Learning to be Thrifty

Thrifty Laundry

Mr. Thrifty here. Here’s an easy way to both save money and practice a little environmentalism at the same time – making your own laundry soap. First, the recipe:

Hot water
1/2 cup Washing Soda $.17

1/2 cup Borax $.27

1/4 cup LA’s Totally Awesome Oxygen Cleaner  $.25

1/2 bar Soap (Ivory or Dial Natural) (grated) $.17

• In a large pot, heat 4 cups of water. Add the grated bar and stir until melted. Remove from heat. Add the washing soda, borax, O2 cleaner. Stir until powder is dissolved.
• In a 2 gallon add hot mixture and then top off with water at 2 gallon mark. Distribute into recycled containers.
• Use 1/2 cup per load, stirring before each use (will gel).

That yields 64 loads of clothes for $.86.  That’s a little more than a penny a load and much better than the $.20 average per load for commercial detergents. Also, you are also reusing your laundry containers instead of buying new ones each month. It’s a win/win.

Grocery Purchase

$3.75 at Harris Teeter during Super Double coupons.

• Tuna (Free)
• Silk Fruit and Protein (Free)
• Smart Balance ($1)
• Ice cream ($1.25)
• Cookies ($1.50)

Manual Mower Madness

Recently Mr. Thrifty was visiting one of his favorite websites – Mr. Money Mustache. It was this post, Muscle Over Motor, that got me thinking. Why am I spending $10 each summer to fill up my mower, when I could be muscling my way to Mustachianism. With a manual mower, I could mow as early or late as I wanted, I’d need less room to store my mower; heck, I could even hang it by peg hooks on the wall and free up valuable space in my small outdoor closet. It sounded awesome.

I patiently waited until I found a good deal on a manual mower. As far as deals go, this was a good one, the mower was free to a good home. I told the guy I’d take good care of her and you could see the relief in his eyes. (I later came to find out what he was relieved about)

The mower needed a bit of servicing. The great thing about these mowers is they are dead simple to work on. I took it apart, sharpened her up, lubed the gears, and began to mow..and mow…and mow..and oh dear Lord..my heart began to pound…my breath grew labored..my back ached…and that was only my front yard.

I’m not sure how old Mr. Money Mustache is, but I’m 42. I also live in North Carolina. So what I’m trying to say is, to hell with pushing a manual mower in 100 degree heat in this humidity.

Mowing my own grass saves me nearly $200 each month and it only takes $3 of gas each month. So listen to Jimmy McMillan, it’s hot as hell out there, and a manual mower could kill you. At the very least, it will make you wish you were dead. The MOWING IS TOO DAMN HARD!

I’m not going to say that manual mowers aren’t thrifty, but I will go so far as to say that manual mowers are not for Mr. Thrifty.

Do The Thrifty Chicken

I’m at the meat counter at the grocery store. They have chicken breasts for $.99 per pound and boneless skinless for $2.39 per pound. Which is more thrifty?

I’ve wondered this myself, so last night I bought chicken breasts and attempted to discover which was more thrifty. I headed over to Youtube and watched Chef Paul debone a chicken breast. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYQLlPJ8vjc

Chef Paul made me nervous as hell with his knife. I wanted to debone my chicken breast, not my fingers.

Next, I watched a video from Caribbeanpot. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQLFvBpgGJ8&feature=related I could see me attempting this without the loss of a finger or two (not thrifty). First, I weighed my chicken breast. Then I deboned it and weighed it again.

I lost around 23% of the weight after deboning. So a good rule of thumb would be to subtract 25% from the cost of boneless skinless to determine the better value. In my case, I saved nearly half by buying bone in breasts. Not only that, I placed the carcasses in my pressure cooker, added some onion and bay leaves, and made a delicious chicken broth. I think it’ll make some kind of Risotto.

CDs vs Mortgage Interest

 Let’s talk about interest rates. I have a CD that earns 2.5% interest. However, for my home loan I pay 4.65% interest. That’s a difference of 2.15% interest.

As far as I’m concerned, this is a no-brainer. I cashed in the bond and applied it to the mortgage principle, saving myself 4 years and 3 months off the term of the loan. Total interest saved $26K. Much that’s a much higher return than the CD would have paid out.

Progress $123,764.47:

Cooking with Coupons

According to Mint.com, our third highest category for spending is Food. As a result, we should be able find some easy savings here. One good way to trim our food expenses is by using coupons.  Take our dinner tonight as an example. Jalapeno-Monterey Jack Angus burgers, with tomato, and avacado, honey dew melon, and a pasta salad made with scraps I found in our fridge for our family of 2.5. This dinner in a restaurant would cost us $10 each.  With coupons, and it was a crazy cheap.

The hamburgers were $1.60 and the buns were .87. The avocados were 1.27 for 2. However, I had a coupon for $1 off of any fresh fruit or vegetable purchase w/ purchase of Kellogg’s Fiber Plus cereal. My tomatoes were 1.06, only used one and I had another $1 off coupon.  I also bought 4 boxes of cereal. Two of which were free with coupon, and the other two were $.50 each with coupon. The honeydew melon was leftover from the night before and was only $1.29 at Aldi.

$2.80, and we also have enough hamburger left over for lunch tomorrow and breakfasts for the next few weeks.  And the best part is – Mrs. Thrifty didn’t even have to buy 50 toothbrushes to score such a great deal.

Big vs Small Thrift

There is big thrift and there is small thrift. We thrifties will go out of our way to save $.03 per gallon on gas. That’s $.36 per fill, and then you figure there are 52 weeks each year and … you’ve saved a whopping $18.72.

Don’t get me wrong. If I found $18.72 on the sidewalk, I’d pick it up. However, when I think about owing $134K on my mortgage, that $18.72 isn’t going to make a dent. So, I either need a ton of $18.72′s or I need to think bigger.

When I look at my Mint.com spending chart, our biggest expense is our mortgage. We are at a decent 4.625 interest rate, however, rates are quite a bit less than that now.

PenFed is currently advertising a 5/5 ARM loan at 2.753% APR and they pay closing costs. Since I’m wanting to pay down my mortgage ASAP, I don’t see there being a problem with the rate increasing. Worse case, I save 2% for 5 years, and break even on the next 5. I can’t imaging still paying on my mortgage in 10 years. I also don’t want to pay closing costs, because that will be around $3K we would have to pay and it’d take a year and a half for our mortgage savings to pay for it.

A reduction in our mortgage rate would give us $2,177 extra each year to pay towards the principal. That’s 116 years worth of 18.72s in one fell swoop. It’s more work than driving a few blocks, but it’s a lot less work than driving a few blocks for 116 years. I need to make my mortgage refi a top priority.

Progress:

Clipping My Expenses – Thrifty Hair Care

For as long as I can remember, haircuts for me have consisted of going to a barber or salon and getting it cut. I’d try to leave work early and do a walk by to see how bad the line was at GreatClips or SportClips. If there was only 4 guys in the lobby, I’d put my name on the list and wait for the next available. Then I’d wait twenty minutes or so until a hairstylest was free.  After which, I’d get a haircut, pay the $15 or so dollars. Don’t forget to add a few more for the tip. $20 each month – closer to $30 if you go where you can make an appointment. Add driving time and I’ve lost an hour each month.

You figure $20 each month for 70 years at 5% interest; we are talking nearly $100K spent on getting your hair cut. I’m wanting to pay off my $134K mortgage, and here is $100K growing on top of my head. There has to be another way. Luckily, there is.

I bought a Wahl Clipper from TJ Maxx for $13. It paid for itself with the very first cut.  The best part. I didn’t have to wait in line.

I’ll admit is was scary at first. However, I’ve had hundreds of haircuts. I’ve watched how it’s done.  There’s all sorts of haircuts, but here’s how mine is cut.

I start by oiling my clippers. If you take care of your tools, they’ll last. And just as important: Put a plastic bag underneath your feet and over the sink to help with cleanup.

I usually go with a 6 guard. Attach it to the clipper and run that all over my hair, going against the grain. The crown of my head is the most difficult since it whirls clockwise, so I spend most of my time trimming it from all angles.

From there, I move down to the 5 guard – or a 4 if you don’t have a 5. I clip from my hairline up, when I get to the crown of my head, I shift the handle down and pull away. This is to give a nice gradual blending. Then I move down to a 3 guard and trim up from the base of my hairline, blending again and pulling away before I reach the level of my eyebrows. When I’m doing the back of my head, I use my free hand to keep track of where the blend line is.

After that, I have my wife clean up my neckline.

Every Penny Counts

This man has been saving his pennies since 1977. He walks into the bank and makes his final house payment…in pennies. That’s 800 pounds worth of pennies. That’s an awful lot of pennies.

Mr. Thrifty has also been collecting his pocket change since 1992. I didn’t weigh my piggy bank, but it was more than I could carry. As a result, I had to make several trips to the credit union coin counter. Grand total: $987.00

This was a great start. Now I have a tiny smidge of progress on the old progress bar, but obviously, I need many more pennies.

Progress:

Tracking Expenses with Mint.com

Mr Thrifty here, and I have a goal of paying off my mortgage. If I abide by the terms of the loan, I’ll be paying this thing until I’m dead. What I need to do is to attack this loan and the main way I’ll do that is by making my dollars go further. To do that, I need a way to track my spending.

Vicki Robin, who wrote: Your Money or Your Life, recommends keeping a log of every purchase in a notebook. This sounds great, but wouldn’t it be even better if there was an easier way to keep up with your purchases. Fortunately for me there is, and it’s called Mint.com. It a free service that you sign up for and link your accounts to. It’s recommended by the Wall Street Journal and Money Magazine, so I feel secure in using it myself, and have been for nearly two years.

I need good metrics, because we are talking about $135K here. At my current mortgage rate, even if I paid an extra grand each month, it’ll still take at least eight years to pay it off.

I’m also in my early 40s, so I can’t afford to make financial mistakes at this stage of my life.  This could end up being the most boring blog that’s ever been made. Maybe it should be titled: Man looks at $135K mortgage, decides it’s impossible, and gives up.

Progress: