Being cheap is cool again

The era of conspicuous consumption is over.

According to today's article A Race to Keep Up With the Tightwads, in The Washington Post, "people ... are no longer concerned about keeping up with the Joneses. Now the goal is to fall far behind them."

According to a recent telephone survey of 1,000 people ... about 80 percent of those surveyed said they are more conscious of spending now than at the beginning of the year. A Gallup poll in April showed 59 percent of Americans enjoy saving money, compared with 48 percent in April 2001. The percentage of people who said they enjoyed spending money dropped to 37 percent in April from 45 percent in 1991.

What are they doing to save money?

• Making pizza instead of ordering it delivered. It's very easy to make pizza crust. When my wife first taught me how to make pizza crust, I was flabbergasted at how easy it was. Here's a link to two easy recipes, including one without yeast for those of you who are afraid of yeast.
  
  
• Clip coupons from popular websites such as The Coupon Clippers.
  
  
• Buy something only if you really need it -- and if it's on sale.

In today's Small Change column, Nancy Trejos gives four websites for auctioning items or scoring bargains:

Overstock.com
Sam’s Club Auctions
Shopgoodwill.com
Ubid.com

I looked at Ubid.com, which is good for electronics, and I will keep it in mind when I am in the market for a new phone.

The best entertainment is free

Open Source Music: The Green Tightwad has recently discovered musopen.com, a resource of music recordings and sheet music, all of it in the public domain.

Its motto is "free access to music anywhere in the world."

I happened to hear a Brahms recording on WETA (the classical music station in DC) that I wasn't familiar with, and my wife and I liked it so we waited until the end for the announcer to identify the music. It turned out to be Brahms' Double Concerto in A Minor, Opus 102. Lo and behold, it's also on musopen. You don't have to pay for a music download. The version on musopen is played by the Skidmore College Orchestra. (In 2006, Newsweek/Kaplan identified Skidmore as a 'New Ivy,' an elite school providing an excellent education outside of the Ivy League, according to musopen.)

I have embedded the Brahms double concerto on my blog, just to give you a sample.





So the next time you need music for, say, your wedding, check if it's on musopen. Musopen has done some terrific things. According to Arstechtnica, musopen "has recently rolled out a new version of its web site, added freely-downloadable sheet music, and raised enough cash to professionally record the entire set of 32 Beethoven piano sonatas and place them in the public domain." Three cheers for Aaron Dunn, who started the site when he was in college. Donations, of course, are welcome.

Videos from PBS are now online: The Public television Service today launched its new video portal that allows online viewers to stream an array of its best-known shows over the Web. Pretty much the entire universe of PBS is now available online! You can watch programs in their entirety, just like Ian McKellen in King Lear, which was just broadcast some weeks ago.

These are just some of the shows available just one click away:

• American Masters
• Antiques Roadshow
• FRONTLINE
• Great Performances
• Masterpiece Theater
• NOVA

Small change, big savings

This "Small Change" column in the Washington Post by Ylan Mui and Nancy Trejos, is chock full of good ideas. For examples, ever wonder what you can do with the condiment packets when you order Chinese food? Make “Condiment Packets Pulled Pork”:

Take two to three pounds of boneless country style ribs, which you can find on sale at local grocery stores for 99 cents a pound, and place it in a baking dish. Sprinkle the pork on both sides with salt and pepper. Mix two packets of hot mustard sauce with two packets of sweet and sour sauce and massage into both sides of the pork. Mix three packets of soy sauce and two packets of ketchup and pour over the pork. Cover the baking dish with aluminum foil and bake at 275 degrees for 90 minutes. After 90 minutes, remove the foil and turn the pork. Re-cover and bake for another 90 minutes. Shred the pork with a fork and eat it as is or serve it on bread or rolls. You can also serve it with packets of barbeque sauce. It feeds three to four people.

They also clue us in to a website called Feedthemasses.org, a how-to-guide on inexpensive dinners. Their secret: They don't have recipes. They have principles.

• Burn your Cookbooks. Don’t look at a recipe and create a shopping list of items you won’t use again. There’s probably a lot you can do with what you already have in your fridge. Or with what you can get on sale at your local grocery store. “Mario Batali doesn’t know what’s on sale at your grocery store this week,” Christina said.
• Stock Your Kitchen: Keep your basic cooking supplies around: Olive oil, vegetable oil, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, soy sauce, honey, flour, brown sugar, corn starch, baking soda and powder, and yeast. Also have eggs, canned tomatoes, frozen vegetables, garlic, olives, dried fruit, nuts, beans, pasta and rice. You can get a lot of these supplies for much less at ethnic grocery stores. A tiny bottle of curry powder that is $4 at the supermarket is $6.99 a pound at the Indian grocery store. Pick up some pine nuts and chili paste at the Korean market, some chorizo at the Mexican bodega, and some goat from the Pakistani halal butcher.
• Stop wasting perfectly good food. Christina threw a party on Election night 2008. One of the desserts she served was banana bread, which she made with overly ripe bananas she had lying around her kitchen. “Never waste bananas,” Christina told me. Remember, she said, you can freeze food. “Peel, chop, grate, or dice into a convenient form, stick in a bag and toss in the freezer,” Christina wrote on her blog. “Then you’ll have frozen fruit anytime you want a smoothie, sliced peaches for cobbler, apples for pie. When you want to make zucchini fritters later, you’ll have grated zucchini ready to go.”
• Grow and make your own. Save the bones and make your own chicken or beef stock which generally costs $3 for 32 ounces. Christina said she makes a 10-quart pot of stock for less than $3 in ingredients. Even though she lives in a small apartment in D.C., she grows her own herbs outside her windowsill. She also makes her own salad dressings, marinades, hummus and a variety of sauces. “You just have to use a little creativity and imagination,” she said.

An online education -- for free!

Earn degrees for free

An Israeli entrepreneur has created a free online degree-conferring university. Shai Reshef, 55, has founded University of the People (UoP). He says:

"Education, just like democracy, should be a right, not a privilege ... With a few keystrokes, UoP takes the concept of social networking and applies it to academia, providing a global chalkboard for all students."

Operating as a non-profit, UoP offers two degrees: business administration and computer science. Run and taught by volunteers, he will expect those enrolled to pay basic costs - $15 to enroll, and about $15 per exam.

Reshef is currently based in Tel Aviv, but the school is applying for U.S. accreditation, and will operate out of Pasadena, California.

And if you want to study just for the love of learning ...

Check out Open Courseware Consortium. It's composed of colleges and universities worldwide that make their courses available online for free.

U.S. participants include the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the University of Michigan.

Cut back on these, save $1,000/year

"Organic produce" is one of things the author, Kelly B. Grant, wants you to cut?

Yes, because not all organic produce is necessarily worth the money.

Fruits and vegetables like kiwis, sweet corn and broccoli require very little pesticide to grow. Others -- like avocados, onions and pineapples -- have thick or peelable skins that reduce your exposure to harmful chemicals.

So don't buy produce just because it's labeled organic.

Anyway, here's a link to 7 Things You're Wasting Money On:

1. Bottled Water
2. Extended Warranties
3. Gym Memberships
4. Overdraft Fees
5. Organic Produce
6. Auto Insurance
7. Music Downloads

No cash? No problem!

Websites where you can barter your skills (say, plumbing work) for a benefit that normally takes money (say, a vacation) are all over the Internet.

One person in England recently traded several old cellphones for a secondhand motorcycle, while others have traded gardening for babysitting. They are swapping skills from physical therapy to French lessons, to a woman offering services as a "secretary/stripper."

According to this Washington Post article by Kevin Sullivan, some of these websites are:

http://swapaskill.com
http://U-exchange.com
http://swapthing.com
http://swapz.co.uk
http://whatsmineisyours.com
http://homeexchange.com (For home exchanges for those who don't want to pay for a vacation home)

And, of course, there's that old standby, Craigslist.

Going green and off the grid

The New York Times's Adam B. Ellick visits a former college professor who now lives and works on an organic farm that produces its own power and, for the most part, avoids the whims of the wider economy.

Food for thought ...

Here's a link to the NYT video: Going Green and Off the Grid

Ultimate cheapskates now have to spend more ...

I've always been a cheapskate. Now more and more people are elevating it to a high art, says this story from AP.

They're going way beyond sharpening their coupon scissors, replacing already cheap store-brand fabric softener with vinegar and even making their own detergent.

But what jumped out at me is this revelation -- a surprise to others but us cheapskates:

Many cheapskates such as VanDeventer haven't lost their jobs and are not in danger of losing their homes. Many have stashed a good chunk of cash away. (Italics mine.) But the economic uncertainty is catapulting them to new levels of thriftiness.

Now I'm going to break my own rule. If you're financially solid, with a stable income and high-enough net worth, I think now is the time to loosen your purse strings.

Major governments are trying all kinds of ways to stimulate their economies. The U.S., the European Union and China are trying to spend their way out of this recession by investing in infrastructure, etc. When people acquire jobs, they are going to spend, and the economy will begin to recover.

If you have no financial worries, I encourage you to spend more. My wife and I do take-out once in a while. (We love the shawarma sandwich at our local restaurant.) We're now doing it more. We are not shoppers, but if something is worn we don't go out of our way to mend it. We replace it instead. And if we want Parmiagiano-Reggiano cheese for our cooking, we buy it. We don't try to substitute.

So, until the economy recovers, and if you can afford to, spend more.

A "how to" site for newbies

Bookseller Barnes & Noble has launched a new "how-to" site this morning called Quamut, which apparently is Latin for "how to."

Part of the site is about energy conservation:

http://www.quamut.com/quamut/home_energy_efficiency

A cornucopia of smart money tips

Don't know much about money? You can get help -- free help -- online through the OpenCourseWare Consortium. It's -- a group of about 250 universities world-wide, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University of California-Irvine.:

• A Boost in Online Money Courses

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Don't throw old clothes away. Re-use them!

• Green Cleaning: 37 Reuses For Old Clothes
  

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Wall Street Journal's Neal Templin about how to talk yourself out of buying things that you don't need:

• The urge to splurge: Don't worry, it'll pass.
  

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You spend $76 a month on what!?! First, make a list of your must-haves and what you can do without. Says Karen Blumenthal:

The bane of my budget isn't a trip to the mall or dining out, but an insidious creature who takes more than his share when I'm not looking. I call him "Bill Creep."

• In the Fight Against Bill Creep, Every Extra Fee Is the Enemy
  

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yes, you can live mostly in a cash-only world. Funny how it's easy to fight the urge to splurge if you have to pay for it in cash.

Make a plan. Use credit cards to get gas or big-ticket items, but commit to using cash when shopping for everything from food to clothes.

Make a budget before you shop. If the fear is you'll carry too much cash, make multiple trips.

Trash the plastic. But do keep the debit card.

Pay them off. If you keep any credit cards, pay them off in full each month. That's not a new idea, but sticking to that resolve achieves much the same result as using all cash without the drawbacks.

• Yes, You Can Live With Less Plastic

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And finally, I've always maintained that the Internet can help you cut costs.

• Web sites like billshrink.com.
• Hulu.com will let many people save money by canceling some of their cable TV package.
• High-speed wireless Internet, from 3G to new WiMax, should let them save on home Internet connections. (Xohm, the new WiMax service, is priced well below cable- though at this point it has only been launched in Baltimore and rollout to other cities is taking time.)
• Google Talk lets you make video phone calls to family, friends or colleagues around the world for free.
  

More from Brent Arends' Cutting Monthly Bills? Turn to the Web.

The New Frugality

Businessweek has a new article out about the new age of frugality.

People who overconsumed during the past decade are now rejecting extravagant lifestyles. They're spending less, and more wisely. Some are getting their finances in order. Others are fearful of losing their jobs, shocked by investment losses, or hunkering down amid the general uncertainty. ...

Which brings us to what John Maynard Keynes called the paradox of thrift. What's good for the individual, argued the famous economist, can ignite or deepen a recession. But that won't deter the newly thrifty. "I can't help the economy," says Kim Schultz, a resident of hard-hit Avoca, Mich., who with her husband, Jon, owes $40,000 in credit-card debt. "I've got to help myself." On the other hand, this newfound austerity could—emphasis on could—rewire Americans as savers rather than spenders. And that would help put the economy on a sounder footing over the long haul.

Our friend, Lily from Augsburg, Germany, has brought our attention to a phenomenon called Local Exchange Trading Systems. In essence, "LETSystems" are local, non-profit exchange networks in which goods and services can be traded without the need for printed money. It's a barter system.

I know of a few LETSystems that are active in the United States today, but I can't personally vouch for the work that they do. But, I admit, the concept of bartering goods and services intrigues me. One way to do it is through the Internet. According to an article called Consumers Try Bartering To Combat Costs,

A number of online bartering sites––including U-Exchange.com, Barteryourservices.com, and Barter Bucks––are seeing significant growth. Online classified-ad site Craigslist also has seen its monthly "barter" postings across all cities double to 121,173 in April 2008, up from 63,624 in April 2007.

Another way to make sure that you give the things that you don't need anymore a second life is to join the freecycle network. The motto is, "Don't throw it away, give it away." Freecycle is active in the United States and a lot of other countries.

The 20 healthiest foods for under $1

This blog posting identifies the 20 healthiest foods for under $1 as:

1. Oats
2. Eggs
3. Kale
4. Potatoes
5. Apples
6. Nuts
7. Bananas
8. Garbanzo Beans
9. Broccoli
10. Watermelon
11. Wild Rice
12. Beets
13. Butternut Squash
14. Whole Grain Pasta
15. Sardines
16. Spinach
17. Tofu
18. Lowfat Milk
19. Pumpkin Seeds
20. Coffee

I take issue with milk of any kind, although I love the taste of milk. The jury is still out on the safety of the hormones and antibiotics they are adding to milk. And, soy milk, alas, costs twice as much as cow's milk.

And it's not true that wild rice costs the same as white rice. Have you checked the price of wild rice recently? White rice costs way less than $1 per pound, and the last time I checked, people who consumed white rice (such as in China or Japan) weighed less and had lower heart disease and cancer rates than people in the West. That's because they eat white rice with a variety of veggies and fish.

Also, I've been hearing about people buying fresh produce at U.S. dollar stores.

I would add any of the variety of bokchoys in your Asian store, which usually can be bought at less than $1 a pound and pack a nutritional punch. And:

• Garlic
• Onions

Most important of all, avoid soda of any kind. They are expensive empty calories. And learn to cook from scratch. You could make pizza dough for cents if you know how to make use of flour and yeast. Packaged food of any kind is full of mystery ingredients, ingredients that you can't pronounce.

If you can't pronounce it, don't eat it.