Trying out a new system for house cleaning: Weekly Zone Cleaning System

A goal of ours this year is to keep a cleaner house. Up till now we haven't used a schedule to clean the house. Our method has generally been to spot clean as needed.This isn't a very effective means to keep a clean house.

So we came up with an idea I like to call the Weekly Zone Cleaning System. The idea is very simple. Focus on one area of the home each week. So we divided our house into 4 zones:

1. Bathrooms
2. Bedrooms
3. Kitchen
4. Main living space

Each week of the month we clean the zone for that week, e.g., Week 1 we clean the bathrooms, Week 2 we clean the bedrooms, and so on. A few times a year there are 5 weeks in the month and for those months we get a week off.

It takes more supplies, effort, and time to clean the kitchen and bathrooms so we alternate those weeks to have easy weeks in between. My favorite week is Week 2 since I can vacuum the bedrooms in about 10 minutes.

So far this month we have stuck to the schedule and this past week we cleaned and decluttered the kitchen. Our kitchen immediately looks more organized with less clutter and stuff on the counters and shelves.

Moving forward we hope to stick with this cleaning system and tweak it if need be.

Do you have a regular cleaning schedule for your house? Do you keep with it?

Low Spend Week and looking at my January No Spend Days recap

I satisfactorily completed my end of month goals. As I mentioned in my goals post I don't generally set weekly, or even monthly, goals. But maybe I should, it the results and tracking similar to this past weeks.

A quick recap of the few goals I made for the week:

1. Low Spend Week. We had 4 No Spend days this week! And could have been 5 but I spontaneously bought soup at work one day for lunch. I just couldn't resit the notion of homemade soup to go with my salad. It was $4.95 with tax so we'll count this as a Low Spend day. The other two days of the week the family ate out so these didn't make the grade.
   
2. No sugar. I met this goal with average success. I ate one cookie one day at work (and it was a tiny, small one). I'd say I kept on track and turned aside a few other opportunities to eat sugary things.
3. Taxes. Started the taxes. I can't ever remember a year when I started taxes this early. With any hope I'll be able to complete and file next month. This would be without precedent since I usually am a April filer.

I planned on 12 No Spend days for January. So far I can account for 10 No Spend days. With 3 days left I need to plan on failing at hit the 12. I am flying on the 31st and know there'll be some money spending. I give it a coin toss for not spending on the remaining 2 days. I am sure 1 of them will be spend free and overall I'll be happy to reach 11 No Spend days for January.

How did you do with your budget this past week? How is January coming to an end for your budgeting?

Retirement versus college: Putting ourselves before our kids

It's easy for parents to put our kid's college savings before our own retirement. We shouldn't; it's a big mistake. A number of top PF celebrities tout this same approach: Suze Orman, Dave Ramsay and Clark Howard to name three.

The reason is simple and has nothing to do with tough love, or anything of the like. It is that there are numerous means to fund college: scholarships, GI Bill, grants, working while in school, and, of course, loans. And I'm sure other ways as well.

The same isn't true with retirement. We can't get a subsidized loan for our retirement. And certainly not academic or athletic scholarships. Not many grants around either I imagine. No, aside from the rare pension, we are largely responsible for funding our own retirement years. And as the older generation is finding out in today's world, if you don't plan well you may find that retirement never comes. Or if it does it is for medical and health reasons.

Some people may figure if they fund their kid's college that they are setting up their kids to be high earners, and that their kids can support them if needed when they retire. But for most, the cost to support our parents in old age would be a massive burden with costs as they are today. It is better to prepare for our own retirement needs so our kids don't have to worry about us.

As a parent, I already made this mistake. The year my twins where born I took a check for $4,000 down to my local Scottrade office and opened up two Coverdell ESA accounts for the maximum $2,000 per kid per year. I felt proud in doing so. And felt confident that I would continue to do so each year afterwards.

Know we still do contribute a little bit throughout the year. And all holiday money they get from relatives goes into these accounts as well. We generally match this so the $5 bill Aunt Nell sends them each ends up being another $10 in their accounts.

But we haven't come close to maxing out their ESA's since that first year. And I don't feel guilty at all. I know that we need to max out our own retirement contributions first. Dave Ramsay recommends not saving a dime for your kid's college until you are saving 15% of your income into retirement accounts. Suze Orman has similar advice.

We probably won't start maxing out the ESA accounts again until our twins are out of day care and into grade school. The $500 a week we spend on day care can be diverted to their ESA accounts and we can fully fund the yearly max in just 2 months.

And the other fact of life about all this is many of our kids won't even go to college. But we all will face a day when we can no longer work, whether voluntary or not. Better to have well padded retirement accounts when that day arrives.

Do you save for your kid's college? What type of savings do you use?

End of Month Goals in mind and my Low Spend Week

Next week's goals... I generally don't create weekly goals for myself but figured it might be a great time to do so and end the month on a strong note. So for next week I have a few ideas:

1. Low Spend Week. I like the idea of a no spend week, but I'll keep it more realistic and just aim for a low spend week instead. Baby steps...
   
2. No sugar. This falls in line with my Healthier 2012 goal. I'll honestly try to keep "added sugar" food things to an absolute minimum. Some weeks are better than others but it can be so hard to say no to the cookies that make their way into the office...
3. Taxes. Get a jump start on 2011 taxes. I generally don't start taxes until March. Here's to the swell idea of starting in January...

I don't want to overdo it so I'll just start with these three.

When do you start your taxes? How are your 2012 goals coming along?

Laptop platform shootout: Windows 7 versus Apple OS X versus Ubuntu

We have all 3 major* computer OS systems in use on a weekly basis in our house. These include 6 years old Dell and Acer laptops, and a 3 month old MacBook Pro. I often consider consolidating down to just one laptop but realize there isn't much benefit in doing so since the older laptops are still of use and we couldn't sell them for much money. I figure it's better to continue using them and enjoy the differences between the different systems.

Here's a quick comparison and comments on the 3 types of laptop combos we use. One thing to note is with more online cross-platform apps such as Google Docs, Dropbox, Facebook, and other web-based sites, the actual laptop and OS is becoming less important. For example, at times we use all 3 of our laptops for banking and budget planning.

Dell Latitude with Ubuntu.
Pros: Cheap. Cons: Learning curve and support.
In case you haven't heard, Ubuntu is a free Linux-based OS that generally is used by tech-geeky folks. Ubuntu runs well on older laptops so this is a great option for those in need of a cheap laptop option. Newer Ubuntu versions are more polished than older versions and I think most folks would enjoy using them, once they get comfortable with the UI. However, there can be bugs with older computers. I recently updated our laptop to the latest version 11.10 from 10.04 and found there are some video and graphics issues that have been minor annoyances to me, but for others may be a deal breaker. On the other hand the previous version of Ubuntu worked flawlessly on my Dell.

Acer with Windows 7.
Pros: Most common. Cons: Target of most Virus and Malware.
Since most computers run Microsoft OS this is a no brainer; most homes have a Windows computer. This laptop makes up our home office computer and is mainly used for when we have to work from home.

Apple MacBook Pro.
Pros: Well designed. Cons: More expensive.
If I could only have one laptop this would be it. But with a cost of over $1000 I guess it is to be the expected chosen one. I use this laptop mainly for videos, photos and graphics/web design. It did replace a 6 year old MacBook. For those that use Apple laptops, I think most would agree that the total package of the laptop and the OS is so well designed that we would give the gold to Apple in the laptop Olympics. If you are looking to purchase a Mac, do what I always do and purchase one from Apple's Refurbished section. Great way to save $$.

*According to NetMarketShare the breakdown of OS is as follows: Microsoft Windows = 92.2% || Apple OS X = 6.3% || Linux = 1.4%
~

How many computers does your household have? Do you budget a new one every few years or just use them until they become dinosaurs? -- (I have found that 6 years ago, a 6 year old computer would be practically worthless but today a 6 year old computer is still very useful.)

Paying with cash and receiving 182 year old coin as change

I don't often use cash because I love my rewards Visa card. I pay the balance off monthy so don't pay interest and collect the 1.5% that goes into my IRA. It's such a win-win.

But the other week I did pay for something at a grocery store with cash and received my change from those automated coin change machines. I didn't notice right away but later that night I saw that two of the pennies were unique. One was an older wheat penny, which I always keep and are becoming less common. The other was clearly not a penny, at least not a US one. It was a 1830 German penny - or pfennig. A 182 year old coin! Given as change. Wow... to think of the journey this coin has traveled over the past 19 decades!  Maybe I should use cash more often.

Here's a short video on it:

Flat tire illustrates value of "taking care of things the right way"

I rode my bike to work yesterday and it didn't go smoothly.

In the first half of the ride I hit some bumps and my tail light bounced off  the holder. Luckily I heard it hit the asphalt so I stopped and then went looking into the weeds to find it. It continued blinking after falling off so i easily found it. But annoying to disrupt my pedaling.

About 5 mins later I got a flat in the rear tire. Almost exactly at the half way point of my 10 mile ride. I annoying pulled to the side of the road again to fix it only to find that I left my pump at the house. Drat! After considering my options of basically walking to work or trying to think a way to get a ride... i figured I'd just gingerly ride the rest of the 5 miles with the flat. I knew the tires were already old and I should have replaced them. (I fault myself for trying to get a few more months out of the tires.) So I didn't mind riding it flat, which certainly ruined it. I tried to be extra careful about riding over anything that might damage the rim. It was an slow process but better than walking. Annoyingly I finally made it to work late and in a foul mood.

But I'm determined take a good lesson out of this. That is, to not put off maintenance on things like my bike. I'm always in favor of being frugal and saving money, but sometimes it's better to not penny-pinch. This is something I certainly follow with car maintenance. I change the oil on schedule and use a quality oil and filter. It's just not worth saving a few bucks to prolong changes or skimp on the replacement products.

I can see how I should apply this philosophy to more aspects of life. I'll still buy generics over name-brand when appropriate, like dish soap. But I'll be better about buying and spending in ways that add extra value. With this in mind, I'll be ordering brand new bike tires and tubes this week. I will spend money on top quality stuff,  puncture resistant versions. I figure, and know, it's a better value for my time and money.

Are there items and stuff that you just don't skimp on to save a little bit of money? What are they? Does this work out for you?

My 2012 less-car commuter challenge

One unwritten goal I have for 2012 is to drive less to work. There are a few reasons for this:

1) save on gas money since the car I drive gets low 20s mpg
2) fewer miles on car, reduced wear and tear
3) exercise, bike commuting is great way to fit in exercise each week
4) fun, i bought a motorcycle last year and it's fun to ride it and gets 45 mpg

So the basic motivation is health and money. (One of my main 2012 goals is to bike/run 2000 miles, so this could add a lot towards that goal.)

The concept is fairly simple. My daily commute is about 20 miles round trip. My aim is to not drive at least one time a week throughout the year. Last week I started off the year by taking my motorcycle twice. 40 less miles on my car.

At a minimum, if I drive one fewer times a week throughout the year, I'll leave the car parked in the driveway 50 times. This would equal 1000 fewer miles. And 45 less gallons of gas. And $160 (at $3.50 a gallon) in gas money not spent. My real goal is to average 2 days a week and double the above numbers.

And with better weather summer months it is not entirely impossible to go car-less weeks at a time. So my stretch goal is to average 3 times a week for a total of 150 car-free commuter days in 2012.

Do you try to commute without car to save money and get exercise? Does it make a positive impact on your wallet?

The occasional hassle of saving money - Free over the air TV

As I wrote about the other month, we are saving money from cutting our cable bill. We love it. However it can be more tedious to find something to watch, but when viewing our regular programs it's super easy to get what we want on Hulu and Netflix. And we can channel surf in the tradition sense with over the air channels. However, the latter has been an ongoing experience that is best described as annoying until we found the "right" antenna for our house. Even so a winter storm can affect the signal and I've had to climb the ladder once to re-adjust the position.

So if you're planning to make the big switch to free TV be prepared to enjoy what I call the antenna dance.

It took no less 6 antennas before we found one that provided a stable signal, including PBS for the twins. A few that we tried we bought from Best Buy. There the sales guy said many customers have to try a few attempts of the different antennas before finding the "right" one for their house. So, needless to say, Best Buy didn't mind me returning three different models.

Now that we have a good antenna for our needs I can't imagine going back to a monthly cable bill. But for those still looking to take the leap I would recommend finding the right antenna first before you cut the cord. It took us almost 3 months to go through the 6 different models. It would have been better to wait to cut until after the antenna dance concluded.

Our antenna dance:
1 - RCA indoor flat panel antenna
2 - Antennas Direct indoor flat panel antenna
3 - RCA indoor amplified flat with rabbit ears antenna
4 - Antennas Direct indoor/outdoor with circles antenna
5 - Winegard 6 footer outdoor antenna, this thing was huge (the Radio Shack manager rolled their eyes when I came back to return it. I'm sure they weren't happy to find a place to store it since I ordered it online with ship to store option. i don't blame them)
6 - 2 and a half footer RCA Outdoor antenna - the final good one

Have you cut the cord? Did you try getting over the air TV? Troubles finding an antenna?

Facing the emotional facts of an underwater mortgage.

Well, with the new year here I'm officially ready to recognize that our house is underwater. At least according to Zillow, which I know can be altogether wrong and misleading at times with estimates. But for my emotional sincerity I will agree with Zillow. This realization doesn't depress me. Doesn't make me angry. Or sad. I suppose I just accept it because I don't have any other choice. And for another reason you'll read below

As I already wrote about, we recently refinanced to a 15 year fixed and are chipping away rapidly at the balance on the mortgage. At this rate it won't take long for our us to float back above into positive-ness. Nice! And we aren't intending to move to our "future dream house" anytime in the next few years so by the time we decide to sell we should have tons and tons of equity in our house. We may even be in a position to keep it as a rental. (I like the idea of paying it off by 2020. A stretch but very doable once our twins start public school and we don't pay out the ying-yang for day care.)

While we are currently on the bad side of the housing bubble, we have also enjoyed the bright side of the housing boom. Prior to our current house we owned a condo. It was tiny. And out-dated. But it was purchased pre-boom. And when we sold it 2 years later it had appreciated 75%. It was thrilling to walk out of closing with a 6-figure check. When we moved zip codes and bought our current house we paid a lot less too. It was a major win-win. I think all this greatly helps when I ponder how our current house has lost 30% and we sit underwater... It's the win some, lose some mentality.

Are you underwater? How has it affected your outlook?

2012 changes: Using the free credit reports regularly

Yesterday I finally did something I should have been doing every 4 months. That is, getting a free credit report from www.annualcreditreport.com. The last time I tried this was in 2009 and I recall it wasn't as easy and straightforward as it could have been. At that time one of the 3 agencies still required mailing or faxing a request. I felt the overall process was clunky.

Fast forward to yesterday. What an improvement! In less than 5 minutes I was looking at my Equifax credit report. I easily saved a copy as a PDF for my records. Equifax even offers an option to create an account on their website to access the report for 30 days but I didn't bother with this. I'll plan on helping my wife get hers too this week.

Going forward I'll remind myself to request a report from one of the 3 agencies every 4 months throughout the year. It will be good practice to keep abreast of our reports to ensure nothing is unexpected or out of the ordinary.

Do you regularly use these reports? Do you find one of the agencies to be easier or better than the others?

Increase of the trend towards Made in the USA

I'm a big believer of "trying" to buy US made products. But there are two problems with this philosophy: 1- these products almost always cost more than their imported counterpart. 2- most things aren't made in the US so choices available are very limited.

However there has been a resurgence of manufacturing in the US. I feel good when I see companies offering Made in USA products. Some companies are actually moving their factories back to the US from China. John Stewart highlights as much with the pool noodle, in a humorous way of course.

This weekend I read the story about LL Bean boots. Popular culture-types have created a huge demand for the classic Bean boots and the company is hiring more workers to fill the demand. That's fantastic.

5 years ago I bought a pair of the similar Bean rain boots that are the cheaper made in China version. They have been slowly falling apart since. I spoke with Bean customer service and they recognized that they've had quality problems with this version. I should have paid an extra $25 5 years ago for the US made boot. Next time I will.

Another company who's products I use is Mountainsmith. My very first product of theirs I bought years ago was US made, the subsequent 2 I bought were not. I recently saw on their website that they are consciously making a limited number of hip packs to help support US-based manufacturing. Great for them!


Nice to see this trend. Let's hope it sticks around. I'll try to write the occasional post that highlights some of these companies and their products that are Made in the USA.

Do you try and buy US Made? Are you willing to pay extra for this?

Happy New Tax Year

The New Year is here. And so are changes to IRS rules. These are 2012 laws, so won't be realized until filing the 2012 return in 2013. Of course preparing for current year taxes is important so these changes should be noted now as tax planning is always a worthy endeavor, if not painstakingly drab.

Due to inflation adjustments

• $100 increase to each personal and dependent exemption to $3800
• $300 increase to $11,900 for standard deduction for married couples filing a joint return. $150 increase to $5,950 for singles and married individuals filing separately. $200 increase to $8,700 for heads of household.
• Tax bracket threshold increases. For example if married and filing jointly the "line in the sand" from the 15-percent bracket to the 25-percent bracket is $70,700, increased from $69,000 last year.
• Estate tax exemption increase of $120,000 to $5,120,000.

One item that is changing:

• Annual gift exclusion remains at $13,000.

Ok, that's about all the tax details I can muster. There's better ways to welcome the New Year than dig up tax details..

Are you planning on any tax-related changes this year? Any expected life changes to consider?