2007 Goals

After reading other bloggers’ financial goals for 2007 (check Consumerism Commentary for a growing collection), I’ve been thinking a lot about what I’d like to accomplish in the coming year.

I have a few concrete financial goals that basically boil down to spending less and saving more. In order to achieve these goals, there are a couple of things that I want to do more of:

1. Practice patience.

2. Be resourceful.

The thing is, I tend to be impulsive: when I feel I need something, I feel I need to go out and buy it immediately and in the most convenient manner, which typically means new and at full price. When this happens over the coming year, I want to practice the 2 goals above by asking myself the following questions: 

  

Best wishes to all in 2007. May you achieve all your goals and have fun too!

Thanks Standard Plumbing and the JamBuster Wrenchette: Tips for Fixing InSinkErator Garbage Disposal

When it comes to household repairs, my husband and I tend to indulge in the “luxury” of calling in professional help.

So when our garbage disposal (InSinkErator) stopped working, our first instinct was to call a plumber.

We’d never needed this kind of plumbing help before, so I checked Angie’s List and decided to try Standard Plumbing. I called and talked to Don. Instead of making an appointment to come out to the house, he told us to try a couple of things on our own first.

Chances were that something was blocking the blades. Don told us to:

1. Get a stick of some kind and poke around inside the drain to see if anything is in there.

I swept the area with a disposable cooking chopstick. Nothing there.

2. Look for a small hole at the bottom of the disposal (under the sink) and the tool that fits in that hole. Move the tool back and forth to free any foreign objects that might be lodged there.

We didn’t have the tool, so we went to Home Depot and found it – the InSinkErator JamBuster Wrenchette. It cost $5.68. (If you have Allen wrenches, you might want to see if any of them fit before purchasing the Wrenchette.) I fit the tool into the bottom of the disposal, gave it a few cranks, and hoped for the best.

3. If the disposal isn’t working at all, no noise, the internal circuit breaker may have been tripped. Press the red button at the bottom of the disposal to get the power flowing again.

I gave the button a firm push, flipped the switch, and was rewarded by the sweet sound of a functioning disposal.

I felt proud of my efforts and grateful to Don for the valuable tips. It was such a simple process, such as easy fix. Maybe this will give us more confidence in our skills and teach us to investigate other information sources (e.g., Google) before picking up the phone. I’m just glad we found such a stand-up guy who didn’t take the opportunity to profit from a lady in distress.

(Photo from Amazon.com)

Carnival of Personal Finance

For a one-stop shop of blog articles on personal finance, I highly recommend the Carnival of Personal Finance (COPF).

This week’s carnival, hosted by A Penny Saved, features more than 70 articles — and for the first time ever Around the Sun is one of them. Exciting!

Read this week’s edition here: http://money.thatedeguy.com/2006/12/18/carnival-of-personal-finance-79/

To read past weeks’ editions, submit an article or volunteer to host, visit the COPF website at:

http://www.carnivalofpersonalfinance.com/

More Software Savings

As if on cue, the latest issue of Intercom arrived on my doorstep with a cover story called “Free or Open-Source Tools for Technical Communicators, Part I: The Software” by Charles Curley — just a couple of days after I posted “Saving on Software.” Intercom is a magazine published by the Society for Technical Communication and is available to members.

The article features several recommendations for free software, software useful to anyone who touches a computer. I haven’t tried any of the programs yet, but I’m very excited about them, especially the…you’ll see.

Some of the recommendations include:

OpenOffice, an office suite that includes programs for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, etc., similar to the programs in Microsoft Office. Compatible with Windows, Linux and Mac. You can work on Microsoft Office files with OpenOffice, and save files in Microsoft format. You can also save files in PDF format without a separate PDF program.

AbiWord, a word processing program, similar to Microsoft Word. Compatible with Windows, Linux, QNX, FreeBSD or Solaris. According to the AbiWord website: “AbiWord is able to read and write all industry standard document types, such as OpenOffice.org documents, Microsoft Word documents, WordPerfect documents, Rich Text Format documents, HTML web pages and many more.” You can also save files in PDF format.

GIMP, an image manipulation program that includes photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. An alternative to Adobe Photoshop. Compatible with Windows, Unix and Mac.

Nvu, a website authoring tool. According to the Nvu website: “A complete Web Authoring System for Linux desktop users as well as Microsoft Windows and Macintosh users to rival programs like FrontPage and Dreamweaver. Nvu (which stands for ‘new view’) makes managing a web site a snap. Now anyone can create web pages and manage a website with no technical expertise or knowledge of HTML.” According to Curley, the claim of rivaling FrontPage may be a bit of an exaggeration, but Nvu is an impressive program, good for one-off or light websites.

Scribus, a page layout program. From the Scribus website: “Scribus is a cross-platform open source page layout program with the aim of producing commercial grade output in PDF and Postscript. Originally developed on Linux, Scribus also runs natively on MacOSX and Windows 2000 and XP.”

PDFCreator, a program that makes PDF documents from Windows programs. This is the one I’m most excited about trying. I hope it works with Publisher.

To learn about more free, open-source software, Curley recommends:

http://sourceforge.net/

http://freshmeat.net/

http://osswin.sourceforge.net/

http://directory.fsf.org/

Saving on Software

I’ve been thinking a lot about software recently.  I have a long list of programs that I love and don’t have. But it’s amazing how expensive they can be. Photoshop, for example, retails for $649 on the Adobe website. That’s nutty.

So I’ve been brainstorming ways to save money on software…legally.

1. Use someone else’s computer, a computer more software-blessed than yours. With the owner’s permission, of course.

2. If you need a program for a limited amount of time, say a project for school or holiday gifts, check whether the manufacturer’s website offers a free trial version. Typically these trial versions last 30 days, then become unusable. These trials are also a good opportunity to learn a new software program for your resume or an impending job interview.

3. If you’re a student or a teacher, or know someone who is, ask retailers and manufacturers about educational discounts. Often these discounts are 50% or more. For those in college, check out the college bookstore.

4. Try freeware. Freeware is free software that can be used for an unlimited amount of time. Depending on your needs, it can be a great alternative to traditional software. Of course, please ask people you know for their advice or check reviews before downloading unfamiliar programs to your computer. CNET provides reviews of freeware, as does PC Magazine. (And if anyone knows of a good freeware alternative to Adobe Acrobat, let me know!) Update: Found some great recommendations in Intercom magazine here.

5. See whether your employer has a policy that allows employees to buy personal software through the company. Sometimes special relationships between companies and software vendors can mean deep discounts.

Christmas, Christmas Time Is Here…

“…time for toys and time for cheer.”

As wise-munks Alvin, Simon and Theodore once caroled, Christmas is a time of giving, receiving, and merriment. But sometimes the giving part can be plain stressful.

Take the time, a few years ago on the weekend before Christmas, when I was stuck in traffic in a shopping mall parking lot, unable to leave for over an hour.

I dread malls during the holidays. And it goes without saying, I dread mall parking lots even more.

Sure I still find myself at the mall for a few gifts each year. But by and large, I try to avoid shopping for Christmas gifts, especially during the holidays. Here are some things that I have done in the past to make holiday gift giving more meaningful and fun.

1. Make a handmade or personal gift. One year I made a day planner on my computer and had it printed and bound at Kinko’s. I collect fortunes from fortune cookies and each week in the planner had a different fortune. Another year I made a set of greeting cards. I chose 3 landscape-type photos I had taken on a trip to Japan and put them in these photo frame cards. I then tied a ribbon around them and put them in a plastic box I found at a paper store. Presentation is everything. They were a big hit! For more ideas, check out super crafty Susan Beal’s amazing list of craft ideas on her blog.

2. Support friends and family. For example, my sister makes and sells hats, so one year I bought her hats for my friends. This way, you make 2 people happy: the receiver and the source of the gift. 3 people if you count yourself!

3. Support local people and businesses. It makes it easier for me to spend money when I know it’s going directly into my community.

4. Shop in “unusual” places. This year, I shopped at the grocery store for some of my friends. I parked immediately, I checked out quickly, and I got out of the parking lot with ease.

5.  Buy gifts throughout the year. If I find the perfect something for the perfect someone, I buy it and store it until Christmas. A good way to spread out costs over the year.

6. Buy online. Whatever did we do before the Internet?

“Money Talks” Lecture Series

I came across an interesting series of lectures called “Money Talks” hosted by non-profit environmental group Illahee. The lectures focus on the relationship between wealth, poverty, politics, and the environment. Topics include:

Oil, Climate, and Money
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Andrew Revkin, author and New York Times environment reporter

Money, Values, and Action
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Catherine Austin Fitts, investment banker and political activist

Everything You Know About Economics Is Wrong
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Frank Ackerman, ecological economist

Women, Human Rights, and Money
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Dr. Marylin Waring, economist and member of parliament

Money and Politics
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
David Sirota, author and political strategist

Looks as though they also sell DVDs of their lectures after the fact.

For more information, go to http://www.illahee.org/

(Photo from Illahee website.)

How I Met My Neighbor Through Craigslist

A funny thing happened today…

I had listed an item on Craigslist’s free board a few days ago. One person replied via email and asked that I call him with information about where he could pick up the item.

I called. I gave him my address. He replied, “I live on your street!”

I love when coincidences like that happen.

I had a similar experience about a year ago, when I replied to a Craigslist ad for free CDs. Turned out the person behind the ad was a former co-worker.

You can read more about Craigslist here.