Dear Power Company,Sorry for the huge increase in power consumption last night. Neither myself or my wife happened to shut the windows in the front room when we went to bed and as the temperature dropped to around thirty-four degrees the heater ran all night. Fortunately we caught it this morning and all of the temperatures appear to be balancing out as well as a reduction in heater use.Doh!Randy Petermanhttp://www.watchmymoneymaker.com
Yesterday I spent approximately fifteen dollars on coffee. An excessive amount, I know. But it was an experiment. I’m a coffee snob - not a Starbucks coffee snob, but a roast-your-own-beans if you can (I can’t because my roaster died and I haven’t had it repaired yet) type of coffee snob. So I decided to test out the difference between the cheap 24 ounces for $7.99 coffee verses the $11.99/pound freshly roasted stuff at my local Whole Foods. Here’s my dilemma: I, as a snob, need to figure out the cheapest way to consume high quality, tasty coffee. Here’s what I’ve come up with so far:
What things do you do to make sure you get a little luxury, but at a frugal price? Do you let yourself have a little luxury? When you go to the store do you wrestle with these things? I tend not to, but I find that when I have to buy coffee (which I actually drink sparingly contrary to what this post may imply) I convince myself to spend more every time. My expensive/cheap experiment proved again to me that I can taste a difference and prefer the good stuff. Help!
I arrived back from the West coast today at the Denver International Airport around 2:30. A family trip mixed with a vacation that was all cash based. We had to sell some stuff online and cash in some frequent flyer miles to get the whole family there, but it cost us what we could afford to go on the trip. A vacation like this is something I would have scoffed at just a year ago simply because our finances were such a jumbled mess. We got to spend some time with family and with that family we got to go see some beautiful wildlife - and Mt. St. Helens which erupted the weekend before we visited it.
We ate some stellar food at the Red Rooster Bakery, Mo’s Chowder, and contributed cash into the family’s grocery budget to eat crab [we had a connection that got us the crab at dirt cheap prices like $4.00/pound for huge legs], pork crown roast, and had a fantastic time. The whole time was fun, low stress, and since it was all with money we had in the bank I had no fears of what the next month’s statements would look like. This trip was a mix of frugality where needed and some splurging in places to make sure that some coastal events were maximized. Let’s face it, sea food at restaurants is just expensive (barring Long John Silver’s and such).
To her credit, my wife did a great job of planning out the trip, finding great airline deals,finding a hotel that was low cost, but with great amenities for us in Newport, OR. What sites do you use to make sure you’re getting the best deal on trips, travel and vacation? I’d love to be able to add to resources she has [which I'll make sure to get to post here].
This last year, for half of the year, we had a high interest savings account with WaMu. That account held quarterly tax money for us while we waited for the payment cycle to kick in. In the past that money sat in a savings account earning us nearly nothing. That’s the power of letting money work for you while you work on something else.
The amount of money that fluctuated in that account was pretty substantial. The account would go to almost zero every time we’d pay taxes, but then over several months time it would climb back up to make us more money each month. This up coming year, assuming we’re able to have the whole year instead of half the year we should be good for closer to $180… at least in theory.
If you have money sitting in a ‘regular’ savings account I strongly recommend you find a higher interest account or a money market account. It could mean the difference between $1.00 and $100.00.
From the Manager-Tools.com podcast:
“Our inefficiency during the day hurts our family and makes us ineffective because we waist time during the day that had we used that time wisely we would have been much for effective focusing on doing the right things.”
- Mark Horstmann
This quote hit home with me. When I have an inefficient day (and today has started out as one), it effects not only my clients, but it effects my family and the focus I want to have in my life. Good stuff.
If you’re like me you travel on occasion (next week in fact I’ll be heading to the Portland, OR area) and flight delays are always a drag. Or sometimes you have to pick someone up at the airport and their flight is delayed. A quick and dirty tool to give you a good feel for how things sit is availabe at flightwait.com. Check it out and see if you can save some time or money in the process.
Last weekend before I headed out on yet another business trip my two year old dropped a toy into the toy-let. I mean toilet. My wife was in the bathroom and attempted to reach into the toilet before the princess drowned, flushed and caused blockage that only mouse-produced royalty could cause. After washing her hands like she had an OCD disorder she came downstairs and alerted me to the problem at hand. I went to the hardware store later that evening and picked up an auger (also called a snake) but had no luck getting the princess to come out of her cave. Apparently the dragons had gotten to her and she was going to need a knight to rescue her. I was thinking a hired knight that charged $45.00 an hour or more.
It turns out that I’m cheap because after some searching on the interwebs I figured that I had a chance at disassembling my toilet/floor connection and getting the princess out myself. So I went to the hardware store and purchased a new wax ring to re-seal the toilet upon successfully removing it from the floor, some caulk (to reseal the grout that was attaching the toilet to the floor as well), and a large plastic drop cloth to put the toilet on so that extra water could be prevented from getting all over our tile floor. As it turned out the drop cloth was not as effective as it could have been but we’ll ignore that problem because this story is less concerned with my failure to contain all of the water.
I had the help of my brother-in-law who kindly used my utility knife to separate the grout from the toilet’s base and then helped me power-lift the toilet from the grout, caulk and wax ring that were underneath the already heavy toilet. The toilet came up, off onto the plastic, and I took an auger to the drain pipe in the floor hoping to retrieve the damsel in distress. No luck, the number-two ogres must have her trapped somewhere else. I rocked the toilet backwards and to my pleasant surprise the “princess of poop” was wedged sideways just inside the mouth of the toilet! I removed her from the ‘can’ and threw her away. I may be cheap, but my daughters don’t get a second chance with girls who hang out in such low class establishments.
I placed a new wax ring down on the floor making sure the sticky wax surface was facing upwards and the gasket was facing down into the floor pipe. I then lined up the bolts that hold the toilet to the collar in the floor so that they would be parallel with one another and hopefully lined up with the toilet’s holes. The most important next step was to take some scrap wood and place it on either end of the toilet’s home and give myself time to line up the bolts and toilet’s fastening holes before removing the wood (with the help of the brother-in-law again) and seating the toilet on the wax ring - you don’t want to mess that up or you could have biological gunk all over your bathroom floor or a waxy mess that you have to replace. We got the bolts and toilet lined up and then removed the wood slowly and positioned the toilet so that the grout matched up just right.
Mission accomplished! In about an hour the princess was saved (and then trashed) and the toilet was cleared - flushing like it was brand new. I had saved money, practiced something mechanical and out of my comfort zone, and got to feel the pride of having done something myself where before I was going to hire it out. There is nothing quite like taking care of your family to bring out an enjoyment of things as mundane as a toilet. Plus now I can tell stories and have G-rated potty humor.
Today I ran into Target to buy some new jeans. My wife was telling me to wait until Friday for the ‘black’ deals. However, I needed new jeans and I wasn’t going to be fiddling with my pants (I forgot belts on this trip and I need jeans anyway). I ran in and looked at the rack and there before my eyes was a sale tag telling me that the jeans were on sale for $14.99 USD. Awesome! I got a brand I know for a price I like.
I used to buy my pants at Old Navy but you won’t find the style I like at Old Navy any more. Apparently in my old age of thirty million I’m out of fashion. So I bought the low priced jeans that look like I need and fit me due to the last year’s weight loss. Cheap? Not really. Frugal - you betcha.
