If you’re looking to move to WordPress like I am, but do not spend a lot of time with PHP or CSS, let me offer you some good advice about moving your template.

1) Take your Blogger template and copy out the juicy CSS parts to a file called mytheme.css. Doing so will help you preserve your color scheme.

2) On your WordPress host account, create a directory in the /wp-content/themes directory called /mytheme. Copy the CSS file into that directory.

3) Find a theme you like in WordPress that you are willing to spend hours modifying to your liking. This means if you want a 3-column layout, find a 3-column theme.

4) Copy all the files from that theme’s directory into your /mytheme directory.

5) Go into WordPress GUI and look at the themes. It should now display one for your called mytheme.

6) From there, you should be able to alter/diddle with your CSS and PHP to get your layout similar to what you had before in Blogger.

I am in the process of doing this now, and really, I am both and idiot and a genius for copying out the CSS information from Blogger into WordPress. I should have stared at some other people’s source code more diligently before deciding to do this. But no, I had to hack about for hours on my own. (Where my coffee?!)

All in all, I can see the power of WordPress, but I am very very frustrated as well.

Just something to think about. Read the article today before it gets archived. The article is from the 19th and free access will only last for 8 days. It requires login, so get one from Bugmenot.

When I was younger, I did payday advances at Wells Fargo ATM’s when I was short of cash. I would never do that now since I have money saved up, but I figured paying the advance fee was better than bouncing a check. This is the way poor people think. They will spend more money/get into more debt to avoid spending more money/debt. It’s kind of a weird circular logic.

There is a premium that poor people pay for goods and services. It’s predatory and disgusting. I won’t get into politics, but the free market solution might be to seek out goods and services that are a bit further away. Of course people who say crap like that have never had to ride the bus in the rain or wait for it in swampy humidity, or in the dark. But I’m not sure how you’d do that for car insurance. You’d have to move to make a difference there.

Geography matters. They don’t call me mapgirl for nothing. Where you are located can make a huge difference in terms of what you spend. Fight the tide of your demographics and ignore the Joneses living around you. Is it possible to save money by moving to a more expensive neighborhood? It depends.

I ran an analysis the other day on my mortgage payment and rent. I know if I sold my condo and moved closer to my job, I could rent a room in shared housing for the price of my interest and condo fees. I would have to pay extra for utilities that I would not use, like a roommate’s cable TV, but in the end, I wouldn’t be pissing anything away since mortgage interest doesn’t go into my savings account and the surplus cash I’d have would go into savings instead of equity in a property. There is the further analysis of including my mortgage interest tax deduction, but if I bumped up my 401k contribution, I could probably offset the lost of the deduction. So complicated!

If I rented close to my current home, I probably would not come out ahead because rents are much higher where I live (but still less than my mortgage and condo fee).

Three words are running through my head right now, location, location, location.

Wins:
1. Bought groceries and cooked. Saved at least $30 in dining costs.
2. Found a roommate for one of the September weddings, and through it was offered a couch in Seattle for the other wedding.
3. Bought gas for $2.99 out in the suburbs instead of $3.07 near my house.
4. Invited myself over for dinner and spent time with a large happy blended family I hadn’t seen in a while. (Because if I don’t go to them, they sure can’t meet me at a bar with 6 kids in tow.)
5. Managed to eat only a bagel for dinner out, but come home and eat something in the fridge when I got home.

Losses:
1. Missed out on completely eating the roasted chicken I purchased. Had to toss some of it because I didn’t pick off and freeze the rest before spoiling.
2. Bought very expensive catered dinner at Wolf Trap. Now that my friend gets what it means to do lawn seating there, we will dine al fresco with our own picnic basket.
3. Made plans for the opera in August.

That’s it. Most of my spending every week is centered around dining. I eat out a lot. I am rarely at home. This week was unusual in that I was home more frequently and was able to cook for myself even if none of it was particularly balanced or fancy.

As far as the opera plans, it’s my friend’s birthday, and watching the Opera at Wolf Trap is MUCH MUCH cheaper than watching it at the Kennedy Center. I think I finally figured out why it is so hard to see any opera cheaply in DC. It’s really freakin’ hot and humid here. In San Francisco, if you are dedicated, you can go to Stern Grove and see Opera in the Park in the cool fog of summer. It’s free and it’s wonderful. Free summertime opera in full costume just doesn’t seem to happen on the east coast. DC also seems to lack a quality conservatory where you can see student operas or concerts. I never knew how much I missed Peabody and Curtis till now.

Yes, yes, I know there are free concerts at the Kennedy Center and all kinds of places, but you’ll end up paying a ridiculous sum to park your car near any of those venues. Taxis are stupid expensive in DC, and the only way to get your butt from the suburbs to a 7pm concert is to drive when you work until 6pm every night.

Dawn reposts a really great message she received. You CAN teach an old dog new tricks! It just takes some time, patience, and leading by example.

Jonathan writes about learning your lesson as a newbie investor. Hello! Read the fine print! There are no guaranteed investments in the stock market! If you can’t afford to lose your shirt, perhaps you shouldn’t play? I don’t know. I got all irritated in my comment. The guy quoted sounds like he really didn’t understand that he could lose money and then got all whiny when he did. I’ve lost thousands of dollars and I haven’t sweated it much. I’ve also gained quite a bit of money too and I treat the lost funds as lessons learned rather than cry about it and try to time the market to make up the difference. Some people can’t keep their impulses and emotions out of their finances. Every time I want to freak out, I just remind myself, ‘Dollar Cost Averaging’ and my breathing returns to normal.

Jane Dough aka BostonGal on Roth IRA’s. It’s got a repost of a CNN/Money breakdown of why a Roth IRA is going to give you better overall returns than a traditional IRA. This means I should start pumping up my Roth IRA!

CNN/Money on some money savvy tips. They’re very basic things to keep in mind and not hard to understand.

Debt Hater, on my favorite topic, mind-money. She’s talking about debt. Why not read and add a comment? Her commenters have said some pretty interesting things about their personal relationships with money.

Free Money Finance on saving money buying soda and coffee. I have to tell you, if you bring a thermos of coffee from home, it probably tastes better than the motor oil you get for free at the office. However, I am lazy and I prefer the free bad stuff than waking early and making coffee.

Ok this isn’t directly PF related, except the cartoon that Hugh has drawn at the top.

I feel I can call him ‘Hugh’ since that’s how he signs his work, but honestly, I don’t know the man and I was directed to his site by a friend. Hugh had this great post about creativity and living and perserving through crap. It was inspirational. Read number 31 especially. It’s great advice for PF bloggers and anyone in general.

Through him, I found another of my favorite blogs, English Cut. I love well-made clothes having been raised in my mother’s dry cleaning and tailoring shop. I’m not nearly this good, but Thomas writes exceedingly well and knowledgably with humility and you’ll learn quite a bit about how clothes are made.

Anyhow, Hugh’s rather brilliant. I love his aesthetic and I expect that any decent blogger has checked out his work at least once. Now is a good time since he’s heartbroken and venting. I think I’ve found my next post-modern Dear John letter. It beats breaking up with someone by text message. (Yes, I am guilty of doing this, but now it makes me snicker with glee. It’s not my fault he didn’t pick up the line to break up in a normal way.)

“Everyone has a rationale, even if it’s not rational.” - Mapgirl

Fortunately, Nina at QueerCents has some time for thoughtfulness. I’m about to offer something wandering. I definitely think there is something going on with the rising price of gas. It’s like pulling back the curtain and finding out the Wizard of Prosperity is a fake. More alarmingly is that it’s highlighting how much less discretionary income we have than before. We’re making choices to spend our money differently than before and now our economy is going to change. Oh wait, isn’t that what discretionary means? We are choosing to spend money on gas over other things, like dining out.

Some people say we need to lessen our dependency on oil, etc. What I really think this means is we’ve got to change our living and spending habits. A 200-mile commute is insane, but I am certain there is a rationale behind it, even if it’s not rational. For instance, maybe it’s too expensive to live where the work is (true of the Bay Area and Washington DC). I know I deliberately choose to live 17 miles away from my job and reverse commute for 30-40 minutes. Or I could live 10 miles away and commute the same amount of time in a less desirable community. It’s not particularly rational of me to do this commute, but I feel like I’d rather live in dense urban housing instead of sprawling suburbs. It isn’t rational from one angle, but it is from another.

Anyhow, this is just a brief note. I’m chewing on this idea right now about where I’m choosing to spend my money these days. I made more of an effort this week to buy groceries and cook. I know I’ve already saved myself about $15-30 on dining since Friday night.

Ricemutt on improving your resume. Excellent advice. Always be specific and quantifiable if you can. If you saved your company $3 million dollars, then say that.

Madame X on home inventory management. I walk the fine line between JIT and hoarding. I hate running out of toilet paper, paper towels and shampoo/conditioner. I will tolerate running out of soap since I can usually find really nice ones in my cache of hotel soaps.

Beancounter Blog on the mysteries of the check engine light. Given my 98K mile service recently, I think this was an interesting post. I admit, the check engine light had been going off in my car intermittently for the past month. Just when I think I was going to call the dealer and take it in, it would turn off. It was quite odd. Finally, my friend thinking of purchasing my car is what pushed me to take my car into the shop. Good thing too since I didn’t know my clutch needing replacing quite so bad. If you’re wondering when or what to do when your car needs maintenance, try Flick & Flack, the Tappert Brothers from Car Talk on Saturday mornings on NPR. (ooh ooh! The DIY guide!)

Jonathan on where to get free meals on your birthday. It’s a pretty long list, but call before you go since the list is a bit old.

Financial Freedumb on his homebuying budget. How much he can afford, what’s trying to buy, etc. I like his tables and his reasoning. Sometimes we all have to scale back our ambitions and he does it very thoughtfully.

Beancounter Blog (again!) on the BudgetBot. I might have to look into this one for tracking those stupid little cash transactions. Caveat though is the charges you’ll ring up for SMS/text messages on your phone. Go read Single Ma on that subject.

Dawn on conserving water and lowering your bill.

A Penny Saved on his book fetish. For a big reader like me, it’s got some good tips on how to save money on reading in the comments.

The Frugal Duchess on her strategies for dining out more cheaply. I think the best part is actually the article at the bottom on changing spending habits in the US vs the Globe. It’s rather interesting to see what Americans are choosing to cut back upon. Now what I would like to know is where we start out as well. For other countries, they may not dine out as much in the first place, which is why they might not cut back on their restaurant spending. Just a thought.

Paul Allen, formerly of Microsoft, currently of Vulcan Ventures, is just a little boy in love with aeroplanes. It’s not really personal finance related, but a description of his vintage warplane collection. It’s kind of interesting to see what a lot of wealth can do.

I’ve been picked up by the Miller Samuel website! Thanks for the permalink Jonathan!

Check it out. If you are interested in real estate, particularly around New York, but also general real estate trends around the country, I think you’ll find the site informative and interesting. Plus it looks a heck of a lot better than mine with nice pictures and graphs. I am verbose, so I’d rather type out all one thousand words.

Google’s official position on click fraud is right there in their post. I guess it’s a clarification of some out-of-context remarks by Eric Schmidt at a conference.

The long and short of it is that Google aggressively fights click fraud, which I think is why my Sitemeter stats don’t match my Adsense ones. That’s ok. It was bonus money anyway.

Justanotherblogger has it available now.

I liked Investor Geeks on laddering CD’s. They outline the basic way you ladder CD’s to hedge on interest rate fluctuations. Though he talks about 5-year CD’s in high amounts, you can do it with any length of CD. That’s why I like ING so much, I can ladder them in any amount in 6-month terms.

A lot of submissions are reposts of things I’ve already picked out for you in previous posts, but you should go to the Carnival and be merry and click over there.