Today, Prosper & Budgets Are Sexy team up and celebrate the season of Lent! (Didn't see that coming, did ya?). If you've ever heard of "peer-to-peer lending" before, you're probably already aware of Prosper.com - one of the biggies in the industry. The site's based on the premise that consumers should be able to help each other financially by borrowing & lending from one another, instead of through banks. Some people lend money out, and some pick money up! Pretty cool concept really, except for that fact I can't participate cuz I live in Maryland! Boooo...

So yeah, back to Lent. As a Catholic, I give something up every year for 40 days until Easter hits. Sometimes I give up Soda, sometimes complaining (and I charge myself a dollar per complaint!), and most recently SHOPPING! You could probably guess which is more financially rewarding ;) I reckon I've saved at *least* $300 a month since I first gave this up 2 years ago, and it's been awesome ever since (I still shop btw, just not every single weekend like I used to! I'm much better with my habits now).

But enough about Prosper and I, we want to hear from you! How do YOU currently saving money? Share with us and be entered to win a $200 check!!! Here's what to do:

1. Drop a comment letting us know what you're currently doing to save money, AND how much you'll have saved up by Easter! (even if you don't celebrate Lent)
2. Then, leave me a way to contact you (email, twitter, blog, etc)
   

That's it! We'll leave this up for a week, and one lucky bastard will be rewarded with $200. It doesn't get much better than that my frugal friends. Be extra nice to Random.org this week, okay? ;) Mad thanks again to Prosper for hookin' us up! NOW START COMMENTING.

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PS: And if you want *another* chance to win, be sure to sign up to my V.I.P. Newsletter! We'll be giving out a separate $100 check on top of this one come Friday!
PPS: How cool is it that people give us money to give away?
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*UPDATE* Make SURE to leave your contact info! You can go anonymous all you'd like, but if I can't tell you that you've won you're going to be mad at me ;)
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*UPDATE 2* Blogger is only showing 200-something comments, but I AM getting them all! So don't worry if it doesn't show up here, you're still on the list :) Picking winner tonight (Thursday, 3-11)

Labels: giveaways, loaning money, religion, saving

Ever thought about how religion plays a part in your finances? As a Catholic I'm trained to think in terms of tithing and such, but after reading about some other faiths out there - the Muslim and Jewish communities in particular - I am *blown away* at how different the role of money comes into play here.

This article in Money Magazine (pg.88, June '09) showcased 3 families of these different faiths, and how they cope at being financially stable while at the same time keeping in good standing w/ their values. Not only was I unaware of most of these (big shock, right?), but it really hit me how GOOD these couples were at making their lifestyles work here in the U.S.! This excerpt sums it up perfectly:

"It is impossible to put a price on religious belief. But as Abbi Perets knows from her trips to Kroger, exercising that belief doesn't come free. For the most devout practitioners...following their faith's precepts often has a profound financial impact: Religion guides how they make, spend, and invest their money. And it often leads to financial decisions and stresses far different from those of people who don't share their beliefs. "

Yeah for real, I am thoroughly impressed after reading some of these stories. While the Christian portion of the article was pretty interesting, I'm going to stick to the Muslim & Jewish differences here as they stood out the most to me. And again, this is all just from what I read in the magazine, I don't claim to be an expert or anything ;) Here's what I've learned:

Financial Management & the Muslim Family:

• Interest cannot be earned, nor paid. (according to the Qur'an, where riba is generally understood to mean "interest"). As you can imagine, this would be quite hard on the majority of us Americans!
• This means no credit cards, no mortgages, no car rentals, and even limited amounts of diversification within your retirement portfolio (since you can't invest in bonds or any stocks involved in forbidden activities such as lending, gambling, and serving/making alcohol)
• Education may be an exception, but for the most part it's going to take some massive creativity to finance big ticket items & expenses.
• Charitable donations should roughly equal 2.5% of your net worth. (if you follow Islam's rules on zagat) Not sure how the net worth is calculated, but it seems that most Muslims give more than that allocated % anyways.

Financial Management & the Jewish (Orthodox) Family:

• Everything consumed must be kosher. That in itself didn't mean much to me, but apparently it can get REAL expensive REALLY fast. We're talking $9 grape juice and $14.99 brisket by the pound (instead of $1.99/lb). Talk about a budget buster!
• Meat & dairy products must be kept separate. That means potentially having TWO sinks, TWO ovens, and even TWO dishwashers! I'm sure there are ways of going about it without picking up 2 of everything, but needless to say it would be a bit more daunting.
• Cannot do anything classified as "work" on the Sabbath. Even riding in a car. Which means, unless you really enjoy hiking, it's a good chance you'll need to live within walking distance to your place of worship. Which also means you'll pay a higher price for your house since you and everyone else in your religious community needs to live close by!

I'm sure that's just the tip of the iceberg, but that alone is enough to wow me. Not only are the differences between their faiths and mine (Christian) so large when it comes to the role of money, BUT they are practicing it here in the U.S. where it's even MORE challenging than it would be in a place that shares their religion on a much larger scale! I'm seriously impressed.

I would love to hear if any of you practice these religions - or any others - and how it affects your personal finances. Is this article right on? Is there anything missing that plays a major role in your finances? I find it interesting that no matter where our faith lies, we are all challenged to manage our money to the best of our abilities :)

Labels: in the real world, money management, religion

Yup, for every complaint that comes outta my mouth, a $1 bill goes into a jar! Reason being? It's Lent time baby!!! And after a long hard week of trying to come up with something, I did what every man has to do once in a while - I stole someone's idea ;) So thank you much Kaitlyn, my dearest blogger friend! I now have a game plan to put into action.

For those who don't know, every year during Lent (40 days preceding Easter), us Catholics give up something on behalf of the Good Man upstairs. And this "something" is supposed to be challenging as you're basically sacrificing for a while. So giving up something like beets or radishes, or anything else you don't care for doesn't count...although as a kid i may have done this (shh...)

Usually I give up something physical like sodas (VERY hard to do at first, but def. do-able as I found out 2 Lents ago) or even Shopping as i did last year! Which, I gotta say, REALLY makes you realize how much you spend on a daily basis - i highly recommend trying it. In fact, I came close to choosing that one again this year, but it's a lot more easier and less challenging now, so I figured it was time for a new one.

So now comes the No Complaining Rule! Not only will this help me become a better person (hopefully), but it'll give back to the church as well. Every time the Mrs. catches me complaining, or i catch myself, or even if YOU catch me complaint-blogging, that jar will fill up with $1 bills. And at the end of these 40 days - on Easter - I shall tithe all this money to our church :) And at the rate i've been going lately, it'll be a hefty amount!

It's a Win-Win situation all around, and I'm very excited/nervous to get started. I've already slipped once and it's been less than 24 hours! haha...But I'll be damned if I don't come outta this much better than I came in. Anyone wanna join me? Anyone give something different up?

Labels: challenges, life, religion

It's Lent season which means .... it's time to give something up! It actually started last Wednesday, but I didn't have my blog up then so let's must pretend we're back in time a bit shall we? And for those who aren't familiar with Lent, it's basically the 40 day time period before Easter where it's customary to "fast" or what i used to call "give up something small that's not hard to do but you'll technically be in the right!" haha ... that was the old me though. These days I like to play by the rules, both for the church AND for the personal challenge :) And I gotta say, it's definitely rewarding.

LAST YEAR I gave up all Sodas! can you believe that?? AND not only did I last the entire 40 days, i went another 3 or so months after w/out fail. After a while it was really easy and I actually didn't mind at all as my body felt great. I was about to extend the goal to a year, but realized I needed to stop making these random challenges just for the hell of it*, and have since limited myself to drinking it on the weekends only.

THIS YEAR I wanted to do something more financially friendly and decided to put myself to the ultimate challenge: NO BUYING RANDOM CRAP. Also known as "discretionary income". This is *huge* for me as I am the king of all kings on thrift store shopping, Craigslist purchasing, and eBay bidding! Not to mention the weekly shopping trips to Express, Rugged Wearhouse, and Ta Ta Ta TJ MAX. I'm one of those people who shop when their sad/happy/energized/or just plain b-o-r-e-d. And no i'm not a girl (but i do love girls! errr ... my fiancée. I love you honey!) I'm also one of those people marketers love as i am attracted to all things blingy and packaged nice.

I guess I should also clarify those things i'm allowed to spend on, especially so I won't try and wiggle my way out of it in the future.

Things allowed: Mortgages, Utilities, Bills, Food, and anything that improves my wealth or brain (such as mutual funds, finance books, magazines, etc).

Things NOT allowed: Gadgets, Lottery Tickets, Artwork, Decorations (why am i capitalizing all these?), furniture, track jackets as i have wayyyyy too many, t-shirts, and anything on Woot.com, sellout.woot.com, or shirt.woot.com which will be extremely hard!

Okay, that about wraps it up. So far i haven't spent a penny on any of these and my spirits are still high. I think this is exactly what i needed to re-organize my finances and get my budget back on track and alive. Funny enough, i also have wayyyyyy more time on my hands.

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*Once on a flight to Greece a few years back I watched "Supersize Me" and decided to see how long i can go w/out eating McDonalds, my FAV. place at the time...to this day i STILL haven't touched a thing from there! Sure I've been to Wendys a few hundred times, but i still feed like The Man :) As of today it's been 1193 days and my record continues to grow...but who's counting?

Labels: goals, religion, shopping