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Posted
Jul 02 2009, 05:23 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Trent Hamm at partner blog The Simple Dollar:
An acquaintance from my previous career wrote to me recently asking about the steps I took when I made the switch to working at home:
It's official: I'm ready to get out of here. I'm tired of working here and I have a lot of people lined up to hire me for home catering and cooking. I'm sure you did a bunch of planning before you made the leap. What exactly did you plan?
I know at least one other former co-worker who is contemplating a similar move into a freelancing gig, though his plans are decidedly less clear at this point.
What exactly did I do during that transition period? I started making a list and soon realized that there were several things I wish I had done. Before I knew it, the e-mail had ballooned into a guide that I thought might be useful to other people.
Here are 15 things I did (or wish I had done) during the months leading up to my transition to working for myself.
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Posted
Jun 25 2009, 08:56 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Trent Hamm at partner blog The Simple Dollar.
One tactic I mention regularly for saving money on food purchases is to watch the grocery store fliers for sales, then plan your meals (and shopping lists) around those sales. This tactic really works. I've saved quite a bit doing this over the years.
However, things aren't quite that simple. You can't always trust the store flier.
Over the last several months, I've been keeping track of prices on several key items that we buy all the time: garbage bags, fresh spinach, toilet paper, grapes, Pepperidge Farm goldfish crackers, etc.
I know what the typical price is on these items. I even have a small price list that has the usual prices for them.
A few weeks ago, when I took a long look at the fliers from my grocery stores of choice, I happened to notice that some of the big sales listed in the flier weren't a sale at all. The price was exactly the same as what I usually pay.
What gives? I did some research -- calling and e-mailing a few people I know in the grocery business -- and I came up with a few interesting facts about grocery store fliers.
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Posted
Jun 18 2009, 06:05 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Trent Hamm at partner blog The Simple Dollar.
I recently received an interesting e-mail from a person I vaguely knew from college. This person "rediscovered" me via The Simple Dollar, befriended me on Facebook, and sent me one or two e-mails.
Out of nowhere, the person, who is engaged, e-mailed me a link to the couple's wedding registry. It had been e-mailed to a lot of people -- apparently everyone in their e-mail address book. The e-mail included a generic invitation to pick out one of the hundreds of items they had selected.
I deleted the e-mail. This was greed, pure and simple.
After I received it, the issue of gift registries stuck in my mind. What exactly is tasteful behavior for a gift registry? Also, what kind of items should one put on such a registry?
Here are some of my thoughts on the matter.
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Posted
Jun 11 2009, 07:12 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Trent Hamm at partner blog The Simple Dollar.
Several people I know have a treadmill in their garage or basement. They bought it with great visions in their head of walking every day, but after the newness wore off, the treadmill began to gather dust. Then it was folded up and put into storage.
One reader of The Simple Dollar spent almost $1,000 on pans for her kitchen. Six months later, she's still mostly using the microwave and the pans are gathering dust.
One of my friends bought a netbook recently, thinking she'd use it all the time to keep up better with her e-mail for her online business. It's still in her purse, but she claims to have used it only three times in the last month. Instead, she still uses her cell phone.
I have done this. Take Wii Fit, for example. When I bought it, I thought it'd be great for establishing a simple cardio exercise routine. I do use it, but instead it just comes out once a week to play mini games on.
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Posted
Jun 04 2009, 05:48 AM
by
Karen Datko
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Trent Hamm at partner blog The Simple Dollar.
One common trap with buying in bulk is the fact that with some products, the higher-volume version often has a higher cost per unit than the smaller version. For example, I recently compared two cans of tuna on the shelf at my local grocery store. The same brand (Starkist) had a 5-ounce can for $1.29 and a 12-ounce can for $3.19. Per ounce, the smaller can cost 25.8 cents per ounce, while the larger can cost 26.5 cents per ounce, making the smaller can the better deal.
This stuck in my head, so I went home and did some research on these price differences.
This feature is called "quantity surcharge," and it's been prevalent at the supermarket and department store since at least the 1970s. Recently, while browsing through the Journal of Consumer Affairs (seriously -- I live not too far from an academic library, and JoCA has lots of interesting material that serves as great food for thought), I came across an older article called "Measurement of Incidents of Quantity Surcharge Among Selected Grocery Products." The article identified 10 specific products where quantity surcharges often occur.
So, without further ado, here are 10 products to study carefully before buying in bulk. I went to the store and tried to find them myself. My notes on what I found follow each item.
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Posted
May 28 2009, 06:51 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Trent Hamm at partner blog The Simple Dollar.
All of us have things we don't want and, at the same time, other things we want or need. Usually, the transition between the two requires selling what you don't want and buying what you want or need -- but often, you lose value on both transactions.
A better solution is bartering -- exchanging something you have for something of roughly equal value that someone else has. This can work quite well, but it's often difficult to find like-minded people to barter with.
That's where the Internet comes in handy. Here are 14 great services for bartering, most of which can be used from the convenience of home. I use most of the services listed below and I've mentioned quite a few of them before. Some of them, particularly PaperBackSwap, are part of the fabric of my life.
Let's dive right in and get bartering.
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Posted
May 21 2009, 08:57 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Trent Hamm at partner blog The Simple Dollar.
Like many families, the schedule of our family changes drastically during the summer. My wife goes on hiatus from her job for a few months, our children are constantly at home, and I strive to rearrange my own work so that I can spend more time with them. Plus, the weather is beautiful, encouraging us to be outside.
We load our summer schedule with all kinds of activities -- camping trips and visits to state parks, community festivals and lots of other things.
But how do you find all of these things. Here are 10 resources we use for finding great free/cheap things to do during the summer.
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Posted
May 14 2009, 06:26 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Trent Hamm at partner blog The Simple Dollar.
Doing my taxes this year was an interesting experience. In 2008, my income was down substantially compared with 2007 -- no real surprise, considering I quit my full-time job in March 2008. What was really surprising, though, is that our family's spending dropped almost as precipitously.
Expenses were down across the board. Way down. We spent less on food. We spent less on gas. We spent less on entertainment expenses. We spent less on child care, travel, clothes.
In short, our spending dropped enough in 2008 to almost make up for the drop in income.
For a while, I puzzled over why that happened. Were we simply getting better at frugality? Or did quitting my job really contribute that much to changes in our spending?
When I started to break it down into smaller pieces, it became clear: My previous job was loaded with extra expenses -- and yours may be, too. Not only were there financial costs, but also significant time costs, which would keep me from being able to do things like prepare a home-cooked dinner.
Here are some of the surprising costs that were associated with my job.
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Posted
May 07 2009, 04:51 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Trent Hamm at partner blog The Simple Dollar.
I love to cook. Along the way, I often discover excellent shortcuts and money-saving tactics for home food preparation. I get excited, and I immediately want to share the idea, but it's simply not enough to warrant a full article on its own.
So, I usually save it. I jot down the idea somewhere in my notes and move on with things.
Recently, I decided to dig through my notes and pull together several of those useful frugal cooking tactics. Hopefully, these tactics will find use in your own kitchen.
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Posted
Apr 30 2009, 06:16 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Trent Hamm at partner blog The Simple Dollar.
Whenever Mother's Day rolls around (and it's just about here), people seem to congregate in one of two camps on the issue.
First, there's the celebrate your mother camp -- the people who feel that Mother's Day is a perfect opportunity to show your mother that you care for her, either through action or through a gift.
On the other side of that coin is the Mother's Day is a day invented by the greeting card industry group, those who feel that the entire concept of a "mother's day" is just an excuse for consumerism.
I agree with both sides. Mother's Day may be a contrived invention, but the reason behind it is one I wholeheartedly agree with. It's always worthwhile to celebrate our mothers.
The solution is simple: The best way to honor your mother isn't by celebrating her with consumerism. Instead, find ways to show your mother that you truly care -- and those ways rarely involve heading to the store and buying greeting cards and other things.
Here are eight things to try, whether you're waiting until May 10 to celebrate or you want to treat every day as Mother's Day.
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