Churning For...

Hello Dear Reader,

About 2 months ago, I signed up for a Chase Card with a $200 sign up bonus. After spending the required money in regular bills, the question is, what now? I have the money in bonus points on my Chase account. If I was the Jones's, I'd probably use it to pay a down on a couch set, or maybe buy a single fancy rim for my gas guzzling SUV. What should I do though?

I've thought of a couple options:

That would have been nice!

1. Use it for regular budget items. This would go to food, or some essential monthly expense. I wouldn't feel the rush of something shiny, but the $200 it frees up would then need a decision. Maybe I could put it toward an IRA. It isn't a lot of money, but it is something. An added bonus is this could get drawn into our money tree with an unusual pattern signifying it was creatively earned.
2. Buy a freezer. Our chest freeze has been getting full. Maybe I should buy another one and name it Chase.
3. Buy a bike rack. This is the one my wife wants. It would probably cost $150 leaving $50 for something minor like gardening supplies.

Not relevant picture...but it is Lego!!

We almost bought a bike rack at Sports Chalet (first day of sale...not the day of the posting). My wife found the one that a previous salesman said was good. It was $170, and the closing discount is...wait for it...10%!! Wow what a deal! I'm being sarcastic...I told the wife I was unimpressed that a store going out of business couldn't squeeze more discount than 10%, especially since that meant it couldn't be returned to any Sports Chalet store. This brings me to my conclusion. I am so cheap, that even with money basically given to me, I can't bring myself to buy something slightly on sale.

The last option is the wife's sanity fund. We have been married 5 years and she has been wanting a weekend away since our last one was 4 or so months ago. We wouldn't normally need this except for the two year old. This is a good problem to have. I don't have the answer yet. Whatever we decide, I'll need the wife's buy in.

Jones's Guide To Losing Money

1. Buy as much house as you can afford, wait, buy more!
2. Lease both of your cars. Pay over $200 for insurance...preferably $400.
3. Credit cards are magic. If you have any money issues, use the credit card.
4. Refinance your house to a longer term.
5. Pay $100+/month for each cell phone you have. Buy the latest and greatest.
6. Buy every kid a new iPhone and iPad. No need to consider the child's age.
7. Netflix? That's for cheap people. You need cable. Lots of channels.
8. Eat out every day, drink coffee but from Starbucks, or wait, Starbucks is for semi-fancy people. What you need is #Hipster Coffee Joint coffee.
9. Hire a full time nanny because both parents work full time. Don't calculate taxes, mileage, lunches and nanny fees, otherwise you may realize the second job earns $6/hr.
10. Don't read finance blogs. They will just tell you to invest money. You need money now so you can spend it.

This lady is worried about money but won't budget or clean up her mess.
Just kidding, it's a stock photo.

See this money? You need to waste it! Give it to a salesman!

Money is a big cause of conflict in couples. What if, instead of pursuing every luxury in life, we focused on what is really important? How un-American! You should instead buy a car. Not a Honda...you need...nay, you deserve, a BMW. Or maybe a Lexus. Take your pick, just tell the dealer how much you can afford.

You see, when you outsource processing, you stop planning and work in vain. It is like being a pinball, Life confuses you, you bounce around and don't understand why no matter how hard you work, you never get ahead. You see your kids less and less, the spouse gets more and more pissed, and you become a ghost of yourself. Why? Priorities. You were too busy to make your work and life count. Shame on you. You must pay penance by drawing up a budget, and go over goals with your spouse.

No excuses. Use your brain.

Valentines Day For $19.49

The wife and I managed to score babysitting from family for Valentine's day. So, instead of having food at the house with a kiddo helping us keep the romance down, or at a noisy restaurant with a kiddo helping us keep the romance down, we went to Olive Garden and then Cold Stones. We don't typically go to restaurants, let alone 2, on a holiday. However, with this babysitting happening the wife and I felt we were really due for a night out.

Olive Garden is one of our favorite restaurants for a couple of reasons. It is usually quiet. There is no TV blaring telling you stuff you need to buy, or a game you need to watch. The wife and I love this. By the way, I'm getting no funding from Olive Garden for this blog post.

So here is the breakdown:

• We weren't starving when we got to Olive Garden, this helped us not order giant plates becoming leftovers. 
• Olive Garden serves bread forever. It's like Red Robin's bottomless fries. So, we snacked on the bread while we waited for our other food.
• We sampled a glass of wine for free.
• We split their lasagna special for $12.99. This included unlimited soup or salad for 1 person (we only had 1 refill. I ate one bowl, the wife ate the other. If you get excessive with this splitting this they charge you).
• The lasagna order included chicken marsala ravioli and fettuccini alfredo.

This totaled to $14.03 after tax. The wife and I liked our service so we tipped 20%+. We will do this sometimes if we split and the server is nice to us. In this case, they served two different plates with half of each of the three entrees, so there was no awkward sharing. 

This brought the total to $17.00. 

I had promised the wife Cold Stones Creamery ice cream, so we went there next. The wife ordered a little known kid size ice cream with Oreos. It is small, at about 1 scoop of ice cream + topping. However, it came out to $2.49 bringing our total to $19.49.

I paid for these items with my new credit card, which will give me a $200 reward after spending $500 within 3 months. 

Also, just eating a moderate amount of food helped us not be in food coma the entire night.

Little Chicks and Random Thoughts

 Living in the country has certain spoils, like being able to purchase chicks and raise them for eggs. Over the past few weeks, we and the in-laws have been talking about raising chickens for eggs. Over the last year, egg prices have gone up, and we eat about a dozen eggs a week. The in-laws eat maybe 8 eggs a week...it is hard to count when I'm not home for breakfast.

Also, an advantage of "home grown" eggs is that you control the setting of the chicks. Want them to roam the earth in search of bugs? Set 'em free! Want to put them in the coop so they don't get eaten? Save the chicks!

The amount of money we will save from this is not huge. If 24 organic eggs from Costco cost $7, and we have to pay for grain/time spent watching them, we probably only save $20-30ish a month on eggs. But who doesn't want fresh eggs?

As I grow older, I'm continually impressed by the good life not coming from possessions but experiences and trying new things with companions. I get more satisfaction out of our family joking about the chick named "nugget," than making a few bucks from fixing troublesome technology.

Part of exiting the rat race is replacing it with something. How should I spend time instead of keeping up with the Jones's? I listen to podcasts to and from work to help keep me sane from traffic. What I listen to is budgeting, technology, economy and general side earning business concepts. It helps me refresh before I get home and enjoy the wife and kid's company, rather than being in a grumpy mood due to kamikaze drivers (I'm looking at you Subaru Impreza driver!)

This is definitely the "talk about whatever I feel like" blog post, but the point is that you should use your strengths to your benefit, but not at the expense of ridding your life of what is really important. When I sit on my deathbed, I'm going to think about the family, volunteer work, God, and has my life been spent well. Investment advisors will often tell you to start investing at a very early age so the interest will yield a high retirement savings. What if I treated my life like that? I'll do what is important at the young stages of my life and won't have to catch up as much when I'm a crotchety old man. This is one of the reasons I'm always looking to get slightly ahead financially. Not so I can be a rich guy, but so I can be a content old guy not anxious about income/family relations (assuming I get old. A bus could take me out!).

Quick Guide to Save Money

Cutting costs makes my wife uncomfortable. However, I believe it is key to living simply. Every situation is different.

Pre-req's
1. Make a budget.
2. Compare to your income

Comparison Items:

1. Housing is usually the most expensive budget item. Simply, is your living in an extremely expensive place? Do you own or rent (renting is much more appropriate if you living lease by lease and want the option to move)? Do you have more house and property than needed? How much could you save by downsizing? This is often the hardest thing to adjust. Currently, I live in a multi-family setting for a very manageable amount of rent.
Savings:
$600/month lower rent
$50/month utilities (split)
-$60/month extra gas

2. Cars are another large budget item. Do you pay monthly payments on a car? What if I told you that most people don't need a newer vehicle? My wife's car is 18 years old, with 231k miles on it, running strong. I paid $3000 for it and have done minimum repairs on the about 40k miles put on it. No monthly payments, low insurance cost and cheap parts. The value of the car isn't going to fall with a small new scratch. This is the easiest thing to quickly save on. Do be careful when buying a used car though as many people who do no maintenance try to overprice their car. Use kbb.com. Stick with an inexpensive, reliable car. My wife had a Saturn when we met and spent about $100/month on it for some random repair. Sometimes reliable vehicles are not in good condition. Have someone you trust help you choose a vehicle. The people who are braver than me ditch 1-2 cars and go bikes. That is the ultimate way to save, but you need to have transportation worked out.
Savings:
$500/month no vehicle payments
$100/month lower insurance from older vehicle
$50/month high mileage vehicles (mine gets 35 average per gallon. Not bad for a $2.5k car)

3. Health insurance is a sore spot due to new regulations. This I don't know as much about since you have to comply with new rules and coverage not always accepted. Remember that the purpose of insurance is risk management. A Dr. visit isn't a risk. Large overpriced medical bills are a risk. Somehow, I ended up with a job including benefits. This is harder to calculate how much we save, but comparing it to when we were on another plan it is about $100/mo
Savings:
$100/month lower monthly (lower deductible)

4. Internet and cell services can also make quick savings. My wife used to be with Verizon because we lived in a remote location. Now she is with Republic Wireless (reseller of Sprint, roams on Verizon). For unlimited texts and calling we pay $10 a month. We had to buy the phone for about $200 but have no contract. Meaning, we can have the phone last as long as we want and not be forced to pay for it via subsidized phone price in monthly cost. In 2 years, she will have spent $440 on phone service on Republic Wireless, compared to $1060 on Verizon. In 3 years if the phone lasts, she will have spent $560, compared to $1540 on Verizon. She also now can use her phone on WiFi for internet, with a much better phone. Internet service is more tricky due to different providers. Research what is local to find savings (without bundling! Stay away from that!)
Savings:
$26.67/month

5. Cable. Trade your cable in for Netflix (or Hulu). Go from overpriced to $8/month and have no commercials.
Savings:
$12-92/month

6. Cut your local landline. You can just use cell phones, or set up a new telephone number via Google voice and use that. Last I checked, that could be used to have off-time to prevent sales calls at inconvenient hours.
Savings:
$20+-/month

7. Taxes. The tax code supports tax avoidance (legally finding ways to avoid paying taxes). Tax evasion is illegally lying or not paying what the tax code determines you should pay. Collecting your donations, mortgage interest, student interest, Hope/American Opportunity Credit and dozens more can help you have a refund. If you don't care about knowing taxes, perhaps ask your accountant what will give you the best return on your time.

8. Find new ways to save. Make it like a contest or something you do to enjoy yourself. Do you really both need 2 Macbooks? What if you had 1 Macbook and 1 tablet/Chromebook? That could save $800 on a one time purchase.

9. Get buy-in from yourself and family, otherwise extra purchases will replace savings. Perhaps you are saving for a down, or trying to get debt free. The important thing is to get the entire team on board. If you are married to a spender, provide limited amounts of credit. Sure, this person may max out the credit card, but if they have a credit limit of $200 or less per month, that is manageable.

10. My wife cooks naan bread from bulk ingredients instead of buying bread. We also grow some vegetables. A quick estimate says we save a few bucks per month, but it is much more healthy so that is a quality of life increase for less money.

If you add up all of the saving minimums, it comes to about 16.7k a year. That is quite a bit of savings for minimum sacrifices. Be sure to somewhat regularly compare to your budget and make sure you are spending within it. Lean more to asking if you need it, rather than you want it. Dear reader, what have I missed? What are some things you do to save extra money and what do you save it for?