Money for the Rest of Us

This time of year we’re bombarded by: “Buy, Buy, Buy” along with “Give, Give, Give”. There is much talk about Black Friday, and many links to Amazon gifts we recommend. Even in the non profit world end of the year appeal letters are being sent by every nonprofit in the universe. And I wholeheartedly encourage you to donate money to these organizations. But, don’t stop there. This year, Take Action.

Here are five reasons why getting off your ass and doing something good this holiday season will help your pocketbook:

1. When You Feel Better You’ll Spend Less. By volunteering at an organization you’ll feel better about yourself. When you feel better about yourself you’ll spend less money.
2. Time Spent Helping Others = Time Not Shopping. When you’re volunteering somewhere it means that you can’t be shopping at that point in time.
3. Seeing Others’ Circumstances Will Help You Remember What’s Important. I’m not telling you that volunteering will make you renounce shopping, but it will help you to remember that the holidays aren’t all about gifting. This time of year is about spending time with friends and family and those you love.
4. It’s Tax Deductible (sort of). Ok, this one is a little bit of a stretch, but when you volunteer somewhere, various expenses are tax deductible (like transportation to and from the site.) This site details some valuable information about what is tax deductible when volunteering.
5. When You Volunteer You Don’t Have to Give Money. I like to give money to organizations that I care about, but frankly, there are just too many to go around. So, volunteering is a great way to ease the strain on my pocketbook, and give time instead of dollars.

Giving money is a great thing to do this time of year. But, it’s just as important to give time as it is to shell out those dollars. When you donate your time to an organization those you are helping will benefit, and it will help your wallet.

So, just get off your ass and do something this season. It’s easier than you might think. And far more rewarding.

If you had to pay 5 cents for a bag would you bring your own or carry your items bag-less instead?

If you shop at Ikea, you will now be paying for using a bag. I went this last weekend and was pleased to see their new policy of charging 5 cents per bag. (I chose to not buy any bags, bring things to the car in the cart, and find a stray bag in the car to bag them in).

The first time I went grocery shopping while studying abroad I was completely shocked to find out that I had to PAY FOR a plain plastic grocery bag. It is this way over most of eastern-Europe. Granted, their grocery bags were nicer than those we get in the U.S, but still, I couldn’t believe that they would charge you for this.

Then it dawned on me. It’s a good thing when businesses charge for bags. Why? Because fewer bags will be used resulting in less waste. Plastic bags are terrible for the environment. According to this article they take 1000 years to break down (and I can’t imagine all the chemicals that leach into the ground with them. Moreover, we end up paying for the cost of the bags in the products we buy.

While abroad I learned to carry an extra bag with me wherever I go. That way, I would never have to pay for bags. (Occasionally I would forget and cough up the pennies, but for the most part it became a habit to bring a bag with me.)

I hope other companies adopt this policy and start charging for bags. It would be slightly annoying at first, but in the long run we would all be better off.

Electricity is expensive, and little things, such as light bulbs, can make a huge difference in your bill. Well, how about your coffee maker?

It turns out that your coffee maker may be costing you a lot of money. I got an email from a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend (you know the deal) that detailed this out. (Their focus was actually on saving the environment, but saving the environment can save money!) It looks like the original email was written by EcoPrint:

“We had been keeping a drip coffee maker on nearly 4 hours per day, continuing to warm the coffee made first thing in the morning. A quick check of its consumer information label showed it using over 1000 watts of electricity per hour—the equivalent of ten 100-watt bulbs! It seemed reasonable to offer employees a hot cup of coffee when they wanted one, but what was the environmental cost? So, we calculated: 4 hours/day x 250 workdays/year x 1,000 watts/hour = 1,000 Kilowatt-hours per year. Whoa!

That translates to 1,200 lbs of CO2 emitted [but they use fan power electricity] and about $140 per year added to our electric bill.

The alternative: A Thermal Carafe coffee maker. Coffee drips into a well-insulated carafe that stays hot for hours. Once finished brewing, the appliance simply turns itself off! This is resulting in a 97% energy savings from that one appliance each year, because an insulated carafe needs no constant heat source to stay warm. These coffee makers can be purchased for between $50 to $150 (easily recouped with the first year’s energy savings). “

Hopefully you don’t leave your coffee pot on for four hours at home, but maybe you do at work. Either way, it shows how something so seemingly insignificant can make an enormous impact. A quick check at Amazon.com showed that you can buy one for as little as $40.

We had a lot of great posts in this week’s Festival of Frugality. I was surprised at the number of submissions that were somehow related to food. So, grab a spoon and dig in!

Editor’s Picks

Golbguru presents Motivation For Frugality - It Is Not Always About The Money posted at Money, Matter, and More Musings. This is a great article about what motivates you to be frugal. I enjoyed this article as a friendly reminder of why I’m saving now.< p/>

FMF presents Save Money on a Wedding by Renting a Wedding Cake posted at Free Money Finance. I love this piece of advice just because it’s so creative! (I don’t think I would ever actually do it though…)

Trent Hamm presents The Bulk Buying Debate posted at The Simple Dollar. A good post detailing post the positives and negatives of buying in bulk.

Valerie S. Johnson presents 83 Things You Can Do With a Penny posted at SavingAdvice.com Blog. I really enjoyed this article. However, if you have enough pennies to do all 83 things, how ’bout you just wait until you get 17 more and then go to the bank and get a dollar?

K T Cat presents Why a Budget Matters posted at The Scratching Post. I like this post because in the end, KT Cat made the frugal decision and not the fun one.

Money for Military presents Extreme Saver - Socks Edition posted at Money for Military. Saving money on socks. Definitely not something I’ve thought about before– but I like the creativity.

Silicon Valley Blogger presents Cheap Ways To Learn And Feed Your Brain posted at The Digerati Life. A list of 10 ways to educate yourself on the cheap.

Sagar Satapathy presents How To: Stop Receiving Credit Card Offers posted at Credit Card Lowdown. I really enjoyed the final piece of advice. I may actually try just mailing empty envelopes back… If nothing else it supports the postal service!

Food-Related Posts

Dean presents Simple Way to Save a Ton of Money on Food - Create a Weekly Menu posted at Mr. Cheap Stuff Online Coupons. Great discussion of making a weekly menu as a way to save money on food.

mapgirl presents Stupid Wal-Mart Cake: or How to Have a Happy Cake! posted at Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge. I think half the fun of food is making it. I wholeheartedly agree with mapgirl here.

There are a a few good tips in here about making meals at home a little more glamourous. PiggyBank Raider presents Almost Restaurant Meals At Home posted at PiggyBank Raid.

Brett McKay presents Freeganism: Shopping For Free From Your Local Dumpster posted at The Frugal Law Student. Dumpster diving for food? Not something I’ll start doing.

Kelly Bejelly presents A Girl Worth Saving: Hi Ho, It’s the savings life for me posted at A Girl Worth Saving. This post made me wish I lived near a “Grocery Outlet”.

Stephanie presents Pick Your Own Strawberries posted at Stop the Ride!. I enjoy pick-your-own just for the experience.

Joe Caterisano presents how to shop for groceries posted at Penny Pinching. This is about how to save money on groceries by making a list.

Everything Else

An excellent discussion of looking at those around us and how they shape of view of money. The Happy Rock presents Friends Matter : Social Networks Shape Our Perception posted at The Happy Rock.
Boomie presents Start Small. Finish Big. posted at The Wastrel Show.

Nina presents Using Cash in a Cashless World posted at Queercents. The Envelope Method. It’s truly a classic.

The Free Geek presents 22 Things You Didn’t Know You Could Get for Free posted at Free Geekery. There are a few ideas I hadn’t seen in this list: like the free CPR courses.

Jimmy Atkinson presents Are You Addicted to Borrowing Money? posted at Ask the Advisor. This is a good way to know if you are in trouble because you borrow too much money.

Linsey Knerl presents Living Without Air-Conditioning Can Save Big Bucks This Summer posted at WB Frugality. Living without the AC is a great way to save money, and if you can really save $150/month maybe it is worth it.

Melanie Rimmer presents How to Make a Lacewing Shelter. (Don’t know what one is? I didn’t until after I read the post.)

Frugal babe reminds us that it’s ok to Spend a Little Now and Then

R.Pettinger presents How to Pay Off Your Mortgage Early posted at Mortgage Blog. There are 7 tips here about how to pay off your mortgage early.

Steve faber presents - How to Save a Bundle on Your Home Owner’s Insurance posted at Debt Free. I think the #6 piece of advice is the best one there is!

Sunny presents Dandelions and Daydreams: Good Things Come to those who Procrastinate posted at Dandelions and Daydreams. I’ve gotten a number of pieces of furniture for free on the street curbs of DC. It’s really quite amazing all of the stuff that’s out there.

FFB presents Baby registry posted at Family Finance Blog. Back to the Basics. I like it. This is what frugality is all about.

Madeleine Begun Kane presents Married To Money posted at Mad Kane’s Humor . A cute little limerick

A reminder about the high costs of driving is always practical this time of year. Super Saver presents Consider The Cost Of Driving posted at My Wealth Builder.

Warren Wong presents Why Not To Drive posted at Personal Development for INTJs. Another reminder about why not to drive– by a fellow INTJ.

deputyheadmistress presents Plant Propagation posted at The Common Room. Growing flowers is kind of like growing money. Start with some and with care you can make more.

Aaron Wakling presents Virtual Prepaid Credit Cards posted at The Credit & Credit Card Blog.

TV Frugal Momma presents Watch TV shows on your computer for free posted at A Momma and the Boys Living on a Budget. During the school year if I missed Grey’s because of class I would always catch it later online. So I enjoyed this piece.

Thomas Humes presents Millionaire Mind - Think Like A Millionaire posted at Wealth Building World. This reads a little bit like “The Secret,” (well, I haven’t actually read the Secret, but it’s similar). Thinking like a millionaire is an interesting concept.

Edith Yeung presents 53 Ways to Make Money on the Internet posted at Edith Yeung.Com: Dream. Think. Act. A comprehensive way to make money on the internet.

Tushar presents Getting the best deal on Airfares posted at Life of a Resident Alien…. Here are some interesting tips about traveling; but none I’ve never heard before.

Allen Taylor presents Making Big Money By Looking At The Seasons Of Investment posted at Investing World Today. “Weather” or not you believe this piece of investment advice is up to you.

FitBuff presents FitBuff.com’s Total Mind and Body Fitness Blog » Blog Archive » How to Take Advantage of the Stock Market’s Summer Slump posted at FitBuff.com’s Total Mind and Body Fitness Blog. Another mention of “seasons” and the market. Strange, no?

KRG presents My State Failed High School Personal Finance Curriculum, How About Your State? posted at FILAM PERSONAL FINANCE. We were required to learn some personal finance in High School and Middle School. In fact, it was a millionaire who came in and spoke to our class about the power of investing at a young age who inspired me to buy mutual funds.

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Lately I’ve been experimenting with ways to make some of my favorite foods more cheaply. One snack I particularly enjoy is chips and guacamole. However, I don’t eat chips frequently enough to justify buying an entire bag. (Plus, they’re just not very good for you.)

Thus, I’ve started making my own homemade tortilla chips. It’s very simple, and they are actually far tastier than packaged chips. And to top it all off– it’s more economical than buying chips.

Here’s the recipe:

1-3 tortillas (1.5 per person is a good amount)

.5 Tablespoons Olive Oil

dash salt (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Cut the tortillas up into chip size pieces using a knife or pizza cutter. Pour Olive Oil onto cookie sheet and spread around using a brush or paper towel. (Needs to only be very lightly coated). Spread tortilla pieces evenly (one level) over cookie sheet. Lightly salt (if desired- I usually don’t.) Bake at 375 until lightly brown 5-8 mins. Then, flip each piece over and bake for another 3-5 mins. Serve warm or at room temperature.

You can substitute wheat tortillas or the flavored tortillas for regular ones. Also, note that tortillas keep for a very long time in the freezer.

Enjoy!

Who doesn’t love free stuff? I love anything free– free pens at career fairs, free food samples at the grocery store or Costco on Saturdays, free pennies on the street…
So, this week I am going to have a “Free Stuff Week.” Each day I’ll post on a topic about how to get things for free.

Today’s topic is free online courses/education.

I went to a number of sites and chose my favorites. If you want a longer list there are a few links at the bottom which list a huge number of free online courses:

My favorites:

University of California Berkeley: They have a lot of lectures on podcasts that you can download and listen to from as far as your ipod can travel.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT offers a much larger free online selection than most other universities. It doesn’t take very long to download all of the material for one course.

There are two sites that offer great free online language courses:
The BBC offers a variety of languages from Mandarin to Urdu to Greek.
French Pod Class sticks just to French, but they’re podcasts are extremely useful.

While it’s not a class, Barnes and Noble BookClub is also very cool.

U.S. Small Business Administration shows you how to write a business plan, register your company, and do marketing and taxes for your small business.

About and Lifehacker both have longer lists of classes if you can’t find what you’re looking for here.

Did you know that today, tomorrow, the next day (and maybe the day after that) and are the best days of the year buy expensive chocolate? I’m unable to find any studies officially confirming this, but I’m fairly certain it’s true.

I found this out by accident when I went into a Godiva store 2 days after Valentine’s Day last year. Imagine my bitterness when I discovered that the same exact box of chocolate I had purchased two days before was now 90% off. This year I’ve learned my lesson. My partner and I waited to buy chocolates and are going tomorrow to hit up the sale. I stopped by today but the chocolate was only 25% off. The store is right by my office so I asked the sales clerk if the prices would go down more tomorrow. She looked around to make sure her boss didn’t hear and said that the prices would keep going done. Since it is so close to work, I have no problem dropping by everyday until they are giving the chocolate away for free!

1. Drink water

This is the easiest way to save on lunch costs. A soda will cost you anywhere from $0.60 to $1.50. If you don’t buy that soda you will save anywhere from $149-$370/year (assuming you work a 5-day workweek).

2. Skip the Chips

Again chips not only cost money, they cost your waistline. J.D. has an interesting post at Get Rich Slowly about the cost of being fat.

3. Buy pre-made

Burritos, SmartOnes, Michelina’s, Lean Cuisine, etc. All of these are cheaper than eating out. Trader Joe’s also has some amazing pre-made meals (like their rice bowls) that will cost you a little less than $3.00/meal. Sometimes you can get the TV dinners on sale for only $1.00. (But, remember to make smart choices here; don’t buy fatty, high cholesterol items that will drain your energy).

4. Prepare Ahead of Time

Make a bunch of lunches ahead of time. If I know I will have a busy week I often make my whole week’s worth of lunches on Sunday night and freeze it all. Peanut Butter and Jelly, Bean and Cheese Burritos, even Spaghetti—they all freeze well.

5. Leftovers

Make a little bit more of your dinner and put it in Tupperware.

6. Buy in bulk

I’m not saying you have to get a Sam’s Club or Costco membership, but if something you take for lunch goes on sale, buy a few more boxes.

7. Think outside the container

Instead of buying individual yogurt or cottage cheese cartons, buy a large container and partition it out into small Tupperware. You won’t believe how much money this can save (and it’s much better for the environment).

How does what we put in our mouth reflect our spending habits? As the old saying goes “you are what you eat.” Eating frugally reflects frugal spending habits. Eating lavishly reflects extravagant spending habits.

At a former workplace, a co-worker of mine would only go out to get her lunch before 11:15am or after 1:30pm. Why? Because the lunch lines were too long right around the lunch hour. These long lunch lines were for your average lunch restaurants: Subway, Potbelly, Cosi etc. Lunching at any of these places will cost you anywhere from $5-$10 per day. Think of all the money these people are spending for what they could essentially be making at home for half the price. I admit, I am one of these people a few times a month. And when I go out for lunch in DC it usually ends up costing me about $7.50.

Compare that with the (roughly estimated) cost of my lunch today:

• Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich on two pieces of wheat bread: about $0.60
• Banana: $0.30
• Orange: $0.50
• Yogurt: $0.80
• Water: Free

Total Lunch Cost: $2.20

That’s a difference of $5.30/day. Not much you say? Spend a few minutes playing around with the lunch calculator. I ran it for the cost of my meal today against what I would pay for a usual fast-food lunch out in DC. At an 8% interest rate over four years I would save nearly $6,000 by bringing my lunch rather than dining out. In twenty years I would save over $60,000 by taking my lunch to work. In forty years (approximately retirement): $344,000!

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that you should never go out to lunch. But do it minimally and gradually. If you currently eat out everyday, try cutting it back to 4 days next week, 3 days the week after that, 2 days the week after that, and then just eat out 1 a week. Plug 16 days/month into the calculator and see how much you could save by eating out only 1 day a week.

So, eat like a rich person: take your lunch to work.