Frugal in the Fruitlands

In honor of my monthly challenge to exercise 30 minutes daily, this is health and finance month on Frugal in the Fruitlands.

Five years ago, I had just graduated from college and was living in Haverhill, working part-time at an auto supply. I had the afternoons free, and it seemed to be a great opportunity to get in shape. Near my job there was a Workout World, and I decided to walk in one day and check it out.

That was my first mistake.

The Hard Sell. When I inquired about a membership, I was greeted by a chipper employee and given a tour of the facilities. It wasn’t until after this tour that I sat down with the bleach-blond, over-tanned owner and was shown a contract and a schedule of fees. The monthly fee was $19.99, but together with the sign-up costs, the membership would cost me over $400 in the first year.

I was hesitant.

She promptly lowered the sign-up fees by $50.

I was still uncertain: “You know what?” I said, “Let me think about this and come back tomorrow.” She lowered the fee again, and said they weren’t sure the monthly rate was going to stay at $19.99 a month for long, but if I paid them $10 today, they would hold the rate for me for a week.

… yeah, that was a big lie. If you’re at all familiar with Workout World, you know that’s their gimmick: $19.99 a month. It’s right on their sign. It’s still $19.99 a month, five years later. No way in hell were they going to raise the rates.

But I was an idiot. I paid the fee, and came back the next day and signed up (admittedly, at a greatly reduced sign-up fee. I hate to think what would happen if I didn’t try to exit my seat as quickly as possible).

In retrospect, I realize that from the moment I walked in, they had me. They showed me the gym first, so I would see all the nice features. Then they put me in a position from which I could not politely extract myself. Their goal, of course, is to get you to buy right now. They know if they get you out of their sight, you’re not going to come back. They let me “get away” with the $10 fee with the logic that if I pay them $10 today, I’m likely to come back, thanks to our friend the sunk cost fallacy.

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Entertainment is a contentious issue in my household. This is in part due to differences between my husband and me.

He: finishes games and books consistently. I’m easily distracted (ooh shiny!) and I can count on one hand the number of games I’ve actually finished.

He: doesn’t have a lot of creative pursuits, long-term goals, etc. I suppose some people may see this as a failing, but he is actually a damn good example, I think, of the Zen idea of “goallessness.” He really does just live for the moment.

So it’s taking us a while to work out the monthly entertainment expenses issue.

He agreed with me that we should cancel Netflix until we get through our backlog. Netflix: cancelled. To celebrate, I’m going to put that $17.84 per month into savings.

The MMOs are the most contentious issue, because, again, his entertainment backlog is shorter than mine. Plus we both like games, but few games give us the opportunity for teamwork and togetherness that we both value - most multiplayer games are competitive, not cooperative. MMOs are good in this respect. Of course, there are other alternatives - but Matt makes a good point that a lot of these options, in the long term, would lead to us buying more and more $40-50 games. I guess we could rent them, too, but I just discovered that a membership to GameFly - the game equivalent of Netflix - starts at $15.99 a month for one game out. So… this is better than an MMO how?

For now, since our WoW subscription just auto-renewed, we will see how much we play it in the next month, and cancel if we don’t put any more time into it. It is less expensive than City of Heroes, it’s true, but if neither of us wants to play it, it’s not a bargain.

The cable subscription stays, for now. Neither of us really like the options we have if we cancel it. Most of our shows are available streaming on their respective websites, but huddling around my computer monitor is not my idea of quality “together” time.

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The Simple Dollar’s post today, “Maximizing the Free (or Nearly Free) Things That Make You Feel Good,” got me thinking.

If I read through my library of unread books…
Played through my library of unplayed games…
Watched all my unwatched DVDs or downloads…
Knitted through my yarn stash….

… it’d keep me entertained for the rest of my life. Just off the top of my head, I could: read the first four books of Stephen King’s Dark Tower series, finish playing Oblivion (hell, play through the two Morrowind expansions that I never got through), watch all of Irresponsible Captain Tylor, and learn to make socks.

And this is ignoring such things as board games, which can be played again and again, and of which we have a sizable collection.

So why are we paying for two MMO subscriptions, a 3-per Netflix account, and cable? By eliminating those services, it would save us $188 per month. ($31.98 for two WoW accounts, $39.98 for two CoH accounts, $98 for cable - though that includes cable Internet, and they can have my bandwidth when they pry it from my cold, dead hands - and $17.84 for Netflix), or $2,256 per year, or $15,453 in 5 years (if invested at a conservative 4% interest and compounded annually). That might even buy you a sandwich in 2013 dollars!

Question to readers, and to my husband (the most important reader): How can we realistically cut back on these services and not resign my husband to a life of Wii Tennis?

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This is a question that has bothered me since I started this blog: if money were no object, would I still want to live frugally and simply? I mean, it’s only voluntary simplicity if it’s voluntary, right?

Well, one could argue I don’t live all that frugally or simply now - this blog has always been about the journey, and currently the best I can do is to live out of sync with the consumerist culture I inhabit. When I think of the crushing weight of my mortgage, it’s handy to reflect on women who spend upwards of $1,000 a month on their beauty routine.

I think the conclusion I’ve come to is this: If I were independently wealthy, I would “invest” more heavily in sensual, temporary pleasures. I would do almost no cooking or eating at home, unless Matt was moved to make one of his extra-special dinners. I would buy a subscription to a tea-of-the-month club. I would buy more perfume oils. This stems from an observation that my joy results not from having stuff, but from fleeting experiences. Some of my happiest moments have been sitting in bed with a cup of tea, reading H.P. Lovecraft, and smelling the warm blend of smells coming from my bureau, where I keep my perfumes.

Most importantly, though, I would harness the extra money to break the chains of full-time employment. I don’t mean I would necessarily quit my job - but I wouldn’t live in fear of being fired, and I wouldn’t be afraid to pursue my passions. Work can be transformational when you’re not afraid.

But if I were wealthy, I would still use the public library, in part because I find it such a welcoming place. I would still go to garage sales. I would still not buy a gym membership. I can’t imagine investing more in my beauty regime - I’ve never worn makeup, never shown much of an interest in fashion, and my idea of “put-together” is clean and with clothes that match.

On some level I worry that every cent I spend above my basic needs is snatching food out of the mouths of poor children. But down-shifting is so much more difficult than improving the quality of life. We are constantly swayed to improve the quality of our life, and it takes a great deal of conscious effort to examine our crap and decide it doesn’t fit with the person we want to be.

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Does anyone else out there remember The Frugal Gourmet? With only five network channels to watch growing up, I watched a lot of PBS, a few episodes of this show included. Not a lot of it sticks in my mind, to be fair. But I do remember the day Jeff Smith decided to teach his audience about the meaning of frugality.

He was making something with extra virgin olive oil - a favorite ingredient of his, as I recall - and he said something to the extent of, “Now, I have viewers who write in to me and say that olive oil’s not cheap, so how can this be the Frugal Gourmet?” He went on to explain that frugality didn’t necessarily mean using cheap ingredients, but ingredients that were valued at what they actually cost. Olive oil was worth its weight in gold, in Jeff Smith’s world.

This is something that’s been on my mind lately as I’ve taken on my no-restaurant challenge. (11 out of 11 days so far!) Instead of going out to eat for our anniversary on Monday, my husband and I decided to recreate one of our favorite meals at home: veal saltimbocca. Our ingredients included four thin veal cutlets, a 1/4 lb of imported prosciutto, Fontina cheese, and a bottle of white wine. In other words, we were purchasing luxury food items.

Was it an inexpensive choice? No. But frugal? I’d say yes, for a couple of reasons:

• We were eating at home, for one, and paying less per serving than a comparable meal at an Italian restaurant. The veal cutlets were so thin that they probably were less than a pound all together, and we got two meals out of them.
• We bought the veal, prosciutto, and cheese at a local butcher shop (Butcher Boy in North Andover, MA), thus supporting local businesses. (Admittedly, you could argue we were doing a Very Bad Thing by purchasing veal in the first place, but I’ll save that for another day).
• The chardonnay (Valley of the Moon) was inexpensive and purchased at our supermarket, but was rated highly by Wine Spectator.
• The sage - one of the key ingredients in the veal’s topping - was picked from our own plants in the yard.
• I’m sticking to my goal. That gives me a definite sense of satisfaction, a feeling which didn’t fade once the meal was over.

The meal was spectacular. Whatever else you want to say about my boy, he knows how to deglaze a pan. We sat at the table in our sunroom - he in the suit he was married in, I in my work clothes - holding hands when we could, and discussing how long we’d been together. Burnbright, one of our cats, sat across the table from us, peaceably watching.

Ultimately the reason why you’re spending has to be in line with your goals. I enjoy sensual pleasures - smelling a good perfume, sitting in bed on a rainy day with a book and a cup of tea, eating a good meal with someone you love - and it was certainly in line with that. One could argue it fostered my relationship with my husband; that it instilled me with confidence by sticking with my goal.

… I’d say that was some of the most frugal veal saltimbocca I’ve ever eaten.

Related link: How Can a Frugal Person Buy Expensive Items: A Deeper Look at Frugality at The Simple Dollar.

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I am on day five of my all-home-prepared, all-the-time monthly challenge. So far, so good. There’s a part of me that’s sad that I’m missing pumpkin latte season, but I can make plenty of pumpkin dishes to enjoy at home, too.

I don’t have too much time to post with classes going on, but I thought I’d offer you some valuable links I’ve discovered lately:

Simple Steps to Mental Wealth, which is Frugal for Life’s take on How to Not Feel Poor at Debt-Proof Living.

Save Money: Reuse Mailing Boxes and Packing Supplies, at FIRE Finance. This is something I’ve been known to do–I save every padded envelope and piece of bubble wrap that comes into my house. Still, it’s important to follow a few caveats. First of all, the USPS doesn’t like it when you reuse things like Priority Mail boxes, even if you turn things inside out. Some places will give you trouble for it; but at the same time, some places won’t. This is when it pays to be friends with your postal employees. Secondly, be sure that any rough edges or corners that could tear are covered by packing tape–you don’t want your recycled package bursting open because it caught on a piece of postal equipment.

MoneyNing asks Do You Live Frugal Just to Buy Fancy Luxuries for Yourself? I’ve often asked myself if it’s better to scrimp on necessities to save money for the “fun” things, or if it’s better to give up luxuries to have enough money for the necessities. For me, the answer is: what are your goals, and are you spending according to them? And: when you have that luxury, what will you want next?

Bean Sprouts has a Ginger Beer Plant. I’m jealous!

The Frugal Law Student posted this listed of 12 Meals That Are Easy, Cheap and Healthy several weeks ago, but I just got around to trying out the first item on the list: White Beans and Tomatoes. With a lot of garlic, and slow-cooked for a veeeery long time, they just melt in your mouth. The texture and the flavor make a great harmony. (Of course, my husband had to “improve” the recipe by adding bacon, which makes it somewhat less cheap and healthy).

I just discovered and am in love with the e-book Possum Living. It really strikes me how keenly intelligent and well-read the author is while still being very down-home and practical. I love this exchange from chapter two:
“But don’t you want Nice Things?” people ask. “Don’t YOU like to go out and have a Good Time?”
“Nope,” we answer. “Get a lot out of staying home reading.”
“Oh yeah? What do you read that’s so interesting?”
“Our bankbook.”

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Hi, I’m Lise. I bet you remember me… I used to write this blog, Frugal in the Fruitlands, and… yeah. So I’ve been away for a while!

Classes are to blame–I seem to have underestimated how tiring working full-time and going to school in the evenings could be. Unfortunately, this means my frugality efforts have been slightly derailed, as well. Which brings me to a simple conclusion:

It’s hard to be frugal when you aren’t at your best.

Since the beginning of September, I’ve been living on 5-6 hours of sleep a night and a diet of coffee and baked goods. These go hand in hand: when you’re bleary-eyed, nearly falling asleep at the wheel, it’s hard to avoid the temptation of a pumpkin spice latte. I’ve followed this insaaaane schedule up by filling my weekends with games, visits from family, visits from friends. This led to further expenses: gas to drive to Waltham, dinners out, new gaming books.

Unsurprisingly, this schedule made me sick. Literally. It was just a minor cold, but when I was scheduled for another back to back weekend, I decided that the worst thing I could do is push myself more. I called off my Saturday plans, and just stayed at home. I gave myself permission to laze–but in fact, I got a lot of work done.

I learned a couple of things from this:

• I’m not good at listening to my body. For me, it’s hard to tell the difference between the usual resistance I feel at tasks I don’t want to do, and real resistance from my body telling me that it can’t take anymore. I often mistake the two. I didn’t realize how worn down I was getting because I had forgotten what it was like not to be worn down.
• When I’m worn out, it becomes difficult for me to keep track of how far off the path I’m getting as far as expenses. I remembered the trips to Dunkin Donuts, Panera, and Starbucks, but I didn’t remember the expensive dinners at Thai restaurants, German restaurants, and brewpubs. And I didn’t have time to sort through my weekly finances, so I didn’t have that extra reminder, either.

I’m trying to get back on track as far as expenses go by making my October challenge to avoid dining out for the entire month. This is also an item on my 101 Goals in 1,001 Days list, not coincidentally. We’ll see how I do.

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Have you started thinking about Christmas yet? I’ve already started dreading it. I haven’t quite figured out what I like the least - getting gifts I don’t need or want, or giving gifts that other people don’t need or want.

It might seem early, but now is the time to start thinking about how you want to celebrate Christmas. This will ensure that you have enough time to plan a relaxing season with family and friends, rather than a season of conspicuous consumption.

Here are some tips for fitting your own ethical sensibilities into an over-commercialized season:

1. Make your home a no-giving zone. Start early - it’s no good telling Aunt Jeannie that you don’t plan to exchange gifts when that lumpy green sweater is already in the mail. Similarly, if you plan to spend the holidays with someone, you want to set up the gift-giving rules early. Last year in my home my husband’s parents and my mother agreed that they would not exchange gifts. If you send out a family newsletter each year, you may want to send it earlier and include the announcement that due to (financial situation, awareness of poverty in the world, disgust with consumerism, etc) you are refraining from gift giving this year, and that likewise, you don’t wish to receive any gifts in return. I find that most adults are relieved to find out that they don’t have to purchase Yet Another Gift, not dismayed.

2. Give to charity, not to each other. This is another way to harness the family newsletter—use it to announce that instead of giving individual gifts this year, you have used the money to buy a herd of goats for a third-world country. Heifer.org and the International Fund for Animal Welfare are just two charities that allow you to “itemize” your charitable gift according to what benefits it buys (i.e. $50 buys a neuter for a dog). This is good idea if you’re worried about keeping up appearances by giving a certain amount—I doubt the recipient will go online to price a herd of goats.

3. Suggest a regift swap. I successfully implemented this idea in my book club last year. In this kind of swap everyone contributes a perfectly good item that they don’t need. You can distribute the gifts via any method that works for you: secret Santa, grab bag, Yankee swap. I daresay our book club had more fun with this than we ever would with a new gift swap, perhaps because the nature of the gifts meant that nobody minded so much having a copy of Scattergories or a set of garden gnomes stolen from them, Yankee-swap style.

4. Start a gift-free tradition. Sometime in the week before Christmas, we like to have some friends over for a party. We make it clear that the purpose is not to exchange gifts. We pop popcorn and string them on strings with cranberries and make orange pomanders, listen to Christmas music, and eat Christmas cookies (everybody brings their own). The point is to enjoy each other’s company without an outpouring of consumerism.

5. Decorate green, decorate cheap. There are so many inexpensive ways to decorate in Christmas that don’t involve the consumption of a tree. My fondest Christmas memory is of a day in winter when I was very small and my mother stayed home with me to do Christmas crafts. We made garlands out of old wrapping paper, found pine branches from the woods and set them in jars, and made orange pomanders. Some other Christmas crafts you might want to try are:

• Paper snowflakes
• Washable window painting
• Christmas tree tomato trellises: take a cone-shaped tomato trellis and bend the pointy bits that go into the dirt down onto themselves to form a rough tree shape. Drape with lights and use it to decorate your porch or front lawn. Alternately, you can also reuse your Christmas tree to make tomato trellises!

6. If you have to give, give consumables. Everybody loves chocolate, wine, or other luxury foods. Other items that will be used, such as soap, lotion - or, hey, CFL bulbs - are alternatives to gifts that will sit on a shelf.

7. Make and give homemade. The beauty of homemade gifts is that they usually cost less than store-bought gifts while providing recipients with a one-of-a-kind, homemade item. Last year, many people on our Christmas list received homebrew beer for exactly this reason. Our spiced Belgian-style ale was quite popular in a cold winter!

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Does perhaps a balance stand
Between the Devil on one hand
And God on the other, which must be gained
As often as lost, and so maintained?–
And what I love as my own soul
I spit upon–to make me whole?

- Edna St. Vincent Millay, “Journal”

We are imperfect creatures. Voluntary simplicity and frugality are certainly my goals, but sometimes I fall short of the mark. This post is my own way of balancing the scales; of assessing what my husband and I do right as well as what we do wrong.

Ways I Simplify

1. I use simple cleaners (such as vinegar/water or diluted Simple Green), with rags, for most of my cleaning needs.
2. I compulsively reuse. Plastic grocery bags become litter cleanout bags. Litter tubs become planters. Plastic tubs for food are washed out and used again. I have rows of raspberry syrup bottles cleaned out and ready to reuse for gifts somedays.
3. I love my library – so much so that I have almost stopped buying books entirely. We also borrow books and DVDs from our friends.
4. We don’t have a land line – just two cell phones. They’re basic cell phones, too – no smart phones here, although they’re tempting.
5. My husband and I carpool to work 3-4 times a week.
6. I almost always bring my own lunch to work. Sometimes, if I forget, I’ll walk down to the nearest supermarket and pick up some lunch supplies, instead.
7. We make use of Freecycle, Craigslist, yard sales, and the kindness of family and friends for many of our needs. We just got a working Toro snowblower through Freecycle!
8. We only go to the movies two or three times a year The last movie I saw in a theatre was the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie.
9. I reuse tea bags at least twice; sometimes three times. Surprisingly, the most inexpensive teas are most often the ones that are stuffed with tea and can be reused again and again.
10. We don’t have kids, and don’t intend to. We’re staunchly childfree, and I don’t see the point—ecologically, economically, or philosophically—in bringing another methane-belching living thing with a 70 year lifespan into the world. Plus, we’re having too much fun without them.

Ways I Complicate
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Recently The Tao of Making Money posted a list of twelve things he would never buy. Computer upgrades and repairs were among them. Golbguru rightly pointed out that you can learn to do these simple things yourself, or have a family member or friend do them for you. As a computer-savvy family member, I encourage the former more than the latter, but the basic logic stands.

As a computer-savvy family member, I also am called upon to cut through the jargon and half-truths that stores such as Best Buy throw at their customers. My most recent experience with Best Buy and its associated Geek Squad involved my father, in fact. Keep in mind, my father would buy that bridge. He would buy any bridge. Hell, he bought a dump truck.

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