July 16th, 2006 
NCN Hi friends of No Credit Needed. My blog is moving to dedicated hosting, and I would be ever so thankful if you would update your links to my sites. Here are the NEW link addresses.
No Credit Needed Blog: www.ncnblog.com
No Credit Needed Network: www.ncnnetwork.com
No Credit Needed Podcast: www.ncnpodcast.com
If you update your link, PLEASE leave a comment and let me know. If you add my site(s) to your list of links, I will return the favor.
Thanks so much, NCN
July 15th, 2006 NCN One of our friends from church brought us 50 ears of corn this morning. I have been freezing it for use during the coming months. If you’ve never had home-frozen corn in the middle of October, you’ve never lived. For detailed instructions on how to freeze your own corn, check here.
July 14th, 2006 NCN I recently wrote a post about not borrowing money, and I received some comments about it, and quite a few emails. If you want to read that post, feel free to click here and them come back and finish reading this one.
Back?
Good. I just wanted to point something out. The name of this blog is NO Credit Needed. Not Some Credit Needed, or Good Credit Needed, or Great Credit Needed. Nope. If you check the first two words, they are “No” and “Credit”. I am always floored by people who are shocked by the fact that I talk about NEVER wanting to use credit again. Listen, I am not a fool. I am not undisciplined. I am certainly not crazy (I cannot tell if this dude is cutting me down or giving me a compliment… He has “crazy” in quotes..hmmm). Could I learn to manage my debt. Sure. Could I use a credit card, pay-off the balance every month, and use reward points. Sure. Am I an idiot who would have to stand back and watch his economic house crumble if I ever used credit cards or borrowed money. Nope.
I could use borrowed money if I wanted. I DON’T want to, and that is the ENTIRE point of this blog. I do this blog so that I can CHALLENGE the status quo of borrowing, paying interest, and THEN owning a thing. I want to save money, make interest, and THEN own a thing. It really is a simple as that. I do not look down my nose at people who borrow money. Frankly, I don’t care if you borrow money (in the sense that it would cause me to not like you or trust you or befriend you.) But, I see WAY too many people who are dying underneath a crushing load of personal debt, and I want to do everything within my power to help them “help themselves”.
So, if you come here and think that I am going to give out conventional wisdom about debt to income ratios, finding a good mortgage rate, or building a credit score… Brother, you in the wrong place! The POINT of this blog is to see if a family, in 2006, can live without borrowing money. The “why” behind this is centered in the idea of freedom. I want to be as “free” as a human being can be, within the constraints of society and the law. I do not fear credit. I do not fear credit cards. I am not an idiot, scared to death by the thought of borrowing money. I am, however, convinced that credit cards can be, will be, and are being abused by the VAST majority of people who use them.
Thanks for listening. I appreciate your thoughts, emails, and comments.
Peace out, G.
DORK!!
July 14th, 2006 NCN I like eBay. October 1st will mark my 7th year buying and selling using eBay auctions. While I believe that the prices eBay charges are a bit steep, you cannot argue with their business model and ease of use. So, whenever I feel that I am not saving enough money, or that one of my budget categories is going to be a bit short for the month (July = ELECTRIC BILL!!!), I will auction some things off using eBay. For the month of July, I have cleared about 200 dollars, which will more than pay my electric bill, and will actually allow me to save an additional 50 dollars or so. (I have more items up for auction, so my final July numbers will probably be about 500 bucks.) I could probably, if I were more passionate about it, make much more money, and even work eBay full-time. But, I digress. I wanted to do a quick post about how I used eBay to get some free wireless headphones. Here’s the deal:
I found the headphones on sale: I bought 3 pair at 30 dollars a pair.
I sold 2 pair at 60 dollars a pair (after fees / shipping /etc.)
that’s 3 x 30 = 90
And 2 x 60 = 120
For a 30 dollar “profit” and I can keep the third pair.
I love it when a plan comes together.
Of course, knowing me, I’ll feel guilty about keeping the last pair, and will sell them for 60 more bucks…
July 13th, 2006 NCN If you will check this post over at the NCN Network page, you will see that I have saved 13,000 dollar since February 27, 2006. My goal, starting in February, was to save 20,000 dollars by October 10, 2006. So far, I am on pace to meet my goal (and maybe even exceed it!)
Here’s the breakdown:
Days Between Feb 27 and Oct 10: 226 days
Days Between Feb 27 and July 13: 137 days
Days Between July 13 and Oct 10: 89 days
Amount saved so far: $13000 / 137 = $94.89 per day
Original per day amount needed to reach goal: $20000 / 226 = $88.49
Balance on Oct 10 if I save at current rate of $94.89 per day = $21445.14
So, I am ahead of the pace. But, I must note that a pretty decent portion of my savings came from an unexpected tax return. So, while on the face of things I am doing very well, I may struggle a bit to keep up such a pace. Imagine! Almost 100 dollars a day into my savings account! Yay!
By the way, 94.89 per day roughly averages to about 2900 dollars a MONTH. My wife and I bring home, together, about 5800 dollars a month in salary. So, almost exactly half of our take-home pay is going into savings. We have no payments, so we can both enjoy ourselves and save money. That, my friends, is what being free from debt is all about.
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