Frugality

It can cost a lot of money to die nowadays. The average funeral cost in the United States ranges from $12-15,000. There are a few ways to cut that cost. It is possible to save thousand on funeral costs, perhaps even eliminating them completely if you look at different options for your final arrangements.

One way to cut your costs is to donate your body to science. If you qualify, you can donate your body through an organization such as BioGift. The donation process takes approximately four weeks to conclude. By this time, the family or next-of-kin will have received the cremated remains, and any requested certified copies of the death certificate. There is no charge for the cremation or death certificate. It is doubtful many people are donating their bodies to science just to save money. If you are considering a making a gift of your body anyway though the savings is an additional benefit.

Cremation is another way to significantly cut the cost of final arrangements. A direct cremation can easily be done for less than $1000. You have to be careful though. If you add services, a fancy casket, and a cremation niche than the cost could be as much as a traditional funeral. Even if you don’t need a casket you could be charged as much as $125 for an alternative container that is just a cardboard box.

If you decide to go with a traditional funeral you do not need to buy a casket from the funeral home. You can buy your own casket online or even at Costco. This can amount to a savings of thousands of dollars. The FTC requires funeral homes to accept third party caskets without charge.

The law requires funeral homes to give you written price lists for products and services. You should compare the prices of several funeral homes for the services and products that you want to find the best deal. You should also remember that you do not have to buy a package. You can buy just the services you want. The FTC has lots of tips on shopping for funeral services that can help save you money. Your final arrangements do not have to cost your loved ones a fortune.

My first instinct is to say that it does cost more to eat healthy. The question isn’t as simple as it may seem though. You can look at the cost per calorie of different types of food and see that 100 calories from celery or broccoli is a lot more expensive than 100 calories from a candy bar or potato chips. It is easy to categorize candy bars or broccoli as healthy or unhealthy but many foods are harder to categorize.

Most people don’t eat exclusively healthy food or unhealthy food. You can’t just compare the food budget of a person who eats healthy food and a person who eats junk food and conclude which diet cost more. There are wide variations in the budgets of people who eat healthy or unhealthy. Some healthy food eaters may only eat organic produce from a botique farm while another healthy food eater might get most of their vegetables from a low cost supermarket. Some unhealthy eaters might eat mostly pasta and sandwiches while others eat mostly ready to eat convenience foods. One blogger insists that fresh food is cheaper than processed food and supports her argument by stating that her food budget is lower than her friends who buy processed food. A grocery list posted on her site though includes cereal, peanut butter, canned meat, mac and cheese, and cheese puffs. I would consider all of those to be processed foods rather than fresh food. It is clear that different people have different ideas of what is fresh or healthy food.

My food budget has been about $100-$125 for many years. This consist of both groceries and fast food and the food would mostly be considered unhealthy. This food budget is lower than what most people spend on healthy food. It is also lower than what most people spend on unhealthy food so you can’t really draw a conclusion from just my food expenditures. I think that it does cost a little more to eat healthy. That being said I believe that I could eat a healthy diet on a $100-$125 food budget with some careful planning.

Even if healthy food does cost a little more I doubt that is the reason people don’t eat healthy food. I think most people eat unhealthy food because they like it and it is what they are used to eating, not because it is cheaper. What do you think?

During my recent hike I hitchhiked one time in order to avoid having to hike a section of trail twice. When I go hiking I often hitchhike into a town since that is usually the only way to get into town other than walking. I would guess not too many other personal finance bloggers hitchhike. It is frugal transportation since it doesn’t cost anything. People don’t usually ask or expect anything for giving you a ride. I did give one guy a little money on my own accord since it appeared that he was living in his car and probably needed the money. Most people don’t hitchhike or pick up hitchhikers since they are afraid of being raped and/or killed. That is a possibility, but I think it is unlikely. Serial is an interesting story of a killer driver picking up a killer hitchhiker that illustrates what many believe are the dangers of hitchhiking.

I’ve found that there are three types of people who will stop to pick me up. The first is older people. I think they give me a ride just because they are bored and lonely and want someone to talk to for a while. They often have pretty interesting stories and a little conversation in exchange for a ride is a pretty good trade. The second type is other hikers or relatives of hikers. People who hike understand that sometimes the only easy way to get to a town is to hitchhike and can recognize a hiker hitchhiker when they see one. I do give rides to hiker hitchhikers as a form of paying it forward for the rides I have received. The third type is poor people. I’m not sure why but the poorer a person is the more likely they are to give me a ride. These rides can be interesting since the drivers are sometimes under the influence, but I haven’t had a problem so far.

Even though hitchhiking is frugal transportation it is only something I do when I’m hiking. And I only pick up hitchhikers if they are at a trail head and I think they are hikers. I like to think that makes the process of hitchhiking safer, but I don’t really know. I think it would be interesting to hitchhike all the way across the country, but I probably won’t ever do that. Have you ever hitchhiked? Would you consider it?

Savvy online shoppers avoid paying full retail price, and cash back shopping websites are a great way to get the latest discount coupons – plus cash back for completed purchases. You can get the most out of cash back programs by focusing on a few good sites; here are some tips to help you find them:

• Make sure the cash back sites you select offer discounts from a wide selection of merchants. Look for sites with at least 2,000 retail partners, including well-known brands.

• Compare the cash back percentages offered by various sites to get an idea of the typical range and choose sites that offer percentages on the higher end of the scale.

• Look for a company with great customer service – check for testimonials, reviews and same-day communication guarantees or live chat capabilities.

• Make sure you deal with a solid company to avoid the possibility of unfulfilled cash back payments – look for sites that have been around for at least three years.

• Evaluate the Terms of Use Agreement and Privacy Policy to ensure that you won’t run into any issues with unauthorized use of your information.

• Do business only with cash back sites that offer up-to-date coupons, and make sure the navigation and site layout is easy to use.

• Look for sites that provide a control panel or dashboard where you can view your balance and history.

• Make sure the cash back sites allow you to file a claim if you don’t receive a payment, and look for sites that make payments at least once per quarter.

Cash back sites are a great way to save money, but like any other service, it pays to compare your options. By following these tips, you can stop paying full retail price for items you buy online – and start getting cash back for your purchases.

By Scott Fitterman, CouponCactus.com

Andy’s Notes: I would like to add a couple more things to consider when signing up for a cash back shopping site. Many of the sites have a signup bonus. For instance, Mr. Rebates offers a $5 signup bonus and Ebates offers a $5 signup bonus as well.

If you are going to be referring people to the cash back shopping site then you want to research how the cash back shopping site rewards you for referrals.  This is why I love Mr. Rebates – they offer some of the best cash back percentages and they also pay you 20% of your referrals’ rebates without affecting your referrals’ rebates in any way.  I make over $25 a month from these referrals and at Christmas time this went up to almost $100.  Since you make 20% referral rebates for as long as your referral remains a member these rebates have the possibility of adding up to serious residual income.

My monthly expenses should go down considerably while I’m hiking. My goal for my monthly budget while hiking will be $500 compared to my usual monthly goal of $1000 of expenses. Since I won’t have expenses such as rent, utilities, and gas while hiking the $500 goal is an achievable goal. It won’t be an easy goal but it is doable.

My budget while hiking will break down as follows. My monthly fixed expenses that continue while I’m hiking are $26.81 for my phone and $120.97 for my health insurance and fitness club membership. I’m going to round the fixed expenses up to $150 to keep the numbers simple. That leaves me with $350 to spend on everything else for the month. I plan to spend about $25 a week on food, $25 on hostels/lodging, and $25 on miscellaneous expenses such as laundry and replacement gear. Those expenses add up to $300 a month. That will leave me with another $50 for any other expenses that pop up or to use if I spend to much on food or lodging. This budget should work fine if I can keep my lodging expenses down. Staying too often in motels and/or in too expensive of lodging has caused my previous hikes to be more expensive than they needed to be. I’ll be making a conscious effort to avoid doing that on this hike. There are some $25 or less lodging options available in the first part of my hike which should help.

If I am able to keep my monthly expenses at $500 I should come close to being able to pay my hiking expenses with my online income and passive income sources like Mr. Rebates. I want to avoid dipping into money that has already been earmarked as savings. I’ll be starting with a few hundred dollars that I have set aside specifically for the hike. Since the hike will take between three weeks to three months I feel pretty confident that I shouldn’t have to dip into my savings. When the hike is finished I’ll let you know how I did.