I make my own laundry soap for pennies, only need 1Tb, it works much better and it doesn't irritate my child's sensitive skin. I use vinegar in place of fabric softener. We also use vinegar for all cleaning - counters, floors, windows etc. Works great and no chemical fumes. (and no, our house and clothes do NOT smell like pickles)
If we don't make dinner we order take out rather than eat in a restaurant to avoid overpriced drinks and tipping.
I shop online when possible, getting better prices and I don't have to pay sales tax for stores not located in my state. That saves us loads of money.
Zorcy,
What most people around here make is poteen, which I suppose is a potato whiskey rather than a vodka; pot-still job, distilled down to drinking strength, (about 50% abv), rather than high-strength and then cut with water. It's usually made with bakers yeast or a beer yeast, the reason being that the potato starch takes a while to break down into sugar. A batch usually takes 2 to 3 weeks to ferment. Potatoes are hard to break down into sugar, so the usual recipe calls for equal amounts of white sugar and potatoes, to kick-start the process. Thats why a turbo yeast is no use for poteen really; the sugar would have fermented right out before the potatoes had time to break down.I've never really heard of this alpha amylase stuff before, though I seem to recall someone saying it was used to clear hazy wines. It doesn't seem to be on sale in home-brew shops here, except for this purpose, and then only in very small packets. But have I got this right here?............If I were to make a wash consisting solely of potatoes (and maybe a few yeast nutients), and added this alpha amylase, the amylase would convert the potato starch to sugar near enough right away, without needing to add an equal amount of white sugar, or indeed any sugar at all? The one thing we have PLENTY of here is potatoes!!And if this was the case, it would be possible to use a turbo yeast then, because the starch to sugar waiting time would have been eliminated. Is this amylase sold under a brand name?
One question--if your credit is excellent, then you know how to manage your money, and to save, I would assume. If those are true, why would you need a loan?
Not trying to be negative, but aside from college costs, I can't think of any other reason.
Generally speaking (there are exceptions, but they're specific and obvious and easily identifiable), if you have to bribe yourself to do something with a load of expensive Stuff, you don't want it enough to justify the expense.
It's the things you make happen despite poor equipment, that will get you your money's worth on a Stuff upgrade---but then, of course, it's entirely possible that you'll find that new equipment is superfluous.
Shifting your desire from the perceived solution to the thing you expect it to bring you, and you can then consider alternate routes to it. Maybe you don't need a big deck, you need to get a cheap grill at a garage sale somewhere, and invite some friends over to a barbecue.
Then my family is living a lie. I guess it all depends about the expectations, but being reasonable I would disagree with all these statements.
1. I’ll never have to say “no.”
Again, if I want to buy a Porsche Cayenne every day, of course I would have to say no, but for every day living. Wanting a nice tv, buying a new car every 5 years, going to disneyland twice a year. Living debt free makes all those purchases much more enjoyable because we don't wonder... I should have saved that money for food the next day.
2. I’ll never have to make stressful financial decisions.
Stressful is the keyword. If I have to choose between getting more in debt of buy food, or pay Dr's bills. That will be stressful, living with the fear a collection agent was going to come an knock the door. Yes, there are financial decisions, but if you automate the savings, there is no additional stress. Money goes to 401K, money goes to 529, money goes to emergency fund, money goes to pay bills. There is no stress if you know how to live within your means AND are debt free.
3. I’ll automatically start sleeping better at night.
I have always been a great sleeper, but knowing that you own your home completely, makes for very restful sleep. There are other things you worry about, but not about money.
4. I’ll never have another money fight.
This was one of the main reasons we paid our mortgage. My wife wanted to keep saving and preventing us to enjoy our income until our home was ours. Our conventional 30yr mortgage turned into a 5 year of prepayments. We no longer argue about buying a little thing, we do all our purchases checking with the other anyway, but at least this way I can convince her to get me buy a toy from time to time.
5. I’ll never have to keep a budget again.
If you mean worrying about a budget, then it is different. I agree with you in this one. but again budgets can be done automatically, our budget is very simple. We have all our accounts online, we see how the graph grows to the right every month. If it didn't we see why... was it because we had to pay vacations? was it because the market went down?, Only big decreases over long periods of time require a re-adjustment of the budget, but other than that it is flying in automatic and not having to reshuffle payments from one low APR to another APR, and look at hidden fees, etc. Yes you will need to keep a budget, but it can be very easy to set it up and track it.
6. I’ll be able to give to any cause I believe in.
Well, in this case we have two small children, and our cause until they have college prepaid is to save for their education. Indeed, if you feel obligated to donate to charity, what we do is we donate our time, it is another great way to support causes that you believe in, you meet very nice people with similar interests, and you don't have to go broke because you missed the monthly donation.
I look forward to more of your posts, GE. My older kids (12 years old) I sure are getting tired of me telling them how important written goals are in personal finance, but hopefully they'll remember it when it counts. I wish I had been better prepared back in the day.
Now, the biggest challenge for me and others who are married is to use written down, mutually agreed upon financial goals to minimize disagreements about money and maximize the chances of actually arriving at the desired destination.
Goals can change, though, with different circumstances, and with two people in the relationship, the goals can change twice as fast. That's why we teach that even a simple 15-minute financial review each week between spouses can be a huge help: What’s important to us this week? Month? Year? What bills are coming due this week? Who is going to pay it? By check, debit card or online payment? Etc.
Good tips! I've sold on ebay for a long time and have a few to add. First, always use delivery confirmation and for breakable items, insure the package. I had an incident recently that even with very careful packaging, the item still broke in transit and the customer was able to get their money back from ebay.
Shave right after showering, don't dry your face. No shaving cream/gel/soap needed. I use a Merkur double-edge safety razor and bought a huge pack of blades on Amazon. The blades last a week or so, I don't have a really thick beard though.
Like someone else mentioned I've heard of people separating their multi-ply toilet paper and using it single-ply to save money. A) I would never take the time to do this and B) I'm sorry, but I like multi-ply for hygiene reasons! To me (and this is just my personal opinion. I know many people can survive just fine without it, but I am not one of them.) I think going without AC in the summer is a silly way to save only because I'm the warmest person ever and this summer in particular has been extremely hot and humid here. I need my AC to be able to sleep at night and function during the day. Plus, if the house starts to feel too sticky, it can make your food get all soggy and weird which would end up costing you if you have to throw it out and waste it.
What a wonderful comment, thank you so much for that. If there's anything you'd like myself or another Wise Bread writer to cover, please let us know. I am always happy to take suggestions for topics.
1. I drink a lot of English tea, and to stretch the use of each bag, I leave them in the pot and just add one less to my next pot full. My first pot has 4 bags (big pot), my second I add 3 (so there are seven in there), and if I have a third pot I put in 2 (so 9 altogether). I don't leave them for too long, don't want to get food poisoning!
2. I dye my hair lots of funky colors (purple right now). Since I go back and forth between permanent and semi-permanent, I save the color conditioner from the permanent dyes for when I use semi-permanent, since I need it more then!
Im with the people who said there is nothing wrong or scam-ish about the firm. I received a card in the mail with my name on it and was happy because it saved me the time of having to fill out an application. You people are waaaay over reacting it's NOT a credit card it's a debit card... BIG difference, maybe those of you who like to research should research that! If you do not activate the card there is no harm done to you at all what so ever. And even if you do activate the card you can only spend what you put on it. I think it's a great alternative to a bank account because there are no overdraft fees and best of all i get my paycheck two days sooner than everyone else and i dont need to call in to check my balance as i can check it whenever i want online for free not to mention the sms text messages i receive for every transaction made with my card. I think some people just need to find something better to do with their time than complain about things that arent that serious. All they are trying to do is help you out, a simple no thank you and some scissors to cut the card in half is all thats needed. GOD BLESS!!
When I saw the headline my first thought was "yes, it could". Then I read the article
and got your point. Yes, I want more "things". But not at the cost of the good things I already have - like a close family.
"If a cyberwar breaks out or a hacker decides to strike, do you have paper and pencil procedures that will help you to stay in business, at some level, until sanity is restored?"
Wow, no. Great article Kate.
I especially enjoy the list of "unlikely events" that have all happened recently, gets the wheels turning, doesn't it?
Now is a good time to pursue educational goals as well.
I just lost my job, as did my department. Luckily I'm single with no kids and no mortgage, just out of college. Some of my colleagues are in completely different situations.
I've heard a lot of them discussing going back to school, they've been putting it off for awhile due to work schedules and family obligations, now they may have some time.
It's worth looking into. I posted on another job loss site earlier about looking for online certificate programs at either Villanova or SanFran. The Villanova one is for project management which I may pursue first, since it's more versatile now that I have no idea where I'm going next...
exactly 1 drop of rosmary vinager in your dates drink and make sure their looking at you when they drink it and the results are .... They see similarities between you and thier favorite celebraties, animals, trusted friends and they become horney.
willie-boy
I think you will find Turbo to be multiple yeast. A fast, low alcohol and a slow high alcohol. The high alcohol at the end kills the rest and you are left with something so slow, its not practical. It could be so slow as to allow other lil meanies to grow and choke it out. One way to get high octane is to make sake. It uses yeast and koji mold. You can find yeast balls at herbal shops. They come with yeast and koji. Double check with the clerk. For about $10-$20 you can make a nice sake, 20 US gallons! I intend to make a batch, for educational purposes. If it does not work out well, I can distill it. Sake usually is very high % drink.
This is the post I read, sounds great! http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=5368
"I brought about 45 liters of water to a boil. I added an 8kg bag of rice and let it boil for 10 minutes or so. Then I shut off the heat and let it sit for an hour. I then added another 10 liters or so of cold water, and put the pot outside to cool to strike temperature 66°C. It never took long as the tempertures outside are close to - 20° C right now....Burrrrrrrrrr!!!
At 66°C I added 4 tlbs of alpha amylase and put the lid on and let the conversion happen for about 90 minutes. The sg had the potential for about 6-7% AV. I added 10 lbs of white sugar and put the mixture to cool. When temperature reached 30-35°C I threw the yeast and added 4 tlbs of gluco amylase and aerated the crap out of it. Put it all in 2 fermenters and put it away to do it's magic.
I used 2 packages of EC 1118, which I hydrated and then started in a mild sugar water a couple hours before hand."
I totally agree.
My own story is dreaming of a fixed up garage so my boys would have a place to bring their friends and hang out. As a single parent it meant a lot to know where my 2 sons were. My vision was a finished garage with a pool table in the middle where my sons and 4 or 5 of their buddies could hang out.
One day I came home from work and could hear a radio blasting in the back yard. Furious at the noise, I stormed back to find my 2 sons - and 4 or 5 of their buddies -skateboarding in the drained pool. They didn't need either the pool table or the pool to get together because they were motivated.
The silliest-and slightly horrifying way I've seen someone save money: I used to drive past a graveyard on my way to work each day. Two houses down from the graveyard, someone had very obviously stolen the plastic flowers from the graves and PLANTED them in their own yard. Creeeeepy. :D
I make my own laundry soap for pennies, only need 1Tb, it works much better and it doesn't irritate my child's sensitive skin. I use vinegar in place of fabric softener. We also use vinegar for all cleaning - counters, floors, windows etc. Works great and no chemical fumes. (and no, our house and clothes do NOT smell like pickles)
If we don't make dinner we order take out rather than eat in a restaurant to avoid overpriced drinks and tipping.
I shop online when possible, getting better prices and I don't have to pay sales tax for stores not located in my state. That saves us loads of money.
Zorcy,
What most people around here make is poteen, which I suppose is a potato whiskey rather than a vodka; pot-still job, distilled down to drinking strength, (about 50% abv), rather than high-strength and then cut with water. It's usually made with bakers yeast or a beer yeast, the reason being that the potato starch takes a while to break down into sugar. A batch usually takes 2 to 3 weeks to ferment. Potatoes are hard to break down into sugar, so the usual recipe calls for equal amounts of white sugar and potatoes, to kick-start the process. Thats why a turbo yeast is no use for poteen really; the sugar would have fermented right out before the potatoes had time to break down.I've never really heard of this alpha amylase stuff before, though I seem to recall someone saying it was used to clear hazy wines. It doesn't seem to be on sale in home-brew shops here, except for this purpose, and then only in very small packets. But have I got this right here?............If I were to make a wash consisting solely of potatoes (and maybe a few yeast nutients), and added this alpha amylase, the amylase would convert the potato starch to sugar near enough right away, without needing to add an equal amount of white sugar, or indeed any sugar at all? The one thing we have PLENTY of here is potatoes!!And if this was the case, it would be possible to use a turbo yeast then, because the starch to sugar waiting time would have been eliminated. Is this amylase sold under a brand name?
Great topic and great ideas.
One question--if your credit is excellent, then you know how to manage your money, and to save, I would assume. If those are true, why would you need a loan?
Not trying to be negative, but aside from college costs, I can't think of any other reason.
Generally speaking (there are exceptions, but they're specific and obvious and easily identifiable), if you have to bribe yourself to do something with a load of expensive Stuff, you don't want it enough to justify the expense.
It's the things you make happen despite poor equipment, that will get you your money's worth on a Stuff upgrade---but then, of course, it's entirely possible that you'll find that new equipment is superfluous.
Shifting your desire from the perceived solution to the thing you expect it to bring you, and you can then consider alternate routes to it. Maybe you don't need a big deck, you need to get a cheap grill at a garage sale somewhere, and invite some friends over to a barbecue.
Then my family is living a lie. I guess it all depends about the expectations, but being reasonable I would disagree with all these statements.
1. I’ll never have to say “no.”
Again, if I want to buy a Porsche Cayenne every day, of course I would have to say no, but for every day living. Wanting a nice tv, buying a new car every 5 years, going to disneyland twice a year. Living debt free makes all those purchases much more enjoyable because we don't wonder... I should have saved that money for food the next day.
2. I’ll never have to make stressful financial decisions.
Stressful is the keyword. If I have to choose between getting more in debt of buy food, or pay Dr's bills. That will be stressful, living with the fear a collection agent was going to come an knock the door. Yes, there are financial decisions, but if you automate the savings, there is no additional stress. Money goes to 401K, money goes to 529, money goes to emergency fund, money goes to pay bills. There is no stress if you know how to live within your means AND are debt free.
3. I’ll automatically start sleeping better at night.
I have always been a great sleeper, but knowing that you own your home completely, makes for very restful sleep. There are other things you worry about, but not about money.
4. I’ll never have another money fight.
This was one of the main reasons we paid our mortgage. My wife wanted to keep saving and preventing us to enjoy our income until our home was ours. Our conventional 30yr mortgage turned into a 5 year of prepayments. We no longer argue about buying a little thing, we do all our purchases checking with the other anyway, but at least this way I can convince her to get me buy a toy from time to time.
5. I’ll never have to keep a budget again.
If you mean worrying about a budget, then it is different. I agree with you in this one. but again budgets can be done automatically, our budget is very simple. We have all our accounts online, we see how the graph grows to the right every month. If it didn't we see why... was it because we had to pay vacations? was it because the market went down?, Only big decreases over long periods of time require a re-adjustment of the budget, but other than that it is flying in automatic and not having to reshuffle payments from one low APR to another APR, and look at hidden fees, etc. Yes you will need to keep a budget, but it can be very easy to set it up and track it.
6. I’ll be able to give to any cause I believe in.
Well, in this case we have two small children, and our cause until they have college prepaid is to save for their education. Indeed, if you feel obligated to donate to charity, what we do is we donate our time, it is another great way to support causes that you believe in, you meet very nice people with similar interests, and you don't have to go broke because you missed the monthly donation.
I look forward to more of your posts, GE. My older kids (12 years old) I sure are getting tired of me telling them how important written goals are in personal finance, but hopefully they'll remember it when it counts. I wish I had been better prepared back in the day.
Now, the biggest challenge for me and others who are married is to use written down, mutually agreed upon financial goals to minimize disagreements about money and maximize the chances of actually arriving at the desired destination.
Goals can change, though, with different circumstances, and with two people in the relationship, the goals can change twice as fast. That's why we teach that even a simple 15-minute financial review each week between spouses can be a huge help: What’s important to us this week? Month? Year? What bills are coming due this week? Who is going to pay it? By check, debit card or online payment? Etc.
Best wishes for continued success!
Todd
Good tips! I've sold on ebay for a long time and have a few to add. First, always use delivery confirmation and for breakable items, insure the package. I had an incident recently that even with very careful packaging, the item still broke in transit and the customer was able to get their money back from ebay.
Diane
http://www.savingsmania.com
Shave right after showering, don't dry your face. No shaving cream/gel/soap needed. I use a Merkur double-edge safety razor and bought a huge pack of blades on Amazon. The blades last a week or so, I don't have a really thick beard though.
Like someone else mentioned I've heard of people separating their multi-ply toilet paper and using it single-ply to save money. A) I would never take the time to do this and B) I'm sorry, but I like multi-ply for hygiene reasons! To me (and this is just my personal opinion. I know many people can survive just fine without it, but I am not one of them.) I think going without AC in the summer is a silly way to save only because I'm the warmest person ever and this summer in particular has been extremely hot and humid here. I need my AC to be able to sleep at night and function during the day. Plus, if the house starts to feel too sticky, it can make your food get all soggy and weird which would end up costing you if you have to throw it out and waste it.
What a wonderful comment, thank you so much for that. If there's anything you'd like myself or another Wise Bread writer to cover, please let us know. I am always happy to take suggestions for topics.
Two off the top of my head:
1. I drink a lot of English tea, and to stretch the use of each bag, I leave them in the pot and just add one less to my next pot full. My first pot has 4 bags (big pot), my second I add 3 (so there are seven in there), and if I have a third pot I put in 2 (so 9 altogether). I don't leave them for too long, don't want to get food poisoning!
2. I dye my hair lots of funky colors (purple right now). Since I go back and forth between permanent and semi-permanent, I save the color conditioner from the permanent dyes for when I use semi-permanent, since I need it more then!
Im with the people who said there is nothing wrong or scam-ish about the firm. I received a card in the mail with my name on it and was happy because it saved me the time of having to fill out an application. You people are waaaay over reacting it's NOT a credit card it's a debit card... BIG difference, maybe those of you who like to research should research that! If you do not activate the card there is no harm done to you at all what so ever. And even if you do activate the card you can only spend what you put on it. I think it's a great alternative to a bank account because there are no overdraft fees and best of all i get my paycheck two days sooner than everyone else and i dont need to call in to check my balance as i can check it whenever i want online for free not to mention the sms text messages i receive for every transaction made with my card. I think some people just need to find something better to do with their time than complain about things that arent that serious. All they are trying to do is help you out, a simple no thank you and some scissors to cut the card in half is all thats needed. GOD BLESS!!
Just found this too - if it were real it would be marketing genius and an untapped market. There would be a lot of possibility
Great article! This is one reason I avoid drugstores, high prices!
Diane
http://www.savingsmania.com
When I saw the headline my first thought was "yes, it could". Then I read the article
and got your point. Yes, I want more "things". But not at the cost of the good things I already have - like a close family.
"If a cyberwar breaks out or a hacker decides to strike, do you have paper and pencil procedures that will help you to stay in business, at some level, until sanity is restored?"
Wow, no. Great article Kate.
I especially enjoy the list of "unlikely events" that have all happened recently, gets the wheels turning, doesn't it?
Now is a good time to pursue educational goals as well.
I just lost my job, as did my department. Luckily I'm single with no kids and no mortgage, just out of college. Some of my colleagues are in completely different situations.
I've heard a lot of them discussing going back to school, they've been putting it off for awhile due to work schedules and family obligations, now they may have some time.
It's worth looking into. I posted on another job loss site earlier about looking for online certificate programs at either Villanova or SanFran. The Villanova one is for project management which I may pursue first, since it's more versatile now that I have no idea where I'm going next...
I think this illustrates a good point. We as adults do not need much "stuff". Babies and children, on the other hand , need lots of stuff!
Even if you can get a free toy that your baby will play with for a few weeks and forget about, at least that's one less thing you' ll have to buy.
My son is 3 now, but I wish I knew of these sites when he was an infant, I would have taken advatnage of all of them.
exactly 1 drop of rosmary vinager in your dates drink and make sure their looking at you when they drink it and the results are .... They see similarities between you and thier favorite celebraties, animals, trusted friends and they become horney.
willie-boy
I think you will find Turbo to be multiple yeast. A fast, low alcohol and a slow high alcohol. The high alcohol at the end kills the rest and you are left with something so slow, its not practical. It could be so slow as to allow other lil meanies to grow and choke it out. One way to get high octane is to make sake. It uses yeast and koji mold. You can find yeast balls at herbal shops. They come with yeast and koji. Double check with the clerk. For about $10-$20 you can make a nice sake, 20 US gallons! I intend to make a batch, for educational purposes. If it does not work out well, I can distill it. Sake usually is very high % drink.
This is the post I read, sounds great! http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=5368
"I brought about 45 liters of water to a boil. I added an 8kg bag of rice and let it boil for 10 minutes or so. Then I shut off the heat and let it sit for an hour. I then added another 10 liters or so of cold water, and put the pot outside to cool to strike temperature 66°C. It never took long as the tempertures outside are close to - 20° C right now....Burrrrrrrrrr!!!
At 66°C I added 4 tlbs of alpha amylase and put the lid on and let the conversion happen for about 90 minutes. The sg had the potential for about 6-7% AV. I added 10 lbs of white sugar and put the mixture to cool. When temperature reached 30-35°C I threw the yeast and added 4 tlbs of gluco amylase and aerated the crap out of it. Put it all in 2 fermenters and put it away to do it's magic.
I used 2 packages of EC 1118, which I hydrated and then started in a mild sugar water a couple hours before hand."
I totally agree.
My own story is dreaming of a fixed up garage so my boys would have a place to bring their friends and hang out. As a single parent it meant a lot to know where my 2 sons were. My vision was a finished garage with a pool table in the middle where my sons and 4 or 5 of their buddies could hang out.
One day I came home from work and could hear a radio blasting in the back yard. Furious at the noise, I stormed back to find my 2 sons - and 4 or 5 of their buddies -skateboarding in the drained pool. They didn't need either the pool table or the pool to get together because they were motivated.
Such a wonderful topic for me.I read this article and agree with this article.Thanks to talking us about this article.
Bactium
The silliest-and slightly horrifying way I've seen someone save money: I used to drive past a graveyard on my way to work each day. Two houses down from the graveyard, someone had very obviously stolen the plastic flowers from the graves and PLANTED them in their own yard. Creeeeepy. :D
I rip the fabric softener dryer sheets in half before using them. I also cut the scouring pads in half.
Oh my. I've never heard of that crying analyzer. It sounds like a joke, doesn't it?