Dollar Frugal

Today I checked out a site for our United Kingdom friends at money.co.uk.  This site is chock-full of information and I found myself lost in it for hours.  The site is extremely navigable and the only reason why I spent so much time there was the vast abundance of information.

I think my favorite feature was the weekly savings tips email.  You can subscribe to their email alerts and they send you the weekly ideas for such wonderful items as cheap hotel rooms, low-rate credit cards, free deals, low-fare flights, free and low-cost medical care, etc.  I’m jealous that we don’t have such a comprehensive email system in the U.S.  These emails are secure, they are easy to unsubscribe, and there is an average of one email per week.  If there is no information, they won’t send you anything.  This is an improvement on information just for information’s sake.  The weekly tips page says you can even benefit from their information if you think you don’t have any money to save or invest.  We all know that once you start to follow these tips, you will realize that we all have money to save.

The site also offers information on credit cards.  Although I tell my readers that I steer clear of credit cards myself, it is very possible to find credit cards here to do the old credit card arbitrage deal.  The Money Credit Card site offers the top ten credit cards right on the front page, and then you can use the information to compare rates, etc.  I think if you are at a level where you can compare the rates on credit cards, you probably are more in control than I was when I had credit card problems.  Just remember to stay in control.  This is important, as you can use their site to find the best deals.  The site also offers a credit card news tab on this page.  This tab offers insight into the credit card world to keep you better-informed.

I have told people at this site several times to compare insurance, and the Money webpage gives you exactly the tools to do that.  If you click on the insurance tab, they offer several options from educating yourself to comparing costs so that you can save a ton of money.  You can compare car, home, vehicle, pet, or even travel insurance.  They even have news for each of these different types of insurance.

Sorry for being “out” for the last couple weeks.  Without further adieu, here’s the links for the week from the blogroll:

SVB talked about lost money at Digerati Life.  I hate even thinking about this type of thoughts, because I become obsessive, but it’s good to be aware…

Dough Roller talked about HUD homes.  I had no idea we could find free info about these homes without even visiting a government office.  A very good resource.

Financial Blogger talked about bond ladders.  A CD ladder could be built in the same manner.

Andy wrote about his Maya coming back from Singapore.  Great stories.

Frugal Dad wrote about making our income more passive.  There are some good ideas here.

Wealth, Money and Life Network Articles

Progress Update @ Dividends 4 Life

Moving on Down @ Her Every Cent Counts

CVS Aug 1 Deals @ How I Save Money

The Prodigal Monkey Has Returned @ Just Personal Finance

Top 5 Greatest Investment Authors of All Time @ Living Off Dividends

Stupid Tax @ Saving for Home

Have a great week!

Last week, we talked about the first part of dieting - keeping a food diary.  If you keep a food diary, it’s like you’re accountable, and you will automatically eat less junk food.

I’ve found that another option that helps me is portion control.  If we let ourselves have the thing that we want, diets aren’t so bad.  Even if it’s just a bite, just to have a taste, usually that’s enough to make me realize that I just wanted that - a taste.

In the U.S., we have a problem with portion control.  All of our portions are currently being made into sizes for giants, and if we just would adjust them down, we would be in good shape.  And save money!

Many diets work off this particular idea - think of the “healthy” TV dinners.  When you open them, they’re anemic versions of the regular TV dinners.  Well, actually, they’re probably regular portion sizes, but we’ve just gotten so used to our huge portion sizes that we can’t imagine that those sizes are normal.

Once you’ve gotten used to eating less, you’ll have a better idea when you’re full.  It’s hard at first (about the first 3 days), but it gets much easier once you’ve passed through that threshhold.

What do you do to diet more cheaply?  Is it really that hard to control your portions?

Photo credit:  atconc

It turns out that you don’t need to fork over tons of money just to get skinny!  It’s mostly about making yourself have a conscience about what you’re eating.

According to the Chicago Tribune, a study showed that people that kept food and activity journals lost twice as much weight as those that just dieted and exercised.

I’ve been keeping a food journal for the past three days, and let me tell you -it’s been working.  When I consider “cheating” and remember I have to write it up, I just don’t do it.  It’s good.

What do you do to save money while dieting?  Are there some better cheaper ways to diet?

Good morning!  I just wanted to let everyone know that I’m sorry I’ve been gone these last few weeks.  I will be back to my regular posting schedule by next week.

Thanks for your patience.

Good morning, my frugal friends, it’s time to wake up!  Each and every one of us has probably been through a similar experience with a day that we realized that it was time to stop spending like we had no limit to our incomes.  This is an important point of change in our young lives where we become more mature and decide to take responsibility for our choices and “make it better.”

For me, this important rite of passage happened early - super early.  I had just wrecked a car and gotten married.  I owed money for the car and had a lot of credit card debt.  I had a bit of a panic moment when I realized that I couldn’t cover the payments that they wanted me to make on that car and also the credit card minimum payments!

What was your “wake-up call” moment?  When did you realize that you couldn’t cover unlimited purchases and had to quit your debting lifestyle?

Photo credit: DHDesign

Okay, so you’re frugal with your money, but what about your time?  How many times have you gotten to the end of a day and realized that you need to do a “few more things” before you can go to sleep?  How many times have you found yourself at work wasting time by talking to people that don’t add any value to your life, or better yet, degrade your quality of life by bringing you down and making you not want to be there!?!?

Time is money.  Better yet, time is worth more than money, because there’s no way for us to compound our time.  We can’t invest our time in something easy so that later on we produce a ton more time.  Your youth and your work time are limited.

I have a set of headphones that I put on at work so that I can listen to something else than the stories being told all around me and/or the garbage that wastes my time.

What do you do to grab hold of your time?  What are you doing to make the most of your time?  How do you stay “on task?”

Photo credit:  Natmandu

Happy Wednesday!  Here are the next 5 blogs in the blogroll:

The Baglady’s dad writes the latest segment about his first years in the U.S.  We can learn so much about frugality from immigrants.

Tim Ferriss wrote the Margin Manifesto.  Great ideas here about how to increase your “abilities.”

Budget Babe has some great news over at her blog.  I’m so proud of her for becoming a vice president at her company.  That is quite a feat!

Emily wrote about some tips to increase your productivity.  I sincerely believe in the sleep one.  With no sleep, I turn into a horrible person.

Grant wrote about true costs of increased gas prices.  What’s your tipping point to stop driving your own car and carpool or look for alternative methods?

Wealth, Money and Life Articles

The Financial Crisis Heats Up! @ D4L

Live Within Your Means @ Her Every Cent Counts

Winner of the Gas Card and Happy Birthday to Me @ How I Save Money

Two Investment Philosophies Imparted @ Just Personal Finance

Monthly Passive Income Finally Breaks the $3000 Barrier @ Living Off Dividends

Ruined With SPF 50 @ Saving For Home

Carnivals

Carnival of Money, Growth and Happiness

Carnival of Money Stories

Carnival of Personal Finance

Money Hacks Carnival

Carnival of Personal Finance

Carnival of 20-Something Finances

There is a lot of great reading material in there.  Have a great week!

Photo credit:  shoothead

I always wondered why people would just throw out things.  Even when things are obsolete, if we take good care of them, they’ll serve us well into their expected shelf life.  If you want to enjoy the things you have, here are some tips:

1.  Clean them.  If you keep dirt, dust, etc. off things, they will not corrode or age so quickly.

2.  Declutter.  Knowing what you really have will make you appreciate it more.  I know, getting rid of things to make it seem like you have more doesn’t make logical sense, but just trust me.

3.  Wait to purchase new things.  When you have to work for or wait for something, it seems more valuable.  We don’t go out to eat except a few times per year, and it is so much more special to us than it used to be.  When I actually go to the store to buy new things (almost never), it feels pretty good.

4.  Find out how to perform your own maintenance.  Even changing oil on your car is pretty empowering.  Think about all your appliances and the ones that you can spend your weekends maintaining.  This should give you some ideas.

5.  After you declutter, put your things out where you can see/use them.  I can’t wait to purchase some racks for my garage so I can organize my garage clutter.  It’s going to be so much fun.

6.  Don’t take in too much outside media.  Watching TV and looking at magazines are great, but they expose you to advertising.  No matter how “tough” you think you are, advertising has some effect on all of us.  Try consuming media that doesn’t tell you to spend your every last dime!

These tips should make you appreciate what you have even more!

Photo credit: Dr Craig