Saving Money
Save It: Part 1
These days everyone’s jumping on the budget bandwagon and John and I are no exception. We’ve always been pretty cheap- er, thrifty (often sharing one appetizer and one entree at a fancy restaurant or being sure to dig out our $5 off coupon every time we get the oil changed) but these days it’s more important than ever to save a buck or two so we thought we’d throw together a little post about all the penny pinching habit’s that we’ve honed over the years:
1. I cut John’s hair. I started this ritual years ago when we started dating (in fact I used to cut his roomate’s hair before we began going out, which caused John to think I was into his weird roomie when I only had eyes for him). I don’t know where I picked up this skill, but it’s fun and I do everything with a cheapie hair cutting scissors from CVS (no electric razor necessary) and John never ceases to get hair cutting complements which keeps me grinning like a fool (and keeps John coming back to my barber’s chair in the den). Our approximate annual savings: $140 UPDATE: You can read how I cut John’s hair here.
2. We only have one car. I know this set-up might not work for everyone, but thanks to the fact that I work at home (and haven’t driven a car since I was in high school since I lived in NYC for almost a decade) we have saved out the wazoo because we only have one car to gas up, insure, maintain, etc. We even purchased our used Maxima outright (with cash) so we don’t have a monthly car payment to worry about, which makes it even easier to save. Our approximate annual savings: around $1000-$2000+
3. We Netflix with a vengeance. Although we usually go to the movies about once a month, we save considerable cash on the other three weekends thanks to the fact that we always have two flicks to pop into the DVD player for instant entertainment. Especially moving into the colder months, it’s not uncommon for us to enjoy a movie on Friday AND Saturday night as opposed to hitting the town for pricier forms of entertainment. And another great money saving Netflix tip is to rent entire seasons of shows on the premium channels (we’ve watched everything from Six Feet Under to Dexter this way) so we never have to pay for HBO or Cinemax but still get to enjoy their award winning programming. We also rent yoga videos that we do together at home (3x a week these days- I’m so proud of us!) which is definitely a lot less expensive than hitting the yoga studio that often. Our approximate annual savings: at least $300
4. We buy plants that are guaranteed. 95% of the time we purchase our bushes, perennials, shrubs and even house plants from Lowe’s and Home Depot, which both guarantee their greenery for up to a year. So if that finicky fern is brown two weeks later, back it goes and we don’t lose a dime. Our approximate annual savings: around $80 (we buy lots and lots of plants, but around one in ten will inexplicably kick the bucket).
5. We pay every single bill online. Which not only makes identity theft less of a worry (many crooks steal outgoing mail from your mailbox with your info on it) it also saves us quite a few stamps over the course of the year (and loads of paper, too). Our approximate annual savings: around $40 a year in stamps alone.
6. We maintain a zero balance. With the exception of our mortgage, we carry absolutely no debt from month to month, which means we pay off our credit card in full each month, and never pay a dime in interest. And it’s not because we’re rich. Far from it. It’s because we’re cheap and we hate the idea of paying those greedy credit card companies! Our approximate annual savings: anywhere from $300 up (the average American has an annual interest rate of 18% and carries $8000 in debt… which means they’re paying $1440 a year in interest alone!)
7. We rarely pay full price on home decor. If you look around our house, it’s full of classic neutral pieces that should last us a while. And although everything looks pretty pulled together, we have scored almost every item on sale (and many with free shipping to boot). With the exception of our Pottery Barn sofa in the den (the PB Basic, their cheapest sofa at $1300, but still a splurge to us) most of our pieces hail from places like Target (our TV stand, our den ottomans, our dining table and chairs), HomeGoods (almost all of our accessories), West Elm (where we got our duvet on sale and our bedroom mirror on clearance), JC Penney (our guest bedroom rug), Ikea (our sunroom side tables and chairs, almost all of our frames, our sheepskins, our welcome mats), Lowe’s (our bedroom floor lamp, our den rug), thrift stores (our sunroom table, our living room coffee table, our armchair in the den) and garage sales (our fireplace screen, our guest bedroom mirror, a few frames in the third bedroom). Many other things are hand me downs (our mattress, the bed in the guest bedroom, our den side table, our sunroom pillows). Our approximate annual savings: $1000+
8. And when it comes to our clothing we’re the same way. John loves J Crew, Banana Republic and even Kenneth Cole, but it’s always from the sale rack or even Marshall’s (which is full of treasures, you just have to dig a little). Likewise, I buy my Nine West shoes at DSW, my BCBG dresses at Marshall’s and my everyday staples on the sale rack at The Limited, Old Navy, or even Target. My best shoe score ever? Some gorge green Roberto Cavalli sandalls for 50 bucks at DSW. Our approximate annual savings: $300+
9. We bring fabric eco bags to the grocery store. And since our store is nice, they offer a 5 cent credit per bag (we usually bring in about four). Over a year of shopping, that’s only $5, but it’s great for reducing the amount of trash that we toss (and recycle) and there are a bunch of other ways we save loot when it comes to grocery shopping…
10. We buy the basics at Costco. We march in there and snag five huge double boxes of cereal and a giant box of Ronzoni Healthy Harvest spaghetti which lasts us well over two months (and allows us to snag two boxes of cereal for around $5 as opposed to one box for $3.50). That alone saves us $96 bucks a year, and when you factor in the spaghetti savings thanks to our bulk purchasing, our approximate annual savings is: $125 or so. Plus we get a discount annual membership for just $15 through John’s office, so we never think twice about paying our yearly fee.
11. We also go food shopping less. We actually go as infrequently as we can get away with (usually two times a month or less) since we’ve learned that each time people go food shopping there are a few impulse purchases that aren’t necessary (and usually aren’t even that good or good for you) so cutting down the amount of shopping trips a month cuts down the impulse buys as well. And it really helps us to cook the food that we have instead of ending up with a bunch of errant cans and ingredients in the back of the shelves that we never use because we’re always picking up new stuff. Our approximate annual savings: $200
12. We host an annual garage sale. Not only is it the ultimate form of recycling, we usually make some pretty good bank. Last year we made around $425, which is not a bad annual yield for something that only takes one morning a year. Our approximate annual savings earnings: $425
13. We’re thermostat freaks. In the winter we keep our house at 69 degrees when we’re around and at 63 degrees when we’re not and when we’re sleeping. In the summer we keep it at 74 during the day and 79 when we’re gone or asleep. Sure for the second or two that Burger wakes us up in the middle of the night once a month it can be a little uncomfortable, but for the rest of the year that we sleep soundly through the super warm or super cold part, we’re saving tons of money on our heating and cooling bills each year. And thanks to the fact that it’s programmable, in the morning everything’s perfectly comfortable by the time we wake up, and we even have a gas fireplace that we fire up in the den on cold nights when we’re yearning for a little extra heat (and a big fluffy blanket). Our approximate annual savings: $200
13. Me and my girls do a magazine swap. I could easily subscribe to about thirty magazines, but instead my friends and I subscribe to around three each and we all swap until everyone has read each one. It’s a great way to save money (and save trees) and then when we’re all finally done with ‘em I drop a big stack of glossy mags off at a local bookstore that gives them away for free to their customers. Gotta love a magazine that gets around. John and I also regularly use our library cards for free lit as opposed to buying something we’ll only read once, and we also relax for a few hours a week at Barnes & Noble where we can leaf through books and mags for free while enjoying a big sprinkle cookie (our only splurge at $2) and some complementary water with lemon. Our approximate annual savings: $80
14. We’re just generally frugal individuals. Maybe it explains why we’re always suggesting sale items in every mood board (regardless of our client’s budget). And why we’re always trying to come up with cheap DIY solutions instead of springing for costlier home decor. It probably even explains why we’re always digging up coupon codes, making our own chai tea at home instead of relying on Starbucks, hitting up Craigslist and Freecycle like it’s our job, and stockpiling those Bed Bath & Beyond 10% off coupons like they’re going out of style. We’re happy that both of our families raised us to be so frugal (John’s dad’s nickname is “El Cheapo” while my dad’s known as “The Dollar General”) and even in times when it wasn’t always cool to pinch pennies, we stuck to our guns (and split an entree in front of our high-rolling friends). Our approximate annual savings: $100
John and I are actually hyper aware of how lucky we are to be on the same page about money. And we truly believe that a penny saved is a penny earned. After all, if you tally up all of our annual savings above it’s a total annual savings of $4,793. And that, my friends, is nothing to sneaze at. In fact, it’s sort of like we gave ourselves a tax free 5K raise this year, which is one of the major reasons that we can afford for me to run the blog full time. Thank goodness for smart saving!
How about you guys? Do you have any tips and tricks for saving a little dough? Do tell!
Be sure to check out Decor8′s fabulous post about how she saves money here. Inspiring!
Negotiating 101: Smarter Wheelin’ & Dealin’
A while back we promised you guys a primer in contractor negotiation, so here it is. It’s really not hard to master at all, especially since getting more than a few estimates is a great way to practice your new found skills (and score an even better deal while you’re at it). So sit back and practice your game face while we run through a few of our tried and true tricks for dealing with anyone from electricians to floor refinishers and beyond.
1. There’s safety in numbers. The more experts and specialists that you talk to, the more you’ll learn about the impending job (you’ll begin to see the steps it will take, the materials it will call for, etc) so by the time you get a third or forth estimate for one specific project, you’ll speak so knowingly about what it entails that you’re sure to get a much fairer deal. We actually notice that our third and forth estimates are almost always a few hundred dollars lower because we’re so confident about the subject at that point (and we’re not afraid to mention that we’ve already gotten a few estimates)- which always helps get people down to their bottom line.
2. Cheaper isn’t always better. Of course there are people who will do something cheaply and then there are people who will do something well. Sometimes those two things overlap, which is great, but never be afraid to go for the slightly more expensive estimate if you feel uncomfortable with the level of expertise that the cheapest contractors are bringing to the table. When it came to finding an electrician to add a few recessed lights in the kitchen, we went with the least expensive licensed contractor (who actually happened to be the second cheapest estimate since one guy wasn’t licensed, which wasn’t a risk we were willing to take).
3. But the most expensive is usually not better either. We have never gone with the most expensive estimate. Ever. Not when it came to paving our driveway or relaying our back patio. Not for our kitchen renovation or our radon mitigation system. Not for our tree removal, not for our new floor installation. Never. After many (many many many) experiences interviewing potential candidates to work on our home, we’ve learned that the most expensive estimates are usually from people who are no more expert than any of the rest (and often times are less experienced so they up their fee since the job will take them longer due to lack of knowledge and expertise). For example, when it came to relaying our patio, the most expensive estimate was from a guy who wanted to duplicate our boring square patio (and kept trying to up-sell us with mentions of stone walls) while the much less expensive (and more creative) stoneworker suggested a curvy and organic shape that was a lot less money AND a lot easier on the eyes. The more estimates you get, the more ideas you can mull over for the ultimate outcome that you’re sure to love. And you’ll be surprised to notice that often the least expensive solution is also the most creative and current (sure to add a lot more value to your home than an outdated and expensive technique or idea).
4. It never hurts to ask. We rarely go with any of the numbers that people first spit out, because we consistently ask people one simple thing: “can you do any better?”. It’s kindly delivered in a friendly tone with a smile (we don’t believe in pretending to be tough, we’ve learned that you catch more flies with honey…). And the usual reaction is that the contractor will come down. Not way down, but somewhat lower than the original quote, which is really amazing when you think that all it took were five little words to score a nice 10%-ish discount to seal the deal.
5. Beg, barter and deal. Sometimes you can score an even lower estimate by mentioning something that may be just as valueable to your contractor as cold hard cash. For example when we had a tree guy come cut down about a billion big trees that hid our house from the curb, we convinced him to dole out a hefty discount by promising to give his name to all the neighbors who happened by afterwards to tell us that our front yard was looking great. We ended up handing out his business cards to score him at least five other jobs in the neighborhood, which definitely made his discounted rate to us worthwhile to him.
That about does it for our primer in negotiating a good deal. When it comes to your home, remember that finding someone who does something safely (and correctly) is definitely the most important thing. But it’s nice to know that you don’t have to pay an arm and a leg when it comes to hunting down the right man (or woman) for the job. Especially in this economy where everyone’s cutting prices and throwing in free services just to score some much-coveted work. Happy haggling!
It’s (Still) All About The Benjamins
In an economy like this, how can we avoid talking about money? And since it’s our blogiversary week, we thought we’d take a look back at the most expensive project in Young House Love’s history (and how we managed to make it slightly easier on our wallets).
You’ve probably seen pics of our kitchen remodel (if not, they’re below), but unless you’ve read back as far as January, you missed the big cost breakdown of our gargantuan project. In that post we opened up our bank accounts so you could see how even while spending $17,500 we still managed to save ourselves $5,500 by negotiating with contractors, finding sales and buying discounted items. Good stuff. Who says you can’t be a penny pincher and high roller at the same time?
What we didn’t mention back in January is that we eked out even more savings by playing the no interest credit card game. When it came time to fork over $14,000 in cabinets, countertops & installation fees, we opened a Home Depot credit card (during their ever-present “no interest or payments for 6 months” promotion). We had the money at the ready, but rather than pay it off on the spot we stashed the cash in a high interest savings account. Of course our Type-A-aversion-to-debt made this hard, but we knew it would be worth it in the end.
And it was. By taking advantage of an interest free 6 months from Home Depot (and investing the 14Gs) after half a year we earned 210 bucks in interest when it came time to pay off the bill in July (weight lifted). It’s nothing to retire on, but it helped us pretend that our faucet and seeded glass pendant were free. Which is pretty darn sweet when you think about it.
Do you guys have any great money saving tips or stories to pass along? You know we love a good bargain (especially one that makes a home improvement project a little easier to swallow) so let the sharing begin.
