Simple Frugality

Start your X-mas list now - or boycott it

noreply@blogger.com (JD) — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 07:54:00 +0000

I have started the list for my family already. Where we live, the economical turmoil have prompted the shops to start early this year and with great discounts too.

To save big I do two things, that is easy to implement:

Make a list
Give your loved ones the opportunity to get the gift for you in a simple and frugal way, by making the list now. In theis way they will have time to get a good deal on your gift.
Let the list be empty
Also consider what presents are really necessary to receive and give. Over the years, I have made deals with those around me not to exchange gifts. So the last couple of years I have only received one Christmas gift. Now that will save you a lot of money, but also time.

The 25 Best Actions for Saving Money from the readers of The Simple Dollar

noreply@blogger.com (JD) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 21:54:00 +0000

A few days ago, I mentioned my single best action for saving money in my own life - utilizing the library. I also encouraged readers to submit their own best actions - and did they ever! The post has already received almost 250 comments and several dozen more readers emailed me their single best action.

As promised, I’ve compiled a list of all of these actions. Here are the top twenty five - basically, these are the ones that were repeated more than twice. These aren’t in any particular order. If you want some direct personal finance actions that have actually worked for people, here’s your list.

1. Utilize the library. Many readers agreed with my statement about how valuable the library is for those who read avidly. Not only can it save you on the cost of buying books, it can also provide DVDs for viewing, CDs for listening, and many other interesting cultural experiences if you pay attention to the schedule of events.

2. Use online bill pay. Not only does online bill pay save you the expense of envelopes and stamps (roughly fifty cents per bill paid online), it also provides you the convenience of auto-calculating your bills and comparing them immediately to your checking and savings account balances. No more checkbook math necessary.

3. Get your paycheck direct deposited. Instead of receiving a paper paycheck, have your paycheck directly deposited into your checking account. This spares you the need to have to go to the bank to cash your check, plus relieves you of the temptation to have some cash taken out of the check when you deposit it.

4. Make your own lunch and take it to work with you. Instead of eating out every day, brown bag it! Prepare a lunch the night before and take that lunch with you to work the next day. It can be leftovers, it can be a fresh meal (like a sandwich), but either way, it can cut into your costs tremendously.

5. Stay home. Instead of going out on the town for entertainment, stay at home and enjoy the activities available in your domicile. Most of the activities you can do at home - reading, watching television, exercising, playing games with friends, meditating, listening to music, cooking, etc. - are far cheaper than similar activities you might do out of the home.

6. Set up an automatic savings plan. If you’re getting your paycheck automatically deposited, consider setting up an automatic savings plan to have some of that money routed into retirement or into a savings account for an emergency fund. It’s far, far easier to start saving if the actual transfer of money happens automatically without your intervention.

7. Build an emergency fund. Alongside that advice comes the idea of building an emergency fund, a cash reserve that can help you in the event of a crisis such as a job loss or an automobile breakdown. It’s easy to build one - just sweep a small amount of money on a regular basis into a savings account, watch it build, and utilize that cash when the time comes.

8. Stop smoking or drinking. Expensive consumables can be a huge drain on your financial situation. Eliminating a consumable habit, such as tobacco or alcohol, can quickly improve your financial situation while also improving your health (which can also improve your financial situation by reducing health care costs).

9. Use the “envelope” system. Many people swear by this method, in which one actually budgets their money for a month using “envelopes.” Whenever you need money for, say, groceries, you take money out of the groceries envelope - when that envelope is empty, you’re out for the month. This forces you to be careful with your spending in all respects.

10. Stop looking at ads. Advertisements of all kinds - from television commercials to flyers from the Sunday paper - simply serve to coerce you into spending money on things you don’t actually need. Minimizing your exposure to advertisement minimizes the temptation to spend that money, keeping it at home in your wallet where it belongs.

11. Ditch cable television. Cable television is often a pricy monthly bill and all it does is provide you with more channels that repeat variations on the same content. Get a digital converter box instead and watch the channels that come in over the air - ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, Fox, and often others. And they’re free - no monthly bill!

12. Drink more tap water. Tap water makes you healthier (most people are somewhat dehydrated, even if they don’t realize it), fills you up (keeping you from overeating expensive food at meals), and is incredibly cheap compared to any other beverage out there. Take advantage of the tap - it can save you a ton of money on beverages and on food.

13. Eat out less (esp. fast food) and cook at home instead. Every time you purchase prepared food outside the home, you’re spending more than you would making a similar meal at home. So why not adopt that as a platform instead? Learn how to cook at home, make your own meals, and save a lot of money.

14. Stop shopping for fun. Shopping is a very expensive form of entertainment. Instead of shopping with your free time, find other fun things to do - almost anything is cheaper - and leave the shopping trips for the times when you actually need an item.

15. Use the “ten second rule” (or some close variation of it). Whenever you are tempted to spend your money on something frivolous, stop for a few seconds and ask yourself whether you really need this item. Ten seconds is usually enough - many people also recommend putting the item down and leaving the store, only returning if you’ve decided you actually want it after some serious consideration.

16. Accept help from others. It’s easy to let pride get in the way of accepting help from others. Don’t let that happen. Be willing to accept help if others offer it, and be thankful for it. Later on, when your situation improves, you can pay it forward and help someone who needs it.

17. Plan ahead for meals. At the start of a week, make a careful plan of what meals you’re going to eat during the week, then make a grocery shopping list based solely on those meals. When you go grocery shopping, stick to that list. This is a great way to keep your food shopping bill low while keeping the food you want and need on the table.

18. Go on a diet. Many people recommended healthy dieting as a tactic for saving money. If you make a conscious choice to eat less, not only will you save money on your food bill, you’ll also reduce your health care bill and perhaps your clothing bill as well (since it’ll be easier to find consignment clothes).

19. Eliminate expensive hobbies. Are you engaged in a hobby that requires a lot of financial upkeep, like golf or collecting? Instead of continuing that expensive hobby and watching it drain all your money, choose a different path entirely - find a new hobby to focus your energy on that doesn’t require so much upkeep cost.

20. Stop reading women’s magazines. This is perhaps the biggest surprise on this list for me, but several readers swear by it. They argue that women’s magazines are extremely effective at convincing you to shop for things you don’t necessarily need, convincing you that you need some item in order to keep up with the crowd. Spare yourself the guilt - skip those magazines.

21. Make a budget/spending plan. If you can’t seem to get a grip on your spending, try assembling a budget/spending plan so that you can clearly see where your money is going. Spend a month or two keeping careful track of what you actually do spend on certain items, then set a spending goal for that type of item. This can simultaneously serve as a wake-up call and as “training wheels” for good financial habits.

22. Set strong goals. Don’t fleetingly think about how you wish things were. Instead, sketch out exactly how you want your life to be in, say, five years, then focus all of your actions toward that goal. Not only can this cut out frivolous spending, it can also help you to make strong choices to improve every aspect of your life.

23. Stop worrying about what other people think. Don’t let the opinion of others rule the choices you make in your personal life. It’s not their life to live - it’s your life. Instead, make choices that you think are strong - and don’t worry about the neighbors or the naysayers.

24. Sell your car. A car is perhaps the worst investment you can make. It depreciates rapidly, breaks down regularly, and requires constant upkeep. Instead of dealing with this, sell the car and make do with the other transportation options available to you - a bicycle, buses, trains, and so forth.

25. Be accountable to what you spend. Finally, try having a weekly or monthly review of all of your spending. Make yourself face the mistakes you’ve made - don’t let a bad spending move lie in the dust and be forgotten. Use it as a tool to make sure it never happens again.

Hopefully, these tactics spur you on to great things.

This has been a guest post from Trent Hamm who writes about personal finance at The Simple Dollar. Please visit his blog for even more articles like this one.

Save money while you sleep

noreply@blogger.com (JD) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 09:00:00 +0000

Vampire power awareness day

You can reduse your costs just by terminating vampire power. Although the term 'vampire' is silly, the savings are serius. Chances are that you too is wasting power, even in your sleep. The solution, however, is pretty simple.

What is vampire power?

Vampire Power is the electricity that consumer electronics and appliances use while they are switched off or in a standby mode.
These unassuming predators have been feeding off valuable electricity from everyday appliances and electronics when they are in the off position or in standby mode.
Innocent looking prey include: plasma TVs, computers and game consoles, DVD/VCR players, DVRs, adapters for MP3 players, and cell phones, which can waste up to half the energy they consume.
A computer left on continuously can suck nearly as much power as an energy efficient refrigerator; anywhere from 70 – 250 watts, depending on the model and how it is used.
A 500-watt, 65-inch LCD TV left on all the time would cost $484 in electricity per year and the generation of that electricity would produce 5,873 pounds of CO2 per year

The Scary facts of vampire power

Roughly $4 billion annually across the United States is spent on electricity lost to “vampire power,” according to the International Energy Agency.
40 percent of all electricity used to power electronics in the average American home, such as TVs, DVD players and computers, is consumed while these products are turned off, according to the Department of Energy.
The average home wastes close to $1,000 in electricity costs per year at current rates (more in the future if energy costs continue to climb).
Each watt of vampire power costs about one dollar per year - if you have 25 power vampires consuming an average of seven watts each, they will cost you $175 per year and emit about 900 kilograms of carbon dioxide.
The average microwave consumes more power when it is not in use.
The average American home has approximately 20 to 40 electronics plugged in that abuse vampire power.
The electricity vampires prey upon is significant and can cost up to 10 percent of an average household’s monthly electric bill.

Here is how to get out of the mindless power consumtion

Use a power strip

Plug your chargers into a power strip and when you’re not using those chargers, turn the power strip off. Also you can even get a power saving USB power strip that turns off when your computer is not on.

Get unplugged

All of your chargers (cell phone, MP3, laptop, and even electric toothbrushes) continue to draw electricity even when the device is not charging. When the device has been completely charged unplug the charger from the wall.

Turn your computer off

Completely shut down your computer and printer when not in use. If you are unable to do so, at least make sure the computer goes into a lowpower sleep, standby or hibernate mode. And watch out for those screen savers; graphic intense screen savers can actually waste power.

Look for the Star

Upgrade electronics and appliances to ENERGY STAR qualified products, which draw less power than the average when in “off” mode.

Further information

For more tips and advice on ridding vampires from your home, visit your local Best Buy

store or check out www.vampireawarenessday.com Best Buy is declaring today as National Vampire Power Awareness Day and launching a campaign to educate Americans about the worst offenders of vampire power.

Akso further reading about vampire power on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire_power

Beat the Sugar Habit: 3 Steps to Cut Sweets (Mostly) Out of Your Life

noreply@blogger.com (JD) — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 13:31:00 +0000

Editor’s note: This is a guest post in Zen Habits written by Mike O’Donnell of the IF Life. It is frugal in the sense that you need to stop buying those expensive sweets that are no good for you.

Sugar, sugar, sugar. It’s everywhere. It’s in our drinks, it’s in our foods, and it’s hidden in places we never would think of. Many would call sugar their friend in time of need, but in fact their so-called “good friend” could turn out to be their worst enemy in disguise.

Sugar for many is something they may have been battling with for a long time, but the past is the past. Time for sugar to be seen for what it really is, and for us to take back full control of our lives. Here’s a simple three-step process to help you start to win back the battle for your health.

First Step – Awareness of what Sugar Really Does to Your Body

I think most people I talk to will say they “know” that they shouldn’t have sugar, but they really can’t help it. To me that is a lack of true awareness of what sugar does to oneself. I don’t think many people will say that they want to hurt their body on purpose, but unless they know it’s really happening they will continue down that road. Sugar is slower to impact our health (as we don’t die from an overdose right away), and it’s that slow destructive process that is the most dangerous. Unfortunately most people don’t know the damage until it has already been done (diabetes for example).

Let’s look at what is really going on with sugar from inside our body’s point of view.

Sugar increases fat storing. Possibly the most important hormone in the body when it comes to weight loss and health is insulin. Insulin is the main hormone that we have full control over daily through our diet and lifestyle. When we eat sugar and it enters into our bloodstream too quickly, we have a spike in blood sugar levels (hyperglycemia). Now in times of high activity we are able to burn it off, but if we are sitting around this is not a good thing. So in response to that high level of blood sugar (known as glucose), the body will release more insulin into the bloodstream. Insulin will then take the excess glucose and try to find a place to store it. If your muscles are all full (or have insulin resistance) then the best place to put the excess glucose is fat cells. When insulin is high, the fat cells are told to start storing (shutting down any process of releasing stored fat into the blood for burning). With chronic high insulin spikes comes a resistance to it (insulin resistance) by your cells, leading to more insulin production, leading to more fat storing, and more resistance, eventually going down a road of diabetes and ill health for the whole body. It’s interesting to note that in cultures known for their longevity, many had different diets and lifestyles but the one thing they all had in common was low fasting insulin levels.
Sugar disrupts normal brain function. I think most people can relate to mood swings and energy highs/lows that come after a high sugar meal. Sugar can also be the source of many people’s increased anxiety and depression. Let us not also forget the kids with ever-increasing attention “disorders” and behavioral issues. Sugar is not helping with that, either. In fact, there have been many studies that show when taking sugar out of a kid’s diet and increasing fat intake, their attention/learning ability increases, their behavior changes for the better, and in some extreme cases have been able to manage (if not eliminate) seizures. The brain is made mostly of fat and although runs on glucose it gets “shorted out” with too much sugar.
Sugar decreases your overall health and makes you age quicker. Too much sugar will lower your overall immune system, increase destructive inflammation, lead to essential mineral deficiencies in the body, feed bad bacteria growth in your gut (all health starts in the gut) and other wonderful stuff. Aging is just a fancy word for the body breaking down quicker than it can repair itself, as that is what happens when we get older. Aging also is accelerated by the increasing risks of all degenerative diseases such as diabetes, osteoporosis, heart disease and cancers. We are all going to get older, but it doesn’t mean that we have to “age” quicker.

Not a good overall list on what sugar does to our body right? Well on the reverse side by taking sugar out of our diets as much as we can (and controlling insulin), we can effectively help to do the following:

Increase fat burning ability of the body.
Increase the immune system and state of health.
Slow down the destructive aging process.
Decrease risks for most degenerative diseases.
Have steady energy all day long (no crashes or swings).
Have increased mental clarity, focus and concentration.
Increase positive behaviors in children (as well as adults).

So first step is that we need to be aware of what sugar is really doing in our bodies. Once we see what is happening, I think we can start to change our view on whether it is our good friend or possibly public enemy #1 in our daily lives.

Second Step – Realize You are in 100% Control of Your Actions

This could the most underrated yet the most important step, as we are the only person who controls what we put into our body. Everything starts in what we choose to put in our mouths. Some people may say they can’t control their sugar cravings, but that is already admitting defeat and giving up power to some “cosmic sugar influence” out there. We can pass on dessert, we don’t need to buy a candy bar, we can drink water instead of soda, but the choice is ours to make.

Also many like to call it an “addiction”. This is just another way to give up your own personal power of choice. While sugar can have “addictive like” qualities, it’s not something that you own or is a part of you. Fight the battle and you will get over the addictive feelings, they will go away. But if you call it an addiction and make it part of you, then it is yours to keep forever. Be free from it, let go. Take back control and anything is possible.

Third Step – Just Live the Daily Journey one Choice at a Time

Life is just a series of present moments, and the choices we make in those moments. So let’s just focus on what we can do right now instead of worrying about what has happened in the past or may or may not happen in the future. “Now” is all we have and all we need to focus on.

Choose to eat more natural foods. Choose whole food proteins, healthy fats and natural sources of carbohydrates (processed carbs are just lumps of sugar to the body once digested quickly). If it wasn’t around a thousand years ago or is made by man (and not nature), chances are you don’t need it. Note how it says “Choose” above, as it is your choice.
Find the hidden sources of sugars and remove them. Sugar is hidden in places such as sauces, ketchup, soups, processed foods, drinks, so called health bars, and more. Become a label reader and see how much sugar you are consistently putting into your body. Don’t fall for the marketing trick either of “low fat”, because that usually means “more sugar”.
If it’s not near you, you can’t eat it. So get all sources of sweets, deserts and sugar out of your house. If you are even tempted and it’s nowhere to be found, then you can’t have it. Simple enough right? If you want to go out for a treat then make it something that you have to work for and go some place, don’t keep it within arms reach or easy access.
Make each meal balanced to control your blood sugar and insulin response. If you don’t let your blood sugar crash then you are less likely to crave an intake of sugar. Balance with whole food proteins, healthy fats and non-processed carbs. Have a slow and steady stream of glucose into your body, and not a rush that is created with sugar.
Eat sugar from its natural packaging - like fruit (as it is packed with fiber, water, vitamins and minerals) and other complex sources like vegetables.
Base your larger intake of carbohydrates around workouts and other activity. If you are able to use it for fuel right away or to replenish empty muscle and liver glycogen when they need it, then you will not be increasing storage into your fat cells.
Choose to burn fat, not store it. Realize that you can burn fat all day long if you give your body the right hormonal signals, which means keeping insulin low and glucagon high (which goes up when insulin lowers, but also shuts down when insulin rises). There is no way that you can keep burning fat if sugar is always present and elevating insulin all day long.
Get out and exercise. Feeling stressed? Then go for a walk and don’t reach for Ben and Jerry. Want to help increase insulin sensitivity in the body (which is a good thing), do some resistance exercise. The body was naturally meant for movement, so go break a sweat everyday doing something you enjoy.
More fish please. The brain loves the essential Omega 3 fatty acid DHA. Also Omega 3s are key to helping to increase insulin sensitivity, decreasing inflammation and increase burning fat. All this leads to fewer cravings for sugar and the body’s ability to handle it as well. Best source is wild salmon (not farmed) or you can supplement with Cod Liver/Fish Oil daily as well.
Learn it’s OK to say “No”. Don’t feel pressured to eat something just because someone else is or passes it to you (like a birthday party every week or sweets at the office). You have the final say in what you put into your mouth, so learn to say “No Thank You” with a smile.
Get rid of your mental attachment to sugar and food - once a week with a short fast (like only eating dinner for a day once a week). Many people are just too attached to needing to eat food all the time. Maybe that is why many people eat when they are watching TV or feeling bored. Time to realize that you will not starve yourself or whither away if you take a short break. Use that time to clear your mind, get perspective, and go for a walk in nature. You may be surprised at the revelations you may have during those quiet times of not eating. Also break that need for eating consistently, you can do fine once in a while without it, but more importantly break your mental attachment to constant food intake. An added bonus to fasting is you will help your body to “reset” some of its natural cravings and instincts. So you may start out craving sugar in the beginning of the fast, but later on your cravings may shift to something else like vegetables or healthy fats. Help your body to find it’s natural and primal instincts once again.
Control and manage your stress. Stress and your reactions to the environment around are important, as high stress will lead to increased cortisol. Cortisol in turn will lead to increased demands for blood sugar and increased sugar cravings. Take notice in the past when you may have eaten the most sugar and you may see a pattern around stressful and emotional reactions. Control your stress and you can control your cravings.
Go to bed early and get your sleep. Again notice when you may crave sugar the most, and chances are that it is late at night. If you are going to bed very late, then you are probably also messing up your natural cortisol cycle. You may see that if you go to bed by 10:30 you won’t eat junk food at night….but if you stay up to 11:30 or later you eat more and more sugar. Your body is confused and getting all the wrong signals as you stay up later, so to get your natural hormonal cycle down get to bed early and you will feel better for it.
Don’t ever get down on yourself. Do your best every day and don’t beat yourself up if you do have some birthday cake or ice cream. It happens and no reason you shouldn’t enjoy things time to time. Just don’t make it a staple of your life and once it happens, just move on to the next meal. Don’t focus on a mistake that might have been made in the past, as that is how people end up feeling depressed and just eating more. It’s OK as you are not expected to be perfect but you are expected to be in control. Do your best and keep smiling knowing the future is made up of whatever choices you make next!
Enjoy Life. It’s really quite simple that is we move and eat the way our bodies were designed for, health and happiness usually follows. So go enjoy life, have control over you choices, don’t worry if you have some cake once in a while, and be able to smile knowing that you are healthy and in control.

This is a guest post from Mike O’Donnell, a professional health and fitness coach. His blog can be seen at www.theiflife.com

How to Plan Ahead for Next Week’s Meals (And Save Significant Money): A Step-By-Step Guide

noreply@blogger.com (JD) — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 19:39:00 +0000

My wife and I shop for groceries on a weekly basis (with the exception of a rare mid-week stop for more milk or other pure staples). We shop from a grocery list, usually nail the sales, and focus almost entirely on buying produce. The end result is that we usually save quite a bit at the grocery store compared to what we could be spending. This has enabled us to buy higher quality foods, like hormone-free milk and free-range chicken and eggs, but it could also go to help us pay the bills.

When I tell this to people, they usually sigh and say, “Doesn’t all that planning take a lot of time?” Frankly, it doesn’t take that much time at all, and since it saves us from making multiple grocery store visits in a week, it might actually save time in the long run in addition to the money saved.

Here’s exactly how we do it.

Step 1: Get a Flyer
The most important step is to get a flyer from your grocery store - or perhaps flyers from two or three local grocery stores. There are a lot of ways to get these - in a local newspaper, in the mail, or online, for starters. I usually download the flyer from the website of the grocery stores we visit - Hy-Vee and Fareway.

Step 2: Find Sales on Fresh Ingredients
Once I have the flyers, I go through them and mark any sales on fresh ingredients that they have. For example, as I write this, I’m reviewing Hy-Vee’s ad for October 14 through October 20, and I’m noticing several things on sale: fresh zucchini for $0.89 a pound, fresh yellow squash for $0.89 a pound, sweet yellow onions for $0.99 a pound, yellow bell peppers for $0.99 a pound, tons of apple sales, ground turkey for $2.18 a pound, hormone- and antibiotic-free cageless chicken for $1.99 a pound, and so on.

I ignore the sales on most prepackaged items. We focus on buying fresh foods and staples like flour for our meals. Over the long haul, the fresh items are cheaper and healthier.

Step 3: Do Some Recipe Research
This week, I know I’ll be working with ground turkey, whole chicken, zucchini and squash, yellow bell peppers, sweet yellow onions, apples, and the other meat we have in our freezer from bulk purchases. What recipes can I find that utilize these ingredients?

I go to a recipe search engine like FoodieView and just enter combinations of the on-sale fresh ingredients that sound interesting. My first attempt was searching for “turkey, zucchini, onion” and I immediately found a turkey and zucchini meat loaf recipe from Epicurious. Searching for “yellow bell, chicken” gets me an interesting chicken bell pepper recipe (which I’ll use, but modify a bit). Chicken-apple-bacon burgers? Yum. Plus, you can easily grill sliced squash (dipped in olive oil and ground pepper) for a wonderful vegetable side dish.

These ideas provide the backbone for several meals throughout the week, so I start planning ahead.

Step 4: Create a Week-Long Meal Plan
I usually start off with my blank meal-planning worksheet and fill in the dinners first based on the above recipes. For us, breakfasts are usually quite simple and lunches usually consist of leftovers, so those columns are quite easy as well.

I usually try to make most weeknight meals pretty easy. I usually attempt one difficult recipe during the week and one on a weekend, with the others being simple. Whole chicken roasting? That’s a difficult one. Chicken-apple burgers? Easy.

We usually have homemade pizza one night a week, often Fridays. We also often have pasta one night a week, often Tuesdays (for some reason). So I’ll pencil those things in, too. We have plenty of ingredients on hand for both, so I don’t really need to shop for them - buying flour in bulk makes crust easy, and we keep tons of tomato sauce and ground beef on hand at all times.

Given all that, it’s pretty easy to fill in the rest of the squares on that meal plan. I usually only need to come up with five suppers per week and two to three lunches per week (for meals where leftovers from the night before don’t carry over). Often, these are just simple sandwiches.

Step 5: Make a Shopping List from the Meal Plan
Once the meal plan is in place, I go through and list all of the ingredients for all of the recipes I’ll make and then cross off the things we have as I find them in the cupboards or refrigerator. Most of this is very easy, but it saves us money - we don’t accidentally buy things we already have on hand.

I also check the staples - flour, milk, yeast, juice boxes, and so on - and add replenishments to the list.

Step 6: Go Grocery Shopping - And Stick to Your List
Once you have the list in place, it’s simple. Take it to the grocery store and stick to it. Don’t toss stuff that’s not on your list into the cart. Since you’ve already planned your meals, you know that you don’t need it.

Using this path will also make grocery shopping itself substantially quicker. Most of your purchases will be around the edges of the store, in the produce and meat sections. You won’t have to go up and down every aisle to find the items you need. This will shave significant time off of your shopping trip.

In the end, though, when you go home, unpack your groceries, and put that meal plan up on the fridge, you’ll find that overall it hasn’t taken you any more time than a grocery trip without planning would have taken, plus you now have a clear plan for meals for the week and you’ve saved significant money at the grocery store.

Good luck!

This has been a guest post from Trent Hamm who writes about personal finance at The Simple Dollar. Please visit his blog for even more articles like this one.

Changes You Can Make

noreply@blogger.com (JD) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 08:02:00 +0000

One of the strongest memories I have from my childhood comes from when I was about seven years old. We were visiting my grandmother and I walked in on her praying out loud. She was hunched over with her hands closed and her back to me, but I remember her prayer - it still rings in my ear in her soft voice, more than two decades later.

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.

As an adult, I now recognize the prayer as the Serenity Prayer, quoted and used in countless contexts, but still familiar to me in the soft voice of my grandmother, overheard on a cool spring morning.

Even outside of the religious context, it’s a powerful piece of wisdom for people to live their life by. There are some things in life you cannot change, no matter how stubbornly you wish to change it, while at the same time, there are many, many things you can change.

It becomes particularly powerful when you apply that filter to the difficult areas of your life - where you’re having trouble. I’ll walk through some of my deepest personal challenges, to show you what I mean.

I cannot change the stupid spending mistakes I made in the past. I spent money in countless incredibly stupid and immature ways and that added up to a debt that took me years to take care of. I can’t help but wonder where I might have been had I not made those mistakes.

I can change my spending habits going forward. Right now I can make the right choice, even though I made bad choices before. I don’t have to go out there and spend money on stuff I don’t really need. Instead, I can save it for the things that really matter.

I cannot change my hypothyroidism. It reduces my overall energy level compared to a truly normal person, period. No matter what I do in life, I can’t change that. Even taking a daily Synthroid won’t help.

I can change my exercise habits. In the end, it’s still up to me to push myself out of that chair and get some exercise in. My choice to exercise might be a bit tougher choice for me than for others, but it’s still a choice, and I have the power to make the right one.

I cannot change the amount I owe on my mortgage. I owe a lot of money on my home, no two ways about it. Sometimes, thinking about the amount simply inspires awe in me.

I can change the effort I put forth into repaying it. I can directly repay it if that seems like a better investment, or invest extra funds if I can beat the rate of return on early mortgage payments. I don’t have to be trapped for the remaining twenty nine years of a thirty year mortgage unless I choose to be.

I cannot change my wife’s energy level in the evenings. My wife gets up before I do and is often really tired in the evenings, drifting off to sleep far earlier than I do. I often am up for a good hour or two while she sleeps, and I wish it weren’t so.

I can change how I spend my time in the evenings. I can spend as much time with her as I can until she goes to sleep, then focus on getting mindless household tasks done. This enables both of us to spend more time with our children - and more time with each other.

I cannot change the people I’ve let down in the past. I’ve let friendships and other connections fall apart due to lack of attention and effort to maintain them, not realizing I’m losing friends until they’re already gone.

I can change my relationships with people now and in the future. Good relationships need some regular care and maintenance, and it’s up to me to do that. Each day, I can make that choice to get in touch with a family member or friend, just to see what they’re up to and if we can help each other through life.

Today, spend some time looking at the hard areas in your life and see if you can find a piece that you can change. It might be as simple as changing a small spending habit, or it might be as big as finally realizing you need help with substance abuse. Making a change for the better in any part of your life that is dragging you down is the surest way to financial and personal success.

This has been a guest post from Trent Hamm who writes about personal finance at The Simple Dollar. Please visit his blog for even more articles like this one.

Simple Free Friday: Command and Conquer Gold

noreply@blogger.com (JD) — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 07:40:00 +0000

Ever played Command and Conquer? This pacagage may fe frugal, but not exactly GTD. I get totally hooked on theese real time strategy games.

Electronic Arts in 2007 released the cool classic Command & Conquer Tiberian Dawn real-time strategy blockbuster as a free download for the game's 12th anniversary. This was one of the first games to nail the genre of real time strategy.

Downloading and installing the game may take a little effort, however.

Also, the files are in .iso format, so you'll need to burn the files to cd and follow the instructions (still available from EA) to install.

More effort than the usual download to be sure, but if you're nostalgic for a classic game it's a nice free friday option. Happy gaming

Simple Free Friday: StarOffice (application)

noreply@blogger.com (JD) — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 07:19:00 +0000

If you prefer offline apps that reside on your PC (and looks more like Microsoft) rather than online ones like Buzzword, then give the free StarOffice suite a trial. The package includes a word processor, a spreadsheet app and a presentation program, among other goodies. It's part of the free Google Pack, which also contains a bunch of other programs you might not want. During the Google Pack download, simply check the box next to StarOffice and uncheck all the others.

Simple Free Friday: online word processor

noreply@blogger.com (JD) — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 08:00:00 +0000

There is a lot of web-based and free word processors to choose from, out there in the world wide web. It is just that most aren't as slick as this one. The design is vista like and elegant, menu items slide in and out of place, and it's incredibly simple to use. It is not only about the bling. Buzzword has a lot of features, many of which I miss in Google Documents. Inserting tables and graphics is no problem, and the editor is true WYSIWYG and you can see the pagebreaks like you would do in Word. Give Buzzword a try.

Editors note: This is the first post in a series I have thought of in a while. The aim is to convey simething simple, free or at least frugal to you every friday. This is also a trial in posting on a more regular basis than I have been before.

* Simple Free Friday looks at free or frugal things for you every friday *

Three Things You Wish You’d Known at 20

noreply@blogger.com (JD) — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 21:40:00 +0000

Sara @ On Simplicity has a post about what you wish you had known at 20. Mine have something to do with money and teeth...

Start saving for retirement (compound interests)
Keep your teeth perfect and you'll save money and agony
Do not collect anything - it is pointless, un-frugal and a clutter (I am still selling off stuff I have collected)

I think that these apply to most people.

Could you live with just 100 things?

noreply@blogger.com (JD) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 08:19:00 +0000

Photo by sindesign

Ridiculous consumption is one of the trademarks of the western world. We have the money, and spare time to make plain stupid purchases. We believe in consumption. It has become one of the new religions of the world. Trying to keep up with the Joneses is a never ending task, as there will always be someone with something better, bigger and newer.

One of the symptoms of this culture of consumptions is overfilled houses. You do not own things, they own you. Along comes the 100 Thing Challenge, a grass-roots movement in which otherwise seemingly normal folks are pledging to whittle down their possessions to a mere 100 items.

Bruno over at guynameddave.com is far in his own 100 Thing Challenge.

I am uncluttering myself, but taking it to just 100 things seems too extreme to me. So Bruno's efforts is inspiration not to let things pile up. An important point is to avoid purchase the stuff in the first place.

I can not set a number on the amount og things I need in order to function, but I have been digitalizing music and pictures so that most of the stuff is one thing - my computer.

The Gift Card Dilemma(s)

noreply@blogger.com (JD) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 08:21:00 +0000

A few days ago, on the very day I pledged to reduce my personal book buying budget to $0 for the coming year, a little surprise came in the mail: a $25 gift card.

To a bookstore.

Ordinarily, this kind of thing is just something to laugh off and not worry about, but the whole situation made me think seriously about gift cards, and it made me realize that there are a lot of interesting little problems related to them.

Should you use a gift card as soon as possible after receiving it? I’ve come to believe that this is the optimal strategy for gift card use. Why? First of all, if you don’t use it, you tend to forget about it (and potentially lose it). According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, “More than 10 percent of the $58.3 billion in gift cards bought [in 2006] won’t be used”. Why? Often, it’s because they’re simply lost or forgotten about in a desk drawer somewhere. I know that we had a spa gift certificate for years floating around - it finally got lost in the move.

A second factor to consider is inflation. Let’s say, hypothetically, that you have a gift certificate worth $100 to a health food store. With inflation at 9%, if you hold onto that card for a year, you’ll only get roughly $91 (in today’s dollars) worth of stuff when you finally use it. Our spa certificate was for $50 off a couple’s massage - when we received it, the couple’s massage at that spa was $89. Now it’s $129.

My advice? If you have a gift card, use it as soon as you can. This eliminates the risk of forgetting about it or losing it and also prevents inflation from eating away some of the value of the card.

How should you handle spending “over” the amount of the card? I know that if I walked into a bookstore with a $25 gift card, the likelihood is that I would spend some small amount over the value of the card just to make sure I used all of it. If not, I’d keep the card around in my pocket and then use it in such a way in the future.

In either case, the presence of a gift card often subtly encourages us to spend money we wouldn’t otherwise spend. I often use them as justification - I can now get this $29.99 item I don’t really need for only $4.99! - for completely unnecessary purchases.

What’s a good strategy to adopt here? Go with a friend or two and then spend less than the value of the gift card. Then, if your friend is also making a purchase anyway, slip them the remainder of your card. Not only will they appreciate it, you also won’t find yourself stumbling to spend the last little bit of that gift card.

What if you don’t want the gift card at all? Not too long ago, I won a gift card to Sephora. For those unaware, Sephora is a store that sells cosmetics. What use could I have for such a card, really? I’m a guy living in Iowa who prefers to dress in blue jeans and comfortable shirts.

You have several options here, but my favorite is to simply re-gift such a card. Find someone you know who might actually use the card and give it to them, either for a gift-giving occasion or just because you can. This either serves a purpose of giving you a very inexpensive gift for someone or else helps you cement a relationship with someone. In either case, it’s an added value for you.

In my opinion, gift cards only work as a gift if you know they fill a specific desire of a person. Give a book lover a gift certificate to a bookstore and they’ll love you for it (especially if you’ve slipped it inside a gift of a paperback you think they’ll love or one that holds special meaning for you). Give it to someone you don’t know well and they’ll probably just shrug their shoulders. If you’re in a situation where you’re giving someone something as generalized as a Target gift card - one that doesn’t match any sort of specific interest or attribute about the recipient - just give them cash. Cash is the gift card that works anywhere, after all.

As for my book store gift certificate, I’m going to hold onto it until the end of my pledge. Using it now seems like cheating - and a sure way to convince myself to spend a little more and completely destroy my pledge.

This has been a guest post from Trent Hamm who writes about personal finance at The Simple Dollar. Please visit his blog for even more articles like this one.

Kiva.org is a success

noreply@blogger.com (JD) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:54:00 +0000

With the loans I have made so far, I must admit at Kiva.org works like a charm. My first loans have been fully repaid and the rest are on their way.

I like the fact that you can see the receiving end of the money and 100% goes to that person. I have made 20 loans by now and 3 of those have been fully paid back, while the remaining seventeen are right on schedule.

Make a Small Loan, Make a Big Difference - Check out Kiva.org to learn how you can change a life too.

Let's make it a better world one loan at a time.

Eight Little Frugal Tactics I’ve Found So Far This Summer

noreply@blogger.com (JD) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 21:22:00 +0000

My wife and I both like to press our creativity and see what money-saving tactics we can come up with that save a sizable amount of money and have a lot of fun along the way. Here are eight we’ve discovered over the last several months (yep, I’ve been saving these along the way).

1. Community festivals can be a very cheap way to spend a summer weekend, particularly ones near your home or ones that line up well with other planned summer trips. Just take along a sack lunch, watch a parade and the other activities (or even participate), and even sample some of the local fare by buying one and sharing it with the rest of your group. Even better, you can participate in events that push you a bit outside your comfort zone and let you try something a bit different than usual.

For example, this past weekend, my wife and children and I attended Nordic Fest in Decorah, Iowa, which happened to fall on the same weekend as a family event. We spent most of Saturday at the festival. We tried out some of the Norwegian food (abelskivers were my favorite - balls of a pancake-like pastry covered in jam and powdered sugar, and they were only $0.25 a pop). We watched the parade (free). Our children got their faces and arms painted (free). We even spent a couple hours in the afternoon watching a rock throwing contest in which I participated. In fact, here’s a video of one of my attempts, in which I chuck a hundred pound rock roughly nineteen feet.

A cheap weekend of fun for the whole family, indeed. (If you’re unable to see the video, check it out here.)

2. Prepare a meal before you go on a long trip. Before a recent weekend trip, we made eggplant lasagna and put it in the refrigerator. Three days later, when we returned mid-afternoon, worn out from a very active weekend, we just popped the lasagna in the oven and had a very inexpensive home-cooked meal.

Before figuring this out, we would often eat out at the end of a long trip because we were worn out after the trip. It was simply much easier to do that than to go home and prepare a meal, and that often meant $20 to $30 would be invested in the meal. By preparing the “welcome home” meal before we left, we trimmed the cost down to $3 or so.

3. Be inclusive with the neighbors as it can save you money and help forge powerful relationships. We have a swing set and a sandbox in our yard and as our son has grown older, he’s begun to interact quite a bit with other children nearby. With the recent arrival of a new family next door, with a youngest child just slightly older than our son, this has kicked up a notch.

We just made it very clear to the neighbors that their children were welcome to play in our yard and on our play equipment, no questions asked, the very day they moved in. Before long, they had invited other children in the neighborhood to play on the equipment and we welcomed all of them. Because of this, our son has had an army of children to play with all summer, we’ve become familiar with many more families on the block, and our son has been invited to play with many other children, improving his social skills. All with absolutely no cost to us (and often some savings, considering we’re playing in the yard instead of engaging in other activities).

4. Making your own beer and wine is very cost-effective if you prefer craft beers and solid wines. If you’re a “two buck Chuck” person or you prefer Busch Light to everything else, making your own beer isn’t very cost-effective. However, if your tastes run more towards craft beers and solid offerings from local vineyards, then making your own can be very cost-effective (and very tasty, to boot).

For example, my wife and I recently made a batch of oatmeal stout at home. Oatmeal stouts are rather intricate brews with a lot of ingredients and you can rarely find them in stores for less than $11 per six pack of bottles. We made forty two bottles of oatmeal stout for about $45, all told. This averaged out to about $6.50 per six pack of bottles. Now, if you compare that price to most mainstream beers (Busch, Budweiser, Miller), that’s not a particularly strong savings, but if you compare it to more craft-oriented beers (Sam Adams, Goose Island, Sierra Nevada, Rogue, etc.), it can be a serious bargain - and a lot of fun. If there’s interest, I’d be glad to post a walkthrough and a cost analysis of the next batch we make.

5. I’ve started to save my shredded paper because it makes spectacular campfire kindling. Whenever I have a pile of papers to shred, I just shred them up, then get them just a little wet. Then I squeeze the shredded moist paper down into a consistent but loose ball (mostly just making sure they stick together from the moisture), then let the ball dry out in the garage.

Before a camping trip, I grab a few of these dry balls of paper and pack them away. Then, when we build a campfire, I stack up the wood, put the dry paper ball at the bottom, and light the paper ball. It goes up in flames very quickly and usually has enough heat in a football-sized ball to get some smaller pieces of wood burning. This saves money on campfire starters and lets us actually utilize the shredded papers instead of just tossing them in the trash.

6. Another “hot” tip - campfire ashes make great fertilizer. Just scoop up the ashes when you’re done and save them in a container. When you get home, dump them out around the base of any bushes you have, in your garden, or even in your compost bin. Wood ash contains plenty of potassium, calcium, and magnesium and works well as a fertilizer if applied at a rate of about five pounds per hundred square feet.

It’s worthwhile to note that you shouldn’t do this if your soil is already very alkaline. If you garden, you probably already have some idea as to the pH of your soil - if you don’t, do a pH test. If the pH is above 7 or 8, don’t add wood ashes to your soil. However, if the pH is lower, wood ashes will be a nice benefit - and you can’t argue with the cost and environmental friendliness of the source.

7. Look for “mistinted” paint at your local hardware store if you’re about to paint a room and don’t have a need for an exact shade. You’ll often find gallons for just a dollar or two and the paint is just fine - it just happened to not perfectly color match someone else’s needs. Often, you can find enough for a room of the exact same shade and, if not, you can easily get more just by asking them to make more of that shade.

This works best if you’ve decided to re-paint a room but aren’t too worried about the exact color of the room. For example, we’re discussing repainting my office in a light green. Since I’m not too concerned about the exact shade, we’ll just dig through their “mistinted” paint until I find a “light green” that I like and get it for incredibly cheap. That’s how you redecorate for pennies.

8. Perennial vegetables are an incredibly cost-effective (and effort effective) way to garden. Take, for example, our asparagus patch. We started it this spring and have some shoots up out of the ground. For the next three years, we’ll not even touch this patch - nothing at all. After that, fresh asparagus every spring, like clockwork, with no effort.

If you like fresh garden fare but hate planting and dealing with gardening and you also don’t like the cost of replenishment each year, look into planting perennials, which grow up automatically each spring. Many herbs are perennials, as are asparagus, Pacific spinach, sweet potatoes, strawberries, and countless others. Just plant them once and they come back every year with very little tending required, just harvesting. That’s cost-effective gardening.

This has been a guest post from Trent Hamm who writes about personal finance at The Simple Dollar. Please visit his blog for even more articles like this one.

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Changes You Can Make

Simple Free Friday: Command and Conquer Gold

Simple Free Friday: StarOffice (application)

Simple Free Friday: online word processor

Three Things You Wish You’d Known at 20

Could you live with just 100 things?

The Gift Card Dilemma(s)

Kiva.org is a success

Top 5 Most Inspirational Videos on YouTube

Eight Little Frugal Tactics I’ve Found So Far This Summer