Yesterday I rode my bike to work for the first time and am officially starting another challenge. Bike to work challenge - I need to bike to work at least 50 times between now and the end of the year. On my blog I've added a ticker to show my progress and from time to time I'll blog about it.

Reason: my reason for biking to work is two fold. First, I'm just so frustrated with fuel costs, then I'm going to do something about it! I really feel ripped off by the OPEC nations and I'm going to do everything I can to drive down demand (as little as it may). Secondly, I'm doing it to save money (what's new). I figure for a round trip it costs me about $2 in gas, and wear and tear on vehicle adds up to about 50cents per mile (or $6.50 - 13 miles). So basically every day I bike to work I'm saving $8.50 (maybe more if gas prices continue to rise). I figure if I do the trek 50 times then I'll save $425!! Sure adds up doesn't it?

Hope you enjoy my latest challenge and you find it motivating too take some action into your own hands!

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This weekend my wife and I planted our garden in our new raised garden. Last year we had our garden flood multiple times and we didn’t have a very productive crop. Plus the top soil here is about 2 inches thick and then you hit clay so it wasn’t very good for irrigation. We have a lot of high hopes this year!

This year we planted tomatoes, potatoes, green onions, green peppers, green beans, zucchini, and peas. Had to ask the in-laws on how far apart and how many potatoes to plant in each hole. They’ve been gardening since Adam and Eve started, so they have pretty good knowledge about how to do it! I also put up a protective fence around the garden too, because we had a problem last year with bunnies eating our green pepper plant. They chew on that like its candy.


Hope it will look like this at the end of the year!


With that said today we’ve officially started our 30 day – Go Green challenge and over the next month I’ll be blogging about how our family is going green. Our garden is one other way that our family is seeking to raise organic food at home. I’ll also give some tips on what we are doing to go “more green” and the benefits. Just like the multiple streams of income challenge has been a great motivator I think that going green will really challenge our family to live more environmentally friendly.

Now for the Multiple Streams of Income challenge update – yesterday our baby crib bedding set sold for $51.52, which I added to the challenge. We are officially up to $565.43 on day #23, and we are going to push hard the last 7 days.

Lastly, we got good news on Friday that we had over paid our home insurance escrow and we got a big fat check for $193. That is $193 that is going straight towards paying extra on my student loan. Still have an objective to pay all of that off before the baby comes. It’s a lofty goal, but then again I doubted that I’d be able to raise $500 for my current challenge.

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We’ll here is the latest update. After two unsuccessful listings on craigslist of our baby bedding (at a high price – what? I didn’t say my prices were fair), I finally broke down and listed it on ebay. Wife just wanted it out of the house, so I agreed. Was asking a whopping $100 on craigslist, but I expect it to go for $60 on ebay. Then we’ll have to pay all the fees, so overall I’ll probably be able to add $50 to my challenge.



Today its day 16, which means I’m over the halfway point and I need to start pushing it into overdrive to not only get to $500, but push towards $1000!! I really have to dig and think of some more ideas on how I could generate some revenue or sell something. I’m wondering if I should scope out some garage sales for some resale items or what. I’m open to any ideas.

You know as I’ve gone 16 days in this challenge I’ve realized one thing – its helped clean up our house! It definitely helps to get clutter out of the house and get more organized.

Anyhow, today while I was doing dishes I was thinking this 30 day challenge has been a lot of fun! I need to think of another challenge to do to get to retirement early. What I thought of was “30 days to live more green”.

Over the past two years as I’ve become more environmentally conscious I’ve realized that there is great benefits both to the environment and my checkbook by living green. So my hope is to challenge me and you all on how I can live more green while seeking to get to retirement early. I have some more ideas for more challenges, but I won’t get ahead of myself.

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Today was a very productive day for our family!! First off I added $40 to my 30 day Multiple Streams of Income challenge. I sold one of my old golf clubs on craigslist so that brings my total up to $465 on day 13!! I think I'll easily be able to make $500 and maybe even close to $1000. We'll see if I can come up with some more ideas on creating income.

On top of that I built a raised garden in our back yard and I am really pleased with how it turned out. Found some great "how to website" on building a raised garden, went to the local hardware store picked up the necessary lumber, soil, and nails and walla! In all it costed about $150 for everything, so hopefully the organic veggies are worth it and more! I'm sure we'll get multiple years of use out of it. My wife was extremely supportive while I was building it and was knocking on the window giving me the thumbs up. My son did an AWESOME job of helping me pick up the bags of soil, take them up to the garage, and put them in the trash! Mom and I were so proud of him that we gave him hot cocoa afterwards.

If you want to see more pictures of the garden then feel free to check them out at frugal retirement blog.

Yesterday I ordered 30 compact flourescent bulbs to put in my house on ebay. This will help save a ton of money in the coming five years in wattage usage and also help save the environment. I truely believe our world is experiencing global warming and I'm going to do everything I can to help.

Also this summer I'm going to try and run to and from work a couple of times a week to save on gas and CO2 emmissions.

Dick Vitel