a free southern style chicken biscuit or chicken sandwich with the purchase of a medium or large drink ...
More About: Friday

April Income- $371.06
2008-05-01 21:14:00
Here is a breakdown of my income for April . Online Income $312.52 Interest $48.54 Survey $5 Mystery Shop $5 Total $371.06 Since I can’t work during the semester all of my income is alternative income. I’m really pleased with my online income. I’ve already made this year than all of last year. May should be even better than April. Most of this online income is from ...

Don?t Forget to Make Money
2008-04-30 22:32:00
The simplified formula for personal financial success is to spend less than you earn and invest the rest. Blogs like mine concentrate on the spend less part but don’t say much about the earning part. This makes sense since this is a frugality blog but I think the earning part of the personal finance formula ...
More About: Money , Make Money , Make

COPF #150 and FOF #123 Posts
2008-04-29 23:32:00
The Carnival of Personal Finance is being hosted this week at Lazy Man and Money. It includes my post “Save Money,Save the Planet, By Not Having Kids.”  The Festival of Frugality is being hosted at  Sound Money Matters. It includes my post “Tracking Every Penny and My Non-Budget.” There are plenty of other good posts ...
More About: Posts

Making a Challenge Challenging
2008-04-29 20:32:00
There are various bloggers out there who have no spending challenges. The typical no spend challenge isn’t very challenging for me though. I don’t have any desire to buy most things that aren’t allowed in a no spend challenge. The only tangible items I’ve bought this year besides food are detergent, toilet paper, and books. ...
More About: Goals , Challenge , Frugality

Boost Your Economic Stimulus Check
2008-04-29 01:25:00
There are a bunch of promotions offering 10% bonuses for using your economic stimulus check to fund a gift card with a retailer. Retailers offering the promotions include Kroger, Radio Shack, Supervalu, Sears, K-Mart, Home Depot, and Staples. If the supermarket names don’t sound familiar to you check the supermarket sites because they have several ...
More About: Check , Economic , Boost

It is Finals Time
2008-04-26 17:24:00
I have completed classes for the semester and am now in the final exam period. I might miss a couple days posting over the next couple weeks because I need to make preparing for my exams a priority. In law school 100% of your grade is based on your final exam. This makes it hard ...
More About: Law School , Time , Finals

The Fisherman and The Investment Banker
2008-04-25 21:57:00
When I was reading some books for my trip to Cancun I came across the following story. I had read it previously and it has been around for many years but I like it so I decided to share it for those of you who haven’t read it yet. The American investment banker was at the ...
More About: Investment , Frugality , Banker , Fisherman

The Power of Blogging
2008-04-25 01:00:00
Sometimes I am pleasantly surprised when I blog about a company and then get a response from that company. My blogs only get a few thousand visitors per month, they don’t get anywhere near the traffic of the major blogs but they somehow get the attention of these companies. I suppose they have someone doing ...
More About: Power , Blogging

Tracking Every Penny and My Non Budget
2008-04-24 00:23:00
Over at My Two Dollars last week David wrote a post arguing against what he called “Watching Every Last Penny Syndrome.” Since I track every penny I spend and earn I have to disagree with that post. This is something I started doing after reading “Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship with ...
More About: Budget , Frugality , Tracking

Frugality Picks and a Meme
2008-04-23 16:58:00
This weeks edition of the Festival of Frugality is hosted at On Financial Success. It includes my post “Do Reward Cards Actually Reward You.” Some of my favorites from the rest include: “Inconspicuous Consumption” from Money Changes Things.  Not buying stuff in the first place is even better than recycling. “10 Frugal and Eco-Friendly Ideas” from ...
More About: Meme

Save Money, Save the Planet, By Not Having Children?
2008-04-23 00:44:00
In honor of Earth Day I decided to post on a topic that can save money and help the environment. Choosing to not have children can do both of those things. According to a report from the USDA it costs almost $200,000 to raise a child to age 17 in the United States. Many consider this ...
More About: Children , Money , Save Money , Planet , Frugality

April Credit Score
2008-04-21 23:57:00
My credit score for April is 737 down from 781 in March. The drop is most likely because of my taking a credit card advance to pay down one of my student loans. Since I don’t plan on borrowing any money other than student loans this year the drop in my credit score doesn’t concern ...
More About: Credit , Debt , Score

Teaching Law in Law School
2008-04-19 17:07:00
I recently read that my former law school,Washington and Lee, is revising their third year law school curriculum and replacing all academic classes with experiential learning. All of the third year students will be required to get a Virginia practice certificate and participate in at least one real client experience during the year. There have ...
More About: Law School , Teaching , School

I Got A Summer Legal Job!
2008-04-18 22:01:00
Today I was offered an internship working for the Missouri State Public Defender’s office which I accepted. I’m looking forward to putting some of the knowledge I’ve acquired in 5 semesters of law school to practical use. Since I’m Missouri Rule 13 eligible I should get the opportunity to appear in court. I’ll be working ...
More About: Law School , Summer , Legal

Alternative Income:Ads On Your Incoming Calls
2008-04-17 23:37:00
It has been a while since I’ve posted about any alternative income streams. There is a new service called Brring! that allows you to get paid when your friends call. You play them a 10 second ad before the call forwards to you. Basically you set up a phone number with Brring! that forwards to ...
More About: Alternative , Calls , Income

Midgrade Gas is the Same as Regular?
2008-04-17 00:34:00
Here is yet another example that you don’t always get what you pay for. According to this Kansas City Star article regular gasoline in Missouri now has the same octane as midgrade gasoline. Many gas stations are still charging more for the midgrade gasoline even though it is essentially the same as regular. A few ...
More About: Regular , Frugality

FoF #121 Picks
2008-04-15 23:43:00
The latest Festival of Frugality is being hosted at Rather-be-Shopping blog. It includes my post “Forced Frugality“. Some of my favorites from the rest of the posts include: Why Did I Start This Consumption ?Diet?? posted at Diary of a New Old-Fashioned Gal This is an interesting idea but I do very little consumer spending anyway ...

Bloggers Who Disclose Their Income
2008-04-15 17:48:00
I disclose my income and expenses each month on this blog. There are many bloggers who disclose their online income,alternative income or passive income but there aren’t many that dispose their total income. LuLuGal at HowISaveMoney.net is disclosing her income and finances for this month at least but I don’t know of any bloggers besides ...
More About: Income , Bloggers , Disclose

Finding Missing Money
2008-04-14 21:18:00
While reading a post at another PF blog (sorry, I can’t remember which one or I’d give them credit) I read about the site Missing Money .com which searches the databases of most states to find whether they have your unclaimed property. I’ve done this search before of my home state’s database but it only found an ...

Oops!?I did it again
2008-04-14 00:52:00
I was trying to tweak my header Friday but it seemed that nothing I was doing was having any effect. When I viewed my site yesterday I noticed I had messed up my header so that the blog title and description were no longer viewable. It isn’t the first time I tried to tweak my ...

Frugality Got My Bike Stolen
2008-04-11 16:37:00
Sometimes my frugal nature costs me. I’ve been needing to get a lock for my bike for a couple of months. Whenever I was in a store that sold bike locks I’d check the prices but I always thought I could get a better price. I figured my bike was safe enough where it was ...
More About: Bike , Stolen , Frugality

Do Reward Cards Actually Reward You?
2008-04-10 23:28:00
There are many different reward cards and most pay between 1% to 5% back. These cards could still be costing you money though. This is because people generally spend more when paying with credit cards than paying with cash. The most often quoted percentages I see are from 12-18% but I couldn’t find the actual ...
More About: Debt , Cards , Reward

Carnival and Festival Picks
2008-04-09 00:24:00
The Latest Carnival of Personal Finance is being hosted at MoneyNing. It includes my post The CCRA and Law School Loan Forgiveness.  The latest Festival of Frugality is being hosted at A Penny Saved.  After looking for my post and not finding it I realized that I never got around to submitting it. Maybe I’ll ...

Keeping Hobbies Inexpensive
2008-04-07 23:45:00
What you do with your spare time has a big impact on where your discretionary income goes. That is why it is good to have inexpensive hobbies. If you are a spender though even inexpensive hobbies might be expensive. It is wise to look at how much you spend on your hobbies and determine if ...
More About: Hobbies , Frugality