Parks.....and Recreation
I'd been thinking about parks for a while now. I live in Toronto and I'm fortunate to live between two terrific trail systems that are popular with cyclists, walkers, picnickers and a whole bunch of other people.
To start with - in the warmer months its cheap fitness. You can walk or run, cycle or play Frisbee in a very comfortable environment. There will be plenty of benches and picnic tables along the way if you want to do some push-ups with elevated legs or triceps dips or lunges. You'll probably find that your workout lasts a lot longer because you're enjoying being outside.
But there is something so special about a woodland trail - especially when you're in the big city. It feels luxurious. You've got a babbling stream with bridges that cross back and forth over it every couple of hundred feet. There are ducks to watch and squirrels to feed. Its almost like visiting the cottage - but its free!
The crowd changes depending on the day of the week. Go on a Sunday afternoon and you'll find huge extended families with ten coolers grilling under the shade of an expansive willow tree. Go during the week and you'll find seniors doing an aggressive powerwalk. You'll also see the dogwalkers with their deluxe red leashes trying to keep all five dogs from jumping in the stream at once.
So, go and visit a park, and enjoy a little natural serenity.
Alternatively Frugal
An alternative approach to all things frugal.
Monday, June 18, 2012
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Do Fashion and Frugal Belong in the Same Sentence?
Do Fashion
and Frugal Belong in the Same Sentence?
First of
all, I think that all of the frugal fashion divas out there have my undying
admiration. They offer outstanding tips
on looking good, without spending a lot of money – and they have your best
interests at heart.
That being
said, the extent to which a person embraces fashion, is sort of at expense of
their frugality. Being frugal means that
you don’t buy a lot of stuff, so you don’t need too much space . There is
always an aspect of minimalism that is wrapped up in frugality. A closet full of clothes is at odds with
that.
There is
also an environmental and sustainability question involved with fashion. The more land we turn over to the farming of
textile crops – the less land is available for food production. There is actually a virtue to having fewer
clothes in your closet.
I have
always spent around $200 a year on clothes.
These are usually bought at department stores, and in styles that are
pretty bland and timeless. Golf shirts,
polos, chinos, jeans, hoodies and oxford
shirts just don’t go out of style. I
have never bought a pair of acid washed jeans or rugby pants or a velour shirt.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
The Cost of Travel
The Cost of
Travel
I hate
travelling, so I don’t. As it turns out
a great deal of the savings I’ve accrued over the years are due to my lack of
wanderlust. I am continually stunned by
the amount of travelling that people do and the thousands of dollars that they
spend every year.
The term
staycation has crept into everyone’s consciousness lately. If you Google it, you’ll find people offering
staycation ideas. I find that quite
funny. Perhaps I can retain someone who
can offer me tips on how to not travel. For
me, the vacation was that I didn’t have to go to work. I could sleep in, have a leisurely cup of
coffee, go for a walk, stay up late. Now
that I’ve left the world of work behind, I do that every day now.
However,
while I was working – and I had some vacation time coming, rather than spend
$1,000 or more on a trip, I would stay home and purchase something that would
provide me some enjoyment during my time off and beyond. I would aim for something in the $3-500
range. It was usually something related
to technology. So, think games consoles
and games, computers – stuff like that.
As I said,
I don’t work anymore – and I financed it, in part, by not going on
vacation. I look around me and I’m
surrounded by all of the things I purchased instead of taking those trips. So, I guess being born without wanderlust has
its benefits.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Make Your Major Purchases Count
Make Your
Major Purchases Count
A major
part of the frugal lifestyle is consuming less.
Sometimes though, you really have to buy something – like a dryer or a
rug shampooer. People who are naturally
frugal recognize the importance of delaying a major purchase until they can
thoroughly research the marketplace.
Surprisingly,
the Web is a bit of a wasteland when it comes to free, authoritative consumer
information. I know it doesn’t seem
that way because of all the consumer opinion based posts that exist. And some of those consumer opinions are good
and valuable – like at Amazon or Epinions.
But let’s
face it, for major purchases, you need something more authoritative. Now, the tech and electronics end has always been
well covered by sites like CNet and Crutchfield, but what about
appliances? Because Consumer Reports is a paid subscription based service, the only
real viable option is ConsumerSearch.
ConsumerSearch is a broad, sweeping
meta-site that draws consumer reviews from a variety of sources – including Consumer Reports. From chest freezers to snow tires, furnace
filters to washing machines, this is easily the best consumer site on the
Web. I’m not even sure there’s a close
second.
PNFSBHE36K3N
PNFSBHE36K3N
Monday, February 27, 2012
You and Your Freezer Should Spend Some More Time Together
You and Your Freezer Should Spend Some More Time Together
In an earlier post I talked about the importance of having a chest freezer around and how you should cook things in advance and save them in meal sized containers. Well as it turns out there are people out there on the Web who’ve written quite extensively about how this should best be accomplished. So, I thought I’d provide a few helpful links to people who might be interested in getting the most out of their freezer.
- Freezer Meal Recipes Master List - This is absolutely incredible! The recipes are broken down by category (chicken, pork, fish etc). There is information on techniques, and as a bonus, there is even a section on which foods don’t freeze well.
- Freezer Tips from the Hillbilly Housewife – Some nice ideas for a whole range of frugal make-ahead meals.
- The Frugal Freezer Mom – Yep, an entire blog devoted to make-ahead meals and using your freezer to improve your lifestyle.
- Frugal Families has a very nice collection of tips and recipes for make-ahead deep freeze meals.
- Low Cost Living – is a site from the UK with some great recipes that go a bit beyond the usual lasagna and chili dishes. Here you’ll find recipes for onion bhajis and butternut squash soup. It’s great to see a little culinary adventure out there!
So, it’s not just me.
The deep freeze is a fabulous tool for saving your household time and
money.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
I’m All for Exploiting the Developing World – As Long as I get a Cut!
I’m All for
Exploiting the Developing World – As Long as I get a Cut!
So, I’ve
read a lot about Wal-Mart, and seen the documentaries. I have to say that they are easily my favorite company. Look at their mission
statement: We save people money so they
can live better. That’s a pretty admirable mission
statement. In the PBS documentary Is Wal-Mart Good for America, we learned
how Wal-Mart squeezes manufacturers to the brink of bankruptcy in order to keep
their prices low. Good. That’s how capitalism is supposed to
work. I want all retailers to squeeze manufacturers
to the brink of bankruptcy.
The
other main criticism is that so much manufacturing happens off shore. Well it happened before and it’s going to
continue to happen in the future. The difference
is, with Wal-Mart the savings incurred from that off-shore exploitation are
passed on to me.
Now,
for those of you who think this is short-sighted and heartless, here’s a sad
economic fact: our western lifestyle is
achieved at the expense of the rest of the world. Raising the living standard of other nations
can only come at the expense of our own.
I
think it’s OK to buy an inexpensive loaf of bread from Wal-Mart. Those who don’t can buy it somewhere
else. But please provide people with the
option, and allow the markets to deliver inexpensive food to those who can’t afford
anything else.
The Frugal Lifestyle and Swapping
The Frugal
Lifestyle and Swapping
I have to
confess, I don’t understand swapping.
Maybe it’s because all of the swappers I’ve ever met are really just
hoarders. Living frugally isn’t
necessarily a sparse existence, but it’s pretty free of extraneous clutter. So, I don’t have anything to swap, and I’m
certainly not going to have things on hand so that I can swap them for
something I want.
That’s what
thrift stores are for. They have small appliances and clock radios that usually
work, for pretty low prices. That
arrangement doesn’t seem to sit well with some swappers – a lot of them want to
have the entire thrift store in their home – just in case. To me, frugal living should mean that there
are limits that you place on how much stuff you accumulate – regardless of how
much it cost you.
I am
continually faced with swapping advocates who suggest that swapping is an
antidote to consumerism. In my eyes it’s
the same thing. I am also faced with
swappers who say that they are saving he environment by diverting consumer goods
from landfills. It seems though that
they are just turning their residences into very expensive landfills.
So, perhaps
I’m being too hard on swappers.
Hopefully I’ll hear some constructive arguments in the comments section.
Monday, February 20, 2012
Making Your Favorite Take-out Food At Home: Eggplant in Hot Garlic Sauce
Making Your
Favorite Take-out Food At Home: Eggplant
in Hot Garlic Sauce
This is a Chinese
take-out dish that I have loved for years, and I was very surprised to find
that it’s a pretty easy meal to make at home.
The secret is in the little jar of Lee Kum Kee Spicy Garlic Sauce. Lee
Kum Kee is sort of the Chef Boyardee of Chinese food – in the same way that
Patak’s is the Chef Boyardee of Indian food.
In actual fact both brands are far better than the Chef.
Anyway the
recipe is pretty easy.
Ingredients:
8 ounce
jar of Kum Kee Spicy Garlic Sauce
½ pound
of ground chicken/pork/beef/turkey/soyburger
5 Chinese
eggplants (the long purple ones)
1 small
onion
1 cup
chopped white mushrooms
In a large
saucepan fry up half a pound of ground pork/beef/turkey/chicken. The original recipe calls for pork, but any
ground meat will do. Vegans may want to substitute
soyburger.
Throw in
one small chopped onion and a cup of chopped mushrooms
Chop up
five Chinese eggplants and put them in a large covered Corningware container. Nuke for 5 minutes on high or until soft. Transfer to the large saucepan with the
ground meat, mushrooms and onions.
Mix in half
the jar (4 ozs) of Lee Kum Kim Spicy Garlic Sauce and let simmer for a couple
of minutes.
Then serve
with rice. This is 2-4 servings depending
on whether it’s the main course or a side dish.
Net Worth Nonsense: What to Include in your Net Worth Calculations
Net Worth
Nonsense: What to Include in your Net
Worth Calculations
I used to
sell life insurance. That meant that I
sat at a lot of people’s dining room table helping them figure out their net
worth. I used some tools that were
provided to me by the insurance company.
Today, there are plenty of net worth calculators on the web for you to
use in your own home.
They all
include boxes for your assets that include: real estate; retirement accounts;
mutual funds; stocks; bonds; savings accounts and a few other asset
classes. Those are all fine and you
should certainly include them.
It’s the
categories for clothes, collectibles, appliances and automobiles that I have a
concern with. It’s entirely possible
that if you add up all of the items on this list, they could easily come to
$50-100K. That’s a fair size chunk of a
lot of people’s net work. I’m not sure
that including them creates an accurate picture of your net worth.
Let’s start
with appliances. If you’re including the
fridge, stove and washer/dryer, you’re most likely going to sell them with your
home, so they’re already included in the valuation of your house/condo. Many people choose not to include their cars
in calculating their net worth because they are a depreciating asset. I choose not to because none of my cars have
ever been worth very much.
Clothes
should never be included. After you buy
them and take them home they are pretty much worthless to anyone except
you. You won’t get very much if you try
and sell them – which is why they wind up at the thrift store. Collectibles and
jewellery never get the prices we paid for them, and what’s worse they make us
think that we have more money than we really do.
I tend to
think of the asset side of the net worth statement as being full of assets that
either appreciate or generate income.
Right now I’m living off of my investments, the calculations of my net
worth are only useful to me if they either make money now or make money in the
future.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Lessons From the Previous Generation
Lessons
From the Previous Generation
My parents
grew up in Britain during the Second World War.
North Americans may not realize it but wartime rationing continued for several
years after that. So, when they arrived
over here, they had lived with deprivation for most of their lives.
They
continued with this lifestyle for all of their working lives - and into
retirement. They found that it was a
great way to save money – a lot of money.
There were not a lot of new clothes or eating out. Vacations were taken
around my father’s business trips. The
thermostat hovered around 53 degrees during the winter months. The cars were always bought used and driven
into the ground.
There were
times though that frugality crossed over into just plain cheap. The Christmas turkey was cooked at Dad’s
workplace so that it wouldn’t use our electricity. As soon as the kids got part-time jobs we had
to pay rent. We didn’t buy sugar or jam
or anything else that was available in small containers at restaurants.
Every time my father went out for coffee he would fill his pockets with
jam and sugar packets, and bring them home.
So, the
frugal living tips I offer come from a lifetime of experience. Some of them are ones that I learned from my
parents and some that I’ve come up with on my own. A lot of what my parents did to save money, I
chose not to practice. I know it worked
for them, but it just seemed impractical in my life. However, if any of us had grown up in their
circumstances, we would probably behave the same way.
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Making Your Favorite Takeout Food at Home: Mango Salad
Making Your Favorite Takeout Food at Home: Mango Salad
There are
plenty of recipes out there already, but I thought it might be nice to
contribute a few for those dishes that we normally either go out for, or order
in.
When I
really started to make an effort to economize it was cutting out the take-out
Thai and Chinese food that really hurt the most. So I decided to learn how to make some of my
favorite take-out food, and it really wasn’t that hard.
So, I just
finished making a batch of mango salad. Whenever I ordered in Thai food it
would always include mango salad. If the
response is good, I might be persuaded to provide you with my recipe for
coconut tom yum.
Mango
salad:
take two red mangoes, peel and cut them into spears
add one
small thinly sliced red onion
add a cup
of cilantro leaves
and half a
cup of chopped peanuts (or a cup if you like)
Mix
together in a good sized bowl, I usually use a corningware container with a
lid.
The
dressing for the salad is made from:
2
tablespoons of lime juice
2
teaspoons of brown sugar
1 teaspoon
of vegetable oil
a dash of
fish sauce (or soy sauce or worcestershire sauce, depending on what you've got
hanging around).
Pour on
the dressing and give it a stir.
Alternatives to Thrift Store Furniture
Alternatives
to Thrift Store Furniture
Frugal
furniture can be a real challenge. Even
if you decide to build it yourself, that can take time, expertise and
frequently the cost of materials can make it less than viable. Thrift store furniture is an obvious option,
but you have to watch those stores like a hawk because the good stuff gets
snapped up immediately. When you arrive
there’s typically only a couple of couches and chairs left – and they’re not
worth writing home about.
The
selection at the for-profit used stores is always better and so is the quality,
but the prices are going to be considerably more than you’ll find at a thrift
store.
Two
wonderful alternatives to these choices address all of the above issues:
selection; quality and price. The first
is the used office furniture market.
These are typically huge stores, frequently in industrial parks. There isn’t much of a showroom, instead it’s
like hunting through a hoarder’s garage.
But the quality of the tables, wall-units, waiting room chairs and
couches make this a marvelous alternative to thrift stores. You’ll find the prices only slightly higher
and the selection is dizzying.
The second
alternative is the used hotel furniture market.
It’s wing chair heaven. There
aren’t a lot of dining tables, but there’s no shortage of dining chairs, floor
lamps, table lamps, armoires, coffee tables and off course – beds and
bedframes. Just like the with office
furniture market, the selection is vast, the quality is great and the prices
are only slightly higher than what you’d find at the thrift store.
So, if you’re
needing to freshen up the look of your place, but you want to do it the frugal
way – consider these two alternatives.
Friday, February 17, 2012
The Myth of the Household Budget
The Myth of
the Household Budget
Household
financial advice starts with the budget.
Given the stunning amount of household debt that’s around today, we may
want to rethink that one. It’s like
using a diet to address the obesity issue.
Not only does it not work, but it suggests that the inability to follow
either the budget or the diet is the fault of the client and not the counselor.
There are a
few reasons that budgets don’t work:
They give the
householder permission to spend up to the budget limit each month, even if they
don’t need to
They can’t prepare you
for the catastrophes that sink most budgets – like the $3,000 transmission
repair
In a lot of cases you
simply can’t live within the limits the budget sets out
The savings portion
may be too small
In summary,
concept of a household budget is just too rigid to accommodate the average
family’s complicated life. Instead you
should worry about being further ahead at the end of every month (to adequately
prepare for that impending $3000 transmission repair). And that means every purchasing decision
should be reviewed with the monthly goal in mind.
Frugal
people think about every purchase, and because they do, they wind up purchasing
less. So at the store, they think about:
1) if they really need something and; 2) how little they can get away with
paying for it.
Frugal
people save, and they like to watch their savings grow. They sleep better at night knowing that when
the transmission fails that they can pay for it. More importantly, they know that each moth
their net worth increases. And that
increase in net worth is the goal, not staying within the budget.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Checking Out the Savings @ Your Library
Checking
Out the Savings @ Your Library
Let’s say
that there’s a branch of government that keeps retail hours and gives away lots
of cool stuff for free. Is that
something that you’d be interested in?
Your public library has been helping frugal households achieve their
financial goals for decades. Walk in and
look around. In addition to the gangs of
teenage thugs monopolizing the Internet terminals and the rummies sleeping it
off in the magazine area, you’ll see lots and lots of young families.
Especially
early on a Friday evening. That’s when
you’ll see the line-up at the circulation desk packed with young, struggling
families picking up some entertainment for the weekend. Libraries have always been there for this
group, and they always will be. Those
people in line will have armloads of bluerays and DVDs, some picturebooks for
the kids, maybe some videogames and a few a novels for the parents. A whole week’s worth of entertainment – all for
free.
Well, it’s
free if you can get them back on time.
That’s always been a challenge when using the public library. Those fines can add up in no time at
all. There really is only one way to
address this, and that’s to have one night a week as library night. That way everything gets brought back. Keep a bookbag at the door and make sure that
everything that’s due gets put in it.
If you can
manage to keep this up, you’ll save money on movie rentals, console games,
books and magazines. What’s more, you’ll
be able to say to your friends, “Oh, no sorry I can’t that night. Thursday is the night my family and I go to
the Library.”
And deep
down, haven’t you always wanted to be the kind of person who could say that?
Your Money or your Life....Insurance
Your Money or your Life....Insurance
You either
need to have life insurance or money and you should never have both. Life insurance should always be a short-term
measure that protects the people that you care about in the event that
something happens to you. While you’re
protected by a non-participating, term life policy you need to be saving, so
that eventually you will no longer need that insurance.
Term life
is dirt cheap when you’re young, and gets more expensive as you get older. With that in mind, as your net worth grows,
you should gradually begin to scale back on the face amount of your term life
policies.
The real
savings here are from where you get your term insurance. The answer is, From anyone except your insurance agent. Now don’t get me wrong, I love insurance
agents. I was an insurance agent for a while.
A life insurance agent has access to a dizzying array of financial
instruments that might be useful to you at different times in your life. Unfortunately, the life insurance that comes
from an agent – even term insurance - is always the most expensive.
So, where
should get your term life insurance? You
can get it from any groups that you belong to.
That includes extra coverage from your employer; any professional or
trade association that you belong to; any educational alumni association; a
service club or fraternal order; automobile associations – the list is
endless.
Yes,
everyone should have life insurance, just don’t buy it from an insurance agent.
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