Before Pic.

Before and After pics of the fence project.

Unsuccessful Shopping

Wasted a lot of time "shopping" today and didn't end up buying anything! First went to an electronics superstore that I'll call "Worst Buy." Last week, I bought a Creative Zen Micro mp3 player there but today a competing store had it advertised as a Memorial Day special for $20 less. Worst Buy has a price guarantee that refunds the difference plus an additional 10% which would have equaled almost $40 so worth my time to go back to request the refund. We also wanted to look at plasma and projection TVs there as well. They contended that although the item was the same, the competitor was advertising only the dark blue model on sale and not any other colors. Mine is black. I would have to return my black one and buy a dark blue one in order to receive the price guarantee! The manager contended that I was trying to get a price match on an item that I didn't have because of the color!! Needless to say, I didn't even want to look at their TVs and spend another penny there.

Then went to a home goods place that I'll call "Towels 'N Things." Several months ago, I received a coupon for 50% off an item up to $100 that was part of a class action settlement. So essentially the coupon is worth up to $50 if I buy a $100 item. I ended up wanting to buy a $150 patio chair set and inquired if I could still use the coupon but of course only get a $50 discount. The answer was no! I had to buy something that cost less than $100 in order to use the coupon and it could not be applied to a larger item. That makes no sense at all because I would have actually spent more by buying a more expensive item. I ended up not buying anything today at all and left another place in disgust.

It seems ridiculous that employees and so-called retail managers are not empowered to make judgment calls. Instead Worst Buy lost a $3000 TV sale and Towels N Things made $0 on me today as well. These retail stores need to wake up and understand that as consumers we have a lot of choices at to where we buy our products. At the Tustin Marketplace shopping center, there is a Worst Buy, Good Guys, Circuit City and CompUSA and both Bed Bath Beyond and Towels 'N Things all within a 1 minute drive of each other.

At least we still have Target as a good, faithful stand buy!

Total spent Saturday:
$0 lunch at home
$172 misc curtains, organizers for rental property at Ikea
$14 dinner for 2 at Ikea cafe

Total spent Sunday:
$14 lunch for 2 at Mexican place
$170 Asian inspired wall hanging and floor screen at Pier 1 Imports
$102 spontaneous grocery shopping at Albertson's (no coupons!)

Total spent today:
$11 lunch for 2 at Sam Woo Express (much better than your average Chinese takeout)
$0 cooked dinner

Eat and Be Merry

Does a $30 steak taste better than a $20 steak? Yes.
Does a $200 meal taste better than a $100 meal? No.
Is service for a $200 meal better than service for a $100 meal? Yes
Does expensive ethnic food (Viet, Mexican, Thai, etc) taste better than the inexpensive counterpart? No.
Do gourmet desserts taste better than regular desserts? Yes.

Total spent Sunday:
$81 supermarket (saved $21 with coupons)
$0 BBQ’ed dinner
$4 ice cream for 2 at Cold Stone (saved $4 with Entertainment coupon)

Total spent Monday;
$0 brought lunch
$138 Zen Micro mp3 player at Best Buy (includes $30 2 year warranty, saved $107 from store credit from previous warranty)
$0 frozen meal for dinner

Total spent Tuesday:
$0 brought lunch
$3 Starbucks
$0 leftovers for dinner

Total spent Wednesday:
$0 brought lunch
$0 large pizza from Papa John's (they messed up last order so we had one on the house)

Total spent Thursday:
$7 lunch with colleagues (Viet pho)
$41 gas
$205 birthday dinner for 2 at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse (blue crabcakes appetizer, 2 glasses of wine, potatoes Lyonnaise, asperagus with hollandaise, filet mignon and ribeye, 2 desserts and 2 coffees)

Total spent Friday:
$0 brought lunch
$105 monthly payment for orthodontics
$31 dinner for 2 (Thai)
$12 movie and theater snacks (used gift certificate and saved $7 with Entertainment coupon)

Welcome to the Jungle

Having a nice yard is great for having friends over, kicking back, enjoying a drink and reading a book. To get there, though, requires a lot of maintenance and work. Our lot is about 10,000 sq ft, which is 1/4 acre. In Orange County, that's considered a very sizeable lot. Our previous home was on 6500 sq ft and the semi-weekly gardner took care of the majority of any exterior landscaping needs. Our current home however requires a lot more attention beyond what the garderners does.

The pool. This is our first pool home and the pool guy comes by once a week. The pool is solar heated (which really only extends the pool season by a few weeks on each end) but, during the week, we'll keep the pool covered with a solar cover as well. This really keeps the pool toasty and we can regularly get the pool into the low 90s which is really too warm to be refreshing. The pool guy is not very careful about rolling up the pool cover and always seemed to make a tangled mess. So we usually cover up the pool on Sunday night and remove the cover on Tuesday morning before leaving for work. It only takes a couple of minutes but it's an annoying choir when I'd rather be eating cheetos on the couch.

The koi pond. The pond is rather large with two waterfalls and looks wonderful at night when it's lit. We haven't figured out why but sometimes it gets a wicked algae bloom. The algae can get so thick that once a week during the summer, I'll have to spend half an hour scooping giant clumps of it out. In addition, about 4 months ago, it seems that a leak in the pond liner starting causing water loss. The water bill has jumped from $150 to $350! We've partially drained it twice to look for the source of the leak but been unsuccessful and will have to take most of it apart to find it once and for all.

The pool deck. I spend an hour every few weeks hosing down the deck. We live right off of busy street so I think we get more fine dust and dirt than most homes.

The bamboo. When we first moved in, we wanted to create a privacy screen from the neighbors and strategically planted several clumps of bamboo. We were careful to select a variety of bamboo that doesn't spread. However, this stuff seems to grow upward like a beanstalk and is truly too overgrown to look attractive. Some stalks are well over 20 feet and very bushy. I'll need to spend several hours a month to keep them in check.

The first summer, we planted morning glory to cover an ugly block wall. By the end of the summer, it had taken over the entire wall and then some. I spent many hours that summer hacking them back to prevent them from taking over the nearby trees and koi pond. We finally yanked them out entirely and they filled up about 6 large garden trashbags.

The pool water feature turned out well. I really thought that would turn out to be an eyesore because we didn't know what we were doing but it looks much better than the previous water feature which looked like a big lava rock.

And of course there was the fence and gate project which was a smashing success but robbed us of a weekend to build.

Today, I spent an hour pressure washing the patio furniture to prepare for summer use.

All this so that we can occasionally spend a few hours peacefully floating in the pool....ah. Next time, I think we'll get a townhome with a homeowners association that takes care of everything.

Total spent Friday:
$4 lunch at Viet takeout and the park
$0 leftovers for dinner and DVD

Total spent today:
$13 drycleaning
$155 couple of items of clothing, decorative home stuff at Marshalls
$104 education class through correspondence course (hopefully, this is the last course requirement that I'll need)
$40 dinner for 2 at The Cottage in Laguna Beach (saved $19 with Entertainment card)

I can read minds

A Nice Place to Live

During lunch today, I went to see a vacant home on the market located in an entry level neighborhood of Fountain Valley. We lived in Fountain Valley for 3 years prior to our current home so now most of the city well. It's actually a rather boring city without much to offer with regard to entertainment and dining but the city's motto sums it up well "A Nice Place to Live." It straddles the 405 freeway and is thus centrally located to other cities of more interest such as Huntington Beach and Costa Mesa. There are no ghettos in FV but also no luxury estate homes either. Households in FV (and there are plenty of them because it's a sprawling suburb) tend to be solidly middle class with a 1800 sq ft, 3 bedroom home build in the 70s priced around $675k. That figure is pretty astounding to us given that we sold our home 3 years ago for $455k and it was significantly larger. We had bought almost 3 years earlier for $265k but, nevertheless, it stings to see what we missed out on by selling instead of holding and renting it out.

Anyway, this house that I visited today was in decent shape. Certainly not a fixer but certainly not what one would expect for $640k (especially for someone buying from out of state and new to the OC market). It was listed with 1700 sq ft but about 350 of that was actually just an enclosed patio. The wood shake roof was original and was on its last legs. Some nice improvements had been done such as new appliances, newer tile and neutral paint tones. It also had a pool but it looked rather dingey and had an ugly fence surrounding it. I could see someone either loving or hating the enclosed patio. Because it is located in an entry level area of FV, I can't imagine that this would be a house that someone would be moving UP into unless they were previously in a condo. It's shocking to think that a $640k home is a STARTER home. Thank God for interest only and no documentation loans!

Total spent Wednesday:
$0 brought lunch
$43 TJ Max
$3 Starbucks
$5 takeout fastfood dinner for 2 (saved $5 with Entertainment card)

Total spent today:
$63 various groceries, lunch and stuff for dinner at Costco

Sponge-worthy

I really need a full weekend that doesn't involve any home improvement projects. It seems that for the last month, there's been something. This weekend, it was an alcove. When we bought the house, it had the original built-in bar. We tore it out and put in a saltwater aquarium. The aquarium was gorgeous for up to a week after it would get cleaned but then would be an algae infested mess for weeks afterward. It was too deep to make it easy to clean and the voracious wrasse didn't make it fun either. We sold the aquarium a couple of months ago and so the alcove was barren for some time.

The faux sponging took about 2 hours (would have taken 30 minutes to just do regular paint) and I got tired of it after about 30 minutes. The result looks great though and I think I'll go on a sponging binge next weekend.

Total spent Saturday:
$16 dinner for 2 at Don Ramon's (saved $9 with Entertainment card)
$42 two tickets for community theater production at Long Beach Playhouse

Total spent Sunday:
$60 supplies for decorative finishing of alcove project (paint, materials for faux finish, stones)
$30 supermarket
$6 Goldmine Yogurt

Total spent Monday:
$45 gas
$0 lunch for 2 but expensed
$13 table runner that will be used for another decorative purpose from Target
$28 decorative bamboo from Pier 1 Imports

Total spent today:
$7 lunch with colleague (Viet pho)
$17 dinner for two at Watson's Drug and Diner (This is the oldest surviving business in Orange County, established in the late 1800s. It's located right off The Circle in old towne Orange and several movie scenes have been filmed there. Saved $9 with Entertainment card)

Turn off the lights!

The ongoing utilities that we pay out are rather excessive for two people in the household. We really should consider having a couple of roomates because I don't think the utilities would increase much if at all.

$100 two cell phone bills (will consolidate onto one plan soon, my company reimburses $50 monthly)
$350 electricity (Our electric bill at this house is outrageous. There are only two of us so we don't run the washer & dryer and dishwasher more than a few times weekly. Granted that the pool pump runs 8 hours a day, the koi pond has two waterfalls, the computer is on almost 24/7, and it seems that every light switch in the house turns on multiple recessed lights, it still seems like an extraordinary amount.)
$50 gas (over $125 in the winter)
$150 water (Our water usage is also ridiculously high. Evaporation from the pool which has a water feature and from the two waterfalls in the pond contribute to this. Recently, the koi pond sprung a leak somewhere in the lining which we've still haven't been able to locate. Our water bill this month was $350!)
$110 cable tv and cable DSL
$13 AOL
$20 Netflix subscription
$20 trash
$50 two home phone lines

Total spent Tuesday:
$26 lunch for 2 (treated colleague to lunch)
$0 frozen dinner

Total spent Wednesday:
$0 brought lunch and read at the park

Total spent Thursday:
$3 quick fastfood lunch
$47 toner for laser printer
$32 dinner for 2 at Thai Specialty
$26 misc Italian groceries at Italian import store

Total spent Friday:
$4 lunch with 2 colleagues (takeout and went to park)
$0 dinner (leftovers and watched DVD)

Why Buy the Cow when the Milk is Free?

At least once a month or so, I go to Borders bookstore during lunch to browse. They have comfortable lounge chairs right next to the books that I like the most: the bargain books, travel books and investing books. When I do buy books, it's usually through Amazon where it's not only usually cheaper but tax free with free shipping as well. It's handy to go to Borders though and determine if I really want to buy a particular book. So often with real estate investing books, the title is catchy but the contents are sparse on details and repeat the same outdated info that isn't really pertinent to the California market. When a book uses examples of buying multiple houses for $150k, the concepts probably won't work in southern California. Today, I skimmed through 5 real estate books and wasn't tempted to buy a single one of them. I did pick up a book on Thai cooking which had gorgeous full page photos of the dishes and the areas in Thailand and another book on things to do in LA. I couldn't pass it up for $3.

Total spent today:
$0 brought lunch and then went to Borders
$14 2 books at Borders
$70 online prescription refills (2 prescriptions, you get 3 for the price of 2. I should have started doing this a long time ago!)
$47 inkjet refills for Canon photo printer

How's Life Been?

Expensive weekend! That's what happens when you have so many siblings and relatives and get tired of your furnishings so often. It's not very often that so many in my family get together. I'm the youngest son with 4 older brothers and 5 sisters (4 older, 1 younger). We got together primarily for an early Mother's day but it was also one niece's birthday and her sister prom.

It was quite a surprise that my nephew was there. Now, this is going to sound very strange. I haven't seen my nephew in just over 20 years! He's my oldest sister's only son and the last that I had seen him was when I was probably in 3rd grade and he would have been around 5. My sister got divorced close to 20 years ago and her son ended up living with his father. I don't think my sister was destined to be a good mother but there were other complications at the time though that resulted in her ex-husband getting custody. I don't know how often she's seen him over the years but there was really no reason that the rest of the family didn't see him more often. It's actually incredible actually that I haven't seen him. He told me that the high school that he attended was just 1 mile from my previous residence. I feel cheated and sad that I missed out on his growing up and having a relationship with him as I do with my other nephews and nieces.

My nephew has turned out to be an articulate, handsome, fine young man. He graduated from college and works for a county agency with kids and is an assistant lacrosse coach (since when was lacrosse played in Orange County??). I'm determined that we'll keep in touch.

Total spent Friday:
$0 expensed lunch
$13 dinner for 2 at Buca di Beppo (unpleasantly noisy but good food, had $25 gift certificate)

Total spent Saturday:
$300 mother's day gift (mom prefers cash, as do many Asians)
$80 niece's birthday gift (also prefers cash)
$60 spending money for other niece's prom which was that night
$11 drycleaning
$13 dessert and coffee for 2 at The Library in Long Beach

Total spent today:
$20 more misc. supplies for fence/gate project (which is finally finished!)
$70 groceries
$570 3 home decor pieces (2 plant stands and a fountain of a Balinese goddess)
$23 appetizers for 3 at Tony Roma's (Mother's Day menu only which sucked!)

Not a Penny More!

People at work jokingly call me the millionaire next door (after the book) that drives a nice car, has a nice house, takes European vacations but also uses coupons, books hotels on Priceline and has 4 Entertainment books. I kind of like the dichotomy and distinction. I think it's rather foolish for people to overpay for anything (regardless of how much money they have) and snicker when I know that I paid well below what others are paying. We were once checking in at the 4 star Park Hyatt in Century City. A man came in off the street and inquired about the rate for 3 nights and was told $189 per night and went ahead and booked it. We had paid $69. Oh, it's a wonderful life!

Total spent Monday:
$0 brought lunch and read in the park
$16 takeout Viet food and snacks

Total spent Tuesday:
$0 brought lunch and read in the park
$2 late night snack attack at In-N-Out

Total spent yesterday:
$40 gas
$0 brought lunch
$27 sushi dinner for 2
$40 misc supplies at Lowe's (again!)

Total spent today:
$90 Canon digital camera and printer combo (saved $70 with rebate)
$8 lunch with colleague
$9 coffee and donuts for the office

The Donald vs. Tony Robbins

Spent all yesterday morning and this afternoon at the so called Wealth Expo at the LA Convention Center. It was an event coordinated by The Learning Annex and has been fairly heavily advertised for over a month now with headline keynote speakers including Donald Trump, Robert Kiyosaki and Tony Robbins. Tickets to attend the event including the keynote events were $125 retail or $49 to just the exhibit hall and the non-keynote speakers of which there were several dozen. The turnout was much larger than I had certainly anticipated with the count being over 40,000 over the two days. The vast majority of the breakout sessions were real estate related including topics such as investing in commercial real estate, eBay real estate, tax liens and countless other topics. The exhibit hall had maybe 100 booths on everything from investing in rental homes in Texas and Arizona to financing and investment groups.

One thing that struck me was how mix the audience seemed. I'd say that over 70% of the people looked like average Joes that I can't imagine are already investors of some kind. It's kind of scary when that many people who have no business being in real estate investing think that it's so easy. It screams real estate bubble although I don't believe we're in a bubble that's about to pop like the dot com bubble of a few years ago. On the other hand, I'm sure many of the people were very wealthy, experienced investors as well.

Of course all of the session speakers were selling some kind of educational material or other seminar. The speaker before Donald Trump was selling his program on commercial investing for $1500 and there were probably over 200 people that snapped it up including some younger people where I'm sure that $1500 might have been a month's salary. We almost bought the material ourselves but I guess I tend to be cautious about stuff like that. I especially didn't like how he presented the price like a typical infomercial (the value of this program is $13k, but WAIT, order now and you get this and that and it's only $1500). If he hadn't so blatantly promoted it like that to appeal to emotional impulse buyers, I think we would have bought it.

Tony Robbins session was at 8:30 on Saturday morning but there were at least a couple thousand people on hand. I'd never attended one of his events before and he was certainly an incredibly dynamic speaker. Halfway through his two hour session, he was drenched in sweat from all of the energetic jumping around. I have to say that his message and style are very effective and I'd consider spending a couple of thousand to attend one of his seminars.

We came back this afternoon for Trump's session. It's been well publicized that he got paid $1,000,000 for his 1 hour session but he actually ended up speaking for closer to 2 hours because the audience of thousands clung to his every word. He offered anecdotal stories about The Apprentice and his ups and downs in real estate. At the end, he opened it up to Q&A and quite a few people used the opportunity to shamelessly self promote their services which wasn't met well from the audience. One practically begged for a chance to be chosen as a contestant on the next Apprentice season. Several previous contestants were actually there promoting a new Trump magazine at a booth. I shamelessly got a picture with Stacie J. (Crazy 8 Ball one) and Jennifer (comment about the Jewish ladies one) who were both contestants last season.

All in all, it was a well spent $175 for the two tickets just to attend the two sessions by Tony Robbins and Trump. It's not everyday that you have the opportunity to get a dose of wit and wisdom from two such incredible people.

Total spent yesterday:
$175 donation to KOCE (public access TV station) which gave us two full access tickets to the Wealth Expo
$10 parking near LA Convention Center (5 hours later they were charging $20)
$13 light lunch at LA Convention Center
$57 clothing at Marshalls
$38 dinner for two at Alcatraz at The Block (saved $10 with Entertainment Card)
$118 pair of casual Cole Haan shoes and leather wallet
$23 late nite munchies and impulse buys at the supermarket

Total spent today:
$80 additional lumber for gate and fence
$52 supermarket
$10 parking near LA Convention Center
$83 dinner for 2 at Lasher's in Long Beach (saved $20 with Entertainment Card)