The First Real Hint Of Autumn

The amber leaves of Wisconsin Today I got my first real hint of autumn. We had a cold front come through and it’s a wonderful 58 degrees outside. Sure, it’s gusty and overcast but I’m positively elated. It’s the first truly cool day I’ve seen so far and it’s a wonderful break from the 90′s. I feel like the season has officially changed and that makes me giddy inside.

This morning I turned off the A/C and the fans and I cracked the windows open to let in the cold breeze. The crispness in the air is fantastic! Even the kitties seem to have more of a spring in their step. They gathered around the windows to sniff that fresh, chilly air. I guess the change is exciting for all of us.

I’m hoping I won’t have to turn the A/C back on until spring but I know that’s wishful thinking. Sure would be nice to save on those energy costs, though.

Because Eric and I like it cold heating costs are very low for us. I’m fine throwing on a blanket or a sweater instead of cranking the heat. I know; that’s easy for me to say. We rarely see snow or ice around here. Being from Texas, saying that I don’t need the heat in the winter is like someone from the north saying they don’t need A/C in the summer.

This weather makes me want to cook a nice fancy meal. Or maybe bake up a dessert. It just all around makes me feel more creative for some reason.

Colby loves the fall, too! Good thing Eric is out of town so I have no audience to cook for. Otherwise, I’d probably already be at the store! The last thing we need is for me to go and spend additional money on groceries right now. We are sticking to cooking from our pantry for the next week to help make up for an unplanned dinner out in our budget.

I am hoping I can minimize the impact of that meal on the overall budget by pulling from other flexible areas (like grocery costs). We will still eat well, just not as “fresh” this week. Keeping a stocked pantry/freezer helps to keep meals interesting and yummy.

With weather like this it is hard to resist cooking up some of my wonderful butternut squash soup or roasted root veggies. Hmmm…maybe next week if the weather stays nice and cool.

I’m sorry for the some-what off topic post today, but I’m just so happy with the cooler weather I had to share. :-)

Face To Face With Temptation: The iPhone

and it better stay that way! A friend of mine stopped by to visit the other day. While we were talking she remembered that she had gotten an iPhone and she wanted to show me. Both her and husband just got them and were thrilled with them.

As she handed me the phone I saw my husband watching intently. As I was looking at it my husband’s hand starting extending towards it. Oh no – he wanted to play with it now. I could see the glint in his eye and I knew it was nothing but trouble.

It was a nice phone but I use cell phones as just a calling device. All the other functionality would have been lost on me.

Not so for my husband. He is a gadget guy. He loves the newest techie stuff and actually uses his phone to surf the web. He got a Treo a few years back before we started budgeting and he uses it for more for data than for talking.

He is aware of his gadget weakness and has tried his best to avoid the iPhone hype. In fact, he hadn’t even seen one until that moment. Of course, he loved it. My friend started telling him about how it is cheaper to buy one now and how cool it would be if he got one, too.

It doesn’t take much convincing for him to like a gadget like that. To counteract the encouragement I kept repeating “no” as he played with the phone. My friend and I were like the little angel and devil on his shoulders pulling him in different directions.

Finally, he gave the gadget back and went back to his computer work, or so I thought. After my friend left he exclaimed that he had found a way that the iPhone would actually be cheaper for us per month. Somehow I doubt this.

To my delight, he dropped it fairly quickly, in about an hour or so. Last time he wanted a Treo he didn’t stop and talked about it for weeks before finally getting one. This time he let it go with ease.

Although the siren call of the iPhone overtook him for a time, it was brief, and it subsided. He hasn’t mentioned it since, even after getting a bonus. I guess the key to avoiding temptation and desire is to simply hand the iPhone back.

Image Source: Refracted Moments(TM)

Top 6 Things I’m Looking Forward To In The New House

Looking Good! Today we went and looked at the new house and it’s really coming along. We’ve had some delays but they have progressed to the electrical stage now. We can begin to get a real feel for what the house will look like even though it is just the framing, roof, and plumbing. I’m starting to get excited! It’s really happening now and we’ll likely be moving by the end of the year.

There are many things I’m looking forward to in the new house. Overall the house will be better suited for us and that will simply make life easier.

The top 6 things I’m looking forward to:

1. A bigger, better kitchen – This is the thing I’m most excited about. Our current kitchen is small and has only about a foot of usable counter space. I’ve had to resort to placing covers over two of our four gas burners to give us more usable space. Cooking is my true love and having space to stretch out will make such a difference. The new home will have much more counter/cabinet space and even a functional island. Woohoo!

2. A freezer – We will finally get to have a freezer! We don’t have the room at this house and we miss out on the cost savings of having a freezer. I can’t wait to start cooking meals in bulk and freezing them for backups when I don’t have time to cook. I want to be able to buy meats in bulk and freeze them as well. I need to start comparing models soon.

3. A utility sink – This will be really nice to have in the garage. Right now we have to wash larger objects like litter boxes in the bathtub. It will be great to have a place to wash dirty stuff outside the house. It will also come in handy for gardening.

4. Less carpet – We ditched carpet in most of the home in favor of tile. When you have pets the carpet just seems to get dirty so fast. We wanted to avoid dealing with stains and trapped dirt/hair if possible. I’m sick of steam cleaning! I’m hoping with tile we will be able to sweep and mop and keep a cleaner home. Not vacuuming three times a week could reduce our electricity bill. It will also help cut down on allergies, too!

5. More space and storage – We will have plenty of closet space in the new home. Maybe we will finally be able to park our cars in the garage. Here we have to use the garage for storage.

6. Having a garden – This will be an exciting yet challenging project for us. I can’t wait to start growing some fresh produce! I’m hoping it will be a satisfying hobby that also saves money. We are already planning the best spot for the garden in the new home. I still need to do the research on what grows best in my area but I’m expecting to try tomatoes, onions, peppers, and herbs at the very least. I’ll need to start with easy things and work my way up.

When Frugality Becomes A Dirty Stinkin’ Excuse

But they’re soaking… This morning when I got up to make breakfast I noticed something didn’t smell right in the kitchen. The garbage was full and it was starting to smell a little. I kept putting off taking it out because I could fit more in the garbage bag. I might as well maximize using that bag before tossing it, right?

Realizing my garbage was in desperate need of attention I also noticed the dishes in the sink were building up. And in the laundry room there was a pile of dirty laundry. What happened here? Why did I get so behind in my household chores?

Frugality. Yes, you heard me. Ok, well maybe not frugality but the guise of frugality. I think I’ve been using frugality as an excuse to put off doing some chores that needed to be done.

“I can fit a little more trash in this garbage bag – I’ll wait to take it out until tomorrow”.

“But if I wait to do the dishes/laundry until tomorrow I’ll have a bigger load and it will save water and electricity.”

Who am I kidding? I’m not really saving any real amount of money – I’m just being plain lazy. It wasn’t like I only had a few shirts to wash or a couple of glasses in the sink. I had big enough loads to make it energy efficient and worth the cost. I was simply finding a way to justify my lack of housekeeping yesterday with saving money.

What good is saving a few pennies if I have to live in home with stinky garbage and dirty clothes? Quality of life plays into this, too. I don’t have to be a slob to save money.

I know I’m being dramatic here – I wasn’t horribly behind in my chores – but the smelly trash did make me examine my thinking behind not removing it earlier. I remember thinking that in a way I could be saving money.

This applies to more than just household duties. Could a desire to save money be used as an excuse to hide the true reason behind certain actions (or inactions)?

Could there be other reasons besides frugality that someone would:

Avoid social situations like dinners or group activities?
Delay traveling or shopping in favor of staying home?
Neglect their health by avoiding doctors, health checks, dental exams, etc?
Avoid replacing things they need when they are clearly worn out?

I can think of a lot of ways frugality could be used to justify behavior that is really motivated by different reasons. After all, you can still attend dinners with your friends if you eat an inexpensive meal or split something. If there are ways to make it affordable and you still choose not to go then maybe the desire to save money isn’t the main reason you aren’t going. It’s just a side effect.

Anyway, this morning I went on a crash course of cleaning to restore my home to its usual condition. I need to be more honest with myself about my motivations sometimes. For instance, if I avoid going grocery shopping is it really because I want to save money or is it because I don’t feel like going that day?

In my case, it was pretty obvious I was just avoiding doing the dishes and saving money was just a convenient (and barely applicable) excuse.

Image Source: Old Sarge

The Psychology of Free

Free Stuff! Oh man, I gotta get some of that free stuff!!! Recently, Golbguru at Money, Matter, and More Musings talked about hoarding free “stuff”. He discussed how it wasn’t really frugal to hoard free things like ketchup and low-end toiletries from a hotel.

I have to admit, I’ve been guilty of hoarding free stuff. Specifically hotel shampoos and soaps. Not out of frugality. Not out of need. It was really because, as the person in Golbguru’s story said, I felt I had paid for them, so I better take them. It makes no sense. But I did it anyhow.

We went to dinner with some friends over the weekend. A nice cheap dinner with some frugal friends of ours where we could just socialize, talk, and share stories. I brought up the stories about the ketchup and free toiletries. I admitted my hoarding (which is really in the past – I can’t get any more until we use some, which we will). Then my friend brought up a point I hadn’t considered:

You know, if they charged you a penny for those toiletries, I bet you wouldn’t take them.

Immediately, I knew he was right. A penny. A single stinking penny. I’m sure I have hundreds of pennies around the house. It wouldn’t be a burden in the least. In fact, that stuff is probably worth more than a penny. But I wouldn’t have spent a penny on them.

(Note : If you’ve had this habit of hoarding these things, consider donating them to a local women’s or homeless shelter. They can usually make use of them even if you can’t.)

Why would something so insignificant as a penny stop me from taking what I would have gladly taken for free?

Could it be that something becomes more desirable solely because it’s free, and not because it has any real intrinsic value? Removing free from the equation, you can make a real judgment on the value. Very simple concept, but not something I had given much thought to before.

What’s the “real” value of something I’m getting for free? Do we value it less because it’s free, yet still want it based on the fact that we don’t have to pay for it? Do things that are free lose the value they might have had if we had actually paid for them? Is this free item valuable enough to me that I would be willing to pay for it? This conversation kind of made it click for me.

I wondered if the same could go for fast food restaurants. I haven’t hoarded ketchup (it’s OK, but not my favorite condiment), but I always take too much hot sauce from Taco Bell. I have a drawer full. If I go back, I’ll just get more, regardless of how much I have at home.

When the sauces are free, I tend to take too many. More than I would ever use. But what if they weren’t free? By charging any amount of money, I’m forced to make a decision. Is the sauce worth purchasing? I might be willing to pay a small amount for just the sauce I will use. But if they gave a small amount for free (say 5 packets) and charged me a fee for another 5 packets, I would really have to think about it. Even if it was just a tiny bit of money to get more, I would be more likely to limit what I took just because I was forced to make a decision about how many I would actually use.

Our friend shared with us another story that I felt was relevant. She was volunteering and had to help folks who were down on their luck and needed help. If the people lived far enough away, her charity would provide them a bus ticket so they could have transportation. This would cost the charity $30 and would be given free to the client. These tickets were frequently lost. The charity instituted a new rule – all tickets would cost $1 to help offset the costs of replacement. Suddenly, people lost fewer tickets. Just the act of paying $1 changed how they viewed the ticket. They had invested in it now. The clients seemed to be more careful with them. Even though it was worth something before they spent $1 on it, it was somehow worth even more now.

This reminded me of the time I had 15 lollipops melt in my favorite travel bag. Traveling home from seeing my brother, Melissa and I stopped and had lunch at the airport. They had unlimited free lollipops. Jackpot! We stocked up! We’d eat these on the plane! Oh man, sour apple! Gotta have it! I think we both ate one, while the other 13 or so melted in the luggage which we had left in the hot garage. We never even thought about those lollipops. Those free lollipops cost us more in time and cleaning supplies than they were worth! I think if we had payed for them, we wouldn’t have taken as many, and we probably would have eaten what we had taken.

So what determines when something is worthwhile, and when it’s not?

I’ve got a new rule when it comes to free. Would I pay a penny for it? Would I pay a nickel for it? What’s my threshold for “free”? If I can’t answer honestly that I would consider paying a penny for it (or some other reasonable amount), then maybe it’s not worth it for me to take it. I will not take any more free “stuff”, just for the sake of taking it because it is free.

Image by frankh

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