Jim at Blueprint has an article about mortgage payments never being fixed. Funny that. He sounds like me!

The commenters on the previous article has some good insights about not having an escrow account at all. But I want to put a different question out there for readers.

Do you have an escrow account upon which your mortgage lender pays you interest? I have heard rumors of this, but I want to know if they still exist, and if you don’t mind, with which bank? I fantasize occaisionally about refinancing and if I do, I’d like to get some money for my money!

(Sorry, but quarter end at work has been really crazy (In a good way though!). I don’t expect work to let up for the next month or so. Please stick around and subscribe to my feed. That way a new article will jump up at you when I post.)

Normally I leave my outgoing mail next to the front door so I don’t forget to take it on my way out. Last month, I had two checks ready to pay off a credit card and my HOA fee. Unfortunately, it seems that I never mailed them. I had to pay a late fee for last month’s HOA fee when I wrote a check for two months. (The credit card payment is a non-issue because it was an extra payment so no late fee was incurred there.)

I knew something fishy was going on. I just haven’t had a lot of interest in paying attention to matters lately. I saw the checks had never cleared via Quicken and I began to wonder if I had mailed them out. While rummaging around the mess of papers that is my glob of taxes for 2006, I found the envelopes.

I already voided them out in Quicken, but i’m wondering if i can still send the credit card payment and then slip in a new HOA slip for April into the second envelopes so that I don’t waste the checks, nor the stamps.

Don’t break your patterns. Keep your routines. Place your mail by the door like you always do. Avoid those late fees. But stop biting your fingernails.

Sorry for the late post today. I suspect posting will be light for most of the rest of this month. Work is going wonderfully well, there’s just a lot of it! Spring is here and the warm weather beckons for time away from the computer.

Did you know that you can withdraw money from your 401k to cover the funeral expense of your parents, spouse, children, dependents?

I was watching the PBS Frontline episode on retirement, goofing off and decided to look up 401k on Wikipedia. Per the documentary, did you know the 401k clause was written for executives of Kodak and Xerox to protect compensation for their executives? (Found the documentary through another PF blog, but now I forget which one.)

From wikipedia (which is kind of unreliable and I’ll have to stop using it):

# Funeral expenses for the employee’s deceased parent(s), spouse, child(ren), or dependent(s) (as of December 31, 2005)

I forgot one night and had a beer. (That was because we were out to listen to a friend recount a tale of woe. I completely forgot and said, “Oh, just bring me one of those.”)

I haven’t had a french fry since Lent (and only some when I got fish and chips since New Year’s.)

I don’t know if I’m saving much money. I was really busy at work and ate out most of the time for lunch and for dinner. But I did make two active choices to buy groceries over dining out. The recent Target trip helped.

Since the start of Lent, I’ve had two no-spend days.

Other than that, work is picking up, so don’t expect a lot for the next few weeks. I really love my job right now. It’s interesting stuff and I’m really grateful for my team. We’re all co-workers from a previous employer and the work chemistry is fantastic. I spent a good chunk of last week on a collaborative project and the fruits of our labors are well-received.

Also, Happy Belated Birthday to Flexo! He’s a good egg.

Then Gentle Reader, take my advice and go elsewhere. This blog is for entertainment purposes only.

I pulled the plug on the entry. nyah nyah.

And if you want to have a dialogue, leave a real email address that doesn’t bounce.

Sometimes I like to get fancy spreads for bread at the grocery store. I especially like the bruschetta toppings at Harris Teeter and various hummus spreads.

In particular, I’ve been trying to add more fresh vegetables to my diet. I hate salad, so I find a tomato-based bruschetta topping to be a perfect way to add more ‘veg’ to my diet. Problem is, these spreads are often over-salted, especially the ones with nummy little capers. To combat the saltiness, I take one small Roma tomato and half a small white onion and chop up both. I mix the tomato and onion into the bruschetta topping, putting half into a separate tupperware container. I mash up the tomato a bit with the mixing fork, but not too much, I like it to be kind of chunky. The original container (which has printing to tell me what it is) goes straight into the freezer. I can keep it there for a month and thaw it out when I want it. The other container is for immediate consumption or over the next few days. I figured for a $2.99 4oz container of bruschetta topping, 90 cents for a Roma tomato, and 50 cents for half a white onion, I’m doubling the size of topping, without doubling the price.

Another thing I like to do is make pre-packaged pasta stuff, like Lipton Noodle mixes, or Bertolli frozen dinners for two. To stretch them out, I will add in some extra pasta. For the Lipton stuff, I usually add some extra water and dry pasta at the beginning so everything cooks evenly. For Bertolli frozen meals, I pre-cook some pasta and throw it in towards the end. This means I might cook an entire box of pasta on one night, save whatever I don’t eat for leftovers, and use that to throw into the Bertolli meal as it’s finishing cooking. (When the frozen sauce chips are all liquid, but the dish is still not ready to serve.) Usually this means I can get one extra serving out of the package, and I’m eating less sodium. (Him of Make Love Not Debt advises adding a cup of red wine to the Bertolli meals for tastiness. I’ll have to give this a try.)

What do you do? Do you water down your juices or juice concentrate? Do you use a third of the powdered mix and add more sugar to Kool-Aid?

I admit it. I played the lottery last night. Seven bucks in two different office pools. I know it’s a bad idea. But it was fun to participate with the other folks from work.

I read a post at My New Choice where he talks about getting to know his co-workers and their thoughts about money by talking about their aspirations for lottery winnings. I have to admit. It is a revelation about people’s ideas about money. I find it fascinating what people will say at the office. The diversity is amazing, sometimes shocking.

For one set of co-workers (10+ people), it’s about mad money. A cheap thrill. For another set of co-workers (a much smaller pool), it’s about setting up ourselves for life. As you might have guessed, I’m closer friends with the latter set. We’re always nudging each other to save in a 401k and the future. (And I just found out, our company automatically enrolls people so they get the full corporate match. Very cool!)

No, I’m not a winner. Not even a free ticket, but getting a sense of who my co-workers are is a little piece of valuable business intelligence to save for later. Er, I guess that sounds Machiavellian, but smooth business relationships are important for getting stuff done. Essential sometimes.

PS- I forgot to mention that it helps NOT TO THROW YOUR TICKETS INTO THE WASHING MACHINE AFTER YOU BUY THEM. I was on the phone with a friend last night and he suddenly realized he left his tickets in his shirt pocket and threw it in the wash. He tore open the machine, but the tickets had already disintegrated. Next time, put them into your wallet, which hopefully, you won’t forget and throw in the wash.

I don’t usually buy groceries at Target. I figured they’re more expensive than the regular grocery store, but I never actually did a price comparison. I was pleasantly surprised last week to find out my assertion is not true. Target beats the regular supermarket for a lot of goods.

I went to buy some windshield wiper fluid at the automotive department, but they were out. I was feeling peckish and in the mood for some brownies. I got it into my head to make this a one-stop trip, so I went to buy the brownie mix, some eggs and then I noticed that they had lots of juice, and snack food. Lately I’ve realized that I love Kellogg’s Rice Krispie Treats from the vending machine at work. Because of my junk food appetite, I decided if I’m going to eat crap, I might as well buy it and keep it in my desk instead of throwing precious laundry machine quarters.

I found out that Ocean Spray juices are about $2.49 for various flavors. I usually only get that price at Harris Teeter when I use my VIC card (club card) to get the 2 for $5.00 sale price for two bottles at once.

The Rice Krispie Treats? Those were about $4.00 a box of sixteen treats. The treats are small from the grocery store vs. the .75 oz ones from the vending machine at 75 cents each. I usually at two at a time because the portions are small, but either way, it’s still a better deal than buying them from the vending machine.

Bertolli frozen dinners? Those are $7.99 at Harris Teeter, but I always get them with my VIC card for $6.99. Target price? about $6.50, *ALL* *THE* *TIME*.

I did buy crazy vegetarian cage-free eggs for a ridiculous price. ($3.50 for a dozen) I had to stop and think what the heck is a ‘vegetarian egg’? That sounds like an oxymoron, but it means the hen was fed food without animal by-products. (Mad cow anyone?) Because I only used two to make brownies, I’m not sure yet how they taste.

ps - They often have cotton terry washcloths in packs of 12 for $3.00. I love them and use them as kitchen towels because they’re so cheap.

He’s going to be on Jean Chatzky’s show on XM radio station ‘Oprah & Friends’. Times are 6 AM, Noon, 6 PM ET.

If you have it, please listen and leave a comment. I don’t have XM and will have to find someone who has it. (The only radio I pay for is WAMU!)

Thanks!

Yesterday I posted the Carnival of Personal Finance, but if I had my way, I would have posted this instead. These were articles I really enjoyed last week from many carnival regulars. I also made a special effort to seek out some new blogs I’d never read before.

But I didn’t have time to read everything under the sun for two carnivals, thus this one isn’t as complete as I would like it. (I’m on call this weekend just in case Daylight Savings Time blows things up. Not likely, but your Outlook calendars will definitely be off by an hour for 3 weeks.)

Now onto the Articles I Liked This Week and Last!

Wise Bread and the ugly truth of budgeting. Sometimes, you just don’t want to know.

Her VP told her, she’d better shop around. Turns out it’s not only good job advice, but also for finding a new financial advisor.

FryKitty special guest posting for JD about Prosper. Some good gems of advice in there. I’ll keep them in mind if I decide to step up my Prosper investing.

Comparison shopping links.

Payday Loan Math

Companion story about Payday Loans and what you really ought to do to get out of it

Getting Green on ING Direct

I hate coupons. Perhaps I should try this?

Interesting book review

Walking to work, the most frugal and healthful commute of all. This post really helps break it down.

Miserly Bastard on skipping certain kinds of insurance. I love reading about people’s thought processes. He’s a very different thinker from me and it’s good to get a different perspective.

Boston Gal points us to a great article on holding cash.

Jim at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity points us to an article that puts college costs in to perspective and dispels some myths about financial aid.

Hazzard at Everybody Loves Your Money points us to a sad but funny article about misguided priorities in frugality and the harrowing first time homebuying process. I warn you, the article he points to has the F-bomb everywhere, but critically speaking, it’s used to great effect. Kind of like what I would write if I was inclined to use that word all the time while I wrote. But much, much funnier than I could write. Make sure to read part two as well.

A new blog I’ve never read before, Financial Armageddon warns us that banks may have too little in reserve, which is a slightly disturbing trend amongst commercial banks. I think this is a story worth reading. Many of the posts on this site are windmilling arms type stuff. If I read it everyday, I’d probably get really paranoid and start shoving money under a mattress, however, the lengthy blog posts will keep me from reading it. But the articles seem very informative, though I think I lack a deeper understanding about banking, securities and finance to absorb all of arguments presented. Either way, I’ll be reading this blog again now that I know what it is.

Lock in your profits, so says JS Kim of The Zen of Investing. I found his ideas intriguing. Perhaps when I have a better idea of the basics of investing, I’ll be able to shatter all the rules and branch out into more creative investing as he advocates.

Cap on posting your net worth on your blog. He gets a little philosophical on us. Scroll down the comments for his opinion.

Another new blog highlight: http://www.mynewchoice.com/ He writes about why the PayPal Money Market isn’t as great of a savings vehicle as you think it is. Clearly written. Well-reasoned. I’m one of those people who doesn’t mind keeping a few bucks in there waiting for my next online purchase, etc. However, he’s convinced me that I shouldn’t use it over my regular ING account as a long term savings vehicle. (Disclosure: I have family that works for PayPal.)

Corner Office Blog on the old subject of Emergency Funds. The post is short and not very insightful, but the one true gem in it is the notion that your emergency fund is separate from the ‘Oh nuts! I just lost my job!’ Fund. I’ve been mulling this notion for a while, and seeing it in print makes me ponder if I should start a separate account from the Save-O-Meter. Go visit him and leave your thoughts on the matter.

Scott Burns has a blog. I have no idea who he is, but I get the feeling I’ve probably read his work before since he’s UPI syndicated. I like his blog quite a bit. He doesn’t post everyday, but he writes well and he **replies directly to comments**. I think that’s awesome for a well-known author in this field. Oh. The post he had this week which I liked was about time being money and a good example of DVD’s versus movie attendance. The commenters get into TiVo and Netflix as other efficiencies of time as well. Great discussion going on there.