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The Simple Dollar

Simple, applicable personal finance advice for the modern world

Announcing My First Book, “365 Ways to Live Cheap”Yesterday

What costs $7.95, makes for a great gift for all your gift exchanges, and is chock full of the good stuff you’ve come to expect from The Simple Dollar?

365 Ways to Live Cheap, that’s what.

It’s my first book, due to be released in bookstores everywhere on December 17, but already available for order on Amazon.com. What are some of the notable features of it?

It’s a great, easy to read guide for money-saving tactics. The title pretty much says it all - it’s a compilation of 365 of my best tips on personal finance and frugal living. Virtually all of the tips, if applied, can save you more than the price of the book itself.

It costs only $7.95. In an effort to release a budget-conscious book, 365 Ways to Live Cheap is available at a price point that anyone can afford. It’s available in a classy matte-finish paperback.

There’s a wide variety of advice inside. Although many of the tips are related to frugal living, a lot of the tips also apply to debt reduction, budgeting, and

Reader Mailbag #39Yesterday

Each Monday, The Simple Dollar opens up the reader mailbags and answers ten to twenty simple questions offered up by the readers on personal finance topics and many other things. Got a question? Ask it in the comments. You might also enjoy the archive of earlier reader mailbags.

As usual, we’ll start things off with a few links to older articles that directly answer questions I’ve heard recently. A few people have asked for suggestions for books on how to live cheap. Here are four suggestions (besides my own book):
The Complete Tightwad Gazette
America’s Cheapest Family
The Ultimate Cheapskate’s Road Map to True Riches
The Frugal Duchess

And now for some great reader questions!

My wife is pregnant and our first kid is due in April. It really is a miracle but obvious money is always on the mind. Would it be better to:
1.) Buy life insurance in case something happens
2.) Start saving for their college
3.) Pay down our house payment to rid ourselves of the devil calle

Review: The Reader’s Digest Penny Pincher’s AlmanacNovember 30

Every other Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal finance book.

As many of you know, I’m a big fan of PaperBackSwap. I use it all the time to trade books - I request ones I’d like to read and send out ones that I’ve finished reading so that others can enjoy it. It almost functions like a giant online library for me, except with no late fees - I can keep the books I get from there for as long as I wish.

One thing I use PaperBackSwap for is a “wish list” feature. If I happen to see a book that would be compelling to read over a long period, I just add it to my wish list on there and, if someone else decides to post that book, it gets sent to me automatically.

And that leads us back to the Penny Pincher’s Almanac. I was intrigued from the moment I heard about it - 2,753 tips for saving money? That sounded right up my alley - but I had some difficulty locating the book for a reasonable price. So I filed the book away on my “wish list” and promptly forgot about it until one day, out of the blue, it arri

A Long DecemberNovember 30

Many of you out there reading this are hurting.

The economic news is grim, and even though I believe the only thing we have to fear is fear itself, that doesn’t change the stark reality of things.

Most of us have lost a large swath of our retirement savings in the last year. My overall retirement savings has gone down about 30% over the past thirteen months, even with late 2007 and 2008 contributions.

Some of us have lost our jobs. I have at least three friends who have been downsized in the past calendar year.

All of us are uncertain right now - and that’s understandable. We’re looking towards living cheaper and letting go of the cultural trend towards overspending that has happened over the past several years.

Right now, many of us are looking forward to December - and to the holiday season - with some joy and some trepidation.

Can we afford to travel this year?

Can we afford to put a lot of Christmas presents under the tree - or should we?

Shouldn’t we scale back this year - big time?

Don’t worry. You’re not alone. I’m asking myself these same questions, as are millions of others out there.

But the answer to it is easy - and it’s right in front of our faces.

It’s easy to get caught up in the expenses of December - the parties, the presents, and the inevitable bills.

I, SpenderNovember 29

I get emails from readers all the time encouraging me to be more playful and experimental with my writing, so here’s a little experiment, posted quietly on the Saturday after Thanksgiving when no one will be reading. It’s an adaptation of one of my favorite literary passages, Claudius’s soliloquy from Act 3, Scene III of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, in which Claudius confesses his past sins and offers repentance in his own way. I hope you enjoy it, but if not, even if you think it’s unspeakably awful, take a moment to dive into Hamlet. It is truly excellent.

O, my offence is rank it smells to heaven;
It hath the primal eldest curse upon it,
Many dollars wasted. I cannot take it back,
though my inclination is as sharp as my will.

My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent;
And I am a man to his debt bound.

I stand in pause, realizing that I must start again
to recover this neglect. What if this cursed hand
that chooses to spend so easily were weighted down?

Is there not money enough in my coffers
to wash away the interest?

Is there no mercy for the spender,
to avoid confrontation with this offense?

Perhaps I can offer up a prayer
to forestall this great fall
or to pardon my failure?

If I can fix the problem, I may look up; my fault is past.

But, what form of penance shall serv