Where Personal Potential & Reality Meet » Opinion

How I Saved $840 This Week

Steve — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 13:27:15 +0000

We made our first significant budget cut this year and in the process we are saving $840.

Last year I started to simplify and de-clutter my life.

As part of this process, we rented a local storage building to store our junk.

When I look back at 2011 it’s amazing and stupid at the same time that I even needed a storage building.

Over the course of the year, I made countless trips to the landfill hauling junk from both houses. I made countless trips to Goodwill donating stuff we no longer use.

I sold a ton of stuff on Craigslist.

We took a very large truck filled with goods to a local auction.

Granted, I was dealing with 2 homes full of stuff but after all of this, I still had a need to rent a 10 x 10 storage unit for all of the other junk as I call it.

When I say junk, it might as well have been. I haven’t physically touched any of the stuff I stored for over 6 months.

How bad do you really need to keep something when you don’t touch or use it for over 6 months yet continue to keep it?

I’m not talking about keepsakes and heirlooms. I’m talking about crap out of your garage and closets.

Last year we started moving out of one house and re-modeling and moving into another.

As part of the process, I rented a local storage unit for $70 per month.

Over the last 2 weeks I have been steadily clearing out the storage building.

No more monthly payments after this month. That’s $840 per year back into our family finances.

This financial move was simple and painless and obvious.

Sometimes the easy things are right in front of your nose.

My Experience Ordering Wings Online At Pizza Hut | Pizza Hut Wings Review

Steve — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 02:10:00 +0000

I did something tonight that I have never done before.

I ordered Pizza Hut Wings online.

Call me crazy & daring or just call me full. Yep, my belly is tight as a tick right now.

My Queen got home from work tonight and said she was tired and didn’t want to cook.

I told her she shouldn’t have worked so hard and saved some energy to cook my dinner. That didn’t go over that well.

After a few minutes of brain-storming, we decided to go get hot wings from Pizza Hut.

If you have never had Pizza Hut Wings, you are missing out. They are very, very good and offer a wide selection of different types of wings.

My bride loves the Garlic Parmesan wings and I prefer the hot original Buffalo style.

The Spicy Asian wings are pretty bad-ass as well as the Honey BBQ wings.

I opened my laptop to look up the phone number and saw the Pizza Hut site that said to order online for any location.

I decided to live on the edge and place an order online. I knew it may be risky.

I was afraid I would arrive and no one would have received my order.

Ordering online was super easy and only took a couple minutes. It gave me a time when my order should be ready for pick-up. it was about 15 minutes from the time I placed the order.

When I arrived at Pizza Hut, my order was ready. I paid and walked out.

The bottom line for this Pizza Hut Wings review is a big thumbs up

It was a very good experience and I recommend that you give ordering online at Pizza Hut a shot. I promise you will be happy if you try the wings.

Does Google Know Something I Don’t Know?

Steve — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 15:26:45 +0000

Everyone knows how Google is the all knowing God of the internet right?

Everyone knows that Google serves up relevant ads on web pages you visit right?

Google knows the future right?

Google knows your search history and preferences right?

Now I’m a little worried.

While on YouTube today, Google served me up the following ad.

Hey G, how bout next time serve me up a Homelite Chainsaw ad.

I Did Not Get The “Middle Age Man” Memo

Steve — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 14:24:50 +0000

Last week I turned 52. I am officially middle aged by all standards.

I have been middle aged since age 45 by the standards set by who the hell knows.

Stupidly, I have been enjoying my life now more than I ever have.

I realize that I have screwing everything up for all the other middle aged men by not acting my age.

My apologies to all of you middle aged Momma’s Boys who moisturize your face, watch Oprah and openly cry while watching the Notebook.

Apparently, I did not get the memo from the internet. What memo you say?

Type in “middle age men” on your favorite search engine. Just look at the the first page and the ads that appear. That’s the memo I’m referring to.

Manopause
Baldness
Mid-Life Crisis
Depression
Erectile Dysfunction
Fear of Death
Suicide
Divorce

Holy cow! I didn’t even realize that I no longer have nothing left to live for.

We Sold Our Walt Disney Autograph For $600

Steve — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 15:28:30 +0000

If you are one of my 8 readers here on Bloggerlens, you know that I have been on a minimalistic kick as of late. Call it what you want, but I found it necessary to do some life de-cluttering.

I have sold a lot of extra stuff we have accumulated on Craigslist. Last week, we sent a lot of stuff to an auction house.

The folks from the auction house came over and looked at all of our groovy stuff and told us what they thought they could sell. The next day, they sent a truck with a couple of workers to pick it all up.

This coming Thursday night is when our junk, uh, I mean our precious belongings go on the auction block. The auction house takes an average of 25% of the proceeds and gives you the rest.

As we were going through all of our “precious belongings” we found what we have always been told was an authentic Walt Disney signature. My wife’s mom met Walt Disney in a restaurant in Florida.

She asked and he graciously signed his autograph.

It turns out there are quite a few autograph collectors who are seeking Walt Disney autographs. One of the collectors asked us to send him photos of the autograph.

We did and he responded with an offer of $600. There are many factors involved in a Disney autograph. He concluded that it was genuine but we already knew it was the real deal.

We felt the offer was fair after some further research.

The buyer paid us upfront and told us not to mail until his check had cleared. I certainly liked the way he handled his business.

Walt Disney’s autograph would have been more valuable to us if he has signed it on something like his picture or a Disney World brochure.

How To Gain 20 Extra Days In Your Life By Avoiding ATM Machines

Steve — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 19:05:48 +0000

I normally eat lunch at home most days. I especially like to heat up leftover home cooking. Today around 11:30 I checked the fridge and guess what? No leftovers to radiate.

I was so hungry, I was nearly shaking. 3 cups of coffee I guess and nothing else was probably causing my blood sugar to ask WTF?

I needed meat. I was going to get something with meat in it or else.

I jumped in my truck and headed to a place that is common down south called Bojangles. Basically a biscuit place that serves a 24 hour breakfast menu. Somedays I do good on my carb intake but not today.

Steak biscuit, small seasoned fries and a small sweet ice tea. Sitting in the drive-thru, I felt like a drug user getting ready to get a fix.

The lady handed me my bag of heart stopper and I raced to a vacated area in the parking lot and started wolfing down my food.

In just a couple of minutes, I went from neanderthal to daisy loving pacifist. All was right with the world.

There is an ATM machine in the middle of this parking lot. As I sat there listening to talk radio and munching on my biscuit, there was a steady stream of traffic to the ATM. In this day and time of technology, I was at a loss for the sheer amount of people visiting the ATM.

Why are so many people using ATM’s? Why waste those precious 10 minutes of your life?

I love the people who will burn $3 worth of gas, driving to an ATM served by their own bank to save the $3 fee another bank would charge them.

$600 Land Rover payments and you need a $20? Maybe you are going to tip the guys at the car wash.

I go to a car wash (rarely) that allows me to put the tip on my card. Once again, no cash needed.

I used an ATM about 2 weeks ago. It was the first time in probably a year. I was taking some stuff to the county landfill and they only deal with cash. I had to think a moment of what my password was. That’s when it hit me, that I almost never use cash anymore.

On the day I used the ATM, there were 3 cars ahead of me when I pulled up. The girl in front of me was very attractive. I know because I could see her face in the side-view mirror. She was young and driving a brand new sporty KIA with temporary plates still.

I was in my big-ass 2001 Suburban (heavy carbon foot-print) that is paid for. I figured she or her parents were just embarking on a 6 year odyssey of car payments for a little car that I would have a hard time getting in and out of. I imagine that around payment #5, that car won’t be as awesome as it is today.

I own 3 cars and all 3 are paid for, but I digress.

2 of my 3 vehicles. 2001 Suburban and old SAAB convertible.

Back to the girl. When it came her time to pull up to the ATM, it must have taken her a minute to begin the search and find her ATM card at this point. Yes, I was aggravated. I would have beeped if she was ugly.

Stupid me, I had already got my ATM card out of my wallet and was prepared. How dumb was that?

Ok, so back to me watching all the drones pulling up to the ATM. I don’t understand it. Why do people need cash these days? I had a cash exception. Unless that was an ATM owned by your bank, you just paid at least a $3 fee to put green in your pocketbook.

When was the last time you needed cash to complete a transaction? I pull through Starbucks and order a tall pike. $1.62. I use my Visa Check Card. They swipe it and give me my juice. I don’t care if VISA charges them 3% fees.

I order on Amazon and use my card. I buy gas and use my card. I use PayPal to pay for some things. The gifts I receive from my family are usually in the form of gift cards.

All of our banking and bill paying is online.

If you pull up to withdraw cash from an ATM, you are using the same check card or credit card to complete 99.9% of all transactions that you will face.

Cash is not about being “Old School”. I’m more old school than most of you and I just can’t see waiting in line to get a $20 bill. The way I see it is if you needed cash that bad, you are within just a few minutes of spending it once the machine spits it out.

Are you zipping off to a fast food place to grab some lunch? Use your card.

Getting low on gas? Use your card.

I would love to hear your reasons for needing cash.

My reason for cash was to go to the landfill.

You should really try to break the habit. Let’s look at some figures. It’s reasonable to consider that any trip to an ATM will consume at least 10 minutes of your life.

If you go to an ATM once a week from the time you are 18 to 75 years of age.

57 years of ATM trips.

One trip per week. 2964 trips.

2964 trips x 10 minutes = 29,640 minutes of “enter your password please”.

There are 1440 minutes in one day.

29,640 minutes divided by 1440 = 20.58 days of your life going to an ATM machine.

Yes, if you are smart, you realize that I just showed you how to get at least 20 extra days in your life if you live to be 75. More, if you live to be a really old geezer.

Do This Before Donating Old Books

Steve — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 14:56:23 +0000

As part of the de-cluttering of my life phase I’m currently going through, I decided to rid myself of a bunch of old books in my house.

I’m so sick of “stuff” coming into my house. I just want “stuff” to leave my house.

Think about it, do you really need a book bought in 2004 about “How To Get Rich in Real Estate”? I don’t think so.

The last administration and the current administration in the White House has made sure that book is worthless now.

Here is what I did, and you should look into it in your local community.

I had gathered a bunch of stuff to take to Goodwill and headed into town. On my way, I remembered a used book store that I would be passing. I thought to myself, that maybe I could help this small business owner and donate my books to them.

I had never been in the store but have passed it for years. When I walked in I was surprised at what I saw. Books, books and more books. Imagine that?

The place was full and there were probably 10 customers walking around and maybe 3 at the counter waiting to purchase used books.

This surprised me. I told the lady at the counter I was there to donate some books to her.

She walked outside to look at the books in my truck. She went through them and selected 5 or 6 that she wanted. Honestly, I thought she would just take them all.

We walked back inside and she asked me if I wanted a credit? I asked what it was? She told me she would determine the value of my books and give me credit for half that amount to be used in her store.

Heck yea! I thought that was a deal. I ended up getting a $10 credit that I can go back and use anytime.

I have no idea if all used book stores operate on this same principal. It’s worth a try in your town if you have a lot of books laying around collecting dust. Look into it.

Why not give your old books an opportunity to be discovered again?

Delta Airlines Acts Disgracefully Toward The U.S. Military

Steve — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 17:23:35 +0000

Delta Airlines has really pissed me off today. It seems that they decided to charge our soldiers returning from Afghanistan extra money for their baggage. Delta Airlines has told these soldiers that 3 bags are ok but they will be charged for the fourth bag.

This is a disgusting act by an American Company, Dela Airlines, towards the U.S. Military. Yea, I’m mad as hell about it and will never fly Delta again.

I served myself and I love the U.S. Military. I wonder what has happened to our country when our heroes are treated this way.

What the hell is going on this week? We have a U.S. Congressman, Anthony Weiner, who has disgraced his office as well as an American Company behaving badly towards our military. I miss the good old days of patriotism.

No amount of social media, public relations or apologies will make me forget how Delta Airlines has acted toward our military.

If you cannot view this video on e-mail, please visit the site

I called the customer response number to complain but couldn’t get through. The recording said they were trying to handle a high volume of calls. I hope they were receiving complaints from proud Americans.

Set Yourself Free

Steve — Tue, 24 May 2011 14:43:56 +0000

I set myself free yesterday.

What other people told me was successful, I considered a burden.

What other people seemed to enjoy the benefits of, I only felt shackles.

It started as an experiment.

It grew and grew and grew.

It gave me a wonderful education.

People from all walks of life sought me out.

It opened doors that were previously closed.

I was considered an expert.

Some people feared me somewhat.

Some people used me.

Many people admired me.

Many people ignored me.

It taught me even more about human character, as if I didn’t know enough already.

It taught me that words don’t pay the bills.

It taught me to disregard words.

It humbled me.

It gave me hope for those around me.

It gave me power.

It taught me to rely upon the actions of others.

It taught me never to rely upon the actions of others.

What burdened me has now set me free.

I feel wonderful.

I feel no regret.

I feel free.

When was the last time you set yourself free?

2 Ways To Reduce Corporate Stress And Not Kill Anyone

Steve — Sat, 21 May 2011 16:09:35 +0000

Sometimes it’s not personal stress that bothers us, it’s also the stress experienced by our spouses, friends and children.

Back in the day of my corporate job, I suffered from a lot of stress and looked for ways to relieve it. I mostly suffered from idiots placed in the chain of command above me.

I’ve been out of the corporate world since 2006. My wife is still in it. Some days it’s tough to listen to the crap she has to put up with. Even as a V.P. at her company, there is plenty of BS flowing.

All I can do is recall the things I use to do and make suggestions to her.

I never took things as literal as other folks. Still don’t. 100 years from now, none of it is going to matter. Actually, 1 year from now it’s not going to matter.

I did 2 things at work that helped me a lot to reduce the stress. I still practice this in my personal life.

Back in the day, I was forced to find a solution. I had to reduce stress or figure out how to kill about 3 people without getting caught.

#1. Let all your calls go to voicemail. How many times have you picked up a phone only to be ambushed and unprepared? Voicemail gives you a chance to be prepared. Eventually, everyone who calls you will get used to it. I promise that over time, your phone will ring less.

#2. Never, ever send a business e-mail on Fridays unless it’s an emergency. Avoid this insanity at all costs. At 3:30 when you are trying to sneak out early, that 10 a.m. e-mail you sent will bite you in the ass. It could have waited until Monday morning. It’s your own damn fault you sent it.

In my final year of corporate slavery, my phone rarely rang because my co-workers knew I wasn’t going to answer. When they did call, I responded with an e-mail. Eventually everyone just sent me an e-mail.

E-mail’s gave me a chance to gather my thoughts before I responded.

If you tell a dog to sit every time before you give him a snack, eventually he will sit without having to be told.