Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge

But you might have guessed that already as a regular reader.

Via Escape Brooklyn, it’s official. I scored a 17 on the Time Out New York quiz.

I took this quiz about being cheap at timeoutnewyork.com/livecheap, and my cheapness quotient rated as 17.

Here’s what they said:
Finally! A sane person. You’re careful with your money, but never cheap. You know that what goes around comes around and that a thank-you goes a long way.

Try the quiz and let me know how you score:
Cheap Quiz

As I expected, I’ve been shopping for lunch at the supermarket near work. I think I’ve figured out a good pattern.

For about $11-13 I can get a bowl of chili, a .6-.75 lb package of chicken salad, 1-3 whole wheat bakery rolls, a 6 pack of 20 oz Diet Cokes. For about $4 more, I can get a big box of roasted nuts. Cashews are my favorite.

I do this all in one single lunch hour trip. That’s important because part of the reason I’ve been doing this is to cut down on car trips during the week.

I eat the chili the first day with a roll. For lunch the next day, I eat half the chicken salad on another roll, or else bring some of that yummy homemade bread I’ve been baking. The third day is the rest of the chicken salad with homebread or a roll.

However, I think I need to add some bag salad to this so that I can get a few more veggies in the mix. And the downside risk is that a bad brownie might eat my lunch, but so far, there are better things to steal like the team statistician’s homemade pork and spinach dumplings. (OMG with handmade skins and homegrown chives. Delicious!)

The only downside to this is that I don’t get away from my desk on Day 2 and Day 3. That’s part of why I buy lunch every day. There’s no place outside to eat in my industrial park, besides, it’s disgusting out there now that summer is here. (It hit 100 on Saturday, therefore it’s summer.) Also, there something pathetic about the brightly painted cafeteria set in the middle of the industrial work area at my work site. It’s windowless and depressing in its false cheeriness. Plus the vending machine tempts me with candy treats and overpriced soda.

At any rate, going to the supermarket for lunch is helping conserve money. I’ve found that out in suburban industrial park hell, lunch usually runs me $8+, even on the Korean-owned lunch buffet. (Where I get my fix of Korean food the other 2 days of the week.) I rarely go to Chicken Out with the guys from the office since it’s really far away and what I want usually runs about $9. That’s been more of a monthly treat instead.

So what about you? Is this a viable strategy to change the ways of a chronic lunch purchaser? I know it’s been working for me for the last two weeks and I hope to keep it going for the rest of the summer. Are you a chronic lunch buyer and willing to try this strategy out?

Boston Gal has written extensively about her use of an energy meter around her home and ‘phantom’ energy losses.

I got this really awesome graphic of Vampire Energy Loss* from a friend of mine. I think it’s brilliant. It shows which appliances use the most energy in two types of standby modes and the approximate dollar cost. I can guaran-damn-tee you that I’ll never get a plasma TV after looking at the graphic.

As it is, I run only a computer, LCD monitor, Sony Dreamcube alarm clock, rice cooker (when I’m cooking and leaving it on warm setting), fridge, and a regular microwave. Even my toaster is unplugged on the counter and I use a regular toothbrush, though I’ve thought about getting a Sonicare one since my college friend, now dentist, recommends it.

Just some thoughts for you in the battery-laden, blinky holiday light season about your energy use. I mean, after all, I’m going to California for 5 days and you know I’ll be shutting off my computer and monitor, but my alarm clock will stay on. The thermostat is going down to 55 as well.

* Formally, the data is from the ‘2005 Intrusive Residential Standby Service Report’ from the Dept. of Energy. Your tax dollars at work.

Two weeks ago I did some shopping at my local grocery store and Target.

I noticed that Target is a lot cheaper on a great many things again. Not everything, but a lot.

Items that were cheaper at Target:
Tide HE in 100 oz bottles. About $12.50 each, where my grocery store had them for more like $15.00.

Pantene shampoo. For $3.79 vs $4.49 a bottle

Campbell’s Soup to Go. $1.20 vs non-sale prices. I only buy these at the regular grocery store if I can get them for less than $1.50.

Tylenol EZ tabs 100 count. $8.xx vs $8.xx. I forget exactly the prices, but the grocery store was very slightly cheaper. However, generic acetaminophen was still cheapest over all. But this time I had a coupon for Target and Tylenol-brand and so I got the bottle for less than $8 bucks.

*********************

Some grocery saving websites tell you to keep a price book. I’m not that diligent. I’m rather lazy, but doing a side-by-side comparison every once in a while on your staple items will give you a good idea of where to buy what things cheapest.

I still get my OJ from the supermarket and my Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice from Target.

Laddie noticed that the cereal at Target was cheaper, but the selection was small. But the Target we went to carries Goya products! Woo! Usually I get my beans and lentils from Goya, however, Target did not have those items, just the Adobe seasoning, processed foods and juices. (I point this out because the Target near my office serves a different demographic, therefore, no Goya there, more frozen pizzas.)

I think being on the list not to get junk mail means I don’t get spiffy Target coupons. I see them on his coffee table and make him take me shopping there. Added bonus, he carries the heavy stuff!

How much did I save? A little over 10% of the bill. I ended up returning the Pantene shampoo because I did not need it and the coupon was not deducted as advertised. I complained to the customer service desk and told her either to take off the $1.00 for the two bottles or just return them. She just returned them. I was stockpiling so it wasn’t a big deal, just annoying to run back into the store to make the return. (It bothers me not to read the receipt when I leave and we had to fish it out of the trunk to make me feel better.)

Added note about the coupon and the Pantene. I did not buy the largest bottles of shampoo that I could. I noticed that I would save more percentage-wise if I chose the middle size of shampoo instead of the biggest size. Please read this article by Dawn at Frugal for Life under the Buy Small section. Sometimes getting your best deal is not from using the coupon to buy the biggest size available. Often getting the middle-sized package with a doubled coupon gets you the best deal. I had this problem at Target since they didn’t have 64oz Tide HE Free (unscented) available. They only had original scent, which forced me into the 100oz bottles of Tide HE Free. Bummer. (I have yet to get into ‘rainchecks’ from the grocery store.)

I’ve been really good this week and yet, really bad. Thursday was another Almost No Spend Day. I forgot to mention that I do spend money daily on tolls to and from work. But that doesn’t really register since it’s automatic. An overview of teh week.

The Bad:

I bought an “In Your Face Dave Ramsey” $4 Pumpkin Spice coffee at Starbucks yesterday.

I also bought a $2 tea at Starbucks while I was knitting.

I had to buy gas ~$25, but I chose not to fill up at the super expensive station near work.

I ate at the new cafeteria at work since we relocated and wanted to check out our dining options. $15.33 for two meals with extras like snacks to take back to my desk.

The Good:

I went to a concert and dinner for free, courtesy of my laddie.

By not filling up my gas tank completely, I waited to fill the rest of the way at the really cheapo gas station near my house. I see they dropped their price by $.02 a gallon this morning, beating the station near work by $.07. (On a full tank, that’s nearly a dollar. So mental note, the best buy really is near home.)

By bringing sandwich fixings and drinks to work, I could choose to eat in the cafeteria, but lightly. I also fixed myself something to eat so I wouldn’t buy dinner at Starbucks or the expensive but delicious Italian restaurant next door.

Through a volunteer gig I have, I am learning about “Step Down Budgeting”. This means easing into budget changes and building better spending habits. For instance, I really dislike sandwiches for lunch. I prefer hot meals. By trying to bring my lunch to work once or twice a week, I’m not going cold turkey on buying lunch every day, nor am I feeling deprived because I’ve cut myself off the hot-turkey-open-faced sandwich-with-gravy gravy train. Currently with turkey sandwich fixings in the fridge, I can choose to buy lunch or choose to be frugal and fix lunch. When I am motivated to keep practicing frugality, I can pack more lunches and cut back on buying lunch even further. Step Down Budgeting is about making choices and moving towards cutting the budget gradually so you don’t feel the pinch and do a 180 on budgeting. It’s to keep you from setting up for failure because it’s all too easy to say “I hate budgeting because it doesn’t work for me. I can’t keep a budget.”

Oh, so how did I do this week on lunch? Well I got the bread and turkey cold cuts on sale. The Muenster cheese wasn’t on sale though, but my co-worker likes it and sometimes I share my food so it doesn’t go to waste. I ate all the turkey and cheese and have half a loaf left of bread waiting for next week. I plan on having a PBJ today for lunch. I also had about a quart of potato soup from earlier this week. I brought in some Pepsi I bought on sale and a can of tomato soup, which was a very nice add-on to the cold turkey sandwich. (Did I mention I like hot food?)

Food is the bane of my budget. But slowly, with Step Down Budgeting, I’ll get there.

Do you have any examples of stepping down slowly to hit your budget targets?

JD at Get Rich Slowly recently had to check a receipt from IKEA. I, myself, recently had to check a receipt from the grocery store. Sometimes I go shopping with laddie for groceries even though we don’t live together. It’s kind of fun for us and we share coupons or get BOGO stuff and give the free one to the other person. (Plus he helps carry everything into the house for me.) (BOGO means Buy One Get One Free)

This week we picked up the in-store flyer and saw tons of BOGO stuff we like. The main thing was cases of Pepsi. I, myself, am not a fan of Pepsi. I am a die-hard fan of Coca-Cola. But I do like the caffeine-kick and the variety of soda vs coffee. (Yes, I know tap water is best. Let’s not beat that horse to death again.) Since cases were BOGO, I got two. Per the flyer and the shelf tag, Tide was also on sale for $4.97. I use HE (high-efficiency) Tide because of the HE machines in the laundry room of my condo. I picked up two 100oz bottles.

I got various other things BOGO, like cans of soup to stock the pantry, my regular Sunday sale rotisserie chicken, etc. The only things that weren’t on sale were Dole Mandarin Oranges, deli Muenster cheese and some boneless chicken breasts. The total was $83.45, which I thought was damned expensive since almost everything I picked up was on sale.

I looked at the receipt closely and it looked like the Pepsi was not BOGO and the Tide was not on sale. HM… Laddie checks his receipt since he also bought Mountain Dew on the same BOGO promotion. It turns out we did get the discount but it was marked “Holiday Spice” at the bottom of the receipt. Go figure. Apparently Holiday Spice is some special seasonal Pepsi soda. Since I had already made up my mind to return the Tide HE that wasn’t on sale, I got a $30 refund for returning the detergent. I’m sorry, but the flyer said 100 oz Tide was on sale for about $5 bucks. Since it wasn’t, it had to go.

It turns out I was wrong. The Tide promotion had a little starburst which said that HE was excluded. That’s fine. I’m not desperate for detergent. I’ll just wait it out. But I am thankful that I didn’t just walk out having overpaid for a lot of detergent.

Check your receipt BEFORE you leave the store, and make sure you are getting what you think you’re getting. We also found out by staring at my receipt that Harris Teeter doubles coupons! WOO HOO! I got an extra 50 cents off of soup. This isn’t going to turn me into a regular coupon cutter. I still hate shopping with coupons, but I find this factoid intriguing.

Some people are going to ask me why I didn’t watch the scan. Since I was busy separating my stuff from laddie’s stuff, I wasn’t watching the scanner when it first occurred.

So how many of you out there regularly check your receipts? Do you feel it’s a habit that contributes to your frugality? Or are you just compulsive that way? How big of a mistake have you caught doing this? I would have to say that this $30 detergent problem was my biggest catch ever.

1. Dry Loop DSL is DSL service without a telephone line. I didn’t know you could get this until I met Jericho Hill at a DC PF Blogger happy hour a few months back. (Email me if you want to be on the invite list. I am somehow the unofficial keeper and we do like to host out-of-towners.) JH lives in my neck of the woods and told me he gets dry loop because it’s cheap and he uses a cellphone as his main line. I always thought you needed a phone line to get DSL. Imagine that. (Technically, I know that it’s not necessary being that it can be carried without a POTS line into the house. I’m not that dumb. But when it was first available it was always sold in a bundled package and I was not aware that had changed.)

2. In my desperation to feel like I’m doing something, rather than nothing to be frugal, reduce my expenses, pay down debt, etc., I called Verizon. It turns out that I have close to the barest bones phone service available so that can’t get any cheaper than $22.53 a month. Dial tone is dial tone and it comes at a flat rate. That price includes most, if not all, of the taxes and the unlisted number fee, which is my only optional service.

3. I can also get DSL for $31.99 for a 12-month contract. Very interesting. I tell the guy that I don’t want to get anything longer because I might be moving away out of state. (That returning to CA fantasy of mine.) The agent tells me that if I was going to move to a destination where Verizon does not provide service, I WILL NOT HAVE TO PAY A CANCELLATION FEE ON THE CONTRACT. For all of you movers out there, this is something very good to know. They also do not make you pay it if you are moving from one location to another and retain Verizon as your provider.

The new DSL pricing means I save about $6 bucks a month. ($5.94 to be exact) It’s not a lot, but that’s what I pay for lunch at the yummy in-house cafeteria. I had a hard time deciding whether or not to keep my phone line. I like having a land line for security reasons because I still don’t trust E911 services off of anything other than a POTS line on a dedicated circuit to the dispatcher. (Stupid technical telecom knowledge I know from work. Woe unto me for the knowledge. I pay a lot for the insurance of reaching the cops when I need them.)

So I kept the phone line but got the reduced rate for DSL. Something rather than nothing. I can still call back and cancel the land line. I was actually surprised at how easy it was once I got a human being on the phone. The automated voice menu is kind of slow and tedious, but it did get me an agent fairly quickly once it decided I didn’t fit the menu options.

Trent at The Simple Dollar has an excellent deconstruction of comments on the Yahoo Finance article by Anya Kamenetz about living frugally in the Age of the iPhone. What I find vastly interesting is that some of my coolest friends in San Francisco were some of my poorest. They were really good about saving their money. I learned a lot from them about how to shop thrift, go clubbing on the cheap, and figure out the free and fun stuff around town. We rarely took cabs there. The bus and our feet were our best travel companions.

English Major Money asks, “Where do our money personalities come from?” Great question. You’ll have to read all over my blog to find that one, but try clicking the Personal Memory category on the right. I’m sure it’s buried all in there.

Hazzard at Everybody Loves Your Money has created a chart to tell you what you have should have saved by now. It’s got a number for every age between 21 and 65. Even though I’m in my early 30’s, I’ve got what a 29 year old has got. Fortunately, I am trying to save more than $2.5K a year and do way better than only 8%. However, 8% is a very achievable average rate of return that I use in most of my long term forecasting spreadsheets.

Ask Dong has some tips on TIPS.

Savvy Saver’s strategy for zero balance transfer arbitrage. I’ll be honest, this sounds too risky for me. I don’t know that I’m interested in trying out since I have lots of debt at the moment. On one hand, I don’t need new credit lines for anything whatsoever in my life right now. Maybe in 3 years I’ll need car, so this could be a good time to do it. But on the other hand, interest rates are falling so perhaps the time for the greatest interest rate spread has passed us by?

Pinyo of Moolanomy guest blogging for J.D. of Get Rich Slowly. Get it? Ok, the post is actually on Pinyo’s 12 Investing Mistakes. A really excellent list. Please learn from it. Even now, it still has lessons for me.

I forgot to tell you guys that the new TripleTred tires drive really well in the rain. They have a better feel on the road and I’m really glad I sank the money into them. Yes, they do corner better and I feel like they improve my handling at higher speeds. They were worth the money.

Even better is that there was an offer for a $40 Visa card as a rebate on my purchase. (It’s a promotion that’s still going on. I saw a sign for it again today at the Goodyear store.) I came back from the holiday weekend and found that my Visa card was waiting for me! WOO HOO!

So the plan is to use it to buy a trickle charger for my motorcycle, which I ordered from a small repair shop that was highly recommended to me. (I hope he takes Visa. He actually might not. I didn’t even think of that. Who doesn’t in this day and age?)

I spent my extra day off going to banks in VA and MD, ordering the charger, getting a car wash, buying a new shredder, catching up on blogs, and cleaning my apartment. Wednesday was a good day.

The ding is that the shredder was a lot of money. But I think it’s worth it since I’ve broken two home office shredders already, and the tall industrial shredder at work doesn’t like me either because I dump fistfuls of paper into at a time. Who has an hour to wait for shredding? I am Fawn Hall on steroids. (Please God, I hope my readers remember who she is. I’m not *that* old.)

The other ding is that I used the local car wash place ($14) that’s ‘touchless’. Honestly, it’s not that much better than the car wash place ($8) at the gas station by my office. The wheels are a lot cleaner, but still dirty. They don’t do the greatest job, so I was still wiping them down with Armor All and hitting up the windows with Rain-X when I got home. There is getting a good value from an awesomely powerful new shredder, and then just wasting your money between two things that are roughly the same. Now I know. I won’t use the place near home. Always get a wash at lunchtime instead.

Hat tip to Hazzard at Everybody Loves Your Money for the Kiplinger’s story link. There is also a video for this inspiring story about Earl Crawley.

This story brings me to tears. Mr. Earl is an inspiration. Just today I drove up to Charm City and marveled at how much it’s changed since I argued with city council chair Mary Pat Clarke all those years ago for more economic development and better zone near campus so students would want to spend their money there instead of in the suburban malls outside city limits. It’s changed so much. I only wish it could have happened sooner. But I digress with my disgusting sentimentality. Sorry.

In the video, you find out Mr. Earl started out small, with savings stamps, then savings bonds, mutual funds and then one share of stock which led to dividends and making his money work for him. (Heck, I don’t even know what a savings stamp is! Per Wikipedia, he must have been saving them since elementary school. See? Start them young!)

In spite of the urban poverty all around Baltimore after desegregation, Mr. Earl saved what he earned and was able to amass a sizable nest egg on $12/hour. So no matter what, it’s how you live, what you spend and what you keep that counts. Nobody is going to come down and hand you $500K. You have to work at it over time.

Ok, so the projected plan is to have one credit card down to less than $9K by the end of the year.