So we were at Denny's this morning, as usual. We mostly pay by cash, but rarely we pay by plastic. DH gave the server his debit card to cash out. When the server came back he specifically asked for his ID. DH gave him his Costco card. I asked DH what the heck happened. DH smiled and showed me the back of his card.

(instead of a signature, the words "CHECK I.D." appear.)

So a Q and A followed:

Q: Why?
A: I didn't want to give up my signature to just anybody. If I sign, the ID thief has your card and your signature, which means they can forge it well enough for a pimply-faced kid's glance.

Q: What other cards did you do this with?
A: Debit and credit card.

Q: How did you come up with this?
A: Found the tip on someone else's blog. (and now its on mine).

Q: What about the bank?
A: They don't care as long as its not blank. I wrote it in unerasable sharpie, see...?

Q: So what do you have that has your signature on it?
A: Nothing. (thinks for a minute). Oh yeah, my driver's license and my Costco card. Yeah, I guess you do have to have some ID with a signature on it. The DMV makes you sign the driver's license.

ed note: There is a problem with this. If you're worth the talents of a real identity thief, all said thief would have to do is create a fake secondary ID with your name and the thief's signature.

I finished Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. It was about a commitment to eat off the garden or very, very locally for one year. Of course, such a thing is possible if you live on a bit more than a postage stamp lawn and in a state with well balanced agriculture.

I've also been reading and hearing about others making a commitment to eat food grown within 100 miles of one's locale. Local-voring, its called. I like the idea, but I've always had problems with such rigid rules. A bit expensive and a bit pretentious. At the very least, local-voring within the greater Seattle area will give you a massive caffeine withdrawl headache. (No coffee trees within 100 miles of Seattle). Bananas are good for you. Standing around the meat case tempting yourself with either the New Zealand or the Oregon beef means annoying other shoppers who just want to get in and get out. Nope, I want an easy rule to avoid total deprivation and at least not do the completely wrong thing. So I've come up with my own semi-local-frugal-vore rule, short and sweet.

Eat what and from where your great-grandpa would eat.

Now I know I have a definite advantage here. My great-grandpa on my mother's side was a grocer during the Great Depression. (FYI, great-grandpa was still alive when I left for college.) The grocers' kids ate okay, however they ate what wouldn't sell, a frugal but possibly disgusting and frightening prospect in the Depression.

Still, coffee was not unheard of, neither were bananas. Fruit and produce, however, were sold in season from either North or Central America. Fresh food coming from places much further was prohibitively expensive, so great-grandpa wouldn't eat it. Sugar was just granulated, and also expensive, so it was a once in awhile thing. He was also, as you might have guessed, darn frugal. He also ate home cooked meals, no junk food, and only in his much later years ate things with a lot of strange preservatives. Except he had that unfortunate taste for Spam.

The great-grandpa rule isn't perfect, but it has to be better than having to bring a mental GPS unit when going to the grocery store.

Saving log - $0
Spending log - $1.84 coffee, milk + $15 chirashi lunch + $25 poker game

Paycheck came - yes, I am making $50 more/ paycheck, or $100 more a month. It justifies my raising my savings rate to $50/ each paycheck.

This evening, I played Texas Hold 'Em poker with lawyer friend, lawyer friend's partner (who works as IT support in a law firm), and 5 lawyers up on the 48th floor in downtown Seattle. Man that sounds like the setup for a punch line. I lost, of course. It was fun, but pricey, so it will be a once in awhile thing. Cracking the poker game and winning isn't cheap - $20 buy-in, $5 bounty (if you lose all your chips, you pay the person who dealt.)

And no, that is not the frugal dilemma, this is:

A couple of week's worth of Wall Street Journals, Investor Business Dailys., and a Barron or two. Stealing is not right, neither is littering...but recycling is a virtue. I was sorely tempted to take a Thursday or a Friday's paper. I didn't, but there it is...

It came to me this afternoon as I was walking to the bus.

Enjoy what you already have.

Very simple - since you already have it, why spend on the new, improved version. We all might not be the "use it up completely" types, but even if folks actually used everything they bought we would not waste and toss out perfectly useful items.

Saving log - $0
Spending log - $.10 coffee

Well, had my dime spending day today. I feel almost as virtuous as I would if it was a no spend day. Made $180 in interest last month.

Voted this morning in a special primary. Normally its in September; this year's several weeks early. I voted an electronic ballot - its very rare that electronic gadgets fail for me, but not for many other people. It won't matter soon because King County is heading toward an all mail-in ballot.

I prepare for voting the night before by looking at the voters guide and writing down how I'm going to vote. It was nice to have a friend running for school board because I usually decide eeny-meeny-miny on those. But despite the planning, there's always one item on the ballot that I didn't decide on. When I pick blind it never fails that I pick the nutball. Too bad; nutballs are easy to spot in the voter's guide. Here are my EZ rules:

1. No more than two fonts in the candidate's statement. Regular and italic or regular and bold. As soon as you start with the regular, bold, italic, ALL CAPS all on a 1/2 page, well...do you really think that way?

2. No underlining passages whole passages and paragraphs. C'mon, it looks kind of stupid when you underline whole chapters in a textbook. If you think all of this is that important than none of it is.

3. Not keeping the use of capital letters to the first word of a sentence and proper nouns. Just because You have a Word you like doesn't mean You can Capitalize It.

4. No third person POV. The main reason baselle didn't vote for Bob Dole ... well, okay other than the fact that baselle normally votes Democratic.

5. A first name that's not obviously made up. This year it was Goodspaceguy Nelson. (actually his entry was pretty funny - "to glorify King County, ask that governments make it easier to make movies here.")

I'm surprised this one hasn't come up, so I'll do it.

Pay yourself first. Put yourself in as a line item on your budget, and give yourself a raise/ cost of living adjustment (COLA) every so often, especially if you get one from your job.

Remember that if your electric bill or the price of gas goes up a certain percent, you grumble, but you shell it out and manage somehow. And that managing somehow means the end of the month gets thinner and thinner. Paying yourself first when your paycheck is plump means you will do it consistently.

Saving log - $20 tip box
Spending log - $3 cherries + $2.45 groceries

I nearly had my no spend day until about 1:00pm. I had my Starbucks coffee from the gift card ($1.60 left - so Monday it will be coffee for a dime), and the co worker took me to lunch, even paying for the tip. We went to my hideout in the Pike Market (2 doors past the first Starbucks) and managed to trip over only a few tourists celebrating its 100th anniversary.

Also, the place does a strictly cash business - not tourist friendly either - so it was a lot of Seattle regulars chewing away.

I got led away from the no-spend path coming back through the market heading toward 1st Avenue. We had to slalom past rings of tourists camcordering street musicians (noticed few coins and bills in the hats, fyi), veered around lots and lots of looky-loos listening so sincerely and intently to the speaker proclaiming some blather that the Pike Place Market will never die...

Well, it will if you don't buy stuff! Its a market, guys. Markets sell stuff. If they don't sell enough stuff, they go away. I see it right now - not nearly so many produce stands as there were even just five years ago.

So there were a ton of tourists standing there like logs in front of a produce stand. I couldn't stand it anymore. I very publically bought a bag of cherries. Good karma there.

Then an hour later I gave the cherries to my trainer and the gym - because of the picnic yesterday we rescheduled gym for today. Good karma again.

It blew my no-spend day but frankly good karma, leveraged on both ends, doesn't come any cheaper.

And yet it does. I had my day off today, but I did a favor for a coworker, which only took 90 minutes.

After that, it was at the tail end of lunch. I went to my favorite hideout place at the Pike Market. No debit, credit card or check - just cash, so I checked my wallet. Whoops - I needed cash. There was an ATM about 30 ft from the hideout, but was traditionally a US Bank ATM, which if I used would be a $1.75 surcharge. Sigh. But I wanted my meal so I was prepared to pay - grr.

I got there and the ATM had changed to a WaMu. My bank; no fee; yippee! Weird how I care so much about paying or not paying a $1.75. It does mean that I don't have to plan ahead so thoroughly.

Packed up all my canning supplies for the weekend. See ya!

So I taught lawyer friend about the rule of 72 a couple of days ago. (Look, he had lawyer training not math!) I'm sure I'm singing to the choir here about it, but as a rule of thumb it states that:

You can expect an investment to double when the percent of return x the number of years = 72.

Examples are -

If you are earning 8% on an investment, it will take 9 years for the investment to double.

If you have to double your return in 6 years, you have to earn a yearly return of 12%.

It'll take a lifetime for your checking account at 1% to double.

Exciting, when you first think about it! But the twist that I thought of last night was that the rule of 72 is double edged. It works, unfortunately, with anything with an interest rate on it.

So if the inflation rate is a consistent 3%, it will only take 24 years for your cost of living to double. It means that that 22K that I made when I first got out of college in 1984 and that 44K that I make now spend about the same. Depressing, isn't it?

It also means that if you owe 10K on a credit card at 10%, and you make the minimum payment at 2%, 9 years from now you should owe 20K, more if you actually charged something else. Assuming no fees, hah hah.

You've got to work hard to make the rule of 72 work for you - it works hard against you most of the time.

Pardon the expletive!

Saving log - $1 tip box
Spending log - $1.84 coffee, milk + $4.50 curry + $8 watch battery

The title of this entry is a fast criticism of the title of this article:

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/moneymag_archive/200...

I know I shouldn't bother with reading these things on CNN, because the writing is so subtly anti-saver, and that makes sense because savers don't spend and therefore aren't worth advertising to. But still...

Note to CNN: All money is real money.

The young couple depicted in the article are already earning 90K, more than my DH and I. Just because they eventually will earn 200K doesn't mean that they are right now being paid in Monopoly money. They aren't earning hobby money.

But that isn't what really, really tears it. Its this: you learn just as much money management with the small amounts as with the large amounts. As a matter of fact, you had BETTER learn your money management with the small amounts. Its not a case that when you come into a large chunk of money that that somehow gives you the impetus to handle it better. Oh no, you better had practiced with your tens and hundreds before you get your tens of thousands.

Its dangerous to give that two-tiered emotion with your money - "real" vs. "fake". If you don't assume that the small sums are important and worth treating with respect, you probably will never give them the chance to grow to a "respectable, real" sum. Assume that your small sums are fake, then small sums they will remain...if don't immediately spend them.

Worse, if you do get a big sum of money, you either treat it like a small sum and spend it, or you treat it like a whole new animal with the seriousness it deserves. After all, it is a "real" sum of money.

And then you are stuck. How to handle it? After treating small sums miserably, you have no idea. Too conservative and it loses value to inflation, too wild and you turn it into a small sum and fritter it away.

Anyhow, grr. & Thanks for indulging me!

even in the "good old days".

An article I wanted to share. Once upon a time, being frugal was heroic and commonplace. Maybe it will be again.

http://alternet.org/environment/55925/

From the files of "come to think of it, they should have something like this", an article about price optimization software:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2003684689_price28.html

The takeaway message that I get from this is that there is an art to pricing, based on psychology. There is a fair amount back and forth on other frugal sites. Some people, like me, swear by a price book, which is a list of prices, per unit, of items I normally buy, at the store I bought 'em at, and the full date (including year) when I encountered the price. Other people tell me that they have great memories, and they know for a fact that one store had consistently lower prices for stuff so why waste time and effort?

This article strengthens my suspicions that price optimization software really target how shoppers perceive price and value, especially for those shoppers who rely on their memory and impressions. In other words, those who fly by/buy the seat of their pants. A store will specifically target their loss leaders to give shoppers the impression that they have consistently lower prices, yet after a few months...not so much.

Besides, the store is using the most sophisticated calculations imaginable to determine their price. The willingness to maintain and use a price book (and if necessary, not buy) at least shows the shenanigans.

It was amazing to me learning my first week of pricebooking that Larry's Market, not known for cheap prices, beat out Costco's price for canned tuna...handily. And best of all, I could buy exactly the number of cans I had the budget for, not in packs of 12.

So you just never know ... unless you have a price book.

Changing the subject, I added another paragraph to the blog entry How To Store Grocery Produce. I think it's a good tip, making the entry worthy of revisiting.

Saving log - $4
Spending log - .65$ milk + 5.45 curry lunch

My busy season's winding down a bit. My boss is going to take me out to lunch Thursday, which was very appreciated - I'm at my last $60 from the previous paycheck.

Last night I started to move my small, monthly recurring charges (ISP, newspaper, Netflix - about $70) from my credit card to my debit card. Last night I moved my ISP bill. My goal is to just have the trainer on my credit card so I can better keep my deadbeat credit card status. 12% of 0$ is 0.

I also think that I need to have better control of those little charges. Its so easy to keep those little things "out of sight-out of mind" on the credit card where they somehow breed and turn into things that you'll want, can't always justify, and get pissy at someone if they suggest you get rid of them.

If the charges are on the debit card, which I watch like a hawk, then I really think about them each month.

I saw the documentary Maxed Out and here this afternoon. My only regret is that I didn't see it on Tuesday, when all times for the Varsity Seattle are $6, off from $9.25. So much for being frugal.

My all means every journal/blogger/reader of blogs here on this site should see this movie. If it doesn't make it to a movie theater near you, Netflix it or Blockbuster it, or rent it from the library (when it gets there) or h%ll, even buy it...with cash, of course. If we (as bloggers) cannot encourage you to tackle your debt then this documentary will. My head is still spinning and if this entry is disjointed, its because the filmmaker covers so much ground that every American should know about. The links I sent at the top will give you a nice taste on some of the bits.

Now for a few of my observations.

A lot of what had happened - people getting in over their heads in debt - happened to me, too. (I became debt-free in October 2004.) For an agnostic/atheist, I am blessed that:

1.) I got in over my head back when the credit card companies hadn't thought up most of their wicked ways - universal debt, 2 cycle billing.
2.) I remained in good health.
3.) I can still be content even when living a materially-poor lifestyle - no house, no car, no kids, Goodwill as a furniture store.
4.) DH - to my knowledge - does not practice financial infidelity.
5.) I treasure my privacy. Cash is anonymous.
6.) I always had a job, even if it was a temp job.
7.) Nothing financially big went wrong with either me, DH, or in our family circles. At least nothing bigger than my emergency fund.

There but for the grace of G*d go I. Sheer luck. I'm not going to say that I dug out of debt my way, heroically, by my bootstraps. I had a lot of luck that many folks don't.

And finding out that credit card companies will magically "lose" your check until a day or two after the due date. I'm happy that I don't play chicken with my credit card bill. I pay it a day or two after the 15th, before the bill comes. I'm tempted to send the bill registered mail!

I do have a divergence of opinion with Michelle Singletary (second link) when she thought that the tithing clip was a cheap shot. Au contraire. In the clip, Jerry Falwell told his flock that even those in under heavy debt stress should still tithe. I have no problems with tithing if goes to G*d. I have a problem with it going to Jerry Falwell, who clearly needs it far less. My cheap shot.

Anyway, continuing on. As a person who pays in full most months and is a great saver, how this debt load most affects me is on the investment level. If the US government is playing a shell game with its debt - does that make me a chump for investing in T-bills? (they are 4 wk T-bills, so probably not, but still...) How do you assess risk?

Debt is slavery, no good or bad. If you are in debt in America, you are not free, period. You are watched, you are hounded, you are sold. A FICO score only determines how much of each you are. And I would make that case even if you have a 30 fixed mortgage.

Finally, a word. My credit card, Capital One, is bumping my rate from 7.99% to 12%, even though I'm a credit "deadbeat" (pays every month). Apparently this is occurring to many in my situation. Since my revolving piece is about $100 or so every once in awhile, the interest that I would pay is still minimal, but I'm still going to go through my $60 or recurring debt - the newspaper, Netflix, etc and see what I can get transferred to my debit card. Last I checked, 12% of 0$ is 0$. Perhaps the card companies will figure out a clever technique to get money out of that situation.

Wednesday, March 7
Saving log - $2 tip box
Spending log - $1.67 coffee, milk + $7 lunch

Thursday, March 8
Saving log - $4 tip box + $16.00 T-bill interest + $40 DRP + $35 another DRP
Spending log - $1.67 coffee, milk + $16 lunch

Right now I have about 41 million dollars of electronic data to book. Don't get too excited - most of it is going to other places. It was easy for my boss to triage my time and get me out of several commitments to other people in other departments. It feels different than last year - calmer - because with time I know I can get everything done and the 41 million is a great reason to leave me to do my task. I just have to remember I will always have something like this this time of year.

We also have issues with daylight saving. This brands me as an old fart, but I remember when you got the word in the paper when and which way you changed the clock, you changed the clock by hand and you went on with your life. The Windoz-ation of everything hasn't made anything better... but it has given you a great three week excuse for being late.

Tomorrow is my assistant's last day, so today I took her out to lunch. Lunch was curry, and for dinner DH made ... curry.

Lost another 1/2 pound, 1/2 inch of my hips, and 1% of body fat.

Saving log - $2 tip box
Spending log - $1.50 coffee + $20 lunch + $9 mucinex

Woke up this morning almost, but not quite, normal and thinking that maybe, just maybe I might be well by the weekend.

Since it is the last day of the month, it was the last chance that I had to deposit my tip box drippings after work. So I did so at a freezing ATM at 6:30 tonight. I put in $44 from the tip box into savings and took out $40 from checking. Ridiculous when you think about it - why not short circuit the whole thing - deposit $4? Same thing, right?

But that's what savings looks like. Its important to save the $44, not the $4, now matter what it looks like. If you save the $4, you only have the 4 and the other 40 goes poof. If you save the $44, you have the full 44. Saver's alchemy to know that its not the same.

Saving log - -4$ (took money out of the tip box)
Spending log - $2 coffee, milk +$9 lunch

Man, that little soiree into Radio Shack cost me a bit. I had to move some money out of the savings account into checking, just to make sure that all my checks are covered. Ironic, because I had just got done depositing 25K. I timed all my money moves ($ going into other saving accounts) to happen at once at the beginning of this week so I only have myself to blame for getting into a box.

On top of that, I promised to take one of the auditors to my favorite lunch spot and I really couldn't back out in a graceful way. So it meant that today, the last day before payday, I did the unthinkable: I took money out of my tip box at work.

Overcommittment is bad for your net worth. TG its the end of the month and payday.

A little conversation with DJ co worker, after we debated the relative merits between Dunkin' Donuts and Krispy Kreme donuts...

DJ: so which is your favorite?
Me: after looking in the mirror, neither one. It had better be a celestial, cosmically mind-blowing donut for me to have one.

Saving log - $4 tip box
Spending log - 2$ coffee, milk + $5 lunch

Collected my tip box squeezings and put them in the bank. $48. All told, since I've started slipping change and bucks into the tip box at work when I remembered, then sticking it in the bank once per month, I've saved about $1338 in two years. Its small, but the action is painless and its $1338 that I wouldn't have had.

My afternoon exercise bus passes right by a large North Seattle Goodwill, I've been in a couple of times. Every so often I talk to someone about the Goodwill - us frugal types somehow know each other... call it fru-dar - and I've discovered two things about my neighborhood Goodwill:

1.) Best general sales and the lowest markups are on Monday. Go on Monday if you want to buy big bags of stuff.

2.) The new electronics come out on Thursday, right before the weekend.

Saving log - $3
Spending log - 1.65$ coffee + 4.36$ lunch

The office opened 2 hrs late, and DH was sound asleep, so I really didn't want to push it by getting him out of bed..and frankly, traffic's been just nutty, even by Seattle standards. Waited for the bus for 25 minutes, and I did a little multi-tasking by buying a coffee and drinking it while I waited.

Love my Yaktrax. Every day for these past few days, standing around with them on, at least five people have asked me about them.

Its not particularly financial, but I have to get this off my chest. An open command to my brethren, the Seattle bus rider: Sit the he&& down!

Amateurs.

So many times in these past four days, on a packed bus, when the bus stops and a few people manage to ssssqquuueeeze off, there can be an empty seat. If there is no older person who needs the seat and you are closest to it, it does not help matters any that you are standing there like a goob next to an empty seat. Worse, you are now blocking the seat for someone else. But its my next stop, you whine. Yes, you are polite. Get over yourself. Sit down.

Yeah, I'm a tad cranky.

I did actually get an interesting financial nugget in the paper today, disguised in the science section. Researchers discovered two spots in the brain that are active when you are considering buying something. One spot, the nucleus accumbens, is a pleasure center active when you are about to buy something you want. Another, the insula, is active when you experience things you don't like - pain, disgusting smells, etc. So deciding on a purchase is thought to be a wrestling match between the two. Of course, the "tightwad" supposedly has a more responsive insula, but half of Americans tested have one of those. It also turns out that a number of retail tricks - buy one, get one free; the credit card; the all-you-can-eat buffet - short circuit the insula, while tricks like buying with cash engage the insula. Fascinating.

Now sit down. You're hurting my insula!

Saving - 0$
Spending - $20 chiropractor + $3.50 coffee, cookie + 5$ lunch

Today DH and I were off, but since the chiropractor was next door to work, it didn't really feel like it. Got my neck and back popped; another set of errands got us to the Pike Market and then it was back to the car.

On the way back, we made a little pit stop at the Cadillac Hotel where the revamped Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park has their new digs. Fabulous place to visit, and for the frugal, the price is right: free. Course we made a suggested donation and took a look around.

The Klondike Gold Rush occurred 1896 - 1899, but there is so much similarity between Americans of a 100 yrs ago and us today. There was an economic panic in the early 1890's. News of gold sparked gold fever in hundreds of thousands of desperate people. Crazy decision 1 - to go. Seattle made almost $1B (today's money) provisioning prospectors - everybody had to have a year's worth of food and gear for the Yukon, which happened to be in Canada. In other words, 1 ton of gear. Crazy decision 2 - to buy.

Most of the trip was by boat, but there was a mountain pass that a prospector had to cross...with 1 ton of gear. Most had to hoof it, going up and down that pass over 30 times, taking a pack of gear up the hill, then sliding down, then up the hill, then sliding down. I'll bet it got old after the first trip. I felt for those prospectors, doing something insane just because they made those first two crazy decisions.

Lesson 1: How much had I bought in my early 20s on a credit card that I was metaphorically lugging up that pass over and over again?

And when the prospector got there... the good claims had been taken already. Some worked other claims or bought them. The guys who really cleaned up were ones selling donuts and coffee or fresh vegetables. One guy took one look at his claim, then looked at all the scurvy going around, and farmed it. 20 hrs of daylight, giant vegetables, big bucks.

Lesson 2: The entrepreneur sees the situation as it is. Its rarely the original situation that provides the opportunity.

Final amazing stat:
For every 100,000 people who started out
40,000 made it to the Klondike
20,000 prospected for gold
60 people found more than $15,000 worth of gold
30 people kept at least half of their gold after 5 years.

Lesson 3: A lottery's a lottery, no matter how its dressed up.

Back to the salt mines, I guess, but I implemented what I could at home.

1. Increased my 403B % to 13% of gross pay, up from 12%. I'll be bringing that form to HR tomorrow. It means that my 2% raise from 12/14 has been spent.

2. Put 4K into a 2007 Roth IRA. I didn't actually save it, I moved 4K from one Vanguard account to another.

3. Got my first piece of paper for my taxes Friday. Started my 2007 tax file.

Found a deal on cup of noodles. As I was waiting in the grocery line, the woman ahead of me bought a pack of brand-name cigarettes. $6.49/pack. I hate to imagine the fiscal carnage of a carton. In a sense, though, cigarette prices aren't high enough. We all pay for a smoker. Unfortunately, we all will pay for overeaters and non-exercisers and the non-prudent in general. Its the fiscal take on "judge not, lest ye be judged."

Last night was fun - conversation, Cranium, and Scene It? - although I had 5 little tacos, boodles of tortilla chips and guacamole, 2 glasses of wine, and a glass of champagne.

Judge not, lest ye be judged.

Most aren't financial, but they could be...

1. Go to the gym 1 day/week without the trainer. I did this a few times, but the habit did not catch hold. Ultimately, I'd like to establish going to the gym 2x/week without the trainer, 1x with. It would save me 50% off the gym expense.

2. Drink more water. Establish that except for one drip coffee in the morning, my drink is water.

3. Do 10 minutes of calisthentics before I go to bed. I could try in the morning, but I love sleep. I'm not proud.

4. If I'm feeling peckish and want a late night snack, its a salad or vegetables.

5. Finish that novel.

Now the gentle warning. It applies equally to me and to anyone who reads this.

Its great that so many people here have the twin goals of saving money and losing weight. Debt and calories, its all the same - you try to run a deficit on both. From a person who managed to do both last year, I have to tell you all that losing weight is much, much, much harder. I'm 44, so my metabolism is an extra hurdle.

Its very important to keep in mind that progress will not be quick, and you will run up against setbacks. Be sure to:

1. establish a few routines that you can succeed at. Get into the habit. Pursue the habit. The 20$ challenge is perfect - who doesn't have 20$? Who can't add to it in increments? And don't go for too many habits at once. Changing it up means you get confused or worse, you'll drop the whole thing.

2. Do the simple things first - eat with small bowls, don't eat out of a bag, look at your food, if you eat out ask for the box as soon as the plate lands on the table. Put change in a change jar, make sure your savings account pays interest, don't take money out of savings, don't loan money, and at this stage of the game, don't brag (you'll just turn into the BIL magnet).

3. track your progress, but be clever at it. I dropped two dress sizes, and lost 19 inches, but I only lost 20 pounds, and that loss happened very ssssssllllloowly. I dropped the inches much quicker and that kept me going. I had my own little milestones - when the bath towel went around me completely, for instance. I track my food and I track my spending both. If you're honest about it, just the act of tracking will help. I won't eat the whole bag of chips because I'm going to have to write it down; I won't buy a lot of something at a bad price because I'm going have to write what I spent down.

4. trust the process. If you eat better and feel better, trust that and use that knowledge to keep going. Even if you spend more money, you might be losing weight. If you drink water, you'll lose your craving for soda. Put that soda money in savings. Even if you aren't losing weight, you are saving money. If you do the gym and get lots of exercise, you'll be tired, but your mood will improve. Even if you don't lose weight or save money, the mood elevation will count for something.

5. try to push your routine a little. Retrain your eye to establish what a normal portion is, eat that, and pay attention to your food. Walk a bit more and a bit longer than you normally do. If you are just saving change in your jar, add a dollar bill or two, or even make reverse change (put a 5$ in and take $5 of change out).

6. know that setbacks are part of process. You are not going to progress in a smooth curve. What if you don't lose that 1/2 pound/week this week? Learn from it. I now have the "Later" technique to use in my arsenal. If a co worker pops in and says, "there is a fantastic cake/ calorie/ chocolate in...", I smile and say, "that's great! I'll be there a little bit later." Later usually means none. I had to learn the later technique because work food is a serious source of setbacks.

7. know thyself. I was reading where someone lost 45 pounds by eating oatmeal the consistency of a brick for breakfast. I would vomit - that would not work for me. Also, other folks might be doing what you are doing, and achieving their goals faster. It's what you are doing for you that counts. Remember, I've lost 20 pounds in a year. Slow as a snail. The trainers all call it "shy losing". I call it frustrating, but there it is.

Happy New Year everybody! See you on the 2007 side.

At least during the day, when all the worker and shopping bees are out and about in downtown Seattle. Many of my co workers got power on Saturday, but a few are hosting family and friends. Wednesday was the ETA for power for one unlucky group.

But still it isn't when it gets dark.

My feelings are a bit torn here. The worst of it hit the expensive woodsy properties to the east. Mercer Island, a very exclusive enclave, really got hit. I have to admit a bit of schadenfruede here. A little more planning, a little less credit card action for the stupid stuff.

Then I have to think about how well DH and I would do in the cold and the dark. I mean, really think about it. Yeah, we'd like to admit we would be cleverer. We have a fireplace, candles, batteries, water, a camp cookstove, pantry food, a little spirit, and it would be just the two of us. Just treat it like a hurricane and you'll do fine.

Hurricanes happen in the summer in more southern latitudes. You've got at least 12 hours of daylight. And the day after a hurricane produces some of the clearest bluest skies imaginable.

Night comes early and leaves late. We are only three days from winter solstice and we are up there, latitudinally speaking. 4:30 pm to 8:00 am is 16 hours - a long, long time to wander through a house with candles and flashlights getting chores done, a long time to run the fireplace, much too long for hands of cards and reading books by candlelight, too long when you try to situate yourself in a cold bed, and certainly too long a time allowing a misplaced generator to kill you by carbon monoxide.

We are a day people. Electricity - lights and heat and computer - protect us from ourselves this time of year.

Savings log - $5 tip box
Spending log - 2$ coffee, milk + $6 lunch + 20$ chiropractor + 700$ credit card (paying off a cremation)

Survived the Thursday night/Friday morning storm all right. We (and to the best of my knowledge, our neighbors) have power and heat, had it on continuously, and we are thankful. About 150,000 folks in Seattle proper (500K throughout the PNW) were not so lucky.

The eerie, maddening thing - the power outages are very, very spotty. One side of the street would be out or one block would be out. At my bus stop Friday, the traffic light was out, the Walgreens and the Tully's coffeeshop was out, yet across the street the Safeway blazed bright and the little shops along that side were lit too. A co worker mentioned that her house had power, but her neighbors across the street did not. She planned on inviting her neighbors over. We used to do that for snow storms when we knew our neighbors better, using the food that you would be bummed about losing.

Lots of unfrugal activity. Other co workers are buying hotel rooms while they are waiting for the power to come back on. Every diner and restaurant has a line. According to the TV, gas seems to be running low, lines of cars waiting for gas are long - apparently by people driving around to keep warm. G$d, I hope that isn't the case. Surely we have to be better prepared than that! There are some Red Cross shelters, but unfortunately getting the word out and receiving the word depends on electricity.

Pride goeth before a big credit card bill.

Like standing out in 40 degree weather outside the Roosevelt Safeway waiting for a guy in a green Suburu? All to buy a 2Gb flash drive for 25$.

You see, DJ friend's frugal skill is Craigslist, and he is a master at negotiation over the phone. He got his flash drive for 20$. Seller's new price was 30$, but DJ friend managed to get him down by $5 by "knowing when to be silent". All you do during the seller's offer on the phone is to pause an uncomfortable length of time. Stretch it out. The person who talks first - loses.

DJ friend also taught me more Craigslist philosophy. Your job is to sell the item ASIS with no guarantees, not provide customer service. I fell into that pitfall by trying to sell some laptop memory. I kept getting bites, but they all asked me for advice whether it would work on their systems. Not your job, he said. They should either know that, or are willing to take a flyer on it. If you're only selling it for 5$, the flyer is easy. In other words, asis, no warranty, I dunno, do-you-still-want-to-buy-it?

So I called the seller and arranged the pickup - the Roosevelt Safeway. I felt like a spy, standing outside, waiting for a green Suburu, a twenty and a five twisting between my fingers in my pocket. That's the other device if the seller tries a fast one - 25$ is all I have. I'm only Craigslist challenged. Drove by, I got my drive, he got $25.

Shopping at the Safeway beforehand was an opportunity, though. Got Odwalla energy bars for 1$/bar. I've gotten them for as low as .89/bar, so a 1$ wasn't too far off.

Lunch was with the lawyer friend and the co worker who resigned. Her last day is Friday. The Szechuan noodles and dumplings were wonderful, and we stuffed ourselves for 12$ (we bought for the co worker). I was so stuffed that I held up some bills fanned out, and lawyer friend took what was appropriate. Not a shining frugal moment but funny nonetheless.

Got my sister's Christmas gift. She got the fruit, I got the cheese and summer sausage. Between the two of us we could have a fine party.

Also got a Christmas newsletter in the mail. Sigh. Anybody else throughly creeped out by the verb in this sentence: Male so-and-so gave us (insert baby quantity, gender and generational marker here). Ya helped a bit, but gave? Its a baby, not a piece of property! Yeech.

Saving log - $0
Spending log - $2 coffee, milk + $12 lunch + $17 Safeway + $122 electric bill (winter rates).

Kicking around day. DH bought my Denny's lunch, I covered the tip. Then it was a haircut, and a cider because getting a haircut is so traumatic.

Talked to a Mormon elder, who was all of 20. He was passing out hot chocolate and pamphets on the street corner of 85th and Greenwood. I accepted the hot chocolate and a chat. Weird to think that my little Seattle neighborhood is hotbed of religious fervor and we are the heathens.

Spending - 2.65$ tip + 15$ haircut + 3$ cider

Noticed that a number of bloggers are writing about if they budget and/or if they reconcile their accounts. I don't budget, but boy, I reconcile my checkbook (and all my other accounts) online every day.

I don't know about everybody else, but once upon a time I didn't do either, and my accounts showed it. I figure that to get somewhere financially, you have to know whether you are overspending. You can either do it at the beginning/end of the month, which is what a budget is, or you do it continuously, which is what reconciling your checkbook is.

My mind can only wrap around these two choices, but I figure there must be more. So I throw out this question - how do you know if you are overspending?

Savings log (12/4) - 3$ tip box
Spending log - $2 coffee & milk, $9 lunch at the hideout, $10 bag + $5 plastic shaker for DH.

Savings log (12/5) - 5$ tip box
Spending log - $2.36 coffee, 1 pt milk, 5$ lunch.

Bought a new wallet and bag. The wallet was a nice impulse purchase (yep, I can be implusive, too), the bag a bit less so. I've been thinking about a new bag that I can sling and can keep my hands free as I walk. I've learned from my grad school days that it makes no sense to carry a ton of papers home where I won't look at them, so I try to carry a little as possible. The bonus with this small bag is that it slings well and is weighted so it rides naturally flat on my hip. I appreciate that. How could I not? The reason I hate the aisle that I get boinked in the head by every other bus rider's bag as they're lurching by.

The wallet's a bit more interesting. Soft red leather, smoother and longer, with three long pockets, a clear plastic pocket for the bus pass or license, and slots for credit cards. The only thing it lacks is a place for a decent amount of change.

Its funny how changing your wallet changes your relationship with money, at least for a few days. My original wallet was basically two pockets - an easy zippered one for dollars and change, and a clear plastic slot for cards. Very simple and quick.

Now I have several slots with multiple zippers for either for money organization or for hiding/losing money, slots for plastic cards of all types: debit, credit (dangerous!), library, grocery, punch, business. The zippers are a bit stiff - will I spend less money because its harder to get at, or will I spend more because I'm frustrated? And the lack of a change purse - will I save more change, or do I spend more?

One thing's for certain - this wallet won't get lost in any my pockets, no matter what pants I wear.

Now I'm not talking about the big horrendous lies that break the law or really, really hurt people. I'm talking about the little white lies, the ones that provide social grease. Often, white lying is a skill that can help you become frugal. Let me explain...

My DJ friend is also a co worker at the non-profit, just a couple of office doors down. Because it is a non-profit, its just like a family - money is short and arm-twisting is long, especially with fund raising staff, who have heard soft "nos" before and will press you until you give them a hard "no", and then you get the lecture on teamwork. Substitute "what kind of team are we that we can't get X?" with "what kind of family are we that we can't get X?" and you can see where I'm going with this.

Anyway, DJ friend got tapped to run his two turntables for a task at work. Bad in some sense because now everyone knows he has equipment. A day or two later, another co worker (also a DJ, kinda) wanted to borrow DJ friend's stuff to use for his DJing at another work event.

DJ friend, of course, knows that all electronic equipment is touchy. He doesn't trust the other guy but he knows that a straightforward "no" will get the lecture about not being a team player. (Of course getting your stuff back busted or tweaked so that it takes a month to get it to what it was isn't team playing either, but somehow that gets ignored. ) So DJ friend came to me for help.

I laughed. "You gotta learn to tell a brilliant white lie."
"Teach me," he said.

So what are the principles of a good white lie?
0. (to get you in the mood) Remember that the original situation might well be a white lie.
1. Know what your final result is.
2. Your white lie has to start with the truth.
3. It has to be plausible & the implications understandable.
4. It has to told simply enough so that no one wants details, or even thinks to check on the few details you do provide.
5. It has to be complete. No one should be able to come back and say, "maybe we can do/wait for Y instead?" This is the principle that most people fail at - its the difference between white lie and glorious white lie.

So let's begin.

Borrower claimed that he didn't have the funds to rent or buy another turntable - he bought records for the event (principle 0). Could I borrow one or your turntables?

Here's the white lie we came up with for DJ friend.

First of all, the final result is that no, you cannot borrow either turntable (principle 1).

During the event that DJ friend used his turntables, one balked on a song. Nothing horrible, one performer had to take the place of another until the snafu was resolved ten minutes later. So the truth was that DJ friend's turntables were balky, and we had hundreds of folks who witnessed it. That formed the nucleus of the white lie (principle 2).

DJ friend embellished the problem a bit, claiming skipping, which is a brilliant twist - DJ friend could claim that both he and the borrower's reputation are at stake (principle 3).

Now we get to the meat of the white lie. Both turntables are in the shop. No one wants to know which shop (principle 4). Both turntables are in it (principle 5.) This part was where DJ friend questioned the lie. "Are you sure?" he asked.

"You have to do both," I said. "Your turntables are a team so both could be causing the skipping (principle 3), and besides you don't want him to borrow either of your tables. Right? If you say one, you give him the opening to ask for the other. Then you have to give him a second lie about the other turntable."

(And the second lie is where the white liar usually gets into trouble. Remembering one lie is doable, remembering two is often not.)

The closer is that the problem is so intermittent that its going to take a while (principle 4) for the repair shop to figure it out. (principle 5)

So sorry, came the reply. Then nothing. No reply is the symptom of the brilliant white lie.

I throw the principles of great white lying out as a public service to the frugal community. After all, how much money do we have to shell out to fix whatever a borrower did?

Use the skills only for good!

Thanks, guys for your advice. I'm going to tell lawyer friend about it so when I stick his name on the cc:line he won't be surprised. Except for the 70% weirdness, the landlord and the rental are fine. We aren't insane nutball tenants; if we do call, they respond quickly. Best of all the rent hasn't changed any in 5 years.

So why do I rent? Well to tell you the truth in the simplest and least bitter-renter sounding way, financially we can't swing it in any fiscal responsible way right now, circa 2006-2007.

The median price of a house in Seattle/ King County about 400K. As a matter of fact, Zillow.com estimates the price of the place we rent at 370K. DH and I together make 60-65K, and we rent our 2-bedroom digs at 845$/month. Even with the most evil, fiscally suicidal I/O, neg-am, no doc ARM loan at a bogus teaser rate we would still pay about $500/month more than we rent. And a loan like that means that I would still be renting - from the bank instead of a landlord. To afford a 30yr fixed, we would need to at least double, even triple our income.

So we cheap it out, save our money, and wait. After all, a house is like any other purchase - you want to get a better price. No sense being frugal in your choices, save your money, then turn around and overpay in the largest purchase that you'll make in your life.

That's not to say we aren't interested. We're saving our money - house prices can drop, or they can rise even further. Conversely, we can save for a down payment or we will sit on a ton of money and rent. Either way, we sleep well at night.

Well, maybe not DH. His side of the bed has developed a slow leak. (Select Comfort is basically an air mattress with a phd.) At least with air, it is a lot less messy. Because my side is just fine, right now we are swapping out hoses, valves, etc, to narrow down just what is failing on DH's side of the bed. (BTW, take your best shot - I'm going to either delete or treasure your comments.)

Slushy, goopy mess today but a lot less icy. 2 buses on my normal bus route didn't come, so it was plan B - down the hill to the workhorse bus. I was 15 minutes late.

Savings log - $2 tip box (finally deposited this month's scrapings today), 8.04$ coming from this week's T-bill, and payday.
Spending log - $2 coffee/milk + $7 lunch.

Well, its snowing in North Seattle. Turned from rain to sleet to snow at about 2pm, while I was on my walk and trudging through to my errands. Didn't walk that much, but I'm expecting that if you're walking in the cold, you probably will burn off a few more calories because you are trying to stay warm in addition to getting somewhere.

There is about 2 inches on the ground as I type, and its still snowing strong. We tend to have snow days at work in parallel to Seattle Public Schools. If they're canceling school or starting late so do we.

Saturday
Spending log - $9.77 (brushes and paint container for a craft project) + 22.26$ groceries at Whole Foods (WF).

WF because we were in the Roosevelt neighborhood going to an art supply store. Seattle neighborhoods are funny - the Roosevelt neighborhood has about 6-7 audio stores within 3 blocks of each other. The neighborhood that I live in - Greenwood - had at least that many antique stores. Go figure why businesses are so lumpy like that.

I think I managed to get the only decent deals at WF, using my price book. It would have been about 15.00$, but I bought a bag of groceries for charity.

I think WF is so popular because its a prestige place to get caught. I wonder if that's a good general frugal rule. The chance of getting a good deal is in inverse proportion to a place's "coolness".

Sunday
Spending log - $3.28 (bagel and coffee) + 5.76$ (lacquer thinner) + 2.50$ box of crackers