Kevin writes in:

I love what you write about keeping your hobbies and interests, but I have a bit of a different problem.

When I was a teenager, I found a lot of solace in comic books. I like how they presented a world that wasn’t completely soaked in moral ambiguity and that good people generally came out on top, something I didn’t often see in my real life at the time.

Now, I’m 31. I have a great job that pays very well. I’ve been dating a girl seriously for several years. And I also still have my comic book hobby. I buy a few dozen titles a month, read them, put them in plastic bags, and save them in a storage room I have in the basement of my home.

Sometimes, though, when I go down there, I feel like there’s a ton of money wasted. I look around and wonder what I could have done with all of those resources and it adds a twinge of guilt. I also have a sense that maybe I should “grow up.”

I’m wondering what your thoughts are.

First of all, I don’t have a problem with any non-destructive hobby that brings personal enjoyment, even ones others might define as “childish.” I have one friend who collects vintage action figures and another friend who’s into My Little Ponies. They’re both in their thirties and are well-adjusted folks with great careers. If it brings you joy without personal injury, enjoy it.

The question really is whether or not you get sufficient enjoyment out of the hobby for what you put into it. I don’t really know what your costs are for the hobby and I also don’t know what your enjoyment level is at this point. Do you get excited about comic books at this point? Do you look forward to reading them? Do you re-read old issues? Do you follow hobby news online?

There’s also the nostalgia factor. Sometimes we change as people and it’s very hard to let go of something that meant something deeply to us in the past. In fact, it can often go so far as to produce some joy in the present that’s actually just an echo of what we once got a great deal of joy out of. It also may be that what you enjoy about the hobby has changed – or, in your case, you now have this sense that you need to “bag” all of your comics to preserve them when before they were something you read, cut up for art projects, mangled, threw under your bed, and “lived” with.

The closest hobby I have in my own life to compare this to is Magic: the Gathering. For those unfamiliar, Magic: the Gathering is a trading card game, meaning that you can easily play a game of it with just a few cards, but there are literally tens of thousands of different cards available, each of which can alter the game. Players choose their own small sets of cards from their collection to play with, called decks.

I started playing Magic: the Gathering in high school when several of my friends and I started playing all at once. I kept playing into college and for a bit after college, but once my first child was born, I had to take stock of the hobby. I realized that what I actually enjoyed at this point was the occasional game with my wife and with old friends. I had no real need or interest to continue to buy new cards.

So I sold off most of my collection right around the time we needed some help with our financial turnaround. The collection had been sitting in my closet for a year or two anyway at that point, with only a few cards actually played with. I turned the remainder of the cards into a handful of playable decks and a “draft cube” (another playable set of cards) and kept around a few leftovers to occasionally trade for newer stuff to put into those decks.

Today, I probably play Magic once a month. I’ll play with my wife or with another close friend of mine. I don’t buy any new cards – instead, I just pull out some of the ones I have. I realized that what I enjoy about the hobby right now doesn’t require me to spend any money.

My oldest child is starting to show an interest in it, too, as he watches us play. His reading skills aren’t quite there yet, but he understands some of what’s going on.

In other words, the hobby as I experience it today has only some elements in common with what I enjoyed as a teenager, but they’re the elements I want to keep with me. I just enjoy playing the game, laughing with friends, and enjoying a bit of nostalgia from time to time. To retain these elements, I don’t have to spend any money. I just have to keep a couple of boxes on the shelf in my closet.

Which brings us back to Kevin and his comic books. I think what you need to do is ask yourself what you actually enjoy about the hobby. Do you enjoy the collecting? Do you enjoy reading the comic books? Do you enjoy simply following the hobby and being aware of what’s going on in it?

From what I can tell, your enjoyment seems to come from the reading, not from the collecting. My thought would be that you should simply forego the collecting. Stop buying the poly bags to store your books in, sell off your collection, and use that money to buy only the issues of comics that you want to read. If there are some “classics” that you want to read again and again, pick them up in the least expensive format you can (probably a graphic novel).

Stick to what makes you happy. Jettison the rest. It’ll save you money and increase your joy.

Each week, I highlight ten things each week that inspired me to greater financial, personal, and professional success. Hopefully, they will inspire you as well.

1. Sheena Iyengar on the art of choosing
Why do we make the choices we make? If we’re trustworthy decision makers, why do we often second guess our choices? If we’re not trustworthy decision makers, how can we become one?

This short speech made me think a lot this week – and also made me start seeking out her book on the same topic, The Art of Choosing.

2. The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
I had to memorize this in high school. The words still stick with me.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

3. Benjamin Franklin on the way to wealth
Frugality alone isn’t enough to become rich. Neither is hard work. You need them both to really succeed.

“The way to wealth depends on just two words, industry and frugality.” – Benjamin Franklin

Whenever I hear some personal finance speaker say that frugality doesn’t work or that all you need is frugality, I scoff. You need both sides of the coin to win.

4. Derek Redmond and his father at the 1992 Summer Olympics
Derek was favored to win a medal in the 400 meters at the 1992 Olympics. Instead, he found something else.

I hope to be this kind of parent.

5. Flavors.me
I know a lot of people who would like a simple and elegant website for themselves when people Google their name. This is pretty much the simplest way I’ve found to make that happen.

You can create a website for yourself, heavily identify it with your name, and it will soon appear at the top of a Google search result for your name. In other words, you can have some real input into what people find out about you (because they will inevitably search).

6. Elise Boulding on the happiness of not having things
Most of the truly happy moments in my life involved no material possessions at all.

“Frugality is one of the most beautiful and joyful words in the English language, and yet one that we are culturally cut off from understanding and enjoying. The consumption society has made us feel that happiness lies in having things, and has failed to teach us the happiness of not having things.” – Elise Boulding

There is so much joy in life that doesn’t revolve around having things or having better things than the guy down the street.

7. Chip Conley on measuring what makes life worthwhile
In the end, it’s really just people and experiences. Stuff really just exists to connect you with people and provide experiences. So, how do you measure that kind of self-actualization?

In other words, what makes your life worthwhile?

8. Children playing chess
Early this week, I tried very hard to get a great picture of my son playing chess. I took a whole bunch of shots, but never found one that captured the element of a young mind at work and of discovery that I wanted.

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I took to the internet, though, and found a picture that comes really close. Thanks to hugrakka for the image.

9. Henry David Thoreau on riches and wants
The secret to frugal success isn’t about doing without. It’s about simply not wanting it to begin with.

“We make ourselves rich by making our wants few.” – Henry David Thoreau

It’s not about deprivation. It’s about simply lacking the want.

10. Sing Sing Sing by Louis Prima
Prima’s music has such warmth and happiness that I can’t help but smile when I hear it.

Each week, I’ll present a low-cost meal (or a meal that demonstrates a lot of options for cutting costs) that my family eats for dinner and enjoys. Many of the recipes will be vegan or vegetarian, with options to add other ingredients for non-vegetarians.

This week’s goal was simple. What sort of healthy lunch can we make with the stuff on hand that’s in the spirit of fall (and has some of the flavors of the season), while still being relatively light, appeals to the kids, is inexpensive and uses a lot of what we had on hand already, and can easily be made in a large batch to pull out of the refrigerator in a day or two for a tight meal?

I think we pulled all of that off with this one. These wraps make for a perfect lunch and can also accompany a stew or soup for the evening meal – in fact, I ate these wraps in both of these settings. They’re a bit sweet (from the peanut butter), but both fall-flavorful and fairly light at the same time.

I’ll give Sarah a lot of credit here. She came up with these during some of her kitchen alchemy, where she just seemingly pulls out a bunch of random stuff and assembles a meal from it.

What You Need
All you’ll need is some peanut butter (I’m honestly not sure how much – just get out a jar and a butter knife), some tortillas, 1/4 cup minced apple per tortilla, 1/8 cup shredded carrot per tortilla, 1/8 cup granola per tortilla, and 1 teaspoon of roasted wheat germ per tortilla.

Roasted wheat germ is easy. Just spread out the wheat germ on a baking dish and pop it in the oven at 350 for about five minutes. Perfect.

We were able to find all of this stuff on hand at our house except the granola, which we picked up for a few nickels at our local grocery store.

The Night Before (or Early That Day)
The thing to do beforehand is to prep the carrots and apples. Simply chop the apples into oblivion and shred the carrots. You might also want to toast the wheat germ.

Of course, assembling the wraps is so easy that this is the real work of the meal.

Preparing the Meal
Lay out a tortilla in front of you. Cover it in a thin layer of peanut butter, then add the other ingredients as described in “What You Need.” Here’s what one looked like before wrapping.

Once that’s done, simply wrap it up, slice it in half, and enjoy!

These wraps work as a standalone meal. They also work as an accompaniment to other foods, particularly soups.

Optional Ingredients
You can substitute other spreads for the peanut butter. In fact, the last time I made these, I actually used almond butter. You can try things like hazelnut butter as well, though it’ll make the wrap very sweet. If you want it less sweet, use cream cheese as the spread. For other ingredient substitutions, you can leave things out as you wish or used other vegetables as a substitute, such as shredded sweet potato.

Saving Pennies or Dollars is a new semi-regular series on The Simple Dollar, inspired by a great discussion on The Simple Dollar’s Facebook page concerning frugal tactics that might not really save that much money. I’m going to take some of the scenarios described by the readers there and try to break down the numbers to see if the savings is really worth the time invested.

Ron writes in: Does it really save a lot to ride a bicycle around town instead of driving? I have a Ford pickup that gets about twenty miles per gallon If I were to drive to the post office and the grocery store, it would be a four mile round trip. From what I can see, that bicycle ride would only save me about sixty cents in gas.

This is a lot trickier than it sounds. The biggest reason is that the cost of using your truck for this excursion is much greater than just the cost of gas. So let’s start by running through these expenses.

Gas If gas is $3.50 a gallon and your vehicle gets 20 miles per gallon, that’s $0.18 per mile just for gas.

Prorated cost of the vehicle Let’s say you bought this truck for $15,000 and intend to drive it for 100,000 miles. That means that the cost per mile for the vehicle itself is $0.15.

Oil If you can get your oil changed for $30 every 3,000 miles, you’re adding $0.01 per mile to your drive.

Other maintenance This varies so much from vehicle to vehicle that it’s difficult to estimate, but I’d put it at at least $0.03 per mile.

There’s also the fact that some number of failures are going to happen while you own the vehicle, which has to be prorated into the cost. If you have three repairs of $1,000 each, you’re going to be spending $0.03 per mile to effectively cover those repairs.

Insurance Insurance needs to be prorated into every mile that you drive it, too. If you drive it 1,000 miles a month and insurance costs you $80 a month, you’re spending $0.08 per mile to cover insurance.

That’s $0.48 per mile, right there.

If your trip to the post office and the store requires four miles of driving, then you’re burning $1.92 in that short trip.

Now, what about that bicycle? The bicycle I own cost less than $100 and requires no upkeep other than air, which I get for free at the gas station. I’ve ridden on it for thousands of miles by now, which gets me down well below $0.10 per mile in cost.

Riding that trip, for me, would cost about $0.30 on my bike, give or take.

Clearly, riding a bike for simple errands is less expensive than using a vehicle. However, the vehicle is going to be quicker than the bicycle. How much quicker depends heavily on where you’re at. For example, I can get to many destinations within my town almost as quickly on a bicycle as I can in a car because I can take shortcuts through parks, utilize bike lanes, and so on. This varies a lot depending on your community.

There’s also the fact that bicycle riding is far better for your health than driving a car. The exercise you get while riding a bike has health benefits in the long term and energy benefits in the short term, a value which is again hard to calculate but leans toward the bicycle strongly.

Is riding a bike around town going to save you a mint? No, but it will save you a little and it’ll improve your health at the same time without adding too much time to your day.

Anna writes in:

I’m amazed at how many people who write into your mailbags have enormous student loan debts and mortgages. I know that prices have increased, but whatever happened to just working at your job and using that money to pay for school and for your down payment?

I know how much you like to “run the number,” so I’d like to see the real financial situation of someone my age compared to someone today.

Unfortunately, the vision of someone working at a minimum wage job part time to pay for college or someone having a full down payment in their early twenties is simply not realistic today. The numbers simply don’t bear it out.

Let’s start digging through the data. I tried to provide sources for as much of the information below as I could.

Wages
In 1970, minimum wage was $1.60 an hour. Today, it’s $7.25 an hour. That’s a 353% increase over that period of time, which seems like a fair amount… until you actually start looking at how prices have increased.

What about average wages? I couldn’t find a document that laid out full details on average wages per year, but this document from the Census Bureau, laying out some average wage information, shows that average household income has roughly kept pace with consumer prices.

Consumer Prices
In January 1970, the Consumer Price Index was 37.8. In January 2011, it was 220.223. That’s a 482% increase over the period we’re looking at.

In other words, for every dollar increase in the minimum wage since 1970, the price of an average item has gone up $1.36. Even adjusting for inflation, a dollar today buys less than it once did for low income earners.

So, for a person freshly out of school, the initial income outlook is worse than a fresh graduate in 1970, but after some career advancement, their salaries end up being comparable given inflation.

Education
In 1970, a year of tuition at a public university cost $1,207. In the most recent year of data available, 2007, a year of tuition at a public university cost $11,034. That represents an annual average increase of 6.2%, which, if you applied it to the 2007 price, gives you an estimated 2010 cost of a year of education as being $13,216. That’s a 994% increase in the cost of a four year degree.

So, let’s say you’re earning minimum wage and trying to make it through college.

In 1970, you could work 755 hours at a minimum wage job over the course of a year to earn enough to pay for a year of schooling at a public institution – about 14 hours per week.

In 2010, you would have to work 1,823 hours at a minimum wage job over the course of a year to earn enough money to pay for a year of schooling at a public institution – about 35 hours per week.

In other words, in 1970, you could work a part time job as a cashier or something to that effect and easily pay for college, enabling you to work and attend college without going into debt. In 2010, you have to work a full time job to pay for college, meaning you essentially have to choose between debt and an education or some other difficult plan.

Not only that, a college education is becoming much more of a requirement than it was in 1970. In 1973, the earlierst year that I could find firm data, 72% of jobs available for workers in the United States had only a high school diploma or had dropped out of school. In 2007, that number had dropped to 41%, and future projections show it only going lower. The jobs remaining that do not require a college education are primarily service jobs that do not pay a high wage.

In other words, in 1970, the choice to enter the workforce immediately after high school or work a minimum wage job while going to college was a real choice. Today, it’s not a real choice unless you want to agree to low income for life. You have to enter the costly bargain of secondary education.

Housing
The median price of a home sold in the United States in January 1970 was $23,600. The median price of a home sold in the United States in January 2011 was $240,100. That’s an increase of 917%, one on par with the jump in education prices.

In other words, even after the housing collapse, a home today costs approximately three times as much as a home in 1970 compared to the average wage that a person earns.

The Full Picture
The minimum wage in the United States has gone up 353% since 1970, and average incomes have gone up approximately 500%. In that same span, however, the cost of basic household goods has gone up 482%, the cost of a four year education has gone up 994%, and the cost of an average home has gone up 917%.

In other words, in the eyes of an average worker from 1970 compered to today, the prices at the grocery store have remained largely unchanged, but the cost of an education has roughly doubled (and it’s now required if you want to earn significant money, where it wasn’t in 1970) and the cost of a home has roughly doubled as well.

If you look at it through the eyes of a minimum wage earner from 1970 compared to today, the prices at the grocery store have gone up about 30%, the cost of education has roughly tripled, and the cost of a home has roughly tripled.

Is There A Solution?
Like it or not, students of today, you’re likely not going to be able to follow the path of your parents – and especially not the path of your grandparents. If you want to have a financially healthy life, you’re going to need to keep an eye on every dollar much more than they had to. The ability to sensibly manage your money and make smart buying choices is much more of a requirement than ever before.

Parents and grandparents of today, give those kids a break. They’ve got a much worse financial reality than you did when you walked out of school. They’re facing bigger housing costs, bigger education costs, and a bigger requirement to have that education than you ever did. Don’t compare the path they’re following to the one you’re following. It’s an unfair comparison all around.

What’s inside? Here are the questions answered in today’s reader mailbag, boiled down to five word summaries. Click on the number to jump straight down to the question.
1. Retirement savings on smaller income
2. Focusing on health
3. Digging through debts
4. Getting started in book publishing
5. Trading board games by mail
6. Repeat material
7. A cavalcade of problems
8. Inexpensive DIY projects
9. Building a side business
10. Creating a podcast “station”

Two days ago, I badly twisted my ankle while playing Frisbee at dusk with my son. I took off after a Frisbee, didn’t see an obstacle in the yard, and suddenly I’m on my hands and knees and my ankle is throbbing.

It’s not been bad enough that I’ve been unable to do anything, but I have been keeping it a bit elevated and taking it easy the last two days.

Things like this remind me of how fragile we really are. If I had tripped a bit differently, I could have broken my ankle. If it had been a different obstacle, I could really be in a pickle.

Q1: Retirement savings on smaller income
I am a 35 year old woman wanting to start saving for retirement. I only make $900 a month where do i start.
- Maggie

It depends entirely on what your monthly expenses are. With the level of income you have, you might be in a situation where you really don’t have any extra money to spare, in which case your focus shouldn’t be on retirement savings, but on increasing your income.

If you do have some money to spare each month, the best solution for you is to open a Roth IRA account. If you feel confident doing this yourself, I recommend opening such an account with Vanguard, which is what I use.

What you’ll end up doing is setting up the account to withdraw a small amount from your checking account each month. This money will grow in that account until you reach retirement age, at which point you’ll be able to withdraw it tax free.

Q2: Focus on health
My husband is 32 and has been gaining weight progressively over the past few years and his current BMI is 27. He is a very caring person but I he doesn’t take care of himself. I have tried to get him to exercise and eat healthily but he is always making excuses and postponing it. He has a pretty sedentary lifestyle with 8+ hours in front of the computer. How do I motivate/convince him to start getting fit without sounding too preachy? Do you have any websites that you can suggest which might help motivate him or make him see the importance of being fit?
- Linda

Significant change almost always has to come from within. He has to want to change or else he won’t change. External motivators usually end up resulting in a rebound and resentment toward the motivator.

The best thing you can do is simply be a good example yourself. Start exercising. Make a conscious effort to eat better. Most importantly, do it without preaching or telling him to do things.

You can, of course, tell him that you’d like it if he focused more on his health, but if you make it a mandate, you’re going to create relationship problems.

Q3: Digging through debts
I know you got to a point a little while ago where all your debts were clear except for your mortgage. I am wondering how you tackled it. I have looked around your previous articles, but don’t seem to be finding what I am looking for. I live with my husband in Australia and we were debt free just over 12 months ago (totally debt free). We had been living interstate for a couple of years, did some travelling and came home to a trashed house. Between everything that happened in the past 12 months, we ended up around $80,000 in debt. Since May we have paid off $20,000, but it really feels like a long hard slog.

What I am wondering is whether to just take our time and pay it off whilst having a really decent, not so tight, but still fairly frugal life, or just continue on the extremely tight budget for the next 18 months and just get it over with. After working so hard in the past few years to become debt free, it feels like agony this time round.
- Shari

It depends on what you want. Do you want financial freedom sooner or do you want a more pleasant life from a consumerist standpoint right now?

It seems like you’re asking for “permission” to not live tightly. You certainly don’t need that permission. You just have to be okay with the benefits and the drawbacks of making that choice.

As for me, I remember what it felt like to have a debt load and I don’t want to go back. I’d be perfectly happy to live on ramen and beans for a while to ensure that.

Q4: Getting started in book publishing
I have a small website that I run that enabled me to quit my job. It makes just enough money for me to live simply for now, so that I can build on it and work on it for it to hopefully reach it’s potential. I have over a years salary saved up to do this. As a side project, I have (at least what I think) a very marketable book idea. It should take me about a year to write this an make it happen.

My question is, as someone who’s written a book, and an ebook, is this. I believe you went with a traditional publisher. How has this helped you? Did they seem to help market your book in a way to make it worth their while? Or would you have gone with the self publishing route?
- Jeff

To be honest, I had basically decided not to publish until a book publisher came along and made me a wonderful offer that I couldn’t ignore. They made the entire process quite simple and worked with me the whole way through it.

Having said that, I don’t think a book was worth it from a financial standpoint. It was more worthwhile in the sense that I could now say I was “Trent Hamm, author of 365 Ways to Live Cheap and The Simple Dollar.”

If I were doing it strictly for revenue, I would go the e-book route.

Q5: Trading board games by mail
You mentioned the other day that you somehow trade board games by mail. How is that even possible? How do you get it set up?
- Evan

The website BoardGameGeek, which I frequent, is one where you can swap games by mail. They offer a lot of mechanisms for doing it, too, including tools for verifying that the other trader is trustworthy and so on.

It’s somewhat turned into a hobby of mine over the past year, especially since I often look at the board games available at thrift stores and yard sales and the like. I used to just pick up ones that I knew I would like. Now, I’ll also pick up ones that I know will have trade value.

It’s a great little thing that enables me to routinely have new games to play with my friends (my wife and I have several meetups a month with friends to play board and card games).

Q6: Repeat material
Do you ever start writing a post only to realize that you’ve already covered the subject?
- Shannon

Yes, it happens quite a lot.

Sometimes, I still go ahead with it, but I look for a new angle on the idea. Usually, this is because it’s what I would call a “core” idea, one that I think bears repeating and can really be of use to a new reader to the site.

At other times, I’ll just discard the half-written post and go on to something else.

Naturally, there are times I do repeat the content of older posts. After all, there’s an archive of several thousand Simple Dollar articles and I don’t always exactly recall what all I’ve written. I do try to stick to new ideas – or at least new angles.

Q7: A cavalcade of problems
I am 24 years old and have a pretty stable job in Texas. I purchased a house in May 2010. I contribute 8% of my income to my 401K and my employer matches up to 8% (yes, I know it is way awesome!). Right now I make $56600/year before taxes but in 2 weeks, I am receiving a 13% raise for a promotion which should put me up to about $63900/year before taxes. I also receive about $500 a month from a roommate.

I also have the following debts:
an auto loan ($22212 @ 2.99%)
2 student loans ($6794 @ 6.55% and 8930 @ 6.104%)
the mortgage ($110800 @ 5.00%)
About $4874 in credit card debt ($3379 @ 0% (until July 2012) and $1495 @ 13.9%).

Before this year, I had not been carrying a balance on the 13.9% interest credit card (and didn’t even have the second one) and had about $5000 in an emergency fund… which is now completely gone.

Since the beginning of the year, I have:
1) replaced a fence (it fell down in January and I had a new one built in March after receiving a pretty sizable bonus)
2) dealt with a slab leak where more than 80 ft of pipe was rerouted through my attic (luckily the insurance covered a good amount of this one)
3) replaced my sewer line (all me – See 0% interest credit card above)
4) replaced a vehicle after learning that I needed $3000 + worth of repairs on a car that was only worth about $1200 – I probably should have gotten something a little less expensive but I LOVE my new truck (2009 Toyota Tacoma)

And now, my air conditioner is having issues. Since I live in Texas, an air conditioner is EXTREMELY important. There is a leak in my coil so they will have to keep adding freon periodically as it leaks out, if I dont replace the system. I have gotten bids from a couple different companies ranging from $5600 to $9700.

My questions for you include:
1) should I bother replacing the system now or just hope that the freon only needs to be refilled after a long amount of time?
2) how important is a super energy efficient air conditioner? At this point in time, I have no intention of moving.
3) Do you have any suggestions on how to finance such a purchase, if your suggestion is to go ahead and replace it?
4) I have been trying really hard to get financially fit but keep running into major issues. Do you have any suggestions for overcoming the issues in order to recover financially?
- Kate

I would get the opinions of multiple air conditioner repairpeople before making the call as to what to do here. I’m not an air conditioner expert, so I’d just trust the most common opinion among the repairpeople.

In a hot climate, the energy efficiency of your air conditioning unit is pretty important, on the order of hundreds of dollars a month on your energy bill. If you’re going to be there for a long time, energy efficiency is a pretty important concern.

As for financing it, I would probably consider a home equity loan of some kind for the express purpose of a home improvement. When you’re recovering from that, focus on living lean and use a debt snowball method to get rid of all of your debts (pay them off in order of interest rate and make all extra payments on the one with the highest rate).

You can do this. It’ll just take time and diligence.

Q8: Inexpensive DIY projects
Recently I have gotten the Do It Yourself Bug. DO you have project ideas on the cheap. Landscaping, Home improvements, Decorating, etc? I have looked at tons of blogs but very few give you inexpensive ideas.
- Cherie

Many do-it-yourself projects are inherently expensive. If I were you, I would focus on do-it-yourself projects that will clearly save you money over the long run.

For example, one project you can take on is air sealing your home. What you’re doing is going through your home, finding places where air is leaking out or leaking in, and sealing those areas with caulk, strips, or other materials. This has a fairly low up-front cost, but will save you a lot over the long haul on your heating and cooling bills.

There are quite a few projects along these lines: check and improve your attic insulation, check any potential areas of water leaking in the basement and repair them, focus on areas that might be leaking on your roof, and so on.

Essentially, look for the things that will reduce costs in the future and the investment you make in the do-it-yourself project will be repaid no matter what you do.

Q9: Building a side business
I’m 25 and currently work as a project manager for an HR software company. I’ve gotten pretty darn good with the software and I’ve been doing some moonlighting for a consultant, advising her and doing some report building. I enjoy the work and have been wanting to expand on my client base but my concern is that the software is a fairly niche product with only a few major players in the industry. The extent of my industry knowledge is with the software itself so my potential client base in this respect is limited to my company’s current client load. I’d like to keep my activities quiet so I’m uncomfortable sharing this interest with my fellow employees (I fear retribution from the company).

Knowing the above, what do you think would be a good way for me to use my current knowledge to expand my side business? What would you do if you were in a similar situation?
- Frank

My advice to you would be to expand what you can do. Is there anything at all about what you do that’s analogous to what goes on in other industries? Almost always, there’s something similar going on in a parallel field.

Once you can figure out that parallel, learn it. Take what you know and use it as a huge boost toward acquiring the new skill or set of skills.

Suddenly, you’ve opened up a window to something new. It’s something that makes you more versatile as a consultant and it makes the potential for you to walk away and do your own thing with much more viability.

Skills pay the bills, every time.

Q10: Creating a podcast “station”
I followed your suggestions in downloading iTunes and checking out some podcasts. My problem is that I would like to just listen to a bunch of podcasts throughout the day without interruption like a radio station in the background that I control. How do you do this?
- Ed

What I usually do is create a new playlist each morning within iTunes. Then, I literally move each episode that I want to listen to that day to my new playlist and order them in the way I want. After that, I double-click on the first one and they all play in order seamlessly.

I’m able to keep up with about twenty podcasts this way, some of which are daily and others of which are weekly (or less frequent).

Got any questions? Email them to me or leave them in the comments and I’ll attempt to answer them in a future mailbag (which, by way of full disclosure, may also get re-posted on other websites that pick up my blog). However, I do receive hundreds of questions per week, so I may not necessarily be able to answer yours.

Saving Pennies or Dollars is a new semi-regular series on The Simple Dollar, inspired by a great discussion on The Simple Dollar’s Facebook page concerning frugal tactics that might not really save that much money. I’m going to take some of the scenarios described by the readers there and try to break down the numbers to see if the savings is really worth the time invested.

Calista writes in: Does making your own baby wipes (paper towels, water, baby soap & baby oil) save pennies or dollars? We used the recipe at a group home where I worked, and by the time you purchase quality paper towels, which are necessary, it didn’t seem like we were saving much money.

Making homemade wipes can certainly save you some money. The problem is, as Calista noted, you have to base them on high quality paper towels or you end up with a mess. Of course, I consider many of the low-end wipes to be “not worth it,” either, and I prefer to use rags.

What’s the best approach, then? Buying wipes? Making your own wipes? Using rags? Let’s run some numbers.

First of all, I did an extensive calculation a while back and discovered that the cost of using rags is about two cents per use. This includes the cost of obtaining them and cleaning them. It’s going to basically be impossible for wipes to approach this cost, but rags come with a cost themselves: they require the most work. You eventually have to launder them.

So, what about normal baby wipes? If you’re willing to buy them in bulk, they can be found in large quantities for as low as about two and a half cents per wipe at a warehouse store.

So, what’s cheaper? After you use about a hundred rags or so, you’ll have to invest the time to do a load of them in the laundry. However, using those hundred rags (along with a spray bottle of water) will save you about fifty cents. If you’re also using a spray bottle with a few teaspoons of vinegar and a few drops of dishwashing soap, you might eat up another nickel of that savings. Would you do a washer load of rags for forty five cents? I can’t make that call for you, but I will say that I prefer rags from a usability and an environment standpoint.

Now, let’s add in making your own wipes. You can make this by mixing ten parts water with one part baby shampoo. Mix this gently. I usually suggest putting several squirts into a large bottle, then stirring it gently and keeping it in the fridge.

Then, take a roll of paper towels and cut that baby in half the long way. What you want to end up with is two U-shaped half-rolls of paper towels. Then, cut these U-shaped rolls into two equally sized rolls. At this point, you’ll have four U-shaped piles of paper towels. You’ll also need a container that these wipes will sit in easily, preferably one with a lid so they don’t dry out.

Put one of those half-rolls into the wipe container, then slowly pour the wipe solution on top. Keep pouring until the paper towels are no longer sucking up the liquid. Close up the container, then put the remaining solution in the refrigerator.

A single roll of paper towel gives about 240 of these wipes, based on my own practice. You need good paper towels for this to work. At our local warehouse club, you can purchase twelve rolls of Bounty for $19.45, giving you a cost per wipe using this method of roughly two-thirds of a cent per wipe.

This is clearly the cheapest method. However, it has a few problems. For one, you need a container that stays closed or else the wipes will dry out. Even with a closed container, you’ll probably have to re-soak the wipes every once in a while. Also, between the cutting (which has to be done pretty regularly) and the extra soaking, this is clearly the most time-consuming of the three methods.

We’ve used all three of these at various times. The pre-packaged wipes were the most convenient, but they cost the most. The do-it-yourself wipes were the least expensive, but the least convenient. The rags were the most environmentally friendly while being in the middle for convenience and cost.

Whichever way you go, unless you’re running a center with lots of people with wipe needs, you’re going to be talking about pennies, not dollars.

Drinking a glass of cold water when you’re thirsty.

Tossing a Frisbee back and forth with your children.

Holding your wife’s hand while you’re both enjoying watching a movie.

Getting into bed after a long day.

Many of the best pleasures in life are very simple ones.

My Kid Flooded Our Home. What’s the Worst (Most Expensive) Mistake Your Kids Have Made? Our living room carpet is simply in need of replacement. It’s a nightmarish pattern of stains. However, we’re trying to make it last until all of our kids are old enough that spills aren’t nearly as frequent. (@ darwin’s money)

Roads not taken Every moment of your life, you have the chance to make a better choice. You never regret it when you take the challenging and rewarding road. You often regret it when you take the easy path. (@ seth’s blog)

Got the Urge to Splurge? Use These Strategies to Fight It (or Not) I wrote about this topic a few days ago. I’m pretty happy with the method I use, but these are some other worthwhile tactics to think about. (@ get rich slowly)

How to Kill Your Painful Habit of Wishful Thinking Most of the reasons we have for wishful thinking serve to simply distract us from the situation at hand. If you want a better life, focus on that situation at hand. (@ dumb little man)