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There’s no particular reason to post this (in terms of holidays and whatnot) but it’s cheap and too darn cute to pass up:
Make bunny ears for your kid
You may remember that I wanted to participate in the Ten Dollar Challenge. I actually haven’t forgotten about it; I’ve been trying to come up with a brilliant idea. Of course, as Ramit points out eloquently, that’s not really a great plan. So I’ve decided to stop pondering and start acting.
Initially, I thought of doing a site I’ve had in mind for a while. It’s a review site of sorts, and I’m not going to go into too much detail since I’m still thinking to do it and you’ll be able to see it in action shortly. However, it isn’t well-suited by itself to the $10 project because it will cost me $10 to set the site up right (domain + hosting) which leaves me with $0 for buying the products to review (before people start sending them to me for free, you know, begging me to say nice things to my millions of readers…). So here’s the modified mediocre idea I’m going to work with.
I’ve recently started a new hobby (knitting) which is actually a fairly expensive hobby (of course I find ways to work around that). But the fact that there are many accessories and necessarily the need to frequently buy yarn makes it a great potential moneymaker for a blog (blogs that feature purchasable topics get ads that pay). The main thing is that it’s something I’m interested in and will enjoy writing, because without the writing, it’s dumb to even think of ads. So my $10 will go to set up that blog.
Phase 2 happens when I see ad revenue. With that ad revenue, I’ll set up the review site and fund the initial product purchases (well, at least that’s the idea). So I’ll let you know when I have the first site up and keep you updated on the progress. I’m curious about whether this is a viable plan. I guess we’ll see!
There’s a great post over at Sound Money Tips that talks about how to use Google to search for airline tickets.
Let’s say you want to go from New York to LA next week. Just type in those two locations — ‘new york los angeles’ — in Google’s search box, and at the top of the results screen you’ll see fields for your departure and return dates. Open the Expedia, Hotwire, Orbitz, and Hotwire links in separate tabs/windows, then compare the available flights and prices. Voila…
I knew Google could be used for calculations and conversions, but I had no idea about this feature. Who knows what else they have up their sleeves?
Do visit the original post because the comments add even more information about good ways to search. I prefer the original tip because it’s so easy, particularly if you use Firefox or have the Google toolbar installed in Internet Explorer—it’s a single click and easier to use than most travel sites (maybe they could learn a thing or two from this feature!). The other ideas are definitely worth considering, though.
I love kid things. I regularly read children’s picture books from the library (and consequently, Amazon recommends them to me all the time and I find great new books). I like coloring books. And I have a blast with assembling paper crafts. I don’t actually have kids, though, so all of this wonderfulness doesn’t really save me any money except that it occupies me for a few moments. However, if you have kids, presumably they want entertainment from time to time and you occasionally would like the TV to be off. It’s your lucky day if your kids like crafty things!
These first two require a printer (but if you don’t have one, your local library may provide one for free or cheap—mine charges $.10/page + tax—and the library trip in itself will probably be entertaining).
The Toymaker has some beautifully illustrated color paper toys to print and construct. My sister and I have made several of them and the boxes are particularly cool, though the kids will probably be more interested in the more “playable” toys. We had to do some fudging on the Chocolate Truck, but it just required a little more creativity.
Barnacle Press provides an awesome grabbag of vintage “papercraft” pages. They are all black and white, which makes them excellent for coloring, and also cheaper for printing. These are the kind of crafts where you pin the pieces together and then they are moving puppets. [link via Cory]
I just got a book from the library called Kids Knitting [affiliate link] which has fantastic reviews on Amazon and looks great. Kids can teach themselves to knit with this book, and it might be fun to learn with them, too. I’m going to follow this book’s instructions and make my own knitting needles pretty soon!
The 21st Carnival of Personal Finance went up yesterday, and there were some great posts. My favorites:
When you think of bargaining, if you’re like me, you think of street markets and car dealerships. In most first-world countries, people don’t generally think about bargaining for better prices. However, I’ve heard a couple of things lately that encourage me to rethink this.
First, I saw an article in a magazine (can’t remember which one, or I’d link it) that was about saving money on everyday things. One of their tips was to actually ask the doctor’s office to knock something off the cost of the bill. In my area, I’ve been told that the two major local hospitals are both required to write off a certain amount of bills each year to keep their “non-profit” status (basically, they’ve been making too much money). Now, don’t misunderstand me. I am not suggesting that you run up bills you can’t afford and then try to get out of them, or that you lie about your ability to pay, or just flat out don’t pay. Instead, I’m suggesting that sometimes, just by asking (and without a sob story), your bill may be reduced.
I’ve read from several sources that paying cash can be an excellent bargaining tool. This is the case when making large purchases, like cars or furniture, but it can also work surprisingly well with smaller purchases, too. My sister, Nadine, recently made this point quite clearly.
She was shopping in the mall (she does not seem to have inheirited so many frugal genes) and found some boots she wanted. They were priced at typical mall prices, but she didn’t feel like paying that much. So she asked the manager of the store if he could give her a deal. He named a lower price than the one marked on the boots, so she started looking in her purse. She pulled out her wallet, and then pulled out all the bills and all the change. She counted it, and told him how much money she had on her, to the penny. She had the cash in her hand (about $10 less than his offer) and was clearly ready to purchase. He said he’d take it.
Now, seriously, if you can bargain in the mall, I’d guess you can bargain anywhere. Have you ever gotten a good deal this way?