Spring is finally here, even in Minnesota where in the past we have had snow as late as May.
Spring means my favorite season of the year is right around the corner: Summer!
Welcome to the Weekly Quick Hits Roundup!
If you’re new here, every week I write a weekly wrap-up of things that were going on here at Young Adult Money, a few personal updates/thoughts, and finally a few posts I read this week that I thought were worth sharing.
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Happy Friday everyone!
This week was an interesting week here at Young Adult Money as I didn’t personally contribute a single post. It was nice having my staff writers publish posts Monday through Wednesday and having my wife publish a post on Thursday. I have had a hectic couple of weeks and it gave me a chance to catch my breath and focus on planning some content for down the road, as well as the FeeX blog where I post once a week.
Last weekend I spent a decent amount of time in my backyard doing a little bit of work and taking measurements. I might be crazy for doing this, but instead of simply rebuilding our 12 foot long two-tiered wood retaining wall I’m thinking of extending it approximately 26 additional feet and leveling the hill that is currently in that place. I think it will add a lot of value to the backyard since it currently does not have much level area at all, but I’m really hoping I’m not in over my head with this project.
I also decided that it might be a good idea to bite the bullet and build a privacy fence along our back wall. While there is currently a chain link fence all around our yard (none of the fences technically owned by us), we simply have no privacy from our neighbors in the backyard. I considered a “natural” privacy barrier, but if I’m just doing one 80 foot fence I think it will be worth whatever the cost is. It should really change the feel of the yard.
While it’s nice to own a house and be able to change things that I want to change, you really don’t understand the true value of renting until you own. Between the time and cost of maintenance and projects you find out quickly what the trade-off is from being a renter to owner.
This weekend I will be helping a friend move as well as attending my cousin’s first communion. This will actually take up most of my weekend, but I’ve been trying to get a few things done this week that I typically would do on the weekend.
***Hawaii Contest Update – First of all thank you to all the bloggers (and readers!) who came through and signed up for IZEA using my referral link. Some of you may be curious as to whether I referred more than anyone else and won the Hawaii trip.
Well, I was messaging with the girl who was in 3rd place when they posted the top 10 a few days before the end of the contest and neither of us had heard from them by Tuesday evening. She finally decided to email them on Wednesday and they said they are going through all the referrals and verifying them. This was something I thought they would end up doing, but it’s delayed the winner being contacted. They said they should have a validated winner within a week. I’m waiting patiently with my fingers crossed. Thanks again to everyone who helped me out!
Below are the posts we published this week:
- On Monday Shannon asked When Do I Start Saving for Retirement?.
- On Tuesday Sally shared The Four Questions I Ask When Giving Gifts.
- On Wednesday we welcomed back Cat with her post How Many Shoes Does One Girl Need? No, Really….
- On Thursday Victoria shared 7 Unexpected Costs of a Wedding
Posts of the Week:
As usual, here are five posts from around the blogosphere that I enjoyed:
- Liz from Budgeting for More shared her Easy and Effective Couponing Strategy
- Eric from No Nonsense Landlord shared an inspiring post in Ultimate Side Hustle, Become a Milllionaire
- KK from Student Debt Survivor makes a statement in Don’t assume you know about my debt!
- Stefanie from Prairie Eco-Thrifter shared 10 Ways to Save on Eating Out
- Andrew from Living Rich Cheaply talked about making efficient use of space in Small Baby, Small Apartment, Small Budget
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How was your week? Any plans for the weekend? Have you been able to enjoy the Spring weather? What’s your favorite season and why?
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Photo by Daniel Wehner
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Wow, that sounds like a lot of projects. I’m not very handy myself so I can’t imagine what I’d do if I owned. I’ll just have to marry or live with a handy man ;)
Thanks for the shout out on my Prairie Eco Thrifter article. It looks like I’ll be joining you over at Fee X too!
Ha! That’s funny that you didn’t write on your blog this week. But I know how you feel about getting a breather, when my hubby did the DIY week for me on mine, it freed up SO much of my life so I could get caught up, which was nice. Tomorrow is my hubby’s birthday and I signed us up to help clean a park with other NY bloggers, not exactly what he was hoping for, but we will have fun as long as the weather is nice.
Good luck with Hawaii trip…hopefully you guys win it! That would be awesome. Thanks for mentioning my post and have a great weekend. Spring is also my favorite season and I think it is finally feeling like it. There was a torrential rain storm a few days ago so that was no fun…but hopefully the nice weather in May is here to stay.
Can’t wait to hear the results of the contest!!! We have to do a retaining wall re-do soon too, and I love the idea of you putting a privacy fence up. There’s something about that feeling of having your yard all to yourself. :-)
We need to seriously look at a privacy fence ourselves as our current fence is in a serious state of disrepair. I just shudder to think what it’ll cost though. As for the weekend, I’m going to try and make it to some of the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting tomorrow, but we’ll see. My favorite time of the year is fall…football! :)
I was wondering about the Hawaii thing! Can’t wait to hear what happens!
The anticipation must be killing you! If there is one thing I am really bad at, it’s patience. The next week or so is going to be very busy me too. Year end at work! Fun fun fun. Have a good weekend and thanks for the mention.
We have the same issue with our fence. Last week one of our neighbors told us he would be willing to split the cost of replacing the current chain link fence that runs along our property line so that was nice to hear. We’ll see when we can do it since we also have the big retaining wall project. Our wall is about 36 feet. Good Luck with the Hawaii contest!
Home ownership is definitely rewarding but a lot of work too, which people tend to forget. There are days when I definitely miss just calling up the landlord and turning over the problem to him to fix! Fingers crossed that you can get a very happy phone call regarding Hawaii. :)
brokeandbeau Woohoo! FeeX is great!
It’s definitely a lot of projects, we’ll see if I’m in over my head or not ;)
blonde_finance It definitely was nice not writing! It ended up being a more draining week than I expected so I’m very grateful for not having to write.
Happy birthday to your husband! Hope the park cleaning goes well!
Andrew LivingRichCheaply It would definitely be amazing to win the Hawaii trip! I’m not a fan of the heavy rainfall. We had some of that this past week and it creates a huge mess.
Hope you have a great weekend and have a chance to enjoy the Spring weather!
Laurie TheFrugalFarmer Trust me, we can’t wait to figure out the results either! Haha. I’m already changing my mind about the privacy fence. I might put it off one more year and try to tackle everything except that in the yard. Then next year the fence could be the final finish. But we’ll see where finances and time are at throughout this Summer.
FrugalRules it definitely is expensive to put in a fence, but if you’re willing to do-it-yourself you can cut the costs in half. I might got that route, but we’ll see. Fall is another favorite season of mine and I can’t wait for college and NFL football!
Beachbudget Me either! Haha.
BudgetforMore It definitely was killing me the first 2-3 days, but ironically now I am a bit more content with waiting. The process has to take a long time, especially if they have a backlog of 30+ days of referrals. I just hope they contact the winner (hopefully me) sometime relatively soon.
Raquel@Practical Cents That’s great to hear that they will split the cost! I feel like my neighbors wouldn’t, but maybe I’m just being pessimistic ;)
ShannonRyan Exactly! I spend a lot of time working on projects or fixing things these days. I knew what I was signing up for, though, but I can’t say I don’t dream of not having to do any of it!
Thank you for the link to on my post from this week!
There are a lot of great bloggers out there, and they all have given me inspiration, including you! To everyone out there that is striving for financial independence, it is certainly possible. It takes drive, determination and a bit of ambition!
Wow must be good to have staff writers, how did you organise this?
Good on you for getting out in the open and enjoying the sunshine.. All the best with Hawaii as well.. I have a feeling you’ve got a great shot :)
It was awesome to get outside this weekend and get some things done. Rebuilding a retaining wall doesn’t doesn’t sound like a lot of fun though. :) I’ve got my eye on building a firepit in my backyard this year – nothing like taking on a project I’ve never done before, right?