The Simple Dollar Time Machine: August 28, 2010
Many newer readers of The Simple Dollar haven’t been exposed to the hundreds of great articles in the archives of the site, so this is a weekly series that highlights the five best posts from one year ago this week, two years ago this week, and three years ago this week. I call it … the Time Machine.
One Year Ago (August 22 – August 28, 2009)
Eating What You Have On Hand My wife and I do these kinds of “pantry dives” every once in a while. We do it to go through the stuff we’ve bought in bulk before it gets too old – things like dry pasta and the like.
Are Poor People Lazy? First of all, let’s distinguish between “poor” (people who don’t have money because of external influences) and “broke” (people who don’t have money because of personal choices). I have a lot of sympathy and desire to help the poor – not so much with the broke, because they can help themselves (though I will give them advice because lack of knowledge can be at work there).
That’s Just the Way It Is? Very few things are “just the way it is.” You can make choices to impact almost everything in your life. It’s really up to you and what you make of it.
Eleven Things You Can Do Today to Fall Behind Financially Yes, fall behind. These are common things that people do all the time.
Cultural Divides There are so many cultural concerns that change the choices we make as adults. The more we can learn from other cultures and adapt our own choices, the better off we are.
Two Years Ago (August 22 – August 28, 2008)
Starting a Bulk-Buying Co-op with Your Friends, Family, and Neighbors You’re never going to use those 36 rolls of toilet paper at Costco? Why not split the cost of the jumbo pack with three friends – each of you paying 25% – and keep nine rolls each at a much lower cost than you’d get elsewhere?
Personal Finance 101: Money Market Accounts Versus Normal Savings Accounts There are some differences – they’re subtle differences, but worth knowing.
Is a Positive Attitude Enough? A positive attitude alone won’t change the world, but a positive attitude is often the difference between success and failure.
Buying Things Because They’re on Sale Is an Awful Way to Save Money This is a big reason why I don’t use general coupon sites. I don’t want to wind up buying stuff I don’t really need or don’t really want just because it’s a “sale.”
Nine Things to Do When the Going Gets Tough There comes a time for everyone where tightening the screws makes all the difference.
Three Years Ago (August 22 – August 28, 2007)
Evaluating My Magazine Subscriptions: Which Ones Are Worth It And Which Ones Aren’t? I do this on a regular basis – and over time, my subscriptions have changed. When I “retire,” they’ll change again (because there are several periodicals I love to read, but I simply don’t have the time to keep up with).
Having A Second Child? Seven Frugal Tips For Getting Ready I remember these days fondly, when we just had our oldest child.
Getting Over The “Taboo” Of Generics And Store Brands I really like the idea of just taking the labels off of stuff. It helps a lot with resisting brand imprinting.
The Real Scoop On Rewards Credit Cards They work … if you’re careful with them.
The Lawn Care Dilemma: How Much Time And Effort Should You Spend? I don’t think there’s an absolute formula for everyone. However, I also think it’s one of those things that’s worth thinking about, because lawn care has both a time and a money cost.
If you’d like to browse through more of the archives, visit the chronology, where all posts are listed in chronological order.
Ten Ways to Get More out of The Simple DollarUpdated!
This is kind of a FAQ for new readers and is posted each week along with the Time Machine. Here are ten great ways for new readers to dig deeper into The Simple Dollar.
1. Subscribe by email or RSS. Visiting The Simple Dollar’s website is great, but for many people, it’s more convenient to receive the articles in another form. It’s easy to join 60,000 other subscribers and get The Simple Dollar’s content by email or in your RSS feeder (if you’re unfamiliar with RSS, check out Google Reader.
2. Comment. Each article on The Simple Dollar has lively discussion. Just click on the green square in the upper right of each article on the website and join in!
3. Become a fan of The Simple Dollar on Facebook. I put up questions and other materials about once every week or two on Facebook (so you won’t be flooded with Simple Dollar updates). Join in the conversation with other Simple Dollar fans and occasionally get some interesting freebies, too.
4. Follow me on Twitter. I post interesting articles, quotes, follow-up material, commentary, and other material on Twitter. Follow me! If you’re unfamiliar with Twitter, it’s essentially an open discussion forum for people to share ideas and thoughts with other like-minded folks – you just choose the people you want to listen to and their ideas and thoughts are all delivered to you on a single page.
5. Read my story of financial meltdown and recovery. The Simple Dollar isn’t based on what I’ve read in books or learned in school. I’ve made a lifetime of financial mistakes – The Simple Dollar is a record of what works for me during the process of getting my life on a better track.
6. Download my free 49 page e-book. Everything You Ever Really Needed to Know About Personal Finance On Just One Page is completely free. It summarizes all of the key lessons I’ve learned along the way about personal finance in one tidy package – in fact, all of the main principles can be found right on the cover.
7. Dig through “31 Days to Fix Your Finances.” 31 Days to Fix Your Finances is an article series that outlines how you can get a grip on your finances over the course of a month.
8. Send me your questions and suggestions. Send me an email and let me know what you’re thinking, what you’d like to see, and any questions you might have. I try to respond to as many emails as possible and I read them all. I may even use your question in a future article!
9. Become a “Friend of The Simple Dollar.” If you find the stuff on The Simple Dollar valuable and are willing to spend five minutes or so a month to help me out with small things, please consider signing up to be a “Friend of The Simple Dollar”.
10. Email a great article you find to a friend. Find an article that you think your friend would love? At the bottom of each article, you’ll find a link that says “Email this” – just click on that, type in your friend’s address, and send it right along to them!
Continue reading The Simple Dollar Time Machine: August 28, 2010 …
From The Simple Dollar.
Make Each Day Your Masterpiece
Those who have followed this blog for a long time know that I don’t have many personal heroes. There are a lot of people who have valuable things to say, but there are very few people who have reached such a trusted level with me that I tend to put extra value on the things they say just because that person said them.
One of those few people was John Wooden, who passed away this past week (I mentioned it briefly in my reader mailbag on Monday). A few years ago, I wrote about how John Wooden had taught me a lot about personal finance and over the years, I’ve read his books and a big pile of interviews he’d given.
Of all of the things I’ve taken away from the things he’s said, one stands out above all others.
Make each day your masterpiece.
In other words, how would you spend today if it were the one day by which your entire life would be judged?
This is something I make a genuine effort to keep in mind every single day of my life.
What would I write if I knew I only had one shot at making a difference in someone’s life?
How would I spend the next hour with my four year old son if I knew it was the only hour he’d remember from his childhood when he was an adult?
How would I spend this evening with my wife if it were the last evening we would spend together?
How would I spend my money today if I knew that today spoke financially for the rest of my days?
Would I hold my temper? Would I stop being such a slob? Would I set a good example? Would I not worry what the neighbors thought and just run through the sprinkler in my clothes, laughing with my children? Would I make a perfectly delicious, tasty meal and smile at my daughter across the dinner table – or would I just throw a box of Tuna Helper out there?
Every single day, we’re making an impact on the people around us. The people we love. The people we merely like. The people we will never directly know. Even on ourselves – our future health and happiness and relationships and skills and finances.
Every single day, we have a chance to really make all of those things shine – or we can buy a sack full of double cheeseburgers and sit in the basement all evening watching Seinfeld reruns.
Today is really the only day that matters. You can’t make your past self do anything. You can’t make your future self do anything, either. Your only freedom of choice is right now, and thus today is your one chance to paint your masterpiece.
What are you going to do today to make it your masterpiece?
Continue reading Make Each Day Your Masterpiece …
From The Simple Dollar.
Story pitches and daily deadlines
A couple of weeks ago, I ranted on Twitter about getting misdirected story pitches sent to me at The Monroe Evening News in Monroe, Mich.
My print media duties are very, very local. We call it Community Page. Other newspapers call it the social desk or neighbors section. If a fundraiser is taking place or a [...]
Continue reading Story pitches and daily deadlines …
From Monroe on a Budget.
Tired of Trying to Stretch The Almighty Dollar?
This past week I hit a huge wall of frustration. I am sure I am not alone when I say this:
Do you ever just get tired of trying to stretch that almighty dollar bill?
We had just finished getting some bills caught up and had just a little extra money to spend for a possible weekend getaway, when:
~the lawnmower broke
~the washer went on the fritz
~a part had to be replaced on the A/C unit
Our little bit of extra spending money had to go to fix all of these things. At this point I was simply tired and frustrated and I just lost it. Have you ever felt that way?
Sometimes life throws us curveballs, and for those of us who live paycheck to paycheck, any and all little setbacks can throw a kink in your finances. My advice to you is this–it is okay every now and then to have a good cry about whatever is bothering you. Crying is a cleansing mechanism for your soul. Once you get it out of your system, pick yourself up, dust yourself off and get right back on the frugal train.
Another thing that I realize I cannot do is focus on all that my neighbor has going for them right now. I have neighbors that are buying things left and right. If I focus on all that they have, I begin to look at what I either don’t have or the hand me down stuff I do have and start to covet what they are getting. This is a big NO-NO! We need to learn to be content with the things that God has given us.
Anyway, I just wanted to encourage you today to keep plugging along. When the going gets tough, get in there, roll up those sleeves, and get tougher! We have all been there and done that–so let’s encourage one another today in this area!
Continue reading Tired of Trying to Stretch The Almighty Dollar? …
From Econobusters.
Yard Sale Decor
When you decorate with yard sale decor, patience is required. For instance, we really needed some kind of side table next to a chair in the living room, but I didn’t really want an traditional end table. I found a couple of old suitcases I had, put a tray on top and it served the purpose. Still, it was definitely a bit too low. That’s where the patience came in. We just lived with it this way.
Unfortunately, I’ve had minimal time to hit any yard sales this year. However, some neighbors were holding one just down the street and I decided to make a quick stop on my way to town. Yay! I found this.
It was kind of funny, because I just stuck it in the house until I had time to mess with it. Several family members asked who the suitcase was for. (I think they were worried it was for them!) lol
Now my end table is the perfect height. Not only that, I can store stuff inside! 
Good deal for $5.00, right?
For more Works for Me Wednesday tips visit Kristen at We Are That Family!
Continue reading Yard Sale Decor …
From Econobusters.
The Simple Dollar Time Machine: April 10, 2010
Many newer readers of The Simple Dollar haven’t been exposed to the hundreds of great articles in the archives of the site, so this is a weekly series that highlights the five best posts from one year ago this week, two years ago this week, and three years ago this week. I call it … the Time Machine.
One Year Ago (April 4 – April 10, 2009)
Trimming the Fat from Your Work-Related Spending The act of working can be expensive: work clothes, eating out for meals during work time, travel, commuting, and so on. Here are some tactics for trimming that extra expense.
The Neighborhood Cooperative If you can find ways to share costs with your neighbors, you both win. Here’s some advice on how to get the ball rolling on such cooperation.
The Stroop Effect and Your Wallet Our mind does funny things. Here’s a great example of one of the quirks – and how it affects our spending.
Everything You Ever Really Needed to Know About Personal Finance On Just One Page – Download My Personal Finance eBook for Free! This little document includes all of the key concepts and ideas that fill up my personal finance philosophy. Best of all – it’s free.
Rounding Up Debt Payments: Does It Really Help? It certainly does, even if you just round up to the nearest dollar. How much? Click into the article to find out.
Two Years Ago (April 4 – April 10, 2008)
Making Your Own Laundry Detergent: A Detailed Visual Guide Homemade laundry detergent is a surprisingly large money saver, especially if you do a lot of laundry. Here’s a detailed post discussing how I make mine.
The Value of Personal Trust In a world where we’re trained not to trust others, extending some personal trust can have a great deal of value.
Ten Killer Tactics for Developing a New Skill I make an effot to work on a new skill each and every day. I think it’s a very powerful way to grow as a person.
Inspired By Carrie, Our Experiments in Disposable Diapering The title here is a bit of a misnomer, as it describes our transitioning from disposable diapers to cloth diapers.
Personal Finance 101: Comparing Debts and Developing a Debt Repayment Plan If you have any trouble at all with managing your debts, this article is an absolute must-read.
Three Years Ago (April 4 – April 10, 2007)
The Tao of Setting Concrete Financial Goals Coming up with specific, rational goals and putting them down on paper is a huge part of personal finance success.
15 Ways Department Stores Try To Trick You Into Spending More Than You Need To – And 10 Ways To Fight Back Department stores use a lot of little tricks to subtly convince you to buy, buy, buy. Here are fifteen of those tricks, along with ten general tactics to minimize the impact of such psychological traps.
Orson Welles, A Zither, and Personal Finance The Third Man is one of my favorite movies of all time. Here’s how some of the ideas from the movie pop up again in personal finance and career management.
Short Term Savings – How To Plan For Upcoming Vacations, Auto Purchases, And So On Short term savings goals (three years or less) are incredibly useful for helping you make significant purchases like automobiles and vacations. It just takes discipline and some of the tactics in this article to help you come out on top.
Ten Financial Reasons To Turn Off Your Television – And Ten Things To Replace It With This is one of my most controversial articles. I believe television is one of the biggest enemies to personal finance and career success, if not the biggest enemy.
If you’d like to browse through more of the archives, visit the chronology, where all posts are listed in chronological order.
Nine Ways to Get More out of The Simple Dollar
This is kind of a FAQ for new readers and is posted each week along with the Time Machine. Here are nine great ways for new readers to dig deeper into The Simple Dollar.
1. Subscribe by email or RSS. Visiting The Simple Dollar’s website is great, but for many people, it’s more convenient to receive the articles in another form. It’s easy to join 60,000 other subscribers and get The Simple Dollar’s content by email or in your RSS feeder (if you’re unfamiliar with RSS, check out Google Reader.
2. Comment. Each article on The Simple Dollar has lively discussion. Just click on the green square in the upper right of each article on the website and join in!
3. Read my story of financial meltdown and recovery. The Simple Dollar isn’t based on what I’ve read in books or learned in school. I’ve made a lifetime of financial mistakes – The Simple Dollar is a record of what works for me during the process of getting my life on a better track.
4. Download my free 49 page e-book. Everything You Ever Really Needed to Know About Personal Finance On Just One Page is completely free. It summarizes all of the key lessons I’ve learned along the way about personal finance in one tidy package – in fact, all of the main principles can be found right on the cover.
5. Follow me on Twitter – or other social networks. I post tons of interesting articles, quotes, follow-up material, commentary, and other material on Twitter. Follow me! If you’re unfamiliar with Twitter, it’s essentially an open discussion forum for people to share ideas and thoughts with other like-minded folks – you just choose the people you want to listen to and their ideas and thoughts are all delivered to you on a single page.
I also participate on several other social networks. Feel free to check me out on del.icio.us (it’s where I collect links, from which I select the ones that appear in my weekly roundups), wakoopa (what software I use), GoodReads (what books I’m reading), Facebook, and FriendFeed (which aggregates everything). I also have an irregularly-updated personal site, TrentHamm.com.
6. Dig through “31 Days to Fix Your Finances.” 31 Days to Fix Your Finances is an article series that outlines how you can get a grip on your finances over the course of a month.
7. Send me your questions and suggestions. Send me an email and let me know what you’re thinking, what you’d like to see, and any questions you might have. I try to respond to as many emails as possible and I read them all. I may even use your question in a future article!
8. Become a “Friend of The Simple Dollar.” If you find the stuff on The Simple Dollar valuable and are willing to spend five minutes or so a month to help me out with small things, please consider signing up to be a “Friend of The Simple Dollar”.
9. Email a great article you find to a friend. Find an article that you think your friend would love? At the bottom of each article, you’ll find a link that says “Email this” – just click on that, type in your friend’s address, and send it right along to them!
Continue reading The Simple Dollar Time Machine: April 10, 2010 …
From The Simple Dollar.
Weather Emergencies
You know me I question everything I see as to whether it makes sense or not. One of the things I always have had a problem with is what good is all of that emergency food and water if it is buried under a pile of rubble or in the case of Kansas and Florida just blown away.
I recently heard someone who must have thought the same thing because they said something which I thought was a very good idea and that was to have more then one emergency stash. For example you could keep an emergency kit in your car (which I do), one at your office, another family members home or friends house.
I know you may think you don’t have room to do this say in the the trunk of your car etc. but you don’t need huge amounts in these back up areas. They have so many vacuum sealed food items and other things you can use which take up little room now. Remember you aren’t needing a 10 course meal for your family only enough to survive on which is very little. This will need to be only a 3 day supply, enough to keep you from starving.
Even 1 high powered “granola” type bar can fill a person up for one meal. This is only for a few days and no one will die of malnutrition in 3 days. Water is most important so if you don’t have room for a bunch of bottled water maybe a small water purifying kit would work.
A second idea I just heard recently was the number 1 thing which will help you survive in an emergency is knowing your neighbors. They said over 90% of people who are saved in an emergency are saved by people they know.
If you think about it that is so true. For example if my neighbors are gone and their house is on fire I can tell the firemen there is one cat and a dog in their house or even more serious if they are in the house I can tell them how many children they have and where their bedrooms are.
Just last year the tornado sirens went off I debated on calling my neighbor to see if they had heard them and thought surely they had. I decided to listen to that little voice I hear once in awhile urging me to do something (I know that sounds weird but you know what I mean) and called. Sure enough they hadn’t heard it.I could list so many more times when neighbors can help each other but don’t have room.
Get to know your neighbors. We had a block party last year and I found out I have some really nice people living in my area so that is one way to get to meet them. If you see your neighbor in their yard walk over and say hi. Don’t use the excuse you are shy or embrarassed – get over it because I would rather have you a little embarrassed for a moment then for something awful happen to you or your children because you didn’t want to be embarrassed. This is a two way street. Not only can they help you but you maybe the one to save them some day.
One last thing is have everyone in your family learn basic first aid. It may some day mean the difference of saving your life or someone you love.
There is an old saying which is so very true, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
Please be prepared.
Jill
Continue reading Weather Emergencies …
From Living On A Dime Blog » Living On A Dime Blog.
I don’t want your bill collector calls, Tina
From time to time, bill collectors have reached my home in attempts to contact other people.
In one situation during the early 1990s, the bill collectors were looking for one of my neighbors. That got resolved quickly.
In very aggravating situation during the mid-1990s, the bill collectors were looking for someone who used to have my phone [...]
Continue reading I don’t want your bill collector calls, Tina …
From Monroe on a Budget.
Toledo Blade: 1 in 4 Toledo residents live in poverty
Life is pretty rough in southeast Michigan these days, but it’s no picnic either for our neighbors and friends in northwest Ohio. Just drive 15 miles on I-75 from Monroe, Mich., to Toledo, Ohio, and here is a headline of the day …
The Toledo Blade is reporting today US ranks Toledo as nation’s 8th-most impoverished.
A snippet:
The latest U.S. Census Bureau poverty statistics rank Toledo the nation’s eighth most impoverished city, with 24.7 percent of its residents living below the poverty line. That’s nearly twice the national poverty rate of 13.2 percent.
Many believe the situation is worse now locally and nationally, given that those Census figures were based on late 2008 data. America’s economic crisis worsened during the first half of 2009.
Continue reading Toledo Blade: 1 in 4 Toledo residents live in poverty …
From Monroe on a Budget.
Trimming the Average Budget: Household Operations
This is part of an ongoing series about how to trim the budget of the average American. As this series focuses on such broad-based tips, some will work for you and some will not. You’re invited to mention in the comments the tips that you found to be the most useful for inclusion in a comprehensive budget trimming guide at the conclusion of this series.
Housing – household operations – $984
Household operations? Think housecleaning services, nannies, babysitters, child care, and the like – services people pay for to keep their household running efficiently.
Quite often, these expenses are purchased in order to buy time for other things, like leisure or spending time with family – and that’s understandable. However, there are still many ways to peel back a bit more on the average household operations budget.
Make sure you’re actually utilizing the time you’re saving. If you’re paying for a housecleaning service just so you can sit around each evening and do nothing at all, you might want to reconsider your choices, particularly if you’re swimming in debt. Household services are fine if you actually need the time for something positive and productive in your life, but if you’re not utilizing that time, it’s probably time to reconsider the whole thing.
Cut back on housecleaning services and see if it makes a difference. If you pay for a housecleaner, reduce the frequency of the visits and see if it makes any sort of impact on your life. You might find that with just a bit of casual picking up, you don’t really need that much time from the housekeeper, thus saving you money.
Buy services in cooperation with your neighbors. A few houses on our block negotiated with a lawn treatment service in order to get a reduced rate for all of them. If you utilize services that people you know also use, look into negotiating for a better group rate for all of you. This particularly works well if you’re a new customer or if you overlap geographically in a way that’s convenient.
Look for opportunities for a more flexible working schedule. A more flexible working schedule allows you to rely on childcare and other services less, directly saving you money. Look for telecommuting opportunities, alternate work schedules, and so on.
Start a babysitting co-op. In order to reduce babysitting costs, several families in our area have a babysitting co-op. One weekend evening (often, it’s Fridays) on a rotating basis, one of the sets of parents offers free babysitting for all of the other parents in the co-op, giving those parents a date night or an evening to take care of other business. The babysitting service rotates through all of the families, and each week, all families always have the option of using the service provided by another family. This saves on “date night” babysitting costs for all of the families involved.
Alternately, start a direct babysitting exchange. Another family I know has a direct exchange with another family. One Saturday a month, they watch the children of their partner family. Another Saturday a month, that partner family watches their children. This gives both sets of parents one free weekend day to take care of projects or spend time together without the children – and it’s free. This is often much better than hiring a babysitter each month for a full day.
Try doing things for yourself. Instead of hiring a lawn treatment service, I got a small fertilizing and seeding cart and learned how to do it myself. I just spread seed and dry compost in the spring and more dry compost in the fall using my spreader. It takes about an hour and just replaces my exercise session for the day – and there’s no service fee nor no cost for the fertilizer.
Always shop around. Sometimes, the service you want for the price you want isn’t available when you want it, so you wind up with your second choice (paying more or receiving a lower-quality product). If you find yourself in that situation, always put yourself on the waiting list, then switch when the opportunity comes around. Just because there isn’t a slot for you right now doesn’t mean there won’t be, and you can often improve your “bang for the buck” by being patient and switching when there’s an opportunity.
I want your help! In the comments, please let me know which of the tips you find most useful for trimming these costs. I’ll include the top choices in a comprehensive budget trimming guide at the conclusion of the series.
Continue reading Trimming the Average Budget: Household Operations …
From The Simple Dollar.