From the archives: Money Habits and Promises

First posted April 2006

LRJohnson's Savings Blog posted about Habits, Habits (original link goes somewhere else now). She points out:

"I did not start buying oatmeal at the same time that I stopped buying pre-made cartons of juice. Powdered milk came into my life at a different time than the concept of having a max price I’d pay for an item. (For me that’s an In My Head Price Book.) I didn’t start putting leftovers in salsa tub Tupperware at the same time I decided to buy generic or store brand for everything. TVP and bulghur and beans entered my life at different times. But all of these thrifty skills and habits accumulated, over the years, to become a low grocery bill. I incorporate a new habit every now and then, and add it to the routine."

And so on.

The Squirrels can identify with this. We have often had people ask exactly how we have managed to stay out of debt, have Mama Squirrel stay home with the Squirrelings, etc.; and it is often difficult to answer; or, to be more exact, any honest answer makes it sound more difficult than it has been. At the time we got married, we agreed to keep a running journal of our joint budget and expenses for the year, and to stick as close as possible to the amounts we had agreed on for things like clothes and groceries. We also treated Mama Squirrel's rather paltry wages as extra money but not something to be counted on--which was a good thing, because the Squirrelings started coming along very soon after that. 

Like LRJohnson, we acquired different habits of saving at different times--or changed them as we went along. There are things we do better now than we did fifteen twenty-five years ago--those are the habits we've learned. Some things we figured out ourselves or from reading; I think some of the rest are ideas we picked up from watching what our parents and other relatives did. We might not have acted on them until we got married, but they were absorbed!

Some of the habits don't seem money-related; they just involve taking care of things so that they don't have to be replaced as fast or cleaned as often. (We rarely eat meals or have drinks in the car; we don't wear shoes in the house.) We buy store brand groceries, eat leftovers, pass down clothes, go to yard sales, and use/wear/drive things until they won't work/fit/run anymore. (And we try to replace parts before tossing things--that's getting harder to do all the time, though. Most things now are made to be tossed, not fixed, and the parts cost more than the original gizmo.) There are other things we stopped doing...at one time I attempted to keep Mr. Fixit's work socks darned, but his workboots kept putting so many holes into them that I gave up. And anyway, he no longer wears workboots.

But there's one other factor that comes into it for us. Along with habits, we needed faithfulness--and we had to be committed to that from the start. Before we knew each other, and even during the year that we dated, we each had different spending patterns than we did post-wedding. We went out for more meals (and fancier ones), we bought more new clothes, we just seemed to go through more cash in general. But somehow, along with the promises we made to be faithful to each other in other ways, we both came into marriage with a feeling of "this money we have now takes care of both of us--so we have to be responsible to each other with it." No spending sprees, no "I worked for this so I should have more of it", no demands for things that the budget wouldn't allow (brand new furniture or vacation cruises), no tossing the toothpaste tube before we'd squished the last squish. I don't know that we ever even sat down and spelled all that out (definitely not the toothpaste part); it was just understood. We also knew that we weren't accountable only to each other: we were responsible to God for what he'd entrusted us with.

And that--as much as frugal habits--is what's kept us solvent.

Composition lesson: Omit Needless Ofs, and an essay by Francis Bacon: "Of Expense" (Lydia's Grade Eight)

PART ONE:
Part of a chapter from Sizzling Style, by William Bernhardt.  Only people who have spent as much time crossing out prepositional phrases as Lydia has will fully appreciate this writing advice. According to Bernhardt, the majority of prepositional phrases are excess baggage. If you can identify and mentally cross them out (as any student of The Easy Grammar Plus will be able to do), you can often omit them, or replace them with adjectives or other single words. Top offender, says Bernhardt: the word "of."

PART TWO:
"Criticise the following passage from Bacon's Essays, and, after putting the meaning shortly in your own words,show how it treats all of the aspects of the subject." (Studies in composition: A textbook for advanced classes. By David Pryde, 1871) (The text here contains only the first two-thirds of Bacon's essay. Although the whole thing is not long, the last third is the most difficult and so I am taking Mr. Pryde's advice and shortening the assignment.)

"RICHES are for spending, and spending for honor and good actions. Therefore extraordinary expense must be limited by the worth of the occasion; for voluntary undoing, may be as well for a man’s country, as for the kingdom of heaven. But ordinary expense, ought to be limited by a man’s estate; and governed with such regard, as it be within his compass; and not subject to deceit and abuse of servants; and ordered to the best show, that the bills may be less than the estimation abroad. Certainly, if a man will keep but of even hand, his ordinary expenses ought to be but to the half of his receipts; and if he think to wax rich, but to the third part.

"It is no baseness, for the greatest to descend and look into their own estate. Some forbear it, not upon negligence alone, but doubting to bring themselves into melancholy, in respect they shall find it broken. But wounds cannot be cured without searching. He that cannot look into his own estate at all, had need both choose well them whom he employeth, and change them often; for new are more timorous and less subtle. He that can look into his estate but seldom, it behooveth him to turn all to certainties. A man had need, if he be plentiful in some kind of expense, to be as saving again in some other. As if he be plentiful in diet, to be saving in apparel; if he be plentiful in the hall, to be saving in the stable; and the like. For he that is plentiful in expenses of all kinds, will hardly be preserved from decay."

Frugal Finds and Fixes, "No, nyet, nein" edition

With an end-of-March wet snow still blowing down this afternoon, we could use a bit of cheerful frugality around here. Sometimes that sounds like an oxymoron, when frugality seems to equal doing without and saying No.

Hey, well, we can dream.

On the positive side, we ended up (after almost a week of no Internet and almost no phone) with things back to normal and actually a better connection than we had before.    Plus one free doughnut won during a Wifi stop at Tim Horton's.

Mr. Fixit installed a couple of extra clotheslines in the garage to take the laundry overflow.  We unplugged the dryer altogether to save money and energy.  We also unplugged a small extra fridge downstairs that was mostly used to store cold drinks.

Mama Squirrel has been able to feed her since-Christmas crossword addiction with not only the really-quite-easy daily puzzle in the paper but with two extras that come on Saturday, including a fiendish New York Times crossword.  (She can't imagine how many Saturday papers with NYT puzzles she put out for recycling before noticing this.)  That definitely beats putting out $8 on a puzzle magazine.

Mama Squirrel also said "no, nyet, nein" to a $12 flea market style magazine.  On the next library trip I will have a look to see if they have back issues to borrow.  Because the new ones are fun, but they really don't change all that much over a year or two.

Mr. Fixit went to a used-CD shop that also sells DVDs, and they were clearing out a lot of their DVD sets. Believe it or not, they're out of date now.  So he picked up a few seasons of old sitcoms for crazy-cheap prices. If you have a store like that near you and you still watch DVDs, you might want to check for similar clearout deals. (We have also found good deals at places like Wal-Mart and Giant Tiger, but nothing like those prices.)

Mama Squirrel used an online recipe to make a big container of instant oatmeal.  I used quick oats and ran it through the Ninja for a few seconds, but you do have to be careful not to get carried away.  I got it  too fine at first, and had to add in some extra (unpowdered) oats for texture.

That's all I can think of for this week.  I am now going upstairs to make a cheerfully frugal dinner.

Frugal Finds and Fixes: The Apprentice Does the Math

In this edition of "Frugal Finds and Fixes," we interview our resident university student, The Apprentice.  

Mama Squirrel:  You are a busy full-time student, and a lot of money-saving things (the housekeeping, cooking kind) take time. You also have the problem of limited/shared space. How do you manage to do all that and stay sane?

Apprentice:  You're right, a lot of money-saving things do take time. To be honest, I'm definitely no Amy Dacyczyn. I do what I can, but am fine with spending a bit more money to save time or frustration..

One of the biggest examples of this is my living situation. Last year I was living in a student house with five other students. This year I've moved to an apartment shared with two people. The rent and utilities are significantly higher, but the advantages I have living here are worth the money. I have an above-ground room, quiet study space, and a large kitchen with tons of cupboards and a full-size fridge. I'm also closer to school. This living situation is more conducive to sleeping, studying, cooking, and travelling to school from, which are what my house is for! For me, frugality isn't about spending less money, it's about getting the most out of the money you do spend.

A smaller-scale example is food. I really like cooking, but often coming home after a late class I can be fairly tired and not feel like cooking. I know I could spend less on food, but having a few convenience foods around for a quick dinner is still cheaper than eating out when I don't feel like cooking. Yesterday I bought 2 kg of chicken fingers for $10, which will last me for many many meals and costs the same as going to a restaurant and ordering chicken tenders once. I do cook actual healthy meals most of the time, but the point I'm trying to make is that there are less frugal things and more frugal things that you can do. Both of them will save you money compared to a non-frugal thing like eating out.

At the same time, I certainly try to use frugal strategies that take a little (but not too much) time. Examples include baking my own treats, taking lunches and snacks to school, and fixing things that break. What I'd recommend most though are frugal strategies that don't really have a time element to them, just frugal thought. Since I was little I've learned that store brands are just as good as name brands, just without a fancier package. You can find clothes and household items at the thrift store for a tenth of the price, sometimes even new with tags. Textbooks are cheaper bought used from another student, and when the next year I just sell them to someone else and make most if not all of my money back. Taking a walk or bike ride outside costs much less than a gym membership.

Entertainment is a tricky category. It depends on what you like to do. Lots of activities have lower-priced alternatives, but those alternatives are not really the same thing, so it may be worth it to you to spend the extra money if that's something you really want to do. Going out to a movie and watching a movie at home are both fun, but a different experience. There are lots of free concerts and music festivals, but if you want to see a big name artist, you'll have to pay the big money for a ticket. Staying in is always cheaper than going out, but don't let that limit you every time.

Mama Squirrel:  What have you learned since being on your own that you didn't know before?

Apprentice:   Honestly a lot of the things that I do now are things that I picked up growing up, it's just that I didn't need to apply them until I started living on my own. I've tagged along with my parents at all sorts of activities, and helped out a lot at home: I often surprise myself by just doing something I didn't even know I knew how to do. I can pick out a cut of meat at the store, paint a room, bake a birthday cake, and build furniture. None of these things were something I had ever done on my own until I had to, but the knowledge was there and I just had to retrieve it.

Mama Squirrel: Any advice for the young and frugal?

Apprentice:  If there's something you don't know how to do, websites like eHow are incredibly useful. Even just Googling "what temperature bake turkey legs" will help you out a lot.

Definitely make smart choices at the store. If you're not much of a cook, that's okay. But buying a case of drinks, box of cereal and some lunch supplies will save you hundreds of dollars even if you're still eating out for dinner. A 500mL bottle of pop out of a vending machine costs about $2.50 around here, whereas cases frequently go on sale for $3, which works out to 25 cents a 355mL can. That's $5/L versus 70 cents/L. A box of cereal and litre of milk will give you breakfast for over a week for $6 or so. Buying store brand will save you even more.

Mama Squirrel:  Thanks, Apprentice!

Frugal Finds and Fixes, Featuring Dollygirl

I think Dollygirl gets this week's Treehouse prize for frugal creativity and, well, a bit of luck here and there too.  Over the past while she has won several doll-related blog giveaways, which makes watching for the mail truck much more exciting.  She's received a free (girl-sized) t-shirt, buttons, and craft materials.

(Photo by Dollygirl)

 She found an awesome clearance-aisle deal (a dollar a pack) on several sets of small doll clothes that fit Only Hearts Club girls and others of about the 9-inch size.  (Official Only Hearts Club clothes run about $20 an outfit, which is why Dollygirl's 9-inchers have so few clothes.  I don't like sewing for small dolls much either.).

She also searched online for the doll hairstyling kit that we couldn't locate for her at Christmas, found it on a Canadian website for a very reasonable price, and ordered it; she's still waiting for that one (there are supply issues, which is why the store here didn't get them in either).  She has been working really hard earning extra money this week, shoveling a vacationing neighbour's snow...I mean, really, REALLY hard.  .

(CTV News photo)

Also, in the past week or so, she has built a doll sewing machine from Lego, a fabric-draped stage and other necessities for a doll awards show (an idea she had for a blog story), made a pair of bead earrings (for herself, not the dolls), and used a gift of fabric to make a very cute mini bed.

As for the rest of us...well, sometimes frugal is just deciding not to replace what's no longer needed: in this case, an answering machine that suddenly started misbehaving.  It used to be a necessity; now, not so much. We could have gotten message service added to our phone line, but again, it's not worth it for the few callers who can't email us or don't have Mr. Fixit's cell phone number.  The last message we got on the machine was a very confused telemarketer (which is what alerted us to the fact that it wasn't delivering our we'll-call-you-back properly).

We've done some of the usual baking--muffins, oatmeal raisin cookies--and made some fairly frugal meals like turkey-pasta casserole, Polish wieners with sauerkraut, and bean soup.  We've used the dryer a lot less this week. I've re-read Liss Burnell's 2012 grocery guide (free book still on my e-reader).

And Mr Fixit and Ponytails each got a needed pair of running shoes at a buy-one-get-one event, plus Ponytails has a student price card that gives her an extra discount at that shoe store.

How was your week?

Frugal Finds and Fixes, New Year's Edition

What have we done lately that doesn't involve money?  Around the holidays that's a tough one.  Even homemades require ingredients of one kind or another.  Sometimes you just want to do special things that do cost money.  We had some meals out over Christmas, and also a theater movie (we hardly ever go to movies).  But we did put dinner in the slow cooker for after the movie.  Actually Mr. Fixit did, and I appreciated that.

We did save some money...unfortunately...by having a proposed Boxing-weekend trip to Toronto knocked out from under us by the ice storm.  It just didn't seem like a really good time to be touristing there, with hundreds of people still out of power, subways not stopping at all the stations, and all kinds of other problems.  We do not get to Toronto very often (as in, hardly ever), and there are some things we'd like to do and people we'd like to see there, so we'll just call it a postponement.

On a more positive note, we got through the last week and a half with only one trip to the grocery store.  The fridge is a bit empty now, but we do have freezer and pantry food, so a medium-sized shop tomorrow should be enough.

Two of my daughters (one professional, one still learning) worked my hair over.  I pay for the supplies, but they don't charge me for their services.

The Apprentice found herself a comforter at Wal-mart, marked way down.  Possibly more than it should have been, but they honoured the price tag anyway.  She took it with her when she left to go back to school today.

I downloaded several e-books by Beth Moore that are free right now.  Not my usual kind of reading material, but I thought they were worth checking out. Details here.

Dollygirl has turned her attention, at least temporarily, from jewelery-making to sewing.  She found some purple stretchy fabric that had come from a yard sale, and has made herself a hat, a pair of fingerless gloves, a funny-faced stuffed head, and I'm not sure what else.

We stopped just long enough at the library today to drop off some DVDs and check the discarded-book rack.  Mama Squirrel found a copy of Home to Holly Springs (one of the "post-Mitford-series" books) for fifty cents, and also a short illustrated book about Dr. Gideon Mantell and the Iguanodon.  The second book is written at such a low reading level that they don't even expect children know how to pronounce "museum" without help; but for another fifty cents I still thought I'd add it to our rocks-and-fossils corner.

Mama Squirrel and Dollygirl both found some cool craft supplies and things for future holidays at a Michael's clearance sale, some at up to 80% off the original prices.  Dollygirl, especially, did really well; she found a couple of $15 craft kits marked down to $3, and spent this afternoon using one of them to make a safety-pin bracelet.

And if you really want to read some knock-your-socks-off frugal accomplishments, check out the comments on the Prudent Homemaker's post-Christmas post.  Man, those ladies make me feel like pretty small potatoes when it comes to saving money.  But every little bit helps, right?

Time Saving, Space Saving

The Common Room has a post full of time-and-space-saving household tips, and wants to know what ours are.

All right, in no particular order:

1.  Have a few meal-saving and/or leftover-using standbys either in the cupboard, in the freezer, or in your head.  The ones in the cupboard or the freezer might include anything from a frozen whole casserole to some precooked rice or pre-grated cheese; and the ones in your head would be anything that quickly stretches, fills out, gussies up, or finishes off a meal without your having to run to the store.  Joyce Radway might have depended on caramel junket, but I personally prefer chocolate or vanilla microwave cake if I need dessert, or the bottom half of a dessert, in fifteen minutes.  Tightwad Gazette lemonade is another auto-pilot recipe that fills in when we want a drink that's fancier than water but don't have any juice around:  1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup bottled lemon juice, 4 cups water.  (You can easily make more, just keep the same proportions.)  Of course nobody needs lemonade or cake; but sometimes a meal needs a little cheering up.

2.  Invite Lillian Gilbreth to your house to do a time-and-motion study of your storage and home routines.  Failing that, have a hard look at things yourself, and change things around even if you've been doing it the same way or putting stuff in the same place for fifteen years.  This summer I did some mega-cleanouts and changed some things around...yes, in some spots, after fifteen years.  One example:  we have only shelf in our kitchen that's tall enough for cereal boxes.  Over the past few years, the shelf gradually got taken over with tall cookbooks and kitchen binders, to the point that we kept having to drag the cereal boxes up and down from the basement cold room, or leave them out in the tiny recycling area by the porch door.  So, duh...this summer I cleaned out a deep drawer that used to hold our biggest slow cooker (before it died prematurely), and put the cookbooks into the drawer.  Now the cereal can live back in the kitchen again.

I also cleaned out a vintage kitchen cupboard in the cold room...I mean, really cleaned it out, with soap and water and all that...got rid of some vintage stuff in it like a sausage stuffer (really), along with some vintage crumbs and dust...and found that there actually was room in there to organize some previously un-organizable stuff.  Now we have what amounts to a "holiday/party cupboard," because the top part is holding things like our ice-cream maker and popcorn, the surface down below has a basket with paper plates and other picnic stuff, one of the drawers has picnic-table cloths and clamps (the other drawer has canning supplies), and the cupboards on the bottom have things like turkey pans and cake plates.

And I finally got around to safety-pinning all the pairs of mittens and gloves together, in one bin.  Think that's what King Lemuel meant by "when it snows, she has no fear for her household?"

3.  Have a spouse or kid or buddy who likes to grocery shop with you.  After this many years, I just have to laugh sometimes about the ruts Mr. Fixit and I get into, but you know what, sometimes the ruts are GOOD.  I don't have to worry about picking up vitamins or fruit or tuna or bread or laundry soap: those are part of his mental list.  He doesn't have to remember to get milk or vegetables or flour or toilet paper or coffee or...okay, you get the idea, those are mine.  We meet at the end, double-check on anything unusual we needed, and that's it.

4.  Laugh when you can.  At Mr. Fixit's birthday this month, we were out of appropriate wrapping paper; even the tissue paper was gone.  We all came up with different no-cost solutions.  I stuck magazine pictures on a packing-paper package.  Dewey Squirrel gave him a present wrapped in a Christmas gift bag and topped with a (yard-saled) sympathy card.  The Squirrelings also came up with creative wrapping ideas.

5.  One space-saving idea:  we usually like lower-tech solutions for things, but there's one development in technology we do like:  boxed DVD sets for TV programs (goes without saying that we like them even better when we can get them used or cheap).  Of course for people who watch everything on the computer anyway, it doesn't matter. But if you've been trying to store, say, VHS copies of Mission Impossible or Star Trek or Fraggle Rock or whatever, where you get about two episodes to a tape, DVD sets are a huge improvement.  Could we have imagined, years ago, that we'd go to Giant Tiger and bring back not only the whole first season of Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys, but also the entire run of Ray Bradbury Theater, for less than the cost of family movie tickets and in packages small enough to fit into a purse?  (Warning about the Ray Bradbury programs:  they are interesting stories with a great cast, but they are also capital-C Creepy, and they're full of unexpected twists, so please please please preview before watching with kids around.)

What rainy day are YOU saving for?

Maybe not the same one as these people:

"MONTREAL - An online poll has found that Canadians were planning to save almost $10,000 this year, but 66 per cent say they're tucking the money away for vacations, luxury items and entertainment."

More here.

They should probably read the Snowball Effect article in The Complete Tightwad Gazette.  About the Allbrights and the Smucksters?

P.S.  Here's a different twist on the Allbrights--they do everything right, but then the government gets its hands in their pockets. [2018 update: I loved this, but the site seems to have disappeared. Sorry.]

Gaining Financial Momentum in the New Year: A Canadian View by Mr. Fixit

If I were to have a list of New Year’s resolutions pertaining to financial health for 2013, it would be for amusement only, because it is the steps taken in the past and the planning over months, years and decades that really determine your overall financial health in the new year. Just for fun, here is my list:

--Debt is a four letter word, so don’t use it unless a bus runs over your toes.

--Run your household like a business that makes a profit, which is invested in the future.

--Know your habits, both bad and good, by keeping track of expenditures; this helps you plan for the future.

--It’s not what you earn, it’s what you burn! Don’t light cigars with hundred dollar bills, because smoking is bad for you.  Besides, hundred dollar bills are made of plastic which emits toxins during combustion.

My wife and I have a daughter in her second year of university, another in high school and a third in grade six. We had lots of pressures and many changes in 2012, the biggest being my retiring from full time work to pursue self employment. Does this sound brave, foolish or insane? Not really; it was planned for years ago by utilizing the “run your house as a business” principle and the “invest in the future" principle.  During years of high income, RSP’s were maxxed, the house paid down, and child tax credit invested in RESP’s. We couldn’t see the future any clearer than Mr. Magoo without his glasses, but knew there would be challenges. Out of this grew a cycle where in January of each year the profit from our household was invested in an RSP, which was used as a tax credit to get back the tax we paid in the previous tax year during tax season in March. It worked something like this: we invested $5000 in our RSP, which generated a $3800 tax refund, which meant a $5000 investment only cost us $1200.

Those who qualify for Canada child tax benefit and other government incentives which were designed to help families save for the future can use this money to invest. Maxxing out the RSP as previously mentioned also lowers your net income tax and qualifies you for a larger share of these programs. This money, which in its peak years would average over $800 a month, was invested in an RESP, which has allowed our daughter to pay tuition and other costs without borrowing money.

In recent years we have also taken advantage of Tax Free Savings Accounts to save money for emergencies and in lieu of life or disability insurance. Purchasing benefits can be a drain for those who are self employed, are contractors, or are working for a company which has no benefits. Again, it sounds insane, but having a year’s worth of income stockpiled to be used in an emergency without meeting some institution’s rules of eligibility while you are in dire straits is a good feeling. Most years this was accomplished on less than $40,000 a year in family income.

Now running your house as a profitable business takes some patience, and understanding that you will not drive the newest, most luxurious car. Some of your household effects will be from garage sales and thrift stores, and your decorating may be back in style as "post modernist machine age era mid century retro" several times over.  Spend your money on things that retain their value or increase in value such as a home, education, antiques, and items that earn money because they are used as tools. In other words, durable goods. Non-durable goods that drop in value the minute you leave the store, such as big screen TVs, game systems, luxury items, and fancy cars, are a sinkhole and are often regretted after purchase. Most of these items can be picked up slightly used and not too far out of date at a fraction of what they cost originally.

Take a look at where you want to be this year, next year, even in twenty years; and start gaining financial momentum using some of these principles, which I can explain in more detail in future articles.

Linked from Festival of Frugality #370.  Linked from the Nerdy Finance Carnival #21: Trillion Dollar Coin Edition.