digging out of a stinky pile of debt after realizing we are well past fucked

If you find yourself unemployed and looking for ways to make some extra cash, or just plain looking for some extra cash, there are some easy steps you can take. In fact, you can sit at your computer at home and easily make enough to cover a cable bill or a weekly grocery bill with little effort.

First, go through your home looking for things you don’t really need. Then you can sort your stuff into piles - Craigslist, Amazon Marketplace, eBay, second-hand store, used book/cd store, garage sale, goodwill.

I like to sell things like books, dvds and cds on Amazon Marketplace. I have found that you can make more on there than you can with eBay. And as a bonus you don’t have to deal with PayPal.

I tend to use eBay to sell bulk lots of clothes (say 5 pairs of near perfect Levi’s jeans in the same size), used electronic items (laptops, digital cameras) and collectibles like comic books or Disney items.

Craigslist is reserved for larger items. Things like furniture, desktop computers and other things that are too heavy to mail using eBay. You can also use Craigslist to offer your skills. Let’s say you want to walk dogs - you can place an ad saying you will do that. If you have a truck, you can offer to cart off people’s trash or furniture for them. I often see ads on Craigslist where people are offering to pay someone with a truck to help them move some furniture.

If I have books, cds or movies that are not selling for at least $2.50 on Amazon (I figured up how much it costs me for postage, mailer and Amazon fees and this is the minimum I list for) then I will go to a used bookstore or music store that buys those things. Sometimes they even buy things like comic books and other collector items.

Some places have second-hand stores that will buy used household items. In central Ohio there is a chain called “New Uses” that buys everything from TVs to ice trays to dressers to pots & pans. They pay pitifully though. But once when I lived in Orlando there was a used furniture store that would drive to your home and make you an offer and haul stuff away for you. I sold them a $90 table/chair set for $50, which I thought was pretty decent.

If you have a yard or a place where you can have a yard sale you can do that to get rid of things you could not get rid of elsewhere. You can’t price things too high though, which is why I recommend the other avenues first.

And with everything that is leftover you put that in your Goodwill pile and cart that all off to be donated. Why? Because it will make you feel good and it will get some clutter out of your home!

If you are still in need of cash and are looking for something other than a part-time job you can turn to the internet. There are a few different ways to make easy money online, but usually there is a 30 day wait for payment. You can make money a little quicker by doing something like writing articles for Associated Content. But with Associated Content and other ways of making money online, there is likely a lot more work involved than you realize. And unless you are a super speedy typer/writer then you might be better off getting a part-time retail job.

I wanted to buy two semi-comfortable desk chairs. There is a Staples nearby so away we went to Staples. As luck would have it, the chair model we decided on was the only one without stock on the floor. And no employees were within site. We waited. Still no employees. So, we left with the thought of buying it online since Staples delivers for free.

I easily found the chair on the Staples website and scored two $25 off coupon codes on eBay for a total of $9. I ordered the first chair. No problems. I order the second chair, where I am told delivery will be delayed. Oh well. So, this was on Friday.

On Saturday I noticed that there were no confirmation emails from Staples in our inbox. The coupon codes had expired the day I used them, so I took this as a ploy from Staples to get out of the $25 coupon. I called up Staples “Customer Service” line. The slowest and dumbest person on the face of the planet answered the call. Lucky me.

She told me the order was not in the system. She re-took the order for me. Then her computer crashed (supposedly) and she could not give me an order number and promised to email it to me.

Guess what? It never came!

So, I just re-ordered online.

As of today, three chairs have arrived. All three were ordered online. I can’t wait to see if a fourth shows up!

So, now I have to deal with returning this one. I called and apparently a local courier will come for it within 5 business days. Then the money will be put back on my card within 5 additional business days.

What a pain. And how do these companies get away with holding money ransom like this, effectively giving themselves an interest free mini loan?

Debt totals in the sidebar have been updated. The prognosis is not good. As you can tell from the percentages that are greater than 100%, we are worse than when we started in a few places. As previously mentioned, moving is hella expensive.

We knew this would happen.

We knew the smart thing was to stay in the Midwest where the cost of living was cheap. However, the job market there was less than stellar. In fact, I have not had a job since February. Resumes were sent out but there just weren’t jobs. That was partially what was driving the need to pick up and move.

Risk.

We knew it was a risk coming out here. With risk there is either great reward or well, not so much on the great or rewards part. Either way, it was a gamble we are willing to take.

So, now all that is left is to work our butts off and see if we can get the debt payoff train back on track or if we get twice as bumblefucked with debt. Only time will tell.

more animals

Some people might worry about leaving a grocery story with 45 jars of Prego spaghetti sauce due to a totally awesome sale. But not Blunt Money! You’ve got to click over to her blog to read about it and see the pic of all the jars on her counter. The best part is that she ended up saving almost a hundred bucks by stocking up on a super sale price. Blunt Money is a frugal rock star.

The Bumblefucked household just up and moved 2,000 miles. Moving is always expensive. But moving across the country is REALLY expensive. Sure, we cut costs where we could but there are just some expenses you can’t avoid.

Gas. It takes a lot of gas to drive over 2,000 miles. To avoid paying out the nose for gas, we topped off the gas whenever we happened across an exceptionally low price on gas. This way we were able to avoid having to pay high prices when we were desperate for gas. We also took to only getting gas in more populated areas. It seems like the middle of nowhere gas stations are the ones that really stick it to ya. For instance, I paid a decent price for gas in Flagstaff, AZ. I did not gas up again until Kingman, AZ when I saw another decent price. But boy do I feel sorry for the schmucks that had to gas up in between those areas - the difference was about $0.40 a gallon!!

Food. For starters, we tried to stay at hotels that had free breakfast. We also looked for hotels that had a microwave and fridge. And we kept bread and peanut butter in the car. Then, we would take a few extra pack of jelly from the hotel breakfast so we could make PB & J’s in the car! Another way we saved money on food was by stopping at grocery stores instead of restaurants. This was an awesome cost savings!

Hotels. We had to have places to stay on the move. And hotels are not exactly cheap. At least not the types of ones you feel comfortable sleeping in! Fortunately one of the evil credit cards that we have is affiliated with a hotel chain. So every dollar spent earns hotel rewards points which turn into free hotel rooms. Since we knew for a while that we would be making this move we began using that card and paying off what we charged in order to earn points. I also had a bunch of Marriott Rewards points that I had been saving up from back when we were reckless spenders and travelers. And for the non-free hotels we looked at Last-Minute Hotel Deals at Expedia.com  and took advantage of the Expedia promotion for free gas cards when you book hotel stays.

The end result. Even though we found some awesome ways to save money the fact remains that we spent more in a few weeks that we normally spend in an entire month. So, that means we added to the credit card debt some. We also traded in our dying car for another used one. So the car loan balance on the sidebar will show an increase soon. But more on that later.

The Bumblefucked household just completed a cross country move. And now it is time to replace items that were tossed instead of packed. Cookware was one of the things that was tossed.

So, yesterday we headed out in search of some shiny new stainless steel pots and pan. And boy did we hit pay dirt! And it was in the most surprising of places - Kohl’s.

Kohls is having some big end of summer clearance sale right now - 60% off sale prices! We got a $279.99 set of Kitchen Aid Stainless Steel Cookware for only $79.99. Booyah. If you check the link you will see that it is still normal priced on their website. So if you are in need of some new cookware you should jump on this deal. We price shopped at all sorts of places (Ikea, Big Lots, Target, Wal-Mart) before finding this awesome deal.

Many thanks goes out to Broke Grad Student for hosting this past week’s carnival of personal finance. And also thanks for including one of my posts in the carnival!

You can check out all of the great entries in the carnival at Carnival of Personal Finance #167 - Highlights from the Beijing 2008 Olympics.

The Bumblefucked household is pretty frugal. And we are experienced travelers. That means that we have learned how to save money on food when traveling. And let’s face it - food expenditure can be one of the more costly things on a vacation or trip.

Think about it - When you are traveling you typically do not have a kitchen. Sure, sometimes you can get a good deal on one of those rooms that is a studio suite with a kitchen. But most of the time the cheapest room is not one with a full kitchen. So, what do you do?

First,

Look for a room that has a mini-fridge and a microwave. You would be surprised where you can find these without paying extra. Look for a Holiday Inn Express or even a LaQuinta Inn. I have had success in both of those chains. And if you book a room that lists one or both of these amenities - make sure you get them! There is a pretty good chance that you will arrive and your room will be microwave/fridge free. Apparently the hotels move these amenities around. If you are missing something just ring the front desk and ask for it to be sent to your room. Remember to look over your bill when you leave to make sure you did not get charged extra for it if you were not supposed to!

Second,

Look for a hotel that has free breakfast. Now, as a healthy eater I can honestly say that most hotels do not have much food that is redeeming for their free breakfast. At Holiday Inn Express for instance you can usually get some yogurt, some oatmeal, some toast or a bagel or english muffin. They also have pastries, eggs, bacon, biscuits and gravy and cold cereal. Fruit is usually pretty scarce. So, you can try to eat what you can at this. What I like to do is to take some sandwich baggies and snag some bread from the toast area, assuming that I did not bring my own. Then I grab some of the peanut butter and some of the jelly. And that will be lunch later! You can also get a bagel or something else to snack on later if you want. And the oatmeal can be made in your room later thanks to your coffee pot.

Third,

Pack some food before you leave! It is super easy to toss in some road snacks and such before you leave home. You can even grab some bread and peanut butter from the pantry. I also like to grab any food that will go bad before I return, like fruit. And if you have the space, I suggest packing a cooler with drinks. You will be amazed how much this can save you on a road trip.

Fourth,

Bring something to cook in. Sure, you can cook in a microwave. You can also cook in a crock pot or rice steamer if you have one. And that really saves you money! You can even cook in the car if you have one of those things that plugs into your car and converts to a power outlet. Just be careful if you do that. I recently took a rice steamer on a trip and ate dinner in the hotel room. I went across the street to a super Wal-Mart and bought the following:

• brown rice - $1.64
• veggie marinade - $1.98
• bag of mixed broccoli and cauliflower - $2.36
• mushrooms - $3.48

So, my total food expenditure was $9.46. We ate this two nights in a row - so that is a total of four meals. AND - we threw some out as we did not want to heat it up again! That means that one meal’s cost was only $2.37! You can’t beat that! The best part is that I had grabbed some paper plates and plastic forks from the breakfast area, so that was totally free! And there is still a lot of leftover rice in the bag to be made up at the next hotel, where the only expediture will be the veggies as there is also marinade leftover.

What I think is interesting here is that clearly these meals could have cost even less if I had skipped the mushrooms! And it still would have been just as filling.

Your next steps,

If you do not already have one, I highly suggest getting a small crock pot or rice cooker. I got my Black & Decker 16-Cup Rice Cooker at a Big Lots for only $15.00! It also has a veggie steamer tray in it. If you are looking for a rice cooker or small crock pot check out Amazon as they seem to have decent prices on some of them. Or look for a Big Lots near you!

As previously mentioned, the Bumblefucked household is selling hella stuff on eBay. Some of that stuff are some posters. Posters have to be mailed in poster tubes.

It is hella hard to find poster mailing tubes.

I went to Wal-Mart. No mailing tubes.

I went to CVS. No mailing tubes.

I went to Target. No mailing tubes.

I went to FedEx Kinko’s to drop off a FedEx package and noticed mailing tubes. Score! I needed the smaller tubes. The price tag above the tubed clearly read $1.99. They ring up $2.49, but I am already having issues with the people that work their to decide it is not worth the dollar to deal with them.

Fast-forward to yesterday. I am in need of an additional mailing tube. I patronize a different FedEx Kinko’s location. This one has a nice sign that lists all of the mailing tubes by size with their price next to them. Guess what? The cost is listed as $1.99 here as well.  I get to the register and it rings up $2.49 again. But again I have other needs in the store and decide it is best to not have a fight over the price.

So, I got bumblefucked on the price of mailing tubes at FedEx Kinko’s twice at two different locations. That makes me think that this is not an isolated incident. Instead, it appears to be company wide SOP. I can’t wait to travel to another state and see if the same thing happens. I have no need for additional mailing tubes but I am really curious about the price at other locations.

The Bumblefucked household is on the move. Our apartment lease is up on the 24th and that means our rent payment of $625 has gone bye-bye.

But we don’t know where we’re going!

We’re spending two weeks staying with family in the area. Then we will spend at least one more week with another family member. Free rent rocks. But with the instability of no permanent home comes unemployment. So free rent doesn’t mean much if you’re not employed.

So, the Bumblefucked household has gotta make a move to a town that’s right for us. Clearly, I am thinking Funkytown. Sadly, when I go to Google maps and ask for directions to Funkytown I do not get anything! I thought it might take me to Detroit ( you know, Motown is kind of like Funkytown).

So, if you are making a move to a new state or city, how do you find a place that is right for you? Do you look for a job first and then just move to that place? Or do you pick a place first and then hope you can find employment in paradise?

In the past, we have just picked a place, moved there and crossed our fingers for employment. However, the economy is a horse of a different color these days, so to just pick a place and move without some economic consideration would just make you an assclown.

The Bumblefucked Guide to Moving to a New State or City in a Bumblefucked Economy:

Step one, consider for a moment where you would like to move to if a crappy economy was not a factor. Make a list of at least five of these places.

Step two, for the five places you got in step one, research the cost of living for each one. Look up the cost of housing to get a ballpark estimate of what you would spend. See if the states have state income taxes. Look for the state sales tax rate and see if there is a sales tax charged on food. Come up with a monthly amount you think it would cost you to live in each place.

Step three, go to PaycheckCity.com and plug in amounts for each state you are researching to see how much you would need to make pre-tax to afford the monthly total you came up with in step two. This way you will see how much will come out for state income taxes and whatnot. I find it the easiest to use an hourly amount and use the “basic hourly paycheck calculator” for this exercise.

Step four, look at the salary amount you came up with for each state in step three. Be realistic and decide if you can actually get paid that amount with your work history and qualifications. If not, cross those places off your list.

Step five, if no places are left on your list then go back to step one and repeat this process with five new places. If you do have places left, it is time to look at the economy in those states or cities.  You can find this info on the US Department of Labor website (assuming you are in the US).

Step six, after looking at the local and metropolitan area unemployment statistics, cross off any places that have unemployment higher than the national average. If you have no places left after this, return to step one and repeat process with five new places.  If you have only one place left, this is your winner! If you have more than one place left, continue to step seven.

Step seven, time to narrow down the pack! If possible, try to visit the remaining places on your list to pick the best place for you. Or, do your “visiting” online by visiting message boards and websites about the places you have left.  Then, you can use the info you have just gotten to make an informed decision with the remaining contenders.