11 Simple Economic Lessons to Make You a Smarter Shopper on Black Friday

As a follow-on post to my previous one, here is a good article I came by, entitled 11 Simple Economic Lessons to Make You a Smarter Shopper on Black Friday.

Did you know that Black Friday takes it's name from the fact that it's the beginning of the time of year when a lot of stores go from red to black?

I've never been out for Black Friday, but I hear it's a complete zoo. If that's your thing, enjoy it, but at least go out with a plan, and don't let the retail world win. Happy shopping!

7 Ways to Go Broke This [Holiday] Season

I'm on Dave Ramsey's email list, so every now and then I get his little newsletter. A recent one included this article: 7 Ways to Go Broke This [Holiday] Season. I thought it was a good read and wanted to share with you. Check it out if you're looking for ways to stay financially fit this Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Eve!

My way to go broke that I'm working to correct on my Christmas gift budget is the "Give presents to everyone in your family". But I'm extending it to include friends. In recent years I've purchased presents for friends who I've realized I don't necessarily need to give a present to. I'm updating my budget to give presents only to those who are very near and very dear to me this year. (Please don't hate me if you got a gift last year and don't get one this year. I'm trying to be smart with my money. It's not personal... not really.)

So, good luck to you as you build your Christmas budget and gift list. Remember, going into debt for months or more is not worth meeting the "obligation" of buying that second cousin a present. = P

PS - I'm getting really excited to share with you all how much debt I've paid off this year and to date since starting the Dave Ramsey Debt Snowball in January 2011! = ) Look for that blog towards the end of December/beginning of January.

Hello, Triathlon

After a 7-year hiatus, I'm getting back into triathlon. With my swimming background, my having become very much a runner, and my re-found love of cycling, I'm back at triathlon with a passion!

I picked up new swim gear last week: fins, spare googles, spare cap, new suit.

I was torn between purple and blue; I ended up going with the blue one

I'm only 150ish miles into my Brooks running shoes, so I'm set on gear for running.

Now the fun news: yesterday I got myself set up for cycling! (Fun fact: I paid for everything in CASH (thanks, Dave Ramsey)!)

My new baby is a 2012 Cannondale Synapse Women's Alloy 6 Tiagra!

I had sold Sunny (my old Felt F70 from 2004) and all gear a year ago, so I had to get the works:

Shimano Pedaling Dynamics (SPD) M520 pedals in black
Specialized Women's Spirita Road Shoes in black
Cannondale IQ200 11 Function Wireless Computer
Camelbak Podium Chill 610 mL insulated water bottle
Camelbak Podium Big Chill 750mL insulated water bottle
Specialized Mini Wedgie saddle bag in white and black
Specialized Align helmet in white
Orange Cycle aluminum bottle cages
Tire levers
Spare tire tube
CO2 tire inflator

Now I just need to choose a name for the bike...

PS - the folks at Orange Cycle are phenomenal. Incredibly knowledgable, friendly, honest, and personable. Their reputation preceded them, and I didn't even bother looking around at other bike shops. I have no regrets about my decision to do business with Orange Cycle. Bonus: they are super dog-friendly. Heidi helped me pick out the bike, waited patiently while I did my test rides, and was there all throughout the experience of shopping for gear and the bike fitting. She was so well-behaved and just soaked up all the attention! I am such a proud doggy mommy!

Dave Ramsey LIVE!

This is another post about something that happened a while back, but I felt it still worthy of posting, so here goes.

On St. Patrick's Day I took advantage of the opportunity to see Dave Ramsey LIVE! at UCF. A year ago, in February of 2011, I began taking control of my finances using Dave's Debt Snowball program. Let me tell you, it has made a WORLD of difference. I've paid off $13+ in debt since I started applying his practices to my wallet.

So, I'd been sticking to my budget and being smart with my money for a year or so, and I figured that attending this financial seminar could only help to keep my momentum going. So I went. I thought it was really cool that Dave only accepted DEBIT cards for online plastic purchases! Way to practice what you preach, Dave!

The seminar was set from 1-6 on a Saturday afternoon. Holy moly - 5 HOURS? Really? Really. It went by incredibly fast; it felt like I was only there for maybe 2 hours. Dave is a super energetic, down-to-earth, straight-forward guy. He's easy to listen to and knows his stuff. He also has a sense of humor: he opened the seminar with a statement to the effect of "when you leave here you will walk out thinking, 'man - I knew all that; and I PAID him!'"

Throughout Dave's seminar he outlined key concepts of the Debt Snowball program, provided financial statistics (that weren't skewed or taken out of context), and pointed out how society behaves (and how past generations behaved) when it comes to money. Did you ever pick up on the notion that your grandparents acted as if incurring debt was a SIN? Now Visa backs the Hasbro financial game, Monopoly; the game no longer has paper cash - instead it has plastic credit cards and a swipe machine. I was shocked to learn that, and grateful that I have the vintage cash version of the board game.

The seminar was a great experience and reminder of why I'm taking control of my money. I HIGHLY recommend attending one of his live events if you get the chance to do so.

PS - the book that got me started is "The Total Money Makeover." Check it out. You can thank me later.

2012 New Year Resolutions

It's the time of year where we all think of what we'd like to accomplish in the coming year. I'll share my 2012 resolutions in a moment; first I'd like to see how I did with my 2011 resolutions (click here to read the related blog post).


2011 Resolutions and status:

• spend less time surfing Facebook - 100% successful! I'm happy with how I've reduced the amount of time I spend on the social networking site.
• pay of a significant chunk of my student loans - 100% successful! Well, sort of. Since February 2011 I've paid off $11,365 in debt. My student loans went on hold since I'm working towards my master's degree. So while I didn't do anything with my student debt, I did work wonders my other debts! As I've said before, many thanks to Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover book!
• run 525 miles by Saturday, 31 December 2011 - 82.5% successful. To date I've run 432.92 in 2011. I'm just over 100 miles from my goal, but I think I did fair considering I had a majorly stressful time in May and that I pulled my back in November.
• earn B or better in all my PSU master's courses (2 in the spring semester, 2 over the summer, and another 2 in the fall) - 100% successful! I earned all As this year!
• read the Bible (or at least several books; will be difficult with all the master's work) - 100% unsuccessful. I briefly joined a Bible study group but school sort of got in the way. I'm going to work really hard in 2012 to make reading the Bible the priority I'd like it to be.
• catch up and keep up with my scrapbook for Heidi (I'm behind by about 12 months, heh) - 100% unsuccessful. I'm now behind 24 months! I have lots of pages ready to be pasted together and even more photos ready to be scrapbooked. I really need to make it a weekly thing where I sit down for a couple of hours and work at this.

So I didn't do so terribly. I achieved a 64% success rate with my 2011 New Year Resolutions.

And now, for my 2012 New Year Resolutions!

• Pay of another significant chunk of debt.
• Finish in the Top 10 of my age group (Women's 19-24) in the Track Shack Running Series (2011-2012).
• Run two half marathons (13.1 miles) and my first full marathon (26.2 miles); it will be okay if I do the full marathon in January 2013 since that's when the Disney Marathons take place.
• Earn Bs or better in all of my PSU master's courses (1 in the spring semester, 1 over the summer, and another 1 in the fall)
• Read 10+ books of the Bible.
• Scrapbook Heidi to the present.
• Make a quilt.
• Make a boy baby blanket.
• Learn to ballroom dance.
• Continuously train with Heidi be it agility, Schutzhund or otherwise; formally or on my own.

That said...