I finally opened a Roth IRA

After making it a goal probably about a year and a half ago, I finally opened a Roth IRA. I chose to do so through Vanguard because they have a pretty low expense ratio, and because they are well-rated. I went with their Total Stock Market Index Fund, because it's pretty steady, and I'm not a big risk-taker. :)

Vanguard makes the whole process very easy. The main painful part is reading the long documents that you have to agree to before completing the process. However, the material in these made me think that they were probably pretty standard. The other annoying thing was that I filled everything out, but then wanted to print out the documents and read them before signing, and I couldn't find an easy way to save my progress once I got to the point of printing out the documents.

They require an initial investment of $3000, so you do have to save up a bit before you can open one. I also plan to continue to contribute monthly in order to max out my yearly allowable amount, which I had thought was $5500, but is apparently only $5000.

But hooray for FINALLY opening a Roth IRA. Next to find out more about Lending Club or a similar service. It's sounds like a good way to invest some money and earn a higher rate of return.

Wedding Nonsense, Part I

My boyfriend and I are nearing the point where a wedding is probably somewhere on the horizon. Still very faint in the distance, but there. As a librarian, I have of course been reading about weddings and the wedding industry. I discovered a term that I absolutely love: The Wedding Industrial Complex.

Such a great descriptor. And all too true. I simply cannot fathom spending $10,000+ on a single day, but the wedding industrial complex makes it so hard to avoid it. So this is the start of a series of posts on the various ridiculous (as I see them, anyway) aspects of the wedding industry and ideas for avoiding them.

Post I: Everyone always says you should get a diamond engagement ring. "Diamonds are traditional." "Go for a big diamond, especially if your boyfriend has the money." Well, I have recently read in two different books that the idea of a diamond engagement ring became popular when one of DeBeers' marketers came up with the slogan "A Diamond is Forever" in the 1930s or 1940s. So really, a diamond is not all that traditional. I will probably be skipping that and going for a gemstone. :)

Living with One Car

Last December, I was in a rear-end collision. Minus some whiplash discomfort, I was fine. My car, however, was not. It did what any good Honda Civic should do. It crumpled. And the frame was damaged, thus the car was totalled. I got a reasonable amount of money for it from the car insurance of the woman who hit me. No real complaints there.

Not particularly in the mood to shop for a new car, my boyfriend and I decided to see how things would go for us with just one car. We'd been talking about it for a while anyway.

Six months later, things are going pretty well. We really don't have too much trouble with it - sometimes I have to get up at 4:30am to take him to the airport for work, or we have to rearrange a bit, but it really hasn't been all that inconvenient. Of course, we are within walking and biking distance of our places of work, which helps a lot. Public transportation is also an option, although we haven't resorted to it yet.

He has a 1997 Civic (mine was a 2002, and we joke that the wrong car was totalled), so we'll probably need to replace that eventually, but for now, it's fine.

It's great to save money on car insurance, annual inspections, license renewals, oil changes, maintenance, etc. Well worth trying if your situation would make it possible. Plus, walking to and from work is so freeing! :)

I had no idea I could eat that!

My boyfriend and I are participating in a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) this year. It's both wonderful and challenging. It's great because it's all so fresh and local. And we get more than just fruits and veggies - free range eggs, cheeses, potted herbs, cider, mushrooms, and more! But it's also a bit tricky for two people to eat all the food we get each week. I've resorted to giving away a few things, which my coworkers certainly don't mind. It can also be difficult to figure out things to make with everything we get.

Another interesting aspect of the CSA has been eating foods that I've never eaten before - kale, broccoli rabe, scapes, ramps, and more. This week we'll be receiving purslane, which I've weeded out of many gardens without ever realizing it is an edible and tasty treat (so they say - I've yet to try it). I don't know why, but the fact that such a common weed is edible is just crazy to me. I know we can eat dandelions, but they're so bitter that I wouldn't want to. This one is supposed to be quite good. We shall see.

Fleas

Jez, our cat who has not been outside in over a year, has fleas for the first time. Since I've never had a cat with fleas before, I had no idea what it was. So we probably caught it rather late - after she shed quite a few flea eggs onto our bed and they had time to hatch near the foot.... and well, it's just not pleasant.

A trip to PETCO was in order. Off we went with a vague idea of what we were looking for. I had looked up Frontline on the computer and the PETCO website said it was $41.99 for 3 months. A bit hefty but oh well.

We get to the store only to discover that it costs $64.99 there, and they will not match the price on their website. Absurd. I hadn't seen the notice at the very bottom of the webpage that said "Regular and sale prices, offers and selection on PETCO.com may vary from those of PETCO stores and the PETCO Store Circular." And really, charging 55% more in the store - what is the justification for that? A premium not to wait for it to ship? Pathetic.

So I asked the cashier if she could give us any discount at all. After discussing it with a manager, we were able to get it for $55. Still a markup but 31% instead of 55%. Later, we learned that we can get it for $35 at a local animal rescue league. We will definitely be looking into that.

The point is that you can get discounts at a chain store. It helped that my boyfriend re-looked up the price on his Blackberry and was able to prove to them that it was a lot cheaper online.

And hopefully after Frontline, furniture spray, and a fogger , we will soon be flea-free.

I Just Saved a Ton of Money on My Car Insurance

My car insurance renewal came up in early September. I had stayed with AllState because of an awesome insurance agent in Ohio (hi Paul Webster!). I felt no such need to stay with AllState in Pennsylvania. So I started calling around - Liberty Mutual and Erie Insurance. They were both recommended at my boyfriend's place of work.

Combined for renter's insurance and car insurance for both our cars, we (my boyfriend used to have State Farm) were paying approximately $1600 total. Erie was able to put us on a domestic partner policy, and we now pay under $600 per year. To be fair, we did change around our options a bit. I increased my liability coverage, but he switched from full tort to limited tort, and got rid of uninsured and underinsured. That made quite the difference as well. It pays to understand you car insurance options.

If you live in an area where Erie is available, you ought to check them out. A number of comments I read said that Erie's prices just can't be beaten - and other insurance companies know it. I also found this site, which might be helpful when trying to figure out who to call, and just stumbled on this one right now.

Cheaper Prescriptions

This Summer when my boyfriend and I went to China, we took preventative malaria medicine. Malarone to be precise (good stuff, much better than Larium from what I read here). While my boyfriend's insurance covered his prescription, mind did not. And the stuff is not cheap.

When I went to pick up the prescription, the pharmacist verified that I was aware my insurance did not cover it. I must have said "I know" in a particularly pitiful way because he said, "Give me a second" and started punching keys on the computer. After a while, he said, "You can ask me to price match it" (or something similar). So I did. I saved $35 on what was originally a $185 prescription.

This is obviously not something pharmacies advertise, but it's definitely worth a try. It only works on things your insurance does not cover, of course.

Consumer Reports' The Ultimate Money Guide has several other suggestions for saving money on prescriptions:

1. Use an independent pharmacy instead of a national chain like Rite Aid or CVS. They are usually cheaper.
   
2. Buy generic whenever possible (and take advantage of those chains with cheap generic plans, like WalMart's $4 generic program)
3. Buying in bulk will sometimes reduce the cost per pill.
   
4. Check your pharmacy's website - they often sell drugs cheaper online.

Lastly, if your insurance offers it, take advantage of the "buy 3 months for the price of 2" option (or similar) when you fill out a form and receive your prescriptions in the mail. I have this option but have yet to do it. I need to get my act together! :)