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Here are some recent stories I liked from the Money Blog Network (and other personal finance bloggers):
- I’ve written about my quest for paperless personal finance. At 43 Folders, Ryan Norbauer has a guide to a (mostly) paperless life. I’m still enamored with the paperless concept, but actually changing how I do things has proved to be something of a problem. I have familiar routines. Changing these is difficult, so I’m stuck in some sort of half-paper/half-paperless limbo. I’ll get there…
- Jim at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity writes that you are a business — act like one! I think this is an interesting metaphor that can help some people overcome poor personal finance habits. Free Money Finance has a literal example of a person who became a business: one of his readers shares how she learned to make a fortune as a clown/balloon artist. This woman has a medical degree, but gave up a career as a doctor in order to do balloon art instead. I love this story.
- The Christmas shopping season is fast approaching. (It’s actually here, if you go by the displays in the stores.) That means it’s time for personal finance bloggers to offer their seasonal advice. At All Financial Matters, guest-poster Meg writes ’tis the season to be frugal, offering six suggestions for sticking to your holiday budget. The Mighty Bargain Hunter also has his 2007 holiday shopping survival guide. Lastly, Jonathan at My Money Blog asks, “How do you budget for holiday spending?“
- Nickel has some solid advice on funding an IRA when you’re not sure you can afford it. And NCN has some revealing charts that explore what if you make maximum contributions to your retirement plans. These sorts of things always remind me how important it is to start saving now rather than waiting another year or two.
- Finally, Consumerism Commentary looks at 8 secret credit scores you don’t know about.
More later. Right now I’m off to see Blade Runner in the theater! (Some time I should write about the joys of seeing classic films on the big screen. It’s worth every penny to me.)
This article is about Spare Change Sunday, 11th November 2007 (by J.D. Roth)
November 11th, 2007 at 11:15 am
Oh, I’d love to run Voight Kampff on you, J.D., as only a replicant could hold down a full-time job and run GRS at the same time.
November 11th, 2007 at 6:52 pm
My frugal gift trick: always be on the lookout for the Absolute Perfect Gift. I feel weird giving gifts I know aren’t right, and spend more on them to make up for it. If I have scented bath products, it’ll be a ton of them; if I have exactly the right tiny wind-up music player, it doesn’t matter that it’s only five dollars. Don’t make up gift quality with gift expense.
November 12th, 2007 at 8:42 am
The best way to save money on christmas gifts is to make your own. We did this with bird houses and saved $100 on about 4 gifts. Or shop sales (people don’t know it was on sale). Or just get a gift card (it saves you time which is money as you should already know). Also for kids if they are young (0-4) you could get them a bond or similar small investment of aroun $20 that in by their college years will be about $40.
November 13th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
Why do you give Christmas (or whatever holiday) gifts?
No. Seriously. Think about it.
If you only give gifts that you want to give, to the people you want to give to, then you may very likely end up spending less and enjoying it more.
Now, think about timing. Our culture preaches that you should Get Ready For Christmas Early.
Why? Because it’s more convenient for stores, for one thing. And if you’re shipping things, shipping early gets it there “on time”, right?
I married a man who was born on December 22nd. He’s really tired of Christmas-themed birthday celebrations. And that’s when I remembered something I learned in my Episcopal Catechism class:
The Christmas Season lasts TWELVE DAYS.
Christmas is Dec 25th. It ENDS on January 5th, eve of the Feast of the Epiphany.
I no longer try to get “everything done” by December 24th. I don’t even START preparations until after hubby’s birthday. We visit parents and friends during those 12 days, taking the small gifts we’ve selected or made, and enjoy ourselves.
And yes, we DO enjoy Christmas….and since we avoid malls and stores and so on from November on, we aren’t sick and tired of Christmas before it even starts.
November 20th, 2007 at 9:29 pm
On the extreme, getting most things in our life to be paperless may still be a big trouble, because some of the frugal living related requirement are still somewhat relying on paper use.
We still take shopping or credit card recipe. For the rests, like tissue products, it is still a product of paper industry, so for me, it also still is long way to go to paperless limbo, but I’m working on it also. The main trouble is the fact that recycle paper are usually more expensive than usual ones, and that is not good for us who like to have more dollar inside our wallet.