Blog Archive

Thriving on Less

Friday, February 27th, 2009

It’s time for another chapter of Leo Babauta’s Thriving on Less,  a companion ebook to The Power of Less. Chapter 7 – Changing Your Spending Habits “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.” – Aristotle   While you can cut costs here and there, the real, lasting changes […]

Thriving on Less

Friday, February 20th, 2009

It’s time for another installment of Leo Babauta’s Thriving on Less,  a companion ebook to The Power of Less. Chapter 6 – Look at Large Expenses for the Long Term   “I buy my freedom with my frugality.” –          Vicki Robins –            Once you’ve made easier changes, you can start looking at the big […]

Is It a Pig with Lipstick?

Saturday, February 14th, 2009

Is it pork with a dash of lipstick and lots of spending, or is it going to create lots and lots of jobs?  You decide what the stimulus appropriations package is.  You can read a brief summary at My Two Dollars.  Since the actual bill weighs in at 1071 pages, I’m sure you will appreciate […]

Thriving on Less

Friday, February 13th, 2009

Another installment from Leo Babauta’s Thriving on Less, the companion ebook to his The Power of Less. Chapter 5 – Make Small Financial Changes First “Whoever wants to reach a distant goal must take small steps.”     – Saul Bellow While it’s important, when scaling back, to try to eliminate non-essential expenses as much as possible, you can’t change […]

Bailout Approved by Congress

Wednesday, February 11th, 2009

A breaking news alert from The New York Times stated that a deal compromise has been reached by the House and Senate.  The package pared back Democrats’ proposed spending on education and health in favor of tax cuts needed to win over Republicans.  I’ve not had a chance to read the final wording, but there’s probably […]

Thriving on Less

Saturday, February 7th, 2009

Another installment from Leo Babauta’s Thriving on Less, the companion ebook to his The Power of Less.  . Chapter 4 – Focusing on Enough, Not More “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed.” – Mahatma Gandhi I think it’s something that’s conditioned in us from an early age, by friends, television, […]

Thriving on Less, Not Struggling

Friday, January 23rd, 2009

Here is the third chapter of Leo Babauta’s Thriving on Less, the companion ebook to his The Power of Less.  Chapter 3 – Thriving on Less, Not Struggling “Who is rich? He who rejoices in his portion.” – The Talmud Scaling back your life and living more frugally can be seen in two ways: 1. It can be […]

Obama Sends Dow Down

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009

Obama’s inaugural address did nothing to calm the fears of investors.  After hearing Obama’s speech, they went back to unloading stocks.  This in turn sent the Dow down more than 330 points.  Once again the Dow Jones industrial average is below 8000.  Obama’s speech did nothing to ease concerns about our country’s struggling economy.  Personally, […]

Focus on the Essentials

Friday, January 9th, 2009

This is the second chapter of Leo Babauta’s Thriving on Less.  It is his companion ebook to The Power of Less.  Chapter 2 – Focus on the Essentials “The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.” – Hans Hofmann The first step in simplifying, and living with less, is to […]

11 Million Jobless

Friday, January 9th, 2009

A breaking news alert from the New York Times just came in.  According to the Labor Dept., the jobless rate jumped to 7.2% as more that 524,000 nonfarm jobs were lost in December.  More than 11 million Americans are now unemployed, the most in nearly 25 years. That now puts the unemployment  rate up  2.2 percentage points since April. […]