Ever think about just checking out of society? This man does it, on $5000 dollars a year. This is Dan Price, the Man in the Hobbit Hole

Dan Price is a man in his fifties as of now from Kentucky. He had a wife, children, a home and a job and a life, but he left all of that behind to move out and be free.

He currently lives in a place that he has described to the media as his "Hobbit Hole", and makes his way through life for only $5000 a year.

All in all, it's rather impressive that he is able to make it on so little, but it turns out you can do a lot when you are willing to downsize your lifestyle.

What's his secret to making his money last?

Well, for starters he doesn't have most of the luxuries or comforts that we all take for granted, like indoor plumbing, more than one room, or refrigeration.

One of his most common meals is cereal or granola eaten with water instead of milk.

And as for his day to day activities, he works as a caretaker for a local cemetery, clears trees from the land on which he lives for only $100 a year, and works on his hobbies, which include the publication of a small book on a semi-regular basis.

If you're interested in supporting Dan, you can purchase his book called My Tiny House, his journal called the Moonlight Chronicles, or look around the net for more of his work!

He isn't a man of the stone age, though. He pays $53 a month for a cell phone, and has a MacBook Air, an iPad, and an annual round trip to Hawaii where he spends his winters.

Not a terrible way to live, if you can manage it.

Have you ever heard of something similar?

Reward Banking: Making Money by Saving Money!

I am always on the lookout for a great deal, and when I found out that it was possible to get a bonus, a real cash payment as a result of opening a simple bank account, I was really intrigued. at the time I had been using the same couple of banks for many years and I didn't really have a reason to change my habits but I found out that I could receive an actual cash bonus a whole $50 if I just opened up a checking account and used it as a checking account. that was almost 1 year ago and I have been a loyal customer with Capital One Bank ever since.

I like the ability to open multiple accounts and transfer funds between them to meet my savings goals, and I especially like that I can earn money by referring my friends and family to the bank!

I am sharing this opportunity with all of my readers not only to make the initial 50 dollars as a bonus payment, but also to refer your friends to open and account with Capital One and make 20 dollars per referral.

I still use the bank accounts that I had before I joined Capital One, but I like the Capital One MasterCard and the ease of access to my money in checking to transfer into my Capital One ShareBuilder Roth IRA, which lets users transfer funds for free from checking and savings accounts, and even offers free trades to buy and sell securities.

Whether you are happy with your current banks, currently unbanked, or looking for a better bank, Capital One can compete, and it will pay you money!

If you are interested, again I request you to sign up as my referral.

Do you have any similar reward banking deals? Have you had experience with any of them? Please share in the comments below!

How much money do you really need to get started with real estate investment?

So, say that I wanted to acquire a rental property. How much money would I need to get one?

Is it better to find a place with units enough to house me and tenants, or to begin with a single family home?

Should I be targeting areas with cheaper real estate in general, or aiming for more costly areas where property is far more expensive but can command higher rent?

Habits can Make you or Break You

Habits are what end up dictating the course of our days and can often contribute to the outcomes in our lives. We can change them and the best ways to achieve the goals that we set for ourselves are often related to changing and hopefully improving our habitual behaviors.

We can save money by breaking the habits of eating out and over shopping.

We can become healthier by developing the habits of working out and taking vitamins and other healthy goods instead of unhealthy ones.

It's straightforward, and terribly difficult. Living a life that is completely intentional instead of just doing what "seems natural" or what we habitually do is both hard to do and not how we are wired.

But if we can triumph over our nature and psychology, we can really achieve some amazing results.

How to Save Money by Cooking Your Own Food

It might be worth your while to buy a set of freezer containers for individual portions. From there, identity and prepare batches of things that you like, like lasagna, tortilla soup, fajitas, or burritos and freeze them.

I'm planning a big cook for myself tomorrow, and I will make 2 kinds of soup, bread, and a pasta dish for the week to come.

The thing about free advice on the internet is that it might not fit you perfectly or be just right. In the end you have to decide what works for the two of you.

Also, if you decide to do a big cook tell people ahead of time so that they don't constantly try to use the other burner or whatever. And you might have to reserve fridge and freezer space.

Instant Win Games offer a chance to make a quick buck

I don't bother with a lot of contests. While popular sweepstakes can be a ticket to major winnings, they also have unearthly waiting times of six months or more between your entry and the time when the winner is selected and the prizes are awarded.

I like to play instant win games, especially as a substitute for the expensive alternative of scratch off tickets.

There are a lot of them available from innumerable sources, but the ones that I've been using lately are those featured on the websites for tobacco companies, the Kmart and Sears loyalty program Shop Your Way Rewards, the instant game to win an Amazon Gift Card on Survey Monkey Contribute, and the occasional contest on PayPal.

While my winnings have been meager, I don't have to wonder whether I'll win in some far off drawing, because I know that I've either won or not.

So far I've won a few prizes, including a wallet, a lighter, keychains, and some hot sauce, but I also enjoy winning cash, points towards rewards, and digital trophies to show off to my friends.

Prime Opportunities May be Available for Cheap Summer Living

If you are close to a college town, you might want to consider taking a summer sublet. Lots of them are supremely cheap, I have seen a few as low as 300 dollars a month plus utilities

Looking to Save on Groceries? Try Shopping for Stores!

There are often a few major grocery stores in a given area, and the prices on individual items can vary pretty widely from tore to store. While some might say it all evens out, others argue that there must be a store that is "cheap" and a store that is "expensive".

Whether or not that is true, it is quite possible to identify which store will cost you less. It might take a couple of hours, but you could end up saving quite a bit over the course of your stay in your neighborhood by taking the time to look things over.

The method that I propose is the same one that the Feds use to determine inflation. You will have to critically look at your purchasing patterns for groceries and household supplies for whatever your major interval of purchasing is, whether that is by week, month, or year for you folks on the outskirts of civilization. Anyway, get a good idea of what you're buying and then visit the stores on your list.

Write down the numbers of each item you plan on buying, and the cost at the store. Once you get home, you can compare the total costs and the costs of each item. By doing so I found out that my local grocery chain has cheaper produce than Walmart, but the meats are more expensive, and Walmart has a better price for rice and wheat flour than the grocery store. But if I were to shop in only one place, I would get a better price at Walmart.

The neat thing is, the lower cost store will likely remain lower price for a while. Ideally you would reassess costs frequently, but I only do a price check with the market basket technique once a year or so.

If you are willing to visit multiple stores, however, you can buy the lower priced items at both places and save even more!

Going Shopping This Week?

I just looked through the circular for Target this week, and there are a few sales that I might take advantage of.

FYI, you can look at the mail circulars online these days by visiting the store websites. I went to Target.com for this one, and I was pretty satisfied.

Almond milk is selling for $2.50 per half gallon, so I might pick up a couple of cartons of that to go along with my morning oats. The nice thing about almond milk is that you don't need to refrigerate it, so you can save on fridge space.

Processed cheese is on sale as well at 5 dollars for two 10 piece packages, and a loaf of bread is usually less than 3 dollars for over 20 pieces, so even if I'm feeling lazy and don't cook my own bread this week, I could still make 20 cheese sandwiches for about 40 cents a sandwich. The circular was advertising gluten free bread, but I don't have a need to avoid gluten and glutinous bread is usually cheaper, so I might go with that.

Any big plans for your grocery this week?

Where do you usually shop?

Feel free to comment below, or share with your friends.

A New Use for Freezer Burned Foods

Apparently there are a whole host of households across America that throw out foods that have been chilling in the freezer for too long.

Corn, peas, whole grains, and even some frozen meats can become unappetizing over time in the freezer, and while you could always chop it up for stew, another use could be to replace bread when you go to the park to feed the ducks.

If you've been keeping your ear to the ground, you might have heard that bread isn't really all that good for ducks. The Guardian published an article in March about this, apparently excesses of bread have no value for the ducks nutritionally, can result in the development of "angel wing", a serious deformity for this kind of bird that prevents normal flight and can even hinder flight entirely, and the increases in algal blooms in freshwater and rats on dry land.

If you are interested, here is the author's list of Safe For Ducks and Not Safe For Ducks foods:

Sfd (Safe for ducks)

• Cracked corn
• Wheat, barley or similar grains
• Oats
• Rice (cooked or uncooked)
• Birdseed (any type or mix)
• Grapes (cut in half)
• Frozen peas or corn (defrosted, no need to cook)
• Earthworms
• Mealworms
• Chopped lettuce or other greens or salad mixes
• Chopped vegetable trimmings or peels
• Duck pellets

Nsfd (Not safe for ducks)

• Bread
• Chips
• Crackers and biscuits
• Popcorn
• Sugary food - sweets, chocolate

Is it feasible to start an online co-op?

There are a lot of things that aren't really perishable that you can buy at ridiculously cheap prices in bulk.

Many seeds, nuts, and grains are sold wholesale for less than half of what they sell retail, but you have to buy massive quantities to realize savings.

Examples include Almonds,Raisins, and Walnuts  but there are many more products like this.

Would anyone be interested in joining an online co-op for goods like this, so that we could coordinate massive purchases, store and process the goods, and then ship them out to end users?

Getting bulk fruit and nuts for 60 cents a pound, and then processing them and shipping them out might end up costing a lot more than you'd think, but a lot of people are spending 5 dollars a pound or more on this kind of stuff.

The primary downside is the massive number of people who would need to sign up before it would be worth doing.

I don't eat more than 2 pounds of nuts in a month, and even at that relatively high rate of consumption I would only eat 24 pounds a year. If I could find people that ate just as much as me, that would require 1,667 people just to use up 1 minimum shipment of 20 tons from a wholesaler.

Here's my math, easily computed using either mental math or the knowledge engine of Wolfram Alpha.

I like to eat nuts, around 2 pounds of them in a month.

2 lbs of nuts per month works out to be 24 pounds of nuts a year (2 *12=24)

24 lbs of nuts a year versus the minimum purchase amount on Alibaba of 20 tons works out to 1,667 eaters minimum to finish all the nuts in one year (20 tons*2000 pounds / 1 ton / 24 pounds per person =1,666.6 repeating, and half of a person doesn't eat any nuts so I rounded up)

With more people than 1,667 I could have reduce the single person's cost to participate, achieve shorter intervals between orders, increase the variety of orders, i.e. send out nuts and raisins, seeds, or dates instead of just nuts, and make orders smaller.

So, if you know anyone looking to provide some seed funding, I guess that I'm interested.