Minor Interruption

I was in an accident last night. No broken bones thankfully but I am pretty banged up, have a concussion and cuts and bruises. I have my arm in a sling and can only type one-handed for a couple of days. Please excuse the radio silence for day or two.
Also, if you own a scooter and don't wear a helmet, please reconsider. Mine saved my life last night.

Weekly Financial Round Up 06/29

I did so well this week until Thursday when I finally succumbed to peer pressure and spent money. Almost all of the money for food was on friday when I bought three separate meals.

Spent - $48.66

Entertainment - $15.16
Food - $33.50

Extra Money Made - $70.50

Etsy - $47.50
Transcription - $20
Surveys - $3

At least I'm still making more than I'm spending, but I've been charging things on my credit card for convenience and that needs to, again, not happen. I think $20 was an unrealistic goal last week. Lets try spending no more than $30 this time around.
I have got to get better this week. And thats it on the movie front, no more until Dark Knight unless someone else is buying!

Heres how I did last week:

Weekly Spending - June 22nd

Saturday Handy Tip - Power Strips for Your TV

Right now we are running our air conditioning a lot. We live in the South and have very big windows, so our power bill is likely to be very high. I'm trying to cut corners where ever I can, so I've hooked up the TV, DVD Player and Wii to a power strip. Because these are all machines that are on standby, they drain off a little power all day every day. So now they are on a strip I just hit the off switch for all of them when I am not using them, and turn them back on when I am. It probably saves me a few pennies a day, but as you can tell from my Twelve Cents article, that can really make a difference!

Previous Handy Tips

June 21st - Writers Block
June 14th - Salad Dressing

Five Ways to Entertain Yourself for Free (Or Cheap)

It's really hard to find new and entertaining things to do when you are on a budget. I find myself going to movies or coffee shops to get out of the house, which is not the most frugal thing to do. 

So here a few things that I would recommend that you can do to entertain yourself cheaply. 

1. Urban Exploration

Pick an area of your city or town that you have never been to and go and explore it on foot. If you are a budding photographer, take a camera. Look for nice trees, odd mailboxes, strangely named stores. 

2. Join a Meetup Group

There are group for just about every topic in just about every area. Maybe you could join a book club or a philosophical discussion group, or take tours of peoples gardens. The possibilities are really endless. 

3. Go to College Theatre

Most colleges put on one or two theatrical productions a year, and most of the time they are free or cheap. College productions may not have elaborate sets and costumes, but they tend to take more risks with production types, so you can often see some meaty material or a new interpretation of a classic. Also, colleges tend to draw smaller crowds, so the cast and crew will often greatly appreciate your presence. 

4. Fly a Kite

No one seems to fly kites anymore. It's sad because kite flying can be done anywhere that you have an open space, and it is a lot of fun! If you want to invest in a more expensive stunt kite I would recommended finding friends to split the cost with you. If you are looking for something a little less expensive, though, you can try something like this well rated Rainbow Kite.

5. Volunteer

Something in your community is bound to need volunteers. Be it a community center, a park, a zoo, a theatre, a school, an art gallery. This is a great way to meet people and experience something different, and it's good karma too!

Progress Slowly

I have a big writing deadline coming up and I confess, I am behind.
I did want to blog about the fact that yesterday I made the decision to sell my company. I love it dearly, but I feel like I've gotten what I wanted out of it and now it's time to move on.
If anyone would like to purchase it, feel free to contact me. Either leave me a comment or email me. And feel free to pass my information along to anyone you think might be interested. I am completely open to offers.
It's interesting that when I hit a financial bump I decided to lock down all areas of my life, but the idea of selling something I have spent four years building fills me with hope and excitement, and could kick start my way to meeting some very important goals.

Give One Get One Laptops and Philanthropy

I was at one of my regular haunts in Atlanta yesterday and spotted someone with an OLPC XO-1 Laptop. If you haven't heard about this program, the idea is to provide relatively inexpensive laptops to children in developing countries to enhance their education. These computers are tiny, and yet they act as word processing tools, are internet capable with built in wireless, and are evidently quite functional. They run the Linux operating system, which is an open-source operating system that anyone can edit and manipulate.

Although the laptops are costing around $140 right now, the idea seems to be to get them down to a cost of $100 per machine, making them much more affordable than other new laptops, which can run anywhere from $600 to $2500 depending on the product.

The gentleman who owned the XO-1, Alex, had purchased the laptop through the Give One Get One program that appears to have only been available for a few months in 2007. The deal was that for $400 you purchased two laptops; one for yourself and one for a child in a developing country. Alex seemed really happy with the idea that he was able to give a laptop to a child somewhere. He is also working on developing programs for the machine, though having just met him, I didn't ask him to go into too much detail.

I admire this level of philanthropy. Not only has Alex given a laptop to a child he will never meet, but he is also working on ways to enhance the availability of programs for the machine.

I love stories like this. I love people with brilliant ideas for making the world a better place and for helping children grow. I'm very impressed with people who become a part of it.

It makes me questions my own judgement. Maybe my laptop purchase was extravagant last year. Maybe I should have opted for something cheaper. Maybe I shouldn't have purchased a fancy phone. A lot of theories I have seen about what to do with your money state that you should spend a third, save a third and give a third away. I'm not in a position to do this, although I have read blogs where people do this with $3 each day. It's a nice idea and one that hopefully I will revisit again someday. But for now I feel the burden of my lack of philanthropy weighing on my soul.

I could do better.