Announcements

I plan to run a marathon next month.  I was going to run a marathon last month but never got on track with training.  I still haven’t started running on a regular basis but I have a month and a half to get ready for the marathon.  This is enough time to get in shape to finish the marathon but not enough time to be able to finish the marathon in a good time.

This will be my fifth marathon and they have all been in different states.  I hope to someday have the 50 states and D.C. completed. I’ll have to pick up the pace eventually because one marathon a year won’t get that done.

The marathon I’m going to run is going to be held on Dec. 30th at 2 pm.  This should work in my favor because the cold weather makes it easier to run.  You get too cold if you stop running.  Also I’m not a morning person so the usual early morning start time of marathons doesn’t work as well for me as this afternoon start should.  I’ll keep you updated as the marathon nears.

To add to the money mistakes I’ve been making I overdrafted my checking account.  Although they structured my withdrawals from largest to smallest only the last one overdrafted my account resulting in a $20 fee.  This was my own fault because I knew I was getting close to using the total balance in my account but made a withdrawal anyway.  I used to always keep my checking account balanced but now that I do everything online I just check my balance daily and keep tab in my head of any pending withdrawals that aren’t reflected in the online balance.  Until now this method had worked.  It still would have worked if I wouldn’t have intentionally gone below the $50 cushion I keep to make sure I don’t overdraft due to a forgotten charge.

On the plus side I asked the bank if they would remove the charge and they did.  They certainly didn’t have to remove the charge since the overdraft was completely my fault but I was pleased that they did.  I’ve read lots of complaints about Bank of America’s customer service but my experience with them has been very good.

My last month’s electric bill was $17.27.  This is very cheap but since electric rates vary around the country vary I’m interested in comparing cost for kWh used.  I used a total of 118 kWh over 32 days for an average of 3.6 kWh/day.  This is about as low as I think I can get my electricity usage but I might be able to get it slightly lower at my new apartment.  How much is your bill and how much electricity do you use?

Or actually the lack of it is killing me right now.  This is my third day without caffeine and I still have a headache from caffeine withdrawal.  I’m also experiencing a lack of energy. I’m hoping that these symptoms will clear up by tomorrow.

I decided to quit caffeine because I got tired of my energy level soaring and crashing depending on how much caffeine I’d had.  I’m also not sure what effect caffeine has on my depression but I’ve decided that without caffeine it will be easier to determine when physical symptoms are being caused by depression rather than something else.

Right now is probably not the best time to be giving up caffeine because I have an assignment due for law school tomorrow.  I’m being allowed to write a paper for credit and a grade while I’m out of school for this semester.  Successful completion of this paper will also be highly determinative of whether I am readmitted.  Therefore it is extremely important that I get this paper done on time.  The outline and thesis is due tomorrow but I’ve been procrastinating.  With my caffeine withdrawal and a bout of double depression I haven’t felt like doing anything. The only reason I’ve finally gotten around to writing a blog post is to delay working on my outline.  Oh well, I guess I have nothing left to do now but get to work.

Welcome to the 25th Carnival of Money Stories and Tight Fisted Miser.
You can check out past Carnivals and learn more about the Carnival of Money Stories at their homepage. If your submission isn’t included it is probably because it wasn’t a personal story about money.
Spending/Saving

Eric presents The Cheap Lunch Wins Out posted at A Penny Closer.

Super Saver presents Wood Deck Maintenance – A Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Project posted at My Wealth Builder.

FIRE Finance presents Garage Sale Tips – A Complete Kit To Save Money! posted at FIRE Finance.

Financial Philosophies and Observations

glblguy presents Does Good Customer Service Still Exist? posted at Gather Little By Little.

Kay Bell presents Bank error not in my favor posted at Don’t Mess With Taxes.

Brip Blap presents find a nickel, pick it up posted at brip blap.

Millionaire Mommy Next Door presents The Powerful (and Addictive) Nature of Giving posted at Millionaire Mommy Next Door.

Amanda presents Observations on Las Vegas… posted at Young and Broke.

The Dough Roller presents Five Guys and the Art of a Great Burger posted at The Dough Roller.

Investing/Earning

Logan Flatt, CFA presents How to Get Ahead In America (1st of a 12-Part Series) posted at PowerWealth.com.

Amanda presents How I made $1592.53 in 1 month by blogging posted at the so called me.

Money for Military presents First Spouse Gold Coins Investment posted at Money for Military.

Financial Planning/Lessons

edithyeung presents The Money Series – You Are Not Going to Live Forever posted at Edith Yeung.Com: Dream. Think. Act..

Meredith H. Kaiser presents Financial (and Life) Lessons I Learned as a Kid posted at Saving Advice Blog.

Silicon Valley Blogger presents 10 Tips On Life and Disability Insurance: How And Why We’re Getting More posted at The Digerati Life.

Steve Leung presents Making an Offer on a Home: Behind the Scenes posted at Silicon Valley Real Estate Blog – 1SiliconValley.com.

FMF presents Money Saving Tip: Shop Now for Holiday Gifts posted at Free Money Finance.

Lynnae presents Why I blog about being frugal posted at beingfrugal.net.

paidtwice presents Eliminating Fees – Don’t incur them to begin with! posted at I’ve Paid For This Twice Already….

After reading the Carnival posts feel free to stick around and read through my archives. If you like what you read you can subscribe by clicking on the link below this post or on the feed button in the header. If you have a personal finance blog and would like to exchange links please contact me.

The next Carnival of Money Stories is being hosted by Paid Twice and you can submit your own money experience here.