Live well for less. Reduce the cost of utilities, health care, financial planning, food, fashionable clothing, and anything else that we can help you with to live better for less. I promise to verify everything that is posted and to only keep information up that is actually functional, accurate, and ethical.
OK, you know we Americans eat out too often. It is quick and convenient. However, if you are on this blog, you want to live on less and do it in style.
Yes, my friend, you will lhave to take home the food and cook it.
Save money and trips to the market with these tips and tricks from Rebecca DiLiberto’s Penny Saving Household Helper. You’ll be surprised how simple it is to keep food at its best. 1. Line the bottom of your refrigerator’s crisper drawer with paper towels. They’ll absorb the excess moisture that causes vegetables to rot.
2. To keep herbs tasting fresh for up to a month, store whole bunches, washed and sealed in plastic bags, in the freezer. When you need them, they’ll be easier to chop, and they’ll defrost the minute they hit a hot pan. 3. A bay leaf slipped into a container of flour, pasta, or rice will help repel bugs.
4. Stop cheese from drying out by spreading butter or margarine on the cut sides to seal in moisture. This is most effective with hard cheeses sealed in wax. Plus: Browse our favorite cheese recipes and learn how cheese is made! 5. When radishes, celery, or carrots have lost their crunch, simply pop them in a bowl of iced water along with a slice of raw potato and watch the limp vegetables freshen up right before your eyes.
6. Avoid separating bananas until you plan to eat them – they spoil less quickly in a bunch.
7. Put rice in your saltshaker to stop the salt from hardening. The rice absorbs condensation that can cause clumps.
8. Stock up on butter when it’s on sale – you can store it in the freezer for up to six months. Pack the butter in an airtight container, so it doesn’t take on the flavor of whatever else you’re freezing.
9. In order to make cottage cheese or sour cream last longer, place the container upside down in the fridge. Inverting the tub creates a vacuum that inhibits the growth of bacteria that causes food to spoil. 10. Believe it or not, honey is the only nonperishable food substance, so don’t get rid of the stuff if it crystallizes or becomes cloudy. Microwave on medium heat, in 30-second increments, to make honey clear again. Bonus: We narrow down America's best local honey. 11. Prevent extra cooked pasta from hardening by stashing it in a sealed plastic bag and refrigerating. When you’re ready to serve, throw the pasta in boiling water for a few seconds to heat and restore moisture.
12. Keeping brown sugar in the freezer will stop it from hardening. But if you already have hardened sugar on your shelf, soften it by sealing in a bag with a slice of bread – or by microwaving on high for 30 seconds.
13. If you only need a few drops of lemon juice, avoid cutting the lemon in half – it will dry out quickly. Instead, puncture the fruit with a metal skewer and squeeze out exactly what you require. 14. If you’re unsure of an egg’s freshness, see how it behaves in a cup of water: Fresh eggs sink; bad ones float.
Even the dollar store has products that are top of the line performers. When shopping for effective anti-aging skin care products, look for skin transformers like retinol, retinyl palmitate, niacinamide, peptides, hexapeptides, tetrapeptides, and water retainers like hyaluronic acid, glycerin, ceramides, essential fatty acids, sodium PCA, amino acids, asorbic acid, or glycosaminoglycans that improve the barrier function of the skin by attracting and binding water to it. An easy way to remember is
A B C D E.
Vitamin A- retinol
Vitamin B - niacinamide
Vitamin C - asorbic acid
Vitamin D - important for rebuilding hair, skin and nails
Vitamin E - moisturizing
Here are 10 low cost FREE gifts you can give your loved ones this year: 1. Gadget training. If you have less tech-savvy people on your Christmas list (i.e., anyone over the age of 15), give them something they desperately need -- training for their gadgets. Show them all of the features of their cell phone, how to record their favorite shows on their DVR, etc. 2. Babysit. When your tolerance for screaming kids exceeds your bank account balance, consider giving babysitting "coupons" that your friends can redeem. If you're a masochist, schedule a night where multiple families drop the kids off at your house. This way you're not giving up so much of your time.
3. Swap services. If you have smart but broke friends, this tip is for you. Have a friend who provides a valuable service such as personal training, financial planning, or computer consulting give you several one hour vouchers you can give to your friends. In return, you give your friend the same number of one hour vouchers for whatever service you provide. 4. Teach them. Now's your chance to be a know-it-all. Do you have a special skill such as speaking a foreign language or the ability to play an instrument? If so, you could provide weekly lessons for a month or six weeks. Bonus benefit: If you're a good teacher, they may just want to hire you at the end of their free lessons. 5. Start a book club. Tap into your inner Oprah. Offer to host a book club at your house every month. To avoid having to buy the books each month, download from thousands of free titles such as "Pride and Prejudice," "A Tale of Two Cities" and "Moby Dick" from Project Gutenberg or Amazon's free eBook program. 6. iTunes transfer. This can take some time, but for that special person, this is the ultimate gift! Import all of their CDs into iTunes for them (no, it's not piracy). 7. Be a host. Be the host with the most when you're the host with the least (cash, that is). This is an efficient gift because you can give it to all of the people on your list. Offer to host a monthly or quarterly party or game night at your place. Tell them you'll plan it, send the invites, etc. To make sure you're not spending money, require attendees to bring food and drink. 8. Share lottery winnings. If your idea of asset allocation revolves around having a mix of scratchers and Powerball lottery tickets, consider sharing one of the lottery tickets you've already purchased with those on your list. If you win, share the proceeds equally with everyone on your list. If you win really big, simply keep it all and get new friends. 9. Cook. Who doesn't love being served by a friend? Give those on your list the experience of eating out at home. Shop for the groceries (they pay), prepare and serve the meal, and then be sure to clean up. You might even get a free meal out of it. 10. Workout partner. They may both thank and curse you for this gift! Offer to be a workout partner to a friend. When you exercise with others you are more inclined to keep going even if you lose motivation. It's a superb gift that will also benefit you.
Whatever you decide, you don't have to feel guilty about not spending money -- I guarantee you that the less money you spend the more thought you'll put into the gift. And isn't that what Christmas is all about?
I love to shop. It is like a hunting trip for people who are not into guns. The trophy is defined by how much real quality you can bag for a very low price. First of all, stick to a list or you will impulsively overspend by bagging "good deals" that you don't really need. Sometimes I have an item on my "list" for months until I finally find the deal for a steal. It will happen, you just have to keep your eyes open and be patient. After the busy holidays are over, I will share some real success stories with you. I know there are many other online ways to compare pricing for identical items. Check Amazon and e-bay. Please post your favorites as comments here. Let's go bag the big one!
Just to help you get your holiday shopping tidied up quickly, here are a few strategies:
1. dealnews.com
2. woot.com
3. The sale or clearance area of any of your favorite retailers web site.
4. Always start at the back of the store or department that you are hunting in, rather than up front.
5. Look at the recent adds. Often they are the loss leaders to draw you into the store.
6. Buy the store label whenever you can rather than brand or designer. (goes for groceries and clothes)
7. Before you go to your favorite store, check online to see if they are offering a discount coupon.
8. Ask at the checkout if their are any coupons running. Sometimes the clerk will have an extra one she will scan in for your purchase.
9. I know some folks who Christmas shop all year and limit themselves to the Salvation Army Thrift store and Goodwill. It takes time, but they have more time than money and have found some very nice gifts that way.
10. Homemade gifts can backfire. I tried making organic cosmetics and toiletries. By the time I purchased all of the essential oils and jars, I could have bought better at full retail. Oh well, I had fun inventing some new potions, but lesson learned.
11. A gift of a homemade dinner or fancy dessert for a special occasion from your grill or kitchen would be really appreciated.
12. Keep stores like TJ Maxx, Marshall's, and Gordman's in mind. They often have real designer treasures tucked in amongst the lower quality things.
13. Never pay full retail for anything if you can help it. Sometimes, even just asking "do you give a discount for cash?" will gain you a quick 10 or 20% off, even at the doctor's office.
Happy Hunting!
BEFORE YOU BUY ANYTHING - SELL or DONATE
Ask yourself if you really need this or just want it? Slow it down. It is just like going on a diet. Think about what you are eating, chew slowly, enjoy it, make a wise desicion. Just like loosing pounds, you can save dollars by going slowly. If the purchase really makes sense to you, as an act of discipline and orderliness, get rid of something else you no longer use. I used to hang onto baby clothes that I had enjoyed seeing my children in. The clothes were cute and not worn out, just outgrown. After a year or two of being packed away in a garage or attic, those cute things changed into something no one would put their baby into if they had a choice. Age doesn't do nice things to elastic, colors, softness and hidden soiling that begins to stain. Give those cute things away or sale them fast while the style and color is still "in". Get over the sentimental attachment, if you must take a picture and move on.
I have a large sack that I keep in my clothes closet. It is always in the process of being filled. An article of clothing that no longer fits well, a color that I decide is not flattering, a great quality jacket that is so dated, I can't bring myself to go outside in it. Sometimes being honest about what we must keep is a very emotional process. Obviously, I had to like something enough to pay for it at one point. Giving it up almost seems like throwing away my money. When the sack is there, the item is in a holding place where I can enjoy the newly claimed space, plus make certain I don't need what I put in the sack. When the sack is full, my favorite charities get the benefit and I get the write off. If you go to a re-sell shop, you will need to do it by season.
Remember, whether or not you enjoyed the item for a period of time, or learned a painful lesson about why you shouldn't have made the purchase in the first place, that item has served it's purpose in your life. It's time to say goodby. Now whether you re-sell it on Craig's list, or donate it to your church or local clothes closet or Goodwill, it is doing your pocket book some good. Your time is worth something if you have an outside job. Maybe it is better to donate (less time) and enjoy the tax write off. I have had some beautiful quality things that would have done well at the local resale store, but I don't enjoy taking my things in and having them evaluated. I much prefer to donate, even the very nice, newer designer things. My daughter, on the other hand, can take several things to a young person's resell shop and walk out with cash in hand. She feels rich, her closet is better off, and it doesn't bother her at all. You get to choose, just as long as you do one or the other.
Sell before you buy.
Before you buy anything you want, make it a habit to first sell something you no longer actively enjoy. Your garage and closets are full of stuff you no longer use. So before you go to the store or click that online "checkout" button, stop. Put off the purchase -- first, take some clothes to the consignment shop, or take a picture of something you're no longer using and put it on Craigslist. It only takes a minute.
As soon as it sells, apply the money to the purchase you were going to make. Now you've saved on something you wanted, and gotten rid of something you didn't.
If your travels bring you anywhere near Jackson County, Alabama, check out the unclaimed baggage store. This is the place where the contents, as well as the bags that never find their way home wind up. There is clothing and shoes, of course. But also expect great deals on cameras, sports equipment, kindles, and perfumes. People tend to pack the good stuff that is functional and fashionable when they travel. So I would expect the selection to be outstanding. Let me know if you get to make a personal visit. Better yet, invite me to go with you to check out this 40,000 SF store of real value!
When you're trying to save money, the dollar store can seem like a magical place. Abracadabra, everything's a buck or less! But just because something's inexpensive doesn't make it a good buy at such retail establishments.
Party Supplies: Dollar Store Deal
We went shopping to find out what's a good deal at the dollar store, and what's not:
Everything from party invitations to decorations to balloons are worth buying at the dollar store. For instance, foil balloons easily run from $3 to $8 a pop at party-supply stores, gift shops and supermarkets. But you can get them for $1 each -- helium included -- at the dollar store.
Goodie bags, party favors and color-coordinated paper plates, napkins, cups and plastic cutlery are also a good buy.
According to the Good Housekeeping Institute, the cleaners you buy at the dollar store work just fine. You probably won't find many name brands, but the ingredients are similar -- though perhaps more diluted. For everyday cleaning, they should do the trick. (For tougher cleaning jobs, you may have to spring for something more heavy-duty.)
You can also get a good deal on rubber gloves, sponges, and scrub brushes too.
Don't scoop up your vitamins at the dollar store. Consumer Reports found that dollar-store multi-vitamins didn't always have the amount of nutrients claimed on the label. And others didn't dissolve fast enough to be absorbed by the body. You may be better off getting vitamins from a well-known store brand, such as Rite Aid, Walgreens or CVS.
Greeting cards are nice, but are they really worth $4? We think it's the thought or sentiment that counts, not what you spend. Our local dollar store has a big selection of cards for every occasion, at 50-cents each. They're good-quality, too, so the recipient won't even guess that you scrimped.
While the dollar store has decent deals on many school supplies, we didn't find them to be much better than the prices at Walmart.
For pencils, notebooks, highlighters, crayons, glue sticks, scissors, sticky notes and more, it's best to stock up when they go on sale during back-to-school season (August-September). The rest of the year, you can hit either the dollar store or Walmart with confidence.
Whether you need to stuff Easter baskets or Valentine's day boxes, or you simply want to deck the halls for your favorite holiday, you might save a few bucks at the dollar store.
Seasonal paper plates and napkins (i.e. with pumpkins or Santa Claus on them) are also a good deal -- we found packs of 20 for $1. On decorations, bargains can be hit-or-miss and subject to opinion. For example, we found a set of icicle ornaments that looked beautiful on our tree this year, but the imitation pine wreaths looked too cheap and scraggly for our taste.
Babies are expensive from the very beginning. The cheapest pregnancy test at our local Walgreens cost $8. But you can get one at the dollar store for a buck. Both are 99% effective, both test for hormone levels with similar sensitivity. And at $1 a pop, you can afford to test and re-test as much as you like if you simply don't believe your eyes.
Consumer Reports warns that aspirin and other medications may be left on the shelf past their expiration dates. It also points out that some labels may not say where the medicine was manufactured.
While there haven't been any safety concerns about dollar-store meds, generic aspirin from your local pharmacy or supermarket is probably a better bet -- and may not cost too much more.
You can get a 20-foot roll of gift wrap at the dollar store for a buck, while you'll pay at least three times that at big-box and party-supply stores. Gift bags cost up to $5 at other stores, depending on size. But at the dollar store, all sizes are $1. We also found huge savings on tissue paper, up to 75% off prices elsewhere. And don't forget the Scotch tape!
It's tempting to buy toys for only $1. But there's definitely a trade-off in quality. Many dollar-store toys are cheaply made and they can be dangerous when they break. Baby toys should generally be avoided because they will go directly into the mouth, and dollar-store toys may have unsafe levels of lead and phthalates, which are a class of chemicals found in soft plastics.
You may be able to get these cheaper elsewhere. For example, our nearby dollar store sells Green Giant canned vegetables and Goya beans for $1 a can. But we found the exact same items at Walmart for less, and generic brands at even bigger savings. Dollar-store cake and brownie mixes come in smaller packages so watch the unit price. Also, you should keep an eye on the expiration dates on food at the dollar store. They may be near or past their freshness date.
Consumer Reports warns that dollar store electronics and extension cords may have fake UL labels and could be unsafe. It's better to spend a little extra for quality and safety. Also, cheap batteries may be prone to leakage, or may not run your gadgets as long as pricier brands. Many dollar stores sell carbon-zinc batteries which are less efficient than the alkaline variety.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The average American has saved less than 7 percent of his desired retirement nest egg and will likely have to keep working in retirement to supplement his income.
Middle-class Americans think they need $300,000 to fund their retirement, but on average have only saved $20,000, according to a survey released on Wednesday by Wells Fargo & Co.
"Middle class" is defined as those aged 30 to 69 with $40,000 to $100,000 in household income or $25,000 to $100,000 in investable assets and those aged 25 to 29 with income or investable assets of $25,000 to $100,000.
"Too many Americans have their heads in the sand in the face of obvious savings deficits," said Laurie Nordquist, director of Wells Fargo Institutional Retirement Trust. "Barring a miracle, a winning lottery ticket or a big inheritance, they're going to be forced to dramatically cut back their lifestyles after retirement."
Even those fast approaching retirement age are not well-funded. Respondents aged 50 to 59 have saved an average of only $29,000 for retirement.
Consequently, more than a third of respondents believe they will have to work during retirement in order to afford the things they want or just to make ends meet.
Many are also still relying on Social Security to fill the gap, though confidence in this funding varies considerably by age.
Seventy-seven percent of respondents aged 50 to 59 believe that Social Security will contribute to their retirement income, while only 22 percent of 30-somethings thought there would be enough left in the pot to fund their retirement.
The vast majority of respondents admitted they need help figuring out how much money they need to live on in retirement and picking investments for their 401(k)s. But in a negative twist for financial advisers, more than two-thirds said they were not willing to pay for this advice.
This puts more responsibility on employers to offer advice and planning tools through their workplace 401(k) plans, said Nordquist.
"If people aren't willing to pay for advice they are going to get a more vanilla approach to planning," she said. "But a simple plan is better than no plan."
(Reporting by Helen Kearney, editing by Matthew Lewis)
Have you ever wondered what that saying meant? I think it is switched from the way I wrote it, but there is a reason. Of course, neither option sounds like fun. Here is my take on this old saying: If you are under some heat it is uncomfortable. Burning and painful. You are being consumed. I had always assumed this saying meant that you just switched from one bad thing to another equally bad thing. But I don't think so any more. What comes from fire is ashes. Total consumption. What comes from the frying pan, after a heated process, is something nurishing and something good for you and your family. So the wisdom for out of the fire and into the frying pan is this:
Pay off debt.
Highest interest rate first.
This is your get out of jail strategy. You may have a budgetted morsel for a bit of fun for yourself, but just a bit. Discipline yourself and pay that interest bearing debt off. We are going to have a party when it is retired.
I understand that affording adequate health care on a budget is a gut twister for the unemployed, self-employed, or those with serious chronic illnesses. They say that catastrophic medical bills are the number one reason for bankruptcies in the United States. As a the former wife of a very smart internist, I learned more than most laymen about every day health and how to fix things at home instead of going to the ER or minor emergency center. I have also listened to people who had no clue what they were talking about give, even sell, "authoritative" advice and services that I believe could have been life threatening. I want to post this section as a new page, but until I figure out how to do that, we will begin discussing health right now. Under the links section, you will find reference to sites that are trustworthy and authoritative.
Here is the BIG disclaimer: Always check with your doctor before trying anything you read on this or another site. You risk your life if you proceed without checking things out first with your doctor, who is afraid of being sued for malpractice and therefore; will not lie to you or mistreat you to sell a product. This is especially important if you have a major condition like asthma, diabetes, heart disease or cancer.
That being said, I know many of you don't or won't go to see your doctor, so we do the best we can in the meanwhile. There are many "natural" products that you can buy without a prescription. We like the personal control and ease of access we get when we go straight to a remedy without having to check in at the window and sit in a crowded waiting room next to sick strangers who have handled every arm rest and magazine available in the room every day after blowing their nose or coughing into their hands. YUCKY! (I have always wondered why more doctors and nurses don't get sick from their patients. I believe that one reason is they wash their hands alot. I suspect that they have slowly built immunity up in their white cells to all sorts of bugs from their long time exposure to low levels of disease causing microbes. Hence, they are protected from much of what ever is going around.)
Back to natural products: the big pharmaceutical companies want you to buy their product. They spend millions researching and marketing the latest gee-whiz drug to your doctor. They fill her cabinents with free samples so doc can make you happy by sending you home with a party favor. Sometimes that is a good thing and sometimes it isn't so great. We are getting drug-resistant bacteria because so many of you insisted on antibiotics for viral colds. Colds are caused by viruses, which is not something you can kill with antibiotics. So stop it. If you have a fever and sore throat, stay home from work and rest, take an acetametaphin or naproxin and drink some nice hot herbal tea or cocoa. Half a day or so, you will feel much better.
Here are some things that people go to the doctor or ER for unecessarily:
Mild sore throat
Running nose
Chest pain (I'll tell you what to try before you call the ambulance)
Low-grade fever
Acne
Strained muscles
Tension and migraine headaches
Menstrual cramping
Allergic rhinitis (hay fever)
Heart burn
Anxiety
I will take each one of these and show you how to do it at home, often with the same essential elements that your doctor would use at the ER for a lot less trouble.
About the herbal and natural products and mega vitamins: you are spending too much here as well. You will have very expensive urine. Some of these cures are nothing more than old wives tales. Some have very real benefit and some have so little benefit for the cost that you are wasting your money. Doctors do not recommend natural remedies as often as they could, not because they don't want to, but because many of these things have no reputable, scientific research that proves clinical benefits. And if they do prescribe it and it doesn't cure you, you will sue them. So they will write you prescriptions and order expensive tests just to prove a simple diagnosis. This is the nonsense that drove up the price of health care to the crisis point that it struggles with today. That is not to say the easy remedies don't work; rather, it explains why your liscenced physicians err in the opposite direction.
Also, remember that many over-the -counter products used to be by prescription only. Now they are out in a generic form. Many are manufactured by the original maker. So there you go. You can get products that used to be only by prescription. They are that strong and that safe. I was surprised at how many of these are even at the dollar stores!
Here are some easy to obtain items that have been clinically demonstrated to help:
Oatmeal
Ground Flax seed
Cranberries
Prevacid
Zantac
Tylenol
Advil
Aleve
Glucosamine
Willow bark
Warm salt water
Triple anti-biotic ointment or cream
Cortisone ointment or cream
Monistat
Benadryl
Claritin
Zyrtec
Dramamine
Ducolax
Benzo-peroxide
Salicilic acid
Ice pack
Hot compress
Witch Hazel
Diphenhydramine
Ephedrin
Aspirin
Peptobismal
Kaopectate
With these items you can take care of headache of all sorts, cuts and scrapes, skin infections, acne, constipation, high cholesteral, hemorroids, knee pain, shoulder pain, nasea, allergic reactions, insomnia, coughing and congestion. You can check your own blood pressure, pulse rate and oxygen level at home with devices you can buy at the drug store. More detail on how to use these things later.
Finally, I would like to share with you how to quickly tell the difference between a heart attack and terrible heart-burn. This may keep you out of the ER with what doctors call turkey chest pain. You don't want to be a GOMER (get out of my emergency room). Yes, they do talk like that about us.
Drink a few gulps of liquid Kaopectate. If you feel immediate relief, it is not likely your heart, but the burning of your esophagus from acid reflux. If you have other "heart attack" type symptoms, such as heaviness and tightening of the chest, pain on the side of your face and arm, shortness of breath, heavy sweating, loss of consciousness and nausea you need to dial 911 and take some baby aspirin while you wait for the ambulance. Remember women and the elderly may not have the classic symptoms. Trust your instincts if it feels really different and go ahead to the hospital. But the Do not drive yourself to the hospital, please.
Every day, I'll bet that you are noticing things that you would like to have, or like to do, that would stretch your budget. You are thinking "how can I cut down even more, when I'm not making it right now?" First of all, get over the idea that you are going to be deprived and suffer. That is the whole notion of this blog, LIVING WELL for less.
The big areas of expense for all of us are our homes, utilities, food, clothing, insurance/health care, entertainment and transportation. Now, you can bet that doctors' wives need all of these things and they can afford to get them by throwing alot of money at it. It is a shame that they throw their money at it, because they could really do it just as well for less. Part of the reason that they don't do it another way is because they don't know how to do it. Another reason, which unfortunately affects many of us, plain old laziness. These rich wives aren't motivated to hustle and figure this out because it takes a little homework. They are waiting on the gravy train. However, I would advise one to prepare and to practice living frugally. Sometimes the gravy train runs off the track and you still have a destination you need to get to.
I would like to tell you a true story. I was working alone on a contract job in Europe and needed to get to a train station in a small town in the Netherlands where the person I was replacing was waiting to pick me up. This was my first time in Europe. I had no phone number and no name to contact, just my ticket and the address of my destination for work. I had been flying all day. It was winter and very cold. I had flown into the enormous Frankfurt,Gemany airport and caught the correct train out of the airport/train station.
Along the way, I met another English speaking woman and so we rode together with our huge American size bags crammed into the small commuter car of this little train. There was no overhead compartment or seat large enough for our whopper bags, so they are wedged in our seats over our laps. The train was quite full of homeward bound workers. We had a stop where we needed to switch trains. The announcer on our new train was making many updates in French, German and Dutch, but nothing in English. I could make out a few German words and my companion could make out a little French. The Dutch was impossible. A gentleman sitting across from us had brought a little flask of whiskey to ease his trip and spoke a little bit of English. Between the three of us, we realized that the train to our destination had been cancelled due to ice on the tracks. We weren't going to get there today. Nor even anytime that night.
I studied the regional train map I had picked up at the station. I couldn't read much of it, but I could follow the train lines and make out where the town I needed was and every town in between. When we disembarked and studied the electronic schedule board at the station, we could see the incoming arrival times were getting later and later. Then some trains began to show up as cancelled. It was sleeting and snowing. Finally, there were only two or three trains still up on the board as running. We are in a small rural village with no hotels. We had little local currency and there are no English speaking people around. They didn't take credit cards. We have no way of contacting our business connection who was waiting at our destination. What would you do?
Quickly, we got onto the last train running that was headed in the approximate direction of our final stop. We road that train as far as it went until it could no longer proceed. By this time, it was well into the late evening, dark and sleeting, with at least half an inch of ice coating everything on top of some pretty messy snow. We made a plan. Cobbling together what few words we could muster between her French and my pitiful German, we asked for information from passerby. I stayed with the bags, my friend went to call for a taxi. When the lone taxi in town arrived, it was mobbed by other people looking to get out of being stranded just like us. A kindly gentleman nearby held back the mob as I struggled to run through the snow and ice with our bags. The cab driver had been awakened to come and pick us up and had his wife in the front seat. He shook his head at the size of our bags but managed to stuff them into the back of his little European taxi.
We had trained it to another small village 10-12 miles from our destination. The cab ride from that village out in the country wasn't too bad, if a little cramped. He dropped us off at the train station that we should have arrived at earlier. It didn't take me long to be spotted by my pick-up person, who had been waiting for several hours. The company that I was contracted with had sent another driver from Frankfurt to find me out in the country-side. They were shocked that I had made it in to the Netherlands without help. It didn't occur to them that I would figure out another way to get where I needed to be, relatively on time and unscathed, thankful that I didn't have to sleep in a train station that night.
Here are your take home lessons for today:
1. There is always another way to get where you need to go. Don't panic, just look for other options.
2. Never travel without emergency phone numbers for in-country contacts.
3. Don't travel on European trains and taxies with large, American size luggage. Even if you will be staying for months, you will aggravate everyone and your stuff won't fit. Ship a box ahead or buy what you need when you get there.
In fact, wouldn't be easier to travel throughout life with less to lug around?
As we work towards living-on-less, we will discover new and clever ways to get where we need to be with food, fun, travel, health, home and retirement. There is Joy in the Journey and good friends to keep us company. Trains don't run on a broken track, but there are lots of other ways to travel, even if I have to pick you up and drag your sorry bags all the way there over the ice.
FREE CYCLE
This is a wonderful organization that operates in many local communities. Green is their thing. Fortunately for you, it is also free and fabulous. Here's how it works: you sign up for your local freecycle community online. (Google it to get the correct link). In order to join, you have to "offer" something. FREE CYCLE is managed by a moderator who makes certain that all posts follow the simple rules and that people aren't putting anything innapropriate on the post. The idea is to keep your cast away junk out of the landfills of our country by reusing it. So, people who are remodeling give away their furniture, light fixtures and doorknobs. People who have dieted or outgrown their clothes give away their wardrobes. Same for babies who grow up a size. Boxes of books, new truck tires left in the yard by a nephew who moved away, working or not: freezers, microwaves and lawnmowers. Teachers needing craft items for class projects, litters of puppies and kittens (although animals are a stretch because they should not go to the dump, ever). You will see anything and everything eventually on freecycle. Plus, if you have need for anything specific, you can ask and see if it might be available. The rule is free, free, free. You bless your community, and watch: it will bless you right back. This is such a win, win, win that everyone in America should sign up for it immediately.
There's an old saying that says... "If the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning is eat a live frog, then nothing worse can happen for the rest of the day!" Brian Tracy says that your "frog" should be the most difficult item on your things to do list, the one you're most likely to procrastinate on; because, if you eat that first, it'll give you energy and momentum for the rest of the day. But, if you don't...and let him sit there on the plate and stare at you while you do a hundred unimportant things, it can drain your energy and you won't even know it.
An Excerpt from Eat That Frog!
by Brian Tracy
The 80/20 Rule is one of the most helpful of all concepts of time and life management. It is also called the "Pareto Principle" after its founder, the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who first wrote about it in 1895. Pareto noticed that people in his society seemed to divide naturally into what he called the "vital few", the top 20 percent in terms of money and influence, and the "trivial many", the bottom 80 percent.
He later discovered that virtually all economic activity was subject to this principle as well. For example, this principle says that 20 percent of your activities will account for 80 percent of your results, 20 percent of your customers will account for 80 percent of your sales, 20 percent of your products or services will account for 80 percent of your profits, 20 percent of your tasks will account for 80 percent of the value of what you do, and so on. This means that if you have a list of ten items to do, two of those items will turn out to be worth five or ten times or more than the other eight items put together.
Often, one item on a list of ten tasks that you have to do can be worth more than all the other nine items put together. This task is invariably the frog that you should eat first.
The most valuable tasks you can do each day are often the hardest and most complex. But the payoff and rewards for completing these tasks efficiently can be tremendous. For this reason, you must adamantly refuse to work on tasks in the bottom 80 percent while you still have tasks in the top 20 percent left to be done.
Before you begin work, always ask yourself, "Is this task in the top 20 percent of my activities or in the bottom 80 percent?"
The hardest part of any important task is getting started on it in the first place. Once you actually begin work on a valuable task, you will be naturally motivated to continue. A part of your mind loves to be busy working on significant tasks that can really make a difference. Your job is to feed this part of your mind continually.
Just thinking about starting and finishing an important task motivates you and helps you to overcome procrastination. Time management is really life management, personal management. It is really taking control of the sequence of events. Time management is having control over what you do next. And you are always free to choose the task that you will do next. Your ability to choose between the important and the unimportant is the key determinant of your success in life and work.
Effective, productive people discipline themselves to start on the most important task that is before them. They force themselves to eat that frog, whatever it is. As a result, they accomplish vastly more than the average person and are much happier as a result. This should be your way of working as well.
Blogger's comment:(And the way you approach managing your relationships as well as your finances. EAT THE FROG or it will stare at you unkindly all day long.)
Money. If you've got it, you feel a certain amount of confidence, just knowing that you can meet the demands of living in an adequate way, without worry. A friend of mine once said that you can fix anything if you throw enough money at it. There's the rub, not all of us have money to throw around solving all of our problems. It has been well publized that the very wealthy often have extremely thrifty livng and spending habits. In large part, that is how they got to be wealthy. Think of all the stories you have heard about folks who won some large prize, spent extravagently and ended up right back where they started. They were rich but they couldn't stay rich, because they didn't have the knowledge, inspiration and discipline to live well for less than they had in the bank.
Here is my first financial tip: If you win a huge lottery, keep your mouth shut and don't tell anyone. If you talk, you will be surrounded by people who want to suck your good fortune right out of your pocket. Stay away from the media. Go to several financial planners who work on a percentage only, who are certified and members of a professional organization and interview them. Ask them to outline a plan that will help you retire all of your DEBT (bad word) gain you maximum RETURN (good word) on your money. Do not go with the first one you interview. Go with the best one, the one that explains things clearly, whom you can trust.
I had a friend whose husband died tragically. Fortunately for her, he had a good life insurance policy worth
2 million of dollars. She and her daughter would never have to worry about living expenses or how to pay for college. Unfortunately, she was very lonely and eventually wanted to re-marry. Guess who she ended up with? A man who schmoozed her right out of everything that she and her daugher had been awarded. He was handsome, attentive, flattering and broke, in heavy debt and not working. After he stole her heart and her money had been depleted, he departed. When it comes to love and money, you have to be very careful , keep your mouth shut and stick to the plan!
Another friend of mine, a doctor's wife, was also tragically widowed with four children left to raise. A man in her Sunday school class called on her. He was a financial planner selling his company's investment products for a commission. He told her that her husband would have wanted him to help her because they both went to the same church. Right. She asked him what his plan was. He couldn't tell her. He just said give me your money and I'll take care of it. REALLY? God blessed this smart woman greatly with good judgement and sales resistance. She firmly declined his help when he couldn't explain his great plan to her adequately (it got a little ugly). She invested it herself after doing good research. She is living safely, putting the last of her four children through college and looking at a good retirement.
Most of us won't get huge life insurance pay outs or win a lottery. I tell God now and then that I could handle it if I won something, but He seems to think that I need to keep on working. I plan to die with my boots on anyway because I think it will keep me young. For now, let's start out with some very good links to professional financial advice. It won't cost you anything and you will learn a lot that will help you to save and grow rich. It is overwhelming to try to overhaul your entire situation if you have been drifting for awhile. Start with a small step. Check back on this blog. We'll keep you motivated and creative. There's lots and lots of things to learn and do. Hang in there.
In serving up wisdom on the mechanics of handling money, most of us want more money to handle, maybe alot of money to handle, but at least enough to get by. There are many of us who are out of work, out of savings, out of retirement funds and feeling like it just isn't going to be possible to make it on what we've got left. Here is where the creativity comes in. We will help you live well anyway. There is money everywhere you look if you know what to look for. Stay tuned for more on that as this blog grows.
Oh, by the way, do YOU think it is all about money? Some people have said that the Bible talks about money more than any other topic. I don't know how they measure that or if it is totally true. But it is true that the Bible talks a lot about much that is important to people and money is certainly important. Personally, I think I would vote for God's favor, Love, Health or Peace ahead of money. In my opinion, the way you handle money is a psychological test. It reflects what is important to you, how you relate to others and how you approach life in general. What do you think?
