Gas prices are up

Friday, July 11th, 2008

Just a quick post from the hotel - We are on a trip this weekend that will require us to drive close to 3,000 miles. Our mini-van averages approximately 20 miles per gallon. I don't want to think about this any more. You can figure out the rest at home ...

Rocket’s attempts to hold down grocery costs

Wednesday, June 18th, 2008

I rarely darken the door of the grocery store for several reasons: I don't do much cooking. I have no idea where anything is. Seriously, I often make several laps just to find one thing. I always purchase the wrong item. I try really hard, but always seem to mess it up. I ...

Credit card bonuses coming back

Sunday, June 8th, 2008

A year ago, Mrs. Rocket and I made almost $2,000 just from credit card bonuses alone. This year, the bonuses have been a little thin . . . I guess maybe we contributed to cc companies becoming a bit more stingy with free money from credit cards. Anyway, if you ...

Rocketing credit score

Monday, June 2nd, 2008

In March of this year, I shared how our credit score plummeted from 748 to 618 last year. This last month, I paid off the three largest balance transfers that we made during our bank bonus, credit card bonus and stoozing spree. We had borrowed between $11,000 to $13,000 from each ...

Plans for our stimulus rebate

Tuesday, May 13th, 2008

The stimulus rebate intended for the Rocket household arrived in our checking account late last week and we have began discussing plans for that money. Ultimately, the money will simply reduce our budget deficit for the year, however we want to make sure that the free money makes the greatest ...

Our Story Part II: the Solution

Thursday, March 13th, 2008

This is the story of how my family reached the proverbial “end of our financial rope” and how I became a personal finance blogger. Today’s post is the second in a series that will continue over the course of the next week. Earlier this year, I shared how were were slowly ...

Time the market? I use timing to pay my bills

Monday, February 11th, 2008

At our house, we try to make extra money wherever we can. Bank bonuses and credit card bonuses made us almost $3,000 last year. A much riskier strategy, credit card arbitrage, made us another thousand dollars. I admit that making money this way is not for everyone. I don't plan ...

My wife has her own checking account

Friday, January 18th, 2008

Mrs. Rocket and I have separate checking accounts. We are a single income family, but 17% of my check is directly deposited into a Chase checking account in my wife's name. For most of our marriage we had a joint checking account, but after incurring a couple of overdrafts, we decided that ...