October 2012 - The Outlier Model

3 Ideas for a Cheap and Frugal Halloween

CF / October 31st, 2012 / 17 Comments

Halloween is one of those retail holidays that can easily suck the life from your wallet until it is dry. Mail-ordered costumes, custom stencils for artistically sliced gourds (technically pumpkins are gourd-like rather than true gourds), environmentally unfriendly half servings of sweets… oh the madness! Don’t let it! So many years, Brian and I tried to go all out for Halloween...

Posted in: General Tagged with: cheap Halloween candy, halloween, Halloween candy, Halloween costume ideas, Halloween party ideas, Halloween themed food

Using Planwise to create a money plan

planwise, money app, financial app, create a money plan, money plan

CF / October 29th, 2012 / 17 Comments

Have you heard of Planwise yet? They’re an up and coming San Francisco based technology company that has created a pretty slick web app to help consumers plan out their finances. The basic idea is that you give the app your financial stats – income, expenses, debts and so on – and then add “Plans” on top off your baseline. Plans could be things like taking out a...

Posted in: Money Tagged with: budgeting, making a budget, new budget, new job, Planwise, saving money, spending money, staying on budget, staying out of debt

Updates: Oct 21 – 27

Brian / October 27th, 2012 / 12 Comments

I’ve got a confession to make. I don’t like Halloween. CF and I have tried to get into it in the past, and always been disappointed. There is much made of going out to the bar or to a party and it just never delivers on the build up. That said, for the past two years I’ve worked at the wine store on Oct 31, which is always good for a laugh. I’m not working the 31st this year,...

Posted in: Weekly Updates Tagged with: bloggers helping bloggers, buy your freedom, car share, certificate vs. degree, costumes, halloween, hippy pumpkin, Modo Car Co-op, whitening toothpaste is a sham

Being poor in North America

poor in North America, poor sector, middle class, status in life, frugal living

CF / October 24th, 2012 / 60 Comments

I was introduced recently to an article by John Scalzi on being poor. If you have not read it yet, go and read it because my comments will make little sense otherwise. (Then come back and continue reading this blog!) Photo Credit: D Sharon Pruitt via Flickr As I read the article, two things struck me. First, I felt a bit uncomfortable. I do a lot of the things on his list of statements and...

Posted in: Philosophy Tagged with: being poor in america, define poor, poverty in america, poverty rate, sacrifices