budget

Rage purging.

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A recent post on my neighborhood’s Buy Nothing Facebook page mentioned “rage purging.” The woman was getting rid of a bunch of stuff because she wanted to be able to park in her garage again.

Further down on the page someone was giving away a 16-quart tamale/seafood steamer – never used, she said. I wondered if it had been a wedding present that got set aside and forgotten, or whether she’d bought it herself while thinking, “Gosh, I’d use this all the time.”

These posts plus early hints of Christmas stuff in the stores made me want to write a public service announcement:

Stop buying stuff you don’t have room to store.

Stop buying stuff you will likely never use.

Stop buying stuff, period.

About that last: Obviously I don’t expect anyone never to buy stuff again, unless they’re absolute wizards at the Buy Nothing page and Freecycle. But soon we’ll be buffeted by massive marketing campaigns designed to part us from our dollars, so I’d like to suggest we all take a look at what we need – and, more to the point, what we want.

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Back-to-school shopping: Kids under pressure.

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Who among us has ever heard – or said! – something like this during the back-to-school shopping season:

“You don’t understand, Mom/Dad – everybody is wearing/carrying [expensive item] this year! Do you want people to laugh at me?”

Back in the day, you just knew that having the right jeans would determine the course of your school year. Having a parent overrule your choices felt devastating – especially if it really did make you the target of your school’s mean girls or rude dudes.

Right now, your kid might be pleading for a new smartphone or a pair of shoes that cost more than the rent on your first apartment. Remembering our own school days is one reason that our kids have a pretty good chance of getting at least some of what they want. (More on that in a minute.)

Another reason? Social media.

Not only are young people checking out their classmates’ social media updates and haul videos, they’re exposed to “an entire army of influencers telling your child what they ‘need’ to have this year,” according to Kelsey Sheehy of the NerdWallet personal finance website.

NerdWallet recently surveyed a couple of thousand parents on the subject. Six in 10 respondents said their kids are influenced by social media; slightly more than that (67 percent) said their children’s friends were major influences.

And just over half (51 percent) of the parents caved to the pressure and splurged. I can’t blame them. Much.

Caving is potentially self-destructive, with regard to family finances, and potentially setting their kids up for Entitled Monsterhood. But it’s also understandable.

 

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7 free financial resources.

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My buddy Cameron Huddleston’s new book, “Mom and Dad, We Need to Talk: How to Have Essential Conversations With Your Parents About Their Finances,” is a guide to negotiating that potentially awkward and/or painful subject of your parents’ finances as they age. (She recently sponsored a giveaway of two copies.)

In conjunction with the publication of her book, Huddleston has created a pair of great (and free!) financial resources.

The first is a document called the “In Case of Emergency Organizer: A Fill-in-the-Blank Financial Inventory to Give Your Loved Ones the Information They Need,” and it’s one-stop-shopping as far as financial information is concerned.

This PDF is write-able, i.e., you can type into it from your computer, tablet or smartphone. Then you can either print it out or send it as a document to your kids or whoever needs to have this info. Or you can print it out as a blank document and fill it in with a pen. #oldschool

Obviously you’ll need to lock it away safely, and make sure the person to whom you send it is careful with the document as well. After all, it will contain your Social Security number, bank account number(s) and other identifying information. But it sure beats your kids (or whoever) scrambling to find this stuff during a crisis.

Consider filling one of these out yourself as well, even if you’re young and hale. Suppose you became very ill, or were involved in some sort of accident: Would your relatives, or even your partner, be able to deal with things like temporarily paying your bills or finding your health insurance information?

 

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To (bleep) with the (bleeping) latte factor.

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The “latte factor” – the notion that if you don’t spend five bucks on coffee every workday you’ll have a million dollars 40 years from now – has gotten on my nerves since the moment I first heard it.

The basic idea is kinda-sorta accurate: If you spend $5 here and $5 there without paying attention, that’s a whole lotta opportunity cost. Think of what that whatever-it-is-per-week could do for you elsewhere.

So yes, that’s factual. But it’s also fictitious, as personal finance writer Jean Chatzky pointed out in a taut, blistering article called “Newsflash: The f***ing latte is a f***ing metaphor.”

“(Coffee) is just an example of something you don’t have to buy, but that you choose to buy. It’s a discretionary purchase that you make with your discretionary income,” Chatzky wrote.

“The real point here – the one I tell parents is the most important financial lesson to instill in their kids – is that money is a limited resource. And we all have to choose how we want to use it.” [emphasis added]

Hear, hear, Ms. Chatzky, and may I buy you a Grande misto an inch of 2% milk and two Sweet’n Lows at the Financial Blogger Conference next month?

 

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Amazon Prime Day: Black Friday in July?

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Have you taken advantage of Amazon Prime Day, or are you ignoring it completely?

If you were interested in buying a Kindle, an Echo speaker, a Fire Tablet or TV stick, a Blink security camera or any other tech that Amazon makes, this could be a good time to do it.

(You have until 2:59 a.m. Tuesday, July 16, to make up your mind.)

According to Cnet.com, some prices hit rock bottom during the sales promotion. That Fire TV stick was just $15, and the Echo Show 5 was priced at $50. In addition, while the Amazon Echo dropped down to $22 (from as high as $50), you could get an Echo for free if you bundled it with stuff like Ring Video Doorbell Pro or the AmazonBasics microwave.

Non-Alexa household, here. In fact, I have to admit that I spaced the date until Amazon Prime Day was more than half over. And I’m okay with that, because I agree with Mark Hamrick, senior economic analyst with Bankrate.com: Any spike in sales is good news for Amazon shareholders, “but not necessarily for consumers as a whole.”

The hype surrounding Amazon Prime Day is not unlike that of Black Friday (or Gray Thursday, or Cyber Monday). We’re being set up for a major, collective case of FOMO (fear of missing out). What if we miss the best deals ever? What if everyone else gets the cool gear and we don’t?

Yeah, and what if the prices aren’t as good as they look?

 

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Saved Savings Challenge: How did you do?

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I decided to count my Saved Savings Challenge monies right up until July 1. The grand total was:

 

$286.02

 

That’s a lot more than I thought it would be. That’s because I figured since I don’t do much shopping, my saved savings wouldn’t be super-high.

Shows what I know.

Among the savings were some obvious ones: using coupons, cashing in Walgreens Balance Reward scrip to pay for needed purchases, getting a payment from the Mr. Rebates cash-back shopping site.

Also some that wouldn’t work for everyone: using a rewards credit card that gives 2 percent cash back for my purchases, picking up a package of Reynolds Oven Bags for $1 at the thrift store, ordering discounted gift cards on the secondary market (saving just over $51). Not everyone has access to thrift stores, or wants to deal with discounted gift cards, or can’t/won’t) get a rewards credit card.

Depending on whom you ask, at least two of my hacks might not be considered “saving” at all. For example, I included the money I didn’t spend after talking myself out of going for fast food* on several occasions. And I was tasked to review a local musical that I’d otherwise have paid to see, thereby “saving” on the $28 ticket. (Getting paid to go, too.)

 

 

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Saved Savings Challenge, Week 2: It adds up.

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My BFF has found a way to make money from Caffeine-Free Diet Pepsi. It involves absolutely no work and will earn her more than $1,000 within a year.

You guessed it: She stopped drinking the stuff.

Linda B. had already been inclined to cut down on soft drinks due to various reports of their horribleness. Recently she decided to go cold turkey, both at home and at restaurants – and to put $20 in an envelope every week. That’s how much she figured the habit was costing her.

Watching the savings grow is fun, and it couldn’t have come at a better time: She and her oldest friend (think: going on 70 years) are taking a European cruise next year. A thousand bucks will come in handy during shore leave.

It adds up. Some of the Saved Savings Challenge participants would agree.

 

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Saved Savings Challenge, Week 1: Define “savings.”

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In last week’s introduction to the Saved Savings Challenge, I declined to post specific, hard-and-fast rules. That’s to leave room for each participant to define “savings” in her own way.

As of May 16 I’d set aside $104.09, which I rounded up to $105 and transferred over to Ally Bank on May 31. Since then my savings haven’t been gigantic, but they have occurred – along with some additional questions about the definition of “savings.”

According to the bottom of a recent supermarket receipt, I saved another $107.06 in a single shopping trip. But that’s true only if you think that in a free country a box of Triscuits should cost $4.49 and eggs go for $2.49 per dozen, or that it’s acceptable for a five-pound package of ground beef to retail for $31.15.

This particular grocer generally has higher prices than the one at which we do most of our shopping. Just as department stores mark clothing higher than it should be in order to offer hot deals later on, the store offered a short-term sale and downloadable discounts to bring the Triscuits down to $1.69 a box, the eggs to $1.50 a dozen and the meat to $10.35.

To be clear: Those final prices were pretty darned good for Anchorage. But I don’t see the discounts as savings, because I would never have bought the products at that price. Instead, I’d have waited until they went on sale and then stocked up.

Some people would say, “Hey, point is you wound up paying $1.69 – that’s a pretty skookum deal for Anchorage! If the regular price was $4.49 you really did save $2.80 per box.”

Maybe you would agree. I don’t buy it.

 

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Join me in the “Saved Savings Challenge.”

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A few months back I asked readers to join me in a No-Spend February Challenge. It went so well that I figured we’d do another one at some point.

That point is now. As of June 1, I’d like to invite you all to take part in the Saved Savings Challenge.

That is, any money you don’t spend gets squirreled away (in a jar or in a special savings account) for 30 days.

After all, it’s not savings unless you save it.

Next time someone tells you he saved 20 percent on holiday shopping or $40 on a great pair of boots, ask this question: Where’s the money you saved? Chances are that it, too, got spent because suddenly there was this “extra” cash.

Of course, sometimes people are thrilled to save money on something absolutely necessary. As in, “If I don’t cut the grocery bill by 20 percent, we won’t have enough to eat this month.” Or they’re grateful to have found affordable winter boots, or a coat for the kid who outgrew his previous one sooner than expected.

But for the purposes of this challenge, “saved savings” generally means stuff like:

  • Money you were going to spend before you talked yourself out of it.
  • Money you saved on an essential purchase thanks to sales, traded-in scrip at CVS or Walgreens, discounted gift cards, or coupons/discount codes (CVS, et al.) or the use of store credit or coupons.
  • Refunds you got from a cash-back shopping site like Mr. Rebates, Dollar Dig or Ebates.
  • Money that showed up in some other weird way (more on this later).

I did a dry run for this challenge in May, after my daughter – whose own saved savings example is pretty epic – suggested that the two of us take a trip to London. Although this trip probably won’t happen until spring 2020, I want to start setting aside the funds now. That way I can pay out of pocket, i.e., without incurring debt or interfering with my other financial goals.

 

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9 budget-friendly housewarming gifts.

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So your brother or your BFF will be moving into a new place this year, and plans to stage a barbecue or house party to kick off the novelty of homeownership.

Of course you’d love to mark the occasion with more than a side dish or a six-pack of craft beer, but:

Money’s been tight lately, or

You have a financial goal you’re trying to reach, or

The homeowner-to-be doesn’t expect anything (and maybe even said, “This is a house party, not a gift grab”).

Want to give something unique and useful without torpedoing your budget or putting anyone on the spot? Read on.

The idea for this post came from a reader named Ashley, who commented on “Ode to the junk drawer.” A friend of hers had no junk drawer, so she created a “junk drawer starter kit”: a batch of stuff like key rings, scissors, paper clips, pencils and the like. Then she added a recipe card: “Put in a dark drawer and feed occasionally with loose change and bits of hardware. Very soon you’ll have a full-grown junk drawer.”

Her recipient loved it. And so did I, especially since it suggested a post topic. Here are nine ideas that will cost you a little time or a little money, but not too much of either one.

 

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