HisHersMoney

Being a frugal family buying new “toys” isn’t something that is front and foremost in our minds, but sometimes it just happens. Our new gadget is a Breville Juicer. I shopped around online for it to compare capabilities, reviews and prices. We ended up choosing this model which had a larger motor, more speeds and the fact that all the pieces were dishwasher safe!   

When we had narrowed it down to a few models we then turned to price. The Breville Ikon model seemed to be at a good price point in the market and the cost didn’t vary too much depended on where we bought it. We bought ours from SurLaTable which had a good price and had a store locally which meant we could drive right over and pick it up. No shipping costs and no waiting because they had it in stock.

So far for fruit juices we have made fresh orange juice which was so delicious, orange and strawberry juice and mixed fruit juice with oranges, apples and strawberries. FOr vegetable juices I made a carrot juice yesterday which was surprisingly yummy and we have also made a celery, cilantro and lime juice which I put too much lime in and a tomato, celery and carrot juice which I put too much tomato in.

A few adjustments are ongoing as to the balance between the fruits a vegetables but so far most everything has been really good. I foresee a future with lots of fresh fruits and veggies making their way to my home from costco!

Everyone knows that the real estate market is in the toilet and if you have the resources, now is a good time to buy. Well, we’re not in the market to buy a house or condo in the area we live, Washington DC/Northern VIrginia, but that doesn’t mean we can’t take advantage of the down market.

We have been silently keeping our eye on real estate in Steamboat Colorado were we like to ski. Over the past few years we have spent anywhere from $2000-$3000 a year on lodging there when we visit during the winter skiing months. We have been looking at what they call fractional ownership. It’s were some number of you own a particular condo and share it throughout the year.

The calendar is split up between you and your co-owners in advance and you know which weeks you have. We were originally looking at a place that sold out in either 1/8th or 1/4th shares. We were looking at the 1/4th share which included one week each month and a second week one month of the year which rotated each week. You had the choice of either using your weeks or putting them in a rental pool.

The price on those units right now is between $80k-$90k. In order to finance the cost you needed to put down around half of the cost. The kicker on these particular units was the HOA fees where were a hefty $300+ per month! While this condo wasn’t completely out of our grasp we didn’t have the down payment required so we were busy saving away.

In the meantime, about two weeks ago a unit came on the market in the building next door. It’s pretty much the same situation but the building isn’t quite as nice or as new and also doesn’t come with the hefty price tag either. The unit started out at the $30k price but had dropped to $22k with HOA fees of $100 a month and taxes of $500 per year. This was definitely closer to our price range.

This particular unit is a 30% ownership and includes 6 consecutive winter ski weeks as well as a few weeks in the Spring and Fall.   We made a low offer on the pace of $15k and settled with the seller for $18k. We plan on paying cash for the purchase and we close on the condo in about 10 days!

In upcoming posts we will go into detail about the cash payment as well as the impact to our day to day finances.

We are currently trying a cash only system in order to help save us money. Whether it works or not we’ll see over the next two months. Our plan is to take a certain amount of money out in cash every two weeks and then have to live on it.

We started out with $200 last Sunday and currently have $35 left. I don’t have the exact amounts of what everything cost but here’s pretty decent estimates of where it went so far:

Rx and vitamins $16

Sunday morning breakfast $15

Tip for valet $5

groceries $50

eyebrow wax $12

Dry cleaning (we had a lot this week) $35

Sushi take out $32

So far I think we are doing ok but I’m not sure how the $35 is going to last us all week but I’m sure we’ll survive. I think our long term plan will be to go with $150 a week which needs to include food, misc expenses and entertainment but this week we had an expensive meal out for Valentines day which we used the debit card for so we left more in the account.

I will leave HIS to post about the valentines dinner and other valentines related info.

Today is Black Friday which should mean some of the greatest retail deals of the year. I have to say I’m not overly impressed. I did find a great deal at my favorite clothing store Martin & Osa. An additional 30% off even on top of sale and clearance prices. I picked up a great cashmere and soy sweater. I have a blue one already and wear it both to work and out and about casually. It is so comfortable and fits great. Normally $70 and I got it today for $21. I also picked up a tee and two tanks to wear under my sweaters. Shipping was free so my total cost was about $35.

I looked around both online and in the flyers and really didn’t see anything else we needed or that was on the Christmas list that was a great deal. Him found a computer game that he wanted that was on sale for $10 with free shipping from Best Buy so we picked that up as a stocking stuffer.

I was surprised to see that a ski jacket that I bought from Sports Authority a couple of weeks ago was actually more expensive today even though it was on the cover of there Black Friday ad. Just goes to show that you really need to know your prices before shopping.

I saw on the tv this morning that they were giving a few holiday tips. Some of which were basic: wear comfortable shoes, duh. But a couple were good tips: If you find what you want buy it now and keep all of your reciepts so if the price comes down you can get a price adjustment.

I am basically done all of my xmas shopping and stayed pretty close to budget. Him and I budgeted $225 each for each other and I came within 10% so that works for me. We ordered some photo albums from MyPublisher online with some pictures of us to give to family which included engagement and wedding pictures so those will be going out to the parents and grandparents. We shopped ahead of time with them and got 50% off.

Other than that there are just a few small things I might need to pick up such as office gifts but nothing that will break the budget. We put away $25 every two weeks into our INGDirect savings account so the money was ready and waiting for us when it came time to shop!

So in our lovely new apartment I finally have a room to myself to call an office. It’s actually our second bedroom which is quite spacious. We also have an office area which is a smaller alcove which HIS uses an office. I decided I would like a tv for my office space in hopes that I would spend a bit more time getting stuff done in there if I had a tv.

Now, there’s many options available to me to procure said tv. I could go to the mega mart and by a shiny new flat panel tv which would cost a fortune but that’s really not in my budget nor is there really any reason to go that route. We do have a nice new flat panel tv in our living room and that’s really all if not more than we need.

So I went onto craigslist today and simply searched for a tv for sale. Let me tell you, there were a ton of them! With everyone getting their new mega mart slat panels it seems there are a ton of those old fashioned tube tvs out there for just pennies on the dollar. I got a 27″ name brand tv with a dvd player, a stand and all the necessary cords for $75. I am more than pleased. The guy even carried it from his apartment to the elevator and then out to the car for us. This tv will more than fill my need and I paid about 10% of the cost of a new one.

I really do like craigslist and have gotten a number of things off of it. Most notably my KitchenAid stand mixer which was always a dream of mine. I was so happy the day it became a reality for me especially since I got it for only $100. I have also sold a couple tickets on there that we were unable to use as well as a spare dining table and chairs. I also got my wedding dress on craigslist for only $260! Brand new, never worn and it fit nearly perfect requiring only $75 in alterations (I found the women who did my alterations on craigslist as well). We also have gotten a bike rack for the car and sold a nearly new cell phone.

No matter what I am looking for I always turn to craigslist first! If you can find what you want it’s almost always worth it.

This week we made a huge runs to the warehouse club, Costco is our favorite but we went to BJs this time (free guest pass), and stocked up on a household items and food items that we needed. BJs is great becuase you can combine the club discounts, club coupons and manufacturers coupons.

When I say we made a huge run I wasn’t kidding. Our bill was $175 and that was after $50 in coupons! So what did we get for all o four hard earned dough? Toilet paper, crystal light, chicken, BBQ sauce, mayo, goldfish snacks, italian sausage, wine, breakfast smoothies, laundry soap, fabric softener, cat food… all sorts of things.

We have been preparing to move into our new apartment (more to come later on this) so we have really been careful to just buy the minimum and use up everything we have. When it comes to things like toilet paper and laundry soap I don’t like having to wonder if I have enough or do I need to buy more this week so I generally buy it in bulk and get it over with. Most of the warehouse clubs send out coupons every so often so I usually stock up then.

There has been a lot of debate as to whether the membership fees that the warehouse clubs charge are worth it. For us it really wasn’t even a matter of it being worth while or not, it was a matter of convenience. We live in a high rise that is literally right next door to a Costco. We will walk over there for just one item some times. I think over an entire year we could possibly claim that by being able to walk next door to shop instead of driving a few miles away to the grocery store and spending money on gas that we mitigate the cost of the membership even without taking any actual discounts into account.

What is your opinion of the warehouse clubs and the membership fees that they charge?

After reading a couple articles about Crissy Thompson, the Coupon Queen I can honestly saw that I am in awe. This woman spends like $10 on a week’s worth of groceries for her family of five, not one but five. It seems that I can’t even get by with $10 a day for the two of us let alone for a week.

Basically Crissy spends about an hour each week combing through the grocery store fliers and clipping coupons from four Sunday papers. She only cuts the coupons for items that she uses and combines them with the current sales items. After reading the article about Crissy and her extreme couponing I did learn a few great tips and facts that I didn’t know about.

My favorite tip is that you can use one coupon for each item you purchase. If there is a buy 1 get 1 free sale you can use a coupon on both of the items. I think the key here is to get multiple papers and/or have a good stash of coupons so that you do end up with multiple coupons for the items.

I don’t buy multiple papers each week but every once in awhile I do end up with two sets of coupons. I live in a high rise and one of my neighbors puts their Sunday paper in a pile outside the trash room on my floor to be recycled and if I see it I’ll grab the coupons books out of it.

I do try to keep an eye on the sales and what coupons I have. We actually got about $30 worth of groceries for $16 this weekend when we combined the sales and coupons. This isn’t nearly as good as Crissy does but it’s not too shabby.

Do you use coupons? Are you embarrassed using them or too embarrassed to use them?

I (HERS) am usually the non-spender in the relationship. I don’t surf around the internet and buy “things”, I don’t troll the malls and I’m certainly not one to hang out at Best Buy. Lately though, I have had a number of things pop up that have really started to add up.

*Hair “Stuff”: Shampoo, conditioner, hair masque, etc. It seems that both of us ran out of everything all at once. It takes both of us quite a long time to go through the entire bottle since HIM has short hair and I only wash my hair every other day but it was still about $45 for everything.

*Target: Body wash, deodorant, kitty litter…… seriously, does it ever end???

*Grocery Store: Meats. This week we had to buy meats because we literally had none in the freezer. We bought a couple porterhouse steaks which were on sale for $4.99/lb and chicken breasts at $1.99/lb. We only buy the steaks when they go on sale at the higher end grocery store in town. The quality is so much better and the sale prices are really fair.

*Beer: HIM is watching the NHL playoffs and tonight is a big game night so we decided to pick up some beers to have around the house.

Sometimes, it seems like we are out of everything all at once. With the extra “stuff” we needed we spent about $150. It was more than I would have liked to spend but it’s still cheaper than going out and ordering a couple of nice steaks and have a few beers!

(I will let HIM post about the parking costs he has recently been experiencing as it seems my parking mitigation strategy is not working as I planned)

There are some purchases which are fun to make and you can thoroughly enjoy making them and enjoy the item to it fullest after the purchase, and then there buying a vacuum cleaner. Nothing fun there. Our vacuum cleaner pretty much sucked, well actually it didn’t suck enough or we would have kept it. The on and off switch had stopped working long ago and now the suction was quickly disappearing. So, we had to buy a new vacuum.

His would loved to have bought a Dyson, as if we had just an abundance of disposable cash lying around. I was heavily leaning towards the adequate, does the job type of model. My budget was $200 and I hoped to stay as far below that number as possible. We have two cats so cat hair is always a concern so I understand the need to have a decent vacuum. We ended up with a Hoover, which on sale came out to be around $165, a price I can live with.

I did have to pull him away from the over-priced Dysons in the store to settle on the Hoover though. He is all about the gadgetry things that cost way too much and are definitely not needed. It really doesn’t matter what the item is, if it’s touted and the “thing” and it’s expensive, he’s all about it. If I can just get him to think of women’s shoes this way!