Andy Hough

Ask Tight Fisted Miser

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I’d like to start a weekly feature where I answer any questions my readers might have. You can ask me anything to do with frugality or personal finance. If you want to ask about my upcoming hike or anything else I’ve posted on you can ask that too. Heck, you can ask me anything you want. I won’t guarantee that I’ll answer anything though.

I’m having a hard time coming up with stuff to post about. Most frugality topics seem either too obvious or they have already been written about many times or both. If you have any topic you would like to post about let me know.

Just leave a comment on this post with your question or topic and I’ll do my best to follow up. Thanks.

Get Health Insurance

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Sorry I didn’t post yesterday. My GF had a health scare and was admitted to the hospital and that was where I spent my afternoon and evening. This is a stressful time but at least she doesn’t have to worry about paying for everything.

I don’t like to spend money but I wouldn’t recommend going without health insurance. If you don’t have health insurance you should buy it if it is at all possible to do so.

The health insurance system is quirky. My GF is a nurse and works for a doctor’s office that is located on a hospital campus which is a block away from our house. Unfortunately that hospital doesn’t take her insurance so we have to go to one that is about twenty-five minutes away.

Hopefully, my GF will be getting out this afternoon. I’ll have an update post tomorrow.

Time Tracking Results

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I kept track of what I did with my time last week to see where I was wasting my time. I already knew before I started that I was wasting a lot of time on the Internet but now I know exactly how much time I’m wasting. I’m spending over four hours a day on average on the Internet. I do have a couple blogs and other sites on the Internet but most of the time I’m online I’m not doing anything productive. Until I am finished with my R&W I’m restricting myself to one hour a day online. I’m going to write my blog posts offline to the extent possible so I should still be able to keep up with my blogging.

I also like to eat leisurely lunches out and read the newspaper cover to cover. This might be a reasonable indulgence once every week or two but I’m doing this two or three times a week. I’m now restricting that activity to no more than once a week. That should make it a special treat and save me money and time.

The other big time waster is TV. I generally watch a couple of hours a day. This includes DVDs which I actually watch more than TV. I don’t plan to cut back on this activity for now because I think it is a reasonable use of my leisure time. I just have to work the rest of the day rather than making my whole day leisure time.

April is My Last Month of Law School

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I checked out my final exam schedule earlier this week and received a pleasant surprise.  Our final exam schedule runs from April 27-May 8 but both of my final exams are in April.  That means next month is my last month of law school.   My graduation isn’t until May 9 and I don’t leave for my hike until May 11 so I’ll have plenty of free time at the beginning of May.  I do still have to finish my R&W but I should be close to finishing by then.

Frugality and Quality of Life

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After reading a post at The Simple Dollar on quality of life and consumer spending it made me think of my own views regarding quality of life and frugality.

In the post Trent argues that consumer purchases do not increase your quality of life. I agree with that to a point. The examples in the post included going out for lunch and seeing a move. Both of these are things I regularly indulge in and I do believe they raise my quality of life.

That does not mean that my quality of life would go down if I didn’t do them though. When I go on my hike I won’t be eating out for lunch very often and will rarely be seeing a movie. I expect my quality of life will be even higher then than it is now.

The difference to me is that I will be choosing to give up those indulgences. I won’t be forced to give them up. This goes to my underlying philosophy of frugality which is that frugality is about choosing to do less expensive things not depriving yourself of things.