Uncommon Cents

It seems that Costco is a popular topic both for me to write about and for readers to search for when stumbling upon this blog. In any case, I’ve written on them multiple times, and here we are, once again. In fact, the example used for this post is the same as in an earlier post: Diet Pepsi.

I try to limit my forays to Costco to once a month, usually around the 14th of the month (because my American Express statement closes on the 13th, I then gain a bit of time to come up with the cash to pay it off). One of the staples of my trip has been the $8.99 36 pack of Diet Pepsi.

Except now it’s $9.29.

I noticed the increased price while doing my monthly run through the warehouse store this past Sunday. Given that another local retailer is selling the same 36 pack at $8.99 still, barring a sale at Costco, I’ll now buy from this local retailer. In addition, since I can use my Pentagon Federal Credit Union Visa at the local retailer, I get an increased reward–2% vs. 1% on the American Express card I use at Costco (and the reward is very quick, with the reward deducted from my monthly bill).

In addition, given my current obsession with gasoline consumption, there is a branch of this local grocer within two miles of home, versus the approximately 12 miles from Costco. Given that a 36 pack of Diet Pepsi is heavy, and I tend to buy multiple 36 packs, I may be saving a few cents on gasoline as well!

Does this mean I’m not shopping at Costco anymore? No. Far from it, actually. The moral of the story is that while, as I stated earlier, Costco can certainly help you spend less, not everything there is cheaper! Continue to shop around and compare prices for the best deals.

In week three of my plan to cut my gasoline usage by 5%, I finally had success. As you may recall, in my first week of this attempt, I cut my mileage almost 5%, but my fuel usage went down only about 2.5%. In the second week, I was able to increase my miles per gallon, but I drove more miles and used more gas.

In week three, finally, some success–and the reason why I was successful included.

My total mileage for the week was considerably less than in previous weeks: just 217 miles. My calculations after filling up on Sunday morning estimated my miles per gallon at 24.98, and total gas used at 8.69 gallons, beating my 5% goal handily. In fact, I used 17.3% less gas than my baseline!

How did I do it? I continued what I was already doing–using the efficient routes to and from work I had already found, keeping my tires properly inflated, driving the speed limit–as well as what really had to be done to reduce use:

Drive less.

I designated one day this week as a “no drive” day; I cheated and drove, but only in my little town of Kane’ohe, because I needed to pick up some groceries that I couldn’t reasonably do with my bike or walking. However, that is about 30 miles less than driving into the main part of Honolulu.

The coming week will be challenging as far as continuing to meet this goal. I have a social event (yet another bon dance) this coming week that will have me driving more than my baseline; in fact, it’s likely to be farther than the week before. I have turned down a few other social events (graduation parties) due to the driving distances, so yes, I will admit that I’m having to make choices I may not be thrilled about to drive less, but the alternatives are in many ways worse.

We’ll review things next week to see how I do with trying to meet my 5% goal even though it’s a definite I’ll have to drive more than I did this week!

Okay, after this week, I am absolutely convinced there is no such thing as a cheap night out at the movies, as long as the movie is current. I haven’t gone to one in about a year, but I got an invitation from one of my friends who I hadn’t seen in a few months to see something; as an old comic book Geek, I chose Iron Man (Hint: if you go, stay until after the credits). The movie itself was fine, but $9.50 per person for entry? We’re not talking popcorn and soda here either. Neither of us had anything to eat or drink there, although we did have a nice dinner at another place later–that cost about the same as the movies die!

I guess there are alternatives, such as waiting until the movie’s out for awhile, purchasing tickets at “group” rates (but like frequent flier miles and airlines, it’s gotten more and more difficult to use these tickets at new movies), seeing it at low priced matinee times (if possible with my work schedule), or doing a DVD via the library or Netflix. There’s also such things as local live theater or other performances put on by small playhouses or schools. Other possibilities may be less popular movies that have showings at the local art house or museum. Still, it’s disappointing how expensive what was a stable of a night out has become. I’m sure it’ll probably be another year before I go to a movie that’s current in the theater.

Okay, I admit it (again): I’m an Apple, Inc. fan. I own stock in the company. I’ve used their products since 1982. I’m currently typing this on a MacBook, and a month and a half ago I was writing these posts on an iBook. I spend a lot of my driving time listening to my iPod touch. My bike ride this morning was spent listening to MacBreak Weekly. I’m a fan.

That said, I don’t have an iPhone, and part of the reason why is cost. So, when the new iPhone came out to Steve Jobs saying that one of the issues was affordability, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that the price of the new 3G (third generation wireless network, for the non-Geek among you–for the very non-Geek, it basically means that the data connection for the phone is much faster than it was before) had a lower price–substantially lower. At least in the United States, the 8 gigabyte iPhone 3G will sell for $199 and the 16 gigabyte iPhone 3G will sell for $299–$200 less than the previous models. That’s $200 less, right?

No.

The phone in the U.S. is only available with a two year AT&T contract, and the terms on the new contract is considerably more than on the old phones. The data charge for consumers is $10 per month more, and the SMS (text messaging) plans are extra too (formerly 200 SMS messages were included; now it’s $5 a month for 200, or, as you would guess, more dollars for more messages). Even if you decide to do without SMS, you’re still ending up with $10 more per month minimum, $240 more over the life of the contract.

So in the end, you pay $40 more over two years for the newer phones than the older ones.

Now, granted, the increased speed of the 3G and the additional AGPS functionality may make up for that $40 for many consumers, but shame on Apple–the phone really isn’t more affordable in the end, and to say to isn’t being as honest as you can be with your customers.

Netflix, the DVD by mail (and now streaming video) service that allows subscribers to view DVDs for a monthly fee has been a very popular choice for entertainment, especially among the Geek set. Receiving and returning DVDs by mail (postage paid) for a low price is appealing. But does it really help you spend less versus the public library?

Netflix’s lowest priced plan is $4.99 per month, which gives you two DVDs per month (one at a time) with no late fees and no due dates (it also gives you two hours of Internet viewing if you use their streaming system). You can get more DVDs, both overall and at the same time, for more money. The DVDs are mailed to you and you mail them back in postage paid envelopes. By contrast, the public library’s system here is $1 per DVD rental for one week, and a $1 late fee per week, but you have to pick the DVDs up.

It’s clear from browsing Netflix.com and the public library’s online catalog that Netflix has a much larger selection of new releases. The fact that Netflix mails the DVDs (as well as provides postage paid return envelopes) is a big advantage, because when considering the total cost of the DVD viewing, the cost of traveling to and from the library is an issue. The lack of late fees is huge as well.

In the end, if you are more than the very occasional DVD viewer (like me), it’s likely that Netflix is a pretty frugal way to view movies. And for someone like me who hates, hates, hates monthly obligations, that’s painful to say, but Netflix has earned its distinction as a very cost effective way to get some entertainment.

Once you’ve established your spending log and used it for awhile, you can take a look at your overall budget. Your baseline budget is the one that you’re currently using (you can take a look at my baseline gas use for an example of what a baseline means).

In addition to your spending log, you’ll need your income; for this I would include any earned income (from your job, for instance) but not unearned income (dividends, capital gains, or interest) unless you actually use it for your monthly expenses. If, like me, this income is reinvested, I wouldn’t use it in my budget. If you have other types of income such as welfare or Social Security, or income which is not cash but can be used like cash in some aspects (WIC or food stamps) you would want to consider that income for this exercise as well.

You’ll want to take a look at your spending log and create some categories; what they’ll be may depend somewhat upon your own situation, but in general things like “food”, “rent/mortgage”, “electricity”, “gasoline”, “toiletries”, and “entertainment” would be included. Depending on your situation, you may want to break things down further–you may want to subdivide “food” into “groceries” and “eating out”, and “eating out” may even warrant further division such as “McDonalds” and “fine dining” and “Starbucks”.

Once you’re done with laying that out, add up your net (not gross, at least not at this point) income as well as all of your expenses, and use the cash flow equation we talked about earlier to see where you’re standing.

When people do this exercise, they are sometimes surprised by their number. Sometimes they have a very large positive number that doesn’t seem at all accurate; sometimes they have negative numbers that don’t seem to make sense. Take a few minutes and make sure your math is correct.

When you have the baseline budget established, it’s time to take a hard look. Where are you spending more money than you want? What areas can you cut back on? Maybe have a specific goal, like, “I will spend 10% less on eating out this month,” or, “I will reduce my Starbucks visits from five a week to one a week over the next three weeks.” Are there ways to work on the other end of the equation and increase your income? Once you have your baseline established, it becomes much more concrete to work on financial goals because you know where you stand and you know where your money is going–and what areas it might be possible to make changes in. That will lead to your goal budget, which we’ll look at in our next installment of Basics.

If you’re wondering where Kyle of Rather-Be-Shopping.com and his usual guest post is, he (and his post) are camping! So we’re giving him a much deserved break and reviewing my goal of using less gas…

I’m continuing to see what I can do to reduce my gas usage by 5%. In my first week of trying to cut my fuel use, I cut my mileage almost 5%, but my fuel use reduction was only about 2.5%. This week I went back to my original route to work, although I did have one social outing in addition to my usual driving, so let’s take a look at the results.

For the week ending June 7, 2008, I ended up driving 268.1 miles, which is, unfortunately, considerably more than my goal–20.4 miles, which is 100% attributable (actually it was more than 100% of the excess mileage!) to my attending a social event on Saturday night. My estimated miles per gallon for that time frame was 25.32 miles per gallon, which was better than either my first week or baseline week in this trial. However, because I drove more miles, my total gas used was 10.59 miles, which was actually slightly more than my baseline; this is less than 1% more gas than baseline, but almost 6% more gas than I wanted to use.

So far, I’ve not been successful in this attempt. The first week I was able to get my total miles driven within my target range but my miles per gallon was lower than planned; the second week my miles per gallon was better than ever but my total mileage was higher than expected. Using what I’ve learned to date this week, my plan is for one day a week to be a total “no drive” day, and that looks like it’ll be this Saturday. I think I’ve found the best route to work, which is the majority of my driving, and the times I travel are pretty fixed. My driving style is already getting me close to 10% better miles per gallon than the truck is rated for, so it’s pretty clear that if I’m going to meet this goal it’s really going to come down to actually driving less.

Let’s see how things go in week three!

One of the areas where frugality becomes apparent is in the area of necessities. While some will argue that actual needs come down to food, shelter, and clothing, the reality is we probably “need” a bit more than that. However, even in areas of need, what we “want”–and subsequently end up purchasing–can make a huge difference on our personal finances.

I need shoes. It’s a requirement of work, and pretty much a requirement of life. I have certain things I consider essential or close to it in my work shoes–black, proper fitting, and won’t object to a bit of running and a lot of stair climbing. I may want the $200 pair that look slick and high tech, but what I can make do with is the pair at Ross that goes for $29 or $34 and can last me a year or two. Food is definitely a necessity–I may want to run to the nearest Italian restaurant every night for dinner, but what I can make do with is making something to eat at home and going out for a salad a time or two on the weekends.

Even things which are less need–like a vehicle or a notebook computer–can be shopped for using the ideas of need and want. I would love to have a new 2008 Toyota Tacoma, but I’ll make due for as long as I can with my 2002 Tacoma. I would have loved to pick up a MacBook Air when my iBook crashed to the floor a few weeks back, but instead I’ll make due with this refurbished MacBook for hundreds less. I would love to get a brand new Cannondale to take on my morning rides but I’ll live with the more than 10 year old used model I got from one of my nurse friends a few years back which has seen me through two straight years of 100 mile rides and countless training miles in between.

Considering what in your life is a want and a need and how even those needs can be filled in more frugal ways. Good luck!

It was a bit over a year ago that my blogging buddy Donna got my interest in bon dance reignited. One of the things that Donna said when we were at one of the dances–which can be thought of not just as a religious experience or a cultural dance, but a festival with food concessions and bazaar/craft sale booths–was that it was a “cheap night out.” She’s right!

For those of you who don’t know what a bon dance is, think Karate Kid II. Given the large Japanese and Okinawan population in Hawai’i, the bon dance has become an important cultural event in the island state. The summer is bon dance season, and throughout the islands during the months of June, July, and August, there are events virtually every weekend. It can make a fun event for those who wish to know more about the religious aspects of the bon dance, to experience more about Japanese and Okinawan culture, or to hang out at a fun family event. It tends to be a weekend night event, so it’s held at a time when many would be going out on fancy dinners or movies.

Photo courtesy of the fabulous Donna of Champuru.net and DancingFools.org

The bon dance can be an extremely frugal event. For the festivals on island, parking has always been free (although it is sometimes difficult to find); there’s never been a charge to attend; the food quality varies, but it’s certainly less than buying food at a movie theater and you’re more than welcome to bring your own cooler. If you choose to buy a towel, donate money to the temple, or buy crafts or plants or whatever they have to sell, that’s totally up to you. The temple mostly wants you to come out and have fun!

And regarding the actual frugal numbers… this past week I went to the first bon dance of the season with my buddies in the Dancing Fools bon dance posse. Besides the cost of driving there, I spent a total of $5 on dinner for the night and not another cent. I was fortunate in that one of the posse passed out some delicious mochi that night. This was not atypical; I’ve often spent zero aside from the cost of transportation, and $5 is well below the price of your typical movie ticket!

I realize that this exact event may not be happening in your neck of the woods, but it’s quite possible there would be other events that are similar in origin somewhere near you. Perhaps an event run by a church or synagogue or an association for a certain ethnic group? Or maybe amateur theater or museum openings? There might be great, low cost, family friendly outings near you. Let us hear about them!

(Note: the author’s performing of the hard drive swap detailed in this article definitely voids the warranty on the external drive and could result in damaging or at least voiding the warranty on the MacBook; if you are not comfortable doing such a procedure, then consult a professional! Of course, if you have some do-it-yourself ingenuity and you want to save a few dollars, proceed with caution…)

I was planning to get a MacBook to replace my aging iBook this year, although not quite when I actually got it. One of the areas where I wanted to upgrade the MacBook was in the storage area–the 160 gigabyte hard drive was decently large, but a 320 gigabyte hard drive is (obviously) twice as big and a bit faster. There apparently was only one model of drive of this capacity–the largest capacity drive that physically fits in my MacBook–available, the Western Digital Scorpio 320 GB SATA, model WD3200BEVT. I noticed that this past week the 320 was on sale at Best Buy, with a catch–it was in an external case as a USB drive!

In doing my research, I discovered that it appears this drive mechanism is used in several different external hard drives by both Western Digital and Simpletech. I also found out through my research how to open both of these external cases to get the drive mechanism out, and how to replace the drive on the MacBook. I am not a novice to these types of operations, so if you are, proceed with caution if at all!

You’ll need a few tools, a couple that are hardware and a couple that are software:

A #1 mini-Phillips screwdriver–your typical “large” screwdriver in a jeweler’s screwdriver set, which is typically available for a buck (the whole kit) at a 99 cent store;

A Torx T-8 driver (which is -not- mentioned in the Apple instructions for the hard drive–you can make do with an appropriately sized straight blade jeweler’s screwdriver, but it is not an ideal solution);

Disk Utility (included with Mac OS X) to format the new drive;

A disk cloning program–two candidates on the Mac are Carbon Copy Cloner and SuperDuper!. For this, I used SuperDuper!, which offered the drive cloning functionality at no cost.

After plugging the external drive into the MacBook’s USB ports (it took both ports to power the drive), I used Disk Utility to format the drive. When partitioning–choose the partition button when hilighting the external drive, even if you only want to have a single partition–click the options button and make sure to choose “GUID Partition Table”. After that, start up your disk cloning program and clone the internal drive to the 320 gig external drive; this will take some time. When this is done, I’d go ahead and start up from the external drive just to make sure this actually works–if it doesn’t , start over; it’s likely you’re failing to choose “GUID Partition Table” when partitioning.

Once you have a bootable external drive, it’s time for the surgery. This GearHack article shows how to open the case (while it’s a different model of drive, the instructions are perfect, except the interface board is way smaller and only attached to the drive by friction–no need to use the screwdriver there, just pull off the interface board) You can also peel off (at least I could) the sticker, although not without a small amount of damage to it rather than poke holes through it to get to the concealed Phillips screws. This Acrobat file from Apple shows how to get the internal drive out of the MacBook, but it fails to discuss how to remove the drive from the sled. You’ll need the above mentioned Torx driver or you can make due with an appropriately sized flat bladed jeweler’s screwdriver. After that, simply reverse the instructions after swapping drives; I ended up with a 320 gig internal drive in my MacBook and a 160 gig external drive (that has the bonus of only using one of my USB ports for power!).

And there you have it; yet another example of how to spend a few bucks less with some do it yourself ingenuity. If I wanted to recoup a few more dollars, I could sell the external now 160 gig drive for maybe $50 to $70, which would drastically reduce the cost of the upgrade. Be careful with this one and have fun!