Gather Little by Little

My daughter has requested a fairly expensive Halloween costume. She wants to be “Kit” from the American Girl book series. Hopefully I can convince her to accept one of the low cost costume ideas from Lynnae at Being Frugal. I am also taking suggestions.

Jason, one the writers at Bible Money Matters tells what you need to know about money management. As GI Joe used to tell us “knowing is half the battle”.

Craig at Christian PF puts a price tag on what it costs to raise a child. Take a look, it might be less than you thought and his numbers are closer to what my family spends rather than the numbers given by “conventional wisdom”.

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Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord thy God which He hath given thee. ~ Deut. 16:17

Charity is no easy subject, it is neither black nor white and there are certainly no right or wrong answers when discussing the subject. Since the end of my school days, it is a subject I have spent a good deal of time thinking about.  And I am still uncertain as to what is the best approach to take”¦ So, I thought writing about the subject and getting your input would be a good start to getting a better perspective of the subject. There are obviously many different ways to help, but in this post I will only be discussing the financial aspect of charity.

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Mrs. Stew does the majority of the grocery shopping in our home. She knows where to find the deals, which coupons are best and what we need. She does a nice job of feeding our family of five for as little money as possible. Every once in a while, she asks me to pick up one or two items on the way home . . . usually a mistake.

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Looking for a good (does it still exist?) certificate of deposit rates? I believe I have found the best place to do some rate shopping! Going through the website, I was able to find very interesting economic information along with the best CD rates in several States (they service 20 States including California, Texas, Florida and New York).

What is Select CD Rates?

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As many people during these tough times, we are cutting out extra’s in order to make ends meet financially. We are doing everything possible to not add debt, to make our current income go farther and to try to increase and diversify our revenue streams. One of the items at which we are looking critically is vacations.

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Here is some reading that I found stimulating this week.

Borrow From None presented a challenging analysis of Proverbs 22:7, “The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.”

Plonkee wrote about shared finances for couples who are cohabitating. I’m old fashioned when it comes to those sorts of things – I think finances work better when marriage is the foundation. Beyond that, Plonkee’s characterization of certain approaches to handling money as capitalist, communist and socialist to cause thought.

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In this first of our new “Investment Thursdays”, I decided to tackle a subject important to me.

One of the major trends in the past decade or so has been individuals stepping up to do their part in improving the world. The green movement has been the most visible as groups and individuals around the world have put up efforts to give out information about the harm being done to their environment. The power, of course, resides in the masses. For one person to start recycling their paper or building heir own compost bin has little impact but when millions around the globe do their part, the impact becomes a game changer.

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On Monday, I wrote about some of the problems with mass transit and I thought that I would spend today on some of the other means of transportation.

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Your credit rating is a very precious thing as is trust; it is hard to earn and easy to lose. So, if you are lucky enough to enjoy an R1 credit rating, you want to make sure to keep it. There are a few tricks to help you keep a stellar credit score. But before we start, here’s a quick definition of the different credit ratings (going from R1 to R9):

Credit Rating:

R1: This is revolving credit that has always been paid on time.

R2: A revolving credit account with a late payment of 30 days.

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Many people use mass transit to save money. I like mass transit. A couple of years ago, I visited Germany and fell in love with their rail system. Buses, trains, light rail, the subway, the elevated train all make sense as a way to reduce cost and congestion – but not in every circumstance. Make sure that you are actually saving money before making the switch to the bus or train.

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