Truth nuggets dropping today, boy!
That library is a frugal man and woman’s best friend!
And that passage comes from a thoroughly fantastic article in itself linked below, as well as a handful of other great reads I’ve enjoyed over the months…
Lots of great writers and ideas out there, and hopefully these just add to the beauty of the weekend coming up :) Let me know if any of them shake you!
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The Good Room by Frank Chimero — “I once heard that a library is one of the few remaining places that cares more about you than your wallet. It means that a person can be a person there: not a customer, not a user, not an economic agent, not a pair of eyes to monetize, but a citizen and community-member, a reader and a thinker, a mind and—God, I am going to say it—a soul.”
Meet ‘The Good Cemeterian’ Who Spends His Only Day Off Cleaning Vets’ Gravestones by Task and Purpose — “For the last two and a half years, Andrew Lumish has spent every Sunday cleaning the gravestones of veterans in three different cemeteries in Tampa, Florida where he lives. The owner of a cleaning franchise, Lumish goes by the handle The Good Cemeterian on social media, where he posts photos of the more than 300 headstones he’s cleaned, along with details of the veterans buried there…” (Further reading: facebook.com/thegoodcemeterian // thegoodcemeterian.org)
This Beautifully Designed ‘Dumb Phone’ Can Only Make Calls and Send Texts by Business Insider – “The Light Phone 2 is a gorgeous, minimalist “dumb phone” that can do only a handful of things. The phone doesn’t have any apps. Instead, it can make calls, send texts, handle simple directions, and set alarms. Light, the company behind the phone, wants to make a device that is used as little as possible to get people off their smartphones.”
The Money Doesn’t Care Who Makes It by Defined Sight — “Money doesn’t care who makes it. You can be Jeff Bezos or Joe Schmoe, there is plenty of opportunity for all of us to make it out there. How bad do you want it?”
How to Save More Money and Bulletproof Your Future by Charles Ngo — “I read an interesting experiment in a book. 1) Take a photo of yourself 2) Age yourself using an app. It’s hard for people to see the future. But when they saw what they look like in the future, it makes them aware that this is a “real person.” And those people start making decisions better for the long term.”
New Survey Proves Spreadsheets Are For Lovers by Tiller HQ — “People who use spreadsheets to manage their personal budgets report the greatest satisfaction in their romantic relationships compared to people who use other tools or don’t keep a budget at all.”
Love Money Mission with J. Money from Budgets Are Sexy via Kiné Corder — “Want to know the 5 Cs of a successful marriage? Wondering how you and your partner can get on the same team financially to win the money game? Listen and get tips to lead you to your Marriage Money Mission.” (Not an article, but a podcast I recently did… in case you miss my voice ;))
What’s The Most Useful Form of Cash? (Hint: It’s not a $100 Bill) by The Wall Street Journal — “It’s great for tipping, getting attention from valet parking attendants and what one adherent calls ‘clean living.'”
How to Calculate the True Retirement Costs of Anything by Get Rich Quick’ish — “When it comes to saving for retirement, there are two levers that you can pull: 1. Earn more money 2. Cut expenses. The less you need to get by, the less you need to save up to retire.”
Read anything good yourself lately?
Drop the links in the comments below so we can find more! Especially if they have to do with cemeteries or soul searching – two of my current obsessions :)
Big thanks to Nate St. Pierre, Mrs Money Magnet, and @BookWormCU for recommending some of these articles above… y’all know me well!
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Not money, soul, or even cemetery related, but a great piece on being a grown up…https://markmanson.net/how-to-grow-up
Haha… just started reading it – “Ice cream is better than being burned. Playing with the dog is more fun than playing with a rock.” Yup, both very much true :)
I can never tell if I really love that guy or can’t stand him…I think without the constant cursing which rarely adds emphasis he’d be amazing. But I know that’s a part of his “thing” and he def. seems to be killing it, so good for him!
I don’t have any links to share but must ask, where is that gorgeous library? Must be a private rich home, no? I don’t recall seeing it at the Biltmore when I visited there a few years ago so not sure where that is?
I’ve had a dumb phone for years & somehow I’ve learned to survive!
Thanx for sharing. Will have to check out these links.
It was tagged with “Chantilly, France” at the site I got it from – so probably a library there somewhere? https://unsplash.com/photos/VmS8VQ0n39Q
**UPDATE** Okay, you were right – it was in a private home!! Or more like, PALACE! http://www.domainedechantilly.com/
It was dubbed “The Reading Room” by The Duke of Aumale: “The Duke of Aumale devoted his entire life to his two passions: his love of books and fine art. In 1848 he started a remarkable collection of paintings, drawings and, above all, books. In a letter to a friend he admits: “I think I’m suffering from bibliomania!”. The reading room was designed by architect Honoré Daumet at the end of the 19th century to house the Duke of Aumale’s rare book collection.”
Pretty incredible :) http://www.domainedechantilly.com/en/accueil/chateau/reading-room/
WOW what an incredible library chock full of the rarest old books & manuscripts. I’ve been to France but never heard of this chateau. Will have to take time to check it out if I ever return. Add another biggie to my bucket list! Thanx for sharing the links to it.
Pretty sad:( I actually grew up near Le domaine de Chantilly and didn’t even know about the library!
You can make up for it by visiting it the next time you’re in town!!! And then sending us all a selfie to make us jealous! :)
So for some reason, I actually HATE stepping foot inside of libraries…
It’s kind of weird since I love reading so much, but something about them has always turned me off! Strange I know…Even in college, I avoided going to the libraries almost at all cost haha.
Maybe one day I will actually figure out why I don’t like them so much, and actually benefit by renting the books for practically FREE (accounting for the cost of my library card, if there even is one?).
Maybe cuz a lot of them are old and grungy looking/feeling? Like half the public libraries? They gotta be clean and/or super old/antique for me to really want to hang out in them for long periods of time… And also a great kids section so I can have some peace and quiet ;)
Maybe you should advocate for your local libraries to get more funding so they don’t have to be old and grungy!
But honestly, librarians/libraries don’t care if you’re spending a lot of time in the space. A “get in, get yer books, and get out” mentality or even an “I never set foot in the library, I just borrow ebooks” attitude makes us just as happy as the people who come and hang out all day… so long as you’re getting what you need!
Love to hear that :) And how awesome are you for working at libraries!
I really enjoyed the latest installment on Our Next Life – about building a community of like-minded (frugal) souls. We’ve got our buds here in Minneapolis, but I’m yearning for mountains and a little more sunshine. We might just have to up-stakes and move, dammit.
I love this title so much.
My local library is the embodiment of this. You go in and there are people getting help with making a resume and finding a job, activity groups for children to help out busy parents, older people getting taught how to use the internet (I overheard a guy using google for the first time and the first thing he searched for was ‘cornflakes’), people getting help with bail related stuff, people getting help with learning English, and so on.
Of course, there’s also the odd guy swigging cider in the corner or watching porn (presumably they don’t have home internet) or selling drugs from the toilet – but that doesn’t detract from how wonderful it is for a place that’s purely there to help people to exist. Thanks for the reminder :)
Also, two slightly off-beat book recommendations for you: Living On Half A Dime A Day by Sarah Elizabeth and The Art of Money Getting by PT Barnum. Both are in the public domain so they’re available for free and contain some surprisingly good financial advice :)
You are too much, haha…. “cornflakes” – that is hilarious!!
Great new recs for me too – thank you! Never heard of either, although I do know PT was one sneaky marketer ;)
Great quotes! Beauty can be just so simple and sometimes easy to ignore.
I love the elibrary in our county. I’m a bit too lazy to drive a the way to the library to get the books and return them. But checking them out online? Yes!
My mom works at a library, and it’s fun getting a behind the scenes scoop to realize how much they care about their patrons. She is constantly applying for grants (now my library has tool rentals and 3D printers!) and volunteering of her own time to make the library an even better place.
Not related to cemeteries, but I really enjoyed participating in and reading through all of the awesome female bloggers inspirational posts for the #WomenRockMoney movement https://www.mamafishsaves.com/womenrockmoney-movement/
If I would have known I was being featured, I would have at least shaved today. Oh well, my best dress sweats will have to do! Very honored to be featured with the other great posts J!
You and me both, brother :)
I love our downtown library. A lot of homeless people hang out there, though. It’s not a comfortable place for regular people to hang out anymore. Most people just use the online system to reserve and go pick up the books when they come in.
The librarians are great.
I hope the spreadsheet statistic refers to designing your own spreadsheet that actually works for you. My husband purchased one that claims to be super flexible and isn’t. It makes me want to throw his laptop out the window. Meanwhile I keep us on track (and still married) with a notebook and pen and a simple Excel sheet to remind me of the amounts for the different categories.
Haha yup – sometimes the most basic routes are the simplest :)
Tiller *is* pretty awesome though. You still do your own crafting of spreadsheets how you like it, but then connect to Tiller to *automatically* pull in #’s too to give you some automation along with your more manual tracking. You have to use Google Docs for it, but it’s a nice middle ground between fully manual options and fully automated ones. Really good idea.
That headstone cleaner is awesome! Would love to shake his hand one day. Respect!
Oh, and thanks for the s/o!
Right?? He tells you how you can do it on your own too, and what supplies to use, in hopes of churning out hundreds more Good Cemeterians too! Such a positive force in our world, I absolutely love it… (and nothing about it is fancy either!)
That’s so cool that you featured The Good Cemeterian! After reading his post he always make me feel like going to a cemetery and cleaning! Im actually one of the weirdos that loves to clean, so it could be fun!
Oh, and i agree with the spreadsheet survey! We are spreadsheet nuts, everything is on a spreadsheet!
I owe you soooooo much for that recommendation, man…
He inspires me so much!! I wanna do it for my local cemetery too! :)
Whenever I complain about taxes, I don’t mean are roads, human care, sidewalks, and libraries. Those we like and will gladly pay for. I do a lot of library reading online. They’re online now! Free books!!!
Awwwww…. I LOVE the library. It is my happy place. I read anywhere from 1-4 books per week. That would bankrupt me if I had to purchase all those…. :)
Also, I have a dumb phone. Yep, when I left the corporate world about 5 years ago, I gave up smart phones… which was actually very smart. And, don’t get me wrong… I’m no luddite or tech dummy. Quite the opposite. I graduated number one in my engineering class and still use multiple different computer programs for my part time work situation. I’ve also been reading articles recently about teenagers starting to ditch smart phones. I love it!
You just got bumped up 10 points on my list…
(And you already know you were pretty high already, so you’re flying now! ;))
The library is an awesome place for all sorts of things. Besides books, they offer classes, sing-a-longs for babies and kids, DVDs, and has raffles for museum tickets.
I’m currently reading ‘The Power of Habit’ by Charles Duhigg and it’s a great book so far, highly recommend. On deck, “The Simple Path to Wealth” by JL Collins. Looking forward to reading it.
Oh yes – you’re gonna LOVE that last one!!
After that check out “Essentialism” if you haven’t yet. It’ll make a nice companion piece to The Power of Habit :)
https://budgetsaresexy.com/essentialism-book-review-life-changer/
So happy to read this! I just published my first book (a novel, sorry nothing with awesome financial info in it:)) and I have found myself being drawn back to libraries after mostly kindle-ing it the past few years, mostly because I just want people to read the story I spent 5 years writing and I’m not in it for the money ( that’s okay, right?) so I’ve been donating copies to libraries. Yay!!!
Love that idea!!! You should make road trips to all the surrounding area libraries too! And then “accidentally” leave copies whenever you’re at the airport or restaurants, etc as well, haha…
You can have a lot of fun guerilla marketing physical products :)
Love it! I’m totally going to do that. The hubby and I are doing a road trip out west in the fall; I’m so filling up half the trunk with books! There’s an awesome rest stop in the middle of Iowa that has decor dedicated to writers: typewriter pics on the walls, and a GIGANTIC pen sculpture on the front lawn. I’m going to leave copies all over that place!
YES!!! Make sure to take pictures of them all in their secret spots too :) Oh – and add in notes or autographs! People would be thrilled!
Also, holy cow I cannot believe that is in a private home!
I like that there is a “dumb phone”. Some kids need a phone somewhere in the ages of 10-14 (when they may be left home alone for short periods of time). However, kids in this age range have no business being online without supervision. As a teacher, I can tell you, whatever you think you think your kids are doing online, double or triple the severity of how bad you think it is. This is the phone I will get my son when he’s old enough to “need” one (which in our house will probably be closer to the 13 or 14 year mark).
Ack, don’t scare me!!! I’m never giving my babies a phone – EVER!! ;)
As a self-proclaimed bibliophile I LOVE LOVE libraries. If ever you get to Washington DC, do visit the Library of Congress. Completely free, and the reading room, architecture, and Thomas Jefferson’s library is a sight worth seeing.
Couple of suggestions – for those that LOVE to read, try audio books – I love the app Libby. It’s completely free, syncs with your library card and you can get audio books to download and play on your phone (perfect for road trips, commutes, traveling, walking). No late fees ever.
As for reads – I haven’t read anything on cemeteries lately, but the whole life’s purpose reads in 2018 that I’ve finished so far and would recommend (I’ve omitted some that I didn’t love):
* The Happiness Project, Gretchen Rubin
* Give and Take, Adam Grant
* Thrive, Arianna Huffington
I’ve currently got queued up Robert Wright’s, Why Buddhism is True and the Dalai Lama’s The Art of Happiness.
Happy Reading!
Beautiful :)
I might have to try that for late nights w/ the baby as I’ve quickly learned that reading or doing anything else using my brain does not work during those times, haha…. But I can listen to ebooks! Maybe it’ll sink into the baby’s brain too :)
You can’t beat a cheap trip to the library as a student. Free, get to learn and experience some interesting theories from some interesting people. I often find myself also visiting museums my University fund around my local area when I have a couple hours free – hours of interesting knowledge and they don’t want my money either!
It’s a wonderful thing :)
Libraries are awesome. Books galore,magazines, newspapers and web access. All at no charge.
I love my local library. There is nothing special about it as far as libraries go but it is a “library”. A library is special.
God Bless Andrew Lumish!!
As for my latest read, I like the following passage by Mark Manson in his book: The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck. “Consumer culture is very good at making us want more, more, more. Underneath all the hype and marketing is the implication that more is always better. I bought into this idea for years.” He goes on to say how this leads to the paradox of choice and becoming less satisfied no matter what we choose. “Instead, invest deeply in one person, one place, one job, or one activity…” In short, commit to your passion and stop chasing the carrot.
Yup!!! He def. gets it! Similar to “Essentialism” too, just without all the cursing ;)
Your knowledge is the best investment anyone can make,but fear dictate our actions so as much as we want to make money sometimes is scary to make the first step.I love this post .i’m currently reading The Real Book of Real Estate by Robert Kiyosaki after reading his First book rich dad Poor Dad I realize I needed to make a change.
Cool! People tend to either love or hate that guy, but I’m all for anyone trying to help spread the good word whether his “story” checks out or not… In fact, Rich Dad Poor Dad was one of the very first books I ever read around $$$/entrepreneur stuff! It took me a while to start acting on it, but it helped plant the seed at least :)
You know… Gwen and I’s second date in Vegas was at the beginning of the month, and we did our monthly spreadsheet together…
We are still together, so it is true! The couple that spreadsheets together stays together! :)
Haha, love every bit of it man. So much better that your’e both blogger too :)