"Was this a need? Or was it a want?"

In an excellent Wall Street Journal piece, Andrea Coombes talks about the dangers of credit cards.

The U.S. economy is in the toilet, and inflation is back with a vengeance, so it's no surprise that credit card debt rose 7% in May. But some of it is self-inflicted.

Says Coombes:

In an HSBC Direct survey conducted last month, 42% of 1,084 consumers said they had splurged on themselves in the past month, and 28% of those said they did so "because I deserve it." When I catch myself "deserving" something, I try to remember to ask myself: Do I really need this?"

One exercise to use, says Nathan Dungan, president of Share Save Spend, a Minneapolis-based firm providing values-based money education, "is when your credit-card bill comes in, go through it line by line, answering...was this a need or was it a want?"

She has eight tips for avoiding too much credit card debt. I will not repeat them here, because I've provided a link.

But no amount of tips and advice will help you if you have the wrong idea about what constitutes your "deserving" something.

Remember the TV commercial (I think it was for hair dye) that ends with "I'm worth it"? I'm going to put my Dr. Phil hat on for a few minutes and disabuse you of any notion that the way to prove you're worth it, that you're deserving, is to spend, spend, spend.

What better way to show that you're worth it than to have enough savings so that if your boss mistreats you, you can afford to quit? What better way to show that you're worth it than to grow your investment portfolio (as opposed to your closet)? Twenty designer purses or a roomful of electronic gadgets that you don't need do not make you a winner. It just makes you look like someone who is extremely foolish about money.

If you want to really prove that you're worth it, nothing speaks louder than money saved.

You can get that for free at a public library?

OK, multiple choice question.

Which of the following can you get for free at a typical U.S. public library?

1. A. DVDs
2. B. CDs
3. C. Audiobooks
4. D. Books, DVDs, CDs and audiobooks that are not owned by your local library.
5. E. All of the above

If you answered "5," all of the above, you're right.

Everybody knows libraries have books. But did you know that you can virtually eliminate your spending on movies and music at the public library?

In my local library, I can choose DVDs (and, yes, you can get new releases there) and put them on hold if they're not available. When the movie arrives at my local branch, they send me an e-mail and I pick it up.

The same goes for music.

What about 5, "Books, DVDs, CDs and audiobooks that are not owned by your local library"?

If your local branch library doesn't own the book, DVD, CD or audiobook you want, you can put in an Inter-library loan request. Same drill. They e-mail you once the item you requested has arrived. The cost is about $3, a pittance compared with what you would have had to pay if you bought it.

Wait, it gets better. There are many other free resources at your library.

• Author events: You can meet writers and ask questions. For example, Cake Love owner Warren Brown's book tour included a stop at the Shirlington (Arlington, Virginia) library for his book, CakeLove: How to Bake Cakes from Scratch.
• Free screenings: Not long ago, we were at a free screening of The Golden Venture, with a Q&A afterward with filmmaker Peter Cohn. An upcoming event at the Shirlington Library is a screening of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.
  
• Live performances: The Arlington Philharmonic will perform an all-Mozart concert at the Arlington Central Library on August 2 and August 3, 2008. There are many such free performances, sometimes linked to an ethnic/cultural festival, like the Lunar New Year.
  
• Book group: Be part of a discussion on various books. For example, the July 28, 2008, Monday evening discussion is about Eat, Pray, Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert.
  

And don't forget e-books, e-audiobooks and e-journals, courtesy of NetLibrary. You can join for free.

At my local library, you can also find free online lessons in 12 languages via Mango Languages.

• Spanish
• French
• Italian
• Brazilian Portuguese
• German
• Russian
• Japanese
• Mandarin Chinese
• Greek
• English for Spanish Speakers
• English for Portuguese Speakers
• English for Polish Speakers

Every U.S. public library system is different, but chances are they have a combination of resources, both traditional and multimedia.

Best of all, it's free. And you don't have to clutter up your house or muck up the environment in any way. The Green Tightwad approves.

Can you afford that? A new way of thinking

"The people who judge you based on the cost of your cars and clothes and purses, you don't want to have for friends anyway."

Mrs. Green Tightwad

A New York Times series called The Debt Trap details practices that have produced record profits for lenders but have pushed Americans to financial ruin. The Green Tightwad is convinced that the fundamental trouble lies in a couple of things:

• We have forgotten how to live within our means
• And, more importantly, we don't really know whether we can afford something or not

Earlier generations know how to live within their means. Forbes profiled the average American's financial picture.

Personal Savings Rate

1965	8.5%
1975	10.5%
1985	11%
1995	5%
2005	0.4%
	Source: Commerce Dept.

The thing that has brought me to my second point is the video in The Debt Trap of Diane McLeod, 47.

She made $48,000 in 2007 before taxes. In one part of the video, she holds up a purse that she subsequently had to sell on eBay to pay her bills. McLeod paid $69 for it, which she thought at the time was a good deal. She sold it for $30.

Now my wife, who is even more of a tightwad than I, has never bought a $69 purse. She pays maybe 1/3 of that, and her closet only has half a dozen purses -- total. She considers it a waste of her money even though she could easily afford any purse she wants. (On the other hand, she is inordinately proud of her investment portfolio.)

My wife suggested to me that it is time that I, the Green Tightwad, reminded people of what they truly can or can not afford.

There are two ways of thinking about the cost of things. One is the pure cost of things. For example, a car may cost $20,000.

No problem, you say, it's a cheap car, and I can easily afford it on my salary. But if you compare the cost of things to your net worth, a different picture could emerge.

In 2000, the median household net worth (total of assets minus liabilities) was $79,400 for households with a non-Hispanic white householder. If your net worth is $79,000, the $20,000 car represents a whopping 25% of your total household wealth. In short, you can't afford it.

The woman in the New York Times article was evidently comparing the $69 cost of the purse to her $48,000 before-tax income. On this basis, she concluded that she could afford it. But the woman was also deeply in debt, which meant that she had a negative net worth because her liabilities were more than her assets.

When looked at it this way, she couldn't afford it.

The Green Tightwad humbly suggests that the next time you have an urge to buy something -- especially something you can live without -- you should calculate the price of the thing versus your net worth. The answer might surprise you.

Not all green goods are worth the added green

Sometimes, it's not easy being green. It can be expensive.

Kelli B. Grant of SmartMoney has come up with five green goods that are not worth the additional money.

1. OLED TVs

Too expensive. Not worth the lower electric bill.

2. Groceries

Especially "organic" seafood. There is no such thing.

3. Carbon Offsets

"You could be paying for something that would have been done anyway," says Brian Clark Howard, eco-tips editor for TheDailyGreen.com.

4. Wine and Spirits

Fermentation, distillation and filtering — intrinsic parts of wine and spirit production — eliminate any pesticides anyway.

5. Green Building

Solar panels for your roof or a geothermal heating system can easily set you back tens of thousands of dollars. It will take you at least a decade to recoup the cost.

Gas-savings hooey

Three words about "gas-saving additives": They don't work.

If a company claims it has an endorsement from the government, that's a big, fat lie. The EPA has issued reports based on its testing and evaluation of some products. There's a set of links to those reports at http://www.epa.gov/oms/consumer/reports.htm. By the way, if a company claims that its product has been evaluated by the EPA, ask for a copy of the report.

That's according to Michelle Singletary, in her latest "The Color of Money" column.

One good thing, though, is $4-plus gas could lead to fewer deaths, say the authors of a new study.

"For every 10 percent rise in gas prices, fatalities are reduced by 2.3 percent. The effects are even more dramatic for teen drivers."

Cheap eats (and good for you, too!)

A list of The 11 Best Foods You Aren't Eating appeared in The New York Times on June 30, 2008. The Green Tightwad became very excited when he read the list.

The foods are beets, cabbage, Swiss chard, cinnamon, pomegranate juice, dried plums, pumpkin seeds, sardines, turmeric, frozen blueberries, canned pumpkin.

The article explains why each of these foods are good and gives simple ways of preparing them. But best of all, many of them are not only nutritious but also cheap. Beets, cabbage, Swiss chard, sardines and canned pumpkin are supermarket bargains. These inexpensive and nutritious foods inspired me to expand on the list.

Along with Swiss chard, kale and collard greens are excellent inexpensive green veggies that should be on everybody's table. Pasta with kale (or Swiss chard or collard greens) is a great way to eat these green leafy vegetables. Google pasta and kale recipes for a boatload of good recipes.

If you're up for a culinary adventure, find an Asian market and head for the cabbages. They have a whole lot of them. Don't be intimidated by the fact that these are "Asian" vegetables. Cook them any way you like. I saute them in a little garlic and olive oil.

All frozen fruits (not just blueberries) are excellent for making smoothies and other things. Pomegranate juice, is expensive, but you can get the antioxidant benefits by drinking small amounts or including it in a smoothie. Along with sardines, canned salmon and kippered herring are also good and reasonably priced.

For maximum nutritional benefits, eat a variety of fruits and vegetables, and buy what's in season for the best values.