I was braiding my ten year old daughter’s hair tonight and I asked her what event she’ll be running in Thursday’s track meet. She told me she’ll be running the 401K.
You know you’re a personal finance blogger when….
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Monthly Archives: April 2009
Dishwasher Detergent Recipe
I posted a few weeks ago about making your own laundry detergent. Now I’ve been after dishwasher detergent. There’s a great web site called “Dollar Stretcher” and they have some recipes for home-made dishwasher detergent.
You just put one tablespoon Borax and one tablespoon baking soda in the detergent compartment. For “add rinse agent” put in white vinegar.
Similarly, you can “stretch” your existing dishwasher detergent with the 1/2 borax, 1/2 soda mixture if you really like something about your detergent.
Let me know what you think if you try this out. I haven’t yet, but will be trying it as soon as I run out of my Cascade.
Day 16: Paying off Credit Cards With Home Equity?
I know a lot of people who’ve tried to “borrow themselves out of debt” recently.
It makes sense at first glance to pay off your credit cards at 10% with a home equity loan at 6 or 7 percent. Especially if you’re in really deep. And after all, you’ve got all that home equity just sitting there.
First off, does your house look like a piggy bank?
Second, a credit card has a higher interest rate becaues the debt is not secured. That means there’s no collatoral. If you don ‘t pay, they can’t come take something to pay back the debt, like with a home or auto loan. You’re paying the higher rate in exchange for the lender’s higher risk.
If you borrow against your home to pay off un-secured debt, your buying your way out of debt by putting your home at risk. YIKES!
In the event of a real estate collapse like this one, if you lost your job and had to sell your house, the sum of your home equity loan and mortgage balance could end up being worth more than your house can sell for. A term also called being “under water.”
Think about this if you’re being tempted by the lower rates on secured loans right now. Borrowing your way out debt doesn’t work. I heard Dave Ramsey on TV last night say that nobody has ever dug their way out of a deep hole. Makes sense to me. Hard work, cost cutting and serious budgeting is still the way to get out of debt.
Just my $.02 for today.
We’re halfway through our special month on financial litercay. Do you have topics that we should feature? I’ll do the research and the legwork and offer a completely unqualified but “if I were in that position” opinion, followed by my usual disclaimer that for financial advice you should seek out the paid advice of a qualified professional. But I always enjoy the learning experience!
Day 15: Know your FICO score
Do you know your credit score? While you can get a credit report annually for free, you haven’t been able to get your score for free. I recently profiled a company called Credit Karma, which now does just that!
Give it a try and take a look–is your score what you expected?
To see the whole article that I wrote for another Web site, look here.
Recession Breakfast
I’m planning to get back to the 30 days of financial literacy this afternoon (or maybe even tonight after the Town Hall for Hope event), but I was thinking you all might appreciate my recession breakfast recipe.
Our favorite affordable breakfast is Steel Cut Oats (also called Irish Oats). These are whole oats, which are sliced instead of rolled or crushed. Buy these bulk only, not in one of those canisters–those can be as much as $7.00 per pound. Steel cut oats should be under $.70 a pound, and right now we’re buying them 5 pounds at a time for $0.46.
To make steel cut oats, boil eight cups of water and sprinkle in two cups of oats (or halve this recipe for a smaller family). You’ll have to boil all of this for about 30 minutes. Or until it’s reached the texture and consistency that your family likes.
Top steel cut oats with a variety of different things for variety:
- Maple syrup
- Brown sugar
- Butter
- Dried fruit
- Fresh fruit
- Nuts (pecans are my favorite)
- Jam/Jelly
- Berries
Steel cut oats without toppings are 140 calories and 6 grams of protien for 1 cup prepared.
Day 14: Spend Less Than You Make
Are you spending less than you make? Are you sure? Better double-check, just in case.
I’m getting ready for the Town Hall for Hope on Thursday and thinking about what are the true, simple and basic facts about personal finance. The bottom line really is that you must spend less than you make.
The origins of PennyWise Family are pretty sad. I started this blog the day after I was laid off from my “secure” job in hopes of helping other families adjust for layoffs. We had to slash our household budget immediately and needed to figure out how.
I’ve posted tips here ever since then, but thought maybe it was time for some more frugal living tips. Hands-down, the biggest hit so far has been the home-made laundry detergent. I’ve converted many friends to making their own, and we love it. To find other savings tips use my “Ligit” search bar and enter the subject of how you want to save money and it should direct you to the right posts.
I posted earlier about how we found we had cut $1500 a month from our household budget with ordinary and small cost-cutting.
Today I’m featuring a reader’s tips. These come from Abby S., in Washington State, who used to teach school in Alaska. A lot of necessities are expensive there, so she learned some spiffy ways to cut corners. Here are a few of her list:
- Cut dryer sheets in half to make them last longer.
- Use dehydrated eggs for cooking sweets (I use dehydrated milk for baking Abby, but I’ve never seen dehydrated eggs).
- Make bread from scratch
- Make milk from powdered milk and mask the flavor with chocolate powder or syrup.
- Buy milk in bulk and freeze it.
- Make home-made deodorant (if it works, please send us the recipe Abby… if it doesn’t, please warn us
). - Learn to can/preserve and freeze.
I’m also learning about making my own dishwasher detergent, but I want to experiment with my dishes before I post a recipe here. I’d hate to etch or damage someone’s dishes with a bad one, so when I’ve got it perfected I shall let everyone know.
Thanks Abby for sharing your tips!
This is day 14 of 30 in a series for April, which is “Financial Literacy Month”
Free Ice Cream: Now ’till 8PM 4/21 only
As a tip to Pennywise Readers! Reward yourself for your financial prowess! Go have a scoop of Ice Cream! Ben and Jerry’s is doing Free Scoop Day today from noon until 8:00pm.
Go to their Web Site and watch for the “Free Scoop Day” icon to get the store locator for participating stores.
What flavor did you choose? My fav is Chubby Hubby. (Which is truly resulting in Chubby Wifey).
Day 12: TownHall for Hope — Free Financial Event
TownHall for Hope is a free event on April 23rd put on by Dave Ramsey and his awesome crew at Financial Peace University. It’s being offered at businesses and churches and Dave Ramsey will take questions live via Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Visit the Web site by clicking on the calendar reminder below to see where you can attend near you. I’m going to a church near me to watch. I hope you’ll attend too. If you do–will you post back here and let me know what you thought? 
Day 13: Saving Money on Energy Use
Let’s face it, much of the energy that is consumed and paid for in your house is likely for things you haven’t noticed. Phone charger left plugged in so you don’t have to climb behind the TV every day to plug it in, etc.
Well, my Twitter friends tell me it’s Earth Week, and they wanted to know what I’m doing about it. I’m doing a few things, but not because it’s Earth Week. Doing something different that I could do every day just because it’s the right thing to do. That’s dumb. If it’s the right thing to do, I’m going to do it every day. I hope you do too.
However, I could stand to learn a little bit more about energy-efficiency, so I imagine that’s why they have the “week” and I think the timing is nice that it falls within Financial Literacy Month.
Let’s find the crossover between the two and tackle away!
I visited The US EPA’s Web site for energy efficiency today and found it very helpful!
I know I have a leaky door–there’s quite a draft in the winter, and in the summer, we’re thankful for the cooling breeze…but needless to say, we need to tackle that energy sucker. I was relieved to find that the Web site has tips on what weatherstripping to choose and how to install it! Score!
It also explains that leaving our cell phone chargers plugged in when they’re not plugged in to a phone will deplete energy as well. YIKES! I’ve got at least 8 chargers hanging around the house plugged in with nothing attached to them. I had no idea.
Take a quick spin around the US EPA’s Web site and see if you can save a few bucks on your utility bills!
This is the 13th in a series of 30 post for April, specific to financial literacy. Today is a short distraction for financial/ecological instruction.
Day 11: How Exactly Does the Stock Market Work?
I’ve often wondered how the stock market worked. I played it a little in college and learned how to study companies. Likewise, Internet stock-trading hot-shot E*trade.com had a stock trading simulator that my family played when they first launched (I’m dating myself: I was in high school when E*Trade launched). My mom and sister and I played the E*trade stock market simulator with a wager: Winner doesn’t have to wash dishes for a week. I don’t remember who won, but I sure remember playing.
WeSeed is filling this gap now–and using common stocks and real-time info to teach users with a “virtual portfolio” (complete with “virtual money”) to show users how the Stock Market works.
I encourage you to give it a try!
This is post 11 of a 30 day series for Financial Literacy Month. This series is running a little-late as I decided to start it midway through the month of April, so it will continue into early May.