Expansion difficulty/complexity level: Easy

This is a basic savings account add-on for the Monopoly game to teach the principles of personal savings. The rules are few, with easy to calculate interest rates and a simple form to keep track of each player’s individual savings. While the interest rates are higher (for easy calculation) than they would be in a real-life savings account, this game can teach children the basics and benefits of saving money and how banking and savings accounts work.

Objective: Learning Basic Money Saving Techniques and Principles

• Develop a regular habit setting money aside for a rainy day or future investment.
• Watch your money add up a few dollars at a time.
• Experience the satisfaction of greater earnings and faster growth as interest rates increase with your balance.

To play the Monopoly Personal Savings Account Expansion

• Download and print out the Monopoly Personal Savings Account Statement (with rules)*
• The Personal Savings Account Statement contains a form for tracking:
  • Opening balance
  • Interest Rate which increases as balances grow
  • Interest Earned
  • Credits and Debits (Deposits and Withdrawals)
  • Closing Balance

Click on the image below to view a sample form

* The form comes in .pdf format and can be opened in Adobe Acrobat Reader or Foxit Reader, both of which can be downloaded for free at their respective sites.

Rules for Bank of Monopoly Personal Savings Account

These rules are included in the Personal Savings Account Statement download.

An account may be opened at any point during the game when a player lands on or passes “Go.”

• Minimum opening balance is $50
• Minimum account balance is $10
• Earning Period is 1 circuit of the board – “Go” to “Go.” Going to jail does not complete a circuit as you do not pass “Go.”
• Interest is credited at the end of the turn when the player lands on or passes “Go.”
• Interest Rates are tiered and increase with account balance:
  

  $10-$500	5% per period
  $501-$1,000	10% per period
  $1,001-$5,000	15% per period
  $5,001 and up	20% per period

• Deposits may be made after interest for the previous earning period has been credited.
• Withdrawals may be made at any time; however, interest is not earned on the withdrawn amount. An account is considered closed when all funds are withdrawn. A $50 minimum opening balance is required to re-open the account.
• Limit 1 savings account per player.

Next Monopoly Expansion: Bank of Monopoly Personal Checking Account.

Get more Monopoly Expansions at Our Fourpence Worth
http://pecuniarities.com/Monopoly

NOTE: The Monopoly game is copyrighted by Parker Brothers, a subsidiary of Hasbro. All expansions are original creations by Our Fourpence Worth and shared here for personal use only. Commercial use of these rules, forms and images is prohibited.

Related posts:

• Monopoly Game Expansion #2: Personal Checking Account
• Monopoly Game Expansion #5: Income Tax Edition
• June 2008 Finance and Frugality Blog Carnivals
• July 2008 Finance and Frugality Blog Carnivals
• Monopoly Game Expansion #3: Certificate of Deposit

Consider this. Say you have a latte from Starbucks everyday, which only costs $3.00. But think about that $3.00 a day put into a savings account for x number of years, say until retirement. Ever wonder how much that $3.00 a day can be worth?

I used the Future Value Calculator below with the following figures: $0 initial investment, $90 monthly addition ($3 x 30 days), and the savings account interest rates from my current credit union savings account: .80% for balances under $999.99.

Firstly, keep these points in mind:

• This calculation is based on a regular credit union savings account interest rate and there are other high-interest savings accounts with higher APYs.
• There are savings accounts for which interest rates increase with the balance (but I only used the original .80% rate throughout because it would’ve taken me a really long time to figure it with changing rates and balances.)
• In this calculation, the interest is compounded monthly, but there are accounts that compound interest daily (such as my credit union).

So, in actuality the total savings and interest would be higher than below, but I think these figures would sufficiently illustrate my point.

Not bad for $3.00 a day, eh? And this was with a flat interest rate of .80% for the entire term. Put (or leave) those $3.00 a day in a high-yield savings account and it could become a down payment on a house, a car, or a backup nest egg in addition to your retirement account. After all, you may be fortunate enough to live another 30-40 years after retirement, and it wouldn’t do to run out of money when you’re 95.

I’m not saying that you should completely deprive of all pleasures in life. An occasional treat is fine and can contribute to the non-monetary aspect of the value of life. But just remember the next time you’re about to throw money away on a transient purchase (a item of no lasting value), the more you save, the more you’ll have — the original saved amount plus the interest.

Feel free to try the savings calculator below to find out how much you are saving by not eating out, getting rid of cable, staying in a few nights a month instead of going out, etc. Remember, this calculator only uses a flat interest rate, so your savings in real life may be more if you put your funds in a high-yield savings account.

Have fun! (At least I always do when I’m counting how much money I’m saving.)

Related posts:

• March 2008 Finance and Frugality Blog Carnivals
• Blog Carnivals
• Simple Solutions to Staying Out of Debt
• Resisting the Urge to Splurge
• Basics for the Young, Single and Frugal

I emailed him back explaining our logic, and while it may be unconventional, for us it is a convention we have practiced with success for many years. Ever since our high school days when our parents would give each of us pocket money for lunch, the bus, pay phones, etc. we have always regarded our money as literally “our money.” When one of us didn’t have any cash and wanted to buy a drink or snack at school, we would just ask the other person for some. And to the shock of many of our friends, we would just give each other the money. We never had a distinction of “my money” and “your money”.

Perhaps this had to do with our always having been somewhat unconventional people, even as kids. While our friends went to the mall, movies or shopping, we preferred to go to the library, karate class, or stay at home and read or play with our pets (we had dogs, cats, 20-30 rabbits, guinea pigs, birds, fish, mice, etc.). So for us, money was never really a means for pleasure but living – taking the bus home from school, buying lunch or an occasional snack or buying pet supplies. Because we didn’t habitually spend money, our parents didn’t put us on allowances and would just give us money when we needed it. (This could explain why we still live on a No-Budget System.)

When we graduated from college and started working, we continued to share a home and a bank account. Perhaps this has to do with our mother passing away when I was 16 and Madoline 14, and having no other close relatives we just naturally stayed together. In the past 6-7 years we have shared a bank account, a family cell phone plan, utilities accounts, a car loan, credit cards, leases on apartments and then a mortgage starting 2005. And we also started 2 business ventures – Franga Designs and Mozartini – and this blog together.

Because we have the same financial goals and past (having witnessed firsthand the imprudence of shopaholism and extreme debt courtesy of our stepfather and biological father), there is no worry that the other person will go on a spending spree. We are so uptight about spending that we always run purchases by the other person and all expenditures are joint decisions.

Another reason we are not worried about the other person messing up our finances is that since we have no other close family, we regard our dogs Ludwig and Wolfgang as our family and we value them to the extent that we will not risk not being able to care for them properly due to lack of money.

Aside from all this, we also recognized other advantages to sharing our bank and credit card accounts:

• Higher Dividends
  Higher savings account balance means higher interest rates and therefore higher interest earnings. At our credit union, the current savings dividend rates are tiered for balances under $999; $1,000-$4,999; $5,000-$9,999; and over $10,000; so it is advantageous to keep our money together to earn higher dividends.
• Higher Cash Back Earnings
  With AMEX, we have to charge $6,500 before getting the 5% and 1.5% cash back rate. We spend quite little so it takes the 2 of us about 6 months just to reach the $6,500, and that is often with the “help” of a very large expenditure like replacing the transmission on our car.
• Higher Credit Scores
  By alternating credit card applications, we have fewer inquiries on our credit reports, meaning higher credit scores. For example, in 2006, we applied for the AMEX card in Madoline’s name because she didn’t have a credit card at that time. In January 2008, we applied for an Amazon Visa in my name because we shop there often for household things and many businesses in our area do not accept AMEX.
• Build 2 Credit Histories At Once
  When either of us gets a new credit card, we add the other on as an additional user and the account also appears on both of our credit histories. This helps to build 2 credit histories at once with every expenditure.
• Saving Money
  We had separate checking accounts for a short time in college, but this sometimes led overdrafts (and in overdraft charges) on one of our accounts, because even though we had enough money between the two of us, splitting our money into 2 accounts and alternately debiting our purchases from 2 checking accounts got confusing. We would sometimes lose track and charge too much on one account. (We did all our grocery shopping together because we lived together and our money was only spent on food, miscellaneous things for school, and our pets.)
• Saving Time
  This goes for credit cards as well as other bills. Having one account between the two of us decreases the number of bills we have to pay each month.

So, yes, it is unconventional, and probably wouldn’t work for most people, but it is also advantageous in many ways. However, we don’t recommend trying this unless it is with someone you can trust 110% and who shares your financial goals, way of life … and, well, life.

Related posts:

• May 2008 Finance and Frugality Blog Carnivals
• Who’s to Blame for Your Spending? You or You?
• Why Credit Unions Instead of Banks
• Prune Your Spending and Watch the Savings Grow
• Monopoly Game Expansion #1: Personal Savings Account

I received the following comment today from a reader about my earlier post Simple Solutions to Staying Out of Debt:

“All good advice – sadly, it is harder than it sounds. But then again, the more you make the more you can spend, so figuring out how to live within your means is a lesson we should all learn at an early age!”

Yes, it is harder than it sounds; almost everything is. But what it all boils down to is common sense, self-discipline and keeping your priorities in mind. It is true that it would be ideal to learn such lessons at an early age, but there is no reason why an adult can’t learn to control his spending and live within his means if he truly wants to.

Don’t get me wrong. I am human and I know how hard it can be to resist spending on things you want. For example, here is just a snippet of some of the things I have been coveting for a long time – some for years.

• A laptop computer
• My favorite TV shows on DVD (Friends, X-Files and many more)
• Subscription to cable (which we haven’t had since 2001)
• A cushy armchair for reading in my bedroom
• The complete British and French editions of the Harry Potter books (I collect foreign editions of Harry Potter books)

These are just a few of the things that cross my mind at the moment, but I know there are more. Over the years, I have been tempted more than once to buy some or all of these things, but I know the danger of giving in to the urge to splurge, because spending or getting what you want is addictive. Oftentimes, when you get one thing, you want or need to get more things to go with it.

I know it’s annoying to hear these words because they’re so “self-help-ish” (I myself can’t stand self-helpers and trite inspirational “don’t underestimate the power of the mind” stuff), but -

The tools for fighting the urge to spend are:

• Recognizing your priorities
• Rational thinking (not rationalizing)
• Self-discipline/self-control
• Will power
• Rewarding yourself

Recognizing Your Priorities

For most of us, our main goal is simply to “save money” or “save as much money as possible,” and that works well enough. But maybe for some of us, that goal simply isn’t enough. If you have a strong penchant for spending, you may need more clearcut reasons than “to save money” in order to curb your spending. So you will need to contemplate the following question.

Why do you want or need to save money?

Is it …

• To save for a down payment on a house of your own?
• To save for a replacement car?
• To save for marriage and a family?
• To save for a personal or family emergency?
• To stay out of debt?
• To get out of debt?
• To achieve financial freedom?
• To make sure your loved ones are provided for?
• To make sure you have enough to live on should you lose your job?
• To be able to retire when you want or need to?
• To make sure you have enough to last through your retirement?

Knowing and reminding yourself of your priorities at all times will help make achieving your goals easier.

Rational Thinking

Rational thought is necessary in order to succeed at anything including spending and saving money. When tempted to spend on something you don’t need or can’t really afford -

Try to look at the item in question with objectivity (without emotion) and ask yourself the following questions (The “it” in the following questions can apply to any kind of expenditure. Buying a tangible item, a service, eating out, etc.):

• Do you really need it?
• If yes, why do you need it?
• Are your reasons for needing it valid?
• Can you really afford it?
• What do you already have that can be used instead?
• What will its value be 6 months down the road? 1 year? 5 years?
• If it is a tangible item will you still be using it?
• If it is an intangible or transient item, is it really worth spending money on it that you would otherwise never see again?

Also consider:

• The potential value of the money saved from not spending it and saving or investing it. Use the savings calculator on Prune Your Spending and Watch the Savings Grow to see how much a little money saved over time can become.
• If you really think you have enough money saved for your future or financial goals.

Self-Discipline/Self-Control

No one likes hearing about discipline. It implies strictness, lack of freedom, and unpleasant tasks. But without self-discipline, one can never achieve success or financial freedom. So when confronted with a tempting expenditure:

• Plan A: Walk Away
  The best way to exercise your self-discipline when confronted with temptation is to simply walk away – or close the browser window (and clear your browsing history and cache to make it harder to accidentally happen on it again.)
• Plan B: If you can’t walk away, then wait.
  If you have a hard time walking away from the temptation, then at least wait. Convince yourself that you are not flat-out denying yourself what you want, but rather waiting for a sale or a price reduction. You will often find that by the time the price has decreased, so has your desire for the item.

  If it turns out you do still want the item, at least you will be spending less on it. Also, by delaying your expenditure, you can earn a little more interest on the money to be spent.

Will Power

You will find that as you practice self-discipline, your will power will grow. There will come a time when you can see something you really like and simply be able to admire it and move on without a struggle.

Rewarding Yourself

Living a life devoid of treats and denying yourself everything you want is not living. So it is alright to reward yourself on occasion. Only you can decide how often and how much you should treat yourself to, but here are a few suggestions for how to figure out what works for you.

Start by setting a goal for yourself. It is important to make it a reasonable goal. Goals can be measured in time, amount of money, achievement or any other way that suits your lifestyle. When you achieve your goal, reward yourself with a little treat within reason.

Setting a goal

• Time
  Set a timeframe in which you decide you will not make unnecessary expenditures. If you have a regular habit of spending money everyday or every few days, you might want to start with a shorter goal and work your way up to the ideal timeframe.
• Amount of money saved
  Instead of putting all your money in your checking account, open a savings account (if you don’t already have one.) Put all your non-regular-expense money (anything not for necessities such as rent, bills, groceries, gas, etc.) into this savings account. When you have saved up to a certain pre-determined amount – $500, $1,000, etc. – then you can allow yourself a little treat.
• Achievement
  This could be for achievement in any area of your life – career, personal, weight-loss, etc.

As time passes and you achieve your goals you might find the success of achieving your goals to be more rewarding than spending money. In an ideal world, that would probably be enough. But for most of us human beings, it probably isn’t.

So remember, it is important to treat yourself once in a while. It doesn’t have to be a big treat. It could be as little as an ice cream cone, a reasonable item of clothing, a new CD, etc. But if you find yourself treating yourself every other day, something is wrong. I can’t tell you exactly how long and how much your goals should be. It is different for everyone and something you need to figure out for yourself. That’s why it’s called personal finance.

In closing, I will share

How I rational thought my way out of the items on my wish list (mentioned above)

• A laptop computer
  Reason I don’t need it: I already have a desktop computer.
• My favorite TV shows on DVD
  Reason I don’t need it: For now, I can watch what DVDs I have and TV shows online. I know I’ll eventually get them, but what’s the hurry?
• Subscription to cable
  Reason I don’t need it: An occasional DVD purchase is cheaper than subscribing to cable and I’ll end up with an asset instead of just putting money down the drain.
• A cushy armchair for reading in my room
  Reason I don’t need it: I can read on my bed. Someday I will get an armchair when the time is right and when I can afford a nice one.
• The complete British and French editions of the Harry Potter books
  Reason I don’t need it: The fun of book collecting is acquiring each edition book by book over time. If I got all the books at one time, I’d need to find a new hobby.

Treating Myself

On the other hand, I did treat myself to a rather expensive gift last fall. I have been a musician since I was 5 years old, and have wanted to learn to play the violin since I was a teenager. Last fall, I purchased myself a Suzuki Student Violin for $170. Being more expensive than most of our regular purchases, I considered it a late birthday/early Christmas/early next birthday present for myself. My violin is and will be one of my most favored possessions for a long time to come.

Related posts:

• Pecuniary Links ~ July 2009 #2
• July 2008 Finance and Frugality Blog Carnivals
• Welcome MSN Money Central Smart Spending Readers!
• Pecuniarities (Our Fourpence Worth) 1 Year Anniversary
• Frugality to the Extreme: Would You Eat Out of the Dumpster?

Originally posted 2008-06-27 06:00:38.

While browsing the WiseBread Forums today, I came across an interesting thread in which a member asks: Is “Simple Living” Just Another Term for “Giving Up”?

Several members responded with various opinions:

• There is a difference between simple living and forced poverty.
• Not everyone enjoys the rat race.
• It’s a choice.
• It’s a form of retirement.
• Some live the frugal life because they have no other choice.
• Frugal does not mean “easy,” but instead takes work and ambition.
• It’s the means to an end.

I thought I’d add my own opinion to this and go more into why we live the way we do – sort of a continuation/elaboration on Our Family Financial History which tells how we came to be where we are today. The answer to this question, as evidenced above, is different for everyone depending on your station in life – age, personal goals and lifestyle preferences.

For us, the last answer, “It’s the means to an end,” is closest to our view of “simple living” or “frugal living.” For me, simple living is not just another terms for “giving up.” I like to think of it as “saving up” and making it possible to “live it up” in future years.

Though, I think this has much to do with where we are agewise in our lives. Madoline and I are in our late twenties and we have many years ahead of us. But for someone at midlife, retirement or late-life, it would probably be different.

Our Reasons for Frugal Living are:

• To pay off our house as soon as possible
• To save up to attend graduate school
• To save up for a replacement car when the time comes
• To make sure we and our pets have enough (or more) to live on in later life
• To be able to live as comfortably and healthily as possible in later life
• To be able to help extended family who may need assistance
• To be able to travel and see the all the places we’ve been wanting to see
• To own a small farm on which to keep horses, sheep and dogs
• To be free of debt and worry
• To be able to have the things we want be they large or small
• To be able to pay our taxes – sad, but true

Frugal Living as a Choice

At this time in our lives, we cannot really afford to not live frugally. Our business is still in its development stages, and we are still considering other career paths. Because we prefer to avoid debt and our business is small, we have been using our cash to invest in sewing machines and materials for the business.

So for us, frugal or simple living is a choice because our present lifestyle is also a choice. At this time, we’d like to have a shot at making our business work because we prefer to work for ourselves and be able to work from home so we can be with our dogs who are our closest family. This is the reason we bought our house where the closest city is 40 miles away. We could move to a large city and get full-time jobs if we really wanted or needed to, but for now, we want to try to make our business work.

Frugal Living as a Means to an End

One of the ways in which we hope to make our fortunes is by investing. This also requires some capital other than regular savings and and emergency fund. So that is another reason we live frugally – to save as much money as possible to invest.

How about you? Do you live frugally? If yes, what are your reasons? And if no, why not?

Related posts:

• August 2008 Finance and Frugality Blog Carnivals
• Pecuniary Links ~ August 2009 #1
• Short Term vs. Long Term Savings with Bulk Buying
• Resisting the Urge to Splurge
• No-Air Conditioning Summer Part 2 – How We Stayed Cool Without A/C

A few instances where I often choose not to buy in bulk are:

• Trying a new product
  I recently shopped for a multi-purpose household cleaner. (We try to use vinegar and baking soda when possible, but there are times that we feel we need a stronger cleaner.) Because we have pets, we try to be as cautious as possible when choosing cleaners, and I found one called Simple Green that I liked the looks of because it claims to be safe and biodegradable, and it comes concentrated and makes several times the amount of the bottle.

  Simple Green comes in 3 sizes at our local Ace Hardware: 22 oz. spray bottle ($5.99), 1/2 gallon jug $8.99), and 1 Gallon jug ($10.99). Needless to say, the larger the jug, the lower the cost of use. With the larger sizes significantly cheaper than the smaller sizes, I was tempted to purchase the gallon sized jug. However, having never used or heard of the brand, I was hesitant to purchase such a large quantity for fear that it would turn out to be unsatisfactory for various reasons. Our local Ace Hardware charges a 15% restocking fee for all returns, which I consider a waste of money, so I don’t like to think of that as an option.

  I ended up choosing the 1/2 gallon jug of Simple Green. It was a hard decision because for just $2.00 more, I could have had twice the amount of product, but I figured that if it turned out I hated the product, I would be $2.00 richer for having gone with the $8.99 instead of $10.99. Also, the 1/2 gallon was enough to mix so much cleaner that it would be a very long time before having to buy more. And that extra $2.00 sitting in the bank for another 6 months to a year (or maybe even longer) will earn me a little interest, so in the end it might not make that much difference.

• Imminent large expenditure
  We sometimes opt not to purchase some things in bulk when we are expecting a large expenditure in the near future – i.e. income taxes, property tax, home and auto insurance renewal, vehicle registration and smog check, etc. which for us always come together at the same time (April and November). So in the weeks ahead of these months, we sometimes buy things we use over a longer period of time in smaller quantities. Yes, it does cost more in the long run, but sometimes we feel it a worthwhile cost in exchange for the added security of a little extra money in the bank account when larger amounts of money are going out.
• Less frequently used products
  If you are purchasing something that is used very infrequently, maybe only a few times a year, you might waste your money by purchasing it in larger quantities if it expires and loses effectiveness over time. This also goes for –
• Products nearing their expiration date
  Stores often have sales when products are nearing their expiration dates because they cannot sell them once the date has passed. In many cases, the items on sale are the bulk quantities and the price is so low that it is tempting to purchase it. But as mentioned above, some products lose effectiveness when they age so you may end up wasting money on products that no longer work as they should.

Again, the decision to not buy in bulk are usually for things that are not used up quickly. For everyday things like food, shampoo, laundry detergent, toilet paper, etc. we always buy in as large quantities as possible, but with things that are used over the course of a few months to a year, it can sometimes be more beneficial in the short term to purchase in smaller quantities.

P.S. We have been using Simple Green for a few weeks now and I am happy to say that I do like it. It gets the job done and smells really nice – sort of minty. Should have gotten the gallon size for just $2.00 more… darn it!

Related posts:

• Pecuniary Links ~ August 2009 #1
• August 2008 Finance and Frugality Blog Carnivals
• Is “Simple Living” Just Another Term for “Giving Up?”
• Prune Your Spending and Watch the Savings Grow
• Festival of Frugality #140: The Frugal Quotes Edition

The 2009 Entertainment Book – Great Savings on Dining, Shopping, Travel, Attractions, Movie Tickets & More!

I don’t often blog about sales, but this is one I couldn’t let slip by because it is such a good deal. My parents used to buy the Entertainment Book every year when I was a kid living in Hawaii, and I used to love this book. I remember afternoons lying on my stomach on the living room floor browsing this book for coupons for my favorite restaurants and attractions, namely McDonald’s and movie tickets. My bargain hunting days go way back.

Just using a few of the coupons pays back the cost of the book, which is currently on sale at 50% off and shipping is very reasonable at $2.79 per book.

The Entertainment Book, for those who aren’t familiar with it, is a book loaded with coupons for all sorts of local businesses and products in your area. The coupons and deals include savings for every day things as well as special occasions and outings:

• Groceries
• Dry Cleaning
• Auto Care & Repair
• Portrait Studios (JC Penny, Target, etc.)
• Fine Dinging (Ethnic and nice restaurants)
• Casual Dining (Tony Roma’s, IHOP, Pizza, etc.)
• Fast Food (McDonald’s, Subway, Domino’s, Wendy’s, Del Taco, etc.)
• Movie Tickets
• Museums
• Recreation (Golf, Mini Golf, Family Fun Centers, etc.)
• Sporting Events
• Attractions
• Travel (Car Rental, Hotels & Airline)
• and many more.

Entertainment® Book

There are $1000s in local savings in every book. To use your Entertainment Book Discounts, just present your coupon to a participating business. Save up to 50% and get 2-for-1 deals at top restaurants, shops, attractions, sporting events and more.

Membership Card

Every Entertainment Book comes with a complimentary membership card. Simply present your card at select fine dine restaurants, hotels, and car rentals to enjoy even more savings!

Register Your Card and Get Even More Savings Online

In addition to Entertainment Book coupons, you’ll find members-only online deals and exclusive discounts on Entertainment.com. You can also print coupons right from your computer when you want it!

• Print new 50% and 2-for-1 dining discounts – only available online!
• Get Repeat Savings – Find a place you like? Now you can go back to save again & again at select merchants.
• Enjoy $1,000s in travel savings. Hotels, car rentals, airlines & new package deals.
• Get cheap tickets for movies, sporting events, concerts & more.
• Save on restaurant gift cards & certificates for popular restaurants nationwide.
• Shop online & save with hundreds of new offers from top online retailers.
• Find all the savings in your neighborhood with easy searching, maps & directions.
• Save with ServiceMagic! Pre-screened and neighbor-rated home service professionals.

The Entertainment Book is available for almost 200 cities around the U.S. and Canada. Prices and coupons vary a little depending on your locality. A few examples of the current sale prices with a few cities/localities:

If you like going out, shopping, eating out, going to the movies, etc. this book can save you a lot of money. Click here to 50% off the Entertainment Book now. This is a limited time offer, so if you want one, order it now.

Related posts:

• Free and Frugal Things to Do in Los Angeles
• Festival of Frugality #152: Affected by Recession Edition
• Car Trouble: Watch Out for Those Pesky Wabbits
• Slowing Down Makes Sense: Drive Safely, Save More Than Money
• Insurance Matters: The Cost of Complacency

Originally posted 2009-03-04 06:00:03.

While going through my piles of unopened mail (mostly bills) the other day, I decided I’d had enough and finally took the plunge into the world of Paperless Billing and Statements. Even though I’ve been fully online – shopping, selling, socializing, banking and bill paying – for years now, for some reason, I’d always felt hesitant about not receiving hard copies of my bills. But after years of accessing my accounts and paying bills online, and running out of places to stash all my account statements, I’ve decided that it’s probably a better system that will end up saving me money, time (which is also money), space and paper cuts.

The Benefits of Paperless Statements

• Saves Time
  Time is money, so the time you would spend organizing and filing your account statements would be cut down. Filing would just consist of logging into your account and downloading the statements to your computer. Most accounts will allow you access to several years’ worth of statements, so you don’t need to do this every month, but can wait and do all your filing at once a couple of times a year.
• Saves on filing equipment
  No need for file cabinets (which are very costly), folders, labels and organizers, and no need to upgrade to larger or additional file cabinets as your files increase in volume.
• Saves space
  Digital storage is becoming more affordable and space efficient so they take up considerably less space than file cabinets, making it easier to keep your home and office organized and clutter-free.

  For example, this Iomega Desktop Hard Drive, USB 2.0, 750GB – 33750 for just $110, costs considerably less than a file cabinet, takes up a fraction of the space of a file cabinet and has capacity for at least a decade’s worth of bills and statements. It also looks a lot nicer than a file cabinet, which often doesn’t look that great in a home environment.

• Saves money
  Some companies have already begun to charge for paper statements. When I enrolled in Paperless Billing for my T-Mobile account, I was informed that I will be charged $1.99 per month if I revert back to paper statements. Perhaps if companies can save on billing costs, they can pass the savings on to us consumers by offering lower fees for their services.

  Also, by paying bills online, not only do you save paper, but postage. Check out an earlier post of mine, Pay Bills Online and Save, on how we save about $70 a year by paying our bills online.

• Saves the Planet
  Obviously. Some companies, again T-Mobile for example, are promoting Paperless Billing by planting a tree for each customer that changes to paper statements, so you’re no only saving current trees but adding to them.
• Earn money
  This depends on the company. Certain companies such as my Chase Amazon Visa account, offered 500 reward points, the equivalent of $5.00, for switching to Paperless Statements. Not a bad deal for doing something that’s going to save me time and money.

So not only is this the smart choice for those with regular computer and internet access, but the green, environmentally-friendly choice. Most of our bills and bank statements received via snail mail remain unopened anyway because I usually just go online to check the amount and make the payments when the bills are due.

Of our 12 monthly bills and bank statements, we are able to receive Paperless Statements for 9 of them, which will reduce our annual mail volume by 108. This will be quite a relief as our file cabinet really can’t take anymore. I only wonder what took me so long.

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Related posts:

• Interesting Reads from Fellow Personal Finance Bloggers #8
• Why I Will Not Change My Mindset, Plus the Difference Between Justifying and Being Optimistic About Spending
• 20 Minutes Can Save $180 & Tips for Receiving Better Customer Service
• Pay Bills Online and Save
• Pay Bills Online and Save (Re-Post)

Originally posted 2008-09-11 10:00:05.

Expansion Difficulty/Complexity: Medium-Easy

This Certificate of Deposit was the second expansion we created for the game (invented by Madoline) of Monopoly. After the Lottopoly (coming soon), I find this to be the most fun. The interest rates are rather high compared to real-life CD’s, but they help to illustrate the point that investing pays off, and it is so much fun watching the money add up.

Objective

To learn the system and benefits of saving and investing via Certificates of Deposit (CD’s).

How to Play

• Download and print the Bank of Monopoly Certificate of Deposit Form (includes rules).
• Banker
  Designate a player to be in charge of CD’s. This person will receive and deposit into the bank the money to be invested, fill out the CD form, keep track of players’ passing of “Go,” calculate interests and penalties, and pay out the earnings from the bank.
• Opening a CD
  Deposit the amount to be invested in the bank and fill in the player’s name, opening balance and term of deposit. The term is the number of “months” or circuits around the board. Deposits may only be made on the turn when a player passes or stops on “Go.” Once a deposit is made and the term is set, it may not be changed.
• Marking off the months
  When a player passes “Go,” the banker marks off a circuit under 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Months. This indicates the passage of time. If a player purchases a CD for 1 month, his account is considered mature after one full circuit of the board. 2 months require 2 full circuits, and 3 months require 3 full circuits.
  Note: Going to jail does not constitute a circuit as one does not pass “Go.”
• Payouts
  When a player passes “Go” for the last time, his/her earnings are calculated and the balance paid out.

Click on the image below to see a sample

Terms

• Interest Rates
  1 Month = 10%
  2 Months = 30%
  3 Months = 60%
• Penalty for early withdrawal
  $50 per month. If a player makes a deposit for 3 months but must withdraw it after only 1 month due to need for cash (to pay rent, taxes, etc.), he is charged a total of $100 dollars early withdrawal penalty and earns no interest.

Additional Notes

• There is no limitation as to the number of CD’s a player may have open at any time.
• CD’s may only be opened on the turn in which a player passes or lands on “Go.”
• A player may opt to immediately re-invest the closing balance of a CD by opening a new one.
• Early withdrawal requires complete withdrawal. If the player wishes to invest a smaller amount, he must wait until he passes “Go” and open a new CD.
• Tip: Use a different color pencil or pen for each player when players open multiple deposits.

Visit OurFourpenceWorth.com/Monopoly for more Money Management and Investment Monopoly Expansions!

The Monopoly game is copyrighted by Parker Brothers, a subsidiary of Hasbro. All expansions are original creations by Our Fourpence Worth and shared for personal use only.
Commercial use of these rules, forms and images is prohibited.

Related posts:

• July 2008 Finance and Frugality Blog Carnivals
• August 2008 Finance and Frugality Blog Carnivals
• Monopoly Game Expansion #2: Personal Checking Account
• Monopoly Game Expansion #1: Personal Savings Account
• Monopoly Game Expansion #5: Income Tax Edition

Originally posted 2008-06-25 06:00:16.

Young jack rabbit hiding out from the sun by our front door

First of all, I think it very likely that our seemingly endless summer of “No A/C” will soon be coming to an end. But more on that later. Let’s start at the beginning.

No-Heat Winters

When we moved into our house in the Mojave Desert in December 2006, we arrived late at night and therefore had to spend the first night without heat because our gas was still shut off. Our indoor temperature in the winter reaches the mid-50’s without heating and we were so cold that night that we thought we’d never be able to survive winters here without the heater (hey, we grew up in Hawaii :p ).

When summer came with outdoor temperatures as high as 110º-112º and indoor temperatures in the 90’s, we also decided that we could never survive without air conditioning

But in the dead of winter in January 2008, our heater stopped heating. At first, we panicked and thought we just had to repair it ASAP. But after a little more thought and discussion, we thought we’d try it without heating for a little while and see how it went and how much money we could save by not repairing it and burning all that propane for the rest of the winter.

In previous winters, our first propane bill of the season in January was about $400 and subsequently around $200 every month through April. By not using the heater, we could cut our total winter gas bill by about 60-70%.

It wasn’t easy, it was cold in our house all day, we had to wear a lot of extra layers, but it was totally doable and we survived it without even catching cold. So when winter rolled around again (‘08-’09) we decided to do it again, but this time we got a couple of personal space heaters to take the bite out of the air at the coldest of times, which only cost a fraction of our savings from not running the central heating.

The Start of No-A/C Summer

Last September, with a couple more heat waves to go before fall would come, our air conditioning also went out of service. Again, my first thought was “we have to get it fixed ASAP!” But the same thing happened. We didn’t get the A/C fixed and we made it through the rest of the hot days without it and saved some money. The year before that, our September electric bill had been $400. But not this time.

Without the A/C, our summer electric bills are about $45 (average) a month – about $5 more than non-summer months because we have fans running all day. When we ran our central air in previous years, the summer bills averaged $180 a month in our first year and $150 a month in our 2nd year when we learned to be a bit more conservative with the thermostat.

So we decided to try it this summer when May came around and we were discussing whether or not to have our A/C fixed. We’ve thus far survived average daily temperatures in the mid- and high-90’s, including heat waves as hot as 109º in the day. We’ve used many tricks and methods to weather the heat waves, which I will talk about in my next post.

Is it uncomfortable? Yes, at times extremely so. But is it doable? Yes, and that is what we wanted to find out: if we could do it. And we have for a couple of months which has saved us some money, but we’ve also decided that it might be time to end this experiement, which I’ll talk about soon.

Related posts:

• The Benefits of Deprivation: 10 Days Without Air Conditioning and Counting! Plus Tips for Staying Cool
• No-Air Conditioning Summer Part 2 – How We Stayed Cool Without A/C
• Frugal Thermodymics Part I: Limiting Sources of Heat in the Home
• Frugal Thermodymics Part II: A Simple Cooling System
• Under the Weather – Recommended Reading

Wise Bread is holding a $10 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway for a random answer to the above question and I thought it would be a good exercise for me.

Frankly my first reaction to this question was “There is no silver lining.” Our business sales are lower than ever so income is down while food, utility and gas prices keep rising. We have several things around the house that need repair but are holding off on them because keeping money in the bank seems more important at this time.

One of the things that need repairing is our central air conditioning, which is somewhat important as we live in the desert and are expecting temperatures as high as 110° Fahrenheit starting today, but we have decided to try to make do without for now, which is highly unpleasant.

So where’s the silver lining in all this?

It took a little thinking, but I’ve come up with one. The silver lining for me is that this is happening while I’m still young.

I feel guilty and selfish for saying this because not everyone is able to, but I am young enough that this recession won’t destroy my entire future and I can learn from it. For those at or near retirement age, this recession could permanently impact the rest of their lives by wiping out or taking a large chunk out of their retirement savings and investments. I am at an age where, once the recession is over, I still have a chance to build up investments and savings.

Throughout my life, I’ve read stories, watched movies or learned in school about the Great Depression, but because it was all so long ago and our society seemed so far advanced that the possibility of our falling into another depression never occurred to me. I’ve always been careful with my money, but took for granted that our society and economy are well enough advanced that we need not worry about the not having enough money for basic necessities.

While we are not at the point of destitution, things are worrisome enough now that this is something I will never forget. I have learned that merely being careful with money is not enough. I have now learned to be vigilant with my money, and that is something I won’t cease to do even when this recession is over.

That’s not to say I will be living in a state of pecuniary paranoia for the rest of my life, but you can be sure that I will never take economic and financial stability for granted again. So the silver lining in this recession for me is a lesson well learned and remembered.

While my silver lining is only a silver lining for me and those of my age group, I hope that those further on in years have found silver linings in other forms.

Related posts:

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• Dear Taxpayer: Good News! Your Property Tax Has Decreased … P.S. So Has Your Property Value
• Festival of Frugality #152: Affected by Recession Edition
• Patchwork Berets from Fabric Scraps
• Affordable Storage Solution: Covering a Cardboard Box to Make a Treasure Chest

Original artwork by Madoline Hatter available on a variety of merchandise at Mozartini

As we learn in grade school science, everything on this Earth is composed of many smaller things, which in turn are composed of even smaller things, etc., etc., etc. The same principle applies to finance and fortune. I have often read or heard of people who, though they wish to become wealthy, opine that doing certain things or forgoing certain pleasures simply isn’t worth the time, effort or sacrifice to save a few cents or dollars.

What many seem to forget is that a fortune doesn’t consist of just one thing. A million dollars isn’t acquired all at once or not at all. It is most often accrued over time and not without sacrifice or effort. Before we go any further, I would like to state that I am not perfect and that the following is mostly a lesson and reminder for myself, but hopefully also prove helpful to you. In the past few months, I have made many regrettable purchase decisions (recent examples: Pepsi and Cheetos), by giving in to impulse and forgetting the big picture.

Breakdown of a Million Dollars

It is important to remember that one million dollars is composed of many smaller dollars, which consist of yet smaller components – quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies, without which one couldn’t have even a single dollar.

A Few Examples of Big Things Made of Little Things

• A mountain is built of individual grains of dirt.
• An ocean is composed of individual molecules of water.
• You are composed of organs, which are composed of tiny cells, which in turn are composed of tiny organelles and so on, without the existence of which you would not be here reading this scintillating piece of writing (which is composed of 818 individual words, which are composed of 5,093 little characters.)

A Penny a Day

The chart below calculates the amount of dollars 1, 5, 10, 25, 50 and 99 cents can become if one unit of it is saved (or picked up) each day of the year.

Note that this chart does not count:

• Interest or Dividends if invested
• Leap Years

How A Few Cents Soon Become A Few Dollars

Now we will look at a couple of examples of how saving a few cents once or twice a week can add up. Replace the examples with things that apply to your own life.

These are just saving once a week. Multiply these numbers by the number to times or items a week you could save this much on and think of the potential.

How a Few Dollars Saved Could Become a Million Dollars

The following chart shows how a few dollars saved during the course of a month and what they can amount to.

Remember that interest and dividend rates grow with your balance, so the higher your balance, the more you earn. Now, make a list of the things you could be saving on every month and see how much principle you could be putting into investments to generate extra or passive income.

Picking up Pennies

I once read an article, Is It Worth My Time to Pick Up a Penny?, which stated that it would be a waste of time and money for someone like Bill Gates to stop and pick a $100 dollar bill up off the floor. A commenter on this article said that he never picked up or saved coins, but instead threw them away because it he didn’t think it worth the time or space to save them. It is true that there are times and circumstances where doing something is a waste of time/effort/happiness/etc., but if you aren’t in the middle of a more lucrative task in the 2 seconds it may take you to pick up the coin and maybe the 5 seconds to toss it in a coin jar, what’s the harm in saving the extra money?

So unless you are one of the fortunate few who could make more money in the 2 seconds it would take you to pick up a coin, next time you see a penny, even better a nickel, dime or quarter, laying on the floor, pick it up and put it in a jar to be combined with other pennies and quarters. In time they will become dollars combined with more dollars to eventually become a sum to be reckoned with.

Don’t Forget to Water Your Money Tree Journal

Golden Coin Sprout Baby’s Bib

Incontinent Spending Mousepad

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• Simple Solutions to Staying Out of Debt

f this is your first time here, please have a look around and consider subscribing to our RSS feed. Be sure to also check out

Madoline and I have a fondness for history and all things old, so the theme for today’s carnival is “Old Money.” While credit cards, online banking and checks are great modern commodities, they just don’t have the charm of good, old fashioned money – in other words, cash. We hope you enjoy this tour through United States Treasury history and the art to be found in currencies of the past.

1934 $100,000 USD Bill (Woodrow Wilson)

Editor’s Picks

• PT presents 9 Tips For Going To One Income.
• Twenties Money Magazine presents My College Sold Me Out.
• Toni presents Happy with What We Don’t Have.
• The Investor presents How a boring broker will make you richer.
• Karen presents Spending money can save your money.

1918 $10,000 USD Bill (Salmon P. Chase)

Frugality & Saving Money

• FIRE Getters presents Top 5 Freebie Websites!
• Amy Hobbs presents How to turn three slices of turkey into brunch.
• Ryan Suenaga presents Can a GPS Pay for Itself?
• Wilfrid presents Air Leak Detection – Leak Testing – Leak Stopping.
• Grey presents Making the CFL Switch.

1918 $5,000 USD Bill (James Madison)

Shopping

• Pamela Grundy presents Best Buy Coupons, Promotions and Savings.
• mbhunter presents If you love Amazon, you’ll really love Amazon Prime.
• Amy L. presents Getting a Good Deal on Your Car Insurance.
• Tom Tessin presents The Secrets to Cheap Airline Tickets.
• Aryn presents New Strategies for Using Double Coupons.
• APFB presents Four Items to Buy Used.
• Madison presents Free Money From the U.S. Mint.

1928 $1,000 USD Bill (Grover Cleveland)

Money Management

• Ariel Ozick presents 3 Dumb Ways to Waste Your Money.
• Todd presents Budgeting Games (Finance Games #6).
• Curt presents Avoiding the Most Common Financial Mistakes.
• GBlogger presents My Personal Finance One Step, Two Step.
• Nickel presents A Peek Inside Our FNBO Direct Online Savings Account.

1928 $500 USD Bill (William McKinley)

Debt & Credit

• Silicon Valley Blogger presents Best Cash Back Credit Cards: Your Rewards For Spending.
• Mr Credit Card presents What to Do When Your Credit Card Debt Has Been Charged Off?
• Andy presents Too expensive to file for bankruptcy.
• CreditAddict presents No Fee 0% Balance Transfer Credit Card Offers.
• DMH presents 0% Balance Transfer Credit Card Offers.

1880 $100 USD Bill (Abraham Lincoln)

Economy

• Tejvan presents Why Boom and Busts are common in Housing Markets.
• Livingalmostlarge presents Perfection Guaranteed.
• RC presents Do Government Bailouts and Payouts Mean Higher Taxes in the Future?

1891 $50 USD Bill (Edward Everett)

Career

• Heather Johnson presents Guest Post: When Should You Quit Your Job?
• VH presents A$king and re¢eiving.
• Dorian Wales presents No Salvation from Productivity Improvements: The Failed 35 Hour Work Week Experiment and Work-Life Balance Examined.
• Kevin Surbaugh presents Making 401(k)’s Part of Your Job Hunt.

1905 $20 USD Bill (George Washington)

Investing

• Dividends4Life presents The MMA Rate Mystery Solved.
• Writers Coin presents Adding to the Mock Portfolio.
• Kevin presents Rebalanced My Roth 401k.
• Dividend Growth Investor presents Year-to-Date changes in Dividend Aristocrats’ annual payments to shareholders.
• The Financial Blogger presents Shifting Your Investments According To Your Tax Rate.
• RothIRA presents Roth IRA for Teenagers.
• Sandy Naidu presents Behavioral Finance – Investor Psychology – Behavioral Finance Stock Market Investment.
• FMF presents Using Your Health Savings Account as a “Super Roth” Investment Vehicle.
• Zach Scheidt presents MasterCard Incorporated (MA) – Growth Slowing.

1901 $10 USD Bill (Meriwether Lewis & William Clark)

Book Reviews

• Clare Kierans presents Money is What You Trade Your Life Energy For.
• Jim presents 547 Ways to be Fuel Smart by Roger Albright.

1886 $5 USD Bill (Ulysses S. Grant)

Other

• Steward presents A Frugal Shopping Tip That Leaves Everyone Smiling.
• J. Money presents 3 Things you should always keep in your wallet/purse/clip.
• Raymond presents How To Generate Valid Credit Card Numbers.
• Jamie presents Custom Wallet Giveaway from TheTrendySpot.com.
• Mr. Banker presents ABA Routing Codes to Link Online Accounts Together.

1862 First official $1 Bill of the United States (Salmon P. Chase)

This concludes the 26th Edition of the Money Hacks Carnival. Submit your blog article to the next edition of Money Hacks Carnival using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags: money hacks carnival, blog carnival.

Related posts:

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I am also hosting the Money Hacks Carnival tomorrow, so be sure and check back for more great reads! If this is your first time here, please look around and consider subscribing to our RSS feed.

Now on with the carnival!

(AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Editor’s Picks

• Silicon Valley Blogger presents Lost Money: How Money Drains Add Up To $175,000 In 10 Years.
• MoneyNing presents Frugally and Happily Back to School 9 Different Ways.
• Kevin Brink presents “Sale” Can Sometimes be Just Another Four Letter Word.
• ISPF presents 10 Tips to Get Anyone into the Habit of Cooking at Home (Even if You Have Never Stepped into the Kitchen Before).
• Savingadvice presents Reached Financial Independence. Now What?

The Frugal Lifestyle

• David presents 25 Frugal Ways To Reuse Everyday Household Items.
• Kate presents Time Well Spent.
• HowToMe presents How To Make a Washing Stick to Pamper Ones’ Hands.
• RC presents Making the Conscious Choice to Get By With Less.
• Anna presents Not by Bread Alone.
• Kacie presents Frivolous or frugal to outsource tasks?

(AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye)

Frugal Family Activities

• Joanne presents Make Stuff Your Kids Can Play With.
• K presents Five Frugal Toys Using Food.
• Aryn presents 10 Frugal Anniversary Ideas (That Are Also Romantic).
• Ryan Suenaga presents Frugal, Fun, and Healthy: Five Outdoor Activities.
• DJ presents Camping on a Dime.
• Faron Benoit presents 10 Cheap Date Night Ideas.

Saving on Food: Groceries, Cooking & Dining

• Tiffanie presents 13 tips on how to maximize grocery shopping.
• FIRE Getters presents Top 5 Ways To Trim Our Grocery Bills!
• Jamie McIntosh presents Save Money With Organic Produce.
• Grey presents 5 Breakfast Ideas for Brown Rice.
• Todd presents Save 20% On Restaurant Meals.
• Adam Berry presents The Frugal Approach to Cooking.
• Megan presents Saving the Economy by Dieting?

(AP Photo/Mark Baker)

Shopping Tips: Sales and Coupons

• Karen presents Does a tax holiday really equal savings?
• Erin Gifford presents 5 Ways to Save Money While Shopping Online.
• Briana presents Surviving the Checkout Lane with your coupons is a breeze if you arm yourself with knowledge.
• Amy Hobbs presents Coupon Myths Debunked.
• Lisa Spinelli presents Six Money Saving Websites With Ongoing Big Fat Deals.

Spending and Budgeting

• Emily Starbuck Gerson presents Young British couple has ‘credit crunch wedding.’
• Rich Leverage presents How to Avoid Nickel and Diming Your Way to the Poorhouse.
• KCLau presents How a medium family can retire comfortably (Real Life Case Study).

(AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Back to School Saving Tips

• Kris presents If I Had Known Then: Food and Financial Advice for the College-Bound (Also, a Story).
• Tom Tessin presents Shopping Tips for College Students.
• Madison presents Back to School Savings Challenge.
• Ben presents College Dorm Room Decor Ideas – How to Decorate Your Dorm on a Budget.
• squawkfox presents Printable Dorm Room Essentials Checklist.

Saving on Transportation

• Jim presents 547 Ways to be Fuel Smart by Roger Albright.
• Steve Faber presents Top 12 Cars With the Best Gas Mileage That are Actually Fun to Drive.
• Steward presents Bike Commuting Is Tough on the Tush.
• Curt presents How to Minimize Your Automobile Total Cost of Ownership.
• Penny Nickel presents The true costs of driving– how much could you save on transportation?
• Pamela Grundy presents Unbelievable Car Rental Deal! Thanks Alamo!

(AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Personal Financial Journeys (Stories)

• Amanda Milne presents You Can Have Frugality and Quality of Life.
• NtJS presents What Is: The Smartest Advice You Ever Got – Mrs. NtJS’s Turn.
• The Happy Rock presents The little things…starting to trim the budget.
• APFB presents A Lifelong Money Lesson.

Miscellaneous Savings Tips

• J. Savings presents Avoid Overdraft Fees by Tying your Checking to your C/C.
• Chief Family Officer presents Money Saving Tip: Check the address for recurrent online payments.
• Amy presents 13 Uses for Vinegar.
• Shaula presents Finding Free WiFi.
• Livingalmostlarge presents Frugal Tip – Use CC to buy Gas.
• Randy presents 12 Free and Fantastic Windows Applications.
• Abby Freedman presents How to get something for nothing.
• Joseph presents Saving Money At Garage And Yard Sales.

(AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Other

• Michael Geoffrey presents What Do You Believe About Money?
• Dorian Wales presents How to Invest Wisely In a Bear Market?
• Sandy Naidu presents Emergency Fund Savings – Emergency Fund Tips.
• Nina Smith presents Five Things Not Worth Repairing.
• Kevin presents Should You Invest in Visa? A 5 Month Update.
• Michael Cintolo presents In sickness and health (insurance).
• VH presents Is the Layoff Boom about to Fall?

(AP Photo)

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of Festival of Frugality using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

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This first writing project deals with the circumstances, people and events in our past which have led to our present financial habits. I proposed this topic as the first of our group writing project as I had been planning to write something about our background and why we live the way we do.

We are one of those people who have a somewhat complicated history. In our first 25 years, we had lived in 3 different countries and called approximately 20 different places “home.” After several hours of attempting to put it all in prose, we have finally given up and decided to put our family financial history and relevant events in timeline format (and with authentic pictures), for your sake and ours.

A note before we begin: The time periods used to head each section are names of actual time periods from history; however, they are not all in correct historical order, but rather arranged to fit eras of our lives.

Pre-History

• 1978 July – Oakland, CA
  Mother, an art student from Taiwan, marries a young engineer and flight instructor from Japan whom she feels sorry for because he is poor and alone.

Ancient History

• 1979 March – San Francisco, CA
  Penelope arrives.
• 1980 November – San Francisco, CA
  Madoline arrives.
• 1978-1980
  Father cannot find decent work and receives gifts of money and private airplane (in hopes of stimulating flight instruction business) from our maternal grandmother.
• 1981-1987 – Tokyo, Japan
  Father moves family to Japan for better work opportunities. Father becomes a workaholic and makes a lot of money, buys himself computers and other gadgets but won’t give Mother money for food or clothes. Mother relies on grandparents for help and begins giving English lessons to neighborhood children after learning Japanese.
• 1987-1988 – Taiwan
  Father tells mother to leave and take us with her. Mother files for divorce and we are sent to live with various relatives in Taiwan while Mother works to build up a successful multi-level marketing business in Japan and Taiwan.

The Middle Ages

• 1988 July – Kauai, Hawaii
  Mother marries a spendthrift, workaphobe, and tax evader among other things disguised as a romantic gentleman in a ninja suit.
• 1988-1994 – Several locations on Oahu, Hawaii
  Mother continues to work at multi-level marketing business, Forever Living Products, bringing in as much as $10,000 per month for several years. Stepfather also helps by dressing up in business suits; however, the level and efficacy of his participation is questionable. 

  For the first we few years, we enjoy an idyllic childhood living in nice houses, one with a swimming pool, with a menagerie of pet cats, dogs, guinea pigs, rabbits, mice, fish and birds. As we get older, our mother begins to share her worries about our stepfather’s shopaholicism. He goes through one expensive phase after another – chess (during which he buys several costly chess sets and strategy books), golf, motorcycles, guitar, etc. She is also constantly worrying about his tax debt and his refusal to do anything to remedy the situation.

• 1991 – 2000 – Family Business
  Staring around age 12 and 10, Madoline and I become partially responsible for helping to manage the family business, as Mother and Stepfather become the area General Managers and run the warehouse for product inventory. Our duties include helping customers (called distributors) with product purchases, explaining the various purposes of the products, taking orders, retrieving and carrying products to customers’ cars, monthly inventories, compiling and mailing monthly sales summaries to the main office. We continue to help out in this business till around part-way through college, at times running the business solely in Stepfather’s place in later years.
• 1994 December – Hawaii Kai, Hawaii
  Mother is diagnosed with stage 4 cancer with 6 months to live. She begins preparing a will, appoints Stepfather legal guardian, names a trustee to set up our trust funds for the life insurance policy left for our future and education – $100,000 each for our education, $500,000 for the purchase of a permanent residence. Knowing Stepfather’s spendthrift nature, she allots $100,000 for his personal use. One month prior to Mother’s passing, the trustee of Mother’s estate is changed to Stepfather.

Imperialism

The following take place in several more locations on Oahu, Hawaii each successively less expensive than the previous.

• 1995 October
  Mother passes away, Stepfather collects the life insurance and begins spending money immediately. He purchases a new car – on credit so as to retain the cash for investing – and ignores calls from lawyer to set up trust funds.
• 1995 November
  Stepfather meets a man called “Grandpa” who has the investment opportunity of a lifetime; give him $250,000 and he will receive $6 Million in 2 months. Stepfather gives “Grandpa” $250,000 – without our consent, of course.
• 1995 November – Early 1996
  In anticipation of millionairehood, Stepfather spends money as if already a millionaire – takes a party of 10 to the Superbowl (including airfare, hotel and $1,000 tickets), takes entire family of which he is the oldest of nine to Phantom of the Opera, hosts a presidential campaign in Hawaii, etc.

The Great Depression

• 1996 Spring
  “Grandpa” proves by all appearances to be a fraud, though Stepfather continues to hope and chant “Our ship will come in.” All $800,000 is gone, new car is repossessed despite Stepfather’s efforts to hide it a ten-minute walk from house. IRS comes calling for back taxes dating to the 1970’s. All that is left is a modest residual income which would be sufficient for us all to live on if he didn’t spend next month’s check before it arrived.
• 1996 Summer
  Stepfather pushes for me to go to college one year early. When I do not want to do so, he resorts to asking for charity from a classmate’s affluent father. (We are unaware of this until after graduation.)
• 1996 -1997
  Stepfather begins to use the word “frugal” in family discussions, a concept he manages to abide to in theory; in practice, he continues to purchase computers, surfboards, and miscellaneous useless things which are somehow supposed to make him rich.

The Age of Enlightenment

• 1997 May
  I graduate high school and win the Sterling Scholarship for Foreign Language and receive a check for $4,000. Because Stepfather needs money, I endorse the check to him.
• 1997-2002 – Higher Education
  Madoline drops out of high school 2 years early, and does one year of independent study by correspondence in order to save Stepfather $16,000 in tuition, and enrolls in college one year early. We graduate college (with honors ) with the aid of scholarships and the residual income left by our mother. Even though the income is enough to support our very modestly priced education, getting the money from Stepfather to pay our class fees and insurance is like pulling teeth.
• 2001-2002 – My First Job
  I enter the work force after graduating, my first job being a contract 9-month receptionist/secretary for our college’s admissions office. I earn $9.00 an hour and work 30 hours a week. It’s a great first job where I discover I have an affinity for administrative work and enjoy counting how much I make every minute as I work (15 cents per minutes ).

The Great Schism

• 2002 June
  At the time of Madoline’s graduation, we sever ties with Stepfather due to a number of irreconcilable differences. When Madoline graduates and my contract ends, we get full-time jobs together. By sharing a house and all our expenses, we are able to put away about $1,000 a month. After a year at this job, we decide to leave Hawaii and try our luck in California.
• 2002 July – 2003 January
  We hire an attorney to help us deal with Stepfather and manage to transfer Mother’s residual income to us. By this time, the business has dwindled and the income is reduced to about 10% of what it was when our mother was alive and developing the business.
• 2003 February – Tokyo, Japan
  Biological Father now decides he wants daughters again after almost 20 years because he finds himself $80,000 in credit card debt from eating out and buying expensive presents for his girlfriends, and suddenly realizes family is important. Unfortunately for him (and for us), we have long ago stopped considering him as our family. Also, he asks us to help pay his debts which does not sit well with us.

The Age of Discovery

• 2003 May – Our First Apartment
  We decide to try living in the Bay Area, where we had been born. Because we will use up almost all our savings on the move, we look for the most inexpensive place we could find. We find a tiny place on Craigslist – and by tiny I mean 240 sq. ft. – an apartment behind a couple’s garage that will let us arrange the rental over email and let us bring all our pets for $650 a month. (Right: Approx. 1/3 of our First Apartment)
  We pack up our things (3,000 lbs. worth of furniture including our piano which we have had since childhood and couldn’t part with, books and mementos of childhood and our mother) and pets – our 4-year old dog, 16-year old cat, and 22 mice. The apartment is so small that we barely had room left after moving all of our things in.
• 2003 May – Our First Car
  After a couple of scary and extremely uncomfortable experiences walking in our new neighborhood to run errands, we decide we need to buy a car asap. Knowing almost nothing about car shopping and credit, we get tricked into a 24% APR.
• 2003 June – Our First Real Frugal Experience
  Having used up all our savings on the move and down payment on the car, and our monthly check having been delayed, we have $100 in the bank. One night we dig through all of our things, pockets and purses for spare change to buy groceries. Even after our check arrives, we go about setting up our apartment as inexpensively as possible because the amount of the income is unpredictable and unreliable. We begin to find creative alternatives for thing we need.
• 2003 Summer & Fall – Our Second Apartment
  As we are still trying to figure out what we want to do, we temporarily apply for and get jobs as sandwich makers at Togo’s Eatery. After a month, the owners of Togo’s offer us managerial positions at a new upscale pizza shop they are opening in Fremont. The apartment turns out to be in violation of several California building codes, and gets extremely hot, with temperatures above 100 degrees on the hottest days. As we are about to start our new jobs in Fremont, we upgrade to a 400 sq. ft. studio apartment. 

  As limited space continues to be an issue, we go to Lowe’s and bring home a carload of lumber and build ourselves a freestanding 8′ x 6′ loft over our beds with for our computer, cushions and other diminutive furniture. This loft is disassembled for a future move, and later recycled into cabinets, this computer desk (with hand-carved feet shaped like horse hooves), a shipping supply cabinet and beds for our dog.

• 2003 September – Our First U-Haul
  To save money, we rent a 10′ U-Haul for our short distance move from Hayward to Fremont. It’s my first time driving a truck, which is quite scary, but when it’s all done, we can’t help but feel just a little bit proud that we’ve done it all ourselves (except for the piano).
• 2004 March – Our First Credit Cards
  Ever since the car loan fiasco, we have been trying to learn about credit. A regular customer of our pizza shop who works for Bank of America advises us to apply for a credit card. We apply for and get our first credit cards and begin building credit histories. Biological Father wants us to add him as an additional user. We say “no.”
• 2004 Tax Time – Our First Time Filing Self-Employment Tax
  Our first tax season is a disaster. I have no idea about where to start and what forms I need to fill out for the income from our mother’s business. I spend days reading the IRS website and countless forms and instructions. I finally figure it all out and mail out our return on April 15th.
• 2004 June – Our First Loan Paid Off
  We have been saving up to pay off our car loan early (23 months ahead of schedule).

The Dark Ages

• April 2004 – Los Angeles
  Our 16-year old cat is diagnosed with kidney disease in November 2003. He becomes seriously ill in February 2004 and needs constant and costly care. As our pizza shop job does not pay very well due to business problems, we decide to move to Los Angeles for more employment opportunities.
• April 2004 – Our Second U-Haul (Actually Budget Rent-a-Truck)
  Again, to save money, we rent a 15′ Budget Rent-a-Truck for the move from Fremont to Van Nuys. This time the experience has gotten old, and the time constraints to return the truck in 3 days is more than a little stressful. We load the truck and hire a Bay Area piano mover to put the piano in the truck on Day 1, make the 8-hour drive and check into the apartment on Day 2, unload the truck and hire a Los Angeles piano mover to unload the piano on Day 3, and return the truck before 9:00AM on Day 4. We swear then and there as we rub our sore backs that this is the last time we ever U-Haul it.
• 2004 Summer – 2005 Summer – The Lost Year
  Having lost our dog to an accident and our cat to kidney disease in early 2004, we suddenly find ourselves a little aimless. Where we used to be content to stay at home and read or watch DVDs, we now find ourselves restless. For a few months, we wander one shopping mall after another as soon as we get off work (a depressing sales job working for a bald man who shouts a lot), buy more clothes than we need, and are reluctant to go home to an empty apartment. 

  Then we decide to quit our jobs and enroll in some arts classes at the local community college, and re-settle into our frugal habits. We become so frugal that we literally don’t do anything or go anywhere except to the library and to the grocery store. We stop going out except to walk the malls for exercise and window shopping.

The Industrial Revolution

• 2005 July – Franga Designs
  One day, while shopping for a Star Trek Enterprise model for my cousin, I discover eBay. Thus begins Franga Designs, our dog and horse clothing and costuming business named after Mother, which later becomes an online store.
• 2005 October – House Hunting
  Madoline’s designs are an instant hit and we begin to receive many requests for custom designs. Our one-bedroom apartment (638 sq. ft.) is completely covered in fabric, patterns, sewing and photographic supplies that we barely have room to walk. We decide it is time to expand our work and living space, and after all the moving around, that it’s time to buy a house and settle somewhere permanently.
• 2005 November – Homeowners
  We find a charming 3-bedroom house with a nice yard in California City. We make an offer and escrow closes November 22, 2005. To celebrate being homeowners, we go to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (matinee), which to this day remains one of my favorites.

The Modern Era

We are still in the process of settling in our home; with our frugal and DIY mentality, it takes longer to get things done. So far we have replaced all the carpet in our house with our own homemade flooring made from plywood that we sawed into floorboards, built a wall-length and -height shelf for our books and fabrics, and fixed up second hand furniture.

We try to save money wherever we can and build up our savings. Having been privy to our stepfather and our biological father’s mistakes and our mother’s constant stress over finances, we are paranoid about spending and debt.

If you are interested in finding out more about us, please visit the More About Us page.

* * *

About the PF Bloggers Group Writing Project

The Personal Finance Bloggers Network currently consists of 8 active personal finance and frugal living blogs. The Group Writing Project is a monthly project wherein each blog will write a post on a pre-determined topic and publish it on the same day of each month. Be sure to visit the PF Bloggers Group Writing Project page for the others!

Related posts:

• Is “Simple Living” Just Another Term for “Giving Up?”
• Finance Blog Carnivals of Late
• Learning From Our Mistakes: Our First (Auto) Loan
• Closing Your Credit Cards Can Hurt Your FICO Score
• Warm Weather Food Safety Tips

(This list will be updated to include future inclusions for the month of June 2008.)

Descending chronologically by inclusion date

• June 25, 2008
  Finance Fiesta 4: Cerveza Edition
  Article: Monopoly Game Expansion #2: Personal Checking Account
• June 23, 2008
  Carnival of Personal Finance #158 : Vampire Slaying Edition
  Article: Monopoly Game Expansion #1: Personal Savings Account (Editor’s Pick – double thanks!)
  
• June 16, 2008
  Carnival of Personal Finance #157: Third Anniversary Edition
  Article: Frugal, Fun and Productive Summer Activities
• June 12, 2008
  Finance Fiesta: The Margarita Edition
  Article: Lottery Tickets: Worthy Investment or Waste of Money? (Editor’s Pick – double thanks!)
• June 10, 2008
  Festival of Frugality #129 – Try a Little Harder This Week Edition
  Article: Frugality to the Extreme: Would You Eat Out of the Dumpster?
• June 9, 2008
  Carnival of Debt Reduction #143 — The History of Debt (Editor’s Pick – double thanks!)
  Article: Simple Solutions to Staying Out of Debt
• June 5, 2008
  Welcome to the First Finance Fiesta! – Miles Gracias por la “Honorable Mention”!
  Article: Guide to Safe and Smart Traveling with Pets
• June 3, 2008
  Festival of Frugality #128: No Debt Plan Edition
  Article: Frugal Travel Begins Before the Trip: Vacation Preparation Checklis
• June 2, 2008
  Carnival of Personal Finance #155 — Time With Family
  Article: My Favorite Money and Time Saving Websites (Editor’s Pick – double thanks!)
  

Related posts:

• Hosting the 3rd Edition of the Finance Fiesta Blog Carnival
• Recent Blog Carnivals (February 2009)
• May 2008 Finance and Frugality Blog Carnivals
• August 2008 Finance and Frugality Blog Carnivals
• Hosting Festival of Frugality and Money Hacks Carnival Next Week

Welcome to the 3rd edition of the Finance Fiesta. I’ve always enjoyed proverbs, and since Spanish is one of my favorite languages, our theme for this week’s fiesta is Spanish Money Proverbs. The following proverbs all come from A Polyglot of Foreign Proverbs for anyone who wants to know. Hope you enjoy them.

Related posts:

• Hosting the 3rd Edition of the Finance Fiesta Blog Carnival
• Hosting the 16th Finance Fiesta Blog Carnival
• August 2008 Finance and Frugality Blog Carnivals
• June 2008 Finance and Frugality Blog Carnivals
• Finance and Frugality Blog Carnivals: Week of Unexpected Delays

I know everyone hates hearing these trite statements, but the reason they are so often repeated is because they are true. In fact, they are so basic they should be considered common sense. These principles work for both staying out of (and maybe even getting out of) debt.

The simple solutions to staying out of debt are:

• Spend less than you make
• Don’t waste money
• If your expenses are higher than your income
  • Cut back, and/or
  • Make more money

How to spend less than you make

Before you spend money on any treats for yourself, set aside what you need to pay your regular bills. If you aren’t able to keep from spending that money by only mentally setting it aside, try the following:

• Open a new bank account for your regular expenses (rent, utilities, etc.). Tip: Credit unions offer accounts without fees or minimum balances. Let’s call this account your “Expenses Account.”
• Add up all your bills and expenses at the beginning of each month and transfer that amount from your main account to your Expenses Account.
• If the bank or credit union issues you an ATM card and/or checks for that account, keep them in a safe place at home instead of carrying them in your wallet or purse.
• If you get paid every 2 weeks and your bills are due at the end of the month, try not to spend any money on luxuries with the first paycheck of the month. If your expenses are less than the amount of your paycheck, put all of that amount into your Expenses Account, plus a little extra padding just to be safe (to prevent overdraft charges in case you added wrong).
• After you have set aside all the money necessary to pay your bills, see how much you have left. Put as much into savings as possible, but if you feel like you need to treat yourself to a little something, do so at your own discretion.

How to not waste money

Money wasted is money you will never see again. And money is one of the easiest things to waste and justify (at least at the moment of the wasting). The easiest way to keep from wasting money is to ask yourself the simple, and again oft-repeated, question of “Do I really need to buy this [item]“? It is likely that 60% or more of the time, you will find that you really don’t need it after some thought. But if just asking yourself this question isn’t enough for you, try some or all of the following:

• When tempted with an impulse purchase, leave it and think about it a week later. Don’t go and look at the item, but just think about it. Looking at it might bring the impulse back. After a week, see if you still really want it. Chances are that you will no longer feel as strongly about it as you did before.
• When there is something you really want to buy, make a list of “Reasons why you need this item” and “Reasons why you should not buy this item”. Take a look at your reasons and see if they are good enough reasons to justify the expenditure.
• If you do need to buy something, spend some time to research the quality of what you buy. Many websites have consumer opinions on all sorts of products. If you do spend money, make sure you are spending it on something that will last you a good while. Don’t compromise your desire or need for something by settling for something cheap and of inferior quality that won’t last in usefulness or value.
• Think about the potential of that money. Check out my earlier article Prune Your Spending and Watch the Savings Grow and use the savings interest calculator to see how much a few dollars here and there can grow into a sizable nest egg in future years.

How to cut back on spending

If your expenses are higher than your income, then go through all your bills and see which ones you can do without or downgrade. Do you really need lightning speed internet on your personal computer? Do you really need 1000 minutes, internet and 200 text messages on your personal cell phone? Check out these previous articles I have written that deal with lowering expenses.

• Discerning Luxury from Necessity – This is a basic guide to get you started on figuring out what you need and don’t need
• 20 Minutes Can Save $180 & Tips for Receiving Better Customer Service – This is an article on how I saved some money just by contacting my ISP to ask about lower rates.
• Insurance Matters: The Cost of Complacency – The lesson I learned about assuming that my auto insurance company was still giving me the best rate after I relocated.
  

How to increase your income

There are many ways of increasing your income. It doesn’t have to be a major endeavor, but a little bit of extra money never hurts. Here are a just a few suggestions for what you can do to increase your income. Some are one-time solutions, and others are things that you can do continuously.

• Sell your stuff
  Go through your things and find some things you no longer need but are good enough to pass on. Hold a garage or yard sale, or offer them for sale on one of the many online trading sites. I know someone who always has to have the newest technology – computers, cell phones, MP3 Players, etc. I imagine he must have thousands of dollars’ worth of still good technology just sitting around his house.
• Sell your abilities
  Do you have a skill not possessed by everyone? If you speak a 2nd or 3rd language, play a musical instrument, or have some knowledge of a subject, you can tutor or teach from your home or create an informative website on to earn ad money. If you are good at crafts, fixing electronics, woodworking, minding children, or any other special skill, there are numerous ways to earn a little money here or there and you may even end up being a professional in a field you never considered seriously. Some people do not even know how to install software on their personal computers and will pay to have this common task done for them.
• Open a CafePress Store
  If you have photographic, artistic or graphics ability, open a CafePress shop. All you have to do is upload your images and create products with your artwork on them. Check out our store Mozartini, which we started in December 2007 and has begun to make more money each month. We love CafePress because once the artwork is up and products created, all you have to do is wait for the money to come it. CafePress takes care of customers, prints and ships the orders and sends you a check. I just love waking up in the morning and finding those “You’ve made a sale at CafePress” emails.
• Check out a few other suggestions by my fellow financial blogger, Jonathan from Master Your Card, who recently wrote a guest post for us: Five Ways to Make Some Extra Income on the Side.

Related posts:

• Welcome MSN Money Central Smart Spending Readers!
• June 2008 Finance and Frugality Blog Carnivals
• Resisting the Urge to Splurge
• Pecuniarities (Our Fourpence Worth) 1 Year Anniversary
• Under the Weather – Recommended Reading

Pay Bills Online and Save
(Re-Post: Original post date February 15, 2008)

These days, most companies (including banks and utility companies) have websites and online payment options. Those that don’t often accept payments by phone. If you are still using snail mail to pay your bills each month, you could be saving $60 or more, depending your number of bills, each year by switching to payments by internet or phone. Consider the following example

Our monthly household bills look something like this: electric, gas, water & sanitation, 2 mortgages, cell phone, home insurance, auto insurance, 2 credit cards – an average of 10 bills per month. The cost of a first-class postage stamp is $0.41 ($0.42 starting May 12, 2008), and the cost of a personal check for us is about $0.07. (Since the companies usually provide the envelopes, we won’t count the cost of an envelope.) So the cost of mailing one bill is $0.48. At 10 bills a month, that amounts to $4.80 a month, and a total savings of $57.60 each year. A larger household with children and more bills could save even more than this.

If the company doesn’t have a website, it usually has a toll-free number you can call to pay by phone. Some companies allow you to set up automatic monthly charges to your credit card or withdrawals from your bank account, which could save you a lot of time.

Another option is through your bank or credit union’s online banking program which often includes free bill paying service. You can set up one time or recurring payments and your bank will mail a check for you. The recipient can be a company or an individual such as a landlord or babysitter.

In the years that we’ve used online payment options, we have never had problems with security or errors and never have to worry about the check getting delayed, lost or stolen in the mail. And we always pay with a credit card whenever we can. To see how you can save more money by paying with a credit card, please refer to our previous post .

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Related posts:

• Pay Bills Online and Save
• Switching to Paperless Statements to Save Money, Time and the Planet
• Pecuniary Links ~ July 2009 #2
• Financial Lent: A Frugal Fast to See What You Can Live Without
• Shipping via USPS? Mail Your Packages Before May 12th

Dissolution is a fact of life: that things naturally break down into smaller and smaller parts until they virtually do not exist. It is the same with money. A newborn $20 bill from the ATM is beautiful and full of potential. As it is used, the bill is broken into many smaller bills and the smaller bills into coins which are left to languish at the bottom of purses and wallets. Eventually, these remains of a larger sum end up in corners and crevices of the home, and become a housekeeping nuisance.

Do you ever stop to think that all the orphaned pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters skulking about your house might together be worth $20 or more? $20 of grubby coins, has as much worth in its soul as $20 in a crisp new bill. And these coins, if rehabilitated, wiped, and sent to work at the bank, will do their very best to repay you over the course of your life. You will receive interest for taking interest.

On each occasion when Penelope and I have gathered up a whole houseful of coins, usually when moving out, we were surprised by an impressive grand total. Coins, like people, are worth more hanging together than hanging alone.

 

As a way of rounding up stray coins on a regular basis, I suggest you keep at least one coin jar in the house. Several would be better so you would not need to leave the room to deposit a loose coin, as one usually encounters a coin when very busy. A jar in the car is also advisable as money is often dropped there (and sometimes not your own!).

Note: Avoid services which charge money to count your coins. Credit unions are usually better than banks at not charging fees to deposit change–as they should not because banks benefit from holding your money no matter what form it comes in. We prefer to deposit cash in our savings account (which earns good interest daily) and spend it through our credit cards which earns us cash back on all expenditures. For more on earning money by using credit cards refer to Penelope’s post: .

Continue reading for tips on making an attractive coin jar for your home.

How to make coin jars an attractive addition to your home

1. Take a jar that has been thoroughly cleaned.
2. Cut a circle of cardboard or card stock the same size as the top. You can use food cartons or heavy paper from junk mail for this.
3. Cut a slit in the circle big enough to drop a quarter (or half dollar).
4. Cut a square from a scrap fabric several inches larger than the top of the jar
5. Glue the cardboard circle to its center.
6. At the place of the coin slot cut the fabric in an X to turn over the edges of the slot and glue.
7. Place this cover on the jar and secure in place with elastic or a rubber band.

Now you may begin to save desperate wayward pennies and see how a minor change can work wonders.

Tips for your homemade coin jar

• If you cannot get the label cleanly off the jar, type a cute new label on the computer and tape or glue over the gunk. Example “DONATIONS TO ME”
• If you do not want to make a cloth cover – Cut a slot in the jar’s original lid and paint it an attractive color.

Related posts:

• April 2008 Finance and Frugality Blog Carnivals
• Blog Carnivals
• Frugality 101
• From Pennies One Million Dollars Grow
• Chilled Asian Style Noodles with Spinach and Garlic Sauce