Your Dollars Are Your Employees – A Different Way of Looking at Your Money.

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5.18.2013

What a radical way to think about your money!  Every dollar you spend on stupid and unnecessary stuff today, is one less employee that you have making money for you in the future.

I was reading an article on The Frugal Farmer a few weeks ago about a blog by Mr. Money Mustache and how being in debt is an EMERGENCY.  And Mr. Money Mustache has changed my way of thinking forever.  It is MMM who has punched me in the face and made me realize that every time a dollar leaves my wallet, it is an employee that I have let go and who will no longer be available to work for me and make me money.  I’m very addicted to his blog and have been reading it everyday from the very beginning trying to catch up.  It takes a while to do so as I read the comments section too. I’ve given up watching television almost entirely since January (only watch it when the whole family decides to watch something together) and I make the time to read and learn!

Learning about money management is worth your while. 

Those convinced against their will are of the same opinion still. ~ Dave Ramsey

Unfortunately it isn’t something that is taught in school.  And even if your parents are great with money doesn’t mean that you will be..even when they try to teach/tell you!  Since the end of this January, we’ve paid off $28,432.78 of credit card debt.  You read that right..it’s not a typo.  Crazy isn’t it.  We’ve got a long ways to go still..but we are INTENSE!

What’s even crazier is that last year, I paid $10,000 just in credit card interest. And it’s been about the same number for the last couple of years.  EEK!!! Sickening isn’t it?!!!!
I have a lot of business credit card debt.  We’ve had some bad luck in the last few years..hubby lost his job, I lost a huge business client that consisted of almost 75% of my business income.  But we are on track to be out of consumer debt (including student loans) within the next 1.5 – 2 years, God willing.

What’s even more sickening and literally makes my stomach hurt when I think about it is that those are 10,000 employees that I lost due to stupidity and will never get back.  These employees went to work for Chase, Discover and Bank of America instead..helping them get rich and not me and my family!  Here’s what those 1 year of interest employees have cost me in future earnings:

If I had saved and invested those employees, they would have made ME, not the credit card companies, an extra $57,776.24 in 24 years, my retirement age of 62.  I know this is an extreme example, but true in my situation.  I also used an 8% return as we have some retirement savings that have averaged 8-12% over the last 10 years..even in the bad market.

According to the 2012 statistics, the average American household has $15,799 in revolving credit cad debt.  So if you have credit cards, find all your cc statements from December 2012 and add up all your employees that went to work for these other companies.  Then take the total and enter your own information in the Investing Calculator and see what those employees could have made you in future earnings.  It’s eye opening to say the least!!

And honestly, I’m embarrassed and feel a bit vulnerable to share these figures with you.  But even smart people make stupid mistakes with money.  Look at the financial mess I’m in and I got an MBA when I was 23!  I’m hoping that this example will help someone else make smarter choices with their money and to think about their money a little differently.

 Linking up with Living Well Spending Less, Waste Not Want Not Wednesdays, Little House In The Suburbs,  The Penny Worthy Project, Whatever Whenever Wednesday, Your Whims Wednesday and Simple Lives Thursday.

 

 

Ebay Selling – How I Lost My Top-Rated Seller Status

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Being a Top-Rated Seller on Ebay saves you about 20% in final fees.  If you are a big time seller, that could add up to a lot of $.  I really love being a TRS also because I think that if you are selling an item that is identical in description and price as someone else, a customer might choose you over your competition because of that designation.

So I was bummed to receive notice that I had lost mine!  :(

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How did this happen.  I had 3 transactions where I uploaded the tracking a day late.  All of my listings are set to ship within 1 business day.  I had 3 transactions (all in one day) that needed custom boxes.  And hubby is the one that does them.  He had to work really late and came home after I went to bed already.  I guess I could have gotten up and asked him to still make them for me, but I didn’t.  I knew this might come up..but oh well.

The problem is the percentage.  I haven’t been active at listings that much recently so sending out 3 packages a day late put me under the 90%.

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I’m hoping that at the next evaluation (I think they are every 3 months)..I can get some listings and sales up so that I can get my TRS status back up.

Has this ever happened to you?  Would love to hear about it!

Don’t Consolidate Your Debt into a Mortgage Refinance!

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One of the things that we’ve never really been good with is money.  It’s amazing what you can do with money once you start paying attention and learn a little bit about it.  Unfortunately personal finance isn’t something that we are taught in school.  Some people are naturally really good with it, we were not!

So during our journey to becoming debt free, I will be sharing things that I’ve learned in hopes that it will help someone else make smart financial decisions. 

We refinanced our home about a week ago and thought this was a good time to talk about this subject.

photo credit

If you haven’t refinanced in a while, you really should!  The rates are at all time low.  We were driving home from the store yesterday and saw 2.75% on a 15 year mortgage.  Wow.

The reason I’m writing about not consolidating debt into the mortgage refinance is because we have credit card debt and at one point hubby suggested we just roll some of it into the mortgage..UH, UH, No Way!!!  And here’s why:

1.  Makes you feel like you’ve done something about your debt..when you haven’t.  You did nothing to help improve your debt situation.  All you did was move the debt from one debtor to another.  The pressure is off and you stop worrying about it.  Sure the credit card interest is higher than that of the mortgage..but that’s where you feel the pain and will do whatever you can to get that puppy paid off asap.

2.  It is more costly in the long run.  As stated above, the mortgage interest may be lower than your credit card, but most people refinance to a 30 year mortgage.  Over the life of the home loan, you are not only paying significantly more in interest on the credit cards, but your house too.  If you kill those credits cards over a period of a couple of years, even though the interest is higher, you will pay less in interest.

 3.  You may have to pay PMI (Private Mortgage Insurance).  If you roll your debt into the mortgage and because of the larger loan you don’t have at least 20% equity in your home, mortgage companies will require PMI.  Which protects the lender in case of a default on the loan.  Each lender has a different method of calculating this, but it can run you about an extra $80- $100 per month.

 4.  People borrow more than they need.  Lenders will try to get you to borrow more money than you actually need to pay off the first lender.  Mine did!  A lot of people take advantage of this (or else they wouldn’t offer it to you every single time).  They are great sales people and will tell you that you can upgrade to a better car, or fix up your house or get that new entertainment system you’ve been wanting.  Don’t Do It!!!

5. You have not dealt with the problem only the symptom.  I truly believe that this is the biggest problem with consolidations.  The symptom is the debt…the problem being that you are not good at handling money. I’ve read that up to 78% of people who consolidate their debt build up new debt and end up much worse then before.  Unfortunately, that was certainly true for us and something we did about 8 years ago.  I wish someone would have explained this to me then!  Updated:  Here’s a great example, about Why Debt Consolidation Doesn’t Work…Usually. Great read!!

I hope this article has shed some light on the drawbacks of consolidating your debt into a mortgage. I’d love to hear your feedback and your experiences.

Linking up with Thrifty Thursday and Waste Not Want Not Wednesday.

EASY Homemade Apple Juice and Apple Sauce

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I typically make homemade juice when I have some old fruit like apples, pears, etc.  It’s so easy to make, cheap and healthy for you (no additives, preservatives – no chemicals).

All you need to make your own is some fruit that’s been sitting around for a while, water and sugar (or any type of sweetener that you prefer; honey, stevia, raw sugar, etc.).  I never measure for this, just use up what I have and then sweeten to taste.  I also sometimes add in a little bit of lemon when I’m in the mood for something a little tangier.

You can use any kind of fruit really, I’ve also made juice from just apples, or added grapes and oranges.  Be as creative as you want!  It’s all good!

Wash your fruit, cut it up into smaller pieces.  Put the fruit in a pot with as much water as you want (that will be your juice).  Bring everything to boil and then turn down and either simmer or cook on low for maybe 1.5 hours.  I forgot about mine and left it simmering too long and didn’t have much juice, but you can just add water to the concentrated liquid.

Here is the fruit I used this time: An apple, 3 pears, a plum and 3 peaches.

I don’t know how it is at your house, by at mine, unless I take the time to wash and cut up fruit..it just sits there.   Although we did stock up on lots and lots of fruit a couple of weeks ago and they were getting old…a bit soft, bruised, etc.

After my juice was done, I would either discard the fruit, as sometimes the kids would eat it, but most times they wouldn’t, or I’d give it to the chickens.  But the other day I got an idea.  Why not just blend the remaining cooked fruit and make it into a sauce!!  Amazing!

The kids, hubby and I love it.  We top our pancakes with it, eat it by itself, or I put it into little containers for the kids’ lunch! I’ll soon share a recipe for Healthy Low Fat Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins that I use the sauce for too.

Good Cheap Eats!!!!

Have you guys ever made your own fruit juice or sauce?

Linking up with these great sites:  Waste No Want Not Wednesdays, Growing Slower, Frugally Sustainable, The Penny Worthy Project, Thrifty Thursday, The DIY Dreamer and Simple Lives Thursday.

Ebay Selling – ARABIA FINLAND

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I thought I would share some things that should be on your BOLO (be on the look out for) List.  Arabia Finland pottery sells pretty well. I spotted this little beauty at a garage sale for $1.  When I bought it, I had no idea it was worth anything..but I saw that it was from Finland and figured that for a $1 I would take a chance.  And if it wasn’t worth anything, I’d keep it for myself.  I really liked the design.

This pitcher I sold at auction for $46.01 plus $20 shipping.

Then earlier this year, my hubby stopped at a Goodwill on the way home from work and picked up this beauty:

This walrus was $1.99.  If you saw it, you’d probably pass it up.  It is handmade and not very attractive.  It had some issues..one of the eyes wasn’t as nice as the other, but I guess that didn’t matter.  I saw these go for $140-$150.  So this one I put up for a BIN (buy it now).  My asking price was $199 and I received and accepted a best offer of $160 with free shipping.  (Cost me $11 to ship.)  Not a bad return.

There are certainly other Arabia Finland designs.  It’s always a good idea to check the completeds on Ebay to see what’s popular and what’s not.

I don’t know much about pottery, but know that these do pretty well.

Are there any pottery designs that do well for you?  Do share!

 

Easter Egg Decorating

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We’ve always decorated our Easter eggs either Friday or Saturday morning before Easter as we had to have them done by noon on Saturdays, at which time we take our Easter baskets to church and have it blessed.

This year we’ve started keeping chickens again and our chickens lay the coolest colored eggs, light brown, dark brown and green.  So we won’t be dying the eggs, but I’m sure the kids will decorate them in some way.

For those that don’t have chickens that lay colored eggs…here are some techniques that we’ve tried in the past and others that look really neat.

1.   These cute eggs are super easy as you only need dye and a black marker…but oh so cute…I love funny faces on eggs…we always add a few funny faced eggs to our baskets every year…here are the instructions for the Have a Nice Day Eggs.

2.  The Perfect Pair….What’s Easter without a bunny and a carrot?

3.  These are Botanical Eggs from Martha Stewart…so pretty and sophisticated…love this look!

4.  OMG…I am absolutely in love with these Silk-Dyed Egg designs…Id love to try making these…gotta remember to pick up some random patterned silk ties from Goodwill…so gorgeous!!

5.  The center image… I really liked these Stamped Eggs from Martha too.  If you’re a stamp collector (and you’re stamps aren’t super collectible (expensive..LOL)..then I think this would be such a great decoration for your eggs.  Although I think this would work great with some decorative tissue paper too.

6.  Personalized Eggs…oh yeah…I’m really digging these too..I think the kids would love making these and I have tons of letter stickers left over from the days when I would buy almost every scrapbooking item on the market and now I have so many scrapbooking supplies that I don’t know what to do with them. :)

7.   Melted Crayon Eggs – This is another really cute and super easy idea for decorating your eggs.  Color the boiled eggs while they’re still hot and the crayons melt creating such fun designs.  We’ve done this in the past and loved how they came out!

8.  Zoo-egg-ology - these eggs are so adorable and made with foam sheets (which I also have tons of in the kids’ craft bin).  Who wouln’t want to make these adorable little animals.

9.  And finally, Easter eggs The Natural Way.  Growing up, my Mom was a no nonsense kind of woman…always doing things the simple way and the least expensive way…from as early as I could remember, we always dyed eggs using onion peels..and they were such a pretty brown natural color…but hey..you could also just go to the grocery store and pick up naturally layed brown eggs too..Ha!!!

There are seriously tons of cool Eater egg decorating ideas on the web, but these are the ones that I fancy today…hope this gives you some ideas and inspires you.

Do you have a favorite way of decorating Easter eggs?

Books aren’t the only thing you can sell on Amazon.

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Sure, most of the items that I do sell on Amazon are books..but I often check other items too.  One thing you CAN”T sell on Amazon are shoes..(you have to somehow qualify to do that), but a lot of other things you can.  Regardless of what I’m selling, I always do my research and check to see pricing on both eBay and Amazon.

So for this post I thought I would share some of my recent Amazon sales that are items other than books!

I sold this cake decorator for $18.99 plus shipping. I bought this brand new in sealed box for $3.99.

Sold for $22.95 plus shipping.  Paid $2.50.

Sold for $27.99 + shipping.  Paid $3.99.  This was new, but opened.

Sold for $13.49 plus shipping.  Paid $1.  This is one of those things that are old and I think to myself, “This probably isn’t worth anything.”  But then I think that maybe someone still has this Humidifier and needs a replacement cartridge.  This sold within a week.

Sold for $13.99 plus shipping.  Paid $1.26.  I have a lot of these items listed both on Ebay and Amazon.  If you you list the same item on multiple sites, it’s REALLY important to keep good records.  It’s happened to me twice where I had items listed on both sites, sold it on Ebay and didn’t keep good records.  Then it also sold on Amazon and I had to cancel the transaction..which hurts your ratings.  :(   I’ve gotten much better now!

Sold for $64.99 + shipping.  Bought for $15.99.

I really love listing on Amazon.  No photos to take, no descriptions to write.  You can easily list something in a matter of 2 minutes.  But listing on Amazon is a little trickier as the prices for items fluctuate like crazy.  Another seller may come in and have the same item for sale and will price it lower to sell faster.  So I often go in and check to see what the prices are.  Sometimes I will leave my prices as are..sometimes I will tweak them and lower them just to move inventory.

Do you guys sells on Amazon?  If so, how’s it working for you?

Linking up with:  Waste No Want Not Wednesday, The Penny Worthy Project,  Thrifty Things Friday and  Learning the Frugal Life.

How to Be Content With What You Have!

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One of reasons I started this blog is keep myself accountable while on our journey to becoming debt free.  One of the best ways to help us become debt free is to stop making purchases and being content with what we have.

What make you happy and content?  Really and truly.  I’m finding that living a simple life lets me focus on what’s most important to me…my family  and the memories we create together (most of which don’t require any money at all).

I was just talking to my hubby the other night about how happy I have been lately.  Less stressed and more content than I can remember..even though we are following a strict no spending money on anything but necessities policy.  So why am I happier and more content now than ever before.  Here’s what works for me:

1.  Focus on your priorities and what’s most important to you.  For me, it’s spending time with my family and learning to live a simple life.  The image above was taken on one of our hikes at a local forest preserve during sunset.  Hiking is something that we as a family tremendously enjoy and for me, that photo is contentment.  Every time we get out of the house and go for a hike, I feel like we are taking a mini vacation.

2. Stop comparing yourself to others and what they have.    Look within..maybe stop reading all those magazines, reading other blogs, Facebook, etc. and thinking to yourself, wow they’ve got it together or have the perfect house, life, etc (you only see the best of the best).  Remember that comparison leads to discontent. Update:  I just stumbled upon a fabulous article about comparison and how it hinders happiness and living simply.  A must read!

3. Stop watching commercials that tell you you’ll be happy or beautiful or skinny with this next purchase…great article here:  Super Bowl Ads Mistruth (and great comment by reader about watching commercials with your children and teaching them a lesson on discernment:  “Some of the best parenting advice I’ve heard in regard to watching tv with your kids is to talk back to the commercials. “Are you trying to tell me wearing that deodorant will automatically cause…”

4. Don’t expect to have everything today and comparing yourself to what others have when they might have worked all their lives to achieve it. That’s what advertising companies want us to believe and cause a lot of people to get into debt because they want what they can’t yet afford and purchase it on credit. One of my favorite quotes ever:  “We buy things we don’t need with money we don’t have to impress people we don’t like.” ~Dave Ramsey

5. Appreciate what you DO have!  Many people don’t even have the basics.  Be grateful for what you do have.  It’s great to begin a list of those things that make you appreciate your life.  Our economy may be currently suffering..but did you know that we are still wealthier and have more than the majority of the world?!

6. Read blogs, books, magazines and create a community of like minded individuals.  They will keep you motivated and inspired.  And you’ll learn a great many things from them.

7. Don’t think that making more money or having more “stuff” will make you happier.  According to a study of over 420,000 Americans, ” Increases in income have a relatively brief effect on life satisfaction.”  It seems that the more money you make, the more things that you buy and then the more things you want to buy to again feel that sense of satisfaction.  So don’t wait to be satisfied, choose to be satisfied today!

Here are some great quotes that keep me inspired:

Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.
Lao Tzu

For I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know both how to have a little, and I know how to have a lot. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being content—whether well-fed or hungry, whether in abundance or in need. I am able to do all things through Him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:11–13, HCSB)

“Any so-called material thing that you want is merely a symbol: you want it not for itself, but because it will content your spirit for the moment.” ~Mark Twain

“Content makes poor men rich; discontent makes rich men poor.” ~Ben Franklin

“He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature.” ~Socrates

“To be content with little is hard; to be content with much, impossible” ~Marie Von Ebner-Eschenbach

What helps you stay content?  I’d love to hear from you!

 

This week I’m linking up with Waste Not Want Not Wednesdays, the Penny Worthy Project and Simple Lives Thursday.

Oh No…It Finally Sold on Ebay

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So this post was supposed to be about how to easily and inexpensively make your own homemade Greek yogurt by using a vintage yogurt maker that you can pick up at the thrift store for a few bucks. I guess kind of still is.

I’ve had this yogurt maker listed on Ebay since July of 2012.  I haven’t had any best offers or watchers or anything.  I have read in the past that yogurt makers do pretty well..  But mine was just sitting there.

Recently I’ve been reading a lot about how healthy yogurt is and how we should be eating quite a bit of it.  We’re a family of 5 and 4 are males…two of which are really big males, 6’3 and 6’5″, with really big appetites.  So one carton of yogurt can vanish within minutes..and it isn’t cheap.  So I decided to try out my yogurt maker that I have for sale.

Well it works wonderfully.  It only took 1 Tablespoon of store bought yogurt and 1 quart of milk (and I only pay $1.88 for a gallon of milk at my local Aldi).  So making the yogurt at home is super cheap and super easy with the yogurt maker.

So Sunday, as I was taking my freshly homemade yogurt out of the the maker and transferring it into jars so that I could make some more.  We had decided that since it wasn’t selling and the results were awesome…we were going to keep it.

All of a sudden my phone rang to notify me that an Ebay sale had just occurred.  And I KID YOU NOT…the yogurt maker had just sold. Unbelievable! Hubby and I could not stop laughing.

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We paid $5 for it.  Sold for $39.99..it had a best offer, but was purchased at full price. Shipping was $7.33.  So we made approx $25 on it.  The buyer even emailed me asking if I had more as she has her original one and loves it.  She was buying this for her daughters and said they’ll just have to fight over it!  :)

Now I’m on the hunt for another one!

Have you every had anything up for sale on Ebay, then decided to keep it to find out it had just sold??

 

Today I’m linking up with Frugally Sustainable, Simple Lives Thursday, Learning the Frugal Life and Poor and Gluten Free.