I've just put my Save to Quit ebook for sale. It details all of the steps that my husband and I took in order to be able to save enough money to quit our jobs. It's also packaged with a bonus book 500 Ways to Save Money.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Frugal Cooking -- What Foods Are A Good Deal?
If you're at all interested in frugal cooking (and you should be if you want to save money), then you ought to know what foods are almost always a good deal.
These foods should become the staples of your diet. They are cheap and filling. And almost always a good deal.
(Frozen veggies aren't always cheap, but they are often cheaper than buying fresh or canned, so I've included them on the list.)
If you base the majority of your meals around these foods, then you'll start to significantly save money on your groceries. If you're being frugal, then you should never ever ever buy junk food or prepared meals. These are much more expensive.
Check out The Hillbilly Housewife for more frugal cooking ideas.
I love The Hillybilly Housewife. She's got cool "emergency menus" that can feed a family of four on just $45 a week.
These foods should become the staples of your diet. They are cheap and filling. And almost always a good deal.
- Rice
- Potatoes
- Pasta
- Dried beans
- Ground meat
- Frozen veggies
(Frozen veggies aren't always cheap, but they are often cheaper than buying fresh or canned, so I've included them on the list.)
If you base the majority of your meals around these foods, then you'll start to significantly save money on your groceries. If you're being frugal, then you should never ever ever buy junk food or prepared meals. These are much more expensive.
Check out The Hillbilly Housewife for more frugal cooking ideas.
I love The Hillybilly Housewife. She's got cool "emergency menus" that can feed a family of four on just $45 a week.
Friday, January 4, 2008
How to Save Money for Children
Many parents are worried about how to save money for children and rightfully so. College costs are rising and more children are relying on their parents much later in life than they used to. Couple this with a Social Security program which doesn't seem like it's going to last, and parents are facing a bit of a conundrum.
Save for the kids or save for my retirement?
Of course, in an ideal world, you'd be able to do both and I do believe that this should be the goal that we're working towards. However, today I will only focus on saving money for your children.
Here are the steps you should take to save money for children:
1. Get organized. If your own finances aren't together, then it will be difficult to plan to save for your children. Start a file folder for your financial information and make sure that you know all of your accounts, where they are and what's in them.
2. Make a commitment. You don't have to commit to a lot. Just make a small commitment which will help your children in the future. For example, to start you may want to just set aside $50 per month. Or dedicate your coin jar to your children's savings. Any little bit will help and it all starts to add up. In the future, you will probably be able to save more.
3. Set up a separate account for your children. You do not have to allow them to have access to it and you don't even have to put their name on it initially. Just make sure that there is a separate place where their money is going. ING Direct offers a high interest rate and allows you to easily do this. Click here to sign up for ING Direct.(aff)
4. Set up a 529 plan. Whether you do this is up to you. A 529 plan allows your money to grow tax free. It is later to be used for college or other qualified educational expenses.
5. Join Upromise. Upromise is a great way to help save for college. When you have a Upromise account, it's linked to your credit cards. When you make a purchase through qualified stores, they give a percentage of money back. This money goes into a 529 plan for educational expenses. It's a great way to save, simply by spending money that you normally would spend. Click here to join Upromise.(aff)
I hope that this list of steps has helped you to understand how to save money for children. Do you have any additional ideas or tricks?
Save for the kids or save for my retirement?
Of course, in an ideal world, you'd be able to do both and I do believe that this should be the goal that we're working towards. However, today I will only focus on saving money for your children.
Here are the steps you should take to save money for children:
1. Get organized. If your own finances aren't together, then it will be difficult to plan to save for your children. Start a file folder for your financial information and make sure that you know all of your accounts, where they are and what's in them.
2. Make a commitment. You don't have to commit to a lot. Just make a small commitment which will help your children in the future. For example, to start you may want to just set aside $50 per month. Or dedicate your coin jar to your children's savings. Any little bit will help and it all starts to add up. In the future, you will probably be able to save more.
3. Set up a separate account for your children. You do not have to allow them to have access to it and you don't even have to put their name on it initially. Just make sure that there is a separate place where their money is going. ING Direct offers a high interest rate and allows you to easily do this. Click here to sign up for ING Direct.(aff)
4. Set up a 529 plan. Whether you do this is up to you. A 529 plan allows your money to grow tax free. It is later to be used for college or other qualified educational expenses.
5. Join Upromise. Upromise is a great way to help save for college. When you have a Upromise account, it's linked to your credit cards. When you make a purchase through qualified stores, they give a percentage of money back. This money goes into a 529 plan for educational expenses. It's a great way to save, simply by spending money that you normally would spend. Click here to join Upromise.(aff)
I hope that this list of steps has helped you to understand how to save money for children. Do you have any additional ideas or tricks?
Thursday, January 3, 2008
The Money You Save From Quitting Smoking
I quit smoking last August and it was one of the best things that I've ever done, both from a money-saving and good-health standpoint (though I have to admit it wasn't all that good for my waistline. Now you know what my resolution is.
I know that a lot of people are trying to quit smoking as a New Year's resolution, so I thought I'd do a bit of math to figure out the amount of money you will save from quitting smoking.
Of course, it's hard to get exact figures because cigarette prices vary so much from place to place. I generally smoked "fancy" cigarettes when I smoked (American Spirits) and I lived in big cities where cigarettes tend to be more expensive. So what I did was I figured how much cigarettes cost at $6 a pack (a typical price for my brand and area) and then in parentheses I've figured the price at $4.50 per pack, which I think is more common in America.
The Money You Will Save from Quitting Smoking
If you are a two-pack-a-day smoker, you will save:
If you are a pack-a-day smoker, you will save:
If you are a half-a-pack-a-day smoker, you will save:
If you are a three-cigarettes-a-day smoker, you will save:
Pretty sobering when you see it all spelled out like that isn't it? I'm not going to get on a soap box about quitting smoking or anything, because I know how you feel. I used to smoke. And I liked it. I quit several times before this last time. Every time it would be so easy that I would just go back to smoking.
If you're not ready to quit smoking yet, I highly HIGHLY recommend switching to American Spirits brand cigarettes. It sounds silly, I know. But the fact that this brand has no other chemicals added actually makes it easier to quit smoking. I used to smoke Camels, but I think that no matter what Your Brand is, you've probably had this experience:
When you run out of cigarettes and you bum one off of someone else, if it's not Your Brand, it's not as satisfying. You feel like you didn't really smoke a cigarette. That's because the special blend of chemicals in Your Brand has gotten you addicted specifically to Your Brand. I'm not even joking about this. I know it sounds all conspiracy theory, but it's true.
Switching to American Spirits breaks you of the addiction to the chemicals in Your Brand, but you're still addicted to the nicotine. However, it was my experience that it was much easier to break the addiction to the nicotine than it was to break the addiction to the chemicals in Camels.
Just my experience.
I found that the book "The Easy Way to Quit Smoking" by Allen Carr helped me to quit. To be honest, it didn't do that much...but it did make me see how silly I was to start smoking again after quitting (which I'd done in the past). I suggest getting this book out of the library.
However, if you can't wait, the EasyQuit Method (aff) seems to be a comparable program.
I know that a lot of people are trying to quit smoking as a New Year's resolution, so I thought I'd do a bit of math to figure out the amount of money you will save from quitting smoking.
Of course, it's hard to get exact figures because cigarette prices vary so much from place to place. I generally smoked "fancy" cigarettes when I smoked (American Spirits) and I lived in big cities where cigarettes tend to be more expensive. So what I did was I figured how much cigarettes cost at $6 a pack (a typical price for my brand and area) and then in parentheses I've figured the price at $4.50 per pack, which I think is more common in America.
The Money You Will Save from Quitting Smoking
If you are a two-pack-a-day smoker, you will save:
- $4380 ($3285) in a year
- $43,800 ($32850) in ten years
- $$219,000 ($164,250) in fifty years
If you are a pack-a-day smoker, you will save:
- $2190 ($1642.50) in a year
- $21,900 ($16425) in ten years
- $109, 500 ($82,125) in fifty years
If you are a half-a-pack-a-day smoker, you will save:
- $1095 ($821.25) in a year
- $10,950 ($8,212.50) in ten years
- $54,750 ($41,062) in fifty years
If you are a three-cigarettes-a-day smoker, you will save:
- $330 ($247.5) in a year
- $3,300 ($2,475) in ten years
- $16,500 ($12,375) in fifty years
Pretty sobering when you see it all spelled out like that isn't it? I'm not going to get on a soap box about quitting smoking or anything, because I know how you feel. I used to smoke. And I liked it. I quit several times before this last time. Every time it would be so easy that I would just go back to smoking.
If you're not ready to quit smoking yet, I highly HIGHLY recommend switching to American Spirits brand cigarettes. It sounds silly, I know. But the fact that this brand has no other chemicals added actually makes it easier to quit smoking. I used to smoke Camels, but I think that no matter what Your Brand is, you've probably had this experience:
When you run out of cigarettes and you bum one off of someone else, if it's not Your Brand, it's not as satisfying. You feel like you didn't really smoke a cigarette. That's because the special blend of chemicals in Your Brand has gotten you addicted specifically to Your Brand. I'm not even joking about this. I know it sounds all conspiracy theory, but it's true.
Switching to American Spirits breaks you of the addiction to the chemicals in Your Brand, but you're still addicted to the nicotine. However, it was my experience that it was much easier to break the addiction to the nicotine than it was to break the addiction to the chemicals in Camels.
Just my experience.
I found that the book "The Easy Way to Quit Smoking" by Allen Carr helped me to quit. To be honest, it didn't do that much...but it did make me see how silly I was to start smoking again after quitting (which I'd done in the past). I suggest getting this book out of the library.
However, if you can't wait, the EasyQuit Method (aff) seems to be a comparable program.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Frugal Vegetarian Recipe Wednesday-->Lentil Stew
I've been a lifelong vegetarian. Never eaten meat. Except a bit of bologna that I didn't know was meat when I was 3 or 4.
Anyway, I get a bit kick out of making frugal vegetarian recipes. I love to think that something cost me just $2 to make and then lasts for a couple of meals. I've been experimenting a lot recently and so I thought that I would share my recipes. One every Wednesday. This is the first.
Frugal Vegetarian Recipe #1-->Lentil Stew
Ingredients
1/2 onion
2T olive oil
1 can of tomatoes
3/4 cup of lentils
2 cups water
2T garlic powder
1t basil
1t rosemary
1t savory
1t parsley
(If you don't have some of those spices, you can eliminate them. No biggie.)
Directions
1. Cut up the onion and sautee it in a a pan on medium-high heat. If you like onions, you can use a whole onion. I'm not a huge fan, but I like a little taste of it, so I use just half.
2. When the onion is cooked, add the can of tomatoes, the lentils, water, and spices.
3. Cover the pan and bring the contents to a boil.
4. After it's reached a boil, turn the heat down to low.
5. Let it simmer, stirring occasionally, about 45 minutes. You want it to form a nice thick stew, not watery. So if there's too much water, let it cook a bit longer.
6. Serve either by itself or over rice.
Note: Do not add salt to this while it's cooking. Salt makes lentils tough.
This saves well. It almost tastes better the next day.
You can also make this in a crockpot by just adding all the ingredients and cooking on low all day.
Anyway, I get a bit kick out of making frugal vegetarian recipes. I love to think that something cost me just $2 to make and then lasts for a couple of meals. I've been experimenting a lot recently and so I thought that I would share my recipes. One every Wednesday. This is the first.
Frugal Vegetarian Recipe #1-->Lentil Stew
Ingredients
1/2 onion
2T olive oil
1 can of tomatoes
3/4 cup of lentils
2 cups water
2T garlic powder
1t basil
1t rosemary
1t savory
1t parsley
(If you don't have some of those spices, you can eliminate them. No biggie.)
Directions
1. Cut up the onion and sautee it in a a pan on medium-high heat. If you like onions, you can use a whole onion. I'm not a huge fan, but I like a little taste of it, so I use just half.
2. When the onion is cooked, add the can of tomatoes, the lentils, water, and spices.
3. Cover the pan and bring the contents to a boil.
4. After it's reached a boil, turn the heat down to low.
5. Let it simmer, stirring occasionally, about 45 minutes. You want it to form a nice thick stew, not watery. So if there's too much water, let it cook a bit longer.
6. Serve either by itself or over rice.
Note: Do not add salt to this while it's cooking. Salt makes lentils tough.
This saves well. It almost tastes better the next day.
You can also make this in a crockpot by just adding all the ingredients and cooking on low all day.
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