Welcome to the Carnival of Personal Finance #273 hosted at Sustainable Life blog.  Sustainable life blog is about the intersection of frugality/finance, the environment and personal health.  Thanks for stopping by for the Carnival!

According to the Department of Labor, Labor Day is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.

Here are the Editors Picks for this week:

Len at Len Penzo dot com has 10 characteristics of Debt Free People (of modest means). Definitely a fan of this article, and it’s got some great tips. My favorite: they’re self reliant. I’d love to start bringing the blog in the self reliant direction, but I’m not quite as self reliant as I want to be at this point.

The kitchen Sink has an interesting post on the security of banks. This was interesting to me because it’s something that I’m completely unaware of. As far as I go back (and my parents too) banks have always had FDIC Insurance. Even when one of my banks was having major stability issues, I stayed because I was nowhere near the limit of FDIC backing. In the end my bank got bought out, but there was 0 worry on my part. The author’s grandfather was probably envious of my thought process.

Beagle from Money Beagle is teaching an important lesson with small gaps can mean big waste. While beagle only talks about his living room, this is apparent in all of personal finace. Your gap my not be a hole near the fan, it could be eating fast food for lunch every day or spending a boat load of money on a hobby that you don’t get that much enjoyment out of. You cant let the little things slip by you. Keep focused on EVERYTHING and stuff will fall into place.

Suba at Wealth Informatics has an article on what the bush tax cuts would mean for you if they were allowed to expire, and what would happen for if they are reinstated for those making more and less than 250k (for couples) or 200k (for individuals). Thankfully, I fall in the level where taxes are not going up, so I’m happy about that! This is a great and comprehensive review of changes in the tax code.

I grew up in Colorado, and one of the few things that happened in Colorado that dealt with the labor movement was the Ludlow Massacre.  19 People were killed in Ludlow, Colorado when attacked by the Colorado national guard.  Those killed were mostly striking miners, but there were also a few women, children and 1 guardsman.  It was the deadliest incident in a 14 month long strike by coal miners in southern Colorado.

Debt/Taxes

Tim Chen from NerdWallet Credit Card Watch presents Chase Travel Card Showdown – Continental OnePass vs Sapphire Preferred, and says, “A few months back, Chase launched a new travel rewards card called the Continental OnePass Plus, which pays out OnePass frequent flyer miles for every dollar spent. Not content to leave it at that however, we decided to pit it up against another one of Chase’s all-star travel cards – the Sapphire Preferred.”

Tom at Canadian Finance blog has a guide on how to finish college. People really need to pay attention to this. Im of the belief that student loan debt is the next problem for the economy. It’s a huge drag on those of us who have them, and that is just about everyone. Some frugality and work during school probably could have changed this whole thing.

Madison at My Dollar Plan has an article on the Marriage Tax Penalty. I’m glad that I got a chance to read this, as I’m not married and had no idea. As much as I hate to admit it, it’s time to start thinking about tax implications for next year.
Squirrelers has a great post on review of all the online tax preperation software . I had only heard of the first two of these (H&R block and Turbo Tax), but never knew about all the things that went into filing. I’m glad I’m not a self employed individual like he is.

The Pullman strike happened in the Chicago area in 1894.  After workers wages and hours were cut, they decided to strike, essentially grinding train traffic in western Chicago to a halt.  The union representing the workers was the nations first country-wide union, and eventually pulled 27 states and 250,000 workers at the peak of the strike.  Eventually, Federal workers were ordered by then president Grover Cleveland in to quell the strike.  13 workers were killed, but not before causing $340,000 (8,818,000, adjusted for inflation) of damage.

Real Estate/ Economy/ Career

Craig at Free From broke thinks it’s still a good idea to buy a home in this economy. For me, I think it depends on geography. My area is small, and the job prospects really depend on the industry. If I had a house here, I could end up churning a lot of water and not going anywhere, or working in a lot of different industries. If I didn’t own a home, a layoff wouldn’t mean something awful, it could just mean a different city/region.

Over at the Mighty Bargain Hunter, they are begging to get gouged until it hurts. I’ve never lived in a disaster area, but I do understand his point. There should be a spot where people who need to buy things meet at a price point with the people who sell them. If they can’t work it out, then they don’t want it that bad.

Jeff Rose at Good Financial Cents wants you to say no to the bond bubble. Sometimes, you’ve just got to go with your gut (and the numbers).

Paul at Provident Planning is . He’s got a great point that he didn’t really expand on much, but the social guilt we feel when a friend/loved one comes up to you with “the best new product” you feel like you’ve got to hear them out. Don’t bother, it’s probably crap. (Unrelated: Check out Paul’s series “Raising a cow for beef” It’s good stuff)

During another Chicago show of power, the Haymarket affair was initially started as a show of support for a nearby group of striking workers.  A yet to be named person tossed a bomb in the direction of the police and the blast and post blast shots killed 8 people and an unknown number of people.

Money Management

B Simple at Simple Financial Lifestyle has 8 Financial seeds to plant. I like the Eliminate Paper Seeds and the Automate seeds. It’s no sense wasting that paper (who reads that crap anyway) and no sense not to trick yourself with savings automation.

Eric at Narrow Bridge is teaching you How to change banks. I think many people (myself included) don’t bother going to search for better banking because of the hassle. You should look into it, it could save you bundles!

Gen Y Wealth wants you to Sell your stuff. Get rid of it, there’s no sense to pay to store it (in extra rent) or heat all the rooms that you never use that just house your belongings! You’ll feel better once it’s gone, I promise.

Richly Reasonable (a new Yakezie member!) wants you to money proof your relationship Unfortunately, money is a huge problem in relationships. Be honest about your situation, and most importantly, if it’s causing problems with you, change it. Spend less, save more, be happier!

J. Money at Budgets are Sexy is Breakin the law by drawing on his washingtons (benjamins?). Never knew this, but I guess you shouldn’t call that phone number you found on that single anyway….

Tim at the Econ Man will let you know how to make saving easy! I just discovered TIm’s blog earlier this week after a comment he left on my blog and noticed this article. Glad you’re saving all your side hustle income, Tim.

Free Money Finance wants to call “bull” on you for saying you cant earn more money. Here are the reasons you’re not earning more.

David at DINKS Finance has some time management skills that will lead to Freedom of a Saver, and says, “Growing your pennies isn’t all about filling your bank balance.
Danielle at Danielle Liss dot com has the first lesson on budgeting . Learning delayed gratification at the age of 7 surely taught this blogger a lot. I would have failed miserably at that age.

Live real now is arguing an interesting side of savings when to quit saving and start spending. Definitely something personal finance, but it’s important to note that you can’t take it all with you when you die. Save a lot of money sure, but don’t forget to enjoy it!

Ken at Spruce up your finances talks about Why you need an emergency fund. This would have saved me gobs of money and stress if I had one while I was dealing with vehicle issues.
Mike at Green Panda Treehouse is talking about enjoying the small things while saving money . It’s typically cheaper (airfare wise) to “wait until the last dog is hung” to take your summer vacation. Even though he’s just in the back yard, it’s a good habit to get in to!

In 1806, the Philadelphia cordwainers went on strike for higher wages.  They were convicted of charges for criminal conspiracy and shut down.  This decision gave the US its main Union fighting power.

Investing

The Modern Gal wants to know if we are the lost investment generation. As she says “stop trying to time the market”. If we are trying to time the market, we are probably looking at deals galore. Some of these stocks are at all time bargains (see General Electric circa 2009).

Accumulating money brings us the value of Tech ETFs. They go over the types of etfs and the subsets of the Tech market. Something I definitely was not familiar with before this article.

Todd at the Digerati Life wants to give you some tips if you are Planning on rolling your 401k into an IRA. This could definitely happen to me soon. I think that I’d roll into a roth because I don’t know the future tax rates.

The Intelligent Spectator takes us back to basics with What is a P/E ratio. I think a lot of people don’t understand the basics of investing and when you get into the higher level fundamentals, it gets worse. This is good stuff for everyone to know.

D4L from Dividends Value presents Stocks That Pay Monthly Dividends, and says, “There is a reason that most mortgages are paid monthly and not quarterly. Banks are looking for reassurance the payments will continue to come in. In much the same way, many investors find comfort in owning stocks that pay monthly dividends. There are several advantages to receiving dividends each month over the traditional quarterly, semi-annual or annual dividends.”

David from Money Under 30 presents The Difference: Growth Investing vs. Value Investing, and says, “Ever wondered what separates growth investing from value investing? This post examines these two common  investing strategies and will help you decide which blend of each is right for your portfolio. I definitely need to determine my investment strategy. The “shotgun” approach is probably not the best plan.

To give ourselves a view of how easy we have it, carpenters in Boston had to strike to get a 10 hour work day in 1825.  It doesn’t make those 8 hours seem that bad, does it?

Budgeting

Craig at Money Help for Christians (MH4C) has got 31 things that tell you it’s time to start budgeting . My personal favorites are: “Your ATM refuses to spit out dollars”; Your idea of saving for a vacation is applying for as many credit cards as possible and one that I used to say “where did it all go?”. If ANY of these are you, don’t sweat it. You’ve here, and that means you’re a) lost or b) interested in change. It’ll suck at the beginning, but be worth it in the end. Give it a whirl.

Great tips from Mrs Nepsy on why being married is good for your finances. Don’t run off and just get married because you’re suddenly exempt from estate taxes, but do it because you care about the person. These are just some side-benefits.

Interesting article from Nicole and Maggie on wether or not you budget. . I do budget, but I keep it loose, so that I don’t feel bad about myself if I don’t make one of the categories.

A great story from Revance at A Gai Shan Life about budgeting for medical costs that are not hers. I’ve been thinking about getting a relatively major operation next year, and am debating if I should or not. Unfortunately, the FSA program and related changes are playing a big part in my decision. Still not sure what to do.

Jocelin at One Money Design has an article on Buying organic on a budget. I don’t really try and buy organic, I’m not convinced of the benefits quite yet. However, I know that some value the purchase, and they should enjoy it!

To protest a lack of employment opportunities in New York City after the 1873 panic, people gathered at tompkins square on January 8.  They voted on an 8 hour workday, and came back for the parade 5 days later.  Permits for the event were revoked, and police began dispersing people with clubs, and the men fought back.  1 was arrested, and a police officer was hit over the head with a hammer.  45 arrests were made, but the movement lost steam after the riot at tompkins square.

Frugality/Credit/Finance

Junior Boomer at Consumer Boomer has some tips on how to save money on your next vacation . I’ve definitely noticed the eating deal. You can’t blow your budget on food and leave none left for fun stuff. You cant just go on a gastro-tour (unless that’s what you want).

Fashion and Frugality talks about important stuff about fashion

Crystal at Budgeting in the Fun Stuff has 6 tips to save money. Not sure I agree with her take on the $600,000 dog, but the other ones she’s got are great.

Simon Zhen from Realm of Prosperity presents 5 Common Financial Brain Farts.

Lina & Dima from Passive Family Income presents 3 Ways To Evaluate A Passive Income Opportunity, and says, “Before you sign up and get involved with a passive income opportunity that is professing to help you make a significant amount of money, you should take the time carefully evaluate whether or not this is the best opportunity for you.”

Jim from Bargaineering presents How to get Two Free Credit Reports a Year.

Neal Frankle from Wealth Pilgrim presents What Is A Good FICO Credit Score Range?, and says, “It’s important to be in a good… no, great FICO credit score range. It’s also important to know what your score is.”

Tyler Metzger from Taking Charge presents Brother, can you spare a swipe? Contactless card reading guitar unveiled. Definitely dangerous, but kind of cool

Mr. Credit Card from Ask Mr. Credit Card presents Consumer Advocacy, Transparency and the Card Act.

The Smarter Wallet from The Smarter Wallet presents Travel Credit Cards: Get Perks When You Travel, and says, “Some tips on using cards when you travel.”

The second bloodiest dispute in labor history happened in Thibodaux, Louisana during sugar cane riots.  The strike was organized during a critical harvesting period for sugar cane, and had support of 10,000 workers.  Plantation owners grew worried about a total loss, and the state milita was called in on their behalf.  30-35 african american workers were killed by the state milita.

Other

Kim Snider from Kimmunications from Kim Snider  presents Why Buy Term Life Insurance and Invest the Difference.

Ron from The Wisdom Journal presents Why I Didn’t Buy A Franchise, and says, “All that glitters ins’t gold in the world of big time franchises. If you’re looking for a franchise, make sure your eyes are wide open!”

Donna Freedman from Surviving and Thriving presents What’s with the shopping cart? Or: Art vs. commerce., and says, “Plenty of people blog for free, for the sheer joy of words. Let me tell you something: Joy doesn’t pay the bills.”

Roshawn Watson from Watson Inc presents 7 Surprising Facts About Millionaires , and says, “Culturally, we are plagued by images of “bling this” and “bedazzle that”; however, how many “artifacts of wealth” are truly held by real millionaires?” Here we discuss seven popular misconceptions to paint a more accurate portrait of the prototypical millionaire.”

I think I’ll do yearly goals updates every 3 months.  It will help be get on track and make sure that none of my goals falls too far out of my mind.  Keeping things in my mind will hopefully keep me focused on them and allow me to complete them.  If you’re wondering what my goals were/are check here, and if you’re looking for previous progress, check out how I was doing at the 6 month mark.

2010 Money Goals

1. Pay Off Credit Cards – This has been a goal for quite a while, but I’m getting traction now.  Balance as of Jan 2010: $6,026

Finally! After YEARS of hollow “pay off my credit cards” goal setting, I’ve done it.  If you want to read about it, click here.

1. Have 3 Months of Living Expenses in the bank – I’ve wrestled with this for a while, because of my frequent travel to/from my office.  If I lose my job (not likely) I’ll also lose ~$500 of work-related monthly expenses.  So, the question becomes, do I go for the lower amount of expenses or higher?  I think I’ll try to split the difference and make it half way. Goal $4,800 – $6,600

• Although I’m trying for this, I’m not too sure if I’ll be able to hit the minimum (actually, I’m fairly positive I won’t, unless something changes).  While it’s only September and no one knows for sure what can happen, I’m fairly sure I won’t have 4 spare G’s just lying around between now & the end of the year.  I do know I wont have nothing in the living expenses bank, but I’m fairly sure I wont have this much either.  Goal will probably be partially completed.  Still will be a win in my mind though, because I have never had money for living expenses in the bank.

1. Get Total Debt Level Below $37,500. As of Jan 2010, it was sitting at ~55,400 (This was after I bought my truck, but before I had to make the first payment).  This will be a tough goal to reach, but I think I can do it.

• This is going to be very doable, but will be a pretty heavy lift.  Due to the amount of commuting I do, my plans are sometimes thwarted by weather related road closures.  However, holiday season is also coming up, these holidays give me paid days off at my regular job, and I typically use those days off to work at my 2nd job.  At current standing, I’m at about 40,541. This is only 3k away from where I want to be!

1. Pay off Small Student Loan – This loan is just annoying.  It’s $3,073 and I think it’s next on the hit list after my credit cards.

• Last month I made my first large payment to this loan, and I’m hoping to have this one knocked out during the first week of October.

2010 Health Goals

1. Join the Gym – I made a decision last fall that I wasn’t going to join the Gym until my credit cards were paid off, and I though that it was going to happen sooner than it has, but Oh well.  If I can get 4 months in at the gym, I’ll be a happy camper in December

• I joined the gym!  Although this was a fairly easy goal simply requiring me to part with some money every month, it took me almost 6 weeks to join ( I had planned on joining right after my last update).

1. Go to gym 4/5x per week.  ’Nuff Said.

• This one has proven to be much more difficult.  I’ve been going about 3x per week, and I feel like there’s always more time that I could go.  Hopefully I’ll be able to bump this one up soon.

2010 Environment Goals

1. Walk to do my errands more around town.  I typically walk for about half of the errands that I have to run around town, but I’d like to get that closer to walking all the time.

• I’ve been walking a lot to do my errands.  Complete for now, but the year is not over.  Could get much harder when the snow comes.

1. Learn more about my compost heap and figure out how to make it work better.

• Little to no progress on this.  However, I have found out you can compost a lot more than I originally thought you could.

Greetings readers.  I’ve got big news for the blog.  This coming Monday (September 6) I’ll be hosting the Carnival of Personal Finance.  It’s tentatively titled the Labor Day edition.  Thinking the theme would be some great labor leaders or incidents in labor history.  Not sure though.  I may call it the 110 days to Christmas Carnival.

Yakezie Posts

Financial Ramifications of Marriage at 20s money – Interesting topic but Kevin does a good job of talking through the possible reasons why people seem poorer when they first get married

How to pay off debt when your income is irregular at Single Guy Money – Great post for freelancers and others who are between jobs or earn an irregular income.

12 ways to survive (and thrive) at the outlet center at Money Beagle.  Beagle has some great tips here  for people who dislike shopping/can’t tolerate crowds, etc.  There are good deals at outlet malls, you just have to mentally prepare to go to them.

Great Introductions this week at Yakezie.com From last week, We’ve had Flexo from Consumerism Commentary,  Jason at One Money Design, Craig at Free From Broke, Kevin at Invest it Wisely and Evan at My Journey to Millions.  For those interested, the name contains the story on yakezie.com and the site name has a link to the website.

Red from the Girl with the Red Balloon has posted her goals for September.  I don’t have any yet, but it looks like she’s got some pretty solid goals.  Good luck red.

the NINJA from PDITF (Punch Debt in the Face) has a great post on money in marriage.  Ninja’s blog is usually chock full of humor, but this post took a turn down topical road.  It was a good read.

Also, sorry for the lack of posts lately.  I have forgotten to put something up on friday for a few weeks now, but things have been hectic and I’ve got a huge article that I’m trying to finish and use it as a guest post somewhere.  It’s been good to write, but it’s not done because I just keep expanding it.

photo credit: familymwr

The other day, I was looking at my cash flow so far for the year.  I’ve had a fairly great run so far this year, but it does not seem like I’ve got much to show for it other than a new truck and a place to stay every month.  Then I looked at the difference between what I’ve earned and spent so far (a positive number) and looked at my handy debt payment chart on the right side of my blog.  ”Oh”, I defeatedly said to myself.  That’s where all that money I’ve been earning went.

I just updated the sidebars (I didn’t realize it’s been so long!) and noticed I’ve put more than $14,000 to my debt this year.  That’s almost enough money to buy a new or new (to me) car!  Instead, that money has gone to paying for things I’ve already used like my student loans, or things that I am currently using, like my car.  To me, that’s a lot of money, so recently I decided that I would take a number similar to my monthly budget that included debt payments that I’ve got (student loans) and that I used to have (credit cards).

You can find the spreadsheet here, and I’ll explain it below.

I took most peoples normal budget categories (except for food/dining out) and made a budget out of them.  I took my student loan minimums for the student loan, estimated based on my memory for the minimum credit card payments I used to have, guesstimated a yearly average for energy and water bills and took the trash from my payment.  You can easily change this sheet and add/remove budget categories and change the amounts to better reflect your situation if you choose.

First, I’d like to note it was surprising how much money went to debt, and how much could be considered budgetary “fat”.  On the left hand side is the current budget, with amounts.  In that budget, $788 (almost 50%) was going to nothing but debt.    The rest was for necessary bills and utilities, such as water, electricity, trash and cell phone (although some don’t consider a cell phone necessary, I do because I don’t have a phone at my house and am rarely home anyway).  I made a category called “Unavoidable Spending” because there are certain things that you are essentially required to pay for, like city water/sewer and electricity.  (Keep in mind this is not the case for everyone but it is true for most people.  Typically with these expenses, you can only take them so low.  For example, you could use less electricity than what you’re  using now, but you’d have to sit in the dark and cook dinner over the fire pit in the back yard.  Not all that great, eh?

Next to that I made my “dream” budget.  Notice that the monthly expenses are the same, but the income is going to completely different places.  My old car payment has been diverted into a new car fund, my student loan payments have created and are funding a vacation fund, my rent/mortgage payment has created and is funding a home improvement fund, my credit card debts are being donated to charity, etc.  One thing I did lower is the light bill, because I would like to have passive and active solar on my residence eventually, which would lower my electricity bill substantially (although require a large initial investment).  Savings from not having to have max car insurance, and cutting of cable tv left room to contribute to an account I called “general savings”.   With this second budget, over 80% of my earnings will go to savings instead of debt.  That’s a much higher percentage than originally, and it sounds much better too.

Do you have a dream budget?  If so, what are you saving for?

This was an interesting month for me budget wise.  I spent much more than I normally because of my recent vacation and I think this will cause me to have spent more than I took in this month for the first time since December, 2009.  I was able to trim back quite a few categories last month and this month to make up for it, but I still blew my budget on some of the categories, mostly because I was on vacation.  Hey, during restaurant week, you’ve got to take advantage of the deals, right?!  (I spent almost half of my entire monthly food budget and 150% of my dining out budget on 1 meal while on vacation.  It was TOTALLY worth it, the food was great and the company was fantastic!)  Other categories I went over budget in this month were:

Student Loans:

This is by far my largest liability at this point — It’s unsecured and it’s just lame run of the mill debt.  I’ve got 3 loans from 3 different banks (way to go, feds!).  These loans came from 6 years of school, so I got out pretty good.

Nelnet Student Loan $ 2,018 ($1023) This normal payment is $50, which I have been paying.  This is my next target, as you can see.  I just checked the website on this balance.  It says I don’t need to make a payment until April 2012.  Along with this, I got an offer to enroll in an auto debit for a .25% interest rate deduction.  I’ll be forgoing that in an effort to keep the pressure on to repay in 2 more months!

Direct Loan  $6,692 ($250).  The payment for this loan just got dropped to $77 per month.  Not sure why, but I’m not complaining.  This is next on the hit list.  On a side note the subtraction on this was extremely hard for some reason this month.  I had to google the answer

Great Lakes Loan $ 12,709 ($150) Just paid the standard payment of $150, but because of interest, the amount it went down was much less than that.  Seeing how much of my payment isnt applied to the loan balance really, really bothers me.  My snowball will soon roll up on this too!

Truck Debt:

This is for my vehicle.  I had already started trying to become debt free when I bought this, so I was quite torn as to wether or not to take on new debt while I was trying to eliminate other debt.  If you want to read more about it, check here, here and here.  Despite most of the advice I heard, I went ahead and took out a loan on this.   I made the right move.  Either way, here is the status.

Ford Credit: $ 19,122 ($288): I usually pay extra on this loan, but I’ve gotten so far ahead that I decided to make a smaller payment and put the extra cash to my small student loan so I can get rid of it!  Apparently, I’ve paid $255 so far this year to service this note.  It will be nice when all that cash is back in my bank account.

Total Debt Level: $ 40,541 ($688)

This isn’t quite as much as I have been paying down, but I was able to have some fun this month.  It looks like I could have paid off my student debt with the money I spent on vacation and the lost wages from time off work.  While debt freedom is something that’s at the top of my  list, it’s important to ease off the gas once in a while and enjoy what you’ve accomplished thus far and re-focus your scope, so to speak.

How much debt did you pay down (or money did you save) last month?

Today, I decided that I was going to do something different today.

I noticed that when I eat specific things, I have a tendency to feel like absolute crap afterwords for an hour or two.  This happens when I eat too much pizza or something like that.  You know the feeling, where it sits in your stomach like a brick and you dont want to move or do anything at all for an hour or so.

I want to hear from you about what things you’ve done that have made you feel the best when you’re waking  up, going to bed or just generally ambling around during your daily routine.

1. What foods do you eat that make you feel awful immediately or soon after you eat them?
2. What foods make you feel great after you eat them?
3. How have you tried to fix the problem of feeling like theres a rock in your stomach?

This week, a friend needed to borrow my truck to use it to do some work.  I didn’t mind, because it would mean putting less miles on it than I would have, and could help me with my goal of not spending a lot of money this week.   When it was returned, I was notified of a warning light that had come on for low tire pressure.  I checked the suspected tire, and sure enough, it was low.  Given that this is a new truck with new tires, I was surprised, but decided to give it a quick once over when I got to work.  Sure enough, there was a screw in the tire.  So, I had to get that fixed and then all was well.  Here are some of my favorite posts this week.

Yakezie

Nerd Wallet unearthed a great deal on frequent flier miles for American Airlines.  With this high amount of rewards, you’ll have enough to get to and from Brazil (!!!) twice.  I think I may have to jump on this.

An Infographic from Mint on Student Loan Debt.  I cant believe 1 in 14 defaulted on their student loans within a year!  Absolutely stunning.

How Personal Finance Changes as You see Success at the Simple Dollar

Kevin at 20′s Money talks about how to connect risk with personal finance.

The Yakezie Website has launched, and I was glad to hear everyone stories, espically fellow Mountain West resident Jesse from PF Firewall.

I swiped this from My Pretty Pennies (who has an awesome blog, btw) and thought the Monday Money Check-Up was a good idea.  I dont know if I’ll do it every week, but I figured this would be something interesting to do every once in a while.

1. The most I’ve spent this week (so far) was on:  Gas on Sunday, $ 44.00

2. Today I feel hopeful (I’m trying to make it the whole week on $150) about money.

3. Money can’t buy happiness. One free/inexpensive thing I did last week that made me happy was: Hiked some 14ers.

4. I will consider this week a success if I: Finish edits on my thesis and clean the house this weekend.

5. The next trip I have planned is: Currently undecided, but I recently found out I have a free ticket that will need to be used by Feb of 2010, so I better think of somewhere.  Current thoughts: Maine, Oregon, Nashville.

What are your 5 Answers?

I have been working on getting out of debt for the last 13 months, during which I’ve been able to eliminate (and charge up again, and finally eliminate) my credit card debt, as well as a fair amount of student car loans.  During this time, quite a few changes have happened – I mostly finished school (more on that later), I was made a job offer that was eventually rescinded, was unemployed for the first month of my debt free quest, found full time employment but still searched for a job with benefits, found another job 2 months later, and have been working 2 jobs, at least 6 days and 70 hours per week since November.  As you can imagine, there’s not really that much time for a break to do much of anything but work (and write), but it’s a life that I don’t mind all that much.

Also during this time, I had been forgoing mostly anything that involved a trip until earlier this month.  I did plenty of things that I consider fun, mostly involving physical labor (in my mind, it’s really fun).  Unfortunately, I never got a chance to leave town and take a break from working to see new things and basically do nothing.

Back in February, I saw a deal from Frontier Airlines that I couldn’t pass up.  They were offering enough frequent flyer miles for a free ticket if you purchased a 1st class ticket (originating from a few airports) on the Frontier.  I had a gift card laying around that was nearing a year in age, so I decided that turning that gift card plus a bit of cash into two tickets was something I could divert a bit of cash from my debt repayment strategy from.  I bought a the ticket, and started planning (in my head, at least) my vacation to Alaska with the free miles.  Unfortunately, that was not to be, as it’s almost impossible to get to Alaska with frequent flyer miles.  I instead decided to go to Georiga.

I was able to pay for the whole trip with cash (although I occasionally used my credit card for the mileage points (so I can get more free tickets and more vacations) and it was the first time I think I’ve ever been able to do that.  When I got back (and sometimes during the trip), I couldn’t help but thinking that I’m not focused enough on my debt and should not have taken the vacation because it could have waited until I was out of debt.

When I got home, I decided to try to figure out how far behind it put me.  Unfortunately, the numbers are not good.  I estimated that without my vacation, I could have paid off my smallest student loan this month or come darn close to doing so.  Given the money that I spent plus the lost earnings from not being able to work, I’m fairly sure it would have been really, really close.

While this is all unfortunate, the more I thought about it, the more I was glad I did it.  I would have had to use that free airline ticket by Dec 31 either way, and I’m not sure I would have been able to find the time to go any other time.  That right there would be quite a bit of value that had evaporated that wouldn’t have been able to go to debt.  I also considered this trip a reward for being able to pay off my credit cards after almost 5 years of carrying a balance.

On the whole though this trip was more than worth it.  I had a great time with my travel companion, saw some really sweet stuff at the aquarium and the world of coke, and enjoyed not having to get up before 5am every day.  While I may not be as close to student loan debt freedom as I could be, the habits that I’ve picked up over the last year will continue to stay with me and make that day come at some point.  My vacation may have just pushed it down the road a bit.

To me, this does not seem like that big of a deal, but to some, it’s close to heresy.  Sure, 1 of my student loans could have most likely been paid off by the end of August (but I had not known that at the time) but taking a break from the work has sort of recharged me and has geared me up for another 5-6 months of 18-20 hour days, 20,000 more miles driven, and long work weeks.  If that were to change, however, I’d be all for that as well.

Have you ever spent money on fun when you were in debt, but in control of your debt?  Was it worth it?

For those of you that don’t live in the mountain west, you may not be familiar with this term.   My states occasionally friendly neighbor to the south, (where one eric from narrow bridge adventures happens to live) has 55 Mountain peaks over 14,000 feet high.  Many of these peaks are in the center of the state (near the resort/town of Breckenridge) while many others are in the southwest part of the state in the Sangre De Cristo and San Juan Ranges.   In the last 3 years, I have made at least 1 trip down to climb/hike and I’ve finished Grays and Torreys Peaks and Longs Peak.  This year, I’ll be near Breckenridge trying to get 3 out of the way.  There’s really nothing like the feeling that you get from making it to the top of these peaks and looking out to see everything around you.  It is truly something to savor, and so is the feeling of being dead-tired and drinking a glass of suds after it’s over.  I hope you’ll enjoy your weekend as much as I plan on.   Here are a few of the links I found interesting this week.

Yakezie

A while back, I joined the Yakezie Challenge, and it really helped me get back into writing and sharpening my focus on blogging (though neglecting other things,  unfortunately).  We’ve been working (and by we I mean Sam and Chris) and a website is now up.  We will be running introductions for the next few weeks, so you can get to know every blogger that’s a member.

Red is trying to have a No Spend Christmas.  I’ve always tried to keep my christmases from getting out of control, but this is a new one on me!

If you dont ask, the answer is always no at Man Vs Debt.  I’m glad baker is back posting things after quite a bit of dead time while working on his next premium guide!

With the new overdraft laws taking effect this week (I believe it was the 15th) Cool to be frugal wants her bank to know that she’s going to be opting out of the overdraft “protection”.

If you’re in the New York Area, the Budget Socialite puts up a list every hump day (wednesday) of free events in the area! Head over to one if you’re bored and on a budget!

Small Gaps mean Big Waste at Money Beagle.  Do you  have leaks in your house that are draining heat and air conditioning?  Find them and stop them!

Health

Ninja is gone this week, so he’s been having people guest post for him.  One of my favorites so far has been Punch Crappy Health in the Face.  As it says at the beginning your health is your most important asset. Couldn’t agree more.

Me around the web this week:

J. Money at Budgets are Sexy had a Life List.  Read his, then check out mine.

I had a Guest Post over at Ninja’s Blog

I was in the Carnival of Personal Finance: Elvis is Dead Edition