This Week in Lazy Man’s Money

It’s been awhile since I wrote an update about my week with money. Previous weeks have been relatively uneventful, but this week has been full of events.

• As I mentioned in my alternative income stream update, my wife’s car was broken into. The damage and the items stolen added up to $500 – our deductible, so our insurance is useless.
• That night didn’t get any better. The incident meant that we didn’t finish vacuuming out the broken glass until around 8PM, where most of the parking spots fill up in my gated apartment complex. This happens every night and though we were promised ample extra parking in the “overflow” area (around 50 spots) it simply isn’t the case. I went out four times last night after 8PM to put my car in a proper spot to avoid parking in a fire lane determined to not lose the game of musical chairs. My determination was not enough. I ended up having to park with 3 other cars in a fire lane. I’d never heard of getting a parking ticket by the city in a gated community. It turns out to be a $35 lesson.
• Maybe karma has a way of evening the score, as I had my best week in bringing new advertisers on board in quite awhile.
• My wife has been boosting Ebay’s quarterly earnings with our sales this week. Sadly, I’m not sure how much actual money we’ll see from this flurry of sales. We weighed all the items meticulously, but didn’t add extra weight for the packing materials. Some of the items that we sold for just a few dollars probably aren’t profitable at all. However, we helping the environment by giving the items a second home. Also, postal worker Lita and I at the Palo Alto post office have never been closer.
• I’d like to thank Plonkee Money for including me in the 111th Carnival of Personal Finance. Another thanks goes to Frugal Babe for including me in the Festival of Frugality.
• As a bit of a teaser, Lazy Man and Money might be getting a new look soon. I’m thinking of allowing a few readers a preview to get some feedback. Send me an e-mail if you are interested.

My non-financial thoughts this week…

• The Red Sox got Eric Gagne at the trade deadline.  Suddenly the team that had a disasterous “bullpen by committee” campaign a few years ago, have one of the best bullpens in baseball.
• Next Friday, the Patriots have their first preseason game.  I’m so excited to see the team that it feels like the playoffs.  I don’t know what will happen when the regular season starts.