Saving in the Time of COVID-19

Most of us are reeling from the uncertainty of this time we're in, and considering we are staring down the barrel of a major economic depression, we can all use some new ways to save and stretch money.  Below is just a short list of things I'm doing as a result of working from home, and also some things I always do to save money.  As always, this list is based on my observations and experiences, so please chime in with any other suggestions you have in the comments!

1. If you are working from home and not driving your car, update your car insurance so that you are not paying for any extras.  Note: if you are still making payments on a car loan, you often have to keep a certain level of coverage, so double check this first.  In our case, we own our two 2012 Prius's outright, so I reduced our coverage to the absolute bare minimum.  We had just made our six month payment, and reducing coverage got us almost $300 refunded.  Some companies are automatically giving people some money back, but you can also further reduce, and get even more back.  For instance, I saw that Geico is giving people 15% back, which is great, but I got us 30%, which is better.

2. Reduce food waste as much as possible.  Wasting food = wasted money.  Shop strategically and try not to buy more fresh produce at a time than you know you can eat.  It's very easy to feel virtuous while in the produce section, but if you bring home three kinds of salad greens, and then have a cold, rainy week where you don't want to eat salad at all--it's going to go bad.

• Plan meals in advance, and shop according to the plan.
• Make frozen veg your friend--often frozen vegetables are better for you because they are frozen at peak freshness, whereas fresh produce needs to travel to market and loses nutrients.
• Assess your kitchen for weaknesses.  What do you frequently end up wasting?  How can you focus on the problem areas and eliminate or reduce waste?  For instance, we use milk very infrequently, and used to buy it in half gallons, only to have it keep going bad when the container was half empty.  Now, we buy a half gallon of milk and portion it out into pint jars with lids.  Most of those go into the freezer, and we pull them out and thaw as needed.  This has made is waste less, and also stop making extra trips to the store.
• If you don't like a food, don't buy it. When people are trying to avoid the grocery store, it can be very tempting to stock up on things like rice, pasta, canned vegetables, which seems like a logical choice.  But, if you never eat rice and don't really have a way to incorporate it into your eating repertoire, you can use that shelf space for something that makes more sense for you.  If you don't want to eat canned soup or peanut butter, then don't buy it!

3. Put all your spare cash into a high interest savings account.  The Federal Reserve Bank slashed interest rates a while ago, but there are still some banks where you can get a decent return for savings accounts--more for Money Market accounts.  For instance, we are socking cash into a Capital One Money Market account, which nets us 1.3% interest for balances over $10,000 (about $15/month).  Their regular savings account rate is .5% last I checked.  That's not great, but it's still free money.  I like free money.  If you got the government stimulus check and you don't need it right away, put it into savings and leave it alone.

4. Don't blow a bunch of money on kitchen gadgetry.  Everyone in my fb feed starting baking bread as soon as stay at home orders came out, and I admit that I was mildly tempted to try my hand at bread baking again, but I didn't--for a couple of reasons:

• I've tried bread baking before and I find it frustrating, time-consuming and just not worth the effort.  Sure, I could probably get better with more practice, but once I'm back to commuting to work every day, I'm not going to spend my downtime baking bread.  
• I also don't have any bread pans, and I don't want to buy them on the off chance that this is a hobby that will stick. If there's something you want to do in the kitchen and it requires a bunch of equipment you don't own, maybe take a step back and think about what you can do with what you already have.  Or see if you can borrow what you need from a friend.

5. Try not to panic shop or shop out of boredom.  If you have to, unsave all credit card info from sites that you frequent.

6. Focus on reuseables.  If you have an extreme paper towel habit, try switching to rags and reuseable napkins for most of your needs. If you have on-site laundry and are working from home, this is the perfect time to figure out if this is a solution you can work with.

7. Get a bidet attachment for your toilet.  We got one from amazon a few months ago, and it has been a total game-changer.  For the low price of $25, we have cut our toilet paper use in half, which will more than pay for the bidet in less than a year. Plus, I feel cleaner than I ever have, and my husband installed it in less than an hour.

8. Wear your clothes out.  And by that, I don't mean out of the house, but rather wear them until they are falling apart, then transfer them to the rag bag to be used in place of paper towels for cleanup.  There is something supremely satisfying (to me) to getting every single last use out of an item.  Especially when most of us are at home more than ever, there's no reason to spend money on new clothes.  When I feel tempted to buy new clothes, I first make myself go look at what I already have, and usually realize that I have everything I need already.

Fridge/Freezer Challenge Update

On Sundays I always spend part of my morning prepping my work lunches for the week.  I pack a lunch every day, and I usually eat the same thing most days, so it's much easier for me to just whip up a bunch of lunches on Sunday and then put what I need in a bag every morning as I head out the door.  Lately, I've been obsessed with a salad of chopped romaine lettuce, grape tomatoes, Quorn Chik Patties diced up (I'm vegetarian), and ranch dressing.  I had one heart of romaine left, which made me two lovely salads for this week.  I had originally thought I might buy some more romaine, but looking at the other things I had in the fridge/freezer, I decided to not do that and be a bit more creative instead.

Two yummy salads

Also worth mentioning--those little colored containers that I use for salad dressing are AMAZING.  I got them at TJ Maxx for something like $3 for four, and they are so handy. I also saw them at Old Navy recently, which was pretty random.  They hold just the right amount, and the lids click into place.  I love it when a somewhat impulsive purchase turns out to be so useful.

In addition to those salads, I had half a bag of brussels sprouts to use up, and some frozen broccoli.  The broccoli is currently roasting in the oven at 425 with some olive oil, S&P, minced garlic and red pepper flakes.  I plan to pair that with some farro, and either bring it for lunch or have it on hand for dinner.  I think I have about two servings currently cooking.

For the brussels sprouts, one of my favorite things to do is shred them so I can have them as a salad.  You shred them in a food processor, and then cook them slightly in about 1/2 cup of water--just to get the bitterness out and soften them a bit.  Then, once they've cooled, I'm going to toss them with some Trader Joes Steamed Lentils, which I already have, some blue cheese crumbles, reduced sugar craisins and balsamic vineagrette.  That's something I can either pack for lunch or have at home for dinner.

I have five work lunches, five weeknight dinners and three days of eating when I'm not at work.  I have plenty of other random foods I can cook up at home, and the fridge is looking delightfully empty!

Pre-Vacation Scheming

I love a good scheme for saving money.  I especially love a scheme that allows me to save money in advance of something expensive and fun like my upcoming vacation.  Splashing out after a period of austerity is so thoroughly satisfying that it almost makes me look forward to the austerity itself.  So my plan to reduce spending and earn a wee bit of cash in advance of my travels includes:

1. Eating from the pantry 95% of the time.  I have plenty of food, so I plan to eat it and avoid going to the grocery store almost entirely.  I have exactly three things that I will need to buy (romaine lettuce, cottage cheese and coffee creamer), but other than that, I'm staying away.  I've done an inventory of what's in the house, and I don't even think my meals will get too weird.  I have plenty of frozen vegetables on hand, and a pantry full of dry goods.  I'm set!
2. No trips to the liquor store.  Currently I have some beer, some wine and some gin for my Friday night martini (it's important!).  I'm not allowed to buy any more than that, which leads to bullet point three...
3. Lose some weight. I plan to accomplish this by drinking less, eating more deliberately and exercising more.  I'm not happy with the fact that if I don't lose weight before I go, I will be rather uncomfortable on my trip since my jeans are not currently fitting the way I'd like, and I refuse to buy a bigger pair.  I also want to make sure there's room in said pants for me to eat and drink merrily while I'm away.
4. I am on a general spending freeze for the foreseeable future, except for buying gas, getting a much-needed haircut, and writing a check to the cat-sitter.
5. Hopefully utilities will be cheaper since it's FINALLY starting to warm up a bit.

In addition to saving money, I'm trying to find a little extra cash lying around.

1. I listed three LL Bean gift cards that we had gotten for christmas on cardpool.com.  I wasn't able to sell them for the full value, obviously, but it was super painless and I got a decent amount of cash for them (think 45.90 on a $60 giftcard, or $50 in Amazon credit).  I'd much rather have cash than have to try to think of what to buy at LL Bean. It's not that I don't like that store, it's just not my go-to.
2. I returned two dresses. I love a refund.
3. I'm trying to walk and run more (see above), which is something I've been able to monetize--slightly.  I have the Achievement app on my phone, which awards me points for taking steps (tracked by my fitbit).  Once I get to 10,000 points, I get $10. I also did a stepbet recently, which helped me get my ass in gear and be more active, and netted me a cool $9.65.  All that extra money goes into my money market savings account, which earns me 2% interest.

The countdown is on!

2019 Savings Goals

Since 2018 was the year of decimating my car loan, I've fallen a bit behind on putting money into my Roth IRA.  According to my mint.com account, I am nearly on track to retire at the age of 70.  Sure, that's great, but also, I'm pretty sure I can do better than that.  I do love my job, and thankfully it's not physically demanding in a way where I won't be able to do it at age 70, but I also would like to have options.  Having money means having options.

Despite the fact that I didn't put any money into my Roth IRA in 2018, I was still saving for retirement.  I have a TIAA Cref plan through my work, and my monthly contribution is pretty aggressive, since until literally this month, I've been behind on saving for retirement.  My employer also has a very, very good match (10%), so that helps significantly.

So, the plan for 2019 is as  follows:

1. Contribute as much as I comfortably can to my Roth IRA for tax year 2018, which I can do until April 15.  I'm not getting much of a tax refund, but what I do get will go into my Roth for 2018.
2. Contribute as much as I comfortably can to my Roth for tax year 2019. I don't think I'll be able to max it out, but I'll certainly do my best. It helps that I can contribute for tax year 2019 until April 2020.
3. I will pay off the credit card that has the balance of my car loan on it in July, but I should still have $10,000 in my emergency fund at that time.  $10,000 is my low threshold for my emergency fund, since I need to have at least that much to get the interest rate of 2%.  I'd like to have at least $12,000 in my emergency fund, so I will still be putting some money in there each month, but the Roth is the priority.
4. Look into micro-finance loans.  This is something I'll write an entire post about, but in a nutshell, micro-finance loans are loans that you give to people in developing countries to help them grow their small businesses.  It's not something that will make me money, but it's a very low cost way to give people a hand up.  I'm still investigating this, so I will report back in the future!
5. Get our household emergency fund over the $10,000 threshold.  My husband and I have a shared emergency fund, and I really want to get that over the $10k mark so we can move it to a Money Market and double our interest rate.  We're close, but that goal is a few months away.

That's it for now!  I have a couple other things percolating in my mind, but I think five goals is a very reasonable batch to write down.  

What are your annual financial goals?

Maxing out my Roth in 2017

I do pretty well with retirement savings. I get a 4% match from my employer, which helps a great deal, and I try to contribute to my Roth IRA as often as I can.  I am behind in retirement savings, however, because I got a late start, and my mint.com account reminds me of this painful fact every day. 

It makes the most financial sense to really double down on that savings immediately, so that I can get as much interest compounding as possible. I'm planning to increase the percentage I save through work, which will up my match, but my plan for 2017 is to also max out my Roth IRA contribution, which is something that I should be able to do for the first time--maybe ever.

The maximum amount you can contribute to a Roth IRA is $5500/year.  I'm starting this year out with an advantage in that I already have about $2300 in that account because I cashed out a life insurance policy and rolled it into last year's and this year's Roth.  So I just need to find an additional $3200 or about $350/month.  My plan is to divide that amount up into tiny dollar amounts and see how quickly I can snowball it.

My financial goal last year was to be more charitable.  I set up a monthly sustainer donation with NPR, ACLU, got a subscription to the New York Times (which I know isn't a charity, but good journalism is important) and I made donations to a few local theatres.  The amounts donated were small and relatively painless at the time, so I'm going to approach my Roth with the same mindset.

1. Schemes and found money. I have a few ways to earn a bit of extra money, and that had previously gone into my travel fund.  For now, I'm going to re-route all those revenue streams to my Roth until I hit $5500, then they'll go back into my travel fund.
2. Interest income.  I generate a little money every month in interest income on my savings accounts.  Normally I just leave it alone and let the account balance grow,  This year, I'm going to move it into my Roth.  I can't do this every month, since you're only allowed to make five withdrawals from savings per month, but I can move this money over quarterly.  My capital one savings accounts tell me exactly how much interest I've earned in the calendar year, and having that money in my Roth rather than regular savings will help it grow faster.
3. Returns/ Refunds/Rebates.  When I buy something and return it, that refund money is going to go into my Roth unless I absolutely need it.  I have a pair of shoes that I need to return, so that's $60 extra dollars right there. I've also been doing very well with ibotta lately, so all of that money will be funneled right into retirement.  Same thing for my quarterly Big Fat Check from Ebates, which is currently sitting at $34.99.
4. House Cleaning. I have a lot of things I no longer need. There's an older macbook pro power cable that isn't compatible with my current computer, a TV/DVD player that I haven't used in two years but that works perfectly well, etc.  I'm looking  at the things in my house with a critical eye, and listing anything that I don't use, but that someone else could use on craigslist.  I find craigslist generally annoying, but I have four listings that net me enough money the hassle of dealing with people should be worth my time. I also have a gift card that I got as a gift that I am selling on ebay.  I was stressing out trying to think of what to spend it on, when I realized that I don't want to buy anything and I'd be much happier with cash.  Maybe this is tacky, but I don't really care.

We're also approaching a more temperate time of year, so hopefully heating bills will finally go down, and that will free up a little bit of extra cash.  I'm like a magpie looking for that shiny money, and I think I'll be able to make my goal!

Schemes and Finds

I love a good money-making scheme.  For me, the thrill of the hunt sometimes gets me into situations where I spent far too much time trying to earn a paltry amount of cash, but somehow this small amount of cash that I've gotten outside of my actual job is more exciting since it's unexpected. What's even better is finding low-maintainence schemes to make money doing things I already do, or things I should do.  I've had a few in play lately that I'm really enjoying, and I'd love to hear of others!

Fitness related:

• Pact--Pact is an app where you track the number of steps you take, and/ or you could also track the food you eat, and you earn cash on a weekly basis if you meet your goal.  For instance, the fitness pact requires you to pick a number of days each week where you will walk at least 10,000 steps.  You also establish a penalty for yourself if you fail to meet this goal.  My pact is that I will walk at least 10,000 steps five days a week, and if I fail to meet that goal, I am penalized $10. At the end of the week, if you've met your pact, you get a share of the pot from the other people who didn't make theirs.  You need to have a fitness tracker to record the steps, but other than that, it's pretty low-overhead.  I have been using this for about 8 months, and I make on average $.90/week.  That's not a huge amount of money, but for those 8 months, I've made about $30 doing something that I should be doing anyway.  Once you're in the habit, 10,000 steps per day is very achievable, and I've never not made my pact since I started using the app--even if that means walking laps around my apartment.
• Step Bet--Similar to pact, there is a newer app called step bet, where you pay a $40 buy-in up front, and then the app assigns you a daily step goal based on your previous data. The bet runs for six weeks, and at the end, the winners split the pot, and the losers just lose.  This one was a legitimate challenge, but I'm very proud of myself for completing every week, even though this has been a terrible winter and I wasn't been able to get outside to go running more than a couple times while the Step Bet was going on.  My step goals that the app assigned me were four days at minimum 13,401 steps and two days at least 16,493, then one rest day.  I'm a pretty active person, but that many steps was very tough sometimes.  At the same time, I met the challenge, and I'm pretty proud of myself.  For my efforts, I earned a cool $6.43, but I would actually do this again just because it's satisfying, and any little extra bit of money is nice.  Since winnings are based on other people not completing the challenge, your winnings can vary wildly depending on the people you're competing with.
• Dietbet--Dietbet is the same company as Step Bet, and it's the same concept except with weight loss rather than steps.  There are a number of different games you can join, all of which have various buy-in costs, different amounts of time the game lasts and different goals.  I've done The Transformers game for the last couple years.  That's a six month game where you pledge to lose 10% of your body weight, and there's a buy-in of $125, which is steep, but last year I doubled my money and lost weight!  You have to weigh in by taking a picture of yourself standing on your scale, and then a picture of the number on the scale, along with an index card with the secret word that's sent out during weigh in time.  The company verifies your weight, and you get a percentage of the buy-in at the end of the game.

Shopping:  One caveat with regard to shopping apps, it obviously makes no sense to try to save money by buying things you neither need nor want just because they're a great deal.  I use cash back and rebate apps only to buy things I either have bought before, or I've thought about buying.

• Ebates--I hate going to stores, so I buy online whenever I can.  Ebates is an online shopping website that gives you a percentage of cash back when you authorize them to see what you bought.  The number of stores Ebates is connected to grows all the time, and you can money quarterly via paypal.  You can either go directly to ebates.com and search for the online store you want to shop in, or you can download their browser extension, and every time you go to a website where they would give you cash back, the ebates button lights up and you can enable it for your shopping trip.  I've been with ebates forever, and apparently have gotten $529 cash back.  The cool thing is that you can get cash back on more then just online shopping in the traditional sense.  For instance the three most recent things I've gotten cash back on are online tax preparation via HR Block, a new phone plan through Verizon and cash back on hotels booked via Expedia.  All of those were things I was doing anyway, so getting a little extra money ($75 in the case of Verizon) is pretty awesome.
• Ibotta--Ibotta is a rebate app that you can use for groceries, liquor store purchases and a few other things I've never tried. It's basically like a coupon, except it gives you a discount after purchase.  Your rebate money is banked in your Ibotta account, and once you get to $20, you can cash out via paypal, or get gift cards.  The grocery rebates are frequently pretty small, so it takes a while to add up, but the rebates for beer, wine and liquor add up very fast. For instance it was just St. Patrick's Day, and my local liquor store was running a special on Guinness and Harp beer.  Guinness is usually 13.99 for an 8-pack; Harp is $13.99 for a 12-pack.  The store had them on sale for $11.99 each, and I had Ibotta rebates for $3 off each in addition to that.  So that's a tidy savings on something I would have bought anyway.  Once drawback with liquor store purchases, is that in order to get a rebate from Ibotta, you need to scan the items you bought and take a picture of an itemized receipt.  It can be tricky to find liquor stores that give itemized receipts--so make sure you're getting one before you go nuts buying things!  This week, I have both a $1 off coupon and a $1 off rebate for Fairlife milk, which is usually $3.99, so that's half price for me!  I always buy milk when it's on sale, since my preferred milk is more expensive, and then I portion it out into pint sized mason jars and freeze it. $2 isn't much, but if you found $2 on the ground, you'd probably pick it up, this is just another version of that.

Little bits of money can add up to real savings, and once you're in the habit of looking for deals and rebates, it just become automatic.  Are there any other schemes you've found that I should investigate?

Pre-Vacation Spending Fast

In April, I'm going on my first real vacation in a few years.  I've been on shorter trips recently, of course, but this is the first vacation in a while that's long enough for me to need to make sure all the food in the fridge gets eaten before I leave.  Since I'm a little apprehensive at the idea that I'll be spending money every single day for more than two weeks, I'm going to go on a spending fast before I leave so I won't feel any guilt for splashing out.  I'm pretty good and living low-key while in regular life and then splashing out while on vacation, but I always like to start a vacation with a bit of a deficit, which makes vacation mode out that much sweeter.  There are a few things I'm going to do to set myself up for the most enjoyable travel experience I can get.

1. I usually try to lose a little weight before I go on a long vacation since I know I will inevitably gain weight while traveling.  Traveling is great in that I will be moving much more than I do at my desk job, but I will also be much more gluttonous.  Losing weight and eating mindfully before setting out on a trip helps me both identify what is real hunger as opposed to just convenience or boredom eating, and it helps ensure that my clothes continue to fit while I'm away.  I also find it much easier to diet before going on a trip, because I know that there is an end point to the diet. I will, of course, be bringing looser or more forgiving clothes on this trip, but I can't wear them every day.  Also, there's really nothing worse in my mind than returning from a trip and immediately feeling guilty for having nothing that fits to wear to work, or having to buy new clothes.
2. I am going to avoid the grocery store except for the absolute essentials.  I did a January pantry/ freezer cleanout, which got rid of a lot of items that had been lingering in my cupboards for far too long, but I could have actually kept up that cleanout for another month or more easily.  This time around, I have even more incentive to stick to it, so that I can leave the fridge nice and clean for my house/ cat sitter while we're gone.  I'll also, obviously, save money on groceries, which is nice since paying for hotels already has me smarting a bit.  I already have a few restaurant dates on my calendar for before I leave, so buying fewer groceries will help finance eating out, which is kind of the opposite of usual rules of frugality.
3. I've been doing slightly more online shopping lately. A lot of what I've ordered has been returned, but I've also been looking for "the perfect X", which has necessitated ordering and sending many things back, and just spending more time being tempted by items in online stores.  Since I don't want my house-sitter to have to deal with a large volume of packages, I need to not order anything else until I get back, or just not at all.  Even though I'm being very deliberate with my purchases, this will help me avoid temptation since I won't even be looking.  Even the most deliberate shopper gets tricked sometimes!
4. I'm doing a very slow and methodical closet clean out.  Travel always forces me to consider the functionality of my clothes, since I need to pack things that are comfortable, move well, clean easily and don't take up too much room/ have too many complicated pieces.  If I'm being honest, that's how I would like my wardrobe to function on a daily basis too, so by analyzing items I currently have, thinking about situations I would wear it and determining how many potential uses I could get out of it, helps me decide if a particular item of clothing is really as useful as I would like it to be.  I've been slowing siphoning things out of my wardrobe since we moved over a year ago, and since I realized I had a bunch of clothes I hadn't really unpacked or missed.  It'll be fun to come home to a closet that is more reflective of what I actually wear, and that will have room for my travel clothes once I've unpacked.

So maybe this all makes me sound like a bit of a crazy person since a lot of it is only tangentially related to travel, but I find that planning a trip unlocks the organizer part of my brain and gets me excited in a 'take on the world' way.  I might as well harness that energy to improve the rest of my life!

Winter is Coming

I know technically winter is already here, but New England seems to be struggling to understand that.  Today is supposed to be 55 degrees and rainy, and then it's supposed to dip back down into the 40s.  I also got an email from National Grid telling me that they're raising their rates 20%, and it's supposed to be a particularly cold season this year.  So, I'm preparing.

Right now, the fiance is finishing his PhD and has no income, so I'm keeping us fed and warm all on my own.  My student loan payments have also increased, for reasons I don't understand, and my car has been acting funny lately.  Long story short, I don't have a lot of money to toss around on frivolous things like heat, so I'm going to do a bit of experimenting to see how I can pay little but still stay reasonable comfortable.

Strategy one: Bubble Wrap
Apparently you can use bubble wrap to insulate your windows.  This is something I remember reading about a while ago, but have never tested.  It's a bit ghetto, but so am I!  According to this article, bubble wrap cuts the energy loss from windows in half, which certainly means it's worth trying.  I also like the fact that it still lets in light.  So far, I only had enough bubble wrap on hand to do three windows, but I put a request on freecycle to see if anyone has more they would give me.  I might just buy some if I can't get it for free, but I certainly wanted to ask first. Maybe it's just a placebo effect, but I do feel like there's less of a draft coming from the window behind the couch.  Of course, it's also warm today, so it could also be that...

Strategy Two: Draft Dodgers
The bubble wrap will stop the window panes from leaking in the cold, but there are also those cracks where the window closes that can let in drafts when it's windy--which it frequently is.  I live on the third floor near the water, so I certainly get some cold breezes, and hopefully, employing draft dodgers will stop some of that.  In case this is confusing, I'm not talking about people who avoided serving in World War II, I'm talking about this kind of draft dodger:

You could also call it a draft stopper, but that's a lot less hilarious.  Basically, this is just a tube of fabric filled with some kind of malleable stuffing like buckwheat, rice, beans, etc.  You want it to mold to the surface it's on, so it fills in the cracks where the drafts come through.  I actually bought one of these at Bed Bath and Beyond years ago for like $20, so my strategy this time is to make my own.  I have some torn pants and a big bag of rice--it's on!

Strategy Three: Window Plastic
Having grown up in Minnesota/North Dakota, I am intimately familiar with window plastic.  This is my third option, because I don't really want to go this route unless the bubble wrap and draft dodger strategies really fail.  Window plastic works really well, but it's also time-consuming to put up, the cat hates it and always tries to tear it down (and usually succeeds), it's pretty ugly, and it's single use.  Once I have a stash of draft dodgers and perfectly sized bubble wrap, I can re-use those every year--not so much with window plastic.

Strategy Four: Think Warm
Have the time, I feel like coldness is just a state of mind.  I always feel warmer when I have this going on the background:

I Did It!

I've been thinking about trying my hand at making home-made yogurt for a while, but I always balked thinking it would be too difficult... or I'd poison myself.  Finally, as a birthday gift to myself, I decided to just go for it.  My reasons for wanting to do this are threefold:

1. I bring yogurt to work pretty much every day for lunch.  Buying a ton of small cups is a hassle, I hate going to the grocery store, and my steps into my apartment are incredibly steep and narrow. Everything that comes in must go back out via those steps.  I try to reduce both bringing things in and out as much as I can since if I load myself down with groceries, I am often too wide to make it easily up the stairs--thank you 1800s property.
2. I tried buying the larger container to save plastic and keep my fridge less chaotic, but the large container doesn't really come in any good flavors.  I'm sick of Chobani vanilla and strawberry, and I never really liked those kinds anyway.  I'd been experimenting with just getting plain and adding things to it, which is fine, but not great.
3. For the ~$4 I spend on one quart of store-brand yogurt, I can buy a gallon of milk that yields four quarts of home-made yogurt.  That's enough of a savings that I owe it to myself to at least try.

I used The Frugal Girl's recipe, and it was actually pretty easy.  It's a few steps, but there's a lot of downtime in between them, so you can still be doing other stuff. Typically, on Saturdays, I go for a long run, then laze around the house reading or internetting, so this fit into that schedule nicely.

I used one quart mason jars, which I had already, so I didn't have to bring anything new into my house (though I did buy some plastic replacement lids because the original ones that came with the jars were rusting).

I did have to buy a 'starter' yogurt, which is basically just yogurt that is already yogurt.  You add that to your heated milk, and it adds the live yogurt cultures that you need to make something other than just hot milk.  I accidentally, because the grocery store was crazy busy when I went, bought coconut flavored yogurt instead of plain.  At first I thought it would be horrible, but the whole batch has a subtle coconut flavor that is quite pleasant.

The yogurt came out pretty runny, unfortunately.  I don't mind runny yogurt, but it was kind of messy to eat, so I decided to strain it to thicken it up a bit.  I took one of my reusable mesh produce bags, and washed it out.

Then I rigged up a mixing bowl with my fine mesh sieve resting on top.

Then I put the whole thing in the fridge for the afternoon, and when I check on it a few hours later, I had a bowl full of whey, and slightly thicker yogurt!

If you like *super* thick yogurt, you can let it sit straining for much longer than I did (approximately five hours), but I didn't want greek-style yogurt, just something with a bit more tenacity.

Overall, I'm pretty please with the way this all turned out.  After straining, I had a little over three quarts of yogurt, which is quite tasty.  I used only equipment I already had, and saved about $8 off the cost of three quarts of yogurt in the store.  The amount of time I spent doing this was, I think worth the $8 in savings, and the savings in time spent at the store buying yogurt, hauling it home, trying to find space for it in the fridge, and then having to take out the recycling.  Also, since the mason jars are cylindrical, taller and don't bow out at the top like yogurt containers, they fit better in my fridge.  

The batch I made should be good for a month, but I don't think it will last that long.  I bought a bag of frozen fruit to add to it to mix up my lunch, but I also have dried fruit, powdered peanut butter, jam and I whole bunch of other things that would be tasty.

I think I'm a convert!

Ever made your own yogurt?  Any tips or tricks to share?

Blast From the Past

I haven't bought a book in years--except Nancy Drew books, because I collect those.  In keeping with my semi-minimalist philosophy, I have exactly one bookshelf that is not quite full, and I don't intend to add anything too it. I get all the books I need from the library and so any money I spend has to be on books that are rare or unique.  Note: I know most Nancy Drew books are not unique, but they cost $1 at thrift stores and it's a collection.

Recently, however, I made the decision to buy a new book, and it's amazing how much I both thought about this idea and was insanely excited by it.

I'm an a book club, and we meet once a month.  For our next meeting, due to extended vacations in August, we're not meeting until September, so we picked a slightly longer book--The Goldfinch.

This is a book I've been planning on reading anyway, but I also know that the library waitlist is huge.  Also, this is a book that I kind of want to savor.  I love Donna Tartt, and she writes a novel every 12 years, I feel like I shouldn't rush through reading it.

I used to buy tons of books.  I was the girl with the overflowing shelves, stacks on the floor and piles on every available surface.  When I was a kid, I would save up all my money for trips to the bookstore where I would maximize what I had in a way to get the most words.  For instance, I always wanted to buy the beautiful Nancy Drew hardcovers, but at $3.99/each, that was too rich for my blood.  I could get the new Babysitter's Club and the new Mary Downing Hahn book for the same amount of money.  Then I would try to incorporate a classic, since the price point on those was a bit lower as well.  Love of reading meets personal finance at a very young age.

Then, in college, I worked at Barnes & Noble.  I read a lot of books for free while working, but I also purchased hundreds.  I just spent wily-nily, on anything I thought sounded interesting or looked good on a shelf.  I wasn't nearly as discerning, and my collection shows it.  I wound up with so many books that I didn't (still haven't) read, and a happy pile of credit card debt to boot.

Now that I work in libraries, I have no need to buy books.  After spending so much money on books I either didn't like or didn't read, it's too much of a risky proposition.  Plus, who needs the clutter?

I will say though, when I finally made the decision to actually buy this book, I felt that old flutter of excitement.  There is something truly magical about thinking through a purchase, deciding it's something you really want and then waiting a bit before actually getting it.  At first, I was going to just order it from Amazon, but then I remembered that there's a great independent bookstore close to my house, and I always lament that as a non book buyer, I can't really help them stay afloat.  Now I can!

The plan is: I shall walk down to the bookstore after work some evening and purchase my book.  I shall read it at my own pace without the threat of a three week due date and a long library patron waitlist hanging over my head.  Then I shall donate it to the library, because they need more copies and I don't need the clutter.

Reviving Lip Gloss

One of the biggest and most obvious rules of frugality is to use up every little bit of the things you buy.  Most of the time, even if a container feels empty, there are at least three more days worth of product in there--maybe more.  Yes, at first you may feel like a crazy person for cutting open a tube of toothpaste or something similar, but I prefer to think of the situation as what would I do if I was all out of product X, but couldn't make it to the store for a couple days.  Plus, you paid for the stuff, might as well use it.

Today's story is about lip gloss.  It has been a long winter, and I have been going through lip gloss like crazy it seems. I have a really bad habit of washing my lip gloss, so I've made some executive decisions in that area recently.  For the home, I buy Eos lip balm:

The reason I buy it is because I would never accidentally put something that shape into my pocket, and therefore I don't have to worry about washing it.  Also, it sits up quite nicely.  I bought one for my desk, my reading chair and my coffee table so that way I always have some lip balm at my reach.

On thing that is weird about this container as well is that the lip balm itself, sits in a sort of rounded cone on top of a lip gloss grate that holds it up.  Below the lip gloss, is just empty space, so as you use it, more and more gets smooched down through the grate until it looks like this:

There's still a lot of lip gloss in there, it's just really hard to get out.  Thankfully, the container comes apart quite easily (with a pair of pliers), which leaves you with 7 small triangles of perfectly good lip gloss that are a real pain to actually apply.

What I ended up doing was taking those triangle, melting them in a ramekin on the heating element of my coffee pot, and then pouring the liquid back into the bottom half of the lip gloss container.  It took about five minutes total, and now I have enough convenient, useable lipgloss to last at least another two weeks.  I save myself a trip to the store where I will inevitably forget to buy the one thing I went there for, and I get the smug satisfaction of MacGyvering something.

SCORE!

I'm a Ting!

After a while, if you're like me, you've cut all the expenses that you can or are willing to cut.  My rent, and internet are a fixed amount.  My utilities, I try to keep low, but when it's 15 degrees out, a girl needs to stay comfortable.  Gas for my car, phone bills, groceries--I try to keep those as low as I can without feeling like I'm depriving myself, but it still feels incredibly frustrating to get my paycheck and spend it all in a single day with little-to-nothing left over for savings.

So this is why I'm really, really excited to have found a way to cut back on one of those bills.

I've been with Sprint for nearly ten years, and I've hated Sprint for nearly that entire time.  Their service in the part of town where I live is lousy; they renew your contract for two years every time you get a new phone; they've tricked me into getting a new phone when I didn't actually want one; for some reason, they claim that my email address doesn't work every time I sign up for paperless billing (note: I've had the same email for longer than I've had sprint--it works fine); and for what I use my phone for, I'm just paying what feels like way too much money.  For instance, last month's bill, I used eight minutes of talk time, and sent and received 48 text messages.  My bill was $46.  That $46 also includes a 15% discount that I get because I used to work for Pepsi.  For what I use my phone for, that's just too much money, but I've always been too lazy to shop around for a better deal--if there even is one.

I've had Ting on my radar for a while now.  I actually blogged about them a year and a half ago, but at that time, if I had switched, I would have had to get a new phone, the only phones they supported were smart phones, and you couldn't keep your current phone number.  So I got on their email list and kept up with new developments.  Finally, they posted that you could port your number from your old phone AND, they had a lovely picture of my current cell phone on their website:

It's not fancy, but I love it

Last night, I made the switch, and when I woke up this morning, I had an email telling me how to reactivate my phone.

So far, there are two downsides:

1. I use google voice instead of listening to voicemail, and that feature was disabled.  I'm not sure if I can get it back, but I haven't tried yet.
2. There are issues with texting pictures to your email, which is something I did do a lot.  I saw that in their terms of service,  so I was prepared for it, but I'm not sure how much I'm going to miss having that option.

The upside: Currently my bill is $6.  Obviously, that will go up when I send more texts, etc., but now I have a lot more control of my expenses AND I'm not locked into a stupid plan.  If I decide that Ting doesn't work for me, I can just bail.

I'll keep you posted, but I'm feeling pretty smart right now.

Losing Weight for Fun and Profit!

I'm always on the hunt for a low-maintenance scheme that nets me a bit of extra cash, and I'm pleased to report I may have found the best one yet!

There is a program called Shape Up Rhode Island that kicks off every year in January.  I've always wanted to participate in it because I love exercise, and I love competition (apparently).  The competition thing is a recent revelation to me since I quit all sports by third grade, but it seems that when I'm competing at things I'm already good at, I get a bit crazy.

For $25, you sign up for Shape Up, and either pick a team or get placed on one.  Then your teams compete to get the most steps and hopefully win the grand prize, which this year is a trip to Europe (note: it does not say where in Europe--I suspect Poland.  Place your bets).

I've never participated before because I never wanted to pay the $25.  Now, my employer is willing to pay that, and I found that there's another weight loss research study available, and I'm participating in that as well.  All I have to do is track my calories and exercise, which I do anyway, and log it on their online platform.  Then I have to check in four times and get weighed.  I will earn between $1-$10 per week for 12 weeks, plus $25 each time I have to go there to weigh in and $50 for the final weigh in.  It's not a ton of money, but it's also earning money for something I was planning on doing anyway, so it's pretty awesome!

It's always nice when a scheme just falls into your lap.  I intend to put all this money in my travel fund, which hopefully will motivate me even more.  Now if winter would just go away so I can run outside, I'll be all set.

ThredUp Check In

It's weird to see my clothes on the internet

I heard back from ThredUp about the items I sent to them, and I've already sold something!  I was a bit lazy when I sent my items and I didn't total up how much I sent to them.  So I know that they didn't take some things, but I'm not sure how many.  I do remember sending in a really nice pair of Banana Republic pants that are too high-waisted for my taste, so it's a shame they didn't take those.  But, it doesn't really matter because I would have just eventually given them to a thrift store anyway, and now ThredUp can just do it for me.

They took a total of six items I sent in-- One blazer, one button down shirt, two skirts, one pair of pants and a dress.

Unfortunately, I was a little underwhelmed at the total amount I'll be getting when the stuff sells (and it will!).  Those six items will next me a cool $10.40. Since I never sell to consignment stores, I have no idea if that's a good or bad deal, but it's $10.40 for my travel fund that I would previously not have had.  Plus, my closet looks better.

So far, the items that has sold is a super adorable skirt I got at Banana Republic that was always just a scootch too short.  I don't know if when I bought it that was the only size they had, or if I was just feeling really thin that day, but I'm pretty sure I've only work it twice--at most.  I hope it makes someone else very happy.  Other items includes a skirt that's just too short, a too short dress (seriously, you'd think I have super long legs or something, which is not the case), a blazer that just isn't me and a too large pair of pants.

What's interesting to me is to see the markup on the items and my payout for them.  For instance, the skirt that sold was listed by them at $18.99 with me getting $6.30 (my best-priced item).  Other items are selling for around $10, and my take-home pay is around $.90.  Again, I have no idea if that's standard for consignment, but it seems a wee bit low...  Oh well.

Anyone else tried ThredUp?  What do you think?

A Newer Scheme: ThredUp

I don't think I've ever taken clothes to a consignment store.  I used to go to Plato's Closet every now and then, which is a kind of consignment store for teens.  I would bring in a whole pile of stuff, the 16-year-old staffers would paw through it, and then they'd reject most of it and shame me a little bit.  Usually, I'd walk out with maybe $5, but I figured that it was worth it because I would have just donated that stuff to the thrift store for nothing otherwise.

As far as real consignment stores,  they kind of baffle me.  I've shopped at them, but it seems that in selling things to them, there are a lot of rules.  You have to sell things by season, and you have to do it way before that season arrives.  Most of the places around here, you have to make an appointment to have them look at your stuff.  Also, I don't buy a lot of super high end stuff, so it seems like they'd just reject me and waste both our time.

Because of this, I have had a pile of very nice clothing in my closet that I just can't bear to give to the thrift store.  Most of it is stuff I bought for work that either doesn't fit me well, or I didn't end up liking after a while.  Every now and them, I'd dig a piece out and try it on, but either the skirt was too short or the pants too high-waisted--something was just off for me.  So they'd go back into the closet.

So I was incredibly excited with I read about a new online consignment company: ThredUp.  They only take clothing in perfect condition--which makes sense, but you can send them things for free (no shipping costs), any season, and then you can either get cash for what sells, or store credit to buy replacement clothes.

Once I requested a bag from them and started shopping my closet, I realized that I actually had a lot of clothes that I just never wear.  I used their brand finder to see what they accept, de-linted a couple items, dumped the lot of them in the bag they sent me (took about three days to get it), and took that down to the FedEx drop box a few blocks away.  After about a week, I got this email from them:

Thanks for returning your polka dot Clean Out bag! 

We're excited to add your practically new clothes to the thredUP Shop.

We carefully inspect each item to ensure it meets our high quality standards. This usually takes about 3-5 business days, but because we're experiencing higher-than-expected bag volume we do not expect to process your bag until on or around Monday, December 9th. We sincerely apologize for the delay.

Once we've inspected each item, we'll send you an email letting you know how many items we're able to resell and the total amount you've earned for each.

While you're waiting, browse our high quality, brand name threds at up to 80% off retail prices! As an added thank you for sending in clothing that we can sell to other families, here's a 20% off coupon good for any purchase made within 24 hours: 

So it seems that they're a little backed up right now, but I have no problem waiting.  So far, the process has been pretty painless and I'm pretty thrilled to reclaim some hangers and shelf space in my closet.  I'll keep you posted when I hear back from them.

Frugal Perks of the Storm of the Century

I just woke up to a world of white:

Across the street

Tree in front of my house

I'm pretty excited to get out there and go sledding later, but let's take this massive winter storm and make some lemonade!  You could get cranky because all travel is banned and you're stuck at home indefinitely, or you can take this historic weather event and find the frugal perks, which is what I will be doing.

1. Everyone knows it's cheaper to eat at home--no you have no excuse not to!
2. Everything snow related is excellent exercise--shoveling, sledding, just walking in it.  So what if you can't make it to the gym, you can still get a good workout.
3. A chance to finally use those snow shoes/ skis that you own without searching out some luxury ski deals and all the planning involved with that.
4. If you lose power, you save money on power?  This one doesn't really count, but at least in the winter, you can put your freezer food outside and lose less.
5. It's an excellent excuse to hunker down with a book, which you should have gotten free from the library.

You can find more awesome snow photos here and here, and I'm going to get outside soon and take more crappy cell phone pics.  Stay warm, everyone!

Shopping For A Cheap(er) Phone

Sprint has been my cell phone provider for about ten years, and I kind of hate them.  Unfortunately, my hatred for them was only outweighed by my hatred for talking to cell phone salespeople and shopping around for what will likely be an equally shitty deal.  So, I've done nothing, for a long time.  Occasionally, I log onto Sprint's website and try to find a cheaper plan, but for what I want, it doesn't seem like there really is one.  See, I hate talking on the phone, but I like to text.  It seems that Sprint has figured this out, and there is no way to reduce the number of voice minutes I'm paying for, without reducing the texting or switching to a pay-per-text model (hell no).

So, I've been doing a little exploring to see if I can come up with a completely different plan that might better suit my unique cell phone needs.

Contender #1: Ting
Ting is actually powered by Sprint, but it is a pay-as-you-go model and is significantly cheaper.  It also lets you select your own kind of plan based on how you use your phone.  According to the website, you select your plan for the first month, and then after that, they just bill you for what you actually use.

So, if my above calculations are correct, I should be paying about half what I'm currently paying. Double bonus, since this is still the Sprint network, I may be able to keep my existing phone.  If not, a new phone would cost $98.

Contender #2 Republic Wireless
The way this phone works is that it hops back and forth between wi-fi and cell networks.  If a wi-fi network is available, it connects to that, if not, it uses Sprint's network.  According to their website, I'll end up paying $19/month plus applicable fees (vary by location) after paying the initial start-up fee of $10 and the $249 for the hybrid phone that can toggle back and forth between wi-fi and cellular.

The drawback to this one is obviously the initial cost of the phone, and the fact that I don't really want a smart phone, but for $19/a month, I might reconsider.  They do have a 30-day guarantee where you can return everything and cancel with no questions asked.

Has anyone out there had any experience with either of these companies?  The deals do seem to good to be true, but it may also just be that I've been hurt for too long by stupid cell phone contracts.

Update: New Car Insurance Scheme

A while back, I mentioned that I was starting a new discount program through Progressive where I plug a little gadget called a snapshop into my car, and it records the number of miles I drive, what times of day, etc., and could potentially get me a discount on my policy.  After 30+ days of collecting data, I'm pleased to report that my projected discount is 10%!

Since I did way more driving than usual in that first 30 days, I'm fairly confident that I can get that number even lower before my policy is set to renew end of December.

One thing that I have found frustrating with this little gadget is the penalty for hard braking.  Every time you brake hard, which they define as reducing your speed by more than seven miles per second, you get an angry beep that lets you know you've done wrong.  I'm not much of a lead foot, so I really didn't think this would be an issue, but I've still gotten dinged a few times.  Problem is, most often, I brake hard to avoid running into another car or killing a pedestrian.  Unfortunately, there's no way to tell the Snapshot that, so I have to listen to the awful three beeps and just shake my fist in futility.

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the program.  Since I'm someone who doesn't drive much, I'm guaranteed to save money, which I'm a huge fan of.  It also makes me think a bit more about those times when I do take the car.  I'm even more vigilant about clustering my errands and biking when I can, and I haven't bought gas in a month (though BF has filled up since I last did).  I'm on track to save ~100 per year, possibly more, and I can think of a lot of things I'd rather do with that money than give it to Progressive.

Self Improving Self

Andrea at So Over This posed the question a while back Is Financial Health Always Linked to Physical Health?  Even since I read this line, "I read a ton of blogs regularly, most of which are financial, and I’ve noticed a trend. When a blogger gets his/her finances under control, it seems like the blog almost always shifts toward fitness or exercise" I've been all worried that I was going to go that route too, even though she wasn't being judgey about it at all.  See, the problem with personal finance blogs, and the reason some of them are so damn boring, is after you pay off a massive debt or figure out how to better take care of yourself moneywise, there's not much else to say.

I could post every day and show you pictures of my groceries or talk about how I haven't paid full price for mayo in years (years!  I'm pretty impressed with myself), but really, who wants to hear it?  Instead, now that I have my finances (mostly) under control, I'm looking to clean up other areas in my life that will actually save me money, but might improve me overall as well.  How's that for staying on topic, eh?


1. Chew My Food More Thoroughly 
I'm a fast eater, always have been, which honestly makes no sense because I've rarely had to compete with anyone for food.  The problem, I think, is that I'm a textural eater, which means that my enjoyment of food ends very early on in the chewing process.  However, chewing my food more thoroughly will not only make me eat slower-- aiding digestion, but will ultimately make me eat less (supposedly).  That will save me money in Alka-Seltzer and foodstuffs all while making me healthier and more svelte.


2. Waste Less
This goes hand-in-hand with the not taking plastic bags things, but I'm always trying to pay more attention to what a buy, how much I buy, and how much of what I've bought I actually keep.  I honestly feel like I'm dropping off huge bag at the thrift store three times a year, which is just ridiculous.  I'm like a lot of people, I like new things, but this year I have gotten better at shopping my closet, and now that I'm not job-hopping as much, it's much easier to actually just have one wardrobe.

Of course, wasting less also goes for food.  I feel ill thinking of all the food I wasted during the summer of the farm share, so I am going to be very good from now on.  Pinky swear.

3. Drive Less
This one has been on the docket for a while, but now that it's not 90 DEGREES AND 100% HUMIDITY, I can actually pedal the two miles to work and not die.  Plus, now that I have the Big Brother device riding shotgun, I have even more incentive to bike/walk as much as possible.  Man, I hope this saves me some money.

4. Spend Less
All of the above should help me spend less both on food and clothes--hopefully on gas and car insurance too.  Also, thanks to President Obama's Affordable Health Care Act, I now get free birth control!  That saves me $360/year that I can instead give back to the government in the form of student loan repayment.

5. Save More
With all of those savings, I should be able to actually save more in my savings/ retirement accounts!  My savings has been pretty stagnant since starting the new job, and I really want to turn that around.  Especially since this year the library had a significant budget cut, which means that I get no 401k matching for the whole year.  Not to rant (too much), but as I've mentioned before, my library is a brand-new system that has a shoestring budget.  The $200,000 budget cut would have meant that all nine libraries have to close a total of three weeks over the course of the fiscal year, with employees losing three week's pay.  Instead of doing that, the union agreed that employees would give up their 401k matching for the year and the library will only close one week.  As much as I don't love the idea of losing three week's pay, I really dislike the idea of not having a retirement account.  I mean, I love my job, but I'd like to be able to leave some day instead of dropping dead at the reference desk.

So yeah, I need to step it up this year.

6. Declutter
Naturally, I'm still in the process of decluttering, which  will likely last the rest of my life, but hopefully if I'm not bringing in as much stuff, there will be less clutter overall!  Logic!  This is another part of the reason I love, love, love Freecycle.  It actually helps me declutter without having to think about it.  For instance, I'm really bad about getting rid of boxes and other packing materials.  I've moved enough that I know I will need that stuff again some day, and I will not go to the UPS store to buy boxes, not when they've been entering my house for years for free.  So, yeah, our basement storage space is full of boxes.  But the other day on Freecycle, someone said that they needed shoe boxes, which I also have many of. I got to get rid of shoe boxes, know that the boxes are needed by someone, and help a stranger!  So many warm fuzzies!  I also gave away an older laptop that I didn't need anymore, but that worked ok.  Now I imagine the young man who took it will become a Rhodes Scholar, and I helped him get there.


By the end of this year, I will perfect!

New Car Insurance Scheme

The gadget!  It's pretty cute, actually.

When I got my new job that's just two miles from where I live, one of the first things I did was reduce my insurance coverage.  This saves me about $400/year, which is awesome.  When I was on the phone with Progressive, I also mentioned that I got a new job, which significantly reduced my commute length, "does that get me any other kind of discount?" I asked.

"No, we don't do that anymore." the girl I spoke to told me.

No so, Progressive lady.  Progressive recently started a new program called Snapshot, where you actually get a small device, plug it into your car, and it records how many miles you drive, how you drive, and what times of day.  You get points off for hard braking (studies show that people who frequently brake hard are more likely to have accidents), traveling between 12am and 4am (which makes sense), and they calculate a new insurance rate based on your actual driving rather than the current algorithm which (I'm guessing a bit here) is based on where you live more than how you live i.e. Rhode Island's rates are sky high because people here drive like assholes.

Considering I drive 1.89 miles to get to work, and often only drive my car four days out of seven, I leaped at the chance to try this out.  This is pretty much what I've been waiting for my entire driving life, and even though I just plugged it in Thursday, I already love it.

Also, I read a rather interesting article a couple days ago about how the state of Oregon is exploring the idea of eliminating the gas tax in favor of taxing people on miles driven.  This may seem unfair as some people (myself included--in the past) can't really help the number of miles they have to drive to work, or they can't really reduce those miles due to lack of public transit options, but on the other hand, this could be enough of an incentive for those who do have other options to take those options.

Of course, the other side of the coin is that if people start driving fewer miles and pay less in gas tax, the government will likely need to make up that loss in some other way, but overall, it does seem more fair, and I'm a big fan of fair.

Regardless of whether or not this is a scheme that takes off, I'm more than happy to potentially get a reduction in my astronomical car insurance rates.  I've often looked at my car sitting in the driveway as I bike off to work and wondered if since I'm paying for the insurance, I should drive it more--stupid I know, but the brain does what the brain wants.  It currently costs me ~$2.5 per day for car insurance, regardless of how much I drive.  Now, I have groovy charts like this to keep me in line:

I love charts!

Note: This is not a sponsored post, and Progressive did not ask to me write anything, I'm just really excited.