I read a book a while back called "The Millionaire Next Door". A couple of guys did a study of millionaires--what kinds of cars they drove, houses they lived in, if their parents were rich, how they made their money. It turns out that a lot of us live next door to millionaires and never know it, because they look just like "normal" people. They drive used cars, live in modest houses, and a lot of them are first generation-wealthy. Many of them are immigrants to the U.S. In short, they stayed out of debt and instead of putting their money into luxuries, they put their money into businesses or investments that MADE them money.
I read this article this morning about Modest 20-something millionaires. Our goal isn't necessarily to be millionaires, but we would like to retire well and not have to worry about money later in life
Monday, August 18, 2008
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Don't throw that away!
I swear I'm not a packrat! I think packrats are people who love to buy things and squirrel them away with no real intention of ever using them. I try to come up with creative ways to use less, and ways to use up things that people usually throw away. Some recent attempts to use less:
Sour milk---Makes the BEST pancakes! Anytime milk or half/half starts to get a little funky, I use it for baking. Homemade pancakes is a great breakfast, but we really love them for dinner. You can also use it in muffins, or to make my homemade "cream of anything soup".
Ziploc bags--I wash and re-use ziplocs all the time. The only ones I won't re-use are those that were used to store meat--those get tossed. I use foil to separate meat and I had been putting the meat in a ziploc bag so it wouldn't get water logged while it thawed. Lately I've started using leftover grocery store produce bags for this task. I usually wash out the ziploc bag inside out and hang it on my clothesline to dry.
Moldy/hard cheese--cut off the moldy part, grate the rest and put it in the freezer. Works really well in casseroles.
Old clothes--once they are just beyond repair or so stained that they can't be worn anymore, of course. I took an old flannel shirt and made Mama pads for me. You can cut apart old T-shirts to make cleaning rags or baby wipes.
Bubble Wrap--when I order textbooks or other things online, I save anything useful from the packaging. I NEVER buy packaging to ship books or stuff that I sell online.
Gift bags/tissue paper--I also save these so I never have to buy them to wrap presents.
Sour milk---Makes the BEST pancakes! Anytime milk or half/half starts to get a little funky, I use it for baking. Homemade pancakes is a great breakfast, but we really love them for dinner. You can also use it in muffins, or to make my homemade "cream of anything soup".
Ziploc bags--I wash and re-use ziplocs all the time. The only ones I won't re-use are those that were used to store meat--those get tossed. I use foil to separate meat and I had been putting the meat in a ziploc bag so it wouldn't get water logged while it thawed. Lately I've started using leftover grocery store produce bags for this task. I usually wash out the ziploc bag inside out and hang it on my clothesline to dry.
Moldy/hard cheese--cut off the moldy part, grate the rest and put it in the freezer. Works really well in casseroles.
Old clothes--once they are just beyond repair or so stained that they can't be worn anymore, of course. I took an old flannel shirt and made Mama pads for me. You can cut apart old T-shirts to make cleaning rags or baby wipes.
Bubble Wrap--when I order textbooks or other things online, I save anything useful from the packaging. I NEVER buy packaging to ship books or stuff that I sell online.
Gift bags/tissue paper--I also save these so I never have to buy them to wrap presents.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Personal Training
I had my first free personal training session this morning. There is a personal trainer-in-training (sheesh, that's redundant!) at my Y who is trying to get his certification, and he needs to get 100 hours for his externship. I'll be training with him a few times a week for free throughout August. Today he said that he doesn't plan to leave those of us who have signed up during his externship, but I wasn't sure what that means as far as having to pay him after August. Either way, I'm just going to take advantage of it while it lasts!
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
#432 in line
I requested the movie "Juno" from my library back in April. My husband laughed because my hold queue position was 432. I sent him to the library yesterday to pick up my stuff on hold and lo and behold, there it was, a mere four months later! It was definitely a lot sooner than I expected it, and I didn't have to pay anything to see it :D
The library has become our biggest source of free entertainment. It's rare that I want to read a book or watch a certain movie, and my library doesn't have it. Michael is a teacher, and we have a lot of free time in the summer, so we really utilize it this time of year. One day last year I was cooking in my kitchen and the theme song to the old show "Dallas" came on. I remember my Mom watching it when I was little, and I always loved the theme song and the way they flew over Texas Stadium. I realized I had actually never seen the show, so I checked to see if my library had it, and sure enough, they had the first five seasons. We spend a lot of last summer snuggled up on the couch watching it. I was the only person in 2007 who couldn't wait to find out who shot J.R., but I only had to wait three days to get the next DVD to find out. (It was Kristin, btw, for those of you not cool enough to know). This summer we've been watching '24'. We're mid-way through the third season and we love it!
I also borrow tons of books for me and the kids. I just got my paralegal certificate, so I picked up three books about paralegal careers. My library also has software, like the expensive Rosetta Stone language learning software. You can access it from home. I borrow cookbooks and make copies of recipes so I don't have to buy the whole book for 1-2 recipes. I also borrow all my favorite magazines instead of having magazine subscriptions.
The library has become our biggest source of free entertainment. It's rare that I want to read a book or watch a certain movie, and my library doesn't have it. Michael is a teacher, and we have a lot of free time in the summer, so we really utilize it this time of year. One day last year I was cooking in my kitchen and the theme song to the old show "Dallas" came on. I remember my Mom watching it when I was little, and I always loved the theme song and the way they flew over Texas Stadium. I realized I had actually never seen the show, so I checked to see if my library had it, and sure enough, they had the first five seasons. We spend a lot of last summer snuggled up on the couch watching it. I was the only person in 2007 who couldn't wait to find out who shot J.R., but I only had to wait three days to get the next DVD to find out. (It was Kristin, btw, for those of you not cool enough to know). This summer we've been watching '24'. We're mid-way through the third season and we love it!
I also borrow tons of books for me and the kids. I just got my paralegal certificate, so I picked up three books about paralegal careers. My library also has software, like the expensive Rosetta Stone language learning software. You can access it from home. I borrow cookbooks and make copies of recipes so I don't have to buy the whole book for 1-2 recipes. I also borrow all my favorite magazines instead of having magazine subscriptions.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Summer Entertainment
Yesterday I took the boys to the movies for the first time. The theater near our house does free summer kids movies on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. We saw a Veggie Tales movie. Ethan totally loved it :) Andy said he "liked it a little bit." He didn't care for the dragon or the rock monsters, because they were "scawy."
Anyway, it was my first time taking them, and I thought it would be packed because it was free, but there were still quite a few seats left. I wish we could have taken advantage of it more this summer, because they showed some really good kid movies.
Michael is at a Ranger's game right now. They give free tickets to teachers (not sure when), and he and a buddy from work went. They rode together to split the gas and parking. He gleefully informed me that it's also dollar hot dog night. He made sure he had an extra $4 for that (lots of eye rolling).
Anyway, it was my first time taking them, and I thought it would be packed because it was free, but there were still quite a few seats left. I wish we could have taken advantage of it more this summer, because they showed some really good kid movies.
Michael is at a Ranger's game right now. They give free tickets to teachers (not sure when), and he and a buddy from work went. They rode together to split the gas and parking. He gleefully informed me that it's also dollar hot dog night. He made sure he had an extra $4 for that (lots of eye rolling).
Monday, July 28, 2008
My husband shopped at Goodwill--proud moment for me!
My frugal ways are starting to sink in around here :D My husband, without ANY prodding from me, went to Goodwill to try to find work clothes. I had mentioned a long time ago that he might want to try there, because he's a pretty generic guy-size. My husband hates to shop, and hates to try anything "weird", so I really thought he'd never actually go in there.
He came home today and had spent $36, ALL of it at Goodwill. He got some very nice things. He bought four pairs of slacks, two button down shirts, two neckties, and a black suit jacket (8!). Nothing is stained and all of it appears new. Several of them are nice brands...one of the shirts still has the JCPenney tag, and one is from Lands End. He tried them all on, and only one pair of pants is a little snug--everything else was perfect.
He is done with his work clothes shopping for the year.
I was so pround I thought I was gonna burst!
I would take pics, but my camera is on the fritz :(
He came home today and had spent $36, ALL of it at Goodwill. He got some very nice things. He bought four pairs of slacks, two button down shirts, two neckties, and a black suit jacket (8!). Nothing is stained and all of it appears new. Several of them are nice brands...one of the shirts still has the JCPenney tag, and one is from Lands End. He tried them all on, and only one pair of pants is a little snug--everything else was perfect.
He is done with his work clothes shopping for the year.
I was so pround I thought I was gonna burst!
I would take pics, but my camera is on the fritz :(
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Electric bill Continued......
Sometimes I wonder why you people read this, LOL! Such exciting topics!
Got the electricity bill today. We are still with that awful Simple Energy company, as the new company hasn't started billing us yet. Even with the fact that they jacked our rate yet again to 0.19 kwh (is that even legal?!!), we still managed to decrease our bill from last month.
The math:
Last month's bill: $231.71, using 1377 kwh.
This month's bill: $186.54 using 949 kwh!!! Only one other time have we ever gotten close to using that little electricity. In April of this year we used 947 kwh.
A savings of $45.17. If we could keep our usage the same, once the switch to the other company occurs, our bill should be somewhere around $135.
The changes we made:
Increased the daytime thermostat from 78 to 80.
Increased nighttime thermostat from 72 to 75, and started using a fan near my bed, since I really just like circulating air.
Started hang drying laundry. We ran the dryer once in the last month.
Turned the computer completely off before going to bed at night.
I don't notice the warmer temp in the house anymore. I've gotten used to it. Of course, I've noticed hang drying the laundry since I'm the one doing it, but it's only maybe 3-4 loads a week so it's not too bad.
Got the electricity bill today. We are still with that awful Simple Energy company, as the new company hasn't started billing us yet. Even with the fact that they jacked our rate yet again to 0.19 kwh (is that even legal?!!), we still managed to decrease our bill from last month.
The math:
Last month's bill: $231.71, using 1377 kwh.
This month's bill: $186.54 using 949 kwh!!! Only one other time have we ever gotten close to using that little electricity. In April of this year we used 947 kwh.
A savings of $45.17. If we could keep our usage the same, once the switch to the other company occurs, our bill should be somewhere around $135.
The changes we made:
Increased the daytime thermostat from 78 to 80.
Increased nighttime thermostat from 72 to 75, and started using a fan near my bed, since I really just like circulating air.
Started hang drying laundry. We ran the dryer once in the last month.
Turned the computer completely off before going to bed at night.
I don't notice the warmer temp in the house anymore. I've gotten used to it. Of course, I've noticed hang drying the laundry since I'm the one doing it, but it's only maybe 3-4 loads a week so it's not too bad.
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