The Importance of Checking Receipts

Published on October 22, 2007 in Frugality. 0 Comments

Everyone knows it is important to check your receipts. Preferably before you leave the store, or even the cashier stand. A lot of people still don’t do it. I bring a real world example where not checking my receipts would have cost me $20.

Sunday night(’twas my birthday) I stopped at a local Circle K to get some gas, a pack of cigarettes(birthday present to myself) and some cash for the bar. I asked for $10 in gas and $20 cash back coming to about $36 dollars. When I got out to the pump it wasn’t working and I noticed the teller had put the gas on the wrong pump.

I walked back inside to inform her of the mistake and she was more than helpful in correcting the error. She said she needed my card back to charge back the amount for the gas on the first purchase and made a second purchase for the gas. Everything seemed okay to me.

The next morning I went to enter the transactions into my spreadsheet and noticed that I was charged $30 for cash back and not $20. I also noticed that no credit was applied to my account for the erroneous transaction. I promptly called the manager who informed me that the credit would show up on my account and he would gladly refund the extra $10 charge.

I went down the next morning(giving him time to research it) and informed that, 3 days later, the credit had still not been applied. He refunded me my $10 and told me that if the credit is still not applied to my account to bring in my bank statement and he would refund that charge as well. Three days later, now 6 days from the transaction, it had still not come off so I printed out my bank statement and brought it back in to the manager.

He was still adamant that the credit had been/would be applied, my bank disagreed and I asked him to check the records for that day and sure enough, there was no credit applied to my card. There was a credit applied at the appropriate time for the appropriate amount, but to a different card. I felt bad that they were now out this $10, but it was their mistake after all.

I have now started more diligently checking my receipts before I leave the cashier station for all purchases. While I was able to get my money back without much hassle, it still took up quite a bit of my time that could have been saved had I just checked my receipts. Another tip to make this easier. When at the grocery store bring a calculator, add up the cost of each item as you add it to your cart. This way you will know exactly how much you spent, helping you stay within budget, and a heads up knowing you really can’t afford that extra item you put in your cart because it looked good. It will also ensure that you get proper discounts from discount cards and coupons on each item, sometimes the computers are slower than the stock boys.

Ways I am Frugal, and Ways I am Not

Published on October 18, 2007 in Frugality. 0 Comments

Like every good frugal geek, I try to be as frugal as possible. But I am only human, and we all need the occasional luxury. I am frugal in some ways so that I can have certain luxuries in other areas.

My favorite luxury out of all of them is my laundry. When I got my own apartment I got into a place without a washer and dryer, something I have never been without. The time it takes to go to a laundry mat and do my laundry was not a price I was willing to pay. I found a laundry mat that offers a “fluff & fold” service for $0.90 a pound. I spend about $50 a month on my laundry per month, but I waste only about 15 minutes per month.

I am not a person who likes to go out and try new places to eat/drink every week, more like every couple months. There is one place that I can always go when I feel like getting out though, and that is the coffee house. While I have been good about the coffee house lately due to trying to lose weight and save up for a vacation, I still enjoy it about once a week. I generally just drink unsweetened tea now, but once in a while I will spoil myself with an iced chai soy latte(Yum!).
(This used to be a *really* bad habit, upwards of $200 a month!!!)

Then, of course, we have computers/gadgets/electronics/etc. Every geek loves his toys. There is really no frugal way to do this, but you have to save up, pay cash, and not affect your normal budget. I have taken to watching a lot of the tech blogs such as engadget and TUAW(for you other mac geeks) so I can have a general idea of if something is going to be coming out that I will want to spend money on. That way I can save up in advance. I do have another idea for this type of splurging. I won’t really be able to put it into practice until I have the toys I want, but I think it will work beautifully.

I of course have to have ways to justify wasting $10 a week or so at the coffee shop. Most of the ways I am frugal are really just ways that I cut my expenses on things I already do, and a bit of habit changing.

My biggest savings easily come from my worst(and favorite) habit. Smoking. Yes, that’s right, I am a smoker. I love smoking. It’s something I enjoy a lot and have no intention of quitting(although that would be the frugal thing to do). I did find ways to cut my costs though! Perhaps another person is out there struggling with being frugal because they are spending almost $200 a month on cigarettes($6 a pack here in Arizona), another $150 on cigars, and a good 70-80 at the hookah bar. And yes I have spent that in a month. I stopped buying packs/cartons of cigarettes and started making my own. I buy two 6oz tins of tobacco a month and one box of 250 tubes. It costs me about $35 per month. That right there is a savings of $165!!! I also smoke less cigarettes now. Down from 4 cartons a month to 1.25!

I also completely quit smoking cigars. As much as a love them they are an incredibly expensive habit and are more of a luxury. I may start back up with cigars at one point when I am a bit better off, but will be much more frugal about my purchases. Until then I just don’t have money to spend on cigars. As far as hookah goes, smoking at home is much cheaper than going to hookah bars, but requires a fairly hefty initial investment(about $100-150). Something to save up for, not to splurge on. For now, I don’t smoke hookah either.

Driving, oh my god the driving! You may have never been to Phoenix, but it is very expansive. The greater Phoenix area can take as much as 2 hours to drive from one side of it to the other! Recently I relocated to a more centrally located apartment. I now ride my bike to work, I walk across the street to the grocery store when I don’t need a lot. Even when I do the drive is less than 1/8 of a mile. The coffee shop I frequent is within biking distance. It was a very good move overall and I am still actively looking for cheaper, more efficient residency in the area.

On the norm, I regularly spend much less on groceries than I used to. I used to head straight for the frozen foods aisle as soon as I got in the store(you ever notice they are right by the entrance?). Now I go for the produce, deli, and bakery first. What I used to spend in the frozen food section I now spend total. As a bonus side effect I eat better too.

The rest is basically just completely cutting out my spending habits. I don’t go to a store unless I need to, and then I only get what I need. I stopped buying as many useless gadgets as I used to(and trying to get rid of some the excess that I have). Completely quit drinking soda and drink water. I stopped buying clothes all the time, and when I need clothes I will generally go to second hand stores.

Being frugal definitely takes a lot of life and habit changes, but I do not think one should have to give up everything they enjoy in order to live well off. Save up cash for large purchases, and look for any and every way to reduce expenses on expenditures you just can’t give up. If you have any additional tips, or even tips for me, please leave them in the comments. Any and all advice is appreciated!

First Card Paid Off

Published on October 17, 2007 in Debt. 0 Comments

So I just received email confirmation for the last payment on my M&I Credit Card. It is completely paid off and I am on to the next two cards! They will all be gone soon enough.

My Current Debts

Published on October 15, 2007 in Debt. 0 Comments

In case you haven’t read my About page, I am a 22 year old male who has not gone to college. During the last 4 years of my life spent on my own I have managed to rack up some debts. Most of which are my fault, some of which are not(to an extent, obviously it is all my fault). This is a list of all the debts and all outstanding balances(if known, if not then estimated) and an explanation of why each debt exists.

M&I Bank Credit Card
Current Balance - 612.12

*PAID OFF*

This is the card I am currently in the process of paying off. I got it in the spring of 2005 to buy my laptop. That purchase was followed by a series of unfortunate events causing me to not be able to pay even the minimum payment(or rent) and I defaulted on it. The balance stopped just shy of $2100 and I have been paying it down for the last 2 months and will make the last payment this month.

Capital One Credit Card #1
Current Balance - $692

This was my very first credit card, it had an initial balance of $200 and I used it responsibly for over a year until the series of unfortunate events. I used it for things like gas, eating out, online purchases, etc. None of which were very frugal items that I even needed, but I was young and did not know any better. This has also defaulted and according to my credit report has been written off and will clear in 2012. I still plan to pay this and my second Capital One card at the beginning of the year.

Capital One Credit Card #2
Current Balance - $886

This is the worst one I think. I got this credit card because I could one with Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh on it, which is to this day my favorite painting. It had a $300 limit and was used for the same thing as my first Capital One card. It also has the same status on my credit report, as written off and will clear in 2012. I don’t know exactly what that means, but I doubt it is good. This card also fell victim to the series of unfortunate events.

Sovereign Bank
Current Balance - ~$300

I’m not sure exactly how much this one is as I have never gotten a final tally. When I moved away from Boston I closed out my account and got the remaining funds in it. A few months later one of my mom(who I was living with) called and told me I had a bunch of mail. I never forwarded my mail because I did not have an address to forward it to. I had her open some of the important sounding ones and read them to me. One of said letters was from Sovereign Bank informing me that there were charges made to my closed account that they decided to honor and charge me $5 a day until I paid it off. I never did find out what the charges were. When I tried calling the bank they told me they couldn’t do anything about it because they had already passed it off to collections. They did tell me how much it was, although I don’t remember exactly.

T-Mobile
Current Balance - ~$300

Due to the series of unfortunate events(don’t worry, I will make a detailed post on this as well. Perhaps some people will be fortunate enough to not make the same mistakes as me) I could not pay my cell phone bill for a long time, and was still on contract and could not afford to cancel it. After a few months they completely shut it off and I haven’t gotten gotten in touch with them to sort that out(bad [fg]!).

Mesa Community College
Current Balance - ~$700

So this one is kind of interesting. Back in my pre-series-of-unfortunate-events days, I tried to go to school a number of times. Couldn’t get money for it, couldn’t find the time for it, didn’t think I could do it, didn’t know what I wanted to do. You name it, I used it as an excuse. One day I was sick of it and just went down and registered. Was going to pay out of pocket for community college. It wasn’t to expensive, hell, at the time it was less than I spent on coffee in a semester long period. Long story short, they told me I had until a certain day to drop my classes. What was on the piece of paper that I signed(that I didn’t bother reading, bad [fg]!) was a different day, 3 weeks prior to the date they gave me, that I had to drop my classes and not be liable for tuition. I didn’t drop them until the last day.

As you can see I was very bad with money previously. On the bright side I have no School Loan debt, I have no Car debt, and I have a very low amount of credit card debt. All of my debt should be cleared out by early summer of 2008 and from there I will focus on saving for my future via my companies 401k and a Roth IRA.

Quality of Life

Published on October 12, 2007 in Quality of Life. 0 Comments

You may notice over time that some of my articles aren’t specific to frugality. Some of my posts will be on increasing your general quality of life, or ways that have worked for me, at least. I have a few goals I would like to accomplish to increase my quality of life by the end of 2008. I think this is relevant to frugality however. The more happy you are with life and yourself, the less you need to fill those voids with things like big screen TV’s and new computers and cheeseburgers(just to name a few).

1) I really need to get into shape, I have been overweight all my life and it has always been a burden on me. It has always been a drain on my happiness and quite frankly I am sick of it. I hope to completely lose 40 pounds of fat weight and replace another 20 with muscle mass. I am still currently doing some research on the best way to go about this for me.

2) I have a dream of living an incredibly organized and simple life. A life without distractions, without clutter, without junk. I plan to get rid of a lot of my stuff, replace some of my stuff, and get a few things I don’t know how I ever went without. For example, I have never filed anything. I have 4 years of tax documents in a manilla envelope in a pile somewhere, and that is just not okay to me.

3) I would absolutely love to go to college. I never went, I tried. I was never able to go and ended up with some debt. I hope to go about it the right way this time. I taught myself quite a bit in my teen years that I would have learned at college, but none of it copares to actually having that piece of paper. It would also facilitate another dream I have always had, to live and work abroad for a portion(however small) of my life.

There are probably more things that are smaller and less obvious that I can’t think of. Rest assured though, anything I come across that makes my life easier or increases my quality of life will be written about.

It’s Very Basic Right Now

Published on October 11, 2007 in [fg]. 0 Comments

The site right now is very very basic, as I just started it, and don’t expect anyone to see it for a while anyways. But currently it is just a stock version of WordPress with RC2 of K2 as the theme. I am very familiar with K2 and how it works and plan to(in the future) do a custom design with it for this site. I am going to wait on a final release of K2 before I start changing anything though.

I do plan the eventually roll some plugins into the site, and possibly write some custom plugins. As far as goals I plan to have something to track my debt, and getting out of it. Something to track my savings for retirement and for large purchases(of which I need to make a few). I have a lot in mind but so far it’s all just rolling around with nothing finalized yet. Expect good things though!

Welcome to Frugal Geek!

Published on September 24, 2007 in [fg]. 0 Comments

This is the first post on Frugal Geek(or [fg] as it will be called from now on). This is my personal finance blog from a geeks perspective. I plan to focus more on how frugality affects the geek in us, but will also write about standard frugal ideals. I hope you enjoy the site and feel free to leave feedback.