Save Invest Retire

Not exactly groundbreaking advice, but I saw this over at MARSHALL LOEB’S DAILY MONEY TIP today.

Those store gift cards seem to be ever more popular for workplace gifting, and the tastes of co-workers rarely reflect our own, so I thought this was good advice. He offers a roundup  of three ways to ditch the unwanted card and sell or trade it for something you do want.

Basically it boils down to two services that specialize in this (I’m sure there are more) and the perennial favorite of eBay. The two that specialize in exchanging these cards for others you might want (or cash) are:

• Cardavenue.com
  

• Swapagift.com

Here’s a little pictorial DIY segment with a frugal solution to a missing washer problem. Not only will this save you from rooting through the cabinets or taking a trip to the hardware store, it is often cheaper than a single store-bought washer.

So, you need to bolt something together and you have the nut and bolt, but not a washer that fits.

Dig around in your pocket and grab yourself a penny.

Dimple the center of the penny with a punch.

Using a small bit, drill a hole through the center of the penny.

Use a larger bit the size of the bolt to complete the hole.

Look, a penny washer!

Look how nice it looks! Fancy!

Now, you can save yourself some steps and just drill through with the big bit to begin with, but it is difficult to get it started and keep it centered. My results were much better with the above steps.

Can your hobby make you money? Of course it can! In fact, your hobby could make you a millionaire. Just look at what David and Andrew Whelan, father and son hobby metal detectorists, discovered one cold afternoon:

Nothing like becoming a millionaire one afternoon after stumbling across a cache of Viking treasure a thousand years old.

But let’s be more realistic. Most folks wielding a metal detector are not going to be able to retire off of their finds, but even so, they still get the health benefits of being outdoors and the stress relief in addition to the finds they do make. So they’re happy because they are doing something they enjoy while pocketing the occasional valuable. That sounds win-win to me.

Not everyone has a hobby that can easily segue into a money maker. However, if you try hard enough, you are sure to find ways to begin making a little back from doing what you enjoy. Obviously arts and crafts can be sold, collectibles can be traded, and I even have a neighbor that got into painting and bodywork on the side and now charges many thousands for paint jobs, but what if your hobby is something goofy less obviously marketable, like medieval folk songs.?

Esoteric knowledge can be a money maker as long as you can figure out who wants it and how to deliver it to them. There are undoubtedly online groups into that sort of thing where, with a little participation, you could quickly establish yourself as a source of knowledge. If not, start a group yourself or even a website!

From there, you can write books (self-publish on Lulu.com, for example), book speaking engagements, get hired at the local Renaissance festival, become a resource for aspiring writers to add authenticity to their tales, etc. Don’t think it’s possible? I’ve seen all of these happen in a different context.

If you think your particular hobby is not one that can somehow make money, well, maybe you just aren’t being creative enough in how you are pursuing it. Get out there, become recognized, make contacts, and opportunities will show themselves to you. How can you beat a work at home business opportunity (depending on the hobby, of course) that is something you already love to do anyway? You can’t! Maybe one day you’ll hit whatever the version of Viking gold is in your hobby.

Hooray, beer!

I really like beer, especially good beer. Although it can be hard to enjoy when the all-seeing eye of frugality is staring a hole through you for paying $10 for a 12-ounce bottle of Dogfish Head’s 120 Minute IPA. Even if you turn your back, you can feel its gaze centered right between your shoulder blades. It’s almost enough to put a man off his drink. Almost. But then the 20% alcohol kicks in and you tell frugality to beat it and go bug someone else.

I found a great rationalization solution, though, the home draft beer keg. There are any number of advantages to having a draft beer system in your home. First, there is the obvious cost savings per glass. Sellers claim cost savings of up to 50%, and that is certainly possible on some beers, especially if you are comparing 6 or 12 pack prices, but for premium beers, the savings may not be as great.

For example, at a price per glass, I can get Miller High Life (bottles) for around 60 cents per 12 ounces. A keg is in the $40-$50 range, and at 165 servings per keg, that works out to 25-30 cents per 12 ounces. If I go with microbrews, I save less, and if I go with German imports like Warsteiner, Spaten, Bitburger, etc., the savings sometimes drop down to 10%-15% for some reason. I guess it costs a fair penny for the brewer to ship it that far.

Note that the beer prices vary greatly among and even within states depending on the state laws and distributor set-up.

Other rationalizations advantages include: not paying those high bar prices, not worrying about drinking and driving, the hedonistic joy of having a fresh draft beer on demand (and yes, with your own system, it does taste better than cans and bottles), the ease of entertaining company, no cans or bottles to deal with, less trips to the store, your dog will love you more, you will become better looking, your kids will get better grades in school, and you will bring about world peace. Okay, maybe I got a little carried away with some of those. That’s just the breakfast India Pale Ale talking.

Downsides: the initial cost is a hundred and up depending on the setup you choose, so you have to factor that and the occasional cost of CO2 into your calculations. The upside is that the more you drink, the lower you can average down those start-up costs!

Now, I had actually purchased something like the Kegerator Conversion Kit with CO2 Tank, but like I detail below, you can get away with just getting a kit like this one:

I had an old fridge out in the garage that was not being used much, so I converted it into a kegerator. All it really took was drilling a hole through the door and installing the faucet. Then I got the CO2, hooked up the keg, and the first keg was pouring away. I would recommend NOT paying the extra for the CO2 tanks, because they are like your grill propane tanks, you just switch them out for filled ones, so that fancy tank you buy with a kit is pretty much useless unless you want to drop it off and have it filled overnight. Seemed like a hassle to me, so I just picked up one at a welding supply store and it only cost a few extra bucks by not having a tank to swap.

I hooked it up and everything worked like a champ. The first keg of Spaten only lasted 10 days, but I had made the mistake of inviting friends over on consecutive weekends to christen it.

One tip I learned from experience: DO NOT LOSE THE RECEIPT FOR YOUR KEG! Depending on where you live, you may have trouble getting your deposit back.

So give it a shot and the whole family can have a comforting draft beer before bed.

Let me tell you how to get the deal of the century.

I found a place and ordered 10 of the 100-watt replacement CFL’s. It cost me, counting shipping, $36 (bulbs $30 + shipping $6). At the time I ordered, that was about half the price I could get a comparable bulb at Walmart!

What’s the secret? They are sold by a non-profit group selling CFLs in an effort to save the environment. So you can save money and save the environment at the same time. Here’s the bulb that’s now shining throughout the Argonautica homestead:

It draws 23W and is designed as a 100W replacement. I have to say that it works brilliantly and fits almost anywhere an incandescent does. It cannot be used in dimmable fixtures, however.

These things really do work well, so much so that I even checked on a wholesale purchase to retail them myself. I found out that the non-profit is already selling them at wholesale prices! How could I compete with that? I couldn’t, so I’m letting everyone know about it.

The place you can get these is ecolightbulbs

Their service is excellent; two of the bulbs in my order must have had a rough transit even with the great packaging, because they weren’t working, but ecolightbulbs sent me replacements with no questions asked. Being a non-profit, they only mail out on weekends, so be patient when you order.