Layout:
Home > Archive: December, 2011

Archive for December, 2011

getting ready for 2012

December 29th, 2011 at 04:29 am

Calming down from Christmas - these five days are usually some of my favorites. So quiet, so peaceful, so... not part of the rest of the year or part of any year. These 5 days gave the Romans fits, too. After all, 360 is so ....round.

Any way - I filled out the increase in my 403B contributions. I put in for 17K, and for another 1K of catchup. We'll see for the next three months how it goes.

Cashed in a couple of checks - the Chase credit card cashback, and some Christmas money. With the proceeds, I've bought another round of Target stock. $500, so about 9 shares.

Got my list of celebs for 2012, and it looks like there are going to be 8 or 9 participants this year. Mjrube, where are you? You are ahead for 2011!

Merry Christmas

December 25th, 2011 at 01:12 am

Merry Christmas today and tomorrow - happy holidays in the next few days.

I've been off for a couple of days, and have proceeded to spend more than usual. But I plan on buying some more Target stock - got it going with 9 shares. I also ate more than usual - am holding between 167- 165.

This is the neighborhood good fiscal

Text is deed and Link is http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2017083736_christmasroof24m.html
deed that Seattle is talking about. Hopefully your neighborhood has a little something like this!

credit union doings

December 21st, 2011 at 05:14 am

Had a late lunch el desko and decided after to run an errand - get a little bit of money from the downtown branch of the CU.

Quite the line, even at 2pm on a Tuesday.

That's kind of the way its going. The neighborhood branch in the Safeway has now gone - they did leave one ATM which now routinely has a big line in front of it. And now the checkouts also run short on twenties.

The things we do to avoid big banks. Adjustments have to be made.

the game is getting interesting

December 19th, 2011 at 04:34 am

2 players had Christopher Hitchens
3 players had Kim Jong-Il

double catchup?

December 18th, 2011 at 01:43 am

Am looking at increasing my withholding for my 403B this upcoming year. Since I turn 50 this year, I qualify for catch-up. And I will be catching up. My task for this weekend is to figure out whether I can play catchup for both my 403B and for my Roth.

yeah, gimme friction

December 17th, 2011 at 07:07 am

At the risk of sounding and getting a ton of hits and disappointing the pervs out there, I'm talking about the cashless,

Text is frictionless spending and Link is http://www.marketplace.org/topics/tech/effortless-spending
frictionless spending.

Frugality is all about the friction.

Seems like all of society is out there telling you "make it easy" and get with it, while are all here to say "stop for just a second" and "don't be a spending sheep" and "do you really, really need or want it, upon a few seconds of further consideration?"

Contrast cashless buying with layaway. Primitive, but that less than instant consumerism can give you a
Text is different way and Link is http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/12/16/143837315/lawaway-santas-are-spreading-cheer-this-year-at-kmarts
different way to demonstrate gratitude and compassion.

back again

December 16th, 2011 at 04:22 am

Been away for about a week - except for Christmas spending, not much happening. I got the most difficult gift (to MIL) shipped this afternoon, so phwhew. Had to wait on sending it until today, when I got paid. Felt the frugal burn - I had $20 in checking the night before.

Sister is being sent her fish - she probably got it tonight. The fish is a bit pricey, but if you are going to spend for the next day shipping, might just as well make it pay. She got salmon, lox, crab, trout, and a bit of ling cod. Got a letter from sister and my missing ORCA card. Hah! I knew she had it. (and she was the one who told me not to lose stuff during the trip) I bought another card so now I have two spares. If sister and her partner come out, I'm ready.

The credit card bill will hurt this month, but I don't expect any charges next month, so it will balance out. Cashed in my credit card rewards points $127 or so.

Had an interesting Christmas story from this afternoon. I was in Safeway, perusing the Christmas cards when a guy asked whether there were some funny ones. I pointed out one that was funny and rude. Turns out that the guy was giving the card to a guy in prison - the card I showed him was perfectly rude. Smile

pulled the trigger

December 9th, 2011 at 05:03 am

I've just started a Drp - Target, aka Tarzhay, stock ticker TGT.I had an interest, and since I have two other stocks with the same transfer agent, it was now a cinch to start it up directly from the transfer agent. Much, much easier and cheaper than using Temper of the Times. The only thing about this Drp is the $5 fee - I'll have save up and put in $500/ a pop to keep the fee at 1%. That's the thing that gets me with Sharebuilder - $4/trade seems like a good deal, but not if you are trading a few shares.

Made a wild Christmas candy bark recipe - base of chocolate, layer of crispy bits of bacon, chopped nuts (the original recipe called for peanuts, but I substituted walnuts and pecans), topped with caramel and on top of that, a little bit of salt. Tasty, but if you have bridge work, dangerous.

We are going with some friends to Korean barbeque and to them, for the Christmas season, goes the candy bark.

done with the heavy lifting

December 4th, 2011 at 02:35 am

I'm almost done with the deciding about who to give and what to get them for Xmas, and with the exception of one item, I am done with shopping for the hardest recipient: MIL. Since she now has a Nook, I aimed for a couple of BN gift cards hidden in a homemade cheese-based gift basket. Collection phase is over, wrapping, packing and shipping remains.

Noticed that two of my dividend stocks WEC and SYY are raising their dividend. WEC especially is nice - 6 cent per share increase. To cheer me up because stock prices are so volatile, I totaled the dividend payments I would get if I stopped now and decided not to re-invest. $260.

Last night I lost my ATM card at the grocery store. Today I appeared at the credit union, bright eyed and managed to get a new card in about 15 minutes. I'll miss that (the CU at the grocery store is leaving as of Monday). I rarely lose stuff, so it was fortunate I got it all over with. I mentioned their move and the guy who got me the new card told me that they will keep one of the two ATMs, but will remove it as soon as another bank or CU goes into that space.

Finished the first week w/o our boss, who is on maternity leave. One down, twenty five more to go.