Thank You For Your Kind Words! I'm Officially Stuck In The Fifth Ring of Hell

Sorry all for the long absence! I've been going through physical therapy and undergoing chiropractic care, which has helped quite a bit with the headaches and neck pains.

Just as I thought things were going well... Well... I'm now stuck in the fifth ring of hell, so to speak.

My company underwent a management overhaul this past year, and let's just say the new regime is trying to make an imprint. And by imprint, they're forcing us peons to undergo Gawd-awful team building exercises. You know the ones I'm talkin' about. In case you're fortunate enough never to have experienced this excruciatingly mind-numbing time-sink, watch this American Airlines commercial and you'll understand.



The worst part about this is that I'm forced to fly cross-country almost every other week this month to participate. I feel like I've joined a cult that deprives me of sleep to make me vulnerable and confused, so that I'll voluntarily drink the Kool-Aid. Please don't ask me what the logic to this is, since I don't see any.

I'm also not going to say much more about this since, God forbid, someone at my company reads this blog. But more than that, when so many people are currently unemployed, it just seems very petty and shallow of me to whine about it.

Anyhow, the constant travels has put me seriously behind the eight-ball at work and I've been a bit overwhelmed. The brainwashin.... errrr... the team building exercises should be over by end of September. Thank you all again for your kind thoughts and words. Rest assured, I'm better now. Well... atleast physically, so I will be back soon! (I hope...)

On Temporary Leave

Sorry for the lack of posts, folks. I've been suffering from a really bad case of insomnia and tension headaches. The heat is helping much. I'll be taking a temporary leave to focus on my personal recovery. Hope to come back soon.

July Donation - San Diego Humane Society

This month's $20 donation went to the San Diego Humane Society.

The organization served San Diego County since 1880 and provides vital services to animals and people alike through sheltering and adopting animals, providing positive reinforcement behavior training for adoptable animals and for owned animals through public training classes, investigating animal cruelty and neglect, providing adult and youth education programs, sharing animals through Pet-Assisted Therapy and rescuing animals in emergency situations.

A private nonprofit organization that receives no public or government funding, the San Diego Humane Society and SPCA is supported solely by contributions, grants, bequests, investments, proceeds from its retail outlets and some fees for service.

With a blog titled "Shtinkykat", I'm a bit ashamed that it took me this long to donate to the Humane Society. My one and only dealing with the Humane Society was 15 years ago when I rented a "humane trap" to capture a feral kitten at my apartment complex. I was planning to take her to the animal shelter but she stole my heart.

CC "the kitten" (1994-2006), is no longer with me, but the Humane Society allowed me to have a fun-filled 12 years with this lovely kitty. RIP CC and thank you SD Humane Society. =^..^=

Ink Jet Cartridge Refill Fail

So I've been reading about how wonderful it is to refill your ink cartridges at a fraction of the cost you would pay to buy new cartridges. Walmart sells my black + color ink cartridge combo for $47.97 + tax. $52 is a bit steep, so I decided to give the refill a try at Costco, whose refill price ranges between $7.99 - $14.



First of all, it's not all THAT easy. I went to Costco and was told it would take an hour. Ummmm... okay. I was hoping it would be more like 15 minutes, so I can go around the store trying freebie food samples while I waited. No problem, I'll come back in an hour.

An hour later, I was told that the refill for my color cartridge didn't work. (Grrrr.) I was charged $7.99 + tax for the black cartridge refill. Oh, and the Costco guy tried to keep my color cartridge.

Costco Dude: You want the empty cartridge back?

Shtinky: Duh, dude. I can get a $3 rebate from Staples if I do so.

Now I'm off to Staples to buy myself a color cartridge for $28.99 + tax. (I bought the cartridge at Staples for no other reason than convenience.) I recycled my cartridge and was told I'll get my $3 rebate some time before the end of the year. Great.

Once I got home, my printer recognized my new color cartridge but indicated that my black cartridge was empty. WTF? No matter what I did, it still showed the black ink cartridge was empty. *Annoyed sigh*

I returned to Costco to complain. The Costco counter dude asks, "Didn't you read our instructions?"

Shtinky: WHAT instructions?

Costco Dude: This one. [Shows me a print-out of Do's and Don't's of Inkjet Catridge Care and Maintenance that says: 'After inserting the refilled cartridge, some printers may indicate a "Low Ink" message. For help with this or other printer related matters please visit: www.inkjet411.com']

Shtinky: It would've been nice if you would've given me that before I left the store.

Costco Dude: We always include it with our refills. You probably misplaced yours.

I was sufficiently annoyed that I decided to return the refilled ink cartridge for a refund. But of course, Costco kept the black ink cartridge, so I couldn't recycle it for another $3 rebate. I then went to Walmart to pick up a new black ink cartridge for $23.97 + tax.

FINAL TALLY OF MY INK JET CATRIDGE REFILL FAIL
Color Cartridge: $31.53
Black Cartridge: $26.07
Missed Opportunity to Recycle Black Cartridge: $3.00
Unnecessary Gas Usage + Mileage (Driving to and fro Costco-Staples-Walmart): $2.00 (est.)
SUBTOTAL: $62.60

And keep in mind, I could've just purchased a combo pack for $52.16 and gotten a $6.00 rebate from Staples for future ink cartridge purchases.

Total Money Saving Fail: $16.44

I could've bought couple of nice lunches or atleast 1 dinner with this lost money.

Grrrrrr... I may try to refill again in the future and see if I'll have better luck next time.

As Technology Moves Forward, I'm Tempted to Keep Pace

Sorry for the lack of posts, folks. I've been busy transferring my Hawaii vacation videos from my DV palmcorder cassettes to .avi format so that I can burn it onto a DVD for my family. My family's been miffed since I've had the tapes since 2005 and haven't shared it with them.

In the past, I just copied the DV cassettes onto VHS tapes to share, but my sister recently told me that she intends to throw out her VCR. She said with DVR, she has no need for a VCR. Great. So now I have to burn the family video onto DVDs. What I didn't realize was how slow and tedious this process is. (It takes about 15 minutes to transfer 30 seconds of data!)

I guess my palmcorder (that my parents purchased in 2003) is now "old technology" and new camcorders record images on a hard-drive or memory cards rather than casettes. The image transfers on the new camcorders are much quicker and efficient.

This reminded me of how I've been REALLY slow to keep pace with the march of technology. As you know, in the past week, I purchased my FIRST EVER digital camera. (I've been making do with my cell phone camera up until now.) I still don't own a iPod and I don't have DVR. I own a HDTV-ready LCD TV that I watch in analog.

In many ways, I'm glad I don't feel the need to have the newest and greatest gadgets. I rarely feel inconvenienced by the lack of new modern conveniences.

But when I started playing with my new digital camera, I marveled at how I was missing out on a lot of fun features I can play with. And now, with the excruciating process of transferring data from a DV cassette to DVD, I wish I had a modern camcorder. I guess this is what you call lifestyle inflation and I'm trying REALLY hard to resist it.

Random Thoughts About My 3rd Paycheck and Bank Failures and One Confession

July is a 3-paycheck month and I got my first-of-three paycheck yesterday. I immediately transferred my money to my savings. I wish I could say that I "bank" my 3rd paycheck but alas, I can't. I instead disburse 1/6th of it to myself every month until the next 3-paycheck month comes along. Eventually, I hope to eliminate my debts to the point that I can just bank my 3rd paycheck as savings. Someday....

~~~

So my spendaganza goes on. I just bought myself my first EVER digital camera. Yes, it's time I joined the 21st century.

I bought a Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS1, 10.1 MP camera with 12x optical zoom at Costco, using a $50 off coupon and a $100 gift card. The camera normally retails for $299-$330. With the discount and gift card, I paid about $155, including tax. The price includes a carrying case a 2 MB memory card. Not too shabby, wouldn't you say?



Costco offered a $50 off coupon last December. I really, really wanted it at the time, but decided not to. Ever since, I rued my decision of not taking advantage of the $50 off coupon. When I recently saw that Costco was offering the same coupon again, I decided to jump on this opportunity. I'm hoping that the 12x optical zoom will come in handy when I go see the Pageant of the Masters next weekend!

~~~

Holy guacamole. Have you seen the FDIC list of bank failures in 2009? Most of these banks had less than $1 billion in assets but it's still very unnerving.

As my faithful readers know, I'm arbitraging my 0% credit card debt by paying the minimum and putting my money in a 2.0% savings account at DollarSavingsDirect.

Bankrate gave Emigrant Bank (the parent company of DollarSavingsDirect) a 1-star rating as of 12/31/08.

Although I don't think Emigrant Bank will go under before October (when my 0% promotional rate expires), I also don't want to take any chances. I'll be transferring my money to SmartyPig (the online partner of West Bank). Bankrate gave West Bank 3-stars. Better yet, SmartyPig's current APY is 2.75%.

June '09 Progress Report - Birthday Edition

I'm one year older, but do not feel any bit wiser. But I AM financially better off than a year ago. For example, I'm officially $17,557.21 less in debt than I was a year ago. (Technically, I'm $24,800.29 less in debt.) Oh! And did I mention that my student loans are now under $100k? Those are signs of progress, right?



MY DEBT

	Starting Debt (6/31/08)	Last Month	This Month	DIFFERENCE
Private SL	$49,528.99	$45,782.97	$45,413.34	$(369.63)
Fed'l SL	$55,852.68	$54,464.64	$54,349.12	$(115.52)
Credit Card	$13,610.75	$11,574.08	$11,452.08	$(122.00)
TOTAL	$128,771.75	$111,821.69	$111,214.54	$(607.15)

As you know, I'm snowballing my debt and I'm arbitraging my 0% credit card debt. I recently sold some company stock to pay off my cc before the promotional rate expires in October. If you include the $1,999 net proceed from the stock sale, I have $7,243.08 that I've saved towards paying off my credit card so my net balance is technically $4,209. I CANNOT wait for my credit card balance to go down to zero!


MY SAVINGS

LAST MONTH	THIS MONTH	DIFFERENCE
$7,685.61	$7,790.34	+$104.73

I've fallen off the frugality horse recently and this looks better than it really is.

Every month, I try to "earmark" additional money towards other investment/savings vehicles such as my Roth IRA, savings bonds and CD ladder. These "earmark funds" aren't reflected in my net savings I report every month, so most people won't know that I've saved ZIPPO in these funds for the past couple of months. Had I remained on budget, I could have earmarked an additional $100 this month.

I could definitely do better but I've been a bit lacking in the motivation department.


MY NET WORTH

LAST MONTH	THIS MONTH	DIFFERENCE
$5,940.55	$10,007.87	+$4,067.32

Glad to see that notwithstanding a pretty big market correction a week ago, I'm still in positive territory.

Looks like the biggest gainer (%-wise) is my Roth IRA that increased in value by 35.53%. But that's only because I contributed $717.29 when I bought 7 shares of TIP. Since it's only "up" $631.55, I actually lost money. Dang it!

The biggest gainer ($-wise) is my 401k, which increased in value by $1,723.53. I contributed $1,613.42, so I actually made money in this puppy. Woo hoo.

For those who are curious, the breakdown of my net worth can be seen here.