$60 Gift Certificate Giveaway

Once again The Buck List is offering a $60 gift certificate from CSN Stores for their luggage stores or any of their other online stores. Just leave a comment below along with a way for me to contact you and I will choose at random one lucky reader to win. The winner will be notified when the giveaway ends on February 4th. If you win be aware there could be shipping charges and if you will be ordering from a Canadian address international fees could apply for certain products. Make sure to check that out when you are choosing your product.

Good Luck!

Weekly Roundup

New American Dream is an organization devoted to working with “individuals, institutions, communities, and businesses to conserve natural resources, counter the commercialization of our culture, and promote positive changes in the way goods are produced and consumed.” For starters visit the site and click on the “Home” tab.

Hotels Combined is a hotel search engine that searches all the major travel websites for prices and availability then displays the best rates.

Together Rx Access is a free prescription drug savings program that you can apply for if you are not eligible for Medicare and you don’t have any kind of prescription drug coverage. They say most cardholders save 25%–40% on over 300 brand-name prescription products, as well as generic drugs.

Check out Riddler for free online games including puzzles, trivia, arcade, sports, word games and more.

And now for something completely different.

You can use Phone Spell to find out what the digits of a phone number spells, or to find a new phone number by typing in words or phrases to see what is available.

The next time you have an annoying song stuck in your head click on over to unhearit. They say they use “the latest in reverse-auditory-melodic-unstickification technology” which allows users to “unhear” songs by hearing equally catchy songs. “So really all we're doing is making you forget your old song by replacing it with another one... sorry.”

Weekly Reminder – A reminder of a useful article you might have missed.
In this short post I describe how terrible customer service led me to terrific bargains.

Have a great weekend!

My Worst Money Making Ideas

Since losing my job in 2007 I have been trying different ways to make money, both online and off. I decided to put together a little list of some ideas that did not do well. While I would like to be able to blame someone other than myself for these failures I have to shoulder it because I know there are people making money with (most) of these methods. So here they are, my worst money making ideas. I would love to hear if you have tried any of them and what the results were.

Zazzle – This is a site where you can customize all kinds of products and then offer them for sale from your “shop.” While the site is easy to use and setting up a shop takes just a few minutes it is, as usual, promoting your stuff that takes most of the work. I have linked to my shop at various times on this blog, but that’s about it. I have been rewarded with one t-shirt sale.

Survey, Sweepstakes and Reward Sites – I decided awhile ago to just let all of these go. I found that the survey and reward sites took too much time relative to the (possible) rewards and the sweepstakes were basically long shot time wasters.

Café Press – Same story as Zazzle, but I did sell one bumper sticker.

Blogging – Surprised? Don’t be. Very few people make good money doing it. For every successful money making blog out there I imagine there are thousands that flounder around before dying a very lonely, disappointing death. I didn’t expect this blog to make much so I’m not disappointed. I am always considering other ways to make money online, but for now The Buck List remains a labor of love and not much profit.

Etsy – I was really hopeful starting off with this one. My sister-in-law had been selling some hand crocheted beverage coolers, or cozies, at local fundraisers with pretty good success. I thought it would be a good fit for Etsy, so we worked out a percentage deal and she gave me 25 to try to sell. I took photos, wrote up descriptions, opened a shop and sold not a one.

Additional Reading:

Can You Make Good Money Working as a Temp?

A Changing Relationship With Money

Decorating Your Home Like an Artist

The following is a guest post by Olivia Fox. Growing up in an artist’s family, she delights in finding creative ways to make money stretch. Her musings can be found at The Frugal Bohemian.

Early memories involve Dad taking me with him to other artist’s places. Until I visited a classmate’s house in ninth grade and was confronted with matching furniture for the first time (yikes!), it never occurred to me their spaces were unconventionally decorated.

Like colored glass pieces epoxied onto studio windows to lend color to a drab space, or a coffee table made from a salvaged printer’s tray and filled with small natural objects. Or blue and black bird feathers elegantly arranged in a small Victorian vase. A sofa made from wooden crates and covered with feather pillows. Water rocks in a shallow dish on a dining table. This was normal.

As years passed I fell in with another set of artists and saw many more inexpensive design solutions. Smooth pebbles embedded in quick set concrete for a bathroom floor. Broken dishes used like tile to cover small furniture. Old kitchen linoleum cut into squares and glued to a bathroom floor then polyurethaned. A large flush door painted vermillion and attached to a small table base to become a dining table. Flat sheets hemmed at the short end, covered with magic marker squiggles and hung as curtains. Old seed catalogue illustrations identically framed and grouped in rows on a wall.

My folk’s house contained it’s share of curb gleaned furniture, as does ours. Other people did their whole place that way. One fellow looked for similarly scaled classic shapes, sanded them down, and painted all to coordinate.

Fabric can be repurposed into floor pillows, table covers, quilts. Faux painting and stenciling are just some of the options for paint.

The common thread is all these use cheap or free materials to beautify and personalize living spaces. So think, “What do I have on hand to become what I need?”, and you’re well on your way to decorating like an artist.

Additional Reading:

Use What You Have and Cut the Clutter

How to Save Money by Salvaging

Weekly Roundup

Wimp “is a mainstream, user generated, family friendly video website. We are dissimilar to most video websites on the Internet as we avoid featuring uploaded videos that are either unsuitable for all ages, or are generally sensationalistic in nature.”

Citrify is a free online photo editor that offers easy to use options such as photo adjustments and effects and facial touchups. There are even some fun features such as the “Obamify” and “Hulkify” effects.

Momondo can help find and compare fares from 700+ travel sites. They say “we are not a travel agency, and we don't sell flight tickets. We simply search flights across sites to make it easy for you to save time and money.” If you haven’t tried it yet it’s worth a peek.

This article outlines the six principals that a 107 year old man follows who has been retired for 41 years and is still living comfortably. Quite an inspiration!

The Partnership for Prescription Assistance “helps qualifying patients without prescription drug coverage get the medicines they need for free or nearly free. We offer a single point of access to more than 475 public and private programs, including nearly 200 offered by pharmaceutical companies.”

And now for something completely different.

Have you ever dreamt of creating a cubist masterpiece? Me either, but visit picassohead anyway and see what you can come up with.

Kottke.org serves as an ongoing list of what this blogger finds interesting, which includes everything from unusual science to pop culture. Make sure to poke around in the archives as he has been at it since 1998.

Weekly Reminder – A reminder of a useful article you might have missed.
This article gives some tips on how to pick up cans for fun and profit.

Make it a great weekend!

Frugal Lessons From The Past: Old Mike

History can provide some of the best lessons to help us figure out solutions to today’s problems.

Concerning finances, thrift, frugality and simple living there are tried and true bedrock principals that we should never forget.

This post is part of a series that focuses on some of those principals by going to source materials for inspiration.

In her book “Little Heathens – Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression” author Mildred Armstrong Kalish devotes a chapter to describing many of the ways she and her family practiced thrift. After describing such things as homemade cleaners and health remedies and the many life cycles of socks she ends the chapter with a recycling technique probably not used by many anymore.

“The clincher for thrift is what became of the horse, Old Mike, after his death. It happened around 1912, long before my time. Apparently he had been retired and was allowed to graze in the orchard and on the grasses of the woods, generally living a well earned life of leisure. He’d become a family pet; his only real job was to take my mother in a surrey to the rural school where she was teaching.

Then, at the age of twenty-nine, in the middle of an exceptionally cold winter, which caused him to grow a luxurious coat to protect against the brutal weather, Old Mike died. Grandpa skinned him and sent his hide to a tanner in Muscatine, Iowa, who made it into a truly handsome robe backed by black wool and trimmed with green felt. Grandpa told me he had paid fifteen dollars to have this done. That robe was used in the car in the winters by Grandpa and Grandma until after their deaths, by Mama wherever she needed it, and then by me to place on the floor in front of the living room fireplace after I grew up, married , and had children. Sometime around 1980 it started to shed a lot of those lovely dark brown hairs, and I finally had to abandon Old Mike.”

Related Reading:

Frugal Lessons From The Past: College During the Depression

Is There Such a Thing as Good Debt?

I was thinking the other day about debt, and I got to wondering if there is such a thing as “bad debt” could there also exist “good debt” and if so, what would be the definition of it. To come to that definition we first have to examine what makes up bad debt.

Bad Debt

If you have to take out a high interest loan from a bank, a payday loan, or charge your credit card for something that will depreciate in value to zero, that’s bed debt. Think new cars, clothes, charging for a vacation, appliances, furniture, etc. It is almost always best to save up and pay in cash for these types of things, or you will find yourself paying way more for something than what it is worth while it is constantly loosing value.

Good Debt

So using the above definition of bad debt, a low or no interest loan for something that appreciates in value, would constitute good debt. Some examples that sometimes, but not always, fall into that category would include starting your own business, paying for higher education, buying real estate, or investing in assets such as old coins or fine art.

Combination

I have to admit that in the past my wife and I have sort of combined the two by using good debt to buy items usually purchased with bad debt, such as those emergencies when an appliance goes out and we have had to buy a replacement using the store no interest financing. Maybe not exactly good debt, but it has helped in a pinch, and if paid back in full before the loan term the financing doesn’t cost you a thing.

What are your thoughts about good and bad debt?

Related Reading:

Why Government Debt Matters to You

What We Buy Used Vs New

Weekly Roundup

I was recently contacted by Rachel with the site Thrift Culture Now who asked if I would answer a few questions about myself and The Buck List. I agreed, and she put together a very nice article you can read here. While there make sure to take some time to look around, as they offer a lot of great frugal tips and advice.

Books Should Be Free offers downloadable free audio books in mp3, iPod, or iTunes format.

The stated mission of alternativeTo is to help you “find the right software for your computer or mobile phone…based on our users recommendations we list great alternatives to the applications you want to replace.”

Kiplinger again offers their annual list of the best values in public colleges.

Whether you have been practicing yoga for years or have just thought about trying it Yoga Journal is a great resource. They offer everything from a beginners Q&A to Master Class articles, how-to videos, health and lifestyle tips as well as several free e-newsletters you can subscribe to.

The Buck List participated in a couple of carnivals recently. Check out Best of Credit Cards and Saving Money and The Wealth Builder Carnival for some good articles on frugal living, investing, money making ideas and other personal finance issues. Thanks to the hosts for including my posts.

And now for something completely different.

WolframAlpha labels itself as a “computational knowledge engine.” Just type in your question and see what pops up. After trying some serious questions and getting serious replies I tried a few raunchy questions and got hilariously serious answers to those, too.

You can get even funnier, and much stranger, results by searching for something on Google via their AutoComplete suggestions. For a look into the funny, and sometimes twisted, things people are searching for type in the beginning of a question or make a statement, such as “why does my” or “how come I” and see what pops up.

Weekly Reminder – A reminder of a useful article you might have missed.
This article explores some ways to find free or cheap health care.

Have a good weekend!

Celebrate National Soup Month!

To celebrate National Soup Month I gathered together my soup recipes, as well as a few other resources, and put them all in this post. I have to admit having them all in one place might be as much for my benefit as yours…enjoy!

Chicken Tortellini Soup - This is one of our favorites. With just a few ingredients and spices this makes for a delicious, hot soup to take the edge off of a cold day.

Broccoli Cauliflower Soup - This soup is delicious anytime of the year, and comes together well in a slow cooker.

Baked Potato Soup - Of all of the soup recipes we like this one has the most variables, and comes out different every time.

Pat’s Corn Chowder - Here is another frugal family favorite, usually served with a variety of breads and crackers.

Friendship Soup Mix – This makes for a great homemade gift soup mix, or make some up for your own use.

Poppy’s Chili – This one does not have many measurements, only a list of variable ingredients you can use. Whether you like it hot or not, in my opinion it’s all good.

Make sure to visit Soupsong for hot and cold soup recipes, vegetable and fruit soups, and all kinds of soup history and tidbits such as soup in the movies, soup customs, jokes and even soups people had on their deathbeds.

Soup Recipe offers both written and video versions of a nice variety of soups.

No exploration of the world of soup would be complete without a visit to the Campbell’s Soup website which, surprise, offers even more recipes.

Related Reading:

Homemade Noodles

Homemade Bread

Don’t Eat Out, Find a New Recipe

One Way to Get the Most Out of Your Chicken

Repaying Christmas Bills

The following is a guest post by Gary Foreman, the editor of The Dollar Stretcher.

Starting off the New Year with leftover Christmas bills? Wonder how you'll pay them in this tight economy? Well, you're not alone. Most years the average consumer hasn't finished paying his holiday credit card bills until May.

But, it doesn't have to be that way. Let's see what we can do to get out from under those holiday bills. Let's take a two step approach. First, we'll look at some techniques that could take a big bite out of the debt. Then we'll follow up with some slow but steady solutions.

The first method is for people who have equity in their home and have not already refinanced. If your mortgage rate is at 6.5% or higher a refinance could reduce your monthly payments. We're not suggesting taking equity out of your home. Just use the monthly saving to pay down the credit card bills.

Another one shot solution is to reduce the cost of home or auto insurance coverage. You could save hundreds. Begin by calling your current agent and ask if he has any suggestions on changes in coverage. Then get comparable quotes from two other companies. A few phone calls could turn up serious savings! You can find information on auto insurance from Edmunds. For homeowners' insurance, you'll want to contact a couple of local agents.

Finding savings on a monthly basis is harder, but still possible. Begin by taking a look at where you spend your money. Review your credit and debit card statements. Your checkbook, too. If you're like most families you'll see certain bills repeating. Those are prime candidates. Which ones can you eliminate or reduce until holiday debts are repaid? Eliminating services like cable TV will save you money each month, and will also encourage you to get the debts repaid so you can begin watching some of those favorite shows again.

In your review of your bills you probably noticed that you spend a lot on food. Not only at the grocery store, but in the cafeteria at work, fast food joints and even convenience stores and coffee shops. For most of us it totals about 20% of our monthly expenses.

The advantage of reducing food expenses is that you have opportunities to save every day. And many of them will have little impact on your lifestyle, but the savings add up quickly.

Here are a couple of techniques you can try:

- Decide to avoid restaurants. If you're really dedicated, skip take-out food as well. You'd be surprised how easy it is to cook at home if you make use of your slow cooker, microwave and freezer.

- Swap generic for branded goods. You might miss some favorites. But you might also discover some generics that you even prefer to the old brands.

- Take snacks and coffee to work. It might not seem like a lot, but those coffee breaks can add up to $3 or $4 each day.

- Eliminate food waste. Studies show that we throw out about 15% of the food we buy because of spoilage. Have plans for the food you buy and for your leftovers. Those science projects in the back of the fridge are expensive!

Next, consider creative methods to save. Have you ever thought of carpooling or giving up club memberships? Don't assume that you can't live without a product or service. Consider how you'd adjust if it were not available. You might find ways to save that weren't obvious.

Finally, don't worry about the bills. Rather celebrate the fact that you're taking positive steps to eliminate them. And, don't forget to celebrate each step towards financial independence.

Related Reading:

Ten Tips to Stop Living Paycheck to Paycheck

How to Fight a Credit Card Interest Rate Change

Weekly Roundup

January is National Oatmeal Month. Visit Quaker Oats for some recipes or just type “oatmeal recipes” into your favorite search engine.

LibriVox offers free public domain audiobooks. Go to their FAQ page to learn how to subscribe to their free podcasts or just visit their catalog and download books you want to listen to.

Here is a great list of 90 free Windows programs.

This article asks if you are taking frugality too far.

And now for something completely different.
In the spirit of National Oatmeal Month check out the humor site The Oatmeal, which really has nothing to do with oatmeal, but you should be able to find some laughs.

Web Urbanist offers everything from “urban design and subversive art to stunning architecture, our authors scour the net to find the most creative, innovative and engaging works of art and design in the world.” A very addictive and cool site to spend some time on.

Weekly Reminder – A reminder of a useful article you might have missed.This article explains what a food rescuer is and how you can become one.

Have a good weekend!

The Key to Success

The following quote from Albert Schweitzer explains the relationship between happiness and success.

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.”

Saving in 2011

The following is a guest post by Tara Alley, a freelance writer native to Montana and currently writing and living in Orange County, CA. You can reach her at: alley.tara [at] gmail [dot] com.

How often do we all come to the close of a year and sigh because we’ve come nowhere near where we wanted to in terms of money saved, pennies in the bank, a better grasp on frugality and that elusive cushion that would allow us just to sit back and relax a bit? With today’s economy, I think we’re all feeling this year-end regret a little bit more, regardless of where we stand or where we wish we stood. This January, start 2011 with some solid, measurable goals that you can hold yourself accountable to, and trust me, come January 2012, you’ll love the new feeling you’ll find! Not sure where to begin? Here are ten simple things to do to start 2011 off right and get that penny-saving mind in high gear!

1) 10% Saved
No matter what, if at all possible, start putting 10% of every source of income into savings. I’m talking everything. So often we treat those little odd jobs or those bonuses as “play money” and blow them off entirely. You’ll be amazed at what happens when you take 10% of every dollar that comes to you and stick it immediately into savings.

2) Cook 2x a Week
Start cooking, at the bare minimum, two times a week. You may fight with this one… cooking takes too much time, I don’t know how, etc. Trust me, you’ll learn fast! The amount of wasted money we spend on eating out can become ridiculous. Two simple meals cooked each week will make a huge impact, and if you make extra portions each time, the leftovers will even multiply those savings even further.

3) Make Your Own Coffee
I don’t care if you’ve never made your own before. Go look at some inexpensive, standard coffee makers, buy one, and start brewing your own. If you figure $2-$4 a day for a cup of coffee (which a huge percentage of us willingly pay), you can pretty easily the see the savings that will accumulate.

4) Save Change!
So simple it seems like it shouldn’t work, but it does! Save all your change, even those annoying pennies. Cashing them in twelve months from now will put a big smile on your face!

5) Turn Shopping Into a Game
Haven’t caught the coupon “fever” yet? See if you can make it something you do weekly that you can find some enjoyment in! Plop in a movie, spread the flyers out on the floor and start clipping. Better yet, get a couple friends to join you in the effort and you can pool your findings. Sign up online for daily/weekly e-mail deals, or join an online coupon-saving community for even more help.


6) Get a Movie Subscription
If you watch movies with any frequency, do this. Not only do these monthly movie subscriptions immensely cut the cost of renting movies, the added bonus of never having to pay late fees is huge.

7) Make it a Point to Lower Those Credit Cards
They really don’t just “go away.” If you aren’t meeting the monthly minimums yet, cut out whatever you possibly can in your life (TV, internet, movies, magazines, junk food, drinks out, etc.) to make that happen, bare minimum. Then, cut just one more thing and start paying them down, starting January! If the end of February comes, and nothing has changed, make another “extras” cut.

8) Make Gifts
Birthdays, anniversaries, promotions, baby showers, you name it. We live in a consumer society in which it’s appropriate to buy gifts for everything, kindergarten graduation included. I challenge you to get creative and start making gifts. Pick up a new hobby: baking/cooking, arts, etc. And, if you can’t think of anything to make/do, give them the gift of your time. Offer to help them with the task of their choice. A gift like that is infinitely more meaningful than a bottle of wine, any day.

9) Exercise Outside
If you’re paying a monthly gym membership, see if you can replace your activity there with exercise outside and/or home weights. Simple hand weights are very inexpensive and intense aerobic home DVDs can often get you sweating much more than a fancy elliptical playing Beverly Hills Housewives. And, jogging outside is FREE!

10) Write Out Your Goals
Just thinking of goals has very little impact on your life. Get out a notebook and make a list of what you want to change about your saving. Do you want to make cuts? Simply put more in savings? Pay off a lingering credit card? Buy more generic labels? Start a change jar? Whatever they are, big or small, write them all on paper. They will help you verbalize and realize what it is you do want to change, and you’ll have something to keep you accountable for all of 2011.

These are just a few of the thousands of ways to start a year off right with saving as one of your resolutions. Go for it, look even further, dig deeper and good luck!

Related Reading:

Four Leading Causes of Overspending

Why a Weekly Menu Matters

Two Unusual Ways to Make Money on Craigslist

While most everyone is aware of how to make money on Craigslist selling their unwanted possessions there are a few other ways to make money using the site. I would be interested in hearing if any of you have tried these, so please feel free to comment below.

The Free Stuff

Check the free stuff listed in the for sale category for items you could pick up and turn around and sell. While there are plenty of worthless garage sale leftovers and miscellaneous junk offered you can find the occasional stuff that has value, such as nice clothes you could take to a consignment shop. In my area during the last week items offered for free that could be sold included VHS tapes (I have sold them for a dollar each at our garage sales and on Craigslist), clothes, working appliances, furniture, a vacuum cleaner, working organs and pianos, bikes, a gas grill, working TVs, a working humidifier, cribs and beds and kitchen and dining room tables. Unless you can turn these items over quickly the only drawback would be having the storage space to keep the stuff while you tried to sell it.

The Wanted Stuff

In the for sale category keep an eye on the wanted section for items you just might have lying around that could bring in some cash. It can obviously be hit and miss because the stuff being asked for can be very specific, but there are plenty of general requests as well. Over the last week people in my area have been willing to pay for World War Two military items, a file cabinet, a chainsaw, beds and cribs, car tires, clothes, cars, aquarium, furniture, dog house, 45 RPM records, Legos, wood chipper, working appliances, sewing machines, golf balls, scrap metal, snow blowers, tickets to plays and concerts, gold and silver coins, digital camera, cell phones, cinder blocks, a boat, baby stroller, computers, musical instruments, boots and shoes, space heater, Playstation 3, exercise ball and two baby pigmy goats. You might have noticed some cross over between the free stuff and the wanted stuff, which is a good trend.

If I had the storage space I would seriously consider flipping free stuff for cash. As it is I will continue to keep my eye on the wanted category for anything I might want to get rid of. How about you?

Related Reading:

How I Sell on Craigslist

Can You Really Find Good Free Stuff on Craigslist?