Author Archives: Money Reasons

About Money Reasons

A offbeat personal finance blogger that comes from the tech world.

Frugality Taken Too Far – The Great Egg Switcheroo

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Frugality isn’t robbery, or at least being inconsiderate of others!

As I mentioned in a previous articles, I’m starting to lose weight, trying to alter my lifestyle.  Part of my routine is eating two eggs in the morning for breakfast during the work week.  My morning stable has been two eggs.  I’ve actually always been a big fan of eggs, so I’m very familiar with both the weight and the shape of extra-large eggs.

This past weekend, my wife went shopping and I asked her to pick me up a carton of eggs, since I was down to my last two.  So she returned from the store, and my extra-large carton of eggs was in the fridge as expected.  Today, I decided to hardboil my eggs for my breakfast meal for next week.  I picked up the carton out of the refrigerator, and had a feeling something was wrong.  I open the carton up, and all 12 eggs were there as expected, so I chalked it up to nothing and started getting ready to cook them.

 

white egg

 

So I proceeded to cook up a batch of 12 eggs.  After my 15 minutes of cook time, I drained the eggs and was putting them in the carton when it hit me!  The eggs were wrong!  They were much to small and light.  Actually I think it was when I put the eggs back into the carton and they were so loose that I realized that someone has switch the extra-large eggs for a smaller size (guessing I would say they were medium-sized eggs)!

This cheap act that someone performed means that I only get 75% or less of what I would normally eat if I were to have two extra-large eggs.  I was steaming mad!

So some person swapped out the extra-large eggs that should have been in the carton for medium eggs (or large eggs).  Such a moved probably saved them 20 cents per carton.  So this darkly frugal person, saved less than a quarter and in the process ripped me off.  Nice…

So if you find yourself in the store getting eggs, make sure you open the carton and even take one of the eggs out, because who know what kind of unscrupulous person may have performed an Egg Switcheroo on you too!

Be forwarned friends!

MR

 

Are You A Money Hoarder?

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First, let me start by saying I have the potential to be a money hoarder!  The only thing preventing me from being a money hoarder is I don’t have much money…

Honestly, since freeing myself totally from debt, I’m still finding it hard to spend money.

Oh sure, usually we go out to eat once a week, charging the expense on one of my best reward credit cards.  But if an occasion arises where we might have to go out again during the week for a second time, to meet friends or whatever, I’ll excuse myself from going and stay at home so I don’t have to pay the extra money to cover the cost of eating me eat out twice.  My not eating out might not seem like a lot of savings, but it is considering that our kids still eat off of the kid’s menus, and my wife usually gets a lunch portion.

Hoarding Money At Home

Money Hoarder

I play a fairly frugal game, but I don’t hoard money at home.  The most money in the entire house is probably $500.  I know a lady that has over $100,000 stored at various location around her house, sometimes even in gifts that she gives out by mistake (oops)!  One year, we did a gift exchange and she gave us a cheap blue jar.  But when we opened the jar, it had $5,000 in it!  Boy, we were shocked, and once we told our friends about it, she heard and instantly wanted the money back saying that she made a mistake, and that was one of her hiding places.  Of course, we did return the money, but it left us wondering if she has done that before and how much money she gave away by mistake.

Another time while visiting the same lady, I noticed something barely visible at the top of her kitchen cabinet ledge.  Thinking it was a paper that was attached to the furniture, I reach up and grabbed it to read what it said.  Wouldn’t you know it!  It was a couple of fifty dollar bills.  This particular time, I just put it back and made sure it wasn’t visible and kept quiet.

After the mishap with the jar gift, I asked my friend why she keeps so much money hidden throughout the house, and she said that it made her feel safe!  I, on the other hand, thought that money could go out of the house in the pockets of burglars (if they got wind of the amounts that she kept in her house), or up in smoke if the house were to somehow catch on fire!  I’m pretty sure in the case of a fire, the insurance company would say “Sure you have over $100,000 stored at home instead of a bank”.

Symptoms of Money Hoarding

You see these types of people in the news all the time.  Such and such lived in a small one room house and looked like they were homeless their entire life.  They use discarded newspapers for blankets and picked through restaurant garbage for food.  Then once they die, everyone is surprised that they are really very rich and that these hoarders left all of their money to some college or charity.  That’s not the way money is meant to be used.  I’d rather be poor and live a balanced life than be rich and living like I’m poor!

I know when I spend money on merchandise, I get a little ill if it’s an expensive item.  I used to get a little light-headed and my stomach churns on a purchase such as a big screen TVs.

I think the average person looks down on those money hoarding, Scrooge types.  But perhaps it’s actually some form of hoarding illness or disorder?

Other hoarders are products of how they were raised (this is my case), and while you are able to change a bit more easily than those that are actually suffering a hoarding disorder, it’s still a small problem if it affects your health because you don’t spend money on taking care of yourself.

In my opinion, hoarding money is just as bad as spending money and getting in massive debt.  The correct path is somewhere in the middle…

Cheers,

MR

Does Blogging Cause A Distaste For Cubicle Jobs

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This might be pretty obvious, but since I started blogging and earning a little bit of money, my distaste for my cubicle job has dramatically increased!

With my cubicle (regular) job, I’m stuck in a dingy grey cubicle setup, with very plain lifeless-colored walls.  The cube walls are high, so nobody can casually look at me.  Visitors have to come to my cubicle entryway to socialize.  Lately, I’ve been imagining that my day job, and in particular my cube, is much like a prison cell in the movie Shawshank Redemption.  Sometimes I even fantasize about escaping for the fun of it…  In fact, with friends I sometimes tell them I am going to tunnel out with plastic spoons someday… Silly, but funny at the same time.

While I’ve always had these feelings to some degree, blogging has intensified them so that I’m starting to really dislike my job.

So you might be wondering the reasons I dislike my job because of my blogging?  Well, here they are:

  • I can and do blog in restaurants, libraries, cafe/coffee houses, and at home of course.
  • I can even blog at friend’s houses although I don’t do this much…
  • My entire blogging empire can be managed from my laptop and a simple laptop messenger bag.
  • I can make my own hours (right now it’s past 1:00am where I live).
  • I don’t have to commute if I don’t want to when I’m blogging, this saves precious time for other activities.
  • I can blog from remote location and even different countries, as long as I have an internet connection.
  • I can write blog articles without having an internet connection.  This even increased the flexibility of blogging at any time or place.
  • I’m my own boss!
  • I’m unlimited in creative possibilities!  This makes for a rewarding job!
  • I don’t have to deal with corporate politics or clichés like I do at my cubicle job…
  • If I were to make enough money from blogging, I could travel across the world while working via blogging.

Blogging and online activities really have a lot going for them!  While I keep busy at work and actually have a decent job, I’d much rather be blogging for a living.

If you blog and have a full time cubicle job, what do you think?

MR

 

Are Famous Personal Finance Authors Too Rich To Understand You?

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Today I’m going to question the unquestionable in the personal finance world… “Are Famous Personal Finance Authors Too Rich To Understand You?”

So what do I mean by this question, especially considering that the larger personal finance authors have access to vast amounts of financial information!

Before I answer that question, let me first define “You“, in my question above!

By “You“, I’m talking about 80% of the population.  We (80%) are the true middle class (middle-lower, middle-middle and middle-upper).  I’m excluding the top and bottom 10% of the population because often time they don’t read personal finance blogs anyway unless they are young and in a transitional phase of their economic life (ex. college students that are poor today because they don’t have a job, but will be making good money in the future).

With my definition of “You” out of the way, let’s continue with what I mean by my question “Are Famous Personal Finance Authors Too Rich To Understand You?”

When most of these authors were in the middle class, they lived as we live, ate what we ate, and had the same financial difficulties that we are currently encountering.  They felt the same year-end financial crunch, after buying holiday gifts and traveling.  They were cubicle dwellers or worked for a large employer, just like us.  They watched how often they went out to fancy or really even modest chain restaurants like “Olive Garden”.  They did this because they were us, and actually lived next door to us.  They were us and walked the walk and talked the talk just like us!

That was then, but now they have moved on and are no longer part of the 80%!

So even though many have our best interest in their hearts, they can no longer remember how we live when they were part of the middle class.  Now they go to fancy, expensive restaurants, and they are used to being made over when they visit such establishments.  I’m sure none of the large personal finance authors stay in a Holiday Inn Express, no matter how much smarter they could become by doing so!  Most now have houses that are valued at more than a million dollars… easily, not to mention staff that takes care of the house, the yard work, and even handling these rich author’s schedule…  I know that personally, I don’t have anyone handling my schedule except me.

Dave Ramsey's House

Don’t get me wrong, these authors were and are great people that I respect, but they no longer understand us (the middle classes).  It’s like anything in life, you use (or live) it, or lose it, and some of the personal finance authors are no longer living it so they forget both our lifestyle and struggles.

Does this make them bad resources for personal finance information? 

No, but they give out financial advice forgetting what it was like not having money. or they forget what it’s like living in the middle.  They forget what it’s like not getting your child the latest popular gift (whether it’s a cell phone, Elmo whatever, or “whatever the latest fad is”) and having your child looking like an outcast in school.  Sometimes it irks me that they chastise us for not being more frugal when in reality they have no idea of our normal living expenses and what our social variables are, and some never will.

This is why I like to read certain financial bloggers that are similar to my middle-class lifestyle, ones similar to me, or that have overcome the financial obstacles that I am struggling with or are just exceptional bloggers in general.

What do you think?  Do you think the most famous and rich personal finance authors and personalities understand your struggles?

While I still listen to them in passing, I believe they are too rich to understand me!  Perhaps when I’m rich someday, I’ll tune back into them more.  In the meantime, I am going to find other paths that relate to me and my life in the middle…

If you are a new reader, expect interesting and different ideas on accumulating wealth and living a balanced life for those of us that aren’t rich yet!

Don