This article and some of the comments below troubles me!
Many of these things listed above could also be seen as "Constructive Dismissal" according to some labour laws.
To anyone who is experiencing this, before you slink away thinking there's nothing you can do or that it's all your fault, be sure to talk to your local government labour board. Although these are all signs of getting fired, many of them are also illegal for a company to do.
Don't let the above words or some of the comments below deter you from standing up for your rights!
Ginger tea works great for me. It does really cure stomach pain, it can also help in treating cough. Though we need to know the situation first, if is it only a common stomach pain, it might work, but if not, some sort of hyper acidity or worst case, ulcer, we might need to consider another way.
Yeah, condiments are generally a good deal. For three or four dollars you get something that quickly and easily makes a dish that would otherwise be boringly the same as everything else you cook into something very different. (And then will go on to do the same again another 15 or 20 times before the bottle is empty!)
There's a certain kind of self-sufficiency reason to make your own condiments. But from a frugality point of view, they're really so cheap that there's little point in trying to save money there.
In my case, of course, the reasons for substituting were as much pedagogical as frugal. Hoisin sauce isn't something I use, so it seemed silly to buy a whole bottle just for one dish. Plus, I thought it made a good example of how you can wing it when the recipe calls for something you don't have.
Thanks for your comment. I found Jonathan's experience with people enlightening. He reinforced the idea that steady saving (though boring) is more crucial than pursuing higher returns (more exciting). I think more people would save if regular savings rates were more attractive; to get the 5-6% returns you still need to take risks (typically in stock market) but measured ones (such as index funds).
I belong to a club that gives door prizes at each meeting. Most of the door prizes are recycled gifts donated by members. We usually have about 10 'prizes' and draw 8 tickets, so no one gets stuck with the 'least desirable' item.
I do highly recommend buying some hoisin sauce, if you get a chance. I frugally substituted for it in many recipes for many years until I finally got a chance to be able to buy some.
It is one of those ingredients that really add a unique taste and since a little goes a long way -- in my personal opinion I find it is really worth the purchase.
Another great thing about making soup is you can always freeze any excess for later eating. I threw together a "winter soup" out of leftover roasted squash, sweet potatoes a basic mirepoix and homemade veggie stock. I ate it day of with some leftover greens and froze half for later use. I ended up reducing the other half into puree for a roasted chicken. I find (as a single gal) that keeping it basic makes it more versatile. Awesome article!
My family is 2k+ miles away, so driving isn't an option. Flying on holiday itself, though, is. When shopping for tickets, I use the flexible dates feature starting on the holiday itself and use the +/- 3 days to get a chart of similar dates. I choose the cheapest, which is usually on the holiday itself for either the start or the end of the trip.
Of course, I'm not that sentimental about the actual holiday itself, and though my parents kind of are, they're also very practical and are never upset to stretch out holiday traditions a little longer to accommodate me saving a big chunk of cash on a plane ticket.
The airports are always quieter on the holiday itself, too, making for a less stressful trip.
I do a few things to save on travel.
1) I take the bus. Living near a major city like Boston is nice because there are a plethora of transportation options available to connect to other major citites. There are at least three bus services that connect Boston to places like New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. Sure it takes a bit longer, but if you're up for a road trip, you can save ridiculous amounts of money.
2) I book in advance. Especially with the bus services, arranging your travel plans at least three weeks in advance will almost always help you save even more money. If you're able to set your plans in stone by months, I've seen bus trips between major cities for as little as $1.00. Why not plan ahead?
Good tips! It always amazes me how much many HR departments don't care about the fees associated with the 401k plans. At my wife's former employer the plan they offered only allowed quarterly rebalancing as opposed to annual. Of course, most of the funds given access to had fees to get out of them so you would have to pay this 4 times a year unless you wanted to rebalance manually. We just put in the minimum to get the full match and everything else went into an IRA.
Great article. I've done something like this with my crock pot when I've had a lot of leftovers, adding grains or beans as needed. A sauteed onion and garlic helps ensure a tasty broth.
Although we may not all get paid on Friday anymore, most of us probably do our major food shopping for the week on Saturday or Sunday, so Thursday night is still a good time to use up leftovers!
Great post! My nonprofit company has a 403(b) with Franklin Templeton. In the last few months, I started really working on my personal finances, and when I examined my 403(b) more closely, I was really annoyed by the fees! A 5.75% sales commission per deposit, a 2.4% expense ratio, and a 12b-1 fee! Yikes! I really need to tackle this; my company pays 10% of my yearly salary WITHOUT my having to put in anything, so it's a great gig, but those fees are really surprising.
Definitely dig in to your 401(k) and 403(b) info. Shockingly (or not so much!) your company probably isn't giving you the best plan.
This is really good information to have. Not many people know about, including me, until now. I've found that the banks turn over some accounts to collection agencies which are nasty to deal with.
I invested my money in Penny Stocks and after 6 months, I realized that it was a big mistake done by me. Marketer hide all cons of penny stocks and promised that my invested money will be double within 6 months. It was a big lie for me.
I used to drink soda rarely, but now since two weeks, I have stopped forever for all these sugar, carbon and toxic reasons. Reading this article was to confirm these cons as I knew before. Thanks, great article!
Very wise tips and points to think about! I guess what’s missing is the possibility of improving the management skills through business training and/or maybe seminars. It’s not easy looking for someone to delegate tasks that you can’t take for yourself, you’ll have to find one that’d best fitted for the job and I believe learning “how” is important.
It's really sad that we have such low savings numbers in our country. Then, to try to save our retirement, we go for high returns and put so much of our money at risk to try to compensate for a low dollar savings plan. I don't think it will be long before we have to learn that saving money is much more important than rate of return, as you showed. I don't understand why we aren't trying to save 20-30 percent of our money at 4-6 percent returns. If you want to be rich, save alot, and then invest in real investments like property and other long term investments that really matter and that you have some control over.
I think having a year's supply of food is the best option you have. Making sure you have foods that don't spoil, and essentials, isn't only good if things go sour in the economy, it's also just good sense for if you lose your job or have hard times. Just an afterthought.
I love how you organized this post. I would also add that whole life insurance can be a good long term low risk investment. It only earns 4-6 percent but if it's safety you are looking for it's a good thing to look into.
"Also known as Hannukah, this is one of the most important holidays in the Jewish faith."
Hanukkah is actually one of the *least* important holidays in the Jewish faith.
More important Jewish holidays include the High Holidays of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, and the three Pilgrimage Festivals named in the Bible: Pesach (Passover), Sukkot (Feast of the Tabernacles) and Shavuot (Feast of Weeks/First Fruits).
Research is so important, especially when writing about other people's traditions!
This article and some of the comments below troubles me!
Many of these things listed above could also be seen as "Constructive Dismissal" according to some labour laws.
To anyone who is experiencing this, before you slink away thinking there's nothing you can do or that it's all your fault, be sure to talk to your local government labour board. Although these are all signs of getting fired, many of them are also illegal for a company to do.
Don't let the above words or some of the comments below deter you from standing up for your rights!
Ginger tea works great for me. It does really cure stomach pain, it can also help in treating cough. Though we need to know the situation first, if is it only a common stomach pain, it might work, but if not, some sort of hyper acidity or worst case, ulcer, we might need to consider another way.
Yeah, condiments are generally a good deal. For three or four dollars you get something that quickly and easily makes a dish that would otherwise be boringly the same as everything else you cook into something very different. (And then will go on to do the same again another 15 or 20 times before the bottle is empty!)
There's a certain kind of self-sufficiency reason to make your own condiments. But from a frugality point of view, they're really so cheap that there's little point in trying to save money there.
In my case, of course, the reasons for substituting were as much pedagogical as frugal. Hoisin sauce isn't something I use, so it seemed silly to buy a whole bottle just for one dish. Plus, I thought it made a good example of how you can wing it when the recipe calls for something you don't have.
Thanks for your comment. I found Jonathan's experience with people enlightening. He reinforced the idea that steady saving (though boring) is more crucial than pursuing higher returns (more exciting). I think more people would save if regular savings rates were more attractive; to get the 5-6% returns you still need to take risks (typically in stock market) but measured ones (such as index funds).
I belong to a club that gives door prizes at each meeting. Most of the door prizes are recycled gifts donated by members. We usually have about 10 'prizes' and draw 8 tickets, so no one gets stuck with the 'least desirable' item.
We pretty much don't venture far from home during the holidays.
I spent more this year, but budgeted it due to an "extra" paycheck in September and some well-earned overtime. :)
I do highly recommend buying some hoisin sauce, if you get a chance. I frugally substituted for it in many recipes for many years until I finally got a chance to be able to buy some.
It is one of those ingredients that really add a unique taste and since a little goes a long way -- in my personal opinion I find it is really worth the purchase.
Another great thing about making soup is you can always freeze any excess for later eating. I threw together a "winter soup" out of leftover roasted squash, sweet potatoes a basic mirepoix and homemade veggie stock. I ate it day of with some leftover greens and froze half for later use. I ended up reducing the other half into puree for a roasted chicken. I find (as a single gal) that keeping it basic makes it more versatile. Awesome article!
My family is 2k+ miles away, so driving isn't an option. Flying on holiday itself, though, is. When shopping for tickets, I use the flexible dates feature starting on the holiday itself and use the +/- 3 days to get a chart of similar dates. I choose the cheapest, which is usually on the holiday itself for either the start or the end of the trip.
Of course, I'm not that sentimental about the actual holiday itself, and though my parents kind of are, they're also very practical and are never upset to stretch out holiday traditions a little longer to accommodate me saving a big chunk of cash on a plane ticket.
The airports are always quieter on the holiday itself, too, making for a less stressful trip.
I do a few things to save on travel.
1) I take the bus. Living near a major city like Boston is nice because there are a plethora of transportation options available to connect to other major citites. There are at least three bus services that connect Boston to places like New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. Sure it takes a bit longer, but if you're up for a road trip, you can save ridiculous amounts of money.
2) I book in advance. Especially with the bus services, arranging your travel plans at least three weeks in advance will almost always help you save even more money. If you're able to set your plans in stone by months, I've seen bus trips between major cities for as little as $1.00. Why not plan ahead?
Good tips! It always amazes me how much many HR departments don't care about the fees associated with the 401k plans. At my wife's former employer the plan they offered only allowed quarterly rebalancing as opposed to annual. Of course, most of the funds given access to had fees to get out of them so you would have to pay this 4 times a year unless you wanted to rebalance manually. We just put in the minimum to get the full match and everything else went into an IRA.
Great article. I've done something like this with my crock pot when I've had a lot of leftovers, adding grains or beans as needed. A sauteed onion and garlic helps ensure a tasty broth.
Although we may not all get paid on Friday anymore, most of us probably do our major food shopping for the week on Saturday or Sunday, so Thursday night is still a good time to use up leftovers!
Thanks for featuring my post Ashley, it's an honor to be on Wisebread! Cheers!
Great post! My nonprofit company has a 403(b) with Franklin Templeton. In the last few months, I started really working on my personal finances, and when I examined my 403(b) more closely, I was really annoyed by the fees! A 5.75% sales commission per deposit, a 2.4% expense ratio, and a 12b-1 fee! Yikes! I really need to tackle this; my company pays 10% of my yearly salary WITHOUT my having to put in anything, so it's a great gig, but those fees are really surprising.
Definitely dig in to your 401(k) and 403(b) info. Shockingly (or not so much!) your company probably isn't giving you the best plan.
This is really good information to have. Not many people know about, including me, until now. I've found that the banks turn over some accounts to collection agencies which are nasty to deal with.
Thanks for posting this. I appreciate it.
I invested my money in Penny Stocks and after 6 months, I realized that it was a big mistake done by me. Marketer hide all cons of penny stocks and promised that my invested money will be double within 6 months. It was a big lie for me.
I used to drink soda rarely, but now since two weeks, I have stopped forever for all these sugar, carbon and toxic reasons. Reading this article was to confirm these cons as I knew before. Thanks, great article!
Very wise tips and points to think about! I guess what’s missing is the possibility of improving the management skills through business training and/or maybe seminars. It’s not easy looking for someone to delegate tasks that you can’t take for yourself, you’ll have to find one that’d best fitted for the job and I believe learning “how” is important.
I like to use old newspaper
It's really sad that we have such low savings numbers in our country. Then, to try to save our retirement, we go for high returns and put so much of our money at risk to try to compensate for a low dollar savings plan. I don't think it will be long before we have to learn that saving money is much more important than rate of return, as you showed. I don't understand why we aren't trying to save 20-30 percent of our money at 4-6 percent returns. If you want to be rich, save alot, and then invest in real investments like property and other long term investments that really matter and that you have some control over.
I think having a year's supply of food is the best option you have. Making sure you have foods that don't spoil, and essentials, isn't only good if things go sour in the economy, it's also just good sense for if you lose your job or have hard times. Just an afterthought.
I love how you organized this post. I would also add that whole life insurance can be a good long term low risk investment. It only earns 4-6 percent but if it's safety you are looking for it's a good thing to look into.
It's always smart to review and re-review your life insurance needs. This is one of the most important financial safety nets to have, great post.
"Also known as Hannukah, this is one of the most important holidays in the Jewish faith."
Hanukkah is actually one of the *least* important holidays in the Jewish faith.
More important Jewish holidays include the High Holidays of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, and the three Pilgrimage Festivals named in the Bible: Pesach (Passover), Sukkot (Feast of the Tabernacles) and Shavuot (Feast of Weeks/First Fruits).
Research is so important, especially when writing about other people's traditions!