Mr. Meager $$$ Thoughts Blog

After finishing 3rd in my pool last year, I feel really confident in my picks this year. Especially after I read that I have the same Final 4 and champions as President Obama's brackets. He does seem to have the Midas Touch as recalled from the Superball. His and my Final 4 are Louisville, Memphis, Pitt, and UNC, with UNC over Louisville in the Championship game.

So I was at my usual Superbowl party yesterday. I really choose this party over others because this is a superbowl party done right. Greatly organized potluck; TV in every room (even bathroom) and outdoors. 2 TV on both sides on the room in the poker room so that noone has their backs to the game. 1 special TV with DVR in case someone missed anything. A game room with PS3 for Rock Band 2 for kids and adults.

So there is a proposition events pool with such items as coin toss, first commercial after kickoff, MVP, 1st TD, and a about 30 other stats. Well at the end of the night I was told I won the pool. I get an email this morning saying there was a correction I end up not winning. I had $80, and now I don't. What a tease. Like the hopes of all Cardinals' (who I was routing for) fans.

Total losses for Superbowl Sunday:

-$11 for betting on the Steelers to cover
-$6 for 3 squares in box pool
-$5 for prop pool
-$30 for poker tournament (4th/8)
-$13 for poker cash game
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$65 total for fun with friends.

I feel like I am going to have to shop for a new credit card again soon. I've had this Providian Card from the mypoints.com program for a few years now, and I have this feeling the banks are going to discontinue the service. Providian was purchased by Washington Mutual, but as Wamu continued to service the card, all the features were intact. My favorite feature was the free credit score service as Providian worked in conjunction with Trans Union. Well, I just received a notice from Chase, who is working on the transition to take over Wamu services, that I will lose the credit profile feature in a couple of months. I remember back when the mypoints.com credit card was serviced by Citibank. One day, I get a letter saying that they were discontinuing the mypoints card and that my card would become inactive in a few months, and any balance would be due right away or can be transferred to another credit card service. I get the same feeling that this current card is about to get dropped too.

So fellow savers, what are some good rewards based credit cards out there with no annual fees?

Finally, all the time I spent collecting and entering coke rewards codes. Besides over 15000 in points collected and redeemed and entering countless free sweepstakes that take even more time, I have finally won something worth the gleam of others. I appreciate all the codes that my family and friends saved for me, but they also always mocked me when they saw me dumpster diving or rummaging through recycling bins for codes. Last July, I spent a lof of days entering sweepstakes on their site and had a very prosperous 2 days. First on Friday I won 4 free tickets to any Six Flags amusement park. Those were instant win and I took my family a month later. Then on Saturday morning, I was notified that I won the daily $1000 Best Buy Giftcard Sweepstakes. After filling out an affidavit confirming that I did not enter the contest by means of anything illegal activities, everyone thing was mailed off. Now I hold in my hand a Best Buy giftcard that I verified had a $1000 balance. I'll have to pay taxes on this sweepstakes winning.

People have always asked me when I was going to get a new TV. I have been using an 26 in CRT TV that is over 10 years old. The picture quality is fine, but the picture has expanded. I think for the last 2 years, it has expanded 2 inches on the top, bottom, left, and right, which is great because everything is bigger, without lost in picture quality. The only thing is that when you watch sports, news, or movies with subtitles, there is something lost because the edges are pushed off the viewable screen area. I never see sports and news tickers and never see the logo that stations put in the lower right hand corner. If I step away from the TV during a sporting event, I don't know the score until the announcer tells me. This tends to bug a lot of people that watch TV at my place, but I got used to it. The cost to repair the TV wouldn't be worth it. In the past year, I have had 3 TV's of comparable size given to me to replace my old TV, but I when I place them side by side, the picture quality of the old TV always beats out the free replacement given to me. Those TV always end up on craigslist free section so they will be gone quicker. Then the person who gave me the TV comes for a visits and sees I am still using my old TV and always comment that they just gave me a replacement, and I return well there was a reason you replaced your TV and that was the reason why it didnt' replace mine. TV studios don't put very much information on the edges of the viewing screen so I am not sacrificing a couple of inches for quality.

So guess what I am going to get with my gift card. Time to do some reseach and I am considering of being part of the Black Friday crowd.

So I did another survey last weekend for Consumer Pulse. Apparently they were targeting men my age to try a new Spiced Rum. The taste test were blind but I had 2 samples to taste from. A lot of the survery questions were geared towards masculinity and if I would have a problem ordering this specialty drink at a club or bar. I had no problems ordering but wouldn't based on the taste. Abstaining from alcohol for the last 2 months has really brought my tolerance level to a couple of drinks. I had to walk around the mall a bit before I could drive to the bank and deposit the $25 check.

So the results are in and for the 10 million votes cast for Prop 8 in CA, there was $74M spend on both sides for their cause. At $7.40 a vote is a record ever spent on any election initiative. Was that really necessary? I wonder how else that money could have been spent.

So I

read that there is a pending class action suit against Trans Union for selling off our information, which they have been doing for the past 20 years. Those bastards. Seems to me that the class is pretty much everyone of who's had any credit history. This maybe the largest group every to be part of a class action suit. So it's $75M, which depending on who many people sign up, could probably be less than a dollar a person, but the lawyers will make over $10M. I know the free 6 month of credit monitoring services would be beneficial to some folks who might to need to keep close tabs on their credit.

Actually, I would have to read my settlement agreement the last time I took TU to court to see if I waived the future claims.

If you are interested being part of the class, sign up here.

After reading a lot about the Indy Mac failure, I realize that when banks are in trouble, they try to increase their deposits to increase the cash reserves. I read so many stories about how Indy Mac had a great promotional CD rate a few months back so people had their money locked up.

So today I get a call from the local WAMU branch letting me know about a promotional 8-month CD rate they are offering. They were on the watch list. I'm just saying.

11:44
That was a pretty big quake here in LA. time to call the family.
11:50
Family are okay though there is no cell service. Had to use the land lines. Need to call sister in AZ to let her know. It started as a slow roll and then a couple of big jerks for a few seconds, then subsided with more slow rubbles. Maybe lasted 15 seconds.
11:55
5.8 estimate in SE of LA in Chino Hills. Seemed bigger than that, but it was still kind of fun.
12:15PM
seems very little or no damage on the news except for a water main breakage
12:50PM
I look forward to the interviews of CalTech Seismologist because I like Dr. Lucy Jones. This time Dr. Kate Hutton is giving a press conference.
01:16PM
The quake has been downgraded to 5.4. Like housing and the stock market--everything goes down. Still felt pretty strong but probably because I am about 20 miles from the epiccenter. They say the closer you are to the quake, the stronger the jolts will be. I say that is pretty true.
11:10PM
It's been almost 12 hours since the quake, and there hasn't been any aftershock that was noticeable. They say there is a 5% chance within 24 hours, that the quake could be a foreshock to a bigger one. Some think that should bring fear, but I'm father excited at a chance to ride another one though. When you live in CA long enough, you generally don't fear earthquakes as much because yet common for here, they are really rare. For some people, they actually have a hint of regret if they don't feel one.

Just throwing gas on a fire and getting everyone all riled up into a needless frenzy. I say hysteria and chaos is the way to go. It's more newsworthy.

So

LA Times has multiple updates everyday in regards the events involving IndyMac Bank. Though with FDIC in place, I am sure it is hard not to panic and let the insurance claims get your money back but who really wants to go through that process. Wouldn't it be better to just get your money while you can rather than dip into the FDIC pool. There are numerous reports of police being called to watch over these lines as people go get their money. Just last week, people were lining up to drop a few bills on the latest iPhone and now people are lineup up go get their life savings. All this news has been intriguing to ignore.

A few years ago, consumers used to complain that a gallon of milk was more expensive than a gallon of gas, which didn't make sense since milk is crucial in most of our diets. Well you see what we have now. Nice. I just calculated that I spend $7 to commute to work everyday on gas alone. I'll be content. I wish a had an expensive drug habit that I can cut back on. I have cut back on my cereal consumption. It's hard not to have my Pops.

There was a fight at the local Costco because someone cut into the line for gas. Someone behind the line pulled a tire iron and the cutter jumped back into his car and locked himself inside and called the cops. Though I don't condone violence, if you are going to be bold enough to cut into a line, then you better be man enough to standup against anyone that confronts you about it. The cops arrested the aggressor.

So rummaging through some spare change, I notice that 1 dime wasn't like the rest. It was a 1962-D dime when dimes were 90% silver. I showed it to my supervisor who is always buying older coins for her brother the coin collector. She knew it was mostly silver and wanted to the dime from me. I checked on ebay and found the low end of for this coin is about $2. Since my coin wasn't niced cared for and in a nice package, I told her it is going to cost her $1. She agreed but try to give me a Sagagawea coin, which I wasn't accepting. My hatred for the Sagagawea pretty much a whole nother entry. A dollar bill I was given and the exchange was made. This is the 2nd best profit margin I've made on a coin exchange. A few years ago I sold an older nickel to the same supervisor for $1.

1400 Points. I'm done. I'm redeeming my points for the amateur telescope. I set a goal when I started this program and I finally reached it. I'm not going to chance that they are going to extend the program past Dec 2008, so I'm going to stop accumulating. March and Febuary were big months which included a lot of dumpster diving and asking people are recycling centers for their codes. Though the telescope can be bought for $40 online, I'm going to cherish this thing like gold. 1400 points in one year but only about 50 of those were bought by me. Here's how my monthly totals came to be:
Apr 2007 30
May 2007 119
Jun 2007 158
Jul 2007 193
Aug 2007 199
Sep 2007 241
Oct 2007 260
Nov 2007 332
Dec 2007 374
Jan 2008 417
Feb 2008 695
Mar 2008 1400 (705 this month!!)

In a way scavenging lifestyle will not be missed as I migrate over to PepsiStuff program. I don't have a goal yet, but this program tends to be more popular than the coke program. I still have some unused coke cap codes left if anyone would like to trade.

Also a treat to SA bloggers who collect MCR points, provide me an email and I'll send you a 3 point cap code.

Played in a small poker game last night with 12 others. After a dragged out up and down night I was able to pull out the win and take the $190 1st prize for a $20 buy-in and I didn't have to rebuy. Sweet, now if Kansas and win the tournament, I have a good chance of taking that pot.

It's always this time of year when I regret so much not going to a Division I school. There is so much pride during the tournament time, but I have no team to stand by. Though I saved tons of money with my school of choice and now have a stable job (knock on wood), I never get to see my school on an ESPN highlight. I guess I could have gone to Cal State Fullerton (or Long Beach St 2007).

It's this time of year when production slows down as we enter the end of the week when company's bandwidth is taken up by streaming videos of basketball games. I run the office pool at my office, but only half of the entries are from those that work here as I've incorporated others who don't have an office pool. Running the office pool keeps me from going to Vegas for the tournament because I have to collect the entries Thursday morning. The time, my entries, and the free entry I give out every year is all worth it.

Who are your Final Four?

Saturday was a bit of a crazy day with my sister's wedding happening. There were schedules to keep the the world was just working against the schedule. I had to pick up some window markers to decorate a car with. I read that the 99 Cent Only Store carried them so I dropped in to pick a couple. The check out lines were packed. I don't understand how someone can have a checkout total for over $50 at the 99 cent store. That's almost 50 items in a shopping cart. Of course when I finally reached the checker, their computer system went down. I had 2 items to pay for and the wait wasn't worth it. I dropped $3 and ripped of the bar code off one of the markets and told the lady to keep the change. A waste of money but I didn't have the time to waste. At the end of the night, my sister and her husband loaned the car to 2 of the groom's men to get back to their hotel. The newlyweds took a taxi and 2 guys took the carried decorated with "Just Married."

Here's a picture of the main course:

In contrast to

Debtkid's Dumbest Purchase contest, I would like to first add that one of the best purchases (dumbest purchase is below) I made was to buy myself a Nintendo DS Lite. After purchasing one for my sister, I enjoyed the games it had to offer, so I bought one for myself. It makes time in the waiting room go so much quicker. The ability to connect to other machines makes it funner to enjoy with others. I could always use another one for my nephew.

Now onto the dumbest purchase I ever made. It definitely is the 3-D camera I bought in the early 90's for $500. I thought it was the coolest technology at the time and spend almost all my savings on it. After months of expensive film developing cost and the lack of interst in the pictures I took, I realized that it was a waste of money. The pawn shop wouldn't take the camera so I was stuck. I chalk it up as the $500 experience.

So some errands ran during lunch today. I sent off both my tax filings and hoping looking forward to the 2 thousand plus anticipated refund. I'm gonna need that to pay for the gas I charged on the card today when the credit card bill comes in. At least the rate of increase is dropping off a little. On Feb 15 I pumped up at $2.85/gallon. On Feb 22, it was $3.15/gallon. Today it was $3.31. $4/gallon here we come by the summer. It's a commodity so I guess I am indifferent to the price.

They say weird things happen during full moons. I guess there's no exception when the full moon is interupted by a lunar eclipse. I found the $10 I thought I lost Wednesday night. I'm so happy because it was one of the

new $10 bills. I found it going through the business cards of those who I met on the sanddune that night. They wanted me to share some pictures of the eclipse that I had taken. I guess it helps to follow through.

Here are some pictures from the Feb 20 2008 Lunar Eclipse:

The moon before totality with Saturn at 8 o'clock and Regulus (Leo Constellation) at 12 o'clock


The red moon during totality


The moon near the end of the eclipse

I must have cursed myself when I said I would pay $100 for clear skies to watch the lunar eclipse. I was happy to drive home from work to see an opening in the clouds. So I grabbed my camera, tripod, compass, spare batteries, and headed out. Through all the hussle of pulling things in and out of my pocket outside, I think I lost the $10 bill I had in my pocket. I don't know where it is. I hope who ever finds it makes good use of that Hamilton.

I really don't know what my limit would be, but I would pay at least $100 for some clear skies tonight. There will be a total lunar eclipse tonight, but the overcast skies and light drizzle is so far putting a damper on that. The moon will be sandwiched by Saturn and the Regulus, the bright star of Leo. NASA says that there will not be another lunar eclipse in the US for 3 years. The last we had one in August was in the middle of the night and I awoke for that one and captured some interesting pictures.

Rain, rain, go away!!!

I made $40 doing a survey last night. It was in regards to home DVD entertainment systems. Intriguing, but very pricey and looks complicated to put together.

It's been a while since I've done a survey with my local researching firm. I think it has to do with the girl who used to make the calls for potential responders getting a promotion. She used to call me all the time and 'lead' me to the correct answer to quality for the survey. Now I get some unfriendly robot that makes me want to avoid the survey. I probably shoulding be doing these anyways since my sister works in the media selling department for one of the major tv networks.

I bought the last 2 books for Forever stamps from the office administrator, since I found out the Post Office is rising rates on May 12. By buying today, I save 40 cents in 89 days. That is about a 10% annual return. Sweet.

I might have to take a trip to the Post Office when they print up more Forever stamps.

Since the beginning of 2007, I have not paid a direct penny to Hollywood. I know there's probably some money going there indirectly through advertising and such, and paying for cable. I have not paid for a movie ticket, movie rental, or DVD purchased since late 2006.

I can't remember how it all started, but I was getting fed up Hollywood and it's lack of creactivity. I'm guessing a lot of it has to do with the numerous remakes and movie adaptations of old tv shows over the last few years. I think it started with Disney's 'National Treasure.' After watching it, I realized that it was just an adult version of 'Goonies.' So Disney is recycling their plotlines.

If you watch an action/adventure movie, the movie is all graphics and horrible writing. If the movie is a comedy, all the good jokes were seen in the previews

I was fed up to the point where I was not giving Hollywood any more of my money. I stopped going to movies but others wanted to go and didn't want to go alone, so I said you can pay for me. So since then I have been treated 3 movies. I'm a cheap movie date anyways because I never grew up being accustomed to snacking while watching a movie.

I watch a alot of DVD's that I borrow from friends. With the speed that studios are putting out DVDs, you really only have to wait a few months to see a movie on DVD.

Well, today is the Lunar New Year. This time of year was already great when I was young because I got a lot of gifts of money from relatives. To me this was better than x-mas because it was always about currency--no gift cards, no clothes. Though I really don't understand the entire Lunar New Year, I try to pass down the gifts I have received in years before.

As I have aged, I had to start returning the favor and give to my young nieces, nephews, and cousins. I usually draw the cutoff if they have graduated from college or are married or have kids of their own.

We usually try to get crisp new bills from the bank. My mother has always been successful with this but my bank tends to hate me and usually doesn't carry new bills. Last year, I decided that I would be meager and save a couple of bucks and recycle the red envelopes, so I saved all I got last year. I'm am sure the idea of giving used money holder is a sign of bad luck. I hope the recipients enjoy the cash though.

I ran some errands today and visited the credit union. I opened a Roth IRA and locked in 4.41% for a year. It was interesting that they offered a 18-month variable rate CD at 4.50%. I inquired about it and the branch says they update the rate weekly. Doesn't seem like a good idea in these declining days. Made another additional payment on the car note.

Now it is time to get ready for the Superbowl.

A while back I uploaded

this video of my sister's dog growling. I only uploaded the video because the yorkie blew a snot bubble. Some people say that it looks like the dog is smiling. Well an creditable world wide advertiser with an office in Australia saw the footage and wanted to buy the rights to the footage to possibly use it in a dog food commercial.

They sent me a general release contract. In the release it states that they will pay me "US$1,000.00 (excluding GST)." So I find out that GST in Australia is Goods and Services Tax, whatever that % may be. Am I correct that assume that they will withhold the necessary taxes on their side so I should expect less than US$1,000?

Later, am I required to file an Australia tax return and maybe pay more or get a refund later? Do we have tax treaties with the Commonwealth of Australia where they will report this earnings to the IRS, when then I would have to report it? I have no problems taking a gamble that they won't report and chance that I don't get audited for 2008.

I know some of us play the lottery every once in a while, but how many play the office superbowl pool. Of course, the boxes were filled out before it got to me. What is up with that? They should limit the number of boxes someone should buy so everyone has a chance before people buy more. I'll have to play in another pool.

Looking at the lines though I do like the Giants getting 12 points now, where they opened at 14. I also like the over at 54 total points. Would I take the Giants on the money line? Probably not--I've seen the Patriots come back a few times in the 4th quarter this year.

Though I am not a big fan of Eli Manning after what he and his father did during his draft, I find it hard to root the Patriots and their smug. I was really undecided in regards to who to root for until I found out that the Patriots have applied for trademark rights to "19-0" and "19-0 the Perfect Season". Go Giants

In reading about

Koppur's 4 cents entry, I remembered an how I made money from returning a xmas gift I had bought.

I needed a calendar as a gift and purchased one for $14.00 at B&N. A week later, there were some extra calendars around the office, so I decided to take one of those and return the calendar that I had purchased. I returned it at a different store but got back $14.08. I told the cashier that the original receipt states $14.00, but her registered calculated that I was to be refunded $14.08. I just took it and pondered on the drive home. A few days later I realized that why I go more on the return. I had made the purchase in OC County which has a lower sales tax than LA County which was where I returned it. All I know know that B&N now has a loss on return due to sales tax for $0.08 while I pocketed the change.

There was an interesting article in the

Daily Breeze about a blogger that comments on the housing market in one of the riches zip codes in America. The article basically points out that the local real estate agents are not happy that this person points out some shady selling tactics used by the agents. The Manhattan Beach Confidential is an anonymous blog but he makes some good points. Some of the listings that he discuss are range from the 'wow' to the 'WTF'? These homes are way out of my price range anyways.

If the MLB of today was like the MLB of the Black Sox days, Brian McNamee would have never had a chance to point any fingers.

Seems the agents are angry and want to start a witchhunt and find out who this person is. Remember the good old days when you had ill words against money, you existance on earth was treatened. This guy is playing with the agents' earning potential and they are not happy. 80 years ago, this guy would be dead, but now people just use the boycott and protest methods.