Occasionally, I review books that I think are relevant to the site.  While this one isnt specifically about creating a healthier environment or finances, I thought it was an interesting book about creating a great state of mental health.  Being mentally healthy will help you be happier and more productive, and who doesnt want that, right?

If you’re interested, you can buy the book on amazon in hardcover or for your kindle.

The book was based on a popular course at amazon designed make the lives (and work) of all googlers better by increasing the mindfulness and emotional intelligence of googlers by focusing on 3 steps.  The Three steps are:

1. Attention Training
2. Self Awareness and Self Mastery
3. Creating Useful Mental Habits

The book relies heavily on scientifically proven concepts that will help you get ahead in your life and business – which im a big fan of.  Using scientific data will hook me no matter the process, because if science says it works, then it probably will work.

Much of this book is focusing on habits, which I know are huge parts of your life, as they essentially take over when you’re in a new situation.  Knowing your habits (self awareness) is key.  A great example from my life is that I occasionally dont know when to quit – H brought me 2 bags of candy for my birthday, which was really nice, but something I never would have done for myself, because I know what will happen.  I’d eat all the candy too quickly and get a stomachache.  Sure enough, I ate about a pound of candy in 2 or so days, and I didnt feel right for a day or so after that.  For me, a better treat would have been 1 pack of candy. That way, I could have eaten the whole thing and not felt like crap for 3 or so days.  This is a habit of mine that i’m fully aware of, so the place where I avoid it is at the store – I just dont buy candy at all, and when I do, I dont buy the giant bags of it.  Knowing habits like that (and avoiding them, if they are as bad as mine) is key to creating a happier life, as the book says.

Another big theme is meditation, which I’ll admit i’ve never really tried – it seem kind of new-agey and a waste of time – I feel like i’ve got better things to do, but the book makes a pretty convincing case for meditation.  You slowly breathe, which turns into a distraction of some sort, regain your focus and breath again, repeating the cycle.  This can help you reduce stress and develop a better attitude – something I know that I could use from time to time.  While I cant say that I’ll surely meditate after reading this book, It’s something that I’d like to consider after finishing doing the work that H and I are doing on the new house (hopefully I’ll be able to put pictures up soon).

Finally, you want to create “desireable mental habits”  - in the words of buddha, what we think, we become.  So think more about what you want, and keep thinking about it.  Try not to get distracted by the day to day and focus on what’s really important.  That way, you should be able to do more soul searching.

Overall, this was a really interesting book and if youre interested at all in self improvement, I’d give it a look.

Forget about your budget for a moment.  What is the normal range of activities in your household?  Are you racking up expenses “going out” all the time, or do you normally stay in and save money.  From food and entertainment to more, your household’s baseline is a great indicator of your budget.

You Are What You Eat

This popular saying has little to do with finances.  Linking health to your diet, though, we can make an analogy.  The health of your budget in inextricably linked to activities that normally take place in your household.

Remove the special events and look at what is “normal.”  Now take a look at some key categories that pertain to your household:

• Food: What does an average dinner look like for you/your family?  Is there a healthy mix of dining out, carry out, and homemade meals?  Is there a preponderance of one category? (Jeffs note: H and I are planning on leaning heavily on our CSA this year)
• Entertainment: From Netflix to the movie theater, this can be a game-changer in your budget.  Consider your habits, from going to the bars and expensive sporting events to board games with the family and more.
• Shopping: Are you addicted to shopping?  By taking a look at credit card bills, you can see if this is your secret habit.  You can even break your budget by going on your computer or smartphone to shop.

Establish a Healthy Baseline

Some of us may have unhealthier habits than others.  After all, there is nothing wrong with going out to eat once in a while.  Yet, if that in itself is a habit – while on a tight budget – then you might want to partake in this reality check.

Many personal finance articles will look at particulars.  No, we’re not talking about term deposit rates and a car insurance comparison that can help you take your budget to new heights; we are keying in on that of your actual budget.  You’ll read about setting limits, giving yourself an allowance in certain categories, and so forth in regards to your budget.

What’s the point?  When you look at your routines, you can often see the health of your budget revealed through these items.  Those who are on tight budgets may be eating out too much, shopping a lot, and going out with their friends too much.  That simply isn’t healthy for one’s budget.

If you need help in these areas, look to make your “baseline” healthier.  Fall back on playing board games and homemade meals with your family.  Make a habit out of having your friends come over for an inexpensive night in – and combine it with free and cheap ways to go out and enjoy the nightlife.  Whether you’re single or have a family, you can have healthy budgeting habits revealed through how you live.

Overall, it can be confusing looking at numbers.  Surely, there is a place for that – at the end of each month.  Qualitatively looking at your actions can reveal what is present in your budget.  Do you normally engage in activities that are frugal?  Take a look at your household’s baseline to see how you are influencing your budget.

Jeff’s Note:  Exchanging habits was probably the best thing for my budget.  I started eating a home more, going out less and finding different things to do that didnt cost near as much.  As my “monthly nut” went down, I was able to increase my debt repayments and get out of debt faster.

H and I have been in our new house for about 2 weeks at this point, and have completed most of the demo we’d like to do (upstairs, anyway).  We’ve completely gutted out the bathroom and the kitchen.  We moved into a house built in the 20s, so it was kind of sad to see some of the stuff go – we had to break apart a cast iron tub with a sledgehammer and carry that to the dump, because it would have been possible to pick up and carry out in one piece, and we had to partially destroy some of the cabinets in the kitchen that were built in by the original owner (though we were able to save half of them and those went into my outbuilding).  Seeing those things come down was pretty hard, because they were so well made, but they would have been extremely difficult to use, now and in the future.  We’ve been donating what we can (and even had some mirror decorations that we donated because they were ugly as sin that made a cameo in a movie H and I watched recently).  I’m working on an article about what to do with all of that stuff to maximize sustainability, so stay tuned.

Ninja took some kids out flocking to raise money.  I think this is a creative idea to raise some cash, and some more thinking in that market is sorely needed.  I cant stand when someone comes up and asks me to buy something.  For one, I feel like the products are geared towards women (I get offers for cookies (both men & women) candybars (same) and candles).  None of those are things I would buy in bulk on a daily basis (or ever), so I dont want to keep them around.  I’d rather give the kid 10 bucks to go away, and they can keep all the money instead of some company taking a cut of the profit.   How do you guys feel?

The Simple dollar has an article about credit cards.  I agree with this – all the cards I use give me some rewards, usually travel miles or points of some sort.  I’ve built a large cache of them this way, and used a portion of them for my honeymoon, and a few other wedding odds and ends.

This is a guest post from Miss T at Prairie Eco Thrifter.  

The old saying of “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” holds especially true in the modern world. Life moves at such a fast pace these days and there always seems to be so much to do. It is vital to create good work/life balance if you want to live a long, healthy and productive life. Here are 5 tips to help you do it:

Work out what’s important to you.

Take the time to sort out your priorities. Determine what is really important to you. Make a list of the top ten things that are important to you, those things that are your absolute top priorities.

These may include family, maintaining friendships, getting healthy and fit, your career, sporting or cultural pursuits, church and religion, travel and holidays, giving back to the community, education, interests and passions. The list of possibilities is almost endless but as you compile your list, it is important to ask yourself, ‘ is this really important to me?’

Arrange these top ten priorities in order of importance. If you have listed more than ten, put them underneath, in order of importance. Check over your list and make sure it is correct. You might find that you revise your list over the next few days.

Keep a journal

For two weeks to a month, keep a journal of all the activities that take up your time. Make a note of how you felt while completing this activity; were you happy, relaxed, angry, upset, stressed or any other emotions.

Compare your journal entries with your priority list. Mark in red any activity that does not appear on your priority list. Mark in green the ones that are on your list and are therefore important to you. Calculate your work/life balance by comparing the time you spend at work with the time you spend on one of your top ten priorities.

Analyze how you spend your time

Take some time for this step, because it is important. Look over your journal and note the percentage of activities marked with red, meaning that they are not a priority for you. Note the following:

• Was it necessary, even if not a priority?
• Was it important that you do it? More important than doing something on your top ten list?
• Why were you really doing it?
• Will you need to continue to do this activity?
• Is there a way you can reduce the time that activity could take in the future?
• Can you delegate it?

Check your schedule

Look for ways that you can create more time for activities that contribute to your top ten. How can you reduce the time you spend at work and increase your time doing things that are important to you? Look for ways you can be more productive with your time by practising time management skills. Find tasks that you can delegate to someone else. Can you do some work at home to reduce travel time?

What is the ideal work/life balance for you?

You need to know what you are aiming for in work/life balance before you can make any adjustments to how you are spending your time. This will be different for everyone. You might need to consult the people who are close to you, especially those who are in your top ten priority list. Ask your friends and family how much of your time they want or need. Consider how much time you want to spend at the gym, or playing sport or attending new classes etc.

One of the best ways to adjust your work/life balance is to ask yourself the following question when faced with any activity – “is this adding to the time I want to spend on my top ten priorities?” This simple question will help you get your life in balance so that you can lead a happier, healthier life.

It may surprise you, but there is a way you can get involved in financial planning and trading without having to spend too much. Using the same level of skill, financial spread betting can, if successful, be very rewarding financially.

By spread betting, UK based traders can trade on markets in the US and just about anywhere else in the world. By using your money wisely and learning how to Spread Bet from companies such as City Index, you could make significant profits.

You can make significant returns as Spread Betting is margined or leveraged, similar to how you buy a house with a mortgage, meaning that you only need to deposit a small fraction (typically between 1% – 10%) of the total trade value in order to place the Spread Bet.

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This means that your outlay is low, but your returns could be magnified.

Similarly, Spread Betting is also risky, with the potential to lose more than your initial deposit if you do not employ Risk Management tools to your Spread Bets. You can learn more about Risk Management through your Spread Betting provider, such as City Index.

In normal trading, if you own shares in a company, you actually own part of that company. The more you own, the bigger the share of that company is in your hands. Owning shares in a company carries a great deal of risk as well as potential reward.

Members of the public can only buy stock in a company if they’re listed on a stock market of some kind. The value depends on how successful that company is. People who want to own stock need plenty of patience, as jumping straight in could be damaging to your investment if you buy at a time when the stock’s value is falling. Researching the stock before investing is useful, as you’ll then be able to identify when the right time to buy is.

With financial spread betting, you can trade on stocks without actually owning them. You can spread bet on whether a stock or an entire market’s value will rise or fall and do this with several different shares.

While spread betting requires plenty of skill and know-how of markets, with little preparation, it could be worth your while. There are thousands of markets such as shares, currencies, indices and commodities to choose from, which is part of spread betting’s growing appeal.

As a leveraged product, any profits made could be significantly greater than your initial investment, as you only pay a small deposit of the total value you want to trade. Meanwhile, if you do incur losses, risk management tools are available, which will help to limit them.

Jeff’s note: I don’t do spread betting like this – It’s incredibly risky and I dont ever feel like I’d be able to sleep at night knowing that I owed on a bunch of stuff and my bet isnt coming through.  As always, try at your own risk.

I’m just over a month away from my marathon, and things have been going pretty smooth.  Finishing a marathon is one of my goals for 2012, so naturally I crafted a plan at the beginning of the year and it has all been execution since then.  There were a few missed runs when I went to new mexico, but things quickly got back on track and I kept going as the weekend miles (that’s the time when you do a really long run) crept higher.

Things honestly have been pretty easy so far.  As long as I make time to do the runs, I can go out there and just run, and it takes nothing but time.  Also, i’m getting a bit faster, so it doesnt take as much time as it used to.  I have been keeping to my 3 runs during the week and the long run on the weekend, but have slipped a bit with my gym routine.  This is starting to bug me, but I’ve had a lot going on lately so something was going to have to give, but i’m hoping to get back into the gym habit soon.

One thing that I would like to point out is that running a marathon is time consuming to train for, but I honestly feel like anyone can do it if they actually train for it.  To date, the longest race I’ve run is a 5k, and I’ve only done 3 of those in my life, and my first one was feb 2011.  I hated running before that because I thought it was boring and pointless, plus I was slow so that made it less fun.  Of course, I was slow because I never ran.  One takeaway that I do have from this is that when you set a goal, map out a plan to achieve it – I did this with my marathon goal, but not any of my debt goals – and as you know, I have not made nearly as much progress on those as I would have liked.  Having a schedule where I can look at something and say “Oh it’s tuesday, I need to run 4 miles today” really makes it easier – There’s no debating how long I should run for or where to go, just that I need to get out and go.

Unfortunately, all of this recently has been roses, but I feel like it’s going to get far more difficult.  We closed on our house on friday, and have a long list of things that we’d like to change, as well as moving all of our stuff.  This essentially took all  of the time both H and I had this weekend.  We were moving, demo-ing and unpacking, and still are quite a ways away from where we’d like to be.  I missed a run this weekend while entertaining my folks (and H’s) who had come up to help us with the move and poke around our new house, and spent most of the day going to the hardware store (7 times) and gutting the bathroom.  I could have carved out some time to run, but unfortunately I didnt.

This is something that I need to be aware of and watch in the future, and I’ll let you know how I’m doing.  Do you have any suggestions for how to keep to a schedule?

H and I are all moved in to our new place, and are currently living in the basement while we are renovating the upstairs.  The basement is pretty hideous – was last redone in the 70s or so and it’s got some gross brown and tan carpet everywhere.  Even though it’s small, it’s still a bit more room than our old place, and it’s just the basement!  We have finally gotten back to a semi normal schedule and are eating home cooked meals.  Unfortunate, we dont have a stove/oven so everything’s going to be done in the crock pot or the rice cooker until our kitchen is useable again – which hopefully will be soon.

On to this week’s links.

Joan over at man vs debt has a great post on side hustles.  I cant say enough about the side hustle, as it really helped kick my debt repayment into high gear from 2009-2011 when I was working 2 jobs for about 70 hours a  week, and that didnt include driving.  It put more money in my pocket, and didnt give me enough free time to spend any of that extra money, so I just put it towards debt.

J Money has a post about how his water heater broke last week and he blamed it on his poor cat.  Replacement of appliances like this is a really interesting scenario, and i’m working on a post about it for the future, and hopefully J will answer some questions for me about the replacement in the post.

Marie at Prairie eco thrifter has an article about using natures bounty.  Gardens are a great way to get some very good food for a great price.  I’m hoping I can get something planted this year, but it’s not looking great at the moment.

April was a far different month financially speaking, than I’ve ever had in my life.  H and I closed on our house at the end of the month, so there was a TON of money flowing into and out of my checking and savings accounts (and into the local hardware store) so honestly things have been rather hard for me to track.  Toss some taxes into the mix, and there was a lot of activity in my account, which is both good and bad.  May should be far calmer (except for trips to the hardware store, which will probably increase – H and I have been every day for at least 6 days in a row).

Debt:

This has been up and down for a while, but now that we have closed on the house it’s going to shoot up – I’ve also got a bit more on my credit card than I usually do, which I’m hoping to get most back because of (another) tax mix up.

House

This hasnt been finalized yet, but it’s going to be a whopper.   We got a 15 year note, and our payments arent that much more than our rent was, but that is before taxes, insurance, etc.

Student Loans

Great Lakes Loan $10,875 ($95)  I hate this loan.  It never goes down.  I got my tax form from them this year, and I paid them over 1,000 in interest.

Truck Loan

Ford Credit: $7,430 983  ($553):  This is my next target.  In order to keep myself motivated to pay off this goal, I decided to set myself a mini goal.  The payments that I talked about sending at the end of last month came through, along with my monthly payment as well as an extra $100 that I sent them last week.  Finally, getting somewhere.  I’m really close on this and my goal is 6,750.  I’ve got a nice place to brew my beer, so now all I need is the kit!

Total Debt: 18,305 This will probably be as low as my debt gets for a very, very long time.  Oh well, it’s still a far cry from my high of 56,500 in december of 2009!

Health Goals

Though the year is out, i’m still going to keep this going in my monthly reviews.  Since I’ve got a goal of running a marathon for next year, I’ll be counting runs in this as well.  I’ve been continuing my weight lifting regimen as well as doing my marathon training, so I’ve been something of an exercise rat as of late.  My week typically has 4 runs (3 short, 1 long) and 5 weightlifting workouts.  I usually do the weights before work at the gym in the morning, and my short runs Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, with the long run on Saturday.  This month was slightly clouded by my trip to new mexico to watch basketball, where I didnt stick with my plan (though that was anticipated).  However, getting back into the routine hasnt been as easy as I would have hoped.

Goal Workouts: 20

For this, I count my gym visits and my runs.  This month I ran 15 times, for a total of 90 miles.   I went to the gym 19 times as well.

Total Workouts: 30

Food Challenges:

This month, in an effort to save some money and start eating what food H and I have, I started a Meat Challenge and a Grocery Store Challenge.  The meat challenge was unfortunately broken, but not for H and myself.  In order to bribe our friends to help us move, we promised to have a little bbq for everyone that helped, so we needed to get some burgers for that.  Everything else is going well though.

How are your yearly goals going?  

Bachelor Party - I’ve been to a lot of these recently and they have been of all stripes – a trip to Vegas, a camping/rafting trip and one where we went sledding and out to dinner and a few bars.  Personally, I had a great time at every single one of these, and from the people that I talked to who were there said the exact same thing.  No matter what you do or where you go, I feel like you’re going to have a good time because you’re hanging out with your friends.  I havent decided what to do quite yet, but it’s probably going to be something along the lines of a camping/hiking/fishing trip or something.  It will probably be pretty close to where we all live (except for 1 person) so that everyone can go, which is what I’m concerned about most.  My estimated cost is going to be heavily dependent on gas prices.  I know it will take me at least 1 tank of gas to get down there, and my most recent fill up was 60+
Estimated Cost: $150

Gifts for my Groomsmen - I havent decided what I’m going to get those jackals quite yet, but I’d like it to be something that each of them enjoys and gets a chance to use frequently.  I’d also like something lasting, so beer or something similar is out (at least as the main portion – I may try and brew a special batch for them).  Obviously I’ve seen a ton of stuff but dont want to go the typical route of a flask or a cigar cutter – my friends dont drink much hard booze, and only smoke cigars once in a blue moon (though prob will at my bachelor party).
Estimated Cost: Undisclosed, since I know some of them read this.  It’ll be sweet though guys, I promise.

Bride’s gift – I’m going to be 100% honest here and fully admit that I had absolutely no idea what H was talking about when this came up for the first time.  She started going on about her sisters wedding gift from her husband and I stopped her and said: “Wait, I tricked you into marrying me, and now I have to get you a gift to make sure nothing goes sideways? That’s BS”  After that I got a long spiel about how it’s tradition and bla bla (a friend of mine put a spending cap on wedding gifts for him and his fiancee, equal to the exact amount of the firearm he wanted).  I know that a lot of ladies read my blog and probably wont be happy with this, but I still question wether or not this is needed.  I have found something that I hope that she will like and that wont break the bank, but I still feel like the resources could be better used elsewhere.  I’m happy to give her something in all honesty, I just cant convince her not to get me anything (yet).
Estimated Cost: We are going to set a cost limit on this, but havent decided yet.

Well, that’s about all for the more fun stuff.  How much did you spend on gifts, etc for your wedding?

Today is the day that H and I are closing, so this post is going to be short (also, I took back the internets on Wednesday, so we dont have internet at the house right now).  After talking about the huge check yesterday, and I got the final number yesterday, which was still mind boggling.

After closing, one of the things that I’m looking forward to the most is going on an efficiency shopping trip to the hardware store.  I havent decided exactly what i’m going to get on this trip, but it will be all products that you can quickly change yourself that will save energy, (light or heat) or water – which will reduce your use and your bills.  It could be a rather expensive trip, but it will pay off in the long run.  I havent looked at everything yet, but here are a few things I know will be on the list.  (I’ll also write a more detailed post about what I get and why later)

Programmable Thermostat

These things are awesome.  You set them up to keep the temperature at a certain level for a certain time (say, from the time you normally get up in the morning to the time you leave for work) and then it will kick off when no one is home during the day, so you’re not heating a big, empty house.  I’ve installed them before and they take about an hour or so to install and set up.  After that, it’s nothing but automatic energy savings.

LED Bulbs

These bulbs are new (to consumers) and are still kind of expensive, at around 15 bucks per bulb.  They last much longer than normal incandescent bulbs and even CFL’s and use a fraction of the energy.  I’ll have to check and see which lights will be on most and start there, to save the most cash right away, then I’ll moved on to the lower used ones.

Dual Flush Toilet

These have been around for a while, and the toilets use less water based on the type of discharge that someone puts in there.  Typically you’ll get about 1/2 the water if you push the handle up, and  a full flush if you push the handle down.  These are about 20 bucks for the kit.

That’s about it for now, but once I actually make this trip I know that I’ll have done more research and add more things to the list.  Enjoy your weekend!