Bumps on the Road to Financial Freedom

It's been a while since I've posted. Family and marriage issues have made it hard to stay focused. Although I've continued to have some success on eBay, but it's hard to see much return when you're only putting up a small number of relatively low priced items.

Meanwhile, money has proven to be a major stumbling block at home. Although things are starting to get better, we're still not making enough revenues each month to pay our expenses. We've tried to cut our expenses, but not enough to shift the balance. I'm also hoping that a higher paying job will help eventually, but it's taking some time for that to happen.

Always on the lookout for personal finance books I haven't yet read, recently I found one entitled First Comes Love, Then Comes Money: Basic Steps to Avoid the #1 Conflict in Marriage While this isn't the only issue my wife and I see a bit differently, it's easily the most frustrating. Even if we succeed in balancing our budget, hopefully reaching the point where we can also put something away for retirement, we've taken a very painful route to get there.

Get Rich Slowly also has a wonderful post on marriage and money.

Today my wife and I have refinanced our home for a larger loan than we originally took out four years ago. The new loan amount is still relatively small compared to the appraised value and will hopefully give us a bit more breathing room while we continue working on improving our cash flow.

Saving Money at Restaurants (or not)

Saturday night my wife and I and our resident student from Japan dined out at an Italian restaurant on Arthur Avenue, Ann & Tony's. We've dined there previously and have had really good food. As a bonus, they participate in the Rewards Network that we belong to which offers 15% discount on participating restaurants. We just have to register our credit cards online, but otherwise the restaurant never knows we are getting a discount.

Dinner entrees were reasonable, in the $15-$20 range and included salad. Across the street from the restaurant we had noticed a cafe where we planned to go for dessert. But our plans changed when the waiter brought over the dessert tray - it's always harder to resist when the choices are placed in front of you and described in detail. I selected a brownie sundae and we encouraged our visitor from Japan to try an Italian cannoli. (Having a great view of the Mets on a large screen TV also encouraged me to stay in the restaurant longer.)

Two desserts and coffee ended up adding about $20 to the bill including tip (less the 15% discount). When we stopped in at the cafe afterwards, they had desserts at a considerably lower price. Even more frustrating, we left the restaurant before the Mets began their rally to go ahead of the Dodgers to win the game.

To keep our expenses under control, we're trying to keep our dining expenses to a minimum and be selective about the eateries we visit. But when it comes to dessert, I guess you have to break the rules once in a while.

A Report on Progress So Far

When creating this blog a month ago, my objective was to find ways to generate more revenue, focusing on three major areas: real estate investment property, tax lien certificates and eBay. I dedicated specific time in my schedule where I would focus on these strategies, such as an hour in the morning before getting ready for work and at least 1/2 day during the weekend.

So far only eBay has shown results. I've now sold four items, including an autographed book for $100! I have many more things to put up for sale that I haven't posted yet, but have focused on books so far since it's so easy to put them up. The next step on tax liens is to actually attend some auctions (maybe some of this can be done online?). As far as buying investment property, with all the recent publicity about the housing market, seems like this will be more difficult unless I pick my locations carefully.

I have also followed several other personal finance blogs, many which I talk about here. It's encouraging to learn from others who are on the same path.

My blog updates lately have been less frequent, but I'm trying my best to keep at it, even if my posts are brief. Sometimes life gets in the way, but I'm doing my best to make sure I do something every day to generate revenue. Since I've been putting up items on eBay for three day auctions, it's important to keep adding new items regularly since not everything will sell.