Five Crazy Things I’ve Done to Save Money

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Frugal Dad wrote a post talking about the five craziest things he has done to save money.  Since I’m often accused of being too frugal I decided to come up with my own post. This was harder than I thought because most of the the things I do to save money that seem crazy to others don’t seem crazy to me. Here is what I came up with but I’m probably leaving something crazier off the list.

  1. Cut my own hair- This is one I share with Frugal Dad.  I know I’ve seen a few other PF bloggers mention it also.  When you buzz cut your hair it is hard to justify paying to have it cut.
  2. Turned off my hot water- Last year I turned off my hot water during the summer due to my gas company’s customer charge of $25 whether you use any gas or not.  This resulted in a bill of about $40 a month just for hot water. I just showered at the gym or took cold showers.  I saved about $160 by having my hot water off over four months. I got hot water again when I moved to a new apartment. I had to have gas then because it was getting cold outside and I needed the gas heat.
  3. Dumpster Diving- I haven’t actually crawled into the dumpster and pulled stuff out but I would for the right stuff.  My dumpster diving has consisted of pulling coupons for free meals and other valuable coupons out of the junk mail bin by the apartment mailboxes. I even managed to sell some of the coupons and make a little money.
  4. Spent $30 total for food in 1 month- Last May I decided to see how little I could spend on food. I wanted to spend even less than $30 on food but I didn’t have quite enough willpower. It helped that I work in a pizza restaurant and get a few free meals every week.
  5. Drive a Hoopty- I don’t really think this is crazy at all but some people do. I love my 94 Toyota Corolla.  My friend keeps asking me when I’m going to get a better car.  I don’t plan on replacing mine soon.  It looks ugly but runs fine. Also, it gets 30 mpg in town which is a great feature with the high cost of gas.

I’m sure I’ve left out some crazier stuff than I’ve listed.  What are some crazy things you’ve done to save money?

How Meaningful is Net Worth?

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Many, if not most, PF bloggers consider net worth to be the most important financial measurement.  It certainly is the most common. This makes sense because it is pretty easy to figure. Just subtract your liabilities from your assets and you have your net worth. For the most part it is probably a pretty accurate measure of one’s financial status. However, there are plenty of situations where it is not a meaningful measure of indicating one’s financial status.

My net worth is roughly -$65,000 and it will get worse before it gets better. It is negative because of the loans I’ve taken out for law school. My net worth doesn’t reflect any value I’m receiving from going to law school.  If I don’t complete law school there won’t be any value so maybe that is accurate. Right now though I have a lower net worth than the homeless guy begging for money on the street corner. Few people would think he is better off than me financially though.  It will be a long time before my net worth is positive even after I finish law school and get a job. That makes net worth not a meaningful financial measurement for me.  I’m not sure what measurement would be the most meaningful to me but I’m going to be focusing on what percentage of my income I’m dedicating to savings and debt repayment. That should give me a good idea of what progress I’m making.

Got My Tax Stimulus Rebate Today

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It was scheduled to be paid no later than the May 9th and I got it today the 9th of May.  It was in the amount of $368 which was somewhat surprising. I only heard of the amounts being $300 or $600, I wasn’t aware they did amounts in between as well.  I was thinking I was only going to get $300 so I’m happy to get the little bit extra.  I had hoped to use this amount to either invest in my IRA or pay down my student loans.  Instead I’m going to use it to pay next month’s rent and hope that will result in my having a surplus of money in June to save or invest.

April Investment Income- $27.50

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This is not my actual investment income. To get this figure I first add up my retirement accounts, emergency fund, and any other money I consider permanent savings.  What the total of my savings would earn at 6% interest for a month is my monthly investment income. The 6% figure is the highest interest I can earn in an FDIC insured account right now. My plan is to eventually have my investment income equal or exceed my expenses. My expenses were $1581.53 in April so I have quite a way to go. The total of my expenses should go down though, making the gap not quite as large.

I just started reporting this figure now because I should now make enough money to be able to contribute enough to my savings to have this figure consistently rise. However if I’m no longer able to get 6% interest or my stock fund declines significantly the amount could still go down. I’m hoping that won’t happen and my contributions will be sufficient to cover any minor fluctuations.