Gather Little by Little

I am out of town for the next three days and as I was leaving, Mrs. Stew was coming down with the flu . . . I am stuck in a hotel room an airplane flight away and she is watching three children in between trips to the restroom. She is a trooper. Here are some articles that I liked this week:

Squawkfox listed 10 ways to cut your fitness costs in the new year. Fortunately, my job has workout facilities that I can use for free. Funny how that does not make it any easier for me to exercise.

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The most taboo topic of this century will probably be money. You probably know most of what needs to known about your family or your best friends, but do you know about how much they make, how much they have in debt or how much they spend each month? This is so taboo that even couples are reluctant to “open their books” to their better half.

I have recently received a copy of Get Financially Naked by Manisha Thakor and Sharon Kedar. Since I have enjoyed this book and I truly believe that any couple should team-up their personal finance, I have decided to review the book and giveaway a free copy (see below for more details).

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We often leave the house for days at a time and I have developed several habits that save us money and protect our belongings.

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• Turn down your hot water heater. Most homes in the United States have natural gas powered hot water heaters. When you are gone, obviously you do not use any of the hot water, but if your hot water heater regulator is set too high, the water will continually cool down and have to be reheated again. If you do not need the hot water, there is no reason to keep it hot. Do not turn your hot water heater off, but set it at a lower setting so that it only has to run once a day or once every two days. Just remember to turn it back on before you take your first shower when you return home . . . you could be in for a cold surprise!

A while ago, I hosted a contest for “IN Cheap We Trust”. I thought of gathering some of those great frugal tips in one post so you can use them for 2010! I have selected my favorites among them:

#1 Eat less meat (from the market) (this is not only good for the size of your wallet but for the size of your belly too!):

Reduce by half the meat you normally eat and replace with vegetables.

Establish a once a week meatless meal.

#2 Shop with a calculator:

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This is not an article about bulimia or growing fruit trees.

As we all consider our financial futures and commit ourselves to more prudent use of our resources, be sure to go through your budget line by line. Spend a few moments on each item to brainstorm on ways to reduce or eliminate that cost. Here are some places to start:

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• Cable – Seriously, this might be the biggest and most senseless budget drain around – especially if you have broadband internet. If you are in a budget crunch, but still insist on paying for cable . . . I do not have much sympathy.

Congratulations to Alabama! I’m not really a fan of the Tide, but Ron is. Here are some articles that I found interesting this week and I hope you can find some useful tips:

Being Frugal found 101 Ways to Cut Your Spending This Year! I need to go through this list again.

Amateur Asset Allocator posted an article that might help me out: 401k Hardship Withdrawal Rules since I cashed out an IRA account this last year. I hope to qualify under the “money to pay your mortgage in an attempt to avoid foreclosure” exception.

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The following is a guest post from Manuel Davis. Manuel is a tax accountant and writer who has helps individuals resolve various problems relating to unpaid taxes.

6 Tips to Save on Filing Your Taxes  Preventing Penalties

It is very common for taxpayers to end up paying more in fees and penalties on their annual taxes than they should. Below are 6 tips that can help you avoid unnecessary expenses and penalties that many taxpayers incur each year.

What went well:

0% APR Balance Transfers: Believe it or not, I did several 0% APR balance transfers throughout the year to help us over the rough patches. So far, with no problems. This is really a risky strategy, I do not recommend it, but it has worked for us in a pinch. Unfortunately, these credit card balance transfers do not come free anymore. I had to pay a 3% balance transfer fee for all three that I took out.

Blogging: I have been a blogger in one sense or another since 2006 and 2009 was the first year that I earned regular income from this “hobby”. I hope to continue this trend.

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I think it is important to review your personal finances at least once a year. At the beginning of each year, I sit down at my kitchen table and talk about finance with my wife. We update our balance sheet to determine our net worth, we look at our previous year’s balance sheet to see how it went and make sure that we have increased our net worth year over year. In order to make it grow, you can only change to 2 things:

#1 Increase the worth of your assets

#2 Decrease the amount of debt

This is kind of a traditional post for this time of year, you know, with new year’s resolutions and all. My philosophy is that most life changes work best when they are started at any point during the year. For spiritual, physical, relationship resolutions there is no better time than the present. One time I got a bad report from my doctor and as I walked to my car, I committed myself to a healthier lifestyle. And I made up my mind to start right after I had one last Spicy Chicken sandwich value meal from Wendy’s . . . that particular decision never stuck . . . When it comes to changes in financial goals, the start of a new calendar year provides a nice clean slate.

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