Just some odds and ends this morning.  The beautiful weather we had yesterday didn’t last as storms rolled in last night, but at least this time there are no limbs down nor damage to the property here!  The news says Oklahoma, Missouri, and Arkansas got hit yet again with tornadoes, so I plan to donate a bit to the Red Cross tomorrow, including a pint of blood if I have tomorrow night off work.  I’d love it if those of y’all here in the States would join me on this.

Carnival of Financial Goals Readers’ Choice(s)

I didn’t get a whole lot of response on this (?) so the Readers’ Choice was a four-way tie.  Here are the four financial goals posts that got votes from last week’s Carnival of Financial Goals:

• The Zen and Art of Coupon Clipping from Nicole at Breaking Even
• Create Your Own Dollar Plan: Step 1 from Madison at My Dollar Plan
• Making Goals Adaptable from Brice Hogan of Financial Zip
• The Importance of Savings Goals from Alison of This Wasn’t in the Plan

Big thanks to all the carnival entrants and to those of y’all who voted for them!

Magazines for Military Troops

Reader Sheila emailed me to let me know about a couple of websites that provide magazine subscriptions to active duty military folks, and give you the ability to donate a subscription for just $10!  I hadn’t heard of it, and neither has hubby, so a big thanks to Sheila for calling this to our attention

If you are active duty military, you can start up a wish list of magazine subscriptions at Subs4Servicemembers.  If you would like to donate a subscription to an active duty military servicemember, the website is Subs4Soldiers.  Sheila says:

People who know a serviceperson can select that particular serviceperson. But otherwise, the donors and recipients remain anonymous … What better way to celebrate memorial day than by giving to someone on active duty?

Well said, Sheila!  And thank you for the heads-up.

It’s been a beautiful mild sunny day here!  Hubby, son, and I went out for brunch then hit the grocery for a couple essentials while son got his hair cut so he doesn’t get written up at school.

The guys just embarked for the gaming shop, intent on getting table to use as a battlefield and should be occupied for at least six hours LOL  It’s been a bit of a goof-off day for us all.

Meanwhile, tomorrow I will be crowning the “Readers’ Choice” for the Carnival of Financial Goals, and currently there is a three-way tie for it.  So if you haven’t voted for your favorite financial goals post for this month, be sure to leave your comment

Also, Monday I will be holding the Carnival of Debt Reduction.  This has long been my favorite of the blog carnivals (gee, I wonder why?) and I am hoping for a good turnout.  Bloggers, be sure to submit your debt-killing posts by tomorrow night!

Just checked the account balance, and our “economic stimulus” payment is finally here.  While others got theirs early, ours came when the IRS schedule said it would.

I am underwhelmed with the government’s “generosity” here: we only got $600 total, which breaks down to $300 each.  Apparently an E-4 at the top of the pay scale for that pay grade doesn’t make enough to get the full economic stimulus.  I really didn’t expect to get the full $600 for myself, since I only had an income of a little over $3,000 delivering pizzas only on the weekends, but sheesh … one would think the government would pay its active duty military enough of a taxable salary to get the full stimulus!  I had thought we were getting $900 for our “economic stimulus.”

Yes, I am griping (or whining, if you prefer).  We didn’t plan to do much “stimulating the economy” other than our trip to Florida next month anyway, but this just cut the amount I had hoped to sock away into the big emergency fund significantly!

Hubby asked for $150 of that $600 for himself.  I agreed without asking if that would go towards our vacation fund.  I have to trust that he won’t go blow it at the wargaming shop, but he indicated yesterday when we sat down to discuss money over coffee that he feels like he doesn’t have any money for fun stuff anymore, and it makes him feel poor.  Or maybe he plans to use that money tonight taking me out to a nice restaurant for our belated anniversary celebration (quite possible).

So, as it stands right now, our emergency fund will only be stimulated by $450.  So much for hopes and plans when they rely on the government.  I feel like our financial progress has slowed to a crawl, when last year we were running at full speed.

I know I should be thankful since we are out of debt now.  I know there are quite a few readers who are still working towards that goal, and are probably wanting to tell me to shut up LOL  But it’s a bit discouraging to see what should be the benefits of getting out of debt - extra money that no longer goes towards debt payments - disappear into the gas tank and at the grocery store and to school as tuition bills seem to go up even faster than the price of gas.

Where’s this “financial peace” I’m supposed to be feeling?  Expenses have crept up about 12% since the beginning of the year, while our income took an $800 per month hit.  This has resulted in over $1000 per month difference in the monthly budget numbers, and is probably why I am feeling so anxious lately.  This so-called “economic stimulus” payment doesn’t even make that difference up for one month!  Heck, it only covers two months of increased expenses, with a little left over for the anniversary dinner.  No wonder the latest CNN/Money poll says the average American doesn’t think it will help anything.

I’ve been on this stagflation kick, and a few readers haven’t shied away from calling me out on the official BLS CPI numbers.  This has sparked an intellectually interesting conversation, and a whole lot of mind-numbing research on my part in finding out how the CPI (Consumer Price Index, the government’s measure of inflation) is calculated and how this has changed over the years.

And it HAS changed over the years, with major changes in the methods in 1983 and 1998.  That isn’t what is up for debate LOL  The debate is whether those changes are a more accurate way of measuring inflation or just number manipulation to ensure we don’t see  inflation numbers like we did in the 1970s again.

These changes also mean people cannot compare today’s inflation numbers to the 1970s inflations numbers without adjusting for the changes (just as wages and prices get adjusted for inflation when comparing time periods).  To compare today’s inflation numbers the pre-1998 inflation numbers without the adjustment is apples-to-oranges.  To compare today’s inflation numbers to pre-1983 inflation numbers is apples-to-bananas.  That is why I posted that chart last week:

If we use the pre-1983 numbers to compare today’s inflation to the inflation experienced in the late 1970s, we have to use the 11.6%, not the official 4% that gets used in news reports.  Otherwise, it would be like comparing minimum wage in the 1970s versus minimum wage today, without any adjustment.  Without the adjustment, you’d think minimum wage workers today make out like bandits at $5.85 per hour, as opposed to $1.25 per hour they used to make in the 70s.  Trust me, when I get my hourly check from work, I don’t feel very rich.

So just why did the government go and change the inflation calculation methods, anyway?  One argument is that it wasn’t an accurate reflection of true consumer behavior, which is why the substitution bias was introduced.  Yes, consumers DO substitute when the price of one thing gets too high.  The classic example is steak.  When steak gets too expensive people will forego the steak for something cheaper (the classic substitution is hamburger).  But figuring that into the CPI sort of masks the reason WHY people substitute.

Then there’s this strange thing called “price hedonics” which weights the price versus the perceived “quality” of an item.  Commenter Traciatim used the example of cars, and the other classic example is computers.  If you look at the price tags from earlier computers versus today’s computers, they haven’t changed much.  Yet according to the BLS’s numbers, computers have come down in price significantly.  Their rationale is that even if you pay the same price, you get a faster and better computer, so they have a complex mathmatical/statistical formula that says the price for a computer today is much less since you (theoretically) get more bang for your buck.

That’s the pro-changes argument in a nutshell and vastly simplified by me.  I am firmly in the cynical con-changes camp, and offer up four little words as a reason why the government changed the methods of calculating CPI: cost-of-living adjustments.  Social Security, disability (SSDI and VA), plus all the civilian government employees and the military all get their annual raises through cost-of-living adjustments.  If the inflations numbers aren’t as high, then the COLA isn’t as high.

If I want to indulge my truly cynical side, I could offer up another reason: No politician ever wants to be associated with double-digit inflation ever again.  But that would be hideously cynical of me, especially during a presidential election year.  But I digress … sorta.  Could y’all imagine the media feeding frenzy that would be going on if we still used the pre-1983 method of figuring inflation?

In the interest of equal air time for the opposing view, here is one blogger who doesn’t think the CPI numbers are manipulated.

The bottom line with inflation numbers is that they are different today than they were 25 years ago.  Whether you agree with the changes or not, we can at least agree on that much.  And I advance the notion that to compare inflation rates then and now, we have to use the same methods … so to compare today’s inflation to the 1970s, we need to go with that top line on the chart and say “Using pre-1983 methods of calculation, we are currently running 11.6% inflation which is comparable to the double-digit inflation rate of the 1970s stagflation period.” 

Let the CPI and inflation discussion continue …!

Hubby came home early, surprising me at 0300 (zero-dark-stupid) when the dog woke up and barked at him as he fumbled to get the key into the door lock in the dark.  He grumbled that the dog makes it difficult to sneak up on me in the middle of the night to surprise me, which I think is still a good thing.

Today is hubby’s birthday, and I gave him a handcrafted ink pen from Hans that almost matches mine :)  Of course, I tried to be slick this morning by setting it next to his fresh cup of coffee, and ended up spilling my coffee in the process!

Instead of going out to eat to celebrate his birthday, I am fixing him a steak dinner tonight, and baking him a birthday cake.  Hubby picked the sirloin tip that I scored on big sale over the weekend, proof that his eyes are bigger than his stomach because he first thought he could eat the giant steak by himself until I pointed out I will be fixing side dishes.

Tomorrow he will be taking me out for dinner and either a movie or a show at the local theatre to celebrate our second anniversary (which was Monday).

So basically, there won’t be a whole lot of activity here on the blog for a couple days.  He’s been gone for “only” two weeks, as opposed to the year he spent in South Korea for almost all of 2007.  His unit is scheduled to deploy to NTC in California in July, then off to Afghanistan in the fall for a year.  Such is the life in today’s Army.

Somehow I feel it was easier when I was the one going places and doing things, instead of the one staying home.

We’ve already sat down and discussed money and plans for that money over coffee this morning, but more on that later.

Everyone needs goals to work for and towards, right?  And if it’s good enough for life and work, why wouldn’t setting goals be good enough for your finances?

While I didn’t make my goal of getting this posted before finishing my first cup of coffee, I did get all the submissions sorted and will have this done before the end of the 2nd cup of coffee!  I find coffee helps me with goals LOL  So here we go!

Financial Goal Setting

• Six Ways To Set Personal-Finance Goals Without Doing Much Math from GBlogger at Can I Get Rich ona Salary?
• The Importance of Savings Goals from Alison at This Wasn’t in The Plan
• A Vision and a Plan from Amy at My Daily Dollars
• Create Your Own Dollar Plan: Step 1 from Madison at My Dollar Plan
• Stop Setting Goals! Start Gathering Goals! from SquawkFox
• 5 Steps to Accomplishing Your Financial Goals and Making Goals Adaptable from Brice Hogan at Financial Zip
• Save and Invest Enough For Your Retirement: Are You On Track? from Silicon Valley Blogger at Digerati Life

Personal Finance Goals

• Pay Off My Mortage Faster? - Here Is My Plan from Mr. Credit Card at Ask Mr. Credit Card
• Financial Goals Progress Report from Sick of Being Poor
• 2008 Financial Goals Nearly Met from Nancy at Sunny Island Breezes
• The Zen And Art Of Coupon Clipping from Nicole at Breaking Even
• Shifting Gears From Debt Repayment to Saving from Paid Twice at I’ve Paid For This Twice Already
• Financial and Blogging Goals  from me LOL 

You’ll notice there is no commentary and no editor’s choice pick … that’s because I am throwing the comments open for y’all to vote on which is your favorite financial goals post!  Sunday morning when I wake up and get that first cup of coffee (notice a theme here?) I will count up the votes in the comments and list the READERS’ CHOICE for this carnival :)  Read all the entries, then let me know which you like the best in the comments section.

Oh, my post is not eligible for this, I just included it because I wrote it specifically for this carnival.

First up, I’d like to welcome the No Credit Needed readers who are clicking through from my guest post over there about becoming debt free.  I wrote that post shortly after I hit my big debt free milestone, and the enthusiasm and exuberance still shine through.  Feel free to peruse the archives and check out my “Best of DFR” page which is somewhat up-to-date LOL considering I have a tough time determining which of my posts are actually “best” versus what the readers love the most.  (A note: categories still aren’t fixed from my technical problems in March, still need to work on that…)

I set myself a blogging goal last week of participating in at least three blog carnivals per week this month, and hit that mark this week even with the blog carnival site refusing to acknowledge my URLs even exist.  They’ve had their own site issues in the past week so I probably shouldn’t be too harsh.  Blog carnivals I participated in:

• The 138th Carnival of Debt Reduction hosted by Rocket Finance.  I just had to giggle out loud when I read his remarks about my post on Congress and the Fed Taking on the Credit Card Industry!
• The inagural Carnival of Wealth Money and Life was held at Dollar Frugal and  included my post Safety Tips from Your Pizza Driver.
• Finally, Alpha Consumer held the (always huge) 151st Carnival of Personal Finance with a “surviving the squeeze” theme and gave a high listing to my post Stagflation Suvival Tip #1 - Stocking up.

Happy reading at the carnivals!  Meanwhile I am still in my self-imposed (bad place) of researching the stagflation survival idea, particularly trying to find reliable sources on why the official government inflation numbers aren’t matching my experience.  Talk about some tough reading!  Most of the links I am finding are not only old, but written by academics and practically need an interpreter.  This may take a couple days just to sort out.

Final blog carnival note: I am hosting the Carnival of Financial Goals tomorrow, a few days late because of the troubles at blog carnival site.  Bloggers, you still have until I pull myself out of bed and grab that first cup of coffee in the morning to submit your financial goals posts!

Over the weekend I had “the talk” with my son … not that talk.  I talked to him about inflation and grocery prices and our food budget experiment, and how I intend to give him $5 extra per week if he agrees to stock up on items he eats constantly that are on sale.

He’s already seen inflation in action at the grocery store for himself.  Remember the episode with the apples?  The first week we did the budget experiment, the apples were $1.29 per pound.  The 2nd week they were on sale for $1.19 per pound.  The next week, back up to $1.29 per pound.  Then, last week they jumped up to $1.49 per pound, and were that price again this week.

He didn’t buy apples last week or this week, but didn’t get the bagged apples either.

He also stuck with me for most of the shopping trip, seeking my input on what would be good to stock up on.  Hmmm, all it takes to get a teenage boy to ask his mother for grocery shopping advice is notice-able food price inflation!  LOL

I wouldn’t say he really stocked up on this trip, but then again I hadn’t given him *that* much more to stock up with.  Since his big bags of cereal were on sale, he grabbed an extra one at my urging.  He actually spent his entire $40 this week, and even went a little bit over for donuts and stuff to make banana pudding (I bought the bananas so I get some of it LOL).

The good news is he has more than a week’s worth of food now.  The better news is I am getting him to think a bit more about what is actually a good sale price and what isn’t.  The best news is he is learning that just because they post the price on bright stickers or cardboard does NOT mean it is actually on sale … sometimes they just want to push a product and try to make a regular price look like a sale!

As for myself, I was in full “lead by example” mode, scouting for killer deals on meat in particular for hubby and myself.  My efforts paid off as I snagged some beef sirloin tip for $1.79 per pound!  I have five impressive size steaks and one roast out of it after it was cut. (She shoots … she SCORES!)  I also snagged my hamburger patties and hot dogs BOGO (Buy One Get One … Free in this case) because it’s that time of year again, and hubby has been indicating all winter he wants a grill.

So, today’s shopping expedition was a marked success for me in the stocking up department, and a primer for the Teenager on just how to do it.  Now, if I can just teach him the “safe following distance” concept with shopping carts!