the easy chair…

I was reading a site about car donation and wondering how big of a tax advantage it is to actually donate a car rather than selling it. It’s a pain to sell a vehicle since most people want something for nothing and will offer you just about nothing in spite of your asking price. It would feel good to be able to donate a large item like a car or truck as long as you know someone who needs it will be using it.

If Tiff doesn’t get a ride soon, she might just need to talk to the people at Car Angel Ministries herself. If your interested in car donation to provide opportunity to those less fortunate, you should check out the benefits at www.carangel.com’s website.

• Receive your IRS tax deduction for the automobile, RV, boat, plane, or trailer.
• We do free vehicle pick-up, running or not! (restrictions apply).
• Avoid the headaches of selling your Used Car — no expensive want ads, taking phone calls, showing the car, or price haggling.
• We have the nations fastest online response form and up to the minute tax advice.
• We are honest and integrous: we’ll handle title work and repair negotiations!
• Enables you to use your vehicle, boat or trailer to help single mothers, homeless, teen and adult rehab, food distribution and orphans.

Car Angel is a non-profit company operating from car, boat, RV and other donations to make videos for kids and teens teaching them morals and values. They’ve given away over 2.4 million videos like this one…

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Well, at least we can say we had good intentions…

Our intention was to sell our 4 Runner and we have intended to sell it for some time now.  We did actually have some calls on it, but then Tiff needed to drive it to school - about a 60 mile round trip commute every day.  Our intentions were to allow her to drive it to school and work until she got her taxes back; then she could buy her own transportation.

Last week, our good intentions and good deeds turned sour.  Tiff called on her way to school and told Jimmy the 4 Runner was overheating.  He had to call in a wrecker and pay $65 to get the truck towed to our house.  Not only was the truck steaming, so was I.  Looks like the 4 Runner has a blown head gasket and will cost at least a grand to fix.   It’s not her fault that it shit the bed, but she should have been saving her money all along to buy a car to drive to school so we could have had this thing sold by now - then it would have been someone else’s problem.

Seems like sometimes the only break we get is a breakdown…

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I finally got a clip of Richard’s first official boxing match and uploaded the first round footage  to YouTube.  He entered the Toughman Competition in Rockingham, NC in January at the last minute.  Even though he didn’t win the fight, he went all 3 rounds losing by decision.

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In a new study from Purdue University, researchers claim that artificial sweeteners found in diet drinks may make you gain weight.  There’s a disconnect between the brain and the tastebuds causing the brain’s chemistry to be altered.  This is not good news for me.

In the Purdue study, the rats whose diets contained artificial sweeteners appeared to experience a physiological connection between sweet tastes and calories, which drove them to overeat.

“The taste buds taste sweet, but there’s no calorie load that comes with it. There’s a mismatch here. It seems it changes your brain chemistry in some way,” Savard said. “Anything you put in your mouth, your body has a strong reaction to it. It’s much more than counting calories. It seems normally with sweet foods that we rev up our metabolism.”

I’m going to have some trouble kicking the Diet Mountain Dews and after years of drinking diet soda, I can’t stand regular drinks; they taste too sweet.  I’m not a big coffee drinker, either, so I guess I’ll be walking around like a zombie.

I’m going to be one ill bee-hotch…

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And the winner is…

Drumroll…

I just loved this cute little commercial by Bridgestone.  When the bug “screamed” I lost it!

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Over at my Money Matters! blog, I’ve been writing about the steps that Jimmy and I are taking in order to get a grip on our finances and regain our sanity. In the past couple of weeks, we’ve put our heads together and generated a plan to get rich slowly. It wouldn’t hurt to win the lottery and fast-forward a few years in our plan, but we’ll get there when we get there. We’ve created our very first monthly budget and tomorrow is D-Day. Our plan doesn’t have any room right now for stuff like HDTV’s, cool gadgets, Panerai watches, or fancy schmancy digital cameras, but it will be okay – that stuff will come later…

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I know I’ve been posting less here, but I’ve been trying to take care of other important things. I did manage to post my December extra income report over at Money Matters! A lot of my time has been spent lately working on a plan to become debt free, working on a budget and reading to learn more about investing, budgeting, and the like…

Last week, I got an email from Jimmy about why it costs less for things to be manufactured overseas - these are great…

OSHA Approved Scaffolding!

Construction Site Hard Hat!

Dust Mask/Breathing Apparatus!

And, finally, my personal favorite…The Welder’s Mask!

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I’ve officially survived my first week of being 40 with no major setbacks.  I did gain a couple of pounds last week most likely caused by The Outback Steakhouse and the best birthday cake on the planet.  I overindulged a bit too much and blew my diet, but in my defense, I did need comfort food - I turned the big 4-0 for God’s sake.

Anyway, since my birthday, here’s what I’ve been up to…

• I finally got around to posting my November extra income over at Money Matters!
• I found a video for Brad Paisley’s Kung Pao Buckaroo Holiday song and posted it.  If you don’t know what I’m talking about, go here, read my post and watch the video.
• I’ve driven over 100 miles in 3 days just during my lunch break doing field inspections.  I’ve keyed in 34 already this week - cha-ching!
• I filled out and filed Richard’s taxes.
• I’ve stayed up late and watched it snow twice.
• I’ve nursed a yucky, cruddy fever blister.  What causes that?
• I watched Mr. Woodcock (okay) and The Kingdom (liked it a lot).
• I’ve worked on some post drafts for future blog posts.
• I’ve made it halfway through the book, Financial Peace by Dave Ramsey - everyone should read this book!
• I’ve listened to the first CD of Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover audiobook.
• I’ve been busy…

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Today is my BIG 40th birthday. I was greeted by black streamers, black roses and pranks in my cube at work. So far, I found a solenoid in my coat pocket at break, an updated ‘To Do’ list, hundreds of ball bearings fell from my cabinet when I reached for my koozie, and my keyboard has two ‘S’ keys on it, so the second line of letters reads ‘ASSF’ instead of ‘ASDF’ - LOL!

Here’s a few pics of my 40-year old cube…

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As you know, Jennings and I are in the early stages of eliminating our debt. We’ve made a really big dent in it and I’ve started the Money Matters! blog to document the process and have a place to organize and keep track of interesting tidbits we find along the way.

As we’ve read in several books already, one of the first things that needs to be done in becoming debt-free is to limit your spending. It sounds like common sense for one to spend less than they earn, but it’s all too easy to whip out that little piece of plastic and not feel the impact of your overspending immediately.

I stumbled upon an article called Debt Elimination tonight and the tips pointed out such as spending less than you make and paying down debt to save money on interest are just basic common sense, but the growing amount of debt of consumers and the government make these practices quite uncommon.

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