Brown Bagging It

I have actually been brown bagging it at work. I usually either go out to lunch or just do not have lunch. I have refused to brown bag up to this point. There has been a couple times where Diana has tried to switch me over, but I resisted. This time, I am not resisting. Diana and I have had a long talk about our current financial situation. Things are fine. We really have no money problems. Little debt, relatively cheap car payments, and I make enough money to be able to put some away at the end of every month. So you are now asking, why were you talking about your financial situation?

Well, Diana and I have plans, we want to progress in life. Once day move to St. George, buy a big house, ensure ours and our children's future by putting away enough for college for the kids, plus saving more for weddings and other things that will surely be coming. All this and my company has frozen salaries for the year. How am I going to get a raise to help us along our financial path? The only way I get a raise this year is to save money.

"Brown bagging is saving money." That is what I say to myself as I take my lunch in the morning and eat it in the afternoon. It is just so much funner to eat out. To make things fair, I am still doing Monday Wendy's and then one other day a week I go to Costco for a hot dog or a slice of pizza (I love Costco pizza). This seems like a pretty good trade-off.

We are doing other things as well. Refinancing the house to a better rate (a no-cost streamline refinance). I am looking at our car insurance to see where we can save (will be switching in April when current contract expires). We have also been looking at other items that we could reduce our monthly spend on.

It is going to be a long year, and it also looks as if things are going to get worse out in the world before it gets better.

Who knows, maybe a year from now I will like brown bagging it so much I won't even notice.

Hard Day

"In this economic climate."

How many times have you heard that statement in the past couple months? If you are at my house or at my job it has been quite a lot. Well, today "the economic climate" became very real to me. People actually lost their jobs today (not me, thank goodness). I know this is going on all over the world and there are probably places that are no where near as nice as my place of employment that has let people go, places where people were actually better off not working there. That does not make it any easier. Letting people go is never an easy decision, and I am sure many sacrifices were made. On days like today I count my blessings and vow to never forget how much I love my job.

Hopefully, Obama and his people can get something passed in congress that can help spur the economy. Until then I will be saving my money and not going out as often, being a little more careful with what I have. I also know that I will get my tax return submitted and get the money in the bank as soon as possible.

Last Yard Work of the Year?

Yesterday I mowed the front yard. Tonight I mowed the back. Could this be that last time for the year? It is supposed to snow tomorrow. Diana wants me to mow again before I leave for Prague. Hopefully we get like three feet, then there is no way I can mow again.

I hate yard work. My main problem is that you have to do it all the time. You can spend hours on a weekend making sure it is all perfect, but then you end up having to do it all again next week. No matter how good a job you do, the grass grows and the weeds come up.

I do not have a good lawn mower, either. A couple years ago the motor that pushed the mower broke. Now I have to push the mower, and it is a heavier mower because it is supposed to be self-propelled. Tonight while I mowed one of the back wheels kept sticking. Then I was not only pushing, I was dragging the mower.

The problem with all this is that I cannot complain to my wife about this because she tells me to hire someone and I am too cheap. Maybe if I got a riding lawn mower I would like the yard work better, but who's got $1,000 in this economy?

Going Down...Finally

Gas prices near my house have fallen to $4.05. The Costco price was $3.95. I attribute this fall in prices to my continued monitoring of prices. Feel free to send me thank you notes. We only have another 20 cents to go until regular stations get to the national average of $3.83 (Costco only has about 10 cents to go).

Links for Now

Our next trip to Disneyland just got more expensive. $4 more per day is really not that bad.

A new kind of RSS feed, Spectra has made its debut. I am not a big RSS guy, but I do see the benefits of it. Spectra is a visual RSS feed and not just text. My blog role on the right hand is RSS. If you want to know more about RSS click here.

10 tips or all of you that are going to back to school on a budget. Me and Diana still need to get everything for our kids. Back to School night is only a couple weeks away now. It is starting to get serious.

Is this almost-recession in our heads and the media is portraying it all too much and too loud? I do not think so. Gas prices have doubled in a year. All of the food we buy is either much more expensive or the size of the package has shrunk. I do not think so, but some do (one of these is McCain's Economic Secretary).

I want a car that drives itself! I also want it to be able to have a conversation with me plus be able to order a pizza to pickup at home and mow the lawn.

It will be hard to watch CSI without Gil Grissom, but Fishburne is a pretty good replacement.

Money, Money, Money

Rebate checks are coming early. The President is freaking out so he decided to get the economic stimulus checks out early. He, of course, does nothing as oil prices double/triple from when he took office (all his buddies are oil guys). But now that his time in office is running out, he decided that he wants people to have good thoughts about him. At least this time I don't have to pay back the money. This truly is free money this time. An advance of a tax cut for next year. Now we just have to decide how to spend/save of the rebate.

Don't you just love Microsoft. They release a new version of their software (Vista). Everyone hates it. Businesses will not use it. Most people would rather just use XP, because it just works. No funny business like you get with Vista. Microsoft has announced that they are extending the life of XP, which they wanted to kill a year ago, because there would be a riot if it was actually pulled.

The Bees win again. They are now 19-1. The one loss coming the night I went to a game. I guess it is all me. Maybe I will have to go to another game soon just to see if it is me or not. Anyways, I guess these guys are good.

Yesterday's Lost was pretty good. Read the recap from MSN and let me know what you think. I would rate last nights episode a 4 out of 5. This season on Lost there has not been an episode that has rated under 4. This is by far the best TV show on right now.