Wow, Linsey, that was a crazy list of links! Thanks so much for handling that - I know it's a lot of work, but I was only doing the link love posts back when we had, like, ten links over the course of a couple of weeks.
Please don't re-use cooking oil. Heating almost any oil turns it into trans fats. That's not frugal, in terms of your health. Read anything by Udo Erasmus.
Unless your hair is REALLY oily, you don't need shampoo- conditioner and water will do a great job- and you don't need much conditioner, either. Go ahead and try- no one will be able to tell you skipped a step- except your wallet will be fatter. As far as lotions, everything you put on your body will go into your body; therefore, coconut oil oil is a lot better for you than any other "higher priced spread." You can't get any more luxurious than coconut oil, and there is a lot of research that indicates that it is very healthy for you, as well. The coconut oil treatment saved my nails, and my skin has never been as soft!
It's true that borrowing to expand means taking on some risk. Of course, just opening your doors to customers exposes you to some risk--your customers might steal from you, or slip and fall and then sue you.
Given that there's no such thing as zero risk, the real question is, does the reward adequately compensate you for the risk you're taking on? If you're running a small business, you probably already know how to do that sort of analysis--comparing the extra revenue an expansion would generate to the costs of the expansion itself.
You always have the option of taking on no debt and growing your business only as fast as you can fund the expansion with internally generated capital. The thing is, in a resource-rich environment, that's a losing strategy. Your competitors, growing much faster than you with borrowed money, will win in the long term. (In a resource-poor, slow-growth environment, you'd come out ahead.) For the past 60 or 70 years, we've been in a resource-rich environment. Things may be changing. But that doesn't mean there's no such thing as good debt, it just means that you need to be more careful, more conservitive.
Even "good" debt is unwise if you can find any way of avoiding it. Pay for that productive asset by temporarily cutting out a luxury that you can do without in the short term.
A sleep specialist told me to take a warm bath or shower 2 hours before bedtime, and to wear socks and gloves (thin cotton ones, from the drug store) to bed. This has made a big difference to me.
When you shower, swish hot hot water around your tub first, then put the plug in. My showers always take longer if I'm standing on a cold cold tub shivering away, surrounded by a ton of cold wall and tub. If I preheat it, I can get to warming myself a lot faster.
Leave the nice hot water there, unless you have small children who don't know not to drown in tubs, or aren't sure if your cat has more brains than a butterfly. You paid for that heat; let your bathwater keep your bathroom a bit warmer. Pull the plug after the water cools to room temperature, though - too much humidity isn't a good thing. You'll need to wash the tub, because everything you washed off you will have settled out, but it's fairly quick if you get to it while everything is still wet.
Tuck a blanket over the back of your chair, or your spot at the couch, wherever you tend to sit. It feels nice and warm at your back, even if you tend to get up and wander often, and it's right there if you want to wrap up in it. Similarly, a nice thick robe isn't just for over pyjamas or after a bath - think of it as a big long sweater.
My mom learned about make-your-own insulated curtains. The outside was white - possibly for reflecting the sun in summertime - and the inside was chosen to complement the room. A light layer of quilt batting provided further insulation. With grommets along the edges, L-hooks fasten the curtain right to your window frame. Unhook it as high as you want when you want to let the sunshine in. Bear in mind that it takes a lot of L-hooks to do it well, and hardware stores don't usually have *that* many packages - it took my mom 3 trips to get enough.
Hot water bottles/heat bags do work. Snuggle it if you have a cat which 'cuddles' from four feet away. Tuck it under your feet if they're cold, drape it on your lap, tuck it into the small of your back; but when it's cold, feel free to set it aside again. Check it seasonally for leaks!
And have a hot drink. I love holding a steaming mug of tea, letting the heat seep into my hands. Mix equal parts condensed soup and milk or water and microwave, if you'd prefer something savoury, or consider other broth-type meals. Coffee-flavouring syrups are great in hot milk; it's just like a steamer, without the froth. I want to like hot lemonade but I don't - it could be a great option for those who enjoy it. :)
If you can't afford to save 3-6 months worth of expenses while you're paying off debt, I'd recommend using a smaller emergency fund of $1,000 - $2,000 and use it for those un-budgeted expenses like car repairs. That saves you from using your credit card for those types of expenses. I wrote about this approach in How to Manage Your Finances with a Spreadsheet.
Great article. Preparing for situations like losing a job is something we should all do.
I don't know if anyone has mentioned this but I use that plastic sheeting that you can shrink with a blowdrier on my windows. As I rent I am surely not going to put in new windows, but the sheeting is a nice compromise.
Also, last night I lit 7-8 candles in my 16" by 14" bedroom and I watched the tempature go up 5 degrees!! I also had the door closed to conserve heat, but what a wonder some candles can do!
There is no such thing as good debt. That is a lie and a myth.
Using debt to invest brings something into your investment strategy: A high degree of risk.
If you don't have the money to buy something, then you can't afford it. Small business owners get their ears nailed to the wall using strategies like, borrow some money to grow the business or acquire additional assets and equipment.
If you never borrow money, and always pay cash for purchases and investments, then when you gain returns on those assets, or earn more money from monthly income, you have this strange thing.
Money.
If you borrow money, even for "good" debt, then when you earn your monthly income, you have to give some, or much of it to banks or other creditors.
I just found this thread and I think many people are on the right track. The fact is that there are people that believe mortgage acceleration is good while others believe that investing is better. Basically, everyone invest early to benefit from compounding interest as a way to leverage wealth. But you must remember that, this is exaclty why the banks lend you money, they benefit from compounding interest utilizing your mortgage as their investment tool. Either way you look at it the average consumer pays almost three times the cost of their home just to own it. The key principle is that you should accelerate the payoff of your mortgage. Just do something, pay extra utilize any means of accomplishing the same goal. As explained above there are many ways to accomplish that, and some are better than others due to comparable savings. Remember interest saved is like interest earned. My example is that I would rather have my house paid off let's say in 10 years then reinvest that money for the next 20 years. The basic premise of these software programs is that they provide a strategy road map to achieving the highest interest savings. The software's benefit is to keep you on target with your goals. I personally have to fight procrastination and have discipline to employ such a strategy. For me the software provides a snapshot of the exact savings and strategy being accomplished. I have looked at all the programs available and cost is a factor. I have found a new program that is less expensive and provides the same benefits at www.equityexpress.com , there is also a discounted promotional price available call them and ask for the promo code#orla .
Last year, the average return per entry was $1.33. DD stands for double-dipping - using the same BBB (BestBuy Buck) online and in store, thus raising the value to $2.66 - in exchange for the investment of ~$.82 - 2 stamps and 2 envelopes.
I don't think any of my frugal habits are obsessions, but there are a few things I do continuously. See what you think.
~We never, never, never use the dryer. I live in an apartment building, and the cost is $1.50 to dry. To me, its so not worth it.
~I consume water. Lots of water. Only in certain situations will I even consider buying water. Not only is it good for the budget, but its good for the body.
~I use public transportation or walk everywhere.
~Even though we live in an apartment, I still grow my own herbs. Not only cheaper, but fresh.
~Try to make the foods I usually spend extra on at home. Like someone above said, I make my own hummus. The brand and flavor I fell in love with was almost $4.00 for a tub. I quickly figured out a similar recipe that costs me about $0.75 for the same amount!
Additionally, my boyfriend is even more frugal than I am. In the mornings, he eats his breakfast in the kitchen using a paper plate. A week later, he is still using the same paper plate, for almost every meal that I don't serve him. Usually on the weekends I go on a cleaning spree, and throw out the paper plate, where he ends up telling me that I'm wasteful!
I agree that efficient space heaters can be a great thing, but I'm not so sure about using them in bathrooms. I used to work in a hardware store and every single space heater we carried had a warning on it to not use in the bathroom.
Perhaps it's because our bathroom is small, but just turning on the shower heats it up pretty fast.
We live in a small one-bedroom apartment in Seattle. The apartment stays fairly warm, but this last week I was sick and having problems warming up. Eventually I turned the heat on (for the first time) and stood over it while blogging on my laptop. It felt great and finally warmed my body up to where I wanted it to be. I turned it down, then off completely about an hour later. No reason to try to heat the entire apartment. I'm sure a hot shower would have worked the same, but this was an indulgence.
Many times people leave their heat set to too high of a temperature. Wearing warm slippers and using a blanket or even a sweater can enable you to turn the heat down a few degrees. Also closing heat registers in rooms where you aren't using it often (such as the office example in the post) will help place the heat in the areas that you actually use it. I've also picked up cheap weather-stripping for our previous apartment after I discovered that I could feel cold air blasting through the cracks from 2 feet away. Since we rent, we can't make too many modifications to our home but there are still some that you can get away with if landlords won't take action themselves.
These posts do have "real content." Just check them out! Most of the bloggers that link to us don't just post "links" for the sake of posting links. They take time to develop really well thought-out posts, and are kind enough to include us!
If you are wanting to expand your horizons, however, I suggest browsing their other fine posts. I think it goes without saying that all of their content is top notch.
And as far as Technorati goes, this is NOT our primary way of finding out who links to us. Believe it or not, we do a bit of blog reading ourselves. :)
BB stands for Best Buy (I believe) and Guest is saying that you could get Best Buy dollars by sending in for game pieces. Since the minimum Best Buy "buck" was $1, you could do pretty well that way. I managed to save up enough Best Buy pieces to buy a new computer game for myself.
Wouldn't those bloggers appreciate it more if you linked back to a real content post instead of just the posts that link to you? I'm glad you're getting some links, but seriously we can all check Technorati if we want to know the details.
It really helps to keep very regular hours of sleeping, and to not use the bed for any non-bed-type activities. This means don't type on your laptop in bed, don't pay your bills in bed, etc. If you get into bed and are used to mostly sleeping there, bed becomes a sleep cue. Also, your body will be much more cooperative if you always go to bed about the same time and get up about the same time. Sleeping in on weekends is counterproductive if you have sleep problems, it just throws you off.
You can also use sunlight to your advantage to wake up in the morning. Sunlight is biologically programmed into us to wake us up. What you're really trying to do is establish your sleep-wake cycle more firmly, so when the hours of sleep come around, your body is ready to SLEEP!
Wow, Linsey, that was a crazy list of links! Thanks so much for handling that - I know it's a lot of work, but I was only doing the link love posts back when we had, like, ten links over the course of a couple of weeks.
Please don't re-use cooking oil. Heating almost any oil turns it into trans fats. That's not frugal, in terms of your health. Read anything by Udo Erasmus.
Unless your hair is REALLY oily, you don't need shampoo- conditioner and water will do a great job- and you don't need much conditioner, either. Go ahead and try- no one will be able to tell you skipped a step- except your wallet will be fatter. As far as lotions, everything you put on your body will go into your body; therefore, coconut oil oil is a lot better for you than any other "higher priced spread." You can't get any more luxurious than coconut oil, and there is a lot of research that indicates that it is very healthy for you, as well. The coconut oil treatment saved my nails, and my skin has never been as soft!
It's true that borrowing to expand means taking on some risk. Of course, just opening your doors to customers exposes you to some risk--your customers might steal from you, or slip and fall and then sue you.
Given that there's no such thing as zero risk, the real question is, does the reward adequately compensate you for the risk you're taking on? If you're running a small business, you probably already know how to do that sort of analysis--comparing the extra revenue an expansion would generate to the costs of the expansion itself.
You always have the option of taking on no debt and growing your business only as fast as you can fund the expansion with internally generated capital. The thing is, in a resource-rich environment, that's a losing strategy. Your competitors, growing much faster than you with borrowed money, will win in the long term. (In a resource-poor, slow-growth environment, you'd come out ahead.) For the past 60 or 70 years, we've been in a resource-rich environment. Things may be changing. But that doesn't mean there's no such thing as good debt, it just means that you need to be more careful, more conservitive.
Even "good" debt is unwise if you can find any way of avoiding it. Pay for that productive asset by temporarily cutting out a luxury that you can do without in the short term.
(I learned this one the hard way.)
A sleep specialist told me to take a warm bath or shower 2 hours before bedtime, and to wear socks and gloves (thin cotton ones, from the drug store) to bed. This has made a big difference to me.
When you shower, swish hot hot water around your tub first, then put the plug in. My showers always take longer if I'm standing on a cold cold tub shivering away, surrounded by a ton of cold wall and tub. If I preheat it, I can get to warming myself a lot faster.
Leave the nice hot water there, unless you have small children who don't know not to drown in tubs, or aren't sure if your cat has more brains than a butterfly. You paid for that heat; let your bathwater keep your bathroom a bit warmer. Pull the plug after the water cools to room temperature, though - too much humidity isn't a good thing. You'll need to wash the tub, because everything you washed off you will have settled out, but it's fairly quick if you get to it while everything is still wet.
Tuck a blanket over the back of your chair, or your spot at the couch, wherever you tend to sit. It feels nice and warm at your back, even if you tend to get up and wander often, and it's right there if you want to wrap up in it. Similarly, a nice thick robe isn't just for over pyjamas or after a bath - think of it as a big long sweater.
My mom learned about make-your-own insulated curtains. The outside was white - possibly for reflecting the sun in summertime - and the inside was chosen to complement the room. A light layer of quilt batting provided further insulation. With grommets along the edges, L-hooks fasten the curtain right to your window frame. Unhook it as high as you want when you want to let the sunshine in. Bear in mind that it takes a lot of L-hooks to do it well, and hardware stores don't usually have *that* many packages - it took my mom 3 trips to get enough.
Hot water bottles/heat bags do work. Snuggle it if you have a cat which 'cuddles' from four feet away. Tuck it under your feet if they're cold, drape it on your lap, tuck it into the small of your back; but when it's cold, feel free to set it aside again. Check it seasonally for leaks!
And have a hot drink. I love holding a steaming mug of tea, letting the heat seep into my hands. Mix equal parts condensed soup and milk or water and microwave, if you'd prefer something savoury, or consider other broth-type meals. Coffee-flavouring syrups are great in hot milk; it's just like a steamer, without the froth. I want to like hot lemonade but I don't - it could be a great option for those who enjoy it. :)
If you can't afford to save 3-6 months worth of expenses while you're paying off debt, I'd recommend using a smaller emergency fund of $1,000 - $2,000 and use it for those un-budgeted expenses like car repairs. That saves you from using your credit card for those types of expenses. I wrote about this approach in How to Manage Your Finances with a Spreadsheet.
Great article. Preparing for situations like losing a job is something we should all do.
I don't know if anyone has mentioned this but I use that plastic sheeting that you can shrink with a blowdrier on my windows. As I rent I am surely not going to put in new windows, but the sheeting is a nice compromise.
Also, last night I lit 7-8 candles in my 16" by 14" bedroom and I watched the tempature go up 5 degrees!! I also had the door closed to conserve heat, but what a wonder some candles can do!
Nicely laid out...the type of debt (business, car, home) is only one part of the equation. The terms of the debt are another.
An example of this might be financing a new car at 7% interest (probably bad) versus financing a 2 year old car at 2% interest (probably good).
Keep kicking tailbones, Philip!
Scott
The above post referenced the incorrect website. Sorry.
Correct Website www.Maxequityexpress.com
There is no such thing as good debt. That is a lie and a myth.
Using debt to invest brings something into your investment strategy: A high degree of risk.
If you don't have the money to buy something, then you can't afford it. Small business owners get their ears nailed to the wall using strategies like, borrow some money to grow the business or acquire additional assets and equipment.
If you never borrow money, and always pay cash for purchases and investments, then when you gain returns on those assets, or earn more money from monthly income, you have this strange thing.
Money.
If you borrow money, even for "good" debt, then when you earn your monthly income, you have to give some, or much of it to banks or other creditors.
I'd rather keep my money.
Clean your grill with oven cleaner, rinse well.
I just found this thread and I think many people are on the right track. The fact is that there are people that believe mortgage acceleration is good while others believe that investing is better. Basically, everyone invest early to benefit from compounding interest as a way to leverage wealth. But you must remember that, this is exaclty why the banks lend you money, they benefit from compounding interest utilizing your mortgage as their investment tool. Either way you look at it the average consumer pays almost three times the cost of their home just to own it. The key principle is that you should accelerate the payoff of your mortgage. Just do something, pay extra utilize any means of accomplishing the same goal. As explained above there are many ways to accomplish that, and some are better than others due to comparable savings. Remember interest saved is like interest earned. My example is that I would rather have my house paid off let's say in 10 years then reinvest that money for the next 20 years. The basic premise of these software programs is that they provide a strategy road map to achieving the highest interest savings. The software's benefit is to keep you on target with your goals. I personally have to fight procrastination and have discipline to employ such a strategy. For me the software provides a snapshot of the exact savings and strategy being accomplished. I have looked at all the programs available and cost is a factor. I have found a new program that is less expensive and provides the same benefits at www.equityexpress.com , there is also a discounted promotional price available call them and ask for the promo code#orla .
/me looks through his list of tokens.
Awwwwww nuts.
Last year, the average return per entry was $1.33. DD stands for double-dipping - using the same BBB (BestBuy Buck) online and in store, thus raising the value to $2.66 - in exchange for the investment of ~$.82 - 2 stamps and 2 envelopes.
I don't think any of my frugal habits are obsessions, but there are a few things I do continuously. See what you think.
~We never, never, never use the dryer. I live in an apartment building, and the cost is $1.50 to dry. To me, its so not worth it.
~I consume water. Lots of water. Only in certain situations will I even consider buying water. Not only is it good for the budget, but its good for the body.
~I use public transportation or walk everywhere.
~Even though we live in an apartment, I still grow my own herbs. Not only cheaper, but fresh.
~Try to make the foods I usually spend extra on at home. Like someone above said, I make my own hummus. The brand and flavor I fell in love with was almost $4.00 for a tub. I quickly figured out a similar recipe that costs me about $0.75 for the same amount!
Additionally, my boyfriend is even more frugal than I am. In the mornings, he eats his breakfast in the kitchen using a paper plate. A week later, he is still using the same paper plate, for almost every meal that I don't serve him. Usually on the weekends I go on a cleaning spree, and throw out the paper plate, where he ends up telling me that I'm wasteful!
I agree that efficient space heaters can be a great thing, but I'm not so sure about using them in bathrooms. I used to work in a hardware store and every single space heater we carried had a warning on it to not use in the bathroom.
Perhaps it's because our bathroom is small, but just turning on the shower heats it up pretty fast.
We live in a small one-bedroom apartment in Seattle. The apartment stays fairly warm, but this last week I was sick and having problems warming up. Eventually I turned the heat on (for the first time) and stood over it while blogging on my laptop. It felt great and finally warmed my body up to where I wanted it to be. I turned it down, then off completely about an hour later. No reason to try to heat the entire apartment. I'm sure a hot shower would have worked the same, but this was an indulgence.
Many times people leave their heat set to too high of a temperature. Wearing warm slippers and using a blanket or even a sweater can enable you to turn the heat down a few degrees. Also closing heat registers in rooms where you aren't using it often (such as the office example in the post) will help place the heat in the areas that you actually use it. I've also picked up cheap weather-stripping for our previous apartment after I discovered that I could feel cold air blasting through the cracks from 2 feet away. Since we rent, we can't make too many modifications to our home but there are still some that you can get away with if landlords won't take action themselves.
These posts do have "real content." Just check them out! Most of the bloggers that link to us don't just post "links" for the sake of posting links. They take time to develop really well thought-out posts, and are kind enough to include us!
If you are wanting to expand your horizons, however, I suggest browsing their other fine posts. I think it goes without saying that all of their content is top notch.
And as far as Technorati goes, this is NOT our primary way of finding out who links to us. Believe it or not, we do a bit of blog reading ourselves. :)
BB stands for Best Buy (I believe) and Guest is saying that you could get Best Buy dollars by sending in for game pieces. Since the minimum Best Buy "buck" was $1, you could do pretty well that way. I managed to save up enough Best Buy pieces to buy a new computer game for myself.
Wouldn't those bloggers appreciate it more if you linked back to a real content post instead of just the posts that link to you? I'm glad you're getting some links, but seriously we can all check Technorati if we want to know the details.
Usually a few beers or a glass of wine will do the trick for me.
The best way to get sleep is to turn off the TV!
BTW I linked this site on my blog, even though this sites not remotely related to my blog. I'm just a fan.
http://youlaughyoulose.blogspot.com/
It really helps to keep very regular hours of sleeping, and to not use the bed for any non-bed-type activities. This means don't type on your laptop in bed, don't pay your bills in bed, etc. If you get into bed and are used to mostly sleeping there, bed becomes a sleep cue. Also, your body will be much more cooperative if you always go to bed about the same time and get up about the same time. Sleeping in on weekends is counterproductive if you have sleep problems, it just throws you off.
You can also use sunlight to your advantage to wake up in the morning. Sunlight is biologically programmed into us to wake us up. What you're really trying to do is establish your sleep-wake cycle more firmly, so when the hours of sleep come around, your body is ready to SLEEP!
Wise Bread rocks!