If you’ve picked up a newspaper or turned on a television or radio, you’ve probably heard about the recession. For a long time there was much debate, but now most analysts agree we are in a recession.

Recessions are generally have negative connotations, but there is some good that comes from it. As Baron Rothschild once said, the best time to buy is when there is “blood in the streets.” I’d go with the more general, “opportunity knocks loudest when times seem their worst.”

With that in mind, here are some ways to make the most of a recession.

• Buy Stocks at Bargain Prices - I still haven’t contributed to my Roth IRA for 2007. We had a wedding to fund and my income dropped dramatically in October. Neither of those are good excuses - it’s more about me being Lazy. I welcome the recession as an opportunity to make the most of that money. I’m buying and holding stocks for the long term - more than 30 years from now. I’d rather buy stocks at recession prices than bubble prices. I wouldn’t recommend waiting like I did, I accidentally timed the market well. It could have been worse.
• Relief for those with HELOCs - The Federal Reserve is cutting interest rates at a furious pace. Those who have gotten themselves in trouble by tapping their home equity can pay off more principal and less interest.
• Cheap Housing - Home prices have dropped in many places around the country. I’ve seen prices drop 10% in Boston and San Francisco - two markets I follow. Usually when this happens, mortgage interest rates go up. However, around the country, rates are at their lows of a few years ago. If you are in the market for a home, have cash for a down payment, and can afford it, it is the best time to buy a home.
• Rebate Checks - Many people are getting $600 or $1200 in an economic stimulus package. I would rather have a good economy, but let’s not ignore that this is real money that many will use to buy an iPod or Wii. On second thought, perhaps this should go into the “Why I Hate a Recession” column.

One thing that I don’t like about recessions is that I don’t make as much money in high interest saving accounts. Though peer-to-peer lending is a different asset class in many, many ways, I will consider shifting some of money from those savings accounts to Prosper.

Photo Credit: 1 

—

Lazy Man has been a lender at Prosper since February 2006. He is the author of the personal finance blog, Lazy Man and Money and the health and fitness blog, Lazy Man and Health.

My wife and I are recent newlyweds. While we tried to be responsible with the costs of a wedding, at 200 people, we knew the costs were going to add up. It only made sense to try to save as much money as possible in anticipation of those wedding bills. We found we could save a great sum of money by going out on frugal dates.

I thought I’d share five of our favorite cheap date ideas:

• Picnic in the Park - Instead of paying restaurant prices for brunch, you pay grocery store prices. Instead of paying $20 and up for wine, you look for cheaper options under $10. If you have a radio, that can certainly add to the romance.
• Tour a Factory - In Northern California we have Jelly Belly and a Budweiser factories. When we lived near Boston we had options of Sam Adams and Yankee Candle. I recommend the book Watch It Made in the USA, which should be available from your local library.
• Movie Night - Red Box and DVD Play each have the latest DVDs available for about a dollar. Add a cozy blanket, microwave popcorn, and your favorite beverage… fun.
• Camping or Hiking - My wife loves the outdoors so this is one of her favorites. I don’t mind the outdoors, I just think that every tree should be Internet-enabled. I’m building up into liking this date more and more. In a year or two, I might be there.
• Minor League Sporting Events - Here’s a slightly more expensive option. My wife and I went to a Modesto Nuts baseball game last year. Tickets are around $7-10. Food was reasonably priced and the team gave away shirts and souvenirs in between innings. Even though we didn’t know any of the players, we still had fun inventing nicknames for them. We still associate any clutch performance with Jose Chavez, a player who got a huge hit in the game.

A good general rule of thumb is to opt for outside activities. If your wallet is looking a little thin, you might want to trade in your standard Saturday night restaurant date for one of the above options.

—

Lazy Man has been a lender at Prosper since February 2006. He is the author of the personal finance blog, Lazy Man and Money and the health and fitness blog, Lazy Man and Health.

Last week, I had one of my good friends from Boston contact me. Let’s call him Jeff. Jeff had heard from his friend that his website as bringing him some significant business. This didn’t surprise me. You see, Jeff is a real estate lawyer. I don’t know how familiar you are with commercial real estate, but a single transaction can make a lot of money. A couple percent of many millions can feed a family for a long time.

Jeff wanted to duplicate his friend’s success and since they were different types of lawyers, he knew that he wouldn’t hurt his friend’s business. Still, Jeff had a problem… he didn’t know how to create a website. He figured that he could put some time and learn how to do it, but it would take a lot of time. In general, a lawyer’s time is very valuable. This is why Jeff contacted me. He knew that I could build a website very quickly.

Jeff and I talked and he explained what he needed. I took notes and made suggestions where appropriate. Towards the end of the conversation he said, “Who does your estate planning?” Unfortunately, this is one of the areas where I earn my Lazy Man name. I have nothing set up in the estate planning at all. When I mentioned this to Jeff, he said that he’d draw up the paperwork and the next time I’m in Boston, we can finalize it.

It took me a minute to understand what he was saying. In exchange for me doing the work on his website, I’d have an estate plan. I got really excited when I realized that that I was saving hundreds of dollars. I got so excited that Jeff had his website 90% completed about four hours later.

There are two limitations preventing me from greatly expanding my bartering enterprise. Some industries, I just can’t seems to barter with - Safeway already has a pretty good website. In other industries, I just lack the connections - I don’t have a friend who is a mechanic.

—

Lazy Man has been a lender at Prosper since February 2006. He is the author of the personal finance blog, Lazy Man and Money and the health and fitness blog, Lazy Man and Health.

Have you noticed how your grocery store is designed? If it’s like most stores, the are raw ingredients (dairy, meat, vegetables) are around the perimeter. If you want a frozen dinner, some cake mix, or a bag of Fritos, you have to venture the aisles. It’s the food in the aisles that I want to talk about today.

It’s widely recognized that many prepackaged foods earn a great amount of money for food manufacturers. It makes sense that they would charge more since they are often the most convenient (and often addictive) foods. Consumers realize that there is value in being able to quickly microwave some food or solve a craving for salt or caffeine. Everyone wins… except your wallet.

Last week, on CNBC, I watched the CEO of Hormel foods trumpet the success of their new Hormel Compleats product line. Yesterday, at the grocery store, I realized that Campbell’s Healthy Request Chunky Soups must be helping the company’s bottom line. At $3.29 for a 240-calorie can of New England Clam Chowder, it would cost me nearly $7.00 for lunch. The cost of that meal comes out to be 73 calories/dollar.

However, not all packaged convenience foods are expensive. There are some real bargains to be had. I found that General Mills’ Totino’s pizza can be purchased at my local Wal-Mart for $1.00. At 700 calories, the complex math comes out to be… 700 calories/dollar - it’s nearly 1/10th the price of Campbell’s New England Clam Chowder. It’s tough to match the Totino’s for a complete meal on a calorie/dollar ratio. If you are looking for something to augment a meal I’ve found that I can buy Ramen noodles (the great college standby) at 2500 calories/dollar. Lastly, the Banquet line of frozen dinners often come in at around 400 calories/dollar (depending on the variety). Some of them even score high on taste tests. It might be worth noting that with rising food prices, many of these cheaper foods have stayed the same price.

There is a price to pay for these cheaper convenience foods. They are packed with unhealthy ingredients like high-fructose corn syrup and/or sodium. However, even some of the “healthier foods” like soup have much more sodium than a dietitian would typically recommend. Everything is a balance. If you are on a budget it might be worth thinking about how you might save money on packaged foods. And if you are going with packaged foods, you might want to make sure you spend more time at the gym.

—

Lazy Man has been a lender at Prosper since February 2006. He is the author of the personal finance blog, Lazy Man and Money and the health and fitness blog, Lazy Man and Health.

Has your wallet been so empty that you thought, “There must be something cheaper than Top Ramen. Isn’t there a Middle or Bottom Ramen?” When the technology bubble burst eight years ago, I had that problem. While I felt alone at the time, I now realize that I wasn’t.  

I was talking with Joseph Sangl just the other day and he said something that shocked me, “The sad fact is that over 70% of Americans live paycheck-to-paycheck.  They can’t see past this week, so taking the time to think about retirement and funding some of their dreams is a foreign concept!”

If Mr. Sangl is right, much of America is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. That’s extremely scary to me. With that in mind, here are some tips to save money and get you out of the paycheck-to-paycheck grind.

1. Home - Many people own homes bigger than they need. This means that they spend more not only in rent and mortgage, but also to heat and furnish the home.
2. Car - It seems that everyone is looking to get a better and better car. If your neighbor gets a Toyota Avalon, you get a Lexus. The person next door sees the Lexus and gets a more expensive, better BMW. I made this mistake and bought a more expensive car that I should have. I’m seriously considering making my next car one a used one that gets me from point A to point B.
3. Food - I’m always surprised at how many people go out to lunch. At $10 day, it adds up to $220 a month (assuming a 22 day work-month). Don’t forget about going out for dinners as well. It’s easy to spend $150-$200 going out to dinner a few times a month.
4. Subscriptions - Do you watch enough HBO to justify the cost? What about that Netflix subscription? Do you need as many minutes on your cell phone? Can you switch to something like a $15 Vonage plan for your home phone?
5. Splurges - I love technology and gadgets. However, it’s easy to get caught up in buying a stereo system one month, an iPod the next month, and an iPhone the month after that. Other people might like to cook and find themselves buying new specialty appliances and cookware every couple of months. These kind of things add up each month. I found that if I wait, I can get my technology fix via Craig’s List for a small fraction of the original cost.

With a little work, you may find that you can save $500-1000 a month from the above tips. If you put that money in savings, you’ll soon find that this period’s paycheck is not something that you have worry about. These ideas may not help everyone living paycheck to paycheck.  If you find yourself still having trouble, you might want to look to increase your income. That’s a topic for another day.

—

Lazy Man has been a lender at Prosper since February 2006. He is the author of the personal finance blog, Lazy Man and Money and the health and fitness blog, Lazy Man and Health. He enjoys watching Boston sports while sipping diet cola.