Two Amazing Reads on PF and Frugality: John Bogle and Une Femme

Oh, how I love John Bogle of Vanguard. He is an inventor and proponent of index funds and investing principles so simple that a 5 year old can comprehend. I just read an interview with him that, as always, impressed me. Bogle, by the way, saved my sanity during the financial meltdown, when I witnessed all my savings/investments lose tons of money. In one of his books, he says "Things always revert to the average." That's the argument for index funds also.

Next up: the great blogger Une Femme d'un Certain Age. I discovered her blog over a year ago when I strayed from my usual reading on frugality. Well! As the Wife of Bath says (paraphrased), women do tend to wander by the way. Une Femme is a writer of great talent, with a great eye for style as well. She also writes on more serious subjects, even when she seems to be writing only on style.

Anyway, yesterday when I returned to the blog world after having been out of town for a good bit, I discovered that Une Femme took on the topic of----FRUGALITY. And, guess what? She was inspired by one of my posts. I am so honored.

Her post is one of the best statements I've seen on frugality, which has to do with good use of resources--not just money, but time, stuff, and so on.

I wish Une Femme would write a book. In the meantime, Bogle has penned many. Here is one I've read.

And this one.

A Gai Shan Life: Wonderful Blog

I wish I knew what "A Gai Shan Life" means. Does everyone know but me?

Whatever. This is a great blog. Like Funny About Money (probably found this blog through her blog, back in the day), Revanche has many interesting things to say about money, frugality, and stress. She went through a period of unemployment (now over) without stressing too much, owing in part to her frugal ways.

That alone would make her a great role model (even though she's probably half my age). BUT she also is responsible for the (financial and other) care of her parents. She has already had more challenges than I have and she is meeting them with flair and aplomb.

She does get to have some fun too. She loves food, travel, and fashion.

What can I say? She is sooooo admirable. I loved reading about her trip to Chicago: this included budgeting and all that jazz, but some great food pics from this city of great restaurants.

Read around her blog: you will find something wonderful.

Re-Introducing Funny About Money

OK: not quite the New Year, but time to clean up and do things with intention.

First up: let's re-introduce Funny About Money. Funny was my first favorite blogger. She writes about money and stress. She faced unexpected unemployment and is winning. She lives in a Housing Bubble state and is hanging on. She is, in truth, a role model.

My favorite recent post of hers concerns eldercare--when YOU are the elder. Funny finds some hope among a group of 80-somethings she met, all of whom have retained a large measure of independence and all of whom are living on their own. A dark glimmer of hope, indeed.

This is something we all need to think about.

If you can't quite face elder issues, you can always check out her apple turnovers.

And I must mention her super writing skills; through this blog, one certainly experiences the pleasure of the text.

Who are your favorite bloggers?

Check out "I Am the Working Poor" and Maybe Win Some Books

A while back I was whining about needing more frugality blogs to read. Some of my favorites have closed down, alas. Somehow, I happened upon "I am the Working Poor." This is a thoughtful, wonderfully written blog, with much food for thought.

The blogger is giving some books away. These are famous frugality books. I don't want to win the books because I've already read them, and have a serious book accumulation problem.

But if YOU want to win them--or even if you just want to read the blog--go HERE.

Frugal Gems: My Foot, My Tutor*

I put out a call a while back for some new-to-me frugality blogs. I was afraid my blogroll was getting kind of unbalanced: all the stylistas are still blogging, but many of the frugalistas (or frugalistos) have ceased, sadly. Thanks to all who came through with suggestions: I will report back soon.

Interestingly, I have discovered frugal gems in other sorts of blogs. Frugality is all around us, it seems.

First up, let's look at Mary of SimplyForties. Mary writes about frugality all the time, in fact, but she somehow fell off my radar. Anyway, in the way of the blogworld, she kindly commented on MY blog, so I took a look at hers.

What a (re)find. There she had a great post on plantar fasciitis , an afflcition that seems to, well, afflict everyone, including women who have never worn high heels or pointy toes. (Not fair.)

Here Mary articulates a basic law of frugality: in her discussion of orthotics, she notes: According to a study done by the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine custom orthotics are no more effective than off-the shelf orthotics so you might want to try the $50 Dr. Scholl's variety before investing in pricier models.

Frugal Maxim: Try the low cost version before the high cost. This applies to things besides orthotics. Try the over-the-counter mouthguard ($30) before the custom one your dentist offers to have made for you ($$$$????). Try the low-cost state university before NYU (you can transfer later).

Sometimes, the low cost version isn't satisfactory, but at least you KNOW FOR SURE.

Thank you, Mary. I shall return.

*Do you recognize the quotation: "My foot, my tutor"? Two possible answers.

Another Request: New (to me) Personal Finance Blogs?

My second request: personal finance or frugality blogs that are new, wonderful, quirky, whatever.

Why do I ask? Well, I was looking at my Blogroll and noticed that most of the blogs-I-like-to-read are of the lifestyle genre. That is because many of the personal finance and frugality blogs that used to share space with the lifestyle ladies are no more. How I miss Chance of Roomfarm! And the others!

So: any suggestions for new friends to replace the old? Not the ones everyone knows about already, since everyone knows about them.

Any that are obscure, quirky, fun, intelligent? They don't have to be NEW, since I have not patrolled the entire blogosphere. I need to jazz up my reading, as well as my Blogroll.

Thanks again.

Almost famous!

Well, I finally got up the courage to submit a post to the Carnival of Personal Finance. I wasn't very brave, since the editor, Budgeting in the Fun Stuff, is a friendly and amiable blogger.

Anyway, great stuff there. And I'm glad to have the chance to read blogs not normally on my radar screen.

Another thank you goes to the divine Imogen of the blog Inside Out Style. You see, Imogen mentioned my blog post of last Friday, and I got a whole bunch of readers. Thanks to the readers and, of course, to Imogen.

Those of you wondering why I am even mentioning a blog on style and image. Well, aside from the fact that I am grateful for the plug, Imogen does a lot of good in the world. For instance, she explained why I (an H body-type) hate tucking things in. I am so happy! I suffered needlessly.

So...Frugality, Personal Finance, Image Consulting--all trying to bring some good to the world.

OT or not OT: That is the Question

The other day, one of my fave bloggers, Funny About Money, took up the question of a blogging glass ceiling, since generally, the guys make the big bucks and the gals do not. She wondered if part of the reason lay in the tendency of the female personal finance bloggers to go off-topic. She did a compare/contrast and discovered that the guys stayed on topic, while the women did not.

Yours truly was one of the test blogs under examination. Funny listed my topics--pantry organization, children's books, other stuff--most of which seem to be OT, especially compared to the fellows who were taking up such classic personal finance topics as buying gold or ye olde Roth vs. Traditional IRA. First I confessed: guilty as charged. After all, women have long been thought to be blabbermouths who cannot stay on topic. Example: Chaucer's Wife of Bath.

Part of the humor of Chaucer's Wife of Bath's Prologue (oops--there I go into the literature AGAIN) is that Chaucer really is spot on in presenting a woman who (in modern paraphrase) "wanders by the way" and frequently says (again in modern paraphrase) "Oh, where was I. Oh yeah. I was talking about my fourth husband."

Oh yeah, personal finance. After my confession of off-topicness, I thought for a bit. First, I don't profess to be a personal finance blogger: I write about frugality. My supposedly OT post on children's books was about how many of the most beloved children's books are about frugality. The pantry post was related to the idea of stockpiling or "investing" in your pantry--a frugal habit endorsed by many, including Funny's very own SDXB. That post was also about using up stuff that was getting old--also a frugal principle.

So, IMHO not OT at all. There is some overlap between personal finance and frugality. In fact, frugality has allowed me to participate in the personal finance world--in real life. Even aside from that, I would guess that learning to stockpile sale items in your pantry is of more immediate use to many of the debt-ridden and unemployed than any meditation on whether or not one should invest in gold. In fact, you can't invest in gold unless you have quite a wad of excess cash. If I had only $1200.00 to my name, I wouldn't buy an ounce of gold.

It would be better to practice frugality and get an immediate 20-100% return on your $1200. Everyone has heard--via Dave Ramsey--of the debt snowball with its variation the debt snowflake. Well, it works the other way with frugality. Not as rapidly--because your return on savings and frugal practice generally is not as big as the drag of debt.

So here's a double assertion. I was not OT because I write on frugality, not personal finance. And I was not OT because frugality is a branch of personal finance.

The rest is silence.

Good Advice: Stand strong against Discounts

Two of my favorite bloggers wrote on the same subject recently: Budgeting in the Fun Stuff wrote on succumbing to a "special." This was in response to a post over at Gai Shan Life on being similarly suckered by discounts. Erghhhh. If these two frugal role models succumb to such sales tactics, what hope is there for the rest of us?

Oh, make that three frugal role models. I received a 30% off coupon for Banana Republic. Good May 18. Oh, be still my heart! Luckily, Banana is in the next town, which has become a miserable drive owing to the population increase over the years--with a spike post-Katrina.

Then there is my mother and Chico's. Chico's always has $25.00 of $100.00 or $20.00 off $80.00 coupons. Even my mother, who loves to shop (and return--it's a disease) noticed that your total always comes to JUST UNDER the threshold, so you actually need to spend more. I used to get these coupons from Chico's. I seem to have been removed from the mailing list after I complained about bad customer service. That's OK. Chico's is in the next town too.

Then there is Mr. FS. His only weak spot is Bike Nashbar, which frequently has free shipping if you buy X. Of course, this necessitates much figuring and computing to achieve the optimal purchase.

You have to figure: if the discount is sent to you, it must be good for the company, right? They're not doing you a favor.

Thanks fellow bloggers for the good advice. I am throwing away my 30% off coupon. RIGHT NOW.

Book P-review: Possum Living

****UPDATE: Re comment below that refers to another blogger talking about the book. It seems that the book was discussed on Oprah! Well. Truly it must be the zeitgeist, because I don't watch Oprah nor do I read the blogger. I saw the book mentioned on Amazon, under "People who are interested in X book, might also be interested in Possum Living." Isn't it strange? Harmonic convergence.


I love reading books about frugality, not so much because I learn many frugal tips (since I know many already), but because I sometimes need a bit of affirmation from the universe. I have exhausted all the books in my local library on the topic. I just requested Possum Living, which is a reprint of a book published around 30 years ago, written by "Dolly Freed" (took me a while to realize that is a pseudonym).

Why a p-review? I don't know. Perhaps because I read a bit on-line. Also, it sometimes takes a while for the library to order the books I request, especially in the present budget crisis.

The gist is that Dolly and her Dad lived on a biggish piece of rural property 40 miles from Philadelphia. She was (illegally) removed from school and spent her teen years in the library, eventually becoming a NASA engineer. They lived a life of fishing, gardening, swapping, napping, and so on. They lived on around $1400/year.

Now many of us can't be possums. We are locked into high property taxes and other "necessary" expenses. Dolly and her Dad lived a version of extreme frugality. But her point was that she and her Dad looked perfectly middle-class.


Dolly shows that IT CAN BE DONE. How about if you don't want to be a possum? What about a semi-possum life? I think that would be available to many of us.

I started thinking about fun family activities. How about possum weekend? That could consist of eating the food in your pantry, cooking up some soup, going for a walk, whatever. How I wish my children were little; we could have had a lot of fun.

Many of my fave bloggers are already living a semi- or occasional possum life. I wrote about Simple in France a few days ago. And Revanche, a city girl, newly re-employed after a lay-off, and with heavy family responsibilities (financial and emotional), shows that even in expensive California, you can practice frugality by making chicken soup.

Have you read Possum Living? Are you ever a possum?

Lucy Marmalade's Pink Pearls and Other Gifts

How can I resist? I just dote on Lucy Marmalade PLUS she's wearing some beautiful pink pearls PLUS her ensemble illustrates the magpie approach to fashion: here and there, high and low. Also, she's learning about gifts--both receiving and giving.

Hmmmm. Is part of the bliss of having a daughter that I have another person on whom to bestow thrift store finds? A rather disquieting thought. But check out this post: Lucy is wearing a Missoni sweater I thrifted a while back (yes, the famous Goodwill). Orange is not my color, so I couldn't wear it. I even tried to sell it on Ebay; would you believe that no one was interested? It has the label and all...

Perhaps there is an element of karma in the fact that Lucy and I have different coloring. Maybe that Missoni sweater was just waiting for her to appreciate it (she turned it down the first few times).

And Lucy's posts are early Mother's Day gifts to me. Thanks Lucy M.

A Stroll Through Some Blogs: Simple in France saying NO

As I thought about strolling through some of my favorite blogs--both old and new (to me)--I decided to first highlight Simple Life in France, whose guest post I read yesterday at Early Retirement Extreme. That post is now on her own blog as well. Perhaps because Simple is living in France, with her French husband, I thought of being a stroller in French, a language that exists in some deep part of my memory, courtesy of some outstanding teachers, M. Giordano, M. Moore, and M. Danon, to name only the three best.

The word flaneur came to mind, although its use in cultural studies, owing to the work of Walter Benjamin and others, takes it in other (theoretical) directions from just strolling about. Needless to say, in the age of the internet, I googled flaneur and found a site devoted to the concept. Here is an epigraph from the Arcades Project Project that does seem to apply to my stroll through the blogosphere: "Taking a walk is a haeccity . . . Haecceity, fog, glare. A haecceity has neither beginning nor end, origin nor destination; it is always in the middle. It is not made of points, only of lines. It is a rhizome". (1000 P 263)

Simple in France's post (on both blogs) is about saying NO. She perceptively points out that saying NO to things you don't really want is the easy part; it's dealing with friends and family that is difficult. Of course, one can find new friends (sometimes--true frugal friends are rare); one has to deal with one's family.

In my comment on ERE's blog, I mentioned my recent moment in class. I had gotten there a few minutes early, and everyone was exclaiming over the BIG diamond on someone's engagement ring. I feigned interest, and then a student inquired about the location of my ring. I said I didn't have one. "Why?" I answered that I hadn't wanted one.

This admission led to a long moment of rather uncomfortable silence, followed by one student saying "That's neat." I think she was trying to make me feel better.

Then another student said, "You ARE Emersonian." I was so happy! A real life example.

Emerson says, Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.

That, like saying NO, is the easy part. The harder part is dealing with friends and family. Emerson is aware of that: A man must know how to estimate a sour face.

Simple in France recounts some of the sour faces--and comments--she received when she discovered that she actually preferred some aspects of the frugal life. Believe me, my $30 wedding (that was for the license and the German measles test) did not elicit admiration from family members. Neither did my decision NOT to let my kids go on the yearly overpriced Disney tip with their schoolmates.* Some of my NO moments were so shocking to my family that--even in this space of relative anonymity--I will not share them.

What is interesting is that saying NO is understood when followed by "We can't afford it." And I find that in a cowardly way, I sometimes say that for--as Mr. FS says--"protective coloration." But when you say NO for the reason that something is not worth it (in general or to you), you will get those sour faces.

*** I wrote a post long ago about how I did not let my kids go on the Disney trips, but did happily spring for school trips to Japan.