Personal Finance Advice

We had a rare spring-like day this week – sunny and warm enough to shed the winter jacket for a bit. It was also the same day my favorite seed catalog arrived in the mail. Coincidence? I think not! Garden season is close.
Gardening has always seemed to me like a thrifty three-fer: exercise, time outside, [...]

This is one of the hardest times of the year for me to continue setting money aside. For one, the money we earmarked for gifts has been spent, which makes the total in our account look smaller than usual.
I’ve learned some techniques to stay on the savings course from my dear mother. She went [...]

Pennies made the news this month, as they now cost more than their value to mint. (Nickels do, too.) These costs are blamed on the rising prices of the metals used to make the coins, so theoretically, you might be able to melt down a pile of coins and sell them for more [...]

For the first day of kindergarten, I walked in to my daughter’s classroom and at each child’s place at the table lay 3 pennies. These were fake pennies, but as our kindergarten information packet stated, they were worth something.
Every day, the children get three pennies, which they put in designated containers. Every four [...]

Many people assume that the penny is no longer good for anything, but not according to members from the forums – there are still a lot of things that you can do with a penny. Here are 83 of them (Disclaimer: Some of these activities involve defacing pennies which may be illegal):
1. Clean dirty pennies [...]

I wrote last year that I like to look for money when I walk around. I find a minimum of $50 a year and would estimate that I clear over $100 most years (in helps living in Japan where they have $1 and $5 coins). I received an email asking me where are the best [...]

We took our annual trip to the Ebisuten (the God of Wealth) shrine to pray for good money fortune today. It was a much different affair than our trip in 2006 when we went during the festival and the shrine was packed (we were in the middle of our move back here when that took [...]

Hmmmm, it looks like my wealth coin experiment has died… I haven’t heard from any of the coins in about 3 weeks now which certainly isn’t a good sign. I guess I will continue to hope that the coins will make an appearance from time to time and I’m notified, but it obviously didn’t [...]

A bit more news came in on the wealth coins that are out there.
I received notice that wealth coin #10 arrived in Sams Valley, Oregon:
I was on vacation when it came and my family were all curious what in the world had come from Japan!! I appreciate being a part of this fun project…have [...]

This page shows the progress of wealth coin #1 after leaving Japan:
5/26/2006 – Mapgirl received the coin a bit ago and is still deciding what to do with it next:
I got my God of Wealth Good Luck coin last week or the week before. I’ve been crazy busy that I forgot to post it [...]

Some updates on the wealth coins and where they are these days.
Wealth coin #3 made it’s way from Hollywood, CA from Liz up the coast to Cashmere, WA where David from Blogography has taken possession of it and has the right idea when it comes to these coins:
Now… before all the nut-jobs out there [...]

It seems that the majority of the wealth coins have vanished en route to their first destination. Even though I have the contact addresses to these people and could email them to ask what is going on, I made the decision when I started this that I would let everything play out on its own [...]

The God of Wealth coin received it’s first publicity from a non participating member over at the Worker Bees Blog which was much appreciated in getting coins beyond the personal finance community.
It seems that the first coins have begun arriving at their destinations. The Everyday Goddess received wealth coin number 3 and took it to [...]

Thank you to all the people who contacted me about the God of Wealth coins. The last coin went out today and the first ones should be arriving at their destinations fairly soon. Eight coins went to the US, one to Central America and one to Europe. About half the initial participants are pfbloggers with [...]

I was putting away my winter clothes this week when I came across the jacket I wore when I went to pray to the God of Wealth and found an extra 10 five-yen good luck coins I had placed in the pocket. Instead of simply throwing the coins back into my coin jar, I thought [...]

Had a great time (where else but in Japan can you get a squid on a stick?) and delivered the prayers to Ebisuten (the God of Wealth).

squid on a stick
Half the fun is the walk to the shrine and back. The streets are lined with booths for all types of food and games. Imagine a [...]

Tomorrow I’m off to ebessan (actually later this evening for all of you in the US). This is an annual festival at the beginning of the New Year dedicated to bring good money luck. It’s a three day festival and the news has been showing people throwing piles of money and praying for good monetary [...]

Himeji Castle
We took a trip to Himeji Castle yesterday which is a UNESCO World Heritage site and it was a beautiful day to visit. One part of the castle is Okiku’s Well:
This castle has a famous ghost story called “Banshu Sara-Yashiki.” A servant named “Okiku” serving the lord of the castle happened to learn of [...]