Oh the Frugality!!!
Today is Danielle's 16th Birthday. This poor kid. I always fast forward her age for some reason. It feels like she just spent a year being 16 and not 15 so today she should be 17 and not 16. Weird that I do that, but there it is.
For her birthday we are heading out to New York City on Sunday to see Fabulous! I'll take pics and post a better entry for her after the weekend.
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Life is rocking and rolling, as it should be. We are gearing up for back to school time. Boys off to second grade, Danielle off to tenth and Autumn off to college. I'm pretty excited for this year. Its going to be pretty odd not having Autumn around. Very, very strange to think of what mornings will like without her and dinners spent with only three kids instead of four.
I'm on a quest to become a personal finance genius who is brilliant at budgeting and saving money. That is a sentence that I have never in my life ever thought I would write without sarcasm. I have a few sites and book recommendations that I am finding to be extra cool and helpful:
* Mint.com - This is the hub of our lives. It tracks every damn penny you earn, spend, save and invest. It has great apps too. Check it out for yourself, its too good to not try.
* CreditKarma - This is a really great way to monitor your credit score. You get a free snapshot of about where you are with your score and help in saving cash on credit cards and loans.
* Reddit.com/r/personalfinance and r/frugal - These two corners of Reddit.com have been awesome. Personal finance is filled with people who truly understand things like FICO scores, investing, budgeting and saving. The folks on there range from attorneys to bankers to college kids trying to make ends meet.
From there I head over to the Frugal Folks. I recently learned how to make my own laundry detergent!
* 1 bar of Ivory soap or Fels-Naptha laundry bar soap
* 1 Cup Borax
* 1 Cup Washing Soda (NOT baking soda)
Grate the soap and mix the three things together in an airtight container. Use 2T per load. It will cost you around $9 to buy all this stuff and it will last a long, long, time. Estimated cost per load is somewhere around a penny. Some folks toss in some vinegar during the rinse cycle to help avoid soap buildup. I also highly recommend that you use a stain stick or spray for tough stains (think little boy type of dirty).
That is a picture of orange peels soaking in white vinegar. It makes a really incredible household cleaner that has a great scent. You just fill up a mason jar with peels, pour vinegar over it until the jar is full, cap it and ignore it for about a month. After that, you can pour the vinegar into a spray bottle and go crazy. Awesome for counters, windows, bathrooms, etc.
Check out this thread for tons more tips and tricks on cleaning and organizing that are very, very inexpensive but effective.
* Two books - Total Money Makeover and The Millionaire Next Door . The first book is a how to, the second is more about changing ways and ideas and preconceived notions that are often pretty wrong about the wealthy in the US.
I am finding that second book to be really, really eye opening. I no longer see fancy cars with a gleam in my eye and a "One day...." wish. Now, every time I climb into my old minivan, I know that its worth it. That this choice of buying used and with cash (no financing)is something that the successful and actually wealthy people do. Financing cars is one of the biggest drains on savings and income isn't something I didn't already know, but for some reason I now see the other new cars in the lots and instead of a pang of envy, I am relieved it isn't my payment to have to deal with every month. Living below your means... amazing how quickly the little changes add up.
That's it for today. I leave you with a quote from JP as he was exiting the shower the other night:
"I'm clean as a dish!"
For her birthday we are heading out to New York City on Sunday to see Fabulous! I'll take pics and post a better entry for her after the weekend.
~~~~~~
Life is rocking and rolling, as it should be. We are gearing up for back to school time. Boys off to second grade, Danielle off to tenth and Autumn off to college. I'm pretty excited for this year. Its going to be pretty odd not having Autumn around. Very, very strange to think of what mornings will like without her and dinners spent with only three kids instead of four.
I'm on a quest to become a personal finance genius who is brilliant at budgeting and saving money. That is a sentence that I have never in my life ever thought I would write without sarcasm. I have a few sites and book recommendations that I am finding to be extra cool and helpful:
* Mint.com - This is the hub of our lives. It tracks every damn penny you earn, spend, save and invest. It has great apps too. Check it out for yourself, its too good to not try.
* CreditKarma - This is a really great way to monitor your credit score. You get a free snapshot of about where you are with your score and help in saving cash on credit cards and loans.
* Reddit.com/r/personalfinance and r/frugal - These two corners of Reddit.com have been awesome. Personal finance is filled with people who truly understand things like FICO scores, investing, budgeting and saving. The folks on there range from attorneys to bankers to college kids trying to make ends meet.
From there I head over to the Frugal Folks. I recently learned how to make my own laundry detergent!
 |
| Make your own laundry detergent! |
* 1 bar of Ivory soap or Fels-Naptha laundry bar soap
* 1 Cup Borax
* 1 Cup Washing Soda (NOT baking soda)
Grate the soap and mix the three things together in an airtight container. Use 2T per load. It will cost you around $9 to buy all this stuff and it will last a long, long, time. Estimated cost per load is somewhere around a penny. Some folks toss in some vinegar during the rinse cycle to help avoid soap buildup. I also highly recommend that you use a stain stick or spray for tough stains (think little boy type of dirty).
 | ||||||
| Orange Vinegar Cleaner |
Check out this thread for tons more tips and tricks on cleaning and organizing that are very, very inexpensive but effective.
* Two books - Total Money Makeover and The Millionaire Next Door . The first book is a how to, the second is more about changing ways and ideas and preconceived notions that are often pretty wrong about the wealthy in the US.
I am finding that second book to be really, really eye opening. I no longer see fancy cars with a gleam in my eye and a "One day...." wish. Now, every time I climb into my old minivan, I know that its worth it. That this choice of buying used and with cash (no financing)is something that the successful and actually wealthy people do. Financing cars is one of the biggest drains on savings and income isn't something I didn't already know, but for some reason I now see the other new cars in the lots and instead of a pang of envy, I am relieved it isn't my payment to have to deal with every month. Living below your means... amazing how quickly the little changes add up.
That's it for today. I leave you with a quote from JP as he was exiting the shower the other night:
"I'm clean as a dish!"
Thanks for mentioning Credit Karma! I hope you find it super useful in your quest to become a "personal finance genius." ;)
ReplyDeleteAlso, I LOVE r/personalfinance and I answer questions there often (and always learn a little something).