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Archives for September 2010

The Financial Toll of Special Diets

September 29, 2010 By Shane Ede 6 Comments

wheatSpecial diets (unlike regular old diets like Nutrisystem, Weight Watchers, or even simpler ones like the Slow Carb Diet) are almost always a result of some sort of food intolerance or disease.  Lactose intolerance requires that the afflicted person refrain from milk and dairy product that contain lactose.  Of course, there are milk and dairy replacements.  You can buy soy milk or almond milk, for instance, to replace the commonly used cows milk.  The difference is cost.

Another special diet is the gluten free diet.  Gluten is one of the building block proteins in grass grains like wheat, rye, and barley (and others).  Stop for a second and think about that.  Do a mental assessment of your pantry.  How much of that stuff has one of those grains in it?  Now, add about 20% or so, because much of it that you wouldn’t think has those grains (or their by-products) in it, does.  Soy sauce?  Wheat.  Soup?  Wheat flour for thickening.  Seasoning mixes?  Wheat flour.  There are replacements for almost all of those things.  And, again, the main difference is cost.  (well, some flavor too, but that’s another topic for another day.)

It’s how much?!?

How much of a price difference are we talking?  Around here, a gallon of 1% fat cows milk costs about $3.50.  On Amazon, right now, you can buy an 18 pack of 8.25 ounce Silk Soy Milks for $20.  Let’s compare ounce for ounce.  The cows milk costs about $0.028 per ounce.  ($3.50/128 ounces)  The soy milk?  $0.135 per ounce.  ($20/148.5 ounces)  That’s a difference of over $0.10 an ounce.  There’s 128 ounces in a gallon.  How many gallons of milk do you and your family use in a given week or month?  If you want to talk about gluten replacements, the average price for a loaf of gluten free bread is about $6.  I bought wheat bread at the store the other day for $1.29! Pasta is just as bad.  A package of gluten free spaghetti is usually about $3-5.  The wheat stuff can be found, on sale, for about $0.25-$1.00 for an equivalent size package.

Budget Breaker

It doesn’t take an accountant to add that up and figure out how much of a difference in your finances a special diet can make.  Or, how much of a skewing factor it plays in a budget.  Suddenly, your budget for food has to be quite a bit higher than it used to be.  And, of course, the financial toll is that it sucks up funds that could easily be used for something else should the diet not be necessary.

Planning for the Extra Cost

If you have to eat a special diet, you probably know the added cost that it adds to your budget.  But, what about someone just venturing into a special diet?  How do you budget for the extra cost?  You can either do your research and get a really good idea of what it will cost, or you can just leave yourself a very nice cushion until you know for sure.  Researching is probably the more likely choice, I would think.  Take a look on Amazon and see what some of the replacement items will cost.  Compare to what you normally buy.  That should give you a rough guess as to how much your costs will increase for certain items.  Using your normal expenditure as a starting point, you can then make an educated guess as to how much you should budget for in the coming months as you begin your special diet.

Eat Fresh

Another way to offset some of the cost is to eat more fresh food.  Adding more fruit and vegetables into your diet won’t increase your cost any more than the new special diet food and will likely make you healthier for it.

Photo Credit: wheat by sky_mitch

Shane Ede

I started this blog to share what I know and what I was learning about personal finance. Along the way I’ve met and found many blogging friends. Please feel free to connect with me on the Beating Broke accounts: Twitter and Facebook.

You can also connect with me personally at Novelnaut, Thatedeguy, Shane Ede, and my personal Twitter.

www.beatingbroke.com

Filed Under: General Finance, Home, Saving, ShareMe Tagged With: celiac, gluten, gluten free, lactose, special diets

Regulation: Should FICO Haz Sum?

September 24, 2010 By Shane Ede 4 Comments


Are you aware that the company that developed and markets the FICO score has little to no rules as to how it does so?  There’s no oversight into the algorithm that it uses to create your credit score.  There’s no regulation that delineates what factors they should take into account or how heavily they should weight them.

So what, you say?  Think about this for a second.  Your credit score determines whether you get a credit card or not.  Whether you get a mortgage or not.  Whether you get a car or not.  Some businesses are even using the credit score to help determine the worthiness of a potential employee.  Despite all that influence in your life, there’s nothing to keep them from deciding that the one late payment you had a year ago is enough to drop you several hundred points.  Sure, that’s not the way it works right now, but there is nothing to keep them from doing so.

In a perfect world, you wouldn’t need credit.  You could pay for everything in cash and not worry about it.  But, this world is far from perfect.  Very few people don’t use credit in some way, shape, or form.  And each of those people could just as easily be effected by any change in the FICO algorithm.  Almost every other financially related type of company has some regulation.  Banks, Credit Unions, Credit Card companies, Payday lenders, and even the stock market have lots of regulation and oversight.  But not the company that determines how much a person can use those organizations and whose product is solely responsible for determining how much they can use them or at what rate.  Shouldn’t they have some regulation or oversight?

It’s clear what I think on this.  (yes)  What do you all think?  Should FICO have some regulation and oversight?

Image Credit: see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Shane Ede

I started this blog to share what I know and what I was learning about personal finance. Along the way I’ve met and found many blogging friends. Please feel free to connect with me on the Beating Broke accounts: Twitter and Facebook.

You can also connect with me personally at Novelnaut, Thatedeguy, Shane Ede, and my personal Twitter.

www.beatingbroke.com

Filed Under: Credit Score Tagged With: credit, Credit Score, FICO, Oversight, Regulation

The Skinny On: Credit Cards

September 22, 2010 By Shane Ede Leave a Comment

Get The Skinny on Credit CardsThe Skinny On: Credit Cards

By Jim Randel

I’m sure a few of you have heard of this series of books by Jim Randel.  He was kind enough to send a few of them my way for review purposes.  <– That’s my way of disclaiming that I was given these books specifically for review.  My review remains honest, but the FCC says you gotta know that.  The first book that I decided to review was the Credit Cards one.  Seemed like a good topic to cover here and if the book was valuable to you, then it would be even better.

The Skinny On books are a somewhat novel idea.  They are put into a narrative and the narrative is given to you by stick figures in a layout that is reminiscent of a comic book.  The language used is simple and easy to read and understand.  Any jargon is explained, either with a definition or a short dialogue.  And, they’re short books.  This one is one of the larger ones and it’s only about 160 pages.  A quick read to be sure.

The content is incredible.  In less than 200 pages, Randel was able to give the basics (and even a few not so basics) on getting and using credit cards as well as the effect they have on your credit score.  He takes several pages to discuss paying off cards for those who are already in trouble.  The books remind me a little of Cliffs Notes.  All the highlights and none of the filler.  Well, except for a terrible joke about a guy with bananas in his ears.  😉

The one downside to these books is their size and format.  It’s not even really a downside, but I think that some might discount the books because of their size and format.  Which would be a mistake, but it could happen.  Overall, the book is well thought out and put together.  The information is up to date and well given.  This would be an excellent book for a teen or a less personal finance savvy person.  I did get a few things out of it, however, so give it a quick read before you gift it.

You can buy the book directly from theskinnyon.com or at Amazon.

Shane Ede

I started this blog to share what I know and what I was learning about personal finance. Along the way I’ve met and found many blogging friends. Please feel free to connect with me on the Beating Broke accounts: Twitter and Facebook.

You can also connect with me personally at Novelnaut, Thatedeguy, Shane Ede, and my personal Twitter.

www.beatingbroke.com

Filed Under: Books, credit cards, Credit Score Tagged With: credit cards, jim randel, skinny on, the skinny on, the skinny on credit cards

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