Week #45 - Comiccon & Cash Flow...

hello everyone.... welcome to week #45 of the OCD Savings Blog! I gave you guys the wrap up of my Disney adventure last week so this week I'm gonng give you a review of the Rhode Island Comiccon, which is where I spent most of last weekend.

Friday night I was out kind of late because I went to see a few bands play in an old warehouse building in Providence. If you're a fan of hardcore punk I want to highly recommend you see the band Boston Strangler, but that's another story. I got up kind of early on Saturday and my wife and I headed to Providence for the 2nd annual Rhode Island Comiccon. I had already bought the tickets ($50 on my credit card) in advance so we didn't have to wait in the extra long line and it was a good decision based on how many people were there when we got there.

Once we got inside the convention center we saw rows and rows of vendors and retailers set up selling all sorts of comic book, movie & pop culture stuff from cheap $1 comic books to $1000+ rare collectibles. There were also 3 rows of tables set up featuring B, C and D level celebrities who were all there to sell their autographs and special chances to get photos taken with them. The celebrities ranged from the original Batman & Robin, Adam West & Burt Ward, Billy Dee Williams and Danny Glover to former video vixen Tawny Kitaen, professional wrestler Jimmy 'Superfly' Snuka and Larry Kenney who was the voice of Count Chocula and many other childhood favorites.

I went specifically to see 6 people who apeared as different characters from the original Star Wars trilogy. I got autographs from the actors who played Zuckuss, 4-Lom, Admiral Ackbar, Lt. Renz, Greedo and Bossk. It was an expensive day since most actors charge $20+ for their autographs, but I started having Star Wars actors sign a VHS boxset quite awhile ago so now when ever I get the chance to add a signature I take advantage of it. My wife and I hung out for a few hours gawking at 'celebrities' and browsing, but didn't really buy anything else.

Since my wife was going to the Patriots vs Steelers game on Sunday I contacted a friend (www.psychomonkeystudios.com) who was set up selling his art to see if he had an extra pass so I could go back to the comiccon on Sunday. He did and so I spent most of my day sitting with him and helping another friend at his booth (www.RubberChickenComics.com) with intermittent walks to look at the costumes and displays. I ended up getting my picture taken with the original Survivor Richard Hatch and got to talk to him for a few minutes which was cool. I also took photos of myself with some of the cool displays including the Back to the Future Time Machine, the General Lee and a life size Rancor statue. I had a pretty good day and only spent some money on a turkey wrap and some tater-tots for lunch.

 

the photos above show me with Roxy the Rancor, me with the General Lee and me with Richard Hatch from Survivor, all taken at Rhode Island Comiccon.

 

Alright... now that most of you are bored or have stopped reading, I'll get to this weeks income. I got a paycheck for $613.82 ($39.12 went to my 401k). This is the 2nd week of the month so the money will go towards my mortgage payment, but I'm also going to do a few other transactions to try and move towards hitting my savings goals in some of my accounts. I'm putting $50.00 in my loan repayment account, $25.00 in my vet bill account, $100.00 in my regular checking and the remaining $438.82 in my mortgage payment account. I also did my $20.00 vacation transfer, but I didn't get  chance to return my deposit cans this week. So here is the wrap up.....

Here is the week 45 wrap up:
$39.12 to my 401K
$50.00 to the quarterly loan payment account
$25.00 to the vet bill account
$20.00 to my vacation fund

Which makes the 2013 totals:
$1573.45 in my 401K
$900.00 in the vacation fund
$96.90 in the piggy bank
$600.00 in the quarterly loan payment account
$288.87 in my vet bill savings
$2227.41 in my money market
$1677.40 in my car account

For this weeks added bonus I'm going to tell you about something a little shady that I just did. I've been having some pain in my feet and someone recommended these insoles that were about $10.00. I bought them because they had a money back guarantee and was shocked that they actually worked! They helped the pain very significantly, but I figured... why not take advantage of the money back guarantee. I waited a few weeks and then wrote a letter, sent the receipt and proof of purchase and now I'm waiting to get my $10 back which I will use to by another pair of inner-soles! Sounds more like a buy 1 get 1 free offer!

Here is a photo of the information I had to send to get my $10 refund.

 

 

 

I got a few messages from people that are new readers, some of which I didn't even know before they messaged me. I wanted to welcome any and all new readers to the blog. I want to remind everyone about the facebook group www.facebook.com/groups/OCDSavings join the group and contribute any savings ideas, coupons, bargains or anything you see. Lastly I just want to stress that when it comes to saving you can start as small as you need to! Just because you see the dollar amounts that I save doesn't mean you need to do the same. Put aside $1 a week, $5 a week, $10 a week... whatever you can and it will add up. You just need to commit to it and make sure you do put aside that amount of money each week and don't dip into it without making a plan first!