My Personal Finance Journey

Category Archives for Saving Money & Frugal Living

Help a Reader – How Cheap Is Too Cheap?

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Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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The following is an email I got from Joe. B, a MPFJ reader. 

Having watched part of an installment of Extreme Cheapskate, I can say urinating in a bottle is way too cheap for me.  

However, I ask myself periodically how far can/should I go in the realm of cheapness? For example, how about turning off electronics that use power even when not in use, like TV’s and DVD’s? I figured out how to do it, I put them on power strips and turn several off at once. However, I wonder if on-and-offing them is deleterious to their function and would it cost more in wear and tear and subsequent replacement than leaving them turned on full time?

I also wonder about such things as walking to save money. Certainly, it is healthful and even nice to connect with the world outside my four walls (maybe even enjoying nature occasionally). The issue is one of available time, energy and even the cost of shoe leather – or plastic. If I can make money with my spare time, does driving because it is faster make sense? I already own the car and have paid for the maintenance and insurance; the only cost is depreciation and gasoline, right? And how far is too far to walk: one block to my Postal Service cluster box, a mile to my fitness center (is driving to a fitness center an oxymoron?), three miles to the nearest grocery store? 

I do my own minor auto maintenance since I have trouble paying someone $5.00 to replace the air filter on my car. I have also done home projects like making book cases and adding ceiling fans (I live in a hot climate; they really do pay for themselves!) I do it myself in part because I enjoy accomplishing projects, but also, I save money and assure the job gets done timely and well (mostly).  However, then I am buying tools – – however, how good a tool to buy, the Professional quality one – often way south of $100 or the “homeowner” version for $40 –  but don’t expect extreme durability.

Speaking of do-it-yourself, how about gardening, making your own baked goods, always home cooking your own meals instead of going out and even preserving your own fruits and vegetables when they are in season for later use? All can save money but they take time and most require equipment, use energy and, did I say, time? Is it worth it?

Also, look at activities like going to movies. I can go when they are first released and pay $10+, I can wait 4-8 months and rent them for a dollar or two and the whole family can watch it, or I can wait a year or so and see it on television. Is it worth the wait? What if I forget I wanted to watch it and miss it? How about a new ipad? It would be pretty cool to be able to carry 100’s of books at one time and get books on-line from the library for free (I rarely buy new books). How about my 7 year old PC? It still does what I want and I’m afraid some of the programs I use are so old they likely will not be compatible with a new OS. What about a smart phone?… 

My Thoughts – How Cheap is Too Cheap?

This is a great topic to discuss, so a big thanks goes to Joe for bringing this up! Indeed, the line between cheap and too cheap can often be a fine one (and one that I, as a pretty frugal-minded person, often walk).

To help myself define whether something is worthwhile to be cheap about or I need to “loosen up the purse strings,” I generally follow 3 guidelines:

  • # 1 – Don’t be cheap on things that help you work towards achieving your life values and/or life dreams?
    • In general, I believe that for the things in your life of which you feel very passionately (your life values and dreams), those are not areas in which you want to be cheap. 
    • For example, if helping others by donating to charity is high up on your life of life values, then it would be best to skimp in other areas in order to free up some money to donate to your favorite causes. 
    • As another example, if traveling to see the world is high up on your life values/dreams listing, it is OK to be cheap about what type of clothing you buy if that means that you’ll be able to finally take the “trip of a lifetime” you’ve been planning for 5 years.  
  • # 2 – Focus on saving money on “the big things” and value your time.
    • As Joe hinted at above, for everything (big or little) we do, there is likely SOME WAY that we could technically be doing it cheaper. 
    • For example, instead of driving my car the 2 miles to work on days that it is rainy and cold, I could ride my bike. However, the mental anguish that comes along with being really wet makes the little bit of money I spend in gas very worthwhile. 
    • Likewise, I probably could save a little money over the long run by replacing the 4 regular light bulbs in my house with energy-efficient CFL ones. However, how much money would that really save? A few dollars? It’s probably not worth worrying about every little detail like this. 
    • On the other hand, it is very important, in my opinion, to address issues that cost you very large amounts of money. For example, if you are eating out 6 times a week, that’s likely costing thousands of dollars a year, and as such, it would be very well worth your time to investigate the issue and find a way to eat cheaper.
    • Lastly, in all of this, always make sure that the work required to do something cheaply doesn’t take up more time than it is worth in cost savings.
  • # 3 – How well are your savings goals being met?
    • After figuring out ways to save money on the more significant items in your life as discussed in #2, the next important issue becomes to determine if you actually need to worry about “going cheap” in the more minor areas of your financial life.
    • To determine this, you must ask yourself if you are able to save the amount of money that you want/need to. If at that point, you are already saving enough money, I wouldn’t worry too much about going more hyper-frugal.
    • In my experience, most often, people are prevented from meeting their savings goals by some systemic, fairly clear ‘problem’ in their spending patterns, not because they, for example, decided to pay a mechanic to do their oil change/tune up versus do it themselves.
    • However, if after addressing any major spending issues in your finances, you define that you need to save more than you are, it would be worthwhile to look in to ways to be cheaper in other aspects of your life. 
    • And, by going through these 3 guidelines, you would then have a solid justification for why you need to be cheap in a certain way (and then, it would not be ‘too’ cheap at all, right?! haha).
How about you all? What questions about how far to go down the road of cheapness have you asked and resolved? What do you think? And, more importantly, what do you do?

Share your experiences by commenting below! 

***Photo courtesy of http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7232/7213949570_9c0b4aaf9b.jpg

Creative Ways to Save Money While Traveling

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Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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Click here to enter my free $51.95 giveaway for a chance to win 5% of My Personal Finance Journey blog income and give another 5% to a charity of your choosing! Deadline to enter is January 31st, 2013.

This is a post by MPFJ staff writer, Jeff. Jeff writes about Sustainable living and finances at his website, Sustainable Life Blog. Jeff really enjoys traveling with his wife as much as he can, to wherever he can.


One of my favorite things to do (and my wife’s) is to travel because we get to check out new places and experience new things.  There’s always something different to see in a new place, and I personally find it fascinating to see other cultures and other parts of the country – how they act, what they like to do, and what they eat.  Over Christmas, we got the chance to head over to New York City for a few days, and had a lot of fun.


We were able to keep to a pretty strict budget though, and there were multiple ways that we were able to score some awesome deals:

Local Flavors – 

When we are out traveling, we always look to see what the locals do and eat there.  New York was no exception, but there were so many different places to eat, and lots of them are very good and very cheap.

There’s a lot of different ethnic neighborhoods in New York, and we were able to have some northeastern kosher vegetarian Indian food for dinner.  The total cost to us was around $25, for 2 entrees and water to drink.  The food was so good that I couldn’t believe it!  The next night, we had Chinese food, and we spent around $27 for an 2 entrees and an appetizer (it was happy hour so the appetizer was half off).  Not only do we get great, cheap food, but we also get to see how other people live!

Public Transit – 

This one is pretty obvious, but should be repeated.  We each got $29 subway passes that were good for 7 days when we were in New York.  This is just a fraction of what you would pay getting taken all over the city by the taxi (which costs about $25 from LaGuardia airport to midtown).  Each ride on the subway costs $2.25, and in two days, the pass had paid for itself.

Free Museum Days – 

On the way back from New York, my wife and I got unexpectedly delayed for about 12 hours in Charlotte, NC.  Instead of staying at the airport, we paid $10 to rent a car for the afternoon and drove into town (the bus stopped running at 2 pm since it was Sunday).  We had some lunch and then found some museums nearby.  One of them was free that day because it was the last day of one of the exhibits that they were showing.  We were able to enjoy an awesome museum for free!  Some museums have free days once a week, some vary, but its a great way to save a few bucks when traveling.  If you are not in town when any are free, don’t worry, there are plenty of other ways to save.

Public Art/Street Festivals – 

This is one of my personal favorites when I’m traveling.  I love going to check out the public art around towns.  My personal favorites is this giant blue bear in Denver, Colorado.  No matter the size of the town, there is usually a public art display, or many.  They make great stops on walking tours on nice days, and the best part about them is that they are free!

Schedule Around 1 Big Event – 

In New York, we scheduled the trip around 1 big event – a play on Broadway.  My wife really wanted to see one, so we made that the focus of our trip and did cheap stuff other than that.  We were able to get student tickets for a discount, but they were still pretty expensive (you can also get discounted tickets to Broadway shows at a booth near Times Square if you’re in NYC ever!).  We had a lot of fun and will remember it for a while, so it was a very good way to spend our money.

How about you all? What ways do you save money on vacation? 

Share your experiences by commenting below!

    ***Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/chitrasudar/2778096382/

    You Get What You Pay For (A Cautionary Tale)

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    Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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    Click here to enter my free $51.95 giveaway for a chance to win 5% of My Personal Finance Journey blog income and give another 5% to a charity of your choosing! Deadline to enter is January 31st, 2013.

    The following post is by MPFJ staff writer, Kelly Gurnett. Kelly runs the blog Cordelia Calls It Quits, where she documents her attempts to rid her life of the things that don’t matter and focus more on the things that do. You can also follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

     I am a bargain-hunting frugalista of the highest degree. If there’s a deal to be had, a dollar to be saved, or a discount to be taken advantage of, I will sniff it out, and I will probably gloat to my husband afterwards about how much I’ve managed to save us.

     But sometimes, as much as I hate to admit it, you have to pay more to get a product or service that will actually be worth your hard-earned money. It’s a lesson I’ve learned the hard way.



    My Way-Too-Good-To-Be True Deal

    I belong to a million daily deals sites, and one day this spring, I saw a deal for $200 worth of service from a local contractor for $50. It sounded too good to be true, but I couldn’t help myself—our “fixer-upper” starter house is always falling apart, and at the time I saw this particular deal, we were smack in the middle of a kitchen sink leak/flooded floor double whammy. My husband, bless his soul, had done everything he could do to fix the leak, but it was only getting worse. Then along came this fantastic deal, just when we needed it most, to save our kitchen and also save us a ton of money.
                
    I don’t even remember the contractor’s name, but let’s call him “Bob.” Bob showed up in a beat-up pickup truck loaded with odds and ends, wearing a ratty sweatshirt, several day’s worth of scruff, and the air of someone who’d just rolled out of bed and wasn’t terribly happy about it. He took one look at our sink, said yep, he could take care of that, then disappeared to the hardware store for parts and didn’t return until the next day (still scruffy and looking groggily disgruntled). I didn’t like the looks of him—I knew that from the start. But I’d already paid for my discount voucher, our leak was not getting any better, and I figured it was a project simple enough that even Joe Handyman off the street would be able to take care of it.

                
    I was wrong.

                
    Bob “fixed” the leak. He installed new pipes that did not leak when we ran the water, and they continued to not leak for all the months since—during which he disappeared off the face of the planet and never did give us the extra hour of time we’d already “paid” for. Chalk it up to a lesson learned, I told myself.

    I just had no idea how big of a lesson…

    The Aftermath (and How It Should Be Done)

    This past week, having saved up all our Christmas money to buy a new dishwasher, we had our new (reputable) plumbers out to give us an estimate on installation. (Let’s call them “ABC Plumbing.”) We got an estimate, alright—for the installation for the washer, and also for all the pipe work that desperately needed to be redone first before we should even consider installing a brand-new major appliance.

                
    Turns out Bob wasn’t even as good at Joe Handyman off the street. Let’s put it this way: ABC Plumber asked my permission to take a picture of Bob’s handiwork for their website’s “wall of shame” warning against the perils of going with lowest-bid contractors. The piping worked, technically, but it wouldn’t work well for very long—and it certainly wouldn’t be able to withstand the pressures of adding a dishwasher to the system. We had paid for cheap work, and cheap work is what we got.
                
    ABC Plumbing, on the other hand? They’ll admit right off the bat that they’re not the cheapest around. But they do the work right. They show up in a fully-licensed, fully-decaled van stocked with every part they might need to do the job (to code). They draw you sketches and show you exactly what needs fixing and why. They answer every question you can think of, and even those you didn’t know enough to think of. They have 24-hour emergency service. They even put a double-layer of plastic hospital booties on over their work boots so they won’t track any mud into your house, for crying out loud.

                
    Will it cost a pretty penny to have them do the plumbing right? Yes. And it will be worth every pretty penny. Because sometimes you have to pay a little more for quality to save yourself from tons of hassle and expense down the line. Especially when it comes to something big, like your house or your car, it’s worth paying the professionals to do it right the first time.
                
    The only good news in the story (apart from the lesson learned)? ABC Plumber informed me that what I got from Jim was probably worth about 50 bucks, so at least we didn’t pay $5,000 for shoddy work like too many of his other customers have.

    That’s not much consolation, but it’s some.
                
    How about you all? Have you every paid for a “cheap” product or service only to regret it later?


    Share your experiences by commenting below!

      ***Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/magneticsphere/7320136700/sizes/l/in/photostream/

      The Perks of Being a Saver

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      Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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      Click here to enter my free $51.95 giveaway for a chance to win 5% of My Personal Finance Journey blog income and give another 5% to a charity of your choosing! Deadline to enter is January 31st, 2013.

      The following post is by MPFJ staff writer, Greg Johnson. Greg is a proud husband, father, and debt crusader who is in the process of becoming debt free. Along with his wife, Greg co-founded the personal finance blog, Club Thrifty, where they encourage readers to “Stop Spending. Start Living.”

      A few years ago, I read a great book called, The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Recently, Hollywood released a film adaptation. Although I have yet to see it, my friends tell me that it is a pretty good movie. The plot is essentially a coming of age story about an introverted boy named Charlie. The book follows several different events throughout Charlie’s life as he slowly learns to be less of a wallflower and begins to participate in life.
      As I look back on the story, I see some parallels with the journey that I took when becoming a saver. 

       I used to wonder how people were able to afford the things that they had. I always thought that those who had nice things certainly had to have a lot of money. I realize now that some people actually can’t afford their lifestyle, using credit to build their castle full of belongings on a foundation of sand. Rather than follow my companions further down the road of debt, I have chosen to go the route of the savers – using solid savings techniques to enjoy my life to the fullest, both now and (I hope) in the future. I’ve found that I am now able to have the quality of life that I want simply by capitalizing on some of these perks of being a saver.

      Security

      I’m sure that you know someone who panics every time the tiniest financial hiccup interrupts their life. You know, that person whose financial world is in shambles the second that an unexpected expense pops up? 

       I used to be that person. The reason people panic isn’t because the hiccup is overly expensive. It is because they haven’t planned for anything to go wrong. Getting a flat tire shouldn’t cause somebody’s finances to spiral into a tail spin. However, if you haven’t saved enough money in an emergency fund, you don’t have that security to fall back on.
      It took me some time to learn this lesson. Now that I have, my life is filled with a lot less stress. I rarely have to worry about something breaking. If it does, I simply get it fixed. I can do this because I finally learned how to save.

      Do the Things You REALLY Want to Do

      For years, I spent money frivolously on sports jerseys, music, movies, and nights out on the town. However, I never had enough money to actually do some of the really cool stuff that my friends were able to do. I was never able to go to a major Spring Break destination. I didn’t go and see any concerts. Why? I didn’t understand how to save my money.
      Over the years, I’ve finally figured out what I really enjoy doing. Now that I’m a saver, I actually have the money to do them. Sure, I could go out to eat four nights a week, but I’d rather save my money so that I can travel. Being a saver has allowed me to take some really fun vacations with my family, and I can do it multiple times a year now. I can go and watch my favorite bands play live in concert. I can take my wife on a Mediterranean cruise if I wish. My new mindset has allowed me to do the things that I truly find enjoyable in life.

      Flexibility

      Saving money gives you a lot more flexibility in your life. Being a saver may mean that you are eventually able to open your own business. Don’t feel like being an entrepreneur? Cool. Maybe you can retire early. Perhaps you can eventually take a job that you find enjoyable for less money than you are making now. Maybe you would like to pack up all of your belongings and move to Belize. Being a saver gives you all of these options…and more.
      For me, making the choice to become a saver really changed the way that I look at life. Like Charlie, I am now actually participating in life the way that I want to, instead of just being a spectator. I hope that you might make even a small change and begin saving money today. Find out what the perks of being a saver can mean to you!
      How about you all? Are you a saver? If so, what has becoming a saver meant to the quality of your life?
      Share your experiences by commenting below!

        ***Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/alancleaver/4279482716/

        Working Off Your Holiday Debt Overhang

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        Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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        Click here to enter my free $51.95 giveaway for a chance to win 5% of My Personal Finance Journey blog income and give another 5% to a charity of your choosing! Deadline to enter is January 31st, 2013.

        The following is a post by MPFJ staff writer, Kevin Mercadante, who is professional personal finance blogger, and the owner of his own personal finance blog, OutOfYourRut.com. He has backgrounds in both accounting and the mortgage industry.

        The holiday season ended just a few weeks ago, but if you are like most people, the memory still lingers on – and you have the credit card bills to prove it. The holiday season, and in particular Christmas, can create large expenses that just beg for at least an occasional swipe of plastic.

        By now, the bills are in and you’re in an excellent position to fully assess the holiday damage. If you spent a little too much and ran your credit cards up higher than you’re comfortable with, now is the time to do something about it.

        The risk of letting your debt roll into next year

        Big debts always start out as small ones, and the small ones often originate at the holidays. It’s easy to do – the holidays can leave you inundated with expenses. Not only are there gifts to buy, but there are also decorations, special dinners to plan and prepare, extra restaurant meals and, very often, holiday related travel. The cost for all this can run well into the thousands, and it can be a real cash flow killer. Credit cards can seem like the logical solution.

        Using credit cards to deal with a rash of unusual expenses isn’t bad advice in of itself. Where the problem comes is when those debts are just rolled forward, rather than immediately paid off. Once you get comfortable with even a small level of debt, larger levels are more than possible.

        Perhaps the best way to use credit cards responsibly is to get into the habit of paying them off immediately. The last thing you want to do is to face next holiday season while still carrying debt from the last one. You can take care of that problem by paying those debts off now.

        Time to go on a spending diet

        If you spent too much money during the holiday season, you can balance that out by cutting back on your spending now. One of the advantages to doing that early in the year is that there are no major holidays, nor is this a traditional time of the year for travel and vacations. The lower expenses should enable you to direct extra cash flow into debt payoff.

        You may even consider using the early part of the year as good time to go on a spending diet. Good financial habits are best established early in the year, that way you can carry them forward through the rest of the year. Seize the opportunity in this the quietest time of the year to cut back on any unnecessary spending, and free up money for other purposes.

        Fast forward debt payoff

        If you can find or create extra room in your budget, do your best to direct it into payoff of your holiday related debts, and any other debts that you’re carrying. This is an excellent time of the year to clear the decks for other money moves.

        Paying off debt is always a worthy effort because the elimination of any debt will also remove a monthly payment from your budget. The more of those you can clear out, the more money you will have for everything else that you want to do.

        At a minimum, you should want to payoff your holiday related debts so that they are not still hanging around when the new holiday season comes.

        Start savings for next holiday season

        Here’s a novel idea: instead of relying on credit cards next holiday season, plan now for cash on the barrel. You can do that by paying off your current debts, and then once you do, to begin saving money for next season.

        Banks used to offer “Christmas club accounts” specifically for this purpose, and many employers would allow you to direct deposit money into such an account. While those accounts are probably still out there at certain banks, they don’t get the publicity they once did. Perhaps this is because customers are more interested in chasing yield on their savings, rather than on keeping their money safe for a dedicated purpose.

        But you don’t need a special account, you can establish your own Christmas club account in any way that works for you. This could be a matter of setting up a dedicated savings account at a local bank, or even quite literally putting cash in a cookie jar each week. Whatever allows you to accumulate the amount of money you will need for the holidays will work.

        The payoff is that when next holiday season comes, not only will you not have last year’s debt, but you’ll also have a reserve of cash that will make facing the holidays so much more pleasant. You will be able to buy what you need, when you need it, without having to worry about carrying fresh debt into the new year.
        Now is the time to make that happen!

        How about you all? Do you make it a habit to save money specifically for the holidays?
        　
        Share your experiences by commenting below!

          ***Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/22338369@N07/6602762571/

          Have You Considered House Swapping For Your Next Vacation?

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          Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
          ————————————————————————————————————————

          Click here to enter my free $51.95 giveaway for a chance to win 5% of My Personal Finance Journey blog income and give another 5% to a charity of your choosing! Deadline to enter is January 31st, 2013.

          The following post is by MPFJ staff writer, Shondell of Call Me What You Want, Even Cheap. She blogs about her recent car loan and mortgage pay off and a whole bunch more. Check out her blog right here.

          There is no place like home, but what if you could have the comfort of your home while enjoying a wonderful vacation in your favorite place in the world?

          Home swapping or home exchange is the ultimate vacation alternative where people trade their homes at convenient times for both parties. Although it is a relatively new concept, vacation home swapping is remarkable and unique in many ways, gaining more and more popularity every day.

          The Benefits of Vacation House Swapping

          If you have doubts about the success of home swapping, consider the many benefits that come with this solution. First of all, it has exclusive characteristics, which no resort or hotel will ever be able to provide. Here are some of the most general advantages of vacation home swapping:

          • Privacy. When you exchange homes for your vacation, you will spend time in a private space where you can continue to get the pleasure and warmth of a home without the typical annoyance that comes with hotel or resort staying.
          • No Costs. There is no other vacation alternative where you basically spend no money on accommodation and you have a new place. Vacation home swapping offers a free place to stay and that basically reduces your costs to a minimum.
          • Freedom. Vacation home swapping offers the freedom of making your own schedule. You can enjoy home cooked meals or you can go to a restaurant. It is up to you. You can come at any time of the day or night without anyone checking on you.
          • Peace of Mind. When you are away from home, you tend to worry about your house and about what could happen in your absence. On the other hand, when you choose vacation home swapping, you can be rest assured that your home is in good hands, cared for by people just like you.
          • Culturally Rich. There is no better way to experience and understand a new culture or way of life than living in a real home where real people live their lives every day. You can get to feel the places you are visiting. You will be more than a simple tourist.
          • Friendships. Most home exchangers become friends. The connections that are created between exchange partners can transform into sustainable friendships that will last for many years, and that can open numerous doors and opportunities for both partners.


          Things You Should Know About Vacation Home Exchange

          Every year is a new possibility to engage in a new enticing vacation experience. With vacation home swapping, the experience is unique every time. There are countless possibilities, and you will be surprised at the diversity of choices you have. However, there are certain aspects that you need to consider before embarking on this wonderful journey. Here is a list of the most important ones:

          • You can trade all types of homes including condos, apartments, or vacation homes;
          • Vacation home swapping does not refer strictly to home exchange; it can sometimes involve trading homes over yachts, RVs over villas, and so on.
          • You should also consider including vehicles in the arrangement, which can make your stay easier and more convenient.
          • Home exchangers are generally adventurous people, eager to learn about new cultures and experience new life styles.
          • If you are worried about leaving your home in the hands of complete strangers you should remember that the “strangers” are entrusting their home to strangers, too

          What To Consider When You Choose Vacation Home Swapping

          Vacation home swapping is becoming increasingly popular among the ranks of doctors, lawyers, singles, and couples that want the reward of a new experience in a new setting. It is a concept that is based on mutual trust and respect as well as goodwill. As more and more people are offering their homes for home swapping, it is important that you know what you are looking for:

          • Setting: Most people want to spend their vacation in natural environments that are somehow different or even opposite to theirs. If they live by the seaside, they want to check out the mountains. Thus, you need to decide what type of setting you would prefer: picturesque mountains, sandy beaches, ocean sands, busy big cities, serene small towns, African deserts, tropical locations, or the Mediterranean air.
          • Country: Vacation home swapping is not limited to a particular country. People trade homes all over the world. You can get to spend your vacation in Italy while your exchange partners try out your bungalow in Canada. It is all about meeting needs at both ends. Many people dream about travelling to other parts of the world, and home exchange offers the perfect opportunity.
          • Timing: This is another important aspect of home exchange. You should have a list with the dates you would be able to travel to your new location. Just like with many other things, timing is essential. Carefully pick your dates without limiting your options to traditional holidays such as Easter or Christmas. You can choose any other dates around the year. Remember that Japan is most beautiful in springtime or that Switzerland is great in the winter. Every place has its charm depending on the time of the year.
          • Type of Home: There are people eager to experience new life styles, not only a new setting, a new city or a new country. That is the reason why you can exchange your home for a yacht, an RV, a mountain cottage, a seaside bungalow, or a vast apartment in New York. Again, the possibilities are countless.
          • Time Interval: It is also important that both exchange partners agree on how long the vacation will be. Some people have 7 or 10 days available for vacation while others have more or less.

          The important thing is that all of these needs are met for both partners involved. Vacation home swapping is really more about exchanging lifestyles rather than exchanging actual properties. That is the reason why you should learn everything there is to know about your new vacation destination including transportation, amenities, places to visit, events, restaurants, neighbors, and everything else you may be interested in. In the end, home swapping is a written agreement that will ensure that both parties get what they want and set limits to what they can offer.

          How about you all? Have you ever house swapped? If not, would you?

          Share your experiences by commenting below!

           ***Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/justicemitchell/

          What A Shark Tooth Necklace Taught Me About Saving Money on Souvenirs

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          Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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          Click here to enter my free $51.95 giveaway for a chance to win 5% of My Personal Finance Journey blog income and give another 5% to a charity of your choosing! Deadline to enter is January 31st, 2013.

          The following post is by MPFJ staff writer Travis. Travis is a customer blogger for CareOne Debt Relief Services, and also appears weekly at Enemy of Debt.  Travis candidly shares his personal journey to pay off $109,000 of credit card debt and the tips he’s learned along the way. As a father and husband, he provides a unique perspective on balancing debt, finances, and family.

          I’m not a sight-seeing kind of person,  I’m not a shopping person, and I’m definitely not a  souvenir buying person.
          On a trip to Mexico with friends and family, we decided to spend an afternoon shopping at an open market.   Although I wasn’t thrilled with the idea, we all went as a group activity. While others loaded up on cheap t-shirts and trinkets, I just walked up and down the isles of vendors glancing at the products each was selling.  Nothing piqued my interested until I saw a gentlemen selling shark tooth necklaces.
          I had always wanted one, and I thought a shark tooth necklace from Mexico would be a wonderful souvenir to remind me of a really fun trip.  The price was about $50, and although I am horrible at haggling, I negotiated the price down to $20.  I was quite proud of how much I was able to get the seller to come down, until I got back to our hotel and I found that they were selling shark tooth necklaces at the gift shop for about $12.  Admittedly, I didn’t like the style quite as much, so I was still happy with my purchase, and had a great story to go along with it.
          Ever since then, I use the same methodology for souvenir shopping whenever we go on a trip.  I have the perspective that there is one thing that I’m going to buy to remind myself forever of the trip.  I don’t know what it is, or where, or when I will find it.  I just believe that I’ll know it when I see it.
          I’ve tried to pass this same mindset on to my children.
          We went on a family vacation to Florida several years ago with some good friends.  My then ten year old son had saved $15 from his allowance that he brought along in case he found something he wanted to buy.   Before we left,  I shared with him my story of the shark tooth necklace and how I searched and searched for the item I wanted to purchase.  I tried to imprint on him that a souvenir shouldn’t just be a mindless piece of junk, but something special that makes him instantly think of that particular trip.
          As we went through the first several days of our vacation our friends bought their kids countless towels, T-shirts, hats, light up glasses, and every other piece of tourist junk that they begged their parents to buy.   Finally, they told their kids, “That’s enough, no more souvenirs!”
          Yet, Tristan hung on to his $15.
          On the second to last day of our vacation, we were walking through an amusement park when we ran across a vendor that was selling something that caught my son’s eye.  The item  was $14, and he asked if he could use his money to buy it.  Knowing that he had been looking diligently for just the right item, I simply asked him, “Is this what you’ve been looking for?”
          He looked up at me with his big brown eyes and nodded slowly.  I was so proud of him for not giving into all the temptation of all the souvenir stands that flooded his vision during the trip, and for not blowing his money on the first piece of junk he saw.  He handed his money to the vendor, who placed the item into a small plastic bag and handed it to my son.  Tristan instantly took it out of the bag, and put it on.  He wore it for the rest of the day, as well as the plane ride home.
          He continues to wear it today on special occasions. Every now and then he asks me if I remember where he got it.  We remember together our trip to Florida, and the $14 he spent on his very own shark tooth necklace.
          How about you all?  How do you decide how many souvenirs to buy on a trip?  How much do you spend on souvenirs when you go on a vacation?


           Share your experiences by commenting below!

            ***Image courtesy of sixninepixels / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

            10 Financial Mistakes From the F-R-I-E-N-D-S Television Series to Avoid

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            Click here to enter my free $51.95 giveaway for a chance to win 5% of My Personal Finance Journey blog income and give another 5% to a charity of your choosing! Deadline to enter is January 31st, 2013.

            Prior to meeting my girlfriend in 2010, I had probably only seen a handful of Friends episodes in my entire life. This is especially shocking to some people, given the fact that the show was airing for 10 years during my “prime” TV-watching ages of ~8-18 years old.

            However, the girlfriend quickly introduced and subsequently hooked me on to Friends (after all, it was/is her favorite sitcom) after we started dating. She owns the entire 10 season discography on DVD, and we have probably gone through the entire series 8 times since 2010. A lot of the time, we actually aren’t even watching it; we just have it on in the background while we are working on the computer and doing other things around the house. So, it’s probably not as much time wasted as it might sound at first! It also works out well that we both now like Friends so much because we don’t have cable TV at our house. It’s pretty funny because we will go on trips where we stay at hotels that have cable TV, but we will still end up finding nothing else on and simply watching Friends when it is showing on the various available networks!

            Despite my deep love for the Friends television series, often times when I am watching Friends, I am simply amazed at the many serious financial mistakes that the characters make on the show. Now, I definitely realize that this is a fictional show that is meant to be funny, and this is likely one of the big reasons why the writers incorporated these financial flops in to the show. After all, if they made a show where someone was saving 50% of his or her paycheck and living very frugally, the ratings would absolutely tank because it would be boring, right?!

            On the other hand, I also often wonder (and maybe worry a little bit) if given the fact that the financial mistakes were displayed in arguably the most popular TV series of all time, do these bad financial behaviors somehow get normalized in to our society and made to seem as the ‘right,’ ‘cool,’ and/or socially-acceptable thing to do?

             Because of these factors, I thought it would make for an interesting discussion to review 10 of the bad financial lessons/mistakes of the characters in the Friends TV series in this post. I look forward to hearing you all’s thoughts!    

            Financial Mistake # 1 – Failing to Consider Your Latte Factor

            The Latte Factor is a topic that I learned in the very first book I ever read about personal finance and frugal living, David Bach’s Automatic Millionaire. As you’ve probably already heard, the idea behind the Latte Factor is that if people buy a latte from Starbucks everyday for $4, this compounds to a lot of money over time. However, the same idea can be applied for all sorts of luxury purchases made everyday (snacks, regular coffee, vending machine items, etc).

             In the Friends series, all six characters (Chandler, Joey, Monica, Rachel, Ross, and Phoebe) have a Latte Factor to the 1000th power! 

             They go to the Central Perk Coffee House multiple times every day and seem to spend about $5 or more each time. If you do the quick math, they probably spend $3000-$4000 in coffee every year! Yikes! Talk about a financial hole to recover from already.

             The sad thing is that even though this sounds like a terrible financial predicament, I imagine that a lot of people in bigger cities go to restaurants and coffee houses in this same manner. It’s definitely something to think about if you fall in to this behavior pattern category. Try doing what I do and get your coffee fix at home before you leave for work!

            Financial Mistake # 2 – Never Cooking a Meal at Home

            For me personally, cooking meals at home/avoiding spending large amounts of money at bars along with being debt free are probably the two most effective ways that I have been able to save over 50-80% of my income for the past 4-5 years.

            As any regular Friends fan will know, the Friends characters (Chandler and Joey especially) eat out a whole lot! There is one really funny scene that I like to watch several times where Joey and Chandler are sitting around their apartment, and Joey asks Chandler, “What do you want to do for dinner tonight?” Chandler then says in a joking way that indicates that cooking will never happen in a million years, “I thought we might stay in and cook here.” They both then laugh! It’s pretty funny stuff!

            Again, even though I/they get a laugh out of this, it’s actually a pretty serious situation and financial roadblock faced by many young people today, especially students in undergraduate or graduate school. They feel they are too busy or too young to need to cook at home, so they end up getting take-out or food at a restaurant for most meals. Along with costing a great deal of money that these young folks really don’t have, eating out generally is less healthy for oneself than cooking at home.

            Financial Mistake # 3 – Spending Your Life Savings on Your Wedding

            If you’re a Friends watcher, you probably remember the season when Chandler and Monica finally get married (Of all the relationships in Friends, I think their relationship is my favorite because they are very cute together and fairly low drama, unlike some of Ross’ relationships). When they are just starting the wedding planning process, Monica regrettably finds out that her Dad spent all of the money he had saved for Monica’s wedding on a beach house and a Porsche. Nice!

            After crying about it a little bit because she is heartbroken that she can’t have the wedding of her dreams, Chandler makes the mistake of mentioning that he has some money saved up. Upon telling Monica how much he has saved up his entire working career thus far, she immediately wants to spend it all on their wedding, and does just that! This is great financial planning in action folks, isn’t it?!

             However, again, my worry is that this behavior is not far off from the reality/norm in our society these days, especially with how expensive weddings are. One person I went to high school with was given the choice by her parents of having $40,000 for a house or $40,000 for a wedding. Apparently, the couple spent all of the money plus some extra on the wedding, including a $5,000 wedding cake! Nice!

            Financial Mistake # 4 – Borrowing and Loaning Money to Friends

            One thing that is very inspirational in the Friends series is to see that the six friends are very loyal and dedicated to each other. However, one financial mistake that they often make with this dedication is loaning money to each other. One example I can think of off the top of my head was hearing that Joey owed Chandler like $20,000 for unpaid rent loans and acting classes over a period of 7 years! Quite crazy!

             From my experience and what I’ve read over the past few years of personal finance blogging, loaning money to friends is almost always a bad idea. Why is this? First, it creates a strain on the friendship in that you “owe” something to one of your good friends. Second, loans between friends have a very unlikely chance of being repaid. Just think about it – if you loan money to someone who has credit card debt, do you think they will make sure that they pay the credit card company in full or you (with no legal contract) first?

            If you do feel the need to loan money to friends, I would encourage several things. First, see if you can just give them the money as a gift. Since the money likely won’t be repaid anyway, it might be worth just taking the repayment obligation out of the whole situation. Second, if you still feel that a loan situation is needed, make sure to put the terms in writing, with the help of a legal professional (read, lawyer) if it is a large sum of money.

            Financial Mistake # 5 – Purchasing Last Minute Plane Tickets

            Generally, if people want to get a good deal on an airline flight, they generally purchase a ticket between 30-60 days before their desired departure date.

            However, in the Friends series, it’s truly amazing how often they go to the airport and purchase a dramatic, spur-of-the-moment plane ticket to some far off destination (Chandler going to Yemen) or to confess their love for someone leaving (Ross with Rachel and Emily). Generally, they drop about $2000-$3000 on this flight at the drop of a hat!

            While I’m pretty certain that most logical people don’t operate this way (it just makes for good comedy!), it is a good reminder that you can get yourself in to a big financial hole if you don’t plan your trips ahead of time!

            Financial Mistake # 6 – Buying Lottery Tickets

            Whenever I go to the local Kroger here in Virginia to pick up any amount of groceries, there are always at least several people in line at the machine buying lottery tickets. 

             Why is this? I simply don’t understand the whole lottery ticket buying reasoning. Do they really think they are going to win? Do they do it for fun and know they are going to lose the money? Do they do it just to support the education charity that the lottery funds? I don’t know. However, I do know that the chances of winning the lottery are less likely than me getting struck by lightning. TWICE.

             Despite this, several times throughout the Friends series, they talk about buying a fairly sizable amount of lottery tickets and sharing the winnings among each other. Ross tries to be the voice of reason in saying that it’s highly unlikely to win, but no one listens! 

            Financial Mistake # 7 – Violating Terms of Your Apartment Lease

            Being as how the Friends series is primarily set in the two apartments of Chandler/Joey and Rachel/Monica, there are quite a few funny moments when the six friends do some pretty questionable things to their dwellings. 

            In one episode, Monica, Rachel, and Phoebe make a fire in a trash can in their living room and have to call the fire department to put it out. The entire season, Monica and Rachel are violating the Rent Stabilization Act of New York since their lease is still in Monica’s grandmother’s name. In another season, Monica punches holes in the wall of Chandler’s apartment to find wiring for a mysterious switch.

             All of this is to say that in the real world, it is to your benefit financially to be a good tenant by 1) having renter’s insurance, 2) following the terms of your apartment lease, and 3) being honest with your landlord. 

            Financial Mistake # 8 – Investing in Stocks When You Don’t Have Any Clue About Them

            In general, I believe that no one (not even investing professionals) really has that much business investing in individual stocks. Why is this? Because they cannot guarantee me that they can beat the market for the next 20 years, despite their heroic past performance.

            However, in one episode, Monica, while looking for a way to make money between jobs, takes this to the extreme! She decides to day-trade stocks that have symbols similar to her initials and the initials of people she knows! I’m pretty sure it didn’t work out too well for her.

            Financial Mistake # 9 – Being a Less-Than-Stellar Employee

            To my amazement, despite the fact that most of the Friends characters are not very good employees, they seem to do pretty well in advancing in their careers. Let’s just take a quick look at some of the things that they tend to do wrong (which would be pretty disastrous for normal people from a career/financial perspective).

            • Falling asleep during a meeting with your division VP – In one episode in Season 9 or so, Chandler is in a big meeting at his company with his boss’s boss, falls asleep, and accidentally volunteers to head up an office in Tulsa. Aside from setting a bad image for yourself, you obviously don’t want to put yourself in this type of position where you get moved without knowing what you’re getting in to! 
            • Taking 4 hour lunch breaks – Many times in the Friends series, the characters will be at the Central Perk Coffee House until 4:30 PM and say, “Well, I guess my lunch break is over!”
            • Blatantly lying on your resume – Several times throughout the series, Joey lies on his resume. First, he states that he had 10 years of dance experience with a ballet, when in fact, he has no experience dancing professionally. Second, he stated that he could speak fluent French, when in fact, he cannot. Ross also lies on his resume that he did a year long paleontology dig in Cairo, when in fact, he just went to Cairo on a vacation for a few weeks or something with his Dad. 

            Financial Mistake # 10 – Dating Your Students, Employees, and Roommates

            Our last stop on the Friends TV series bad financial lessons/mistakes list brings us to the item of dating your employees, students, and roommates.

             This happens NUMEROUS times throughout the Friends TV series because, of course, it makes for great comedy and an interesting story! However, in the real world, if you are not careful, this type of behavior can not only slow you down in your career/cause you financial stress, but can also get you completely discredited and even fired from your job. 

             Let’s take a quick look at some of the examples from Friends. First, Ross starts dating one of his 19 year old students, Elizabeth, from the class he teaches at NYU. Next, he starts dating a professor/co-worker, Charlie, who is another teacher in his department at NYU. Rachel also embarks in some of this behavior, dating her assistant who works for her (Tag), her temporary replacement (Gavin) who had taken over her job during Rachel’s maternity leave, and her roommate (Joey). In all of these cases, there are a couple close calls in getting in to trouble with their employers, but luckily, nothing ever happens. However, in the real world, one can hardly expect to be so lucky, so it’s best to avoid this type of behavior.

            How about you all? Have you ever made any of these same mistakes amplified in the Friends TV series? 

             Share your experiences by commenting below!

              ***Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/ivantortuga/2619877988/sizes/l/in/photostream/

              How Not to Buckle Under Pressure When Everything is Happening at Once

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              Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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              Click here to enter my free $51.95 giveaway for a chance to win 5% of My Personal Finance Journey blog income and give another 5% to a charity of your choosing! Deadline to enter is January 31st, 2013.

              The following is a post by MPFJ staff writer, SK. SK writes about the reasons we get into debt, changing the patterns that get us into debt, and examines small business ownership and real estate investing at her blog, American Debt Project.


              If you have ever been surfing, you know the importance of not letting one wave get you caught in a set of waves that hold you down and knock you around. But, beginners always end up going hard for the first wave of a set, excitedly standing on their board before losing their balance. Your reaction to getting knocked off your board is going to set up the next couple of minutes, and if you go about it the wrong way, it’s going to be a very rough couple of minutes. 

              What’s the proper response? The first thing you want to do is grab your board and get back on it, and start paddling directly towards the next wave so you can get over it before it breaks. The beginner response is usually to stay off your board as you process falling off and going through “the washer” for a few cycles before looking around in a daze to figure out where the shore is. By this time, your board is somewhere by your side and the next wave is sitting on top of your head, about to knock the wind out of you again. Even though it seems scary, beginners start improving as soon as they learn how to handle a bad wave and getting right back on their board to paddle out strong for the next set. 

              The good news is that life can be handled pretty much the exact same way.

              There are periods in your life where you will deal with many important tasks and events at once. You know that this is the time when you need to perform, but it’s still going to be tough, a little scary, and sometimes there is a temptation to just stand there and look at the proverbial wave as it’s about to beat the crap out of you. I am right in the middle of one of those times in my life right now. Everything is happening, and I am not sure if I can handle it. I have become so focused on making sure everything goes well in my new job, new venture, new engagement, that I have let living my regular life completely fall apart. And that’s a mistake.


              As of today, I am getting back on track. 

              Getting to work early. Sending funny texts to my friends again.  Taking at least 30 minutes to exercise each day. Reading and taking quiet time at the end of the night. The trick of handling all those big important tasks is responsible time management, doing what you say you’re going to do when you say you’ll do it and all, but it’s all about not letting the monster wave engulf you and overtake everything. In surfing, you have to respect the ocean because she will cripple you if you underestimate her power. In life, we learn to respect our big responsibilities but without letting them take over the entirety of our being. 

              How about you all? Have there been times in your life when you’ve felt too much is going on for you to handle? If so, how did you handle it?

              Share your experiences by commenting below!

                ***Photo courtesy of http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1411469

                Use Low Cost Spay/Neuter Programs to Fix Your New Pets

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                Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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                Click here to enter my free $51.95 giveaway for a chance to win 5% of My Personal Finance Journey blog income and give another 5% to a charity of your choosing! Deadline to enter is January 31st, 2013.

                As I type this post, my girlfriend and I’s new golden retriever that we adopted (Crystal, 9 years old, shown in picture below!) in early January is having surgery to be spayed. For this procedure, we opted to have it done at a local low cost spay/neuter program instead of at our normal veterinarian’s office to save money.

                Because of this, I wanted to share our experience with you all today so that you can determine if this money-saving strategy/option is right for you in the future: 

                 

                How Much Can You Save by Using a Low Cost Spay/Neuter Program?

                Regardless of whether or not you are a believer in “fixing” your pets, it is significant to know that using one of these low cost spay/neuter programs over a normal vet can save you a lot of money.

                How much money? Well, according to several sources I found online, spaying or neutering a pet at a normal vet office costs between $200-$300, and sometimes up to $1000, depending on the anesthesia being used.

                On the other hand, the low-cost spay/neuter programs cost anywhere between $50-$100. If you fall in to the low to mid income qualification range, you can even get the cost reduced to close to $30.

                What is the Quality of Vet Care Like?

                This concern can be summed up in one sentence. The low cost programs are not cheap because they have low quality vet care; they are simply subsidized by charities, such as Petsmart Foundation, making the cost to the pet-owner less.

                Where Are These Low Cost Programs Located?

                Usually, these programs are run by local shelter, habitat, humane society, rescue, or SPCA pet groups. To find low cost programs in your area, click on any one of the link below to perform a quick search.

                ASPCA – Low Cost Neuter/Spay Programs Search
                SpayUSA.org – Search
                Humane Society of the US – Low Cost Spay/Neuter Program Search 

                I just did a quick search myself for all of the 3 areas I’ve lived during my life. For each location, there were at least 3 available programs within a 20 mile radius, so I imagine that there will be at least one in your area as well!

                My Personal Experience

                For our dog getting spayed today (Crystal), we used the local SPCA group since I have volunteered there in the past and am very familiar with them.

                The cost to us is $55 for a dog under 64 pounds, or $75 for a dog over 64 pounds. I believe there is also a $10 fee for a wound-licking-prevention-collar, if that is needed. They will even spay/neuter cats and Pit Bulls/Bulldogs for free. Nice!

                How about you all? Have you ever used a low-cost spay or neuter program to get your pets fixed? If so, how did it go and what was the cost?

                Share your experiences by commenting below!

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