Free Parking

Here at The Provident PhD we like to offer suggestions that are sometimes specific to student families. Graduate school has many unexpected expenses. For us one of them was the cost of parking at the school. Here at William & Mary, it’s currently $340/year. For most of my time here I went ahead and forked it over, but recently I discovered some free street parking near the school. There are relatively few spots, but since I’m typically at school by 8:00 AM each morning, there are still plenty of spots left.  No, it’s not as convenient has having a pass and the ability to come and go whenever, but I’ll happily sacrifice some convenience for the money. It’s another example of how we should never assume that a cost is inevitable. Even just a little creativity or homework can reveal great alternatives. I wish I had discovered this one earlier.

Certainly other possibilities include getting a ride each day from your family or riding your bike to school, as Jeff suggested here. Bike licenses are typically free, and some schools (including William & Mary’s business school) facilitate this by having lockers and showers available in the building.

A commuting approach somewhere in between the car and the bike is a scooter or moped. We have friends who do this and although they require a parking pass, the pass is half the cost of a car pass.

Mint

Justin commented awhile back about Mint.com. We took the challenge and have been using the website for several months now. We have found it very helpful in organizing our budget, tweaking it when necessary, and reducing the hassle of using a spreadsheet to keep track of finances. Also, because Mint allows us to view all of our financial accounts in one spot, It helps us pay better attention to our 401(k)s, pension plans, and other investments that we used to view only occasionally. It’s not perfect, but it’s definitely a step up from where we were.

Airline Miles for Magazines

Several months ago I started getting ads in the mail from Delta and United Airlines inviting me to use my award miles to buy magazines. I took them up on the offer and have been enjoying subscriptions to The Economist, Forbes, and the Wall Street Journal. It was a great deal for two reasons: first, I don’t fly often enough to accumulate enough miles to use them for air fare before the miles expire; and second, using rewards miles to fly is a pain in the neck anyway. So I got subscriptions that, even at the discounted student rate, would have cost me hundreds of dollars for essentially nothing.   I’m always skeptical of stuff from airlines, but this has proven to be a great deal, and there wasn’t even the catch of having to give them my credit card number and have to remember to cancel the subscription in a year. The website is magsformiles.com and includes a number of major airlines.

What We've Learned So Far About Saving

Natalie and I laugh that we have adopted somewhat of a pioneer-ish life-style over the last few months, but we have been having a lot of fun with it, and saving a lot of money. When we were invited to contribute to "The Provident PhD," we started thinking about things that we have been doing to help save money as a couple still trying to get through college with a new baby.   Following are several practices that have helped us save.

The first way we have been saving money is that we do not buy a ton of expensive furniture.  Let go of the need to impress and be okay with letting things be a bit tacky.  It doesn’t have to match itself or the caliber of your parents house.  When people offered us old furniture, we took it even if it didn’t match (and it definitely didn’t).  Our kitchen table is from the DI.  Our end table is a cheap basic one from IKEA.  The only thing that is very consistent about our apartment is that nothing matches, and guess what, we’re still happy!  And what about the latest flat screen?  Get this, we don’t have a TV.  There is so much more time in a day when you don’t have to stay up on a series.  We don’t buy movies.  We rent them for free from the library or even our parents houses and watch them on our laptop.  This has worked out just fine for us.

I know when you first hear this it may come as a shock that people still do this, but something that has helped us save a ton is switching over to cloth diapers for our little boy. We have heard several different estimates for how much a couple could end up spending on disposable diapers for one child, and most of them have been upwards of $1,000-$2,000. We talked to a friend recently who is a cloth diaper fanatic, and she recommended several different stores and websites to us that have been very helpful, like the Quilted Bear and Cotton Babies.com.  Over the last few weeks, we have ordered all the reusable diapers we will need for our little boy for less than $200, and these will probably last for many more children. Even when you add in the cost for detergent and laundry expenses for three years, you’re still getting a huge cost reduction by going cloth.

Another thing that has helped us save on costs is that we had our little boy through a midwife practice, instead of through a hospital. We loved our experience!  The midwives offered a comfortable atmosphere with a lot of  personal care, at a substantially lower cost.  In addition, we were able to have a lot more control over what was going on without having to abide by hospital protocol.  The midwives at the birthing center provided us with answers to all of our questions along the way and the books and resources we needed to get the knowledge that would prepare us for the experience.  This allowed us to have the birth experience we wanted and feel peaceful and ready.  This may sound like an old-fashioned way to have a baby, but the midwives are well-trained to handle whatever may come their way and, along with a handful of other perks, there are some definite cost benefits.

Walk, run, or ride your bike.  Old school, I know, but things like gas, car repairs and the money you spend buying bigger sizes of jeans every couple of years can add up.  The health benefits can be a big deal in-and-of themselves.  Your exercise can be your life, instead of needing to get a monthly renewal on your membership to Golds Gym.  Gotta love the sun-shine vitamin D of experiencing the outdoors too!

A couple other tips we’d add are to shop at the DI (Deseret Industries or equivalent used clothes store) and/or Craigs List.  Buying things used can save a lot of money.  This applies to cars too.  Further, buy generic brands instead of name-brands on food.  Buy in bulk when the price is low.  Eat less meat.  Meat is expensive and there are many health benefits to limiting your intake of meat as an added bonus.  Use soap refills instead of buying a new bottle every time.  Turn off your lights when you aren’t using them to save on electric bills (and replacement light bulbs).  Buy cheap plastic dish-ware.  It doesn’t break!  Freeze your bread so it doesn’t go bad.  Use coupons.  Be careful about impulse buying.  Sometimes it’s good to wait a day and see if it still seems like a good idea the next day.

Another thing that will help you a ton is to stay out of debt.  Loans cost a lot more money to pay back than it costs if you can pay the money up-front.  Be willing to save up for things, if possible, before resorting to loans.  It’s easy to think that you will have more money later.  I have found that most times, expenses rise as life goes on, so even if you will have more money later, it won’t necessarily mean that it will be easier to pay later.  It may be harder.  If you do have loans you are working to pay back, pay extra each month and work to pay it off as quickly as possible.  Interest builds quickly and you will save a lot of that cost if you can pay if off early.   

Some of these ideas may sound like we have gone crazy, but we are happy, healthy, and loving life.  Happy saving!

Natalie, Jeff, and Baby Brian Larsen

Buy in Bulk

We haven’t touched much on food storage and its potential to not only help families be prepared for emergencies but to also save a lot of money. I’ll start off that topic here by pointing out the benefits of buying things in bulk, particularly when they’re on sale.

My dad would always take full advantage of “case lot” sales that grocery stores would have. He would come home with large boxes of canned goods (soups, fruits, veggies, etc.), cereals, hamburger helper, and many more goods that had a shelf life of at least a year or two. With a family of seven, there was no concern about the food going bad.

I’m not aware of any stores around here that do those same type of case lot sales, where they deeply discount a bunch of goods for a day or two, but the same principle applies. When you see a sale for an item your family uses frequently, consider buying a bunch of it. Of course this requires you to have a budget for items that come on sale but aren’t necessarily on your list, because it’s tough to predict when stuff will go on sale.

I’ll point out one exception to his and that is for items that you know your family will go through much faster simply because there’s more of it in the house. For example, if you see it a great deal on potato chips, it may not be a great idea to buy 20 bags if that means that you’ll go through the chips twice as fast as you would normally.

Library Movies—More Cheap Entertainment

We use Netflix—the $8/month plan with unlimited one-at-a-time DVDs—and it seems to work well for us. It’s certainly cheaper than the days of $4 movie rentals every weekend, but there are definitely even cheaper options for those of us who enjoy movies. For those willing to sacrifice a bit of convenience and selection, the library is a great option. I’ve been impressed at how many movies you can get at both the law school library and the local public library. Both have a fairly current selection as well as a lot of good children’s films.

Thrift Store Shopping

Most of the clothing that I purchase for my 15 month old comes from a thrift store. I also purchase clothes from garage sales and consignment stores and I shop clearance deals at stores like Target. The bulk of what he wears, however, comes from a thrift store. Children's clothing are, in my mind, one of the easiest ways to save money. Children do not stay in one size for very long, so if you're paying $10 for a shirt, you aren't going to get the same value out of that 2T size shirt as you would a shirt for yourself simply because your child won't be wearing it more than a few months to a year. I've been surprised at how quickly my son grows into the next size clothing. If I were buying his clothing at full price, I'm sure I'd be paying hundreds of dollars for something he'll only wear for a short time.

Though thrift stores are a great way to buy inexpensive children's clothing, not everything is a sparkling deal at a second-hand store. It's important to locate the thrift stores in your area and make several visits to each one, taking time to get a feel for how their items are priced, what kind of items they sell, and when or if they ever have discounts and specials. After doing this, you'll probably find one or two that seem to have better deals and carry more items. You'll also begin to learn what really constitutes a good deal for a piece of child's clothing. I've seen thrift stores charge upwards of 2 and 3 dollars for a simple shirt, but I won't pay more than $1, and typically I can find them for 50 or 75 cents. I will, however, pay $2 for a good pair of pants or shoes. It's worth it to me because I know those are harder to find.

It took me some time to learn where to find these deals. Also, I've learned that I can't wait until I need an item and expect to find it immediately at a thrift store. So I'm typically looking for clothing in the next size up for my child. I visit the thrift stores I like at least once a month and when I find items that are a good deal, even if they're too big for my kiddo, I'll purchase them and put them away for later. This method has worked really well for us. And it doesn't feel like a huge investment because I'm typically paying 75 cents or $1 for each item.