Weekly Update 3

Our week was fairly consumed with dealing with my car.  We went to bed Tuesday night without a decision on what to do.  We had discussed our options extensively (with whiteboards!) and couldn’t come to a clear resolution, so I left it up to Kyle to decide.  He woke up Wednesday morning with a great proposition: commit to the one-car experiment for two weeks without making any other changes, and if that goes well we can stop our insurance, rent my permit, etc.  The carpooling is going fine but we’re already running into a few roadblocks with the DMV and such.  I’ll write a post about it all once we make a final decision.

birthday cake from Chinese bakery

This week I had dinner with a bunch of my East Asian labmates at a Chinese restaurant to celebrate a birthday.  I really enjoyed the food and the company.  Frequently they would lapse into speaking Chinese and then one of them would realize that I had no clue what they were joking about and someone would translate for me.  They also got a kick out of me using chopsticks and asked repeatedly how I liked the food and if I could “take” spicy food.  It was a great time!  I really should get around to learning some rudimentary Chinese language skills.  We also watched (on TV) our university’s men’s basketball team pull out another win after trailing the entire game.  We’re having a crazy season for comebacks and (almost) losing to teams we shouldn’t.  Finally, we watched Contagion this weekend with some scientist-friends.  I really enjoyed the movie (more for food for thought than for movie-characteristics) and we had a fun discussion about it afterwards.

Posts I Liked

Jeff at Sustainable Life Blog shared an observation that his coworkers seemed to have worked out a barter economy for products they generate as hobbies.

Marie at Broke Professionals shares what a difference an extra $10/week can make in your finances and lists many ideas for generating that money.

Well Heeled Blog wrote about the trap of “I deserve it” and how to reframe it to bring you closer to you goals instead of further.

Lindy at Minting Nickels created a great flow chart to determine whether to list a book on half.com, which she has found gets the best prices for her used media.

Ninja at Punch Debt in the Face announced a new business venture this week – Manteresting, a similar function to Pinterest but themed more in line with “male” interests.  Kyle and I checked it out and were impressed by the content, even though neither of us is looking for another social media outlet at the moment.  We wish Ninja the best for his new project!

Jana at The Daily Money Shot wrote a humorous piece on how she went through a grief cycle after becoming debt-free.

Carnivals

Our list of frugal tips that aren’t for us (and ones that are) was featured this week in The Festival of Frugality hosted by I’ve Paid for this Twice Already and the Carnival of Financial Camaraderie hosted by Thirty Six Months.

Best Comment of the Week

In my post about becoming a one-car family, H shared how she and her husband managed to use only one car even while “we were living in two different cities!”  Hers and other one-car family stories I heard this week totally shamed me for being dependent on two cars for the last 1.5 years and gave me confidence that others have made it work in much tougher circumstances – like long-distance relationships!

The best comment exchange this week was a lot of details on tax-advantaged retirement accounts between two very smart ladies, Suz and Suba, on my weekly update from last week.  Definitely worth reading (several times)!

Top Commenters

1. Earn Save Live
2. Suz
3. H

Top Sites Referring to Evolving PF

1. Yakezie
2. 20 Something Finance
3. Punch Debt in the Face