Dean Barlow Blog » Money and finances

A real shame

Dean — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 11:11:04 +0000

About twenty years or so ago there was a house in town that was very run down. When I would drive past it on my way to work I would wonder if it was ever going to be torn down or fixed up; it was apparently abandoned. The windows had long been broken out by local vandals throwing rocks through them, and the doors were hanging off crookedly, half off of the hinges. The wooden clapboard was falling off, what was left on the house appeared to be rotting. Then one day I noticed a few vehicles in the driveway, the next day scaffolding framed the house.

Over the next several weeks a wonderful transformation was created. Brand new Pella windows were installed, new doors, new vinyl siding, and about a dozen solar panels on the roof appeared. Shortly after it appeared that someone was actually living in the place! Every day when I would drive past this now wonderful example of urban renewal at its finest I would think about how much I wished that I had the kind of money it would take to retrofit my own house with the newest technologies for climate control and energy conservation. But it wasn’t very long before the house was abandoned again and vandalized again, back to holes in the windows and the beautiful solar panels broken. Every single one of them was full of holes. I don’t know if it was a hail storm, or vandals, but every one was ruined. I never found out the story behind that poor house, but it is once again a very sad and lonely house. It’s a real shame.

The mad dash to the Post Office

Dean — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 01:23:00 +0000

When I was a teenager, I remember my parents always waited until the very last minute to file their taxes. I can remember going with my mother to the big Post Office in the next town over, pulling into the driveway at 11:50 pm and handing the big envelope to the Post Office employee that was standing there with a big net on a pole. The net reminded me of either a big butterfly net, or the kind of net I used to envision the staff from the mental hospitals used to try to catch the mentally ill patients that were trying to escape the insane asylum.

Ever since I’ve been on my own, I’ve always filed my taxes much earlier than the deadline; I don’t even know if any of the Post Offices stay open that late on tax deadline day. One thing is for sure – that mad dash to the Post Office on tax deadline day is one family tradition that I don’t want to continue and pass down to future family members. The stress of waiting until the last minute for anything just is not worth it!

Doing business with family

Dean — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 02:35:44 +0000

On the surface, one would think that doing business with your own family would be a good way to get started in business. After all, families are supposed to be supportive of each other, right? There is another saying, though, that the prophet is scorned in his own village. I’m sorry to say that my wife’s family appears to be the type of family where they will not be supportive of each others efforts and will not do anything to give each other a break. That is really sad, and makes it very difficult for anyone to become successful. Family members should not be haters, and yet it seems as if that is exactly what is going on here. Very sad, really.

The Internet makes moving so much easier

Dean — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 04:45:15 +0000

How many times have you had to move from one house to another in your lifetime? Two, three times? I don’t know about you, but I think that moving from one house to another is a huge pain in the you-know-what! When I was a young child our family moved three times, and to be perfectly honest they didn’t involve the kids in the move at all. They just sent all of us kids away for a week to a friend’s house or to a sleep-over camp and at the end of the sleep-over when our parents picked us up they just took us to our new home. Matter of fact – oh by the way, while you were gone we moved. This is our new house, and this is your new bedroom.

I guess we should be grateful that they came and picked us up! We never would have found them if they had just moved away and left us there! Wouldn’t that have been a nightmare for the camp owners and/or family friends! Anyway, the point being we never saw the work involved in moving, all of the packing and unpacking, none of the negotiations with removal companies, none of the headaches.

Since I’ve grown up and been on my own I have had to move five times. And they were a pain. Especially the first four – prior to the invention of the Internet. I found it very difficult to locate the services that I needed to make the move go smoothly. Thank goodness for the Internet and all of the resources that I’ve been able to use to find the right companies and services that I needed to make the last move as easy as possible. It even helped me find the house that I wanted to buy!

Moving

Dean — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 20:35:48 +0000

Thanks for the post from Sylvester Campbell

The list of things that need to get done before moving is seriously getting longer and longer. I know that I sort of take on that responsibility since I am a homemaker and my husband works out of the home, but he is going to have to help me with some of this list or it just isn’t going to get done in time. The things at the top of my list today are to research New york energy rates and find a list of day-cares that I am going to check out when we go for our house hunting trip. I really am excited about this move, but I do wish that I could crawl in my bed and just wake up when all of this work is done! I just want to wake up and be in my new home with everything unpacked and my children in their new schools. This is not my first rodeo, I have done this plenty of times. I know in my heart that it will all get done and work out, I just need to start my to-do list!

That’s just plain wrong

Dean — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 23:27:12 +0000

When I go to an automotive service center that specializes in oil changes (I won’t name the chain, but it IS a national chain) that gives out $5.00 coupons online good towards an oil change, the local service center needs to honor that coupon. Last week I took my truck to the local oil change service station and had them perform their oil change. When they rung me up I presented them with the $5.00 coupon. The cashier told me that they had already totaled up my work and it was too late to give them the coupon. Too bad, so sad!

I don’t know about you, but I think that is totally bogus. I don’t know why I just accepted that instead of insisting that they re-ring the sale. Sometimes I’m just too nice. When I went home and told my wife about it, she was very upset that they didn’t give me the credit, and couldn’t believe that I just accepted it. I guess if it happens again I’ll be a little bit more assertive and ask for the supervisor. I’d rather get them upset than get my wife upset with me.

Pinch those pennies

Dean — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 03:13:27 +0000

Let’s face it; very few people want to spend any more money than they absolutely have to right now. The economy is still struggling, job security is a joke, and many of us are either unemployed, or underemployed. Dollars and pennies are precious and we need to stretch and pinch them as hard as we can. That is why we all need to take a good hard look at our houses to see if we are being as energy efficient as possible. We need to check for ways that heat is escaping out of the house in the winter, and getting in during the summer. After all, we don’t want to pay for the climate control of the great outdoors, do we?

If you are lucky enough to be serviced by an utility company that offers free energy audits, by all means make the appointment and have one of their technicians come out to your place and give it a good going over. Have him check your windows to see if they are double glazing and if they close tightly. Have him check the weather stripping around the sills. If they offer to install a water heater blanket, by all means let them do it. Some companies will do that for free; others will charge a minimal amount. The energy savings will be worth it in the long run.

Those CFL bulbs don’t last very long

Dean — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:15:42 +0000

One of the things that I have been concerned about lately is how quickly those CFL bulbs burn out. They are supposed to be more energy efficient, and environmentally friendly, but they are more expensive than the traditional incandescent light bulbs and don’t last as long. How is that supposed to help save money? I’m thinking that I might start looking into buying the LED lights instead in the future. I wonder how long they will last.

Everybody needs medical insurance

Dean — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:11:50 +0000

Several years ago there was a television show that I liked to watch called “30 days.” One of the episodes was about the producer and his wife trying to live on minimum wage for thirty days. As part of the deal they had to rent an apartment, furnish it, find jobs, get to and from those jobs and make ends meet for an entire month. One of the things that had to do was act as if they had no medical insurance during that period of time.

There were a couple of times during that time period that they did go to the hospital’s emergency room, and because they had no medical insurance they ended with a huge bill that they were going to have to try to make payment arrangements on. I was quite impressed with the television show and how that episode in particular highlighted the need for everyone to have medical insurance because medical care is very expensive, and beyond the reach of many of the people in the working class.

A new bargain website

Dean — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 19:58:44 +0000

Have you been reading all of the rave nomorerack reviews on the Internet lately? This is a bargain shopping website that has got to be seen to be believed. My wife was telling me that she found and purchased several nomorerack bargains a couple of days ago and she was as pleased as a pig in a mud bath.

To be honest I had not heard of the website until my wife told me about it, and she found out about it from our son, who bought a few things from it to use for Christmas gifts. Isn’t it amazing how parents learn a lot of things from their own kids? I don’t know how our son heard about it, I guess from one of his friends or co-workers. Regardless, in the spirit of making every penny count, this is a great website to check out when you are thinking about having to buy presents for people; they have great merchandise at cut-rate prices.