Pinching Pennies

January is the time of year that many people think about budgeting after the economic excesses of the Christmas season.  Rob and I were looking at our bank statement and realized we were spending a lot more than we were earning.  He thought maybe someone was siphening money out of our account.  However, it was just a case of us being unaware of our spending habits.  We didn't go out and make a huge purchase; it was simply "death by a thousand cuts" as Rob explained.  Well, just as we spent ourselves into debt little by little, the way to get ourselves out of the hole is to cut back little by little.  Here are some tips I found on the Internet to pinch pennies, a term first coined in 1942 when  World War II was forcing everyone to cut back.

1.  Cancel newspaper or magazine subscriptions.

2.  Find the cheapest gas in town.  However, don't drive so far that you burn up too much gas getting there.

3.  Cut back on your heating by turning down the thermostat.  Turn it up in the summer to cut back on air conditioning.

4.  Purchase inexpensive foods at the grocery store that go a long way ex. spaghetti.

5.  Purchase a water filter and drink tap water.  You will save a lot on bottles.

6.  Brew your own coffee.

7.  Pack your own lunch.

8.  Stock up on sale items at the grocery store, especially non-perishables like canned goods, rice, etc.

9.  Avoid fast, processed or convenience foods.

10.  Choose generic brands if the taste is comparable.

11.  Shut off the lights.

12.  Switch your life/home/car insurance to a cheaper provider.

13.  Save at least 10% of your income.

14.  Cook rather than eating out.  I was watching "Till Debt Do Us Part"  one day.  The show featured a young couple who spent, on average, $1330 a month on restaurants!

15.  Pay your bills online to save on stamps/gas.  I have yet to follow this tip.

16.  Send an e-mail rather than calling long distance.

17.  Use homemade cleaning products rather than store-bought ones.

18.  Check your toilets for water leaks.  My Mom noticed her water bill inching up each month and wondered why.  She checked her four toilets and discovered at least one leaking.

19.  Shop at a discount grocery store like Food Basics, Price Choppers.  However, it's not just where you shop, but how you shop.  Rob and I switched supermarkets for a few months and noticed our bills dropped for several weeks but then they started inching up.

20.  Take a spending break for a day.  Suze Orman recommends this tip.

21.  Get a library card.  Books are more expensive than ever before, especially in Canada.

22.  Shop around for a better mortgage rate.  When Rob and I first got our mortgage, the country was still recovering from a recession and rates were high.  Within five years, interest rates dropped considerably and we were able to blend our mortgage rate (they blended our rate with the current rate and met somewhere in the middle).  In the meantime rates dropped even further and we switched to another bank which paid our penalty for switching mortgage holders. 

Sources:  www.ehow.com
                www.credit.com

Here are some recommended books to read on pinching pennies:

1.  1001 Ways to Cut Your Expenses (Jonathan D. Pond)

2.  The Tightwad Gazette (Amy Dacyczyn)

3.  A Day Without Spending, a Lifetime's Worth of Lessons (Suze Orman)



Photo courtesy www.theepochtimes.com.

Peanuts' Premiere

The "Peanuts" comic strip appeared in 26,000 newspapers, was read by 855 million people, in 75 countries and was translated into 21 languages.  The strip was first printed in the Saturday Evening Post in 1948.  It made its official debut in eight dailies on October 2, 1950 and in the Sunday newspapers on January 6, 1952.  Charles Schulz started with only four characters Charlie Brown, Shermy, Patty and Snoopy.  However, in time, the cast of characters expanded to include:  Violet and Schroeder (1951), Lucy and Linus (1952), Pig Pen (1954) Sally (1959), Frieda (1961), Peppermint Patty (1966), Woodstock (1967, named in 1970), Franklin (1968), Marcie (1971), and Rerun (1973). 

Over the years, Charles Schulz raised certain social issues including World War I (flying ace Snoopy hunts the Red Baron), racism (Franklin is Black), the Vietnam War, the "new math", space (Snoopy launched the first human into space), and Christianity (The Charlie Brown Christmas includes Linus reading from the King James version of the Bible about Christ's birth).  Raised as a Lutheran, the cartoonist said that "Linus represented his spiritual side". 

Despite competition from several other comic strips including "Garfield" in the 1980's and "Calvin and Hobbes" in the 1990's, "Peanuts" remained the most popular comic strip of all time.  In total, the comic  had 17,897 different strips.  Charles Schulz signed off of the dailies on January 3, 2000 and last appeared in the Sunday newspapers on February 13, 2000, the day after his death. 



Peanuts' first Sunday strip courtesy http://2.bp.blogspot.com.

Cars in the Driveways, Chickens in the Pots

"[Henry Ford] knew that when there were cars in the driveways and chickens in the pots on the stoves in houses that people could afford to own, there would be pride in the hearts of the people."*

It was on January 5, 1914 that Henry Ford first announced the eight hour shift and the revolutionary $5 a day wage at his car plant.  Previously, shifts had been nine hours in length and minimum wage was $2.34 a day.  Some say that Ford's reason for the increased wages was altruistic; afterall, he had welcomed the physically handicapped and reformed prisoners into his factory, so why wouldn't he help the average Joe?  However, others claimed that the wage increase was strictly an economic move on the part of the entrepreneur:  he figured that he would reduce employee absenteeism, the employee turnover rate and new employee training costs while increasing morale and productivity.  The $5 a day wage enabled his employees to buy the cars they made.  Furthermore, Henry offered a share in the company profits to his "clean living" employees.  Slowly but surely an American middle class was developping.  By 1916, in the suburb of Dearborn, Michigan where Ford's employees lived, an automobile sat in most driveways.   And the proof was in the pudding:  in a two year period, Model T sales jumped from 260,722 to 577,396 and profits skyrocketed from $30 million to $60 million.  Henry Ford's gamble paid off in spades.

*Source:  "Christmas Wish is for Renewed American Pride", Roy N. Pullam, Evansville Courier & Press, December 26, 2011.



Photo courtesy http://farm6.staticclickr.com.

Six Dots, An Awl and a Piece of Paper

On January 4, 1890, in Coupvray, France, a baby was born who would invent a communication system of raised dots, enabling the blind to read and write.  Louis Braille, and his three older sisters, was raised by a leatherer and a homemaker.  At the age of three, he was playing in his father's shop when he poked himself in the eye with an awl, leading to an infection, which later spread to the second eye.  In the end, he lost both eyes and was blinded.  Even so, he was blessed with loving parents who tried to make his life as normal as possible and encouraged him to pursue his education as far as possible despite his disability.  Louis enrolled in the National Institute for Blind Youth in Paris, France where he learned how to "write" using a system of embossed Latin letters invented by Valentin Hauy.  However, the system was cumbersome:  although students could write a few words, it was almost impossible for them to write an entire letter home using the method.  Louis thrived at the Blind Institute, becoming a student aid and later a professor.  He also took an interest in music, blossoming into an accomplished cellist and organist, performing at verious churches in France.  Intent on finding a better way to read and write, he found out about a "night writing" code of dots and dashes used by soldiers to share information on the battefield developped by Captain Charles Barbier.  While the captain's system involved 12 dots and a series of dashes, the young professor invented his own communication system using only six raised dots (in various sequences) and no dashes.  He poked the holes into a paper with, of all things, an awl.  The Braille alphabet was first published in 1839, but it was not until 1854 that the National Institute for Blind Youth adopted the system, two years after Louis' death. 

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28)



Bust of Louis Braille courtesy http://louisbrailleschool.org.

Braille alphabet courtesy http://grade1.forestgreenschool.ca.

The Onion Dome

In 1555, Ivan the Terrible ordered the construction of a cathedral on Red Square at the geometric centre of Moscow.  The plan called for a castle-like structure with two spires and nine onion-shaped domes, giving the effect of flames from a giant bonfire.  Completed in 1561, the church belonged to the Russian Orthodox religion for years, holding rituals like the Palm Sunday procession where the Patriarch sat on a donkey and walked around Red Square.  Sadly, as part of the Soviet Union's anti-theist campaign, the church became a museum in 1928 and was completely secularized by 1929.  It remains an architectural marvel. 



St. Basil’s Cathedral. Moscow, Russia. (Image source: Soleterranean)

The Horse the Germans Could Not Kill

Britain sent one million horses to the Western Front during the Great War.  Nine hundred thousand of them never returned.  One horse did return and lived to the ripe old age of 32.  Upon his death an article appeared in a newspaper called "The Horse the Germans Could Not Kill".  What was his name?  Warrior. 

General Jack Seely, born on the Isle of Wight, always loved horses.  He was matched up with Warrior and used to ride him on the island's beaches, unperturbed by the giant waves from the sea.  When World War I started, Warrior was chosen for battle and headed over to the Continent.  He would charge the advancing army, unfazed by bullets, bombs and shells, even as his fellow horses were falling on either side.  He survived major battles at Ypres, the Somme and Passchendaele.  Hailed as a hero, he was often painted by the war artist Alfred Munnings. 

In 1934, General Jack Seely wrote a book about his beloved horse called My Horse Warrior.  A London stage production called War Horse was mounted and over one million tickets have been sold.  Steven Spielberg has produced a movie called" War Horse" loosely based on the story.  We all know about the humans on the battefront, but few of us know about the horses.  Thank you, Warrior, for your fearless sacrifice!



Painting of Warrior & General Jack Seely courtesy http://i.telegraph.uk.co.

 

Auld Lang Syne

I searched high and low for a yule log yesterday.  We visited the Zehrs Bakery and they had none:  Jacqueline, her heart set on getting one, announced:  "We're not leaving here until we get a cake."  However, the Happy New Year Cakes were $25.99 and I wasn't prepared to spend that much.  After a minute or two, she realized that I wasn't going to cave in, so she relented to going to the baking aisle and settled on a Duncan Hines cake mix for $1.50.  In the meantime, I went to Metro with Thomas and found a real yule log for only $7.99.  We ate pizza and pasta for supper; for dessert, I served the yule log with two candles, and we sang "Auld Lang Syne".

"Auld Lang Syne" was a poem written by Scottish poet Robert Burns in 1788.  It was set to music and became a traditional song sung on New Year's Eve in Scotland.  As Scottish immigrants settled in other countries, they brought the song with them.  Canadian Band Leader Guy Lombardo popularized the Scottish ballad in North America, playing it at the Roosevelt Hotel on New Year's Eve in 1929.  From then on, it became the band leader's signature piece.  The song became such a tradition that "Life magazine wrote that if Guy Lombardo failed to play 'Auld Lang Syne' on New Year's Eve, the American public would not believe that the new year had really arrived."*

AULD LANG SYNE 

Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind ?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
 and old lang syne ?

CHORUS:

For auld lang syne, my dear, for auld lang syne,

 we'll take a cup of kindness yet, for auld lang syne.

And surely you’ll buy your pint cup !

and surely I’ll buy mine !

And we'll take a cup o’ kindness yet,

for auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We two have run about the slopes,
and picked the daisies fine ;
But we’ve wandered many a weary foot,
since auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We two have paddled in the stream,
from morning sun till dine^† ;
But seas between us broad have roared
since auld lang syne.

CHORUS

And there’s a hand my trusty friend !
And give us a hand o’ thine !
And we’ll take a right good-will draught,
for auld lang syne.

CHORUS

*Source: www.infoplease.com, "New Year's Traditions", Borgna Brunner.



Photo of Roosevelt Hotel, New York City, courtesy www.theroosevelthotel.com.