(Hear the echo, run your finger through the dust.) First things first: maintenance. Once I figure out how to upgrade to the latest Wordpress version (Wordpress updates are relentless) without destroying comments (like last time), I’ll blog again. Meantime, bed for me, as reville is at 5:30 AM.

1. New Look and Feel Coming Soon I’m excited to announce that Cash on the Barrelhead is...
2. Status Update Don’t you hate when a straightforward ‘to-do’ becomes a quagmire...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

I’ve got a fun temporary full-time gig helping to launch a corporate web site, so blogging, which I try to save for evenings, has gotten squeezed lately. (Nights I’m trying to finish the other freelance projects due this month.)

Financially, I feel like a space alien. It’s been nearly a decade since I worked in a corporate environment, and I’m bumping up against macro-trends I’d only read about as if in a guidebook from another planet. Planet work-from-home, that is. Like, buying water.

Remember when Bottlemania came out? I was all like, “Oh yeah, why would you buy water? I mean it’s right here in the tap.” Which is maybe five feet from my office.

Then I started this gig, and quickly learned that:

a) I am the opposite of a camel. I probably drink at least 16 ounces of water every morning as a coffee chaser.
b) I am far enough away from the drinking fountain to make the amount of water I need to consume counterproductive.
c) This workplace is so sprawling that it lacks a kitchen where everybody stores mugs and glasses.

I bet I bought at least three bottles of water that week before I remembered to reuse one, and many more cups of coffee before I dug out our thermos.

Lunch? Yes, one day when we ran out of bread. Multiply what I spent by the thousands of people in that cafeteria every day, and you get… Wal.E. All I can think about is how big the waste management contract is.

It lends a whole new weight to the term, “consumer.”

Perk: I got to buy some new “Hey I’m a grownup” clothes.

1. Frugal Fail: Generic Foods Haiku generic grape nuts lack a certain flavoring they used dust,...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

generic cheese of
the cottage type lacks body
but brims with water

off-label fruit cups
glow eerily neon bright
is this papaya?

1. Frugal Fail: DIY Disasters Laugh-out-loud funny examples from frugal’s dark side in today’s New...
2. Frugal Fail: Museum Docents Don’t Read and Don’t Have Kids We have a file here called “stuff to do” —...
3. When Frugal Goes Too Far Image by Getty Images via Daylife Overall, I’m proud...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

When word that the cash for clunkers rebate program had started, I emailed my husband:

“What if we took the $4,500 rebate on the truck and sold the Passat?” We’d like to get a hybrid. This would take us down to one car, but with HourCar coming to our neighborhood, and me working from home, I thought maybe we could swing it.

With prices for hybrids running around $25,000 (I was surprised there wasn’t much difference between sedans and compact SUVs), he estimated we’d still have a gap of at least $12,500, and, thus, a car payment. I checked his math tonight against some hybrid sites, and he was right on.

Given the program’s  limbo state, and also our reluctance to take on a car payment, I guess we’ll be hanging onto the rusty but reliable Ford 150, which gets an embarrassing (estimated) 8 miles to the gallon, and our !Emissions Workshop! beeping wagen der volks.

But that so many people immediately jumped on this deal puzzled me. ‘Til last week, no one was buying cars.

From a purely financial standpoint, isn’t $4,500 the equivalent of the dealer incentive to get you into a brand new car payment? And aren’t we all dutifully not taking on new debt?

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Like most folks, we have lived on credit and have quite a lot to pay down. But several of these cards have interest rates close to 30% which makes paying them down a multi-year process. Our goal is to totally get off the credit train but keep a couple cards for convenience and travel (Amex and VISA).

My question is how is the best way to renegotiate with these companies? I have read that those who receive federal bailout money have to make adjustments as part of the deal. Is this only for those who are behind on payments or can’t repay? Are there ways short of those debit consolidation companies to settle these debts at less than the principal or reduce the interest rates enough so the payments actually get us to our goal sooner?

We have good credit now and want to keep it that way. We just don’t want to use it much anymore. Any information or strategies would be appreciated.

There’s been a lot of press about rate-jacking in the wake of the recession and new credit legislation, before the rules actually take effect in July 2010, but surprisingly few pixels on what to do about it.

Here are the best how-to links I’ve found, all from CreditCards.com:

• How to React to a ‘Rate-Jack’ Attack.

This is a step-by-step guide to options you can take, from canceling the card, to negotiating a better deal by phone, to transferring a balance, to even getting credit counseling and budget help. I highly recommend reading through the whole thing, including all the links, before you decide what to do. Under phone negotiation, for example, links include writing out a script for you to follow. It is clear, comprehensive, and will help you breathe. The preparation will be well worth your time.

• Sample Opt-Out Letter

The above story links to this letter. Many card issuers allow you to decline the rate hike within 60 days notice of the rate change, in writing. The card isn’t canceled, which is what you want in order to protect your credit score. But you will have to agree to stop using the card, and continue to pay off the balance. (So discontinue any automatic payments to this card.) This article also lists the correct mailing address for this letter for most of the major card issuers. (Note: AMEX does not allow opt-outs.)

• How Debt Management Plans Work

Here’s a peek at what derailed a proposed federal credit debt forgiveness plan, as well as a primer on putting together a debt management plan.

Bonus link:

• If you want to “listen in” on how your call sounds to the front-line credit bureau help-desk, read this fascinating insider account from the NY Times Magazine: What Does Your Credit Card Company Know About You?

Bottom line: They want your money, and they need your cooperation to get it. Which means they have to be willing to negotiate with you.

Now, you’re prepared to play on their turf.

Go forward, and good luck.

1. Credit News Roundup: What The New Law Means for You Your Money: Guide to New Credit Card Rules, NY Times...
2. 8 Things You Don’t Know About Your Credit Score Thanks to Saving to Invest for including this post in...
3. Five Things to Know About Checking Your Credit Score Image via Wikipedia Credit card companies are raising minimum...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Our car took a week-long convalescence last week, and the bill came to about what you’d expect for a stay at a swanky spa: $1,258.04.

Clunk, indeed. Except that’s the sound of our wallets hitting the floor.

The total is about 9 car payments; of course we finished paying off  the car about six months ago. The money we were done shoveling down its twisted, “piss-poor” (our beloved auto mechanic Pat’s words) excuse for guts was earmarked for debt.

That bill went on the credit card, of course — not going “kablooey” at 65 mph being more important than adding another year to the debt sentence.

Here’s the punchline: Our shop guys say the main problem was the whole works was plugged up, and that the only explanation is that whoever owned it before we did never changed the oil. We bought it off lease at the very end of 2003, when it was two years old.

“Carmic” payback? I’m a good driver, but a terrible parker, as my dinged fenders will attest.

Could a car really get that messed up in two years? We bought it from a reputable used car dealer, so I’m not sure that makes sense — especially to take so long from sale to implosion.

That it is healed, if not entirely cured, is without question — it handles like a car and not a rattletrap wheezebag.

But even after all that, our car is still having the last lachen — being a Volkswagen, yah, it communicates to us in an exaggerated German accent.

After one serene day of no beeping about the boot lid or emissions or tracking systems, it’s now back to its default — the “check engine” light.

Scheisse!

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Example A: Do a quick blog post. But I see I need to upgrade my Wordpress version. Which means spending some time figuring out how to backup files. And then getting an error message for the upgrade, which is going to require time spent with people who speak PHP SQL and other strange tongues.

Example B: Dry clothes. Damn, they’re still wet! I must have forgotten to turn it on. You know, take clothes out, put clothes in, clean the lint trap, walk away without starting the machine. Another cycle later, still wet. And cold.

Example C: Take car in to figure out why it’s doing the herky jerky. At the end of two days, they think they know why, but it’ll be another two days to wait for the right part.

It’s one of those weeks. I’m trying to channel the patience of Job. The cranky, petulant patience of Job.

1. Final Blog Down Update, I Hope! I may be down for as long as 7 days...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

That is pretty all true. But here’s what’s true(r): The landscaping part was mostly to get me to shut the hell up about the bleeping side yard. You would never know it to look upon the shameful, weedy, brown-grass scraggle that we call our yard (those parts not pictured), but I was once a serious OCD gardener.

That doesn’t mean I was all that good at it. I uprooted keepers and planted things that were sure to die. I could never get the hang of pruning, no matter how many times I studied the diagrams. Mostly I fretted, and weeded, and watered, and treated pilgrimages to local gardening stores like the Haj. I had organic smelly stuff I mixed by hand to spray on plants. I had nasty chemicals to spray the apple tree to prevent bug infestation. (Which I think I used once. Horribly horrible.) I knew the status of every plant in every bed at all times, and I approached the job of tending them as if they would kill us in our sleep if I did not.

Who knew I would have such mental problems? Before we bought the house, I had grown maybe a house plant. When we moved in, we had no idea it had so many  established flower beds, raspberry bushes, fruit trees, and even grape vines. I saw all that stuff bloom, and I panicked — for four years.

Jungle 2006: Even worse than I remember!

The side yard, which lies to the south and gets the most sun all day long, and which was stuffed with raspberry bushes, yarro, strawberries, and God knows what else, was my Waterloo. After we had a baby, there was no way I could keep up with the weeding and whatnot. It quickly became an unpassable jungle.

The Fix in 2006

Who knows how long I harped on and on about it. I’m lucky I’m still married.

So. The tide of black ink I poured into Bachmann’s cash registers, that purple circus of hell, was finally stanched. First, by a baby, and then another.

I am thankful for children for many reasons, but here’s one I wasn’t expecting — they have helped me to chill the fuck out, slow down, and appreciate what I have. Okay, maybe not the gigantic pile of weeds that has since popped up in another area (also not pictured). But I’m letting it ride.

And, of course, their existence has made it impossible to keep spending money on things that not only do not matter, but do not make anyone happy.

Tonight I did venture, ever so tentatively, into the side yard, which is bent on returning to its natural jungle state.

2009: Return of the Jungle?

(Seriously, is there anything greedier than a plant? If you have ever pruned a bush that has quadrupled in size in six weeks, or tried to eradicate hedge bindweed — that unstoppable serial strangler — you know what I’m talking about. Let’s all take a moment of silence to acknowledge from whence we spring.)

The kids were glad to help me pull some weeds, play with the sprinkler, and take a whack at pruning. Just before or after the bud? Well, whatever.

Snap.

It’ll probably grow back.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

The June issue of Money has a great piece on “unspoiling your kids” that includes a handy age-by-age chart (scroll down a bit) of what lessons kids can handle, from the book, “The Financially Intelligent Parent. It’s the first resource I’ve seen that talks about starting money education with kids as young as 5, which is, at least in our house, clearly when they seem to start taking an interest!

For ages 5-9, the authors recommend:

• assigning simple chores
• starting a weekly allowance
• talking about money values and decisions, and
• introducing the idea of charity.

Which can only mean one dreaded thing: Time to get out the star charts.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.