Breaking Even

In Hard Times, Restaurants Change It Up

I love periodicals probably as much as I love blogs. When I have a doctor's appointment, I sometimes go early so I can catch up on my reading.

But no medical appointment is necessary now; the inn has plenty of magazines for me to peruse, including some restaurant and lodging trade publications not carried by my doctor or my dentist.

One restaurant magazine, Santé had a feature article in their May issue called "Sarah's: Succeeding In Tough Times." Sarah and Bernard Bouissou own Bernard's Restaurant in Ridgefield Connecticut. It's an upscale place with great food that was doing well until the recession hit.

The Bouissous have since done a little reinventing in the way of opening Sarah's Wine Bar on the upper (and mostly unused) floor of their restaurant.

In doing so, they:

• made use of previously unused space.
• attracted more casually dressed and younger diners.
• found a way to use the slow moving wine in their restaurant as specials in the wine bar.
• became a place in the community as a destination to hold non-stuffy book club meetings.
• helped local nonprofit groups by offering wine tasting fundraisers ($10 a head, in cooperation with a local wine store) every other Wednesday night (traditionally a slow night)

This magazine also talked about how other restaurants were for example cutting portion sizes to cut prices and in other ways offering diners an eating out experience while lowering the price.

Have you noticed any changes in your local restaurant scene lately?

Time's Ten Ideas Changing The World Right Now

Thank goodness for breakroom magazines and the people who bring them in. I don't know what I would do for entertainment without them, you know, apart from making fun of my coworkers.

Along the same vein as Newsweek's list-o-cool-things earlier this year, Time has come out with their shorter though slightly more in-depth list of 10 things changing the world. Unlike every other "coolest things ever" list, Twitter was not even mentioned (gasp!) but there were a few cool ideas in this article.

The number one idea changing the world according to Time is "Jobs Are The New Assets". Here is the opening paragraph to set the scene:

Remember when jobs weren't worth your small talk? Think back a year or two. Picture yourself at a cocktail party or maybe picking up the kids from soccer. How did the conversation go? You talked about your house. A new deck! You talked about your portfolio. Gotta go small cap. Did you mention how much pleasure you derived from bringing home a steady paycheck? Probably not. "Land was valuable, and capital was valuable, and labor — who cared?" says David Ellison, a Boston-based money manager. "The attitude was, As long as I buy a few homes and invest in a hedge fund, I'm done. I can sit in my chair and watch football games."

In short, people now have to work for their money. I'm not really sure what world Time has been living in (probably an upper middle class, slightly Republican one maybe) but I think a lot of people already know this and have known the joy and need of a paycheck for awhile. Our jobs are not necessarily who we are, which I think a lot of us can attest to, but they have been a necessary evil all this time, if only for the health insurance and to keep us from watching too much television all day. (See yesterday's post about not knowing what your friends do for work if you think our jobs are really critical to who we are.) But in general people are much less likely now to whine about or leave their jobs then they might have a few years ago.

The most interesting and hopeful point on this list to me was actually number two "Recycling the Suburbs". Rather than creating whole new structures, repurposing abandoned malls and superstores make so much more sense. Not only is it more environmentally friendly, but the malls and superstores are already located near where many people live, and making use of space near where people already live makes sense. I mean, anyone who has the vision to turn an old Kmart into a Spam Museum is pretty fantastic in my book.

So, heck with Time, what's changing your world right now?

Read the article...

Shameless Promotion: The Post Toddler Edition

Over the weekend, I had two great house guests. One is my V-have friend S. The other was her 1.5 year old daughter I.

To keep my apartment from being the potential death trap it normally is, I looked around, squatting, hoping to spot the potential hazards. I took the portable potential death traps and stored them in my car for the weekend (remember my 220 square foot apartment with no closets?). The other ones were moved to inconvenient locations after which I hoped for the best.

Of course, the kiddo was pretty chill and I had the best built in toy ever: my smallish dog. Both Sadie and I are still recovering from all that energy (we slept a lot last night) so I thought it may be a good time to talk about some fun stuff I've stumbled across recently.

1 Chicken, $17 Meals, $26 Bucks, No Mayo from Cheap Healthy Good
No one can stretch a food buck better then Cheap Healthy Good. My one beef with them is they don't like mayo, which I love.

A Story Of Sucky Roommates from Master Your Card
If anyone can write a story, it's Kristy and there are several ministories in one. Makes me feel a little less indulgent for wanting to live by myself!

Do Nigerian Scam Artists Catch More Flies With Threats Of Detainment? from Wisebread
I always thought those Nigerian scam artist things were kind of interesting...and this post by Linsey Knerl really gets into one of them. 

An Amazing Video on the Relevance of Technology from Maine PR Maven
Nancy posted this video awhile back and I finally watched all five minutes tonight. Blew my mind. Well worth the five minutes it takes to watch it (and forward it to anyone who thinks this whole computer thing will pass.)

Using Google Calendar To Pay Bills On Time from Free From Broke
I've been using Google Calendar for about three weeks. It's changed my life. Seriously. And if organizing your life isn't a good enough reason, use it to remember to pay bills.

Your Logo Makes Me Barf from Give Me Back My Five Bucks
Completely unrelated to anything, this made me chuckle. (The second link on the list is funnier then the first but both will make you feel like you have serious art skills compared to some people out there.)

Happy Monday!

 

Shameless Promotion: The Long Weekend Edition

My fourth post in this week's special Holy Technology! series.

Ah, long weekends. They sure do sound like fun but they involve a lot of preparation.

I'm headed northward skiing with a few friends (and seeing some family and friends at the same time) and since I am headed out tomorrow, I've had lots to do tonight (in addition to my usual French class). So pardon me while I have a glass of wine and share a few cool technology-related links in a relaxed fashion:

"I Married The Eiffel Tower"
Got to love the top ten Google search terms. I don't usually lead with the random but I couldn't resist this time. I saw this was the top term earlier this week and had to click on it. I was preparing for something lame but it was an interesting article about why people feel attachments to and have relationships with inanimate objects.

Some Funny Software Development Quotes
One of my coworkers found this site and it's actually pretty funny, even if you're lowish tech like me. Among my favorites: “A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any other invention in human history, with the possible exceptions of handguns and tequila.” - Mitch Ratcliffe
(Don't just read the thirteen quotes, the comments are pretty great too.)

How To Build Your Own Treadmill Desk for $40
If I didn't live in 220 square feet of space, I would totally consider doing this. Actually, I obsessively researched it for a couple days but couldn't figure out a way to make it work. Here's the best link I found for those of us who can't pay $1,000+ for a desk. And interesting idea at the very least!

Unclutterer reminds us all of RSS readers
If you don't know what an RSS reader is and you have to keep track of more then a couple websites, you should give them a shot. Seriously. They'll change your life if you let them.

Leave it to the New York Times to give everyone something to talk about, this time...
Managing your email and Sex, Lies, and Photoshop (ladies, watch this video. You'll feel a lot better about fashion magazines!)

And in case you really want to feel behind the ball, Maine second graders know how to Twitter. *Gulp*

Stay tuned tomorrow and Saturday from some cool insights into the world of digital art and online dating from some of my very smart friends...

Shameless Promotion: The Next-To-Last French Class Edition

I'm home tonight preparing for the last two French classes of my adult education session.

On one hand, le temps passe vite, but on the other, every time I teach a new class I rediscover how much work teaching really is, especially when you want to do a good job.

The people in my class (this time in particular) are hard workers. I mean I don't have anything like a grade that I can hold over their heads and still, they do the outside classwork anyway. You've got to respect that!

So while I try to find out how to make direct and indirect object pronouns interesting, a few fun links I've been reading:

Frugal Upstate: Web-based Calendars For Organization And Planning
After paying my $.90 liber a fine last week I realized the Post-it on my Google homepage was no longer going to cut it for timely reminders. Frugal upstate reminded me of web-based calendars. My new Google calendar system has already made me more productive.

Northern Cheapskate: Can You Fix The Economy?
For all you control freaks and or finance nerds, you can hop online and see if you can save the US and global economies with a computer simulation. If you succeed, you should probably take a screenshot of the winning screen and e-mail it to Obama. You might score yourself a cool cabinet seat or something.
 
Freakonomics: The New Six Word Motto For The US
The winner was "Our worst critics prefer to stay." but check out the other entries for some equally funny stuff.

Master Your Card: The Rule of 72
If you want to actually understand financial stuff, subscribe to this blog. Kristy is great at explaining, in this case how to calculate how long it will take for an investment to double at a given interest rate. Seriously, she can even make this interesting.

The Simple Dollar: Using Twitter To Save Money
And you thought Twitter was just for fun and profit (well, indirect profit anyway). Trent has a list of people with deals that you can follow. It's how I found out about Redbox having free movies on Mondays. I was then able to tell the editor of our paper about it (he has a movie review column) and now he thinks I'm smart.

The Screaming room: Often Misheard Lyrics
Completely unrelated to anything, I've always thought that CCR song said "There's a bathroom on the right" and I guess I'm not alone. I'm having the French class try to figure out song lyrics this week... maybe this post is where I indirectly got the idea!

So Bonsoir and Happy Middle of the Week!

The $20K House

 

What if you want a house but can't afford it? Most of us in this boat are renting. But what if you had a morgage payment of around $60 a month?

The concept of the $20K house was featured in this month's Metropolitan Home. It is an interesting article about a design program in Alabama where students and others are working to design prototypes of homes that cost $20,000 to construct: $10,000 in materials and $10,000 in labor.

Like many good ideas, this concept came out of an idea to solve a problem, in this case one observed in rural Alabama:

Eventually Dorr (the organizer of the program) discovered that some of the widows had, in fact, applied to Rural Development, a U.S. Department of Agriculture program, for loans to help them buy a new house. "Their applications were getting approved," says Dorr. "There was a stack of them in our local office. And they were just sitting there." The problem, Dorr learned, was that although the women were deemed good credit risks, their incomes were so low -- typically, $637 a month from Social Security -- that they could afford to repay only a $20,000 loan. And everyone knows that there's no such thing as a $20,000 house. "Well, there wasn't at the time," Dorr says with a laugh.

Most of the houses are between 300-600 square feet and while this trend may be on the extreme thrift end, it does make you think about the possible ways we can make housing more affordable for everyone.

Check out the original article "The 20K House" in Metropolitan Home...
Check out the Rural Studio website...
Check out the Rural Studio blog..

Shameless Promotion: Fighting Off A Cold Edition

I have been sucking down fluids, alternating between coffee and Emergence-C for days. Sure I've been going to bed too late and working/playing hard but now is not the time to be getting sick. It never is, right?

I seem to be coming across a lot of interesting health articles (probably because I'm paying close attention to them subconsciously, looking for an edge), though some I've been saving for awhile.

Uncluttering as a way to a healthful life, well, in part. This article has some ideas I've been trying to get at for awhile about freeing yourself of stuff and only surrounding yourself with things you love (from Unclutterer)

College kids eat less food in the caf without trays. Makes sense to me. This is why I don't keep a lot of junk food in the house and eat off of small plates (from Freakonomics)

Don't work harder, work smarter with interval training. Because if you're anything like me, you'd just as soon work out less. (from No Calories Needed)

Cheap Healthy Good is one of the most rocking healthy food blogs, right up there with Cookbooks 101 and Almost Frugal Food. If you think healthy food is boring, read any of these. (Lots of recipes in addition to fun reading).

Are you trying to go paraben free in 2009? Me too. It's healthier without them and thanks to some research, there are actually some affordable parbaen-free beauty products. (from Wisebread)

And of course what would we all blog about without the New York Times? Love drug (and its counterpart) discovered and a new way to stretch.

Best wishes for you and your health!

Other health-related posts:
Will The Recession Make Us Fatter or Skinnier?
Nine Things You Can Do For Your Health That Cost Less Then $1

Shameless Promotion: The Avoiding Wrapping Christmas Gifts Edition

I've been done my Christmas shopping for over a week but the chore of wrapping still looms over me. The good news is there is plenty of fun things online to keep me nice and distracted!

32 Things You Can Do With Beer @ Men's Health
This link accidentally happened to me but whether you get stuck with a six pack of beer you don't like or just enjoy random information, some interesting reading.

A New Way To Make Money By Taking Online Surveys @ Sense to Save and Counting My Pennies
I always pass on via this blog ways to make extra money when I hear about them and, while I haven't done this program, I trust these ladies who have. It may be worth a look to make a little extra cash.

Good Wines At A Great Price @ GRS
Whether you are looking for a hostess gift or a Christmas toast, check out these tips to picking a good wine. Or do a Nicole standby with a Polka Dot Reisling or Bully Hill red.

Tips For Traveling This Holiday Season @ Intelligent Travel
If you are looking for last minute travel deals (or just ways not to get screwed over while traveling), there are some good ideas here. Me, I have one option to get where I need to go and that's driving. .. using tips for good gas mileage of course!

(And if you are traveling to a major city this holiday season, this blog also has an in-depth look at celebrating the holidays at places like Paris and New Orleans.)

An Economics Christmas Poem @ WSJ
A little nerdy but festive and applicable to current events. It's the WSJ, what do you expect?

Seven Lessons Learned Working Retail @ Wisebread
As you become a crazed shopper, remember not to take it out on your poor cashier. In my only retail experience, I just remember people being disappointed by my wrapping job (we offered free wrapping). I wanted wanting to say out loud "well, it is free, lady!" but instead smiling politely and rewrapping.

The Best and Worst of The Credit Card Industry @ Master Your Card
If you are thinking of shopping for a new credit card, like myself, check out this comprehensive list from Consumer Reports, compiled by this fantastic blog.

Christmas Gifts For Foodies @ Cheap Healthy Good
Food is always a good gift. Here is a guide to food and food prep gifts.

Wrapping Gifts Without Wrapping Paper @ Squawkfox
Hmm... maybe I can avoid wrapping all together...

Happy Saturday night to those of you who are having tons of fun or getting way more done then I'm avoiding!

Nicole's State Of The Economy Address

I'll be the first to admit that I have little to no-pull in terms of making people think one thing or the other about the economy. I do, however, come to a point where I have collected some cool links that just need to be shared.

I'll cover the economy in seperate sectors of the agreed-upon needs of all people: Food, Water, Clothing, Shelter, and Love (and I'll throw in Government just for fun!).

Food

Food price inflation may not be as bad as we thought (check out inflation explained at Debt-Free Revolution). I also read a completely hilarious blog about media mass hysteria about food prices meanwhile the average barbeque meal only cost $1.65 more than last year... if you know who wrote this post let me know, because I lost the link! Even the Wall Street Journal has reported rice futures going down.

Water

My friend Sarah sent me this fabulous SIGG water bottle for my birthday. It is amazing. It keeps my water cold and crisp and does not leave a plastic aftertaste in my mouth...and, of course, it's refillable. I don't normally endorse products but here's the store if you want to buy one.

Clothing

Apparently, the New York Times is having a hard time believing that Sarah Jessica Parker's newish Bitten line of clothes is so wonderful. They seem to think that attraction towards inexpensive clothes is a phenomenon in these economic times. Those of us who love women's magazines though have seen a "Bitten" example in every issue for at least the past year. Ok slight exaggeration but SJP (and women wanting cute cheap clothes) is here to stay.

Feeling left out menfolk? Please don't: LL Cool J has got your back! (from USAToday.com)

Shelter

If you want to understand how this whole housing debaucle happened, listen to this hour-long program from This American Life. Great storytelling, which you can expect from TAL but makes this whole thing way more understandable.

And if you're a renter, feel free to get angry. Read this fabulous post by Baglady to see why this housing crisis will effect us all whether we rent or not.

Love

Ah, poor Anne Heche. She may love her kids but can't afford to pay child support. OK, if she can't afford it, I think that pretty much lets everyone else off the hook, too. (I have no sympathy for celebrities who make more money in one day then I have in five years then waste their money. Where I'm from we call that gaspilleuse!)(from People.com)

But in the good news bin about love, people apparently love and appreciate small businesses enough to actually pay in a pay-as-you-wish situation. (from Freakonomics blog)

And according to a recent Gallup poll,almost 50% of us are happy and thriving. How happy? People are working on an index for that! (from Freakonomics blog)

Government

Haven't spent your new government stimulus check on a new Wii or a crazy night in Vegas? Good for you! Here are some more productive things to do with it. (from Mighty Bargain Hunter)

And guess what? The government is doing something about credit card companies (from Debt-Free Revolution).

Need even more government fun? Now you can actually prove if you could do a better job then your Congress people. Balance the federal budget...it's a new game called Budget Hero. (Freakonomics blog)

To summarize: things may or may not be as awful as we thought, but we certianly can't control everything. Might as well smile and wave...

Image from www.shorpy.com.

 

Best Advice You Ever Got?

A Little Philosophy About Money And Life

CNN Money recently had a slideshow of financially successful people all answering the same question "What was the best advice you ever got?" The answers are what you'd expect: kind of general, a little profound, and applicable to money and life in general. Here are a few favorites:

Focus on things you do different than others. (Peter G. Peterson)
Get out of your comfort zone (David Petraeus)
Always be the person who signs your checks (Tina Fey)

To be honest, a lot of other people I didn't know. A lot of older white guys who run large companies (at least I'm assuming, a lot of the companies were not recognizable to me). I would have liked to see a broader spectrum of different types of successful people.

Most of the advice that was stated came from fathers or bosses. I wish I could remember advice my father gave me. He was pretty tight lipped on finances in general. (According to the New York Times, it's a movement among young people to not keep their finances to themselves but with the popularity of personal finance blogs, I'm highly doubting it's just younger people.) I had long wanted to pick my dad's brain for financial advice in particular because he ran a successful business and was loved by his family and community at the same time. How did he build his money early on? What were the best things he did for the business and for his life? But sometimes you can't wait too long to ask... As far as bosses, I do remember an old boss who taught me how to "manage up", meaning to manage yourself when your direct supervisor can't or won't give you feedback.

The slideshow is a little superficial but does the job of getting your mind going on what you've gotten for financial advice (both good and bad).

What I always keep in mind, in finances and in life: 1) Everyone is doing the best they can. and 2) If it will make a good story, you should try it.

(And from the Freakonomics blog, some computer-related proverbs for these technological times.)

Have you gotten any really good advice? Maybe CNN Money forgot to ask you but I certainly won't.

Real Simple's Money Issue

March's Issue of Real Simple Magazine Is Dedicated To Money

I've been a Real Simple subscriber for about three years. I like their little tips and the clean layout of the magazine. It's kind of like relaxing fluff reading and learning a few new things at the same time.

First, their reader question of the day was "On a scale of 1-10 how much do you worry about money?" It didn't make for some interesting reads like usual questions (like "best advice you ever got" or "favorite drug store product"). Some people worry, some people don't is what it comes down to. Overall, it wasn't a strong lead-in to the money issue.

I flipped through and found their main article "Your biggest money worries, solved". Let me share a few of my favorite tips:

1) Change all your computer passwords to reflect your larger goal. For example, if you want to remodel your kitchen or move to France, your computer password could be gle@mingkitchen or vivel@france2015. This subconciously makes your goal more ingrained in your head, and makes you more likely to be able to save for it.

2) Have money automatically deducted from your pay check or checking account to put into savings and retirement. You won't even miss it.

3) Write down everything you spend so you can know where you can cut.

4) Find other hobbies besides shopping, like taking a dance class or "watch YouTube videos". (I may add to this personally fulfulling activities that are good for your body or brain. I think we all tend to consume too much media... unless it is the educational variety that is.)

For the 23 year old married girl in my income bracket, they told her she was saving more than enough money and could hold off on her employer's 401K while she saved for a downpayment on a house. Meanwhile, I'm pouring all my extra money into my retirement account, thinking of the value of compound interest. Hmph.

Besides the money portion, the issue includes the best blogs (though they did not list personal finance blogs), how to cook fish, clothing items that will never go out of style, how to make yourhome ecofriendly, and a guide to buying major appliances.

Overall, I was hoping for a little more from Real Simple. There are plenty of interesting topics you can tackle with money (as you have seen with this blog, I hope). But I do understand that a lot of smaller topics are covered in addition to the theme of the issue.

So don't buy this issue for the money tips but do buy it for the other reasons you like the magazine: clean lines and interesting, light reads that are perfect before bed or general perusing.

Tax Savings For Smaller Incomes

I’ve been scouting financial RSS feeds the past week or so for the best money-saving tax tips for the smaller income folks like myself. Here are three that sound like they may help some:

1) Make $15,500 AGI and contributed $2,000+ to your retirement? Uncle Sam has a deal for you! (Via Kiplinger’s) Don’t know your AGI? Figure it out with this handy calculator.

2) Have stock or other investments? In 2008, investors also have a rare opportunity to take profits on stocks or funds and pay no tax…While most investors pay a 15% tax on capital gains, those in the two lowest brackets, which this year means taxable income up to $65,100 for a married couple filing jointly or $32,550 for individuals, ordinarily pay 5%. This year, they pay nothing. (From Kiplingers)

3) Also CNN has ten tax breaks mainly for those with homes, retirement accounts, or kiddos.

Discuss these with your tax professional or keep these in mind when you are doing your own taxes, that is if you haven't done them already... Guess what I'm doing this weekend? 

Taxes On Your Own And Why That's Not A Bad Idea

I just finished an article from Smart Money Magazine called "10 Things Your Tax Preparer Won't Tell You". Apparently there are a few reasons for people to do their taxes on their own:

1) Tax preparers make more and costlier mistakes than the average person doing their taxes. "According to a study of IRS data, 56% of professionally prepared returns showed significant errors, compared with 47% of those done by the taxpayer. And audited taxpayers who used preparers owed an average of $363, while those who filed themselves owed $185."

2) Tax preparers are way less likely to take new clients after Feb. 1, after which they are slammed until the tax deadline.

3) The person you hire may not be the person who does your taxes. It could be some temp employee or some random person overseas. (Not that either of these things are bad. I just doubt that this is ever stated outright, making me think if if a person or firm can be dishonest about who is doing my taxes they are probably capable of larger dishonesties).

While I may have gathered my paperwork in December, I have not gotten the party started with the taxes. But it looks like I'll be doing them on my own for some good reasons besides saving some money. Meanwhile, have you started your taxes yet?

The (Real) Truth About Love's Cost

I was alerted today via another blog about an article on MSN called "The (Real) Cost Of Love". I realized after reading it why there was no place to comment on this article. It was one of the most sexist things I've seen lately and I'm sure the women reading this online would have ripped this guy apart(I'm assuming it is a guy). I'd like to talk a little bit about what I find wrong with this article and, like the article did, back up my article with "sources", you know, like the New York Times, CNN news, and financial journal articles. (Compare the article's sources to mine and I bet you'll see I've already out-researched him.)

First of all, I see in this article, men are the breadwinners. Yes, women make up almost half the work force...(oh wait, that figure was from 1999, but as population has increased and more women are now attending college then men, women are likely entering the skilled work force at a larger rate.) But, ladies, men are still our providers.

I feel bad for how much money men have to pay for us. Who cares that women are also paying more taxes then men; earn 1/4 less than what men earn doing the exact same job; and are still doing more housework then men. We cost men money, ladies. They have to buy us lingerie and jewelry.

So clearly, though I earn less than a man, am more likely to pay taxes than a man, and do more housework then a man, someone can still write an article about how much women cost men and make a few people nod their heads in agreement.

If we wanted to go with this articles cavemen premise, let's assume what this guy does: that men earn the money and women have traditional roles. Values have been assigned to traditional women's unpaid roles ranging from $75,000/year  to $130,000+. I think that means as an average house wife, I'd "outearn" my husband. And let's not even talk about the value-added services...

But wait a minute, women work too! I almost forgot. And I also forgot that I can actually pay for dining out, entertainment, personal grooming, and a lot of the other things on this list myself.

But I tell the author of this article not to worry about taking me on an "expensive dinner to apologize" for undermining the contributions of women in our society. I'll buy my own dinner, thanks.