The $400 price tag may be too bitter to swallow, but if you’re an avid reader, you should consider it. Most newly released books are only $9.99, so you’re saving money with each purchase.
Of course, for the price of a Kindle, you can also buy a Playstation 3 in preparation for LittleBigPlanet. Just sayin’.
If you’re interesting in stocking your home bar, take a look at Cheap(er) Drinks: Tips For Enjoyable Drinking Without Going Broke at Serious Eats. (Thanks to Lifehacker for the link.)
Also, you may want to take a look at Stocking a Bar - Building the $100 Bar at Hack College.
Don’t say we never helped you get your drink on!
I’m always impressed with Sarah during the NHL playoffs; I slink away to my man-room and watch hockey whenever NBC is generous enough to broadcast it, yet Sarah encourages me (she even brings me snacks!). Part of her generosity, I suspect, is because my hockey obsession is a free one. We get a price break on our high speed internet because we subscribe to 10 cable channels, so we’re actually making money when we watch television!
There are a lot of fun activities you can do that are inexpensive. Now, this isn’t a simplify-your-life blog, but if you’re willing to scale back on dining out and going to the movies, you’ll find more money in your pocket at the end of the month. Here’s my initial breakdown of cheap (and not-so-cheap) entertainment options:
Note that quite a number of these options include exercise — save money and get fit!
Sarah and Not Quite Vintage encouraged me to join No Soda April. It’s been tough — I’m the guy who would go to the 7-11 every morning and get a Double Super Super Big Gulp of Diet Coke. I had all the perks of a regular, including the occasional free refill, but those daily sodas added up. Eighty-four cents a day may not sound like a lot, but it became a significant chunk of my monthly allowance.
I’ve gone over a week without soda and am feeling chipper and spry; I also had enough unused allowance to treat Sarah to a delicious lunch. Good news all around!
Whenever I talk to a couple who’s chosen to live off one income, I always hear the same defense — it gives them more quality time with our newborn/toddler, and if the stay-at-home parent took a job, much of his or her income would go toward daycare and work-related experiences. It’s a good argument and, because my son is still a few years away from pre-school, I only work part-time (if at all!) so that I can care for him during the day. But sometimes I catch myself thinking, “Damn, I really wish I had a 9-5 job…think of how many video games I could buy.” Also, think of how quickly my retirement account would grow.
The New York Times recently published an article validating my hesitation about remaining a stay-at-home-dad.
My husband — who has been working part time since January — is now contemplating going back to work full time…
There are many women who are willing to run their homes [and stay with their newborns/toddlers] open-ended. I have not been able to find any research on this topic, but I suspect most men view the position as a stopover.
Even if we were millionaires, my husband would want to resume his life. We are most assuredly not, so a large part of his salary will have go toward paying for the various ways our lives will have to be rebalanced when he does start working. I’d like to say I know that this shift will be worth it in the end.
That phrase — even if we were millionaires — was what caught my attention. A lot of people derive significant satisfaction and validation from their careers. A couple’s choice to live off two salaries isn’t necessarily a choice about money; it may also be a choice about meeting personal needs.
Now, I’m no workaholic, but my (infrequent) doubts about staying at home must mean I do find a smidgin of personal satisfaction in my work life. Maybe I should take this stay-at-home opportunity to go back to school and find my calling, my vocation.
When Chad and I made the decision to merge our finances, it quickly became clear that our different financial priorities would make it a difficult task. Chad needs to have a lot more fun money than I do, and I need to have a lot more savings than he does. We decided to try putting our monthly alloted money in envelopes each month. A lot of people use the envelope system as a way of making sure they only spend the cash they have on hand; Chad and I have never had the problem of overspending or living above our means. Rather, our use of the envelopes has helped me to ease up on my control issues about what we spend. Each month, our budget gets divided up between the envelopes (this doesn’t include the money we move into our various savings accounts). We have envelopes for: groceries, Target (oh, how we love you), Date Night, Chad’s Allowance, Sarah’s Allowance, and gasoline. We’ve budgeted carefully in terms of how much money goes into each envelope so (for the most part) I feel comfortable with whatever gets purchased because I know we can afford it.
Also critical to the success of our budget is the monthly allowance. This is money that we each get that we can do whatever we want with. I’ve come to realize that when you are trying to save money and be careful with your finances, you also need to be willing to have some no-strings-attached fun money - especially when you are making a budget with someone who likes to spend. Again, it’s an amount of money that I’m comfortable with (though I’ll admit that I’d much prefer our allowances be going into savings), but because it is important to Chad, I’ve really come to embrace it because of how it makes him feel.
Every once in a while, Yahoo! Finance has an article that spurs me to action. Take a look at 8-Last-Minute-Ways-to-Save-for-Your-Vacation. While most of the article contains advice we hear regulary, the third item is unusual and something Sarah would do without hesitation:
Build cash with a ‘Pantry Week’ - For one week each month, from now until your trip, stay out of the grocery store and eat only what you have in your house. Mary Hunt, founder and editor of Debtproofliving.com and author of “Live Your Life for Half the Price,” calls this quick money-raising challenge the “Pantry Week.”
Make it fun by pretending you’re on a deserted island and can only eat what you have in the pantry. What unusual meals can the kids suggest? “Most families have more staples in their cupboards than they realize,” says Hunt. And guess what? It’s actually OK to eat peanut butter and jelly for dinner one night.
It’s a good idea, especially if your cupboards are full of food. And, even if you have a Mother Hubbard pantry, it’s a short-term way to save some cash. While Sarah will be motivated by the saving money aspect of this exercise, I’m much more likely to participate if I feel I’m doing more than just saving money. Here’s my motivation — if you’re a dedicated home chef, you’ll become a better cook by scrounging the pantry with Bittman in one hand and exercising your creativity. I won’t be surprised if Sarah eventually talks me into a Pantry Week, but I’ll balk if we only eat this and this.
I’m currently working odd jobs on an on-call/contract basis, and, to keep track of my hours, I downloaded On the Job. It’s fun to watch my paycheck increase as I’m working on projects, but I feel guilty every time I stop the clock so that I can check my google reader or walk across the street to satisfy my need for diet coke. Yesterday, I added a new, $25/hour task called “Wasting Time.” Now, whenever I stop working and begin procrastinating, I keep track of how much money I’m losing.
Yes, seeing that I just wasted $43.62 encourages me to take fewer breaks (even if Sarah is working one floor upstairs and I’d like to share a tasty cupcake with her). But it also encourages me to make the most of my free time. If my time is worth $25/hour working, it’s also worth $25/hour when I’m watching television or puttering around the interwebs. Is it really worth my time to play Call of Duty 4 with my friends on XBox Live? Absolutely — I don’t always get to see my friends in person, so it’s a way to reconnect with them. Is it worth my time to watch a rerun of Law and Order? Probably not.
A perfect example of where we differ on money came in deciding whether or not to register monthlyenvelopes.com — I didn’t see the point, Chad had numerous reasons why we should. Yes, it’s only ten dollars, but given our current financial situation (more on that later), ten dollars is not an altogether insignificant amount of money.
I suppose it’s pretty clear what the outcome of that discussion was…
