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Posted
Jul 01 2008, 04:54 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Here's a clever budgeting aid from Chris at Cheaperversion: Create a do-not-buy list. "The purpose of a do-not-buy list is to banish the idea of purchasing unneeded items from your monthly budget," Chris writes. Although Chris doesn't spell them out, there seem to be some unwritten rules here: Your list has to contain stuff you really want, but you're also allowed to buy cheaper or better-for-you alternatives, or the same product in smaller amounts. For instance, the top two items on Chris' list are 24-packs of beer (a 12-pack is on his weekend to-buy list) and "high-calorie" cookies (we're assuming cookies "lite" are OK).
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Posted
Jun 18 2008, 05:44 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Marc at Marc and Angel Hack Life says his list of "50 things everyone should know how to do" is far from inclusive. Oh dear, because there are a number of things on the list of 50 that we need to get cracking on. This list of essential skills is impressive and, better yet, entertaining. Marc's brief explanations about why you should know each thing often have just the right amount of sass. (Our pick for No. 51: Know how and when to be sassy.) For example, Marc writes: "Swim -- 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by water. Learning to swim might be a good idea."
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Posted
Jun 16 2008, 12:47 PM
by
Karen Datko
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Would you order a six-course meal if you planned to eat only the salad and dessert? No. You'd order a la carte. Apply the same concept to the subscriptions you pay for, suggests Ramit Sethi at I Will Teach You To Be Rich. That includes services like cable, TiVo, cell phones and that underused gym membership. Ramit writes: "In fact, in one remarkable study of three health clubs, two researchers from Stanford and Berkeley showed that gym members overestimate how much they'll use their gym membership by over 70%."
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Posted
Jun 13 2008, 03:41 PM
by
Karen Datko
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Former super-spendthrift Trent Hamm at The Simple Dollar once made a credit card sleeve out of a photo of his infant son. Each time he thought about using that card, he had an instant reminder of why he needed to knock off the spending. "Mr. Imperfect" of Perfectly Imperfect Family and Finances is decidedly high-tech in his approach. He uses the start-up message on his cell phone -- and photos on his cell and desktop -- to keep him focused on his goals (although Bettsi McComb suggests you change the photos every so often so they don't become part of the background noise).
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Posted
Jun 13 2008, 06:26 AM
by
Karen Datko
This post comes from Trent Hamm at partner blog The Simple Dollar. Last month, I was sorely tempted to pick up Mario Kart Wii. Mario Kart has been my favorite video game series. I played it for hours and hours with my friends in high school on the Super Nintendo, then burned countless hours in the college dorms playing it on an N64. Even as recently as last Christmas, I stayed up most of the night playing Mario Kart DS wirelessly against my wife's family at their Christmas celebration (one person had a cartridge and several of us had DS units.)
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Posted
Jun 02 2008, 08:44 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
This post comes from partner blog Blueprint for Financial Prosperity. Cut out the morning coffee at Starbucks! Bring a bag lunch! Stop drinking alcoholic beverages! If you've been trying to find areas to trim in your budget, those are likely the first three things you'll hear suggested, right? The Latte Factor! It's horrible that you're wasting money on coffee you can brew at home. It's a travesty! OK, except you don't have a coffee maker at home, have hardly any time in the morning to brew it, and if you don't have it -- oh boy, your office had better watch out because you'll be one cranky man/woman/beast.
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Posted
May 28 2008, 07:08 PM
by
Karen Datko
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Pinyo at Moolanomy has a friend who wants to improve her financial well-being, but she continues to shoot herself in the foot. "Somehow, she always comes up with some lame excuses when it comes to money," Pinyo writes. He calls them the "words of the financially challenged." Just as the popular post by "Frugal Dad" explored the rants of people he calls "the perpetual poor," Pinyo recounts the rationalizations his friend uses to never save any money. We'll start with "It's only $10 a month."
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Posted
May 22 2008, 07:40 PM
by
Karen Datko
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Products have five stages of life: good as new, in working order, wait and see, obsolescence, and end of life, says Nick at Punny Money. "For a few years now, I've used a system of assigning ratings to expensive items I own in order to track where they are in their useful life span and make budgetary plans for items I may soon need to replace," Nick writes. Here's a summary of how to use his system so that you don't trash perfectly usable things and waste money. (Since it is Punny Money, some of this is a tad tongue-in-cheek.)
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Posted
May 14 2008, 12:06 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
If you were born between 1978 and 1994 (some sources say 1979 and 1994, or 1977 and 1988), you're an official member of Generation Y and you're terrible with money (or, some sources say great with it) and don't really care about it (or are obsessed with it). In fact, "G Blogmaster" at Can I Get Rich On A Salary notes that one survey says 31% of Gen Y folks contribute to a 401(k) and another says 70% do. "Phew! Glad we got that all cleared up," he says. "Really gives me a lot of confidence in surveys."
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