RCPL Knowledge Network

Determination, imagination essential for sticking to a budget

noreply@blogger.com (ACCE) — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:27:00 +0000

My plan to dramatically scale back my family’s food budget is in full swing. Last week, I withdrew $200 in cash from our bank account--$50 for eating out that I tucked into an envelope for later, and $150 to buy groceries for the next two weeks.
With cash in my wallet, I headed into the grocery store with four children, a calculator, and – unknown to me – a smuggled toy hammer. The scene played out like this: while I tried to concentrate on shopping, my 4-year-old used said toy hammer to pound on cereal boxes and ripe cantaloupe. Meanwhile, my 2-year-old attempted to hoist a $6 watermelon and topple pyramids of apples.
After I confiscated the hammer and contained the hoister of watermelons, I pulled out my tiny pocket calculator, so worn that half of the numbers and symbols were missing. The baby on my hip batted the calculator from my hand several times. I had to let my 5-year-old steer the cart so I could keep a running total of everything I was buying.
At the end of a stressful hour in the store, I rolled up to the register with $147.30 worth of groceries in my cart. Overwhelmed with relief to have stayed within my budget and to be leaving, I reached for my debit card and paid for my groceries. I was loading my car when I realized I’d forgotten to use the cash I pulled from my account. Nobody said this budget-conscious shopping was going to be easy or go smoothly on the first try.
When I got home, I finalized my menu and thought about lessons I’d learned already. First, I realized that if we are to stick to a new grocery plan, I’m going to have to retrain my brain and concentrate on what I’m doing. This means leaving the kids at home and making a more comprehensive list.
I’ve always paid attention to sales and compared price per ounce, but I now need to ratchet up my efforts. I weighed grapes and apples (which I’ve admittedly never done before) and thought about every item I picked up. I didn’t just toss our old standbys into the cart, but thought about more cost-effective ways to eat the foods we enjoy. Instead of pudding cups, for example, I bought prepackaged cook-and-serve pudding at a fraction of the cost. I plan to refine this even further and make homemade cooked pudding with the recipe my mother used every week when I was a child.
Second, I acknowledge I’ll face a few budget hiccups. I had to plan a meal for a group of 11 women, and for a family camping trip. These situations were both out of the ordinary, but still required me to stay within the limit I had set. A budget won’t help me if I break it every time something unusual comes up.
So, I got creative with my menus. For the camping trip, several families worked cooperatively to make meals. I agreed to make breakfast, which allowed me to use items I already had in my pantry and freezer to make two pans of pull-apart caramel rolls. They were a big hit with the crowd and kept my budget intact.
For dinner with my friends, I prepared an elegant meal of homemade miniature quiches, a garden salad with greens from my own patch, rhubarb soda, and apple crisp . I was able to pull it off by imaginatively using resources I had available to me – and that will be the key to living well on a budget.

Lower food bills can move us closer to debt-free lifestyle

noreply@blogger.com (ACCE) — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 18:19:00 +0000

I wish I could say that after all these years of writing about money, I’ve reached some sort of financial nirvana, a place where our budget effortlessly hums along. In truth, we hit budget bumps and have starts and stops every month like everyone else. Nevertheless, even if it were possible to find perfection, that isn’t the point of a budget.
A budget isn’t a static template that we lay over our lives; it’s a spending guide that flexes with our family. For us, one of the most exciting things about a budget is that it constantly offers us opportunities to see our finances with fresh eyes. When we see where we’re spending, we can shift our priorities.
It turns out that we’re getting ready for a major shift in our family budget. When we recently calculated our total monthly food expenses, we faced a sobering truth. In June, we spent over a $1,000 on food for our family of six, and in the five months prior to that, we averaged over $800 on groceries and eating out. We know we can do better. We want to do better.
We’ve challenged ourselves to cut our food budget in half, not as a way to be stingy, but because we want to stretch our money. We’re looking for creative ways to get the things we want and need with the money we have. Ultimately, our goal is to be entirely debt free, so we plan to take half of what we save on food costs and apply it to the principle balance on our mortgage. We’ll devote the other half to projects for our family. We want some fun things, including a family trip and a playhouse for our children. Some practical items, such as a new vacuum and a woodstove, also are on our list.
Cutting our food budget in half may sound like a daunting task. How will this even be possible in a family of growing children who are voracious eaters? We’ll start with what we spend on eating out, which averages over $200 a month. By packing snacks and lunches instead of heading for the nearest fast food restaurant, we’ll whittle down what we spend on eating out to $100, which we plan to take out in cash and keep in an envelope. When the cash is gone, there’s no more eating out that month.
We’ll use the same all-cash approach with grocery shopping, because I know how easy it is to spend more than I’ve planned. Case in point, when I stopped at the grocery store with four items on my list for a camping trip, I walked out with 10 and spent three times as much as I had planned. With cash, that won’t happen.
We’ll also have to carve out more time for food preparation and change the way we do some of our shopping. This means rethinking items we mindlessly put in our cart, including pudding cups and granola bars. Juice won’t be a morning mainstay, but will become an occasional treat. Even pantry staples like egg noodles (Here is the Cowgirl's Country Life blog where she has a great recipe for Chicken and (Egg) Noodles) that seem inexpensive will be foods I buy the ingredients for and prepare at home - for a fraction of the grocery store price. We’ll keep trying different strategies until we find budget-stretching ideas that truly work for us.
I’ll be sharing my journey to reduce my food bill with you in future posts. And I encourage you to share your best cost-cutting ideas with me. E-mail me at cdenman@acce-online.com or leave comments below. Adventures in frugal living are more fun when we experience them together.

Children never too young to learn value of frugality

noreply@blogger.com (ACCE) — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 16:01:00 +0000

Sometimes, living a frugal lifestyle means my husband and I go against the grain of modern society and its demands to have the shiniest, biggest and best of everything. We put value on making the most of our money and living within our means. We like simple pleasures that are richly rewarding but don’t break our budget. We live frugally, not as an end unto itself, but because our frugality allows us to have a life we desire. Frugality isn’t about deprivation (or about washing out plastic sandwich bags or reusing sheets of tinfoil). It’s about finding new, less expensive ways to get the things we need and afford more of the things we enjoy. It is a creative challenge.

We work hard to “walk the talk” of frugality with our children. We are teaching them to spend money wisely and carefully consider what they want. As our children learn thriftiness, they share the satisfaction and rewards of this kind of lifestyle. We have to consistently teach them how to live this way, so we’re dedicated to intentionally using our resources well.

For example, we have a 5-year-old daughter who desperately wants a scooter. I’ve seen them in retail stores for $30 to $50, but I’ve also seen them at rummage sales on occasion for half as much. We’ve told her that we will spend up to $20 on a scooter, so this means that she can contribute some of her own money, wait for a retail sale, or hold off buying a scooter until we stumble upon a secondhand one. Since we’ve set a budget, we don’t have to say “no” to the scooter when she asks. Instead, we can remind her to keep an eye out for what she wants at a price we can afford.

These types of conversations, when we discuss what we can and cannot afford, are common in our home. To us, it’s important to demonstrate to our children that we have a limited amount of money and that we need to make wise choices about how we spend it.

It’s also important to us that our children see how planning ahead can be a way to enjoy life and still keep a budget intact. Throughout the year, we pick up inexpensive gifts that we tuck away in our birthday box. Right now, we have cupcake kits, rolls of stickers, a floor puzzle, books, and sundry other items in our box. When one of our children receives an invitation to a birthday party, we can avoid an extra trip to the store and a last-minute scramble to buy a gift. We can choose a present from the box instead. And, by stocking up on gift wrap when it’s on sale, we also have paper and ribbons ready. Planning and buying ahead pays off for us with stress-free solutions when birthday parties roll around.

We’ve also discovered that planning fun activities close to home stretches our money and gives us many opportunities to spend family time together. In fact, we’ve found that the more often we’re away from home, the more we tend to spend. So we try to plan activities nearby that cost little or no money and that draw upon a child’s natural affinity for simple pleasures. We take picnics, blow bubbles, wade in the creek, go for walks, fly kites, and run through the sprinkler.

As they grow, we know our children’s likes and interests will change. We know they may want and need things more costly than a $20 scooter – but they don’t ever have to outgrow loving affordable, uncomplicated things.

Simple steps toward budgeting can empower you

noreply@blogger.com (ACCE) — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 16:05:00 +0000

When I was recently introduced to a friend’s husband, the first words out of his mouth were, “You’re that woman who writes about budgets all the time, right?”

“I’ve never been good at that kind of stuff,” he volunteered. Then, as if I might ask him to get out his checkbook register for an impromptu budgeting session, he quickly left.

I suppose it’s possible that I might have had spinach in my teeth, but I think talking about budgets made him uncomfortable. That brief exchange reflects two pervasive (and unfortunate) myths about budgeting: 1) Everyone just innately knows how to budget ; and 2) If you aren’t using a budget, you should feel guilty.

Rest assured there is no such thing as a “budgeting gene” that skipped you. You don’t have to use complicated forms or be a math whiz to use a budget successfully. What’s more, the last thing a budget should do is create guilt. At its best, a budget is the single most powerful financial tool you have.

If you’ve never used a budget, or you’ve given up on using a budget because it has never seemed to work for you, you may not know where to start. If the idea of throwing yourself wholeheartedly into the budgeting process seems overwhelming, you may want to try the baby-step approach.

This type of budgeting lets you zero in on a single household expense. Start by reviewing your checkbook register, credit card receipts, or online accounts and calculate your total monthly spending in a specific area. When you’ve got the total amount in front you, you immediately become empowered to decide if you’re happy with your spending. If you aren’t, you can decide how much you want to cut back in that one area.

But the purpose of budgeting isn’t simply to cut back. The real power is in reallocating your funds. A budget allows you to take money you’re saving in one area and spend it on things that can make your life better. You might take the extra money and build an emergency fund, pay off a debt, start a vacation fund, or put it towards another financial goal.

Even if you already have a working budget, you can use this method to think critically about where your money is going. For example, my husband and I decided to look at what we spent on food last month. We spent $659 on groceries and a whopping (and shocking) $302.27 on eating out. These numbers were skewed because of some unusual family circumstances, so we took a three-month average, which put our total monthly food expenditure between $805.09 and $594.82 for groceries and $211.27 on eating out.

Even though our monthly food costs fall within the average levels reported by the USDA (approximately $810 a month for a family of our size), my husband and I agreed we want to spend less on food so we can save for a woodstove. We estimate it will cost about $5,000 for the stove and installation. We’ve already saved roughly half of this, so we need to save an additional $2,500. If we spent half as much on eating out, we could save $105 a month, or $1,260 over the next 12 months.

Additionally, if we adjust how we spend our food dollars at the grocery store (making our own baby food instead of buying jarred brands, cutting out prepackaged foods), we can cut our grocery bill by a $110 each month. Such carefully planned cutbacks could empower us to buy a woodstove in less than a year.

Insurance: Is a low rate always the best value?

noreply@blogger.com (ACCE) — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 15:15:00 +0000

When I opened our new escrow statement this week, I immediately looked at the total payment amount. I breathed a small sigh of relief when I saw that it was roughly the same as it had been before. Still, a closer look revealed that our hazard insurance premium was increasing. I whipped out my calculator and found that the increase amounted to an extra 15 percent.

I know it’s wise to get a new rate quote from competing insurance companies every year, but our insurance has become an expense we don’t tend to think about. We budget for it and record the automatic withdrawal in our checkbook register every month. Nevertheless, seeing an unexpected increase was enough to jolt me out of my complacency and remind me that we can’t assume we’re getting the best rate possible.

I dug out our policy statement and called our insurance agent the next day. He explained that the increase was caused by what he called “projections of future losses.” In other words, our home insurance premium was increasing so that our company could pay us (and other policy holders) in the event of widespread losses. He admitted we might be able to find a less expensive premium elsewhere, but he said we should consider the overall health of the company before we decided to make a switch.

After talking to my agent, I knew I needed to see how our rate compared to those of other companies. I called several insurance companies. Even though I was dreading the work of making phone calls and giving my personal and policy information over the phone, I found friendly, knowledgeable agents who were willing to help me. By the end of the day, I had several new quotes to consider.

All the quotes I received were lower than the hazard insurance premium we’re paying with our current company. Sometimes, the difference was negligible, but a couple of quotes came in significantly lower than ours. One company can beat our current rate by a whopping 30 percent. If we chose to switch companies, we would save close to $400 a year.

I can think of a lot of ways I’d like to spend $400, but my home insurance premiums aren’t on that list. Still, there’s more to consider than the rate alone. Part of the value of using our current company is that we’ve created a relationship with our agent. When I called him, he immediately knew who I was, and he took the time to explain the rate increase in terms I could understand. The insurance company we use is financially healthy and growing. That’s worth something to me.

Now I have to decide how much it’s worth. I plan to go back to my agent to see if he can give us a better deal on our hazard insurance. If he can’t, then we need to decide if we’ll knowingly pay more for our insurance or if we’ll do the legwork to change companies.

Either way, I’m glad I took the time to compare hazard insurance rates. (Now it’s on to automobile rates, too.) My husband and I are more informed consumers, and we can use this information to make smarter choices about how we spend our money.

Are you confident that you’re getting the best value with your insurance? If not, take time to get quotes from several companies. The work you invest could result in renewed faith in your insurance company, or perhaps, a switch to get better premiums so you can stretch your money farther.

Your eating habits may be keeping you from reaching your goals

noreply@blogger.com (ACCE) — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 17:15:00 +0000

Last week, faced with a slightly unappealing piece of homemade lasagna I had packed for lunch, I accepted an invitation to go to lunch with two of my co-workers. We settled on fast food, where I ordered a chicken sandwich, a side salad, and hot fudge sundae, spending $3.21. I silently congratulated myself on my frugality. Of course, given that I had lunch in the refrigerator at the office, I wasn’t being frugal at all.

While we sat in our corner booth, both my co-workers mentioned that they wanted to eat out less. One commented about the power of the up-sell; he’d planned to buy a snack and spend less than $3. Instead, he bought a meal and an iced coffee and spent nearly twice as much as he had intended. The other ordered a $5 salad.

This lunch scenario reflects how complicated our decisions about food can be. According to Cornell University professor Dr. Brian Wansink, we make approximately 220 decisions about food every day. That’s a lot of decisions, most of which probably seem small, but together, they can have a significant financial impact. Sure, my lunch only cost about $3, but it was money I hadn’t planned on spending. I also threw away the lasagna and accidently left the chocolate bar I had packed melting in my car, which just upped the ante on my supposed $3 lunch.

Nationally, American households spent an average of $7,514 on food last year--$2,736 of this amount went to eating out. Do you know how much you spent last year on food? If not, you should, particularly when you consider that your eating habits could be keeping you from building an emergency fund, saving for a down payment on a house, taking a vacation, funding your retirement, or reaching your other personal financial goals.

This doesn’t mean you need to stock up on 10-cents-a-package instant soup or stop eating out, but you might consider ways to become more intentional with your food budget. What could you do with the money you’d save by eating out half as much? How much money would you save if you prepared and froze meals ahead of time instead of hitting the grocery store several times a week? What if you bought an inexpensive French press and brewed your own coffee at home or the office? Small changes can add up to a significant amount of savings.

Consider a homemade breakfast burrito. At first, a $2 burrito at a fast food restaurant seems inexpensive. However, I made my own sausage and egg burritos at home for 98 cents each, including tax. Without the sausage, the cost drops to 68 cents—plus, I have more control over what I’m putting into my food. I used all-natural sausage and farm fresh eggs I purchased from my niece. Even when I paid a premium for these ingredients ($3.69 and $2 respectively), the total cost of each burrito was half what it would have cost at a restaurant.

When I add a glass of not-from-concentrate orange juice (42 cents per serving), my total at-home cost increases to $1.40. By comparison, a small orange juice costs $1.59 at a fast food restaurant, bringing the total amount spent for a burrito and drink to $3.59, plus tax. If I ate a homemade breakfast burrito three days a week, instead of eating out, I’d save about $30 a month, or $360 a year.

What could you or I do with $360 a year besides order fast food? That question surely will inspire me to think more carefully about how I spend my food budget.

Create a wholesome breakfast that’s easy on your wallet

noreply@blogger.com (ACCE) — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 15:46:00 +0000

Breakfast is serious business around our house—so much so that our 4-year-old son has been known to wake before sunrise if he knows we have powdered-sugar donuts in the kitchen. Even on mornings without donuts, one of our children inevitably wanders into our bedroom and wakes me with, “I’m hungry. Can I have breakfast?”

It’s probably no surprise, then, that children who wake with yawning hunger can eat a lot. (Our donut lover can easily eat five pancakes at one sitting.) With big appetites and busy mornings, the challenge is to have breakfast fare that is quick, easy, and inexpensive and that isn’t overly processed or sugary.

I’m continually looking for ways to create wholesome breakfast options that we can have on hand and grab on the go. That way, on those mornings when we get a late start and the dog bolts out the door and the baby is crying and we have to search for a missing shoe or backpack, we won’t starve or be tempted to hit the drive-thru.

You no doubt have your own morning scenario, and yours probably involves being short on time, too. With a little planning and kitchen savvy, you can prepare breakfast foods that will fuel you for the day ahead without breaking your budget.

One of the most practical, easy things I make at our house is breakfast burritos. My mantra is that anything wrapped in a tortilla is good. I usually end up using eggs, beans, and cheese in our burritos, but if I have leftover meat or vegetables, I toss those in, too. I line up the tortillas assembly-line style, spoon about ½ cup of filling into the middle, fold the burritos and wrap them in aluminum foil. I put the burritos in the freezer, but they never last long.

Whole-wheat banana chocolate chip pancakes are another favorite for freezing. They are easy to make, warm beautifully in the toaster, and are good eaten out of hand—no syrup necessary. Breakfast cookies are in the same category. The idea of eating cookies for breakfast is enough to make everyone love them, no matter what I put in them. One recipe calls for whole-wheat flour, mashed bananas, canned pumpkin, and grated apples. I’ve added mini chocolate chips, flax seed, raisins and cinnamon at various times, too.

Look for ways to streamline your breakfast routine with homemade, make-ahead versions of fast foods. If you find yourself grabbing instant oatmeal packets, for example, why not make your own? You can make a large batch of ready-to-eat oatmeal by mixing oatmeal, a little sugar and dried fruit in a sealable bowl. When you need a quick breakfast, scoop out a ½ cup of mix and add boiling water, or try packing individual servings to keep with you at school or work. You can experiment with other flavors and concoct your own custom oatmeal mixes.

If you’re like me and you love breakfast sandwiches, you can make your own. I fry eggs and sausage patties and put them on English muffins with some cheese. I wrap them individually and store them in the freezer. When I know I’ll have an extra busy morning, I put one in the refrigerator to thaw overnight, then pop it into the microwave when I’m ready to eat it. Frozen fruit cups, baked oatmeal, homemade granola, and miniature muffins have also been part of my breakfast repertoire.

A good breakfast is a satisfying way to start the day, especially when you’re eating something quick and nutritious that’s easy on your wallet, too.

Kitchen Sink Breakfast Cookies

Ingredients:

½ cup canned pumpkin
½ cup applesauce, unsweetened
½ cup grated apple
1 cup banana, mashed
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
½ cup whole-wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp. salt
3 cups old-fashioned oats
1 cup raisins (or mini chocolate chips)

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, beat pumpkin, applesauce, grated apple, banana and sugars. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add flours, baking soda, cinnamon, pie spice and salt; mix well. Add oats and raisins (or chocolate chips); mix well.
2. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto greased cookie sheets.
3. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to wire rack to cool completely.

Whole-Wheat Banana Chocolate-Chip Pancakes

Ingredients:

1½ cups whole-wheat flour
1 tbsp. brown sugar
½ tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
1 cup milk with 1 tbsp. lemon juice or cider vinegar mixed in
1 egg
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 tbsp. canola oil
1 mashed banana
½ cup mini chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Mix flour, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a medium mixing bowl; set aside.
2. In another mixing bowl, mix the milk, egg, vanilla, and oil; add the mashed banana and mix well.
3. Add the wet mixture to the flour mixture and stir until blended. Stir in chocolate chips.
4. Cook on a greased griddle over medium to high heat.

Granola

Ingredients:
4 cups old-fashioned oats
1 cup slivered almonds
1 cup sunflower seeds
1 cup chopped pecans
1/3 cup canola oil
½ cup honey

Directions:

1. Mix ingredients in bowl.
2. Spread on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper.
3. Bake for 14 minutes at 300 degrees.
4. Add dried, chopped fruit of your choice.

Bran Muffins

Ingredients:

1 cup wheat bran
1 ½ cups whole-wheat flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
½ cup raisins
¾ cup applesauce
1 cup milk
½ cup molasses or honey
2 tbsp. oil
2 eggs, beaten

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Combine wheat bran, whole-wheat flour, baking soda, and baking powder.
3. Stir in raisins.
4. In a separate bowl, blend applesauce, milk, molasses, oil, and eggs.
5. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir until moistened.
6. Spoon into greased muffin tin (or paper muffin cups) and bake for 15-20 minutes.

Spend your time and money on what you really want

noreply@blogger.com (ACCE) — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 19:21:00 +0000

Design blogs that feature flawlessly-styled homes literally quicken my pulse. When my children are comfortably tucked into their beds at night, I often settle in front of my computer to get my daily fix. I practically drool over the bedroom with matching mirrored side tables and bold ginger jar lamps. I marvel at the perfectly-dressed bed with coordinating fabrics and mounds of graphic pillows.

As much as I‘d like to believe that these images inspire me, the truth is that they often rob me of my time and create a feeling of discontentment. I find myself sizing up my own bedroom, where the linens (in my often unmade bed) don’t match and my side table is a repository for household flotsam, such as Matchbox cars and rumpled burp cloths.

I may not like to admit it, but the blogs I frequent create an insatiable craving, a boundless appetite for design nirvana. Even if I could manage to pull off a bedroom with a seamless look, I know the desire for perfection probably wouldn’t end. I’d feel compelled to move onto the rest of the house and then outside to the garden. The cycle of chasing flawlessness would continue, as I’d likely only be satisfied with what I have until I saw something better.

While I place value on living in a beautiful and restful home, perfection isn’t one of my goals. (It can’t be in a home with one dog, three chickens, and four children.) Still, when I allow discontentment to creep into my life, it distracts me from what is truly important to me. I know firsthand how easy it is to spend my time and money on things that won’t help me to achieve what I really want.

Limiting the amount of time I devote to reading blogs is an important step in making me more content. Instead of pining for what I don’t have, it’s much wiser and more productive to plan for what I want in budget-friendly ways. For example, I can create the beauty I desire in my bedroom by clearing the clutter from my side table and filling a bud vase with a few flower stems. Even a new paint color, which requires a relatively small investment of my time and money, could totally change the look and feel of my bedroom.

It’s helps to be intentional in other ways, too. Maybe you want to upgrade to a lighter mountain bike, for example. If you can’t afford to buy a new bike right now, spending all your free time at the bike shop looking at the newest bikes will only fuel discontent. However, you can draw on your love of biking by finding new or more challenging trails to ride. And, for now, you could set a smaller goal to buy a new bike accessory that fits into your budget and that helps you enjoy your current bike as much as possible.

If you’re eagerly longing to buy something right now, take time to break down the desire. First, ask yourself why you want it. A closer look might reveal that you’re more taken with the fantasy of buying something new than with the object itself. How many times have you bought something that you just had to have, only to find that the thrill of it didn’t last long?

Second, ask yourself if what you want –a new home, a vacation, the latest electronic gadget—will make your life easier or better. If you’ve answered yes to both questions, create a realistic savings plan. In the meantime, if a feeling of discontentment lingers, make a list of things you have now that you are grateful for.

After all, gratitude doesn’t cost a thing.

How to make the most of summer

noreply@blogger.com (ACCE) — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 21:35:00 +0000

Have you ever been in a crowded room when suddenly it’s as though everything stops as you hear someone say your name? Why does all the other noise wash over you, but your name is audible among the din of the crowd? It’s not just coincidence, but a highly specialized mechanism working in your brain.
At the base of your brain stem, you have a group of cells that sorts and evaluates incoming data. This control center is known as the reticular activating system, or RAS. Your RAS works like a filter, sending urgent information to the active part of your brain and sending the rest to your subconscious. My RAS allows my baby’s cries to rouse me from sleep, for example, but lets me block out other non-essential noises, such as a snoring basset hound.

You might think of your RAS as an executive assistant for your mind, determining which messages will receive your full attention and which you’ll ignore. On one hand, your RAS protects you, helping to prevent sensory overload. (I’d go nuts if I wasn’t able to tune out the dog’s snores.) But it can also keep you from paying attention to things that may be important to you, such as goals you want to achieve. Still, you can “retrain” your mind’s executive assistant by telling your brain precisely what you want to focus on.

This summer, my husband and I plan to “retrain” our brains with what I have dubbed “Our Summer Manifesto.” Too often, house and yard projects consume our money and our time; I want this year to be different. I want to be intentional with our resources and plan for fun so that summer doesn’t just slip away from us. By putting our summer goals in writing, we’re literally sending a message to ourselves that says, “Pay attention. This is important.”

Interestingly, the word manifesto comes from the Latin manifestus, which means “evident to the senses; apparent to the mind; easily apprehensible.” By definition, a manifesto will keep our summer goals at the forefront of our minds.

To make our manifesto more obvious, I wrote our summer ideas on poster board in large, colorful letters. Next to each item on our list, I drew a one- by one-inch square so that we have the joy of checking it off when we’ve completed it. When I tacked the finished chart up on the wall, everyone (even those who can’t read) buzzed with excitement. Amazingly, the majority of items on our list are simple pleasures that require more planning than money.

Our summer list includes making homemade fruit popsicles, water gun fights, grilling peaches, making homemade ice cream, sipping wine on the front porch, camping in the backyard, eating the zucchini before they’re the size of small children, building a chicken coop, bringing in fresh flowers from the garden, creating art outside with our children, inviting friends over to roast hot dogs and play bocce ball, and perfecting a grilled pizza.

We haven’t set dates for completing the items on our list, but this isn’t necessary because we’ve stimulated our RAS. When we see “eat zucchini” on the list as we go by the back door, we’ll be more inclined to pick the prolific vegetables when we are working in the garden. When I’m at the store and see peaches are on sale, I’ll remember that grilled fruit is on the manifesto, and I’ll buy them.

And, by summer’s end, my manifesto full of check marks will remind me of all the pleasures I took time to enjoy with family and friends.

Involve children in meal planning to make the most of your food budget

noreply@blogger.com (ACCE) — Fri, 28 May 2010 19:11:00 +0000

My children will eat anything that grows in our garden. By mid June, they beg me to let them eat sugar snap peas from the vine. They snatch carrots from between the tines of the pitchfork, chomping on the thick, dirt-covered roots before I can encourage them to rinse their bounty under the garden hose. The novelty of eating chive blossoms makes them forget that they might not otherwise enjoy the taste of onions.

Getting our children involved in the garden makes them enthusiastic about eating fresh produce. It’s not only good for them, but it also saves us a significant amount of money. Succession-planting a $2 package of seeds will give us snap peas all summer long. By comparison, snap peas at the grocery store cost approximately $4 a pound. We easily eat a pound of them a week, which would cost us over $50 if we bought them at the store instead of growing our own.

A garden may not be practical—or even possible—for everyone, but it is important to get children interested in what they’re eating. When it comes to food, if you don’t capture their attention, specialized food advertising campaigns will. According to the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, advertisers spend an estimated $4.5 billion on youth-targeted promotions every year and an additional $3 billion on packaging specifically designed for children. Food marketers target children as a means to build brand recognition. In turn, children use this recognition to influence what their parents buy. Has your child ever pleaded for a sugary cereal he or she saw advertised on TV? If so, you’ve experienced the power of marketing to children.

You can counter this trend and stretch your food dollars if you can get out in front of marketing messages. The key to doing this is to present children with choices that have parameters you set. For example, take advantage of a toddler’s desire to help by allowing him or her to choose fresh produce. If seedless grapes and apples are on sale, ask your child which one he or she would rather have. Then give your child the tactile experience of picking up the fruit or vegetables you choose together and putting them in the bag.

Let your children pitch in with food preparation, too. My 5-year-old can peel potatoes and carrots almost entirely unassisted. With a little help, my 4-year-old can crack eggs and handle a whisk. Even our 2-year-old enjoys helping in the kitchen, always willing to stir or dump anything he can get his hands on. Time together in the kitchen builds kids’ confidence and gives you a chance to teach smart eating habits, basic cooking techniques, and even simple math skills.

As children get older, you can turn over more food planning and preparation responsibilities to them. Give them a budget and allow them to choose and buy ingredients for a meal. Be available to answer their questions, but let them handle all the preparation and clean-up duties. As they grow more comfortable making food choices and honing their cooking skills, let them cook a meal on the same day every week. Children who get to help prepare foods are more likely to eat them – and less food is likely be rejected by picky eaters. You get a night off from cries of “What’s for dinner?” and a grocery budget that you know has been carefully spent on food you and your children will enjoy.

Effort to cultivate good relationships has rich rewards.

noreply@blogger.com (ACCE) — Fri, 21 May 2010 15:03:00 +0000

For seven years, I’ve been meeting once a month with the same group of women. We share a meal, play a game, and catch up on what’s been happening in our lives. It’s a diverse group of women of varying ages and economic means. Some have grown grandchildren, and some, like me, are raising young families. Some are retired, and others are still building careers. What we all have in common, though, is a desire to carve out time for this community of friends. Even when I have to juggle childcare and handle the duties of hosting the group myself, I always end up feeling rejuvenated by the end of the evening.

Scientists in the field of positive psychology are digging up hard data that confirms a being part of community is an important element in finding happiness. One study concluded that being part of a group of friends that meets once a month has the same psychological effect as doubling your income.

It’s hard to imagine exactly how I’d feel if I doubled my income. But I do know that meeting with this group of women makes me happy. According to University of California psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky, 40 percent of our happiness is a result of making intentional choices, like choosing to be part of a community such as the one I describe. On the other hand, just 10 percent of happiness is connected to life circumstances, says Lyubomirsky.

Happiness isn’t the only benefit of community, however. Being an active part of a community has practical rewards. I recently had the pleasure of connecting with a fellow gardener I’d never met before. I spent a lovely afternoon learning about new plant varieties and seeing how to create a beautiful, low-maintenance garden design. I gained practical knowledge, a new friend, and eight boxes of transplants that would have cost me hundreds of dollars at a nursery. I happily spent an evening planting all my newfound greenery, and my beds will fill in with a wealth of new young trees, shrubs and flowers.

Community not only makes our gardens more beautiful, but can make our lives easier, too. For example, in our development, we have a neighbor who has been plowing our driveway for the last several years. He’s also used his auger to drill holes for a fence we made from reclaimed cedar that we got from another neighbor. Fortunately for me, both of these neighbors have an extraordinary fondness for homemade banana bread. I bake for them in exchange for the assistance and materials they give us. The relationships we’ve developed have been a tremendous help to us – and saved us money - in many circumstances.

Building relationships takes effort, particularly in a culture where we rely on one-line updates and text messages to communicate with one another. But taking the time to be part of a community, to invest in one another, makes good sense. It requires making choices about how and with whom you spend your time, but the effort to cultivate good relationships has rich rewards. Money is essential for paying the bills, but it can’t buy the emotional support, sense of camaraderie and practical, budget-stretching help of a close friend or good neighbor.

Complaining with purpose makes good financial sense

noreply@blogger.com (ACCE) — Fri, 14 May 2010 19:02:00 +0000

Our 5-year-old is funny and bright, generous and compassionate, but she also tends to be a complainer. Her socks are too loose. Her hangnail is keeping her awake. She doesn’t want to eat a sandwich for lunch two days in a row.

As her parents, we want to teach her that if she is going to complain, she should do so with purpose. We often remind her that she will get the best results when she can clearly explain the problem and suggest a solution. It sounds simple, but it takes hard work and consistency to parent this way.

Complaining with purpose isn’t always easy in my own life, either. Sometimes, this is because I’m complacent, or I don’t want to take the time to do it. Or maybe I just don’t feel like rocking the proverbial boat. The fact is, though, that complaining with purpose often makes good financial sense.

Recently, when a handle broke on a nearly-new enamel teapot, I e-mailed the company to explain the situation and ask for a replacement part. Within a day of my inquiry, I got a response from the customer service department informing me that the company did not have handle replacements. Nevertheless, if I would provide proof of purchase, the company would replace my teapot at no cost to me.

This experience taught me I shouldn’t assume I’m stuck when a product doesn’t live up to my expectations. I didn’t have to invest very much time, and I ended up getting a brand new tea kettle that would have cost $30 in a retail store.

Of course, these types of situations don’t always end so easily or favorably. When my computer started browsing painfully slowly, I contacted my Internet service provider to troubleshoot the problem. I spent hours on the phone running speed tests and adjusting settings, only to get routed to advanced technical support, where I was instructed to run still more tests.

This went on for weeks. Eventually, technical support services determined that I needed a new router, which would arrive in three to five business days. When it didn’t arrive as promised, I called the company again, only to be told that the router I needed was on back order. The representative assured me that the company would ship the router as soon as it was available.

At this point, I’d grown so frustrated that I reluctantly asked to speak to a supervisor. I recounted my story and asked the supervisor to credit me one month of service and to overnight a router as soon as it was available. After reviewing my account, he agreed to call me every two days until the situation was resolved. He called me when he said he would, and the modem arrived within three days of our conversation.

Complaining with purpose, especially when done with tact, helps you get results and can save you money. If you have a problem, take the time to contact the company and explain the issue in as much detail as possible. Suggest specific ways the company can fix the problem, but be willing to accept an alternative, too.

You won’t always find a perfect resolution to your problem, and you will need to decide how much time a situation warrants. It may not be worth your time to complain about a sleeve of mini donuts (It was to my husband, who got a coupon in the mail for another sleeve of said mini donuts), but getting a broken appliance fixed or a part replaced can leave you with much-needed extra cash in your wallet. And that’s something you won’t complain about.

CCCS/ACCE –American Center for Credit Education
Carey Denman

The joy of infinite possibilities

noreply@blogger.com (ACCE) — Fri, 07 May 2010 18:35:00 +0000

The most coveted toy in our playroom right now isn’t even a toy. A sturdy 12- by 20-inch box has become a treasure chest, car ramp, boat, bathtub, baby cradle, hat, launch pad, slide, bridge, and stepstool, among many other things.

My children probably couldn’t tell you why they like the box as much as they do, but I can. A box is boundless, a plaything with infinite possibilities. It does what their imaginations want it to do. When they tire of playing pirates adrift in the high seas, they can stage a manger scene, complete with animals and shepherds. Later, they can flip it over and make it into a roof for their fort or put on a puppet show with it.

On the other hand, a toy fire engine in their playroom is finite. Though it is shiny red, has a realistic-sounding siren and flashing lights, and even a ladder, it has never been anything more than a truck. And most often, it sits on the shelf untouched, along with other similar toys.

Instead of toys, our children tend to gravitate toward materials, such as a hamper stuffed full of dress-up clothes. They pull out silly secondhand hats and ties, tutus and wings, wands and thrift-store capes, and dresses and robes. In the process, they become knights and princesses, dancers and dragons, circus performers and teachers.

Choosing materials over toys allows us and our children to do more with less. Materials are simpler and typically less expensive than traditional toys, and our children innately know what to do with them. With materials on hand, our kids aren’t camped out in front of the television or the computer. And perhaps best of all, materials are a boon for all parents who dread the perennial cry of “I’m bored.”

The best place to find materials for play is in your own home. I recently dumped out a $1 bag of dried kidney beans on the counter and handed my children bowls and small spoons and shovels. They played together (without fighting, oh wonder of wonders) for almost two hours—counting, sorting, pushing, and pouring those beans. I’ve also given my children buckets of water and paintbrushes so they could “paint” the back patio on a sunny afternoon. Sidewalk chalk, homemade bubbles, salt dough and a bag full of cookie cutters cost virtually nothing but make for hours of fun.

When we do buy materials, we choose them carefully. We keep a stack of paper on hand at all times and have invested in good-quality art supplies. We’ve asked for wooden blocks and train tracks for gifts and pick them up at rummage sales whenever we see them. Sturdy child-size rakes and trowels are perfect for working alongside us in the garden—and digging for worms.

The lesson of creatively doing more with less is good for adults, too. Take that bag of kidney beans, spend a few minutes looking for a recipe online, and you can come up with an affordable meal for your family. Rearrange your furniture–or simply move art, photos and plants from one room to another–and you’ll feel like you have a fresh new space. Go through your closet to create new outfits, or dress up your wardrobe with an inexpensive accessory like a new scarf.

When you take a fresh look at the materials around your house, you’ll find a world of possibilities for your children and yourself that stretch your imagination, not your wallet.

CCCS/ACCE –American Center for Credit Education
Carey Denman

Habits are Key to Managing Money

noreply@blogger.com (ACCE) — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 20:33:00 +0000

I don’t consider myself a math whiz. After all, I’ve been known to look up the rules for adding and subtracting fractions, and I still get weak in the knees when I have to do ”public math.” I suppose you could find this a little ironic, considering I write about personal finances for a living.

I contend, though, that managing your money well has more to do with controlling your habits and emotions than it does with crunching numbers. After you understand general computation, the math of financial success is simple: Spend less than you earn. What isn’t so simple is living with a perspective that can help you do this.

Money perspectives are often so subtly-woven into your life that it can be difficult to recognize them. It’s like the old adage: The thing a fish is least likely to notice is the water in which it swims. To begin understanding your perspectives, you have to look closely.

You can do this by examining how you spend your money right now. Start by making two columns on a piece of paper. In the first column, list things you would really like to spend your money on. This might include a vacation, a college fund, charitable cause, new television, pair of water skis or garden fence, for example. Don’t count anything as too grand or insignificant.

After you’re satisfied with your list, get out your checkbook register or go to your online banking site and make a list in the other column that includes every place you spent money last month. If necessary, get out your credit card statements, too, so you can include individual purchases or expenses on your list. When you’re finished with both lists, compare them.

Are you spending in a way that is helping you get things you want? If there’s a disparity between your lists, ask yourself why. It may be owing to habits that go unchecked, such as eating out. But you may need to challenge what you would consider the most basic expenses – housing, food and transportation. It’s possible that your habits and perspectives have more influence than you realize.

Not long ago, my husband believed it was natural to have a car payment. His parents always had a car payment when he was growing up, so why wouldn’t he? It never occurred to him there was another option. It’s not wrong to have a car payment, of course, but you should consider why you have one in the first place. You may find that it goes deeper than your need for transportation.

What and where you eat says something about your perspectives, too. I once had a friend announce that she didn’t eat “cheap food.” I think she was referring to packaged foods, such as instant noodles and macaroni and cheese, but her statement seemed to apply more to her ideas about the meaning of food than to issues of nutrition.

You have to eat, but you have a significant amount of control over how much you spend on food. You need shelter, but you don’t have to own a home or live in a certain neighborhood. If living with a roommate or selling your house would improve the quality of your life, why not consider it?

Realize you shouldn’t allow a limited perspective to keep you from getting what you most desire.

CCCS/ACCE –American Center for Credit Education
Carey Denman

Buy What You Need, Not to Impress

noreply@blogger.com (ACCE) — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 19:30:00 +0000

My first car was a baby blue 1980 Chevette. Starting the car involved using a manual choke and feathering the gas pedal. It was prone to stalling out at stoplights and couldn’t climb hills when the air conditioning was on. A blanket covered the rotted back seat that flopped forward with sudden stops. That car was the antithesis of cool.

Having to feather the gas pedal in the school parking lot is never hip. But my fourteen-year-old mind reasoned that having a car phone might be. That’s probably why I used the points I earned selling products for the Spanish Club to buy what looked like an authentic car phone. I don’t know what I expected, but I was disappointed when the phone arrived and looked like a child’s toy.

It’s laughably incongruent, and a little embarrassing, that I imagined a fake car phone was my ticket to coolness. Nevertheless, reflecting on this story makes me think about the problem of trying to present a certain image of ourselves, when the reality is altogether different. The stakes in real life are much higher, though.

There’s a name for this kind of behavior; it’s known as compensatory consumption. Compensatory consumption is defined as an attempt to offset deficiencies or a lack of self-esteem by spending money, often on so-called status symbols. Research suggests that people are most likely to engage in compensatory consumption when they experience a feeling of powerlessness. This feeling could be a result of getting passed up for a promotion at work or struggling to make friends, for example.

Whatever the reason for the behavior, compensatory consumption often ends up as an attempt to buoy your image among peers. Perhaps it’s taking a trip you can’t afford because you don’t want to disappoint the friends who have invited you. Or maybe you offer to pick up the lunch tab, even when it will bust your budget. Buying a pricy gift or throwing a lavish party—because you don’t want to appear cheap—fit into this category too.

Scrambling to pay your monthly bills may be a short-term consequence of compensatory consumption. In the long-term, you could end up getting stuck with payments that you can’t afford to make. Maybe most significantly, making decisions based on how others perceive you can chip away at your overall economic well-being. It can also keep you from reaching your personal financial goals.

The best way to avoid the trap of conspicuous consumption is to know what you want. Your goals, not marketing messages or pressure from those around you, should be the roadmap you follow.

CCCS/ACCE –American Center for Credit Education
Carey Denman

Use Your Goals to Guide Vacation Planning

noreply@blogger.com (ACCE) — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 15:31:00 +0000

I took a month long backpacking trip to Europe during my last year of college. I traveled on a bare-bones budget, staying in sometimes-seedy hostels and using an oversized sweatshirt as a towel when I realized that linens weren’t provided. Still, despite my small budget, I managed to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace and ring in the New Year to the sound of Big Ben’s chimes. I visited Stonehenge and Shakespeare’s birthplace, Stratford-upon-Avon. I also ambled through cobblestone streets and saw a Broadway musical.

When the trip ended, it wasn’t any of these things, as interesting and magnificent as they were, that made the most significant impression on me. The best moment of my trip didn’t involve a well-known tourist destination—a grand cathedral or a castle—but a steaming baked potato and an ice-cold mug of ale enjoyed alone in a snug corner booth.

It was here, in a pub called the Eagle and Child, where C.S. Lewis and J.R.R Tolkien sat discussing literature, writing, and life. These discussions contributed to the final form of Lewis’s Narnia books and to Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings series.

A simple lunch in this place was profoundly personal for me. The experience reminded me that the essence of a vacation isn’t necessarily jumping from one hot spot to the next. Rather, the best vacations are often rooted in the simplest pleasures and driven by a desire for respite.

Vacation, from the Latin vacatio, has its origins in the word freedom. If freedom is the basis of a vacation, the last thing it should do is leave you frayed or saddled with debt. If you’re planning to take a vacation this summer, start with some basic questions: What kind of vacation will give you the greatest sense of freedom? What is the goal or purpose of your vacation?

You might be tempted to answer the question glibly: To get away. I would counter: To get away from what and why? A vacation simply for the sake of taking one can leave you more focused on destinations and arrangements than on the pleasure that it can bring. It can also leave you overspending if you get caught up in a must-see mentality.

When you start planning a prospective vacation with a goal in mind, you may realize you want to create a certain feeling, which doesn’t necessarily depend on any particular location. If your vacation goals are location-specific, then you can prioritize your spending based on what you want to achieve.

For example, if you want to travel abroad, ask yourself why. Is it to experience another culture? Understand your ancestry? See magnificent architecture? If your true desire is to experience another culture, then you might consider a volunteer vacation, where you live and work in the place you’re serving. It’s a full-immersion experience that can be relatively inexpensive.

If it’s a beach vacation you’re after, start again with the same question: Why? If you’re looking to relax, find a house for rent by owner. These types of homes are perfect for groups looking for inexpensive, beach-front accommodations. You’ll typically find fully-equipped kitchens so that you can prepare all of your own food. You can sleep in, build sand castles to your heart’s content, and stroll down the beach at sunset.

You can apply the same question to any kind of destination, whether it’s camping a few miles from home, a major theme park, or a trip to see relatives in another state. Get your goal at the forefront of your planning, and you might just find that you don’t even need to leave home to enjoy a vacation.

CCCS/ACCE –American Center for Credit Education
Carey Denman

Simple Ways to Create a Landscape You Love

noreply@blogger.com (ACCE) — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 20:20:00 +0000

When we moved into our home five years ago, I remember looking at the rolling expanse of dirt, dotted with scruffy patches of grass and wayward thistles. Other more experienced gardeners might have seen a blank canvas, but I felt overcome with landscape anxiety. An impossibly small landscaping budget and a file full of seemingly perfect garden images only made matters worse.

From the start, I knew I had to make peace with Mother Nature. This meant creating a landscape that could bear harsh temperature swings, little rainfall, and droves of hungry deer. It also meant raising my weed tolerance if I didn’t want to institute a serious spraying regimen or commit to hand digging a thousand dandelions.

I didn’t know it at the time, but these obstacles were forming my landscaping philosophy: beauty without perfection. After I got over the idea that my yard needed to be magazine-worthy, I could think about what I really wanted my landscape to do and be.

I knew I wanted a cottage garden landscape, with an abundance of flowers and vegetables and a place to enjoy them. From here, I could decide the best way to achieve this. I haven’t followed a rigid plan, but I have relied on several ideas that have helped my landscape take shape and that have kept my landscaping budget in check.

Spend your time and money on landscaping features that will bring you pleasure. If you need to create a landscape from scratch or want to punch up what you’ve got, start by setting some priorities. What landscape element will bring you the most joy? A lawn that looks like Astroturf? The same climbing roses that grew on your grandmother’s arbor? A fountain, fire pit, or pergola? From here, you can think about the best way to reach your landscape goals.

View landscaping as a process. The best landscapes evolve over time and anticipate future wants and needs—there is no such thing as an instant landscape. I always buy as many small plants as I can afford, rather than buying more mature and expensive specimens. I also tackle one or two landscape projects each year. This year, the plan is to build a roof over a back patio for some much-needed shade and create a small playhouse for our children. Make a list of what you want to accomplish in your landscape and choose the top two or three priorities to tackle this year.

Use materials readily available to you. I am fortunate to have an abundance of natural slate rock that we used for garden beds and paths. The horses in a nearby pasture supply our compost needs. A pile of cedar milled from old power poles became a garden shed and a picket fence. Look around your home and your neighborhood. What is available to you that you can put to use in your landscape?

Enhance what you already have. Paint worn patio furniture a vivid yellow or turquoise, repeating the same colors elsewhere in your landscape. Use specialty paint to splash color on a boring cement patio. Divide plants to expand your plantings. Think of ways you can incorporate existing plantings or features into your plan. Add shutters, painted trim, and a small window to a plain garden shed, for example.

CCCS/ACCE –American Center for Credit Education
Carey Denman

Practicing Gratitude is Worth the Effort

noreply@blogger.com (ACCE) — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 14:33:00 +0000

My husband was recently helping me with the spring garden chores, which involved top dressing beds with compost and cutting back the perennials within an inch or two of the ground. He was hard at work on a catmint, one of the most onerous plants to deal with in my garden. Bent over a dried tangle of woody branches, he looked up, pruners in hand, and asked, “Why did you even plant these things?” I responded with my gardening mantra, “Because I love what grows.”

In my prairie garden, where moisture tends to be scarce and hungry deer can be plentiful, catmint is a sure thing. It is tough as nails, blooms profusely, hides the fading foliage of other plants around it, and the deer don’t touch it. Yes, it tends to grow out of bounds, spreading seedlings into the gravel driveway and all along the path, and gives me blisters when I cut it back each year, but it grows—beautifully.

Loving what grows keeps me focused on the good in gardening, makes me grateful that I can sink my hands into the dirt and coax something, anything into bloom. It might take practice, but “wanting what you already have” is a good principle for life. In other words, practicing gratitude is worth the effort.

According to the research of psychologist Robert Emmons, the greatest reward for being grateful is a happier life. In several studies, Emmons asked three separate groups to keep a journal for a period of ten weeks. The first group kept track of what they were grateful for; the second group wrote down what they found irritating or bothersome; and the final group was instructed to write about something that had an impact on them.

At the conclusion of the study, the participants who focused on gratitude, by paying attention to and recording the good things that happened to them during those ten weeks, reported a higher level of well- being; they were generally happier and more optimistic, even sleeping better and exercising more. Other more objective data has shown that practicing gratitude has direct health benefits, which include lowering stress levels and moderating blood pressure.

If it makes good sense to practice gratitude, what’s the best way to do this? It doesn’t have to be a formal exercise in writing things down. It’s really about finding a way that you can acknowledge the good things in your life. At our house, this often happens at the dining room table, where we ask our children to tell us the best part of their day. Just last night, our five-year-old reported, “We got two jelly beans today. We’re really lucky kids.” It’s hard to be a cynic when I’m face-to-face with this kind of child-like thankfulness.

The next time you’re at a stoplight, resist the urge to pull out your cell phone or fiddle with the stereo. Instead, make a mental list of everything you’re thankful for. Or do the same when you’re brushing your teeth or taking a shower. However you do it, make gratitude a ritual. When you do, you’ll learn to want what you have, and you’ll be much happier for it.

CCCS/ACCE –American Center for Credit Education
Carey Denman

Limited Resources Don’t Have to Keep You from Dreams

noreply@blogger.com (ACCE) — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 15:16:00 +0000

My middle sister is a tourist at heart. She stalks travel sites, enjoys making itineraries and is the type of person who stops to read all the historic markers. If you ever want to know the most strategic way to tackle a theme park, she’s your woman. But she cares about more than the fine details of her destination. She dreams big, relishing the idea of riding an Icelandic pony or floating down a Venetian canal long before she leaves home. Traveling makes her feel fully alive.

I know this because she weaves travel talk into everyday conversation. She listens with rapt attention to other people’s travel stories and tucks destination ideas into the back of her mind. She soaks in travel magazines and reads guidebooks for fun. She is awash in wanderlust.

As much as she enjoys the process of thinking and planning, she has realized that she wants to do more actual traveling. “There are so many places I want to see, so much I want to do, and I know I can’t wait for the ideal time,” she recently declared. This means fitting travel into her life as a wife and as a mother of three homeschooled children, all while working within a slim budget.

She’s obviously serious about this. She’s leaving this week to visit a friend in Texas, thanks to a $150 ticket. After that, it’s a girlfriends’ getaway to Nevada. And this summer, it’s a road trip with her kids to the places where Laura Ingalls Wilder lived and wrote about. My sister is determined to live her dream, not just talk about it. She’s doing the best she can with the resources she has right now.

Her newfound determination reminds me of a story I read about renowned violinist Itzhak Perlman. Perlman reportedly had a string break during a concert in front of a large crowd. The story goes that he continued playing with the remaining three strings, adjusting and compensating as he went along--and ending his performance with rousing applause from the audience. When the crowd quieted, Perlman spoke. “You know, sometimes it’s the artist’s task to find out how much music you can make with what you have left.”

Limited resources don’t have to keep you from achieving a longtime dream, whether it’s large or small. First, you need to get out of the “dreaming” stage and move into the doing. In other words, decide on your destination; this is your goal. While you’re doing this, tune out the naysayers, even if you’re one of them right now.

Next, work on removing the limits that can make you feel stuck. If it’s a lack of savings, start an automatic payroll deduction or save every five dollar bill you get. If it’s debt that’s holding you back, get a handle on what you owe and create a repayment plan. If it’s an overscheduled life, look for ways to free up time.

Keep in mind that removing limits doesn’t necessarily mean making major changes. Maybe your obstacle is some as simple as having a lack of space for your own garden; you don’t have to move to do what you love. Look for a community garden plot or ask a friend if you can put in a few raised beds at his house for a share of the bounty.

Whether you reach your destination quickly or if you travel down a winding path to get there, always make it a point to do the best you can with the resources you have at your command right now. Here’s to Iceland ponies and to following your passion wherever it might lead.

CCCS/ACCE –American Center for Credit Education
Carey Denman

FTC Amends Free Credit Reports Rule To Help Consumers Steer Clear of ‘Free’ Offers that Cost Money

noreply@blogger.com (ACCE) — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 19:12:00 +0000

Starting April 2, advertising for “free credit reports” will require new disclosures to help consumers avoid confusing “free” offers – which often require consumers to spend money on credit monitoring or other products or services – with the no-strings-attached credit reports available at AnnualCreditReport.com, or 877-322-8228.

The Federal Trade Commission’s Free Credit Reports Rule will require new prominent disclosures in advertisements for “free credit reports.” For example, any Web site offering free credit reports must include a disclosure, across the top of each page that mentions free credit reports, which states:

THIS NOTICE IS REQUIRED BY LAW. Read more at FTC.GOV.
You have the right to a free credit report from AnnualCreditReport.com
or 877-322-8228, the ONLY authorized source under federal law.

The Web site disclosure must include a clickable button to “Take me to the authorized source” and clickable links to AnnualCreditReport.com and FTC.GOV.

The Credit CARD Act of 2009 requires the Commission to issue a rule by February 22, 2010, to prevent deceptive marketing of “free credit reports.” Specifically, the Act requires that certain advertisements for “free credit reports” include prominent disclosures designed to prevent consumers from confusing these “free” offers with the federally mandated free annual credit reports available through the “centralized source,” which is AnnualCreditReport.com, or 877-322-8228. The Credit CARD Act of 2009 requires a slightly different disclosure between now until April 2: “Free credits reports are available under Federal law at: AnnualCreditReport.com.”

The FTC proposed amending the Rule in October 2009 and received more than one thousand comments from consumers, consumer reporting agencies, consumer report resellers, business and trade organizations, state attorneys general, consumer advocates, law firms, members of Congress, and academics.

The amended Rule also restricts practices that might confuse or mislead consumers as they try to get their federally mandated free annual credit reports. For example, the amended Rule requires nationwide consumer reporting agencies – Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion – to delay any advertising for products or services on AnnualCreditReport.com until after consumers get their free credit reports.

The amended Rule is effective April 2, 2010, except for the wording of the disclosures for television and radio advertisements, which takes effect on September 1, 2010. The FTC will monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the amended Rule and the required disclosures, and will consider additional changes as necessary.

The amended Rule can be found on the Commission’s Web site as a link to this press release and will soon be published in the Federal Register. The Commission vote authorizing the publication of the Federal Register notice was 4-0.

Information in credit reports may affect whether consumers can get a loan or a job, so it is important that consumers check their credit reports and correct any information that is inaccurate. Each of the nationwide credit reporting companies is required to provide consumers with a free copy of their credit reports once every 12 months upon request. Consumers can learn more about their right to a free credit report under federal law at http://www.ftc.gov/freereports.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Frank Dorman,
Office of Public Affairs
202-326-2674

STAFF CONTACT:
Katherine Armstrong,
Bureau of Consumer Protection
202-326-2252

(FACTA - Free Credit Reports)
(FTC File No. R411004)

Reprinted from the Federal Trade Commissions website at http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2010/02/facta.shtm

Find and Use Your “Free Square”

noreply@blogger.com (ACCE) — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 14:17:00 +0000

I was just a kid the first time I stepped into a bingo hall. I had come with a friend, expecting an evening of light-hearted fun. Instead, I quickly realized that the tension in the room was palpable. Under glaring fluorescent lights, the most serious players hovered over a dozen or more cards, furiously, scanning the numbers, never even glancing up at the caller. This was clearly no place for goofing around.

As a bingo newbie, I sat with my lone card in front me, feeling slightly more at ease when I slid the little red shutter across my “free square” space. All through the night, I would clear my entire card between rounds, and then wait to pull the free square shutter until play began again. I liked the notion that one small part of the game wasn’t left to chance.

I couldn’t predict what numbers would be drawn, but I could know for certain that the center square of my card held the promise of moving me closer to a win. It was a valuable space, just as valuable as any of the numbers that were called all throughout the evening.

Author Victoria Moran argues that you have a free square in your life too, that place where you have a gift or a forte, the thing that comes easily to you, when it might seem difficult or even impossible to someone else. She contends that you probably tend to undervalue this free square, the very thing that might be your most practical asset. This is often because you haven’t paid close attention to it and because it doesn’t necessarily fit into the mold of “talent.”

Take my husband, for example. He has a mathematical mind, the kind that can quickly calculate the price per ounce when we’re at the grocery store or figure our gas mileage when we’re filling up at the pump. He can do fractions like a whiz and can compute large numbers faster than I whip out a calculator. He catches mistakes on financial documents, is a master at working a budget, and has actually been known to do algebra for fun. His mathematical mind is his free square.

I, on the other hand, do not have a mathematical mind, but I do have an aptitude for cooking. I’m at home in the kitchen, knowing when a dash of Worcestershire would give a dish the kick it needs or when the banana muffins are done because of the way they smell. I cook for people when they have new babies or experience a death in the family. I cook to share time with people I care about. And I have been known to cook for fun.

Your free square could be small engine repair, wine making, knitting, taping and texturing walls, cleaning, building, sewing, meeting people, or organizing, among hundreds of other things. The key is learning to recognize and use your free square, in whatever way brings you the best results. This might mean you use it for recreation, to help someone else, to make money, or just for the sheer pleasure of doing something that comes easily to you (even if it’s algebra).

CCCS/ACCE –American Center for Credit Education
Carey Denman

Paying Attention Brings Good Things

noreply@blogger.com (ACCE) — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:10:00 +0000

We don’t slug one another, but the competition in our van can sometimes be intense. “Slug bug yellow,” my five-year-old yells as we drive down the street. “Good eye,” replies her three-year-old brother. Not to be left out, our two-year-old keeps a sharp eye on the familiar side streets and parking lots where he can expect to see what has become his favorite car, the Volkswagen Beetle.

Since we’ve revived this game of our childhood, the iconic car seems to pop up everywhere. Of course, this is only because we pay attention to the passing cars, in hopes of adding to our personal slug bug tally. At least when it comes to slug bugs, none of us suffer from what psychologists call “inattentional blindness,” a term that describes an inability to perceive things in plain sight.

According to Professor Richard Wiseman, inattentional blindness often keeps people from recognizing the positive things in their lives. To demonstrate the effect of inattentional blindness, Wiseman gave people a newspaper and asked them to count the number of photographs in its pages. On page two of the newspaper, Wiseman printed a message in one-inch letters that read, “Stop counting, there are 43 photographs in this newspaper.”

Wiseman concludes that those who saw the announcement right away tend to be lucky people. On the other hand, participants who didn’t notice it are more apt to miss out on unexpected opportunities. In other words, Wiseman’s experiment confirms that people who carefully observe their environment have more good things happen to them.

My friend Heather is an avid radio listener, but she does more than just let the music wash over her. She pays attention, and when she hears about opportunities to win prizes, she calls in—and she wins. A lot. Her winnings include concert and movie tickets, a new Harley Davidson, an iPod, and trip to Hollywood, among other things. She even had an auctioneer give her a diamond ring once. When no one was bidding on it, he held it up and asked, “Does anybody want this?” She was the only one who raised her hand.

I tease her about being lucky, but she is quick to point out that she wins because she says yes to the possibility of winning. She dials the phone (and is brave enough to sing on the radio). She says yes to the auctioneer who is offering her a diamond. Though it’s easy to attribute circumstances to good or bad luck, Heather demonstrates how we often have far more control over our lives than we realize.

Yes good and bad things do just happen sometimes. But Wiseman encourages people to plug into the world around them if they wish to have more good things come their way. Luck isn’t found in a talisman like a rabbit’s foot or a four-leaf clover. Rather, luck is a state of mind, a way of thinking and behaving.

CCCS/ACCE –American Center for Credit Education
Carey Denman

A Personal Investment in Education Brings Students Freedom and a Sense of Accomplishment

noreply@blogger.com (ACCE) — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:52:00 +0000

Many days, it’s a stretch to think about any of my children going to college someday. After all, I spend a lot of my time saying things like, “We paint on the paper, not on our face.” “Don’t put that in your nose.” And “Please get down from there.” Still, I know that time in the parenting trenches is fleeting and that college really isn’t that far away.

I’m reminded of this every once in a while when someone sees us out with our children and exclaims, “Wow. You’re going to have four kids in college all at once.” Indeed, if we were to pay for their education, we’d have to be saving a hefty sum already.

College tuition rates have been outpacing the rate of inflation, and experts agree that this trend will likely continue. Thirteen years from now (when our oldest is 18), a four-year college degree will cost an estimated $100,000, and this is a conservative number.

College will probably get more expensive for the next three children down the line, with costs coming in at about a half-million dollars for all of our kids. This is in part why we don’t intend to pay for their college tuition, but I wouldn’t say that it’s the most significant reason.

My parents gave me plenty of warning that I would be paying for my own education, giving me a lot of time to consider whether going to college was important to me. Once I decided that it was important, I had to know what I was willing to pay for it. I didn’t realize until later that paying for college would end up being a significant part of my education.

With encouragement from my parents, I did a lot of babysitting and cleaning during the summers, tucking away half of everything I made. Years later, I stood in the registration line in the college gym, my hand trembling as I wrote a check that amounted to all my summers of hard work. And I do mean all. I spent everything I had saved to pay for one semester of classes.

Seeing my savings vanish, I quickly found a job at a nearby restaurant. I donned an au jus-splashed apron several days a week and squeezed in a work-study job too. I was on a first-name basis with the staff in the business office at my college, which tells you just how many times I trekked up there to make payments.

Though it wasn’t always easy, the hard work of paying for college forced me to think carefully about how I approached my academic work. Whatever classes I took, I knew I would have to pay for them and for my books. If I skipped a class, it was like debiting money from my own account. Does this mean I was the perfect student? Not exactly. But the experience of paying my own way gave me a sense of freedom and accomplishment that I’ll never forget.

We haven’t started a college savings plan, but we are already preparing our children to think about the value of getting an education. More than anything, we want to give them the power to decide the shape and scope of their education. And if this means going to college, we will be happy to help them as we are able.

CCCS/ACCE –American Center for Credit Education
Carey Denman

Life Lessons from the Garden

noreply@blogger.com (ACCE) — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 21:06:00 +0000

I have a growing stack of seed catalogues on my nightstand. I’ve been flipping those babies as though they are steamy romance novels, drifting off to sleep with visions of purple carrots and asparagus crowns dancing in my head. It doesn’t matter that I awoke this morning to a thermometer that registered five-below zero; I’m readying myself for spring.

It’s hard to believe that just a few years ago I was a complete gardening novice. Now I can talk diatomaceous earth and spot a flea beetle like an old pro. Along the way, gardening has taught me a lot about life. Here’s a sampling of the life lessons I’ve learned from my garden.

Live in the moment. As a northern gardener, my time among the zucchini and zinnias is short. The work of weeding and watering can seem daunting, but I have to stay focused on the fact that the first frost is always nipping at my heels. Sitting among the plants, bringing in flowers for the table and eating sugar snap peas from the vine helps me to immerse myself in the bounty and keeps me focused on enjoying the here and now. Finding the goodness in my current circumstances might not always come naturally, but even if it takes work, I’m happier and more content if I can practice being in the moment.

It is possible to have too much of a good thing. By mid-June, I swear we’ll all turn green from eating so much lettuce. I bring bags of produce everywhere I go during the summer, peddling it at work, among friends, and even at the doctor’s office. I promise myself every year that I won’t over do it when I’m planting, but I usually end up throwing heaps of bolted lettuce into the compost pile. I’d rather have less and enjoy it more, with lettuce and everything else.

I need to find time and space for my passions. I’ve found that a wagon strewn with animal crackers is an indispensable tool when trying to get the garden chores done. Babies that can’t yet walk are content to sit and watch, and the ones that can move never stray too far from the food.

If I waited for the perfect moment to get out into the garden, it would never come. When there’s hoeing to do, I have to work within slivers of time and sometimes need to use cookies to distract my children. The lesson in gardening and in all of life is this: If I love something, I need to find a way to do it.

Bad things will happen, but they don’t have to ruin everything. I’ve done battle with pocket gophers that strike in the night and grasshoppers that have set up shop in the radicchio. Unfortunately, I can’t seal off my garden from trouble that might come. I can learn to be thankful for the little victories (finally getting a tomato to ripen on the vine) and wonders (the droves of ladybugs feasting on aphids) that I see. My garden will sometimes disappoint me, and so will life, but I don’t want disappointment to shape my attitude.

Getting out into the garden and sinking my hands into the warm, loamy dirt makes me feel fully alive. And I’m so very glad for the opportunity to be a student of that little plot of land outside my backdoor.

Carey Denman

Look for Pleasure in the Little Things

noreply@blogger.com (ACCE) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 16:20:00 +0000

Our two-year-old has a severe peanut allergy, so we’ve had to call a moratorium on that staple of childhood, the PB&J. This has sent my two oldest children into a peanut butter withdrawal, of sorts. Recently, as the allergic one was off to the emergency room to get staples in a head wound (which is another story entirely), the others literally jumped with joy when I announced that they could have a peanut butter sandwich for dinner.

My three year old wiped away tears of concern for his brother and enthusiastically declared, “Mom, I’ve been dreaming about peanut butter.” He then bellied up to the counter and devoured two and half sandwiches with as much delight as peanut butter could ever bring anybody. (He probably would have eaten more, but we ran out of bread.)

My children often remind me how much joy I can find in the simplest things. They get giddy over press-on tattoos and mixing their own chocolate milk. A stick of gum and flavored lip balm elicit equal excitement. As I watched the boy who loves peanut butter eat his sandwich, I wondered when I lost the capacity for innately relishing small things.

It’s a gradual process, of course, fueled in part by a growing awareness of the world and the pressures and expectations that surround us. It’s also a result of being immersed in a consumer culture that proclaims material wealth and all of its trappings are a benchmark for success. We tend to ratchet up our expectations as our income increases. And somewhere along the way, I think this makes us less able to appreciate the little things,

Just because it takes effort to find pleasure in small things doesn’t mean you shouldn’t work at it. Try ending every day with the question, “What went well today?” Keep track of your answers in a small notebook; your entries don’t have to be any longer than a sentence. And every once in a while, review your list.

Stuff an envelope with $20 worth of $5 bills. Each week, take out a five spot and buy something that you enjoy. For me, this would include things such as an Americano and a truffle, supermarket flowers, or a new bottle of nail polish. My husband’s simple indulgences might include a DIY magazine and the biggest breakfast burrito he can find.

When you become purposeful with the way you spend this small amount of money, you’ll learn to anticipate good things. Holding the cash in your hands and thinking about where you’ll spend it can also help you to become more adept at making conscious spending decisions.

Joy also comes in paying attention to the things around you. It might be the sunset, streaked pink and purple across the sky, or maybe it’s getting up before the house is abuzz and sipping a cup of coffee in the morning light. Or if you’re like our second born, it’s in being ready to lick every last bit of peanut butter from your plate. Here’s to finding joy in your own version of PB&J.

Carey Denman