Tag Archives: Frugality

Frugality is good for the Earth

earth

Everyone’s thinking about ways to be more eco-conscious these days. We’re also thinking about ways to save money. Luckily, the two go well together. Most of the habits that are good for the Earth are also good for your budget.

Here are some little changes you can make to help your wallet and the planet:

Reduce.

Consuming less doesn’t just create less waste, it also costs less. Walk or carpool to reduce your fuel consumption (and gas bill). Turn up your thermostat this summer to save electricity. Take shorter showers to conserve water. All of these things will impact your budget and reduce your footprint.

Reuse.

Think before you throw anything away. Is there something else you could do with it? Find creative ways to reuse household items, donate old clothes to Goodwill, check Freecycle before you buy anything new, and list your gently used items on Craigslist to reduce someone else’s consumption and make a little money.

Recycle.

It’s tough to make money on regular recyclables, but it’s possible to earn a little recycling high-tech items. Computers, cameras, cell phones, iPods and other electronics that are too outdated to sell can all be swapped for Amazon gift cards at Gazelle.com. In many stores you can exchange your used ink cartridges for a discount on new ones.

Maintain.

Take care of the things you already own. Mend your worn clothes instead of replacing them. Regularly service your car to maximize gas mileage and extend its life. Check your tire pressure frequently to increase gas mileage and lengthen the time between replacing tires.

Grow.

Organic is best for health and the environment, but the cost can be high. Even for non-organic produce, you’re paying for transportation (and diesel engines are burning fossil fuels to transport them). Why not save some money and fuel by growing a garden? If you don’t have the space to grow produce, consider an herb garden. Herbs are pricey, but if you have a sunny porch or window you can grow your own for next to nothing.

What frugal habits do you have that are good for the environment?

Photo by aussiegall

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?

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?

An easy guide to buying generics

Buying generic or store-brand items is one of my favorite ways to keep grocery costs down. But I’m frugal, not cheap, which means I won’t sacrifice quality completely just to save a few cents.

Generics have come a long way since I was a kid. Our grocery store even stocks a variety of low-cost organic generics. But there are still many generic products that, in my opinion, aren’t worth the pennies it cost to make them, let alone 75% of what I’d pay for a quality name-brand item.

Finding quality generics is a game of trial and error. The only way to know for sure if a generic is worth buying is to try it for yourself. There are some general rules I’ve found that can make the process easier, though.

Always

Staples – Milk, eggs, sugar, flour, tea, bread, butter, and other basics cost 25-40% less for generics, and you’ll never know the difference.

Canned fruits & vegetables – Many times the store-brand versions are even higher quality than their name-brand counterparts.

Medicine – The active ingredients are the same, but the cost difference is mind-boggling. Acetaminophen, ibuprofen, and all of the various cold medicines are as much as 75% cheaper in generic.

Tony takes a Claritin knock-off for his seasonal allergies, and it costs almost 1/4 of what we’d pay for Claritin. Seriously, 30 pills for $4 compared to 30 pills for $17 in the name brand. The store brand works just as well. The same is true for prescription medications. Always ask for the generic, and make sure your doctor writes substitutions into the prescription.

Sometimes

Cleaning products – Store-brand glass cleaner and bleach work just as well as their name-brand counterparts, but I notice a dip in quality for heavy-duty cleaners like shower and tub cleaners.

Cereal – Almost all of the major brand-name cereals come in a generic version, and we’ve only tried a handful that weren’t very good. At half the price of name brand, it’s always worth it to try.

Hygiene products – We buy name-brand toothpaste and deodorant, but Tony’s shampoo is always generic. This is one of those areas where you really have to try the product to know for sure.

Remember, if the product is low quality or doesn’t do its job, you’re not really saving money by buying the generic — you’re just throwing money down the drain on a low quality product.

Never

Dog food – It’s all our dog eats, so we spring for the good stuff. On the spectrum of dog food brands and prices, the food we buy probably falls somewhere on the upper side of the middle. It’s not the super expensive stuff, but definitely not super cheap or generic.

Peanut butter – We’re both picky about peanut butter, and ever since we discovered Skippy Natural we’ve been hooked.

Paper towels & toilet paper – I’ve experimented with generics, and the result wasn’t pretty. We use coupons and buy in bulk to reduce the cost.

Coffee – We brew a half pot every morning, and we each drink a cup. We’ve tried to buy store-brand to save money, but it’s like drinking mud. We don’t go all out and buy Starbucks, but we spring for a cost-effective name brand and save money by buying in bulk and limiting our consumption.

What are your rules for buying generic?

Menu Plan: 3/28 – 4/3

We had a wonderful relaxing Saturday doing nothing, but that meant we spent all day Sunday running around trying to make up for lost time. Now I wish I had just one more day to relax. :(

But I really can’t complain. I slept a full 12 hours Friday and Saturday night to make up for my post-trip exhaustion. It was glorious.

We had a surprisingly good week at the grocery store. There was a great deal on chicken breasts, so we stocked up with $15 worth (about 9 pounds). Even with the chicken and a small skirt steak for the fajitas, our total was only $57.

Here’s the meal plan for this week:

Sunday: Bacon-wrapped chicken and roasted new potatoes
Monday: Leftovers/sandwiches
Tuesday: Steak fajitas
Wednesday: Chicken and vegetable spring rolls with rice
Thursday: Bean and cheese burritos
Friday: Pizza

Lunch for me: Artichoke pasta salad

For more menu ideas, check out OrgJunkie. Happy Monday!

Playing financial roulette

Last week our debit card was declined.

We had to pick up a few things at Target for my trip on Thursday night. The total was less than $15. When the cashier told us the card had been declined, we asked that he run it again. Declined again. Isn’t it scary when that happens?

We gave him another card, which cleared, but I was panicking by the time we got out of the store. I knew exactly how much money should have been in our account, and there was no reason for that charge to be declined. I was terrified that our account had somehow been hacked, emptied by an identity thief.

But could it have been my mistake? We recently received our tax refund, and I’d been moving money around between our checking and savings accounts. Had I moved too much? Would my mistake cost us?

When I finally checked our bank account, we saw what happened. Tony had somehow mixed up his debit card for our joint account with the one for his personal account. The cards look the same (except for a mark on the back he uses to differentiate them), but the balances are drastically different — his personal account usually holds under $200. The mix-up happened at some point before he paid for our new tires, so by the time he used his personal account debit card at Target the account was overdrawn.

When Tony realized what he had done, he panicked. “Are we going to be charged overdraft fees?” he asked. I knew we wouldn’t.

You see, this time it was an accident, but when I was in college this was a game I played often. When my account came dangerously close to empty, I sometimes spent more than I had anyway if I knew I had money coming in. I’d deposit cash before the withdrawals cleared. If the deposit and withdrawals cleared at the same time, I avoided fees. Sometimes. But sometimes I paid hefty fees. It was a dangerous game.

Because none of Tony’s charges had cleared yet, we were able to transfer money from the joint account into his personal account and avoid overdraft fees. Whew.

I’m thankful that it turned out all right, and that this time it was only a mistake. I’m grateful that I don’t play financial roulette anymore. Now when I use a debit card, I know I have the money to cover it.

How my husband plans to save while I’m away

The following is a guest post from my wonderful husband Tony about how he plans to save money while I’m away.

Karen has joked that I’ll be “living the bachelor life” for four days while she’s away at a conference in New York, which isn’t entirely true, but it does have me worried. The “bachelor life” to me never meant many of its stereotypical elements, but before I met Karen, I will say that the “bachelor life” certainly meant spending money frivolously. I’m worried about spending time apart from her (the first time in almost three years!) and how that might lead me to spend money where I don’t need to.

I’m determined to keep costs down, so here’s my plan, as much for you as it is for me:

Leftovers, leftovers, leftovers.

Anyone who reads here regularly knows that I’m a bit of a foodie, and my greatest financial vice is wanting to spend a bit too much at the grocery store. I like trying new foods, and in the past this has run up our bill. My plan for the days Karen is gone will be stick to our go-to meals and focus on leftovers. Pasta that could feed both me and Karen lends itself to two (at least) portions of leftovers. Without splitting it with her, I’ll have four meals for myself. That’ll help cover lunches and dinners.

No Trip to the Theater

Movies are passion of mine, and I’ll admit that at first I thought one of the ways I could pass my time while Karen is gone is to take in a matinee one day after I teach. But still, even paying only for myself, that’s an expenditure I don’t need. I’ll focus instead on the campus library, RedBox (which has some newer releases I haven’t yet seen), and our trial membership of Netflix.

Talking to Friends and Playing with Our Dog

When you’re alone, you seek out conversation. I’ll have friends and family I can call, but there is the pesky matter of being on different networks and having to use my minutes before 9 p.m. That’s why I’ve begun using Gmail’s video chat feature to talk to some of my friends back home. It’s user-friendly, completely free, and as long as you have a camera and a microphone, you’re set to go.

Also, I’m a little worried how our dog is going to react to just me at home, so I’ll be making sure he gets a lot of exercise to keep him occupied — and that’s absolutely free.

Just Another Week

I think one of the most important things to consider when you’re regular schedule is upended is to tell yourself: this is just another week. Yes, I’m going to miss Karen tremendously, but if I tell myself something is “okay just for this week,” it’s going to get me in a lot of trouble. I’ll still have classes to take and teach, so it’s not like I’m going on a vacation or anything.

Whenever something comes up that I want to do because I’ve got nothing else to do, I’m going to ask myself: would we do this on any other weeknight?

Now, I know I’m going to go a little stir crazy being alone for four days, so I do have a few activities planned. I’d like to try a southern barbecue restaurant that was recently voted the best in town, so perhaps I’ll go there for lunch one day (since the lunch menu is cheaper).

Giving time instead of money

I’ve written before about how much we love public radio. Our local NPR affiliate is our favorite radio station on the dial, and we’ve gotten hours of free entertainment from it.

As you probably know, most media outlets are struggling due to the recession. As a former journalist, I really value newspapers and other media outlets, but I think public radio is especially important. Not only is it entertaining, but public radio offers in depth reporting on real human interest stories that aren’t often covered on the 24-hour news networks.

Public radio stations have been hit especially hard. Part of the reason their reporting is so great is because donors and sponsors cover much of their operating costs. This model allows them to be free of advertisers who often play a bigger role in dictating editorial content for TV and newspapers than they should. But donors and businesses have cut back funding for public radio because of the recession, leading public radio stations to lay off workers and cut valuable programming.

I realize there are more dire charities than public radio, but it’s just something that I feel is important. I wish we had enough money to give large amounts to all of the causes we care about. The reality is, like a lot of people right now, we don’t.

Living frugally allows us to donate a little, and we do. We’ve sent money to our local public radio station, mostly because we felt we should do our part since we’ve gotten so much free entertainment. We also donate to charities like the American Cancer Society and Ronald McDonald House when we can. But when we send a little money to any charity or cause, we’re often left wishing we could do more.

We’ve found that the best solution is to give time instead of money. For instance, we found out that our local public radio station is holding a pledge drive this month, and they need volunteers to answer phones and take donations. We may not have a lot of money to give, but volunteering is an easy way for us to help a cause that we care about without affecting our budget.

If you’re wishing you could afford to give more to your favorite causes, do some digging to find out if there’s a way you can donate time instead of money. Participate in a walk or run for cancer research, coordinate a fundraiser or donation drive in your area, walk dogs at a local shelter, or volunteer at a charitable foundation.

You may not be able to afford a huge donation, but if you can still make a difference.

What do you think about Netflix online movie watching?

netflix-dvds
photo by katiescrapbooklady

We love renting movies from Redbox. For only a dollar a night (often free with Redbox promo codes) we can rent recent releases.

For older titles, we rent from the library. Tony’s university library has a wide array of art films, mainstream titles, and TV series. They’re also pretty good about adding new titles quickly, but there’s often a long wait list for newer films that become available. We’ve rented a ton of great stuff from the library for free. It’s our favorite way to rent movies.

While Redbox and the library are perfect for new releases and mainstream titles, we often want to see art films and TV series that aren’t available through Redbox.

Lately, we’ve been considering other options for movie rentals. Online movie rental sites like Netflix and Blockbuster now offer online movie watching. Instead of waiting for a movie to be shipped to us, we can select what we want to see and watch it right on our computer. We like this idea, because it would allow us to watch a lot of movies even with the minimum one-DVD-at-a-time membership.

We’re considering joining Netflix with the minimum membership so that we can get art films and TV series either mailed to us or streamed to our computers. (We looked into Blockbuster, too, but their streaming service requires Internet Explorer on a PC, and we both have Macs.) For $8.99 a month, we could rent one DVD at a time and watch unlimited movies online.

We’re going to do a free trial first. Before we sign up, though, I just wanted to see if any of you have used this service. Are you happy with it? What is the selection of online movies like? I know they have a huge selection of movies by mail, but are all of the titles available to watch online? Do you still find yourself using Redbox or other rental services for convenience?