frugality

Money that would otherwise have been lost.

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thAfter our Thanksgiving dinner one of my great-nephews counted up my found money. In the past year I found $13.81, considerably less than in 2012.

That doesn’t surprise me, since I spent a fair amount of 2012 traveling and moved to Alaska for the last three months of the year. I walk a lot less up here than I did in Seattle. That’s due in part to scary-icy conditions and also to the fact that I no longer live within strolling distance of shopping, banking and the like. While living down south I took a long walk most days, for health reasons but also to buy a bunch of bananas or take advantage of great deals on toiletries.

These days if I need to hit the library, the post office, the drugstore or the supermarket I either go with DF, borrow his car or take the bus. That means considerably fewer chances to find coins on sidewalks and in shopping centers.

Even so, I wound up with:

  • Four $1 bills
  • 16 quarters
  • 38 dimes
  • Seven nickels
  • 166 pennies

In 2012 I found $21.31, which I rounded up to $50 as a donation for a local food bank. Due to the late unpleasantness at Microsoft I can’t afford to be quite that generous in my math this year. Thus the $13.81 will become a $20 donation. But since I have an automatic monthly donation to the food bank I don’t feel too bad about the pinch.

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What I’ve been doing.

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thMade it back from the annual Talkeetna fling late Sunday afternoon, in one piece but very tired. Either I’m getting older or the late hours, odd eating habits and weirdly crappy weather (freezing rain despite ground temps in the 20s) took more out of me than I thought.

Before I recap that bacchanal, allow me to share a few recent happenings. 

Despite my previously stated position on why you shouldn’t write for free, I recently did just that. But donating “Want to cut costs? Get yourself a frugal filter (or two)” to the Wise Bread blog was a professional courtesy, which is one of the few reasons to give it away. Will Chen and Greg Go have both been helpful and supportive to me and I wanted to return the favor.

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The gift of personal finance.

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thGot a relative or friend who’s financially at sea? Or someone who’s just starting out and who could easily develop bad money habits?

Maybe that’s a middle-aged recent divorcee, a single-mom friend who’s got more month than money, or a slacker cousin who at 35 hasn’t done a thing about retirement.

Or perhaps you know young professionals who are racking up consumer debt, or parents-to-be wondering if one of them can stay home and not torpedo their financial and professional goals.

You might be able to help: This holiday season, give the gift of personal finance.

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The loneliest drugstore in the world.

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thAnother Thanksgiving and I’ve fulfilled my stated intention: to eat until I can’t walk. Four guests for dinner (including my niece and her boys) and I still had all I wanted of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, coleslaw, peas, rolls – all of it homemade and all of it irresistible.

Dessert was a tough choice between the pumpkin pie that I made and the pumpkin cheesecake my niece made. Since my doctor told me to reduce stress, I decided to have some of each. After all, they both have beta carotene.

The meal started at 1 p.m. My friend Linda B. left for work at 4:15 p.m., and my niece and the kids were gone an hour later. Now I’m sitting in front of a wonderful fire and unlikely to move far from it, especially since the temperature is dropping: It’s 11 and breezy now, predicted to drop to 2 degrees overnight; tomorrow’s high is predicted to be 8 degrees and the low will be minus 8. At least it isn’t Fairbanks.

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Can money buy happiness?

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th-1That’s the subject of my most recent post over at Money Talks News. Here’s what I think: Money doesn’t buy happiness per se, but it certainly positions you for contentment. Just ask anyone who can’t pay his bills.

“Think money can’t buy happiness? Think again” doesn’t suggest that money is the answer to all problems. As noted in the piece, I’ve been well-fed and gainfully employed and still incredibly unhappy. (Hint: That was before my divorce.)

But it’s silly to think that empty cupboards, disconnected utilities and eviction notices don’t have an impact on happiness. Money can buy a certain degree of security.

That said, researchers point to data suggesting that:

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Time is something we can’t do over.

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thThe 2013 Financial Blogger Conference was the best yet, and also the most exhausting. We got up at 2 a.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 15 to fly to St. Louis and, coincidentally, walked back through our front door at about 2 a.m. on Thursday, Oct. 24.

In between: a long plane trip, most of a day spent “frugalizing” a family with MP Dunleavey (for her Woman’s Day column), the conference itself and then a few days hanging out with my daughter, who also attended.

The conference days were a blur of activity, four days of leaving the room at 7:30 or 8 a.m. and falling back into bed at 1:30 or 2 a.m. Yet it was delightful to attend sessions, reconnect with others who’ve attended for three years running, to win prizes, and to discuss some very interesting work-related propositions (nothing I can noise around just yet, though).

Right now DF is on furlough (grrr), so we had Thursday and today to recover from the trip. It’s been tough for me to get my head back into the game; instead, I want to spend my days talking about writing and having other people cook for me.

Scratch that: I want to spend my days working only when I feel like it. I expect I’m not alone.

As I noted in “Termination dust,” being kicked to the virtual curb by MSN Money has caused me to reconsider the kind of life I want to lead. That’s why an e-mail I received today really resonated.

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The frugal heating pad.

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th-1Recently our heater went on the blink. The heating company that DF prefers wasn’t able to give us an appointment for almost two weeks – unless, that is, we wanted to pay extra for an after-hours visit.

Nope, we didn’t, even though temperatures dropped into the mid-20s at night and only into the high 40s during the day. We had plenty of split wood so we kept the fireplace insert stoked.

Nothing froze. In fact, the living room got a little too warm from time to time. However, the home office is farthest away from the heat source and it wasn’t exactly toasty. Most days I was plenty comfortable with a bathrobe over my sweats and T-shirt.

And when I wasn’t? I used the perfect frugal chill-chaser.

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Wanna be ‘frugalized’? Let’s meet on Oct. 16.

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I'M-SPEAKING_SMPersonal finance writer MP Dunleavey and I are looking for a family who’d like to save money. Specifically, we’re looking for a family who’d like to meet with us on Oct. 16 and be the subject of one of her upcoming columns for Woman’s Day magazine.

Why Oct. 16? Because she and I will both be in St. Louis at the same time, thanks to the Financial Blogger Conference. We have that sole day free and would love to find a family in that region to visit and immortalize in print.

Yep, you’d have to have your names used and a photo taken. But this gives you some time to get that haircut and tidy your kids’ rooms.

Here’s how it would work: I’ll walk through your home in search of ways you could save money through realistic (and simple!) frugal hacks. Dunleavey – whom you may remember from her work at MSN Money, Daily Worth and Money magazine – will take a lot of notes and then write it up.

What kind of family are we seeking? This kind:

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In which I electioneer for the 2013 Plutus Awards.

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thNot for myself! I did ask for Plutus Awards votes back in 2011, when I was nominated for “Best Blog Contributor or Freelance Writer” and “Best Written Blog.” (Thanks to all who voted, because I did win the first one.)

This time around, I’m asking for your votes for someone else: my daughter, Abigail Perry, who writes I Pick Up Pennies.

It’s pretty easy to do: All you have to is click on this link and her site’s URL will automatically be filled in under “Best Kept Secret.” Enter your own information (name, e-mail and whether or not you’re a PF blogger), then just scroll a bit further down and hit “nominate” – and you’re done.

Do I sound impossibly stage mom-ish? Well, she’s too modest to nominate herself so I felt compelled to do it for her. Here’s why.

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9 cheap (and non-toxic!) “convenience” foods.

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groceriesNobody ever went broke underestimating consumers’ willingness to pay a premium for convenience. Spending extra to get on the plane before everyone else.

Picking up milk and bread at the 7-Eleven to dodge the supermarket hordes. Ordering takeout because they’re too tired to cook. Buying a one-ounce “toddler pack” of Cheerios to carry in the diaper bag.

Really? That grab-and-go pack of cereal works out to as much as $27.50 a pound! Fill up your own container, already.

Convenience food does have its place, especially if a $5.99 rotisserie chicken keeps you from ordering $40 worth of Thai food. (Or if ordering a strategic pizza allows you to spend time with family and/or taking better care of yourself.)

But if you keep certain frugal convenience foods on hand, you won’t have to resort to takeout as often (if ever).

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