The DVD Splurge of the Month

For a few years now, I have kept a list of DVDs/movies I want to buy and own sometime in the future. This "To Own" list has become a rather long list. But whenever I give in to the urge to buy something (arrgh..I must control thee!), I tend to go over to Blockbuster's and search for any of movies I've put on my "want" list on their "get 3 DVDs for $25 dollar deal" shelves (available with previously viewed DVDs).

While I'm aware that $25 to spend on movies at any one time is expensive, I try to find three that are already on my list. Also, there are usually recent big releases in the pre-viewed section as well. Last night, I got Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Sin City -Extended Edition (whoever traded it in....Thank you..Thank you!!!), and Empire Falls miniseries for $25.00.

Not bad if you're patient, don't mind browsing every single row, can adhere to buying only the ones you really want, and have time on your hands.

Dreaming of Condos In .......Chino?!!!!

The Condo I wish I can buy soon is in Chino, located in Riverside County, where cows still add fragrance to the air. However, Chino seems to be where the cheaper two bedroom condos are still at (in the $220,000 to $350,000 range). Also, the cows are reported to be on the move by 2007.

I've thought about Long Beach as well, however, condos in Long Beach are more like converted apartments and the neighborhood's crime rate is higher than in Chino. Of course, I can't afford any of it now but I've been keeping watch over the price ranges in order to get a feel for the local trend.

Odd Money Opportunity 2 Update

Last weekend, I counter-proposed this to my dad. The answer was vague. In fact, I'm still confused now as to what the answer was. I believe it might have been a maybe...a possibility. I think it's along the lines of "I'll believe it when I see it". Ah, well, it's still worth the try!

I've been sick lately and been in a haze the last couple of days. I don't like taking cold medicine so I've just been loading up on water and vitamin C. Here's saying goodbye to nearly two years of illness-free living!

Another Odd Money Opportunity..Sort Of

At the end of last year, my dad proposed that he will pay for liposuction as well as stomach stapling surgery if I will seriously choose to have them to shed excess weight this year. At first, I felt insulted since I feel that all he sees of me is a fat woman who is "running out of time"...his words. Although, I do see that this is one of his ways of showing me that he loves me and wants me to be healthy.

I'm big but I'm not grotesquely obese! I don't qualify for a stomach stapling surgery anyway. But I am thinking of couter-proposing on his offer. I would propose that if I can lose the excess weight this year via regular exercise and healthful eating habits, he can just give me the money he would have spent on my liposuctions, and allow me to save that money! I am not sure how he'll respond to it. Probably a "no...or a maybe". It won't hurt to ask. What he doesn't know is that I've already lost four pounds since the time of his proposal, and I am confident that I will lose more.

Gosh, I am so spoiled. *Note* The First Odd Money Opportunity was as post in November, 2005. Somehow, that post is not showing up as its own html page and I don't know how to link to it.

*EDIT*

Thanks to Jane Dough at Bostongal's Openwallet , here's the link to the other Odd Money Opportunity .

Mutual Fund Exchanges In Roth IRA

After I recovered from the weekend trauma, involving a horrible "friend" who left me stranded on Friday night at her boyfriend's place until six a.m. on Saturday, I decided that I'm going to tinker with the funds I have in the Roth IRA account at American Funds. I know...I know...I need to figure out a better way to release anger :)!!

Since, I already buy the Bond Fund of America (ABNDX) through work's 457b Plan , I decided to exchange the bond shares with their New World fund (NEWFX), an emerging market fund. Originally, the bond shares were bought with a load charge of 3.75%. The New World shares require a 5.75% load charge on shares bought, normally. However, since I'm exchanging ABNDX shares with NEWFX shares, no additional load charges were applied to the shares that were transferred. Great...I got a 5.75% load fund while only having paid 3.75%. I'm not sure if I can keep doing this (buying the bond fund first and then exchanging out the shares) whenever I want to invest in 5.75% load funds. No redemption fees apply since I'm still keeping the money in American Funds. Since capital gains will have to be considered, I won't be able to keep the automatic investment plan if I were to go with this method. Instead, maybe a once a year transfer will do and with an accumulated lump sum.

Or maybe I should just abandon American Funds and their load charges altogether and open up a roth ira at Fidelity, instead. I have a rollover ira with a $2,500 amount with Fidelity in a Freedom Fund. So far, I'm happy with the results over there.

If only exchanging out bad friends with good ones are this easy... (sigh).

Housing Maps and A Cheap Evening of Jazz

Searching for apartments, especially room rentals from a house, is quite easy and fun with Housing Maps (http://www.housingmaps.com). I'm a visual person, so the location click feature is fabulous for me. The information source is pulled from Craiglist and with Google maps software, you get a visually clear picture of where apartment or room listings are in your county or anywhere else in the country. There's a room rental listing at $350 per month in Santa Ana, California that attracted my interest. But, after reading that I'd have to live in the living room of someone else's apartment, I decided that I'd need more privacy than having hanging bed sheets as walls can offer.

An Evening of Cheap Entertainment In O.C.:

Tonight, I'm thinking of going to a local jazz club/cafe, Steamers Cafe, which has a cover charge of $5.00 with a two drink minimum. Two cokes usually don't cost so much. The jazz acts they usually have are just phenomenal, but I used to go there mainly for the atmosphere. The small floor is teemed with several cozy and dimly lit tables with both young and old crowd enjoying the flow of music. In the past, I've found that particular venue to be a cheap way to unwind on a friday night with great entertainment value.

Either that or I play dungeon & dragons with my cat. :D

Sharebuilder Bonus for Costco Members

I was looking through my mom's Costco coupon book this weekend (Oh, what a weekend...of cooking, cooking, and more cooking for my dad's house warming party.) I came across a bonus offer to open a new sharebuilder account for Costco members. Costco Executive members can get a $85 bonus while Gold Star & Business members can get the $65 bonus. One of the requirements is that you make a first transaction. The offer is not valid with individual retirement accounts or education savings accounts. It says that the bonuses will be deposited into the sharebuilder account within 4-6 weeks after the first transaction has been made. The catch is, of course, you have to be a current Costco member and open a new sharebuilder account with the first transaction made in the newly opened sharebuilder account prior to June 4, 2006.

Pretty good for current Costco members....too bad, I'm not one.

Get Your Creativity Published Stress-Free

A friend of mine, a talented writer and poet named Dabetswe Natasha, recently self-published a collection of poems titled, "Affinity of Our Chemistry" through www.lulu.com. She's a very bright poet who transforms words into emotions effortlessly. Please check out her work at www.lulu.com/dabetswe. I learned about Lulu, a web-based self-publishing service, through her. To anyone, who might want to get their creativity published and sold, this might be of interest.

Here what I found out from their website;

You write the book. Lulu basically prints and ships each book/order as it is bought. They charge no set-up fees or have minimum orders. The buyer would pay for the cost, not you as the writer. You get to have 80% of the profits ... basically, you get a commission. You get to have all rights to your work. You control the design and layout of the book, as well as the price and royalties. You can sell through their Lulu website as well as through Amazon, Borders, Barnes and Noble. The heady parts, such as transactions, order tracking, and shipping, is handled through them as well.

However, the marketing/promotion of your own book, a very vital aspect of the cash flow potential, is your own responsibility. The key thing is to get the word out there about your work. The books that I've browsed through so far range around $9.99 in cost (around $4.99 if you wish to have it in e-format/download).

There's a preview feature that lets you preview a portion of a specific book, in order to prevent buying something truly aweful and to help get the feel of a specific work. It might not bring in a ton of extra income since you only get a commission but it'll still be something if you already have poems or a mini-novel or a short story lying around somewhere collecting dust and cat fur. Since there's no cost to you, it seems like a worry-free way to get yourself published.

Office Depot's Advantage Rewards Program

I realize that this is nothing new but I thought I'd post it anyway. Office Depot's Advantage Rewards Program gives back a maximum of $50.00 per quarter (10% of total purchase in a quarter) in the form of a debit card that can be used for Office Depot purchases. Basically, similar to an office depot gift card. Some items, such as photo copies and printer ink cartridges, act as double multiplier for the dollar amount (if you spend $10.00 on these, it doubles into $20.00). The minimum dollar amount per quarter that needs to be spent in order to receive any reward is $200.00 (a $20.00 rewards card). This minimum shouldn't be hard to achieve per quarter for people who get reimbursed from their companies on office supply purchases or who have their own businesses. If you're going to have to spend money to buy such things, why not just get the 10% cash back while you're at it? I put the purchase on the Citibank Dividend Select card so, I'd get that extra 1% cash back as well.

When my last job was reimbursing all office supply purchases, including photo copies, I was getting a free $50.00 every quarter on the company's dime. I recently got my very last $50.00 rewards card (my last since I don't think I'll need as much office supplies as I used to, now that I have switched to a new job. I think I'm going to buy a money managing software (such as quicken or microsoft money) or a tax preparation software (such as Turbo Tax) wit this $50.00. I'm leaning toward the Turbo Tax, though.

Grandma's Stagnant Money Pile

My grandma's first dream was to become a doctor but it was stopped short when world war II occurred and she became pregnant with her first child. She had to find a way to feed her newborn baby (my dad) and so, her next dream was to own her own business. She was always stronger and more independent than my grandpa in terms of ambition and mind...she has always been the bread winner between the two of them. She managed to create and build an export/import business from the ground up, which was very successful after the war ended. In a way, she also got her first dream since all her children became doctors.

She was rich. I say "was" because she has spent most of her fortune through out her life and on her children. For example, she financed all her children's mortgages (she has five children). That is pretty nice of her considering that all her children live in prime real estate areas; Southern California, Bay area, and Hawaii. However, her savings have not exactly been growing since she has sold her business. Imagine, 40 years of her money twiddling thumbs and standing still.

However, she has divided up her some of her savings into large, small, and smaller piles prior to putting them into safe and slow savings accounts. Ten years ago, she has a very small amount of money put in a six month CD under my name after much persuasion from my mom that CDs are not going to kill her money. The interest rate currently is 1.87%. An all time high for this CD! Hey, at least she's not using shoeboxes anymore.

I'm the least favorite and most distant grandchild in my grandma's world. I don't expect her to give me this money and I doubt that she has the intentions to. To be honest, I think she has forgotten these smaller little piles she has spread around. I don't consider this money (approximately $12,000) my money but, since I can legally do what I want with this money, I'm going to put it in HSBC direct savings account, which has a much higher yield of 4.25%. I will have until the end of the month to withdraw the money from the CD account before it renews itself automatically. If she ever needs this pile, at least it'll have grown just a bit better than her other piles. This move has no benefit to me but really, I am just sick of getting the CD account statement every six months and staring at that horrible one percent interest rate. I wonder if she realizes that I have to pay taxes on the interest accrued for this money.

The HSBC savings account I had opened on my mom's behalf is now up and running with a $25 bonus since the online application was submitted two weeks ago. So far, it's been a smooth experience for me.

The next step is to open up a HSBC savings account for MYSELF :)!!

Net Worth January 3, 2006

Assets/Liabilities 01/04/06
Assets

Checking $145.00
Emigrant Direct Savings $17,513.67
American Funds Roth IRA $2,837.57
457-b plan $2,485.61
Taxable American Funds Account $10,427.24
Fidelity Rollover IRA $2,649.40
Account Receivables $410.00

TOTAL Assets $36,058.49
Liabilities
Citibank Dividend Card $790.66
Utilities $70.57
Verizon $60.49
Rent $500

TOTAL Liabilities $1,421.72

NET WORTH $34,636.77

Account receivables consist of money that's owed to me from a friend as well as the undeposited citibank dividend rewards check, a reimbursement check from work, an account refund check from my phone/internet provider, and a birthday money check. This does not yet include business receivables amount.

I charge everything I can on my citibank dividend card and will be using it to charge the verizon and utilities bills as well.

Most of my credit card bill this month is primarily comprised of grocery/restaurant purchases, medical co-payments, gift purchases, houseware purchases, gas fills (no longer reimbursed...argh!), and a AAA club membership renewal. I pay off the monthly payment on time to get the most out of the dividend card's rewards program and start with a fresh slate every 13th day of each month.

Found Money!

I just found in my mail that I got a refund check of $ 60.00 from Cox Communications, the provider for my land line/fax line and high speed internet. I have no idea how I overpaid the bill this year but I'm not arguing against it! I'm feeling abit under the weather but am thinking of driving to the bank to deposit this refund check and a $50.00 check I got from my sister as birthday present! $50.00 from sis is a big deal since she's got a family to support with a big house payment, and eventhough I am her baby sister, I don't expect her to give me birthday money anymore.

All in all, I'm happy about this sort of "extra" $60.00! Ole'!

The Frugal Rich Couple

A cousin of mine with whom I grew up with, here in California, moved to New York for graduate school a few years ago and since have settled there with a husband and a new home. her, her sister, and I were the three punks who did alot of things together, including studying, partying, and dating. She played the mother hen to us, the younger two. We shared our good times and bad times growing up.

I always knew that she was the frugal type but it seems that she has found her match through her husband. Between her and her husband, their annual income is approximately around $250,000 plus. She has one nice dress that she wears to any nice function that she has had for at least five years. She once told us that her husband had sternly asked her to be frugal when she ordered soup along with her lunch special at a cheap restaurant in Chinatown. The cost of the entire meal was $13.00 and that's included with the soup she ordered. This was on the once-in-a-blue-moon "date" they try to have in order to escape the stresses of everyday life. I remember she was furious...not because her husband was a cheap date but because he has not realized that she has been pinching and saving every chance she got for the last year and that these "dates" that rarely came were the only ones that were saving her from insanity.

I know them as a happy couple but I can't imagine earning that much (that's a mountain of gold for me) and still having to worry about a $1.00 soup on the occasional splurge with my husband. But then, maybe because they're that frugal, that they can save enough to have a big house, feed her mother-in-law, and live in New York.

A Happy 2006!!

The last two weeks have been busy with the preparations for the New Year's Eve Dinner I had planned for family and friends as well as with a certain out-patient surgery that was scheduled on the day before New Year's eve. Note to self: do not plan to stand around cooking all day after a surgery that asks you to rest for a day or two. Unless you can live with pain for the couple of days. I know... I asked for it.

For the dinner, I ended up buying everything from tablecloth, napkins, napkin holders, plates, utensils to decorations. I, of course, went over budget despite the shopping list I held steadily in my hand during the shopping trips. Next time, I need to realize that I do not need to get everything new just because it's a new event. I'm sure my family and friends wouldn't have minded if old utensils and plates were used and we were eating off a table that picked up from a garage sale for $15. In fact, I'm sure they wouldn't have noticed the difference. In any case, I am truly lucky to have such wonderful people as my family and friends.

A Happy Belated New Year Everyone!