July 25 2019

Top 10 Money Books I’ve Read

I’m just going to say it. I’m sure most of you have realized this by now anyway. I am a woman of a certain age. I am a proud member of the over fifty club, and as such, I hope to be financially able to stop working in the not so distant future if I so desire. I am spending more of my time thinking about ways to earn extra money. The actual goal is that by the time Hubby turns sixty, we will have hit the magic number that only he seems to know that will mean we can afford to retire. So, in roughly four years, I hope to have learned to invest well enough to earn a million dollars and be able to afford to retire. I also want to have a job I enjoy so much that I won’t actually want to retire, but instead keep working and add to the nest egg so we can afford to be generous with our time and/or money when we actually do stop working full time for a paycheck.
In the past couple of years I have had money on the brain. I didn’t realize how bad it had gotten until I was browsing through Goodreads at the books I have read so far in 2019 and those I read in 2018. So I decided to make a list of the top ten books I have read about money for you today. Just so you know, the links for books below are affiliate links, because, like I said, I have spent a lot of time thinking about ways I could possibly earn some extra money. It hasn’t worked so far, but you never know.
1) Invested: How Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger Taught Me to Master My Mind, My Emotions, and My Money (with a Little Help from My Dad) by Danielle Town (and Phil Town)
2) Retire Inspired: It’s Not an Age, It’s a Financial Number by Chris Hogan
3) Get Money: Live the Life You Want, Not Just the Life You Can Afford by Kristin Wong
4) Rule #1: The Simple Strategy for Successful Investing in Only 15 Minutes a Week! by Phil Town
5) Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey
6) Everyday Millionaire by Chris Hogan
7) Refinery29 Money Diaries: Everything You’ve Ever Wanted To Know About Your Finances… And Everyone Else’s by Lindsey Stanberry
8) Fight for Your Money: How to Stop Getting Ripped Off and Save a Fortune by David Bach
9) Profit Sharing: The Chapman Guide to Making Money an Asset in Your Marriage by Gary Chapman
10) You Are a Badass at Making Money: Master the Mindset of Wealth by Jen Sincero
11) The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future by Chris Guillebeau
Just because I couldn’t decide which book to cut from the list to make it just ten, you get a bonus book.
This post is part of the weekly Five Minute Friday link-up!
The prompt this week is: Distant
The assignment: Write for five minutes on the word of the week. This is meant to be a free write, which means: no editing, no over-thinking, no worrying about perfect grammar or punctuation. Just write.
Because I am a visual person, and really like to see the covers of books before I read them, enjoy the affiliate linked covers to the eleven books listed about. I really enjoyed reading all of them and learned different things from each one. If you were going to read just one of them, I would recommend it be Invested, because it just might change your life. If you have a money related book that you think I should read, please leave your recommendations in the comments below.

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Category: Five Minute Friday, Goals, Money Saving, Reading | Comments Off on Top 10 Money Books I’ve Read
June 13 2019

Tuna Salad

I recently made an old favorite that we haven’t had in quite a while. What did I make you ask? Tuna salad. Nothing special, you say? I beg to differ. Mine is not quite the usual recipe. I refrigerate the tuna before I make it still in the cans so it is cold and ready to serve right away. You don’t have to do this, but it is best to refrigerate for at least a couple of hours after making it if you don’t so everything gets cold and the flavors have a chance to mingle.

Karen’s Tuna Salad

6 cans tuna packed in water (not oil)
1-1/2 cups diced celery
1-1/2 cups diced green pepper
sweet pickle relish to taste
Light mayo to creamy texture

We (my daughter and I) figured out it doesn’t matter how many cans of tuna you use, the magic ratio of crunchy green stuff to tuna is 1/4 cup each of celery and green pepper for each small can of tuna you use. My daughter and I disagree on what type of relish needs to be used, she likes dill relish, and I can’t imagine it without sweet relish.

We drain the water off the tuna so it doesn’t make the final product all watery. I usually dice the celery to 1/4 inch or smaller, the tuna is fairly smooth and not as chunky as chicken for chicken salad would be, so I think it works best to have the veggies diced small, but you do what you want. Some times I get lazy and hurried and cut them bigger just to speed things up. I usually mix it all up in my 8-cup Pyrex glass measuring cup.

Stir in the light mayo and relish until you get the right combination of texture and taste.

Then I store it in small, single-serve plastic containers about 1 cup in each. This makes it quick to grab a container when packing lunches. We just take the bread or wraps we want to use with the tuna along in a separate bag or container.

We enjoyed it so much we ate it all up before I could take a photo to show you how yummy it looks, but if I remember to take a picture the next time I make it I will add it in. Obviously, you can use the tuna from a pouch or larger cans, but the small 5 or 6 oz cans are usually what they sell at Aldi, so that is what I use. So just adjust the recipe to fit the amount of tuna you are using.

Please let me know how you like this special treat. Remember that making meals at home and packing your lunch for work or school are great ways to save money.

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May 23 2019

Review: Everyday Millionaires

If you are a member of the over-fifty club like I am, you are probably pre-occupied with figuring out how much longer you will need to work for a living before you can reasonably retire and do whatever you want with your life. After reading the book, Retire Inspired (affiliate) by Chris Hogan, I began to think about retirement in a completely different way. Chris says that retirement is not an age, it is a financial number. I love that! I have also listened to all of his podcasts and was looking forward to his most recent release that came out in January, Everyday Millionaires (affiliate) by Chris Hogan. After hearing the commercials for the new book on his podcast  a bunch of times I decided I could spare the $20 and buy the book, especially since it came with so many cool bonus freebies and was less than I would likely have paid if I had waited and bought it from any bookstore, and then I wouldn’t have gotten all the bonus things with it. So I caved and bought the book.

I loaned the hardcover out to my sister so she could read it too and thought perhaps we’d have a book club type discussion about it, but I delayed getting started reading the ebook or listening to the audiobook mostly due to technical issues and not taking the time to figure out how to get them loaded onto my phone so I could get started reading. My sister read some of it but I think she got sidetracked and has yet to get back to it. I finally got the audiobook loaded and ready to listen to before a road trip in early April but then next thing I knew, the trip was over and I never started the book. Procrastination is nobody’s friend!

I finally got around to starting and before I knew it I was finished. Whoever said “Begun is half done” was so right! The book was a lot like listening to his podcasts with loads of stories from everyday millionaires. It was really cool to hear how normal people like you and I saved and invested and stayed debt free long enough to become net-worth millionaires. Reading this book really gives me hope that us normal working class people can become millionaires too if we stay focused. I really enjoyed Everyday Millionaires, but I honestly liked his first book, Retire Inspired so much more. I felt like my thinking was adjusted more after reading Retire Inspired than this book. But both books are well worth reading. Best $20 I ever spent and now I have a hardcopy I can loan out once I get it back.

Here are some books by Dave Ramsey that, while a little older, are still super valid and worth reading also.

Have you read these or any other awesome financial books that you would recommend? Please share them in the comments below.

This post contains some affiliate links for your convenience. 
Please see this site's Policy & Disclosure Page for more info.
Category: Book Review, Goals, Money Saving, Review | Comments Off on Review: Everyday Millionaires
May 9 2019

Coffee Confessions

There are several ways books and professionals tell you to save money or cut your spending to pay off debt or save for retirement. The one that really burns me is when they tell you to stop getting fancy coffee or breakfast on your way to work. Give up your latte and all your money troubles will be solved, they say.

Why does it bother me so much? Because I don’t drink coffee, at all, ever. I don’t feel like that is realistic advice because I feel like if you are struggling financially you never had the money to do something that extravagant to begin with. Then, as I was talking it over with someone else who has struggled with money (an also doesn’t drink coffee), it hit me that while I never have lattes, there might be other little extravagances in my life (or your life) that could be given up or cut back a bit to free up some cash flow.

Coffee/Latte Substitutes:

It seems I am better at finding the little things that eat away at a budget for other people than I am for myself so I will point out a few that I have noticed in hopes it will help some of you save some money for whatever it is you feel the need to save for.

  • Manicures
  • Pedicures
  • Hair Treatments (color, perm, extensions, expensive hair products, etc)
  • Pets (the more you have the more the costs add up for food, bedding, treats, clothes, vet bills, replacing the carpet, bedding, vacuums and other things that get stained, ruined or worn out by having pets)
  • Car Washes (do you pay the monthly fee to come as often as you like?)
  • Car Upgrades (spoiler, shiny wheels, leather seats, etc)
  • Shoes
  • Clothes (I get that you get tired of wearing the same thing all the time, buy used)
  • Purses and other accessories
  • Makeup (God made us all beautiful, without it)
  • Jewelry
  • Fast Food (your body will thank you)
  • Fancy bottled drinks (especially water)
  • Meal Kits delivered to your door
  • Grocery delivery
  • Uber Eats/Door Dash (if you are trying to save money eating out is already more than you need to spend, so go pick it up yourself)
  • Subscriptions to boxes delivered to your door monthly (StitchFix, Ipsy, etc)
  • Books, Videos, Music that you could get free from the library
  • Prepackaged small portion packs (Chips, pudding cups, applesauce, etc)
  • Paper Plates, Cups, Plastic Cutlery (you probably already have a dishwasher, so use the real stuff)
  • Eating out more than twice a week
  • Signing kids up for every sport or activity (which makes you so busy you end up eating out, not to mention the fees and cost of uniforms, lessons, team photos, etc)

Coffee Confessions:

Now that I have found a few ideas for where you might be able to cut back, I should share some ways I have found to cut back. Here are some ways I save a little extra regularly (my coffee confessions):

  • Cutting veggies for snacking, even carrots
  • Packaging your own mini bags of chips/pretzels
  • Using various snack sized bags (did you know there are 3 shapes?)
  • Not eating lunch out (I work hard I deserve it)
  • Basic clothes then mix and match
  • Shop for more unique clothes second hand (Goodwill 1st Saturday sale)
  • Generic Brands
  • Refill bottles with my own drink from home
  • Bring your lunch to school or work with you
  • Cook at home (if you can read and follow instructions, you CAN do it)
  • Batch cook (this can be as easy as making a big pot of something on the weekend and eating it up during the busy weeknights) Try these recipes
  • Buy things you use often in bulk when they are on sale (toilet paper, paper towels, meats, soups, etc)
  • I use the library constantly (who has money to buy all the books and space to store them)
  • Use vinegar and microfiber cloths to clean instead of various specific use cleaners and paper towels)
  • Use vinegar instead of liquid fabric softener
  • Buy generic on everything I can (laundry detergent, paper goods, over the counter meds, foods, you name it)

Do you have some things that might be your “coffee or latte”? What are the little extravagances you allow yourself? How could you save some extra money without depriving yourself? The books tell you to give your coffee or latte up, I say just make do with a cheaper version and save the difference. You might appreciate the “real” thing more if you don’t get it very often. Tell us your top tricks and how much they have saved you in the comments below.

Category: Money Saving | Comments Off on Coffee Confessions
March 14 2019

Karen’s Veggie Soup Recipe

I created this recipe many years ago because I wanted to see if I could make a really good tasting vegetable soup that even my kids would eat. This is quick

and easy to make and Hubby says it is the best veggie soup he has ever eaten. I think that is due for the most part to my secret ingredient, beef bouillon cubes. Don’t tell, now, but this is my secret to making things taste “beefy”. In this case, it takes some of the “bite” out of the tomato and makes the vegetables go down easier. It also gives it a beefy taste without breaking your meat budget if that is a concern, just put less meat in. I used to use round steak for all things that others would use stew beef for because it was usually leaner and if found on sale, cheaper. Now it is much more difficult to find the round steak in the meat case at our local groceries, so I have had to resort to using stew beef myself. I usually cut the beef into much smaller chunks so you get some meat in almost every bite.

Vegetable Soup

2 (46 oz) Bottles or cans of Tomato Juice
1½ – 2 lb Beef Round Steak (or stew beef) cut into bite-sized pieces (all visible fat removed)
4 (15 oz) cans Mixed Vegetables
1 (12 oz) box Alphabet pasta (optional)
8 Beef Bouillon Cubes

Brown meat over medium or high heat until no longer pink. Drain off any fat. Pour in tomato juice. Add bouillon cubes. Pour in mixed vegetables and any liquid from the cans. Bring to a boil. Pour in pasta. Continue to cook over medium heat for at least 10 minutes, stirring frequently so the pasta doesn’t stick. Can be simmered until you are ready to serve it. Serve with bread and butter.

All ingredients may be generic; the taste will still be great. Makes a big stockpot full, so plan on a big crowd or leftovers. Also just as good without the pasta letters, but the kids love them. Any small pasta is fine, but the letters are just more fun. (A Karen Beidelman Original Recipe)

This is before it starts cooking.

This is what it looks like when it is ready to eat. Didn’t have the pasta so I left it out this time, which also saves calories. The pasta started out as a way to stretch it and make it more filling while getting the kids to eat it, and it became a normal part of the recipe after that.

If you want to stretch it, add more veggies or tomato juice or both. You can make it vegetarian by leaving out the meat, it all depends on what you like and who you are feeding. Refrigerate any leftovers in a tightly closed container.

If you make this recipe, I’d love to hear from you.

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