My recent money-related posts at Credit.com
Spend Less by Keeping Large Bills in Your Wallet: You're less likely to spend your cash if it's in large denominations, reports the authors of a paper published in the Journal of Consumer Research.
Everything You Ever Really Needed to Know About Personal Finance On Just One Page: Included in this ebook are a number of great tricks and tips for both spending less and earning more.
Make a list of the 10 most expensive things you own vs. the 10 things that make you the most happy: "Consumerist capitalism is the least oppressive system of mass trait display ever developed."
My Personal Credit Crisis - a New York Times' economics reporter's tale of financial disaster: Edmund L. Andrews says he willingly "joined millions of otherwise-sane Americans in what we now know was a catastrophic binge on overpriced real estate and reckless mortgages."
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You'll spend less if you have only large bills in your wallet, because people won't accept your large bills, either because they fear counterfeiting or they don't have enough change.
"Spend less by keeping large bills in your wallet.
Sounds a lot like the old French habit of folding your money a certain way so that it would not be so noticeable in your pocket and therefore you would be less likely to spend it. It's too bad that ATMs don't dispense $100 bills which you'd be 'less likey' to spend at the Kwik-E-Mart for that tofu dog.
I've definitely noticed large bills lasting longer, and it's not at all due to people not accepting them - which I've never had happen. I think it's because I'm really loath to break a large bill unless I know it's something I need.
I tend to spend less if I have less money in my wallet. If I've got less than $20 in there total, I'll think twice about any random impulse purchase.
The Everything-On-One-Page was certainly good advice, but I'd be surprised if any adults would benefit from it. Are there grownups who don't know this stuff already? Seems more like a handout you'd give to grade school kids to introduce the basic concepts of "money".
I love the idea of listing items by price vs. happiness! I suspect that a lot of the items on my top 10 happiness list would be books.
Who the heck bothers with cash anymore!? I use a debit card and swipe swipe swipe my way through my filling up of that empty space all good citizens of this consumer-culture feel deep down inside.
My best defense against buying stuff I really do not need (but of course want!) is to have a little conversation with myself: "Am I really going to use this? Is it filling a need or a whim? Is the one I already have perfectly fine? Am I a complete fool?"
Both me and the wife did the "top 10 most expensive vs. happiest things" list and there was 70-80% overlap. I don't understand the point of this exercise. Our car, tv, computers, mattress, xbox...the wife's fancy photography camera, etc, all create a great deal of happiness. We don't own a house, but we'd be happy if we did. Are you supposed to have low or high overlap on those two lists?
Both me and the wife did the "top 10 most expensive vs. happiest things" list and there was 70-80% overlap. I don't understand the point of this exercise. Our car, tv, computers, mattress, xbox...the wife's fancy photography camera, etc, all create a great deal of happiness.
Library card free. Prescription Vicodin $18.37 for 100. Haagen Dazs Dark Chocolate $4 per pint. Damn, I'm a cheap date.
Sorry to hear you need painkillers, A. But I agree hydrocodone is the good stuff.
""Are there grownups who don't know this stuff already?"
Yes. Lots. I was one of them for a long time and got myself into horrible personal financial shape.
With the help of sites such as the blog ran by the guy who wrote the "one page" pamphlet, I live very comfortably on a household income that most people here would believe is impossible to live on.
Library card : free.
Prescription Vicodin : $18.37 for 100.
Haagen Dazs Dark Chocolate : $4 per pint.
Cheap date with a BB moderator : Priceless.
You get the coolest gigs Mark!
@inkstain - what blog? more info would be nice...
10 most expensive things? In order, my vacation house, residence, hybrid car, book collection, bed, computer, treadmill, hammock, bicycle, television.
I'm doing pretty well on the consumerist thingie! My problem is really with the $100 to $200 items that eat a lot of cash. Subscriptions to things like TiVO, MLBTV that I never watch because they blackout my local games (WTF?), Internet access, etc. take up a lot.
@12
thesimpledollar.com
He's not perfect, but it's a great combination of basic consumer education and frugality tips.
His homemade bread recipe basically got me through unemployment.
My problem is the F***ING BANK keeps taking all of my money, and refuses to refinance or adjust my loan into anything that doesn't make me extremely broke.
I live in the smallest house in town, and its very old and well maintained. I don't see why the bank should own it anymore. It's mine.
I don't have a TV, don't have internet, don't have a car, don't have an XBOX 360 (since it got stolen).
Banks are on the shit list with car dealerships. I get a warm, happy feeling every time I see a bank or car dealership fail.