The Federal Reserve raised its key interest rate Wednesday in a vote of confidence in the U.S. economy’s durability while signaling that it plans to continue a gradual approach to rate hikes for 2018 under its new chairman, Jerome Powell.
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الأربعاء، 21 مارس 2018
A New Approach To Affordable Housing: Economic News You Can Use
Are you ready to enter the rental market or want to upgrade your current situation? Learn how the Ready to Rent program may be able to help you.
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Here’s How a Federal Funds Rate Increase Could Affect You (and Your Debt)
This increase is likely be the first of several in 2018. Many economists are predicting three to four quarter-percentage-point rate increases this year, according to the Wall Street Journal.
A quarter-point increase doesn’t sound like much, right? So why are we talking about this?
To better understand this news, we’ve put together a guide to understanding the federal funds rate and how it could affect your finances.
Federal Funds Rate, Defined
In order to understand what the federal funds rate increase means for you and your finances, let’s start with a definition.
The Federal Reserve defines the concept on its website, but, to be honest, it might read as a bit of mumbo-jumbo to commonfolk (i.e. me).
At its core, the federal funds rate is the interest rate banks use to lend one another money. This helps the Federal Reserve keep tabs on how much money banks have on hand.
“The higher the interest rate, the more expensive it is to borrow money,” The Penny Hoarder writer Lisa Rowan wrote last March when the rate increased. “A slightly higher interest rate slightly reduces the amount of money floating around, because it’s more expensive to borrow it in the first place.”
The Federal Open Market Committee sets the federal funds rates based on the country’s economic health. If the economy is doing well, typically the federal funds rates increase — making it more expensive to borrow — to prevent inflation. If the economy isn’t as robust, the rates will lower, making interest rates decrease. It’s the classic supply-and-demand scenario.
How The Federal Funds Rate Increase Might Affect Your Finances
Although the federal funds rate is designed to help stabilize the country’s economy, it could affect your personal finances, especially if you carry debt.
Here’s how:
1. Credit Cards
At the end of last year, Americans had racked up $808 billion in collective credit card debt, and unfortunately, those with credit card debt will notice the federal funds rate hikes the most.
Even a small increase in the federal funds rate will affect interest rates, explains Steve Allocca, the president of peer-to-peer lending platform LendingClub.
“The prime rate moves in lock step with the federal funds rate, and most credit cards have a floating interest rate tied to the prime rate,” he says.
“Most credit cards have a floor, so when the prime rate goes below a certain level, the rate doesn’t drop. But it doesn’t have an effective ceiling, so every time the prime rate goes up, the interest rate on your credit card balances are going to go up in lock step.”
If you see a quarter-point increase in the federal funds rate, you’ll likely see a quarter-point increase in your credit card interest rate over the next couple of months, Allocca continues.
“If you were to generalize, that’s the one [type of debt] that’d have the most impact from the federal funds rate increase,” he says.
The five federal rate hikes that have occured since December 2015 have resulted in credit card users paying $6.8 billion more in interest, according to WalletHub. The personal finance website predicts that number will increase by $1.6 billion this year.
A potential solution: Consolidate your credit card debt.
Debt consolidation is the act of lumping all of your credit card debt into one account by paying off your other accounts with a personal loan.
This can make paying off your debt easier (everything’s in one spot) and replace the high interest rates of multiple credit cards with one (ideally lower) interest rate of a personal loan.
A number of online marketplaces can help you find the best personal loan for you.
To start, try peer-to-peer lending site LendingClub. Enter how much you need to borrow to cover your credit card debt, and check your rate. Because it’s a soft inquiry, it won’t affect your credit score unless you actually apply.
2. Private Student Loans
If you have an existing fixed-rate government loan, you won’t see a change in your interest rates. Whew.
However, back in December when there was another federal rate increase, the New York Times reported that interest rates on private variable-rate loans could increase.
The increase likely won’t push you into the red. We’re talking about having to pay an extra $2,000 over the next 20 years on a $30,000 loan. That’s about an extra $8 a month.
If the rates continue to increase, though, the effects could stack.
A potential solution: Prioritize your debt payoff plan, or refinance your student loans.
If you have a mix of federal student loans and private student loans, consider prioritizing which ones you work to pay off first.
Paying off your private student loans before rates increase too much could be a smart money move. Then you’re left with federal student loans, which are set at a fixed rate.
Another option is to refinance your private student loans to secure a better, lower interest rate.
Chat with your current private lender, or shop around on an online marketplace like Credible. The Penny Hoarder interviewed two guys who were able to save thousands on student loans after refinancing.
3. Mortgages
If you’ve taken out a home equity line of credit (HELOC) or an adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM), your interest rates could increase. However, this increase would likely be slight because mortgage terms tend to be long (think: 15 to 30 years), says the New York Times.
The APR on fixed-rate mortgages could also increase, but this wouldn’t affect those who already have mortgages — just new borrowers.
Sometimes, though, banks predict the federal rate hike and will slowly build up interest rates. Mortgage markets have already accounted for this most recent anticipated hike, says WalletHub.
A potential solution: Refinance to a fixed-rate mortgage.
If you have a HELOC or ARM and interest is becoming unbearable, consider refinancing to a fixed-interest rate mortgage. However, this shouldn’t be a willy-nilly decision.
Follow NerdWallet’s guide to determining if a fixed-rate mortgage is right for you. Remember, fixed-rate mortgage interest rates are also increasing.
If this could be the right choice for you, consult your bank or mortgage broker or shop around online.
Lenda* is an online mortgage lender that’ll allow you to compare rates. The company says it saves homebuyers an average of $409 a month in loan repayments. The Penny Hoarder’s Mike Brassfield chatted with one woman who’s saving $150 a month on her mortgage.
Lenda is available to customers in Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington.
4. Auto Loans
If you already have an auto loan, it’s likely at a fixed rate, so you won’t notice a change.
If you want to take out a new auto loan, an increase in the federal funds rate will likely result in an increase in your auto loan rate. But, like mortgages, it shouldn’t be a big deal.
The New York Times reported monthly payments on new auto loans increasing “just a few dollars more.”
The current auto loan interest rates hover around 4.4% for a 48-month new car loan, according to BankRate. The rate has certainly increased since November 2017; however, it’s been slight — about 0.2 percentage points.
A potential solution: Cut costs elsewhere.
If the increase in interest affects your ability to make on-time payments, you could refinance your loan.
You could also try to cut costs elsewhere, like your car insurance. The Zebra, an online car insurance search engine that offers “insurance in black and white,” compares your options from 204 providers in less than 60 seconds.
Snag a free quote from The Zebra.
You Can’t Control the Federal Rate Hike, But You Can Control This
Unfortunately, you can’t control the federal rate hike. The Federal Reserve is going to make sure it’s set at a place that’s going to help the country’s economy.
What you can do, is take control of your finances.
Before taking out any new debt, read the fine print. Is it a fixed-rate loan? Or an adjustable or variable loan? Know the differences and how they could affect your finances.
You also need to keep tabs on your interest rates. Sure, your credit card company will send you a notification that your rates have increased, but higher rates aren’t something it’s going to shout from the mountaintops.
“In a rising-rate environment, it’s very, very easy to find that cost of debt service go up very quickly and not even notice it,” Allocca warns.
“We’ve been living in a really unusual time where the federal funds rate has been effectively zero since December 2008… so we aren’t going to remain in this extreme low interest rate environment.”
That’s why, he explains, it’s important to take stock of your options, gain control of your debt, seek lower rate options and map out a plan to pay off your debt.
*Lenda Disclosure: This content is provided by Lenda, an advertiser. The Penny Hoarder does not provide home mortgage loans or mortgage recommendations. Lenda is the mortgage originator. Licensed by the Department of Business Oversight under the California Finance Lender Law License No. 60DBO68584. Lenda loans are originated by Lenda, Inc, NMLS #991397. Terms and Conditions apply; see http://ift.tt/2FwOngM for details. Mortgages are not available in all states. See the Lenda eligibility list. http://ift.tt/2HaxBkT. Lenda, Inc, 44 Tehama Street, San Francisco, CA 94123.
Carson Kohler (carson@thepennyhoarder.com) is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.
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Dump the Baggage: 4 Inexpensive Luggage Storage Options for Travelers
And by long, I don’t mean I had a slightly inconvenient two-hour stretch. I mean I had nine hours to kill. Not long enough to shell out for a hotel room but certainly too long to sit in the airport, paying way too much for overpriced paninis and weak coffee when the inevitable boredom-hunger sets in.
So I set out to do some sightseeing instead.
There was one problem, though. I had a suitcase with me — one that was already pushing the 50-pound allowance for checked baggage — and since I had no idea where to stow it, I was going to have to drag it along.
And drag it along I did. By the end of the day, I had lugged that extra 50 pounds (plus a smaller carry-on) over several miles up and down hills, in and out of restaurants, shops and even a crowded pub, and loaded it in and out of city buses several times.
Needless to say, it was an exhausting day.
But if present-day me could go back in time and tell past-me one thing, it would be, “Hey, dummy! There are such things as luggage-storage services, and you should take advantage of them!”
Luggage-Storage Options for Long Layovers and Sightseeing
There are plenty of inexpensive options for storing your luggage when you’re traveling — as long as you know where to look. Here are four options to consider when you need to ditch your bags for a few hours so you can see some sights.
1. Airports
Some larger airports have a luggage-storage facility. You can check bags in to the storage center and leave them for any length of time from a few hours to several days or even months. Length of storage and fees vary from airport to airport, but at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, you can store your bags for about $4 to 18 per day.
Just be sure to ask exactly how long you can leave your bags as not every airport-storage service is open 24 hours.
And if you have a shorter layover but still don’t want to have to worry about bags while you zip out of the airport to grab a bite to eat, most airlines allow you to check your bags as early as four hours before your scheduled departure time.
2. Train Stations
Some train stations will hold your bags at the “parcel check” service for as little as $5 per day.
Amtrak’s at-station parcel check is for ticket holders only, but if you’re traveling abroad, a train may be your primary means of travel from city to city, making the station an ideal place to ditch your bags for a day of sightseeing.
If you’re totally desperate for a place to stash your bags, you could always buy an inexpensive train ticket and then take advantage of that ticket-holder perk (whether you plan to actually ride the train or not), but it’s up to you if the slightly larger charge is worth it.
3. Hotels
Most hotels will store your luggage for a day of exploring after you check out for a small fee (if there’s no fee, a tip may be expected), and some hotels may allow you to store your luggage for a time even if you didn’t stay there the night before.
Just check with the front desk to see if it’s a service that’s offered.
4. Department Stores, Dry Cleaners, Cafes, Bars
Plenty of places you wouldn’t have thought of will also hold your luggage for you. But don’t just walk into any ol’ bar and ask them to watch your bags — that really can’t end well.
Instead, try using one of the several luggage-storage locator services on the market, such as Luggage Hero, Knock Knock, Vertoe, Stasher or NannyBag.
These companies offer local daily storage options through partnerships with trusted and vetted businesses in cities around the world, and provide additional protections such as tamper-proof seals and insurance on stored bags. As with any service, be sure to do your research, check out reviews and read the fine print about what items should and should not be stored.
Also, keep in mind that as fairly new services, they haven’t all rolled out in every city. But it couldn’t hurt to check these sites to see if they offer luggage-stash locations in the destinations you’ll be exploring.
Happy (baggage-free) travels!
Grace Schweizer is a junior writer at The Penny Hoarder.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.
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Here’s One More Reason to Make Sure You’re Getting Enough Vitamin D
Together, they increase a person’s risk of stroke, diabetes and heart disease.
But a new Brazilian research study of postmenopausal women between 45 and 75 years old suggests there’s a way to combat metabolic syndrome.
Make sure you get enough vitamin D.
According to professor Eliana Aguiar Petri Nahas, one of the study’s authors, “We measured the participants’ blood vitamin D levels and also analyzed parameters indicating MetS [metabolic syndrome]. We found that the lower the level of blood vitamin D, the greater the occurrence of MetS.”
The professor says it’s possible for women to reduce the risk of metabolic syndrome by maintaining adequate levels of vitamin D.
The study’s authors acknowledge more research is needed to support the initial results.
Metabolic Syndrome and the Link to Vitamin D
According to the Vitamin D Council, different organizations have different recommendations for the amount adults need. It ranges from 600 to 5,000 IU of vitamin D per day.
If you think you may be vitamin-D deficient, are at risk for metabolic syndrome or suspect you may be symptomatic, schedule an appointment with your doctor for an evaluation.
In the meantime, give your vitamin D levels a boost for free with long walks in the park or anything else that regularly gets you out in the sunlight for a while — just don’t forget the sunscreen!
You can also eat food high in vitamin D, like yogurt, salmon, canned fish and egg yolks.
Vitamin D supplements also are an option, but check with your doctor before you start gulping down fistfuls of vitamins.
According to the National Institutes of Health, vitamin D supplements can lead to kidney stones and also adversely interact with various types of medication.
Lisa McGreevy is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She loves telling readers about affordable ways to stay healthy, so look her up on Twitter (@lisah) if you’ve got a tip to share.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.
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Live Nation Is Hiring Thousands to Work Its Upcoming Summer Concert Series
Live Nation, which touts throwing 70 concerts every day, is holding nationwide hiring events for its summer concert series.
These 28,000 temporary Live Nation jobs feature positions in guest services, box office, parking, security and maintenance.
Although some of the events have already occurred, there are still plenty more chances to take center stage.
Job fairs are being held this weekend in Mountain View, California; Atlanta; Bristow, Virginia; Chula Vista, California; West Palm Beach, Florida; Mansfield, Massachusetts; Raleigh, North Carolina; and Nashville, Tennessee. More are scheduled through the end of April.
Bring along copies of your resume, as you’ll be meeting with hiring managers. Donning your vintage Def Leppard T-shirt is optional.
Tiffany Wendeln Connors is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.
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How to Build Hype for a New Product Launch
Your company is ready to launch a new product. This is an exciting time for you and everyone else involved.
Depending on your industry and brand, you’ve spent months or potentially even years developing this product.
As you approach the final stages of development, you’re starting to get a bit anxious. I can totally relate to this feeling. You’ve spent so much time, effort, and money on this that you want to make sure that it’s successful.
If your new product isn’t a hit and doesn’t sell, it could be a crushing blow, both financially and psychologically for your brand.
Here’s what you need to realize. Your product may be outstanding, but if you don’t promote the release properly, nobody is going to buy it.
Sure, you may get the occasional sale from someone walking through the aisles of your physical location or browsing online at your ecommerce store, but that’s not enough to drastically increase your revenue.
There’s no reason to wait until your product launches to start promoting it. That way the introduction phase of your product life cycle will have higher sales.
Building hype for your new product will have consumers anticipating the launch. That way, you’ll start to get sales immediately on release day.
If your last product launch wasn’t too successful, you might need some tips on how to improve your strategy the next time around. That’s why I created this guide. It’s also great for anyone who is releasing a new product for the first time.
Here’s the best way to build hype and drive sales.
Identify your market segment
First, you’ve got to figure out who will be using your new product. This isn’t the same thing as identifying the target audience of your brand.
Sure, you already know who your customers are, but will all of your customers be using your new product?
Here’s a really basic and obvious example to show you what I’m talking about. Let’s say you have a clothing brand. You sell a variety of products for both men and women.
The new product that you’re releasing is a sports bra. Obviously, the market segment here is athletic women.
You can develop a customer persona to get more information about this segment of your customer base. Here’s an example of what this looks like.
This is really important for brands that have a diverse line of products. Not every single customer of your will be interested in the new launch.
So it’s a waste of time, money, and resources if you market to everyone and anyone who walks through your doors.
Instead, take advantage of your customer information that you have on file. You may have email lists segmented into certain categories.
Send out messages to the subscribers who fit the description of your customer persona.
Work backward
Think about your end game and start there. It’s an interesting strategy, but it helps everyone on your team get on the same page.
It’s always a great idea to follow the advice of successful companies. Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, says that his business employs this strategy for new product launches.
Write a mock press release. Explain exactly what your new product is and why you made it. Talk about the top features, benefits, and differentiation factors.
Keep this description clear, concise, and to the point.
Come up with a potential frequently asked questions list. What kind of problems, inquiries, or instructions would a customer have if they bought the product?
Put yourself in the shoes of a neutral person who has no prior knowledge of the product and how it works. Will they be able to figure it out?
Outline the customer experience. Determine how different people will use the product. Imagine every possible circumstance that the item could be used for.
Next, write your user guide. This should be a step-by-step instruction page that describes everything the customer needs to know about how to set up, use, and troubleshoot the product.
Once all of these steps are outlined, it will make it easier for your company to brand the product and make sure that it’s ready to be marketed accordingly.
Start testing your product
Your new product needs to be tested constantly. It doesn’t matter what it is or what kind of industry you’re in, testing early will improve the final performance.
This statement holds true for both physical products as well as intangible products, such as software.
Testing needs to happen during each phase of development.
Testing early will make your life easier in the long run. But it also has promotional benefits.
If you can get your product into the hands of beta testers and focus group participants, it can start to build hype.
You’re killing two birds with one stone here. First, you’re getting valuable feedback to ensure quality control. Second, you’re getting the word out about the new item.
These testers could be influencers within certain industries. They may have blogs, websites, or connections to people who do as well.
If they talk about their experience on social media, you can start to get free promotion without putting in any effort. You should encourage your testers to do this.
Blog about it
Blogging has exceptional benefits for businesses. Promoting a new product is no exception to this strategy.
Take advantage of your existing blog.
You’ve got to find ways to talk about your new product without sounding too salesy. Your audience knows that you’re biased, so you can acknowledge that.
Say something like, “Obviously, I know I’m biased, but I’ve been working in this industry for a long time. This product is revolutionary and will change the way you do things.”
Talking about the product in your blog will build anticipation for your regular readers. They’re already familiar with your voice and brand, so they make be likely candidates to make a purchase when the item finally gets released.
Take a look at some of the other benefits of blogging.
Blogging about your product will help you generate new leads and get more traffic to your website. These are both ideal scenarios for anyone who is getting ready to launch a new product.
The more traffic to your site increases the chances that you’ll get more sales.
You can also guest blogging as a strategy to talk about your new product. In most cases, this is free advertisement to a new audience.
The website your blogging for benefits because they get new content without having to do any work. You benefit from the exposure. So it’s a win-win for everyone.
Tease your audience
Sometimes the best way to build hype is to be mysterious. Don’t give it all away in your first promotional campaign.
People are curious by nature. If you tell them everything they need to know right away, they don’t have a reason to follow up to get more information.
But if you use teaser promos, it will stimulate their curiosity.
Here’s an example.
In 2017, Sony released the Xperia XZ Premium. This product won the award for the best new smartphone at the 2017 Mobile World Congress.
After winning an award last year, Sony released a teaser video to build anticipation for the 2018 MWC.
The video is 23 seconds long and doesn’t provide too much information. First, it shows and a hand, and then curved lines appear above it.
Then the video displays the date for the 2018 conference. As you can see, Sony released this video at a perfect time. The promo aired one week before the event.
This gets people talking. Are they releasing a new phone? Does it have a curved screen?
People let their imaginations run wild. Now, consumers will keep coming back to see if the brand releases further updates.
Promote your product at a special event
This piece of advice piggybacks off of our last tactic. Big events are a great time to talk about your new product launch.
You’ve got lots of eyes and ears on the event, especially if other companies in your industry are participating.
Events will also have other media outlets attending. So the press can hear about your new product and talk about it on their blogs, TV shows, or podcasts.
All of this is free promotion. It gets the word out there and gives people something to get excited about.
In addition to pitching your product at an industry event or conference, your company can hold especially event that’s only for your products.
Apple does this every year.
They use these keynote events to talk about the technology and features behind all of their newest products before they get released.
During their September 2017, they used this special event as an opportunity to announce six new products.
- iPhone X
- iPhone 8
- Apple Watch Series 3
- Apple TV 4k
- iOS 11
- watchOS 4
As you can see from the list, there is a huge variety between these products. They’ve got new phones, watches, TVs, and operating systems.
Since Apple does this every year, their customers are always ready for the events. The speakers discuss how all of the new products work and highlight the top features.
Then, when the product is finally available for purchase, customers already know what to expect.
Apple is an industry giant. So it’s definitely not a bad idea for you to follow their lead and apply this strategy to your company.
Add a video demonstration to your website
You’ve got to take advantage of videos as a marketing tool. I’m sure you’re using it for other areas of your business, so promoting a new product launch shouldn’t be an exception.
64% of customers make a purchase after seeing a branded video. More than half marketing experts across the world say that video content has the highest ROI compared to other content marketing strategies.
Furthermore, 95% of information gets retained when it’s watched in a video. This is ideal for a new product release.
Since your product isn’t available for purchase yet, you want to make sure that your promotional campaigns are memorable.
Take a look at how Vantage Robotics uses this strategy to promote a new product on their website.
They’ve got video demonstrations for how the product works.
This is very important for certain industries, especially for those of you in technology. If you’re selling a t-shirt, you don’t need to really explain to your customers how it’s used.
But if you’re selling something like an aerial camera that follows people around and records a video, then there is probably a bit of a learning curve.
Video demonstrations help eliminate confusion. This relates back to what we talked about earlier, in terms of writing out your FAQ and user guides ahead of time.
Your video can answer any potential questions. Plus, when people see your product in action, they’ll be excited about the release and lined up to buy it.
Use all of your marketing channels
Don’t just use your website to promote your new product. Take advantage of all of your existing marketing channels.
Exhaust every resource.
Social media is a great place to start building hype. With the option for your followers to like, comment, and share your posts, it’s a perfect way to get even more exposure.
Plus, you’ll be able to get more engagement when you promote your products on social media.
Customers will be able to ask questions and hear back from you.
Don’t think that your marketing efforts need to be restricted to just a couple of channels or some posters inside your physical store locations.
The more marketing channels you use, the greater the exposure will be.
Start taking pre-orders
Why should you wait until your product officially hits the market to start making a profit?
Collecting money for pre-orders is a great way to build hype. Now, customers are invested. Making a purchase early shows them that your product is real and not just a concept.
They’ll also start telling their friends, family, and social media followers about their excitement.
Take a look at how this strategy was used for the DronePhone.
They market this pre-order as a way for consumers to be one of the first people to get this product.
If you’re releasing something that’s groundbreaking or revolutionary, this is a really cool pitch.
Conclusion
Don’t wait until your product is released to start marketing it. Start building hype in the early stages, even when it’s still being developed.
Segment the market within your overall target audience. Test your product and blog about it.
You can use teaser videos to generate curiosity from your customers.
Promote the product at a special event and use video demonstrations to show how it works. Use all of your marketing channels as a promotional method.
Start collecting money with pre-orders.
Once your product is ready for launch, make sure everything is working properly. You don’t want consumers to experience any problems.
Get your sales team ready. Your customer service representatives need to be educated and ready to answer any questions.
Don’t lose momentum. Keep promoting your product hard, even after the release.
If you follow this guide, you’ll have a successful and profitable product launch.
What strategies is your company using to build hype for your newest products?
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Financial Freedom and Comfort
Which option is better: is it better to have maximum freedom over how one uses their time, or is it better to give up some of that freedom in order to have more life comforts?
Or, to put that question in a more tangible form, would you rather not have to work for a living (but you can if you choose to, and you can freely quit whenever you like) but have a worn-down car and a fixer-upper house, or would you rather have to work for a living but have a nice car and a nice house?
I think that my financial journey really involved a change in my answer to that question. Right now, I’d prefer maximum freedom over my time; at an earlier stage in my life, I would have preferred the nice home and nice car. At some point around a decade ago, my answer switched, and that change in that answer triggered a very different approach to finances.
The thing to remember here is that this isn’t an either-or question – it’s much more like a spectrum of options, much like the spectrum of personal finance that I recently discussed. You can choose an extreme approach toward freedom and live a life that’s extremely minimalist, but which gives you almost complete freedom over how you use your time and energy. On the other hand, you can choose an extreme approach toward momentary comfort and make all choices oriented toward what will make your average moment as comfortable and pleasurable as possible, which requires a great deal of money, which thus requires giving up a lot of freedom over your time choices.
Most of us will find some spot somewhere in the middle, between the two extremes. We’ll make some frugal choices and go without some of the less important comforts, but we’ll still have a lot of perks and comforts in our life. At the same time, most of us still have to work, but we don’t have to work constantly or at a career path that will kill us young, and we have some free time each day and some additional time on the weekends to do whatever we want.
What I’ve found, based on my own experience, is that most people who start to think about their personal finances are those who find that they’re closer to the “comfort” end of the spectrum than they’d like to be, and they want to nudge things closer to the “freedom” end of the spectrum. They’re stressed out by the financial requirements and professional requirements in their life, which is restricting their personal freedom in ways that they don’t like, but they’re currently at a level of comfort that they might struggle to dial down from.
The challenge, of course, is that most people want to see significant change quickly, and they achieve this by moving rapidly down the spectrum toward the “freedom” end. They become highly frugal and very diligent about their finances. They give up a lot of creature comforts and start building an emergency fund and paying down debt (which improves their personal freedom).
However, people often realize that they’ve dialed too far the other way and end up moving themselves back toward the “comfort” end of the spectrum, often right back to where they were at before.
Another problem is that comfort can have a “dulling” effect in that it can persuade you to avoid taking any kind of risk and to stop working hard. If you’re truly comfortable, you stop pushing toward your full potential in life. Often, the only thing that shakes people out of that sense of comfort is the idea that the comfort is truly at risk – in other words, they see that they actually have little freedom and that shocks them into action.
For me, the best personal finance strategy is to keep tinkering with things and figure out the exact place you should be on that spectrum between freedom and comfort. This, of course, relies on the idea that you have at least enough financial freedom to keep your head above water – you can keep your bills paid – and that your basic needs are met.
How do you do that, though? How do you find the right balance between freedom and comfort for you in practical terms? How do you find the right spot for you on the spectrum of personal finance without jumping way too far in the wrong direction? Here are some of the strategies I use.
First, I do a lot of thirty day challenges, trying out specific techniques and strategies. There’s almost no change that I can’t easily hold to for thirty days, and thirty days is long enough to figure out for myself whether that particular change is right for me.
A “thirty day challenge” is simply a commitment to try a specific life change for thirty days. For example, I might decide to make only meals at home for thirty days, or I might decide to eat vegan for thirty days, or I might decide to devote an hour a day to a particular activity for thirty days. It can be almost anything you imagine, but it’s a great way to give a trial run to new lifestyle features.
In a given month, I’m usually running two or three thirty day challenges in different areas of my life. At the end of the month, I usually decide that one or maybe two of them is worth keeping on a permanent basis and the rest are discarded or modified for a future thirty day challenge.
What I have found is that repeated challenges are slowly guiding me toward the best life I can have for myself. I’m never staying in the same exact place because of those challenges, but as I retain the ones that click and discard the ones that don’t, I’m slowly inching toward my perfect place on that spectrum.
Second, I have an “automatic” emergency fund, and it’s pretty healthy. Each week, a surprisingly healthy amount is transferred out of my primary checking account into a savings account automatically, and that money serves as an “emergency fund” of sorts. It does serve as protection against true emergencies, such as a car breakdown, but it also serves as protection against the risk of making adventurous life choices in the moment.
For example, knowing that I have plenty of cash to pay for the consequences of downsides emboldens me to try doing things for myself (more freedom) that I might otherwise just pay someone else to do out of fear of messing it up (more comfort). I’ll try an audacious home repair, for example, or I’ll invest in an opportunity that presents itself in the moment. I used my “emergency fund” recently to buy a person’s entire trading card collection, which I knew I could flip for a substantial profit with several hours of time invested. That’s an opportunity that comes with financial freedom, one that’s denied to me if I’m too far down the “comfort” end of the spectrum.
At the same time, having a healthy emergency fund is a comfort in times of trial. I don’t freak out if the car doesn’t start, which is a real comfort, for example.
Having that emergency fund, then, actually gives me some leeway in the moment to decide whether I want to be a little further down the “freedom” part of the spectrum (doing a challenging and potentially damaging home repair, investing in something on the spur of the moment) or I can enjoy some comfort (having cash in hand to deal with an abrupt emergency, taking advantage of an opportunity for a meaningful splurge). I achieve this by having a very healthy emergency fund and contributing to it constantly and automatically.
Finally, I use my spare time to figure out avenues of personal comfort and joy that don’t require sacrifice of personal freedom. In other words, I spend quite a bit of spare time dabbling in new interests with minimal expense, seeking out things that will excite me and draw my passion without drawing down my bank account.
Each and every day, I set aside some time for leisure, which is often filled up by already-existing hobbies, but when those don’t scratch an itch for me, I use that time to explore new things that I haven’t tried before. For example, I recently got into lettering and calligraphy in an effort to make inspirational handmade wall hangings for my home office, so I spent quite a bit of time with just some papers and some colored ballpoint and gel pens practicing lettering and faux calligraphy. The cost was minimal and I got to really dig into a new area of interest to see if it was a good fit for me (I think I don’t have adequate hand-eye coordination to do it well) while also bonding with my daughter as she spends two or three hours after school most days engaged in drawing (I often sat right next to her as I worked on faux calligraphy and lettering).
I’ve found that finding new areas of interest that excite me is a powerful avenue to personal comfort, because the maximum level of personal comfort I’ve ever found is simply being able to get in the “flow” of working on something. Being in the “flow” simply means that you’re so engaged with the thing you’re doing that you genuinely lose track of time, and to me, getting into that state as often as possible is the best source of personal contentment and happiness and comfort.
Finding ways to get in the “flow” without spending money is perhaps the most powerful tool I have in terms of finding the perfect spot for me on the spectrum between freedom and comfort. Such states, to me, are the embodiment of comfort in life, and finding a way to get in the “flow” without spending much money is incredibly powerful, because it allows high levels of comfort without sacrificing any personal freedom.
Try experimenting with these strategies to see what works for you. Try out some thirty day challenges and explore some life changes. Automate your emergency fund so that you have cash for both emergencies and opportunities. Set aside time to explore new things in life, particularly low-cost ways to dip into a “flow” state. You’ll find that doing such things is a powerful way to find the perfect balance between freedom and comfort in your life, keeping money in your pocket while finding a joyful way to live.
The post Financial Freedom and Comfort appeared first on The Simple Dollar.
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Swing For the Fences: 7 Ways to Boost Your Finances During the Ballgame
I know, I know. Not everyone gets it. The average length of a baseball game was three hours and five minutes in 2017, according to Sports Illustrated. For some people, that’s just a little too… oh look, a squirrel!
Not me. Here’s the best part: Baseball is a relaxing game. You can watch every pitch if you want to, or you can have it on while you split your attention with other things — like, say, your finances!
Get a Financial Boost Before the Game Is Over
With that in mind, here’s our lineup of things you could do while watching a baseball game to help boost your finances this season.
1. Earn Rewards With Your Grocery Receipts
At this point, tons of grocery-savings apps have hit the market — and we don’t hate it. You’ve probably tried a grocery rebate app already and know that you’re not going to get rich by using it.
Don’t discount it, though. Like a leadoff hitter that doesn’t hit a lot of homers but does a lot of little things, those rewards can add up to really help you win with your finances.
If you’re the type who just wants to get in and out of the store and save money without doing much thinking — there’s an app we recommend. It’s called Fetch Rewards, and all you have to do to earn rewards is take a photo of your receipt.
No scanning barcodes; no searching for offers; no store limitations.
Here’s what to do:
- Download the Fetch Rewards app. (Pst: Enter the code PENNY to earn 2,000 free points!)
- Create an account with your email address or through Facebook.
- Take a photo of your grocery receipt (must be from the past 14 days).
Fetch Rewards finds opportunities for you to earn rewards for your everyday purchases.
Every time you scan a receipt that includes one of more than 250 participating brands, you’ll earn points — without worrying about matching specific product offers.
If the app does find a match, you’ll earn even more. For example, we recently saw an offer of 2,000 points when you purchase a Suave female hair product. And another for 2,000 points for a 12-pack of Blue Moon.
Once you collect enough points, cash out for a gift card to any of a number of retailers. For example, 10,000 points will get you a $10 Sephora gift card. Or 3,000 points will get you a $3 Panera Bread card.
Go ahead and start fetching points toward gift cards by downloading Fetch Rewards. It’s the perfect way to lead off your personal finance game plan.
2. Get $5 to Start Investing With Stash
It’s no brilliant secret that investing can be a smart way to make money.
Sometimes, though, it feels restricted to a few wealthy elite, like those guys playing a kids’ game on your TV for millions and millions of dollars. We’re not bitter. Much.
But Stash is different. This app lets you start investing with as little as $5 and for just a $1 monthly fee for balances under $5,000.
If trying to manage your portfolio is about as easy for you as interpreting the third base coach’s signs, Stash could be for you. Stash curates investments from professional fund managers and investors and lets you choose where to put your money — but it leaves the complicated investment terms out of it.
You just choose from a set of simple portfolios reflecting your beliefs, interests and goals.
Bonus: Right now, The Penny Hoarder is teaming up with Stash to fund your first investment — so you’ll get a $5 bonus to get started.
Like a speedster stealing second, you just got something extra!
3. Get Your Utilities in Shape With Trim
How are you watching the game? Chances are, it’s not free.
The price of internet — and cable, if you’re still into that kind of thing — certainly isn’t decreasing. If anything, prices are steadily climbing.
And if you’ve had to chat with a representative from your internet/cable company recently, you know how long you can sit on hold.
That’s why it’s time to call in a robot. A negotiation bot like Trim will negotiate your cable or internet bills down for you.
It works with Comcast, Time Warner, Charter and other major providers.
You can sign up simply with Facebook or your email address. Then, upload a PDF of your most recent bill, and Trim’s AI-powered system gets to work. If at first it doesn’t succeed, it’ll keep negotiating until it can save you some money.
Also, if you have any outages (meaning a power outage, not a rainout!), Trim believes you deserve a credit, and it’ll handle that for you.
Trim takes 25% of the savings tab, and you get the rest. Talk about a utility player! (Groooaan…)
4. Score Faster With Even Financial
Sometimes it’s a lot harder to score by hitting a bunch of singles than it is to just hit a three-run home run. One swing, and BAM! You make a big impact. What if you could do that with your debt?
You can.
A lot of us are being crushed by credit card interest rates north of 20%. If you’re in that boat, consolidation and refinancing might be worth a look.
A good resource is consumer financial technology platform Even Financial, which can help match you with the right personal loan to meet your needs.
Even searches the top online lenders to match you with a personalized loan offer in less than 60 seconds. Its platform can help you borrow up to $100,000 (no collateral needed) with fixed rates starting at 4.99% and terms from 24 to 84 months.
You’ll be amazed at how much damage you can do with a single payment to a low-interest loan versus a whole bunch of payments on high interest cards. You’ll be crossing home plate in no time.
5. Pass Time During the National Pastime With Surveys
Okay, maybe you don’t want to get into anything major while the game is on. You could miss that triple play or your favorite player jacking one to the upper deck. I get it.
If you want a simple way to make a little extra without dedicating large chunks of time or opening new accounts, try doing some surveys during ad breaks or those annoying pitching changes. Here are a few of our favorites:
- Ipsos i-Say: You might recognize the Ipsos Panel name because it’s the same company that does most of the political polling during elections. Some of the top-end surveys can pay up to $95, but those are rare and can take awhile to complete. Most surveys pay a buck or two and only take 10 to 15 minutes.
- Opinion Outpost offers surveys from all kinds of businesses and organizations. Most of them take around 10 minutes to complete and will earn you points you can redeem for free gift cards to places like Amazon and iTunes.
- InboxDollars offers several short, daily surveys you can take. If you take all of them each day, you could earn an extra $730 a year — not too bad. That will pay for your hot dogs and more!
- Harris Poll: Most surveys pay between $3 and $4 each for 20 minutes of your time. Larger panels are hosted locally. These usually require two to four hours of your time — and you don’t get to watch baseball while you’re at it — but they pay up to $75.
6. Thin out Your Closet
What could be easier during game time than bringing out the old stuff in your closet and sifting through it?
A lot of websites and apps, like Poshmark, help you sell your clothes that are still in good shape.
That old Mark Prior jersey? Yeah, you had high hopes, but now it’s time to let it go. Do a quick search on the web to find a site that will work best for your clothes. Maybe you just go old-school and Ebay that stuff.
Hint: Don’t forget the shoes! You know you have a pair that you only wore for that one wedding and you didn’t even spill beer — I mean punch — on them!
Challenge yourself to find one item of clothing to post for every hit in the ballgame — then hope you don’t have a pitcher’s duel.
7. Write Greeting Cards
Wait, what?
Think about it. Most of us hate shopping for greeting cards because we don’t like our options. Take it into your own hands, and write the type of greeting cards you’d want to buy. Several companies pay for freelance writing ideas.
The best part? Each greeting card idea is usually just a sentence or two. You could come up with one or two during every break in the game.
You can write funny, sentimental or even bawdy cards if you want. Heck, write sports-themed cards if that’s what you like. There’s a market for all of it. Again, you won’t get rich doing it, but I’ve made over $1,000 in a year writing greeting cards.
The trick is to use that money to pay off some debt or build up your savings. Okay, fine; buy a six-pack for the next game while you’re at it.
It’s a Long Season. Make It a Productive One
The Major League Baseball season stretches for a beautiful 162 games. That’s a lot of pitches, hot dogs and time to make progress on your finances.
The national pastime doesn’t require you to be glued to every single second of the game, so make use of your time. You can root, root, root for the home team while you boost your chances of having a winning financial situation.
As the great Yogi Berra once said, “A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.”
Tyler Omoth is a senior writer at The Penny Hoarder who loves soaking up the sun and finding creative ways to help others. He’s a big fan of the Minnesota Twins and whichever team is playing the Yankees. Catch him on Twitter at @Tyomoth.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.
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Not Exactly Warren Buffett? 7 Apps Even You Can Use to Manage Your Money
Do your eyes glaze over when it comes to budgeting?
You’re definitely not alone.
No one is born clutching a glossary of financial terminology, so there’s no reason to feel weird when you’re mystified by the nuances of money management.
Fortunately, if you’ve got a smartphone, you practically have a financial planner in your pocket.
7 Apps That Help You Manage Your Money Like a Pro
You could always take a class on personal finance to learn ways to wrangle your money wisely, but who’s got time for that?
Instead, download these money management apps and let them do the heavy lifting for you:
1. Acorns: Invest Your Spare Change
For a retirement plan that basically runs itself, consider starting an investment account through Acorns.
You can start small — with $5 — and stack up change over time with its “round-up” feature. That means if you spend $10.23 at the grocery store, 77 cents gets dropped into your Acorns account.
Then, the app does the whole investing thing for you.
The idea is you won’t miss the digital pocket change, and the automatic savings stack up faster than you’d think. For example, Penny Hoarder Dana Sitar was able to save at a rate that would allow her to stash $420 away per year.
The app is $1 a month for balances under $5,000, and you’ll get a $5 bonus when you sign up.
2. MoneyLion: King of the Financial Jungle
This app kind of rules them all: MoneyLion is an all-in-one app for managing your personal finances.
Basically, it offers the financial services you’d typically get from three or four different banks or providers, and they’re all bundled into one place.
Simply connect MoneyLion to your bank, credit card, student loan and other financial accounts. The app analyzes your income and spending patterns to offer advice on where you can save money, improve your credit and reduce your debt.
MoneyLion also offers rewards to help you develop healthy financial habits.
The rewards program gives you points for taking actions like paying your bills on time or signing up for credit monitoring, then you can redeem those points for gift cards to retailers like Walmart, Apple and Amazon.
3. Ibotta: Get Rewarded When You Shop
Even the most dedicated Penny Hoarder has to spend money sometimes, even if it’s just for groceries or supplies for around the house.
Ibotta is a free, easy-to-use app that’s partnered with more than 50 retailers to earn you cash back on items you buy in three simple steps.
- Before heading to the store, search for items on your shopping list within the app.
- Add each cash-back opportunity to your list in the app.
- When you get home, snap a photo of your receipt and scan the items’ barcodes.
The cash-back money is automatically applied to your account. Plus, you’ll get a $10 sign-up bonus after uploading your first receipt.
4. Paribus: Earn Money Back in Your Inbox
It turns out deleting your emails could be costing you serious money. Intrigued?
One of our secret weapons is called Paribus — a tool that gets you money back for your online purchases. It’s free to sign up, and once you do, it will scan your email archives for any receipts. If it discovers you’ve purchased something from one of its monitored retailers, it will track the item’s price and help you get a refund anytime there’s a price drop.
Plus, if your guaranteed shipment shows up late, Paribus will help you get money back for what you paid for shipping.
5. Trim: Your Virtual Financial Assistant
An integral part of managing your money is budgeting. Ew, gross. We know. But it’s important to take a good look at what you’re spending and understand where you can cut back.
An easy way to automate this process is to use Trim, a little bot that’ll keep track of all your transactions.
Connect your checking account, credit card and savings account for a big-picture look at your spending habits. Then, take a closer look by checking out each of your transactions. Set alerts that’ll let you know when bills are due, when you’ve hit a spending cap or when you’ve (hopefully not) overdrafted.
Best part? It’s free to sign up.
6. Lemonade: Cover Your Assets
When you’ve scrimped and saved to treat yourself to luxurious bed sheets or simply bought your first nice mattress since moving out on your own, you want to protect your investment.
That’s why it’s important to consider renters or homeowners insurance, which, depending on coverage, can protect your belongings against damage and theft.
If you’ve never looked into it, start by getting a free quote. We recommend the online insurance company Lemonade, through which renters insurance starts at $5 a month and homeowners insurance starts at $25 a month.
Beyond affordable rates, Lemonade adds a layer of transparency you don’t often see in the insurance world. Instead of profiting extra when it doesn’t have to pay out claims, the company keeps a set 20% of your premium for itself, and 80% goes into a pool for paying claims. Money left over after paying claims each year goes to a cause of your choice.
That also means Lemonade isn’t going to be super stingy about granting customers the claims they deserve — ’cause the money isn’t going into its pockets.
OK, so now that you know Lemonade has your back, here’s how to get a free quote. It’s easy — and you can do it all online. (Nope, it won’t hurt your credit score!)
- Click “Check Our Prices.”
- Get to know Maya, Lemonade’s chatbot. She’s nice and will ask you a few questions.
- Once you complete the application, you’ll receive a quote within a minute or two.
It’s easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy. Plus, at the end of the day, you’ll feel better knowing your hard-earned belongings are insured. After all, when life hands you lemons… (OK, we’re done.)
7. Upstart: Simplify Your Debt
Have you ever considered consolidating your debt? It could substantially lower payments you’re already making and help you save more money each month.
A lot of us are being crushed by credit card interest rates north of 20%. If you’re in that boat, consolidation and refinancing might be worth a look.
A good resource is online lending platform Upstart, which can help you find a loan without relying on only your conventional credit score.
Unlike traditional underwriting models that use only the common FICO scoring model, Upstart’s technology looks at factors like your education and employment history to determine your creditworthiness.
It can help you borrow up to $50,000, potentially with better terms (e.g. lower interest or lower monthly payments) than traditional lenders. If managing many different bills and credit lines is a hassle, you can also use an Upstart loan to streamline all of your loans into one.
Lisa McGreevy is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.
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10 Things We Used to Pay a Lot Less for (and Still Could)
With few exceptions, goods and services cost more than they used to. But they don’t always have to.
One of the most stereotyped marks of aging is repeated complaints about things costing more than they once did. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to stop the march of time and it’s similarly difficult to halt inflation. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, it would take $7.28 to purchase what you could with a dollar in 1968. Meanwhile, it would require more than twice as much money — an extra $22.93 — to buy what you could purchase with just $20 in 1988.
However, even when prices rise over time, there are still ways to avoid the added premium placed on items by cultural trends or the tendency to buy out what we once prepared at home. Here are just 10 items that consumers are paying far more for now than they did a few years ago. If you’re willing to do away with those goods in their more opulent forms, that price can be a choice rather than an unavoidable burden.
Coffee
The nearest $4 or $5 latte at Starbucks will illustrate just how costly a coffee away from home or the office has become. But even the $1.85 average price of a 12-ounce cup of their basic fresh-brewed coffee exceeds the inflation adjusted cost ($1.65) of the 25-cent coffee on offer at the Maryland Inn in 1970.
However, the 3-cent cost of a ca. 1970 cup of coffee brewed at home — based on the 27 cups that a 93-cent, one-pound container of ground coffee could brew — would add up to 20 cents today, adjusted for inflation. Even with a pound of coffee costing $4.27 on average in February, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the modern cost of a cup of coffee brewed at home is 16 cents.
Not only can you save money by avoiding the coffeeshop and brewing at home, but you can spend less on coffee than your parents or grandparents did if you do.
Movies
In 2017, the average cost of a movie ticket was $8.97 — including the easily-avoidable $20 to $30 3D, IMAX and Dolby Cinema showings. Even going back to 1977, however, the $2.23 average cost of a movie ticket would be $9.49 today,
Movies have never been incredibly cheap, but you have a lot of cheaper options for enjoying them now than you did 40 years ago. We have mentioned both second-run theaters and online rentals as cheaper movie options, but staying home and streaming older movies through services like Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu (with monthly subscription prices similar to that of one movie in 1977) is yet another option. If you want to avoid the extra $40 to $60 a month (or more in rural areas) required for a high-speed internet connection, RedBox still rents DVD and Blu-ray versions of movies for $1.50 to $2, while most public libraries will let folks with library cards check them out for free.
Drinking Water
Unless you live in an area where the water is tainted beyond drinkability, when you buy bottled water you are paying for a packaged version of something that is already a utility. The International Bottled Water Association puts the cost of a gallon of bottled water at $1.11. Purchasing bottled water in 16.9-ounce single servings drives the cost up to about $7.50 a gallon.
According to the American Water Works Association, the average price of tap water is roughly $0.004 per gallon. Considering the American public didn’t start drinking bottled water in singles servings until the late 1970s — 350 million gallons a year during that decade, compared to more than 10 billion now — we’ve only recently started fooling ourselves into paying for pallets of water bottles when we already pay for countless gallons of water to come into our homes each month.
Vehicles
As automotive site Kelley Blue Book points out, the average price of a mid-sized car in February was $25,857. While the average $3,450 cost of a car in 1970 makes that look awful, the $22,725 that car would cost when adjusted for inflation is a bit closer to the mark.
However, some recent work by automotive site Edmunds suggests that buying used, rather than buying new or leasing, is the most frugal approach. According to their findings, the average price of a new compact SUV (like a Toyota RAV4 or Chevrolet Equinox) is roughly $30,000. The average price of three- to four-year-old version of the same compact SUV is about $21,000. In some cases, you may get either the tail end of the original warranty coverage or an extended warranty, making a slightly used car far more cost-efficient.
Beer
An increase in beer choices hasn’t led to a decrease in prices. In 1978, according to the Brewers Association, the number of breweries in the U.S. dropped to a post-Prohibition low of 89 thanks to beer-industry consolidation and tight brewing laws. This year, the U.S. brewery count hit 6,000.
However, though a handful of craft brewers existed in 1978, the $2.82 paid for a six-pack in the U.S. in 1978 mostly bought you pale lager. Today, that $2.82 would be worth $11.23 after inflation.
We cruised Total Wine’s inventory in Vancouver, Wash., and found a four-pack of Founders Breakfast Stout and Modern Times City of the Sun IPA, and six packs of Dogfish Head India Brown Ale and Deschutes Sage Fight Imperial IPA, for less than that mark. Yet that price will now also buy you 12-packs of Bud Light, Pabst Blue Ribbon, Coors Light, and Miller High Life.
Beer can cost you $60 for rare releases, or as little as $5 a six-pack if you’re willing (or allowed by state law) to hit the blowout bin at your local liquor or grocery store. It can also cost $1 a bottle or less if you buy brands like Sierra Nevada, Rogue, or any of the big lager brewers by the case at a warehouse store like Costco or Sam’s Club (without factoring in the cost of membership). It’s just a matter of taste and motivation.
Grilled Cheese
Grilled cheese was the comfort food U.S. parents made their children for decades, which is why it’s typically the first item that crops up when a city or town starts embracing food trucks or carts. A chain of grilled-cheese carts in Portland, Ore., sells its most basic grilled-cheese sandwich for $6.25. It’s Tillamook cheddar, Swiss, and mozzarella on French white bread.
Meanwhile, over at the local Safeway, a whole loaf of Franz brioche bread ($5.59), 11 slices of Tillamook Swiss ($4.49), 11 slices of Tillamook cheddar ($4.49), and 10 slices of Lucerne mozzarella ($3.29 — they didn’t have Tillamook in stock) comes out to $17.76. Even if we spring for a pound of Tillamook butter ($4.49), that $22.25 divided by 10 sandwiches is just $2.25 a sandwich.
And that’s springing for the pricey ingredients. Settling for a loaf of store-brand white bread ($1.50), 16 Lucerne processed cheese slices ($3.29), and some Land O’Lakes half sticks of butter ($3.29), would cost you just $1.01 per sandwich if you made just eight sandwiches… and it would still leave you plenty of bread and butter for morning toast. Speaking of which…
Avocado Toast
One of the more unfortunate byproducts of Silicon Valley’s recent success is avocado toast and folks from Oakland writing long treatises about why it costs $10. We get it: Restaurants have to pay for labor, rent, utilities, and other business expenses in some of the costliest cities in the country. But this, by no means, requires consumers to like it or even go along with it.
When we go back to Safeway and consider the costs, a medium Haas avocado goes for $1.89. If you want a crusty, multi-grain bread to go with it, Dave’s Killer Bread sells for $6.29 a loaf (less at a warehouse store like Costco, where two loaves go for $9.49). At 17 slices of bread per bag, Dave’s Killer Bread is 37 cents per slice at the Safeway price and 28 cents per slice at the Costco price. At most, that’s $2.26 for ungarnished avocado toast.
When avocados get somewhat cheaper during the season, that cost will only fall.
Macaroni and Cheese
Yet another comfort food that restaurants now sell for far more than it is worth. We aren’t talking about boxes of macaroni and cheese mixes with powdered cheese packets, though those certainly have their merits, but the home-baked varieties. For example, my wife and I grew to love a macaroni-and-cheese from a restaurant in Brookline, Mass. It was made with Gruyere cheese, cavatappi pasta, truffle oil, and a Ritz cracker crust. It was also $12 a serving.
Seeking her own, similar take on that dish, my wife asked the waitstaff for the basic ingredients and went about securing them. We’ll admit to you right now that the core ingredient, truffle oil, is not cheap ($20.19 at Safeway for just 3.4 ounces, or $12.19 for 250 ml at Costco). Nor is Gruyere cheese, at $8.99 per half-pound. However, Google Express will send us cavatappi at $2.50 for a 16-ounce box while a roughly 14-ounce box of Ritz crackers cost $2.99 at Safeway.
Though it turned out we still needed cheddar cheese ($3 for 8 ounces), milk ($2.19 per half gallon), half-and-half ($1 per pint), chives (grown in our backyard), and some flour and paprika from the kitchen, we still ended up making out on the deal. The cost of the entire recipe, which serves up to 10, but I’d put it closer to 8, was roughly $4 per serving on the low end and $5 on the high end.
Cafe Baked Goods
Starbucks offers several items in its bakery case as upsells to hungry customers (apple fritters, banana bread, pound cake, scones) but none are more dangerous than the $1.95 chocolate chip cookie. It stares up at you and says “C’mon, I’m only two bucks.” Starbucks didn’t invent this game, but it’s certainly mastered it.
How bad is $1.95 really? Well, if you were the laziest baker alive and went into Safeway and bought a pound of either Pillsbury or Nestle Toll House cookie dough — enough to make 16 cookies — you’d only spend $2.99 to $3.99 (the generic Signature Kitchens brand goes for $3.09). At that price, you’re looking at 19 to 25 cents per cookie.
Springing for Annie’s Organic Chocolate Chunk cookies at $5.99 per 12 ounces only gets you to 50 cents a cookie, or what you’d pay if you made cafe-sized Toll House cookies. But when you actually get some flour, brown sugar, chocolate chips, salt, baking soda, and butter, it comes out to less than a dime a cookie, even if you get liberal with the sizing and upsize to chocolate chunks.
Also, just never buy Rice Krispies treats out in the wild. A taproom and restaurant in Portland, Ore., sells them for $3, which seems reasonable about two beers in, but is less logical when a 12-ounce box or Rice Krispies ($2.50), a 10-ounce bag of mini marshmallows ($1), and four sticks of Land O’Lakes butter ($3.29) come out to $6.79 at Safeway. Considering that one batch makes about 24 two-inch squares, or roughly six to eight of the large squares sold by the taproom, you’re paying a substantial markup on a simple cereal treat.
You can wrap these treats in plastic wrap just as easily as Starbucks or the place around the corner. If you need a portable snack to go with coffee or beer, make your own.
Phone Chargers
Pity the Apple iPhone user. If they lose a power cable and want a new one from the company itself, it’s $19 at a minimum to replace it. However, it’s far less to replace it at Overstock.com ($7.22) or Monoprice ($5.99). Meanwhile, if you have a Google Android phone, the replacement price can be as little as $5 at Best Buy or Amazon.
Speaking of things that cost more than they used to, if the thought of paying more than $40 a month just for the right to hold an Apple iPhone X or Samsung Galaxy makes you cringe a bit, you can always go back to basics. Verizon, while not the cheapest option for either mobile phones or plans, still offers the basic Kyocera Cadence LTE — a flip phone with talk, text, and a small camera — for $120 or $5 a month. While basic smartphones like the ASUS ZenFone V and LG Stylo 2 V cost roughly the same, the Kyocera won’t soak up data and won’t come anywhere near the $500 to $1,000 price of the most updated smartphones.
Related Articles:
- Data Diet: How to Drastically Cut Mobile Data Costs
- Five Expenses Most People Didn’t Have to Deal With in the ’80s
- How to Cut Costs With Tiny Living
The post 10 Things We Used to Pay a Lot Less for (and Still Could) appeared first on The Simple Dollar.
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