I know I should have thought to post this earlier, but only just remembered to pay my own mortgage now instead of tomorrow. If you own a home and have not yet made your mortgage payment due on January 1, 2009, do it now before 2008 is over. This could cut the income taxes you will have to pay in April 2009 for you may be able to take a deduction for mortgage interest paid in 2008.

I am not a tax expert and there are some limitations, (i.e. if you deduct your Jan. 2009 mortgage interest from your 2008 taxes, you can’t do it again for 2009, if your 2008 income exceeds a certain amount), but here is a link to an article on MSN Real Estate which might tell you if you would benefit from doing this:

Early year-end mortgage payment could cut taxes

If you pay your mortgage online, do it now as our bank’s website is super slow today, perhaps due to the rush to customers trying to get their payment in before the year ends.

Happy New Year!

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Originally posted 2008-12-31 09:18:02.

This is a fairly easy Monopoly game expansion to teach youngsters the principles of filing and paying income tax. It includes an income tax form on which players keep track of income and deductions, figure and pay their income tax at the end of each circuit of the board. Players may opt to hire themselves out as tax preparers and those who do not wish to file their own returns may hire and pay tax preparers to do so, the cost of which is tax deductible, of course.

Please note that this is not a representation of real-life tax preparation. It is a simplified simulation meant to educate children on the basic principles of income and taxes and should not be taken as a source for tax preparation information.

How to Play the Monopoly Income Tax Expansion

1. Download and print out a set of Personal Income Tax Form and Instructions (pdf format) for each player.
2. The game is played as usual, but players record all income, payments of taxes and applicable expenses.
3. When a player passes “Go,” he pauses to calculate and pay his income tax for the circuit just completed.
4. The only difference in this game is the Income Tax square. When a player lands on Income Tax, he will receive an Income Tax Refund of $200 instead of paying it.

Paid Tax Preparers

Players may hire themselves out as paid preparers and other players may hire tax preparers to calculate and prepare their tax returns on their behalf.

• Tax preparers can set their own rates for preparation.
• Players who hire paid preparers may deduct the preparer costs from their taxable income (on Line 3).

Monopoly Personal Income Tax Form Instructions

Click on the image below to view a sample form

• Lines 1a and 1b (1-15). Record income and deductible transactions as they occur.
  • Income counts as all money received (rent, bribes, free parking, dividends, investments, etc.) with the exception of income tax refunds.
  • Deductions are other taxes paid, such as Poor Tax, School Tax, Luxury Tax, street and housing repairs, etc.
• Line 2. Figure your taxable income.
  • 2a. Add up all income.
  • Line 2b. Add up all deductions.
  • Line 2c. Subtract 2b from 2a to figure your taxable income.
• Line 3. Enter the amount paid to the tax preparer, if any. Pay this amount to your tax preparer, if applicable.
• Line 4. Subtract the amount of Line 3 from Line 2c.
• Line 5. Figure the tax, which is 10% of taxable income; multiply .1 by the amount on Line 4.
• Line 6. Previous unpaid tax. Enter the amount of tax on Line 10 from your previous tax period, if any, that was not paid last period.
• Line 7. Total tax due. Add the amounts on Line 6 and Line 7. This is the amount you owe.
• Line 8. Total tax paid. The amount you wish to or can afford to pay at this time. Pay this amount to the bank.
• Line 9. Remaining unpaid tax. Subtract the amount on Line 8 from Line 7.
• Line 10. Balance to forward to next tax period. The amount on Line 9 plus 10% penalty (the amount on Line 9 multiplied by .1)

Visit OurFourpenceWorth.com/Monopoly for more Money Management and Investment Monopoly Expansions!

Related posts:

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Originally posted 2008-09-09 10:00:09.

We received the following letter from our County Assessor-Recorder the day before yesterday. At first I was afraid to open it, thinking it was bad news. Well, it did turn out to be bad news … but with every cloud comes a silver lining…

Dear Taxpayer:

As a result of the decline in value of the local residential real estate market, and, after a careful review of your property’s current assessment, we have determined that the factored base year value of your property exceeds the market value of your property as of January 1, 2008 and your value will be adjusted downward for the 2008/2009 tax year. This review has been done under the Proposition 8 “Decline In Value” program.

This value change will be reflected on your 2008-2009 tax bill which should be mailed in September.

The provisions of Proposition 13 also mandate that the value of your property shall be reviewed on an annual basis. This annual review could restore your factored base year value plus any applicable inflation factors that have occurred as of any subsequent lien date, but can never exceed your protected Proposition 13 base year value plus any applicable inflation factors. If the annual review should show that the market has experienced a further decline, you will receive another decrease in value for that tax year.

The Silver Lining

Despite the badness of this news, we can’t help but be a little cheered at the prospect of lowered property taxes this year. With decreased income but increased everything else, a break in property tax right now seems more important than our property value, because, after all, we won’t be trying to sell our property in this market.

The Rest of the Cloud

But back to the bad part of the bad news: Our adjusted 2008-2009 value is now 37% less than its base value. This is really worrying. We had been thinking about re-financing in the next year or so because our current loan is an ARM (fixed for the first 10 years – so until 2015), but that’s definitely on hold for now.

A few of our major concerns right now are:

• What if the market doesn’t come back up by 2015?
• What if we can’t afford to keep up with all the necessary maintenance due to the inflation and lowered income, resulting in further decline in value?
• What if we need to sell the house for some reason?

We can only hope that everything will work out after a year or two of lowered property taxes. Maybe we should start patronizing Starbucks.

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Originally posted 2008-07-19 07:00:35.

As some of you already know, I am the worst of procrastinators. And taxes being so unpleasant, I naturally tend to procrastinate when it comes to filing my taxes every year.

First of all, I do put off filing my tax return for one valid reason: we owe each year so I prefer to wait till April to file and pay in order to earn more interest in  savings. But this also gives me an excuse to put off working on our returns.

This year I was worse than usual, and my procrastination and 2 unforeseen events almost got me in trouble.

My Taxing Experience

• Dec. 31, 2008–April 11, 2009 — Procrastinated
  We have a few different sources of income so there are a lot of elements involved in our tax returns – calculating various types of expenses and almost 20 different forms between the two of us. Needless to say, this takes a lot of preparation, which I just kept putting off.
• April 11 9:30PM — Started to panic
  3 days, 2 hours before April 15th, I finally realized just how little time was left and kicked myself into action.
• April 12–13 — Worked like mad
  Pulled an all-nighter and finished my “first draft” of the PDF forms.
• April 13 11:00PM — Crisis #1: Printer wouldn’t print
  After double- & triple-checking the forms and calculations, I was ready to print and be done with it — only to find that the printer wouldn’t print. I re-filled the ink cartridge but print quality was awful. Thinking the ink needed time to settle and let the air bubbles work their way up, I called it a night.
• April 14 5:45PM — Crisis #2: Power outage
  After more ink re-filling and printer maintenance, it was printing properly again, but half-way through approx. 40 pages, our power went out due to wind storms in the area. the outage was all over town and lasted until 11:00PM, so I didn’t finish compiling and packing everything up till around 1:15AM.
• April 15 — Phew!
  Got to the post office and got everything mailed out. Thoroughly exhausted.

I was extremely lucky that I was still able to get everything done by the 15th. Had I delayed just one more day, I probably wouldn’t have made it. When the power went out on the 14th, I started contemplating all the other things that could possibly go wrong, such as:

• What if my car won’t start when I need to go the Post Office tomorrow?
• What if the wind storm gets worse tomorrow and I can’t drive?

Any number of things could have prevented me from being able to get our returns postmarked on the 15th. The amount we owe is high enough that a penalty and interest charge would be quite unpleasant.

This experience got me thinking about other ways procrastination can set back your financial health. I have been thinking about this for the last 2 days and here are my conclusions.

Other ways procrastination can lead to financial disease (and possible eventual death)

Putting off . . .

• Contacting service providers, insurance companies, etc. to lower your bills
• Canceling services you no longer need
• Minor maintenance and repairs on your home or car until they become major repairs
• Paying off credit card debt by just paying the minimum payment
• Refinancing loans when interest rates are low
  

I have to admit I have been guilty of all but one of the above (I don’t have credit card debt). When I was in college, my fellow students and I often joked about how we procrastinated studying for our exams or writing term papers. The fact is, I’m the type that works better under pressure. Oftentimes, when I sat down to write a paper that wasn’t due for a few more days, I would get writer’s block. But the night before the due date, I would get serious and the ideas would start flowing.

Thus, I have always operated under the premise that this is just how I work so it’s O.K. to procrastinate. But now that I’m a grown-up dealing with grown-up matters where it’s no longer just a grade at stake, I’m beginning to see just how self-destructive this type of behavior can be. While this past week has been torture, I have learned a valuable lesson, so perhaps it was good for me that I had this harrowing experience.

It seems the tax gods were with me this time and let me get by with a lesson learned and no harm done. I shouldn’t expect to be so lucky again and must start getting things done ahead of time. Not only could it save me potential financial penalties, but keep the stress and blood pressure levels to a minimum.

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The first year I had to file self-employment tax, I was completely clueless as to which forms I needed to fill out. I spent hours going through the IRS website looking for any and all forms, instructions and publications that might apply to me. Now, after several awkward starts, starting and running a new business partnership for almost 3 years, and filing my own taxes for the past 4 years, I have become a little more familiar with the system and process, which has made the ordeal somewhat easier (though, unfortunately, not much pleasanter). If you decide to do your own taxes, here is a little guide of some of the basic forms and publications that might be of use to you and save you the hours and hours it took me to figure it out.

The reason I am doing this is that I have often found instructions or publications that apply to me and think will answer all my questions only to find out as I read that I need to refer to even more publications and fill out another form. As everyone’s circumstances may differ, so might the forms and publications you need.

You may not need all of the following and you may need more if, for example, you have children which I don’t (aside from Ludwig and Wolfgang but the IRS doesn’t think they qualify as dependents even though they eat home-cooked meals, wear clothes, occasionally brush their teeth, and sleep on beds,) but these should point you in the right direction and get you started.

Please Note: I am not a tax professional but merely a private individual & small business owner who has been filing my own taxes for the past few years. All information here is provided as is, for your information only, with no guarantees. If you are unsure about anything, please contact the IRS or a tax professional for assistance.

IRS Tax Forms

If you operate your business as a sole proprietor (individual), you would file Form 1040 Schedule C. If you are in partnership (with a relative, friend, etc.), you would file Form 1065. As I have 2 sources of income, one a sole proprietorship and one partnership, I will list both. I will color individual-only forms in blue and partnership forms in a lighter gray. The forms applicable to both are in normal color.

In the order in which I usually fill them out:

• Form 4562 – Depreciation and Amortization
• Individual: Form 8829 – Expenses for Business Use of Your Home
• Individual: Form 1040 (Schedule C)
• Partnership: Form 1065 – U.S. Return of Partnership Income*
• Partnership: Form 1065 (Schedule K-1) – Partner’s Share of Income, Deductions, Credits, etc.
• Partnership: Form 1040 (Schedule E) – Supplemental Income and Loss
• Form 1040 (Schedule SE) – Self-Employment Tax
• Form 1040 – U.S. Individual Income Tax Return

* Note: If you are filing as a new partnership, you will need to apply for an EIN (Employer Identification Number)

IRS Tax Publications

These are the publications that I refer to most or have needed in the past for my businesses:

• Publ 334 – Tax Guide for Small Business (For Individuals Who Use Schedule C or C-EZ)
• Publ 535 – Business Expenses
• Publ 541 – Partnerships
• Publ 583 – Starting a Business and Keeping Records
• Publ 587 – Business Use of Your Home (Including Use by Day-Care Providers)
• Publ 936 – Home Mortgage Interest Deduction
• Publ 946 – How to Depreciate Property (for Form 4562 – Depreciation and Amortization)

Other forms & publications that may apply:

• Form 3903 – Moving Expenses
• Publ 521 – Moving Expenses
• Publ 547 – Casualties, Disasters, and Thefts (Business and Nonbusiness)
• Publ 584 B – Business Casualty, Disaster, and Theft Loss Workbook

Again, these may not be all the forms you need, but they should get you started. And now that you know what you need, a few words on your options for obtaining them.

Where to Get Tax Forms, Instructions & Publications

My preferred method is to get the publications by mail because some of them are quite long and I personally find them much easier to read, as well as mark or highlight important parts, with hard copies. They can also be downloaded in PDF format and read or printed with Acrobat Reader. But due to the length of these publications, you may run out of paper or printer ink if you print them all out.

The best thing to do, I find, is to order all the ones I need by mail, which takes about 7-14 days to arrive. If you find that you need another publication when you’re reading them and there’s no time to get the new ones by mail, then you could download them on the computer.

A very convenient feature of the PDF forms is that they can be filled out on computer in Acrobat Reader or Foxit (open source PDF program). This makes the forms a lot neater in appearance as you won’t have erasure marks or have to re-fill them all out if you make a mistake.

Here are the links for the various options to get IRS forms and publications. It’s a good idea to scroll through the lists of all the various forms before ordering to make sure you get all the ones that apply to you.

IRS Forms & Publications Main Page

• Forms and Publications By U.S. Mail
• Download Forms and Instructions
• Download Publications and Notices

If you need any other info or assistance, you can probably find it at the IRS website.

Related posts:

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• Blog Carnivals
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• Interesting Reads from Fellow Personal Finance Bloggers #2
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Expansions Difficulty/Complexity: Easy

This is a cash-free version of the game wherein all transactions are handled through personal checking accounts and recorded in individual check registers. Each player is responsible for his own account and must record all transactions – payment and receipt of rent, taxes, bribes, etc. in his check register.

Objective

To teach children (and some adults) how to accurately record transactions and balance a check register.

How to Play

• Download and print the Bank of Monopoly Personal Check Register (includes rules)
• Instead of distributing cash at the beginning of the game, players record the opening balance at the top of the check register (in the right-hand column under $ Balance). If playing the original Atlantic City Monopoly game with the distribution of 2 x $500, 2 x $100, 2 x $50, 6 x $20, 5 x $10, 5 x $5 , and 5 x $1 bills, the opening balance is $1,500.
• Instead of using cash, all transactions are recorded in the check register under Deposit (+) and Payment (-), and all money belonging to the player is totaled in the $ Balance column.

Click on the image to view a sample check register

How to Use the Check Register

• For each transaction, begin by recording the date and/or time. Since most games are played within one day, you may opt to record the time of each transaction instead of the date. We suggest placing a clock on the table in a spot easily visible by all players.
• Enter a brief description of the transaction. For example, “Luxury Tax,” “Rent – Board Walk,” “Passed Go.”
• When making a deposit record the amount in the Deposit (+) column, add it to the existing balance and record the new balance in the $ Balance column.
• When making a payment, record the amount in the Payment (-) column and subtract the amount from the existing balance and record the new balance in the $ Balance column.
  • Examples of transactions that belong under Deposit (+):
    Passing “Go,” collecting rent and utilities, Chance and Community Chest bonuses (bank error, dividends, income tax refund, etc.), mortgaging property, selling houses and hotels
  • Examples of transactions that belong under Payment (-):
    Paying rent, utilities, income tax, luxury tax, school tax, poor tax, hospital bill, etc., buying property, building houses and hotels, un-mortgaging property.

Transactions Between Players

When one player must pay another player – rent, Chance or Community Chest, etc. – he debits the amount from his account under Payment (-). The player receiving the funds adds the amount to his account under Deposit (+).

Optional Overdraft and Negative Balance

Instead of declaring bankruptcy and leaving the game when a player’s balance reaches $0, the player can be charged an Overdraft Fee of $25 per transaction that creates or maintains a negative balance. For each round that the balance remains negative (upon landing on or passing “Go”), the player is charged a 10% overdraft penalty. This is a good lesson in the snowball effect of debt.

Optional Personal Checks

To train youngsters how to properly make out checks, personal checks are also included (page 6) for practicing on game transactions.

Click on the image below to view a sample check

Visit OurFourpenceWorth.com/Monopoly for more Money Management and Investment Monopoly Expansions!

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• June 2008 Finance and Frugality Blog Carnivals
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• Monopoly Game Expansion #3: Certificate of Deposit

Originally posted 2008-06-20 06:30:05.

If you haven’t done your taxes yet, enter now for a chance to win 1 of 2 FREE prepaid access codes for TurboTax Premier Online which includes:

• Free Federal
• State Preparation
• Free e-File

The Premier package is valued at $85 and includes investment income, 401-K  Maximizer, rental deductions and other features to help you maximize and expedite your refund. Click here for more information on TurboTax Premier.

Enter by 11:59 PM PST tonight March 28, 2009 for a chance to win!

Pecuniarities is Hosting 2 Carnivals Next Week!

Submit your posts for double carnival exposure:

• Carnival of Debt Reduction on Monday March 30th
  Submit your post by 5:00 PM PST Sunday March 29th to be considered for inclusion
• Carnival of Pecuniary Delights on Thursday April 2nd
  Submit your best post – remember there is no restriction as to the age of the post – by 5:00 PM PST Wednesday April 1st to be considered for inclusion

Apply to host and submit an article for the Carnival of Pecuniary Delights by April 1st for chances to win these 2 cute piggy bank magnets by Madoline Hatter:

“Money begets Money” magnet for article submissions, “Feast on your savings” magnet for applying to host.

This Week’s Blog Carnivals

We participated in 2 blog carnivals this week:

• Festival of Frugality #170 – Frugal Living is Timeless was hosted by Money Ning and included my post:
  When “Free” Things Aren’t Free: Beware the Hidden and Indirect Costs
• Learn The Basics of Investing – Edition #197 of Carnival of Personal Finance was hosted by Four Pillars and included my post:
  It Saves to Be Nice Part 4: How to Save Money by Helping Businesses Keep Operating Costs Down

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Welcome to the 188th Carnival of Personal Finance! Our theme for this week’s edition is Jane Austen, as I am a admirer of both her novels and the films based on her novels, which are graced throughout with witty commentary on society — and in particular, money and marriage.

If this is your first time here, please take a look around and consider subscribing to our feed to have new money saving tips delivered to your feed reader of choice or your email inbox. We are also currently holding our first ever giveaway for a free 6-month print subscription to the Wall Street Journal. Please be sure to stop by the contest page and see how you can enter to win.

Single women have a dreadful propensity for being poor – which is one very strong argument in favour of matrimony.

Jane Austen, Letter to Fanny Knight, 13 March 1817 Photo: Anne Hathaway as Jane Austen, Becoming Jane (2007), Miramax

~ Editor’s Picks ~

• Coffee For One presents Paying the Bills
• FruGal presents Joining the gym? Read this first
• Sound Money Matters presents That Makes Me Stabby: Do We Have an Obligation to Spend?
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• Free From Broke presents Just Enough Is Not Good Enough
• Pimp Your Finances presents 10 Financial Commandments for Your 20s
• Money Ning presents 50 Ways to Budget Travel and Save Money on Vacations

If the loss of what is most valued is so easily to be made up by something else, your resolution, your self-command, are, perhaps, a little less to be wondered at.

Marianne Dashwood, Sense and Sensibility Photo: Kate Winslet & Emma Thompson, Sense & Sensibility, Sony Pictures

~ New Year’s Resolutions ~

• The Passive Dad presents My Latte Factor In 2008. Automatic Millionaire Goals for 2009
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Imprudence or thoughtlessness in money matters would be unpardonable in me.

Jane Bennet, Pride and Prejudice Photo: Rosamund Pike as Jane, Pride & Prejudice (2005), Working Title

~ Frugality ~

• Passive Family Income presents Live Frugal – But in moderation
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• The Paycheck Chronicles presents Space Heaters or Turn Up the Thermostat?
• Getting Rich in Grad School presents 5 reasons why the best financial advice is always free
• The Smarter Wallet presents Buying A Computer? Check Our Computer Shopping Tips First

People always live for ever when there is an annuity to be paid them…. An annuity is a very serious business; it comes over and over every year, and there is no getting rid of it.

Fanny Dashwood (in regards to Mrs Dashwood), Sense and Sensibility Photo: Janet McTeer as Mrs. Dashwood, Sense & Sensibility (2008), BBC Warner

~ Budgeting ~

• Monogamoney presents What’s in my pantry
• Yielding Wealth presents Do You Need a Gatekeeper for Your Personal Finances?
• InsureBlog presents Wallet Biopsy
• About Financial Software Blog presents 8 Tips for Choosing Budgeting Software

And we mean to treat you all, but you must lend us the money, for we have just spent ours at the shop out there.

Lydia Bennet, Pride and Prejudice Photo: Brenda Blethyn, Jena Malone & Carey Mulligan, Pride & Prejudice (2005), Working Title

~ Consumerism & Spending ~

• Not Made of Money presents How Has the Current Economy Changed Your Wants and Needs?
• Budgets are Sexy presents My tipping rule: Everyone gets 20%! Nice and easy…
• Second Child, Last Born presents What Type of Saver/Spender Am I?
• Making My Own Payday presents The Not So Perfect Gift (Card)

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.

Pride and Prejudice Photo: Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy, Pride and Prejudice (1996), BBC/A&E

~ Money Management ~

• FIRE Finance presents Advantages of Online Banking
• Dawn’s Evolution presents 6 lessons in personal finance from my mother
• Prime Time Money presents How to Care {Not Worry} About Your Finances
• The Strump – Financial Blog presents How Detailed Should Your Financial Plan Be
• The Sun’s Financial Diary presents Where Did Our Money Go?
• Your Money Relationship presents Do You Still Balance Your Checkbook? I Sure Don’t!

A single woman, with a very narrow income, must be a ridiculous, disagreeable, old maid! the proper sport of boys and girls; but a single woman, of good fortune, is always respectable, and may be as sensbile and pleasant as anybody else….for a very narrow income has a tendency to contract the mind, and sour the temper.

Emma, Emma Photo: Gwyneth Paltrow as Emma, Emma (1996), Miramax

~ Debt ~

• Managing Money God’s Way presents Debt? What debt?
• Shrinkage is Good presents 5 Steps to Combat Holiday Debts and Ward Off Future Relapses
• Personal Finance Ology presents Understanding Good Debt Vs. Bad Debt
• American Consumer News presents Playing the Credit Card Balance Transfer Game
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A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of. It certainly may secure all the myrtle and turkey part of it.

Mary Crawford, Mansfield Park Photo: Alessandro Nivola & Embeth Davidtz, Mansfield Park (1999), Miramax

~ Career ~

• Blueprint for Financial Prosperity presents Success Finds Hard Work, Talent & Passion
• Greener Pastures presents The Power of Positive Psychology
• Happiness Is Better presents 6 Reasons Why I Joined Toastmasters
• PennyJobs.com presents 6 Options for Students To Consider with Respect to the Economy

Business, you know, may bring money, but friendship hardly ever does.

John Knightley, Emma Photo: Jeremy Northem as George Knightley, Emma (1996), Miramax

~ Saving & Investing ~

• My Wealth Builder presents Get Higher Interest for Saving – Up to 6%
• Generation X Finance presents How to Roll Over Your 401(k) When You Leave or Lose Your Job
• Four Pillars presents Can You Invest Your House Down Payment In The Stock Market?
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• Cash Money Life presents Increased 401k Contribution Limits in 2009
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• Military Finance Network presents 2009 Thrift Savings Plan Contribution Limits
• The Personal Financier presents Is the Stock Market a Big Ponzi (Madoff) Scheme?
• Stock Trading To Go presents Beginner’s Guide to Currency ETFs

But there are not so many men of large fortune in the world as there are pretty women to deserve them.

Mansfield Park Photo: Bennet family, Pride & Prejudice (2005), Working Title

~ Economy ~

• The Digerati Life presents Studying Business Cycles: Economic Graphs of The Current Economic Cycle
• Amateur Asset Allocator presents Unemployment At Highest Level In 15 years: Or Is It Even Worse?
• The Happy Rock presents [Video]The Government’s Money Hole – Recession, Taxes, and Bailout Commentary
• Personal Finance Analyst presents Can You Really Opt Out of a Recession?
• BankAround presents List of Banks that Took TARP Money

Pray, my dear aunt, what is the difference in matrimonial affairs, between the mercenary and the prudent motive? Where does discretion end, and avarice begin?

Eizabeth Bennet, Pride and Prejudice Photo: Jennifer Ehle as Lizzy, Pride and Prejudice (1996), BBC/A&E

~ Taxes ~

• The Financial Blogger presents How To Withdraw Money From Your Holding Without Paying Taxes – The Split Dollar Strategy
• Personal Finance Reviews presents 2009 Income Tax Brackets
• My Journey to Millions presents Did you Forget your RMD this Year? All may not be lost

After all that romancers may say, there is no doing without money.

Isabella Thorpe, Northanger Abbey Photo: Carey Mulligan as Isabella, Northanger Abbey (2007), WGBH Boston

~ Real Estate & Mortgages ~

• Mighty Bargain Hunter presents Running through payback time on a mortgage refinance
• Stumble Forward presents Mortgage Refinance Tips That Could Save You Thousands
• The Credit Toolbox presents Why Would You Choose A Variable Mortgage Rate?
• Funny About Money presents Can’t Sell the House? Try Swapping
• Debt Free Destiny presents How to Get Ready for Your First Home
• Growing Money presents Rental Property Update December 2008

Money can only give happiness where there is nothing else to give it.

Marianne Dashwood, Sense and Sensibility Photo: Kate Winslet as Marianne, Sense & Sensibility (1995), Sony Pictures

~ Reviews ~

• My Dollar Plan presents Have You Checked out Lending Club?
• The Dough Roller presents How to Buy and Sell Loans on Lending Club’s New Trading Platform
• Christian Debt Help presents Sharebuilder promotion and review

And to marry for money I think the wickedest thing in existence.

Catherine Morland, Northanger Abbey Photo: Felicty Jones as Catherine, Northanger Abbey (2007), WGBH Boston

~ Other ~

• Money Beagle presents Wasting Money on Poorly Timed Traffic Lights
• LivingAlmostLarge presents A difference between rich and poor
• Centsability to Wealth presents Insurance- The Fortress the Protects Your Financial Army
• Steadfast Finances presents When the Expense of Plastic Surgery is Justifiable
• Free Money Finance presents Four More Uses for Gold Dollar Coins

He is rich, to be sure, and you may have more fine clothes and fine carriages than Jane. But will they make you happy?

Mr. Bennet to Lizzy, Pride and Prejudice Photo: Keira Knightley as Lizzy, Pride & Prejudice (2005), Working Title

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This wraps up the Jane Austen Edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance. I hope you enjoyed the pictures and quotes as much as I did putting them together. Again, be sure to enter our giveaway for a free 6-month print subscription to the Wall Street Journal which ends this Saturday, January 24, 2009 at 11:59PM EST! Thanks for stopping by!

A Parting Shot

Photo: Gwyneth Paltrow as Emma, Emma (1996), Miramax

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This month’s Group Writing Project is about Personal Experiences with Loans, so we’ll tell the story of our first, somewhat disastrous experience with loans, of how we got in trouble and rectified the situation.

In May 2003, when we moved from Hawaii, we lived in a tiny garage apartment in Hayward, CA (more about this in Our Family Financial History). After a few harrowing experiences of walking as long as 3-4 hours through the dodgy neighborhoods to run errands, we decided we needed to buy a car ASAP.

Not knowing the first thing about buying a car or obtaining a loan, we set out on foot on Memorial Day 2003 and walked several miles to the car shopping district. The first used car salesman we spoke to asked us about our credit history, of which he had none. He told us we wouldn’t be able to buy a car without credit history and made some suggestions that we buy some jewelry on financing to build credit. Well, we needed a car then, not a year after owning jewelry we didn’t need, so on we went.

At the next used car lot we stopped at, a young salesman hurried out to speak to us. I can’t quite recall what was said in the conversation except perhaps that we were looking to buy a used car. Before we knew it, we had been whisked off in one of the used cars and driven over to the KIA dealership a block down the road and seated at a table with 2 car salesmen.

Again, they began by asking about our credit. We told them we had no previous credit history, but they went ahead and pulled our credit and came back shaking their heads and tsk-tsking about it, saying it would be really hard for us to buy a car. But good news was that I had an Old Navy credit card account (which I had never used), so I could actually get a loan – at an interest rate 24% APR. It was the only way, they said, that we could get a car.

We believed what they said and settled on a used 1999 Sephia LS, which was listed at $7,000, with a monthly payment of $230 (about $190 of which turned out to be interest) for 36 months. I didn’t like it, but by this time, we had been there for hours, were famished and really just wanted to get out of there. We also felt that we had to get a car that day, because we were too tired to walk all the way back home in that hot weather, and we couldn’t go on walking to buy groceries (Hayward is a scary place and our experience with public transportation there hadn’t been good).

So we finally gave in, put a down payment of $1,500 and took the “deal,” which upon later examination of our loan documents and after licensing and taxes (another $1,500) would have us paying a total of $11,300 for a not-so-great used car. We also made the mistake of not planning ahead and looking into auto insurance, so we had to take the dealership’s deal for insurance until we could get our own.

After we bought the car and spoke to our cousin, who had lots of advice for what we “shouldn’t have done” after the fact, we decided that we would do our best to pay off the loan as quickly as possible. The one good thing about this awful loan was that there was no pre-payment penalty. So we made our monthly payments and saved as much money as possible. By the beginning of June 2004, after 13 monthly payments, we had saved up enough to pay off the remaining balance of about $4,300.

By paying the loan off 2 years early, the final amount we ended up paying for the car was around $8,800. So we were able to save about $2,500. It was a mistake to go car shopping armed with no knowledge, but we did learn from our mistake and you can be sure we will never make the same mistake again. We’ve decided that next time we need to buy a car, we’ll order a new one from Cars Direct and pay in cash.

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About the PF Bloggers Group Writing Project

The Personal Finance Bloggers Network currently consists of 7 active personal finance and frugal living blogs. The Group Writing Project is a monthly project wherein each blog will write a post on a pre-determined topic and publish it on the same day of each month. Be sure to visit the PF Bloggers Group Writing Project page for the others!

Extended Group Writing Project Invitation

If you are a blogger, we would like to invite you to write your own post on this topic and submit it for listing with our entries on our Group Writing Project pages. Please visit the following page for details on how to participate in our Extended Group Writing Project.

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f this is your first time here, please have a look around and consider subscribing to our RSS feed. Be sure to also check out

Madoline and I have a fondness for history and all things old, so the theme for today’s carnival is “Old Money.” While credit cards, online banking and checks are great modern commodities, they just don’t have the charm of good, old fashioned money – in other words, cash. We hope you enjoy this tour through United States Treasury history and the art to be found in currencies of the past.

1934 $100,000 USD Bill (Woodrow Wilson)

Editor’s Picks

• PT presents 9 Tips For Going To One Income.
• Twenties Money Magazine presents My College Sold Me Out.
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• Karen presents Spending money can save your money.

1918 $10,000 USD Bill (Salmon P. Chase)

Frugality & Saving Money

• FIRE Getters presents Top 5 Freebie Websites!
• Amy Hobbs presents How to turn three slices of turkey into brunch.
• Ryan Suenaga presents Can a GPS Pay for Itself?
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• Grey presents Making the CFL Switch.

1918 $5,000 USD Bill (James Madison)

Shopping

• Pamela Grundy presents Best Buy Coupons, Promotions and Savings.
• mbhunter presents If you love Amazon, you’ll really love Amazon Prime.
• Amy L. presents Getting a Good Deal on Your Car Insurance.
• Tom Tessin presents The Secrets to Cheap Airline Tickets.
• Aryn presents New Strategies for Using Double Coupons.
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• Madison presents Free Money From the U.S. Mint.

1928 $1,000 USD Bill (Grover Cleveland)

Money Management

• Ariel Ozick presents 3 Dumb Ways to Waste Your Money.
• Todd presents Budgeting Games (Finance Games #6).
• Curt presents Avoiding the Most Common Financial Mistakes.
• GBlogger presents My Personal Finance One Step, Two Step.
• Nickel presents A Peek Inside Our FNBO Direct Online Savings Account.

1928 $500 USD Bill (William McKinley)

Debt & Credit

• Silicon Valley Blogger presents Best Cash Back Credit Cards: Your Rewards For Spending.
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1880 $100 USD Bill (Abraham Lincoln)

Economy

• Tejvan presents Why Boom and Busts are common in Housing Markets.
• Livingalmostlarge presents Perfection Guaranteed.
• RC presents Do Government Bailouts and Payouts Mean Higher Taxes in the Future?

1891 $50 USD Bill (Edward Everett)

Career

• Heather Johnson presents Guest Post: When Should You Quit Your Job?
• VH presents A$king and re¢eiving.
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1905 $20 USD Bill (George Washington)

Investing

• Dividends4Life presents The MMA Rate Mystery Solved.
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• Kevin presents Rebalanced My Roth 401k.
• Dividend Growth Investor presents Year-to-Date changes in Dividend Aristocrats’ annual payments to shareholders.
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• Sandy Naidu presents Behavioral Finance – Investor Psychology – Behavioral Finance Stock Market Investment.
• FMF presents Using Your Health Savings Account as a “Super Roth” Investment Vehicle.
• Zach Scheidt presents MasterCard Incorporated (MA) – Growth Slowing.

1901 $10 USD Bill (Meriwether Lewis & William Clark)

Book Reviews

• Clare Kierans presents Money is What You Trade Your Life Energy For.
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1886 $5 USD Bill (Ulysses S. Grant)

Other

• Steward presents A Frugal Shopping Tip That Leaves Everyone Smiling.
• J. Money presents 3 Things you should always keep in your wallet/purse/clip.
• Raymond presents How To Generate Valid Credit Card Numbers.
• Jamie presents Custom Wallet Giveaway from TheTrendySpot.com.
• Mr. Banker presents ABA Routing Codes to Link Online Accounts Together.

1862 First official $1 Bill of the United States (Salmon P. Chase)

This concludes the 26th Edition of the Money Hacks Carnival. Submit your blog article to the next edition of Money Hacks Carnival using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags: money hacks carnival, blog carnival.

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This first writing project deals with the circumstances, people and events in our past which have led to our present financial habits. I proposed this topic as the first of our group writing project as I had been planning to write something about our background and why we live the way we do.

We are one of those people who have a somewhat complicated history. In our first 25 years, we had lived in 3 different countries and called approximately 20 different places “home.” After several hours of attempting to put it all in prose, we have finally given up and decided to put our family financial history and relevant events in timeline format (and with authentic pictures), for your sake and ours.

A note before we begin: The time periods used to head each section are names of actual time periods from history; however, they are not all in correct historical order, but rather arranged to fit eras of our lives.

Pre-History

• 1978 July – Oakland, CA
  Mother, an art student from Taiwan, marries a young engineer and flight instructor from Japan whom she feels sorry for because he is poor and alone.

Ancient History

• 1979 March – San Francisco, CA
  Penelope arrives.
• 1980 November – San Francisco, CA
  Madoline arrives.
• 1978-1980
  Father cannot find decent work and receives gifts of money and private airplane (in hopes of stimulating flight instruction business) from our maternal grandmother.
• 1981-1987 – Tokyo, Japan
  Father moves family to Japan for better work opportunities. Father becomes a workaholic and makes a lot of money, buys himself computers and other gadgets but won’t give Mother money for food or clothes. Mother relies on grandparents for help and begins giving English lessons to neighborhood children after learning Japanese.
• 1987-1988 – Taiwan
  Father tells mother to leave and take us with her. Mother files for divorce and we are sent to live with various relatives in Taiwan while Mother works to build up a successful multi-level marketing business in Japan and Taiwan.

The Middle Ages

• 1988 July – Kauai, Hawaii
  Mother marries a spendthrift, workaphobe, and tax evader among other things disguised as a romantic gentleman in a ninja suit.
• 1988-1994 – Several locations on Oahu, Hawaii
  Mother continues to work at multi-level marketing business, Forever Living Products, bringing in as much as $10,000 per month for several years. Stepfather also helps by dressing up in business suits; however, the level and efficacy of his participation is questionable. 

  For the first we few years, we enjoy an idyllic childhood living in nice houses, one with a swimming pool, with a menagerie of pet cats, dogs, guinea pigs, rabbits, mice, fish and birds. As we get older, our mother begins to share her worries about our stepfather’s shopaholicism. He goes through one expensive phase after another – chess (during which he buys several costly chess sets and strategy books), golf, motorcycles, guitar, etc. She is also constantly worrying about his tax debt and his refusal to do anything to remedy the situation.

• 1991 – 2000 – Family Business
  Staring around age 12 and 10, Madoline and I become partially responsible for helping to manage the family business, as Mother and Stepfather become the area General Managers and run the warehouse for product inventory. Our duties include helping customers (called distributors) with product purchases, explaining the various purposes of the products, taking orders, retrieving and carrying products to customers’ cars, monthly inventories, compiling and mailing monthly sales summaries to the main office. We continue to help out in this business till around part-way through college, at times running the business solely in Stepfather’s place in later years.
• 1994 December – Hawaii Kai, Hawaii
  Mother is diagnosed with stage 4 cancer with 6 months to live. She begins preparing a will, appoints Stepfather legal guardian, names a trustee to set up our trust funds for the life insurance policy left for our future and education – $100,000 each for our education, $500,000 for the purchase of a permanent residence. Knowing Stepfather’s spendthrift nature, she allots $100,000 for his personal use. One month prior to Mother’s passing, the trustee of Mother’s estate is changed to Stepfather.

Imperialism

The following take place in several more locations on Oahu, Hawaii each successively less expensive than the previous.

• 1995 October
  Mother passes away, Stepfather collects the life insurance and begins spending money immediately. He purchases a new car – on credit so as to retain the cash for investing – and ignores calls from lawyer to set up trust funds.
• 1995 November
  Stepfather meets a man called “Grandpa” who has the investment opportunity of a lifetime; give him $250,000 and he will receive $6 Million in 2 months. Stepfather gives “Grandpa” $250,000 – without our consent, of course.
• 1995 November – Early 1996
  In anticipation of millionairehood, Stepfather spends money as if already a millionaire – takes a party of 10 to the Superbowl (including airfare, hotel and $1,000 tickets), takes entire family of which he is the oldest of nine to Phantom of the Opera, hosts a presidential campaign in Hawaii, etc.

The Great Depression

• 1996 Spring
  “Grandpa” proves by all appearances to be a fraud, though Stepfather continues to hope and chant “Our ship will come in.” All $800,000 is gone, new car is repossessed despite Stepfather’s efforts to hide it a ten-minute walk from house. IRS comes calling for back taxes dating to the 1970’s. All that is left is a modest residual income which would be sufficient for us all to live on if he didn’t spend next month’s check before it arrived.
• 1996 Summer
  Stepfather pushes for me to go to college one year early. When I do not want to do so, he resorts to asking for charity from a classmate’s affluent father. (We are unaware of this until after graduation.)
• 1996 -1997
  Stepfather begins to use the word “frugal” in family discussions, a concept he manages to abide to in theory; in practice, he continues to purchase computers, surfboards, and miscellaneous useless things which are somehow supposed to make him rich.

The Age of Enlightenment

• 1997 May
  I graduate high school and win the Sterling Scholarship for Foreign Language and receive a check for $4,000. Because Stepfather needs money, I endorse the check to him.
• 1997-2002 – Higher Education
  Madoline drops out of high school 2 years early, and does one year of independent study by correspondence in order to save Stepfather $16,000 in tuition, and enrolls in college one year early. We graduate college (with honors ) with the aid of scholarships and the residual income left by our mother. Even though the income is enough to support our very modestly priced education, getting the money from Stepfather to pay our class fees and insurance is like pulling teeth.
• 2001-2002 – My First Job
  I enter the work force after graduating, my first job being a contract 9-month receptionist/secretary for our college’s admissions office. I earn $9.00 an hour and work 30 hours a week. It’s a great first job where I discover I have an affinity for administrative work and enjoy counting how much I make every minute as I work (15 cents per minutes ).

The Great Schism

• 2002 June
  At the time of Madoline’s graduation, we sever ties with Stepfather due to a number of irreconcilable differences. When Madoline graduates and my contract ends, we get full-time jobs together. By sharing a house and all our expenses, we are able to put away about $1,000 a month. After a year at this job, we decide to leave Hawaii and try our luck in California.
• 2002 July – 2003 January
  We hire an attorney to help us deal with Stepfather and manage to transfer Mother’s residual income to us. By this time, the business has dwindled and the income is reduced to about 10% of what it was when our mother was alive and developing the business.
• 2003 February – Tokyo, Japan
  Biological Father now decides he wants daughters again after almost 20 years because he finds himself $80,000 in credit card debt from eating out and buying expensive presents for his girlfriends, and suddenly realizes family is important. Unfortunately for him (and for us), we have long ago stopped considering him as our family. Also, he asks us to help pay his debts which does not sit well with us.

The Age of Discovery

• 2003 May – Our First Apartment
  We decide to try living in the Bay Area, where we had been born. Because we will use up almost all our savings on the move, we look for the most inexpensive place we could find. We find a tiny place on Craigslist – and by tiny I mean 240 sq. ft. – an apartment behind a couple’s garage that will let us arrange the rental over email and let us bring all our pets for $650 a month. (Right: Approx. 1/3 of our First Apartment)
  We pack up our things (3,000 lbs. worth of furniture including our piano which we have had since childhood and couldn’t part with, books and mementos of childhood and our mother) and pets – our 4-year old dog, 16-year old cat, and 22 mice. The apartment is so small that we barely had room left after moving all of our things in.
• 2003 May – Our First Car
  After a couple of scary and extremely uncomfortable experiences walking in our new neighborhood to run errands, we decide we need to buy a car asap. Knowing almost nothing about car shopping and credit, we get tricked into a 24% APR.
• 2003 June – Our First Real Frugal Experience
  Having used up all our savings on the move and down payment on the car, and our monthly check having been delayed, we have $100 in the bank. One night we dig through all of our things, pockets and purses for spare change to buy groceries. Even after our check arrives, we go about setting up our apartment as inexpensively as possible because the amount of the income is unpredictable and unreliable. We begin to find creative alternatives for thing we need.
• 2003 Summer & Fall – Our Second Apartment
  As we are still trying to figure out what we want to do, we temporarily apply for and get jobs as sandwich makers at Togo’s Eatery. After a month, the owners of Togo’s offer us managerial positions at a new upscale pizza shop they are opening in Fremont. The apartment turns out to be in violation of several California building codes, and gets extremely hot, with temperatures above 100 degrees on the hottest days. As we are about to start our new jobs in Fremont, we upgrade to a 400 sq. ft. studio apartment. 

  As limited space continues to be an issue, we go to Lowe’s and bring home a carload of lumber and build ourselves a freestanding 8′ x 6′ loft over our beds with for our computer, cushions and other diminutive furniture. This loft is disassembled for a future move, and later recycled into cabinets, this computer desk (with hand-carved feet shaped like horse hooves), a shipping supply cabinet and beds for our dog.

• 2003 September – Our First U-Haul
  To save money, we rent a 10′ U-Haul for our short distance move from Hayward to Fremont. It’s my first time driving a truck, which is quite scary, but when it’s all done, we can’t help but feel just a little bit proud that we’ve done it all ourselves (except for the piano).
• 2004 March – Our First Credit Cards
  Ever since the car loan fiasco, we have been trying to learn about credit. A regular customer of our pizza shop who works for Bank of America advises us to apply for a credit card. We apply for and get our first credit cards and begin building credit histories. Biological Father wants us to add him as an additional user. We say “no.”
• 2004 Tax Time – Our First Time Filing Self-Employment Tax
  Our first tax season is a disaster. I have no idea about where to start and what forms I need to fill out for the income from our mother’s business. I spend days reading the IRS website and countless forms and instructions. I finally figure it all out and mail out our return on April 15th.
• 2004 June – Our First Loan Paid Off
  We have been saving up to pay off our car loan early (23 months ahead of schedule).

The Dark Ages

• April 2004 – Los Angeles
  Our 16-year old cat is diagnosed with kidney disease in November 2003. He becomes seriously ill in February 2004 and needs constant and costly care. As our pizza shop job does not pay very well due to business problems, we decide to move to Los Angeles for more employment opportunities.
• April 2004 – Our Second U-Haul (Actually Budget Rent-a-Truck)
  Again, to save money, we rent a 15′ Budget Rent-a-Truck for the move from Fremont to Van Nuys. This time the experience has gotten old, and the time constraints to return the truck in 3 days is more than a little stressful. We load the truck and hire a Bay Area piano mover to put the piano in the truck on Day 1, make the 8-hour drive and check into the apartment on Day 2, unload the truck and hire a Los Angeles piano mover to unload the piano on Day 3, and return the truck before 9:00AM on Day 4. We swear then and there as we rub our sore backs that this is the last time we ever U-Haul it.
• 2004 Summer – 2005 Summer – The Lost Year
  Having lost our dog to an accident and our cat to kidney disease in early 2004, we suddenly find ourselves a little aimless. Where we used to be content to stay at home and read or watch DVDs, we now find ourselves restless. For a few months, we wander one shopping mall after another as soon as we get off work (a depressing sales job working for a bald man who shouts a lot), buy more clothes than we need, and are reluctant to go home to an empty apartment. 

  Then we decide to quit our jobs and enroll in some arts classes at the local community college, and re-settle into our frugal habits. We become so frugal that we literally don’t do anything or go anywhere except to the library and to the grocery store. We stop going out except to walk the malls for exercise and window shopping.

The Industrial Revolution

• 2005 July – Franga Designs
  One day, while shopping for a Star Trek Enterprise model for my cousin, I discover eBay. Thus begins Franga Designs, our dog and horse clothing and costuming business named after Mother, which later becomes an online store.
• 2005 October – House Hunting
  Madoline’s designs are an instant hit and we begin to receive many requests for custom designs. Our one-bedroom apartment (638 sq. ft.) is completely covered in fabric, patterns, sewing and photographic supplies that we barely have room to walk. We decide it is time to expand our work and living space, and after all the moving around, that it’s time to buy a house and settle somewhere permanently.
• 2005 November – Homeowners
  We find a charming 3-bedroom house with a nice yard in California City. We make an offer and escrow closes November 22, 2005. To celebrate being homeowners, we go to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (matinee), which to this day remains one of my favorites.

The Modern Era

We are still in the process of settling in our home; with our frugal and DIY mentality, it takes longer to get things done. So far we have replaced all the carpet in our house with our own homemade flooring made from plywood that we sawed into floorboards, built a wall-length and -height shelf for our books and fabrics, and fixed up second hand furniture.

We try to save money wherever we can and build up our savings. Having been privy to our stepfather and our biological father’s mistakes and our mother’s constant stress over finances, we are paranoid about spending and debt.

If you are interested in finding out more about us, please visit the More About Us page.

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About the PF Bloggers Group Writing Project

The Personal Finance Bloggers Network currently consists of 8 active personal finance and frugal living blogs. The Group Writing Project is a monthly project wherein each blog will write a post on a pre-determined topic and publish it on the same day of each month. Be sure to visit the PF Bloggers Group Writing Project page for the others!

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A few instances where I often choose not to buy in bulk are:

• Trying a new product
  I recently shopped for a multi-purpose household cleaner. (We try to use vinegar and baking soda when possible, but there are times that we feel we need a stronger cleaner.) Because we have pets, we try to be as cautious as possible when choosing cleaners, and I found one called Simple Green that I liked the looks of because it claims to be safe and biodegradable, and it comes concentrated and makes several times the amount of the bottle.

  Simple Green comes in 3 sizes at our local Ace Hardware: 22 oz. spray bottle ($5.99), 1/2 gallon jug $8.99), and 1 Gallon jug ($10.99). Needless to say, the larger the jug, the lower the cost of use. With the larger sizes significantly cheaper than the smaller sizes, I was tempted to purchase the gallon sized jug. However, having never used or heard of the brand, I was hesitant to purchase such a large quantity for fear that it would turn out to be unsatisfactory for various reasons. Our local Ace Hardware charges a 15% restocking fee for all returns, which I consider a waste of money, so I don’t like to think of that as an option.

  I ended up choosing the 1/2 gallon jug of Simple Green. It was a hard decision because for just $2.00 more, I could have had twice the amount of product, but I figured that if it turned out I hated the product, I would be $2.00 richer for having gone with the $8.99 instead of $10.99. Also, the 1/2 gallon was enough to mix so much cleaner that it would be a very long time before having to buy more. And that extra $2.00 sitting in the bank for another 6 months to a year (or maybe even longer) will earn me a little interest, so in the end it might not make that much difference.

• Imminent large expenditure
  We sometimes opt not to purchase some things in bulk when we are expecting a large expenditure in the near future – i.e. income taxes, property tax, home and auto insurance renewal, vehicle registration and smog check, etc. which for us always come together at the same time (April and November). So in the weeks ahead of these months, we sometimes buy things we use over a longer period of time in smaller quantities. Yes, it does cost more in the long run, but sometimes we feel it a worthwhile cost in exchange for the added security of a little extra money in the bank account when larger amounts of money are going out.
• Less frequently used products
  If you are purchasing something that is used very infrequently, maybe only a few times a year, you might waste your money by purchasing it in larger quantities if it expires and loses effectiveness over time. This also goes for –
• Products nearing their expiration date
  Stores often have sales when products are nearing their expiration dates because they cannot sell them once the date has passed. In many cases, the items on sale are the bulk quantities and the price is so low that it is tempting to purchase it. But as mentioned above, some products lose effectiveness when they age so you may end up wasting money on products that no longer work as they should.

Again, the decision to not buy in bulk are usually for things that are not used up quickly. For everyday things like food, shampoo, laundry detergent, toilet paper, etc. we always buy in as large quantities as possible, but with things that are used over the course of a few months to a year, it can sometimes be more beneficial in the short term to purchase in smaller quantities.

P.S. We have been using Simple Green for a few weeks now and I am happy to say that I do like it. It gets the job done and smells really nice – sort of minty. Should have gotten the gallon size for just $2.00 more… darn it!

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Every Little Bit Adds Up

First I will remind you, as I mentioned in my first official post “,” that every little bit adds up and makes difference in the long run. While one small action seems insignificant in the long scheme of things, if frequently repeated, it will have a long-term impact whether good or bad.

I will use smoking as an example: smoking a single cigarette may not harm you, but smoking cigarettes on a regular basis over the course of many years will significantly impact your health (even if not visible to the eye, there is a consequence.) Likewise, all things we do, no matter how small, will have a consequence of some sort. So now to my point.

As I said above, staying home is one of the best and easiest ways to save money. And again, as mentioned above, this is not about going out for special activities, but rather everyday activities and the importance of consolidating errands and activities because every single time you leave your house, whether or not you physically “spend” money, you are in fact spending money. I will start with the most obvious.

Driving is More than Gas

When you drive, you’re spending more than the cost of gas by putting wear and tear on your car. The IRS (for our foreign readers, this is the Internal Revenue Service, the United States government’s department of taxation) has determined a mileage allowance rate of 48.5¢ per mile for business purposes for the 2007 tax year. While tax-wise, this allowance only applies to business owners who use their vehicles in the course of business, it takes into account the cost of gas, wear and tear and maintenance on the vehicle. So a simple 1-mile one way trip (2-mile round trip) to the store has a cost value of $0.97.

Cost Begins with Use

There are many other ways you spend money by going out. These are in the number of things we need and use in order to go out. Everything costs money; just because you’ve already paid for something doesn’t mean that it is now “free” or “without cost.” A good example of this concept is, once again, the IRS. When a business purchases inventory or supplies, it cannot deduct the cost of those items until after those items have been sold or used.

For example, a business owner purchases a case of paper clips in May 2006. He only uses half the case of paper clips by the end of his tax year in December 2006. When he files his 2006 taxes, he can only deduct the cost of the half case of paper clips that he used in 2006. Only after he has used up the 2nd half of his case of paper clips in 2007 can he deduct the cost of those clips. This is an example of the theory that actual expenditure does not end with the purchase of an item, but with the use of it.

Being Presentable

Every time you go out, you must put on clothing that are presentable in public. These clothes are often nicer and more valuable than your regular home clothes. Though it is not always immediately visible, each time you wear your nice clothes, they get some … well … wear. That’s why they call it “wearing” clothes, is it not? Each wearing decreases the value and shortens the life of the garment, taking you that much closer to having to buy (or make) a replacement. This especially includes shoes, which suffer the most wear and tear.

After you wear your clothes, they will need to be washed. Not only does washing cause additional wear on the clothes, but it is accompanied by further expenditures in water use, detergent, and for many, electricity or gas for drying, anti-static dryer sheets, fabric softeners, etc.

Being presentable also often entails use of cosmetics (for women) and hair products – hair spray, mousse, gel, etc (men and women). For women who use make-up before going out, there is the cost of the make-up and all the other products used along with the make-up (toners, lotions, etc.). Every time you use these things, you are in theory, spending or “using” money.

Time is Money

It may be trite, but it is true, especially if you are self-employed or simply make a little extra money blogging. Think of the time spent in traffic or standing in line at the store for the purpose of buying a few items. You could have done some work or written an article that could potentially make money.

Unexpected Expenditures

Oftentimes when we go out for one purpose, we are often sidetracked and end up at originally unplanned places (perhaps attracted by a “ONE DAY SALE” sign at a favorite store) and making unplanned purchases (“Buy One Get One Free” even though you hadn’t even planned on buying One at all). It is true that had you never gone out that day, you might have missed out on a great bargain, but had you not ventured out of doors at all, you would be none-the-wiser and the richer for it. If you go out 3 times a week as opposed to once a week, the possibility (and probability) of unplanned expenditures is multiplied by 3.

I am not saying that you should never go out and starve to death when you run out of groceries. The point I hope I have made is that every outing costs money and that one of the easiest ways to save money is by consolidating all your errands into one outing. This requires some planning and organizing, but is by no means difficult. Following are a few tips to get you started.

Tips for Saving Time and Money by Consolidating

• Groceries
  It is not necessary to shop for groceries every few days or even every week. Try to cut back to every 2-3 weeks, or even better, once a month. This requires some planning and adjustment to get the quantities right, but can save you a lot of time and money. (Check back soon for tips on shopping for groceries once a month.)
• Banking
  Yes, the sooner you deposit that paycheck in the bank, the sooner you begin earning interest. But, if the cost of making a special run to the bank (driving & time) exceeds the amount of interest you will earn, might it not be better to wait a few days until you have more reasons for going out?
• Post Office
  Save trips to the post office by keeping some stamps on hand. I like the Forever stamps that can still be used when postage rates go up. Consider using online shipping for mailing parcels. (Check back soon for information on how you can save time and money by using online shipping options.) Also, refer to my article “” and learn how you can possibly save $60 a year by not mailing your bills.
• Returning Library Books
  If you have a library book due on a day when you don’t have any other errands scheduled, you can renew the book by calling the library or logging onto the library website, and delay the trip to the library until you have another reason to go out.
• Shop Online
  Consider buying more online (from reputable and established businesses, of course). Online prices are often lower than in-store prices even including shipping, so you save time, money, and gas.

Again, it can take time and planning to get used to this idea, but you will soon begin to see how much money and time you save by waiting a few days to take care of all your business at once. This does not mean you should become a hermit and never leave the house. It is important to still go out for practical and social reasons (and work), but hopefully you will now be more aware of the cost behind every activity and therefore be even more successful in your frugal lifestyle.

Related posts:

• Thank you!
• Save Money, Make Money 30-Day Challenge @ iVillage
• Finance and Frugality Blog Carnivals: Week of Unexpected Delays
• Make Your January 1, 2009 Home Mortgage Payment Today to Cut Your 2008 Taxes
• Basics for the Young, Single and Frugal

The main points covered in the article are:

• Spending Money is Not Your Patriotic Duty
  The U.S. Government is hoping Americans will spend their rebates and give the economy a temporary boost, but you should not consider this your patriotic duty, and instead look to your own finances first.
• Credit card rates are on the Rise
  So if you have credit card debt, this is the time to pay it off rather than put more on it.
• If you are going to buy, buy American
  Buying something made in China or taking a vacation abroad will not be doing your patriotic duty. If you are going to buy something, let it be American made, and if it’s a vacation you’re after, let it be a local or domestic one where the money spent goes to the U.S. economy and not a foreign one.

My suggestion would be to put it all in a high-yield savings account if you don’t have debts to pay off. If there is something you or your family really needs, by all means do what you need to do, but if it’s only something you want then I’d think twice about it first. This could apply to all money and not just this tax rebate.

For more information, I’d highly recommend reading the entire article. And be sure to file your 2007 taxes by April 15th to get on the tax rebate mailing list.

America, don’t blow this rebate by Liz Pulliam Weston

Related posts:

• March 2008 Finance and Frugality Blog Carnivals
• Under the Weather – Recommended Reading
• Blog Carnivals
• Finance Fiesta No. 16: Devote Your Life to Money! Edition
• Frugal Christmas: Skipping the Tree and Presents This Year

Originally posted 2008-03-03 17:39:46.

Expansion Difficulty/Complexity: Medium-Hard

This is a credit card add-on for the game of Monopoly wherein players have both cash and credit and may opt to “charge” certain expenses in lieu of paying cash in order to keep the cash flow for investing in property and buildings. For being such a careful money saver in real life, I was surprised at how quickly my “credit card debt” snowballed.

I started out by charging all my expenses because the 10% interest seemed so insignificant, and before I knew it, I was overlimit and paying 20% interest and my debt became more and more unmanageable. I came in second in the end with a credit card debt of $3,600. Madoline won with over $5,000 in cash, and Mabel lost with over $10,000 in credit card debt. :O

Objective

To teach children (and some adults) about buying and owing on the credit system.

Overview

This version of the game uses a credit system wherein players may opt to put purchases and expenses on their credit account instead of paying cash – either because they do not have enough cash available or because they wish to keep their cash to invest in property.

How to Play

• Print out and distribute a copy of the Bank of Monopoly Personal Credit Card Statement (includes rules) to each player. The statement contains 20 tables (representing 20 months/circuits of the game board). If you need more than 20 tables, simply print extra copies of this document.
  Tip: Print 2-Sided to save paper
• Any time during the game, a player may opt to charge expenses such as rent, taxes and miscellaneous fees on his/her “credit card.” in order to save cash for investing in properties and building.
• Property and building purchases may not be charged on a credit card.

How to Use the Personal Credit Card Statement

• A player is allowed 12 credit transactions per month (circuit of the board).
• Each person has a credit limit of $2,000.

1. On the first round of the game, enter $0 under Balance Forward.
2. When making a charge, enter a brief description of the transaction under “Description of Transaction”
3. Enter the amount under “Amount Charged”
4. Total the current balance in the right-hand column under “Balance.”
5. When you pass or land on “Go,” total your balance next to “Total Charges”
6. Pay off your desired debt in cash to bank and enter the figure next to “Amount Paid @ “Go.”
   • You are required to make a minimum payment of 10% of the total charges.
   • If you are not able to make the 10% payment, your interest rate increases to 20% until you are able to make your minimum payment again.
   • You may pay your balance in full and accrue no finance charges, or pay at least the minimum or as much as you are able to or wish to.
7. Subtract the amount paid from the Total Charges and enter the amount next to “Balance Subtotal.”
   If the balance is greater than $0, multiply Balance Subtotal by 10% (n x .1) if you’ve made at least the minimum payment, or 20% (n x .2) if you were not able to make the minimum payment, and enter the figure next to “x 10% Finance Charges.”
8. Multiply Balance Subtotal by 10% (n x .1) and enter the figure next to “x 10% Finance Charges.”
9. Add the 10% Finance Charge to your Balance Subtotal and enter the figure next to “Balance Forward.”
10. This is your remaining debt.
11. Move to the next empty table and enter the “Balance Forward” amount at the top right-hand column
12. next to “Balance Forward.”
13. When entering your first charge of new circuit around the board, add the charge to the forwarded amount and repeat.

Click on the image below to view a sample statement

Transactions Between Players

On a transaction wherein a player is to receive money and the payer decides to charge the expense, the receiver withdraws the payment directly out of the bank.

Bank of Monopoly Credit Card Terms

Credit Limit: $2,000
Regular Interest Rate: 10%
Minimum Payment: 10% of balance
Minimum Finance Charge: $10
Insufficient Payment/Overlimit Interest Rate: 20%
Overlimit Fee: $50 per transaction

Note: In the interest of illustrating the snowball effect of debt, we have decided not to cap the game and charges at $2,000, but rather impose a per transaction overlimit fee of $50 and a higher interest rate.

Visit http://pecuniarities.com/Monopoly for more Money Management and Investment Monopoly Expansions!

The Monopoly game is copyrighted by Parker Brothers, a subsidiary of Hasbro. All expansions are original creations by Our Fourpence Worth and shared for personal use only. Commercial use of these rules, forms and images is prohibited.

Related posts:

• Monopoly Game Expansion #1: Personal Savings Account
• July 2008 Finance and Frugality Blog Carnivals
• Monopoly Game Expansion #2: Personal Checking Account
• Monopoly Game Expansion #5: Income Tax Edition
• June 2008 Finance and Frugality Blog Carnivals

Originally posted 2008-06-30 06:00:22.

Now that tax time is coming around, I’ve noticed an increase in tax related scam emails in  my inbox and spam folder. They come in various forms with different sender names and subjects, claiming to be important notifications about your taxpayer account, your tax refund, and new this year, your economic stimulus or bailout check.

By now, most savvy internet users have seen enough phishing emails to know what to do about them — ignore or delete them, or if you want to make a difference, report them — but for those of you who are new to phishing schemes and internet scams, here is a heads-up.

Some of the fake IRS e-mails I have received look like this:

From the IRS website:

The IRS does not initiate taxpayer communications through e-mail.

• The IRS does not request detailed personal information through e-mail.
• The IRS does not send e-mail requesting your PIN numbers, passwords or similar access information for credit cards, banks or other financial accounts.

If you receive an e-mail from someone claiming to be the IRS or directing you to an IRS site,

• Do not reply.
• Do not open any attachments. Attachments may contain malicious code that will infect your computer.
• Do not click on any links. If you clicked on links in a suspicious e-mail or phishing Web site and entered confidential information, visit our Identity Theft page.

No matter how convincing the e-mail looks, do fall for it. Report it to the IRS.

How to report phishing, e-mail scams and bogus IRS Web sites
If you receive an e-mail or find a Web site you think is pretending to be the IRS,

• Forward the e-mail or Web site URL to the IRS at phishing@irs.gov.
• You can forward the message as received or provide the Internet header of the e-mail. The Internet header has additional information to help us locate the sender.
• After you forward the e-mail or header information to us, delete the message.

Contact the IRS by phone or U.S. Mail to inquire about your account if you believe it might be legitimate – it most likely isn’t. Remember: The IRS does not initiate taxpayer communications through e-mail.

For more information on how to identify and report suspicious emails, identity fraud, phishing schemes and tax scams, visit the page on How to Report and Identify Phishing, E-mail Scams and Bogus IRS Web Sites at the IRS website.  View an example of an Economic Stimulus related phishing e-mail.

Please note: I am not a tax professional, nor am I affiliated with the Internal Revenue Service in any way. This information is presented here in the hopes that it might be helpful. If you have been a victim of a tax related scam, please contact the authorities for assistance.

Related posts:

• March 1st-7th is National Consumer Protection Week!
• Interesting Reads From Fellow Personal Finance Bloggers #16
• Consumer Safety Resources from the Government on SPAM, Scams, Fraud, Phishing and Identity Theft
• Pecuniarities News: Top 100 Finance Blogs, MSN Smart Spending, FrugalFocus and Consumer Safety
• Why I Will Not Change My Mindset, Plus the Difference Between Justifying and Being Optimistic About Spending

Originally posted 2009-02-24 07:00:55.

With a current budget deficit of $17.2 billion, the urgent issue of who should pick up the firefighting bill has arisen. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed an insurance surcharge on all California home and property owners to help raise funds for firefighting.

But for those of us who have not chosen to build and live in the areas where these frequent seasonal fires occur, we can’t help but feel a little resentful of this proposal. The existence of homes in those areas drive firefighting costs up due to the necessity for differing procedures and additional resources. Not only does it cost more to have to use fire engines, airplanes and helicopters to defend these structures, but they take resources away from other remote fires that would otherwise be more quickly and easily contained.

According to Timothy Duane, professor of environmental planning and policy at UC Berkeley:

“When you are forced to move resources in defense of structures, it means you’re often taking resources away from other areas of the fire, or entirely separate fires, which means those fires are harder to contain with less resources. You have to deal with life, and property and natural resources, in that order, and when you’re dealing with the first two, it increases the extent of the fire and the time period before you can put the fire out.”

Yes, we do feel sorry for those who have lost their homes or whose homes are in danger, but they willingly purchased and/or built homes in areas that they knew were susceptible to seasonal fires. When we purchased our California home, we did so after researching the various environmental factors and comparing risks of natural disasters with other areas. With this sort of information readily available, as well as the fact that the wildfires are widely covered in the news each year, it’s hard to claim ignorance to the risk when they purchased or built their homes.

I know I should be more charitable and sympathetic, but frankly, with the daily inflation of food and gas prices, the heat wave increasing our electric bill, and decline in business putting a strain on our already modest lifestyle, I am not in the mood to pay a surcharge on my home insurance in order to make up for the poor home purchase decisions of others.

Related posts:

• July 2008 Finance and Frugality Blog Carnivals
• Interesting Reads from Fellow Personal Finance Bloggers #5
• Save on Vehicle Registration, Driver License Renewal and (for California Residents) Smog Testing & Repair with DMV Online
• Lottery Tickets: Worthy Investment or Waste of Money?
• Patchwork Berets from Fabric Scraps

Originally posted 2008-07-10 12:23:32.

From Our Fourpence Worth

• Father’s Day
  If you’re still looking for a Father’s Day present, many of our ideas from Frugal but Thoughtful Mother’s Day Gift Suggestions could also apply to fathers and father-figures in your life.
• Tax Rebate
  If you are truly interested in helping the US economy, check out Don’t Spend that Tax Rebate Just Yet for a few suggestions on how to and how not to spend your tax rebate based on an article by Liz Pulliam Weston of MSN Money.
• Motivating Children to Practice Music
  Take advantage of summer vacation to help your kids get ahead on their music practice and get the most out of your music lesson fees with some advice by Madoline, who majored in music and has had experience in teaching children’s piano lessons.
  • Motivating Children to Practice Music: Introduction
  • Part 2: Playing the Piano is a Privilege (Not a Chore)
  • Part 3: Playing Slower for Faster Results
  • Part 4: Divide and Conquer

  (If you like the image to the right, which is an original illustration by my sister Madoline, check out our CafePress store Mozartini for gifts and collectibles featuring this image and other artwork by the same hand.)

• Editor’s Picks
  We’re starting to get the hang of blogging (which was completely new to us when we started this blog in February), and have produced a few Editor’s Picks in recent blog carnivals:
  • The Frugal Literate’s Guide to Affordable Reading
  • Frugal but Thoughtful Mother’s Day Gift Suggestions
  • My Favorite Money and Time Saving Websites
  • Guide to Safe and Smart Traveling with Pets
  • Lottery Tickets: Worthy Investment or Waste of Money?
  • Simple Solutions to Staying Out of Debt

News from the Personal Finance Blogosphere

• Personal Finance Buzz
  Check out PF Buzz for lots of great personal finance articles and vote for your favorite ones — hint hint — my profile.
• Finance Fiesta
  Last Thursday (June 5th) saw the first edition of the Finance Fiesta blog carnival hosted at Master Your Card. This week (today), the Fiesta is being hosted at Wide Open Wallet and will be hosted by yours truly next Thursday. If you have a finance or frugality related article, be sure to submit it by Wednesday June 18th 5:00PM EDT to be considered for inclusion in the 3rd Edition of the Finance Fiesta!
• Summer Savings Series
  Money Life Network is running a Summer Savings Series over the course of 3 weeks with tips including but not limited to:
  • Ways to save on travel
  • Frugal activities for the kids
  • Ways to save on your auto expenses
  • Ways to save on groceries
  • How to get motivated to save

  Be sure to also check out my last article Frugal, Fun and Productive Summer Activities for some ideas for keeping cool, busy and fit this summer.

I promise to return soon with more scintillating material. Thanks for reading!

Please consider subscribing to our RSS Feed to keep up with new posts. If you prefer, you can also have new posts delivered directly to your inbox by Subscribing by Email.

Related posts:

• Tips for Staying Healthy This Winter
• Hosting the 3rd Edition of the Finance Fiesta Blog Carnival
• Hosting the 16th Finance Fiesta Blog Carnival
• Does Thinking About Money Make You a Bad Person?
• Closing Your Credit Cards Can Hurt Your FICO Score

Originally posted 2008-06-12 05:48:09.

Expansion Difficulty/Complexity: Medium-Easy

This Certificate of Deposit was the second expansion we created for the game (invented by Madoline) of Monopoly. After the Lottopoly (coming soon), I find this to be the most fun. The interest rates are rather high compared to real-life CD’s, but they help to illustrate the point that investing pays off, and it is so much fun watching the money add up.

Objective

To learn the system and benefits of saving and investing via Certificates of Deposit (CD’s).

How to Play

• Download and print the Bank of Monopoly Certificate of Deposit Form (includes rules).
• Banker
  Designate a player to be in charge of CD’s. This person will receive and deposit into the bank the money to be invested, fill out the CD form, keep track of players’ passing of “Go,” calculate interests and penalties, and pay out the earnings from the bank.
• Opening a CD
  Deposit the amount to be invested in the bank and fill in the player’s name, opening balance and term of deposit. The term is the number of “months” or circuits around the board. Deposits may only be made on the turn when a player passes or stops on “Go.” Once a deposit is made and the term is set, it may not be changed.
• Marking off the months
  When a player passes “Go,” the banker marks off a circuit under 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Months. This indicates the passage of time. If a player purchases a CD for 1 month, his account is considered mature after one full circuit of the board. 2 months require 2 full circuits, and 3 months require 3 full circuits.
  Note: Going to jail does not constitute a circuit as one does not pass “Go.”
• Payouts
  When a player passes “Go” for the last time, his/her earnings are calculated and the balance paid out.

Click on the image below to see a sample

Terms

• Interest Rates
  1 Month = 10%
  2 Months = 30%
  3 Months = 60%
• Penalty for early withdrawal
  $50 per month. If a player makes a deposit for 3 months but must withdraw it after only 1 month due to need for cash (to pay rent, taxes, etc.), he is charged a total of $100 dollars early withdrawal penalty and earns no interest.

Additional Notes

• There is no limitation as to the number of CD’s a player may have open at any time.
• CD’s may only be opened on the turn in which a player passes or lands on “Go.”
• A player may opt to immediately re-invest the closing balance of a CD by opening a new one.
• Early withdrawal requires complete withdrawal. If the player wishes to invest a smaller amount, he must wait until he passes “Go” and open a new CD.
• Tip: Use a different color pencil or pen for each player when players open multiple deposits.

Visit OurFourpenceWorth.com/Monopoly for more Money Management and Investment Monopoly Expansions!

The Monopoly game is copyrighted by Parker Brothers, a subsidiary of Hasbro. All expansions are original creations by Our Fourpence Worth and shared for personal use only.
Commercial use of these rules, forms and images is prohibited.

Related posts:

• July 2008 Finance and Frugality Blog Carnivals
• August 2008 Finance and Frugality Blog Carnivals
• Monopoly Game Expansion #2: Personal Checking Account
• Monopoly Game Expansion #1: Personal Savings Account
• Monopoly Game Expansion #5: Income Tax Edition

Originally posted 2008-06-25 06:00:16.

Sign the Petition against SB 250 for Mandatory Sterilization of all California pet dogs and cats.

Last year I wrote to ask for help defending pet owner rights against a proposed California legislative bill AB 1364 which would require California pet owners to sterilize all pet dogs and cats over the age of 4 months. Thankfully, AB 1634 was defeated in the Senate last summer but a new bill has arisen which would once again take away a lot of our rights as citizens and pet owners.

It is my belief that the decision to sterilize a pet should remain the right of each pet owner under advisement of the pet’s veterinarian. Sterilization is a veterinary/medical procedure requiring general anesthesia and not without its risks. Read my post from last year, Help Defend the Rights of California Pet Owners, to see some of the side effects of sterilization.

This does not mean that I am against spaying and neutering in general. It is the right choice for some pets, but it should not be a blanket regulation.

Why You Should Care

According to ASPCA Pet Ownership Statistics, 63% of all U.S. households have a pet. This legislation might only affect California residents for now, but if this law is passed, it won’t be long before other states, cities and/or counties follow suit.

Why SB 250 Will Not Work

A mandatory sterilization law would increase animal control costs and more tax dollars would have to be spent because:

• Animal control officials would have the added responsibility of patroling and citing pet owners for intact pets.
• More pets would be abandoned because irresponsible pet owners, who are the cause of the current overpopulation problem, would find it more convenient and less expensive to simply abandon their pets. Those who don’t already abide by the regulations will only ignore any new ones.
• The current economic crisis has already aggravated the pet abandonment problem. Pets are being abandoned left and right as pet owners find themselves strapped for cash. The shelters are already overflowing with unwanted animals.

In April 2008, the county of Los Angeles passed a mandatory sterilization ordinance which was to go into effect in October 2008.  In August 2008, the county gave this up as officials realized that they couldn’t afford the facilities and employees necessary to enforce the new law.

More on Mandatory Spay/Neuter Laws—A Failure Everywhere.

Why SB 250 is Unethical

From the American Kennel Club website:

The bill continues to require sterilization if a dog is at-large, if the dog is not licensed, and if the dog violates local animal control ordinances, even on a first offense. This is an unreasonable standard as even a responsible owner can have a single incident where an animal is let out by a meter reader, neighbor or faulty gate. The American Kennel Club continues to oppose this bill as it unreasonably penalizes responsible dog owners and breeders. We encourage legislators to draft legislation that targets owners who are consistently irresponsible, rather than passing legislation that will harm responsible members of the community.

Existing state law already requires owners of intact animals to pay a license fee that is at least double that of licensing a sterilized animal (Food and Agriculture Code Section 30804.5) and provides for enhanced and graduated fines for owners whose intact dogs are impounded (Food and Agriculture Code Section 30804.7). These statutes are sufficient to incentivize owners to sterilize their animals and to address animal control concerns with specific intact animals who are repeatedly impounded.

The only people who would be punished by this new law would be the responsible pet owners who are already abiding by the rules.

Again, I am not campaigning against pet neutering and spaying, but rather for it to remain an individual pet owner’s right to decide for his/her own pet. Sterilization can be the right choice for many pets and owners, but it should remain just that: a choice.

How You Can Help

The Senate Appropriations Committee hearing for this bill is on May 11, 2009.

Even if you don’t live in California, every person who voices an opinion counts. Remember, where one leads others will follow, and it could be your state, county or city next.

• Sign the Petition
• Write, Call, Fax or E-mail the following representatives

Senate Appropriations Committee
State Capitol, Room 2206
Sacramento, CA 95814

Senator Christine Kehoe (Chair)
State Capitol, Room 5050
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: (916) 651-4039
Fax: (916) 327-2188

Senator Dave Cox (Vice Chair)
State Capitol, Room 2068
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: (916) 651-4001
Fax: (916) 324-2680

Senator Ellen Corbett
State Capitol, Room 5108
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: (916) 651-4010
Fax: (916) 327-2433

Senator Jeff Denham
State Capitol, Room 3076
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: (916) 651-4012
Fax: (916) 445-0773

Senator Mark DeSaulnier
State Capitol, Room 2054
Sacramento,CA 95814
Phone: (916) 651-4007
Fax:(916) 445-2527

Senator Loni Hancock
State Capitol, Room 3092
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: (916) 651-4009
Fax: (916) 327-1997

Senator Mark Leno
State Capitol, Room 4061
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: (916) 651-4003
Fax: (916) 445-4722

Senator Jenny Oropeza
State Capitol, Room 5114
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: (916) 651-4028
Fax: (916) 323-6056

Senator George Runner
State Capitol, Room 4090
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: (916) 651-4017
Fax: (916) 445-4662

Senator Mimi Walters
State Capitol, Room 3082
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: (916) 651-4033
Fax: (916) 445-9754

Senator Lois Wolk
State Capitol, Room 4032
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: (916) 651-4005
Fax: (916) 323-2304

Senator Mark Wyland
State Capitol, Room 4048
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: (916) 651-4038
Fax: (916) 446-7382

Senator Leland Yee
State Capitol, Room 4074
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: (916) 651-4008
Fax: (916) 327-2186

Thank you for your help.

Related posts:

• Help Defend the Rights of California Pet Owners
• Beware of Fake IRS (Internal Revenue Service) Phishing Email Scams
• Frugal Thermodymics Part I: Limiting Sources of Heat in the Home
• Dear Taxpayer: Good News! Your Property Tax Has Decreased … P.S. So Has Your Property Value
• Remembering Why We Do What We Do