Thinking outside the box (or trash can)

When we moved, we found a few more ways to save money on our monthly expenses. We have a well and a septic tank, so we are no longer paying for our water. We don't live in an HOA, so no monthly or yearly dues. And we didn't sign up for trash pickup.

Well, we did sign up for it, then realized the logistics involved and the cost and said 'forget it!' and canceled it before ever having a pickup.

There were two main problems. The first was the cost: we would be paying for two months' service what we had been paying for three months' service at our old house. The second was the logistics: we live on a narrow private lane with no turn around space. The pickup location for the trash was by the mailboxes next to the main road, a quarter mile from our house.

Were we going to drag a trash can a quarter mile (with hills- the private road is not flat) each way every week? I don't think so!
Do we generate enough trash to justify the increased costs? Nope!

Because of the way we eat, we don't have a lot of packaging to throw away. Most of our trash ends up being fruit and veggie trimmings, and now that we've bought a compost barrel, we'll be composting them, which will further decrease our trash output. Before we moved we would fill a kitchen trash can every two weeks or so. That's two, maybe three bags of trash per month.

In researching our options, I discovered that the local dump will allow you to drop off 30 gallon bags of trash for a dollar a bag. That's two of my 15 gal kitchen bags. You can buy a savers card for $10 that allows you to bring 12 bags of trash, further decreasing the cost.

$1 or $2 dollars a month versus $25? That's pretty much a no-brainer. Of course, it's not quite that simple, but since the dump is on the way to LMS' co-op class, there's not extra mileage or gas involved. The only problem will be hauling the trash in our CRV. But I think I have that figured out- put the trash bags in a large rubbermaid container to prevent leakage and drop off on the way to class, not after. The smell problem should be fairly nonexistent now that we are composting and don't have to worry about rotting fruit and veggies in the trash. And we're buying a truck in a couple months, so if it's really an issue, we can throw it in the back of the truck.

It's a little unconventional, but it will save us a significant amount of money ($275 a year!), so totally worth the small amount of extra work needed.

Priorities

House hunting has been very eye-opening. We picked a price we were comfortable with that worked well with our budget and then used that as a jumping-off point in our search. We were pretty picky: a specific area (close to Mr S's work), 3+ bedrooms, 2+ baths, basement, garage, living, dining, and family rooms, and a decent size lot.

After our first choice fell through, we widened our search area without great results, then focused it closer to Mr S's work and raised our price ceiling. Here's the last three houses (after 15 or 20 previous ones) that we looked at:

10 minutes from work. Brand new (not yet finished), nice little neighborhood, 4 bed, 2 1/2 bath, 2 car garage. No basement though, and the lot was a little smaller than we'd like. And the price was waaaay more than we had ever planned. Sooo tempting though.

Across the street was this house:

50 year old house. 4 bed, 2 1/2 bath, living, dining, family rooms. Full basement and two car garage. Walk up unfinished attic (sooo cool- I would have loved playing up there as a kid). Not as expensive as the house pictured above, but at the top of our budget. Unfortunately, it needs a lot of work: the kitchen was quite scary,

I'm really not sure what a fireplace with cooking hooks is doing in the kitchen, but it was obviously well-used. The house is only 50 years old, not 200!

the bathrooms were original to the house, and the entire house needed to be painted. All that would take a big chunk of money. So tempting though- it had great bones and it would be a lot of fun to update it.

Looking at those houses helped us re-think what our priorities are. Do we want to overextend ourselves when buying a house? Do we want to be house rich and cash poor? Not in this economy we don't. So we looked through the listings again and decided to look at one just down the road from the two houses above. We hadn't looked at it before because it doesn't have a garage. On the other hand, the price was good and the lot is big enough to build a garage in the future.

10 minutes from work, 4 bed, 3 1/2 bath, living and dining rooms on the main floor, family room and 4th bedroom in the full finished basement, 1 3/4 acre lot. An added bonus is that it has a well and septic tank so buh-bye monthly water bills! There won't be HOA fees either, so more money saved.

While the house doesn't have a garage, we're happy with everything else and we're not over-spending. We'll be saving up and hope to build the garage next summer.

Thinking and living frugally

Lately I've been searching for more frugal blogs to read and inspire me. Some of them are local ones that have the local grocery deals, others aren't local but have other useful information.

As I read these blogs, I've been thinking more about couponing. I've been printing out some coupons, but the vast majority are for things I can't eat or for overly processed foods, or for toiletries or cleaners that I can't use because of the chemicals. The sales ads seem to be for a lot of the same things.

I find this a bit discouraging because I'd like to be able to coupon and buy on sale and get great deals. On the other hand, I'm not buying cheaply-made, full-of-preservatives food. We're spending our money on food with fewer ingredients, that's fresher, and tastes better. I haven't yet got our food budget where I want it to be, but I'm getting there. I still have to figure out who has the best prices on what (especially dairy and meats) and once I've done that I can work towards staying in our food budget.

I've been stressing a bit about budgeting and doing the grocery shopping and all, but I've decided I'll just do the best I can until I get eveything unpacked and feel less stressed (clutter, i.e. lots of boxes, makes me stressed). Once I've finished unpacking and sorting and feel that I can at least find everything again, then I'll focus on shopping lists, sales, coupons, and all that.

In the meantime, I'm going to the store as infrequently as possible, and trying to keep things as inexpensive as possible. I've discovered that for our family of 3, one crockpot dish can be used for 3 or 4 meals, which drastically reduces the cost of dinners. I did some barbecue chicken a couple weeks ago, the first night we served it with mashed potatoes, the second night we served it with cheese on a baked potato, the third night we used it in quesadillas, and the fourth night we used it in burritos. This week I cooked a roast in the crockpot and are doing similar things for dinner. This is a win-win for me: I stretch the meat out over 4 meals, which spreads out the cost as well, and I have minimal meal prep each day.

One of my recent  blog finds is Keeping Life Creative. The author has committed to using beans or rice every day for a year in order to remind herself about living frugally. Some of the meals she's prepared are normal, beans and rice, burritos, etc, but she's also snuck beans into mac & cheese and lentils into cake. I find this intriguing, and once I'm feeling more settled I plan on giving some of her recipes a try. I'll have to alter them to make them gluten free, but it shouldn't be too hard to do.

I've also been thinking about stopping my Melaleuca shipments- I like their products (they have really nice soy candles that don't bother me), but some of the cleaning products have started to bother me. I'm not convinced that it's worth the financial commitment to keep ordering from them (you're supposed to order a min. # of product points each month; with shipping this usually ends up being around $75 for me). It's a chunk of money I could be using for other things. I've found several coupons for Seventh Generation products, so I think I'll give them a try (they even go on sale, so I could get some pretty good deals), and if those give me problems I'll have to venture into making my own cleaners. I don't want to, since it seems like it would be a hassle, but if I can make cleaners that won't bother me, it would be worth it. And I'd be saving even more money.

Why Do We Need an Emergency Fund?

We recently had a good lesson in why an emergency fund is necessary.

While eating nuts one night, part of one of my teeth disintegrated. I thought the 3 pieces I found in my mouth were small rocks till I ran my tongue over my teeth and discovered a jagged edge on one of my upper molars.

Mirrors and a flashlight revealed that the corner of my tooth next to a filling was gone.

I brushed my teeth and put in my retainer, an invisalign type, to keep me from going crazy running my tongue over the jagged edge. I left in in while eating breakfast and lunch the next day, which was awkward, but it kept food from accumulating in the tooth or causing more problems.

First thing in the morning I called the dentist and got an appointment after lunch.

I figured I'd need a crown, which would probably run about $400 (when I got two teeth crowned three years ago, we paid about $750 out of pocket). I was really hoping costs hadn't gone up much in the meantime.

The x-ray showed decay in the area that remained, which wasn't surprising- it's been bothering me for awhile but I just thought it was a new cavity or the filling being stupid. Turns out that the crack and subsequent crumbling was caused by the amalgam filling expanding with nowhere to go. Stupid filling.

Anyway, the decay was close to the nerve, so there was also the possibility of a root canal. The dentist cleaned out the decay and the offending filling, then decided to just do a new ceramic filling and buildup the area that had crumbled. I was told to pay attention to how my tooth is feeling- if there's more problems, I'd have to go back in, do a root canal and put a crown on it. This won't be cheap, so I was hoping it wouldn't be necessary anytime soon.

While I was waiting for the numbing meds to take effect I was running through what money we had available to pay for the procedure. Last week we received some additional pay from Mr. S's trip to Japan in December, but it was supposed to be the start of our emergency fund. One crown would almost wipe it all out. A root canal... we'd need more. Luckily we only had to do a filling, and it only cost $40, leaving the beginnings of our emergency fund mostly intact.

It did emphasize the need for an emergency fund. We only pay 20% of the cost of a filling, which isn't too expensive to begin with, but crowns are only covered 50%- the other 50% is out of pocket. We'd have to pay 40% of the cost of a root canal, but since I don't know what they run I don't know how much our portion would be. In any case, having money in our emergency fund would mean we could get things like a crown or a root canal taken care of without having to put them off till money is available or pay for them with a credit card. Once we get our debts paid off we'll be able to add to our savings, expanding it beyond just a $1000 emergency fund, and allowing us to be able to pay cash for multiple emergencies. Like a root canal and work that had to be done on the car.

I went in for my regularly scheduled cleaning today and had them check the tooth. I haven't been able to chew on that side of my mouth for the last week and a half because of pressure sensitivity, and it's very sensitive to hot and cold as well. So I'm going in next week for a root canal and crown. Yay. Not.

I was hoping we'd have the money already saved so we don't have to use a credit card to pay for the procedure. Unfortunately, that's not going to be the case.

In the past I've considered dropping our dental insurance- we pay about $110 a month for the three of us, which I think is a bit steep if all we're doing is getting regularly scheduled cleanings and exams- we're paying more than $1300 a year for services that only run about $300-400.

If we saved that money specifically for times it was needed, would we be saving money? Like doctors, dentists will give a discount if you pay cash, so I think we would save money, even with the odd filling, crown, or root canal thrown in.

The key would be, of course, to actually save the money we would have spent on the insurance premiums and set it aside for this purpose.  I think we could do this, once we've got the credit cards paid off and are actively building our savings. Until then, we're keeping our dental insurance.

Has anyone tried paying cash for dental services instead of having insurance? How has it worked out?

Budgeting: Envelope System

One of the things Dave Ramsey talks about in his book The Total Money Makeover is paying cash for everything. At the beginning of the month, you sit down and figure out your budget- how much money you will spend on each category. Then you put the cash for each category in an envelope. So, you have your grocery envelope, your gas envelope, your clothing envelope, etc- whatever you decided your categories are.

As we get closer to our moving date, I'm thinking more and more about how we'll be handling our finances once we join Mr S. By the time LMS and I get there, we'll have had two full paychecks, which will put us in a better position financially. It'll still take a month or two to figure out what our expenses will be, as we get the utilities put in our name, do full-on grocery shopping, and so on, but we'll work on building our budget from the time we arrive.

To that end, I've made a wallet that has room for id, insurance cards, etc, as well as envelopes for our cash, an envelope for receipts, and an envelope for coupons. I'll post pictures the next three Mondays- by then we'll have unpacked and I can start posting other projects.

Has anyone else tried the envelope system? 

Frugal Shopping: Walgreens

One part of our budget that's hard to cut down on  is vitamins and supplements. A side effect of gluten intolerance is difficulty absorbing nutrients. I don't have full blown celiac, so I don't think I have quite as many problems with nutrient absorbtion as some do, but I still have problems. As a result, I take quite a few vitamins and supplements and feel better for doing so. Mr S and LMS also take vitamins, but not as many.

One of the more expensive ones I take is CoQ-10.  I started taking it about a year and a half ago on the advice of my med student sister. After taking it for a week or so, I noticed I was having dreams. This was a big deal, since I don't remember the last time I had regular dreams. Maybe once or twice a year I'd have a crazy dream, but the rest of the time, no dreams. I never felt especially rested either. Since taking the CoQ-10, I dream most nights and wake up much more rested. The interesting thing is that this appears to be genetic: my med student sister, mom, and two younger brothers have the same problem. Wonder why...

Recently my med student sister mentioned that she buys her CoQ-10 at Walgreens when they have buy one get one (BOGO) sales. For whatever reason, I've never shopped at Walgreens before, so I didn't realize that they had such deals. I went in a couple weeks ago, but the brand my sister mentioned wasn't on sale. I talked to one of the workers, and he said they usually had at least one brand of vitamins on BOGO sale per week. So I've been watching the ads (I went to the Walgreens website and signed up to have the ads emailed to me every week since we don't get the paper), and this week the brand I was looking for went on sale.

90 capsules for $50 at Walgreens (BOGO= 180 capsules for $50)
30 capsules for about $13 at wally world

$7.67 per month at Walgreens
$13 per month at wally world

$92 per year at Walgreens
$156 per year at wally world

Savings: $64 a year

While I was there, I noticed that they also had Flax Fish Borage Oil on sale (gotta get those omegas).

120 capsules for $16.50 at Walgreens (BOGO= 240 capsules for $16.50)

60 capsules for about $9 at Target

$2.06 per month at Walgreens
$4.50 per month at Target

$25 a year at Walgreens
$54 a year at Target

Savings: $29 a year

Between just the CoQ-10 and the Flax Fish Borage oil I'll save $93 in one year.

The moral? Don't just grab what you see off the shelf. Be willing to comparison shop (explore stores you don't usually go to), find out if there's sales, and figure out where you can get the best deals. Stock up when you find a great deal. These two vitamins were all our budget could handle right now, but I now have a 6 month supply of one and an 8 month supply of the other. I'll be watching the ads for the other vitamins we take so I can stock up on them using the BOGO sales at Walgreens. 

Saving Money & Budgeting: Taxes

I just finished filing our taxes. (Yay!) I've used Turbo Tax the last few years, and have paid about $40 to e-file. This year I used H&R Block Tax Cut through Military OneSource, and it didn't cost me anything. If you're military, and you do have to be military to access Military OneSource, take advantage of the opportunity to e-file for free!

That's great, but there's also the refund to consider. I know everyone says to reduce your withholdings so you aren't paying Uncle Sam to hold onto your money for you. I would like to do this, but you need a steady income for that to work out.

This year we're getting a sizeable return, but it's mostly because of EIC and such. Making very little money this year made us eligible for a lot more credits. Our goal for this coming year will be to have a much smaller refund, but we'll be in a different tax bracket, so it will probably take some trial and error to get just the right amount withheld so we get a small refund or owe just a tiny bit. Our money is better put to use paying off debt and sitting in our savings account earning interest for us.

When I filed, I requested a direct deposit that will take about 10 days (though I think it took less last year) to appear in our bank account. You could also opt to have a check sent via snail mail and that'll take 4-6 weeks, I think. Another option, one that I don't recommend, is to get a refund anticipation loan from the company that prepares your income tax return for you. Basically they give you the money that day or the next, and in return you sign paperwork that gives your refund directly to that company. It sounds like a great deal- you get your money right away- but it is a loan and the interest rates are quite high. As a result, you lose a chunk of money. These days, with e-filing and direct deposits, returns are received so quickly. Why pay someone else for the privilege of getting your money a week and a half quicker?

Our refund is already earmarked: we'll be using it to pay for the move, the deposit and first month's rent on a house, and our train trip to join Mr S.

If we didn't have all these moving-related expenses, and already had a steady income (so the money didn't need to be set aside to pay bills), we would be using our refund to fund our $1000 emergency fund (Dave Ramsey's Step 1) and to quickly get a chunk of debt payed down (Step 2).

If we had our debts completely paid off, we'd be putting the money into savings (Steps 3-7). Though I hope that by the time we have our debts paid off we'll have our withholdings figured out so we're not getting a huge refund.

Something not to do: using a loan to get your refund as quickly as possible, then using the money to buy a wii instead of setting it aside for bills because you don't have a job and a regular income. Yeah, I know some people who did that....