Frugal in the Fruitlands

I’m heading off to Thanksgiving dinner with some friends in a few hours, but right now it’s carnival time!

My post Visualizing $10,000 Extra in Your Life was entered in the 180th Carnival of Personal Finance, hosted by Living Almost Large. Here are some articles I particularly liked:

• Note to Family and Friends: I Prefer Cash. Mengmeng of Just Thrive argues that gift certificates, rather than being gifts, are the equivalent of “reaching into my wallet and taking forty bucks.” To me, the only thing better than receiving cash is not having to exchange gifts at all!
• Studenomics talks about the Adversity Quotient, or how likely one is to bounce back from failure, and asks us to consider how that affects our financial life.
• I like Ron @ The Wisdom Journal’s thoughts on 7 Ways to Make a Quick $500 in 30 Days. There are tons of these articles floating around the blogosphere, but I feel Ron’s are genuinely creative. His resources for freelance writing are ones I might try out myself.

Eco Joe presented the Festival of Frugality this week, picking his choice of 18 articles out of hundreds and hundreds. A couple I liked were:

• A Real Christmas Tree vs. An Artificial Christmas Tree @ SavingAdvice.com. This is something I’ve struggled with myself, especially since I may have an allergic reaction to evergreen sap. In the end, my husband and I decided we would get a real tree this year, for many of the reasons the commentators listed: it supports local business, it’s sustainable, and, frankly, it really does add to the holiday experience.
• Fowl Visions teaches us to how to make a fall wreath for the birds in Decorating for Fall and Feeding the Wild Birds. It’s already winter here, but this is something to consider next year!

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I’ve added a few new blogs to my blogroll recently. Just to highlight them:

• Frugal Pursuit has, I believe, been reading my blog for some time, but I recently spent some time discovering hers. I read with interest her post about the end of the no-furnace challenge, as my husband and I have a similar challenge. I was able to hold out until last night, when it was below freezing for the first time this season and the wind was cutting. I returned home from my class to see it was 53 degrees inside (my house holds heat well!), but I just couldn’t tolerate it - I turned the heat up to 60. Such decadence!

• I finally discovered Ramit Sethi’s I Will Teach You to Be Rich. Lots of valuable stuff here from an avowed frugality hater :) I am loving his “Save $1,000 in 30 Days” challenge and am following along avidly. So far my favorite tip from the challenge has been Use Gas Prices to Become Your Own Hedge Fund. I calculated how much I had spent per week on gas while prices were high vs. after prices dropped, and using that, was able to put $20 extra per paycheck - $40 extra per month - into my emergency fund. This means that in total $95 per paycheck, or $190 per month, is going into the fund.

• I recently added Money and Such after reading his article about leaving your job in a tough market.

• I added Sentient Money after Chad left an insightful comment on one of Retired Syd’s political posts. I like his analyses of charts and graphs from other sources, such as in More Debt Destruction: Credit Cards.

But really, I’m writing this post because I want to hear about you. Yes, you. You’re not one of my close friends who reads this blog just to humor me (hi Nat!). Maybe you don’t even have a blog of your own, and RSS confuses you. You don’t leave comments, ’cause what do you have to add, right?

It’s you I want to hear about.

• I want to know who you are, where you live, what you do.
• What originally led you to this blog?
• Are you here for the frugality tips, the personal finance posts, the economics articles, or just my weak sense of humor?
• What topics do you care about?
• Are you struggling financially? Are you facing bankruptcy or foreclosure?

You matter, and I want to make you a FitF celebrity.

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For current readers: I was recently featured on Fox 25’s “Family Coop” segment, talking about sharing resources in your social network as a key to frugality. Ahhh, my three minutes of fame.

For new readers: If the Fox segment is how you’ve found me, welcome! Here are some articles that will give you a quick introduction to this blog and what it’s about:

• About Me and About This Blog
• 10 Ways I Simplify; 10 Ways I Complicate
• The Spendthrift Sunday series, which provides my own brand of “consumerism vigilantism.”

Feel free to comment below and tell me a little bit about yourself and what you’re hoping to find here!

For new and old readers alike: I’ve just added an email newsletter to this blog. Enter your first name and email address below, and I’ll update you a couple of times a month with site updates and bonus frugality tips. As an additional incentive to sign up, I’m offering my 8-page e-book (e-pamphlet? e-brochure?) “3 Ways to Shave $300 Off Your Monthly Expenses Without Feeling Deprived,” free to anyone who subscribes to the newsletter. This e-book outlines some of the methods I talked about in the Fox segment in greater detail, such as:

• How to decide what monthly expenses to cut
• How to set up a “supper club”
• Resources for finding rideshares in your area
• Bonus tips on frugal cleaning

And, as always, you can sign up for my feed, which will deliver each of my articles directly to the RSS reader of your choice. (An Introduction to RSS).

Happy reading!

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A friend forwarded me this NY Times article about frugality in rural France vs. New York City: 6 Cents Is 6 Cents, but Time? That’s Something. I shamefully admit that, despite living in France, I’ve never heard the “porcupine in pockets” euphemism for being fiscally-conscious, but this whole story is true of the French shopping experience. I’ll also add that you bag your own groceries in a French supermarket- no one is there to bag them for you.

My favorite from last week’s Carnival of Personal Finance #177 (yes, I’m behind the times) was this article by Shadox of Money and Such: Now May Be A Good Time To Quit Your Job. I have several friends who have been laid off recently who may not agree! Nonetheless, I loved this quote:

If you realize that you will not be able to excel in your position and attain your life goals at the same time, you must accept the logical conclusion that the position is not for you.

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I just wanted to point out a couple of articles from the last two weeks that caught my eye:

America’s Income and Wealth Inequality by Andy of Saving to Invest. Andy takes the Economist’s recent figures on income distribution in different countries one step further, extrapolating the net worth distribution in the U.S. The bad news: the poor in the U.S. are just as poor as those in Turkey or Mexico. Much as I suspected, countries like France lead the pack in terms of wealth equality.

Getting the Buy-In From a Partner by Childfreelife. This article talks about getting your partner involved in your financial adventures. While focused on childfree couples, it is widely applicable.

More on Tuesday or Wednesday, when the carnivals are out!

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September was a goal-less month, but I covered a lot of ground, nonetheless. The number of subscribers to Frugal in the Fruitlands grew to around 40, and I visited topics as diverse as productivity, price comparisons, identity, local eating, and fashion.

The most popular post this month was Identity: The Problem Money Can’t Solve, thanks in large part to Paid Twice’s kind referral. Some of the other popular posts from this month were:

• Coupons vs. Generics, Round One: Contact Solution
• Interview with Nick Pagan on Establishing Alternative Income with Limited Energy - if you haven’t had a chance to review this meaty article, I invite you to do so now. Nick’s wisdom is worth your time.
• Shopping in the Fruitlands

I also talked a lot in the past couple of weeks about the $700 billion bailout of Wall Street, and why I was against it. With the Senate backing the bill, the outcome is looking more and more certain, but the bill still does not address what I feel are the biggest issues with the credit markets - the need for re-regulation. To quote this Mother Jones article:

Perhaps, the greatest lie resides at the very top of the proposed plan: that the bailout will somehow “[assist] American families in preserving home ownership, stabilizing financial markets, and protecting taxpayers.” The only way to protect citizens is to re-regulate the industry along the lines of Glass-Steagall: divide its players and their books into understandable, less risky, more transparent entities… The Democrats inserted a lukewarm provision into the bailout legislation to have the government aid in renegotiating borrowers’ mortgages to better terms, but they didn’t include any enforcement measure requiring lenders to comply.

That said, and my opposition to this bill in its current wishy-washy format registered, the American Housing Institute presents a cogent discussion of pro-bailout thinking. I understand where they’re going, but I reject the assertion that most of these bad debts the government is buying up are “real Vermeers.” I also don’t believe that this bill will encourage the credit industry to reinvest the proceeds in the economy - at least not in a non-toxic way - without credit re-regulation.

And with that thought, I leave you to pursue Day Two of Web Browing Reduction Month. (Day One: Success!)

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I just wanted to take a few moments to express my love for Wardrobe Oxygen. Allie seems to have perfected something I feel few “fashion blogs” have - talking about how to look great at any shape or size, without falling into faddishness.

What does this have to do with frugality? Look at her mission:

I believe every woman is utterly gorgeous, and can feel beautiful and stylish no matter her budget or body.

See, Sarah Jessica Parker’s Bitten line says this, too, but as I’ve argued, they can’t stand behind it. Allie really means it. She’s all about buying a few quality, classic pieces and personalizing them. Her Staples for Every Woman’s Wardrobe post is the best “wardrobe basics” article I’ve ever seen. (I’ve always hated Tim Gunn’s - every woman should have a trench coat? Seriously?)

An added bonus: Allie promptly answers comments, as she did my stupid comment on the aforementioned post.

Now, we all just need to take a moment to ask ourselves why it’s largely women who feel the need to be stylish. There’s your moment of feminism for the day.

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No one was more surprised than me when Coupons vs. Generics: Round One: Contact Solution was named an Editor’s Pick for the 143rd Festival of Frugality, hosted at Living Almost Large. But there it is. I hope someone else can learn from my mistakes.

Two other articles I really enjoyed from this festival were:

• 20 Cheap Ways to Relax and Manage Stress, by Fitz Villafuerte. I’ve been reading up on Fitz, and his blog has a strong voice that I thoroughly enjoy. I hope you will, too.
• Buying Airfare: Get the Best Bang for Your Buck at Average Jane’s Guide to Budget Travel. I too, face some of the issues she faces with coworkers who are very picky about how they fly, but I was happy to learn a few new things about finding cheap fares from this article.

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I’m back from vacation! As expected, my post on gender and finance appeared in Monday’s Carnival of Personal Finance #168, hosted by One Caveman’s Financial Journey.

I will be tabulating the results of this small survey over the next few days, but in the meantime here are some other posts from the Carnival I enjoyed.

• Outsourcing Our Chores: Do We Overvalue Our Time? at The Personal Financier. This might be surprising to you, as I’ve argued before that some things are worth outsourcing. But Dorian wisely points out that opportunity cost only means anything if you actually harness that opportunity. Sure, as a research analyst, my work time is worth roughly $20 an hour, but as I’m salaried, if I pay someone to mow my lawn, thus saving me an hour, I’m not going to be making up that money by putting in more time at the office. Bonus: I also liked his Time-Saving Tips articles.
• How I Deal With Difficult People at Value for Your Life. If I had known some of these things when I was dealing with my previous boss, my first two years at this company would have been much smoother.
• Preparing for the 2008 Holiday Season: Make It Debt-Free at Destroying Debt. As a card-carrying member of the Coalition to Kill Christmas (membership: 1), I wrote a post last year around this time about planning a simple holiday season, but this gives me some new ideas.

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Great news! Ten (Other) Ways to Make Your College Education Pay Dividends appeared in Festival of Frugality #160, hosted at FIRE Finance.

Two other posts I noted from this edition included:

• Don’t Go to a Private University at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity. I seem to really enjoy arguing on Jim’s Devil’s Advocate posts. In this one I point out that the effective cost of a private college education, after financial aid is accounted for, can quite often be less expensive than a public college education, especially for low income families.
• Benjamin of Trees Full of Money writes about My Inexpensive Do-It-Yourself Geothermal Cooling System. Even though this isn’t a system I can implement in my own house, this article impressed me. It’s a novel topic that I haven’t seen addressed in any Festival of Frugality, and the author gives concrete advice that you can put to work today. All around, a rare find.

I’ve also entered Gender and Finance: How Much Do Your Spend on Hygiene? in a carnival, but that won’t be out for a few more days. I am hoping to get more exposure for that article so I can reap a greater “sample size” before posting the results.

I am heading off on vacation tomorrow morning, so in the meantime I present my own responses to the questions I ask in that post:

What is your gender? Female
What is your occupation and level of responsibility? I’m a research analyst for a market research firm. I have no employees for whom I’m personally responsible, but I do answer directly to one of the senior VPs.
About how much have you spent on clothing for yourself in the past six months? I bought about $80 worth of bras from Macy’s, a $45 shirt from Land’s End, a $20 dress from Target, and a $17 sweater from Target. Total: $162.
How often do you get your hair cut? How much does it cost each time? Approximately once every three months (sometimes more frequently; sometimes less) at $46 each time.
What products do you use on your hair (shampoo, conditioner, sprays, gels, mousse, etc)? How much does each one cost? Matt and I share bottles of Suave Daily Clarifying shampoo, $3.49 on drugstore.com. I also use V05 Detangle and Shine spray; $3.99 a bottle from walgreens.com.
Describe your morning routine on a work day (or a day where you have to “dress up,” if you’re not currently employed). Wake up, take a shower (involves shampooing, shaving, and using a scrub on my face), spray conditioner in hair, put contacts in, (optionally) style/blow-dry hair (it seems to look the same no matter what I do), brush teeth, put on perfumes, deodorant, get dressed.
If you have a similar category to “clothing/beauty/hygiene” in your budget, tell me your monthly expenditure for just you. Over the past five months, approximately $69 per month of our spending has belonged to this category. At least half of that is mine, if not much more.

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