Each Monday, The Simple Dollar opens up the reader mailbags and answers ten to twenty simple questions offered up by the readers on personal finance topics and many other things. Got a question? Ask it in the comments. You might also enjoy the archive of earlier reader mailbags.

As usual, we’ll start things off with a few links to older articles that directly answer questions I’ve heard recently. One reader asked which books I’ve reviewed has made me think the most. I had a hard time with this, actually, because many books have stuck in my mind for a long time, but here are five that I’ve chewed over time and time again for years.
Review: Made to Stick
Review: The Well-Educated Mind
Review: Words That Work
Review: The Paradox of Choice
Review: The Wisdom of Crowds

And now, some great reader questions!

I think it is strange that the same car is sold in Europe it has to have an oil change every 10000-15000miles (20 000-30 000 kilometers) but when it is sold in the US it needs an oil change every 3000-5000 miles. This is true both for european, asian and even american cars sold in both places????
- Oskar

The biggest reason for this is that in Europe, many automobiles have diesel engines. Diesel engines run differently – for one, they’re quite a bit hotter and for another, diesel fuel is formulated quite a bit differently than unleaded.

The end result of these differences is that diesels require less frequent oil changes than engines that run on unleaded fuel.

There are a lot of compelling reasons for the United States to switch to diesel from petroleum-based cars, but in all likelihood both types of engines will eventually be a thing of the past.

Considering this is a financial blog, I’m amazed you didn’t mention Mint as a must-have iPod/iPhone app. If you are not keeping track of your finances, you should start. If you are, you should consider Mint, the free online money management site. Their iPhone app is killer, allowing you do check balances in your accounts and on your credit cards, keep an eye on your investments, keep track of your budgets, and look up recent purchases. I use it on a daily basis.
- spritemv

Mint worries me from a security standpoint. As I’ve stated many times with regards to Mint, it doesn’t offer enough compelling features for me in comparison to the security risks of sharing my bank information and other personal data with another organization. Note that I don’t care what their stated policies are – in the end, I’m still trusting whatever computer resides at mint.com to keep my data safe. Thus, I don’t recommend Mint. I think Mint has a lot of neat features, but it’s not worth the data concerns I have. I would love it if Mint provided a fashion to allow you to upload such data without providing account information.

In comparison, I find the security policies of Wesabe to be much more palatable (and, in my opinion, they have a better iPhone/iPod Touch app). With them, you have the option of giving your account information – or you can do the uploading yourself with any personal data stripped. I prefer the latter.

I do not feel it’s worth the risk to share my account information with a third party unless there’s a very compelling reason to do so.

I had just recently moved into a large apartment and was looking at purchasing some furniture, in attempting to get credit I realized how bad my credit really was. There are several debts on the account, mostly old medical expenses when I was in college and uninsured. Other than the medical expenses, I have one Credit Card with a $500 limit that is maxed. A friend suggested that I apply for a debt consolidation loan through my Credit Union, pay everything off, and diligently make the loan payments. He also suggested that once I pay off the Credit Card to leave the account open as “Available Credit” because it would help my credit score. What is your opinion on this
- Krueck

I think that’s a pretty good plan, both in terms of consolidating the debt and in terms of leaving the credit card open. Go talk to a local credit union and see what they have to say about things.

It’s worth noting that depending on how old the old medical expenses are, they may not be affecting your credit much at this point (unless you’ve been making payments recently on those debts). It’s likely that the maxed-out credit card – particularly if you’ve missed payments – is the real problem on your credit. Your first focus should be in getting all of your accounts up to date, as that will help your credit more than anything else, then getting the credit card balance down should be the next goal.

You said invest the maximum to get a company match in your 401(k), then invest the rest in a Roth IRA. While I completely agree with that, what do you suggest to someone who has problems finding that little extra to put in their Roth because they are tying to pay down debt(while going to college), and invests in a Roth 401(k) at their job? Should I become more fastidious with my budget and go for the IRA or continue with the 401(k) where my investments are doing better?
- Chris

Are you saving enough for retirement right now? That’s really the big question. It’s more important that you’re saving at least 10% for retirement than it is to worry about exactly how you’re doing it.

If you’re having trouble coming up with that 10%, your best bet is to automate the payments. Try to get the payments to your Roth IRA deducted automatically from your paycheck, or have it come out of your checking account the day after your check is deposited. Make it so that you don’t have to think about it and you’ll find yourself budgeting with the money left over.

The earlier you start saving for retirement, the better. The more you save early on, the better. Why? Early investments have a lot of years to compound and multiply their value – later investments do not.

Do you have any thoughts or suggestions on the 2009 tax credit for adding energy efficent windows and doors to a home?
- Jane

If you know the efficiency of your current doors and windows and they’re particularly inefficient, upgrading to efficient windows and doors is a pretty bright move. Not only will you increase the value of your home and enjoy reduced utility bills, you’ll also pick up a tax break this year.

I almost always think that these types of investments are worthwhile because they reduce your monthly bills in the future, and it’s often hard to tell what exactly your future holds, plus they often increase the asset value of your home.

If you don’t know the efficiency of your windows and doors, it’s time to do a proper home energy audit – and you can do it yourself! Here’s a great guide from the Department of Energy on doing just that. This is a great weekend project – it’ll help you identify the big energy inefficiencies in your home and give you some goals to work towards.

You work alone all day long many days. How do you deal with loneliness during the day?
- Bender

My goal most days is to get in a writing zone where I don’t notice the loneliness. If I’m successful, I can easily write for hours without even noticing the time passing – then, suddenly, it’s four o’clock and it’s time to get started on the evening activities.

On the days where that doesn’t work, I’ll usually place a phone call to my mother, who’s always willing to talk and fill me in on all the news from my hometown area.

If both of those fail (and that happens about once a month), I’ll pack up my messenger bag and go somewhere in public to work, just for the sake of watching people and interacting a bit.

What do you do with personal finance books after you read them?
- Lawrence

First, a note: quite often, when I hear about a personal finance book of interest, I’ll write to the publisher and ask for a review copy of the book. Most publishers are happy to send me a copy, even though I’m quite clear that I’m not promising a review at all – I only try to review books that make me think in some way.

So what do I do with those books when I’m done with them? I do lots of different things. Sometimes, I’ll give them away to commenters if they leave a particularly thoughtful one – I’ll just email that commenter and offer to send them the book. Sometimes, I’ll send out the book via PaperBackSwap (usually with a “bookmark” mentioning The Simple Dollar). At other times, I give the book to people I know.

At one point, I tried to give a box of books on frugality away at a food pantry, but there was no interest at all in them, which surprised me a bit.

On Twitter, you said “I buy local when it’s obvious – at a farmer’s market, for example – but outside of that, I don’t worry about it too much.” Could you elaborate on that a bit? What about American cars and American appliances?
- Charles

This was part of a lengthy discussion on Twitter about what it means to “buy American” when parts – and, often, whole products – come from global supply chains. Should I be partial to a Ford Fusion, which is built in Mexico with only 50% American parts, over a Honda Accord, built in Ohio with 70% American parts? (See http://tr.im/k1Kw for more.)

Personally, I prefer the Honda. American workers are assembling the cars. American workers are making more of the parts. In both companies, there are stockholders all over the globe, which is where most of the profits go. The only part of the equation that’s more “American” for Ford is the name on the label and the million-dollar salaries of the top company managers.

Because of all of these factors, I don’t worry about the “nationality” of most products – at least not anything that comes from beyond what I can track. I like buying produce at the local farmer’s market from people in the community. I prefer to buy Picket Fences milk, because that dairy is just a short drive from here. Beyond that, I often have little idea from who or where the product comes from – who was paid to assemble it, who made the parts, and so forth.

So, frankly, I don’t worry about it too much. I evaluate based on the quality of the product, not on the perceived qualities of the name on the label.

How do you decide which questions to use in a reader mailbag? You’ve said before that you get many more questions than you can answer.
- Angie

I get about 50 questions a week for the reader mailbag, of which I answer ten in the mailbag, about five in individual posts, and a few more by direct email responses.

How do I decide which ones to respond to? I don’t use an exact method. Instead, I just look for questions that look interesting. Does this question make me think? Would it result in an interesting answer that might spur discussion (without enraging people)?

I do like shorter questions that get right to the point. I generally don’t like long questions with tons and tons of rather extraneous details.

What are your summer vacation plans this year? You mentioned camping and a potential road trip. Will you be able to speak or meet with readers? We’d love to meet up with you for drinks if you’re ever near Memphis.
- Kylie

My parents, my wife, my children, and I are going on a long “road trip” vacation together in June. We intend to visit the Dallas/Fort Worth area, New Orleans, and possibly Memphis. Later in the summer, my wife, my children, and I are going to camp somewhere north of Duluth, Minnesota.

If things work out, I might be doing a small event of some sort in both DFW and New Orleans, and possibly in Minneapolis. This would likely involve a presentation at a library and/or an open “get-together” with readers for appetizers and beverages. If my schedule works out for this, I’ll post details later on.

Got any questions? Ask them in the comments and I’ll use them in future mailbags.

Every other Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal development, personal productivity, or career book.

At almost every job I’ve ever worked at, from a minimum wage service job where I helped people print documents to a full time job in a research lab, creativity and initiative have been rewarded. A person who is a source of good ideas becomes valuable to their coworkers and to their supervisors – and that value often translates directly into financial and other rewards.

That’s the reason I enjoy reading books on encouraging one’s creative thinking, and Stimulated! (by Andrew Pek and Jeannine McGlade) is a prime example of this genre (along with some of my favorites, The Creative Habit and The Path of Least Resistance). Subtitled “Habits to Spark your Creative Genius at Work,” Stimulated! focuses directly on creativity in the modern workplace – spawning ideas that will solve problems that directly help the bottom line of your organization (and, indirectly, help your own bottom line).

Does Stimulated! offer any useful insights that go beyond other readings, or are we better off just sticking with The Creative Habit and The Path of Least Resistance? Let’s dig in and see what Pek and McGlade have to offer.

Introduction: Awaken Your Creative Genius
If you want to be creative, you need to have a good platform for creativity. That means you need to be healthy and have a lot of sources for ideas. Some tactics for getting there include changing your daily routine, exposing yourself to new ideas constantly, visualizing your future in a positive way, eating well, getting plenty of sleep and some exercise, and laughing often. Your first step towards building a more creative life should be along those lines. Get a full night of sleep. Eat healthy. Start an exercise routine. Make a major change to your daily routine. Spend some time each day absorbing new ideas (reading is a good way to do that). Find opportunities to laugh regularly.

Stimulus: The Catalyst for Creative Genius
The “spark moment” is what we’re looking for – that exact moment when a fresh new idea pops into your head. That idea is usually borne by some sort of stimulus, either directly or remembered. The key, then, is to have lots of different kinds of stimuli in your life. Surround yourself with as many ideas and experiences as possible, focusing on your area of interest but often branching out into any number of related areas. Beyond that, simply enjoy a wide variety of experiences in your own life. Eat a wide variety of meals. Go to a wide variety of places. The more interesting stimuli you have in your life, the more likely you are to have a “spark moment.”

Eyes Wide Open: Scouting for Spark Moments
How can you actively seek to create these spark moments, though? Stimulated! points towards conscious observation – in other words, carefully observing the things you see, taste, hear, smell, and touch in the world around you. The book goes a step further than that, discussing the difference between describing and interpreting the things that you observe – and pointing out that describing what you observe is a far more powerful source of spark moments. Other keys include taking regular breaks (to let your mind subtly work through all of the inputs) and keeping a notepad with you at all times (so you can jot down spark moments as they occur).

Spaces and Places: Cultivating Spark Moments
Obviously, each of us has certain environments where we tend to think well. I tend to think best in small groups, actually – I come up with a lot of ideas at the dinner table with my family. I also find that listening to very rhythmic music helps as well – many of my best ideas actually pop out to the music of The Beach Boys – and changing environments sometimes helps, so I often go to the library or simply go out in the yard with a notebook in hand. Stimulated! recommends trying a wide variety of settings, music, visual elements, and so forth in your primary work area with the goal of finding the elements that seem to make ideas pop out of your head. If you find something that works, stick with it – but riff around it (don’t just play the same album over and over, for example).

Amuse Yourself: Playing with Possibilities
Play. That’s the advice of this chapter. Play a game (both physical and otherwise). Make a sand castle. Do a crossword puzzle. Play a musical instrument. Play with children (and/or watch them play). Play allows you to knock down many of the walls that surround your normal activities and almost forces you to think in a different way about the world around you in a very relaxed manner. I think this is part of the reason I find myself often writing about my children – I’m constantly inspired and filled with ideas when I play with them.

Make the Leap: Venturing into the Unknown
Many people avoid creativity because they view it as “risky.” Creative ideas rock the boat. They often force the person that creates them out of their comfort zone – and for many, that’s not a comfortable place to be. So why do it? The people and events that rock the boat are the people and events that really make things work. Instead of hiding, now is the time to be confident and courageous. Visualize the potential outcomes of making a suggestion that really rocks the boat but really helps the business – you’re seen as visionary, or at least as creative and focused on making the business better.

Real Results: Harvesting Creative Action
You have a spark – a very simple but very creative idea – but it needs work. How do you translate that little spark into a roaring great idea? For starters, ask questions about that spark. Throw every question at it that you can. A good question takes an idea and forces it to grow. Another tactic: keep track of your sparks as they grow in something of an “idea journal” that you can turn to when you need to get your juices flowing. Another great tactic is to share your burgeoning idea with others and ask them to throw questions at it and criticize it, then absorb those questions and criticisms.

Keeping in Swing: Sustaining Your Creative Genius
So how do you sustain this forward progress? The key to getting better at anything – and generating creative sparks is just one example – is to practice it every day. Set aside some time for creativity on a daily basis. Engage in activities that get your juices flowing, keep a notepad or a journal with you, and jot down ideas as they come to you. The more you do it, the easier it becomes.

Is Stimulated! Worth Reading?
Stimulated! takes many of the great ideas found in books like The Creative Habit and The Path of Least Resistance and condenses them down into something of a “recipe” format. While the other books tend to ramble on occasion, Stimulated! does a great job of providing a clear description of how to make the creative process work in your life.

Having said that, The Creative Habit and The Path of Least Resistance provide a lot of stimulation in their “sidebar” moments. It’s often the unrelated things that really got my juices going, and Stimulated! more or less lacks those sidebars.

I think I know what the difference is. Stimulated! is a better book for creativity for those that need structure for that creativity. Some people simply crave a straightforward process, and Stimulated! provides it. On the other hand, if your creativity seems much less process-oriented (and I’ll say that mine usually does), The Creative Habit and The Path of Least Resistance are probably better reads.

I quite enjoyed Stimulated! – there are a lot of great ideas inside the covers, and it’s perfect for people in a large organization.

Watch the KCCI (channel 8) evening news tonight (Sunday) at either 5 PM or 10 PM. There’s going to be a story about me, my family, The Simple Dollar, and my book (365 Ways to Live Cheap).

I was fairly nervous during the whole thing – I’m not exactly comfortable in front of a camera yet. My wife thinks it will turn out well, though.

If I can find a video of the appearance online at a later time, I’ll add it to this post.

If you happen to catch it, feel free to leave your thoughts (positive or negative).

A reader that I’ll call “Maggie” writes in with an interesting question:

I manage a federal TRiO grant at a community college in Arkansas. If our funding proposal is approved again next year, we are required to include programs on financial literacy, as required by the new Higher Ed Authorization Act. We currently offer a money management fair and one or two workshops per semester. However, I’m really interested in your thoughts on how we can offer a full program to the students at low costs. A course in financial literacy would be the best, but I doubt that many would use their time to attend a class that is not required.

I live in a rural area of Arkansas that is very poor. Most of our students qualify as low income and are also first-generation college students. Many of them take out student loans to survive. Large percentages of them don’t make enough money to pay back these loans after they are out of school.

I decided to tackle this question because I know that many readers of The Simple Dollar are involved in situations just like Maggie. I get lots of requests to reprint articles from The Simple Dollar for classes like this, for example.

First of all, I agree with Maggie’s point that a full course in financial literacy at the community college level likely won’t attract a huge amount of interest. Most potential students are either too busy to take a class not directly related to their goals or won’t be interested in the topic – the very people who could actually use the help. I’m also going to assume from her email that her primary goal is to reach the largest number of students possible.

So what’s the solution here? My gut feeling is that a weekly seminar/meeting series, each focused on tight, individual topics, would be the best way to go. Whenever I think about how to present an idea, I break it down into three pieces: getting someone’s attention, keeping that person’s attention while you’re making your point, and making sure that the point sticks with them when they leave. So, let’s look at Maggie’s situation through each of these pieces.

Getting People’s Attention
In other words, how are you going to get people in the door to pay attention to these topics? It all comes down to the advertising and the ease of attracting people.

Make it as easy as possible to attend. Examine the schedules of people that you view as likely to attend such events if they’re free and plan accordingly. One good time to have an hour-long seminar/workshop is around lunch time, where it can be scheduled as a brown bag lunch. Another accessible time is in the early evening.

Also, you should not restrict people from attending. It is fine to have a “carrot” in place to encourage people to come back, but don’t create a situation that keeps people from attending or “punishes” people who miss a session or two. The best way to do this is to make each topic stand completely on its own, with as little reliance as possible on other topics.

Give a very obvious “hook” to get people in the door. If you’re teaching personal finance topics, the best way to do this is to directly translate the topic you’re going to present into dollars and cents. Find a way to make your lesson as tangible as possible, figure out how much money this will save people, then use that as part of the salesmanship of the session.

One great example: let’s say you’ve decided to do a session on reducing one’s utility bills. Your “hook” could be to provide everyone who attends a CFL light bulb that they can take home and install (for some more thoughts on how to make this work, see below). Then, when you advertise, you can directly state that this session includes a giveaway that will reduce their energy bill by $30. Make that the attention getter in any promotion that you do.

Make sure as many people know about it as possible. Once you’ve got that key attention getter, broadcast the news of this session as far and wide as you can, using that hook as the lead. Send out emails to any mailing lists you have saying “Want $30 more in your pocket? Attend ….” Make flyers leading with that idea. Make it very clear that anyone can attend, and include the time and location (and maybe even a map, if that’s necessary) on the flyers and emails.

Keeping Their Attention
Once you’ve got these people in the door, what can you do to keep their attention?

Make everything you say as tangible as possible. Everything you speak of should be as applicable as possible to as many people in the room as possible. Let’s say you’re doing a session on how to maximize your food dollars. Instead of speaking in intangibles, break out your own receipts and coupons. Go through the whole thing step by step – reading flyers, clipping coupons, making a meal plan, creating a shopping list – and actually do it instead of talking about it. As you’re going along, focus on meals and items that the people in the room might actually buy. Focus on simple meals that they might actually prepare at home.

Get them involved. The more audience interaction, the better. For the food lesson, ask people in the room what they’re going to have for supper tonight. Get several ideas, then use that as the basis for constructing a meal plan. When using the flyer, pick out a few foods from the flyer, then get people in the audience to name dishes they like that use hamburger (or whatever you discover in the flyer). For other sessions, convince people to bring in bill statements, credit cards, and other things that they’re willing to share. Bring in your own, too.

Focus on the big points, not the minutiae. Reduce each point you’re trying to make to as few words as possible. The rest of your talking should be focused on tangible examples. When you get lost in the minutiae of the larger points you’re trying to make, you lose the people in the crowd, too.

Sending the Message Home
You got them there, you got them interested while they were in the room, but now they’re about to leave. What can you do to make sure that they take the idea home with them.

Make sure they can take something home that encourages action. A simple bullet list of five or so direct actions they can take from the class can be incredibly useful. Don’t make it overly complex – just give enough so that they can actually do it on their own, no more. If a page is too filled with words, busy people will overlook it. If you feel the need to include lots of words, use brief headers to make sure the main five (or so) points are very clear.

Get sponsors. Another clever technique to make the class tangible is to give away something to each attendee (or to each person that participates). Of course, a good giveaway has costs. The best way to mitigate those costs is to seek out a local sponsor.

Remember the example above of giving out CFL bulbs? Try contacting the management at your local Home Depot or Lowe’s or local hardware store. Explain to them that you’re doing a class on how to save energy and suggest that they donate a number of individually packaged CFLs to the class. To each one, they could attach a small flyer for the store that also works as a dollar-off coupon on another CFL. For them, this is a great advertising promotion, as you’ll be explaining to the audience how they can save money with these bulbs and their business name will be attached right to it. For you, it’s a great way to obtain something to hand out that also serves as a tangible reminder of the lessons from the class.

Remember, personal finance is a topic that many people find tedious – or they simply don’t want to hear about it at all. The best way to overcome that is to make it appear quite easy to apply personal finance tactics in their lives – and there are a lot of subtle ways to do just that.

How do you feel about this, readers? Is this the type of event that would be interesting to you? Would you be excited if something like this appeared in your community?

Doing my taxes this year was an interesting experience. In 2008, my income was down substantially as compared to 2007 – no real surprise, considering I quit my full time job in March 2008. What was really surprising for me, though, is that our family’s spending dropped almost as precipitously.

Across the board, expenses were down. Way down. We spent less on food. We spent less on gas. We spent less on entertainment expenses. We spent less on child care. We spent less on travel. We spent less on clothes.

In short, our spending dropped enough in 2008 to almost make up for the drop in income.

For a while, I puzzled over why this happened. Were we simply getting better at frugality? Or was quitting my job really contributing that much to our spending changes?

When I started to break it down into smaller pieces, though, it became clear: my previous job was loaded with extra expenses – and yours may be, too. Not only were there financial costs, there were significant time costs as well, which would keep me from being able to do things like prepare a home cooked dinner.

Here are some of the surprising costs that were associated with my job.

The commute It took me about twenty minutes to drive to work, then twenty more minutes to drive home, even without any extra stops or interruptions. Not only that, each round trip put about 30 miles on my pickup – two gallons of gas and that much closer to oil changes and other maintenance. The day-in and day-out grind of this was pretty intense – I’d lose about four hours of time each week on the road, plus $20 in gas and the cost of vehicle maintenance on top of that.

Decompressing and escapism After arriving home, I usually needed half an hour or so to decompress. I’d watch something mindless on television or do something else that just ate time until my wife and kids would arrive home. Without that decompression, I’d usually be rather grumpy for a while early in the evening. Not only that, I often spent money on escapism – golfing, trips, and so forth. My daily commute would often take me right by a bookstore, where I would stop and spend money two or three times a week, as well.

Clothes Although my day-to-day wardrobe for work was pretty casual, I did need to invest in reasonably nice clothes, particularly for the regular presentations and business trips I was called on to do. Not only did these clothes have a cost, I also had to invest the time in shopping for them.

Meals Many days, I would eat breakfast and/or lunch out with coworkers, probably twice a week for each meal. Also, because so much of my time was eaten up by other tasks, we would go out to eat for dinner much more often than necessary – two or three times a week. Now? I eat all my meals at home save perhaps one meal a week – and, surprisingly, the time evens out, since I’ll often just run downstairs and have a plate of leftovers for lunch.

Social events With my previous job, there were fairly regular social events in the evenings and on weekends that were practically required. These usually involved a couple hours at a pop (at least) and often involved an expensive meal as well.

Health In the year since I left my previous job, I’ve lost almost fifty pounds. Why? I’ve been eating better, I suppose, but a big part of the equation is simply a big reduction in stress. I would get ill every month or two with a stomach bug or a cold, whereas I’ve only really had one or two illnesses since I left that job. Again, I put the blame on stress.

Travel My previous job involved multiple trips each year. These trips were usually all business, all the time, which meant time away from my family and the things that mattered to me most. Even worse, these trips were often loaded with little expenses – though some of them could be deducted as an expense, many others were simply out of pocket.

Missed moments On one trip, in January 2007, I found myself in a San Diego hotel room, listening over the phone as my wife told me about my son taking his first steps. On another trip, in February 2008, I missed out on my daughter’s first tooth sprouting through and my son’s first successful potty training day, something he was incredibly proud of. I often felt as though I was missing big parts of my children’s life.

These are real costs of many jobs – the kind of costs that aren’t really considered when people think about their careers. Quite often, that nice salary – when the extra costs are removed and all of the extra hours are rolled in – isn’t all that nice, and you find yourself wondering if there isn’t something better you can do with your time.

Spend a few minutes figuring up the time and money costs in each of these areas for your job. When you subtract that money (and the taxes) from your take-home and add on the extra hours, does it really feel as though your job pays you well?

One way you can make your job pay better is to seek ways to reduce each of these costs. Here are some tactics for each category.

The commute Carpool! Find someone who lives near you that you can share a commute with. If that doesn’t work, see whether or not you can take advantage of public transit. In either case, you can then use the commute for decompression or for getting a start on your work day.

Decompressing and escapism Focus on the things that make you feel good without spending money – or, even better, are actually productive in and of themselves. For me, cooking is often cathartic, as is reading.

Clothes There are lots of little tricks to maximize your personal appearance dollars. The best technique is to invest in a high-quality “mix and match” wardrobe – a small number of very high quality items that can be mixed and rearranged in a lot of ways, creating an impression of having a diverse wardrobe without the cost.

Meals Take leftovers every day. If you’re in a situation where you have to eat with coworkers, eat minimally with a salad or something like that, then eat your leftovers later on in the day if you’re still hungry.

Social events For the cost of such events, just eat minimally and cover your own bill – a salad and that’s it. You can eat more later. For the time you’re there, maximize it by getting to know as many people as you can – don’t just fade into the woodwork or the time really is wasted.

Health Eat healthy items as much as you can – lots of green, leafy vegetables and plenty of water, for starters. Try getting some exercise, starting with a simple at-home routine that at least gets your body moving and your breathing a bit heavy (in fact, this can be a good “decompression” activity).

Travel When traveling, maximize every moment. Talk to and get to know as many people as you possibly can on that trip. Make it your goal to eat a meal with as many different people as possible. The more strong contacts you can build in your industry, the stronger you make your career. As with social events, it only really becomes a loss if you fade into the woodwork.

If you can reduce costs and time investments – and increase the value of the time you do invest – you increase the overall value of your job and you put more money in your pocket.

Today, The Simple Dollar is featuring a guest post by Jerry Kolber. Jerry is an award-winning writer, producer, and executive producer of film and television including Inked and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. He is a long-time reader of The Simple Dollar and recently launched a site offering insights into eating great food on a budget at ThreeDollarDinner.com.

One of the most interesting things happening as a result of our economic downturn is that grocery stores are thriving, farmer’s markets are doing great, and seed sales to individuals are up 25% this year. It seems like the whole country is following Trent’s advice at The Simple Dollar to cook at home more. Over the past couple of years, Trent’s writing has also influenced me to spend more time in my kitchen, and I am now more likely to have friends over for dinner than go out to eat.

After spending nearly a decade producing shows like Inked, Confessions of a Matchmaker, and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, this year I’m actively making a point to do more of the work I love, writing and producing around the issues of social justice. Trent’s own journey to doing the work he loves – and his writing about the usefulness of being frugal and smart about money along the way – has been an inspiration to me and I look to him for both philosophical and practical advice.

One place I draw the line on cutting costs is on the quality of the ingredients we buy to make our meals. Eating is the only time that you voluntarily select pieces of the “outside world” to take into your body, and the energy of the food does quite literally affect the energy of your thoughts and body. Every time you buy or grow food, you are making a choice about what kind of food system you want to support with your money.

When going to the grocery store, it’s easy to be seduced by the best deal for your wallet. Though I am as much of a food bargain hunter as anyone, I’ve come to learn through years of research into nutrition, the food supply, and self-observation that sometimes the cheapest food actually has hidden costs. Meat, dairy, fruits and vegetable produced on “factory farms” can not only contain chemical residues of antibiotics, fertilizer, and pesticides, the production of these products is also one of the main causes soil and water pollution in America.

The mainstream conversation around “healthy fresh food” is mostly spearheaded by apparently affluent people who seem to have time to pick fresh arugula from their garden each evening. Yet I’ve found that even in Manhattan, the most expensive place in the world to shop for groceries, I can create delicious meals built around fresh, chemical-free ingredients very cheaply. Everything from stuffed burritos, to jaw-dropping macaroni and cheese, pasta with feta cheese, awesome chili, noodles with vegetables and peanut sauce – I’ve come up with simple and quick recipes that let me cook luscious, filling meals for less than a quarter of the cost of a fast food meal.

Earlier this year many people started encouraging me to share this information, so that other people on a budget could see that there was a way to join the food revolution without breaking the bank. With stores like Whole Foods and Trader Joes offering cheap generic organic options on everything from beans to pasta to vegetables, and the rise of farmer’s markets, community supported agriculture (CSA’s) and food coops, it’s never been easier to make an affordable shift to a more traditional diet. And with sales of seeds for home gardens increasing 25% this year, it’s clear that many people are going to rediscover the joy of getting a 10 to 1 return on investment from their own patch of fresh fruits and vegetables. With all of this in mind I wrote a cookbook and guide about how to affordably join the food revolution that is quietly happening in America.

The cookbook – Three Dollar Dinner – is now available at ThreeDollarDinner.com, as is a free 25 page manifesto that explains how I came to care about what I eat. Unlike many voices in the “food movement” I don’t tell you what to do; and I don’t offer recipes that include anything you would consider “gourmet”. I just offer my own perspective in a gentle, fun way. I’m just a regular guy who likes to eat and have figured out how to do it in a way that is delicious, good for my wallet, and good for the planet. I don’t discourage any kind of food. I even include detailed shopping lists for two weeks of recipes.

Regardless of whether you get started with my cookbook, Trent’s recipes here at The Simple Dollar, or wherever you may choose, don’t be intimidated by trying organic and natural foods – you CAN afford to be a part of the real food revolution, and there’s no better time to join in then right now.

Here’s a few recipes from the book to get you started. Note that although I encourage you to experiment with organic ingredients (and have priced them that way) you can make them with whatever you want or have available. I include costs per serving for each recipe; you can simply halve the recipe for two, double for a party of eight, etc. The costs are based on Manahttan prices, so hopefully you can do better.

Chinatown Express Noodles with Peanut Sauce
Cost per Person: $2.12
Total Work Time: 14 minutes
Total Time: 22 to 25 minutes
Total Cost for Four People: $8.48
Calories per Serving: 640

This is a tasty, hearty noodle dish with a sweet and salty peanut sauce. It’s a complete one bowl meal with protein, carbohydrates, fats and even a generous serving of fresh vegetables. With snap peas, it has a nice crunch, or for a more traditional preparation used washed and dried greens like kale or spinach.

Ingredients
For the sauce:
2 tablespoons organic sugar, honey, or agave – $0.30
8 tblspns. organic peanut butter (smooth or chunky) – $1.00
5 tablespoons crushed garlic – $0.20
½ cup organic soy sauce - $0.50

For the noodles:
16 ounces organic pasta – $2.49
1 lb. organic snap peas or greens – $3.99

Directions

Step 1 (2 minutes)
Fill your large pot with enough water to cover the noodles, plus two inches. Bring to a boil by setting on your stovetop’s highest heat. Don’t put the noodles in yet. While you wait for the water to boil, go to step two.

Step 2 (4 minutes)
Snap both ends off the peas – if someone else can do this you can move to step two. Or if you are using greens, wash and dry them.

Step 3 (4 minutes)
Combine all the sauce ingredients in a bowl plus one cup of water, and mix with a fork until it is completely blended. Start with five or six tablespoons of peanut butter, and add the last couple at the end if it’s not too thick.

Step 4 (1 minute)
By now the water should be boiling. Empty the pasta into the boiling water. Cook it for as long as the box or package recommends – typically between 8 and 12 minutes.

Step 5 (5 minutes)
Heat one tablespoon olive oil in your skillet. Sautee the snap peas or greens for three minutes, then add the sauce and turn the heat to low. Mix well. If it’s too thick, add a bit of water.

Step 6 (3 minutes)
At the end of the recommended cooking time, check the pasta by removing a piece or two with a slotted spoon. Let it cool for a moment and then taste it. If it’s too firm, let it cook for a minute or two more. Pasta gets softer as it cooks, so you don’t want it too soft – “al dente” is the perfect firmness, and it means that it has firmness to your teeth.

When the pasta is done, drain it in a colander then put it back in the pot. Add the peas or greens and the sauce and a dash of chili powder. Toss and stir until the sauce is evenly distributed on the noodles. Serve warm.

Kerouac Stew
Cost per Person: $2.20
Total Work Time: 27 minutes
Total Time: 67 minutes
Total Cost for Four People: $8.82
Calories per Serving: 550

Something about this stew reminds me of the cobblestone streets and charm of the old school West Village (aka Greenwich Village to most folks visiting from out of town) when Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac were experimenting with words, life, and spirit. This stew combines vegetables, hearty grains, and rich stock to make a filling one bowl meal. It’s another good weekend recipe since it’s better the longer it simmers. With light, fluffy couscous, it’s vaguely Moroccan. If you’d prefer to serve with rice, or slices of crusty bread, go for it.

Ingredients
1 28 oz. can organic diced tomatoes – $1.79
Bunch (6 to 7) organic carrots – $1.99
8 small (or 4 large) organic potatoes (1.5 lbs total) – $1.50
1 organic onion - $0.60
3 tablespoons Better than Bullion or other bullion – $0.35
12 oz. couscous (one box or 2 cups) – $2.59

Condiments
1 tablespoon basil
Salt and pepper to taste
Cinnamon (not essential, but if you have it you can add it)

Directions

Step 1 (10 minutes)
Peel the carrots; cut off ends, and peel with a vegetable peeler. Peel the onion (cut off ends and remove papery outer layers). Wash the potatoes and dry, but do not peel. Now coarsely chop all the vegetables into ½ to 1” cubes and slices (think “bite size”).

Step 2 (7 minutes)
Heat two tablespoons olive oil in your skillet over medium high heat. Add the vegetables and stir for five minutes. Set aside.

Step 3 (3 minutes)
Pour the entire can of diced tomato and juices into your Dutch oven or large pot. Add the skillet vegetables and two tablespoons Better than Bullion and one tablespoon dried basil, plus two teaspoons dried cinnamon if you have it. Stir and bring to a boil, then immediately turn down to a simmer. Let simmer for 45 minutes. Check every five or ten minutes and add a bit of water if it is getting too thick. You can let this simmer for hours – the longer the better, but after 45 minutes check a carrot or potato for doneness.

Step 4 (5 minutes)
After the stew has been simmering for 45 minutes, in a smaller pot or saucepan, bring 3 cups of water to boil. Add one tablespoon Better than Bullion and 12 oz. box of couscous (2 cups). Stir and immediately remove from heat; let sit five minutes.

Step 5 (2 minutes)
After the couscous has sat for five minutes it will have absorbed all the water. Fluff it with a fork, and serve each person a cup of couscous and a couple of generous spoonfuls of the stew.

Sunshine Risotto
Cost per Person: $1.63
Total Work Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 35 to 40 minutes
Total Cost for Four People: $6.53
Calories per Serving: 500

Risotto is the unsung sweetheart of the Italian kitchen. It’s not nearly as hard to prepare as some chef’s would have you believe, and I simplify the preparation even further. Purists may disagree with how I am about to tell you to make fast and delicious risotto, but you can’t argue with the golden delicious orbs of creamy goodness that you will soon enjoy.

Risotto is a rice dish that basically makes itself creamy without having to add any cream or cheese, though you can add both for taste and luxuriousness. This preparation with its lightness and splash of lemon makes me think of the summer I never spent in Italy. You can add a half cup of fresh or dried finely diced mushrooms but I make it just as it is below.

Ingredients
Two cups arborio rice (MUST be arborio) – $2.25
Four tablespoons butter or olive oil – $0.30
One cup grated parmesan cheese (3 ounces) – $2.00
Two big handfuls of greens – $0.98
Four cubes of beef or vegetable bullion – $0.40
One organic onion – $0.60

Condiments
Lemon juice
Salt and pepper
Olive oil

Directions

Step 1 (2 minutes)
In a large pot bring six cups of water to boil with the four cubes of beef or vegetable bullion. While waiting for boil, go to step 2.

Step 2 (7 minutes)
Heat one tablespoon olive oil over medium heat in your skillet. Roughly chop the onion (peel off papery outer layers, cut off ends, and discard – then chop). Begin to sautee the onion, for about 3 minutes, keeping an eye on the pot of water.

Step 3 (20 to 25 minutes)
When the water comes to a boil, reduce to a simmer. Then add the two cups of rice, and your sauteed onions. Continue stirring frequently for about twenty to twenty five minutes, until liquid is mostly absorbed. While this is simmering, go to step 3.

Step 4 (3 minutes)
Toss two big handfuls of greens (arugula is great, but spinach works too) with about a tablespoon of olive oil, a dash of salt and a dash of pepper. Add balsamic vinegar if you want. Keep stirring your rice every couple of minutes.

Step 5 (3 minutes)
When the rice has absorbed the water and is creamy, add one cup of parmesan cheese and mix in along with two tablespoons of lemon juice. Taste and season with salt and pepper to your liking. It should be slightly salty with a hint of lemon.

Serve the risotto with a side of greens. Mmmmm.

Garlicious Mac-a-Cheese
Cost per Person: $2.40
Total Work Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 35 to 40 minutes
Total Cost for Four People: $9.60
Calories per Serving: 500

Mac and cheese in a box is the classic “I’m eating on a budget standby.” But since you end up adding milk anyways, all your paying for is dried cheese and less-than-excellent noodles. You can make delicious garlicky macaroni and cheese all by yourself at home, for about the same cost and about 100 times the deliciousness and healthiness (yes, even healthier than Annie’s Naturals, though that’s not a bad choice if you’re really in a hurry).

This is called Garlicious Mac-A-Cheese because that sounds like a superhero name, and I’d let this Mac and Cheese duke it out with any other mac and cheese any day of the week.

Ingredients
8 oz. macaroni (whole wheat or white elbows or penne) – $1.69
1 free range eggs – $0.32
1 organic onion - $0.60
1 6 oz bag organic or natural shredded cheddar – $3.99
Three tablespoons crushed garlic – $0.25
1/2 cup breadcrumbs – $0.25
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese (3 ounces) – $2.00
1 cup organic milk – $0.50

Condiments
Salt and pepper
Mustard

Directions

Step 1 (3 minutes)
In a large pot bring water to boil and add the pasta. Cook for as long as box suggests (usually about 9 minutes). Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Step 2 (4 minutes)
Scramble the egg in a large bowl for about fifty whisks. Add the milk, two tablespoons mustard, four teaspoons salt, and all the cheddar cheese to the bowl and mix. Grease your large casserole dish (should be about 9 inches by 7 inches, but exact dimensions don’t matter).

Step 3 (3 minutes)
In a small bowl mix the 1/2 cup parmesan with 1/2 cup breadcrumbs.

Step 4 (35 minutes)
When pasta is done cooking, drain it in a strainer. Now add it to the bowl of milk and cheese and egg, mix gently and then pour into the casserole dish. Top with the parmesan/breadcrumb mixture and put it in the oven for thirty minutes.

Step 5 (3 minutes)
The top should be brown and crusty. If it’s not, you can put your oven on “broil” and toast the top by placing the casserole under the broiler flame for 2 or 3 minutes. Handle with care – it’s hot.

Serve and watch as they pass out from the overwhelming pleasure of Garlicious Mac-A-Cheese.

Last weekend, our town had a “city wide yard sale.” There was a bit of promotion of this event by the city council and quite a few homes participated (we would have, but unfortunately we hadn’t been at home for several weekends in a row due to my grandmother’s passing and several other family commitments, so we simply weren’t aware of it until it was too late). We were able to find a few really cheap interesting cookbooks, my daughter got a pile of My Little Ponies for fifty cents, and my son got a Batman mask (that he’s played with incessantly) for a dime.

One thing I couldn’t help but notice was that there were a lot of people out and about. They would simply go down a block, visiting several sales in one swoop. It was quite clear that the presence of a large number of yard sales in such a compressed space had really brought out the crowds – the collective nature of the yard sales had brought out more people than just an individual sale ever could have.

So, it occurred to me: why couldn’t any block or neighborhood do this? A group of people get together, agree to have a yard sale on the same weekend, each contribute a few dollars to advertise, and thus attract far more visitors to their sale than they might otherwise have (because of better advertising and the group effect).

It goes beyond that, even. There are many ways in which you can form a collective with your neighbors in order to save you both some money. Here are some suggestions for doing just that.

Babysitting If you have children and multiple neighbors have children as well, discuss starting a babysitting collective with two or three other families. One night a week, one of the families in the collective hosts all of the children, allowing the other parents to have a date night or another free evening – for free. Do this on a rotating basis and, in exchange for one evening where you have a small army of kids in your home, you have two or three evenings of free babysitting.

Meals Once or twice a week, have a meal exchange with your neighbors. Prepare a double amount of what you normally would make, then package the extra half and hand-deliver it to a neighbor. Then, in exchange, the other family could deliver a meal to you one or two nights a week. Of course, you could also simply eat together on a scheduled basis if that works well for you. Doing this enables you to use many ingredients in bulk, saving money on meal preparation and saving time as well (since half of the meals are simply delivered to you, ready to eat).

Household equipment Why not share a lawnmower with your neighbor? How about a snowblower? One great model for this exists in our neighborhood, where one person owns a snowblower and provides fuel for it, but is not in good enough physical shape to operate it. Thus, one of her neighbors actually operates the snowblower, using it to blow the snow out of both driveways (and often doing a large swath of the block’s entire sidewalk as well).

Gardening If two or three neighbors all have gardens, why not specialize the gardens and freely share the produce? This allows one family to focus specifically on a crop or two, making garden maintenance easier for all of the people involved. You can even carry this to the level of canning and/or freezing, agreeing to swap prepared garden products with neighbors.

This sounds intriguing, but how do I get started?
Ideas like this are obviously great ways to save money, but how exactly can one get this started?

The biggest obstacle for many people is simply bringing up the subject. It often seems uncomfortable to suggest such an arrangement with a neighbor.

So how do you get past that step? It’s easy – create a situation where it’s quite comfortable to raise such a topic. Invite your neighbors over for a casual meal and broach the subject when everyone is comfortable. This gives you the opportunity to figure out for yourself how comfortable you are with them, sets the stage for the issue quite well, and also provides for a nice social opportunity.

Another obstacle is making sure that one family isn’t merely taking advantage of others. Again, the best way to avoid this is to take charge yourself. Come up with your own plan and propose it to the others that might be involved, letting them decide if they want to go along with it. It’s usually easier to go for “simple” instead of “perfect balance,” though – instead of sweating issues of co-owning items for yard use, for example, consider a situation where one person “owns” the item and others share it easily and openly.

Another useful tactic is to make the arrangement very open and without extensive commitment. For example, don’t implement a tight long-term schedule for swapping babysitting evenings, at least at first. Let people get used to and comfortable with the arrangement, then suggest formalizing it more if everything works (so that people can plan ahead for certain weekends). This also makes it easier for the arrangement to end if it doesn’t work well. Remember, it doesn’t take much time at all for arrangements like this to begin to save you real money.

Good luck!

Let’s try a little psychology experiment. In the image below, read out all of the colors, not the words themselves. You can say them out loud, or in your head.

Now, try the same for this batch of colored words. Remember, say the color, not the word itself.

It’s at least a bit harder, isn’t it? This effect is called the Stroop effect – it’s a classic psychological tool that demonstrates the power of selective attention. In other words, it demonstrates that it can actually be quite difficult to look at a complex situation (the miscolored words), throw out some of the information presented to you (the actual words), and evaluate only what remains (the color of the words).

Here’s the interesting thing, though. Many aspects of personal finance actually rely on a person’s selective attention.

Take grocery shopping. You’re walking down a grocery aisle, looking for a particular item. All around this item are colorful variations on the same thing, all clamoring for your attention – you have to be selective. When you do finally find the item, the selective attention is still important, as there are varying sizes of that item.

Take investing. You flip on CNBC in order to find out how your stocks are doing, and you’re inundated with lots of talking heads touting particular stocks, breathlessly covering market news, and perhaps yelling a lot and throwing chairs.

It’s easy to see selective attention at work in many of our personal finance choices. Buying a car. Choosing a bank or a credit card. Shopping online.

This leads to an obvious question: how can we improve our selective attention (or at least use our own nature to our advantage), especially when it comes to personal finance choices? Here are three strategies that work well for me.

Use a shopping list. A shopping list changes the focus of your attention from the items on the shelf to the list in your hand. Instead of wandering down an aisle with lots of distractions, your focus can be on the list. What’s next on the list? Where can I find this specific item? The subtle shift of focus makes it much harder to be distracted by the items on the shelf because, simply, you’re only looking for a very specific item and the rest doesn’t matter. On the other hand, if you walk the aisles without a specific mission, you’re much more open to having your attention pulled away from the task at hand – and that results in a lot of unnecessary stuff in the cart.

Use the ten second rule. If you’re about to make a purchase, stop for ten seconds. Breathe in deeply, breathe out deeply, and focus on nothing but the item. Think about whether or not that item fits in what you’re doing with your money and ask yourself if it’s really necessary. To put it simply, you’re actively focusing your attention on this one specific purchase, not on the next thing you need to get, the next shiny thing in the store, or any other distraction.

Filter your news and information. Instead of being blasted with the fire hose of color and activity and information one might find on CNBC, consider instead using other tools to just get the data you want. Instead of hitting CNBC to catch the numbers on your stocks, set up Google Finance to just watch the stocks you’re interested in. Instead of just hearing what CNN wants you to hear, use Google News and focus only on the specific stories that matter to you.

In short, much of personal finance success comes from the ability to focus your attention properly, and the most effective and simple way to do that is to recognize distractions and find ways to block them out. Do that regularly and you’ll find your finances getting into better shape.