Believe it or not, it very well could be snowing in Minnesota as you read this. It started snowing yesterday afternoon and it’s been accumulating ever since. I thought I was done shoveling!
The pic to the left is to remind me that Spring is just around the corner.
Welcome to the Weekly Quick Hits Roundup!
If you’re new here, every week I write a weekly wrap-up of things that were going on here at Young Adult Money, a few personal updates/thoughts, and finally a few posts I read this week that I thought were worth sharing.
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We also have our giveaway roundup every Friday. This Friday there are 77 giveaways listed this week that end today (4/4) through next Thursday (4/10).
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Happy Friday everyone!
We Bought a Car! – Last week I mentioned that we were going car shopping and we bought a 2011 Ford Escape. What I love about this car is that it has low mileage and a warranty. Low mileage is great because it should last us quite a few years and the warranty helps relieve us of some of the worry surrounding a major repair. We did finance the purchase, but more on that in a future post.
Geek Squad Horror Story and Windows 8 – My wife’s laptop’s charging jack broke a couple weeks ago so she brought it to Geek Squad to get fixed. They sent it to the service center. Two weeks later it was back at the store. Only one problem, though: it wasn’t fixed.
They gave her 15% off any new laptop, so she went with that since we didn’t really trust sending it back to get “fixed” again (seriously, how do you not fix something but say you did?). The only bad thing is that all the PCs now have Windows 8. I pretty much hate Windows 8 and got frustrated messing around with it the first night. I found this article about how to make Windows 8 look like Windows 7 and it’s been useful. I know I’ll eventually have to get a new computer, and inevitably get Windows 8, but thankfully it looks like there are some ways to make it a bit more usable if you spend some time customizing it.
A couple of Shout outs –
- Peter, another Minnesota blogger, announced his new blog redesign. Peter has been around longer than most personal finance bloggers, and has helped me countless times when I’ve had questions and even ‘covered’ my blog when I was away on a cruise last year.
- A second shout out to J Money who started the coin collecting blog Coin Thrill. J Money is another blogger who has been around the blogosphere for quite some time and has always answered questions I’ve had. He’s also probably the only one who can make coin collecting seem cool ;)
I’m looking to do some landscaping this Summer/Fall and I have a random question for all of you: Have you ever landscaped for privacy? What trees/shrubs did you use? I want to avoid having to put up a privacy fence becomes it seems like a bit of a waste with a chain-link fence already in place. I do want to block some of the neighbor’s views into our yard, though, so if you have any ideas let me know.
Below are the posts we published this week:
- On Sunday I announced our $1,100 Spring Cash Giveaway.
- On Monday I shared 5 Tips for Maintaining a Home on a Budget.
- On Tuesday Sally shared The Importance of Self Care.
- On Wednesday Shannon explained How to Handle a Difficult Boss.
- On Thursday Alice talked about Having a Social Life on a Budget
Posts of the Week:
As usual, here are five posts from around the blogosphere that I enjoyed:
- Kim from Eyes on the Dollar shared Ideas About Self Employment
- Alicia had a guest post on Common Sense Millennial talked freelancing in Why You Probably Won’t Make as Much Freelancing – and Won’t Care
- Addison from Cashville Skyline explained Five Ways Perfectionism May Be Hurting You Financially
- Holly from Club Thrifty talked Obamacare in Copper Obamacare Plans Sound Hilariously Sad
- Michelle from Making Sense of Cents asked Would You Move To A Completely New Place?
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How was your week? Anything exciting going on this weekend? What are your thoughts on Windows 8? Any privacy landscaping suggestions?
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Photo by Sandy
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Congrats on the new car! I hope you have a great weekend!!!
Congrats on the new car and sorry to hear about the computer. I’ve not dealt with Windows 8 yet, so no experience there. I had the stomach flu all week, so it’ll be a working weekend for me this weekend. But, Game of Thrones starts Sunday, so I’ll definitely be done before then. We’re getting snow this weekend as well. It was 75 on Monday, this is just craziness. ;)
Congrats on the new car! We bought a car in October and it is such a relief to not have to worry about our old car breaking down and whatnot. It was super unreliable and I didn’t realize how much stress it was causing us until we got rid of it! I haven’t really had any privacy landscaping done before… Are your neighbors becoming an issue or do you just want more privacy?
Congrats on the new car…just in time for the snowstorm! This weather is crazy. We just had some snow here this past Monday…no one was ready for it (snowplows) and the commute in was horrible.
Congrats on getting the car! It’s great you were able to get the one you wanted. Just in time for the snow, right? We had snow on Monday and then it all melted. I’ve been looking at laptops and Windows 8 doesn’t look too appealing. I would probably only use it in the desktop mode.
Sorry to hear about more snow. Luckily we missed the snow this past Monday here in Jersey. It hit Long Island, NY. I was shocked when I saw it in the news. I have a windows 8 laptop. Not a huge fan but I use it on the desktop mode and it’s fine that way. At my sister’s house her neighbor uses tall evergreen trees for privacy. They cover up pretty good. I considered them for my yard but I think they’re just as expensive as a privacy fence. :/
My parents planted 80 trees when we moved into our new home 20 years ago. I’m sure it was crazy expensive, but it is really beautiful and super private.
Thanks for the link love my friend? Now I’ve just got to go dig out from this mega April storm we just had!
We became a Mac family a few years ago because I hated Windows, but I swear, now I am having issues with Mac, and my brother said that Mac was becoming the new Windows, and it feels like it. And I have never landscaped for privacy because then it just adds to yard work that you will have to do later. Although, it does usually look better than a fence.
I so dread having to upgrade to Windows 8 when my computer finally dies…..
I have no idea what grows in Minnesota, but lilacs and honeysuckles grow like crazy here and can get as big and bushy as you want if you don’t prune them. They smell nice too. Thanks for the mention. Have a great weekend. We are in San Diego enjoying fairly warm weather for us and it snowed back home a couple of days ago. Not sad I missed it.
Congrats on the new car! Sounds like you made a great choice. Sorry to hear about the snow. Winter just don’t want to leave you guys! In California, our homes are pretty close together so privacy is important. We have a fence in the backyard but most are plants/shrubs/trees probably wouldn’t make it through a Minnesota winter. :)
Holly at ClubThrifty Thanks Holly! Hope you have a great weekend as well.
FrugalRules Thanks John and sorry to hear about you having the flu. I need to check out Game of Thrones sometime soon! Can’t believe the crazy weather everyone has been experiencing…I shoveled 8 inches of snow this morning!
BudgetforMore Yeah it definitely is nice not having to worry about the car breaking down or some huge repair. The neighbors are not causing us issues, just almost no privacy in our backyard and would like to create a barrier between our backyard neighbor’s yard and our yard. Like I said, there is already a chain-link fence so a privacy fence probably doesn’t make sense.
Andrew LivingRichCheaply Thanks and yes I’m sure my wife enjoyed driving it in the snow instead of her old car. The commute was pretty slow today but hopefully this is the last bad snowfall of the season. *knock on wood*
JourneytoSaving Thanks! It’s great to have the SUV now. Yeah Windows 8 makes me really upset but looking into some of the customization options will make it a little less painful. I just really like Windows 7.
Raquel@Practical Cents Bleh gotta love the costs of having a home. I might just get some shorter shrubs/trees and then just keep telling myself “three more years until privacy….” I probably will wait until the Fall to get a discount, but I want to get SOMETHING planted this year.
brokeandbeau Holy cow! 80 trees! My yard isn’t big enough for that many trees so hopefully I can afford whatever landscaping option I go with.
moneymatters No problem! I couldn’t believe how much snow we got overnight. Here’s to warmer weather this weekend!
blonde_financeI’ll trade a little yard work for some privacy! But I can’t stand macs, and I feel like windows is now trying to move that direction (not sure why). I think with a little customizing I can make Windows 8 work, but it won’t be fun initially.
EyesonthedollarOh San Diego is nice! I think I finally am prepared mentally to get Windows 8, as silly as that sounds haha. Lilacs do grow here and definitely might be something to try out. I’m just looking for something that doesn’t look bad and will provide privacy – I’m open to almost anything at this point.
DC @ Young Adult Money Raquel@Practical Cents The other thing to remember with trees/shrubs is the maintenance. We have a bunch of bushes in the front of the house and they have to be trimmed 2 or 3 times a year. My landscaper said they were getting old and probably have to be replaced. I think I’ll just get rid of them eventually. A fence is really no maintenance.
I am a Minnesota blogger too! And I was out at 3 AM pushing snow. Not too many multi-millionaires doing that I bet. But what else are you going to do at 3 AM, sleep? You can’t make money sleeping!
Raquel@Practical Cents DC @ Young Adult Money That’s definitely something to keep in mind.
ShannonRyan Winter loves Minnesota! We had two bad winters in a row. I’m hoping that next year is a mild one (we had one of those 3 years ago, it was nice!). Yes, we’ll have to make sure our trees can actually make it through the winter haha.
No Nonsense Landlord Actually you could argue that the goal is to make money while you are sleeping ;) There are quite a few Minnesota bloggers! Probably 10-20 personal finance bloggers alone. I wasn’t out quite that early, but definitely was shoveling before 5am today. I’m nowhere close to being a multi-millionaire so I definitely am willing to sacrifice a little sleep for a little more $!
Thanks so much for including me! It really means a lot.
Congrats on getting the new car you wanted. Feels pretty good, right?
Fingers crossed the spring comes for you guys soon.