frugal underground

On the off-chance you’re not familiar with Netflix, it’s a simple concept: pay a monthly fee and get access to a huge selection of DVDs via mail, and an only-slighly-less-huge selection of content that you can watch online, instantly.

I used to think that Netflix was a good idea, but not for me because I don’t watch many movies. I still don’t watch many movies, but there are a few things that won me over and keep me paying every month.

1. We use Netflix instead of TV. The selection on “Instant Watch” is continually growing, meaning we can just decide on a whim that we want to watch something, and don’t have to depend on the (terrible) odds of something good being on TV. There are tons of TV shows as well as movies on Netflix, and when you’re talking about suspenseful shows like MI-5/Spooks, the ability to watch “just one more episode” is exactly what you want (a time sink, yes, but I think that’s a given when watching TV).
2. We share our Netflix membership. My sister used to live with us, and when she saw how many options we had on Netflix, she agreed to pay a few bucks a month to upgrade to the next-highest plan. That meant that our membership allowed several DVDs, and Netflix makes it easy to maintain separate queues that are sent automatically when a movie is returned. She’s been going through the seemingly infinite backlist of Dukes of Hazzard.

To be clear, if it was just us on our membership, and if it was just full-length movies by mail, it would not be a good deal for my family. We just don’t watch enough of them. But the Instant Watch feature is totally worth the money to us. We use Netflix instead of cable, satellite, and even a DVR (we thought about buying one but have so far put it off since there’s little on TV we’d rather watch than what’s already available to us on Netflix).

All this to say: if you think Netflix would be a good deal for you, this is a good time to try it.

Netflix periodically gives existing customers special links to send to their friends and family that allow a one-month free trial (they normally offer a 2-week free trial), so here’s mine: Netflix one-month free trial (it expires October 31, 2009).

If you do use it, make sure you put a reminder on your calendar before the end of the trial to evaluate and consciously decide to keep it or cancel it. If you keep it, decide what other expenses you can eliminate (e.g. cable/satellite/rentals).

Popularity: 13% [?]

Let me tell you a story.

We live in a place with mandatory annual car inspections – they cost $16 and ensure that car owners keep up with all the important maintenance on their vehicles.  I think it’s a good idea.

So our second car, a 99 Honda, was coming up on its inspection date.  It needed a new muffler, so we figured I could take it in, get the oil changed, the muffler replaced, and have it inspected all in one fell swoop.  We’d called around earlier and from what we understood a replacement muffler could be expected to run us $70 or so.   It all sounded pretty reasonable.

So, anyway, I take the car down to a local chain outlet that has usually done well by us in the past:

This time they didn’t treat us quite so well, as you’ll see after the cut: Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 12% [?]

I was cleaning out the fridge the other day when it hit me just how wasteful it can be.

Think about it for a moment, every dollar you spend on food you throw out may as well have been ripped up and thrown away for all the good it does you.  It’s an enormous waste, and depending on how long you leave it in the refrigerator it could be a health hazard.

So, how to prevent it?

Well the first thing that comes to mind is simple:

Eat everything.

It sounds easy enough, but lots of things sound easy but don’t turn out that way; especially when you have kids involved.  Kids can be notoriously picky eaters, and what’s worse is they can pick it up from the strangest places, so even if  you trained them to try anything they can suddenly decide they don’t want something they loved just the other day. There’s very little more annoying than a teenager who wants to go to McDonalds because he doesn’t want to eat leftover spaghetti; even though spaghetti sauce is often better the next day.

Follow past the cut for a few ideas: Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 13% [?]

The common cold is supposed to be just as its name implies – ordinary and relatively harmless. And yet nowadays, the symptoms of the cold and its more advanced “form”, the flu, can no longer be dismissed as plain coughs and sneezes that will pass in a few days.

I was almost unable to come up with this post myself as the whole family came down with the worst bout of flu we’ve seen in years. While I’m fairly confident that none of us has contracted the much talked-about and dreaded A(H1N1) virus, the onset of this new epidemic has led me into thinking about how we should pay more attention to keeping ourselves fit and healthy.

Costs can skyrocket when it comes to the treatment of serious health problems but oftentimes all it takes is a boost to the immune system to keep the viruses away. And let’s do away with the notion that living healthy is expensive. On the contrary, it could cut down on a lot of unnecessary expenses that we currently spend for.

Check out these tips and see what I mean:

Get adequate sleep. What else is there to say? Sleep costs you nothing yet does a lot for your immune system.

Quit the soda and drink water. Water is cheaper, healthier, and doesn’t bombard our bodies with sugars and additives.

Take it a step further and use tap water. I’m sure your purified water expense is way above your regular water bill. Purified doesn’t always mean cleaner though, and sometimes all you may need is a reliable water filter. PUR pitchers for instance are priced no higher than $19 but it does the job of straining out contaminants, and the water tastes great to boot.

Soak in some sun. Healthy sun, that is. Kids especially should get enough exposure to Vitamin D to help them develop strong bones and teeth. So pry them out of their console games and keep them running outdoors for some “sunshine vitamin.” Again, it’s free but the benefits are priceless.

Apply proper hygiene. A bar of soap or a small bottle of hand sanitizer shouldn’t make a dent in our budget but these are actually our first lines of defense against catching any unwanted germs.

Discover the benefits of “free” exercise. Who needs a home treadmill or an expensive club membership when a few rounds of brisk walking or jogging around the neighborhood would do just as well?

Quit smoking. With the recent rise in tobacco taxes, kicking the habit once and for all would do both our body and wallet good.

Skip the junk food and eat healthy. A healthy immune system always goes hand in hand with a healthy diet. Sure, organic fruits, veggies, and meats can be pricey, but you haven’t explored the other cheaper options yet.

As an alternative to the more expensive meats and fresh fish, some great but inexpensive alternative sources of protein are:

Fruits are the best sources for Vitamin C. The richest fruits (and not necessarily the steepest-priced) are the kiwi fruit, guavas, and oranges. Another affordable option would be to take Vitamin C supplements. You don’t get to enjoy the fruit but at least you get your needed dose of the vitamin.

Here’s to a long, healthy and frugal life!

Popularity: 11% [?]

As a mother and the other member of the two-man finance board in the family, I’ve long since discovered that keeping our credit card level in check can be one of the most challenging household finance issues to deal with. Debt tends to creep up on us slowly before we can even realize that we’ve already created a monster that’s totally out of control. A moment of weakness that happens once too often, can build up our existing debt to levels so high, that recovery can take years.

Even if we enjoy a comfortable enough level of income presently, the anxiety of having to cope with past debts can sometimes cause us to miss out on quality time we could have spent with our loved ones, or even just moments to stop and smell the flowers. Life indeed, is too short to get ourselves saddled with debt.

If we don’t want to find ourselves constantly having to deal with creditors on our door, or jeopardizing our child’s college education fund, these few reminders might come in handy in keeping the bills away.

Work hard, live well, laugh out loud. Whether we get to be forty or a hundred and forty, life can still be enjoyed to the fullest… without signing ourselves up to a lifetime of debt in the process.

Popularity: 11% [?]

I have a confession to make:  money management doesn’t come naturally to me.

In fact, I’m one of those people who wants to go get a new book on payday whether I need it or not.  In the past this kind of spending has led to what I guess you could call ‘accidents’ where little transaction fees I had forgotten about added up and bit me on the backside and caused checks to bounce.

It’s no fun when a handful of $2.00 ATM fees cause your rent check to bounce:  No fun at all.

Just to add insult to injury, many banks process transactions from largest to smallest, rather than in the order they were presented.  If you’re smart, this shouldn’t mean anything, because you never spend more than you have available.  If you’re not, it means that instead of one fee, you’re paying eight – putting you $200 behind before you can blink.  This is what we financial professionals call bad.  Don’t do it.

Now that I’m older, and I hope wiser, I tend not to do those sorts of things.  It’s not so much because I have more self-control (although I hope I have) but because I’ve set myself up not to fail.

I don’t pay my rent out of my living expenses anymore.

Here’s how the system works:  I use three bank accounts.

Instead of just the standard checking and savings accounts I have two checking accounts (as well as the savings); I use a check card on one and write checks on the other.  The way it works is simple:

First, you figure out your budget:

Add up all your regular bills, the stuff you pay every month or two months and figure out how much you have to spend from each paycheck to cover those bills. That money, plus a little extra to cover things like your bank charges, goes into your check account.

I’m not going to talk about savings, because that’s assumed.  (How can you be frugal without saving money?  Inquiring minds want to know.)

The money that’s left over goes into your check card account.  This is the money you spend on anything from gas to groceries, to day-to-day living.  It’s not a free pass to overspending by any means; you still should be watching what you spend, how much and where you spend it.  It’s just a way to make sure that if you do miss something – or if your sp0use filled up the car right after gas prices went up (instead of before like you asked them to) it doesn’t cascade through all the checks you have outstanding.

This is particularly important if you have one of those landlords:  you know the ones, they fill your lease agreement with dire threats about what can happen if the rent is three minutes late – but then don’t cash the check for three weeks, leaving the money just sitting there.

If you think about it, the real key to money management; as my co-bloggers and I are all saying in our own fashions is to stay organized and in control of your finances.

If you set your finances up properly you have to work at messing them up; and then you’ve got human laziness working for you instead of against you.

Popularity: 9% [?]

I know that many of my readers are bloggers, too, so I want to tell you about a new site that could make you some extra money.

The site is called ReviewMe, and it’s basically a matchmaking service for advertisers and bloggers. There are a couple other sites out there along the same lines, but ReviewMe has some key differences that make it a whole lot more appealing to bloggers.

A very obvious difference, to start with, is how they’re promoting their service. You’ve heard the term “eat your own dogfood”? That’s what they’re doing. They’re promoting themselves by paying bloggers to review them (like I’m doing right now—I’m making a quick $30, and you can too, if you get on board fast enough). I love this idea, because they are clearly demonstrating exactly what’s so great about their service.

What else is great about their service?

• They encourage good behavior in sponsored posts. Not only do they suggest that you be upfront with your readers about the compensation, they require it. This promotes a trustworthy system based on honest opinions rather than underhanded techniques.
• They compensate bloggers fairly. The other companies I’ve seen attempting something similar pay peanuts. Many bloggers debate the ethics and logistics, but ignore the fact that it’s usually a terrible deal. Not so with ReviewMe. They take a variety of factors about your blog into account (traffic, prominence, etc.) and set a price for your reviews. It reflects the work you’ve already put into your blog, and compensates you fairly for your time.
• They genuinely help advertisers and readers by promoting honest reviews. Some other services reported allow advertisers to require “good” reviews, meaning ones that paint them rosily. ReviewMe specifically wants honest reviews, good or bad. Although some advertisers may balk at that, a truthful review is far more useful to both the advertiser and the reader (not to mention that most bloggers won’t touch “positive-only” with a ten-foot pole—it’s not worth destroying your credibility). After all, how can an business improve their product or service if they only hear what people like about it?

It won’t come as a shock to you that I think ReviewMe is here to stay. If you’re a blogger, I’d highly recommend signing up and taking advantage of their benefits. It’s a great way to make a little extra money.

Popularity: 24% [?]