financial zen

One thing I haven’t written about - our car situation.

Luckily, my wife and I own our cars - a 1996 Honda Civic and a 1997 Honda Civic.

Last month, we had that freak snow storm on a Saturday that generated black ice on my often-traveled road home from our friend’s apartment. Due to someone hitting that ice, they now blocked the road (instead of moving her car out of the way she was walking around it with her cell phone in her hands). I hit the same patch of ice and narrowly maneuvered my car to the right - sliding into a curb and scaring the crap out of my pregnant wife (the baby is fine). The girl didn’t come over - she stared, hopped into her car and did her best to get out of there.

I moved my car forward to get out of the line of traffic, called the police, and AAA - the police were “swamped” and despite me seeing two more wrecks behind me they said they wouldn’t do anything for that intersection.

I also found out my insurance agent had changed our policy and I hadn’t reviewed it - the car we were driving (96 Civic) has liability only coverage. No insurance help. Luckily, a friend-of-a-friend is a mechanic that just happened to have a ‘96 Civic - he only wanted the engine. Two knew balance rims and tires later (and $80) I thought I was good - until I drove my car down the road.

LOUD HUM. Sounds like the tires rubbing - I figured an alignment would be needed. No biggie.

Needs new ball bearings on the front and back, and a bent control arm on the drivers side (and one more bent part which I can’t remember). Seriously?

Now they’re talking $1000 in repairs - luckily my wife and I have gotten used to one car living - we’re going to comparison shop the repairs and see if our mechanic friend can fix it (and more than likely, I’ll be going to him for it). I’ve ran the values on my car - and yes, getting it fixed is worth it - until next wreck, anyways.

Next on the Agenda - calling up our insurance agent and asking what’s the deal with our insurance.

Next post - how to get better rates on car insurance!

Three days ago we canceled cable television. We mostly live on downloads of television shows and netflix.
What made me laugh was when they asked why I was canceling…

Them:”Sir, why are you canceling?”
Me:”It’s too expensive and the VOD never works.”
Them:”Well, if I sign you up for a new promotion it’ll lower your cost by $7, to $82, and it’ll add HBO for free for three months.”

No dice.

So we’re cable-free (uh, television, I mean). I kept the internet (for work and personal use, for my wife and I).

Monthly Savings: ~$45
Yearly Savings: ~$540

Boo yeah.

I came across this Spending Plan Online Calculator from Crown Financial Ministries which assists in setting up a budget - you enter your yearly salary, tithe, and taxes, and it spits out a budget. I came across this on either Google or another blog, sorry I can’t remember which!

An *excellent* tool in starting up a budget. I’m using it as a basis for a spreadsheet to help share the state of our finances with my wife (she’s the pen-and-paper budgeter, I’m all about Excel/Quicken - and possibly Mint, once the Beta opens up!)

It’s a very good *start* of a budget - it breaks it down by percentages. What I did was plug it into Excel and start comparing my expenses to it’s assumptions - I’ll update it the beginning of March to see how we did!

EDIT: Actually, there are quite a few good tools on the site! Visit and click around!