Frugal in the Fruitlands

In October 2007, I successfully tackled the goal of not dining out for a month. I’m hoping for a similar success in October 2008.

My goal for next month is to reduce my Internet exposure. I’ve realized that as I increase my blog/social network “face time,” my ability to concentrate on any one idea is decreased. There’s a good reason for this - I am surrounded by inspiring blogs and innovative people, who are always throwing new ideas my way; new ideas I inevitably feel I need to act on. This constantly distracts me, making it hard for me to focus on any one important goal.

Of course, “reduce my Internet exposure,” isn’t very SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, or timely), so here is the more concrete detail

For thirty days, I will:
Use PageAddict to limit the amount of time I browse “play” sites (i.e. LiveJournal, Gmail, Google Reader) to 45 minutes per day, per computer (work and home).

I originally had a much stricter goal here (30 mins per day per computer, plus a detailed outline of do’s and don’ts), but I realized the simpler it is, the more attainable it is. My Internet dependency (addiction?) is deep, and I’ve got to start small.

In preparation for this, I’ve been using PageAddict to classify certain pages as “play,” so that when the time comes I can’t cheat by finding different distractions. Obviously, this system is not perfect, but I am hoping it will at least be a helping hand to keep me in line.

Working on Frugal in the Fruitlands, or on the LARP I’m writing, is acceptable, though I will strive to do more offline.

You can do your part as a reader of this blog by reminding me of my goal. Anybody who emails, IMs, or otherwise communicates a reminder to me (i.e. “it’s 6 o’clock… are you reading blogs?”), will get a personal mention on my blog at the end of October, with a link to some of your best content.

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Where are all these stores that offer double and triple coupons and amazing customer loyalty programs that bloggers keep talking about?

Where I live, I have two choices of grocery stores: I can go to the Hannaford in Lunenburg, or I can go to the Market Basket in Fitchburg. Both have about the same prices (I’ve checked), but the Hannaford has better service, better produce, and is closer, so I choose to do my shopping there. Neither accepts double/triple coupons. Neither has a customer loyalty program.

Where I previously lived, my shopping choices were Stop & Shop and Shaw’s, which do have customer loyalty programs, but I typically found they just used these to jack up everyday prices. But given as these stores were in Watertown and Belmont respectively, this could just be a function of living in a pricey neighborhood.

Another irony: I live in the “fruitlands” of Massachusetts. I am surrounded by farms and orchards; apiaries and maple sugarers. If you drive down my street, you’ve see the maple sugar taps lining the road.

But ironically, many of these farms have realized they get the best profit by visiting farmer’s markets in Boston, Cambridge, and Somerville, where all the socially-conscious locavores live. So even though Dick’s Market Garden is right down the street from me, and they sell peaches at the Arlington Farmer’s Market, they don’t sell peaches at their stand.

I could take better advantage of these resources, but here I admit my own laziness. Dick’s isn’t open when I get home in the evening, so the only time I can go there is on the weekends, and my weekends are jam-packed. This weekend, I actually drove to Hannaford - past Lanni Orchards, which was open - and bought a bag of Lanni Orchard’s apples at the Hannaford. Yes, Lanni Orchards gets some of the profit; but Hannaford is taking a larger portion and delocalizing it.

Flat Hill Orchards is on my commute home, but have I ever gone there? No. Ewen’s Maple Sugar House is on the same road, but I’ve only been there once, because getting service involves ringing a really large bell and waiting for the proprietor to amble out of his house. The largest locally-owned garden center in Massachusetts is also near me, but I still drive to the Home Depot in Leominster when I need stuff.

If there’s any way my shopping habits can become more frugal AND responsible, it’s by making a greater effort to patronize local businesses, not by taking my business to three different grocery stores.

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If the lenders are blameless in this economic situation, and it’s really all caused by those math-impaired cretins who borrowed the money, then why are Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG, and Lehman Brothers being investigated for fraud?

One quote: In June, [the FBI's] Mortgage Fraud Task Force arrested more than 400 mortgage brokers, lenders, appraisers and other industry insiders who, it said, were responsible for more than $1 billion in losses.

I’m still trying to decide my opinion on the $700 billion bailout plan. While it’s being presented as taxpayer-focused, the recent writings of a certain Mr. Fengi are making me realize that the $700 billion number is a nice round number pulled out of someone’s ass, and that all this bailout will do is allow lenders to go back to their previous predatory behavior, hoarding profits and passing expenses on to taxpayers.

And lest you think the Candidate You Support will do something to stop this, keep in mind that both Democrats and Republicans know who their corporate masters are.

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Or at least as angry as I get on this blog.

If I read one more “blame the borrowers for the subprime mortgage crisis/FM bailout” post, I may be forced to scratch someone’s eyes out with a nail file. This line of thinking is so misguided that it’s morally reprehensible.

In the next couple of weeks, I am hoping to write a multi-part review of Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi’s The Two Income Trap. This book, written in 2003, brilliantly predicts the situation the economy is in today. It discusses the effects of unregulated lending on the middle class; it presents the now-popped housing bubble as a bidding war for educational quality; it blows apart the myth of American “affluenza,” it talks about the real causes of bankruptcy; and it even juliennes fries. It should be required reading for every American, or at least every over-privileged frugality/personal finance blogger who has ever naively spouted off that the cause of our economic situation is simply people buying too much dang stuff.

In the meantime, let us take a moment to consider that most of us - yes, even me - are probably a job loss or serious illness away from bankruptcy.

I’m an atheist, but I think that Jesus guy said something about the mote in one’s eye.

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I just wanted to take a few moments to express my love for Wardrobe Oxygen. Allie seems to have perfected something I feel few “fashion blogs” have - talking about how to look great at any shape or size, without falling into faddishness.

What does this have to do with frugality? Look at her mission:

I believe every woman is utterly gorgeous, and can feel beautiful and stylish no matter her budget or body.

See, Sarah Jessica Parker’s Bitten line says this, too, but as I’ve argued, they can’t stand behind it. Allie really means it. She’s all about buying a few quality, classic pieces and personalizing them. Her Staples for Every Woman’s Wardrobe post is the best “wardrobe basics” article I’ve ever seen. (I’ve always hated Tim Gunn’s - every woman should have a trench coat? Seriously?)

An added bonus: Allie promptly answers comments, as she did my stupid comment on the aforementioned post.

Now, we all just need to take a moment to ask ourselves why it’s largely women who feel the need to be stylish. There’s your moment of feminism for the day.

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No one was more surprised than me when Coupons vs. Generics: Round One: Contact Solution was named an Editor’s Pick for the 143rd Festival of Frugality, hosted at Living Almost Large. But there it is. I hope someone else can learn from my mistakes.

Two other articles I really enjoyed from this festival were:

• 20 Cheap Ways to Relax and Manage Stress, by Fitz Villafuerte. I’ve been reading up on Fitz, and his blog has a strong voice that I thoroughly enjoy. I hope you will, too.
• Buying Airfare: Get the Best Bang for Your Buck at Average Jane’s Guide to Budget Travel. I too, face some of the issues she faces with coworkers who are very picky about how they fly, but I was happy to learn a few new things about finding cheap fares from this article.

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Many money management programs, such as Your Money or Your Life, or The Simple Dollar’s 31 Days to Fix Your Finances, are at heart based on a simple premise:

Determine what your life purpose is, and spend money according to that.

But what happens when you can’t figure out what your life purpose is?

This is the place I’m in. This is why these programs always stump me.

I should probably qualify that as an atheist I don’t believe in a cosmically-ordained life purpose. But I do believe that we gain a lot of direction and meaning from establishing a life purpose based on our personal values and identity. And if I knew what those were, I’d be going there right now.

I feel like I’ve been playing with identity since I was first aware of what it was. Growing up, when identity was as simple as “what do you want to be when you grow up?” I never had a standard answer to give. One day I wanted to be a veterinarian; the next a paleontologist; the next a truck driver - whatever interested me at the time. There was also a sense that I was always acting; trying on different roles to see which suited me.

The problem is, I haven’t made any progress since then. I still don’t know “what I want to be when I grow up,” and the answer changes tremendously based on outside forces. I’m envious of those people who, for example, “have always known” they wanted to be a particular profession.

When I’m asked to answer alternate life design questions like “What would you do if you had all the money in the world?” or “What would you do if you had only a year to live?” I just don’t know. The purpose of these questions is to get at what’s really important to you, but I can’t even begin to prioritize. I have a lot of interests, but do I have a lot of passions?

Sometimes I think the only thing I’m passionate about is doing something that will put my name out there, where people can see it - fame, if you will. But what do I want to be famous for? Since I’ve stuck my thumbs in so many pies without really committing to anything, there’s nothing I’m at which I’m skilled enough to answer even that question.

Writing is one thing I keep coming back to, but I’m not sure it’s the answer. I’m not sure something I so often loathe doing can be considered that. I just seem to have a modicum of talent at it, and it is able to invoke a flow state - not always, but sometimes.

Actually, my life tends to be woefully short on flow states, which is part of the reason this question is so hard to answer.

While I would have loved to made this a series on “how to figure out your life purpose,” this is just not a question I can answer. It’s a question that troubles me daily.

What are your thoughts on this matter?

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Like many soft contact-wearers, I use a multi-purpose solution to care for them. In particular, I’ve tended to be brand-loyal to Opti-Free, which is what was given to me when I got my first set of lenses, and because I like their “no rub” solutions.

… yeah, yeah. Let’s just say I’ve learned my lesson.

I use coupons.com on occasion, and recently they offered a coupon for $1 off Opti-Free Replenish. I usually use the Opti-Free Express, and to be honest, I’m not clear on what the difference is between the two, except for price. Nonetheless I printed out the coupon and figured I’d try it out.

So here I was, standing in Hannaford with my coupon in hand. I had three different options:

• Opti-Free Replenish - the one I had the coupon for - 10 oz
• Opti-Free Express - the one I usually use - 12 oz
• Hannaford-brand multipurpose solution (not a “no rub” solution, but otherwise comparable) - 12 oz

To further complicate the issue, each option was available in a 2-pack, as well. So really, I had six different options at six different price points, and I can’t do math in my head very well. Based on nothing at all except that I had a coupon in my hand, I I chose the Opti-Free Replenish 2-pack.

In retrospect - with a calculator - did I make the right choice? Turns out not.

I used CVS pricing to do a comparison below, since I didn’t have the Hannaford prices on hand and they don’t do online orders. Plus, the CVS brand is a “no rub” solution, making it even more comparable. This is how the price per ounce worked out:

Opti-Free Express

• 12 oz @ $8.99: 75 cents/oz
• 24 oz @ $16.99: 71 cents/oz

Opti-Free Replenish with Coupon

• 10 oz @ $8.79 - $1: 78 cents/oz
• 20 oz @ $16.79 - $1: 79 cents/oz - my option: the most expensive!

CVS/Pharmacy brand

• 12 oz @ $6.79: 57 cents/oz
• 24 oz @ $11.99: 50 cents/oz - the winning choice

Well, I now have my two bottles of overpriced, brand name solution that I was tricked into buying by a slip of paper worth a 100th of a cent. At least I’ll know better in the future?

Next time on Coupons vs. Generics - frozen vegetables.

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Back in June, I struck up a conversation with Nick Pagan about multiple streams of income, productivity, and cognitive science after I discovered his blog. Nick writes meaty articles on all of these topics (and more!) and he kindly offered to write a guest post for FinF. Eager to merge our two (blogo)spheres of influence, I suggested the topic “multiple streams of income with limited energy.”

This topic stymied both of us as a blog post, but it did make a fruitful discussion to share with my readers! Before sharing it, I would encourage you to check out his ebook “Understand How to Operate Your Brain Perfectly” - you can get it for free by subscribing to his newsletter, and it’s mentioned at several points in here.

All emphasis is mine, to bring out the juiciest bits :)

Lise: When I originally asked you to write a guest post, I gave you the topic “multiple streams of income on limited energy.” This topic had been sitting on my “things to write” list forever, and it seemed like something you could speak to. But the problem I was having - and, I suspect, which you were having, is what having “limited energy” means. It’s a situation I find myself in often, but I’m not sure I’ve taken the time to better define it.

Does it mean depression (at times in my life, it has)? Does it mean actual, physical energy, as in, I have to sleep a lot (this is also true of me). But I think most often what I actually mean is a lack of motivation, i.e. I can’t bring myself to work on something I ostensibly like.

I’m curious, then, what your first impression of the term “limited energy” is? Do you associate it with any particular activity in your life? Do you associate it with a lack of motivation?

Continue Reading »

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I’m back from vacation! As expected, my post on gender and finance appeared in Monday’s Carnival of Personal Finance #168, hosted by One Caveman’s Financial Journey.

I will be tabulating the results of this small survey over the next few days, but in the meantime here are some other posts from the Carnival I enjoyed.

• Outsourcing Our Chores: Do We Overvalue Our Time? at The Personal Financier. This might be surprising to you, as I’ve argued before that some things are worth outsourcing. But Dorian wisely points out that opportunity cost only means anything if you actually harness that opportunity. Sure, as a research analyst, my work time is worth roughly $20 an hour, but as I’m salaried, if I pay someone to mow my lawn, thus saving me an hour, I’m not going to be making up that money by putting in more time at the office. Bonus: I also liked his Time-Saving Tips articles.
• How I Deal With Difficult People at Value for Your Life. If I had known some of these things when I was dealing with my previous boss, my first two years at this company would have been much smoother.
• Preparing for the 2008 Holiday Season: Make It Debt-Free at Destroying Debt. As a card-carrying member of the Coalition to Kill Christmas (membership: 1), I wrote a post last year around this time about planning a simple holiday season, but this gives me some new ideas.

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