Every other week, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal finance book.

Greg Karp is the author of the “Spending Smart” column which appears in a number of newspapers nationwide – it’s typically a pretty good read, though Greg didn’t fall on my radar screen until I read his first book, Living Rich by Spending Smart.

Almost a year ago, I wrote a sparklingly positive review of Living Rich by Spending Smart. Given the quality, as soon as I heard that Greg had written a second book, I was quite eager to give it a read.

The 1-2-3 Money Plan, per its subtitle, claims to discuss the three most important steps to saving and spending smart. The book clearly focuses on the applicable, with several interesting suggestions and conclusions. Let’s dig in and take a look.

1 – Spending Smart Redux
One big theme that you notice right off is that this book is heavily invested in the idea of the “rule of three” – that a three-step plan makes the plan easy to follow and that knocking a complex idea down to three discrete points makes it easier to understand (hence the title, I suppose). Three-step plans pop up all over the place in this book.

This opening chapter of The 1-2-3 Money Plan really has one key idea: the best way to get a leash on your money is to get your spending in check. My favorite piece of advice was how to spend your discretionary income: focus entirely on things you deeply care about, experiences, and things that appreciate in value.

2 – First Things First
What comes first in getting your financial state in order? Karp offers five distinct areas: taking stock of your current financial state, basic estate planning, preventing identity theft, getting with a good bank (and automating your finances), and paying your bills (again, some automatically).

Sure, these steps seem simple, but they really are the basis for getting your financial house in order. I actually believe getting a good grip on your money is a powerful first step, because it then becomes much easier to see the impact of your individual decisions on your pocketbook.

3 – Get FIT (Food, Insurance, Telecommunications)
Karp identifies three big areas where almost everyone can cut some spending: food, insurance, and telecommunications.

With food, Karp piles on the recommendations: make a price list, match coupons to flyers, make meals in advance, build a meal plan, use a grocery list, and go shopping less often (once a week at most).

On insurance, avoid extended warranties, refinance your life insurance (meaning shop around now for a better policy, then ditch your old one), and raise your deductibles, particularly on your house and automobile insurance.

For telecommunications, cancel your landline service (good advice if you’re not in a highly rural area with occasionally dodgy coverage), downgrade your wireless plan to one that matches your needs (or perhaps even ditch it and get a pay-as-you-go phone), and actually evaluate how much you really use your television and internet service (and potentially downgrade those as well).

4 – How to Buy Stuff
The basic procedure Karp advocates is pretty straightforward: don’t make a major purchase without first reading plenty of reviews, asking for recommendations, and doing both online and offline price comparisons. This should be mantra for anyone making any sort of major purchase.

One interesting part of this chapter was Karp’s advice on allowances: give your kids an allowance, but don’t tie it directly to chores. When my son turns 4, we’re going to start an allowance for him, and this is the way we’re leaning – using non-monetary methods to encourage him to do basic chores.

5 – Green Means Green
Most of the techniques a person uses to reduce their environmental footprint also reduces their spending footprint. Use rechargeable batteries. Replace your five most used light bulbs with CFLs. Drive sensibly (don’t speed and don’t punch the accelerator). Avoid bottled water.

One point where I disagree with Karp – he suggests always avoiding big-ticket energy efficiency upgrades because the break-even date may be a decade or more into the future. What he’s not considering is that such fixes often greatly increase the resale value of your home. For instance, if I replaced our roof tiles with solar tiles, it might be very expensive, but the energy bill would immediately go down plus the value of our home would go up (since the next tenants would have lower energy bills). That makes the break-even point quite a bit earlier.

6 – Credit When Credit’s Due
Karp offers great advice on the basics of credit here. First, check your credit report (and don’t use freecreditreport.com) and make sure there are no errors on it – that’s the most important thing, if you haven’t done it.

How do you start digging out of debt, though? First of all, stop using credit. Then develop a debt repayment plan and stick to it. If you’re having trouble, it’s vital to remember that cutting your spending is a key counterpart to a debt repayment plan.

My favorite point from the chapter was the discussion of how to use a credit card effectively: get a good rewards program, stop carrying a balance (paying it off in full every month), and use your leverage – don’t be afraid to call them and threaten to switch credit cards if they raise your rates or anything you don’t like.

7 – How to Save Money
The biggest key is to automate. You should start by automatically transferring money to separate savings accounts – one for your car and one for an emergency fund. From there, grow to funding a Roth IRA using automatic funding. If you have kids, fund a 529 college savings plan automatically, too. If you have to think about it, you’re opening yourself up to forgetting about it or talking yourself out of it – so don’t give yourself that chance.

The most interesting idea I found here was the idea of a savings account for seasonal expenses. For example, in Iowa, one’s energy bill is often much higher in the winter, plus there’s the cost of snow tires, etc. If you put some money automatically into a seasonal account, particularly in the spring, summer, and fall, you’ll have that extra money in the winter. This works well for any seasonal expense.

Is The 1-2-3 Money Plan Worth Reading?
Most of the advice in The 1-2-3 Money Plan is advice you’ve possibly heard elsewhere. Karp covers most of the truly familiar areas of personal finance writing with this one.

So what makes it stand out? At the start of this review, I mentioned the reason – Karp sticks strongly by the “rule of three.” In other words, almost every point in this book is followed by three very direct and blunt action tips, which make it easy for the reader to actually take direct action on that idea.

So, The 1-2-3 Money Plan is a great book if you have a hard time transforming specific personal finance ideas into direct action. Karp hits a home run in that department. However, if you’ve already got your money in order, this book might not have too much to offer you.

A while back, while checking out at a Williams-Sonoma (this place is my guilty pleasure – what can I say?), the cashier asked me if I wanted to sign up for their email list. I said “Sure!” and gave them an email address.

On the way out of the store, my wife chided me. “Don’t you always say on The Simple Dollar that it’s a bad idea to open yourself up to more advertisements?”

I smiled back at her and gave her a little wink.

In fact, whenever I’m asked for my email address at a store or a restaurant I might ever return to, I’m quite happy to give them my address.

Seem like a contradiction in terms?

Well, the truth is that I don’t give these stores my real email address – my personal one or my work one. Instead, I have a separate account that I use for just this purpose. That address has helped me out time and time again to save a few bucks here and there – and even better, I’m never tempted by ads that come in via email.

Here’s the game plan.

Sign Up For a Webmail Account
All you have to do to get rolling is sign up for a fresh new email account with one of the web-based email services. I find GMail to be the most convenient – but Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail work just as well for these purposes.

Choose a name you’ll easily remember. Your first name + “stuff” will probably be available, for example. If it’s not, try putting a very simple memorable number on the end. So, you might end up with something like “trentstuff2009″ for your name.

The key is just picking something you won’t forget, because you’ll want to pull it up from memory fairly often.

Sign Up For Your Favorite Retailers’ Lists
From then on, whenever you’re at a retailer and they ask for your email address, give them this new address. The retailer will almost always begin mailing things to this address – sometimes weekly, sometimes monthly.

If you’re anxious to get started, most websites for such retailers have sign-up forms somewhere on the site that will get you on their mailing list.

So, for me, I might visit the websites of various booksellers (Borders, Barnes & Noble) and, of course, Williams-Sonoma.

Once you’ve done that, don’t worry about it. Everything is good to go.

The Next Time You’re About to Shop There Anyway…
… just sign in to that email account and search for the retailer you’re about to visit, then check the most recent two or three mailings. You’ll often find a few coupons and notices of any sales that are going on.

Since you’re not receiving this stuff in your normal inbox, you won’t be tempted to go chase “bargains.” However, you still get the advantage of coupons for your favorite retailers without having to dig through coupon sites (and the resultant popup ads and the like that such sites typically bring).

Good luck!

Scott writes in:

How can you read and review a personal finance book every week? I’ve read three or four of them and they seem all the same to me. Don’t you get tired of the reviews?

I get some version of this question quite often – and it’s a good one. I’ve been reviewing one or two personal finance or personal development books a week for about two and a half years. In fact, here’s a list of all of the book reviews I’ve done – 192 reviews and counting, as of this writing.

That’s a lot of books, no matter how you slice it. Why on earth would I read so many – and so regularly? I can think of nine reasons…

Reading personal finance books helps me keep my eyes on the prize. Reading a book every week makes me think once again about the need for keeping my money in order and the tactics I use to do it. It’s similar to the reason that a lot of people read The Simple Dollar – regular reminders keep the message fresh and keep our eyes on the prize.

Reading more personal finance books helps me make better book recommendations to others. Every month or two, I’ll read an exceptional book – one that really helps break down personal finance issues in a spectacular way for a specific audience. For example, Please Send Money by Dara Duguay does a great job of addressing the needs of college students, while You’re So Money by Farnoosh Torabi really hits the financial needs of young single female professionals. I also stumble upon great books on specific topics, like Financial Infidelity by Bonnie Eaker Weil, which brilliantly addresses the problems of money and marriage, particularly when one spouse is “hiding” money issues.

Reading personal finance books written for different audiences helps me to see the different needs that different people have. Reading books intended for different audiences is very insightful. For example, I quite enjoyed You’re So Money even though I’m not in the demographic for the book at all – it challenged my thinking in a lot of ways and helped me to see how twentysomething professional women might have different perspectives on money issues than I do. Understanding this enables me to write better articles for The Simple Dollar.

Each personal finance book I read exposes me to a new idea or angle or two. I learn something new from almost every personal finance book I read. Those new ideas get filed away for future reference and combination with other ideas I’ve already learned, and quite often, it’s the meeting of two ideas that becomes the impetus for a post for The Simple Dollar.

I still love hearing stories of financial turnarounds and financial success. I know it can be done from my own life, but I still love hearing stories of people overcoming their adversity. It’s a great thing – people come across challenges, they work hard and commit to real changes in their life, and they do it! They make it!

Once in a while, I’ll discover a really great book that twists how I think about things. Not all books can match Your Money or Your Life. However, once every few months, I will read a book that shocks my system a little bit and makes me really think about issues in my own life. It’ll float around in my mind for weeks, sowing ideas wherever it goes. A recent one I’ve reviewed in that vein is Who’s Got Your Back by Keith Ferrazzi.

Seeing the same idea written in many different ways gives me food for thought on how to present personal finance ideas. Even the repetitive aspects inspire me. After seeing the same idea described in thirty different ways, I grow as a writer. I begin to see how the same idea can be tackled in lots of different ways, and I work through how I want to present them and think about them.

Seeing where personal finance tactics contradict each other – and there are a lot of places – gives me a lot of food for thought. Some books advocate an index fund-based strategy for investing. Other books offer completely different advice. Those conflicts excite me. They make me think hard about what’s really going on, and sometimes, they make me come to completely unexpected conclusions.

Reading lots of books of any type exposes me to different writing styles, improving my own writing. Beyond what I review on The Simple Dollar, I also read two or three additional books a week (those who follow me on Twitter know all about them, because I mention them there). Reading so much not only exposes me to a lot of ideas, it also provides tons of insight on how to write in general. I find myself trying subtly different approaches on The Simple Dollar all the time.

To put it simply, if you blog on a particular subject, there are few things you can do that are more useful than becoming well read on the subject and then sharing what you learn and the ideas all that reading causes to grow in your head.

Many newer readers of The Simple Dollar haven’t been exposed to the hundreds of great articles in the archives of the site, so this is a weekly series that highlights the five best posts from one year ago this week, as well as the five best posts from two years ago this week. I call it … the Time Machine.

One Year Ago (June 7-13, 2008)
Review: Please Send Money Dara Duguay’s book is one of the best I’ve read at addressing the financial realities of college students. Strike that – the best.

How to Budget Using ING Direct (Or Another Full-Service Online Bank) It’s amazing to me how easy it is to use online tools for automatic budgeting. Here’s an excellent description of how to do exactly that if you use ING Direct.

My Entrepreneurial Inspiration I call him Dad. Also, this post includes a great sidebar discussing whether or not being a writer is a form of entrepreneurship.

Sixteen Ways to Go Out on the Town on the Cheap It can be really hard to enjoy an evening out with the gang without spending a lot more money than you might want. Here are some simple and subtle ways to curb that.

Discussion: What Should Be Part of a High School Consumer Education Curriculum? Some passionate discussion about a topic that’s near and dear to my heart. How can we possibly get good personal finance information into high schools in a form that will actually make them care about it?

Two Years Ago (June 7-13, 2007)
How To Get Off The Treadmill: A Detailed Guide To Becoming Self-Employed I wrote this as I was essentially moving myself through the process. There’s a lot of good advice here. Biggest tip: avoid the charlatans. Everything you need to make it is already inside you – you don’t need a “get rich quick” kit.

What Aspects Of Personal Finance Bring You Happiness? Yes, managing my money makes me happy. Here’s why.

I’m Making All The Right Moves, But I’m Still Unhappy Just getting your money in the right order isn’t a guaranteed ticket to happiness – it’s just one piece of the puzzle. This is a great discussion of the rest of the equation.

Eight Free Things That My Family Uses In The Community Most towns are loaded with tons of great free things to do and see. Here are eight that we use all the time.

Review: How to Win Friends and Influence People I consider this one an essential read for pretty much everyone. It provides a lot of good clues for making social situations work better, plus provides some insights into how others behave.

If you’d like to browse through more of the archives, visit the chronology, where all posts are listed in chronological order.

Eight Ways to Get More out of The Simple Dollar
This is kind of a FAQ for new readers and is posted each week along with the Time Machine. Here are eight great ways for new readers to dig deeper into The Simple Dollar.

1. Subscribe by email or RSS. Visiting The Simple Dollar’s website is great, but for many people, it’s more convenient to receive the articles in another form. It’s easy to join 60,000 other subscribers and get The Simple Dollar’s content by email or in your RSS feeder (if you’re unfamiliar with RSS, check out Google Reader.

2. Comment. Each article on The Simple Dollar has lively discussion. Just click on the green square in the upper right of each article on the website and join in!

3. Read my story of financial meltdown and recovery. The Simple Dollar isn’t based on what I’ve read in books or learned in school. I’ve made a lifetime of financial mistakes – The Simple Dollar is a record of what works for me during the process of getting my life on a better track.

4. Download my free 49 page e-book. Everything You Ever Really Needed to Know About Personal Finance On Just One Page is completely free. It summarizes all of the key lessons I’ve learned along the way about personal finance in one tidy package – in fact, all of the main principles can be found right on the cover.

5. Follow me on Twitter. I post tons of interesting articles, quotes, follow-up material, commentary, and other material on Twitter. Follow me! If you’re unfamiliar with Twitter, it’s essentially an open discussion forum for people to share ideas and thoughts with other like-minded folks – you just choose the people you want to listen to and their ideas and thoughts are all delivered to you on a single page.

6. Dig through “31 Days to Fix Your Finances.” 31 Days to Fix Your Finances is an article series that outlines how you can get a grip on your finances over the course of a month.

7. Send me your questions and suggestions. Send me an email and let me know what you’re thinking, what you’d like to see, and any questions you might have. I try to respond to as many emails as possible and I read them all. I may even use your question in a future article!

8. Email a great article you find to a friend. Find an article that you think your friend would love? At the bottom of each article, you’ll find a link that says “Email this” – just click on that, type in your friend’s address, and send it right along to them!

Mitchell writes in:

Currently, we have around $100,000 in credit card debt and we’re having a very hard time making the interest payments. How can we consolidate that debt and get a lower rate? Should we go to our credit union?

Mitchell is falling into the same trap that I see a lot of people who email me falling into. To put it simply, they’re just prolonging the inevitable – putting off the necessary changes in their life because they don’t want to face it. They want to keep living their life as it is now.

I know all about this. For years, I did it myself. From 2003 to early 2006, I racked up tons of debt, and near the end of that period, I was concerned not with actually fixing the problem, but with thoughts about how I could move the pieces around to keep the game going. My thoughts weren’t directed towards the choices I was making to create that debt – I was instead thinking about how I could use “tricks” to not have to face those choices.

But no matter what kind of clever juggling I did – even once going so far as to do cash withdrawals from one card to pay the bill of another card – eventually, I found myself backed into a corner. I found myself with a pile of bills, no way to pay them, and a little child completely dependent on me to make good decisions.

When I finally faced facts and realized I had to make a change, I found out something painful. All of that shuffling of money to prolong my current standard of living had made my situation far, far worse than it could have been if I had just faced facts earlier on. The actions I had to take for recovery were more drastic and the lifestyle changes I made were much more stark. Even now, after years of working myself out of the situation, I can easily see how, if I hadn’t been so focused on just maintaining my lifestyle in 2005 and 2006, I would be in much better shape today.

The choices you make today will affect your future. You can either make the choice to keep spending with reckless abandon, or you can choose to take a real look at what you’re doing and see if you can make some changes.

Where can you start, especially if all you really want to do is just keep up your lifestyle? I suggest five things.

First, simply think about what makes you truly happy in your life. What do you do that actually brings you sustained joy? Most people immediately begin thinking about whatever action brought them a burst of excitement and joy recently – like a shopping experience – but that’s not what I’m talking about. Those bursts of joy fade quickly and don’t bring lasting happiness. Instead, look for the wells in your life that constantly provide joy, even days later when you think back on them. Family? A few very close friends? Good books? Going to church? Don’t worry about what others think – focus entirely on what makes you feel good. Whatever you find, that’s what you should be focusing your energies on – the other stuff can just fall by the wayside.

Second, think about the things that are broken in your life. Most of the time, I’ve found that when people overspend (myself included), they’re doing it to overcome some bad feelings about something. For me, it was a lack of self-esteem, which manifested itself in a desire to impress those around me. Other people might just spend money to cover up feelings from a hurt relationship. If you find those broken pieces, don’t flinch – instead, address them head on. End the painful relationship. Make an effort to patch up a relationship. Find new friends who lift you up instead of constantly dragging you down.

Third, set a one day goal. Can you get through today without spending frivolously? Instead of diving into opportunities to spend, look for inexpensive or free ways to enjoy the things in your life. Don’t worry about big things – just focus on the small. Then, when one day is a success, look to the next one. Then the next. Take it just one day at a time. And pair it with gravitating towards the positive things in your life and moving away from the negative things.

Fourth, discover things already around you. Look around your town for free things to do. Try new things. Glance at your community’s calendar (you can find it online easily enough). Visit the parks in your area, the museums, the community festivals. Dig into all of the opportunities out there instead of just doing the same old thing all the time. You can’t break bad habits and build good ones without dipping your toes into the pool.

Finally, focus on building relationships that aren’t built around spending. If all of your friends focus on shopping and going out all the time and criticize those who aren’t wearing expensive clothes, you might want to back slowly away from that circle. Instead, look for the people in your life who don’t focus on such things. The best friends are the ones who are perfectly happy to kick back on the couch and watch a movie together or simply have a great conversation over a bowl of ice cream. They add value to your life and don’t subtract from your bank account.

Yes, consolidating your debt at a lower interest rate is a good tactic for financial recovery. But if it’s not coupled with some other behavior changes, it’s just prolonging the inevitable – at some point, you’ll have to face facts or face destroyed credit and possible bankruptcy. Stop prolonging the inevitable – and instead start thinking about what really brings you happiness.

A few days ago, I received an interesting email from a person I vaguely knew from college. This person “rediscovered” me via The Simple Dollar, befriended me on Facebook, and sent me one or two emails.

Out of nowhere, though, the person emailed me a link to their wedding registry. It had been emailed to a lot of people, apparently – everyone in their email address book. The email included a generic invitation to pick out one of the hundreds of items they had selected.

I deleted the email. This was greed, pure and simple.

After receiving it, though, the issue of gift registries stuck in my mind. What exactly is tasteful behavior for a gift registry? Also, what kind of items should one put on such a registry?

Here are some of my accumulated thoughts on the matter.

Should I Have A Registry At All?
Over the years, a few readers have emailed me asking whether or not they should even have a gift registry for their wedding or baby shower. Usually, their concern was tackiness – isn’t it tacky to make a big list of the stuff you want? Didn’t we outgrow making gift wish lists when we were kids?

To tell the truth, I’m completely in favor of gift registries for such occasions. Most people have large social networks that want to buy gifts for weddings or for new babies, but they might not necessarily know what a good gift is. By making a registry, you help them out – and also (partially) ensure that you don’t get redundant items.

How Should I Let People Know Tastefully About the Registry?
Similarly, I have no objection to letting people know about the registry under one condition: they’re invited to some sort of celebration of the event.

For example, if a person isn’t invited to your wedding or reception, they should not be told about your wedding registry. Similarly, if a person is not invited to a baby shower of some sort, they shouldn’t be told about your baby registry.

Thus, I find the appropriate place to mention a registry is in an invitation. Include a simple extra slip of paper that simply says, “For your convenience, there is a gift registry at Target” or whatever location is useful to you and to your guests.

Do not suggest people buy gifts from your registry if they’re not close to you – or at least not close enough to receive invitations to your event. Doing so will not get you more gifts, but it will ensure that those people look poorly upon you.

What Should I Ask For?
Many people simply put everything they could think of that they could possibly want on their registry. I know we did this – we simply walked down the aisles at Target and put literally hundreds of items on the registry.

Bad strategy. We wound up getting a bunch of things that we didn’t really need on our wedding day.

Instead, the best place to start is with a list at home. Over a period of time, identify the things you would actually use. Look for things that really need to be replaced if you’re making a wedding registry. If you’re doing a baby registry, ask parents, particularly those with kids under the age of four or so, because there are many baby items that seem like a good idea, but are actually pretty useless in practice.

Also, make sure you have a wide variety of values on the list – and have more less-expensive items than very expensive items. Don’t load your registry down with a bunch of $300 items – not many guests will be able to easily afford those items. Instead, seek out items with a wide price range – it’s fine to put a few big items on it, but have more inexpensive items on it. Think of it this way: even if someone is intending to spend quite a bit on you for a gift, they can always grab multiples of the less expensive items.

A final tip: if you choose items of direct and immediate use to you, there are several benefits. First, it becomes much easier to write thank you notes for the item, because you can comment truthfully on how you’re using the item instead of having to find tactful things to say. Second, if it’s something you’re actually using, it’s made your life easier and saved you money and probably time, which is what gifts in these situations usually hope for. Finally, it’s much easier to show your item in use to gift-givers should they stop in – for example, if you ask for a pan you’ll actually use, you don’t have to “drag it out” to impress someone.

In short, if you’re authentic from the start about what you want and need, that authenticity follows all the way through, from the gift itself to saying thank you for it and when you’re actually using it. And that’s the best outcome of all, for both the giver and the recipient.

Any other thoughts on gift registries?

Quite often on The Simple Dollar, I’ll discuss some aspect of my personal finance life and I’ll say that “I” did this or that “I” did that.

Well, for every mention of the word “I,” my wife is there in the background, doing something little to make sure it all happens. She’ll cook a great meal, do something amazing for our kids, come up with a plan for some purchase we have to make, or simply be there in the moment with a great smile and a hug.

It’s pretty simple – without Sarah in my life, I would never be able to reach for my dreams. She provides so much of the foundation of our day-to-day life in many subtle ways – and, from my perspective, it is these subtle things that build the foundation of a strong, financially stable marriage.

Here are twelve little things that she does to make it all work. If you want a checklist of little things to do to help your marriage click, this can seriously help.

She listens. When I have something to say that’s actually of any importance, she listens. She stops and considers what I have to say, and she incorporates that into what she’s thinking. She doesn’t simply discard it, but she doesn’t adopt it as gospel, either – she simply listens and actually absorbs my thoughts.

She’s not afraid to say what she thinks. On the other side of that coin, she’s not afraid to say exactly what she thinks. If she thinks I have a good idea, she’ll say so – but if she thinks it’s bad, she’ll say that, too, and support it with reasons. Such open and equal give and take enables us to constantly come to the best decisions for us – in our money, in our work, and in other aspects of our lives.

She’s honest about her mistakes. No one is perfect, and neither is she. However, when she does mess up, she’s willing to admit it. She’ll say things like, “I just didn’t get it done. Sometimes I’m lazier than I’d like to be.” That simple effort in admitting to mistakes makes it much, much easier for us to work together to overcome the problem.

She picks up the slack when I leave it behind. On the other side of that coin, there are often times where some responsibility of mine will interrupt things. I have a phone interview. I have a television interview. I need to get a piece of writing submitted somewhere. Whenever these things occur, Sarah always just steps up. She knows that if I succeed, she succeeds – and I know the reverse is true.

She’ll go over things as many times as I need to. Sometimes I don’t pick up on things. I’ll put things in the wrong place in the pantry. I’ll not get the towels washed, or I’ll forget to use the cold rinse on the cloth diapers. Instead of going ballistic, she just checks to see if I did things the appropriate way and, if I did not, she just reminds me of how to do it. She does it so coolly and calmly that the only upset I feel is at myself for not picking up on the right way to do things.

She has a good sense of humor and a lot of tolerance of my own foibles. Along those same lines, she just rolls with who I am. She laughs at (or at least tolerates) my goofy jokes. She knows the things I’m good at and the things I’m not good at – and worries more about accentuating the positive instead of eliminating the negative.

She understands and is committed to spending less than we earn. We sit down and talk about our financial goals all the time – and she’s similarly committed to putting our financial life on a good path. Thus, our choices are in sync – I’m not worried that she’s out there spending money in ways that are undoing my work – and vice versa.

She’ll make good career suggestions – but isn’t hurt if I don’t take them. My wife reads The Simple Dollar and often has suggestions for improvements on it – ways to market it, post ideas, and so forth. (She also sometimes laughs at the things I do to protect people’s privacy.)

She encourages me to grow – and makes room for it. She gives me breathing room for my hobbies and gives me “alone time” when I need it. That “me” time is the time I use for reading, meditating, and personal growth – which are all key for keeping me sane.

If something is clearly a good deal, she’s enthusiastic about pursuing it. She does almost all of the real nitty-gritty bargain hunting when we make major purchases. She also is the one who will find new and useful ways to expand our search and comes up with good criteria to search on. For example, with our car purchase, she was the one who suggested that we include new cars in the search, which eventually led us to discover that in the current car market new cars have tremendous advantages.

She’s there beside me when things are good and when things are bad. When something good happens, she’s there. When something bad happens, she’s there. She doesn’t back away, regardless of how things are doing. She’s just a steady constant, because she knows that we’re going to be there for each other no matter what happens.

She revels in the simple things in life. It doesn’t require an expensive gift or a fancy dinner to impress her – in fact, she’s happy with a spaghetti dinner and a potted plant for Mother’s Day. She’d far rather lay out on the grass or play with the kids than go out on the town or go shopping.

All together, she makes this crazy ride work. And for that, I’m forever thankful.

One of the best personal finance articles I’ve ever read is Snowflaking: A Primer, at I Paid For This Twice Already. Here’s an excerpt so that you get the idea:

Snowflaking is a spinoff of the Snowball approach to debt reduction popularized by Dave Ramsey. With the Debt Snowball method, you figure out what amount you can pay to debt every month, and then you keep paying that amount, even as your debts shrink and your minimums get smaller. To implement it, in a nutshell, make a list of all your debts, order them from either smallest to largest or highest interest to lowest interest (that is a debate in itself), and you focus all extra money above the minimum payments on a single debt (either the smallest total or the highest interest, I use interest order). As you eliminate debts, you apply the payment you were making to that debt to the next debt in line until the snowballing effect of decreasing minimums and increasing amounts applied to particular debts eliminates all the debts on your list.

Well, what are snowballs made of? Snowflakes! I have a set amount I pay to debt without fail every month that is above my minimum payment due (about $800). On top of that, I also try to collect up little bits of money wherever I can and I apply those as well to my top priority debt as immediately as possible. I take surveys online, I sell possessions on craigslist and ebay, I have yard sales, and any money I get from these endeavors goes directly to my debt. I also keep a very strict accounting of all the money that comes in every month and what I spend and everything left over at the end of the month not earmarked for future expenses also goes directly to debt. These are my snowflakes. I have averaged over $200 extra going to pay down my credit card debt every month due to these snowflaking efforts.

Many small snowflakes make a snowball, and no amount is too small for me to snowflake. I used to pay my credit card directly every time I collected a snowflake through their online interface, but now that I have moved my credit card debt to another card with a 0% interest offer, I collect the snowflakes and pay them once per week (I am limited to the number of payments I can make to this card a month). If you are able to and your debt is not at 0% interest, I highly recommend the “pay snowflakes immediately” method. The faster your balance is reduced, the less interest you will accrue.

Snowflaking is, quite simply, a great way to get aggressive with your debts. It gives you a little extra push towards achieving your goals. Even better, you can also “snowflake” towards any savings goals you might have.

Don’t know how to get started? Here are 15 ways you can get snowflaking going in your own life. These are low-impact ways – far from starting a side business – to earn a few bucks without devoting countless hours to a major project, things that sync very well with what you already do or can be picked up whenever you feel like it.

Have a yard sale. Go through your house, identify the items you don’t use much, and sell them. Put them out for sale in your yard over a weekend (with reasonable prices) and put that money straight towards your debts or other goals.

Keep your aluminum cans separate. In Iowa (and in many other states), there is a nickel “deposit” that one pays for each aluminum can (or bottle) purchased. Keep these cans and bottles separate from other trash, then occasionally return all of them for $10 or so. It helps the environment and gives you a bit of snowflaking cash.

House-sit. If someone you know goes on vacation, offer to house-sit for them, look after their pets, and so forth. It’s pretty easy work and can earn you some quick cash to knock down some debts.

Walk pets. If you already walk your own pet in the morning, it’s not much of a stretch to stop by another house or two, pick up their pet, and walk that pet as well – for a fee, of course. Put that fee straight towards your financial goals.

Blow snow. Got a snowblower? You’ll be blowing the snow from your own lawn anyway, so why not set up an arrangement where you’ll blow the snow from your neighbors’ driveways and walks for $10 or $20. Then, take that cash and put it towards your goals.

Eat a “free” meal. Freeze your “utility” leftovers, then make a meal out of them once in a while – mix your leftover rice, vegetables, and chicken pieces to make a “free” meal. That’s worth $5, easy, so just snowflake $5 when you do it.

Take surveys. It’s a great way to make a few bucks at your computer while watching a TV show or a movie. It’s not a great money maker, but it’s low-intensity and can be done whenever it fits your schedule.

Mow lawns. Got neighbors who can’t mow very often? Mow their lawn whenever you mow theirs for a few dollars. You’ve already got the mower out, right?

Write. You don’t have to start a blog and post regularly (though there’s success to be found there, too). Instead, just write articles and submit them to services like Associated Content or make “lenses” at Squidoo. It’s a great way to burn an hour or two on a lazy evening and earn a few bucks in the process.

Do simple tasks. Amazon’s Mechanical Turk will pay you a few cents for a mindless task that just takes a few seconds. One of my friends does this on her laptop during commercial breaks when she’s watching a television show and makes enough to cover basic cable.

Babysit. If you already have kids at home, put out your shingle as a babysitter. Most evenings, you’re already at home, so you’ll be getting paid just to mind another little one around the house. I know several people who do this.

Deliver groceries. If you know of any elderly folks or shut-ins who have difficulty getting out to buy groceries, give them a ring whenever you shop and offer to pick up what they need. They’ll often pay you several dollars extra for the service (and even if they don’t, it’s a great way to help someone in need).

Make crafts. Many people enjoy some sort of craft as a hobby. Create projects that reflect the best of your work, then sell them on sites like etsy. Anything from knitting to woodworking to scrapbooking to jewelry making can make you a few dollars in your spare time.

Be a “search guide.” If you’re just browsing the ‘net, why not help others find what they’re looking for online and make a few bucks? Cha Cha does just that – people send text messages to the service with questions, they pop up on your computer, you figure out the answer, send it back, and earn a bit to throw towards your debts.

Give charitably. Give what you can to charities – goods and other donations. Then, when you get the receipts for tax deductions, figure up how much you “get back” on your taxes and contribute that to your debts.

Good luck!