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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Here in the US, the day after Thanksgiving is known as Black Friday. Its when retailers gear up for the holiday season to move from the red to black (financial wise) and have huge sales to attract customers. Its a great time to do some holiday shopping there are many door buster specials where you will see products at their lowest prices ever.

Rather than wait till Thanksgiving day to get your newspaper with the sales ads, you can usually find the flyers online as much as a month in advance. This year is no exception. My favorite site for this is BFAds.net which has adscans of all the advertisements as well as an RSS feed which allows me to stay up to date on the activity there without having to visit the site all the time. So far this year they already have Macy’s, Sears, Ace Hardware, Harbor Freight, and FYE with more coming.

BFAds.net

After doing quite a bit of squinting lately I decided it might be time to update my eyeglass prescription. My insurance only provides for an eye exam and either eyeglasses or contacts every 2 years so I went to the local Empire Vision and had an eye exam and ordered some contacts which I use for sports since those are more expensive than the glasses I had in mind. I asked them for a copy of my prescription and was on my way.

Ordering

I had been following this Slickdeals thread for a while on cheap prescription glasses and finally decided to take the plunge. I decided on this $8 style at Zenni Optical which seemed pretty much like my old glasses. I figured hey for $8 if they are terrible it won’t be a big deal.

The website is pretty easy to navigate, and for the most part you just fill in the drop boxes on your selected frame with your prescription information. The only part was the Pupillary Distance was not on my prescription which I guess is pretty common, so I had to measure this myself with a ruler.

So I placed my order and also got the Clip On Polarized 80% Sunshade for $3.95 which I regret. I had a nice magnetic clip on for my old glasses which was easy to put on while I was driving, however these clips are like a paper clip style and you have to take your glasses off and fiddle with them for a minute to get them on which isn’t always practical. My total with these and shipping ($4.95) was $16.90.

After The Order

About 2 weeks after I placed the order my new glasses arrived at my house via USPS mail in a bubble envelope and hard case. The feel of the glasses is very good, they don’t feel flimsy or cheap and I have been wearing them for about a month now with no problems. Overall I was very pleased with my purchase and barring the glasses falling apart in a month most likely will be ordering from Zenni again in the future.

Lowes is currently offering a $10 off $25 coupon through their fan website to kick off you fall project. I signed up and used this coupon today at my local Lowes so can verify it scans and works! Thats up to 40% off your next purchase so if you need something this coupon would certainly sweeten the deal.

Sign Up For $10 off $25 At Lowes

Some of you have been wondering why I have not been posting as frequently as of late. Unfortunately over the last few months I’ve been having some health problems that needed to be addressed. I was having constant stomach problems and weight loss over the last year or so which was progressively getting worse. I was finally diagnosed with Celiac disease about a month ago and have had to make some lifestyle changes to accommodate this.

What Is Celiac Disease?

Basically Celiac is an allergy to Gluten which causes damage to the small intestines and in turn creates stomach problems. Gluten is found in wheat, barley, and rye.

Many foods contain gluten including pasta, bread, cereals, and pastries among numerous other products.

How Has It Affected Me?

I am feeling better since switching my diet to gluten free which is obviously the most important thing. Financially it has increased our grocery bills quite a bit. Gluten free products I have found to generally be about 3x as expensive as their gluten equivalent. Things like rice pasta cost about $2.50 a pound versus 88 cents for regular pasta. Bread is about the same, and does not taste as good as regular bread.

It has cut back our eating out though, as it can be difficult to find gluten free items on many menus. Fast food is generally out as is pizza, sandwiches, most soups, fried foods… you get pretty sick of salad quick.

It’s been a tough adjustment but you gotta do what you gotta do for your health.

Now that all the heat seems to have died down from the latest Fed interest rate reduction I have decided to switch my high yield savings account. I was very happy with my HSBC Online Savings account, however they lowered their interest rate from 5.05% to 4.5% which is now a lot less competitive than some of the higher yield accounts.

I’ve decided to go with Countrywides 5.50% APY savings account which is up there with the highest rates out there. I do give up a few luxuries I had with HSBC though - there is a 10k minimum deposit with Countrywide (and a $10 fee if your balance falls below this). I also do not get instant transfers to my checking account but rather go back to the standard 3-4 business days that most bank to bank transfers have.

I can close the account with no penalty after 90 days so I suppose its worth rate chasing a bit.

Countrywide 5.50% APY Savings Account

Taxable Accounts:

$32,476.06 - Liquid Savings - 5.05% APY HSBC Savings Account
$16,416.72 - Stocks - Misc. Direct Investments
$5,772.37 - Stocks - Ameritrade Izone
$3,067.39 - Stocks - Zecco
$2,625.52 - Bonds - TreasuryDirect

$60,358.06 TOTAL

Retirement Savings:

$17,559.20 - ROTH IRA - Vanguard
$1,369.42 - ROTH IRA - Scottrade
$52,575.18 - 401K - T. Rowe Price

$71,503.80 TOTAL

Debts

$3,137.06 - Student Loan - AES (3.625%)
$4,484.00 - Credit Card BT - Chase(0%)
$18,176.28 - Credit Card BT - BOA NEA (0%)
$7,495.18 - Credit Card BT - Juniper (0%)
$20,400.00 - Credit Card BT - Upgromise (0%)

$53,692.52 TOTAL

Housing / Automobiles

$266,866.99 - Mortgage - Countrywide
$339,900.00 - Approximate Home Value
$10,380.00 - Approximate Car Value - Edmunds.com

$83,413.01 - TOTAL (Approximate Equity)

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PenFed is offering a new mortgage which is kind of an interesting concept. Here are the highlights:

• 5.625% Rate (5.377% APR)
• Low rate that only adjusts every 5 years for 30 years
• Rate would adjust up to 2% or our prevailing rate, whichever is the lowest
• Maximum lifetime adjustment that will not exceed 5% above the initial rate

The loan features all the usual PenFed advantages as well - no points, no closing costs, and 90 day rate lock. Seems like a good deal for those looking at ARMs. Its basically a 5/5 ARM but the adjustment rate is based on PenFed’s 30 year fixed rate which is typically pretty competitive. I”m sure the 5% max increase may scare some since it could go up to 10.625% but at least in the next 10 years the highest it can go is 7.625%.

PenFed 5 Year Fixed Rate Mortgage

Taxable Accounts:

$35,015.16 - Liquid Savings - 5.05% APY HSBC Savings Account
$15,919.44 - Stocks - Misc. Direct Investments
$5,689.86 - Stocks - Ameritrade Izone
$2,934.27 - Stocks - Zecco
$2,611.74 - Bonds - TreasuryDirect

$62,170.47 TOTAL

Retirement Savings:

$16,816.75 - ROTH IRA - Vanguard
$1,522.11 - ROTH IRA - Scottrade
$49,795.59 - 401K - T. Rowe Price

$68,134.45 TOTAL

Debts

$3,178.81 - Student Loan - AES (3.625%)
$4,575.00 - Credit Card BT - Discover (0%)
$18,359.28- Credit Card BT - BOA NEA (0%)
$20,400.00 - Credit Card BT - Upgromise (0%)

$46,513.09 TOTAL

Housing / Automobiles

$267,324.71 - Mortgage - Countrywide
$339,900.00 - Approximate Home Value
$10,588.00 - Approximate Car Value - Edmunds.com

$83,163.29 - TOTAL (Approximate Equity)

Read the rest of this entry »

It seems like the price gouging for a passport photo keeps getting worse and worse. The Post Office now charges $15 for a quick shot, and most other places charge between $10 and $20 for it. Occasionally you can get a coupon at Right Aid for a couple bucks but that is increasingly rare.

So what are us frugal folks with a digital camera to do? Make your own passport photo of course! I just renewed my passport with a photo I created and have received the passport so I can vouch this works. So if you are willing to put in a few minutes of your time you can save some bucks and a trip to the passport photo store. Its also nice because you can take as many pictures as you like until you are happy with how it comes out.

Requirements for Do It Yourselfers

You can’t just pick out a 4×6 of you from your cousins bbq and send it in. The US State Department has a list of regulations on their website for your passport photo. These include:

• 2×2 inches in size
• Taken within the past 6 months, showing current appearance
• Full face, front view with a plain white or off-white background
• Between 1 inch and 1 3/8 inches from the bottom of the chin to the top of the head

For The PhotoShop Savvy

Since I have Adobe Photoshop I followed the tutorial over at DP Challenge - Making Your Own Passport Photos. I thought it was very thorough and easy to follow. Took me about 5 minutes to get the final product and it turned out great.

For Those Less Savvy

There is some nifty free software called DIY Passport Photo which is nice in that it is a photo editing package only designed to make passport photos so its really easy to use. Their website has the software as well as instructions on how to use it.

There is a free website EPassportPhoto that will take your digital photo and generate it for you. I didn’t read all the instructions but just tried to upload my photo there and it didn’t seem to create the correct proportions for my photo. Probably have to do some tweaking so I can’t give this one the thumbs up.

Getting It For Free

Okay, so now you have your passport picture… but where do you print it for free? I printed mine at CVS who has a bunch of free promotions through their website. Check out this Slickdeals CVS Photo thread for the full details.

Otherwise, you can always print them to Wal-mart for 12 cents. Much better than $15.

Kashi is currently promoting their new line of snack foods by giving out your choice of 3 different snacks for free! Follow the link below and click ‘get your free snack’. You can click ’skip all this, gimme my snack’ to by-pass all the questions they ask.

You have your choice of the following:

• Oatmeal Dark Chocolate TLC Cookie
• Original 7 Grain TLC Crackers
• Trail Mix TLC Chewy Granola Bar

Kashi OutReach: Free Snack

My wife and I have been going to Gold’s Gym for about 8 months now. Its important for us to exercise and stay active so the gym membership has been helping a lot. However every time I look at our monthly expenses that expense pops out as something that could be reduced.

Gold’s Gym has a lot of options over most of the other gyms in the area. There are free classes (yoga, exercise, spinning, etc), plenty of equipment so even at its busiest you don’t have to wait for a machine, a private tv in all the cardio equipment, and an immaculately clean facility that somehow does not reek of sweat. However it comes at a price, its about 20% more expensive than the YMCA which also has a basketball court which I would take advantage of, but has a waiting list for the cardio equipment and an older facility. And its about 3x as expensive as Planet Fitness which is smaller and has less bells and whistles.

You can’t really put a price on your health. I have a feeling if we had a membership to a gym that wasn’t as nice as Gold’s my wife wouldn’t be as inclined to go. For me, the price alone is a motivating factor - I’m paying that much a month so I better use it! We’ve been going pretty consistently since we got the membership so to me its money well spent.

After checking the mail today I was delighted to find my Chase United Mileage Plus Business Card. During my latest 0% app-o-rama that was dicussed a few times here I also applied for this card in order to take advantage of the 25,000 free miles they were giving away with it which is enough for a free round trip domestic flight.

However my experience with Chase was less than stellar. I was called by their fraud prevention department and asked to fax my business license to them which I did. A few days later a rather crass representative called me again stating my business license was not good enough, they would need some other documentation so I offered up my 2006 tax returns. Well then a few days later I received another call, but this time the woman on the other end was very helpful and did not understand why the previous information I had faxed was not sufficient. She eventually put my application through.

I guess they need to be thorough but I have never had this kind of difficulty opening a credit card before. Thank goodness I know how to use free faxing services or else this would have cost quite a bit to get all the documentation I needed in.

Now I just need to spend $250 on my card to receive my 25,000 miles. Hopefully there will be no problems there.