tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-95440582008-05-13T08:24:21.141-05:00savvyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02544254698136250262noreply@blogger.comBlogger654125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9544058.post-25420700006216135382008-05-03T09:20:00.002-05:002008-05-03T09:27:29.134-05:00

When I first found out I was expecting Baby Savvy, I immediately started researching baby products and attempted to determine what we needed and didn't need (let me tell you, it feels like I still learn new stuff in this area every day). Likewise, I wanted to make sure we spent money on quality products when necessary, and purchased used or inexpensive products when those products would suffice.

savvyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02544254698136250262noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9544058.post-9686972403855403822008-04-25T09:31:00.000-05:002008-04-25T08:18:46.126-05:00

I posted this over on Baby on a Budget, but I figured there might be some Savvy readers who would be interested too. I'm testing an affiliate program with Abby's Lane, and they are offering 5% off everything in their store (excluding Ergo carriers) though this link. If you are thinking about trying cloth diapering, or looking to build a diaper stash (check their packages page!), this is your

savvyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02544254698136250262noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9544058.post-71612573116810331092008-04-25T08:09:00.000-05:002008-04-25T08:17:38.292-05:00

I was listening to Wisconsin Public Radio this morning, and they had a great show on green cleaning. While I've always tried to be frugal when it comes to cleaning supplies (yet I somehow have an entire closet full of the latest orange-lemon-pineapple-lavendar-parsely-pine-gets-the-grease-off-without-streaks cleaners), I never really cared about how "green" they were.... until I had a baby. The

savvyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02544254698136250262noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9544058.post-48487548644252120602008-04-24T07:27:00.000-05:002008-04-24T08:08:53.403-05:00

I hope everyone found their own way to celebrate Earth Day earlier this week. I intended to write a long post about our family's "green" efforts, as well as the many things we need to improve on, but I didn't have the time to actually sit down and get it all out of my head. I will give you an update on some of the things that were in my New Year's resolutions that related to living green. One

savvyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02544254698136250262noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9544058.post-28865836401877605942008-04-12T08:50:00.000-05:002008-04-12T09:04:31.765-05:00

ahhh! I've been meaning to post for weeks, but can never seem to find the time. I've been back at work full time for two weeks, Mr. Savvy has been home with Baby (although he's grown so much it seems weird to me to call him Baby). Life's been chaotic, but hopefully things will be settling down. I didn't refinance our house, like I posted a couple months ago. We would have had to bring money

savvyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02544254698136250262noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9544058.post-92149555089102730112008-03-10T12:37:00.001-05:002008-03-10T12:41:31.260-05:00

I had the group showing last Saturday... here's the stats: Seven people responded to my Craigslist ad and wanted a showing.Five people said they could make it to the showing. The other two never responded (this is typical of Craigslist responses).Three people showed up to the showing (once again, typical that there were two no-shows).Two people expressed interest in the apartment at the showing

savvyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02544254698136250262noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9544058.post-81451494811547413562008-03-02T12:49:00.000-06:002008-03-02T13:20:30.720-06:00

This month didn't end up near as bad as I had thought. I received my annual bonus at work, but the majority of it went towards living expenses as Mr. Savvy isn't working, I'm working part-time, and we are paying for daycare that isn't even getting used. Hopefully the weather will start to cooperate soon and Mr. Savvy will be back at work in a week or two. The way my part-time phase back from

savvyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02544254698136250262noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9544058.post-48861538158906052052008-02-29T10:29:00.000-06:002008-02-29T10:36:10.483-06:00

We have another tenant moving out at the end of April. I'm going to try something new this time and schedule group showings in order to minimize the time I spend showing the open apartment and the disruption to our renters. I really don't know how this will go as in the past I've always tried my very best to accommodate the schedules of the people interested in seeing the apartment...

savvyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02544254698136250262noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9544058.post-44300974755717884532008-02-23T15:19:00.000-06:002008-02-23T15:32:33.444-06:00

I've got the money blues right now. I just received my annual bonus at work, but most of it is already spent. Mr. Savvy has been off work a few weeks due to weather (it has been insanely cold and snowy here), and I've been working part-time since January and haven't had a full paycheck since December. Most of January and part of February were very part time, some weeks working as little as 12

savvyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02544254698136250262noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9544058.post-62418459217473961592008-02-01T09:04:00.000-06:002008-02-01T11:45:29.657-06:00

The numbers speak for themselves. We made $617 in interest on 0% balance transfers this month. (Firefox users, scroll down for progress chart.) January December Difference Retirement 162,070 173,045 (10,974) Real Estate Equity 83,305 82,661 644 Stocks 2,396 2,482 (86) Cash vs. Credit Card Debt (27,923) (29,117) 1,194 TOTAL 220,787 229,021 (9,222)

savvyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02544254698136250262noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9544058.post-45827447920913631662008-01-31T04:51:00.000-06:002008-01-31T11:57:56.802-06:00

Today is the five year anniversary of the day I bought the house we live in now! It is also the five year anniversary of my last car payment. I never thought I'd refinance my 5.375% 30-year fixed mortgage, but I just applied for PenFed's 5.00% 15-year fixed with no points. We have 19 years left on our first mortgage (at 5.375% fixed), and 19 years left on our 2nd mortgage (at 5.99% fixed).

savvyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02544254698136250262noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9544058.post-57197282290739813792008-01-30T14:12:00.000-06:002008-01-30T14:30:07.227-06:00

I haven't posted an update on Baby Savvy in a long time! He's four months old today and doing great! He started daycare four weeks ago while I went back to work part time. He stays with Mr. Savvy's mom, who has done in-home daycare for 30+ years. There's three other baby boys there and Baby Savvy loves being around the other kids. It kinda breaks my heart that he likes it there so much, but

savvyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02544254698136250262noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9544058.post-45010698350535006932008-01-30T14:05:00.000-06:002008-01-30T14:12:04.903-06:00

We have a former tenant who appears to have skipped out on their last utility payment. I still have some hope that they will pay as they've been in contact with the utility company. If they don't, we're on the hook for $280. It's not like them to not pay, and it seems that the utility company didn't send the bill to the correct address the first time. We'll see. We also had some frozen pipes

savvyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02544254698136250262noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9544058.post-76203391797948547542008-01-16T04:31:00.000-06:002008-01-16T09:36:36.070-06:00

I’ve recently had a couple of experiences that have made me feel like a bad landlord. I always try to be fair and accommodating of our tenants, I feel that is one of the benefits of renting directly from a property-owner, rather than from one of those big super-complexes. It has always worked well in the past, but there’s a fine line between being a jerk and being too lenient. Our first really

savvyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02544254698136250262noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9544058.post-53062495089628191032008-01-10T09:49:00.000-06:002008-01-10T10:07:18.220-06:00

I talked to my Dad last night and he mentioned that I neglected to give him credit for the two books I recommended in this post. So just so everyone knows, my dad has great taste in books :) My birthday was in December, and I feel I should also mention that he gave me the coolest birthday present ever... he found my old Speak 'N Spell! And it still works!. I was just watching Modern Marvels

savvyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02544254698136250262noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9544058.post-20223594896700395382008-01-01T10:38:00.000-06:002008-01-30T14:35:29.988-06:00

We're closing the books on 2007! It ended up pretty well, we aren't up much net worth wise, as we spent about $50,000 on home improvements without adjusting our house value. The biggest surprise is the increase in retirement account balances for the year... $40,000! That's pretty exciting, as we only contributed about $20,000 to retirement accounts this year. We made $675 in interest this

savvyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02544254698136250262noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9544058.post-38929370538785463412008-01-01T09:59:00.000-06:002008-01-01T13:51:34.313-06:00

I hope everyone had a great New Year's Eve and made it safely into 2008! 2007 was a huge year for our family, and I hope we can continue to have great things happening this year as well. With the addition of Baby Savvy some of our priorities have changed. You won't see many financial goals on my list of resolutions, but that doesn't mean that our habits formed in previous years will go by the

savvyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02544254698136250262noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9544058.post-79841666252742071432007-12-02T07:40:00.000-06:002007-12-02T08:15:30.357-06:00

November's net worth report is slightly depressing. We purchased a new/used car this month, bringing down our cash on hand by $7,295. We don't count vehicles in net worth, so this was not offset by any increase in assets. This erased four months of debt-reduction progress, but was a very necessary expenditure. We also had some apartment-related expenses that totaled a couple hundred dollars

savvyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02544254698136250262noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9544058.post-46962088213019098402007-12-02T07:12:00.000-06:002007-12-02T07:28:35.599-06:00

I wrote last month about our two units opening, one of which is in need of some work. We spent yesterday painting, and we had arranged for carpet to be installed later this week. The apartment was marketed as having fresh paint and new carpet. Well, I found a tenant last week and we were finalizing the lease terms, when she told me she'd prefer NOT to have new carpet, in exchange for a

savvyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02544254698136250262noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9544058.post-42574887910157948092007-11-21T12:36:00.000-06:002007-11-21T12:47:20.097-06:00

We are picking up our new (used) car this weekend! We decided to buy my dad's old company car. I have been watching the classifieds and Craigslist for months, and looked at new vehicles, and I really think that the Impala is the most car for the money. I checked out the Honda Fit at a reader's suggestion, and while I loved it, it didn't have enough room for the car seat in the back and Mr.

savvyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02544254698136250262noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9544058.post-22612182679087610942007-11-21T11:11:00.000-06:002007-12-02T07:56:14.105-06:00

I've had a service request open with Yodlee regarding the "View Net Worth" functionality in their MoneyCenter product since September 7th, that's 2 1/2 months - not that I'm counting, and have yet to receive any indication that they are working on it. I've requested status updates twice, with no response either time. I think it's time to find a new personal finance aggregation software. The

savvyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02544254698136250262noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9544058.post-3468734815573723562007-11-11T07:59:00.000-06:002007-11-11T09:35:57.788-06:00

Would you like to give your mail delivery person the best holiday present ever? Catalog Choice provides a free service that allows you to opt-out of thousands of catalog mailings. I just set up an account, and the first half dozen catalogs I searched for were all available for opt-out. Since I do most of my shopping online, I never really look at catalogs unless I'm bored... and we all know

savvyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02544254698136250262noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9544058.post-64457867146277720942007-11-09T09:08:00.000-06:002007-11-09T09:32:56.912-06:00

Things are a little busy here these days. Baby Savvy is doing great, every day he is a little different... a little bigger, a little more alert, a little more active, and of course he's getting even cuter. In addition to the handful of work he brings, we have two apartments available as of next month that I need to get rented! The first open unit is because our long-term tenants are moving out

savvyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02544254698136250262noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9544058.post-85544602137871888622007-11-01T08:21:00.000-05:002007-11-01T12:38:03.859-05:00

No time for a real post, but I thought I'd throw a few things out here... We gave out candy (KitKats, Almond Joy, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups) and little containers of Play-dough last night.... but we only had FIVE trick-or-treaters. I'm so disappointed, but I guess that's what you get when you live on a block with only four houses. Anyone want some Play-dough... we only have 45 containers

savvyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02544254698136250262noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9544058.post-350270356817456372007-10-31T07:59:00.000-05:002007-10-31T09:53:14.581-05:00

October was a good month... we had a baby (well, technically in September, but just for a few hours)! Financially it was good as well. We missed our goal on the debt reduction front, but I attribute that to the lack of time I had to monitor spending, as well as the mess that is our insurance and FSA payments. We probably have a couple hundred dollars coming back to us soon. We made almost

savvyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02544254698136250262noreply@blogger.com