Philip Brewer

Piggy Bank Awaits the Spring, originally uploaded by bradipo.

My plan had been to capture the snowflakes in the air, but they’re pretty much invisible.

Piggy Bank Awaits the Spring by Philip Brewer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

No Swimming, originally uploaded by bradipo.

I’ve always been amused by the “No Swimming” signs that are up year-round at Kaufman Lake Park. I thought this captured the absurdity perfectly.

No Swimming by Philip Brewer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

I was invited to write a guest post for Self Reliance Exchange and was pleased to give them Find Your Self-Sufficient Sweet Spot.

There’s a reason we don’t see more self-sufficiency: It’s not frugal. It almost always takes more time to make something than it takes to earn enough money to buy one—and that’s without even considering the time it takes to learn the skills (let alone the cost of tools and materials). On the other hand, frugality is a powerful enabler for self-sufficiency. So, how do you find the sweet spot?

My wife spins and weaves. I have a beautiful sweater that she hand knit from hand spun yarn. It’s wonderful—and it’s comforting to know that my household is not only self-sufficient in woolens, we produce a surplus that we can sell or trade. But the fact is you can buy a perfectly good sweater at Wal-Mart for less than the cost of the yarn to knit it.

There’s a lot of useful tips and trick for living a more self-sufficient life at the Self Reliance Exchange. Totally aside from my article there, it’s worth checking them out.

Ginger sparkle cookies, originally uploaded by bradipo.

I was thinking brownies, but Jackie bakes the brownies and she was already spending as much time in the kitchen today as she really wanted. So I baked a post-holiday batch of ginger sparkles.

Ginger sparkle cookies by Philip Brewer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

The road is snow-covered such that it is impossible to see the lines of the crosswalk.  Does this make it more or less important to yield to pedestrians in the crosswalk?

1. More important
2. Less important
3. Equally as important as when the road is clear
4. Shut up!  Can’t you see I’m on the phone!

At brunch yesterday the topic of burial instructions came up, and I was surprised to discover that Jackie didn’t remember that I’d already documented my wishes for dealing with my remains.  The gist of my instructions is that (although I’d urge her to be guided by frugality) she should do whatever she wants.  However, I did add this proviso:

4. If there’s no good reason to prefer one thing over another for reasons of convenience or cost, I’d really like to have my body eaten by vultures.

Sadly, I’ve seen no move toward making sky burial socially acceptable in the United States.

My story “An Education of Scars” made the Best New Stories of 2009 at Free SF Reader, which gave it a rating of 4 out of 5.  Since they didn’t give any “5 out of 5″ ratings last year, that puts my story pretty close to the top of the list.

I published one short story in 2009:

• “An Education of Scars” at Futurismic

My story submission database isn’t really set up to answer the question of how many new stories I wrote this year, but I see three whose first submission to an editor was in 2009.  Hopefully some of those will appear in 2010.

Two articles of mine appeared as guest posts at personal financial blogs:

• Living off Capital at The Simple Dollar
• How to Live a Rich Life — On a Budget at Get Rich Slowly

I wrote 71 posts for Wise Bread.  I’ve bolded a few where I thought I managed to say just what I was trying to say, and commend them to your attention:

• The “one big lump” theory of your money
• Organized tips on getting through tough times
• Book review: Game Over
• Not too late to get your IRS stimulus rebate–if you qualify
• Three bad ways to fund mortgage lending (and maybe a good way)
• Security is an illusion. Freedom is real.
• Six options if you’re underwater on your mortgage
• Too broke to be frugal?
• Not stupid–hopeless
• Needs, wants, and not even wants
• Frugality goes international
• A champion of savings over spending
• Book review: Wabi Sabi Simple
• That “What if you knew you were going to die” question
• On choosing temporary freedom
• How to bake sourdough bread (and save a buck on every loaf)
• The end of a recession versus recovery
• Borrowing, renting, substituting, and doing without
• Stag-hyperinflation?
• Don’t worry about missing the bottom in houses
• It takes a frugal spouse to make a frugal home
• Retirement accounts and money to spend
• Tactics of the rich
• Modern companies as specialized venture capital firms
• Book review: The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It
• Economic effects of pandemic flu in a recession
• Getting by without money in Spain
• Reverse engineer the best time of your life
• Another path to recovery: higher incomes
• Turn smugness into a positive virtue
• On choosing and defending your luxuries
• Borrowers, lenders, and others–beware trusting the government
• Simplify budgeting with personal money
• Crappy practice is a waste of time
• Don’t let low interest rates make you stupid
• Oh noes! Inflation!
• Stuff will never make you organized
• Teach yourself to cook
• Getting by on a lot less money: 3 ways it’s easier than you think
• Not driving your less-frugal friends crazy
• Things wear out
• The new normal economy
• Big changes or small changes?
• Book review: Life Inc.
• My best posts that got no attention
• Watch Out for Surge in CPI
• Wage slave, debt slave
• Managing Your Short-Term Money
• Optimize Your IRA and 401(k)
• The Three Interest Rates
• Understand Capital Costs
• The Many Reasons to Make Do with Less
• Thrive as a Starving Writer–Lessons from the Experts
• Avoid Bank Fees
• Learn good financial habits from your parents. Or not.
• Reject Variable Terms and Conditions
• Don’t Despair Over Small Retirement Savings
• 5 Ways to Live Better Without Spending More
• Don’t Go to College to Learn
• Who has the time (or money) for deals?
• A Society of Fear
• Can You Buy Your Way Out of the Rat Race?
• Savings Bonds as Interest-Earning Travelers Checks
• Resources for Freelancers
• Coming Soon: Good Times for Temp Workers
• Dream Job or Day Job?
• Does More Detergent Make for More Clean?
• Urgent: Check Your Withholdings
• Find Your Passion
• Living Cheaply for the Long Term
• The Best Way to Avoid the Worst Financial Problems

One of my Wise Bread posts (Understand Capital Costs) was featured in in US Airways Magazine (October 2009, page 22).

Our Christmas Star, originally uploaded by bradipo.

When I first moved out on my own I had only sparse Christmas decorations. Among the things that were lacking was a star for the top of the tree.

I didn’t feel it was so terrible–the tree was decorated, even if it didn’t have something on top. One Christmas, though, my brother and his wife came to visit at Christmas, and Alisa was appalled. Rather than tolerate such a defect, she cut a star out of shirt cardboard, covered it in aluminum foil, and put it on top of the tree.

I was delighted. I kept that star and used it on my trees for many years.

We went on using it for some time after I got married, until Jackie started doing needle-felting. Then she decided that a Christmas star would be a perfect little project. She needle-felted this star, which has been our tree-topper ever since.

Our Christmas Star by Philip Brewer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Cthulhu in Hermes Scarf, originally uploaded by bradipo.

Is it just me, or do the images of horse ribbons on this Hermes scarf look like images of Cthulhu?

I’m prepared to accept that it’s just me.

Cthulhu in Hermes Scarf by Philip Brewer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.