Category Archives: Frugality

Europe Update: 5 months to go

Now that we’ve booked our trip, there’s not a lot for us to do this month. Our flight is booked, and we’ve chosen our hotels. Our travel dates are set, and we’ve paid for the trip.

It’s been almost a month since we booked the trip, and I only have one regret so far: I didn’t use Ebates.com* when I booked the trip. I could have earned 2% back on the trip, which would have earned me about $70. It’s not a huge amount of money when you look at it next to $3500, but every little bit counts. That $70 could have bought us a pretty extravagant dinner in London. So I’m kind of kicking myself now. But I want to pass the lesson on to you: if you’re booking through Expedia, it’s absolutely worth it to go through Ebates! Don’t make the same mistake I did!

This month is all about research. We’ve made a tentative list of all the things we want to do and see while we’re abroad, and we’re making final decisions about what we’ll have time to do.

I’m also looking at discount cards for London and Paris. Both cities have discount “passes” that allow you to pay a single fee for free admission to a number of attractions. The passes are really only worth it if you plan to see a lot of the attractions available, so we’re trying to decide if it’s worth the money.

We made a list of the things we want to do without looking at the attractions available through the passes. Then we compared our list with what the pass offers.

The nice thing about the London Pass is that you can order it ahead of time and have it shipped to you. If you choose the option with transportation included, you can get right on the Underground from Heathrow and travel to the city with your pass. This would be incredibly convenient. Considering what we want to do in London and the cost of transportation, we’ve decided that the London Pass might be a good option. We’ll probably end up saving only a small amount of money, but the convenience will make it worth while. I added up all of our costs, and we’ll save a few dollars a day. But we’ll be able to skip lines, and we won’t have to worry about picking up Underground passes. I also think we’ll do more of the things we want to do if we pay ahead and we’re not counting dollars while we’re there.

The Paris Pass also includes transportation, but the attractions offered don’t line up quite as well with what we want to see. We’re still considering the option, but we might end up skipping the Paris pass and paying cash for what we want to do there.

To pay for the trip, I opted for the Capital One card. We’re charging all of our expenses on the card and paying them off right away. The card is interest free for the first year, we won’t pay any overseas transaction fees, and we’re earning 1% cash back on all of the money we spend. When we’re overseas, I plan to use the card to pay for food and other purchases that allow Visa. We’ll carry a small amount of cash, but I don’t want to get hit with high fees for ATM withdrawals and currency conversion. I also don’t want to end up with a bunch of pounds and euros at the end of the trip, so I want to keep our cash to a minimum.

That’s it for this month! Planning has actually been much easier than I anticipated so far. And next month we’ll be applying for passports, which we’re really excited about!

As always, I welcome any advice from seasoned travelers!

*referral link

Photo by anirudhkoul

For inexpensive organic meat, the freezer is your friend

Ever since Tony and I vowed to stick with organic meat, we’ve had to be creative to keep expensive organics from driving up our grocery costs. Not only did we swear off cheap chicken, we recently nixed ground beef from our diets thanks to this terrifying New York Times story about flaws in the inspection process.

We get around using ground beef by substituting it for organic ground chicken when we can. Occasionally we still use beef in recipes, but we buy cuts of sirloin or chuck and ground them ourselves in the food processor. Using single cuts of beef reduces the risk of contamination by e. coli and other dangerous bacteria. But I digress.

Shopping for organic meats can get pretty expensive, but one of the ways we keep costs down is by watching out for expiration date specials. Even on sale, the organic chicken we prefer never goes below $3 a pound. We check the grocery store every week for packages with sell-by dates coming soon. Usually these packages are marked off by a dollar or two. When we get them home, we either cook them right away or put them in the freezer. Freezing the meat increases its shelf life by months, and buying on the sell-by date reduces the cost considerably.

For example, on Sunday we found four packages of organic ground chicken with a sell-by date that day. They were marked off $2 each. They were also on sale for buy one, get one free. All together, we bought four packages for $1 a pound. That’s much less than we typically paid for regular ground chicken.

By stock piling, we ensure that we can stay ahead of the curve and only buy when the price goes down low enough. This has allowed us to buy exclusively organic meat without increasing our grocery budget.

Photo by judybaxter

Save instead of spending this Black Friday

Open an ING checking account today, and you’ll get a $121 bonus!

If you’ve been thinking about trying this great online bank, now is the best time. I’ve written before about just how happy I am using ING as my primary bank. They offer some of the best interest rates out there, and the customer service is phenomenal. Here’s how to take advantage of this deal:

Open a checking account today and use the promo code EOSAVE
Use your new debit card to make 3 purchases in the first 45 days of your account. Do not debit these transactions. Make sure you run it as a credit and sign for it.
On the 50th day, your bonus will be automatically deposited into your account.

If you decide to open a new account and make an initial deposit of at least $250, would you use one of my referral links below? I’ll get a $10 bonus for letting you know about this great deal!

Start saving now!

Happy deal hunting today! I’ll be cozy at home avoiding all the madness. :)

Digital broadcast TV is impressive

It’s been a while since I’ve updated you on life without cable TV. It’s been absolutely fantastic. We’re more productive, happier, and more active without the constant draw of TV.

We still watch a handful for television shows, but they’re all available online the next day at the network’s website. This means we’re more purposeful about what we watch, and we don’t waste time flipping through channels searching for something to watch.

We’ve been so happy without TV that we dragged our feet about setting up the digital converter box for broadcast TV that Kacie at Sense to Save sent me (thanks, Kacie!). We’ve had it for a few weeks, but never got around to picking up an antenna and hooking it all up.

But this weekend my in-laws will be here for the holiday, and my father-in-law is a football fanatic. We wanted to make sure we had network channels set up so he could watch football on Thanksgiving day.

We picked up a standard antenna for about $12. And I have to tell you, I am impressed. From what I remember about antenna-based TV, it was always fuzzy with bad sound or poor picture quality. But this picture is clear as a bell. I doubt we’ll watch much live TV (we prefer to watch it on our own schedule), but for certain live broadcasts like the Oscars and guilty pleasures like American Idol (don’t judge!), I’m happy to have network TV back.

Right now is a better time than ever to ditch your cable. If you’ve never lived without it, just give it a test run. Unplug the TV for a week and see how you feel at the end of it. If you’re feeling healthier, happier, and better, it might be time to give life without cable a shot. And you can still get the news and network broadcasting with a great pictures practically for free.

Photo by swirlspice

Our trip to Europe is booked!

The plan was to book our trip to Europe in January. But I started shopping around, and I found an amazing deal this month. I talked with a friend of mine (an expert in London travel who runs the Anglotopia blog). He said in his experience tickets aren’t likely to get much lower than this. So I decided to go ahead and book now!

Here are some things I discovered during the booking process that helped us save some money:

Fly on the weekdays.

Originally, we were planning to fly out on a Friday. But after comparing fares, we decided to push our departure back to a Wednesday. We’ll also be flying home on a Wednesday. This reduced our total flight cost by about $300.

Book international flights at major airports.

When we first started planning our trip, we thought we would be flying out of Raleigh. Now that we’re moving back to Indiana in the beginning of May, we were able to book our trip out of Chicago. This change saved us another $300-$500.

Book your flight and hotel together.

I’ve always been skeptical about “vacation package” offers on Expedia. However, as I planned to book this trip, I did a lot of comparing and put together a lot of different combinations. It turns out, they’re not kidding about those vacation packages. We were able to book nicer hotels than we could have afforded without the vacation package discounts. All together we saved about $400 on hotels.

Look at traveler opinions, not hotel class.

I typically don’t pay attention to hotel class when I’m booking. I just want a clean hotel in a convenient location. The negative reviews by other travelers on Expedia and TripAdvisor can tell you a lot about the hotel. Are other travelers complaining that the pillows weren’t fluffy enough or the receptionist was a little rude? If that’s the worst complaint next to a ton of positive reviews, you’re golden. But if a lot of review say the hotel is dirty or located in a bad part of town, I’ll move on. I’ve had really good luck in the past booking hotels with 4-stars+ in traveler opinions.

Weigh convenience with price when choosing hotels.

We could have reduced our hotel cost by staying in extreme budget hotels or staying far outside the cities, but I was really really nervous about that. We’re already going to be in a new country. In Paris, we won’t even speak the language. The last thing I want is to end up stuck in a filthy hotel for 5 nights or lost in the middle of nowhere with an hour bus ride into the city. We may have paid a little more than necessary, but we weighed our options, and it was important to us that we be in a safe neighborhood with easy access to public transportation.

For peace of mind, spring for the travel insurance.

We were on the fence about travel insurance. I did some research, and I thought it would cost us about $200 to insure the trip. Expedia offers trip protection for about $90 a ticket. We’ll be able to change our dates or cancel our trip for any reason without paying $150 a ticket, and the insurance will reimburse us for any nonrefundable costs. It also includes coverage for medical emergencies and lost baggage on the trip. For such a small amount of money, it was worth the peace of mind.

We spent $3500 on flight and hotels. This is exactly what we budgeted. It breaks down to about $1700 for flights and an average of $150 a night for 3-star hotels in excellent locations in London, Paris, and Amsterdam (cities that are notoriously expensive). We’ll spend 5 days in London, 2 days in Amsterdam, and 5 days in Paris. Then we’ll fly home directly from Paris.

And now it’s actually official. We’re going to Europe in 177 days!!! I can’t believe it’s actually happening! :)

Photo by ainet

Benefits of keeping the thermostat low

In the winter, we keep our apartment pretty chilly. The thermostat rarely goes above 65 degrees. It’s just the two of us and our dog, who has a built-in fur coat and spends most of the winter cuddled between us anyway, so we’re able to keep it that cold pretty easily.

Even if you can’t keep it quite that chilly, it’s likely that you could survive comfortably with the heat set lower than it is. Running the furnace less in the winter has obvious financial and environmental benefits, but we’ve discovered some unexpected additional benefits of a chilly house.

We save money.

Lowering the temperature on your thermostat even just a few degrees can translate to huge savings on your electric bill. If you can’t get away with keep it low all day, consider adjusting it just at night when you’re covered up in bed.

We cuddle up more.

When it’s hot outside, cuddling can get pretty uncomfortable. But in the winter when it’s chilly, you can cuddle up with your spouse, kids, or pets all you want and be more comfortable because of it.

We sleep better.

Studies have shown that the optimal temperature for sleep is a chilly 60-68 degrees. Keeping your thermostat lower might actually mean a better night’s sleep.

We enjoy hearty winter meals more.

With the thermostat set lower, our apartment is less likely to overheat after hours with the oven on. And a little chill in the air makes a good soup or stew that much more enjoyable.

We get moving a lot faster in the morning.

It can be pretty tough to leave the warm comfort of bed for a chilly apartment, but once I’m out of bed, there’s no time to dawdle. If we don’t get up and get dressed right away, we freeze! It’s a great motivator to get up and get moving.

Photo by mulmatsherm

Could you survive as a one car household?

When Tony and I were planning our move to North Carolina over two years ago, we had to make a very difficult decision about transportation. At the time, we each drove an older, used car. Both of our cars were doing okay at the time, but they had over 100,000 miles on them. We knew it was only a matter of time before we started having car problems, and we didn’t want it to happen after we moved.

We made the decision to share one reliable car instead of having two older, used cars. Our decision dictated a lot of the lifestyle decisions we made as we planned our move. We found an apartment close to campus so Tony could take a shuttle to class, invested in a AAA membership to ensure that we’d have access to towing and roadside assistance, and chose a new car with a 10 year, 100,000 mile warranty to ensure that our car would be reliable for as long as possible.

It’s worked out extremely well for us. Here’s a rough estimate of the money we save by sharing a car:

Car payment: $250 a month
Car insurance: $50-$85 a month
Gas: $50-$75 a month
Registration/taxes: $150 a year
Oil changes: $60 a year
Tires: $400 every two years or $200 a year

It’s really amazing how much you can spend on owning a car, and most people never even consider if they could live with just one. Depending on your situation, it may be easier than you think. Here are some things to think about if you’re considering life with one vehicle:

How “walkable” is your neighborhood?

Do you live hear a grocery store, library, and other places you need to go regularly? You can get your neighborhood’s “walk score” to determine how close you are to these places. If you’re living somewhere with a low walk score, making a move to a more walkable neighborhood and downsizing to one vehicle could save you quite a bit of money.

Is public transportation a possibility for you or your spouse?

Take a look at your city’s bus schedule and map to see if either of you could commute to and from work using public transportation.

What about carpooling?

Ask around at your job to see if anyone lives in your neighborhood or drives through it on their way into the office. You might be able to throw in some money for gas and ride with them. If carpooling with co-workers isn’t possible, consider a service like erideshare.com or carpoolconnect.com to find other carpoolers around you.

What’s your schedule?

Do you and your spouse have work schedules that would allow one of you to drop the other one off on the way to work? This is sometimes what Tony and I do if he needs the car for some reason during the day. I’m working all day, so the car would just be sitting in the parking lot at my office anyway. It’s no problem for him to drop me off, run his errands, and pick me up in the evening.

Be careful, though.

If you decide to downsize to one car, proper maintenance becomes even more important. Consider lowering your insurance deductible if you don’t have a healthy emergency fund, keep up with regular maintenance like oil changes and tire rotations, and look into adding car rental to your insurance plan to make sure you won’t be stranded in the event of an accident.

Whatever you do, don’t write it off as impossible without considering your options. There are a ton of financial, environmental, and health benefits to becoming a one-car household. With a little planning, organization, and lifestyle shifting, it might be easier for you than you think.

Photo by acrider

Easy, frugal gifts for babies and young kids

If you watched the adorable slideshow I posted Friday, then you know that I have five nieces and nephews ages 6 and under. With that many kids on your list, Christmas can easily become overwhelming.

Last year, I cashed in MyPoints on a $50 Amazon.com gift card and bought toys for all of them. But it was exhausting shopping for that many kids, especially since we live so far away. And honestly, at that age, they’re so inundated with toys on Christmas morning that I question whether the toys I sent added any real joy to their Christmas.

So we’ve been thinking of alternative gifts for our nieces and nephews to make the holidays easier on us and special for them. Here are some of the ideas we’ve considered:

Books.

I still have books from my aunts and grandparents with little messages inscribed inside. Books can last a lifetime, and they’re not very expensive. Choose something meaningful to the child in your life (Harold and the Purple Crayon for the kid who loves to draw or Where the Wild Things Are for the rambunctious kid). If you you live far away, have the book shipped directly from Amazon.com to cut down on shipping costs.

Give your time.

I was a middle child growing up, and what I wanted more than anything was to feel special. Give a kid with siblings a day all to herself. Wrap a gift certificate for a kid manicure or a movie, and take him or her on a special outing.

Adopt an endangered species.

If you donate $50 to the World Wildlife Fund, they send you a species adoption kit including a plush toy, an adoption certificate, a photo of the animal, and a species information card. This may be a little too deep for really young kids, but my 6-year-old niece and 4-year-old nephew would love it.

Name a star after him.

Let me start by saying this: whatever you do, don’t send money to the “National Star Registry.” This isn’t an official organization, and stars named this way are not recognized by anyone but you. So you’ll end up sending off $50+ for nothing but a certificate. Why do that when you can make one yourself and get across the same idea to the imaginative child in your life? Let him pick the brightest star in the sky, name it what he wants, and create your own star naming certificate.

What are your creative gift ideas for kids?

Photo by .bean

Countdown to Europe: 6 months

We’ve been planning for our trip to Europe for months now, but we’re down to about 6 and a half months until the trip. Since we’ll be moving about 3 weeks before we take off, I’m getting organized now to ensure everything goes smoothly.

Here’s what we’re doing in the next month to prepare:

Make final decisions about where to travel.

We know we want to visit London and Paris, but we’re debating whether to add a few days in Amsterdam to our trip. This month we’ll really crunch the numbers and determine whether a few months in a third city is worth the time and money.

Create a budget.

We already put together a budget for our trip months ago, but if you haven’t thought about how much it’s going to cost you, do it now. It’s easier to save money if you plan around a budget.

Start reading the guidebooks.

We’ve browsed a few books on travel to London and Paris, and while we’ve learned quite a bit, we haven’t found any that we feel compelled to purchase. We plan to do some more hunting this month and see if we can find a couple companion books that will be worth taking along on the trip.

In the meantime, there’s a wealth of information on European travel online. I’m hunting for additional resources to determine where we’ll stay and what we’ll do while we’re there.

Research flights.

I’ve been watching flight prices for several months, but now I’m getting serious about deciding how we want to put our itinerary together. Flights generally seem cheaper out of Chicago than Indianapolis, and direct flights seem easier to obtain there, so we’ll likely fly out of Chicago.

Consider accommodations.

We’re also looking into hotels, deciding where we want to stay in each city, and what type of accommodations we need. It doesn’t seem that hostels will save us much in the long run, so we’re looking into budget hotels. I’ve found quite a few options on TravelAdvisor.com, but I’m continuing to research areas and attractions to determine the best possible location in each city for our stay.

Start thinking about attractions.

This month, we’re making a list of what we want to do and see in each city. This is the fun part of the planning, because it’s all about how we want to put the trip together. I’ll probably factor in plenty of downtime to explore so that we don’t feel pressed for time with a strict itinerary.

If you’re a seasoned traveler, help me out. What do you suggest a first timer do to prepare 6 months before the trip?