Recycle on Craig’s List
First of all, forgive me of my lack of posting. Life is just taking me away….. Even with this post, I feel like I’ve written this before but I can’t find it. So…since that’s the case, I’ll post this regardless (hehe).
My friend has a son that went away to college this year. She now has a spare room that they’re re-organizing. That meant their daughter is growing older and wanted to do some re-organizing too. That meant new bedroom furniture for her. If it were me, I would have gotten rid of the old furniture by handing it down to my parents or throwing it in the dumpster. The furniture is still in GOOD shape. I am just too lazy and inconvenienced to do anything but that. You know what my friend did? She posted it on Craigslist.com and sold the old furniture for MONEY. She used the money she earned from the old furniture to buy new furniture. And I’m not saying *brand new* furniture, but new furniture for their daughter. She went online again, Craig’s List to find this new furniture for her daughter. It wasn’t junk, just barely used. Why go out and buy spanking new furniture when this will do the trick? After all, it’ll only be a couple years when their daughter may go to college and not need this furniture.
Last week I heard someone say that she could sell all the stuff in her room to pay for a shelter for a family in Mexico. Our church built a small home in their parking lot, $2500 in wood turned into walls of a small home. They’re bringing it to Mexico for a family in a couple weeks. Why do we buy all this stuff? And then why do we get rid of it as if it’s trash? The least we can do is try Craig’s List to buy and sell, to recycle our goods.
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If you like this then please subscribe to the My Challenge
I was in the dentist’s office waiting for my boys to get their 6 month exam. In the lobby they had a lot of different magazines to chose from. I had read somewhere else that you should make yourself read other people’s success stories with money, you should subscribe to money magazines or even read the Wall Street Journal every now and then. If you care about your money, you need to invest on learning about money & how to make it grow and last. Instead of picking up People, I picked up a business magazine. I started glancing at the different articles, I flipped to the one that was a little interesting. It was about how you can get a better grasp on how you spend money. Sometimes it’s hard to get a good concept on where all your money goes from paycheck to paycheck. You write a check to Target, to the grocery store. You use your debit card to Starbucks and for lunch. How much money are you really spending daily? We already know that most paycheck cycles, we’re spending our entire paycheck and possibly more with the credit cards. The article suggested using only cash on your purchases for a week. It also suggested only going to the ATM to withdraw cash once a week. When you think about it, who ever pays cash for groceries anymore? You use your debit card and oftentimes get cash back. Later the cash flies out of your hands without a thought on where it all went. $20 doesn’t take us a long way anymore. Paying cash for gas, maybe we’ll think twice about a leisurely drive when we just dropped $80 on gas. Who knows what will happen when we take this challenge?! I think I’ll do it, use cash only for the next week. Hopefully it’ll be a positive experience and I’ll be able to understand where all that money goes from week to week. I’ll let you know what happens.
Reap What You Sow
I told you we started a compost pile, didn’t I? My husband and I were in the kitchen last night. He saw me put aside some old coffee grounds that would later be put in the compost pile. He told me that he was at my dad’s house the other day and saw my dad putting his coffee grounds right in his plants. I shared with my husband that I didn’t have as much trash anymore, that I’m putting a lot of the vegetable/fruit peelings, egg shells and coffee grounds in the compost pile. I also shared with him that growing up I remember that my dad would put aside egg shells and coffee grounds to bring them outside for his plants. This ritual was just part of his life style. It was a discipline to him. And I must say that my dad has a green thumb. I don’t think there is anyone else who can garden as good as him. He has fruit galore in his backyard, and he can nurse a dying plant back to life in no time.
It’s a discipline for him, one that’s a habit, one that he doesn’t think twice about. It’s the same for him with money and saving. I think we can do the same, if we just make that discipline a way of life, a discipline. Cut back on trash, cut back on spending. Win big! Have peace, and reap what you sow.
Don’t forget!
Tomorrow is the BIG DAY! It’s the kickoff for the big celebration of California Coastal Cleanup Day! Do your part and have fun while you’re there. Meet people with the same goals. Here’s my older post with the links for more information, if you missed it the first time.
I’ve noticed they’ve added more days and more places, so that means more opportunities. Don’t miss out!
Are you Missing Anything?
Yesterday I surfed the web on the available downloads. There’s a great website out there, Cnetdownload.com. The site breaks down the downloads, ones for Windows, MAC’s, Mobile and Webware. It then breaks it down by popular downloads (you don’t want to be the last one to know about things), favorite downloads (what are people liking out there), the editor’s picks (some possible upcoming cool thing), etc. It has all kinds of software available. It has reviews on the different downloads, it has tips and forums when you can’t find answers. Get lost in the site and see what’s out there in cyberspace. Have fun!
More Free Online Software
My son is in 5th grade. A couple years ago he learned how to do a slide show using Power Point. He always wanted it on his home computer but I didn’t want to buy software. I kept putting it off and putting it off. What a bummer for him! I’m stopping him from growing in the computer world because I don’t want to spend money. I figured all he really needs is a word processor. We barely had a typewriter when we were growing up. Not everyone has a computer, right? Can they dock points if they don’t have a computer? It’s rather unfair. But why do I have to be thinking this way? Shouldn’t I be finding ways to give my kid an advantage so he can get ahead in life?
This year he’s doing an ongoing project and his teacher advised him to save it onto a PowerPoint slide show so it would be easier to keep organized and it could hold pictures and writing. We still don’t have it. Then she found another option, to put it in a Word document. Well, he doesn’t have any kind of word processing tool on his computer. On his dad’s computer, it only has Google docs and then on mine, I have an IMac where I have “Pages” as my documents but I don’t print. How were we going to work around this mess and still get my son the best grade possible?
Open Office was our answer. It’s available at no charge. You can get Microsoft Word, Excel *and* Power Point. (I’m lame for not doing it sooner!)
Bored with Work?
Sometimes we need to sit and work. Sometimes we just don’t feel like it. Sometimes we get so sidetracked that what would normally take 30 minutes to do, takes the whole day. Arghhh! I use to work at an insurance company and I would have to process medical claims all day long, sometimes 10+ hours because we were so backlogged. Back then if we had the resources we have today, it would have been a breeze. We use to bring “Walkman CD players” and a case full of CDs to help focus and get the work done. My friends and I use to trade CDs for a bit so we could have a variety and not get bored of the same ol’ songs. Now they have unlimited free music and video online, they even have lots of sites that give free downloadable songs, videos and comic relief. There are so many websites to choose from: Slacker-Your Radio Everywhere, YouTube, AOL Music & Radio, Spiral Frog, MP3.com, Free Music Download Spot, Kazaa, and it goes on and on. Sometimes I even wonder why I even buy CDs and songs on Itunes. Music is free online. You just have to look…and be careful. Make sure you know what you’re downloading. One time when my son downloaded a song, it bombarded my computer with all these poker sites. That was frustrating. I would stick with the bigger name, reputable companies. (Hey, did you read in the headlines yesterday about BestBuy buying Napster for $121 million? — Let’s see how that pans out.)
Do your kids value money?
My husband was jogging while my 9 year old was riding his bike. My husband had to stop to see what was slowing down my son. When my son reached my husband, my husband asked, “Why did you stop?” My son answered, “There was a penny on the ground that I picked up.”
This is the same son that I overheard talking to his 6 year old little brother. Little bro says, “If you want that game, just ask mommy if you can get money from your bank account.” Big bro says, “No, I’m saving for college. Do you know that college costs a lot of money?”
How do you raise two boys in the same household that have totally different ways of thinking??
One of the most important things parents can do is teach their kids good money-management skills, help them create good financial habits and be good examples of great stewards of money. Remember that kids are more in tune with what you do and not as much with what you say. You tell them not to waste their money on dumb toys, they see you spending money on clothes and shoes when they know you have lots of that stuff in the closet. They’re thinking it’s *dumb* clothes. You tell them not to spend money just because you have it and they see you grabbing products off the store’s shelf impulsively. You tell them not to go over their minutes and text messages on their cell phone plan and they see you chatting on the phone all the time, hearing nonsense conversation. I know, you’re the adult, you pay for your stuff, we shouldn’t compare yourself to your kids but the truth is that your kids are watching you and learning from your actions.
There’s so many things that us parents can do to help teach our kids to value money and watch their spending. But remember that each kid may need different techniques. First things first is I tell my kids that whatever I have in my possession today is a gift, I don’t deserve anything. I don’t deserve it because I worked for it. I don’t deserve it because my other friends have it. Truly I deserve nothing and what I have should be appreciated. The next thing I try to do is keep them focused by encouraging them in friendships that have the same values. It’s so hard for me to teach my kids these skills when they have a good friend that has parents that give their kids EVERYTHING. Even if I could give my kids everything, I just wouldn’t. Remember Warren Buffett?
The rest of the lessons will go on from here. There are just too many different philosophies out there that will work for some kids and will not work for others. Whether you have to play Monopoly or the Game of Life with your kids, whether you have to give them allowance(or not), whether you have to let them earn money to buy things, whatever it is, that is your call. But truly, teach them to really understand that whatever they have, they need to value it. Growing up we never went on vacations a lot, we didn’t have much but I never thought we were poor. I remember vividly this time where I wanted something that was expensive. I knew it was expensive and my mom saw my reservations. She didn’t tell me not to get it, she just said, “Sometimes if you really like something, you need to get it.” What does it mean? I’m not sure, but I know I never thought I was without and even when we had money, we never became spoiled brats.
Anyway, here are some online resources that your kids may have fun learning with and may just teach them about money earning, saving, spending and investing.
Kablinga and Planet Orange
I can’t believe I almost forgot this part. Teach your kids how to be good givers too, cheerful givers. I don’t think it’s good to hold on to all the stuff that’s out there. Give it away, just be smart about it!
AOL Provides FREE Downloads
My desktop computer has been acting up, telling me I have viruses, that I needed to install one of those antivirus scans. The only thing is that it was going to charge me, it wasn’t something I wanted to spend money on. Yes, I do want my computer to be free of viruses, protected and all that but software is just so expensive. You buy the computer, printer, ink, paper to get you by, then you have to spend $50-$80 to keep it safe. I know it’s important, but so is eating and making ends meet.
Well, being frugal, cheap, whatever you call it, I found out that AOL has free downloads.
For free, I got protection against spyware and viruses, and a firewall to keep those darn hackers out. Remember that entry I posted with the hacker scam?
If you go to the AOL website, you’ll find out that they offer much more for free; parental controls so you can monitor your kid’s computer activity, a tool to diagnose common PC problems, multimedia player and many more gadgets and widgets.
Why do I have to pay for anything???…and you don’t have to either, just stay tuned for the other things I discover!
September 11, 2008
Well, today marks 7 years after that devastating day where so many lives were lost in terrorist attacks against the United States.
It seems like so long ago but in the same breath, it seems like just yesterday.
I would just like to lift up prayers for all of those who suffered a loss(es) and thank all those heroic people who made themselves known that day.
We do remember.
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