Tightwaddery

Happy Valentine's Day! Coincidentally, Tom and I were BOTH maneuvering to wake up early to make breakfast this morning. We compromised and cooked a delicious waffle and carmelized banana breakfast together. Yum! Tonight's festivities included the exchange of homemade cards, the take-out Indian food dinner, and a mandolin concert.

Valentines Day (or Hallmark Day) does carry some unfortunate traditions, I think. The $80 roses and the "if you love your wife you'll buy her diamonds" commercials drive me absolutely bonkers. I read that the AVERAGE American spends $121 on Valentines Day. Yikes! And it always makes me marvel that one of the values most central to being "American" is that of consumption.

So, in honor of a frugal (but lovely) Valentine's Day, I thought I would post about some interesting personal-finance web sites I've been reading in the last month or two. Feel free to ignore this post entirely if you're more interested in goofy pictures of our friends or stories where we fawn over Banjo. We'll be back to the regularly scheduled programming shortly.

First, my recent favorite investment vehicle - ShoreBank High Interest savings account. I started out in ING Orange, but ShoreBank has a higher interest rate and is also the FIRST online bank to offer accounts with a socially conscious charter - they invest in community improvement projects nationwide. Seems like a great idea to me!

Second, a couple blogs that I read regularly and enjoy - Money and Values, Boston Gal's Open Wallet, Get Rich Slowly, Queercents, and Make Love, Not Debt.

Third, (courtesy of Get Rich Slowly), some hysterical examples of "extreme personal finance". Sometimes I feel like we're being extreme by washing and re-using ziploc bags or freezing two tablespoons of leftover tomato paste, but these people take tightwaddery to an entirely different level... America on $10 a day, How to pay off your mortgage in 3 years, and The Most Fuel Efficient Man in America.

Lastly, I want to recommend a book that I have really enjoyed. The Tightwad Gazette is a compilation of several years worth of a "frugal" newsletter that was published ten years ago. There are some great ideas in there as well as some other examples of extreme tightwaddery (like rinsing out your ketsup bottles and saving the water for use in soup) but overall it is a great resource to have.

Cheers!