Would you ever let your boyfriend cut your hair?

Now those of you who read my blog know that I’m very frugal and saving-minded. But under no circumstances would I ever let a boyfriend cut my hair to save money.

Yes, those extra monitos spent at a professional hair salon are well spent in my opinion. In fact the hair salon doesn’t even have to be a very “high-end” one for me, as long as they know what they’re doing and do it for a living ;)

Even discount hair salons I’ve been to. But even then I trust them imminently more than I’d ever trust a boyfriend with a pair of shears.

I came to think of this because I was searching for something quite different in Google and found this headline that read:

HOW NOT TO CUT YOUR WIFE’S HAIR - Since my wife's hair is about 3" long, I thought that it'd be nice to hold .... “Vicki, that haircut looks like hell,” and it would start all over again. ...

LOL ;) How could you not be curious after that, lol :) So I had to click on the link and read the story. And I can warmly recommend it. You got to read it.

(You can click on the blue link in the block quote above :)

So those were just my two-cents about this whole hair-cut thing :)

Would you ever let your boyfriend touch a hair on your head with a pair of scissors?

Would you ever let your boyfriend cut your hair?

You brave soul, you.

To Do List and A Story

I was reading through Beachgirl’s Budget Blog and I got the idea to post my own to-do-lists up here on my blog. This is a great thing for me because it combines productivity and blogging.

So I’ll give it a go.

• Read chapter about DB


• Read chapter about BS


• Read chapter about RB

Every Friday I have to e-mail my thesis supervisor to tell him what I’ve done during the week. I only had to e-mail him what I’d done since Wednesday since I just had a meeting with him Tues. this week.

However, the last 2½ days I’ve been: Wed.: Meeting up with my Dad. Thurs. & Fri. morning: Taking care of some arrangements to view an apartment. This took 1½ day because of the annoying mess up of who actually has the keys: the apartment company, the maintenance guy or the tenant. So several phone correspondences and 2 visists to the actual apartment, but not being able to get inside – took all in all 1 and ½ day.

Still haven’t seen the apartment, lol :)

But so when I e-mailed my supervisor today, you can imagine, I had the worst guilty conscience. So I promised him all that I’d get done this weekend. So I better do it ;)

Hence the to-do-list :) And the “stay-at-home to study” weekend.

Here’s to having a guilt-free conscience when I e-mail my supervisor next Friday with a LONG list of things I’ve written and read! :)

(And to seeing that apartment finally next week, lol :)

30 Easy Ways To Save Money - Day 2: Coffee

This is Day 2 on my series “30 Easy Ways To Save Money” – Am I Doing All Of Them???”, where I decide to put my spending habits under a magnifying glass and tackle every point on the list.

• 2. “Make your own coffee: Everyone seems to have heard of the latte factor. Even though the author may have overestimated the savings from skipping a latte at Starbucks, don’t underestimate the ding it puts in your pocket in the long run. You don’t have to entirely ban drinking coffee, but skip it as often as possible unless you make it at home.”

Quoted from original post at: Dumb Little Man, Photo: Coffee-Exchange. 

Now this is actually one I’m quite good at doing. Drinking coffee at home. I know that in an earlier post I mention that coffee-on-the-go is one of my spending vices. However, the ratio is probably 1:3. For every one cup of coffee I drink out, I drink 3 at home. Sometimes more. (I drink a lot of coffee, lol :)

And in this 1:3 ratio I also count the cups of coffee that I take at the university as “drinking out”. Which is dirt cheap ($0.80).

Often times I’ve caught myself wanting to grab a cup of coffee on the go, but then decided to wait either ‘til I got home or got to the university.

As these would be by far cheaper than spending anywhere between $5 to $9 on a cup of coffee.                                                  (Prices: $5 at the train station, $9 at a regular coffee place).

So despite that I do on occassion catch the expensive coffee on my way, I by far drink the majority of my cups fairly cheaply.

But I think this was a conscious decision made some years back when I more or less grabbed a cup of coffee and a small breakfast sandwich at the train station everyday. This was my trusty morning routine. But in the long run after having done this for one and a half years I realized that I was spending (wasting) too much money on this. And so changed this habit.

And so today it’s only on occassion that I grab a cup of coffee at the train station or at my favourite coffee place on my ‘travels’.

I still do it though, so I’m not guilt-free, lol :) But I’m very conscious about this, so I often choose to wait ‘til later and grab the coffee at cheaper prices either at home or at the university.

Today’s link love

I just came across a couple of sites that I wanted to share with you all. Enjoy!

 

PF POSTS (& PF BLOG)

• Free Money Finance: “Ten Steps To Becoming A Millionaire”
• Free Money Finance:  “Millionaires Tell How To Become A Millionaire”

PF BLOGS

• PF Blog: One Man’s Mission To Have A Net Worth of 1 Million Dollars
• One Year Rent-Free: One Girl’s Adventures Of Living 1 Whole Year Entirely Rent-Free

THE EVERYDAY LIFE OF

• High Heels and High Chairs: One Woman’s Journey From Career Woman To Stay At Home Mom
• Confessions Of A Twenty Something Year Old: One Young Twenty-Something’s Ramblings About Life…And Coffee :)

30 Easy Ways To Save Money – Am I Doing All Of Them???

I was reading an article called 30 Easy Ways to Save Money (and No, you are not doing them all!). That’s when I realized that I wanted to do a series where I tackle each and every one of the saving tips listed to take a deep and thourough look at which ones I do and which one’s I don’t.

This way I can maybe get new ideas on where I can save more money. I’ll give it a shot.

But as I love doing series I’m going to take my time with this and do it over 30 days (well, probably not 30 consecutive days, as my thesis writing doesn’t really permit this, I have a difficult time fighting my *ahem* (guilty conscience surfacing) internet procrastination as it is :) but as much as I possibly can on a regular basis.

I’ll probably be doing regular posts in between as well.

But as for now I’ll be enjoying my new series. The first series I did was a 10-day saving challenge (that lasted 36 days, lol :) But in the end who really cares how long it takes :) As long as I get out of it what is really important – and that is essentially the constant consciousness of saving on an everyday basis.

I’ll go ahead and start with the first one.

1. “Cook at home often. If both the husband and wife work, this is likely to be very difficult. Start out with the habit of cooking at home once a week and slowly increase the frequency until you find a balance between saving money and getting stressed out.”

 

 

 

 

 

Quote: Dumb Little Man, Photos: Epicurious & Villa Milagro Vineyards.

Ok, let me take a look at this:

How many times have I eaten in and eaten out for this past week.

• Wednesday: lunch: OUT, dinner: IN
• Thursday: lunch: OUT, dinner: IN
• Friday: lunch: IN, dinner: IN
• Saturday: lunch: IN, dinner: OUT
• Sunday: lunch: OUT, dinner: IN
• Monday: lunch; IN, dinner: IN
• Tuesday: lunch: OUT, dinner: IN

Points: IN: 9 points OUT: –5 points

Hmm… I seem to eat out a lot. Mostly for lunch, it looks like. But this is actually a good excercise. I’ll track my eating/cooking habits in a similar way during the course of this following week. To get conscious about eating IN more.

• Wednesday:  lunch: IN, dinner: IN
• Thursday: lunch: IN, dinner: OUT
• Friday: lunch: IN, dinner: IN
• Saturday: lunch IN
• Sunday:
• Monday:
• Tuesday:

Hey, this constant consciousness of saving mentioned earlier is already kicking in. This is going to be fun.

Calvin & Hobbes and The Economy

A cute comic strip with our beloved Calvin & Hobbes originally printed 15 years ago.

(Click image to enlarge)

Original post found at  Greg Mankiw's Blog: Random Observations for Students of Economics.

Accidentally deleting your recycle bin in Vista

Man, I just experienced something really stupid today.

I deleted my recycle bin in Vista! How in the #!!}! does that happen. What a stupid function.

Yes, I’m blowing off a little steam here ;)

 

WE HEART ASK-LEO.COM

But luckily after googling this incident I found out that I wasn’t the only poor sucker who’d run into this problem.

He he, look at this

And that’s not me posting the question ;)

THE SOLUTION

Either click on the image directly above or go to this post titled “I accidentally deleted my Recycle Bin in Vista - how do I get it back?” at ask-leo.com.

Then no sweat, problem solved. It’s a super easy solution. BUT ALSO A SUPER STUPID FUNCTION. Why do I hate Vista? Longing for the days back when XP Service Pack 2 was the hottest thing around ;) LOL ;)

Not much happening these days

There’s nothing much happening these days, sorry, blog readers. I’m buried in my thesis writing. I’m just here at home working, I’ve got all my groceries, I’ve got no new financial situation or news.

 

 

 

 

 

Just all  a bit boring right now ;)

But hopefully I’ll get back to you again soon with some exciting stories to tell. LOL, notice I say , I hope ;)

Will be talking to you all later!

 

Photo by: printmojo

Why did you name your blog what you did?

This post is inspired by Fabulously Broke In The City’s explanation of why her blog is called what it’s called under a post titled “About FB: My Blog Name And How I Got It”.

So I decided I would do a similar blog entry and explain to you all how I ended up calling my blog what I did.

THE TITLE

“The Money Blog” came from the fact that the very first personal finance blog that I read and followed was Jonathan’s My Money Blog. And I’m a film student so I wanted my blog name to sound like a movie title. So the word “Revisited” was added. This comes from a mix of “Apocalypse Now Redux” and “Brave New World Revisited”.

I have to mention the movie title “Apocalypse Now Redux” as an early inspiration because my blog was actually for a short while named “The Money Blog Redux”. But I quickly changed this as this seemed a bit grim and gloomy for a blog title (mostly because it constantly was giving me associations to Marlon Brando, Vietnam and Napalm strikes) so I decided to change this.

“Brave New World Revisited” is the title of a book by Aldous Huxley that I remember seeing some eight years ago that is a non-fiction work discussing his fiction work “Brave New World”.

Both “Apocalypse Now Redux” and “Brave New World Revisited”, however, are retrospective attempts to look at something in the past with newer eyes.

I liked this whole idea of “returning” to the money blog with a new perspective – my own.

So that’s it, I guess. That’s how I came up with the name for this blog in front of you :)

THE QUOTE

Oh, and as a little extra, I can tell you that the quote on top “It’s all about bucks, kid. The rest is conversation” is from the 1987 movie Wall Street (I’m a film student, remember :) that I grew up with and loved. My brother’s a businessman today and this movie and our generation’s fascination with 80’s yuppies back then when we were kids definitely played no small role in that, on the contrary ;)

 

So what about your blog? Why did you name your blog what you did?

5 Things That I Waste Money On

Inspired by Broke Grad Student’s post 5 Stupid Ways We Waste Money I decided to write a post of my own tackling the ways in which I waste money. Hence the astoundingly original title. Because knowing your weaknesses is, as they say, half the battle ;)

1. Misplacing stuff and then buying them again

This first bullet point on the list is taken straight off the BGS’s list and I think was probably the one that inspired me to make this post.

Because this really struck a cord with me. I lose stuff all the time. I buy new stuff to replace the stuff I’ve lost. Then I find the first stuff again between 3 mths. to 6 years (and counting…) later.

This is really a big one for me. I’ve got so much stuff and “extra” stuff. I didn’t realize this ‘till I recently started making calculations regarding how much to pay movers, how much to put stuff in storage, etc… if I was to move out.

A lot of money…

…out the window.

Photos by: Silvia Jansen & Josh Blake.

 

2. Going to the convenience store in the evenings instead of buying things at the supermarket during the day

Yes, another weakness.

I have a convenience store just literally 30 seconds outside my door. They’re open until 8:00 p.m.

But they’re prices are twice as expensive as in a normal supermarket. So you can really feel the difference in your wallet. But they’re just so darn handy, dammit.

The closest supermarket is situated 12 minutes away. And they close at 5 p.m.

And well, I guess those are my only 2 arguments against…it.

Photos by: Belgrade Cooperative Association.

 

3. Eating out and Coffee-On-The-Go

More vices.

Eating out to dinner, grabbing food on the run, and getting coffee-to-go are more ways I spend unnecessary money.

Photos by: pidjoe & Starbucks.

 

4. Not remembering to close the lights, unplug my charger, and other energy wasting activities

I’ve been considering setting up a timer that beeps every 3-4 hours just to get me to check around the apartment for lights that’ve forgotten to shut.

Because this is a recurring thing, that you do one day then perhaps forget the next. That you do in the mornings, then maybe forget in the evenings.

So a reminder is always nice.

Photos by: Trendir & Global B2B Network.

 

5. Buying stuff I don’t need

Yes, the sin of all sins.

Buying things we don’t need is the single most important weakness that we all have and need to be aware of.

If I had in my entire life never bought a single thing that I didn’t need.

Then I wouldn’t need to worry about personal finance for the rest of my life.

Photos by: Ryan Stephens, Maria Ink, Crystal Visions & Red Stapler Chronicles.

So here are the 5 things that I waste most of my money on. It’s good to take a long, hard look at the bad spending habits one has.

The better the chance of changing them.

___________________________________________________

"I have enough money to last me the rest of my life, unless I buy something." - Jackie Mason

___________________________________________________

Take care of your kitchen appliances

I have a water heater for when I drink tea or instant coffee. And also a coffee maker for when I want real coffee. But this post is however about the water heater.

I was making a cup of coffee the other evening when the water heater began to choke and sputter.

I remembered that I hadn’t cleaned my water heater for a while.

I also have very calcareous (chalky) water, so leaving a glass of water on the table overnight leaves a white chalky lining, that you can’t brush off by normal dishwashing, you have to use some decalcifier, or alternatively, normal household vinegar.

So I do this every so often with my dishes, cutlery, sink, etc.

But back to the water heater. I noticed it was coughing a bit so I realized that it was time to give it a once over.

Three easy steps to do so:

1. Pour in 3 cups of vinegar
2. Run the water heater once (with the vinegar)
3. Rinse the water heater afterwards by running it 2-3 times through with just plain water

If the chalky-ness is still there then repeat the process.

And if the chalky-ness is stubborn… then let the vinegar sit in the water heater for an hour or two before (just the actual contact with vinegar, not necessarily boiled vinegar, will begin to dissolve the chalk) and then run the water heater once (step 2) and rinse (step 3).

Here’s my saving tip for the day, lol, albeit done in a sort of Martha Stewart kind of way :)

Taking care of the appliances you have will save you money in the long run. You won’t have to shop for new ones on a regular basis just because they’ve conked out (or coughed, ahem, then conked out).

And another saving tip that was well-hidden but still present in this post is the using of vinegar to clean out your water heater instead of a liquid decalcifier. You can buy expensive brands of different liquid decalcifiers (which I often used before I found out this tip with the vinegar) but experience has shown me that not only is normal household vinegar cheaper, it’s also more effective.

Last however not least, it should also be said that this cleaning tip can be used for good old coffee machines as well as water heaters.

Take good care of them. They’re often times (especially for a thesis writer like me) you’re best buddies :)

My Net Worth: April 2009

You see, there’s a reason I don’t talk too much about my net worth on a day to day basis or have a graph of my financial situation on the sidebar. I want to. And I did for a while. But it was too depressing, I had to take it down again.

Because as you’ll see below my net worth is in the red. And my debt (my student loans) is just increasing and increasing and increasing every month. Until I’m finished in 6 months.

 

So nothing too impressive to write about there.

In 6 months though when I’m finished studying and I get out and get a job, then there’ll be more exciting things to write about concerning my financial situation. Then I’ll have a more exciting goal:  getting out of debt. (LOL, only we PF-bloggers would consider something like that exciting :)

But while right now it’s more in the lines of: save a lot to minimize debt, so I don’t have that much when I finally finish grad school.

However exciting or un-exciting this might be ;)

Well, there’s an update on my situation and net worth (negative net worth;)

Will be posting about something else in the weeks to come.

Well, at least until May :)

Update: Internet Service Provider

I called my internet service provider today to lower my broadband speed. (To see why I had to do this you can read the original post here.)

I changed my speed from 12Mbit/1Mbit to the cheapest speed they had (which was 4Mbit/512kbit). And by doing this I save $6 every month. Which isn’t so much, yes granted. But it’s a “sacrifice” that I don’t notice. Because I honestly don’t notice the difference whether I’m using a 12Mbit or a 2Mbit speed. My needs are always the same, and these don’t seem to exceed the 2Mbit range :)

So I’m happy. I’m saving $6 every month by doing nothing really :) And those $6 will accumulate and save me a whole lot more in the long run! :)

Photos from: Ikobo Money Transfer and Tommy Hill.

How much do you spend on your internet bill?

Can you save money on it?

Taxes: Student Loan Interest Deduction

I came across a  comment in one of the blogs I read about being able to deduct the interest of one’s student loans in tax.

I had too google this to make sure that it also applied to me (I live in Europe so the specificities are always a bit different). And it looks like that this is the case, that I can do this.

I’m not due to be begin paying back my student loans until Jan. 2011. So the specificities regarding how and how much I’ll take a more thorough look at then.

But now I know that this is a possibility. This is great learning new (financial) things around the blogosphere.

Got a letter from my Internet Service Provider

I got a letter from my internet service provider today.

And the title of the letter read: “Your broadband will be faster and a little more expensive”. Yes, it does actually say that. I couldn’t help laughing a bit and thinking ‘of course, not surprising one bit’. :)

The rest of the letter goes on to tell me that they will be increasing my broadband speed from 10 MB/1 Mbit to 12 MB/1 Mbit. And charging me of course for it. I can however still manage to revert to my old speed - and if I do it before June 30, 2009, it’s absolutely free. You can sense the irony I have in my voice here don’t you ;)

What a band of sneaky, low-life people behind such an endeavor.

They do this a couple of times a year. Switch my broadband speed to a something higher. It’s always free to begin with, so you won’t complain. Then they begin to charge you. However this time there’s no “free trial period”. It’s just up’ing it right away.

I’ve had this internet service provider for 2½ years and I ordered 2 MB/512 kbit back then. And I still want 2 MB/512 kbit now. But in the meantime they’ve managed to change my broadband speed probably 8-9 times. I’ve called them and changed it back 4-5 times. Whenever that I could see that I had to dish out more cash. And I’ll definitely be calling them about it this time (so I guess that’s 6 times then).

I just want an internet service provider that could give me 2 MB/512 kbit back then and keep giving the 2 MB/512 kbit until now. Steadily and stabile. Not all this up and down switching of prices and speeds. I pay my bills to them stable and steadily every month and have done so always throughout these past 2½ years with no exception. I’d at least think I deserve the the common decency to get this sort of stability in return. Man, if I paid my bills the way they switched their prices I’d definitely be going to court by now.

Well, I guess that’s just the way of the free market, and something we’ll have to live with. They have a right to change their prices as much as they want (and thank goodness for that:) as long as they give the consumers a choice - as to whether or not they want to buy the product.

They do make it difficult though ;) As difficult as possible. And sometimes as confusing and non-transparent as possible. But with a little critical judgement and old fashion common sense, you can very often quite quickly see and spot through all the bullsh*t and see what they’re really saying. And what it is they want. From you.

** Here’s a reminder to self to call them on Monday.

10 Ways To Save Money During The Spring

It’s finally here. Springtime.

photos by: justinKnol & Mark Bolton

Yesiree, wonderful springtime.

Here’s 10 quick ways to save money in this wonderful season:

1. Let the light in. Pull back the curtains or pull up the shades. By letting the sunlight into your home you’re not only getting lots of important Vitamin D but also saving money on your electricity bill.
2. Use your green areas. By going outside and sitting either in your garden or perhaps in your local park to study, read or write you are not only saving money by not using your lights at home – you are undoubtedly also saving money by not being at home to watch television or surf the internet. (This requires naturally that you refrain from bringing your laptop :)
3. Eat outside. Everything tastes better outside. Somehow this seems to be the case. So take advantage of this by going on picnics, eating your dinner outside in the garden, and yes, even brown bagging your lunch at work and eating it outside. Eat outside a couple of times a week instead of going out to dinner at restaurants.
4. Go to the beach. If the weather permits it, hit the beach. Fun, energizing, and free!
5. Save on heating. Turn off the heating, that’s it. You’re done for this year.
6. Save on laundry. You don’t have to do anything for this. This comes naturally. Because as the spring arrives we automatically begin to use smaller, thinner garments. We can have more clothes per load in the washer and dryer at any given time during the spring compared to in the winter, saving us money on both electricity and water.
7. Dry your laundry outside. There’s even more to be saved if you refrain from using your dryer altogether and just simply hang your clothes to dry outside.
8. Take cold showers. Get refreshed and save money.
9. Spring Sales. Take advantage of the bargains at these spring sales. If you’re lucky then there’s a lot to be saved.
10. Garage sales. Have them or frequent them - either way your taking care of your money! :)

These are just 10 ways on how to save money during the spring right off the top of my head. Do you have any ideas?

iStockphoto, by shaunl

I’m back

I’m back :) I’ve been gone for a little while, sorry ‘bout that. I’ve had to work on my thesis intensively these last few weeks.

But I have some time to say hi again now.

A couple of things have happened while I’ve been gone (that I wasn’t at all aware of until today):

• First and foremost, both Tricia over at Blogging Away Debt, Krystal at Give Me Back My Five Bucks and Fabulously Broke over at Fabulously Broke In The City have all added me to their blogrolls as finance blogging buddies. Wow! These are the very first blogrolls I’ve ever been added to :) ! So I am naturally very happy and excited about this! :)
• Secondly, my incoming links have increased since last. I even did a post on this where I was so happy and gleeful about having 11 backlinks and 5 (on average) vistors a day. But now, as I did a check tonight, I could suddenly see that my backlinks had increased to 448(!). My jaw dropped!
• And I have a new personal best - 7 on average vistors per day! This is quite cool! :) Glass half-full kind’a gal, lol :)

I’m still very much in absolute astonishment about these things. Wow! And thanks.

Will do my best to keep this trusty little blog up to date - despite my hardy writings elsewhere :)

(the elsewhere being Microsoft Word ;)