For those who have not heard, MySurvey is a site that allows you to earn points for filling out surveys.  Your points can then be redeemed for rewards including cash money!

It took me about a month and a half to earn enough points to get the $10 check.  It’s definitely not going to make you rich, but it’s also not very difficult to fill out surveys.

If you’re looking for a way to earn a little money on the side, I definitely would recommend signing up at MySurvey.com.

Click on the banner below to sign up now and start earning points!

That evening I tried to plug it into my PC and a message came up that said it was corrupted! Double uh-oh! I have no idea how this happened. It wasn’t like I had just loaded it up with illegally downloaded music that were full of viruses or anything. Absolutely nothing had changed from the day before when it had worked perfectly and the day it decided it was corrupted. I headed to the Apple support site and went through the steps they recommend for fixing iPods. I reset it. Same corrupted message.

At this point, I was getting a bit nervous because the next step was to restore it which would wipe all my music off of it. I took a few minutes to make backups of all my music. I can’t imagine how awful it would be to lose my music collection. After the backups were complete, I restored the iPod. I got the same message. The next step was to uninstall and then reinstall iTunes. That didn’t work either. So I googled “corrupted ipod” and learned that this was not an entirely uncommon thing. At least I wasn’t suffering alone, but as I searched I couldn’t find a solution.

So I came up with my own solution: Buy a new iPod! The corrupted iPod is a 2nd or 3rd generation, 20 gb one that I got on ebay several years ago for around $200. It has a clickwheel, but only a black and white screen - no colors, no pictures, no video. It’s pretty much a technological dinosaur. Though it’s old and outdated, I consider it one of the best things I’ve ever purchased. I’ve used it almost every single day. So I’m not too sad about its passing. I’m actually quite excited about the prospects of getting a new one, but that opens up the debate: What should I get?

The new iPod Touch is pretty awesome, but totally expensive and it doesn’t have much storage. The Nanos are also very popular, but again, they seem to have little storage. I’m leaning towards buying an iPod Classic (they storage has gone way up and the price has come way down!). I’ve been shopping around a bit and I’ve found the 120 gb Classic on ebay for about $215. Part of me thinks that I don’t really need that much storage, but the 80 gb isn’t that much cheaper.

So what do you think?
What kind of iPod do you have and what do you like or dislike about it? Did you buy directly from Apple or some other place? Does anyone know of a place to score a good deal on iPods?

I’m not entirely sure how I’m going to go about fulfilling these specific goals but it’s nice to finally have some and it’s fun to see the tiny amounts of money start to trickle in and add up.  At the moment, there is really no rhyme or reason to them; I have yet to prioritize them, though I’m sure I will in time.  At this point, it was good just to come up with some specific funds/goals and I will worry about how and when I’m going to fulfill them a little later.

Check out the updated sidebar for my new ongoing goals.
Here is a rundown if you’re reading this in a reader and you’re too lazy to click through:

1. Emergency Fund - All good PF bloggers should have one, so I do. Actually, who am I kidding, everyone should have one! I’m considering $5,000 to be good for the time being.  Goal complete!

2. Vanguard Fund - I’m trying to save up the $3,000 it takes to get started over at Vanguard.  So far I have $1,108 saved.  Only $1,892 to go!

3. General Savings - The name gives it away. This is just a general slush fund that I can take money out of for all those miscellaneous expenses I seem to rack up.  I will also take my Christmas gift money out of this fund.  This fund will not have a cap or end goal - I’m just going to add to it whenever I want and take from it in the same manner.

4. Car Fund - My car is doing fine, but it will turn 10 next year, so it can’t hurt to start saving up towards a new one.  I also will pay other automotive-related things from this fund.  For example, I just took $30 from it on Saturday to pay for an oil change. It stands at $55.02.

5. Travel Fund - For travel.  This goal will not have a specific amount to reach.  I will continue to add to it until I use it.  It currently has $110 in it.

6. Tax Fund - This fund will be used only to pay my property taxes so the goal is about $1,500.  It currently has $110 in it.

7. House Downpayment - I’m saving towards my next house (If I can ever get rid of this one).  The goal for this fund will be $40,000 and it currently has $160.  This one might take a while.

I think that’s a healthy list and I’m sure it will keep me busy.  Especially that last one!

Say a little prayer for safety this weekend for all the hunters and I won’t mind if you slip in a little prayer for a monster buck. I’ll be back next week! Enjoy the weekend!

So after they made the impressions, the front desk ran an estimate for the mouthguard.  There are two types of mouthguards - a hard and a soft.  The soft one costs $97 and the hard one costs $497!  That’s not a typo!  Of course insurance doesn’t cover either of them.

Well, my dentist is a personal friend - a guy I went to college with - and I usually hang out at his house with his family after my appointments until he gets off work and then we all hang out.  So he said he would talk to me about my mouthguard options later that night when he got home.  Unfortunately, I had to leave his house before he got off work and so I still haven’t talked to him about it.

But about those prices.  Can you believe that?

I don’t see why I can’t just get an athletic mouthguard like I used to wear for football.  That would keep my teeth from grinding against each other and it would be A LOT cheaper. I think I could get one for about 15 bucks.  I read some reviews on Amazon for mouthguards and it looked like several other people were skirting the expensive options by buying athletic guards.   Well, I’m still waiting to talk to my buddy, but either way, I’m pretty sure I’m not going to be buying either of the professional options.  I’d rather sleep with a sock in my mouth than pay $500.

Any ideas on how I can stop grinding my teeth?  As far as I know, it’s completely subconscious which makes it a little more difficult to stop.  But of course I’d like to just stop, thereby saving me from having to buy and wear a mouthguard.

[Update: The dentist called me and confirmed that I can go ahead and try using a generic athletic-type mouthguard from a sporting goods store. He also said that if I ever did decide on the professional type, he could get me a discount.]

You have no idea how excited I am for tonight, though I’m trying to tell you! Dinner should be fine or whatever. I like trying new restaurants, but I don’t really care too much about food. I do care about music and I love Martin Sexton. This will be my 4th or 5th time seeing him and he’s one of my favorites because he always seems so HAPPY! Plus, it will be my first time going to the Fitzgerald Theater so I’m excited to see that, too.

Did I mention that M is paying for dinner because I bought the tickets. It’s not exactly a fair trade, unless we eat A LOT of food, but I don’t care at all.

Then floor hockey. The puck drops at 10:10, so after the concert I’ll drop Bird off at her place and race over there, hoping I’m not too late to take part in most of the action. It’s just a group of guys from college that I don’t get to hang out with very often but I love it when I do. Outrageous costumes/outfits are encouraged. (I’ll be coming from the concert, so I won’t be participating in that part). We’re going to have so much fun.

I can’t wait for this work day to be over so that we can get on with the evening. Not even the cold rainy weather is going to put a damper on tonight.

1. $897 - That’s what I spent on housing-related expenses in October. This includes the mortgage, association dues and all the utilities. This is a fairly static amount every month.
2. $209 - The cost for gas in October.  This was up more than $70 from last month. However, please remember that October included the hunting trip up north which is like a 6 hour drive one way and the trip to the North Shore which also used up a bunch of gas. Hopefully gas prices will continue to fall (under $2 now) and my gas expenses will continue to drop. Another factor will be the coming winter when we tend to hole up inside and try to stay warm. That should help limit my driving.
3. Food! This was the big expense of September (over $400) and I’m really happy to report that food spending was down big time in October. I spent $192 eating out (still too much!) and another $50 on groceries.
4. $300 - I donated this amount to charitable causes in October which included a $20 Christmas gift for Sergio, my Compassion child from Bolivia.
5. I don’t have super specific categories when recording my spending throughout the month, so $250 worth of October expenses ended up be recorded as Miscellaneous. $95 of that was spent on party supplies for the big bonfire party. The rest was really just miscellaneous stuff here and there, though I did also include my $45 cell phone bill in this category.

All in all, I’m fairly pleased with my spending in October. I still need to work on limiting my eating out, but also need to be careful not to limit my social life in the process. There were also several miscellaneous expenses that I could have done without. I will try to limit these types of purchases in November and so far I’m doing pretty well!

If September was brutal for my net worth, October was even worse! My net worth took another nosedive down 10% for the month.

Once again, the biggest losers were those accounts tied to the stock market - my 401(k), Roth IRA, and my stock portfolio. The extra paycheck helped pad my savings accounts, so they actually had a nice little gain for the month over September.

It’s not very fun to report on net worth in times like this but I will continue to do so. Instead of freaking out about that graph in my sidebar, I’m going to try to spend my time being productive and looking for ways to earn and save more money.
(Though deep down I’m REALLY hoping for an uptick in that graph next month!)

We’re having a little get together tonight with a few friends and I’m going dressed as a panda and might I add, I’m pretty proud of my costume. It’s awesome.

Are you dressing up? If so, as what?