The Frugal Goose

This is somewhat of an anti frugal post, but I seem to be using a lot more paper towels these days. I’m not sure if this is some kind of amazing American culture revelation or just me being an OCD clean freak. Either way I notice a lot more use of paper towels, paper napkins, etc. these days. Are we feeling the need to become a cleaner society? Whatever happened to the whole green movement and using less resources?

Anyway, if you must have your hands be constantly clean like me, go with the cheap generic paper towel brands. I’ve had the same if not better success with these over pricey name brand textured or thicker paper towels. Often if you buy in bulk as in 3+ rolls it ends up being cheaper than a single roll. I’d say a saving of 10-20 cents per roll on average. Paper towels in general are really just handy tools in the kitchen, I don’t think I can go without them. 

Ever wander into your local grocery store only to find restaurant quality food available by the pound or portion? Its usually pretty reasonably priced and most grocery stores sell premade entrees, appetizers, side dishes, and salads. I won’t argue for or against going out, but a quick trip to the grocery store when in need of a quick dinner can save a few bucks and taste much better than calling out for pizza.

I’ve also found high end organic stores like Whole Foods to have a really big selection of such premade fresh foods, most being very gourmet. It probably varies based on where you live but try this next time you feel like dining out but not breaking the bank.

Recently I had a hmm moment realizing how much of my monthly expenses were really going toward services, some that I didn’t need. You have things like cable, cellphone, perhaps lawncare as your bigger expenses. Then it starts trickling down to smaller services, for example netflix, an online photo service like flickr, music subscriptions, etc.

The internet has tons of niche web based services available to people amounting to a mutimillion dollar business. The real question is what did people do before the internet? Do we really need some of these services we’re paying for?

 True, they may be a convienience but this is the first place to look when trying to fix your financial leaks. You may overlook that $5 or $10 subscription to whatever but it’s going to add up, so get rid of it unless its absolutely essential to your everyday life.

This brings up another point I was thinking about and thats why we feel a need to do so many different tasks often simultaneously on a day to day bases. You’re in your car, you’re talking on a cellphone, you’re listening to the radio, you’re DRIVING, you’re eating a sandwhich or drinking something, you’re putting on/ checking makeup (applies to most girls and some guys). This is one common example of what I’m refering to.

But is it really necessary? Are you really getting the most of out the million tasks you hope to accomplish? Back on the example in the car, what youre doing is not really driving because its unsafe and could lead to an accident, eating  or drinking fast on the go could cause some health issues, and trying to have a conversation like this really ends up not being very meaningful or concentrated, so whats the point?

I think we often subscribe to some of these services because we feel they help us to accomplish some task or fill some small void we think needs to be filled and the financial trade off is really not much.

You can get more important things done by concentrating your energy on what really matters and eliminating a lot of the unnecessary things like the microservices. You will also notice you have more money to accomplish the more important things and do so better.

So you want to take a trip.  You have several options: drive or fly or if you’re really extreme, you do both.  You do some research and take some factors into consideration. 

Let’s take drive first.  You have to think about the cost of gas, the cost of mileage on a car whether you own or lease.  And perhaps most importantly of all, you have to think about the time it will take and the cost of your sanity. 

Now let’s take fly for some thoughts.  If you’re flying within the next few days, you might as well be prepared to pay an arm and a leg and have very limited choices in terms of seats and flight times.  If you plan ahead, you may have some more flexibility on those issues.  With the flying choice you have something else to consider…long security lines, wait times, possibility of delays and even cancelled flights.  Oh the joy of airports. 

So we come back to the original question…when it comes to travel, is it better to drive or fly?