self-care

Prepping: It’s not just for grownups anymore.

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thumbDallas resident Bernie Carr sees no reason that city dwellers can’t be ready for trying times. Having written The Apartment Prepper blog for several years and having written “The Prepper’s Pocket Guide: 101 Easy Things You Can Do to Ready Your Home for a Disaster,” Carr has made preparedness more accessible to a lot of folks who don’t own bunkers.*

Now she’s taking on a new audience: kids.

Not to scare them into stockpiling skateboard wheels and Fruit Roll-Ups, but rather to make the idea of getting ready for any challenge – be it power failure or hurricane, earthquake or zombie apocalypse – less frightening.

Her new picture book, “Jake & Miller’s Big Adventure: A Prepper’s Book for Kids” (Ulysses Press) is designed to show young readers that it’s smarter to be prepared than scared. While imagining an amazing trip (deserts, mountains, jungle, a cave) they pack the supplies they need to stay warm, fed and safe.

Carr has donated a copy of the book for this week’s giveaway. Whether you’re a parent or a teacher, whether you live in Tornado Alley or on the Ring of Fire, Jake and Miller’s story can show kids that getting ready isn’t scary – it’s smart.

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Hitting the road? Here’s what you need.

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th-1An article in the July issue of Consumer Reports, “How to deal with road emergencies,” includes a sidebar on stuff every driver should keep in the car. While not everyone is going to have everything on the list, the piece will help you think through what you’d do if something went wrong.

Not that I’m wishing bad karma (carma?) on your road trip. But suppose you did have a fender-bender or a flat? Or one of your kids takes a tumble at the rest stop? Or your battery just up and dies when you’re miles from nowhere?

That’s where the Consumer Reports list comes in handy. Best-case scenario: You’ll never need any of it. Worst-case scenario? You’ll need it and not have it.

Since only amateurs pay retail, I’ll suggest some frugal hacks after the list. They won’t all work if your trip is happening tomorrow, but they’ll help you replenish what’s missing for later excursions.

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8 tips for living on your own.

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thA reader named Nancy, winner of a $10 Wal-Mart gift card in my fifth anniversary giveaway, contacted me to ask about the solo life.

“I’m about to live on my own for the first time, and this gift card will parlayed into something important, like toilet paper or spices,” she wrote. “Any advice you can offer on how to live alone…would be appreciated.”

Although I’m now quite happily partnered, I did live on my own from February 2005 until well into 2012. And I loved it. Loved, loved, loved it.

Possibly that was because I’d lived alone less than a year total in almost 47 years on the planet. Being by myself – no one to tell me what to do, to turn the TV way up, to track across the floor I’d just mopped – was a tremendous luxury.

When I became a midlife college student, that solitude felt not just splendid but necessary. I’d stagger through my apartment door, set down my book bag, kick off my shoes, prepare a simple meal and luxuriate in the quiet.

A major downside to living alone? Paying for everything.

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Got retirement questions? Ask ’em.

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thKiplinger’s Personal Finance and the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors will co-sponsor “Jump-Start Your Retirement Plan Day,” an eight-hour online chat, on Thursday, June 5.

You can ask questions in advance or just follow along on Twitter as 20 money professionals offer their professional advice.

Free professional advice.

Now that I’ve got your attention, check out the touchy-but-necessary topics these money mavens will discuss:

  • Saving for retirement – 401(k)s, IRAs and Roth IRAs
  • Taxes and retirement – including but not limited to estate and gift taxes
  • Earning while retired – Social Security and income investing strategies, whether you’ve already stopped working or merely making plans
  • “Financial challenges” – paying down debt, investing, saving for your kids’ college

To that last I’d add “boomerangers,” i.e., kids who come back after schooling or because of personal economic downturns. About three in 10 young adults are bunking with Mom and Dad, but this isn’t always voluntary; almost 10 percent of grads between 21 and 25 are unemployed and 16.8 percent are underemployed, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

By comparison, back in 2007 those figures were just over 5 percent and 9.6 percent, respectively. Ouch.

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The shoulder season.

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thWe were hanging out in our library earlier today, me at the desk and DF sorting paperwork nearby. When he asked if I could hand him a pen, I did so without thinking.

Then: “Oh my gosh – look! It’s working!”

I was referring to my right shoulder and arm, which had been more or less immobilized and causing me a fair amount of pain (especially at night) for a while now. Some range-of-motion exercises were helping. But last week I couldn’t reach to the right to pick up a glass of iced tea sitting on the table by my chair. I had to turn my body and reach for it with my left hand.

So this is huge. 

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Traveling for spring break? You need this bag.

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thThis winter has been a real bear for much of the Lower 48. If you’re lucky enough to have the time and the money to plan a little break, it will feel soooo nice.

Except maybe when it comes time to pack. More of us are choosing to go carry-on vs. paying to check a bag — but that means you can’t take your giant economy-size bottles of shampoo and conditioner, or the big tube of toothpaste you got on sale.

This is one time when frugality is frustrating. Why pay big bucks for teeny toiletries?

Win this bag instead and you’ll have that much more to spend on wherever your spring break takes you.

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Will I go round in circles?

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thRecent sustained pain in my right shoulder has made it hard to work, and also to do some of my exercises. Walking’s been tough, too: The freeze-thaw cycle glaciated our side street, and the footpath is as polished as a politician’s promise. Even with ice-grippers on my feet I’m unsteady and fearful of falling.

Between my frozen shoulder and the frozen ground I’ve been frustrated and sluggish. Last week I decided that if I couldn’t walk outdoors, I’d walk inside.

That’s when I started doing laps around the living area.

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Giveaway: The cold and flu package.

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th-1I’ve heard a bunch of hacking and coughing lately, and I bet Alaska isn’t the only state thus afflicted. With so much time spent indoors, you’re likely to run into some kind of rhinovirus or other virulent cootie just lookin’ for a home.

Once it hits, having to pay $7 for a bottle of cough syrup adds fiscal insult to physical injury. I think that’s why these cold-and-flu giveaways are so popular: Nobody wants to shell out $20 or more for analgesics and expectorants.

This time around the package features:

Advil Congestion Relief. It’s a non-drowsy version, in case you really can’t take time off from work, and it’s a one-pill dose so you don’t have to remember to take it throughout the day.

Tissues. With all the suffering in the world it’s a little embarrassing to complain  about a chapped honker. But after a couple of days of nonstop blowing our noses really do get sore. That’s why I’m including a box of Kleenex Lotion Aloe & E Tissues.

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I’m through explaining.

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thRecently I followed a link at Grumpy Rumblings of the (Formerly) Untenured to a website called Thought Catalog. The article in question is called “18 things women shouldn’t have to justify.”

Things like “putting themselves first,” “how little or how much they’re eating” and “not having baby fever.”

I particularly loved the “amount of makeup worn on any given day.” The writer, Brianna Wiest, says we can go au naturale or “work it like you’re in a drag show…Your face. Your rules.”

I’ve been known to put on a little makeup when I’m having photos taken, but mostly it just seems like more trouble than it’s worth. And again: Nobody tells guys that they ought to wear a concealer or that a good mascara would make their eyes look larger.

Now I’ll see Brianna her 18, and raise her six of my own. Among other things I’m through explaining are:

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Coupons.com wants to give you a $100 Amazon card.

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XMAS_BLOGGIFT_MOM_FINA couple of dozen bloggers were given the chance to participate in the Coupons.com Holiday Sweepstakes. I’m happy to be among them because of the possibility that one of my readers will be chosen as the winner of a $100 gift card to Amazon.com.

The contest is designed to call attention to the site’s holiday gift guides, which offer ideas for presents for moms, dads, teens and younger kids. This being Coupons.com, online coupon codes are included with each gift idea.

Among the four Coupons.com holiday gift guides, my favorite is – naturally – the mom page. That’s because it includes a class of gifts I hope to see under the tree: skin-care items.

It’s cold and dry here in southcentral Alaska, which is hard on the skin. Looking at the moms’ gift guide I see a three-pack of fragranced body butters from Sephora. The  accompanying coupon codes bring free shipping and a gratis “deluxe sample” item. (Hint: Those small sample items are obviously good for travel but they also make very nice last-minute stocking stuffers.)

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