Ooooh, I'll have to try these ideas! Always love your tips, Andrea :) I love cauliflower and brocolli stems -- didn't know you could also cook the leaves!
I keep all those "throw away" parts of vegetables like the tops from beans, celery bottoms, etc. in the freezer and throw them in the pot when making soup stalk.
My parents and grandparents lived through the second World War and here in Scotland, making your food stretch became a way of life, as it did in many countries even for decades after the war. I had instilled in me a view that food should never be wasted as others would be glad of just some of the food we waste.
I firmly believe that people have forgotten how to store food, while processed foods and ready meals mean that there's a whole generation coming through that are not familiar with the basics of food and food usage.
I particularly liked the last paragraph on offal. As a Scot, I'm very partial to a good haggis. I'll let those who are not familiar with it find out for themselves what's in it.
We put all "extra" non-pay monies into our savings.
Secret Shopping - we do secret shopping and can put $20-$50 in savings from here.
Use a cash budget - all coin change goes into jar. Any money we didn't spend one week, it's changed to coins and put in jar. We only use same amount of cash each week. We get about $400-$500 every 4-6 months.
Doing this, we can put about $1,000 extra into savings in addition to what we do from our paychecks.
But I think you nailed home the point a little better. I also believe that deal sites can be very useful. The value of a person's time may vary, so some won't mind trawling the internet for deals. For me, I'll often check out deal sites when there's literally nothing else to do at that moment. To me, the few minutes it takes to look are worth it in case I find something that I want/need at a good price. Just try not getting into the habit of buying every little "deal" that you come across.
I too work at Target and they are CHEAP to their employees! Ive been there for over 6 year and pay raise .10. I obviously CHOSE to work there by my own free will, yes but only because it was a good place with i frist start there pretty bad and finding a new job at 56 difficult so I deal with the low pay. I do however think its only fair for a pay raise after a year more then 10 and i,m a lead in softline .AND WE HVE ONE team lead in softline so i have to set all the table and do shoes .and all target employees are can miss one day a year and konw . CUSTOMERs their kids "Dont worry about picking that up, that is what the sales lady is for". oh yes have i hear that , Not only do I pick up behind the messy masses and their at times dreadful offspring, I also have to cleams fittingroom use diapers.traget cut back on employees.all the work i do i get 8 to 16 hr to do all my work. and at night zone and we have 2 employees m to thru..in softline and 3 employees on f and sat ,and sunday ....and have boss till going to writer you up everyday ...and you have to have 4 yr collega to be magt.and fyi mcdonalds pay more and walmart will pay more . becue we have employees go to walmart start out make 9.50 hr,, target this a bad place to work we get call name and . when you go to hr it make it bad for you ,, and are insurance this not that good .. target have chang and it not looking good
I couldn't agree more about real estate. Now is a good time to be stuffing cash into savings for a good RE purchase.
We simply moved from our old home to another (great price and extra large acreage for subdiving in 20 years). We rented out our old home. Positive cash flow of $100 a month to start which will grow through the years.
People went nuts in the over exhuberant real estate bubble and purchased on speculation, or purchased homes worth 4-5 times their annual pay.
Successful RE investment means doing your homework. Look for a good bargain in the best location you can afford, and do the math so that you will have at least a break even situation that will soon lead to positive cash flow. Learn to do mainenance and upkeep yourself, or have a very good handyman. Don't skip background/edit checks.
RE is wonderful in that you are using other people's money to build your equity - to me that's virtually the same as a 401(k) match, just a different investment. My husband and I plan to buy a duplex RE within 18 months, and we're very excited about it.
I can't speak for all insurance companies, but I think many would invest at least a portion of your money in the stock market.
I think that whole life policies only make sense after you have maxed out your 401K and IRA - and even then I think that you might be better off investing in stocks in a tax efficient manner (say doing DRIP on stocks with a track record of increasing dividends) vs a lower return on your whole life policy.
Clearly this is a hot topic.
Whole foods are far cheaper than processed foods. Come on !!
If each of us sets a healthy eating example for those around us, eventually it will become the norm. Stop taking doughnuts to work or church and take fresh fruit/vegetable trays instead. Send healthy lunches to school with our kids instead of buying school lunch. Let's take care of each other instead of blaming each other. I believe personal responsibility is the answer.
Great post! Really good insight. It’s always difficult to discuss finances and share money in relationships. Thanks for your advice. I recently stumbled upon this blog like I stumbled upon yours. I think they offer some good points and laughter about the topic: http://burisonthecouch.wordpress.com/2010/09/22/dolla-dolla-bill-yall/
Thanks for the post! I’d like to see more like it.
I LOVE urgent cares- it has totally revolutionized my family's health care. For example, when I was on vacation I developed an eye problem. With no local physician my only option would have been an emergency room where non-emergent conditions wait 2-6 hrs to see someone and demand $100 cash up front, even though I have insurance. I went to a local urgent care, got my eye taken care of right down to a prescription in my hand in under 45 minutes with no out of pocket expense. I was later billed a whopping $20. And no more getting sick on the weekend and missing school or work for a doctor appointment because urgent cares are open Saturdays and in many places Suindays too. What a great money saver these places have been to us!
Real estate has only gone back to 2005 price level so far, that's not enough. Even if the housing market indeed stops dropping, it can still remain flat for the next few years.
Lauren - thank you for pointing out my contradiction. What I meant (but didn't clearly say) was that you will benefit from consolidation by paying less in interest in some cases. Your new interest rate, however, is the weighted average of your loans. Good point, too, about enrolling in automatic pyaments - that is what I did and in my case. It's a no-brainer way to lower your interest rate, if only by a small amount. Lastly, Eva makes a very important point that consolidation means you forfeit benefits from your original loans. That is why it is supremely important to read all of the fine print, and to understand what it means in your situation, before signing on the dotted line.
I'm guessing that the 2 out of 10 people who do "invest" the difference are the type of people who regularly read wisebread. So the fact that this message doesn't reach the other 8 out of 10 is fine.
Another possible expense could be vaccinations and travel medications. This is, of course, very dependent upon where you travel. But, especially if you're going to less developed areas it might be recommended that you are vaccinations/take meds for things like typhod, yellow fever or malaria. These may or may not be covered by insurance (mine have never been...they'll pay to cure me of malaria but not to prevent it). And, in some cases, they can be fairly expensive (malaria meds for an area of India which was resistant to cholarquine was $150 for a two week trip).
But, looking at this another way, there are also savings that you might or might not want to calculate into your vacation budget. While you're gone, you're not driving your car. So, provided you're not renting a car, you're saving on gas. Your utilities will be lower if no one is staying at your home. You might be able to get a credit to your account for newspaper subscriptions that you put on vacation hold.
This was terribly done. You are viewing a primary residence as an asset, which it is not! I would encourage you to run the numbers again with the focus of an investment property. The largest factor you are not considering is the power of DEBT/leverage! When you purchase a investment property you you usually only have to put 20%-25% of the total value down. So, if you purchases a 100K home, you only need 20K. In most markets you could probably rent it out and obtain cash flow each month. Let's say you even manage to break even each year, if you just held the house for 10 years, even if the property doesn't appreciate you would realize equity growth (tenants paying off your loan debt), tax breaks and the house would appreciate or adjust to inflation. This means even if the house didn't go up in value, your initial investment of 20k would have realized a 50-80% return - not including the monthly cash flow.
I save money by being organized, because the most valuable thing you have is time, and with more time for yourself, you save money on health, you save many things, in many ways...
Another big thing for me to save money is to meal plan. It cuts down on the amount of times we eat out during the month. It also cuts down on the amount of times I run to the grocery store too. I try to meal plan with what is in my pantry already. If it is in my pantry, I probably go the item on sale.
WOW! I am a huge fan of Wisebread, but after reading this biased article towards Term Insurance I have my doubts. The writer clearly does not fully understand the basic fundamentals of life insurance. "Buy term and invest the difference" Are you kidding me? I run a successful business based on educating my clients and helping them understand simple money concepts so that they make wise decisions, but this article is hog wash. You sound like a Primerica agent. It's evident that the writer did not do complete research. I have sat down with clients who have been told to buy term and invest the difference and 8 out of 10 do not "invest" the difference. The fact is people have habits of spending and not saving. If properly structured and funded a permanent life insurance policy can be a great vehicle for retirement, heck some even offer guarantees that the money will not loose. Let me end it with this, what other vehicle allows one to put money away, that is protected from litigation, is tax FREE if properly withdrawn, and little to no interest charged for borrowing your own money? Lets ask the wealthy where they have their money... Read Tax Free Retirement by Patrick Kelly
The goal has to be to prevent deflation. Deflation is like poison to an economy. It causes the overall economy to contract rather than stagnate. That contraction is felt as unemployment, homelessness, and life savings lost.
Japan has seen it's labor market go from one that promised lifelong employment... to one where 1/3 of all workers are "temps". They not only don't have job security - they really don't have regular employment.
Richard Koo of Nomura says that it was a balance sheet recession. The bad loans had to be resolved before the lenders felt confident enough to loosen their credit. What we need to do is deal with our bad debts.
While the traditional resolution is "default", that might not be wise. It might be better to have a range of options - where we absorb some of the loss, but don't "rescue" anyone either. Don't resuce the borrower, and don't rescue the bank. They will all fell pain, but we'll buffer it. Just don't buffer it with cash. Give things like housing vouchers to homeowners, and bonds to banks.
Replace cash with welfare and/or contracts that bind these institutions to behave in more prudent ways in the future.
Best boxes for light items: Copy paper boxes. They have lids and stack nicely.
Best boxes for heavier items: Apple boxes, from the produce section at your local market. They're really sturdy.
The liquor store is a good source for boxes, too, but it can be embarrassing if your friends think you personally emptied all those bottles. ;-)
With my 4 young Grandkids (7-12 yrs. old) cash is king. They are always saving up for a big purchase (oldest recently bought an I-Pad, younger ones save up for X-Box games, etc.) I make it more personal by doing origami with the bills (there are a lot of sites -- just google.) For the adult kids last Christmas, made them each a 5 pointed (using 5 bills) star ornament, decorated with beads, etc. I used $20 bills.
Ooooh, I'll have to try these ideas! Always love your tips, Andrea :) I love cauliflower and brocolli stems -- didn't know you could also cook the leaves!
I keep all those "throw away" parts of vegetables like the tops from beans, celery bottoms, etc. in the freezer and throw them in the pot when making soup stalk.
My parents and grandparents lived through the second World War and here in Scotland, making your food stretch became a way of life, as it did in many countries even for decades after the war. I had instilled in me a view that food should never be wasted as others would be glad of just some of the food we waste.
I firmly believe that people have forgotten how to store food, while processed foods and ready meals mean that there's a whole generation coming through that are not familiar with the basics of food and food usage.
I particularly liked the last paragraph on offal. As a Scot, I'm very partial to a good haggis. I'll let those who are not familiar with it find out for themselves what's in it.
We feed our dogs raw, so they get the strange cuts of meat and gizzards.
I always liked growing a goattee and going as the evil version of myself....80's TV style!
We put all "extra" non-pay monies into our savings.
Secret Shopping - we do secret shopping and can put $20-$50 in savings from here.
Use a cash budget - all coin change goes into jar. Any money we didn't spend one week, it's changed to coins and put in jar. We only use same amount of cash each week. We get about $400-$500 every 4-6 months.
Doing this, we can put about $1,000 extra into savings in addition to what we do from our paychecks.
I agree with this post for the most part. I wrote a similar one here: http://www.talkingcentsblog.com/2010/10/18/just-dont-shop/
But I think you nailed home the point a little better. I also believe that deal sites can be very useful. The value of a person's time may vary, so some won't mind trawling the internet for deals. For me, I'll often check out deal sites when there's literally nothing else to do at that moment. To me, the few minutes it takes to look are worth it in case I find something that I want/need at a good price. Just try not getting into the habit of buying every little "deal" that you come across.
I too work at Target and they are CHEAP to their employees! Ive been there for over 6 year and pay raise .10. I obviously CHOSE to work there by my own free will, yes but only because it was a good place with i frist start there pretty bad and finding a new job at 56 difficult so I deal with the low pay. I do however think its only fair for a pay raise after a year more then 10 and i,m a lead in softline .AND WE HVE ONE team lead in softline so i have to set all the table and do shoes .and all target employees are can miss one day a year and konw . CUSTOMERs their kids "Dont worry about picking that up, that is what the sales lady is for". oh yes have i hear that , Not only do I pick up behind the messy masses and their at times dreadful offspring, I also have to cleams fittingroom use diapers.traget cut back on employees.all the work i do i get 8 to 16 hr to do all my work. and at night zone and we have 2 employees m to thru..in softline and 3 employees on f and sat ,and sunday ....and have boss till going to writer you up everyday ...and you have to have 4 yr collega to be magt.and fyi mcdonalds pay more and walmart will pay more . becue we have employees go to walmart start out make 9.50 hr,, target this a bad place to work we get call name and . when you go to hr it make it bad for you ,, and are insurance this not that good .. target have chang and it not looking good
auto-deposit. if i don't see it, then i won't spend it!
the hair trader is not running because of so much traffic problems :( im not sure when it will be running again i really want to sell my hair.
I couldn't agree more about real estate. Now is a good time to be stuffing cash into savings for a good RE purchase.
We simply moved from our old home to another (great price and extra large acreage for subdiving in 20 years). We rented out our old home. Positive cash flow of $100 a month to start which will grow through the years.
People went nuts in the over exhuberant real estate bubble and purchased on speculation, or purchased homes worth 4-5 times their annual pay.
Successful RE investment means doing your homework. Look for a good bargain in the best location you can afford, and do the math so that you will have at least a break even situation that will soon lead to positive cash flow. Learn to do mainenance and upkeep yourself, or have a very good handyman. Don't skip background/edit checks.
RE is wonderful in that you are using other people's money to build your equity - to me that's virtually the same as a 401(k) match, just a different investment. My husband and I plan to buy a duplex RE within 18 months, and we're very excited about it.
I can't speak for all insurance companies, but I think many would invest at least a portion of your money in the stock market.
I think that whole life policies only make sense after you have maxed out your 401K and IRA - and even then I think that you might be better off investing in stocks in a tax efficient manner (say doing DRIP on stocks with a track record of increasing dividends) vs a lower return on your whole life policy.
Clearly this is a hot topic.
Whole foods are far cheaper than processed foods. Come on !!
If each of us sets a healthy eating example for those around us, eventually it will become the norm. Stop taking doughnuts to work or church and take fresh fruit/vegetable trays instead. Send healthy lunches to school with our kids instead of buying school lunch. Let's take care of each other instead of blaming each other. I believe personal responsibility is the answer.
Great post! Really good insight. It’s always difficult to discuss finances and share money in relationships. Thanks for your advice. I recently stumbled upon this blog like I stumbled upon yours. I think they offer some good points and laughter about the topic: http://burisonthecouch.wordpress.com/2010/09/22/dolla-dolla-bill-yall/
Thanks for the post! I’d like to see more like it.
I LOVE urgent cares- it has totally revolutionized my family's health care. For example, when I was on vacation I developed an eye problem. With no local physician my only option would have been an emergency room where non-emergent conditions wait 2-6 hrs to see someone and demand $100 cash up front, even though I have insurance. I went to a local urgent care, got my eye taken care of right down to a prescription in my hand in under 45 minutes with no out of pocket expense. I was later billed a whopping $20. And no more getting sick on the weekend and missing school or work for a doctor appointment because urgent cares are open Saturdays and in many places Suindays too. What a great money saver these places have been to us!
Real estate has only gone back to 2005 price level so far, that's not enough. Even if the housing market indeed stops dropping, it can still remain flat for the next few years.
Lauren - thank you for pointing out my contradiction. What I meant (but didn't clearly say) was that you will benefit from consolidation by paying less in interest in some cases. Your new interest rate, however, is the weighted average of your loans. Good point, too, about enrolling in automatic pyaments - that is what I did and in my case. It's a no-brainer way to lower your interest rate, if only by a small amount. Lastly, Eva makes a very important point that consolidation means you forfeit benefits from your original loans. That is why it is supremely important to read all of the fine print, and to understand what it means in your situation, before signing on the dotted line.
I'm guessing that the 2 out of 10 people who do "invest" the difference are the type of people who regularly read wisebread. So the fact that this message doesn't reach the other 8 out of 10 is fine.
Another possible expense could be vaccinations and travel medications. This is, of course, very dependent upon where you travel. But, especially if you're going to less developed areas it might be recommended that you are vaccinations/take meds for things like typhod, yellow fever or malaria. These may or may not be covered by insurance (mine have never been...they'll pay to cure me of malaria but not to prevent it). And, in some cases, they can be fairly expensive (malaria meds for an area of India which was resistant to cholarquine was $150 for a two week trip).
But, looking at this another way, there are also savings that you might or might not want to calculate into your vacation budget. While you're gone, you're not driving your car. So, provided you're not renting a car, you're saving on gas. Your utilities will be lower if no one is staying at your home. You might be able to get a credit to your account for newspaper subscriptions that you put on vacation hold.
This was terribly done. You are viewing a primary residence as an asset, which it is not! I would encourage you to run the numbers again with the focus of an investment property. The largest factor you are not considering is the power of DEBT/leverage! When you purchase a investment property you you usually only have to put 20%-25% of the total value down. So, if you purchases a 100K home, you only need 20K. In most markets you could probably rent it out and obtain cash flow each month. Let's say you even manage to break even each year, if you just held the house for 10 years, even if the property doesn't appreciate you would realize equity growth (tenants paying off your loan debt), tax breaks and the house would appreciate or adjust to inflation. This means even if the house didn't go up in value, your initial investment of 20k would have realized a 50-80% return - not including the monthly cash flow.
I save money by being organized, because the most valuable thing you have is time, and with more time for yourself, you save money on health, you save many things, in many ways...
I try not to buy anything at full price.
Another big thing for me to save money is to meal plan. It cuts down on the amount of times we eat out during the month. It also cuts down on the amount of times I run to the grocery store too. I try to meal plan with what is in my pantry already. If it is in my pantry, I probably go the item on sale.
WOW! I am a huge fan of Wisebread, but after reading this biased article towards Term Insurance I have my doubts. The writer clearly does not fully understand the basic fundamentals of life insurance. "Buy term and invest the difference" Are you kidding me? I run a successful business based on educating my clients and helping them understand simple money concepts so that they make wise decisions, but this article is hog wash. You sound like a Primerica agent. It's evident that the writer did not do complete research. I have sat down with clients who have been told to buy term and invest the difference and 8 out of 10 do not "invest" the difference. The fact is people have habits of spending and not saving. If properly structured and funded a permanent life insurance policy can be a great vehicle for retirement, heck some even offer guarantees that the money will not loose. Let me end it with this, what other vehicle allows one to put money away, that is protected from litigation, is tax FREE if properly withdrawn, and little to no interest charged for borrowing your own money? Lets ask the wealthy where they have their money... Read Tax Free Retirement by Patrick Kelly
The goal has to be to prevent deflation. Deflation is like poison to an economy. It causes the overall economy to contract rather than stagnate. That contraction is felt as unemployment, homelessness, and life savings lost.
Japan has seen it's labor market go from one that promised lifelong employment... to one where 1/3 of all workers are "temps". They not only don't have job security - they really don't have regular employment.
Richard Koo of Nomura says that it was a balance sheet recession. The bad loans had to be resolved before the lenders felt confident enough to loosen their credit. What we need to do is deal with our bad debts.
While the traditional resolution is "default", that might not be wise. It might be better to have a range of options - where we absorb some of the loss, but don't "rescue" anyone either. Don't resuce the borrower, and don't rescue the bank. They will all fell pain, but we'll buffer it. Just don't buffer it with cash. Give things like housing vouchers to homeowners, and bonds to banks.
Replace cash with welfare and/or contracts that bind these institutions to behave in more prudent ways in the future.
Best boxes for light items: Copy paper boxes. They have lids and stack nicely.
Best boxes for heavier items: Apple boxes, from the produce section at your local market. They're really sturdy.
The liquor store is a good source for boxes, too, but it can be embarrassing if your friends think you personally emptied all those bottles. ;-)
With my 4 young Grandkids (7-12 yrs. old) cash is king. They are always saving up for a big purchase (oldest recently bought an I-Pad, younger ones save up for X-Box games, etc.) I make it more personal by doing origami with the bills (there are a lot of sites -- just google.) For the adult kids last Christmas, made them each a 5 pointed (using 5 bills) star ornament, decorated with beads, etc. I used $20 bills.