The Raging Tech

SunEGrl Loves to Shop – and Save!

I found this blog, and thought it was interesting enough to share. SunEGrl has lots of links to savings for online shopping, hotel and travel stuff, and other cool ways to save money. What caught my eye besides the savings, is that SunEGrl has recently purchased her first home, just like me. Some of what’s there is girly stuff that doesn’t interest me much as a single bachelor type guy, but that is to be expected. I can still save a lot using her travel and hotel links, and I’m still digging through the archives looking for more cool stuff there. Check her out if you have the chance: SunEGrl Loves to Shop.

Bread Pudding with Cherries

Last Sunday I made some amazing french toast at home, and I’d never made french toast before on my own. I made the standard egg custard mixture and got one of those whole round loafs of King’s Hawaiian Sweet Bread and cut it in half. I then took one half and sliced it into about 6-8 thick (2 inches thick) slices. Drenched the bread and then fried it up. It was heavenly. 

I had been watching EatDrinkorDie.com videos and saw how Jon & Vinny (the guys who did the Thomas Egg McMuffin) had done a french toast video, and then right after that the follow-up video was what they did with the left-over bread: bread pudding! I couldn’t believe it – in my family, the perfect bread pudding is still a legend of mythical proportions. We had a relative who made them, and they were so awesome. Unfortunately, that relative died and his recipe died with him. 

We live in an age of the internet where recipes are freely available, so I decided to give it a crack on my own. I used a modified version of Jon & Vinny’s recipe, since I didn’t have any Challah bread, just the second half of that Sweet Bread loaf. I took a 9″ round cake pan and filled it with 1″ torn pieces of the sweet bread (left out for almost a week, still sweet and hardly dry at all!) and then doubled up my french toast egg custard mix, and poured that all over top, drenching all the bread and mixing it all up with my fingers (lots of messy fun!). I pulled out about a dozen or so maraschino cherries and chopped them up, and mixed those (as well as some of the juice) into my bread pudding mix (again using my fingers, it’s more fun!). 

Here’s the technique I used to make sure my egg-custard mix didn’t scramble or cook unevenly: it’s called bain-marie - essentially a french phrase meaning “water bath” like you’d do in a double-boiler (for melting chocolate or making candles) but in the oven. I used a large skillet with tall sides, filled it with water, then put my cake plate on top of that so that it got plenty of indirect heat on the actual pan, and the dish baked more evenly. 

It turned out pretty moist and delectable, but not the same as what I remember from my childhood. I think next time I’m going to use regular milk instead of heavy whipping cream and add in some brown sugar, maybe tweak some things here and there from internet recipes.

Light at the End of the Tunnel

The financial crisis in the economy has some light at the end of the tunnel, at least for me. I realized today as I started to get a knot in my stomach about how tight things had become in my budget, that there’s plenty of hope and I’m not at all in a bad situation. First of all, I work for the state, in an IT position. My job is probably a lot more secure than a lot of people. I’m glad I didn’t try to go freelance or go start my own business just yet, because a lot of people will be tightening their belts and not hiring freelance writers or computer repair guys. 

Secondly, I bank at a credit union, not one of those giant corporation banks that has investments on Wall Street that could make or break them. My mortgage was not a sub-prime mortgage and while things are tight now (because of my house payment, not because of the economy), they’ll be better for me soon. 

Good news that affects me: the new home owner’s tax credit is still on for this tax season. It’s basically a $7500 zero-interest loan from the government that gets paid back over 15 years. I’ve been trying like crazy to refinance my credit card debt to all lower interest rates, and I’m pretty sure $7500 will cover my debts (including what I owe Mom) and you just can’t beat zero percent interest. That’ll leave me with just my car, student loan, and house payment and regular utilities, groceries, and gas. I recently deferred my student loans until 2014, because I’m back in grad school, paying for it out of my pocket. 

So basically, I just have to be poor until after taxes are processed, and then when the tax credit comes in I have to solemnly swear to spend it all on knocking out debt, and not crazy stuff I don’t need. Knocking out debt feels great. When I got my inheritance money I paid off my Bank of America card entirely and closed the account. It felt SOO good, and now I don’t have that monthly payment anymore. If I can eliminate all of that, I’ll be a good ways on my way to being debt-free.

My house will probably be the last thing I pay off, and I hope I can do it in less time than the 30 years my mortgage is supposed to last. I’ll figure that out later, though. Maybe eventually when I’m out of all other debt I can put that same amount towards the principal on my house that I was paying every month, and get it paid off sooner. 

I hope for all of you that if things get bad, you’ll look for hope, and if you aren’t sure where to find hope, look to Jesus. He’s our provider and He always takes care of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (That’s in the Bible, kids).

Paying off The Man for FREEDOM

My inheritance funds finally cleared, and my final decision was to pay off debt instead of getting fancy new tech gadgets. It seemed like the smarter thing to do. I dumped a load of money into my Money Market account because it has a 3.20% interest rate, and I paid off Bank of America FOREVER. It feels SO good to be out of their clutches finally. I closed the account today and as soon as my bill pay arrives in their hands they said they should be sending me a check (I over-payed a little just to be sure).

I went to Wal-mart last night and bought some things for the kitchen, the rest of the house, and for the cat. I think this weekend I’m going to buy a propane grill (a modest one, not a huge hulking expensive one) and a self-propelled lawn-mower, maybe a weed-whacker. My lawn looks kinda shaggy right now, and my black push mower I brought from home is missing a part to the handle (it pulled a Houdini, I have no idea where it went) that makes it really difficult to push.

The last things to buy will be my new living room furniture over Labor Day weekend. I’m thinking about just going to the Big Lots in the next town and getting a reclining sectional and a coffee table, and maybe a twin bed frame for the guest room. The other thing will be paint, so I can paint my living room. I’m re-thinking the dark navy blue color, and thinking more of a light brown or a khaki color with a dark brown trim.

Speaking of the cat, I got her a lot of neat stuff. I got a “pet taxi” cat carrier, so I can take her to the vet for shots and getting spayed. I got her a new litter box with a cover and a little cat door in it, that has a built-in air filter and the floor doubles as a sifter, with a pan below and another pan below that for switching out as you empty it. I got her a little “Cat Mat” floor mat that goes right outside the litter box, so that she has something to wipe her paws on as she gets out of the litter box. She actually uses it, it’s so cute.

I upgraded her to some larger food and water bowls since she’s getting bigger. I got her a little white stuffed bear that is barely smaller than she is, and she loves it. She spent most of last night wrestling it and gnawing on it. I got her a little plush cat bed that she slept in some yesterday. I also got her some of those little balls that have tiny bells inside them and she played with those for a while.

I’m not exactly financially free now, but paying off some bills and getting some things I need means not spending my paycheck on those things, and that means more money in my pocket each month with no new debt acquired since the house.

JustTrade: A New Digg for Stock Trading Tips?

If you’ve been looking into ways to save or invest your money lately like I have, you might have taken a daunting look over at the stock market exchange. If you’re already familiar with trading stocks, you may already have been helped or hurt by OTC (over-the-counter) stock trading tips, or maybe a shady broker.

JUSTtrade is a neat site because you can rate individual tips and posters to the site, meaning that their future tips might be rated higher and be considered more trustworthy. Also, you can pick up some good advice on how to trade and what to trade.

A post on the homepage, for example, hasn’t been rated much yet, but sounds like a neat tip on buying gold low this morning and if the price holds, could see a huge rise later in the day for a nice profit. If I had the money to invest, I’d have gone through to the exchange mentioned and invested in gold and made a killing by this afternoon.

I don’t have the stock savvy or the finances to lose while learning right now, but maybe some of you who do own stocks could take a look at this site and gain some more insight into OTC trading, or maybe even offer some to others.

How Do You Put Away Savings?

In this era, you just can’t rely on social security for retirement. Also, when you’re my age, you might be thinking about the future: marriage, a house, kids, kids’ college funds, vacation money, hire a hitman for the in-laws money, etc. Or maybe you’re just thinking about how to get out of debt.

Recently, I received my Economic Stimulus payment from the U.S. government. And as a single person, I qualified for the full $600. I thought “whoopee! 600 bucks to blow!” and then immediately went – “No, I’m broke nearly 1/3 of every month. I need to buckle down, form a budget, and open a money market account,” which I did. I opened a money market account at the credit union and deposited almost half my payment. I hope to try and match that each month and once my car is paid off (27 months from now) I’ll try to put my car payment into that account as well, since I won’t miss it.

I did some basic math, and not including what I’ll earn from dividends, in five years I’ll have saved up about $24k – not too bad if I can stick to it and not spend it all.

What I can’t decide is – instead of putting so much into savings, should I instead pay off my higher-interest debt and then as those are paid off start saving the money I was paying in my Money Market account?

Know some better ways to put away for another day? Leave me a comment below on how you do it.

Shop For a New Credit Card Online

There are lots of people who play the credit card game – using it to their benefit and not just their downfall. A lot of people are firm believers in not using credit at all, except for maybe a house or student loans. It is a smart idea to save up cash to buy the things you want, but what about the things you need?

I’ve had lots of situations in my life where maybe I blew out a tire or had to pay for something for school, or needed emergency gas money to get home to my family for a funeral or something similar. Sometimes you run into these unexpected situations, and even the most savvy of people who have savings accounts and emergency funds may find that they don’t have enough when the need arises.

If you’re responsible and don’t abuse credit cards, you might find that you can improve on your current interest rate just by calling your credit card company and asking for it. If they won’t do it, call up another company and tell them what you’ve got and what you’d like to be offered. Once you have the offer, you could either accept it and do a balance transfer (many banks do this with a 0% interest rate for 12 months) or take the offer and call your company back and use it as leverage.

Whether you’re new to credit cards or just looking for a lower interest rates, or a rewards card, or just a different bank to deal with, you can comparison shop online by reading up on credit card reviews and find the one that best fits your finances. If you travel a lot, you might want an airline rewards card. Or if you talk on the phone a lot, you might want one that gives you free long distance minutes.

Be responsible, don’t buy things you don’t need on credit, and pay off balances as early and as soon as you can without making yourself stressed out.