I love keeping an eye out for bargains. I’m the type of person who will come up with Christmas present ideas for people in March and spend nine months sitting on that idea, waiting for the right price to come along. I won’t hesitate in the least to jump on obviously exceptional bargains in areas I’m familiar with – video games, for example – because, if nothing else, I can usually trade or re-sell them at a profit.

The only problem is that chasing bargains like this takes time – time I don’t necessarily have. I used to have a routine of visiting a number of bargain sites, but after a while, I found more and more useful sites and it became harder and harder to keep up with all of them.

So I found a better solution (which I’ve hinted at in the past). Using a number of easy-to-use online tools, I built a single webpage that shows me the best deals from tons of different online sources all in one place, customized to show me just the deals I want. Better yet, I can access this page from any computer.

Sound good? Here’s how it’s done.

iGoogle: The Backbone
iGoogle is quite nifty. To put it simply, it lets you create a custom web page that is automatically updated with whatever you want to add to it – news, sports scores, weather, stock tickers, and so on. Here’s the URL:

http://www.google.com/ig

When you first visit the URL above (and sign in, if you have a Google account), you’ll get a small handful of default “gadgets.” Get rid of these so that you have some space to add more useful stuff. First, click on the down arrow on the left (seen below) and choose the option to “Edit this tab…”

Then, click on “Delete” for all of the gadgets and then click on the “Save” button in the upper right. You’ll go back to an empty iGoogle page, ready to be loaded up with some great gadgets for bargain hunting.

Adding New Gadgets
So, how do you actually add new things to this page? This is similarly easy. Just click on the “Add stuff” link over on the right hand side of the page…

… then click on the “Add feed or gadget” link on the right.

You’ll get a little popup box that asks you to paste in a feed URL. Once you do that, the contents of that URL will be added to the iGoogle homepage.

But what URLs can you add? There are lots of great URLs out there loaded with bargains. Let’s go through a few.

Bargain Websites
Below, I’ve listed ten different feed URLs that you can copy and paste directly into iGoogle, as described above. Just copy the URL below, paste it as described above, and it becomes an automatically updating part of your iGoogle homepage.

If you use a feed reader, you can subscribe to any of these (likely just by clicking through, depending on how your system is configured).

Amazon Gold Box
http://rssfeeds.s3.amazonaws.com/goldbox
This lists almost all of the daily deals available from Amazon.com.

CheapTweet
http://cheaptweet.com/all.rss
This lists deals posted on Twitter, filtered by the users of CheapTweet.com.

Coupons.com
http://www.coupons.com/rss.asp
This lists the latest coupons from Coupons.com, most of which are for discounts on household products.

Dealnews (Most Popular)
http://content.dealnews.com/dealnews/rss/popular.xml
This lists the most popular deals discovered by Dealnews.com.

Dealspl.us
http://feeds.feedburner.com/dealspl/all
This lists a huge number of deals on a wide variety of products, filtered by social bookmarking sites. This is definitely one worth filtering (see below) because a lot of stuff comes through.

FatWallet.com Hot Deals
http://feeds.feedburner.com/FatwalletHotDeals
This lists a wide variety of deals (mostly technology items).

Free Deal World
http://freedealworld.com/feed/
This lists a lot of good freebie offers.

Money Saving Mom
http://feeds.feedburner.com/moneysavingmom/mNWf
This is a well-written blog that features a lot of good coupons for household products.

SlickDeals.net
http://feeds.feedburner.com/SlickdealsnetFP
This includes a wide variety of deals from many sources, all filtered by the SlickDeals community. This is definitely one worth filtering (see below).

Woot.com
http://www.woot.com/Blog/Feed.ashx
This is a daily tech deal site that often has amazing bargains.

Bargain Twitterers
A few months ago, I mentioned that there are many useful people on Twitter worth following for the deals they post. If you’re not into Twitter and would rather “follow” these people in another way, you can keep track of the posted deals using this iGoogle technique. Here are the feed URLs for seven Twitterers I mentioned in the article.

DellOutlet
http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/5688592.rss
Computer deals from Dell.

AmazonDeals
http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/1922861.rss
Lots of “hidden” deals from Amazon.com.

AmazonMp3
http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/14740219.rss
Excellent legal albums in mp3 format for $1.99-2.99.

Dealyzer
http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/17331003.rss
A wide variety of deals of all types.

DealUniversity
http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/17893953.rss
An excellent assortment of tech deals.

CheapTweet
http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/17545909.rss
An aggregation of many of the best deals posted to Twitter.

BooksAMillion
http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/17248079.rss
A great collection of deals on books.

Filter These URLs
You might find that all of these things are overkill – you can’t possibly keep track of hundreds of deals a day. If that’s the case, it’s quite easy to simply filter them, focusing in on the specific items you’re looking for.

FeedSifter.com lets you put in a RSS feed URL (like the ones above), then filter it for any list of terms you put in, then gives you an output feed that contains only the items that match the terms you listed. I actually described using FeedFilter once before, to similar ends.

Let’s see this in play. I like to use Amazon’s Gold Box (described above) for certain types of bargains: video games, cookbooks, and a few other odds and ends. I don’t have time for – and don’t really care that much – about the other deals that Gold Box might give me.

So, I’d fill out Feed Sifter like this:

A quick note: search terms fewer than three characters match everything, so use ones longer than that.

When you click on the “Filter my Feed” button, you’ll get an option to subscribe to that new feed. Click on that and you’ll find that the Amazon feed is now filtered for those search terms. Copy THIS URL and add it to iGoogle as described at the top of this post, and you’ll be able to see the latest deals, filtered to your specifications, whenever you want.

You can filter ANY of the above URLs in the same way using FeedFilter. Personally, I filter some feeds (SlickDeals) and don’t filter others (AmazonMp3).

How Do I Use It?
I have a nice big page built on this technique that I visit several times a day. Perhaps once a week, I’ll find something worth picking up – but when I do find something, I’m usually saving quite a bit on that item.

Give it a try! It takes a bit of time to get such a page set up, but once you’re set up and ready to go, it can be a big help when you’re looking for Christmas gifts or for specific bargains for yourself.

If you’re reading this, it’s likely that you’re in the midst of a personal finance journey of your own. You started at a place that you weren’t happy with for some reason (too much debt, unhappy with your living situation, unhappy with your career, etc.) and you’re heading towards a place that seems much more desirable (debt freedom, a home of your own, a new career, etc.). In other words, these journeys have a beginning and an end.

Here’s the question, though. How do you identify where exactly you are on this journey?

The obvious answer is pure dollars and cents. If you had $10,000 in debt and are marching toward debt freedom, your exact debt amount reveals how far along your journey you are. If you’re saving for a house down payment or for retirement or for education, you can easily just glance at your account balance to see how things are.

Pure dollars and cents work well for other goals, too. Let’s say, for example, that you’re striving for pure financial independence. One great way to keep track of this is to keep a careful eye on your crossover point.

But that just scratches the surface.

One of my biggest personal finance goals is security and health for my children. I invest in their well being in many ways. I buy healthy foods for them, focusing on health as the primary factor, not cost. I contribute to their educational savings. I buy educational supplies for them all the time (at their age, that means crayons and drawing paper and so on). I invest time in them every day, time I might otherwise spend on writing or research or other such things.

How do I judge my success there? I look at them. Are they healthy? Are they curious? Are they happy? Do they interact well with children their age – and to everyone else, too? Do they have manners and behave well in public? Are they growing physically, mentally, and socially? If I can wholeheartedly say “yes,” my investment is paying off – if I can’t, then something needs more attention.

When I went through my lowest days, my real dream was simply “financial security.” By that, I meant that I wanted to not worry about individual bills that came in. My definition of success in that respect is simply being able to sleep well at night without money worries – if I find myself stressing out over money, then I know there’s a problem.

To put it simply, there is no one simple way to keep tabs on your money goals. A bank account balance might tell one aspect of the story, but success isn’t always measured by your absolute net worth – or the changes in your savings balances.

Instead, I’d argue that personal finance success is often best measured by you. I’m not talking about getting rich and accumulating wealth. I’m talking about things like getting out of debt, having a big emergency fund, having stable retirement savings, being able to take care of those important to you, having a career that makes you feel fulfilled, and spending less than you earn so that you can progress towards the other goals you hold dear to your heart (like a home that truly fits your desires, stewardship of the community, volunteer projects, and so on).

We all have different goals, but they all have one thing in common: achieving them – and the process of achieving them – lifts our moods and who we are in many ways, subtle and otherwise. In the end, personal finance goals are much the same – success is worth more than mere money. As you work hard and succeed, you feel it inside, not just in your bank account.

Yesterday, I mentioned offhand the value of having things on hand to entertain and create special moments for children. Things like this are easy to plan ahead for, easy to bargain hunt for, and can really come in handy on a rainy day or other unexpected event. It can also be useful to have on hand if you don’t have children of your own, but occasionally have young visitors.

So what kinds of things do we have in our rainy day box? (Note that we use many of these items in other situations, too, but it’s useful to have all of this stuff collected in one place so you can easily find it.)

A big box Any sort of box will do – it just needs to be of good size to store quite a few items. A pair of large shoe boxes can do the trick – and it’s a great way to reuse shoe boxes. In fact, the first “rainy day” project can actually involve decorating the boxes.

Drawing paper You can get a ton of drawing paper for just a buck or two by buying an end roll of paper from your local newspaper office. This paper is perfect for other projects, too, like paper pirate hats.

Pencils Keep your eye open for free pencils and pens, particularly at hotels or other such places. I unabashedly grab quite a few when I see them – they’re given away for advertising purposes, after all, so I have no qualms collecting them.

Crayons I tend to believe a giant box of crayons is the best $5 item you can buy for a child, but that doesn’t mean I don’t watch carefully for sales on crayons and washable markers.

Food coloring There are lots of different kid-friendly projects that can really utilize food coloring, so just look for a good deal on vials of coloring, particularly red, blue, and yellow coloring (as you can mix these to get many other colors).

Glue, tape, and safety scissors These tend to be overstocked around the time school starts, then they tend to be on sale in late September and early October. These are great items to get at a dollar store.

Paints and paintbrushes Keep any paintbrushes you find in miscellaneous art sets that your kids get (my kids have received several for gifts). Then, make your own paint: mix 3 tablespoons sugar, half a cup of corn starch, and two cups of cold water. Cook it in a pan, bringing it almost to boiling, until it thickens, then stir in a teaspoon of liquid dish soap. Split it into four roughly equal amounts (in small cups or dishes) and stir in some food coloring into each – it works great for simple art projects.

Small beans Buy a bag of beans for a kitchen recipe, then save half a cup of them or so in a small baggie for later use. Beans make a great addition to art projects. You can do the same thing with cereal (like Cheerios).

Construction paper / cardboard Pieces of unmarked cardboard are well worth saving in this box. Shirt boxes are great sources for this material, as are

Old magazines Keep ten or so issues of old magazines in your art box. Old magazines are great sources for collages, and these work even for three year olds. For example, I’m planning on helping my son hunt through these for big examples of the letters in his name and making a big collage out of them.

Old wrapping paper Similarly, keep sheets of old wrapping paper. Just carefully unwrap presents, fold up the sheets, and tell people you’re saving them for an art project for the kids. Wrapping paper can make a great background for various projects.

Old greeting cards Greeting cards (particularly the flood of them that people send for Christmas) are a great source for elements for collages as well.

Paper towel, wrapping paper, and toilet paper rolls Tubes like these can be musical instruments (blowing through them or using them as drum sticks) and structural pieces for building models.

Recipes Not recipes for food per se, but recipes for things like play dough and bubble solution. Having these recipes in the box is often a great reminder to go make a batch of these things if we have the ingredients on hand – and given that such things are usually made from kitchen staples, we usually have them. Bubble solution? Dish soap, cold water, and a spoon full of corn syrup. Play dough? The easy “Mister Rogers” recipe is just two cups of flour and one cup of water, which literally makes dough, but a better recipe is one cup of flour, one cup of warm water, two teaspoons of cream of tartar, one teaspoon of oil, a quarter of a cup of salt, and food coloring (for color). Cook this over medium heat and stir it until it’s smooth, then knead it until it’s doughy.

Music Finally, include a few CDs worth of catchy, upbeat music that appeals to both you and the kids. We’re big fans of They Might Be Giants’ Here Come the ABCs. If you want to save some on this, just download legal mp3s of the music and burn your own CD (or use another music device). I don’t advocate piracy, but if you look around, there are lots of great legal sources for inexpensive and free music of all kinds.

A rainy day box can be a lot of fun for kids and adults alike! Good luck!

Amy writes in:

You often talk about investing in bonds. I don’t even understand what bonds are, let alone how to invest in them!

Well, let’s start at the beginning.

What Is a Bond?
To put it simply, a bond is a way for an investor to buy a piece of someone’s debt, usually a government or a large company.

Here’s a clear example. Let’s say your city wants to raise money to put in some new roads. They don’t have enough money in their current budget to pay for it, but they’re quite able to put aside money in future budgets for the bridge.

The city’s solution? Issue bonds. They sell bonds to the general public for a certain price (the issue price) to raise money. Investors buy these bonds from the city, putting their money directly in the city’s coffers.

What does the bond buyer get? A bond states that on some regular basis, the person buying the bond will receive a certain small payment (known as the coupon). Then, when the bond matures, the person who bought the bond will receive the face amount of the bond.

So, here’s another example. Let’s say you buy a $10,000 bond from the city. It’s set to mature in ten years (meaning the city will give you back your $10K at that time). Until then, the bond states that you’ll receive a payment of $175 every six months – that’s the coupon rate.

Usually, bonds are issued by governments and large corporations to finance big purchases that they don’t have the cash on hand to pay for at that moment. But that’s a risk, right? What if they can’t make good on that payment? That’s why bonds come with bond ratings, which give an indication of how reliable the organization issuing the bond is. Some issuers are very secure (like the governments of first world nations), while others are much less secure (companies that are in poor financial shape) – the latter are usually called junk bonds and aren’t solid investments for laypeople.

Advantages of Bonds
The big advantage of buying bonds is that they’re reliable. The bond issuer is legally bound to make those regular payments to you and to pay you back the face value when the bond matures. The only real risk is the stability of the bond issuer, which is why many people not involved in financial careers stick to very safe issuers, like the federal government.

Thus, if you stick to big issuers like the federal government, they’re quite safe, too.

Another benefit of bonds is that some types of bonds (particularly municipal bonds – ones issued by cities for improvement projects) have tax advantages. Most municipal bonds are exempt from federal and state income tax.

Disadvantages of Bonds
So why would you not invest in bonds, if they’re so safe? Typically, very safe bonds don’t have a very strong return at all.

Take, for example, current returns on bonds issued by the U.S. government. Short term ones (3 month, 6 month, and 1 year treasuries) are paying no coupon rate at all, which means that all the government has to do to fulfill the bond is pay you back the face value at the end – no interest, no nothing. The only way to make money on these right now is to buy them a bit below their face value – thankfully, the government sells these at auction, which means that you can buy them just a bit below their face value (but still return less than 1%). Alternately, you can lock your money down for thirty years – but you’ll only get 3.5% of the amount you invest in annual payments, which isn’t great, either.

While this is an extreme example that’s only occurring because of the special economic times we live in, the basic idea is still true – bonds typically don’t earn great returns. What they do is earn safe returns.

Buying Bonds
So how can you buy bonds?

If you’re interested in buying them from the federal government, you can buy them directly via Treasury Direct. For many people who want to handle all of their own investing, this is a great way to buy individual bonds.

If you’re interested in municipal bonds, you’ll likely have to buy them through a brokerage. Some municipalities allow individuals to buy bonds directly from them, but minimum investments are usually well into the thousands.

If you want to buy other types of bonds (bonds issued by other governments or by corporations), you’ll likely have to use a brokerage for such purposes.

My recommendations are pretty simple. Either buy federal bonds directly from Treasury Direct, or buy a bond index fund from a reputable investment house, like Vanguard (the one I use). Going beyond this requires both a strong sense of risk and a lot of time to appropriately research your options.