The Frugal Life – Living Well With What You Have

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s SPRING CLEANING! GET A CLEAN START FOR YOUR BODY! While you’re cleaning out the garage, the attic and those closets, don’t forget to clean YOU out! :-) We take in toxins daily and regular cleansing is a tradition of many cultures that promotes better health. Read what cleansing can do for various health problems and why it’s important to cleanse. http://www.theherbsplace.com/cleansing.html Cleansing *********************************** THE FRUGAL LIFE NEWS Published Twice Monthly by Randal Watkins https://www.thefrugallife.com The Frugal Life February 26, 2004 ******************************************* The Frugal Life News is sent to subscribers only. Manage your subscription here: https://www.thefrugallife.com/subscrip.html Manage Sub Please note that with over 24,000 subscribers to this newsletter, we cannot reply to all emails. ****************** A NOTE FROM RANDAL Hello Everyone, Sorry, we weren’t able to send out the 02/10 th issue. A few days before, our newsletter program sent out to another list 5 copies of the same ezine. As a result of this, I quit sending out anymore until I could get a new program. This wasn’t the first time we had problems so I changed to a new program. It took quite a bit of time to find a program and get it implemented on our site. Charlotte Gorman, has once again given us a great deal on her book that we need to consider. Checkout the Frugal Home section below for more details. Thanks again for sharing and subscribing to The Frugal Life News. Until next time, Randal ***************** FRUGAL FINANCES Finally and Financially FREE! Have you been wondering what to do once the embers from your mortgage burning party have turned to ashes? I know some of you have because I’ve been receiving emails… “Uhhh… Greg. This has been enlightening and all. Loved the DebtIntoWealth process. Paid off a ton of debt. Feeling good about tomorrow. My psoriasis has cleared up. My spouse thinks I’m beautiful… but hey, dude, now that I’m Debt Free, what do I do next?” As you may have guessed, I’ve been thinking about this for a while. The next step is a tough assignment. I want you to become Finally and Financially Free! Unfortunately this means different things to different people. Debt Free was easy, by comparison. When your balances reached $ZERO, you were done. This clear and unambiguous definition kept you headed in the right direction. And now you have money, and there are lots of people who want to help you make it grow into some enormous pile to satisfy your every whim. And that’s the problem. “Enormous pile”, “big bucket”, “as much as possible”, all share the same fault – ambiguity. How do you know when you are done? Even if you put some large dollar value on it, like 1 Million Dollars, is this in cash? Stocks? Real Estate? Bonds? Taxable Investments? IRA? Insurance? Business? Tax Lien Certificates? Commodities? Gold? Oil? Inflation adjusted? Inflation protected? And how would you know if 1 Million Dollars is enough? This problem is compounded by your current requirement to work for a living… at a job unrelated to making money grow. If you’ve made it to Debt Freedom, you are clearly an expert at, minimally, two things… One: Earning Money Two: Paying Off Debt You may have expertise in stock trading or currency hedging, but you’re the exception. The rest of us are experts at earning money and paying off debt. Ideally, a system for achieving Financial Freedom would build on our expertise and limit the amount of new stuff we have to learn. After all, we’re already pretty busy earning money and tending to family. So, the question becomes, can we use the skills of Earning Money and Paying Off Debt to create wealth and financial freedom? The answer is, “Yes!” And to prove it, compute your current Wealth. Use this formula: Wealth = Total Assets – Total Liabilities Here’s a hint: The Total Liabilities number is the sum of all of your debt. Total Assets is the value of everything you own. You created Wealth every time you used your cash to reduce your Total Liabilities. Now, since you are Debt Free, or soon will be, your next objective is to set aside a comfortable number of months of living expenses in case you lose your job: Your Rainy Day Fund. Remember, this is no longer $20,000 or more. Everything is paid off, right? So, living expenses are probably close to half of the amount of your living expenses when you were making debt payments. The median time for an individual to find a job these days is between 10 and 12 weeks. So, doubling this number to 20 – 24 weeks, or about 6 months seems reasonable. We’ll talk more about what to do after you have created your Rainy Day Fund later. In the meantime, finish paying everything off and get started building your Rainy Day Fund. ——————- Greg Moore is the author of the Debt Freedom Course, “DebtIntoWealth — Lessons from My Journey to Debt Freedom”. To discover why: “Americans are carrying more debt than ever before and are behind payments in record numbers…” — New York Post and how to get out of this trap, click here: ************************ FRUGAL HOME HOW TO SAVE ON GASOLINE by Dr. Charlotte Gorman* As gasoline prices continue to escalate, many people are looking for ways to reduce the burden of higher prices while still doing the driving necessary to their work and other activities. Below are some suggestions which will save you a considerable amount of money on gasoline. The suggestions are excerpts from my book The Frugal Mind: 1,483 Money Saving Tips for Surviving the New Millennium. PLEASE NOTE: Ways to Save 1. Ask yourself every time you plan to use your car, truck, SUV, or van, “Is this trip really necessary?” Every mile you drive your vehicle will cost you at least an average of 36 cents. If the trip is not necessary, think twice before using your vehicle. 2. Drive at a conservative speed on the highway. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, most automobiles get about 20 percent more miles per gallon on the highway at 55 miles per hour than they do at 70 miles per hour. 3. Consider purchasing an automobile which gets the best gas mileage. For example, generally, the following get better gas mileage: lighter weight vehicles, vehicles with smaller engines, vehicles with manual transmissions, those with four cylinders, and those with fewer accessories. Check the “fuel economy” labels attached to the windows of new automobiles to find the average estimated miles per gallon for given makes and models. 4. Decrease the number of short trips you make. Short trips drastically reduce gas mileage. If an automobile gets 20 miles per gallon in general, it may get only 4 miles per gallon on a short trip of 5 miles or less. The U. S. Department of Energy says that trips of 5 miles or less make up 15 percent of all miles driven each year, but these trips burn 30 percent of the gasoline. For more great ideas go here: How To Save On Gasoline *Dr. Charlotte Gorman is an Extension Agent, Family & Consumer Sciences, Texas Cooperative Extension, Texas A & M University System. She is the author of The Frugal Mind, The Little Book of Living Frugal, and Speak for Yourself. GOT PETS? Visit Healthy Pet Corner for lots of information, products, and links for birds, cats, dogs, horses, rabbits, and reptiles. http://www.healthypetcorner.com All for Pets ****************** FRUGAL DECORATING February 2004 Column Romantic Bedroom on a Budget By Kathleen Wilson Every year Valentine’s Day reminds us to take a little time to nurture the romance in our lives. Don’t confine the romance in your life to just that one day, however! This can prove to be a daunting task if you’re on a tight budget. Never fear, here are some great ways to punch up the sizzle in your bedroom (ok, I am just talking decorating here, folks!) without leaving your bank account fried! 1.Paint your room a rich, luxurious color to comfort and calm. A $10 can of paint can go far to upping the cozy factor in your bedroom! Hint: DON’T do this the day before Valentine’s or the smell will send any romance in the room right out the window! 2.Purchase several yards of a gauze or net fabric from your local fabric store, and make your own romantic canopy. Screw eye hooks into the ceiling at each corner of the bed, and draw the fabric through so that it drapes near the ground, overhead, then down again. Repeat on both sides of the bed. The same romance as a four poster, for just a few dollars! 3.Bring scent into your room with potpourri, incense, or candles. Try to pick a scent your spouse will enjoy also. Sandalwood, patchouli, and woody scents are all compatible for both sexes. 4.Add a few drops of your favorite perfume to your linens before making the bed a sensual reminder of who inhabits it! (Remember, just a few drops, don’t overdo it!) 5.Move things around! Just a new view on the room can give you both the feeling you are on vacation in some fabulous hotel – if only for a little while! Remember, you spend a large amount of time in your bedroom, take a little time to create a haven for you and the one you love using “Creativity, Not Cash”! TM Kathleen Wilson is an author and national columnist for Country Woman Magazine. She is also the editor of The Budget Decorator; a free online ezine and newsletter full of free ideas, projects, and inspiration. You can get more free ideas and info on her workshops here MAKE YOUR OWN CLEANING, BATH, and BEAUTY PRODUCTS Here’s a kit with everything you will need to start making your own pampering and cleaning products for pennies with the easy-to-follow recipe guide. http://www.theherbsplace.com/essentialstarter.html Make Your Own *************************** FRUGAL TIPS FROM OUR SUBSCRIBERS INSTEAD OF PAPER CUPS FOR COOKING if you run out of muffin cup papers, cut a piece of parchment paper in a circle and use that it works very well. by Footsu FYI:  J.T.P.A. (Job Training Partnership Act) is available in some states for vocational training, especially if you have been laid off.  I participated in this program to become an LPN in one year.  All tuition, books, etc. were paid; AND I was able to collect my unemployment benefits while in school.  Applications were taken at the state unemployment office. I think this program is also available to “displaced homemakers”. **************************** WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE FORUM? Maybe you can help these folks out with a few suggestions? Or post some of your own questions. LOG-IN TO POST Here’s the link: https://www.thefrugallife.com/bulletinboard.html