Feeding Our Collective (and Neglected) Pig

He may be a little creepy, but he's also pretty hungry.

Check out the newly-launched www.feedthepig.org for excellent tip, quizzes, and interactive tools to help you put a little extra in your piggy bank every month. I'm especially fond of the "Me Save?" feature, which will show you what you can save month to month by cutting back on little things, as well as what that money would look like in five years if you put it into a savings account. As I suspected, if the money I spent on American Spirit Light Menthols were to go into my ING account instead of to the market downstairs, I'd have about $3700 to spend on something nice. Like retirement. (Thanks to those who posted stories about today being the Great American Smokeout, for extra incentive to cut back.)

In the interest of full disclosure, my employer helped with some of the website development that helped get the site up, though I wasn't involved in the project. I just started my pig-feeding program today, and because the program's interactive, I can track how I'm doing and make adjustments. I'm eager to see how it goes, and I encourage you to take a look and see what you think.

Dow Jones Clearance Sale Huge Success!

When I checked the stocks around lunch time, things were looking pretty bleak. But apparently after I went back up to my desk, things got much worse. The Dow dipped below 8000 points. But then a magical thing happened: Traders realized that the entire stock market was on Super-Duper Pre-Thanksgiving Blow Out Sale! Today and today only! (God willing.)

A month and a half ago, my employer brought in our representative from Smith Barney to discuss the sudden economic downturn, and what that meant for us, our savings, and our retirement. I work at a company with a fairly low median age. My guess is that our average worker is about 32 years old. Because none of us has plans to retire any time soon, our financial adviser had a very positive spin on things for us: Invest now, while you're young, and while everything's on clearance.

This is apparently what happened on Wall Street today. I can't speak for the youthful exuberance of any of the big investors, but at some time this afternoon, we collectively decided that the price on these stocks couldn't be beat, and we had to get at it while we could.

Will it last throuh tomorrow? No idea. But I always like a good bargain.

Keith Olbermann on Prop 8

A Special Comment from my celebrity crush.

As a person who moved to the DC Metro Area about a year and a half ago, to Northern Virginia to be precise, I relished being able to vote in a swing state for the recent presidential election. Waiting in a legitimate line for the primary was a bit of a treat, too. But if I could have had my democratic cake and eaten it too, I would have been able to vote against Propisition 8 in my native California, on the gay marriage ban that passed by a narrow margin.

Easy Money for Bookworms!

In these tough ecomomic times, it's always good to have a few tricks up your sleve to (legally) give you a little more "walkin' around money." One of my favorites is to sell my recently-read books on Amazon Marketplace. It's a much easier setup than selling an item on ebay, for example. You set a price you think is fair based on the condition of your book and what other copies are selling for, you enter the ISBN number, and Amazon lets you know when it sells! All you really need is the ability to get to a post-office within two days of learning that your item has sold. Amazon puts money into your account every two weeks, and it's really a great system if you read books that are currently best-sellers. Although I keep most of my books after reading them, there are certain books that I'd rather get $5.00 or so for, rather than having them take up space on my shelf. That's $5.00 or so that I can put towards a new book!

So if you're a reader with limited bookshelf space or money, I recommend giving it a shot.

(A PS apologie-- This is my first article, and I'm struggling with the "add image" feature. For now, just pretend there's an image that knocks your socks off!) UPDATE: Figured out how to add an image! Yee-haw!

Alternatives to a Wal-Mart Christmas

Part Two of a Two-Part Series

In the last installment, we reviewed why Wal-Mart's the Devil. But what's to be done? We all want to have a festive holiday season without going broke. Here are some suggestions to help make your season bright.

Lower quantity, higher quality. Got $100 to spend on each kid this year? Maybe get them each one really nice gift instead of 100 crappy gifts (presumably from Wal-Mart.) This goes for other loved ones as well, but it's a plan I recommend having everyone agree to ahead of time. We all may need to mentally prepare for the gift-unwrapping to take less than two hours. But the end result will be that everyone will have something that had some thought and meaning put into it, that hopefully will last for years to come. And if you're the parent involved, it means a less overflowing toy box, and fewer Barbie shoes to step on. If I were your 8-year-old daughter, I'd much rather have one American Girls doll from Pleasant Company than seven Bratz dolls from Wal-Mart. (Side note: I just went to the American Girls website, and learned that after 20 years, they're archiving the Samantha Doll! That's the one I had! Quick, buy Samantha Parkington and her books about Victorian life through the eyes of a 9-year-old girl before it's too late!)

Get crafty. There are few gifts more meaningful than the ones you make yourself. Not really your thing? Check out www.etsy.com, and support the work of other DIYers. My friend Brenna makes these awesome necklaces from vintage bottle caps and sells them on her etsy site. (She may be on hiatus, since she's now up to her ears in grad school. I'll update with a link if she's still an active vendor.) I make magnets for stress-relief purposes, which I have every intention of selling on etsy at some point, but I keep diminishing my stock by giving them out as last minute gifts. My mom has turned into a crazy hat-knitting machine-- I know what I'm getting in my Christmas stocking this year. So if you don't feel particularly crafty, there are still plenty of ways you can support an artisan restoration with your own hard-earned dollars, and because there's no middle-man, the prices are pretty reasonable. The DIY spirit doesn't have to be limited to gifts this season. How much more fun will you have, and how much classier will your tree look, when you string up some cranberries on your own, rather than buying fake garland from a big box store? The same is true for centerpieces, dining room decorations, and whatever else you feel needs a little sprucing. If you approach it all with a spirit of festive fun, it will be easy on the budget, and more relaxing than hitting the mall. Or the Wal.

Do you have a Farmer's Market in town? If so, check it out! Because most of the items will be locally grown, you won't be paying for the fuel cost of getting that spinach from Salinas to Fredericksburg, like you do at the grocer. But do compare prices, as there are a lot of other factors at play, such as the fact that you're not buying millions of bags of said spinach from a Monsanto. Farmer Harrison might not be able to match that discount. But it will almost certainly taste better.

If all else fails, there's always Target. If you get desperate, but still don't want to succomb to Wal-Mart, you can take the lesser of the two evils. Their prices won't be quite as low, but their business practices won't be quite as slimey, either.

Fighting the Modern Poll Tax

What will it cost you to go to the polls tomorrow? What will it cost you NOT to go?

The 24th Amendment guarantees the right of every American to cast their vote without having to pay a poll tax. In theory. Don't get me wrong; I'm pleased as punch not to be charged a fee at my polling place. But, in this election at least, it will be much easier for the upper class to cast their vote than it will be for members of the working class.

This is particularly true in swing states like mine, where, due to what will likely be record-breaking turnout, we can expect some LONG lines at the polls. The picture is from my early voting on Saturday in Arlington County, Virginia, where it took me four hours to get from the end of the line to my voting booth. Since I work banker's hours, and basically have no life outside of work, giving up a Saturday was not a hardship for me. If I'd decided to vote tomorrow, though, it would have been a bit rougher. My employer is more than happy to give us as much time off to vote as we need. However, I for one don't have enough paid time off to get paid for it (at least not if I want to go to my cousin's wedding in December.) I'd likely have just sucked it up and taken six unpaid hours for the time I would have missed at work tomorrow, even though I can't really afford it.

So that's me. But in watching The Rachel Maddow Show last night, it was confirmed that it's not just me. There are millions of other Americans in a more extreme version of this situation: Working longer, odder hours at multiple jobs, and really depending on the wages or tips that they would earn during these hours. It's going to be much easier for their bosses to take a full day off work to cast their vote. And the longer the line, the more of a hardship it will be.

In Virginia, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and the rest of the laundry list of other swing states this year, we can expect that the wait to vote will be far more epic than in true blue or true red states like California and Texas. Though I'm sure their queues will be nothing to sneeze at, they will have a good number of voters who decide to sit it out, feeling like one vote in their state isn't really going to make a difference. Everyone's vote counts. But in this election, and in "purple" states, everyone's vote REALLY counts. Basically, the longer and more daunting the line at our polling place, the more important it is that we stand in it until our vote is cast. Remember, if you're in line by the time your polling place closes, they have to let you vote, even if it takes all night.

In an election where so much of the country would be voting their pocket book, it's especially important that we not let our empty pocket books keep us from voting. The system is currently broken. We need more voting machines and paper ballots in our precincts, to keep people in contested areas from being discouraged from voting. But for those of us who are paying the price at our polling place, this is our chance to cast our vote for the kind of country we'd like to live in. If we all go out together and vote our conscience, hopefully we'll be in good enough economic standing in four or eight years to take the whole day off work to stand in line to vote. Or better yet, we'll have put people in office who will be sure to order a big enough batch of paper ballots that we don't have to give up wages. Tomorrow is our opportunity to fight for all the tomorrows that are to come.

Why We Don't Need a Wal-Mart Christmas

...And What We Can Do Instead

Part One of a Two-Part Series

This article is a response to another article recently posted in the Money and Careers section.

Clearly, this will be a tight holiday season for many, if not most of us. But there are ways that we can celebrate the holidays without going to Wal-Mart for all of our shopping needs.

Opposition to Wal-Mart is nothing new. At best, it is a double-edged sword. Personally, the members of my household have come down on the side of abstaining from shopping at the ubiquitous discount retailer, regardless of how grim our checking account is looking. The lure of the low, low prices is truly powerful, and there certainly is an upside to Wal-Mart's existence. When you REALLY can't afford to pay full price for a loaf of bread, it can offer something of a short-term safe haven for a consumer. Briefly, the reasons my spouse and I abstain from the falling prices include but are not limited to:

Wal-Mart's anti-union policy: This employer acknowledges that if a husband and wife are both working in the store, they will likely have to take advantage of state welfare programs in order to make ends meet. Unions keep dignity in blue collar work by ensuring that, to the extent possible, employees are treated fairly and are able to meet their basic needs. How about a cost of living increase that accounts for the cost of living?

Wal-Mart's notorious glass ceiling: The retailer has faced multiple lawsuits for not giving women the same opportunity for promotion as their male counterparts.

How do those prices get so low? In addition to an underpaid workforce, their brands (particularly the clothing line) are made largely in Bangladesh. Apart from the fact that American-made products keep jobs here, having a job in the garment industry in Bangladesh is no picnic. But, as their nation's economy depends on Wal-Mart sticking around, they'll pretty much do whatever Wal-Mart asks of them in order to keep the business. Longer hours and less pay tends to top the list of demands. Recent reports and allegations indicate that workers are experiencing sweat-shop conditions, and that child labor is common. (Poster pic courtesy of The National Labor Committee, which is looking at a variety of U.S. Companies using child labor in Bangladesh.)

Why are their so few independent retailers on Main Street nowadays? Because the "mom and pop stores" can't compete with the retail giant, and have been run out of downtown on a rail.

Their stuff is total crap. I think those underpaid Bengali children have been cutting corners.

In the next installment (which I'll get to writing right now,) we explore what we can do instead to have a festive holiday that doesn't murder our wallet.

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