At my house, we are by no means super-health food addicts.  We don’t have the most wonderful diet, and I think once I have more disposable income (i.e., I’m not paying 95% of my income to pay down my mortgage by making 5 times the monthly payment), I will probably try to purchase more healthy food.  There are a few places where I draw the line:

1.  DH will not eat a lot of oil or egg yolks.  It doesn’t matter what studies I show him (that egg yolks are or are not bad for you), he won’t eat them.  We have a lot of egg-white omelets.

2.  We don’t buy desserts.  There is something more natural about eating homemade chocolate chip cookies vs. storebought cookies.  I know chocolate chip cookies aren’t good for me (healthy), but if I load them up with good stuff (like ranger cookies - oatmeal and nuts), they’re a little better.  And they probably outpace crappy granola bars from the store.  Plus, I know there’s not preservatives in my cookies.

3.  We eat a lot of beans.  Beans are a perfect food.  Luckily, DH’s family eats a ton of beans, so it’s very popular in our house to supplement main dishes with kidney beans.

4.  We eat a lot of fruit.  Fruit is actually cheaper than fruit treats, plus it’s way more satisfying.  Fruit can be bought for cheap per serving, so don’t think it is more expensive to eat healthfully.

Those are the basics, in my mind.

What’s your take on healthy eating vs. cheap eating?  Do you trust restaurant food to be healthy?  Do you think fruit is expensive?

DH and I had a wonderful trip to the grocery store the other day, and I had many things on my list.  Imagine my surprise, when I had a look at the oil - OLIVE OIL!  It was $9.12 for a quart and something.  I thought I was going to throw up, especially since we use olive oil in a lot of things now, and everyone knows olive oil is wonderfully healthful for you.  Now, what is a girl to do?

Where are some cheap sources of olive oil?  What type of oil do you use in your recipes?  What’s the highest-priced thing on your grocery list?

DS had a friend over the other night for a sleepover, and it was seriously hilarious to hear how my message comes out of DS’s mouth.  DS kept explaining to his friend that we do things so that we can save money (DS is ten).  I understand that maybe he is a little embarrassed that we have store brand items or maybe that we do things differently, but it’s not going to kill him.  He definitely understands the why - he explained everything very logically and well.  My brainwashing is working…

The friend’s response to everything was, “Oh, my dad is rich.  He’s got $3000 in the bank, so we can buy anything we want.”  I’m sure that he was told this or overheard it, so I’m not really sure of the context of this particular sentence, but as soon as the friend left, I explained to DS that $3k is definitely not equivalent to rich, and that I didn’t ever want him to think that.  I went over it as a general topic, and then I explained that the $500 that DS has painstakingly saved is half of one thousand dollars, so he’ll have $3000 himself before he knows it.  I also explained that $3000 would only run our household for about 5 or 6 months if we weren’t working, and it definitely wasn’t enough to make him rich.

Have you had an experience like this?  How do you explain “normal” kids with financially crazy parents to your kids?

I have not been able to make myself go back to a credit card since I got out of the first debt when I was out of college, but if you are interested in getting a credit card to earn points or mileage, I can see how it would be a good deal.  There are many credit card applications at Request Credit.  The Request Credit site has a credit card news section if you’re interested in news about credit cards.  They warn that you should not apply for a credit card that you’re not going to get (i.e. make sure you know how good your own credit is before applying for a  prime rate credit card for arbitrage or 0% balance transfer).

They also have a help center to help you if you have actual questions about credit cards or the credit card offers shown on their site.  I also liked that they had credit cards for our Canadian neighbors.  Their site is well organized and can also get you 0% credit cards, if you’re looking for a balance transfer to get your interest as low as possible for a payoff.  You should be careful about getting credit cards, and if you can get one with a 0% interest rate, you can use this to pay off the high interest credit cards much more quickly than with the higher rate.
 

Brooke was compensated to write this review of Requestcredit.com.

Here are the next five sites in the blogroll and my favorite articles:

Moneyning motivated me with his blog about competition.  What do we do when there isn’t anyone else who really does what we do?  Who do you compete with?

CNN’s Money page had an article about 6 ways you’re wasting gas.  I don’t do these things; how do I convince DH to do the same?

mm at PFBlog gave a portfolio update back in April.  It’s good to see someone closer to a mil than I showing the allocations.  I look forward to that day.

Ali Hale at Pick the Brain gave us an article about shaping up and feeling better.  I always remind myself that the president of the United States has exercise built into his schedule, so why don’t I?  It’s not like I’m more important than he is.

Piggy Bank Blues had an article about New Yorkers’ inferiority complex.  I especially liked when she referred to all the consumer items that people could feel that they need ($500 strollers, clothes, etc).  I’m so glad that I’m in a place where those things don’t matter.

WML-Net Articles

The First Steps to Investing @ Dividends for Life

Heat Wave @ Her Every Cent Counts

Upside Down Car Loan @ How I Save Money

My Emergency Plan A @ Just Personal Finance

How Passive is Your Passive Income? @ Living Off Dividends

Book Review:  A Million Bucks by 30 @ Saving for Home

Carnivals

Rich Life Carnival

Festival of Frugality

Carnival of Money Stories

Carnival of Personal Finance

Money Hacks Carnival

20 Something Finances

I was brought up in a family that is infatuated with garage sales.  I used to secretly love going to garage sales and auctions with my mom.  But here’s the problem:  you’re buying stuff.  Cheap stuff, but still, you’re buying stuff.  And, if you’re buying stuff, I’m assuming that you’re bringing that stuff home.  Have you ever gone to a garage sale with a list?  Have you ever gone in search of that one thing?  I haven’t, not to a garage sale.  Here are some times that I think it is okay to garage sale:

1.  You’re furnishing your first apartment.  You have nothing.  And I’m not lying - nothing.

2.  No one has given you the items.  You have put out the word to everyone you know that you need an item, and no one has responded in kind. 

3.  You’ve waited at least 3 months on freecycle and no one has offered you the item you need.  If you put out a bulletin on freecycle, you’d be surprised what things you can get for free.  And you won’t end up with a bunch of crap that is just to clutter up your home.

4.  You don’t have a single piece of clutter in your home.  My mom seriously has rooms that we can’t go into in her house because they’re full of priceless antiques.  What’s the point?  I certainly don’t know.  I don’t want the crap, and I don’t want the money that comes from selling antiques after my mom’s gone.  I just want her to live comfortably.

So there are the only reasons I think it would be okay to go garage saling.  I still see garage sale signs and almost veer off the road, but I avoid with the best of them.  I’m doing better, and I don’t have anything in my house that I don’t need or won’t use, or was an impulse purchase - even at a cheap price, it’s still money out of my wallet.

I’ve got around 9 more house payments and I’m free from my mortgage.  The thing is, I’m kind of interested in investing, and I know I will be able to more than max out DH’s and my 401k and Roths.  So I’m looking at some investing.  I’ve gotten a few books from the library, but what I’m really looking for is some “on the street” experience with investing.  Luckily, I’m a member of the Wealth, Money and Life Network, so Dividends 4 Life and Living off Dividends can help me, but I’d also like to know if any of my frugal readers is out of debt and already on to investing.  I know that I’m good at saving up the money, but the question is Where to start with investing.

Any advice is appreciated.  Stay tuned in February or March to find out how I invest my first money outside a retirement vehicle!

Some guy at work put a full-size Paul Bunyan (I don’t know) style bed for sale for $250 on our bulletin board.  I told him I’ve got $100 budgeted for our guest room and I would come get it from him if he can’t sell it.  DH is all worried that I’m going to offend him by lowballing his asking price.  I don’t really understand this state of mind and why people think it is offensive to ask for a lower price.

Have you ever lowballed a price and gotten what you wanted for really cheap?  Is this a dirty trick?  Am I being too cheap?

Stay tuned to see if I get the bed…

If you keep your home clean on a regular basis, i.e. vacuumming, wiping off counters, etc., it will stay nicer longer and you will have an easier time selling it.  Here are some quick things you could even do on weeknights (!) to keep your house in tiptop shape:

1.  Keep the cobwebs away.  Use a broom to keep the cobwebs gone.

2.  Dust the corners and crevices.  Dust builds up in these areas and looks dingy.

3.  Vacuum.  Just do it.  Carpet gets matted down over time if you leave it be.

4.  Clean toilets and floors in bathrooms.  Once toilets get to a certain point, it take some strong chemicals to clean them.  Get to them early and often and you won’t have such a problem.  Floors (ceramic tile) are almost maintenance-free, but you can keep dust out of the corners if you keep them clean biweekly.

Just a few minutes out of your weekend or weekday can keep your house in much better shape.  You will also feel better.

I had really never played backgammon until I was asked to review Backgammon Prime’s page this week.  I had a look at their website and I was impressed with how many guides and rules are involved in the game.  Did you know, for example, that in online backgammon, the player that actually makes the table gets to pick which rules the players play by?  That was interesting to me…since whenever we play games at home, it always seems like my sister knows all the tricky rules – that help her.  Anyway, Backgammon Prime has online backgammon for those of you interested in playing.  Also, in the Backgammon Room, they have 14 languages available for anyone interested in playing backgammon online.  Another great site was One on One Backgammon, where they have tons of articles and sources for you to learn backgammon rules.  I think if you’re looking to save money by playing backgammon at home, this would be an excellent site for you to learn all the ins and outs, but if you’re a betting person, these sites could also help you out.  You can play at their sites against many people all over the world.  Check out their sites to learn more about how to play backgammon and have some competition.
 

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