Mint.com

25 years ago I was afraid I couldn't pay the rent. Before the stock market ever crashed, before it was cool to buy TIPS, way before anyone dreamed of living without their credit cards, I became addicted to personal finance information; websites, books, blogs, theories, gurus. A lot of what I've picked up along the way has helped me become debt free (no credit card debt, no mortage, no car loans).

Now I'm a single Mom with a stinky liberal arts degree who has helped her daughter go to the college of her dreams (Baby Coco has only $5,000 in student loans after 2.5 years at a sub-ivy costing $45,000 grand a year). Most of what I tried works really well...and if it doesn't, I spit on it and toss it out.

"The trick is to live a little beneath your means...because it's true...money does grow more money..."

I forget where I found that quote, but it's pinned to my bulletin board in my kitchen.

Mint.com is my most recent find - I can see how all of my accounts are doing, and it's really, really simple with almost automatic updating. So far, net worth is still in the low six figures. Ten years to half-a-million? Can I do it? Can you?
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Links I Love, and How You Can Be Free and Happy Too

How to Get Out of Debt, Stay Out of Debt and Live Prosperously
Selling the House for a Profit

Garage Sale

I made $250 on my garage sale on Saturday. Minus the $14.40 in newspaper ad fees and the $12.00 in supplies, I did pretty well. Met my goal, in any case, which was to give stuff to people who want it, so that I don't have to move it or carry it away to Goodwill.


If you'd rather donate your stuff to Goodwill, or Volunteers of America, or any other charity, instead of watching strangers reject your stuff, or worse yet, haggle over it, it's doable... (I can't believe you let your children play with this precious heirloom jewelry! How could you! I'll give you .50 for each earring!) It's simple to deduct it. Here's a good guide for how to organize that process for tax deduction purposes.


Turbo Tax will not only help you organize your charitable giving by item, the "It's Deductible" feature lets you figure out how much to take off for each item.

Good luck!

P.S. - what sells? Tools, small furniture items, housewares, plastic bins, yard implements, Karoake machines, small vaccuum cleaners. Not old rugs or ladders. Go figure..

Finally found an apartment that...

is bigger than 900 square feet, has a screened porch area for the cat, is 3 minutes from work, and costs $1100 per month (but includes water, sewer and pest control).



It's $160 per month higher than the place I was going to rent (great vistas, totally updated, big kitchen, only a shared floor, no shared walls, good neighborhood) and $260 higher than my mortgage payment. But the place I was going to rent didn't have any screened porch area, and someone had let a cat pee all over the carpet, creating a horrible odor. Their plan for rectifying the odor didn't sound like it was going to work, to tell you the truth, they were very vague. And I had nighmares about my cat doing the same thing to their new carpet!



So, after a protracted battle with the landlord, I got my deposit back before even moving in and went down the street to a higher rent neighborhood, especially when I realized that the two bedroom apartments that weren't disgusting in the neighborhood had almost all been rented. And the deposit was only $200, an amount that looked great compared to the $1,000 deposit from a neighboring complex that really didn't want my cat in their building.



I'm in for six months, with an eye toward buying a condo in the $155-$160,000 range, that I can pay off in 5 years and rent if necessary. All of this moving, looking, etc., has made me into a complete basket case.