The Roving Runner: The New York Botanical Garden

May 7, 2013, 4:00 pm

The Roving Runner: The New York Botanical Garden

By BRIAN FIDELMAN

These are glorious days to run in New York City.
The weather has been in that elusive sweet spot, with temperatures we were pining for a couple of months ago and will again a couple from now.

Everyone has a favorite route: a jog around Central Park or along the rivers, through Madison Square Park and down brownstone blocks, the senses serenaded by blooming trees and planted tulips. It’s hard to go wrong this time of year. But my nomination for the most scenic and tranquil run in the city goes to the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx.

In addition to being one of the nation’s premier gardens and research centers, this one offers early morning access to exercisers hours before it opens. So not only can you jog there between 6 and 10 a.m., you can have a private audience with the daffodils.


First I bought a community grounds pass for $25, good for a year. It offers access to the grounds but not to exhibits. Basic members can add this access for a small fee, and it’s free at higher membership levels. You’ll want to take care of this before going there to run — call (718) 817-8703 — because the ticket people won’t be there yet.


The Metro-North train to the Botanical Garden stop takes about 20 minutes from Grand Central Terminal, but since I try to squeeze the juice out of my unlimited MetroCard, I rode the No. 2 train to Allerton Avenue. That took me about an hour from 14th Street in Manhattan, but much of the ride in the Bronx is elevated and outdoors, with stops that feature stained-glass murals and bucolic-sounding names like West Farms Square.


From Allerton Avenue, the treetops are visible in Bronx Park, home to both the garden and the Bronx Zoo. I ran in that direction, staying on Allerton as it changed names but wrapped directly around to the garden’s Mosholu Gate entrance. It was an easy one-mile warmup, but the B, D and No. 4 trains offer even shorter routes to the garden.


I showed my pass at the security gate and was on my way. With the garden’s stately headquarters to the left and conservatory to the right, I ran down a tree-covered path called Garden Way. It was here that I saw the first of several large sculptures by the Spanish artist Manolo Valdés. These large works in aluminum and steel feature a female head at the base with various headdresses that blend splendidly with the garden surroundings.

I continued jogging, passing a lawn sprinkled with white and yellow flowers set among the bursting cherry blossoms, and said to myself, “This is going to be good.”

My notional plan, to run the perimeter of the garden first, fell apart quickly as I was tempted by a winding, hilly path that cut back to the right. But here it doesn’t matter which path you choose. Getting lost among these 250 acres is part of the joy, and you are in secure boundaries, never too far from an exit.


Passing the entrance to the rock garden (no grounds pass access) I next encountered the garden’s newest addition: the Native Plant Garden, which opened on May 4.


A bit farther along, with the Azalea Garden to the right and the Thain Family Forest to the left, I chose the azaleas first. I spent several minutes running the curvy, hilly woodland paths — there is almost a mile’s worth in this area alone. My jaw dropped at the exploding pinks and purples of the rhododendrons and azaleas.


Next I entered the forest. This is the real deal, what the garden’s Web site calls “the largest remaining tract of original forest that once covered most of New York City.” The Bronx River, the city’s only freshwater river, cuts through it. Paths line the river’s banks, and the Hester Bridge links the two sides, offering a view of the Bronx River Waterfall’s mellow cascade.
The surfaces in the forest are a runner’s dream, pillowy soft with wood chips but stable enough to allow you to look up and soak in the sea of green.


The sounds in the forest erase the stress of the city. I could hear singing birds and the gentle rush of the river. In certain spots the whoosh of traffic on the Bronx River Parkway was audible, but even that was more like white noise than the incessant honking of Midtown.
After crossing the river I passed the Stone Mill, a landmark 1840 structure that was once a tobacco processing house and is now an event space.


Exiting the forest, I returned to the garden paths, looping around the rose garden and then jogging through the conifers and the wetland path and the herb garden and … well, you get the picture.


Road races are social and energizing, but this run offers something different: a thought-provoking solitude that is not easy to obtain in the city.


After running about four miles of paths, I found my way back to where I entered. This is an ideal starting point for other Bronx runs. The Mosholu Parkway has a greenway that leads all the way to Van Cortlandt Park, the heart of cross-country running in New York City. On the way back to Allerton Avenue, there are chances to hop onto the Bronx River Greenway, where the eventual goal is to have a contiguous path from the East River all the way up to the Kensico Dam in Westchester County. So much exploring to do and so little time.


Near the garden’s exit I made a brief stop, and a friendly security officer named Mary Gill pulled up to see if I needed any help. She was a retired New York Police Department sergeant who spoke fondly about working at the garden.


“You really learn to take it down,” she said, signaling with her hand a lowering of intensity from her previous career.


Take it down. That’s exactly what you do at this magical place.

Source: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/07/the-roving-runner-the-new-york-botanical-garden/?partner=MYWAY&ei=5065

April 26, 2013, 6:00 am

Ask Well: Getting in Shape in Middle Age

By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS

Q:What is a good exercise plan for a middle-aged person who is out of shape (assuming good health other than the lack of fitness)?

Asked by mb • 450 votes

A‘‘It’s a movable feast’’ in terms of workout options, says Dr. Michael Joyner, a physiologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
Pedal or swim if you have a bike or gym membership. But walking is, physiologically and logistically, the simplest exercise, Dr. Joyner says. Just put on comfortable sneakers — they don’t need to be new or expensive — and set off. Try to walk for half an hour.
‘‘Thirty minutes of moderately vigorous physical activity most days is really the sweet spot in terms of time versus benefit, from an epidemiological perspective,’’ Dr. Joyner says. ‘‘Moderately vigorous’’ means that your heart pumps at 50 to 70 percent of its maximum rate (which is, broadly, 220 minus your age for men, and slightly less for women) or, less exactly, a pace at which you can talk to a companion but you’re puffing too much to sing.
These 30 minutes do not need to be completed in one chunk, either. It is fine to break up the exercise during the day “into smaller bites,’’ Dr. Joyner says. And in fact, for certain groups of people, it’s probably more effective to do so. In one 2012 study, adults at high risk of developing hypertension improved their blood pressure more effectively if they walked for 10 minutes briskly three times a day than if they walked briskly once a day for half an hour.
‘‘Strength training is also a key,’’ Dr. Joyner says, ‘‘especially in late middle age. And it likely helps prevent frailty as we get older.’’ Many gyms have weight-training orientation classes.
Or just do push-ups and squats in your living room. Start with one push-up, if that’s all that you can do, and progress to 15 or 20.
Do you have a question about fitness? Ask Gretchen Reynolds, and you may be included in The New York Times Magazine’s upcoming Health Issue.

Source: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/26/ask-well-getting-in-shape-in-middle-age/?partner=MYWAY&ei=5065

LED Lighbulbs Prices Drop

New Reasons to Change Light Bulbs

By DAVID POGUE

People sometimes have trouble making small sacrifices now that will reward them handsomely later. How often do we ignore the advice to make a few diet and exercise changes to live a longer, healthier life? Or to put some money aside to grow into a nest egg? Intellectually, we get it — but instant gratification is a powerful force. 

You don’t have to be one of those self-defeating rubes. Start buying LED light bulbs.

You’ve probably seen LED flashlights, the LED “flash” on phone cameras and LED indicator lights on electronics. But LED bulbs, for use in the lamps and light sockets of your home, have been slow to arrive, mainly because of their high price: their electronics and heat-management features have made them much, much more expensive than other kinds of bulbs.

That’s a pity, because LED bulbs are a gigantic improvement over incandescent bulbs and even the compact fluorescents, or CFLs, that the world spent several years telling us to buy.

LEDs last about 25 times as long as incandescents and three times as long as CFLs; we’re talking maybe 25,000 hours of light. Install one today, and you may not own your house, or even live, long enough to see it burn out. (Actually, LED bulbs generally don’t burn out at all; they just get dimmer.)

You know how hot incandescent bulbs become. That’s because they convert only 5 to 10 percent of your electricity into light; they waste the rest as heat. LED bulbs are far more efficient. They convert 60 percent of their electricity into light, so they consume far less electricity. You pay less, you pollute less.

But wait, there’s more: LED bulbs also turn on to full brightness instantly. They’re dimmable. The light color is wonderful; you can choose whiter or warmer bulbs. They’re rugged, too. It’s hard to break an LED bulb, but if the worst should come to pass, a special coating prevents flying shards.

Yet despite all of these advantages, few people install LED lights. They never get farther than: “$30 for a light bulb? That’s nuts!” Never mind that they will save about $200 in replacement bulbs and electricity over 25 years. (More, if your electric company offers LED-lighting rebates.)

Surely there’s some price, though, where that math isn’t so off-putting. What if each bulb were only $15? Or $10?

Well, guess what? We’re there. LED bulbs now cost less than $10.

Nor is that the only recent LED breakthrough. The light from an LED bulb doesn’t have to be white. Several companies make bulbs that can be any color you want.

I tried out a whole Times Square’s worth of LED bulbs and kits from six manufacturers. May these capsule reviews shed some light on the latest in home illumination. 

3M ADVANCED LED BULBS On most LED bulbs, heat-dissipating fins adorn the stem. (The glass of an LED bulb never gets hot, but the circuitry does. And the cooler the bulb, the better its efficiency.) As a result, light shines out only from the top of the bulb.

But the 3M bulbs’ fins are low enough that you get lovely, omnidirectional light.

These are weird-looking, though, with a strange reflective material in the glass and odd slots on top. You won’t care about aesthetics if the bulb is hidden in a lamp, but $25 each is unnecessarily expensive; read on. 

CREE LED BULBS Cree’s new home LED bulbs, available at Home Depot, start at $10 apiece, or $57 for a six-pack. That’s about as cheap as they come.

The $10 bulb provides light equivalent to that from a 40-watt incandescent. Cree’s 60-watt equivalent is $14 for “daylight” light, $13 for warmer light.

The great thing about these bulbs is that they look almost exactly like incandescent bulbs. Cree says that its bulbs are extraordinarily efficient; its “60-watt” daylight bulb consumes only nine watts of juice (compared with 13 watts on the 3M, for example). As a result, this bulb runs cooler, so its heat sink can be much smaller and nicer looking. 

TORCHSTAR These color-changeable light bulbs (available on Amazon) range from $10 for a tracklight-style spotlight to $23 for a more omnidirectional bulb. Each comes with a flat, plastic remote control that can be used to dim the lights, turn them on and off, or change their color (the remote has 15 color buttons). You can also make them pulse, flash or strobe, which is totally annoying.

The TorchStars never get totally white — only a feeble blue — and they’re not very bright. But you get the point: LED bulbs can do more than just turn on and be white. 

PHILIPS HUE For $200, you get a box with three flat-top bulbs and a round plastic transmitter, which plugs into your network router. At that point, you can control both the brightness and colors of these lights using an iPhone or Android phone app, either in your home or from across the Internet, manually or on a schedule. 

It offers icons for predefined combinations like Sunset (all three bulbs are orange) and Deep Sea (each bulb is a different underwaterish color). You can also create your own color schemes — by choosing a photo whose tones you want reproduced. You can dim any bulb, or turn them all off at once from your phone. (Additional bulbs, up to 500, are $60 each.)

Philips gets credit for doing something fresh with LED technology; the white color is pure and bright; and it’s a blast to show them off for visitors. Still, alas, the novelty wears off fairly quickly. 

INSTEON This kit ($130 for the transmitter, $30 for each 60-watt-equivalent bulb) is a lot like Philips’s, except that there’s no color-changing; you just use the phone app to control the white lights, individually or en masse. Impressively, each bulb consumes only 8 watts. You can expand the system up to 1,000 bulbs, if you’re insane.

Unfortunately, the prerelease version I tested was a disaster. Setup was a headache. You had to sign up for an account. The instructions referred to buttons that didn’t exist. You had to “pair” each bulb with the transmitter individually. Once paired, the bulbs frequently fell off the network entirely. Bleah. 

GREENWAVE SOLUTION This control-your-LED-lights kit doesn’t change colors, but you get four bulbs, not three, in the $200 kit. You get both a network transmitter and a remote control that requires neither network nor smartphone. Up to 500 bulbs (a reasonable $20 each) can respond. Setting up remote control over the Internet is easy.

The app is elegant and powerful. It has presets like Home, Away and Night, which turns off all lights in the house with one tap. You can also program your own schedules, light-bulb groups and dimming levels. 

Unfortunately, these are only “40-watt” bulbs. Worse, each has a weird cap on its dome; in other words, light comes out only in a band around the equator of each bulb. They’re not omnidirectional.

The bottom line: Choose the Cree bulbs for their superior design and low price, Philips Hue to startle houseguests, or the GreenWave system for remote control of all the lights in your house.

By setting new brightness-per-watt standards that the 135-year-old incandescent technology can’t meet, the federal government has already effectively banned incandescent bulbs. And good riddance to CFL bulbs, with those ridiculous curlicue tubes and dangerous chemicals inside. 

LED bulbs last decades, save electricity, don’t shatter, don’t burn you, save hundreds of dollars, and now offer plummeting prices and blossoming features. What’s not to like? You’d have to be a pretty dim bulb not to realize that LED light is the future.

E-mail: pogue@nytimes.com

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/21/technology/personaltech/cheaper-led-bulbs-make-it-easier-to-switch-lights.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=0

The Cheapskate Guide: 50 Tips for Frugal Living

The Cheapskate Guide: 50 Tips for Frugal Living

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter.

Confession time: I’m a cheapskate. Some would say frugal, which sounds much more positive, but in reality I can be a real cheapskate.
I am fairly frugal (though not always), but sometimes I take it too far: I have T-shirts with holes in them, I never buy new clothes, we’re shopping for a new couch because our current one has holes in it, and I ran my current pair of running shoes until the soles fell off.
However, I have gradually learned to be frugal in many ways that I would recommend to others. I don’t think you should have holes in your couch, and you should definitely replace your running shoes more often than I do, but there are many ways to cut back on spending and live a more frugal lifestyle.
Why live frugally? First, because it allows you to spend less than you earn, and use the difference to pay off debt, save or invest. Or all three. Second, because the less you spend, the less you need to earn. And that means you can choose to work less, or work more but retire early. Or take mini retirements. You have more options with a frugal lifestyle.

I know what I’m going to hear in the comments, because it’s been done repeatedly with my other frugal articles: I have no life. This is boring. I might as well live in a box. You have to enjoy life sometimes.
All of which you might believe, but I believe I do have a life. A great one. One where I spend time with my family, where I have conversations and read and get outside and do things that are fun and exercise and focus on what’s important and spend my free time the way I want. This is a good life. Read this article for more.
So, if you’d like some tips on frugal living, here are just a few, from a cheapskate. I should note that I do most, but not all, of these tips.

1. Go with one car. Many families have two or more cars. Besides your house, your car is probably your most expensive item. If you can do with one, you should. My wife and I both work, and we have six kids, and yet we have learned to manage with one car.
2. Go with a smaller house. Just because you can afford a larger house, doesn’t mean you should live in one. Live in as small a house as you can and still be comfortable. I don’t mean you should live in a one-room apartment with a family of four … you know what I mean. You can save thousands a year with a smaller house. Many times, if you get rid of a lot of clutter, you don’t need a large house.
3. Go with a smaller car. Again, you can save thousands by going with a smaller car. A car instead of an SUV, for example, is a big savings. Be comfortable, but don’t overdo it. You’ll save a lot on gas this way too.
4. Rent rather than own. This will probably spark a huge debate, as it always does. The thing is, just don’t assume that buying is the better investment. If you calculate the interest you pay on a mortgage, the cost of insurance and maintenance, buying is often much more costly than renting … and if you rent, save money, and then invest the difference, you can actually end up well ahead in the long run. Now, it’s not a given, so do a comparison, factoring in all expenses. Here’s a more in-depth article.
5. Look for used first. If you need something — I mean really need it, not just want it — see if someone you know has one that they don’t use or need anymore. Send out an email to family or friends, or just ask around. You might be surprised. I was about to buy a printer, and then found out my mom just bought a laser printer and didn’t need her old inkjet … saving me close to 100 smackeroos. If no one you know owns one, try freecycle.org or craigslist.org. Then look to buy used, at garage sales or thrift shops. You can find a bargain if you look around.
6. Eat out less. One of the biggest expenses in our daily lives is eating out — the average person spends well over $2,000 a year on eating out. Restaurants are expensive, including fast-food (not to mention the health hazards). It’s much cheaper to cook your own food. Our family creates a weekly menu, then we buy the groceries, and cook dinner (and lunch) each evening. Lately I’ve even been prepping it in the morning, so it’s a snap when we get home.
7. Eat out frugally. If you do eat out, check out these money-saving tips.
8. Brown bag it to work. Instead of eating out for lunch, bring your lunch. More here.
9. Adopt a minimalist wardrobe. This tip won’t be for everybody, but I try for a minimalist wardrobe. I generally wear jeans or casual pants, a T-shirt or Polo-type shirt, and sandals or shoes. Plain, solid colors are my favorite. Everything goes with everything else, and I don’t have too many clothes. This saves me the stress of picking out an outfit, and I don’t need as many clothes.
10. Stop online impulse buys. This was a problem for me before I canceled my credit card. I used to buy online a couple of times a week. Now I buy maybe once every couple of months, using PayPal or someone else’s credit card. I’m not saying you have to go to this extreme, but realize that online buying can be way too easy (you don’t even have to go to a store) and therefore, we make too many impulse buys. Buy online if you really need something and it’ll save you money, but beware the impulse buy. See 30-day list tip below.
11. Don’t shop. Don’t go to the mall or other shopping area or department store to look around and shop. Go to a store if you know what you need, and then get out. Many times people go shopping, with a vague idea of what they want, and get caught up buying much more. Or they go just for fun, as a form of entertainment. That ends up costing a lot. It can really add up. Instead, stay away from shopping areas and find other ways to have fun (more below).
12. Use a 30-day list. To curb impulse buys, create a 30-day list. When you want to buy something, other than a true necessity (medicine or food, for example), put it on this list, with the date you added it to the list. And make it a rule that you can’t buy anything for at least 30 days after you put it on the list. And stick to it. You’ll find that you buy a lot less with this system.
13. Cut out cable. I’ve talked about how I cut out cable before. It saves me money every month (in my area, about $60, or more than $700 a year), and also forces me to do things like read and have conversations and go outside. Win win.
14. Use the library. Instead of buying books, check them out. The library often also has a great selection of DVDs (depending on your area), saving you even more. Now who needs cable?
15. Find free entertainment. Find cheap ways to have fun. Entertainment often ends up costing a lot of money, if you go to the movies, buy concessions, or go out at night, go to the bar, etc. The average person spends about $1,800 a year on entertainment (not including eating out). Now, I’m not saying you shouldn’t have fun … but there are cheaper ways to do it. Here are a few ideas. Here’s a frugal family’s fun and cheap weekend.
16. Frugal exercise. Exercise is important, but it doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. Here are some tips.
17. Stay healthy. Easier said than done, I know, but staying healthy can save you tons of money on doctor’s visits, hospital bills, and medicine over the long run. An ounce of prevention, and all that. Eat healthily, and exercise. Simple and effective.
18. Commute by bike. Even if you own a car, commuting by bike will save you gas, and get you in shape at the same time. I highly recommend it. Here are my tips.
19. Carpool or ride the bus. OK, you don’t want to bike it. So find a friend or neighbor who works near you, and arrange a carpool. Or take public transportation. Simple advice, but something a lot of people ignore.
20. Walk. Often we drive to the corner store, or to a school that’s less than a mile away. Leave a few minutes early, walk, burn some calories, and save gas.
21. Sell your clutter. This is not so much saving money as making it, but the frugal, simplifying cheapskate, like myself, will want to declutter and make a few bucks doing it. Hold a garage sale or sell it on eBay. It’s amazing what some people will buy. See the Simple Dollar’s post on this.
22. Frugal gifting. Gifts can cost a lot of money over the course of a year. Look for ways to do it cheaply. Make a gift, or give a consummable. My family enjoys getting and giving cookies, for example. Here are some ideas.
23. Quit smoking. Not the easiest way to save, I know. It’s hard. But I did it, and so have many, many others. Not only will you save on cigarettes (which are expensive over the long run), but also associated costs (I used to buy a soda or beer to go with my cigarettes) … and of course the huge, long-term medical costs. In less than 2 years of not smoking, I’ve saved well more than $3,000. Here are my tips for quitting.
24. Alcohol in moderation. If you drink one beer or a few beers a day, that adds up to big money each month. Some drink even more than that. It’s expensive. If you can cut your drinking to the occasional party, and once in awhile with friends (not all the time), you’ll save tons.
25. Sweets in moderation. Desserts and sweet snacks give us lots of calories with no nutrition. And we pay a premium price for that, in dollars and in our deteriorating health. Cut back on sweets (don’t eliminate them entirely of course) to save money and cut calories.
26. Drink water. Often we drink lots of calories through sodas, coffee, alcohol, juices, tea, etc. And that costs a lot too. Drink water, save money, save calories. Here are some tips for forming the water habit.
27. Batch your errands. Instead of running an errand or two every day, batch them into one errand day, and plan your most efficient route, to save gas and time. Also do as much bill-paying online as possible, to eliminate some errands.
28. Stay home. Becoming a homebody might not sound like a lot of fun, but it really can be. I love staying home with my family. We can do all kinds of fun things at home. Or I can spend a day alone, if the family is at school, and really enjoy it. It’s quiet and peaceful, I can read or watch a good movie or respond to comments on my blog or write. Staying home can save tons, in eating out expenses, shopping expenses, gas, and incidentals.
29. Stop using credit cards. Credit cards are not evil. And before you flame me, once again, I realize that they can be used to good purpose. If that’s how you use them, then that’s good, skip this tip. For others, credit cards make buying too easy, and end up making them buy too much.Not only that, but if you don’t pay your bill in full each month, they will cost you a lot in interest. The average American with at least 1 credit card has more than $8,500 in credit card debt. Don’t make that mistake. Here’s my story.
30. Cancel subscriptions. With the wealth of information and entertainment online, do you really need magazine subscriptions? With all the news online, do you really need a newspaper subscription? If you can get DVDs for free or cheap, do you really need a Netflix subscription? Don’t flame me if you think you do need any of these — I’m just asking you to consider whether they’re really essential — the answer might be yes. Also consider other subscriptions you might be paying for — I’m not saying you should cancel everything, but seriously consider whether they can be canceled without much loss of value. Read more.
31. Make your own. I won’t go into all the possibilities here, but many times we buy things when really, we could make them ourselves for much cheaper if we get a little creative. Now, this might take a little more time and effort, but it can be fun, especially if you make it a family project. We recently made our own (very simple) bookshelves with only a couple of pieces of lumber, instead of buying them. If you don’t know how to make something, search for it online. You’ll most likely find some instructions.
32. Do it yourself. Instead of hiring someone to do something, try doing it yourself. Sure, it takes some time and effort, but it’s satisfying, and of course cheaper. It’s also educational, if you don’t know how to do it — again, do an online search, read up on it, and give it a go. Frugality freaks are DIYers.
33. Stop paying interest. I mentioned the interest of credit cards, and auto loans, and mortgages. I consider them a waste of money. I’ve talked about how to live without credit before, and I recommend it for a frugal lifestyle. Consider any other accounts or loans where you pay interest, and see if you can eventually eliminate as much of these as possible.
34. Reduce convenience foods. Frozen foods, microwaveable stuff, junk food … anything that’s packaged and prepared for our convenience is not only more expensive than something you cook yourself, but also most likely less healthy. I’m not saying to eliminate these completely, but reduce consumption.
35. Travel frugally. I actually don’t travel (or haven’t for years), but if you do have to travel, some advance planning can save you money. Airfare is most expensive, usually, so look to buy your ticket in advance, and look for deals. Also consider train travel. Shop around for car rental rates, as they can vary greatly (or use public transportation). Look for cheaper accommodations, or stay with a friend or relative. Just a note: I do plan to travel, but not until I finally eliminate all of my debt.
36. Cut the cell phone. This will not be a popular suggestion either. If you don’t like it, move on to the next one. It’s not for everybody. But think about this: 20 years ago, most people didn’t have cell phones. And miraculously, they survived. A cell phone is not a necessity. It’s a convenience. When people needed to make a call, 20 years ago, they either waited until they got to a destination (wait to make a phone call?! omg!), or pulled over and used a pay phone or a phone in a business establishment.
37. Cut your own hair. Again, this one isn’t for everybody. Personally, I use electric clippers to shave my head. It’s easy, it’s cheap, it’s minimalist, it’s care-free. I don’t worry about my hair getting messed up, or having to fix it in the morning. However, I’m not saying you should shave your head. Many people cut their own hair, in many simple but nice hairstyles, long or short. Saves money, and time.
38. Maintain stuff. This is a no-brainer, but we don’t often think about it: if you take care of what you have, it will last longer. You’ll then spend less on buying new stuff. When you buy something worth maintaining, take a few minutes to read the maintenance manual, and create a maintenance checklist that you can attach to the item. For important things like your car’s oil changes or tune-ups, put them in your calendar.
39. Save energy. There are little things we can do to lower our power bill. I don’t use a dryer or hot water heater, although those are a little extreme. Try these tips.
40. Save gas. With the rising price of gas (and no end in sight), fuel has become a major monthly expense for many people. Small things can add up to big savings. Try these tips.
41. Only buy bargain clothing (when you need clothes). OK, so you’re a cheapskate like me who only buys clothes when the old clothes have too many arm or leg holes. But now you need new clothing. I mean really need it. So instead of buying new, look for thrift shops with good clothes. Or buy new, but only buy the stuff that’s 50% off. Look for the bargains, and you’ll save a ton.
42. Telecommute. Telecommuting doesn’t necessarily give you your dream job, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction. But in addition to allowing you to work in your underwear (and who doesn’t have that dream?), telecommuting saves money on gas, on eating out (if you eat lunch at a restaurant), and on buying expensive work clothes (all you need to buy is underwear, right? And no, don’t buy used underwear).
43. Plan ahead. Sure, easy to say, hard to implement. But if you make it a habit to think ahead to things that are coming up in your life, you can save a lot of money. For example, if you think about where you’re going to get your meals when you go out to do errands, you can pack a lunch or dinner instead of eating out. If you pack a big container of iced water, you don’t need to buy expensive bottled water. If you know that a birthday is coming up, you can buy a gift on sale instead of spending more at the last minute.
44. Cook ahead. If you have one free day a week (or even a month), cook food in big batches and freeze in dinner-sized portions. I don’t do this all the time, but I have done it and it saves money (buying big can often save) as well as time. You have to plan it out a bit, coming up with a menu and shopping, cooking enough meals for a week or a month. But once you’re done, your meals each night (and for lunch if you like) are quick and easy. This saves you from eating out or eating convenience food when you’re hungry but too tired to cook.
45. Wash clothes less. Some people wear clothes and then wash them, but I’ve gotten into the habit of wearing my clothes more than once if they’re not really dirty. I use my nose as a test — I don’t want to wear clothes that smell, but most times the clothes are still perfectly clean. This saves on washing.
46. Sun-dry clothes. When my parents were young, everyone used a clothesline to dry clothes. Now dryers are ubiquitous, because they’re fast. But if you don’t wash a ton of clothes, it’s not that hard to take a few minutes to hang them up. You’ll save a lot in electricity, plus your clothes last longer.
47. Eat less meat. I’m not saying you have to become a vegetarian (although you could always give it a try), but once in awhile, eat meatless dishes. Pasta, vegetarian chili (see my recipe halfway down this article), vegetarian Indian or Thai dishes, falafels with hummus and pitas and tomatoes and lettuce … there are plenty of tasty dishes without meat. And as meat is expensive (well, the fresh kind is … Spam is cheap), you’ll save money on meatless dishes. Again, I’m assuming you cook with fresh meat, not canned.
48. Save on groceries. For my family of eight, groceries is a major expense. With some simple habits, we’ve been able to save a lot of money. See more here.
49. Frugal Christmas. Christmas is expensive, especially in America (if you live in an area that doesn’t celebrate Christmas with a huge amount of buying, or doesn’t celebrate it at all, skip this tip). People go on crazy shopping gorges. It’s insane. While it makes the retailers and manufacturers happy, it doesn’t make our bank accounts happy. Break out of the cycle and find cheaper ways to celebrate Christmas. Here are some great ways to do that, and here are some more.
50. Eat a cheap breakfast. Here are some great ones.

—
Read more about simple productivity, focus and getting great things done in my book, The Power of Less.

Source: http://zenhabits.net/the-cheapskate-guide-50-tips-for-frugal-living/

15 Ways to Live Like a Cheapskate and Retire in Style

February 26, 2013 — If you search on the Internet for “live like a cheapskate” you will strike a frugality bonanza. There are authors like Jeff Yeager who have written best sellers on the subject (“The Cheapskate Next Door”), plus plenty of websites offering their advice. There’s even a TLC show, “Extreme Cheapskates“. Our friend Robert Powell over at MarketWatch had a particularly helpful article earlier this year, “How to Retire Like a Cheapskate and Live Well“. This article will roll up advice from all over into our 15 top tips for living like a cheapskate. First of all, a little etymology – if you are going to be a cheapskate you might as well understand where the term came from. In fact there is considerable uncertainty about the origin of the word. The main dictionary sites seem to think that “skate” was a late 19th century slangy term for a worn-out horse, to which cheap was added to imply mean or miserly. One Wiki source claims it refers to inexpensive strap-on roller skates; while we acknowledge those were horrible to skate on, we doubt that is the term’s origin. A Penny Saved… Benjamin Franklin had it right – a penny saved is one you don’t have to earn. For retirement that means if you can manage to save enough money on your expenses, you can survive – and maybe have enough to indulge in a few luxuries. Our Top 15 Cheapskate Ideas Here are some of the best ideas we have heard for saving money in retirement. Our advice is to think about the big things – steps you can take that can deliver serious money. Yes, you can re-use your dental floss and your paper and plastic bags, and you can hard boil your eggs as you run the dishwasher. But some of the steps that extreme cheapskates will do to save a few pennies seem a bit crazy – as in taking the idea so far you get obsessed about it. Here goes: - Move to a smaller house. Real pennypinchers don’t wast money heating/cooling, painting, maintaining, and paying taxes on a house that’s bigger than their needs. - Buy a reliable car, preferably second hand. Buy a basic model, and keep it until big things start breaking on it. If you have 2 cars – get rid of the gas hog. - Move to a less expensive state. Hopefully one with reasonable real estate costs along with lower income and property taxes. - Plan your major purchases in advance. Leo Babauta, author of several books including The Cheapskate Guide) suggests keeping a 30 day list – don’t buy anything until it has been on your list for 30 days. That way you avoid impulse buying, and you have the time to take advantage of deals. - Buy only with cash. People get themselves into the most trouble with credit card-backed, sudden urge purchases. Having to pass over a wad of $50 bills has a powerful way of promoting restraint. - Use cash and get discounts. Retailers hate paying credit card fees out of what they get from a sale. So offer cash; many times you’ll get a discount – if you ask. - Take all available discounts. If you travel, get an AAA card. You’ll usually save 15% on motels. Senior discounts are about everywhere – ask if you don’t see them. If you live in a tourist area ask for the local discount – most places give them. Or, just ask – do you have any discounts – you’ll often be surprised. - Take advantage of free entertainment. Read the newspaper and online guides – you’ll be pleased with how many free (and good) events there are. Many museums have one day a week or month that’s free. Use your DVR to record your favorite TV shows and classic movies – just about every good movie gets on TV someday! Use your library; they have many free and great programs and resources ready for your pleasure. - Manage your communication expenses. Many of us are paying an astounding amount of fees every month for communication and the Internet. Cable TV, Internet access, home telephone, cell telephone, ipad Internet, Netflix, Sirius radio, and more. Most of these have become necessities, but the monthly totals can be amazing. Consider consolidating (get rid of the land line, get a family cell plan, put phone/cable/internet with same supplier). Cancel your cable and watch TV online. Talk on Skype or Facetime. You should be able to be cut something. - Stay healthy. Co-pays, drugs, and other out of pocket expenses can actually drive you into bankruptcy. So save big bucks – get yourself into shape, cut down your vices, take your medicine, and generally take care of yourself. - Travel by bike – or walk. At $4 a gallon every car trip you take costs you money. We guarantee you will enjoy a short bike ride or walk a lot more, and it will be free! - Practice frugal gifting. Think ahead about what gifts you need to purchase in the coming year. Buy when they are on sale, or knit, draw, or build something more meaningful at a fraction of the cost. Last minute excursions to buy gifts almost always cost you more. - Cut smoking, alcohol, and sweets. Besides killing you, the price of a pack of cigarettes is obscene (remember when you could buy a carton for $3?). Cut down or stop your consumption of alcohol and sweets, both of which can turn out to be a pretty big (and unhealthy) part of your budget. - Maintain your stuff. You paid a lot of money for your car and household appliances. Read the manual and take the simple steps they outline to preserve their long life and cut down on repair bills. - Make more money. The corollary to saving money is to make more of it so you have it to spend. Looking for a paying job that is fun or rewarding can give you the wherewithal to have some extra spending fun in your life. For further reference The Cheapskate Guide: 50 Tips for Frugal Living What are your best Cheapskate ideas? Come on now Topretirements members – we bet many of you have some outstanding ideas on how to save money to make the best of retirement. Please share them in the Comments section below. Posted by Admin on February 26th, 2013 Comments (13) Entries (RSS) and Comments (RSS)

Source: http://www.topretirements.com/blog/financial/15-ways-to-live-like-a-cheapskate-and-retire-in-style.html/
13 Comments »
Jan Cullinane says
I have about 30 specific tips for saving money listed in my book. Here are three, briefly summarized: 1. A number of generic drugs are free at places such as Walmart, Publix, or Meijer. You will still need a prescription from your doc, though. 2. If you’re 62 or over, purchase a $10 Lifetime Senior Pass that gets you into more than 2,000 federal recreations sites, including National Parks, This is a perk a lot of people don’t know about. The pass covers the car passengers, too. (http://www.nps.gov/findapark/passes.htm) 3. Do what my kids have done re phones – dump the landline and only use your cell phone. Before you cancel, be sure its cost isn’t bundled in a discounted package with TV or Internet service. Jan Cullinane, author, AARP’s The Single Woman’s Guide to Retirement (John Wiley & Sons)
February 27th, 2013 | #
Johnny Jacobs says
One of the biggest money savers we have is couponing. My wife is like one of those people (almost) you see on TV on extreme couponing. She will usually save us 50 to 60 percent per trip to the grocery store. Most of the time she matches coupons with items on sale, often getting the items for FREE. We have also built up a significant amount of stores because we take advantage of good deals and stock up on low cost items.
February 27th, 2013 | #
Ray Dinsmore says
I take exception with your comment that alcohol can be a big and “unhealthy” part of your budget. Most data shows that alcohol in moderation can be very good for your health.
February 27th, 2013 | #
cherie says
I agree that couponing is great but I find unless I exercize restraint, it’s like being at an auction and I wind up buying items that I don’t regularly use because it’s on sale and I have a coupon! I guess I get caught up in the challenge. We do not drink bottled water and that saves a ton of money not to mention all that plastic and the petroleum needed to make it. We shop on days when there’s a senior discount offered at our groceries, department stores and movie theaters. We take advantage of restaurant deals such as Groupon and Restaurant.com when we eat out which isn’t more than twice a month unless it’s a special occasion. And contrary to the suggestion of paying with cash, we use one credit card for everything, pay it off monthly and use the points we accumulate for yearly travel. It works great if you have some ability to control your spending. I can understand the issue of not thinking of plastic as real money!
February 27th, 2013 | #
Ernie Zelinski says
For years I lived the cheapskate life. This helped me semi-retire at the age 40 when my net worth was minus $30,000. (I had no assets and had $30,000 in student loans.) Living the cheapskate way allowed me to save 30 to 50 percent of my income when I started making decent money. I can add many other ways to save money. Nonetheless, the one from the list of 15 that resonates with me is Number 15: “Make more money.” Now that I earn a better income than 90 percent of the population by still being semi-retired and only working 4 or 5 hours a day (like I always have), I take great pleasure in not having to live the cheapskate way. For example, I love flying Executive class, which I have done to Toronto, London, New York, and Istanbul. (As Cherie above, I use my Visa Aeroplan card to accumulate Aeroplan miles and always pay off my Visa bills at the end of the month.) Insofar as leaving money too heirs, these two quotations apply: “Leaving your heirs a lot of money doesn’t guarantee tears at your funeral.” — Sandra Block “If you want him to mourn, you had best leave him nothing.” — Martial In the end, there is only one purpose for money — and that it is to spend it. Of course, you must be creative and industrious enough to earn enough money to joyfully spend it in pleasurable ways. Ernie J. Zelinski Author - “Helping Adventurous Souls Live Prosperous and Free” Author of the Bestseller “How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free” (Over 175,000 copies sold and published in 9 languages)
February 27th, 2013 | #
High Yield Consultant says
Everyone is different. I follow strict health and fitness protocols but enjoy a glass of wine with dinner. Where I live it is as reasonable as any other type of beverage with dinner and is what I want. Cut up Credit cards? Really? People looking at these comments I would give more credit to than being that reckless with their spending. I always use credit cards for purchases when I can and have one for gasoline, one for meals (and wine) out, one for travel and one for everything else. The reason? I get 2% cash back on the one for everything else and 3% to 5% with the other cards in cash back.
February 27th, 2013 | #
Joanne Hice says
As High Yield Consultant said, everyone is different. Reading some of the ways to save are a combination of common sense and “you’ve got to be kidding”. My biggest expense is the maintenance on my house. Every year I have had to replace something major like roof, flooring, appliance (s), heating and air system and have the foundation raised and leveled due to dry and shifting ground 3 times. I am so looking forward to selling and moving into a senior complex. Having to shell out $10K to $20K annually just to maintain is no fun. We use credit cards for everything we can, pay them in full every month, and get the cash back which is used when we take a trip or cruise for “frivolous fun” stuff. We both work part-time to earn “fun money” so we can take the trips and cruises. We don’t drink or smoke. We do eat out a lot as we have found it is more economical FOR US as we use Groupons and coupons 90% of the time. If I buy groceries and cook, half ends up getting thrown out. On an average, we spend $20-$25 per meal out and it serves us for 2 or 3 meals as we never can eat a full meal. We no longer buy stuff for the house as when we sell, will be getting rid of a lot of what we have. We no longer buy clothes or shoes as we have more than enough. If you want to travel and enjoy life when you retire, you will find a way to do it. When I say this, it is assuming you are in relatively good health, as we are. I can’t comment on how it would be with health problems. I am 75 and he is 66 so we are not “young” retirees but are fortunate enough to be rather healthy.
February 27th, 2013 | #
Patricia Kennedy says
Two thoughts on how to save money: 1.Entertain at home! People have gotten into the habit of eating out, often because they were too busy while managing a career to cook more than a simple meal. Now that you are retired and have more time,invite friends over for dinner and a game of Bananagrams, or another fun game. Most of your guests will ask, “What can I bring?” Take them up on the offer to share both the time it takes to prepare a meal and the costs. You’ll find that eating at home costs less, is fun to do, usually means tasty-left-overs, and generates return invitations. 2. Stop going to Dunkin’ Donuts or Starbucks every day. Coffee is ridiculously easy to make at home. If you do the simple math, you find that a four-dollar-a-day coffee habit translates to $1460 a year!
February 28th, 2013 | #
Ginger says
I notice that many of the people posting here are ‘making a case’ for the lifestyle choices they make, and explaining why it works for them. The suggestions above are suggestions that you can follow, or not. I don’t believe that eating out is ever cheaper than eating at home, but who cares? It’s your money. I think the important thing here is to offer ideas that some people may learn from, or be inspired by.
February 28th, 2013 | #
LuluM says
Since I retired I have cut my expenses by 50 % with out much change in my life-style. 1. I watch every penny….now I don’t spend mindlessly. 2. I shop for food and anything else once a month. 3. I look for alternatives. For example, I take out ebooks from the library. 4. I am in the process of creating a pet-care co-op so that I don’t have to spend money for my cats when I travel short-term. It is a rewarding challenge!
March 1st, 2013 | #
Elaine says
Lulu, how does that once a month food shopping work out for fresh foods? Are you doing that to save on gas or save on food?
March 2nd, 2013 | #
Anne says
I do live in one of the most expensive states in the country (Ct.) so it’s very difficult to be thrifty. I know that I’m spending less that I did while still working but I still find it very hard to be as frugal as I think I should be. Hard to get over the old habit of buying what you want when you want it as I could when I was still working. Should definitely move to less expensive state but because I am a widow + it’s scary to think of moving to a new location where you know no one. Yes, I can and would make new friends but what do you do in the meantime.? Two sons live in Huntsville, Al. We do have a good relationship and they have encouraged me to move there but I sure don’t care for that VERY humid climate. I do tend to be an outdoors person except when the temp reaches 90 and the humidity is about the same.
March 2nd, 2013 | #
Just Retired says
I just retired and we are planning to sell our Arizona home and move to a more tax friendly state. Currently looking at Alabama and Tennessee. Tennessee does not have income tax but the property taxes can be high. Alabama does not tax defined retirement income but 401K distributions are taxable and after age 65 no state property taxes. Use your credit card to get cash back but always pay the balance when due. You use the money for up to a month free. Buy a well built vehicle and keep it. We own a 2002 Corolla we bought new, It now has 180,000 miles and gets up to 40 MPG. I maintain the car myself.

10 Ways to Reduce Your Electricity Bill

Do you know that that closing curtains at night helps keep heat from escaping through the windows and ends up saving on electricity ? Similarly you can save on energy by keeping electronic devices (computers, TVs, etc.) off instead of on standby.
As everyone likely knows, bills are never fun to pay. At one point or another I’m sure we’ve all taken a look at our utility bills and asked “How can it be this much?”
If you’re often busy it’s not always easy to keep track of the things that raise your energy bills each month, but you might be surprised to find that there are a number of small, common sense methods of keeping the utility bill low and your wallet happy.
Here are some tips to reduce your energy bill each month. [Via]

 Source: http://www.yourdigitalspace.com/2013/03/ways-to-reduce-your-electricity-bill/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ways-to-reduce-your-electricity-bill

Don’t Call Him Mom, or an Imbecile-NYT

February 23, 2013

By HANNAH SELIGSON

THE hapless, bumbling father is a stock character in product marketing. He makes breakfast for dinner and is incapable of handling, or sometimes even noticing, a soggy diaper. He tries desperately to hide the crumb-strewn, dirt-streaked evidence of his poor parenting before the mother gets home.

This is an image that many fathers who attended the Dad 2.0 Summit — a meeting of so-called daddy bloggers and the marketers who want to reach them — have come to revile. They are proud to be involved in domestic life and do not want to serve as the comic foil to the supercompetent mother.
      

In the past, consumer-product marketers weren’t all that concerned with what fathers thought — women, after all, make the majority of purchasing decisions for households. But men are catching up: In 2012 men spent an average of $36.26 at the grocery store per trip, compared with $27.49 in 2004, according to data from Nielsen. Companies see an opportunity to reach a new demographic.
      

The bloggers, for their part, are using their influence to change the way marketers portray them. “The payoff is huge if you get dads right,” says Jim Lin, vice president and digital strategist at Ketchum Public Relations in San Francisco, a blogger at The Busy Dad Blog and a father of two.
      

To put it another way, while the mom space is crowded with players, the dad space has room for more. So there is big money to be made, both by companies looking at fathers as consumers and by daddy bloggers looking to ride a wave of brand sponsorship just as mommy bloggers have.
      

THE 200 or so bloggers and media professionals who attended the second annual Dad 2.0 conference in Houston from Jan. 31 to Feb. 2 were mainly in their 30s and 40s. They tended to wear well-fitting jeans, button-down shirts and blazers, and they were quick to whip out pictures of their children on their iPhones.
      

The 44 brand representatives at the conference tried to project a hip blend of parenthood and masculinity. At one point, Dove Men+Care, a Unilever line of deodorants, soap, shampoo and other products, set up a traditional barbershop at the Four Seasons Hotel, where the conference was held. The same space became a whiskey bar one night, complete with bracing free samples. Dove, which paid six figures to serve as the conference’s main sponsor, also offered daily sword-fighting lessons with Steven McMichael, who trained the actors in “The Hobbit.”
      

Another sponsor was Honda, which offered test-drives of some of its 2013 models, including, of course, a minivan. Kraft was there, with taste tests of cheese-laden meals. ConAgra Foods, which makes things as diverse as Swiss Miss and Hebrew National hot dogs, played to more traditional notions of what men enjoy by featuring cheerleaders in short skirts at its booth. On the other hand, it also sponsored an event called the Great Dad Cook-Off.
      

Representatives of Maclaren, the stroller maker, did not have a booth, but they came to the conference this year to do reconnaissance. “Maclaren is eyeing the dad market,” says Shanin Molinaro, the company’s global vice president for marketing. The company, she says, has taken note of evolving parental roles, including a rising number of stay-at-home fathers and fathers in same-sex marriages. Just this year, Maclaren came out with a new stroller, the BMW Buggy.
      

Dad 2.0 is owned by XY Media, a start-up company based in Houston that advises brands on how to appeal to fathers. The conference’s founders are Doug French, 47, who has two sons, 10 and 7; and John Pacini, 40, who has a son, 11, and a daughter, 7. They saw an opening in the market after they packed sessions on fatherhood-related topics at the Mom 2.0 Summit in New Orleans in 2011. That conference was founded, conveniently, by Mr. Pacini’s wife, Carrie Pacini.
      

One of the biggest laments among bloggers at this year’s Dad 2.0 Summit was that many marketers continued to portray fathers as babbling buffoons who need constant supervision. “Dads are seen as heroes as long as their kids don’t drown in the swimming pool,” says Mr. French, who has a blog called Laid-Off Dad.
      

Last year, the daddy blogosphere erupted when Huggies released a commercial that showed a group of fathers and their babies, with a voice-over that said, “To prove Huggies diapers and wipes can handle anything, we put them to the toughest test imaginable: Dads, alone with their babies, in one house, for five days.”
      

The daddy bloggers were led by Chris Routly, 37, a stay-at-home father in Portland, Ore., who blogs at The Daddy Doctrines. He started a petition calling on Huggies, which is owned by the Kimberly-Clark Corporation, to pull the ad.
      

“The verbiage was implying that dads need the help of a special product to overcome our incompetence,” says Mr. Routly, whose sons are 4 and 2.
      

The petition on Change.org drew 1,300 signatures, but Mr. Routly closed it after a Huggies representative called him to solicit advice about making the company’s marketing more acceptable to fathers.
      

Huggies replaced the commercial with a spot that had already been shot, with a different voice-over: “To prove Huggies diapers can handle anything, we asked real dads to put them to the test — with their own babies, at naptime, after a very full feeding.” The subtle difference in wording implied that fathers were discerning diaper experts, rather than neglectful idiots.
      

Kevin Brown, who oversees commercial programming for the Huggies brand in Neenah, Wis., attended the Dad 2.0 Summit and said his company learned something. “Dads do not want to be treated differently, and they do not want to be treated foolishly,” he said. “We are better marketers because of what happened last year.”
      

MORE marketers are paying attention to fathers because more fathers are deciding what to buy for their families. That comes as no surprise to Mr. Routly. “Before I left for Dad 2.0, I had to make sure my wife knew the way to the grocery store,” he says.
      

To capture that growing market, brands face a challenge: How do they appeal to fathers’ competence without making them look like mothers?
      

Some daddy bloggers grumbled over a 2011 ad for Procter & Gamble’s Tide detergent that showed a stay-at-home father folding laundry and referred to him as a “dad-mom.” The National At-Home Dad Network, a nonprofit group that had a booth at the summit, puts it this way in its literature: “Dads do not parent like Mom, nor are a replacement for her when she’s not home.”
      

Matthew Willcox, executive director of the Institute of Decision Making at the advertising agency Draftfcb in San Francisco, studies how neuroscience and behavioral economics relate to marketing. He suggests that companies and advertisers need to be very aware of the societal shift around parenting. “It’s not a question of applying the same rules that apply to moms,” he says.
      

Mr. Willcox, who did not attend Dad 2.0, cited a 2010 Toyota ad by Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles for the Sienna SE minivan as one that was particularly effective at reaching the new father demographic. The two-and-a-half-minute online spot featured a normal-looking couple rapping about parenting while nuzzling their Sienna SE, styled the “Swagger Wagon.” The video, which briefly appeared on television, has attracted more than 11 million views on YouTube since May 2010.
      

“The whole notion of having a minivan can be quite degrading — you talk to parents about having to swap out their car for a very practical minivan, and it can be devastating,” says Mr. Willcox, whose company did not work on the campaign. “But what Toyota and the Swagger Wagon did was make having a minivan part of a positive identity for fathers.”
      

In the Swagger Wagon ad, the father (played by Brian Huskey) is balding but wears thick, black, hipster-type glasses. “The dad in the video is not a cringingly cool dad,” Mr. Willcox says, but “appropriately cool.”
      

THE relationship between the bloggers and marketers cuts both ways. The marketers are selling to the bloggers, but the bloggers also have something to gain from the marketers, like sponsorships and branding.
      

Charlie Capen, 31, who blogs at How to Be a Dad, asked Honda, a sponsor of Dad 2.0, to back a project with his blog’s co-founder, Andy Herald, and David Vienna of the site The Daddy Complex. He thought it would be fun to chronicle the men’s 32-hour drive from Los Angeles to the conference in Houston. Honda provided the vehicle, a 2013 Crosstour, and covered video production costs. It will also pay for space to show the video on Mr. Capen’s blog, and for him to promote the video on social media sites, something known as sponsored content.
      

“The idea is us in the car having a frank and funny conversation about ourselves as fathers,” says Mr. Capen, who is also the director of online engagement at 20th Century Fox. “They are sponsoring us to talk about fatherhood in a way that is funny and consumable.” Neither he nor Honda disclosed further financial details, such as how much the bloggers were paid for the video, which has not yet been posted.
      

Mr. Capen, who has a 3-year-old son, says his site receives 200,000 to 300,000 unique viewers a month. He has worked with Clorox and the automaker Kia on similar projects. The collaboration with Clorox resulted in a post last December titled “The 3 P’s of Parenting,” referring, the site noted, to “pee, poop and puke.” Clorox tried to entice readers to click through and win $15,000 by sharing their messy moment in a 120-character story.    
  

As mommy bloggers and their readers can attest, sponsorships carry risks. The Federal Trade Commission can fine the blogger and the sponsoring company for not revealing the relationship. And bloggers perceived as simply shilling for companies without regard for quality will lose respect.

But for fathers, just getting the attention of consumer-products companies has been a long time coming.
      

IT has been a struggle to get fathers included in family-oriented ads at all. Just look at the campaign that Procter & Gamble ran last year during the Summer Olympics, called “Thank You, Mom,” which saluted mothers for helping to nurture Olympic athletes. Surely some fathers were involved, daddy bloggers argued.
      

Advertisers and brands have been slow to respond to fathers as a consumer group because of a dearth of data, says Alan Kercinik, a Chicago-based group creative director at Edelman, the public relations firm.
      

“There is considerably more time, attention and money spent understanding how ‘she’ buys versus how ‘families’ buy — and certainly more than ‘he’ buys,” Mr. Kercinik says.

“We are just at the hello stage on this journey to reach dads,” says Barry Calpino, vice president for breakthrough innovation at the Kraft Foods Group. “Ninety-nine percent of the conversation is ‘she,’ ” he says. “I haven’t been to a food retailer who didn’t refer to the shopper as ‘she,’ so I don’t think we are even thinking about metrics at this point.”
      

That is changing, albeit slowly. Recently, Dove Men+Care commissioned research, in conjunction with the Center for Work and Family at Boston College, about the roles fathers play at work, at home and in their leisure time.
      

“Any subject related to dads, we want to know about,” says Rob Candelino, vice president for marketing at Unilever, who focuses on the Dove Men +Care product line.
      

This is not a social mission; it is about the bottom line. Dove Men+Care, introduced in 2010, is already a $100 million brand, and about 75 percent of its customers are fathers, according to Mr. Candelino, who is a father himself. “Men are more receptive to messages about taking care of themselves after they have children,” he says.
      

In the past, advertisers paid more attention to men in the so-called laddie demographic, ages 18 to 30, who are more likely to spend their disposable income on alcohol and cars. But there is a whole group of men between the beer-guzzling, Maxim-reading phase and the Viagra years.
      

Mr. Candelino described his target customer as a father, or an expectant one, who is in his late 30s and married, cares deeply about his role as a father and mentor, and is as comfortable having a tea party with his daughter as he is having beers with his friends.
      

“No brands were talking to guys at that level,” he says. “Society is ready for a new narrative about dads.”

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/business/fathers-seek-advertising-that-does-not-ridicule.html?partner=MYWAY&ei=5065&_r=0