Archive for the ‘Money’ Category

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Some communities have created local currencies that can be used for a wide variety of goods and services in that region. A book that describes how to do this, with examples from Ithaca, NY, and other places, is Time Dollars: The New Currency That Enables Americans to Turn Their Hidden Resource-Time-Into Personal Security and Community Renewal, by Edgar Cahn and Jonathan Rowe.  Since the book came out, many more communities have begun the process.

There’s a song that goes, “From you I receive, to you I give. Together we share, and by this we live.” Community currencies offer a tangible way of doing this.

Local currencies are perfectly legal; in fact, some local government agencies  take part in Minnesota and Maryland. Created by local groups, the currencies can be used for exchanging services and often also for goods. Read the rest of this entry »

In recent years, barter has become more and more popular in our society. It’s a great way to save money and interact with people in a different way.

Think about goods and skills that you can barter. One woman on an internet forum commented that she had stored fifty pounds of chocolate chips for barter. I couldn’t do that myself – I’d be too tempted to eat my money!

Barter systems are widespread now in Russia, China, Africa, and many other places. This is often direct trading, with no currency, gold, or silver involved. In Russia, many teachers are paid in vodka rather than in rubles. The internet has facilitated the creation of all sorts of barter networks. Some of the trades are huge – even international -  while others are neighborly.

During the depression, barter was widespread. According to Survival Bartering, by Duncan Long, one movie theater sold tickets for 10 cents or 25 cents, but it would also take eggs, corn, or wheat. Read the rest of this entry »

Here is concrete information you can use to recycle old computers and electronics. Be sure to wipe all sensitive data off hard drives, and I don’t just mean delete the files. Exactly how to do that is beyond the scope of this article, so do some looking around online. — Zana

Taking Back Old Computers and Electronics at Best Buy, Costco, and Staples

By F. Tadesse

Costco trade in program

In their effort to become leaders in recycling electronics, Costco has teamed up with Gazelle.com. Gazelle is a leader in the on line electronics reuse and recycling business. What you do is, fill out an online form at the Gazelle website about the electronic equipment you are recycling. Gazelle will give you a quote on your item and if you agree then you can print out an on line free shipping label. They will even send packaging material for shipping your old electronics. As long as the value of your gadget is at least one dollar shipping is free. If they determine your electronics has no resale value, they will recycle it responsibly for free. At this time they recycle laptops, cell phones, LCD monitors, MP3 players, digital cameras, and gaming systems. They don’t recycle faxes, printers and TVs at this time. The recycling service is only available for members only. Read the rest of this entry »

I was pleased to find this guest post, a useful article on living inexpensively. Good any time, essential now for many people! — Zana

Hanging by a Shoestring – How to Survive on Next to Nothing

By Jennifer Carpenter

An estimated 47% of American households live paycheck to paycheck or very close. It doesn’t look like statistic will get any better soon; in fact it’s likely to get worse as the unemployment numbers rise. Not having much of a disposable income doesn’t mean you have to feel deprived, it just means you have to learn to survive on less fancy foods, repaired clothing, homemade old-fashioned household and beauty products and simple forms of entertainment. If you can learn how to and commit to doing at least these things, living n a shoestring budget won’t seem so much like deprivation.

Cut Your Food Bill

There are many different ways to save money at the supermarket. My favorites are shopping the sales and buying generic. Read the rest of this entry »

Four years ago, my husband Kelly and I got completely out of debt.

It was heavenly, and we have stayed completely out of debt since. No mortgage, credit cards paid off monthly.

We chose to sell our earthbag home in Colorado to become debt-free, and that was not an easy decision to make. I don’t know if we would have sold it if the Byers hadn’t come along. No, that is not a misspelling. While we were dithering about to sell or not to sell, I mentioned to some people we knew, the Byers, that we were considering selling. When they made us an offer a few days later,  their last name seemed like a message from above!

But that’s really beside the point, just a story I like to tell. The point here is that getting out of debt is an absolutely terrific goal.

How could you do it? For most people, it will be the same way the ants ate the elephant… one bite at a time. Read the rest of this entry »

Kelly and I are suffering “sticker shock” from the prices in US grocery stores after living in Mexico for several years. I am enjoying getting a lot of things that I haven’t eaten while out of the US. (Panda Licorice, bison meat, Crenshaw melons, to name three from yesterday’s grocery shopping.) But now it’s time for us to settle into spending less in the grocery store!

Here are some tips for cutting your grocery bills. Chances are good that you will increase the nutritional value of your food at the same time. Read the rest of this entry »