The biggest advantage that fast food has is that it is so easy and it saves time by allowing us to multi-task. On busy days, I can stop by a fast food restaurant and pick up a quick meal and eat it on the road as I hurry off to a meeting; it’s very difficult for a typical homemade meal to compete with that.

That is, until you discover the kitchen assembly line method.

The kitchen assembly line is basically the mass production of foods that can be easily grabbed and eaten at any time - in other words, food products similar to items sold at some fast food restaurants. These are stored in the freezer and can easily be microwaved and taken out the door with you as you rush off - or taken to work with you for lunch if you don’t have time to pack leftovers.

All you need to do to get started is to devote an afternoon to assembling these foods and some freezer space to store them. You don’t need any cooking skill beyond that of a typical fast food employee. The best part? These are always more healthy than the items you might buy at your typical fast food establishment.

Here are some ideas to get you started.

Breakfast
Breakfast Burritos: Buy a bunch of tortillas, some breakfast sausage, a jar of salsa, a dozen eggs, and some grated cheese. Cook the sausage up loosely and scramble the eggs. Put a bit of sausage and eggs on the tortilla, dump some cheese and eggs on top, wrap it up, and put it in Saran Wrap. Drop them right in the freezer.

Breakfast Sandwiches: Buy a bunch of English muffins or bagels (these freeze pretty well), some sliced cheese, and some eggs. Fry the eggs, breaking the yolk really early on, then put a fried egg and a slice of cheese on each English muffin or bagel. If you want, add a slice of Canadian bacon or something similar to each one. Wrap them in Saran wrap individually and drop them in the freezer.

Yogurt Pops These are great in the morning before a hot day. Mix together plain yogurt (two cups or so), some fruit (about half a cup of whatever you like), and eight ounces of your favorite fruit juice. Pour this into Dixie cups and stick ‘em in the freezer. Freeze them for 45 minutes or so, then insert a popsicle stick into the center of each one, then pop them back in the freezer until they’re solid. I really like these on summer mornings.

Lunch
Regular Burritos: Buy a bunch of tortillas, some meat of choice (chicken, pork, whatever), and some lettuce and tomatoes and salsa and refried beans and whatever else you’d like on a burrito. Cook the meat, then just assemble the burritos individually, wrap them in Saran wrap, and freeze away.

Quick Sandwiches: Buy some English muffins or bagels (these freeze well, but you can also use buns or bread), some cold cuts, and some matching cheeses. I like ham + swiss and roast beef + sharp cheddar; a friend of mine swears by muenster + cappicola. Make sandwiches as thick as you’d like, toss on any condiments you want, wrap them in Saran wrap, and freeze them. You can make hamburgers this way, too, of course.

Homemade Chicken Nuggets: These are so much better than fast food ones, it’s crazy. Cut up a few chicken breasts into one-inch pieces, then put some non-sweet cornflakes in a Ziploc bag and smash the cornflakes into oblivion with a rolling pin or your hands. Put the crumbs in a bowl and add a tablespoon of flour, a teaspoon of salt and pepper, and (optionally) some grated cheese (I like Parmesan). In another bowl, beat a couple eggs with a tablespoon of water until it’s all the same consistency. Dip the nuggets in the eggs, roll them on the crumbs, then put them on a pan and stick them in the oven at 375 F for thirteen minutes. Take ‘em out, let them cool, put several into a number of Ziploc baggies, and pop ‘em in the freezer.

Ready to eat?
With any of these, just grab them out of the freezer and microwave them for a minute or two and you’ll be ready to go. I often do this in the last moments before I leave so my final steps are hitting the microwave and then walking out the door.

The best part? If you make a bunch, you’ll have instant meals for a long time. They’re cheap and they’re way better for you than fast food.

A few times in the past, The Simple Dollar has mentioned some reference to a “ten second rule” or a “count to ten rule” without explaining this incredibly powerful tool in detail.

In short, the “ten second rule” says that any time you are about to spend any money at all, count to ten slowly and spend that time considering whether or not you should actually spend the money. It’s quite simple, isn’t it? It’s something that anyone can do, but it’s something that most of us never even consider doing as we’re writing a check or handing items to the checkout clerk.

Why do this? The point of purchase is the point of no return - it is that exact point in which our money becomes a distinct item that we may or may not need. If we take a few seconds to really look at that item and ask ourselves whether we really need it or not, it becomes much easier to separate the necessary spending from the unnecessary spending.

I use this every time I purchase anything, from writing a check for rent to buying gasoline to buying groceries. It makes me really think about what I’m spending and what I can do to reduce that spending, thus increasing the amount of money I have to follow my big dreams instead of regularly spending it on little stuff I don’t need.

Here are some specific examples to inspire you:

Count to ten as you’re standing in the checkout line at the grocery store while looking in your cart. Do you really need that bag of cookies or that six pack of Sam Adams? Maybe they’re vital comforts for you, but for many of us, these expenses are ones that are wasteful.

Count to ten as you’re paying your bills. You’re thinking about buying a new car, but your old one isn’t paid off yet. Do you really need that extra expenditure each month, or is your current car good enough to last for another year or two?

Count to ten at the clothing store. This one gets my wife every time. As she heads off, credit card in hand, to buy some clothes, I whisper in her ear, “Count to ten, honey.” She stands there for a bit looking at what she’s about to buy and then several of the items usually find their way back to the rack.

Count to ten at the bookstore. Look at the books and magazines cradled in your arm. Couldn’t you just read them at the library or check them out there? What about the unread books at home?

The ten second rule is incredibly powerful at helping you to get off of the consumerist treadmill and get on track with building your personal savings.

Here’s an interesting mental exercise that grew out of a community dinner the other night. Would you be able to make do with half of your current monthly income? It’s not as obvious of a question as you might think, so just take a minute and imagine yourself with half of your current monthly income. Could you survive?

I took this to heart and got out a copy of my monthly budget. Next to it, I added another column. I then carried over my income amounts, but divided them in half, and I went through every category, trying to figure out where I might shave some money to make it through.

The biggest cut was in entertainment expenses, which I reduced by 90%; there are many options for free or almost free entertainment that I could look at if this were the case. I then started cutting away services: Netflix, cable, internet, and so forth. I chopped my clothing and hygiene budget as well; I could wear clothes many more times and Ivory or generic soap can get you clean. I also reduced my monthly savings by about 75%, but didn’t eliminate it, and I lowered insurance costs by looking at rates with higher deductibles.

I was able to make it under that 50% threshold. I would lose a lot of the luxuries that I consider an everyday part of my life, but I would still have a home, still have food on the table, and still have a wonderful family.

As I sat there looking at the modified numbers, I realized two things. First, I really do waste a lot of money. Many of the things that I view as services are really just forms of entertainment, which is sad considering the number of sources of free entertainment available. Second, I now have a nice checklist of places to work on my frugal willpower. Do I really need all of these services and expenses? Is it really cost-effective to have a relatively low deductible?

This exercise was simple, but it really opened my eyes to the fat that still exists in my own budget.

One of the greatest challenges of living a lifestyle of financial freedom is determining the exact value of personal appearance. How does one balance a desire for less expensive clothing and personal care items with the expectations of the culture that enables their income and personal lives?

On the one hand, many people who overspend are focused heavily on their appearance to others, often buying clothing and technology items in order to boost their appearance of affluence to others. Thus, the natural tendency for people trying to manage their spending is to drastically cut these costs, as expensive clothing can easily be functionally replaced by less expensive clothing or by reusing clothing more often.

On the other hand, a polished personal appearance is often vital to a person’s public persona, to their workplace situation, and also to their self-image. Many people cringe at the thought of not wearing designer clothes or having to wear outfits many times. Plus, a well-dressed appearance pays other financial benefits as well by creating a more positive general impression of yourself in the community. Others will have a higher opinion of you and you’ll subtly find yourself in better situations.

For me personally, this was a tricky balance, but it was one that I managed to figure out over time. The key was to make sure that I leveraged every inexpensive trick that I had, while also maximizing the utility of the expensive items. Here are seven tips on how to maximize the value of your personal appearance while trimming some fat and not hammering the credit cards as hard as you once did.

Take special care in cleaning yourself. I don’t mean buy expensive shampoos or such things; I simply mean take a few extra minutes to cleanse yourself thoroughly each morning. Take a thorough shower and clean yourself as much as you can. Use underarm deodorant as well. Cleaning yourself properly is the most valuable aspect of your personal appearance and it is also the least expensive, as there’s really no need for expensive shampoos or soaps in most cases.

Practice strong oral hygiene and use a strong mouthwash. Brush your teeth thoroughly at least twice a day; your breath is a key part of your appearance and “cover up” items such as Tic-Tacs often only work for a short while. It’s much better for your appearance to make sure your mouth is truly clean. For mouthwash, I recommend Listerine, but many people are hesitant to use it because of the extremely strong burning sensation it provides in the mouth. I also floss once a day, but this mostly serves to reduce dental bills.

Use a fragrance that smells good to you every day. For my own use, I have a small collection that I freely alternate between on a daily basis; I like every one of them that I use in this rotation. Among these are Eternity, Emporio Armani, Dreamer, Dolce and Gabbana, Acqua di Gio, and Platinum Egoiste. Don’t apply them by spraying, just spray a bit on your hand and rub behind your ears and the sides of your neck with your moistened hand; this creates just the right level of fragrance for both men and women and it also prevents you from wasting it, meaning you’ll have many more applications per bottle. I consider fragrances to be a worthwhile gift for a significant other; it gives my wife something to splurge on for me on occasion. Plus, it is a reasonably personal gift that you might receive from a close family member, such as your mother or your sister if you are particularly close. If you are single, a small array of fragrances is a better investment in your appearance than one extra expensive set of clothing - I’ll explain why in a bit. Also, don’t skimp here; you’re better off not wearing any fragrance at all in most situations than wearing Aqua Velva.

Buy only clothes that go well with the majority of other clothes in your wardrobe. I own only ten dress shirts and eight business casual pants and I work in an environment where business casual is a strongly expected mode of dress, yet I manage to regularly elicit comments on how well dressed I am. In the past, I used to shell out ridiculous amounts of money for complete outfits that really only went well with each other, which meant that I would own a closet full of clothes but I really only had fifteen or so options for dress. I’ve moved away from that and drastically decreased my clothes budget. Here’s the key: buy only clothes that go well with other items. This means buy high quality, but stick to the basics. My shirts are a wide variety of subdued solid dark colors, all of which go well with black or navy trousers. Even better, I was able to pick out several of these items in a very high quality at a consignment shop.

Clean and press your own clothes instead of buying new ones or taking clothes to the cleaners. Tending to clothing is an invaluable skill to learn, particularly if you’re travelling. Spend some time to really learn how to use an iron to press your own clothes; spend a few hours learning how to do this on a lazy weekend day by using this tutorial (which is for men’s clothing, but the basic principles apply to women’s garments as well). You’ll save a lot of money, be confident that you have clothes that are wrinkle-free and present you in the best possible way, and also be able to travel with confidence.

Create a different presentation every day. By presentation, I don’t merely mean visual; I mean that you should liven things up using the other sense you can affect, the sense of smell. The key to not making yourself seem repetitive is to bounce around through the clothing colors; I never wear the same colored shirt twice in a row; though I may have three red shirts, they never follow another red shirt. But that’s not what completes your appearance; make sure that if you’re even close to a clothes presentation you assembled earlier in the week, you are using a different fragrance than before. I make sure to never repeat a fragrance during a given week.

Greet everyone you meet. This seems strange at first, but close your eyes and imagine the way you remember people who seem friendly to you versus the people who do not. In almost every case (unless there is a weird jealousy/hero worship aspect going on), you’ll imagine the genuinely friendly people in a positive light, making them appear better than they really are, and imagine those who antagonise you in a negative light, making them appear worse than they are. You can help capitalize on this subtle mind shift by making an effort to be friendly to everyone around you. Make it a point to talk in a friendly way to everyone you are near on a daily basis, even if you don’t like them.

Each of these tips enable you to maintain a strong personal appearance while also minimizing the impact on your pocketbook; while everyone else is buying clothes by the ton and gossiping in the office, you can maintain a smile on your face and cash in your wallet.

Even during my worst days of spending, it was clear to me that I was overspending on my video game hobby. In fact, it became one of the first things that I cut my spending on. I was able to do this by developing a clear plan for cutting back on my video game purchases. This plan reduced my video game spending from nearly $150 a month to about $30 a month almost overnight.

Pledge yourself to a two month hiatus on new video game purchases. This is pretty simple; give yourself some time to breathe a little bit. After this hiatus, you can go back to buying games at whatever level seems appropriate, but simply do not purchase a new game for two months. That of course does not mean that you won’t expose yourself to new games over these two months; in fact…

Get a GameFly subscription. Now. This service is exactly like Netflix, except for video games. For $21.95 a month, you can have two games at home all the time; keep them as long as you want and return them in a prepaid envelope when you’re done to receive the next one on your list. I had stellar service with them the entire time I was with them.

As long as you have a strong urge to play the game daily, keep renting it. It really doesn’t matter how long this goes on, but if you have a passion for playing a game that keeps going and going and going, keep it and play it over and over again.

When a day passes where you don’t have an urge to play a game, return it. If you go through a day where you think of other games, but the one in question doesn’t cross your mind in any significant way, it’s a sure sign that your passion for it is waning. Get something else that excites you; you can always come back to this one.

If you have a burning desire to play a game again, rent it again. Now comes the time to test the replayability of a title. If you’re re-adding it to your list, that means that it has some residual interest for you, which is a sign that this may be a game that you want to add to your collection. Rent it again, and see how it feels all over again.

If you add a game to your list for a fourth time, consider buying it. This means that you’ve consistently returned to the game over an extended period of time, which likely means that it has a high replay value for you. It also means that it is no longer the newest game on the market and can likely be purchased at a discount (often $19.95).

Under this plan, for the last two years that I owned my video game systems (I sold them shortly after my son was born because, well, playing with him was more fun), I purchased only five games: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, FIFA Soccer, Animal Crossing, Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec, and Madden NFL. Before buying, I rented every one of these games several times, and every one of these games was already at a relative bargain price when I finally bought it. Plus, I was very much able to keep up with the latest games and I avoided buying a lemon that I liked at first glance but grew tired of quickly.

Ten years ago, I was in the midst of my freshman year in college. I had very little concept of money or what to do with it, but at that point I still had an overall positive net worth. If only I knew then what I know now, I sometimes think to myself, particularly when I look at the financial disaster of the last ten years.

So what would I tell myself if I had that chance? Here are the ten pieces of advice I’d love to tell that college freshman:

The less stuff you buy when you’re in college, the better off you are. Why do I say this? In general, my decision making in terms of what items to buy when I was in college was at best poor and at worst disastrous. I would buy things like furry hats and tee shirts with pictures of gophers on them. Why? I didn’t actually know then, and I certainly don’t know now. In general, I would have just encouraged myself to think more about each thing you buy and simply ask myself if I really needed it. If I didn’t, just put that money in a savings account somewhere rather than buying a giant poster of Hulk Hogan.

Live in the dorms for as long as possible, especially if you’re on scholarship. If your tuition, room, and board are free, as they were for me for a few years because of ample scholarships, you are a fool if you move off campus. Not only are the costs of food and housing going to greatly increase, but you’ve suddenly added transportation costs to the mix, along with the extra travel time you’ve added to each and every day.

Get a credit card, but only use it to buy textbooks. The reason for this is to build credit in a healthy fashion but avoid the temptation of using a credit card, as in the plan described here. I got a few credit cards during my college years and I made very stupid purchasing decisions with them; even though I kept the bills paid, I swallowed a lot of finance charges. I’d love even now just to have the cash I dumped into finance charges if it had been left in a good savings account for five or ten years.

If you get student loans, minimize the amount of the loan. I had to get loans for my final two years in college. At that point, the loans allowed me to borrow about six thousand beyond the cost of room and board, so I took that to essentially mean a low interest credit card, and I borrowed the maximum possible. It was a big mistake that I’m still paying for. Get what you need for room, board, and enough for textbooks and keep living in the dormitory. That way, there’s no temptation to spend that loan money on stupid things.

Assuming your dorm life is covered, put at least half of any pay you receive into a high-yield savings or money market account. Living is cheap now, but when you graduate you’re soon going to have a ton of expenses rain down on your head. You’ll need a good car, you’ll have a wedding and honeymoon to pay for, a child to care for, and a house to buy. Help that future self out a little now. If you’re adventurous and actually have some financial grounding, you can invest it, but don’t invest too much in it.

Never, ever buy an article of clothing that costs more than half of the last paycheck you received. If you’re buying such expensive clothes, it is a red siren that you’re heading down a road laden with debt that you’ll be digging yourself out of for many, many years. You’re in college; you’re probably going to buy some unnecessary stuff. But do you really need a $300 pair of jeans or a $500 sport jacket when you can get virtually the same item for much less money? Is it worth mortgaging your future for?

Find cheaper ways to maintain your hobbies. In college, my biggest hobbies were reading, writing, listening to music, going to movies, and playing Hearts. In almost every case, I spent wildly on these hobbies, but just a few changes would have saved me a lot of money that I could have put away for the future or perhaps not borrowed as much on my student loans. Instead of buying two new books every week, I could have gone to the local library. Instead of buying exquisite leather-bound journals, I could have just bought a cheap notebook. Instead of buying three CDs a week, I could have listened to student radio (it was playing almost exactly the same stuff I was buying - and it was free). Instead of going out to a movie every weekend, I could have watched some of my DVDs or borrowed some or went to one of the free movies on campus. Instead of playing nickel-a-point Hearts, I … well, there’s not a good replacement for that one, but by the end of my final year, I was actually making good pocket money at it. In short, my hobbies ate up a lot of my money in school - a giant mistake.

If I had followed these eight guidelines in college, I would be debt free right now and have a house down payment; instead, I have only a bit saved towards a down payment, I have tens of thousands in student loan debt, and I just now paid off all of my credit cards.  Was that furry hat really worth all of this?

The peak-end rule is a psychological phenomenon that indicates which parts of a past experience we recall and use to define that experience. From Wikipedia:

According to the peak-end rule, we judge our past experiences almost entirely on how they were at their peak (pleasant or unpleasant) and how they ended. Virtually all other information appears to be discarded, including net pleasantness or unpleasantness and how long the experience lasted … One everyday example of the peak-end rule is how when someone eats a sandwich, they judge its tastiness solely on the basis of the filling in the middle, and the crust on the far end, which is eaten last. Thus the other parts of the bread are irrelevant, and most restaurants will take advantage of this.

I was first made aware of this phenomenon by a posting at overstated.net which relates this phenomenon to optimal vacation planning; one should plan for a great experience in the middle and a strong end to a vacation if one wants to remember it in a positive light.

It occurs to me that this phenomenon applies to personal finance as well, particularly when one is just getting their feet wet. In terms of a budgeting period, one can use the peak-end rule to create a very positive later impression of a period of financial adjustment simply by using the peak-end rule.

For example, I decided several months ago to carefully manage my finances on a monthly schedule, believing that if I could set a “feel-good” example for the first month, it would be much easier to continue sticking to that budget. It worked, but when I reflect on this experience, it does match the nature of the peak-end rule.

If you’re considering creating a budget and sticking to it for the first time, try the following plan, which utilizes the peak-end rule to create a positive memory of the experience of budgeting and saving.

With the peak-end rule, you want to create a strong peak somewhere in the middle of the month and finish strongly at the end of the month. So, set up a monthly budget for yourself, then divide each amount in half, as you’ll want to see where you’re at at the end of the half-month. When the first fifteen days are up, go through the budget and see where you’re at. If you’ve been committed to the budget for those two weeks, you’ll experience a very positive feeling as you realize for the first time that it’s actually working. I also recommend making a savings deposit at that same point in the month to encourage a strong positive feeling - deposit it into a high-yield online savings account (or other easily viewable investment account) so you can keep an eye on it.

At the end of the month, figure up the budget again. The mid-month peak should have encouraged you enough to tackle another two weeks of budgeting your money, so when you do your final budget at the end, you’re right on track with some saving or debt reduction over the period of the month - a really good feeling. You also can check your investment account and see if your new budget has actually earned money over that period, another good feeling.

Later, when you recall that first month of budgeting your money, it will bring about a very positive feeling from within, encouraging you to be more money conscious in the future.

Naturally, you can utilize this phenomenon for other financial situations as well, but it is very useful for periods when you’re trying to adopt healthy new habits.

Yesterday, I described my financial meltdown, when I reached a point where there was more money going out each month than coming in with no real hope for redemption without a change from within. Then, thanks to some inspiration, I made that change.

The first thing I did was I laid out every single expense I had each month and asked myself what I could do to reduce them. I piled all of my credit card bills together in one place, my student loan bills together in one place, and so on. I then called each of the credit card numbers and simply told them that I am going to transfer all of my balances to one card and would they like my business? The first couple pulled my credit report and didn’t comply, but the third one did. I then proceeded to consolidate my student loans into one loan, and set up an automatic payment plan. With these two moves, I eliminated about 75% of the interest I was paying each month.

The next thing I did was I set up a loose monthly budget that I re-evaluated and tightened at the end of each month. I had so little idea of where my money was actually going that I didn’t actually save anything for the first two months - I just made large debt payments with my money. Once I realized where all that money was going, I was prepared to make even bigger changes in my financial life.

Once I understood my budget both in and out, I put strong caps on all of my frivolous spending. I allowed myself to spend a bit on entertainment, but I strongly budgeted it. I also began to cut down on frivolous spending even on things like groceries, where I taught myself how to shop in a much more frivolous fashion using tools like coupons and shopping lists.

The biggest step was making clear short term goals for myself. I clearly stated that I wanted my credit card debt gone and I wanted a two month emergency fund and I developed a week-by-week plan for getting that done. As I met the goal for each week, I began to develop a sense of pride as I watched my debt disappear much quicker than I would have ever thought possible.

The icing on the cake was I began to build up some savings so that disasters wouldn’t derail me. I opened up a high-interest savings account and set up an automatic deduction plan so that the money would simply move automatically into savings; all I had to do was mark it in my budget and savings would just happen. Soon, I was seeing the joy of compound interest and the peace of having an emergency fund.

Each of these financial moves helped to get me on track to righting the numbers, but how did I right my soul? Tomorrow, I’ll conclude this series by discussing the real lessons the road to financial armageddon taught me.

Want to jump quickly to the other Road to Financial Armageddon posts? Here’s an index to help you out.

#1: The Earliest Mistakes
#2: Early Profits … Lost
#3: Cash & College
#4: The First Taste of Real Money
#5: Love & Marriage
#6: The Yuppie Years
#7: Here Comes Baby
#8: Meltdown
#9: The Road to Recovery
#10: What I Learned