I am really sorry, but hosting seems to be really wonky.

I am going to have to find a new ISP as I am outgrowing the good graces of Flexo with this blog. I’m just a big ole’ pain in the neck for him. He’s been wonderful helping me out with the technical nitty gritty.

So, this means I am shopping for a new ISP. I have a few in mind, but I’m looking for suggestions. No Dreamhost or MediaTemple. Shared hosting will suffice. I have further specs, but I’ll entertain what you’ve got. Please leave me a note in the comments with your suggestions.

What this really means is that this blog is a labor of love now. My ad revenue from my previous contract will pay for 2 years of hosting, but on a monthly basis, I am losing money. I’m not making a lot because I hate ads cluttering my aesthetic. However, I think to pay for the monthly fees, I am going to have to put up more advertisements to cover costs going forward. Sorry, but I am going to have to go a little more commercial.

Who knows? Maybe I’ll even put up an internet tip jar and just start begging. (Perish the thought, but it keeps turning up like a bad penny pushed forward from the back of my mind.)

Please be patient with MFC as it goes through some technical growing pains this winter. The irony I suppose is that it’s just over a year to the day that I made the switch from Blogger to WordPress!

So my boss was returning from the holiday weekend and had left his car at work. Last night he calls and asks if I can pick him up. I give him the verbal frowny face. He knows I hate waking up early, but we agree I am to pick him up between 8 and 8:30. We also make a plan to get breakfast on the way in to the office at a McDonald’s.

I tell him I have a Monopoly prize coupon for a free breakfast sandwich. He says ok, but breakfast was going to be his treat. I told him that I had to use the coupon because it was going to expire on 11/13. He says ok without telling me he has a BOGO coupon for breakfast sandwiches.

Well everything goes smoothly this morning. I pick him up shortly after 8. We ride over to the McD’s near the office so our sammiches are nice a hot. I get an orange juice and he gets a coffee. Our bill is $3.19. I am confused by the small amount, but that’s ok. As we leave the store, the top of the coffee starts to pop off, so my boss stops to re-cap it and peeks into the bag. There is a small problem.

My boss handed the girl at the counter the BOGO coupon, and I gave her an additional coupon for a free sandwich. We thought we were going to have three sandwiches in the bag, but there’s only two. Stumped, we go back into the store. It turns out, the girl thought we wanted the BOGO and was using the Monopoly prize coupon to pay for the first sandwich. Silly us! That *is* a better deal!

A free meal for us and less calories! (My boss is always on a diet of some sort and I did a mental eyebrow raising over his order of two sandwiches.)

All we paid for were the beverages! I don’t know how they just made money on our $3.19, but I be they did anyway.

Don’t underestimate the people working at McDonald’s. Apparently they’re way smarter than me and my boss before we’ve had coffee.

The Dough Roller, not a blog I frequent, but he has some real gems in his blog.

A few weeks ago, I liked this Doomsday Fund article where he delineates exactly what he’d do in desperate times.

What would I do?

1) Cancel my phone service and DSL line into the house. I have a cellphone. Now that I have a laptop, I’d wardrive for a WiFi connection, hit up a free hotspot at Panera Bread, or tote it to a friend’s house and use theirs. Save $50 a month. (It would have been more, by my new phone bill came yesterday and it’s now $10 less! Hooray for calling for a cheaper deal!)

2) I’d ask my mom to pay her portion of the cellphone bill. My folks used to pay for mine, but now I pay for theirs as add-on phone lines to my primary line. Save $25-40 a month.

3) I’d consolidate my bills and loans so I’d have better cash flow every month. (Tried and true since I did this before. Maybe I should do this again?) Save $100-200 a month.

4) I’d get a second job either back at the yarn shop, waiting tables again, tutor kids, or pet sitting/baby sitting. Earn $100 a month.

5) I’d stop dining out, as much as it would pain me to do so. I’m packing lunch more often and I feel like I’m still ‘practicing’ at it rather than actually saving money. Save $200 a month.

6) I’d stop my retirement contributions completely, which I am doing now and it’s working. Save $500-800 a month.

7) I’d start to sell or pawn everything I had of value. In rough order: Books, CD’s, DVD’s. My bicycle. My iPod Nano. My kitchen appliances. My stash of yarns and fiber. Original artwork I’ve collected. My spinning wheel. My motorcycle. A diamond and gold bracelet my mother gave me for graduation which I never wear. My car.

I’d start making things to sell at Etsy.

9) I’d scale back my car insurance. Save $10-50 a month.

10) I’d sell my furniture, then my condo.

11) I’d donate what I could to charity increase my deductions and thereby reduce my taxable income.

12) I’d try to leverage this blog to earn more money.

That’s all I could really brainstorm. I’m doing a few of these things already, like stopping the contributions and packing my lunch more often. It’s working for me, albeit very slowly.

Micro focused again. If want more of the quotidien details of my weekend, click through. The key points:
1) Metro is expensive, but worthwhile if you plan correctly. Don’t miss the last train or else you’ll be screwed.
2) Make friends with whom you can carpool.
3) Keep drinking to a minimum for several reasons, your wallet and car insurance will thank you.
4) Pre-plan your evening a few days in advance for things like guest lists, carpooling, etc. It will save you time and money. You aren’t a goober for being a planner. You may save yourself a hour of freezing out in the cold to get into a club.
5)

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I love NPR. Today on Car Talk, they had a caller who had a dilemma about the car he drives. (It’s Call 4 on the link provided)

Leland is recently married and his two teen stepdaughters don’t like his dusty old pick up. He’s trying to get a Mazda Miata with a dent on the right door panel and a check engine light that comes on. He’s wondering if it’s worth fixing it up and getting it for himself and the approval of his style-conscious kids.

The priceless thing about the call was his philosophy on acquiring cars. He likes to take a drive in the country, find something by the side of the road, buy it for $500 cash and have it last for 3 years! I love it!

My Altima is going to die in my parking lot. I am not going to get rid of it. I can’t. I’m trying to squeeze out every last dime of value on the thing. My baby turned 7 years old yesterday. She shares a birthday with the US Marine Corps!

[Welcome readers of REDDIT! I got tagged on Sunday.]

My heart goes out to Southern California and the victims of the wildfires in and around San Diego. A very dear friend of mine lost his former monastery home to the fires. He doesn’t live there any more, but many of my friends have visited there and they lost a small flock of milk goats and some other livestock to the fire. It makes me very sad to hear how many animals they lost.

If you are interested, Nick is hosting a challenge for the American Red Cross. He’s matching donations, so please take him up on it. I myself will be making a donation as my company is matching donations to the American Red Cross as well. Our San Diego office was closed for almost a week, but thankfully no one working for us lost their homes.

Now, onto the title of this post. I know two people who have lost everything to a fire and let these stories be a cautionary tale for you.

Story #1:
My high school Latin teacher went back to Berkeley to finish her PhD. In 1991, there was a major wildfire in the hills of Oakland where she lived. (Oakland is just south of Berkeley and the rents are often cheaper there.) Many years later, I had a chance to see my former teacher again and speak to her about her experience. It still made her verklempt. She lost everything except the clothes on her back, her car, and her dissertation on diskettes. Her cat, her books, everything. Gone. She was on the verge of tears telling me this. I believe from things she said, that she got a FEMA payment, but no renter’s insurance.

Story #2:
Former co-worker of mine goes out for St. Patrick’s Day. He gets sloshed and stays overnight at his girlfriend’s house. He returns the next morning to find the fire department cordoning off his house. They are finishing up putting out a fire there. It’s burned to the ground. His roommates are thankfully alive. My co-worker has fire insurance but his roommates do not. My co-worker is able to document the fancy schmancy suits he wore to his old firm and get replacement cost for them. He’s got enough money to buy himself a condo and marry that girlfriend.

Many times on NPR last week, I heard how the renters lost everything and didn’t have insurance. I am surprised because it costs so little most of the time. Insuring my condo costs me less than $250 a year because I don’t have exceptional riders or additional umbrella policies. (Check that net worth. It’s not worth it yet.)

Please, as the winter season starts, please look into getting renter’s insurance if you do not have it already. This is especially a concern if you are using a kerosene heater.

Two weeks ago I did some shopping at my local grocery store and Target.

I noticed that Target is a lot cheaper on a great many things again. Not everything, but a lot.

Items that were cheaper at Target:
Tide HE in 100 oz bottles. About $12.50 each, where my grocery store had them for more like $15.00.

Pantene shampoo. For $3.79 vs $4.49 a bottle

Campbell’s Soup to Go. $1.20 vs non-sale prices. I only buy these at the regular grocery store if I can get them for less than $1.50.

Tylenol EZ tabs 100 count. $8.xx vs $8.xx. I forget exactly the prices, but the grocery store was very slightly cheaper. However, generic acetaminophen was still cheapest over all. But this time I had a coupon for Target and Tylenol-brand and so I got the bottle for less than $8 bucks.

*********************

Some grocery saving websites tell you to keep a price book. I’m not that diligent. I’m rather lazy, but doing a side-by-side comparison every once in a while on your staple items will give you a good idea of where to buy what things cheapest.

I still get my OJ from the supermarket and my Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice from Target.

Laddie noticed that the cereal at Target was cheaper, but the selection was small. But the Target we went to carries Goya products! Woo! Usually I get my beans and lentils from Goya, however, Target did not have those items, just the Adobe seasoning, processed foods and juices. (I point this out because the Target near my office serves a different demographic, therefore, no Goya there, more frozen pizzas.)

I think being on the list not to get junk mail means I don’t get spiffy Target coupons. I see them on his coffee table and make him take me shopping there. Added bonus, he carries the heavy stuff!

How much did I save? A little over 10% of the bill. I ended up returning the Pantene shampoo because I did not need it and the coupon was not deducted as advertised. I complained to the customer service desk and told her either to take off the $1.00 for the two bottles or just return them. She just returned them. I was stockpiling so it wasn’t a big deal, just annoying to run back into the store to make the return. (It bothers me not to read the receipt when I leave and we had to fish it out of the trunk to make me feel better.)

Added note about the coupon and the Pantene. I did not buy the largest bottles of shampoo that I could. I noticed that I would save more percentage-wise if I chose the middle size of shampoo instead of the biggest size. Please read this article by Dawn at Frugal for Life under the Buy Small section. Sometimes getting your best deal is not from using the coupon to buy the biggest size available. Often getting the middle-sized package with a doubled coupon gets you the best deal. I had this problem at Target since they didn’t have 64oz Tide HE Free (unscented) available. They only had original scent, which forced me into the 100oz bottles of Tide HE Free. Bummer. (I have yet to get into ‘rainchecks’ from the grocery store.)

So, how many foreclosures are you on your block?

My knitter friends and I were talking and one of them has pulled her house off the market. They were going to relocate, with with a baby on the way, they decided to stay put since the house was so hard to sell. This snowballs into another conversation about mortgages and what people could afford.

One of my friends tells me that there are 6 foreclosures on her block! SIX!

*smacks forehead*

Whoa!

This turns into a revealing conversations about mortgages and money management. I learned a lot from her. She just turned 50 and on her last refinance signed a 15 year mortgage refinance for a sickly low rate under 5%. She wasn’t going to do the refinance till her mortgage company offered to do it for a dollar because they wanted to retain her and her good bill paying habits. Imagine that!

I don’t know if I have any foreclosures on my block, but the creepy guy and his mom moved out of my building this past year. Their place was sold at auction. I think they couldn’t afford it. I feel bad for them, but not really. He used to sneak up on people thinking that it was his mom coming around the corner and scared the bejesus out of me once. One time of that happening and I avoided him always.

I had a really fancy dinner on Saturday night, but on Sunday, I holed up in my apartment and ate frozen dinners for lunch and dinner. I just couldn’t get motivated to step out and go skating. I didn’t want to deal with the little kids and the chaos that is ice skating during a weekend public session.

I sold a pair of hockey tickets last week for $30, so I have a little cash in my pocket this week, but I’m going to try and pack my lunch. As the weather gets colder, I think soup and sandwich is best. I realize that last week I hardly ate my sandwich stuff at work because it was cold food and I was stressed out and would leave a half eaten sandwich on my plate for 3 hours. Hopefully it remains safe to eat this week.

I have also gifted out a pair of hockey tickets to a friend and sold yet another pair. I talked to the gentleman with the seats next to me and it looks like I will be able to sell another pair off in December. (Woo!)

I get paid this Friday. I’m doing badly on my paycheck challenge. Very badly. Ugh. Focus right now is to simply get the dental bill paid off and out of my hair. Next, I am thinking of stopping my FSA contribution next year to focus on debt repayment, but that will depend on open enrollment and the insurance plans available. I will put back my 401k contribution as well, but I haven’t yet decided what level.

Totally free.

Go to Google News and type “gnome”.

Garden gnomes make me laugh.

For more, watch Amelie.