Posts from the ‘Simple Living’ Category
I’ve been obsessing about all things financial lately, and I thought I’d pass on some of the tips I’ve read about or learned from friends and relatives. A lot of it (I’m told) is just common-sense. Sadly, this doesn’t seem to be a quality that comes naturally to me.
1. Cash is key. Unless you’re an advanced practitioner of financial management, or otherwise incredibly good with managing your money, paying for things with cash is critical. A number of people have suggested taking out $X for the week’s groceries and keeping it in an envelope. Take the envelope (and your grocery list) with you when you shop. When the envelope is empty, that’s it for the week.
I’ve been trying this and it’s true – for whatever psychological reason, it’s way harder to let go of dollar bills than it is to hand over your bank card.
What is reasonable to budget? Depends on your tastes – I’ve heard everything from $50/week per adult to $260/week for a family of 6 and on up from there. I’m still trying to figure this one out. What do you think?
2. Save your 10% first. If you’ve read The Wealthy Barber, or most other financial planning books, they suggest saving 10% (of gross or net, however you operate) off the top, before you ever see your money and directing it to savings. If you’re Canadian, this means funneling it towards your RSP; if you’re American, an IRA, 401K or equivalent. If you’re self-employed (like us), plan on saving even more, because the words pension plan are just a mirage on the horizon. This money is the starting point for your long-term financial health. If you actually want to be wealthy, you need to save more. Sad but true.
3. Pay your mortgage off fast. This means bi-weekly payments, which will save you a schwack of interest and significantly shorten your amortization period. Increase your payments to whatever you can comfortably afford – even a little can make a long-term difference. For example, by using a mortgage calculator, I figured out that bumping up our bi-weekly payments by $19 shortens our amortization period by 1 year. Pay down the principal whenever you can – with your tax return, inheritance, etc. If you’re comfortable with fluctuating interest rates, a variable-rate mortgage is a good bet, according to the spreadsheet wizardry of Mr. Naki.
4. Watch your Latte factor. This is the catchphrase of David Bach, who looks like an elf, but has some good basic financial advice to offer. He uses the phrase to refer to all of those moments when money slips through your fingers – the Starbuck$ run in the morning, the mid-afternoon muffin, the lunch at a food court, the magazine you pick up at the grocery checkout (my personal weakness). All of these $2-$10 expenditures add up significantly.
5. Online savings are to be had. The Internet (what did people do before this?) is a great source of info. I’ve found flyers, coupons, and online deals for family activities here:
6. Show me the money. By this, I mean get rid of the crap you have cluttering up your home (that you never use, that you’ve always hated, that you don’t need, doesn’t fit or doesn’t look good) and sell it. In the last week, I’ve offloaded a fridge, a dishwasher, a boxspring, books, and a toddler bike seat on Craigslist. All of this hard-earned cash is going towards #7 (see below).
7. Get off your ass. Driving a car around is super-convenient, but costs a lot of dough. We used to be so environmentally friendly before we got one! Not only do you save a car payment and the environmental cost of burning fossil fuels, but you get fresh air and exercise if you get off your butt and walk or bike or use public transit to get where you need to go. If you have situations where you really need a car, there are some great alternatives (we use the car co-op) to actual ownership. Having said this, I’m not giving up our car. Three kids was my breaking point. But I am trying to cut back, so my Craigslist earnings are going towards a new bike and tagalong for the smallest person.
There are tons of other ideas out there – what do you use that works for you?
i wrote about fritz haeg and his plans to turn front lawns into gardens before, but the latest project in Southern California’s Descanso Gardens is big step up in scale and design.
The project planted two gardens earlier this year – one side is the typical grass lawn and the other is an edible garden replete with flowers, fruit, veggies and trees. The landscaping is a big improvement over some of the earlier projects, and uses more square-foot-gardening and trellises to good effect.
I think the project is a great way to get people thinking about the possibilities of front-yard gardens. It’s set up around a house structure so that people can walk through the physical space and relate their physical experience to their own lawns.
My only issue is that the project claims to measure and compare the energy and resource inputs/outputs for both gardens. Their stats are ridiculous.
It’s like comparing apples to oranges. The typical criticisms of a grass lawn rest on the use of chemical fertilizer, weed killer, the power usage of a mower, and the environmental drawbacks of a single water-intensive crop that must be artificially maintained in hostile environments (grass in the desert). This project negates a lot of these negatives by eliminating the chemicals and not using gas to mow the lawn. The grass side uses less labor (845 minutes for the grass vs. 3176 minutes for the garden) and water (3516 gallons vs. 8142 gallons) than the garden.
This doesn’t tell us very much. The garden takes more effort and the yield is 690 plants harvested (what does this mean?). It would have been great to see a site plan, a list of the numbers of plants put in and the specific items harvested. Something more along the lines of those wacky Path To Freedomers.
As a demonstration garden, the project is great. As a pseudo-scientific experiment, not so much. There is always the economics of measuring utility or satisfaction – playing on a grassy lawn vs. puttering in the planting beds, and this aspect is neglected entirely.
I think that all of us avid but not-so-informed gardeners who are willing and able to put in front-yard gardens would love to see a book of gardening plans laying out planting blueprints by zone, structured for full-season interest. Can someone please write one? Oh, and if you could establish a side business of renting out chickens for pest control (so that i don’t need to set up a coop in my backyard), I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks!
it was called a country fair, but really it was faux country, or maybe country lite. southlands, a local riding stable/club has extensive grounds in one of the nicest parts of the city. they hold an annual fair to raise money and publicize their efforts, including a great riding program for disabled kids.
it is a bit odd to be walking down city streets past multi-million dollar homes and dodging steaming piles of horse crap. A lot of houses in the area have a horse or three stabled in their yards, and riders clomp up and down the streets and trails with horsey abandon.
there were activities for kids, a mini-fairway, a white elephant sale (yes, i bought some books), a petting zoo, and a stage where we watched square dancers perform (they wear some wacky crinolines), followed by a couple in ponchos who warbled an off-key cover of la bamba. Later, there was a very stage-shy fiddler who played well, but refused to actually get on the stage to perform, preferring to lurk behind it, wandering around as he played. i liked him the best.
there were tons of spectators on a sunny day – kids, parents, the horsey set, dog lovers, a gentleman tanned the colour of toffee who (shirtless) proudly displayed his nipple rings which must have weighed about a pound each. my kids are (perhaps) a bit young to have entered the horse-crazy years, but they enjoyed it all the same. there was a hay fight.
the down side of the hay fight.
riding bouncy horses.
and real ones.
face painting
horse jumping, including a demo by a rider going over jumps with no hands! i mean, he had hands, but he wasn’t using them to hold onto the horse or the reins or anything. the man must have had thighs of steel.
a good day.
you know how, when it’s really hot and you spend most of the day outside puttering around, moving in slow motion from sun to shade to sun, wading through heat like you’re underwater? i feel like we’ve been waiting forEVER for summer to get here and as soon as it does, my brain goes on vacation. my metaphors atrophy. my attention span shrinks.
random thoughts:
In the spirit of decluttering, Dave Bruno is whittling his possessions down to 100 items.
the hardy banana (musa basjoo) is one of my favourite plants and i’ve planted five of them in a row in the backyard. i have great hopes of them making it through the winter. The picture above is a little misleading as this plant is only about 5 feet tall, but one of my kids took it, looking up from the lower patio.
i have a fondness for reading about endurance experiments that other people inflict upon themselves. Like these people who decided to spend 1000 days at sea in a homemade boat. i’m a nosy parker, and i always want to know more than they tell us. Why would a 25-year-old novice sailor would sign on for something like this with an obsessed 56-year-old adventurer? Why did she really leave after 306 days? Extreme seasickness was the official explanation, but don’t you think she would have thrown in the towel a little earlier if that was the case?
the kids played in the wading pool for most of yesterday and turned it into a mud pit by dinnertime. They were absolutely caked from head to toe. Please note – my daughter does not have naturally occurring freckles.
Papyrus is a plant that i have been noticing in a lot of design magazines lately. It’s beautifully architectural with striking stems and fluffy tops. It grows in water – I wonder if I could keep it in a pot?
We’ve hired an architect and he’s coming next week to measure up the house for the reno plans. I’m cautiously optimistic that our stairwell issues will be resolved. It boils down to three options: sacrifice a room for a stairwell (i don’t think so), shrink our dining room by half (possible?), or keep them where they are in the kitchen (i want the space back for more cupboards).
The littlest person in our household is about to enter the terrible twos and he’s getting a jumpstart on the toddler rage that seems to go along with it. Every little indignity is met with howling fury that returns to dimpled sweetness in an instant (when he gets his way or is successfully distracted). This is very trying for his poor mama.
It was Canada Day yesterday (happy 141st!) and we had a bbq dinner in celebration: salmon, mushrooms (white and portobello mushrooms bbq’ed with onions, olive oil, coarse salt and rosemary, thyme, and oregano from the garden – yum…), corn-on-the-cob, garden peas, and strawberries.
i find having children to be a great impediment to living lightly. they all seem to need so much stuff! what with the growing and the dirty and the inevitable breakage and the lessons and the activities and the equipment… i suppose you could make an argument for efficiencies of scale once you get past one or two offspring – hand-me-downs and shared knowledge. tapping into the network of mums out there helps too – clothes and toy-swapping.
i shamelessly piggyback on the efforts of those organized mums in my neighbourhood – the ones who gently remind me of school pro-d days (no school), or suggest free/educational/worthwhile activities based on their own experience.
in previous summers, we’ve thrown the kids in a variety of summer activities and camps but i think we’re going for a much more low-key and low-budget approach this summer. We don’t have much in the way of trips planned beyond a brief visit to family for my grandparents’ 65th anniversary (!) and some grandparents coming out to visit us (yay!). what to do with eight glorious weeks of summer?
i’m trying some different ideas on for size. over the last long weekend, we played outside alot. the kids ran through the sprinkler (an act of personal bravery, considering how chilly the water was), rode their bikes, flew some kites
did some bird-watching
ate some melon
and did some climbing.
my reward for all of this? A giant hug tight around my hips and a “That was the best day ever!” And I (of course), gardened (i think this goes without saying).
good times.
there were green things growing, but i didn’t garden a lick yesterday. we sat and played in the sand while the weary marathoners trudged past.
otherwise known as spring cleaning. In the last two days, i’ve cleaned out some longstanding basement crap. Recycled, donated, and dumped items:
- 3 bags of bottles and cans returned for deposit ($20.05)
- 184 lbs of items donated to Salvation Army (clothes, lamps, etc.)
- 154 lbs taken to the dump (including a perfectly usable crib that i couldn’t get rid of for love or money)
- Microwave, TV, VCR, gas mower, computer monitor, printer, phones, modems and cables in various states of disrepair taken to city-approved depot
I also had a small gain of 40 lbs of 6 lovely outdoor wicker/metal chairs that a local restaurant was giving away as they had just replaced their patio furniture. Who can’t use more seating for bbq season?
my (measly) goal for 2008 was to get rid of 100 lbs of clutter, so i smacked that one out of the park. (this also speaks to my poor weight estimating abilities – i need to revise my internal crap-o-meter). I hereby revise my goal to 500 lbs of clutter-clearing for 2008!
i’ve had this bloody song running through my head since yesterday.
Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz?
My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends.
Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends,
So Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz ?
One of my goals for this year is to get lose 100 lbs – of clutter. The seething mass of crap that lives in our basement seems to breed in the darkness, and makes every attempt to escape from the confines of the boxes and bins it lives in. We used to move every year or so (babies, work), and this helped to contain the situation – at least it had to fit into our storage locker or the U-haul.
But now that we’ve settled in for the long run, things have gotten much worse. I like having a small house – in fact, we purposely chose a smaller home – our priorities were access to public transit, walking distance to groceries and other amenities and a great urban neighbourhood – and we got all of those things. Plus, I don’t really understand the mentality of having a living room for show and a family room for daily use – do people really need all of that space? On the other hand, I don’t think having 2 bedrooms is going to work for the 5 of us in the long run, and we do plan to finish the basement to incorporate bedrooms, another bathroom, and an office (we both work from home).
We’re going to need to clear out the crap to have room to do some renovating. It just gives me an uneasy feeling, knowing that the main floor may be tidy, but there’s a disaster lurking behind the basement door – like hannibal lector grinning at you, while mulling recipes in his head that involve your bits.
Compounding the problem is the fact that I like to shop. I really like to shop. I read somewhere that they’ve measured hormone levels of women and men anticipating christmas shopping, and for women it can be an ecstatic experience, whereas for most men, their stress levels approximate those of a fighter pilot.
I’ve tried to fight my natural inclinations towards accumulating by channeling my shopping impulses towards “good” consumerism – environmentally friendly, organic, fair trade – or “utilitarian” – loosely defined as more bins to organize my stuff or household-related tools. But it’s hard. A lot of the magazines I read focus on the sourcing and accumulating of more stuff. I’m not just talking In Style, but even Dwell or Natural Home are filled with new ways to spend your money on eco-friendly, design-conscious stuff. That looks really cool, and comes in so many colours, and would look perfect in the…
You see what I mean? It’s not so much about keeping up with the Joneses down the block. Competitive materialism has moved to a world stage. There are so many neat ways to spend money now! Everywhere!
Sigh. As you can tell, I still have a ways to go on my Buddhist quest for desirelessness.
In the meantime, I will work on the basement. Made a start on it last week with my mom’s help – 3 garbage bags of junk, 3 garbage bags of recycling, 2 boxes of giveaway items, and a small corner of order restored. Baby steps…
gardenopolis 