The First Step is to Admit You have a problem...

I like to buy stuff.
I have a hard time not buying stuff.
I have 26,000 dollars in debt because I buy too much stuff.
I wonder what would happen if I chopped up all our credit cards and just used cash and checks. Could we make it on our income? Maybe it's time to find out and get out from under this weight. I find myself actually worrying about it through the day. Did I really need to buy that Coke and candy and chips after lunch? Would that money have been spent if I didn't have a debit card to use? I don't know. I do know that on average I probably buy about $900 worth of junk food on weekdays while at work during the course of the year. I should weigh around 500 pounds - luckily I don't.
Hmmm, I gotta do some thinking on this and see what I can change about how I spend money. I really need to get my wife seriously involved in this. She worked at a bank for like 5 years after all. She's some kind of math wiz and really good with money but I think she's happy with just letting me handle it. Which is weird cause I have serious issues with money spending. To the point of not telling her about large purchases until much later. Yeah, it's bad. It's one of those guilt cycle things. If I had a therapist I'm sure he'd tell me all about it. Anyways,Quicken, here I come!

Bank of America, et. al.

So I was standing line at my local Bank of America branch today waiting to deposit my rolls of change from my garage sale. I was thinking to myself what a great bank Bank of America is. Their website is just about perfect, their online bill pay has never let me down, their tellers are the nicest I've ever dealt with - the whole setup is just nice to interact with.
Then I read the following on CNN.com:
Bank security breach may be biggest yet

Great, my personal info may have been sold to some jerk at a fake collection agency. I think I may go to storing all my money in a piggy bank under my bed...again.

My Stuff, Your Junk, My Money

So we had a garage sale saturday. It was us and two other families that live in houses across the street from us. It was absolutely insane! Going in with neighbors that are also having sales is a great way to get more people to show up. It was like a street fair.

I learned a lot, mainly, that peoplea are nuts and will buy anything. Things I thought would sell like crazy, like clothes in almost new condition, didn't sell at all. What did sell? Old ice cube trays, wire coat hangers - just junk. People showed up in droves. It was intense.

When the dust settled and people went home we cleared over $200. Not bad since we were just going to either throw all that stuff away or give it to Goodwill and almost nothing sold for more than 5 bucks. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday morning.

Here's some tips for people in Texas that plan on having garage sales. Make sure you have some oscillating fans setup in your garage. We had 3 fans and people seemed to really appreciate it as it did get up to a very humid 95 degrees. Also if you plan on having a garage sale make sure you have plenty of change, makes signs that say no bills larger than $20, and think about putting up No Smoking and All Sales Are Final Signs.

Also I put up a sign that said Garage for Sale (comes with free house) and then had our asking price for the house. It received a bunch of comments and we actually gave one lady a tour of the house. And some other people said they are going to mention the house to friends that are looking for a house in the area. Woot! Double wammy.

More info please...

Ok, so I got behind on my blog. Sorry.

Looks like we are moving forward on the new house. Talking to our real estate agent today to get things moving. Seems like moving is the right thing to do now.

Looks like homes in our area are in that bubble that everyone keeps yammering on about. Prices are too high for how much house you get. It's good for us selling our house but not so good for us buying a new one.

Also, I'm thinking about switching to MS Money. The reports in Quicken just completely suck. No matter how much I tweak things it never gives me the correct data in the reports. We run into the same thing at my office with our helpdesk software, Track-It!, that is also made by Intuit. Anyone still reading this that has used both Money and Quicken and have an opinion on it either way?

Geek Trek

I know it's been a while since I last posted. Sorry bout that, I've been very busy.

I'm in Dallas for 2 weeks taking a Microsoft 2003 Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer bootcamp. After two weeks I will be a MCP (Microsoft Certified Professional), MCSA (Microsoft Certified System Administrator), and MCSE (Microsoft Certified System Engineer), - after 2 very long 8AM to 10PM every single day including weekends weeks! In my field that's a good thing. Some people don't like the bootcamps because they churn out "paper' MCSEs; people who have the certification but don't have the history to back it up. I agree. Thankfully, though, I have the skills to back it up (I've been doing this computer stuff for 10 years now). Having the paper will just be a bonus.

Why I'm mentiong this on this page is that, on average, MCSEs see a 12% increase in salary after getting the certification. Pretty cool. I may not reap those benefits at my current job but who knows how long I'll be at my current job :) And it will definitely help me when and if I am looking for a new job down the road.

After this I'd love to get my Cisco certification but that is much much harder. BTW, this bootcamp is over eight thousand dollars for 2 weeks and my employer is paying for every penny. Hooray!