Category Archives: Costs

Cost Benefit Of Helping Skilled Friends In Need

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It’s 11:38pm, I just got home about 15 minutes ago!  Where was I at you might be wondering?  I was down at my friend’s house fixing his computer.

My friend and his wife are good friends and they do a lot for our family!  We even went to Disney at the same time so we could hang with them for a few days!  While I would go down to help my friends no matter what, it’s nice that he has skills that are helpful to my family too!

You see he works as a doctor at a hospital, and we’ll call him asking what he thinks of certain symptoms our family may come down with.  Another advantage that he holds, is that when something is going around, he’ll tell us to look for it and the symptoms that go with it.  This way, when my son or daughter catches it at school, we don’t freak out.

While our friendship isn’t based on skills, it’s nice to have a friend with a different skill than I have.  My friend is also good with carpentry!  It’s a hobby for him, but when I have a house question… He’s the first or second guy that I call (my father-in-law is good carpenter too).

So when my friend called and said his computer was hosed and he was afraid he lost all of their recent family photos (including those from Disney), I hopped in the car and rode down to save the day!

Do you have a good network of friends that are both great friends and skilled in ways that complement your own skills?  It’s a nice perk if you do.  It’s even nicer if you can reciprocate the same back to your friends.

-MR

Is It Time To Buy A New House?

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Housing was hit fairly hard!  with home prices down more that half in some locations (for example, Nevada)…

My friend with that won the $200,000 dollar  house and things is  moving.  To help provide the best environment (including school system) for her future children, she (they) decided to upgrade to a more expensive, and much bigger house.

We estimate that she’s going to triple her current living space with the move.  And since she lived in a townhouse before, her lot size has increased by an even larger amount.

I also mentioned the “Joneses” of our neighborhood has already moved to a bigger and better place.  While they aren’t moving for the reasons as my friend is moving, they too are taking advantage of the reduces home prices (and at the time, the home buyers incentives) that are around.  In their particular scenario, they are increasing the living space by 1,000 to 1,500 square feet.

If my wife and kids weren’t so happy with the house we live in, I too, would have jumped on the “buy a larger house while they are cheap” bandwagon.  Of course, I’d upgrade our square footage by a much smaller amount.  I estimate that I would only increase the amount by a range of 400 to 600 square feet.  The important thing to realize is that this environment might be a once in the lifetime opportunity to buy a house at a reduced costs.

After all, if the house prices don’t start increasing, we have much more serious problems.  Perhaps the logic is if we go are going down in flames, why not go down in flames with a bit of style?

Readers, what do you think?  Is the housing market so depressed that now it a great time to buy?  You have heard the stories of three people that are moving or would like to move (yeah that’s me).

-MR

Saving By Paying Attention – Conclusion Part 4 of 4

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Thinking money matters through

The “Saving By Paying Attention” series has been about focusing and not making rash decisions.

Too often, smart people don’t take the time to weigh all options when making an important decisions.

By paying attention, I’ve been able to buy a lot of things for free, like routers for my computers, DVDs, etc.  With rebates, you can save substantial amount of money too.  There are some huge coupon savings out there if you know where to look.

Another great tool for buying things at a huge discount is the internet.  Sometimes you can find some great deals on Ebay.com.  I’ve been able to buy old CD/DVDs from ebay for a great price, not to mention the unique, one of a kind items that can be found.  For instance, I’ve been able to buy a firefighter nightlight from my son when he was younger.

Another great site for good prices on products is www.woot.com, I’ve been able to buy merchandise that has been refurbished at great prices.  Both of my kid’s mp3 players were bought online at www.woot.com!

I’ve recently learned of a site called: https://www.giveawayoftheday.com/, but I haven’t researched it enough yet to feel comfortable recommending it.  Still you might want to check it out, mainly they offer free software downloads.

Another great way save money is to go to blogger sites that are offering giveaways.  Every so often, you’ll see a $100 dollar giveaway from the blogger sites!

I know people that use the radio contests to win money to.  In fact, this is how one of my friends won a free house.  Another friend continually calls the sites trying to win money and prizes.  Often time she succeeds!  It’s amazing the opportunities out there to either win money or prizes.

It you concentrate and think outside of the box, there are plenty of money  saving or winning opportunities out there!

-MR

Previous Articles in this Series:

A Frugal Lunch and Breakfast

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I’ve been frugal since my college days, but one of the few areas that I let lifestyle creep (or lifestyle inflation) expand is my meal costs for breakfast and lunch.  There has been days that I’ve spent over $20 just on breakfast and lunch.  My typical cost are between $7 and  $16.  More often than not though, my normal costs are around $12.

Since I started my Lunch Experiment, I’m more mindful of the cost of breakfast and lunch meals. 

Today, I went back to my Lunch Experiment ways and only paid 60 cents for both my breakfast and lunch…  How is this accomplished?  See the table below:

           
  Qty Meal Cost Total Cost  
  1 Oatmeal (instant) 0.29 0.29  
  2 Eggs 0.08 0.16  
  1 Ramen Noodle package 0.15 0.15  
        $0.60  
           

               

So basically these frugal meals are cost 95% less than my regular non-frugal meals.  I’ve been very happy with the return on my frugal meals!

For the most part the meal is healthy, both the oatmeal and eggs are great!  With the Ramen Noodles?…  I’d have to say no…

So, I’ve decided to go with this meal 2 or 3 times a week.  This will reduce my lunch and breakfast costs, and I should not experience to much harm from the high salt intake (I put salt on my eggs, and the ramen seasoning is loaded with salt).

This is just one way that you can reduce your cost dramatically, as I have done…

Readers:  What additional ways do you reduce your costs?  I figure this is an easy way to save over $50 a week (at least $2,600 a year…) not bad!

-MR