Monthly Archives: April 2009

A word on the new ads

I’ve added two new ad widgets to my site (Travel Deals & Shop). I hope it provides some useful deals for you, and (if I’m being honest) maybe a little revenue for me.

I put a lot of hard work and a little bit of money into this site, and every little bit of revenue helps offset the costs. However, my readers come first, and I don’t want any advertising to alienate any of you.

Please let me know if either of the ad widgets I’ve added cause any problems or reduce your enjoyment of my blog. I’ll be testing these new ads for a week. If you’d like to offer feedback, either comment on this post or send me an email. I want to know how these ads affect user experience on my site, so any feedback is helpful. Thanks!

TGIF round up: Everything’s green edition

Note: This should have been published on Friday morning. But I just realized that I saved it instead of publishing it. Doh. So here’s my Friday round up … two days late. Sorry!

Spring has definitely arrived. The flowers are blooming, the leaves have returned to the trees, and it’s going to be another 70-degree weekend. I’m enjoying this weather while I can, because it’s going to be hot soon.

And now for my favorite posts from the week:

From the Pecuniary Associates:

That’s all I’ve got. Hope you’re all enjoying the weekend!

Living life under the frugal microscope

Since the economy tanked, it’s become a little easier to live a frugal lifestyle without facing judgment. No matter how bad the recession gets, though, we still face people who just don’t get it. We’re constantly answering rude questions about how we choose to live our lives.

“Why are you throwing your money away on rent when house prices are so low?”

Because we don’t have money for a down payment and we’re not ready to lock ourselves into a mortgage anyway.

“You mean you share a car? Why?”

We don’t want to take on the expense of an additional car when we can easily survive with one. Not only would another car mean an additional car payment, it would also mean more insurance, more gas, and more emissions.

“What do you mean you don’t go out to dinner or buy yourself things? You work too hard not to enjoy life.”

We do work hard, but we’d rather save for future goals than spend all of our money today on things that matter less to us.

“Why wait for the things you want? If you want to take a vacation or buy something, just charge it now and pay it down later.”

I’ve lived through the stress of high interest credit card payments. No thanks.

It’s frustrating to face this judgment from people around us. Our closest friends and family are supportive, but we still face a handful of acquaintances that don’t understand our choices. Instead of accepting that we’ve chosen to live differently, they treat us like we’re deprived and practically living in poverty because we don’t make the same choices they do.

I must admit that it can be tempting to give in. I would love to eat out a couple times a week, refurnish our apartment now, take off this summer for Europe instead of waiting another year, take advantage of a housing market that’s pretty much bottomed out. But I know we’d never reach our goals if we gave in, and those goals are more important to me than getting what I want right now.

Fighting the temptation is easier than facing the judgment, though. Maybe someday I’ll be that person that truly lives the life I want to live without caring what others think, but for now it’s just annoying.

I feel like living the frugal lifestyle puts us under a microscope. Because our choices are different, people feel like they have the right to comment on things that are none of their business.

The worst part is, when I answer their questions, they tend to act defensive. I’m not judging their choices, and would never compare their situations to my own, but when they ask me why we live the way we do and I explain myself, there is always a feeling that I’m judging them for not saving, living on credit, or taking on a mortgage they probably can’t afford.

How do you handle the frugal microscope?

Start saving now & watch your savings grow

When we first started saving money, it was overwhelming. We’d been living off savings for months with barely enough money to pay our bills, let alone save. I didn’t feel like we had any room to breathe, let alone save money.

Then we got married and I was hired full time. Suddenly our monthly income doubled, but the savings we’d been using to supplement our income had run out. We also had to add expenses we’d dangerously put off while I searched for employment: health insurance, renters insurance, and student loan repayments that we’d put in forbearance. Despite our income increase, we were still making just enough to pay our bills.

Our savings account started with the money we’d received from generous friends and family at our wedding. It was a nice little $2,000 nest egg, and it motivated us to find a way to start saving. We started moving money around, budgeting more strictly, and we were able to put $100 a month into savings.

I felt good about saving, but I still knew it wasn’t enough to reach our goals. But then the savings snowball began. We paid off my credit card debt, and we were able to increase our monthly savings. Then we both got raises, which increased the amount even more. Little by little, we managed to grow our savings to $550 a month in liquid savings and $100 a month for retirement.

If you want to start saving and you’re feeling overwhelmed, my best advice is this: save something. I know, it’s the oldest rule in the book, but it really is true. Save what you can. Even if it’s only $50 or $100 a month, the most important thing in the beginning is getting into the habit of saving.

Once you start saving, that little amount of money in the bank will motivate you to save even more. Whether you increase your income or decrease your spending, you will find ways to make your savings grow.

The most important this is don’t wait. The longer you continue spending every penny you earn, no matter how small your income may be, the harder it becomes to start saving. Instead of watching your savings account grow with your income, your expenses will grow. The more you earn, the more you spend. If you wait for a magical moment when your income increases enough that you can save painlessly, you could end up waiting forever.

Once you start saving, though, you suddenly have an incentive to spend less, save additional income instead of spending it, and increase your savings even more.

Saving is never easy in the beginning, but you have to start somewhere. Don’t be discouraged if you don’t feel like you’re saving enough. It’s better to grow your savings a little bit at a time than to grow your spending.

Planning ahead to keep cooling costs down

summer-fan
Photo by snapapicture

This may seem premature depending on what part of the country you live, but it’s already time for us to start thinking about summer cooling costs. The temperature here over the weekend was a beautiful 75-80 degrees. However, because we live on the third floor, a balmy 80 degrees outside usually means an uncomfortable 90 degrees in our apartment.

Last year we made it until the beginning of June before we turned on the air conditioning. Using fans and open windows, we were able to keep our apartment reasonably comfortable. On the hottest spring days last year it wasn’t pleasant, but it was bearable. We’d like to make it that long again this year.

Over the weekend we spent $25 on a new fan for our bedroom. It’s portable, so Tony will be able to bring it into the living room where he works during the day or into the kitchen when we’re cooking.

Without air conditioning or heat, our electric bills are typically $45-$50. Once we turn on the A/C it will at least double, and the cost to cool our apartment will probably peak at $150-$160 in July and August. The temperature will probably remain in the 80s through October. Ugh.

I complain about the cost to cool our apartment in the summer, but our monthly average actually isn’t so bad. Our heat bills are pretty low in the winter. In 2008, we paid a total of $1,019.67 in electric bills for our 900-square-foot apartment. That works out to about $85 a month on average. Not too bad when you look at the big picture, but it’s still painful to see our electric bill triple in the summer.

Here are some ways we reduce the cost to cool our apartment:

  • Keep the thermostat set at 80 degrees. We try to keep it set at the lowest temperature necessary to keep humidity out and stay comfortable, but not frigid.
  • Close the vents in the guest room and keep the door closed so we’re not cooling a room we rarely use.
  • Keep the blinds closed in the afternoon to keep the temperature down.
  • Use fans throughout the apartment.
  • Minimize oven use, especially before sunset.

We’ll save $100 by waiting until June to turn on the A/C, and hopefully utilizing these methods throughout the summer will reduce our costs somewhat even after we turn on the air conditioner. Minimizing air conditioning also minimizes our energy use and carbon footprint, which is good, too!

I wish we were tough enough to make it through the entire summer without air conditioning, but temperatures reach 100 degrees frequently where we live. We were without air conditioning for three days when we first moved in at the peak of the summer, and it was too hot to do anything but sit in front of a fan covered in sweat. And let’s just say my husband is not a pleasant person to be around when he gets too warm. I’d rather have a high electric bill a few months out of the year than a crabby husband.

How do you keep cooling costs down in the summer?

Menu Plan: 4/11 – 4/18

It’s been a refreshing long weekend, mostly full of rest and relaxation. It’s time to get back to work, but even after the three-day weekend I’m feeling unprepared. Don’t you hate when that happens?

We’re keeping it very simple this week. Our menu plan is made up of staples and easy dishes. We’re making a couple of pasta dishes simply because I’m still struggling to find dishes that are easy and tasty enough the next day for lunch.

Here’s the menu:

Sunday: Stuffed manicotti
Monday: Sandwiches/leftovers
Tuesday: Whole wheat pasta with marinara sauce
Wednesday: BLTs
Thursday: Chicken and broccoli stir fry
Friday: Pizza

For more menu ideas, check out OrgJunkie.

Weekly Round Up: Better late than never edition

Yesterday was a much needed paid holiday, but unfortunately I spent the morning quite ill. I’m feeling a lot better now, and I’m finally ready to tackle my round up.

But first, some housekeeping. I have been meaning to update my category situation for some time. I somehow ended up with over 40 categories. That wasn’t working well from a usability standpoint, and many of them overlapped in subject matter. So I converted all of my old categories to tags, and recategorized all of my posts into 11 categories. You can find my new navigation beneath my Google ads in the left sidebar. You’ll now be able to navigate to general subjects through the categories and more specific subjects through tags.

And now my favorite posts from around the blogosphere:

And from the Pecuniary Associates:

My biggest financial mistakes in college & what I learned

Now that I’m frugal, it’s hard not to look back on the choices I made in the past with regret. Luckily, I came to my senses pretty early in life. I could have done a lot more damage throughout my 20s if we hadn’t decided to change our lifestyle before we got married. But I’d be a lot better off if I’d avoided the mistakes I made in my teens and during college.

In the hopes that others may learn from my mistakes, here are the biggest financial mistakes I made before and during college:

I didn’t save for college.

I got my first part time job at 15 years old. I paid for my own car insurance and gas, but other than that I had no bills or responsibilities. I didn’t save a single penny. Where did my money go? I blew it on stuff that I didn’t need.

What I learned: Plan ahead for the things you want. We’re saving now so we can pay cash for our trip to Europe, we’re already saving for retirement, and we’ll start saving early for our children’s college educations.

I didn’t apply for scholarships.

I only applied for a couple scholarships. My grades were above average, and I was active in the school newspaper. If I had taken scholarships more seriously, I would have qualified for at least a few.

What I learned: A little extra work can save you a lot of money. Scholarship applications are the college equivalent of coupons, menu planning, and other frugal pursuits.

I took out private student loans to cover living expenses (and lived extravagantly).

My parents paid my rent, and federal loans covered my tuition. I was responsible for food, car insurance, and utilities. My job at the student newspaper took up a lot of time, but I managed to work part-time my junior and senior year. If I had worked more and lived frugally, I wouldn’t have needed to borrow high-interest loans. Now I’m stuck paying $20,000+ at 8%.

What I learned: Don’t borrow to live a lifestyle you can’t afford. It also taught me the importance of fully understanding all of my financial decisions before making them. I didn’t know what I was getting myself into, and now I’m paying the price. I wish I could take back my decision, but I’m stuck with these loans. Forever.

I ate out constantly.

At least 75% of the money I spent in college went to restaurant food. This wasn’t good for my bank account or my health.

What I learned: Eating out is expensive and unhealthy! Not only did I drain my bank account, but I gained weight. I appreciate how little we spend on food and how much healthier we are now that we menu plan and buy groceries.

I charged up credit cards and only made minimum payments.

Some of my credit card debt was due to a car that broke down every other week one summer. I didn’t have the money to pay for the repairs, but I had an “emergency” credit card.

Only $1,000 of my $5,000 in credit card debt went to car repairs, though. The rest? Couldn’t tell you. I have no idea where that money went. Probably pizza, clothes, DVDs, and bar tabs. I never missed a payment, but I only sent the minimum. It wasn’t until I graduated, after three years and who knows how much interest paid, that I got serious about paying them off.

What I learned: Plan ahead for emergencies and avoid credit cards. I lived in fear that my car was going to break down because I knew I didn’t have money to cover it. I feel so much better now with an emergency fund. It also taught me about interest rates. You can make minimum payments for your whole life and never make any headway. I’ll apply this lesson someday when we have a car payment and mortgage.

It could have been a lot worse. I had friends with twice as much student loan debt and $20,000 in credit card debt. Yikes.

What are the worst financial mistakes you’ve made and what did you learn?

Don’t waste your money on individual snack-sized treats

Every afternoon around 4 pm, I start craving something sweet. There are always treats hanging around my office, but none that I want to eat since I’ve been trying to lose weight.

At the grocery store over the weekend, I decided it might be nice to bring sugar-free Jello snack packs. They’re sweet, and at only 10 calories they wouldn’t add on to my calorie count for the day. When I saw the price on the snack packs, though, I couldn’t bring myself to pick them up. Almost $4 for six little half-cup snack packs? Ridiculous considering the cost of a package of Jello.

So I decided to make my own snack packs. I have little half-cup Tupperware that we use for condiments and snacks. I bought a package of sugar-free Jello for 89 cents, poured it into the individual serving-size cups, and voila! Snack packs for 1/4 the cost!

If you pack your own lunch for work or your kids’ school lunches, then you’re all too familiar with the high cost of individual serving sizes. Instead, invest in some good snack-sized Tupperware (or reuse plastic baggies) and make your own snack-sized treats.

Snacks like chips, crackers, Jello, and pudding are cheaper in bulk. Split them up into individual serving sizes for convenient lunch snacks or just to control your portions. You’ll eat less and spend a lot less on snacks, and that works for me.