Weekly Roundup

Mevio is a free entertainment site with over forty shows in production, ranging from technology to comedy and general entertainment. Their top networks include technology, music, women's and men's content.

 The Eating Well mission is “to provide the inspiration and information people need to make healthy eating a way of life.” To that end they offer recipes and menus, food news, diet, nutrition and health information as well as several free newsletters.  

If you or someone you know are anticipating moving make sure to check out Movers Edge, which offers moving advice, packing tips, how to find professional movers, a weekly newsletter and the Ultimate Moving Checklist.

This article examines the top five signs that you’re wealthy.

Intelligent Travel “showcases the essence of place, what's unique and original, and what locals cherish most about where they live. And we highlight places, practices, and people that are on the front lines of sustainable travel—travel that preserves places’ essential uniqueness for future generations.” In other words this is not your typical travel site.

Weekly Reminder – A reminder of a useful article you might have missed.

This post gives some good tips on how to make and save money with scrap lumber.

Make it a great weekend!

Top 10 Ways Working from Home Saves You Money

The following is a guest post by Ripley Daniels, an editor at Without The Stress, a passport, travel visa, and immigration advisory firm located in Los Angeles.

As a bona fide home-based business person, I know a thing or two about the benefits of commuting one flight of steps, working in my pajamas, going for a run in the middle of the day, and of course, saving a whole lot of dough. Anymore, it just doesn't make sense for me to show up at an office, especially considering how expensive that arrangement really is. Here are the top ten ways I have saved money by working from home, compared to my previous career as an office worker. While your own circumstances are likely to differ from my own, the savings are real.

Dry Cleaning - This used to be a big one since logo-ed shirts were part of my attire, making a weekly or bi-weekly trip for dry cleaning and laundry a regular expense. Annual savings: $240-360

Wardrobe - Not needing to "keep up appearances" on a daily basis has meant that most of my recent spending on clothes has been purely casual. Annual savings: $300 -$500.

Auto Insurance and Repairs - I didn't think much about this one at first, but it's big. Driving almost 5,000 fewer miles a year meant that one call to my auto insurer reduced my rate by 8%. I change my oil less often, and of course brakes, tires and other parts last longer. All told, my car expenses have dropped about $400 annually.

Do-It-Yourself Chores - Tired from a long day, slow commute, and feeling protective of time off, I was keen to outsource yard work, and other home-related jobs. Now I look forward to those things as a way to relax with productive, rewarding activities. No, I don't always love pulling weeds, but it's a great excuse to be outside and take a mental break. We've probably saved $600 a year, doing more tasks ourselves.

Gas - My commute to work used to be 13 miles each way, or about 6500 miles a year. At 22 mpg, that's 295 gallons of gas, or $1032.50 at $3.50/gal. That total is now reduced certainly by more than 75%, making my savings over $775 a year.

Day Care - Having a three year old around the house is not conducive to getting work done, and so we do send her to day care. However, I can take her in late, pick her up early, take random days off, and have even kept her out of day care altogether for a couple of spells, working reduced hours or swapping day care duties with friends. Shortened days don't affect the cost of day care, but extended absences do, and my flexibility meant I could choose a less expensive option. Total savings: about $1000.

Coffee - I do love my coffee, and still grab a big ol' latte from time to time. Used to be at least four each week, averaging $8 with tip and a snack. Substitute that with freshly ground coffee at home, and I'm saving more than $20 a week or $1000 annually.

Eating Out - While it's always possible to be responsible about workday meals, reality seldom cooperates. Packing a lunch or saving leftovers is an extra hassle, and it's more fun to eat out with the team. Estimating that I ate lunch out just three times in a typical work week, I now spend at least $30 less per week, or $1500 for the year.

Tax Deductions - As a consultant, a lot of the things that I would typically pay for outright now fall under the "business expense" category, such as a portion of my cell phone, internet and even mortgage. Of course I still pay for these things, but since they are required to do business, counting them against earnings saves me about $1600 in taxes.

Time - It's hard to quantify the value of the time saved by having my work with me. It is by far my most prized reward. True, balance can be a challenge, but how to deal with it is my choice, unlike the constraints of office work that are far less flexible. I don't have mindless meetings, 500 hours of commuting, or the daily drip of losing an hour or so to the chatter and "catching up" that being in a office entails. I find it a lot easier to catch up with friends now, instead. I get more work done in less time, and I spend more time on my home, my family and myself.

The truth is, you couldn't pay me to return to an office environment!

Further Reading:

What Would You Do With an Extra 35 Hours a Week?

10 Ways to Earn Fast Money

Can You Really Make Money Stuffing Envelopes?

To start off I have to say I have actually made money stuffing envelopes, but it was for a full time employer at an hourly wage and not as a private contractor or part of a work at home offer. While thinking about different ways to make money that I have not written about yet I was reminded of the old comic book and magazine ads that would promise a great work at home opportunity for good money by stuffing envelopes. Almost anybody that you talked to back then would warn they were scams, and I wondered if such offers still existed today, and if so, were they legitimate. After some research into the possibilities here is what I found out:

All Scams

They still exist, and they are all scams. The way they usually work is you are asked to send money for instructions and maybe a starter kit. What you will receive are instructions telling you to place ads and ask for money, just like what happened to you. They might also offer to sell you a mailing list, in which case you would be stuffing envelopes with a scam letter that asks the recipients to send you money for instructions on how to make money stuffing envelopes. It is all dishonest and illegal.      

An Alternative

Rather than respond to an ad consider contacting local print shops in your area and offering your services. This could involve working in their bindery department, maintaining mailing lists, collating marketing materials…maybe even operating their automatic envelope stuffing machine.

Further Reading:

My Worst Money Making Ideas

Can You Make Good Money Working As A Temp?

Weekly Roundup

Big Think calls their site a knowledge forum, offering to “help you move above and beyond random information, toward real knowledge, offering big ideas from fields outside your own that you can apply toward the questions and challenges in your own life.” If that sounds a little vague just click on the link. 

dealnews scours “over 2,000 online retailers and tens of thousands of deals to deliver the best 200+ deals each and every day — the kinds of deals you'd normally only see on Black Friday. We verify that each deal is valid, the lowest total price we could find, and from a reputable retailer. Then and only then do we post it for you. We take getting a bargain seriously, and then share what we find with you.”

HealthGuru offers health videos for people under 35 years of age, on topics including diet and fitness, mental and emotional health, sexual health, pregnancy, baby health and childcare, beauty and grooming, drugs and alcohol, and more. They explain that “individuals under 35 years old are used to an immersive, rich media experience on the web, not the text-centric offerings commonly found on other health sites. Health Guru was created with cutting edge media - like the largest health video library on the web and interactive applications - so we can offer the experience our audience expects.”

This article attempts to figure out which are the worst roads in the U.S.

When I was a kid you had to buy the book. Today, of course, Guinness World Records is online as well. The only bad thing I can see about making the book is as the oldest living person in the world. That usually means that, despite having managed to live for so many years, you now only have a few weeks left.

Weekly Reminder – A reminder of a useful article you might have missed.

This post asks how do you save money on eyewear and contacts. Make sure to read the comments, too.

Have a good weekend!

Frugal Lessons From The Past: Kate Sanborn

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.

Kate Sanborn (1839 – 1917) purchased and moved onto an abandoned farm in Massachusetts in 1888 and wrote about her trials and tribulations in a book entitled Adopting an Abandoned Farm published in 1891. In the following passage she writes of some of the pleasures and advantages of country living.

“I have told you of my mistakes, failures, losses, but have you any idea of my daily delights, my lasting gains?

From invalidism to health, from mental depression to exuberant spirits, that is the blessed record of two years of amateur farming. What has done this? Exercise, actual hard work, digging in the dirt. We are made of dust, and the closer our companionship with Mother Earth in summer time the longer we shall keep above ground. Then the freedom from conventional restraints of dress; no necessity for "crimps," no need of foreign hirsute adornment, no dresses with tight arm holes and trailing skirts, no high-heeled slippers with pointed toes, but comfort, clear comfort, indoors and out.

Plenty of rocking chairs, lounges that make one sleepy just to look at them, open fires in every room, and nothing too fine for the sun to glorify; butter, eggs, cream, vegetables, poultry--simply perfect, and the rare, ecstatic privilege of eating onions--onions raw, boiled, baked, and fried at any hour or all hours. I said comfort; it is luxury!

Dr. Holmes says: "I have seen respectability and amiability grouped over the air-tight stove, I have seen virtue and intelligence hovering over the register, but I have never seen true happiness in a family circle where the faces were not illuminated by the blaze of an open fireplace." And nature! I could fill pages with glowing descriptions of Days Outdoors. In my own homely pasture I have found the dainty wild rose, the little field

strawberries so fragrant and spicy, the blue berries high and low, so desirable for "pie-fodder," and daisies and ferns in abundance, and, in an adjoining meadow by the brookside, the cardinal flower and the blue gentian. All these simple pleasures seem better to me than sitting in heated, crowded rooms listening to interminable music, or to men or women who never know when to stop, or rushing round to gain more information on anything and everything from Alaska to Zululand, and wildly struggling to catch up with "social duties."

City friends, looking at the other side of the shield, marvel at my contentment, and regard me as buried alive. But when I go back for a short time to the old life I am fairly homesick. I miss my daily visit to the cows and the frolic with the dogs. All that has been unpleasant fades like a dream.

I think of the delicious morning hours on the broad vine-covered piazza, the evenings with their starry splendor or witching moonlight, the nights of sound sleep and refreshing rest, the all-day picnics, the jolly drives with friends as charmed with country life as myself, and I weary of social functions and overpowering intellectual privileges, and every other advantage of the metropolis, and long to migrate once more from Gotham to Gooseville.”

Related Reading:

Frugal Lessons From The Past: Harlan Hubbard

The Tornado

Once in a great while I write completely off the usual topic of this blog, and I thought our recent experience of surviving a tornado might be a good candidate.

The Prelude

A few weeks ago my wife and I were reminded by our daughter that we had not been to visit her and her family since their baby boy was born in early December of last year. Since then they had made the 2 ½ hour trip to see us several times, but we were overdue to come visit them. They live in a small town of about 500 people in Northwest Iowa, and she is a stay at home mom who watches a few other kids during the day while her husband works as a car mechanic and is a volunteer fireman. They had made some improvements to the house since the last time we were there that they wanted us to see, and since it had long since been our turn to visit we gladly made the trip.

When we got there on Friday April 8^th there was the usual excitement of seeing all the new improvements to the house, visiting with them and their friends, and my wife and I just enjoying the getaway and being treated as guests for a change.

Saturday came and found us exploring a local state park for future camping possibilities. Next we drove to a couple of nearby towns for groceries and some thrift shop browsing. Then it was back to their house to relax and visit for the evening. On the way we noticed on the highway just outside of their town a storm chaser vehicle parked at the side of the road, loaded with various antennae and other hardware on the roof, looking out over a vast, empty field.

The Gathering

The temperature that day had been unseasonably warm and humid. Usually the sun will burn off the haze and fog, but the gray hung on all day and grew darker as the evening closed in. We set up a little storm watching area of our own on the kids back patio, looking directly south through their backyard and then hundreds of yards across the barren farm field that started where their lawn ended.

The horizon grew darker and slowly there arose one of the largest, blackest thunderheads I had ever seen. Lightning came from everywhere, striking the ground, backlighting the monster cloud, and sheeting across the entire sky. The rain began falling while the huge black cloud kept growing, and then the strobe-lightning began. That kind of lightning, constantly flashing like a strobe light, can be a precursor to a tornado. Combined with hail, which fell for about five minutes in pea to golf ball sizes, and the indicators really began to look ominous.

In the middle of their back yard is an ornamental windmill, about seven feet tall, which had been blowing hard from the south all night. At one point the wind stopped completely, and everything seemed frozen but the churning clouds and lightning. Suddenly the windmill completely changed its direction and was blowing hard from the north. The kids got a call that a tornado had blown through a friend’s property a few miles southwest and it was headed straight for us. We stepped out into the backyard for a better look and there it was, across the field, dipping down and sucking back up into the angry clouds. The temperature dropped 30 degrees, then rose to as hot as it had been during the day, then dropped again, like waves coming across us. The last time we looked at the windmill, as we bolted for the basement door, it was spinning in circles.

It Hits

By the time we made it down the stairs it hit. The lights flickered twice and the basement went dark, the only light now coming from the strobe lightning through the small windows. There was a solid thud and the entire house shuddered. When we talked about it later most of us agreed that at that point we were ready to see the house disappear from over top of us. It was happening too fast to think about dying, we were just part of the action and suspense of the moment. There seemed to be a breathing of the house, like it came alive briefly, almost as if the walls were sucking in and out. Then it let go and passed on, leaving us in the dark basement listening to the wind howl and watching the lightning flash.

Aftermath



Camper In Tree



We let a few minutes pass before creeping up the stairs and opening the back door. The first thing that greeted us was astonishing proof of the fury that had just passed: in one of the trees in their backyard was the next door neighbors RV camper, which had previously been parked at the edge of the field. That neighbor also had large tree limbs on his house and trees down in his front yard. The power was out all over town. Trees and limbs and debris were everywhere, in yards, the streets, wrapped around other trees and poles. The kids lost a few dozen shingles from their roof and a window awning. A homemade smoker made from an old stove had been thrown from behind their garage into the other neighbor’s backyard, while a shovel leaning against a shed not more than six feet away from where the smoker had been had not moved. One mystery was what had happened to the glass top patio table that had been just outside of the back door. It was later found in the front yard close to the street, on its top, no worse for the wear. The only way it could have reached that position was to have flown up over the top of their house.

In the morning an exploration of the rest of the town revealed how lucky we really were. The damage looked like a giant on a huge pogo stick had bounced his way through town, smashing down every fifth house or so, and then becoming airborne again. Maybe the damage was random and had no pattern but I was immediately reminded of what the tornado looked like when we saw it across the field, repeatedly dangling down from the clouds and then sucking back up as it made its way toward the town.

When we visited the kids last December we lost power and were snowed in by a blizzard. This time it was a tornado. Now they are joking about what we will bring with us the next time we come to see them.

Further Reading:

A Walk in the Woods

         

Weekly Roundup

Visit Flixter to watch movie trailers, read reviews, find show times, network with other fans, take quizzes and polls and even watch movies and TV shows. Sign up for free and customize the site with your preferences.

Book Ase is a free service that allows you to compare prices of any textbook among major online bookstores worldwide. They claim you can buy books at 30% - 95% off the market list price. You can also use the site to find the best price for books you have to sell.

Job Doggy is designed to help teens and students throughout their job search, from beginning to end. Just type in your zip code to find out what is available. Register for free with the site for additional benefits. 

This article ponders small purchases and when a cup of coffee is so much more than a cup of coffee.

Check out Spark Recipes for delicious, healthy recipes submitted by their 8 million members. They also have a resident chef that whips up original dishes and menu makeovers, and a recipe calculator gives you the calories, fat, and nutrition info for it all.

Weekly Reminder – A reminder of a useful article you might have missed.

This article offers ideas on how to make money from vacant houses.

Have a good weekend!

Frugal Recipe: Chicken Creole with Chile Cream Sauce

If you like it a little spicy this might be a good dish to try. I got the original recipe from Campbell’s and added a few ingredients. The preparation and cooking time together is less than half an hour so this tasty meal can come in handy when time is short.

Ingredients

4 boneless chicken breast halves

1 small onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, pressed or chopped

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 small can chopped green chilies

¼ cup sour cream

1 tbsp. olive oil

½ cup water

2 tsp. Creole seasoning

Cooked rice

Directions

Heat the oil in a skillet then add chicken, garlic and onion and sprinkle with seasoning. Cook until chicken is browned then add soup, chilies and water. Cook on low until done, 5 to 10 minutes. Stir in sour cream and serve over rice.

Further Reading:

Frugal Recipe: Potato Pot Pie

How to Save Big Money on College Textbooks

The following is a guest post by Brian Jenkins, who has been writing about various career and education topics for BrainTrack.com, including college degree programs in finance, for two years.

According to Elsa Magee, acting president of New York Higher Education Services Corporation (HESC), a report showed that the average college student spends $1,000 per year on books. That's a lot of money for college students on tight budgets. Fortunately, students can significantly cut costs by taking advantage of the growing market for used textbooks and rental textbooks.

Used Textbooks

Many campus bookstores sell used textbooks, but these usually fly off the shelves. Some college towns have independent book stores that sell used books.

Most major online booksellers carry used textbooks at competitive prices. Some of the leading online used book sellers are as follows:

half.com

ecampus.com

campusbooks.com. This website allows students search for used textbooks at numerous stores.

Rent Textbooks

Online book renting websites are increasingly popular with college students. They offer books at a fraction of what used they would cost at campus bookstores. Instead of buying textbooks and selling them back later, students can rent and save money now. Many of the websites (listed below) also provide free shipping.

Students are able to choose the amount of time they want to rent a book for. Some websites allow students to rent a book for 60, 90, or 130 days and extensions are available for an additional fee. These websites also buy used textbooks from students, and the average buyback price at one site (Chegg.com) is $40. Some colleges operate textbook rental programs, so make sure to check with your school if this is an option.

Here are a few of the popular online textbook renting companies:

ecampus.com

textbooks.com

bookrenter.com

chegg.com

campusbooks.com

Swap Textbooks with Other College Students

Find other college students who have the book you need. Students should be able to find other students who have completed the course and no longer need the book. Textbook Revolt helps students rent textbooks from other students or from bookstores.

eTextbooks

Online textbooks offer a number of useful conveniences, including high-speed searching and electronic note taking. Depending on the provider, you may not need a special reader to access the eTextbooks, which are usually sold at 50% of the print retail price. However, you may get a better deal by renting or purchasing a used book. eTextbooks typically expire after 180 days. Students can choose to either download the book onto their computer or read it online. Course Smart  is one site that sells eTextbooks.

When you're in the market for textbooks, shop early and always compare prices of book rentals and used books.

Further Reading:

10 Places to Sell Books Online

Search for Scholarships

Weekly Roundup

Consider Best Buy Drugs by Consumer Reports as a reliable source for drug news and updates, reports by drug category, drug advice, safety alerts and free guidance for consumers on prescription medicines. They also offer a free email newsletter.

Is the internet really the great healer of age old relationship problems? Can it replace just sitting down and talking things out? Tokii seems to think so, billing itself as “the world’s first relationship management platform.”   

City Farmer is all about teaching city dwellers how to grow food at home in their back yards or in community gardens. They offer advice on how to grow vegetables, kitchen herbs and fruit in town.

Here is a video about 5 items that rarely lose value.

April is Financial Literacy Month. Visit the site and improve your financial wellness by using some of the free tools they offer, such as webinars, worksheets, eBooks, and their 30 Steps program.

Weekly Reminder – A reminder of a useful article you might have missed.

This article asks if the new frugality will last.

Make it a great weekend!

What Failure Teaches

Samuel Smiles (1812-1904) wrote the following pithy quote about how we can figure out our way in life.

“We learn wisdom from failure much more than success. We often discover what we will do, by finding out what we will not do.”

Five Great News Sites

In February I put together a list of five great weather sites. I mentioned that first thing in the morning I check the weather, then the news, then my email accounts. I suppose it was only logical for me to next list some of the news sites I check. Here are five of them, in no particular order.

Drudge Report – While it has been labeled a political news site I find that all of the other news he links to makes this one of the most interesting reads of the morning. The plain, clean layout and minimal advertising are also appealing.   

The Christian Science Monitor – The website is the online presence of the 100 year old international news magazine. They rely more on their own writers rather than the wire services, which might help to explain the seven Pulitzer Prizes they have won to date.  

Fark – If you are looking for something funny or weird to read about, Fark is the place. They select around 50 links each day, and categories range from Asinine to Obvious to Spiffy. Florida has a category all to itself.

New Scientist – The magazine was launched in 1956 "for all those men and women who are interested in scientific discovery, and in its industrial, commercial and social consequences". The website was created in 1996 and updates every day, and they have over 76,000 pieces archived.

Topix – This aggregate news site draws from over 50,000 sources, and what makes it different is that you can edit the news based on your location and interests.

Further Reading:

Five Great Weather Sites

Five Interesting Frugal Videos

Weekly Roundup

Full Fitness is a free fitness site that offers workout routines, exercises you can perform with weight machines, free-weights, or alone. You also might find a few tasty recipes!

Pogo offers free online games, including “puzzle games, word games, card games, and board games. Unlike other free online games sites, we offer a variety of classic Hasbro board games like RISK, Yahtzee, Scrabble, and Monopoly. We also have popular games like Chess, Spider Solitaire, Cribbage, and Bejeweled.” You can also enter to win prizes.

Voice America claims to have 2.5 million listeners and features Web-based talk radio programming and more than 200 hosts talking about topics from sports and finance to health, hobbies, pop culture and business. If you haven’t listened yet give them a try.

Most of us don’t think much about aging until it starts to become noticeable in our personal lives. When it’s about others, oh well; but when the shadow of mortality hangs over us, we start to pay attention. Stanford University is using a computer enhanced shock technique to help people pay more attention to their retirement needs.

I have featured a few sites exclusively for the ladies in the past, but this week it’s your turn men. In an ever more androgynous and morally neutral environment that has produced so many wimps or thugs as pop culture or sports idols, The Art of Manliness stands out like a saving beacon in the night. Their goal of “Reviving the lost art of manliness” will sound strangest to those most in need of help!    

Weekly Reminder – A reminder of a useful article you might have missed.

This post ponders why a weekly menu matters and offers some delicious recipes.

Make it a great weekend!