Nov

Below are links to some articles I have read recently. Of course I don’t agree with everything contained in these articles, but they are interesting nonetheless.

John Piper on voting and living

John Conchrane for Opinion Journal: Is now the time to buy stocks?

Camille Paglia on Obama and Palin

Robert George on when life begins

BBC article about Google Earth’s model of ancient Rome

Report that RSS feeds aren’t used nearly as widely as I had thought

Cal Thomas on school choice

Nov

Welcome to the 4th, and probably last part in my series about my favorite websites for saving money.

Today I would like to talk about two websites that remind me not to buy at all. But first, some thoughts on not buying.

As I have delved deeper into the realms of bargain shopping, I have to remind myself that a sale is never a good deal if I don’t need to purchase the item in the first place. An example: I am hoping (soon!) to clean out our books. We have four tall bookcases and one short bookcase, all crammed with books. Approximately one-third of our books were purchased on sale. We have books that we will never read, but we bought them because they cost 50 cents or a dollar each. We thought that someday, we might read them, and now we have more books than we can fit on our shelves.

Those $1 books were not a good deal if I never use them.

So on that note, one of my new favorite blogs is Unclutterer. The constant reminders to clean out, get rid of stuff, and keep it simple = constant reminders to quit buying stuff. It is good for me.

One of my other favorite blogs is Get Rich Slowly. I like this blog because J.D. is a real person who researches stuff and applies it in real life. It is authentic and practical. And, J.D. often reminds readers not to buy stuff they don’t need. Like me, he sometimes struggles with urges to buy stuff just because he likes it. For him it is comic books. For me it is (usually) clothes. For you it may be something else. That is why a blog feed that regularly reminds you not to buy is a good thing.

Unclutterer and Get Rich Slowly do that for me, but I’m sure there are lots of other good blogs and websites out there on this topic. What is your favorite?

If you enjoyed this post, check out my other posts about money-saving websites:

Part 1: Comparison Shopping

Part 2: Discounts

Part 3: Buying Used

Nov

The Freakonomics blog recently had a post about the dangers of n=1. It refers to a common problem of building beliefs or even habits on one event or one example. The primary example in the article reminded me of something that happened when I was in college.

I often had  to get up early in the morning, before my roommates were awake. I would get out of bed in the dark, wrap myself in a robe, grab my towel, and stumble down the hall to the shower. On one particular morning, I walked into the bathroom, turned on the water, and only then noticed a very large insect on the edge of my robe, just an inch or so from my skin. It was traumatizing, to say the least. And every morning after that, I would shake my robe before I put it on.

I think that N=1 becomes powerful when it involves consequences that we find especially terrible. I was willing to shake my robe every morning because the thought of an insect crawling on my skin was very disturbing. We are willing to take off our shoes and submit to searches in airports because the possibility of another 9-11 is unthinkable.

I wonder how many other habits and practices in our lives were started by one incident, or even by hearing about one incident? Perhaps we are not as rational as we like to think that we are!

Nov

I think I was the beneficiary of discrimination today. Not because I’m female or even because I was wearing an awesome shade of pink today but rather because of my name.

I arrived at the elementary school ready to vote, and excited about getting my sticker. I marched into the cafeteria and saw . . . the line. But it wasn’t my line. It was the L-M line. I was glad that my last name begins with J because I had no line at all.

Nov

I like this summary of the voting process from Jessica at Indexed.

Nov

Last week I started a series about my favorite websites for saving money. So far I’ve talked about sites that help you comparison shop, and sites that help you get discounts. Today, I list my favorite spots to find used stuff.

Buying Used

Of course, you can often buy used items on eBay, Half.com, or Amazon. As every penny-pinching college student knows, used textbooks work just as well as the new ones. And it’s not unusual to find exactly what you’re looking for on eBay, practically new, but substantially cheaper.

I also like to buy used items from thriftstores, yard sales, and Craigslist. I haven’t figure out how to use the internet to buy things from thriftstores, but I’ll let you know when I do.

Most of you probably already know about Craigslist, the free classifieds website. If there is a Craigslist for your area, it is a great way to find deals. You can find everything from jobs to toys, but I find it especially helpful for more expensive items like appliances or furniture.

Even if you are familiar with Craigslist already, you may not be aware of a neat feature: you can search for an item and then sign up for an RSS feed of that search. This is convenient if you are looking for something specific, but don’t have to buy it right away.

I also use my local newspaper’s online classified ads when I am looking for yard sale deals. When Tim and I got married, we wanted to furnish our house without going into debt, so we bought most of our furniture at yard sales. Every Friday we would get on the website, find all of the yard sales, and then search the yard sales for furniture. We would copy all of the interesting ones into one document. Then Tim would map them (using Google maps or some other mapping website) and put them in order by location. This may seem tedious, but it helped us avoid wasting time by getting lost or going to yard sales that did not interest us.

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If you enjoyed this post, be sure to read about my other favorite websites.

Favorite Money Saving Websites Part 1: Comparison Shopping

Favorite Money Saving Websites Part 2: Discounts

Nov

Yesterday I started writing about my favorite websites for saving money and explained my favorite ways to compare prices online. Today I’ll talk about websites that help you get discounts.

Discounts

If you are going to make a purchase online, you can often find a discount code for free shipping, 10% off, or whatever. I don’t make a lot of online purchases, but I have seen that there are many websites providing lists of discount codes. Try Retail Me Not or another similar site and search for a discount code before you make your next purchase online.

“But,” you say, “I don’t do much online shopping.” That’s ok. There are still ways that you can use the internet to save money on your “regular” shopping.

On restaurant.com, you can buy restaurant gift certificates at a discount. We’ve purchased and used these certificates several times with no problems. Their regular prices are pretty good, and when they have a sale, you can get some great deals. Eating out is definitely more expensive than eating at home, but getting a discount will help.

Many retail stores offer e-mail newsletters containing special coupons. If you shop regularly at the same stores, look on their website to see if you will get any discounts by signing up for their newsletters. When I recently started making craft items, I signed up for newsletters from Michaels and Hobby Lobby. So far the Hobby Lobby coupons aren’t very impressive, but I have gotten good coupons from Michaels almost every week since I signed up.

Some people use coupons to save money on their groceries. I used to think that couponing wasn’t worth it, because it was too complicated. Just recently, I found several websites that make saving money with coupons lots easier.

The Grocery Game: For a small fee, you get weekly access to a list of deals at your local grocery store. Their database tracks prices and tells you when your coupons correspond to the best sales. You can print manufacturers’ coupons from this website (and find discount codes). I currently subscribe to the Bi-Lo list from the Grocery Game. You can try Grocery Game for one month for only $1.

Coupon Mom: Coupon Mom is similar to Grocery Game, but the advantage to Coupon Mom is that it’s free. The disadvantage is that it tells you the sales, but won’t necessary track the absolute best time to buy. You can also print manufacturers’ coupons from this website (and find discount codes). I use Coupon Mom to keep track of the Wal-Mart, CVS, and Walgreens deals.

Money Saving Mom: Crystal Paine blogs about how her family saves money, and gives lots of links to help you save, too. I’ve been reading her blog for several months, and gotten lots of great ideas. She often includes a list of the best deals from Walgreens, CVS, etc.

Saving in Greenville: This blog is similar to Money Saving Mom, but is located in Greenville, SC, where I live. It has a lot of overlap with other blogs that I read, but occasionally a good local deal that I wouldn’t otherwise know about.

I’m sure there are many other helpful sites out there (which you’re welcome to share in the comments), but these are the ones I’ve actually used. In my next post, I’ll talk about websites that can help you save by buying used.