And More Interesting Links...

Here's some more interesting links I recently found...

• Task Rabbit.  I may try this out sometime as doing odd jobs is right up my alley.
• How We Eliminated $46,000 in Debt in 10 Months.  I always like stories of people conquering debt!
• Watson Fellowship.  Getting paid to travel the world for a year?? How cool is that??
• Las Vegas Advisor.  We haven't moved to Las Vegas yet but when we do, I will definitely use this website to find some great deals.
• 10 Fun, Frugal Summer Activities.  I like anything with the words fun and frugal in the same title.

I'm Going to Japan! And the Philippines!

It has been a crazy week!  Apparently buying a bank repo is not as smooth a process as a straight up home purchase.  We were scheduled to close on August 9th or September 22nd (?!) according to the realtor (who is now on vacation in the Philippines for a month (!?).  I am assuming the sale will close...sometime.
And then there is our trip to Japan which has been craziness of a whole different manner.  First we were going to take a Space A military hop but there is a very real possibility of getting bumped (repeatedly) and possibly getting stuck in Japan for a month or more which would not only mess up our signing of the condo sale paperwork but would probably bankrupt us as Japan is an expensive place to stay.
So then I was going to just pay retail and go by myself to Japan but I was kind of heartbroken over this because I would be away from the hubby for three weeks AND we wouldn't get to travel together AND the cheapest ticket price I could find was $1300 AND then we would still need to come back to Asia later in the year to go to the Philippines which would cost another huge amount for both of our airline tickets.
Finally I was poking around the internet looking for any other option--cruise ships aren't even going to Japan these days and freighter travel is iffy at best.  Just for amusement I did a search for Seattle to Manila tickets because the cousins we are staying with are going to the Philippines in September and were asking about side trips they could take out of Manila (they will go to Hong Kong and Singapore).  To my surprise, round trip tickets from Seattle to Manila were $900 each--for $500 more both of us can go! 
This way hubby will be able to visit his family in the Philippines, I will get to spend a week or so in the Philippines (this takes care of the trip later in the year to the Philippines) AND I will be able to hop over to Japan to meet up with my friends for a week.
I think this will work out after all...

My Friends are Costing Me Money!

One of the things I missed the most when we were traveling was my friends.  I felt so out of the loop, I missed hanging out with people, and I missed the shared experiences of working or volunteering with people on projects.  Keeping in touch by email or phone was OK but not the same.
Now that I have been back for a couple of weeks, I have managed to catch up with many friends but I have also noticed that being social costs money!  (I guess I didn't appreciate all of the savings of not going around with friends while we were in Atlanta...).  Within the last couple of weeks I have...

• Had a friend who ended up in the hospital (bought card and flowers)
• Had a friend whose child called to remind me it was her birthday (bought a birthday cake).  Note: I started providing birthday cakes to my friend's children some years ago.  They are from Iraq and had never seen a birthday cake before so after the first cake, it became a tradition for me to bring a cake for all four of her kid's birthdays since she is a widowed mom and her family cannot afford to help her much.
• Met up with a group of friends at the mall (I didn't buy anything while we were shopping but did end up buying a drink at Starbucks and lunch at a restaurant).
• Another friend came to me asking if I could buy a dozen tamales from her friend who was struggling to pay her rent since she had lost her job (bought tamales).
• Have met three other friends at Starbucks over the past couple of weeks (bought three Starbucks drinks for me and one for a friend).
• Went to an early morning meeting for a friend who would be out of town and needed someone to run the meeting for her (bought Starbucks again...out of habit).

In the next couple of weeks I will be:

• Meeting up with my sister and her kids (this will include gas money for the six hour drive and paying for dinner for everyone, another old habit from when I used to actually have money).
• Turning down a trip to the beach with friends who will be going next weekend (it would be fun but again, I am saving my money for our trip to Japan and this would definitely cost me more money)
• Debating about an invitation to a fundraiser event in Seattle (I used to be a good one to invite to fundraisers because I like helping out where I can, unfortunately, attending these events is expensive!).

So, on the one hand, I love hanging out with friends but the financial costs are pretty high.  Fortunately almost everyone I know has had to cut back their spending so our day long shopping sprees are probably history (thank goodness!) but it just never dawned on me that there is a cost associated just by being social.  Yikes.

If You Don't Work...What Do You Do?

First, someone asked me this very question today.  "If you aren't working, what do you do with all of your time?" she asked.  Then I ran across this blog post which mentioned the same thing, basically, one of the three requirements for retiring is that you must be able to enjoy living without working.  Since I haven't worked in nearly eight months, I think I have pretty much got the hang of not working.  Surprisingly, it does take some getting used to! 
Who would have thought that not working can take some effort as, for many people, being able to retire is that idealized state that many people aim for thinking that it would be so easy to live a life of leisure and do nothing at all.  Now, however, I am so busy I don't know how I would actually fit eight hours of work into my hectic day, but it is probably quite different than what most people assume you do when you retire (hint: you won't find me playing golf or lunching with the ladies, I can't afford it!). 
Here's how I fill a typical day:

• Wake up about 8am or 9am (without an alarm clock which is the best part of all).
• Clean up the house, or in our case as we are traveling, our room.  Do laundry occasionally.
• Drink my tea while I check email and the other dozen or so websites that I frequent.
• Shower and get ready to go.
• Drop hubby off at the casino for his morning poker game.  While he is playing, I will do errands, pick up some groceries, check the mail, etc.
• Volunteer at my old non profit for a couple of hours on Mondays and Tuesdays.
• Study Japanese for at least an hour each day, sometimes two, usually in the coffee shop of the casino while he plays (and where I get free beverages. Now if I could just convince them to provide free wi-fi and better lighting I would be set!).
• Eat lunch with hubby at the casino (they provide a free lunch for poker players so we split his lunch which is plenty for both of us).
• Go home in the afternoon.  During this time, hubby cooks dinner for the family we are staying with and I update my blogs and websites.
• In the early evening hubby might play another poker game with his friends or we may go to the movie at the military base ($3 each), watch a concert on the Boardwalk (free), or take a walk on the beach or local trail (also free).
• If hubby is playing poker with his friends in the early evening, I might meet up with my friends, go to Barnes and Noble and read, stop by the library to get some books, take my friend's kids somewhere (playground, swimming, etc), or work on a project (I'm working on a book v....e...r...y slowly). 
• On the weekend, we tend to look for free activities that are going on in the community.  Last weekend, I did some baking and we went to a potluck birthday party for a niece.  Next weekend there is a community fair which should provide some nice, free entertainment.

And this is what I have learned about being job-free:

• You can't pick up shopping as a hobby or do any other type of expensive hobby since you no longer have the income coming in to support such things.  In our case, our choice is to either live frugally with lots of free entertainment or go back to work in order to afford expensive entertainment.  I choose frugal!
• By not having a job to go to every day, I save a LOT of money.  No more work wardrobe, no more filling up the gas tank every few days to drive to far away meetings, no more morning (and afternoon!) Starbucks runs, no more designer everything to show off to my co-workers, no more business lunches out at fancy restaurants.
• Since we have a super flexible schedule, we can do lots of interesting things at the drop of a hat.  In Atlanta, we ended up staying a few extra months when the opportunity presented itself.  When my sister-in-law asked if we wanted to go to Las Vegas if she provided free transportation and lodging we quickly jumped at the opportunity.  We didn't hear about the party last weekend until the last minute but with no real schedule, we could drop what we were doing and go.

I still do like working however, and eventually I may open another business.  I am also looking forward to the possibility of working some short-term jobs in Las Vegas (there are a lot of conventions such as the Consumer Electronics Show and World Series of Poker that hire vendors for short-term jobs for the duration of the event--I think it would be super interesting to work with such diverse groups of people), but I have come to the conclusion, however, that the American Dream isn't all it is cracked up to be.  By downsizing our lives considerably, getting rid of the 9-5 job, getting rid of the big house and yard and 2.6 cars in the driveway, we have been able to enjoy so many more interesting opportunities.  I would highly recommend "retirement" to everyone.

Free Weekend Activities

One of the great things about the Pacific Northwest is that most weekends during the summer, there are lots of things going on, many of them free.  I guess since it tends to rain most of the year here, everyone makes a mad scramble to get things done on the few weekends when it is technically supposed to be sunny (although this weekend looks like it will be decidedly cloudy).   Here's what I plan to do:

• Take a 10k walk with the local Volksmarch club.  While I can pay $3 to get "credit" towards awards with the club, you can also walk for free with them if you like.  Right now I am not aiming for an award so this will be free.
• There will be a community Gay Pride festival that, whether or not you happen to be gay, is always fun, free, and entertaining.  We will probably stop by in the afternoon and see what's going on there.
• By checking the local newspaper, I found out that the local utility company will offer a 'bring ten incandescent light bulbs in and trade them for ten free fluorescent bulbs' event.  I told the family we are staying with about this and we will probably stop by there as we make our rounds tomorrow.
• There are a couple of farmers markets in the area and an art festival this weekend which are always fun to browse through.
• The local military base is offering a free first run movie which we may or may not decide to watch (these free movies are usually packed with people so I usually just opt to wait until it comes out on DVD).
• The Bite of Seattle is this weekend and while it is not free, it is pretty entertaining not to mention there is so much great food! (unfortunately there are also hundreds of thousands of people and I am nit much for crowds so this plan is up in the air as well).
• J A Jance will be at our local Barnes and Noble signing her books (I am guessing there will be a big crowd for this as well) but again, it is another free event.  

What are you doing this weekend?  With a bit of research you may be able to find all kinds of fun, free stuff to do too!

Link Round Up: Interesting News and Info Edition

Here's some headlines that recently caught my eye...

• Why we are pumped about our underwater home.  These are exactly the reasons we are happy with buying a condo now.  Even if the market were to drop more, we are very satisfied with the low cost of the home, low monthly payment, low interest rate, and the fact that we intend to keep it for years and won't be in a hurry to sell any time soon.
• Degree not worth the debt.  FYI, no one should EVER pay $185,000 for a four year degree!
• 10 reasons I am cancelling my credit card. Again, these are the reasons we cancelled our credit cards too.
• Charlie uses the city as his gym.  Who said it costs money to get in shape??

A Quick Update!

I've been BUSY since we got back to the northwest!  Here's what's happening:

• The bank accepted out offer on the condo (although we had to raise the price to $64,000 due to multiple offers on the property but we still think it is a good price).  Hubby and I are ready and waiting to move!
• We are trying to determine the cheapest way to move our storage shed full of stuff to Las Vegas.  We have looked at a couple of truck rental companies and a couple of "pods" type moving systems.  Eekkk looks complicated...and expensive!  But I'm sure we will get our stuff there one way or another.
• The financing wasn't a problem because the price of the condo was so low but my credit report score was pretty dismal.  The lender said it was because I haven't had any credit activity for nearly two years.  She told me to go get a couple of credit cards to build up my credit.  I told her no thanks, I hate credit cards and as long as we got into the condo that's all I want.  My next house purchase will be made with CASH!  I hate credit and credit-related stuff!
• We are staying with hubby's cousins who are a very nice couple but they are hoarders. Really.  Another eekkk (as an aspie I'm soooo picky about my environment and clutter practically gives me hives).
• I hit the ground running as soon as we got here.  So far I have been to two meetings for my (ex?) non profit and will be doing more to help them out from afar.  I have also met up with a bunch of friends and it feels like I haven't even been gone!
• Off topic, I am actually looking forward to doing my income tax at the end of the year.  This will be the first year in a long time that we won't owe the IRS. They will actually owe us! Yippee.
• It is COLD here in the Pacific Northwest!  It's July and I am actually wearing a FLEECE jacket because it is in the low 60s and drizzly.  It's JULY!
• We are still debating about the Japan trip.  I absolutely have to go but we are trying to figure out if it would be cheaper for me to fly commercial and go by myself or for us to fly for free with the military but have twice the expenses.  I may end up going by myself and staying with friends to save the (expensive) cost of lodging.  If hubby goes we would need to get a hotel for the whole trip because he doesn't feel comfortable staying with people he doesn't know.

Oh well...that's life so far.  And one nice thing, I got some of my favorite ice cream here for the first time in six months. It's Umpqua espresso ice cream and the only place I have found it is at Fred Meyer, a local grocery store. Yum!

Preparing for Disaster Series (Part 7 of 10): Extended Illness

Unfortunately, one of the disasters that we are most likely to experience, whether for us or a loved one, is an extended illness.  I've run out of fingers and toes needed to count how many people I know who have been diagnosed with cancer, been in a major car wreck which takes months and months to recuperate from, or been struck with some other type of chronic disease (hepatitis, MS, etc).  At least with many other types of disasters, you are in prime physical shape to deal with the fall out (job loss, lack of money, for example). BUT, when you are the one who is struck down with some terrible physical condition, not only do you have to deal with the challenges of daily life (keeping a paycheck coming in and keeping the kids fed) but you also have to deal with treatment/recovery which is a full time job in itself!  Here's some ways to prepare for the possibility of an extended illness:

1. You need health insurance, disability insurance, and life insurance.  Just the cost of these various types of insurances is enough to scare most healthy people away but when you become ill and can't work for a period of time, or worse, you suffer a lengthy illness then die leaving your family to pick up the pieces, having comprehensive insurance coverage will be worth it's weight in gold.
2. You need an emergency fund.  Unfortunately these days, many people barely have a job. Forget about a job that will pay them lengthy sick leave benefits at their full rate.  An emergency fund (the bigger the better) can help keep the bills paid and food in the cupboards in the event that you are out of work for months.
3. A giant stockpile of food is helpful in many types of disasters...and this is one of them.  If you suddenly find yourself unable to work (or worse--unable to leave the hospital) at least having a couple month's worth of food in the pantry to keep the kids fed is a great idea.  This is where "extreme couponing" comes in handy.
4. It's a good idea to build a solid social support network now, before you need it.  In the "olden days" your social network was kind of built in with lots of local family, neighbors, and friends.  Now that people are so transient, family may be thousands of miles away and unable to help out much if you become home-bound.  With family, neighbors, friends, and co-workers that you can count on (and they know that they can count on you) suffering a lenghty illness or recuperation means you won't be suffering alone.
5. If you are the only one in the family who cooks, cleans, does laundry, or takes care of the other minute of every day life, start spreading the work around.  A friend of mine was suddenly hospitalized with a serious illness which took months to recuperate from.  We, her friends, were kind of astonished that neither her husband nor teenage kids had the slightest idea how to cook (they ended up eating out a lot), do laundry (we gave them a few lessons), deal with the banking, set dental appointments, or do any of the other hundreds of tasks that she had always done for them but was suddenly unable to do.  It was a learning experience for everyone.
6. Have a bag of emergency supplies (an overnight bag with toiletries and a change of clothes) ready to grab at a moment's notice.  This has been mentioned in other posts in this series but it works for an extended illness as well.  What usually happens is that someone is in a serious accident or they are at the hospital when they find themself suddenly admitted and the rest of the family is called and hurries over.  It is much easier to grab the pre-prepared bag then try to figure out what to pack in the midst of anguish and grief.
7. Have your papers in order.  This is another pre-planning step that you need to do before you suddenly are unable to do it.  Having things like an updated Will, Living Will, and medical power of attorney prepared ahead of time will greatly help whoever is there to take care of you.
8. Take care of your health starting today!  Many extended illnesses (heart disease, stroke, etc) are the result of years of bad living.  By doing what you can--such as exercising daily, eating a healthy diet, and being proactive in your health care--you can lessen the possibility of suffering from many of the extended/chronic illnesses that have become so common in our society.
9. Make a "how to" book.  This is a good idea but many people feel overwhelmed even beginning such a task.  This book should give complete instructions for how someone else can step into your life and basically take over where you left off.  Everything should be covered here from instructions about your children (the name of their school and teacher, their Social Security number and birthdate, allergies, etc) to your information (banking info, investments, personal info, etc) to list of assets (type of car and VIN number) to usernames and passwords to your online accounts.  Here's a good form to get you started.
10. Make your home relatively user-friendly.  One thing I've noticed most often when someone is seriously ill or injured is the difficulty they have with actually coming home from the hospital or rehab.  Usually their home is so cluttered that it takes a major cleaning effort to get enough stuff out of the way to make room for their hospital bed/wheelchair/supplies.  What once was a perfectly functioning home suddenly becomes loaded with obstacles--from stairs to door widths to overflowing rooms to uneven terrain between the parking area and front door to the many other things that can make a home not so wheel-chair friendly.  While you don't want to live in a sparse home based on the remote possibility of your future disability, decluttering occasionally is still a good idea.

While none of us really wants to contemplate being disabled and dependant on others, there is still a statistical probability that such a thing could happen in your lifetime so take this opportunity to get prepared now.

Link Round Up: Money Saver Edition

Here's some interesting money saving links:

• (Ideas)  6 Surprising Money Savers Hiding in my Home
• (Inspiration)  Whose $100 Million ATM Receipt is This?
• (Be amazing)  Use Your Whole Mind to Get to Greatness
• (Common sense)  Why the Lottery Isn't the Answer to Your Problems
• (To Do)  Extreme Couponers Save Cash, Teach Their Ways

A Bunch of Random Info...

It's been a busy week!

• I hope you all had a great 4th of July!  We just stayed at the cousin's house (our temporary home) and watched the neighborhood pyromaniacs set off what looked like professional grade fireworks (scary).
• Ms Lorraine asked for some photos of our condo and while it is just a small, two bedroom place, this is the Zillow listing for the exact same layout but it includes about a dozen pictures which look much better than the few that I took.
• Does anyone else have a problem commenting on Blogger?  For blogs which allow only a name and url I can easily make comments but for blogs that require that you sign into your blogger account like Kim's blog, it won't let me comment even if I am signed in!  Every time I hit post comment it puts me into an endless loop of sign in, post comment, sign in, post comment. Eeekk.  If you know what I am doing wrong, please let me know.
• A quick tip: it is a good idea to scan every document you may ever need into your computer.  I have the basics scanned into my computer and I keep a copy of my documents on a USB drive so I can easily access a copy of my passport, driver's license, etc.  But now that the mortgage company needs other documents (hubby's military retirement forms, tax forms, closing documents from our last house, copies of W2s, etc) I had a heck of a time finding these documents (they are stuffed into our storage shed).  Needless to say, after unburying them from the shed, I have now scanned them into my computer in case I ever need them again.
• Thank goodness for relatives who live all over the place and graciously take us in for indeterminate amounts of time!  We are currently staying with another of hubby's cousins (he literally has HUNDREDS) in Seattle where we will wait until we find out if our offer on the condo has been accepted and/or go on our next trip.  Our general M.O. is to settle into our room, run to the local Dollar Store or Walmart to buy the things we can't bring on an airline (shampoo, toothpaste, lotion, etc), then commence cooking (hubby) and cleaning (me) for whoever is hosting us.  It's a win-win situation for all of us!
• The picture above is one of the first things I saw when we arrived in Seattle.  Not sure how I can stand to move away from such a beautiful place...and then I think of the cold, rainy weather during the winter...

And This is a Picture of My New Condo...

Well it isn't actually ours yet but yesterday after seeing about a dozen houses and condos for sale in Las Vegas, we made an offer on this two bedroom, two bathroom, 1000 square foot condo which is in a gated community only 15 minutes from The Strip!  We had kind of planned to buy a place eventually but this deal fell in our laps and the timing was actually pretty good too because being permanent house guests is getting old.  We always thought we would find a small house or condo in Seattle, but, as it turned out, we were having a great time in Las Vegas and hubby's cousins (four of them) had bought condos in this development for rentals and one of them mentioned that the condo next to hers was for sale for only $60,000 (sadly they all bought condos here when the price of the exact same units were going for $191,000(!). I took one look at it, thought it was perfect, quickly calculated that the price of the mortgage plus fees would run about $500 PER MONTH and we quickly made an offer.  Hopefully we will hear later this week whether the offer was accepted. 
It's kind of a surprising turn of events but I think this will make the perfect "home base" for us for a variety of reasons... the monthly cost is super low (lower than anything we could have found in Seattle), relatives live near by so when we are traveling, they can always check in on it for us, it is much smaller than our old house which is exactly what we wanted, and if we decide to live permanently somewhere else, I think it will be a great investment property since our price is $500 per month but it could be rented out monthly for $750+, or weekly to tourists for even more.  Plus, there is always so much going on in Vegas, there are numerous airlines flying to and from the city, often at very low rates, and the cost of living there is pretty low (the cousins were showing me all of their tips of finding discounts and getting the best deals at many places around the city so I figure when we move there I will have plenty to blog about!). 
I'll let you know what happens.  Now we are back in Seattle staying with another set of cousins until we figure out what to do next (either go to Japan first or wait until the condo closes, move the stuff out of our storage unit to Las Vegas, then go to Japan),  Just thinking about all of that makes me tired!
And of course, Happy 4th of July to you all!!