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Whew! It took a long time — nine days instead of the scheduled seven — but I finally finished the frugality chapter for my book. Do you know how difficult it is to compress that topic into a single chapter? It’s worth an entire book by itself!
The version I just submitted to my editor is 11,643 words and includes April’s should I buy it? flowchart. I expect the published version to be significantly shorter, but we’ll see.
Though I’ve been writing nearly non-stop for the past week, I have managed to collect more articles than usual to share. Rather than provide extended commentary, I’m just going to bullet-point the good stuff today:
- The Consumerist has a story how Radio Shack charges 24 times more for the same product than the dollar store next door. You should comparison shop whenever possible, folks.
- The Art of Manliness (still one of my favorite blogs) explains how to change your motor oil. This is something of a lost art. I used to do this on my first two cars, but haven’t done it myself in 15+ years. Have you?
- The Simple Dollar just celebrated its third blogiversary. To mark the occasion, Trent listed ten things he’s learned about money and life since he started the site. Good stuff.
- Baker doesn’t just write for Get Rich Slowly. He also has his own blog. Or does he? Over at Man vs. Debt, guest author Jenny Newcomer posted a great story about how she paid off $15,000 in nine months by selling stuff on eBay.
- Did you know Goodwill offers on-line shopping? ShopGoodwill.com features the good stuff donated to Goodwill thrift sores. You can browse and bid on art, antiques, and collectibles. Cool beans.
- Wojciech from Fiscal Fizzle seems to have a permanent spot on these round-ups! This week, he’s written about how to send the SWOT on your money, where SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Wojciech explains how to use this framework to tackle your personal finances.
- Lastly, I wanted to point out that Kiplinger.com has finally re-vamped their website. It’s no secret that I hated their previous layout. It was an abomination. The new site is much more user-friendly.
Before I start on the next chapter of my book (Chapter 6: Boosting Income), here are some recent personal finance carnivals. These round-ups are great ways to explore other money blogs:
- Money Crashers hosted a spooky Carnival of Personal Finance #228.
- PT Money curated this week’s Carnival of Money Stories.
- My Journey to Millions presented Carnival of Debt Reduction #215.
- And Mike from Gather Little by Bittle rounded up Festival of Frugality #201.
Have a good evening everyone. I’ll see you in the comments of April’s post tomorrow morning…
This article is about Spare Change Wednesday, 4th November 2009 (by J.D. Roth)
November 4th, 2009 at 4:52 pm
Awesomeness! A permanent spot on anything from GRS is an honor.
November 4th, 2009 at 5:47 pm
writing my dissertation was all-encompassing for months. i empathize.
November 4th, 2009 at 6:03 pm
Good luck on the next chapter, JD. As for changing my own oil, it certainly stimulates the manliness feelings, but doesn’t seem to provide much of a time or monetary benefit to me anymore.
November 5th, 2009 at 4:05 am
There’s a lot of power in compression.
I think a lot of the world’s best info is spread over threads and heads or time and space, so congrats on squishing the topic into a chapter and upping the density ante.
I’m a fan of bullet points and compressed value. Nothing beats a bird’s-eye view and it’s a great way to see the lay of the land.
November 5th, 2009 at 5:56 am
I have a 2006 Honda Civic. I’ve always put synthetic oil in it. Most oil change places want to charge $60 to change it with synthetic, but the oil change special at my local chain auto parts store only charges $25 for an oil filter and 5 quarts of full synthetic (I only need 4 for this car).
I save $35 every time I do it, but the satisfaction of knowing that I didn’t forget to tighten the drain plug is even more valuable.
By the way, the placement of the filter and the oil drain plug on ‘06 and newer Civics is very convenient.
November 5th, 2009 at 8:20 am
One of my goals is to learn to change my own oil, so that post is very timely. Thanks and good luck on the book!
November 5th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
Just a note on the oil changing — yes, I know how. Yes, I have done it in the past decade. No, I haven’t done it recently. I get my oil changed by the same independent mechanic that does my “major service” on the car; I want him to have a chance to look for other things failing on the car, and catch them earlier. I don’t work on cars for a living, I trust him to note the early stages of things failing and advise which I can delay and which should be done now. Pro-actively fixing the water pump is cheaper than letting it go and the motor overheating. Knowing that my shocks are leaking is good, but they can wait until ride quality/performance suffers - we’re watching them.
November 6th, 2009 at 7:18 am
I do a lot of small maintenance on my car but not oil changes. For $50/year someone else will do it and dispose of the oil appropriately. I do not have to learn how to do it, get toold & clothing, and - most importantly - do not have to take the 4 hrs it would take to dispose of the oil legally and cleanly.
I’d like to offer a modification to the “comparison shop whenever possible” rule. Comparison shop till you learn what a good price is. Then decide how much extra time you want to spend on getting the absolute best price. But man! A 24x price difference? Ouch!
November 6th, 2009 at 8:40 am
shop good will — awesome and addictive. It seems so much more managable than EBay…. I just hope it doesn’t get too popular!
November 8th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
Changing my own oil ended up costing me almost two hundred dollars. I’ll let the shop do it, thanks.
My car is one of the two worst models of all time for poor design and oil changing PITA (per the mechanic, I wouldn’t know such a thing on my own).
I can fit my hand in to get at the filter, but I’m not strong enough to twist it off. My husband is strong enough, but his arm is too big. There’s no room to fit a tool.
I ended up punching a hole in the filter and racing the car to the mechanic before it completely drained, making a mess of their lot and owing a fortune in clean-up costs. NEVER again will I DIY on my car.