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Happy Halloween, everyone! It's so nice that it falls on a Friday this year. No worries about getting up tomorrow after being out late. I don't have any really big plans for tonight. My boyfriend and I are eating a nice dinner out with another couple and a friend. I've never been to the restaurant before, but it's a really nice steakhouse and the online menu doesn't list prices. That can't be a good thing, right? We're going there because my boyfriend has a $50 gift certificate. I'm thinking that won't even be enough cover his portion of the bill. But oh well. I love trying new restaurants and we are saving $50 overall (well, he is).

After dinner I'm thinking that we'll just go back to someone's place and hang out and drink. I'm awful at dealing with large crowds, so being in a packed bar isn't really something I want to do. And most bars are really packed on Halloween. So, getting some booze and staying in will be really cheap. Maybe it will even out the large bill for dinner.

Everyone have fun tonight and be safe!

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I think that I came up with a strategy to pay off my student loans from undergrad. I only owe about $7,220 right now. These were subsidized loans, though, so they've gone into deferral while I'm in grad school and the government pays the interest during that time. Not bad, huh?!?

The loan will be in deferral until May 2011. So, I'm going to start stashing money beginning in January 2009. If I put away $260 every month for 28 months, I'll have $7,280 by May 1, 2011!! That will be enough to pay the entire loan off!! And there's no point in me paying it off early if I'm not being charged interest during the deferral period, so I'll be making interest off that money too (I'll just create a new ING Direct account).

I'm excited that I have a plan for that!! Woo!

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            So, the post about how I just paid a huge bill in because I'm impatient got me thinking about other ways that I'm awful with money. Here's a few (I'm sure there's more):

            • I've never balanced my checkbook. I never saw a reason too. I always have a general idea about how much is in my account, so I don't keep track of what's going in and out. Now that all of this information is online, I check that quite often and peruse through it to see if anything looks out of whack.
            • I don't pay myself first. When I get paid, I look at what money was left at the end of the previous pay period and move that over to my ING Direct account. I think that's safer than paying yourself first and possibly running low on funds. Of course, that could probably be avoided if I balanced my checkbook, right?
            • I'm not a DIYer. I'm awful at home improvement type stuff. I'd gladly pay someone to do something for me in order to avoid the hassle. Usually if I try to do something, I make it worse and it costs me more money in the long run. I'm more than willing to pay for convenience.
            • I've never lived off a budget. I've made them before, but never actually tried to keep to them. I'm thinking of trying, but there's always something fun that comes up that I can't say no to. Maybe I'll work on this.
            • I'm an impulse buyer. Sometimes I just get the urge for something and go out and buy it. I have restraint for the most part, but there's definitely times when I just want something regardless.

            So, there it is. Lots of flaws (and probably a lot more I haven't admitted to)

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            So, my checking account has a maintenance fee of $9 a month if your balance goes below $2,500. I usually move all my money over to my ING Direct account, so my regular checking account always falls below $2,500 at come point in the month. I've been meaning to change it to a free checking account that doesn't have any maintenance fees, but, well, I was lazy. I just switched it over.

            Laziness can be expensive!! At $9 a month, that's $108 a year!

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            I just cashed out my points in OpinionOutpost.com for a total of $51.70. It takes me a couple-few months to hit the $50 minimum to cash out, but I hit it yesterday, so I'll take the cash!!! The check with take 4-8 weeks to get to me, though. Still, it's not bad.

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            So Prosper is down while they are registering with the SEC. I've been wondering if it's such a great investment now with the economy being what it is. Since people are experiencing tougher times right now, it seems as though defaults on loans would increase. And Prosper loans are unsecured, so lenders are taking on quite a bit of risk. I guess the only way to decrease that risk is to diversify by making many smaller loans to different individuals.

            I only have 5 Prosper loans out and haven't had anyone default so far. Has anyone else had that experience and have some insight into the concerns that probably many people have?

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            Well, I was going to try to make it through October without turning my heat on at all. I was doing so good!! I got home this morning and the thermostat said 62 degrees, so I turned the heat on. That's acceptable, right? Hmm....

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            I joined my gym a little over 5 years and it was $50 a month. Since then, it's gone up 3 times at a cost of $5 per month each raise. I have a feeling that it will be going up again soon. Anytime they do something like replace carpets or get some new equipment, the monthly fee seems to go up. Right now, I'm paying $65 a month as a single member. Is that a normal price? What does everyone else pay?

            Just to note, my gym is kind of high end. It has water slides, racquetball courts, a climbing wall, and free child care. I don't have kids, so I don't use the child care at all. They say it's "free," but that really means that the cost is spread out over all the members of the gym. I'm torn if I should keep my membership if the cost goes up or go someplace else. This place is so close to my house, though. The next gym would take 20 minutes to get to instead of the 5 it takes for my current gym.

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            I remortgaged my condo back in March. It wasn't a great experience (I'll elaborate on that in another post). Ultimately, my mortgage was sold to Countrywide. I wasn't very happy about this, but it's not really in my control.


            Well, about a month ago, I got a letter from Countrywide informing me that one of their former employees may or may not have sold all of my personal information. Great, right? So, I get two years of a credit monitoring service. It's definitely not worth having your personal information compromised, but it's pretty interesting motnioring your own credit. My score is 761. Not bad, huh?

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            So, I just logged into my ING Direct account and the interest rate has dropped from 3% to 2.75%. When did that happen? Aren't users supposed to get an email if the interest rate changes? I guess it's kind of expected with everything going on with the economy, but still....

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            I just got an email from Prosper that they will be in a "quiet period" while they register "promissory notes that may be offered and sold to lenders through our site in the future." During that time, they won't be accepting new member registrations for awarding new loans, but all existing loans will remain unaffected.

            Hmmm....this kind of sucks because I like to do one new loan a month (as a lender). It says that the registration can take up to several months. I guess we all have to put new investments in Prosper on hold.

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            So, I'm pretty new to all of this paying-attention-to-your-money thing. I have some things in the pot that will create some passive income. And I think that I'd like to make $100 a month that way. That's a good goal to start off with, right? It feels safe....not too high.

            I have an an account that earns interest with ING Direct and I do some online surveys that offer cash. Oh, and I have some things to sell on Ebay. Is that considered passive? Hmmm.....maybe I should just call that extra cash, meaning money made outside of my regular income.

            Anyway, there we go.....$110 a month. Check back for updates!!!

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            Ladies and gentlemen, my 401(k) summary since the beginning of the year. I will not panic. I will not stop investing. I'm only 30 years old. Everything will be okay.

            Now I need to convince myself of this.

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            Since October is Vegetarian Awareness Month, I decided to be a vegetarian for the entire month. The thing is, I LOVE meat. Almost to an Atkins Diet level. So, my friends were a little surprised and didn't have much faith that I could do it. I'm happy to say that it's going well!!

            There's plenty of articles about how being a vegetarian will save you money. I'm not really sure about that. I bought groceries and the total came to $120!!! Granted, I needed some spices and they're pretty pricey (why are they so expensive?!?!?!), but still.

            There's also a lot out there about how being a vegetarian is good for the environment. I'm definitely not a hippie, but I do believe in doing "green activities." Every little bit helps, right?

            I'll give you another update at the end of the month on how it all went.

            Has anyone tried doing this? Did you save money? Any full time vegetarians out there?

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            So, I've been tracking all of my expenses for the MBA program that I'm enrolled in, from the GMAT study book I used before the GMAT test to all of the textbooks. Tuition alone is $718 per credit, so that will add up to $30, 156 for the entire program. There's a lot more to the cost of school than that, though. My first class just ended and my next one starts on Saturday. These two classes are already paid for.

            So far, I've spent $4,777.40. My employer has kicked in $3,500 towards tuition, leaving me with $1,277.40 out of my pocket.

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            So, I started grad school a couple months ago. I'm getting my MBA and should be done in a little over 2 years. Anyway, I just had to buy my first textbooks. Wow....I forgot how expensive they are. I bought them used through Amazon.com:

            1. $37.50 + $3.99 shipping = $41.49
            2. $46.98 + $3.99 shipping = $50.97
            Total $92.46

            That's a lot of money for 2 books. I guess the plus side is that I'll get some of that money back when I sell them. Hmmmm....we'll see.

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            Hi there!! So, I've been reading personal finance blogs for about a year now and I finally decided to throw my hat in the ring. I'm just going to be talking about what I'm doing, both personally and with my money (the good and the bad). I hope this turns out to be entertaining and maybe even informative. I'm not a master with money, but I seem to be getting along just fine. I hope you enjoy.

            Let's roll.

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            This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation.

            The compensation received will never influence the content, topics or posts made in this blog. All advertising is in the form of advertisements generated by a third party ad network. Those advertisements will be identified as paid advertisements.

            The owner(s) of this blog is compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. Even though the owner(s) of this blog receives compensation for our posts or advertisements, we always give our honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the bloggers’ own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question.

            I don't intend for any of my posts to be considered advice. I am not a professional financial advisor. I may talk about certain approaches to saving and spending, but rely on the readers of this blog to determine if those approaches are right for them.

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            Hi Everyone!

            So you want to know a little more about me, huh? Well, I'm just a normal 30 year old guy living in the Washington DC metro area. I graduated with my undergraduate degree in 2001 and I just went back to grad school in August 2008. I'm scheduled to be done with that in December 2010.....it seems like it's going to take forever to get there!!

            I started this blog in the Fall of 2008 because I like personal finance blogs so much and I thought that people may want to hear about money and my life. I love new experiences! Because of that, I tend to spend quite a bit on doing things. Most of the time, this is travel. Maybe coupled with a concert or something. I just love to see and try new things. Life is fun, you have to get out there! Well, if you have the money.

            I chose the name NotSoFrugal because I'm not really frugal at all. Probably not a very good trait for a personal finance blogger, right? I think a lot of people are like this so maybe they can relate. I do try to be frugal most of the time, but other times I just whip out my wallet and go.

            I intend to keep this blog anonymous, so I won't be mentioning specifics of where I live and work. Sure you know it's DC, but that's a rather large haystack.

            So, welcome. Feel free to say hello and offer your own thoughts on my posts!