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Hoopde for sale. Starting price - $500. Winning bid - $226,521.

Paul Michael — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:25:25 +0000

I love stories like this. It gives me hope that one day, something “worthless” sitting in my garage will instantly fill up my daughters’ college funds. In this case, the seemingly worthless item was a rusty bucket of bolts called a 1963 Pontiac Le Mans Tempest. When I saw the pictures, I was surprised at the high starting bid of $500. Imagine how the owner felt when it netted him almost a quarter of a million dollars.

For those of you unfamiliar with the term, Urban Dictionary describes a hoopde (or hoopdie) as: A busted up car, usually very rusty, dented, with broken headlights, bumpers and/or doors; any junk car that can be obtained for less then $1000. And as you can see by the pictures below, this one certainly fulfills all of those criteria. It has no motor, the bodywork is mostly rust and the trunk doesn’t even open. What would you pay for it?

However, as Autoblog recently reported, this was no ordinary car.

The car's Plexiglas windows, unusual suspension setup and a dash plate bearing the name of a racetrack tipped the owner to its racing history. But what he didn't know is that the car is one of only six 1963 Pontiac LeMans Tempest Super Duty coupes ever made. Hemmings recently did a story on the rare cars in which they listed all ever built. This one looks to have been driven by Stan Antlocer and was the fastest drag car in 1963 before disappearing.

Over the nine days the car was up on eBay, things went from good to great to unbelievable. Clearly this was something way beyond the expectations of the owner. It’s reported that he was offered a buy-it-now offer of $160,000, but turned it down because of, get this, fears of negative feedback! Would you care for that kind of money?

With only seven minutes until the close of the auction, the tally stood at $95k. But when it was all over, the grand total was a whopping $226,521. That’s over $66k more than the firm offer he had turned down. In this economy, that kind of windfall is something of a dream come true.

Stories like this are rare, but they do happen. And that means we all need to be studious before we have a garage sale or sell something on eBay or Craigslist. Personally, if I had inherited that crappy looking car, I would have been overjoyed with $1000 for it. More fool me. But we may all have hidden treasures right under our noses.

Take that old, dusty painting stuck in the back of the closet or basement. Most of us have one, sometimes handed down by an aging relative that we took graciously so as not to hurt their feelings. It is most likely just an old painting. But it may be a masterpiece, as The Antiques Roadshow has so often highlighted .

And an old weaving...

Old watches, ornaments, papers, books, you name it, sometimes there really is a treasure in the trash. So look, think and maybe do a little research. If you’re not sure of an item’s value, check it out. A little of your time could turn into a whole lot of money.

Permalink | 7 comments | Paul Michael's blog | Channel: Frugal Living, Life Hacks, Cars and Transportation, Making Extra Cash

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Three Money Saving Tricks Anyone Can Use

Myscha Theriault — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 15:57:28 +0000

By Myscha Theriault

Too frazzled to figure out frugal? Does just getting through the day leave you so depleted that your eyes start to cross at the mere thought of uber-active savings strategies? This article's for you.

Things are way more hectic this fall in our household, and we are finding that several of our savings approaches are needing to be tweaked in certain situations where going for the full gusto would just interfere with the forward motion of our relocation efforts. (Not to mention making us completely loopy.) Here are a three things we are doing to continue to stretch our budget without stress:

Ye Olde Apron.

Instead of splashing around in the kitchen dirtying top after top, or getting clean T-shirts goopy from a host of household set up chores, I'm re-implementing an old classic. The good old fashioned apron. Good wardrobe staples are hard to come by. And taking care of them so they stand the test of time is another subject altogether.

As someone who is less than smooth when it comes to not spilling things on blouses and other tops, this is one idea I can implement in seconds. It takes way less time than pre-treating stains and doing an unnecessary load of laundry, not to mention the savings in energy and product costs. While I make it a habit not to make homemade tomato sauce in my good white dress blouse, I don't always take the time to change if I'm wearing one of those outfits that's suitable to wear grocery shopping yet not so grungy that I don't care if it's stained. Tossing on an apron saves me time, money and stress.

Hybrid DIY Projects.

What I'm talking about here is taking on easily achievable components of an overall project you are either unable or unwilling to handle completely on your own. Our most recent example is the fence we had to have installed before we could head north to pick up our Labrador, Maggie. Most of our tools are either stored with the military or got lost in the flood. Not to mention that hard core, wind resistant, HOA approved fence building is just not in our skill set. However, cost was an issue and we wanted to save money where we could. So we paid to have the fence installed, and asked the contractor his advice on how to stain and seal it on our own as easily and inexpensively as possible. His advice was an el cheapo insect repellent sprayer and some old dampened sections of cut up T-shirt scraps. While we could have probably bought the staining supplies for less with his contractor rate, we would have had to pay for the extra labor. So this was the best solution for us. We dished out where we had to, and saved cash where it was within our schedule, budget and ability level to do so.

Other areas where you might consider implementing a hybrid DIY project? Nailing up the pre-cut drywall sections where your contractor has set up your interior studs and insulation, updating thrift store fashion with new buttons without having to sew up an entire item on your own, or paying to have a profession strip the paint off an antique and brushing on the Minwax yourself all come to mind. Got another hybrid DIY suggestion? Feel free to sound off below.

Divide and Conquer.

What I'm talking about here is breaking down a bulk amount of product into smaller packages or containers. Not only is this a powerful way to stretch large bottles of lotion and other bathroom products, as I mentioned in Savings in Every Room, but it's also a killer strategy for making the most of bulk buying at any time. Even if you shop at warehouse stores with a buddy, as our own Linsey Knerl suggested in a recent article, you can still implement the divide and conquer approach with great success. Greater success actually, because you are able to get larger amounts of product at a great price without having to use as much of your cash up front.

Think bulk restaurant tortilla chips broken down for lunch snacks, large packages of shredded cheese into meal sized packages for the freezer, giant packages of lint and pet hair rollers to stock various areas of the house, cars and in your day pack if you drive to an office every day. Also of note are ground meats, family packages of chicken parts, etc. Now, those of you who follow my blog on a regular basis may be asking how this technique is so radically different from what I discussed in the Assembly Cooking for Newbies article, and other posts. The difference is that for right now, breaking down into smaller packages is ALL that I am doing.

Here's a specific example: Yesterday, when we drove out to return the moving truck, we stopped by one of the warehouse stores where we have a membership. It has great prices on bulk meats, but you have to buy enormous packs. The ninety percent lean ground beef was around five dollars a pound if you bought a regular family pack, but only $2.48 cents a pound if I bought the gigantic ten pound tube. Normally, I might precook a bunch of it and package it up, moving on to cooking up the next half and whipping up a giant batch of spaghetti sauce. But with this much on my plate? No way. I'm breaking apart the giant packs of ground beef and chicken breast tenders into smaller meal sized freezer baggies and calling it good.

As often as I tend to write about the more hard core active methods of money saving, this year's long transition and start over has forced me to accept some serious limitations on how much I can accomplish under extreme stress. Boxes and plastic bags of clothing are stacked everywhere, and I have several months' worth of mail to file. Not to mention the military shipment that's due to arrive by the end of the month. Today, if I can manage to toss a frozen pizza in the oven for dinner and find my underwear, I will consider myself lucky. Until we have the kitchen organized and set up, power bars, apples and trail mix are still our breakfasts of choice. I haven't even had the time to set up a simple oatmeal station by the microwave. Don't get me wrong, we are grateful to finally have a new roof to call our own. And I know that another week or two of settling in time will do wonders for having our regular systems up and running. In the meantime, these are some of the simplified procedures and techniques we are using to move things along as quickly as possible on the recovery front while still paying attention to pennies where we can. You are more than welcome to ponder these ideas, as well as share any of your own, in the comment section below.

Permalink | 7 comments | Myscha Theriault's blog | Channel: Budgeting

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Restaurant.com 80% off Coupon Code with FatWallet 25% Cashback - $25 Gift Certificates for $1.50

Xin Lu — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 02:16:36 +0000

By Xin Lu

Restaurant.com regularly sells $25 restaurant gift certificates for $10, and $10 gift certificates for $3. From today to 11/20/2008, a coupon code gives you an additional 80% off so a $25 gift certificate is only $2, and a $10 gift certificate is only $0.60! Additionally, FatWallet.com is having a 25% cashback sale on Restaurant.com so if you use FatWallet you would essentially get the $25 gift certificates for $1.50 each, and $10 gift certificates for $0.45 each after you receive the 25% cashback.

The coupon code is SURPRISE. You can search for restaurants within your area and add gift certificates to the restaurants you are interested in, and then add them to your cart and order. One thing that you must do with these gift certificates is to read the fine print. Some restaurants require minimum purchase amounts and some gift certificates can only be used on certain days so make sure that you read the details associated with each gift certifcate. After your purchase, you can print out the certificates or choose to print them later.

Currently the website is very slow because of this promotion, but there are a lot of restaurants to choose from. There are more than 100 restaurants within 15 miles of where I live and I finally purchased a few of these gift certificates to restaurants I know of. The gift certificates generally expire one year from issue and never expire in California and other states where the expiration of gift certificates is illegal. Even if you do not eat out often, these gift certificates could make great stocking stuffers!

Steps to receiving the max amount of discounts:

1. Sign up for FatWallet.com

2. Go to the Restaurant.com landing page and click through to Restaurant.com.

3. Add gift certificates you are interested in purchasing

4. Type in SURPRISE in the discount code box

5. Check out

The coupon code should give you 80% off and the FatWallet cashback should be redeemable in a few weeks. Make sure you don't sign up for additional offers at Restaurant.com.

Permalink | 14 comments | Xin Lu's blog | Channel: Deals and Coupons, Coupons, Food and Drink

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Don't treat businesses like people

Philip Brewer — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 19:29:01 +0000

By Philip Brewer

When you fall short of meeting your obligations, it's natural to feel bad. In fact, it's natural to want to not only meet the letter of your obligation, but also the spirit: to do what it takes to make the other person feel fairly treated. These feelings are very human, and they work well when you're interacting with humans acting as individuals. When you're dealing with businesses, though, they work against you--and businesses will take advantage of that.

Nobody is much surprised when a corporation meets its legal obligations but goes no further. People like to suggest that going beyond is often good business--a reputation for providing good service is worth something--but they don't think it's a moral failure when a corporation does only the legal minimum, because everybody knows that corporations are not moral entities.

With people, though, the rules seem different.

You see this distinction especially starkly with bankruptcy. A person will often feel shame at the idea of bankruptcy. Obviously, a corporation does not. (The owner of a very small corporation might, but that's just another example of confusing the person with the business.) When a corporation files for chapter 11 and the court tells it that it doesn't need to honor its gift cards or its pension obligations, no one imagines that they'll be able to get better treatment by making the corporation feel bad.

Corporations, on the other hand, use this sort of moral suasion to try to control people all the time. You see it, for example, with debt collectors--they try to establish something that seems like a personal relationship, so that the borrower feels bad about being unable to meet his obligation.

You see it most often with employees, because the constant interactions between employee and manager create a circumstance where it's natural to feel a personal relationship.

When a friend of mine quit one job to take another, his old employer offered a large raise and said a lot of nice things about how important he was and how highly valued his work was. My friend was feeling bad about leaving and seriously considering changing his mind, because he wanted to do right by his moral obligation to his old employer, but then remembered that he'd had a salary review just a few months before, where the focus had been on his shortcomings and where the employer had put a dollar figure on the value of his work that was quite a bit lower. Neither those critical statements nor the new complimentary ones were a reflection of what the corporation actually thought--after all, corporations don't think. Rather, both were an attempt by management to get what they wanted--my friend's work at the lowest possible cost.

Another friend was hesitating to move to a much better job, because when she'd been hired, her boss had asked her to "commit" to stay until the end of a project and she'd done so. I pointed out that there were many things her boss might have done to give her incentives to stay--most obviously, he might have given her a contract with a completion bonus. Not only had he not done that, he hadn't given her a contract at all--and I'm sure he wouldn't have "committed" to keep paying her until the end of the project even if business turned down. He had asked for a commitment because such a request costs nothing, and just might work.

Corporations would rather not do expensive things like paying competitive salaries, giving regular raises, and offering a pension to reward long-term service. That costs money, and corporations would rather not spend money. So, they usually start by trying to use a sense of personal obligation to get people to do whatever will help the business. That's why they ask people to "commit" to the company--they do it because they know people will feel obliged to stand by their word, and because guilt is much cheaper than paying a project completion bonus.

This is true for relationships besides just that of employee--customers, borrowers, clients, and venders are all subjected to similar efforts, where the corporation tries to structure things so that people feel (and behave) as if they were in a personal relationship with the business. They do this because it works. It works because people have trouble distinguishing between their legal obligations and their moral obligations, they allow their feelings to push them into making poorer choices.

Because this is all a deliberate effort by corporations to control you, it's sometimes not quite clear what kind of relationship you're in. After all, even though your counterpart is a corporation, your interface with it--boss, loan officer, salesperson--is a person. The whole thing is structured to make you feel uncomfortable if you leave him or her in the lurch. Don't be fooled.

None of this is to say that you're not stuck with your legal obligations. I'm not suggesting that you cheat or steal or even engage in sharp practices or take advantage. But don't imagine that you have a moral obligation to a business. Your moral obligations are to people.

Permalink | 14 comments | Philip Brewer's blog | Channel: Consumer Affairs, General Tips

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The Lowdown On Layaway

Julie Rains — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 15:47:34 +0000

By Julie Rains

Layaway never completely disappeared from the retail landscape but it’s become more prominent with promotions by some national chains and locally-owned shops. Instead of paying for merchandise in full with paper (cash, check) or plastic (credit card, debit card), you enter into an agreement to pay over time, taking possession of an item after you have finished paying. From a financial-discipline and delayed-gratification perspective, layaway is a great concept. Here are questions to ask to make sure a layaway program makes sense for you.

The big question for me is:

Does the store stock this item on a regular basis and if I wait until I have saved the money to pay for it, will it still be available? (If the merchandise would still be around or if I could find a better deal later, I might save my money and buy later).

You might ask the store or online layaway provider:

If the item goes on sale before I finish paying for it, will I pay the full retail price or the discounted sale price?
If I change my mind about the purchase, will all my money be refunded or will I receive a store credit?
Are there fees or other charges associated with the layaway program?
How often do I need to make payments?
Will I lose my deposit and money I’ve paid toward the item if I miss a payment?
Will my item be taken out of inventory and set aside?
Where will my item be stored?

Several years ago, I bought a suit for work by using layaway with a local shop, making payments of irregular amounts when I could (usually every payday); when the balance was paid in full, I took the suit home. Having had problems finding professional clothing in my size (when I was living in a small town in the days before online shopping), I wanted to go ahead and claim the clothes, then pay. Many layaway programs now require paying the full amount within 90 days or less, rather than making payments in an indeterminate time frame.

The gotta-have-it-now approach to shopping and (prior) access to credit are typically mentioned as the reasons for the decline in layaway’s popularity. But, for the retailer, these programs can be time-consuming to administer, require valuable sales floor or backroom space for storage, and reduce the amount of cash available to invest in new inventory, all of which impact profitability. "Same as cash" programs were more attractive from a merchant's perspective and even for some consumers (warning: if you miss the payment deadline, interest is often calculated on the entire purchase amount and not the outstanding balance). Slower sales activity, tighter credit, and consumer preference may have led to a new interest in the pay-first, take-it-home-later programs.

Still, consider if the retailer has the policy, processes, and systems in place to make sure the layaway deal works for you. Get the policy in writing, document payments, and follow the program guidelines. This guide from the FTC gives consumers an idea of what a well-managed layaway program should look like. Checking around my area, I see that bike shops and jewelry stores are offering layaway as well as national retailers, such as Kmart, Sears (recently announced return of layaway), Burlington Coat Factory, and Goody's. There are also online layaway programs offered through eLayaway and Lay-Away.com. (See links for policies.)

An alternative to layaway is to save in a regular savings account and then buy. You can earn interest while you save and have the no-fee option of changing your mind; however, the item you want to buy may no longer be available.

Permalink | 6 comments | Julie Rains's blog | Channel: Credit Cards, Shopping

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Are we too clean for our own good?

Andrea Dickson — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 22:27:20 +0000

By Andrea Dickson

A friend of mine has three daughters, all under 6 years old. Recently, she was at the supermarket with her youngest. Her daughter dropped her pacifier on the ground. My friend picked it up, wiped it on her shirt, and handed it back to her daughter.

An elderly gentleman approached her a few seconds later. Chuckling, he patted her child on the head. "This must not be your first kid, then," he said with a grin,

"Why do you say that?," my friend asked nervously.

"Well, with the first child, if they drop their binkie, you'd be more likely to boil it before letting your baby touch it again. By the time you get to your second, you get over it."

My friend smiled. "Yeah, that pretty much sums it up."

There are probably a few of you reading this who think my friend is a horrible mother. I can assure you that she is not. Yes, supermarket floors are dirty. Yes, her daughter was probably exposed to germs. But according to many scientists, germs may be exactly what we need more of.

Building up a healthy immune system is one of the most important things that we can do for our health. It's the reason that people try to make sure that their children get chicken pox at a young age; they hope to inoculate their babies against the disease, which is much more serious if experienced at an advanced age. Taking your kid to a Pox Party is like a cheap vaccination. Viruses are serious things, and we believe in inoculating our kids against them, for the most part.

However, we don't feel the same way about bacteria and other bugs. In fact, we do our utmost to avoid contact with bacteria, and when we do experience it, we zap the hell out of it with antibiotics and antibacterial ointments. The result? Our bodies don't know how to deal with bacterial infections, and the bacteria that we do come into contact with is getting stronger and stronger as we continually do our damndest to kill it off. Not only that, but when an immune system with too much free time on its hands comes into contact with innocuous but foreign substances (like cat dander), it over reacts, causing us to suffer from allergies.

You've probably heard that certain conditions that seem endemic to Americans, such as hayfever, asthma, and food allergies, are not as common in the developing world. People infected with hookworm, for instance, have fewer asthma attacks and allergies (the hookworms trigger and immune system response, it is thought, that causes the body to concentrate on the worms, rather than triggering wheezing asthma attacks). By the way, do not Google "hookworm" unless you want to spend the rest of the day fighting the heebie jeebies.

The point is, exposure to other germs, especially those found in soil, are beneficial in preventing all kinds of autoimmune diseases. With that in mind, consider letting go of your germ phobic ways. You'll save some money on the plethora of cleaning supplies that promise to nuke every single bacterium within a hundred-mile radius, and just may find that your kids grow up healthier.

There's certainly nothing wrong with washing your hands, but skip the anti-bacterial soaps. Also, hand sanitizer is good in a bind, but if you apply it several times a day (and don't work in a hospital), you might have bigger issues than germs.
Nobody wants salmonella poisoning, but using the appropriate tools when preparing raw chicken (plastic or glass cutting boards that can be run through the dish washer) and cleaning the kitchen with normal soap and water afterwards can do the trick - no need to break out the Clorox wipes.
Slate.com believes that Americans should eat sh*t and NOT die. Provocative, but also, ew. They also mention the importance of breast feeding as a method for transferring antibodies from mother to child, even though most mothers today also lack crucial antibodies, having also been raised in sterile environments.
Let your kids get dirty. They will survive. I suppose it's possible, but it's fairly uncommon to hear of children who have been hospitalized because they accidentally ingested a little dirt.
Ladies, your ladybits are self-cleaning, like an expensive oven! Unless it has been recommended by your gynecologist, do not feel the need to rinse them out from the inside (click here to see a really odd add for Lysol ladybit cleaner). Remember, douchebag is a better insult than it is an invention. Too much rinsing will actually CAUSE infections.

Permalink | 30 comments | Andrea Dickson's blog | Channel: Frugal Living, Green Living, Lifestyle

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Will A Dental Discount Plan Save You Money?

Linsey Knerl — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 01:42:58 +0000

By Linsey Knerl

I have had the good fortune to experience a comprehensive dental insurance in my lifetime. For a small monthly premium (usually $27 or less), my family and I could enjoy twice-a-year cleanings, annual x-rays, and routine repairs with little or no out-of-pocket expenses. Now that I’ve jumped headfirst into the world of self-employment, my days of enjoying low-cost dental coverage are gone. So I tried a dental “discount” plan for the first time ever. Here’s what I have found.

The cost of coverage varies. I personally pay less than $80 a year to cover my entire family under the discount plan. There are 6 of us, so this could be an excellent value in the long run. I would like to point out, however, that most plans run between $90 and $200 a year for similar coverage (we enjoyed a deep discount as part of a self-employed association group membership, which I paid separately for.)

The type of coverage varies. For most plans, your actual benefit comes in the form of a “discount” off each billable service. This can come in the form of a percentage off your cost for each procedure, but most commonly equates to guaranteeing that you will pay “no less than $XX” for each particular billable service. Unlike insurance, your dental bill isn’t sent to a payor to process, negotiate down, and return to you. This means you will most likely know at the time of service how much your visit has been “discounted,” and payment will be due at time of service. Cleanings, X-rays, fillings, caps, and most other common dental and orthodontic procedures are usually covered, if only at a small discount.

Your dental health may determine the value of a plan. Quite simply, if you are one of those fortunate folks who waltzes into your dentist for a twice-a-year-cleaning and one x-ray, with no additional services needed, this may not work out to your advantage. The cost of premiums have to be less than the cost of services to keep you from bleeding cash. If you don’t see yourself going to the dentist regularly (or won't be needing any work done), you might want to calculate if you’d be better off without the discount plan.

Your location can affect savings. The first time I used my plan, my husband and I both went in for a regular cleaning, x-rays, and fluoridation. Upon presenting our discount, the receptionist informed us that we saved $10 on our $210 bill. This seemed strange to me, so I asked her what their normal cost of doing business was. It turns out, that since we are rural, and the cost to do business is low, they charge the same amount as the “discounted” price of our plan. We would have paid almost the same amount, regardless of using a discount plan. (And without the discount plan, I would have saved $80 in premiums.) In larger cities, where dental prices are higher, the discount plan could have more of a positive affect on your bottom line.

You can utilize your HSA to save even more money. Whether your dental plan was a good decision or not, you can still save some additional cash by using an Health Savings Account. The small amount of saved tax money, coupled with the discounts, might make it a sweeter deal than just paying cash. (My HSA gives me checks and a debit/credit card. Be sure to ask your dentist what kinds of payment they take, since you will most likely be paying at time of service.)

Will I get a dental discount plan next year? Probably not. Yes, I saved some money, but it was only because I ran into some unexpected fillings (7 to be exact.) The savings of $20 per filling, coupled with the $10 saved on my initial cleaning, would save me a grand total of $150 this year. Subtract the cost of my annual premium of $80, and I only saved a measly $70 (and this is with substantial work being done, which hopefully won’t be repeated next year.)

I would suggest looking at your dental discount plan from a strictly "bottom dollar savings" mentality. Call your dentist of choice, and see what they already charge for the most common services. Compare this cost with the cost you will incur under the savings plan. If there is a minimal difference between the two, you will know that the “discount” isn’t much of a discount, after all!

Permalink | 10 comments | Linsey Knerl's blog | Channel: Personal Finance, Frugal Living, Budgeting, Consumer Affairs, Health and Beauty

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My Favorite Guides to Frugal Living Are Not Guides to Frugal Living

Carrie Kirby — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 22:49:55 +0000

By Carrie Kirby

There are plenty of worthy books on living cheaply . I must confess that I have not read a single one of them. I glean all the advice saving money that I need from a few volumes that are not technically frugal how-to guides. What I like about these books is that they are works that most people can relate to, even if they don't see themselves as hard-care frugalists. Therefore, they're good "gateways" for people who are interested in cutting back but don't want to see themselves as full-on misers. Know people who are afraid of the frugal lifestyle? You might want to get them one of these books for Christmas (Psst: Since they're all back catalog titles, they're widely available in resale.)

Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron

This guide to making your own pureed vegetables and home-fortified porridge for infants comes with much, much more. It's like a resourceful hippie housewife's life's work, with an index. There are recipes in here for homemade bubble solution, yogurt, fruit leather (ok that one bombed in my kitchen), advice for easy homespun birthday parties and just about every piece of timeless advice you could want for frugal parenting.

Most parents, I suspect, use Yaron's book for everything but the one thing she's proudest of -- that homemade porridge. Too labor intensive, too yucky to anyone but a clueless 6-month-old, in my experience.

Jane Brody's Good Food Book : Living the High-Carbohydrate Way

When I first picked up this book in the early 1990s, when it could not have been more out of style. Now that the Atkins obsession has run its course and people are not only more price sensitive than ever but becoming increasingly aware of the environmental and cruelty cost of eating meat, I hope this book makes a comeback. I'm not a vegetarian and this isn't a vegetarian book. It is, however, a great resource for using less meat -- it has lots of recipes packed with healthy grains and vegetables that use meat more as a flavor than a mainstay. And there are also lots of vegetarian and egg recipes.

Miserly Moms: Living on One Income in a Two-Income Economy by Jonni McCoy

I picked this paperback up at a local parenting center's library, and it had a big influence on me and my eventual decision to stay home with my children. While it's close to being a frugal living guide, it's really targeted more at the parenting audience. It introduced me to the concept of aggressive grocery shopping, something I never would have read up on had the information not come in a parenting-related package.

The Little House Series by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Whaaa? A children's fictionalized autobiography? Well, I have gotten lots of frugal ideas from the Ingalls family. OK, many of them are not practical in our time since we have a different economy and diferent scarcities than they did. For example, Ma and Laura would tear their worn sheets down the middle, turn the edges toward the outside and sew them back together to get more use out of the cloth. Nowadays, manufactured cloth is cheap and sewing skill and time are dear, so most people wouldn't bother.

And yet. I guess what I get from reading and rereading the Little House Series is encouragement toward frugal, simple living in the form of reminders of how luxurious my life truly is, even if I give up a few little niceties. I especially love reading about the Ingalls' Christmas mornings, and how excited and grateful little girls could be over a couple sticks of candy and some hand-knit mittens. Puts into pretty stark contrast the expectations of the modern American child, and provides me with plenty of incentive to keep our own holidays simple and joyful while my kids are still young enough to follow my lead.

Substituting Ingredients : An A to Z Kitchen Reference by Becky Sue Epstein and Hilary Dole Klein

This little book has saved me tons of money, as saved tons of meals to boot. With this handbook, I don't have to go buy heavy cream if I already have evaporated milk, and to top it off I also know that one large marshmallow equals 6 miniatures. I'm sure there are places to look this stuff up online, but I have never had as good results Googling for substitute ingredients as I get by picking up this book.

Permalink | 11 comments | Carrie Kirby's blog | Channel: Frugal Living

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Going Back to the Root Cellar

Thursday Bram — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 16:45:38 +0000

By Thursday Bram

My grandmother once told me about her parents' root cellar: it was just a story of something so different from modern day that she thought I would get a kick out of it. But root cellars seem to be experiencing a revival.

Storing food for the winter used to be a big deal. Without a well-stocked root cellar (or a grocery store around the corner), it was impossible to eat well all year around. But with the advent of supermarkets shipping in produce from all over, the root cellar became a historical oddity. Its revival isn't a matter of a lack of produce. Instead, people are turning to root cellars as away to cut costs on produce. Root cellars also offer an opportunity to eat locally-grown produce year round.

What can you store in a root cellar?

Root cellars are officially for roots: potatoes, turnips, beets and carrots are the easiest to store. At the low temperature provided by most root cellars, these foods are unlikely to rot. Squash, onions and garlic can do equally well. Some fruits can also be stored, such as apples, but most must be preserved in some manner. My grandmother's parents kept their preserves and jams in their root cellar, as well as salt meat and fish.

In the summertime — at least before electricity offered other options — many families kept items in need of refrigeration in their root cellars. Milk, butter, fresh meat and more were kept cool by the even temperatures of a root cellar.

What does a root cellar look like?

Creating a root cellar is surprisingly simple. Dig a hole, add some shelves and you effectively have a working root cellar. Most root cellars are underground rooms with minimal insulation and dirt floors. They use the cold of their surroundings to keep food chilled and are ideally constructed below the frost line (four feet in many areas). There are above ground options as well: if you have some sort of shed at ground level, you can pile rock or dirt around it or cover it with sod to help keep temperatures down. Survivalist Ted Wright has published plans for a root cellar that's as simple as digging a whole and swiping a few pallets from a local warehouse.

Don't have an area around your home where you can start digging? The New York Times interviewed a couple last week who turned their basement into a root cellar. In their brownstone, Cynthia and Haja Worley have an unfinished basement lined with shelves. The temperature remains constantly cool, allowing the Worleys to store all sorts of produce.

The Important Details

Keep these details in mind if you want to store foods in a root cellar or your basement:
The food must be dry before you store it.
Some foods require special preparation to ensure they'll last longer. This chart includes information on specific foods.
The ideal temperature of a root cellar ranges from 40 to 55 degrees Fahrenheit, depending on what you're storing.
Humidity of 80 to 90 percent is necessary to preserve fresh vegetables.
Soil floors can help increase humidity .

Permalink | 11 comments | Thursday Bram's blog | Channel: Food and Drink

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Not the sort of person who ...

Philip Brewer — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 14:54:02 +0000

By Philip Brewer

Wise Bread is stuffed almost to bursting with suggestions on how to live large on a small budget. We've got suggestions on how to spend less, how to earn more, and how to take control of your finances and your career. There are certain suggestions, though, that trigger a particular kind of negative reaction: The one where people say, "I'm not the sort of person who" does whatever it is that we've suggested. It turns out that lots of people think that way. Don't do that.

You can find them in the comments on practically every post. There are readers out there who say, "I'm not the sort of person" who:

rides the bus
wears used clothes
takes in boarders
rents a room in someone's house
has a roommate
borrows things
lends things
does manual labor
follows a budget
tracks every penny
buys food on its sell-by date

The reason I say not to do that, is that none of these things really have anything to do with the sort of person you are. For stuff like this, when someone says, "I'm not the sort of person who," what they really mean is, "I'm so rich I don't need to" do whatever it is. And, if they live in a rich country, they're almost certainly right--even if they're pretty poor, just living in a rich country means they're so rich they can imagine that they're some particular sort of person who doesn't need to economize in some particular way.

The thing is, there's a problem with this kind of thinking--with imagining that "you're not the sort of person" who does certain kinds of things: You can start to believe it.

If you really believe you're the sort of person who doesn't do certain things--when the truth is simply that you're so rich you can afford not to--what happens if you go through a rough patch? In particular, if you go through a patch rough enough that you're not so rich any more? Answer: That kind of thinking can turn a mere rough patch into a financial catastrophe for your entire family.

I'm not trying to tell you to take any particular bits of Wise Bread advice--this isn't a post to urge you to sell your car or to move in with your brother-in-law or use some web tool to manage your finances. Rather, I want to urge you to do just one thing: Be honest with yourself.

There's power in being honest about this sort of thing. Just go ahead and say, "I'm so rich I don't need to take the bus, wear used clothes, or have a roommate." There's a certain kind of satisfaction in that for someone who's never going to own a Rolex or a Maserati or a third home in Aspen. More important, though, it puts you in a much better position to make the right decision if times get tough and you're not so rich any more.

As for thinking, "I'm not the sort of person," save it for things that are real and true. "I'm not the sort of person who betrays a friend or takes advantage of a stranger or abandons a puppy." That's the sort of person you are. That other stuff you either do or don't depending on the circumstances. It's got nothing to do with who you are.

Permalink | 35 comments | Philip Brewer's blog | Channel: Personal Finance, Frugal Living

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Why Couples Fight Over Money and What to Do About It

Nora Dunn — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 01:12:34 +0000

By Nora Dunn

There is no denying that financial matters lay at the root of many – if not most – couples’ problems. While some openly communicate about the issues at hand, more couples yet don’t even recognize exactly what the problems are and thus allow a bad problem to worsen, and in some cases, culminate in a break-up or divorce.

Here are some of the issues that cause friction in our romances, and what to do about them before they blossom into a host of irrevocable thorny problems.

Financial Inequality

It is rare that both parties in a relationship meet at exactly the same financial period in their lives, earn exactly the same money, have exactly the same savings and debts, and can build their lives together on exactly the same page. So it stands to reason that financial inequality can be the root of resentment and even jealousy.

One person can be left feeling that they have contributed everything to a one-sided relationship, and the other may feel unworthy of their better-off partner.

What to do about it

Creating a life together boils down to more than plain dollars and cents. If you are in this for the long run, then who brings what to the table is essentially irrelevant. Maybe one spouse earns more money, but the other likely adds value in non-monetary fashions.

If you wish to keep your finances separate, then invoking prenuptial agreements may be a way for each spouse to feel more self-justified and protected from the other’s assets (or lack thereof).

Management Madness

One member of your team may be more adept at managing the day-to-day finances better than the other. Thus that person could naturally find themselves saddled with paying the bills, the mortgage, and making sure all the piles of pennies add up at the end of the day.

This can create a sense of unwilling burden on the person who manages the finances, while making the other partner feel uninformed and locked out of their financial life.

What to do about it

Capitalizing on strengths and weaknesses is an ideal way to manage a relationship overall. But in order for both people to feel comfortable with the finances, both need to be informed even if one person still does all the financial legwork. Try having a financial meeting once a month to review the finances, and to make any necessary decisions about expenditures. If desired, write a list of financial tasks and allocate them between the two of you accordingly.

Either way, make sure that you have all your accounts, passwords and pins, and other financial details written down somewhere. That way if something happens to one partner, the other is not left in the dark as to how to even begin maintaining the finances.

Addiction

Vices can be the most destructive on a relationship – financially and otherwise. Addictions like alcohol, gambling, shopping, or even compulsive cheapness can be devastating in the long run.

What to do about it

Depending on the level and type of addiction, more often than not this won’t be something you can deal with on your own. Addictions often require outside help, be it an intervention, counseling, or even just a trusted friend with perspective.

Financial Abuse

As an extreme version of the inequality issue, financial abuse occurs when one spouse uses money as a way to control or manipulate their partner. This is especially prevalent in situations where one spouse works full-time and the other works simply part-time or stays home with the children. The lower income-earning spouse may contribute more than sufficiently to the relationship in other ways, but may still be made to feel less worthy and degraded in asking for money to manage the household or live on.

What to do about it

This is another sticky situation that may require outside help. Incidences of financial abuse usually stem from a previous history of abuse, whether financial or otherwise. The abuser likely doesn’t realize what they are doing, and the abused may compound the situation if they have a similar history which leaves them predisposed to that set of circumstances. Financial counseling is the way to get around these issues. Even if the abused person seeks help by themselves, they may be able to learn coping mechanisms that can keep the relationship alive.

Money makes not only the world go ‘round, but also a relationship. Joining two lives is no small matter, and when money is involved (as it inevitably is), so too is a set of heightened emotions, previously programmed actions and reactions, and two entirely different financial histories. Marrying the two (literally or figuratively) requires lots of communication, dedication, and willingness of both parties to learn, change, and adapt. If possible, try to make it enjoyable and positive – it will make the hard times (and yes, there will be hard times) much easier to deal with.

Permalink | 5 comments | Nora Dunn's blog | Channel: Personal Finance, Lifestyle

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