Lazy Man and Money

The Lost Sock Drawer and Books Galore!

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This was an interesting weekend as far as frugality goes. I scored a couple of big frugal wins:

The Lost Sock Drawer

A few years ago I decided not to throw out any of my orphaned socks that have no matches coming from the laundry. Instead I saved them in the “lost sock drawer.” My thinking was that even if one sock was ripped or torn, it’s partner may find another partner who has experienced a similar fate. Then they can live together (and maybe their partners will meet up in sock heaven).

Recently, it became very difficult to close my lost sock drawer. It was time to see if I could match some of them up.

I was surprised how many socks I was able to match up!

socks

That’s 35 pairs of socks for those not interested in counting. There were so many socks that I couldn’t put them all in my (found?) sock drawer. I ended up stocking many of them as pairs in the lost sock drawer. I hope they don’t have hurt feelings, but I was able to give them the remaining 23 orphaned socks as friends.

It might be a very long before I need to buy more socks.

Books Galore!

Our family went to a church fundraiser this past weekend. I don’t really fit in at an English tea, but the wife liked the idea. We weren’t sure if the 2 and 3 year old were going to behave for it, but there was only one way to find out.

When we got there, we were surprised to find that they had a children’s English tea that was Harry Potter themed. We changed plans and bought tickets for our kids. They did a terrific job with exception attention to detail. I think it helped that the teenagers volunteering to help run it were enthusiastic about being Harry Potter characters.

It was a great time and they had other things such as a petting zoo for the kids too.

As we were leaving, we noticed a book tent. It was mostly books, but there were also a lot of CDs and DVDs. I wasn’t too interested in the books… I have a few dozen on my shelf that I want to read that I will probably never get to.

I thought about the DVDs, but they seemed to be either movies that I had seen or ones that I didn’t have big interest in seeing. One of the exceptions was Rent. I figured it was probably worth a couple of dollars even though I’ve seen it a couple of times.

It was the end of the day. They didn’t want to haul all the books away. Instead they decided they’d sell a bag for 5 dollars and let people fill it with whatever they wanted in the tent. We jumped on the opportunity. My wife and I must have come away with 20 books (and the Rent DVD). We even got the SpongeBob SquarePants Movie Soundtrack for the kids. Yes, it’s a movie they haven’t seen, but maybe some day they will and we’ll be happy to have the DVD.

My books tended to be personal finance books and self-improvement books (fodder for Be Better Now). My wife’s books tended to be fiction books (typically ones that have been made into movies).

The lesson: While showing up early gives you the best picks of the litter, you can often score some big deals at the close as well. I’ve found that this works well for yard sales and farmer’s markets.

Introducing Lazy Man’s Mega Book Giveaway

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I’ve been blogging for over 7 years now. During that time, a number of publicists have asked me if I’d be interested in their clients’ books. Unfortunately, the time it takes me to read a book and write the review doesn’t typically work for me. I had good intentions of reading and reviewing the books when I was on vacation, but I simply don’t take enough vacations… or I have too many books. I can’t tell you how many books I have.

It’s time for me to part with these books. (My wife is doing a little jig as I type this. Little does she know it will take a long time before they are gone.) Each week (give or take), I will give a short, very “Lazy” review from a very quick skimming of a book. I’ll probably write it with some good-natured snark, because, well, it’s fun. (And I could be slightly jealous of the authors for getting their act together and writing a book.)

So how do you get your paws on these books? You leave a comment on my short review. The better your comment, the more entries I’ll give you. What qualifies as a “better” comment? I’m looking for something that gets my attention. Funny is good, but informative is even better. Also, please use a valid email address, because if you do not, I can’t contact to you if you win. I hate spam as much as you do and I’ll never share it with anyone else. I’ll try to be quick with announcing the winners (which will likely happen via Twitter and/or the next giveaway announcement.

Does that sound fair? If so, let’s get to cleaning out my basement winning some books! We’ll start with the first book later today.

10,001 Ways To Live Large on a Small Budget Giveaway

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Everyone has a book nowadays. Since I’m extremely Lazy, I haven’t set aside the time to put together an ebook.

Why am I taking the time to highlight and give away copies of Wisebread’s new book, 10,001 Ways to Live Large on a Small Budget? There are three main reasons:

  • They sent me extra copies of book – Having only two eyes on book is enough for me. My wife wants to have a yard sale and get rid of nearly everything we own. Rather than get 75 cents for it, I’d like to buy some good will from readers.
  • I’m mentioned in the book – If you mention me in the book, if only for a paragraph… even if that paragraph isn’t exactly what I’d consider accurate about me… I’m probably going to try to help you spread the word of your book. I’m just putting it out there so all aspiring authors can start fitting plugs of me into their book.
  • The Most Awesome Reason of All – I don’t have a third reason, but bullet points don’t work well with just two items. I really like bullet points.

Since I need to get rid of two copies of this book and I know you are desperate to get ahold of it, here’s how I’m going to play it. Leave a comment below telling me why you deserve a copy of 10,001 Ways To Live Large on a Small Budget. I’ll look at each comment and rate it on scale of 1 to 5. The better the comment, the higher the rating, and the more virtual tickets you are going to get in the raffle. I’ll be completely subjective in my rating system, but you probably can’t go too wrong with a sob-story, or a fantastically unbelievable story. Maybe even a combination of the two (for example: how space aliens are holding your puppy hostage and you need to save money for the ransom. You get negative points if you use that example. Don’t worry about how I’m going to credit you with negative tickets. Like Ditka, I’ll find a way).

Since I’m moving this weekend, this contest will be a little longer than usual. It ends on May 28th at 11:59 PST. Use a real e-mail address, or else I won’t be able to contact you if you’ve won.

If you are the impatient type, simply go read my approximately 10,002 ways to save money. It’s free, no trees died for the paper, and it travels to through miles of interweb-tubes.

Can I Pay Less for Something of Similar Value?

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Pay less and win the game of personal finances.

pay-less.jpgTodd at Harvesting Dollars contacted me today to tell me about a new meme he’s starting. With the upcoming summer Olympics, what financial games or tricks do you use to keep your finances in order? He saves his raises and doesn’t buy into lifestyle inflation. If you are good at that game, you are going to do pretty well. It’s a tough game to play and requires a lot of self-discipline.

My game: Can I Pay Less for That?

I don’t know too many who subscribe to the philosophy of “I like to pay full price whenever I can.” I honestly know a few, but they are pretty rare people in my circle. I’m very firmly looking to maximize my dollar in every area of my life that I can. Here are just some ways that I play the “Can I Pay Less for That” game:

  • Books – Library or Paperback Swap have the same books.
  • Movies – Netflix, RedBox, DVD Play, your cable’s On Demand (if you already have it) are fantastic alternatives to movie theaters if you realize that you are simply time-shifting the viewing of the movie. Plus I’d rather introduce my wife to The Godfather than run out to see Mamma Mia.
  • Transportation – I’ve already written about how I save money on cars. Now you can add save on gas to the list.
  • Clothing, Homes, and even Alcohol? – Want to pay less on other things? I covered a lot of my major savings in my save money round-up.

Despite the picture I chose to include, the key to almost all these tips to pay less is that I give up very little quality (at least in my mind, do what’s right for your mind). The books and movies tell the same stories. The cars get to me the same location. I have decent clothes for when I need them. I can trick my friends into thinking that my wine is expensive, since it’s actually good quality. It really adds up over time.

Photo Credit: St.VincentVolunteers

Have You Decided To Be Rich?

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Last week while on an airplane, I finally caught up on some reading. I brought three books with me… Millionaire By Thirty, You’re Broke Because You Want To Be, and 422 Tax Deductions for Businesses and Self Employed Individuals.

While reading You’re Broke Because You Want To Be, Larry Winget wrote something that stuck with me.  Loosely paraphrased it was “if you want to be rich, you need to make the decision to be rich.” I thought that it sounded pretty obvious, perhaps a little too obvious for the average person to think about. I tried to think back to when I was 24, and I clearly hadn’t decided to be rich. I was preoccupied with trying to woo the hot girl from my Spanish class, making my boss happy, drinking a little more than I should, and just about anything other than getting rich.

Flash forward to this plane ride… I could have brought the copy of the Buffy Season 8 Comic Book which my wife got me for Christmas. I have been looking forward to reading it for some time. However, here I was with three financial books… one being possibly the most dry topic off all-time… 422 Tax Deductions… and tax time is a good 10 months away!

I don’t know when I made the decision to be rich, but it seems that I clearly did.  I have no other explanation as to why I would bring those financial book vs. a book that I’ve been looking forward to.  I obviously still have a long way to go, but I think I might be moving in the right direction.

Have you made the decision to be rich?  If so, how has the decision impacted your finances?