The Cheapest New Year

Photo by Vox Efx

My plans for New Year won't put me on any roster of Who's Who.

With 10 inches of snow falling from the sky, a husband who just slipped and fell in the driveway, and four of us hacking up lungs, my plans are ultra cheap, and ultra-safe:

A bottle of Robitussen and thou

And a cuddle on the couch to watch It's a Wonderful Life


We may even have some leftover beef stew. I repurposed (the cheap, tough) roast we had for Christmas into this Italian beef stew last night. I took some liberties: doubled the recipe, added a couple of generous glugs of cheap red wine, peeled and cubed a few potatoes, thickened with a tablespoon or two of flour, and cooked uncovered for an additional 20 minutes to tenderize the beef more. If I were going to make it again, I'd use just one can of diced tomatoes instead of two. It was a hit, even among my normally picky eaters.

The whole evening will be much cheaper, cozier and safer than on of those overpriced prix fixe holiday dinners at a fancy restaurant. Cheers.

Credit Check for the Cell Phone

Photo by Marília Almeida

Add the mobile phone company to the list of reasons you don't want to mess up your credit.

Prissy Poorhouse needs a way to get in touch with Mom and Dad during the work day. We've had one to many times when the teenage babysitter told us during the day that she wasn't going to pick up the kids. (And yes, we're kicking her to the curb, but that's another story.)

So, now that my employer is picking up part of the tab for my mobile phone, we figured we could afford the $10 a month to make sure the kids get home safely every day.

How thrilled she would be to get a phone for Christmas.

Except.

Did I mention I may have been a bit sporadic in paying my bills this year? Yeah, well, I have been. Mind you, all my bills (except the taxes) are current now. But I have had that spotty payment history.

So to add a line, the phone company gets you for a two-year contract. At 10 bucks a month, that's $240, right?

But they run a credit check. And my credit, as loyal readers will know, is not so good right now. So they want a $300 deposit.

Mind you, I just turned on my Blackberry service for $40 a month additional (employer-paid) with never a how'dya'do. But for a 2-year contract, which we don't even want, it seems I need to pay a deposit.

Yeah, but I don't have $300 to tie up in a deposit.

Looks like we'll be looking at a prepaid phone for Prissy.

Samaritan with a Shovel

Photo by Andrew Macgill

One of the problems with being without money is that you have to wait until you have money to do the Christmas shopping. (How's that for an excuse to procrastinate?)

So there we were at the mall today, the entire Poorhouse family, in a blizzard nobody with any sense was braving. No sweat, says Mr. Poorhouse, our little fuel efficient car can do anything in the snow.

So we shopped. And went back to the car. The access roads throughout the parking lot had been plowed. But not the aisles. The snow ruts were taller than the tires. We were stuck. The plows kept driving by on the access roads every few minutes, but they didn't seem to notice us, S-T-U-C-K.

Until the guy with more generosity than hair came out to his minivan, saw the situation, reached into his car for a full-sized shovel, went to work on all four tires, and then helped Mr. Poorhouse push the blasted fuel-efficient car to the access road with me flooring the accelerator and spinning the wheels the whole way.

Then he hopped into his car, and drove out with no problem.

I ran back to him before he left the lot and dropped a gift certificate in his hand.

Thanks guy. You good.

Another Mortgage Story

This post has been included in the Carnival of Money Stories #91 Manifesting Wealth in 2009 hosted by Greener Pastures Personal Finance, where you will find a wealth (I know, groan...) of useful posts on money matters. Please visit the carnival after you've looked around here. Don't forget to subscribe to my RSS feed if you enjoy what you read.

Photo by woodleywonderworks

An acquaintance told me another mortgage story yesterday. She and her husband are young and talented. They are ministers. (Ministers don't make a lot of money, especially in their denomination.) They recently moved across country (from a point in the contintental US as far as is possible to be from their new home.)

They moved for a job. A great job. One with promise. One with excitement.

Like many young couples, they had scrimped and saved, and bought a house. To start their new life, they need to sell the house. Unfortunately, thanks to the burst housing bubble, they owe more on the house than it is worth, so they can't afford to sell it.

Luckily, they are not in foreclosure. But they are losing $1000 a month renting it out. In other words, their expenses are $1000 more than the rent they are getting.

And though they moved for one great job, they intended to get another when they got settled. But the economy tanked, and Bernie Madoff has single-handedly decimated the coffers of the local charitable organizations. So though they are talented, dedicated, and hard-working, nobody is hiring.

These two people did everything right. They saved. They bought a house. They invested in their financial future. They chose careers that help other people.

Tell me again that the victims of the mortgage crisis deserve what they got because they splurged on big-screen TVs. I'm not buying it.

Wrapping for Less

I'm pleased that this post has been included as an Editor's Pick in the Festival of Frugality #158 hosted by The Well Run Dry. I like the Well's philosophy of simplifying, so have a look once you've messed around here. And please subscribe to my RSS feed if you'd like to read more.

Photo by vespar avenue

It's officially time to start wrapping.

I have three suggestions to keep the cost down:

1. Gift Bags

You saved them from last year, didn't you? Wrap a label around the handles so you can easily remove it for next year. Bags are pretty, easy to store, and will last a really long time. Whatever you do, don't buy them individually. They can cost as much as a frugal gift. You can get good deals on multi-packs at the warehouse stores.

2. Artwork

Face it, if you're a parent, you have too much carp, er, I mean, artwork, that comes home from preschool, school, art class, scouts, and other kid endeavors.

Can't bear to throw it away? Find a big box, throw it in. Now come gift-giving season you have the perfect personalized paper. No cost. No loss. Perfect.

3. Brown Paper

No kids? I got this one from a decluttering TV show. Wrap everything in plain brown wrapping paper (the kind you use for Post Office packages.) Splurge on pretty ribbons and bows. (Or for the truly tight, repurpose the ribbons and bows from last year's presents.) This also solves the problem of where to put all the paper in the off season--there isn't much, and you can use it all year.

Wrap on...

Clergy and Town Officials Help Homeowners at Risk

This post has been included in this week's Carnival of Personal Finance #185 Cheesehead Edition hosted by The Fraud Files Blog and was also given a special mention at the Festival of Frugality #158 hosted by The Well Run Dry. After you poke around here a bit, and subscribe to my RSS feed if you like what you see, please visit these sites for more great posts.

Photo by KitAy

A town in Massachusetts held an innovative event to help homeowners in financial distress earlier this month.

The program, called "Neighbors Helping Neighbors," aimed to provide resources to homeowners having trouble meeting mortgage payments. And while the turnout for the event was small, the organizers, who included clergy from seven local churches plus local officials, are planning to build on the event. The rise in foreclosures of 68 percent in their community this year literally hit home.

The problem is one of stigma--In a middle-class suburb, it isn't OK to tell people that you may lose your house. I understand it perfectly; it is why I write under a pseudonym.

Mortgage lenders, tax officials, and representatives from local food pantries all participated to let people know that help was available for them. I found it particularly interesting that many municipalities have tax relieve programs available that may help homeowners temporarily if they can't make their total payments.

Religious communities, of course, have long provided charitable support for those in need. What I find fabulous about this program is that it trains the resources of people from multiple faiths to address a common problem. The program isn't expensive--it just provides information and outreach about resources that already exist.

And while I'm sensitive to the issue of inappropriate merging of church and state, I think this kind of cooperative effort is to be lauded, but even better, to be duplicated. Communities can take care of their own if they know that there are problems.

Gotta love a program where compassion rather than blame is the order of the day.

Drama For a Song

This post has been included in the Happy New Year Edition of the Carnival of Family Life, hosted by Mixed Metaphor. Please explore the other family articles at the carnival after you've had a chance to look around here. And do subscribe to my RSS feed if you're interested in what you find.

Photo by Ivan Salas

My 5th grade daughter, Prissy, came home in a lather about trying out for the spring musical. Auditions were the next day. I told her we couldn't afford the $500 (yikes!).

She cried for an hour. The next day she called Mr. Poorhouse from school. "The girls say," she reported, "that if you're really really good, you can get a scholarship."

We relented. She auditioned. She didn't get in. (Am I a bad mom if I'm relieved?) She cried for a few minutes and then moved on.

So now there's an opportunity to be in a play at church. She's got a great part. She has her lines memorized, is waltzing about the house in queenly costume, and is learning to ar-ti-cul-ate.

How much is all this costing? It's free.

Nearby towns also have children's theater opportunities for a fraction of the cost of the play for which she auditioned. They are not as convenient, but from what I've heard, they are terrific programs, AND unlike the play Prissy didn't get a part in, they aren't directed by a woman who routinely yells at and belittles the kids.

The moral: comparision shopping works for lots of things.

Most Popular Yankee Swap Gifts

Photo by Martin L

As the experienced participant in two, count 'em two, Yankee Swaps in one day, I now feel qualified to give advice as to the most popular gifts.

Swap #1 was for a work lunch (mine) held at a restaurant. Strangely enough, NO ONE swapped. Everyone seemed to enjoy the gift he or she picked. The most frequently given gift was chocolates: Lindts, gourmet hot chocolate, and dark chocolate macadamia nuts. There was also the ever-present holiday candle (with a lighter), and a much appreciated book light.

Swap #2 was a work dinner (casual bbq with video games and pool and significant others). Much more swapping went on. Hotly contested items were a set of steak knives, a bottle of Kahlua, and a usb fridge that holds one can. (Huh?) This one was lots more fun.

As an aside, it seems like a Yankee Swap is the perfect opportunity for regifting those white elephants.

Related Posts: The Yankee Swap

Elizabeth Warren to the Rescue

I was somehow reassured to hear on NPR recently that Harvard credit expert and consumer credit activist Elizabeth Warren is overseeing the handouts, er, I mean bailouts to the financial sector. Sure she and 3 other people are only working part time and still haven't found office space (according to the Huffington Post), but she is a creditable expert who's on the side of the average Joan.

Of course, the less good news is that she admits she hasn't got any idea what the heck is happening to the money. No wonder Congress shied away from bailing out the auto industry without a plan in place first.

Hmmm. Wonder if she'd be up for a job in the new administration?

Further Reading: "Why Elizabeth Warren is an Inspired Choice to oversee TARP," from Conde Nast Portfolio

Related Post: More Children Have Experienced Bankruptcy than Divorce.

Oops--Miscalculated on the Coinstar Thing

The small print of the Coinstar offer for your free money and the gift card with no service charge (posted here) says to expect the gift card in 6-8 weeks.

There goes my plan to use it for Christmas shopping. Bummer.