General | Quality Life, Low Price

Saving Pennies

Most people who are good at saving money don’t succeed by saving a hundred dollars here and a hundred dollars there; they do it by saving a few pennies here and a few pennies there. While a few pennies, in and of themselves aren’t much, when you multiply that savings by hundreds of times per month, you’ve got some substantial savings.

On the other hand, many people don’t bother with those penny savings, because they don’t see the value in it. They’re thinking in terms of what those two or three cents mean by themselves, not what they mean when added together with all the other places they can save a few cents at a time.

Let’s take gasoline for an example. If you save just three cents per gallon and buy 100 gallons per month, that’s $3.00 per month, or $36.00 per year (and you probably buy more than 100 gallons of gas per month). Okay, now let’s add changing your light bulbs over to CFL bulbs. That change can save you about $4.00 per light bulb per year. In an average home, that equals $40.00 per year. How about putting in programmable thermostats in your house? That’s a biggie, depending on the size of your house and the climate you live in, you can save as much as $40.00 per month, or $480 per year. Now, let’s start buying generic brands in the grocery store. That’s probably worth another $20.00 per month, or $240 per year. Finally, get rid of your everything cell phone, and go for a basic phone service, that can save you as much as $60.00 per month, or $720 per year.

Let’s see now, if we just add up those savings, we’ve got $1,516.00 in our pocket. What could you do with 1500 dollars? Is there some project you’ve wanted to do around the house? A short vacation you’ve wanted to take? Hey, I can think of lots of uses for that money.

Really, we’ve only scratched the surface with this little experiment. Look around you, where can you save a few pennies?

Filed Under: Budgeting, General Tagged With: Gallon, Penny, Saving

Keep an Extra Car to Save Money

Have you noticed how gas prices keep getting higher and higher? I’m sure you have, gasoline has become one of the biggest budget challenges for many families. Trying to pay for enough gas for two cars can take a big bite out of anyone’s pocketbook.

The easy answer is to switch over to small cars; and in fact many people have done so. But, for most of us, we need at least one big vehicle for a family car. So, even if the second vehicle is small and fuel efficient, we’ve got at least one gas hog in the garage.

Here’s a cost savings idea that you’ll think is crazy. That is, instead of having two cars for you and your spouse to drive, keep three. In other words, go ahead and get two small, fuel efficient cars for you to use for all your daily errands, driving to work, and taking the kids to the ball game. But, don’t get rid of that big old car you have, but keep it around. That way, you have the big vehicle you need, when you need it, but don’t have the financial burden of buying gas for it for every little trip around town.

It’s actually cheaper to pay the extra insurance premium (especially if the car is older, and you just have liability insurance on it) and license plates on that third car, than to pay for gasoline to drive it around all the time. You can easily save $100 or more per month on gas savings, while your insurance premium for the third car will only be somewhere between $10 and $20 per month. Even in the worst possible case, you’re still ahead $80 per month. Not only that, but you’ve got a spare car around, for those unavoidable times when one of them is in the shop for some repair or other.

Like I said, it sounds crazy, but it works. Run the numbers for yourself and see how much you can save by having an extra car around the house.

Filed Under: Budgeting, General Tagged With: Automobile, Fuel efficiency, Vehicle

Is Quality Worth the Price?

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In today’s economy, everyone is looking for a way to save a buck. It seems like every year things cost more and more, and we’ve got less and less to pay for it with. With this kind of struggle, many shopping decisions boil down to “What’s the cheapest one I can buy?”

Did you know that it’s cheaper to buy a Rolls Royce than it is to buy more common models of cars? If you buy most cars, by the time you finish paying for them, you’re ready to start thinking about replacing them. But, if you buy a Rolls, you can drive it for the rest of your life. Let’s compare the numbers. A new Rolls-Royce Ghost costs $246,000.00. A new Chevrolet Impala (just to pick a car at random) costs $29,000.00. If you drive from the age of 18, till the age of 70, that’s 52 years. Let’s say that you buy a new Impala every six years, which means you will buy 9 of them in your driving career, for a total of $259,000.00. The Rolls ends up cheaper. Please note that this isn’t taking into account the increase in the Impala’s price caused by inflation.

Okay, maybe this example is a little extreme, but I’m using it to illustrate a point. There are things that make sense to pay for quality, while there are others which it doesn’t matter. I don’t care what brand of consumer refrigerator you buy, it’ll probably last you 12 to 15 years. On the other hand, a wool men’s suit will last at least twice as long as a suit made from cheaper material; at about 50% more cost.

When you are making decisions about purchases, especially major purchases, you really need to consider the life expectancy of that purchase. In some cases, the extra that you pay for a higher quality product will be paid back to you in longer life. Obviously, this doesn’t apply if the extra cost is just for cosmetic changes to the product. A diamond studded blender is still just a blender, albeit a fancy one.

Filed Under: Budgeting, General Tagged With: Chevrolet Impala, Life expectancy, Rolls-Royce Ghost

3 Unusual Tips to Improve Your Quality of Life

You already know that eating healthy foods, exercising, and drinking plenty of water will not only improve your health but also improve your quality of life. You either are or aren’t doing those things now.

On definition of “quality of life” is the degree of satisfaction that you have with your life experience. There are any number of things you can do increase your overall satisfaction with life that doesn’t involve diet or exercise. Here are three:

Journal

Write down what you love about your day and what you hate. Write what would you do differently if you had today to do over? Write about what you fear and what you dream. Complain, rant, make lists. Don’t worry if you can spell. Don’t worry if you can’t write like an author. No one is going to read this but you. Your journal isn’t a product, it is a process. Journaling will give your perspective; it will show you where you’ve been and lead you to where you’re going.

Create Something

As a species we are born to create. Make a birdhouse, a necklace, a brand new recipe. Make a painting or a photograph, paint with abandon. Create a collage. Work with clay. Let go. Remember this is for you—you aren’t required to show your creation to anyone unless you want to. When we let go of our expectation of being judged and needing to be perfect, real creativity begins and personal satisfaction increases.

Do It Backwards and be Outrageous

Change up your life. Try doing things backwards. For instance, eat dinner for breakfast. Walk backwards to the post office. Read the end of the book first. Take a bath with your clothes on. Be outrageous: Kiss your dentist, write a poem on the driveway, sing karaoke.

As far as we know, we just have this one life. So whether you use these three tips every day or every week—your quality of life will improve. Are you ready?

Filed Under: General Tagged With: Arts, Quality of Life