Thrifty and Thriving

Check out this article from Budget is Sexy. It introduces the concept of bonuses you get throughout the year if you get paid weekly or biweekly.

I get paid 1 time a week. That’s 52 paychecks per year. There are 4 weeks in each month, or are there? Four months out of the year, I receive 5 paychecks. How can this be? Am I just that good of an employee that I warrant a quarterly bonus? I like to think so, but alas, that is not the case. 12 months X 4 paychecks each month = 48 paychecks a year. So what about the other 4 weeks of the year?

The author also lists some ways you can spend those bonuses:

What to Do With Your New Found Bonuses

There are plenty of things you can do with the extra money:

Buy some toys
Give it to charity
Go out to eat
Burn it for warmth
Put it into savings
Invest it
Add it to your retirement fund
Put it towards paying off debt
Cash it for $1 bills and roll around in it
The possibilities are as plentiful as oil in the Gulf of Mexico.

What do you do with those extra paychecks?

From Yahoo Hot Jobs:

The recession has been kinder to many college graduates, as new data from online salary database PayScale.com shows. For people with degrees, some cities have shown median wage growth of up to 15 percent since 2007.
Across the nation, wages for college grads rose an average of 3 percent in the past three years, PayScale found.

Read the full story here.

The best market for salary growth was Honolulu, Hawaii ($55,800, +15%). Looks like I’m moving to Hawaii. (just kidding, I heart Albany) The number one worst city for growth? Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. I dunno about you, but I’m not moving there any time soon.

Would you be willing to move if it meant a pay increase?

History is being made here, guys. Not just because you won’t need to already have an account or pay $6 to check your email while you’re sipping coffee at Starbucks, but also

In addition to the new free WiFi program, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz told Wired’s Chris Anderson that the company is also planning on rolling out a new Starbucks Digital Network in partnership with Yahoo later this fall. This network, which will only be accessible in U.S. company-operated stores, will offers customers free and unrestricted access to paid sites and services like WSJ.com and other content providers on their phones, tablets or laptops.

Exciting! Ok, maybe a lot more so for people w/out the smart phones, those who do not live in a big city where this is readily available on every corner anyway… and for those connected to the newspaper industry

Read our article which summarizing Siena research on consumer confidence:

statewide gain [in consumer confidence] was largely resulted from confidence gains in the New York City area. Consumer confidence in upstate New York actually dropped.

Just when I thought my – seemingly – neverending question of whether or not to get a new phone came to a successful resolution (yknow, the one where I buy an iPhone and leave Verizon as soon as my current regular phone dies), I come across this article: AT&T: No more fixed-price unlimited Internet

Whaaaaaaat?

Existing smart-phone customers will be able to stay on their $30-a-month unlimited-data plans, at least until their current contracts expire or perhaps longer, but new customers will have to choose from two different plans: the DataPlus plan that offers 200 megabytes of data for $15 a month, and the DataPro plan that offers 2 gigabytes for $25.

Pretty sure I missed the boat on the “existing” customer clause and now I need a new plan. And yes, I do need said plan ahead of time, cuz when my phone dies I won’t have time to compare and contrast; I’ll just have to head straight to the mall. Or wherever they sell phones.

Warren Buffett, and investor and one of the richest and most generous people in the world, likes to say that money is just a side effect of something he really really likes to do. He is known as one of the most frugal billionaires.

Surprisingly, he’s not the only frugal ridiculously rich person. Check out this article that talks about five billionaires who live well below their means

Warren Buffett, for one,

still lives in a modest home in Omaha, Neb., that he purchased for $31,500 more than 50 years ago.

Here’s a very interesting article about police enforcing traffic laws as a way to bring in money to the state.

Of note: the article does not mention NYS (I don’t think) and page 3 talks about sanctions when towns take this too far

Two great posts from getrichslowly.org

Don’t wait for discount – ask for one
The title says it all. Cable companies, your bank, some stores (Express is awesome about this; Macy’s – not so much, although they do offer to hold stuff while you go home and get the coupon. Like I’d go back, ha!)

The Savvy Shopper’s Guide to the Farmers’ Market

I can say so many great things about going to Farmer’s markets at noon, about an hour before they close!