Wall Art, Invitations, Announcements, and More: My Wife’s New Venture!

Posted on May 14, 2013 by Money Beagle

My wife has been doing designs on the computer for a couple of years. She’s designed our family’s Christmas cards, our kids birthday party invitations, and a few others as well. She also did some wall art for new babies when friends would welcome a new addition. She got really familiar with some of the programs, has a great eye for design, and it started to get noticed. A few friends saw her work and she did quite a few cards, invitations, and announcements for friends and family.

It was catching on quick!

My wife started thinking that she should open up an Etsy shop, and after a few months of kicking the idea around, she finally launched her store last month, and so far it’s been great!

I’m proud to announce the launch of Moonshyne Designs!

The concept is simple: There are personalized wall art templates, announcements, invitations, and other great items that can be personalized with your information. My wife gets everything right, makes sure it’s exactly what you want, and sends it off to you in a file format that you use to have printed at your local photo printing shop of choice.

The prices are reasonable (most items are between $10 – $15).

Here are a few great selections.

What A Difference A Day Makes!

New Baby Girl? These wall art birth announcements are the new must-have!

What about a baptism invite?

I’d love it if you could check out the site, and hopefully you’ll find something that you or someone you know could enjoy. I personally guarantee the quality and service is top notch!

I’m so proud of Mrs. Beagle for getting things going, and I know this site will be a smashing success!

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7 Things I Learned During Our New Roof Project

Posted on May 13, 2013 by Money Beagle

We recently completed our new roofing project. Before I started the process, I knew very little about roofing and what to expect. Thanks to a great roofer that we selected, I learned a lot of things about roofing that I thought I would pass along.

FYI, the roofing company that we used was Bob Schmidt Roofing in Metamora, MI. If you’re based in the Detroit area, Bob is the best way to go. I would recommend him to anybody!

Builders put on cheap roofs – Our house is 14 years old and this was definitely going to be the last season for our roof. When we moved into the house in 2007, one of the valleys was already bad. Last year, we started getting noticeable curling and deterioration, and even had shingles start blowing off during windstorms. Bob sees this all the time, and now that I look for it, I even see the cheap roofs going on brand new construction, so things have not improved in this regard.
Builders save very little by doing so – I asked Bob what the difference probably was back when the roof was installed, in terms of the cost to the builder, between the cheap roof that was installed and one that would have lasted longer. He said that the builder probably saved $200 and that a better roof would probably have lasted 5-10 years longer. This astounded me. But, if you think about it, $200 times however many houses a builder builds adds up, and if homeowners don’t want to pay for an upgrade, they’ll continue to get away with offering the cheapest roof possible. It still drives me nuts to think that a roof that would have lasted longer essentially could have cost $40 per year ($200 for five extra years).
Color is important – After we decided to go with Bob, he spent some time working with us to select a color. He started pointing out roofs that had bad color matches to the house, and now it’s much more obvious when you see a roof that doesn’t match a house. We picked a color that matched our old roof, but with the architectural shingle style and some color highlights, it continues to match our house while giving it a modern look.
Tearing off is the only way to go – If you have one layer of shingles, you’ll get an option to add a second layer of shingles. This is a terrible option, and if you do, you will probably only save a few hundred dollars, but will likely cut the life span of your ‘new’ roof by up to 50%. The only circumstance in which this would make sense would be if you were planning on selling the house soon in which case you wouldn’t care about the lifespan of the roof. Be careful, though, because knowledgeable buyers might see this is a reason to avoid buying your home, figuring you cut corners. Which leads me to…
Educated customers are the best kind – I previously shared the story about a roofing company that refused my potential business, refusing to even bid on my roof, basically because I asked too many questions. Bob was the complete opposite. He spent time explaining everything to us, and was available throughout the life of the project with any questions. In fact, I e-mailed, phoned, and texted him probably 50 times with various questions, and he answered every single one promptly and graciously.
Ventilation is key – When we narrowed our choices down, the thing that ultimately put Bob as our roofer was that he addressed attic ventilation as part of his bid. In talking with neighbors, others had expressed concern that there were not enough vents drawing air into the attic. Bob’s quote called this out without me even bringing it up, as his price included adding ten more vents, doubling the current capacity. He said that this would extend the life of our roof, and also indicated that this would likely make the second floor of our house much cooler. When he said this, my wife and I both looked at each other, as the second floor has always been an oven on any sunny day over 70 degrees. Bob said that would be fixed, and early results (we’ve had a few days 75+ with full sun) show that Bob was right, as the second floor is much more comfortable. I’m confident that this will carry to the summer months, and this will be huge, as we’ve run the air conditioner at a much lower temperature than I’d prefer simply to keep the second floor from baking.
Don’t pay for the wrong numbers – There is a company that does a lot of work in our neighborhood that is much bigger. They have multiple crews with crew sizes over triple what Bob offers. They did a roof down the street in half a day, where Bob took two and a half days for ours. They were assuredly cheaper. But, Bob pointed out a row of shingles that started on one end and tailed off about halfway across the roof, as the shingles weren’t even installed straight. He pointed out at least ten shingles that were already missing, probably having gotten stuck in the package, yet the roofer installed them anyways. He pointed out how the roofers damaged their siding. He pointed out how his guys vacuum out the gutters and blow off the roof with a leaf blower, which then allows any nails to fall and get picked up by the large magnet that they sweep. The other roofer leaves it all up there, meaning they’ll find nails over their property for weeks to come. Buying a roof is important, he pointed out, but if you want to simply buy a number (low price, lowest time) then you’re likely focusing on the wrong number. Even though Bob came in higher, the quality of materials and workmanship gave me a much better value than I know the people down the street received.

All in all, I was very happy with our roofing project. It was a pain for the week or so between when the shingles were delivered and when everything finally wrapped up (on top of the three days they took to install, we had days with complete downpour that delayed the start of the job). But, I kept things in perspective, knowing that this one week would give us a roof that we can enjoy and that will last for ~~years~~ decades to come. Thanks, Bob, for a great job!

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Why It’s Very Often Important To Follow A Routine

Posted on May 9, 2013 by Money Beagle

I wrote a few posts last year about various misadventures we had when it came to our new (to us) camper, and the first season of camping.

I’m somewhat embarrassed to say that we already had our first misadventure, and it was a full month before our first scheduled trip! Yikes.

One of the things that I found is important with the camper is to follow my checklist. I have a checklist that I created and modified which has a step-by-step walkthrough. It’s on two sides of a piece of paper, one side for when we ‘arrive’ at a campsite and one for when we ‘leave’. The list applies not just at campsites, but pretty much anywhere we would arrive or leave with the camper.

Including our driveway.

The checklist is great, and my mother-in-law printed it out for us with two sides, on a piece of bright yellow paper which she then laminated. And gave me an extra copy, which has come in handy as I’ve misplaced a copy more than once (though the missing copy has always turned up).

At the end of April, we decided to pull it out from winter storage (next to my in-laws house), and take it to our house, where I then went through de-winterizing, washing, and waxing, while my wife cleaned the interior, the dishes, bedding, and all that. It pretty much got us ready for our first trip.

When I brought it home, I got it backed into the driveway almost flawlessly. Last years first attempt was quite lively, with me taking at least ten tries to get it into the driveway, cars in the vicinity, all while a special needs neighbor kid was having a meltdown on a nearby front yard. This year, backing in was much less eventful and there were no complications, except for the fact that it was raining.

I followed the list to take everything apart. Or so I thought.

There’s one step after everything is taken apart where I list out things that go into the camper, and it’s a step to verify. Things like the hitch, the sway bar, the weight distribution bars, and the hitch pin.

That one is pretty important.

The hitch pin works to keep the hitch attached to the car. The hitch basically slides into the square post, then the hitch pin slides across the post, the hitch, and back out the other side, where there’s a metal clip to keep it in place.

I usually put this into the storage compartment of the camper along with everything else, and always work off the list to make sure it’s all there.

Not this time.

After having it in the driveway for a couple of days, and taking care of all the aforementioned work, it was time to hook it up, and take it a few miles down the road to the facility where we store it.

Got everything out, slid the hitch into the receiver, and went to look for the hitch pin. It wasn’t there. I took everything out of the storage comparment, still no dice.

I then had a sneaking suspicion that I never verified that this was put into the compartment and had left it out.

Not only did I leave it out, but I”m pretty sure I knew where I left it. On the back bumper of the Buick, which we use to tow. The Buick had been driven quite a bit, so it obviously was not there. Just to make sure, I searched the entire inside of the car. My suspicions of what probably happened were confirmed when I found the metal clip, but still no hitch pin.

Figuring that it might have fallen off when being driven, I looked around the end of our driveway and at the end of our street, figuring it would have slid off at some point.

No dice.

I verified with my wife that she hadn’t seen it (she hadn’t), then put the hitch in the car and set off to go buy a new one at a supply shop. It was a nice evening and I was really annoyed with myself.

As I pulled down the street to leave our subdivision, my eyes locked on something all the way near the exit to our subdivision. As soon as I saw it, I knew what it was. The missing pin. My theory on where it was (the bumper) and what had happened (it slid off) was 100% correct. It just happened a couple of streets over from where I figured it would happen!

The pin is a thick round piece of metal, so it was completely intact. I stopped, picked it up, and drove back home, very much happier than I was. I got everything hooked up and was off, with the whole thing probably costing me no more than ten minutes of my time. Along with a little pride.

Still, it’s a good reminder to always follow the checklist. I guess I got cocky, which probably isn’t good especially when just starting off for the season. I remember last year my wife asked when I would stop using the checklist, and I answered that it would be when we got rid of the camper. I need to be a little more strict about that. I’ve read stories on some camper forums I regularly read where people have gotten into much worse trouble by missing a step.

I definitely dodged a bullet. Now, my hope is that this is my biggest camper misadventure of 2013. What do you think?

Readers, are there tasks where you follow a checklist no matter what? Have you ever had something go awry that made you realize this is a necessity?

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So Busy But In The Best Way Possible

Posted on May 6, 2013 by Money Beagle

One of my pet peeves is people who complain constantly about how busy they are, especially when they do so in a way that involves them taking time out of what they’re doing to log in somewhere and take the time to complain about being busy. I figure if you are so busy that you are complaining about it, you should probably avoid taking the time to complain, because it’s just preventing you from getting what you need done.

So, I’m taking a slightly different spin. I’m reporting on how busy I am, but with a positive angle. Everything that I’m busy with is actually working toward something positive, so in all honesty, there are no complaints!

Here’s a list of the good things that have been keeping me busy:

Work project #1 – The place where I work made a big acquisition a few years back. Bringing their IT into the fold of our IT was something I wanted to get involved with as early as 2009. However, the decision was made to let the IT support stay with the old company for a few years. Finally, they decided to make the transition, and it’s a year-long program that I lobbied hard to be a part of. I got assigned as the project manager to move their shared files from the old company’s network to our network. With about 2,000 users, there was quite a big file. The transition took place over the last three weeks, and while there were some bumps, it was a great success!
Work project #2 – Along with the file transition, I was also assigned as the project manager to move all the computers and laptops to our company’s support. Every desktop will either be replaced or re-installed with Windows 7 (they had XP), as well as all of our applications. There are over 2,100 desktops, so this will be a big project. We just had our first three desktops migrate over last week as part of our ‘early adopters’ program. While three desktops doesn’t seem like a lot, it’s noteworthy because so much of the planning is up front, so the fact that they went in and users love the new setup was great. This week, we begin the process of moving the rest, a process that will take approximately 7 months!
New roof – We had the new roof wrapped up late last month. It was a fantastic experience (or at least as fantastic as can be given how messy of a job it is). It took three days, and the weather was no help (rain delayed the start by several day), but it looks fantastic.
Camper is de-winterized and ready to go – We had our camper stored at my in-laws, and we pulled it out, got everything de-wintereized and tested. I washed and waxed it, and my wife washed all the bedding, dishes, and the entire inside. Our first trip on the schedule in next month, but we will probably see if we can get a weekend trip in sometime this month, and it’s good to know it’s ready to go!
Stripping and painting the desk – I last power washed and painted the deck in 2009. I did give it a quick coat in 2011, but it was time to give it some attention. I spent an afternoon power washing, then had to wait a week as it rained a couple of times, but I’ve been busy getting it painted. It will be so nice to have it clean, fresh, and also be able to put our table, grill, and the kids toys out there!
T-Ball – Little Boy Beagle is in a t-ball league, and I volunteered to be a coach. It’s only an hour a week, but man, running around with 10 three and four year olds wears you out! It’s fun and I hope that it establishes some good bonding between him and I, as well as sets a good foundation for him to participate in group sports.
Garage – With spring comes the old practice of tearing apart everything out of the garage. Since we haven’t been able to put the patio furniture out yet, the furniture is spread around, but I still wanted to get the mower out, so I could change the oil, as well as the edger (which also needed a new blade this year!), so it’s been a whirlwind in the garage. Not to mention that all this works around the kids growing stash of outdoor toys.

All of this has made me fall asleep on the couch more than a few times over the past few weeks. It’s been exhausting, but when I look at the list, it all relates to positive things. All the outdoor activity means that summer is coming. The roof project means that we have done a major home improvement project that looks fantastic. The work projects have been busy but they’ve been considered very successful.

So, while I’m busy, I have no complaints!

Readers, has your spring kicked into overdrive yet?

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Things I Need To Add To My To-Do List

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Money Beagle

I have a to-do list of things that I do around the house to keep things organized, clean, and somewhat clutter free. I have tasks broken down on a monthly basis, with some tasks set to perform monthly (e.g. re-organizing the pantry shelves to group all of our canned goods in like types and make sure the ones set to expire first are in the front), quarterly (cleaning out under sinks and making sure there are no leaks), semi-annually (cleaning and treating the leather couches), or even annually (replacing the filter in the furnace humidifier).

It occurred to me that I should add some other tasks. These tasks might have nothing to do with the house or cleaning or clutter or anything those lines. These tasks would simply relate back to one thing:

Happiness.

Sometimes, I find that I get so focused in taking care of things on the list that I don’t take time to do some simple things, which are probably more important. Too often, it’s so easy to get caught up in making sure things are clean and organized that I might overlook some of these simple things:

Petting My Cats

My wife doesn’t get this one because she’s not really a cat person, and both of our cats were mine before we got married, and are pretty much my cats alone. They both love to lay on my lap and simply purr. They’ll usually sniff out when I’m sitting down for something like watching TV or making a phone call, but it’d be nice to give them some dedicated time, especially since they are both old (one just turned 17 and the other will be 13 in July) so who knows how long they have left.

Play With My Kids

It’s awesome that kids love to play so much, and so awesome that sometimes you forget how wonderful it is to play with them. My three year old (soon to be four in just 3 weeks!) will sometimes ask me specifically to play with him, and if I’m in the middle of something or planning on doing something, it’s easy to tell him that I’m busy or that I can try later, but I’ve been trying to catch myself and give the time. The last thing I ever want is for my kids to hear the song ‘Cats In the Cradle’ later in life and think, ‘That’s my dad.’.

Call A Friend

Ten years ago, I was single, as were most of my friends, and many of us were located geographically close, so we saw each other all the time. Even if we didn’t, the fact that most of us were living the bachelor life meant that phone calls were pretty frequent. We stayed in touch all the time. Fast forward ten years, and most of us are married, have kids, have a house, and have taken on more in our career. We’d all be considered pretty successful, but we’ve all noticeably drifted apart. We cherish the times that we do spend together, and when I do get together with a friend, the inevitable conclusion is reached that ‘We really need to spend more time together, this is great’ only to promptly go back to our lives and have time pass.

Spend Time With A Loved One

Do I spend enough time with my wife? With my parents? With people that, though you haven’t drifted part, that you know are so important that you don’t want to take the time you spend for granted or make it routine. Maybe turning this into a date night, or a dinner with one set of our parents, or my wife’s sister, would be a good thing.

Time For Myself

I grew up an only child, and on top of that I was more the loner type when I grew up. As such, I got used to spending time alone, and I actually find myself still needing that from time to time. Having a few hours of alone time resets me and actually makes my interactions with my loved ones better. It’s easy to scratch that off the list, but I think in the end, it’s important enough to track.

Give Thanks

If you read between the lines from everything I’ve said, it’s pretty easy to see that I’ve got a lot to be thankful. I have a wonderful wife, kids, parents, family, and friends. I have a house that has a lot of great things. It’s easy to get so caught up in what you have to do that you forget to stop and take time to realize how good you have it, and thank God for providing so well.

Now, it’d be nice to think that these things come automatically, and while I like to think that I have the personality to do all of these things without having to be reminded, I figure that a reminder never hurts.

Readers, how do you remember to keep a balance of how you spend your time, making sure to spend time with the things that are really important?

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If You Hate Your Bank Then I Have Bad News For You

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Money Beagle

I read a lot of other personal finance blogs, as I think getting different voices, opinions and thoughts on various items is great. I have quite a few (see my blog roll) that I love and others that I read in passing. One topic I see time and again are posts that tie back to complaints about banks.

Bank of America seems to take the brunt of bloggers ire, but it seems like many banks catch the rancor. The complaints seem to boil down to a few common themes:

High fees
Poor customer service
Complaints about banks having taken bailout money

If you’ve complained about banks or get fired up about banks, I have bad news for you: You’re wasting your time.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m normally a big advocate for complaining when you aren’t getting good service or good value for your money, so it might seem like my advice is being overly dismissive or favoring the banks, but I assure you it’s not. What it is simple truth.

Here are a few things that the average (or even the above average) person needs to realize about the banks, and I’ll start with the bottom bullet out of the items above and then move to more general terms:

The bailout is old news – While it might anger people that banks took bailout money from the government (and if you read the comments of just about any article written about the banking industry in Seeking Alpha, it certainly is), the fact is that the banks have moved on. While you might be aghast to this day about the audacity of the banks having taken this money, I guarantee that there is not one single meeting being called, one single resource being dedicated, or any amount of money spent at the banks to deal with this issue. Why? Because it’s in the past. The banks took the money, most paid it back, and they’ve moved on. Any and all resources are being dedicated to things that the bank is doing today or plans on doing tomorrow. They probably cared a lot about the bailouts from 2008 through 2010, but they no longer care, and they never will again.
The banks don’t care if you like them – Many people harken to the old days where you had bankers that, if things are to be believed, acted like George Bailey in ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ where he cared about each person he did business with, and not only cared about them, but made personal sacrifices to ensure that his customers could depend on the bank. Folks, this doesn’t exist any more. To expect that is silly. These are corporations and they are responsible to deliver profits. Banks get a lot of ire, but the fact is, that any publicly traded company is driven by the same responsibility. Banks appear more greedy because they deal directly with money, but it’s true of any industry.
Most customers do not make banks money – You’ve heard of the 80-20 rule, and in many businesses, there is a variation of this where 80% of the profit is derived from 20% of the customers. I think this is even more skewed in banking. The simple truth is that your checking account with an average balance of $1,000 is not adding much to the bottom line, so when they raise your fees, and you threaten to leave, this does not present a problem for the bank.
They know it’s harder to leave – Say you’re one of the people that does start looking around and decide that you’re going to leave, banks know that it’s harder to do so than ever. Before, you could just throw away your checkbook, walk into a bank, and walk out with your money in hand. Now, you have to change your direct deposit. If you pay bills from your bank, you have to change all those over. It’s a harrowing process and banks know that most people don’t want to do it and won’t do it if given a choice.
They know it won’t matter – So you’ve decided you’re so mad that you’re going to leave the bank, and you do. You change your direct deposit, update your bill pay, switch over your bank cards, the whole nine yards. You sit back, triumphantly having shown the bank that you’re not going to be stuck with their latest fee or have to carry their new required balance. Want to know how long that’s going to last? Probably as long as it takes to go to the mailbox and get the notification from your new bank, the one that tells you that they’re implementing the same fees or something similar that will result in the same thing. Even credit unions, once considered the safe haven from fees, have implemented more stringent requirements that result in many of the same fees, balance requirements or otherwise.

So, is it hopeless? Are we just supposed to bend over and take it?

No, I would never agree with that. I don’t think you just roll over and take it, but you can do a few things:

Understand your requirements – Many people pay fees because they don’t know they don’t have to. If your bank starts charging you $8 per month, you might be able to waive that by increasing your balance by a few hundred dollars a month or by implementing direct deposit. Before just accepting, first make sure you understand.
Rely less on banks – The bank where we do most of our banking is primarily a pass-through. The money gets deposited, bills get paid, and the rest (less enough of a cushion to keep the minimum balance requirement intact) goes elsewhere. We don’t have a savings account there. We don’t invest there. We don’t have our health savings account there. What he have is basic.
Focus your customer service time elsewhere – As I indicated above, unless your name is Mark Cuban (and if Mark Cuban is reading this blog, well how awesome would that be) than the bank really doesn’t care if you complain. While it might make sense to write on their Facebook wall or Twitter page or something like that, you might realize that your time would be better spent trying to get improved customer service elsewhere. At a place where, if you left as a customer, it could impact their bottom line.

I don’t think we should take poor customer service from banks, but I think we would be wise to understand the limitations that we have as customers, and how we can best approach the issues that we have to do what we can to mitigate the things that make us see red.

What do you think? Is it a better use of time to complain about banks or should we minimize the impact and be more pro-active to work around the issues we have, understanding that banks don’t have motivation to make customers ‘happy’?

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