Favorites the Meat Price Edition Nov 14, 2010

This week, my <2 year old son has figured out how to open the fridge and he’s a snacker.  My initial reaction is that one day I’ll come home to realize my fridge has been open for hours, all my food will be spoiled and my electricity bill will be through the roof.  I’m already planning that my kids will eat me out of house and home come the teen years, but I didn’t think it would start quite this early. I distinctly remember eating cereal out of mixing bowls when I was a teen, so I’m sure this is some kind of karmic payback.

Speaking of food, I decided to spontaneously take a road trip yesterday to my hometown to go to Babci’s favorite Polish grocery store and meat market. I thought it was just my imagination that beef has gone way up in prices. I don’t buy it that often, so I don’t keep that close a tab on it. Here I was in the meat store and there was a big sign apologizing for the prices.  Here’s an article on why. It’s actually very similar to what I’m seeing in the chemical industry. Demand went way down, so the producers reduced capacity. Now that the economy is starting to recover and demand is back up again, there is limited supply.   So all you cattle ranchers out there, go buy some cows already.

The road trip was a success and Babci even ran into some of the local gossips at our lunch stop. So, not only is she stocked up on all her favorite foods but she’s also all up to date on who died and who’s children are leading sinful lives and are going to hell.  The only downside was when her bag of chicken hearts leaked in my trunk. YUCK.

Here are some of my favorites from around the web.

The Kitchen Sink has a great series on different types of men:

• The Penny Counter
• The Great Pretender
• The Poor House

In my opinion, the poor house is the only type that has potential of being a long term partner. If you’re poor but are using your money to get to a better place (like getting an education), eventually you will be in position to support yourself and your family. I enjoyed all these articles immensely. It took me down memory lane and I’m glad I’m not dating anymore.

How to Keep your Entertainment Budget Low at Budgeting in the Fun Stuff. This article saved me this weekend. I actually was thinking about doing a spendy weekend and opted for something cheap instead.

You know, Frugal Dad was the very first personal finance site I ever read. He has been an inspiration to me.  He has some great points on doing a Financial Fire Drill. Luckily, or unluckily for me, my place of employment has had regular layoffs for the entire time I have worked there. I regularly would question if I’d be okay without a job, so I’ve done about a 7 of these already.

Beating the Index has yet another article on paying down the mortgage instead of investing. Even though this article has been written a number of times, it is like crack to me. It’s like those movies you can watch over and over again. I really love hearing people’s opinion about this topic.  Even though the market had really good returns during the period we put extra toward our mortgage, I don’t regret it in hindsight. It’s just too risky and taking too much risk is what got me in trouble during the crash.

Everyday Tips and Thoughts has a wonderful article about staying at home vs working. She’s one of the few people I know who’s gone through long periods of both staying at home with her kids and working, so she has a very balanced view on the topic.  Whichever one you are, you should give it a read.

Money Reasons asks if advertisements affect your buying decisions. I’m also liking what’s going on with his cartoon Mr. Penny.

Money Crush has a great article on making money on internet businesses. The moral I got out of the story, is a little different from money crushes. (which is to stick it out). My moral, is that if a business plan is not working, you need to re-evaluate how to change it to attract more users+readers.  It makes me wonder if I should treat the blog like a business. I do not, but I probably should just to learn.

Well Heeled Blog predicts Chocolate will be as expensive as Caviar in 20 years.  I really can’t believe the prediction. I’m sure the classic supply/demand model will fix this potential crisis. If a candy bar goes to $11, I’m sure we wouldn’t be selling as many and we’d be thinner to boot.

Neal at the Wealth Pilgrim gives this young couple great advice.  What do you tell an already frugal couple how to save for retirement? Well, invest time and/or money into being able to earn more.  Plus, he reassures them that it is ok to focus on family if that is a priority. Good article.  Neal is becoming the guru of couples finance.

There were a couple of really good articles on Money Saving Blog. The first was signs that you’ve gone from Frugal to Hoarder.  I’ve known some hoarders and the list is pretty accurate.  The other was 20 tips to save money on an engagement ring without making her mad.  I also have known some guys who’ve used these tricks, the most common being using a bunch of smaller stones to make a >1 carat setting but not at the 1 carat price.

Nicole and Maggie – Quick weeknight meals we love.  My friend Lisa actually wanted me to write an article on this so this is well timed.

Thanks to all my regular readers and commenters.  I really enjoy people’s visits.