Paying by Cell Phone

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Pay by phone in Vancouver

Photo credit: smith on flickr

Imagine a world where you didn’t have to take your wallet, just your cell phone, when you go to the store. When you pay, you swipe your cell phone instead of a credit card. Crazy, right? Well, that technology is already in use in some parts of the country and could be universal in the near future. Are you ready for it?

In my mind, there are security concerns with this. For example, how many of us have accidentally left our cell phones somewhere before? It looks like mobile payment companies are thinking about that with different security measures, like fingerprint scanning and self-destruction after an incorrect pass code entry (just kidding – I don’t think self-destruction is an option… yet!). If you’d like to read more about how paying by cell phone works, check out this great article on the How Stuff Works site.

Are you excited to use a cell phone payment system or still a little skeptical?

Saving Money and the Planet with Your Commute

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Biking as environmentally friendly transport

Biking isn't the only green way to get to work. Photo credit: uberculture

There has been a lot of hubbub recently about how Americans are taking public transportation more now because of higher gas prices. Environmentalists rejoice! But why else should you consider changing to a greener commute?

  • You’ll get more exercise. By not taking your car, you can add more activity to your day by walking to the bus stop, biking to work or even walking to work from where your car pool drops off.
  • You won’t have to worry about getting in an accident. Generally, you’ll be safer in a bus or walking than in a car… especially on those snowy days when people forget how to drive carefully.
  • You’ll save money – not only on gas, but also on car insurance, repairs, and car payments. You’ll be amazed on how much you can save by walking, biking, carpooling or using public transportation.
  • You’ll free up some time. Take a book to read, knit a scarf, or listen to interesting podcasts while on the bus.

For other ideas about making your commute (or your company’s transportation) more green, check out these articles:

Mashable’s article on eco-friendly company transportation.

TreeHugger’s article on how to commute in an environmentally friendly way.

Significant Ways to Save Money on Gas by PT Money.

Top 10 Reasons Why We Travel

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travel pictures

photo credit: Ayelet Golz

People don’t normally travel because they just want to throw their money away and not see anything. The urge to travel starts because of that restless feeling that comes over you when you’ve been stuck in your city or town for too long. For some, traveling means getting on a plane and flying around the world; for others, it’s a camping trip. My parents used to drag take us summer road trips to national parks in the US, starting with those closest to home. In case you need the motivation to get out there, here are my reasons that you should take a break soon.

1. Seeing new cultures – Whether it’s a city two hours away or halfway around the world, you’re going to see new things when you travel. You become more aware when you’re on the road because you have the time to notice even the little differences.

2. Getting out of your comfort zone – Unless you’re filthy rich and can afford to bring your whole lifestyle with you when you travel, you’ll be adjusting your lifestyle when you’re traveling. That may mean staying out later or not finding anything to eat because you’re vegetarian in a very meat-focused country (yes, this has happened to me a few times).

3. Seeing beautiful things – If you stay home, you wouldn’t ever see amazing vistas and unusual people, except in photographs. Get inspired with these travel photos here and through National Geographic.

4. Meeting amazing people – Not all the people you meet while traveling are awesome. That’s just a fact. But those who take the time to help you or show you around will stand out even more in your memories.

5. Making mistakes – Getting on the wrong bus meant you missed that cool exhibit, but instead you found a great, little restaurant because you decided to eat before heading back the way you came. Which leads me to my next point…

6. Living through funny stuff – So what if you missed your original train to Florence? If you hadn’t been on the next train, you would have missed out on that spectacular sunset and sharing the view with that quirky Italian couple and their bottle of champagne. When I make a mistake while traveling, I always think: “Well, at least it will make a good story later.”

7. Seeing how other people live – Before traveling to Ecuador, I had never seen really poor people. It was sad to watch poor people begging for change or how children played on the sidewalks while their parents eked out a living, sometimes making only $1-3 per day. But seeing all that also helped me keep my own life in perspective.

8. Trying new foods! Yum! – I hope “yum” says it all.

9. Doing things you couldn’t do at home – Like ziplining across a rainforest, surfing on the coast, or befriending monkeys who later grab your hat right off your head!

10. Struggling through another person’s language – While you’re traveling, it sucks immensely not to be able to communicate all your thoughts and feelings to others. But maybe that’s a good thing. You have to learn the language of gestures and you make more mistakes (see point #5).

So whatever your reason, enjoy your next traveling experience!

George Washington McNugget

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McDonalds Chicken McNuggets

Photo credit: Calgary Reviews on flickr

When I saw this in the news, I knew it had to be re-posted on this blog. A woman in North Dakota saw a McNugget that looked like George Washington among her kid’s uneaten food and kept it. Three years later, she just sold it for $8,100 dollars on eBay! Thankfully, all the winnings will go to sending 50 children to summer camp.

First, I hope that the winner does not plan on eating it. Second, I wonder if the person who made the McNugget feels cheated out of a share of the winnings and fame. In any case, I bet it’s one of the stranger things sold on eBay.

Keeping Receipts

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Chinese Receipt

Photo credit: FeeBeeDee on flickr

I’m a control freak. Among other things (like eating cereal with the special spoon), I like to control know where my money goes. I always have a general idea in my mind of where I’m at in terms of money, but it helps to have a worksheet to track my monthly expenses. That way, I can compare different months and try to figure out why I had such a huge difference in food bills between say, May and December. Oh right, guests.

I have a simple method for keeping track of my money. I keep every receipt that’s given to me in a box at home. You also could use your credit card statements for this information.

Every couple weeks, I get the receipts or credit card statements out and sort the expenses into categories (e.g., groceries, medical, internet, beauty products, clothes and shoes, pet expenses, etc.). Then, I put the total amounts into a worksheet that lists the months in the columns and the expenses in the rows. I add everything up in a “total expenses” box at the bottom and subtract that from the “earned income” box to see how much I went over that month or how much I have leftover each month.

Trust me – once you try it, you may become addicted. Make a worksheet for the next 6 months and keep up with updating the information regularly. It’ll help a lot with figuring out what expenses should be cut down and what you can spend more on. I’m still wishing the amount budgeted for shoes will get increased!

Happiest People and Their Money

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Happy

Photo credit: JuditK

Here’s a great article for you to read if you’re thinking about changing up your life, but are paralyzed by arguments against doing so.

If you don’t have time to read the article, here’s a quick summary for you:

  • Spend on experiences that increase your happiness – Of course, you would be happier buying flowers more often and taking trips to wonderful places!
  • Challenge the classic “American Dream” idea – do you really need a 3-car garage, a huge lawn and an equally large house? If not, you may end up being happier (if for the only reason that you don’t have to do all those chores!).
  • Find unconventional ways to increase your income – do you have a hobby or talent, such as writing, that could earn you some extra cash?
  • Don’t accept the standard idea of retirement. A second career might make your retirement years more fulfilling, especially if you go the non-profit route or do something you love, but didn’t have the motivation or time to take on before.

How do you think you can be happier with the money you make?

A Better Way to Shop for Food

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doveshrink1

Photo credit: The Consumerist

Food, food, food! Whether you’re on a liquid diet or are a huge meat eater, you probably spend a good chunk of time in the grocery store. My husband, the ultimate frugal food shopper, taught me one way to get a good deal on food from the grocery store.

Look at the per unit price rather than the total price.

Most grocery stores have price tags on the shelf where the items are placed. These tags have quite a few different numbers and mumbo jumbo written on them. The one you’re probably most used to looking at is the total price of the item (usually the biggest number on there). Take a look below that total price and you’ll usually see the per unit price of the item, too. Let’s take a box of mac and cheese as a hypothetical example.

One brand, Cheesy Goodness (so completely fictional), has a box of mac and cheese for a total price of $1.20. The other brand, Dr. Wholesome (also fictional and ironic), has a box selling for $1.30. If you didn’t have a preference for one brand over another, you’d say to yourself, “Well, this is an easy choice. I’ll take the cheaper one.” But is it really cheaper?

Now, if you looked at the per unit price, you’d see that Cheesy Goodness has a smaller box (400 grams) and that makes its price per unit higher than Dr. Wholesome’s (500 grams). The per unit price of Cheesy Goodness is $0.30 while Dr. Wholesome’s per unit price is $0.26. So while you may pay more in total price for a box of Dr. Wholesome, you’re actually going to get a bigger box for that price.

If your grocery store doesn’t display per unit price, you can always figure it out yourself. Just divide the total price by the units (in that example, 100 grams equaled 1 unit) to get a per unit price to compare the different brands. This really changed the way I shopped for groceries and I hope it does for you, too!

Self-Driving Cars

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Old Car

Not quite a self-driving car! Photo credit: KB35

Self-driving cars have been in the news a lot lately – they may not be that far from our lives, whether we like them or not. I personally am still on the fence about self-driving cars and here’s why:

1) We already have cars that parallel park for you, tell you which way to go in a variety of accents, and keep you at a constant speed on the highways. That’s really all I need at the moment. But this leads me to my second point…

2) Maybe there’s something we don’t know we need our cars to do. For example, if you synced your calendar from your smart phone to your car (yes, I know that’s a whole lot of technology), it could make sure you got to appointments on time. Imagine, you’re chatting to a buddy and your car starts honking at you at the exact time you need to leave to get to your appointment on time. Of course, it will have already taken traffic and other variables into account.

3) I can definitely see a lack of privacy and safety issues relating to these cars. It’d be amazing if we could cut the driving accidents and fatalities down to zero, but I’m sure they have many more hurdles to overcome before making these self-driving cars available to the public.

What do you say? Would you trust a car to drive you around without you having to lift a finger?

Buy or Wait

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iPods lined up

Photo credit: juanpol

With so many new tech gadgets around, there’s this constant struggle between buying or waiting. Even if you do make the decision, you may feel this tinge of regret afterward that you didn’t buy at the right time or that you waited too long and missed out. It’s frustrating, isn’t it?

Every time this happens to me, I swear I’m never going to buy another piece of technology every again. But then, the next sleek new thing comes out. It’s going to solve all my problems! So, I go back on my promise to myself. Apart from swearing off technology and going to live in the woods somewhere, I’ve come up with an informal process for thinking through my tech buys.

What is this new device?

The first thing I do is to learn everything I can about this gadget. The good and the bad. If the negatives sound like they would realistically annoy me to no end, then it’s an easy decision – I won’t buy. However, if the negatives don’t sound too bad, I weigh out whether the positives will improve my life that much more.

Do I have anything else that does something like this?

The reason I still haven’t bought an e-reader like an iPad or a Kindle is because I have a computer and an iPod Touch. Logically, I know I can read ebooks on either of these. Uh, whether it would be comfortable or not is another story. But my iPod is so new and the pain of its price tag is still fresh. That gives me pause to think through tech alternatives.

Does the cost equal the use I’m going to get out of it?

You know that that gadget won’t last you forever. It’s only going to depreciate in value from the moment you take it out of the box. So, I always think to myself whether the cost is equal to the value that I’ll get from using it. If I can use this item everyday for hours or to reduce another cost, that means it’s probably a good value for me.

Do I need extra gadgets to make my new gadget work or to make it fun?

Think beyond just the cost of the gadget. Let’s keep going with the iPod example. If I didn’t have wireless, I had to get it so I could use my device at home. Then, I saw all the cool apps that my friends had and bought those, too. After that, I had to have cool headphones because the ones that came with it were white. Blah. Then, I needed more music to really rock out with my new headphones. And on and on…

It’s hard to think about costs that might come with a new gadget ahead of time so maybe ask a buddy who has one if they got anything extra to go along with it.

Can I get it cheaper if I wait? How long should I wait?

Well, there’s no easy answer here. It just depends on the gadget. Once you decide to buy something, don’t rush into a purchase (especially if you don’t have the money for it). Check shopping sites regularly – eBay or Quibids also might have some good deals if you have the time to bid in an auction.

I’ll leave you with a fascinating post about why people get or wait for new technology.

Any tips to add? Post them in the comments below.

Traveling on a Budget

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Suitcases

Photo credit: malias

Just because you don’t have a lot of money, that doesn’t mean you have to do another stay-cation. You can still see the world! I’ve known travelers who have scrimped and saved for a few years before going on journeys around the world for months or even years. But if you don’t want to wait that long, you could always save for a bare-bones backpacking trip with just a few months’ earnings. It may require some cutting back for a few months, but you’ll have a fantastic getaway to look forward to. That’ll make that difficult time of saving go by very quickly.

I realize that not everyone can get away from their jobs for months or years, but you may be able to bargain with your boss for a few weeks away at least. You could suggest taking unpaid time for part or all of your trip to entice your boss to say yes. Just remember to pick a not-super-busy time to leave for vacation.

First, decide on where you want to go to. Look for cheap flights by either using your frequent flier miles (start figuring out how to maximize your miles) or by traveling during a time of year when fewer people travel. Forget booking a flight in July or August; think February or November instead. Figure out what you can pay for a flight.

Next, decide on what kind of trip you want to do. If it’s backpacking in Asia or South America, you can get by without a lot of money for the daily expenses, but expect to take buses everywhere, stay in cheap or free accommodations, and make most of your meals. If you’re looking for a week in Hawaii, camping on the beaches could save you a lot of money (since they’re free!).

If you want to go on adventure expeditions, try booking a last-minute deal with a local tour operator. You’ll have to be super-flexible and you may have to figure out a Plan B if there aren’t any last-minute deals. On the other hand, you could save a lot of money if you snag one.

For more specific budget traveling ideas, check out these articles from these great websites and blogs:

* Nomadic Matt: 8 Great Alternative Budget Vacation Ideas

* Wise Bread: 40 Most Useful Travel Websites That Can Save You a Fortune

* Nomadic Matt: How to find a Cheap Flight

* Wise Bread: How to Travel Full Time for $17,000 a Year or Less 

* The Digerati Life: How to Fly for Free 

*  Financial Highway: Tips for Frugal Family Travel

 Now get out there and enjoy yourself!