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Ever wish you had more time to read? Would you like to read the classics but can’t face wading through them on your own? Do you have time each week when your eyes and hands are busy but your ears and brain are not? Then audio books are for you! And you can get more books than you’ll ever be able to listen to in this lifetime absolutely free.
Librivox.org offers thousands of audio books read by volunteers and free for the taking. Librivox.org’s goal is “…to make all public domain books available as free audio books.” To that end, the site offers an ever-growing list of “…books whose copyrights have expired in the USA. As a general rule of thumb, that means books published before 1923.”
Volunteer readers bring life to each book and many are offered as dramatic readings, as well. Browse by category or genre. Search for [...]
A lot of people recently participated in the Live Below the Line challenge: $1.50 (or less) spent daily for food, for five days. This figure somewhat reflects what the average world citizen lives on, and was part of a fundraising event sponsored by a number of different organizations, including Opportunity International and the World Poverty Project.
Contrast this with the Food Stamp Challenge, which resurfaces every now and then as people struggle to understand how welfare recipients make use of their allotted funds — $6-7 daily for one person, $12 for two and so on. (Yup, four or more times more than the world challenge amount.)
I participated in the Live Below the Line challenge, and found it interesting, albeit a bit boring. The Brick joined me, giving us $15 to work with. What did I get for that 5 days?
2 pounds rice
1 1/2 pounds beans
1 red [...]
On February 5, 2013, distribution of the penny was discontinued in Canada. Canada joined 9 other countries that have discontinued using this small denomination coin. What in the world are we going to do with all those phrases that have been passed down for a generation about this copper coin – will the eventually become passé’?
Penny Quotes
As a tribute to the demise of this centuries-old coin, I’d like to look at some of the phrases that pay homage to it. Probably one of the most common phrases that most everyone knows is “A penny saved is a penny earned.” This little ditty is contributed to Benjamin Franklin and shows that saving money is hard work and is earned one penny at a time. Another of my favourites is “Find a penny, pick it up and all the day you’ll have good luck.” Were you ever told that you [...]
I previously wrote about saving on groceries by meal planning. But if you aren’t basing your menu off of available sales and coupons then you are basically giving money away. By being a savvy shopper, you can minimize your grocery bill while still eating the foods you enjoy. The key to saving money on groceries is knowing what deals to take advantage of, and which to let pass by.
Cartbuster Events
Cartbuster events are also known as mix-and-match sales. Several different brands will be available for sale and any combination of them can be used.
As food conglomerates have gotten larger, they have been able to create cross-brand sales that leave a substantial portion of the store on sale. Kraft is especially big on cartbuster events. Typically, these sales work by requiring a certain number of items to be purchased to get the sale price. A common cartbuster sale will [...]
If you’ve been paying attention to the news lately, you’ve most certainly heard of the term Bitcoin being used. It’s an online currency that you can use to buy things with. I know this sounds crazy, so I am going to try my best to explain what Bitcoin is all about.
The History of Bitcoin
Bitcoin began back in 2008 by a developer as a peer-to-peer electronic payment system. The allure of Bitcoins are that they are free from central authority. In the United States, we have the Federal Reserve overseeing the money supply. With Bitcoins, you don’t have this authority. It was pre-programmed that the total number of Bitcoins will never exceed 21,000,000. Every year, fewer and fewer Bitcoins are released to the public. In roughly 2040, no more Bitcoins will be produced.
The entire process of creating Bitcoins is very technical and I will not be going into [...]
When you’re stressed, bored or upset, do you find yourself reaching for sugary or fatty foods to help you cope? Many people – especially women – turn to food during times of emotional distress. Emotional eating may well make you feel more positive in the short term but it’s not the most positive way to react.
Why It’s Bad
Most of the time, comfort eating involves foods that are rich in fat and sugar so they’re almost definitely going to do damage to your waistline unless you’re doing enough exercise to burn off the calories. This can create a vicious circle in which you feel bad or guilty about eating comfort foods and this prompts you to eat some more to cope with these feelings.
Eating the ‘wrong’ type of foods can also lead to a spike in blood sugar levels, which may give you some energy in the short [...]
If there’s anything we as parents want for our children, it’s that they grow up to be happy, healthy and wise adults. Learning to manage their money, as well as their life, can be an excellent influence.
You can be that helpful influence, too. Here are five ideas:
Life is not a democracy. It’s not always fair, either. It would be wonderful – or so kids often think – if they always got their way. Unfortunately, some of those demands wouldn’t be good for them, or the family in general. You have the opportunity to spoil them when they’re young — don’t do it. It only teaches them that they can repeat the same behavior as adults.
Everyone works. You must work, in order to bring in food, transportation and a place to stay. They need to work, too, to help out with family chores. Even little children [...]
We all have to deal with difficult items now and then.
Nasty things — like leftover fish bones, crabshells or spoiled eggs.
Dear things — like a favorite pair of shoes, too stained and tattered to wear anymore. Or the body of your beloved pet.
Smelly things — like spoiled cheese, chicken manure (We’ve got plenty of that nowadays), and those nasty socks with big, unrepairable holes in the toes.
Make those things go away — plant ‘em.
A good-sized hole can hold any amount of vegetable scraps and old bones. Dig it deep — then plant squash or zucchini seeds on top, for a good source of nitrogen as the garbage decays. (I still remember reading somewhere that the “grandest grapevine in Britain” grew where a number of horses were buried some time before.) Native Americans often buried a fish in each hill of squash and corn, for [...]
…Plantwise, that is.
In many parts of the country, perennials are just beginning to show their green, leafy heads. Lilies; herbs like thyme and sage; daisies; lambs ears, snow in summer or dusty miller (that fuzzy green/gray fill-in stuff); iris…even rosebushes are just starting to grow. Now is the perfect time to divide them, and get double the plants for this growing season!
These iris are starting to crowd each other — a perfect time for dividing
It’s not difficult. Get a good sharp-edged trowel or shovel ready, along with a bucket or pan to put your plants in. (A pocketknife can also help.) Dig around the edge of the clump you plan to divide until it’s loosened and can be lifted out of the ground.
Find the center of the plant, then use your sharp edge to make a quick, clean cut. (Banging the plant a [...]
There are all sorts of bad money moves we make. Here are three big ones that many people make today. If you find yourself making these mistakes, do your best to correct them sooner rather than later.
Chasing Yields
Certificates of Deposits and savings accounts are yielding squat today. I remember back in the early 2000’s when I was getting 5% from my online bank for my savings account. Now I’m excited if I see 1%. Since I am young, the low interest rates don’t affect me too much when compared with senior citizens who many rely on bond interest and certificates of deposit interest to supplement their incomes.
Because of the low yields, many investors are chasing higher yields. You see ads in magazines and newspapers all of the time and on TV and radio ads as well. In most cases the advertisement doesn’t correctly mention the risks involved [...]
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