November 2010
6 posts
AND AWAY WE GO.......
That’s a quote from Jackie Gleason, the greatest who ever lived by the way…and it’s fitting…..he lived life FULLY….my guess is that he probably never saved a dime on anything, but man did he know how to live…….hopefully I’ve give you some fuel to live more fully, without wanting for anything, but without being wasteful for no good reason or...
GONE, BABY, GONE........
….Excellent film by the way…..
I am here to tell you that TOMORROW, FRIDAY, will be my last posting on SMARTNOTCHEAP….for now.
If you have been reading from the beginning (they are all here if you want to go back and at least see the first one), you know that Sarah Jessica and I were planning to do a book based on these ideas and the themes of this site. We are figuring out...
"....AND ALL THE FIXINS......."
Yesterday I did alot of work on the house. First i fixed the fountains outside. They seemed really daunting and scary——who knows anything about a pump for a fountain really? Well it turns out it is rather simple, they were clogged with nasty gunk, and they come right out, get rinsed off and work fine……also my $2 package of plastic shims from the hardware store balanced them...
just a clarification.......
The buyback of candy by registered dentists is a national program, to encourage our kids (with alarmingly high obesity rates) to eat less sweets (saving their teeth as well), and also do some goodwill by sending the extra candy to our troops to give them a bit of Halloween where they are serving…….It’s not a bad idea, just something that would have struck me as insane when I was...
"......A CHICKEN IN EVERY POT....."
Years ago, you could run an entire political campaign on the idea of the “luxury” of people having a chicken. Read that again——HAVING A CHICKEN. That meant that a family could eat. They could roast it, make sandwiches out of it, use the bones for soup, and eat it for an entire week. We were hard workers. And we worked for such a “luxury”.
Most people I know...
YOU GONNA USE THAT??
The best part about trick-or-treating for a freak like me is of course seeing other people’s houses. There’s nothing better than trying to look as far into someone’s home as possible while they are handing my kid some free candy….(and yes, for those of you following, filling up his UNICEF box, which I DID get for him on Friday)…….
It’s pretty ridiculous...
October 2010
26 posts
SPOOKY SCARY FREAKY.........
It’s a holiday indeed. After you have saved money on your pumpkins (that sounds dirty) at Trader Joes (for 2.99), and your candy at 99 Cent Store (duh….for 99 CENTS), and your costume that you might have made from scratch (how many years in a row was I a HOBO anyway?)….then please ponder this——-
What the HELL happened to UNICEF???? We put out a dish of candy AND a...
"NATHEN WENT TO COLLEGE TO GET MORE...
……Willie went to Jupiter to get more stupider…….”——-that’s what Nathen says to me every day. It’s awesome. Of course he doesn’t understand that Willie went to the school of his choice, and graduated in 3 years with a double degree(savings=$30,000), but he will someday.
Last night was the open house at the local middle school. It’s...
READY, WILLING, AND ABLE......
I had a long talk with our nanny/housekeeper yesterday. She’s a really great woman. She has a masters degree, teaches yoga, plats organic gardens for people, works in public radio and has an Emmy Award for doing so. She CHOSE to do this job, cleaning up our house, cooking for us, taking care of Nathen——because of the ECONOMY. She also, as a sidebar, finds the 6 hours a day she...
ASK.....DON'T TELL........
I’ve written about this before a little bit. There is nothing worse than the person who knows everything. The worst fight I ever had with someone ended with me saying— “When did you get your degree?”. “In what?”, they answered. “IN EVERYTHING!!!”, was my aggressively snotty response.
The smartest people I know are the ones asking the questions, ALL...
HMMMM....VERY INTERESTING..........
What’s your interest rate? We all have them, be it from a car loan, a home loan, and the dreaded, absolutely insane….CREDIT card. We have school loans, rates of deposit….in my case, I had a loan from my mother, and yes, whenever my brother or I borrowed from her, it was at the rate of her local bank branch (yes, my mother passed away as a very wealthy woman, this was just another...
WHERE DID ALL MY MONEY GO???
REALLY??? YOU DON’T KNOW????
We ALL have heard someone say “I don’t now where my money goes.” We may have said it ourselves. Well next time you hear someone say that, follow these simple steps:
1)Hit them on the head with a frying pan.
2)Remove the joint, liquor bottle, syringe from their hand.
3)Check them into a mental hospital.
When I was starting out trying to be...
I DON'T CARE TO BE A MEMBER OF ANY CLUB THAT WILL...
Groucho Marx was making a JOKE. Belong to all of them. It’s absolutely crazy not to.
My AMEX rewards pays for my newspapers. We all know about the amazing discounts that AAA provides. And obviously Costco or Sam’s Club, depending on where you live. And the supermarket ones, which basically write my shopping list for me, depending on what’s on sale. Fishing around the Screen...
IT'S MY PARTY AND I'LL CRY IF I WANT TO........
Events. Huge topic. So many of you have commented on them. Lemme ramble first. I grew up with parents who got married simply and elegantly. A HUGE wedding was for the society pages. Rockefellers, Kennedys, Johnsons……..or the oil baron in town who wanted to show that he was a “made man” and could throw any type of party for his beloved baby girl. There were also lower...
IF YOU BUILD IT........
It would probably surprise many people who know me that I could be considered “handy”. I know you rarely see little bald men with glasses swinging a hammer, or wearing a tool belt (unless you have some sick fetish that you should keep to yourself, please).
I DO have a construction guy who I use at my house, and I trust him completely…..of course I have used him for 20 years, he...
TAKE A LOOK AT YOURSELF AND MAKE...
Thanks again for all of your comments, so great. Many of you are thinking so wisely, and have given yourself deserved pats on the back for figuring out great ways to save in so many areas, without living like homeless people…..keep it up and keep them coming, it’s awesome…..
Change is a great thing, in life, location, employment, wherever….this is a short life and I am a...
I love your blog. I love Mozzie too. I discovered White Collar this summer and am ashamed to say you. I must have been living under a rock or a pile of diapers the last 10 years. I count myself as one of few females to have not watched Sex and the city. I try to live by the principles of frugality and living within means. Thanks for making it seem cool.
What we've done to save money...
Hi Willie! Thanks so much for your blog - great reading and tips. Let me get my star struck self out of the way by telling you how much I enjoy your character on WC - you, and the rest of the cast are fantastic - wouldn’t miss a show.
Okay- now to the topic at hand…we are a family of 4 - and make under 3 figures. We’ve sent the two boys to private grade and high schools by my...
pigeonsoup asked: I just wanted to tell you that I think you're an amazing actor and that completely enjoy your role on White Collar. I know you get this tons of times daily but I just wanted to add on it and happily be another fan added to the pile (please don't light us on fire we made bad kindling). My hat's off to you sir. Have a great day!
NO PARKIN BABY, NO PARKIN ON THE DANCE FLOOR.....
First off, thanks for all the great emails and comments, and for taking some of these ideas and thoughts to heart, it means a lot to me. And if you are just now joining or following, please go back and read from the beginning, I think you will find it informative and useful. And yes, as already posted, my son and I DO go camping quite a bit, and yes, I have been to England (however, not on a...
KNOW----BEFORE YOU GO.......
Ok, I will admit it, I have had some success as an actor. With that, I get alot of free crap. It’s not a secret. My housekeeper is exceptionally well-dressed, if you consider crew jackets and baseball hats being well-dressed….(who would NOT want a “groundhog day” sweatshirt?)…..
Nathen and I were given 3 days at Atlantis resort in the Bahamas. That’s awesome,...
LETS GET READY TO RUMBLE!!!!
My partners Jay and Shaun and I made a reality TV pilot called “Cheap Thrills”. The idea we had, much along the same vein of this page, is that people should be able to go out and affordably experience things and live fuller lives. Basically, if you watch alot of TV, and you aren’t finacially able, you could end up feeling like some sort of loser if you aren’t in NY or LA...
AS I LAY ME DOWN TO SLEEP........
Hotels are a unique land of wildly changing prices……we all have had to go to a family function somewhere, gotten the list of “deals” they have made, only to find a better price with your AAA card or online through a consolidator.
I use Hotwire alot for rooms. But you do have to be careful. When my parents were both sick and I was going to my hometown in NJ, they had a...
Clarity.....
I guess I was not clear about actors shooting in other cities than their own…ALL actors receive a ONE-TIME “relocation” allowance to technically ‘move’ to the shooting city, if they are ‘regulars’ (in every episode) and not guests…..that is, and has always been the case, no matter where a show shoots and no matter what the economic climate it is, it...
HIT THE RODE JACK........
I travel all the time. Most actors do. The dirty little secret that I will tell you now is this, we are most of the time paying for ourselves. When one does a show in say, NY, and I live in Los Angeles, we are technically “relocated” to NY, with a one-time fee a the beginning of the series. On my current show, “White Collar”, we ALL live in Los Angeles, and most of...
"EVERYBODY'S WORKIN FOR THE WEEKEND".....Loverboy
Just to catch up on some stuff before I start talking about travel starting on Monday:
Went to a hipster restaurant last night in downtown LA from a Top Chef winner, and in an amazing twist of fate, all wine was 50% off…..lets just say they lost money on the deal……
Nathen wrapped up all of his change in wrappers and made me deposit it into his bank account...
LEARN, BABY, LEARN.......
I’m a big fan of knowing things. Not in a “I know something and it’s wildly important to me that you DON’T” kind of way. There is nothing worse than the person, common here in Los Angeles, who ate a meal yesterday, WITHOUT YOU, that was ten times better than the the one they are sharing with you. Or the deal they got that you DIDN’T get, or the movie they saw...
THE CLOTHES MAKE THE MAN.....OR NOT
On “sex and the city”, my character was well-known for his fashion. That was completely due to Pat Field, the genius costume designer——she had more to do with the creation of that character than Candace Bushnell, Daren Starr, Michael Patrick King, or this little bald man who inhabited him since 1997. And yes, he did wear suits that cost up to $20,000. And no, I didn’t...
WASTE......"WITH MY MIND ON MY MONEY AND MY MONEY...
First off, let me just point out that eggs are 0.99/dozen at 99 cent store this week…..yes, they are the same eggs delivered to all the other stores, though not organic, cage-free, grass-fed, or hand polished……
Waste is horrible. We waste everything. Air, water, food, MONEY, love, friendship, health….you name it, we can waste it. Have we developed a country of B-movie coke...
My nanny/housekeeper, the investor
First, lemme just mention i went food shopping yesterday. I do the big shopping once a week, after the coupons and circulars come for my 2 favorite stores, R’s and V’s, (no lawsuits here please)…..guess what we eat—-that’s right, we eat what’s on sale…..I saved 53% at V’s yesterday, and 46% at R’s, so basically I got me and Nathen $80 worth of...
EMAIL.......
You can always email me, if you would rather not post your thoughts, ideas, stories, or comments directly onto the site……
willie@smartnotcheap.com
Thanks,
WG
Saving, not denying, growing wealth, being SMART...
Hello….I am Willie Garson. Some of you may know me as an actor, best known for the TV shows “NYPD BLUE”, “Sex and the City”, and currently “White Collar”, as well as my films with the Farrelly Brothers, Spike Jonze, Mike Nichols, and many others……and some of you may not. What many people DON’T know about me is that I have been investing,...