This Memorial Weekend was a time to reflect on our nations history and spend time with family and friends as well as celebrate my wife’s birthday. We were planning a trip to Lake Tahoe, but the weather changed Thursday night and snow was forecast. Our family stayed home and the decision was the right one, as we found out that the roads were closed Tuesday. I really don’t enjoy putting on chains, especially with little ones in the car. My patience has dwindled down to zero and chains would only make me sound like the dad on “A Christmas Story”. Great scene when the father and son are trying to change a flat tire and he asked his family to time his speed. Since we stayed home we had to change our Lake Tahoe plans and create some new ones.

My wife loves lists. Do you enjoy putting together lists to track projects, goals, groceries, or household chores? My wife has a list for almost everything. My wife has lists for everything. I even clean up her old lists that are from projects long ago or from old birthday parties. Since it was my wife’s birthday, I thought I would try and tackle some items on her most recent list.

1. New tires for Toyota Prius
2. Fix Ipod for van pool
3. Organize office and guest room
4. Hang curtains and pullbacks
5. Train trip with kids to Sacramento
6. Attend a Baseball game
7. Hang Pictures in bedroom
8. Do Laundry

I have been putting off two new tires for our Prius for several months now. Back in November of last year, Prius tires on backorder and a 5% discount, Toyota ordered two new tires for my Prius and gave me a 5% discount. I called Toyota and they have the Dunlop tires in stock and can do it the same day. Quite a bit different from going to the BMW dealership and dealing with egos and poor customer service. Toyota is a different story. They are easy to approach and they don’t talk down to the customers.

I waited about an hour and the service desk said my car was ready. I wish is was a little longer as I had fun talking to the sales guys and asking questions about the 2009 Toyota Prius changes. The dealership didn’t have any inventory of the Prius and said that a waiting list is forming again. I can’t believe that just a few months ago I saw several available at the same dealership. As gas prices increase, the demand for the Prius will increase. I also learned that I could probably make some money on my 2002 Prius.

While I was waiting, I was using my Samsung Blackjack to look at my email and read some of my blog subscriptions. I have about 10 blogs that I like to follow and was going through my email and noticed one from Toyota. I read it and couldn’t believe it. A 10% coupon on all service, including tires. The Blackjack is starting to pay for itself and save me money too. Before the discount, two new Dunlop tires cost $249.60, including labor, tax and parts. When I went to pay for the tires, I noticed on the invoice that a 5% discount was given. $14 in savings and I didn’t mention my coupon yet. I explained to the cashier that I just received a 10% coupon email from Toyota and that I wanted to use it. She looked at me and then asked for the printout. I showed her my phone and said it’s on the email on my phone. She was really confused. The service advisor came over and looked at the email, smiled, and then gave me an additional 10% off. It pays to speak up and ask for your discounts. I actually thought for a moment that I should be happy with the 5% discount. But why? No harm in asking and I had the email on my cell phone. I was so excited, I almost went out and bought a new car. Just kidding! My total savings was $29. I really enjoy saving money, especially when I feel like I worked a little to earn the savings. In case you were wondering, we did accomplish my wife’s list and had a fantastic weekend too.

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I’ve been looking for a new template to replace the standard blogger template here. Any suggestions? I found several blogger template websites but am concerned about the integrity of the html code or if I should consider any security issues? Some websites look like they were put together in a few hours and may not be legitimate templates. I also found a company called www.eblogtemplates.com that have many templates for wordpress and blogger. Has anyone utilized this company or know their reputation. I would appreciate any feedback or suggestions you could pass my way.

I have also started my research on WordPress for a blog host and would like to hear your feedback as well. I have read several great blogs on blogger, but the majority seem to utilize wordpress and the wordpress templates. Most bloggers also purchase domain names and redirect the blog to wordpress. I would love to buy www.prosperwithme.com, but it is not for sale. I checked GoDaddy and the site is not for sale and won’t be available until 2009. I could contact the owner and ask if they would be willing to sell the domain name www.prosperwithme.com, but I doubt they would sell it for under a few hundred dollars. You never know, but I doubt it. I’ve been playing around with possible domain names for my blog as well. Any thoughts? I would like to keep it simple and easy to recognize. Some great names have been taken, but I’m sure I can get creative. I even tried www.prospertogether.com, and that one is taken as well. Guess I need to change my blog name in order to utilize my own domain. Ugh!

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Only 7 days left to enter my first Spring Cleaning Blog Contest. I’m cleaning out my closet that has brand new items left over from my ebay business. In case you are wondering, I have donated many of items to local charities but still have some great items left over. Some I have kept to give as gifts to birthdays or Christmas presents, and even a few for myself. But, I purchased a lot of inventory for my ebay store and it’s time to clean out the closet. All you have to do to enter is subscribe to my RSS feed (found in the upper right corner of the blog) . Subscribe via a reader or via email. I enjoy subscribing via email so I can read blogs on my cell phone. I have a Samsung Blackjack and enjoy reading my mail when waiting in lines. I always find myself looking at the covers of those trashy supermarket magazines and catching up on fun and interesting blogs is a better use of my time. Who cares how Christina Aguillera lost all of her baby weight? I know the answer without even picking up the magazine. It’s called a personal trainer. They cost from $50-100+ an hour. You don’t have to be a celebrity to have one and you will see results within weeks, just like Christina.

O.k. back to my contest. I really love having my Blackjack phone. I just need to learn how to turn blogger into a mobile blog and I’ll be set. After you subscribe to my RSS feed, leave a comment in this blog or the original post found here at Spring Cleaning Contest #1. Simple! No cost to enter and no cost to win. I will pay for shipping to your house, apartment, business, or wherever you want it to go. If you want it sent to your grandkids, I’ll ship it to them. I’m going to give a hint for the Spring Cleaning Contest #2 in the next few days. So be sure to check back often.

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Just happened to be surfing some other sites and stumbled on a cool graph that can be utilized to track my passive income goals. I’ve set a goal for $1,000 in passive income for May and have about $500 so far. Most of my passive income is from money market and cd’s and I’ll know the final amount when I receive my bank statements. The $500 is a rough guess, but I want to be a bit conservative. The website offers a free goal tracker for hobbies, investments, debt reduction, weight loss, body mass index, and even a conception calculator. It’s called TickerFactory.com, and they have lot’s of options to choose. I could have chosen a gold coin or gold bars, but decided to go with a piggy bank. If you have a blog about personal finance or debt reduction, this would be a great visual tool to have on your site. I guess it would be fun to have on any site.

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As I have mentioned before, I have two vehicles in our family. We drive a Toyota Prius and a BMW X5. My reasons for owning both are extremely long and detailed, and I will leave that for another post or even another blog. I really need to stay focused as I wrote earlier about my Squidoo lense from yesterday. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area and the price of gas this week has risen 3-5% or 10-25 cents. I usually purchase my gas from Costco and I believe I read somewhere that the supplier is Chevron. Interesting that the Chevron station today had regular unleaded gas for $4.15 and Costco was selling it for $3.85. A 30 cent difference. Costco has always been one of the cheapest gas stations in town, but this is unbelievable. I normally do not get excited about the talk of gas prices as I try to focus on the bigger picture of jobs, housing, and credit issues. But $4.15 gas is really going to make a lot of news. I forgot to take my camera with me today, but will start carrying one in my glove box. I really need a picture of the Chevron station to help illustrate this post. By the time I get my camera, the price of gas could be $4.20. Are you changing your driving habits or driving patters to conserve fuel? I wrote another post on Hypermiling, where some people are taking to drastic measures to conserve fuel. What are you doing to conserve fuel? Are you carpooling, walking, biking or taking mass transit to save gas?

On the topic of post ideas, I had a great idea for a blog post but needed my camera. I saw a guy in a truck today coming down my street with a pickup full of real estate signs. White wooden signs that go in lawns. It made my stomach a little sick seeing so many signs. He must have had 10 or more, ready to go into someone’s heart (lawn). I have my eye on new Nikon camera at Costco. Would be great for my other job capturing celebrities as a paparazzi. Just kidding. It’s hard for me to rationalize the purchase for this blog. Would you buy a new camera for your blog posts?

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