Suburban Dollar » Frugality

Group Buying, There’s Power in Numbers but Beware

KKatz — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 11:10:50 +0000

Many consumers are finding that there’s power in numbers. Group buying sites, such as Groupon.com, LivingSocial.com, and BuyWithMe.com, offer steep discounts on local services that are being promoted that day. Local merchants get a burst of new traffic that will hopefully lead to new customers and consumers get great deals. You might have seen recent stories highlighted on CNN, USA Today and other media outlets, heralding them as a the new buying revolution, the Web’s latest retail craze.

But it’s not as simple as you might think to cash in on these deals. Group buying sites vary in their business models. Some require a certain number of takers before validating the deal, while others let you click to buy immediately until all the vouchers are sold. Some sites offer an incentive to share the deal. Others use the threat of losing the deal if enough people don’t sign up. The more you share, the more likely the deal will go through.

Many of these deals come with some fine print. Here are some things to watch for when using group buying sites:

Check Out the Deal – Sometimes merchants run different deals on different sites. Don’t settle for the first deal you see. Check out other coupon and group buying sites before committing.
Know the Restrictions – Some deals are on valid certain days or for a limited time. Tax and tip may not be included. Most of these deals do not give money back if you change your mind.
Read Reviews - A deal is only as good as the product or service sold. Make sure this is something that you’ll want to use, and check out the place using review sites like Yelp, Google Maps, or ConsumerSearch.com.
Make Sure that You Can Afford It - Sometimes you can buy deals, such as get $50 worth of food and drink for only $25, but after adding the entrÃ©e, dessert and drinks, you might find yourself above that $50 budget. Make sure you know what the typical dinner or service costs before signing up.

Most of these sites offer a “How It Works” section. Read the rules before you start using a group buying site. Because these are local offers, make sure that the site offers deals in your area. If they’re not, you can sign up for the waiting list and when they add your city, you’ll start receiving emails.

These deals change often so you’re encouraged to check back daily or sign up for alerts to see the new deal of the day. As you get more friends involved with your group buying, you start getting peer pressure to buy into their favorite deals. Remember, it’s only a deal if you save money, not spend it. If you weren’t planning to buy that product or service then you’re wasting money on services and products that you don’t need.

Cheaper Isn’t Always Better

Kyle — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 11:29:24 +0000

Buying the cheapest thing you can find certainly isn’t always a great idea. It is good to be frugal but quality is equally as important as price. I fell game to the cheaper is better trap the other day when I was in the market for a cornhole set. You know the bean bag game where you toss bags at a wooden board trying to get them in hole. I used to own a set I built myself but they were to big and bulky so I ditched them.

I went out to buy a set and was presented with two choices, one at $79.99 and one at $99.99. The $79 one was built out of wood and the more expensive one was molded plastic. The frugalite in me decided the cheaper one was going to be the better deal so I bought it. This was actually very out of character for me. I typically research everything to death before I make a purchase. This was a spur of the moment deal and I went with the cheaper option on gut.

Turns out there is a reason I over research everything before i make a purchase. When I make a spur of the moment decision to buy something it is a bad deal. I picked up the cheaper version and was sorry the first time I went to use it. The bags were like paper, too light, and the boards were cheaply made. If I wasn’t sorry the first time, I was crazy sorry the second time when the board actually fell apart. I tried to fix it but it was the cheapest, most worthless, piece of crap I have ever purchased. I don’t know what I was thinking. I returned it the next day and I plan to build one from scratch.

The point I am trying to make with this lengthy diatribe is that just because it is cheaper doesn’t mean it is better. Especially if you are making a purchase of something you really will use regularly. I didn’t do what I knew I should have done and I bought a lemon. The more expensive option was better but even it wasn’t the best way to go. Looking back at it the best way to do it was to make my own. That way I know it is done right and better. Cheaper isn’t better, but sometimes more expensive isn’t so much better either. Weigh your options accordingly and then make your decision. Not much comes from split second decision making.

Photo: (GoMattOlson)

Suburban Garden Experiment – Year Two

Kyle — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 12:04:36 +0000

Some of you may remember my failed attempt at a successful garden from last year. This year I am aiming sites on a good harvest and a better experience all around. This year I am trying out true square foot gardening as outlined in the book All New Square Foot Gardening ($11.69 Amazon). Using the book as a guideline it helps to not only properly space your plants but learn more about how the plants grow and how to use that to your advantage.

Using square foot gardening the general idea is to divide your planting beds into 1sq ft blocks. Within each created block you plant a specific vegetable for flower you are interested in growing. I personally found this method of planting beds to make a lot more sense than the traditional row planting methods. Especially when you are utilizing raised box beds like mine. The book outlines how many of each plant you can comfortably fit in each square foot area so you are certain not to overcrowd your plants. Using these guidelines I created the following layouts for my two 4′X8′ planting beds.

As you can tell from my layouts I still have quite a bit of unused sq ft in the right side bed. I am thinking about adding some bell pepper to mix and maybe trying my hand at canning banana peppers again. I am still not quite sure. The emphasis is obviously on green beans. They are one the most consumed vegetables in my house and I would love to be able to can/freeze my own. The plants in the back of the beds (Green Beans, Cucumber, and Cantaloupe) will all be trained to go up a nylon net trellis. The trellis is going to be tied to the galvanized pipe supports you see in the real life photo below. This will allow me to maximize the room I have to grow while not taking up a lot room in the bed itself. Here are the gardens as they look today, I couldn’t find the lath that the book wanted me to use to divide my boxes, instead I just used some garden twine.

In addition to my two beds I have two Blueberry bushes, a blackberry bush, a thicket of wild blackberry, a single raspberry twig, and two peach trees. I still have yet to receive a single peach from my peach trees, they always fall prey to some tiny worms that eat their way out it seems like. I would like to see a sweet cherry tree added to the mix but it will probably not come until the fall, there is also a distinct possibility for another blueberry bush. I am a sucker for blueberries. As I did last year I will try to provide a monthly update on my gardening progress and hopeful success.

Have you tried out square foot gardening? Tell me how it worked for you.

Do You Want an iPad?

Kyle — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 12:52:34 +0000

This whole iPad thing baffles me. I guess I don’t get the point of the product. You take the iPhone which had some pretty big limitations and you make it bigger. Same limitations just a bigger screen. With the exception of Flash support I see things improving in future iterations of both the iPhone and the iPad which brings me to my thought for today. What does it cost you to be an early adopter?

There are people out there who have to have the latest and greatest tech gadget/gizmo. It never ceases to amaze me how the Apple faithful line up to get at whatever hot thing they have rolling out. Yes, I own an iPhone. I own a 3Gs one though. I didn’t get the first one, or the second one, I waited until it started to get really interesting and personally I kind of regret it. I like what Android has been able to accomplish and the less strict policy on app development. But I digress. When you are an early adopter it costs you more than just what you paid for the product. Lets look at the benefits of waiting to make that next gadget purchase

No matter how good a testing group a company gets together there is always going to be unanticipated glitches, bugs, and security holes. It is impossible to anticipate all of the uses a product will get when put in the hands of the idiot consumer (myself included). These bugs tend to work themselves out in the first couple of months to 1 year of a product being on the market. Holding off a bit can save you the frustration of dealing with those glitches. Let someone else deal with it.
The feature set of a 1st gen product is never what the company really wanted to put out to the market. It is what they were able to get together by the 3rd drop dead date. Other stuff doesn’t get cut it just gets rolled into the next development cycle. Just look at the features of an iPhone 3Gs versus the original iPhone. By picking it up early on you could be missing out on some great advantages that you will have to replace the product to get later on.
The cost of a first generation product is almost always higher than the costs of subsequent generations of the product. As the product matures the company will fine tune the production process and suppliers they use to reduce their costs of creating the product. This process is happening all the time so their profit on the sales of the products grows. When the next generation comes out they can reduce the price or increase the value (increased storage capacity, processing, etc.) at the same price point. Buying early your are paying more for less, most of the time.

I am not trying to say anyone is crazy for getting an iPad, it looks neat, I just don’t see the benefit in being an early adopter of most anything. I am not the only one either, I think. Are you an early adopter? I would love to know why.

Is Bulk Better?

Kyle — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:02:39 +0000

I have always been leary of the Costco’s and Sam’s Clubs of the world. Something always seems off to me when you have to pay to get in the door and then pay to get the stuff. Same thing with cover charges at a bar. I am here so I am going to be buying stuff, why are you taking my money just to get in. This doesn’t mean that the concept is off, just the execution. I am a firm believer in buying in bulk, I just don’t think warehouse stores are necessarily the best places to stock up.

Buying in bulk is a great way to cut your costs on both the food you eat and the gas it takes to get to the grocery store. I think the last time I bought chicken at the store was over 3 weeks ago, I still have around 10 lbs in my freezer though. Now I understand that is a lot of chicken but we pretty much only eat white meat around here so we are going to use it. I did not buy any of that meat from a bulk food store though. It was all purchased “fresh” from my local grocery store. Not those giant bags of frozen brick chicken breasts, but actual “fresh” packages of chicken breasts.

Buying meat in bulk is almost always best done when the meat is on sale. The big box stores don’t ever put it on sale so you have to watch the local grocery store. I buy whole chickens at .79 lb and boneless, skinless chicken breasts at $1.79 per lb. I wait and watch for them to go on sale and when they do I stock up. So while the packages themselves are not bulk the amount of meat I pick up usually is. This is a great way to maximize your grocery budget without paying Costco type fees.

In the interest of full grocery disclosure, I am a paying member of Sam’s club because there are certain things you can find cheaper, and that work great bought in bulk. We usually stock up on dry goods like spaghetti, paper towels, toilet paper, and other easily stored products. When you can pick up a ton them at once you usually save money so it is worth it.

The key to buying anything in bulk is being able to compare it’s base unit price to what you typically see when shopping. The only way to do that is if you keep a detailed journal of what you spend on groceries. The easiest way to keep up with these price swings is to start a price book. By using a price book you will be able to identify when a sale really is a good deal or when the chain/bulk store is just pulling your leg. More often than not you may find the sale price at the chain store beats what you can get paying the “discounted” rate at the bulk store.

Photo: (David)

When the Price is Right – Buy Generic

Michael — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 14:01:37 +0000

If you’re old enough to remember the 1980’s, then you’re probably old enough to remember a time when the Pepsi challenge was a prevalent marketing strategy. The idea behind the Pepsi challenge was that a Pepsi representative would set up at a shopping center or grocery store and provide samples of both Pepsi and its leading competitor, Coca Cola. A customer would sip each one and without knowing which one they were drinking, would comment on the beverage that tasted better. After years of running this campaign, it was determined that Pepsi was the clear favorite among American consumers and even till this day, Pepsi uses that information to their advantage.

Ultimately, Pepsi was offering you the option to buy what tasted the best, period. Not which bottle looks cooler, not which name sounds more recognizable and certainly not the one that gave you quantity over quality. These days, consumers don’t often buy the product that is simply the best for their needs. When it comes time to buy the Coca Cola or just “cola”, Kellogg’s or store-brand cereal, or even the BMW or the KIA, consumers put too much weight on the name of the product and not enough weight on the quality of the product.

It’s no secret that I like to save money at the grocery store, but even I fell into the trap of always buying name brand products in lieu of their generic counterparts. Strangely enough, my mind tells me that the products are well worth the extra cost, even though I have rarely ever tried the generic version. Because I am always looking for a good way to save a few bucks here and there, I decided that I would start buying generic products when the price was right and test them out myself. If the product tasted terrible or was unsatisfactory in any way, I would stick to the name brand version. However, if I couldn’t tell the difference, or hopefully it tasted better, I would stick with it and save pennies on the dollar every week, which would eventually add up to a nice chunk of change at the end of the year.

I started with cereals, then moved on to soups, canned vegetables, cookies and worked all the way up the frozen foods section. Why spend $4 per half gallon on Breyer’s ice cream when I could spend $3.29 on the Winn-Dixie version? After a few months of trying the generic version of almost every product I usually buy, I was pleasantly surprised at how many tasted just as good if not better. Sure there were a few that were downright uneatable, but the experiment had definitely worked in my favor. A few quick calculations showed that I saved around $7 per grocery store visit, which would save me hundreds of dollars each year. Pretty sweet.

But just as there were positives to this idea, there’s one glaring negative that really wasn’t that big of a deal to me but may be for some. Status and success in this world of ours is generally defined by our possessions, so in essence, the more cash, the more flash. The reason that the banker drives the Mercedes and not the Jeep has little to do with the overall performance and features of the car, as I’m sure you can find almost any feature in any model these days and more to do with the name brand itself. Let’s be real here people, if I were going to trust my money to an accountant, would I want him driving a low-end automobile, or a high-end automobile? Sounds a little conceited but it is what it is.

So when I would entertain friends and family and they wanted a Dr. Pepper, I would hand them a Dr. Chek. When they wanted Tostitos and Salsa, I would hand them a bag that said “Corn Chips” and the generic version of Salsa. Immediately the conclusion was drawn that I’m struggling to make ends meet and I can’t afford the good stuff and no matter how hard I tried to convince them that this, in fact, was the good stuff, it didn’t matter.

You won’t find me wearing designer jeans, shirts or shoes because I’m always the guy with the Target dress shirts for $9.99 and the discounted sneakers for $19.99 but I NEVER let price get in the way of quality or comfort. Buying generic at the grocery store, clothing store, furniture store, car dealership and plenty of other places can save you hundreds if not thousands every year. Give it a shot and I promise you won’t be disappointed.

How to Save on SMS Using GoogleVoice

Kyle — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 14:01:46 +0000

A few weeks ago I touched on the fact I use Google Voice to save me money. I only briefly mentioned how I use it to provide alternative SMS service and I had some questions about Google Voice as well as the details on how I use it to reduce my SMS costs so here it goes.

What Is Google Voice

Google Voice is a phone service provided by Google, it DOES NOT replace your current phone. It does not do Voice over IP (VOIP) but is instead intended to be used a single number where you can be reached on any of your existing phones. This way no matter how many times you change your home or cell numbers you can still be reached from the one central phone. The service also provides you with transcribed voicemails and the capability to send SMS via the interwebs.

Other possible use is as a dedicated business phone number. Setting it up as a business line will allow you to give out your Google number as opposed to your real cell phone number. Allowing you to have a separate voicemail and call system for business but still ringing through to your cell phone.

Google Voice is still in a limited preview, you can get in on the list by visiting http://www.google.com/voice

Setting up Google Voice

If you have a Blackberry or an Android based phone Google has an app out for both devices allowing you to run GoogleVoice as a native app on the phone. If you are an unlucky iPhone owner the work around gets a little bit more in depth. Apple has decided they don’t want to play nice with Google and denied them their request to include the Google Voice App on the iPhone. Google didn’t like that too much so they developed an HTML5 based version of the app that you can run directly from the Safari browser (See Photo to the Right).

Once you have a Google Voice account the first thing you will need to do is setup your phone numbers you are going to want it to dial. In order to get SMS rolling you need to switch over to the Voicemail & SMS tab under settings.

Under voicemail notifications check the “Email the message to:” box and select the e-mail you will want your voicemail and SMS sent to. If it isn’t listed click on add a new email address. Make sure the Send a text (SMS) message to: boxes are unchecked, otherwise Google will just forward the message to your cell, still costing you a text.

Now go down to SMS Forwarding and make sure you check “Forward SMS to my email.” Your resulting settings should look something like this:

Now you will get a e-mail copy of the message whenever someone texts to your GV number. You can easily reply to the SMS by just replying to the e-mail. You can now send and receive your texts without ever using up your text plan.

Enabling Push Notifications

Now that you have Google voice setup and you are getting your SMS in your inbox we need to set it up so it comes in like a true SMS message. As it stands all you are going to get is a buzz or a beep when you get new mail/messages.

Because Google Voice has no native iPhone app we have t use a third party app to enable push notification for newessages. There are a couple of apps out there that allow you to implement push notification for gmail messages, the one I use is called PushGmail. Basically it acts as a watcher over you gmail or Google apps account and whenever a new message comes in you get a push alert just like when you get a regular text. If you unlock the phone right away it will open into a mobile version of gmail and you can reply through e-mail.

Using this method allowed me to cut my text service
Back from unlimited to the most basic plan AT&T offers. I still get the occasional message to my regular account so I keep at least that plan. The only other limitation is that you can’t get Multimedia Messages (MMS) through GV.

3 Websites that Save Me Money

Kyle — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 14:01:36 +0000

An important part of being frugal and saving money is finding ways to reduce your expenses while at the same time working to increase your income. Even though I fail a lot I try pretty hard to reduce my costs whenever possible. Like switching cable providers (or at least threating to) to get your bill slashed. When you get creative and look for alternatives there is always ways to reduce your spending so you can increase the gap between income and expenses. Over the last couple of months I have come across three website which have helped me to significantly reduce my expenses.

GoogleVoice (http://google.com/voice)

Google Voice provides you with a single phone number that will dial all of your other numbers. It is the ultimate in portable numbers because it isn’t tied to a carrier at all so if you change cell phones you just have to change where it forwards to and no one needs to update their contacts. The biggest draw to me however, was the ability to use Google Voice for SMS on my iPhone. AT&T and Apple won’t allow the Google Voice App for the iPhone (if You have Android you are solid). You can get around it quite easily for about $2.00, here is how:

As of last week Google updated the mobile version of Google Voice to be pretty kick A$# (see picture to the left). Using the mobile website you can EASILY initiate new SMS messages, phone calls, and play voice mails from your Google Voice account. It is pretty much the same as if you had an app actually installed on your phone to do the work. The only thing it won’t do is alert you on new voice mails or SMS since it has no way to push to the iPhone. Enter GmailPush ($1.99), it sends a push notification whenever I get an e-mail so with the SMS forwarded to e-mail instead of my phone POW! Free SMS with notifications.

This allows me to use the lowest text plan as opposed to the unlimited plan saving me $15.00 per month.

Retail Me Not (http://retailmenot.com)

If you have never dropped by Retail Me Not before doing some serious online shopping then you are missing out on some great opportunities for savings. Retail Me Not is a user driven coupon code tracking site. People submit coupon codes for various online merchants and other users vote on the success or failure of the coupon codes. This allows you to get the best codes and most savings when shopping online. I discovered this little beauty when doing my Christmas shopping this year and saved $90.

Box.net

This site is relatively new to me, I already use DropBox to keep needed files synced between my iPhone, netbook, and desktop but that is simply storage and syncing. Box.net however lets you do some pretty neat stuff with sharing files. The reason it is so beneficial to me is that you can fax your uploaded documents via eFax for free. **Updated 02/08/2010, box.net is now charging for eFax services, it looks like if you had already added the app you are cool but it is a pay service now, BOO!”** I have to send out a fax every month for Dependant care claims and because I didn’t want to pay some online service to do it I kept a home phone around. Now that I can fax online through Box.net I dropped the home phone saving me $30 per month.

Right there with three free website I was able to save $90 shopping and $540 in monthly charges throughout the year. Not to bad for the little amount of work it took. What sites do you use to help you cut down on those pesky expenses?

Budget Coffee and Cigarettes With Gift Cards and Save a Fortune

Hank — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 14:09:09 +0000

How many times have you heard that you can save millions of dollars over the course of your lifetime by cutting out your morning coffee at your favorite local coffee house? Ever since David Bach made his Latte Factor famous in his best selling book, “The Automatic Millionaire“, we all have been going without our favorite nonfat vanilla lattes or have been feeling guilty about our pack-a-day smoking habit and the money that these vices cost us.

Bach’s math is very sound unfortunately. The average fancy cup of coffee with your local neighborhood barista can cost you up to $5 per cup of Joe. And, that is assuming that you do not have a muffin on the side to go with it every morning. You can do the math, but a $5 coffee every morning on your way to work will cost you $25 per week, $100 per month, or $1,200 per year. $1,200 invested at 8% ever year over the course of your working life can equate into over $365,000 in lost savings and investments. And, don’t get me started on smoking. At $4 per pack in many locations around the United States, a pack-a-day smoking habit will cost you $1,460 per year or $444,000 invested over a lifetime, and with smoking, you don’t get to even take the weekends off like you theoretically do with fancy coffee on the way to work.

But, I love my peppermint lattes at Starbucks during the holidays darn it! And, I’m not going to give them up. So, if you are not going to quit, how do you budget for your vices?

Gift Card Approach.

One interesting idea is to buy a gift card for your purchases. Buy a $100 Starbucks gift card at the beginning of every month, and only make your purchases using that card, not cash. When the card is out of money, you are out of luck for your daily cup of coffee. This will help you curb your splurging on that muffin or bagel in the morning. Maybe some days you might have to buy regular coffee or brew a cup at home instead of having the best.

You can even do the same for your smoking habit as well. Buy all of your cigarettes at a retailer that offers a gift card such as Wal-Mart. Buy a $120 gift card every month ($4 x 30 days), and only use that to buy your cigarettes. You can use this method to track all of your spending on your vices. You might be surprised at how much money you spend on them if you are accurately keeping track of your vice spending. Most people just run into the store a throw down some cash for their purchases, but you will be able to tell right away how much you are actually spending on them when it is registered on a gift card balance.

Cutting Back.

After you get the hang of routinely using this gift card method, you can begin to cut back on your vice spending if that is a goal of yours. After a few months, start cutting back on how much money you put on the gift card. Start reducing your coffee budget from $100 a month to $75, and keep whittling it down. Eventually, you can break your bad habit and really start saving your money for your financial goals.

Photo: (jpovey)

Freezing for Frugality

Kyle — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 13:56:19 +0000

A recent article in USA Today caught my attention and made me think. The article, “Households take up challenge to be chilly” covers families who have taken up the challenge to see how long they can go without turning ontheir furnace. Partly for economic reason and partially for eco reasons families across the nation are having freeze outs. One interviewee who was trying to save money considers it a modern concept to heat the home saying “Over 120 years ago, people had a stove fireplace, and that warmed their homes to a point. They didn’t walk around in T-shirts and shorts all year long.” I agree with the statement but people 120 years ago weren’t sporting 3000 square foot houses either. The smaller your home the less there is to heat, the less windows/doors you have to leak heat out. I like the concept but it seems somewhat extreme, at some point these people end up turning on their furnaces but the article doesn’t really talk about what they heat their houses to when they give in.

One man in Maine even bought a house with no furnace at all. I am certainly willing to take some hits for frugality but at what point is the cost savings not worth the sacrifice to your quality of life. I think two of the biggest reasons people balk at being frugal are 1.) fear of losing their social status and 2.) thinking it lowers their quality of life. The majority of good, common sense, frugal practices should have no effect on either one of these. When people start reporting about these extreme cases of frugality or green living people start to associate the two things. That guy was nuts to save a few dollars so anyone saving a few dollars must be nuts right? Of course we know this couldn’t be further from the truth but it is these types of stories which make impressions on people.

Another good example of this was an episode of the TV show Wife Swap I saw one day. One of the wives was huge into coupons. I don’t mean your normal type coupon clipper, this lady had a coupon for everything. In addition to her collection of coupons it looked like she bought everything that was on sale. The impression was that she was sacrificing her family for the couponing and stockpiling. Coupons are good things when used properly and this was a case of coupons gone bad. People with little experience couponing might get the impression that coupons are either to much work or you have to go nutso to realize any savings. It is seldom you see a story of the average person doing little things to save money. Each of those little things adds up to something spectacular but it doesn’t make spectacular TV.

It seems whenever there is a good frugal tactic to save a little cash you are going have people taking it to the extreme, like freeganism and that gets the coverage. In regards to the home heating story, a good middle of the road type tactic would be to inspect your home for the winter and make sure it is as weather tight as you can make it. Utilize a programmable thermostat, or do it manually if you are diligent, to set the temperature in your home to be comfortable when you need it and cooler when you don’t.

Photo:(Faris)