Obviously, I am not “hip”, “cool” or “uptown” in any way, shape or form. I saw this story on CNN Money for a “recession buster” $90 shirt, and blanched. $90 for a shirt is a recession buster?

Yes, I understand that people pay much more than that for custom shirts and other articles of clothing. I, however, am not one of them. My husband and I both believe in the “go to Kohl’s and try on a clearance or sale shirt to see if it fits” mode of shopping. The last time I paid $90 for clothing was when I was in college. I bought a $100 formal black dress. And that was splurging big time for me.

I’m not big into spending money on clothing. However, I am happy to pay for a good meal at a fine restaurant. And I’ll almost always spend whatever it takes to thoroughly enjoy myself when I travel. I guess it’s just a matter of priorities.

What are your spending priorities? Would you spend $90 on a shirt? What would you spend a lot of money on?

image source: jovike via Flickr

I don’t use Geico to fulfill my insurance needs, but I love the commercials. And sometimes they remind that I could be saving money on any number of things.

Happy Friday!

It’s Earth Day and I like to take the time to think about what I could improve upon in terms of living a more sustainable lifestyle. One of the things we’ve been trying to do as a family is to buy more local food. Local food benefits the Earth in more than one way:

1. Food that does not have travel far is less polluting — no big trucks needed for long transport.
2. Often, local (but not always) food is grown without harmful chemicals/pesticides.
3. Many small, local farms and operations pride themselves in sustainable practices that are better for the environment.
4. Smaller farms means less polluting machinery is needed.

We are trying to buy local food in the following ways:

Produce

During the winter, we buy our produce at the local grocery, which often gets its fruit and vegetables from sources that are closer to home. We also try to buy things that are in season. Once the local farmer’s market starts up, we like to attend in order to buy produce. And, of course, we like to garden. That’s the ultimate in money-saving local produce: Just go out to your backyard and get what you need. We have an herb garden as well, and we dry some of the herbs for winter use.

Bread and other baked goods

The bakery at the local grocery sells bread for $1.50 less than the loaves shipped in from elsewhere. The bread is made fresh, and it is made on site. We get rolls, bagels and other products at local bakeries. There is also an artisan bakery in town. The bread costs a little more, but it sure is tasty! I would like to take it a step further and learn to make my own bread.

Meat and dairy

We eat red meat about once a week. Same for poultry. There is a local farm that raises cattle that graze on grass. No hormones, etc. We buy our meat from there usually. Likewise, our eggs and dairy are from local sources. We have a great local dairy that produces hormone-free milk products. Meat and dairy products produced in this way often cost a little bit more than what you get in the store. But the quality — and the fact that we don’t eat these foods often — makes it worth it.

If your town allows it, you can keep your own poultry. We know people who have their own chickens and even raise their own turkey for Thanksgiving. Owning poultry is not for us, but it is a cost-effective way to get your food locally. Same with going fishing (which is something I do).

Do you try to buy local food?

image source: eskay8 via Flickr

The news is in: Black Friday sales were up 3% this year. Obviously, there is still a lot of spending going on. It doesn’t have to be that way. But savers may need some moral support as resolutions to save money and get out of debt fall to the wayside in the throes holiday shopping enthusiasm.  ING Direct has a solution.

You can find mutual support for your savings habit at the new We, The Savers website. This site is designed as a social networking tool. According to a press release I received from ING Direct:

The website features savings calculators, social networking and online polls. The website also encourages Americans to give the “gift of savings,” which, unlike the newest gadget, actually appreciates in value over time. The “gift of savings” can also help recipients reach their personal New Year’s resolutions.

This is actually a very handy website. You can figure out how to maximize your savings, as well as connect with other who can help keep you on track. Instead of spending this holiday season, sign a declaration of savings. It’ll be better for your personal finance situation than spending yourself into debt.

My husband and I are finally breaking down and going to see the dentist. Neither of us has been since just before we were married (and still on our parents’ employers’ plans). So I’ve been trying to figure out what to do. We have our own family plan for health insurance (that I deduct on the taxes since we have it through my home business), but it doesn’t cover dental care. So we started looking into dental insurance.

At first, it seemed rather inexpensive. But then I saw deductibles, co-pays and limitations. And there are waiting periods. So I called around town to some different dentists. Turns out that most dentists in my town offer a 10% discount if you pay in full at the time of service. And the services aren’t that expensive. An entire well check for my teeth (including bitewing x-rays and a thorough cleaning) only costs $70. Take the 10% discount, and it’s only $63. Of course, if I have cavities, the costs go up.

But the 10% discount applies to wisdom tooth extraction as well, and I know I’m going to need that. I got some price quotes on tooth extraction, and then added up all of the conceivable costs (including cavity fillings — although I’ve never had one). Turns out that I can get all of those services for the cost of dental insurance for one year. But if I add in the co-pays I’ll have, it turns out the dental insurance costs more.

Of course, there are some unexpected things that might come up, but my auto insurance covers surgery because of an accident, and I have other coverages that apply, making dental insurance for anything major superfluous. Plus, there are health savings accounts (HSAs) for those sorts of things (they can be used for dental and vision as well as other types of health expenses). And I’m seriously considering one. Health savings accounts are tax advantaged, and, since I am young and healthy, work more in my favor.

At any rate, whether or not I go the HSA route, I’m paying cash for dental care. It costs less for me — both in the short term and over the long haul.

Yesterday, I mentioned that we needed to have the car looked at. It has been showing signs of needing some sort of attention for a few months now, with a sort of “hiccup” as we’ve been idling. Yesterday, things went up a notch with a rather violent series of hiccups that almost resulted in the car “turning off.” Anyway, I drove it to the GM dealer, since I couldn’t think of where else to take it for a thorough and model-specific diagnostic.

This was a mistake that was, happily, rectified some hours later.

After running the tests, I received a call telling me that the spark plugs and boots needed to be changed and my fuel injection system needed some servicing. Oh, and, by the way, I should have a transmission flush and a power steering flush, since it has been done on the car yet, and it’s almost to 100,000 miles.

Total bill: $800.

Seemed a little high to me. So I told them not to do anything  and I’d get back to them.

First of all, I knew I didn’t need a transmission flush because we did it a few months ago, for about $100. So, if I assumed that the fuel injection and the power steering flushes were $100, the flush total would be $300 (with the transmission flush that I already knew I wasn’t going to get). The mechanic at the dealership told me that the four spark plugs and boots, plus labor would be $245. And, of course, it’s $100 for the diagnostic. Total: $645. Obviously the dealer planned to charge much more for the flushes.

I decided to shop around. First of all, I looked quickly online while I called my husband to ask him to get recommended mechanics from his buddies at school. I got a general feel for how much the parts should cost for all this stuff. (Hint: It is significantly less than what the dealership was charging.) While I did that, my husband polled the other graduate assistants and came back with some names. I did some calling around. The nice thing about the $100 diagnostic was that at least I knew exactly what I needed.

In the end, I picked a shop that charges $119 for the fuel injection, $60 for the power steering flush and $176 for the sparkplugs and boots. This includes labor and tax. So the new total is $355. Plus the $100 diagnostic. And my new mechanic tells me that they’ll run the diagnostic (they have a fancy computer, too) for free. Wish I’d know that beforehand. I could have saved $100.

Lesson learned? Just like any other expenditure, it is a good idea to shop around for car repairs. And to be vigilant in order to avoid rip-offs. Ask questions, know roughly what things should cost, know what’s going on, and get a second opinion. Oh, and the dealership probably isn’t the cheapest place to be.

I am a big advocate of saving money. And I don’t mean just by spending less through coupon clipping and general frugality. I mean actually saving money — setting aside for some future date and/or emergency. Over at Passion Saving, Rob Bennett offers 10 very interesting  and somewhat unconventional tips for saving money. Here are my 5 favorite unconventional tips for building your savings:

1. Add income tax to purchases. Before buying something, think about how much extra you would be paying to fund a specific purchase.  Bennett points this out: “The sales tag on the leather jacket you want says that it costs $1,000. You know to add in the sales tax to determine the full price, which is perhaps 5% higher, or $1,050. But even that is not the true full price. You can’t buy the leather jacket by earning $1,050. You need to have $1,050 in take-home pay to buy it, and that means that on a pre-income-tax basis, you need to earn a good bit more, perhaps $1,250.” Wow. I never thought of it like that. The leather jacket or the big screen TV or whatever frivolous yet expensive purchase doesn’t seem as cool.
2. Multiply by 25 to see how much you need to save to support a purchase. Bennett points out that if you manage to grow your annual investments at 4%, you can multiply your annual costs by 25 to see how much you need to save to cover the expense: “If you spend $40 per year on magazines, you need to save $1,000 to forever free yourself from needing to work to pay for magazines.”
3. Make changes for a particular change that will enhance your life. I like this idea because so often we just focus on saving money because it’s the thing we’re supposed to do. Bennett recommends that you think of a specific goal for saving — a goal that will contribute to how much you will enjoy life. Getting ahead and saving for some unspecified and general “retirement” isn’t enough. Break it down into something like saving for a family vacation or a roomier family car brings your plans into more immediate effect and adds impact to the goal. Here is what Bennett says: “To make saving matter, direct your mental energies to the small things that saving can do for you at all stages of life instead of the big dramatic thing (financing an old-age retirement) that it will do for you only once near the end of your active years.
4. Think of spent money as hours worked. My husband and I already do this. If we want something, we consider how long each of us would work to pay for it. Is the time worth it? If so, we make the purchase. If it appears that our two or three hours spent having to work isn’t worth it after all, then we take a pass. This works especially well for me, since I am freelancer working from home and can usually adjust my workload. So I see immediate effects from this type of thinking.
5. Pay yourself last. Huh? That’s what I thought at first. Then I read the reasoning behind this statement. It is a culmination of a new thinking about saving money. The idea is that it can be enjoyable to spend money that you have (you have to live within your means), and that you do not need to make saving a chore. Here is what Bennett says about paying yourself last: “You should not be aiming to mindlessly cut spending anymore than you should be aiming to mindlessly spend. The goal should be to spend when spending offers the best value proposition and to save when saving does. To do that, you need to evaluate the value proposition offered by each act of spending and save only in those cases when saving offers more bang for the buck. You need to pay yourself last (but often).”

What do you think of these unconventional ways to save money?

Could dollar stores be headed the way of the dodo? It’s quite possible. One famous under $1 store has had to raise its prices. BloggingStocks reports that 99 Cents Only is upping its prices to 99.99 cents. It’s still technically under a dollar, but for practical purposes everything is going to be rounded up to $1.

The inflation going on right now (crazy inflation — my grocery bill can no longer be kept under $100) is making these discount stores reconsider policies of “Only $1″ and “Everything less than $1″. It just can’t be done.

99 Cents Only is not the only discount store to be having these problems. Indeed, I expect many of these stores will be changing their names soon.

When it comes to personal finances, sometimes we need to remember to get back to the basics. If we focus on some of the “bigger” things like investing or crushing debt, sometimes we can get discouraged. Also, sometimes we lose sight of some of the basic truths of personal finances.

I came across two great posts recently that address two personal finance basics that we would all do well to remember: saving money and taking good care of our credit.

Saving money

This is a big one. And I’m not talking about clipping coupons and getting a “deal” on something you might not have bought in the first place. I’m talking about setting aside money and saving it. Gather Little By Little has a great reminder post on great ways that you can start saving money now by making it a priority — and making a plan.

Credit

Credit is another foundation of your personal finance success. Having good credit is essential to help you save money on loan interest charges and insurance premiums, and even can affect whether or not you get a certain job. Single Guy Money offers a great overview of the importance of credit and tips for improving your credit score, which include such items as:

• Maintain a good payment history.
• Try to have more “good” credit.
• Longer credit history.
• Avoid new credit.
• Maintain a low debt to credit ratio.

Can you think of any personal finance basics that you try to remember?

Things are getting pricey again for consumers. Here are two new price increases that have been brought to my attention in recent days:

1. The trend of increasing airline charges increases. American Airlines started a trend of charging for the first checked bag, and now Northwest has joined the charge. $15 for your first checked bag. I wonder how the pending Delta-Northwest merger will affect prices on Delta, the airline I use most.
2. Food packagers are working on hiding their price increases. Rather than ostensibly charging more, companies are selling smaller packages. It’s sneaky. You get less for the same amount. Get Rich Slowly offers a great look at this accelerating trend. Of course at some point prices will actually go up as well. Then we’ll be getting less for more.

Have you noticed that saving money is becoming increasingly difficult?