dmmink’s posterous

I am still steaming over the unbelievably bad experience I just had with the Highland Utah Jiffy Lube.  (click on that link ff you want to read the full version of my story).  Short recap of the story:

• My wife got in a car accident
• I was out taking care of her car and decided to stop at Jiffy Lube
• Utah Jiffy Lube employee locks my keys inside my car
• Utah Jiffy Lube store manager tells me it is my fault and refuses to pay for a locksmith
• I am forced to walk home on the Highland Highway in the dark, with snow and ice everywhere!
• Utah Jiffy Lube plugs up one of their 3 bays for a full business day b/c of refusal to pay for a locksmith
• I have to call in a favor to a police woman friend who unlocks my car
• I finally get my car home 18 hours after making one of the worse decisions of my life

I have not been this mad since high school.  I literally had to go play basketball for 3 hours that night just to try and sweat the stress out.  

Suggestions for Utah Jiffy Lube:

• Send all store managers to some kind of mandatory customer service boot camp
• Tell your employees not to shut open car doors unless they are holding the keys
• Offer to give patrons a ride home if they are stuck at your store because you locked their keys in their car
• Offer to pay for a locksmith to come unlock the car, if one of your employees locks the patrons keys in the car

This is partially my fault - I should have never stopped at a Jiffy Lube in the first place! These are the same guys that are famous for the telling you every part on your car is dirty, worn out, and needs replacing.  How many times have you heard:

"Sir did you know your windshield wipers, your air fllter, your coolant, and belts are all about to give out?  We can replace each of these parts for a total of $239.00, plus your oil change which was only $34.95..." That is what I thought!

So my wife and I got sucked into a great financing offer - 5 years no interest with 10% down.  We have an empty formal living room and would like a new bedroom set.  So, we momentarily purchased about $4,000.00 worth of furniture on Black Friday.  I drove home with that awful feeling of buyer's remorse and then booted up the good ol' household budgeting software to see what this expenditure was going to do to our budget.  Although, the budget planning tools were showing me that we could easily live within our budget I still just did not feel right about carrying the $4,000 debt.

So, I decided that the furniture was going back.  This of course broke my wife's heart, as she was anxious to invite over family and friend's to bask in the new look.  I learned something about money management here, which is: just because you can afford it does not mean you should buy it.  In fact, I have since taken steps to save an enormous amount of money on the impending furniture purchase.  Today, I signed up for 2 new wholesale furniture accounts.  This should allow me to get basically the same furniture for about 1/2 the price.  I have also decided that we will furnish the rooms in stages.  First, we will take care of the formal living room. Second, we will re-furnish the bedroom.  And third, I will get some new office furniture.  I feel much better about the new approach.

Many of you may have read the recent post 15 ways stores trick you into spending money by MSN Money. If you have not, you should, it really is a great read. And if you can recognize the 15 tricks the article exposes you should be able to save a grip of money next time you visit the grocery store.  But, here is another secret (actually secret is a poor word choice  because I want you to tell everyone about it) you can use to save money every time you go to buy groceries - walk in with a budgeted amount of cash in an envelope.  Guess what, you are not allowed to spend any more money than the envelope contains.  This is a little budget help the envelope budgeting way!

I think the current mortgage crisis is evidence that money management ability is not on the list of "strengths" for most Americans. In other words, we all need a little help in cutting back on bad spending habits.  For decades, people have found that budget help with the envelope budget system.  Today's money management software allows you to ditch the physical envelopes in exchange for virtual envelopes, but the system has remained the same. 

You can find literally thousands of success stories from individuals who have lived by the envelope budgeting system.  Of course, there are dozens of other budget programs, so go out and find one that works for you.  Remember, the stores can get as tricky as they like, but it will have absolutely no effect on your spending habits if you live within a personal budget.  Good luck.

A few days ago I was talking with my sister, who is a CPA, about how she could make some money online.  I seem to have these conversations a lot.  We discussed several options and then I asked her how she felt about starting a specialized blog.  She said she had never given it any thought.  Time to give it some thought.

Both her and her husband are accountants.  She teaches accounting classes at a University.  She has and knows a lot of information other people would like to.  Chances are she will always be involved at some level in the accounting field. So it makes a lot of sense to continue to build her reputation in a field in which she is already established.

She of course responded by saying, "but how am I going to make money posting free information on a blog?"  First of all, lots of people make good money maintaining popular blogs.  (Another post for another day "how to monetize your blog").  But more importantly, she can build the current and future value of herself as a professional by creating a useful, popular, blog.  For example, let's say 10 years from now she goes to apply as a full time professor at a larger, more prestigious University and she is able to tell her potential employer "I own a blog which has top 10 Google rankings for accounting, accounting principles, accounting firm, etc." You can see the infinite value in that right? ;)

Plus, with the software available today, your blog can quickly become your book.  There are many programs which can quickly turn your blog into a book by clicking a button that says print my blog, or publish my blog.

So, my dear sisterm, stupid is... not keeping a blog.

Have you ever noticed that people really pick and choose which modern conveniences they will welcome over their “old school” way of doing things?  A few summers ago, I had the opportunity to work in a law office and I was amazed at the way my boss did business.  First of all, the guy did not even own a computer. Secondly, he would lose his cell phone for weeks at a time and not seem to miss it.  But, this guy, like all people, had his modern vices like a flat screen television with high definition programming. I always find it interesting that everybody has certain modern conveniences they take the time to learn and use, as well as a few areas of holding out.

So, how do you keep your personal budget?  Do you indulge in the convenience of a money management software? Or, have you refused to give up the pen and ledger?    In case, you have failed to join the revolution – here are the top 3 reasons you should be using some kind of household budgeting software:

1. You save trees - When you record the expenses digitally there is no paper mess!

2. You save time – Almost everyone can type faster than they can write.  But even if you’re a slow typist, think of all the time you save by not having to do the math.

3. You are more accurate – No matter how many “mad minute” contests you won as a 5^th grader, you are bound to make more mistakes calculating all of those debits and deposits than your good friends Mac or PC will make.

So, if budgeting software is one of those modern conveniences that you have heretofore decided to forego, I hope this post encourages you to think through that one more time! 

I heard a great quote yesterday, which reads "both abundance and lack of exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities.  It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend... when we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are greatful for the abundance that's present - lov, health, family, friends, work, the joys of nature, and personal pursuits that bring us happiness - the wasteland of illusion falls away and we experience heaven on earth." - Thomas S. Monson.

I completely agree with the premise stated in this quote, namely that people have an unfortunate ability to concentrate more on what's missing than what is in place. I believe the reason people struggle with this tendency has to do with the intrinsic "problem solver" within most of us.  In other words, we have a hard time ignoring things that are amiss, even when most things are secure, because we have this buring desire to "fix"  whatever is wrong.

Across America people are complaining about financial woes.  Most people think they need more money. Unfortunately, that may not really be in their control.  Alternatively, they could focus on budget help which is something completely within each person's control.  People can also focus on taking better care of the possessions they already have.  We will all be much better off if we can individually figure out ways to extend the product life of both valuables and consumables. So here are just a few random suggestions:

• Use some type of household budgeting software .
• Learn how to change your oil.
• Learn how to cut your kids hair.
• Backup all computer files, including blog back up .
• Eat more meals at home.
• Car pool when and where possible.
• Use a gas saver .

In sum, my advice for all of you folks stressing about the lack of money is to do a few simple things to save money so that your able to start focusing on the things of abundance in your life. 

Once upon a time I was a missionary in Tacoma Washington.  At that time, in an effort to try and "focus on the mission" missionaries were asked/challenged to go without phone calls or emails from home.  That meant that good old fashioned snail mail became your best friend, particularly if that little metal box held a letter from your girlfriend back home. I can remember going to the mail box day after day and coming up dry.  

Fast forward a few years to now and I would LOVE to see an empty mail box. Today, I am welcomed with dozens of warm greetings from grocery stores, satellite television companies, and worse of all credit card offers .  Ok, not worse of all, nothing can dethrone a bill from that lofty status.  But at least I asked for the bill.  The thing I hate about credit card offers is how sneaky they are.  Some of the envelopes make you think you won the lottery - only to find out you were "chosen" to receive another opportunity to acquire some future debt.

Even if they trick you into opening the envelope, you then are exected to wade through pages of text to really understand the offer.  No thank you, if I am going to shop for a new credit card I much prefer to use a credit card comparison site. I believe they greatly save time, frustration, and in the end money.

Anyway, I hate junk mail...

I finally got a hair cut yesterday.  I had been holding off for two reasons; 1) I have always wanted to try "the shag", and 2) I hate budgeting one hundred dollars a month for hair!  Seriously.  It's not that I actually average a haircut a week, but my wife cuts and colors her hair every two months and that alone is like $160.00 a pop!  So, if she goes every other month, and I go once a month we are looking at a $200.00 expenditure in the household budgeting software! On hair cut expenses - totally ridiculous! 

So I asked the hair stylist if she had noticed any relationship between fewer haircuts and our worsening economy.  Surprisingly (to me at least) she answered that she has not seen any reduction in the number of hair cuts.  So, if people aren't skrimping on hair cuts, where are they making cut backs?  Fewer trips to the movie theatre?  Less meals out? More car pooling? Fewer rounds of golf?

It seems the minds over at Finicity were wondering the same thing as they recently posted a survey entitled " In an economic slowdown, which of the following would you be least likely to give up?"  According to Corey Davis (VP of Marketing) the answer is not eating out, but he didn't tell us what people are giving up .

Well you choose to give up what you will give up, but as for me and my family, our form of money management starts with no more hair cuts!