DebtFREE-Revolution

Yesterday while grocery shopping at Kroger I saw a display tree near the checkout lanes that had reusable shopping bags on special, 5 for $4.  I paused in front of the display for about half a minute, then picked up five: three bright blue ones with the Kroger logo on them and two black ones with the words “Earth Sound,” a globe, and very tiny Kroger logo underneath.  I love them!

I have to admit: this is not really motivated by a sense of environmentalism.  I just truly hate those little plastic bags they have been using for the past several years.  Those plastic bags are small, tend to tear if they have the slightest hole in them (especially with canned goods in them), and my cats have WAY TOO MUCH FUN playing with the noisy things at 2 A.M.

I have been reusing those little plastic bags for years as trash can liners for the small trash cans in my office, my bedroom, and my bathroom (the ones that don’t tear).  Before the plastic ones came into vogue, I also used to use the paper grocery bags as trash can liners.  But since the plastic bags are so flimsy and small, I have at least a year’s supply of them still here in the house, stuffed down into an unused trash basket in hopes the cats don’t discover where they are hiding.

Back to the new cloth reusable grocery bags: these are nice and roomy!  Yesterday the bag boy fit all my groceries except the kitty litter into only three of the bags.  If he had used those noisy plastic bags it would have used 6-8 of them.  The new bags have looped handles which fit over my shoulder nicely.  They come with a small cardboard rectangle for the bottom to stabilize the stuff inside.

Then I discovered the nicest part: the cashier gave me a $0.04 discount off my total for each bag used!  It’s not much at all - I mean it saved me a grand total of 12 cents LOL - but since I only paid $0.80 per bag, I figure they should actually pay for themselves by the end of the year.  That was a neat little bonus.

• They won’t tear nearly as easily as the plastic bags
• They hold a lot more than the plastic bags
• The cats have shown no interest in playing with them, and even if they did it won’t make noise
• They are easier to carry
• For each bag used, a get almost a nickel off my grocery bill at Kroger
• They’re cute little bags and I got nice colors

As we were loading the groceries into the trunk, my son was telling me about the environmental benefits of using these reusable shopping bags.  He bought less than half the amount of groceries I did, and used four of those noisy plastic bags.  He pointed out the plastic ones are technically petroleum products.  As he put his groceries away at home and threw the plastic bags into the trash (since we have a surplus of them) he noted that with my new bags I am reducing the amount of plastic in the trash.

Glancing at the calendar, I notice tomorrow is Earth Day.  I didn’t buy these reusable shopping bags with the intention of saving the Earth, although I admit that is a nice side effect.  I bought them because they will benefit me in the form of convenience and usability.  I also love the shade of blue.  Let’s not forget they hold no interest for the cats so eventually there will be no more plastic bag “wars” waking me at zero-dark-stupid.

Musing as I finish my first cup of coffee for the day, I think this is the key to getting environmentally sound practices to really take hold with the general population: when it’s convenient and provides benefits for the average consumer.  The small discount off the total bill is a very nice little incentive as well, so hats off to Kroger for coming up with that idea, and making/carrying/marketing a product that can make life a little easier for me (the shopper) and can make my son think I am a bit of an environmental hero.

We just got back from the grocery store, and I am feeling rather frustrated with my teenage son and his idea of grocery shopping.  For those new to my teenager on a budget experiment, this is week five of the budget experiment and here’s the back story:

• Putting the teenager on his own food budget
• Teenager on a Food Budget: First Try
• A Gallon of Milk vs A Gallon of Gas
• Teenager on a Budget: The Milk Update
• Week Two: Teenager on a Food Budget Experiment
• Teenager on a Food Budget: Week Three

It’s not as if I have never tried to teach him how to shop smart.  It’s not as if I have never taken him shopping and “led by example” for aggressive saving on food.  It’s not as if I didn’t point out great loss-leader sales as we went in the door.  It’s not as if I haven’t tried to teach him how to save by buying in bulk when it’s a better deal on items that will be eaten.

He’s being stubborn, clinging to the idea that he can outshop his mom *his* way.  Just one hour ago, he told me: “I only buy what I need for the week, instead of stocking up.  That way I am saving money.”  He was buying four large individual apples, and I pointed out to him he could save money and get more apples if he bought the prebagged ones, even if they are smaller.  By my calculations, he could eat two smaller apples at a time and still have more servings for about the same cost.  He bought the bigger ones.

One thing I absolutely love about shopping at the local Kroger is they put the price per unit on their price labels.  This helps immensely, especially when trying to determine which size of an item to get and whether or not the larger “bulk” size is actually the better deal (sometimes it isn’t).  I have pointed this out to my son several times over the past couple years.

Over the past couple years I have stressed the importance of knowing what normal price is, so I know when a sale is actually a good deal or when it’s just hype.

Apparently all my instruction has been for naught.  Or maybe he is just experimenting on his own, and will eventually come around to my way of thinking on his own.  I just know I am feeling frustrated right now as he is dismissing all my shopping advice.  For those of y’all who have survived raising teenagers, or have just come out of the teenage years yourself: Is this a “normal” phase for teenagers to completely blow off parental advice?

Apparently my fellow PF bloggers are dying to hear what things bust my budget, because I got tagged not once but twice for CindyS’s “budget busters” meme this week.  Peter from Bible Money Matters hit me first, then Shanti over at Antishay Ventenne got me.  I guess it’s “confession time” in the personal finance blogosphere in regards to budgets.

1. The fast-food drive-through!  This one is my weakness, my achilles heel, my vice, and I have gotten to the point where I simply plan for it.  I know there will be days when I just don’t feel like cooking, or I’m on the go and getting hungry with a few more errands left to do.
2. The $5 DVDs at Wal-Mart.  Seriously, this one is just too easy to justify: a DVD for less than a movie theater ticket!  We always buy movies we know we like and will watch at least three to five times … but they really add up when you find four good ones in one trip to the store.
3. The “day old” sales at the bakery.  Doughnuts, muffins, sweet breads, loaf cakes, bakery cookies … yes we have serious sweet tooths here and I love getting them for less than half price!  It’s never on the grocery list, but how could I pass up such a great deal on things we love to eat?  Let’s not forget the fun day-after holiday candy finds either … I just scored a dozen (YES, that’s TWELVE) Cadbury caramel eggs on my Missouri trip.  I won’t even get into Christmas or Valentines Day candy.

Hmmm, seems like food and entertainment are my weaknesses.  None of these things are large-ticket items, but they do tend to add up if I indulge in them on a regular basis.

I know I am supposed to tag other bloggers, but all my favorite targets have been tagged already, so I will do an “open tag” where if you have a blog, put up your budget busters.  If you don’t have a blog, feel free to leave your biggest budget busters here in the comments.

I got in from the funeral in Missouri last night, but was too tired to post.  The trip was about 320 miles each way, with driving back and forth between two small towns on Highway 50 while I was there.  As much as I cringe at the thought of climbing behind the wheel again, I still have to work tonight.

My thoughts are still pretty jumbled up about the whole situation.  I got to visit with cousins, aunts, uncles, second cousins, and even third cousins that I haven’t seen for years.  We all just wish it could have been for a happy occasion instead of a funeral for my younger cousin.

Moneywise, I did the trip for only about $230 including gas and motel expenses.  The desk clerk didn’t mention my room had a refrigerator and microwave, so I am really wishing I had brought the cooler along with some food and drinks.  It wouldn’t have cut much out of the expenses, but I could have brought some “comfort food” along with me.

On the feelings side, I am very glad I made the trip and got the opportunity to reconnect with my family.  My aunt brought out old pictures from when we were little kids, and they brought back fond memories of playing with my cousins during the summer at my grandparents’ farm.  That’s the way I’ll always remember Shelley: my younger vivacious cousin that I had so much fun with when my parents made the drive to visit.

There were a lot of tears, a lot of hugs, and a lot of memories. 

I’d like to thank my two guest posters for helping me out on short notice, and all of y’all readers for your kind words of sympathy.

This is a guest post from Mike at Quest For Four Pillars, who is pinch-hitting for me while I attend my cousin’s funeral.  Thanks Mike!  Be sure to check out his blog, and if it appeals to you be sure to subscribe.

I’m a big fan of exercise in order to stay in shape. One of the things that I try to do is to get some exercise doing normal chores around the house so that I can increase my fitness without having spend extra time or money going to a gym. A great way to get some solid exercise during the summer months is to mow the lawn with a manual lawn mower.

Now you might be thinking that your yard is too big. Well, how about doing part of the lawn with the manual mower and then hop on your 8-cylinder rider for the remainder? Now I can accept that some people are not healthy enough to do manual work but everyone else should be capable of doing part or all of their lawn with a manual mower.

Reasons why you should be using a manual lawn mower

• Exercise - this particular workout doesn’t cost you any money, no time to get to the gym and is time that you would doing a chore anyways
• Save money - manual mowers are cheaper than any other kind of mowers and the maintenance is much less
• Good for the environment - you aren’t using any electricity or polluting with a gasoline engine
• Quiet - electric and gas mowers are very loud, which is annoying to the person mowing as well as everyone else in a half mile radius

You can buy a pretty good manual mower for about $100 so even if you already own a mower then you can sell it and buy a manual mower. Your health will thank you.  Don’t believe me?  Here’s another post on manual mowing from the Good Human.

I’d like to add a quick note: the Army still uses these manual push mowers, especially my old unit on Fort Campbell.  The commanders believed it was great exercise for soldiers on extra duty!

This is a guest post from Randall at Credit Withdrawal, who is pinch-hitting for me as I travel to my cousin’s funeral.  Show him some love, and if you like his writing be sure to subscribe to his anti-debt blog as well!

A recent article on the Consumerist Citicard Exec On Ending Universal Default: “It’s Like Telling People You Stopped Beating Your Wife” caught my attention, as did the link it referenced, News From The Swamp: Liveblogging The Senate Permanent Subcommittee On Investigations Hearing On Arbitrary Credit Card Rate Increases.  Apparently, our wise leaders in Washington have finally decided that the credit card companies might be doing something naughty with their semi-random rate increases, their ever-increasing penalties, and their FICO score finagling.

From the articles (especially the senate subcommittee one) there is an interesting behind-the-scenes struggle going on between Congress and the big credit card companies to come to a decision on whether the card companies are mistreating their customers.  I’m sure it’s fairly apparent to anyone reading this blog what the answer to that question is.

Have You Stopped Beating Your Wife Yet?

From the articles, it appears that Chase and Citicard/Citibank have dropped the Universal Default Clause as a means of sticking it to credit card holders. They are, however, maintaining the magical FICO-triggered rate increase, and the various fees, fines, and penalties.

For those not familiar with a Universal Default Clause, here’s a quick definition.

When a card holder with card A (Visa for instance) fails to pay on time, this is reported on their credit score. This clause allows any other card companies (say card B, MasterCard for instance) that the card holder ALSO has cards with, to raise the interest rate when they do a periodic credit check on the customer, even though they were never late with a payment to card B.

This is one of the worst, and probably most secretive practices of the credit card companies. The fact that a whole domino-chain of credit cards can increase the interest rates for missing ONE payment is bad. For that payment not even being on the card increasing the limits is borderline CRIMINAL.

Why you’re not hearing about Chase and Citicard dropping the rates is because they’re trying to get out of a sticky situation with Congress, by throwing them a bone (dropping the Universal Default clause) but WITHOUT notifying their customers that the clause EVEN EXISTED. That way they won’t get caught with their hands in the cookie jar by their customers.

Even with this concession, there’s a good possibility that Congress won’t be satisfied until some more changes are made. It’s become VERY apparent that the credit card morass that the U.S. is in, is only going to get worse with the existing credit card practices. And with the Subprime bubble, Recession, and other economic problems facing your average consumer nowadays, it’s not healthy for businesses to take advantage of them the way they are used to.

I doubt that even Congress will get the credit card companies to completely reform how they do business, short of an extreme tightening in usury and lending regulations. Other than that, they can grill the CEOs of the various banks and institutions for many less-sweeping changes.

Is THIS a Good Enough Reason to Ditch the Debt?

As if we needed more reasons to dislike credit cards, the hilarious take on the Senate Subcommittee meeting (see above link) illustrates how even the credit card companies can’t always defend their actions. Taken as a whole, credit cards are the albatross around most American’s necks. Getting rid of the cards can put you on a whole new side of life that you probably haven’t seen in a long while. The debt-free side.

I am heading out to drive to Missouri shortly for my cousin’s funeral.  I’m staying at a local motel, as all my family members have already claimed the spare bedrooms.  I took a little while to work everything out, but am getting a halfway decent rate for such a short-notice reservation in a small town.

The biggest rule for driving to Missouri has always been to fill up before crossing the Illinois state line.  They must have high gasoline tax there, because as long as I can remember gas prices have been at least a dime per gallon higher than the surrounding states.

The Pizza Taxi is ready for a highway trip, as I put new tires on it in February and had its oil changed ten days ago (along with the mechanics’ check-up).  It has been a little while since I have taken it on a highway trip, so it should be interesting to see how it does on gas mileage.

I thought about loading up the cooler with some munchies and road eats, then started to think it might affect my weight ratio since the car is so small and lightweight.

While I’m gone, I have a few guest posts that will run for your reading pleasure.  Be sure to check them out, and big public thank you to the guys for pitching in and helping on short notice.  I’ll be back sometime Thursday night, and probably blogging again for Friday.

The EPA fuel economy MPG is those numbers they put on the car window sticker that estimate how many miles per gallon (mpg) you should be getting out of your car.  Most people do NOT get that number, but instead get a lower mpg.

I’ve heard folks who maintain their car religiously, check their tire pressure (tyre inflation for the Brits), get an oil change at every 3000 miles on the dot, get their tune-ups on time, and basically do everything under the sun to get the best number of miles per gallon out of their car, then still fail to acheive the number on the window sticker that they laminated and keep in the glovebox.  They ask: Why?

In a nutshell: It’s your driving style!

That’s right, take a good look in the mirror if you’ve done all the maintenance possible and still can’t get up to your EPA fuel economy number.  As a pizza delivery driver, I have probably seen you in MY rear-view mirror or through my windshield, and I can say that all the maintenance in the world will be undone by driving style.  Here are the official EPA tips to improve your mpg through driving style:

• SLOW DOWN!!!  Seriously, most people on the road with me are driving 5-15 mph over the posted speed limit, even through known speed traps and school zones.  The EPA estimates that simply observing the speed limit will save you 7-23%, which translates to $0.23-0.74 per gallon at $3.239 per gallon price (what I saw this weekend).  That doesn’t take into account the expense of getting a speeding ticket and having your driving insurance rate raised.
• Aggressive driving costs you.  Rapid acceleration, especially from a full stop (often called drag racing starts or jackrabbit starts), uses the most gas for the least amount of distance.  I see this the most in town between stoplights!  Why are you in such a hurry to slam on the brakes at the next stoplight?  The EPA estimates that “aggressive driving” costs 5-33% of your mpg depending on just how aggressive you truly drive.  At $3.239 per gallon of gas, that could cost you $0.16-$1.07 per gallon!  So how does it feel to stomp on the gas pedal and know that you just burned 1/3 of your fuel effieciency?  If you can’t tell, this one is a pet peeve of mine, especially when the aggressive driver is directly behind me.
• Excess weight in your car makes your engine work harder.  The EPA estimate is 1-2% per every 100 pounds of extra weight in your car, which translates to $0.03-$0.06 per gallon of gasoline.  Basically, if you are dragging around excess weight you just negated any savings you might have gotten by price shopping or using a discount card at the pump.
• Avoid idling.  When you are idling, you are burning gas to go absolutely nowhere.  I always turn the Pizza Taxi off instead of idling at a customer’s house or at the shop in between deliveries. (No EPA figures)
• Use cruise control (if you have it).   This helps you keep a smooth constant speed on the highway as opposed to the speed-up-slow-down routine, even on the hills.  Hubby’s truck has cruise control, but as a 5-speed the Pizza Taxi doesn’t. (No EPA figures)
• Use overdrive if you have it.  Once you are up to highway speed, pop it in overdrive to let your engine work less. (No EPA figures)

I know some of y’all are wondering just how well I do against the EPA figures for my Pizza Taxi.  Here are the stats I plugged into the “Find your fuel economy” page: 2000 Ford Escort ZX2 5-speed manual.

• Old EPA fuel economy: 25 mpg city and 33 mpg highway
• New EPA fuel economy: 22 mpg city and 30 mpg highway
• MY fuel economy on the last fill-up (Thursday before work to Saturday after work)  325 miles travelled, 9.6 gallons of gasoline used for 34.58 mpg!
• My record for city and delivery mpg: last summer I got 35.8 mpg while driving for Domino’s and delivering into downtown even!
• My record for highway mileage: 39.2 mpg on a road trip about three years ago immediately after an oil change and tune-up and driving on a windless mild day.

I beat the old EPA fuel economy numbers, and stomp all over the revised numbers.  Why?  HOW?  I follow all the tips I just listed for y’all, plus a few of my personal gasoline-saving driving tips listed last week.

Here’s my challenge for everyone: Try one week of driving like the EPA and I recommend, and figure your gas mileage.  To do this, start with a completely full gas tank and either note your starting miles on the odometer or reset your trip meter to zero.  When you go to fill up again, top it off, and the number of gallons it takes is how much you used.  Then divide number of miles traveled by gallons used for your mpg.  Compare this number to what the EPA says you should be getting (both old and new numbers for fun!) and post it here