We have had to reformat our computer three times in the past six months or so due to getting a virus.  I am so tired of doing it because it’s such a pain!  While I would love to go out and buy an iMac, that isn’t exactly in the cards for me right now because I’m trying to save as much money as I can due to the possibility of losing my job. I can’t help but wonder where we keep getting viruses from, and if I’m not partly to blame. Sometimes free things can be bad.

We get our anti virus free from our internet provider.  I was assuming since it was provided through the internet provider it would be a good anti virus program.  It is CA Anti Virus, and from everything I’ve read online, it seems to be a good program.  So where does the problem lie: in the program, or is it something I’m doing?  I have no idea, but you betcha I’m going to be very careful of all the sites I visit from now on.

I don’t know if there’s something I’m not updating or if there’s some site I’m visiting that keeps giving me a virus, but mainly I’m on the computer checking my email or blogs.  That’s pretty much it.  I can’t help but feel like my frugality is not doing me a darn bit of good here, but all I can believe is that the program is working correctly and maybe I’m just not updating it when I should be.  Or I’m not updating my version of Windows when I should.  Those are the only things I can come up with.

Am I being too frugal? Should I go buy a better anti virus program?  What could I be doing wrong?

Posted under Save Your Money

Lately I’ve been thinking about having a small cash emergency fund.  When Hurricane Ike came to town, I was completely unprepared, and many gas stations, grocery stores, and pretty much everything else was shut down.  Without electricity, it was hard to operate.  For those businesses that could open, many of their computer systems were down, which would make it really hard to use a debit card or credit card.  I’m the kind of person that hates carrying cash and I never have any on me.  I’ve had to use my debit card for less than a dollar.  I guess my generation is the “plastic generation” and we just don’t deal much with paper cash.

I am thinking about keeping a small amount of cash in my safe in case of an emergency.   I’m not talking about taking all my money in my emergency fund and socking it under my mattress, I’m talking maybe a couple hundred dollars that would tide us over for a few days to buy necessities if something terrible happened and the bank couldn’t open.

I know many people are taking money out of banks now, and I wonder what their reasoning is.  Are they freaking out, or are they just being safe?  I guess I’m going to go somewhere in the middle and “be prepared”.  I guess it can’t hurt.  The only thing I’ll lose is some interest from not having it in a brick and mortar bank.

What do you think about a cash emergency fund?  Do you keep money in your house?

Posted under Save Your Money

You thought cloth toilet paper was crazy, hanging my laundry out to dry wasn’t too far out there, but once you hear about my next wild and crazy idea, you may begin to think I’m a crunchy nut case. Here’s the honest truth: I’d love to sell our house and live in an RV.  Let me plead my case first.  We’d save money, simplify, reduce our carbon footprint, and not be so tied down to our 9-5 (or in Mr. Money’s case, 9-9) jobs, and enjoy life the way we’re supposed to.

While I would be absolutely ecstatic over actually being able to do this, I know there are cons that we’d encounter.   Let me list my pros and cons, and please help me add to my lists.

Pros:

• Save money.  We wouldn’t have a mortgage payment, taxes, etc.  Our monthly utilities would go down considerably.
• We’d be able to travel all over the country between Colorado and Michigan (where our families are located) and go visit places we are dying to see.  We’d be totally free!  Sometimes I can’t stand being tied down to our house, jobs, etc.  I like to be flexible.
• We wouldn’t have to worry about home maintenance. We could sell one of our cars. We would have less stress.  I think less “things” equals less stress!

Cons:

• We’d have to do something to make money.  I don’t think we could make enough money online to support us.
• It would be hard with the two dogs.  Although, if we did stay in Michigan long enough, my parents own 70 acres we could park on and put up a shed and run for the dogs to play in.  They’d love that!
• We’d have to get rid of a lot of things, and that would be a headache.
• We love our house and we’d lose a lot of money if we sold it in the near future.  We’ve owned it less than two years.

I almost wish we hadn’t bought our house, but we love it so much and it’s perfect for us.  It’s not too big, and we’re in an area that we can be ‘crazy hippies’ and not have people question us.  It’s not the norm for people to do things like we do here, especially living in the midwest/south where people think I am crazy for using cloth grocery bags, but the property we live on is almost an acre, which is great for growing a garden and hanging my laundry out.

 Do you think I am crazy for wanting to simplify and live in an RV?

Posted under Budget, Green Living, Save Your Money