Owner: Save and Conquer URL:http://saveandconquer.com Join Date: Sat, 23 Feb 2008 23:01:01 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: SaveAndConquer.com is a Personal Finance blog. The aim is to share information on saving and investing toward retirement and having a good time. Site statistics:Click here
Lending Club 2008-03-08 15:29:53 With the recent credit crisis, there has been a lot of talk on the blogs about peer-to-peer lending, and in particular, about Lending
Club. I opened an account there a little while ago and have found it to be a good alternative investment if you don’t mind tying up money for up to 3 years.
They [...]
Eclectic Decorating 2008-03-07 10:15:33 Furniture is expensive. Nobody I know can afford to fill their entire house with new furniture all at once. Our furniture has come from many sources over the years.
We have a dining set that I bought shortly after I bought a house in the early 90’s. Our living room sofa, chair, and ottoman came from the same [...] Read more:Decorating
Build Your Own PC 2008-03-06 10:02:06 It is still not possible to build your own laptop computer, but if a desktop computer can fill your needs, it is always cheaper to build your own. This is especially true if you want a fast “gaming” PC. Besides other things like CPU performance, the main thing that sets a gaming PC apart from [...] Read more:Build
Retirement Account Contributions 2008-03-05 09:48:58 My company offers both a 401k and a Roth 401k account for all vested employees. The regular 401k was all that was offered prior to 2007. Along with contributing to the 401k or Roth 401k up to at least the employer’s match, it is a good idea to maximize contributions to Roth IRAs, as well. [...] Read more:Account
Listed in Money Hacks Carnival 2008-03-05 09:44:32 Our Window Treatments article has been listed in the Money
Hacks Carnival
at beingfrugal.net. The carnival has a gardening theme this time, but we are listed under “Saving Money Hacks.” Check it out.
Listed in Festival of Frugality 2008-03-04 23:43:49 This is a quick link back to the Festival
of Frugality
at BrokeGradStudent.com that listed our Shop Manual article. There are other interesting articles listed in the Festival, such as How Being Cheap Can Hurt Your Career and Dumpster Diving, so check it out.
Daycare Savings 2008-03-04 10:13:36 Many married couples in America need two incomes to make ends meet. My wife and I are no different. We would love it if she could stay home full time with our son, but our savings goals will not allow that. (I may talk about those goals in a future post.)
Daycare
for children of working couples often takes an enormous bite out [...] Read more:Savings
Listed in Carnival of Living Cheaply 2008-03-03 14:59:26 This is a quick link back to the Carnival
of Living
Cheaply at 2paupers.com that links to our Birthday Party article. There are lots of other interesting frugal living articles listed in the Carnival, so check it out.
Detroit Housing in Crisis 2008-03-03 10:01:27 Check out the availablility of houses in Detroit
. Searching today for houses that cost between $0 - $5,000 turns up 1,394 properties. I have never seen such a thing. There are some multiple listings, so the number is probably more like 1,000 properties. Sure there might be a few abandonded wrecks that no one wants [...] Read more:Housing
, Crisis
Shop Manual 2008-03-02 10:44:06 My wife just told me that her favorite posts in Save and Conquer are under the Frugal Living category. So here is another frugal tip: buy a shop manual whenever you buy a new or used vehicle.
I am either too old or too lazy to do much of the work on my vehicles anymore. (Sometimes [...]
Listed in Festival of Frugality #116 2008-03-12 21:23:11 We just got our Eclectic Decorating article listed in the Festival
of Frugality
#116 at Green Panda Treehouse. The theme is frugal, but the number of articles is not.
There are many good links here. I especially like “Too Much Clutter? 20 Tips for a Successful Garage Sale.” We are getting ramped up to do some [...]
Factory Extended Warranty 2008-03-12 10:30:36 This post is not about purchasing an extended warranty. They are typically not worth it. This is about finding and obtaining extended service when a company has determined there was a design flaw in one of their products. In that case, they may fix or replace the product after its standard warranty has expired.
For example, [...] Read more:Factory
, Extended
, Warranty
Kid’s Allowance 2008-03-11 10:00:05 I never received an allowance while growing up. My parents believed that you got paid after you did some work. I agree with that idea. They probably also did not pay allowances, because it would have been too expensive to cover me and my three brothers.
My wife and I do pay our son an allowance. [...]
Kübler-Ross Grief Cycle in Economic Speaking 2008-03-10 12:00:49 I cannot remember where I read about the GriefCycle
to describe the current economic downturn, but I thought it worth repeating with a little of my own commentary.
Elizabeth Kübler-Ross wrote a book, called “On Death and Dying,” where she talked about a cycle of emotional states called the Grief Cycle. The Grief Cycle has [...] Read more:Economic
, Speaking
Listed in Carnival of Personal Finance 2008-03-09 22:46:16 Our post on Daycare Savings has been listed on the Four Pillars PF blog in the Carnival
of Personal
Finance. Four Pillars’ edition of the Carnival has a humorous Canadian theme. Please have a look.
Note, the aggregator for all the past Carnivals is here.
Listed in American Economics Blog Carnival 2008-03-14 12:58:57 Our article titled, “Is Single Party Government Bad for the Market?,” has been posted on the AmericanEconomics
Blog Carnival
, Mar 15, 2008 at Struck In Traffic.
The carnival is bi-monthly and “includes articles and editorials that reflect various economic topics, realities and perceptions” as they relate to the American economy. Please check it out.
Related posts on [...] Read more:Blog Carnival
Our Wonderful, Frugal Wedding 2008-03-14 10:25:19 I’d like to share a very memorable day in our lives: my wife’s and my wedding day.
We had an outdoor wedding in a park located in the California coastal mountains in the Summer of 1999. The ceremony was in a group picnic area with a natural redwood cathedral behind us. The reception was in the [...] Read more:Wonderful
, Frugal
Season Pass 2008-03-13 10:00:24 Is it better to get a season pass to different venues, such as a theme park or hockey team, or is it better to purchase tickets for a single event? Obviously, the answer depends on how often you will visit the venue in question.
In order to figure out if a season pass makes sense, you [...] Read more:Season
Farmer’s Market 2008-03-17 10:50:36 Most every Sunday morning we visit a local farmer’s market to buy the coming week’s worth of fruits and vegetables. Farmer’s markets always have the current seasonal fruits and vegetables. You can also find fresh-baked goods, cheeses, nuts, dried fruit, fresh sea food, ethnic food, desserts, flowers, and various craft items.
Today we bought a 10-pound [...] Read more:Market
Hold On Tight 2008-03-17 01:32:07 The news about Bear Stearns being bought out for $2 per share by JP Morgan just came out today. That values Bear Stearns at only $236.2 million even though their investment porfolio is estimated to be worth $33 billion.
In other words, JP Morgan values Bear Stearns’ loans in the short term at less than a [...]
Government Information Web Sites 2008-03-16 11:12:14 Every few days I peruse the Dear Abby column. She recently gave a link to a government web site for the Federal Citizen Information Center. There is a ton of information here. The financial stuff is pretty menial for people who regularly read about personal finance, but there are lots of other sections.
They have a [...] Read more:Government
, Sites
, Web Sites
Thousands of E-books for Free 2008-03-15 16:03:52 Project Gutenberg is a wonderful source of online e-books. They offer over 20,000 titles for free. That’s right, free! (They ask for donations, but do not require them.) There are over 100,000 additional titles available from Project Gutenberg partners. Many of these partners also offer books for free or for a small donation.
Project Gutenberg may [...]
Listed in Money Hackers Carnival #4 2008-03-19 11:30:29 Our post, Often Overlooked Company Benefits, has been listed in the MoneyHackersCarnival
#4 at the Amatureist Financial Journey.
There are some pretty good hacks in the carnival. I always like learning new ways to teach my son about money. Free Money Finance has some good Interesting Ideas for Teaching Kids About Money. Along the [...]
The Best Way to Purchase Music 2008-03-19 11:00:47 Today, there are three mainstream methods to buy music:
Purchase
and download a song
Purchase a music subscription
Purchase a CD
Of course music comes on other media, you can still find vinyl records or cassette tapes, but I do not consider those to be mainstream.
Of these three, I prefer CDs for several reasons.
The majority of the music that [...] Read more:Music
Listed in Festival of Frugality #117 2008-03-18 11:09:46 Our article, Build Your Own PC, has been listed in ”From Theory To Practice: The Festival
of Frugality
” on I’ve Paid For This Twice Already.
I really like these festivals of frugality. I often learn new ways to be even more frugal. My wife enjoys leaning these new frugal ways, as well. One that we practice is Make it [...]
Listed in Carnival of Personal Finance #144 2008-03-18 10:39:18 Our article, Our Wonderful, Frugal Wedding, has been listed in the Carnival
of Personal
Finance #144- St. Patrick’s Day Edition, at beingfrugal.net.
There are some great posts here, some are close to my heart. There’s Who’s your Star Wars money hero?, where the Monevator discusses which of the later Star Wars characters has the best financial plan, [...]
Book Review - Flipping the Switch 2008-03-18 10:00:07 I have always tried to follow the example set by my parents in taking responsibility for my actions. This is something that most successful people do as a matter of fact. In 2001, John G. Miller published a book called, “QBQ! The Question Behind the Question,” in which he talks about personal responsibility in work [...] Read more:Flipping
The Art of Haggling 2008-03-21 11:15:59 The dictionary describes haggle as, “To bargain, as over the price of something.” That’s why I like the word better than bargain or negotiate. Haggle means you are trying to get a lower price.
You can try to haggle on anything and everything. If you don’t try, you obviously will not get a lower price. It [...]
First Day of Spring - Garage Sales 2008-03-20 10:05:45 It’s the first day of Spring
. The sun is out, and there are flowers in the trees. And my Norwegian blood is yelling, “Clean this mess up!”
Many people in the Northern Hemisphere are getting ready to throw open the shutters, open the windows, let the sunshine in, break out the cleaning supplies, and sort through their [...] Read more:First
, Garage
, Sales
, First Day
Budget Trade-offs 2008-03-23 09:50:25 We just switched over from a dynamic IP to a static IP for our Internet connection. I won’t go into the technicalities of that here, but we expect it to provide better “up time.” It will prevent the regular disconnects that we have been having, which is especially a problem for my wife who uses [...] Read more:Trade
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