Frugality

Over at My Money Blog, Jonathan did a post about an Affordable Bucket List.  One item on his list was running a marathon which he listed the cost of as being from free to $$$.  Many commenters replied that running a marathon was very expensive and couldn’t be done cheaply much less for free.  As I stated before in my post Keeping Hobbies Inexpensive people are taking something simple and making it more complicated and expensive than necessary.

I’ve run four marathons and haven’t spent a fortune to run them. Registration fees are usually the item I spend the most money on.  You can easily save money on these by running in smaller races.  An example close to me is the Heart of America marathon which has a $25 entry fee.  You can use the Marathon Guide to find inexpensive marathons in your area. You can also often save money on race fees by registering early.

The next big expense is shoes. I usually spend only about $30 on my running shoes.  Many people think you can’t possibly get quality shoes for that price but I disagree.  I’ve run four marathons and have never had any knee, ankle, or feet problems despite being about twenty pounds overweight.  The trick here is to buy shoes that were originally more expensive and have been marked down to about $30.  When I lived in Nevada I bought my shoes at Big 5 Sporting Goods which usually had a good selection.  I bought my last pair of shoes here in Kansas City at Off Broadway shoes.  I try to purchase a brand that I’ve used before and had good results with such as New Balance.  You can find New Balance shoes cheap online here.  They had New Balance running shoes for under $30 when I checked this morning.

The last expense would be running apparel. You don’t really need to spend anything on this.  You can run in an old pair of gym shorts and a t-shirt.  Running shorts will be more comfortable though and help prevent chafing.  My solution for cheap running shorts is to buy swim trunks when they go on clearance at the end of the season.  This is what I’m currently using and they work fine and the cost was about $5.

Those are the only things you need to spend any money on to run a marathon.  I’m not counting food since you have to eat anyway.  There is no need to buy any gels or special foods.  Since I’ve always been overweight when training for marathons I didn’t feel a need to buy any extra food at all. The key to running a marathon on the cheap is the same one to doing many things on the cheap-keep it simple.

Since I’m soon going to be unemployed I need to replace my job income. Towards that end I decided to brainstorm ten ways to make more money. These are the first ten ways I came up. Not all of them are good ideas but I just wanted to think of some ways to increase my income. I’d love to hear any ideas you have about making money also.

1. Get another job- This is the most obvious idea. It is going to be a fallback for now because I really want to make money from my own business and want to be free from any schedules.

2. Sell plasma- This could be done whenever I felt like it. I probably won’t do it though because there isn’t a collection center close to me and I think there are other things I could do that would have a better return.

3. Increase my blog income- This is easier said then done. Several things I could do to possibly increase my income are add adsense to this blog, add other affilliate programs, post more often, promote my blog, and change the design. There are many more things than that but that is a good start.

4. Launch more web sites- I won’t be launching any more blogs. I can barely keep the two I have updated. There are some other sites I want to launch. I have several domain names and have being doing research on PPC and keywords and such. I just need to get the sites launched.

5. Write articles for Associated Content- This isn’t a big moneymaker but I like to write and this would be a good place for articles that aren’t appropriate for my blogs. I can also publish and be paid for articles that I later make in to blog posts.

6. Other writing- I’m sure there are other places online that pay you for writing I just need to do some research and find out what they are. Also I could submit articles to offline publications.

7. Tutor- My LSAT score is high enough to qualify me to tutor but the one test prep company I applied to didn’t hire me. I’d prefer to do this on my own but am not sure how to go about it. I need to develop some tutoring skills. I have the knowledge but am not good at imparting it to a student.

8. Be a Guinea Pig- I’ve done many medical studies in the past and made good money from them. I need to call the local clinics and see if they have outpatient studies I could do while in school.

9. Surveys, Mystery Shopping, etc- I could also look to increase the little things I do for extra money now. This isn’t a very good option though because there are a limited amount of opportunities available and most of them don’t pay much for the time invested.

10. Sell stuff- I don’t own much but it would be helpul to sell a few things before I move at the end of September. What I really need to sell is the few hundred comic books I have in storage at my mom’s house. The vast majority of these books were bought at cover price or less and I got my value out of them when I read them. There really isn’t much point to keeping them now but I’ve delayed doing so out of laziness and a belief that I should be able to sell them for more than what they would fetch on Ebay. I need to research whether an Ebay store or some other way would be the best way to sell them.

When you need to replace a phone before your cell service contract is up the price for a new phone can be quite steep.  As many of you pointed out Ebay is a great place to find a replacement phone and the price is much cheaper than buying one from the cell company.  You just need to be sure that the phone you buy works on your cellular network.  An even cheaper option is to find a friend or family member who has an old phone they no longer use and are willing to give to you.  After a little asking around I found three different people with old Sprint phone they were willing to give to me.  My new phone is an older model but it gets the job done and the price was right.  It will get me through to the end of my contract and I can get a new phone for cheap then if I want to do so.  With all the cheap phones available I can’t recommend getting the phone replacement plan the cellular companies sell unless you have an expensive phone and are unwilling to downgrade to a cheaper model if your phone is lost or stolen before the end of your contract.  Even if your phone isn’t lost or stolen you might want to take advantage of a used phone online to upgrade from your current phone.

I found the activation process to be very easy.  My experience was with Sprint but I would think other companies would have a similar process.  I just called customer service and read them the ESN off the back of the phone and my phone was activated within a few minutes.  You can also activate your phone online. Sprint has a step-by-step tutorial with pictures on how to activate a new phone. If you can follow simple directions you shouldn’t have any problem activating your phone online.  The process is so easy I’m considering buying a fancier used phone and upgrading before my contract is up.

There are a lot of blogger networks popping up and since I wasn’t invited to join any of them I decided to start my own. The Frugal Blog Network is a group of three other frugal bloggers and myself.  Our goal is to increase the quality of our content and the viewership of our blogs.

You should check out the other member sites but I’ll include a brief introduction of the member sites here.

1. Antishay Ventenne: Is a young Seattle resident who recently became debt free. You can learn a lot more about her at her About Me page.
2. Frugal Babe: Is a married twenty-something living in the suburbs of an anonymous city. Learn more about her at her About Me page.
3. Not Made of Money: Is a blog by a husband and wife team who live on one income. Visit their About Me page to learn more.
4. Tight Fisted Miser: Since you’re here you should already know who I am.  I’m a 40 year old law student living in Kansas City,MO.

We will operate like most other networks with weekly roundups and occasional group writing projects.  We’re also looking to add a couple more members.  If you have an established blog that at least somewhat pertains to frugality and would like to join send me an email.

After I posted about “My Experience with Food Stamps” and commented on a CNN article that featured a woman who found it difficult to feed her and her baby on $280 a month in food stamps.  I received a couple of long comments on that post that I want to spend more time on.  The first was from B, a homeless man who detailed how hard it was for him to eat on food stamps and states that the woman in the article shouldn’t be criticized because she can’t get by on her food stamps.  In response Skye shares her experience feeding her family of three, which included a baby, on less than $250 a month.

My response to B would be basically along the same line as Skye’s response.  I’m not guessing that the woman should be able to make the $280 a month in food stamps last all month.  I’m speaking from experience.  I regularly spend about $100 a month on food.  It shouldn’t cost a $180 more to feed a baby also.  I don’t doubt that the woman was having difficulty getting by on the food stamps but that is more likely from her making poor choices on food purchases than the amount be insufficient.  B does make a good point that his food costs are increased because he doesn’t have access to a refrigerator or a microwave.  Reading through his comment though it appears some of his problem stem from making poor food purchases.  First, he states that he drinks bottled water because he thinks tap water is unsafe.  That is unlikely.  Most bottled water actually comes from municipal water supplies.  I seriously doubt that bottled water is much better for you than tap water.  I normally drink tap water and only buy bottled water when I’m in a situation where I’m “forced” to buy it.  If you’re homeless than you probably should forgo any marginal health benefits you would get from drinking only bottled water.  Second, he states his alternative for cheap food is to buy food at the dollar store that is full of additives and preservatives.  There are better choices at your local grocery store.  Check out “20 Healthy Foods that Cost Less than a Buck” for some examples.  With a little planning of your food purchases you should be able to eat on $100 a month without too much problem. People that are interested in helping to make a difference in people’s lives, and help those that are benefiting from food stamps, may also consider looking into online social work programs.