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***This Round is Over and BFS Won!!! Thank you!!! I Will Let You Know When I’m Up Again.***
Hi to all the readers visiting from FMF! Glad to see you!
Feel free to take a look around!
I do have a HUGE First Blogoversary Giveaway going on right now so jump on in! There is more than $600 in cash and prizes up for grabs for at least 25 lucky winners!
A quick summary of me as a personal finance blogger would be that I put a huge emphasis on prioritization and automatic savings plans. My husband and I shooting to retire at age 52, so we live on his salary, save my own, and budget in fun stuff too.
For a quick view of my past posts, you can visit my archives. You can also look to the left-hand column to see my most popular posts from the last month or so, or see the right hand column for specific categories. If I had to pick a few posts just to give you some BFS flavor, they would be:
For anybody who didn’t come here from FMF, he hosts a March Money Madness contest for bloggers. Right now my post, How I Make Money Blogging, has made it into the second round and is up as Game 6 on his site.
Please do me a huge favor my clicking over and typing in your vote (in case you are voting for me, please type in the word “Blogging” in the comment section at FMF). Thanks so much!
For my regular readers – you can see my daily posts below still, thanks!!!
Our homeowners insurance just came up for renewal, and once again, they raised our premium. We went from $765 a year to $825. I was pretty upset since our home value has definitely not gone up and I have no idea why it would take $184,000 to rebuild a $130,000 house.
So I decided to call since I usually call when I’m unhappy with a current utility or service price. I successfully decreased our cable bill by $20 a month for 6 months simply by asking a few weeks ago, so I figured I could do the same with homeowners insurance, right?
The very nice woman on the other end of the phone, Carlene, explained that the rebuild value of my house included things like debris removal and slab testing for any permanent damage, but I was still not convinced that $184,000 was realistic. She then offered to reevaluate my property to see if we could get our homeowners insurance premium lowered.
After playing 20 questions about what type of siding we have and the placement of our garage, she said some magic words “Oh, it looks like your rebuild value is closer to $154,000.” Dang skippy!!!
She asked if I would mind holding while she called the main department to change my paperwork. Woot! After being on hold for a little while, Carlene came back and asked if I would formally accept the changes to my homeowners insurance policy and be able to pay the new $725 premium instead. I was all smiles!!! I also immediately paid so they wouldn’t have time to change their minds, lol.
So a 20 minute phone call lowered our 2011-2012 homeowners insurance premium from $825 to $725! That’s even cheaper than last year’s $765 rate! I really do love it when things work out!
Have you had any recent success with getting a bill lowered? Any tips?
Since I do plan on blogging full time by 2012, this is the year for a HUGE push. These are the new goals to keep us on the right track!
Here are my Goals for July 4th, 2011:
Here is what we are shooting for by July 4th, 2011:
Alexa – Maintain a Ranking at or around 37,500
Visits – 60,000 total visits (I started BFS on February 20th, 2010) Feedburner Subscribers – 500 Twitter Followers – 500 MozRank – 5.5
Today’s Update
Alexa – 33,920 (Have I told you how AMAZING you all are lately?!)
Visits – 38,558 (21,442 to go…we can do it!) Feedburner Subscribers - 315 (185 to go) Twitter Followers – 331 (169 to go) MozRank – 4.99 (0.51 to go…don’t know why this went down but I’ll work on even more guest posting…)
As always, thank you so much for being my supporters! Obviously, I could not do any of this without you and I never forget that!!!
The Saved Quarter Challenge Update
I joined The Saved Quarter Challenge this year and am aiming to save at least $21,000 by the end of 2011! That would be a tiny bit more than 25% of our GROSS pay from our two full time jobs.
Here’s how I’ve done this week for the Saved Quarter Challenge ($21,000 Goal):
I have better updates after the 13th of every month since that is when our billing periods end, but here is where we funnelled away money this past week:
I made a few hundred extra dollars this week from blogging, but I won’t know for another 3 weeks if any of it gets to be saved or not.
I called our homeowner’s insurance company and got our premium lowered $100 a year but I also won’t count that until it’s “in the bank” so to speak. I have a post coming up about it soon.
Total This Week: $0
We’ve saved what we have because we live off of hubby’s salary as a school librarian ($38,000 take home pay) and save most of what I make ($26,000 take home pay).
Total to date: $4630 guaranteed, $16,370 to go.
Additonal Info
I will continue posting monthly and yearly blog statistics and income updates from here on out, so stay tuned at the beginning of every month!
In case you didn’t know, Alexa traffic rankings are determined by the numbers of hits a site gets by people with the Alexa toolbar. If you want to be part of this ranking community, you can download the Alexa toolbar here.
If you don’t already, you can follow me via RSS or Twitter by following those links.
To learn more about the Yakezie, the blogging group that has helped me in SO many ways, check out my Yakezie page! Feel free to email me if you are a Yakezie member or challenger and don’t see yourself on the list!
If you are interested in seeing how I went from an 8 million plus Alexa rank to about 50,000 in less than 8 months, you can see My Blogging Schedule, which breaks down everything I do related to blogging.
The following is a message submitted on behalf of Dollars Direct.
There are four things that can drive me crazy when my checking account is running low and there are things to buy or pay for but, obviously, I can’t:
• Paying penalties on late payments of bills is a HUGE waste of money
• Dealing with the mental stress of being late
• Not being able to buy something important
• Knowing that I have earned the money, but don’t have it yet
So there are times when getting a payday loan can solve one or several of these things. You should note that payday loans come with a price. You are borrowing money from yourself, in a way, but the lender is helping you do that. Cash advance companies generally charge an upfront fee and interest. The idea is to repay on the loan in your next paycheck. But if you need two or more pay periods to pay back on the payday loan, the costs will increase.
Given that cost, you still can come out ahead. First, calculate the costs of paying late on one or two bills – what you would have to pay if you didn’t get the cash advance on your paycheck. If you know paying late will send a ding to your credit report, add another $100 or $200 to the cost of not getting the payday loan. Credit ratings drops can be a serious loss.
Or, if you have a pending purchase – which can include a car maintenance check up, or something else that is essential and will need to be paid for somewhere down the line –will it cost more later if you have to make that purchase on an emergency basis?
Finally, factor in the cost of stress. This can include the anxiety from not being able to pay for something, even though you know you’ve pretty much earned it already but that your paycheck won’t arrive for another week or two.
If you run the numbers and truly account for the cost of stress, the payday loan might make a lot of sense.
PF Firewall with The Circle of Life: When Parents Become Children Again This is a followup from a post by Fabulously Broke based on a post at A Gai Shan Life. I’ve actually been thinking about this on and off lately for no real reason and figure my husband and I could take care of our parents to a point but professional care may be a possibility as well if it’s something we can’t manage.
Squirrelers with a guest post from Money Sanity with A Time I Splurged and was Glad I Did My husband and I don’t regret our way-too-expensive date nights either…occasional splurges on nice evenings are good for the soul…
If you would like to guest post on BFS, please contact me with your idea or post and I’d love to have you over for the day! If you are a business, please contact me here for more details. Thanks!
Giveaways and Other Info
Remember to check out my First Blogoversary Giveaway until March 6th! There are more than $600 in cash and prizes available for 25 lucky winners!
The Car Negotiation Coach has created an amazing smart database for creating a personalized car buying plan for anybody, so check it out!
Feel free to contact me if you have any suggestions. I’d love to add a few more blogs to my regular reading list or at least give a shout-out for great posts or contests.
As always, thanks to all the bloggers that teach me something new every day. Thanks to all my commenters for making this blog the community I want it to be. Thanks to all my “lurkers” too. I hope everybody is enjoying this as much as me!
The following is a guest post from Buck Inspire. Buck is a fellow blogger, who is living a fulfilled life within his means while delving into personal finance sprinkled with dining, entertainment, pop culture, technology, and travel. If you like what you see here, please consider subscribing to his RSS feed or following him on Twitter.
I didn’t know what to expect from Brotherhood, an independent award winning film. In the end, it packed quite a punch and could give studio produced films a run for their money. The picture quality wasn’t as crisp and vibrant as a bigger budget film, but the story, the acting, and pace were all top notch.
I was on the edge of my seat for the entire movie. Words that came to mind were gripping, edgy, but realistic. All the actors were amazing, especially the fraternity leader (Jon Foster) and the pledge leader (Trevor Morgan). He actually is a spitting image of a young John Cusack, right down to his speech and mannerisms.
The supporting cast was stellar as well, especially the store clerk and the medical student who provided much needed comedy relief. It was an emotional roller coaster as the Brotherhood went from one life or death situation to the next. If the event wasn’t life or death, it was life changing. Overall, a brilliant movie which provides a dark look at college life, different personalities, human nature, and mob mentality.
Brotherhood blew me away.
Tune in for more fun in the Budgeting in the Fun Stuff’s Entertainment section! If you liked this review, also check out Buck Inspire’s review of Unknown.
Every time I get a gift card, such as for my birthday or Christmas, I look at it and wonder if I can use it for my business. Just this past holiday season I got a brand new laser printer, a fax machine, a fancy corporate looking telephone, and a second printer for my assistant/secretary.
“Awesome!” I think. ”These items will really help my business run more smoothly.”
There is only one problem. I do not currently own a business.
Dreams of Self-Employment
I like my job, but I have always dreamed of having something of my own. The only problem is I know I am simply not ready yet. I lack the clients and the experience to go out on my own, and no amount of drive or work ethic is going to make up for the important areas in which I am currently lacking, only time. Besides, with my student loans it would be crazy to try and set up shop right now.
And yet the dream persists. Just the other day I purchased some normally very expensive watermarked business paper on sale. I got home and before I relegated it to the “business stack” hidden in a closet in our apartment, I admired its professional look, and the fact that it was so much thicker than ordinary paper. For a second I even felt a little tinge of melancholy, as I wondered if the paper would be brittle and yellow by the time I got around to starting a business that could use it. For that matter, who is to say whether the office equipment I am purchasing now will even be compatible with the future computers they will surely need to link to? To be perfectly honest, I even felt a little depressed for the paper, sitting around gathering dust with no chance to fulfill its duty in life. (Man I need to get Toy Story 3 out of my head).
How Soon is To Soon to Start Planning for a Future Business?
My wife has never said so (to me), but I suspect she finds my hoarding of office supplies slightly strange. At the same time, I know she does not want to be perceived as killing my dreams. Perhaps all I need is the illusion of one day breaking free of my job and starting something all my own. And yet, at the same time I can think of rational reasons for what I am doing. ”Times will be tight when I do start my business,” I say. ”We’ll be happy we purchased this stuff over a long period of time so when I start the business the startup costs will be manageable.”
Different Ways to Plan and Prepare for a Future Business
There are more practical ways that all of us can tip toe into a business. We can learn a trade or skill, such as what I am doing at my job. We can lay the groundwork for a future company by networking now, so that a solid client base may be called upon when you do make the jump to your own company. Like Crystal on this site, you can start something as a side-business before going “all in”. Finally, you can take the time to further your education/complete any certifications that you may need, or learn about business in general before taking the big risk of solo employment. The fact remains that whether you are a painter, a doctor, or a lawyer, any company/profession requires marketing and business skills as well as knowledge/skill of the underlying service/items you are selling.
Conclusion
There is something inside me that feels better knowing that I am taking some actionable steps towards self-employment, even if I cannot take the big leap forward at this time. When I am having a particularly rough day at work, I think about my little unopened office back home, and allow myself to dream about the future for a moment or so. I admit some may consider what I am doing to be a little off, at best.
Others may argue that you just need to go for it, and sink or swim on your own accord. It does seem that most success stories that I read about do involve someone going after their dream 100%, with passion and laser point focus. But for some reason, I don’t worry about any of that, as I dutifully attempt to inch towards my dreams one prematurely purchased office supply at a time.
Author’s Bio Most other Bloggers in the field of Personal Finance discuss their “Goal of obtaining one million dollars” or their “journey to financial independence and freedom.” After seven years each straight of “higher” education (and all the student loans that go along with it), our husband/wife blogging team goal is to simply get back to broke. Join us on our journey at www.brokeprofessionals.com.
Crystal’s Comments: I have found myself drooling over nice desks and organizational tools for my future blogging office, so this post strums my heartstrings. Do you have plans for your business to come?
I am not a professional or a financial advisor. BFS posts are informational opinions only. Please make your own financial decisions based on personal research or see a financial advisor.
Also, there are paid links on this site. There is no obligation on your part to purchase any products advertised on this website.
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I hope everybody is enjoying this as much as me!
