Tag Archives: Frugality

Turn off the lights to conserve energy & save money

This past Saturday, cities and households throughout the world observed Earth Hour. Once a year, families, businesses, and cities shut off the lights for one hour to raise awareness about energy conservation.

Tony and I observed the tradition with candles, an game of Battleship, and Jones Soda root beer, and it was actually a lot of fun. It reminded me of summer power outages when I was a kid when we suddenly had to find creative ways to entertain ourselves.

Shutting off the lights doesn’t just conserve energy, though. It also reduces energy costs and promotes quality time with family. Shutting off computers, televisions, and video games — even for an hour — is a great way to reconnect. All of the benefits made me wonder — why don’t we observe Earth hours more frequently?

Every year, my older sister and her family shut off the lights, eat canned foods, and enjoy an entire weekend with limited energy use. For them, the tradition is a chance to embrace simplicity. It’s also a reminder of how life would be without electricity.

If you’re trying to conserve energy and lower your electricity costs, consider a weekly or monthly “earth hour.” Stock up on candles and flashlight batteries, and plan a fun night with these power-free activities.

  • Play board games or cards.
  • Tell stories.
  • Read or write by candlelight.
  • Prepare a meal that doesn’t require electricity.

How did you observe Earth Hour?

What a savings account can buy

When I tell people we’re moving in 6 weeks, it always leads to the same conversation:

“Oh, so you found a job?”

“Nope. Not yet. But I’m looking.”

“So your husband found a job?”

“Not yet.”

That’s when they look at my like I’m nuts.

I don’t blame them. Back when I was living paycheck-to-paycheck, the idea of quitting my job without another one lined up would have seemed pretty nuts to me, too.

It’s not polite to ask specific questions about our financial situation, so most people leave it at that. They sort of raise their eyebrows like we’re nuts and assume we’ll be mooching off our parents for months while we job search. I don’t ever bother to correct them, even though their assumption isn’t really true.

Yes, we’ll be staying with Tony’s family temporarily, and it’s extremely kind of them to give us the chance to get settled in Indiana before we find an apartment. And yes, the absence of a rent payment from our budget for the few months that we stay there will help keep our savings account healthy. We won’t be mooching, though. We’ll be paying all of our own bills, chipping in for groceries, and helping out in any way we can to repay their kindness. But the truth is, we’re staying with them more out of convenience than financial necessity.

My husband is hoping to find a teaching job. Because the availability of teaching jobs depends so much on geography, we don’t want to lock ourselves into a certain area with a lease. We want to be open to move where ever the jobs are. Staying with family while we look makes the most sense.

Financially, though? We’re in a better place than we’ve ever been. Because we’ve been saving for the past three years, we have enough cash savings to carry us through a full year without any income. We won’t be living without income, though. We plan to earn money through part-time jobs or substitute teaching while my husband searches for a full-time teaching job. I also make a little bit of money from freelance writing and advertising on this site. That income will stretch our savings even further.

Obviously, the sooner we start earning income again, the better. I don’t want to completely wipe out our savings accounts while we search for jobs. I’m just not too stressed about the fact that neither of us has anything lined up yet. The sooner we find jobs, the more money we’ll be able to keep in our emergency fund and move to our house fund. For now, though, our savings has bought us peace of mind and the freedom to move closer to family despite the fact that the job market is sluggish, because we’re not dependent on our paychecks every week to live.

I doubt I’ll ever view our savings the same way again. Sometimes when I looked at that balance, I saw all of the things it could buy: a new car, a new computer, a million other things I wanted but didn’t need. It was tempting to spend at least some of it.

Now I see that the best thing a savings account can buy is freedom and peace of mind. We’re free to move closer to our families, free to be a little picky as we job search, and free to enjoy our vacation to Europe right before we settle into our new home. All of that is worth so much more to me than any material thing our savings account could buy.

Photo by alancleaver

How a tight budget can be a blessing

Three years ago, we moved to North Carolina with a small nest egg but no real plans. Tony had a job waiting for him (an extremely low-paying teaching assistantship), but I spent three months looking for a full-time job in my field before I starting working part-time. We were frugal out of necessity. it’s scary to watch money leaving your account every month with no income. We didn’t know how to budget, though, and three months with no income depleted our savings pretty quickly.

Once I started working part-time, things were still extremely tight. During those 10 months, I learned most of what I know about finance out of necessity. Our limited income required that we prioritize our spending and avoid buying anything that wasn’t completely necessary. Frugality was easier then, because the temptation to spend wasn’t there. We were just trying to survive without getting behind on our bills.

Not only did we survive, but we paid off most of our credit card debt during that time. By the time I finally found a full-time job, though, our savings account was pretty much empty. We spent the next year and a half building it back up and saving for other goals.

Ever since our income increased, though, staying committed to frugality has become harder. Now that the need to plan and save isn’t quite so urgent, it’s tougher to make the right choices. Three years ago, if we overspent, we might not be able to pay our rent. These days, the consequences of overspending aren’t as concrete. It may mean that it takes us a little more time to buy a house or pay off our student loans, but we’re in no immediate danger.

Because of this mindset, I’m actually looking forward to hunkering down and going back into survivor mode after the move. I’m hoping that the months we spend searching for jobs will help us recommit to frugality, and once we’re finally in our own place building our savings again, we’ll have a renewed motivation to meet our goals quickly.

If you’re currently living in survivor mode, I have a little advice: Take advantage of this time without temptation and learn to be happy with what you have. Commit to this lifestyle now while temptation is low. As your income increases, don’t let your spending increase with it.

In my experience, tougher times can be a blessing. It’s a time to reflect on what’s really important in life, learn to be happy with less money, and develop habits that will help you save even more as your financial situation improves. As tight as I know things will be for us after the move, I’m looking forward to taking advantage of this opportunity to focus on our priorities.

Prioritizing our goals for the months ahead

Now that our emergency fund is complete, and we’re less than $1000 away from our goal to pay for our Europe trip in cash, I’m starting to think about what goals are next for us. Even though we’re unlikely to make much progress in the months ahead, it’s time to set our priorities and figure out where to start funneling our resources.

We have several goals for the next 3 years or so, but we’re still undecided on the order of things. Here’s a rough sketch:

Save $6,000 for moving expenses.

It will cost us under $1,000 to physically move our stuff. Tony’s family has generously offered us a place to stay while we get settled in and look for jobs, but we have several expenses that we’ll have to pay (health insurance, car insurance, cell phones, student loan payments, and groceries). We’ll need about $1,000 a month.

We’re hoping to find part-time jobs right away to extend our savings. My hope is that $5,000 plus whatever we make part-time will be enough to cover our expenses until we find jobs. Of course, in this economy, there’s no telling how long it could take. If we run out of “moving money” before we have jobs, that’s what our emergency fund is for. But I’m crossing my fingers that we won’t have to dip into that.

Our tax refund will give us quite a good start, and now that we’re done saving our emergency fund and Europe, we can devote all of our monthly savings to this goal, so saving this by May shouldn’t be a problem.

Buy a second car.

I know we’ll eventually need a second car. I want to wait until our current car is paid off before we begin shopping for a new one, but this will depend largely on our living situation once we move. If we’re both working on separate sides of town, it won’t be as easy as it is now for us to share a vehicle.

For now, we’re playing it by ear. Our car will be paid off in May 2011, and depending on our situation, we may need a second car sooner than that. So we’re starting to save now for a down payment at the very least, but if we have more time we might be able to pay cash.

Buy a house.

This is the big one, and it’s the goal that intimidates me most. I’m not against having a mortgage, especially if it’s a sensible one, but I’d like to save $20,000 in cash before we even consider buying a house. Saving that much money is a really tough commitment to make when I look at the cost of rent in the Indianapolis area, though. Considering our modest price range, it’s likely that a monthly mortgage payment would cost us less than rent.

Our plan is just to start saving, and then wait and see what our situation is. We may start doing some serious looking to figure out exactly what it would cost us, and if it makes sense to do it sooner, we may.

Pay off our student loans.

We still have a significant amount of student loan debt between the two of us. We’re currently paying them down slowly but surely, but eventually we plan to get much more aggressive to pay them off more quickly. At this point in our lives, though, I think security and stability is more important. I want to be debt free, but paying off those loans more quickly would eat up a huge percentage of our financial resources. So this goal remains on hold for now. It will likely wait until we’re settled homeowners.

I know that it’s unlikely that we’ll make much progress in the months ahead. Things are going to be very tight for us right after the move. We’ll be in survivor mode again, spending savings with no income, but we’re reasonably prepared. I can only hope that it will be very short time period before we’re able to start saving again.

I also have to remind myself that three years ago saving an emergency fund, moving halfway across the country, and paying cash for a trip to Europe seemed just as impossible. These are bigger goals, but we can achieve them if we stay focused.

Photo by alancleaver

Sometimes you just need a cookie

cookiesI stuck to my new healthy eating plan faithfully last week. I diligently completed my 5K training schedule every day. I even lost 2 pounds.

But yesterday was just one of those days. Work was a struggle. I was grouchy. And as much as I wish I could be one of those people who sweats out my stress at the gym (most of the time I am), the last thing I wanted was to work out. All I wanted was my slippers and a chocolate chip cookie.

So I came home, put on my slippers, and sent my wonderful husband out in search of ready-to-bake chocolate chip cookies. And they were absolutely worth the calories.

Sometimes you just have to say eff it and give in to temptation. For me, it was a chocolate chip cookie (or two). For you it may be a restaurant meal or a night at the movies. It’s not possible to be on your best behavior all the time. But it’s important to set limits even for the times you fall off the wagon.

Sure, what I wanted was to drown my sorrows in a whole box of cookies, and I knew I was in danger of doing just that. That’s why I went with the ready-to-bake instead of a whole box of cookies. I knew I could bake the two that I wanted, refrigerate the rest, and limit myself to a reasonable amount.

The same is true for your budget. When you feel like your head might explode if you don’t indulge, find a way to do it without causing too much damage to your goals — and your accomplishments.

Take a night off, do something fun for yourself. Just know that there are consequences. I’ll pay for my cookies and my missed work out today. I’ll have to be extra careful with my diet and put in some extra time at the gym this evening. If you take a night off from your budget, be prepared to make up for it for the rest of the month by being extra frugal.

It’s also important to make sure your occasional indulgences don’t become the norm. After all, being good most of the time makes giving into temptation every once in a while that much sweeter.

Photo by ghirson

Benefits of keeping the thermostat low

thermostatIn 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

Countdown to our move: 6 months

It’s now November, which means I’m beginning my 6-month countdown to our cross-country move. Since I’m planning both the move and our trip to Europe simultaneously, I’m getting organized early. I’ve decided to keep you posted with monthly updates of how we’re preparing.

moving box

Here’s what lies ahead in the next month as we prepare to move back home:

Start clearing clutter now.

Getting rid of things takes time, especially if you want to try to sell them. We’re starting to downsize now to ensure that we’ll have less to pack, move, and store this May.

Get your resume in order.

We’re undecided about whether or not I’ll be going back to work full time. It will really depend on how much Tony earns in his job. I’ll most likely be working part time until I have a baby, and who knows how long that will be. Tony, on the other hand, is looking for full time work immediately. He’s focusing now on updating his resume, scoping out opportunities, and networking. It’s a little early to start aggressively applying for jobs, but he may send out some resumes with interest letters in the month ahead to companies with which he’s interested in pursuing a job.

Start thinking about housing.

If you’re planning to buy a home in your new city, now is the time to start looking at real estate. If you haven’t put your own home on the market, it’s definitely time to do so.

If you plan on renting, now is a good time to scope out neighborhoods or apartment complexes. Ask around if you have connections in your new city to find out which neighborhoods are safest with the best education and transportation options. If you don’t have connections, a little research online can tell you a lot about apartment complexes and neighborhoods.

We’ve already decided we want to live in the Indianapolis area. We also won’t be looking for housing right away. We might stay with family an hour outside the city. My best friend and her fiance have also offered us the opportunity to stay with them in Indianapolis for the summer. We might end up doing that so I can start working immediately, and it’ll be easier for Tony to get to interviews and look for job opportunities.

Make a moving budget, and save, save, save.

Even if you already have some money saved, you can never have too much in savings when you move to a new city. Start putting together a rough estimate for what it will cost to move your things, get situated in a new place, and cover basic living expenses until you find a job or start getting paid.

Cut your expenses now to save as much as possible in the coming months. The more money you have in savings, the less stressful your financial situation will be when it’s time to move.

What do you suggest we do to start preparing now?

Photo by ahhyeah

What are you frugal weaknesses?

ipodTo most people, the holiday season is synonymous with family, spirituality, and tradition. Unfortunately, it also means we’re surrounded by marketing messages and inundated with consumerism.

No matter how firm you are in your frugality, this is one time of year when you’re likely to fall off the wagon. Whether it’s shopping for family or for yourself, holiday advertising combined with great deals can make it difficult to resist the urge to spend.

The easiest way to avoid it — or at least minimize the damage — is to be aware of your own weaknesses. It’s different for everyone. Whether you’re addicted to high-end shoes, high fashion, or just expensive gifts for friends and family, self awareness can help you avoid situations where you’re likely to give in.

Here are my top frugal weaknesses:

Electronics

Computers, televisions, gadgets, camera gear … I love all of it. So when I see a great deal, it can be very difficult for me to resist.

How to avoid the temptation: I don’t browse electronics stores or websites unless I need to make a very specific purchase that I’ve planned in advance. And on the day after Thanksgiving, I won’t be anywhere near an electronics store.

Gourmet Food

I’ve written before about my husband’s expensive taste in food, and I would be lying if I didn’t admit that I like pricey, specialty foods myself.

How to avoid the temptation: We make a specific grocery list every week, purchase only the essentials, and avoid browsing as much as possible.

Books

Once upon a time, my husband and I spent our weekends browsing at Barnes and Noble and rarely left without bringing home something new for the bookshelf.

How to avoid temptation: Browse the library or a friend’s bookshelf instead of the bookstore.

Gifts

Every year I’m tempted to spend way more than I can afford on the people I love.

How to avoid temptation: We already set a budget for how much we can afford to spend on holiday gifts, and we’re making a list now of the best gifts for everyone on our list within our budget. By planning ahead, we reduce the chance of panicking at the last minute and spending more money than we have to.

What are your frugal weaknesses, and how do you avoid them?

Photo by mallol

My favorite frugal things about fall

This is my absolute favorite time of year, and even though our weather isn’t quite as cool as I’d like it to be, it hasn’t stopped me from enjoying the season.

fall

Fall isn’t just cozy and comfortable. It’s also frugal. Here are my favorite frugal things about my favorite season.

  • Finally opening the windows, airing out the apartment, and turning off the air conditioner. Hello, lower electric bills!
  • Warm oatmeal for breakfast. A huge canister lasts two weeks, and it only costs $3!
  • Big pots of soup that last all week.
  • The crunch of leaves under our feet during long morning walks bundled up in cozy sweaters.
  • Staying in on the weekends to watch a movie under the covers.
  • Bundling up on the couch to work on a quilting project.

What are your favorite frugal things about fall?