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Net Worth Update

Misc

I looked back at the spreadsheet I use to track my net worth, and realized that I have been filling it out quarterly, though I can’t say that has been on purpose.   Apparently, I get an itch to see my score about four times per year.

This quarter is the first time in a long time that my net worth has dropped.  We got our property tax statements last week and found out that our houses have dropped a combined $21,700.  Since we’re not planning to sell, that doesn’t matter much.

What’s interesting to me is that, even though our property values dropped $21,700, our total net worth only fell $10,567.  We’ve been hustling trying to get the Tahoe paid off.  It’s going a little bit slower than I had hoped, but it’s progressing nicely.

I do feel good that, even if I would have been focusing on my mortgage, I still would have lost the mortgage race.  That means my misplaced priorities of acquiring more debt to snatch a fantastic deal didn’t cost me the race.  Now, I’ll be forced to take a vacation in Texas, coincidentally in the same town as my wife’s long lost brother.   I think we can make that work.

I rounded off the credit card and vehicle totals because one is used every day and paid off every month and the other has a steady stream of money getting thrown at it, so the numbers change often.

All in all, I don’t have any room to complain.  I am looking forward to paying off the truck and focusing on the mortgage.  We could swing quadruple payments, which would pay off the house shortly after the new year starts.

Net Worth 4/13

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Tootsie – Does Beauty Have to be Expensive?

Celebrities

Cover of "Tootsie - 25th Anniversary Edit...
Cover of Tootsie – 25th Anniversary Edition

Many remember Dustin Hoffman dressed in drag in the classic film Tootsie, a movie that he now says made him realize how many women he’s missed out on meeting in life simply because he judged them by their looks. Every year women spend thousands of dollars on beauty products and cosmetics, hoping to increase their appearance and become attractive enough to the outside world. Although there are various degrees of beauty, it undoubtedly is usually determined by the amount of money spent to enhance features and upkeep the overall look.

Although natural beauty does exist in our society, it is few and far between to find a woman who needs a minimal amount of makeup and hair product to appear beautiful enough to meet society’s standards. Styled, highlighted hair is crucial for an attractive look, requiring professional services to be done on the hair by a salon. Although it may be cheaper to spend $5 on a box of hair dye at the supermarket, the hair won’t look as full or healthy without a professional technique applied. A woman’s hair is bound to look more attractive by spending the extra $100 by visiting a stylist who knows their craft.

The length of a woman’s hair often creates a more attractive look in the U.S., which is difficult to achieve with flat irons and curlers that create breakage and brittle hair from the heat. Women are now resorting to having hair extensions installed every three to five months to achieve beautiful hair that has a fuller texture and longer length, costing an average of $700. They can resort to shorter hair that saves a large amount of money, but they’re ultimately compromising a large part of their looks.

There’s a reason that celebrities appear more beautiful than the rest of the population, as their high school photos often show them to look like typical people. By spending thousands of dollars on personal trainers, stylists, and makeup artists, their appearance is immediately enhanced with the finest tools and products on the market. They are also able to have help with experts who have more knowledge on what creates the best look for their features.

Although beauty does not have to be expensive (just look at exotic women in Columbia and Brazil who are anything but high maintenance), it unfortunately is a requirement in the U.S. where rich housewives rule the reality shows and runways. True beauty is often defined by breast and waist sized, which few women can live up to, resulting in thousands of dollars spent on breast implants and liposuction, often impossible to attain otherwise.

Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but few men will argue that Angelina Jolie is unattractive or that Heidi Klum looks homely. The majority of men can agree when a woman is beautiful, and few women catch attention with a homemade manicure and dyed hair that came from a box. Perhaps going au natural will become a new trend in the coming years, but for now it’s expensive to be a woman, and even more costly to be a beautiful one.

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Meal Plans

Finance

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

When we don’t have a meal plan, food costs more.

Our regular plan is to build a menu for the week and go to the grocery store on Sunday.  This allows planning, instead of scrambling for a a meal after work each night.   It also give us a chance to plan for leftovers so we have something to eat for lunch at work.

We work until about 5 every weekday.   When we don’t have the meal planned, it’s usually chicken nuggets or hamburger helper for dinner.   Not only is that repetitive, but it’s not terribly healthy.  It is, however, convenient.   If we plan for it, we can get the ingredients ready the night before and know what we are doing when we get home, instead of trying to think about it after a long day of work.

If we don’t plan for leftovers, we tend to make the right amount of food for the family.   When this happens, there’s nothing to bring to work the next day, which means I’ll be hungry about lunchtime with nothing I can do about it except buy something. Buying lunch is never cheaper than making it.   I can get a sandwich at Subway for $5, but I could make a sandwich just as tasty and filling for less than half of that, using money that is meant to be used for food.   All during wrestling season, we make 30-inch sandwiches on meet nights for a cost of about $5, feeding ourselves and at least a couple of others who didn’t have time to make their dinner before the 5:30 meet.

No leftovers also means no Free Soup, which is a wonderful low-maintenance meal that leaves everybody full.  Nobody ever gets bored of Free Soup.  (Hint:  Don’t ever put a piece of fish in the Free Soup, or the flavor will take over the entire meal.)

Unhealthy, repetitive food for dinner.  Over-priced, low-to-middle-quality food for lunch.

OR

We plan our meals right and have inexpensive, healthy food that doesn’t get boring for every meal.

It seems to be a no-brainer.   Except, I don’t have lunch today because we didn’t plan our meals and used the last of the leftover hamburger helper for dinner last night.

Update:  This post has been included in the Carnival of Personal Finance.

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-05-29

Misc

A Look Back

Misc

Homemade Cthulhu, adapted from pattern in Cree...
Image via Wikipedia

I’m on vacation this week and thought it would be nice to post a look back at some of my early posts.    These posts are some of my favorites, but were written when there were only 3 or 4 of you paying attention.

Since I know you don’t want to miss anything, here are 5 of my favorite early posts, in no particular order:

1.  Cthulhu’s Guide to Finance.  I’m more than a bit of a horror geek.  Books, movies, or games; all keep me entertained.   Over the weekend, I taught my Mom how to play Zombie Fluxx and Gloom.   When Cthulhu approached me about writing a guest post, I couldn’t refuse.

2.  Birthday Parties Are Evil.  It’s hard to remember to be cheap when your little girl is asking for a bowling party.  It can run $200 to get a dozen kids an hour of bowling and a bit of pizza.

3.  No Brakes.   This is a post about why I had a hard time coming to grips with financial responsibility.

4.  4 Ways to Flog the Inner Impulse Shopper.   Who can’t love a BDSM-themed personal finance post?  Every blog needs a dominatrix mascot, right?

5.  Fighting Evil by Phone.  In which I share the method of convincing Big Nasty Telephone Company and their Contracted, Soulless Long Distance Provider to leave me the heck alone and stop demanding $800 they refused to admit was their mistake.

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