It is amazing that I used most of these techniques during my school years, and as a result I was always the first in the class. By the way, now I am a medical doctor.
I quit my job 10 months ago to be a SAHM. I earned 60% of our family's income. I had been miserable for 3 years and applied for other opportunities, but within my government agency, positions were eliminated left and right. I have a masters degree and 8-10 years of experience in a very specific field of expertise. Two years before I quit, I started freelance writing and I've continued that.
We had been debt free for a year when I quit. We're now expecting our third child and the cost of an infant and toddler in fulltime care plus before / after / summer care for my kindergartener would have been more than I earned. While in daycare, my son frequently got sick, so I was having to take a lot of time off work plus all the doctor's copays and prescriptions.
My husband appreciates being able to stay late and participate in weekend conferences and other opportunities to further his career. I have more time to care for our home and children, cook and find ways to save like being the family barber, bargain shopping for secondhand clothing and making handmade gifts.
I had a professional looking notebook ($5 at Books-a-million) and I had a pen handy so I looked prepared, looked attentive to the person who was interviewing me, firm handshake, smile, and practiced my strengths (including knowledge on Excel, Powerpoint, etc...)
Pencil skirt never fails. Standard colors for clothes, (white, black, gray, blue) not too much makeup just a natural/presentable/professional look, hair make it a bun or something simple not too much distraction if you choose down then it must be out of your face.
She did not say this was the cheapest way to travel but that she travels full time for YEARS at a time, indefinitely, as a JOB for 17,000 including business expenses. She says you can travel for more or less depending on your needs but she chooses to travel more comfortably because she can. Also if she went way cheap all the time she would probably not have such nice stories or experiences to tell and make less money on her blog and writing. We all travel how we want and because she does not travel house want does not mean she does not see hte "true nature of being on the road." She is tyring to make enough money and enough business to make this sustainable for a lifetime not for a few months or even a few years. Most people think they need a lot of money to travel full time for their LIFE (not vacation or a trip). The people she is targeting probably make 40,000-100,000+ a year that think they have to make that type of money to do what they want. She is just pointing out how much LESS you can make if you live a certain way (not just travel a certain way). People certainly live on less. World averages are much much less. Does that mean I have to live like that to be truly frugal? If you look at the average wages a year in some areas being about 1000 dollars, your $5000 is not cheap at all.
If there is anything about our income tax system that makes sense- anything- I haven't seen it yet. I'm a big fan of a federal sales tax replacing the convoluted tax mess we have currently. But I don't see that happening any time soon. Congress wants to be able to cater to special interests (and themselves) with special loopholes and tax breaks. Sales tax is the only equitable and fair tax there is. The more you make, the more you spend; the more you spend the more tax you pay. Exempt unprepared food, and we are good to go. Fair is fair.
Ah- sure, you have more repair costs than a new car, but you also aren't making a monthly payment, either. This should be number 11: Pay off your car, and drive it for a few more years, instead of getting caught in the perpetual car loan pitfall. When you do the math on a car loan, you will pay almost double the purchase price over 5 years. That is money down the drain. I chose an American made pickup truck for my current vehicle, and I am excited to be paying it off soon. I plan to drive it for at least another 5 years, hopefully longer. Vehicles last much longer than they did 20 years ago- why not take advantage of that? Of course, to be fair, you also have to balance the increased risk of breakdown, and it is a big help to be mechanically inclined. Still, I can rebuild the entire front suspension for less than one month's car payment, and it all will last another 6-8 years. Put that extra savings into your emergency fund, and you won't worry so much about unexpected repairs. And even though a newer model might get 1-2 miles further on a gallon of fuel, that savings is nothing compared to what I save every month with no car loan payment.
I would imagine the absence of Wednesday and Sunday in the color codes is due to the fact that traditionally, grocery stores do not receive deliveries on those two days. They typically have their receiving personnel scheduled to work Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. I have been in distribution planning and scheduling for the world's largest soft drink bottler for over 12 years now, and I can tell you the grocery stores that will take deliveries on Wednesday are the exception, not the norm, although that trend has been gradually changing the last few years. Nobody accepts deliveries on Sunday, unless the grocery manager or store manager is willing to check the delivery in themselves, or they have some special arrangement with the supplier/vendor whereby receiving personnel are not needed to check in the delivery. So, as the customer dictates, the vendor provides. While I don't have any bakery experience, it would not surprise me if their work schedules followed the same pattern. If they baked on those other days, product would have to sit a day before being delivered, which would be of no benefit to anyone.
Ugh, I feel sick reading about this. I have not applied for unemployment yet because I had severance. Now I'm worried there will be no unemployment. It was already a rotten way they terminated me and I am afraid it may have been successful enough to cover them on the unemployment side.
Another site that I highly recommend is oDesk. This is a online job network site which brings together employers and job seekers together. Since emplores are vetted before registering their jobs you are sure to land on legit jobs.
o glade to find a place to get green idea's for my garden and around the home. We have 5 small dogs and one car that hunts for the hole neighborhood, it took a while to convince them. But now they leave him alone.
I use a clean fuzzy sock over my water bottle or large covered cup with straw to keep it from sweating on my wooden furniture as I take it from room to room in the summer. It works wonderfully!
for me rather than simply going to the best college that will accept me, i may prefer a less expensive school to avoid digging a debt hole that could take years or even decades to recover from.
Also, it is possible to get around the income limit for contributions by contributing to a non-deductible Traditional IRA (ie put already-taxed income into a Traditional IRA and do not try to deduct it on your tax return) and then roll that over to a Roth IRA - all you have to pay is the tax on any gains between the contribution and conversion. You should probably check with a tax lawyer regarding your particular situation in this case, though, I'm not one!
Very interesting article, but having $17,000 for a year, would mean you have $1400 per month. If you assume that most of the countries have average monthly salary much less than $1400.. traveling with so much money is far from anything special. Try going around the world for $5000 a year, using couchsurfing, etc. and you will see the true nature of being on the road... Honestly I don't consider this a cheap travel but expensive one.
We always move ourselves. We have never paid a moving company. We get boxes from the grocery store and we save our newspapers and other wrapping materials. I like to pack breakables in plastic totes. The totes don't collapse and I know my breakables are usually safe in the totes. Also, if possible, move on a weekend. Moving trucks are much cheaper on weekdays.
The longest, relatively slow, high impact bleed of all is inflation. We are losing purchasing power every year that compounds year after year and it's on every dollar we have or will ever have. If anyone has any ideas for combating inflation (other than inflation indexed investments), I'm all ears.
Thanks for your comments and insights. My illustrations did involve putting savings at risk in order to generate high enough income to last a lifetime. Your point is well taken, low interest rates make it difficult to generate enough annual income.
The soap dispenser idea rocks. We've been doing that for about a year now and I know we've saved a lot of money in the process! Why pay for packaging, right?
There is simply no way for me to stress enough just how dangerous it is to have blood sugars as high as 500. It very much sounds like you are a type 1 diabetic, not type 2. I implore you to find a better endocrinologist who will get your blood sugars down to normal levels. It might be that you need more insulin and have to adjust your diet to eat fewer carbohydrates. But please - 500 is incredibly dangerous.
It is amazing that I used most of these techniques during my school years, and as a result I was always the first in the class. By the way, now I am a medical doctor.
Do these cookies need to be kept in the icebox once they are cooked?
I quit my job 10 months ago to be a SAHM. I earned 60% of our family's income. I had been miserable for 3 years and applied for other opportunities, but within my government agency, positions were eliminated left and right. I have a masters degree and 8-10 years of experience in a very specific field of expertise. Two years before I quit, I started freelance writing and I've continued that.
We had been debt free for a year when I quit. We're now expecting our third child and the cost of an infant and toddler in fulltime care plus before / after / summer care for my kindergartener would have been more than I earned. While in daycare, my son frequently got sick, so I was having to take a lot of time off work plus all the doctor's copays and prescriptions.
My husband appreciates being able to stay late and participate in weekend conferences and other opportunities to further his career. I have more time to care for our home and children, cook and find ways to save like being the family barber, bargain shopping for secondhand clothing and making handmade gifts.
I had a professional looking notebook ($5 at Books-a-million) and I had a pen handy so I looked prepared, looked attentive to the person who was interviewing me, firm handshake, smile, and practiced my strengths (including knowledge on Excel, Powerpoint, etc...)
Pencil skirt never fails. Standard colors for clothes, (white, black, gray, blue) not too much makeup just a natural/presentable/professional look, hair make it a bun or something simple not too much distraction if you choose down then it must be out of your face.
She did not say this was the cheapest way to travel but that she travels full time for YEARS at a time, indefinitely, as a JOB for 17,000 including business expenses. She says you can travel for more or less depending on your needs but she chooses to travel more comfortably because she can. Also if she went way cheap all the time she would probably not have such nice stories or experiences to tell and make less money on her blog and writing. We all travel how we want and because she does not travel house want does not mean she does not see hte "true nature of being on the road." She is tyring to make enough money and enough business to make this sustainable for a lifetime not for a few months or even a few years. Most people think they need a lot of money to travel full time for their LIFE (not vacation or a trip). The people she is targeting probably make 40,000-100,000+ a year that think they have to make that type of money to do what they want. She is just pointing out how much LESS you can make if you live a certain way (not just travel a certain way). People certainly live on less. World averages are much much less. Does that mean I have to live like that to be truly frugal? If you look at the average wages a year in some areas being about 1000 dollars, your $5000 is not cheap at all.
If there is anything about our income tax system that makes sense- anything- I haven't seen it yet. I'm a big fan of a federal sales tax replacing the convoluted tax mess we have currently. But I don't see that happening any time soon. Congress wants to be able to cater to special interests (and themselves) with special loopholes and tax breaks. Sales tax is the only equitable and fair tax there is. The more you make, the more you spend; the more you spend the more tax you pay. Exempt unprepared food, and we are good to go. Fair is fair.
Ah- sure, you have more repair costs than a new car, but you also aren't making a monthly payment, either. This should be number 11: Pay off your car, and drive it for a few more years, instead of getting caught in the perpetual car loan pitfall. When you do the math on a car loan, you will pay almost double the purchase price over 5 years. That is money down the drain. I chose an American made pickup truck for my current vehicle, and I am excited to be paying it off soon. I plan to drive it for at least another 5 years, hopefully longer. Vehicles last much longer than they did 20 years ago- why not take advantage of that? Of course, to be fair, you also have to balance the increased risk of breakdown, and it is a big help to be mechanically inclined. Still, I can rebuild the entire front suspension for less than one month's car payment, and it all will last another 6-8 years. Put that extra savings into your emergency fund, and you won't worry so much about unexpected repairs. And even though a newer model might get 1-2 miles further on a gallon of fuel, that savings is nothing compared to what I save every month with no car loan payment.
I would imagine the absence of Wednesday and Sunday in the color codes is due to the fact that traditionally, grocery stores do not receive deliveries on those two days. They typically have their receiving personnel scheduled to work Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. I have been in distribution planning and scheduling for the world's largest soft drink bottler for over 12 years now, and I can tell you the grocery stores that will take deliveries on Wednesday are the exception, not the norm, although that trend has been gradually changing the last few years. Nobody accepts deliveries on Sunday, unless the grocery manager or store manager is willing to check the delivery in themselves, or they have some special arrangement with the supplier/vendor whereby receiving personnel are not needed to check in the delivery. So, as the customer dictates, the vendor provides. While I don't have any bakery experience, it would not surprise me if their work schedules followed the same pattern. If they baked on those other days, product would have to sit a day before being delivered, which would be of no benefit to anyone.
Ugh, I feel sick reading about this. I have not applied for unemployment yet because I had severance. Now I'm worried there will be no unemployment. It was already a rotten way they terminated me and I am afraid it may have been successful enough to cover them on the unemployment side.
Another site that I highly recommend is oDesk. This is a online job network site which brings together employers and job seekers together. Since emplores are vetted before registering their jobs you are sure to land on legit jobs.
How TRUE!!
o glade to find a place to get green idea's for my garden and around the home. We have 5 small dogs and one car that hunts for the hole neighborhood, it took a while to convince them. But now they leave him alone.
I use a clean fuzzy sock over my water bottle or large covered cup with straw to keep it from sweating on my wooden furniture as I take it from room to room in the summer. It works wonderfully!
for me rather than simply going to the best college that will accept me, i may prefer a less expensive school to avoid digging a debt hole that could take years or even decades to recover from.
Also, it is possible to get around the income limit for contributions by contributing to a non-deductible Traditional IRA (ie put already-taxed income into a Traditional IRA and do not try to deduct it on your tax return) and then roll that over to a Roth IRA - all you have to pay is the tax on any gains between the contribution and conversion. You should probably check with a tax lawyer regarding your particular situation in this case, though, I'm not one!
Very interesting article, but having $17,000 for a year, would mean you have $1400 per month. If you assume that most of the countries have average monthly salary much less than $1400.. traveling with so much money is far from anything special. Try going around the world for $5000 a year, using couchsurfing, etc. and you will see the true nature of being on the road... Honestly I don't consider this a cheap travel but expensive one.
Best of both worlds... great idea!
We always move ourselves. We have never paid a moving company. We get boxes from the grocery store and we save our newspapers and other wrapping materials. I like to pack breakables in plastic totes. The totes don't collapse and I know my breakables are usually safe in the totes. Also, if possible, move on a weekend. Moving trucks are much cheaper on weekdays.
I do, both to buy and sell! It's a great way to make a little money and clear out some clutter.
The longest, relatively slow, high impact bleed of all is inflation. We are losing purchasing power every year that compounds year after year and it's on every dollar we have or will ever have. If anyone has any ideas for combating inflation (other than inflation indexed investments), I'm all ears.
Thanks for your comments and insights. My illustrations did involve putting savings at risk in order to generate high enough income to last a lifetime. Your point is well taken, low interest rates make it difficult to generate enough annual income.
The soap dispenser idea rocks. We've been doing that for about a year now and I know we've saved a lot of money in the process! Why pay for packaging, right?
I do not use ebay. I never have because I am not familiar with it, and do my online shopping at other sites.
Hi, Barbara,
There is simply no way for me to stress enough just how dangerous it is to have blood sugars as high as 500. It very much sounds like you are a type 1 diabetic, not type 2. I implore you to find a better endocrinologist who will get your blood sugars down to normal levels. It might be that you need more insulin and have to adjust your diet to eat fewer carbohydrates. But please - 500 is incredibly dangerous.
Come visit! We haz guest room.