Anybody out there make a New Year’s resolution to take charge of da dollars in 2011?
Anybody out there who didn’t make that kind of personal vow?
Whoever you are, you need this book:
Donna Freedman
Seed catalogs: Porn for plantsmen.
I want to grow Pixie cabbages. Their heads are only 5 to 6 inches across – no more cabbage growing moldy in the vegetable drawer!
I want to grow Circus Circus carrots, too. They’re white, orange and dark purple, and they’d look so pretty shredded into Pixie cabbage coleslaw, or sliced atop Wine Country Mesclun, a mix of eight different lettuces.
My current unhealthy interest in the Renee’s Garden media kit reminds me of my years as a newspaper reporter in Alaska, during which I wrote a lot of features about gardening. The gardeners there are deeply committed – or should be, because most of them are absolutely dotty about their dirt.
Wouldn’t you be, if you couldn’t safely put plants in the ground until Memorial Day weekend? And then had to spend the summer fending off slugs and moose? (Hint: You can scare deer away. Moose leave when they’re full.)
The “Coupon Mom” book winner. Also: Emergency prep on a shoestring.
The random number generator loved Sheryl the best this week. Sheryl: Please respond to my e-mail with your address and the book will wing its way to you.
In other news:
“Time to plan an egg-based meal,” my weekly post at MSN Money’s Smart Spending blog, was chosen for the Festival of Frugality at Stupid Cents.
“Emergency preparedness on a budget,” my latest work at Get Rich Slowly, is an Editor’s Pick in the Carnival of Personal Finance at Funny About Money (even though the post contains the word “poop”).
The article is about meeting basic needs in an emergency. Such as:
8 ways to get rid of a headache. (Nine, if you count divorce.)
Right in the middle of a recent deadline I developed a real blinder of a headache. Rather than take an aspirin or ibuprofen I drank a glass of water – and felt better almost immediately.
I won’t say I was actually dehydrated, but I might have been on the way. Or maybe I wasn’t. All I know is that water made me feel better. It often does.
It was also, of course, free.
Whether your headache is caused by incipient dehydration, stress, lack of sleep, lousy working conditions or marriage, try one of these no-drug methods to relieve the pain.
Could you live well on $30k a year?
One of the two couples I interviewed in my latest MSN Money column has an adjusted gross income of $30,000 — and is raising kids and paying for a home on that sum.
The other couple is doing the same thing on an AGI of $36,000.
Could you?
7 money tips from the U.K. trip.
Melinda is the winner of “Shooting Bears: The Adventures of a Wildlife Photographer.” And here’s a hint about this Friday’s giveaway: It’s also a book, one with a personal-finance/frugality theme — and the author is willing to personalize it.
I haven’t been posting as much as I usually do because, well, I’m bushed. It’s taking a surprising amount of time to shake off the fatigue that followed my three-week trip, during which I pushed myself pretty hard.
One more mention of the U.K. and then I’ll get back to my usual mix of PF/lifeitsownself. Here are 7 things I learned across the pond:
The cougar in spite of herself.
I brought a cold and/or upper-respiratory bug from Cornwall to London. (Should have stuck with postcards, huh?) It worsened the next day so I decided to go to bed early rather than see “War Horse.” The virus had chewed its way into my bones.
Fortunately I’d packed some cold meds. A paranoid traveler is a prepared traveler, as well as a traveler who doesn’t have to go out in search of a pharmacy when she’s feeling like homemade shit.
As I crept along the hostel hallway I saw some young dude using a cell phone. He hung up and said, “Hallo, how are you doing?” Couldn’t place his accent or his provenance.
I replied,“I’m sick and I’m going to bed” and kept moving.
He followed me. “You are sick? What’s wrong?”
“A cold.” I coughed to punctuate/demonstrate. “Good night.”
“You should take a shower,” he said.
That sounded odd to me but I shrugged it off. “Maybe later.” As I pushed the heavy door open I saw the light I’d left on was now out. Apparently my roomies were early-to-bed types, too. So I opened the door as little as possible to keep out the hallway glare and slipped through the narrow space.
And the guy tried to follow me in.
Mind the gap, especially on escalators.
As I got off the Underground an elderly woman was slowly trailing behind me, pulling a suitcase. I got one of those little mental flashes that said, “Let her go. Watch her.” So I stopped and fiddled with my pack and suitcase until she was in front of me.
The woman went around a corner and I lost sight of her briefly. Then I saw this flash of movement off to my left. It was a middle-aged guy making a Superman-like leap up onto the escalator. I swear he made five steps in one bound.
It was to rescue the elderly woman, who had fallen backwards and was lying all twisted as the escalator moved her slowly, inexorably upwards. She hadn’t made a sound.
In which I (briefly) second-guess the hostel.
I lived in Anchorage, Alaska, for 17 years. About 15 of those years were spent in a trailer whose flat roof needed to be shoveled. My now-ex husband never acknowledged the existence of household or maintenance duties, so I was the one who clambered up.
I was then and am now afraid of heights. The second-worst part of the chore was stepping off the ladder and onto the roof.
The worst part? Getting back on, because there was nothing to hold onto save the top of the ladder, which extended a couple of feet past the roof line.
The first time I looked at the job I knew that getting back down was going to be scary. That’s why I came up with the strategy of leaving a patch of snow next to the ladder.
Giveaway: “Not Your Parents’ Money Book”
Want to give your kids a shot at financial freedom? Jean Chatzky can help.
Aimed at the middle-school set, “Not Your Parents’ Money Book” arose from Chatzky’s talks with students across the United States. What they wanted to know was fairly pragmatic: How much does it cost to live independently? What kind of job would I need to do that? What’s wrong with the economy? What’s a recession? Why can’t the government just print more dollars?
“Kids haven’t learned that money is a limited resource,” Chatzky told me.