I Am Large, I Contain Multitudes

After getting dismissed early from rehearsal tonight, I made a grocery run to Trader Joe's, then took a rare detour over to Whole Foods. As a result -- even though it meant I didn't get home until 10pm -- rather than a slice of crappy takeout pizza, I am dining on fresh asparagus and caprese salad (using the basil I'm growing myself, on my porch). Aw yeah.

So, here's what I wanted to write about today:

I started reading The Simple Dollar (thesimpledollar) some months back, I think maybe via a citation from tapuz? Its main focus is partly frugality/simplicity and partly personal finance (i.e. fiscal responsibility), most of which boils down to Spend Less Than You Earn, No Really, over and over again. However, it's also got strong themes of personal productivity (he's a GTD disciple), writing as a practice, sensible childrearing, and general mindfulness. All of these elements seem worth keeping on my front burner, especially as I've been doing a lot of thoughtful money moving, planning, and budgeting myself since last September. I don't find all of his entries useful, but there are certainly enough tidbits of interest to make it worth skimming through the daily feed.

Here's a handful of entries I found memorable. (I was going to say "recent entries", but looking on the datestamps on them, I am reminded that one of his tricks is to post weekly "time machine" recaps of the best entries from one, two, three years ago that week. Clever? Thrifty!)

Eight personal-finance and -productivity books worth owning and regularly rereading:
http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2008/05/20/the-essential-bookshelf-the-only-eight-books-ive-kept-after-hundreds-of-reviews/

Five reasons that having a child isn’t as insanely expensive as you might think (relative, at least, to spendthrift single life!):
http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/10/18/five-reasons-why-having-a-child-isnt-as-expensive-as-you-might-think/

Make Your Own Cream-Of-____ Soup (really a no-brainer, but between having a kosher kitchen, and reviling all the additives and preservatives [and sodium!] in commercial canned soup, this is kind of a brilliant reminder):
http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2009/04/24/five-frugal-food-tactics-from-trents-kitchen/

Other useful links he's posted recently:
MissingMoney is a clearinghouse search site for all states with databases of unclaimed property. (It feels a little sketchy, but apparently it's entirely legit. You can also go straight to the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators site to do additional searching by state.)
The Cheapest Fruits and Vegetables Month-By-Month (on About.com)
Thinking Small without Guilt: Setting Your Minimum Goal Standards: "Rather than aiming for some maximum level of perfection, think small instead. Decide on a minimum standard which you'll have no excuses for not achieving."

And with that, perhaps to bed.

[By way of la_vie_en_rosie... and I found it extremely fun so I encourage all you linguaphiles to go do it, yidlach and Gentiles alike:]

You are invited to participate in an interesting and entertaining survey about language. Essentially, we're asking about the spread of Yiddish (and some Hebrew) among English speakers in North America. We're turning to both Jews and non-Jews to answer questions like these: Who uses Yiddish words like "shmooze" and "daven" and phrases like "Money, shmoney"? Why do some people say "temple" while others say "shul"? Who prefers biblical names for their babies? Your responses will help us answer these and other questions, and you might learn something about yourself in the process. Please set aside 15-20 minutes, and click on this link to participate:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=9eQwWyblG_2b8ixLqbt6QFhg_3d_3d

Please forward this request to your friends and family. We are hoping to get thousands of responses from people of all religions, ages, and regions of the United States and Canada. If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail Prof. Sarah Bunin Benor <sbenor@huc.edu> or Prof. Steven M. Cohen <steve34nyc@aol.com>.