Wise Bread

Penny Pinching Ways to Pimp Your Garage

Myscha Theriault — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 17:13:46 +0000

When you open your garage door, does it look more like the room of doom than a place to park your car? Do piles of culch abound, preventing you from laying your hands on that oh-so-needed tool? Holiday decorations taking up the corner where you can only dream of a humble work bench? Are teenagers in training constantly thwarting your efforts toward a more streamlined man cave? Guys, this one's for you. Here are eleven frugal garage pimping tips for the organizationally challenged.

Ceiling racks.

These are a huge help and perfect for those items you only access seasonally, such as holiday decorations. They come in a variety of styles and save your wall space for those items you need access to on a more frequent basis.

Peg board.

Available for cheap at your local home hardware box store, this stuff is easily attached to wall studs, and can be loaded with hooks to keep your hard to store items in plain sight. Wanna set the teenager in your life up for success? Trace hammers and other tools in black marker exactly where they hang on the peg board. The outline will be there to serve as a reminder to return the tool to its precisely allocated spot.

Wall organizers.

Wire baskets, wall hanging units for smaller screws and nails, and vertical bike racks all come to mind here. Basically, you just want all the precision storage you can get for those tougher to streamline storage categories.

Rolling industrial shelves.

My love affair with industrial shelving has been well documented. I think this stuff is particularly well suited to the garage however, because of the abuse that anything in that room is generally required to take. This is the kind of storage infrastructure that can take a licking and keep on ticking. Bonus? The wired version allows the bulk of the dust and debris to float directly down to the floor, making it easy to vacuum up. If you have some heavier items like air compressors or generators you want shelved, I've seen industrial strength shelves up to that level of task affordably priced at Harbor Freight.

Keep everything off the floor.

If you are following the tips above, this should be easy. Keeping everything off the floor via wired storage items and wall units makes routine push broom sweeping and power vacuuming a breeze.

Bins.

See through ones are great. But for pure durability, I'm in love with the galvanized steel ones you can pick up at Lowe's. They are rectangular, can be stored easily and look like those old fashioned ones that used to slide in and out of the smaller cage style lockers in gym class growing up. Of course, you could go round and shop at a farm goods store. Either way, galvanized storage containers are affordable and stand the test of time. Bonus? They make great ice buckets at a back yard barbecue. Some ways to use them? Storing jump ropes, baseball gloves, soccer balls and sports equipment in general. Gardening paraphernalia would also be a good candidate for bin storage.

Zones.

One of the easiest ways to keep things from getting chaotic again is to keep all categories of items in their assigned zone. For example, all sports equipment, from volleyball nets to croquet, to soccer balls should be stored in the same general area. Ditto for lawn and garden items as well as workshop items and general tools. Trying to incorporate more household support into your child's routine? Having a system where they can look in a general area when you assign an item for retrieval keeps their frustration level low and their success rate high. Side perk? No more volleyball nets on your soldering table or hammers stored in with the football pads.

Hang a neon ping-pong ball.

What? No, seriously. Hang a ping-pong ball. I saw this tip years ago in one of those doctor's office magazines, and we used it in our garage in Italy. If you are tired of having the car be parked too close to the tool shelves by a young person with a learner's permit (or spouse who doesn't see it as the priority you do), pull the car in exactly where you want it parked. Then, hang a bright colored plastic ping-pall ball from a string attached to the ceiling. The trick is to hang the ball so it touches your windshield in a particular spot, like the center spot behind the rear view mirror or behind the inspection sticker. Then set the family rule that whoever puts the car in for the night has to park it with the hanging ball lined up to the agreed upon spot. No windshield scratches, and your accidental paint dings from opening the vehicle door into the side of the lawn mower are a thing of the past.

Padded work stations.

If you have one or two work stations in your garage where you need to stand to work for extended periods of time, consider giving your joints a break with padded floor tiles. You don't need to do the entire room, just a rectangular space large enough to step around on a bit. Your back will thank you.

Power shopping for the man's man.

Stocking a garage or workshop for home use can easily cost a small fortune. But by using simple power shopping strategies and demonstrating a little patience, you can have what you need for much less. Cruise moving and estate sales, as well as flea markets and store models for things like shop vacs, generators, snow blowers, air compressors and more. It might take a bit longer, but so does saving up for the full price version.

Customized drawer liners.

I know we're focusing on the frugal alternatives for garage pimping, but if you do have a set or two of rolling tool cabinets (and they can be affordable from time to time), consider custom cutting holes in a foam liner to keep expensive precision items in place and protected. This also serves the same purpose as outlining items on the peg board. Teenagers in training or friends over to help you with a tougher home improvement project will know where to return items when clean up time arrives. Another great idea is the rubberized rolls of kitchen shelf lining material. It's affordable, and also ideal for those shallow drawers of items you don't want rolling to the back of a metal drawer and being too tough to reach.

That's it, gentleman. My best efforts at a home resource article with your needs in mind. I know you've had to read more than your fair share of penny pinching chick lit in the past. It wasn't for lack of appreciation for your frugal efforts on the home front, believe me. It's just taken me longer to dig up some ideas you might find useful, as mechanically based frugality isn't exactly my strong suit. In fact, aside from my utility cart piece, I believe this is my only attempt. I'll keep digging. In the meantime, I hope these ideas will get you rolling on the road to reclaiming that holiest of man caves, the garage. Good luck guys, and keep me posted on your success.

Permalink | 3 comments | Myscha Theriault's blog | Channel: DIY

Similar entries:

For Wise Bread Subscribers Only! Download your FREE copy ($10 value) of our Wise Driving Guide: 108 Tips to Raise Your Fuel Economy.

This article is from Wise Bread.

When Good Cakes Go Bad: A Cheat Sheet for the Uninspired

Linsey Knerl — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 14:54:13 +0000

By Linsey Knerl

I’m no cake professional. I can barely manage a Betty Crocker boxed mix with the fluffy frosting from a can. I appreciate all the hard work that goes into a professional piece (be it for weddings, birthdays, or that retirement party.) Check out my tips for faking cake proficiency, and see what happens when it all goes terribly wrong.

The Good

Cakes are usually delicious, regardless of how dysfunctional they may appear. While close family may be forgiving of a lop-sided creation badly adorned with those premade candy letters and the 50-cent candles from the Dollar store, there are better, classier ways. Here’s how I manage:

Your Basic Cake – White cake is actually pretty boring, and reminds me of my Easy Bake Oven days. A nice lemon, pineapple, or red velvet cake somehow oozes a little more sophistication. It’s OK to use a box mix for these more challenging cakes, and if done correctly, you may get a few “oohs” and “awes” with little effort.

Your Mix-Ins – Nuts, fruits, sprinkles, chips, and other yummy, tiny little things can give your basic cake extra spark and delightful flavor. Play around with flavor combinations that compliment each other, and give an instant gourmet taste to your cheap knock-off.

Your Presentation – The most creatively-prepared cake mix will fail to bring fascination if baked in your standby rectangle cake pan. While I’m not advocating we all go out and purchase $50 Elmo cake shapes, a bit of style and the wonders of silicon can keep your desserts pretty and in one piece. I love Wilton’s entire line of Bundt pans and those cute little tulip and daisy individual cake molds.

Your Frosting – Huge gobs of premade frosting can be a turn off. Consider making your own frosting or lightly dusting a cake with powdered sugar. If you insist on decorating with no skill whatsoever, go easy, take your time, and remember that less is more.

Assuming that you can bake, decorate, and transport your cake safely to your destination, you have a shot at impressing with little money and effort. (Or consider a dump cake for true simplicity and honest flavor.)

The Bad

There are always those who don’t heed the warnings of the cake professionals and undertake something way beyond their skill level. Sadly, many of these errors occur in the bakeries of large grocery stores or big box retailers, where consumers are left overcharged and unimpressed. My favorite cake goofs of all time are displayed in all their glory at the Cake Wrecks blog. (Thanks to Autumn Oak Hollow for the tip!) A doggie cake that looks like a pile of crap (literally)? You seriously have to see it to believe it.

Permalink | 6 comments | Linsey Knerl's blog | Channel: Life Hacks, General Tips

Similar entries:

For Wise Bread Subscribers Only! Download your FREE copy ($10 value) of our Wise Driving Guide: 108 Tips to Raise Your Fuel Economy.

This article is from Wise Bread.

9 Signs You Need to Fire Your Financial Planner

Nora Dunn — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 10:56:50 +0000

By Nora Dunn

In tough economic times, financial planners are on the front lines. They are the gateway to investment returns when the markets are good, and are the buffer against financial disaster when the markets are bad.

When I was in the financial planning business and markets experienced corrections of sorts, my colleagues and I would brace ourselves for something called “statement shock”. Clients would receive and open their quarterly or monthly statements, and regardless of whether they were keeping up with the news of market performance and understood the circumstances, they would experience a certain degree of shock when they realized how their own dollars and cents were affected.

There were three possible outcomes from this onset of statement shock:

They would realize that it is a function of the markets and not the planner and stay the course
The would call their financial planner for some reassuring words of encouragement and possibly ask for a meeting to devise a new action plan
They would look for a new financial planner

I was lucky. Most of my clients fell into categories one and two. I worked hard to educate them, work within their tolerances for risk, and was there to hold their hands when they needed it. This also usually put me on the receiving end of new clients who were in category three and displeased with their old financial planners.

But in times like these, when terms like “Meltdown Monday” and (sshhh…the “r” word) are being tossed around, financial planners around the world are waking up in the middle of the night in cold sweats. Try as they may to buffer their clients against market downturns, statements will look bad. And they will be sure to hear about it. And ultimately through no fault of their own, they will lose clients.

Some planners though, will lose clients, and arguably deserve to. They will not have performed the proper amount of due diligence with their clients by assessing their investment personalities and time frames, and instead of facing the music when their clients call, they may instead choose to hide under their desks as a way to weather the storm. They will not have addressed their clients’ larger financial situation and dealt with issues like taxation, short and long term savings, and estate planning, and will instead have simply focused on returns – something which can never be promised and will never be predictable (unless you are invested solely in term deposits, in which case again I would suggest the advisor’s incompetence).

If you are experiencing statement shock, or are wondering if your financial planner is up to snuff, here are nine signs you may need to fire your financial planner:

They never asked you about your personal goals and time frames before recommending investments.

There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all investment plan. Although having a standard set of investment recommendations according to your stated time frame and tolerance for risk is acceptable, they must do the initial groundwork to determine who you are and what you want from your money.

Only one company’s products are recommended.

As good as that company’s products are, true diversification includes not only a range of asset classes, but also a range of investment managers. Recommending only one type of or company-labeled product indicates that the advisor is not providing truly unbiased advice.

You received no written financial plan, prospectus, or documentation.

Every investment product should be accompanied by a detailed written description of the investment, including its composition, historical performance, and inherent risks and rewards. This is generally covered in the prospectus, which is a bare minimum of what you should receive. Better yet though – you should also be given a written financial plan, which addresses your personal financial situation and outlines a financial road map to reaching your goals – both short and long term.

You are pressured into making investments.

Although sitting on the fence forever is an advisor’s nightmare and sometimes clients need a little extra push, undue pressure into doing something you are uncomfortable with is not right. Even if the recommendations are sound, if you get bad vibes from high-pressure sales tactics, your ability to communicate with this advisor and for them to listen to your needs is going to be problematic going forward.

Your planner’s recommendations don’t match your financial goals.

You say you want to save up to buy a house, and your advisor recommends high-risk long-term investments. Something is not jiving here, and it is likely that they are either not listening to your needs, or are not acting in your best interest.

You can never reach your advisor when you want to, and they don’t return your phone calls.

With an onset of statement shock, you need to talk to somebody. Often big problems and feelings of discomfort can be alleviated with a simple phone call and a reassurance that staying the course is the best thing to do. But if you can never reach your advisor, if they pawn you off on an assistant, or if they don’t return your phone calls promptly, they are not doing their job.

They constantly change your investments.

Seeing a regular list of transactions coming through may lead you to believe your portfolio is being actively managed. However a true financial planner (and not a broker, who is transaction-oriented) should be focused more on the game plan and less on making money by moving it around. It’s a “slow and steady wins the race” approach. Too many transactions may also mean that they are making commissions on each move – a sign that they are not truly working for you.

The plan given to you seems too good to be true.

If it seems to good to be true, it probably is. If that tax strategy seems a little lofty, or you are introduced to a strategy that you’ve never heard of that goes in the face of everything you know to be true and legal, then you may find eventually yourself in hot water. Although the advisor may be liable, you are ultimately the one who will have to clean up the mess if your financial actions were unruly.

They tell you they can time the market.

I don’t care who your financial planner is – they can’t time the market. If they call you wanting to make drastic changes based on what they think the market is going to do, run. What they should really be focused on is you, your goals, and a plan (and portfolio) that will weather the good times and the bad. Sure – small adjustments here and there may be prudent, but moving everything in and out of different asset classes is a losing game. They may get it right a few times, but all it takes is one bad calculation to lose everything you have gained.

If it is indeed time to fire your Financial Planner:

Please do them a favour and give them a call. Sometimes things are lost in translation, or a breakdown in communication is accidental. In my experience, people can be short-sighted, focusing on returns and setting unrealistic expectations based on short term performance. When the markets are booming, people expect consistent double-digit returns and forget not-so-distant times when that wasn’t the case. And vice versa: after a stretch of poor performance, the same person may be convinced that the bad times will never end and want to stash all their money under the bed, forgetting to take the bad times with the good to achieve an overall rate of return that will help them attain their goals.

By calling your financial planner and giving them a chance to explain their actions, you may be able to save the hassle of moving your accounts and starting from scratch with a new planner.

Then again, don’t stick with a planner because it is the easy thing to do. If your financial planner is the culprit of any combination of the above mentioned blunders, it is a problem that needs to be addressed and fixed – either by finding another planner, or by tuning your existing planner in.

Statement shock sucks, through and through. But don’t take your eye off the ball because of the initial shock of seeing your investments lose value. If the markets are down overall, don’t blame your financial planner; they don’t have a crystal ball. And if they pass the acid test above, then keep communicating with them and together you will weather this market downturn, as with every other downturn. The media will sensationalize every market correction and somehow identify that this is the worst, the most dramatic, or the hardest whatever since whenever. But time and time again, slow and steady is what wins the race.

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

Similar entries:

For Wise Bread Subscribers Only! Download your FREE copy ($10 value) of our Wise Driving Guide: 108 Tips to Raise Your Fuel Economy.

This article is from Wise Bread.

Calling all Artists: Be Your Own Cheerleader and Find that Room of Your Own (free)

Margaret Garcia-Couoh — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 05:02:38 +0000

By Margaret Garcia...

I once got to watch something so masterful it took my breath away. One of my best friend’s (who is a brilliant singer songwriter whose had little or no success at it) has this sister that, well doesn’t have a shy bone in her body. She’d just moved to our town. She wrote one-woman shows that were good but not great. We’d taken her to see a play and on the way out as everyone was filing out for the evening, she was searching the crowd for the people to ‘know’. Who owned and ran the building she wondered out loud? And when could she get her show in here? She’d been in our town less than two months when I got word of her show being up and running. Wow. That was fast.

There were times when I didn’t even get along with her. Her brother and I both did not have the ability to self promote--but that was one thing she was always amazing at---self-promotion and demanding that all around her pay attention and acknowledge her as an artist. When I was younger, I was a wee bit intimidated by her abilities. Now I realize that most artists would be a little better off it we had this gene or DNA that she has to move herself forward. If you are out there somewhere, Nancy? I get it now!

It’s tough being an artist, writer, musician, etc. in America. You try to work in your medium and art form and perhaps you can manage that okay. But you also have to be your own manager, your own secretary, and your own cheerleader. The most successful artists in our culture are not necessarily the best out there—they are the ones however that mastered the art of being four people at once. You have to care when no one else does. That’s not easy especially if you are insecure about your abilities.

Art is subjective. Just because no one gets what you are doing yet doesn’t mean it ain’t art. There are tons of grants, contests, and little opportunities here and there for artists and writers and the like. But there’s also everyone and her grandpa trying to apply for finite resources. It’s much easier to get a grant or a residency if you already are a recipient of one of these things. Recession years aren’t a great time to go begging for money for arts anyhow. So take it into your own hands.

So----? What can you do to help yourself master one of the four parts of American artist harmony?

First, be your own cheerleader. No matter how silly or weird it seems to put yourself out there, do so. Dude, Britney Spears? Sucks. Janet Evanovitch? Sucks. Thomas Kinkade? Sucks so hard you can throw his paintings in your trashcan and they’ll keep you up at night because you’ll be able to hear them sucking two stories below you. But these hacks have a vital thing that you don’t have: confidence that they are awesome little super stars. Of course it’s pretentious to call yourself an artist, writer, poet, whatever. But at the same time if you really are an artist, writer, poet, dance, musician, etc. you need to start owning it. Odds are that your family and friends kind of get the feeling you are one of those artist types anyway. Own up to it. Use the words: “I am an artist.” Yeah, I know. It kind of sounds like you just said ‘I’m an idiot.’ But you have to take yourself and your work at least a little seriously. How do you do that?

Set aside creation time and don’t budge around it. I know a woman who paints every Sunday all day. She doesn’t change that schedule for anyone or anything. Beautiful. I try and often fail at this but each week, I try again to make sure I get in at least a half-day.

Remember that no one cares unless you care. Put yourself out there. I came out as an artist to the arts association in my area and now they asked me to do things and other random organizations do too. Do the open mikes. Do the stupid little writing gigs that you might not like. If nothing else, someone might buy your next beer. Do the volunteer work. Do the blog that pays nothing. A girlfriend of mine and I four years ago decided we’d make more of an effort to get our stuff out there. I chose the blog and barely paid route while after writing one article for an online magazine for free she decided that she’d hold out for big money. She’s still waiting. But the little tiny gigs here and there that paid nothing are starting to pay off a bit for me.

Being a writer and artist in some ways has never been cheaper than right now. Gone are the days of sending giant manuscripts with tons of postage. Slides! Oh my goodness. Now I only submit to people who take online submissions. My friend Lysa, a painter, does the same. Your overhead doesn’t have to be big. I know it ain’t always pleasant to be your own secretary, but you can maybe make one half day a week secretary day and do all that research and send yourself out there during that time.

Ignore rejection and become a star. My all time favorite children’s book is Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time. Legend has it that it was rejected some 54 times? Geez. I gave up on my first novel after 15 rejections. What a wimp I was! 54 is my new high bar. Go Me! Go You! We Rock!

Where have I been going for advice? One of the best writing books I’ve ever read is Ariel Gore’s How to Become a Famous Writer Before You’re Dead. It’s hilarious and you can find it for under $10 bucks. Read it. It’s full of cheap, easy ways to go about becoming your own literary star. Lynda Barry's awesome new book WHAT IT IS is a bit pricey at $26 but it's got more advice and brilliant illustrations than any creative life book I've ever seen. Put down 'An Artist's Way and those freaking Chicken Soup books and pick up Lynda Barry. You'll be glad you did.

Make friends with rich people who like art and literature. This sounds horribly calculated but it probably isn’t. I had an amazing patron for many years that accidentally found out that I wrote poetry. . When I finished a new story or poem, I would send them to him and his wife. Often he sent hundred dollar bills to me with notes to tell me to keep working. He got me through a major time of low confidence and often took the edge off of poverty. Thanks Howard. I now try and do the same. A good friend of mine who was an artist used to buy paint for artists he knew had less money than he had. There’s a great karmic quality to all this.

I put art in my budget to try and be part of the solution. It’s not a very big part. Not even a full tank of gas. But it’s there. How can I expect people to buy art and literature and music if I don’t?

I can’t write in my house. I can blog here, correct papers here, teach here, cook here, but I can’t write fiction or poetry here and I certainly can’t paint either. I needed a room of my own. But like most of us, I don’t have money to rent a studio or office. But I do have friends. An ex-boyfriend of mine had a good friend that wanted to start an art gallery with absolutely no money. They passed the same empty buildings day in and day out on their way to their day jobs. One day the budding curator called the number on the lease sign and said, “Look. I’ve walked by your building for six months and it’s been vacant. Can I hang some paintings in here to maybe liven the place up a bit? We can be month to month and if you find someone to lease the space, I’ll be out in a day. “ Steve spent the next six months with free gallery space with openings once a month. The building finally did lease—what caught the person’s eye? The paintings.

I used this same basic strategy when I was looking for a studio. Good friends of ours moved across country and lived very near a campground about twenty minutes from my house. They were a little anxious that both their cottage and their cabin would be left there unused –and inviting to possible vagrants and campers, but they didn’t really want to rent it out because they wanted to be able to vacation there themselves. Enter me. I asked if I could use the small day cottage as my studio in exchange for keeping an eye on the place, a little watering, and picking up of any litter. They went for it. (Thank you John and Lisa!). I go down to the cottage once or twice a week. I keep the weeds down. Pick up litter. Let them know when I think the boy they have mowing has slacked. I let them know when there’s been bears. But for the most part? I take long walks around a private river bank, and write more than I’ve been able to in years. Oh yeah, they are definitely front and center in the acknowledgement page if the novel ever sells.

I didn’t think this situation was unique, and it isn’t. Since I’ve found my room of my own, I’ve talked to other writers who’ve been able to strike deals like this one. Up where I live there are many second homes sitting vacant---especially with the price of gas. People who normally drive their SUVs and RVs up here to stay in their cabins aren’t doing it nearly as much. People are striking deals. Knowing that good people will be looking out over their properties is sometimes really all they want.

Just ask. See something vacant too long? Ask.

There isn’t an artist I’ve ever heard of who hadn’t mastered somewhat the art of frugal living. We’ve all eaten pasta and beans & rice for weeks at a time, furniture that came to us free, lived in a one-bedroom apartment with ten people, etc. But living on that edge will only get you so far without a crazy notion from within you that says, you know what? I’m an artist and I’m not afraid to say it. When you get to that point that I got to earlier this year. Say it really loud, out loud to yourself. Scream it into the street loud. When you believe it start making your demands and requests. Ask for the freebies. Ask for the space. Ask for class to teach. Apply for the grant. Ask for the free rent. You might just sound a bit like my best friend’s sister---so confident that the person you ask just can’t say no. We creative people are supposed to be creative. So that should go for confidence and fearlessness too. What’s the worst that can happen to you when you declare yourself an artist? Nothing. What’s the best? Recognition, jobs, free space, grants, and just maybe a quiet cottage on a beautiful river.

Permalink | 7 comments | Margaret Garcia-Couoh's blog | Channel: Art and Leisure, Budgeting, DIY

Similar entries:

For Wise Bread Subscribers Only! Download your FREE copy ($10 value) of our Wise Driving Guide: 108 Tips to Raise Your Fuel Economy.

This article is from Wise Bread.

Save Some Coin with Lands' End Overstocks and Free Shipping!

Linsey Knerl — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 04:24:46 +0000

By Linsey Knerl

I love Lands' End and their selection of high-quality, comfy clothes and shoes. Their overstocks are very reasonably priced, and with this special code, you can even get free shipping!

With something for everyone in the family, I enjoyed browsing through the clearance and overstock section at Lands' End. Some items in particular that caught my eye, include:

Women’s Sherpa Marinac Boots for $14.99 (were $39.50)

A selection of cute and comfy ladies’ undies (everything from hipsters to thongs for less than $3 in some styles and sizes.)

Some NQP (Not Quite Perfect) Men’s Tees (the neckline is 1” larger than what the label states) for less than $5. Check out their other NQP’s!

An entire collection of men’s tailored dress clothes (from suit coats to twill pants.)

Our favorite men’s microfiber half-zip pullover priced at $12.99 (marked down from $49)

There are overstocks for baby, boys, girls, ladies, and guys. I found summer tanks for less than $3 and an assortment of school uniform pieces. (Just be careful when clicking the “school uniform” link. For some reason it comes up with over 1000 products and contains everything from bedding to ladies’ shoes. To find just the school uniform deals, click on boys or girls and go from there.)

You will be taxed based on your location, but the best part is the FREE SHIPPING! Just fill your cart, and put code “SHIPFREE” and PIN# 4566 in the promotion boxes at checkout. (You can click the small “Apply” button before even entering your credit card info to be sure the amount adjusts.)

Word on the street is that this code is only good until 10/9. It worked for me! Let me know if you are able to score any other good Lands' End deals.

Permalink | 8 comments | Linsey Knerl's blog | Channel: Deals and Coupons, Coupons, Deals

Similar entries:

For Wise Bread Subscribers Only! Download your FREE copy ($10 value) of our Wise Driving Guide: 108 Tips to Raise Your Fuel Economy.

This article is from Wise Bread.

Make Your Own Self-tanning Lotion and 5 Other Fabulous DIY Tips from the Web

Linsey Knerl — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 21:43:31 +0000

By Linsey Knerl

Surprisingly simple, and totally affordable, this roundup of quick and easy recipes, tips, and hacks are sure to inspire. Create your own self-tanning lotion, never waste rice again, give during tough times, and more!

1. DIY Self-Tanning Lotion (from Niki Leigh Spa) This one blew my mind. Two ingredients, one fabulous tan. (You may need to adjust for your skin tone, and remember that this is NOT waterproof.) Perfect for a natural bronze look, and it smells yummy, too!

Ingredients:
• 1 tablespoon white unscented lotion
• 1 tablespoon pure cocoa powder

“Mix the lotion and cocoa powder together until very smooth and creamy, and apply with a sponge or makeup wedge. Your tan will last until your next shower.”

2. Clever Uses for Milk Jugs

With 4 kids in the house, we go through A LOT of milk jugs. I feel bad just throwing them away (since they are essentially around forever) and we don’t have a recycling program that will take them. I was thrilled to find this list of 35+ uses for plastic milk jugs . My favorites? The fridge organizer and the “poor man’s blender.” (And for extra fabulous uses for empty containers, see Myscha’s Garbage into Gold article.)

"Organize Your Fridge - Cut the tops off several plastic milk jugs and use the bases to conveniently store grapes, kiwis, pear tomatoes, cheese, lunch meats and other small items in the fridge. Make shorter containers for the storage drawers and trays."

"Poor Man's Blender - Add yogurt, soy milk, fruit juice, nutritional powders, crushed berries or jam to a 1/2 to 1-gallon plastic milk. Replace the lid and shake like crazy. Store extra in the fridge."

3. Save that Extra Rice

Is it just me, or is it impossible to make the perfect amount of rice? I’m always stuck with just enough for one more serving, but the toppings always run out! This tip taken from a reader over at Mary’ Hunt’s Everyday Cheapskate Newsletter is the perfect solution (and might help keep my husband fed on those days when I’m not around to cook.)

“I freeze the rice in margarine tubs, which are perfect for one serving. When I want to defrost it, I heat the rice in the microwave for 3 minutes. The rice tastes like I just made it that day, and it saves me time on busy nights. – Jeanne “

4. Wake Up To Your Own Beat

If you’re like me, you may be living in an area of the country where your radio listening options are a bit limited. Relying heavily on internet radio stations and websites like Pandora , my clock radio has been unused for many years. Kim Komando found out the best way to use your PC as a radio alarm – waking you up to your favorite streaming audio at any time you choose. Check out the full details at Kim’s website!

5. Learn to Barter

Those who find themselves strapped for cash or too far from a convenient service provider may consider bartering, or a trade of services. If you’re not sure what you could offer in exchange for that car repair, plumbing job, or use of storage space, just ask! Good barters I’ve seen lately include:

Use of pasture land for a new fence
Painting a house in exchange for a complete wedding photography session and prints
One hour of auto mechanic work in exchange for firewood

If you have something you can give, there is something you can get. ( I use Craigslist and local newspapers for my bartering.) Just look under the “Wanted” ads.

6. Share and Share Some More...

Tough times call for tough measures, and sometimes that means giving less. I know that when the non-profits start ringing my house, I don’t have to lie in the least when I tell them, “Sorry, I can’t give to your charity right now. Times are too tight.” But that doesn’t mean that I can’t, or don’t, give. I’m just more selective and use a better system for reasoning how much to give.

For a no-nonsense, deeply inspiring look at how much room we really do have to “give” (even those of use who are feeling the pinch of the economy), read Cheaper By the Half Dozen’s $14 Multiplied By…

“What if instead of heading to McDonald's, we drove past it and went to the grocery store and bought a bag of rice and a bag of beans? Remember, this is a once-a-month sacrifice meal. Try to remember that many families eat this way for most every meal. You can do it for one, right? My entire family can eat a meal of rice and beans (ham hocks included for flavor) for $5 to $6. Wow.”

She then takes that $14 saved and considers how many less-fortunate children or families can be helped by that money. Money that they won’t even think about in two days. What if everyone did this? What if they did it more than once a month? What if?

Permalink | 11 comments | Linsey Knerl's blog | Channel: Frugal Living, Life Hacks, DIY, General Tips

Similar entries:

For Wise Bread Subscribers Only! Download your FREE copy ($10 value) of our Wise Driving Guide: 108 Tips to Raise Your Fuel Economy.

This article is from Wise Bread.

How a $700 billion bailout became a $800 billion "rescue plan"

Andrea Dickson — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 22:07:02 +0000

By Andrea Dickson

You know how, when the bailout package was first proposed by Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke, Congress and the public were generally outraged that the Fed Chairman and the Secretary of the Treasury would ask for so much money to bailout large corporations and Wall Street? Seriously, Congress was all "OMGWTF, $700 billion!?!?!? That's, like, nearly a trillion dollars! FAIL."

Joe Public probably thought that Congressional outrage was along the same lines of the outrage felt by most tax-payers. Something like "Shucks, that's a heckuva lot of money."

Turns out what Congressional leaders meant was: that wasn't nearly enough. That's why the Senate and the House both passed a bail-out bill that now includes 100 billion dollars in pork, for a grand total of $800 billion.

How on earth did Congress manage to pack so many earmarks into such a bill. Here are some of the tax benefit recipients, as listed by the San Francisco Chronicle:

$2 million tax benefit for makers of wooden arrows for children
$100 million tax break to benefit auto racetrack owners
$192 million in rebates on excise taxes for the Puerto Rican and Virgin Islands rum industry
$148 million in tax relief for U.S. wool fabric producers
$49 million tax benefit for fishermen and other plaintiffs who sued over the 1989 tanker Exxon Valdez spill

How ridiculous are these (with the exception of the rum benefit, of course) tax benefits?

But wait, there's more - for instance, Washington residents (as well as residents of Texas, Nevada, Florida, and Wyoming) can continue deducting their sales tax from the their federal taxes, something I've never taken advantage of because I am too lazy to save my receipts.

The bill passed the house by a vote of 263-171, meaning that 58 more Representatives voted for the bill today than on Monday, when the bill was defeated by a few dozen votes just before Congress all pretended to be Jewish so they could take Rosh Hashana off and go drink some of that subsidized rum and shoot wooden arrows at each other.

I'm not one who thinks that earmarks are all bad, not by a long shot. But I find it interesting the lawmakers who were completely obsessed with government waste and disturbed by government intervention and special interests were happy to pass along over $100 billion in pork.

Anyone else bothered? Does this seem hypocritical? Especially considering that there are no actual revisions or reforms to the laws that govern the mortgage industry to begin with?

Other fun things to consider:

The money being used to finance the bailout doesn't technically exist. Yet.
The result of creating the funds necessary to fund the bailout can crush the American dollar in a landslide of inflation.
Some former members of Congress would like to further deregulate industry accounting practices by repealing part of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. You know, the part that dictated that companies "must value the assets on their balance sheets based on the latest market indicators of the price that those assets could be sold for immediately".

Permalink | 27 comments | Andrea Dickson's blog | Channel: Consumer Affairs, Taxes

Similar entries:

For Wise Bread Subscribers Only! Download your FREE copy ($10 value) of our Wise Driving Guide: 108 Tips to Raise Your Fuel Economy.

This article is from Wise Bread.

DIY Coffee Roasting

Myscha Theriault — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 18:31:58 +0000

By Myscha Theriault

During a recent discussion after Linsey's small appliance post, somebody mentioned DIY coffee roasting in a popcorn popper. As a fanatical coffee lover and someone always on the lookout for cheap ways to pull off the gourmet experience at home, I had to go digging for more home roasting info. Here's what I found out.

Getting Started

As long as your popper vents from the side and not the bottom, it should be fine to experiment with when roasting your own green beans at home. Sweet Maria's has some simple directions and a visual guide of the different stages of coffee roasting. This link also has a simple visual breakdown of how to try this at home with your own popcorn popper.
Green coffee beans stay fresh for quite some time, providing a long term shelf life for those interested in greater financial returns for their bulk buying efforts.
Looking to branch out while still keeping it cheap? This link has information on how to roast your own beans in the oven, over the campfire, or on the grill.
Getting excited and wanting to take it to the next level? Consider creating your own flavor options. While researching this piece, I found three general ways this can be done: By putting flavoring elements in with the actual roasted beans while they are sealed in a jar, by putting in finer ground elements or extracts into the actual coffee grinds as they are run through the press or brewing filter, or by adding a simple flavor shot or other liquid ingredient to the actual cup of hot coffee.

Things You Need to Know

The actual process is far from neat. Two things I read about over and over again were the smoke factor and the chaff. The actual roasting process can apparently produce a fair amount of smoke, making it advisable to try this in either a well ventilated kitchen or outdoors entirely. The chaff is the light, delicate and tedious skin that separates from the coffee bean during the roasting process. Commercial style roasters sized for home use (which you can certainly purchase if you find this is something you want to embrace enough to indulge in higher tech equipment) have filters or catching traps for the chaff, making it less of a mess to clean up afterward. But if you want to keep it cheap and stick with the popcorn popper option, moving the entire operation to the back deck should certainly do the trick.
The amount of money you will be able to save is directly tied to price you are able find on the raw beans, and how that price compares to the pre-roasted you also have access to. Three places I found online are Sweet Marias, Amazon and Brew Organic. They also each sell small coffee bags, making this a great idea for an out of the ordinary homemade Christmas gift idea.
Another tip I picked up is that you will likely want to cool down the beans as quickly as possible between the roasting process and the storing of the finished beans in an airtight container such as a canning jar. Some people do this by pouring them into a deep sided baking dish to spread them out, or by transferring from one sieve to another until the temperature reduces.

Since this idea is new to me, I'll be continuing to search for new information, books to review, and equipment to test drive. For the time being though, I was just so excited about the possibilities I wanted you all to have the information as soon as I could provide it. Times are tight, and us coffee hounds have to stick together. Any of you with further information or flavoring recipes, please join in the conversation below.

Permalink | 13 comments | Myscha Theriault's blog | Channel: DIY

Similar entries:

For Wise Bread Subscribers Only! Download your FREE copy ($10 value) of our Wise Driving Guide: 108 Tips to Raise Your Fuel Economy.

This article is from Wise Bread.

Best of personal finance: NPR explains financial mess in terms the average Joe can understand

Will Chen — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 02:35:45 +0000

By Will Chen

Welcome to Wise Bread's Best of Personal Finance roundup!

NPR gives the best explanation of the economic collapse. Two programs on NPR explain the situation using great analogies anyone can understand. If you know how Vegas bookies work, you can understand credit default swaps. Fresh Air and This American Life

Can you travel for less than you live on at home? "Factoring in my flight, insurance and gifts, I actually spend less on a regular basis while traveling than I do in New York." Emma Johnson, MSN Money

Dave Ramsey's plan to fix the credit crisis. Instead of a bailout, Ramsey advocates removing capital gains tax and insuring the underlying subprime mortgages with a FHA-type insurance. All Financial Matters

Watch out for this grocery pricing trick. Mighty Bargain Hunter asks what's wrong with this picture:

"DiGiorno’s Pizza — 5 for $3.99 each"

Are you getting paid for what you're worth? Use these online tools to compare your salary with your peers. Get Rich Slowly

How to find a good financial adviser. "A really good financial planner will always look towards structuring your financial and personal situation first." Free Money Finance

The 3 biggest risks of retirement. Longevity, inflation, and market changes are the key risks -- diversification is the way to diffuse them. Five Cent Nickel

The stock market is on sale. "Because I believe this economic crisis will end within the next few years or sooner, I took today’s 777+ point decline in the Dow and 8.8% decline in the S&P 500 as a sign that the stock market, as a whole is on sale." Consumerism Commentary

How I live without borrowing money. "It’s been four years since I borrowed money or used a credit card. Here’s how I live without borrowing money." No Credit Needed

6 simple steps to creating a to-do list. "Consider the list as a planning tool, an anti-anxiety device (if it’s on the list you won’t forget it), a push in the behind to get the engine started, and a rationale in the name of getting something done. Grace Kepplin on Dumb Little Man

Personal finance management on a biweekly pay schedule. "My last job paid me every two weeks, and I know quite well some of the traps people can fall into…" The Simple Dollar

Finding great deals at government surplus sales. Want to help out the government and your pocketbook at the same time? Geener Pastures via Smart Spending

Wait one day for every $100 you might spend. "A friend of mine has had a series of status updates on Facebook regarding an iPhone. Every few days he lets us know that he’s successfully resisted the temptation to buy one again. I like that he’s put it out there because the longer he waits, the more likely he is to avoid the purchase. " My Daily Dollars

Should couples keep their finances separate? Kristy shares a juicy cautionary tale: "Being in the banking industry, you always know when the husband or wife has been unfaithful because nine times out of ten, the other will come in and clean out the bank account. The drama we witness, let me tell you! At any rate, we recently had a customer come to the credit union to pull out money because her husband was cheating..." Master Your Card

The low-down on FDIC insurance. Don't panic. Check out this FAQ for accurate information about the insurance protecting your deposits. Julia Scot from Daily News

Credit default swaps: Are taxpayers ultimately responsible? "In the end, it's the taxpayers - it's always the taxpayers - who are left to cover all the losses..." Money Aisle

Happy birthday to Gov Gab! Gov Gap is the official government blog that shares little-known (and usually free) government resources available to help you out. Find information like:

If you have a suggestion for the next edition, please share them in the forum!

Permalink | 4 comments | Will Chen's blog | Channel: Personal Finance

Similar entries:

For Wise Bread Subscribers Only! Download your FREE copy ($10 value) of our Wise Driving Guide: 108 Tips to Raise Your Fuel Economy.

This article is from Wise Bread.