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Sunday, July 27, 2008

 
LotD

10 Bank Breaking Money Myths -- interesting article. I've heard of a lot of these lately, especially those about home ownership versus renting and the ability to deduct mortgage. It's only been recently through my own home-search that I've realized that those were myths in fact, and that renting is by far the better option for me. Also, the carrying a balance to maintain credit score? Amazing how many times I've heard that one as well. The only thing carrying a balance does for you is rack up the interest so that you're financing that Starbucks latte for years and years.

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| 11:10 PM |

Monday, June 02, 2008

 
Spaghetti with "meat" sauce

This isn't the most exotic recipe around, but it's super easy and tasty to make, and fits three key categories: vegetable, grain, and protein. Well, the vegetable is a little stretch, but I'm counting the tomato sauce (which comes out of a jar) as a vegetable. Nothing here was homemade and I whipped this dinner up in about 15 minutes and it was perfectly proportioned and satisfying. I love that in a meal.

I started off by thawing two veggie burgers, broken into halves, in a frying pan on the stove. I used Morningstar mushroom lover's burgers, but any burger will do. Meanwhile, I was also boiling water on another burger for the pasta.

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After the burgers were mostly thawed through, I removed them from heat and chopped them up into bite size chunks.

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I put the chunks of veggie burger back into the frying pan and then added the tomato sauce. The tomato sauce came out of a jar, and for those of you interested in the details, I like the Classico brand and this time around, I used Sweet Basil sauce. One of these days I'll make my own tomato sauce, but certainly not on a weekday and definitely not after a tough workout when I'm absolutely famished! I let the tomato sauce and chunks of veggie burger simmer about 4-5 minutes while I finished draining the pasta. Doesn't this look yummy?

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And finally, after the pasta was drained, I poured the warm sauce over the pasta, and enjoyed myself a rather quick, tasty, and healthy meal. Not inexpensive, because veggie burgers aren't really that cheap anymore -- about $4 for a package of four now -- but still, this meal probably cost me about $3, which is still cheaper than going out to eat, which is what I would have done in the past when I was starving after a workout. Much better for the waistline and the wallet!

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| 9:32 PM |

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

 
LotD

Interesting post on renting versus buying: Why We Rent. I came across the link at The Simple Dollar which is a "frugal" blog I check in with now and then. The NY Times also has another buy versus rent story today:
As Home Prices Drop Low Enough, a Committed Renter Decides to Buy. I just find it interesting that after years of advocating home ownership as the Bestest Investment Ever, people are actually saying, "Hey, wait a minute..." I shall feel vindicated when I write my landlord a check on June 1.

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| 9:56 PM |

Saturday, March 29, 2008

 
LotD

Can you survive on $21 worth of food per week per person? The governor of Oregon decided to give it a go.

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| 8:56 PM |

Sunday, March 09, 2008

 
Gas prices

The US government has one of the best websites out there on energy issues and prices. Check out this link to learn what the price of a gallon of gas is composed of. It's pretty easy to read and understand. The bottom line is, if we see $70/barrel any time soon, I'll be surprised. It wasn't too long ago that I thought $50/barrel as the ceiling was crazy. Now I'm anticipating $110/barrel in the not-so-distance future. My concern is demand destruction if we see $105-$115 range for more than 6 months and the effect on the world economy. My suggestion? When you get your tax rebate, bank it or pay down debt. Don't spend it on things you don't need. The two things might not seem related to you, but the higher those prices go, the more likely it is our economy is going to slow down even more than it already has.

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| 10:45 AM |

Sunday, June 24, 2007

 
Oops, I did it again

I bought a $320 suit for $54 at Macy's. And it's a classic style in charcoal gray, a quality brand, so nothing weird about it. Amazing. I needed a blazer and Ann Taylor had one on sale for $60 that was okay, but then I went to Macy's and the whole suit -- the only one left in my size -- was on sale for $60 and then I had them knock down the price 10 percent because it was missing a button (I can reattach it myself). Not bad, not bad at all. I love being a bargain hunter :-)

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| 7:57 AM |

Saturday, June 02, 2007

 
What's that again?

I really don't like the phrase "The more you spend, the more you save". Huh? It doesn't make any sense. Say you can buy one shirt for $5 and you can buy two shirts for $8 or three shirts for $12. You can say it's a good deal ONLY IF you actually need three shirts. Otherwise, if you go for the $8 -- spend more to save more -- you actually spend $3 more than you otherwise planned to and if you go for the three shirts, then you've spent $7 more than you planned to. You didn't actually save money; you spent more. You just got what you were looking for for less, but in more quantity and my guess is that most people don't actually need the quantity necessary to 'save more'.

My cable company just sent me a letter that said if I bought one of their packages for $56, I would actually be saving money. Which makes no sense because my current package cost me... $0. And it's even more nonsensical because I don't have time for 160 channels and so in theory, if I 'saved' by buying their $56 package, I'd actually be paying more because out of those 160 channels, I'd probably watch less than a quarter, so I'd be paying more for the channels I was actually watching (I have a whole theory on 'cost per use' which I'll tell you about another time). So it makes no sense. They try to package it as savings, but it's really not. If you're not going to use it, it's not a savings.

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| 6:14 PM |

Up, up and away

I have this crazy idea that you ought to be able to fly anywhere in the country for $250 or less. More than a few times, I've managed to head east for under $200 and once even got to Boston for $150 round trip. One of my favorite tools is on My Yahoo! which allows you to track flights to your favorite destinations and gives you a good idea of what the going rate is for a flight.

I've also started using farecast.com, which is essentially a forecast for airfares. It's a good guide since it shows you a trend, but I have yet to make a decision based on what farecast.com says. I also like checking what Southwest offers to a particular market because they tend to be the low-cost leaders in some, but not all markets. If you live in a hub city for an airline, chances are that airline will be the cheapest and most likely non-stop service to whereever it is you want to go.

I've also been using kayak and sidestep.com to get an idea. These are aggregate search engines that pull results from a variety of sources including the big guys at Travelocity, Expedia, Hot Wire, and a whole host of others. The good thing is, you put in one search and you get a whole lot of answers back. It saves you time and money.

Other tricks:
* Try to fly on a Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
* For international travel, book 6 to 8 weeks out
* For domestic travel, book 4-6 weeks out
* Try other nearby airports (within a 90-minute radius from your location, otherwise I'm not sure the savings are worth the hassle).

Airfares can change on a day to day basis. When I went to Philadelphia recently, the ticket price on a Friday was $350 and the following Saturday, the same flight had dropped to $176. I checked back on Tuesday and it was at $212 and four days later, it was at $165. So you never know. Just keep checking as your trip comes closer and when you see something you're willing to pay, just take it. The airfare may go up and it may come down. The key is to do your research ahead of time to make sure you're getting the best possible deal.

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| 5:14 PM |

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