Get Rich Slowly

Do the Tools of Personal Finance Actually Work?

J.D. — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 13:00:21 +0000

New visitors to Get Rich Slowly are sometimes skeptical. “Do the things you write about actually work?” they ask.

Absolutely they work.

They work financially, but many of them also work psychologically. That last bit may be the most important. I frequently say that money is “more about mind than it is about math”, and I mean it. We all know the basic arithmetic behind money management — it’s the psychological stuff that gets in our way.

The techniques I write about are tools. Different tools are appropriate for different situations, for different jobs. And whereas I might use a hammer and a nail to hang a shelf, you might use a screwdriver and a screw. So it is with money. Each of us needs to assemble a toolbox appropriate for our own circumstances, for our own needs.

There are some important things to know when putting together your own personal-finance toolbox.

Not every tool works for every job
Just as it’s important to select the proper tools for a home improvement project, you need to choose the correct methods for managing your money.

You would not use a hammer to cut a board. Similarly, your Roth IRA is not the right tool for saving an emergency fund. The “ask for a raise” tool isn’t critical if you run your own business. You can’t clip coupons to buy a house. (Well, not yet anyhow.)

If you work at minimum wage and have already cut your expenses to the bone, frugality tools are going to be less critical to your success than tools that help you raise your income. When you can no longer reduce your expenses, it’s time to take a different approach.

Some tools become less useful over time
Now that my non-mortgage debt has been eliminated, I no longer need the debt-reduction tools I used to employ every day. They’re still in my toolbox in case something breaks in the future, but for now I’m working on other projects.

Certain tools are almost always useful, however. Frugality and thrift generally reward those who know how to use them well. Everyone can profit from knowing how to save for the future.

You cannot be an expert with every tool
It’s a mistake to believe that every piece of financial advice — every tool in the toolbox — will be applicable to you and to your situation. In fact, I’ve learned that most individual pieces of personal finance advice aren’t useful for me at all! (Many of the techniques I share at GRS don’t apply to my life, but I share them anyhow because they may be useful to others.)

Just as I cannot seem to use a real-life reciprocal saw correctly, for example, I’m not good at investing in individual stocks. Instead, I use a different tool: indexed mutual funds. I’m still building my financial future, but I’m doing so with tools I understand and feel comfortable using.

You become skilled with a tool by using it
You cannot strap on a tool belt and expect that you’re ready to build a house. Everyone starts with the basics. You build a shelf for your wife. You repair the chair your husband shattered.

So, too, with personal finance. You don’t make a million dollars overnight. It takes time to develop wealth-building skills, but you learn them by doing. As you learn, the changes are small and imperceptible, but they’re very real.

I’ve seen the power of small changes in my own life, and I’ve read similar success stories from Get Rich Slowly readers. Your fantastic responses to yesterday’s article about emergency funds are a perfect example. Over 100 commenters explained how emergency funds give them peace of mind or have helped in past times of crisis. An emergency fund is a small but important tool in your personal-finance toolbox. As you use it, you gain skill.

Building your financial future
Financial success takes work. For all but the lucky, wealth is built slowly, one smart choice after another.

Personal-finance knowledge is like a shop, filled with tools and plans and materials. Your aim is to use these things to build a solid financial future. To do so, you must use certain basic tools (saving, investing, etc.), but beyond that you have control over how the final product will look and feel. Do you like frugality? Make that the focus of your project. Hate frugality? Use only a little, but compensate with other tools and resources.

Don’t expect perfect results right away. It takes time to build something lasting, and so does building wealth. Financial success requires patience and consistency. The techniques I share do work, but only if your aim is to get rich slowly.

Photo by Boolean Split. His photos are awesome!

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All You Ever Wanted to Know About Emergency Funds (But Were Afraid to Ask)

J.D. — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:00:06 +0000

This is a guest post from Dylan Ross. Dylan is a long-time member of the Get Rich Slowly community: a frequent commenter and occasional guest author. He’s also a Certified Financial Planner. This article is an abridged version of a chapter Dylan contributed to Investing in an Uncertain Economy for Dummies, which was recently published by Wiley. See the end of this post for a chance to win a copy.

Even if you’ve never had to quickly come up with money for something you weren’t expecting, you always face the possibility of needing money in an emergency. Emergencies are unplanned expenses that require more money than you can cover with your paycheck, even if you cut some expenses until next payday. When you don’t have enough in savings, emergencies can put you in debt or deeper in debt. An emergency fund helps protect your finances.

Unexpected expenses may be one-time or recurring. Potential uses for emergency funds include car repairs, paying bills if you’re out of work, large medical costs, insurance deductibles, critical home repairs, legal defenses, travel to attend a funeral, natural disasters, and so on.

Figure how much to set aside
At an absolute minimum, set aside enough money in your emergency fund to pay for at least three to six months of basic living expenses (the regular and essential expenses you must pay to live). These expenses don’t include discretionary items like entertainment, dining out, or spa treatments. Keep at least six months of basic living expenses in your emergency fund if you’re single or living on one income, or if one income in your two-income household varies a lot from month to month or isn’t secure.

Your emergency fund does more than just cover expenses in case you lose your job, so resist the temptation to keep less in savings. If you anticipate more frequent or more severe emergencies than three to six months of basic living expenses can cover, increase the size of your emergency fund. For example, you may need a larger emergency fund if:

Your job security is questionable.
You’re about to have a baby or purchase a new home.
You have numerous aging household appliances.
You drive an older car.
You live in an area prone to severe weather, earthquakes, or other disasters.
You engage in activities that may require frequent trips to the emergency room, doctor’s office, or the first aid aisle of your pharmacy.

Your emergency fund is also handy when you need to make insurance co-payments or pay for charges not covered by a health, dental, or vision plan. Sometimes you may need cash until you’re reimbursed by an insurance company or flexible spending account. Consider any unreimbursed medical expenses from the past few years when deciding whether to increase your emergency fund.

If you’re feeling especially uncertain, add to the size of your emergency fund. You can always reduce it after you’re through a rough patch.

Tip: When purchasing household appliances, decline the extended warrantees and add that money to your emergency fund instead. If you self-warranty several appliances, you spread out the risk of needing to repair any one of them. If you don’t need to make repairs, you get to keep the money!

Handle your emergency fund with care
The tricky thing about financial emergencies is that you don’t know what they’ll be, when they’ll happen, or how much you’ll need in order to cope until you can recover. All these unknowns make your emergency fund an important part of your financial profile and one that you should treat with special attention and care.

Make your emergency fund a high priority. The harder you think it is to come up with money for an emergency fund, the more you need one. If coming up with money to start an emergency fund now will be a sacrifice, imagine how tough it will be when you have to pay the costs of an emergency situation.

If you’re trying to pay off credit cards or high-interest loans, start with an emergency fund that could cover one month of basic living expenses. After you save one month of expenses, put extra money toward your debt payments. When your debt is paid off, build your emergency fund as quickly as possible. Otherwise, a sudden emergency could send you right back into the red.

Keep your emergency fund in cash types of investments. This money should be quickly available with no risk of decreasing in value at any time. An emergency fund is self-insurance, not an investment. You want your money to be accessible, but you also want to earn some interest on it so that you offset inflation at least partially, if not completely.

Some places to keep your emergency fund savings include:

High-yielding direct savings accounts. Online savings accounts often pay a higher than average interest rate. You can, and should, establish an electronic transfer link to your checking account.
Savings and money market accounts. These are interest-bearing accounts at banks or credit unions. Being able to electronically transfer money to your checking account is best.
Money market funds. Not to be confused with money market accounts, these are funds offered by mutual fund companies and brokerage firms. You redeem fund shares to get cash out. Some accounts allow you to write checks to access the cash.
Interest-bearing checking accounts. These accounts pay less interest than savings accounts.
Certificates of deposit (CDs). These banking deposits guarantee a specific interest rate if you hold them for a specified period of time. They aren’t an ideal place to keep your emergency fund money because you usually have to pay a penalty to get your money out early.

When deciding where to keep your emergency funds, make sure you know how and when you can access your cash. Can you get to your money after business hours? What about on weekends and holidays? Can you use checks, an ATM, or a debit or check card? Also, make sure you’re comfortable with whether or not the account is insured.

Don’t use available credit as an emergency fund! Credit cards and home equity lines of credit could serve as a backup to your emergency funds in the event of a catastrophe, but the whole idea of an emergency fund is to keep you form adding debt. Some emergencies could affect your ability to make minimum debt payments, and missed payments, late penalties, and finance charges can easily snowball out of control.

Use your fund wisely when the time comes
Sooner or later you’ll have a large, unexpected expense you can’t cover with your paycheck. First, decide whether it’s a real emergency. Do you need to spend the money right now? Can you make do until you can save up to meet the expense? Your answer may be influenced by other events. For example, if your dishwasher bites the dust, you may decide to save up for a new one while you hand-wash dishes because of layoff rumors at work.

When you face a real emergency, access only the minimum amount of money necessary to get you through the emergency. Cut any unnecessary expenses and direct any available income toward your emergency before accessing the emergency fund. When the emergency is over, rebuild your emergency fund as quickly as possible, before reinstating nonessential expenses.

Two book giveaways in one week! Strange, but true. This time I’m giving away two copies of Investing in an Uncertain Economy for Dummies. To qualify, you must leave a substantive comment discussing your approach to emergency funds. I’ll randomly select ~~two~~ five winners on Friday. Motorcrash image by Incase Designs.

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Phishing Scams in Plain English

J.D. — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 21:00:38 +0000

Internet con artists are clever. Even smart people can be duped sometimes. Even those who keep active watch against scams and schemes can make mistakes.

As I checked e-mail this morning, I was baffled by a notice from Paypal. “Your eCheck payment of $29.90 USD to jdroth@xxxx.com has been deposited into your recipient’s account,” the message read. But why would I be paying myself? “Do you know what this is?” I asked Kris. “Why are we sending money to ourselves?”

“Isn’t that spam?” she asked.

Oh. Of course. Normally, that would have been my first instinct, too, but for a few minutes there, I had relaxed my guard, had opened myself up to be a victim of “phishing”.

Phishing scams in plain English
What is phishing? As penance for nearly committing an internet sin, I made myself re-watch Common Craft’s Phishing Scams in Plain English, which explains how these scams operate, and how best to protect yourself:

You’ve probably seen it. You receive an e-mail from your bank or trusted company, and it’s asking you for information. It looks real, but it’s designed to fool you into handing over important information. This is a scam called phishing, and you need to avoid it. This is Phishing Scams in Plain English.

This video suggests several ways to minimize the risk of being scammed:

Deal directly with organizations you trust.
“Always be suspicious of an e-mail that asks for your information. No exceptions!”
Don’t panic if you receive a suspicious e-mail. There’s no risk to just getting the mail; problems only occur when you respond to phishing attempts.
Never click a link or fill out a form in an e-mail from your bank, etc. Always navigate directly to the site.
Forward the suspicious e-mail to reportfishing@antiphishing.gov or spam@uce.gov.

On a related note, my mother sometimes has trouble differentiating hoax warnings from the real thing. Fortunately, she’s learned to use and trust Snopes.com, the urban legends reference site. The Snopes fraud and scams section is a useful resource.

I also think it’s important to periodically review the basics of how to prevent identity theft.

Safe and sound
My story has a mundane ending. The message I received from Paypal wasn’t spam, and it wasn’t phishing — it was a real message, but poorly worded. The $29.90 wasn’t paid to me, but from me to another company.

This could just as easily have been a phishing attempt, however, and I had let my guard down. Despite my constant vigilance, and my frequent warnings to others, I’d suffered a momentary lapse, and that’s all it takes to become a victim.

More about Common Craft
At Common Craft, Lee and Sachi LeFever create short and simple videos to explain complex ideas. You may have seen their work in the past:

As their videos have become more successful, the LeFevers have not only been able to make producing them a full-time job, but they’ve also expanded the subjects they cover. They’ve even begun to feature topics related to personal finance, such as compact fluorescent light bulbs. I shared Phishing Scams in Plain English with their permission.

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Protect Yourself from Spam and Phishing
links for 2006-10-17
links for 2006-10-31
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links for 2007-01-13

Things It’s Cheaper to Do Yourself

J.D. — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 13:00:34 +0000

I’m driving down to my mother’s house this morning to work on her roof. Over the years, the shingles have been overrun with moss, so my cousin and I are going to spend a couple of hours scraping the stuff off.

We could hire somebody to clean the roof for us, but this seems like an easy way to save a little money. The entire project reminds of a recent article from Liz Pulliam Weston at MSN Money. Last month, she highlighted five things it’s cheaper to do yourself. Weston writes:

You can make a good argument for hiring out certain tasks because it frees your time or because the person you hire will do a better job. In fact, people have. Author Timothy Ferriss turned the idea of outsourcing your life into a best-selling book, The 4-Hour Workweek. But when money is tight and you’re looking for places to cut, some of the places you’re outsourcing now should get a second look.

Here is Weston’s list of five things it’s cheaper to do yourself:

Food preparation. “The simplest and fastest way for most folks to cut their budgets is to stop outsourcing food preparation,” Weston writes. Don’t pay for convenience. Learn to make your own meals. if you have the space, time, and inclination, then start a vegetable garden. Taking charge in the kitchen is a great way to save money and develop fun hobbies and skills. This is an area where Kris and I do well.
Home improvement and repairs. You can’t do every home repair yourself. For some, such as non-trivial plumbing and electrical tasks, you need to bring in the professionals. But for many household projects, it can be satisfying and educational to do the work yourself. The trick is to learn the difference. This is another area where we do well — in this old house, we’ve learned to do our own basic home maintenance.
Personal care. Some of Weston’s readers cut their own hair. Some women do their own manicures and pedicures instead of paying somebody else to do them. If you can’t do these things yourself, you may be able to find somebody you know who can help. When I was a poor college student, I “outsourced” my haircuts to a good friend, which freed up money for more important things. Like pizza.
Laundry and tailoring. I used to know how to sew on a button. Also in college, I mended my own clothing — sometimes while watching football games with the guys! I haven’t done that in years. Now if something needs to be mended, I send it out. I’ve also become lazy about ironing. I iron my own clothes sometimes, but just as often, I take them to the cleaners.
Lawn and home care. Cutting recurring costs for a cleaning service or lawn maintenance can be a great way to save money.

There are other things it’s cheaper to do yourself, such as basic car maintenance, computer maintenance, and tax preparation. You may have to take some time to learn how to solve your problem, but after you’ve done it once, it’s much easier in the future.

The first time I repaired a leaky faucet, it was a frustrating experience. By the third time, I knew what to expect, and actually almost enjoyed myself. And I certainly saved some cash by not having to call a plumber. (But I still don’t think it’s a good idea for me to cut my own hair.)

Have you found that it’s cheaper or more fulfilling to do certain things yourself instead of paying somebody else to do them? At what point does it make more sense to pay to have something done? Are there basic skills that the average person might learn that could pay off repeatedly in the long run?

Photo by Chimothy 27.

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Daily Links: Housekeeping Edition

J.D. — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 00:29:32 +0000

No personal finance links tonight! I need to take care of some housekeeping before we move on to talk more about money management.

Television appearances
For those of you in the Portland area, I’ll be making a couple of television appearances this week. First up is a series of segments on KPTV (channel 12) from Shauna Parsons. Here’s her preview:

The first piece will air tonight on the 5pm on Fox 12, (and then I’m sure we’ll re-use it in other subsequent newscasts… we always do). Tonight’s piece will be a bit longer, to introduce people to you. Then we will run shorter pieces everyday this week, with your tips.

Update: And here’s the story (which makes me wince to watch myself).

On Wednesday evening, I’m scheduled to appear on KGW (channel 8 ) for their “Live at 7″ program. That discussion will cover frugal Christmas ideas.

It’s challenging for me to speak to groups or to do television interviews. Writing is natural for me. These other things are not. But I look at these as opportunities to build confidence and destroy fear. They’re examples of how I put the power of “yes” into action.

If you’re new to Get Rich Slowly — from these television interviews or any other source — be sure to read the background information that explains my philosophy and provides links to many of the best articles from the past.

Free stuff
As promised in yesterday’s post about how to blog, I’ve randomly selected four commenters to receive a copy of Stephane Grenier’s new book, Blog Blazers. The winners are:

Commenter 28 (Loren)
Commenter 50 (Carol M)
Commenter 80 (Matthew)
Commenter 86 (Steve)

I’ll be contacting each winner via e-mail to arrange shipping.

Speaking of free stuff: I have a pile of personal finance books, binders, and Bacon Salt that I’ve accumulated over the past few months. I’d love to give this stuff away — it’s cluttering the floor of my office — but haven’t hit upon the right way to do it. Any suggestions?

Guest posts wanted
I’m looking for quality guest posts. Ideal guest posts have not yet been published elsewhere, cover personal finance topics from an interesting angle, and are well written. I’m becoming choosier about the posts I run. I don’t have time to edit guest submissions like I used to. If your submission will require too much work to prepare for publication, I will send it back to you. Be interesting. Be concise. Write well.

I’m particularly interested in submissions from those of you who might not have a blog, but who have something interesting to share about money management. If you’re interested, drop me a line.

Facebook sharing?
Finally, I’m still getting the hang of this Facebook stuff. It makes me feel like an old man. I’ve created a Get Rich Slowly page and a Get Rich Slowly blog network. Now what do I do with them? A couple of readers have asked to be able to share GRS stories on Facebook, but I’m not exactly sure what they mean. Can anyone explain? Help this former tech geek not feel like he’s not being left behind!

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Making the Most of Your Checking Account

J.D. — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 13:00:49 +0000

In the past, we’ve discussed the best online high-yield savings account, covered the basics of certificates of deposit, and even explored the beauty of Roth IRAs. But we’ve never talked about checking accounts.

Many people believe checking accounts are the dinosaurs of the banking world. They’re not extinct yet. In the past few weeks, I’ve received two questions about them:

“Where can I get the best rate on a checking account?”
“How much should I keep in a checking account?”

Under certain circumstances a checking account can offer a better return than a savings account! In fact, there are a couple of ways to do it.

Online Checking Accounts
Though they’re not as common as online savings accounts, I was able to find a few high-yield online checking accounts.

ING Direct, for example, offers a high-yield checking account that can, in some cases, beat its high-yield savings account! Currently, the Orange Savings Account yields 2.75% per year. With enough money in the bank, the Electric Orange checking account is a better deal. Take a look:

If your balance is $0-$49,9999.99, you earn a 1.00% APY
If your balance is $50,000-$99,999.99, you earn 2.90% APY
If your balance is over $100,000, you earn 3.25% APY

This account comes with free Bill Pay and free ATM access. However, it is a paperless checking account. If you need to send a paper check, you can do so for free via the web interface. This account isn’t the one to use if you write checks to the babysitter or the cleaning lady, but it’s great if your finances are mostly online.

If I had enough in the bank, I’d actually move it from savings to checking to score the better rate. That 3.25% yield is competitive with the best high-interest savings accounts.

E*Trade provides a “max-rate” checking account with 2.90% APY provided you meet certain conditions (such as a $5,000 balance). I have no first-hand experience with this account, however.

Rewards Checking Accounts
Believe it or not, there’s a way to earn even higher rates of return with a checking account. Many small community banks and credit unions around the United States offer a special “rewards” checking account, a product administered by a company called BancVue.

Different banks have different names for this product. Here in Portland, Advantis Credit Union calls it a Fusion Checking Account, and offers a 5.00% APY. Rivermark Community Credit Union simply calls it Rewards Checking, and offers 4.01% APY. Other banks around the country are currently offering up to 6.01% APY.

Obviously, these rates are fantastic. There aren’t many places you can earn a guaranteed 6% return on your money right now. Unfortunately, there are a few catches. These rewards checking accounts usually come with some combination of the following limitations:

You must receive your monthly statement electronically — not via snail mail.
You must log into your account at least once per month.
You must make a certain number (generally around 12) debit card purchases. (ATM withdrawals do not count toward this number.)
You must make at least one electronic transaction each month. These include automatic payments to your utilities, for example, or a direct deposit.
The rate only applies to the first $30,000 (or so) in your account. (The cap at some banks is $10,000; at others, it’s $100,000.) The portion in your account above the cap only earns a tiny return.

If you use your debit card often, a rewards checking account makes a lot of sense. If you’re clever (and have a lot of money), you could actually use both types of accounts I’ve described. Put your first $25,000 or so into the local credit union to earn five or six percent, and then put the rest into an online checking account at three percent. (On the other hand, if you have that much cash, you’re probably doing something far more clever with it than parking it in rewards checking accounts!)

You can read more about these accounts at My Money Blog. Better yet, here’s a huge list of rewards checking accounts by state. (Those listed with a red asterisk are available nationwide.)

How much should you keep in checking?
This brings us, at last, to the second question about checking accounts. Chris wrote to seek advice on how much to keep on hand:

What is a good rule of thumb for a minimal balance in one’s checking account? I already have a healthy emergency savings account, so my question is, how low should I go? I carry no revolving debt, and I am currently paying off installment debt (student loans), so I could get a guaranteed return on any extra money I put towards debt taken from my no-interest brick-and-mortal checking account.

The answer to this question depends entirely on the rates of return for the savings and the checking accounts, and how the accounts are used.

Though I have an Electric Orange checking account at ING, I don’t actually use it for anything yet. I haven’t fit it into my financial workflow. Instead, I use a normal no-interest checking account at my local credit union. Every month, I transfer a fixed amount there to pay the expected bills. The rest of my money earns interest in savings.

If I were to get my act together, I could transfer some money to Advantis to test their rewards checking account. I’m hesitant to put my entire emergency fund there because I don’t know if I’ll meet the “12 transactions a month” clause to earn the 5% interest. But if I transfered a small amount there and tested it for a couple months, I’d know for certain.

Now I’d like to hear from you folks. What sort of checking account do you use? Does it earn interest? How much? Have you tried one of these rewards checking accounts? How did you like it? Have you tried an online savings account? Or have you given up checking account altogether?

Checkbook register photo by lemonjenny.

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Daily Links: Public Speaking Edition

J.D. — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 01:00:30 +0000

Thanks to everyone who came to my presentation at the library yesterday. Speaking to an audience isn’t one of my natural strengths, but I had a lot of fun, and I’m eager to improve for the future. Next time: less personal history and more Big Picture! (And far more preparation.)

I also enjoyed the opportunity to do a question-and-answer session. There seems to be a lot of support for a GRS meet-up, which Kris and I both think is a fantastic idea. We’re tentatively planning such a get-together for sometime in mid-January. If anyone has a suggestion for a frugal location in Portland where a bunch of us can gather to chat and exchange ideas, please let me know.

Now that I’m done fretting about my presentation, I can get back to the business of writing. The first order of business is to share some recent personal finance stories from around the web:

I recently wrote about how to make your own Christmas gifts. Not everyone is crafty, though, and for these people, Liz Pulliam Weston has compiled a list of 20 great gifts that aren’t gift cards. This article is definitely worth bookmarking if you’re about ready to begin your holiday shopping.

The most recent issue of Consumer Reports has a sidebar comparing shipping costs and effectiveness from three sources: Federal Express, UPS, and the U.S. Postal Service. I’ve been meaning to write about their results, but haven’t found the time. That’s okay, though, because Free Money Finance beat me to it! All you really need to know, though is this: “All three delivered next-day mail as promised, but the good old U.S. Postal Service is often cheapest by far.”

Earlier today, Trent at The Simple Dollar shared an introduction to deflation. While I fret about inflation (and folks like Peter Schiff fret about hyperinflation), others have begun to murmur recently about de-flation. But what is deflation, and what does it mean for the average person? Trent gives an overview of the basics.

Finally, for the money geeks, Five Cent Nickel has a preview of the 2009 Federal Income Tax brackets.

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Practice, Passion, and Patience: The Secrets to Successful Blogs

J.D. — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 13:00:35 +0000

In his new book, Blog Blazers, Stephane Grenier interviews 40 prominent bloggers about their secrets to creating successful — and profitable — blogs. Some of those who participated include:

Asha Dornfest from Parent Hacks
Jessamyn from librarian.net
Penelope Trunk from Brazen Careerist
Ramit from I Will Teach You to Be Rich
Trent from The Simple Dollar
Steve from Micro Persuasion
The ever-popular Seth Godin

I also took time to respond to Stephane’s questions. Here, with his permission, are a few of my tips on how to build a successful blog.

Stephane
What makes a blog successful according to you? Is it traffic, reach, revenue, etc.?

J.D.
I run several blogs. Each blog has a different measure of success. My personal blog is successful if it keeps my friends and family informed and entertained. I don’t need a lot of traffic there, but to maintain a connection to the people I know. Similarly, at my animal intelligence site, I measure success by how many stories I can find and share, not by traffic.

At Get Rich Slowly, however, things are different. My number one measure for success is feedback from readers: are people finding the content useful and relevant? But I’m much more interested in traffic numbers there. In particular, I try to build my subscription numbers. RSS readers are important to me. I’m less interested in pageviews and unique visitors.

Revenue is a secondary concern for me. Don’t get me wrong: the money is nice, but it’s not my top priority. I am grateful that I’m earning enough from blogging to allow me to quit my day job, but I’d still blog even if I didn’t.

Stephane
When did you decide you finally reached success with your blog?

J.D.
I don’t know. I’ve been writing various blogs for nearly seven years (and “on-line journals” for even longer). For most of that time, I’ve dwelled in relative anonymity. I guess it’s only recently that I’ve begun to think of myself as a successful blogger, and that’s only because doing this now can support me full-time.

Stephane
Which websites would you recommend for any new bloggers starting to blog?

J.D.
Steve Pavlina’s article on how to make money from your blog is excellent. I think it’s the best single piece of information on this subject. There are only two actual web sites, however, that I think most bloggers need to read: Problogger and Copyblogger. These sites consistently provide excellent information.

Stephane
Which book(s) would you recommend for new bloggers (these can range from marketing books, blogging books, etc.)?

J.D.
I strongly believe that the skill most bloggers — including myself — need to improve is writing. I don’t think bloggers need to read marketing books or blogging books. They need to read books about writing. I recommend the following:

On Writing Well by William Zinsser
On Writing by Stephen King
The Elements of Style by Strunk & White

Two non-writing books that I also believe are useful:

The War of Art by Steven Pressfield, which deals with procrastination and fear, etc.
The Incredible Secret Money Machine by Don Lancaster, which is a late-seventies manual for starting a small business. When I re-read this recently, I was amazed at how much of the advice applied to my situation as a “pro” blogger.

Stephane
What’s your best advice in regards to content and writing for bloggers?

J.D.
Content and writing are two different things. I address writing elsewhere in this interview. As for content: be interesting. Try to avoid the “echo chamber”. Every blog niche has one. Among personal finance blogs, one person will write on a subject (”how to save money on cheese!”), and then there’ll be a ripple effect as other people respond (”my top 5 ways to save money on cheese!”, “why processed cheese is better than the real stuff”, “top 5 blog posts about cheese”). Some of this is natural — there will always be articles you want to respond to — but too much of it is lame.

To use one example: John Chow has carved out a very successful niche for himself. He has a good blog and some devoted readers. But many of his readers create blogs that seem to be solely responses to John Chow. Don’t do that. Let John Chow write about John Chow. You write about yourself and what is important to you. If you don’t know a damn thing about making money on the internet, then don’t write about it. Write about your paper airplane collection instead. I’d rather read a good blog about paper airplanes (or saving money on cheese) than to read yet another person responding to John Chow.

Stephane
What are your quick and short five best tips for blogging?

J.D.

Take a writing class at your local community college.
Don’t start a blog because you want to make money. Start a blog because you’re passionate about the subject.
Write daily, even if you don’t post daily. Get in the habit of writing.
Learn to edit yourself! I spend more time editing my material than I do actually writing it.
Don’t worry about SEO. Search engine optimization does not make a successful blog. Writing content that people want to read makes a successful blog.

Stephane
What is the most common pitfall new bloggers generally fall into?

J.D.
Wanting overnight success. Readers and traffic come with time. You can’t start a blog for fame and fortune. You have to start it for love. If the passion isn’t there, the other things will probably never come.

Stephane
Any other comments or thoughts you’d like to share?

J.D.
Blogging is a dream come true for me. Not the blogging itself, but the opportunity it gives me to write everyday. I’ve always wanted to be a writer. I just never pictured myself writing about personal finance for the web. (I thought I’d write fantasy or science fiction novels.) Now that I’m doing it, however, I understand that this is what I’m meant to do. My whole life has been leading to this. It’s awesome.

You can read the entire interview — and 39 others like it — in Blog Blazers, the new book from Stephane Grenier. The author was kind enough to provide several copies of his book for me to give to GRS readers. I will send a free copy to four randomly-selected commenters on this post.

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My Family Financial History (As Told by My Mother)

J.D. — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 13:00:02 +0000

I’m giving a presentation at 1 p.m. this afternoon at the main downtown branch of Portland’s Multnomah County Library. I plan to cover a bit of my personal history, share some of the things I learned along the way, and offer some book recommendations before taking questions.

As part of my preparation, I asked my mother for a brief family financial history from her perspective. (I never trust my own memories — are the “facts” I recall from when I was six really reliable?) This is my mother’s story.

Steve and I met at a youth group meeting for our church, in Woodburn, Oregon, and then ran into each other at church dances in the Portland area, where we both lived. We started dating in the fall of 1967 and were married on June 18, 1968.

We lived in a small apartment in Southeast Portland for about a year, and moved into a house in the same area just before J.D. was born, in March of 1969. Steve worked as the gardener at Good Samaritan Hospital for a short time, but he had gotten a job cleaning trucks and then as a tire man at Freightliner. When J.D. was born, he decided to go to aircraft mechanic’s school at the same time.

About seven months after J.D.’s birth, I became pregnant with Jeff. At about the time of Jeff’s birth in August 1970, Steve graduated from aircraft mechanic’s school. He started work as an aircraft mechanic but after a couple of months he lost his job — he never did know why.

He had been taking flying lessons and he soloed and then got his flight instructor’s license and gave flight lessons himself. We weren’t able to make ends meet and we wanted to move to the country before the boys got very old, so he started working for a landscaper in the Canby area, where he had grown up and where his parents lived.

He didn’t enjoy the work very much but his parents had given us permission to put a mobile home on the south end of their property and so we picked one out and had it moved out there. It was just up on bricks and we used a well Steve hand-dug, which was muddy in the winter and dry in the summer. We went to a friend’s house for much of the time until we were able to dig a deep enough well.

Harvest Mills
Steve had various jobs and I was a stay-at-home mom. We had our third son, Tony, in 1972. We managed to make ends meet, but barely, until Steve started his home wheat grinder and food dryer manufacturing business in 1974. It still was difficult and we were very behind in our payments. Fortunately, we used our products to produce the food that we ate and our creditors worked with us until the time came that we were able to start really selling the grain grinders and food dehydrators under the banner of Harvest Mills.

Our company grew by leaps and bounds as we advertised in the newspaper and I gave classes and demonstrations, plus people came out to our shop that we had built and bought the wheat grinders and food dryers almost as quickly as Steve manufactured them. The competition became quite fierce, though, and we became ready to sell the business when we got an offer from a bankruptcy attorney from Utah in 1977.

The attorney was to pay us $5,000 every three months for fifteen years, for a total of $300,000. [J.D.'s note: The sale price of the business is actually a bit of a mystery. This is a best guess.] Back in those days, a couple of hundred dollars a week was enough to make ends meet, and this was a lot of money. Things looked good for a while, and Steve spent money to buy some things he’d always wanted, like a sailboat and an airplane.

Unfortunately, though, the buyer made only a few payments and then forfeited on the loan. We had to repossess the equipment and Steve once again was looking for work. This time, I took some business (10-key and accounting) courses and also looked for work part time, as Tony was in preschool and the other two were in school. We managed to get jobs and pay our bills all right then. We weren’t by any stretch of the imagination well off, however.

Custom Box Service
In 1985, Steve started his business making custom corrugated boxes, Custom Box Service. He was able to build his box-making equipment thanks to his aircraft mechanic’s training and experience and he knew of the custom niche in the market thanks to working for a couple of box manufacturers.

The business grew slowly while J.D. was in college, and I went to work full time at Farmer’s Insurance Regional Office as a text processor. I worked there for a couple of years and then developed early carpal tunnel syndrome and was able to go on to another job that didn’t require much typing. I lost that job after a couple of years and went home to work for the business.

The business continued to grow and Steve hired his nephew, and other employees followed — most particularly our sons, J.D., Jeff and Tony, at various times.

Steve had been suffering from chronic lymphocytic leukemia since the late 1980s and he passed away on 21 July 1995, ten days shy of his 50th birthday. The business was left to me and to the boys. They ran it until Tony left it to pursue other interests, and then J.D. did too. Now Jeff and his cousin are the only family members left at the box company. It’s doing alright — about breaking even for the year. The economy in our nation is in terrible shape so we can be grateful for how we are doing.

I’ve written before that our parents’ experiences with money shape our own attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. Reading Mom’s descriptions of trying to make ends meet reminded me of my own “adventures” during the mid-1990s. Just as my father spent the money he had instead of saving it, so did I — until recently. Thanks, Mom, for sharing your story!

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Ask the Readers: Planning a Cheap Road-Trip Vacation?

J.D. — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 13:00:32 +0000

Jonathan has an interesting request for Get Rich Slowly readers. He wants to make a month-long cross-country road trip next summer, and he wants to do it on the cheap. But how? He’s hoping that you can help. Here’s an abridged version of his e-mail:

I’m trying to figure out how to save money on vacation. My girlfriend and I have always had a dream of spending a month driving out to the Grand Canyon then to DC for the Smithsonian and back and stopping at all sorts of interesting sites on the way. We’re in Michigan, so the trip will probably be about 6,000 miles making room for all our random stops.

I’ve done some work in figuring out how to make this affordable, but everything adds up fast. The worst expenses are obviously gas and lodging, followed by food. We plan on camping, since it is a lot of fun and a lot cheaper than hotels. If we’re good, lunches for a week could stay under $30 — mainly sandwich stuff and snacks, but fast food will probably be tempting some days. Dinner will probably be even more expensive.

So far, I’ve added up over $1000 in expenses and we haven’t done anything yet! I would love any suggestions in lowering those expenses, and in what sort of things we could do along the way that are low budget. We hate normal touristy locations, which will hopefully help a lot in keeping the price down.

p.s. I’m considering getting some sort of mobile internet card for my laptop so we can take lots of pictures and blog the trip as we go. Any suggestions on getting a month worth of internet cheap would be great too!

I’m envious. I’ve always wanted to do this sort of thing. The older I get, the less likely it is to happen, though, so I’ve begun to live vicariously through the adventures of others. In the past, for example, I’ve enjoyed reading about The Frugal Traveler’s American road trip.

Though I don’t have any first-hand experience with this sort of travel, I have discovered a few related sites over the past year or so:

Last June, the New York Times published a list of 31 places to go this summer, though the advice is applicable to other seasons, as well. Be sure to read the 268 reader comments to find other useful info.
Roadtrip America has some expert tips on the fine art of the cheap road trip.
At Wise Bread, Jessica has some advice on how to survive a road trip. (These are more “how not to go crazy” tips than “how to save money” tips.)
I’m not a big fan of the About.com, but their America Road Trips 101 article actually contains a great collection of tips and links, including advice for finding free wireless internet connections.

Trips like this used to be commonplace, but they’ve become much less popular since the rise of cheap air travel and “destination” vacations.

Click the strip to open a larger version in a new window.

Have you ever made a cross-country sightseeing trip? Do you have experience camping for days on end? Are you an expert at eating cheaply while traveling? Do you have recommendations for low-cost points of interest across the United States? Are Jonathan’s projections realistic? How much would you budget for a trip like this?

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A Do-It-Yourself Christmas: 34 Great Gifts You Can Make Yourself

J.D. — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 13:00:59 +0000

Last month, I asked readers to share their favorite frugal Christmas ideas. You responded with over a hundred fantastic tips. One common theme for saving money and adding meaning during the holiday season was to make gifts yourself.

My wife and I are lucky to have many crafty friends. Every year, I’m delighted to see what they create for the holiday season. I drew on our own experience, pulled some of your best tips from the past, and scoured the web for new ideas, in order to produce the following mammoth list of do-it-yourself Christmas gifts. But remember: in order to complete many of these, you need to get started soon. Enjoy!

Almost everyone loves homemade truffles, says Mo. “My husband and I made them last year, and they were a big hit. I had no idea how easy to make they were, and we covered them with different kinds of crushed nuts and such. It was really fun! We then went and bought blank little white boxes and I decorated them with just some wrapping paper (glued) and ribbon. I think all together, we made about 15 boxes of truffles (9 truffles each box) for under $30. And we used good chocolate to boot!” Upside? Yum! Downside? They should be made only a short time before giving, and eaten soon after. If you’ve never made truffles before, try this recipe from Alton Brown.

JM has a great suggestion, one that many of you may have already seen: “[My mom] gives some people unbaked, made-from-scratch cookie kits. Basically she gets most of the dry ingredients to her favorite cookie recipes together, along with a mason jar, a note card, and some ‘country’ style ribbons. She then layers all the dry ingredients in the mason jar, screws on the lid and prints the recipe on the notecard in an old-fashiony looking font, and then ties it to the jar with the ribbon. The result is cool looking, because the ingredients are layered in the jar.”

Create a secret hollow book. Find a cheap musty old classic at your nearby Goodwill or used bookstore. Glue the pages together, use an X-Acto knife to hollow out the center of the book. Now the recipient can store his treasures!

Martha Stewart has a great idea: create a recipe booklet containing a collection of your favorite holiday recipes, and then include it with a small assortment of samples. “Pass your culinary traditions on to your friends.”

Live in a cold climate? Give your friends the gift of warmth with a homemade hand warmer. If you know how to make a beanbag, you know how to make a hand warmer. Use wool or cashmere or felt material, but instead of filling the bags with beans, fill them with ceramic pie weights. To use these toasty treasures, simply microwave them for a couple of minutes and then slip them in your pockets.

It’s difficult to go wrong with themed gift baskets. Did you can your own pasta sauce over the summer? Use a colander for a basket, add some garlic bulbs, gourmet noodles, and a wooden spoon — a little taste of Italy. Or consider a breakfast basket. Or a breakfast basket (syrup and pancake mix), a movie basket (popcorn, candy, and a movie rental coupon), or a gardening basket (a trowel, a gardening hat, and some packets of seeds).

If you’re artistic, GRS-reader Beck suggests giving memory drawings: “Draw a very simple black-and-white picture of a memory that you have of you and the person (e.g. me and my dad playing NES back in the day). This could be a very simple (think Shel Silverstein) drawing. Frame it and gift. The great thing about this (besides being cheap) is that you can give it multiple times to the same person. They will have a growing collection of ‘memory drawings’ from you.” Beck reports this gift is very well received by family members.

Elizabeth has another artistic idea, one that was very popular with readers when she suggested it: “I’m a graphic designer, so this year I’m creating a booklet that Photoshops my 6-year-old nephew onto cheap stock photos of world landmarks, such as the Great Wall, so it looks like he’s traveled the world.” This home-made travel brochure is perfect for adventurous young minds. (Come to think of it, I think one of those would be fun for me — and I’m no longer young…)

Give the gift of experience. The Gift Weblog suggests, “There’s nothing like giving someone the gift of experience, it is something they will always remember.” Sample gifts of experience: sky diving, scuba lessons, hot-air balloon rides, cooking school, lunch with a hero, etc.

What could be cuter than a stuffed pig? This project from Martha Stewart allows those who are handy with needlework to assemble an adorable, docile pet from felted wool, a pipe cleaner, and some cotton or polyester fill. (Crafty Daisies has instructions for making a felt penguin, and Expert Village has a video series demonstrating how to make stuffed animals.)

Build a gingerbread house. Or ten. Give them to the little kids (and the big kids) in your life. Lifehacker diva Gina Trapani has a photoset demonstrating how she put together a gingerbread house from a kit. If you bake, you can certainly build a better house from scratch. Your nieces and nephews will thank you. (And so will your brother-in-law!)

In the GRS discussion forums, Brad suggested giving the gift of time or skill. Brad has given music lessons. He has colleagues who have given bike tune-ups and wine advice. What skills do you have? Can you help somebody set up a blog? Plant a garden? Learn to change the oil in their car?

Every year, Kris looks forward to the gift from my cousin Nick. He makes her a batch of home-made almond roca. I can’t stand the stuff, but Kris eats it up. She’s in heaven for days afterward! Here’s one recipe.

One Christmas when I was a poor college student, I leafed through children’s books at the library, looking for pages and pictures that reminded me of various friends. I photocopied these pages, colored them by hand, and then framed them with construction paper. I added a little note to each friend on the back of her piece. I spent maybe $10 total for all my gifts, though it took hours of my time. That was perfect: In college, I had plenty of time, but very little money, and making these things felt like an act of love. But giving somebody a CD I bought from Amazon? Not so much.

At AskMetafilter, LadyBonita suggests making personalized calendars: “You can buy calendar blanks or use a template from a program; add pictures of things or people meaningful to the recipient; add in important dates (birthdays and anniversaries of family & friends); and maybe a special note or quote every once in a while. For parents/students you can add in the school schedule; for homeowners you can add in a home maintenance schedule; etc. for sports fans, astrology followers, on & on. To make them extra special I sometimes add little treats - a couple dollars taped to a summer date for an ice-cream treat; a coupon for free babysitting on a weekend; video & popcorn night, etc.”

Here’s another great idea from Martha Stewart: create one of several dime-store games. My grandparents had several of these modest toys when I was a boy, and they could keep me entertained for hours. The Martha Stewart site has instructions for creating six different games, toys, and puzzles.

Sick of all my Martha Stewart links? Me too. Head on over to Not Martha to learn how to make stuff, including these marble magnets. You can pick up all of the supplies at your local craft store, and are reportedly fun to make. They look fun to make — I’m tempted to do these myself. (And though I couldn’t give them as Christmas gifts, I ♥ these cups made out of bacon.)

Stephanie is an artist, and to those who appreciate hand-made gifts (not everyone does), she likes to give small paintings or or personalized gifts of art. Here’s an idea from another reader: “All the adults in my family are great cooks. Last year I made functional pottery serving bowls & utensil holders. I placed them in a basket with colorful, but inexpensive kitchen cloths, a nice set of teak utensils (purchased a set at Walmart for the cost of one at Pampered Chef), & a grocery gift card.” Do you dabble in photography? A framed print of your nephew might be the perfect gift for your sister-in-law.

One Christmas, our friend “Santa” Craig handed out a gourmet salt assortment. It wasn’t because we’d been bad, but because we love great food. Buy large containers of a variety of unique salts (you may have to visit a gourmet food store), and then divide the salts into small ziploc bags. Be sure to label the bags to to include a bit of info about each variety. (You can create similar gifts with other items, of course, tea leaves or…)

Similarly, you might create a spice sampler. Bulk spices can make an affordable and appreciated gift for anyone who loves to cook, or who is moving into a new kitchen. Don’t know which ones to choose? Find some tempting recipes that call for exotic spices, then include the recipes with the spices. Or, get creative and make a custom spice blend for a meat rub, marinade mix, salad dressing kit, dip, or seasoning (search the web for ideas).

My favorite past GRS reader suggestion comes from Amberlynn, who wrote: “We are now writing a chapter of our family history each year. We’ll pick a topic, and each family member will write about it. One person plays ‘editor’, collecting the stories, and presents them all together for Christmas. We’ve written about our favorite Christmas (seven differing perspectives on the same year), the house we grew up in, and this year we’re writing about how we met our spouse. Last year, my Mom sent out her first draft of her entire life history. This gift costs nothing, unless you choose to make fancy copies or books. It does take a little time if you want to contribute quality. It will, however, carry a lasting value unmatched by any tangible gifts we’ve exchanged, or even experiential gifts!”

One winter, my wife made felt-backed tile trivets. You can find lots of beautiful tile designs at the home-improvement store. Sometimes the end of a lot can be had at a deep discount. Using a hot-glue gun, add a layer of felt to the back of a 6×6″ (or larger) tile, and you have a useful trivet for bringing a hot dish to the table. If you drink a lot of wine, you might consider creating cork trivets.

Here’s an idea from Tanya: “This year [my sister and I] are making personalized mirrors with one word affirmations, like ‘fabulous’ and ‘gorgeous’. We started by picking up a bunch of the smallish (8×8) mirrors from Ikea, I think they are $5-6 for a four pack. My sister is obsessed with fonts, so we had some fun searching for fonts that fit the word we are going to use and the receiver of the mirror. We printed out the words to make stencils that we could cut out on contact paper. We used some glass etching glaze, left over from a candle holder project a few years ago, to etch the words on the mirrors. We added some cheap rhinestones to glitz up the mirrors for the girls and added a masculine etched pattern for the boys. We finished them off by attaching ribbon and twine so that they could be hung easily. I really like that we are giving them a reason to smile at themselves everyday when they leave for work or school.”

For several years, my wife and I gave each other love coupons. Sounds sappy, I know. But it was nice to be able to come home at the end of the day and redeem a coupon for a dinner out, or for a back rub, or for an evening watching a favorite movie.

In last month’s discussion about frugal Christmas traditions, Cobblestone offered a great idea: “For my cash hungry nephews and niece I make sure to do something creative to get the money. This year is going to be a family trivia game with questions that make them talk to other family members. It is much more interesting than a $20 bill.” Of course, it’s also possible to do this without the monetary reward.

Genevieve makes her own stationery sets to give to friends. She writes: “I make envelopes out of pretty magazine ads and then pair them with nice stationary paper that you can get cheaply by the pound from any stationary or craft store. It is a great way to recycle magazines and the resulting stationary sets have been a real hit with my friends. If the gift calls for a little extra just pair a set with an address book or a nice pen.”

Kris likes to make homemade granola year-round, but it would make a perfect Christmas gift, too. Low-cost basic ingredients turn into toasted goodness and don’t require a fancy kitchen. Granola blends can be easily customized to your tastes with add-ins like raisins, nuts, cinnamon, dried cranberries or cherries, sunflowers seeds, coconut, wheat germ, etc. Begin with a couple of mini-batches to fiddle with it to your taste. (Start with this almond maple granola. Stretch your budget even more by omitting the coconut and adding three more cups of old-fashioned rolled oats.)

Here’s another gift my wife has made in the past: teacup candles! You’ll need craft-store wicks, wax (or old candles) that can be melted down, old teacups, and maybe a fragrance or two. Pretty single teacups (with or without saucers) can often be found at thrift stores for less than a dollar. Melt the wax in a double boiler, add fragrance if desired, then support the wick standing in the teacup while carefully filling the cup with wax. As the wax cools, it will contract and form a well. You can add more melted wax of the same color or add a second shade. These are fairly easy to make, but beware cups with obvious cracking; the hot wax may cause them to shatter.

Knip has a fantastic idea for a grandparent or other older relative: a memory jar. “The most wonderful gift I’ve ever given (it’s still talked about years later) cost me almost nothing. I spent a few months contacting friends and family members and asked them to send me memories and old pictures of my grandfather. Then I wrote one memory (or printed one picture)on each of 365 business card sized pieces of cardstock. I folded each in half and secured it with a bit of tape, then placed them all in a big jar I decorated. Every morning for the next year, my grandfather would take out a paper, open it, and see what other people cherished in him. He loved it.”

Ayelet has a gift idea that’s after my own heart: “I’m really excited about my holiday gift to my fiance (will be married by the holidays)this year. We love to cook together so I’m going to sit down with him and create our first family cookbook. It’ll be something we can update as we add more recipes. This would be a good one for a big family…get everyone together for a recipe day (could be some cooking involved) and then print and bind the recipes somehow for all to have. Good for a HS senior or college student, too.”

Personal gift certificates also make great gifts. In essence, these are gifts of time. Give new parents a gift certificate for a night of baby-sitting so that they can enjoy a night on the town. Are you good with computers? Give your brother-in-law a gift certificate for free computer repairs.

Leanne has an idea that might be useful for college students looking for gifts on a budget. “I have a friend…who compiles a mixed CD every year and mails them out to all his friends. It serves as a holiday card, gift, and moment of reconnection (we get a sense of how his year has been/things he’s been dealing with or excited about based on the music he chooses) plus we get introduced to new music we might not have picked up ourselves.”

Fred Bloggs has a unique idea. He gives his friends joke boxes. These are “mostly gleanings from charity/thrift shops, picked up through the year when I see something particularly ugly or particularly good for a silly theme, and wrapped, because they don’t have to pretend to be expensive, in last year’s paper. Or sometimes one can make the jokes almost from scratch: things like knitty’s knitted womb, or my friend’s idea of a ‘rock concert’ — painted stones glued onto a ground with musical notes and dyed cotton bud mikes, that kind of thing. Someone else I know comes up with comic verses, and a token gift to illustrate the verse. Laughter’s a cheap gift, and a good one.”

You can make more than gifts. Kayla says she makes her own greeting cards: “Making your own cards is a great money-saver. I’ve been doing this for the past year. I’m a scrapbooker already (which I know can be a huge money-waster, but I try to be frugal about it). I buy boxes of 50 assorted bright-color cards at Michael’s for around $7. Then I use my leftover paper scraps and stickers to decorate them. I enjoy doing it, and everyone gets a very personalized card. I’d estimate my cards cost about 50 cents each (or less), so I’m saving at least $2 per card, usually more.” (Copperivy suggests you can make your own Christmas ornaments, too.)

Now obviously, not all of these ideas will work for every person. Some of you won’t like the idea of giving experience, or of giving food, or of giving a mixed CD. But I’ll bet there are at least three or four ideas on this list (if not more) that you can use to create your own personalized hand-made Christmas gifts for people in your life.

If you need more ideas, there are thousands of other great Christmas crafts to be found on web on sites like these:

Organized Christmas, a site designed “to help you simplify your holidays and get ready for the Christmas season.”
Make Blog, a fantastic resource for the do-it-yourself geek. Want to make a Space Invader coffee table? This is the place to look.
Buy Nothing Christmas, a site devoted to reducing the commercialism of the holiday in favor of meaning. The site features gift alternatives and a list of resources.
The Craftster holiday projects board, where you’ll find a mind-boggling range of ideas. (You could get lost in here and never find your way out!) Here’s the What are you making for Christmas 2008? thread. Puts my list to shame.

And, of course, I encourage you to share your own ideas for crafty Christmas gifts in the comments. I can’t get enough of this stuff!

I’ll leave you with a parting thought from Money and Values:

The golden rule of frugal gift-giving is to be thoughtful and personal. If your recipient knows that you put time and effort into your gift for them, and were thinking about them and what they’d like, your gift is likely to be appreciated.

Photo credits: Happy Christmas card by Lauren Manning. Homemade Christmas cards by Patterson Williams. Christmas Kisses by Joe M500. If you liked this article, please share it on del.icio.us, StumbleUpon or Digg. I’d appreciate it.

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