Personally, I get cold easily.  I hate being cold.  Turning down my thermostat even slightly means being more cold.  In my own home, I have decided that keeping the heat up is one of the little luxuries that I don’t mind splurging on.  However, I have not always had lived in situations where I’ve had control of the thermostat, and luckily, I have learned a lot of stay-warm techniques that do not involve cranking up the heat.  Here are seven ideas for maintaining a comfortable body temperature in a colder house.

1.  Dress warmer.

Instead of wearing thin summer pajamas in the wintertime or expecting to stay warm with sweat pants and a Tshirt, get comfortable wearing another layer inside the house.  Even just putting on a sweatshirt, robe, or switching to winter flannel pajamas can help keep you warm when your thermostat’s turned down.  And keeping socks or slippers on your feet while in the house can also help keep you warm.

2. Use blankets

I like to curl up under throw blankets when reading in my living room. You can also add an extra blanket or two to all the beds in the house to keep everyone snug when you turn the thermostat down at night.

3.  Move Around More

My favorite indoor activities involve lounging around, but there are lots of things to do to get the blood circulating.  Do you have any interior decorating projects you’ve been putting off?  What about organizing that closet?  Do you have gift wrapping to do?  Is there a room you want to rearrange?  If you avoid your normal exercise routine because it involves walking, running, or scraping ice off the car to go to the gym, can you re-create an indoor version?

4.  Spend more time outside

Especially when it’s cold outside, spending time outdoors will make the inside seem warmer.  This may seem counterintuitive, because spending time in a cold outside will make you colder, except that chances are you’ll be moving about a lot more outside.  Maybe you’re shoveling snow for yourself or your neighbors. Maybe you’re hanging Christmas lights or finding the best walk in your neighborhood to view the change in seasons. Like #3, this suggestion gets your blood circulating and will warm you up.  And then when you come back inside, it will feel toasty warm.

5.  Drink hot beverages.

Maybe this is why I learned to love tea. Regular tea, in my opinion, tastes best with a little milk and sugar, although some people prefer it without. There are a variety of herbal teas that don’t have the bitterness of regular tea.  Coffee, hot chocolate, warm milk, hot cider, wassail, and various other concoctions are all good at warming the insides. If you are a regular drinker of plain water, try switching to hot water during the colder seasons.

6.  Stop all the drafts.

Thin windows, ill-fitting doors, uninsulated walls are all ways for the cold to sink in.  Even hanging up blankets over passageways or windows can help trap the heat in.

7. Cook a lot

Having the oven and stove on throughout the day will create a lot of heat in the kitchen, and spending time there will make it one of the warmest rooms in the house.  There’s the added benefit of eating the hot food once it’s prepared.

Image courtesy of freefoto.com

There are about a million things I want to do with my house.  I would like to update the kitchen and bath, refinish the floors, replace the windows, paint the exterior, and landscape the yard, just to name a few small projects.  It’s not that the house is in bad shape; it’s not. It’s a trim little house with everything in order.  But it’s an older home, and I like to dream big.  It’s just how my brain works.

I don’t have the money right for new windows or refinished floors or climbing roses. Since I’ve been making the house a priority, my “Things I Want” account is at a minimum.  I pretty much just got a Big Thing I Want (the house), and that’s it for a while.  But that doesn’t mean that I can’t make any progress, or that my hands are tied until my next paycheck comes in, or that I have to sit around being grumpy because there’s an endless supply of things to spend money on.

So I made my dream to-do list and included everything on it. Everything.

Then I wrote another one, which only had things I could do for free.

Amazingly, there was a lot on that second list.  And what was surprising (or maybe not so surprising) was that each item requires work.  Some items require a LOT of work.

For example, my perfect future garden needs a compost pile– that doesn’t cost anything.  But I’ve been too lazy to put my fruit and veggie trash in a separate pile, too busy to walk around my yard and decide on the best spot, too distracted to rake leaves into a pile.

My perfect future garden also has flowers. I haven’t decided on what kind yet, but flowers can be expensive.  As a housewarming present to myself I even bought a huge bag of daffodil bulbs to plant, just so I can get started before the winter.  But I had been too busy to plant bulbs, and it’s been a little chilly outside and I needed a nap.

And I can just imagine how nice the yard would look edged in a nice mulch where I want the future beds and paths to go– I could put a really nice bark up against the house and edge the walkway.  But fall leaves, which make a wonderful mulch, are free for the taking and would nicely blanket all my trees, if only I raked them up.  But raking leaves is not nearly as much fun as getting a truckload of bark, and they don’t always look as professional.

Inside the house it’s the same. I want built-in bookshelves, but haven’t found the time to unpack all my books on to the existing shelves, or the energy to piece together all my old cheap bookshelves.  I want a guest bed and fresh new bedding, but I haven’t found time to do my laundry this week yet.  I want new windows, but have yet to scrape off years of accumulated paint from the original tile windowsills.

I realized I have plenty to do and get excited about without spending a cent.

Once I made my new list, I realized that part of what is so exciting about spending money is that you can feel like you are making progress without actually doing a lot of work.

The daffodil bulbs were the prime example. Just by buying that big bag for myself, I felt like I already had put in an entire garden, without actually breaking a sweat. But of course, the bulbs sat there, in my kitchen, near the dirty dishes, nowhere particularly near my garden.  The spending part of the fun was over, but I hadn’t actually accomplished what I was paying for when I bought them.

So last Saturday, I had time, and I had my daffodils. I spent the day planting the entire bag; one hundred and twenty five bulbs.  Then I raked my lawn.  And last night, I scraped the old paint off one single tile on my windowsill.  It looks beautiful.

Some day, when I save enough, I can put in new windows.  But not today.  I’m too busy.

Image courtesy of FreeFoto.com

In reading this blog, one might get the impression that I am against spending money.

This is not true. I love spending money. But it’s simply not a very sustainable pasttime.

Saving isn’t an end by itself.  It really doesn’t do me any good to die with millions of dollars in the bank because I’ve prided themselves on an aescetic existance. Or worse, because I’ve been stingy and avoided using my money to make the world a better place, such as paying for a hospital, donating to libraries, or even just stimulating the economy.  Money’s true power really only comes into play when it exchanges hands.

But you can’t spend money you don’t have coming in. In order to have enough to spend on something you really want, you have to say no to the things that in the long run, really aren’t that big of a deal to you.  And you have to say yes to the things that are. We work hard to save where we can so that we can spend where we want.

The other day, I bought a house.

It’s not a large house. But I wouldn’t have been able to do it at all if I hadn’t started bringing lunch to work every day.

For you, it might be retirement. Or the proverbial “rainy day” (As this past year’s massive layoffs have shown, rainy days do happen.) Or it might be a trip. Or that thing you wanted. Or college. Or someone else’s college. Or maybe you’re saving enough to be able to quit work and save off the interest.  Whatever it is, spending money isn’t evil. But most of the time, the more you save, the more choices you have in your spending. We all have the equivalent of a house that we want, that is difficult to afford, that we’d really not mind making sacrifices for if we only knew it was attainable.

And that’s what helps us make the little choices– when we know that the little choices add up to big ones.

What’s your house?

The Frugal Gardener: How to Have More Garden for Less Money, by Catriona Tudor Erler, is an excellent resource for any gardener, and specifically those who enjoy the concepts that I discuss here on Not Spending Money. The book has so many wonderful tips and ideas on growing things for less and making a garden thrive on a limited budget that I couldn’t include them all in one blog post even if copyright laws allowed, so i’ll just share a few of my favorites here and encourage you to go read the book.

The book discusses a number of techniques for not just saving money during the gardening process, but avoiding spending in certain areas altogether.  Some of my favorite not-spending tips are:

• Some plants grow well from cuttings– you can just cut some of the plant off and stick it in the dirt. If properly tended, they’ll just grow roots and become a new plant. There are lists in the book of which plants do well with this method and how to care for them.
• You can grow plants from seed for your garden, and collect the seed for free from a number of places — your own garden, a friend’s garden, or even an amicable place of business if they have flowers for ambiance (as long as you ask permission to take the seeds!) Instructions on raising plants from seed are in the book.
• You can build good soil without expensive chemicals by making a compost pile and using the compost in your garden.  Good sources of compost ingredients are your kitchen scraps, waste from tree removal services, or a nearby stable.   There are additional tips on building a good compost pile.
• You can fight garden pets and diseases using existing household supplies, mulching properly, or even wise planting combinations.
• Dried herbs from your garden can make terrific presents, especially to your friends who like to cook!

For those times when spending money is a necessity, the book talks about making sure your dollar goes a long way and you get the most for your buck.  Some tips on good spending are:

• Buying better-quality tools means that they will work better, save time, and last longer than cheaper varieties.  Keeping them well-maintained is important, too. These guidelines will save you money in the long run. There are tips on what to look for when buying yard tools.
• Buying the healthiest plants you can will save you money on replacement costs and will yield more plants because they’ll grow faster.  The book talks about what to look for in healthy plants.
• By stretching the growing season, you can make the most of your money by growing more plants. You learn when the last frost is in your area and start plants indoors accordingly so they’ll be ready to grow when the weather is warm.  You can also cover your plants with plastic or blankets if you need to keep in extra heat.
• Installing a drip system will enable you to water your plants deeply over time.  Not only will this save hundreds on your water bill, but it’s better for the plants because it encourages them to grow deep roots and also ensues they are not neglected.

The aspect of the book that I like the most is its core mindset that frugality is about removing barriers to what you want to do, not installing them.  It’s not about taking shortcuts for a cheap effect or learning to deprive oneself because of budget restraints. Frugality is about opening doors, not closing them, whether it is in the garden or elsewhere in life.

I would like to point out that I have no affiliation with the author or publisher whatsoever; I just found this book in the library and think it’s absolutely terrific.  It had so many good tips and ideas that I just had to share it with all of you. If you are a gardener, see if your library has this book and see if you find it as inspirational and helpful as it is to me. Or if you have read it already, let me know how you’ve implemented these tips and ideas in your own garden!

The Perfect Guest Room?

Overnight guests come to the smallest of homes, and I know I have a real desire to make them feel welcome and have their guest experience really be enjoyable.

In my perfect world, this would involve:

• A perfect, pretty little guest bedroom set up just for them
• Clean and fluffy blankets, towels, and pillows in their closet (in addition to the ones in the bath and bed) so they can use as many as they like
• A cleared closet with a luggage rack and hangers for their personal belongings should they need it
• Fresh flowers in their room
• Their own bathroom, fully stocked with all neccessities
• Having a full complement of extra toiletries available for anything they’ve forgotten
• Taking time off work during their visit
• Stocking the room with a magazine or two that they like
• Being able to take them to see the local sights during their visit
• Take them out to dinner while they’re here

Each and every one of the above points can become really expensive, and sometimes beyond the reach of us mere mortals to provide, so I want to identify the root things going on here instead of just addressing the symptoms. Why is this important to me?

Ultimately, it’s not the separate bath, full guest suite, and dinners out that are important, but the desire to communicate that they are expected, wanted, and well-cared for in my home. This is perhaps the most important realization, because there are plenty of ways to provide those feelings and experiences in my home without the items on my expensive guest-needs list above.

Have you considered alternatives to a guest room?

If you live in a smaller home, as I do, it might not be possible to provide a separate guest room. There may be ways to get around this– have you considered asking members of the family to share to provide their rooms? Have you offered your own room, and set up a bed elsewhere in the house for yourself? If this isn’t reasonable, then where will the guest be sleeping? Let’s say you have a sleeper couch, day bed, air mattress, or futon that you are planning on setting up for your guest once evening falls. These can be quite comfortable options, but a little extra planning can help the guest feel as special as though they had their own suite.

The Importance of the Guest Space

Even if you don’t have a guest suite, having a designated “guest space” can be a very strong way of expressing welcome to a guest.  One benefit of a guest suite is privacy, so think about ways you can provide privacy for your guests while they are around. Is there a niche in the house somewhere that you can place your extra bed that will offer a little more privacy? For example, can that air mattress be set up in a little-used dining room, and the table and chairs moved out/aside for the duration of their visit? Is it a bed that can be left up during their entire stay, so they have a place to rest during the day or leave their stuff when you go out? Do you have a folding screen that you can place to provide them with a little extra privacy? Even just re-arranging some living room furniture can introduce a nook in a public space that guests can feel is a little separate from “everyone else’s” space.

People need a place to put their things during their stay. Regardless of where you find it, there needs to be some “guest space” that they can claim. If this space is in the middle of the living room, plan a place where they can put their luggage out of the flow of traffic. Maybe it is under a nearby table. Even providing a nearby chair “just for them” will allow them to drape their belongings over it during their stay. People can be very territorial, and one of the displacing things about being a guest is not having “one’s own space.”

Setting up the space for them lets them know that you are excited to have them around and provides a more polished experience.  Ideally, a guest bed will be set up in this space upon their arrival, so when they see it, they’ll know that you’ve gone to the effort to prepare.  However, in some cases this isn’t possible, such as when you need the main couch to make a bed.   In these cases, it can be welcoming, if not slightly magical, for a guest to suddenly come in after a walk or a shower and see that their bed is all made up for them where none was before.  The main thing here is that they will feel like they have a space all just for them, even if you cannot afford a whole guest suite and are inviting them to sleep in your living room.

Tips for your Guest Space

• Whether they are sleeping on the couch, futon, rollaway, air mattress, or
  

  Hotels can make sofa beds look welcoming.

  couch cushions, make the bed up nicely with pretty sheets and matching blankets to the best of your ability.  Go to the extra effort to do hospital corners on the sheets, fluff the pillows, and turn the sheets down nicely. Would a throw blanket look welcoming at the foot of the bed? What about the throw pillows from the couch?  Going to the trouble to make it look pretty helps the event feel more deliberate and less thrown together.

• Have plenty of blankets and pillows on hand, just in case. Having some nearby, in a closet or folded neatly on a chair,  means that the guest won’t have to ask if they get cold in the night.
• Pick out some books they might enjoy for bedtime reading and furnish the guest space with them. If you don’t have any they might enjoy, a trip to the library for a popular novel might not be a bad idea.
• If the bed is on the floor, find a way to provide some nightstand space for them.  Some guests like a place off the floor for their water, glasses, jewelry, etc.  If there’s no table nearby, maybe you can pull in an occasional table from another room, or use a low trunk or bench.
• Arrange the table lamps so that they are convenient for bedside lamps. Ideally, the guest would be able to turn it off without getting out of bed.

Even this couch-cushion bed on the floor looks inviting when prepared well.

The Rest of the House

Of course, hosting overnight guests goes beyond preparing a place for them to sleep, although that’s the main difference between overnight and regular guests.  There are other things that don’t cost any money that you can do throughout the rest of the house to help them feel at home.

• Clean your home as much as you have time for before their arrival.
• Make sure the bath they’ll be using is comfortable.  Do you have a fresh set of towels laid out for them?  If the bath they are using is also the powder room used by others during the day, do you have a separate towel available for drying hands, or are people expected to use your guests’ towels? (Please, have a separate one.) Do you have a candle you could place in there? Have you made sure all the surfaces are clean, especially the mirror? As a finishing touch, you could fold the toilet paper into a little point like they do in swanky hotels. This is pointless but a fun way to send a message that you care.
• Have food on hand that you know they like, and let them know that they can help themselves.  Even if you have regular meals planned, having a few munchies available takes pressure off you as host and lets everyone be more patient and more flexible with timing of meals and events.

Activities

If in your ideal world you take them to an expensive restaurant or a night out on the town in your home city, and your budget prevents you from fulfilling that, there are a lot of other ways to reach out, provide activities, and share your home and life with them that don’t cost money.

• You might have a favorite park where you can go and place a blanket in the shade and play frisbee.
• You might have some favorite walking routes that you can share with your guests.
• What do you do in the evenings? If you like board games, do they? If you have a movie you think they’d like, can you check it out of the library? If you garden, would they enjoy helping? Is there a recipe you could enjoy trying together? Sometimes just doing what you do normally is perfectly fine for guests as well.
• Do you have a favorite bookstore you want to show them? A favorite coffee shop? A favorite street of shops?  Are there any local festivals that weekend?

And ultimately, if you haven’t seen your guests in a while, you’ll probably enjoy sitting around and catching up just as much as any other activity.  And if they are close to you, they’ll probably just enjoy sharing in your life, regardless of what it is.  If they’re coming to visit you and not your city, it almost doesn’t matter what you have planned! Having a few ideas on hand is nice and can help them feel like you are excited for them to be there, but good friends don’t expect you to be the Ritz and will enjoy whatever you have to offer.

Uncle Sam says... You really should join the Army.

Has a similar scenario ever happened to you?

Uncle Sam says... You really should join the Army.

Has a similar scenario ever happened to you?

You go into the hair cutting place and are prepared to pay the few dollars it takes to get a haircut. “You know,” says the stylist while he has you captive under the shampoo, “You really should use a product that isn’t full of wax and doesn’t strip your hair.” He (or she) then proceeds to tell you why your 99 cent a bottle shampoo-plus-conditioner from Wal-Mart really is of the devil, and why your PARTICULAR hair type really needs this kind of treatment, which is really the only responsible product for your hair. You should also buy a different type of hair dryer and brushes, because it’s really just basic hygiene, and by the way, they just happen to sell it all in their salon.

Or maybe you go to a pet store, and casually mention that you want a bowl, food, and leash for the dog you inherited from your neighbors when they moved to Florida without poor Fifi.  ”Yes,” says their resident pet specialist, “but you really should consider getting a small cage as well, if you are new to dog ownership. And that cheap dog food is really terrible for their health– you really should get them something with proper nutrition. And you really should consider basic grooming needs, like a brush and clippers, as well as thinking about these books for first-time dog owners to help you adjust to the new member of your family. And if you really want to get their attention while training, you should consider some of these special treats as well.”

You really should have an extra mini-tube of toothpaste for when out-of-town guests come stay; so many forget and get their large tubes confiscated at airport security.

You really should get athletic shoes that are properly fitted in a boutique store instead of just grabbing whatever’s on sale at your favorite shoe warehouse store. It will give you proper posture and help you avoid injury.

You really should replace all your incandescent bulbs with the compact flourescent ones, or even the LCD variety. It will save you money in the long run and it’s better for the environment.

You really should build your house with the higher-grade windows. They will keep down your energy costs over time.

You should buy American.

You should eat organic.

You should buy a bike.

You really should… you really should.

The thing is, so many of these things could actually be right.  Doesn’t the doctor know more about health than I do? Doesn’t my contractor know more about building a house and selecting materials than I do? Doesn’t the vet know more about my dog, even if it DOES seem a little silly to me to get the shoulder-height bowl instead of the basic aluminum one, to give him better posture?

I’m not talking about neccessities, like groceries and health insurance and rent. I’m talking about all the experts that are out there that recommend exactly how to take care of one particular area of your life– and often recommending spending much more than you originally intended. If we added up every single little thing that we “really should” do as recommended by professionals, we probably couldn’t afford it, no matter what one’s income bracket. Should I buy the complete makeup line that suits my skintone and covers me from morning till night? Should I get that pillow that gives me better posture in my sleep, letting me rest better at night so I can work better in the day? Should I really spend as much on a wedding present as it cost the bride and groom spend to host me as their guest? Should I? Should I eat green eggs and ham? Yes, I should, Sam-I-Am!

I don’t know if you’ve caught on yet, but real life doesn’t always let us do all the things we “should” do with our money. Sometimes, it’s because we’re doing things we “shouldn’t” do. You shouldn’t smoke. You shouldn’t buy that dress when you have two more like it at home. You shouldn’t buy that piece of furniture that really doesn’t fit in your house. But sometimes we need our “shouldn’ts” too, and even if we cut them all out, there still wouldn’t be enough money to cover all the “shoulds”. Ultimately, we have to sort out what’s important to us… and what isn’t.

So what should we do?

First of all, we have to use our brains here. No Spending Fairy is going to come in with some sort of magic equation that solves our spending quandaries. (”You should listen to your doctor, but not your real estate agent! You should not buy clothes, except on your birthday! Presto, problem solved!” *spending fairy disappears in puff of smoke*) If you CAN afford to take the advice of every salesman that comes your way, by all means, go right ahead. But if you can’t, then listen to their expertise, and then go do your own research and make your own decisions. Do you really need the warranty on the camera like the girl suggested? Do you really need the entire set of knives that the guy was saying you should get? Or do you just need the camera, and the knife? Do you really want to skimp out on your work wardrobe when you’re up for promotion? Should you really get the book recommended by Oprah that they don’t have in the library? Does your kid really need the materials her teacher suggested? Or can she get by with last years’ supplies?

Everybody else is right, of course. After all, they’re the experts.

But maybe you’re an expert, too, at deciding whose words and suggestions are most important in your life and your spending, and which are not.

You should think about that.

Good question, Richard Scarry.

I have friends who are doing a lot of different things with their lives. Among my closest friends are engineers, programmers, schoolteachers, bellydancers, artists, linguists, mothers, published authors, a geophysicist, a missionary, a medical physicist, an Olympic hopeful, and more.

Widen the circle out more (to acquaintances and friends of friends) and it includes doctors, business owners, scientists who study oncology, Lyme disease or AIDS, lawyers who help people become citizens, Olympic rowers, a Nobel Prize winner, actors, musicians, bankers, artistic directors, video game designers/academics, entrepreneurs, CEOs of international companies, masseuses, martial arts masters, cancer survivors, inventors, contractors, truck drivers, animators, nurses, a puppeteer, and more.

And the list goes on.

What all of these people have in common is that they are all successful, but in completely different ways. One person can be inspiring, but sometimes it’s easy to lose that inspiration because that one person made decisions we wouldn’t feel comfortable making or have capitalized on talents or resources we might not neccessarily have.  But looking at a whole lineup of inspiration, I see that each and every one of these people have taken a very different path in life, each capitalizing on different talents and resources, each making different steps. And some of them line up more with my interests, and some have been given similar resources.

How do you get there from here?

All of these types of success require education, but education as in “learning”, not neccessarily education as in “school”. For example, I don’t know how to drive an 18-wheeler, but the fact that someone else does keeps our entire economy on its feet. And the one I know didn’t used to know how to drive one, either; he went and learned and got a licence so he could get a new job in a new state to support his new wife. And learning a new language isn’t easy, but there are lots of materials on the Internet for beginners before you even pay for a class.

Tuition isn’t free. But initiative is.

And sometimes, initiative is what it takes the most of to go off on a new vein, change the way we approach success, make a change in career or take a specialized knowledge to the next level.  A recent blog post by acclaimed web analyst Avinash Kaushik talks about how sometimes the most important changes in our career paths are not what happens on the job but what happens on our own time and the initiative we take with our own learning.  ( Web Analytics Career Advice: Play In The Real World!)  Even though he’s talking specifically about web analytics (examining user behavior on your website to make more money for the company), his advice is really applicable to everyone, regardless of interest or specialty or desired area of growth– Don’t be limited by what other people have taught you. The limitless kind of education is what you teach yourself.

A similar message is the core of The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to Quit School and Get A Real Life and Education by Grace Llewellyn. Written to advocate “unschooling”, it is full of ideas that can be practiced by people of any age to expand their knowledge in any direction. Whether you agree with her principles on schooling youngsters or not, the message is the same — Education and learning are everywhere, and it’s available for those who have the initiative to find it, not limited to those who can afford tuition.

Maybe you don’t want a new career. Maybe you just want a new hobby, but don’t have the money for pottery class or a whole set of supplies.  Maybe you want to learn more about your existing job but your company won’t pay to send you to that conference or enroll you in training. Maybe you’re just bored…

Just don’t use lack of money as an excuse.

Here are some ideas to get started:

Do you think this guy went to juggling school?

If you want to know more about music…

• Browse the Internet for free sheet music. Or tabs for your instrument of choice. Watch YouTube videos of people playing instruments. Slow it down if you want. Play it frame by frame to learn the fingering. Join forums so you can learn from other enthusiasts. Or find other enthusiasts in your area.  Sure, take a class or lessons if you want. But if it’s not an option, find things that are.  Don’t have an instrument to play? Well, do you have one available that is less interesting to you but will teach you the basics of music anyway?  What about your voice?  There are a lot of resources online about learning to use your voice before you decide to sign up for lessons.  And with anything you choose to learn about, the ability for you to contribute back what you’ve learned (and accept feedback) is huge. Join a local band. Start your own YouTube channel. Keep a blog of your progress as you learn more and invite your friends to give feedback. Once you’ve mastered a small step (like learning a scale in a different key), make an easy tutorial and make it available online, or volunteer at a local elementary school or library to teach what you’ve learned to youngsters.

If you want to know more about computers…

• This is probably the biggest area of knowledge available online.  Computer-related knowledge is available everywhere– people discussing new languages, people writing introductions to existing ones, documentation for APIs, entry-level tutorials on how to use Photoshop or other programs, extensive Help files for all the Microsoft products that might have come on your computer; it’s a little overwhelming. Start by giving yourself easy projects; if you don’t know enough yet to know what questions to ask, look at the questions that other people are asking online about your subject.  Sometimes libraries and community centers have free classes in basic computer literacy skills. Or if you want something more complex, of course you could sign up for a class,but most of the programmers I know have learned all their best skills on their own time, and some have never been to college at all but have an immense ammount of computer knowledge.  Since this area of knowledge is so vast, you’ll have to just dig in yourself and see what’s available in your interest range. I guarantee you it is out there.

If you want to hone your business skills in your own industry…

• Try Toastmasters if you want to learn to be a better speaker, which will serve well in almost any profession.  Or if you’re not interested in paying their dues, look at their free resources.  Research your own profession online and see what skills will take you farther than you are now.  Figure out what software you need to learn, what new models are coming out, what the trends in your industry are.  Read opinion blogs on your line of work. Figure out who the movers and shakers are in your industry. If you want, try to contact them. Many industry leaders keep blogs on which you can comment or send emails. Even if you don’t get a response, going through the process of articulating your question and presenting it professionally is good practice.  And sometimes you will get a response– I knew someone in high school who had written letters to his favorite sports heros and public figures all his life, and by the time he was 17 had collected enough responses to write a book, which then was published. Check books out of the library. Check your professional demeanor in the mirror. Have talks with your boss, your co-workers, mentors, other people who have achieved success.

These are just some ideas for starters. You probably have your own ideas– feel free to share.  Write your own lists of inspirational success stories of the people you know and how they got there. Or jot down the things YOU want to learn. So you want to take a class? Why? If tuition isn’t an option, why should that stop you from increasing your knowledge anyway?

Just don’t let your finances keep you from taking the initiative to educate yourself.

Images courtesy of Fada Moranga, Chics Thoughts and Blogs.

Colonel Mustard, in the Library, with the Candlestick!

We used to call them “bored games” because so many of them were only interesting if you were really bored. Why sit around a piece of cardboard and roll some dice if you could be playing pirates in the treehouse? Because seriously, pirates and treehouses are way cool. But that was a different era, back when I was truly beginning to understand that your chances of winning Candy Land or Chutes and Ladders against your stuffed animals were equally as good as your chances of winning against your friends. And sometimes, equally compelling. Grizzly and Hoot were fierce competition.

The thing is, board games for adults are SO much better than the colorful fare we grew out of years ago.  For one thing, they rely on things besides chance, things like creativity, strategy, verbal accuity, or ability to second-guess the other players.  Board games give people a common topic and a focal point for an evening, provide an excuse to get together, and can help trigger conversation with people that you’re getting to know better.   The whole point, really, is to have an activity for people to enjoy together besides talking and eating, which are good so far as they go, but sometimes it’s fun to liven things up. For a variety of reasons, such as the sluggish economy, boredom of the pickup scene, or a rise in geek culture, board games have been picking up steam recently as entertainment for gathering adults as well as families.

In Chicago, a number of bars around the city have started supplying board games or hosting board game nights, as this article, Bars with Board Games, describes.  It’s an older article (yay for Internet archives) and there are similar activities going on in lots of cities. In Washington, DC, there is a new dating club opening up that centers specifically around playing board games to get to know each other, as described in this recent article Find Love over Board Games at Play Date DC.  In Philadelphia, the ancient game of Go is enjoying a revival.  Even if you can’t find anything in your area, you could always start your own event or gathering using tips in the article How to Start a Board Game Club.

Some games to start out with:

Taboo is good for people who can read each others' minds.

Taboo

The point of this game is to get other people to guess a word without saying certain “taboo” words. I like this game because I’m good at blurting things and I think fast. Plus, there is a big loud buzzer you can push if someone says the wrong thing. For some reason, not all of my friends like it as much as I do. It’s best played with people of similar aggressiveness, or people who will know a lot of the same references as each other.

Cranium is a silly game that is very accessible for mixed groups.

Cranium

This game probably was invented because families have a hard time deciding what to play. So someone must have taken Pictionary, Trivial Pursuit, Charades, and some word games and said “I know, let’s mush them all into the same game!” And hilarity ensues. I’ve found that the challenges in Cranium are much easier than many of the aforementioned games– impersonations can include sound, items to draw are mostly objects, and the trivia questions are about major events and not obscure authors from minor literary movements. It’s a silly game with a relatively low entry threshold, making it a good one for mixes of people with varied interests or age levels.

Settlers of Catan is an engaging game of resource management.

Settlers of Catan

This is probably one of the favorite board games among the young adults I know, and is too complex for younger kids. Each person has to builds roads and settlements on an map made from hexagonal tiles that changes every game. Each tile represents a different type of natural resource; as you build, you harvest more and more resources, so you can build, which uses up resources.  It’s a strategy game that involves keeping track of several variables at once, and sometimes it’s not obvious who will win until the last moment of the game.   There is even a Seafarers version which has the additional strategy option of oceans, islands, and shipping lines to contend with.

Game of Thrones is ridiculously lengthy and complex but worth it.

Game of Thrones

Like a super complex mix between the aforementioned Settlers of Catan and the time-honored classic Risk, Game of Thrones involves several factions simultaneously protecting their own lands, harvesting and husbanding resources, growing armies, while taking over the world and also angling for the throne. Apparently that’s the plot of the popular George R.R. Martin fantasy series by the same name, which I have not read and still thoroughly enjoyed the game.  It takes a ridiculously long time to set up and read the rules, especially for first-time players, so it’s best played with people who will enjoy keeping up with the convoluted structure of the game. That being said, it does take the best aspects of the aforementioned classics and is a lot of fun.

Stocks and Bonds is a combination of strategy and chance, planning and intuition.

Stocks and Bonds

In this game, you are a Wall Street investor and have a wide variety of stocks and bonds to choose from. Each turn, a combination of cards and dice will determine whether the various investments will go up or down.  At the end of ten “years”, each of which you’ll have the opportunity to buy or sell, the investor with the most money wins.  The game is fun because everyone has an exact equal chance; there is a lot of chance involved with what the “market” does, but overall, one’s choices in strategy will be more influential in one’s success at the end.  The one drawback to this game is that if you play often, you will get to know the behavior of individual stocks and will most likely beat any newcomers who just read their profiles.

Chess is a fun game that encourages communication

Chess

Yes, I have to include this, as a representation of ALL the classic and ancient games that you probably already have in some form in your own house or among your group of friends.  The rules are free on the Internet, and if you don’t have a set you could easily make your own out of paper. Chess isn’t nearly as complicated as it seemed when we were kids– sometimes the secret is playing with others at your ability level as it is discouraging to always play with super good players who always beat us. Or if you are around good players, use it as an opportunity to learn the game, it will spark good conversation and give an opportunity for a friend to share their knowlege, which is a good friendship builder.

And no, I will NOT provide the links to buy them.  Games are expensive– buying one and playing it regularly will certainly save on entertainment costs when compared to going out, but buying several on the off-chance that you’ll enjoy them will just clutter up your house and empty your pocketbook.  Go borrow them from your neighbors or  invite your friends over who have the games.  Ask around the office if people play any board games, and which ones they prefer. Maybe they’ll loan one to you.

Any other board games that you particularly enjoy? Share!

A website that I like to read on a semi-regular basis is Snopes.com, where the author investigates the veracity of Internet rumors.  Many of these rumors involve fraudulent job offers, which desperate job seekers will shell out money for, only to be scammed.

Craigslist and other classifieds sites abound with deals that are scammy.  A common ruse is a potential roommate sends you the first month’s check in the mail, except that it’s written for over the designated amount.  ”Sorry,” she says. “Can you just keep a few hundred for your efforts and then send the remainder back to me?” So you dutifully go down to the bank, send her the money, and await her arrival only to realize that her original (probably foreign) check or money order never cleared.

The internet is full of “opportunities” that can be yours if you only send in your payment of 59.95 as a “processing fee”.

I write about not spending money. Obviously there are times when spending money is neccessary; that’s why we earn it. But it occurred to me that using “not spending money” as a guide when dealing with Internet deals can be a handy tool to sniff out or avoid scams.  Everybody wants your money. Chances are, if people are asking for it and not giving anything in return (yet) or seemingly will give too much in return, you might want to think twice.

• Are they asking for money for something you can get or do for free elsewhere?
• Are they asking for money for a phenomenal sum or something of phenomenal value that you’ll get later?
• Are they asking for money for something that you can’t see, can’t verify by references, and can’t ask for more information about without paying them money?
• Are they offering you some kind of job arrangement but asking for money first?
• Are they asking for money for something that under normal circumstances they would be paying YOU? (i.e. job offers, roommate arrangements, large inheritances from relatives you’ve never heard of)

Interesting questions. Experienced netizens are familiar with all of these, yet the scams abound. So for all you not-spending-money-ers, you can use your frugality as one more tool in your belt to build a good defense against scammers.