Ten Things I Think I Think (and Personal Finance Links)

1. Few Updates this Week – I think that posting of new articles this week will be few and far between. I’m doing a little traveling. New England is calling me.
2. Rough Start to the Trip – I think terminal 2 and 3 of LAX is an unmitigated disaster for new visitors. I had a 3 hour layover, which I thought would lead to a nice leasurely dinner. Unfortunately, the only choices in the terminal were a seafood food restaurant, a Burger King, and a Starbucks. For more selection, I had to leave the terminal and re-enter through security. At LAX, that takes some time – I almost missed my flight. CNN had a less than tiemly article (for me) on “Surviving LAX”.
3. Dunkin Donuts Stock a Good Hedge – If my wife wand I lived in any other state other than California, I’d need to buy stock the newly public Dunkin Donuts. The company might as well just take a vaccuum to our wallets.
4. Buying a Town? – I think instead of buying a vacation/retirement home, my wife and I should have bought a whole town. The town is a little more money at a shade under $800K, but it looks to be the bigger bargain. I have to give a hat-tip to my friend for bringing this my attention.
5. Buying an island? – I think I’ll have a hard time convincing my wife to let me buy my own island. I’m sure that the rest of you husbands out there have come across this as well. However, we found an island off the coast of Newport, Rhode Island that is approximately 1200 square feet of just rock. It seems like it might have a dock. The only other thing we noted was a For Sale sign on it. If I can get it for under three figures, I’m going to make an executive decision. It can’t be much more than that for what is little more than a pile of rocks. I would like to hire someone to sell bait and man it with a propane BBQ. On second thought, you probably don’t want your bait handler cooking your burger, but I think I could work it out. I figure one could sell $7 burgers all day long.
6. Non-Extreme Couponing – I dipped my toes into couponing last week. My mother was an extreme couponer often using triple coupon days to get dishwashing liquids for less than a nickel. In talking with her this weekend, those days are long gone. Double and triple coupons don’t seem to exist at any Silicon Valley grocery stores, so I just made use of coupons and the military commissaries outrageously good pricing. Look for a more comprehensive article on it in the next couple of weeks.
7. Touchpad Drops in Price – I think it’s just my luck that I write about the HP TouchPad and the very next day Precentral has an article on how to save even more money on a Touchpad. Catching my eye was a $120 savings on the 32GB version at Costco, which includes a free sleeve. If I wasn’t traveling and ready to jump in on the deal I could stack on another $50 savings from owning a Palm Pre.
8. New England Patriots Transactions in Focus – I think that last week I spent too much time reading about all the football news with the NFL cramming months of lost time in a matter of days. Specifically the Patriots turned the football world on its head by trading for “bad-seeds” Albert Haynesworth and Chad Ochocinco. I think both players will work out in the Patriots system. I have zero concerns about Ochocinco – he wanted out of Cincy and a chance to win. Albert Haynesworth is the question mark, but I think he realizes that he’s like Randy Moss – getting his last chance. If he doesn’t work out this time, I don’t see another team taking a chance on him.
9. Bill Belichick reminds me of Steven Wright – I think than I love when Patriots coach Bill Belichick calls says that he doesn’t “Yearbook” or “MyFace.”
   
   It made news outlets this week, but I wonder if any knew he had originally said it a year and a half ago. If you didn’t get the comparison to Steven Wright, I suggest you call up some YouTube clips of him. He’s one of my favorite all-time comedians (along with the late George Carlin).
10. Boston Red Sox Transactions in Focus – The Red Sox look to have lost Clay Buchholz for the season, but were able to get Erik Bedard, who should help. It’s nice to have a bazillion dollar payroll. I’d almost feel guilty if they didn’t have to do it to keep up with the Yankees.

And now onto the personal finance links:

• Digerati Life with saving tips for new parents: get ready for baby!
• Money Smart Life talks 6 investing decisions I’m happy with.
• Free Money Finance says people abusing $1 gold coin purchase program; program eliminated.
• My Dollar Plan readers share frugal camping tips.
• The Sun’s Financial Diary writes need space? Think “up,” not “out”.
• Smarter Wallet asks why is it so darn hard to save money sometimes?
• My Journey to Millions asks should you ever go past your debt limit?
• Totally Money presents 5 ways to stay gourmet on a budget.
• Bill Eater posts bridesmaid on a budget: how to cope with a costly wedding.
• Saving Advice writes work with the dead: strange ways to make money.
• One Frugal Girl is preparing for my inevitable layoff