Month: January 2012

Potential Pitfalls to the Fiscal Fast

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Last night, my brother-in-law took us out to dinner at our favorite restaurant in Cleveland, Deagan’s Kitchen & Bar (My previous review of Deagan’s). Wednesdays are by-far our favorite nights at Deagan’s because of their amazing vegetarian and vegan menu. However, anything that occurs on Wednesday is now a bombshell in our house because it means all year we are locked out from spending any money, not to mention we are in the middle of a full week fiscal fast.

Now before everyone gets in a big uproar about us going out to eat during a fiscal fast, it was actually decided on that we were going last night several weeks ago. Since my brother-in-law was home alone while my in-laws were on the cruise I was still envious over, he decided on his own that he wanted to treat us to dinner, of which we were very grateful! He needed some company while being home alone, and we needed to eat some amazing Deagan’s food.

Right before leaving, the phone rang and it was the tenant in our rental home. I thought to myself, now what? We have a really good tenant. The last time the phone rang from the tenant, the water heater went out on Christmas Eve, and it was a wonderful unexpected holiday expense. So who knew what could have gone wrong this time? After all, it is a newer home.

This time the news was that somehow, he had managed to purchase a new home and wanted out of the lease early. My only guess is he must be paying for the home in cash, because he had really bad credit from a bankruptcy and some ex-wives. So I do not think there is any way he was going to qualify for any mortgage. The problem though was that it really put us in an awkward situation. We have never been landlords before last year, and we felt very fortunate to find this tenant because for the 7 months we have had him, he has been really good. Now we were being placed into a situation where within a month or two, we will be tenant-less and either need to find someone new or get the house sold. Meanwhile, looming over our heads will be a second large mortgage payment. It is an extremely scary scenario to be placed into out of no-where. Because of various issues going on in our tenants life, we anticipated this guy and son wanting to stay in the home for an extended period of time. Now with four month remaining on the rental agreement when he potentially wants to be out, we prematurely are having to scramble.

The good news was there was not a repair that needed to be made on our rental during the fiscal fast. The bad news is we have a really bad situation to be in when being a landlord; needing to find a new tenant on whim.

So with our heads hanging low, we all headed off to Deagan’s to at least enjoy a meal on my brother-in-law. Upon pulling into the parking lot, we saw a problem we did not plan on. Parking meters. I honestly panicked. Was a $0.75 expenditure going to throw the entire fiscal fast out the window? My brother-in-law did not have any cash on him to get change and fill the meter. So I was having to make a life-altering decision. Do I fill up the meter? Do I lie to my readers and not tell them? Do I just shuck it up and add on another day to make up for it? I am hungry and we were really all looking forward to this meal.

As we all sat in the car staring at the meter and wondering what we were going to do, I contemplated calling it quits and just saying lets skip the meal because I am not one to want to quit or fail at something. However, I knew my brother-in-law was also really excited to buy us a meal. Just then, my wife’s brother said what if we looked at it as he would reimburse us for the expense as soon as we got home? At that point I pretty much had no option unless I wanted to try and beg for change for some fellow patrons. I was about to learn a lot about myself.

As I reluctantly walked towards the meter with my change, and by now my moral was no where to be found, some other patrons yelled we did not need to feed the meter after 6:00 PM. Ta-da! Catastrophe averted. I could not believe it. I had been feeding those meters for years and never knew about the after 6 rule. I would have been regretful all night if because of a parking meter I had blown our fiscal fast.

There is proof-in-the-pudding that we spend money without even thinking about it. In addition, we just can not plan for everything. At times we might need to be more resourceful. The whole experience has really enlightened us.

My wife and I were sitting around talking with her brother and said we almost already have gotten used to the idea of spending no money, and it almost would be worth it to try going for another week, because that is when we would really see some impacts to the bottom line. Maybe we will try that in a future exercise.

Now if only my tenant would call and say he decided purchasing a home instead of renting was not in his best interest.

Audience Rewards Trivia Update for US Airways Dividend Miles (1-26-12)

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Good Morning InACents readers! Another round of US Airways Audience Rewards program trivia questions were released this morning to earn you free miles.

Audience Rewards

Now, without further ado, we proudly present the trivia questions.

  • At what theatre is Rebecca, The Musical set to open? Broadhurst
  • Newsies debuted at what regional theatre? Papermill Playhouse
  • Brent Barrett made his Broadway debut in what show? West Side Story
  • True or False? Diana (Diane) Paulus has not yet been nominated for a Tony Award. False
  • What song (or part of a song) opens Mamma Mia!? I Have a Dream
  • True or False? “Popular” does NOT have a reprise in Wicked. True

As a reminder, for all things Audience Rewards, including all the latest free points and miles from the Points Play trivia questions, see my Audience Rewards page.

Save Money, Travel More!

Different Kinds of Envy

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Moose Envy

There are all kinds of envy.  Things like: new home envy, new car envy, dream job envy, weight loss envy.  This week I realized the WORST form of envy of all…at least for me…is TRAVEL ENVY.  Travel envy is a feeling you may understand if you ever have turned the Travel Channel off in disgust because you are not on a beautiful boat, with a beautiful girl.  In fact you are in the snowiest part of the U.S. and your wife is wearing sweatpants.  That my friends is travel envy.

Have you ever experienced envy for something? I am assuming it is fairly safe to say we all have experienced some type of envy in our lives. It is part of being human, as much as we try to repress the feeling of desire to obtain something better or different. There is envy for things that others may have that you may want. However, today I would like to talk about just one form of envy and my personal vice.

envy (Google definition)
Noun: A feeling of discontented or resentful longing aroused by someone else’s possessions, qualities, or luck.
Verb: Desire to have a quality, possession, or other attribute belonging to (someone else): “he envied tall people”; “I envy Jane her happiness”.

It all came to light several weeks ago we were asked by my in-laws to take them to the airport for their trip to Florida and a cruise. (Never mind,  at this point, the whole separate discussion that we could have on them taking a cruise the week after the horrible Italian cruise disaster.) I gladly accepted the offer, despite having to do so at 5:00 AM, without even thinking about it because I know they would and have done the same for us.

So I picked up my in-laws, and after dropping them off at the airport and unloading their baggage, it hit me. They were actually leaving on a vacation. This time their bags were packed, and…gasp…I am not going with them. I want to get on an airplane and go on vacation. I was experiencing travel envy, and there was nothing I could do about it. Sure, I have enough miles to get us to where they are going if I really wanted, but we have jobs to attend to. Instead, I had to get back in the vehicle and drive myself home, all the while thinking about the fun our in-laws would be experiencing without us.

Then, to make worst things worse, upon driving home, feeling sorry for myself, wanting to drown my sorrows in sugary confections, I realize that it was also a fiscal fast Wednesday.  Really? Are you kidding me?  On the day my in-laws left in all my grogginess I realized I can’t spend money. Upon thinking about it, that even makes the situation worse, because besides being on the road really early in the morning, wishing I too was flying the friendly skies, I could not EVEN enjoy a piping hot Krispy Kreme or Dunkin’ Donuts.

Anyways, that day got me thinking.  I do not consider either my wife or I as envious people. There are certain people we know who seem like they need to keep up with the Joneses with material things, and then emit really negative jealousy towards people who experience good things. We even occasionally get slack from certain family or friends when they see how much we travel and take our boys. We do not even mention Hawaii around certain people because they can not fathom why we would go for 2+ weeks AND take our kids with us. Just like being back in school, a lot of it comes down to people being envious, and most typically, they do not understand the logistics and how we afford to do the things we do with miles and points. While I openly share any information with people, most people do not have it in them to really grasp the ideas. My in-laws though are slowly understanding and first hand experiencing the benefits of mile and point collecting.  Although we did have the points to go on this trip with them, all our money is going now into a giant fund for Hawaii, not to mention being even better about budgeting and saving.  Besides, lets face it, no one ever says “I have too much money.” Still Travel Envy stings, and I imagine what I would be doing on a tropical cruise right now…

We have determined that the worst type of envy to have is for travel. We are not talking about a jealousy from “how do they afford it” or any other type of envy caused from traditional jealousy. We are talking about a jealousy of really wishing we were with _______ enjoying the moment, capturing the memories. When people we know are on vacation, I daily imagine myself with them, and wonder what they are doing.

Several weeks ago my in-laws were on their bonus trip to New Orleans. My father-in-law loves thinking about us while on vacation, and I know it is because he really misses us and wishes we were there with him. Then, while I am in the middle of my work day, around that 2:00-3:00 hour when you are ready to go home, I get a text that says “sitting in the Acme Oyster House and enjoying a…Christmas Ale and charbroiled oysters.” There it is again. Travel envy. I could almost taste the salty air and the smells of the food.

In a couple of weeks, my sister heads off for a vacation to Hawaii. I have enjoyed helping her with the planning. Even though we will be headed to Hawaii in a couple of months, I know we are going to experience travel envy when they are leaving. There is just something about the entire time someone is on vacation that makes you wonder what they are doing at every moment.

As my in-laws took some time in Florida before their cruise, we were not to “concerned” with their well-being. It was the cruise portion of the trip we were envious of being with them. Then sure enough, my cell phone went off with another text message. “Just thought I’d let you know it’s 72 and sunny.” Really? As if it is not bad enough that it is below freezing back home, and they refuse to turn up the heat in my office, now I have to feel the sun beating on the back of my neck? Travel envy.

As soon as we knew my in-laws were stepping on board that ship, my wife and I began to wonder, “I wonder what they are doing now?” My father-in-law is probably enjoying something nice and yummy. I think we can relate so much to this trip because my wife and I have been on a cruise before, so we can relate to the feeling, the excitement, and the continuous amount of food. I could have been on that ship.