Before I got my own Costco Card, I used to visit the store with a friend of mine that had a Costco Card. I was pretty impressed with the store so I dropped the $50 to get my own membership. I thought I would save alot of money by buying in bulk.

I have been a Costco member for over 2 years but I've decided that I will not be renewing my membership for another year. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy myself every time I go to Costco. I usually go when I'm hungry so I can sample all of the food displays. By the time I leave the store, I'd usually be full of free samples. If there were not enough samples to fill up on, I usually hit the snack bar for hot dog and drink for $1.50.

I like Costco and I do save a little money but to me, it's not worth the $50 membership fee. Here is why I'm not renewing my membership:

• I spend too much. I always find something that I had not planned to purchase. It's usually an electronic item that has a good price and I can't find anywhere else or something else that I think I need. It happens every time I go no matter how much I tell myself I won't do it. This will usually negate any money I saved.
  
• Limited Bulk Needs. I live alone and don't cook so there is not much that I need to buy in bulk.


• Limited Brands. I am very brand loyal. Most brands of the everyday items I use (toothpaste, mouthwash, soap, shaving cream), they don't carry. If I can't buy these items in bulk, I'm really not saving any money. I've tried to switch to the brands they use but they don't have the desired effect.

I will still visit Costco; only I'll probably only go once or twice a year with my friend. He goes all the time anyway so it won't be a big deal if I tag along. I offered to drop a few bucks towards his membership fees but being the great buddy he is, he refused my offer.

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If you didn't catch it yesterday, I am giving away a free $50 gas card to celebrate having over 50,000 visitors to SingleGuyMoney. Get all the details here.

Carnivals:
I participated in the 118th Festival of Frugality - ABC Edition hosted by My Dollar Plan. My article on "Avoiding Bank Fees" was including among the great list of articles.

I also participated in the Carnival of Personal Finance #145 : Baby Education Edition hosted by Million Dollar Journey. My article on "How to Buy a Reliable Used Car" was included among the great list of articles.

Other Links:
I was mentioned in a Blog Roundup on Mainstreet.com. Mainstreet.com is newly launched and is the sister site of TheStreet.com.

Favorite articles from my blogroll:
It's the Little Things in Life @ FromMike.com
What I'm Willing to Give Up for Financial Security @ Frugal Duchess
Changing Behaviors @ Saving Savy by a Future Millionaire
There are No Financial Cinderellas @ Frugal Dad
Trimming the Fat Off of Your Monthly Bills @ Dimples Divine Domain

SingleGuyMoney readers - Welcome and thanks for visiting. To celebrate my 50,000th reader, I'm having a giveaway!!!!

I sincerely appreciate everyone taking the time to visit and read my blog. I enjoy sharing my financial story and I hope you enjoy reading.

The Gift:
I will be giving away a free $50 gas card. I am funding this out of my own pocket and no company gave me a free gift card. I know gas prices suck right now so to thank you for visiting my blog, I want to make that next fill-up a little bit easier. I have a couple of books to give away but you can't put a book in your gas tank. Stay tuned for the book giveaway coming soon.

The Rules:

• One entry per person, duplicate entries will be disqualified. - Let's make this fair.
• Contest applies to U.S. residents only.
• I have the final say on the contest.
• I will use a random online number generator to pick the winner.
• The gas card will be from BP. If you don't have a BP in your area, if possible, I will get a giftcard from the gas station you choose (if I have one in my area).

How to Enter:

• The contest starts today, Saturday March 29, 2008 and will end on Friday April 4, 2008 @ 11:59pm. I will announce the winner in a post on Saturday April 5, 2008.
• All you need to do to enter is leave a comment on this post. I want to know: what kind of car you drive and how much you are spending on gas each week or month.

If you are new or haven't done so already, please consider subscribing to SingleGuyMoney to be updated when there is a new post and to find out if you won!

Free Money:
Easy, Free $25 ING Savings Referrals
Signed Up for Upromise

I will be having the first ever giveaway here at SingleGuyMoney to celebrate the first 50,000 visitors to the site. This site passed the 50,000 visitor mark yesterday and I think that deserves a celebration.

I'm wrapping up the details on the giveaway and I'll be posting the prize and the details in a couple of days.

In the meantime, please be sure to subscribe to SingleGuyMoney to be notified when the giveaway details are revealed.

Other Articles:

Easy $25 ING Savings Referrals

How to Buy a Reliable Used Car

What I Hate About Wal-Mart

Here are just a few of the of deals and bonuses going on around the web right now to help you bring in extra money without much effort or save money on a purchase.

Upromise: Join Upromise by April 30,2008 and get $10 just for opening an account.

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Ebates - Where it pays to shop online! Get $5 when you sign up and make at least one purchase.

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It's nearing the end of the month and most of the bills are paid. I still have to pay my homeowners association dues and the the trash bill. The total of both of those will come out to a little less than $200. How do the numbers add up for March? Keep reading.............

March Budget:

• Budgeted Income: $7590.00 (Composed of paychecks, rental income and Georgia Tax Refund) Total Income to Date: $5933.68
• Budgeted Expenses: $5568.95; Total to Date: $4050.75
• Current Income - Expenses: $1882.63

The only remaining income for this month is my last paycheck for March (I am paid bi-weekly). The only other expenses are the above mentioned bills, miscellaneous expenses and an additional $500 that I need to add to my Freedom Account. Thanks to my Georgia state tax refund this month, I added an additional $2500 in income.

Once all of the above income and expenses are accounted for, I should have about a $1500 surplus for the month. Unfortunately, I don't have this much of a surplus every month. 100% of the surplus will be used to help beef up my savings account for my upcoming car loan payoff. I'd originally planned to pay off my car loan by the end of the year but my 31st birthday is coming up in a couple of months and I think that my paid-off car will be my gift.

How did I start budgeting? First of all, I took advantage of the 30 day free trial at Mvelopes to help me get a firm grasp on how to use a budget. I suggest using a budget to help you manage your income and expenses. I can actually say that using a budget is certainly helping me improve my monthly money handling.

Do you have a budget?

SingleGuyMoney Recommends: Ebates - Where it pays to shop online.

Happy Easter Everyone! Today looks like it will be a beautiful day for the Atlanta area! I have family coming over this afternoon for dinner and I'll be hosting an easter egg hunt for the kids. Since I need to get ready for them, I'll be going back to the archives of SingleGuyMoney and highlighting some of my favorite posts from the past week from around the blogosphere.

From the SingleGuyMoney Archives:
When I Get Out of Debt, I Want To
Bank of America wants to help me get out of debt.
My Bad Habits are Costing Me
Q&A

From the M-Network:
There's No Shame in Renting @ BeingFrugal.net
Happy Birthday, Cash Money Life and a Giveaway!!! @ CashMoneyLife
Extravagant Spending, Is it ok? @ Gather Little by Little
How Small a Transaction Before Plastic Seems Absurd @ Paid Twice
Are You Selling Your Credit Score? @ Moolanomy
Why I'm Not Getting a Refund Anticipation Loan or H&R Block Emerald Card @ Mrs Micah
Federal Spending 2008 - Where Your Money Goes? @ My Two Dollars
20 Inexpensive Ways to Lower Your Utility Bills @ The Dough Roller

Please be sure to enjoy all of the articles above and ENJOY YOUR DAY!!!

Image Credit: DryIcons

You ever have one of those days where you just want to say to h*ll with it and just go home? Today was one of those days for me. It seems like everything just did not want to go right. My clients were getting on my nerves, my co-workers were getting on my nerves and on top of that, I was grumpy because I didn't sleep very well last night...Hmm, maybe that had something to do with it.

It's days like this when I wish I was COMPLETELY debt free and my F.U. fund was fully funded. The good thing about this is that I'll think twice before I take on additional debt. The more debt I have, the longer I have to run the corporate rat race.

Image Credit: The Marmot

If you haven't received the letter yet or read it all over the web, the IRS has posted a calendar with the potential dates of when you should receive your economic stimulus payment. Don't worry when you receive the letter from the IRS, it clearly has "Economic Stimulus Act of 2008" in red on the front of the letter above your name and address. If you have not yet calculated your potential payout, you can use this detailed calculator from the IRS.

If you filed your taxes and selected the direct deposit option for your refund, you should check the direct deposit section of the calendar. If you did not select the direct deposit option, you
should check the paper check section of the calendar to see when you will receive your check in the mail.

Do you plan to help stimulate the economy? I haven't decided on how I will use my payment but I seriously doubt it will be for a frivolous unplanned purchase.

Reminder: Please subscribe to SingleGuyMoney.

EXTRA, EXTRA, READ ALL ABOUT IT!!!!!!!!!!!!

In case you haven't heard it yet, the Feds cut rates an additional 3/4 of a percentage point today. As a result, the Dow had the 4th biggest one day gain with a surge of 420 points. Unfortunately, it going to take several more big "surges" to make up for the losses I've incurred in my investment accounts to date.

In better news, the St Patrick's Day Edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance was hosted by Lynnae at beingfrugal.net. My article, Trying to Keep My Good Tenant, was including among the huge list of other great articles.

Image Credit: wili_hybrid

As more and more banks continue to lose money as a result of the foreclosure crisis and the weakening economy, they are looking for more ways to make up for the lost revenue. I don’t know about you but I don’t have any extra money to give away to the banks. In this economy, it is important to watch and hold on to every penny. As my grandmother used to say, "Boy, you need to hold on to a dollar until you hear it holler."

Here are a couple of fees to avoid:

1. ATM Fees. Chase Bank has joined Bank of America by charging $3 for non-member ATM withdrawals. Avoid these fees by using your own banks ATM when possible. If you find yourself frequently incurring ATM fees, consider changing banks. ING Direct offers an online checking account without the checks and a large network of free ATMs. Washington Mutual Bank also offers a free checking and high yield savings account combo.
   
2. Minimum Balance Fees. There are far too many free accounts out there for anyone to have to pay a fee to have an account. If your employer offers direct deposit or you receive government benefits, you can pretty much get a free account anywhere.
   
3. Overdrafts. Most banks now charge anywhere from $25-$35 for a bounced check. Make sure you balance your account regularly to make sure you have enough money in your account to cover the check. That $5 check could end up costing you over $40. Also, consider linking your checking account to a savings account or money market account for an additional protection.

Take a few minutes out of your busy schedule to peruse your bank statement. You'd be amazed at what you may find. I opened an account a year ago to get the account opening bonus and sort of forgot about the account. I thought the account was free so I did not think about it too much. I got a statement but did not bother to open it for a couple of months. When I did finally open the statement, I realized I had been charged a $3 fee causing me to have a negative balance. I went to the bank the next morning, deposited $3 to get the account out of the red and closed the account. Had I not checked the statement and realized my mistake, that $3 fee could have cost me big bucks.

Do you check your bank statements?

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Image Credit: Thrifty Fun

Advertising is a powerful thing. I’d known this before but this weekend, something happened that proved how powerful it really is. I’m sure most of you in the United States know of the automobile insurance company that uses a Gecko as its advertising icon. If someone asked you the name of the company and/or showed you a picture of a Gecko, you could probably spit out the company name in about 2 seconds.
What if you asked a three year old? I received an advertisement from this company in my bank statement. I removed the advertisement and laid it on the table meaning to trash it a little later. My cousin picked it up and promptly said the name of the company loud and clear. I had to ask her again just to be sure I’d heard her correctly. Sure enough, she said the name of the company again. Yes, the company name was printed on the card but she is three years old and she can’t read!! She only saw the picture and immediately knew what company the picture represented. Needless to say, I was pretty astonished.

For those of you that have kids, does this happen often? Can your child identify the name of a company just from an advertisement without hearing the name first?

If you haven't voted already, be sure to visit the Free Money Finance March Madness Competition. My post, I Want to Be Rich Like You, made it to the Sweet 16.

The winner of the competition will get a $500 donation to their charity of their choice. I am playing for the Atlanta Community Food Bank because no one should have to be hungry.

If you found SingleGuyMoney via the competition and/or this is your first time here, please be sure to subscribe for more great posts.

Image Credit: hjl

This post is in response to a contest being run over at DebtKid. He wants you to share your dumbest purchase for a chance to win his dumbest purchase, a Nintendo DS Lite. Be sure to leave a comment on his blog for 1 entry. If you have a personal finance blog and write a post about your dumbest purchase, you get 25 entries. You will have until March 18th to share your story.

My dumbest purchase is one that unfortunately, probably a lot of us have made. I bought a new car with no money down and rolled in negative equity.

I went through a period of wanting a new car every two years. When I went to purchase my new car, my credit was good enough that I did not need a down payment. I was smart enough to do my research on a fair price for the car but I was dumb enough to finance the full purchase price of the car and negative equity from my old car. Not only did I start off with negative equity when I drove my 100% financed new car off the lot, I also had the balance from my previous car loan rolled in making me even more upside down.


My last new car purchase, about 2 years ago, I paid about $26,000 for the car and rolled in about $4,000 in negative equity. My payment on my new car went up to about $120 more than my previous payment. Six months after the purchase, the value of my big SUV had dropped like a rock due to the high gas prices and I’d only managed to reduce the loan balance by about $800.

I’ve since paid the loan down by about $7,000 to date and I plan to pay off the car in full before the end of this year. If I pay off the loan by the end of this year, I will have financed the car for about 30 months instead of the original 72 month loan.

Bad Decisions from the M-Network:
The Dumbest Purchase We Ever Made @ beingfrugal.net
What Was Your Dumbest Purchase Ever @ CashMoneyLife
Dumbest Purchase Ever @ Gather Little by Little
My Dumbest Purchase Ever - It's a Mindset @ PaidTwice
My Dumbest Purchase Ever and Lessons Learned @ Moolanomy
Possibly My Wisest Purchase Ever @ Mrs Micah

Reminder: Be sure to subscribe to SingleGuyMoney to be notified of a new posting.

The taxes are finally done and the damage was not nearly as bad as I thought. I’ve used TaxCut to prepare my taxes for the past few years and I’ve been pretty happy with it. I’ve also used TurboTax and I find that I prefer TaxCut for the ease of use. Since I used TaxCut last year, I was able to bring over my data from last year without having to dig out my tax returns from 2006. My income sources in 2007 were pretty much the same as 2006 so I only needed to update the dollar amount instead of typing in the information all over again.

I won’t post the actual numbers but my income for 2007 was around $80k. That number was determined by adding up the salary from my job, rental income and interest income. I didn’t need to include blogging income because it wasn’t very much at all (less than $100). This year should hopefully be better though (subliminal message: please visit the advertisers ;-). My ultimate goal is to bring in at least $100,000 from all sources by the time I turn 33. I’m about to be 31 so I have 26 months to hit my goal.

I usually under withhold my federal taxes since I’d rather save the money on my own and just pay the government what I owe in one lump sum. I like to try and make my money work for me instead of giving the government a free loan. I was able to significantly reduce the federal tax owed by itemizing deductions for mortgage interest on my primary home and my rental property and expenses related to my rental property.

I’m happy to say the numbers worked out much better than I’d hoped. I only owe the federal government $504.00 and I am getting a refund of $2500 from the State of Georgia. I plan to contact my human resources department to have my state exemptions adjusted so they will take a little less money out of each paycheck. Once I receive the economic stimulus check this summer, I will actually have a gain of $96 dollars from the feds. I’d set aside $1000 to pay my federal taxes so I won’t need to pull additional money out of savings as I’d originally thought. I’ve electronically filed my taxes and I should get my state refund in about a week. I will send the payment for my federal tax balance before the April 15th deadline.

Have you finished your taxes? Did you get a refund or do you owe Uncle Sam?

Related Posts:
Suggestions for your Tax Refund – Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 (Summary)

Every day that I watch the news, I never fail to hear a story about the struggling housing market. If I were to worry myself every time I heard the bad news, I would probably make myself sick. Every time I hear a report on the poor housing market, I used to start visiting different home valuation sites to see how my home value has changed. I would get stressed out every time I saw that the value had fallen.

As the title says, I am no longer worried about my home value. I realized a lot of the problems going on in the housing industry has the most affect on current homebuyers and current sellers. If you are trying to buy a house right now, you have a great selection to choose from but you have to be more financially qualified to borrow the money for your purchase. If you are trying to sell a home right now, you have a lot more competition in the market and fewer financially qualified borrowers. It seems that if you were to visit a random subdivision, you will see a lot of homes with “For Sale” signs in front of them.

Why am I no longer worrying about my home value? I am not in the market to buy another home and I am not ready to sell my home. My home is perfect for me right now and should be for the next few years. My home is serving its purpose as a place to lay my head. Thankfully, I'm not having a problem making my mortgage payment each month. I have no plans to change jobs or move right now. I have no plans to start a family anytime soon so I don’t need any additional space.

The latest reports indicate the housing market should start to get better in a year or two. According to a friend of mine who is a real estate agent, things in the Atlanta area are not as bad as the media is making it seem. As he always tells me, real estate is local. The real estate in California is different from the real estate in Georgia. Of course, there are certain areas in Atlanta that were hit a lot harder by subprime loans.

There you have it; I’m no longer worried about my home value. I’ll still check it every few months or so just to update my Net Worth statement but that's it.

What about you? Are you worried about your home value? Are you currently selling a home or looking to purchase a home?

Related Articles:
The Real Cost of Homeownership
Online Home Value Sites
Real Life Example of the Sucky Housing Market

I’ve had my current tenant since I first decided to become a landlord and rent out my house two years ago. I did not take the proper steps of protecting myself by running a credit report on my tenant or verifying prior rental history. I had a couple of people interested, mostly college students from the local college, but decided to go with my current tenant. I had multiple conversations with her and I just had a gut feeling about her. So far, that gut feeling worked out to be correct and she has been a great tenant.

My tenant pays her rent on time. I’ve never had a bounced check from her and she doesn’t call me for minor repairs. I’ve never even had to respond to a “lockout” at 3am. Sometimes, I get so busy and I don’t realize that it is time to pick up the rent check and she will call me to remind me. Of course, part of it is probably because she doesn’t want to pay the $50 late fee but that’s ok with me.

I’m working on the new lease and I want to make an attempt to keep my current tenant for at least another two years. In today’s market, I could probably rent my home for about $1200. My current tenant is only paying $1000 which doesn’t quite cover the mortgage. I chose not to raise the rent last year in an effort to keep my tenant. This year, I’m going to give my tenant two options to stay. I’ve heard how hard it is being a landlord and some of the nightmare tenants. I’ve been able to avoid that and I want to continue not having to deal with crap like that.

Option 1:
If my tenant chooses to sign a one year lease, the rent will increase to $1100. I think this 10% increase is fair considering I did not increase the rent last year.

Option 2:

This is the least expensive option for the tenant and the best option for me. I’m offering to only increase the rent to $1050 if she chooses to sign a two year lease. This will pretty much guarantee I have a good paying tenant for the next two years and also give me time to get right-side-up on the home. By this time, I will have some equity in the home and the housing market will be in a lot better position.

My tenant has to let me which option she will choose by April 1st. Once I know her decision and have the signed lease in hand, I’ll let you guys know which option she chose.

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I have about four Wal-Mart Supercenters within five miles of my house. I have been to all 4 of them and I have finally found the one that is not so bad. All of them are always crowded and are usually out of the things I need. Today, I went to the one I like the best out of the four. I've found that everytime I go to Wal-Mart, there is a recurring theme of things that I hate.

Here is what I saw on my trip today and usually everytime I go to Wally World:

• Rude People. This is not neccesarily just Wal-Mart though. This is one of the reasons I keep shopping to a minimum.
• More than 20. I had about 5 items that I needed to purchase. I went to the 20 items or less aisle and of course, the person in front of me had about 50 items. I HATE THAT!
• Bad Drivers. I hate when people cut across the parking lot and almost hit me just to get a parking space close to the door. I hate when people go the wrong way in the travel aisles. I hate when people wait on parking spaces blocking traffic when they can just park a couple of spaces further from the store.
• Poor Financial Responsibility. This is my biggest pet peeve. Today, the person in front of me with the 50 items paid for her food with her food stamp card. She paid for her 5 DVD's with cash. Granted, I do not know what her financial position is or how many kids she has but if you need foodstamps to buy your food, you probably should be saving your cash for other needs and not movies.

I actually do save money at Wal-Mart or I would go somewhere else. Are you a Wal-Mart shopper? What you do dislike about Wal-Mart?

SingleGuyMoney recommends Mypoints for free giftcards, airline miles, vacations and more.

Image Credit: ILoveMyPiccolo

I got back from my unplanned business trip last night. Since the trip came up so suddenly, I was not able to plan out my weekend posts. I guess that is a prime example of why you should not procrastinate on doing things you need to do.

This post will be a bit random so do your best to follow along. I apologize in advance!

This past week, I was interviewed by My Two Dollars. Be sure to head over and check it out.

Some of the posts I liked this week include:

Lynnae over at BeingFrugal did an excellent wrapup of the M-Network Series on Dave Ramsey's 7 Baby Steps. This is a great list of personal finance posts that everyone should check out.

Paid Twice posts about her dumbest purchase ever. What's yours?

Mrs Micah premieres The Finwikian. This is a great list of personal finance blog resources and personal finance information.

Saving Money:

Since I was out of town on business, I was able to pay for my breakfast, lunch and dinner with my corporate credit card. This resulted in me spending $0 for food on Thursday and Friday. It may only be a savings of $20-30 but every little bit helps.

I signed up for Upromise this week. Check out this post and considering signing up yourself.

I paid for my homeowners insurance policy with my Citi Cash Returns card. I am in the last month of my 5% bonus period so I wanted to be sure I earned the bonus before my 3 month bonus period expired.

Reminders:

• Be sure you've set your clock ahead one hour so you won't be late to work on Monday.
• Please subscribe to SingleGuyMoney, if you haven't done so already.

I was notified yesterday by my boss that he needed me to go help out in another office for a couple of days. I don't want to go but I always like to keep my boss happy so off I go. I'll be back late Saturday or Sunday.

I wasn't prepared to be out of town so I had not scheduled any posts ahead of time. I know there are some of you who haven't had time to read all the articles so I wanted to highlight a few of my favorites.

From the archives:

My Bad Habits Are Costing Me

Married Folks and Money

How I Became a Landlord

Credit Scores on the Rise

Applying for a Business Card

Have a great weekend and I will see you next week!

Image Credit: hyku

Please join me in welcoming Mrs Micah: Finance for a Freelance Life to the M-Network. We are glad to have Mrs Micah as part of the group and I know she will make a great addition. Be sure to visit her blog and also check out her new project, The Finwikian. The Finwikian is a wiki dedicated to all things related to personal finance on the internet.

I'd also like to introduce you to a new blogger I've added to my blogroll. Check out From Mike.com - Random Thoughts on Life. Mike is a 30 year old father of 2 who realized his life was headed toward financial turmoil. Be sure to check it out and subscribe to his feed. I like his writing style and I look forward to following his debt reduction progress.

Subscribe to SingleGuyMoney

At the beginning of last year, I set an unofficial and unadvertised goal of increasing my passive income. Since then, I’ve signed up for Mypoints and Ebates and I’ve been pretty happy with the proceeds with minimal effort on my part. It’s not a lot by any means but every little bit helps.

This past weekend, I signed up for Upromise. I’ve heard of them before and they are actually a featured sponsor of SingleGuyMoney. I was under the impression that the program was only for individuals with children looking to save money for college. After looking more into the program, I realized that Upromise can benefit anyone.

If you don’t have a child headed to college and decide to open an account, you have a couple of options:
Save for Someone else: You have the option of designating a beneficiary of the funds you earn in your Upromise Account. You can save for your child, your sister or brother, cousin, friend, next door neighbor or virtually anyone you wish.
Save for Yourself: Save to help yourself with college costs or withdraw the funds to use for whatever. Withdrawing money is as simple as mailing in a withdrawal request.
The money you earn can be saved in a 529 plan, credited towards your student loan or saved in your Upromise account.

Earning Money:
Earning money for your Upromise account is as simple as doing what you do every day. Once you sign up and link your debit, credit and/or grocery rewards card, everything is automatic. More than 550 companies and over 8,000 restaurants will give you college contributions through Upromise. The percentage cashback you earn is listed on the website in the company list. You can also earn money for shopping online through the Upromise website.
Like to dine out at your favorite restaurant? Sign up as a preferred diner and earn up to 8% towards your college savings if the restaurant is a participating member. You don’t have to guess if the restaurant is a participating member. Just pop in your zip code under dining and you’ll get a list.
There are numerous ways to earn money with Upromise. Considering opening an account today. It’s free, easy and takes no time to sign up.

Here we go again. A couple of weeks ago, I had to replace the front door to my rental property. Yesterday, I got a call from my tenant for another issue. It appears there was a wet area on the wall and she could not determine where the water was coming from. This same problem happened about 2 months ago and went away.

I called American Home Shield to check out the problem and see if they could repair it. American Home Shield offers a home warranty to cover failure to major components in your home. For my house, it costs about $350 a year and each service call is $55. The component has to have been in proper working order prior to the failure in order for the repair to be covered.

Turns out, when I had hardwood flooring installed about 2 years ago, they removed the toilet to put flooring in the bathroom and did not reinstall something in the base of the toilet causing there to be a small leak each time the toilet was flushed. Whatever they did wrong finally failed and caused all the water to run out of the bottom of the toilet. Since the toilet was not properly installed, American Home Shield denied the repair. The technician chose to replace the wax seal as a courtesy.

Now, I have to replace the carpet in the living room next to the bathroom that flooded and the hardwood floors (laminate) that have warped in the bathroom.

I'm considering filing a claim under my landlord’s policy to see if it will be a covered loss. Most insurance companies only cover losses that are sudden and accidental. Since I don’t know how long this has been happening, I’m not sure it will be covered. If it is a covered loss, I will only be out of my $500 deductible. If it’s not a covered loss, I have to pay for the cost of the repair and have a claim show up on my CLUE report.

What would you do???

Related Posts:
The Disappearing Account


Image Credit: mio please

I hate shopping. Let me say it again. I hate shopping. I don’t like dealing with the crowds of rude people with uncontrollable kids talking on their cell phones. I’m not a mean person and I don’t have anything against kids, but I just don’t have a lot of patience for people who aren’t considerate of others.

Since I hate shopping so much, I only shop for clothes once a year. I am a big fan of Kohl’s due to their frequent sales and large selection. The stores are also large enough that you aren’t bumping into anyone.

They had a pretty good sale this weekend and I had Kohl’s giftcard that I received as a Christmas gift that needed to be used. Reluctantly, I decided to go ahead and get my yearly shopping spree completed.

The Plan:
Wanted items: The dress code in my office is business casual. I usually wear khaki’s and either a short-sleeved button down or a long-sleeve button down in the winter. In the summer, I usually wear short –sleeve polo type shirts. I’d planned to purchase at least two pairs of pants and at least 5 short-sleeved shirts.

Purchased items: I ended up purchasing 2 short-sleeve polo type shirts, 3 short-sleeve button down shirts and 1 pair of khaki pants.

What I spent: I ended up spending a little less than $40 out of pocket for my 5 shirts and 2 pairs of pants. The shirts were regularly $30-$40 but were on sale for $12.99 - $19.99. The pants were regularly priced at $34.99 but were on sale for $24.99. I only bought one pair since they were a little bit more expensive than I was wanted to pay.

Where'd the money come from? I’d set aside $200 in the budget for my annual shopping spree so I have about $160 for more shopping. I need to buy shoes sometime soon and that purchase will come from the $160. The leftover money will probably go back into my Freedom Account.

Image Credit: Phillie Casablanca

THANK YOU to all the sites that have sent traffic my way in the month of February. Even if you are not in the top 10 list of referrals. I still appreciate you sending any traffic my way. If you were one of those that found SingleGuyMoney thru a referral from another site, THANK YOU for visiting. Please visit often and be sure to subscribe!!!

Top 10 Referrers for February:

1. Fabulous Financials - You Rock SingleMa!
2. Moolanomy - Thanks Pinyo! (M-Network and Money Hackers Network Founder)
3. PaidTwice - Thanks PT! (M-Network member)
4. CashMoneyLife - Thanks Patrick! (M-Network member)
5. Frugal Hacks
6. BeingFrugal - Thanks Lynnae! (M-Network member)
7. Get Rich Slowly
8. Gather Little by Little - Thanks Gibble! (M-Network member)
9. Frugal Bachelor
10. My Two Dollars - Thanks MTD! (M-Network member)

Again, thank you to everyone who visited SingleGuyMoney or sent traffic my way.

If you found my blog via the Free Money Finance Competition, welcome, thank you and be sure to vote for my post, "I Wanna Be Rich Like You." I'm playing for the Atlanta Community Food Bank because no one should be hungry.

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Assets:

• Rental Property - $137,000.00
• Primary Home - $196,000.00
• Car - $19,500.00
• Retirement - $40,341.12
• Cash (checking and savings) - $37,335.88
• Brokerage - $3276.40

Total Assets: $443,453.40 - increase of 0.61%

Liabilities:

• Rental Property Mortgage - $149,352.80
• Primary Home Mortgage - $182,523.00
• Car Loan - $23,910.68
• Student Loan - $22,500.00
• Credit Cards - $119.70

Total Liabilities: $378,406.18 - decrease of -0.22%

Net Worth: $65,047.22, increase from prior month 5.77%

Monthly Recap:

• Finally, the first positive month of 2008.
• Credit card debt is all from this month and will be paid in full next month.
• By keeping my spending in check, I was able to keep my February expenses significantly less than income.

Looking Ahead:

• March income will be boosted by a state tax refund (more on that in another post).
• Irregular expenses: Homeowners insurance bill due.

How did my friends do?

February 2008 Site and Net Worth Review from Moolanomy

February 2008 Net Worth Update from My Dollar Plan

Net Worth Update - After becoming debt free from DebtFree Revolution

Related Posts:

January 2008 Net Worth Review