Nobody Makes Arrested Development Sit in the Corner

Do you think you know me? If you do, and I were to ask you what my favorite TV show of all time was, and you had an answer other than Arrested Development (X-files might be an acceptable, though incorrect answer) guess what genius, you officially know nothing about me.

Sorry about the hostility, it's an un-welcome side effect of amazing-show-canceled-itis Fox has infected a chosen few with.

So what's up with the post? Even though Amber and I are currently broke from our adventures in rug buying, Amazon had an amazing sale on the complete series for $27.99. What was a guy to do? To quote my favorite allegedly-Russian-billionare I jump eeeen ittttt.

Big Doins

Big doins around the Dreese house, a little too much excitement if you ask me. In the past week our basement has taken on water and our furnace stopped working. All of this while I wanted to work on the real project that is a complete gut and remodel of one of our spare bedrooms.

You are no doubt reading this and incredibly impressed with my man skills, but I assure you I haven't done something like this before and am fairly clueless to most of the goings-on.

Small catastrophes aside, Amber and I bought our Christmas gift to ourselves last week, a nice large shag rug for the living room. I've always wanted a big fuzzy rug and she found one that ticked those boxes, if you will. As you can see it is majestic and as squishy as you could imagine.

Lowes 10% payoff

Here's my first exploitataion of the lowes 10% off coupons - a Dewalt DW716 Dual Bevel 12" Miter Saw - truly a manly machine if there ever was one. I was looking at a similar Hitachi with a laser guide that also had great reviews (and a $100 cheaper price tag), but I wanted to see if these Dewalt tools are all they've cracked up to be. This will be a tool that will hopefully be with me a long time through a lot of projects, so I think the higher initial investment will be a smart choice in the end.

In other news, it appears that AES has finally mailed out our refund check for overpaying our student loan payoff so we should be getting our money back soon. The peasants rejoice!

Next up on the agenda is to whine about the ridiculous amount of leaves in our yard. When I say we have 40+ trees in our yard alone is, unfortunately for us, not an exageration. I spent the better part of 2 hours leaf blowing about half of one side of our yard over the weekend and there are already enough leaves on the ground to do it again. If I were a wealthy man you can bet your sweet rearend I'd have a leaf vacuum in my shed. Someday leaf vacuum, someday!

Frugal Tip: 10% off at Lowes

As a newish homeowner, sometimes I feel like I'm spending more time at Lowes than at home (or as much money there as I do on my mortgage). Lowes will very helpfully send you a "congratulations on moving" 10% off coupon that you can request on their website here.

That's all well and good if you're actually moving, but what if you'd like to save a few bucks independent of your housing status? Head on over to the post office and pick up a change of address packet to find the same coupon inside. The coupons are only good for a few months so you may want to run and get some every so often.

10% off everything up to $5000 - not a bad deal.

Edgar Allan Bro

I was looking through my folder of funny internet pictures and I was totally like "LAWL - Edgar Allan Bro - I am heeelarious" and then I did a google search and realized I was not the first to make that joke and I was a bit put off. Luckily the large amount of other amusing pictures soon lifted my spirits.

Not much new to report going on in life, hence the lack of blog posts. AES still remains a colossal smelly face in regards to holding $1500 of our monetary units hostage, but we're assured that the matter will be wrapped up soon.

Amber's final volleyball coaching season will soon be coming to an end, I think she'll appreciate the extra time she's going to have. We still haven't started any major work on the house, though a few weeks ago I installed a ridge vent to help ventilate the attic. I still need to pull the insulation out of the soffets on one side of the house, I got sick after I did the first side. Let's hope it was coincidence.

$0.00 Yayyyyyyyyyyy! -$1500 Oh crap!

Good news everyone, the student loan balance has been KO'd by the mighty Dreese financial assault squad on Friday, 9/24/10. It's been a long journey and we've finally reached the end! That's the good news.

The bad news is that before Amber and I decided just to pay them off (thanks to some extra money in checking), I had submitted a payment to AES for $1500. Hey there ho there, no problem, they have a "Cancel Payment" link on their website which I took advantage of so I could just go through the payoff process instead. Yesterday I come to find out that AES never processed the cancel payment, so on top of the almost $2500 it took for payoff, they decided to help themselves to the $1500 as well. Gulp.

Upon further investigation it looks like they can only issue a refund by check, which can take up to 30 days. Such service after paying out balance 28 years ahead of schedule! Ironically our biggest financial emergency in a while happens after we've paid off our debt - did not see that coming. To further annoy us, transfering money from savings (ING direct) takes 2 business days, and we had to pay a $185 fee for helping us with our bee situation, so looks like we're in the poorhouse for the time being.

For those looking for the juicy details of the the student loans I made a post on reddit so you can check it out there. Financial success - ahoy!

The end is nigh

I talk a big game, but it's mostly just that: talk. Here I am telling everyone how awesomely frugal we are by paying off the student loans in record time, yet in the last 6 months or our cell phone bill has doubled and as of this weekend we've joined the rest of the drooling masses with a satellite tv subscription.

It's been 3 or 4 years since Amber and I have had tv, and aside from sports I haven't missed it a whole lot. Thanks to the mighty interwebs we've been able to keep up to date on the shows that we like to watch, but it could never scratch the live sports itch. Along comes football season and I caved like something that caves in very easily (masterful writing, Dan).

Not only have I all but abandoned P90x (at least volleyball is started this week, I get to play tonight and tomorrow), but (confirming my fears about getting tv in the first place) I was practically welded to the couch all weekend. How on earth is anyone supposed to get anything done with football on all weekend? I will admit I got antsy a couple of times enough to wash the miata, change the oil on the motorcycle (you'd think this should be easier), take a walk, and do some work outside, but overall I felt incredibly unproductive.

Counter to negativity the previous three paragraphs convey, I'm actually quite happy and everything seems to be going really well! Life has been treating me well, and for that I am very thankful :)

Update? We don't need no stinking update.

Aside from the student-loan-debt-counter falling to $2,474.68 (balance as of today), there isn't a whole lot going on. Amber just complained about checking the website and seeing the picture of the snake (so I've included an awesome bear-explosion-atv picture instead).

We're both very excited and we feel that we will easily be able to pay off the loans by the end of October (next month!). What then, you ask? Well, mostly saving money I guess. We don't have much in terms of a proper emergency fund (the goal would be to have 6 months of expenses) and I'd like to re-start my Roth IRA and start one for Amber. I have a feeling that the "extra" money we'll have no longer going to student loan payments will be gone quicker than we'd like. We'll also get to start some work on the house which will be great!

Amber is still plugging along with volleyball and I have done my best to completely avoid my commitment to P90x. Is anyone surprised? Instead I've been trying to find ways to busy myself around the house as to not feel completely worthless.

Snakes in a yard

I was walking through the yard this weekend and I found this little guy. He/she was probably around 8" long, so practically large enough to kill me dead. Courageously I managed to touch it's tail without squealing like a girl, and then it balled up and got all bitchy with me. Feel free to pretend that we fought each other valiantly for a solid 30 minutes, though.

We both went our separate ways and a few minutes later I was walking through the garage mentally (and smugly) patting myself on the back for not freaking out about the snake and some rather large spiders I've seen lately. At the same moment, I opened the door leading out of the garage into our back yard and I caught a flash of something big and black on the step below the door. Of course, it was our gutter extender that I sat there when I mowed but my mind immediately jumped to "Snake! Huge Snake! You gone get eaten!"

The smug mental back patting stopped right there, seems that I have a ways to go yet.

On the bright side, last Friday was payday and our student loan debt counter is teetering on the brink of "giggling like a silly moron" levels: $3068.06 as of today.

Danny go bye bye

Tomorrow marks the day of babby's first airplane ride (that I don't jump out of)! I'm headed to the 2010 Filemaker Developer's Conference in sunny San Diego so I'm going to be out of the mix for a while. Nerd stuff, ahoy!

I recently posted on reddit (in the /r/bicycling subreddit) about .,_~the bike~_,. and received enough positive feedback that inspired me to get back to it. Unfortunately, with the trip and yesterday's rainy weather (for a change), I'll have to wait at least a little while longer. In any case, I got a lot of good info about my bike and bicycling in general which was very helpful.

A quick update on P90x: I've still been doing it. It was a little easier this week, I think. Last night was yoga-x which I'm growing to like alot, though I only lasted 45 minutes this time. Tonight I'm skipping as well to spend time with Amber, but I fully plan to pick it back up when I get back home.

Today is payday but thanks to quite a bit of up-front money needed for the trip (and paying the mortgage out of this check), the student loan balance only fell $300 to $4,552.27. Hoping to make a much larger dent on the 27th!

That's it for now, I may post some pictures of my trip as they come up.

Week 1 of P90X

With Amber's volleyball season starting and me not helping out this year, I thought it was a good time to find something to keep me busy for the next three months. I've been toying with the idea of doing P90x for a while, and I've finally run out of excuses.

Going into it, all I've heard about it is that it's pretty grueling for a home exercise routine. Each session is at least an hour long (6 days a week, no less), which is a fairly substantial amount of time in this lazy-man's opinion. On the other hand, I suck at working out on my own, so having someone tell me what to do would probably be the only way for me to keep honest.

The x in P90x is supposed to stand for extreme, I guess it sounded better than P90e. Its supposed to be an exercise routine for people in some sort of shape, which is surprisingly a category I fall into. There is a fitness test that you're supposed to do to see if it's the right workout for you, but of course I skipped that. How bad could it be?

The first few weeks are as follows:

• Day 1: Chest and back - Lot's of pushups and pullups. I can do pushups ok, but I've always been terrible at pullups.
• Day 2: Plyometrics - More like suckometrics, amirite? This is a cardio session with tons of jumping, squatting and lunging. An hour worth of your heart wanting to stop, basically. This was the toughest workout for me, by far.
• Day 3: Shoulders and arms - This wasn't very difficult for me, I expect I would get a lot more benefit if I were using free weights instead of resistance bands.
• Day 4: Yoga - I've always been intrigued by yoga, mostly in the train-wreck sort of way since I am extremely inflexible. I cheated really bad, I only did 30 minutes of this 90 (!!!) minute session. Partially because I was getting my ass kicked, but mostly because it was so freaking long and we were having company that night.
• Day 5: Legs and back - I don't remember this one all that much, did I black out? If this is the one with one-legged wall squats I hate it. More pullups this day as well.
• Day 6: Kenpo X - This is basically P90x tae-bo. It wasn't incredibly difficult and the hour did go pretty fast.

On the bright side I'm happy that I stuck to it and did indeed do a whole week of the program, however don't quite sing my praises yet. I found out I was supposed to be doing a separate ab routine 3 days a week after the main workouts, and I still haven't done one yet. My excuse at first was that I didn't know, and now my excuse is "Come on, I just worked out for an hour! I wanna be done!"

I've also completely ignored everything diet-wise in the program, actually you could say I've been (embarrassingly) eating even worse than before. I completely acknowledge that diet is probably the biggest part to getting and staying fit, but shit man, FOOD! I'm hoping that my diet can slowly start to match up with exercise and I can find a reasonable middle ground.

Overall I'm fairly pleased with the program even though the main trainer, Tony Horton is extremely annoying after just the first week (let alone having to watch the same stupid jokes over and over for the next 11 or so weeks). I don't remember ever being so sore for so long (my lower triceps hurt for 5 or 6 days), but there is that whole no pain no gain thing (no doubt made up by someone who was already in really good shape).

Unfortunately, it goes without saying that my bicycle riding will be taking a hit thanks to this new program. Doing 1-1.5 hour worth of exercise down in the basement leaves precious little time for eating up the miles on the road. I'm going to still try and throw some rides in there, but they will probably be few and far between.

The Great Debate: Diaries of a "Saver"

Having an interest in personal finance (obviously), I hang around a few websites focused on communities of people asking for and giving financial advice. To me, it seems there are two basic schools of thought for those who claim to be in the know about personal finance:

• Financially savvy - These are the people who live and die by the numbers. Interest rates, inflation, tax implications, cost-benefit analysis, liquidity and many other over-my-head words all factor into their carefully formed financial plans. The more financially savvy, the higher the smugness factor of their advice (and intolerance of other's advice). They typically embrace more risk in hopes of more reward. In my mind they all look like this:

• Savers - Savers are the boring cheapskates nobody likes. They never spend money, and if they do, it's to buy something boring and gross. Savers are low-risk and low-maintenance, they don't like to owe anyone money and are willing to take a cut in lifestyle to keep that. Thought by the financially savvy to be simpletons because they largely ignore the numbers, man! The numbers! Here is an artist's representation:

Obviously I took some liberties poking fun at both groups, but each represents one side of the spectrum. If we would consider the two on a numbered scale, with 1 representing the tightest of tightwads and 10 being the smuggest of internet financial planning emperors, I would consider myself a 3.

I'm a saver, and I think that works best for me. If nothing else I don't have to worry about stressing over money. Also, I don't have to deal with the hassle of learning the finer points of finance. I have the time, but I really don't care that much.

Even though it's in my nature to save, I do like to buy things. Or at least think about buying things. Not a day goes by without me yelling "Hey dear, look at this un-necessary item we don't need but I still want on craigslist, pretty good deal" while she rolls her eyes and nods patiently. The saver mentality wins out (thanks primarily to the lack of disposable income at the moment) and I go on living my life without a Red Bull mini fridge. I don't like owing anyone money so, in theory, all my future purchases will be with money already earned (and therefore risk-free - because they're already paid for).

In the end, I don't really care what everyone else considers themselves so long as they've thought about it and have, at least, a general plan regarding their finances. It's all about what you're comfortable with while weighing that against what your (realistic) financial goals are.

That said, this being somewhat of a debate, I'm going to represent the saver side and argue as to why I think it's the better approach when it comes to money.

Financially Savvy Point: Paying off your debts as quickly as possible is foolish, student loan and mortgage debts are good debts and typically are low-interest so there is no point in paying them off early. You'd be better investing the difference and having mad stacks in the future.

Counterpoint: I don't think any debts are good debts. The only thing debt is good for is establishing credit, which is only good for borrowing more money, which is only good for paying interest.

Debt equates to risk. If you lose your job and can't afford your mortgage or student loan payments (which aren't dischargeable in a bankruptcy, by the way) you can be in a world of crap if you don't have enough money saved to tread water long enough along until you can find work again. The more payments (risk) you have, the worse off you will be if you have an income crisis.

Financially Savvy Point: Hey broski, your student loan payments are locked in at 3.5%, I can make more than that doing xxxxxxxxx!

Counterpoint: Yea, maybe you can get a little ahead by doing some sort of investing but it's much harder these days (uncertain market, CDs/savings paying very little interest) to get any sort of guarantees. I'd argue that then I'd owe that much less money and that would minimize my risk, but again thats and obvious argument suited for people who are ugly and can't play sports good.

What you can't forget is factoring in your time and what it's worth to you. Let's say you took $5000 you could have applied to a student loan and did some short term investing (index fund maybe?) and it grew 8%, so after a year you'd make $400, which is effectively $225 more than you would have "made" by paying off your loan at 3.5%.

So great, you're $225 up! Sweet, brah. Oh wait, here comes the tax-man. He wants his cut. Quickly that $225 turns into $168.75. Is the time invested into picking a right fund/stocks/CD worth $168.75 to you? How about if you factor in the risk of the awful investment returns the past few years? To me it's a no-brainer. I decrease my debt, increase my net worth, with no risk and no time invested. You know, so I have more time to be ugly and bad at sports.

Financially Savvy Point: You're losing your liquidity by paying so much on your debts!

Counterpoint: This is a fairly moot point as any true saver is going to have some money socked away for emergencies, anyway. And these days, even the financially savvy can't have $50,000 in a money market account because the numbers dictate that your "return" is higher by paying your debts since money markets and CDs are paying next to nothing at the moment. Even a very low interest on a student loan is still going to be 3-5% so your effective return is still higher.

Financially Savvy Point: I got my new car/laptop/carpeting/bed at 0% interest, can you even comprehend the extent that I am gaming the system and sticking it to the man simultaneously? No, you cannot. It's FREE MONEY!

Counterpoint: This is where the bulk of my argument lies. Where the financial-savvy will see these opportunities as too good to pass up and/or justification to buy things they want, the savers will ignore the age-old "what will my payment be" and look at these items to decide whether or not they need them or just want them.

Car:

• Financially Savvy: Brand new Honda Accord with some bells and whistles (I mean you gotta, ZERO INTEREST HOLMES - FREE MONEY!) - $30,000 paid over 5 years. Pay no mind to instant depreciation of new cars, even one that holds it's value as well as an accord. They are instantly upside-down on their loan. At least they're not paying interest, I guess.
• Saver: I also like Honda Accords, but I think I'll buy one a couple years old with 30,000 miles and a few less bells and whistles on it and pay cash - $15,000 paid - hyper-depreciation is already bottomed out, the remainder of the depreciation will be fairly steady for the rest of the life of the car. Remember: Cars are a depreciating asset, why would you borrow money for something that loses value (quickly)?

Computer:

• Financially Savvy: Best buy is offering 0% for a year for computers over $800! I don't need one that fancy, but have I mentioned the free money?
• Saver: Eh, I only really do e-mail and web stuff at home anyway, I'll use my 4 year old computer until it dies.

Carpeting:

• Financially Savvy: Well, we wanted to redo the carpet at some point anyway, might as well do it with our lowes card! Thanks to my opportunistic new car and computer I miss a payment and now my butt hurts from accrued interest.
• Saver: Though this carpet is the bane of my existence I will allow it to crush my soul for a little while longer until I can find the best deal possible and save for it.

Ignoring the obvious risk of missing payments on these 1 year same as cash plans and retroactive interest out the wazzo, the savers will be better off in the end because they will (shockingly) spend less money on unnecessary items. Any potential ground gained by the financially savvy and their fancy numbers will be lost to opportunity and impulse buys when they come across a good deal. This will increase their risk, and it doesn't take anyone savvy at anything to acknowledge what a risk it is to make short term investments in our current market.

As a saver and a payer of debts, you are getting a guaranteed return by paying off your debts. Your blood pressure and net worth will thank you later!

Again, in the end, whatever way you go you'll benefit from being more involved in your finances. I get fairly annoyed being a saver and having that sound in any way bad. Are the theories and practices of a saver a bit un-refined? Sure, maybe, but slow and steady typically wins the race.

National Lampoons Renovo Vacation

Renovo: That little getaway famous for drugs and not being pronounced like it's spelled (Renova) hosted a great mini-vacation for us over the weekend with some friends at their hunting cabin. The best way to spend time up here is doing whatever the heck you want. I wasn't at home, so there were no chores for me to do. No lawn mowing or laundry or walls to paint, only the fun stuff.

Playing some wiffle ball? Check.

Video games with the fellas? Check.

Attempting some fun spud gun antics? Check.

Hilariously failing at spud gun shooting? Check.

Jumping/swinging off of tall things into water? Double Check.

Quoits? I think you get the picture.

Name game? Oh god, let's not talk about the name game.

Shooting a bow for the first time in my adult life? Ahyup.

This trip allowed me to cross some stuff off my to do list for the summer. We have a similar cliff/rock jump locally that I've been wanting to do, but I feel that this rock jump was an excellent substitute, and the rope swing was just an added bonus (though a bit more terrifying).

I came back a few pound heavier and I was hoping to improve my diet this week, but it hasn't been any better. We haven't been doing real well planning our meals which is really like a highway to the dieting danger zone (not unlike the highway to the danger zone, though less cool), and it definitely doesn't make anything better.

A few positives over the week, though. Playing quoits over the weekend motivated me enough to set up my own pits at home, I went for a bike ride this week (yea, only one, I know), and we made another dent in our student loans as of today (7/30/2010). The dent wasn't as substantial as I had hoped it would be, but the damage was done and it definitely won't buff out.

I see I took my sweet-old time writing this post and it's almost time for another weekend. Awww shucks.

Debt countdown balance as of 7/30/2010: $4,842.47

Dr. Bicyclelove, or How I Learned to Love the Riverwalk

As quick update on riding around my house, I went out again this past Tuesday and it was slightly less terrible. I tried to maximize my speeds downhill so I had less pedaling to do uphill. I'm probably the first person to ever think of this, I know. If you notice the image to the left you can click on it and read some notes that I made about the ride.

Looking at the elevation data on the graph, it seems pretty apparent that the GPS in my phone isn't quick enough to update the elevation accurately as I'm going fast (fortunately, this doesn't happen often). This is probably a problem with any GPS to a point, but this if the first time I noticed it. If you look at the left half of the graph, you'll notice that the elevation data is much smoother (faster). On the right, however, the elevation is much more defined. In theory, the elevation data should be a mirror image because it's the exact same route. Just goes to show as much as I love my phone, I can't rely too much on it for super-accurate GPS data.

This time, however, I wanted to talk about the Riverwalk that was constructed as part of the market street bridge project. The bad news is that I have to drive to get there (ok, ok, I suppose I could ride my bike - but I won't), but the good news is that it's very nice and relatively easy to ride on, depending on the IQ of the people you share the path with.

The route I rode on 7/13/2010 started and ended further east down the bike trail, closer to Montoursville (and Club Fred, the local strip joint!). I was going to do a shorter route but parking was an issue, and I could use the exercise.

So far I consider this trip to be my best, it was almost 9 miles and I kept my average speed up to almost 14mph. The whole route was pretty flat, and if it wasn't for having to slow for ignorant users of the path I could have probably had my average speed above 14mph, maybe closer to 15mph.

If you look at the graph, the last stretch of ride was flat and practically deserted road, so I tried to finish strong. I wasn't in the super-duper-racer tuck position but I was pedaling about as hard as I felt I could get away with, and it looks like I kept a solid 20mph for a half mile or so. In real cyclist terms that's probably not that much of an achievement, but again I felt like it was a good effort on my part.

After the ride on the 13th I was itching for another ride. The following Sunday, Amber had some shopping to do at Lowes and Walmart so I thought I would pick up the bike route there and ride the riverwalk loop and back.

I wasn't in any particular hurry so I wasn't trying to set any speed records, I was pretty pleased overall with my effort. 15 miles in 1:15 is fair for me, especially considering the foot traffic (average moving speed of 12.4mph). This was my first relatively long ride and aside from my wrists going numb I felt pretty good. I think I could comfortably go longer distance, assuming I could find a route long enough with few hills and little-traffic. My best bet is probably just to do a few extra loops of the riverwalk, but we'll see.

For some nice validation, Amber told me that she was happy I was getting some use out of the the bike. This weekend we're going to be away with some friends but I may take my mountain bike along if I'm feeling ambitious (i.e. not a chance).

Not surprisingly, I've found that I've been sleeping better on the nights that I've been biking (or exercising), and sleep has always an issue for me. I'm guessing my body never gets tired enough from sitting behind my desk all day - who knew this exercise stuff was actually useful!

Needs moar speeds

About a month ago, the time finally came for the first real test of my frug-cycle and, more importantly, the dude doing the pedaling. I planned to ride the "long walk" route Amber and I take when we're feeling not quite so lazy, basically down the road and back for a total of 3.4 miles. I thought it wouldn't take me too long and it would have been a nice break-in for me and the bike.

If there is any good news to come out of it, it's that the first half of the route is very easy, aaaannnnnd that's about it. The way back up is not enjoyable.

Referencing my Gearin' Up post from last week, I had my handy dandy nexus one with mytracks running to give me the breakdown of the trip. That is, assuming I could make it back home.

What I gained by going to the tall, skinny tires of a road bike and a lighter frame, I believe I lost (and then some) by having half the gears. I don't know much about elevation change and what "steep" truly is, but here are some numbers:

• The total distance of the trip was 3.40 miles, so 1.7 miles each way.
• Of that 1.7 miles, i would consider 1/2 of it to be "flat", and my definition of flat is something that I can comfortably pedal without wheezing. That leaves .85 miles of "hills".
• At the bottom and the top, the elevation is fairly consistant, the big elevation changes are in the middle. Over the .85 miles of hills, the total elevation change was 309 ft, which makes the average grade for that 6.5%.

Not knowing much about cycling I can't say if that's actually high, my estimates are off, or I'm just a big wussbag. To an out of shape 28 year old on a 10-speed, an average 6.5% grade over a mile felt damn near impossible. As a small victory, I didn't stop or get off the bike, though I did ride in circles for a bit before tackling the last big hill.

A few days later I tried the same route with similar results, still no stopping (except for my heart), and I still haven't stood up to pedal. Is that the key, or am I just that far out of shape? Please don't answer that. Below is the first trip, I don't think I captured a mytracks log for the second attempt.

The Final Countdown

Hindsight being 20-20, I really should have started to document our debt-free journey long ago instead of starting when we're already in the home stretch. I think it would have been more motivating to be able to keep up with our progress on a monthly basis or so, but yet here we are. Better late than never, I guess?

Amber and I got married October 11, 2008 which marked the day that I was no longer debt free. While we did a great job saving money and paying for our wedding in cash, it was once again time to buckle down and look toward our future.

Through some relatively frugal living, generous wedding gifts, some help from uncle Obama (first homebuyer tax credit), and hard work, we will have paid off ~$50,000 of student loans and bought a house in our first two years of marriage. Never one to shy away from complimenting myself, it is an amazing accomplishment.

What's the secret? Well, there isn't one. I read this book, it gave me the ideas and the motivation to do something about my debt (We've probably bought 15 of these so far to give away as gifts so far - If you want one, ask!). Aside from the book, here are some general guidelines that have helped me just starting out:

1. If you're not already, keep track of all the money you spend. This can be an real eye-opener when you see how much those fast food runs add up over time. I'd recommend doing something at least like Mint.com (which does all the work for you), even better would be doing a spreadsheet or a program like Quicken.
2. Create a budget and stick to it. Base your budget off figures you've gotten from past months spending, and what you think you should spend in the categories. Don't freak out if you have to adjust these over time.
3. Minimize your spending. Do you really need a new MP3 player or laptop? That monthly subscription to fantasy football forum? Nope, you don't. And don't try and justify it, either. (I'll punch you in the face)
4. Pay yourself / your bills first. Every payday I'll update my quicken file with the income, and then everything I have to pay until the next payday. This will tell me "what I have left", so I know how stingy I have to be. If I'm out of money coming up on payday, then I guess I'm not going out to eat. Easy as that.
5. Plan ahead! If you know your car inspection is coming up and you're going to need tires, then start setting money aside for it. Life's little surprises can un-motivate you really quickly. Constant vigilance, citizen!
6. Plan for what you can't plan for. Set some money aside that is for emergencies only. If something comes up, you won't "lose traction" or add to your debt.
7. Make some extra money. Whether is be a side job or selling stuff on craigslist, any extra income will help you reach your goals.

Amber and I don't have a tremendous income, but without car payments or a $130 cable bill, what we do make lasts pretty well. We only have to concentrate on getting our mortgage, utilities, and living expenses taken care of, and then anything left over is thrown at the student loans.

Every two weeks (on payday) I feel a great satisfaction pressing the "Make a Payment" button on the AES website and watching the student loan balance drop. We're really in the home stretch now, and honestly it's going to be weird in a few months when we don't have any super-aggressive debt payments. But somehow I think we'll make do :)

7/16/10 Debt Counter: $5,842.47

Gearing up

Now that I have a bike suitable for riding, I guess it's time to get some use out of it. But hey, let's not get crazy here - these things take time. Far be it from me to jump right in and do something silly like exercise or get into shape. Instead, let's talk about cool stuff that will make my biking experience better, also known as Zen and the art of justifying my purchases.

Let's get the boring stuff out of the way. I already have a helmet, so I'm good there. I have a bike pump. While it would be cool to have those clip-type pedals, my low priced bicycle isn't bothered by such things, no fancy shoes needed. Instead, let's talk underwear. As a guy, our choices suck:

• Boxers: Not enough support for me, thanks. Plus I couldn't decide on either the budweiser frogs or the corona branded boxers.
• Boxer Briefs: Promising, but after a few wears and washes, they lose their tightness around the thighs. So it's all bunching, riding up, and uncomfortable south of the border. Fine for my desk job, but loses points for constant-adjustments-needed-in-public while walking, running, or moving at all.
• Bikinis: Embarrassing just to type, enough said.
• Scooby Doo Tighty Whities: Where are there adult sizes? WHERE?

Until recently, I thought I had no real options left, then I learned about compression shorts. While I don't usually want things in that area to be compressed, all important parties are left in their natural un-compressed state. I think they're pretty much spandex for men, or herein now referred to as mandex. They come in boxer-brief form, so immediately they have that going for them and are moisture wicking so they "breathe" (god help anything that's breathing my swamp ass) and won't chafe. Since I'm getting uncomfortable just thinking about that word and what it means, let's just say they seem to be where it's at, the bees knees if you will.

The problem is that the big name in compression shorts is under armor, and let me just say I don't want to have to take a second mortgage just for something to hold my junk in place. After some sleuthing I found that Target has some affordably-priced shorts made by champion for almost a third of cost of the underarmor shorts. If they work a third as good (which would still be roughly 100x better than my previous undergarments), it would be well worth it's weight in mandex. Moral of the story, I bought a few pairs and they are great. Currently living happily ever after.

Apparently biking shorts are pretty much exactly this (and have been for a long while), but have padding. You'd think with our almost limitless ingenuity we could have engineered a better bicycle seat. Something closer to a lazy boy than a broom handle. Just saying.

Enough talk about the lower half of my body, let me introduce you to my newest (unhealthy?) obsession: My Google Nexus One. It's so awesome that the sentence before this one needed capital letters on all the words. True story. Anyway, after a while of saving my pennies and almost unlimited whining and spouse annoying, I finally took the plunge and I couldn't be happier with my purchase. Stuck with AT&T, I thought I might have to get an iPhone, but I really wanted to support the android platfrom due to it's openness and lack of smelly hipsters. The Nexus One was the obvious choice.

I could go on and on about my precious but I'll try and stay on phone. TARGET, I mean. Yea. What does my awesome phone have to do with biking? Thanks for asking, I like an involved audience. One of the cool apps recommended by my friend Dave is called Mytracks which uses your phone's gps to log your position, speed, distance, elevation all the while plotting your route on-top of Google Maps. You can then upload your route and publish it publically (or keep it private) if you feel so inclined, and a google docs spreadsheet gets generated with the data from your route.

To round out the package (wait, we're not talking about underwear anymore, right?), I picked up a belkin armband for my phone with some birthday money so I can use it while walking, running, biking, or most likely just making me look impressive. It's made for a iPhone/iPod touch but it works just fine for my phone.

Now that I have some more toys, I'm starting to run out of excuses. Will I actually ride the bike over a measurable distance? Will it be mysteriously mauled in a poetically-tragic bear attack? Stay tuned and find out!

$3 Bicycle

The bicycle has got to be one of the coolest and under-appreciated inventions in modern history. I can still remember a younger version of my fast-approaching-30-self getting excited over each of the many bikes I've owned (and ruined) in my childhood. The bike was my first real taste of freedom, like it is to many kids. As we all grow older, fatter, and lazier the wonder of the bicycle escapes us faster than reaching our flabby arms out the window for our drive-thru McDonalds treat.

Having absolutely no data to back me up, I'll say that the bicycle is the most efficient means of human powered transportation. Without hills in your way you can cover a lot of ground quickly without using a whole lot of energy. Gasoline required? Zero. Calories burnt? Plenty. It's a win-win (until you factor in the size of your hind parts and how they'll feel trying to get acclimated to a narrow bicycle seat again).

I'm by no stretch of the imagination an anti-gasoline tree hugger ("the stable" at home contains two cars, a motorcyle, a go kart, and a truck - with high ambitions for adding more and more - did I mention I'd like more toys?), but I still love a good bike ride to remind myself that I can move my considerable mass around using only my own leg power.

Last year my wife and I bought our first home out of town in a gorgeous country setting. We're both "country mice" so we love the area, but thanks to the rolling landscape, it's made it hard to go for a leisurely bike ride and not throw up or have a heart attack along the way.

My bike at the time was the bottom-of-the-line Trek mountain bike complete with absolutely no suspension, 21 gears, and meaty tires that hinder-more-than-help any riding on the road. Of course, that didn't stopped me trying out the 4-mile road "loop" around the house last summer and promptly swearing off ever doing it again. I'll spare you the bulk of my excuses, but the hills are steep and numerous, and I'm too stubborn to stop and get off the bike (or pedal standing up). In between gasps of air, my brain slowly calculated my stubbornness to roughly equate to ten times my lung capacity. As I'm coming into the home stretch, every bit of my lungs, mouth, throat, legs, and brain ache, throb, or just stop working to some degree. You know, the home stretch after a 4-mile bike ride. Pitiful.

There had to be a better way, and again the stubbornness wouldn't allow me to drive my bike somewhere just so I could ride it. After talking to my friend Jon (who has been a bit of a bicyclist in his time), he told me that a road bike would be more suited to biking on the road - imagine that. I've never owned a road bike before but the large skinny wheels were more aerodynamic and lighter, which helps reduce pedal effort and increase overall speed. Hey, sounds great. Where do I sign up? Over there? And it costs $600? For a cheap one? Oh, well then. I'll pass.

Fast forward to this year, my lovely wife comes home from yard-saling with a answer to my road biking needs: A "vintage" Giant RS920 for the I-kid-you-not sum of $3 (if the blog title and website name hadn't tipped you off already). After cleaning the chain, adjusting the brakes, and putting some air in the dry-rotted tires, I took it for a short spin up and down the road (the least amount of hills possible) and wouldn't you know it rides well, shifts well, and fits me perfectly (being a bit short this was very pleasing to me). Chalk it up to fate, or the gods smiling down on me, whatever the case I don't want to waste this opportunity.

In the short term, I see this blog as a motivator to not let my $3 gift go to waste and hold me somewhat accountable for my goals. More generally I'd like to use this as an outlet for different thoughts on life, careers, being cheap, and how they typically all tie together. Stay posted for some updates on everyone's favorite $3 bike.