And just as much as I feel pressured when my wife tells me about a good house that’s come up for sale, she probably feels frustrated by my reluctance to take any serious action on it because “this is just the beginning of the downturn” and “there will be more, and better, deals later.”

Actually, regardless of how far I feel the housing market is going to go down, I don’t really know.  I can get warm fuzzies that it’s getting to be more of a buyer’s market, but I won’t really know until I start tracking home prices.  Tracking prices is pretty straightforward, and has some advantages:

• It’s easier to recognize a deal when it comes along.  There is a huge amount of information literally a mouse click away, and tracking the price of desirable houses over time shows clearly what these houses were being offered at.  Rather than sensing that a house is a good deal, I can see that it is.
• It’s active.  It’s searching with a purpose.  It’s still basically window shopping, but I know which stores I’m going to. 
• It’s focused.  We’re looking for a house to move into.  This narrows our search and makes it more time-effective.

Here’s how we’re going about it now:

1. I signed up for an account at Realtor.com.  This allows me to save searches — and have daily or weekly e-mails sent to me — filtered by ZIP code, price, number of bedrooms, etc.
2. Since my wife is pickier (!) she chose the acceptable candidates among the few dozen houses that met the search criteria that Realtor.com allowed.  We could have fewer results to go through if we filtered by square footage, but not all of the listings include a square footage.  So, we pile through some more listings but turn up a few more candidates.  We eliminate most split foyers since she really doesn’t like those.
3. We build up a spreadsheet with the following columns:  ZIP Code, Address (to identify the house), Subdivision, Bedrooms, Bathrooms, Square Footage, Basement (no, yes, or split level), Garage (no, one-car, or two-car), and Asking Price.  We make one row per house, and add columns at the end to track the asking price over time.  We also list the houses that meet the search criteria but don’t meet our criteria so that we don’t have to re-visit those listings each week.  The columns are the criteria that are important to us; if you do this, you may have other columns you want to consider.
4. Houses keep getting prices added as long as they’re listed.  If they’re taken off, then we keep them to see if they come back on again.
5. Later we may add houses listed for auction or on other services, since some sellers are going the route of national real estate listing without the commissions.

Here are some of the measurements that can be done from these numbers:

• Number of listings.  The number of listings can fluctuate with the seasons (winter is slower).  If prices are going down for similar properties, or if the prices for properties we’re following are going down, then an increase in the number of listings could be good, as it means people are coming to their senses and trying to sell for what they can get.
• Time on the market.  We’ve gotten a few new listings, so we can see how long they stay on the market.  Knowing this would help us should we want to make an offer.  If the house has been on for a good long time, we can offer more aggressively (lower).
• Price per square foot.  This is a rough measure but a useful one.  If we really can buy more house for our money, we should see a reduction in the price per square foot.

The nice thing about this method is that it’s free.  Once we get the hang of this and get closer to making a decision we may sign up for www.RealtyTrac.com to get a handle on foreclosed and bank-owned properties.  We’ll probably pull the trigger on this when we are in a better position to make offers.

Tracking prices takes a little time but I’m sure this will help us to make a wise decision when we decide to look in earnest.

Here are some posts I pieced together from the great blogs in my reader:

• Mrs. Micah talks about anchoring as it applies to credit card minimum payments.
• Get Rich Slowly shares almost three dozen make-it-yourself gift ideas from his readers and other sources.
• Paid Twice gives five concrete tips for paying yourself first.
• Money Ning combines financial and physical well-being with this post.
• Green Panda Treehouse saved money with her own cable-phone-internet bundle.
• Smart Spending lists a number of Black Friday deal sites.
• Wisdom Journal offers some sound advice for weathering the dark economic cloud.
• Think Your Way to Wealth considers whether $2 gas is good or bad.
• Five Cent Nickel reports on the 2009 tax brackets.
• Don’t Mess with Taxes celebrates three years of tax blogging.
• All Financial Matters picked up on the guaranteed retirement account movement.  (Also known as Social Security 2.0.)
• Free Money Finance has a guest post on giving generously during hard times.
• The Simple Dollar posts on investing in skills for the slippery slope down.
• Chief Family Officer is very thankful for her family’s emergency fund.

Mighty Bargain Hunter’s Carnival participation:

• The Digerati Life included my income streams post in last week’s Carnival of Personal Finance.
• Money Ning included my forget the lolcats post in this week’s Carnival of Personal Finance.
• Simply Forties chose my basics of debt reduction post as an Editor’s Pick for this week’s Carnival of Debt Reduction.  Thank you!

Have a great week!

Buying depreciating, or even consumable, assets with debt often is not a good use of debt in many situations.  Overconsumption, or living beyond one’s means, is usually a bad use of debt.  Buying a car with a loan, though sometimes unavoidable, is usually not as good as paying for it in full.

Then there are the times when people are thrust into massive debt because of a financial catastrophe, like serious illness in the family, job loss, an injury, or a lawsuit.

Whatever the reason for the debt, it must be repaid, and the longer it takes to be repaid, the higher the amount of interest that must be repaid in addition to the amount borrowed.  Carrying debt means sacrificing future income to the debt, as well as any passive income that this future income would earn.  In this light, it makes sense to pay off debts as quickly as possible without opening up the rest of your finances to undue risk.

Here are a few things to consider as you reduce debt:

• Not in debt?  That’s great!  Stay out of debt.  With the economy going downhill, jobs become less reliable.  Now is an especially bad time to take on more debt, or to start taking on debt.  The consequences of getting caught jobless will generally be more severe until the economy recovers, which could take years.  (Yes, years!)  Work on doing the little money-saving things and protecting your income streams so that you don’t have to resort to debt.
• Read books on how to get out of debt.  There are many books out there on getting out of debt.  If you need to be dragged kicking and screaming to face your problem, then Larry Winget’s You’re Broke Because You Want To Be is good for slapping you upside the head and getting you on track.  For a less abusive, shorter, and equally powerful message on the philosophy of debt, check out Michael Mihalik’s Debt Is Slavery.  For tried-and-true detailed steps on dealing with creditors yourself as opposed to hiring a debt consolidation company, look at Harrine Freeman’s How to Get Out of Debt.
• Read blogs written by people getting out of debt.  If you’re in debt, you’re not alone.  No Credit Needed is one of the originals who has gotten out of debt and still blogs about debt reduction.  Paid Twice, Blogging Away Debt, Debt Hater — there are dozens, if not hundreds, of blogs written by people whose primary focus is getting out of debt.  Learn from them.  Connect with them.  Interact with them!  Check out the Carnival of Debt Reduction to see what’s going on.
• Get support and encouragement as you get out of debt.  You don’t have to go through it alone.  Check out financial forums and contribute to the discussions.  Ask questions, ask for advice.  Or start a blog about your debt reduction as a way to solidify your resolve to get out of debt and to possibly make a little money in the process!
• Develop a plan for debt repayment.  Our situation is relatively easy: we just have a mortgage, so planning involves keeping up with the mortgage payments and evaluating whether to throw more at the mortgage.  If your situation is more complicated than this, check out this slick debt reduction calculator or get organized with something like the No Credit Needed Notebook.
• Be careful about stretching yourself too thin.  It is likely a good idea to have a small “emergency fund” built up as a buffer against taking on more debt.  If you’re starting with absolutely no savings and have debt, then it’s probably wise to trade off a little debt reduction for building up an emergency fund.  Once the emergency fund is built up, then it’s “safer” to throw more money at the debt reduction.
• Pay off the smallest card first?  Pay off the highest-interest card first?  For the most part, it doesn’t really matter.  As long as the balances continue to go down, they’ll eventually all go away.  Attacking the highest interest-rate loan first will mean less interest paid over the long run, but attacking the lowest-balance loan first gives the psychological satisfaction of “slaying a dragon” and might be exactly what’s needed.
• When raising money to reduce debt, grab the low-hanging fruit first.  Some expenses are easier to cut than others.  Holding a yard sale for things you haven’t used in years can raise money by getting rid of things you probably forgot you had.  Other things that you’re not using, like 500 TV channels in foreign languages, might not be missed either.  Downsizing or simplifying can be fairly painless, too, and help you to spend less than you earn so that you can reduce your debt.
• Build up speed.  The good news with debt reduction is that you regain some of your financial muscle each time you pay off a loan.  That’s a payment you don’t have to make anymore.  Flex that extra muscle and throw that payment at the next debt in line, and it will go away faster.
• Celebrate your progress.  Just like getting into debt (usually) doesn’t happen overnight, getting out of debt doesn’t happen overnight, either.  It can take years, and celebrating along the way (say, for every $1,000 down or for each credit card paid off) reward yourself with something nice.

The posts so far are quick reads, with a good mix of general-interest posts, such as the merits of $3 wine, and Texas-specific posts, like scoring cheap gas in McKinney, a city 30 miles north of Dallas.  Overall it looks like the writers have a breezy tone, which is great.  They’re helping their readers through the slump with tips on getting back to the basics of saving money.

I found out about the Dollar Wise Blog in a really cool way: through my traffic stats.  It turns out they have Mighty Bargain Hunter in their sidebar already, which is a great honor!  They also have linked to several other great reads including Wise Bread and Frugal Dad, and a few others that are going promptly into my feed reader.

So I encourage you to check out the Dollar Wise Blog, especially if you live around Dallas because they’ll have a lot of good ideas especially for you.  I’ll offer one of my own:  Restaurant.com has almost 100 restaurants in their network within 15 miles of Dallas, and through Monday, November 17th, you can get 70% off their popular Dining Certificates and their Dinner of the Month Club by using coupon code DESSERT. This means that $25 worth of Dining Certificates costs only $3 instead of $10.  So check out Restaurant.com and see if one of your favorite restaurants is in the network!

Restaurant.com has added new “inventory” and I recently found out that Bailey’s Pub and Grill in Fredericksburg was on the list.  Love their Scorchers.

I just activated our Dinner of the Month club and here’s how it works.  We received our first certificate immediately, and subsequent certificates will “arrive” once a month for a year on a schedule.

If you want to lock in a 70% discount for up to a year, a one-year subscription to the Dinner of the Month Club is only $36, plus you get a bonus $50 Dining Certificate!  Also, a 3-month subscription ($9 with coupon code) gives you a bonus $10 Dining Certificate, and the 6-month subscription ($18 with coupon code) gives you a bonus $25 Dining Certificate.

Again, use coupon code DESSERT to get the 70% discount through Monday the 17th at Restaurant.com.

I was tickled when I went by the Redbox DVD kiosk at WalMart tonight and saw Expelled in there.  I didn’t expect it to have that kind of general interest to make it into the Redbox, but it did.  The first few times I checked out the selections in Redbox they were older movies or ones that I hadn’t heard of, but oh well … it’s a buck a night right?  So I was pleasantly surprised to see a movie like Expelled in there.

As I was checking out the movie from the kiosk I saw “Use Promotional Code” among the payment options, and I recalled hearing about never needing to pay for a Redbox rental again somewhere (turned out it was Wise Bread’s post) so had I had a promotional code I could have rented it for a night for free.

Redbox is a great alternative for someone who watches movies only once in a great while (a few times a year at the most).  Here are a few things I’ll be sure to do now that Redbox is on my radar:

• I’ll be sure to have a promo code handy.  I should be getting them in my e-mail or I can check sites like InsideRedbox.com for some candidates.
• I can check what’s available online.  At Redbox.com.  Maybe I’ll even try reserving the movie online.
• I’ll plan ahead so I don’t need to make separate trips.  The nearest kiosk is over 15 miles away from my house, one way, so I’ll want to plan ahead so that we can pick up and return the DVDs without needing to make a trip into town just to return the DVD.  A $1 rental becomes a $5 rental with all of the extra gas expended.

Redbox is impressive so far.  It delivers excellent value for what it is.

So if you were thinking about getting 5% off the cheapest gasoline in town, you’ll need to apply before this Friday, November 14th, 2008. Sorry about that!

The non-business TrueEarnings® Card from Costco and American Express, as far as I know, is still being offered.  That still gives you 3% off of qualifying gas.

I hadn’t been getting my gas at Costco because I could get a better deal with my Chase PerfectCard™ MasterCard® at other gas stations because the price at Costco wasn’t low enough to compensate for not being able to use my gas rewards credit card there.

Well, Costco now offers cashback rewards cards for members: the TrueEarnings® Card from Costco and American Express and the TrueEarnings® Business Card from Costco and American Express.   These cards currently carry no annual fee as long as your Costco membership is up to date.  The first card gives up to 3% back on qualifying gas purchases (Costco or standalone gas stations).  The business card gives up to 5% back on qualifying gas purchases.  This one requires a Costco Business Membership.

If you already buy gas at Costco and pay your balances in full each month, then these credit cards might be interesting to you.

But anyway, here are links of interest from a few of the great blogs in my reader:

• Free Money Finance had his house purchase fall through but he talks about what he learned.
• Free From Broke talks about how eating out less has improved life around the house.
• Blogging Away Debt discovered she could get only a little bit of cash for her gadgets.
• Retire at 40 describes how to sort out your finances in stages.
• Paid Twice wonders if we’re all driving differently now that gas is below $2 again.
• Cash Money Life suggests investing as much as you can now.
• Christian PF rattles off five Bible verses about money that every Christian should know.
• Lazy Man and Money does a checkup of his early retirement plans.
• Digerati Life guest poster Tanesha talks herself out of a new car.
• No Credit Needed is tired of being treated like a criminal.
• All Financial Matters analyzes the down times of the S&P.

Mighty Bargain Hunter participated in four carnivals last week:

• SimplyForties included my lost wallet post in the Carnival of Money Stories.
• Bargain Briana included my little money-saving things post in the Festival of Frugality.
• Sun’s Financial Diary included my eBay shipping squeeze post in the Carnival of Personal Finance.
• The Skilled Investor included my planning post in the Carnival of Financial Planning.

Last, but not least, a big hat-tip to Free Money Finance and The Consumerist for the link love!

But you are still making money, hopefully.  Having a job or a source of income is more important than having a good return on investment.  You can always make more money, but to do that, weelllllllll … you need to make more money!

Protecting your job is crucial.  Developing more sources of income is also crucial.  Your financial situation can go downhill quickly if you stop making money, and it can go uphill only if you continue to make money.  Here are some suggestions for keeping your personal printing press up and running:

• Don’t do something stupid at work.  If your workplace has Internet policies, follow them.  These kinds of infractions are trivial to catch.  Hopefully it goes without saying that you don’t defraud your workplace of materials or misrepresent your time card.  Basically avoid doing the dumb things that will get you fired even if we weren’t in a recession.
• Look for ways to get off the short list of people to be let go.  Just like if you’re hiking with a group, and a bear finds your group, you only need to run faster than the slowest runner in the group to avoid being mauled.  Don’t be the slowest runner.  Find ways to get off the short list like taking on extra responsibilities or reminding your supervisor what you bring to the table so that it’s fresh in her mind.  (Gary North has had a number of very smart ideas in his members’ section for impressing one’s employer.)
• Take overtime if this is in the cards.  If your employment arrangement compensates for overtime, and you can do it, this adds to your emergency fund or increases the amount you can use to pay off debt.  If you’re salaried, putting in overtime gives your employer one more reason to keep you off of the short list for being fired.
• Take a second job?  A second job does mean another paycheck, but taking another job isn’t the best option for everyone.  Taking another job does bring in more money right from the start, but if you are fairly secure with your current job, starting a business has a higher potential for growth.  Consider both getting another job or starting a business.
• If you decide to take a second job, consider all the costs.  How far do you need to drive?  How much does that cost?  Do you need extra child care?  A second job will do you very little good if it costs you more than you bring in.
• If you or your spouse decides to go back to work outside home, consider all the costs.  What will be the cost of day-care if you have kids?  Would you be able to do as many of the little money-saving things if you or your spouse had a job?  Two incomes will do you very little good if it costs more than it brings in.
• Start a side business?  A side business has the potential to replace and exceed a job’s income.  But, as H. Jackson Brown said in Life’s Little Instruction Book, overnight success takes about fifteen years.  If you feel you need the extra money right now, a second job or overtime at your current job is a better bet.  Consider both getting another job or starting a business.
• If you decide to start a side business, consider putting time into it initially rather than a lot of money.  “Business opportunity” magazines are more than happy to sell you a $10,000 vending machine package but it’s quite easy to start up a business with almost no financial outlay.  If you want to begin blogging as a second source of income, You can get functional, professional web hosting for $6.95 per month with an included domain name (or you can register that one separately at GoDaddy.com, which is probably smart).  That’s about $8 per month, and the rest of the needed scripts can be obtained free.  Then, just add your time and effort!  This way is prudent in times of downturn.
• Check your tax withholding.  This is a smaller fix but by adjusting your federal tax withholding you can keep more of your money throughout the year and get less of a refund the following spring.  Just check the rules so that you don’t have too little withheld and end up paying penalties.
• Take advantage of your job’s benefits.  A health savings account?  401(k)?  Gym membership?  Subsidized meals?  Subsidized transportation?  Education reimbursement?  Your salary might be just part of your “pay” so check to see that you’re using everything that your employer offers that makes sense.