At one point this week Minnesota was colder than Mars. *sigh*
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Did anyone else feel like this was a long week? I had a one-day weekend as accounting was required to work a full day on Saturday. The fact that it’s year-end close didn’t’ make the week go by any faster – every day was super busy. The worst of it’s over though, and it’s Friday so I can’t complain!
Bitter Cold – Wind chills were as low as negative sixty in Minnesota on Monday. Negative sixty! You haven’t experienced cold until you’ve been outside in those kinds of conditions. It takes cold to a whole new level.
The actual high on Monday was negative fourteen. This caused black ice to form, which is nearly impossible to see, so as you can imagine there were quite a few accidents. Needless to say I think everyone in Minnesota is happy to have a 30 degree-day tomorrow.
Blog Design – I’m meeting with my blog designer tomorrow morning and I can’t wait to get the redesign kicked off. It’s long overdue and I know everyone who has read my updates here the past six months or so is sick of me talking about it. Well I should be signing a contract and writing a check on Saturday morning so hopefully you won’t have to hear about it again until it’s done ;)
Tax Prep – Taxes. One of my least favorite things. I think our current tax code is way too complicated and picks winners and losers. I’m in favor of the flat tax but that’s a discussion for another blog post. I’ve started to prepare for taxes this year and it no doubt will be the most complicated I’ve ever had to complete.
The key is to have all your paperwork and documents organized, which is exactly what I’ve been doing. I had two contract workers on this site and two renters in our basement this year. I think I’ll learn a thing or two about the tax code when I finally get around to preparing everything.
Spreadsheet Work – I haven’t done spreadsheet consulting for a long time now (well, a little less than a year is a long time to me, at least). I’m not planning on getting started again, either. What I have been doing is planning and creating some new downloadable spreadsheets for the blog. After all, it was one of my goals for the blog this year.
While I learned to hate Google Spreadsheets with a passion when I was developing in it for a small business, I’ve found it to be a great environment to build little tools and spreadsheets, such as my 2014 editorial calendar. For most things, though, you really can’t beat Excel.
Below are the posts we published this week:
- Sunday I shared Get Two Free Flights with the Frontier Airlines World MasterCard.
- This week I shared 15 Ways to Improve your Finances in the New Year over the course of three posts. If you haven’t checked it out yet here’s part 1, part 2, and part 3.
- On Wednesday Cat was back with her post My Top 3 Financial Resolutions.
Posts of the Week:
There were so many awesome posts this week, but I will continue to stick to my self-mandated five mentions.
- Charles from Getting a Rich Life talked dividends in Top 5 Dividend Stocks For 2014
- Brian from Luke 1428 is already thinking ahead to NEXT Christmas in How to Love Paying Bills and Going Christmas Shopping in 2014
- Alexa from Single Moms Income got me thinking about writing an eBook in How to Quickly Write an eBook for Your Blog
- Laurie from The Frugal Farmer shared What to Do When You Wake up to Find Yourself Deep in Debt
- Pauline from The Savvy Scot gave a New Year finance tip in New year financial boot camp: utilities and bill check-up
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How was your week? Doing anything exciting this weekend?
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Photo by Betsey Weber
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We’ve been hearing from Greg’s family in Minnesota that it’s been incredibly cold. Negative sixty is insane. I think it’s going to warm up to the 30’s and 40’s this week and I’m looking forward to it. I know it was negative -20 on Monday =/
Holly at ClubThriftyIt’s supposed to be 30 today and 30 tomorrow, so I’m happy about that!
Ok, I have been absolutely abhorring this nasty, cold weather. This weekend is going to feel like a heat wave. My dad says he’s going to hang out in the back yard with his Hawaiian shirt and his BBQ grill. :-) Thanks so much for the mention, DC. Have a great weekend!
Laurie TheFrugalFarmerHaha nice, I might have to grill as well! No problem on the mention, and I hope you have a good weekend as well!
Your week sounds a lot like mine! I think we reached about -45 to -48ish on Monday. Then we hit double digits yesterday and everyone wants to break out the swimsuits, lol. Very cool on the redesign, it sounds like I’m finally going to see headway on mine this next week and we started taxes several weeks ago – I HATE that. ;)
FrugalRulesGood to hear about the redesign! I’m looking forward to mine getting started. It hopefully will be well-worth the expense. Worst case scenario I can always have it re-re-designed ;)
We have a cold wave too, which means 60 degrees and everyone is wearing several sweaters and layers. It is pretty funny but when temperatures are generally in the 90s you do get cold when it is 60. Thanks for the mention!
RFIndependenceHaha I absolutely understand where you are coming from with the 60-degree weather feeling cold, but it’s definitely interesting. 50 degrees in the Spring-time here means time to bust out the shorts!
I saw someone post on FB recently, “Minnesota: Come for the culture. Stay because your car won’t start.” :)
I’ll be visiting Wisconsin at the end of the month, hopefully I can bring some VA heat with me!
This week has been very slow for me. I’ve been sick and unable to work. Haven’t left the house except for doctors appointments. Can’t wait until this stuff passes!
debtperception
Haha…that was hilarious!
There were some record breaking cold temps here in NYC too…nothing compared to Minnesota though. It took me a few extra seconds to start up my car one of the days…got me nervous! This winter seems especially harsh…as predicted by the Farmer’s almanac.
Andrew LivingRichCheaplydebtperceptionMonday definitely took a little bit longer to start both our cars, which scared me as well. I leave before my wife but I started hers just to make sure she wouldn’t be stranded at home and unable to go to work.
debtperceptionhaha absolutely hilarious! Hope you start feeling better!
Cross your fingers for some warmer weather soon. My car was not a fan of that cold weather. Tonight I am going with my high school friends on a little road trip to visit another one of our friends who lives about 2 hours away and spend the night. Should be a fun – it has been a long time since we were all together.
BudgetforMoreI’m definitely crossing my fingers for warmer weather. Sounds like a fun weekend! It’s funny how difficult it can be to get together with friends.
-60?? What does that even feel like? I’m guessing your skin would have a burning sensation immediately. Glad you guys are getting some warmer weather.
Kyle JamesIt feels….not good haha. I’m pretty sure I will never experience that level of cold again.
Can I just say I am really excited that you are going to be doing spreadsheet work because I am loving your editorial calendar and can’t wait to see what else you want to share!
blonde_finance I’m so glad you are enjoying the editorial calendar! It’s great to hear those sorts of things because it motivates me to keep working on new spreadsheets.
It seemed really cold here for a few days, but I just kept saying, “Thank God we don’t live in Minnesota.” Good luck with your taxes. I get cold sweats just thinking about them.
EyesonthedollarHaha yes it’s all relative though. When it gets to 50 this Spring people will start busting out the shorts here while in other places people would be putting on layers.
Negative 60! I have no idea how that would even feel and I’m not afraid to say that I hope I never do! :) We were actually fairly warm on Monday but have cooled down to around 70. If it makes you feel any better, I pay a lot in taxes to enjoy this lovely weather year-round! Have a great weekend, DC and enjoy your warm weather!
Thank goodness the Polar Vortex is pulling away now. We’re going into high 50s this weekend. Though we got a little snow this morning and I am not looking forward to shoveling it. Maybe I’ll wait for the warm weather to melt if away. Have a good weekend.
Wow, negative sixty is insane. It was around negative four here with the wind chill, and I don’t even want to imagine how much colder sixty would have been. Meanwhile, schools down south were closed due to the “cold.” I’m glad you’re finally kicking the site redesign into gear, can’t wait!
David I hope you bought a few of those stocks and make some money from it. You can buy me a frozen beer because of your -65 temperature.
Oh yay taxes. I’m working through it too. Really want to be more organized about the whole thing in 2014 for sure!!
I dread starting my taxes some time in Feb after I get all my freelance stuff back. ugh! But at least the weather has been in the low 70’s pretty much all winter. :)
Once it goes negative, the number after that makes little difference to me. It is cold as hell!! :)