This is fourth in a series of brief reviews of personal finance and frugal websites and blogs.
Bottom Line Secrets sprang from a basement publishing startup in 1972 that today includes dozens of books, six printed and two e-mail newsletters on topics such as investment advice, family issues, building careers and taking care of your health. They draw advice and answers to questions from a field of thousands of experts and professionals.
Try out one of their free e-letters and look around their site for a sample of what they publish. I have been a reader of their Bottom Line Personal newsletter for several years and if I had to pick only one printed magazine or newsletter to subscribe to that would be my choice.
Send me an email (BuckWeber at gmail.com) if you have a frugal or PF site you would like to see included in this series. If it belongs to you include a few lines about it and yourself.
Saturday
Weekly Roundup
Check out Grocery Coupon Guide for tips and ideas about how to save money with grocery coupons.
Improve your vocabulary and help reduce hunger at Free Rice.
Type in a location to get the current weather, forecast and webcams views at Weather Bonk.
Business Forms offers hundreds of business forms and templates in Excel and Word formats to download for free.
Use Dinner Broker to book restaurant reservations and receive discounts of up to 30% off your meal and earn points towards gift certificates.
The Buck List participated in one carnival last week, Thrifty Thursday: Living on the Cheap. Check it out for some thrifty tips and financial advice. Thanks to the host for including my post.
Improve your vocabulary and help reduce hunger at Free Rice.
Type in a location to get the current weather, forecast and webcams views at Weather Bonk.
Business Forms offers hundreds of business forms and templates in Excel and Word formats to download for free.
Use Dinner Broker to book restaurant reservations and receive discounts of up to 30% off your meal and earn points towards gift certificates.
The Buck List participated in one carnival last week, Thrifty Thursday: Living on the Cheap. Check it out for some thrifty tips and financial advice. Thanks to the host for including my post.
Friday
Can You Turn Your Hobby Into Income?
I never seriously thought of making money from a hobby until I lost my job almost two years ago. When I decided to take a break from Corporate America one of my first instincts was to look at what I enjoyed doing and then trying to figure out if I could make money doing it.
I started writing stories as a child, poems and essays as a teenager and kept a journal off and on. While I imagined becoming a famous writer, marriage and babies and work came along and that dream was put away to support my family.
When my break came I decided to try writing again. I had not written anything other than reports for almost twenty years. How to get started? Hemingway advised to write about what you know. I was subscribed to several personal finance blogs at the time and have always enjoyed the subject. Then it hit, the realization that they are making money (well, some of them) writing weblogs about money matters. I decided that was where I would restart my writing dream.
I enjoy the discipline of keeping a posting schedule and the practice of writing again that The Buck List has given me. I am writing for eHow as well and both outlets have become small streams of income.
Think about what you really enjoy doing. Is there a market for it? Can you make a profit doing it? Use the $100 Test as Barbara Winter describes in her book “How to Make a Living Without a Job” to test your idea.
Have you turned a hobby into income? Share your story!
I started writing stories as a child, poems and essays as a teenager and kept a journal off and on. While I imagined becoming a famous writer, marriage and babies and work came along and that dream was put away to support my family.
When my break came I decided to try writing again. I had not written anything other than reports for almost twenty years. How to get started? Hemingway advised to write about what you know. I was subscribed to several personal finance blogs at the time and have always enjoyed the subject. Then it hit, the realization that they are making money (well, some of them) writing weblogs about money matters. I decided that was where I would restart my writing dream.
I enjoy the discipline of keeping a posting schedule and the practice of writing again that The Buck List has given me. I am writing for eHow as well and both outlets have become small streams of income.
Think about what you really enjoy doing. Is there a market for it? Can you make a profit doing it? Use the $100 Test as Barbara Winter describes in her book “How to Make a Living Without a Job” to test your idea.
Have you turned a hobby into income? Share your story!
Wednesday
How to Camp on the Cheap
The first time I tried independent camping (without the parents) proved to be a memorable one. My good buddy Stewart and I decided one weekend to head out into the woods behind my parents house, situated next to a large lake. We were equipped with a couple cans of food, some pieces of plastic to make into tents, sterno and as much beer as we could possibly carry. After finding a nice clearing overlooking the lake, the beer became top priority. We were having a great time, not worrying about a thing (such as food prep or actually setting up camp) until the rain hit and we were nearly out of beer and hungry. Stewart fared a little better than me by actually getting his food luke-warm using the sterno and managing to build sort of a lean-to to sleep in. I decided just to eat my food cold and wrap up in my plastic sheet. I ended up next to a large, decaying log that was providing shelter to all sorts of bugs. By morning they were sharing my plastic bedroll with me. Despite the miserable experience, rather than becoming discouraged, we decided we had a lot to learn and equipment to acquire.
In the more than 20 years since that inaugural fiasco my family and/or various friends and I have camped in county, state and national parks. We have camped in seven states including all over my home state of Iowa. If you have never been here before, yes, we grow lots of corn, but we also have beautiful flowing rivers, several large forests, hills, caves and friendly, well maintained county and state park systems.
BASIC EQUIPMENT ON THE CHEAP
We started out buying all of our equipment used, mostly from garage sales, which is still a great way to get started. Two items I would suggest buying new are your tent and sleeping bags. My experience has been that once those two items are put into a garage sale they have experienced a lot of use and wear. We have used half worn out old comforters and blankets in place of sleeping bags during moderate and hot weather. If you are young enough an air mattress will seem like an unneeded extravagance; otherwise buying a nice thick one could be well worth the expense. I have used pole tents and dome tents, and the domes win hands down, if just for ease of set up. A large tarp to more than cover your whole tent is vital in case of rain, as the rain fly on most average family tents will turn into sieves during a downpour, no matter how many cans of waterproof goo you have sprayed on.
Clothing for casual camping will require you to just bring what you already own. Check the weather forecast and pack accordingly. No matter how hot it is I always pack long pants and a long sleeved shirt, just in case I have to wade into the woods.
A five gallon plastic dry wall bucket is a very versatile item to bring along. It can hold equipment, carry water, serve as a dishpan and turned upside down becomes a footstool or a chair. Also pick up a propane lantern and a few flashlights, fairly common garage sale items. Don’t forget to pack a first aid kit. You can usually raid the bathroom cabinets for what you will need. There is a lot more equipment that I bring along and use but the above items will get you started.
EATING AND DRINKING ON THE CHEAP
Pots and pans, plates and utensils, everything you will need to cook out with and eat off of can be found dirt cheap at thrift shops. When they break, wear out, get fire charred or lost go back and spend another 25 cents each for what you need. The only exception to that advice is a good cast iron Dutch oven. If you are going to learn to cook using one I would buy it new or look for an older one in good shape at flea markets or antique shops. There is nothing like cooking with cast iron.
A propane stove comes in handy for boiling water or heating up food quickly. I also like to use it for cooking breakfast, as opposed to squatting over a smoking fire in the morning. Otherwise we cook over the campfire. Many campfire pits or rings have a grill in place, but not all. I pulled a stove rack out of a junk stove sitting on the curb and always bring it along just in case.
You will need a good cooler or two to store food and beverages. We always designate one to serve as the food cooler, which stays closed for long periods of time, and the other for beverages. Fill a half gallon plastic water container with water and freeze it to go in the food cooler. It keeps everything cold, can last for several days and there is no melted ice mess to deal with.
We usually will make sandwiches or bring some cold fried chicken for our first evening meal to spare us the food prep time because we are busy setting up camp, looking for firewood, and just exploring our surroundings. We try to bring as much food as we can that we already have from home. This helps to determine our menu, and bringing frozen food to gradually thaw in the food cooler also helps keep surrounding food cool.
An internet search can find a wide variety of camping recipes, so I won’t go into specifically what we like to cook, the exception being what we call Hobos. This is one of the easiest, cheapest, and best tasting campfire meals you can make. We layer on a large sheet of aluminum foil: sliced potatoes, chopped onions, sliced mushrooms, celery, and whatever else sounds good, topped with ground hamburger rolled into small balls. Add any desired seasonings. Then reverse the layering until you end with a top layer of sliced potatoes. Fold the foil lengthways and then fold up the ends. I always wrap them again, seam down, for added protection. Set the foil packet on the grill over the fire and cook each side for around ½ an hour. The grease from the hamburger mixes with the water released from the veggies and steam cooks the contents. Remove it from the grill, cut it open and eat right out of the packet. Mix any leftovers with eggs and cook up for breakfast the next morning.
Drinking water is available and free at many parks, but it’s best to make sure before you go in case you will have to pack in your own. I have used the collapsible five gallon containers for years, but just recently came into (yes, garage sale again) a hard plastic container with a screw on lid and a spicket at the bottom that I really like. The only problem is it takes up more room when empty.
FIREWOOD ON THE CHEAP
We have both cut our own wood onsite and brought in firewood from home. The stuff brought from home has either been cut from trees on my property, wood I have cut and brought home for free from friends and family, or miscellaneous limbs and branches and bundles I have picked up from the curb. All free. Unless you live in (or are camping in) a dessert, or are physically unable to cut your own, there is no reason to ever pay for campfire wood. Usually the farther away from home we have to drive to our campsite the less likely we will be to bring our own wood. At almost every place I have camped (the exception being in Colorado during a red flag warning) we have been allowed to pick up dead wood to burn. Many times previous campers have left behind small amounts of firewood they did not want to cart home. When we have not brought our own wood I drive around the campground and pick up all of that left behind wood. When we are done camping we make it a point to leave some wood behind to help out the following campers.
A large bow saw with a sharp blade can make cutting your scavenged firewood to size an easy chore. A sharp hatchet can come in handy for everything from splitting small logs to driving tent stakes. All of my hatchets and bow saws have come from garage sales.
The above advice and tips apply to basic family car camping, using tents. I think this kind of camping serves as a wonderful teacher of basic outdoor skills, and can lead to greater adventures. My son, an Eagle Scout, might agree with that statement. He’s spending this summer as a high adventure canoe guide.
Further Reading:
Check out this link for a great camping checklist.
This weekend is the Great American Backyard Campout.
Like to hike? Check out the AHS.
If you find yourself in my neck of the woods a visit to the Mississippi River is a must, including a drive along the Great River Road.
Find a national park to explore here.
Roadside America offers some interesting stops along the way to the campground.
In the more than 20 years since that inaugural fiasco my family and/or various friends and I have camped in county, state and national parks. We have camped in seven states including all over my home state of Iowa. If you have never been here before, yes, we grow lots of corn, but we also have beautiful flowing rivers, several large forests, hills, caves and friendly, well maintained county and state park systems.
BASIC EQUIPMENT ON THE CHEAP
We started out buying all of our equipment used, mostly from garage sales, which is still a great way to get started. Two items I would suggest buying new are your tent and sleeping bags. My experience has been that once those two items are put into a garage sale they have experienced a lot of use and wear. We have used half worn out old comforters and blankets in place of sleeping bags during moderate and hot weather. If you are young enough an air mattress will seem like an unneeded extravagance; otherwise buying a nice thick one could be well worth the expense. I have used pole tents and dome tents, and the domes win hands down, if just for ease of set up. A large tarp to more than cover your whole tent is vital in case of rain, as the rain fly on most average family tents will turn into sieves during a downpour, no matter how many cans of waterproof goo you have sprayed on.
Clothing for casual camping will require you to just bring what you already own. Check the weather forecast and pack accordingly. No matter how hot it is I always pack long pants and a long sleeved shirt, just in case I have to wade into the woods.
A five gallon plastic dry wall bucket is a very versatile item to bring along. It can hold equipment, carry water, serve as a dishpan and turned upside down becomes a footstool or a chair. Also pick up a propane lantern and a few flashlights, fairly common garage sale items. Don’t forget to pack a first aid kit. You can usually raid the bathroom cabinets for what you will need. There is a lot more equipment that I bring along and use but the above items will get you started.
EATING AND DRINKING ON THE CHEAP
Pots and pans, plates and utensils, everything you will need to cook out with and eat off of can be found dirt cheap at thrift shops. When they break, wear out, get fire charred or lost go back and spend another 25 cents each for what you need. The only exception to that advice is a good cast iron Dutch oven. If you are going to learn to cook using one I would buy it new or look for an older one in good shape at flea markets or antique shops. There is nothing like cooking with cast iron.
A propane stove comes in handy for boiling water or heating up food quickly. I also like to use it for cooking breakfast, as opposed to squatting over a smoking fire in the morning. Otherwise we cook over the campfire. Many campfire pits or rings have a grill in place, but not all. I pulled a stove rack out of a junk stove sitting on the curb and always bring it along just in case.
You will need a good cooler or two to store food and beverages. We always designate one to serve as the food cooler, which stays closed for long periods of time, and the other for beverages. Fill a half gallon plastic water container with water and freeze it to go in the food cooler. It keeps everything cold, can last for several days and there is no melted ice mess to deal with.
We usually will make sandwiches or bring some cold fried chicken for our first evening meal to spare us the food prep time because we are busy setting up camp, looking for firewood, and just exploring our surroundings. We try to bring as much food as we can that we already have from home. This helps to determine our menu, and bringing frozen food to gradually thaw in the food cooler also helps keep surrounding food cool.
An internet search can find a wide variety of camping recipes, so I won’t go into specifically what we like to cook, the exception being what we call Hobos. This is one of the easiest, cheapest, and best tasting campfire meals you can make. We layer on a large sheet of aluminum foil: sliced potatoes, chopped onions, sliced mushrooms, celery, and whatever else sounds good, topped with ground hamburger rolled into small balls. Add any desired seasonings. Then reverse the layering until you end with a top layer of sliced potatoes. Fold the foil lengthways and then fold up the ends. I always wrap them again, seam down, for added protection. Set the foil packet on the grill over the fire and cook each side for around ½ an hour. The grease from the hamburger mixes with the water released from the veggies and steam cooks the contents. Remove it from the grill, cut it open and eat right out of the packet. Mix any leftovers with eggs and cook up for breakfast the next morning.
Drinking water is available and free at many parks, but it’s best to make sure before you go in case you will have to pack in your own. I have used the collapsible five gallon containers for years, but just recently came into (yes, garage sale again) a hard plastic container with a screw on lid and a spicket at the bottom that I really like. The only problem is it takes up more room when empty.
FIREWOOD ON THE CHEAP
We have both cut our own wood onsite and brought in firewood from home. The stuff brought from home has either been cut from trees on my property, wood I have cut and brought home for free from friends and family, or miscellaneous limbs and branches and bundles I have picked up from the curb. All free. Unless you live in (or are camping in) a dessert, or are physically unable to cut your own, there is no reason to ever pay for campfire wood. Usually the farther away from home we have to drive to our campsite the less likely we will be to bring our own wood. At almost every place I have camped (the exception being in Colorado during a red flag warning) we have been allowed to pick up dead wood to burn. Many times previous campers have left behind small amounts of firewood they did not want to cart home. When we have not brought our own wood I drive around the campground and pick up all of that left behind wood. When we are done camping we make it a point to leave some wood behind to help out the following campers.
A large bow saw with a sharp blade can make cutting your scavenged firewood to size an easy chore. A sharp hatchet can come in handy for everything from splitting small logs to driving tent stakes. All of my hatchets and bow saws have come from garage sales.
The above advice and tips apply to basic family car camping, using tents. I think this kind of camping serves as a wonderful teacher of basic outdoor skills, and can lead to greater adventures. My son, an Eagle Scout, might agree with that statement. He’s spending this summer as a high adventure canoe guide.
Further Reading:
Check out this link for a great camping checklist.
This weekend is the Great American Backyard Campout.
Like to hike? Check out the AHS.
If you find yourself in my neck of the woods a visit to the Mississippi River is a must, including a drive along the Great River Road.
Find a national park to explore here.
Roadside America offers some interesting stops along the way to the campground.
Monday
Focus On: Mother Earth News
This is third in a series of brief reviews of personal finance and frugal websites and blogs.
Mother Earth News might seem an odd inclusion to this series if you are not familiar with it. I remember seeing the magazine here and there as a kid and thinking it was for half-baked hippies. Discovering the online version as an adult made me realize how wrong that assumption was.
Since 1970 this magazine has focused on protecting the environment and promoting self-reliant living. They offer a free email newsletter and a huge archive of articles on their website about organic gardening, DIY and in season recipes, among many other topics. When you visit be prepared to stick around for awhile, there is a lot of good stuff to explore there.
Send me an email (BuckWeber at gmail.com) if you have a frugal or PF site you would like to see included in this series. If it belongs to you include a few lines about it and yourself.
Mother Earth News might seem an odd inclusion to this series if you are not familiar with it. I remember seeing the magazine here and there as a kid and thinking it was for half-baked hippies. Discovering the online version as an adult made me realize how wrong that assumption was.
Since 1970 this magazine has focused on protecting the environment and promoting self-reliant living. They offer a free email newsletter and a huge archive of articles on their website about organic gardening, DIY and in season recipes, among many other topics. When you visit be prepared to stick around for awhile, there is a lot of good stuff to explore there.
Send me an email (BuckWeber at gmail.com) if you have a frugal or PF site you would like to see included in this series. If it belongs to you include a few lines about it and yourself.
Saturday
Weekly Roundup
The Buck List participated in the Carnival of Pecuniary Delights No. 12: Catch a Wave Edition. Check it out for a quality assortment of personal finance articles. Thanks to the host for including my post.
Restaurant offers deeply discounted gift certificates. Use their search engine to find restaurants near you.
Better World Books sells discounted new and used books to fund literacy initiatives worldwide, with free shipping in the U.S.
The Universal Packing List offers customizable packing lists based on factors such as what the weather will be like, how you will get there and what you will be doing.
National Shared Housing Resource Center is an information clearinghouse to help you find shared housing opportunities in your area.
Recession Wire offers personal stories and advice concerning the recession, usually with a much needed touch of humor.
Restaurant offers deeply discounted gift certificates. Use their search engine to find restaurants near you.
Better World Books sells discounted new and used books to fund literacy initiatives worldwide, with free shipping in the U.S.
The Universal Packing List offers customizable packing lists based on factors such as what the weather will be like, how you will get there and what you will be doing.
National Shared Housing Resource Center is an information clearinghouse to help you find shared housing opportunities in your area.
Recession Wire offers personal stories and advice concerning the recession, usually with a much needed touch of humor.
Friday
How To Save Money By Salvaging
I used to work with a Vietnamese immigrant who would not let anything be thrown away without first inspecting it for a hint of being salvageable. There would always be the comments about how wasteful Americans are and how back in his country people found new uses for things that could not be repaired. Some of the guys kidded him about this habit (there were several items we could not even imagine what he would end up using them for) but for the most part I agreed with him.
The current “green” mindset coupled with the state of the economy has produced a renewed interest by many people to reuse and recycle. The following are some ideas to get you started saving money by salvaging.
Take a good look around at what you already own for what you might need. A recent personal example is using scrap lumber cluttering up my garage to build a bookcase for my son, a workbench for myself and flowerboxes for my wife. All it cost was my time.
Check out your local Freecycle group and the free section of Craigslist for your area.
My local landfill has a small shop that offers reusable items that have been dropped off such as paint, varnishes and cleaners. Check with the landfill in your area for a similar recycle shop.
In my area there are a couple of shops that get their inventory by gutting homes and businesses that are being remodeled or demolished, then resell the items at a fraction of what they would cost new. Search online or check your yellow pages under recycle or salvage.
Another possibility is directly contacting the home or business owner of the building to be demolished and asking if you could do some salvaging. Offering a few bucks for what you find might make it worth their while.
Check dumpsters. You just never know what you might find. I have found everything from usable patio furniture to library books to original oil paintings!
Go curbing. Watch your community calendar for neighborhood and town wide clean up days, usually held in the spring, when people are asked to put their unwanted items out on the curb to be picked up by the city. Get out there and take what you need.
Ask a construction crew chief if you can have any of the discarded debris lying around the site. Safety issues might prevent him from saying yes, but it’s worth a try.
There are a number of online resources to investigate. Check with ReDO to find a reuse center near you and Habitat for Humanity for a ReStore. Search for the items you need and list the ones you don’t on ReUseIt Network. Finally, find recycling centers in your area using the search feature on Earth911.
Related Articles:
Use What You Have and Cut the Clutter
Do It Yourself Clubs
Are Thrift Shops Running Dry?
10 Free Barter & Swap Sites
The current “green” mindset coupled with the state of the economy has produced a renewed interest by many people to reuse and recycle. The following are some ideas to get you started saving money by salvaging.
Take a good look around at what you already own for what you might need. A recent personal example is using scrap lumber cluttering up my garage to build a bookcase for my son, a workbench for myself and flowerboxes for my wife. All it cost was my time.
Check out your local Freecycle group and the free section of Craigslist for your area.
My local landfill has a small shop that offers reusable items that have been dropped off such as paint, varnishes and cleaners. Check with the landfill in your area for a similar recycle shop.
In my area there are a couple of shops that get their inventory by gutting homes and businesses that are being remodeled or demolished, then resell the items at a fraction of what they would cost new. Search online or check your yellow pages under recycle or salvage.
Another possibility is directly contacting the home or business owner of the building to be demolished and asking if you could do some salvaging. Offering a few bucks for what you find might make it worth their while.
Check dumpsters. You just never know what you might find. I have found everything from usable patio furniture to library books to original oil paintings!
Go curbing. Watch your community calendar for neighborhood and town wide clean up days, usually held in the spring, when people are asked to put their unwanted items out on the curb to be picked up by the city. Get out there and take what you need.
Ask a construction crew chief if you can have any of the discarded debris lying around the site. Safety issues might prevent him from saying yes, but it’s worth a try.
There are a number of online resources to investigate. Check with ReDO to find a reuse center near you and Habitat for Humanity for a ReStore. Search for the items you need and list the ones you don’t on ReUseIt Network. Finally, find recycling centers in your area using the search feature on Earth911.
Related Articles:
Use What You Have and Cut the Clutter
Do It Yourself Clubs
Are Thrift Shops Running Dry?
10 Free Barter & Swap Sites
Wednesday
Five Alternative Sites To Sell Stuff Online
I have written enough of these “sell your stuff online” posts to be running out of titles for them. You can find all the others listed at the bottom of this post. Any sites I come across in the future will be incorporated into the Weekly Roundup that is posted every Saturday.
Money Auctionz – Register with them and sell your currency and coins. There is no fee to join or to use their basic listing option.
JimBob’sList – This new site is sort of a rural version of craigslist. A check of my county in Iowa found a handful of listings. I am definitely going to try to sell on this one as a supplement to my listings on other sites.
eRock – Got some rock-n-roll memorabilia just sitting around collecting dust? Throw it up on eRock. Register with the site then choose from categories ranging from posters to 8 Tracks to guitar picks.
Mommy Auctions - Every parent knows how quickly you go through clothes as your children grow. If you find yourself the owner of outsized kids clothes in nice condition see if you can sell or swap them on this site.
Real People Real Stuff – Shoot a quick 30 to 60 second video of you hawking your stuff and post it on this site. They encourage you to be funny and compelling.
Related Articles:
How I Sell on Craigslist
Selling Through a Consignment Shop
Sell Your Books
Sell, Trade or Cash In Your Gift Cards
Sell Your CD’s & DVD’s
Sell Your Crafts
Sell Your Old Electronics
Sell Your Stuff Online – Some Other Options
Sell Your Cameras & Gear
Money Auctionz – Register with them and sell your currency and coins. There is no fee to join or to use their basic listing option.
JimBob’sList – This new site is sort of a rural version of craigslist. A check of my county in Iowa found a handful of listings. I am definitely going to try to sell on this one as a supplement to my listings on other sites.
eRock – Got some rock-n-roll memorabilia just sitting around collecting dust? Throw it up on eRock. Register with the site then choose from categories ranging from posters to 8 Tracks to guitar picks.
Mommy Auctions - Every parent knows how quickly you go through clothes as your children grow. If you find yourself the owner of outsized kids clothes in nice condition see if you can sell or swap them on this site.
Real People Real Stuff – Shoot a quick 30 to 60 second video of you hawking your stuff and post it on this site. They encourage you to be funny and compelling.
Related Articles:
How I Sell on Craigslist
Selling Through a Consignment Shop
Sell Your Books
Sell, Trade or Cash In Your Gift Cards
Sell Your CD’s & DVD’s
Sell Your Crafts
Sell Your Old Electronics
Sell Your Stuff Online – Some Other Options
Sell Your Cameras & Gear
Monday
Focus On: Wise Bread
This is the second in a series of brief reviews of personal finance and frugal websites and blogs.
Wise Bread is a group of bloggers whose mission is “to help you live large on a small budget.” I subscribed to their email newsletter quite a while ago and I think the wide variety of article topics has kept me as a reader. A few months ago I went through a subscription purge, cancelling most of the newsletters I subscribed to because I was spending way too much time trying to keep up with them all. Wise Bread is one of the few that survived the cut.
In addition to the newsletter they offer a very lively Forum section as well as extensive archives. If you have never visited them go look around, I think you will like what you see.
Send me an email (BuckWeber at gmail.com) if you have a frugal or PF site you would like to see included in this series. If it belongs to you include a few lines about it and yourself.
Wise Bread is a group of bloggers whose mission is “to help you live large on a small budget.” I subscribed to their email newsletter quite a while ago and I think the wide variety of article topics has kept me as a reader. A few months ago I went through a subscription purge, cancelling most of the newsletters I subscribed to because I was spending way too much time trying to keep up with them all. Wise Bread is one of the few that survived the cut.
In addition to the newsletter they offer a very lively Forum section as well as extensive archives. If you have never visited them go look around, I think you will like what you see.
Send me an email (BuckWeber at gmail.com) if you have a frugal or PF site you would like to see included in this series. If it belongs to you include a few lines about it and yourself.
Saturday
Weekly Roundup
The Buck List participated in one carnival last week, the Festival of Frugality: “The Baseball Edition” Check them out for a full roster of personal finance articles. Thanks to the host for including my post.
Looking to sell some vintage or newer video games? Consider listing them on Chase The Chuckwagon.
My nephew Toby sent me a link to PCH Search & Win. I have not used it yet but it might be worth a try.
Serve Me Here is “the first professional services referral community with online appointment feature.” Not sure what that means? Visit the site to find out!
If you are planning on buying carpet anytime soon make sure to bookmark How To Buy Carpet for money saving ideas, carpet scams and other consumer information.
Trippish is a combo direction and weather site. Type in your departure and arrival locations and the date and Trippish will give you the route itinerary along with weather forecasts.
Looking to sell some vintage or newer video games? Consider listing them on Chase The Chuckwagon.
My nephew Toby sent me a link to PCH Search & Win. I have not used it yet but it might be worth a try.
Serve Me Here is “the first professional services referral community with online appointment feature.” Not sure what that means? Visit the site to find out!
If you are planning on buying carpet anytime soon make sure to bookmark How To Buy Carpet for money saving ideas, carpet scams and other consumer information.
Trippish is a combo direction and weather site. Type in your departure and arrival locations and the date and Trippish will give you the route itinerary along with weather forecasts.
Friday
Six Online Options to Sell Your Cameras and Gear
In the ever changing world of photography (or more specifically, equipment) what was top of the line a few months ago can quickly become outdated, or so we are led to believe by the manufacturers. I still own and use film cameras, and while I own a D-SLR I still use my little 5.0 Easy Share for all of my Craigslist photos. If you find yourself needing to unload some cameras or equipment check out the following sites.
Adorama - Send them your equipment to evaluate and they will give you a quote. If you take the offer they will send you a check, or you can use it as credit against any purchase. If they want your equipment they will pay for pick up, and if you don’t make a deal they will pay to return it to you.
Samy’s Camera - Use their online form to inquire about a quote.
Used Camera Buyer – Register for free and get a quote for your used equipment. If you accept they pay for shipping and then mail you a payment.
KEH – Register with them to use their online quote system, or fill out their email quote form to get a free quote.
Cameras 2 Cash - Fill out an on-line form describing what you have and what condition it is in. They will give a general quote and if you are interested send them your equipment for an appraisal. If you accept their offer they send you a check and if you don't they return your equipment at their expense. They say their offers are usually for 65-70% of the anticipated retail sales price.
B & H – Create a free account and get a quote.
Related Articles:
Sell Your Books
Sell, Trade or Cash In Your Gift Cards
Sell Your CD’s & DVD’s
Sell Your Crafts
Sell Your Old Electronics
Adorama - Send them your equipment to evaluate and they will give you a quote. If you take the offer they will send you a check, or you can use it as credit against any purchase. If they want your equipment they will pay for pick up, and if you don’t make a deal they will pay to return it to you.
Samy’s Camera - Use their online form to inquire about a quote.
Used Camera Buyer – Register for free and get a quote for your used equipment. If you accept they pay for shipping and then mail you a payment.
KEH – Register with them to use their online quote system, or fill out their email quote form to get a free quote.
Cameras 2 Cash - Fill out an on-line form describing what you have and what condition it is in. They will give a general quote and if you are interested send them your equipment for an appraisal. If you accept their offer they send you a check and if you don't they return your equipment at their expense. They say their offers are usually for 65-70% of the anticipated retail sales price.
B & H – Create a free account and get a quote.
Related Articles:
Sell Your Books
Sell, Trade or Cash In Your Gift Cards
Sell Your CD’s & DVD’s
Sell Your Crafts
Sell Your Old Electronics
Wednesday
10 Books To Have Around When The Internet Goes Down
We have all experienced internet outages from time to time. Depending on your type of usage (from casual e-mail checker to making your livelihood online) it can cause anything from a shrug of the shoulders to a nail biting financial setback. Depending on the cause and length of the disruption, and your level of need for hands on information, the following are ten hardcopy books you might want to have around.
The Bible Or Other Book Of Faith Or Inspiration - Length of outage might be exponential to the increase of usage.
A Homesteading Book - Try something by John Seymour, Helen & Scott Nearing or Gene Logsdon for starters. Thunderstorm outage could make for a brief, but informative, read. An EMP Attack, however, could make this choice one of your better ones.
One Volume Desktop Encyclopedia – You will need something to replace Wikipedia.
All In One Student Dictionary – The kind that includes a thesaurus, etc. Remember, no more spell check.
General History Book – With Google gone you could add this one to the encyclopedia to not only help with pesky trivia questions but also, if you are experiencing a Nuclear Winter, to serve as a primer on how you got into this situation.
Any Book by A Favorite Writer – Loren Eiseley would be my choice. Some of his best work combines a sense of wonder with ponderings on mortality. Handy!
A Classic Novel – War & Peace or Moby Dick might be good choices. Hey, if that internet is going to be out for a long time you will want a long book.
Recipe Book – Find one that offers standard stovetop and oven meals and includes a lengthy section on outdoor cooking.
Road Atlas – With Mapquest out of service how else will you find the way to Aunt Mary’s house, or plan your escape route to the mountains?
Phone Book – With the web down you might need it to call your service provider. In case of more catastrophic reasons for an outage just a few pages torn out of the phonebook at a time can serve as an excellent fire starter.
The Bible Or Other Book Of Faith Or Inspiration - Length of outage might be exponential to the increase of usage.
A Homesteading Book - Try something by John Seymour, Helen & Scott Nearing or Gene Logsdon for starters. Thunderstorm outage could make for a brief, but informative, read. An EMP Attack, however, could make this choice one of your better ones.
One Volume Desktop Encyclopedia – You will need something to replace Wikipedia.
All In One Student Dictionary – The kind that includes a thesaurus, etc. Remember, no more spell check.
General History Book – With Google gone you could add this one to the encyclopedia to not only help with pesky trivia questions but also, if you are experiencing a Nuclear Winter, to serve as a primer on how you got into this situation.
Any Book by A Favorite Writer – Loren Eiseley would be my choice. Some of his best work combines a sense of wonder with ponderings on mortality. Handy!
A Classic Novel – War & Peace or Moby Dick might be good choices. Hey, if that internet is going to be out for a long time you will want a long book.
Recipe Book – Find one that offers standard stovetop and oven meals and includes a lengthy section on outdoor cooking.
Road Atlas – With Mapquest out of service how else will you find the way to Aunt Mary’s house, or plan your escape route to the mountains?
Phone Book – With the web down you might need it to call your service provider. In case of more catastrophic reasons for an outage just a few pages torn out of the phonebook at a time can serve as an excellent fire starter.
Monday
Focus On: The Dollar Stretcher
This is the first in a series of brief reviews of personal finance and frugal websites and blogs.
The Dollar Stretcher is the first frugal website I remember visiting when I began my Internet experience in 1996. The site says they have been “Saving you time and money since 1996” so I might have been one of their early readers.
They offer a free weekly newsletter that features money saving tips, ideas and stories. The website is a mother load of very well organized and easy to follow articles about every kind of frugal topic imaginable. The archives on this site are almost inexhaustible. Bookmark it, subscribe, and learn how to stretch those dollars.
Send me an email (BuckWeber at gmail.com) if you have a frugal or PF site you would like to see included in this series. If it belongs to you include a few lines about it and yourself.
The Dollar Stretcher is the first frugal website I remember visiting when I began my Internet experience in 1996. The site says they have been “Saving you time and money since 1996” so I might have been one of their early readers.
They offer a free weekly newsletter that features money saving tips, ideas and stories. The website is a mother load of very well organized and easy to follow articles about every kind of frugal topic imaginable. The archives on this site are almost inexhaustible. Bookmark it, subscribe, and learn how to stretch those dollars.
Send me an email (BuckWeber at gmail.com) if you have a frugal or PF site you would like to see included in this series. If it belongs to you include a few lines about it and yourself.
Saturday
Weekly Roundup
The Buck List participated in several carnivals recently, and all of them feature many worthy personal finance articles. Spend some time checking them out, and thanks to the hosts for including my posts.
Carnival of Personal Finance: Vacation-time edition
The 28th Carnival Of Internships, Careers & Employment
June 2009 Outdoorsy Carnival
17th Edition of the Carnival of Everything Money
Looking for free places to stay while you travel around the world? Check out the non-profit Couch Surfing.
Festivals can help you find a festival by searching for locations, performers, music and even vendors.
Visit Wonder How To for their huge collection of free how to videos.
Carnival of Personal Finance: Vacation-time edition
The 28th Carnival Of Internships, Careers & Employment
June 2009 Outdoorsy Carnival
17th Edition of the Carnival of Everything Money
Looking for free places to stay while you travel around the world? Check out the non-profit Couch Surfing.
Festivals can help you find a festival by searching for locations, performers, music and even vendors.
Visit Wonder How To for their huge collection of free how to videos.
Friday
Cheap Summer Fun Ideas
Can you smell it? Fresh cut grass, a coming rainstorm, flowers. Ahh, summer. While I have seen plenty of these lists over the years, here is my version of “things to do during the summer.” I have done all of them, and I recommend every single one.
Take a nature walk in the woods.
Go for a treasure hunt at the beach.
Visit your local Science Center.
Buy and use a family pool pass.
Tour local gardens and arboretums.
Attend park concerts and plays.
Go to local neighborhood festivals.
Visit city, small town and regional museums.
Play Frisbee or disc golf.
Buy and use a zoo pass.
Go camping.
Tour historic homes and districts.
Visit your local Art Center or gallery.
Attend county fairs in your state.
Go fishing.
Relax with a good book.
Related Posts:
20 Ideas To Keep The Kids Busy This Summer
6 Great Gardening Sites
Does Fishing Save You Money?
Take a nature walk in the woods.
Go for a treasure hunt at the beach.
Visit your local Science Center.
Buy and use a family pool pass.
Tour local gardens and arboretums.
Attend park concerts and plays.
Go to local neighborhood festivals.
Visit city, small town and regional museums.
Play Frisbee or disc golf.
Buy and use a zoo pass.
Go camping.
Tour historic homes and districts.
Visit your local Art Center or gallery.
Attend county fairs in your state.
Go fishing.
Relax with a good book.
Related Posts:
20 Ideas To Keep The Kids Busy This Summer
6 Great Gardening Sites
Does Fishing Save You Money?
Wednesday
The 10 Best Freebie Sites
When I was a kid I came across an ad in a comic book asking to write to them for all kinds of ways to get free stuff. Thinking it over carefully, I decided the five dollar cost to get this golden information would be nothing compared to all the great free stuff I would be getting. I mailed them my money and then anxiously waited for all my wonderful free things to begin arriving.
During the wait my young mind began to fantasize about riding my free new bike, eating all the free candy I could stand and going to all the movies I wanted to see with my free movie passes. Week after week went by with no delivery trucks backing up to my house or even a package in the mailbox, but I knew the day would come because the five dollars guaranteed it.
Finally a hand addressed envelope to me from the company arrived. I ripped it open immediately, and what I found inside was a one sided, poorly photocopied letter. It began something like this: “Thank you for ordering our pamphlet on great ideas to get free stuff. First, try calling radio stations when they offer prizes. Next, enter as many sweepstakes as possible. Another idea is to…” and the list continued. As I read the list my initial cloud of confusion was slowly replaced by the stinging realization that I’d been had. The too good to be true offer turned out to be just that.
Today I imagine there are still versions of that scam floating around, among many others, both online and off. However, there are some legitimate websites that offer freebies, and tips and advice to find even more free stuff. The following are the best sites I have found over the last few years, and none of them will ask you for five dollars.
Thunder Fap – Visit for links to 100% free samples. They state they “only link to reputable companies with legitimate freebie offers.” Sounds good!
The Free Site – If it’s free, it’s on this site. Subscribe to their newsletter to help keep up with it all.
Volition – They claim to be the oldest freebie site on the internet, which I have no trouble believing because of the sheer size of this site. It’s going to take you some time to explore this one.
Weekly Freebie – Select freebie offers are emailed to you weekly.
Free Shipping – This freebie specialty site deals with free store shipping coupons.
Free Birthday Treats – Use their site to search your area for free birthday treats for adults, kids and pets.
Free Mania – Here dwells the Freebie Gator that searches 14 freebie sites every hour for free offers.
My Kids Eat Free – This site offers a searchable database of restaurants that offer inexpensive or free children menus, a great resource for parents and grandparents.
Freaky Freddie’s – 72 categories are offered here. I didn’t count them all, but there are a lot!
Cities On The Cheap – This site is building a network of blogs to provide “insider information” on freebies and deals in your city. If your city is not listed yet, bookmark and check again later.
Related Posts:
10 Great Resources for Free Books
Eight Useful and Free Phone Apps
Give Away of the Day
During the wait my young mind began to fantasize about riding my free new bike, eating all the free candy I could stand and going to all the movies I wanted to see with my free movie passes. Week after week went by with no delivery trucks backing up to my house or even a package in the mailbox, but I knew the day would come because the five dollars guaranteed it.
Finally a hand addressed envelope to me from the company arrived. I ripped it open immediately, and what I found inside was a one sided, poorly photocopied letter. It began something like this: “Thank you for ordering our pamphlet on great ideas to get free stuff. First, try calling radio stations when they offer prizes. Next, enter as many sweepstakes as possible. Another idea is to…” and the list continued. As I read the list my initial cloud of confusion was slowly replaced by the stinging realization that I’d been had. The too good to be true offer turned out to be just that.
Today I imagine there are still versions of that scam floating around, among many others, both online and off. However, there are some legitimate websites that offer freebies, and tips and advice to find even more free stuff. The following are the best sites I have found over the last few years, and none of them will ask you for five dollars.
Thunder Fap – Visit for links to 100% free samples. They state they “only link to reputable companies with legitimate freebie offers.” Sounds good!
The Free Site – If it’s free, it’s on this site. Subscribe to their newsletter to help keep up with it all.
Volition – They claim to be the oldest freebie site on the internet, which I have no trouble believing because of the sheer size of this site. It’s going to take you some time to explore this one.
Weekly Freebie – Select freebie offers are emailed to you weekly.
Free Shipping – This freebie specialty site deals with free store shipping coupons.
Free Birthday Treats – Use their site to search your area for free birthday treats for adults, kids and pets.
Free Mania – Here dwells the Freebie Gator that searches 14 freebie sites every hour for free offers.
My Kids Eat Free – This site offers a searchable database of restaurants that offer inexpensive or free children menus, a great resource for parents and grandparents.
Freaky Freddie’s – 72 categories are offered here. I didn’t count them all, but there are a lot!
Cities On The Cheap – This site is building a network of blogs to provide “insider information” on freebies and deals in your city. If your city is not listed yet, bookmark and check again later.
Related Posts:
10 Great Resources for Free Books
Eight Useful and Free Phone Apps
Give Away of the Day
Monday
What Is Your Favorite Personal Finance Site?
While I have been having fun with quotes over the last few weeks I thought a switch to short reviews of personal finance and frugal websites and blogs every Monday would be fun for a while; or as long as I feel like it, which is one of the beauties of writing your own blog!
Send me an email (BuckWeber at gmail.com) if you have a frugal or PF site you would like to see included. If it belongs to you include a few lines about it and yourself. Starting next Monday this will be a regular feature.
Send me an email (BuckWeber at gmail.com) if you have a frugal or PF site you would like to see included. If it belongs to you include a few lines about it and yourself. Starting next Monday this will be a regular feature.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
