Queercents

When cash is tight sometimes bartering can be the perfect solution, but you need to do it right for both parties to truly walk away feeling it was a win-win.

When you are in business for yourself, cash is king. I don’t tend to barter very often because either 1) I don’t really want the service the other person is offering or 2) I need cash to keep the business running. However, there have been some select times when bartering has allowed me to both serve and be served in a way that otherwise wouldn’t have been possible. I haven’t bartered in a while but recently a colleague of mine approached me with a proposition. For the most part, income is my main goal right now. The first full year in business for yourself is a time when you really need income to not only keep the business rolling but meet personal obligations. Yet, this was a friend and colleague who has a service that I have been wanting to hire her for but haven’t had the cash. Thus an ideal opportunity to barter was born.

The biggest mistake people make when they barter is not formalizing the agreement. Read the rest of this entry »

How much do you spend on lattes? Perhaps your poison is it’s cheaper cousin; plain old coffee. Or maybe you think nothing of your frappuccino fix. You deserve it, right? I mean, after all - you’re going to work. You woke up early (like you always do), it’s Friday (just like it is every week), you have a meeting this morning (that’s so unusual). You get the idea. You always have an excuse. I’m not here to tell you to pinch every last dime, live like a Spartan and deny yourself those occasional sixteen ounces of joy - but let’s be realistic.

I understand when you’re walking around with a friend and you don’t want to tote around your reusable mug all day (though that’s not really so hard, is it?). But when you’re on your way to work to park yourself for the next few hours in front of a computer bringing an extra cup isn’t so much of a hassle. I realize we’re not all cubicle desk jockeys and corporate corner-office suits, and that some of you may have jobs that keep you running around. But if you can run around with a disposable cup, surely you can substitute the container in your hand for one from home. Just like I said about riding a bike, bringing your own coffee will save money, help you stay healthy, and be green all at once - the health, green, money trifecta. You think you can’t make your own beverage at home? You can’t concoct an iced latte yourself? I’m calling your bluff - here’s how to do it.

Read the rest of this entry »

At $3.25 a month it has been decided that the Sunday paper is no longer worth the money. I’m canceling the Sunday paper for a few reasons:

1. I don’t need extra paper laying around, I don’t have animals that need the paper to poop on.

2. It’s one less paper that has to be printed since I can read the paper online.

3. Most importantly, I don’t always get my money back every month in coupons.

Instead, I now print out the available coupons as I need them on scratch paper. And if I need more than one or two coupons on the same item, there are enough sites that allow me to print out 1-2 for each site. That is more than enough to stock or give away to others who may want them. Read the rest of this entry »

June is here, which means barbecues, summer festivals, concerts, baseball games, picnics and pride. Yes, some pride parades have started to feel like a gay trot through your local yellow pages, but it’s a tradition so you go anyway. And you have fun. And you drink a lot. So many of the best things about about summer involve drinking. Friends meet for drinks, backyard parties are thrown, you lounge at the beach, and even brunch feels shabby without a bloody mary or mimosa. So it goes without saying that many people drink a lot of their summer cash away. So what’s the solution?

Many people associate watching their money with restricting themselves. They think watching money involves saying ‘No’ a lot, but it doesn’t have to. Here are my strategies.

Read the rest of this entry »

I love to dumpster dive and I mean peak inside the big green monster, poke around with a stick and grab what appeals to me. Of course if you prefer the curb crawling only, that is fine as well. Perhaps you are new to all of this and unsure where to start. Here are some rules that I live by:

1. Leave the place looking better than when you found it
2. NEVER take anything that can cause an identity to be stolen. If you found something, rip it up into tiny pieces.
3. Dress the part. Wear grubby clothes, solid shoes or boots, gloves and a flashlight are good and bring a poking stick. Read the rest of this entry »

1. If you have been booted off of a freecycle group for a rule that you weren’t aware of…
2. If you have been booted off of freecycle because you didn’t post your request or offer exactly right…
3. If you have walked away from freecycle because people have broken rules by selling or the group has gotten too large…

There is an alternative out there that is more like the way freecycle was when it was young: The ReUseIt Network

My Mom is part of a few freecycle groups back in Iowa as a way to help out different internationals in our hometown (Isn’t she cool!) and she received a notice from one moderator who let the group know that they were fed up with the freecycle rules and finickiness by moving over to the ReUseIt Network: Read the rest of this entry »

I was reading through the 10 Diets You Probably Want to Avoid and beyond the odd ones where a danish author was forced to eat his book and an automobile maker ate weed sandwiches… there were a few that got me thinking.

“When Ernest Hemingway was writing his works of literary genius, he certainly wasn’t dining on filet mignon and caviar. Nope, most of his books were written on a diet of peanut butter sandwiches.”

“British wrestler Sir Athol Oakley maintained his physique by drinking 11 pints of milk every single day for three years. That’s 12,012 pints of milk. When asked how he had arrived at that particular amount, he said it was because a wrestler he admired, Georg Hackenschmidt, gave an interview once in which he had professed to drinking exactly that amount. Hackenschmidt met Oakley and informed him that the 11 pints had been a typo - he actually drank just one pint of milk a day.” Read the rest of this entry »

I heard on NPR last week that some financial analysts are officially using the word recession to describe the state of the American economy. Finally, the suits are understanding what those of us in the trenches have been feeling for quite some time!

Recessions are stressful. Massage helps with stress. And for people with chronic pain, massage can feel less like pure indulgence and more like a medical necessity. I know for me, I’m happiest and most productive when I’m receiving regular bodywork.

But the going rate for massage where I live is around $65/hour, with at least one massage therapist I know charging $85/hour. (That’s the discounted rate, if you don’t have workman’s comp insurance to cover her normal cost.) I don’t know about you, but I can’t afford that every week or every other week. If you value massage therapy like I do, it’s still important even if you can’t scrape together the change because you’re too busy buying beans and rice.

Here are some ways you can get free, or extremely inexpensive massage. Read the rest of this entry »

I recently got my yearly Social Security statement of my estimated benefits and they are always interesting to read through. For my age (1973) I will get full retirement benefits at the age of 67 and at this point, in today’s dollars I would get $1,710 a month.

Disability would be less and if I took the benefits early (age 62) the amount would be even smaller a month. And I like the fine print that is in the benefits area or the ‘buyer beware’ area.

“Congress has made changes to the law in the past and can do so at any time.” - meaning, don’t count your chickens yet. Read the rest of this entry »

“My dog is worried about the economy because Alpo is up to 99 cents a can. That’s almost $7.00 in dog money.” - Joe Weinstein

I get on weird kicks every now and again where I go through ‘what if’ scenarios in my head. I think it relates to my fascination with the end of the world and survivalist stories. Or perhaps it is my motto, “Plan for the worst and hope for the best”. Either way I get caught up in stories of rising grocery prices, oil/electricity rationing, or if we will go through another great depression.

In some ways it can be a depressing to dwell on, but in those dark daydreams there is inspiration. It makes me think of ways I need change in case the ‘what if’ becomes the news of today. Read the rest of this entry »