CNNMoney printed an article today on the most requested home improvement projects and topping the list were, in order of popularity, home office, game room, and a mud room. In terms of best value, these three aren’t the best value. Only home office appears on the list of best valued home improvements (60% return) but it goes to show that people don’t pick what the best dollar return improvement, they pick the one they’ll enjoy the most. (something pointed out in the best value article as what should be driving your improvement decisions anyway)

With Sept. 1 around the corner and the last quarter of the states getting their free reports (details here) and every other personal finance blogger writing about (with very good reason), this isn’t about how to get the free reports but how not to accidentally get the ones you have to pay for. For example, a few weeks ago Experian (one of the three reporting agencies) agreed to pay close to a million dollars to settle a case in which they were accused of deceiving consumers into signing up for their $80 reports instead of the federally mandated free reports. You can imagine how many folks just didn’t pay attention and wound up paying for something they thought they were getting free.

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JLP at AllThingsFinancial has published the 11th edition and it weighs in at almost twenty submissions. Predictably, top billing goes towards the recent skyrocketing gasoline/oil prices but there are some good articles on popular personal finance topics such as budgeting, debt management, and financial planning. Here are the ones that piqued my interest:

Clutter2Cash has a very interesting article on creating a personal 401(k), for those of you with self-employment income. This is something I might take advantage of in the future since the fees of a personal 401(k) are much higher (with justification).

Dawn at Frugal For Life has joined the “homebuying tips” fray with her own suggestions on tips before making the big purchase. I would argue that the minimum number of years you intend to stay somewhere before you buy should be seven years, not two.

Ironman has created a very helpful hybrid vs. standard car comparison calculator and submitted it this week. It would’ve been awesome if he had listed some common EPA mileage ratings but the calculator is still useful regardless.

Home and renter’s insurance cover your personal belongings in the event of theft (and other bad things) if your home is ever broken into. One of the bad things about theft is that the items are now gone and unless you have an inventory, it’s very hard to remember every last thing you know is missing and go through the painful claims process. I’ve read several strategies online throughout the years and have settled on the easiest method I know of, taking photographs and writing on the back.

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My dad bought a mat, a net, a couple hundred golf balls, and a set of clubs three or four years ago and ever since then he’s been hitting balls in his backyard. He’s since graduated from his Golden Bear set of clubs and gifted them to me, despite my lack of game. In the last month or so I’ve decided I’m going to follow the same path and learn how to play this infuriating game, because it feels so ridiculously good when you hit the ball off the tee and it flies far and true. However, at $12 for 160 crappy range balls, it can get expensive to “practice.”

Luckily, I already have a set of irons and drivers (here I believe the quality of the clubs will not matter because right now, I’m fighting to improve my skill) so that saves me a few hundred bucks right off the bat. Shelling out $12 a pop to practice will eventually add up so I’ve decided to take my father’s route and purchase myself a mat, a net, and practice in my backyard, but where am I going to find a matt and a net? Ebay!

Via Ebay I can probably score a decent 3′ x 4′ mat for under $50 plus some shipping. I can also pick up a net and frame for under a hundred bucks as well. I purchased about two hundred golf balls for $50 shipped as well, a hundred were AAA rated and the others were AAAA rated. If you’re going to actually play a round using Ebay’d balls, I suggest you go with the AAAA rated (best quality used) because the AAA’s are… so-so. This is significantly cheaper than buying out of the used ball bin at the course and the balls will be of similar quality.

All told, I can get all the practice equipment I need for about $200 (mat, balls, net and frame) which is how much it costs to hit about 2500 balls. I think that’s a fair deal because after that it’s all free.

Why can’t I pick cheaper hobbies?

My girlfriend recently moved down here from New Jersey and is in need of a job. A chemical and biomedical engineering is what’s on her resume but that makes her qualified for a whole bunch of engineering-type jobs that include process engineering and the like. Anyway, part of her search has put her in the databases of several head-hunting firms here in Baltimore so in addition to her own searches on Monster, Hotjobs, etc ad infinitum, there are temp agencies and head-hunters looking for her as well. This has yielded several interviews with local companies, one of which is some manufacturing firm in Baltimore that makes some widget for something. She was offered a contract engineering job with that company doing something that she wouldn’t be entirely thrilled about for pay that is fair for the work but perhaps a little under (not much) her fair market value. Should she take it?

They liked her so much that they offered her a job knowing it’s not her thing and told her she could continue to look for a job (at night). She picked up on the fact that they were hoping she’d start, really like it, and stay. She’d have to commit for at least a month and it would be a full time job. Now we begin to weigh the pro’s and the con’s (in my order of importance):

Pro: She is being paid and she gets health benefits.
Con: It’s not the work she truly wants to do. It’s not like she hates it, it’s an indifference.

Pro: She gets frequent interaction with people during the day.
Con: She has to commit to work there at least a month, preferably six; which means if a job dropped in her lap today, she wouldn’t be able to start that for another month. Plus, it’s a little irresponsible to only work somewhere for a month.

Pro: She gets used to the daily grind again, which isn’t critical since she only stopped working a few weeks ago.
Con: It may not be an entirely ideal work environment, as is the case with a lot of heavily male manufacturing facilities, there is probably a little (or a lot) sexism.

I don’t think this will be the only job she’s going to be offered and I think she shouldn’t accept it. The money isn’t important now, she can activate a COBRA if she needs it, and I don’t like the idea of locking yourself up for a month just for some extra cash. We talked about it and she had come to the same conclusion; anyone have thoughts on this?

This year there have been close to ten million identity thefts (check out this updated FTC report[link gone]) and that doesn’t even take into account all the information mishaps, leaks, thefts, and whatnot recently reported in the news. A peek into how the black market of identities works strikes fear in the hearts of many (including me). So when I read a Money Magazine article via CNNMoney about Identity Insurance, it piqued my interest. Sadly though, the insurance doesn’t really cover much but the article does list some good alternatives (some of which are free).

The only service worth its salt is either implementing a credit freeze (if available) or going with credit monitoring, pegged at over a hundred bucks a year. Credit monitoring just lets you know if anything new appears on your report, evidence of someone applying for credit with your name. The credit freeze isn’t mentioned in the article though… and I think it should be.

One idea I didn’t think of was whether your homeowner’s insurance covers identity theft; unfortunately mine doesn’t, but the identity theft insurance isn’t pricey as is (on par with renter’s insurance) so if you’re concerned, it might be worth it.

Personally, I’ll use my free annual report as my credit protector.

I’m not longer renting but when I did, I felt the $10 or so a month to cover my belongings wasn’t really worth it (I didn’t have much in the way of valuables). Luckily, in the two years I rented, there were no fires, floods, thefts or anything that could’ve damaged my property or my apartment. But for those of you who do rent and don’t have renter’s insurance, a good reason to get renter’s insurance is that it covers items stolen from your car in the event of a break-in. In fact, your comprehensive auto insurance will only cover items physically attached to your car (such as the stereo)… so consider me officially flipped from the “renter’s insurance is a waste” camp to the “renter’s insurance is probably a good idea, especially at a mere $10 a month” camp… but now I have a home so the more costly homeowner’s insurance makes that defection moot. (speaking of which, I need to take an inventory)

Multiple Streams of Income by Robert G. Allen is barely worth borrowing (from the library), skimming, and returning about a day later. It was originally published in 2000, then revised in 2004, and basically is split into two parts. The first part discusses how to manage your finances (encapsulating the entire concept of The Automatic Millionaire in one chapter) including budgeting, controlling your spending, and other commonly discussed principles on this blog and dozens of others. The second part is identifying three ways to generated income (hence multiple streams) and those are basically in the stock market, in real estate (where he made his fame), and in a nebulous grouping he called “network marketing.”

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Whenever I receive a bad product or bad service, I typically will write an email or a letter to the offending company (unfortunately I don’t confront it right there, sort of passive aggressive I suppose) to let them know. On the flip size, when I receive excellent service or a product I like, I write an email or a letter to the company to let them know as well. In most cases, the company will send you something for your trouble – good or bad. I’ve only done this about four times and three of the times I’ve received a coupon for something. And if you read Frugal for Life, you’ll know that Dawn recently sent a letter about her Bic razor and received a coupon for a freebie as well.

I’ve written about it before about how complained to Target about their photocenter and to Coca-Cola about unflavored cans of Diet Coke but I don’t think I’ve written about my experience with Edy’s Ice Cream (awesome ice cream), Starbucks, or Colgate.

Edy’s Ice Cream is almost always on sale, a usual two for one type deal, and their Slow-Churned Grand Light (low fat) ice cream is incredible (I can’t tell its low fat). Well, one day I just decided to shoot them an email to let them know how much I loved their product and they sent me two 50-cent coupons (expiring in two years), a list of flavors, and a thank you note!

Colgate sent me a full-size sample of one of their toothpaste products and I thoroughly enjoyed it, however, the plasticy paint on the tube began to flake. Personally, I don’t think that’s a big deal at all but since it was a sample product I assumed they would want to know about any problems whatsoever. I wrote them a short email and in a few days I received a whole batch of coupons for Colgate-Palmolive products as a thank you (unfortunately I don’t think I used a single one).

Finally, there was the not-so-pleasant Starbucks experience at an unnamed I-95 rest stop. I always like to pay with a credit card (for records and I don’t like loose change) and so when I paid with a credit card at the rest stop (granted it was busy but that isn’t an excuse), the register attendant (who may have been having a rough day), gave me a look and a sigh before swiping. I shot an email off to Starbucks about it and they sent me two coupons for a free drink of whatever I wanted.

I’d be interested to hear what sort of freebies you all may have gotten using either vinegar or sugar…