Gambling is not a frugal activity. Earlier this year my gambling was going pretty well but since then the tables have turned and I have been steadily losing money. I have noted that I am not disclosing my gambling wins and losses on this blog. I have not kept exact track of my gambling but I would guess that I have lost about $300-$400 gambling this year. That is not a big amount but with my small income it is too much. Also it seems a little silly to be trying to save a few dollars with coupons and then blow a $100 in the casino. I am frugal in all areas of my life except gambling. There is a disconnect between my beliefs and actions when it comes to gambling. Gambling was the major contributor to my filing bankruptcy 14 years ago. I am in control of my gambling now but I can still feel that urge to bet more and more. From now on I will be disclosing my gambling wins and losses. Also I will only bet when I think I have favorable odds and until I have a significant increase in income my gambling will be limited.
Frugality
The Simple Way to Clip Coupons
Many people do not want to mess with clipping coupons because they don’t believe the savings is worth the time it takes to cut out and organize the coupons. I tend to agree with them but I still use coupons because I use them in a way that takes little time to clip and organize yet provides big savings.
The resource I use to make clipping coupons easy is MoneySavingMom.com. If you go to her site you will see a widget with a list of stores in the right sidebar. If you click on your local store it will go to a post matching up coupons to the current sale at that particular grocery chain. To make things even easier the post will usually include links to printable coupons and e-coupons. This makes using coupons easy because you only “clip” the coupons that match a sale and you know you will use. I don’t usually bother with cutting coupons out of the paper anymore because it is easier to just use the printable and e-coupons.
There are several sites on the web where you can get printable coupons. I try to get mine through my MyPoints account since I receive a few points for using the coupons I print from there in addition to getting the coupon savings. A few sites to get coupons online are Coupons.com, Redplum.com, and Smartsource.com. You can get e-coupons at Cellfire.com and possibly at your local grocer’s website as well.
If you have a local grocery store that doubles coupons then you can get some really great deals. Last week I was able to get cereal, Chex Mix, and Hamburger Helper for 49 cents each. It is true that most coupons are for processed foods but since I would eat these foods whether I was using coupons or not it doesn’t have any effect on my diet. And these foods are probably still better than the fast food I eat most days. You can still use coupons to eat healthy you just won’t be using nearly as many coupons.
If you are interested in using coupons I suggest you check out the MoneySavingMom website and see how the deals work for you.
Total Cost of Car Ownership Update
The last time I calculated the total cost of car ownership for my Camry I came up with a cost per mile of $0.84 if I counted the entire cost of my car as depreciation and $0.28 cost per mile if I used a more realistic figure for depreciation. I’ve driven a lot of miles since then but with my car already being a high mileage car those miles should not cause much depreciation. Therefore my new cost per mile figures are quite a bit lower.
As of today my car has cost me 35.6 cents per mile if I value my car at $0. Using a more realistic figure for depreciation my cost per mile is 16.9 cents. I doubt I will be able to get my total cost per mile much lower than that since fuel alone is almost ten cents per mile. Also there will be maintenance and probably repair bills coming up. Even if I don’t reduce my cost per mile it is still a lot lower than the IRS figure of 50 cents per mile. It is clear to me that driving a used car is much more frugal option than buying new. You would have to drive a new car an awful lot of miles to get the cost per mile down to what mine is.
Of course, one of the reasons that my cost of car ownership is so low is because I drive a lot of miles. While this lowers my cost per mile it means more money coming out of my pocket. For both financial and environmental reasons I would like to reduce my miles driven. My wife and I are now sharing the car so it is getting even more use although the miles should go down now that I am starting a regular job.
One thing that I didn’t consider when considering my total cost of car ownership is the fact that my employers reimbursed me for many of the miles driven. Also, the miles I have driven for mystery shopping are deductible. If I were to factor that in my cost per mile would be even lower. That is more math than I want to do though so I will just keep the figures as they are.
Bargains for the Bookworm
This post is brought to you by The Digerati Life, a blog on personal finance, frugal living, financial management and investment.
Are you a bookworm? Whether you’re still in school or already in the work world, books remain as primary sources of learning. Textbooks, novels, self-help books — all of these could be rich sources of great entertainment or information. So whether or not a person is a university student, books may well be a staple in one’s budget (budgeting tools and software can help track various spending categories). Thus, if you’re looking for a way to cut costs in this area, then you may want to get discounts or freebies; doing so can free up more of your budget for more pressing and important things, such as food and rent, for instance.
Textbooks could be had for cheaper rates with the use of cheap textbook coupons. On the other hand, books that one buys mainly for entertainment could be bought from book sales or discounted book stores.
While it would be a dream to buy all of the books you could set your eyes on, let’s face it, they don’t come for free. Even though some books come cheap, at $3.00, even $3.00 per item could add up over time. However, a $3.00 used book is still a bargain compared to an $18.00 price tag on a new release.
So now the question is, where can you find the cheapest versions of your favorite books online?
Well, you can start out by searching for the following terms online:
“cheap books”
“bargain books”
“used books”
When you check out the terms “cheap books online,” “bargain books online,” “used books online,” and so on, you’ll find top results for the best sites that showcase bargain/cheap books. Websites like CheapBooks.com, AbeBooks, and ThriftBooks are some of the better picks on the “cheap books” keyword. Some other entries are price comparison engines, but the information you get from there could be useful. BookCloseOuts, BestBargainBook, and BargainBookStores are the better results for “bargain books.” Alibris, AbeBooks, Powells.com are among the better results for “used books.” The point is, a little bit of research can yield you some good finds.
If you want free content, however, there are other forms and formats of published content that may help you shrink your book budget a little:
- Free PDFs
- Free published content online
- Public domain versions for literary works
PDF or Portable Digital Format, is still the most common digital format used for published content. A lot of free content may still be available via PDF. And if you’re on the lookout for freebies, free PDFs may help you get your reading fix without costing you anything.
There are also still thousands of free ebooks out there. Some people share these on download forums, while other free PDFs are in eBook libraries. All you need to do is a web search on “Free PDF Search Engine” or “Free PDF eBooks” and you may be able to stave off taking trips to the bookstore for a long, long time.
Aside from free PDFs, there are websites that also post free full texts of popular books, and even unpublished writing work. Wattpad.com and Scribd.com are examples. Mixed in with Sheldon, King and Steele are works from amateurs. It delivers content straight to your WAP or 3G-enabled phone, or you could read it straight from your browser. Just wading through your website could keep you away from bookstores, even from the library, for months!
Also, the classics are available at Project Gütenberg, which is an organization dedicated to letting classical/public domain content become available online. Classics and out of print books with no or expired copyrights are available up at Project Gütenberg. While it may not be complete, the website’s collection is still undeniably comprehensive.
Book aficionados need not break the bank nor rack up credit card debt to feed their reading appetites (no, you don’t need to turn to your Citi credit cards for this!). All they really need is the understanding that great books are available for free online, which are easy to track down with a little resourcefulness. For the less tech-savyy, there’s always the local library!
Shower in the Dark
Lately, I have started taking my daily shower in the dark. Actually, the light is off but I leave the door open and there is plenty of light from the bedroom windows to see. My thinking was that this would save a little bit of money. I haven’t done the exact calculation but after looking at a couple sites it looks like leaving the lights on in the bathroom all day would cost less than a dollar. Considering my shower takes 10 or 15 minutes it looks like I’m saving about one penny a day. I will still keep taking my shower in the dark though because I find that is actually very relaxing and there is no reason to waste even that little bit of electricity.
If I were to cut back on the length of my shower I could save more money. I found a web site that estimates the cost of a shower. My only cost for a shower is energy cost since water is included in rent. My cost for a ten minute shower is 32 cents and a ten minute shower is 47 cents. Five extra minutes for 15 cents seems like a good deal to me. Just because I’m not paying for the water doesn’t mean I should waste it though so I’m going to try to keep my showers to ten minutes. I don’t think that will really affect the quality of my shower. And I will look for some better ways to cut back on electrical use.