We have yet to get our greedy little hands on our economic stimulus check, but it's been interesting reading about how others have been spending their checks over at How I Spent My Stimulus.

In January, Congress approved $152 billion in economic stimulus checks for millions of American households, intended to boost the economy and avert a recession. Just how this money will be spent remains to be seen. We hope this website helps shed some light on where the stimulus money is going.

Maggie spent $50 of her check on lottery tickets.  Too bad she didn't win.  How will you spend your check? 

Jason wrote up a great follow-up article, Investment Spreadhsheet 2.0, to his original post, The FU Money Spreadsheet, over at Hackszine.  Some added features to the FU Money Calculator 2.0 are fields for accounting for your 401k contributions and a home loan. 
Jason describes 3 scenarios in which normal people like you and I can become "wealthy be being excessive in our frugality."

Previously:
The FU Money Spreadsheet (post on Blogcadre)

Update: Jason has made improvements to the spreadsheet, Investment Spreadsheet 2.0.  It now includes fields for home loans and 401(k) contributions.


Jason over @ Hackszine writes:

If you're a Cryptonomicon fan, you might recall uber-hacker Randy Waterouse's business partner, Avi, who had a spreadsheet which tracked a particularly interesting value.

The subject heading of Avi's first message is: ``Guideline 1.''
We look for places where the math is right. Meaning what? Meaning that pop. is about to explode---we can predict that just by looking at age histogram---and per capita income is about to take off the way it did in Nippon, Taiwan, Singapore. Multiply those two things together and you get the kind of exponential growth that should get us all into fuck-you money before we turn forty.

Last week, I had posted about a large amount of George Washington presidential dollar coins that were not stamped with "In God We Trust" and mistakenly made it into circulation.  Although the first coin found was bought for $600, the coins became so common that the price tag for these unstamped coins lowered to approximately $50 each -- Still not shabby.

Imagine the excitement of Mary and Ray Smith, a Colorado couple, when they discovered a presidential coin without a heads or tails.

The couple, who live in Fort Collins north of Denver and collect coins, bought two rolls of the presidential dollars March 7 after hearing about the earlier mistake. Mary Smith said she thought they might find a "Godless" dollar of their own.

The faceless dollar could be worth thousands of dollars, maybe more, Guth said. The value will depend on how many similar misprints are found, but the Smiths' will always be worth more because it will be the first one independently authenticated, he said.

Previously:
U.S. Mint launches first presidential $1 coin

An unknown number of George Washington dollar coins were mistakenly struck without the inscriptions "In God We Trust" and have made it into circulation.

Bailey said it was unknown how many coins didn't have the inscriptions. Ron Guth, president of Professional Coin Grading Service, one of the world's largest coin authentication companies, said he believes that at least 50,000 error coins were put in circulation.

"The first one sold for $600 before everyone knew how common they actually were," he said. "They're going for around $40 to $60 on eBay now, and they'll probably settle in the $50 range."

Keep your eyes peeled for those coins.  $1 coins worth $50 doesn't sound too shabby to me. 

Previously:
U.S. Mint launches first presidential $1 coin, Disintegrating Euro Currency

The U.S. Mint has launched the first presidential $1 coin.  George Washington is the first president to be depicted on the golden-hued coins and future coins released will depict presidents in the order in which they served. 

Curious to know what the top 50 paying jobs in America are?  Who tops the list and who rounds out the list?  Check them out here.

Previously:
FBI hiring IT workers, Bulls*** Job Title Generator, Undersourcing: hot new trend for the outsourced business, NY Times: Cities compete for "the young and restless", A Flexible Work Day

Here is a howto on making a collared shirt out of a single dollar bill.

[via digg]

In North Carolina a man successfully purchased $150 in groceries at a Food Lion in Roanoke Rapids using a counterfeit $200 bill bearing George W. Bush's face.  You would think a $200 bill with a portrait of George Bush and lawn signs in front of the White House would tip the cashier off, but apparently the cashier gave the unidentified male $50 in change.

Get a closer look of the bill here.

[via Neatorama]

Just in time for Christmas I received a $20.00 credit in my paypal account today.

it came in form of a transfer stating: Thank you for participating in PayPal's Holiday Promotion. You received this $20 rebate by making a qualifying purchase of $50 or more. We appreciate your business. Stay tuned for more exciting promotions in 2007 by visiting www.paypal.com!

I did not enter a coupon code or a discount with either site, but there was the money in my account. Anyone have any information on if this will repeat with multiple purchases? In any case, I thought I should pass this along to other eBay Christmas shoppers out there.