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Seems like it was forever ago when we said goodbye to Republican debt-monger, Mitt Romney (I know, I know - Mitt Who?). We ran old Mittens through the ringer over his campaign spending hypocrisy. Remember how he touted himself as this successful businessman and the only candidate with the economic and financial background to be successful in the White House next year? Yet he was constantly having to lie about and hide the fact that he was loaning his campaign millions to support their futile spending habits.

Well, Mitt may be gone from the spotlight, but his habits live on. Hillary "I still have a chance" Clinton finds her campaign 20 million dollars in debt. Through March 2008, her campaign has brought in over $194 million. Wow, right? Well, even Hill has been out paced by her Democratic opponent. You may have heard of him - Barack Obama. His campaign has pulled in over $240 million in the same time period. These are crazy numbers. What is even crazier, is that $194 million is not enough to get the job done.

Does the financial mismanagement of her campaign reflect the way Hillary would run the country? We don't know. What we do know, is that more closely examining candidates' spending habits may change the way we elect our leaders. Don't talk to me about the ailing economy and the plight of the middle-class when you are hardly leading by example.

Campaign spending via CNN.com

There has been quite the stink raised lately over this thing called Bisphenol-A, or BPA. Rightfully so. This chemical found in polyvinyl chloride (PVC, recycling symbol 3), polystyrene (PS, recycling symbol 6), and polycarbonate (PC, recycling symbol 7, if labeled at all) has been found to leech from the plastic and into the food it contains, especially when heated. New research is linking BPA to abnormalities in mammary and prostate glands. Canada has declared BPA to be toxic, and the US is still deciding whether or not to ignore it.

This issue is causing a lot of stir, and some people are even going back to glass for baby bottles. We've gone through the cupboards and tossed several plastic sippy cups and kid cups to the recycling bin if they had a 3, 6, or 7 on the bottom. Our biggest dilemma came as it did for most people - baby bottles. Most are made from shatterproof PC, and carry no recycling symbols. You can reduce the risk of contaminating the contents with BPA by not storing liquids in them, and by warming them in a different container. But what to do if you don't want to use them, nor ditch them in the landfill?

For one, Wired's GeekDad has issued a challenge to find ways to reuse these little devils. They show some examples and have set up a flickr pool for people to submit their ideas.

Also, Playtex is offering a free sample of their BPA-free drop-in style baby bottles.

Wait! Shhhhh. Listen.


.................

There it is again! Do you know what that is?

Hyenas laughing?

No.

That's the sound of the economy being stimulated, silly. Waves of free money have been magically appearing (direct depositing) into bank accounts all across America. We can now declare "Mission Accomplished" as we have surely avoided a recession. My grass looks greener. Does yours? Maybe a coincidence. I'm sure that the housing market will be turning around now. Probably just after the stock markets pick up. What do you think? Tuesday? Wednesday, at the latest?

As we stated previously, our 'magic money' went straight in with our irregular income. Most of it will go into our emergency fund (which is still recovering from several rounds of medical bills), and a hole in the ground - a new well to be specific. Exciting, eh? Well it is for us. A small portion will go to a couple of nice things for the family. One of which we'll be announcing soon.

So what have you done with your stimulus check?

We've shared some of Mrs. NtJS's keen garage sale shopping skills, now comes some of the proof. At the end of April, she found that we had $13 left in our cash envelopes. What to do? Roll it to next month? Take the kids out for lunch? Kick it into savings? All acceptable options. With a few garage sales catching her eye, she and the kids set out that morning with $13 to see how well she could do.

I was impressed. As she began showing off her loot, she kept using the word "and". "And this, and that, and then I found these at the next one...." 13 items in total, all for $13 of unspent budget money. Below is the manifest from the three garage sales that she hit:

• 5 pairs of shorts for Mrs. NtJS (J.Crew, Bass, other nice brands)
• 1 pair of nursing pjs
• 2 gap shirts for Mrs. NtJS
• 1 baby sleeping book - brand new
• set of 2 cds for baby classic/sleep music new in plastic wrap
• 1 baby pool floaty
  
• 1 Hanna Anderson shirt
• 1 pair Hanna Anderson leggings
• 1 pair Gymboree girls pants

Yes, another one of 'mine', not ours. I've not had an easy time with this thing called money.

Still in college, but with a different set of house-mates. Through a bit of last minute shuffling and scrambling, I ended up living with two people who were subletting for the original two - one who got an internship and the other who bailed altogether. The one sub-let was a fellow classmate who was graduating in December and only needed the apartment for the Fall. Our house-mate-come-intern was covered. The other sub-let was a friend of the intern house-mate. He seemed nice enough, but was not in school, but rather running his own small, but successful business. He signed up for the full year without hesitation. We thought we were busy with our school work-load - we rarely saw this guy.

Then came that arduous day - dividing the utilities. After the previous phone monopoly debacle, I volunteered to take the water/trash/sewer bill. My classmate took the phone bill and Mr. Small Biz took the power bill. Being clever young adults we devised a simple plan. Each month, we would pay our respective bill and list the amount on a white board in the kitchen. If the bills were the same, and we estimated that they would be close, then we would call it even. If they were off, then we would do the math, and chip in to reimburse the one who payed that bill. It seemed smart.

The first month went as planned. The bills came in and they were close enough that we called it even. A couple months went by. Our two bills were similar but Mr. Small Biz never listed his. He was always gone before we were up in the morning, and would hear him come in late, if at all. We assumed he saw the white board with our bills and saw that his was similar. Another month went by, another set of bills. We saw Mr. Small Biz one day (without the cell phone glued to his ear) and asked if he needed any money for the power bill. "No, we're cool, it's fine." Little did we know, we were anything but cool.

Occasionally we saw our businessman roommate. Coming, going, raiding the fridge. There were even times that we actually hung out and had conversations. Absolutely nice guy. Always had a smile on his face. Always. Was always on the cell phone. If he wasn't then it was ringing. Always. Once or twice he left his phone in the apartment when he left. I grew to hate that ringtone of his.

Winter break came. My graduating house-mate left for home, but would be back later finish moving. I left to visit the soon to be Mrs. NtJS. We returned a couple days later. Mrs. NtJS noticed something was up right away. Certain things were missing or moved. She walked straight back to Mr. Small Biz's room and opened the door to find it.... empty. He had left larger, noticeable items in the common areas, but taken a few things that were important to him. It was clear that by doing all of this and leaving his room door shut, as it usually was, he was trying to hide his untimely departure. But why? What was going on? We spoke with some mutual friends as well as the original intern roommate. They had no clue. We went around to his businesses, only to find them just like his bedroom. Empty. He was gone.

Christmas break came and went. The graduating roommate moved out. The intern roommate moved in. He even came up with another out-of-school friend to take over Mr. Small biz's place. Hopefully he would be better than the last 'friend'. But then came the real sting - we went to transfer the utilities. The power company had a local office down the road, so we went to do it in person. No go.

The account was past due. In fact it was 6 months behind. How could this be? We never got any letters, any disconnection notices, let alone have the service disconnected. This couldn't be right. As it turned out, Mr. Small biz made just one payment to the trusty power company. He made the first one, and that was it. With our class schedules keeping us on campus most of the day, and Mr. Small Biz coming and going as he pleased, he was able to snag the notices off of the door and out of the mailbox. He had successfully intercepted every notice. And yet somehow they never shut us off, despite being 6 months and over $200 behind. He had swindled us, and we were pissed. But this bill was between him and the power company, not us. This was their problem.

No, it was my problem. How is that so? Nowhere did I sign anything. The overbearing lady from the power company called the leasing office and found out that of the three previous delinquent renters, one remained on the lease - Me. In her words, this constituted a "moral obligation" on my part to pay the bill. Moral? Moral!? A utility customer service rep, who was likely lying to me, was going to lecture me about morals? How about the morals of Mr. Small Biz? Tell it to him, not me. I pay my bills (usually). Like most college kids, and as stated in Episode 1, I was less than prepared to deal with this effectively. Still, I was having none of it, but neither was she. She had this role down - she had heard it all before and turned it back on us every time we turned it on her. It was like it was scripted. She won the battle of wits and our new roommate chose to foot the bill in order to have power in the apartment we had just helped move him into. It was a really classy move and it totally saved the day.

As it later came out, Mr. Small Biz was bankrupt. Duh. Not only that, but he was on the run from unpaid vendors and clients with unfinished jobs. He had run the whole deal into the ground. I remember reading his bankruptcy case in the local paper. Something like ~$120,000 in debts and ~$8,000 in assets. What a mess. We chased him for a bit, and even spoke to him over the phone one day. Said we would be getting something in the mail. A check? No. A notice that we were to be named in his bankruptcy proceedings. But we didn't even get that. We were small and insignificant. I always felt bad for our new roommate who had to walk into that mess. That is until I saw the way he spent money on video games.

We chose not to take the easy way out on bills that following semester. Each month we listed the bills, split them 3 ways and wrote each other checks. It wasn't creative, but it worked, and we all knew what was going on. One month, I forgot to cut the check to the water company. Before the next bill arrived, a service man stopped by to "collect payment or turn off service". He was also good at his roll. He said it with clipboard in hand and a large wrench hanging from his tool belt. I cut him the check.

Got a 'Financial Beating' story to share? Send us an email and we'll consider it for publishing.

See the original 'Financial Beating' article here.
See My Financial Beating: Episode 1 here.

We have been featured on four carnivals/festivals this week. We are pleased to welcome all new readers to Not the Jet Set. To find out more about us, click here. We are a personal finance blog focused on frugality, stewardship, and current events, while also telling our story as a family and the personal finance decisions we have made. Thanks for stopping by.

The Carnival of Debt Reduction is up at Rocket Finance. It features our Ode to the frozen pizza as one of the two Top Picks for the week! (Thanks, RocketC!) We are honored and humbled. We hope you enjoy reading this one as much as we did in writing it. Here are some other great posts from the carnival.

• Ana at DebtFREE-Revolution has a great post about the Fed's proposals for a Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights. I will be amazed if any of these bills or proposals find their way out of sub-committee, let alone find their way to the President's desk. It's at least fun to put the screws to these scumbags credit card issuers.
  
• Murphy has been visiting the Paid Twice house pretty regularly, which certainly does stink. We've been there (maybe not with as many zeros, but we've been there), and all we can say is, Keep plugging along! You're already in a good place, and you'll get there. The road into debt was not short, and the road out will not be either.
• My Daily Dollars has posted their 5 Budget Busters, and they certainly are a good read. Great to see this challenge still rolling on, and getting responses from so many perspecives.
  

• Millionaire Mommy Next Door also has some great green tips on household cleaning.
  
• Living The Cheap Life weighs in on what he won't compromise on when it comes to buying cheap.
  
• My Daily Dollars is canning food at home. We did this last year and will do even more this year.
  

• Money and Investing has a similar post detailing some of their financial mistakes, just not in as excruciating detail as ours. Still, it's important to talk about these things.
  
• Holy Cash Cow has a fun post about a recent auction experience with their young son. A great lesson that he'll always remember, and a great teachable moment.
  

• DebtFREE-Revolution has a great post on stagflation grocery shopping. Looking forward to her Ebook on the topic.
  
• The Sun's Financial Diary discusses green investing with a solar energy ETF. Sounds great!
  

To start with... This is the Mrs. I have never written a complete article for Not the Jet Set but when it comes to this topic Mr. NtJS asked me to do it all. So here it goes!

A few years ago we started to notice a trend when we had guests over. Our friends would ask us to tell them about X (could be the couch, end tables, chandelier, curtains, etc). They were wanting to hear all about our great bargains! Which I do have to admit... almost everything we own has a story behind it. Kinda makes it more fun, especially when the story doesn't include, "...just a few more payments and it'll be ours..."

Most stories start with "Well, a month ago I was garage sale shopping and...". I hate to brag or say that I'm good at anything but I do have to admit that I have really perfected my bargain finding skills over the years. (Ed. - Seriously, she's like a garage sale ninja) It was not always that way. I remember the summer our first daughter was born, and I was trying to find clothes for her at garage sales. I would be so mad and disappointed by the end of the day because I did not find what I was looking for, or it was not as good of a deal as I was wanting. I believe that being good at garage sale shopping is a learned skill not a born talent - anyone can do it with the right guidance. The following are some of my rules for when I go garage sale hunting. These rules have worked for me in the different areas of country we have lived in, and in every size of town. So they should work for you know matter where you live.

Mrs. NtJS's Garage Sale Rules:

1. Know what you are looking for. I always have a list of what I'm looking for that week. It's just like when you go the grocery store - if you don't have a list, then it's too easy to buy what you don't need and spend to much.
2. Know the neighborhoods. I have found that some neighborhoods are better then others when it comes to finding quality items at a good price. It might actually be surprising which ones I do the best in and the worst. The worst neighborhoods to go shopping in are the ones that are what I call "new rich". These are the really nice neighborhoods that are being built and have younger people moving into them. What I usually find is cheaper quality items that are selling for way to much (simply because they are in an upscale neighborhood). Established rich neighborhoods area typically good ones to try. They have nice quality stuff, and making money at the sale is usually not an issue, so they will take less to see it go. Established upper-middle class neighborhoods are also great.
3. Plan ahead. I don't buy the local paper (too cheap for that). So I go online to review the garage sale classified ads for free the night before I plan to go. I ONLY go to garage sales that have spent the time and money to place an ad. I've done it the other way and I found that I just waste time and gas. Also, if they are willing to put a little bit of time and money into their sale they must have a lot of good stuff since they are planning on making some money at this deal and/or clear out some real clutter. When I review the ads I first look at all of them. If they sound interesting, then I cut/paste them into a word doc. After this first rough cut, I then take a closer look at the ads. What neighborhood are they in? What are the start times? Just one thing or multiple things I'm interested in? One family sale, multi family, moving, neighborhood, estate sale? All these things paint a better picture of what will be there, the condition and my bargaining power or lack there of. At this point I try to narrow it down to 4-6 garage sales in the same area of town. The last thing you want to do is drive all over town, and spend a fortune in gas while trying to save a buck.
4. Dress right. If you dress like a pan handler they will treat you like one. If you dress like you are rich they will not give you a price break. Just dress like you could use a good deal but not like you live in your car. Remember, first impressions...
5. Go early... Go late. I try to be at the garage sale on the first day as it opens if I am really looking for something hard to find. Last year we wanted to get our oldest a play structure for a birthday present. Holy Cow! I had no clue how expensive they were at retail. Then I found out just how hard they are to find used. Well, after 2 months of searching, I found one at a garage sale. I was the first one there that day, and it paid off. I got the whole thing for $100! They even moved it for us including the 3 big guys for labor. Now that was a deal. If I had not been there first thing that morning someone else would have snagged it in a heartbeat. Sometimes I find garage sales that have lots of great stuff but high prices. What I usually do is go back the last day about an hour or two after they start and get great deals then as they are trying to cut stuff loose.
6. Play nice with the hostess. I'm amazed at how rude people can be at garage sales. You are a guest at someone's home who is willing to sell you things they own for a fraction of the price that they paid for them. So why be so rude? Think you will get a deal that way? I don't think so! I always make it a point to say hello and smile at the hostess (casual not pushy). I try to ask questions and get them talking if they are not super busy. I try to relate to them if possible. They are more willing to work with you on a price drop if they feel like you are a nice person or like you have become a friend. Or like in the case of a garage sale 3 weeks ago, like a daughter. Three weeks ago I went to a garage sale in an established rich neighborhood. It was 3 neighbors having it together at one of there houses. Well, the one lady's daughter who was a young adult (close to my age) had just moved cross-country. Due to high gas prices, she decided to sell everything and buy new when she got there. Well, she happened to be my current (not quite back to pre-baby size) size. Luckily for me, she and her mother had very expensive taste. I was trying to figure out if they were in my size, and after talking to the mom it sounded like they would fit. I bought very expensive designer jeans (most never worn) for $3-4 each. When I got home and tried them on they fit me like a glove! The next morning, I went back first thing. I reintroduced myself to her and said that I had bought a few of her daughter's jeans and they fit me so well and thanked her for her help yesterday. Then I asked her if she could help me find a few more of her daughters clothes and explained why I was needing them and how I could not wait until my body bounced back. Well, the next thing I know she starts filling a sack full of clothes for me that she is just going to give to me for free because "it's just Old Navy and Gap clothes" and she feels like I'm her daughter! I bought a ton of clothes! Like 3 large sacks of them. And was given another one for free. Of course, on the 3 sacks I payed for, I asked for a discount too.
7. Eavesdrop. I'm normally not a nosy person but I'm very nosy at garage sales. When I first get to the sale and figure out who is taking the money, I eavesdrop on them as other people pay to see if they are flexible on their prices and which items' prices are firm. I can then get a feel for what they are willing to do or what they will be offended by. If you offer too low they will just give you a flat "No, that is the price", but if you can figure out before hand what they are willing to do you can offer a price that is in their ball park.
8. Round-the-numbers game. Sometimes I go to a garage sale and find that the hostess forgot that they were having a garage sale! "The price on the sticker is the price!" is what I will hear them tell someone else. If there are items I'm interested in I'll gather them up and then I'll asked the hostess to round down to the dollar amount. So if I had picked up $7.75 worth of items I would ask if she would take an even $7 for them. I've never been turned down. It might not seem like a lot but that could mean a free item for me. Besides, after saving 75cents at 4 garage sales in one morning you just saved 3 dollars!
9. Stick with the plan. The hardest part is to stick with the plan. I bring a set amount of money, a written list of addresses, and a written list of items to look for with me. That is the plan. If I start going off and looking at other sales or buying things not on the list I'm just wasting time and money. That is not to say that I never pick up something that is not on the list, but you do have to remember that if you don't have the money, then it's not a good deal. There will always be more garage sales and more of the same items will be on someone else sale.
   

Some great posts that you may have missed:

• So What's It Really Worth? and our first example
  
• What Good Are Health Insurance Companies?
• Free Money!
• The HDTV Challenge and Update 1
  
• How To: Handle Irregular Income
• Why I Don't Care If Your Online Savings Account Pays 3.45, 4.4% or 5.05%
• Buying The Presidency
• How To: Get a Deal: Episode 1