Clever Posts Of The Week – May 17th 2013
I was excited to mow my lawn yesterday for the first time this Spring. I love the smell of freshly cut grass, and I love the look of a newly mowed lawn. It’s also the only place a man can truly be alone. I think the rest of my family is afraid that if they interrupt me, I’ll have them take over.
I am definitely NOT left alone when I am sitting at the kitchen table with my laptop reading blog posts. Sometimes I unplug and go sit alone in the basement so I can read them uninterrupted. Check out my favorites of the week below, and don’t forget to give the Clever Dude Facebook page a thumbs up!
- Clever Dude was included in a list of 22 Financial Bloggers You Should Get To Know over at Options Credit. Check it out….humbled to be in this list!
- Home maintenance projects can be expensive. Money Beagle tells us 7 Things I Learned During Our New Roof Project.
- A little over a year ago my wife and I bought a Dyson vacuum cleaner. I wish I would have read Why I’ll Never Buy A Dyson Vacuum—And Neither Should You from Frugal Guru Guide. Maybe I would have made a different decision.
- My post on Wednesday talked about my recent experience with dealing with medical insurance. DINKs finance tells us about Insurance secrets that we should not keep.
Three Steps to Estimating The Cost Of a Trip To The Doctor
Image courtesy of renjith krishnan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Have you ever went to the doctor and asked yourself, “I wonder how much this is going to cost me?” Or have you opened a bill from your medical provider only to suffer from a case of sticker shock?
In October of each year I select my medical coverage through my employer for the next year. With health care costs continuously rising, the offerings usually change each and every year. Our health care enrollment package used to come with very specific information for each plan choice regarding what common services would cost the consumer. Try as I might, I can no longer find that information. All I can find is a phone number to call.
A few years ago I had a problem with my feet and went in to see my doctor. Xrays were done, and I assumed they would be covered by my insurance as they had been in the past. When the bill came I found that I was responsible for hundreds of dollars for the Xrays because they were subject to my deductible, which had not yet been met.
Fast forward to this week, I was having an issue that I thought might be a good idea to discuss with a doctor. Being on a budget and having a finite amount of funds available I couldn’t just go to the doctor without having at least a ballpark estimate as to how much it would cost. In the absence of good medical plan documentation I was able to educate myself with information to determine how much my trip to the doctor would cost with the following three steps:
The costs of losing weight
I can’t believe it’s already been 2.5 years since I left my university IT job to move into sales. Time seriously flies whether you’re having fun or not. But that move also marked the beginning of something big in my life: losing 30 pounds. During 2011, I went from about 225 down to 195, give or take on both the start and end weights, and for the next 1.5 years, I’ve stayed in the 190′s.
It’s no Biggest Loser number, but it’s a major accomplishment for me because:
- I haven’t been under 200 since high school (20 years?), and I can’t even recall what year. I was always “the fat kid” due to my height/weight ratio. As an adult, my proportions changed, even if my weight didn’t too much, so people would often guess I weighed much less than I did.
- Based on federal guidelines, I was in the Obese category. Now in the 190′s, I’m within the “Overweight” category. Sometimes, though, a heavy meal can put me back into the Obese range, but I know the numbers aren’t all that’s to your overall health (I AM married to a registered dietitian!).
- I feel better, and I think I look better. That’s probably the biggest benefit because it’s about my health and mental attitude about myself.
What’s Your Shopping Personality?
Image courtesy of Master isolated images/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net
I once got an afternoon phone call at work from my wife telling me she was at a car dealership. She had picked out a new van and requested that I come immediately to check it out and sign the papers. We had been having problems with our current van shredding it’s serpentine belt and I had promised that if it happened again, we could dump it and get a new van. Well, it had happened again, and apparently she was cashing in on that promise.
When we were first married, my wife and I rented a townhouse. Whenever the topic of buying a house came up, I would suggest we take care of our student loan and credit card debt before jumping into that adventure. Coming home from work one day my wife informed me we had an appointment with a real estate agent the next day, just to check things out. Next thing I know, we’re viewing houses, talking with a loan officer, and signing closing papers.
If you haven’t figured it out yet, my wife is very much a go getting, live in the moment, move fast kind of woman. I’m more if a wait and see, take it slow kind of guy.
On the other hand, we seem to swap personalities when it comes to day to day purchases.
Clever Posts Of the Week – May 10th, 2013
Hey clever friends, have I thanked you lately for reading? I’m still pretty new here but I wanted to let you all know that I really appreciate each and every one of you that takes the time to read and/or comment on my posts here. Now it’s time for some link love action for my favorite posts of the week, and I’m sure their authors would appreciate you checking out their posts as well!
- So many people can’t budget effectively. Get Rich Slowly had a great article this week that explains why yours may not be working.
- Ever wonder how department stores can afford to have sales with big percentages off? Frugal Guru Guide tells us What’s Really On Sale.
- Money is the #1 reason for an argument in a relationship. DINKS Finance asks if it can ruin your marriage.
- Ever done anything stupid with money? Celebrating Financial Freedom tells us How To Lose Your Life Savings In Just One Day!
Have a great weekend, back on Monday!
Brought to you courtesy of Brock.
Are Today’s Luxuries Tomorrow’s Necessities?
Image courtesy of emptyglass / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Last Thursday a massive winter storm streaked across the Midwest dumping record amounts of snow in many places, including where I live. Schools were closed, and roads were virtually impassable. My son was home from school, my wife and I stayed home from work, and at 6:00am the power went out.
For the next two and a half hours, we found out just how dependent upon electricity and technology we have become.
My wife figured she’d make her morning cup of coffee, but was unable too. She even joked about plugging her single cup Keurig coffee maker into the AC adapter we have for our van’s cigarette lighter in order to make a cup.
Our son jumped on our laptop hoping to play some online games with his friends, only to discover that just because the computer is running (it was on battery power) doesn’t mean he has internet access. Without power, the cable modem and wireless router can’t function. Which also affected me as I was planning to work from home, but with no power my battery charge would eventually drain, and without internet access I couldn’t connect to my employers private network anyway.
Within five minutes of the power going out, all three of us were on our smart phones posting to Facebook how much it sucked that we were without power.
We found that almost everything we tried to do required electricity and technology:
Clever Dude and his bride started with $500k in debt and in just 4 years, it's down to $300k!