Five Great Ways to Save

If you’re struggling to free yourself from debt, there are a lot of ways you can do so that may not readily spring to mind. But in the UK debt management has become big business as the whole country seems intent on freeing itself from the burden of debt that was taken for granted just a few short years ago.

In making savings to help reduce debt, it’s important to remember that saving what might seem relatively small amounts of cash each month can make a huge difference over time.

So here are five top tips to achieve your goals:

1. Shop around for the best possible mortgage. The current lowest-ever interest rates mean there are some great deals around – so seek expert advice to make sure you have the best deal possible.

2. Clear your credit card debts if you possibly can. The interest rates on credit cards are generally very high.

3. Try to cut the cost of your household bills. Make sure you’re getting the best possible deal for your gas, electricity and telephone bills (including your mobile(s). The market is constantly changing as companies introduce new schemes to lure in new customers. The switched-on householder who’s prepared to make the extra effort can benefit hugely from these deals.

4. Save on food shopping. The discount supermarkets offer excellent value – and even shopping online can be cheaper despite the delivery costs. This is because you aren’t as readily tempted to buy the things that would tempt you from the shelves.

5. Sell the things you no longer use. Is your home full of clutter you really don’t use or appreciate any more? If so, consider selling it at a car boot sale or in the local paper – or on E-bay, the online auction house. There’s always someone looking for something and you may surprise yourself by how much money you’ll receive. This also helps psychologically as you realize how little the things that may tempt you now will be worth in a year or two’s time.

These are just a few of the way you can grow your savings which will gradually free you from the nightmare of personal debt.

Photo by _J_D_R_.

Benihana Is Pretty Generous

Spoiler alert: at least in California, they can't do this anymore.

If you're anything like me, then you're probably the world's fattest man you probably enjoy the occasional nice meal out. One place that my wife and I enjoy from time to time is Benihana. What can I say? Having Mexican hibachi chefs pretending to be Japanese hibachi chefs just screams foodie haven to me.

Joking aside, Benihana is delicious, but it's dang expensive. What to do?

Well, I recently found out that Benihana is very generous when it comes to birthdays. If you sign up for their email list here (which is a drag, I know), they will send you a $30 gift certificate towards food during your birthday month. The catch is that it's only good Mondays through Thursdays. Still, $30 will pay for most of your steak dinner.*

I'll be turning 30 this month (woo-hoo!...?), and so I just got my certificate in the email. Here's hoping that $30 worth of fried rice and scallops helps drown my sorrow at being closer to death.

*I am in no way affiliated with Benihana. It's just a good deal that I recently learned about. Free money for having been born! Hooray!

Photo by NathanReed.

My Challenges for February

Behold! The Encroachment of Knowledge!

Last month, I decided to challenge myself by stating that I would only purchase two t-shirts a month.  I only bought one t-shirt last month (so I'm letting that extra one roll over to February -- boom, lawyered).

Somewhat obviously, participating in this exercise helped me evaluate my buying habits.  In prior months, I would buy a t-shirt within minutes of seeing it online.  The t-shirt sites that I check daily update a couple hours before midnight here on the west coast, and so what my challenge has forced me to do is to essentially sleep on my choices.

If I love a design when I see it just before bed time, I force myself to re-evaluate my purchase the next morning.  Perhaps not so oddly, much of the compulsion to buy the shirt goes away after a good night's sleep.

Due to how happy I am at how this challenge has played out, I'm going to add to it two challenges that are February specific:

1. Sell or otherwise get rid of 25 items from my condo.*
2. Limit myself to the purchase of up to two books and five ebooks (unless I can sell my beautiful bride on why I need another book).  This excludes free ebook downloads.

Money Traps: The Unexpected Inevitability of Human Error

If you watched the playoff games over the weekend, you'll agree with me on one thing:  errors ended up deciding the loser in each game.  In the Giants/49ers game, a key fumble in overtime by a member of the 49ers set up the Giants to kick the winning field goal.  In the Ravens/Patriots game, with time running out in the 4th quarter, the Ravens' field goal kicker missed a 32 yard field goal (read: very short distance field goal) which would have tied the game.

While it's a bit reductive to assign these players all of the blame in the losses, it's human nature to assign the most blame to what (in retrospect) were the most obvious causes for the losses.  Even though these guys were out on the field trying to help their respective teams, they each made a key mistake at the worst possible time.

But what does this have to do with personal finance you ask?

3 Year-End Money-Saving Tax Tips

If you've got some money and you're in the business of saving as much of it as you can legally,* here are a couple of ideas on how to do so.

1)  Max out your traditional IRA - If you are under 50 years old, you are eligible to put as much as $5,000 into a traditional IRA account.  The nice thing about a traditional IRA is that you are investing money in the account post-tax, but the government sees it as a pre-tax investment.  Thus, when you file your taxes, you will receive money back for the amount that you invested in your traditional IRA that you've already paid taxes on.  Bear in mind that the above $5,000 limit is the limit for any and all IRA accounts you may have (that is, if you have both a Roth IRA and a traditional IRA, the total you can invest in both combined for 2011 is $5,000 - e.g., $2,500 in the Roth, $2,500 in the traditional).

2)  Harvest losses - The market is picking back up, but if you have stock or mutual fund investments in a non-tax-advantaged acccount (i.e., not a retirement account), you can sell off some of your investments at a lower price than you bought them for in order to offset taxes that you will pay for profits from other investments.  While you will definitely lose money on your investment, you will pay less in taxes.  Five Cent Nickel does an excellent job of explaining this concept here.

3)  Donate to a charity or non-profit - Now wait a minute, you say.  I'm reading this because I want to keep my money, not give it to the poor!  That's a fair enough attitude, Ebenezer, but it is worth noting that money donated to charities and/or non-profit organization (such as THEATRES) is money that you can deduct from your taxable income and therefore pay less money in taxes on.

*If you're more interested in saving money illegally, I recommend not hiring the man in this video.

Photo by soukup.

This post was featured in the Carnival of Personal Finance #340.

How I'm Saving Money the Next Few Days on Travel

This is me after plowing through a snow
bank last Christmas while being pulled
behind my father-in-law's tractor. 
This is, literally, how I roll.

Based on the number of posts that I write about it, you would think that I travel a lot.  While I suppose this is true, I certainly don't feel like I travel that much (of course, I spent most of the last two years making weekly flights to and from grad school, so perhaps I don't have a good base reading on just what constitutes "a lot" of travelling).

Nevertheless, over the next few days, the wife and I are taking another trip.  For this one, we'll be leaving our beloved San Diego sunshine to face the icy, frozen northern tundra that is Fargo, North Dakota.*  My wife's family lives in North Dakota, and we're making a trip out there to visit and see our new nephew. 

Here are a handful of ways that we're fortunate to be able to save money over this time.

1)  Staying with Family - While this is not as exciting as getting a hotel, it's also much less expensive.  We are flying out of LAX tomorrow morning, and, fortunately, my brother lives pretty close to LAX, and he's offered to let us stay at his place AND take us to the airport in the wee small hours of the morning.  Additionally, we are able to stay at the home of the relatives that we're visiting in North Dakota, so we'll save there too.  This leads right into...

2)  Saving on a Car Rental - Because we are able to stay with family, we will not need to rent a car to get from our hotel to our family.  This is awesome, because, as much as I like fish-tailing all over the road, I'm not the hugest fan of driving on snowy roads.  You might argue that this makes me a sissy, and I agree with your assessment.

3)  Saving on Flights - One of the primary reasons we chose this weekend to fly north for the winter (birds got it all wrong, man!) is that the price for our flights was so low.  While the airline that we're flying has stiffed us before (at least they pass on the savings incurred from treating customers badly!), we're flying Allegiant Air again.  Our tickets were approximately $250 round trip, per person.  This is almost unheard of for flying from California to North Dakota, as flights can easily be that much just one way.  However, apparently the weekend before Thanksgiving is not prime travel time, so we were able to take advantage of the cheaper tickets offered through the website.

How do you save on travel?  Let me know in the comments.

*Here's hoping nobody puts me through a wood chipper.

5 Ways to Save on Theatre Tickets

Live theatre is generally a pricy enterprise for those who want to see it.  Happily, one of the perks of getting a master's degree in drama is that I can go to the theatre and justify the cost to myself under the auspices of "professional development." Still, if there's a way for me to save money when going to see a play or a musical, it's always a good idea.  To try to mitigate the costs, here are a couple of ways that I've used to save money on ticket prices.*

1)  Usher - Do you own a white, collared shirt and black slacks? Congratulations! You're qualified to be an usher! Many theatres offer free admission to people who own the above clothes and are willing to volunteer their time by arriving 30-45 minutes prior to showtime in order to help audience members find their seats. Go to just about any theatre's website for more information on how to get involved in this way.

2)  Friends - Are you friends with somebody who's in a play?  If so, that person likely has some "comps" (complimentary tickets).  If you ask your buddy real sweet and nice-like, he or she just might hook you up to let you see the show for free.

3)  Local Discount Ticket Brokers - In New York, you can buy cheaper tickets the day of the show (or sometimes a few days ahead) from the TKTS booth in Times Square (or one of the other two booths they operate).  The catch is that you need to go in person and wait in line for the tickets.  The logic behind selling half-price tickets is one of simple economics:  it's better for the theatre to make some money (by selling at a discount the day of the performance) as opposed to no money (empty, unsold seats equal lost earnings).  Here in San Diego, there's a local organization called Arts Tix which sells discounted tickets as well.  I'm pretty sure that there are others in other cities as well, I'm just not familiar with them by name.  Readers, do you know of any local discount ticket purveyors?

4)  Online Discount Sites - Goldstar.com immediately springs to mind.  You are able to purchase discounted tickets here online, and it sells tickets to events in multiple cities (Atlanta, San Francisco, Las Vegas, and others).  I have also seen tickets sold on Groupon, but these deals are much more sporadic, and therefore, harder to plan.

5)  Take Advantage of Available Discounts - One of my favorite discounts that I've been getting lately is due to my age.  Theatre is often seen as being kind of old-fashioned, and so theatres are desperate to get young people in the audience.  As such, one of the major theatres in San Diego, The Old Globe, offers $20 tickets to people who are under 30 years old.**  Other discount opportunities include cheaper tickets for students, seniors, and groups.

Anybody else take advantage of other theatre discounts?  Let me know in the comments.

*This comment is not meant to imply that I don't think theatres are worthy places to pay full-price. Particularly in a bad economy, arts organizations, such as theatres, struggle to pay their bills. Personally, I think that if you *can* afford to pay full-price to go to the theatre (especially for newer/smaller/more adventurous theatres), it's not a bad investment.
**As I'm currently 29, I'm going to ride this discount for all it's worth until I turn 30 in May.

Edit 09/19/2011:  This post was featured in the 327th Carnival of Personal Finance at Mrs. Nespy's World

Netflix - Bandwagoning It!

You know how sometimes you just really want to break up with somebody?  After all, you don't really like to hang out with them as much as you used to.  You work yourself up, and you're ready to pull the plug, but then you can't help but look back on how much history the two of you have, and how much the other person already knows so many of your idiosyncrasies, not to mention your likes (pretentious documentaries) and dislikes (Something Borrowed [if this movie were a baby, I would strongly consider punching it in the face (which is really saying something as I have no prior history of baby-punching)])*, and you realize you can't bear to cut ties just yet.

Now imagine that person you want to break up with is not an actual person, but a website called Netflix.

Boom.  That sound you just heard was your mind being blown.

The Premium Paid for Convenience

In the end, it all comes down to our time versus our money. At least it did for me last night.

Last night, I had a hankering for a mixed drink with a name that is unwritable (unlinkable even!) on this PG rated blog. After checking my stash, I realized that I was missing two key ingredients for this Drink That Must Not Be Named (DTMNBN). After discussing dinner plans with my wife, we decided that I would go and pick up food and bring it back home. The only convenient place to purchase the ingredients in the vicinity of the restaurant was a convenience store that I am not fond of, as I believe their prices are high and they charge a fee for debit/credit transactions.

After considering how much time I had available, convenience won out, and I paid a premium for that convenience. While similarly sized portions would have cost, probably, $20 at the grocery store, I ended up paying north of $40 at the convenience store.

That’s gross, right? It cost me twice as much to get items I wanted just because the store was more convenient.* What kind of a personal finance blogger am I anyhow?

As a justification, all I knew is that I had a limited amount of time to get food (it was ordered before I left the house) and stopping at the grocery store would have added an extra ten or fifteen minutes round trip. I didn’t want to spend my time in that manner, so I chose to spend my money to save time. A general set of equations that can be seen from this are:

Time saved = extra money spent, and
Money saved = extra time spent.

As you can see, there is a tradeoff that can easily occur between our time and our money. This was a good reminder to think seriously about overvaluing convenience in our day to day lives. Some other areas that fall under this category are:

ATM Fees—Sure, it may seem like a good idea to take money out from an ATM that isn’t affiliated with your bank (if you need to split a check at a restaurant, for instance), but those $2 or $3 fees add up over time. It’s worth taking the time to get money out from your own bank for free.
Eating Out or Eating Takeout—It can be oh so nice not to have to cook, but you are definitely paying extra for the benefit (to say nothing of the nebulous world of tipping on takeout).
Paying for Parking—I live in San Diego, and anybody can tell you that the parking situation in any big city can get pretty hairy, especially on a weekend night. It can be tedious searching for street parking only to find a spot eight blocks away (if at all), but when the parking garage next door to where you’re trying to get is charging $20 for the night, I’ll gladly talk the walk.
Buying on Impulse—This has happened to all of us: we’re out shopping, and we find something that we can’t live without, and so we buy it without a second thought. A better option would be to either sleep on it to see if we really need the item, or, if we decide that the item is necessary, to spend some time comparison shopping online (where the price will almost certainly be better).

How about you? Are there items in your life that you’ll gladly sacrifice a few extra bucks for because the convenience is worth that much to you? Or, to look at it in the opposite way, in what ways do you consider your money to be more valuable than your time? Let me know in the comments.

*For what it’s worth (zing!), the DTMNBN was delicious.

*Update 9/5/2011:  This post was featured in the Carnival of Personal Finance.*

Borders Rewards Update

I posted before about how, due to their bankruptcy issues, I was too late to take advantage of some of the coupons that Borders book store had given me when I signed up for their Borders Rewards program.

In some happy news, I received an email Sunday night that stated that they were going to give Borders Rewards members an additional 15% off on everything in their stores through Wednesday of this week.

Given that all of the performing arts books are already marked down by 60% (though, heaven knows, they'll probably go down further soon), it looks like I may be expanding my theatre library in the next day or so. I'll have to stop by and see if there are any books that I've been meaning to purchase.

Reflecting on Military Service

I mentioned last week that I was going to an NFL pre-season game with a couple of buddies. I am unhappy to admit that my Chargers lost the (meaningless) game, but there was another item that I briefly wanted to talk about.

San Diego is a military city, with significant influence from the navy in our harbor and from the marines up north at Camp Pendleton. With the area’s ties to the military, there are frequently “fly-overs” before games, in which a couple of military jets loudly fly over the stadium. The game I went to had the jet fighters fly over, but it also featured another military aspect.

At halftime, a group of young veterans, some younger than I am, made their way to mid-field. These men were being honored as local heroes. All of them had received the purple heart for their service, and nearly every one of them was missing at least one leg. Their wounds were most frequently the result of IED explosions, though at least one man had been mutilated by a suicide bomber and another had been shot.

As we all remember, last week was (at least) an unpredictable week for the stock market. Many of us spent some time considering whether or not our investments were sound, whether and at what point we should consider selling, and how frustrated we were that partisan politics was affecting our retirement plans in a very negative way. Given how the market looks today, it seems those of us who held onto our investments were in the right. Still, last week with the S&P’s downgrade of the U.S.’s credit, there was a very real sense that the sky was falling, and all we Chicken Littles could do was watch it happen.

But as I stood there, watching the soldiers who were willing to give their lives for this country, my irritation melted, and I began to feel ashamed. All last week, I was frustrated at the government and the economy, when these men believed in America enough to put their lives on the line. How blessed am I to have both arms and legs? How blessed am I to even have retirement accounts? How blessed am I to not be in want?

In twenty-first century America, things are tough all over, and prudent spending and saving can go a long ways toward achieving goals that we set out for ourselves. But no amount of money can keep us alive indefinitely, and no amount of planning can entirely save us from the unknown. The only thing we are able to directly control is our own attitudes about what is happening. Seeing the veterans was a good reminder to me that it wouldn’t be the worst thing to be more optimistic in general.

My Wife Is Good at Money, Life, Etc.

Background: My wife and I bought a condo a year ago. Nearly as soon as the ink was dry on the documents, the air conditioner went out. Though we had purchased a warranty, the warranty company refused to replace it.*

Now, I don't know if you've gone outside in the last few days, but America is having something of a record heat wave. While it hasn't been as hot here in San Diego as it has been in other parts of the country, it still gets pretty warm. My wife and I are under the impression that buying a new, rooftop a/c unit during the hottest months of year will result in paying the highest price, so we were looking for alternate ways to cool down (underwear in the freezer, anyone?), and my wife suggested that we look into a portable air conditioner as a stopgap measure.

This was a great idea, I thought, and so I started looking at websites, trying to figure out how much that was going to set us back. In researching, it looked like our local Lowe's had two units that would work: a less powerful one (though still probably good for our space - 10,000 Btu) and a more powerful one (12,000 Btu). The price tags were $299 and $399.

$299 was in the ballpark of what I was hoping to pay, so I clicked on the icon to see what stores in my area had that unit. Unfortunately, no stores in San Diego had it. So, I was left "having" to buy the $399 one.

The old bait and switch! Curse you, Lowe's!

I explained my research to my wife, and she immediately said, "Uhm, why don't you check Craigslist." To her credit, she managed to say this with a straight face and only a minimal amount of disdain. :-)

A quick Craigslist search revealed an even more powerful unit (14,000 Btu) that had only been slightly used for a price tag of $150. That's an immediate savings of $249 (not to mention the extra 10% or so we'd be paying in sales tax).

I went over, checked out the a/c, found it in good working order, and now my wife and I are going to sleep in sweet, sweet cold comfort. And the best part is, we got a great deal on it.

I'm a lucky, lucky man.

*There is a post coming on this as soon as I try one more tactic with the company.**

**This tactic does not include kidnapping or wire-tapping.***

***Although...

4 Ways to Save Money in Las Vegas

I realize that I'm talking a lot about Vegas on here lately, but I've just come back from a vacation, so who can blame me? It's fresh in my mind.

I've heard people describe Las Vegas as being a Disneyland for adults, and I think that's a pretty fair description. For a lot of people, Vegas is a place to go to indulge and to forget their troubles for a while. These indulgences come with a price tag, and not everyone will have the fortitude to say "no" when they've reached their limit. In a city in which a multitude of businesses that are made to extract money from adults are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, it came be difficult to even recognize what that limit is.

In general, I'd say the most important rule in Las Vegas is to set limits for yourself and then stick to them. It's also a good idea to have somebody you're travelling with hold you accountable; it's a very easy thing, for example, to try to chase money that has been lost at the blackjack table. Whether that limit is a dollar amount that you won't lose more than if you gamble, a number of drinks that is too much, or whatever it may be, setting limits is important to maintain your financial, physical, and relational well-being.

Who's the buzz-killer? This guy, right here.

That said, here are a couple of ideas for ways to save money on your next trip to Sin City. Additionally, I'll add at the end of each point how much I estimate that I saved on my recent trip from each of these tips.

1) If you gamble, it's worthwhile to get a player's card: Player's cards are plastic cards, similar to credit cards, by which the casino can monitor how much you're spending. Generally, even by signing up for a card (the Harrah's company give you a fat book of coupons upon signing up for a card), a casino will start to send you promotional mail that can include anything from discounted or free rooms to coupons that can go towards food expenses, gambling, or show tickets. If you plan on making a subsequent trip to Vegas, free rooms especially take a big part of the cost of the trip out of the equation. Also, while you're gambling, your beverages are free.

Savings: $264 -- I got three free nights at the Orleans (@$80/night). This hotel also charges an $8/night service fee which was waived.

2) Take advantage of your hotel's coupons: Frequently, I've noticed, hotels will give out coupon books upon check-in. While these generally only offer reduced rates to amenities within the hotel itself, if there happens to be a restaurant that you'd like to eat at at the hotel or a service (such as a spa service), you may as well take the fifteen or twenty percent off.

Savings: ~$20 -- We got 15% off of two meals at TGI Fridays, free popcorn when we saw a movie, and a free candy apple for Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory.

3) Bring a cooler: My wife and I live in Southern California, and so it's only about a 5 hour drive to get to Las Vegas. If you are driving to Las Vegas (TSA frowns on bottles and cans coming through security checkpoints), it's not a bad idea to take an ice chest full of waters or sodas to drink on the ride as well as in the room at the hotel (vending machines aren't getting any cheaper; in fact, I actually saw a soda machine in Las Vegas this trip that has a place where you could swipe your credit/debit card!). For the more hard-core, you could also pack the fixings for a couple of meals, which would save more money.

Savings: $15 -- I am a thirsty person, and I was glad to have stuff to drink readily available in the room.

4) Don't pay full price for show tickets: As El Guapo might say, there are a plethora of pinatas stage shows available to see in Las Vegas. If you don't like to see shows, then certainly, stay away, and that's more money you'll save. However, every time my family goes to Vegas, we like to see at least one big show. This trip, we decided to go see the Blue Man Group (tickets for which, in the cheaper section we were looking at, go for $105). However, after some internet research from my mom, she found a coupon code through Ticketmaster that gave us 40% off, so each person's seats ended up only being $65. $65 is still a good chunk of change, but as going to a show was something we were planning on doing anyways, I was pretty happy to save that ~$40/person. Even if you aren't able to research online in advance, there are numerous "half-price" ticket selling booths around the city that sell discounted tickets on the day of the show (the rationale being that casinos are making no money for empty seats, so they may as well sell seats for cheaper through these distributors to make up part of the difference). My family actually saw a second show (a singing celebrity impersonator show called Legends) that we had a coupon good for two-for-one tickets, so we saved money we might have spent on that also.

Savings: $280 -- There were five of us who got the discounted Blue Man Group* tickets ($40 x 5), and there were four of us who went to see Legends, two of which got free tickets ($40 x 2).

Grand total trip savings: $579 -- This is pretty much all money that we would have spent if we didn't take advantage of the various items listed above. Sure, we could have saved more money had we not gone to shows at all (or even gone to Vegas for that matter), but it was a family trip, and it was great to spend time with my parents, my brother, and my wife.

What do you think? Is my math fuzzy? Can anybody really ever "save" money by taking a trip to Las Vegas? Let me know in the comments.

*Anybody else really miss "Arrested Development"? Ah, Tobias.

On Frugality and Fun

My wife is wonderfully intelligent (intelligently wonderful?), and last night, before we nodded off to sleep, we decided to…

Not that! If lascivious and prurient items were what was to be written about in this blog, instead of being titled “Pinch that Penny,” I’d have to re-title it “Pinch that … something else!”

But seriously, before we drifted off to dreamland, I asked her what sort of vacation she’d like to go on. You see, the two of us had just spent a long weekend in Las Vegas with my parents and my brother. My family had made the trip under the auspices of my mom and my wife attending a cake/cupcake decorating convention. However, there are things that my dad, brother, and I like to do in Las Vegas, and those things involve sitting at a table for hours and repeatedly trying to count to twenty-one.*

While my wife thoroughly enjoyed her class-time, it is a well-known fact in my household that sitting in a smoke-filled casino is not my wife’s idea of an enjoyable vacation. This is what had prompted my question about what sort of vacation she’d like to go on. She thought for a moment, and then replied something along the lines of, “Well, are we going to try to have a great vacation or are we going to try to save money?” While she says that she generally enjoys any vacation that we go on, she really loved our honeymoon where, due to a lot of saving, we had been able to kind of cut loose and do nearly anything we wanted to do. Our honeymoon mentality was one that believed we were only going to get married one time, and so we’d better make the most out of it. We have plenty of fond and funny memories about our trip to Hawaii (there’s nothing like getting so sunburned that you can’t even really leave the hotel room because it hurts so much to knock a guy down a couple pegs).

I believe that her question about saving money stemmed from the fact that I had signed up for a rewards card at a not-so-exciting hotel on my last trip (The Orleans), and they, as casinos will do, sent me a voucher for a couple of free nights which we took advantage of on this trip. However, the first night of our trip, we stayed at the hotel where the cake decorating convention was held (Green Valley Ranch). GVR is a pretty, new property, and so after spending a night there, The Orleans seemed a little bit older and dingier by comparison.**

This got me to thinking, and us to discussing, about whether the spending of a lot of money on experiences is what makes a vacation superlative and memorable. Something I enjoy is checking out the Priceline Pricebreakers to see what trips are on sale. For our first anniversary, my wife and I went on a three or four day cruise which we paid relatively little for (comparatively), but was still a good time (even though swine flu concerns kept us from our cruise stop in Mexico). Still, both of us dream of taking a grand European vacation, but the price tag daunts and taunts me. It’s not so much the travel when we’re there as much as the cost of the flights to get there. My wife and I live in San Diego, so it’ll probably cost us four or five hundred bucks a piece to get to the East coast, and then another six or seven hundred bucks to get to Europe. All told, it would probably cost us around $2,000 for the two of us to even get to Europe, to say nothing of food, lodging, and so forth once there.

Middle-class problems, right?

Anyways, this got me to thinking how everybody else thinks about vacations. When planning your trips, do you pay top dollar to take the vacation of your dreams? Or do you seek out deals for less exciting, but not as pricy, vacations? Or do you have some sort of trade-off?

*Responsibly, of course. Each of us had a set spending limit for gambling based on what we knew we could afford. While I believe that gambling, in general, is not a fiscally sound course for personal finance, given that my family is on relatively firm footing with our finances, the occasional gambling trip to Vegas won’t throw us too far off course.
**The Orleans is still a nice hotel, in my opinion, and I don’t mean to demean it. I only mean to state that, even though The Orleans is nice, it wasn’t as nice and new as GVR.

Not Raising the Debt Ceiling Means Raising Taxes

The debate over the raising of the debt ceiling has been in the news quite a bit recently, and it has come up for good reason. If the U.S. does not raise the debt ceiling, the government will be unable to take on more debt in order to fund its current financial obligations. This new debt is significant; the monthly budget deficit in February, for example, was 223 billion dollars.

Now, if you’re reading this, you are likely fairly financially savvy, and you probably know that it is usually not a good idea to take on debt in order to pay off debt. This action is non-sustainable; you can only push money from one lender to another for so long.

The caveat to the rule of not taking on new debt to pay for the old debt is that if you’re able to borrow at a rate lower than your old rate, then you should almost certainly take on the new debt. As an example, if you have $1,000 on a credit card that is charging 14.9% APR, and you receive a 0% balance transfer option from another credit card or lender, you should pretty definitely transfer the money. On the flip side of the coin, if you have that thousand bucks on a credit card with a low interest rate, but you find that you’re short on money that month, should you fail to make, at least, the minimum payment?

No, you shouldn’t. You should always pay at least the minimum. Any why is that? Because if you don’t pay at least the minimum that you owe on a credit card, you will be subject to both late fees and having the APR on your debt raised. This is true of basicaly any and all debt a person, business, or country can take on.

And yet, this is, essentially, the untenable position that politicians who refuse raise the debt ceiling are taking. If the United States defaults, or is late, on any of its current debt obligations, the credit rating of the United States will get worse. Correspondingly, the low interest rates the U.S. has been afforded will likely go up, and so the U.S will effectively be paying more money to pay off its current debts.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Speaking in generalities, I lean towards the right politically (though, like many people in my generation, I don’t feel that I owe anything to any particular party), and I tend to favor small government. Also, I think much of the federal budget is due for an audit, and I think that certain social programs need to be reined in if not altogether done away with. Further $223 billion dollars is a ridiculous deficit for one month, and I firmly agree that spending needs to be cut. Even so, as it is the political right that is making a big deal out of raising the debt ceiling, I find myself at odds with my background.

To me, the issue of interest rates on the national debt is really what is at stake in the current debate. Is the current level of debt that the government takes on unsustainable? Absolutely. Should spending be cut? Certainly. Should we risk having the trillions of dollars that the U.S. currently has in debt face higher interest rates because one party is attempting to make a political point? Under no circumstances.

It is curious to me that those politicians who don’t want to raise the debt ceiling also are insistent on not raising taxes; it is also curious to me that these same politicians did not make a fuss any of the ten times the debt ceiling has been raised since 2001 (or the 74 times since 1962!). What those who are fighting to not raise the debt ceiling seem to fail to recognize is that should we default on parts of our national debt, the debt will only continue to rise anyway. If the debt rises today, more income is going to be needed to pay it off tomorrow. And how does the government raise income? By raising taxes.

Do you think the debt ceiling should be raised? Or are you of the camp that believes that not raising the debt ceiling will send a message to government that they can’t spend so much anymore? Let me know in the comments.

Do You Use a Change Jar?



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My dad used to keep his spare change in a big, glass water jug that was painted red, white, and blue, which is actually a pretty valid metaphor for the financial system in America if you think about it (full of money, easily broken, vaguely patriotic). One of his favorite expressions was (and still is) whenever my brother and I would bug him about wanting something expensive, he would reply, "Well, we better start saving our nickels."

As a result, I still keep a change jar, and, every few months, I spend some time rolling the coins. Once rolled, I then generally either take them to the bank or use them at a fast food restaurant (I love to see the cashier's expression when I order a #6 and then pull out three rolls of nickels. Big Mac: $1.99; medium fries: $1.49; uncomprehending stare of a sixteen year old: priceless).

For me, it's important to spend the time counting and rolling the coins myself. Sure, I could take them to a Coinstar machine, but them I'm paying them a percentage. While I value my time, I also don't like to throw money away if it's unnecessary.

Still, I understand that other people look down on change jars. Comedian Whitney Cummings even had a joke in her Comedy Central stand up special concerning what the deal is with guys having change jars (Is it their savings account?). Others prefer just to spend the change as they receive it, thereby eliminating the clutter that a change collection can bring.

What do you think? Do you save your change in a special place?

Saving Money Doing What You Like to Do #3 - Eight Ways to Save Money on Books

I love reading, and, as a direct result, I have something of a love affair with books that goes beyond merely reading. I love holding them, touching them, smelling a newly opened book, and, more than anything, I love having them around. As a result, I have developed something of an extensive library (particularly scripts and books about theatre and drama).

If you have been bitten by the book bug (book worm?) as well, then you know that developing a library and/or being surrounded by books can be an expensive past time. However, being a book lover doesn't have to cost a fortune (or cost all the available shelf space in your house). Here are some ways that I've managed to cut down on my own book costs.

1) Develop a book-buying philosophy - In my younger and more vulnerable years, I purchased nearly every book that I wanted to read, which I found left me quite short in the pocketbook. Wanting to be able to save more money and not overflow my condo with books, I have recently more or less decided that I only really need to purchase books if I'm going to need or use them as a reference. As I have been working towards, and recently completed, my M.A. in Drama, most of those reference works have been plays or other books on the theatre. In general, I now only purchase books of this type.

2) The library - Yes, I know this one is the most obvious place to get books on the cheap, but it bears repeating. For a long time, I had a difficult time wanting to get books from the library because I wanted to be able to read them at my leisure, and the three week check-out time (plus an additional three weeks for a one-time renewal) was totally harshing my book-loving buzz, man! Those fascists! Nevertheless, after moving a couple of times in the last few years, I couldn't help thinking that maybe I didn't need so many heavy boxes of books to cart around anymore, particularly for those books that I might only read one time. For example, Tina Fey has written a deeply hilarious book in Bossypants, but after reading it once, will I really need to have it on hand in perpetuity? Probably not.

3) Other free books - Outside of my local public library, there are a couple boxes of free books that people can take home. While these boxes are usually filled with books that no rational person could possibly want nowadays (anyone up for a copy of the Dummies Guide to Windows 95? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?), I have found some choice picks in the past. For example, the other day I looked through the box and found an anthology of plays which included some that I haven't read but that I had been meaning to. There are also some free books on Craigslist if you look under the "free" section, but these are generally not the sorts of books one might want to read (similar to the free boxes at the library).

4) Commercial websites - There is, of course, also a book buying section on Craigslist, which can have some good deals. I recently purchased the beautiful, hard cover, three volume Calvin and Hobbes collection that I've had my eye on for several years after I found a seller on Craigslist who was looking to get rid of it for $25 (which is an absolute steal, especially when you consider that it still goes for around $100 used on Ebay). While I'm on the topic of Ebay, Amazon.com is kind of the obvious choice for books with nearly everything it has in stock having deep discounts off of the cover price, but sometimes Ebay has still manages to have better prices (particularly for used books). I have found that it pays to check both sites. The downside to buying online is that you generally have to pay for shipping; however, if you are a student, you can sign up for Amazon Prime, which offers free two-day shipping. I signed up as a student, and they haven't kicked me out yet, so I still take advantage of that offer from time to time.

5) Non-commercial websites - If the book you're looking for is an older title, then you should be able to find it for free at sites like Project Gutenberg. Project Gutenberg compiles etexts of books that have fallen into the public domain. Further, you can download the files, and you should be able to upload them onto your ereader (such as a nook or a kindle) if you have one.

6) Used book stores - These are some of my favorite establishments on earth. I really enjoy lingering for an hour or more at a quality used book store with a good collection. If you live in a city that has a university, it may be worthwhile to see if they have a friends of the library book sale room on campus. San Francisco State, for example, has one where all of the softcover books are a dollar and all of the hardcover books are two dollars. While the selection is limited, you can't beat those prices with a stick.

7) New book stores - These stores, like Borders or Barnes and Noble, are usually my last option. Still, Borders has a program that frequently sends out coupons through email that give you 20 to 40 or 50% off the cover price of a book. If you are the sort of person who likes browsing in a bookstore, than it's certainly worthwhile to sign up for the free coupons. As an FYI, for what it's worth, Barnes and Noble tends to be stingier with their coupons. I very seldomly see online coupons for Barnes and Noble, and when I do see them, they are usually only for 10% off.

8) Ereaders - Sure, there is the start up cost of actually buying an ereader (which are still going for better than a hundred bucks for a brand new one), but generally, the books that you are able to purchase for your ereader are going to be less expensive than physical copies of the books. This isn't always the case, however. As a point of reference, I own a Nook from Barnes and Noble, and nearly all of the titles are $9.99.

Those are my ideas of saving money on books. To all of you readers out there, how do you save money on books?

Saving Money Doing What You Like to Do #2 - Pot Luck Dinners

I'm going to let you in on a little secret about myself: I love food and drinks. I suppose you might have been able to guess that with one of my first posts being about wine tasting. However, eating out all the time very quickly uses up all your hard earned cash. What is a responsible young adult to do?

My wife and I hang out with two couples on a regular basis. We used to do this every Friday night, but over the last month and a half or so, it's been tougher to be consistent, but it is a goal that we all enjoy and for which we all make time. It has been said that food brings people together, and this is the case with our friend group. Generally, we all head over to one of our homes, and we have dinner and play a board game or two.

When we first started, there was a bit of stress that accompanied this venture. It seemed very grown up and proper to have the hosting party provide dinner, but this was quickly repealed as buying food for six people is a bit of a strain, especially when compared to the two people for which each of the couples normally buys. In addition, one of the couples each lives with different families, and so they wouldn't really ever be able to host, which seems unfair too.

So, like so many Southern Baptist churches, we decided to make our events pot luck style. While we certainly could plan it a little better (sometimes we end up with three main courses), this plan of attach is generally very preferable, at least for my wife and I. My wife loves it because when I cook, I tend to use a certain combination of spices that end up making most of my dishes taste similar. I love it because one of our friends used to work at one of the fanciest restaurants in San Diego (Bertrand and Mr. A's), and so I am always looking forward to whatever it is that she puts together.

Generally, each couple gets away with paying $10 or $15 dollars, and we all get to enjoy a three course meal. There have even been times when one of the couples brought a big bowl of ramen noodles because it was all they could put together in time, so they certainly got off a lot cheaper (and it was delicious anyways).

In short, food is good. Friends are good. When you put them together, it can be a fun and inexpensive way to spend an evening.

If you liked this post, you might also like "Saving Money Doing What You Like to Do #1 - Five Easy Ways to Save Money on Ebay."