Spend less: Go bagless
December 4, 2008 2:31 am by Erin
Obviously when you’re talking about consumerism and overconsuming, there are certain things that you can eliminate from your spending habits and some things that you really can’t. For example, when I decided not to buy clothes for a year, even if it seems drastic, it was a pretty logical decision for me since I just have no need for a single other piece of clothing in my closet. For the past month, however, I’ve unintentionally stopped buying groceries. It turns out, I’m really hungry and that’s not really one of those things you can cut out of the weekly budget.
So today was my first time back in the grocery stores and I thought I’d try Aldi since I’d heard it was a lot cheaper than Wegmans or Tops, the favorites of Ithaca. I should have done my research because I was totally unprepared.
Aldi has the right idea - they cut costs by keeping their spaces small and more energy efficient, eliminating store displays (the aisles are formed by simple shelves and the actual stacks of food) and making you pay a quarter for shopping carts and 5 cents for shopping bags.
Okay, I’m not so cheap that I wouldn’t have paid 5 cents for a shopping bag, but since everyone at the store had brought their own reusable bags, I just felt like sort of an idiot and didn’t bother to ask if there were any for sale. I really didn’t save that much money price-wise (when I compared the prices of the items I’d bought to the prices at Wegmans I found they were basically the same) BUT I did end up buying a WHOLE lot less groceries since I could only take what I could carry.
So there’s one idea for you. Go bagless, buy less.
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Get some answers, Girlfren’ (or Boyfren’)
November 25, 2008 12:25 am by Erin
One of the greatest things about being home for breaks is definitely late night TV …. or just having time to watch TV, for that matter. So it was with great pleasure that I finally discovered the Suze Orman show - I’ll admit, I’ve been intrigued ever since they started spoofing her on SNL.
I’ve become quickly obsessed …. I spent most of today YouTubing clips from her show (and re-watching the SNL skits) - it’s sort of amazing how someone can be so obnoxious and yet so intriguing at the same time. I mean, she’s clearly smart, but there aren’t that many respectable TV personalities that can get away with referring to a caller as “Girlfren,” and there aren’t that many respectable people period who can emphasize so many syllables with equal importance. She’s sort of amazing.
So halfway through my Suze Orman marathon, my father discovered how incredibly lazy and unproductive I was being me and suggested I ask Suze for advice on how to invest my money - afterall, she’s bound to love me … I have no debt, about $7,000 in savings and some considerable cushion in the fact that I don’t pay many expenses (no rent, utilities, not too many bills, etc) and own a car. So, for probably the first time ever, I’m going to take my dad’s advice (he gave me $5 to get my car washed today and instead, I bought Starbucks … being home is so great).
I’ll keep you updated on what she says …. though I suspect it ends with: People first, money second, things third. Thanks, Suze.
The Suze Orman Show airs Saturdays at 9 p.m. and midnight on CNBC. Check her out.
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Save on Christmakkah shopping!
November 19, 2008 4:15 am by Erin
Visit Restaurant.com NOW and get a $25 coupon for $10! $2!!
Just type in your area code for a list of restaurants near you.
You can thank me later.
UPDATE: Get at $25 coupon for …. $2 with the special discount code: SURPRISE.
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Finally, something you can’t blame on our generation
November 16, 2008 7:32 pm by Erin
It’s not exactly news that the economy is a little sub par right now or how it’s affecting consumers (that’s the name the financially stable policy makers use for the lowly public) - but The New York Times published an article on Saturday about debtors that are even deeper in debt during this recession than previous recessions … there are a whole lot more of them. The downturn economy is affecting people even harder this time around than usual - maybe because it’s hitting on all fronts (housing prices are down, incomes are down, jobs are down, lending is almost nonexistent) but I think it’s also because people in 2008 just live differently than people did during some of the last deep recessions (like in the early 1980s when Congress reacted to failing banks by deregulating them and loosening lending restrictions … good idea, guys).
I know, I know, I’ve said this a million times but people just don’t save as much anymore - even the idea of saving has transformed into the idea of investing. I’m not saying I know much about the stock market yet, I don’t have any investments, but I do know that the people who have made out best coming out of the financial crisis are people who have CASH. According to Bankrate.com, in 1985 Americans saved 11.1% of their income, in 2005 that rate slipped to -.5%, the first time since the Great Depression that it dropped below zero, and it’s pretty much stayed down there ever since.
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The 1-day challenge
November 14, 2008 12:57 pm by Erin
Does anyone else see something a little ironic about the concept of a one-day challenge? Maybe that it’s only one-day long? I mean, there’s probably little that you couldn’t survive for just one day, even people diagnosed with the black plague were given a few days to go.
Well The Simple Dollar suggested a new way to save money - don’t spend anything for one day. Now if that sounds completely outrageous to you, I think you’ve got some serious financial woes ahead of you. If you’re saying, one day? I can do that easy - then I think you should do it for a week.
It’s all about budgeting - think about what it would really take to spend $0 one week, fill up your gas tank on Sunday, buy groceries that last (eggs, rice, frozen meats, pasta, coffee - yes, that’s a food group), maybe some alcohol to get through the weekend and what else do you really need?
It may seem like you wouldn’t really be saving any money because you’re just spending it all on Sunday instead of throughout the week - but what the challenge does is make you think about what you need and what you don’t need, how much you really spend on things, and how you can reduce that. If you did this once a month, I think the savings would be significant because eventually, your whole outlook on spending, saving and consuming would change.
Ramit picked up this story on I Will Teach You To Be Rich and featured a reader who took the challenge and saved between $50 and $200!
We do a week with NO spending. We fill the car with gas and hit the grocery store on Sunday. Starting Monday, we cannot spend a CENT. Sort of a fun little challenge. And it is only for a week. So, if I see something I need or want, I can get it next week. No cheating. AMAZING results. The first time I did it, I was flabbergasted to have the same $20 bill in my wallet. I got very used to it and so it is a nice little “shot in the arm” technique. Kind of like a fast to begin a diet regime.
Take a shot at it, if you can’t make it for a week, try a day. Let me know how it goes for you.
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Money talks
November 6, 2008 10:03 pm by Erin
Think of businesses that are shutting down temporarily as a bear hibernating. They go to sleep in hopes that when they wake up, life will be better. But if summer never comes - they die.
-my economics professor,
on businesses seizing production in a loss period
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Relief for the Mom & Pops
November 6, 2008 9:58 pm by Erin
… and so do I. But specifically, small business. Think about it - how much nicer would the world be if there was a Mom & Pop’s convenience store around every corner instead of a 7-11, at least the coffee would probably be better.
It’s easy to assume small biz are the are the ones getting hurt the most by the economy since 1) consumer spending is down 2) they can’t get the capital they need to survive and 3) life’s hard.
BUT (of course there’s a but), while established business may be having a hard time, it’s not necessarily a bad time to start a new one, seriously. Companies like McDonald’s, Johnson & Johnson and even Microsoft were all started during a recession. There are a number of reasons: customer loyalty is obsolete (so you’re more likely to attract customers/clients), competitors are weakened (leaving the door wide open for you) and capital (like land and labor, not so much the money, you need to actually have that yourself) are more readily available - and for less.
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So I’m not the only one
November 3, 2008 1:26 am by Erin
Like most things, once the idea of being an un-consumer was brought to my attention, the subject kept popping up everywhere! Turns out, this wasn’t an entirely original plan. But some people are a lot more ambitious (and brave) than I am. Back in July, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance ran a short Q&A with John Perry, the co-founder of The Compact, an online community of people that have vowed to become un-consumers. They’re hardcore: For one year, they decided to call it quits on buying anything other than food, medicine and hygeine products (but I’ll bet anything they learn to make their own organic soap soon).
(I like this photo they chose for their Yahoo! group, shows the true spirit of America.)
Besides the fact that, as someone who’s trying to eliminate just one type of purchase to change a lifestyle (I can’t even give up shoes or accessories yet), this is just admirable - something John Perry said also struck a chord:
We wanted to see if we could adapt our behavior as consumers to live off what we have while maintaining a modern life. We thought it would be fun to see how long we could go.
I should also say Perry’s now been doing this for two years instead of one, and the Yahoo! group now has more than 8,000 members …. and you have to be approved for it, so they’re all serious. But the point is they’re having fun! It was just a little experiment that turned into a lifestyle (and with 8,000 followers, you might say a movement).
The thing is, I bet if everyone starting cutting back on SOMETHING, it would feel really natural after a while. No one seems to believe I can go a whole year without buying clothes, but I have high hopes for myself. I can’t wait for my “I told you so post” to go live next October. The draft is already saved.
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How to save money on Halloween ….
October 31, 2008 10:00 am by Erin
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Local banks survive the storm
October 30, 2008 2:32 am by Erin
It seems local banks are holding their own during the (crazy, out of this world, worse than anything we’ve ever seen, economic mess that’s slowly trickling down to every other aspect of our lives of a) financial crisis.
In last week’s Ithaca Business Journal, Laurie Linn did a Q&A with Greg Hartz, president of the Tompkins Trust Company, and Steve Romaine, president of Tompkins Financial Corporation. She asked Romaine if there was a difference between big banks and community banks in the economic crisis and he basically said that local banks are fairing much better because they have a connection to the community and would never get caught up in something so greedy and evil risky as subprime lending.
Tristram Coffin, CEO of Alternatives Federal Credit Union, posted a letter to members on the union’s Web site that basically said they’re the good guys. The money you give them stays local so you know it’s not being sold off in securities - they take pride in the fact that they have relationships with the people they deal with.
You know what, I believe the boys. Back in August when I was just-moved-back-to-school broke, I saw the beauty of the trustworthy local bank. I have an HSBC checking account, I’ve had one for four years now and have never overdrawn it - expect once - back in August. So I overdraw like, $2. And when I realize I did, I go directly to the bank with $2,000 check to deposit (basically all the money I planned to spend for the school year - I move it from my savings to my checking so I’m limited to that amount throughout the year). So far, so good. But, I needed to take back $50 (when I say need I mean my gas tank was on empty, my car was parked at an expired meter and i had no cash whatsoever). They couldn’t let me do it since I had an outstanding overdraft fee! So I had to walk a couple blocks away to Tompkins Trust Company where they cashed my check and then I had to walk back through town with $2,000 cash to deposit $1,950 of it into my HSBC account. Insanity. But thanks Tompkins Trust Company.
There have got to be some other perks out there. Readers, are there any? (perks I mean, not readers. I know you’re there …. somwhere …. silent.)
See an excerpt from the Business Journal article and the Alternatives Web site after the jump.
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