Chimney Sweep

Well it has been two years (didn't burn as much the first year) since we built the house, so it is time to have the chimney cleaned and looked at.  Fireside recommended Smart Sweep as a good guy to call.  Jim Smart came out to the house at 11am (on time), was great with Nick, explaining things to him (and me) and very clean.  He explained that it was something I could do in the future with an investment in a few tools.

I can recommend Jim highly enough, he was professional and friendly.  The fireplace looks great, and we are excited to try it out (once it cools back down).

Total cost was just under $250, so I think I might invest in the tools and give it a go once in awhile.  But when I need a professional, I won't hesitate to call Jim.

MNPR Yeah

Received our MN Property Tax rebate.  $940 on a tax bill of just under $5000.  That is pretty nice, does that mean that we didn't make a lot of money for the tax that we pay on our house (I think so...).

Anyways it is very nice, too bad they did away with it in the new state budget (I think I heard that).

Extended Auto Warranty rebate

We purchased a new mini-van in the beginning of August, and traded my 2005 TDI Golf in.  I had purchased an extended warranty on it when I bought it that was good for 10 years or 100,000 miles.  The car had just over 80,000 miles when I traded it in.

The dealer told me I could get a rebate for the unused portion of the extended warranty, and I just received a check yesterday for $341.  :)  During the course of owning the car I had to replaced the transmission at a cost of ~5000.  I paid 1800 for the extended warranty, so I am pretty happy with the value I have gotten out of it.

We did not get an extended warranty for the mini-van, which I hope we don't live to regret.  It was the end of the day when we went in to purchase the van, and the extended warranty that was offered, was pretty bad compared to what I had gotten on the golf.  We financed at 0%, so I would be loath to purchase one now after the fact.

We will see how well it holds up, the good news is that any service will probably be more reasonable than service on the golf was.

ING Direct living up to high standards

I received an email today, that I didn't have enough money to process a withdraw from my savings account for my auto payment.  This is the first month for the auto payment, so I made a payment early to make sure everything was set up correctly for automatic withdraw.  After that went through successfully, I changed the date to the due date and went on my way happily.

I didn't expect ally to attempt another payment this month, and so when they did the balance was too low (I had put the money into the market, in an attempt to make some quick profit).  I received the email from ING saying what had happened and that they wouldn't charge me a fee.  Now this is an instance when a bank could have very easily charged a fee, so I am very happy that they didn't (of course I would have been pissed if they had :)

PromoCode for Sharbuilder

Sharebuilder (ING Direct) is offer a promo code for current subscribers!
Get $50 for depositing $100 each month till 2012.

A $50 return on $400, good luck finding that anywhere else.

OLRCDP50