Owner: Spilling Buckets URL:http://www.spillingbuckets.blogspot.com/ Join Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2008 20:59:49 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: We are 23/24, recently graduated, engaged, beginning careers, and a life together. One snowy day in Rochester we sat down and put together some financial goals, called them buckets, and tried to stack them in an order we felt fit us best. The purpose of t Site statistics:Click here
Is the Mortgage Crisis a blessing in disguise? 2008-06-26 09:59:00 Admittedly, I am getting a little jaded with the constant housing mess news, however this is probably the only way to fundamentally affect behavior. Pain, and a constant reminder of that pain, in some cases, can be a very positive thing.David Frum wrote an interesting piece for Marketplace Money about how the current mortgage turmoil may actually be a good thing for this country. I completely ag Read more:Mortgage
, Crisis
, blessing
Gardening in an Apartment: Tips and Tricks for staying Frugal 2008-06-24 07:27:00 Our garden is almost in full bloom now! It's very exciting to see the small zucchini and tomatoes forming, and we've definitely been enjoying the lettuce and spinach.This was our first year attempting to garden without using the ground, and it was a success, but it wasn't all super green from the beginning. We learned a lot through trial and error, and will have an even better garden next summer. Read more:Frugal
All financial planning is worthless... 2008-06-20 12:48:00 ...retirement is a lost cause, and saving money is a sham...unless you are healthy enough to enjoy it. Did you know that according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 61% of All adults are obese or overweight? I am going to try to avoid machine gunning out too many statistics here, but do you know how long the list is of diseases that increase in likelihood by living a sedentary l Read more:planning
Frugal Recipe: Bruschetta Chicken, aka Healthy Chicken Parmesan 2008-07-11 10:33:00 Jenn at Frugal
Upstate has been doing a Frugal Food Series for a while now. I haven't had a good recipe to post until this week when the theme ingredient is chicken.This is one of my all time favorite recipes. I got it from the Taste of Home Cookbook, and have modified it slightly to fit our tastes. So here it is, another Frugal Recipe:Bruschetta Chicken
Ingredients: * 1-2 boneless skinless chick Read more:Parmesan
Should I start Karate? 2008-07-08 08:27:00 Yesterday I went to the North Eastern Martial Arts (NEMA) Karate
School to meet the Sensei's and see the classes.
After spending several hours there I left with mixed feelings. I am going to try and sort them out here.
The school offers a huge variety of classes, everything from traditional Okinawan Karate, to fighting Jujitsu, to weapons with Kendo, to Tai Chi Chaun, and even a "Quick Self Defens
Why we closed Prosper.com and opened Kiva.org 2008-07-05 11:00:00 A strange thing has happened over the last few months. The more we track our financial progress, consider alternative forms of income, explore the pf blog community, and even consider searching for jobs that make us happier and more fulfilled, an incredible feeling has become heavier and heavier. We are so lucky to live where we live with the freedoms and opportunities we have: the ability to ga
Net worth update - June-part II 2008 2008-07-04 07:30:00 June has been a good month for learning and exploring alternative forms of income, and although very busy with events and work, we were able to create some new opportunities.Since our last update on 6/15/08 we were very fortunate to have been able to add $1,005 to our assets and increase our net worth by 2.62%. This brings our total net worth to -$25,060, a big hole but we are definitely getting
Progress Report - 100 Push Up Challenge 2008-06-30 21:42:00 Last week Ry posted on the 100 Push Up Challenge
that we are both doing.Well, it's now week 2 day 2, and things are going pretty well. I have been able to do each set as recommended, but no more than the minimums.I am really enjoying this challenge. I am excited to see if I can make it at the end and am very proud of how much I have improved already. Doing 100 consecutive pushups has been a goal
Information Overload or the Shrinking Effort Gap? 2008-07-29 09:59:00 Is information overload a problem, or does the problem lie with us and our inability to focus choice in environments with ever shrinking effort gaps?Information Overload: refers to the state of having too much information to make a decision or remain informed about a topic.A large amount of the copy that exists on the subject begins by citing statistics on the increase of stimuli we are bombarded Read more:Shrinking
, Effort
College Money Network: New Contributor 2008-07-26 08:32:00 This July there was an exciting new addition to the 20-something blogging community - the CollegeMoney
Network. The CMN is currently composed of 7 bloggers who are college students, grad students, or recent grads; and we are proud to be one of the newest contributors.There are some fun and informative posting series in the works - and we are excited to have the opportunity to add our perspective Read more:Contributor
National Geographic Photo Contest 2008-07-25 05:37:00 Today is the last day for entries, the contest ends July 25th 2008 at 11:59PM EDT.Sorry I didn't find this sooner, I was flipping through an older issue of NationalGeographic
Magazine and stumbled upon the "Ultimate Photo
grapher" photograph contest. You can submit up to 8 photographs, one for each of the entry categories ( Adventure/Exploration, Travel, Weather, Science, Space, Wildlife/Nature, P Read more:Contest
, National Geographic
, Photo Contest
Real Simple isn't so Simple Afterall 2008-07-23 08:33:00 As part of a school fundraiser we get several free issues of Real Simple
magazine. I was excited by the title, expecting simplicity and frugality and ways to make your home more efficient. Needless to say I was let down by the magazine. If "simple" means spending a lot of money and hosting parties all day - then I am not interested in being simple.Disappointment aside, there was a surprising ar
New sponsored Kiva entrepreneur: Thank you readers! 2008-07-22 10:47:00 We received a fantastic surprise from one of our readers
!We were given a $25 donation with some instructions to sponsor a specific individual at Kiva.org on their behalf. Thank
you very much! The recipient's name is Nguyen Thi Lan and she is from Nghi Loca a district (huyện) of Nghe An Province in the North Central Coastal region of Vietnam.From her translated profile on Kiva.org: Mrs. Nguyen T Read more:sponsored
The abandonment of work life balance: True job security 2008-07-21 06:42:00 There is no security
on this Earth, there is only opportunity.~Douglas MacArthurLast weekend Les and I decided to spend a few nights camping in the Adirondacks; we made reservations online via a phenomenal website Camping in the Adirondacks: The Adirondack Mountains Official Travel Guide. We charged our flashlight and digital camera batteries [NiMh], packed up some stuff, and started east for abou
Learning to Program in C++ Helped Me Get a Raise 2008-07-16 13:09:00 I just got an email from Debbie, the HR representative in the department, and things are going to get confusing soon. As I mentioned earlier, I am supposed to change pay grades and get a second raise, in addition to the normal raise in July. My starting salary was pretty low and my boss has been really happy with my work, so he pushed for a pretty large increase.Apparently, due to paperwork regu Read more:Learning
, Program
Alternative Income - Mystery Shopping Review- Corporate Research International 2008-08-13 08:10:00 This is post two in a multipart series reviewing proven sources of alternative and part time flexible income. Miss the first post? View our goals for this guide and our first reviewed income source ICCDSThe second secret shopping company we will be reviewing is Corporate ResearchInternational
(CRI) found at www.mysteryshops.com.Spilling Bucket's Review of Corporate Research International (CRI):We Read more:Alternative
, Income
, Mystery
, Shopping
Update: 100 Push-Up Challenge, Week Five 2008-08-12 08:02:00 The 100 Push Up Challenge
is six weeks long, and we just finished week five. The last update we did was at the end of week two. So how are things going?At the end of week four we had to do an "exhaustion test" and perform a certain number to max out and continue to the next week. I managed to squeeze out 36 pushups, while Ryan did his 40. This put me in the middle difficulty level and him at th Read more:Update
Alternative Income - Mystery Shopping Review- ICCDS 2008-08-11 07:26:00 Some of you may have noticed our Google Spreadsheet bar chart that tracks our alternative income and all the different sources we collect and earn extra money from. Over the last few months, Leslie and I have been slowly building a decent proven list of alternative income resources, executing assignments, collecting payments, and tracking performance.It's very exciting to see how these many small Read more:Alternative
, Income
, Mystery
, Shopping
How to Save a Bunch of Money Buying College Textbooks 2008-08-08 08:38:00 It's like someone just walked up, kicked you in the shins, and ran away. Dropping $400 or more on textbooks is just about as common as dropping organic chemistry.Why are textbooks so damn expensive?What can students do about it?When I sat down to write this guide I was sure the first thing I would talk about would be those money grubbing greedy book publishers and their profit driven scummy pract Read more:Bunch
, Money
, Buying
, College
, Textbooks
Why You Should Care About the National Debt 2008-08-06 07:35:00 You have probably seen the big number; that 9 followed by 12 other numbers, ticking upward like the screen on a fuel pump as the owner of the yellow Hummer waits patiently for the "click". They have digital billboards, newsletters, websites, and even java applets for bloggers to include in their posts (I didn't feel the need to, if you just have to see, try the national debt clock).But what does Read more:National
Start the school year off right, win cash and prizes with the CMN back to school giveaway 2008-08-04 11:03:00 The College Money Network is helping to make the start of another school year a little happier for all the students out there. The CMN is throwing its first ever giveaway! Not only are we giving away in a bunch of awesome prizes, we will also be posting a series of valuable articles over the next two weeks to help students and everyone else put their best financial foot forward. Here are the priz Read more:Start
Weekly Round-up: The Growth Edition 2008-08-03 06:36:00 July was an exiting time: we joined the College Money Network, we have over 100 subscribers now, and we posted our 75th post. August is also the six month anniversary of Spilling Buckets Blog, and boy a lot has changed from the first post back in March. Personal growth has also been a large part of this month: Ry decided to take the plunge and leave a job that he just didn't fit with, Les got a Read more:Weekly
, Growth
, Edition
Is coupon clipping worth it when you already buy generic? 2008-08-02 17:11:00 A lot of people tout the benefits of coupon clipping, especially from the Sunday paper. We wanted to see just how much money could be saved without spending all day clipping and planning.Ry and I hadn't been using a lot of coupons, or at least not on a regular basis. We would use coupons we found for things we already bought, but most of what we bought was generic "Wegman's Brand," that didn't hav
Internet Explorer Error: Compatability issue with Sitemeter 2008-08-02 07:09:00 Hi Everyone, you may have experienced an error on this site when you tried to load it in InternetExplorer
recently. There is currently a compatability issue
with Sitemeter.com ( a statistical tracking tool that we use ) that causes pages in IE to fail to load.Update: Looks like the issue has been resolved and now tracking via the javascript code does function with IE. 8/2/08 3:00pmHere is the err Read more:Internet Explorer
Net worth: July 2008 +2.74% 2008-08-01 08:49:00 Net worth statement for July 2008: See the full spreadsheet here<p><p><p>&
Freshfocus Guest Post & 4 Days Left to Enter the College Money Network Giveaway 2008-08-27 20:33:00 Good news! We were asked by Kris at Freshfocus to write a guest post on productivity - and it was posted today. Check it out here. This was very exciting, it's our first guest post offer, and it was a lot of fun to write. We have been busy working on a few projects recently but hope to explore writing and offering more guest works in the near future. Kris has a great site on creative productivity Read more:Guest
, College
, Money
Banks vs Credit Unions: Should CUs Keep Their Tax Free Pass? 2008-08-27 06:48:00 You might be aware that traditional banks and credit unions are not friends. As a matter of fact they are so unfriendly that they are participating in a Cold War of sorts. Fueled and armed, the planes remain grounded; the lobbyists on the other hand, are fully deployed in combat formation.Since the first American credit union was established in 1909 (St. Mary's Bank Credit Union of Manchester New Read more:Unions
Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time 2008-08-25 06:11:00 -Stephen Wright quoteYesterday we did something a little crazy. After shopping at the Dollar Store for Swiffer wet mop refills and going to blockbuster to return disc two of the HBO series John Adams, we went on a really long walk that was about 4.5 miles; and that wasn't the end of it - we went on a smaller walk later in the afternoon as well, and probably would have gone on a third if it hadn't Read more:distance
Adopting a Pet From a Shelter - Charlie the Cat From Lollypop Farm 2008-08-22 10:34:00 Just after New Years in 2006 we went and adopted Charlie
, our best cat friend. He was 7 months old at the time, and still trying to figure out how he ended up in a clear plastic cage. Recently fgirl plurked that she was adopting a kitty, which got me thinking about the whole adoption process we went through.Many people go directly to breeders or pet stores when they want a pet, but you may want Read more:Adopting
, Shelter
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