Two Pennies Earned

Saving Money on Groceries with the Coupon Mom Method

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 08:01:00 +0000

The only thing I used to do to save money on groceries was to make a list before each shopping trip and stick to a monthly grocery budget. I didn’t use coupons because I figured I saved more money by purchasing store brands (preferably store brands on sale) and shopping at discount stores and farmers markets. I wouldn’t buy everything on my list sometimes — if something was too expensive that week, I would either do without or substitute for something cheaper. I didn’t clip coupons and I didn’t even get the weekly grocery ads in the mail because I had unsubscribed from them and every other conceivable form of junk mail.

Then I learned about the Coupon Mom, Stephanie Nelson. Through her website, www.couponmom.com, she teaches people how to save 50-75% on their grocery bills by using a combination of sales and coupons. I’ve had incredible success following her advice. Here are some items I’ve purchased recently and how much I saved:

Item	Regular Price	Sale Price	Coupon	Paid	Percent Off
Quaker Chewy Bars	$2.50	$0.99	$0.50	$0.49	80.40%
Starburst Jellybeans	$3.50	$0.99	$0.50	$0.49	86.00%
Herbal Essences Shampoo	$4.99	$2.99	$1.50	$1.49	70.14%
Crest Toothpaste	$2.50	$1.00	$1.00	$0.00	100.00%
5 oz. Mahatma Saffron Rice	$0.99	$0.99	$0.38	$0.62	37.88%
Prego Tomato Sauce	$3.59	$2.50	$0.40	$2.10	41.50%
Nestle Chocolate Chips	$4.19	$2.00	$0.75	$1.25	70.17%
French's Honey Mustard	$4.19	$0.00	$1.00	-$1.00	123.87%
French's Honey Dijon Mustard	$4.19	$2.00	$1.00	$1.00	76.13%
Barilla Pasta Sauce	$3.59	$2.50	$1.00	$1.50	58.22%
Butter 16 oz.	$3.99	$2.49	$1.50	$0.99	75.19%
Hand Soap 7.5 oz.	$2.39	$1.00	$0.70	$0.30	87.45%
Dole Superfruit	$2.50	$1.50	$1.00	$0.50	80.00%
Cap'n Crunch 16 oz.	$3.99	$2.29	$1.30	$0.99	75.19%
Bottled water 24×12 oz.	$5.49	$3.33	$0.56	$2.77	49.54%
Life Cereal 15 oz.	$3.99	$2.29	$1.30	$0.99	75.19%
TOTALS	$56.58			$14.48	74.42%

The percentage savings may seem a bit inflated to you. The reason the percentage savings are so high is because many chain grocery stores have high regular prices compared to what you might spend for the same item at a discount mass retailer like Target or Walmart. However, because many chain grocery stores double coupons (or partially “double” them—for example, giving you $1.00 off for a 55-cent coupon), you can still come out ahead at the grocery store if you use the sale/coupon method of shopping. Also, no matter where you shop, free is a good price for a full-sized tube of toothpaste.

You may have noticed that one of the items listed above, French’s honey mustard, was free, and I
had a coupon for it, so I actually made $1 on the transaction. This happened because I was overcharged for the item and brought it to a manager’s attention. He refunded the full price of the item and let me keep it, too. Paying attention during checkout and reviewing your receipt carefully before you leave the store are important components of getting the full savings you should on your groceries.

I almost never buy anything at the major chain grocery stores anymore unless the item is on sale and I have a coupon for it. I plan my shopping in advance by looking through the weekly ads and using the Coupon Mom website, which has a database of the unadvertised deals at grocery stores across the country (updated weekly) and even tells you which sale items have coupons and where you can find those coupons. I usually only buy about 10-20 items per week that represent the best deals on the types of products I would buy anyway. And if there’s an item that’s still not a good price even with a sale and a coupon, or if it’s something I don’t need no matter how good of a deal it is, I generally don’t buy it. However, I have bought a few things I’m not sure I’ll use because they were so cheap ($1 or less) and I can always donate them to charity if I end up not using them after a few months.

Finally, this shopping method has allowed me to start accumulating a stash of emergency food and water for both my home and my car. I’ve always put off doing this in the past because I couldn’t see spending $100 or so on food that was just going to sit around. Now that I am regularly getting grocery items for 50 cents or $1 each week, I am able to inexpensively accumulate emergency items.

It’s also important to note that some sale prices are better than others. One week pizzas may be on sale for $4.50, while another week the exact same pizzas may be on sale for $3.50. Once you start paying closer attention to sale prices (and perhaps even keeping a grocery price list), you’ll know then the best time to buy is. The best prices usually roll around every few weeks, and you should stock up and use your coupons then.

If you’ve been looking for a way to cut down on your grocery bill, I highly recommend trying the Coupon Mom’s method. Once you get the hang of the system, you won’t be spending much time clipping coupons or planning your shopping trips, and you’ll be amazed by how much money you’ll save.

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Post by Amy Fontinelle

Standards for Living Expenses

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 07:01:00 +0000

If you’re trying to scale back your spending and live within your means or just save a little more each month, how do you determine reasonable spending amounts for each category of spending in your life like food, clothes, and transportation? Well, there are several government standards that you can use as a guideline.

The Internal Revenue Service has a set of standards for living expenses that it uses with people who are repaying delinquent taxes. Those filing Chapter 13 bankruptcy, the kind of bankruptcy where you gradually repay your debts, are allowed the same amounts by the U.S. Department of Justice. So it would seem safe to say that these amounts represent at least a bare minimum, if not a little more, of how much these expenses should cost each month.

National Standards: Food, Clothing and Other Items

Expense	One Person	Two Persons	Three Persons	Four Persons
Food	$285	$537	$626	$752
Housekeeping supplies	$28	$66	$61	$74
Apparel & services	$86	$162	$209	$244
Personal care products & services	$31	$55	$59	$65
Miscellaneous	$87	$165	$197	$235
Total	$517	$985	$1,152	$1,370

More than four persons	Additional Persons Amount
For each additional person, add to four-person total allowance:	$262

Source: http://www.IRS.gov

National Standards for Health Care
The IRS allows this amount in addition to a monthly amount for health insurance premiums. This money is expected to cover expenses such as doctor visits, eyeglasses, contact lenses, and prescriptions.

	Out-of-Pocket Costs
Under 65	$60
65 and Older	$144

Source: http://www.IRS.gov

The IRS also allows expenditures for transportation, of course. How could you repay your debts if you couldn’t afford to get to work?

National Standards for Public Transportation

National

$173

National Standards for Ownership Costs

	One Car	Two Cars
National	$489	$978

Source: http://www.IRS.gov

Personally, I think the food allowance is very generous. For $528 a month, my two-person household could go out to eat quite a bit or buy all of our groceries at Whole Foods. We normally spend about $300 a month on groceries and a little more for restaurants. However, we spend a lot more than $165 on “miscellaneous.” It’s hard to say what we spend on housekeeping supplies or personal care items since we generally only buy these items a couple times a year — I try to stock up during sales. The health care allowance seems reasonable to me only if you are completely healthy.

I couldn’t believe it could cost $173 a month to use public transit, but some research revealed that a certain commuter bus pass in the Los Angeles area costs $180, and I imagine lengthy commutes on public transit in other geographically large cities might be equally as pricey. The national vehicle ownership costs are based on the monthly expected payment for a loan or lease. According to Bankrate.com’s monthly auto loan payment calculator, $489 would be the monthly payment on a $19,300 loan at 10% with a four-year term. Considering that it’s possible to purchase a brand-new, entry-level car for around $10,000, this amount seems pretty generous to me. And if you had this much money to buy a used car, you would have a wide range of options, many of them quite nice — a 2007 Toyota Camry hybrid, a 2005 Acura sedan, or a 2006 Mazda 6, to name just a few I found in a quick perusal of vehicles listed for sale by owner on Craigslist.

Note that there is no allowance for things many of us consider “necessities,” like cable TV or internet or even pet ownership.

For expenses like housing, utilities, and the operating costs of owning a vehicle, local standards, determined by the U.S. Census Bureau, apply. Look up the local standards for your area here. To give you a couple of examples, a 2-person family in St. Louis, Missouri is allowed $1,008 per month for housing and utilities; in San Francisco, it’s $2432; and in Dallas, Texas, it’s $1451. All of these amounts seem reasonable to me; you might not be renting a luxury apartment, but you definitely wouldn’t have to live in a bad neighborhood to meet these allowances. It might be hard in some areas to get by on these amounts if you’re a homeowner rather than a renter, however.

Another standard is the amount allowed for food by the food stamp program. This benefit is not a set amount, but is determined by factors like size of household, childcare expenses, income, and housing costs. For a 2-person household with no income, no childcare expenses, $1000 in housing costs and $100 in utility costs, $323 in food stamps would be allowed. Some people might look at this number as a poverty standard, but my household spends less than this amount on groceries and we’re not exactly living off ramen. Our diet includes fresh fruits and vegetables and frozen food items, none of which are particularly cheap. You can use this calculator to plug in variables and calculate a monthly food stamp benefit.

Since the government standards for living expenses mostly seem pretty reasonable, if your expenses fall far above these amounts and you’re trying to cut back, these guidelines should give you a reasonable, if not generous, starting point. How do these national standards compare to your spending habits?

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Post by Amy Fontinelle

Another Chase Freedom Credit Card "Promotion" Fails to Entice or Impress

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 07:01:00 +0000

I received the following email from Chase about a promotion involving my Chase Freedom card. This credit card offers 3% back on your top three spending categories each month and 1% back on all other purchases. I've earned a lot of cash back from this card over the two or three years that I've had it, but I stopped using it because some bloggers reported receiving letters that the 3% back offer was being discontinued. Since you can't cash out your rewards until you reach $50 in cash back, I didn't want to get stuck earning only 1% back on my purchases when I have other credit cards that allow me to earn more.

But this promotional email caught my eye. The subject line was "Triple Rewards until the end of the year." "Wow," I thought. Not only are they not discontinuing my 3% back, they're going to give it to me on everything!

Wrong.

This is yet another one of Chase's meaningless "bonus" offers. Here are the details:

"Enroll now and earn 3% Cash Back for every eligible dollar you spend above $1,500 on discount store, computer/electronics store and bookstore purchases between October 1 and December 31, 2009 ."

How is this a good deal? I have the Citi Forward card that gives me 5% back on all bookstore purchases, including all purchases at Amazon.com, without having to meet any threshold whatsoever, let alone a sky-high $1500 one. I'm not planning to make any computer or electronics purchases or any discount store purchases (unless Target is a discount store?).

Really, this "promotional" offer just underscores why I've quit using my Chase Freedom card. There are better deals to be had elsewhere. It's too bad that credit card offers and terms change so often that it's hard to keep the same card for years if you want to get the best deals. The only card I've kept in my wallet for years is my Discover card. From October through December, I'll be getting 5% back on all my grocery purchases. From June through August, I earned 5% back on gas. Those are meaningful rewards.

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Post by Amy Fontinelle

Anatomy of a Bargain Hunter's Grocery Shopping Cart

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 06:10:00 +0000

I've written several posts now about how I save money on groceries, primarily by using the Coupon Mom method. In this post, I'll take you with me through a typical shopping trip to show how I planned my trip, what I bought, and how many great deals I got.

First, I created an account with CouponMom.com. Then, I clicked on the link "Grocery Deals by State" and clicked on the name of the store I wanted to visit. Because I had already perused the store's weekly circular, I knew they were having some great sales that I wanted to take advantage of. The Coupon Mom site would allow me to see both the store's advertised and unadvertised sales in an easy-to-read list format and alert me to which items had coupons available. I read these lists and noted all the items I wanted to buy, their prices, and whether they had a corresponding coupon. I try to buy everything when it is both on sale AND I have a coupon for it.

I went to the store with a list of sale items I wanted to buy as well as a list of other things we were out of that I hoped to pick up for a reasonable price. It isn't always possible to buy everything on sale and/or with a coupon, but I try to at least get everything at a fair price (for example, I never pay $4 for a gallon of milk or $7 for a 12-pack of soda--both are terrible deals where I live).

So here's what I bought:

Barilla whole wheat pasta: On sale for $1.50 for 16 ounces. A good price for a pound of pasta is $1. Anything less than that is great, especially for whole wheat pasta, which typically costs $1.29 a pound at best. I had a coupon for 50 cents off. The store doubles coupons, so I got this pound of pasta for 50 cents.

Barilla piccolini pasta: Same thing, except this is a type of miniature pasta instead of whole wheat. I really don't care that much what size my pasta is--I'm just happy to get another pound for 50 cents.

Tyson frozen breaded chicken breasts (4): On sale for $3.59. I have a coupon for $1 off, getting me the 10 ounce box of chicken for $2.59. No, this isn't the best price for chicken, but considering that it's already breaded and already cooked, the time I'll save on dinner one night is worth the extra cost.

Lean Pockets: On sale for $1.99 a box (a box has two lean pockets), but if I buy ten participating Kraft and Nestle items, I get $5.00 back, or an extra 50 cents off each item. I also have two register coupons for Lean Pockets from previous purchases. One is for 75 cents off three and one is for 75 cents off four. Perfect. I'll buy seven boxes. These are store coupons, which are not doubled, but I still get 7 boxes of lean pockets for $9. That's 14 Lean Pockets for $9, or 64 cents for a meal that involves nothing more than 2 minutes in the microwave to prepare.

Jello: I don't normally buy jello, but it's part of the $5 off on 10 items sale and I also have a coupon, and I can get the sugar-free kind so I'll have a healthy way to fulfill a sweet craving. The jello is $1 per box, and my coupon is for $1 off 2 boxes. With the additional 50 cents off each item from the $5 off 10 items sale, I essentially get two boxes of jello for free.

Buitoni fresh grated parmesan: Here's an example of something that isn't a great deal, but it's not a rip off, either. The container is $3.50. It's worth the convenience of getting the week's shopping done at one store to settle for a reasonable price on this item.

Bounty paper towels: On sale for $1, and I have a 25 cent off coupon which doubles to 50 cents. That gets me one roll of quality paper towels for 50 cents. Good deal.

Nestle chocolate chips: This is one item where I will only eat the name brand. I blame my mother for raising me on the back-of-the-bag Toll House recipe. Regular price, $4 a bag. On sale for $2.50, plus part of the $5 off 10 items promotion. I also have a coupon for $1 off a bag. Final price: $1. I know I'll use these come December to make holiday cookies as inexpensive Christmas gifts.

Tic Tac Chill: This is a new "high-end" mint. It's on sale for $1.00, and I have a coupon for 75 cents. The 75 cent coupon "doubles" to $1.00, so I get the Tic Tacs for free.

Deli turkey and ham: While I'm looking for the Foster Farms deli meats, which I have printed coupons for from Coupons.com, I notice some Oscar Meyer lunch meat with "manager's special" stickers on it. Eh, a package for $3.29? That's no deal. But wait! This isn't an ordinary 9 ounce package, which normally sells for $3 on sale. It's a full pound. There's also a package that's marked down to $1.99. Ca-ching! I buy all the remaining manager's special boxes on the shelf. It's probably marked down because it's approaching a sell-by date, but I've yet to see a piece of lunch meat go bad in my fridge.

Foster Farms marinated turkey tenderloins: I've never had these before, but they're also on manager's special. $4 for 24 ounces. Plus, there's a peel-off instant coupon on the package that will give me another $1 off. I peel off the coupon right away and put it with my other coupons so I won't forget to use it at the checkout. $3 for a pound and a half of healthy, name-brand meat that's already marinated? Good deal. Also, I can freeze it until I'm ready to use it.

Challenge spreadable butter: This is a product I actually use. It's on sale for $1.50 for 8 ounces, and I have a coupon from Coupons.com for 75 cents off and another for 55 cents off. Both will double to $1, getting me 8 ounces of butter for 50 cents, times two. Butter normally costs $2.50 a pound on sale, so $1 for a pound is great. Not as good as the free butter I got a few months ago, but still worth picking up.

I bought a few other things that I won't bore you with. It's important to note that I've purchased things I actually want to eat--I didn't just buy Lean Pockets because they were on sale--I actually like them. It's not much fun to get stuff on sale if you're not going to enjoy eating it. My total bill came to $74.11. The food I bought, plus a few things I have at home, will feed two people for at least a week. My total savings, printed at the bottom of the receipt, is $43.71, so overall I got my groceries for 37% off. Some weeks I do even better percentage-wise, but that's usually if I have a shorter list that includes nothing but sale+coupon items. Still, I got some great deals and I'm happy with my purchases and my savings.

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Post by Amy Fontinelle

Inexpensive Ways to Get Organized

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 05:56:00 +0000

If you can’t afford the luxury of a professional crew of organizers and designers to organize your clutter and maximize your space, that doesn’t mean you have to keep living in chaos. Those of us on a budget still have plenty of options for getting organized. All you need to get started is some time and $30 (or maybe even less).

First, decide what area you want to focus on. If your home is in decent shape, you may feel comfortable focusing on your home as a whole. If every square foot is a disaster zone, pick a small area to start with, like the entryway or a bedroom.

Here are some techniques you can implement and inexpensive items you can buy to start getting organized. (Try buying them at a dollar store to get more bang for your buck.)

Trash bags: It’s difficult to get organized when you have too much stuff. Take two trash bags (or boxes) and fill one with items to donate and one with items to throw away. Don’t stop until you’ve filled both—the impact will be significant.

Ziplock bags: Ziplock bags are great for grouping small, like items together. For example, if you were organizing your desk drawer, you would put pens in one bag, pencils in another, highlighters in third bag, paperclips in a fourth, and so on until every category of item has its own bag.

You may have a drawer full of bags when you’re done, and it may not be as pretty as a plastic organizer tray, but it will be a lot easier to find what you’re looking for when everything is grouped together in manageable bunches than when it’s all tangled together in one big heap.

GladWare containers: I use these inexpensive plastic containers (or their store-brand equivalent) to organize toiletry items in my bathroom and linen closet. I like to buy the 64 ounce size because it holds a lot of medium-sized items, like travel toiletries, bars of soap, razors, or air-freshener refills. If you also have a lot of smaller items to organize, like lipsticks, buy some smaller containers.

Of course, these containers aren’t just helpful in the bathroom. You can use them in the garage to sort hardware (screws in one container, nails in another), in the office to sort supplies, in the kitchen to sort all those packets of ketchup and disposable silverware packets you’re hanging on to, or anywhere else you have lots of small items that need decluttering.

Clear, one-quart containers: I’ve found these for $1 at Target. Larger than GladWare containers, they’re good for sorting and neatly storing items like video game controllers, computer software disks, small computer accessories, and stamps and envelopes. It’s important to buy clear ones so you can easily see what’s inside and find what you need after you put it away. If your organization system doesn’t make things easy for you, you won’t stick with it.

Accordion folder with multiple file slots: I use this to sort my mail so it doesn’t end up in an ugly, overwhelming heap on my dining room table. Each day when the mail comes, I quickly go through it and sort it into four categories: recycle, shred, file, and deal with later. Then I put each pile into one of the slots in my accordion folder.

Some people may prefer to get rid of the recycle and shred stuff immediately, but I find this method easier to stick with because it takes less time. And having all the “deal with” stuff in one place means I can sit down for an hour once a week and knock out a bunch of things at once, reducing the amount of time I spend dealing with bills and other annoyances.

You don’t have to use a folder like this just for mail — you can use the same system in any room you’re organizing where you need to go through lots of papers.

File boxes: You may not be able to afford (or find space for) an entire filing cabinet, but you can pick up a plastic file box and some hanging file folders for about $20. Use this to store your important documents, like tax records, bank statements, and health records. Put new documents in a “to be filed” folder at the front of the box as you receive them, then make it a point to file them in their respective folders once a month.

If you’re not sure where to put something, just make a new folder for it – it’s easy to put things away as long as you have a place for them. This system takes very little time to maintain.

Hangers: It’s easy to end up with a messy closet, but it’s a simple problem to fix. You probably won’t need to lay out any cash for this one, either. First, decide which items you wear often enough that they merit taking up the limited space in your closet. Put each item on a hanger, then sort the items into piles on your bed by category – tank tops, short-sleeved shirts, long-sleeved shirts, sweaters, jeans, work shirts, and work pants, for example.

Then, hang up each pile in an order that’s logical to you. Put the items you wear most in the part of your closet that’s easiest to access. For all the clothes that you decided don’t need to hang in the closet, get rid of them if you’re comfortable with that, but if not, fold them up and store them in boxes. While getting rid of things can be an important step toward getting more organized, I think some organizing gurus place too much emphasis on this step, making it difficult for people who like to hang on to their stuff to get organized. If you find that you don’t miss the stuff you’ve put in boxes, you can always get rid of it later.

If you want to take your closet organization to the next level, hang everything with the hanger backwards. Then, after you’ve worn an item (and washed it), hang it back up the regular way. This allows you to see which clothes you’re actually wearing and which you aren’t. (I got this tip from Nate Berkus on an episode of Oprah.)

You’re probably busy and stressed out enough with the activities of your daily life — why make it worse by continuing to live in a space where it’s hard to find what you need when you need it, where piles of stuff make things feel even more chaotic? Just a few hours and these inexpensive items can make a big difference, and you can even do it with music or the TV on to make it less of a chore.

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Post by Amy Fontinelle

15 Things that Make Flying Coach Bearable

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 07:01:00 +0000

Baby boomers remember a time when airline travel was a luxury and a reason to dress up. But these days, does anyone look forward to flying? Passenger complaints have been increasing along with consumer activism and lobbying congress, but the myriad annoyances involved in taking a commercial flight aren’t expected to get better in the forseeable future.

Until the system has been overhauled, here are some things you can bring on board that will help make your flight as pleasant as possible, whether everything goes according to schedule or you get stuck on the tarmac for seven hours.

1. Medication. If you take any prescription medications regularly, make sure they’re in your carry-on, especially if taking your medication on time is critical to your health. You also might consider bringing any nonprescription medications that could ease your flight, like ibuprofen for a headache, Dramamine for motion sicknesss, or pseudoephedrine for stopped-up ears.

2. Headphones. You can go all-out and purchase some noise-canceling headphones from Bose for $300, or you can try one of the many knockoffs that start as low as $30. These over-the-ear headphones can add unwanted bulk to your limited carryon luggage, though, so you might consider some noise-reducing earphones instead like Shure’s E2C headphones, which go into your ears like earplugs and create a seal to block out sound (they make your breathing and eating sound very loud, but it’s better than enduring crying babies or those constant, unnecessary in-flight announcements).

3. Snacks. If you can mange the space, you might want to bring as much as 24 hours’ worth of food with you in case there isn’t any available to buy during a delay. Dense, high-calorie foods like protein bars, nuts, and dried fruit are good options that will provide you with filling nutrition for minimal space. They’ll also save you money if you normally buy the tiny, overpried snacks sold on board.

4. Water. Flights are notoriously dehydrating, and those tiny cups from the beverage cart won’t quench your thirst. Bring your own water bottle, the larger the better. You can still take it through security as long as it’s empty, and then you can fill it up at the water fountain before boarding your plane. Then, you can enjoy the luxury of taking a sip whenever you’re thirsty instead of whenever you’re fortunate enough to have a beverage cart pass by.

5. Toothbrush. This small, lightweight item can go a long way towards making you feel refreshed during a long flight or delay.

6. Travel blanket and pillow. We’d all like to think that the pillows and blankets provided by airlines (when they’re actually available) are clean, but there’s no way to know for sure that your blanket doesn’t contain a previous passenger’s drool. Plus, the pillows are too small and the blankets are always staticky. Instead, bring your own travel pillow ($10-$30) and blanket (compact silk sleep sacks are surprisingly warm and can be had for $20-$30) to stay comfortable and warm on a cold flight. Also, putting a small pillow behind your back on the plane can make your seat a lot more comfortable, and both items will be indispensable if you get stranded in an airport overnight.

7. Plenty of warm clothing. Who knows why some flights are warm and stuffy while others seem to let in the freezing air from outside the plane, but since you never know what you’ll get stuck with, it’s always a good idea to dress in layers. Relatively small items like legwarmers and hats can add a lot of warmth for not much carry-on space.

8. iPod video. Though certainly not in the budget-saving category, for some people the best way to lose track of time and their surroundings on a flight is to watch TV shows or movies. Since not all flights offer in-flight shows (or ones that you’d actually want to watch), bringing your own entertainment is the way to go. The battery won’t last long with constant video watching, however, so make sure to purchase a portable charger like the i-Turbo (which provides about 25 minutes of viewing time per AA battery).

9. Podcasts and audiobooks. Another great benefit to bringing an iPod video on the plane with you is that you can also pass the time (or lull yourself to sleep) with podcasts and audiobooks. The podcasts, at least, can be free.

10. Laptop. If you have the space and aren’t skittish about your computer getting stolen or damaged during your trip, consider bringing your laptop on your next trip. You’ll have multiple activities at your fingertips to distract you during the flight. Depending on the length of your flight and what you’re planning on doing, you might want to get an extra battery and a privacy screen.

11. Portable DVD player. If you’d like something that has a larger screen than an iPod, but that isn’t as cumbersome (or as expensive) as a laptop, a portable DVD player might be a good idea. If you find a good deal, you can get one for under $100. (Unfortunately, the battery life on these isn’t any better than the battery life on your laptop, and extra batteries are expensive, so on long flights, you’ll need more than just a portable DVD player to stay entertained.)

12. White noise/relaxation tracks. If you really just want some silence, the closest thing you’ll get when surrounded by 200 other people is a white noise or relaxation track ($10). You can buy these as downloads to simplify the process of getting them onto your MP3 player, or if you’re still operating from a tape deck or CD player, just buy a tape or CD.

13. Icy Hot patches and/or pain medication. Sitting in a cramped space for such a long time and carrying around heavy luggage can take a toll on anyone, but especially people with pre-existing pain issues. Icy Hot patches don’t smell as strong as pain-relieving rubs, allowing you to sooth your pain without overly irritating the people sitting around you. They also don’t count toward your carryon liquid allowance.

14. Earplugs. If you don’t have noise-reducing headphones or don’t want to spend the money on them, earplugs are a small, lightweight, and inexpensive alternative. If you want to make some friends on the flight, bring extra pairs to hand out to your neighbors when the babies start crying.

15. Eyeshade. You never know if the person next to you will want to leave their reading light on during the entire flight when you were planning to get some sleep. Bring a thick eyeshade that really blocks out light and you’ll be able to rest regardless of the time of day or the activities of your neighbors.

Whether you bring all of these items or just a few, you’re bound to have a better flight with them than without.

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Post by Amy Fontinelle

Getting Married: A Losing Financial Proposition?

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 07:01:00 +0000

I hate to say it, but one reason I am hesitant to get married at this point in my life is because of the financial implications. I think about the financial implications of everything I do, so it follows that I would be no different when it comes to the decision of marriage--which is one of the biggest financial decisions you'll ever make.

Unless you have so much money that you don't need to think about the financial implications of your decisions (which probably isn't the case if you're reading this article), you should consider these potential financial disadvantages of marriage before you get hitched.

1. How much will the act of getting married cost us? The cost of joining in holy matrimony can be as low as the fee for a marriage license or as high as the sky. If you have well-to-do parents who are paying for your wedding, cost may not be an issue for you. If you want to have a wedding and are planning to pay for the wedding yourself, however, it may be difficult to do so for under $5,000. In my opinion, there are many better things a young, newlywed couple could do with even $5,000 than throw a large party, let alone $10,000 or $25,000. Even if the funds for your wedding are coming from parents, consider what they could do for you with that money instead of throwing a wedding--like provide a down payment for a house, or start a college fund for your future children (if that's in your plans). The flip side is that the only other occasion in your life when you're likely to get everyone you like and love together under one roof is at your funeral, so it might be worth spending a few bucks for this occasion. No, you can't put a price on memories--but you don't have to put a price you can't afford on them, either.

2. How will getting married affect our income tax liability?Depending on your combined incomes and the details of your individual tax situations, getting married can either reduce your combined tax bill or increase it. There is no blanket marriage penalty or marriage reward when it comes to income taxes. If money is tight and getting married means you're going to owe another $1,000 a year in income tax, maybe you're better off postponing the official husband and wife thing and saving that $1,000 a year until your incomes rise enough or your expenses decrease enough that it becomes less significant to you.

3. If one partner is self-employed and the other is an employee, how will getting married affect the self-employed partner's medical benefits? The income tax code infuriatingly takes away the ability to claim health insurance premiums as a tax writeoff for the self employed once you are married if you are eligible to participate in a spouse's program. This means that either your health insurance premiums effectively increase by your marginal tax rate, or you have to go with your spouse's group policy (a change which comes with enough implications for a separate article).

4. Do I trust my potential future spouse with my money? If you don't, well, you probably shouldn't be getting married until the situation improves or you find a more reliable partner. Getting married will increase your spouse's access to your money on all levels. A spouse who is dishonest, a spendthrift, has a gambling problem, is irresponsible, or who refuses to become informed about basic money management is going to affect your financial situation whether he knows your PIN or not.

There are, of course, more aspects of the decision to get married than the financial ones, as any long-term couple who doesn't have the right to marry will attest, but I think that many people, blinded by love and convention, do not consider the financial aspects of marriage at all until after the fact. At the very least, people should be aware that there are financial implications to the decision and make a consious choice of whether to factor finances into their decision to get married, even if they ultimately decide that factors like religious beliefs or emotion are more important.

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A Beautiful Wedding On A Budget

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Post by Amy Fontinelle

Teach Your Partner About Household Finances

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 07:01:00 +0000

If you're reading this, chances are the person who manages the finances in your household is you. But even if your significant other isn't very good at it or is happy to let you handle everything, it's best if both people are aware of key accounts and how to access them, especially to be prepared for an emergency. My Investopedia article, Teaching Your Partner About Household Finances, will show you how to get another person up-to-speed on this important topic.

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Why I Don't Care that I May Have Overpaid for My House

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 07:01:00 +0000

I may have overpaid for my house. This is pretty surprising behavior, coming from someone who routinely gets strange looks at the grocery store for doing things like stocking up on twelve-packs of soda when they're on sale for $2.00. So why on earth would I blow off how I could have gotten a house for a lot less money? Well, there's a lot more to buying a house than looking at the price tag.

1. I had to move (sort of). Making the decision to buy a house when you are in a situation where you have to move is never ideal, but it's a situation many people find themselves in. While I technically did not have to move, as I could have continued living in an apartment where my rent was unceremoniosly increased every month, my privacy was repeatedly invaded, the building-wide fire alarm went off at least once a month, I did not feel safe, and roaches were taking over ever inch of my living space, I had reached a breaking point where I no longer felt able to live under those conditions or risk living under similar conditions in another apartment, as most of the apartments I'd lived in had considerable issues with some combination of noise, maintenance, pests, and safety. For the sake of my sanity, and perhaps my safety, I needed a dramatic improvement in quality of life. So I "had to" move and I "had to" buy a house (condo living just seemed like a worse form of apartment living to me, with higher stakes and decreased mobility).

2. There were very few options in my price range. After I started house hunting, I quickly realized that the amount I had set out to pay for a house wasn't an option. At best, it might be an okay amount to spend in the short-term, but I knew it would be a poor decision in the long term. I learned that I was going to have to find a way to spend considerably more unless I wanted to live on a very busy street, in an unsafe neighborhood, or in a very run-down house. In the short run, some of these tradeoffs might have seemed acceptable, but since one of the major reasons I was moving was to improve my quality of life and since I wanted to at least have the option of living in the same house for the rest of my life, I decided to take a more long-term view and stretch my budget to get a nicer place.

3. I know I can make up for part of the cost by paying off my mortgage early, refinancing at a lower interest rate, or selling at a profit someday. Yes, I could also do these things with a less expensive home, saving myself even more money, but at least there are ways to decrease the total cost of this home, should I choose to take advantage of them.

4. Without overpaying, I wouldn't have gotten this house. My boyfriend and I only looked at 13 houses because there were so few options in our bottom-of-the-market price range, but we felt and still feel that this was the one and only right house for us (on the market and in our price range, that is), and we have continued to feel this way even after continuing to look at listings for other homes that have come on the market in our area in the months following our purchase. We bought a foreclosure, and at the bottom of the market, houses were being snatched up in no time at all. We acted quickly and put in an offer slightly over the bank's asking price, rather than underbidding by several thousand as our very experience agent suggested because he felt the house was overpriced. But the bank accepted our offer almost immediately, and on a weekend, no less. We could have offered less, but we didn't feel that the risk of ending up in a lesser house or continuing to rent was worth the possibility of saving this money. We knew that in our price range, we had come across a uniquely nice foreclosure, and that we wouldn't be the only people to notice those things.

5. I wanted someone else to pay for my closing costs. One of the things I was long dreading about buying a house was dealing with the ripoff of closing costs. Books and articles (including articles I've written) will tell you that many closing costs are negotiable and that if you present yourself as a savvy consumer and stand firm, you can get many of them waived. Well, I wasn't able to get some of my bogus closing costs waived, and I had a sense that might be the case. Rather than stressing out over every penny (or, as the case was, every hundred dollars), I wanted the seller to pay my closing costs. I also wanted to reduce the amount of cash I needed to come up with at the outset, since the foreclosure needed some work to be a pleasant place to live. I knew that asking for thousands of dollars in closing costs would be a lot more likely to go over if I put in an attractive offer on the house. And I did get my closing costs paid. I only had to come up with the down payment.

6. Sometimes money does buy happiness. I have, in fact, been much happier since I moved out of the apartment and into the house. At the rate the apartment situation was deteriorating, with the constant rent increases and burgeoning roach population, I am extremely grateful to have spent the last nine months living in a clean, safe environment where (so far) the monthly payments have been the same every month. Though it has cost me much, much more to live in this house than it would have cost me to continue living in the apartment, and my disposable income has decreased dramatically, it has been worth it.

7. I had to consider someone else's wishes. If I were still single (and, let's pretend, for the sake of argument, that I could afford to buy a house on my income alone), I would have chosen to move to another apartment and wait for the absolute perfect house to come along (the one I bought, though the best available, is not absolutely perfect). But my boyfriend did not want to move twice. And it wasn't just that he casually didn't want to move twice--he vehemently didn't want to move twice. There are not a lot of things that my boyfriend insists on. He is extremely easy to get along with. So the fact that this was so important to him was something I felt I had to take seriously. Some people really hate moving. I am not one of them, because I don't have a lot of stuff and I like the change of scenery, but I get it. Moving takes a lot more time and effort than what happens on the moving day itself. It involves searching for a new place to live, hours of packing and unpacking, going through everything you own, living out of boxes, physical pain, and spending money on things you need for the new place that you didn't need for the old place. In our case, it also meant getting skittish kitties used to a new environment. Why go through all of that twice if you don't have to?

8. My home is my favorite place to be. I don't really mind being house-poor for the time being because my home is my favorite place to be. It is quiet, peaceful, and decorated exactly the way I want within the confines of my budget. I haven't really missed not being able to buy what is ultimately random junk (do I really need a fourth iPod?) and I have survived not going out to eat three times a week and taking fewer trips. I may be spending a lot of money, but at least I enjoy and appreciate what I'm spending on, and the thing I am spending it on will last a lot longer than the many trivial items I might have purchased otherwise.

Closing Thoughts

Don't get me wrong--I'm not advocating stretching your budget to buy the nicest place you could hope to live in. If you don't have to go to the top of your price range to buy a house you will be content with, please don't. There's no reason to create unnecessary financial pressure in your life.

But buying a house, like most purchases, is not just a financial decision, it's also an emotional one. Sometimes it just doesn't make sense to overlook the emotional aspects of a purchasing decision, even if it means spending more money.

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Post by Amy Fontinelle

My Biggest Banking Pet Peeve: Teller Indiscretion is Okay?

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 07:01:00 +0000

When it comes to banking, there is nothing I hate more then cashing a check. Why? Because the tellers count out your money as if there is zero chance that someone nearby can see or hear what is going on, which is not the case at all.

I used to have to cash petty cash checks for work, and the checks were for about $1,500. The tellers would count out the money for all nearby to see and hear. I always felt nervous walking away from the transaction, going to the parking lot, getting into my car, and driving back to work. I was afraid someone would try to mug me in the parking lot or even follow me in my car to mug me later. I felt like a walking target. I had the same problem when I withdrew a large sum of cash from my account to purchase a used car.

Why do bank tellers insist on counting money for customers indiscreetly? There is no need to lay out the bills on top of the counter, count them loudly, then hand them over to me sans envelope (even when I ask and provide the envelope, I might add). The fact that most banks I visit do not have any sort of glass separating the tellers from the customers makes this lack of discretion even worse. I know that tellers deal with so much money that it probably seems like no big deal to them, but it is a big deal to me.

If you work at a bank, I would love to hear your take on this. And if you have similar feelings about this practice or suggestions on how to deal with it, please tell me.

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Post by Amy Fontinelle

8 Countries Hit Hardest by the Global Financial Crisis

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 20:12:00 +0000

This guest post is written by Linda McCormick, who blogs on The Credit Letter, a blog run by a popular comparison site where you can find and compare the top ANZ credit cards for Australians.

(If you would like to write a guest post for Two Pennies Earned, please email me at alfontin [gmail]).

From time to time throughout history, surprising events have occurred that have left a wake of devastation in their paths. The recent financial crisis has been one of these events. Only a handful of people knew of the potentially negative consequences of their actions, but this didn't stop them, and no one could predict the butterfly effect that would ensue.

Very few countries have escaped being marred by the collapse of the financial markets, and while it's easy to become complacent by the current state of the global economy, it's important to bear in mind how badly some countries have been affected. Not surprisingly, some of the worst-hit countries were those already struggling to keep their heads above water, but hard hit, too, were countries that have long been the bastions of the financial world. The following countries suffered the worst effects of the global financial meltdown.

1. Iceland

People knew there was something really wrong when it was revealed that Iceland was bankrupt. A national government reporting bankruptcy is not something you hear every day, and it made the impact of the financial situation hit home. Iceland found it impossible to pay back its external debts. It basically devalued its currency, the krona, which led to the country not being able to afford any imports. What was more alarming, Iceland had become a major financial intermediary, with many corporate and personal bankers securing funds in accounts abroad--accounts that effectively disappeared in the bankruptcy, leaving many businesses in limbo.

2. Pakistan

A recent report by UNICEF states the financial crisis has had a direct and devastating effect on the already-impoverished population of Pakistan. A doctor working in Karachi, Dr. Noreen Anwar, believes that there has been a whopping 30 percent increase in the number of malnourished children in the country. Even before the crisis, 38 percent of children were moderately or severely underweight and families were finding it extremely difficult to survive. Food prices have soared, with basic ingredients like flour now triple the price of what it was last year, making it completely unaffordable. Families who were already struggling now consume worse food, have to eat less frequently, and have been forced to pull their children out of school to send them to work to raise enough money to live. It doesn't help either that the country seems to be in constant conflict, resulting in over two million people having to leave their homes and live in squalid refugee camps.

Of course, many other Asian countries have been badly affected by the collapse of the markets in the west, and may not have been hit so hard had the fall not been so abrupt. Few had appropriate measures in place to deal with such a blow to their economies, yet the Asian Development Bank predicts Asia will be one of the first to emerge from recession.

3. Brazil

Following a decade of rapid growth, many Latin American countries have been hard hit by the crisis, especially Brazil. The country had grown to be the world's tenth biggest economy, with a record $218 billion in foreign reserves. Since the financial bust, Brazil's once high-riding currency has lost 53 percent of its value against the dollar, and, along with Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru, has seen billions wiped off share values. But it is the sharp drop in demand for commodities and exports that is affecting the country so badly.

4. Ireland

Only a few years ago, Ireland was regaling economic boom times. Industries were growing, people were moving there in droves (especially Eastern Europeans looking for a better life), and times were good--expensive, but good. Now it's a totally different story. As of September 2008, Ireland has officially been in a recession. The property bubble has burst, construction has ground to a halt, and unemployment figures are the highest since records began in 1967, with no evident slow in decline. Many immigrant workers are heading home and the Irish are once again forced to look for work overseas, as they have done so many times before. And, to add insult to injury, the government has recently introduced more taxes, disguised as levies, which have reduced the average worker's take home-pay, making living even harder.

5. South Africa

A number of African countries have been finding times very tough. Significant cuts in exports and a steep decline in commodity prices have seen many of the country's mines and factories shut down or downsized. It doesn't help that governments have devalued their currencies to such an extent that very few can afford to buy everyday goods.

In South Africa, where a large proportion of the world's diamonds are excavated, many miners have been given extended leave by diamond giant DeBeers, resulting in a 30 percent drop in diamond prices (so if you're about to pop the question, now's a good time to get a good deal). This has also affected Botswana's diamond industry, where it accounts for 70 to 80 percent of export earnings.

6. Zambia

In Zambia, a country that depends on its mineral wealth, copper prices have plummeted dramatically, and with nothing else to bolster its economy, the government is panicked. But unlike many Western countries, where the governments have come to the aid of businesses and banks, the opposite is being recommended in Africa. Many believe this would be a waste of public funds and would possibly only result in further corruption.

7. The United Kingdom

The UK is still reeling from the effects of the financial meltdown. When looking at the losses in terms of gross domestic product (GDP), the country was hit harder than most. Racking up the biggest losses in the world--£20 billion, or 3 percent of GDP, Britain's economy shrank this year at its fastest since records began in 1955. This is related to both the subprime crash in the U.S. and a long period of unchecked lending in the UK. It is now incredibly difficult for UK residents to get any form of credit, including mortgages. Banks are increasing fees in an effort to recoup some of their losses, and unemployment is at its highest since the 1980s.

8. United Arab Emirates

Until recently, Dubai, the most populous city of the seven emirates, seemed to be growing at a ridiculous speed, with new structures being erected at a rate of knots. Media companies moved to the city, and new businesses relocated to the boom town. Today, the construction sites are almost at a standstill, unemployment is rising, and retail stores are displaying “80% off” discount signs on their windows--signs which aren't so good for the city, or the country. But then, many people were wondering how long the gold rush would last in Dubai. How elaborate could a desert seaside town become before the overindulgent spending was stopped in its tracks? Dubai, unwittingly, has become a perfect miniature example of the global economy today.

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Post by Amy Fontinelle

Two Pennies Earned Selected for Best of Money Roundup Top Ten

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:00:00 +0000

Of the 70 submissions for this week's Best of Money Roundup at All Financial Matters, one of the top personal finance blogs, my article, What College Doesn't Teach You About the Real World, was selected as number 6 out of only 10 published submissions.

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Teaching Kids About Investing

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 07:01:00 +0000

My latest Financial Edge article for Investopedia is about teaching your kids about investing.

I don't have kids, but I do have parents who were good enough to never treat me like I was too young or too stupid to understand financial concepts. I must have been ten years old when my dad told me that most of your mortgage payments for the first several years go toward interest and that you don't really pay for the house itself until the final years of the mortgage.

There are a few things they didn't do for me that I wish they had, like have me open an IRA when I was 16, and now that I am older and know better, those experiences also play into my recommendations for teaching kids about investing. Check out my article over at Investopedia for some pointers on some of the most important lessons you can teach your kids about investing.

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Post by Amy Fontinelle

6 Considerations Before Accepting Your First Job

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 07:01:00 +0000

Knowing what to do when you first graduate isn’t easy. There’s so much at stake: paying off student loans, choosing a geographic location you’ll enjoy, starting your career off on the right foot—how do you know what jobs to spend your time and energy applying for, when to accept an offer, and when to keep looking? In this article, we’ll give you a few pointers culled from the clarity of hindsight.

Don’t take a job doing something you don’t enjoy: Sometimes a paycheck is just a paycheck, and that’s fine. The problem with taking a job doing something you don’t enjoy is that it can have long-term consequences. Your resume will start to reflect this activity and future potential employers will want to pigeonhole you into that job, making it even more difficult for you to get the kind of job you really want.

Don’t fool yourself into thinking that it’s temporary: Many “temporary” jobs that you take just to make money start to become comfortable and not-so-temporary. You can get stuck in this rut for years—years that could have been spent pursuing what you really want to be doing. If you want to be a writer, don’t be a bookkeeper—or at least find a way to write regularly in your spare time.

Think about how this job will help you get your next job: No matter where you work and no matter how much you love or hate your job, you don’t be there forever. Even before you accept a job, you should be thinking about how it will help you get your next job. Will it give you things to put on your resume that will make you a strong candidate for a job you’ll enjoy in the future? Will it help you advance your career? Or will it get you stuck in a rut?

Think about taking a low-paying, idealistic job right out of college: If you’re interested in options like Teach for America or AmeriCorps, sign up for them now — don’t tell yourself you’ll do it later. Once you take a regular job that gives you plenty of disposable income, it’s hard to give up the comfort.

Money seduces: It’s a fact of life. At some point you will likely be offered employment that pays you more than what your dream job will pay. You will likely justify taking the job because the extra money will outweigh the compromise of putting off your dream job and you may assume it will even help you to pursue your dream job in your spare time. For all but the most strong-willed and energetic people, this is a false justification that will only serve to make you lose sight of what you really want to do with your life. Be very careful of the seduction of a higher paying job because once you accept it, your lifestyle will creep upward, it will be difficult to leave that cushy paycheck.

Take the highest paying job you can get after college: On the other hand, you might want to take the highest-paying job as you can get right away to get a jump start on saving for retirement, a house, travel, starting your own business, or any other goals that are important to you. When you’re fresh out of school, you’re less likely to be burned out on work, and you may be more able to put in the kind of energy and hours that are generally required to make a high income. But consider whether taking a job like this is likely to throw you into a rat race that you don’t want to be part of. Only you can answer this question honestly.

Don’t take a job with people who won’t respect you It’s one thing to be bored or even headed in the wrong direction, but being mistreated is a whole different ballgame. You’ll often be able to get an inkling of how a prospective employer will treat you before you accept a job — maybe it’s a vibe you got from your potential future boss in the interview, the incredibly low salary you were offered, or something the receptionist said as you were leaving. That nagging feeling in your gut that this isn’t the right job will usually be right — don’t think you have to stick around and find out. Working in an environment where you feel beaten down and disrespected will not only affect your job performance, it will affect your happiness, your health, and your relationships.

If you’re having trouble deciding whether to take a particular job, think about whether you’d want your best friend to accept it. Sometimes we have an easier time looking out for the best interests of our loved ones than of ourselves. Most importantly, don’t give up—it takes some people longer than others, but the right first job for you is out there.

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Post by Amy Fontinelle

How to Make Money Using Social Networking Sites Like Facebook and Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 07:25:00 +0000

In my latest Financial Edge article for Investopedia, Make Money with Social Networking Sites, I talk about ways social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter can help you make money. You could try developing a Facebook application (which has been immensely profitable for the owners of Zynga), using Facebook marketplace, or gaining customer goodwill through Twitter, for example. Here are a couple of other options:

Advertise. Advertising on Facebook gets you access to 250 million active users. You can advertise your own website or a Facebook page, application, group, or event related to your company. Facebook offers advertisers two types of ads: pay per click and pay per impression, and you can set a maximum budget for how much you’re willing to spend per day. You can also choose to target your ads by information Facebook users have provided about themselves, including location, age, sex, educational background, and relationship status.

Promote your work. If you already promote yourself or earn income through blogging, expand your audience by using Facebook to automatically import your blog posts and display them in your news feed. Likewise, you can use Twitter to inform people of your recent accomplishments and post links to articles you’ve written, videos you’ve produced, websites you’ve designed, and so on. Twitter and Facebook are also great ways to let people know about an event your company is hosting or sponsoring.

For the rest of my ideas, read Make Money with Social Networking Sites.

Also be sure to check out Cheap Tweets: Follow-Worthy Deals on Twitter.

You can also follow me on Twitter.

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Replacing Financial Fantasies with Financial Realities

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 07:01:00 +0000

In my Investopedia article, 4 Fatal Financial Fantasies, I write about some of the common dreams some people have about money that are likely to do them more harm than good, such as receiving a large inheritance or winning the lottery, and how they can replace those myths with actions that can actually help them improve their financial situations, like starting a business or learning how to invest. Here are two more examples that I didn't have room for in the article:

Myth: I’ll find undervalued items and resell them on eBay. The truth is that the popularity of eBay has driven down the price of many once-valuable collectibles, antiques, and designer items, and the website’s ease of use has added more sellers to the market. That means more people scouring garage sales, thrift stores, and seemingly underpriced eBay auctions in the hope of picking up cheap loot to resell. It’s not that you can’t make good money doing this—there are people who make a living doing it. But if you don’t already have a background in the subject, you’re likely to waste lots of money buying the wrong things and lots of time trying to sell them. And if you’re not passionate about the items you're selling, or about selling things in general, you’ll probably get bored. For most people, there are better ways to make money. (Personally, I tried this out for a few months and, while the thrill of a good sale was exciting for a while and I seemed to have some great beginner's luck, ultimately I felt like it was a waste of time since I ended up averaging only about $6 an hour doing it.)

Reality: I’ll live below my means. Instead of scrounging for supplemental income in piles of garage sale castoffs, why not look for ways to reduce your expenses? This can be a more effective way to put more money in your pocket than making more money because any additional money you earn will be taxed at your marginal rate. In other words, if you want to end up with an extra $100 at the end of the month, you have two choices: earn an extra $200, or decrease your spending by $100 (these numbers are simplified, but you get the idea). For many people, the latter is an easier option.

Another option is to look around your own home for stuff to resell--it's a lot faster than rummaging around garage sales and thrift stores looking for other people's stuff to sell, and there are no startup costs. This exercise might also make you more aware of how much stuff you've bought that you shouldn't have wasted your money on and help guide you toward more thoughtful purchasing decisions in the future.

For the rest of my ideas, read 4 Fatal Financial Fantasies over at Investopedia. Also check out my many other posts on trying to make decent money via eBay:
Experiment: Turning a Profit on Ebay
Self Employment via eBay
Self Employment via Ebay: Update
Self Employment via eBay: Yet Another Update

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Post by Amy Fontinelle

You May Not Have to Be Married to Save on Auto Insurance

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 07:01:00 +0000

Did you know that you may not have to be married to your significant other to get a multiple car discount on auto insurance? I had no idea.

My boyfriend and I own a home together. We are both on the title. I recently switched him to my auto insurance company to save money, and they asked if we wanted to be on the same policy. What?

We use a small, local insurance company--I don't know if the big-name companies do this. But if you live with your significant other, ask your insurance company if you can both be on the same policy, even if you aren't married. This will qualify you for a multiple car discount, which means that you may both be able to save money on your auto insurance premiums.

In fact, now that I think about it, there may be other circumstances where you can join forces with someone else to share insurance. I'm not sure how this works, though, and you'd need to be willing to have a financial relationship with this person, which can be complicated. You'd also need to have some faith in their level of driving skill and responsibility, since their rates, if they file a claim, will affect yours.

Before deciding to be on the same auto insurance policy, there are a few things you and your significant other should consider:

-You will have to have identical coverage amounts. If one of you currently has higher coverage than the other and you opt to both have the same policy, you will need to agree on coverage amounts. When the person with lower coverage increases their coverage, you may not end up with a lower premium overall. However, the person who had lower coverage may now have better coverage at little to no extra cost. In our case, we were able to get better coverage and still save hundreds of dollars.

-If you want to share cars, it's probably better to share insurance. If you get pulled over and you're driving the vehicle of someone you have no obvious connection to, I suspect it could cause a major hassle. How would the police officer know you weren't driving a stolen vehicle? If the name of the person the vehicle is registered to also appears on your insurance card, on the other hand, you shouldn't have any trouble. (Note: I have not consulted any law enforcement officers on this topic, so take my opinion with a grain of salt, but it just seems like common sense that things would work this way.)

-What are your driving records like? If one person has a poorer driving record than the other, will this cause both parties to pay a higher premium? Or, if one person has a better driving record than the other, will this help compensate for the poorer driver, effectively lowering the premium of the poorer driver?

-The policy may have to be in only one partner's name, with the other partner as an additional insured. I'm not sure what the implications of this are, but I don't think it matters--the important thing seems to be that everyone is insured, at least in my household's case.

-Combining policies is probably a bad idea if you haven't already combined your finances. If one person files a claim, a rate increase will affect both of you. Also, unless you drive identical vehicles, have identical driving histories, and drive a similar number of miles per year, your insurance rates will be different. If you don't already share finances, you will have to come up with a formula for sharing the insurance premium fairly, which may be complicated.

This isn't the first time I have been surprised to learn that I could be on the same policy as my boyfriend even though we aren't yet married. I was also able to get on his company dental insurance plan since I qualified as a domestic partner after having lived with him for six months (and have the option of being on his health and vision plans, too, though I choose not to). Perhaps recent advances in gay rights are starting to benefit others as well? I'm all for it, since getting married seems to be a giant losing proposition in terms of finances. But that's a subject for another post.

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Post by Amy Fontinelle

What College Doesn’t Teach You about the Real World

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 07:01:00 +0000

For all the time and expense involved and for all the talk about how a college degree will help you land a job and make a higher salary, there sure are a lot of important things that many college curriculum don’t teach you about how to excel in the working world. Here are a few unpleasant truths that many college students find themselves discovering once they’ve landed their first real jobs.

Many jobs do not require nearly as much intelligent thought as school does: This can be a huge letdown. Finding a job that challenges you intellectually will be something you have to fight to find, as it will not be handed to you. This often will mean expanding your own job description or looking for something new. Taking initiative is a key component of having a job that’s not boring.

Getting called on in class and being graded is nothing like being told what to do for eight hours every day: In school, you are largely free to make your own decisions about how to use your time. While you are generally expected to show up for class and complete assignments by their deadlines, the only person who is ultimately affected by whether you do these things or not is you, so no one (except maybe your parents) will breathe down your neck to get them done.

In the work world, your boss, whose boss is breathing down his neck, or your clients whose money is at stake, will put pressure on you to complete your work when they want it done (usually yesterday), not when you feel like doing it.

When you’re used to moving around all day, sitting at a desk for eight hours can be absolutely mind-numbing and even physically painful: In college, you at least have to get up to walk from one class to the other every hour or so. You may even have breaks between classes and fun activities built into your day, like sports or music lessons. The frequent change of scenery and stimulation probably do a lot more to prevent you from being bored stiff than you realize.

Sitting in the same desk and focusing on the same subject day after day for hours on end with only lunch, bathroom, and coffee breaks is probably a lot more monotonous than what you’re used to, even if your job has some variety built in. You may even find yourself sore from so much sitting in front of a computer.

Work doesn’t change as often as school does: In high school, you change classes once a year (sometimes once a semester), and in college, you change classes once a semester (at some schools, once a quarter). At work, you’ll often do the same work year after year, surrounded by the same people. While you’re likely to get very efficient at these repetitive tasks and very comfortable with these people, you may not get the stimulation you’re used to. Keeping life interesting by taking the occasional class, learning a new skill, meeting new people, or reading a good book becomes your own responsibility.

They usually don’t teach you basic job skills in college: Learn how to send a fax and make a long distance phone call from a land line before you get to your first job. Skills like these are incredibly basic to the work force. You’ll be expected to know how to do them; no one will teach you. You’ll waste a lot of time and look foolish if you don’t come to work already knowing how. If you want to try to bluff your way through it, try asking a co-worker, “How does this particular fax machine work? It’s a different brand from the one I’m used to using.”

Being good at studying doesn’t mean you will be good at working: The skills that you need to excel in school are not always the same skills you need to excel in the workforce. The ability to think critically and adhere to deadlines will certainly continue to serve you well, but many of the skills that you learn outside the classroom will be much more important than the knowledge that you gained inside it.

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Post by Amy Fontinelle

Garden Harvest Update: Does Gardening Pay Off? Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 07:01:00 +0000

There's nothing like growing a large vegetable garden in your backyard to make you appreciate division of labor and the technological advances that make it so easy to go to the grocery store to purchase produce.

Gardening is incredibly time consuming. Yes, to some extent, if you plant things in good soil in a sunny spot and give them enough water, they will flourish with minimal effort. But it's really much more complicated than that. Plants get diseases. They get attacked by sucking insects and chewing insects. They get scorched from too much sun. They droop from underwatering, and turn yellow from overwatering. The flowers fall off before the plant can set fruit. The fruit forms, but starts to rot on the vine. Caterpillars bore holes in your tomatoes. Cheap tomato cages can break under the weight of heavy tomaotes and threaten to tear down the whole plant. Weeds grow like crazy and seem impossible to get rid of.

Paying enough attention to notice these problems, researching them to learn what they are and how to solve them, buying the right products to treat them, and spending the time to tend to them are all very time consuming. I could easily spend an hour a day just tending to my vegetable garden. But I can't, because between work, household chores, and taking care of the rest of my yard, there isn't time.

A few hours a week to grow a few pounds of produce, which also takes a lot of time to wash, cut, and cook, plus the money you spend on all the tools and fertilizers and watering, is just crazy compared to the effort it takes to go to the grocery store. And while the quality of produce is often better, I can get produce that tastes like I grew it in my backyard at the farmers market.

If you're thinking about growing a garden just to save money, I stand by my original assertion--it's not worth it. While I have come out ahead financially on my garden in terms of materials (this year!), I defintely have not in terms of time, considering that I work for myself and could have spent all those gardening hours writing, editing, or marketing. The rewards of gardening are not financial, unless you have nothing better to do and a bright green thumb.

What I have gained from gardening is mainly a satisfaction of a curiosity I didn't know I had. I like to learn new things, and it has been very satisfying to learn what my produce looks like when it grows. It amazes me that I have eaten certain things my whole life without having the slightest clue how they were produced. I didn't know what zucchini plants or pepper plants looked like. I had no idea that so many things we eat grew out of flowers. I didn't know that tomatoes develop their full size while green, then ripen. I didn't know that I could pick a green tomato and it would ripen on my counter (or that that's how supermarket tomatoes get their lack of flavor). I didn't know that all peppers turn red when left on the vine--there is nothing particularly special about red bell peppers. I didn't know that all that foliage on the plants is to prevent the fruits from getting scorched. Gardening would be a particularly good activity to do with kids, I think.

I also didn't know that I was capable of growing things. All my container gardening failures as an apartment renter had nearly convinced me that I had a black thumb, but it turns out that the knowledge I gained from those failures, combined with having good land and lots of sun for the first time, allowed me to have a pretty successful garden this year.

I will be scaling back severely next summer so that gardening is not a time-sucking chore. I am going to focus on the produe that has the highest reward: tomatoes. They are easy to grow and taste particularly delicious straight off the vine. I don't get sick of them, and even in season they are not particularly cheap at the store or farmers market. They are also highly perishable, which means many trips to the store if you want to have fresh tomatoes every day, and I don't like to make many trips to the store.

Stay tuned for part three of this series, coming whenever all my plants stop producing and I finally tear them out of the ground. I will let you know the total amount I invested in my garden, what grew well and what didn't, how many pounds of produce I harvested, how much of a return on investment I got in terms of materials, and how I will decrease my costs next year.

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Photo and post by Amy Fontinelle

My New Couch, Six Months Later

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 19:40:00 +0000

So I actually wrote my recent post about buying a new couch six months ago and forgot to publish it. I thought I'd follow up with some thoughts on that couch now that I've owned it for a while.

Color: First of all, when the couch was finally ready, which took the whole six weeks, it was not the color I remembered it being in the store. I think it is more likely that I did not remember the color correctly than that there was a mistake or I was duped. Still, I was disappointed, though I tried to pretend like I was not since I had spent so much money on the thing. I am never going to love the color of this couch, though. It is a very uninspired beige. I was remembering it as a creamier color (maybe just wishful thinking related to my very impractical desire to own a white couch). I am consoled only by two facts: 1) it was the best available option at the time, and 2) at least it matches my living room. Well, I do have my doubts about whether it matches the floors. I know, everything goes with wood, right? But I'm not so sure. I used to be an artist. I am very picky about color combinations.

Pickup vs. Delivery: We went and picked the couch up ourselves instead of paying the furniture store to have it delivered. It was miserably heavy, even for two grown men to carry, and difficult to get into the house, requiring the removal of a door. It also took a long time to drive across the city to the warehouse and back. Then, we had to wait quite a while at the warehouse for them to bring out our couch. We were joined in our wait by similarly thrilled customers and a trash can that had flies. The $70 delivery fee might have been worth it, in retrospect, although since business was slow for me at the time, I was glad to not pay the money. But perhaps my time would have been better spent looking for new clients.

Function: Almost from the beginning, I have wished I had bought the matching ottoman because I am a recliner junkie and I like to put my feet up. But that was an extra $200, which seemed a ridiculous price for what is essentially a freestanding cushion (it looked exactly like the ottoman in the photo accompanying this article, in fact) since I could get a whole couch for $600, and it probably too big for my living room anyway. Given the $70 flat delivery fee and the hassle to pick up furniture, I know I won't be buying the ottoman after the fact. And given my obsession with things matching, I will not be purchasing a less expensive model at Target or Ikea. So I just have to sit sideways on the couch, which is not entirely comfortable when there are two people using it.

Durability: I am already starting to question whether the couch will hold up. I doubt I will still have this couch in ten years, like I originally planned. I am wondering if $600 was too little to spend to expect a quality piece of furniture (shouldn't it be enough, though? That's a lot of money!). The cushions seem to be losing their fluffiness at an alarming rate. Also, the arms of the couch, as I have learned the hard way, are terrible for sitting on. They appear to be rounded and cushy, but underneath are hard and angular and quite painful to casually plop down upon.

I do not really know how to determine anything about couch durability prior to owning it, but I imagine you could do some research online about furniture brands and see who has the best reputation. My La-Z-Boy recliner, for example, has held up fantastically.

Fabric: The microfiber fabric does not attract cat fur like I had feared, and has even held up (so far) to kitten claws. And I've already managed to get two stains on a cushion, though I don't think the stain protector they tried to sell me would have helped, seeing as one of the stains came from my computer cord melting after my kitten chewed it.

Time committment: One thing I am still glad about is that I did not spend a long time looking for the couch. This probably isn't what you expect to hear since I am not totally happy with my purchase. You're probably expecting to hear that I wish I had spent more time looking. When I bought my secondhand couch a while back (which I had to get rid of when I moved in with my boyfriend because there wasn't room for two couches), I spent a lot of time shopping for it. But I don't, because I know I exhausted all the available options for new couches. I went to about ten stores in one day. If I had wanted to get a different couch, I would have needed to wait until some new models came out, which would surely have been months if not a year or more.

Price: I do think my couch looks a lot better than having two mismatched recliners side-by-side in the living room, and it is quite comfortable to sit on. But I guess I feel like I got about $300 or $400 of value for something I paid $600 plus tax for, and I also feel like I will want to replace it in fewer than ten years because I don't love it. I wasn't willing to buy a secondhand couch this time because of both the time involved and my newfound fears about preowned furniture being infested with roaches/fleas/etc. Now that I think about it, there is really no reason why a new couch sitting in a warehouse couldn't also become home to roaches. Hmm.

Comfort: The couch is indeed very comfortable, and has become my preferred place to sit, over the recliner and the bed. It is also long enough to lay down on and has been used as a bed by a few adult visitors with no complaints. The fabric feels nice and the lumbar support is good. I have no complaints in this department.

Overall, though I am not totally happy with my purchase, I don't regret it either, because I still think I made the best decision I could have given the circumstances at the time I purchased it. I have no doubt that I will put more effort into the decision the next time I buy a couch, though.

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Post by Amy Fontinelle

Best of Money Carnival Up at Mighty Bargain Hunter

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 18:57:00 +0000

The latest edition of the Best of Money Carnival is now available at Mighty Bargain Hunter. My post, Searching for an Inexpensive New Couch, was selected as one of the ten posts to appear in this carnival, coming in at #5.

Normally, I like to highlight my favorite posts from carnivals, but since there are only ten in this one, I'll just refer you to Mighty Bargain Hunter, who has already done the hard work of culling the best submissions. Check out the carnival to read Confessions of an Online Poker Player, Can You Benefit from Energy-Efficient Rebates?, and Faith-Based or Socially Responsible Investing--Delusions of Righteousness.

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Post by Amy Fontinelle

Northwest Airlines 40% Mileage Bonus--Is it a Good Deal?

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 07:40:00 +0000

I'd like to share an email I received from Northwest Airlines about a mileage promotion they're having:

"Transfer miles now through September 25, 2009 to a friend or family member with a WorldPerks account and they'll receive your miles plus an additional 40% mileage bonus.
The extra 40% mileage bonus may even give them enough miles for Award Travel."

(Visit the Northwest Airlines site to read about it straight from the source.)

Yes, this sounds like a great deal. So what's the catch? It is not free to give someone miles. Here's the fine print:

Transaction Terms:
Minimum/Maximum mileage per transaction, per recipient: 1,000 / 30,000
Mileage increments: 1,000
Rate per mile: $0.01
Processing fee per transaction: $30.00
One to four WorldPerks recipients may be included in a single transaction

So let's say you wanted to try to game the system. Let's say that you and your sister each have a World Perks account and you want to transfer miles to each other just to get the 40% bonus. Will the bonus be worth the cost to transfer the miles, and how does that cost compare to the cost of buying miles?

Let's say you each have 30,000 miles and want to go for the maximum bonus. Transferring 30,000 miles gets the recipient a bonus of 12,000 miles. At 1 cent per mile transferred, it would cost you $300 to transfer the miles, plus the $30 transaction fee, for a total of $330.

Now, here are Northwest's terms to buy miles:

Minimum/Maximum mileage purchased per transaction: 2,000 / 60,000
Mileage increments: 2,000
Rate per mile: $0.028
Processing Fee per transaction: Fee Waived
Processing Fee and rate per mile do not include applicable taxes

To buy 12,000 miles (the amount of the 40% bonus) at 2.8 cents per mile would cost you $336. There is no transaction fee, so the total cost is $336. You would save $6 by doing the mileage transfer scheme.

It turns out that what appears to be a great deal that might allow you to game the system for some free miles is actually not a deal at all. It's probably just a way for Northwest to promote the concept of transferring miles.

Also, most of us personal finance types would tell you that spending $330 (or $336) to purchase 30,000 miles is not a particularly good deal. You'd be better off signing up for the Delta SkyMiles American Express Gold Card and earning the 20,000+ bonus miles for opening the account (then canceling the card before the annual fee kicks in). (Of course, this will only work if you have good credit.) Why Delta? Because when the Delta/Northwest merger is complete, all your Northwest WorldPerks miles will be merged with your SkyMiles and you'll have one fat mileage account.

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Post by Amy Fontinelle

Searching for an Inexpensive, New Couch

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 07:01:00 +0000

The one piece of expensive, new furniture I indulged myself in for my house is a new couch, which is something I have coveted for years. I checked out about ten stores in the search for a big couch (long enough to sleep on) that wasn't too expensive. For a new couch that isn't a futon or something else that looks like it belongs in a college apartment, it appears that $400-$600 is the lowest available price range, so that's where I set my sights.

As background, I have never owned a piece of furniture that wasn't made of laminated particle board (minus the table I made in a woodshop class once) and I've only spent more than $100 on a piece of furniture once--to buy my bed. So the couch-shopping expedition was a first for me. Here's what I learned about the best and worst places to shop for an inexpensive, new couch.

Local furniture chain: The first store we went to was a local chain. The store was clean, attractive, and did not smell funny (you'll see why this is important later). The furniture was well-spaced and reasonably priced and there were quite a few people shopping. The store had several options, attractive options, comfortable options, in my price range. If I had to fault the store for something, it would be the lack of different color options for each sofa and that the sofa I wanted wasn't available to buy immediately, it had to be special ordered (because beige is such an unusual color?). On the plus side, I could go to the warehouse myself and pick it up, saving the $70 delivery charge. Still, $70 was a reasonably delivery charge, I felt.

Ikea: The Ektorp sofa at first appears to cost only $399, but mysteriously, only the white couch is that cheap. While a white couch may look lovely (for about a week), it isn't very practical. The other colors and patterns cost $499 or $599. They also make Ektorp sofa covers ranging from $49 (for white) to $249 (for certain patterns)--in other words, you can't buy the $399 white couch then inexpensively spruce it up with a slipcover. (Besides, if I wanted to slipcover a couch, I'd get one at Goodwill for a lot less.) Ikea also has two other sofa options in this price range, the Karlstad and the Knihult, but neither was what I had in mind.

Macy's: Macy's had some attractive sofas if I were going for a high-fashion look, but fashion and comfort don't seem to coincide in furniture any more than they do in clothing. Plus, their sofas were all in the thousands of dollars. I even saw one that was $3300. There's no way I would ever spend that much money on a single piece of furniture. On top of that, the couches really didn't look like they were worth that kind of money. No wonder the entire furniture department was eerily void of life. Even the salespeople seemed to have given up on it.

JC Penney: The furniture department smelled like mildew and had a depressing aura. I felt bad for the woman relegated to working there. While there were quite a few inexpensive sofas on JC Penny's website, they all had to be special ordered, would take 4-6 weeks to arrive, and would come with a $185 delivery charge that would largely negate the savings (particularly annoying to me, since I have access to a large pickup truck). Plus, these online couches were apparently not available in the store, so I would have to buy one sight unseen. To me, it is very important to test a couch for comfort, so that option wasn't going to work. In the store, they only had sofas that were out of my price range. Perhaps the online couches are available for viewing at other locations, but there are not a lot of JC Penneys in my area.

Lazyboy: In addition to their large selection of recliners (I am the proud owner of one, purchased at Goodwill for $50 three years ago and it still looks and feels brand new), they also sell couches. I immediately felt intimidated when I walked into the store because it is very nice. It says, "this is a store for people with money." Maybe not crazy amounts of money, but more than I was willing to spend. Even the couches in the clearance room, which came with no warranty and no return option, cost nearly $1,000 or more. Even though the store was having a no-sales-tax sale, their prices were still too high for me. Even the tax on a $1,000 couch is less than $100, so for me this was not a meaningful sale.

Local warehouse furniture store: This store was supposedly a wholesale warehouse, but the prices were in the quadruple digits. It had concrete floors, flourescent lights, and the furniture was crammed together. The store had no ambience whatsoever; indeed, it would have made a great location for a plot on the cop drama The Shield. In this plot, an Armenian mob boss would run a furniture store as a front for his money-laundering business. The prices were probably a bargain if I was in the market for high-end furniture, but honestly, I wouldn't know. I just wanted something basic.

Another local chain: This was a large store, the size of an entire floor of Ikea if Ikea were not set up like a maze. Mysteriously, they sold the same couches as the first local chain, but in different colors, even though it was supposedly a different store. I considered buying the same couch I had liked at the first store but in a different color because it was available to take home immediately and the color (sage) wasn't bad. I wasn't totally sure the color would match my living room, though, and I wasn't about to repaint the living room. That made me decide that the couch at the first store was the one for me, even though I would have to wait 4-6 weeks to get it and even though, at $600, it was only a good deal, not a super-duper-spectacular deal. But it's exactly the couch I had set out to find at the beginning of my journey.

The winner: I was glad to have checked out the other stores, only to know what was out there and to firm up my opinion that I had found the right couch. I know you can sometimes negotiate the price of furniture, but this didn't seem like that kind of store. Negotiating the price of the couch seemed about as likely as negotiating the price of a couch at Ikea. Still, I asked the saleswoman if the couch would be going on sale any time soon. My parents suggested this as a way to get a sense for whether negotiation was possible. I could tell that it was not. It seems the store doesn't really have sales since they offer such low prices to begin with. That seems fair to me, and I don't really believe in haggling over things that are already fairly priced.

They tried to upsell me on a $70 stain protection plan. It sounded great--if the stain protector doesn't work they will come out to clean your couch for free, and if that doesn't work they will replace it for free--but I wasn't interested in spending more money and I was already at the top of my price range. Besides, I've never lost a piece of furniture to a stain before, and I bet I can buy a stain guard product at the store for a lot less than $70. I may actually look into that, because I plan to keep this couch for at least 10 years. The couch is long enough for me to lay down on completely stretched out, has big, comfy armrests and big, fluffy back pillows. It's light beige, so it will match anything. It's also going to attract cat hair like nobody's business, but then, most furniture does.

Hopefully what I learned from my couch-shopping experience will give you some ideas about the best stores to find deals in the next time you want to buy new furniture and what to expect in terms of pricing, timing, and delivery fees.

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Post by Amy Fontinelle

Things I Wish I Had Known About Work When I Was Younger

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 07:01:00 +0000

When you’re a young adult preparing for a working world that you haven’t yet experienced, knowing what to expect is difficult. Here are a number of things I wish I had known about work when I was 20 that would have gotten me off to a better start. Why learn these lessons the hard way if you can avoid them altogether?

It doesn’t always have to be fun: Many people would agree that you shouldn’t spend most of your time doing something that you don’t really care about. On the other hand, the world we live in has certain unfortunate realities, and one of those is that money is necessary to get by. Working at a job you don’t love in the short-term isn’t always a bad thing if it gets to something you do love in the long-term. Maybe you want to save up for a house, start your own business, or take six months off and travel the globe. When you have a goal that’s important to you, and that involves something that you consider an essential component of living life to the fullest, it sometimes doesn’t matter if you don’t love your job.

Your life doesn’t have to revolve around your job: Not everyone is a career person. For some people, a job is just a paycheck, and that’s okay. Yes, it takes up a large part of your day, but you can minimize its influence over your life if you are sufficiently involved in your life outside of work. This means that instead of just coming home and zoning out in front of the TV every night and all weekend, you have other activities that keep you engaged. A class at the gym, training with a marathon club, a foreign language class, spending time with your circle of friends, taking care of your family — whatever it is, if it fulfills you and makes your life about something other than your job, it might not matter so much what you do from 9-5, as long as it allows you to live comfortably and leaves you with enough energy and happiness to enjoy the other parts of your life.

You can’t please everyone, so don’t even try: You, your boss, coworkers, family, friends, and significant others aren’t all going to have the same idea of how you should best be spending your time, what decisions you should be making, and so on. Trying to please everyone is a surefire way to fail, because it can’t be done. If you have to please someone, make sure it’s yourself.

Burning bridges may come back to haunt you: Just because you’ve chosen not to please everyone doesn’t mean you have to antagonize anyone. Restraining yourself from burning bridges is a skill that makes for success. It’s amazing how many times your path will cross with others even when you think you have left that portion of your life completely behind. While burning bridges may give you a momentary feeling of satisfaction, it’s rarely worth the trouble and can create obstacles for you in the future.

The young have an inherent technological advantage: If you’re in your twenties right now, adapting to new technology is probably a piece of cake for you since you’ve been doing it for most of your life. In the working world, however, there are a lot of dinosaurs who use outdated technology and are afraid of or painfully slow to adapt to technology they didn’t grow up with. Sometimes this is for financial reasons (replacing the software of hundreds or thousands of employees isn’t cheap), but sometimes it’s simply out of a stubborn unwillingness to do things differently from the way they’ve worked for the last 30 years. Your boss may expect you to do things like use a typewriter even when you know there is an easier, faster, and better way.

Just because a job pays better doesn’t mean it’s more challenging: Lots of office jobs pay a decent salary and are unbelievably easy compared to working in a retail store or restaurant. If you’ve ever had one of the latter jobs and then get an office job after graduation, you may be shocked to find that you’re suddenly being paid at least three times as much for work that’s at least three times as easy.

Working in a big company can be a lot like high school: It’s amazing the group dynamics that form in big companies—the gossip and rivalries can often get just as bad as the groups you used to hate in high school. Will joining a clique help advance your career, or will trying to remain neutral and independent serve you best? It’s not always easy to know.

Don’t you sometimes wish that you had a chance to do a part of your life all over again with the knowledge and hindsight that you have now? We rarely get second chances, though: the best we can hope to do is pass down our cumulative wisdom for the benefit of those who are younger. What do you wish you’d known about work when you were twenty?

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Post by Amy Fontinelle

What's the Real Purpose of Spending Money on a Wedding?

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 07:30:00 +0000

There are a lot of things I don't like to do the conventional way because I find something to be wrong with the convention.

-I moved to another state without having anything lined up there because I wanted to live there. I figured that if I waited until conditions were perfect, I might never get there. Plus, most employers are not interested in hiring people from out of state. And why should they be? They have plenty of options closer to home.

-I graduated from college in three years because it was awfully expensive and I didn't know what I would have done with the extra year anyway. In fact, only now that my career has gone in some sort of defined direction can I tell you that I wouldn't mind having degrees in journalism, finance, and economics--but how could I have known that without the years of work experience that have led me to where I am now?

-I bought a house with my boyfriend instead of waiting to get married first because I didn't want to spend a bunch of money on a fancy party and then go home and continue living in a crappy apartment. Nor did I want to go the other preapproved route and attempt to buy a house while simultaneously planning a wedding--and, oh, my boyfriend isn't independently wealthy, so you can scratch that whole 1950s notion of the husband buying a house for his wife. Besides, I wanted to help pick it out. I am lucky enough to be in a relationship where both parties understand that committment is something you keep because you choose to, not because you've bought some expensive pieces of metal or gone through a ceremony and put your name on a legal document (though rumor has it that those things don't actually keep people together, anyway).

But now that I have my house, the idea of having a wedding doesn't seem quite as ridiculous. But paying more than $5,000 for it does. I've never been one to blow a lot of money on luxury items, and I've never much cared for parties. In fact, even $5,000 seems high to me as there are actually a lot of other things I would rather do with $5,000 than spend it at the rate of about $1,000 an hour in a single afternoon.

So I've started doing a bit of research into wedding venues, and I am absolutely appalled. Both places I looked at cost $5,000 just for the venue, and then to add insult to injury, they force you to use their preferred catering services to the tune of about $40 per head. For the purpose of simplicity, let's assume a 100-person wedding. That's $4,000 for food, for a meal that no one will remember, that will more than likely be mediocre, and that I won't even get to eat. I know this isn't news to those of you who have planned weddings. I know that the average cost of a wedding is something like $26,000. But that doesn't make it okay.

What is the point of spending all this money, after all? It's different for everyone, but for me, a wedding is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to gather for a happy occasion with the company of all the people who are important to me, in the same place at the same time. For someone like me, who lives entirely too far away from the important people in her life, this aspect of a wedding is particularly appealing. Thus, all the expenditures associated with a wedding should contribute to this purpose.

On the other hand, I think a lot of people plan their weddings the way they do for one of three reasons:

1. Because that's what they think they are supposed to do.

2. Because they don't realize that you control the wedding costs, the wedding costs don't control you.

3. Because they want to impress people.

Wedding expenditures that are designed to impress people, that arise solely out of expectation or tradition, or that are inflated because the item has been tied to the word "wedding" don't exactly support the purpose of having an enjoyable time with my loved ones for however many days they can be in town (or whatever other personal reasons people have for throwing weddings). Hundreds of flowers, centerpieces that will end up in the trash, and $40 chicken dinners are not a means to my end.

The other thing I don't think people think about when considering the cost of a wedding is opportunity cost. When you spend $26,000, or $12,000, or $5,000 on a wedding, you are forgoing the option to spend that money on something else. When I think about spending $5,000 on a wedding, I don't think, "Well, $5,000 is a good price for a wedding, considering that most people spend $26,000." I think, "If I could spend $5,000 any way I wanted, what would I do with it?" And I come up with answers like improve my house, go to Europe for five weeks with my boyfriend, or buy a "new" car. All of these things would be a much better use of the money, if you ask me.

Of course, people whose weddings are financed by someone else don't tend to think about wedding costs this way, but my father and I have similar values when it comes to money, so why would I ask him to spend his money on me in a way that I wouldn't spend my own money on myself?

So the challenge upon me is to figure out how to circumvent expectation and convention to create a wedding that is meaningful to me while spending only a modest sum of money. Stay tuned--I'm sure there will be many more posts on this subject as I attempt to figure it out.

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Post by Amy Fontinelle