• Commentary on the health care bill, Part 1


• Commentary on health care bill, Part2


• Gift stash ideas


• Marriage and frugality

Twist a thin strip of printer paper to make a wick, and soak it in heavily-salted water.  Let it dry.  (The salt both slows burning and makes a nice yellow flame.) Twist a piece of wire to sit inside a translucent class container, with one end up.  This will guide the wick to stay positioned in the candle.  Wrap the wick around the wire, place in the container, pour oil, leaving a little wick out.  Light it.  Beautiful, isn't it?  

Of course, oil isn't the only fat that works.  I made a variation on the theme with leftover bacon grease and a wick stuck into the fat with a toothpick.  It worked beautifully, and didn't smell too much, though all bets are off if the fat goes rancid!

"Money to Burn" Magic Trick

This one's simple.  Pour a little rubbing alcohol into a shallow bowl and add salt. (This makes the flames yellow and more visible.) Dip your dollar bill in the alcohol.  Now light it.  After a couple of seconds, shake the buck to put out the flame.  Notice it's not burned!  Amazing!

Many tightwads "pay" for the excesses of the holiday season by imposing a "spending fast" on themselves in the month of January.  The aim is to use the savings to pay off those credit cards or replace money lost from savings.  Real skinflints make quite a game out of it: Eat only from what's stored at home, use little or no electricity, whip out those board games to play by candlelight instead of more expensive entertainment, walk or bike instead of driving. Many families report that this self-imposed temporary deprivation brings them closer together and helps them to really appreciate what they have.  Of course, dropping the lead weight of debt is a good thing, too!

There's just something about that new calendar smell that awakens the senses with the promise of renewal! 

Call this "the Resolution Issue."  It's time to sit down and write out your goals for the year.  Here's a basic template:

1. Revisit your budget for the year, and make all the adjustments to it that you anticipate for 2010.
   
2. Pick a number for the amount of money you'd like to save this year. (Example: "$700.")
3. Now write down exactly what steps you'll do to arrive at that number. (Example: "Drop collision coverage on old car, savings: $125.  Switch to cheaper cell phone plan, savings $240.  Pack lunch once a week, savings $360.")
4. Write down where that savings will go. (Example: "Pay off VISA balance.")
5. Write down a number you'd like to earn over and above your regular salary this year.  (Example: "1,000.")
6. Now write down exactly what steps you'll do to "earn" that number. (Example: "Give 6 months of piano lessons to neighbor's kid, in exchange for car repair worth $500.  Sell homemade quilt on Ebay for $400.  Hold garage sale for $100.")  If the exact earnings can't be precisely quantified, be conservative in the estimate.
7. Pick a home-improvement project. (Example: "Paint dining room.")
8. Pick a date that the project will be done. (Example: "Martin Luther King weekend: Friday, prep; Saturday, paint; Sunday, clean-up; Monday, reassemble the room.")  Only pick one project and the "do dates" at a time.  You can make another one once the first one is done.
9. Pick an eyesore to reorganize. (Example: "Hall closet.")
   
10. Pick a date that the project will be done. (Example: "January 12 & 13th, afternoons: Day 1, pull everything out and determine what to keep.  Day 2, put keepers back and take the rest to a thrift shop.") Only pick one project and the "do dates" at a time.  You can make another one once the first one is done.
11. Pick a personal habit to improve. (Example: "Get in better shape.")
12. Write down how to make #11 happen.  (Example: "Walk for one hour Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.  Do 15 minutes of floor exercises per day.")
13. Consider your spiritual life.  Whether or not 2010 turns out to be a year that "tries men's souls" or not, knowing what you believe, why you believe it, and how you'll live up to it is important. (Example: "Read the whole Bible this year.")
14. Write down how you'll do what you plan in #13.  (Example: "Follow passage breakdown to read a little each day that I found on the Internet." )
15. Write down a dollar figure you'd like to donate this year.  You might think taxes and life already bleed you dry, but there's something immensely satisfying about supporting something you actually believe in.
16. (By now you know the pattern.)  Write down how you'll find the money for this, if it can't come out of regular wages.
    

 The trick is to set reachable goals and then to quantify exactly how to achieving them.  Make a journal with the objectives so you can track your progress.

Last year was difficult for tightwads to watch.  Debt is everywhere, and just getting higher, from the government on down.  Federal debt zoomed from 41% to 53% in this year alone - a record-breaking rate.  At least 10 states are teetering on the brink of insolvency, too, with my home state of California leading the pack.  Foreclosures and bankruptcies, both business and personal, continued on at a record clip.  Are you ready to throw something every time you hear the phrase "jobless recovery?"

Don't let the bad news paralyze you.  Use it as knowledge to stay as far ahead of it as you can.  Hints:

• Several crop failures world-wide, particularly in grains, all but guarantee higher food prices to come.  Stock up on non-perishable food now.
• Inflation allows the government to pay its debts with cheaper dollars, but it's a stealth tax for savers.  Put your spare funds somewhere that keeps ahead of the index.
• The low interest rates can't last forever.  Get out of variable interest-rate debt before the rates rise. 
• If your mortgage rate is adjustable, consider refinancing to a stable rate to avoid nasty surprises later.

How do you keep from getting bored with your meals, now that the cold has really set in and fresh food is a lot more bland because it travels from warmer climates far away? 

Experiment with sauces.  Sure, often they add fat and calories, but a little usually goes a long way, and it sure beats heading to a local restaurant just to break the monotony.  (Have you noticed that most of the meals ordered in restaurants come with some sort of sauce anyway?)

Click here to see a nice listing of sauce recipes from Cooks.com.

Walnut Creek Recreation Winter Quarter class offerings:

• The Grocery Garden, 1/21-2/25 & 1/26-2/23.  Go here and click on the catalog at the top right for more information, Page 16.
• Your Own Chickens, 1/25-2/8, Go here and click on the catalog at the top right for more information, Page 21

Speaking Engagements:

•  February 20, 2010, Clipper Club, First Presbyterian Church of Salinas, CA. Topic: "A Christian's Response to the Economy."
• March 13, 2010, PEO Reciprocity meeting, Salinas, CA.  Topic: TBA

Need to cut your food bill, or know someone who does?

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Buy it on Amazon, or get a signed copy from SimpletonSolutions.  This month only, use promo code RES10 and get $3.50 off!

The third and last book of the Simpleton Solutions Series, The Miserly Mind, 12 1/2 Secrets of the Freakishly Frugal is nearing completion.  More details in next month's newsletter.

Keep Forwarding!

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