I Saved $200 Today!

I got my annual web hosting bill today which runs about $200 per year.  When I used to host a lot of websites I thought that was a great deal but now, I only host a half dozen sites for some very small non profits.  Since I do these sites for free, I don't make any money at all from webhosting and maintenance so spending $200 is more than I want to "donate" to the cause, so to speak.  I looked at the various options--free webhosting platforms which all had pretty iffy reviews, and cheap webhosting platforms which would still run me about $100 per year--and figured I need to find a free-ish way to do this. 

What I ended up doing was whipping up free Blogger sites for these tiny organizations then repointing the domain names from their hosted sites to their new Blogger sites.  Now the only cost is the annual domain name renewal fee (about $10 each) which I am happy to pay for.  The information they need to share with their readers is still available, and while the sites could look better (if I get time I will go in and mess with the HTML and see if I can improve the look of the sites), this is better than getting a big bill every year!

Saving for the Next Emergency

Now that the dental situation is taken care of, we need to replenish our savings (and I need to develop an INCOME!).  A few hours after getting back from the dentist yesterday, a niece called to let us know her mom (hubby's sister) was in the hospital.  His sister hasn't been in good health for quite a while, so as his siblings head into their 70s, I am always worried that something bad will happen to them.  This would require travel (a big expense to go to the other side of the country) and money (to help out with final expenses for some of the siblings who aren't very well off).

I guess the bottom line is that there is never a "finish line" when it comes to saving for emergencies because so many things happen suddenly (car breaks down, hot water tank quits working, someone dies) and generally the fix for such emergencies is money.  So we do our best to save up a financial cushion and don't begrudge helping those in need but the feeling that we always need more money is always there.  We are, of course, grateful that we can take care of most crisis, but it always seems like the next disaster is waiting just around the corner!

10 Ways I Save Money on Tech Stuff

Some random things I do that save me a lot of money on tech stuff:

1. I buy my internet domain names at NameCheap so they are only $10 per year (other places charge much more).
2. I host my websites through In Motion; with their bulk hosting plan I can host as many sites as I want for $200 a year.
3. I have had TMobile forever for my cell service and I often check to see what their latest plans are (we got in on one of their plans a while back which gives us three lines--one for me, one for hubby, one for one of the kids--with unlimited everything for $100 total).
4. I buy all of my tech stuff on sale after massive amounts of research.  My favorite places to buy things are through the Best Buy's 'deal of the day', through Tech Bargains, when TMobile or Samsung has half off their cell phones specials, and sometimes at Costco when there is a good sale.
5. I get my software via Tech Soup through a non profit I do work for.  It is highly discounted and is an excellent deal (but for non-profits only).
6. I also make use of lots of free online software (Libre Office for hubby's computers, free online photo editors, etc).
7. For work, when I have to organize call-in meetings, I use GoToMeeting and freeconferencecall.com.  Google Docs is also excellent for collaborative writing projects.
8. For internet it is similar to cell phone plans; I keep an eye out for any sales or specials on internet service from our local provider (Cox), most recently they had a plan where it was cheaper to get internet and basic cable TV for a flat rate and they said the price will never change so I grabbed that deal and we are pretty happy with it!
9. I absolutely LOVE the Kindle app on my cell/tablet/computer.  Our library is really amazing anyway but they have so many online services now that from their website I can download all kinds of free things from books to music to movies to magazines, etc.
10. Finally, online banking has saved me a lot of hassle and effort.  I have three banks, two not even in our city, and I mostly do all of my banking online.  All of my paychecks are automatically deposited into my bank account, all checks are deposited through the app on my phone, nearly all of our bills are paid online, we can transfer money to the kids for free...I'm not sure how we all lived without online banking in the past!

Keeping Cool in the Summer

It's a beautiful day in Las Vegas today (see photo above).  Actually it is a beautiful HOT day as the temps got to 107 degrees this afternoon!  In order to stay cool and save money, here are some things we do:

• We keep the air conditioning on 79 when we are home, 78 at night, and 85 when we aren't home.  I know some people like the temperature to be around 70 degrees in their home but after you are acclimated to the hot weather, 70 degrees is freezing!
• We are gone all day (and usually in air conditioned casinos).  So basically we let someone else pay to keep us cool.  In fact, most casinos are so cold inside that you need to wear a jacket!
• We keep the blinds pulled on the "hot" side of the house (the east side in the morning, the west side in the evening).
• Some people use sun shades and sun screens on their windows but we haven't done that (I'm not sure it would save that much money).
• We do maintenance on our air conditioning system before and after each hot season to hopefully extend the life of the system.
• We pay our electricity bill in full each month so we expect higher bills in the summer however people can opt to even out their bills for the year and pay an average amount each month (basically the power company adds up how much your house should need to pay for electricity each month for a year and divides the amount by 12 to help people not have to pay massively high bills during the summer).
• We water very early in the morning or late in the evening to save water and money--watering during the day isn't a good idea as the water evaporates basically before it hits the ground!
• Our house is fairly new so the seals around the doors and windows are still good.  Older houses will leak cool air in the summer and heated air in the winter which costs a lot of money.
• Each room has a ceiling fan which helps circulate the air (they should run counter-clockwise in the summer, clockwise in the winter).
• We tend to eat "cool" meals in the summer and/or cook outside on the barbecue instead of using the oven which adds heat to the house.
• Fortunately we have whole home air conditioning but in our house in Seattle we didn't have an AC system so on the rare days when it got really hot, we would hang out and sleep in the lowest level of our house where is was much cooler than the top floor of the house.

Our 10 Best Purchases Ever!

In no particular order...

1. Over the air antennas.  If you live in a place that receives a lot of OTA stations (in our city we get about 50) these antennas can save more than a thousand dollars over the course of a year since you won't need to get cable TV.
2. Netflix.  Again, for around $10 a month, Netflix gives you A LOT of TV shows and movies which can be watched in place of cable TV.
3. House Seats/Fill A Seat.  If you live in a city with a lot of live entertainment, you should check and see if you can get a House Seats or Fill A Seat subscription.  For about $50 per year for two people, we have seen hundreds of shows ranging from comedy shows to concerts to magic shows to full-on Las Vegas spectacle shows.  Paying individually for these tickets would have cost thousands of dollars.
4. A good carry-on bag.  For hubby it is a small rolling suitcase that fits in the overhead compartment on an airplane and for me it is a 33 litre backpack.  We have learned to travel light and only carry one carry-on bag each when we travel thus saving at least $100 per trip in baggage fees.
5. Cookware and knives.  We have a few cast iron pans, a set of heavy bottom pans in a range of sizes, and five really good knives.  None of these things will ever need to be replaced since they are made to last forever and work really well thus negating the need to get rid of them and "buy something better".  There is nothing better and these will last long enough to be handed down to the kids and grandkids (one cast iron pan actually came from my grandmother so that means it would have lasted at least five generations when we give it to the grandkids!).
6. Internet service.  Yes the price keeps going up as cable companies try to recoup money lost to cable cutters but for a service that costs $60 per month, it is well worth the money as it allows me to work from home, bank from home, watch Netflix, communicate with everyone I know, etc.
7. A pocket knife.  I bought a Swiss Army knife with my babysitting money when I was about 12 and have carried it with me everyday since.  I use it to open boxes, open packages, cut tags off of new items, etc. and for the small price of less than $10, it has lasted for nearly 40 years!
8. Tools.  We bought Craftsman tools years ago (back when they were good quality, now I have heard that brand referred to as "crapsman" sadly) and they have lasted for decades.  When we moved and downsized and figured our days of building things were probably over we sent them to the son and grandson who used them to build their house.  Good quality tools can last a lifetime--or more.
9. Smartphone.  My purse is orders of magnitude lighter these days thanks to my smartphone.  It has replaced my dumb phone, camera, flashlight, paperback books, notebook and pen, and many more everyday items I used to carry with me.  This one small device can do everything and if you keep it long enough instead of buying every new annual iteration that comes out, it can actually cost you only pennies a day to use.
10. Houses.  While some people have lost big in the housing market, we have been fortunate that our houses have always earned (and saved) us quite a bit of money.  We have always bought houses that we could afford, and that would shelter us for years (none of this flipping and/or pulling equity out of them at every opportunity).  By paying our mortgages down--and off--as quickly as possible we have always paid below market rate for shelter while having an asset that earns us money whether we used them for rentals or sold them outright.

10 Ways We Save Money Living in Las Vegas

Having lived in Las Vegas for more than five years now, we have found several ways to make our money go further here...

1. Our library system is amazing.  I have literally downloaded thousands of free e-books from the library since we moved here.  Our library also has free entertainment events (we've watched everything from brass bands to Highland dancers to wonderful lectures), free movies we can borrow, free music we can borrow...so much free stuff!
2. Until a month ago we enjoyed free over-the-air HD TV.  Since the entirety of the city is a bowl-shaped valley, nearly everyone is in line of sight of all of the major TV broadcasters here.  That means that you can buy a $20 OTA antenna and enjoy more than 50 free stations.  For us, however, our internet price recently increased to $65 a month but if we got a package of internet plus basic cable the price would be $60 per month (??) which is what we now have.
3. There is free entertainment everywhere.  At its most basic, we can walk down the famous Las Vegas Strip or Fremont area and be entertained watching people but there is so much more free entertainment here from rodeo events (at the Southpoint Arena) to live bands (Fremont Experience), free community events (parades, watching the Las Vegas marathon, etc), and free volunteer opportunities (ie: volunteer at a major event like the Electric Daisy Carnival and get free passes for the rest of the event).
4. There are so many discount shopping opportunities!  From the 99 Cent Store (everything is 99 cents including produce, dairy, food, toiletries, decor, etc) to the Goodwill (we have amazing Goodwill stores here since the people donating are from all over the world!) to every cheap chain restaurant (love In N Out Burger) to Ikea.
5. Driving can be both expensive (car insurance is not cheap here and annual registration is based on the car's value) yet very inexpensive (I used to drive 30,000+ miles a year but Las Vegas is a very compact city--plus we no longer work--so I now drive about 8,000 miles a year which means less gas and less wear and tear).
6. There is no state income tax.  This would be a better thing if we were still high income earners but no state income tax is a savings for people who live here.  Note that you really need to look at overall tax burden to see if a no income tax state is your best bet when it comes to taxes.
7. Travel to and from Vegas is dirt cheap.  We once took the Megabus to Los Angeles for 50 cents!  Since Las Vegas is both a national and international travel destination there are lots of cheap flights to and from Vegas--we can go to Asia for less than $500 round trip and round trip flights to New York and other US destinations is usually less than $99 each way.
8. The city caters to both retirees and military members.  We receive a discount on our car registration each year because hubby is retired military, there are $4 movies for seniors at many theaters, free buffets for military members at the casino each Veterans and Memorial Day, free walking and hiking clubs, etc.
9. Utilities are pretty cheap here.  I still haven't figured out why our water bill in Seattle, where there is water everywhere, was $40 per month yet our water bill here in Vegas is $25 per month.  Garbage removal, sewer, power, and natural gas are also pretty inexpensive.
10. Casino comps are a real thing.  Hubby likes to play poker (with a small allowance each month to do so) but for each hour he plays, he is given $1 in comps by the casino which can be used in the casino's restaurants, gift shops, etc.  We almost always eat free in every restaurant we go to using comps.

The Power of Small Resolutions

Hubby never makes new year resolutions.  I always make resolutions.  Last year when I had developed my usual long list of no-way-can-I-achieve-all-of-these-impossible-resolutions list I told hubby he should at least resolve to do something.  At the time we had a big water jug sitting in the closet so he said he would save a dollar a day and put it in this jug.  As usual, my resolutions fell by the wayside by mid-January of 2017 but hubby's one resolution was a complete success (hubby is also very focused when he decides to do something).  Last night hubby pulled out the jug he saved his money in and counted it.  Turned out he threw some extra cash in when he had it and the grand total saved was $481.  Not a huge amount but it just goes to show that just a tiny resolution to save a dollar a day can have a big impact at the end of the year!

Hiking on the Cheap

Myself, the SIL and the BIL hit the trail at 5am this morning.  They are very active hikers and wanted to hike around Las Vegas before my SIL leaves next week.  Did I mention it's around 110 degrees here everyday?  But it is possible to do short hikes here if you start at daybreak and come back by about 9am which means a five to ten mile hike (note the photo taken as the sun was rising).  For more photos check my other blog here.

Although my in-laws can well afford their travels (they both make over six figures each year) and they are positively dripping in top-shelf REI gear, we all enjoyed this outing equally even though I don't make anything close to six figures and don't own a single item from REI.  Here's a gear comparison:

• Their hats cost $80 each at REI.  I got a similar Columbia hat from the Goodwill for $1.50.
• Their sunglasses (Raybans) average around $100 a pair.  Mine were from the $1 store for, well, $1.
• Sunscreen probably cost about the same from Walmart.
• Their daypacks (Camelbacks) cost about $150 each.  My daypack, on sale at TJ Maxx, cost $7.95.  I needed to add two bottles of water while they filled up their water bags at home.
• Their hiking clothes--REI brand--probably cost around $100 each per outfit; my favorite hiking jeans and thin, long-sleeved top came from the Goodwill for about $5 total.
• They each had their hiking boots, liner socks, and heavy-duty hiking socks (around $150 each) while I wore my $40 New Balance walking shoes.
• They brought snacks (organic dried fruit and nuts, beef jerky, etc) which costs around $10 each while I brought a few granola bars (6 for $1 at the $1 store).

And some hiking costs are the same for everyone:

• Park entry fees (I chose a scenic hike in a location that was free to access)
• Gas to get to the trail head (we could have gone further afield but chose a hike that was about a half hour away which saves money on gas).

The bottom line:  Don't let the lack of money keep you from enjoying your hobby.  Just because you can't afford the "right" gear (they looked like hikers, I looked like, well, an escapee from the Goodwill) doesn't mean you can't tweak the situation to allow you to participate--and enjoy--whatever hobby you choose.  Some people would look at "real hikers" and think, "I can't afford that so I'll just sit home on my couch" but if it is something you enjoy (I happen to love walking), then by all means, get out and do it.  You can always find cheap gear (example here), find cheaper ways to participate (they hiked Yosemite for two weeks recently, I can't afford that but I can certainly afford local day hikes), and, if it is a hobby you are going to stick with, you can always add improved gear as you go along (you don't need to drop $1000 in a shopping spree at REI when you can take advantage of REI's frequent 20% off one item sale and slowly add to your upscale gear collection).

When What You Have is All You Need

Today I was looking for a new pair of walking shoes.  I didn't find any, but at the time I was looking, I was really planning on spending up to $100 for them because I know how much of a difference shoes made specifically for walking make when I am putting on the miles.
Fortunately there weren't any shoes I liked at the store we went to and, after leaving the store, it hit me that the walking shoes I have are perfectly fine.  They aren't the height of fashion but they are still in great condition.  I think that at the time I fell prey to the "you need better and you have the money to buy better so go get better" kind of thinking.  Needless to say, that kind of thinking got me into A LOT of trouble years ago (mostly because I both didn't NEED better and the only "money" I had to buy better was with a credit card.  That didn't stop me from running out and buying every single thing I wanted, however).
I just need to keep me out of the stores and keep me from obsessing about every new things I want (I think one of the catalysts this morning was watching the BIL and SIL head out for their trip with $2500+ worth of gear they just picked up at REI...lots of cool stuff BUT 99% of it was totally unnecessary and the same trip could have been done with a few things from Walmart and the Goodwill and that wouldn't diminish the trip WHATSOEVER).
So now I am back home with my money still in my pocket and I am counting the blessings that I have (namely, time to do so many things I want to do, a great pair of walking shoes that took me through a 26 mile marathon with ease, a $7.95 daypack that is perfect for any of my walking purposes, a supportive hubby, a bunch of fantastic places to hike and walk nearby where I live--once the roasting hot summer is over...you get the idea...).
And then, the cherry on the top of the cake, so to speak, I found this article when I got home and was cruising the net.  As Emeril would say, BAM!

The Things I Do In the Name of Frugality

So the bees are still there.  I called the county extension office, Googled, and posted on a local blog about the problem and got the same answer--either they will be gone in a few days or we will need to call a bee removal service.  I will give them until tomorrow to relocate (which would save me a ton of money) or I will call a service to get rid of them (definitely won't help our financial situation).  Unfortunately it doesn't seem like there are any beekeepers who will come and get them like they do in other areas.  Fortunately they are over on the side of the house where they aren't bothering anyone.  Hubby wanted to blast them with the hose but I nixed that idea--he's 64 years old and not nearly as fast as he thinks he is (as in, there is no way he can outrun a swarm of angry bees).  So we wait and hope for a frugal outcome.

And then I needed a haircut.  Hubby likes my hair now that it is growing out but it is becoming a bit shaggy.  I really didn't want to go pay $15 for a trim of like 1/4 inch so I finally talked hubby into trying his hand at cutting my hair (he is all for frugality, not much for being a hair dresser).  My hair is hard to work with anyway since it is not straight--in fact it is really curly and most of the time I get a so-so haircut even at a salon.  So hubby went to work on my hair, I cringed a bit because it didn't "feel" like it does when a professional is cutting it, but overall I think it was kind of OK.  Of the past three haircuts, one was by hubby, the one previous to that ended up being a mullet, and for the one before that, the girl used a razor on the back which really made my hair unhappy.  Here's a picture which is kind of hard to see (note this was after the cut and after a wash and after I took a nap on it!) but with a bit of styling it may last for another month or so before I hit up a real salon.

Ten Money-Saving Things I Did This Week

Taking a bit of a break from the conference.  Here's ten great ways we saved money this week:

1. I volunteered at the genealogy conference which got me free entry into the conference (others paid up to $265 to attend).  While I don't get to go to every talk, I do get to sit in on some of the classes and they have been very educational and enlightening.
2. I checked out r/frugal on reddit and came across this useful (and money saving!) list.
3. The SIL wanted to see a Vegas show so the hubby used FillASeat and they are right now, as I type this, at a comedy show (for free!).
4. The SIL also wanted to go to LA for a couple of days so I started out with free resources to get her there (some of the cousins were heading over but their car was full), so, moving on, I went to the next cheapest option which was Megabus ($20 each way) and a $5 day pass for the bus.  She had a wonderful trip!
5. We have more people to feed with our guests here this week so we are cooking at home and cooking frugally (bought meat on sale as loss leaders and bought lots of pasta and vegetables from the 99 cent store).
6. We also need to entertain our guests which we are doing for free or frugally as well (hubby has a free pass for Red Rock Canyon, there is a free Elvis contest going on in Fremont this weekend which we will watch, and there are also dozens of free events going on around Vegas this weekend).
7. We are repurposing.  With the BIL staying for three months, we were all set with his room but then found that he will need some sort of shelving for his clothes.  In my old life, I would have ran to Walmart and bought a brand new shelving unit but we looked in the garage and found that we didn't need all of the plastic shelving that was basically holding junk so the hubby cleaned up the shelves and the BIL now has a nice place to put his clothes in his closet.
8. Being thankful is free.  With so much horrible news this week (the women who were held captive for over a decade, the people who went overboard on the cruise ship in Australia, etc) I am just thankful for my very good, very happy life.
9. We are coordinating rides.  The BIL has his own car which he uses to go to work but that leaves the hubby, the SIL, and me to share one car (we don't have public transportation in our area).  We are easily combining our trips and organizing our day so everyone gets to where they want to go, all with one car.
10. I resisted my bad habit.  The minute I hit the conference facility, I have the automatic feeling that I need to Starbucks each morning (a holdover from my previous life when picking up a Starbucks on the way to a meeting or conference was de rigour).  So instead of picking up Starbucks, I sign in and get busy working and try to ignore the nagging voice in my heading telling me I need to go buy an expensive beverage to start my day.  This has saved me $20 so far!

Score! (And Some Links)

Once again I am getting a couple of boxes together to send to an elementary school in the Philippines.  This time I want to send one box of books and one box of school supplies.  In the past I have also wanted to send candy for all of the kids (the school is in a really poor area so these kids have rarely, if ever, even had candy) but there are 500 kids at the school and even if I could somehow find five pieces of candy for $1, that would still be $100 just for candy, not including the cost of books and school supplies.  So, to date, no candy has been sent.  Then the hubby and I were at the grocery store yesterday and saw that they were clearing out their leftover Christmas stuff and we found candy canes for 10 cents per box.  That was a great deal so we hauled 58 boxes of candy canes to the checkout and learned that Christmas stuff was an additional 50% off so that dropped the price of each box of 12 candy canes to 5 cents each!!  So for a grand total of $2.90 we got 600+ candy canes!!!  See photo above!

And some links...(mostly depressing stuff)

• What I Wish I Knew Before I Got Divorced (not that people really plan to get divorced but this is important stuff to know if the worst happens)
• Rich Block, Poor Block (interesting)
• Six Reasons I Don't Want a Luxury Car. Ever. (pretty much why I will never own a luxury car again unless I happen to win it for free or something)
• Pink Slip Pilgrimage (sad but happening to more and more people)
• Financial Infidelity (ditto)
• 52 Week Money Challenge (cool!)
• A Safety Warning (I've seen this happen more than a couple of times, usually from high-speed head-on accidents.  Remember, any significant blow to the chest can cause the major arteries running to or from your heart to pull apart and make you bleed out).

25 Concessions

When we decided we wanted to live a lifestyle with a lot more freedom and a lot less money, we took a hard look at where our money was going and decided we could continue to live as we were (spending like maniacs and working like maniacs to keep up) or we could totally change our lifestyle so that we would work less and spend less.  We decided on the later and I couldn't be happier but there were a lot of concession we had to make in order to make this lifestyle work.  Here's a list:

1. We moved from a city with a higher cost of living (outside of Seattle) to a city with a lower cost of living (Las Vegas).  While I like Seattle a lot more than Vegas, the much lower cost of living has sold me on the place (not to mention the SUNSHINE!).
2. We bought a house with payments that are 1/3 the amount the payments we had on our last house.  While it is a smaller house, I just love it and with a smaller house comes lower utility bills, no yard so no yard guy to hire, less time to clean, etc.
3. No more new sports car for me.  We have one (well used, older) car that we both share.  And it's paid off so no car payments.
4. No more manicures and pedicures--I do this myself now.  Unfortunately the results are nowhere near salon quality but it will do.
5. No more cable TV.  We bought over-the-air antennas for each of our TVs and receive free TV.
6. No more cool cell phones and expensive cell phone plans.  We use basic cells phones and $30 per month pre-paid plans.
7. Instead of every-six-week appointments at the salon for a $35 haircut, I now use my $4.99 coupon for a haircut at Great Clips (and try to wait at least eight weeks between haircuts).
8. I don't buy books anymore.  Instead I check them out from the library (it only takes one time of having to pack and move an entire library of books to make you want to switch every book you own to an e reader!).
9. No credit cards.  Which is why I am dying for a Samsung Galaxy 7" tab but have to wait until I actually have the cash to buy it.  This does, however, save a ton of money over paying with credit cards then sweating the payments each time you get a bill.
10. We don't buy movies any more.  Hubby checks them out from the library (at an alarming pace!) and now we don't have to pay for, store, or take care of a bunch of movies we will probably never watch again.
11. Fewer vacations.  Fortunately I am not having vacation withdrawal yet because we traveled so much over the past couple of years (easy to do when you don't have a house payment!) but there is no more booking a cruise or two each year in addition to a few cross country vacations.  On the bright side, we live in a vacation destination so people can come visit us!
12. Less stuff.  Besides having less food stored which I don't much like (I like a big surplus just in case) it is much nicer having a lot less stuff to deal with.  Our garage is positively sparse...I could roller skate in there!
13. We eat leftovers.  A lot.  I hate the thought of wasting food and if a meal was good once it will certainly be good again so we tend to eat leftovers rather than throwing them away.
14. We don't go to restaurants nearly as often.  For many years we ate out at least once, often two or three times a day, and that was super expensive (not to mention super unhealthy).
15. No dry cleaning.  If clothes don't survive the washer-dryer test we don't wear them.  Needless to say I am quite happy that I haven't had to wear a business suit in a couple of years.
16. No spur of the moment shopping.  Each shopping trip is planned and budgeted for (which was kind of a bummer when my friend was here--she was shopping with abandon but I didn't buy anything because we hadn't planned or saved for me to buy a new dress or a new pair of shoes).   
17. We actually go out of our way to control our utility (water, gas, electricity) usage.  We never tracked our spending on utilities before and just paid whatever the bill was, but now we are hyper aware of what we use because we know that each kilowatt hour of electricity adds up.
18. We also track how much driving we do.  Gas is expensive these days!  Actually gas was expensive before but I didn't really care.  I used to drive a lot and spend a lot on gas but now we group all of our errands together and try to not drive a couple days a week in order to save gas.
19. Our shopping cart is decidedly less colorful.  Instead of the pre-packaged, pre-made food we used to buy (expensive and unhealthy!) we now buy meat, fish, fruit, vegetables, and rice (with an occasional splurge on junk food from the $1 store for me).  Kind of basic but much healthier.
20. We don't wander around the shopping mall for entertainment.  Actually I like to walk the huge malls here in the summer for exercise (it's too hot to walk outside) but it makes me want to shop so now I try to walk around casinos because I have absolutely no urge to gamble.
21. We don't give much money or many things to people anymore.  Which is unfortunate but it is one of the changes we needed to make to remain financially solvent.  I would really like to give the grandkids those little games you see kids playing (I found out they are Nintendo DS3s) but at $180 a piece that is way out of our prices range!
22. We don't give ourselves many presents any more either.  It's been years since I bought a new Coach purse and hubby doesn't buy many things for himself either.  We used to justify extravagant purchases because "we deserved it for working so hard" but we don't work so hard any more and while we may "deserve it" we don't want to slave away at a job just to have it.  On the flip side, if the hubby and I are both healthy and happy, that is more valuable than anything...cue violin music :)
23. Our hobbies have change too.  I used to like shooting (ammo is expensive!) and going out dancing and the hubby used to bowl all the time but we are both aware that the expenses from hobbies can get out of hand so I have started doing genealogy (which is more expensive than I thought!) and hubby plays poker (with a small, limited budget each day...fortunately he wins more often than loses) as our hobbies.  I also like walking with the Volksmarchers every weekend (which is good exercise and cheaper than a gym membership).
24. We do without things that most people would just purchase.  Currently we have two night stands which are actually TV tables with cute covers on them simply because we haven't been able to find nghte stands of the kind we like and at a cheap enough price.  Before I would have just went to a furniture store and bought what I liked but that is very expensive so for now, TV tables work fine.
25. Finally, we look for any other way possible to save money.  This includes but is not limited to: ordering free water-saving shower heads from the water utility, shopping on senior day at the Goodwill, buying a lot of things at the $1 store (especially produce), using coupons for food and restaurants, attending the rare movie during matinee time and on senior day, having parties at our house and cooking at home for the parties instead of taking everyone to a restaurant, etc.

While there are a few things that I miss about our previous lifestyle (mostly buying whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted) I am much happier now that we have a very stress-free life.  Of course it takes work and a lot of concessions to get to this point but whenever I am feeling like we are missing out on a lot of things, I ask myself if I would rather have a new purse, car, computer, etc or if I would rather have the freedom to not have to work and the freedom of not being strapped with monthly payments for these things.  Of course the answer is always a resounding yes to the latter!

Repurposing...And Five Other Things

We were out and about yesterday and I really needed a purse (well need might be too strong a word, people don't really NEED purses).  First we went to my favorite purse store, the Coach outlet.  $150 for a purse...on sale?!  Uh, no.  Then we went to my second favorite purse shop, LeSportsac.  It was a little better at $59 for a cute purse, but again, no.  Then we were at Ross and I saw this iPad bag for $8.99 and I grabbed it.  I thought it would make a cute purse and for such a cheap price, I simply cut the little handles off of it, added the shoulder strap, and "ta da" repurposed as a purse!
And five more things from today...

1. The paleo diet is off.  We were at a dim sum place today and my protein choices rolled by.  They were basically pork things (I don't eat pork), chicken feet (uh...no), and tripe (ditto).  Then shrimp wrapped in rice noodles rolled by and I grabbed it.  End of diet.  I will still try to avoid gluten so I guess rice is OK.  Someone remind me, the next time I talk about any sort of diet, that I have absolutely no will power and dieting is an exercise in futility!
2. We might have saved a man's life today.  After we left the dim sum place we got into our car then noticed that the guy parked next to us was slumped over the steering wheel with his car still running.  We tried knocking on his window but he was unresponsive so we called casino security and they showed up.  Then we left so we don't know what happened to the guy but I do know that you can't sleep in your car in Las Vegas in the summer--it's more than 100 degrees outside!
3. I need an iPad or similar device (actually I am lusting over the Samsung Galazy 7" tab).  This may be a real need as we are often out all day and I don't have internet access at the casinos hubby plays poker at and an iPad would come in very handy to do my blogging and social media stuff.  I guess I better get to writing because an iPad isn't a necessity so it isn't coming out of our emergency fund.
4. We noticed a scam of sorts.  Our last couple of guests left us "free" tickets to a Vegas show.  We went to claim the tickets today in hopes of going to a show this afternoon and were told that all of the free tickets were gone but we could "upgrade" for an extra $10 or $20.  We asked when the next show would be that we could get the free tickets for and the guy said next Tuesday.  Of course we took them but then we figured that the average tourist would have got these vouchers (much like our guests did) and they would have probably been told that they couldn't use them until the following week and since they were here for usually a weekend or so, they would have probably just paid the fee so the tickets wouldn't go to waste. Hmmm
5. I am so tired of political attack ads.  Someone make them stop!

p.s.  Sorry if there are any typos.  Sometimes I read over previous posts and it looks like I proof read them in my sleep! Yikes!

I am Soooooo Cheap...

To which I hear the obligatory "how cheap are you??"  Here's some recent examples:

• I went to pay my cell phone bill today.  The guy at the counter next to me was paying his cell phone bill and it was $108!  So I--loud enough to be clearly overheard--told the guy that was helping me that I wanted to pay my monthly pre-paid cell bill for THIRTY DOLLARS...can you believe how cheap that is?  The guy with the expensive bill looked over at me.  Maybe it will at least make him think twice about saving money.
• When I went to buy my new laptop, I thought I was going to get a 'worst customer of the year' award.  I know the sales guys make around minimum wage with bonuses based on the extras they get customers to buy but when the guy said "you really should get an extended warranty" I said "nope" before he could even finish his sentence. Then he said "you can get a discount on antivirus software if you purchase it with your computer" to which I replied "I use Avast, it's free and works really well".  Finally, and looking dejected, he said that they also offer a pre-paid service plan in case something happens to my computer like it gets a virus or something to which the hubby said "I get viruses sometimes and she can fix those herself."  So he slinked away to retrieve my computer and didn't say anything else.  Sorry dude but I prefer my money in my pocket.
• I was having a craving for Girl Scout cookies--the thin mints that I can eat an entire box of by myself.  I looked up their sales locations online and it looked like I would have to wait until the weekend to buy some then we went to the dollar store and I found some chocolate mint cookies--for $1--and I was overjoyed to find that they taste exactly like thin mint cookies from the Girl Scouts.  That saved me $3.50 per box (I won't say how many boxes I bought!). 
• Finally, we were going to pay our car insurance with monthly payments (instead of a lump sum of $215 which covers six months) since now we have other bills to pay.  So hubby and I discussed it and we settled on paying the full amount out of our spending money for the next two weeks.  That will leave us a grand total of $100 for spending money until the end of the month.  I would much rather scrimp now and get a bill out of the way than pay monthly payments on anything.  So it looks like we will be eating everything in our cupboards instead of buying anything interesting for the next couple of weeks.  I also put off my haircut and color for two weeks, and I have decided to not even go near a Ross store until April lest I be tempted to buy something.

Yikes...I am pretty cheap!

5 Things That Save Us the Most Money While Traveling

I got to thinking about how much money we have saved while traveling over the past year and there are a handful of ways that consistently seem to save us money (both while traveling and while staying put for a while in one place):

1. Cheap food.  We often seek out the cheapest places to eat, from hole in the wall taco shops to the Dollar Menu at fast food places (my favorite is a baked potato covered with a small bowl of chili at Wendys).  We also tend to cook cheap food at the places we are staying (soups, stews, beans and rice Mexican dishes, etc).  If we do go fancy and eat prime rib, you can bet it is from a free comp at the casino.
2. Traveling light.  We each travel with one suitcase that we can carry on to airplanes.  Not only does this save us the checked baggage fee each time we fly but it really limits the amount of clothes we have (this means we hardly ever shop for clothes--why didn't I learn this thousands of dollars ago when I had to have nearly a whole new wardrobe each season??).
3. Free and cheap entertainment.  The good thing about traveling is that everything is new to us when we get to different cities so we don't run out of "new" places to see.  Since we are holding tight to our money, however, the entertainment options that we find have to be both interesting AND cheap (preferably free).
4. Finding the lowest prices on...everything.  I used to be pretty set in my ways. I HAD to have high speed internet at home, I HAD to go to a certain hair salon, I HAD to shop at the department stores my friends went to...  These days, especially when we are in an unfamiliar area, we are happy to just find things that we need.  So far we have found free internet (at lots of places), cheap hair salons (I paid around $2 for a haircut in the Philippines), and have currently rigged up our clothes on cheap-o racks we found at a thrift store (since the set up is temporary and we just wanted to get our clothes out of our suitcases, we got some cheap-o book racks out of our storage unit and organized our clothes on these...no need buying new racks they may or may not be workable in our new house).
5. Using coupons.  Whenever possible we try to use coupons and discounts at the places we go.  We have found these everywhere including: the local newspaper, online, advertised in the window of the business, through Living Social and Groupon, via word of mouth from friends and relatives who live in the area, on the back of receipts from local businesses, etc.

How to Get the Best Prices on the Things You Need

Being die-hard frugal people, the hubby and I always try to get the best price on everything we buy. Being fairly wealthy, the SIL doesn't really care about price tags. Every time the SIL goes shopping, hubby tells her "you can get that cheaper at..." She just rolls her eyes. Now these people are in their 60s so it's kind of cute to see them acting like older teenage brother/younger sister instead of the seniors they are.

Anyway, hubby's latest comment was on soda. The SIL went to Costco and bought a case of soda in the can for around $6.99. We were at the local Kroger store and found the same soda in the two litre bottle for 85 cents each. When we got home, the hubby pointed out the great price to his sister. She rolled her eyes...again.

We have a few methods for getting the lowest prices on the things we buy...

For material goods (clothes, TVs, etc), we look at our cheapest options in the community (Dollar Store, Discount Store, Walmart, on sale at a big box store, etc) then go online to compare prices. I'm not much for buying used things but plenty of people I know shun all of these options in favor of finding the items they want at garage sales and on CraigsList (which is a super cheap way to get stuff as prices are usually 10 cents on the dollar this way). Another way to stretch your money while buying material goods is to look for substitutions. I may be looking for a 50" name brand television but can I live with a 50" TV of another brand that costs $400 less or a slightly smaller TV which will also save hundreds of dollars? In most cases, the answer is yes. What we also ask is can we do without? Obviously this saves the most money and reduces the clutter/stuff we will eventually get rid of considerably. Finally, an option which is kind of between buying and doing without is borrowing or renting an item. This has become more popular as people realize that they don't need to buy a fancy lawnmower/edger/weedwhacker/etc when the items will just sit idle in the garage 95% of the time. A better option is for each neighbor to buy an item and share it with everyone else in the neighborhood saving both money and the time/upkeep/storage space to keep it.

For food, our options are similar. The first thing we do is look at store advertising circulars and find the lowest prices offered for the things we want (generally we build our menus around what is on sale instead of building menus then trying to find low prices on the items needed). Next we look at all of our shopping options: grocery store, Walmart with food center, military commissaries, Dollar Stores, discount grocery stores, even the local quick stop market sometimes have great prices on staples (like a gallon of milk for $2 or 10 pounds of potatoes for $1). Again, like with material goods, we also look for substitutions (sometimes when we get to the store and look for a sale item that is on our list, we may find the same item in another brand cheaper than the name brand sale item), and we look for substitute items as well (ie: if mozzarella cheese has a cheaper price than the swiss cheese we planned on buying, we determine if this different product will work for what we are making and usually go with the cheaper option). Occasionally we go to our last option which is doing without. I haven't had salmon since we have been in Atlanta simply because the price here ($9 a pound) is astronomical compared to the price we pay for salmon in Seattle (about $5 a pound). Finally, sharing is possible with food too. At home we often have "potluck" type meals with friends and relatives and if someone finds an awesome price on an item, such as a case of bananas for very little money, we tend to share these as well.

I am a little freaked out by how quickly and astronomically prices are rising on many of the items we use everyday however with the methods above, we are still able to get the things we want and need at a reasonable price.

Money Saving Habits

I think it is not until you live with other people that you realize the habits that you subconsciously perform day in and day out without even thinking about them can be a bit...odd. Apparently I have a lot of odd habits because they have been commented on. Often. Here's my list of odd (but money saving!) habits:

• When I do laundry, I use about a quarter of the recommended soap. My clothes aren't really dirty plus the water here is soft which means it takes more effort to rinse the soap out of the clothes so less soap is a good thing.


• I always cut dryer sheets in half. I like the anti-cling part of the sheets but I'm not a fan of overly perfumed things so cutting the sheets in half seems to be ideal.


• I use leftovers religiously. Many people will save leftover food then end up tossing it out eventually. I tend to base the next day's meals on whatever was leftover from the night before.


• I use one tea bag for two cups of tea each morning for the hubby and I instead of a tea bag for each cup. It seems to work just fine.


• When shopping I love the day-old bread rack, the discounted items bin, the loss leaders, and other sale items. Also, I tend to buy generic/store brands for many items (there are some store branded items I don't care for but most store brands are impossible to tell from highly advertised national brands).


• I often like to make my own food items from scratch (ie: we were at the grocery store with my sister in law and she was going to spend $5 on a small tub of hummus, I told her I could make a great hummus for less than a dollar from scratch). I do this for many products which seem horribly expensive compared to the "from scratch" price.


• Whenever shampoo, conditioner, or laundry soap gets nearly empty, I always add some water and shake. I like being able to use every last drop of a product.


• Whenever soap gets to be too thin to use, I get the next bar of soap lathery then smoosh the older sliver of soap on top, then let it dry; that way I can use every last scrap of the soap.


• When we go out to eat, hubby and I always split a meal. We don't do this so much because of the money, although this does save a lot of money, but because when we realized that we were never able to eat the trough-sized portions of food that was served to us, we decided it just made sense to split the meal. Also, we only drink water at restaurants, in fact we only drink water at all meals...it's a long-time habit.


• We don't drink alcohol of any sort (no wine, no beer, no hard alcohol) just because neither one of us likes the taste of alcohol. Between the two of us, this is just normal behaviour but it seems like ALL of our friends have the habit of wine with dinner or a beer after work.


• I love to use coupons, always send in rebates, and always ask for discounts (ie: senior discount for hubby, military discount when I know it is offered, etc). It's like free money and I seriously hate to pay full retail prices!


• When the door squeaked, I sprayed a dab of Pam cooking spray on it. It works!


• When I bake, I tend to bake a lot of different things at the same time. I figure it saves money on heating and reheating the oven.

Well, that all of the odd habits I have been made aware of recently. I think I picked up many of these things from my depression-era grandmother who used to do these things and more to save money.

How I Saved $1200 On My Taxes

In the mad rush to get everything done during the week of our move, I also wanted to get our taxes completed so I wasn’t carrying our tax paperwork all over the country and could leave the papers in our storage shed. I first did our taxes manually which meant downloading the forms, breaking out my calculator, and using a pencil with a good eraser plus taking a couple hours out of my busy schedule. In the past I have usually had my taxes professionally done, especially during complicated years (buying or selling property, cashing out investments, complicated business years, etc). However that costs around $300 and I really didn’t want to spend my travel money on an accountant (not that accountants aren’t great but this past year wasn’t very complicated tax-wise).
In other past years when the tax year was pretty uneventful, I would use prior year tax returns as a template and then enter my current info on a new tax form and do the calculations with a calculator. Needless to say, doing the math took quite a while because it seems like every calculation was made as convoluted as possible!
So last week, I did our taxes using a previous year’s return as a template and was shocked to see that I would owe about $9,500. Ouch! Turns out I wasn’t following my income during the year very well and made much more than I thought and therefore owed much more in taxes than I thought, as well as other small things (like paying less in mortgage interest because we were getting down to about ten years owed on the house and that means more of our money at this point went to principal than interest. Property tax was also lower, and sometime around the beginning of the year, I found a much cheaper house insurance policy so all of these things meant I had less deductions than usual.
While I was still reeling from the huge payment I would get to send to the IRS, I saw a post on a forum about people doing their taxes online. I did a bit of research, found this highly rated site, and learned that you can do your tax return online through a simple process of answering questions. At the end, you know how much you owe/will be receiving back, then you pay a small fee ($24.95 in my case), and you can either e-file or print and mail your return. I figured there was nothing to lose because at the end, if it showed that I owed as much as I had calculated, I would figure I was on the right track and not pay for or use the tax return I had just completed online.
When I got finished, however, there were a few new deductions and credits that I was unaware of which meant that, according to this tax return, I would only owe $8,300! Still a lot, but less than my calculations had shown. So I happily paid for the return to be completed, downloaded the 1040 as well as the other attachments (schedule A, Schedule Cs, etc) and not only finished my taxes in record time (the whole process online took less than an hour and was super easy to complete), but was able to pack up all of my tax records for the year before we left the state.
The bottom line is that if you usually do your own taxes and you aren’t super keen on every single new tax rule change, doing your taxes online can be a cost-effective, and in my case cost-enhancing was to take the drudgery out of tax filing!

10 Great Money-Saving Reasons to Radically Downsize Your Life

We are in the middle of a radical downsizing of our life (see previous posts). We are moving from the typical American lifestyle (big house, lots of expensive junk that we never use, horrible consumer habits, etc) to something quite different (renting a room for a home base and traveling with just what we can carry in our suitcases). This experience has been hands-down, one of the best ways to save money that I have ever found. Here's why:

1. We don't/can't shop for stuff any more. Since we are in the process of getting rid of stuff, it doesn't make sense to bring any more stuff into our house so shopping trips have been reduced and when I do find something I want, I realize that soon I won't have anywhere to put it so I don't buy it.
2. Knowing that we have a deadline looming, it really brings into focus what is important--namely bulking up our savings as much as possible.
3. We aren't spending much on food these days. Our goal is to skip going out to eat (we haven't done this much lately anyway) so that we can eat up the food we have in our cabinets instead of packing it up and giving it away.
4. Instead of being consumers, we are now on the other side of the equation--I am selling stuff like a maniac on EBay and Craigslist.
5. While we still have one car, we are looking at the possibility of eventually being totally car free. If we do end up traveling mostly overseas like we have planned, we will have no need of a car. I didn't realize how much a car actually costs until I got rid of my car. I had had a car since I was 16 and didn't think twice about paying all of the expenses that went along with it (car payment, insurance, maintenance, parking, etc) until I got rid of my car and found that I had an extra $800 to $1000 PER MONTH!
6. The purchases we do make are now analyzed, scrutinized, and evaluated for overall usefulness and cost. Now instead of needing a half dozen fleece jackets, I need one. When determining what kind of camera to get, I decided on a nice (and inexpensive) small point and shoot type instead of the multi-lens (and much bigger and expensive) SLR camera. Ditto for the one good pair of walking shoes, the couple of pairs of pants and t shirts (instead of multitudes), etc.
7. When I review our bill list each month, I literally can not wait to sell the house and move. Our monthly bills will radically drop because we will be paying a small, flat fee for a room instead of huge heating bills in the winter, cable TV/internet/phone, utilities, a big house payment, etc.
8. I'm not stockpiling stuff like I used to. I used to be the coupon queen. If I could buy a dozen bottles of dish soap because they were on sale and I had coupons, I would be in heaven. Now I look around and the cabinets are almost bare and I feel surprisingly much better, like the great weight of being responsible for so much stuff has been lifted off of me (this has also saved me a lot of money!).
9. I don't have any credit cards, hubby has one more to pay off, and when we do this, we will be saving money that would have otherwise went to interest. Oddly enough, I used to feel so secure with a wallet full of credit cards. These days I look in my wallet that contains my ID and a couple of debit cards and I feel indescribably light and free.
10. I think my health will improve the more we downsize. No car means more walking. Less work means more time for yoga and walking. More freedom means less stress. All of these things will probably save money on health costs.

I'm sure we will realize even more financial benefits as we continue on with our journey