Gather Little by Little

Photo by: Orin Optiglot

I’m once again looking for guest posts as my queue is empty. Each Saturday I like to host a guest article from other bloggers to both give my readers a little variety and to give other blogs some visibility, especially new ones.

If you’re interested in having your article featured on Gather Little by Little, please contact me. I’m not real picky and am interested in articles on personal finance, Christianity, personal development, and frankly lots of other topics. So drop me a line and let me know the topic you’re thinking about and I’ll get you scheduled.

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Failure number 2 occurred last week in our house hunting adventure. I sure hope this isn’t a sign of things to come. I know many of you have been following our progress and wanted to provide you with an update.

The first house, the foreclosure, didn’t work out as the selling agent just stopped returning our calls. I really think this was a blessing in disguise, as the more I’ve thought about the house, the worse it was.

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As food prices continue to rise, consumers like you and I are constantly on the look-out for ways to trim our spending. As a result, sales of Spam are also on the rise. Regardless of how you feel about SPAM, it is cheap costing on average $2.62 per can.

Sales of SPAM (the canned meat, not the unsolicited email) are rising as consumers turn more to lower-cost foods to extend their already stretched food category in their budgets.

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I had the weirdest nightmare the other night. We’ll hopefully be moving soon and our two dogs (a golden retriever and Pomeranian) will be moving with us. I guess I must have been thinking about that in the back of my mind as I had a dream about it.

I dreamed that I went to the local pet store to purchase plastic pet carriers for our dogs. I used cash. I returned home to find that the one I purchased for our Golden Retriever was too small and returned to the store to purchase a larger one. Here’s where the dream turned into a credit card nightmare.

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While in a conversation at work the other day, the statement was made “You can’t save your way to prosperity.”  This is an old saying that I’ve heard before, but to be honest had forgotten about. The saying caught my attention and my immediate reply was “Really? I think you can.“  We didn’t get in a big conversation about it, but it did made me think.

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We received a call from my oldest son’s football coach last week who informed us the first football practice of the season starts tonight. Tonight? Wait, it’s not even…oh wait, it is August already. Whoa, school starts in 3 weeks. That also means Christmas is only 5 months away.

How is your Christmas savings fund?

I wrote about starting a Christmas savings fund last year. I strongly advised that in order avoid using credit cards during the Christmas season that you should begin automatically setting aside some money in a special account (I use ING Direct). I suggested that you should determine what your Christmas budget would be for the year, divide that amount by 12 and set-up an automatic savings withdrawl in that amount.

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Hank from My Investing Blog is running a great contest where the winner will receive $300.00 in American Express Gift cards. The question you have to answer to enter is: If you were given $50,000USD (tax free) today, what would you spend it on?

Handling a financial windfall

If I were handed a $50,000 check today I must admit the temptation to go out and purchase a BMW 135i would be so tempting! But I wouldn’t, but this does remind me of a very important point: When and if you receive a financial windfall, regardless of the amount, don’t let temptation win.

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Ever heard of a bump key? If not, you need to. A bump key is a normal house key that fits your lock but has a special series of cuts. If you put the key in the lock and tap it with a screwdriver while turning then the lock will open. Basically, the tap on the key bumps the pins in the lock exposing a split second when everything lines up and the lock will open. Bump keys work on deadbolt and doorknob locks. They are cheap and easy to obtain. They literally cost just a few dollars on the internet. They are so simple to use even children can master this new break-in technique.

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