The Buck List participated in two carnivals recently. Jeff with Gobs Channel hosted a Mighty Good Money Carnival. My post about selling on Craigslist was included along with articles on affiliate programs, freebie sites and financial planning among many others. Check it out, and thanks to Jeff for including my post.
Thanks also to Brooke with Dollar Frugal for including my post on selling your books in her Carnival of Wealth, Money and Life. Other articles to check out include online savings accounts, diversifying your income and saving money on groceries.
Monday
Wednesday
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
The plans are made, the baking is done, and the gifts are wrapped.
My kids are home from college, my wife is taking some time off, and so am I.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! See you in 2009!
My kids are home from college, my wife is taking some time off, and so am I.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! See you in 2009!
Monday
Giving of Yourself
Over the last few weeks I have posted ideas for homemade gifts that included Friendship Soup Mix, Homemade Noodles and Homemade Bread. This final post in the series has some ideas on giving of yourself. If your financial situation is not allowing for traditional, material gift giving there might be a few ideas here for you. Even if you are buying gifts as usual some of these could make for a nice bonus gift. Many could be offered in the form of a hand written coupon or note.
Offer to baby-sit, giving the parents a night out.
A house cleaning coupon.
Mowing, snow blowing or shoveling.
Cooking and delivering a meal.
Offer to house-sit and/or pet-sit for someone on vacation.
Oil change coupon.
Offer to help someone having trouble with their computer.
If you are trained in a particular profession, or just really good at something, offer your skills.
If none of the above would work for you consider giving a book or CD from your collection, or regift something you previously received and don’t want to keep.
Offer to baby-sit, giving the parents a night out.
A house cleaning coupon.
Mowing, snow blowing or shoveling.
Cooking and delivering a meal.
Offer to house-sit and/or pet-sit for someone on vacation.
Oil change coupon.
Offer to help someone having trouble with their computer.
If you are trained in a particular profession, or just really good at something, offer your skills.
If none of the above would work for you consider giving a book or CD from your collection, or regift something you previously received and don’t want to keep.
Friday
Coupons!
My wife and I have been coupon users as long as we can remember. We have used them in good times and bad, always wanting to save that 40 cents here and 25 cents there. We have been happily surprised at times to save over half off our bill at grocery stores, the drug store or restaurants. Offline we clip manufacturers coupons found in newspaper inserts and magazines. We have purchased the entertainment book for our area for years from local school fundraisers, and the Walgreens monthly coupon book can make a huge difference when used along with manufacturer coupons.
It pays to compare the potential savings of your coupons to like items and store brands when you are shopping. By comparison shopping sometimes a coupon will save you more by not using it.
As for online coupons, I dug around in my favorites on my browser and came up with this list. Two of my wife’s favorites are Coupons.com and My Points, where she prints off coupons to save money while also earning additional points. Don’t forget to check out manufacturers websites, too, as many of them offer coupons you can print. Most of the sites below offer more than just coupons, so take the time to check them out.
Retail Me Not – “RetailMeNot.com is an easy way to find online coupon codes. Enter these codes at the checkout page of participating merchants for instant discounts.”
Ever Save – “You’ll find savings on everything from groceries and travel to baby products and entertainment.”
Deal Locker – “Part shopper, part geek, all penny-wise.”
Fat Wallet – “Our mission is to serve consumers with Knowledge, Value, and Guidance.”
Coupon Mom – “The easiest way to save.”
Gotta Deal – “Our goal is and has always been to provide you with the best deals and coupons for many of your online and offline retailers.”
Hot Coupon World – “A deals discussion forum.”
Keycode – “The #1 most relevant website on searches for retail discounts for years.”
Deal Taker – “Search over 6,000 active coupons from over 1,500 stores.”
Savings Vine – “Savings with all of the best coupons, codes, discounts, and promotions.”
Slickdeals – “The most frequently updated and complete deal site on the web.”
Valpak – “Print free coupons for restaurants, groceries, auto care and more.”
Shopping Bargains – “Coupon codes & bargains for 1000 + online stores.”
Coupon Pages – “Over 20 million coupon pages served.”
Do you have any to add to the list?
It pays to compare the potential savings of your coupons to like items and store brands when you are shopping. By comparison shopping sometimes a coupon will save you more by not using it.
As for online coupons, I dug around in my favorites on my browser and came up with this list. Two of my wife’s favorites are Coupons.com and My Points, where she prints off coupons to save money while also earning additional points. Don’t forget to check out manufacturers websites, too, as many of them offer coupons you can print. Most of the sites below offer more than just coupons, so take the time to check them out.
Retail Me Not – “RetailMeNot.com is an easy way to find online coupon codes. Enter these codes at the checkout page of participating merchants for instant discounts.”
Ever Save – “You’ll find savings on everything from groceries and travel to baby products and entertainment.”
Deal Locker – “Part shopper, part geek, all penny-wise.”
Fat Wallet – “Our mission is to serve consumers with Knowledge, Value, and Guidance.”
Coupon Mom – “The easiest way to save.”
Gotta Deal – “Our goal is and has always been to provide you with the best deals and coupons for many of your online and offline retailers.”
Hot Coupon World – “A deals discussion forum.”
Keycode – “The #1 most relevant website on searches for retail discounts for years.”
Deal Taker – “Search over 6,000 active coupons from over 1,500 stores.”
Savings Vine – “Savings with all of the best coupons, codes, discounts, and promotions.”
Slickdeals – “The most frequently updated and complete deal site on the web.”
Valpak – “Print free coupons for restaurants, groceries, auto care and more.”
Shopping Bargains – “Coupon codes & bargains for 1000 + online stores.”
Coupon Pages – “Over 20 million coupon pages served.”
Do you have any to add to the list?
Thursday
Carnival of Personal Development
The Momentor has hosted a Carnival of Personal Development and included my post about selling at a consignment shop. Some other topics include personal finance and health issues. Check it out, you are sure to find some interesting reads. Thanks to The Momentor for including my post.
Wednesday
Homemade Bread
This week’s homemade gift idea is an easy and delicious recipe for bread. My family has made this recipe for years and it never fails to satisfy. A loaf of bread is a wonderful addition to a gift basket of homemade goodies. Fresh out of the oven and spread with butter is my favorite way to eat it, but it is also good topped with cheese, peanut butter, jelly or jam.
2 ½ cups warm water
2 packages yeast
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon oil
7 cups flour
Sesame seeds
1 egg white mixed with 1 teaspoon water
Measure warm water into large warm mixing bowl. Add yeast and stir until dissolved. Add salt and oil, then flour. Dough will be sticky. Put in a greased bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place away from draft until doubled in size, about one hour. Turn out onto lightly floured board. Cut into two equal portions and roll each into an oblong 15 X 10 inches. Beginning with wide side, roll up tightly and seal edges with pinches. Coil each roll on greased bake sheet. Cover and let rise again until doubled in bulk. Then slash the tops with a # pattern. Bake 25 minutes at 450 degrees. Brush with egg white mixture, sprinkle with sesame and bake 5 more minutes.
2 ½ cups warm water
2 packages yeast
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon oil
7 cups flour
Sesame seeds
1 egg white mixed with 1 teaspoon water
Measure warm water into large warm mixing bowl. Add yeast and stir until dissolved. Add salt and oil, then flour. Dough will be sticky. Put in a greased bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place away from draft until doubled in size, about one hour. Turn out onto lightly floured board. Cut into two equal portions and roll each into an oblong 15 X 10 inches. Beginning with wide side, roll up tightly and seal edges with pinches. Coil each roll on greased bake sheet. Cover and let rise again until doubled in bulk. Then slash the tops with a # pattern. Bake 25 minutes at 450 degrees. Brush with egg white mixture, sprinkle with sesame and bake 5 more minutes.
Monday
Getting By Without a Job from Wisebread
Philip Brewer has written a 4 part series for Wisebread titled “Getting by without a job.” The series deals with what to do right after you loose your job and steps to take if you can’t find a new one. This is a subject I have been interested in for quite a while and he does an excellent job exploring the possibilities. A few books I would recommend, along with the Wisebread article, are:
Making a Living Without a Job by Barbara J. Winter
How to Survive Without a Salary by Charles Long
Ragnar’s Guide to the Underground Economy by Ragnar Benson
A first cousin to living without a job is homesteading, a subject that I would encourage you to explore as well, and something I will write about soon on The Buck List.
Making a Living Without a Job by Barbara J. Winter
How to Survive Without a Salary by Charles Long
Ragnar’s Guide to the Underground Economy by Ragnar Benson
A first cousin to living without a job is homesteading, a subject that I would encourage you to explore as well, and something I will write about soon on The Buck List.
Friday
Giving to Charities
When times get tough it seems the poor, sick and homeless are the first to feel the effects. There are fewer volunteers, fewer donations to local food pantries and less room at the homeless shelters. Whether you are motivated by religious tradition, or it just makes you feel good, this is a particularly good time to remember those that can use our help.
Years ago my wife and I decided on a charitable course to donate to those that protect us, including police and fire associations and veterans groups. Two years ago we made the decision to refocus our giving, choosing a local coalition of ministries that provide food, shelter and training programs to those in need. We are thinking of switching back and forth every few years between our choices. Ideally, we would like to give to them all, and maybe someday we will be at a point financially to do that. Other opportunities over the years for us to give have included employer sponsored holiday gift giving, disaster relief, and giving to food donation drives.
The number of charities to give to might seem overwhelming, but I think developing a plan on what segment to help and then researching your options is a logical approach. To that end I found a few good websites to help you make a decision.
Charity Navigator – “evaluating the financial health of over 5,300 of America’s largest charities.”
World Vision – “a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families, and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice.”
iGive – “Shop online at over 700 brand name stores and a portion of each purchase will be donated to your favorite cause.”
BBB Wise Giving Alliance – “helps donors make informed giving decisions and advances high standards of conduct among organizations that solicit contributions from the public.”
If money is really tight maybe your time could be donated. Some options include visiting the sick in a hospital, the elderly in a nursing home, serving meals at a homeless shelter and helping to organize goods at a food pantry. The Red Cross is always looking for help, too.
Years ago my wife and I decided on a charitable course to donate to those that protect us, including police and fire associations and veterans groups. Two years ago we made the decision to refocus our giving, choosing a local coalition of ministries that provide food, shelter and training programs to those in need. We are thinking of switching back and forth every few years between our choices. Ideally, we would like to give to them all, and maybe someday we will be at a point financially to do that. Other opportunities over the years for us to give have included employer sponsored holiday gift giving, disaster relief, and giving to food donation drives.
The number of charities to give to might seem overwhelming, but I think developing a plan on what segment to help and then researching your options is a logical approach. To that end I found a few good websites to help you make a decision.
Charity Navigator – “evaluating the financial health of over 5,300 of America’s largest charities.”
World Vision – “a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families, and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice.”
iGive – “Shop online at over 700 brand name stores and a portion of each purchase will be donated to your favorite cause.”
BBB Wise Giving Alliance – “helps donors make informed giving decisions and advances high standards of conduct among organizations that solicit contributions from the public.”
If money is really tight maybe your time could be donated. Some options include visiting the sick in a hospital, the elderly in a nursing home, serving meals at a homeless shelter and helping to organize goods at a food pantry. The Red Cross is always looking for help, too.
Wednesday
Homemade Noodles
Here is the second installment of homemade gift ideas for December. You can see the first one here. This recipe is for simple but delicious homemade noodles. We use them for chicken and noodles, chicken soup, beef and noodles and beef soup. We will sometimes make a couple batches at once, and freeze a batch for later. When giving as a gift make a fresh batch the day before and store in the refrigerator, or pull a batch out of the freezer. They make a nice alternative to all the sweets that tempt us this time of the year, too. We think this came from a B H & G cookbook.
Homemade Noodles
1 beaten egg
2 tablespoons milk
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup flour
Mix all of the ingredients and let set for 20 minutes. Dust with flour to prevent sticking and roll very thin. Slice into ¼” wide strips and let dry for an hour. If using right away just drop them into boiling broth or water and cook uncovered for about 45 minutes. If freezing for later use lay them out on a cookie sheet and freeze, then put in a freezer bag. Mmmmm…I think I see a batch of Beef & Noodles in my near future!
Homemade Noodles
1 beaten egg
2 tablespoons milk
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup flour
Mix all of the ingredients and let set for 20 minutes. Dust with flour to prevent sticking and roll very thin. Slice into ¼” wide strips and let dry for an hour. If using right away just drop them into boiling broth or water and cook uncovered for about 45 minutes. If freezing for later use lay them out on a cookie sheet and freeze, then put in a freezer bag. Mmmmm…I think I see a batch of Beef & Noodles in my near future!
Monday
Giveaway of the Day
Looking for free licensed software? How about free, full version licensed software that is not a limited or trial version? Giveaway of the Day is your next stop. They offer a title once a day for you to download and use. I would recommend you subscribe, for free, to their daily offers newsletter because the programs are usually available to download for only 24 hours. They also offer games at Game Giveaway of the Day. Visit the websites and see what they have to offer.
Friday
Selling on Zazzle
Zazzle, formed in 2003 by Robert Beaver, is a site to create custom made items for yourself or to sell to others. You can design everything from t-shirts to skateboards, bumper stickers to posters and prints. FAQ here.
With no experience I was able to create an account, set up my shop and design and offer products for sale. This is pretty cool for a guy that as a kid had t-shirt options that either came from K-mart or an order form from the back of a comic book. My shop so far has had 106 visits and sold one t-shirt with zero promotion. I decided to wait to promote my shop on The Buck List and elsewhere until I wrote about it here, to give me a promo baseline of before and after.
Zazzle recommends you set the royalty rate for most of your products at 10% to 25%. They offer extensive promotional support and deals, especially around the holidays and during popular events such as the past presidential election. They also offer a pretty comprehensive variety of promotional tools to put on your blog or website.
Opinion: very easy to set up and use. Not a money maker for me yet, but I am going to add more products and start promoting my shop. I will write an update in a few months to let you know how it is going.
Have you tried Zazzle? Waste of time or money maker?
With no experience I was able to create an account, set up my shop and design and offer products for sale. This is pretty cool for a guy that as a kid had t-shirt options that either came from K-mart or an order form from the back of a comic book. My shop so far has had 106 visits and sold one t-shirt with zero promotion. I decided to wait to promote my shop on The Buck List and elsewhere until I wrote about it here, to give me a promo baseline of before and after.
Zazzle recommends you set the royalty rate for most of your products at 10% to 25%. They offer extensive promotional support and deals, especially around the holidays and during popular events such as the past presidential election. They also offer a pretty comprehensive variety of promotional tools to put on your blog or website.
Opinion: very easy to set up and use. Not a money maker for me yet, but I am going to add more products and start promoting my shop. I will write an update in a few months to let you know how it is going.
Have you tried Zazzle? Waste of time or money maker?
Thursday
The Money Hacks Carnival
Ask Mr. Credit Card hosted The Money Hacks Carnival this week and included my post about selling your books. Thanks Mr. CC! Check out the carnival for advice on getting cash back from credit cards, saving at the supermarket, investing advice and dozens of other interesting personal finance articles.
Wednesday
Friendship Soup Mix
When my wife and I were first married and had little money for Christmas gifts we would write out personal “coupons” for babysitting or make homemade soup mixes and baked goodies to put in gift baskets. Friends and family we gave those to could count on some delicious soups, baked items or a commitment of our time to watch their kids.
Fast forward to today and our current economy and those gifts might seem like good ideas again. So in the spirit of the season, and being frugal, The Buck List will be posting homemade gift ideas every week during December.
The first recipe is for Friendship Soup Mix. This recipe was cut out of a magazine years ago and is from Mason City, Iowa.
½ cup dry split peas
1/3 cup beef bouillon granules
¼ cup pearl barley
½ cup dry lentils
¼ cup dried minced onion
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
½ cup uncooked long grain rice
½ cup small macaroni
The ingredients are layered in a 1 ½ pint glass jar in the order listed above and sealed tightly. When given as a gift include a handwritten note or print out with the following instructions:
Additional Ingredients
1 pound ground beef
3 quarts water
1 can (28 oz) undrained diced tomatoes
To Prepare Soup: Carefully remove macaroni from top of jar and set aside. In a large saucepan or Dutch oven brown beef and drain. Add the water, tomatoes and soup mix and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 45 minutes. Add the reserved macaroni, cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until macaroni, peas, lentils and barley are tender. Enjoy!
Fast forward to today and our current economy and those gifts might seem like good ideas again. So in the spirit of the season, and being frugal, The Buck List will be posting homemade gift ideas every week during December.
The first recipe is for Friendship Soup Mix. This recipe was cut out of a magazine years ago and is from Mason City, Iowa.
½ cup dry split peas
1/3 cup beef bouillon granules
¼ cup pearl barley
½ cup dry lentils
¼ cup dried minced onion
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
½ cup uncooked long grain rice
½ cup small macaroni
The ingredients are layered in a 1 ½ pint glass jar in the order listed above and sealed tightly. When given as a gift include a handwritten note or print out with the following instructions:
Additional Ingredients
1 pound ground beef
3 quarts water
1 can (28 oz) undrained diced tomatoes
To Prepare Soup: Carefully remove macaroni from top of jar and set aside. In a large saucepan or Dutch oven brown beef and drain. Add the water, tomatoes and soup mix and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 45 minutes. Add the reserved macaroni, cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until macaroni, peas, lentils and barley are tender. Enjoy!
Monday
75 Ideas to Live on Less
Craig Idlebrook has written for Mother Earth News 75 ideas to live on less and love it. He says that in 2005 he and his wife made a combined income of $4,300. A family that happily lives on that much a year just might have some good ideas on living on less. I went through his list and counted 29 of his ideas I currently use. How many are you using?
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