March Madness

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Frugal February has given way to March Madness. I’m just going to come out and admit it. I was feeling flush after February. Free haircut, free date night concert of violinist Joshua Bell (!), super efficient grocery shopping and use of food resources all gave way to a few weeks of “whatever.” A few dinners out, a spring break overnight to Disney World (with Florida resident discounts, but still not cheap), new bathing suits, a few shirts for mom, etc.

Clara mugs with Winnie-the-Pooh in Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

So while I build my bamboo fence and try to reign in the spending, I’ve decided to look closer to home for inexpensive fun. Certainly Disney is fun, Continue reading →

With a whim and bamboo

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Our house is close to a street on which people run, walk dogs and ride bikes. We are clearing an area on the west side so we can plant one of our potted citrus trees. Opening up the space has given our dog a view of an active intersection:Simmy is a sighthound who, when he is not playing dress-up, loves to be outside in the garden. Since he can’t chase what he sees at a distance, he barks his fool head off at anyone passing by. His job of announcing all the neighborhood comings and goings is stressing him out, and wearing thin my patience. He simply doesn’t need to bark so much. A visual screen blocking a view of distant dogwalkers will help solve the problem, I think, but a privacy fence is not allowed in our historic neighborhood. I turn, happily, to a large clump of bamboo growing in our yard: I need it to build my fence, and it is badly in need of trimming and thinning.

I do *heart* bamboo. So much so that I want to surround myself with it. It grows fast and free in Florida. The strong, lightweight plant is so versatile it has been put to use around the world as piping, scaffolding, flooring, exterior walls, curtain rods, clothing, utensils, and, of course, fencing. On my first trip to Hawaii I fell in love with the grasses’ tall green culms as I scrambled through a grove growing high on a mountainside. It grows in many forms across the U.S., and in sunny Florida it is possible to grow many of the larger varieties. We have four or five types. (Our neighbor planted the impressive timber variety, and I welcome its potential to spread into our yard.):

(For size: the ends of smaller canes I'm using are visible in the photo's lower right corner.)

The prolific grass grows so fast that hyperbole is not even required to describe its pace:  You can practically watch the grass grow. Which just means you’ll be able to cut it down and turn it into a fence that much sooner.

I searched the interwebs for info on how to build a bamboo fence and found little to guide me other than this article. I know there are books on the subject, but I didn’t want to research too much. I wanted to dive right in. This is how I roll.

The poles, which I harvest manually with a bear claw saw, are perfect for creating a fence made entirely out of items from my yard. The branches of Sabal palm leaves, wedged into the crotches of cherry laurels and secured with cable ties, make the cross beams: 

I learned how to pick which poles to cut (at least three years old). I gleaned it is important while making a fence “post” to trim the pole to height just above the node. That way the pole will not fill with rainwater and rot. I also learned there is a traditional black twine Japanese artisans use to fasten bamboo fence poles to cross beams. So I bought classy black cable ties to imitate this effect.

The fence is not finished yet. Cutting and trimming the poles is time consuming. I’ve been tied up with a sick child home from school, out-of-town visitors, and following up on some of the tasks required to get my must haves under control. Next Friday I hope to complete the panels on the west side of our property.

Then I’ll get to be more decorative and artistic with the panels on the north side’s temporary screen, which I began to build by incorporating potted plants and some metal poles I found in the garage. This screen looks silly at the moment because it is nothing more than the sketch of an idea of a fence. 

You, dear readers, (and my husband) will have to trust me when I say that when it is finished the fence will beautifully contain my daughter as well as calm my dog — all without having to deal with city codes. I will also be able to remove it in a hurry, if required.The total price of this natural wonder, excluding time, is about $20 for cable ties.

As we wind down Frugal February, that sounds just about right to me.

 

Frugalicious Freezer Exploration

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So – schwhateva on that $100/week for groceries not including the CSA box thing . . .

When my mother (who is a thrifty shopper) said it couldn’t be done, I should have listened. Listen to your mother! She said she spends over $100/week in groceries for just her and my Dad, so she doubted I could do it for us four – especially with two growing (and prosciutto-loving) teens/tweens.

Well she was right. There I’ve said it: It’s a little over halfway through February and I am over my $650 for the month. I have some stuff in my freezer, but not enough to feed us through the month, right? Okay, time for real-time freezer inventory. I’m at the freezer now (this could get embarrassing):

Bag of frozen peas
Bag of frozen corn (okay, I’m going to stop saying each thing is frozen)
Pint of vanilla ice cream
Container cranberry cocktail concentrate (I had an idea about margaritas – didn’t pan out)
Bag of leftover homemade latkes
2 bags leftover homemade pancakes
Miscellaneous Go-gurt tubes of undetermined vintage
Gallon bag pork barbeque (dated September 2011)
3 bags of 1.5 quarts homemade chicken stock (that’s money, baby)
Gallon bag of undetermined beige substance – here, you guess:
Post a reply if you have an idea – now back to the list:

2 1lb packages grass fed ground beef (on sale at $5.99/lb so I bought extra)
Another unidentified bag of something appearing to be of tomato-sauce origin
2 quart bags homemade veggie soup (made this last week, it’s really good)
2 qt leftover beef soup from January 2012
1 qt bag of undetermined – again tomato-ey in origin
Box Dr. Praeger’s California Veggie Burgers
1 pint bag of pomegranate seeds
1 whole pomegranate
1lb ground coffee
One-half loaf Ezekiel bread
and finally:
One lego dude frozen in a jar of water.

Oh my gosh – I feel so exposed. But I also feel heartened – I have some food I can use to keep my expenses down this month. I am taking the pork BBQ out for dinner tonight. We can have the frozen peas since we don’t get a new infusion of green until the CSA box tomorrow, and I’ll have to make some potato thing for a starch, since I don’t have buns (the potato latkes?). . . okay you all don’t need to hear me thinking aloud. You already know what it’s like cobbling a dinner together.

So, thanks for going on this impromptu adventure with me.  I doubt I can go the rest of the month without buying groceries – but I am going to use up stuff in the freezer.  After all, I froze it to use it. And of course I will keep freezing as I go. I’m not ready to give up on my $650/month goal just yet, and I will spend the rest of February keeping very close track of things. That way, I can have more information to decide whether or not it’s feasible for next month.

And maybe the extra expense for food could go into the “wants” category. . . . The food we eat isn’t just calories to fuel our bodies. Dinner is really our one regular family activity. Sure, we go on the occasional outing together (we call them RFT – random family trips), but on a regular daily basis, dinner is where we all come together. It’s not that we sit around discussing current events and Shakespeare every night – sometimes we play a card game or watch an episode of Chopped. Sometimes it’s a homework dinner and sometimes it’s reading night – be we are all together. And the food brings us there. Beyond the calories, vitamins and minerals we need to survive, I want the food experience to be as fun and tasty as possible. So it makes sense to put some of the extra expense into “wants.”

By the way, I will let you know what the undetermined stuff is. Hopefully it’s tasty!

P.S. I also realized that when I use my bank records to add up my grocery bills (I use a bank card for everything), I can’t distinguish between food and non-food items (dish soap, toothpaste, etc.) that I buy at the grocery store. I’m going to have to start saving receipts . . . just what I need, more paper around the house.

 

Tough Love

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Ever have someone really hold you accountable? You could squirm and make excuses and wriggle, but he or she would just steely eyeball you and insist you persevere? Get it right, instead of just good enough?

Tough love, some would call it. Some might just call it tough.

One such person comes to mind for me – my violin instructor. He would say, “Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.” Somewhat gruesome motivation to share with a 7th grader, to be sure, but from it I intuited that my poorly practiced attempt at Beethoven wasn’t going to cut it. I would double down, focus and work harder, hoping to hear some less critical phrase at our next lesson.

Well, when it comes to household budgeting, I’m living the tough love chapter of All Your Worth at the moment. Elizabeth Warren and her daughter, Amelia Warren Tyagi, dish it out in Chapter 3, In Which Reining In “Must Haves” Spending Is Enforced. They describe this step as the key to financial security, so no fudging allowed.

While folk wisdom may have trained us to think a penny saved is a penny earned, the Warrens wisely point out that a dollar saved is a dollar earned, and a hundred times faster than that little ole penny. When you spend the time to spend the dollars to their best effect, the financial picture improves much faster than if you saved cents by comparison shopping for shampoo, or whatnot.

The Warrens say that if we can keep “must have” spending at or below 50 percent of after-tax income, we will gain control over finances. This control will provide flexibility because there will be more money for savings and wants. It will also begin to provide security, because we can build up long-term savings.

As I mentioned in my last post on Needs or Must Haves, our household spends about 63 percent in this category. After figuring it, I realized whittling that number down is going to be a huge project. Thank goodness I have this blog and the Warrens’ book to keep me accountable.

When we started the blog last month, I’d imagined I’d have my balance clearly defined and be living the savings by now. Hah. As I crawl along finding time here and there to read, consider, and act on the book’s advice, I can tell I’m in the doghouse and I’ve got to get busy!

I don’t have car loans, so I don’t need to decide whether to sell a vehicle, (both our cars were purchased used, and paid-in-full). At this point, I don’t have to examine whether I need to relocate, get a new job, or any number of other difficult questions the book’s authors ask. The lifestyle choices I face now are not as emotionally charged as they might have otherwise been. Yet principles and politics did still pop up in my decision-making process.

Since all the items in the Must Have list are important to quality of life, attempting to reduce them will not be the matter of a few minutes work. Mortgages, car loan payments, student loans, insurance of various types are all complicated financial and legal documents that will all need to be reexamined. But assessing them in detail, the book says, is time well spent because a refinanced mortgage, done correctly, can save thousands in one year.

As I look at our Must Haves, I know what we have to do. I must refinance the mortgage on my old house (aka The Barnacle) – my home before I was married almost 5 years ago. We must shop around for cheaper car and home insurance. We must find out if refinancing my student loans is possible.

I’ve made strides on the first task.

The situation: The Barnacle is currently a rental property because I can’t stomach selling the place in this bad market. The mortgage interest rate (8.5 percent) screams at me – Refinance me! I also have a bunch of equity in the home, which I bought in 1997 for an extremely low price.

So far I’ve checked with two financial institutions: my credit union and the current mortgage holder, Chase, which bought out Washington Mutual, which bought out some small bank in Jacksonville, FL, that originally held the loan. I had a great experience with the credit union. The representative was personable and patient with my questions. Chase, not so much.

Aside from offering me a great rate, my credit union is willing to offer what seems to me to be a great deal. They would refinance and roll in my student loans to the mortgage — another loan on which we pay 8.5 percent interest. Of course, they would pay off my student loans and I would then owe that money to bank.

The move would increase my overall home loan amount, which the authors forbid. The authors don’t want readers to take risks with the roof over their heads, which is why they say no to second mortgages, or home equity loans, or taking out more debt to pay other debt by “cashing in your equity” on a primary residence. I think because this will not increase my overall debt, but rather combine my debts at a lower rate it makes sense though. I will research this more before deciding.

Anyway, I got a great rate at the credit union on this business property, 3.95 percent, even though slightly higher than I would have been offered if this were my primary residence.

Chase’s rate was more like 5.25 with much higher closing costs and fees then the credit union, even though they currently hold my mortgage and would take on no extra risk to refinance. Here is a picture of Chase on its old log house:

At this point my prejudices are confirmed: I would really like to move my mortgage to a local credit union for political reasons as well as financial ones. Nice to know my politics are being supported on the ground by better service at the CU.

Because the authors require five quotes before signing on the dotted line with one bank over the other, I’ll check with a competing local credit union and Bank of America, which holds the mortgage on our primary residence (I know, hiss). I already know I want to move my mortgage to my credit union, but, I know, this is not an emotional decision, it is a business one. So far the credit union is offering the best deal hands down.

Next, car insurance: USAA covers our newer car (the one that took us to Texas) and coverage is comprehensive. I need to dig into the ins and outs of the plan, but for what we get, we pay about $200 month. We have another, older car that runs well but that doesn’t get the same level of coverage and costs $283 every six months to insure with Geico. I’ll shop both those plans.

Obviously, I’m going to have to get back to you on this stuff. Whoever said this was going to be easy? Well, I might have. Now I know it isn’t and that I’ve got to dig in and keep going.

Thanks to the blog for keeping me accountable, and thanks to the Warrens for the tough love to make me double down, focus and do a better job.

 

Free!

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So completely fitting with Freakishly Frugal February, er, or Fabulously Frugal February, I got a free salon haircut!

One benefit, as a person of my demographic, to living in a town much smaller than LA is the improved chances that the person you happen to meet is a local business owner. As luck would have it, one woman I ran into the other night just happens to co-own a hair salon.

Every now and then the owners of La Di Da Salon hire new stylists. As part of the policy in this Aveda salon, the owners require their new hires to progress through a series of basic hairstyles to establish competency. So when I ran into Diana and she asked if I’d like a free haircut I said, “heck, yeah!”

The cuts at this salon start at $50. I’m very happy with the cut, and definitely happy with the price. My experience begs the question, do salons near you have similar training programs?