Hobby? I Have a Hobby?

I go through hobbies like actors go through actresses. This one takes too long, this one is done by a person I don't like, this one is too expensive, and so on. It really is like watching a bachelor TV show where beautiful actresses get cycled through like tissue paper.

One of the blessings of almost dying, is that I got to bond with my child and wife. I found that I have more in common with my parents than I thought. It's time for a rambling story.

When I was a wee lad, my mom loved getting taken to the nursery by dad. They would spend hours there. Nursery's and Home Depot basically have nowhere to sit. My awkward kid feet got so sore, It was literally my least favorite thing to do. The only thing I hoped for was that we would get to eat something tasty out because they didn't want to cook after shopping.

Now, the tables have turned. My child must endure the endless trips to Home Depot for more dirt and plants. Lucky for her, the wife and I have banned ourselves from Home Depot.

Coming back to having a hobby, the wife and I have finally found a productive thing we enjoy doing together. We have a hobby that I don't feel like is a waste of time or money. Not everything homegrown is the cheapest, but it is fun and makes good memories. What more could I ask from a hobby?

Garden Time!

My kiddo made this experience even more fun!

It was a beautiful Sunday morning. The wife and I decided to make this a non standard day. Today, we used the free wood we picked up a month or so ago to construct a garden box. The dimensions of the box were about 6' x 3' x 8", cut by a handsaw. It took 2 trips to Home Depot (we also went to Costco on one of the trips).

The slide inspector is here!

In the first picture, I nailed the former closet boards together, placed cardboard underneath the boards, and then we put much soil (the most expensive part) into the bed. I left two bags of soil with the top one arching off the bottom one. My little girl decided this was a very fun slide. She began sliding down and giggling. The second pictures shows the angle better.

Making progress, but not quite done yet!

Once we had the soil in the bed, it was time to plant the transplants and seeds. This is where my wife's ability to not destroy delicate things on contact came into play, as well as her planning. The first thing we did was separate the large clump of Walla Walla onions. The roots were intertwined with each other and needed some tender loving care to help them be viable. We placed Marigolds in the corners of the box to help keep the wrong types of bugs away. Then, we put in the Zucchini and potatoes. Finally, we added the carrot seeds. Once this was done, we called it a night for this box!

I will post an update on this shortly.

Why a Safety Razor is Better than Gillette or Shave Clubs

My Old Gillette Razor

Today while hanging out in the shower, I reflected on razors. Recently, Gillette created their own shave club with comparable prices to Dollar Shave Club. Another option I had considered was Harry's Razors. However, thanks to the kindness of a coworker, I use a safety razor. He was kind enough to give me over a hundred blades.

At age 16 my dad bought me a power shaver. Quite a nice thing for him to have done. Young high school me was unable to afford replacements (I was saving up for a 4 year school, before I knew that was a bad idea).

When I first started shaving at the 4 year school, I used Gillette because they mailed me a small kit on my 18th birthday. Truly nice of them and a good marketing idea. The kit lasted awhile, but sure enough I needed new blades. I went to Wal-Mart, cheapest of the cheap, young college me needed cheap. The blades there were over $3 a head if memory serves me. I think it was a 4 pack for $12. Now, I changed blades about once a month, sometimes less but it still could be $36/yr. I also got the added bonus of models being discontinued, meaning I had to pay $10+ for a new handle to support the advertising.

A Cheapish Razor

I did this for awhile and then experimented with cheap single or double blade razors. Sure, you could find them for 10 cents or more, but I noticed the quality just did not seem to be there. I couldn't get a full month out of them, it was more like a week or two. When those blades stopped cutting right, my face suffered.

One day at work, one of the coolest guys determined I wanted to try using a safety razor but wasn't sure which one to get. This fellow gave me his kit that he wasn't using which came with 100+- blades. I was immensely grateful and still am. The shave feels great. The construction of the blade holder makes it very difficult to cut myself. My razor has type on it, so I just keep track which side is dull and use the other side until it is time for a replacement. When the blade is dull, it stops cutting, rather than cutting my face. With my old 4 blade Gillette razor, the bottom blades would become dull while the top were sharp, so my cut wasn't consistent. Meaning, if I went over an uneven portion of my face, the top blades would cut me since the amount of pressure needed changed. Also, each blade costs about $0.10 and is double sided. You aren't dependent on a singe manufacturer for blades either, so I never need to replace it due to planned obsolescent. 

Here is the breakdown per year:

• Gillette: $38.50 ($36 for heads and $2.50 for new handle every 4 years)
• Cheap-o: $2.60-$5.20 but a bad shaving experience
• Safety Razor: $1.20

Yes, you read that. I spend $1.20 annually on razor blades. 'Course I have about 8 more years worth of blades before I actually spend that much money a year. My handle may need replacing at that point. Something to note, if you replace a blade and are getting a bad cut, you may have it upside down. 

Reviving the Old Blog

It has been almost a year since I've done a post. Much has changed.

In the past 11 months:

• I went from 35 miles to 2.5 miles from work. Now I drive 0 minutes a week for work.
• My ol' faithful car failed smog. We decided to retire it in state retirement. They gave us $1k for him.
• We save $42/month on car insurance due to only having 1 car, and $175/month on gas. We also save about $80/yr on registration.
• I now bike to work. It is glorious. More on this later.
• Wife and I are now debt free! We sold the fifth wheel that we were living in, paid back a personal loan, a hospital bill, and my student debts. It was about $50k in all! 
• The mower given to us wouldn't work (Googling it suggested it was not an easy fix). Dear wife and I bought a reel mower (more details on how this is going coming up).
• We invested in a chest freezer (more on this too)
• I am about to go from saving the company mandatory 8%, to about 35% through retirement contributions and house savings.
• Contributing the above amount to retirement savings will reduce my tax bill about $1600.
• Wife and I are becoming more Tightwad Gazette and Mr Money Mustache oriented.
• Wife is now a crocheting machine!

I am looking to use this blog to record the new things wife and I try, and our journey for becoming satisfied through a simple self sufficient life.

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?

Inexpensive Entertainment

Sometimes I feel like these batteries

Sometimes, I just want to recharge. The wife and I call this my "nothing box" because I don't think but immensely enjoy it and recharge. My newest computer is a work Macbook so my youth urges to play video games for free often go unfulfilled. As a previous Windows user, free demos took care of these urges. As time went on, my computer became too old and I was left in a state of playing online chess at gameknot.com and chess.com. Both of these sites are nice, although I prefer chess.com due to extra features. What I discovered though is that when I want to do something mindless, the male nothing-box, chess is not perfect since I must think.

However, I’ve recently discovered Risk and Monopoly online at pogo.com. Every 5 or so minutes during play you are greeted by a 40 second break to watch a sponsor. I use these times to go to the bathroom, plug in my computer charger, check email...etc. What I like about playing these games online is that I don’t have to find people to play with, the website simply matches players. Also, you can learn from people better than you in the never ending quest to improve.

My wife enjoys me doing my nothing-box because if I don’t play a game, I’ll instead pull out the budget and start thinking outside the box on how we can save money. Sometimes that makes her nervous.

On a somewhat related note, Netflix streaming just released Friends. 220 episodes ready for instant consumption. That alone could be worth $8 a month for your movie entertainment. Although I am frugal, if I have no source of entertainment it encourages me to be impulsive with indulgences like eating out, catching a $12 film, or buying a few movies in the bargain bin. Not that any of that is particularly bad. It is just helpful to have an inexpensive alternative to spending money for entertainment.

What is your inexpensive go-to? What do you like about it?

Disclaimer: I do not pay for any of the above websites except Netflix.