Entries Tagged 'Frugality' ↓

Oren Etzioni is the brain behind Farecast, a predictive engine for airline tickets, and he shared eight tips for finding the best fares. To give you an idea of the magnitude of Farecast, if you’re not familiar with it, it tracks 175 billion fares at 79 airports. That’s a lot.

So what’s the advice? Don’t buy far in advance unless it’s a peak time like Thanksgiving and Christmas, otherwise the best fares are between eight and two weeks away. If you see a price drop, buy ASAP because it’ll likely be gone in two days. Midweek flights are cheaper than weekends and price drops come most often at the beginning of the week. Lastly, add an extra day and you can save some money.

Tracking Air Fares: Elaborate Algorithms Predict Ticket Prices [Wired]

Weddings, babies, engagements, what do they all have in common? Apparently in our consumerism driven society, they all have gifts in common. Getting married? Wedding shower! Having a child? Baby shower!

As with all potential gift giving occasions, retailers have registries! And with registries come one of the best inventions of the 21st century - the 10% coupon for completing your registry after the event. For example, Target will send you a coupon for 10% that you can use to buy anything off your registry. The nice little hack to go with it is that you can add things to your registry even after the event has been completed. This means that you get a 10% off coupon at Target, though Target’s return policies have become more and more restrictive.

So, after your event, get the 10% off coupon and have a field day at places like Crate and Barrel, Pottery Barn, and Restoration Hardware where you can stuff much cheaper than usual.

When my wife and I were on the Big Island, we rented a car from Hilo (eastern side) that would eventually be returned in Kona (western side). Since it was a one-way rental, meaning the car wouldn’t be returned to where it was rented, there was a $50 surcharge. Boo!

A tip I picked up, unfortunately too late for that trip, recently was that you can avoid the one-way surcharge if you request a car that was originally from your destination. In our case, I could have requested a car that originated in Kona and avoided the charge. There’s never a guarantee that such a car would be available but if it was, I could avoid a $50 fee. I imagine that scenario happens a lot in Hawaii, since they’re all islands, and less so elsewhere but it’s always worth a shot!

Studies have shown that people attach quality with price, so something that is more expensive has a higher perceive level of quality. In no other industry is this truer than in the wine business. In fact, in 1985, the Chateau Lafite 1787 was sold at Christie’s London for $160,000. That’s right, one bottle for a hundred and sixty thousand dollars.

Bought for the Forbes Collection, this bottle of Lafite bears Thomas Jefferson’s initials etched into the glass, a practice not that unusual in the 18th century when large purchases were made directly from the Chateau. [Source: Forbes]

You and I know this is ridiculous, but rich people are foolish and do crazy things. So, delight in this list of fine wines under $10 a bottle for our recession battered lips.

1. Cape Indaba Sauvignon Blanc 2007 ($6)
2. Bodegas Borsao Campo de Borja Borsao Red 2005 ($7)
3. Real Companhia Velha Porca de Murca 2005 ($7)
4. Adega Condes de Albarel Albarino Salneval 2006 ($9)
5. Jadot Beaujolais Villages 2006 ($9)
6. Monarchia Pinot Gris 2006 ($9)
7. Conde de Jauregui Rioja Crianza 2004 ($10)
8. Gascon Don Miguel Malbec 2006 ($10)
9. Miolo Reserva Pinot Noir 2006 ($10)
10. Yalumba Y Series Viognier 2006 ($10)

The Top Ten Wines Under $10 [Source: MainStreet.com]

When you have four children, you’re always looking for a way to save a little cash entertaining the little ones during the summer. I don’t have 4 kids but Raising4Boys.com does and they compiled a list of free summer movies for kids (or almost free) for the second year in a row. National chains and local theaters are represented, as best as they could find, and there are plenty of places offering great shows for cheap prices.

For example, do you have an AMC nearby? $1 movies for charity on Wednesdays from June 25th through August 6th. How about a Regal Cinemas? Free admission to select G & PG movies starting 10am each Tuesday and Wednesday.

Can’t beat that with a stick!

At the DMH household, we swapped out all of our regular incandescent light bulbs with the hot new squiggly compact flourescent lightbulbs. Did you know that replacing a 60 watt bulb with a 13 watt bulb can save you around $30 over the lifetime of the bulb? Yep, it clearly pays for itself and you use less electricity to boot. And the bulbs burn cooler and last longer.

That factoid, and many other money hacks, are available at this week’s Carnival of Money Hacks hosted by Moolanomy. Incidentally, that factoid was provided by GE Lighting in their Compact Fluorescent Light Bulb (CFL) FAQ.

Having a tough time saving? Consider a shopping fast one of these weekends. A shopping fast is where you agree, for one weekend, not to spend any money whatsoever. For one weekend a month, don’t spend any money and live off the stuff you already have. This includes no heading off to the mall and no going to the local watering hole for a burger and a beer.

No spend doesn’t mean you can’t watch TV because electricity costs money or skip showers because water isn’t free, I just mean that you should restrict yourself from participating in the consumerism of America in the sense that you won’t buy clothes or electronics or even fast food. Skip it all, just for one weekend. Do it every single month and you’ll save yourself some considerable cash.

Ever see someone pull out a notebook at the gas station? They’re recording how much gasoline they just purchased and calculating their fuel efficiency for the last tank. If you think they’re just stathounds who love to crunch numbers, think again. Tracking your car’s fuel efficiency is a great way to spot potential problems. If your car usually gets 25 miles to the gallon and you’re starting to see that slip, it might be a sign that your car is in need of some kind of servicing. Perhaps you need an oil change or a new air filter, or even a tune-up.

Be sure to account for seasonal changes such as increased use of air conditioning and your driving patterns. If your mileage increases, perhaps you did a long haul trek the last time and got higher MPG because of an abundance of highway driving. Ultimately, it’ll help in figuring out whether the increase or decrease is real or merely the result of a change in driving patterns.

It will also be useful in figuring out your car’s cost per mile driven, which can be useful for many other applications.

If gas prices have gotten you down, here’s a quick and easy way to ensure you get the maximum fuel efficiency out of your car with only a little extra effort: check your tire’s air pressure every week. This simple act, and ensuring your pressure is up to specification, can improve your fuel efficiency by a few percentage points and thus save you real money for very little extra effort.

To do this, you should get an air pump or find a gas station with free air as well as a good tire gauge. The pencil-type gauges often aren’t the best because they’re inaccurate but you can get a cheap tire gauge at your local auto parts store. Then, check your tire pressure each week and ensure it’s inflated up to the specification on the tire itself. Ignore any other spec (such as in the car’s manual), the tire will tell you what to keep it at.

You can over-inflate the tire by a pound or two (psi) if you want greater fuel mileage but that will reduce the life of the tire and reduce traction, so it’s not advised. The money you save on fuel by overinflation will be offset by the need for new tires.

The allure of cashback on all of your purchases is very tempting, unless you can’t keep track of all of your purchase and find yourself strapped for cash on paydays. One of the easiest and most old fashioned ways to get your spending in check is to always pay in cash. Credit cards, like casino chips, abstract away money and so it makes spending so much easier. A $5 cup of coffee isn’t that expensive if it’s just a swipe of the plastic. The cost hits a little closer to home if you have to pull out Mr. Lincoln and see his smirking little face leave your hands.

Another benefit, beside the immediate pain, is that you probably only carry so much cash on you. You won’t be able to spend $200 in one shot unless you actively plan to spend the $200 beforehand and get the cash. This separates the decision to spend and the decision to withdraw money and that extra step may curb your spending just a little bit.

Lastly, this won’t be some magic anti-spending bullet. You can always withdraw hundreds of dollars and leave it in your wallet, but at least you’ll have to actively make that decision.