6

Sunday Money Roundup – Kid Proof The House Edition.

I only have a minute – I gotta go and put everything I value above the 5 foot level! As I write this on Friday, I have friends coming into town for the weekend with two small children, which should be an adventure. So while I walk around trying to figure out whats dangerous for little kids, enjoy some articles that I found interesting over this past week!

Five Cent Nickel talks about The Fallacy of Relative Price Evaluation.

Money Ning asks the question Are You Employed at Credit Card Inc?. Well, are you?

Mrs. Micah tells us Why an Online Degree Makes Sense Today. I have been thinking of taking some classes online, so reading this is very timely for me.

Debt Free Adventure wants to help you save some money on groceries.

Cash Money Life compares Cash Savings vs. Retirement Savings.

The Frugal Duchess talks about letting your children make small financial mistakes in order to learn from them. I couldn’t agree more.

Master Your Card tells you how to dispute a credit card charge.

Lazy Man & Money talks doggy day care. I have some friends who spend an absolute fortune taking their dog every day to day care, and I have others that only take theirs when they go on vacation, choosing to instead leave him home when they go to work. What do you do?

Blueprint For Financial Prosperity has some advice for What To Do When You’re On Furlough. My thoughts? Take full advantage of the time off!

Four Pillars has an interesting post up about Daniel Suelo, a man who has “quit using money like a bad drug“.

2

Money Quote Friday – Plants Shade Trees Edition.

“A man has made at least a start on discovering the meaning of human life when he plants shade trees under which he knows full well he will never sit.” –D. Elton Trueblood


We are all in this together – even those who follow us. Have a great weekend!

6

Ultimate Frugality: Still Driving His 1929 Car.

This 84 year old really understands how to be frugal! His main piece of advice? Change the oil every 3,000 miles…that’s how he figures he kept it running for so long. His 1929 Ford Model A is still humming along. We all need to take a lesson from this guy! In our throw away society, it’s refreshing to see someone care about something so important to him, even in the face of it starting to fall apart!

“But Mr. Curtiss, 84, of Shelton, has followed the advice with the first car he ever owned, a 1929 Ford Model A; it has 200,000 miles on it and still runs. Mr. Curtiss said he was 15 in 1938 when he bought the car, which sold for $400 when new, from a Derby man for $10. It was during the Depression. “

Of course, he does own 25 other cars…but most of them are old as well.

From the NY Times

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Tips For Improving Your Cash On Hand.

Most consumers find themselves in debt because they often make the mistake of using credit cards in place of cash. They fail to take the steps necessary to ensure their cash is always flowing within a reasonable budget instead of using a credit card as an extension of their income. This leads to balances they can not pay off at the end of the month and imminent debt problems. Face it ““ it seems much easier to charge it than it does to work through a monthly budget; however, the consequences of not doing so can be big.

If you have a goal to stop charging so much and work toward managing the cash you have on hand in a better manner, here are some good tips to help you out and may save you money in fees and penalties when you rely on credit:

Budgeting

We have touched on the importance of a budget and if you want to always remain in control of your cash, you need to have a budgeting system in place. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for creating a budget. While there is software and other methods for calculating a budget, the old-fashioned pen and paper method make work just as well and be less expensive. However you plan a budget, just keep doing it each month until it becomes a natural part of your life. Work with it each month and see where you can make expense cuts to free up more cash.

Start An Emergency Fund

Even if you have only $20 a month to put towards an emergency fund, start doing so now. Automate that deposit into a savings account and don’t touch it unless the situation warrants a real emergency. Keeping adding to the stash so that when an emergency, such as a large house or car repair bill comes in the mail, you don’t have to charge it.

Differentiate Wants and Needs

Who hasn’t fallen victim to an occasional impulse buy? Most stores are designed to make you fall for those spontaneous purchases so it is not all your fault. However, if you really want to have a better cash flow, you need to really start training yourself for being able to walk into a store and differentiate between the items you really need and those you just want to have. Psychologically, there are many ways to retrain your brain to keep your spending down. One example is to commit to a seven-day waiting period for all purchases over a certain amount or promise to pay cash only for all purchases on your want list.

Analyze Your Shopping Habits

Did you ever take the time to really look at receipts of your purchases? If you are not looking for the best deals for your money each time you are out shopping, you can be spending unnecessary money. Use coupons. Wait for sales. Comparison shop. Buy store brands. And one of the most important rules, never leave home without a shopping list and a commitment to buying only what is on the list.

Make Saving Money a Lifestyle

It may not be easy to change how you live your life but it is certainly not impossible. Start finding a new way each week that will incorporate saving money into your daily life. Frugality is a popular topic these days and there is no shame in being frugal. Learn tips from family and friends who are also working to expand their cash flow. Working with a buddy may also increase the support you feel in your new financial choices. Bookmark websites that you feel provide fresh, valuable tips. Do a little at a time so that the overall change doesn’t wreak havoc on your current life.

Guest post by Tisha Tolar, who is a writer for DebtFreeDestiny.com, where she provides information about credit card consolidation, debt relief and how to get out of debt.

6

What’s Old Can Be Brand New Again.

Originally posted at one my sister sites, Simple.Organized.Life.

As most of you guys know, I have been away for a few weeks visiting family and friends. One of the groups of people that I visited are my friends in Colorado, where I stayed for a night both heading to the east coast and returning here to New Mexico. The guy is my best friend since childhood, and he has a great wife and 2 small children ages 4 and 2 who I truly enjoy spending time with. Most of you also know that I spent a lot of my time away cleaning out family clutter, and this is where I get to the point of the title of this post – “What’s Old Is New Again“. While helping my mom clean out her attic, I came across a bunch of boxes full of my toys from when I was a little kid – everything from GI Joe’s to Legos To Fischer-Price cars, trucks, and airplanes. (I won’t talk about my baseball card collection that was also up there, which obviously needs to be gone through for hidden gems!) Some of the toys headed straight to the landfill because they were beyond help, but many of them were in perfectly fine condition after a quick wipedown with a rag – and that’s when I decided I would pack up a bunch of them and bring them to my favorite “niece & nephew” in Denver. I called their parents to get their permission first, and I even sent them this picture of some of the toys laid out on the carpet, so they could see what was coming to their house:


Almost immediately, my friend replied with “Wow – I remember those toys from when we were kids! Yes, bring them on over!” And so I did – and proceeded to play Santa for a day while giving these kids a giant box of “new to them” toys. They had so much fun taking out all these “new” toys, giving each one a once or twice over, and then proceeding to choose favorites. When we went to dinner, they had to bring a new toy with them. When we went to the movie in the park that night, they had to bring a few with them. This was an exciting day – tons of new toys on a random day that wasn’t their birthday or Christmas! To them, these were new items, while to my friend and I they were a grand memory from 30+ years ago. Solidly built and protected from the elements, they didn’t look too worse for the wear at all, and these kids will get years of entertainment out of all this stuff. And it was all free! My friend even told me he will keep them for when (if) I ever have kids, so hopefully they will get another use again someday down the road. It felt really good to see toys from so long ago being played with as if they had just been taken out of the boxes that morning – it just goes to show you that kids can be VERY happy with almost anything you give them, and they don’t need the latest and greatest new cheaply made toy every other week that will probably break within the year!

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