We’re taking the plunge and couldn’t be more excited. When we initially built our house, the payback period for installing solar energy was 13 years, a bit difficult to rationalize. But now, we are looking at a much more compelling payback period of five to six years!
There was actually quite a bit of research involved in evaluating the various solar energy options, including system size, type of system, and with which vendor to work. There are many companies are out there with lots of promises and quite variable pricing. We talked to 3 or 4 before making a final decision.
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When our children reached a certain age when they were ready for a bit of responsibility and desired some petty cash, my husband and I sat down to discuss our philosophies about allowance. It’s very interesting how they can differ based upon a person’s own experience as a child. We decided to give our children a certain amount of which 1/3 would be spending money, 1/3 would be for saving, and 1/3 would be set aside for charity. This worked wonderfully for a few years. And then, the system began to break down as our children grew and their cash needs did as well: movies, smoothies, nail polish, magazines, etc. The lines grew blurry between what should be paid for by allowance and what were our duties as parents.
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BYOL the invitation said. How many times have you been invited to “Bring Your Own Lettuce”? It was a brilliant idea for a low cost pot luck party. If you have your own garden or fruit trees, you are often faced with the wonderful problem of having too many tomatoes, or too many beans, or too many apples at harvest time. So, our friend, had the foresight to plan ahead and organize a gathering for us all to share our bounties.
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I think everyone who knows me well is surprised how much I love raising chickens. I was probably the most reluctant member of my family, as my husband and children researched the types of chickens and coop designs. I kept wondering what we were getting ourselves into: how much money, how much mess, how much maintenance? But now I know, and I am thrilled that we went down this trendy path.
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Our small Northern California town has a little Art and Wine Festival each year. The streets close down to traffic and people come from all over to sample wine and look at the wonderful art. At the festival, there are a number of painters, sculptors and glass blowers who show off their pieces but the majority of the booths are crafty people who are trying to make a little money.
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A good credit score can save you thousands of dollars in interest on everything from a home loan to a car loan, and from school loans to credit cards. But, how much do you really know about the factors that go into determining your credit score? A FICO (Fair Isaac Company) score, otherwise known as a credit score, is used by potential creditors to determine the financial trustworthiness of a consumer. Anyone who has a credit account has a FICO score.
Your FICO score is determined based on the following data:
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Once again, we have a major (albeit Hallmark) holiday and we’re short on cash. There were a million articles on the internet this week talking about how to celebrate Valentine’s Day with your loved one, but we have some tips on how to do it and not empty out your wallet. Most of the ideas will probably bring back charming memories of your high school sweetheart or your first boyfriend from the 8th grade but even after all this time, gestures often speak louder than material gifts.
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Homemade edible gifts – Sugary yumminess is a great way to say “I love you”. Bake up a batch of their favorite cookie and wrap it with a big red ribbon. If you want to get cute, make the goodies into heart shapes. An easy way to do this is do bake a 13×9 pan of brownies and use a heart shaped cookie cutter after they’ve cooled.
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Happy New Year! What better time is there for taking stock and getting organized? I read a wonderful book over the winter break that made coming back from vacation and facing my mountainous piles of paper and stuff a bit more tolerable. “Pretty Neat: The Buttoned-Up Way to Get Organized and Let Go of Perfection” by organizational experts Alicia Rockmore and Sarah Welch offers anecdotes and candid advice from experts and real people alike on tackling organizational overload.
Entertaining and helpful, “Pretty Neat” covers all facets of clutter-control, from tried-and-true tips for conquering to-do lists and wrangling family schedules, to ideas on excavating inboxes, eliminating excuses, and delegating housework. The book also urges readers to stop holding themselves to impossibly high standards, and focus instead on defining their own, realistic organizational goals.
Some suggestions for developing your own meaning of organized:
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Identify Your Problem Areas – What works well for you? What needs just a small tune-up? What needs a complete overhaul?
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For each of the areas you listed under the Needs a Tune-Up or Needs an Overhaul, try to articulate what you think being organized should look like in a perfect world. This will help you understand the underlying causes of your organizational stress.
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Now, establish your “Good Enough” goals, meaning what you really need to do, rather than what you “should” do, and outline some actions that can help you attain that good enough goal.
For example, one area that might need a tune-up is your office. You think it should look perfectly organized (i.e. no papers on the desk, pens and pencils in a holder, books on bookshelf) at all times. This, however, is not realistic. Instead, a “good enough” goal might be to straighten it up once week for 30 minutes every Sunday evening.
Regardless of your level of clutter and stress, establishing some rules and routines will help you tackle organizational overload. Remember, “it’s all about having a plan”. There is no doubt that being organized helps you save money, by paying your bills on time, managing your finances more responsibly, and caring for your possessions more carefully.
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Perhaps you are feeling foolish not to have finished all of your holiday shopping on Black Friday or Cyber Monday. Well, you aren’t the only one who wasn’t ready to be pressured by the entire marketing buzz. We have a slightly longer-term strategy that should save you money, time, and sanity this holiday season.
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First, compile a list of all of the people to whom you would like to bequeath gifts this holiday season, and how much you have budgeted to spend on each. This way there will be no surprises when the bills come in January.
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Decide on a few signature gifts that can be given to multiple people. Some suggestions are blankets, hats and scarves, a beautiful coffee table book, etc. Our family also makes something each year to give as hostess gifts or to friends and neighbors. Some ideas are bath salts, limoncello, jams, and fudge.
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Save yourself the time and aggravation of running around from store to store by researching the best selection and prices online before you head to the stores. And remember to check coupon sites for extra savings.
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When it is time to actually go shopping make sure you eat a healthy meal or snack before you head out. This way you will be clearheaded, full of energy and not tempted by unnecessarily caloric and extravagant holiday treats. With your list in hand, you will be more efficient and avoid impulse purchases.
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Wrapping is the fun and easy part. Set aside an evening, gather friends or family, put on a movie or some holiday music, and get ready to “wrap up the holiday season”, or at least the gift giving part.
Happy Shopping! Hope this takes the stress out of this time of year.
Julie Arnheim and Darcy Ratner
RubbingNickels.com
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Well, you know it’s almost Thanksgiving when Best Buy starts their Santa and the Elves T.V. promos. Though this year I think they started the ads around Halloween. I am going to travel to my mother’s house without my kids this year (it’s a long story) and we are having a Thanksgiving dinner for four. That should keep our costs down nicely. In that vein, we have some tips for you on how to stretch your dollar this holiday season, starting with Thanksgiving.
Take your foot off the gas – I know we all drive places for Thanksgiving but we wanted to remind you that driving 60 MPH vs. 80 MPH can save you a lot of money on gas, especially if you’re going far.
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Tell us about your business:
YourNovel.com can put any couple into their very own personalized novel. We currently have 30+ novels and eBooks set at exotic location around the globe available for personalization. Our service lets customers input 26 details like their names, eye and hair color, best friends’ names, home town, place of work, type of car they drive, perfumes, places of work and more. The information is sent through a customized computer program that generates a book – either a paperback or hardback with or without a photo added on the cover, and here’s a fun part: each books comes in a “Wild” or “Mild” version, so the customer gets to choose how spicy the romantic interludes are. (The books are titillating yet tasteful, and not graphic, and 90% of the readers choose “Wild.”)
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Why did you start this business?
Back in 1992, Kathy was attending a public relations conference and Fletcher tagged along to keep her company. She was on a panel and the icebreaker question was: “What would people be surprised to find out about you?” She answered that she had written a yet-to-be published romance novel, which got an appropriate response. One of the women, a friend, at the lunch table said, “Wouldn’t it be great to read about yourself in one of those romance novels?”. Well, everyone at the table laughed and kidded around about it. Then, on the four-hour drive home, we looked at each other, and the proverbial light bulb went off. We said, “You know, we could do that!” and actually started outlining our first book, “Another Day in Paradise”, on the back of a manila folder on the drive. We started writing it the next day.
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a friend
