I’ve had a terribly busy week with work and haven’t even had time to write much, let alone read.  This week, I’ll just have to highlight the carnivals I was featured in.  With any luck, I’ll still have a job this time next week and I can slow down the pace a bit!

• Prime Time Money hosted the Carnival of Money Stories this week, which featured my article Don’t Fall For the Convention Center “Liquidation Sale” Scam.
• Wise Bread hosted the Carnival of Personal Finance #205, which included a reader favorite, Save Money By Buying the “Good” Toilet Paper.

Have a great holiday weekend and see you next week!  Off to go work on my resume apply for some jobs…

(c) 2007-2009, That One Caveman, http://www.thatonecaveman.com

This past winter was rough and long.  Now I’m sitting here in my basement office with the windows wide open and loving the fact that it’s a beautiful Spring.

While I sit here watching the robins play in the yard, take some time to browse these great reads from this week.

Carnivals

This week, I participated in two carnivals.  Please take your time and browse each of them because there are some fantastic stories in there.

• Earn What You Spend hosted the Carnival of Personal Finance #204, which included my article 8 Things New Parents Don’t Need.
• Gather Little by Little helped resurrect the Carnival of Money Stories this week, which included We Won Our Property Tax Appeal!.

Thanks to the carnival hosts for including me in your roundups!

Links You’ll Love

Moolanomy: How To Save Money – The 1,001 List Of Money Saving Tips And Ideas – One of the biggest lists I’ve ever seen of money-saving tips.  I was included a few times, but the list also helped me discover new sites and some great new tips.  Definitely a must-read.

Mrs. Micah: Finance for a Freelance Life: Living Like a (Grad) Student – A good story on how to live appropriately as a student.  Student loans are for paying for tuition, not funding an extravagant lifestyle.

Debt Free Adventure: Financial Philosophy & Sacrifice to Create Wealth & Live Off Your Interest – Sacrificing now to benefit later is one of the core pieces of advice in personal finance, but also the hardest to follow.  Becoming debt-free should be your goal, not merely saving money to buy bigger and “better” stuff later.

MoneyEnergy: If You Want To Feel Rich, Count the Things You Have That Money Can’t Buy – The best things in life aren’t free – they’re the things that can’t be bought to begin with!  Keep your focus on the things that really matter and you will not only feel rich, you’ll be rich.

Steadfast Finances: 20 Frugal Tips from Someone Who Lived Through the Great Depression – A great list from someone who’s “been there.”  My favorite: Family time is fun time.  We love our family game nights!

Man Vs. Debt: Why Australia?: Financial Implications Of Our Move Overseas – I wish I had half the courage Baker’s showing by pulling up the stakes and moving overseas.  “Nothing” waiting for him down under (outside of pure, unbridled destiny), yet he’s eager to let what happens happen.  Good luck and Godspeed, Baker!

Tough Money Love: For Some Jobs, this May be as Good as it Gets – For some people, their job doesn’t have a glass ceiling – they have  drywall.  It will take drastic action to break through, but you’re more likely to succeed by moving around it.

Photo by: Bobcatnorth

(c) 2007-2009, That One Caveman, http://www.thatonecaveman.com

With the children’s program coming to a close this Sunday at church, I volunteered to bake cupcakes for everyone for the celebration. While my 2nd batch is in the oven, I decided to take a break and share some goodies from other PF blogs from this week.

Carnivals

This week, two articles from One Caveman’s Financial Journey was featured in carnivals:

• FireFinance hosted the Carnival of Personal Finance #202 – The Lao Tzu Edition, which included my article 5 Ways to Save Money By Dropping Some Pounds.
• The Paycheck Chronicles hosted the Festival of Frugality: The Spring Has Sprung Edition, which mentioned My Frugal Story: Generic Pain Killers and Pre-Buyer’s Remorse.

Thanks to the carnival hosts for including me in your roundups!

Links You’ll Love

Studenomics: Cheap & Creative Date Ideas For College Students – A great list of simple and cheap date ideas that even a couple already married six years can still enjoy!

Chief Family Officer: We are debt-free! – CFO has achieved on of the best milestones toward complete financial freedom: Being debt free (except for the mortgage). Everyone should read how she did it and go congratulate her for her success!

Bargaineering: How to Become a Coupon Ninja in 15 Minutes A Week – A wonderful overview of couponing and how to get started.

Cash Money Life: How to Decide Whether to Be a Stay at Home Mom or Working Mom – Before my wife quit her job two years ago, we went through these same steps to help decide if she really wanted to (and could) quit.  Fortunately, everything worked out fine and she’s loving be a stay-at-home mom.

Back to baking!  Have a great weekend!

(c) 2007-2009, That One Caveman, http://www.thatonecaveman.com

After talking about it for so long, I’m actually going to start my garden this weekend. The ties making up the border are in place, I’ve sprayed Round-Up on the grass on the inside, and I’ll go tomorrow and load up my truck with top soil and plants. Finally, the garden can begin.

I’ve already decided on tomatoes and cucumbers, but I don’t know what else I should plant. Do you have any suggestions of plants that “play nice” with cucumbers and tomatoes? I have 100 square feet to work with, so there’s plenty of room for some great stuff.

As we close out the first week that actually felt like Spring around here, I feel doubly inspired. I think I may be getting back in the groove with writing and I’m even trying a few semi-related side projects. It feels good to get out of a funk.

If you haven’t caught these already, here are some of the best articles from other sites this week:

Frugal Dad: Five Strategies To Make Space Around Your Home More Productive – Based on Frugal Dad’s ideas, we’ve decided to turn our unused dining room into a “kid room”. We’ll sell or donate the old, beat up dining set we have in there and put in kid-height tables and chairs. No more unused space and far less toys tripping us in the living room!

Being Frugal: Just Eat Your Vegetables! – I was an exceptionally picky child and my daughter is turning out to be the same. I can completely relate with the struggles of picky eaters. But tying it into adult life and paying off debts was just mean! Talk about hitting close to home. Apparently, I’m still picky, just not as much about food…

Bible Money Matters: What If I Die? Make Sure Your Family Has All Your Important Information In One Place – After discussing life insurance with our agent last week, this subject has been on my mind more often. We have a lot of our information written down, but we don’t have a hard copy in our safe deposit box. When we do print it out, I think I’ll also include an envelope that lists my user names and passwords to non-essential, but important sites that I’d like updated if something happens to me – such as this blog.

The Simple Dollar: Time, Frugality, and Values – I put the same value on frugal activities as Trent. While I don’t get my “hourly rate” out of the projects I do, I don’t just do them for the money. Often I’ll engage in an activity, such as baking, that benefits me in other ways through reducing stress, expanding my skill set, and such. I can tell you one thing, saving a few bucks by putting an hour’s worth of effort into baking bread is not financially rewarding, but is very tasty!

Gather Little by Little: Live 30 days on a budget – I dare you! – As I wrote yesterday, we have slacked on setting up our own budget. Gibble’s dare has prompted me to change that. Over the next week, I’ll gather up the data and build the budget and officially start my end of the dare on May 1. I encourage you to join in, too!

I’ve Paid For This Twice Already…: Tell All Thursday – What’s Your Emergency (Fund)? – Since the birth of our second child, we’ve debated on how to adjust our emergency fund. With my job’s future up in the air, I want to have six months’ worth of expenses saved up, but I doubt we’ll be able to make that in time. For now I think we’d be best served with at least $5,000 in liquid, easy-to-access funds coupled with longer-term savings vehicles such as CDs and, if things get really bad, my retirement account.

Have a great weekend. See you all again on Monday!

(c) 2007-2009, That One Caveman, http://www.thatonecaveman.com

It’s been a hectic first week back. I haven’t quite nailed down my schedule and tasks are piling back up at work, but I’m here.

This week I had two articles mentioned in carnivals:

• Carnival of Personal Finance, hosted by ABCs of Investing – Four Months Without Cable – Looking Back
• The Festival of Frugality, hosted by Ask Mr Credit Card – Declutter and Donate and Reap the Tax Rewards

Around the web, I found a few other sites and articles that are worth mentioning.

• Mrs. Micah – Why I’m Glad I Didn’t Kill Myself
• Bible Money Matters – Making Home Affordable Refinance Program – FAQ
• No Debt Plan – Avoid Mortgage Accelerator Programs Like the Plague
• Greatnexus – Personal Finance

Sorry for the quick and short post this Friday. I’m hard at work on planning a new project that I hope you’ll love. See you all next week!

(c) 2007-2009, That One Caveman, http://www.thatonecaveman.com

As if you didn’t know already, we’re preparing to kick off the 2008 holiday season. This year really has seemed to fly by fast. I’m not sure where all the time went, but I know I’d like to have some of it back.

We’re now within a month of my first blogging anniversary. There were many times over the past year that I was within a thread of throwing in the towel and reclaiming some of my time, but I decided to keep going. Not only does this little project provide a little bit of helpful side income, it’s also taught me so much about my own finances. I can’t stop just yet, since I have so much left to learn.

But time is something that seems to be at a premium lately. Soon, our second child will be born and immediately my life will change all over again. The rhythm my family has developed over the last two years will be obsolete and we’ll have to start over from scratch. In many ways, I’m both looking forward and not looking forward to the birth of this new child. It sounds crass, but it’s a side-effect of the uncertainty of our future and a little bit of fear.

Time is a commodity that, once used, can never be reclaimed. It only makes sense, then, to make the best use of every moment possible. For me, reading and writing are becoming ever more valuable. I wish I could share everything that I read with you, but since all of us are short on time, here is a brief sampling of some of the articles I liked this week:

• Tips for working from home – Gather Little by Little
• DIY: Apple Sauce For Babies – BrokeFamily.com
• 100 Money Saving Tips for the Holiday Gifting Bonanza – Blueprint for Financial Prosperity
• Doubling The Mortgage Deduction to Help the Troubled Economy and Housing Market – MoneyNing
• Mutual Fund Investing That Costs Nothing, Nada, Zip (Free!) – The Dough Roller
• Targeted Retirement Funds Offer a (Nearly) Hands-Free Approach to Retirement Investing – Frugal Dad
• Seth Godin Tells Us To Quit! – My Super-Charged Life
• What If I Don’t WANT To Retire? – The Wisdom Journal
• Recession Proof Your Job – 4 Ways To Avoid The Pink Slip – Moolanomy
• The Benefits of a Cash Christmas – Being Frugal

(c) 2007-2009, That One Caveman, http://www.thatonecaveman.com

Yesterday was interesting to say the least. I obviously don’t remember anything about my procedure or much right after, but my sore throat tells me they were there. I won’t have a final diagnosis for a week or so. I have a feeling this won’t be my only procedure considering the similarity between my issues and my father’s.

Today, I’m taking the day off of work to continue my recovery. I’m not sore, but I’m still fairly tired. While I take today and this weekend to finish my recovery, enjoy some of these articles that I found this week.

• Put Your Savings on Steroids with Certificates of Deposit
• A Way To Control Spending: The Envelope System
• The Myth of Self Discipline
• The SAHM Salary
• Spending and Saving Questions are Answered by Our Budget
• 11 Sure-Fire Ways to Save on Shipping
• When life hands you leftovers, make ‘garbage soup’
• CD Ladder Explained
• Do Not Wait Until January 1st To Make Your Financial Resolutions
• Living Frugal With Other People’s Money

Have a great weekend!

(c) 2007-2009, That One Caveman, http://www.thatonecaveman.com

Photo by: booleansplit

Last year, we dressed up our daughter as Piglet. It was a great costume, but spending $24 on a worn-once costume may not have been the best use of our money. This year, my wife took the leftover material from her murder mystery costume and made my daughter a poodle skirt to match hers. Now I have two 50’s rocker girls in my house!

Tonight’s Halloween should be fun and I know there will be hundreds of children walking down my street. I just hope we have enough candy to last the night!

When you’re done passing out candy this evening, take a look at a few of these great articles from this week:

• Standard of Living: The Next Bubble To Pop?
• Dave Ramsey Is Brilliant
• My Electric Bills Are Going Even Lower, Thanks to CFLs
• Teaching Kids about Stocks and Investing
• 16 Ways to Save Buying in Bulk
• Barack Obama’s Wealth Redistribution: Is It A Good Plan?
• Earning Regular Income from Stock Investing via Dividends
• Why You Should Still Stick with Your 401k and Employer Match
• 10 Things That Will Happen On The Road Between Being In Debt And Being Debt Free
• Seven Unique Side Hustles To Keep Your Family Finances Afloat
• Stocks: What We Really Own
• Controlling Your Diet Controls Your Costs

Have a happy Halloween and enjoy your weekend!

(c) 2007-2009, That One Caveman, http://www.thatonecaveman.com

For the last 11 months, I have been enjoying a “reduced” rate on my cable since I called to complain about an unfair price increase. Soon, that promotional period will end and they will surely jack my prices up again. For the basic service I was receiving, plus internet, my new rate will likely fall near $75/month and that’s just plain ridiculous.

I’ve been looking into plans that would match our budget and I haven’t found any that actually make sense for us. Sure, I found some cheap ones, but they was filled with channels that I don’t care about and the rest I could get for free. Then it dawned on me: If I can get them for free, why shouldn’t I?

This weekend, I’m going out to buy a HD digital antenna to see how it works at my house. If the signal is good enough, we should be able to get all of the broadcast channels in HD for free. There are a bunch of other channels we enjoy, but we’ll have to find a way to survive without them – be it Netflix, watching over the internet, or other “creative” ways to acquire the content. Of course, you can be sure I’ll share my experience as soon as I decide to pull the trigger.

While I’m busy unhooking my cable, you can treat yourself to reading some of these great articles from this week:

• Get Out Of Debt: PearBudget Spreadsheet Hacks
• Psst! Hey Chicken Little, the economic sky isn’t falling
• Being A Full-Time Parent Has More To Do With Sacrifice Than Luck
• Should You Quit Your Job To Stay Home With Your Baby?
• Inflation is going away for a while
• Paying Off Debt vs. Investing in this Economic Environment
• Saving on Your Grocery Bill
• Ten Things I Wish I’d Done Differently While Buying a House
• Thank goodness for the dot com bubble
• What Is The Source Of Long-Term Stock Market Returns? (or… Do Stocks Really Always Go Up?)

Have a great weekend!

(c) 2007-2009, That One Caveman, http://www.thatonecaveman.com

In just an hour or so, we’ll be heading out for what will probably be our last trip before the new baby arrives. As a proper end to my at-home vacation, we’re taking our annual pilgrimage to Branson, MO.

This year, I was fortunate enough to land two free passes to Silver Dollar City (care of a wonderful co-worker) and a coupon book that should save us even more (care of the contractor finishing our basement). I don’t know how I got so lucky, but these savings will help us enjoy our vacation instead of worrying how we would pay for it.

With a week off, I had time to work and read a lot and loved every minute of it. Here are some articles I enjoyed this week:

• Six Secrets to Saving Money When You Are Young
• Do you appreciate what you have?
• Tithing in the new testament
• Before You Sign That Rental Agreement…
• Your Bank’s Super Powers
• You Make HOW Much? Getting Paid What You’re Worth
• Considering Tax-Exempt Money Market Funds
• How To Sell Your Gold Jewelry
• Lessons From the Stock Market Game
• Why We Absolutely MUST Get this Bail-Out
• How I Keep on Task and Organize My Ideas Using Online Checklists

(c) 2007-2009, That One Caveman, http://www.thatonecaveman.com