Food safety practices should actually apply all year round, but in summer and any time of warm weather, regular precautions might not be enough. For example, you might be able to leave food unrefrigerated for several hours in February without seeing any major effects, but the same practice may not work for you in August when the environment is warmer and bacteria multiply faster. Also, just because you can’t see any change, it doesn’t mean it’s not there.

Everyone knows that food goes bad, but it occurs to me that the average person might not be privy to all the specific details. Madoline and I worked in the very non-glamourous industry of food services for about 10 months in 2003 (more details in Our Family Financial History). When first hired, we had to go through food safety training and learned a lot of things that we otherwise may never have known had we not happened to get jobs in the industry.

Practicing safe food handling and storage will not only save you money by preventing food waste from spoiling, but more importantly, it will protect your family’s health. For some of you, it might be common sense, but my experience with the general public and relatives is that these are things the average person is simply not aware of. I won’t go into detail about bacteria and all that fun stuff; this is just a basic introduction to food safety.

Hand-Washing

These hand-washing practices should apply everywhere, not just in the kitchen, and especially when using the restroom - and even more importantly, when using a public restroom.

• Before handling food - be it preparing, eating or storing - wash your hands.
• Wash your hands in hot water and with an anti-bacterial soap.
• When finished washing your hands, do not use your hands to turn off the tap. Whatever bacteria was on your hands (and the hands of every other person who used the sink before you) is also on the faucet handle.
  • When in your own home and you are able to control the cleanliness of the facilities, this may not be as vital as opposed to a public facility. When at home, I often use my wrist or forearm to turn off the tap after washing my hands.
  • When in public, use the paper towel with which you dry your hands to turn off the tap - after drying your hands on it. Yes, it leaves the water running for a few seconds longer, but it keeps your hands germ-free. I also use the same paper towel to open restroom exit doors before disposing of it. This may seem overly paranoid, but you never know when you’re in public what other people have touched and left on a door handle or faucet for you to pick up (and later ingest).
• If using a towel, make sure the hand-drying towel is clean and used only for hand-drying. Change them frequently as damp towels in warm weather can mildew quickly. If using paper towels, make sure the paper towel roll is clean - hasn’t fallen on the floor, isn’t often handled when hands are dirty or used for cleaning around the house.

Some people may call this behavior paranoid or obsessive-compulsive, but it is important to be aware that bacteria is transferred by touching. This is an important factor when it comes to safe food handling. When working in food services, we were taught that if your hands touch anything that has not been sanitized, they are dirty and must be washed again before handling food.

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Welcome to the The Old Money Edition of the Money Hacks Carnival! If this is your first time here, please have a look around and consider subscribing to our RSS feed. Be sure to also check out Festival of Frugality No. 139: The Michael Phelps Edition which was hosted here yesterday for more recommended reading.

Madoline and I have a fondness for history and all things old, so the theme for today’s carnival is “Old Money.” While credit cards, online banking and checks are great modern commodities, they just don’t have the charm of good, old fashioned money - in other words, cash. We hope you enjoy this tour through United States Treasury history and the art to be found in currencies of the past.

1934 $100,000 USD Bill (Woodrow Wilson)

Editor’s Picks

• PT presents 9 Tips For Going To One Income.
• Twenties Money Magazine presents My College Sold Me Out.
• Toni presents Happy with What We Don’t Have.
• The Investor presents How a boring broker will make you richer.
• Karen presents Spending money can save your money.

1918 $10,000 USD Bill (Salmon P. Chase)

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Welcome to the 139th Edition of the Festival of Frugality! This week’s edition celebrates the sensational achievements of Michael Phelps, holder of 15 Olympic Gold Medals and 7 World Records in swimming, in the past week and a half at the 2008 Olympics with photos and inspirational quotes from the champion himself.

I am also hosting the Money Hacks Carnival tomorrow, so be sure and check back for more great reads! If this is your first time here, please look around and consider subscribing to our RSS feed. 

Now on with the carnival!

(AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Editor’s Picks

• Silicon Valley Blogger presents Lost Money: How Money Drains Add Up To $175,000 In 10 Years.
• MoneyNing presents Frugally and Happily Back to School 9 Different Ways.
• Kevin Brink presents “Sale” Can Sometimes be Just Another Four Letter Word.
• ISPF presents 10 Tips to Get Anyone into the Habit of Cooking at Home (Even if You Have Never Stepped into the Kitchen Before).
• Savingadvice presents Reached Financial Independence. Now What?

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While generic brand items, especially groceries, seem to have improved in recent years, there are still many things that you need to watch out for that may seem to save you money at the time of purchase but may end up costing you more in the long run.  With the advent of the Dollar Store, it has become very easy to find “bargains” on everyday personal and household things, but as we all know, cheapness and quality don’t always come hand in hand. Save yourself - money, time, aggravation and, most importantly, your family’s health - by not saving on the following things

9 Things to Not Skimp On

• Cheese

  A few cents per ounce can be the difference between delicious and gross. Luckily for us, the generic brand at our grocery store is really good. A lot of cheap brands of cheese are bulked up with potato starch which has a horrible texture.

• Shampoo and Conditioner

  Occasionally I fall for those 97¢ bottles of shampoo and conditioner because they smell like strawberries or coconuts. But experience has taught me that these yummy hair products promote an increasingly scruffy appearance. The difference in the quality of your hair after a single wash with a good shampoo is worth $3-$5 dollars a bottle. And a 40 oz. bottle of Pantene or Herbal Essence is very economical.

• Electronics

  Cheap electronics may save you money at the time of purchase, but it adds up when you have to make the purchase 3 or more times within the period that a well-made product would have served you. Not to mention the time lost and significant inconvenience. $20 or $30 more spent on a reliable brand will infinitely pay off in the long run.

• Batteries

  Cheap generic brand batteries don’t last as long as brand name batteries and may not be as well-constructed. Battery fluid is toxic so it is worth spending a few more dollars to make sure yours are leak proof, especially if you have children or pets.

• Household cleaners

  Kill germs, not your family. Cheap and little-known brands may cut corners and not list harmful ingredients. Overexposure to certain toxins lead to things like skin irritation, respiratory problems and cancer.

• Bakeware

  If you grease your pans and still have to pry out your food with a knife and spend more time scrubbing the pans than eating, upgrade your bakeware and you will be able to eat more of your baking.

• Dollar Store Pencils

  Dollar store brand pencils like “A+ Homework” will find you spending more time trying to sharpen the pencils than actually writing. The wood and lead are of such poor consistency that they splinter from beginning to end. If you are lucky enough to achieve the likeness of a sharpened pencil, it doesn’t write as well. And we won’t even go into the eraser.

• Pet Food

  Better quality pet foods will keep your pets healthier, improving your finances and quality of life. A pet with kidney disease, cancer, or other illness may cost you $1,000 or more a month. Poor diet in young animals may affect the development of joints, immune systems, and intelligence. I have also read that certain artificial food colors causes aggression in both people and animals.

• Human Food

  For the same reasons as pet food.

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Money on the Mind: Social and Psychological Ramifications

I came across an interesting article on MSN Money last night titled Does money make you mean? which described a study conducted on a group of subjects who had been preconditioned to have money on their minds when various experiments were conducted. The study found that those with money on their minds tended to be more indifferent and less helpful toward others, preferring to do things on their own and waiting longer to ask for help when help was needed.

The Study

The “money primed” group was preconditioned by doing puzzles with money-related words, reading essays containing references to money, being shown posters of money and given play money and tokens to handle. This group was then combined with the control group (not preconditioned to think about money) in several staged situations. In one test, the group was assigned to complete a puzzle and told that help was available if asked for. Money-minded subjects waited longer to ask for help than the control subjects did. In another situation, a passer-by “accidentally” spilled a box of pencils on the floor and the test subjects were asked to help; those who had been “money primed” picked up fewer pencils. When asked to donate to a university student fund, “money primed” subjects gave less.

The researchers concluded that the money-minded subjects weren’t consciously being rude or selfish, but were simply indifferent, as if they didn’t know how to help out or couldn’t see themselves as having a role in someone else’s life.

This Sounds A Lot Like Me

When I read this, my first thought was that this sounded a lot like Madoline and me. Ever since moving to California and needing to live frugally, we have become very independent and tried to be as self-sufficient as possible. When something in our house breaks, we always try to fix it ourselves. When we find that we can’t do it on our own, we usually procrastinate a while before finally calling someone in to fix it. This is, of course, due to the fact that we are money-conscious and try to save whenever we possibly can. While we do not dislike being around other people, we also don’t actively seek to get involved socially.

At this time in our lives, most or all of our behavior is influenced by money. We do not have close family or friends whom we could go to for help if we needed it (because we have moved so much, we have lost touch with childhood friends and most of our classmates now live all over the world and have their own families). Because we don’t feel as if we can rely on people, money is the only thing that can guarantee our health and security.

Money Can Buy Happiness

My second thought after reading about this study was that this is natural survivalist behavior. In this day and age, one simply cannot survive without money. True, money can’t buy “Happiness” bottled and ready to go. But, money buys food, pays the mortgage and doctor’s bills. Money makes sure that our pets, who are our family, are well fed and taken care of. Money is what will keep us healthy and comfortable throughout our lives. And health and comfort play a big part in one’s happiness.

So, at this time, I’m afraid we are just as the research finds - indifferent and unhelpful (with the exception of this blog, hopefully) - not out of hate for others, but out of necessity to ensure our own future survival. As many others do, we dream of one day being financially free. We hope to one day be able to give to causes we believe in and even start charitable organizations of our own. But in order to be able to help others, we have to be able to help ourselves first.

Recommended reading: Does money make you mean?

While browsing the WiseBread Forums today, I came across an interesting thread in which a member asks: Is “Simple Living” Just Another Term for “Giving Up”?

Several members responded with various opinions:

• There is a difference between simple living and forced poverty.
• Not everyone enjoys the rat race.
• It’s a choice.
• It’s a form of retirement.
• Some live the frugal life because they have no other choice.
• Frugal does not mean “easy,” but instead takes work and ambition.
• It’s the means to an end.

I thought I’d add my own opinion to this and go more into why we live the way we do - sort of a continuation/elaboration on Our Family Financial History which tells how we came to be where we are today. The answer to this question, as evidenced above, is different for everyone depending on your station in life - age, personal goals and lifestyle preferences.

For us, the last answer, “It’s the means to an end,” is closest to our view of “simple living” or “frugal living.” For me, simple living is not just another terms for “giving up.” I like to think of it as “saving up” and making it possible to “live it up” in future years.

Though, I think this has much to do with where we are agewise in our lives. Madoline and I are in our late twenties and we have many years ahead of us. But for someone at midlife, retirement or late-life, it would probably be different.

Our Reasons for Frugal Living are:

• To pay off our house as soon as possible
• To save up to attend graduate school
• To save up for a replacement car when the time comes
• To make sure we and our pets have enough (or more) to live on in later life
• To be able to live as comfortably and healthily as possible in later life
• To be able to help extended family who may need assistance
• To be able to travel and see the all the places we’ve been wanting to see
• To own a small farm on which to keep horses, sheep and dogs
• To be free of debt and worry
• To be able to have the things we want be they large or small
• To be able to pay our taxes - sad, but true

Frugal Living as a Choice

At this time in our lives, we cannot really afford to not live frugally. Our business is still in its development stages, and we are still considering other career paths. Because we prefer to avoid debt and our business is small, we have been using our cash to invest in sewing machines and materials for the business.

So for us, frugal or simple living is a choice because our present lifestyle is also a choice. At this time, we’d like to have a shot at making our business work because we prefer to work for ourselves and be able to work from home so we can be with our dogs who are our closest family. This is the reason we bought our house where the closest city is 40 miles away. We could move to a large city and get full-time jobs if we really wanted or needed to, but for now, we want to try to make our business work.

Frugal Living as a Means to an End

One of the ways in which we hope to make our fortunes is by investing. This also requires some capital other than regular savings and and emergency fund. So that is another reason we live frugally - to save as much money as possible to invest.

How about you? Do you live frugally? If yes, what are your reasons? And if no, why not?

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