Here are some of the sweeps for the week. All of them can be entered daily so make sure to keep checking back for the chance to win more great prices.
Instant Wins
Visit Olive Garden for a chance to win a $25 gift card and a trip to Italy.
Make sure to stop over at Subway for your chance to win free movie tickets and other great prizes in their Get Smart promotion. This is the sweeps where I won a free movie ticket and $5 gift card to Subway. I posted about it Here.
Build your Jelly Belly Dream Bean contest. I haven’t been playing this one daily, but I plan to start soon. I thought you had to design a bean every day but after entering your email address you can click right to the scratch and win game.
Go Green Sweeps presented by Ito En enter for a free bottle of tea, bike, or Prius.
Win a trip to anywhere in the continental United States with $2,000 spending money from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants You can also win movie tickets, sunglasses, and an Ipod Nano.
Plant your garden at Wish-Bone’s digital garden sweeps. Every day you check back in and water your garden you receive a chance to win a reusable produce bag.
Disney Shopping is giving away more movie tickets, $10 off disneyshopping.com, and a grand prize; a trip for four to a Disney Resort. Stop by the Wall-e’s Wishbox to enter. Thanks to Freebies4mom for sharing the sweeps.
Head on over to the SprayChel, campaign for president sweepstakes for your chance to win the presidents salary or $15 Target Gift card. (35 per day). Play five times per day until July 27th. You can also print 50 cent off coupons for I can’t Believe its not butter. Thanks to Freebies4Mom for sharing this one.
Here’s another great sweep from Freebies4Mom Stop by the General Mills Batman sweeps for a chance to win a $5000 gift card, more common prizes are baseball hats, and backpacks. Enter once a day until August 31st for instant win games. You can also send in 10 UPC’s from participating General Mills products and get 2 free movie tickets to see Batman: “The Dark Knight”
Just Plain Sweeps
Circuit City is giving away different prizes each week. Register once and each day after just reenter your email.
Old Navy is giving away a $1000. You can enter until July 31st.
Office Depot will allow you to watch the action from the infield at the Sharpie 500.
Pilgrim’s Pride is giving away a trip to Vegas, $500 gift card, tote bags and other great stuff.
The Stain-Free Home Sweepstakes by Resolve is giving away cleaning services, appliances, and $100 gift cards.
Petfinder.com is hosting the pamper your pet sweeps where you can win free oust or $1000 cash.
Lots of sweeps are happening at Woman’s Day Magazine. Most of them you can enter once a day and end June 30th. Thanks to Recritique.com for leading me to this great find.
Os-Cal’s giving away $58,000 to one grand prize winner and two $29 dollar gift cards to one winner every day.
Hellmann’s is giving away $20.000 in the ultimate backyward BBW. They are also giving away weekly and daily prizes until September 2nd.
Malibu Outdoor living is giving away $20,000. One entry a day until July 15th.
What Sweeps are you entering this week?
Monday, June 30, 2008
Sunday, June 29, 2008
$$ June Spending $$
I’m a day early but I wanted to get our June Spending analysis out of the way. I love numbers when they pertain to finances for some odd reason since I hate actual math. I also love excel and its amazing formulas. This leads to many wonderful ways I can analyze our numbers and don’t forget the nice colorful charts. I’m trying to keep it simple since I will admit there are times I get carried away.
Every once and a while I catch myself calculating how much $1.50 will be worth if invested for 15 years and realize I need to put the calculator down. It comes to $2,081.19 if you saved $1.50 each week at 8% interest for 15 years. Doesn’t seem like a lot but if you could save $1.50 a day (one cup of coffee) it comes out to $15,576.68. See here I go again.
Anyway, on to June. Like I said I am trying to keep it simple. Below is our pie chart of spending for the month. You’ll notice there isn’t a slice for savings this is because we’ve put everything we have into paying off the cards since we are so close. As soon as they are paid off in the next few months we will begin our retirement savings and emergency fund.
The categories are as follows:
House Items
- House payment (insurance & taxes included)
- Gas
- Water/electric
- Alarm system
Entertainment
- Our monthly personal allowance
- Entertainment fund allowance
Other
- Cell phone
- Cable
- Gas
Groceries
- Groceries (including animal food and & health/beauty spending)
Fast Food/ Eating Out
- Fast Food
- Other eating out expenses (this month only)
Payments
- Student loans
- Credit Card
Obviously we did some things well and others not so much. We actually do have some very small savings but I chose not to list it since it isn’t for an emergency fund or retirement. Each month we put a designated amount into certain funds (personal, entertainment, gas, electric/water, gifts etc) but we don’t always spend that full amount leaving extra. For example in June we put $25 in our gift fund but only spent $12 so that is the amount I’ve listed.
This system works very well for us with our gas and electric bills. In the summer these two bills are greatly reduced but we continue to put a set amount of money in their “fund” creating a surplus. In the winter when the bills are increased our budget isn’t left hurting because we had to come up with extra money, we just use the additional money.
So the good and bad:
Things we did well in June
- I’m very happy with how much money we were able to put on our credit cards. I look at that huge slice of pie and realize in just a few more weeks that will be for savings not spending (less my student loans).
- We only spent 1/3 of our personal/entertainment money for the month. This is a first for us. Normally by now it would be gone.
- Our grocery spending is decreasing each month as I shop at CVS and use coupons. We were under budget for the month by $16.50. Not a lot but it’s a start since we normally go over in this area.
Things we didn’t do so well
- While I think its less than usual we did spend a lot of money on eating out. This is the first month I started tracking just how much of our money we were giving to McDonalds and Taco Bell, needless to say I’m not happy about it. I always knew we were spending too much in this category by I just didn’t realize how much. Just this month alone we’ve spent $128.85 on fast food places. We spent another $160 on eating at restaurants mostly for Fathers day. That’s a total of $288.85. ($100,611.40 over 15 years – Sorry I can’t resist)
How will we fix it?
- Fast Food Spending: I plan to continue to track how much we spend on fast food each month in hopes it will make us realize just how much money we’re giving away. Also most of the $160 we spent was on taking the fathers out to celebrate Father’s day. Obviously this is a once a year expense. We also spent a little on dinner with a friend who is moving out of state soon. All things we shouldn’t encounter again next month. Also during our last grocery trip I purchased some deli meat and plan to start packing my lunch for work. Therefore; even when I have to work nights I won’t be tempted to head out for food. Our goal next month is to reduce this spending to $100 or less. We’re trying to be rational and realize it won’t go to $0 overnight.
- In order to reduce cost we’ve made a few changes to how we run our household which I’ll be highlighting throughout the month. One change we made for instant savings was reducing our cell phone plan. We gained about 100 anytime minutes but lost unlimited texting (1000 per phone is plenty). We don’t have a home phone which is why we have a larger cell phone plan, as it’s still cheaper. We also only have texting because Matt needs it for work and the cost is supplemented by his boss; although, I will admit I’ve learned to rather enjoy it.
- I’m also considering shutting off our home alarm, but haven’t made a decision at this point. We don’t live in the best area, especially in this economy, but we’d save $50 a month by shutting it off. If we did shut off the system we could still set the alarm and it would alert us and the neighbors by a load annoying buzzer if someone did break in. With this option we would lose the feature of automatic 911 contact in the case of alarm; although last time I accidentally set it off it took them over 5 minutes to call and check. I’m sure I’d be dead by then. We’ll just wait and see what the next month brings. $50 isn’t too much to pay for our safety as long as it’s doing what it should be.
Overall, I’m happy with June. This is the first month we really kept track of our expenses and I thought it would be much worse. We definitely have room for improvement, and now that we know that we can work on it.
I also updated our net worth – no big changes.
How was your spending in June? Feel free to leave a link.
Every once and a while I catch myself calculating how much $1.50 will be worth if invested for 15 years and realize I need to put the calculator down. It comes to $2,081.19 if you saved $1.50 each week at 8% interest for 15 years. Doesn’t seem like a lot but if you could save $1.50 a day (one cup of coffee) it comes out to $15,576.68. See here I go again.
Anyway, on to June. Like I said I am trying to keep it simple. Below is our pie chart of spending for the month. You’ll notice there isn’t a slice for savings this is because we’ve put everything we have into paying off the cards since we are so close. As soon as they are paid off in the next few months we will begin our retirement savings and emergency fund.
The categories are as follows:
House Items
- House payment (insurance & taxes included)
- Gas
- Water/electric
- Alarm system
Entertainment
- Our monthly personal allowance
- Entertainment fund allowance
Other
- Cell phone
- Cable
- Gas
Groceries
- Groceries (including animal food and & health/beauty spending)
Fast Food/ Eating Out
- Fast Food
- Other eating out expenses (this month only)
Payments
- Student loans
- Credit Card
Obviously we did some things well and others not so much. We actually do have some very small savings but I chose not to list it since it isn’t for an emergency fund or retirement. Each month we put a designated amount into certain funds (personal, entertainment, gas, electric/water, gifts etc) but we don’t always spend that full amount leaving extra. For example in June we put $25 in our gift fund but only spent $12 so that is the amount I’ve listed.
This system works very well for us with our gas and electric bills. In the summer these two bills are greatly reduced but we continue to put a set amount of money in their “fund” creating a surplus. In the winter when the bills are increased our budget isn’t left hurting because we had to come up with extra money, we just use the additional money.
So the good and bad:
Things we did well in June
- I’m very happy with how much money we were able to put on our credit cards. I look at that huge slice of pie and realize in just a few more weeks that will be for savings not spending (less my student loans).
- We only spent 1/3 of our personal/entertainment money for the month. This is a first for us. Normally by now it would be gone.
- Our grocery spending is decreasing each month as I shop at CVS and use coupons. We were under budget for the month by $16.50. Not a lot but it’s a start since we normally go over in this area.
Things we didn’t do so well
- While I think its less than usual we did spend a lot of money on eating out. This is the first month I started tracking just how much of our money we were giving to McDonalds and Taco Bell, needless to say I’m not happy about it. I always knew we were spending too much in this category by I just didn’t realize how much. Just this month alone we’ve spent $128.85 on fast food places. We spent another $160 on eating at restaurants mostly for Fathers day. That’s a total of $288.85. ($100,611.40 over 15 years – Sorry I can’t resist)
How will we fix it?
- Fast Food Spending: I plan to continue to track how much we spend on fast food each month in hopes it will make us realize just how much money we’re giving away. Also most of the $160 we spent was on taking the fathers out to celebrate Father’s day. Obviously this is a once a year expense. We also spent a little on dinner with a friend who is moving out of state soon. All things we shouldn’t encounter again next month. Also during our last grocery trip I purchased some deli meat and plan to start packing my lunch for work. Therefore; even when I have to work nights I won’t be tempted to head out for food. Our goal next month is to reduce this spending to $100 or less. We’re trying to be rational and realize it won’t go to $0 overnight.
- In order to reduce cost we’ve made a few changes to how we run our household which I’ll be highlighting throughout the month. One change we made for instant savings was reducing our cell phone plan. We gained about 100 anytime minutes but lost unlimited texting (1000 per phone is plenty). We don’t have a home phone which is why we have a larger cell phone plan, as it’s still cheaper. We also only have texting because Matt needs it for work and the cost is supplemented by his boss; although, I will admit I’ve learned to rather enjoy it.
- I’m also considering shutting off our home alarm, but haven’t made a decision at this point. We don’t live in the best area, especially in this economy, but we’d save $50 a month by shutting it off. If we did shut off the system we could still set the alarm and it would alert us and the neighbors by a load annoying buzzer if someone did break in. With this option we would lose the feature of automatic 911 contact in the case of alarm; although last time I accidentally set it off it took them over 5 minutes to call and check. I’m sure I’d be dead by then. We’ll just wait and see what the next month brings. $50 isn’t too much to pay for our safety as long as it’s doing what it should be.
Overall, I’m happy with June. This is the first month we really kept track of our expenses and I thought it would be much worse. We definitely have room for improvement, and now that we know that we can work on it.
I also updated our net worth – no big changes.
How was your spending in June? Feel free to leave a link.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Free Financial Reading Material
As our quest to pay off the credit cards gets closer and closer to an ending I’ve been trying to plan for our next step; continuing to save money for early retirement. I’ve been reading everything I can about saving money and soon I plan to slowly begin reading more investing material.
One of the first post I read on Get Rich Slowly was about obtaining free literature from the Federal Citizen Information Center. You can read the original post Here . I was really intrigued by the information and some of the brochures looked really interesting. Most of the booklets are free or less than five dollars. Most also have free downloads available if that’s more your thing.
This week in the mail I received the following booklets. So far from what I can tell they are very informative and should give me a good start.
-Money skills you need for life – Hands on Banking - $0
this is actually a CD
- Ask Questions: Questions you should ask about your investments… and what to do if you run into problems.
- Certificates of Deposit: Tips for Investors
- A roadmap to start you on a journey to financial security through saving and investing
-Invest Wisely: An Introduction to Mutual Funds
-What you should know about buying life insurance
-FDIC Consumer News: Money tips for all ages
-Saving Fitness: A guide to your money and your financial future
- Consumer Information Catalog – The list of all their offerings for Summer 2008
Know of any good blogs I should be reading to learn more about investing and saving for the future? Feel Free to leave them in the comments section, I’m always looking for more resources.
One of the first post I read on Get Rich Slowly was about obtaining free literature from the Federal Citizen Information Center. You can read the original post Here . I was really intrigued by the information and some of the brochures looked really interesting. Most of the booklets are free or less than five dollars. Most also have free downloads available if that’s more your thing.
This week in the mail I received the following booklets. So far from what I can tell they are very informative and should give me a good start.
-Money skills you need for life – Hands on Banking - $0
this is actually a CD
- Ask Questions: Questions you should ask about your investments… and what to do if you run into problems.
- Certificates of Deposit: Tips for Investors
- A roadmap to start you on a journey to financial security through saving and investing
-Invest Wisely: An Introduction to Mutual Funds
-What you should know about buying life insurance
-FDIC Consumer News: Money tips for all ages
-Saving Fitness: A guide to your money and your financial future
- Consumer Information Catalog – The list of all their offerings for Summer 2008
Know of any good blogs I should be reading to learn more about investing and saving for the future? Feel Free to leave them in the comments section, I’m always looking for more resources.
Friday, June 27, 2008
CVS Deals
Just ran to CVS today for my trip of the week.
I ended up with
2 colgate toothpaste 2.99
1 soft & dry deodorant 4.29
1 Right Guard Extreme(BOGO so free)
I used:
$1 off Right Guard
$1 Soft & Dry
$1.50 off the colgate
-(I had two but since I gave my coupons in a bad order they only let me use one. I’m still learning)
Paid with $5.99 in ECB’s and $1.08 oop. Would have been $0 oop had the coupon gone through and now I know what I need to do so next time it does.
Overall I got $14.78 in merchandise for $1.08 oop and I earned $4 ecbs.
I now officially have plenty of toothpaste but I plan to keep purchasing it when I can get it for more than free. When I get a nice little stash I’m going to donate it to our church’s community center.
Check out The "Cent"sible Saywer and Leaving Excess for more CVS scenarios.
I ended up with
2 colgate toothpaste 2.99
1 soft & dry deodorant 4.29
1 Right Guard Extreme(BOGO so free)
I used:
$1 off Right Guard
$1 Soft & Dry
$1.50 off the colgate
-(I had two but since I gave my coupons in a bad order they only let me use one. I’m still learning)
Paid with $5.99 in ECB’s and $1.08 oop. Would have been $0 oop had the coupon gone through and now I know what I need to do so next time it does.
Overall I got $14.78 in merchandise for $1.08 oop and I earned $4 ecbs.
I now officially have plenty of toothpaste but I plan to keep purchasing it when I can get it for more than free. When I get a nice little stash I’m going to donate it to our church’s community center.
Check out The "Cent"sible Saywer and Leaving Excess for more CVS scenarios.
Wal-Mart Freebies
I’ve been reading about all the other bloggers getting free things at Wal-Mart with coupons and decided I wanted to give it a shot. I went through my coupons and picked out any that were expiring by the end of the week. I made a list of all the coupons and during our trip looked for these items in trial sizes to get them free or very cheap. I didn’t end up with a ton but I think we came home with some good deals… and overage (always a good thing).
Along with out other purchases we ended up with:
1 Satin Care shave gel $1.97
- used one $1 off coupon
$.97 after coupon
1 Old Spice Shave Gel – Trial size $.97
- used $1 off coupon
Free
1 Gillette 2 in 1 body wash – trail size $.79
- used $1 off
Free plus overage
1 Cover Girl face powder - $3.87
- used $1 off coupon
$2.87 after coupon
This was the most expensive item, but I use these powders anyway so it is still better to get it $1 off before the coupon expired.
A big thanks to the following bloggers for showing me how to get these awesome freebies. I hope to only get better in time.
Freebies4Mom
Money Saving Mom
The “Cent”sible Sawyer
Along with out other purchases we ended up with:
1 Satin Care shave gel $1.97
- used one $1 off coupon
$.97 after coupon
1 Old Spice Shave Gel – Trial size $.97
- used $1 off coupon
Free
1 Gillette 2 in 1 body wash – trail size $.79
- used $1 off
Free plus overage
1 Cover Girl face powder - $3.87
- used $1 off coupon
$2.87 after coupon
This was the most expensive item, but I use these powders anyway so it is still better to get it $1 off before the coupon expired.
A big thanks to the following bloggers for showing me how to get these awesome freebies. I hope to only get better in time.
Freebies4Mom
Money Saving Mom
The “Cent”sible Sawyer
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Kroger Savings
We finally made it to Kroger today and did ok. We spent a little more out of pocket than I would have liked, only because I think we can do better.
Our Kroger hasn’t had any great ads lately but this week they beat Meijer by a long shot.
We ended up with:
3 Minute Maid Lemonades $.99
6 Banquet Frozen Meals $.70 (after deal)
9 * 2 – Liters of Coke $.70 (after deal)
1 Kroger Ranch $.70 (after deal)
2 Pizza Rolls $.70 (ad)
2 Totino Pizzas $.70 (ad)
4 Blocks of Kroger Cheese $1.52
1 small package of turkey for lunches $.59
Coupons & Discounts
We bought 20 of the participating items and had $6 taken off the bill
I used a $.55 Pizza rolls coupon
I also used a $5 gift card I won during the Indiana Jones Sweeps
(who said playing sweeps doesn’t pay off?)
Total after $6 off and $5 gift card
$19.58
We saved $26.75 for just coupons and the other $5 for a total savings of $32.75. That’s around 62% savings.
Like I said I can handle that. Anything over 50% makes me happy.
Our Kroger hasn’t had any great ads lately but this week they beat Meijer by a long shot.
We ended up with:
3 Minute Maid Lemonades $.99
6 Banquet Frozen Meals $.70 (after deal)
9 * 2 – Liters of Coke $.70 (after deal)
1 Kroger Ranch $.70 (after deal)
2 Pizza Rolls $.70 (ad)
2 Totino Pizzas $.70 (ad)
4 Blocks of Kroger Cheese $1.52
1 small package of turkey for lunches $.59
Coupons & Discounts
We bought 20 of the participating items and had $6 taken off the bill
I used a $.55 Pizza rolls coupon
I also used a $5 gift card I won during the Indiana Jones Sweeps
(who said playing sweeps doesn’t pay off?)
Total after $6 off and $5 gift card
$19.58
We saved $26.75 for just coupons and the other $5 for a total savings of $32.75. That’s around 62% savings.
Like I said I can handle that. Anything over 50% makes me happy.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Freebie Finds
Here are some of the Freebies I’ve signed up for over the last few weeks. Make sure to stop by and sign up before they are gone.
Pup-Peroni Dog Snacks sample from Wal-mart.
Greenies samples for dogs and cats. You can only request each sample once and sadly I’ve received mine. The animals loved them.
Pledge Multi surface wipes
Airborne – Get a free sample of Power Pixies
Purex is giving away free samples. Who doesn’t need more laundry detergent?
Kraft is giving away free products with their Vending promotion. You just need to download the form, send in some UPC’s and mail it in. I haven’t purchased any of these products so sadly I haven’t been able to redeem a free item as of yet. Let me know if you have.
Sorry there is not more, I will try to update more consistently when I find new ones and keep the large post to once a week…. Remember key words “I’ll try”.
Pup-Peroni Dog Snacks sample from Wal-mart.
Greenies samples for dogs and cats. You can only request each sample once and sadly I’ve received mine. The animals loved them.
Pledge Multi surface wipes
Airborne – Get a free sample of Power Pixies
Purex is giving away free samples. Who doesn’t need more laundry detergent?
Kraft is giving away free products with their Vending promotion. You just need to download the form, send in some UPC’s and mail it in. I haven’t purchased any of these products so sadly I haven’t been able to redeem a free item as of yet. Let me know if you have.
Sorry there is not more, I will try to update more consistently when I find new ones and keep the large post to once a week…. Remember key words “I’ll try”.
Monday, June 23, 2008
More Sweeps...
Lots of sweeps are happening at Woman’s Day Magazine. Most of them you can enter once a day and end June 30th. Thanks to Recritique.com for leading me to this great find.
Sweeps for the Week
Here are some of the sweeps for the week. All of them can be entered daily so make sure to keep checking back for the chance to win more great prices.
Visit Olive Garden for a chance to win a $25 gift card and a trip to Italy.
Circuit City is giving away $1000 gift cards. Register once and each day after just reenter your email.
Old Navy is giving away a $1000. You can enter until July 31st.
Office Depot will allow you to watch the action from the infield at the Sharpie 500.
Make sure to stop over at Subway for your chance to win free movie tickets and other great prizes in their Get Smart promotion. This is the sweeps where I won a free movie ticket and $5 gift card to Subway. I posted about it Here.
Pilgrim’s Pride is giving away a trip to Vegas, $500 gift card, tote bags and other great stuff.
Build your Jelly Belly Dream Bean contest. I haven’t been playing this one daily, but I plan to start soon. I thought you had to design a bean every day but after entering your email address you can click right to the scratch and win game.
Go Green Sweeps presented by Ito En enter for a free bottle of tea, bike, or Prius.
Stop by John Frieda for a chance to win a trip to London.
Win a trip to anywhere in the continental United States with $2,000 spending money from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants You can also win movie tickets, sunglasses, and an Ipod Nano.
Plant your garden at Wish-Bone’s digital garden sweeps. Every day you check back in and water your garden you receive a chance to win a reusable produce bag.
The Stain-Free Home Sweepstakes by Resolve is giving away cleaning services, appliances, and $100 gift cards.
Disney Shopping is giving away more movie tickets, $10 off disneyshopping.com, and a grand prize; a trip for four to a Disney Resort. Stop by the Wall-e’s Wishbox to enter. Thanks to Freebies4mom for sharing the sweeps.
Petfinder.com is hosting the pamper your pet sweeps where you can win free oust or $1000 cash.
Visit Olive Garden for a chance to win a $25 gift card and a trip to Italy.
Circuit City is giving away $1000 gift cards. Register once and each day after just reenter your email.
Old Navy is giving away a $1000. You can enter until July 31st.
Office Depot will allow you to watch the action from the infield at the Sharpie 500.
Make sure to stop over at Subway for your chance to win free movie tickets and other great prizes in their Get Smart promotion. This is the sweeps where I won a free movie ticket and $5 gift card to Subway. I posted about it Here.
Pilgrim’s Pride is giving away a trip to Vegas, $500 gift card, tote bags and other great stuff.
Build your Jelly Belly Dream Bean contest. I haven’t been playing this one daily, but I plan to start soon. I thought you had to design a bean every day but after entering your email address you can click right to the scratch and win game.
Go Green Sweeps presented by Ito En enter for a free bottle of tea, bike, or Prius.
Stop by John Frieda for a chance to win a trip to London.
Win a trip to anywhere in the continental United States with $2,000 spending money from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants You can also win movie tickets, sunglasses, and an Ipod Nano.
Plant your garden at Wish-Bone’s digital garden sweeps. Every day you check back in and water your garden you receive a chance to win a reusable produce bag.
The Stain-Free Home Sweepstakes by Resolve is giving away cleaning services, appliances, and $100 gift cards.
Disney Shopping is giving away more movie tickets, $10 off disneyshopping.com, and a grand prize; a trip for four to a Disney Resort. Stop by the Wall-e’s Wishbox to enter. Thanks to Freebies4mom for sharing the sweeps.
Petfinder.com is hosting the pamper your pet sweeps where you can win free oust or $1000 cash.
Cheap Movie Tickets
Yesterday I mentioned that Matt and I saw Get Smart for half off. How was I able to do this? By entering a sweep I found on Freebies4Mom. When you enter the Get Smart instant win game from Subway you receive the chance to win one of nine great prices. The prizes range from everything including a 1965 Sunbeam Tiger to Vespa Scooters. Some of the more frequent prizes are Frito Lay chips from Subway, one adult movie ticket, or a five dollar gift card to Subway. I’ve been playing for a few days and while we didn’t win a scooter I did end up winning one free adult movie ticket and a five dollar gift card. You can enter up to two codes a day per person and win an unlimited amount of chips but once you win a larger prize your out. As I am now.
When we won the free movie ticket (up to $12) we were able to print the coupon right at home allowing us to use it today. The ticket agent at the theater did look it over once but we had no problem redeeming it. To make it doubly sweet we frequent the cheap theater so we were able to see Get Smart (2 adults) for $4 out of pocket total. I like $4 movie tickets but I like $2 movie tickets even more. All the other theaters in the area are up to almost $9 a pop.
I also won a gift card with another free ticket from Fandango on an Indiana Jones sweeps from Dr.Pepper. Sadly, the promotion has ended. We plan to use it next weekend to see The Happening.
When we won the free movie ticket (up to $12) we were able to print the coupon right at home allowing us to use it today. The ticket agent at the theater did look it over once but we had no problem redeeming it. To make it doubly sweet we frequent the cheap theater so we were able to see Get Smart (2 adults) for $4 out of pocket total. I like $4 movie tickets but I like $2 movie tickets even more. All the other theaters in the area are up to almost $9 a pop.
I also won a gift card with another free ticket from Fandango on an Indiana Jones sweeps from Dr.Pepper. Sadly, the promotion has ended. We plan to use it next weekend to see The Happening.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Get Smart - Movie Review
Matt and I saw Get Smart today. I’m happy to report it looks like our run of bad movies has come to an end. This movie was great, far better than even I hoped. It’s no secret I’m not a huge Steve Carell fan, but he was perfect for this role and Anne Hathaway was just right as well. It’s not easy to match the chemistry between Don Adams and Barbara Feldon.
My one sentence summary: After Control is broken into, Agents 86 and 99 set off to stop the forces of Kaos to save LA, our president, and those politically minded actors.
The movie is obviously based on the television series Get Smart from 1965. The new Get Smart did a good job of maintaining distinctiveness all while making sure to pay just enough homage to the original. They brought back just enough of the memorable characters, phrases, and plot lines. Enough to make you remember why you’re there but not enough to make you regret the ticket purchase.
I loved watching reruns of Get Smart on Nick at Nite as a kid and was able to relive some of that nostalgia in the theater. Makes me want to run out and get all the original seasons on DVD, but I’ll just have to wait till Christmas. Another thing I loved was the lack of sexual scenes, adult comedy, blood, swearing. There are some semi adult comedy scenes but for the most part they are very tactful and most children wouldn’t get them. Unlike some “children” films out there today. Just one of my pet peeves with movies today. Seems like some film makers think they have to throw in as much adult content whenever possible. Hollywood has forgotten that you can make a good film without all of that.
Anyway, if you can head out to see Get Smart while its still in theaters. It will be money well spent, especially if you see it for half off, like we did. I’ll share how tomorrow.
My one sentence summary: After Control is broken into, Agents 86 and 99 set off to stop the forces of Kaos to save LA, our president, and those politically minded actors.
The movie is obviously based on the television series Get Smart from 1965. The new Get Smart did a good job of maintaining distinctiveness all while making sure to pay just enough homage to the original. They brought back just enough of the memorable characters, phrases, and plot lines. Enough to make you remember why you’re there but not enough to make you regret the ticket purchase.
I loved watching reruns of Get Smart on Nick at Nite as a kid and was able to relive some of that nostalgia in the theater. Makes me want to run out and get all the original seasons on DVD, but I’ll just have to wait till Christmas. Another thing I loved was the lack of sexual scenes, adult comedy, blood, swearing. There are some semi adult comedy scenes but for the most part they are very tactful and most children wouldn’t get them. Unlike some “children” films out there today. Just one of my pet peeves with movies today. Seems like some film makers think they have to throw in as much adult content whenever possible. Hollywood has forgotten that you can make a good film without all of that.
Anyway, if you can head out to see Get Smart while its still in theaters. It will be money well spent, especially if you see it for half off, like we did. I’ll share how tomorrow.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
The Beach House - James Patterson
See I told you I’d keep posting these as well.
The Beach House by James Patterson and Peter De Jonge is all wet. I’ve never read a Patterson book before but everyone talks him up so when I saw The Beach House at our libraries book sale on three dollar bag day, I decided to give it a try. I tried to post it on paperbackswap.com but there are a few hundred others posted so I decided to read it. Boy do I regret that. It’s not that The Beach House was horrible, it just wasn’t good.
For a crime drama; something I love, I found this book very boring. The only thing that kept me turning pages was the fact the chapters are so short. Most are less than two pages.
I hope his other books are better otherwise I don’t know where his reputation came from. I’m starting to suspect he’s the Steven King of his genre. You know the authors who get so famous people will love anything with their name on it no matter how craptastic it may be. King proved this true when he was published under another name and flopped.
I was also distraught to learn that the books are largely not works from Patterson. Now I have no supporting evidence but my Mother, has informed me that the second person listed on the cover is the real author. She has heard that authors send in their manuscripts to Patterson who edits them and publishes them with his name if they’re worthy. Again, I have no real evidence of this except the fact it sounds believable. This is how rumors get started so remember I warned you this is not researched fact.
I thought De Jonge was listed on the cover because maybe he helped with research or something. It appears all Patterson’s books have secondary authors which makes the claim even more believable. If my Mothers scenario is true then I’ve lost even more respect for Patterson. And either way I won’t be reading another one of his books for some time.
The Beach House by James Patterson and Peter De Jonge is all wet. I’ve never read a Patterson book before but everyone talks him up so when I saw The Beach House at our libraries book sale on three dollar bag day, I decided to give it a try. I tried to post it on paperbackswap.com but there are a few hundred others posted so I decided to read it. Boy do I regret that. It’s not that The Beach House was horrible, it just wasn’t good.
For a crime drama; something I love, I found this book very boring. The only thing that kept me turning pages was the fact the chapters are so short. Most are less than two pages.
I hope his other books are better otherwise I don’t know where his reputation came from. I’m starting to suspect he’s the Steven King of his genre. You know the authors who get so famous people will love anything with their name on it no matter how craptastic it may be. King proved this true when he was published under another name and flopped.
I was also distraught to learn that the books are largely not works from Patterson. Now I have no supporting evidence but my Mother, has informed me that the second person listed on the cover is the real author. She has heard that authors send in their manuscripts to Patterson who edits them and publishes them with his name if they’re worthy. Again, I have no real evidence of this except the fact it sounds believable. This is how rumors get started so remember I warned you this is not researched fact.
I thought De Jonge was listed on the cover because maybe he helped with research or something. It appears all Patterson’s books have secondary authors which makes the claim even more believable. If my Mothers scenario is true then I’ve lost even more respect for Patterson. And either way I won’t be reading another one of his books for some time.
Friday, June 20, 2008
Credit Card update
As of this writing 6/20/08 my credit card has a balance of $2,467.51. It finally went under $3,000, seems like it took forever. Unless something major happens we won’t make my early goal for a June payoff but honestly I’m ok with that. I think seven months to pay off more than $12,000 in debt is still pretty amazing. June has been an expensive month for us, but I’ll have more about that later. Even with the added expenses it looks like we may be able to have the card 100% paid off by the end of July. My calculations show we’ll be about $600 short, but I think we should be able to make it happen, as long as we use some creative thinking.
Then the fun starts.
I’ve spent some time thinking about what we’ll do with all that extra money each month. And I won’t lie there have been moments when big splurges come into mind. I would really like to upgrade our T.V. get some new furniture or even buy that new car everyone is telling me I need. Ultimately, I don’t think a lot will change for us financially. We do plan to increase some of our spending funds like the entertainment and gift money. Mainly I hope things stay the same. Using every penny to pay off our cards has taught us a lot about what we really need and how we spend our money. Even though we’ll have more available money we plan to use it to start an emergency fund, a retirement account and a few other things so I don’t think too much will change for us. In fact I hope we’ll be able to save even more money by some of the things we’ve learned during this process. One thing I’ve learned is that living financially smart is pretty easy. We actually eat better since clipping coupons.
All I know for sure is that I never, ever want to pay off $12,000 in debt again. Especially, when we can’t even remember what that money was spent on.
Then the fun starts.
I’ve spent some time thinking about what we’ll do with all that extra money each month. And I won’t lie there have been moments when big splurges come into mind. I would really like to upgrade our T.V. get some new furniture or even buy that new car everyone is telling me I need. Ultimately, I don’t think a lot will change for us financially. We do plan to increase some of our spending funds like the entertainment and gift money. Mainly I hope things stay the same. Using every penny to pay off our cards has taught us a lot about what we really need and how we spend our money. Even though we’ll have more available money we plan to use it to start an emergency fund, a retirement account and a few other things so I don’t think too much will change for us. In fact I hope we’ll be able to save even more money by some of the things we’ve learned during this process. One thing I’ve learned is that living financially smart is pretty easy. We actually eat better since clipping coupons.
All I know for sure is that I never, ever want to pay off $12,000 in debt again. Especially, when we can’t even remember what that money was spent on.
Monday, June 16, 2008
$$ CVS Money Makers $$
Ok, my third trip to CVS went well… for a newbie. I walked out very happy. I’m no where near as good as the ladies linked to the right, but I’m learning. I think I did quite well. Today at lunch I bought:
1 Colgate toothpaste: $.99
1 CVS Plastic bandages: $1.99
1 CVS Cotton Swabs (500 count): $3.19
2 Sally Hansen Nail pens: $15.98 (7.99 each)
Total before coupons and ecbs: $22.15
::I used::
1 - $4/20 CVS coupon
1 - .99 Colgate
1 - $2 off CVS Beauty product found Here
1 - $3/2 Sally Hansen product found Here
Total: $12.16
ECB’s Used: $10.98 (3.98, 2, 5)
Total after ECB’s: $1.49 (1.18 + .31 cents tax)
ECB’s Earned: $13.99
$10 for Sally Hansen products
$1.99 For bandages
$2.00 for Cotton Swabs
Basically I received $23 in product for $1.49. If you look at it as ECB’s and oop spent compared to ECB’s earned I actually got paid $1.52 to shop at CVS this week. I spent $12.47 in ECB’s and cash but earned $13.99 back in ECB’s.
With my coupon I received the Colgate toothpaste totally free. The bandages were free after I earned the $1.99 ecb I spent back in more ecb’s. The Cotton Swabs were $3.19, I used the $2 coupon and earned $2 in ecb’s so CVS paid me .81 cents to take them off their hands. Not bad for my third trip if I do say so myself. I could get used to all this free stuff.
I couldn’t have done any of it without the following sites. Without these blogs and helpful ladies I would still be paying full price for things. Crazy I know.
Leaving Excess
Mommy Making Money
Money Saving Mom
The “Cent”sible Sawyer
1 Colgate toothpaste: $.99
1 CVS Plastic bandages: $1.99
1 CVS Cotton Swabs (500 count): $3.19
2 Sally Hansen Nail pens: $15.98 (7.99 each)
Total before coupons and ecbs: $22.15
::I used::
1 - $4/20 CVS coupon
1 - .99 Colgate
1 - $2 off CVS Beauty product found Here
1 - $3/2 Sally Hansen product found Here
Total: $12.16
ECB’s Used: $10.98 (3.98, 2, 5)
Total after ECB’s: $1.49 (1.18 + .31 cents tax)
ECB’s Earned: $13.99
$10 for Sally Hansen products
$1.99 For bandages
$2.00 for Cotton Swabs
Basically I received $23 in product for $1.49. If you look at it as ECB’s and oop spent compared to ECB’s earned I actually got paid $1.52 to shop at CVS this week. I spent $12.47 in ECB’s and cash but earned $13.99 back in ECB’s.
With my coupon I received the Colgate toothpaste totally free. The bandages were free after I earned the $1.99 ecb I spent back in more ecb’s. The Cotton Swabs were $3.19, I used the $2 coupon and earned $2 in ecb’s so CVS paid me .81 cents to take them off their hands. Not bad for my third trip if I do say so myself. I could get used to all this free stuff.
I couldn’t have done any of it without the following sites. Without these blogs and helpful ladies I would still be paying full price for things. Crazy I know.
Leaving Excess
Mommy Making Money
Money Saving Mom
The “Cent”sible Sawyer
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Second CVS Trip
My second CVS trip also went so so. Remember though, I’m still learning.
::Today I bought::
1 Tylenol Rapid Release: 4.49
1 Colgate Toothpaste: .99
2 Listerine Smart Rinse: 3.49
2 CVS Sheer bandages: 1.99
1 CVS Cotton Swabs – 625 count: 3.99 (The 500 count boxes were only 3.19 but they were sold out).
Total before coupons: $20.43
::I used::
1 - $2 off CVS beauty product
2 - $1 off Smart Rinse
1 - $1 off any Tylenol
1 - $1.50 off Colgate (reduced to .99)
1 - $4/20 CVS coupon
Total Coupons Used: $9.99
I paid with a $3.00 ECB earned from the Brut last week.
Total After Tax and ECB’s: $8.37 oop
ECB’s Earned: $14.96
Overall I’m ok with how we did. For some reason I wasn’t able to use all my ECB’s from last week so I had a higher oop than I wanted as I was planning on only $3.37 oop. I’m planning on doing maybe one more transaction later in the week.
::Today I bought::
1 Tylenol Rapid Release: 4.49
1 Colgate Toothpaste: .99
2 Listerine Smart Rinse: 3.49
2 CVS Sheer bandages: 1.99
1 CVS Cotton Swabs – 625 count: 3.99 (The 500 count boxes were only 3.19 but they were sold out).
Total before coupons: $20.43
::I used::
1 - $2 off CVS beauty product
2 - $1 off Smart Rinse
1 - $1 off any Tylenol
1 - $1.50 off Colgate (reduced to .99)
1 - $4/20 CVS coupon
Total Coupons Used: $9.99
I paid with a $3.00 ECB earned from the Brut last week.
Total After Tax and ECB’s: $8.37 oop
ECB’s Earned: $14.96
Overall I’m ok with how we did. For some reason I wasn’t able to use all my ECB’s from last week so I had a higher oop than I wanted as I was planning on only $3.37 oop. I’m planning on doing maybe one more transaction later in the week.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
My First CVS Trip
How I did at CVS today. I’ve been waiting to go do my very first transaction at CVS all week. I tried to last Sunday when the sale broke but we were deterred by severe storms in the area. Unlike many of our neighbors we never lost power or suffered any damage so I really can't complain.
By the time I was able to make it back to CVS it was Monday night and they were completely sold out of everything on my list. I gave it another try on Friday after work only to be shot down again.
Finally today after meeting a friend for lunch we were able to attempt my thoroughly planned trip at a different CVS. This time we were successful. Kind of. It seems in my planning I made a few newbie miscalculations. Things like not including our 6% interest and using the wrong price on an item when calculating at home. I still think we did great and it was much easier than I had expected. I’m beginning to love CVS.
Here’s how we did:
:I bought:
2 Sea Breeze Actives: $4.99 @ BOGO so 2.49 a piece
1 Nivea shave gel: $2.79
2 Nivea Extreme Shave gels: $3.99
1 Brut deodorant: $3.39
Total Before Coupons: $19.15
:I used:
1 sea breeze coupon: -.55
1 Brut any item: -1.oo
1 $4/2 Nivea: - 4
1 $2/1 Nivea: -2
1 $3/15 CVS: -3
Total coupon savings: $10.55
Total after tax: $9.57
ECB’s Received: $8.00
Since it was our first CVS transaction we had to pay the $9.57 cents out of pocket. We made $8 in ECB’s so for this transaction I’m going to consider it only 1.57 spent.
I’ll be making it to CVS tomorrow morning so hopefully this week I’ll get in on the deals early. I’ve got some smart rinse to pick up.
By the time I was able to make it back to CVS it was Monday night and they were completely sold out of everything on my list. I gave it another try on Friday after work only to be shot down again.
Finally today after meeting a friend for lunch we were able to attempt my thoroughly planned trip at a different CVS. This time we were successful. Kind of. It seems in my planning I made a few newbie miscalculations. Things like not including our 6% interest and using the wrong price on an item when calculating at home. I still think we did great and it was much easier than I had expected. I’m beginning to love CVS.
Here’s how we did:
:I bought:
2 Sea Breeze Actives: $4.99 @ BOGO so 2.49 a piece
1 Nivea shave gel: $2.79
2 Nivea Extreme Shave gels: $3.99
1 Brut deodorant: $3.39
Total Before Coupons: $19.15
:I used:
1 sea breeze coupon: -.55
1 Brut any item: -1.oo
1 $4/2 Nivea: - 4
1 $2/1 Nivea: -2
1 $3/15 CVS: -3
Total coupon savings: $10.55
Total after tax: $9.57
ECB’s Received: $8.00
Since it was our first CVS transaction we had to pay the $9.57 cents out of pocket. We made $8 in ECB’s so for this transaction I’m going to consider it only 1.57 spent.
I’ll be making it to CVS tomorrow morning so hopefully this week I’ll get in on the deals early. I’ve got some smart rinse to pick up.
Free Woman's Day subscription
Looks like these went fast. I'll keep checking back for more. Trust me I have a new found love for free subscriptions.
Check out Low Price Subscriptions for a free one year subscription to Womans's Day.
I'm so excited I missed out on their last free subscription offering but luckily made it in on this one.
I'm so excited I missed out on their last free subscription offering but luckily made it in on this one.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Lots of Changes
Lots of changes on the site. New headers, titles, and hopefully a new layout by the end of the weekend.
Oh and this really neat new signature. I saw Heather's at Freebies 4 Mom and wanted to try one out myself. Hopefully it stays. I'm currently trying to find the best way to link to it.
Oh and this really neat new signature. I saw Heather's at Freebies 4 Mom and wanted to try one out myself. Hopefully it stays. I'm currently trying to find the best way to link to it.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Breaking Up
Neil Sedaka said “Breaking up was hard to do”; and he was right, but sadly after this week I’ve decided to end my relationship with Target. I know there are great deals to be found there, especially on clearance items. I even have a Target walking distance from where I work which is easy and convenient, but I just can’t maintain an effective relationship with them any longer.
I’m tired of having to read their ad five times to make sure I have the crazy writing figured out for any of their sales. Then when you get to Target the items are either sold out, no where to be found, wrong signs, the list goes on and on. Plus their non sale items are always more expensive than my local Walmart or Meijer. It’s just not worth the hassle to me any longer.
The final straw happened on Saturday. I went in to buy a Fusion and a Venus razor in order to receive the ten dollar gift card. I have plans for it that I’ll blog about later.
We picked out our razors choosing the ones located directly under the sign advertising the ten dollar gift card deal. So imagine my surprise when we got to the register and after checking out no gift card. Of course twenty minutes later the employee at customer service realized the razors were signed incorrectly. We got the right item, which ended up being cheaper than what we originally paid. I was told the difference (1.60) would be credited back to my card, but so far it hasn’t. We’ll see.
When we first checked out we had:
1 Fusion Power Razor 8.94
1 Venus Embrace Razor 9.44
I used:
1 $4 off coupon for the Fusion
1 $2 off coupon for the Venus
After tax and coupons (for our first transaction): $13.48
With no gift card.
Once the gift card issue was figured out we ended up with a Fusion razor for 7.99 and should end up with 1.60 refunded (we’ll see).
That should make my final price $11.88 with a $10 gift card so $1.88 out of pocket.
But like I said we’ll wait and see if I get that buck sixty back on my card. Even if we don’t I still think $3.48 for two razors is a good deal. We were going to buy the gift card anyway. Either way you slice it I won’t be returning to Target in the future unless it’s one heck of a deal.
I’m tired of having to read their ad five times to make sure I have the crazy writing figured out for any of their sales. Then when you get to Target the items are either sold out, no where to be found, wrong signs, the list goes on and on. Plus their non sale items are always more expensive than my local Walmart or Meijer. It’s just not worth the hassle to me any longer.
The final straw happened on Saturday. I went in to buy a Fusion and a Venus razor in order to receive the ten dollar gift card. I have plans for it that I’ll blog about later.
We picked out our razors choosing the ones located directly under the sign advertising the ten dollar gift card deal. So imagine my surprise when we got to the register and after checking out no gift card. Of course twenty minutes later the employee at customer service realized the razors were signed incorrectly. We got the right item, which ended up being cheaper than what we originally paid. I was told the difference (1.60) would be credited back to my card, but so far it hasn’t. We’ll see.
When we first checked out we had:
1 Fusion Power Razor 8.94
1 Venus Embrace Razor 9.44
I used:
1 $4 off coupon for the Fusion
1 $2 off coupon for the Venus
After tax and coupons (for our first transaction): $13.48
With no gift card.
Once the gift card issue was figured out we ended up with a Fusion razor for 7.99 and should end up with 1.60 refunded (we’ll see).
That should make my final price $11.88 with a $10 gift card so $1.88 out of pocket.
But like I said we’ll wait and see if I get that buck sixty back on my card. Even if we don’t I still think $3.48 for two razors is a good deal. We were going to buy the gift card anyway. Either way you slice it I won’t be returning to Target in the future unless it’s one heck of a deal.
Friday, June 6, 2008
Anyone have $3,662 laying around?
So as I wrote about earlier, we are about two months away from paying off all our credit card debt. We decided to pay them off in December and have been putting any extra income towards it, while still maintaining a comfortable lifestyle. Depending on your idea of comfort, it’s working for us.
Basically this means living like we did while in college. We maintained the same lifestyle we had in school and since we’ve grown accustom to it we haven’t really noticed a change. We have internet and cable TV but you won’t find us driving new cars any time soon. Although, I’ll admit we could eat out less, something I’m working on.
Anyway back to the credit cards. We started out December with around 12 to 14 thousand in credit card debt. It’s bad I don’t know the exact number I know, but at the time I wasn’t keeping good track. It was just about paying off the cards not about saving money or watching our finances. I figured it would take us years to pay them off unless we did something drastic and started making larger payments.
As of 6/6/08 we have fully paid off two credit cards, one bill me later account, and a dental loan. Right now we have 3,662.59 dollars left on my card at 12.9% interest, through our credit union. My card will remain open even after it’s paid off as it has the lowest interest of our cards. The other accounts have been closed, even though I know you’re not suppose to, I just wanted them gone and felt it was the best option for us.
But of course I’m not happy having the card paid off in July. We’re so close I want it paid off NOW. So how can I come up with 3,662.59 in one month? I don’t know but I’m willing to bet it will be an interesting ride and blog post.
Basically this means living like we did while in college. We maintained the same lifestyle we had in school and since we’ve grown accustom to it we haven’t really noticed a change. We have internet and cable TV but you won’t find us driving new cars any time soon. Although, I’ll admit we could eat out less, something I’m working on.
Anyway back to the credit cards. We started out December with around 12 to 14 thousand in credit card debt. It’s bad I don’t know the exact number I know, but at the time I wasn’t keeping good track. It was just about paying off the cards not about saving money or watching our finances. I figured it would take us years to pay them off unless we did something drastic and started making larger payments.
As of 6/6/08 we have fully paid off two credit cards, one bill me later account, and a dental loan. Right now we have 3,662.59 dollars left on my card at 12.9% interest, through our credit union. My card will remain open even after it’s paid off as it has the lowest interest of our cards. The other accounts have been closed, even though I know you’re not suppose to, I just wanted them gone and felt it was the best option for us.
But of course I’m not happy having the card paid off in July. We’re so close I want it paid off NOW. So how can I come up with 3,662.59 in one month? I don’t know but I’m willing to bet it will be an interesting ride and blog post.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
My new focus.
So I don’t know who said it but I’ve heard they say life is all about change. And just to make sure it’s true there will be some parts of this blog changing, mainly the whole focus.
Don’t be scared I’ll still be including all my reviews and rants I just also plan to include links and updated to a new topic important in my life… retirement. Or more; the saving our way to early retirement. I love writing all the reviews but I’ve really gotten into the whole financial and retirement thing. Ok, in all honesty Matt would probably call it more of an obsession, which might be true. But it’s a hard thing to swallow when you realize you doubled your household income after college but still can’t afford to buy a tube of toothpaste. At that point I understood we had to make some serious changes if we were ever going to retire let alone retire early. So saving money has become my kick and I’m only becoming more excited by it when I see our results.
In my research I found these wonderful things called coupons which are like free money. Two weeks ago I was able to buy our $4 toothpaste for a buck on sale and with using a coupon. I’m kind of proud, can you tell? That was my first coupon purchase but surely not my last.
This whole thing started out six months ago as a mission to pay off our credit cards but has recently become so much more; a lifestyle. Especially as we are within two months of having our cards paid off, the next question I ask myself is “What can I pay off next? And how much can I save to do it quicker?”
So I hope you enjoy my new quest… financial freedom.
Don’t be scared I’ll still be including all my reviews and rants I just also plan to include links and updated to a new topic important in my life… retirement. Or more; the saving our way to early retirement. I love writing all the reviews but I’ve really gotten into the whole financial and retirement thing. Ok, in all honesty Matt would probably call it more of an obsession, which might be true. But it’s a hard thing to swallow when you realize you doubled your household income after college but still can’t afford to buy a tube of toothpaste. At that point I understood we had to make some serious changes if we were ever going to retire let alone retire early. So saving money has become my kick and I’m only becoming more excited by it when I see our results.
In my research I found these wonderful things called coupons which are like free money. Two weeks ago I was able to buy our $4 toothpaste for a buck on sale and with using a coupon. I’m kind of proud, can you tell? That was my first coupon purchase but surely not my last.
This whole thing started out six months ago as a mission to pay off our credit cards but has recently become so much more; a lifestyle. Especially as we are within two months of having our cards paid off, the next question I ask myself is “What can I pay off next? And how much can I save to do it quicker?”
So I hope you enjoy my new quest… financial freedom.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - Movie Review
So we saw Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull last weekend. I’ve been meaning to write about it but have had a million other things going on in my life right now that needed to be contemplated at length.
So anyway back to Indiana. The movie was…ok, that’s about it. Maybe another reason I didn’t write this review earlier is my inability to properly give a review without handing out some major spoilers.
So beware, everything beyond this point will most certainly contain spoilers.
Seriously: Major spoilers below – You were warned.
If I typed out all my thoughts about this movie you’d be reading for days so I’ll just make a list.
Things I liked about Indian Jones IV:
- Indiana Jones IV – enough said.
- They brought back some of my favorite characters; Indiana and Marion
- Marion was always my favorite and no one else can play Indiana Jones besides Harrison Ford.
- They did tributes to those favorite characters that weren’t included in this movie for various reasons.
- Connery didn’t want to come out of retirement and Brody died from Aids in the 90’s.
- Great one liners as always
- An interesting adventure – something you always want to see
- Even if the topic might not be what I had expected given the topic and my knowledge of the topic.
- Marion doesn’t spend ¾ the movie screaming like most women in movies when faced with a challenge.
- This item almost made the whole movie for me in itself. Nothing ruins a film like a screaming blond… they anger the blood.
- I thought there was great on screen chemistry between everyone.
Things I didn’t like about Indiana Jones IV:
- They give up “the big secret” way too early and easy.
- Even though we all knew it was coming I would have liked more suspense surrounding the unveiling of another Jones.
- Too much CG
- Before seeing the movie we watched a great little program with interviews from the cast. One thing that was continuously stated was how they didn’t use much CG. WRONG. Some scenes CG was needed (ants etc) others I swear it was just thrown in there so they could spend more money. It was worse than the wasted CG cow in Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back.
- Steven ripped off some serious scenes from other movies. If you watch it you should be able to pick them out everything from “reusing” a line to almost identical shots from another film. It was almost as bad as The Messengers, in that the need to figure out where things were from became a game.
- The biggest offender in my book was a comment from Indiana to Mutt about bringing a knife to a gun fight. A line I find to be incredibly similar to a favorite Sean Connery line from The Untouchables. Matt has suggested that it was a tribute to Connery but either way it didn’t set well with me. Plus it ruined the whole scene because I was taken over by my anger and could think of nothing else, I have a tendency to obsess
- Unneeded scene - full of CG (a twofer).
- I won’t go overboard with this rant, even though I could, trust me. There is a scene which is a complete rip off of a popular children’s tale and is at least 95% CG. Not only is the idea of the scene outrageous, but it is completely unnecessary and adds nothing to the film. Well except the chance for me to spend another five minutes gawking at the horror of it.
- Aliens, that’s all Aliens
- Actually I was ok with the aliens I really was. It was done in a way I could stomach… until the spaceship. Insert eye roll here. Didn’t they realize that previous Indiana Jones films worked best with religious relics? Why go so radical on this one. If Steven wanted to remake ET there were so better options out there.
So with all that in mind I’ll buy it when it comes out because it is an Indiana Jones film. But I’ll be glad that it won’t have the privilege of being included in my box set with the originals.
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