I love oatmeal. I eat it for breakfast probably five days a week. It’s a very healthy fuel to get your motor running for the day, plus it can be very tasty if it’s made well.

Whenever I find myself using something almost every day, I begin to wonder if I can’t reduce the cost of it somehow. This led me down the path of making my own instant oatmeal packets. Could I make them as well as (or even better than) the instant Quaker Oats packets for a cheaper price?

The answer is … sort of. For me (and for anyone else who consistently eats oatmeal for breakfast), the answer is emphatically yes - you can make packets significantly cheaper and far tastier over the long haul. For people who might eat oatmeal once a week or less, though, you’re likely better off buying the Quaker Oats packets.

Here’s the plan.

The Basic Recipe
All you really need to make your own basic oatmeal packets at home are instant (ready to eat in one minute) oatmeal, salt, and sealable baggies to store them in - you might also want sugar or another sweetener if you wish to pre-sweeten the oatmeal.

The procedure is really easy. Just add 1/4 of a cup of the oats and a pinch of salt (1/8 of a teaspoon if you must measure it) to each baggie. Out of that container there, you’d get about 48 bags. I also like to pre-add a bit of sugar to it - about 1/2 of a teaspoon. You can choose to add none at all or add another sweetener like Splenda at your own discretion.

These will result in basic oatmeal packets very similar to the “regular” oatmeal packets sold by Quaker Oats. If you like the basic oatmeal with no changes, this is a very cheap route to go - since you can re-use the baggies, the only recurring cost over a realistic timeframe is the oatmeal itself - a bag of sugar and a canister of salt will last you effectively forever with this recipe.

Flavoring It Up
Of course, I like to flavor it up.

On the left are the ingredients for cinnamon-raisin packets. On the right are ingredients for blueberries & cream packets - dried blueberries and fat-free non-dairy creamer. Why not powdered milk? It tends to potentially mold and have other bad effects if left in baggies for too long - Coffee Mate is an excellent substitute.

For my cinnamon-raisin packets, I just add about 1/4 of a teaspoon of cinnamon and about two dozen raisins to each bag. For the blueberry packets, I add a tablespoon of the creamer and about a dozen and a half blueberries. Perfect.

Here’s a finished blueberries and cream packet:

The nice part is you can basically make anything you want if you’re making your own packets. You can experiment as your heart desires - any dried fruit pieces, any seasonings you can find - anything. I’ve actually made batches of cranberry oatmeal using dried cranberries in the past - I love it, but it’s not something you see sold on store shelves.

Adding the ingredients yourself make for tastier packets. The pre-mixed packets that Quaker sells seem to use low-quality versions of the added ingredients. For example, the dried blueberries in this packet are way better than the blueberries used in the Quaker Oats packets, resulting in a much tastier blueberry oatmeal.

Storing the packets is easy, too. Just stuff the baggies into the oat canister. That’ll hold 80% of the baggies - just sit the rest next to them and eat those first. Problem solved.

I Like It Thicker
One thing I don’t like about the Quaker Oats packet in the stores is that the oatmeal is almost always too thin. Personally, I like thick oatmeal, the kind that reminds me of the stuff my great grandma used to make at her house.

Since you’re making your own baggies, you can make it nice and thick, too. All you have to do is puree some of the dry oatmeal in your handy-dandy blender.

Put in about a quarter of a cup at a time and put it on puree for about ten seconds. You end up with oatmeal powder.

Then, just add a tablespoon of this powder to each baggie to make it thicker. I actually add two tablespoons to each baggie - that makes it really, really thick - just how I like it!

Here’s the bowl of thick blueberries and cream oatmeal I had for breakfast this morning:

I just dumped the baggie into the bowl (saving the baggie for reuse, of course), added about a quarter of a cup of skim milk, and microwaved it for about sixty seconds. Nice and thick and warm and delicious.

Cost Analysis
I wound up making 42 baggies with this batch. Normally, one would make 48 baggies out of a normal-sized canister of instant oatmeal, but I pureed enough of the oatmeal to make only 42.

15 of the baggies were blueberries and cream and 27 were cinnamon-raisin.

Unsurprisingly, there were a lot of ingredients left over:

I used all of the oatmeal and all of the blueberries, but I still had almost a full container of salt, an almost full container of cinnamon, an almost full container of sugar, a 2/3 full container of Coffee Mate, half a box of raisins, and 58 Glad baggies.

This means that if I were to make a second batch, I’d only need to replace the oatmeal and the blueberries. Since I can reuse the baggies and I have enough salt and sugar to last effectively forever, those are sunk startup costs - after that, you just need to replace oatmeal and the flavorings when you need to - and most of the flavorings will last for multiple batches.

Batch 1 - More Expensive
Of course, the first batch was a bit more expensive per packet than just buying the Quaker Oats packet. Here’s my receipt from Fareway for the stuff for 42 homemade packets:

The cost per homemade packet during the first run is $0.46 per packet. The cost would have been $0.43 per packet had I not ground up some of the packets to thicken some of the others. We’ll figure up costs for future runs in a minute.

What about the time cost? It took me about thirty minutes of mindless work to make these packets. I spent the entire time making them on the phone with my mother - I just conversed with her while my hands were busy with… well, busywork. Thus, I don’t consider the time sink to be significant.

How about the Quaker Oats packet? To control for location and store differences, I bought a box of packets at Fareway to compare the price:

The cost per packet for Quaker Oats is $0.30 per packet. Yep, the prepackaged ones are cheaper at first. But let’s keep looking.

Batch 2 and Future Batches - Less Expensive
The kicker with making your own packets is that they get cheaper on future runs. You don’t have to buy the sugar, the salt, or the baggies any more. Let’s say I made another identical batch to the one above - 42 packets. Using what I have on hand, I only have to repurchase the oats - $2.99 - and the blueberries - $3.29. The second homemade batch has a cost per packet of $0.15 - way cheaper than the prepared packets. In fact, averaging the two costs ends up with an average cost per homemade packet after two runs being almost identical to the cost of buying prepared packets - $0.30. If I had not ground up some of the oatmeal to make thicker packets, it would have been cheaper - $0.28 per packet.

Runs beyond the second further reduce the cost. And when you consider the flexibility of your homemade packets - and the fact that they taste far better - it becomes a pretty clear bargain after a while.

Reducing the Costs
Even more important, I didn’t optimize my ingredient purchases very well. A bit of optimization shaves off a lot of the cost.

The biggest way to save more money is to buy a giant canister of the oatmeal rather than a fairly small canister. Buying the oatmeal in bulk cuts down on the cost per packet significantly. Similar logic applies to some of the ingredients - if you particularly like blueberries in your oatmeal, for instance, buying them in bulk cuts down on costs, too.

Also, re-use the baggies. There’s no reason not to here - you’re only storing dry ingredients in them. Use them again.

Another tip - buy snack-sized baggies instead of sandwich baggies. I bought sandwich baggies in the example above because the store’s baggie selection was small - snack baggies are cheaper, easier to store, and hold an oatmeal packet easily.

All of these tips can trim the cost significantly, particularly on future batches.

Conclusion
If you or your family eat a lot of oatmeal, making your own packets is a cost-saver over the long haul - plus they make for tastier packets. In our house, I eat oatmeal four to five times a week, plus my son eats it twice a week and my wife perhaps once a week. That makes eight packets a week. In ten weeks, homemade packets become cheaper per packet. In twenty weeks, we’re now saving, on average, a dime for every packet we’ve eaten - $16. After that, it’s just gravy - another $1 or so each week saved while eating better oatmeal packets.

The key, though, is that your family eats a lot of oatmeal. If they don’t, then making your own packets probably won’t be cost-effective for you.

Alan wrote in with an interesting situation:

My problem is that I can’t say no to people. I am a sucker for girl scouts selling cookies. I am a sucker for salesman at stores. I am a sucker for my church when they need money for something. I am a sucker for friends and family who need to borrow money. I am a sucker for the Green Party or Green Peace when they call and ask for money all the time. I have heard it called “The Disease to Please” before and I just wanted you to know how much it affects me not only with a lot of stress and anxiety, but also financially. I don’t think I am alone either. […] I am trying to empower myself by saying “No”
to at least one person a day. It is not easy though. I always fear hurting people’s feelings or making them angry. Your article today about the left and right brain was fascinating. It got me thinking about other parts of a person’s psychological make up that could potentially affect their spending habits. For me, if I could grow a back bone and say no to people, I would probably save one or two hundred dollars a month. Sometimes more.

I have some of these weaknesses, too. The biggest one is Thin Mints. Thin Mints are one of my true weaknesses in life - curse the person who invented them. I also have a weakness for school-related fundraisers, especially those “discount card” fundraisers that seem to be popular around here. Kids will stop by and sell a discount card that will get you some bargains at local businesses and the proceeds for the card go to help out a youth group - I’m a sucker for these, too.

What I’ve found that works well for me is deciding about my giving up front and then sticking to it. Here’s the game plan I use to avoid the guilt that I’m not giving enough to others.

Budgeting your giving Each year, my wife and I decide right off the bat that we’re going to give a certain percentage of my money to charity - it’s usually 10% of our pre-tax income (yes, I’m a Christian, and I do view that as my tithe, but I don’t feel that my tithing necessarily needs to go to the church, though I do admire some their charitable works) but sometimes it’s been higher than that. All of our giving comes out of that amount. We allocate pieces to various things, including a set amount for Girl Scout cookies, for community fundraisers, for school fundraisers, for my church (we actually break this down, too, and give amounts to various projects at my church that we agree with), for a few other specific charities (Iowa Public Radio, Iowa Public Television, etc.), political campaigns, and so on.

We basically set this budget in stone. Once we decide how much I’m giving for the year and what I’m giving to, it’s done. We freeze it. If a good cause comes along, we’ll consider it for the next year, but this year is locked.

When new causes come along, such as telemarketers who call for donations, I tell them the truth. “I’ve already decided my charitable giving for the year. I’ll keep you in mind for next year.” Then I hang up. In fact, I usually knock that charity down a notch because they’re harassing me at home with their demands.

This same logic applies for all charity mailings we get in the mail. I just chuck ‘em unless they’re a charity on our list for the year.

What about salesmen? I completely ignore them unless they’re helping me find what I specifically want. I don’t go into a store without knowing what I’m intending to buy, and I view it as a deep personal failure to leave with anything else. Salespeople are there to cajole you into buying something not on your list, so just ignore them. If they bug you, just say, “I’m fine,” and walk away - that’s what I do. If a salesperson is particularly persistent, I leave the store and shop elsewhere - I know that if I listen to them, I might get seduced into buying something, plus they’re eating up my time and distracting me from the purpose I had when I came to the store.

I use a similar approach if someone comes to my door. If they’re on my “list” - like the girl down the block that I’ve bought Girl Scout cookies from or the boy who lives three doors down trying to fund his trip to Mexico with his youth group - I’ll listen. Otherwise, I just quickly say “No thanks” and end the conversation immediately.

That leads into another great tactic: end it quickly. As soon as the sales pitch begins and you recognize it as something not on your list (either shopping or charity), end it immediately. Say “no thanks” right then and hang up or walk away. The longer you stay, the more likely they’ll break down your guard. Do it fast and firmly and don’t give it a second thought.

It takes practice, especially for tenderhearted people who aim to please, but by not saying no, you’re actually taking money out of the hands of the things you really care about. Saying yes to the salesman in the store means that you now have less money to spend on stuff you actually need - or on charities you actually care about. Saying yes to the person knocking on your door means you have less money to give to the people you actually care about who need it.

Every time you say “yes” outside of your plan, you let down something you care about even more. Once you really learn that, “no” becomes a much easier thing to say.

This is the seventeenth discussion in a “book club” series on Born to Buy by Juliet Schor, which focuses on consumerism issues and young children. You can jump back to the first discussion if you’d like. This discussion covers the first half of the final chapter, “Decommercializing Childhood”, starting on page 189 and continuing until the subheading “The Invention of Modern Childhood” on page 200.

The final chapter of Born to Buy focuses on solutions, with the first part focusing in on solutions from a broad perspective, mostly calling for Congress to enact legislation.

Thus, this is the portion of the book I disagree with the most. I firmly believe that the best solutions start at home because, frankly, you can have a great deal of impact on one child, but it requires a huge amount of politial groundswell to even enact the simplest changes in terms of legislation. Not only that, I would actually oppose some of the stuff that Schor proposes here.

Let’s take a look.

Let’s Legislate Morality!
Here are a few of Schor’s suggestions, from pages 195 through 197:

Congress should pass a federal act mandating disclosure for all sponsored product placements in television, movies, books, radio, and the Internet.

Congress needs to address whether advertising to children is warranted at all.

Congress should also request a General Accounting Office or FTC report, similar to those that have been done on school commercialism and the marketing of movies and video games, which catalogues the full range of current marketing practices.

Congress should enact comprehensive legislation to restrict school commercialism.

I only agree with one of these four. Can you guess which one?

For anyone who’s been reading this blog for a while, it’s probably pretty clear that I’m only in favor of that last one. Children go to school for the purpose of being educated - their minds are opened by teachers who are supposed to be filling them with tools to navigate our complex world. When marketing starts being slipped in there, then you’re taking advantage of the teacher-student relationship and undermining the entire point of schooling.

What about the other three? Why would I oppose things like those? I’m largely indifferent to the first one, except that it would create costs for actually enforcing it - the FTC would have to hire people to make sure this was enforced and it would largely be ignored anyway, so it comes off as a waste of taxpayer money to me. The second one has a lot of problems, particularly in terms of restricting freedom of speech - when you start banning things and restricting freedoms, it’s easy for “ban creep” to occur until you’re blocking things that people should have access to. The third one is similar to the first one - a lot of money is spent on something that very few people will ever look at. By the time it’s compiled, marketing techniques will have evolved and all that research will be outdated at the taxpayer’s expense.

For the most part, I think it’s a waste of time to legislate things, especially on a national stage, that aren’t cut and dried - all such laws do is create more business for lawyers and eventually get overturned by a judge who can’t make a reasonable decision on such a sticky issue. For example, an advertising ban would be a giant restriction of freedom of speech, for example, but to only ban children’s advertising requires a law that defines a very unclear area that can’t be enforced well and will quickly be trampled over. The only legislative solutions here are far-reaching enough that anyone who values free speech would oppose it because of the other restrictions it would trigger.

Instead, the answers that are most useful are closer to home. If you want to ban advertising in schools, start in your local school district. Advocate for a ban on ads in schools coupled with a tax levy to help the schools recover the lost income. That’s one good way to start.

Next time, in the last section of the book, we’ll look at solutions that are closer to home.

The next discussion, coming in three days, will cover the last half of the final chapter, “Decommercializing Childhood,” starting on page 200 at the subheading “The Invention of Modern Childhood” and finishing out the book.

One of the most frequent complaints I get from readers of The Simple Dollar is that I often repeat some of the basic tenets of personal finance. Let’s face it - in some respects, The Simple Dollar is repetitive. By now, I must have riffed the principle of “spend less than you earn” at least a dozen times (well, let’s see … one two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve).

So why do I keep writing about this stuff? Why do I often try to hammer away at the same points? Here are a bunch of reasons.

Repetition Breeds Success
Repetition of the key principles every once in a while is good - it serves as a reminder of the basic moves we all need to make. I know that for me personally, repetition and constant reminders of the keys to success, particularly through someone else’s words and thoughts, are key for keeping me on the right path. That’s why I read about 30 other personal finance sites every day and also keep up with tons of reading on the subject.

Repetition is a key factor in many personal finance tactics. The day in and day out repetition of making the choice to drink the less expensive coffee is one that leads to having more money at the end of the month. The month in and month out repetition of investing that money in an index fund leads eventually to a nice big chunk of change. Repetition and persistence are keys to the game.

Easier Said Than Done
The principles may seem easy, but they’re often incredibly hard to actually execute. It’s easy to know the right move to make, but it’s hard to always make that correct move. There are a lot of reasons why this is so, and a regular re-examination of the basics, particularly in terms of personal failures (and personal successes) offers a lot of insight on how and why it’s worth moving forward.

A perfect example is an essay I wrote a while about about failure in achieving short-term goals. I write quite a bit about goal setting - I think it’s a very valuable thing to do. But I often don’t reach my goals - what can I learn from that failure?

Reaching Someone New
I get hundreds of new readers every day, in addition to all of the regular readers. These people often find my blog through Google, searching for things like ” how can i change my life around financial” and “i am scared to get into student loan debt” (yes, two real search terms from people who found The Simple Dollar in just the last hour or so). These people are out there seeking answers and I want to be able to give them the right answers - the best answers.

That means teaching the fundamentals and doing it in a variety of ways so that when that desperate searcher out there types in a term and finds The Simple Dollar, they at least have a good chance of finding the answers they need to get themselves on the right track.

I get emails all the time from readers who have gotten themselves on the right track financially because of The Simple Dollar - and those are the people I write for. Every time I help someone realize how they can improve their financial life, I’ve achieved what I set out to do - and the more people that are helped by The Simple Dollar, the better. Along the way, that might mean some repetition - but that’s a price I’m happily willing to pay.

From Another’s Eyes
Everyone is living a different life and looks at these principles from a different perspective. Take a minimum wage earner - “spend less than you earn” to that person is going to mean something much different than what it means in my life. Similarly, my idea of spending less than I earn is far different than, say, Warren Buffett’s idea of the same principle.

Because of this, it’s easy to analyze these principles through all sorts of filters. How does a college student spend less then they earn? How about a blue collar worker? How about a self-employed person who deals with irregular paychecks? This is why I love talking about reader’s questions, even on issues that were covered before - someone else’s experiences color everything differently.

A Fresh Perspective
A new angle can make an old idea seem fresh again and breathe new life into it. Whenever I think about basic principles, I try very hard to look at them from a new angle. How am I applying this right now in my own life? How did I fail to apply this in the past? How could I apply this in the future? What would happen if I lost my job?

I can also throw in other contexts as well. For example, about a week ago, I looked at how you can apply basic principles to living your dreams and I covered (again) the idea of deliberate practice. But in the context of using it as just a piece of the puzzle to assemble a larger dream - in this case, my reader’s dream of being a golf professional - put it in a different context. It was deliberate practice with a focused and career oriented purpose.

Down the road, I see other contexts for deliberate practice within personal finance that can cast a new shadow on the principle - these currently reside in my “idea box” for future posts.

The Basics Are What Works
In the end, I cover the basics because they are the parts that work. Spending less than you earn is the key to personal finance. Deliberate practice will make you better at whatever you’re working on. Index funds are the best choice for most casual investors. Keeping track of your spending will help you corral the cash that leaves your pocket.

Why do I write about it again and again? It takes vigilance to make these things work. It takes new angles to inspire me - and likely to inspire you. It takes a fresh perspective to grab someone’s imagination and convince them to make a big challenging change.

And in the end, the basic stuff really does change the world.

Yesterday, I made a feeble attempt to explain what I now do for a living to an eighty eight year old woman as we stood in line at Fareway. The line was pretty long and I had helped her earlier in the store to put some cat litter in her cart, so I said hello to her and we struck up a conversation. When she asked what I did, I told her I was a writer, but when she asked “For who?” the only answer I could think of was my audience. That didn’t seem to be much of a good way to make money and so she basically just started pretending I wasn’t there, thinking I was some sort of crackpot or something.

Me being me, though, I couldn’t help but think about her question. Who do I work for? It’s a question that seems to have an easy answer, but it gets complicated really quick and it gets into some interesting personal finance territory.

At First Glance, I Work For…
When I first look at the question, the answer seems fairly obvious. I work for my readers. You guys are in many ways my boss - if I don’t keep writing compelling stuff, you stop visiting. In that sense, I aim to please - I usually try to select ideas that will interest you guys and try to curb at least some of my tendencies away from that (and towards quirky humor or my own personal beliefs).

For most people, it’s also very easy to answer this question at first glance - it’s whoever your employer happens to be at the moment. I work for Ford. I work for Chevron. I work for the Iowa Department of Transportation. I work for the law firm of Dewey, Cheatum, and Howe.

At Second Glance, I Work For…
But that’s not really who we work for. Almost everyone has to exchange some of their time or some of their personal value for money. We make that exchange because we get something in return out of it. Among them:

Money This is the biggest thing that many of us work for. That money translates into a roof over our heads, food on the table, and things we enjoy.

Fulfillment Some people are personally fulfilled by their work - I know I am. Their jobs bring them personal joy and make their lives better. Writing is a huge creative outlet for me - most of the time, it leaves me feeling invigorated as a person. There are many others, though, that don’t get this kind of fulfillment from their work.

Prestige Others work for the prestige of their job. They like to be seen as prestigious by others and often that becomes a major factor in what they choose to do. “How will this affect my image?”

Other needs There are countless other reasons why we do the work we do. Perhaps it’s because of our significant other - we’re forced to find work in a certain area because of their job. Maybe it’s because of your own specific talents and skills, whether you enjoy the work or not. Some people even choose jobs because it makes their parents happy.

In the End, I Work For Me
These reasons all lead back to a handful of key sources. Maybe the sources are personal in nature, like fulfillment and prestige. Maybe you need to work at this job to keep food on the table for your kids. Maybe you’re working to make your parents proud.

Those reasons all have one thing in common: you. Never, ever lose sight of the fact that you’re the one in control here. It is your choice.

You work for yourself. You make the decision to work at your job because of a collection of positives and negatives that led you to believe that your current place is the right one for you. If another offer came along with a better balance, would you not take it?

Looking at your job through this lens brings some new things into focus. What are the things you value most in your life? For me, I value my wife and children the most, followed by personal fulfillment and also a desire to help/uplift others. Other issues - personal prestige, the opinions of my family and others important to me, and higher wages - didn’t really mean that much in comparison to the big reasons. Once I realized that, I found that switching to becoming a full time writer from my previous attempts at writing on the side while maintaining another career was the right choice for me.

What are the core things that are most important to you? Is your current career situation maximizing those core things and minimizing the negatives? If they’re not, isn’t that alone a good reason to switch?

Try this exercise. Consider the three most important things in your life. Your spouse? Your children? Your prestige in the community? Enough income so that you can play on the weekends? A flexible schedule? What are the most important things for you?

Then list the positives and negatives of your current job in comparison to these things. For me, my current job leaves me feeling very fulfilled (positive) and it gives me more time to spend with my wife and kids (positive), but it doesn’t earn as much which worries me a bit about the long-term future (negative). How big are each of those things? For me, it was an overall positive, because I believe my fulfillment and passion will carry us through.

What about your other career options? What sorts of positives and negatives do they hold? Consider everything - even switching to a convenience store clerk has some advantages (basically no stress and no overlap between job and life). How do those advantages and disadvantages match up with what’s personally important to you? If you have an option in mind that’s an overall positive compared to where you’re at right now, look very seriously at making a switch.

In the end, you work for yourself. That means you call the shots in the end. If there’s a better opportunity for you out there, take it.

Last week, I tried a little experiment on Twitter: I asked all of the people following me on there a simple question:

What’s your best tip for saving money that can be expressed in a Twitter-length statement? I’ll use them in a TSD post & link back to you.

A “Twitter-length statement” means in 140 characters or less. I was overwhelmed by a flood of responses, so I just picked out twenty of my favorites, starting off with the best of the bunch (the other nineteen are in pseudo-random order):

+ Spend only on what you’re passionate about and save the rest for the day when your passions unexpectedly drop in to sweep you away (Chris_Tackett)
+ Make your savings automatic so that you don’t even have to think about it (glblguy)
+ Act immediately - when you don’t spend money you thought you would, move it to savings immediately. Don’t wait - snowflake! (paidtwice)
+ Improve your self-esteem & suddenly you can do without acrylic nails. (dedejustdede)
+ Learn and leverage your neighborhood. You can find a great little eatery, small grocery, etc. - save gas - plus support local biz. (etesla)
+ Be involved with your finances on a daily basis. It’s hard to save when you’re not firmly in control of your spending. (Lynnae)
+ Start each month with a real dollar budget, allocating all of your income to *something*, don’t let life just happen to your money (EdenJaeger)
+ Pay a little on debt or toward savings every week. Smaller amounts are less psychologically intimidating. (sarahintx)
+ Just say “NO” to buying crap. Say “NO” to eating crap packaged foods, buying crap products, and investing in financial crap. (squawkfox)
+ Use RetailMeNot http://www.retailmenot.com/ to find coupons for stores you already shop at. (ericabiz)
+ If you have a big annual/semi-annual bill, make “virtual payments” on it monthly to spread out the impact. (davidgeisberg)
+ for general saving, pay yourself first. for shopping, pay close attention to the cost per unit. (fcn)
+ Distinguish between your wants and needs. (mischyfishy)
+ Write down every expenditure -that’s worked wonders for me! (m_s)
+ Let your values, dreams, and purpose drive you finances. They provide more motivation and energy for saving than anything else. (TheHappyRock)
+ Savings should be included in your budget, and taken out of your paycheck first. That way you can’t spend too much to save. (jjeaton)
+ You don’t have to earn six figures to save money. Saving is a function of spending less than you earn, no matter what you earn. (FrugalDad)
+ Set a savings goal, set reminders of that goal, and then make it a competition against yourself to achieve it. People love games. (bargainr)
+ Debit instead of credit! I can only spend money not already allocated for bills/saving/investing-forcing me to limit my purchases (talialeone)
+ I manage to save & I am earning less than 15K/yr. My advice — Just do it! (CindyS531)

That’s a nice collection of tips there with a lot of different voices and perspectives. I may try this again sometime in the future for a weekly roundup.

Now, for some of my favorite posts from other blogs over the last week.

Don’t Want To Work Forever? Retire On Time With These 10 Tips For me, retirement is just the point in time where I can begin to live wholly off of the money I’ve saved and invested and thus I can make personal choices without worrying about income. That doesn’t mean sitting at home and reading all day - in fact, it probably means a lot more travel, if anything. (@ the digerati life)

New Car Every 10 Years or Used Car Every 5? It appears to actually depend on what kind of car you buy. If a car depreciates very quickly (like a GM), you’re better off in a cycle of used cars. If a car depreciates relatively slowly (like a Honda), you might be better off buying new and getting the extra years (the article’s numbers are pretty close on the matter, enough for me to call them inconclusive). (@ million dollar journey)

Don’t Judge a Book By Its Cover The people who look rich aren’t always necessarily rich. (@ master your card)

Warren Buffett on Market Fluctuations: Investors Gain When the Market Falls Excellent excerpts from Warren Buffett’s letters to Berkshire Hathaway stockholders. (@ get rich slowly)

(Not) Keeping Up With Our Parents: Career Struggles I know that I often use my wife’s parents as a measuring stick for how we’re doing - and I feel frustrated when we’re not measuring up. (@ being frugal)

Do You Have An Opportunity Fund? We use our emergency fund for that because we keep a really large emergency fund and don’t sweat it when we have to yank cash out of it. (@ blueprint for financial prosperity)

Inexpensive Frugal Mother’s Day Gift Ideas A lot of good ideas here for celebrating the day without shelling out money to Hallmark. (@ cash money life)

This is the sixeenth discussion in a “book club” series on Born to Buy by Juliet Schor, which focuses on consumerism issues and young children. You can jump back to the first discussion if you’d like. This discussion covers the entire ninth chapter, “Empowered or Seduced?”, starting on page 177 at the subheading “Statistical Results: Consumer Involvement Undermines Children’s Well-Being” and finishing out the chapter to page 188.

This is the next to last chapter in the book, following the previous chapter which was clearly the peak of the book’s argument. Here, Schor addresses most of the arguments that the marketing industry puts up in their defense concerning marketing to children.

I actually found this chapter to be pretty thought provoking because in the end, it’s all about the moral accountability. It is extremely difficult to legislate “ethical” ads without basically banning all ads (and that’s never going to happen), so we’re left with a reliance on the moral accountability of the industry, and if you have a client demanding results or else your head will roll, it’s pretty easy to see how someone would bend the moral rules a bit to keep their job.

The Three Arguments of the Marketers

Schor basically breaks down the arguments in favor of child marketing into three pieces.

Ads and Products Help Children to Feel Powerful
On page 179, Schor states:

It says that kids need to feel independent and master their environments to feel in control of their parents. Lisa Morgan argues that “kids want to be in control in a world where they create their own rules … we always try to put them in situations where they … demonstrate mastery of a specific situation.” Gene del Vecchio contends that “kids have very little control over the world in which they live. Therefore, they love to gain any measure of control over their sphere of existence … Control touches a strong need that children have to be independent.”

I agree with this point in general, but I disagree with where marketers take it. Marketers argue that this need for control is fulfilled through things like the power to choose a particular product over another. I argue that this need for control can be fulfilled through free play, not through having your child choose what kind of prepackaged food to buy.

When I read this, I actually imagined Calvinball. For those unfamiliar, Calvinball is a game from the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes in which the young boy, Calvin, makes up the rules of this game as he goes along. The analogy is pretty clear - being able to make up the rules of Calvinball as he goes along lets him feel powerful over that game, giving him that sense of fulfillment that the quote above is talking about.

Go out in the yard and play Calvinball with your kids instead of letting them feel “power” by choosing between two products on a store shelf.

Ads Create Other Benefits
On page 181:

… advertising is justifiable because it creates other benefits, such as free television, better products, and economic growth and employment. Psychologically, these are the most powerful arguments because they reinforce the utter inevitability of advertising.

Schor breaks this argument down quite well, pointing out that advertising is actually paid for by consumers who pay a premium for a name brand - that premium pays for the ads and thus for the programs supported by the ads. Also, ad campaigns are expensive, and thus without an established product or a huge company behind a rollout, it’s hard to advertise a new product - this reduces competition and innovation.

Advertisements don’t carry any hidden benefits except for the bottom line of the advertiser.

It’s the Parent’s Fault!
On page 183:

Industry’s final line of defense is that parents always have the option of protecting their children from advertising. They can turn off the television and just say no. When parents let their children watch, they are giving tacit approval. Of course, the proliferation of marketing in schools and other public institutions undermines this claim, but it remains a mainstay in the industry’s arsenal of arguments.

This is easily their most compelling argument, and they’re right - letting children watch television is a choice that parents do control, and when they allow their children to watch television or absorb consumer culture, the parents are opening the door themselves and letting the marketers into the room.

This doesn’t justify marketers using a heavy arm to market to kids, of course, but parents do have the power to seriously restrict media access, and they help the marketers when they fail to exercise that power.

The next discussion, coming in two days, will cover the first half of the final chapter, “Decommercializing Childhood,” starting on page 189 and continuing until the subheading “The Invention of Modern Childhood” on page 200.

A few days ago, I made an offhand mention of my will, which drew a lot of questions from readers about their own wills and other things they need to be taking care of in terms of being sure that their estate planning is in order. After reading those questions, I thought it would be worthwhile to prepare a short tutorial on estate planning: what you need to do to be sure that you are covered in the case of a disaster.

First: Life Insurance
Ask yourself three questions: are you married? Do you have children or other dependents? Are you planning on marriage or children in the near future? If any of those have a “yes” answer, you should have a life insurance policy of some sort.

Life insurance really isn’t a complicated game. Most of the options out there are beneficial only in certain situations - whole-life plans, for example, aren’t a bad choice if you’re buying for a young child. For most young and middle aged adults, however, the best option is term life insurance. Just shop around a little bit for a good policy and get one with a 20 or 30 year term (covering the period where you might have children under your roof).

How much should you get? An actuary friend of mine made a good suggestion. Take the number of people in your household, multiply that by five, then multiply that by your annual salary. From that, subtract your net worth.

So, let’s say you have a total of four people in your household, you make $40,000 a year, and you have a net worth of $100,000. Multiply the number of people in your house by five, giving you twenty, and multiply that by your annual salary, giving you $800,000, and subtract your net worth, giving you $700,000. That’s how much your term life insurance benefit should be.

That’s a good way to estimate and will give you a very strong number to ensure the security of your family over the long term.

Second: A Will
A will is basically a simple document stating what you want to happen to your property in the event of your passing. After you pass away, the will is used in public court in a process known as probate to make sure your wishes are handled fairly. For most people, a will is an essential document - if you have an executor you trust and a well-written will, your stuff will go where you want it to go.

Wills are quite simple to set up, but you still should consult an attorney to make sure you’re following all of the procedures that apply in your state.

Key things to think about:
Who should be the executor? It should be someone you trust deeply.
Who should have my assets? Also, how should they be divided up?
Who should have my personal heirlooms?
Who would gain custody of my children? Talk this over with the people you have in mind and make sure they’re okay with it.

Third: A Durable Power of Attorney
A durable power of attorney is a document that you sign giving someone else the power to handle your finances and legal affairs should you become incapacitated, but it expires upon your death. Basically, you’re saying to everyone in the world that you’ve designated a particular person to represent you if you’re incapacitated for some reason. The person you designate, called an “agent,” is legally bound to act in your best interests, and you can revoke this person at any time, so you can’t just get ripped off by someone.

If you’re married, by default your spouse has power of attorney if you’re incapacitated. The only benefit of such a document is if you’re unmarried or if you want to be covered in the event of an accident that incapacitates both you and your spouse.

In truth, this is most useful simply to designate one person that’s in charge of things should you become sick. Without it, lots of people can potentially try to claim power of attorney and a legal mess can ensue while you’re incapacitated. If things are basic and straightforward, this document is perhaps not vital, but if you have a lot of assets and a lot of interested parties, it’s probably worthwhile to designate someone. As with other documents, contact a lawyer and get it done right.

Fourth: A Living Will
A living will states the health care directives you want to be followed should you be unable to tell the doctors yourself. Do you want to be on life support for a long time at the desire of your family, or do you want to spare them the anguish of a long and drawn-out scenario? What about methods to save your life? Some people have strong feelings on these issues and should have a living will - others can simply trust their spouse or whoever they’ve designated to have power of attorney over them. If you want to be certain your specific wishes are fulfilled, make sure you’ve prepared a living will.

Fifth: A Master Document for Your Survivors
A few days ago, I wrote about creating and maintaining a master financial document for your survivors. Basically, this is a document explaining all of your assets and debts and everything that needs to be done to close them out and get the assets in your accounts to the people that should have them.

It’s a great thing to have - I know from experience that such documents can be an enormous help to a family burdened with grief. Take the time to prepare such a document and make sure the important people in your life have a copy.

What About a Trust?
Many financial advisors speak lovingly about setting up a living trust in order to help with the process of transferring an estate after you pass on. These can be very effective because they allow you to avoid the court system and have your estate directly transferred to your beneficiaries upon your passing without the costs and waiting required with probate, but there are some costs - mostly legal fees - in setting one up.

Basically, if you don’t have children or you don’t have any significant assets (a net worth of less than several hundred thousand or so), a living trust probably isn’t worth the effort. However, if you do have children, particularly adult children that you wish to transfer your assets to when you pass on, you should definitely think about a living trust. As I have two young children, I have been researching the pros and cons of doing this and am considering setting one up simply so that if something happened to my wife and I, they would be very well protected.

My advice if you’re considering this? Get a few quotes from various lawyers on what they would charge to set one up for you. Don’t do this with a “create your own living trust” package - this is important enough to make sure it’s done correctly by a legal professional.

One Last Thing…
Write a few letters. Write one to your wife telling her how much you love her. Write one to your husband telling him that you loved him every day of your life. Write one to your kids telling them how much they mean to you every day. These things will mean so much when you pass away and they can no longer hear your voice - they all likely love you more than you think they do.

Doing all of these things feels rather grim, but remember you’re doing them to help your loved ones in the future. Think about how much you love the important people in your life and consider how much help your small effort now will be for them later. Then take the time and get these things done.