Archive for November, 2007

I have been trying somewhat unsuccessfully to earn a bit of extra cash through side projects. I have a pretty decent computer background so freelancing seems like my best bet.

I have done some work for local businesses but have not received any new work in quite a while. I’ve been tying sites like rentacoder.com and guru.com, but it seems like I am getting bid against by South American programming outfits whose prices make it not worth my time.

On Friday I saw a part time position on Monster doing something I specialize in - telecommuting and a very nice hourly rate. I would venture to guess only maybe 50 people in the world have as much experience with this as myself and can’t imagine them at least not calling me about it. I am anxiously awaiting this company contacting me, but trying not to get too optimistic.

I’m not really desperate for money but hey everyone could use more right? Plus its nice to keep up on skill sets I don’t get use use as my regular job.

Sears is having their 10% off just about anything in the store VIP sale this weekend - on Sunday November 11th from 6pm-9pm.

To sweeten this deal even more, Sears also currently is running 20% off any Kenmore appliance which is stackable with the 10% off, making an effective 28% off! Could be a good time to buy if you are in need of a new appliance. They are also going to be offering some of the Black Friday deals during this time (unfortunately not the early bird doorbuster sales though).

Sears VIP Sale

The 99th edition of the Festival of Frugailty is up over at Learning to be Frugal. There are some great posts over there including my cheapo eyeglasses experience so if you have the time you should check it out.

Well after just switching from HSBC Direct to Countrywide, Countrywide has lowered their APY from 5.50% to 5.35% on the heels of the latest federal reserve interest rate announcement.

Its slightly disheartening but compared to most of the other online banks its still a good rate. ING Direct is 4.2%, HSBC is 4.50% (for now), GMAC is 4.50%. I will be sticking with Countrywide for now but as always will keep my eye out for something better.

I came across a most excellent tutorial today How To Actually Search Craigslist via Lifehacker. I am a huge fan of Craigslist for those who didn’t know, and I often find it difficult to manage searches on their poor engine.

Craigslist does offer RSS feeds (which I am also a huge fan of via Google Reader) however you can only have 1 search term per feed. So if you are looking for 20 different items you have to have 20 feeds in your RSS reader which can become quite messy. The tutorial shows you how to use Yahoo Pipes to create customized searches from these multiple RSS feeds and combine them into one search. It may sound a little complicated at first but its really pretty easy and very helpful.

The tutorial provides an example of it in use, and here is one I made to search for snowblowers (with the terms snow, snowblower, and snowthrower). So if you crave more command over your Craigslist addiction then this may help you out tremendously.

How To Actually Search Craigslist

Taxable Accounts:

$3,806.66 - Liquid Savings - 5.05% APY HSBC Savings Account
$25,021.28 - Savings - 5.50% APY Countrywide Savings Accounts
$16,393.20 - Stocks - Misc. Direct Investments
$6,105.13 - Stocks - Ameritrade Izone
$3,089.63 - Stocks - Zecco
$2,647.58 - Bonds - TreasuryDirect

$57,063.48 TOTAL

Retirement Savings:

$18,111.93 - ROTH IRA - Vanguard
$1,306.73 - ROTH IRA - Scottrade
$56,051.88 - 401K - T. Rowe Price

$75,470.54 TOTAL

Debts

$3,094.84 - Student Loan - AES (3.625%)
$4,395.00 - Credit Card BT - Chase(0%)
$17,995.28 - Credit Card BT - BOA NEA (0%)
$7,420.18 - Credit Card BT - Juniper (0%)
$20,094.00 - Credit Card BT - Upgromise (0%)

$52,999.30 TOTAL

Housing / Automobiles

$266,406.71 - Mortgage - Countrywide
$339,900.00 - Approximate Home Value
$10,201.00 - Approximate Car Value - Edmunds.com

$83,694.29 - TOTAL (Approximate Equity)

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