Just a short little rant here today guys.

Ya know, I’ve been living the frugal life for just about two years now.  Sure, I’ve been living debt-free for many more years than that, but living a truly frugal lifestyle, just about two years.  All of my family knows it, and I guess most of my friends and co-workers know it.

I am not quite sure what their reactions are, or what their reactions were when the first came to this realization.  I know that my parents are proud of me, and I’d imagine that my siblings probably don’t care too much (and I wouldn’t expect them to).

Regarding my friends and co-workers, to my best estimation, I would guess the reaction ranges a little from the “So what” side to the majority on the “Why?” side.  The reason I say that is because I’ve been asked that question many times.

Let me give you a few insights and observations about living a successful frugal lifestyle.

First, you need to define exactly what “frugal” means for you.  Because I can promise you that my definition of frugal is completely different from somebody else’s.  For me, living “frugally” means spending as little and saving as much on the things that I buy the most so that I can afford to buy the things that I really want to.  For example, I do not scrimp on my son’s clothes, he wears mostly top of the line stuff.  Want to know why?  Because that’s how I choose to dress him. He also has way too many toys as well.  Again, because that what I choose to do.

On another note, you should only life your life by YOUR definition of frugal and not anybody else’s.  If not, then why bother?

Second, I could care less about what anybody else thinks.  And you really have to buy into that.  Think about it.  Most of us in the world claim to not be judgmental.  We say it all the time.  “I don’t mean to judge, but…”  And a lot of us probably truly believe this about ourselves.  And maybe outwardly, we don’t.  But what is our mind constantly doing, all day long?  Judging. I mean, its true, isn’t it? 

We judge everything we see on the street, we judge our neighbors, we judge our family, we judge our friends.  I think its called human nature.   Anyways, if you cannot truly factor this OUT of the equation, you will probably not ever live as “frugally” as you could.  I think I have gotten it about as much out of my system as I can.  For the most part, I could really care less about what people think of me.

Finally, you have to understand that living frugally is very misunderstood.  Most mistake it for being cheap. Obviously, cheap is a nasty word in our vocabulary.  So again this goes back to the previous point.  I hear it all the time.  When the people around me see my “frugality” in action, some make comments (“you’re just being cheap”), while others just give me the cheap look without the remarks. They simply don’t understand.

I could go on for hours on this subject, but I’ll cut this one short for today.

In order to answer my own question at the top of the page, to all those who say “Why be frugal”, there is only one answer that comes to mind…..

Why not?

As always, your comments and suggestions are appreciated below.

I was discussing some personal finance issue with a colleague of mine the other day, and he said something to me that I had already known n for years.  It was just eye-opening to hear someone else say it.

He told me “If I had only known a lot of this stuff when I was a kid, I would have been much better off.”

Well, wouldn’t we all, right?

Then he said something that never occurred to me before.  He continued,

“They should make this stuff required classroom material for all kids-that way, we won’t have to worry about it.”

At first, it sounded a little silly but the more I thought about, the more it made sense.

This is how I look at it.  Our country is carrying the worst federal deficit that we have ever had in history.  Some say our country is on the verge on bankruptcy because of it.  And although the statistics seem to be getting better, the average American simply lives in debt.  And amazingly, they are content to do so.  Can you imagine how much our economic “position” in the world would improve if we did not have so much debt?

On a more personal level, how much more bargaining power would we all have is we were not in so much debt?  A better credit score would mean lower interest rates on cars and homes, better opportunities for employment, and a host of other things.

Yet, where did all these problems with debt begin?  I guess you could say the core issue is parents and parenting.   Parents who either did not know the disadvantages of being in debt or did not effectively communicate them to their children.

But, what if a lot of this education were a required part of a schools’ curriculum?

I think it could easily be incorporated into a required schedule of classes for children.  The more I thought about it, this is what I came up with:

Grade school-I have not begun to think of the logistics of doing this, but here you would educate on the basics–how to open a savings account,  maybe how interest works etc.

High school– I can remember so many “blow off” classes that I took in high school, that I am sure a “Basics of Finance” or “Your Money, Your Life” class could easily be fit in.  Here, you go hard and heavy about the dangers of credit card debt, what exactly it is, the effects (both short and long term) that it can have on you, and so on.

College-Once again, I can remember so many of my “core” classes for college that I simply didn’t need, that again, some sort of finance or money class could easily be factored in.  Here I think you continue with the credit card debt theme, but maybe also throw in al little about the basics of investing.  For example, what a 401K is, what a Roth IRA is, and so on.

To me, the basics of personal finance is far too important to put on the shoulders of parents. They have too many other important responsibilities.  Also, I think a lot are simply ill-equipped to properly educate their children on the subject. I say put it in the school system and let’s watch our country improve, one child at a time…

Well, everybody, I have some great news.  It seems as though my blog has been able to break through to the top 100,000 on Alexa and I have been able to sustain this for some time now.

Of course, that does raise a few questions.  For me and probably for you.  For you, the question probably is “What in the world is Alexa?”  Which was my question several months back.  Briefly, I can tell you that Alexa is a subsidiary of Amazon that tracks visits to sites.  However, it only keeps track of sites that have the Alexa Toolbar installed, so it is far from perfect.

So, the good thing is that my ranking is going up; the bad thing is that I am not sure exactly what it means.

I could go on to bore you with a lot of other stuff about what determines your ranking, about why breaking into the top 100,000 is a pretty big deal and so forth, but I won’t.

Let’s just suffice it to say that I am very grateful and appreciative to each and every one of you who made this possible.  Yes, being in the top 100,000 is a big deal, but the next goal is to get into the top 75,000 and then the top 50,000 and so on….

On another note, I know that there have not been too many original, “money-saving” posts by me personally this week, and for that, I do apologize.  No real reason to speak of, there was just a few guests I wanted to feature and a few other things.

We should be getting back on track with great money saving tips and everything else next week.

I hope none of you have lost interest or thought that I have.

Have a great weekend!

If you have any advice or feedback on Alexa and what its rankings mean, feel free to comment below.

I wanted to speak a little today about the mindsets and attitudes that go along with living a solid financial life.  Back when I was in debt, in the beginning, I thought I could solve my debt problems by simply creating some A B C list of things to do.  Complete the things on the list and boom; I’d be out of debt.

Eventually I came to realize that this is not the right way to go about doing it. Rather, it is by changing our thought process and our handling of how money comes into and goes out of our life that will bring us real, long-lasting financial success.

I could write on this topic for days (and did so extensively in my book) but for today, I just wanted to outline a few of the behaviors that I began to put into place in my life that made for some real financial progress.

Here we go, in no particular order:

A Willingness and Desire to Get Out of Debt.  This is first on the list for a reason.  You could follow a hundred other steps to get out of debt, but if you don’t  really, truly want to get out of debt, it will never happen.  This includes a willingness to put measures into place in your life, and sticking with them, which will solve your financial shortcomings.

Some degree of organization.  I would say it’s a pretty fair bet that most people whose finances are a mess are not very organized by nature.  This was definitely the case with me.  Note, I did not say something like “Be Completely Organized”.  Simply getting some sort of organization wrapped around your finances would be a good enough start.  Specifically, organize how and when you pay your bills, organize how and where you file them, etc.

Improved Attention to Detail. The statistics are shocking at the number of people who don’t even look at their credit card bills or their utility bills before paying them.  They don’t even look.  Are you kidding me?  In the beginning, you have got to take a good hard look at all your bills to make sure there are no hidden fees that you shouldn’t be paying for, that they aren’t services on your bill that you’re paying for and not receiving, and that there are not charges on your credit cards that don’t belong there. Once you get used to doing this, the process really turns into a quick scan of them, but you’ve got to know what you’re looking for.

Increase Your Awareness Level.  What does this mean?  Let me pose some questions to you.  Is there a cheaper gas company out there that you could get your gas from? A cheaper internet company? Cable TV? When you shop, do you know a good deal when you see one?  Or, do you mindlessly wander the aisles, casually throwing the same overpriced stuff in your cart as you did the week before.

And finally, the Ability to Act. If you can find a cheaper way to get internet, will you take the time and energy to call up and switch?  Or will you maintain your status quo because of laziness or apathy or whatever?  If you see a charge on your credit card that doesn’t belong there, will you call up and dispute it?  Or just let it go because the thought of standing up for yourself scares you to death?

As you can see, this is a list of behaviors and habits, rather than a concrete list of things to do to solve debt. I learned early on in the process that by instituting one of these behaviors in your life is the same as doing ten things off of some laundry list.

Please comment below on my words and tell me what you think.  I always appreciate your honest and direct feedback.

Before we get going, I wanted to let you know that since I have started this venture, I am grateful for all of the things I’ve been able to learn about finances and saving money.  I thought I knew a lot when I first started writing–that knowledge has probably doubled since then.

One of the things that I read about a lot is how you can make a lot of products you use in your household at home for much less money.  Some of these things look like great ideas, some of them do not.  Some of them I would consider trying, some I would not.  For example, making homemade laundry detergent looks like it is too time consuming and so forth to be worth my time.

However, I recently tried making my own dish soap at home and I wanted to let you know how I fared.

Actually, I would grade it at an A- if I had to do so.  The process is simple, and the finished product works quite well.

In order to do it, the only thing you’ll need is one bar of bar soap and some hot water.  That’s it, really.  The “recipe” that I found says to grind up a bar of soap into little pieces.  Believe it or not, what I did was get out a cheese grater and ran the soap through that.  It worked out great (just be sure to scrub down the grater when you’re done).

Then, it says to take 3 cups of hot water.  Actually, I probably almost doubled that, and when they say hot, I would probably say “real” hot.  I doubt I’d boil it, but I might heat it up on the stove a little before I added it to the soap.

Then, I just put the hot water and the soap in a big bowl and waited for the soap to dissolve.  About an hour later-voila!  I was done!  And there I had it, about 6-7 cups of homemade dish soap, which probably  cost me 50 cents-or whatever I paid for that bar of soap.

As far as user-friendliness, it really does great.  You do have to shake it before each use, and it does look at times like it won’t work too well, but it creates almost as much “suds” as store bought soap, and it cleans dishes just fine.

And, as a matter of fact, I plan on replacing my hand soaps in the bathrooms with this recipe as well when I get to that point-increasing my savings.

So, out of all the things that they say you can make at home, I’d give the homemade dish soap big sudsy thumbs up!!

Has anyone out there tried making other cleaning products at home?  Let my readers know your stories below.

As I think about some of the things that have allowed me a fair amount of financial success in my personal life, I look back to a quote I heard a long time ago.  The Americanized version of it would be “Take care of the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves.”  Looks like it was originally attributed to a man named William Lowndes back in the 1700s.

I first heard about it many years ago when I worked in corporate restaurant management.  It is pretty self-explanatory.  Applied to one’s personal life, basically it means that if you pay attention to the smaller financial issues in your life, then the larger ones will take café of themselves.

What I also take it to mean is that managing your money is more of a mindset and a frame of mind than anything else.  If you watch how you spend your money during your weekly trip to the grocery store, then the big things in life (lowering your mortgage payment, buying a new car, etc) should be no-brainers.  You simply adopt the same attitude to the former as you do the latter.

It also reminds me of one of the ways that I used to look at money and how it came in and went out of my life.  Back then, I would utter the phrase “It’s only money” all the time.  You know, spend $10 a week on lottery tickets and rarely win?  So what-it’s only money.  Have an area of your life where you could save significantly but are too lazy/busy/whatever to actually implement the change?  No worries-it’s only money.

As I look back now on the financial mess that I emerged from so many years ago, I also realize that it wasn’t until I starting looking at a lot of these so-called “little things” that I started to make some real progress.

Let me give you a few examples.

My lunch. I take my lunch to work with me and have done so for the past five years, give or take a little.  It’s only a few dollars a day, right?  Well, at $5 per lunch for the past five years, it means I would have spent about $6500 on lunch during that time.  The lunch that I have taken with me during that time probably costs about $2 per day, so I have saved myself $680 a year for the past five years for a grand total of $3400.  I could buy a used car for that amount of money.

My garbage.   I have lived in my current home for the last ten years and I have never paid for trash pickup (I recently wrote a post regarding this). At about $50 per quarter, I have saved myself $2000 over that time period.   I believe that works out to a little more than three free mortgage payments.

My home phone.  We got rid of our home phone just about two years ago (I also wrote a post on this topic as well).  At the time, we paid about $40 per month for it.  We switched to Magic Jack, which cost me $40 to purchase and twenty dollars per year for the last two years.  This works out to a savings of $900 over that time span.  That is more than what I paid for water.

Three relatively insignificant examples, that, when looked at in the grand scheme of things, translate into major savings.

That phrase really does mean a lot to me.  Think of some of the pennies that you could manage better in your life, and you’d be surprised at the long-term effect they have on your overall financial picture.

Do you have some other “pennies” examples that you’d l like to share?  My readers would love to hear about it below.

I have enjoyed writing this blog since the very first day I created it, but I get more personal satisfaction when I can give you tips and pointers with a personal twist to them.  To me, it is these kinds of articles that tend to sink in more.

Anyways, today I am writing to you about your car preventive maintenance.  And obviously, I am here to stress the importance of it.  Also, I would say that the importance of this grows exponentially as does the age of your car.

As you may or may not know, I drive a 1994 Toyota Tercel.  And I will say it again that it is one of the best investments that I have ever made.  I have spent very little in the way of repairs for this car over the course of the last 16 years.  However, I do feel that the end is coming near.   The repairs are starting to creep up on me and it may be getting to the point to where a newer car is needed.

However, I could have saved myself a load of money had I simply done some preventive maintenance on this car when I should have.  I had taken it to my “repair guy” for another matter when he suggested to me a few things that needed changing.  On a different note, if you do not have a car “repair guy” in your circle of contacts, you should get one.  This man has saved me thousands over the years when compared to taking my car to a professional repair shop. 

Regardless, he told me last November that I would need a few things changed on the car, one of them being a distributor cap.  Rather than getting the parts right away and getting the job done, I put it off.  I procrastinated through the holiday season, and it wasn’t until the beginning of this year that I actually purchased the part.  A distributor cap cost about $12 for my car.  He would have changed it for about $15 in labor.

Then I procrastinated even more scheduling the repairs.  Well, guess what happened?  Sometime around the beginning of February, my car wouldn’t start when I was at work one day.  I had to pay to have it towed to a professional place, pay to have it looked at, and pay the “professionals” price to have the repair done.   The diagnosis??  A new distributor cap was needed.  The final tally after all was said and done?  Five hundred and eighty seven dollars.  Yep.  I basically pissed away about $560 because I was being stupid and lazy.

I did not beat myself up too bad over the whole ordeal-I paid for the repair, licked my wounds, learned my lesson and moved on.  By the way, when stuff like this happens to you, you simply can’t beat yourself up too bad.  The only thing you can do is learn your lesson, move on, and make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Along with that, I would like to summarize a few other points I learned out of the whole expensive mess.

First, you do not necessarily need to follow your manufacturer’s timeframe on some preventive maintenance.  For example, oil changes.  “They” say to do it about every 3,000 miles.  I do it about every 5,000.  Same with your air filter and your oil filter.

Second, for your “extended” preventive maintenance (i.e. your 50,000 mile stuff and so on) I would definitely follow the time frame.

Third, the older your car, the more important it is to keep up with preventive maintenance.  If you notice something that needs to be changed or someone tells you about it, do it!  If you didn’t get that part-go back up and re-read my $560 mistake.

Preventive maintenance on your car is important, especially when you drive a car the age of mine.  It reminds me of the commercial from way back when for some kind of auto repair place.  The tagline was “You can pay me now, or you can pay me later.”  I really wish I had paid the $25 on the front end for my car repair, rather than the $560 it cost me after it was too late.

As always, your comments and feedback are appreciated below.

So, were you one of the millions out there who decided to throw a few dollars into the office pool and fill out a bracket for the March Madness college basketball tournament? If so, how ya’ doin’ so far?

Are you still in the thick of it and looking for that big payout in a few weeks? Are you regretting your decision already, asking yourself why did you waste money on such a silly thing? Somewhere in the middle?

Well, I have a little confession to make. For someone who is as about as fiscally prudent as they come, I must admit that I did fill out a bracket. Yep, sure did. Maybe I’ll win; maybe I won’t (just so you know, the pay-in amount for my pool was $30, so it was probably a little higher sum than most).

Anyways, I just want to go over a few scenarios that seem to make sense to me. Basically, the question is: should you or should you not spend money on such a thing?I hope you find my thoughts to be helpful.

If you have more than average credit card debt, struggle to pay your minimums, or even struggle to pay your bills on time, then in my estimation, you probably shouldn’t be fooling with March Madness. I would definitely consider sacrificing that to focus more on your financial health.

However, if you have more than average credit card debt, but always pay your bills on time and have gotten on a program to knock down the balances of your credit cards, then hey, reward yourself and jump into the fun!

If you gamble more than the average person and are anything less than completely financially set, then I would consider at least cutting back in this area. I think it’s a pretty well-known fact that most people that gamble regularly lose money in the long run. If it’s something you really enjoy, maybe just consider slowing down till you are more financially set.

Now let me lay out my personal financial situation to you and explain to you why I think it is alright that I dropped $30 into this thing. I certainly would never ever want to come off in this blog a having a holier-than-thou attitude. Am I completely financially set? By no means. I would like to be able to contribute a lot more to my retirement savings plans than I do. Other than that, yes, I am probably financially set. I have no debts besides my house payment, no credit card balances and my bills are always paid on time and in full.

But here is the key. I spend very little money on myself. I don’t go out to eat (and my family rarely does), I hardly ever buy new clothes for myself and when it comes down to it, if you take out necessary purchases for our household I really don’t spend money at all. So if there is someone who could justify losing the $30 in my pool, I think it would be me. Also, I definitely consider it to be a form of entertainment. It is three weekends of fun, of keeping up with how I and my friends are doing, and of watching some great basketball.

And, to be completely honest with you, I can’t really lose. You see, I participated in a similar type pool for the NFL playoffs and won $30, so in the end, I will either break even, or win the whole pot and come out way ahead!

What are your thoughts on March Madness and your finances? Your comments and feedback are appreciated below.

First of all, I must say that I got this idea from another blog post that I read on another personal finance website.  Trust me, I am so not into “ripping off” content, but I did get this original idea from someone else.  The title of that article was something like “The Hidden Costs of Living in Debt”.

Well, what struck me right off the bat was –what’s hidden about it?  To me (and I remember those days well), there was NOTHING hidden about the costs of living in debt.  I got the costs stuck right in my face every single month with every single credit card bill that came in the mail.  Right in that lovely section called “Finances Charges”.  And, if I was having a particularly bad month, there would usually be another nice little amount in the “Late Fees” section.

I will say this.  If you are living in debt, you may be living in denial regarding these costs, but again, there is nothing hidden about them.  They are right there.

Of course, I doubt many of you would get out the calculator(like I am about to do) to figure out exactly how bad you are screwing yourself by living in debt, but make no bones about it-living in debt is very expensive.

Let’s use a few simple examples.  OK, you live in debt.  Meaning, basically, that you carry balances on one or more (or all) credit cards and you don’t pay the balances off every month.  Let’s just keep the discussion to credit card debt.

So, you decide to buy an item that costs $100.  How about a Blue-ray DVD player for example.  Maybe you shopped around for a good price, maybe you didn’t (obviously, you should have).  Let’s say for this example that you did your very best to get the best price you could, and you got a great deal on this one because it was a quality brand and it was $20 less expensive than anything else you could find.  You’d probably be feeling pretty proud of yourself right now on your great purchase, right?

WRONG!  You shouldn’t be.  Because guess what?  You did not just spend $100 on that item.  Let’s say you put it on a card that charges 18% interest.  And again, you carry a balance on this card.  Well, you didn’t just get that item for $100.  You got it for $118.  And that’s only if you pay that balance down by the end of the year.  So, actually you could be paying way more than even the $100 or the $118.

Another quick example.  I recently bought a flat screen TV at one of the big box retailers.  I financed it, but not because I had to.  I am just investing this money until I have to pay it to them.  Anyway, the TV cost me $640.  I just got a bill for it the other day, and the look of these bills has changed with the new credit card laws passing.  They actually make these extra costs a little more visible to you.  Let me quote a few things from this statement.  And remember, this was on a purchase of $640. 

If I pay only the minimum payment on this account (which is $22), it will take 6 years to pay off the television and I will actually spend $1235 on it.

If I pay $26 per month, it will take me three years to pay off the television and I will actually spend $930.

The TV is a 37-inch LCD.  Do you see yourself spending $1200 on a 37″ TV??  How about over $900???

It is this eye-opening type stuff that caused me personally to realize the high costs of living in debt and also to realize that I’d better do something about it if I ever want to have any level of financial comfort in my life.

The specifics for getting yourself out of debt can be found all over this blog.  Suffice it to say, do what you have to do to get yourself out of debt, but life down there (in debt) is not cheap.  Not cheap at all!

Comments , feedback, and suggestions all greatly appreciated.

I drive an older car. Truth be told, my car is not older, it is just plain OLD. It is a 1994 Toyota Tercel. It is one of the best investments I have ever made. People have told me over and over again to get a new one, but there just doesn’t seem to be much of a point. I runs fine, and gets me from Point A to Point B.

But of course, some things are starting to go wrong with it as it gets up in years. About two weeks ago, it just plain stopped running. It happened at work, and because of some other scheduling things, I did not have the time to get it towed to my regular shop (and obviously, could not have it towed to my “car repair guy”) because I needed it back in a hurry.

I had heard that Pep Boys recently started offering a towing service, and obviously, they do car repairs as well. Without checking the internet for reviews, or even asking ay friends or family what they knew about Pep Boys, I dove in. Scheduled the tow, told them what was wrong, and went from there. It hasn’t been confirmed yet, but this could turn out to be a very expensive mistake.

The towing fee was $39 (which is actually a good price). The diagnostic fee was $89 (which is about twice what my repair shop charges). But, I was in a bind, and I needed my car back fast. After they had my car about three hours, they called back and said that the timing needed to be reset on the engine. This was pretty much what I thought it was. But (and here we go), they also claimed that my head gaskets needed to be replaced at the wonderful cost of $2600!!

Mind you, this is a car with a Kelly Blue Book value of about $500. As soon as I heard this come out of the guy’s mouth, I knew they were trying to take me for a ride. I didn’t even let him finish his line of BS before I told him if that was the case, do no touch the car and I’ll be back in the morning to pick it up. Then, of course, he backtracked off of the $2600, and said I could have the timing reset only, it’s just that the car “might not run right” (nothing more than a scare tactic).

The price he quoted me was I think $385 to reset the timing. Now, this repair involves no parts whatsoever, they just go in and well, reset something. $385 sounded somewhat high to me, but once again, I was in a jam. I authorized the repair.

Got a call the following afternoon saying my car was finished. But (lots of “buts” with these cats), they claimed they had to change the oil and change my air filter to get my car to “run right”. This is just about the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard in my life. Fighting back my anger, at first I just said, “Oh really, could you break down those two charges for me?” I was told that the air filter cost $19.99 and the oil change was $39.99. (A new air filter for my car costs about $7, and I can change my own oil for about $12). After he told me that, I simply asked if the car started after the repair but before the air filter and the oil change. He said yes, just “not right.” I then stated that they just completed unauthorized repairs on my car, and they can either credit them back to me or I can take it up with my lawyer.

The guy said he’d be happy to take the air filter out and drain the oil (do you believe the nerve of these people?) I told him to do what he needed to do, I wasn’t paying for it.

I came and picked up my car and paid the bill-a grand total of $587. They were even nice enough to include a $35 shop fee, which I could never get a satisfactory explanation on when I inquired as to exactly what that was for. By the way, they took the oil change and air filter off, and I checked, and they didn’t drain the oil nor take the air filter out.

Feeling totally ripped off, I called two certified mechanics to ask about how much this repair should have cost. The estimates I got on the repair itself were between $65 and $100. And I paid $385 (they even were nice enough to put on my invoice that I was charged $102 per hour for labor).

I recently wrote a letter of complaint to their corporate offices, and am awaiting a reply. I am not expecting a good result, but we’ll see. The best result I can think of is that they cut this repair in half and refund me the “shop fee”, which would be about $225. I would be incredibly satisfied with that. Something tells me though, that I may never get close to that.

I’ll save all of my “lessons learned” for a follow-up post, because there are far too many on this one. If you Google “Pep Boys rip off” though you’ll begin to see what I am talking about.

Stay tuned, I’ll update you as soon as this plays itself out.