Do Frugal Men Ride The Greyhound?

February 29, 2008 · Filed Under · 5 Comments 

The man in question is my Dad. As I have documented on my blog before, my Dad is one of the more frugal people I know. He was up last week visiting us here in Redding, CA. He lives about a 5 hour car ride to the south of us in Watsonville, California. With the high price of gas, he opted for the more frugal Greyhound bus service. Was it extreme frugality? I will let you be the judge. On Monday morning I dropped him off at the Greyhound bus station in Redding at 7am. Holy smokes, what a long day he ended up having trying to get home. So now in my Dad’s own words, here is how his day went:

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7:30 am: Bus left Redding, CA.
9:55 am: Bus arrives in Sacramento. Scheduled to leave at 10:45am to catch a 1:00pm bus from Oakland.
12:15 pm: Bus finally leaves Sacramento. I was then told that since I would miss the 1pm bus in Oakland to go on to San Francisco and catch a 5:15pm bus to San Jose. Other option was to go on to Oakland and catch the 11:30 pm bus from Oakland directly to Santa Cruz arriving God knows when. Yikes, this is getting ugly.
2:30 pm: Bus arrives in San Francisco.
5:15 pm: Bus leaves San Francisco and heads towards San Jose.
7:05 pm: Bus arrives in San Jose. Walked 5 blocks to the Am-Track station where the Highway 17 Express Bus station is located.
8:05 pm: Left San Jose on Highway 17 Express Bus towards Santa Cruz.
9:00 pm: Bus arrives in Santa Cruz. I then caught a local bus for Watsonville immediately. I had decided to call my wife from Santa Cruz if a Watsonville bus was not readily available.

The Rest Of The Story: So I got off the bus at a rural corner where only one business exists thinking it would still be open at 9:30 pm. SORRY NO DICE. DOUBLE SORRY, NO PAY PHONE! I do not want a cell phone because they go off when I am doing something equally important. So I started to walk home in the dark carrying my suitcase (2 mile walk) when a car pulled into the tiny parking lot. It seems two ladies had carpooled to some place (doubtful it was Redding) and one was letting the other out at her car. I seized the moment and inquired if they knew if there was a pay phone in this parking lot. The one lady gave me a look as if I had inquired to Einstien’s theory of relativity. Then she graciously asked if I wanted to use her cell phone. I called my wife and arrived home at 9:40pm about 14 hours after leaving Redding.

Would I Do It Again: Many would say my trip was an absurd waste of time. I rather think of it as an adventure. Being retired, I do not have to account for every minute or day for that matter. In addition, not taking this awesome bus trip would have left me the options of:

1) Missing my 6 year old grandson’s last basketball game of the year, the only one I got to witness.

OR

2) Driving a second car on a 750 mile round-trip at at a cost of about $125.

My route cost me the following:

  • Greyhound Bus Ticket-$39
  • HWY 17 Express $2
  • Santa Cruz metro $1, for a total savings of $83. 

I would definitely do it again given those options. THINKING MORE ABOUT A CELL PHONE THOUGH!

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Frugal Tips To Help Get Your Garden Growing

February 28, 2008 · Filed Under · 7 Comments 

garden.jpgWe are getting a really nice taste of Spring here in northern California. Today it is in the low 70’s and crystal clear. I finally have my office window open and am getting some nice fresh air! Days like today get me excited to get out and work in the yard and also to to get a small garden planted. The fresh air motivated me to write a post on getting your garden ready frugally! I love lists and here some that I found which will really be of help:

Happy gardening. Please feel free to add any other resources in the comments section!

Photo Credit: MoonshineBluebird

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Tips From Women Around The Blogosphere

February 27, 2008 · Filed Under , · 7 Comments 

dollarsign.jpgI have recently stumbled across some great blogs written by women with tips to make life a little easier and a little less expensive. As a father of 3 children and living on a budget, I read these blogs and other to get some great tips on making our paycheck go a little bit further. It amazes me how much you can learn from reading about the experience of others. I wanted to take a moment to pass some of these blogs along to you. So with no further ado, here are some blogs I have been enjoying the past couple weeks. Go check out these blogs, they are all very well done.

  • Saving on Diapers: Cloth v. Disposable – Crystal at Money Saving Mom discusses the benefits of both cloth and disposable diapers. She gave up on cloth diapers recently on her second child because she mastered the art of the “explosive diaper” which made cloth diapers a pretty stinky situation. Sorry couldn’t resist. :-) My wife and I similarly gave up on cloth diapers with our second child. Was just too much work. I now get a good deal on disposable at Diapers.com. Crystal scores a great deal on disposables at CVS.
  • Frugal Shopping With Julie – Julie, ”The Queen of Frugal”, is a blogger after my own ‘coupon loving’ heart. She blogs about great deals and coupons that she finds around the web. She writes in a very fun style and is very creative, go check out her blog!
  • Money Saving Methods.com – Carrie, a mother of 3, blogs about some great ways to save money. For example, my family loves Red Robin, it is our kids favorite restaurant and Carrie gave me the tip of signing up for getting a free burger on our kid’s birthdays. We end up there on almost every birthday in our family so this is a great find. Thanks Carrie!
  • For Families First – This is a great blog for parenting tips, as well as tips on how to save some money when running the household. Nice recipes as well. I found the blog a couple weeks ago when I was looking for some grocery store coupons. This is an excellent resource for parents. Go take a peek.
  • BeCentsAble – This blog is a guide to spending sensibly and saving more money with coupons. What I like about this blog is how you can share your shopping finds and check out the great deals others have found at Walgreens, Target, and other stores. It amazes me how many great deals are out there for the taking. You just have to know where to find them and this blog helps you do that.
  • The Happy Housewife - Musings about homemaking, homeschooling, saving money and more. The Happy Housewife brings you great household tips and frugal living tips. A very honest blog and well written. My wife has added this to her blog reader and already used several of her tips, including the Banana smoothie, which is awesome by the way!

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Chevy, I Have A Problem

February 26, 2008 · Filed Under · 3 Comments 

What is the fine for going 120 in a 55 mph zone? I was driving down a road near my home last week and looked down and the speedometer on my truck read 120! Since an old lady on a Rascal actually passed me, I knew I had a problem. Yeah, finally get to take advantage of my 8 year, 75,000 mile extended warranty that I bought with 2004 Chevy Silverado, that I bought new. Is it healthy to want something to go wrong with your truck so you can get it fixed for free? While I may not be that bad, I was kinda tickled when I got my truck fixed today and did not have to pay a cent!

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When I bought the extended warranty, I did a lot of second guessing as to whether or not it was a good decision. Sure it gives me a little piece of mind but it did cost $1200. So I may have to break my speedometer another 10 times to get me money’s worth out of it. The jury is still out. Have you ever bought the extended warranty on a new auto? If so, would you do it again?

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Coupon Monday – Volume I

February 25, 2008 · Filed Under · 2 Comments 

Volume I – Hot Spoon Edition

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Have you ever been so mad that you wanted to heat up a spoon on the stove top, and stick it on somebody’s face?

No. Really? Am I the only one?

Flashback 20-something years ago. I was around 11 years old. There I was standing in our family kitchen heating up the spoon on our electric stove top. The victim, my older sister. The crime? To this day I cannot remember what possessed me to do it. We were always fighting and something must have happened to put me over the edge. Geez, I can’t believe I am telling this story, I have a feeling I might lose subscribers over this. But rest assured I turned out to be a good guy.

So back to the story, it was around 7am and my spoon was hot, not red hot or anything, but hot enough to do some damage. I enter my sister’s room where she was sleeping and crept up to her bed. The rest is kind of a blur but I do know that it involved alot of screaming, a burnt nose, and a burnt forearm. The screaming and nose belonged to my sister and the forearm belonged to yours truly. You see, my Mom heard the screaming, ran into the room, grabbed the spoon and stuck it on my arm. Smart move Mom! I probably would have done the same thing if my children were up to no good with hot utensils.

Memory was preserved forever as my sister had soccer pictures the following day! To this day, the story comes up at almost every family get together. Somethings you can never live down. But my sister has since forgiven me and we actually get along really well now. I did chase her from the country though, she now lives in Australia with her husband. Can’t say that I blame her!

Now go use the following coupons to buy some “room temperature” stuff for your kitchen:

Cooking.com
Save $10 OFF your $75+ order (Affiliate Link)
Coupon Code: C98835
Expiration: 3/15/08

Sur La Table.com
FREE Shipping on Select Items thru this LINK ONLY (Affiliate Link)
Coupon Code: None Needed
Expiration: 3/31/08

Home Click.com
Save $100 OFF your $1000+ order (C’mon, that is a lot of spoons!) (Affiliate Link)
Coupon Code: HCFEB07AF
Expiration: 2/29/08

Photo Credit: Spacepleb

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Are You A ‘Frugal Fun Suck’?

February 22, 2008 · Filed Under · 9 Comments 

karma.jpgI stumbled across an article in the Chicago Tribune titled There’s smartly frugal … and then there’s just cheap, where the author discusses some folks who are not only cheap, but complete jerks. People who I believe will have karma come back too bite them in the butt! Here is an excerpt from the article about a real loser:

Jane: We attended the county fair. He insisted we go in the exit to avoid paying the entrance fee. The few times we went out to eat, he told me he wasn’t hungry and had us split a sandwich. I never once got my own dinner. He would also steal the ketchup and mustard packets off the table in restaurants.

Jane’s boyfriend is obviously cheap, and not frugal in any way. He is what I call a “frugal fun suck”. He takes all the fun out of saving money, and ends up making somebody elses life experience worse because of it. You see, I am a big believer in keeping good karma. Doing the right thing when you know that nobody is looking. Easy to say but often hard to do. Here are a few ways that my wife and I try to practice ”frugal karma”:

  • Pass It On. Share books, movies, magazines, and CDs with others who you think might enjoy them. Do this with all your friends and neighbors, not just those who you think might not be able to afford them.
  • Help Someone Out. Do you ever see a neighbor working on a home improvement project and could use a hand? Go for it, especially if you have already done something similar to your home. Who knows, maybe that same neighbor will be there for you when you can use the help. This is especially true with caring for each others pets when you or your nieghbor go away for a few days. The cost of boarding dogs and cats is ridiculous and so avoidable if you have good frugal karma with your neighbors.
  • Don’t Horde A Good Deal. Ever been at the grocery store or mall and see a great deal on something that you know would really help another family or friend? Take a moment and give them a call and ask if you could pick it up for them and bring it by their house. I know my wife does this a lot at Costco. She will also call another busy mom and say, “hey, I am going to Costco today, is there anything I can pick up for you?” It almost always gets reciprocated as well!

How do you practice good frugal karma in your day to day life? Please leave a comment below!

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5 Shopping Brain Farts

February 20, 2008 · Filed Under · 6 Comments 

To quote the great Homer Simpson, “How come things that happen to stupid people keep happening to me?”  I have done some pretty stupid things over the course of my life. Some call them mental lapses, I call them brain farts! They often happen to me when I am shopping or buying something for some reason. Here are my top 5 brain farts!

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  1. I ordered a Big Mac from Burger King. I was about 10 years old and we were on a family vacation in Washington, I was starving and stepped up to the order lady at a Burger King and said, ”I will have a Big Mac, fries, and a coke, please.” The lady just looked at me with this blank look on her face. I think she thought I was pulling her chain. She just said “we don’t have Big Macs”. Being 10 years old, I was pretty embarrassed.
  2. XL Shirt From Ross. A couple years ago I found a long-sleeved shirt that I really liked at Ross, and being a guy, I did not try it on, just paid for it and hit the road.  A couple days later, I ripped the tags off and “tried” to put it on. Tried being the key word. You see the head hole was too small to get over my cranium. There was no give in the material, it just plain would not fit over my head. It was the weirdest thing ever. I ended up giving it to my Dad for Christmas as a gag gift. He went to try it on, and same thing, he looked like the head-less horseman.
  3. Basket Full of Groceries, No Money. When I was a senior in college I lived in a townhouse with five other guys. It was the first time I really had to do any substantial grocery shopping for myself. The first time out, I had a basket full of food, stood in line, she rang me up, and I had no wallet. Long line behind me with everyone tapping their feet and staring at me. I just said, “can I come back for these”. I wanted to dig a spider hole and hide it in for a couple hours, perhaps suck my thumb and use my shirt that would not fit over my head as my ‘blankee’.
  4. Mr. Goodwrench (NOT!!!). I had just started dating my wife when this brain fart occurred. We were both seniors in college, and just before Christmas my family had rented a cabin up in Lake Tahoe for a few days. So I was driving my then girlfriend up to Lake Tahoe from the San Francisco Bay Area in her car (I can’t remember why I did not drive my car), and the roads were wet and dirty as they tend to get in the snow and her car was out of windshield cleaning fluid. I pulled over to a gas station, determined to show her my expertise in automobiles, I go into the store and reappear with a jug of cleaning fluid. Fill up her reservoir (get your mind out of the gutter), and get back in and start driving. I then activate the fluid and this thick fluorescent green stuff shoots on the windshield!!! Turns out I bought radiator fluid and was attempting to clean her car windows with it. The cat was out of the bag, she quickly learned that I am gold star member at Jiffy Lube!!
  5. Payment Optional. And by far the biggest lapse in judgement happened when I was in the 8th grade. I still cannot enter the Kmart in Capitola, California, because of it. Yes, I decided to do the “five-finger discount” with some baseball cards. And yes I got caught red-handed with a Mark McGwire rookie card in my shaking hand. Wow, did I get in trouble and I never even considered doing that again. Last time I was in Capitola, I noticed that the Kmart in question does not exist anymore. No longer could I reminisce with that big ol’ ugly store in the parking lot. It was a bitter sweet moment….

Now that I have beared my soul for all to read, it is only fair that you leave me your biggest brain farts!! Please leave a comment below!

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Festival of Frugality #113 – Prez Edition

February 20, 2008 · Filed Under · 2 Comments 

president.jpgI participated in only one carnival this week, the famed Festival of Frugality, which was hosted by Mighty Bargain Hunter. Well done MBH with the President’s Day theme! My post 5 Best and 5 Worst Costco Buys was included under the Thomas Jefferson section. Here are a few articles from the festival that I really enjoyed.

  • The Honest Dollar had a post titled Simple Grocery Hack: Buy What You Can Carry that I liked. Lily talks about only buying enough groceries that she can carry, interesting idea. But with my huge ‘guns’ I can carry 33 bags of groceries so it may not work for me! :-)
  • David, at My Two Dollars, has a post Five Inexpensive Things You Can Buy Today That Will Help The Environment which was very well done. I thought the new toothbrush made out of recycled yogurt cups and recycled toilet paper were great ideas. Just don’t make that toothbrush out of recycled toilet paper and it is all good.
  • Uncommon Cents post The Archenemy of Frugality was spot on. He says “Eliminating the waste in your life–the “stuff” that you don’t use, you won’t use, or you no longer use–is the best way to be frugal.” Could not agree more!
  • Mrs. Micah wrote about Increasing Your Quality of Life for Less. I like her attitude and the way she sees frugality as a way to actually improve her life.
  • Dollar Frugal post titled No Free Lunch also caught my attention. I have to say that I admire Brooke’s dedication to save money. Well done!
  • Paid Twice had a post called Start Planning For Next Year’s Valentine’s Day Now that I could relate to. There are some big deals to be found right after Valentine’s Day for cards, toys and trinkets. On a more perishable note, my wife scored a great deal on candy as well, I have been snacking on it the last few days. Be careful, sometimes deals are not good for the waistline!

Go check out the Festival for more great reading.

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Grab A Book and Tag Someone

February 19, 2008 · Filed Under · Comment 

books.gifLast week I got tagged by Melissa at A Penny Closer for the ever growing ‘Book Meme’. I think it is a cool one. Here is how it works:

Grab the nearest book that has at least 123 pages, open it to page 123, and count down 5 sentences. Then, type the next three sentences here.

This one is easy for me because I only have one book on my desk right now! It is on my desk because last week I wrote a post about some bits of wisdom that I have learned from it and am trying to pass along to my children. It is titled Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. So I flip to page 123, count down 5 sentences, and here is what it says:

“The Arizona market began moving up and, in 1996, a Colorado investor offered us $1.2 million for the property. My wife and I considered selling, but we decided to wait and see if the capital-gains law will be changed by Congress.”

WooHoo, how exciting, lucky me, I get to talk about capital gains laws in Arizona!! But seriously, here are some fun facts about capital gains tax. Yes, I said fun.

  • If you live in China, you have to pay a flat 20% capital gains tax.
  • There are NO capital gains tax in Mexico.
  • The capital gains tax in Sweden is 30% on realized capital income.

OK, maybe ‘fun’ was the wrong word. Buy anyways, I am tagging 5 blogs that are fairly new to me and I have been enjoying a lot, go check them out!

  1. Consuela @ perisblurbs
  2. Funny About Money
  3. JHS @ Colloquium
  4. Credit Withdrawals
  5. Frugal Parenting

I hope you have NOT been tagged yet!

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5 Best and 5 Worst Costco Buys

February 15, 2008 · Filed Under · 10 Comments 

costco.jpgI love Costco, I hate Costco. You can score some great deals, no doubt about that. But if you are not careful it is very easy to over buy and end up with food that will go bad before you actually consume it. The huge jar of Best Foods mayo. The frozen foods that become freezer burnt icebergs before you get around to eating all of it. We have fell victim to both. So when I stumbled across the ‘Top 5 Best and Worst Warehouse Club Buys’, on AOL Finance, it caught my attention. In case you missed it, here are both lists, followed by a little commentary by yours truly.

Top 5 Best Warehouse Club Buys

  1. Prescription Drugs - Can save up to 50% off your prescription drugs. OK, now it makes sense why there is always a huge crowd around the Costco Pharmacy. I tend to avoid that section of the store like the plague.
  2. Milk, Eggs, Butter – If you are feeding the Brady Bunch or getting ready for the Church pancake breakfast then I would agree. Otherwise, not sure if my family will drink 2 gallons of milk before it goes bad.
  3. Web Deals – I have noticed that Costco.com does seem to have some pretty decent deals. Never bought from their website before though. Have you? If so, did you get a good deal?
  4. Gasoline – The article says 10 cents a gallon cheaper. Is that true? My Costco does not have a gas station so it hard for me to comment on this one. I do get the best deal on gas in my town at a Safeway gas station though, so this does not surprise me.
  5. Wine, Beer, Liquor – I have bought beer from my Costco and you can save quite a bit. But you better make sure you like it because you have to buy it by the case! Not a time to start experimenting.

Top 5 Worst Warehouse Club Buys

  1. Coupon-Rich Items – If you can use coupons on certain items at the grocery or drug store you can often save more than by buying at Costco or Sam’s Club. The article uses this example “At Sam’s Club, a 36-pack of Charmin Ultra is $16.28, or 45 cents per roll. At Shop Rite, a 48-pack is $15.69 on sale. Tack on a $1 manufacturer’s coupon, and you’ll pay just $14.69, or 31 cents per roll.” Makes sense.
  2. Gasoline – Say what? I thought this was a good buy? The article says that when gas prices are heading up, warehouse prices move up very quickly. Has anyone else noticed this as well?
  3. Unfamiliar Brands – If you buy a brand that you have never tasted before and it sucks out loud, you are going to be stuck with 330 nasty fish sticks, for example! This is where the free samples may come in handy, plus you can just wander the store and eat dinner. Not recommended as a ‘date night’ idea!
  4. Dust Collectors – This one goes back to the notion of never using a product before it expires. The article uses the example of “that 116-pack of Alka Seltzer at Costco for $9.49 may not be as good a deal for you as the 36-pack for $5.29 at Drugstore.com. Both expire about a year after purchase.”
  5. Bulk Bags - The article makes the argument that big ol’ bags of stuff is often hard to manage and store properly. Like the 25 pound bag of sugar or flour. Unless you are starting your own cookie company, this one makes sense to me. Or if you have a bunch of large storage containers.

I welcome your thoughts and comments!

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