Its Worth It To Leave My TV On All Day Long

We have a newer TV that we bought earlier this year.   It is a 58" Samsung LED.    The TV has built in apps and wifi and we can watch Netflix, Youtube and Amazon Prime among other things direct through the TV.    Its a neat feature that we use quite a bit.    However when you turn on the TV it takes a while to initialize the apps and you have to wait a while.    When you first power up it takes a couple seconds for the TV to come on.    Then you hit the smart hub button and select the app you want.    Then it will initially give a message that its "Preparing the TV... please try again later."  with an OK button and no other choice.    The TV is probably setting up its internal computer and connecting to the network.     It takes about a minute for the TV to turn on and then get to the point that you can load the apps.  

The TV uses about 60W of electricity.    If I leave the TV on for 1 hour then it uses 60 Wh.    Thats 0.06 kWh.     A kWh costs me about 11c.     So leaving the TV on for 1 hour costs about 0.66c of electricity.       Leaving the TV on 3 hours is roughly 2c.   If I left it on all day long it would be roughly 10c.

If equate my time to be worth the national minimum wage of $7.25 per hour then 1 minute of my time is worth 12c.

Because turning the TV off takes 1 minute that is worth about 12c.    Therefore...

Leaving my TV on all day is worth it to save the 1 minute of my time.

Now I cant exactly magically take 1 minute of my time and turn it into money.  But I do value my free time more than minimum wage.   If I could pay money to do away with all the wasted time in my week and it added up to 2 hours then I'd happily spend 1 hour of that time in a money making endeavor in order to pay the money and end up with 1 extra free hour.   I  don't think I'll leave my TV on all day because I don't like wasting electricity.   But if I know I'm going to be using the TV off and on over a day I may leave it on a few hours to save waiting 1 minute multiple times after it powers up each time.

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How Much Does It Cost To Fly In Private Jets?

I've never really seen the need for huge personal wealth, but I am envious of flying in private jets.   Not that I spend my days and nights crying over it but it does seem like it would be pretty enjoyable to fly in a private jet.    Its one of the things I'd think about doing if I were to win the lottery or otherwise fall into vast wealth.

But how much does it really cost?

From what I gather it costs in the ballpark of $5000 or more per hour to fly in a small private jet.   

Thats basically the entry level prices for private jets.   So that means a short 1 hour flight from Los Angeles to Las Vegas in a small jet will cost  in the ballpark of $5k.   And when I say a small jet I mean small.  Those small jets only seat a few people and the headroom means adults have to stoop when they are not seated.   They might only carry a few bags worth of luggage.   Medium size and larger gets will cost more.




A couple sites have search engines / calculators that will give estimated prices for flights : 

How Much Does It Cost to Charter a Private Aircraft? at the SherapReport

How much does a private flight cost from PrivateFly

I tested both on a short 1 hr flight round trip (2 hr total) and got quotes of about $10k for the trip in a small jet.   Those rates are for charter flights.  

You can also buy hours in bulk from operators like NetJet and others.

Private Jets for Everyone? from Travel and Leisure pointed to a few different companies that sell basically pre-paid private jet accounts with typically 20 or 25 for ~$110-130k or roughly $5k per hour.  

Clearly spending $5000 for a 1 hour flight is not frugal.   But its not as awful if you consider that you can fit 4 or more people in that plane.   Lets say you've got a family of 4 and you're flying round trip for that 1 hour distance.   That comes to $2500 per person.   Flying first class for such a journey would probably run you $500 a seat.   Of course you can fly economy for $200 or so.      Probably the most frugal option to fly in style is to get the economy tickets then upgrade to first class using miles.

I'm a far cry from being able to afford to fly via private jets.  So please share this story with 50 million of your friends so this blog can become super successful then I can sell out for multi millions.

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An Unpleasant Experience With Sears

My wife and I went shopping for a fridge.    We found the make/model we wanted and ended up buying one at Sears.   The fridge we got retails for about $2500 but it was on sale and we got a discount with our Sears card so it cost us around $1800 plus an extra $70 or so for delivery & install.   Bestbuy had the model in question for about $2100 at the time.   We've generally been happy shopping for appliances at Sears as they have a good selection and good prices.

The fridge was to be delivered on a Tuesday around 8:30 AM.   That morning about 7 AM or 7:30 AM they called my cell phone and left a couple messages.  One of the messages said they had discovered a dent in the side of the fridge but since they couldn't reach me they would just deliver it anyway but should be able to offer a discount.   I told my wife about this and she wasn't pleased about the dent since if we'd wanted a dented fridge we could have shopped at the Sears Outlet and gotten a steep discount.   My wife felt that we should be able to get 50% discount but I figured that would be on the high side and I told her I expected maybe 10-20% off.   We were both far too optimistic.

The delivery guys showed up around 9AM give or take.   They unboxed the fridge and showed me the dent.   It was a very noticeable dent and not a simple scuff or anything.   It was about the size of a quarter coin and maybe 1/16" deep.    BUT the dent was on the side and should be hidden when installed in our kitchen due to the way our cabinets are setup.   Of course that wouldn't be true for other customers, in my old house that dent would be totally visible since there aren't cabinets on that side.  I asked the delivery guy about the discount mentioned on the phone message and he wasn't aware of that so he called some sort of Sears customer support number and he gave me the phone.

I talked to the service person myself.   The service lady offered me a whopping $30 off OR a 10% coupon of some sort.   I turned that down flat and told her she had to do better than that.   She then replied that she could go all the way up to $50.   No I told her again thats not good enough.   I asked she talk to a supervisor.    She put me on hold and then came back to say the $50 was the best she could do or she could give me 10% off...   I cut her off there and told her I didn't want a coupon.   She said the 10% would be off this purchase which seemed to contradict what she told me before.   In any case the $50 or 10% off coupon was not nearly enough to compensate for taking damaged goods considering we expect a 30% discount in their outlet store.   I told the woman on the phone
"no thanks" and the guys packed up the fridge and drove off.   Neither the woman on the phone nor the delivery guys knew when they could get me another fridge.

I went home and told my wife the story and she was equally irritated and surprised that Sears would only offer $50 discount on a dented major appliance.    It doesn't make much financial sense from two perspectives.   First, Sears will probably spend $50 just to make a second delivery when you account for the hourly wages of two delivery guys plus the gas in their big gas guzzling truck.   Second, bigger reason is that they will give much steeper discounts on such dented fridges in their outlet store.  Now they have to turn around and sell that fridge in the outlet store for a steep discount.  If they'd simply given me that steep discount they could have made the sale right then and saved another trip.

After talking to my wife at home I was still annoyed by the whole thing and surprised that $50 was the best Sears would actually offer.   I decided to call them again and ask about it to see if this is really their policy.  I also needed to try and find out when they could deliver another (non-dented) fridge.

In my second call I first talked to a service person who gave me the same story and offered me the $50 discount.   They didn't know when the 2nd fridge could be delivered.   I asked to talk to a manager and they told me that their manager would just say the same thing.  I insisted.   That person put me on hold then transferred me.  When the call picked up I found I was talking to my local Sears store for some reason.  The first customer rep had just cold transferred me to the local store rather than get her manager on the phone as I'd asked.  I told the story to the person at the store again and they transferred me to another department.   The third person I talked to couldn't help much either but they did transfer me to a supervisor of some sort.   The supervisor was the fourth person I had to talk to and the fourth time I repeated the story.   I explained the situation to the supervisor and she offered me a whopping $100 discount.   No thanks.   At least the supervisor was able to tell me they could deliver the second fridge on Saturday so that was not too far away.

Now while I was waiting on the phone and being transferred between every Sears employee I had gotten on the net and looked up the Sears Outlet.   In the Outlet store I found the SAME model fridge in an 'open box' state with some sort of dent damage for about $1500.  The outlet store website show the exact damage but I at least know that you can get a substantial discount via their outlet on damaged merchandise.    Knowing that they'd have to cut $300 minimum off our already good sales price or $1000 of the full retail due to dents, I figured that them offering me $100 off wasn't very good.  

In the end the second fridge was delivered promptly on Saturday with no damage.  We got what we paid for, and it just took a little longer and subjected us to some inconvenience and several annoying phone discussions with unhelpful Sears employees.

There are a few things  I'm unhappy about with this whole experience.
1. The initial offer of $30 discount on a $2500 appliance was pretty insulting and the fact that they would only go up to $50 was really no help.
2. Sears wasted their own time and effort making two deliveries here and if they had instead given me a good discount on the dented fridge they would have completed the sale and saved a second delivery.
3. Now Sears has an unhappy customer ranting about it on the web and they still have that dented fridge they have to try and sell to someone else at a steep discount.
4. When I called Sears the customer support that I got was pretty poor.   I asked to talk to a manager and the service rep just dumped me on the local Sears store.   I was transferred between 4 people in that second call.
5. I don't recall anyone I talked to on the phone being particularly apologetic nor empathetic, (not counting them reading words on their scripts).

The only positives are that
1. the delivery guys were pretty nice about it and understanding.  
2. I didn't get any hassle or run around about getting a replacement new fridge.

One semi ironic detail:  I am now a VIP customer in their Shop Your Way Rewards program.   Let the exclusive VIP treatment begin!

An extra note :  This situation with the fridge actually happened quite a while ago and I'm only now gotten around to writing about it. 


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How Much Does It Cost To Leave Our Door Open in The Winter?

I have some frugal habits that are pretty ingrained in my personality.    One of the habits is not to leave the door open when its cold outside.   Sometimes I see people who do not always close a door quickly when it is cold out.    Anytime anyone has a door open for longer than a few minutes in the winter I start to get uncomfortable about it.      And 'uncomfortable' is the right word to use too, it kind of makes me a little upset to be honest.  Its almost as if someone just lit a $10 bill on fire for no reason.   But it has occurred to me that I don't really know how much heat this wastes.   I mean I know it wastes heat, that much is common sense, but I don't know HOW MUCH heat is wasted.  

There are frugal things that I do and don't do based specifically on how much they cost.   So if I"m going to get upset about an wasteful habit then I should really at least have an idea of how wasteful it is.   I mean if it wastes $1 in heat every time someone does this and they do it every other day then that is $15 wasted heat a month.   But if it only wastes 0.1¢ then I'm getting upset about nothing really.   So the actual cost is pretty important to keep things in perspective. 

I couldn't think of a good way to calculate the heat wasted on my own.   I searched Google and came up with a site that had done the math   (I'm not sure if that information is from Questline or Rocky Mountain Power or both).    They figured the amount of air that would move over an 8x10 opening based on different inside and outside temperatures.   I'll look at the example for 40F outside temperature since I live in the fairly mild Northwest US and that is a more common winter temperature average for us.

Their figures are based on natural gas at $1.20 a therm and an 80% efficient heater.    Our heat is a bit cheaper than that actually I figured that our heat would be about 75% of their costs.    So when they figure that an open 8x10 door would cost $1.88 an hour our cost would be more like $1.41.   Furthermore they are using an 8x10 door and our door is only about 3' x 8'.   Our door is only about 30% as large.   The $1.41 cost for a 8x10 door would be proportional to a 42¢ /hr cost for our 3x8 door.    Translate that into a per minute cost and you're looking at 0.7¢ per minute for our front door and our heating system.

Bottom Line : It probably costs only about 1¢ per minute to leave our front door open.

That seems surprisingly low to me.   Is this right?   Did I make a math error?    I'm seriously asking... Assuming its right, then thats not nearly as bad as I'd have thought.

This actually helps me feel better about it.   I am not going to get all bent out of shape if someone occasionally wastes a couple pennies by lingering at the front door.   

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Should You Spend Money on Vitamins?

[note: for any health related topic you should consult your doctor as they would have more knowledge of your personal health]

Every day I take a single mult-vitamin and a extra dose of vitamin D.

Articles like this editorial Enough Is Enough: Stop Wasting Money on Vitamin and Mineral Supplements published in the Annals of Internal Medicine might make me believe that I'm wasting my money.   The editorial seems based on these three studies :
Oral High-Dose Multivitamins and Minerals After Myocardial Infarction: A Randomized Trial Long-Term Multivitamin Supplementation and Cognitive Function in Men: A Randomized Trial Vitamin and Mineral Supplements in the Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease and Cancer: An Updated Systematic Evidence Review for the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force

I read those as meaning that vitamins in high doses won't stop heart attacks, vitamins won't keep you from losing mental abilities in older age and that vitamins don't prevent cancer or heart disease.   OK.   I wasn't expecting that vitamins would stop cancer or heart attacks.    My purpose for using vitamins is to prevent a common vitamin deficiency.   I don't have any specific reason to think I'm prone to have a vitamin deficiency but how do you know?   There are a significant number of people with deficiencies and most don't know it.   I figure vitamins are a fairly cheap way to make sure that doesn't happen.   I don't expect them to stop cancer.  Do people really expect their multi-vitamin to prevent heart attacks or fend off dementia?  

If you do take a multi-vitamin then make sure to shop around and get a reasonably priced one.   If you get store brands like Kirkland or similar or hunt for sales then you can find tablets for about 3¢ each.  

You can get a Kirkland muti-vitamin for $14.49  with 500 tablets or about 3¢ a day. or get it at Amazon for $17 or so if you don't belong to Costco.  Similarly  you can get  a NOW Foods Vitamin D-3 1000 IU  supplement at Amazon for under 3¢.    I'm spending abut $2 a month on vitamins.  Thats not too much money really.

Maybe its a waste of money but I don't know.   In fact I actually hope it is a waste of money because that would mean I'm not deficient in any vitamins.   In my opinion the cost of reasonably priced vitamins is quite small and I think that its worth it just to make sure you don't end up deficient with something like vitamin A or vitamin D or iron for example.  

Whether or not you want to take vitamins is up to you.   



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Are Keurig K-cups a Good Deal?

I keep seeing deals to buy k-cups.    K-cups fit into a Keurig compatible coffee brewer.  The K-cups contain coffee and a built in filter so they will brew you a single serving of coffee.   Its a neat idea.  I've wondered if catching a good deal on K-cups might be a frugal way to buy coffee.  

K-cup brewers are pricey
First of all you've got to have a Keurig coffee brewer.   The cheapest model I could find was about $80 on Amazon. : Keurig B130 DeskPro Brewing System Thats pretty pricey for a single cup coffee maker.  I'd expect to spend more like $20 for such a simple appliance.   Right off the bat then you're spending money extra on an over priced specialty coffee maker.   But I suppose if k-cups were cheap enough you could recoup that initial investment.

K-cups are pricey per serving
K-cups themselves often run 50¢ to $1 each bought in multi-packs.   An example of a relatively cheap deal would be 80 count San Francisco Bay Coffee Breakfast Blend for $26.75  which comes out to about 33¢ each.   So your cost per cup of coffee would be 33¢ for that brand.    I checked cheaper brands like Folgers, Millstone and Maxwell house and none of them were cheaper.  I looked up a couple more popular brands and found Starbucks French Roast Dark 54-Count for $46 or 85¢ each and Green Mountain Coffee, Breakfast Blend 50-count for $33 or 66¢ ea.   Maybe you can find cheaper K-cups than the 33¢ San Francisco Bay ones but I couldn't.


Even gourmet ground coffee is cheaper
Get that same brand in ground coffee San Francisco Bay Coffee Ground Breakfast Blend, 12-Ounce Bag is $9.08 for a 12 oz bag.    According to Starbucks website : "A 1-lb bag of coffee yields approximately 64 5-oz cups* (320 oz)."   So by that math 16 oz. of coffee = 320 oz of brewed coffee.    1 oz. = 20 oz.  If a standard cup is 6 oz. then that means we can get about 40 cups of coffee out of that 12 oz. bag.    That means each cup runs about 22¢.

You can certainly find much cheaper ground coffee.   Something like basic Folgers in bulk : Folgers Classic Roast Coffee, 33.9 Ounce (Pack of 6)    will only cost you about 3¢ per cup.

Course if you brew with normal ground coffee you also have to buy the filters.   But if you buy a multipack of filters like Melitta Basket Coffee Filters is only about 1¢ per filter.

No matter how I compare it, K-cups are not cheaper than simply buying regular ground coffee.

K-cups may be a little more convenient and tidy but thats about their only benefit as far as I see and it comes at a pretty steep price premium.

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I Should Have Bought a Tivo

Its now been over 5.5 years since I wrote about Why spending $700 on a HD TIVO is a good idea 
At the time I could have bought a HD Tivo with lifetime subscription for $700 total.   My Comcast DVR was running me $12 a month.   I figured the break even point would be 3.5 years.   That was about 5.5 years ago.

Then a couple years ago I wrote $449 for a Tivo with Lifetime service and Why I should have bought one 4 Years ago  My Comcast DVR was running $16 a month.   I figured I"d break even in 3 years if I bought the Tivo.   At that time you couldn't get on-demand content via the Tivo so that was one legitimate way the Comcast DVR would be better.  

If I'd bought a Tivo in 2008 I would have spent $700 and I could probably resell it for $100 today.  So that would be $600 total out of pocket cost.   In that time I've spent something around $800 to $900 on fees for my comcast DVR.   (I'll have to estimate it cause I"m not going to go try and find all the past bills and and it up even if I could.)   I would have saved myself $200-$300 total if I'd bought a Tivo in 2008.

Then the last time I looked at it 2 years ago I'd have spent $449 for one and could also resell it for $100 today.  So that would be only $349 for the past 2 years.   I've easily spent that much in Comcast fees in that 2 year period.   So my estimate of 3 years to break even was high and its only been about 2 years.

Should I buy a Tivo today?   Well of course I should.

The current Tivo Roamio box is $200 plus $500 for lifetime subscription so its once again about $700 to buy the box.   The Tivo will also record 4 shows which is better than our Comcast box.  Plus you can now get on demand content from Comcast with a Tivo.   So its the same $700 outlay for a Tivo versus now about $20 a month for my DVR and the Tivo is even better than it was 5.5 years ago.  


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Do You Waste 40% of Your Food?

Do you waste 40% of the food you buy?    I sure don't.  I hope you don't either.   Yet theres a report claiming that Americans waste 40% of our food.   The National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) issued the report that New Report: America Trashes Forty Percent of Food Supply
 Wasting food is pretty ... well... wasteful.   Its always bad financial sense to buy stuff then throw it in the trash.    If you're actually wasting 40% of our food then thats a good 40% of our food budget we shouldn't have to spend.

They claim :
"Americans trash 40 percent of our food supply every year, valued at about $165 billion;"
and
"The average American family of four ends up throwing away an equivalent of up to $2,275 annually in food;"

I'm not sure how they figure the $2,275 per family figure.   Theres about 123 million households in the country so if we waste $165B in food a year thats about $1,341 per household.     If you take the $165B and figure it per capita then 4 people would waste about $2,149 total.  Maybe thats what they're doing?

However looking at their full report on the topic its clear that the 40% of waste is not simply left overs thrown in the trash in American homes.   The 40% waste includes all stages of food production, distribution and consumption. 

In the full report they say :

"American families throw out approximately 25 percent of  the food and beverages they buy.69  The cost estimate for the average family of four is $1,365 to $2,275 annually.70"

So first of all its not $2,275 that we waste but instead its $1,365 to $2,275.    I don't know but that seems like an extremely imprecise estimate that makes me doubt how accurate it is.   More so the $2,275 figure is just the high end of their estimate but thats all they say with an "up to" in front of it.

Now note that there are footnote numbers in that quote for footnotes 69 and 70.   Lets read those:

"69 Bloom, American Wasteland, 187. The author reports a 15 percent  loss in homes, with potentially an additional 10 percent loss in liquid products.
70 Bloom, American Wasteland, 187 "

Their source is the book American Wasteland from Jonathan Bloom.  I'm a little puzzled how that footnote translates into 25% waste in homes.    The footnote says 15% loss with potentially 10% more in liquid products.      Well that reads to me as if the waste is 15% in general but up to 25% for liquid products.   That doesn't equate to 25% of waste in total, but instead something between 15% and 25%.

I went looking for more references to get an idea what Bloom's book actually says.   I found an article from Nourishing the Planet that says : "Bloom estimates that as much as 25 percent of all the food Americans bring into their homes goes to waste."    You'll note the "as much as" bit in front of the 25% figure.    So its not 25% its some value under 25%.

Is it 40% or 25% or 15%?   Is it $1,365 or $2,275?

I think it makes more sense that the total food production chain might waste a larger amount of food like 40%.   If you look at each step of the system it seems realistic.  If there is 10% waste at the farm, then 5% waste in transport, then 10% waste at the grocery store and then people waste 15%  then that all adds up to 35% total loss.     But when the article says we waste 40% of our food it sounds like they mean that an American family throws 40% of their groceries in the trash.   

I do agree that we waste too much food and its certainly a problem that we should all work to fix.

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How to Not be "Poor" on $100,000 a Year

 In another of the long line of upper income people whining about being poor, downtrodden or failing to make ends meet I bring you :  First Person: How to Earn $100,000 and Still Feel Poor    I will give the author credit that their sob story is not nearly as bad as if it came from someone making $250,000 or $500,000 a year.  However I still fail to see how the majority of the country which manages to survive on less than $70,000 a year would have much sympathy for someone who makes considerably more money.

One of the worst parts of the article is when they ask : "Is six figures the new minimum wage?"  

No.   It is not.   Making $100,000 is nothing at all like making minimum wage in any way.  There is really no comparison whatsoever.    Minimum wage is $7.25 an hour.  That works out to $15,080 per year if you assume 40 hours a week for 52 weeks.     Making $100,000 a year is not at all similar in any way to making $15,080 a year.  To me this seems like someone asking if caviar is the new Velvetta cheese or if Mercedes-Benz is the new cross town bus ticket.

Lets examine the authors allegedly 'poor' life.

Here are the facts that I got out of their article:
1. Family income "recently topped" the $100,000 level
2. They live in Tampa Florida area
3. Expenses include:
utilities : $350 
car insurance : $300
internet, cable, phone $175
mortgage : $1222
car loan : $300
gasoline : $500
food : $1000
4. They have 2 sons in community college and they're spending $15,000 annually on books and tuition and one son covers $5000 of the costs.
5. They also say : "We bought a new car this past year so our son could earn money for college delivering pizzas."
6. Their house is underwater, which isn't uncommon nowadays especially in Florida.   They are paying extra towards the principal : To try to stay above water on our mortgage, we pay an extra $250 a month to the mortgage company."

Their take home income

First she says that their income recently topped $100,000.   From that I can assume they are only marginally above $100,000 level.    This doesn't tell us what their take home income is after taxes but we can guesstimate that.   A family of 4 with $100,000 gross income would have a federal income tax bill of approximately $10,650 with the minimum standard deduction and exemptions.  They would also have to pay about 5.65% currently towards social security / medicare or another $5650.  Their taxes would be about $16,300 per year.    That excludes any possible deductions or credits.  They live in Florida which has no state income taxes.   I could be wrong on this guesstimate but I'm probably not far off.   That leaves them $83,700 annually or $6975 per month after taxes.

Spending

The sum of the expenses they listed is $3,847 per month.   They also have college expenses of $15,000 or $1250 per month.   They put $250 extra towards their mortgage.   In total they document spending of $5,347 per month.

Income - Spending

The monthly income I figured at $6975 and their documented spending  is $5347.    The difference is $1628 per month.    Thats a pretty healthy amount.  Its feasible this money is eaten up by some retirement savings, health insurance premiums and miscellaneous undocumented spending.  

Problem areas

Looking at the areas that they spend money on I see three items right off that appear to be too high.

Food:  They are spending $1000 and she claims "our food budget just provides the basics for four people".
That is about 25% more than average spending per person.   The Consumer Expenditure Survey says that average household with 2.5 people spends $6129 annually on food.   That works out to $204 per person monthly and this family is spending $1000 for 4 people.   The average American household spends about 40% of its food budget on eating out so its not even especially frugal.   She does say she has two boys in college, so maybe those two boys eat a lot.   But I don't really see how someone could say that $1000 per month for 4 people "just provides the basics".   Thats over $8 per person daily.

College:  I'm not sure how they could be spending $15,000 a year on tuition and books for a community college in Florida.   I looked up community colleges in Tampa and the tuition rates seem closer to $3000 a year there for in state rates.  I know college textbooks are pricey but they aren't that expensive.   I think something is missing in this information or they are actually going to some sort of private junior college.  Either way they really should not be spending so much money on community college.  

New Car Purchase :  She says that they bought their son a new car so he could make money delivering pizzas.   That makes no sense to me.   You certainly do not need a new car to deliver pizzas.

I am not even going to go into their other expenditures like the $350 for utilities, $300 for insurance and $175 for their internet, cable, phone bills.   I think its quite likely they could cut those bills further if they wanted to.

If you are able to save money, pay for college out of pocket, eat well, have a reasonably nice home, drive new cars, and do the other things this family does then there is really no reason for them to 'feel poor'.

Nobody making $100,000 a year should be complaining about being poor.

 
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Why I Do NOT Ride the Bus to Work

TheSimpleDollar recently ran an article about the cost savings of using public transit.   This is a pretty common money saving tip and it often makes a lot of sense.   A transit pass can usually cost less than the insurance on your car.   If you consider the total cost of car ownership then public transit usually wins hands down.  My wife and I spend at least $200 a month on gas and insurance alone and that would buy us monthly all access transit passes.  So its an easy financial argument that taking the bus is cheaper.   But I don't ride the bus.

The key reason I don't ride the bus is this :   It takes too long.

Bus ride : It would take me 47 minutes including a 1/4 mile walk to get to work in the morning. 

Drive my car : I live 2.5 miles from work and it takes me 6 minutes to drive.  

Taking the bus to work would cost me 82 extra minutes per day.  

My wife and I have three cars.   We each have cars we drive daily and I own a classic car that sits in the garage most of the time but I drive once in a while for fun.   We could cut back to 2 cars and sell my daily driver.   I could then theoretically take the bus every day to work.   I figure I would save something around $3000 a year if I got rid of the car.  That figures the cost of extra gas to drive to work only and the cost of insurance and replacement costs.  A bus pass would run me around $100 per month.  So In total I'd save just $1800 if I got rid of my car and took the bus.   However I'd spend about 300 hours extra commuting to work.   Thats about a cost of $6 per hour.  This isn't great nor awful amount.  Its close to minimum wage roughly (after tax).   Financially it makes marginal sense based on the extra time used.  If I was broke and needed the $1800 a year a lot more then it would make more sense.   But for me an extra 82 minutes per workday is not worth the cost savings.

This is not meant to be a criticism of the mass transit service around here.  We actually have very good transit in our metro area.    I live in the suburbs and our bus service is not bad.  It is just that the routes don't happen to coincide with the path between my home and my place of work all that well.    If I happened to work in the center of town then I might take the train to work.   In that situation I'd just take a short 10 minute walk to the train stop from my house and then the train would take me straight into town without any fuss.   The route into town center has really bad traffic during rush hour so the train would likely save me time overall.

I could move closer to work and simply walk to work.   That would however cost a lot of money to sell our home and buy a new home.   It is something I might have considered 14 years ago when I bought my home, but I don't think its a feasible choice right now.   Not to mention I'm pretty sure my wife would veto the idea.

Bottom line : I don't take the bus because it takes too long.
--

Dear Cheapskate Relatives : I don't Want Your Crappy Handmade Gifts

Dear Cheapskate Relatives,

I do not want to receive your poor quality handmade gifts for Christmas.      I'm sorry but your craft work is not really something I want.   The out put of your hobby is not something I desire. 

I know that you may have  read somewhere that giving a handmade gift is a good way to save money during the holidays.   That could be a good idea if you were actually able to make handmade stuff that anyone wanted.   Mostly thats just trite advice that gets copied and pasted and repeated back and forth from one advice column to the next.  I don't know if those people giving that advice actually think most people can make good gifts or what.  

Wouldn't want it even if I was named Bruce.

Let me ask you this... would you honestly like to receive any of my craft projects as a gift?   I know you wouldn't.  So why do you think I'd want you giving me your craft projects.   If you're honest with yourself you'll know that I don't really want that stuff. 

I appreciate you may be cheap or simply broke.   Thats fine and I don't hold it against you.   If you don't have the money or simply don't want to spend the money then its all right by me if you don't give me anything at all.    But please don't punish me by giving me a poorly made hand crafted gift I don't want just cause you don't have the money or simply don't want to spend it and don't want to feel guilty about not giving me a gift. 

If you want to be a cheapskate then thats OK.  WE know our family is full of them.   Just give me a cheap gift or something free or simply give me a card you print out on your computer for free which I'll just discard.   Please don't give a gift that takes you a lot of time to make and that I don't actually want.    If you don't want to give me a gift at all then thats just fine.   Honestly.  If clinging to all your money desperately is more important to you than spending some of it on your relatives then just be honest with yourself about that    Thats what being a cheapskate is about... caring more about your money than other things.

Hand made laptop sleeve?  No thanks.*

I have particularly low sympathy for you if you have debt problems.   The fact that you're up to your eyeballs in debt wasn't any of my doing.   I don't see how I should be punished by being forced to act like I enjoy getting your hand made junk as an excuse for a gift.  I didn't force you to buy that new truck that you are having trouble affording and I certainly didn't have anything to do with you getting all that credit card debt.  Not that I don't understand or have sympathy for your situation.  You know I've had a pile of debt in the past too.  But you know my debt never resulted in me giving you my hand crafts for Christmas.

If you were better at making stuff by hand then maybe I'd feel differently.   If you could cook as well as my sister then some nice home cooked baked goods might be a good gift.   Or if you could knit like my cousin then a hand knitted blanket like the one she gave me might be great gift too.   But we know you can't make that stuff.  

Thanks,
Jim

ps. ok you may have guessed that this isn't totally serious.
pps. except the one relative of mine who should know who they are

Photo images by funkomavintage and by Lisa Brewster
*Honestly that hand made laptop sleeve is pretty nice looking. 
--

My Frugal Sins : I didn't shop around for Car services

I just got off the phone with the buy from the Toyota shop.   The car has been due for maintenance and it had the engine light on for a while which I'd neglected.   I knew the engine light was an oxygen sensor since I had that checked for free at Autozone one time.   However the car was also leaking a fluid this afternoon so I figured I had enough reasons to stop procrastinating and get the thing serviced.    I took the car in and he figured the leak was just water condensing off the AC which they did confirm.   But they also found that my breaks were in need of new pads which is no surprise to me since I haven't had that done and I've put about 40,000 miles on it.  

The total bill was just about $1,200 which is itemized as follows:
120,000 mile service = $600
Oxygen Sensor = $325
Front Break Pads = $250
Wipers = $25

I went ahead and had them do it.   Then I got that fear that I'd just casually agreed to over pay for services without shopping around.   I know I should shop around for this kind of stuff.   But sometimes my own lazyiness and ease of just going with the shop I took it to wins over and like today I just go with the easy route.   

So I went to repairpal.com and got estimates for how much the services in question would cost : 

120,000 mile service = $580 to $864

Front Break Pads = $147 to $195
Oxygen Sensor = $244 to $412

For all three items the total range of prices in my area would be $971 to $1471.

My bill of $1200 is in the middle of that range.   Thankfully I didn't grossly over pay and I don't feel I am getting ripped off or anything as I feared.  Thats a relief.   But its just as likely that I would have at a shop wanting to charge me several hundred more than the average prices.    If you don't shop around then you run the risk of ending up at the highest priced service.

Save 32% on a Diamond Engagement Ring at Costco.. only $1 million

On the front page of Costco.com I saw a featured item that caught my eye.

They have a 6.2 carat diamond ring for sale for a mere $1,000,000.*  

Even though its Costco they don't come in a volume pack of 12.  There is only one ring available for purchase.  The ring has an appraised value of $1,496,255 so with a price of just $1,000,000 its over 32% off!    I'd like to say its 1/3 off but 32.88% isn't quite 33%.  

The description of the ring:

• IGI Value: $ 1,496,255
• GIA #: 2135241967
• Metal:  900 Platinum 
• Diamond Shape:  Round Brilliant  
• Minimum Diamond Weight:  6.20 ct
• Diamond Clarity:  Internally Flawless ( IF )
• Diamond Color: Colorless ( D )
• Diamond Cut: Excellent
• Ring Size:  6.5 - Sizeable to any size  (Costco does not provide this service)
• Item available for purchase via wire transfer only

I like how Costco will actually sell you a $1,000,000 ring but they're not willing to have the ring sized for you.   I envision someone buying this $1,000,000 ring along with the 36 roll pack of of toilet paper and the jumbo 2 gallon container of mayonnaise, waiting in line at check out, piling the stuff all in a used card board box that was originally for cartons of Camels and then standing in line at the exit door to have your receipt checked by their receipt checker person.

If you're about to marry a Kardashian second cousin (a sister would require a larger rock) and you're in the market for a $1,000,000 diamond ring then this may be a great buy.   I haven't done much shopping for $1,000,000 rings though so I'm not really sure if this is a great bargain or not.  If you are in the market for a million dollar ring then you probably have a staff of assistants that could help you shop around.  


I assume that you'd also get 2% cash back on your Costco gold card so thats a nice bonus.  I didn't research this so its possible theres fine print somewhere that says you can't.  

If you're NOT a billionaire then I'd instead recommend you check out my older article discussing How Much You Should Spend on an Engagement Ring for more practical idea on what to spend.

Costco may be a decent choice for a reasonably priced ring but from what I've seen they don't have a large selection.    Their diamond solataire rings that they currently have for sale online start over $3,000 and go up.  So if you're not looking to spend that much then they won't have anything for you.   I found a 0.72 carat with a platinum band at Costco for about $3800.   I priced a similar 0.72 carat round VS1 with platinum band on Bluenile and it would be about $4,100 there.   But thats assuming you want that same specs as the Costco diamond.  Bluenile also has a 0.7 carat that is VS2 for $2500 and paired with a white gold band that would be around $2800 total. 

$3800 for a 0.72 carat VS1 platinum band at  Costco is better than $4100 for a 0.72 carat VS1 platinum band at Bluenile.    But is $3800 for a 0.72 carat VS2 platinum band at  Costco better than a 0.70 carat VS2 white gold band for $2800 at Bluenile?   Maybe it is and you really want platinum and having VS1 over VS2 is really important to you but for most folks I doubt you'd care that much to warrant spending $1000 extra.


*  I wanted to put in a commission link so that if one of you billionaires out there bought the $1M ring then I'd get a 1-2% referral commission but I sadly don't have any commission deals with Costco.  

Save 25% and Spend 88% More

Last week Ebates ran a Daily double for 25% cash back at Symantec.   When I saw the deal I was going to write up a quick post to tell people about the 25% cash back.  Thats a pretty good cash back rate. 25% back is a lot.. right?    It should be a good deal but its not a bargain if you end up paying a lot more in the end.

Symantec Norton has virus software as well as other computer utilities.   I would  generally recommend for virus protection that you get one of the free programs out there.   AVG is a good free virus scan.    On the other hand Symantec has some other good software like Norton Ghost which is an industry standard backup utility.     Symantec has Ghost 15.0 for $69.99.    When I saw the deal I figured at the time that there might be someone who wants to buy something like Ghost and 25% should be a good discount.   25% cash back would be $17.49.   That seemed like pretty nice savings.

But then I remembered that I'd bought a copy of Ghost years ago for dirt cheap on the internet.  At the time I think I bought a 1-2 year old version that worked fine for me but was considered obsolete.   I figured I should price compare Ghost.   Low and behold, you can buy Ghost 15 for $28.95 at Buy.com.   Amazon has Norton Ghost 15 for $27.95.   

So.. lets compare: 
25% off Bargain at Symantec = $69.99 cost - 25% cash back of $17.49 = $52.50
Amazon = $27.95

The price at Symantec after the 25% cash back discount is still about 88% higher than what Amazon has it for.

On top of that the version of Ghost at Symantec is a digital download and the version you can get at Amazon is a physical CD.   The download really should be cheaper than a CD since it costs much less to manufacture.

Its not like Symantec raised their price and then gave you a discount.   They didn't start at $30 then jack it up to $70 and then pretend like 25% off $70 is a good deal.    What we're seeing here is a full retail sticker price at Symantec.   Then they offer a 25% discount to their store.  Thats not unreasonable.  Some  chose to stick to high suggested retail  on their own store so they don't undercut the sales of their distributors.   Other companies like Apple stick to flat prices everywhere so if you buy it from Apple or Bestbuy or Target you're going to pay the same price.   I don't think there is anything really wrong with either way about doing it.   But in this case it really is important to know if the manufacturer has a high retail price for their own store or if the prices on their store are competitive with the prices elsewhere.


Of course there are other ways to save even more money.  You could buy Ghost 15.0 used on Amazon market for $14.95.    If Ghost 14.5 is good enough for you then you can get that used off Amazon market for $2.75.   Looks like Ghost 14 had some problems with Windows 7 for several users so if you're running Win7 you may want to go with the latest revision.    That doesn't really change the comparison of buying New via Symantec's own website versus buying new elsewhere.   But I wanted to mention it cause its yet another way to save a lot of money.


Bottom Line :  Make sure you price compare before you jump at a large sale price.

Reject Mini-Tender for GE or Adobe Stock or Any Other Offer from TRC Capital

Last week this news item came out Adobe Warns Holders Against Mini Tender Offer From TRC Capital

In November I got a very similar mini-tender offer for my GE stock (which I've since sold)   I started to write about it at the time but got side tracked by the holidays.  The mini-tender offer came via a notice from my Scottrade brokerage account saying there is a "non-mandatory/re-org tender" offer for GE stock.  The email from Scottrade looks like a generic notice and it had no real detail for the offer in question.   The email said:

---

Subject : Non-Mandatory/Reorg Tender - GE

Re. stock symbol / cusip - GE / 369604103:

The above-listed stock is part of a non-mandatory reorganization or tender offer, which currently expires on 12/16/2010.

Where to find more information:

• For offers initiated by the company, information can often be found on the company's Web site.
• If the offer was initiated by a third party, additional information can be obtained by contacting your local branch office.
• For mini-tender offers, the US Securities and Exchange Commission has urged caution. To review an SEC educational piece entitled "Mini-Tender Offers: Tips for Investors," please go to http://www.sec.gov/investor/pubs/minitend.htm

If you decide to participate in this offer, you will need to inform your local Scottrade branch office no later than 10 a.m. ET on the expiration date listed above, and a $25 fee will be charged to your account. These shares must then remain in your account until the reorg/tender takes place. Please note that the expiration date for such actions is often extended and terms of the offer are subject to change.

Scottrade is not endorsing or recommending the offer, and the terms have not been reviewed to determine if accepting the offer would be in your best interest. If you do not wish to participate in this offer, notification is not required and Scottrade will take no action on your behalf."

---

I wasn't aware of GE doing any merger or acquisition activity so I went over to their website to see if I could find news on the topic.  It took a little digging but I found a press release from them there :  
GE Recommends Rejection of Mini-Tender Offer by TRC Capital Corporation


The release from GE says:
"FAIRFIELD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) has been notified of an unsolicited “mini-tender” offer by TRC Capital Corporation to purchase up to 5 million shares, or approximately 0.05%, of the outstanding GE common stock at a price of $15.15 per share. TRC’s offer price represents approximately a 4.5% discount to the $15.86 closing price of GE common stock on November 16, 2010, the day before the offer commenced. In addition, TRC’s offer is subject to numerous conditions, including the availability of financing on terms satisfactory to TRC. ..."

Okayy.. so this company TRC Capital was trying to buy GE stock at 4.5% BELOW the market value.  I see no reason I'd want to do that.   Why would a company make such an offer?

GE's news article  also notes: "“some bidders make mini-tender offers at below-market prices, hoping that they will catch investors off guard if the investors do not compare the offer price to the current market price.”

Huh.  Smells like a scam to me.

From the Scottrade letter they point to the SEC page http://www.sec.gov/investor/pubs/minitend.htm for more information on mini-tender offers.   There the SEC has this to say:
"Investors need to scrutinize mini-tender offers carefully. Some bidders make mini-tender offers at below-market prices, hoping that they will catch investors off guard if the investors do not compare the offer price to the current market price. Others make mini-tender offers at a premium – betting that the market price will rise before the offer closes and then extending the offer until it does or improperly canceling if it doesn't"

I wondered if people could use this kind of thing as some sort of hedge just in case a stock goes down below its market value.   I could potentially lock in a price 5% below market today if I assume that the stock will drop even further in the upcoming month.   Theres no reason you can't do that on your own with a limit order so this mini-tender has no extra value.  But even if you wanted to hedge then it won't work with the mini-tender.   According to Wikipedia page on mini-tender offers "If the market price of the stock falls below the mini-tender price before the offer closes, the bidder can cancel the offer or reduce the offer price."

The Wiki page also notes that TRC is a company that does a lot of mini-tender offers.


In the Adobe offer TRC was also trying to buy shares for 4.5% below market value.  
They also targeted Raytheon, Monsanto, Yamana Gold, HP and others.   In ease case I find a mini-tender from TRC Capital the company in question that is the target of the offer comes out to recommend against accepting the offers.

There is really nothing good or beneficial in these mini-tender offers for the owner of the stock.    I took GE's advice to reject TRC Capital's offer and I hope everyone else did so also.

More on mini-tender offers from Motley Fool :  "Mini-Tenders, Big Headaches" 

There is apparently nothing illegal with these offers.   It seems TRC Capital is just exploiting the SEC rules about mini-tender offers in a ploy to cash in on unwary or naive investors.   I consider it a scam in the sense that they are basically just exploiting people.  Its technically legal to offer someone $95 for a $100 bill, but if the owner of the $100 bill isn't smart enough to know that is a rip off and their ignorance is what you're banking on then that is a pretty slimy way to make a living.



Bottom Line:   If you own stock in a company that gets a mini-tender offer from TRC Capital then you should NOT accept the offer.

How Not To Handle a Windfall

A reader sent me an email about this NY Times article Family's Fall from Affluence Is Swift and Hard
Its in the similar category of the Downsized TV show that I've been following.   I have episode #4 of Downsized waiting for me to watch it on the DVR at home.  

The NYT article is about the Martin family.   They had a large windfall twelve years ago and are now "broke" (more or less).  To me this story doesn't seem to really have too much to do with the recession and housing bust.   Mostly this is a story of a family that wasted a giant windfall by buying tons of stuff with apparently no real plan to support their lifestyle.

They got $14 million from their interest in the sale  of a family business.   After taxes they had $10 million left.


Here is a list of the things they bought with the dollar costs when known:

A house in England = ? $ unknown
1 horse = $173,000
2 other horses = $?
Mink coat = $7000
3.5 acres in Adirondack on Tupper lake  = $250,000
House in Vermont = $650,000
More money in Vermont property = $600,000
Building / remodeling of lake property = $5,300,000
Aston Martin car $395,000

Total amount spent accounted for $7,375,000

Not only that but they also apparently had mortgages of at least $1.1 million.   


It seems kind of obvious to me that if you have $10 million that you shouldn't spend most of it on 'stuff' without having a significant means of supporting yourself.   


I wonder how they thought they would support themselves if they spent all their millions?  They do talk that the husband wrote a novel which failed to sell.    So maybe they figured he'd have a lucrative writing career.    But they also mention him facing "margin calls" since he was tapping a credit line using his investments as collateral.   I'm guessing he had money in stocks and assumed he'd make enough off those to support their lifestyle. 


To their credit they don't seem to be making excuses.   Martin says "We spent too much".   And they have found work for relatively low paying jobs.   So its not as if they're just sitting in their lazy boy whining about how the world abused them.   Maybe they did have a realistic plan that would have worked out financially.   The article doesn't really talk about how they intended to fund their living.    But given how much they spent I don't see how they could have really fueled their lifestyle for very long.

Is it Worth It To Pick Up a Penny?

Little while back Dough Roller had an article When Does Frugality Turn Into Cheapness? and they gave an example of bending down to pick up a penny.    That got me thinking about picking up lost pennies. 

Several years ago I was in a bar in Ireland and I dropped a 1 cent Euro coin.  One of the patrons at the bar joked something along the lines "nigh we' see how taght 'e ess".   Thats my bad impression of writing an Irish accent.  Translation : "now we'll see how tight he is" meaning that if I pick up the penny then they'd know I'm a tight wad.   I believe I did pick up that penny.   (at the time Euro pennies were worth about 1.1¢ US)

Lately though I've been finding myself too lazy to pick up a mere penny.   I fully admit that sometimes I'm lazy as lazy can be.   Anymore a single penny will buy you nothing.   All my pennies just get thrown into a jar which sits on the counter.   So it is easy to think that picking up a single penny to throw into my jar would not get me anywhere.  I just can't be bothered to take 1 second to bend down.   Is it worth the time?   I assume many people quickly answer with a positive.  But to me sometimes it just doesn't seem like its worth it. 

Hows the math work?   Is the Time worth the 1¢?

It takes 1 second to bend down and pick up a penny.

There are 60 seconds in a minute.   There are 60 minutes in an hour.   There are 3,600 seconds in an hour.

Making 1¢ in one second is equivalent to making 3,600¢ per hour.   Thats an hourly wage of $36.00 tax free.

Bottom Line:   Yes you should bend down to pick up a penny.   Its equivalent to $36/hr.


Photo by stevendepolo

Don't Buy A Suit Like I Do

I don't wear suits much.  I've only bought a total of two suits in my life.    I didn't do a very good job buying either.

The first suit I bought in the early 90's after I graduated college.   I bought the suit to do job interviews.   I got it from a Men's Wearhouse.   I don't recall what I spent but I'm pretty sure it was under $200.  It was a good suit.   BUT ... the style of the suit was a trendy fashion with shoulder pads, pin stripes and it was double breasted.    In the early 90's that looked perfectly normal, but today it looks horribly out of date.   That first suit worked fine initially, but now years later its not something I'd want to wear.  

The second suit I bought recently.   I bought the suit the day before I had to go to a memorial service so it was a last minute kinda purchase.  I didn't get much advance notice about the memorial service and I didn't have much time to fit in the shopping, so this wasn't planned of course.   Again I went to Mens Wearhouse to buy it.   When I was driving there with my wife, I had in my head that I didn't want to spend more than $200.   I initially figured I might just buy a jacket that I could wear with some dress slacks I already had.   When we got to the store the first suit the buy put me in had a price tag of about $500.  I failed to state up front what my price range was so of course the salesperson goes straight to one of the more expensive suits.   I told him that was too much and asked for something closer to $200 level.  I then tried on 3-4 more suits in the $200 range and finally found one that fit me well.    I also tried individual jackets but decided to go ahead and just get a full suit so I'd have it to wear if or when I needed. I figured why spend $100 or so on just a jacket when I could go ahead and get the full suit.     I finally settled on a suit for about $230.   Not too far above the $200 I initially figured on spending.     Not so fast!   When they're fitting the pants I find out its an extra $22 more to have the hem done.   So now its actually $250 I'm spending.

Guess what!  They are having a sale right now and if you buy one suit you can get another for just $100.   That actually sounded like a great deal.   And I still do think it is a good buy.   However I resisted the temptation to spend more money because I barely need one suit, much less two suits.  Sure $100 more for a 2nd suit would be a good buy but I don't need a second suit.    Bullet dodged.  ... for a moment... the salesman was good.  He suggested that I could get a nice sport coat and my wife really liked that idea.   We'd actually talked about me getting a decent sport coat that we could wear on nice dates and such.  Something formal but not overly dressy like a full suit.   So this is something I had wanted to buy.  Ok, so now I'm buying a suit AND a sport jacket.  Thats not too bad.  Guess I'm spending over $300.  

However we're not done yet of course, you can't forget the accessories.   I'll need a dress shirt and a tie of course.   The salesman shows me a very nice shirt with some sort of fancy features like stain resistance, wrinkle resistance and whatever, but the price tag is around $50 for that shirt so I decline and ask for something cheaper.   Getting a tie is a matter of taste so I end up buying one of the tie's that I like for something around $15 or $20.   If I add this all up in my head I think I'm at about $360.    The salesman suggests some dress shoes, no thanks I've got those.   He asks about socks, no I've got socks.   I'm surprised he didn't try to sell me a handkerchief, cuff links and some cologne too.

The very last attempt on the salesmans part to increase his commission was to pitch me the $10 cedar hanger.   That is a clothes hanger made of cedar wood in order to keep the moths out of your suit.  No thanks.  (after the fact I found cedar hangers online $11 for 5 pack).  

Once everything is wrung up at the cash register the final bill is $391 and change.   As I'm paying about 100% more than I intended to for the day's shopping I at least congratulated myself that I didn't fall for the $10 hanger.

That is the conclusion of my long example of how NOT to buy a suit.   Maybe next time I buy a suit I'll do a better job.    Below are some things I've learned about the process that would help me pay a bit less hopefully.

Don't buy a suit at the last minute 
Buying a suit at the last minute doesn't give you time to shop around and look for bargains.   If you're buying at the last minute you are stuck taking the quick and easy option which usually isn't the best value.

DO buy a suit in advance

You don't know when you'll need to go to a funeral or some other occasion that requires more formal attire.  If you buy a suit in advance of when you actually end up needing it then that will allow time to shop around and find a good buy.   If you know you'll need a suit sometime in the future for a wedding, unexpected funeral or other event then buy one in advance so you have plenty of time to shop around to find a good suit or wait for a good sale without being rushed to make a decision.

Don't go into the store without a solid idea of what you need and want to buy. 
I went into the store without really thinking if I wanted or needed a dress shirt, tie, shoes, etc.  I just had a vague idea of needing a suit or maybe a jacket but without any detail.   You should figure out before hand exactly what you want to buy so you aren't stuck making decisions on the spot about the various accessories or buying something you didn't really need or want in the first place.

Don't let a salesman guide you into purchases that you don't want or need or out of your budget.
I did not need an extra sport jacket but I ended up buying one anyway.   I wanted one but I didn't need one that day.   I could have just said no thank you on that one and shopped around more to buy one at another time.   Buying it then and there was more of a "why not" ... or "might as well, while we're at it" purchase.

DO shop around for accessories.
I'm pretty sure that Mens Wearhouse has a very large profit margin on their accessory items like the dress shirts, ties, socks, and cedar hangers.   If I had the time to shop around for these items then I am sure I could have gotten them cheaper elsewhere.


Don't buy a trendy suit that will go out of fashion
The first suit I bought back in college was a good suit at the time.  Now it would make a good Halloween costume if someone wanted go go as "90's Man".    If you need a suit then buy one in a classic fashion that won't go out of style in a few years.   That way your suit will last you years or even decades into the future.  My father has a suit he bought in the 1960's that still looks fine today. 


I do not regret my suit and jacket purchase.   Please don't read this story as a negative review of Men's Wearhouse.  I actually quite like Men's Wearhouse and was very satisfied with the good work the salesman there did and I'm happy with the suit purchase.   I don't think $391 for what I bought was a bad price.   I could have gotten it cheaper if I'd shopped around a bit I'm sure but I didn't have time to do that.  For a last minute purchase I am happy with what I got.   I knew at the time that I was paying a bit more since it was a last minute purchase. Its a good suit I'll be able to use for years.

Men's Wearhouse photo By Xurble

Purchases That I Regret

Over the years I've bought things that I wish I hadn't.  Like everyone I am not perfect and I make mistakes.   Many of those mistakes are pretty easily avoidable.


Purchases I regret

Maintenance for my car at a car dealer.   One time several years ago took my previous car to the dealer to get the regular maintenance checkup done.   It was probably something like a 50,000 or 75,000 checkup.  I don't know for sure what they did.   I didn't check the price before hand and I didn't shop around.   Cost $400.

Earlier this year we got a dog house with a heater mat for our newly adopted dog.   Its a perfectly good dog house and we paid a reasonable price for it.   I don't think the dog has used it at all.  Cost $180

Manual lawn trimmer thing that barely works.  I since realized that our weed wacker pivots to act as an edger and I now don't use the manual tool.  Cost $25. (?)

I got an HD-DVD player during the battle between Blu-ray and HD-DVD formats.  I got it in late 2007 and shortly after that the HD-DVD format died.  Its now no better than a $50 DVD player.  Cost $200.

About 3 years ago I bought a remote control that will work from anywhere in the house.   At the time I was going to use it to control my Tivo box while I was using the computer in the other room.  I barely used it.  Cost $120.

Over 10 years ago I got a X10 home remote control system.  I bought this one because I followed a banner ad on a webpage.   It looked like a neato gadget.  It actually was a very neato gadget but I barely ever used it and it sat in a closet for years.  Cost $50.

Many years ago I got an off brand CD changer for my car.  It was a very good price at the time.   Unfortunately the good price was not a bargain for what turned out to be a very very poor product.   I really regret that purchase. Cost $130 (?)

Over the years I've bought various video games at the store because the box looked good.   I have had several PC games that I distinctly remember paying $20 or more for and then playing just a few hours.   These games weren't really that bad but they just weren't my kind of game or not a great use of my money.   I've probably had at least 5 games in this category.   Cost $100

 Around 7 years ago I went on a vacation to Florida.  I got a rental car from Thrifty in Orlando (who has 1.5 out of 5 stars at Yelp) and at the checkout they did a hard sell on extra insurance.   I wasn't sure what insurance I needed or what kind of coverage I had so I went ahead and got the optional insurance.   Cost $50-$100

All together thats about $1000 that I have spent or over-spent and now regret.   This list does span many years but it is just the items off the top of my head and I probably have other regretted expenses.    I've probably spent $100-$200 or more in a typical year on items I later turn around and regret.   So what can I do to stop this?   I should look at why I'm making these purchases and what I can do to stop them.

Mistakes I made

Don't buy things on a whim based on marketing.   The X10 system and video games are things I've bought on an impulse due to good marketing which turned out to be things I didn't really want or like all that much.  

Buying without research.   The CD changer I bought was a bargain and I had not heard of the brand.   I should have done some market research to see if they were any good.   I should have figured out what I needed for rental car insurance before going on vacation.

Shop around before buying.   I really should have called a few auto shops before I got my car serviced.  I'm sure I could have saved a substantial amount by doing so compared to what I ended up paying the dealer.

Don't gamble on new technology formats.   If I had held off a few more months before buying the HD-DVD player then the format war would have ended and I could have then safely used my money and bought a Blu-ray player.

You're still going to make simple mistakes in purchases.   The dog house, remote control and lawn edger are products that I really thought I'd use but just ended up not using. 

My $3.75 Cup of Coffee

The cup of coffee pictured cost me $3.75.  

I was on vacation with my wife and we had a meal in the cafe in The Venetian which is one of the nicer casino resorts in Las Vegas.   I didn't realize it was $3.75 until we got the receipt.   I didn't even think to look at what the beverage costs were.   The meal prices were actually not that bad considering how expensive the place was in general.  Most meals there were in the $10 to $25 range if I recall right.   Thats not cheap but its not highway robbery either.   I guess I made the assumption that given the entree prices on the menu that the beverages would be similarly moderately priced.  

The hotel is actually pretty smart to jack up prices on beverages this way.   I bet most do the same thing I did and not even really consider the cost of beverages.   You just look at the cost of a $12 sandwich and think thats not too outlandish then order a drink to go with it without even really thinking about it.  If you add tax and a 20% tip then that cup of coffee cost me closer to $5. So your $12 sandwich and drink turns into a $20 meal.

The frugal thing to do would be to keep an eye out on these extra costs.  Maybe I'll learn from my mistake and not order drinks without checking the price.   An even more frugal option is to just order water.  

To be honest if I had seen the price of the coffee and known it was $3.75 in advance I am very sure would have went ahead and still ordered it.   I have a slight caffeine addiction so it isn't something I do without too lightly.   Plus we were in a very expensive hotel so my price expectations are different.  If The Venetian wants to charge more for coffee then thats easier for me to swallow (sorry) than if Denny's started charging that much.   Lastly we were on vacation and my frugality is in a different mode when I'm on vacation.  Theres a little devil on my shoulder saying "live a little" and the little angel on the other shoulder isn't putting up much of a fight.


So I guess I'd sum up the experience to say that I should watch out for the beverage prices in the future.  At least that way I'll know if I'm spending too much.