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It’s a sad day here at Rosings Park (as Kris and I call our half-acre). We have a big old English walnut tree that acts as the centerpiece of our yard. Unfortunately, it’s become diseased over the past few years, and is now mainly a playground for woodpeckers. Because one limb was in danger of falling onto the house, we paid an arborist to come in and lop it off. There goes our summer shade! At least the rest of the tree ought to stick around for another decade or so. (And now we have some firewood.)
It’s not cheap to have work like this done, though, and we have more home projects on the horizon. We’re both relieved to have a “home repairs” savings account for situations just like this. Next up? Replacing the gutters…
Here are some other personal finance stories from around the web:
First off, there’s an awesome discussion in the Get Rich Slowly forums about what CrankyBolt calls “personal finance gone wrong”. In this case, “gone wrong” refers to bank executives with lifestyles that cannot be supported by the proposed $500,000 salary cap for those who take bailout money. While the argument over the cap is interesting in itself, the look at lifestyle inflation is even more so. Frozen hot chocolate?!? And I was worried about an extra teaspoon…
Donna Freedman has graduated from MSN’s Smart Spending blog to a full-fledged column at MSN Money called “Living With Less”. In her most recent article, she challenges readers to take the brown-bag challenge. She wants readers to carry lunch to work for a month, add up the savings, and then pass along advice. (Because I work from home, nearly every day is a brown-bag day for me.)
At The Simple Dollar, Trent recently bought three $120 light bulbs (?!?!?). But these aren’t any ordinary light bulbs. These are super fancy LED light bulbs! He used them to compare the quality and cost of LED bulbs vs. CFL bulbs vs. incandescent bulbs. The winner? CFL bulbs, and by a mile.
Finally, as a certified geek, how can I not link to “What would Bilbo do?” over at Pimp Your Finances? David has drawn 14 money lessons from The Hobbit, and while the idea is gimmicky, it’s gimmicky in a good way. This is a fun article.
Oh wait — one more. Kevin Kelly has a great article about Amish hackers. They take DIY to the next level! This may be my favorite article I’ve read so far in 2009. It’s fascinating.
This article is about Spare Change Wednesday, 11th February 2009 (by J.D. Roth)
February 11th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
Rosings Park as in Pride and Prejudice?
Good links, and yes, the hobbit financial lessons were gimmicky, but I’ve seen much worse in the gimmick category.
Also made me think of timeless themes - in the way that people appreciate Shakespeare or Dickens - I started reading Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens this week and the back cover refers to “in the 1860s the city was aflame with spiralling financial speculation”.
February 11th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
RPK wrote: Rosings Park as in Pride and Prejudice?
Indeed! When we moved in, there were over 120 rose bushes here. (Now there are about 60.) Also, we’re both litgeeks. Seemed like the perfect name.
February 11th, 2009 at 5:49 pm
I cannot fathom how 500,000 a year could be too little to live on a year. Especially since it will take me about 17 years to make that amount. Of course, it would be difficult to give up frozen hot chocolate!
February 11th, 2009 at 6:11 pm
We have had a problem with a sick pecan tree in our front yard. An arborist estimated it had about 5 years left. He recommended that we clear off one of the weaker limbs of the old tree and plant a new tree in the sunny spot left over. That way, the baby tree would get a head start before our big tree died.
February 11th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
I love that article about the Amish hackers. The chart at the end, where they measure how long it takes the Amish to adopt a new technology was interesting — about 50 years behind us.
There are certain ways to adapt that concept to non-Amish people. For example, waiting a few years (or months) before buying into the Next Big Thing means that prices will go down and the bugs will be worked out — like DVD players. Now you can get one for cheap. When they first came out, they cost a bundle. What else can we learn from this?
February 11th, 2009 at 7:42 pm
Frozen.
Hot.
Chocolate.
I seriously wish to look into actually making this stuff.
February 12th, 2009 at 3:28 am
$500,000 a year’s being too little is not entirely unreasonable, if they’ve set up their life with the expectation that their current salary would continue. You probably wouldn’t easily be able to take an unexpected ~75%-or-more cut in pay without a significant impact on your finances either. There are certain obligations (mortgages, expensive private school tuitions for your kids, car loans) that are simply not easily unwound.
February 12th, 2009 at 3:56 am
I’m actually from Guatemala and I always say that my country is “about 50 years behind the US.” Although I mean that culturally more than technologically.
February 12th, 2009 at 4:19 am
Heh. You named your property. We’ve talked about doing the same thing, but haven’t come up with a name that we like. I’m in favor of “The FiveCentNickel Dude Ranch,” but my wife isn’t a fan.
February 12th, 2009 at 6:03 am
Thank you very much for the link! Or should I say, “Thag you very buch.”
I’m glad you liked my Hobbit-centric take on personal finance. It’s always fun when you can combine two things you’re passionate about.
February 12th, 2009 at 6:21 am
I’m currently re-reading Pride and Prejudice, so your estate’s name made me laugh.
February 12th, 2009 at 6:37 am
Frozen hot chocolate is really really good, though. Not as an everyday thing, but it’s a good treat for under $10 that can be shared with another person.
I also see the point about taking a 75% pay cut at any level being tough. It’s not like they can sell their multimillion dollar houses for what they want to, and they don’t want to stop the expensive schools or cars or hired help, etc. However, I have no sympathy at all for them, they didn’t live within their means and they didn’t do a good job at their work. But I also have no sympathy for people who took out a 0% down ARM mortgage when they knew they couldn’t make the payments and just assumed they could keep borrowing more and refinancing. Same basic thing as the execs, greed overload.
February 12th, 2009 at 7:16 am
I thought Serendipity was closed after two health dept visits- for roach/vermin infestion- seriously. I have had the $7.50 hot chocolate(price 7 years ago) at Angelina in Paris shared with my daughter- so who am I to talk?
I know people who will tell you that private school is a necessity even while living in the best school districts(I know because I have friends who do it and say it). I don’t know about NYC- but around here- it is a choice- I know lots of kids who went to public school, didn’t go to $200 an hour SAT tutoring or $150 an hour individual math tutoring(my daughter went to a before school class at her middle school)that these kids had- and they got into college too.
February 12th, 2009 at 7:24 am
@ Andrea: it was closed for I think 2 weeks over a year ago. It’s been open since. And vermin are a fact of life in NYC, unfortunately. They are everywhere!
A approx. $9 dessert should not be a necessary everyday thing. But as a treat every so often I think it’s fine if you aren’t using a credit card that has a balance on it. The stuff like the $25,000 hot chocolate is just a publicity stunt, I doubt they sell many of these at all, other than a photo op for someone wanting to end up in the society pages in the paper.
February 12th, 2009 at 9:17 am
FWIW, LED bulbs are available for about 1/10th the cost of the ones used in Trent’s experiment. One could easily purchase overpriced incandescent or Florescent bulbs and reach the same conclusions.
February 12th, 2009 at 5:18 pm
My in-laws’ home is in a white oak forest. Most of the trees succumbed to disease or lightning (some were over 2,000 years old) but the cutting down of the remainder could have been an article on frugality in itself.
The first time, FIL hired a fly-by-night guy who based his small fee on being able to resell the wood. He refused to cut the trunk into small pieces and he tossed a huge chunk in his pick-up bed, then proceeded to pull the truck apart by trying to drive away with the bumper dragging on the group. The contract was already signed, so I’m betting he ended up losing money having to put a new transmission in his truck.
The second time, they looked for a more professional operation, and ended up having to hire a crane from out-of-state because the tree overhung the house. FIL said it cost more than any car he’d ever owned. The local paper even came to take pictures.
February 12th, 2009 at 5:28 pm
Oh, and as far as the NYT article? Boo freaking hoo. I can’t believe they’re even wasting ink on those jerks.
February 13th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
Made the switch to CFL when costco had a sale about 6 months ago. I have 30 bulbs in my house and had them all replaced for <$20. Can’t really tell if my power bill went down since I had just moved in, but I’m sure it has. I even have some of the “daylight” ones in my office room that I enjoy.
February 14th, 2009 at 6:59 pm
Burning walnut generates a very fine ash that will spread out of your fireplace and all through your house if you look at it funny. Use that free firewood with care.
February 14th, 2009 at 9:18 pm
FYI:
Since you picked “Rosings Park”, just thought that you would like this (or be horrified by it):
http://www.chroniclebooks.com/index/main,book-info/store,books/products_id,7847/title,Pride-and-Prejudice-and-Zombies/