Every month, my wife and I track how much time and money we spend growing food. This is the report for October 2009. (Here are the results for 2008.)
As those of you who follow me on Twitter already know, it’s been a l-o-n-g Saturday filled with all sorts of misadventures. Murphy’s Law has been in full effect this Halloween. I’d meant to post this month-end garden summary around noon, but now will have to do. In fact, there wouldn’t be a summary at all except that my wife sat down and wrote it for me. Here’s what Kris has to say about the month of October…
October arrived with the typical cold and damp, bringing Portland’s garden season to a close. During the fall and winter we’ll enjoy the hearty foods we’ve packed away from this year’s crops, until by early spring we’re ready to begin anew. We’ve been eating fresh fruit and vegetables from our garden [...]

This post is from GRS staff writer April Dykman. It’s also a part of National Save for Retirement Week
A few weeks ago, J.D. asked me to consider writing a post on retirement for National Save for Retirement Week. As it was intended, National Save for Retirement Week made me reflect on the state of my and my husband’s retirement accounts.
Currently, our retirement savings are a tad pitiful. I have a 403(b) through my employer, who contributes to my account whether or not I do. After five years of employment, I’ll be eligible for a match. I also have a Roth IRA, though I stopped automatic contributions when we buckled down to pay off the credit cards and the auto loan. My husband doesn’t have a Roth IRA or 401(k), as it’s not offered through his employer.
Retirement is important to us, but we decided to defer significant saving for retirement until we were out of debt and [...]

This article is by GRS staff writer Adam Baker. Currently, Baker is fat and in debt.
We all know how to rent a typical, cookie-cutter apartment or house. Find a contact number. Set-up a walk through. Fill out the application. Pay your fee and wait for a response.
But sometimes typical just doesn’t cut it.
Maybe you’re looking to secure a unique apartment in an irresistible location. Or you might be seeking the only house for rent in a certain school district. Heck, you may even find yourself in New Zealand needing a short-term (3-month) lease when everyone wants a 6-month minimum.  *raises hand*
Whatever your motivation, here are nine ways you can knock the socks off your next landlord or property manager:

Create a Rental Résumé. Treat this like you would a job search. The majority of applications are going to ask for the same information. Put together a basic one- or two-page document containing this commonly requested information. Even if the landlord or property manager makes [...]

This article is GRS staff writer Adam Baker. In addition to his work at Get Rich Slowly, Baker blogs over at Man Vs. Debt, where he publicly tracks his spending on a daily basis.
Everywhere I turn, people are speculating on whether housing prices have bottomed. While I personally feel things are looking better, I’m never a fan of trying to time markets. Attempting this often encourages people to make large financial decisions before they are fully prepared or informed. Buying homes in haste is one of the factors that got us into our current financial crisis.
Luckily, there may be a silver bullet for those of you who aren’t willing to rush to buy but are still considering a home purchase within the next couple of years. Your solution may take the form of a lease option.
What the heck is a lease option?
The first thing you need to know about lease options is that everything is [...]

Every month, my wife and I track how much time and money we spend growing food. This is the report for September 2009. (Here are the results for 2008.)
After a long productive summer, our September in the garden was kind of anticlimactic. Sure, we continued to harvest our home-grown food, but neither of us was particularly “in” to the garden this month. It was a chore instead of an obsession. September can be that way sometimes.
Still, there’s always something happening with our home food production. This month:

We’ve been harvesting lots of apples and plums. It took four or five years, but our Jonathan apple tree has finally turned productive. We pulled down nearly 40 pounds of apples this year! And the plum tree was loaded.

The blackberries are still producing, but we’re sick of them. I can hardly believe I’m saying that (blackberries are my favorite), but I’ve had enough berries. And besides, they’re not very [...]

This post is from GRS staff writer April Dykman.
My husband and I are in the early stages of building a house. As we modify our floor plans, the amount we’ll need to borrow to build is on our minds. It’s probably going to be the most expensive thing we’ll ever purchase, and we need to decide what we want to borrow and what loan term we’ll want.
The main differences between 15- and 30-year loans are straightforward. Fifteen-year loans have higher monthly payments, but you pay less interest, while 30-year terms have lower monthly payments, but you pay significantly more for the house in the long run. As with most areas of personal finance, however, this decision is about more than just the math. There are other important considerations, such as retirement savings, risk tolerance, and discipline.
First, let’s take a look at the hard figures.
Crunching the numbers
Let’s say that a 30-year-old borrower is buying a house [...]