Tag Archives: Simple Living

Bye bye, cable

TVLast week, we joined the legions of personal finance bloggers who have canceled their cable TV.

In August, our yearly “promotion” ended, and the cost of our cable and Internet increased from $97 a month to $108 a month. Of course, like a lot of people, we were talked into the digital cable/Internet bundle. We had digital cable with more channels than we ever watched, HDTV even though we have an old TV, and DVR. I have to admit, the DVR was nice. But lately I’ve been thinking about just how much TV we watch.

We have never used the On Demand services, and the majority of shows recorded on our DVR come from regular network stations. Like I said, with our busy schedules, DVR is nice. But here’s the thing: every single one of the shows we watch is available online for at least a week after it airs. We could basically watch them online on our own time without paying for cable or DVR.

When I made the initial call to get some information, they of course tried to talk me into keeping at least basic broadcast channels for $10 a month. What they didn’t tell me is those channels are free with a digital converter box or digital TV.

We’ve been trying to find a way to cut expenses ever further lately, and we’ve always planned on upgrading to a newer TV at some point before we move. Because we plan on buying a new TV in the next year or so, we don’t see any reason to invest in the digital converter box now since we can watch all our favorite shows online.

Canceling cable will save us $60 a month or $900  over the next 15 months. We’ll put that money in a separate savings account and use it to buy a new TV and a Playstation 3 after we move. We’re not big gamers, but we’ve been looking into a digital multmedia player that will function as an external hard drive and allow us to stream Netflix, photos, and music to our TV. Plus we’d be able to rent games if we wanted to. :)

Bonus: we’ll spend less time channel surfing and watching things that we don’t even really enjoy, and more time reading, blogging, and talking. It’s win/win!

I never thought I’d be so excited to cancel cable, but putting that money to good use has really motivated us!

Photo by adspackman

On letting go of “stuff”

storage roomI’ve always been a bit of a pack rat. Not in the pathological sense, but in the sentimental sense. I often hold on to things for which I have no use either because I think I’ll need them or because I can’t let go for “sentimental reasons.”

Books, CDs, electronics, junk from college. I struggle to force myself to let go of things, which has led to an unfortunate amount of clutter stuffed into the closet in our guest room. Among the most embarrassing:

  • My old desktop PC that I haven’t used since I bought my laptop a year and a half ago.
  • A box of CDs that we don’t listen to (those are going to the record store this weekend, I promise).
  • Too many articles of clothing to count that I haven’t worn in probably two years.
  • A footlocker full of sentimental things from high school and college. Some of it is worth keeping (journals and letters and photos), but most of it is just garbage.

I’ve vowed to clear this stuff out of our apartment many times before, but this time I mean it. If it’s junk, it’s not coming with us when we move in 15 months.

If you’re like me, this change in behavior doesn’t happen overnight. Keeping things I don’t need has become a bad habit, but it’s one that I’m determined to break. I recommend the book “It’s All Too Much” by Peter Walsh if you’re trying to break your clutter habit.

Here are the steps I’m taking in the next year to break my habit and clear the clutter from our apartment:

Get a second opinion.

Ask someone who doesn’t have a sentimental attachment to the item whether they can see a use for it. Your spouse or a close friend who doesn’t have a stuff collecting problem can offer you a fresh perspective. If you’re having trouble explaining why you still have your senior prom dress or you feel a little foolish saying that you you might someday wear that bright orange bridesmaid dress again, it’s time to let it go.

Put it to the one year test.

One of my favorite tips for reducing closet clutter is the one season test. At the end of the season, go through each article of clothing, and if you haven’t worn it at all, it’s time to donate it. Try using a similar test for those items lying around that you’re keeping “just in case” you need it again someday. If it’s been stuffed in a drawer or closet for over 12 months and you’ve never had a reason to use it, you most likely never will.

If it’s really that important to you, why is it collecting dust in storage?

My wedding dress has been stuffed in a closet since our wedding day. I saw no reason to have it preserved. I considered selling it, but it’s stained up on the bottom from our outdoor photos and I doubt any bride would want to wear a dress with grass stains. My plan is to use the salvageable fabric to turn it into a baby quilt, but I haven’t gotten around to it.

If you’re holding on to items that you can’t use anymore but can’t bear to throw away, find a way to repurpose them. That box of old photos can be put into a scrapbook; the baby furniture in your attic can be refinished and handed down to someone in your family who can use it; and the stone from your grandmother’s antique ring can be set in a setting that fits your style so you’ll actually wear it. If the item is really that important to you, it shouldn’t be collecting dust in storage.

What are your methods for fighting the war on stuff?

Photo by merrickb

Our music collection is finally going digital

CDs iPodA few weeks ago, we picked up an FM transmitter for our iPods, which has eliminated our need for CDs in the car. That was the last place we were listening to CDs at all, so at this point our music collection is just taking up space and collecting dust.

On Saturday we went through our CD collection and ensured that all of the music had been burned and saved to our hard drives. We boxed them all up and we’ll be taking them to the record store this weekend to sell what we can.We hung on to a handful of box sets and albums that we think might be worth a little more than we could get at the record store. We’ll try to sell them on Amazon or eBay. Anything too old or embarrassing for anyone to buy will go to Goodwill.

There are a ton of benefits to going digital with our music. The most obvious one is that we’re clearing the clutter in our apartment. But we also won’t have to move them again, and we’ll earn a little money for savings. Bonus! :)

My next step is going through my iTunes library, deleting duplicates, and organizing everything by album. Some of my music was burned with a different program years ago that required manual input of song information. I was lazy about it, so anything imported into my library before I got my iPod 3 years ago is a big old mess.

I’m considering trying one of the programs I found that automatically organizes songs, fills in missing file information, and deletes duplicates from the library: TidySongs or TuneUp. Both offer a free trial, but you have to pay $20-$30 if you want to edit more than 100 songs. Anyone had any luck with these programs? Or can you recommend a free alternative?

I’ll probably decide it’s not worth the cost and manually organize my collection, but that could take some time with almost 5,000 songs in my library.

How do you handle your music? Do you still listen to CDs or have you gone digital?

Photo by s3a

Our method for digital photo organization

photographerBack in the days of film cameras, I always thought it was such a waste when I developed my film and half of it was taken up with bad photos. For every great shot there are 5 photos that are blurry, poorly framed, or just not as good as you thought they’d be, especially when you’re photographing kids and pets.

Digital cameras have made it easy to take hundreds of photos and pick and choose the best shots. It’s made amateur photography more accessible. However, it can also clutter your hard drive if you can’t let go of bad photos. Like anything else, if you don’t have a system in place for organizing them, digital photos can become a big headache.

I used to be one of those people that never deleted digital images. I just dumped them all on my hard drive. Now that we have a camera that shoots huge images, we have to be pickier about which images we keep to conserve space on our hard drive.

Here’s how we’ve been choosing and organizing images:

Look at each photo with another set of eyes.

I take most of the photos with our camera, so Tony and I sit down together and quickly go through each photo. If either of us likes the photo, we keep it. Most of the images deleted at this point are just plain bad photos.

Choose between similar images.

Sometimes when I’m trying to get a particular shot, I’ll take five or six similar photos. I used to keep all of them, but now Tony and I go through and choose the best. There’s no reason to quadruple the disc space you’re using with photos that are essentially identical.

Use a practical file system that works for you.

My old camera automatically uploaded images into files and folders by date. This new camera doesn’t. To make it easier on myself, all new photos are dumped into a folder called “New.” From there I delete anything I don’t want to keep, and I manually move the files into folders by date and event.

There are folders for each year and each month within that year. Within the month folders are separate folders for significant events, like “Graduation” or “Honeymoon.” If there is no significant event associated with the photos, then the folder is just named by a date.

This system has made it easy for us to find images quickly. Since I started manually moving images into the folders, it’s also made it easier for me to weed out throw-away photos to conserve space.

Invest in an external hard drive for back ups and archives.

You can get a pretty decent sized external hard drive for about $50 or $60. Ours is 120GB, and we paid $60 for it. We back up all of our photos on this hard drive as well as important documents from our computers. Eventually as our digital photo collection grows, we’ll probably invest in a larger hard drive for archives. This is an essential investment if you take digital photos. It’s like keeping digital negatives. Don’t let a computer malfunction erase all your memories!

How do you manage your digital photos?

Photo by bigtallguy

What are your “go-to meals” for hectic weeks?

On weeks like this one after we’ve been traveling or the weekend is too busy to run our usual errands, the last thing we want to do is plan meals and grocery shop on Sunday night or Monday morning. Unfortunately, these are the weeks when planning is most important. The refrigerator and pantry are shockingly empty and we’re too tired at night to be creative with dinner.

The mix of exhaustion, laziness, and disorganization is dangerous for your budget and your health. It’s nights like these when I’m most likely to say, “Forget cooking, let’s order a pizza.” But after a week of overspending and overeating on vacation, fast food is the last thing we need.

For weeks like this, I have a list of meals that are quick, relatively healthy, and simple to prepare. We usually try to be creative and come up with at least one new recipe a week. Not this week. We pulled our menu plan directly from our go-to meal list.

Here are some of the meals I add to my menu when I’m crunched for time:

  • Chicken quesadillas
  • Tacos
  • Bean and cheese burritos
  • Pasta with marinara sauce
  • Homemade pizza
  • Canned soup and sandwiches
  • Grilled cheese
  • BLT sandwiches or salad
  • Breakfast for dinner

These may not be the healthiest options in our recipe book, but they’re healthier than fast food and simple enough that we can cook them up with no hassle.

Kacie at Sense to Save has written about experimenting with batch cooking to make hectic weeks even easier on her. Foods like casseroles or soups can be frozen and heated up later.

How do you get through your craziest weeks without ordering in?

Winding down from a wonderful vacation

We’re home after a marathon 10-day trip to Indiana to see family and friends. Ten days, three cities, 2,000 miles, babies, puppies, family … we’re absolutely exhausted.

dogs

Above: Howie and Abby, my sister-in-law’s beagle puppy, take a brief break from their constant wrestling.

As we drove home, I found myself dreading the budget breakdown that always follows a vacation. We had big plans to be as frugal as possible, and we worked really hard at it, but inevitably there is always a little money spent on vacation. We treated friends to dinner to thank them for hosting us. We bought food and drinks on the road. We made a couple of very small impulse purchases at a record store in Indianapolis (about $10 for record albums to play on the used record player my sister’s husband generously gave to us).

blogger eli

Above: My adorable nephew getting an early start blogging.

We budgeted $400 for this trip including gas, food, and entertainment. We’re actually not far off that mark. Gas cost about $200 and we spent about $150 meeting friends for dinner, going out for drinks, and enjoying ourselves. The nice thing about staying with family and friends is that money usually reserved for a hotel can go to more fun.

We’re back now which means back to reality. Back to budgeting, cooking at home, staying in on the weekends, watching what we eat, and waking up early to exercise. No fun, right? But as hard as it is to get back into our routine, I find myself craving that stability. We’ve been living out of our suitcases for 10 days, bouncing from house to house all over Indiana as we visit family and friends, uprooting the dog every 72 hours. We’re all ready for some normalcy.

I’ve written before about how hard it is for me to get back into the swing of things after a vacation. That spendy mentality tends to stick around, especially as we start to come down from the excitement of vacation. We start to feel down and try to console ourselves by bringing back that vacation mentality — overspending and overeating.

But the sooner we get back into our routine, the easier it will be to overcome those feelings. I came back to work yesterday and Tony’s last year of graduate school begins tomorrow. I took yesterday off from the gym, but this morning I was up bright and early. I’ll likely catch up on laundry and tidying tonight.

While the winding down from a vacation can be a downer, I’m reminding myself of how nice it is to be back in the quiet of my own home, spending time alone with my husband, and living the quiet life that we love so much.

Traveling with pets without losing your mind

This week on our vacation to Indiana to visit family and friends, we brought our dog Howie along for the ride. Our families were both happy to accommodate him, and he’d rather be with us than back home in a kennel. But bringing a dog along on vacation comes with a long list of hassles.

Howie window

We took some steps to keep Howie happy and out of our hosts’ hair while saving our own sanity. Try these tips if you’re bringing your favorite family pet along for vacation:

Exercise, exercise, exercise.

If you think your dog has had enough exercise, put him on the leash and take him out again. If you have a young dog, it’s not possible to exercise him enough on vacation.

Howie is incredibly well behaved in the car — he usually just goes right to sleep as soon as we start driving. But we still stop every two hours on the road to let him stretch his legs on long car trips. We also took him for a run every morning when we were staying with family. Nothing is more stressful than an under-exercised dog in a strange environment. Without enough exercise, dogs are restless and whiny at best and downright destructive at worst. Make sure they’re spending the vacation as tired as possible.

Bring as much of home as you can.

When Howie was younger and sleeping in a crate, we brought it along on trips. Now we bring his dog bed, his favorite toys, and plenty of food. If you’re traveling with a cat, consider bringing a scratching post, cat toys and bed to keep them occupied and comfortable. Bringing a piece of home along with you will make them feel more secure in a strange environment, and the more secure they feel, the less likely they are to act out.

Don’t pawn your pet off on family.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Howie is pretty much the most adorable dog ever. Consequently, all of our family members were offering to walk him and feed him and pet him. It’s easy to walk away and assume they’ll take care of taking him outside or disciplining him if he’s getting too rowdy. Be careful not to do that.

If you’re visiting family with your pet, don’t expect them to do the dirty work. Just because they’re enjoying the novelty of your furry friend doesn’t mean they want to scoop the litter box or follow your dog around with a poop bag. Don’t get too distracted to take care of your pet’s basic needs.

If your family or friends want to take advantage of the fun parts of spending time with a pet, let them. But when it comes to the dirty work, make sure you’re doing it yourself. If you expect someone else to take out the dog, you might end up with a mess on the floor, and your family won’t be so willing to welcome your pet next time.

Since I’m not a cat owner, I’d like to hear from those of you who’ve traveled with cats. How do you make it easier on your pet when you’re traveling?

Curing the summertime blues

end of summerMost people are likely to feel a little blue during the dark winter months, but I always start to feel down at the end of August. In North Carolina, it’s been unbearably hot and muggy since the end of May, and we’re still facing another 3 months of heat and humidity. I’m homesick for fall and cranky from the heat. I start to feel like I need a pick-me-up.

Here are some surefire tactics for combating the summertime blues:

Take a short trip.

We planned our frugal vacation back home strategically during one of the hottest weeks of the year in North Carolina. Right now, it’s 104 degrees back home. It’s still hot and muggy in Indiana, but we’re dealing with 85-90 degrees instead of an unbearable 100+. We’re also spending time with family, taking a much needed break from work and home life, and relaxing. Since we still have a couple months left of muggy summer weather, this is a nice break in between to recoup and recharge before Tony heads back to school.

Take advantage of the things you love about summer.

For many of you, this may not be a problem. When I talk about being tired of summer, most people think I’m a little crazy. But if you’re like me and you’re craving fall, remind yourself of all the things you do love about summer. For us it’s fresh produce, driving with the window down, and late sunsets.

I remind myself that pretty soon I won’t be able to enjoy fresh produce for cheap or drive to work with the wind in my hair. Pretty soon the sun will set before I even leave work. So I’m trying to enjoy the end summer instead of thinking about how miserable the heat makes me or how much I dread those summer electric bills.

Start a new project.

With the summer winding down, it’s easy to feel sluggish and unmotivated in the heat. The easiest way to pick yourself up again is to immerse yourself in a new project. Find something that excites you, and get started on it now. Last year around this time, I started this blog. Now is the perfect time to clean your house top to bottom and make some money at a late-summer garage sale. This year I’ll probably commit myself to finally finishing one of my quilting projects or purge the junk in my apartment.

What about you? Are you feeling the summertime blues? How do you fight them?

Photo by jimntonik

Mistakes were made: A belated weekend recap

I had a post scheduled for yesterday celebrating my blogiversary, so I was able to take it easy on Sunday. Boy, did we need to take it easy.

From the beginning, our trip to Washington D.C. to see Paul McCartney in concert was thrown off. We planned to go to the Newseum before the concert when we arrived Saturday, but we were caught up in traffic, and by the time we got to our hotel there wasn’t enough time to get to the museum before it closed. We decided to go to dinner instead.

We had a lovely frugal dinner and stayed within budget. Paul McCartney was fantastic, and absolutely worth the trip. It truly was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that Tony and I will remember for the rest of our lives. This wasn’t an instance where we blew some money on something we’d soon forget.

The concert was even better than we expected. A setlist that included a ton of our favorite Beatles songs, fireworks, and a killer finale were some of the highlights. We had a fantastic time.

It was all downhill after we left, though. In hindsight, I know a lot of our problems resulted from poor planning. This was a spur-of-the-moment trip, for the most part, and we didn’t put as much planning into it as we do other trips.

We ended up lost in the D.C. suburbs of Maryland for two hours while we searched for a Metro station. I wore the wrong shoes and ended up with feet covered in blisters on our 10-mile hike to find a train station. It goes without saying that being lost in a strange city at 1:30 in the morning isn’t a safe situation.

Sunday pick ups at our kennel are by appointment only, and we set ours at 11 a.m. to avoid being charged for an extra day.

Even though we didn’t get back to the hotel until 2 a.m., we had to get up and drive home at 4:30 a.m. to make it back in time. We considered leaving as soon as we got back to the hotel, but we were just too exhausted and neither of us wanted to completely waste the hotel after paying $100. So we slept for 2 and a half hours before getting up and heading home.

So. What have I learned here?

1.) Never — I repeat, NEVER — wear anything but walking shoes if you think you’ll be walking even a little bit. Trust me on this one. My feet are proof that it’s a bad idea to risk it.

2.) In a stressful situation, the last thing you want to do is start yelling at your spouse. After walking for two hours, we started bickering and snapping at each other. We were both stressed, exhausted, and frustrated. Yelling at each other only made it worse.

3.) Don’t freak out! We followed a group of people from the concert thinking they were looking for the train. When it turned out they were just walking to their car that they’d parked a couple miles away, I completely lost it in the parking lot. It was the END OF THE WORLD. That didn’t help the situation either. It only delayed us and heightened the stress of an already chaotic situation.

4.) ALWAYS charge your cell phone completely if you’re going out of town.

Now that we’re safe at home and my injured feet are bundled in soft slippers, it’s all pretty funny in hindsight. We made a lot of mistakes on Saturday, but we also created a lot of memories. Our relationship is strong enough to endure some misplaced snapping without hard feelings, and we’re able to look back and laugh relatively quickly.

All in all, between the tickets, gas, dinner, and the hotel, we spent a little under $250. The night was half fantastic, half fiasco, but all of it was an experience I wouldn’t take back. I don’t think I’d want to live through the Metro search again, but I don’t have any regrets.