The Stove-In-A-Can is exactly what the name suggests. It’s a stove, and it comes in a can. It’s actually pretty cool. I’ll go into everything that comes in the can in a second. It is made primarily for emergency preparedness and campers.

I recently got my hands on one of these to try it out.

Here’s how it worked for me. Warning: many pictures ahead.

Here’s the can itself. It’s the same size around as all those #10 cans of mashed potato pearls that you’ve got stacked in the basement.

To open the can, you need a tool. And by “a tool” I mean “pretty much anything.” A screwdriver, a can opener, or if you’re like me, a knife.

See, I didn’t even have to open the knife. The can opens up like a can of paint.

The little white flecks you see in the picture below are rock salt grains, which my 2-year-old threw at me as I brought the Stove In A Can into the house. Now, you don’t want to use this inside your house unless you’re a big fan of smoke damage, but I brought it in because it was cold and windy outside and I wanted to spend as little time as I could out there.

Here’s everything that comes in a Stove-In-A-Can. 4 compressed fuel cells, an instruction manual, some waterproof matches, a “fuel ring” to lift the fuel off the bottom of the can, and a “cooking ring” that enables airflow. All this retails for $34.99.

Okay, I didn’t have a great place in my yard to text this out, so I threw it on the grill.

To keep the fuel cell off the bottom of the can, I joined the two ends of the fuel ring like so:

I put the fuel ring in the bottom then unwrapped a fuel cell and placed it atop the ring. As the manual suggested, I broke off and crumbled a small piece of the fuel cell there on top. I didn’t want to burn the wrapper, because I wanted to use it to store the partially spent fuel cell after I was done. Anyway, as you can see, it took me three matches to light my little crumbled pile on fire. In all fairness, I didn’t crumble very much, and it was pretty cold and windy outside. Add on top of that the fact that I’m not exactly a fire wizard and now you know my excuses for why I needed three matches.

After I was sure it was going to burn, I put on the cooking ring and the lid. The manual says you can use the lid for stability or even as a cooking surface.

I through a big old stainless steel from the kitchen on top of the stove (don’t tell my wife). After five or ten minutes it felt hot enough to cook on.

 

I wish I had taken a picture of the scrambled eggs that I cooked for my daughters. They were magnificent. Anyway, after I was done, I put on a glove, removed the cooking ring and lid…

…then flipped the lid over to extinguish the flame.

Okay, so after cooking with the Stove In A Can, here are my overall thoughts.

This is really a great little stove for emergencies. It is easy to store, you don’t have to worry if it falls over while rattling around in the back of your truck, and it really does have everything you need including fuel and matches. You can buy one, throw it in your with your food storage, and you’re set for about a week’s worth of cooking (if you reuse the cells). It gets plenty hot and it very simple to use.

As you can see, there is some soot clean up when you’re done, especially if you want to reload everything into the can when you’re done. Because of this, I’m not sure if I’d use this as my go-to stove for camping. After all, my little propane stove is requires almost no clean up. If you’re not lazy like me, though, this can still be a great option.

All in all I think this is a groovy little product and I’ll be adding it to my food storage pile.

If you’re looking to throw one of these into your emergency supplies, you can get them direct from the manufacturer at QuickStove.com. They are also available at many of the big online emergency supply retailers.

Think you want to buy one? I’ll hook you up.

I chatted with the owner for a bit and was able to work out a great deal for you. How does $10 off sound? That’s almost 30%! If you order from the QuickStove website, just click the “I have a referral code” link and enter in realselfreliance to get your $10 off.

And yes, I get a small commission if you do this, but dang it, it took me hours* to talk the owner into giving you this sweet discount.

*not really, but you’re getting the best possible deal, so why should you care if we both benefit?

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If you’ve ever had to deal with a bee sting, an allergic reaction to a mosquito bite, or chiggers, you know it’s important to act quickly.

The key to dealing with insect bites and stings is this: act quickly, and get as much of the venom or saliva out of (or off) your skin as soon as possible. The insect’s venom or saliva is what is causing you the pain or itch. The sooner you remove the causal agent, the less severe of a reaction you’ll experience.

The following are do-it-yourself, first aid tips that will help you get ahead of the insect bite before too much damage has been done.

Bee or Wasp Stings

The trick with bee and wasp stings is to remove the stinger as quickly as possible and as completely as possible. You don’t want to leave any of the stinger in the skin at all. Most people find a credit card to be an effective tool for scraping the stinger out, but a long fingernail can work just as effectively and is usually available right away.

After you get the stinger out, apply one of the following to the sting site:

• A paste of baking soda and water
• White vinegar
• Half of an onion (sliced side on the sting site)
• An aloe vera leaf, split open (the wet, juicy inside is what will help the sting site)

None of these remedies will take the place of an Epipen in case of a serious allergic reaction. However, these strategies should alleviate the pain quickly if you are not seriously allergic to bee or wasp stings.

Mosquito Bites

Some people handle mosquito bites just fine, but some people swell up terribly. (I happen to be one of those people). However, there’s an easy, effective do-it-yourself remedy that works wonders for me and may for you also.

As soon as you realize you’ve been bitten, wash the area with warm soapy water. Dry the bite and then apply a couple drops of olive oil infused with comfrey leaves.

What’s comfrey, you ask? An herb that’s probably growing in your yard right now. You can order live comfrey plants online and grow them in a pot on your patio or in your garden. I keep a jar of olive oil with comfrey leaves in it nearby for any unidentified insect bites, and it usually relieves the sting, itch, and swelling right away.

Chigger Bites

You’ll read all kinds of crazy remedies for chiggers, but the important thing to realize is there are no chiggers under your skin. Because of the way chigger bites rise up and form rigid bumps, people mistaken think the chiggers have burrowed inside your skin and need to be suffocated. Whatever you do, do NOT put nail polish, bleach, paint thinner, or any other crazy substance on your chigger bites. You’ll just make an itchy situation worse.

Chiggers remain on the surface of your skin and actually can be washed or even wiped away quite easily with a damp cloth. In fact, it’s a good idea to carry a wet wipe in your pocket when you’re out in the woods or garden so you can swipe at your exposed ankles and knees (the most common place for chiggers to bite) once in a while.

If you’ve got chigger bites, wash the area with warm soapy water and concentrate on soothing the irritated skin. You can use ice (wrapped in a towel), hot baths, and aloe vera (split open a leaf and rub the juice on the bites). The maddening itch is from the chigger’s saliva; it causes a reaction in our skin that makes the cells around the bite become hard and raised. However, the best thing you can do for chigger bites is to soothe the area and resist scratching (which can make the bites itch worse and turn into open wounds).

As with all insect bites, see a doctor if you have serious allergy symptoms such as swelling of the face or throat or difficulty breathing.

Author Bio:

Erinn Stam is the Managing Editor for nursing scholarships. She attends Wake Technical Community College and is learning about grants for nursing students. She lives in Durham, NC with her lovely 4-year-old daughter and exuberant husband.

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A handgun can be a powerful tool in an emergency. It can also be totally worthless, or worse: it can be a liability. A handgun in the hand of a panicked burglar (or a panicked owner, even) can be deadly. Picking the right handgun for emergencies means knowing a few things about yourself, and it also means understanding a few things about handguns and their care.

Here’s what you need to know about picking the best handgun for an emergency:

• Know the limitations of a handgun. Any handgun you buy is going to be less effective and less powerful than a rifle or a shotgun. That’s the thing about emergencies, however; rifles and shotguns usually aren’t available. Handguns are. That’s why it’s so important to pick the right one.
• Some handguns have more stopping power than others. Larger bullets do more damage, and are more likely to stop an attacker in an emergency. You want to choose a caliber from this list of four: 9mm, .40 S&W, .45 ACP, and .357 Magnum.
• Manufacturer matters, but only to a point. Some manufacturers enjoy a better reputation than others. If you choose a lesser-known gun maker, quality can become an issue. Do some research before buying a particular gun. The last thing you want is to find out in that moment of need that your handgun has poor craftsmanship. Manufacturers you can generally trust include Beretta, Colt, Ruger, Glock, Smith & Wesson, and a few more.
• Aim and penetration are as important as caliber. If you want to make effective use of a handgun in an emergency, you need to know how to fire it and hit your target. You need to be able to place a shot in a vital organ area and then penetrate far enough to actually reach those vital organs.
• If you don’t follow safety procedures, a gun becomes a liability. If an attacker can get to a handgun before you can, that handgun becomes a danger to you rather than to them. A locking gun case or a gun box that you can access quickly via keypad entry is usually your best bet in terms of storage, for example.

A poorly-chosen or poorly-cared for handgun won’t help in an emergency. Take the time necessary and spend a little bit more money to get the right handgun.

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Image Credit: Flickr
This is a guest post by Madison Parker. Madison is an expert writer on subjects related to home security systems. Read more on her blog HomeSecuritySystems.net.

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Bio: This article was written by Mark Solomon, who enjoys writing about financial self-reliance and survivalism. Mark is an outdoorsman who enjoys driving to the mountains, so he’s always on the prowl for the best deals on tires to the best discounts on electronics and gadgets.

Battery power has provided many conveniences to our lives, many of which we have taken for granted. When it comes to putting together your own emergency preparedness kit, there may be some portable battery operated devices you may have overlooked. You may be thinking that you don’t exactly have the budget to purchase items you may not use often, but you’ll see that you can stock your emergency kits without draining your online savings account.

Below is a list of the most essential (and some less needed but still pretty damn cool) battery powered items you should keep handy in the case of an emergency.

Non-essential but pretty awesome battery powered devices, could do without but would be nice to have:

Portable Camping Shower ($25-$50) – If you happen to be nearby a clean water source (such as a river or a lake) and the water lines have been cut off to your home, a portable camping shower is useful when you need to get a stream of flowing water. Most devices are powered by standard D batteries and can be found for cheap at any outdoors specialty retail stores, such as REI.

Battery Powered Socks/Gloves ($20-$100) – Using the same concept of an electric blanket, these battery powered accessories are equipped with heating pads to help keep your hands and feet warmer during the winter months. Definitely nice to have when the weather is colder, but not necessarily essential.

Battery Powered Ipod Charger ($40-$200) – Some gadgets have been developed to power your USB devices, such as cameras or Ipods. Some devices are run off of standard AA batteries, other larger devices with multiple USB inputs may use multiple D batteries.

The Essentials:

Flashlight/Battery Powered Candles (Varies, inexpensive) – This is a given. If/when the power goes out in the middle of an emergency, you’re going to be glad you have these around. Battery powered candles can be found cheap and provide a good source of stationary light and can be found virtually anywhere for cheap.

Portable Radio ($10-$100) – This may also sound obvious, but a portable radio may be your only source of contact to the rest of the world in the middle of any unrest. Make sure you have an AM tuner, since FM signals normally can only reach 50-75 miles from the source of transmission. Like flashlights, portable radios can be found virtually anywhere.

Portable TV ($30-$100) – This falls along the same line of having a radio as a source of communication. While many local TV stations may or may not still be broadcasting news, it would still be useful to have a visual of what’s going on in the rest of the world. NOTE: Also be sure to invest in a battery powered digital TV converter (an extra $30-$40).

Battery Powered Cell Phone Charger (~$20) – A number of manufacturers (Samsung, Sanyo) have developed battery powered cell phone chargers to ensure you can charge your phone wherever you may go. Landline phones are ideal, but if there is no service available, a fully charged cell phone would suffice. Many of these nifty devices are powered on standard AA, C, or D batteries and can be found online or at a local electronics retailer such as Best Buy or Target.

2 Way Radio/Walkie-Talkies ($20-$150) – Many commercially available 2 way radios are powered on standard AA batteries and can have ranges of up to 10 miles. The more professional radios can reach as far up to 36 miles, but will cost accordingly. These are especially useful if phone service is not available.

GPS ($40-$200) – If you end up having to travel anywhere during an emergency, it would be good to know where exactly you are and what direction you’re going in. Luckily, GPS units have become quite common in the past decade, so you can easily find one for an affordable price at any major retailer.

Battery Powered Fan/Air Conditioner/Heater ($10-$100) – Even in the middle of an emergency, Mother Nature will still be as extreme as she’d like to be. Therefore, you’ll be glad to have portable fans and air conditioners going to keep cool during the hot summer months or a portable space heater to gather around in case disaster strikes during the colder seasons. Fans are common enough to be found at any retailer, however a quick search on Amazon will find you a portable air conditioner for no more than $100.

If you happen to have access to your vehicle:

Portable Stove ($20-$100) – Yes, battery powered stoves/hot plates do exist! That is, if you’re close to your car battery. There are plenty of stoves that are powered through your vehicle’s DC outlet, and some that may even be connected directly to your car battery. If you’re looking for a portable stove that doesn’t require your car battery, the compact Sierra Zip Stove allows you control over a flame using a battery operated fan. There’s no telling whether the gas lines or power lines will still be available in an emergency, so these will prove to be handy. Alternatively, a wood burning stove would also be sufficient.

Portable Microwave Oven ($200) – There aren’t many choices for a battery powered microwave ovens out there, but the WaveBox Portable microwave oven should be sufficient. This device can be found through various online retailers and are powered directly through your car battery or through your vehicle’s DC power socket.

And finally…

Batteries! – Considering your new collection of portable gadgets, be sure to have an extensive supply of batteries to ensure you will have a constant source of power. Be sure to keep a variety of batteries available (AA, D, 9V, etc) so you can guarantee to be able to power any type of device.

What other battery operated devices do you believe are essential in any emergency preparedness kit?

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Editor’s note: This article was written by Todd Miller and originally appeared on his personal blog. Todd recently had the food storage advertisement that was on the top of the blog for most of December.

We have a problem in the United States. Ok, we have quite a few challenges right now but there’s one in particular that we as individuals can personally control and many choose not to. Our problem is food storage…or lack thereof.

Let’s face it, we all need food and cannot live without it, yet many people have less than seven days worth of it on hand. Making a case for having long term food storage is pretty simple but getting people to act is not. In most situations it comes down to personal experience as to whether or not a person decides to take action and have “food insurance”.

If you compare having food storage to something like life insurance or saving for retirement there are several similarities as to why people don’t take action. They have heard all the benefits of protecting their family’s financial future with insurance and retirement savings but put off preparing for a later time, which by then it’s too late.  Food is even more vital because you can only go several days without it!

When it comes to food many people have a hard time believing that their supply could be cut off for a prolonged period of time.

Look at how those who have several months to a years worth of food storage are sometimes mocked and ridiculed as hoarders and doomsdayers. People have gotten so comfortable with a plentiful supply of food because there’s a grocery store within a couple miles of most homes.  Probably nothing other than a moderate snow or rain storm has affected their ability to access food.

My family and I never had long term food storage.

When I was growing up, my parents never had even a moderate amount of food storage in case of an emergency.  Heck, with three boys in the house we were lucky to have two days worth of food in the house!  More recently for me it wasn’t until about a year ago that I had more than one week’s worth of food storage. Luckily, our family never had a real food emergency, otherwise we would have been looking to someone else for help.

This is where most people are in their thought process regarding food storage right now.

They know it’s a good idea but they never actually ran out of food for an extended period of time and prices have been pretty stable the last 20-30 years. The only people that experienced long term food shortages are those that were affected by a major flood, earthquake, hurricane or other natural disaster. I’m sure if you ask them before and after their ordeal if they have food reserves you would get very different responses.

So other than preparing in case of a natural disaster, why start your own food storage?  Let’s review the top 3 reasons why you should have food stored away and why you should do it right now. Why right now?  Because we live in unique times.

The challenges we face now and in the next several years are global. Not only can an event in the United States affect our ability to obtain food, but so can a global one.

Which One Of These Reasons For Food Storage Will Soon Affect You?

In order of importance…

1.  Inflation – Why is this number one?  Because there’s not much you can do to control the price of the food you buy. Prices are set by the market and you can only adjust your eating habits and how much you buy based on how much you can afford. Most people that shop for food have noticed some moderate increase in the prices at the grocery store. However, this is just the beginning. Take a look at the stats below and you’ll see why you should be concerned about inflation and even the possibility of hyperinflation in the near future.

According to the National Inflation Association, in September and October of 2010:
– corn prices rose by 29%
– soybean prices rose by 22%
– orange juice prices rose by 17%
– sugar prices rose by 51%
– wheat prices rose 36% since the beginning of July

In just the month of November 2010:
– the cost of food rose 1 full percentage point, equivalent to 12%
annual inflation.
– eggs rose by 23%
– fruit jumped 14%

From December 1 to December 15, 2010:
– corn was up 3%
– coffee was up more than 8%
– sugar was up 8.49%
– oats were up nearly 6%

2.   Disruptions in the Supply Chain – In many areas throughout the country the food supply is not generated locally. In fact, we import a large portion of our food from countries with no safety standards for insecticides, fertilizers, bacterial and chemical contamination.

Because most of our food is not from local sources we are much more susceptible to a variety of disruptions not only in the US but now globally as well.  Any of the following events around the world could cause food shortages: natural disasters, terrorist attacks, crop failures, major shifts in political power, spike in fuel costs, etc.

3. Unemployment – Unfortunately this scenario has hit home with a large percentage of people in the last 2 years.  As of the writing of this article the unemployment rate stands at just under 10% (according to government records). That’s 1 in 10 people that are out of work and the outlook is not expected to improve anytime soon.

As a result, we have seen the number of people on food stamps hit an all-time high in 2010.  Take away the possibility of losing a job for a moment and let’s say you had some kind of illness for an extended period of time.  Would you have the money and/or food storage to see you through until you were back on your feet?

In the end, the biggest reason for starting your own food storage is self-reliance.  If a natural disaster, unemployment, inflation or even hyperinflation occurs, those without food storage and basic supplies will be reliant on someone else which in many cases will be the government. I don’t know about you but I don’t like to be reliant on anyone else for much of anything, especially food.

Will there be a time in the near future that we experience food shortages for whatever reason?

No one knows for sure but the number of people seeking food storage is growing which is a step in the right direction. The worst that could happen if everyone has a lot of extra food is that they have to eat it and share it with others. When/If times do get tough, the stronger communities, families and individuals will be those with plenty of food on hand.

PS. There are many ways to start your own food storage. Many people are educated and skilled at canning food while others use store-bought items and do well rotating it on a regular basis. For me, the best way was pre-packaged, dehydrated food with a long shelf life (15 yrs +). If you would like to learn more about the company and try some of their food for free you can do so by clicking here.

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This post originally appeared on The Simple Dollar and is reposted here with permission. If you’ve had trouble making and keeping a budget before, you need to read this.

by Trent Hamm

When I reached my financial bottom in April 2006, one of my first responses was to simply start reading a lot about personal finance. I checked out a pile of books from the library on personal finance and tackled a lot of different suggestions from those books, along with some of my own ideas that I came up with as I went along.

One idea that was repeated over and over was how incredibly important and valuable having a budget was. I tried several different budgeting approaches and stuck with them for short periods, but the idea of a budget just never really stuck with me. The constant recording of expenses and estimates of spending in the future and so on always seemed like a bunch of busy work that never really went anywhere at all for me.

What did I do instead, then? I focused mostly on just watching what I spent. I did find a lot of value in simply jotting down every dime that I spent in a pocket notebook and, soon, I began to resist spending because I didn’t want to write it in that notebook any more. I began to really focus on how I spent my money in a few key categories – books being the big one. I set up some automatic transfers to take care of specific bills and to start saving for specific goals. Perhaps most importantly, though, I began to really change my behaviors and how I spent my time.

There are two big things to recognize from this story.

First of all, the actual personal finance choices I made were budgeting. Writing down my expenses, setting up automatic payments and savings, focusing on problem categories – those are exactly the type of things that make up budgeting.

More importantly, however, they led me to the same theoretical goal that budgeting has – a more responsible relationship with my money. That’s the destination of budgeting – a relationship with your money that enables you to have the freedom to effectively not worry about the money too much and just get on with your life.

If that’s the case, then why do so many people fail at budgeting – and why is it still recommended so often in personal finance books and on personal finance sites? I think the answer to that question explains why budgets are so often described in personal finance books – and also explains how people can get real value from “budgeting” their own way.

Budgets, Budgets, Budgets: Why?
Take a look at the people who are typically authoring personal finance books. They’re CPAs, CFAs, and other folks who deal with finances for a living. They’ve likely always been strong with math and never been afraid of dealing with large chunks of numbers – it always came natural to them.

I’ve always enjoyed math – in fact, I was just a few credits shy of a minor in mathematics in college – but I’ve never been much of a fan of business or accounting math. Large rows of financial figures have always caused my eyes to glass over. I enjoy chasing down a problem, but adding up figures and making estimates is not something I enjoy or naturally want to do with my time. I can do it, but it doesn’t feel natural to me.

The important distinction here is that the traditional way of doing a budget is something that comes from people who are financial planners and accountants – people who are naturally gifted with working with lots of numbers and spreadsheets. That’s great, but it doesn’t accommodate how many people look at the world.

Not everyone is as comfortable with numbers as a CPA or a CFA. That’s not to say they can’t do it, but numerical analysis isn’t as easy or natural for many people as it is for a person naturally drawn to accounting and financial fields. The advice given on budgeting in personal finance books often comes from those folks who are naturally gifted with numbers and thus their budgeting advice is often challenging for others to follow.

A Better Solution: Focus on the Goals
Instead of focusing so intently on the exact process of budgeting as shown in a personal finance book – and, even worse, viewing yourself as a failure if you can’t keep it up – focus instead on the goals of all of this.

Why are you thinking about budgeting in the first place?

Most of us try budgeting because we simply need more breathng room in our monthly and yearly finances, for various reasons: repaying debt, saving for a big goal, building an emergency fund, or something else entirely. We know that the route to this is getting our spending in check.

The solution, of course, is to trim a little spending out of a lot of areas in our life.

The usual way of doing this is to sit down, sort our spending into a lot of different categories, and make estimates and targets for monthly spending – a very number-heavy process.

But, really, all that budgeting is doing is saying “I need to cut spending in these specific areas.” It’s difficult to cut spending in a lot of areas, but those are great areas to cut back in.

Because of this, I wound up with a solution that worked really, really well for me. I like to call it zero-sum budgeting.

Let’s say, for example, that I have $200 a month set aside for our energy bill. I’m on the “budgeted” energy plan that averages out the energy costs for the year. I also have $100 a month budgeted to spend on whatever I want, so one month I use $50 of that to install a programmable thermostat and also on some caulk. I program the thermostat to turn off the heating and cooling when I’m asleep or at work and I use the caulk to air-seal my home. Next year, the energy bill gets reduced because you’re using less energy – now it’s just $165 a month.

Here’s the key part. Instead of just spending that extra $35 a month, I start putting $35 a month automatically into savings. Since I was already making ends meet with the $200 energy bill, It makes no difference in my day-to-day life if I just put $165 towards the bill and $35 into savings instead of just $200 into the bill.

You can do the same thing with any category of spending once you have a good estimate of how much you spend in that area. Let’s say, for example, you spend $50 on media purchases a month – DVDs, books, and so on. If you decide to “budget” just $25 a month for that, start off the month by automatically putting $25 into that account.

You can also do the same thing with “found money.” If you come into a small windfall, just stick some or all of it into the account. If you find a great way to save some cash as a one-time opportunity, put that saved money into the account.

What can I use the money in that account for? If I’m building up an emergency fund, I just let it keep building until it’s an amount I’m happy with – a few months’ worth of living expenses. If I’m paying off debt, I clean out the account each month and use it as an extra debt payment. If I’m saving for a goal, I just put that money towards whatever goal I’m saving for.

Two points.

First, this doesn’t work if you’re already spending more than you make. That type of behavior is not sustainable. If your credit card balance is going up each month, no amount of budgeting or planning matters until you’ve reached a point where that credit card bill goes down each month.

Second, it works best if you focus in on a specific area or two. Budgeting is a lot like dieting. If you go cold-turkey crazy, you’re going to have a very high likelihood of rebounding and undoing all of your good work. Instead, focus on one or two areas for conscious spending cutting and, at the same time, look for “one shot” opportunities to save money now or reduce ongoing expenses.

Any time you commit to financial change, willpower is required. However, it doesn’t require an accountant’s head for numbers. It requires a focus on goals, a willingness to actually make some behavior changes (one step at a time), and a desire for real change in your life.

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I’ve been thinking about the value of work recently, and how much better our society would be if more were willing to really work.

Americans are lazy…

The Value of Work in Developing Character

Work is an antidote for anxiety, an ointment for sorrow, and a doorway to possibility. Whatever our circumstances in life … let us do the best we can and cultivate a reputation for excellence in all that we do. Let us set our minds and bodies to the glorious opportunity for work that each new day presents.

When our wagon gets stuck in the mud, God is much more likely to assist the [person] who gets out to push than the [person]who merely raises his voice in prayer—no matter how eloquent the oration.

~ Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Why Work?

Teach Children to Work

Teaching Kids to Work

Work is good for the soul. Work gets the problem fixed. Work builds the muscles, exercises the mind, and expands the horizon.

Ok, rant over. Now get back to work.

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This article originally appeared on The Simple Dollar, and is reprinted here with permission.

Also, this is good advice when any change is overwhelming, not just financial change.

by Trent Hamm

Mark writes in:

I’ve been reading The Simple Dollar for a year or so and I’ve found it really inspirational. My problem is that I can’t get past the “inspirational” part.

Several times, I’ve started to try to implement your tips. I’ll make grocery lists and try out lots of free activities and give up my morning coffee and start watching less television and reading more. What I find, though, after a week or so is that I just get frustrated with all of it and I quit all of it and go back to doing exactly what I was doing before. How do you start changing if you can’t even tackle a handful of simple changes like this?

In order for change in your personal life to succeed, you need several elements. From what I can tell from your description here, Mark, you’re missing several of them.

First and foremost, you need a goal. Why are you doing this? Where do you want to be in five years? Will you be out of debt? What will you do with debt freedom? Will you have a family? A home? A better career?

Don’t spend your time worrying about specific money-saving tactics right now. Spend a week or so really thinking about your future and what you really want from it. Where do you want to be in a year? In five years? In ten years? What do you aspire to?

Flesh these goals out. Add lots of detail to them so that you can really get a sense of what it might take to get there.

Most importantly, write them down. Record these goals somewhere, along with all of the details you come up with.

Think of it this way: if you’re not working towards something better than where you’re at right now, why make sacrifices at all?

Once you have that goal in mind, you need a plan. What exactly needs to be done to get to the goal (or goals) that you’ve set for yourself?

One big part of this is often a debt repayment plan. A debt repayment plan basically organizes and orders your debts to maximize the effectiveness of your debt payments.

You might also want to come up with an educational plan or an exercise plan or a plan for improving yourself in some other fashion, whatever that might be.

Make the plan realistic. Never forget that the perfect is the enemy of the good. Your plan should be one that’s easily achievable, even if it means putting off your goal for a little bit longer. It should also allow you to go beyond the plan if you so choose on any given day.

Once you’ve done that, do a lot of “one and done” financial changes. Fill your spare time with these things. Install a programmable thermostat. Air seal your home. Clean out your closets and sell off the stuff that you don’t use that has value. Trim down your DVD collection.

Spend your spare energy doing these things for a few days. Better yet, as you do them, calculate the results. How much will they reduce your energy bill? When you sell off that stuff and throw the cash straight into your debt repayment plan, how muh is that plan accelerated? Do you pay things off a few months faster now?

This is the first taste of success, and it’s usually an inspiring one. You’ve got goals and plans for getting there. You’ve done something that directly helps your plan along and it wasn’t all that hard, either. You’ve reached some success.

Once you’ve done this, now’s the time to start with the behavior changes. However, I’m going to suggest that you not just do a bunch at once. Instead, pick out one change and focus on maintaining only that one change for thirty days. If you decide to switch to “office coffee” instead of stops at the coffee shop, do that, but don’t force other changes.

Again, figure up how much you’re saving from that one behavior change and roll that savings into one of your plans for the future. If you’ve simply made a change that saves $10 over the course of a month, that’s just fine – add $10 more to your next debt payment or put $10 into a savings account.

Take it slow. Every step you take is a real improvement, and it’s far better than taking thirty steps at once, stumbling, falling down, and rolling back down the hill.

Good luck.

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Note: Today we have a guest post from Sandy Harris, who runs the Diabetic Snacks Blog. Those of you that know me well know that I often flirt with “alternative” cures and treatments. Even so, I can’t vouch for the effectiveness of what you are about to read. After all, they are pretty strong claims. In fact, I’d be downright suspicious if I were going to attempt to use a ‘maple cure’ to diabetes (or anything else). Fortunately, nobody in my immediate family has to deal with diabetes. I did think you might find it interesting, though. I do know that diet can play a huge role in a number of common ailments. As to this ‘secret’ – I’d like to see the claims of exactly how much/how often you’d need to eat it for it to be effective. And of course, more studies showing the effectiveness.

-Bryce

Did you know that your favorite maple syrup is effective in fighting cancer and diabetes? According to the studies conducted by US researchers, there are strong evidences showing that maple syrup can substantially slow down the growth of cancer cells and can effectively reduce the risk of diabetes.

The new research shows that your favorite maple syrup has thirteen active compounds that serve as antioxidants. These thirteen compounds were previously unknown. The discovery proved that maple syrup could be very effective in fighting bacterial infection, diabetes and cancer.

An Effective Solution or Diabetes Sufferers

Maple syrup contains high levels of phytohormone and abscisic acid. According to research, this type of acid is a natural defense in controlling diabetes and other metabolic syndromes.

The acid is effective because it has the potential to encourage the release of insulin through the pancreatic cells. It can also enhance the fat cell’s sensitivity to insulin. The studies on maple syrup and its effects on diabetes have been reviewed by experts. The results of these studies were revealed before the American Chemical Society in San Francisco.

Maple Syrup as Your Best Chance against Cancer

A study punished in the Journal of Medicinal Food showed that maple syrup can significantly inhibit the growth of cancerous cells. This study was conducted by Quebec scholars. It seeks to prove the impact of maple syrup against cancer cells.

Based on the Quebec research, the growth of cancer cells can be inhibited by maple syrup. Specifically, the syrup is very effective against brain, prostate, and lung cancer. Unfortunately, maple syrup has minimal impact against breast cancer growth.

Your Tasty Alternative to Fight Cancer and Diabetes

Maple syrup can serve as your tasty alternative in fighting cancer and diabetes. There are many anti cancer foods today like blueberries, tomatoes, broccoli, and carrots. However, recent studies have shown that maple syrup is more effective against cancer compared to other anti cancer foods. Laboratory testing results also show that the syrup is more potent compared to the maple sap.

It is also ideal to use the pure dark syrup rather than the lighter syrup. Dark syrup has high color oxidation. This is the reason why darker maple syrup should be preferred. So if you want a better alternative to fight cancer and diabetes, then your favorite maple syrup is a good option.

Reference: Journal of medicinal food. 01/02/2010; ISSN: 1557-7600, OI: 10.1089/jmf.2009.0029

About the Author

Sandy Harris writes for the diabetic appetizers blog , her personal hobby blog focused on tips to prevent, cure and manage diabetes using healthy snacks and recipes.

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This post originally appeared on the simple dollar and is reprinted here with permission.

by Trent Hamm

On the conference call I had last night with Vicki Robin, one of the listeners (I believe his name was Crispin) brought up an interesting topic of conversation. In a world where globalization is a fact and many jobs can easily be moved anywhere in the world thanks to the power of the internet and the information economy, we’re gradually going to see a global marketplace. In other words, all of the nations of the world will gradually see their average standard of living even out, as many of the workers are competing for jobs with everyone else in the world.

My belief is that, for the most part, the standards of living everywhere else in the world will rise rapidly to meet the standard of living in the United States. However, I also feel that our standard of living here will probably never grow at the same rate as it did in the twentieth century. In short, I think our growth rate will be much lower than that of the rest of the world and may in fact be a slow reduction over a long period of time.

I don’t really think it’s anything to panic about, though. This decline has been happening already for a long time, starting in roughly 1970. Real wages – meaning the amount that people get paid when you get rid of inflation – have essentially remained unchanged since then.

The real change in our financial lives has been the big increase in costs. There are countless services we have today that many of us consider essential – and that we pay for every month like clockwork – that simply didn’t exist thirty five years ago. Cell phones. Home computers. VCRs and DVD players. The energy required to run all of these devices. Internet access. Non-extortionary long distance telephone access. The vast majority of Americans consider these expenses a requirement – and they didn’texist in 1970.

My prediction for the future is that these trends continue. Real wages won’t go up, but our expenses will go up.

So what do we do? As always, there are two key solutions for this – and they’re solutions anyone can follow. Plus, they’ll benefit everyone regardless of whether they believe such change is happening or not. And these two key solutions are summed up in one phrase: spend less and/or earn more.

We can spend less by recognizing that we don’t need every service or tool that comes down the pipe.

On a regular basis, step back from your life and look at how you spend your money. Keep track of all of your spending for a month. Then, sit down and honestly evaluate it. Where are you spending money on things that really don’t add value to your life?Then, cut them hard.

Five years ago, I was a cell phone addict. I never went anywhere without it. I was constantly calling and texting people. Over the last two years, I have essentially weaned myself from cell phone usage. Now, I rarely pick it up and, when my contract expires, I’m going to simply cancel the phone and get a pay-by-the-minute el cheapo phone. Why? I realized I didn’t actually need what it provided. What I wanted was connection to the important people in my life – and cell phones didn’t really provide that. The only actual need it fulfilled in my life was additional security while traveling and, on rare occasion, contacting a friend to make sure we were meeting up at the correct time and place. I can do that for a lot cheaper with a prepaid cell phone, so I’m going to make that switch in the very near future.

On the flip side of that coin, we can earn more by improving our soft skills.

What do I mean by that? Think about it this way. There are two very competent mechanics in your town that charge roughly the same price for the same quality of work. One of them is very gruff with customers, doesn’t explain repairs well, and doesn’t provide documentation or assistance. The other one is very friendly with customers, explains the repairs in common terms, and gives documentation to his customers. Which mechanic will eventually have most of the business?

This is true in any field. Everyone has hard skills that they can provide to the world.We’re all good at something – and some of us are good at several different things. When you have your choice among people who are good at a particular task, you don’t choose because of the hard skills. You choose because of the soft skills. Do they communicate well? Do they listen well? Are they organized? Are they responsive? Do they spend their time improving themselves or improving the community?

Those soft skills and attributes pay off regardless of what the economy is doing – if anything, they pay off better in a down economy. That directly means employment for you. That means raises. That means job opportunities.

If you really focus on these two things regardless of where the economy is right now, you can handle almost anything that the future economic situation will throw at you. You’re prepared for it.

We can all have a brighter future no matter what happens if we spend some time today preparing for it. The future is an opportunity, not a place of fear.

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