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March 2011

Farmers Market Splurges

03.30.2011

Last time, I wrote about how we budget and today I’ll share our splurges at the farmers market. It was the first farmers market of the year and it wasn’t raining! If you know anything about the Pacific Northwest, you know to get going when it’s not raining. We haven’t been out for quite a while so we had a bunch of cash allowance saved up. I was really surprised by the amount of vegetables for sale so early in the season, but I suppose the farmers must have nice big green houses. Also, I’m taking a tax deduction for [...]

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Retirebyforty’s Pools Budgeting

03.28.2011

Ummm, this isn’t about budgeting for a swimming pool although Google ads seem to think so. I’ve been using Mint.com for 6 months now and it is great for tracking expenditures, but I am getting a little tired of the “Exceeded budget for Gas & Fuel” emails. Today, I would like to share our Pools Budgeting solution that we’ve been using over the last few years. We auto contribute to 401k and pay tax first, then we have our monthly budgeting to play with. The monthly budget is divided into 3 big pools. 1. Checking Account – The bills in [...]

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Why Inflation Hurts More Today?

03.25.2011

I came across an AP article on why Inflation hurts more today than 30 years ago and it’s quite interesting. Since we are talking 30 years ago, I thought I would share this Dire Straits video I’ve been obsessing over. This version is AWESOME so go ahead put on your head phone and click play. Circa 1981, I didn’t know anything about investment or inflation, but I can’t believe these numbers! I can’t imagine such a high rate of inflation and what it would to do to my savings. The AP article mentioned that workers’ raises kept up with inflation [...]

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February 2011 Credit Card Bill

03.23.2011

We had a big surprise when we got the February 2011 credit card bill – it’s a lot lower than usual! As some of you know, Baby RB40 joined the team in February and I thought we would have all kind of expenses. We did have some unexpected expenses, but our overall bill was down quite a bit. Credit Card Gas – $71 (Gas price keeps going up, but we don’t drive that much) Tracfone prepaid minutes – $70 (this should last us a few months) Pet – $10 Breast pump rental and paraphernalia – $146 Diapers from Amazon – [...]

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Help Japan and Yakezie Blog Swap #4 Round Up

03.21.2011

It’s been over a week and Japan is still struggling with recovery efforts from the huge 9.0 earthquake, devastating tsunami, malfunctioned nuclear reactors, and radiation. Let’s do all we can to help them in anyway possible. Here are some of my ideas. Check with your employer to see if they will match donation to the disaster relief. Many big corporation will match so this is a way to make your money goes twice as far. If you know any Japanese people, please check to see if they are doing OK. It has been a crazy traumatizing week and I know [...]

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