1001 Ways to Improve Your Personal Finances
Yesterday I posted Alexa von Tobel's video on the 5 Must-Follow Principles for Personal Finance.
Today I'm thinking about the small ways we can stop spending money on needless things, so we can put 20% of our income towards savings and the future.
I probably shouldn't start thinking though, because...
a. I will either stop, because I get bored with the idea
b. I will never get the bored with the idea (but you might)
So I'm setting an unreachable goal of sharing 1001 ways to improve your personal finances, because that just seems like the thing to do. The *one* at the end of the 1000 is for good measure and extra unreachableness.
Anyway, to improve your personal finances, like Alexa says, you should start by spending only 50% of your income on housing and related non-negotiables.
The rest?
Up for negotiation.
This means that fake eyelashes, fake nails, Botox, and new Maggie's Cotton Camisoles (maroon or dusty lilac) are not necessarily in the budget. (Yes, Alexa recommends you make a budget. At this point, I might lose credibility with you, because I have never lived by a budget. I just don't spend much money, and I have a fascination for doing things myself instead of paying someone else to do them. Not counting housework, of course. Or the construction of dusty-lilac camisoles.)
Okay, if you're still with me, here is today's health-care cost-avoidance tip, so you don't have to go to the dermatologist and pay for a nitrogen blast, should you happen to develop an unsightly wart just days before a big writer's conference (or any other inconvenient time, like next month before your first trip to the Farmer's Market for the new season. Yes, you'll save money at the Farmer's Market, as long as you don't get waylaid by the sweet man selling artisanal pickles.)
Here goes...
1001 Ways to Improve Your Personal Finances: Tip #1
Remove warts with duct tape. Not in a kind of rip-and-go fashion—like getting a waxing, which is not in your budget... ahem—but in a starve-the-little-unwanted-extra-body-blips approach. (Please do not attempt to use duct tape as weight-loss solution; that is not what is being recommended. Apply duct tape only to wart-affected area.)
That's it. Tip number one. I am not making this up. It works. And the duct tape will double as a household fix-it item. Unless you buy the girlie kind of duct tape, which, if you are a girlie, you might prefer.
BONUS (completely free of charge)...
Today's personal finances confession:
No, I did not buy the girlie duct tape. Yes, I bought two Maggie's cotton camisoles the other day. It was Lyla's fault. But the cotton-buy, um... fit the budget.
RELATED:
1001 Ways to Improve Your Personal Finances: Tip #2—The Starbucks Challenge
Labels: 1001 Ways to Improve Your Personal Finances, duct tape, home remedies, personal finance
posted by L.L. Barkat at 9:47 AM
12 Comments:
Good night, I reckon I could write an entire series on frugality that would knock your socks off. (Ex. I wear my husband's jeans from high school. I whack 'em off at the knees, don't waste thread money for hemming, and let them naturally fray. So when I lose my socks, bare toes look better with fray. Anyway.
And about that duct tape bit, I've heard of that wort removal deal.
Duct tape trivia: invented and used for wound repair in WWI. Ouch.
(Sometimes I forget about this place, GIC. I like it.)
Blessings.
oh, i forgot, it this part 1 of 1001?
The nice thing about starting with the One is that it could be construed as either the beginning or the end of the series.
Oh, who knows. I might have fun with this about 25 times or so. If I make it to 1,000, we can have a big party where we grind our own wheat and use it in homemade cookies we bake over the campfire ;-)
You know, I could take the blame if you'd have purchased some nice, white, 100% soft cotton tee.
And, just throwing this out there, if you're going to bake cookies over a campfire, I don't think it's worth going to the trouble of using quality ingredients and grinding your own wheat. Trust me; I'm experienced in this. Once the food is burned through, it could just as well have started out as cardboard.
Or duct tape.
How did I get snagged into so many venues this morning?
that is definitely a money-saver, Lyla! Cardboard chocolate chip cookies. :)
I hadn't planned on spending any money today, but now I'd like to order some of that girlie duct tape. Looking forward to more money-saving finds!
White polka dots on pink background beats out that ugly gray extra-wide duct tape we have in the house. We have enough of that to wrap a mummy.
Wish I'd known about this years ago. One of my nephews had to use the Chinese needle approach to get rid of his.
Look how well this new series is working. Susan is already spending money she didn't plan to.
And Maureen, the fun of peeling duct tape off a mummy would deteriorate in a big hurry.
Yeah. So where's Tania now that I'm on a roll?
Lyla, Susan probably has a duct tape line in her budget. ;-) If I was willing to buy a duct tape camisole, there might be a line for it in mine too.
Susan is a Minnesota girl, so she probably does.
The duct tape cami. The very thought of it just hurt.
From someone who's been known to mend {I use the term loosely} with duct tape, polka dots hold a certain intrigue.
http://susan-moment.blogspot.com/2010/03/fitting-thought-or-not.html
I'm very glad I found your blog. Thanks for the sensible critique. I and my friends were just preparing to do a little analysis about this. I'm very glad to see such good information being shared freely out there.
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