Donna Freedman

Drinking from the hose, eating from the dirt.

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Saturday at my niece’s house was warm and clear, weather perfect for lounging on her newly painted deck and enjoying the scents of clover and sun-heated greenery. At one point we visited the tent-like structure that acts as her greenhouse, where we found tomato and squash plants languid from thirst.

She dragged out the pocket hose and soaked all the pots. A bit languid myself by then, I requisitioned the nozzle and shot it directly into my mouth. The icy blast refreshed in a way that a glass from the sink might not have.

No matter how old you get, drinking from the hose is absurdly satisfying. That is, unless it’s a really old hose that tastes like melting plastic.

This one didn’t. All I got was the flavor of Anchorage H2O, which is better than any city water has a right to be. (Fun fact: It comes from a glacier.) The experience catapulted me back to my childhood, when playing outdoors was so important that you’d sometimes drink from the hose rather than waste time going inside.

 

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Credit myths, plus a chance to win “Playbook Vol. 2.”

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Pop quiz! True or false:

Closing a credit card always decreases your credit score.

It is possible to lock all of your credit reports at once.

Utility payments are always included in credit scores.

Marital status affects your credit report.

Checking your credit score has an impact on your credit report.

If you said “false” to all of these, then you’re ahead of a bunch of your fellow citizens. Anywhere from 31 to 51 percent of those surveyed didn’t know that, according to a new study from TransUnion.

Want to learn a little more? Check out my guest post on I Pick Up Pennies. It’s an excerpt from “Your Playbook For Tough Times, Vol. 2: Needs And Wants Edition” – and if you act soon, you might win a copy.

 

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The quinoa whisperer.

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Our garden is coming along more slowly than last year, probably because the soil was cold. We got something close to normal snowfall this year, for a change.

Within the past week the sugar snap peas have started to take off but the green beans are puzzlingly slow. So are several kinds of squash (spaghetti, blue Hubbard, pink banana), which aren’t anywhere close to dead but have somehow failed to launch.

Gardening is a series of trials and errors. But there’s still time.

Strawberries and raspberries look glorious, albeit still really green; we hope to be picking within two weeks. Carrots, beets, leaf and romaine lettuces, two kinds of Asian greens, potatoes and rhubarb look healthy. The spinach is pretty much spawned-out, so what’s left will probably go into the boiling bag.

The real stars this year? Quinoa.

 

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5 personal finance lessons from ‘Alien: Covenant.’

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I saw “Alien: Covenant” and it succeeded in what I think were its twin purposes: to creep me out and to make me think.

And, maybe, to get me out of my own head. Nothing like a chest-burster to make you feel better about your reasonably good health.

But seriously, the film is restrained (albeit super-gory at times) and full not just of dread, but of a surprising undercurrent of mournfulness.

What’s the meaning of life? What makes us human? Why do the people we love leave us? Can a synthetic human ever become a real boy?

And, of course: How can I make the viewing of this film into a work expense?

 

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Wise Bread Tweetchat = $100 in Amazon cards.

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The smart-money website is also giving away two Kindle copies of “Your Playbook For Tough Times, Vol. 2: Needs And Wants Edition.” That’s because I’m the guest of honor, so to speak, at this week’s Tweetchat.

The theme: “Building The Life You Want With The Money You Have.” From the Wise Bread website:

Learn about what a frugalist is, having a winning attitude during financial turns, ways to cut costs on food, and more. Tell us if you have a “freedom fund” and let us know one thing you could do today to start living a more frugalist lifestyle.

Sound like anyone you know?

Come share your own wisdom, whether it’s instinctive or hard-won, and you may be rewarded: Wise Bread is giving away four prizes.

 

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What financial health means to me: An evolution.

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(FinCon and the Center for Financial Services Innovation are sponsoring a writing contest: “In 500 words, explain what financial health means to you.” Here are my thoughts.)

My journey to financial health was entirely roundabout, and I didn’t get there until middle age. Financial survival, not financial health, was the focus of my childhood and young adulthood.

Our one-bath, two-bedrooms-plus-attic place housed six. “Lunch” meant peanut-butter-on-bakery-outlet-white-bread sandwiches.

Clothing came down from cousins. We got a few toys at Christmas and a little meat for most suppers. I watched Dad at the kitchen table, printing the household budget. $30 groceries. $10 shoes. $15 Sears.

When my mother moved out it was natural (if not healthy) that I took over, pinching pennies and fretting a hole into my 16-year-old stomach lining. We always broke even – the only kind of money health I knew.

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My dog days, in summer.

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For 10 days I took care of my niece’s dog so she could make a trip out of state. By the end of the first day I remembered why I don’t want pets: Because it means being responsible for another living creature, all the time.

As someone who’s lucky that her socks match* when she leaves the house, being unable to leave the house without first dealing with the dog was a challenge.

It was a lot like having a toddler around. Whenever I couldn’t see him or hear him I had an immediate reaction of, “Uh-oh – what’s he into now?”

As of the first day: the trash, the recycling bin and something on the counter.

 

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This, that and summer.

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Sorry to have maintained radio silence for so long. Not only have I been promoting “Your Playbook For Tough Times, Vol. 2: Needs And Wants Edition” and taking care of gigs for other sites, I’ve been slowed down by summer, in two ways:

Playing in the dirt, i.e., piddling around in the garden*. Although DF does the lion’s share of the work, I’ve still be spending less time at the computer and more time harassing chickweed.

Losing track of time due to the long, long summer** days.

About that last: On Thursday night I decided to try and finish “The Girl Who Played With Fire,” the second in the late Stieg Larsson’s Lisbeth Salander series (officially known as the Millennium Series, but I like the character so much it will always be the Lisbeth Salander series). It’s such a great read that I hated to quit, but my eyes grew heavy.

No wonder: It was 2:30 a.m.

 

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‘Your Playbook For Tough Times, Vol. 2’ is here!

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Self-publishing is something like childbirth: Toward the end of the process you’re swearing you will never, EVER do this again. You’re also looking for someone to punch in the mouth for not being supportive enough* (anyone who’s ever been in the transition phase of labor will likely back me up on that).

I felt that way toward the finishing-up portion of “Your Playbook For Tough Times: Living Large On Small Change, For The Short Term Or The Long Haul.” When I wasn’t gnashing my teeth and rending my garments I was thinking Lord please get me through it…I swear I’ll be a good girl and stay away from JPEGs after this.

Just as with childbirth, I forgot the pain almost immediately and decided to do it again. This time around the damn thing was practically breech, a self-publishing project that came out feet-first and sideways. For the past 10 days or so I’ve been whirling and howling with regard to final edits, formatting and cover design. On Tuesday night I was absolutely unhinged with cumulative rage and frustration as another formatting snafu erupted.

But you know what? I’m sort of forgetting how that felt, now that “Your Playbook For Tough Times, Vol. 2: Needs And Wants Edition” has made it into the world.

 

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Here’s my Swagbucks story.

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(I’m taking part in the “Tell Your Swagbucks Story” promotion at the Swagbucks rewards program site.)

When my daughter first told me about Swagbucks, I figured it was just another frugal hack, i.e., a way to earn a few rewards cards and boost my budget.

It was. But it’s become so much more.

Over the years, the Swagbucks rewards program has become a way for me to eat better, slash my gift-giving costs, travel more affordably, send items to people in need and enjoy fresh tomatoes in Alaska – frugally.

Here’s how.

 

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