One Size Fits All

I’ve been doing nothing but reading and planning for our bike trip for the last several weeks now. I’m still leaning toward putting together my own route, but if for whatever reason that’s not feasible I’l use the Adventure Cycling (ACA) Routes for the entire trip.

This is my (our) ideal trip:

Very little automobile contact and most of our journey will be on rural roads and bike trails.

Farmers’ markets along the way. I am hoping not only to find farmers’ markets but find them open all the way until Thanksgiving.

Inexpensive campgrounds/motels/hostels. Or just warmshowers hosts for the entire length of the trip.

Nice people who will either leave us alone (if they aren’t nice) or somehow help us by giving directions or water or permission to pitch our tent somewhere decent.

Good weather (har! har!) 

No aggressive animals 

The less we spend on the trip, the longer will this vacation last. I am expecting to reach Southern Colorado (CO) in November and the plan is to stay there until Spring (if the snow season has begun) or continue on using ACA’s Western Express route to reach San Francisco.  If we stay in CO, we were thinking of getting some temp jobs to last until Spring and then continuing the journey. Of course, I might just get sick of everything on our second day of riding and decide to get on a Greyhound and be done with this nutty plan. But I’ll try to be optimistic for now.

Since we’re wimpy and cheapskates, we plan on cooking nearly all our meals on the road and riding very little every day. So this is basically going to be the Snail Express route to the West Coast.

I’ve been reading that riding every day gets one’s intestines in tip-top shape - so that means that our chance of getting colon cancer is even less and our time spent hunting for toilets will be greatly increased. I’ve also been thinking of using the diva cup for the trip and am wondering if I should get this device called a freshette.

I bought our tents and sleeping bags (which can be zipped into one large bag for warmth and snuggle purposes although other activities might be dicey), and a stove that claims to use alcohol but is very flammable (so this might be a 100% fossil fuel-free trip).

Wow did I spend alot of money in June. Stress and disaster is expensive! I more or less depleted my emergency fund, but I suppose that’s what its there for right?

So I need to increase our savings and to do so I’ve joined Chile’s Quit Now Challenge where I promise to eat all but four meals at home. Everything else I do is now a habit so I don’t think we can save any more money there.

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Today I gave notice to our landlord that we’d be vacating in 2 months. So…for the first time in my life I am swimming blind and liking the excitement. My husband and I have three plans and they are:

1. One of us will have a job offer before the end of August in California (maybe L.A.). So we’ll just move and get an apartment and that’ll be that.

2. We’ll just move and then scrounge around for jobs living off our savings until we get jobs. I am not too crazy about this plan because I feel it may mean living in a crappy neighborhood (because that’s where the cheap apartments will be) again. And really, I almost want to live in an exclusive gated community at this point since I am so sick of living in crappy places. I had this grand idea that getting a degree would bring me all this wealth that would enable me to live in nice places. I obviously didn’t count on that pesky value called "ethics" which makes me quit all the lucrative jobs I’ve held to date.

3. Bike trip across the country. This is obviously the more insane idea. But its the one we’re both most excited about even though it goes against all my normal ideas of safety nets and whatnot. If we decide to do it, I’ll write a bit more about this plan.

Then of course is the question, why move at all? Well, I don’t think I’ve mentioned it but I’m ready for a change. Philly is a nice city and everything, but I’m really sick of it. My husband is sick of it. We’ve been here for a long while and both of us has been wanting to move for a while but one thing or the other kept coming up. Now that we don’t have anything holding us back (except my comfy job), its high time we move.  There are a million things I hate about this city (moving from neighborhood to neighborhood didn’t help) and I think its me more than the city. Additionally, there might be three of our friends moving to CA in the same time frame as us so that will be exciting.

Gee…this is long. Brevity is not the word of the day. 

My new raise kicked in this month. I immediately increased my savings (from 5%) and my contribution to my defined contribution (401(k)) plan from 5% to 10% reducing my federal income tax by a few bucks every paycheck. I get 100% matching for the first 5%. Retirement also includes my IRA. Currently we’re not paying anything toward husband’s retirement (if I die and husband decided not to kill himself from grief, he’ll get life insurance proceeds). If I get my expected raise a year from now, I will start contributing toward his retirement account and possibly pay toward his student loan as well, since we’ll be flush with cash. This is the benefit of being extremely frugal. Any extra cash feels like we’ve won the lottery. This is how my income breaks out (numbers based on gross income)

Savings includes my health savings account. I am supporting myself and husband on this salary. Husband’s PT job wages goes toward his student loan payments which is not included in here. If you’re wondering what my salary is: its $39,086 gross.

I notice many people find my blog searching for information on living a tightwad lifestyle. I suppose I better dole out some advice.  So…listen up.

Neither of us feel deprived with our lifestyle or my income. There are days when I feel positively wealthy. Once in a while I feel a bit mopey over my small savings account and the fact that I spent a fortune eating crappy food for so many years…but I guess I had to go through that to arrive where I am today. 

We follow all the usual personal finance advice: brown bagging lunches every day, making from scratch, turning down heat, etc, etc. Basically all the boring stuff that a magazine like Kiplingers comes up with every few months. And I am a nickle and dime type of person, so I strongly believe that all the small actions contribute toward substantial savings in the long run. But at the same time, I will spend alot of money on a product if I believe its worth it…such as a Wüsthof Chef’s knife or a good quality cast iron pan.

So what are the unusual things we do to save money or live a thrifty life?

1. We are childfree. While I made up my mind only very recently over this issue, I think the fact that I used birth control and had an abortion fund for years has been a very significant source of saving money and being aware of the cost of being a parent.

2. We are pet free. This decision has often been made for us as most rental units discourage pet owners from renting in a variety of ways. And my husband and I are just plain lazy. Having to feed another being would take away time from us lounging around being lazy. I don’t think this is going to be a lifelong decision however. I have realized that there are some very practical reasons where I would need the following: dog, cat, hawk, goat, hen. So maybe when we finally get our own land, we might get some critters.

3. We are car free. This too was a decision made for me…or rather, owning a car was never a priority for me. My husband got rid of his car in the late 90s when he discovered that we was paying more in car insurance for his junker than the car was worth. And since we love living in urban environments, a car is often a nuisance. 

4. Our hobbies are free or cheap. So we don’t own a television (we watch DVDs on my computer) or play the latest computer games, anything that requires a steady payment (except for our naked dsl line). We love biking, reading, and talking. Additionally, I actively spend time limiting my exposure to advertisements whether on TV or online. I am weak in the head so I don’t see a need to expose my poor brain to wealthy marketing firms’ gimmicks.

5. We try out crazy experiments. And I use the word crazy only because other people say  its crazy. These experiements don’t save money as much as expose us to a new way of thinking. One of my first experiments was done when I was single and 18. I decided to quit watching television for a month. At the time, I thought that the single worst thing that could happen to me would be missing my favorite television show. I found that sentiment to be disturbing. Plus I was constantly arguing with my younger sibling over what to watch. I spent the entire month locked up in my room reading books and listening to music. And after that month was over, I never had the same interest in TV again.

Nowadays we try other experiments like going vegan or using grey water to flush the toilet or increasing the number of days between showering. Often the main question behind these experiments is how I would deal with my life if I had no: electricity or tomatoes or water or whatever.

But there must be a downside to living on 46.76% of my income right? Why, yes!

1. I live in a crappy neighborhood. However, when I lived in Center City paying the same amount for a small one bedroom apartment in a gorgeous neighbood I also had problems…but never heard gun shots. Although…I did have to deal with bums sleeping outside my building and annoying drunks staggering all over the sidewalk.

I originally moved to my current neighborhood because I was going to take out loans to finish up my degree and I wanted to limit my living expenses as much as possible (husband was also in school and we were working PT). However, the apartment water pipes froze in the middle of winter and our heating system broke, and I had exams and my period and I was going mad with stress. So I moved into the current place after breaking my lease because we needed a place asap. I decided to stay on for a few months past our lease this year because we’re planning a cross country move and moving to a new place would increase costs only to move again across the country. So I decided to deal with living next to abused kids, pets, annoying banshees and practicing bands.

That’s the only downside. This post will have an abrupt ending because its getting too long.

I purchased the soya joy soy milk maker and 20 lbs of GMO free soy beans toward the end of November 2007. The soy milk maker cost $89.95 and the 20 lbs of soy beans including shipping cost  $17.22 (there was some sort of special the company had running). Total cost: $107.17

Prior to purchasing the soy milk maker and soy beans, we used to get a gallon of silk soy milk for about $7.98 every week. We also purchased tofu about once or twice per month. The cost varied. At the local asian grocery store, each cake was about $1.00. If it came in fancy pants packaging from whole food, it cost more (can’t remember how much). 

Using the 1 gallon/week as a base of consumption we’ve broken even on the soy milk maker + soy beans once we passed 14 weeks.

We also finished the 20 lbs of soy beans this week. So I purchased 30 lbs at $36.86 (including shipping). The shipping costs have gone up.  

While writing this post I found Worsted Witch’s post on silk soy milk where I found this little interesting titbit:

You may even have heard murmurs that Silk started importing organic soybeans from China, Brazil, and Argentina to supplement local beans because of shortages in 2003. What you may not know (and I was until recently blissfully unaware of) is that the practice continues today, likely because imported soybeans cost as much as $4 less per bushel than those obtained domestically. (We have no idea if these beans are traded fairly, either, so don’t look for consolation there.)

I listen to classical music and I love not having to buy classical music. The Alexander Street: Music blog has free downloads every week that exposes me to new composers, many of whom I learn to really like.

Only time will tell.

A cheap, easy meal to make in a jiffy. Ingredients include jasmine rice, carrots, beans, broccoli, eggs, onions, peppers, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, fish sauce. Veggies were local.

Eating Beans and Rice by Pat Meadows

When I am not too busy with school one of my favorite activities is to bike along the Schuykill River Bike trail that goes all the way to Valley Forge. We usually bike to Norristown and back (total of 40 miles) and have a pitstop in Norristown at an excellent Mexican restaurant with $8.00 vegetarian burritos. Tasty!

Image from lizzylizinator

In addition to the frugal habits I mentioned before, here are some additional habits I follow. These ones are fairly new (less than a year old).

1. Don’t buy trash bags. We use grocery bags from the groceries we buy. But since we use our own cloth bags in bagging groceries we usually get bags from other places that are heading for the landfill.

2. We compost. We’ve been composting since June, 2007 so that cuts down on trash.

3. We don’t drink soda. We mainly drink water, coffee, tea, beer and wine. Alcohol is budgeted for. Juices are very rarely purchased mainly because of the bulky containers they usually come in. We’re saving up to buy beer making supplies so that will be a smaller expense soon.

4. I cut my husband’s hair (have been doing it for 7 years we’ve known each other. By “cut” I mean I use a buzzer). I also began cutting (trimming) my own hair recently which used to be a $20 yearly expense previously and somewhat inconvenient (the closest Super Cuts is a pain to get to). I have long hair that I don’t do anything fancy with so its pretty easy.

5. Do my own manicure. Usually I don’t do anything with my nails but sometimes I like to be a little girly.

6. Don’t use fancy pants cleaning supplies. We use vinegar, baking soda, a good scrubber/brush and elbow grease for all cleaning needs.

7. New stuff is purchased at Ross Stores (an off-price retailer where all merchandise is 20 - 60% below regular department and specialty store prices). For example I recently purchased a box set of perfume which came with a mini size perfume + body lotion + body scrub for less than $30. The perfume itself from the manufacturer’s store is over $30).

8. Only use a cell phone (we have no landline) with prepaid minutes. We pay an average of $10/month.

9. Have introverted friends like ourselves. So a good time means meaningful conversation + good meal usually at someone’s home. Not clubbing or drinking binges.

10. Use public transit/bicycle to get around. My employer subsidizes the entire cost of a transit card so my transportation expense is $0.00. Everyone at my job should be taking the bus or train to get to work because it costs them nothing, but few do. An additional bonus to taking the transit, I get a lot of reading done while sitting on the bus and subway train.

Why are we doing all this? What is the end goal? To date we did these things so that we could live within our means while we’ve been in school. But after graduation it will be so we can have more options - on where to live or how to live or retire early and so on.

Since I love reading, I love attending book readings. Its free and you get to be part of a (usually intimate) audience that is really into reading.

Earlier this evening my husband and I attended a reading by William Gibson. My husband is a fan of his and I’ve enjoyed his short stories from Burning Chrome such as Johnny Mnemonic and Fragments of a Hologram Rose. I am more of a Alfred Bester fan. But he’s dead so no readings there.

Anyway, attending readings is free, enjoyable and fun. And its one of the many frugal activities that I try to do as often as possible.