I’ve never seen a dog get so excited about going on a walk as Bella. She gets air in this 47-second video. Pets are very entertaining!
Note: this video has nothing to do with saving money, it’s just fun.
By Bobbi Burger Brunoehler of BobbisBargains
DIY is my mantra. One of my best defenses against paying too much for anything is knowing how to do it myself. Over the years, in an effort to stay in my budget and to teach my children to be self-reliant, I have learned many very useful skills that have saved me enormous amounts of money. Here are just a few of them.
Take and retouch headshots
A professional headshot can cost anywhere from $150 to $500 before retouching. You can learn digital photography at your local community college or occupational center for a fraction of the cost of the tuition at a fancy art school. If you are really good at learning on your own, then there are tons of free online tutorials on photography and retouching. An excellent subscription online software tutorial site that I have used for years is Lynda. For $25 a month you have access to fabulous tutorials on just about every piece of art software that exists.
Check the fluids in your car
All of my mechanics in the past have told me that if people only checked and maintained fluid levels in their cars, mechanics would practically go out of business. Many major car repairs can be avoided by proper maintenance, thereby saving you a bundle of money. By watching YouTube videos on the subject and asking my mechanics to show me, I have learned where and how to check my vehicle’s fluids. Search with the make and model of your car and you can most likely see how your engine should look.
Alter your own clothes
This is a skill that I learned as part of my visits to Swap O Rama Ramas where I also scooped up hundreds of dollars of free clothes. Who knew that you could actually cut down and re-sew a t-shirt so that it looked attractive?
Read musical notations
Music gives me great pleasure. Instead of feeling like I need to take a vacation to chill out, I can just spend some time with music. Check out your local library for how-to videos for kids. If you really want to understand music the easy way, then I suggest attending one of Duncan Lorien’s “The Understanding of Music” seminars. I’ve taken this seminar before and it is simply brilliant. Plus, it comes with a 100% money-back guarantee.
Build things out of wood
Great and free places to start to learn how to handle a hammer and nails are the free workshops given at Home Depot and Lowes. Lowes has how-to project videos online as well as free kids clinics each Saturday morning. Learning to be your own handy person can save you up to $100 an hour on simple repairs.
Along with the savings you get when you do things for yourself, you also gain competence and the satisfaction of knowing that you can do things yourself. What are your favorite DIY sites?
It occurred to me last night while listening to a talk on social marketing that my beautiful bargain basement flats were shamefully tacky. The flats – lime green patent leather with a faux animal print tip – were a gift from a good friend who pointed them out to me at the local thrift store. I hesitated so she went ahead and bought the $5 flats, above, for me.
I adore them. If you can’t get away with green patent leather in gaudy LA, where can you? But…I’d like a second opinion. I wear them with dark skinny jeans, a black top, and a fitted black and white jacket.
Loading ...
inju/Flickr
This post has nothing to do with saving money but it’s awfully funny. Thanks to reader Glenn for submitting this collection of unfortunate newspaper headlines.
No crap, really? Ya think?
Now that’s taking things a bit far!
———————————————————–
What a guy!
—————————————————————
No-good-for-nothing’ lazy so-and-so’s!
———————- ——————————–
See if that works any better than a fair trial!
———————————————————-
The Olympics were ages ago but I couldn’t help but share this silly chart released by the Canadian water utility, EPCOR, about water usage during the Olympic medal hockey game against the U.S. It shows just how much dedication – and bladder control – hockey fans across our northern border have.
EPCOR
Thanks, Dan!
A longtime reader sent me this series of photos depicting origami using one dollar bills. It is incredible! These paper figures are apparently made by an artist named Won Park, who does amazing things with paper. (Thanks to reader Andy for sharing Won’s homepage!)
The email forward that is circulating the web says “Origami is the traditional Japanese art of paper folding. The goal of this art is to create a representation of an object using geometric folds and crease patterns preferably without the use of gluing or cutting the paper, and using only one piece of paper.
“Won Park is the master of Origami. He is also called the “money folder”, a practitioner of origami whose canvas is the United States One Dollar Bill. Bending, twisting, and folding, he creates life-like shapes in stunning detail. Be sure to see his home at the end of the art.”
One Dollar
One Dollar Butterfly
One Dollar Camera
Two Dollars Battle Tank
Two Dollars Chinese Dragon
One Dollar Crab
There are another 10 origami images after the jump. (more…)
Alyssa L. Miller/Flickr
A friend recently turned me on to a site that pokes fun at the cheesy “inspirational” posters that hang in offices. You know, the ones that aim to boost morale, cultivate hard workers, and create a team. Yeah, those ones. To give you a heads up for what to expect, the slogan of the site, Despair.com, is “increasing success by lowering expectations.” Ha…hahaha.
Here are some of the best demotivational posters.
Adversity – that which does not kill me postpones the inevitable.
Cluelessness – there are no stupid questions but there are a LOT of inquisitive idiots.
Compromise – let’s agree to respect each others views, no matter how wrong yours may be.
Defeat – For ever winner there are dozens of losers. Odds are you’re one of them.
Pretension – the downside of being better than everyone else is that people tend to assume you’re pretentious.
There are dozens more demotivational posters and they are more funny with the images that go along with them. (Like the one for Potential that has a picture of French fries and the slogan “Not everyone gets to be an astronaut when they grow up.”)
Despair.com sells these slogans on mugs, and as small framed pictures or laptop skins. They even have demotivational candy hearts for Valentine’s day!
UPDATE: Reader Jeannette was not pleased with these slogans.
I think this is an antithesis to Bargain Babe, as it takes work to watch your finances. How stupid this is, to devote time and energy to negativity.
But reader N. Davis says:
There’s nothing wrong with a little sarcasm to poke fun at how ridiculous the work environment can be. I’ve been a fan of despair.com for years and always keep a few items around the office (whether they’re out on display or tucked away depends on the people I’m working with). When I have a bad day their “demotivational” sayings are always able to make me laugh and help diffuse my anger and frustration a little, which is a good thing!
Related: Friday fun: if you can’t find the right book
Friday fun: how to get your lost camera back
Friday fun: I can’t have a brain tumor, I have dinner on the table
Thanks to reader Glenn who lightened my day with this joke. “Confucius say… if you cant find the book you are looking for, you are probably at the….”
A friend passed this slide show onto me and it was so funny I wanted to share it. It has nothing to do with saving money but everything to do with enjoying Fridays. Yay it’s almost the weekend!
I highly recommend watching blogger Andrew McDonald’s series of photos about how to get your lost camera back.
Thanks, Scott!
Here’s a deal to make your donation dollars go farther. The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation will match your donation on DonorChoose.org, in effect doubling your dollars.
The caveat is that the projects must help educate kids in rural or high-poverty areas. Projects include buying basic art supplies for a social studies lesson and chipping in toward five digital cameras for a special education class. Browse all the eligible projects here.
Thanks, Hubby!
No, I don’t have a brain tumor. But my friend Marla Jo, a fabulous writer at the Orange County Register, does. Or did. She had surgery recently to remove it but I didn’t find out about the whole ordeal until just now.
Marla Jo wrote about dealing with news of her tumor in a way that made me laugh. I bet you will too.
My sister Aicha is spending the summer observing women and children with HIV/AIDS in Africa to improve treatment. She has been in love with Africa ever since she went there as a Peace Corps volunteer ten summers ago. Her specialty back then was agroforestry, which meant she taught farmers in the Fouta region of Guinea basic farming techniques.
My mother bought me a plane ticket to visit Aicha, above, in Guinea for my college graduation present. Three days after leaving New York City we arrived in the remote village of Poredaka and settled in for a four week visit. Roads? Ha! Electricity? Ha! Rice for every meal? Yes! Well water that must be boiled? You betcha!
When I arrived my sister had been living in Guinea for a year already. Two things struck me about her concrete, one-room home. The toilet and shower drain were one in the same. And there was a dog-eared copy of Where There is no Doctor by her bedside.
Aicha, who had no formal medical training then, relied on that book for 28 months. After she introduced me to just about every person in the village, I knew the people of Poredaka didn’t even have a book about doctors. Everyone had a festering wound, missing digit or noticeable scar – things that ibuprofen and Neosporin would do wonders for. And that was just what I saw in four weeks.
During her two years in Guinea Aicha trained many farmers, but she realized she could help a lot more people as a nurse. She has returned many times since leaving the Corps, but this is her first time in Africa as a nurse.
This summer she is working for ICAP, the International Center for AIDS Treatment and Programs, in the Ivory Coast (Cote d’Ivoire). You can read about her adventures on the Africa Nurse blog, which is written by another nurse named Mara, who is working closely with her.
One recent post on Africa Nurse blog tells of six things Mara learned since arriving in Africa, including the art of the bucket bath, the importance of having an African name, and just how little locals know about AIDS. A snipet about going dancing:
Last night, as nostalgic for our friends as for the running water in Abidjan, we decided to suck it up and check out “King Discotheque” next door. It did not disappoint. The music was just as good as it was en ville, and the setup was exactly the same. The culture of going out dancing here has nothing much to do with pairing up—quite the opposite, actually. With my sample size of two dance clubs, I can now conclude that what you’re supposed to do is get dressed to the nines and then go dance by yourself in front of the full-length mirror that will inevitably cover one of the walls, staring at yourself. All night.
Also, the the music will inevitably be interrupted every few minutes by a DJ shouting something or other. Last night’s interruption-shouting theme was “Aaaaaaaaicha!”, and some form of my name, alternately, “Maaaaara!”, “Maaaaaria!”, “Maaaaaariam!” or “Maaaaariama!” It’s the most famous I’ve ever felt.
Check out the Africa Nurse blog!
Sunday’s NY Times had a funny Op-Art piece that parodies the iPhone ads about which apps save you money (some are free, others cost $.99 to $30 to download). You may recall I gushed about these ads, which have been running on back page of the NY Times’ front section.
The Op-Art piece reads: “iPanic: helping you deal with the loss of your life savings, one app at a time.” A sampling of the “apps” including:
Never Mind: $3.99 “Choose a vacation from more than 1,000 popular destinations, dinner at a restaurant you’ve always wanted to try or a round of golf at any one of your favorite courses. Never Mind calculates the money you save by not going.”
4merly Hot: $14.99 “Tired of economizing alone? Upload a picture of yourself when you had money, then use your iPhone to meet other singles pretending they still have money, too.”
Fantasy Finance League: $9.99 “Field your own 401 (k). Make imaginary trades with stocks you used to own. FFL keeps score, compiles stats and automatically updates when you could have retired.”
2 Late Now: $7.99 “Create, edit and save spreadsheet files documenting all the things you wish you’d never bought.”
Scrape: $6.99 “By using your iPhone’s GPS, Scrape lists part-time jobs within a five-mile radius of your current location. Find the opportunity to match your experience and skills, from valet parking to wearing a taco costume.”
Hmmm…the message I’m getting is that even as we watch our life savings disappear, we continue to pay for luxuries like the iPhone (guilty as charged!) But in my defense, I only download free apps.
So maybe you don’t have an iPhone, but I bet you have some other secret spendy habit that you are loathe to reveal to other bargain hunters. Spill the beans!
Ever wonder who we as a country owe money to? Foreigners are the answer about a third of the time. Of the United States’ $11 trillion debt, $3.3 trillion is owed to the following countries, according to a very cool graphic that ran in the June 8, 2009 issue of Newsweek (but is not available online, sadly).
Thanks to a reader named Dan who supplied this chart:
$767.9 billion – China
$686.7 billion – Japan
$213.6 billion – Caribbean countries
$204 billion – France/India/Korea/Mexico/Singapore/Turkey
$192 billion – Algeria/Bahrain/Ecuador/Gabon/Indonesia/Iran/Iraq/Kuwait/Libya/Nigeria/Oman/Qatar/Saudi Arabia/U.A.E./Venezuela
$138.4 billion – Russia
$128.2 billion – U.K.
$126.6 billion – Brazil
$124.3 billion – Egypt/Israel/Italy/Netherlands/Norway/Thailand
$106 billion – Luxembourg
$89.5 billion – Belgium/Canada/Chile/Colombia/Malaysia/Philippines/Sweden
$78.9 billion – Hong Kong
$75.8 billion – Taiwan
$67.7 billion – Switzerland
$55 billion – Germany
$54.7 billion – Ireland
$156.7 billion – all others
Related:
Friday Fun: what comes after trillions? (BargainBabe)
National Debt Clock (Brillig.com)
This is one of the coolest things I have seen in a long time. A blog called Scavenging has step-by-step directions to turn your credit card into a bracelet, ring, or earrings. Check it out! Below is one of their creations.
