Previous Post: Review: Think and Grow Rich
Next Post: Developing a Financially Frugal Personal Health Plan
The Simple Dollar Morning Roundup: Big Week Edition 1comment
Starting on Thursday evening, the house guests begin to arrive, culminating in eleven houseguests on Saturday and Sunday. Things I’m thankful for: lots of people I like and care for, a lot of people who want to play with the kids. Things that stress me out: food, personal interactions with various guests. End result: it’ll be fun, but I’ll be beat.
Opportunities Are Everywhere - Even At Chick-Fil-A My local gas station has a deal like this. Each year, they sell a certain colored cup for $10. If you buy that cup, you get unlimited coffee for the year. Even if this is a break-even deal for thhem, it really attracts regular customers who will buy other stuff and come away with positive feelings towards the station. (@ money ning)
Look How Men’s and Women’s Magazines Write About Money For the most part, magazines write as though you have an infinite budget to spend on stuff - I wrote about this a while back. (@ i will teach you to be rich)
What A Financially Painful Childhood Can Teach You About Money Much of this sounded very familiar to me. (@ money, matter, and more musings)
The Simple Dollar Retro: Ten Financial Matters I Wish I Had Discussed With My Wife Before We Got Married If you’re thinking about getting married, this is a must-read.
Previous Post: Review: Think and Grow Rich
Next Post: Developing a Financially Frugal Personal Health Plan
Next Post: Developing a Financially Frugal Personal Health Plan
This comment is totally tangential to the post but:
There is a group of us that rotates bbq/potluck/bonfires. The group is about 100 people, and these parties are great fun, but a lot of work for the hosts. I have found that despite my love of cooking, I really don’t like cooking up potluck dishes. I would often just pick up a dessert or chips/dip from the store on my way to these events. Recently however, I had a little epiphany, I felt my store-bought contribution was cheapening the events (note, all the people involved are my friends, no one said this or even hinted at it, this is all me). So this weekend I tried something different.
Instead of my usual I called up the hosts and said, “Listen, I know how much work hosting one of these things is. I think my usual contribution is rather tacky, considering how much effort everyone else puts into thier dishes. Instead of bringing something, can I help out instead.” The hosts were VERY grateful for this, and I went out a couple hours early and did a bunch of set-up work. I also stayed late and helped clean-up.
The result was awesome. Instead of spending a bunch of money on overpriced store stuff, and feeling cheap for it, I saved some cash and bonded with some friends. Further, I felt that my contribution was on-par with the event. Saturday night after all was said and done, I slept better than usual, knowing I really had done something worthwhile.
In terms of money, for all my fellow frugal lifestylers out there: I value my free time highly, but freind bonding time has an even higher value. So putting a dollar value on it, my costs were higher in terms of free time, but the gains were very much higher in terms of bonding time. And the cash value is less.
If the above paragraph doesnt make sense, sorry. I’m referring to the articles here and elsewhere describing how to assess the value of your time. Ive gone a bit further and broken it into various types of ‘free time’, such as freind time, liesure time, personal development time, etc.
Just some food for thought, for all you frugal folks out there.
Erich @ 8:56 am October 22nd, 2007 (comment #1)