Another month of blogging, and I'm just as honored and humbled by our numbers as with last month's.

• 1200 visits
• 1969 pageviews

What's more surprising, is the 1:55 average time on site means that some of you are actually reading the posts. As our admittedly odd way of saying "thanks", below is a small tribute to the areas with our largest readership.

1. We're big in Eureka Springs! Last year we spent some time in ES, AR and had a great time, though the mountainous, winding roads do take some getting used to. None the less, beautiful scenery, great people - a good time was had by all.
2. NYC. Yes, New York City came in second to Eureka Springs. Deal with it. It's been 5 years since we last visited NYC, and we're always looking for an excuse to go back. After returning from our last trip, we saw scenes from Law & Order shot in places we had just been. Kinda cool, but probably commonplace to those who live there.
3. Someone in Byron Center, MI loves us, and we love you too. Next time we're in Grand Rapids, maybe we can meet up at the Beltline Bar for some of their Mexican Poutine and talk frugal.
4. The last time we were in Houston, TX was for a Dave Ramsey LIVE! event. Dead serious. Reliant Area was not terribly comfortable, but Dave was great as always.

Odd that the top four locations are all places we've been. Creepy that all of this data is readily available via Google Analytics. Other locations to note for the past month: Washington, Bell Gardens, Harrisburg, Chicago, and Prince Albert. If your city didn't make the list then you obviously aren't reading enough. Visit and visit often.

Thanks Again

As I've mentioned before, I have quite the disdain for our crummy healthcare system in America as well as my own "consumer driven" health plan. Ever get that feeling that Dwight K. Schrute is hard at work in your HR department? Me too. Since they chose the new company health plan, apparently some of my fellow employees have had some trouble adjusting to the new method. In 2006 and years prior, we had a more typical health insurance plan - co-pays and premiums, premiums and co-pays. The kind we've all come to know and love. New for 2007 were the "consumer driven" health plans, that put more of the control and responsibility in the hands of the consumer. The main difference was that with the old method, you payed and payed and payed, little by little. With the new plans, you could end up with some large bills, and need to pay a sizable chunk of cash without realizing it. Well anyways, I thought I'd share our not-so recent experience with our OB/GYN's office.

My wife politely declined, and called me - giving me the earful that they were due. She was mostly just put off by their inference that we would not be able to pay the bill despite knowing 9 months ahead of time the approx amount due and when. We pay our bills, our credit report is clean, and they have always gotten their money in-full and on-time. "Maybe it was a mistake", I offered in an effort to bring the tension down. Maybe it was. Maybe not.

The following week, two more calls. Both times she declined and hung up, growing more furious with each one. I couldn't blame her. Their implications were rude and unfounded, at least from our point of view. Far too often, miscommunication like this stems from simply not telling the whole story and explaining oneself. Why can't people just be honest? And up-front? If you are going to change the terms of an agreement - midstream - don't you think I'd like to know why and expect a reasonable answer? (Can you tell that I am not a credit card holder?) Another week, another call. This time we got some answers.

As it turns out, for the first time in the history of the practice (decades old), they were having to send bills to collections. What?! And all of the accounts in collections share something in common with us - my employer (and thus, my health insurance plan). Ah-ha. In years prior, the insurance company picked up varying amounts of the big delivery and hospital bills and the insured only owed a small, manageable fraction. Now, even families who had been through this process before were caught off guard by the large lump sum payments that they owed after delivery. As a result, the OB/GYN's office was pro-actively calling clients with our same insurance policy generously offering to set up this payment plan to reduce their risk of non-payment later on.

We finally had our explanation. Our answer was still a firm, "NO", followed by, "Stop calling us about this. We already have the money set aside. You'll get paid, after the doctor performs the procedure."

Universal Health Care looks better and better all the time.

**UPDATE** Welcome Carnival of Money Stories readers! To find out more about us, click here. Check out our latest articles here. Thanks for reading!

What? Hug your spouse. Crack open a cold one. Do I really need a 'how to' on this?

Why not?



First - and this is the hard part - you need to become debt-free. Even if you still have a mortgage, pay off the consumer debt. You can still do a happy dance as you are already ahead of the majority of Americans. We did it and we couldn't be happier. It was almost 2 years ago that we broke free from the slavery of consumer debt, and that it itself was nearly a two-year battle. We fought and struggled and sacrificed. In the end, we had payed off over forty thousand dollars - mostly from two cars and a student loan. Since then, we've gone through steps 3, 4 and 5, and moved on to our 15-yr fixed-rate mortgage. Baby step 6 is technically next - pay off the house early. As a single income home, that may take some time, but not impossible. I say 'technically next' because we are having to revisit 3, 4, and 5.

• Baby Step 3 [Fully Funded Emergency Fund] - Every time life takes a swipe at us, the emergency fund takes a hit and we have to go back and replenish.
• Baby Step 4 [Retirement Investing] - We've had some issues getting my wife's old 401k rolled over properly over the past year, but it looks like we have things settled finally. May need an Investment Committee meeting to make sure all of this is set the way we want it now, especially with my wife at home.
  
• Baby Step 5 [Kids' College Savings] - As I've mentioned before, we have a new little one, and we need to get her college savings going now.
  

• Vacation - You're scraped and sacrificed for how long? Months? Years? Treat yourself and kick back for a week. 7-day cruise, all-inclusive resort, la-z-boy and a stack of movies? Find what fits your liking and your budget - just because we're out of debt doesn't mean we trash the budget. Have fun, reap the rewards, and pay for it in cash! But really, vacation? Kind of a no-brainer.
• Spend a car payment - on you! Or you and your spouse. What were you paying out each and every month for a car or two? $200? $300? $500? The average car payment in North America is $376 over far too many months. So now that you aren't shelling that payment out anymore, that money becomes disposable. Ok, so you may want to 'dispose' that money into a Roth IRA. But before you do, why not enjoy one of those payments? How nice of an evening can you have on $350? Pretty darn nice. There is room in there for a sitter, a show, and a really nice dinner. Maybe you'd rather have a Wii. How would you spend a car payment on you?
• Credit card shredding party - How about this for an invitation:
  

  We've freed ourselves from the bondage of debt. Join us for an evening of friends, fun and shredding our credit cards! Thats right, they're going down. Ready to take the plunge too? Bring yours and we'll explain.

  A great way to celebrate with friends and do a little evangelizing at the same time.
  

• Be weird - Dave fans know that this is a good thing. Sometimes it's fun to show your weirdness. The point isn't to be showy, but to remind your self of your accomplishment and inform others. Think of it as 'outreach'. Shegazelle has dreams of a customized license plate - NO PYMNT. That would look great on my 8 year old truck! You have to wonder what one of those guys driving a $45,000 brand new pickup truck thinks about a plate like that. J.D. over at Get Rich Slowly plans to quit his day job and blog full-time. Everyday when he rolls out of bed and 'goes to work' in his PJs (or whatever he does in the morning), he'll remember how he afforded himself that luxury - Debt Freedom. Weird!
• Call in on 'Debt-Free Friday' - Another one for Dave Ramsey fans. If you are unfamiliar, every Friday on the Dave Ramsey show (radio and TV), listeners/viewers are invited to call into the show, tell their story, and scream, "I'M DEBT FREEEEEEE!". Maybe it sounds silly, but maybe you haven't been in their position. Some folks go a step further like Ana from Debt Free Revolution, who plans to drive to Financial Peace Plaza, watch the radio show from the lobby and call in from Dave's own lobby! Looks like they also have quite the evening planed as well. Congrats again, Ana! I'll be sure to listen that day.
  
• Mortgage burning party - The holy grail. You did it. You paid off the house and now you want to celebrate in a way just as nutty as the accomplishment. Mortgage. Burning. Party. Fire up that BBQ grill - we're having steak tonight. And afterwards, the mortgage goes on the grill. Now I don't recommend you burn your actual mortgage. That may come in handy down the road, and with something this important, it's best to have all of the proper documentation. But with a little magic from Kinkos, you can produce a reasonable facsimile there of that will easily accommodate said 'mortgage' burning. Now that's fun, and a great opportunity for your friends/family/neighbors to ask, "Hey, how'd you do that?". As well as a great opportunity for you to help guide them in the right direction. Max from maxgrace.com even has some videos for inspiration.
  

Frugality is always a hot topic around the personal finance blogosphere. "87 Frugal Finance Tips", "Frugal Meals for Frugal Folks", "I'm More Frugal Than You, Na-Na Na-Boo-Boo". (yes, those are fictitious articles) And thats great - Don't get me wrong. I enjoy frugality as much as the next PF blogger. But where does frugality end and reality begin? Frugality can easily cross the line into cheap if not kept in check with quality and value. Where do you draw the line in your frugality?

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Go ahead. Try it. I dare you.

Too funny to resist. Michael's concept of money is hilarious. I've seen this episode twice, but it wasn't until I watched this clip that I realized he is cutting up his credit cards when Oscar comes in. Even a broken clock is right at least two times a day.

Please bare with us.I'm putting my l33t haxoring skills to the test and attempting to clean up the blog a bit. These long winded posts were getting a bit out of hand and cluttering up the page.
Did this work?

I'm not sure if I like it yet. What do you think?

It's been a while since I posted an update on this project. Sadly, there is little progress to report.

We are still committed to sticking to our plan. The waiting is the hardest part, but patience is a virtue and learning to delay pleasure is one sign of maturity. In the meantime, prices are continuing to fall, and technology is continuing to improve. No worries here. When the time is right, it will all come together.

We are a few dollars closer than we were in January, though nothing significant. The secondary market moves like molasses here during the winter months. We have been toying with the idea of 'Basement Sale' as it is far to cold for a garage sale. We'll let you know if that materializes, and how we come out. It's definitely one of my wife's better ideas, we just have to find the time to put it together and sort out enough stuff to justify it.

The biggest news is really the fact that we are waiting, despite two separate influxes of cash that would have easily put us over the top.

• First was Christmas. We had told our parents about our grand plan and one of them decided to help us out a bit. They had hinted at it a bit before hand, so we knew they were up to something. When my wife opened the Christmas card and saw the check, she indicated how helpful that would be with all of our upcoming doctor bills. She was 8-1/2 months pregnant at the time, and knew that based on our insurance, we would have a few thousand in medical bills in the coming months. The parents were a bit let down, but that's looking to be a better and better decision all the time. And you just don't argue with a woman when she's that pregnant.
• Second was our tax refund. With the crazy year we had in 2007 - moving, new job, one income instead of two - we ended up with a sizable refund. On the way home from the CPA, it was easy to contemplate how to divvy the spoils. Later, reality hit. With baby in hand, we are still looking down the barrel of some sizable medical bills on the horizon. It may come out to be much less than expected, but we'd rather have the money in the bank, than hanging on the wall in the living room. In the meantime, we're adjusting my W4 so that we don't have this dilemma next year.
• Last is the potential income of the 'economic stimulus' package. We should be seeing ~$1500 from Uncle Sam come this May. I say potential and should because, well, I don't exactly have the check in hand yet. And we really don't want to count on money we don't have. We've filed our taxes, which is the only thing eligible families and individuals need to do to get in line for their government hand out. More waiting in store for us.

Who knows? Maybe, come May, our outlook will be more positive. All of this money we haven't spent on consumer electronic goodness could total over $3,000. Will we finally spend it on a TV? Nah. More than likely it will go to a new well and other slightly more necessary home improvement projects. Come May, I would hope to have several more items sold and have gained the TV money the old fashioned way - patiently earning it.

ASK!

We were all geared up to purchase and install a mountain of insulation into our attic. We had done the research, we knew what we wanted and how we were going to do it. We even had some help lined up for two weekends out to help with the install. Now we just had to buy the stuff.

Based on our research, we chose to go with blown-in cellulose insulation. Environmentally friendly, cost effective, and easy to install. Question was, how much is the blower going to cost to rent? We had budgeted $700 from our house repair fund for this project, but by no means wanted to spend all of it. That weekend, along with the Sunday paper, comes a Menard's sale flier. The type insulation we wanted, Cocoon branded, was marked down to $5.40 per bag + a free blower rental. I called to inquire. Turns out that the blower rental was free for four hours. Standard charges applied after that. Ug. I had no idea how long this was going to take, but 4 hours seemed pretty optimistic for a bunch of amatures.

On top of that, I was estimating needing around 80 bags of this insulation to get the desired R-value. That was going to cost $432. Not bad. What killed the deal was the fact that the nearest Menard's was 20 miles away. How many trips would it take to get all of the insulation and the blower home, plus the trip to return the blower? Ug Ug.

Fire up the computer, its time to comparison shop. We have a Lowe's and a Home Depot in town, one of these guys should be competitive, right? Lowe's had the exact same product online, but for $6.24 per bag. Home Depot's website was, as usual, little to no help as they typically only list items they are willing to ship to you. But they have to stock insulation, right? Time to hit the bricks and get us a DEAL.

Lowes' price of $6.24 was going to equate to just under $500 + whatever the blower rental would be. I strolled down to the building materials and found the insulation. They cellulose, but it was a different brand, yet the same price. Still it was worth asking. I made my way to the service desk. They examined the Menard's flier and paged a stocker to price check the insulation. While we were awaiting his response, she informed me that the two items would have to be exactly the same - make, model, and size - to be eligible for price matching. The stocker's answer came back. No deal. Different brand. Same size, same product, different brand. I pressed that they had this brand on their website, and could they give me the discount if I ordered online. The answer was a flat, "No." Clearly they did not need my business that day.

I made the half-mile trek to Home Depot. Would my luck be different here? Once again, I made a bee-line to the building materials. There, past the roofing materials and behind the lumber was a big beautiful pile of Cocoon brand cellulose insulation. I double check my sales flier. A perfect match! Price: $6.44 - even more than Lowe's! Off to the service desk.

Now, you should know that doing this is not easy for me. I tend to be quiet, more reserved. I'm not a big 'wheeler dealer' and in general, I would just assume not interact with people in general. But I was going to do this. That day, I was going to get a deal. Somebody was going to earn my business.

At the service desk I, once again, made my request. "I was wanting to buy some of this insulation, but I saw that Menard's had it cheaper, can you help me with that?" She examined the flier, and responded, "You mean our 'Meet or Beat' price guarantee?". I had never heard of this program, but responded affirmatively. She went to an office in the back, assumingly checking with her supervisor. She came back.... $4.14 per bag. DEAL!

I was a little bit beside myself as we started placing the order for will call. Then I remembered the other part of the equation - the blower. "One other thing here. This ad says that you get a free blower rental with purchase. Can you match that also?" She paused, her face wrinkled as it seemed that this did not compute. She consulted with the same superviser, who was walking by us, which was met with another puzzled look. Was this somehow unheard of? Sure we'll price match products, but equipment rental prices? Thats crazy! It was a tense few seconds. The lady helping me then replied, "I don't know how we can match this, since it's already free for 24 hours."

....pause....

I wanted to burst out laughing! Yes! Yes! Where do I sign?! Let me out of here with my receipt before you change your minds! I maintained my composure and let them know that would work just fine. A few minutes more and the deal was done. In the end, it took 3 trips to haul it all home, but only because two loads consisted of tall palates. Those were two s-l-o-w trips that would have been crazy to attempt for 20 miles. The whole project cost us $310 and a full day of labor. While unloading the bundles of insulation, I saw where some of them had price tags on them reading $7.24. Seven dollars and twenty-four cents EACH! This made the next 8 hours of back-breaking labor somehow tollerable. Maybe it was because it looked like insulation shooting out the end of that hose, and not dollar bills.

Why did I do this? Why did I insist on getting a deal? It wasn't a matter of not having the money. As I stated, we were setting $700 aside for this one - more than double what it cost in the end. It's a matter of not wanting to part with all of it just because some retailer decided that this week, this product will cost X amount. Why spend money that you don't have to? Why play their game and pay their price without question? A fool and his money are soon parted, and that is one role I am not willing to fill.

So if you want a deal, if you want to spend a little less on a purchase - ASK! Ask if the pizza place will accept competitor's coupons. Ask if they can do a little better on the price of that TV you've been pining over. What are they going to do? Say, "No"?

***UPDATE*** Welcome FoF readers! Please take a few minutes to check out some of our other frugal living articles. If you are new here, find out more about Not the Jet Set here.