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Archive for January, 2012

Came this close to being swindled out of $375

January 29th, 2012 at 05:10 am

DH took the car for routine maintenance at the dealership. He asked them to check why one tire loses air quicker than the other ones.

He was told that there is a nail in the side wall of the tire, and that it will cost $375 to replace the tire ($250 for the tire, $125 for labor). He asked if they could patch it up, they said the nail is in the side wall and it can't be done. He tried to bargain to lower the price a little, but they would not budge.

So he decides to order the tire himself online and see if he can get the labor cheaper in a local auto repair shop. DH estimates we could save close to $100. He also asked for a second opinion.

The local place showed where the nail was (NOT in the side, though close to it) and said they can repair it with no problem. So we ended up paying only $26.

That is a big relief. Again, we are reaffirmed in our belief that unfortunately people in the dealership are crooks at all levels and services Frown.

And the thing is, if they went down in price to even $300-$320 DH probably would have done it and never would have known they lied to him.

Which way would you bet?

January 17th, 2012 at 08:44 pm

We are about to make a gamble - a largest one in our short time of speculative dabbling. And with our first option too.

Our Apple option (370 call) expires 2 days before apple will anounce last quarter profits.

So the only way to bet on those earnings is to exercise and hold the stock for few more days, than we have to sell most of it as soon as the results are announced.

Of course, it is a pretty large gamble.

Do we think Apple made a lot of money last quarter? Sure. But people behave weirdly when it comes to Apple, the stock goes down when apple beats its own projected earnings by a wide margin. Why? because people expect it to beat its projected earnings by an even crazier amount. Public expectations are kind of unreasonable when it comes to this company.

So they may beat their HUGE projected earnings by 25% and the stock may still go down.

What would you do?

Would you sell the option for $2,145 profit right now or exercise at $370 and hold the stock until after the quarterly results are announced? We paid 3,300 for the option.

Baby's fever 105.3

January 14th, 2012 at 04:40 am

I'm going crazy. Talked to the doctor, not sure if we should drag him to the ER yet. Gave some acetaminaphen and are now waiting a little longer to see if it will come down. If not, than we are going to the ER. Poor thing, he was only fine for 2 days. Went to daycare and here we are again. But his fever was never that high before!

Unexpected $147 today!

January 13th, 2012 at 03:55 pm

I went online to transfer money (scraping together some cash in case we can't sell our Apple option and need to exercise) and saw that my vacation account has increased. I know I did not transfer any money, so I was very interested in what happened. Turns out, my credit union gave shareholders end-of-year bonus cashback on mortgage interest paid.

So $147 more for our ski trip!
cool! I completely forgot they do that.

Sick for a week, and amazing progress on new years goal

January 7th, 2012 at 02:24 am

I had a miserable, miserable week. We are all sick with this contagious thing, my throat is all burned and ripped, I had fever, congestion, extreme extreme cough, and a bunch of stomach issues.
We are barely surviving it.

The progress? I have made a huge headway in my weight loss goal -- 10lb lost in 6 days. How? By not eating anything due to being nauseous and throwing up. I can eat "safe" foods now (yesterday and today) but I just don't get pleasure from it at the moment. It does not taste the same. Plus, I kind of got used to not eating much and trying to keep it going.

DH and I are exhausted and miserable. (luckily, baby has gotten better).
We can't sleep until 4-5 am every day due to insane coughing that comes on at night, ripping throat and lungs. Than baby gets up 6-7 am and the day begins again.