For those of us on the short end of the recent and ongoing mass looting of the economy by the kind of ant-populist robber barons who make Jesse and Frank James seem like do-gooders The Hardy Boys, there is now a historical record of the Fortune 500 CEO Hall of Shame in what could be printable trading cards outlining the shameful accomplishments of the Worst of the Worst.

Check out the card for Lehman Brothers’ Richard Fuld, whose stats list a total loss of $29 billion, while his personal take for the efforts comes in at a cool $71.9 million. Look at that punum… does he look suspiciously like a lizard? Then there’s Countrywide’s Angelo Mozilo, with a face only a mother (or a Sicilian Don) could love. Stats: in the loss column, a total of $22 billion. It’s the personal take that’s truly impressive – $225.7 million. This guy was good at being bad!

So if you’re overdue for an out-loud chuckle in the midst of economic meltdown designed to do the most amount of serious harm to the most number of honest, hard-working citizens, don’t miss this offering by BusinessPundit. It’s well worth the waste of card stock and color toner.

And while you’re busy surfing for news, giggles and brain-novocaine, go on over to CNNMoney to get the previews of the upcoming Super Bowl Ads, if for no other reason than to have them pre-listed and ready for votes at your Super Bowl Party this year. To be honest, that E*Trade talking baby gets me every time, even if it sometimes seems a little creepy what they make him say. Is this the CEO’s kid, or just some baby from central casting whose stage mom doesn’t mind his gratuitous sexualization?

Oh… and if you want a good conversation-starter for game night when both the game and the commercials get boring, check out GameJabs’ post about The 15 Most Controversial Superbowl Ads of All Time. Some of these aired and some of them didn’t, see how many of your football watching buddies remember the worst of ‘em.

Finally, if you’ve still got a job, at least one credit card, and are serious this time about getting your financial life in order, you may learn some useful strategies from Credit Card Matcher’s Plan for Paying Off Holiday Credit Card Debt. This site also offers reviews for the best card offerings for things like travel rewards and gas rewards to make traveling for fun and business a little cheaper.

Finally (last but certainly not least), if you or someone you know is planning to take the lemons of a tanking economy to make lemonade by starting a new business, you’ll definitely want to check out Brainz’s article offering 33 Ways to Fund Your Startup Business. Some of the traditional sources are drying up, but even as that’s happening some non-traditional, more creative methods of raising money are increasingly viable.

Links:

Fortune 500 CEO Hall of Shame
Super Bowl Ads: From Clydesdales to koalas
Travel Rewards Cards
Gas Rewards Cards
33 Ways to Fund Your Startup Business

As we move into 2008′s extended holiday period, more than a few families are wondering if there will be a Christmas this year. Sure, some retailers are going all out to stay open long enough to see if anybody’s buying this year, but with consumer credit at a virtual standstill, international trade languishing on the docks and jobs being lost by the thousands every week, it’s a no-brainer that this Christmas isn’t going to be ‘the usual’ consumer spending orgy of Christmases past.

Presuming that your family still has a home, can heat it, and enough income to put food on the table, there are ways to have a festive, meaningful Christmas without going further into debt and without ending up with cheap Chinese junk that nobody really wants or needs.

The best thing you can do for your family is Make Your Own, and involve the kids! We save old Christmas cards in a box in the closet, pull them out around Thanksgiving and use them, plus various saved papers, made papers, trims, sequins, glitter, buttons, studs, etc. to make brand new Christmas cards for the people in our lives. Scissors and glue, a paper cutter, maybe some cutsey hole punches and lots of odds and ends, these cards inevitably get saved by every Mom, Grandma or other friend/relative who gets them! And kids are especially creative in this area. Sure you’ll have to clean up the mess, but a great time was had by all.

There are schedulers, list-keepers, budding writers and artists in just about every family. So another great gift are notebooks, journals, sketchbooks and schedulers you can make or buy. My friends over at Casual Keystrokes have compiled a worthy list of the best of the best journals, notebooks, sketchbooks and schedulers available online, some of them offer great deals and discounts.

If you really want to put some ‘self’ into it, the ideas and designs of some of those items Keystrokes suggests can be used as models for do it yourself gift projects. My grandson learned how to make leather bound notebooks in school, has really turned it into an art form. He collects old used leather jackets from Goodwill and other thrift shops, and recycles that leather for bindings. The neatest looking ones are patchwork of different kinds of leather, bound together with leather glue (can be purchased at a craft supply store).

Paper can be bought or made, but making can be fun. Did you know that you can make fine paper from collected dryer lint? Frugal Living offers the recipe and details on how to do this. Fine handmade paper bound in a fine handmade leather bound book can be the most delightful gift under the tree for anyone who loves to write, doodle, or keep meticulous notes.

You might be surprised at how useful that dryer lint can be to the dedicated crafter. PlanetPal offers recipes and instructions for how to make lint paper mache and lint clay as well as lint paper. And if there are very young ones on your Christmas list, there are some great patterns and instructions for how to make stuffed animals and dolls, and that dryer lint makes great stuffing too!

There is also the tradition of “Hobbit Presents” that some families find so fun. This is the practice of re-giving a previous year’s gift to someone else. When it’s unwrapped, the family can remember where it came from, who has enjoyed it, and who gave it to whom. These sort of gifts need to be more substantial than cheap plastic stuff from China, but quality items handmade with skill and care make great Hobbit Presents. Pride in craftsmanship is something children miss out on too much these days. Teaching them, encouraging them and helping them learn to value such things from themselves and others won’t hurt them a bit.

So it’s November. Get busy!!!

Links:

‘Tis the Season: Gift Ideas
Casual Keystrokes
Making Paper from Dryer Lint
Lint Craft Recipes
Stuffed Toy Patterns

People who are living frugally don’t have to stop having fun and don’t have to stay home all the time. They just have to weigh their choices more carefully than people who have a lot of money to spend and don’t mind spending it. While it’s true that many of us consider a trip to visit family members in another state to be an actual vacation, but not necessarily because the people we’re visiting are all that fun and interesting. Usually it’s because the cost of gasoline, necessary vehicle upkeep, motels along the way and restaurant meals for the whole family for days or weeks at a time can easily eat up every cent of your vacation savings or tax refund, leaving zip for trips to Six Flags or ski resorts or Disney World – places our kids think of as actual vacations.

There’s a new partnership movement afoot in my state that takes great advantage of the many scenic, historic and educational wonders that make this state a tourist destination for millions of people every year. I strongly suspect there are many other states doing much the same thing, and the information’s not that hard to find. It’s called “Agritourism,” and it’s offering benefits to farmers, rural communities and artists of all varieties via partnerships with arts councils, agricultural extension services, state and federal parks services and small tourism operations in established tourist regions.

There is one such partnership in my already tourist-soaked state (North Carolina), where family farmers have lost their traditional cash crop (tobacco) and farm communities are struggling hard to stay afloat even while the ski resorts, mountain lodges and coastal attractions are doing pretty well. It’s called HomegrownHandmade, a partnership between the NC Agritourism Board, the NC Extension Service and the NC Arts Council. There are also some private and public grant agencies involved on the provider end, which allows the artists and farmers to get things going.

What they’re offering are “Art Roads and Farm Trails,” usually encompassing attractions and activities in 4-5 contiguous counties at a time that, judging from the descriptions, could easily keep a family busy and well-entertained for at least a week. Accommodations can be expensive over that length of time, but there are usually homey B&Bs listed in the towns along the way, and state parks along the routes as well where families can put their camping and nature skills to good use for not very much money. Tours at the offerings can cost between $5 and $10 per person (young children usually free), but that’s not so big an expenditure for a day’s worth of fun – and at the farms and wineries, that can include food and drink.

So far HomegrownHomemade has 16 Trails set up, information available on their website along with links to the listed attractions so you can easily plan ahead, while maintaining enough flexibility to really enjoy the time with your family and just kick back here and there.

With Trail names like “Pictures from the Piedmont,” “Scenes of the Sandhills,” “Crossroads, PatriArts and Native Ways,” and “Lights… Waves… Action!” (among others), you can pick and choose a Trail that appeals most to your family. But that’s just my state. I’m betting that there are similar partnerships in your state that would keep you closer to home, or in neighboring states.

Tennessee has some truly spectacular state parks that are often well-kept secrets to your average tourist, and like Kentucky, almost all the state parks boast fine and well-maintained golf courses. Rock climbing, rafting, canoeing, tubing, fishing, camping, hiking… people these days sometimes forget how much fun there is to be had just spending real quality time with those you love most, somewhere where the air is fresh, the water is cold, and the food always tastes great because it’s cooked over a fire.

Instead of sending the kids away to summer camp, why not send the whole family – including yourself? Go ahead and break out those old Boy Scout manuals and field guides, maybe pack a beloved book that’s not too long and which your children may not have read or heard. My grandchildren remember vividly a camping trip we went on over the Memorial Day weekend one year, where we adults took turns reading a few chapters by flashlight every night as they were settling into their sleeping bags. Everyone’s got a favorite. Could be Nancy Drew or a Hardy Boys mystery, good ol’ Huck and Tom stories, whatever. Wherever you are, there’s usually at least one book of stories about the region and/or its history, which you can pick up new or used. Get your fishing licenses and show the kids what it’s like to rustle up their own grub, maybe teach them how to bake cornbread in a covered cast iron pot buried in the campfire’s ashes.

Most state park campgrounds have camp stores open during the day, hot showers and well-lighted bathrooms as well as sites with electrical outlets even if you’re in a tent. If you make reservations ahead of time, you can ensure you’ve got the most convenient site and it won’t cost you extra. Camping equipment can be had for free or practically nothing through the Freecycle Network or Craigslist, or even your town’s SuperShopper-style classified weekly. Or borrow some! Three-room tents with screen porches, fine folding sling chairs, all the utensils you’ll need, sleeping bags and air mattresses, folding tables, even those big waterproof Tupperware storage tubs to pack things in. Don’t forget to pack playing cards and chips (the kids really do want to learn how to play poker, you know), dice, a board game or two that your family enjoys. And if you really want to splurge, see what the barter exchange rate is in your neighborhood for a nice pop-up camper trailer or motor home.

With a bit of foresight, some clever web-surfing and not that much money your family can enjoy a week or two of fine vacation time this year and not feel the least bit underprivileged about it! If readers have any good ideas of their own along this vein, do post them for us. Happy Trails!

Link:

HomegrownHandmade