Money Reasons

Smart Reasons to Save, Use and Invest Money

Archive for October, 2010

MR Cache 2010, Oct 31 – A Look Back

October 31st, 2010

Weekly Thoughts:

As I look into the blogosphere, I’m reminded of lines from books and movies that I have read or seen. Lines such as ”There are other worlds than these” and “How far down does the rabbit hole go”.

I’m constantly amazed as I step through the doorway of the just the personal finance blogosphere alone, how vast and broad it truly is.

I’m happy to be here in the small space that I exist! It’s a remarkable place where any limitations that exists are forged by the blogger him or herself. I hope that I can someday stand amongst those who cast the bright lights. But for now, I’m happy to just emit a soft but warm glow…

My Brief Favorite Reads of the Week:

Bucksome Boomer: Host a Sponsored Party for Free Entertainment – What a great idea! Have a party and get some free stuff in the process! I think seeing the windows 7 software in her picture sold me the idea!

Budgets are Sexy: 7 Frugally Hot Halloween Costumes – This is a great article to check out just for the picture alone, however the content is also hilarious and well put together!

Budgeting in the Fun Stuff: Festival of Frugality #253 – Frugal Halloween Costume Edition! – I usually don’t post a link of links (although I think I’ve said that before). But Crystal has done such a great job of sprinkling clever Halloween costumes in the mix, I had to like to her links…

Canadian Finance Blog: How To Cut Your Grocery Store Costs – This is one of the most detailed task list from grocery shopping that I’ve even seen. Check it out, I’m sure you’ll agree!

The Digerati Life: Discover Student Credit Cards For First Time Card Users – This may well be the perfect credit card for a student! Check it out…

Everyday Thoughts and Tips: Thoughts For Thursday: I Hate School – I like to hear a mom say that she hates it when her kids go to school too. I know some moms that look forward to shoving the kids off to school instead! I think if I were a mom, I too would want my kids to hang with me all the time too!

Financial Samurai: The Comfortable Lifestyle Business or The Big Payout? – Sam always provides original thought-provoking articles, and he doesn’t disappoint this time either! This one was a fun one, as his readers (me), got to vicariously live in his poker group and field a question that he asked! Check it out and voice your opinion!

Free Money Finance: My Type of Couple – What a great story about a couple that saved up money for their wedding by collecting recyclable cans. My son and I also save cans! Check it out…

Frugal Zeitgeist: Top ways to get rich – Forest identifies the ways to get rich! Perhaps, we all could identify a path and pursue it!

Lazyman and Money: 7 Ways to Reduce the Cost of Running a Printer – Great ways to reduce the cost of running a printer! I hate printers, but they are a necessary evil, check out this article and see if you can save money too!

Len Penzo: How to Find A Low-Priced Plumber That Won’t Rip You Off – Great article to read so you don’t get ripped off! I’m still mad about being overcharged from my $20 furnace part a few years back!

Mighty Bargain Hunter: Nine frugal last-minute Halloween costumes that rely on puns – Another funny and great list of last-minute Halloween costumes! These are also worth checking out!

Moolanomy: How Shopping Can Actually Save You Money – Clever article about how shopping can save you money. Nice job Mark!

My Journey To Millions: Creating a New Alternative Stream of Income–My First Non-Blog Website Part I Evan always has something going on! Check out his newest on-line business!!!

Money Ning: How To Teach Your Kids The Concept Of Investing – Nice article about getting your kids started with investing!

Personal Finance By The Book: Do You Make Excuses or Seize Opportunites? – Joe provides some great stories to backup his question! Check it out and tell him what you do!

Watson Inc: Toyota Millionaires vs. Mercedes Millionaires – Roshawn discusses the 2 different types of car buying millionaires! Great job as usually!

Well Heeled Blog: Saving and Self-Deprivation, Do They Go Hand in Hand? – Sometimes it’s very hard to be frugal, Well Heeled brings up some great point about wanting to do thinks while she is young! I would like to tell her to just grin and bare it. But honestly, there are things to do while you are young that might not be the same when you are older. So go for a balanced life or do as Crystal does and Budget in the Fun Stuff. Great though provoking article!

My Favorite Post from the Week:

My favorite post on my site was: A Rare Special Frugal Activity With My Son – I liked it the best because I believe it’s something that I will remember forever! He was so enthusiast about the entire process, that it made me enthusiast too!

Closing Thoughts:

My website pasted the 1 year threshold, but I’m going to hold off celebrating until next week. It’s been a great year though! I’ve really learned a lot!

11 comments »

Posted in Weekly Review

Tags: best links great pf bloggers Link Love pf bloggers

Funny Money comic strip – Color versus Black and White – What say you?

October 30th, 2010

I’ve added color to my 2nd comic strip “Funny Money Comic 2“, and I like the results a lot more than the black and white version. What do you think?

Original Version (B/W):

Original version of Funny Money Comic 2

New version using colors:

MR Color Version Comic 2

I just wanted to add a bit of color!

Other ideas are coming in the next edition. Kris from Everyday Tip
& Thoughts suggested some ideas that I will be implement with the next realease.

23 comments »

Posted in Humor

Tags: color comic updated comic

A Modern Norman Rockwell Like, Trick-Or-Treat Night

October 29th, 2010

Girl Witches

Tonight, I lived though another neighborhood Trick-Or-Treat Night! Much like all of the previous Trick-Or-Treat nights, this one also reminded me of a scene from a modern Normal Rockwell painting.

Rockwell-like classic scenes on this cool Trick-Or-Treat night:

A few boys were running from house to house to collect as much candy as possible (it’s always boys, funny huh).
One boy dressed as a monster while another boy dressed as his girlfriend. Always funny and actually quite brave of the boy dressing as the girl.
A few small groups of teenage girls, starting to become women, showing off how attractive they were in their Brittney Spears like schoolgirl costumes.
A large group of young girls all wearing similar costumes, this year it was a fairy theme, very cute.
The classic dad pulling his very tired, young children in a wagon up to the doorstep to collect candy. What a good dad!
A few horror themed monster (Jason, Freddy, etc) kids that always said thank you very politely after getting candy.

So what did my kids go as?

My daughter chose to be a witch! She embellished the costume with green makeup on her face, and colored her hair black via a spray can. She also had “Wizard of Oz” striped witch stockings and an authentic looking twig broom. She was adorable, if I may say so myself.

My son almost didn’t go, but at the last-minute, he dress as a soccer player (which he is), and went out and had a great time. I was glad he changed his mind, Trick-Or-Treat is one of those things that have an unspoken age limit.

So why am I writing about this experience? Because it has a lot of value that once my kids are grown, it’s not the same! This is something worth spending money on while my kids are young enough to enjoy this Halloween holiday tradition…

Limited time events like trick-or-treat should be taken advantage of while you (or really your kids) are young, because it’s a short lived and once it’s over… it’s over!

For those of you that are parents, your maximum enjoyment in the event is also limited ! Make the most of it while your kids are kids!!!

Have a great Trick-Or-Treat night!

-MR

11 comments »

Posted in Holiday

Tags: costumes Halloween kids costumes trick-or-treat witches

10 Ways We Lose Money Without Realizing It

October 28th, 2010

I find that at times, and although I consider myself quite frugal, that I indirectly waste money!

Typically at some point in time, we are all amazed when we look in our wallets, purse,s or checking accounst and find that we have much less than we thought! We thinking back in time, trying to figure out what we spend the money on, but draw a blank.

Today, I’m going to try to answer the question by identifying “10 Ways We Lose Money Without realizing it”

List of 10 ways to lose money without even knowing it

Starting your car to warm it up in winter for 15 minutes or longer before you drive it. (not very green either!)
Library books that were over-due a long time ago (another frugal sin of mine).
Equipment rentals where you miss the contract time window and now you have to pay extra cash for it.
Missed Credit Card Payment (at least make the minimum).
I already blogged about electronics and their constant power drain, see Electric Vampires in Your House
Not including your spare tire when you rotate your car tires. Using the spare tire extends the life your your regular tires by about 25%!
Running electronics like the AC/Heating, TV, computer, etc… wastefully while you aren’t at home. (Casper says thanks)
Not taking enough allowances from your paycheck, so that you get a huge rebate from taxes, which means that you gave the government a large “interest free” loan. (I’m guilty of this too).
Leaving the house door open when the heater or air conditioner is running.
Bar spending! Money flow much to easily after a few beers to tips and more alcohol. Unscrupulous bartenders may not give you the correct change back for your purchases so beware!

There are plenty of other way to lose money without realizing it!

Do you have any additions that I many have missed? Please do tell!

-MR

20 comments »

Posted in Frugality

Tags: careless spending hidden costs

Making More Money By Working Two Jobs At The Same Time

October 27th, 2010

Smart Phones make it possible

It’s 6:00 am on a Saturday morning ! You might be thinking, “That guy sure is an early morning riser“, but that’s not so! Normally, I’d be blissfully sleeping away in my comfy bed without a care in the world. But this fine early Saturday morning, I’m working two jobs at the same time! What I’m about to describe is a great way to get rich or at least make more money in a given day!

Which two jobs do I have going on?

First, I’m part of a team installing software for a big release for work (I’m telecommuting in to do the work). We are currently waiting for a large SQL script to complete.
Secondly, I’m also typing this blog article for next Tuesday! If I get this post done before the software is installed, I’ll do other tasks that need done related to this blog.

Why do two jobs at once?

Because it’s a great way to maximize both time and money! If you can do the work for two jobs during the time of just one, you have the potential of making more money and saving time to do other things later in the day. Using such a technique, you should effectively increase your rate of pay per hour! Even small increases are better than no increase…

This is what I call a “maximizing working time“!

I know this is obvious, but I watch people who work such jobs that could be take advantage of in the way that I describe, but typically, I don’t see them doing it.

So which jobs have the potential to allow you to work another job at the same time?

Information booth worker(especially if there isn’t a lot of people asking questions)
Desk Security guard (again, especially if human traffic isn’t common)
Customer support (sitting by the phones waiting)
Gift wrappers
Ticket takers
Firefighters/EMS
Smaller store retail clerks/sale rep.
Auto Salesmen
and the list goes on and on…

Of course, the work mix can vary with each job! So perhaps the information booth worker’s time is 30% her primary job, but 70% her side-job, while the opposite may be true for a gift wrapping position.

I know of a lady that works at an airline information booth, that also quilts (and takes orders for quilts) during that time she’s at work. I asked if she constantly has to put the quilting projects down to help people. She said not really, and especially when it gets later in the evening. While I don’t know the exact amount of money she makes from selling her quilts; I do know that the money that she does make from selling the quilts pay for the big vacations that both she and her husband go on (the last one being a cruise in the Bahamas) every year.

Why haven’t people done this all along?

I believe that they just didn’t have the resources to do so in the past, but with advancements in technology, doing so is my more feasible.

I just scratched the surface with this article! It might even be possible to do 3 or more jobs at once… But I’m happy just doing 2 jobs today, on an early Saturday morning…

Do you personally know people who are able to perform two jobs at the same time? Do you think it’s possible to overlap jobs so that you could work four or more jobs during a day, and not become burnt out?