Saturday, while getting ready to attend a wedding, I found myself in a bit of a pickle.  I wanted to wear a particular dress shirt, but I couldn’t find my cuff links.

I live in a small town, and I really didn’t have time to hop in the car, drive 30 minutes to a jeweler, buy some cuff links, and then drive 30 minutes home.  Plus, I really didn’t feel like spending a lot of money on a pair of cuff links that I might wear twice a year.

So, I jumped in the car and went to a little, local, antiques store – and asked the cashier if she had any cuff links.  And, guess what?  She did.  I was able to buy, not 1, but 5 pairs of cuff links – for $3!

Lesson?  Think outside of the box.  I’m not an “antiques” kinda guy.  I’ve driven past that store, what, a thousand times?  But, Saturday, I took a shot and I found just what I needed.  Plus, the old cuff links cost a fraction of the price of new cuff links.

Oh, if you were wondering – Why did I buy 5 pairs if 1 pair would do?  Well, they were all in a plastic bag, and everything in the bag was on sale for one price.  So, I just paid $3 and brought all 5 pairs home.

(I realize that this post isn’t exactly filled with earth-shattering news or mind-blowing ideas.  I’ve been away for a week, and I missed you guys!  So, I thought I’d write and old school NCN post, just to touch base.  I hope you all are doing well.  Rock on!)

A few weeks ago, I asked readers to share their practical tips for personal finance newbies.  Here’s a summary of responses -

Spend less than you earn.  The granddaddy of them all.  All progress begins with this first step.  If you want to get out of debt and increase your savings, you must decrease your spending and live below your means.  Period.

Don’t be intimidated by personal finance terminology.

Create a plan (live on a budget).  I’ve written several articles about living on a budget, including how to create a budget if you have irregular income and how to create a simple budget.

Establish goals. I’m believe in having goals.  Here are my financial goals for 2008-2009.  I’ve also written about breaking goals down into micro-goals and the process I go through when creating goals.

Automate your savings plan.  Have your savings automatically deducted from your checking account to your savings account.

Pay automobile insurance premiums in full, instead of month-to-month.  I do this and it has reduced my annual insurance costs.

Learn how compound interest works.

Buy used.  We did this when we bought our new-to-us minivan.

Decrease driving costs by checking tire pressure, car pooling, and driving the speed limit.

Plan for annual expenses.

Start saving for retirement when you are young.  Check out this chart that details the benefits of saving for retirement when you are young.

Pay off entire credit card balances when due.  I don’t use credit cards, but for those who do, this is great advice.

Contribute to your 401K.

Read Dave Ramsey’s Book, The Total Money Makeover.  I agree!  It’s one of my favorite debt reduction books.

Use compact florescent bulbs, fans, and space heaters to save money on your electric bills.

Read personal finance blogs.  Yes!  For a huge list, checkout a great resource, PFBlogs.

Get rid of stuff you don’t need.

Avoid day trading.

Cut out smoking.  Seriously, if you stop smoking, you’ll save money and your insurance costs will go down – way down!

Find inexpensive hobbies

These are just some of the great tips that readers left.  To read all of the tips or to share one of your own, head over to the original post – Practical Tips For Personal Finance Newbies.  Remember, once I get 200 comments over at the original post, I’ll donate $200 to charity.

As I mentioned a few days ago, my old laptop, the Toshiba, is dying.  I ordered a new laptop from Lenovo, an IdeaPad Y510, and it arrived yesterday.  After it arrived, I spent some time tweaking its setup.  I downloaded and installed Itunes, OpenOffice, and Firefox – three free programs that, together, allow me to manage my music, organize my documents, and surf the web.  So far, I’m really impressed with the new laptop, and I think I made a good choice when buying it.

It’s never easy for me to make a “major purchase”.  I, quite frankly, don’t like to spend money.  My wife says that I worry, a bit to much, about our future, and that I should spend more time enjoying the present.  (I’ve been researching new laptops for more than a year, if that gives you a better understanding of how much I hate to spend money.)  I’m sure that my wife is right (she pretty much always is!) – but I can’t help it. 

Saturday, as I sat down to check my email, the screen on my laptop began to flicker.  Eventually, the entire screen turned a ghostly white and I could barely make out what was on the screen.  Quickly, I hooked my laptop up to an external monitor.  I plugged an external hard drive into one of the USB ports, and began the process of backing up all of the data on the laptop.

As I type this, the laptop is still functioning, but its screen is almost useless.  I can see just enough to enable the use of the external monitor, but that is about all.  So, I have ordered a brand new laptop, something I have been meaning to do for a few months.

I purchased my old laptop a few years ago.  It is a Toshiba and when I purchased it, I paid very little for it, because it was a refurbished model.  It served its purpose and I’m actually surprised that it lasted as long as it did.  I use it everyday as do my wife and kids.  But, with a dying screen, its not really useful as a “laptop” anymore.  So, I’ll probably just put it in my daughter’s room, attach it to the external monitor, close its lid, plug in a keyboard and a mouse, and let her use it as a “desktop” until it finally bites the old bullet.

I don’t have a budget category labeled ‘New Laptop’, but I do have one labeled ‘Furniture And Appliances’.  This category is for designated funds, to be used when I purchase a new piece of furniture or an appliance.  Instead of dipping into my emergency fund, I simply chose to use money in the ‘Furniture And Appliances’ category to purchase the new laptop.

As a side note:  The money in the ‘Furniture And Applicances’ category is actually in the same ING Direct Account as my Emergency Fund.  But, on paper, (actually on spread sheet via the You Need A Budget budgeting software), the money is in two different ‘places’.

I purchased an IdeaPad Y510.  It should work well as a general-purpose laptop.  Plus, it has a nicer-than-most sound system, for when I want to watch a DVD or listen to my favorite Podcast.