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Less Expensive Ways to Enjoy San Francisco

Margaret Garcia-Couoh — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 04:18:20 -0400

It’s almost that time again when I’ll be packing the kids and husband into the car and heading to my former home base of San Francisco. While admittedly, it’s one of the most expensive places to visit in the USA, there are some ways to cut corners and enough free and low priced activities that can make it a little easier on the budget.

First things first. When to go? Go between November and February. The www.joyoflifeclub.com Joie de Vivre Hotel Chain has winter rates and great places to stay—just by going within this four month time frame can shave $100 off of a room a night. If you don’t want or need to be classy, go completely frugal there’s the hostel route and the best of the best is the one at Ft. Mason in the between the Marina neighborhood and Fisherman’s Wharf. http://www.sfhostels.com/fishermans-wharf/. In general though, like living in the city itself, San Francisco has either great accommodations or questionable with relatively few in between. The farther away you get from downtown though, the more likely it is that either parking will be thrown in free or much lower in cost. My family tends to stay in Japantown as the out of the wayness of Japantown makes it slightly cheaper, with more available parking, and a pedestrian only area the kids can run around in, etc. Japantown is also just a quick cab from anywhere and won’t costs too much to go in any direction (Golden Gate Park, North Beach, the Marina, etc).

So you are settled in to a room. Now what? If you go the first week of the month more than likely you can hit many of the museums for free if you plan to hit them all on a Tuesday! The Legion of Honor is a good bet as the area surrounding is beautiful and the parking is free as well. The de Young Museum ( which shares a parking lot with the Japanese Tea Garden which is only $ 4 bucks to get in for adults and free for kids) also has free first Tuesdays. The SFMOMA does as well (though parking in downtown can kill ya).

Want to see the real Chinatown and get great deals on random plastic objects, cool kitschy stuff, and housewares? Then do yourself a favor and don’t go to Chinatown. Go to the Inner Richmond neighborhood (Clement street between 2nd and 10th is the heart of it) in San Francisco instead. Honestly the same people own shops in both neighborhoods with the same merchandise in each. The tourist factor in Chinatown means a big mark up. Shop with actual Chinese people in the Inner Richmond instead. The two best deals in this neighborhood are across the street from each other: Green Apple Books----with the best selection of new and used and new remaindered books anywhere (6th Avenue and Clement) and Kamei Restaurant Supplies across the street. This store is wall to ceiling dishes, pots and pans, and all things for the Asian kitchen. A set of bowls I saw at my local co-op for $7 a piece I found at Kamei for $1.99 a piece. You too (like me) can outfit your kitchen to look nearly identical to any of your favorite sushi restaurants for cheap (you can even buy fake sushi to stick in your window).

It almost goes without saying that there’s Golden Gate Park and hours you can spend roaming around the place. My personal favorite part thing is to go stare at the Buffalo herd, take the kids paddle boating at Stowe Lake, and the aforementioned tea garden. Minimal cost for maximum enjoyment. The closer you get to the beach by the way, the more available the parking and the cheaper the parking (and sometimes the rent for that matter). We like to let the kids run around Sutro Baths area and Land’s End and the area around the Cliff House on Ocean Beach. All free parking! There’s a great little throw back building out back that houses the Camera Obscura—worth the few bucks to stand in the dark and watch the surrounding area on a big ceramic disk in the center of the room. I’ve suckered friend into going here plenty of times. Cheap and it never gets old.

Back in the day, below the Cliff House restaurant was the Musee Mechanique http://www.museemecaniquesf.com/
–housing coin operated mechanical musical instruments, vintage arcade games (1910—1990s), fortune telling machines and other remnants from the defunct Playland on the Beach. It is now housed in Fisherman’s Wharf Pier 45 instead. The new location is a little too pristine for my tastes (I preferred the old moldy, dripping with god knows what location instead). But it’s FREE admission. Save up some quarters though –everything is in working order and there’s no way to leave there without playing something (I usually wind up on Centipede…).

We try to schedule our trips around what’s playing at the Castro Theatre http://www.thecastrotheatre.com For $9.50 for an adult ticket and $7 for a child, you can see any number of great revival flicks. Our personal favorite is for the Sound of Music sing-a-long the day after Thanksgiving (which does cost a tad more). Regardless of what movie you see you’ll see the gorgeous movie house and be treated to a brief live organ concert beforehand. The movie curtain will open and close the way it is supposed to and the theatre will get dark the way it should. Everything is done right! You can show your kids what life was like before tiny, bland suburban movie screens took over. Afterwards we head across the street to the Thai Restaurant in the lavender Victorian above Daddy’s Bar (I think the restaurant is just called Thai Restaurant but we’ve been calling it Pump Daddy Thai for years on account of the uhm…pumping music one hears on his or her way up the stairs). Anyhow they are super friendly and inexpensive and you have a great view of the Castro Theater Marquee and the neighborhood if you sit in one of the bay window table areas.

And this sounds weird coming from me but now that I have kids my SF night life is pretty much shot. More than likely if I can squeeze a few babysitting hours out of my sister in the evening I head to Kabuki Springs for the communal baths www.kabukisprings.com. For $25 you can spend hours soaking in water, steam, or sauna; drinking good teas and nibbling on salted apples. If you stayed in Japantown you just walk down the street to the Geary/Fillmore side of the Japantown Mall. If finding nirvana isn’t your thing. You certainly wouldn’t need my help to find a nice cheap dive bar. Throw a rock and you’ll hit one (though I end up at Tosca's in North Beach and The Plough and the Stars in the inner Richmond more often than not).

It’s all about the daytime now with the kids. And for that we do spend more time than I ever have in my life in the Marina. I brave this yuppie enclave for two things: Wandering around the Palace of Fine Arts and taking the kids to the enclosed playground outside the Marina branch library and softball fields on Chestnut Avenue. Order your Peet’s coffee to go up the street and brush up on your Spanish and Russian with all the nannies at the park. This is absolutely my 5 and 3 year olds favorite place in the city and it of course costs nothing! The sand and bouncy rubber beneath the jungle gym installations makes this ideal for little ones that like to jump. The Exploratorium Museum next to the Palace of Fine Arts is the quintessential kid’s science museum and is FREE on the first Wednesday of every month.

These are our places to hit next time we are back in the homeland. And if you happen to love alcohol and all things Japanese and are traveling on the I-80 on the way to San Francisco, get off on University Avenue in Berkeley and hang a quick right and go down the street to Sho Chiku Bai Takara Sake Brewery. FREE TASTINGS! That helps take the edge off the five-hour drive and gets us prepared mentally for manual transmission driving up steep hills. There’s a mini (FREE) Sake Museum, and great prices on sake from the company. http://www.takarasake.com

I would add in more suggestions for eating out cheaply but frankly, we now live in a tiny rural town of 300 people these days without a single restaurant. When we go home to the city the ONE thing we don't skimp on ? The food.

Enjoy my former homeland. Where do you go for cheap in The City?

Permalink | 9 comments | Margaret Garcia-Couoh's blog | Channel: Art and Leisure

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The Power of Mentorship

Nora Dunn — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 21:41:44 -0400

By Nora Dunn

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You just had a baby and need to learn some tricks of the trade of parenthood on the fly. What to do? Call mum.

You are training for a marathon and need some logistical and emotional support. What to do? Work with a trainer.

You are starting out as a sales rep in a company new to you and you don’t know where to begin. What to do? Ask your sales leader.

We all have mentors incorporated into different facets of our lives often without even realizing it.

Your accountant is your tax mentor.
Your financial planner is your investing mentor.
Your lawyer is your legal mentor.

Most of us have teams of experts (such as those listed above) at our disposal, some of whom we delegate to, and others on whom we rely for advice alone. Much of this process is done either out of habit or necessity; rarely conscious choice.

But what if we took a conscious approach to mentorship in our lives?

Having a mentor can accomplish a number of tasks:

It saves you from having to “reinvent the wheel” trying to figure something out that has already been perfected by somebody else.
You mentor will keep you on track.
They provide lots of motivation.
Your learning curve is dramatically shortened.
You benefit from the experiences of somebody else, learning from their mistakes and sharing in their victories.
You are accountable to your mentor for progress, so there’s no slacking off!

Having a mentor doesn’t have to be a costly thing. Mum sure as heck isn’t going to charge you for diaper-changing tips, nor is your sales leader. (Granted, your sales leader probably won’t be giving you diaper-changing tips either).

Professional services like accounting and law will involve fees, but in the spirit of outsourcing, you are technically saving money and time utilizing their experience and education instead of trying to make a go of it yourself and potentially botching the job (not to mention wasting time that could instead be spent doing something else).

It pays to seek out mentors for different areas of our lives. Here are some examples:

New Business

You are going into a business new to you, and are doing some market research for your business plan. Usually you would research the competition to see what they’re doing and then either emulate or differentiate your own business from theirs.

But what about contacting that business owner, announcing yourself as the new guy on the block (hopefully they operate in a different district from yours so they don’t feel threatened), and asking if they have any brilliant words of advice for you. The worst response you can get would be along the lines of “screw off” – no harm done. But you may also be surprised to discover an open mind and new relationship forming with this business owner. You can share ideas, they will tell you what worked and what didn’t, and you may even open the door to possible business collaborations. Both the mentor and prodigy can easily benefit from the arrangement. At the very least, the mentor will be flattered to be looked upon as an expert and likely give you a few pointers and words of encouragement.

Physical Health

Organizations like the Running Room are around to mentor people through training for a marathon, or just learning to walk for wellness. Weekly meetings with valuable safety and logistical tips, and thrice weekly training sessions connect like-minded people to train together and stay motivated. The cost is peanuts for a two month program, and the cash outlay may provide just enough motivation to actually show up.

I myself enjoy rock climbing and mountaineering; a field where the learning never stops. While living in the Rocky Mountains, I found a friend who became a climbing mentor to me. We enjoyed many climbing trips together simply as friends, and I learned a lot from being in the company of a climber better than myself. He loved the ability to help me improve my skills, and to tackle progressively harder mountains with me!

Emotional Health

I have one friend in particular who is my “emotional mentor”. She knows me well, and understands how to help me through trying times. Although I have many friends I could call in times of distress (or celebration), my emotional mentor is the one I know I can lean on, and who has the full picture. It is a reciprocal arrangement; one that goes beyond our friendship.

Life

The emergence of Life Coaches is on the increase. Having somebody who can help you learn to multi-task effectively, cope with change, find a happier career, or even just be a sounding board with some perspective is a very valuable resource to have at your fingertips. Although having a coach can be costly, it is often worth the money spent.

If you want to “go it alone”, then determine the areas where you could improve or need support, and find somebody who does it well and with whom you can establish a mentor relationship. Chances are you can make it a win-win for everybody by identifying an area where you can help them improve themselves.

By looking at all the areas of your life where you can or want to improve, and then finding somebody to help you do it, you will be taking progressive steps towards sharpening your skills, creating a support network, and moving forward in your life. So get out there, find somebody who can teach you something, and watch your life improve! That’s the Power of Mentorship.

Permalink | 3 comments | Nora Dunn's blog | Channel: Career and Income, Lifestyle

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51 uses for Coca-Cola – the ultimate list.

Paul Michael — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 15:52:49 -0400

By Paul Michael

I was trawling the Internet recently searching for a way to remove a grease spot from a favorite shirt of mine. How it got there, well, I blame a faulty fork and not my clumsy mouth. Anyway, time and again sites would reference a can of Coca-Cola as a way to remove the grease spot. I tried it, cynical but hopeful, and it worked. Not 100%, but it was way better than before. It did leave me wondering, are there other uses for Coca-Cola? It turns out there are a lot more.

I haven’t had a chance to test all of these out, but the ones I have listed here are the uses I found turning up time and again; not just on the web, but in books and magazines. If you have any more, feel free to share. And by the way, I’m no Coca-Cola advocate, I’m sure Pepsi or even store-brand would work just as well (unless that secret Coke ingredient is behind all of this…but I doubt it).

The list
1. Remove grease stains from clothing and fabric (I had to start there)
2. Remove rust; methods include using fabric dipped in Coke, a sponge or even aluminum foil.
3. Remove blood stains from clothing and fabric.
4. Make gooey Coke funnel cakes .
5. Clean oil stains from a garage floor; let the stain soak, hose off.
6. Loosen a rusty bolt; pour on some Coke and wait for the magic to happen.
7. Kill slugs and snails; a small bowl of Coke will attract them, the acid will kill them.
8. Help a lawn become lush and green (see my lawn tonic article here )
9. Prevent an asthma attack! Apparently, the caffeine in two 12oz cans can prevent the onset of an attack.
10. Defrost a frozen windshield. Apply liberally and wait (I’ll see if this works in winter)
11. Clean burnt pans; let the pan soak in the Coke, then rinse.
12. Descale a kettle using the same method in 11.
13. Neutralize a jellyfish sting.
14. Clean car battery terminals by pouring a small amount of Coke over each one.
15. Cure nausea; let a can of Coke go flat then take a teaspoon of Coke every hour.
16. Also, flat coke can help relieve an upset stomach (aka “the runs”)
17. Make a Mentos & Coke exploding fountain. This one takes a 2-liter bottle of Coke.

18. Get rid of hiccups; gargle with a big mouthful of ice-cold Coke.
19. Shake up a can and pour it over your windshield to remove bugs and other crud.
20. Use the method in 19 for your car bumpers, too.
21. Clean your engine; Coke distributors have been using this technique for decades.
22. Relieve congestion; boil and a can of Coke and drink while hot to clear you up.
23. Make a sweet BBQ sauce. Mix a can of Coke with ketchup and brush over ribs or chicken.
24. Baste a ham roast with Coke as it cooks. The sugars will caramelize; the ham will be moist.
25. Add a can of coke to your pot roast to tenderize it and add extra flavor. (Thanks Linsey).
26. Make pretty pennies; soaking old pennies in Coke will remove the tarnish.
27. Make your hair curly; pour flat Coke onto long hair, leave for a few minutes then rinse.
28. Age documents and photos; for that antique look, apply Coke, pat with paper, leave to dry.
29. Clean tile grout; pour onto kitchen floor, leave for a few minutes, wipe up.
30. Mix a can of Coke with a packet of Italian seasoning; cook a tough steak in it.
31. Make better compost; Coke increases the acidity, adds sugars and feeds microorganisms.
32. Dissolve a tooth in it; Use a sealed container, this takes ages. Why would you want to though, unless you’re Hannibal Lecter?
33. Remove gum from hair; dip into a small bowl of Coke, leave a few minutes. Gum will wipe off.
34. Get silky skin; mix a spoonful of Coke with regular lotion and apply liberally.
35. Make low-fat brownies .
36. Pour a little in a cup and set it out an hour before a picnic, away from your site; it will attract wasps and bees so they’re not bugging you and your grub.
37. Remove stains from vitreous china. More info on vitreous materials here .
38. Got a dirty pool? Add two 2-liter bottles of Coke to clear up the water (it acts as rust remover).
39. Add Coke to your laundry to remove bad smells, especially fish.
40. Remove (or fade) dye from hair by pouring diet Coke over it.
41. Mop a floor with Coke to make it sticky. It’s a movie industry trick to stop actors slipping.
42. Remove marker stains from carpet. Apply Coke, scrub, then clean with soapy water.
43. Clean a toilet; pour around bowl, leave for a while, flush clean.
44. Apply to skin for a deep tan (although this seems like a recipe for skin cancer to me).
45. Supposedly, drinking an 8oz can of Coke every day can prevent kidney stones.
46. Add it to a Sloppy Joe mix
47. Perk up your Azaleas or Gardenias.
48. Coke and aluminum foil will bring Chrome to a high shine.
49. Strip paint off metal furniture; soak a towel in Coke, sit it on the surface for days. Make sure you keep adding Coke to keep the towel wet. (Seems like a hassle, I’d rather buy paint stripper.)
50. Add it to vodka, rum or bourbon.
51. Drink it straight from the can, if you can (too sweet for me)

And a few Coke fallacies:

Coke is not used by the authorities to clean blood from the roads after accidents.
Coke will not dissolve teeth or nails OVERNIGHT. It takes a long time.
Coke and aspirin will not get you high.
Coke is not an effective spermicide.
Coke poured onto raw pork will not cause worms to come crawling out of it.
The acids in Coke do not make it dangerous to drink (your own stomach acids are much stronger).
Drinking too much Coke will not make you die from CO2 poisoning.
Coke does not contain cocaine (although it used to).
Coke did not become carbonated by accident.

So, that’s what my days of research turned up (yes, days. Anyone who tells me to get a life will be justified). If you have anything to add, pour away folks.

Permalink | 12 comments | Paul Michael's blog | Channel: Frugal Living, Life Hacks, General Tips

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Frugalize any recipe

Philip Brewer — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 09:25:07 -0400

By Philip Brewer

My wife picked up a cookbook at the library--one of those beautiful cookbooks with a gorgeous pictures of each dish. It had an above-average number of dishes that appealed to me. But, like a lot of cookbooks, it was written with no thought of holding the line on costs. That didn't matter, though, because my wife and I are old hands at doing that ourselves.

The fact of the matter is that we never cook a recipe just as its written (except for candies and confections, which are sort of a special case). We change recipes for many reasons:

to leave out things we don't like or that someone is allergic to
to add things that we do like or that we have and want to use
to leave out things that we can't get or don't happen to have on hand
to combine things that we think will go together, even if the cookbook authors didn't think of it.

It occurred to me, though, that lots of people don't do this--they either cook something that they know how to cook, or else they follow a recipe. What we do amounts to using recipes without necessarily following them. I thought it might be useful to show a worked example, and then talk a bit about the general principles.

Here's a frugalization of the Sesame-Garlic Sirloin Steak from the book my wife checked out of the library last week, Cooking for Two: Efficient and Delicious Meals.

Now, if what you want is a thick, juicy steak, it's tough to come up with a good, cheap substitute. In this recipe, though, the steak wasn't served that way--it was served cut into thin slices. If you're going to cut it into thin slices anyway, I figure you might as well use pot roast. (Sirloin was going for $5.99/lb.)

I looked in the grocery store flier and found top round roast on sale for $3.99/lb, and would have used that, except that my wife spotted one package that was marked down even further because its sell-by date was tomorrow. Since I was going to cook it today, that was fine, so I snapped up a roast for just $1.58/lb. It's a fairly small roast, (a pound and a half) but there'll still be plenty left over to make sandwiches tomorrow (french dip or maybe italian beef) and maybe again the next day.

I pressure-cooked the meat. It's the quickest way to cook a roast and it does especially well with slightly tougher cuts of beef.

I put a tablespoon of oil in the pressure cooker and browned all sides of the roast over medium heat. Then I added 2 cups of water (because I wanted one cup of broth for rice for this meal, and another cup for the french dip tomorrow), and then cooked it at high pressure for 24 minutes (because the book that came with the pressure cooker says 12 to 15 minutes per inch and the roast was about 2 inches thick). After 24 minutes, I turned off the heat.

While the pressure cooker was depressurizing, I made the sauce.

The sauce in the book had 2 tablespoons each of soy sauce and hoisin sauce, which would have been fine except we don't have hoisin sauce and I wasn't going to buy a bottle just to fix one meal. What the hoisin sauce adds, though, is a bit of sweet, a bit of sour, and a bit of hot. So, I took the sauce recipe from the book, boosted the soy sauce from 2 T to 3 T, and added a bit of honey, a bit of vinegar, and a bit of hot sauce. (The hot sauce we use is very hot, so I just added a little bit. If you use a milder hot sauce or you like your food really hot, add more.) Here's the sauce I made:

3 T soy sauce
2 T roasted sesame seed oil
2 T minced garlic
1 T honey
1 T vinegar
8 drops hot sauce

In the book it's used as a marinade, but I just heated it up in a sauce pan and then poured it over the thinly sliced meat just before serving.

As I said, the book has beautiful pictures of the dishes. The photo for this dish was made especially attractive by sprinkling the meat with toasted sesame seeds. We didn't have any sesame seeds in the pantry, but it turns out that you can buy four or five times as much as you need for a couple servings of sesame beef for 35 cents, so we went ahead and bought some. In the book they also sprinkled some cilantro on the beef, but I hate cilantro, so I used parsley instead.

After the cooker depressurized, I put the roast on the cutting board and (while it rested), I used one cup of the cooking liquid to make some instant rice. (Normally we wouldn't have used instant, but it just worked out so well using the same cooking liquid.) The rest of the liquid I saved in a container in the fridge and will use to make the dip for french dip sandwiches tomorrow.

In six or seven minutes, once the rice was ready, I carved a few thin slices of the meat (cutting against the grain), poured on a little of the sauce, sprinkled the sesame seeds and parsley, and put the plate down for the photo shoot. Once I'd gotten a picture I liked, I carved a few more slices so my wife could get her serving fresh and hot. (I ate the one in the picture. It was yummy.)

With that example in mind, here are the general principals for frugalizing any recipe:

First principle--take the recipe apart

There are usually three parts to a recipe. There's the ingredients list, a preparation procedure, and a cooking procedure. The key notion is that these things can be mixed and matched with those of other recipes however you like.

Second principle--use what's on sale

You can substitute almost any cut of beef for another--just cook it according to how that cut of beef needs to be cooked (rather than whatever it says in the recipe you're working from). Beyond that, though, you can substitute almost anything for the main item in a recipe. Besides substituting a cheaper cut of beef, you can substitute chicken for beef, thighs for breast, bone-in for boneless, and so on. Just cook it as appropriate.

Using what's on sale doesn't necessarily mean using a cheaper cut, either. The high-end cuts go on sale as well, and sometimes you can get a better steak or roast for less than you'd pay for what the recipe calls for.

And that's just the beginning. There's no need to stick with beef and chicken. Pork, lamb, turkey and tofu are always available, and you can often get exotic stuff like rabbit, elk, bison, venison, and so on. The exotics go on sale a lot less often than the ordinary stuff, but they do go on sale. Something like venison can sometimes be obtained by barter, if you have a neighbor or relative who hunts--or even for free. (We used to get free venison when hunting season approached if a certain relative's freezer still had some from the previous year.)

The point is that you can go pretty far afield from whatever the recipe calls for.

Simply cook whatever you decide to use the way it needs to be cooked (if you're not sure, just find a recipe for whatever you're using and ignore everything except the time and temperature part of the cooking instructions) and then follow the other parts of the recipe you're using as a model.

Third principle--use less of an expensive main dish

Just because the recipe calls for 12 oz steaks doesn't mean you need serve them. If you want to serve steaks, serve 5 oz ones. (If you want to make the dieticians happy, serve 3 oz steaks). Or, instead of serving steaks at all, as in the example, cut up a cheap cut of beef into thin strips and present it elegantly as a condiment on something else that provides the bulk of the meal--on a bed of greens, to make a salad or on a starch course (rice, pasta, potatoes, polenta, flatbread--whatever you like).

With those three principals and a little flexibility, you can make any recipe as cheap as you need it to be, and still keep it delicious.

Permalink | 16 comments | Philip Brewer's blog | Channel: Food and Drink

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Follow Your Frugal Bliss

Carrie Kirby — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 23:25:20 -0400

By Carrie Kirby

"I would never have time for that!"

Anyone who has spent a little too much time running her mouth about her frugal accomplishments has heard that line. And it can be a bit insulting. After all, why is everyone else so busy and important, while I apparently am the only person around who has time to clip coupons and shop for loss leaders at grocery stores?

Then I realized that usually, when we say we don't have time to do something, what we mean is we don't WANT TO allocate any time to that particular activity.

And you know what? That is perfectly reasonable. After all, we all have to balance our lives: Most of us need time for earning income, time for managing our households and other responsibilities, and time for R&R. Taking on a new money-saving activity usually means pushing something else out, or becoming more efficient.

But if you're here at Wise Bread, you're probably looking for ways to cut down on your financial outflow. So here's my tip for getting started: Don't clip coupons if you don't have time for it. Find ways to save that you will make time for, because you don't hate doing them. Find something that suits your personality and your situation, and you're much more likely to fit it in somehow.

I "shop aggressively" because I am by nature an opportunity seeker. I love finding things of value that not everyone knows about -- whether it's a thrift store sweater or a free-after-coupons bottle of laundry detergent. I have managed to find a few hours in my busy week to clip and print out coupons, and study grocery flyers, not just because I'm thinking about how much money I will save but because it's kind of fun for me. Yes, I'm a little freaky-deaky that way.

On the other hand, I hate doing housework. So when I hear suggestions to save money by hanging out my laundry, I sigh and feel overwhelmed. And here's a convention that might surprise you: I have a cleaning lady who comes twice a month. She saves me about two hours of heavy cleaning a week. So you might say that I could quit clipping coupons, spend the amount I pay the cleaning lady on groceries, and spend the time saved to scrub my own dang bathtub. But I don't WANT to. Much like skimping on groceries makes a friend of mine feel deprived (she recovered from an eating disorder so it's a sensitive area), heavy cleaning makes me feel like a drone and makes me resent my husband for doing less than me. Strategically grocery shopping, on the other hand, makes me feel clever and like I'm winning a game and doing well by my family.

Below are other examples of how you can find frugal moves that fit your personality. Once you enjoy one frugal change, you'll probably be ready to a frugal change that you at least don't hate. For example, even though I don't really love cooking, I've gotten myself to make more and more things homemade. Who knows, maybe if I get far enough down the frugal road, I'll be able to cajole myself into setting up that clothesline.

If you're an environmentalist: Instead of thinking about groceries, you'll get more internal rewards from driving less, replacing paper towels with rags, using cloth diapers and, yes, hanging out laundry.
If you're crafty: There are so many great suggestions on this site for making gifts, things for your home and personal care products for very little money. Reading these tips makes me feel lightheaded, but for you, they might be just the encouragement you need.
If you get a charge from doing things independently, look for ready-made things you could make or grow yourself. Raise those chickens, or for a less radical move, make milk into yogurt. Make your own bread. This option is especially good if you have small children at home and you want to give them a little crunchy granola "how things are made" experience. A good book with recipes for such homemade products is Ruth Yaron's "Super Baby Food." (That's an affiliate link.)
If you detest all of the above, but your home budget is still not balanced, you might be better off taking some spare time to increase your income. Depending on your situation, that might mean overtime hours, consulting on the side, or a little work from home tutoring or doing call center work.
If you truly cannot spare any extra time on a recurring basis, but you need to save money, focus on what you can change about your life that won't take extra time. Consider taking a half day to examine and overhaul how you run your household and to plan. You will probably find that changing a few things -- like switching service providers or refinancing a loan -- will save you money without any outlay of time beyond that first planning day. You may even find that some moves will save both time and money -- such as making a plan to simplify your life by cutting out excess shopping, or getting rid of a costly hobby that had become more obligation than fun.

Permalink | 9 comments | Carrie Kirby's blog | Channel: Frugal Living

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Free and cheap things to do in Seattle

Andrea Dickson — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 21:01:57 -0400

By Andrea Dickson

Seattle's natural beauty and mild weather make it a fairly easy city to enjoy without dropping a ton of cash. Here are some of Seattle's local attractions that cost under $5 per person.

Artsy Stuff

Seattle Museums offer free days on the first Thursday of every month for the general public (some of the museums also have free to seniors the first Friday of every month and free to families on the first Saturday of every month). At the Seattle Asian Art Museum, tickets for adults are only $5 on a normal day. Other local treasures that are expensive on a normal day but free on the first Thursday of every month include the Wing Luke Asian Museum, the Frye, the Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museums (worth seeing just to gawk at the building) and the University of Washington Burke Museum.

The Asian Art Museum also butts up against the Lakeview Cemetery, where Brandon and Bruce Lee are buried, and Volunteer Park, which features a free Conservatory.

Speaking of dead celebrities, you can also visit the Jimi Hendrix memorial in Renton, just 20 miles south of Seattle.

Park-y Stuff

Seattle has a wealth of public parks, but it really depends on what your needs are. You can play tennis in a variety of outdoor courts, which is great when tennis clubs are few and far between (but not so great when dealing with our 9,000 days of rain per year or whatever). Some great beaches can be found at Golden Gardens and Alki. We also have a large number of off-leash dog parks, should you need somewhere to let your pooch run free.

My favorite place in all of Seattle is the Arboretum, which is maintained by the University of Washington. It's open year-round, and is completely free to the public (also, it has great parking that rarely fills up).

Nerdy Stuff

Seattlites are fairly proud of their highly-educated population (we beat Minneapolis in 2005 for the title of Most Literate City in the US, but those buggers keep taking the number 1 spot), so it's no surprise that we would build a huge central library that you can easily lose your children in (we will return them to you). We also have a huge number of used book stores, which can be fun to browse. Also, if you are looking for fellow nerds, you can head to the Science Fiction Museum (see above). Linux fans can walk past any of the dozens of Microsoft campuses and scream obscenities (technically, this is free, but Microsoft does ask for a donation of a part of your soul).

Sporty Stuff

In spite of our hornrim glasses and pocket protectors, Seattlites are a fairly fit bunch. You might enjoy seeing the city on foot on a variety of walking tours (I like the International District, next to the stadiums, best). If you prefer two wheels to two feet, you can get a decent backyard view of Seattle by taking the Burke Gilman Trail from Ballard to Kenmore, on your bike (you can also walk, rollerblade, jog, or whatever suits your fancy).

Downhill mountain biking trails can be found under the I-5 Colonnade, if you have the desire to hurdle yourself across a crazy downhill course but don't have the vehicle necessary to get you out of the city. If you have your own set of discs, free frisbee golf can be enjoyed at the Lakewood Park Disc Golf Course. Being something of a disc golf newbie, I can also attest that Lakewood has a pleasant share of wild fruit, from apples to blackberries, growing around the course. The UW Rec Sports Center rents out canoes for $7.50 an hour, which is good and cheap with split between a couple people. You can row around the Arboretum, or even under the 520 freeway.

If exerting yourself isn't what you had in mind, it's worth noting that you can see the Mariner's lose to any team in the league for as little as $6 per person (OK, OK, I know that's more than $5, AND you'll have to prevent yourself from buying the IchiRoll, the beer, or the chocolate-covered strawberries).

Obvious Stuff (but without the added cost)

If you're not from Europe or Asia, you'll probably be as thrilled as I am with Pike Place Market, Seattle's public market since 1907. I personally just enjoy walking around and gawking at the gorgeous flowers and produce and views of the water, since everything is a touch pricey (famer's market prices). Kids also get a kick out of reading the names on the market's floor tiles, where you can find some pretty funny, intriguing, and sentimental dedications and names (the tiles were purchased, as a part of a fundraising campaign, by people who wanted to help rebuild the market, which regularly falls into disrepair, in the 1980s). The most famous site at the market is, of course, the fish-throwing guys.

It costs a lot to take the elevator to the top of the Space Needle, but I personally just enjoy walking around it and looking up. The Smith Tower offers a great view of downtown, but costs $7.50 per adult (still cheaper than the $16 that the Space Needle charges).

You might have noticed that Seattle has an awful lot of water, something that the Army Core of Engineers took advantage of when they built the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks. The locks are built between the Puget Sound (salt water) and our local lakes, Lake Union and Lake Washington. It's fun to watch boats come and go using the locks, and kids are especially enchanted with the fish ladder (please do not ask me why).

Cheapest Eats

The cheapest food to be had in Seattle is at the international eateries sprinkled throughout the International District (formerly known as Chinatown) and the U-District (the neighborhood that surrounds the University of Washington). Vietnamese food is exceptionally affordable, but we have some decent taco wagons throughout the region as well. Also keep an eye out for happy hour specials at more upscale establishments or smaller bars.

Permalink | 5 comments | Andrea Dickson's blog | Channel: Art and Leisure

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10 Things to Do for Under $5 in the Omaha Metro Area

Linsey Knerl — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 15:43:24 -0400

By Linsey Knerl

Omaha was my home for over 6 years, and while I enjoy living a more rural existence, I still frequent the metro for exciting entertainment options and unique shopping excursions. And while five bucks won't buy you the largest sized blended drink at Starbucks, it can get you admission to these ten other hot happenings in the Omaha metro area. Check out these frugal hot spots in the Big O!

Joslyn Art Museum – This isn't your average rinky dink art gallery. Thousands of top-notch art exhibits have made their way through the halls of Joslyn in the years it has been open to the public. Past favorites have included Karl Bodmer, William Joyce, Denise Fleming, and pieces rescued from the New Orleans Museum of Art. Many fine pieces make their permanent home at the Joslyn, including Du Bois, Mary Cassat, and Degas. Senior Citizens, children, and college students get in for $5 or less anytime, but on Saturdays from 10am – noon, it's free for EVERYONE! Their phenomenal series of Jazz on the Green shows have ended for the year, but activities such as College Night (Sept 12) offer food, music, and culture for absolutely no money!

Take in the memorials – Remembering those who have come before us may not always seem like a lively way to spend a free afternoon, but there is much to learn while visiting these monuments: Gerald Ford Birth site and Monument, Boys Town Hall of History (which includes the world's largest ball of stamps), and Cancer Survivors Park, Memorial Park (honoring WWII, Korea, and Vietnam veterans).

Skate! - Omaha has several top-notch ice skating rinks to choose from. The cheaper one to go to is the Motto McLean Arena (where you can skate for $2.50 plus a $1.50 skate rental.)

Support local art – Take in the sights and sounds of the Old Market and some unique artistic talent at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts. Located in the upper floors of the historic buildings, artists live and work where visitors can see!

Mahoney State Park – For the price of a daily park pass, you can get into the newest state park setup this part of the state has to offer! Located near Gretna, beautiful scenery, a nature conservatory, and an activities center (featuring $2 admission, cheap archery, an indoor playground, and ice skating) are just a few of the perks this park has to offer!

Gene Leahy Mall – This is the perfect place to stroll! This ten-acre park is right smack dab in the middle of historic downtown Omaha. Completely free and open until 11pm daily, you can explore waterfalls, gardens, the amphitheater and sculptures.

Heartland of America Park – Right next to the Gene Leahy Mall (in historic downtown), this park sports a breathtaking 300-foot fountain from April to Nov. Grab a boat ride for just $2 a person.

These are just a few of the better-known free and cheap attractions in Omaha. (I clearly left off the buffets that you can find for less than $5... not everyone enjoys cheap noodles.) Locals will have more fun hang-outs that they can share, but this list is a great place to start!

Permalink | 5 comments | Linsey Knerl's blog | Channel: Frugal Living, Art and Leisure

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Family Businesses - The World's Second Oldest Business Model

Mary Webber — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 09:11:45 -0400

By Mary Webber

Family businesses are the backbone of the American economy. The Family Firm Institute of Boston cites these figures: Family businesses account for 78% of all new job creation, support 60% of U.S. employment, and contribute 50% of our annual GDP (Gross Domestic Product).

Family businesses from Wal-Mart to the mom-and-pop store in your neighborhood face unique challenges; after all, they are family and they are business.

The definition of a "family business" is broad, referring to any two members of the same family, whether blood-related or not, who own or operate a business together. It might be multi-generational (LL Bean is now 4th generation), or it might be a publicly-traded company (Ford Motor) whose principal stockholders are family members.

Publicly traded family companies face the possibility of outsiders buying in and taking over, a prospect the Sulzberger family, owners of the New York Times, confronted with a shareholder clause allowing only intra-family sales of family-held stock.

Family members working together is one of the world's oldest business models, but enduring operation is more elusive. While the average life cycle of a family business is 27 years, there are exceptions. Zildjian Cymbal Company of Norwell MA is America's oldest family business in continuous operation, having gotten its start in Turkey in 1623. For the first time it its history, the company is now run by two women, cousins descended from the original patriarch.

The Seaside Inn and Cottages in Kennebunk Maine, 4th oldest family business in the US, received their original land grant from King George, and the business is now run by the 12th generation of the founding family. Many national firms such as Benjamin Moore Paints and Levi Strauss are also long-term family success stories.

Here in Maine, 80% of businesses are family owned and many have world-wide cachet including LL Bean, Tom's of Maine (now owned by Colgate-Palmolive), Thos. Mosher Cabinetmakers, and even the Wyeths, whose family members produce and promote three generations of acclaimed artwork.

What are the unique challenges facing a family-owned business?

According to Tom Juenemann, Director of the Institute for Family-Owned Business in Portland Maine, the number one challenge is succession, a hand-off that is often particularly difficult for the founding generation. Figures from a Mass Mutual/Arthur Anderson study document that: Only 30% of family businesses are run by the second generation, 9% by the 3rd and 4% beyond that.

Founders are often deeply, personally, invested in the company they've created, and relinquishing control, especially to the kid they once diapered (even if he is now 50) is agonizing. Too, there may not be second (or third) generation family members who want to assume the company mantle.

Tom's of Maine, which essentially started and built the market for natural personal care products, exemplifies a classic solution to this dilemma. The company has always been known as a strong family business with deeply-held beliefs about its workers, products and its role in the community; but, running this highly successful business was becoming all-enveloping for the founding family.

An offer from Colgate-Palmolive definitively answered "Yes" to the two biggest concerns of selling any family firm: Would a conglomerate keep the essence of the small family business and the integrity of its brand reputation intact, and would this sale allow all family members to benefit.

The second major challenge for family businesses is sibling rivalry. According to Juenemann, the issues might be ones of birth order, gender, family roles (the prankster, the smart one), or even just a magnification of the childhood slights everyone suffers. When money and power are involved, old family issues are more likely to play out.

Dealing with the dynamics of control, equality, and affirmation issues as well as coping with boundaries, in-laws, and simple pettiness within a family business can require substantial time, energy, and sensitivity, all while trying to address the more pragmatic concerns of running any business.

Does it get any easier the more successful a business becomes? Not likely, as evidenced by an October 2007 article in Forbes Magazine. 10 Billionaire Family Feuds details the many ways in which "nuclear" really applies to the family whose business interests collide.

The third major issue that family businesses confront is that those companies are by their very nature, closed concerns. Most families have unspoken rules about not airing dirty laundry in public; that magnifies ten-fold in a family business where family members sometimes feel as those all their quirks and quandries are unique to their family, their company. Not true, so while loyalty is perceived as crucial, have a place to air grievances is also critical.

By far the most touchy family business situation occurs when it becomes clear that, for whatever reason, outside expertise is needed. This is particularly wrenching when the business is okay, and the family isn't. This is where a well-functioning board of directors, which should include some outsiders, is invaluable.

LL Bean demonstrated the long, hard thought that must go into a smooth, successful management transition when the company reins were handed on from Bean family heir Leon Gorman to Chris McCormick, now the company's first non-family CEO.

But what about the rewards of being part of a family business? A successful company can be an institutionalized reflection of the personal values of the founding family. While not always easy, it can be a privilege to both honor a legacy and expand a vision.

And family members, especially siblings who work and succeed together, often outgrow old family patterns and come to view and value each other as competent adults, a transition that is often seen as the most enduring benefit of a family business.

Where to find help with Family Business struggles?

Maine's Institute for Family-Owned Business like other family business centers nationwide, supports and strengthens family businesses though consulting, mediation, estate planning, many topical conferences, and especially by facilitating networking among member companies.

While there are over 100 Family Business Centers in the US, they are not in every state. Websites such as those at UMASS Amherst Family Business Center, Loyola University Chicago Family Business Center or Kennesaw State University Cox Family Business Center can refer you to your nearest center, or google "Family Business Center" to find one near you.

Recommended books include Perpetuating the Family Business (John L. Ward), Love, Power and Money (Fowler, Edquist) and When Your Parents Sign the Paychecks (Greg McCann).

From the smallest, local, family-owned business to the Waltons who founded Wal-Mart, family businesses help strengthen the American economy, and those businesses offer founding families both unique challenges and unlimited possibilities. After all, they are family and they are business.

Permalink | 5 comments | Mary Webber's blog | Channel: Entrepreneurship

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Women Are Responsible For Inequalities in the Workplace

Nora Dunn — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:26:03 -0400

By Nora Dunn

It’s not news that women tend to hit glass ceilings in the workplace far sooner than men do. It’s also not news that women tend to earn less money than their male counterparts in exactly the same positions.

Is it possible though, women are actually partially responsible for these inequalities? Recent studies say yes.

U.S. behavioral scientist and author Shannon L. Goodson has studied and compared tens of thousands of men and women from 34 different countries to figure out what is going on. She discovered that women are less likely to project themselves professionally (regardless of country or culture).

Upon first blush, this shouldn’t be so bad; aren’t we taught that modesty is more attractive than blatant egotism? Isn’t it unladylike to be too forward?

But when we live in a world where (as Goodson confirmed) self-promotion is key to getting bigger salaries and better positions, it seems that feminine modesty is simply detrimental.

Here are some ways you can start to actively promote yourself without being looked upon as the “office bitch”:

Draw attention to your contributions, especially if they go above and beyond the original task assigned.
If you are proud of something you believe you do well, make sure the right people know about it. If they know that you enjoy a particular task or have a knack with it, you may find your job shifting to encompass more of it, utilizing your talents better and giving you more job satisfaction.
Participate in social and professional networking events, and be sure to mingle.
If a task takes you less than the allotted time, be sure to bring it to your boss’s attention.
Make suggestions for how your skills might be better utilized if you feel you aren’t working up to your capabilities. Warning: don’t let your boss pile more work on…indicate that these suggestions are for future improvement of the company, and that these responsibilities warrant a new position or restructuring of your current position.
Ask for a raise if you feel you deserve it! The worst anybody can say is “no”.

Goodson’s studies reveal another possibly scarier fact: female managers are not as supportive and encouraging of other women as you may think. Those women who have made a leap to management and are on the fast track may actually sabotage the careers of other women under them. So if you are an employee working underneath one of these managers, be sure not to look to them for that maternal encouragement you may expect – in fact, watching your back may be sadly necessary. I have personal experience in this area; by expecting the woman across the desk from me to be kind and nurturing, I have botched interviews, become agitated in meetings, and even been bitten by office politics in unlikely ways.

In many cases you can overcome workplace inequalities without having to change your behavior. Instead, a simple shift in attitude will do:

Don’t expend energy worrying about outcomes…focus on the job, and show off the results in the end.
Eliminate stage fright from your vocabulary. Join Toastmasters if you need to become more comfortable presenting in front of groups - it's fun and incredibly helpful. (And it's more of that social networking I was talking about - you just may meet your next manager there).
Don’t worry about being “intrusive” in opening up lines of communication with others (especially managers higher than you).
Don’t be intimidated. Women are more likely than men to be intimidated by wealthy people, and those in powerful positions. Remember – they are just people too.

In this day and age, hard work alone is not enough to succeed and flourish in the workplace. Don’t be a martyr – get out there and self-promote! Only you can be your biggest cheerleader – nobody else will do it for you.

Permalink | 17 comments | Nora Dunn's blog | Channel: Career and Income

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Book Talk On “The Offsite: A Leadership Challenge Fable”

Julie Rains — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 21:30:46 -0400

By Julie Rains

The Offsite is a quirky quick read, a short novel by leadership consultant Robert H. Thompson. There are no talking animals or inanimate objects that adopt human characteristics a la Aesop’s Fables but rather vignettes of leadership struggles and truths portrayed during an offsite team-building, leadership-development, and passion-finding session. I’ll tell you about the characters, give a glimpse on what was insightful and what was contrived, and give ideas for using the book.

My favorite character was Sam Arthur, a former CEO and leadership guru turned part-time retiree, university lecturer, and hotel gardener. He relished his gardening position not necessarily for its job content but because it gave him an opportunity to gauge the leadership potential of those he encountered, many of whom judge him as insignificant because he is working in a laborer position. (I was both intrigued and repelled by the idea that I, as a reader, may, possibly, assign worthiness to an individual based on status or title.)

Other characters include

Abby Bancroft: owner of Perfect Leadership Consulting, offsite organizer and facilitator
Mary Mitchell: hotel waitress turned assistant hotel manager, who began her journey toward transformation following a public display of appreciation by Abby Bancroft at a previous seminar
Gordon Murphy: newly appointed CEO of American Laboratory for Molecular Research (ALMR), a pharmaceutical company that is planning a joint sales venture with Advanced Biomolecular Pharmaceuticals (ABP)
Joe Vanderson: sales vice president of ALMR, a true salesperson and relationship manager who has been promoted beyond his level of competency (see Peter Principle); though he enjoys good relationships with the FDA, key accounts, and joint venture capitalists, he is portrayed as a workplace bully and leadership antithesis
Gwen Kelly: director of sales for ABP who is struggling because she is trying to manage rather than lead her sales team
Jerry Allen: vice president of business development of ABP

The setting is a luxury hotel in Tucson, Arizona, where leadership principles and practices are presented, discussed, and, presumably, adopted by session participants. The purpose of the session is to develop shared values and goals among team members of two pharmaceutical companies in preparation for a joint sales venture. The underlying goal (and focus of the novel) is to teach Joe and Gwen about leadership (rather than management) so that they can lead the sales initiative; since their successes have been based on outdated, controlling, micromanaging approaches to business, turning them into leaders is the key challenge.

Sam does have some illuminating comments such as “Leadership is the art of mobilizing others to want to struggle for shared aspirations.” And “…your passion needs to be part of a bigger picture. Do you think that Martin Luther King Jr. could have rallied a nation if he’d said ‘I have ten measurable objectives’ instead of ‘I have a dream’? Leaders share their dreams, folks. They breathe life into their visions and communicate clearly for understanding. Nobody wants to be handled like pawns in a chess game. Provide the direction, but give people the choice to make their own moves.”

Meanwhile Abby is encouraging a positive approach by telling her audience to “Let your thoughts grow flowers, not weeds” and Jerry is informing Gwen that her offhand reference to him as “boss…reminds me of the mob, and it has a negative, subservient ring to it…”

The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership shared in the book include Challenging the Process, which may involve, for example, throwing a time sheet binder in the trashcan in front of cheering employees. How the Department of Labor or the IRS awaiting its 941 payroll tax report or the union representative responds isn’t covered. Nevertheless, there are some leadership lessons of value: have integrity, provide direction and inspiration, be passionate about what you are doing, and show appreciation. It is left unstated that those you are leading are self-motivated, ambitious, bright, and capable.

If you are looking for a step-by-step guide to leadership, you won’t find it here (unless you have been to one of these sessions and are familiar with how “creating your masterpiece” means finding your true calling and leaving a career-related legacy). If you want to get a beginner’s grasp on some leadership buzzwords or are preparing to participate in an offsite meeting, then this book could be useful.

"The Offsite" might also be of interest to a business-oriented book club for a change of pace from non-fiction titles or a traditional book club with members who want to explore business and career issues through fiction. Here are questions to spark discussion:

What character did you most identify with? Why?
Have you had a problem colleague such as Joe and how was he dealt with?
Have you participated in an offsite session? Was it similar to the one described in the book? Were you inspired by the session? What were the results six months and one year later?
Do you trust your company leadership? Why or why not?
Have you ever challenged the process? What was the outcome?
Have you solicited insight or shared ideas with others in an organization? Were the ideas translated into actions and what were the results?

If you learned something of value at an offsite or team building session, feel welcome to share.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a book review.

Permalink | 2 comments | Julie Rains's blog | Channel: Career Building

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