Amazon PriceDrop

I was looking up the cost of some children's books and noticed Amazon's PriceDrop feature. I have not used this before because most of the time when I'm buying something from Amazon, I need it immediately. However, there seem to be a lot of new babies these days, and I tend to give the same books as gifts. Thus, I have plenty of time to watch for good prices.

So I'm curious to see how this plays out. I am half wondering if the prices are going to be better right now - shortly after Christmas - and will go back up in the future. But I love anything that will save me money, and I love Amazon's fast shipping (I ordered textbooks from other vendors recently and my goodness, they are taking forever! I even paid extra to have one arrive by yesterday, but did it arrive? No.)

I'll have to remember to write about the Amazon PriceDrop feature again in the future, once prices have dropped (hopefully!).

Wedding Nonsense, Part III

So I got my mom to agree to a potluck....

And it didn't actually take too terribly much convincing. I've been telling her I planned to elope when I got married for years now, though, so I think now that I've decided to actually have a wedding and reception, she's willing to go along with most things. Plus, once I explained it to her in more detail, she thought it made sense.

Now, I know what you're thinking. A potluck reception?! Who does that?! But hear me out.

I've grown up on potlucks. I always loved them at church as a kid - you get to eat everyone's best dishes. What could be better than that? Plus, you get to sample a wide variety of food, and if there's something you don't like, well, there's always plenty of other options. Sounds like a good thing for a reception, especially with so many dietary needs - vegetarian, food allergies, etc.

Of course, I'm not so cracked that I'm also going to expect gifts. Part of the appeal of a potluck is that we don't want gifts. We don't need any more kitchenware, we don't need a bunch of random knickknacks. I don't like clutter, and we have pretty much everything we need. Oh, and we definitely have NO use for china. Thus, asking for a dish to share instead of a gift sounds good to us.

So, the out-of-towners. I don't expect them to make food. They are more than welcome to grab a bag of chips at the grocery store. You normally have to buy a gift anyway, so instead, buy some packaged food. I also fully intend to encourage my out-of-town uncle and his fam to order pizza from the local pizza place they love so much. They try to get it every time they come into town anyway.

I don't think I'll be calling it a reception. Even I hesitate at that. The traditional reception is so ingrained in most people's minds that a potluck reception is very nearly an oxymoron. Currently, the plan is to call it a Potluck Celebration in Honor of the Marriage of blah blah blah.

Plus, it's going to be very very casual, but more on that later.

And think of all the money saved on caterers. And not having to worry that the mass produced food will taste like... mass produced food. And all the money saved on gifts. Bringing food should be far cheaper for the guests, too.

I'm sure some people will still think I'm nuts. But I'm okay with that.

Wedding Nonsense, Part II

So the current plan is for a small wedding and a casual reception. I say 'current' because I've heard about brides who started out thinking they'd be oh-so-casual and cheap. Then they got all caught up in the Wedding Nonsense and went off the deep end. Thus, I'm allowing for the possibility that this could happen to me.

But I really hope not.

Anyway, I like the idea of a very small wedding (about 30 people - immediate family and close friends only), and then a larger reception (more on that in a future post). My mom suggested a wedding in the morning (and by morning I'm thinking 11:00am at the earliest), and then we all go out for lunch somewhere. Sounds good to me.

Plus, a small wedding is necessary for the location I want, which is part of the Geauga County Park District. The nice benefit of using a park location is that it's free to residents. I'm no longer a resident of Geauga County, but my parents are. I intend to be the one to reserve it, but if they have a problem with that, I can always have my parents call. Of course, the drawback of the park is that I can't reserve it until November 1, so I might need a backup plan if someone manages to reserve it before I do. However, I doubt it's a really popular location. It's really beautiful - bridge over a creek that runs into a small pond, and a beautiful flowering tree (if indeed it is still flowering in June, which might not be the case), but it's out in the boonies. Here's hoping it's available.

Save Money on Hair Cuts

I get my hair cut about twice a year. Inevitably, the person cutting my hair scolds me, but oh well. It seems to work for me just fine. Plus, it saves money. Guy hair, on the other hand, needs to be cut more often. If my hair grows an inch, you can hardly tell. If my fiance's hair grows an inch, well, it's quite noticeable.

Growing up, his mother cut his hair. With four kids, that seems like a great choice. She's continued to cut it on occasion as well. Recently, we decided it wouldn't be a bad idea if I just learned how to do it myself.

I practiced with his mom's assistance before trying it on my own. I've now cut his hair 2 or 3 times without supervision, and it seems to be just fine. It also helps that his hair is very forgiving - it's quite wavy so if I mess up here or there, it's much harder to tell than it would be on someone with very straight hair. I'm still working out a few of the details (still need to figure out just how short I can cut it in certain areas where it seems much thicker), but those will be easier with practice.

We did opt to buy a decent pair of scissors, which cost us about $16 at Target. Considering a single hair cut costs about that much these days, we've already made back that money easily. It would be nice to have one of those wraps to keep the hair off his clothing, but we use an old towel for now.

I know this isn't an option for everyone - I wouldn't want to cut other types of hair, but it does save money. I also know I'm not the only one doing this. We know at least one other couple where the wife cuts the husband's hair, too. As an added bonus for us, it means he gets his hair cut more often. His hair always got quite a bit longer before he felt motivated to go get it cut. Now I can just do it in the comfort of our home.

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! :)

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! :)

Save Money on Heating and Cooling Bills

After a high of nearly 70 yesterday, the temperature has dropped about 15 degrees. Fall is officially upon us. The apartment is currently 67 degrees, so I set the heat to come on for the first time this season - at 64 degrees.

We used very little air conditioning this Summer. The a/c was set to kick on at 80. I also spent mornings and evenings opening and closing windows to get the cool night air but keep out the hot air during the day. If I were more diligent and could handle closed curtains (both for me and my plants) then I should have kept the North-facing window curtains closed during the day. I love the sun, and my plants need it, so this was not an option for me. But it certainly could have been.

This Fall and Winter I am hoping to keep our heating bill as low as possible. Here's what I did last year and what I'm hoping to do this year:
1. Last Winter, we kept the apartment at 67. I intend to aim for 66 or 65 this year. It's tricky - I'm a freeze baby - but it's definitely possible. I will also try lowering the temperature at night as well (purchasing flannel sheets is on the To Do list).
2. We also have a very drafty apartment. Last year, I kept a rolled up towel at the base of our front door to stop the draft. This year, I am planning to do the same, and will add one to the door that goes to the basement as well.
3. I will also consider closing off the guest bedroom (and closing the registers in there as well). We almost never use it, and heating one less room should help.
4. Our windows are pretty drafty - I might have to look into that plastic covering stuff to seal them off. Of course, I keep plants on a number of windowsills, so I probably won't do those.

How about you? What do you do to keep your homes/apartments cool in the Summer and warm in the Winter?

Public Libraries Can Save You Money

The Consumerist has a short article entitled 7 Ways Your Public Library Can Help You During a Bad Economy. There are lots of good suggestions in the comments, too (as well as the occasionally complaint).

Back from China

Actually I've been back from China for a while. About a week and a half now. It takes some time to catch up and get back into the swing of things.

The following photos are from Yangshuo, China. Yangshuo is near Guilin, which is one of the most popular tourist destinations in China for its gorgeous scenery.




China is an interesting place to visit. In terms of finances it is far more expensive just getting there and back than it is to spend 11 days traveling all over the place. In fact, well over 3 times as expensive.

I greatly enjoyed my first foray into bargaining. Most of the time, my friend and her husband (who is Chinese) did the bargaining for us. However, on the last day of our trip, my boyfriend and I purchased some gifts without their assistance. Using the "walk away" method, we were able to get items for one-forth or less the original price named - good prices for foreigners. The walk away method essentially involves expressing interest in something, looking at a few different options, and then saying you aren't really sure and will keep looking. Then, you walk away while the vendor calls out lower and lower prices until you get to a deal you just can't pass up.

My 2008 Personal Finance Goals

Most of the personal finance blogs that I read include the blogger's financial goals. I assume it makes them more accountable, and also serves as a way to keep track and look back on how well (hopefully!) they've done. Back in January, I wrote out my goals on Adventures in Library Land. They were:

1. Pay my car off within 18 months.
2. Learn more about personal finance and investing. I quantified this one by saying I would keep up with the personal finance blogs I subscribe to (see the Finance section), as well as reading 2 books.

How am I doing on my goals?
1. I have paid off my car already. In 6 months instead of 18. The title came in the mail the other week, and it was entirely too exciting. I now own my car. What a good feeling. Goal 1 accomplished.
2. I have read two personal finance books. I would highly recommend Random Walk Guide to Investing, which I reviewed on Rage in the Page. The Ultimate Cheapskate's Roadmap to True Riches is also a great read, both entertaining and quick. It contains lots of good advice on how to keep your expenses low, although I doubt many would desire to be quite that cheap. (Note: Book title hyperlinks will take you into WorldCat where you can type in your zip code and see if a library near you has the book. It's cheaper than buying it, and I'm a librarian - I like to support libraries). I also do a relatively decent job of keeping up with the personal finance blogs I subscribe to.

Since I basically met the goals I set earlier, I am setting additional ones:
3. Open a Roth IRA (I've been intending to do this for the past 6 months, and I need to finally do it!)
4. Read 3 more personal finance books, and continue to keep up with the blogs I subscribe to.

Save Money on Gas

If you are like me, you've been inundated with tips on how to save money on gas. I read a number of personal finance blogs, and it is an often discussed topic. Then there are those emails that go around with advice, some of it useful, some of it definitely not. For a good list of tips all in one place, check out Christian PF's 75 Gas Saving Tips. He lists the most effective tips first (based on an actual study by Edmunds.com), and then adds ones related to driving economically, planning car trips, seasonal tips, maintenance ideas, and more. At the very end of the post he lists some other web sites to check out if you are interested in more tips.

And, of course, using less gas is not only good for the wallet but also the environment.

Money Can Buy Happiness

As long as you are giving it to someone else, anyway - as a gift to a friend, donation to a charity, etc. - according to an article from a Harvard Business School Newsletter. The researchers asked people to spend their money in various ways and found that those who spent it on someone else reported an increased feeling of happiness.

How much money does one need to spend on someone else to notice this increase? As little as $5. Their research also showed that even when people knew about the relationship between spending money on someone else and happiness, the effects still existed.

What does this mean for personal finance? Even if you don't have a lot of extra money, it may be worthwhile to budget in the occasional gift or donation to charity. Not only will it likely make you happy, but it will probably make the recipient happy as well.

Based on my personal experience I would agree with their findings. I love giving the occasional random small unexpected gift to friends and family. It makes me feel happy, and I can tell by their reactions that it makes the recipients feel happy, too. I also enjoy participating in those volunteer/giving efforts to buy Christmas presents for needy children as well as donating to various charities including the China earthquake relief funds and Partners in Health (the latter inspired by reading the great book Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder).