Weekend Update
I got a huge amount of link love over the past two weeks. The following blogs have Included me in their carnivals and roundups since my last update:
I have a guest post up at Frugal Freebies and Deals on Basic Steps for Setting up a Budget. I'd appreciate it if you went over and checked it out.
Wealth Pilgrim selected me as an Editor's Pick in the Carnival of Personal Finance, Ask the Right Questions Edition.
Family Money Values included my in the Totally Money Blog Carnival, Martin Luther King Day Edition.
Prairie Eco Thrifter included me in the Yakezie Carnival, Credit Card Edition.
My University Money included me in the 16th Edition of the Carnival of Financial Camaraderie.
Control Your Cash included me in the Carnival of Wealth, Angry White Female Edition.
The Simple Dollar included me in their Weekly Roundup, Election Returns Edition. (I'm particularly appreciative of this inclusion, as it generated a very large amount of traffic to my site. I think some of those readers have stuck around, too, so if you found me through the Simple Dollar round-up, hello and welcome to my blog. Sorry it's been so empty lately!)
- I apologize again for the lack of updates last week. In addition to being the second week of school, I also started a new job. The hours aren't necessarily going to be consistent -- the job is at a very small engineering firm and the workload fluctuates depending on when various projects come in, so I'll be working more when things are busy and less when they aren't -- but the pay is pretty good and the work is more interesting than I was expecting.
- The Declutter Challenge is going well. I now have 21 items to go to Goodwill along with the seven items I mentioned getting rid of in my last update. The items were in three bags, but only two of them made it to Goodwill last weekend and I don't feel like sorting through the remaining bag to count, so I'll update the status bar once I actually get all them out of my apartment. I also know I have more stuff to go out. A few items got thrown in the laundry pile before I donate them, so whenever I get around to folding laundry I can start a new bag.
- I managed to get my three workouts in last week, so I'm happy. I found that Netflix has some workouts in their streaming section, so even though it was raining some (and I hate going outside in the rain) I was able to get a little bit of activity. This past week was not as good, as I haven't made it to the gym (or Netflix) at all. I definitely need to, because the extra time sitting while I'm at work is doing a number on my back and I really need to strengthen my core and improve my posture.
- I took my car to the shop for a check up last week, and in addition to the normal maintenance I found out that I need to replace my Drive Belt (it's cracked, not broken yet) and my IMA Battery. I have a hybrid, and the IMA battery is the extra one that helps you accelerate without wasting gas. I'm undecided about what to do about the IMA battery. It will cost $2500-3000 to replace, and my car is only worth $4000-5000. I haven't actually noticed any problems with my battery charging or any issues accelerating. All I know is that a warning light came on for it right before I needed to take it into the shop any way, and the mechanic told me that the warning code says it needs replacing. I can't seem to find anything that tells me if this will be a sudden failure or if it will just gradually lose its ability to hold a charge. If it's the latter it makes sense to me to just wait until I start having issues with it. My car has been really good to me so far, and I haven't had to do any major repairs. It's pushing 8 years old now and has 90,000 miles, though, so I feel like things are bound to start breaking. I don't want to sink that much money into a battery and then have a bunch of other things go, but I won't have a real income for another four months. I would prefer to wait until then to make a decision, but I don't know if I'll be able to. I'm trying to research my options, but it's hard to find a lot of information. The technology is just too new so most of the people reporting on this are people who've had problems with they're batteries dying earlier than they should.
- The IMA light magically turned itself off on Wednesday, but the check engine light is still on and when I took it in this weekend for the drive belt the technician said the code is still indicating the battery needing replacement. (He did say I could buy the battery for cheaper somewhere else and bring it to them to install, though I don't know how much of the quoted price is parts and how much is labor.) At this point, I've pretty much decided that the battery DOES need to be replaced, but the question is when. Whenever I do decide to sell this car or trade it in, no one will buy it if it needs a $2-3000 repair. I have one other small (not super expensive) part that needs to be replaced, and I'm hoping to get my usual service technician for that so I can discuss the battery with him. (My appointment was supposed to be with him for my last service, but for some reason a different technician ended up doing it and the subsequent belt change, and he hasn't been very informative. I also don't fully trust that he's actually checked out the problem aside from just reading the codes that aren't being output, so I'd like to get an opinion from my normal guy.) I have no idea whether this will be a gradual failure, with the battery just holding less of a charge each time, or if it will be sudden and I'll find myself having trouble getting up to speed getting onto the highway without any prior indication of a problem aside from the warning light. If it's the former, I definitely want to wait until I notice a difference in the performance of my car. If it's the latter, it's more of a safety issue and fixing it becomes more urgent. Unfortunately, the technology is still too new. My google-fu is failing me and I can't find relevant information online.
I got a huge amount of link love over the past two weeks. The following blogs have Included me in their carnivals and roundups since my last update:
I have a guest post up at Frugal Freebies and Deals on Basic Steps for Setting up a Budget. I'd appreciate it if you went over and checked it out.
Wealth Pilgrim selected me as an Editor's Pick in the Carnival of Personal Finance, Ask the Right Questions Edition.
Family Money Values included my in the Totally Money Blog Carnival, Martin Luther King Day Edition.
Prairie Eco Thrifter included me in the Yakezie Carnival, Credit Card Edition.
My University Money included me in the 16th Edition of the Carnival of Financial Camaraderie.
Control Your Cash included me in the Carnival of Wealth, Angry White Female Edition.
The Simple Dollar included me in their Weekly Roundup, Election Returns Edition. (I'm particularly appreciative of this inclusion, as it generated a very large amount of traffic to my site. I think some of those readers have stuck around, too, so if you found me through the Simple Dollar round-up, hello and welcome to my blog. Sorry it's been so empty lately!)
