I haven’t had problems lately, but in the past, there were problems with using up all of our cell phone minutes.  We currently subscribe to this nonessential, but I think we have a pretty decent deal:  $55 per month for 550 minutes plus unlimited nights/weekends after 7 pm local time.  I don’t want to upgrade or use data, I just have the essentials of what I need.

Because of my job, I need to be reachable 24/7 and I cannot go without this item.  I didn’t have one at my last duty station and there were a few times when DH and I were extremely stressed out because I needed one for those moments.

Nowadays, I’m on the road about 20 days out of the month, and I need a phone to be reachable by my office.  They should probably reimburse me for it!

Either way, I don’t have to validate myself here; I guess those comments are just to reassure myself that this is actually a need and not a want.  Sure, though, I do like having a cell phone.  Maybe I could scale back to a prepaid?

I don’t feel the need to keep more in touch with my family, but I suppose that it is an added benefit to be able to call them for free on the weekends and talk as much as I want.  If only I had the time on the weekends to talk as much as possible!!!

Do you limit your minutes to just on the weekends?  Do you use the weekends to catch up with your long distance family for free?  Do you have the best cell phone deal that is possible for your situation?

Photo credit: kb35

Now, we are only 88 days away from Christmas.  Have you started saving yet?  I’m already stressed out.

I always end up spending too much money around the holiday season.  What about you?  Are you going to take any measures this year to curb spending in this bad economy?  Forecasters are predicting a horrible consumer holiday.

I think that’s great.  I won’t go so far as “Bah, humbug,” but I hate the holiday run-up and all the money that gets spent on everyone.  I was spoiled rotten, and I’m sure my parents’ generation was spoiled rotten, so I won’t say, “Kids these days….” but I will say that we’re still going TOO FAR.

Still, I am susceptible to the commonly held notions.  I pull in a decent paycheck.  I overpay on my mortgage.  I can afford to purchase expensive gifts.

Why do I do it?

How are you going to do things differently this year? Are you still going to overspend this season?

Photo credit: krisdecurtis

We always go to the park to go “out” to eat.  This can save you so much off your bill by not having your food at the restaurant.  When you eat your food away, you don’t have to pay a tip, and you can bring your own drinks.  If you have free drinks at your home (water or CVS-bucks-bought-sodas), then you can save up to $2 per person.  If you don’t have to pay tip, you’re automatically saving 15% off the bill!

Today, we had an awesome lunch at the pavilion at the park.  It was pouring rain, but we were dry under the overhang and enjoyed the peaceful sound of the rainfall.  We saved at least $10 off our meal by bringing along drinks and not having to tip within the restaurant.

You could also bring along sides or purchase cheaper sides at the grocery store.  Another way to save might be to have a picnic in your backyard (to save on gas money) or on your patio.

How do you save money at restaurants?  When was the last time you had a picnic?

Photo credit:  Mexicanwave  

Okay, so you’re frugal with your money, but what about your time?  How many times have you gotten to the end of a day and realized that you need to do a “few more things” before you can go to sleep?  How many times have you found yourself at work wasting time by talking to people that don’t add any value to your life, or better yet, degrade your quality of life by bringing you down and making you not want to be there!?!?

Time is money.  Better yet, time is worth more than money, because there’s no way for us to compound our time.  We can’t invest our time in something easy so that later on we produce a ton more time.  Your youth and your work time are limited.

I have a set of headphones that I put on at work so that I can listen to something else than the stories being told all around me and/or the garbage that wastes my time.

What do you do to grab hold of your time?  What are you doing to make the most of your time?  How do you stay “on task?”

Photo credit:  Natmandu

I always wondered why people would just throw out things.  Even when things are obsolete, if we take good care of them, they’ll serve us well into their expected shelf life.  If you want to enjoy the things you have, here are some tips:

1.  Clean them.  If you keep dirt, dust, etc. off things, they will not corrode or age so quickly.

2.  Declutter.  Knowing what you really have will make you appreciate it more.  I know, getting rid of things to make it seem like you have more doesn’t make logical sense, but just trust me.

3.  Wait to purchase new things.  When you have to work for or wait for something, it seems more valuable.  We don’t go out to eat except a few times per year, and it is so much more special to us than it used to be.  When I actually go to the store to buy new things (almost never), it feels pretty good.

4.  Find out how to perform your own maintenance.  Even changing oil on your car is pretty empowering.  Think about all your appliances and the ones that you can spend your weekends maintaining.  This should give you some ideas.

5.  After you declutter, put your things out where you can see/use them.  I can’t wait to purchase some racks for my garage so I can organize my garage clutter.  It’s going to be so much fun.

6.  Don’t take in too much outside media.  Watching TV and looking at magazines are great, but they expose you to advertising.  No matter how “tough” you think you are, advertising has some effect on all of us.  Try consuming media that doesn’t tell you to spend your every last dime!

These tips should make you appreciate what you have even more!

Photo credit: Dr Craig

This post was inspired by a final sentence over at You Need a Budget.  Jesse said,

“A guy gets bright-eyed with the prospect of spending $500 on a “modest” gas grill (the one that really caught my eye yesterday was over $900 though - yeah right!). Does the same guy get excited about throwing $500 toward unsecured debt? Or stashing $300 in his emergency fund?”

I think this point deserves some more development - it certainly caught my attention and made me sit up a bit.  Why is it that we’re so mesmerized by purchasing new items, but when it comes to paying for our old debts, we don’t get so excited?  Is the value more when we buy new items?  No.  $500 on a new grill or $500 toward old credit card debt is the same amount of money, and our market economy has decided that they are worth the same amount.

So why are we so excited about buying the latest new item at Best Buy or those perfect pants at the mall, but we’re not as intense about pay off of debt?  Why, psychologically does it feel better to purchase these new items than it does to pay off the same amount of debt?

I think the key to this point is that you don’t have the “just new” feeling when you pay off debt.  You don’t get to open up a package.  How do you stay intense about paying off debt when it seems to take forever to pay it off?  How do you reward yourself about your accomplishments in debt payoff when you’re not able to spend money on rewards?  You don’t receive anything from the debt payoff except for the satisfaction of knowing you’re going to come out ahead.

So how do you stay “intense” about paying off your debts without purchasing new, shiny items?

Photo credit: Tracy O

I think it’s funny that people would even think that we would throw out things that still have a use.  For example, DS is still using my uncle’s PS2.  We still have a VCR that we haven’t had to do any maintenance on for years.  Here’s why we have old things that others might frown upon:

1.  Dirt cheap accessories. VHS movies?  Extremely cheap at garage sales.  PS2 games, used?  Around $10 at the local video rental place.  Even cheaper at garage sales.  My mom gave me a huge box of my sisters’ old Disney VHSes.  All of the classics, and they still work, of course!  Who would say that’s not cool!

2.  Instilling a sense of worth.  DS must realize that new does not equal perfect.  Older things still have great value.  Until they break, there is no reason to replace them.

3.  Making it more valuable when we do buy new things.  It’s not worth it if you don’t have to wait to gratify yourself.  Then, it becomes mundane.  Now, if we do actually go to a movie at the movie theater or have to buy a PS3 when the PS2 goes out, it will seem more valuable than if we went out and bought any old thing that caught our eye.

4.  Lowering values.  This sounds horrible, but since we don’t have cable and don’t rent movies at the video store or online, the movies that play on network TV are new to us and thus very entertaining!  It really is a breakthrough for us.

What do you still have that others would probably throw away, but you still get a ton of use out of?  Does anyone give you a hard time for it?

Photo Credit:  Paul Mayne

Everyones’ budgets are apparently getting tighter; Starbucks has announced that it will be closing 600 stores.  I’m pretty sure that this means that most Americans are now following the rules that you and I, my frugal friend, have been following for years.  Or are they becoming us?  Who knows… 

Either way, here is the most substantiative news story that I could find.  I think that most Americans are simply becoming more frugal with the recent downturn in the economy.  What do you think?  Do you think that the market is oversaturated or that Americans are simply making more of their own money by making their coffee at home?  The article says that the coffee shop market is oversaturated.  I just think that people are doing regular tasks on their own, like our parents did.  Here are some examples:  cleaning their own homes, cleaning their own clothes (instead of taking everything to be dry cleaned), mowing their own grass, and washing their own cars.  I think these are simple steps that any American can do, and it’s not just us super-frugalists that are taking these steps.  Or maybe I’m just crazy. 

What are you seeing in your area?  Do you notice people doing their own chores?  Or do you think Americans are too connected to the simple lives they have become accustomed to? 

Photo Credit:  miskan

Excuse me everyone for taking a break this last weekend.  I’m getting ready to maybe go on a trip, so I had a lot of personal stuff to take care of.

I found out last week that you can now receive coupons on your cell phone.  It seems like right now the service only works for discounts available to everyone, but imagine the applicability!  I would love to be able to have the clerk scan my cell phone or be able to present coupons on my cell.  Imagine if we were able to just download them onto our device, then scan at the register and it could take any applicable coupons.  That would be the greatest.

So, for now, it only applies to a few areas, but I can see where this could become very useful soon (and save me some ink and paper!).  Check out the original article.

Sounds like cow-tipping!  I never used to tip my maid, but I recently (about a year ago) started, since I think the maid could really mess up my life if she wanted.

I talked to a friend in the same hotel last night and she said the maids have been stealing her quarters.  I asked her if they were set out on top of a dresser or something and she said yes.  I told her they probably thought they were a tip.  She said altogether, they’ve taken $3.00 in quarters from her, and she never tips her maid.  I have a feeling they know she doesn’t want to tip them.  Here was her reasoning:

1.  They are paid minimum wage, unlike a waitress.

2.  She doesn’t have to make up for the minimum wage difference.

3.  She never sees them, so she doesn’t feel bad about it.

I’m not really sure I follow her logic, but I know I feel a little better when I tip my maid, so I think I’m going to continue.  The cheap side of me says that the dollar or two per day is killing me (I know, I have a problem!), but the sensible side of me says that it’s worth it not to have the maid use my toothbrush as toilet paper.

What is your opinion on tipping maids in hotels?  What are the factors that weigh in for you?