That's What Jenni Said

I got a lot accomplished this week. I did some solid work on my consulting business (ParJen Consulting) and am working hard to build my client base again. I let it dwindle when I took on my latest full time job as the challenges of the new position were pretty overwhelming and needed my full attention. However, now that I'm settled into the role and have a handle on managing things I have more time off hours to devote to consulting again. I got our financial records closed out for 2007 and up to date through the end of Jan 2008. We use Microsoft Money for financial management and I really feel good when everything is organized and we have a clear picture of our financial outlook. I filed our state and federal taxes. We have a hefty refund coming back this year. This was due to the fact that 2007 was my first full year at my current job and I didn't do a good enough job at estimating what our final taxes due were going to be and had too much withheld. We will adjust our w2 fo...

This week I've been focused on saving money because I'd like to stretch our budget further to allow for more traveling. Here is a quick list of fast and easy things I did since Saturday to lower monthly/annual expenses. Perhaps some of the tips will work for you as well: 1. Current cable bill was $54/month for basic analog cable. Called Comcast and negotiated a promotional rate- $39/month for digital cable PLUS HBO, good for 6 months. In another 6 months I will call back and negotiate again to extend promo rate. Savings over initial 6 months = $15/month*6= $75. 2. Began conscientious driving. Less use of the stop and go braking by maintaining more distance between myself and the car in front of me. Also using cruise control on the highway to maintain better fuel regulation. Finally, keeping speed to 65mph or below (80mph as I like to go kills fuel efficiency). I was getting 25mph and I am now getting 29mph with the changes. That's about $6.40 a week in savings based on...