Day In The Life of Baz

Now I’ve been reading tons of stuff about other people’s experiences with the BoA, but I personally haven’t hadn’t had any problems with them. Up until last week, they’d been my best credit card account. They are my lowest APR that I have on any card, with a relatively high limit, so everything has been great actually. They also have a pretty good Bill Pay program; and therein lies the problem.

The BoA Strikes

Right now my BoA account has a very nice equilibrium going. It’s like a well-balanced ecosystem, where any outside stimuli is gonna cause things to spiral out of control. I have all my outgoing bills set up through the eBill Bill Pay system, including my car payment and internet payment. Because I know the exact amount of every bill, I’ve set up the amount of the incoming payment to the credit card to be the exact amount I need, so the account always goes back to zero (0) by the time the account is due.

I’ve been meaning to do this for a while. Here’s a (short) list of a number of Personal Finance blogs that I read:

• Of course: How I Save Money.net - If I didn’t there would be hell to pay.
• 2million - My Journey to Financial Freedom
• AllFinancialMatters
• Clever Dude - Of course the Dude
• Daily Fuel Economy Tip - Invaluable Driving Tips. I try to put them to use every time I can. I guess that’s why my car is supposed to get 24 MPG but I average 27 in the city.
• Free Money Finance
• Frugal For Life - Reminds me of stuff my Mom used to do back in the day.
• Frugal Underground
• Generation X Finance
• FinanceIsPersonal.com
• I’ll Teach You To Be Rich
• Lazy Man and Money - Just came across this. Hilarious
• Money Buzzed
• Money Ning - I never really got the name, but it’s a great read.
• Money $mart Life
• Money, Matter, and More Musings
• My Money Blog
• Poorer Than You
• Punny Money

Anything that I should be reading that I’m not?

Popularity: 12%

As usual, LifeHacker has opened my eyes. I stumbled up the following at LifeHacker. so it got me thinking of what I do.

Introduction

First off I must admit something. I’m from the Commonwealth of Dominica. It’s a beautiful island in the Caribbean and we have a river for everyday of the week. No, seriously, there are 365 rivers. Water isn’t usually a problem for most. Apart from a few months when it’s hot and some new, rapidly developing residential areas (where the irrigation system hasn’t grown with the population) water isn’t a problem back home. At our house, water isn’t regulated. You pay a flat monthly fee and that’s it. Some years ago, they started putting meters on newer houses so that they are charged per usage. Also, when I came up here, the apartment complex that I lived in for almost four (4) years had water included in the rent and that was a fixed price. So I’ve never really gotten used to the whole saving water thing.

After reading this article I sat and thought for a minute. I thought about the things that I do personally and I wondered, am I frugal or am I just a cheap bastard? I never had a lot when I was growing up, so this has taught me to appreciate the little that I have, but I to wonder sometimes, am I going to far? I mean, I’ve never had much disposable income. From primary school I got a scholarship to go to high school. This scholarship consisted of free books and $50.00 monthly transportation allowance. Luckily, my mom worked next to the school so I never had to use this on transportation. So what did I do with it? Stuck it in the bank. Yep, at ten (10) years old, I stuck money in the bank. So, I’ve grown up handling money very carefully.

Almost three (3) months ago, I was looking around for a place to get an oil change. I stumbled onto PepBoys. Why? Because I was lazy. I drove past it everyday on my way to work, so in I went. Problem number one is that it took way too long. I mean, how long does it really take to hoist a car up and and drain the damn engine? Oh well. One thing that kept me in there was that they had a rebate going on. I love rebates, don’t you?

Rebates are free money. But there’s a catch, there’s always a catch. More often than not, you can get the goods/service from somewhere else for a cheaper price off the bat. But the rebate entices you. You think, “well after the rebate, it’s $10 cheaper”. That after is the problem. Most rebates I’ve come across say expect 6-8 weeks. That’s that’s about two months right? Well, let me explain this a lil’ bit better. All rebates expire at a certain date. It’s only after (there’s that magic word again) that date that they begin processing your rebate. It doesn’t matter when they receive it; it doesn’t matter when you send it in; no one cares.