Keeping a "Someday" List

One of the many great bits of marital advice my parents gave was to avoid the tendency to feel as a young couple that you should have all the stuff your parents have (not that my parents had a ton when they told me this, but certainly more than we did/do). Parents in their 50’s have taken many years to acquire the possessions they have, but it’s tempting for young couples to think that something must be wrong if they don’t also have nice cars, a large home, and classy furniture.

My parents suggested keeping a list of things we wanted to have someday. The list might include items like nice silverware, a larger home, a trip to Europe, or even much smaller purchases. What my mom said was something like, “your dad was smart enough to realize that when I talked about wanting to buy something nice, if he simply told me ‘we can’t afford that,’ he would sound insensitive and I would become frustrated. Instead he would say, ‘I’d love to have that too. We probably can’t get it now, but lets write it down and plan on getting it when we can afford it.’ I was still disappointed but felt like he understood me and we were working together towards a goal.” In some cases they would buy it at some point in the future. Other times, they would decide over time that it wasn’t that important and it would drop down or off the list.

It's important to understand that the point of the list isn't to be greedy and materialistic, but rather to talk about and systematically work towards some of the things you'd like to have.

So there are several benefits to the “someday” list. First, it can be cathartic. Writing something on the list helps assuage the frustration of not being able to buy it immediately. Second, it can be a very good tool for avoiding impulse purchases. If you are tempted to make a significant purchase of something that is not on the list, it’s worth asking why it’s not on the list. Maybe it should be added to the list, but if it’s not something you’ve really wanted until that very moment, maybe it’s not all that important (and you’ll realize that within a few hours, removed from the emotion of the moment). Third, if something is on the list, it allows you to be aware of when there is a good sale on that particular item and you can save a lot of money. Finally, keeping a list is a systematic way to acquire some of the things you want. Without keeping a list, you’re more likely to spend money on lots of little things that aren’t that important. If you’ve written it down, you’re more likely to sacrifice the little things and save for something important to you.

After Christmas Sales

Speaking for myself and probably Patrick, we took a hiatus for several weeks to focus on exams, papers, and projects. It’s nice now to have a bit more time. Most importantly, may everyone have a wonderful Christmas—one that is focused on the Savior and on serving others. I also want to thank my fellow authors on The Provident PhD and all of you who have added comments and given good feedback. We hope you will continue to participate!

Without getting sucked into the commercialization of Christmas, it’s worth thinking about how to take advantage of a situation where so many people do get sucked in. By Monday, many retailers will be dramatically discounting items they had hoped to sell for Christmas. The trick, as always, is to be careful not to buy things that you weren’t planning on buying and don’t need. This is a theme I’ll return to often, but you don’t SAVE anything by buying something on sale that you weren’t going to buy were it not on sale. On the other hand, if you realized that you need some gloves, mittens, hats, etc. this is the perfect time to get them. I remember when my dad was the scout master, he would use after-Christmas sales to stock up on winter gear that was marked down 70% or more. If you’re feeling really ambitious, you could even start doing a bit of Christmas shopping for next year :). 

Shopping Lists

I guess I'm into "tricks," as my last suggestion was a paper budget, which I consider a sort of a budgeting trick. This time, the trick I have in mind is a pre-made grocery list. What I mean by this is that I have a document saved that has a list of groceries we frequently buy. This is also a time-saving tool (and sanity-saving since I often go shopping with my two boys). In order for it to be the most helpful, I have the grocery list organized by aisle at the grocery store we shop at. By this I mean that the dairy products are under "Dairy," the cereal and granola bars are listed under "Cereal," etc. I print out this document and put it up in our kitchen. Then, when my husband or I think of something we need or I plan my menu for the week, I highlight the items we need. If it's not on the list, I do it the old-fashioned way and write it where I would find it.

When Patrick talked about shopping around for apartments, he mentioned how recurring expenses can really add up if you're not careful. One way we've found this to be true is if we don't plan ahead so that we have to make several trips to the grocery story in a week. The more trips out to the grocery store, the more likely that we end up spending money on unplanned items, and anyway it's a waste of gas. Any sort of a grocery list can help with this, but my pre-made shopping list has been a great help at our house to help us to be organized, to be fast, and to save money.

One other way it helps with saving money is that for awhile, I found myself wandering back and forth to get things (because it would be farther down on my list so I'd have to double-back when I saw it) so that grocery shopping was taking forever! Since it was already taking so long and I was so stressed--because by an hour into it, my kids were DONE-- I stopped doing a very good job of price comparisons. Now that I'm more organized, it's easier for me to take the time to buy the cheapest item. This trick has been a great help to me and I foresee it being a normal part of our lives for the rest of our family life.

Teaching Kids About Debt

There's a Deseret News article worth reading titled, Teaching Our Kids About Debt Danger. We obviously believe an advanced education can still be a good reason to incur debt, even large debt. That's one of the purposes of The Provident PhD—to help those considering advanced education see that having a family doesn't need to be a barrier to that path.  The Deseret News article has some good thoughts about how to convey the importance of good money management to our children.

Make the Milk Last

I like milk. So does my wife. So do our kids. We drink a lot of milk in our house. Not as much as I would if it came out the tap, but still a lot. So we notice when the price of milk goes up, as it has in the past year or so. We’ve started a practice which may shock and disgust some of you, but it works. We buy powdered milk. Yep. I know it sounds gross, but it’s not bad. To mitigate the strange taste, we mix it with real milk 50/50. If you buy powdered milk in bulk from food storage suppliers, it’s much cheaper than the real stuff. You follow the directions to mix the powder with water, then mix the fake stuff with the real stuff and let it sit in the fridge overnight. This cuts probably 30-40% off our milk expenses.

Getting Paid to Shop

When I think of saving money, I usually think of either decreasing my consumption, using coupons, or shopping deals.  However, the reality is that there is a limit to how much we can reduce our consumption.  We have to spend money sometimes.  Therefore, we've found ways to get paid while we shop.

We have a Discover card and a Costco American Express card.  Both give between 1-3% cash back for purchases.  Discover often runs 5% back deals on certain categories as well.  Once we got the Costco card, we thought that we'd make so much more in rewards because it offers greater than 1% more frequently than Discover.  We've been sorely disappointed.  I checked in last week to see how much we'd earned after about ten months of nearly exclusive American Express purchases only to find that we'd gotten only about $115 dollars back.  Our membership at Costco costs $100 a year, so we've only gained about $15 in actual cash back.  We've had better luck with Discover.  I'd guess that we've gotten about $200 in cash back, without any annual fees.  

As you think about credit cards, it's important to think of them as useful tools.  We never carry a balance: we solely use them for convenience and for the cash back.  You also should pay attention to the fine print to figure out how much you're actually going to get back.  I believe Discover doesn't pay a full 1% back until you've exceeded a certain annual threshold of a few thousand dollars.

Another way to get paid to shop is to use online websites that give you a rebate based on the amount you've purchased.  My favorite is Ebates.com.  You sign in, search for a retailer, then click Ebate's link to that retailer's website.  You computer keeps a "cookie" that reports back what you've purchased, but the retailer's website is otherwise unchanged.  That means that you can also use coupons on the retailer's shop.  Here's an example:

I read Gordon's post about car repair.  I needed to replace my car battery.  

• I searched for coupons at brick-and-mortar car parts stores, and found that Advance Auto Parts had a 15% off coupon for purchases over $100, plus a $50 off coupon for your next purchase of $100 or more. 
• I went to Ebates, found that if I linked to Advance Auto Parts from Ebates site then I would get 6% cash back from Ebates.
• I then linked to Advance Auto Parts, selected my battery, and inserted Advance's coupon code
• I finally paid with my Discover card

If my math is right, that means that I got 22% off the price, plus a $50 off coupon for my next purchase.

Every quarter, Ebates cuts you a check for however much cash back you've earned.  I think you need to have earned at least $20.  They also give a signing bonus, so after your first $20 purchase, you get a $10 gift card.  They have other, unusual deals, too.  For instance, when I got internet access at our new house, by linking through Ebates I got a flat $20 payment.  Not bad!

So if you're going to spend money, get paid for it.  And when I want to rationalize, I feel like if I spend lots and lots of money, I'll be rich with cash back!

Earning Points

Platinum reward plans through your Credit Union or bank can be very beneficial. These type of plans are associated with your credit cards. Some of these plans do have an annual fee and if they do the cost usually isn't very significant (check with your institution to see the cost or if there is even a cost).

The way we use this program is with our everyday expenditures such as groceries, gas, clothes, baby expenses, bills, school expenses, etc. We acquire points (for our institutions program) by getting a point for every dolar we spend. Keep in mind that we don't go into any credit card debt just to simply get points. We keep a close eye on what we are spending and make sure we have the money to pay it off before we spend it. By doing this we slowly but surely acquire points with every purchase we make. It's also convenient because these programs often have special promotions such as double or even triple point periods. These special promotions double or triple with each purchase.

Since we have been on our platinum rewards plan (4 years) we have acquired enough points to get 2 plane tickets to Virginia, a $350 crib, a car seat, and a bike trailer. It's nice to be able to get something back just from our everyday spending.

More on Amazon

Patrick had a great post about Amazon last week, so this is building on his suggestions. I used to only use Amazon for books. Then it occurred to me that other items might be cheaper there as well. We've found great deals on Amazon for numerous items, including computer parts and other electronics, exercise equipment, and DVDs. It has also been great for items that were tough to find in a brick- and-mortar location, like a baby food grinder. One of the more recent finds was a cell phone. The screen on my old phone broke, and my first thought was that I would need to buy a new one from our carrier—an expensive option since I didn't have any kind of phone insurance and was not eligible for a new phone. I decided to check Amazon. It turns out that you can buy an "unlocked." cell phone off Amazon for way cheaper than what you'd pay from a carrier. I got a great phone for $30 (and free shipping). I didn't even need to contact the carrier—just switched the SIM card to the new phone and it works great.

Of course, as with any type of shopping, you have to be careful to not buy things you weren't planning to buy and don't need. But as long as I'm getting an item anyway, it's probably worth checking online to see if it's cheaper. 

This may sound obvious, but another huge benefit to Amazon and other online retailers is the convenience factor. Before having kids, I took for granted how easy it was to shop. It becomes exponentially more difficult with children. If I can price compare from my own home, order something that will arrive at my doorstep in a few days, AND is cheaper than in the store, that's an easy decision.

Our Basic Budgeting Trick

I have a secret: We are a little bit inept with technology sometimes. My friend, Amber, posted about budgeting, and in the comments, Justin suggested Quicken or Mint.com as great tools for helping with budgeting. That is awesome! My parents also use Quicken and highly recommend it. We, however, somehow got terribly confused when we briefly played with using Quicken. Fortunately, when we were dating (before our failed attempt at Quicken), we took a Family Finance class. In the class, the professor actually made a huge recommendation for a simple piece of paper on the fridge for your budget. We are into our sixth year of marriage and still using that simple piece of paper. It may not be as ideal as a sophisticated computer program, but it still helps us be aware of our expenses, and in that way it's a great tool.

This paper says "Family Budget" at the top, followed by the month and year (we print a new one off each month). Then we have sections for each of our expenses. We keep each of our receipts and post these under Groceries (food or non-food); automotive; charitable donations; eating out (dating or family); clothing; miscellaneous; and rent, to name a few. We've changed these sections over the years, and they probably still aren't the best titles, but they mostly work because there is at least a place to post each of our expenses. Beside each title, there is a price limit. These also have to be realistically reviewed occasionally.

Archaic? Yes. Difficult? No. So even for the technologically-overwhelmed or the lazy, there's still a way to keep a budget. Because, as Amber said, it's a useful tool for helping to distinguish between wants and needs.

Finally, a quote (which is at the top of each of our budgets):

"I have discovered that there is no way that you can ever earn more than you can spend. I am convinced that it is not the amount of money an individual earns that brings peace of mind as much as it is having control of his money. Money can be an obedient servant but a harsh taskmaster. Those who structure their standard of living to allow a little surplus control their circumstances. Those who spend a little more than they earn are controlled by their circumstances. They are in bondage." -G. Homer Durham

Good Article from Forbes

There's a good article from Forbes titled Five Financial Mistakes That Ruin Marriage. It's not specific to student families, but certainly very applicable. Nancy Anderson offers some good tips on how to avoid the mistakes she mentions.

Eating In

Going out to eat is a real luxury when living on a student budget. It mostly happens when we receive gift cards for birthdays or Christmas. I’ve had fun making special dinners for my wife that include a lot more food at a much lower cost than what we'd pay in a restaurant. I try to replicate the fine dining experience by emailing her a formal invitation and menu several days ahead of time with several choices for appetizers, entrees (a degree or two fancier than our normal dishes), desserts, and drinks. She’ll respond with her choices, I’ll buy the ingredients, cook the dinner, and we enjoy a great three-course meal at much less cost than in a restaurant.

Tips From Real Simple

The latest issue of Real Simple has some good money saving tips, including some we've already pointed out here.
What Cutback Has Saved You the Most Money? | Real Simple

Starched Shirts

I'll follow Keegan's excellent post with another clothing-related item. As she emphasized, being thrifty doesn’t mean you have to look cheap. Over the past several years, I have become a snob for crisp-looking starched dress shirts. They look way better than shirts that have only been ironed with water—sharper, newer, and more professional. Even shirts claiming to be “wrinkle free” aren’t really wrinkle free. They just look less sloppy than non-wrinkle free shirts when you don’t iron them, but they still look sloppy. And for those of us looking to enter the job market soon, looking sharp is important. The problem is that taking your shirts to the cleaners gets expensive really quick. There is a great alternative. You can buy starch at the grocery store and use it instead of water when ironing dress shirts. I use a light starch called Magic Sizing which costs about $1 at Walmart and lasts for quite a while.

It takes time to iron your own shirts, so I’m guessing that at some point in the distant future, when my time is worth more than it takes me to iron my shirts, I’ll take them to the cleaners. In the meantime, it pays to do it myself and save.

One Man's Junk . . .

I have a new favorite pair of pants. I'd wear them every day if I could get away with it. I didn't get them at Gap, or Sears, or JC Penny's. (I know that there are far classier places than those, but those are the stores that came to mind.) No, this was an acquisition care of good ol' Goodwill. Last week our family made a visit there and it reaffirmed my faith in the power of thrift shopping.

During our trip, we got me several pairs of pants; my three-year-old three nice, striped shirts; the same son some heavy-duty hiking shoes that should suit him well in winter; my husband several T-shirts; and my husband several dress shirts that were super great quality. We also made the discovery that Goodwill gives discounts for students. So all of these items were acquired for under forty dollars. I am not sure of exactly what these items would have cost us new, but I suspect that it would have been at least three times what we paid. And almost all of these were about as good as new.

Thrift stores are awesome for more than just clothes. We bought our first couch there. Now, I know this disgusts some people, and I admit that it was not an attractive couch (it was an indescribable purple color), but it was completely usable and cost us only $60.

We've also found books and games by thrift shopping. A friend of mine who grew up shopping thrift took me and another friend on our first serious thrift shopping outing before we headed off to college. She had some great tips and great skills for finding good stuff. While we were shopping, in fact, she found a really nice dish set that she's still using in her family home seven years later. Another friend keeps on the lookout for certain deal days at thrift stores. She's shown me beautiful outfits she's gotten for her five-year-old daughter at thrift. Also, when looking for a Halloween costume (which can be SO expensive), she found a fantastic witch's costume by shopping thrift.

When I was a kid, I think that I would have been a little embarrassed to shop thrift, but the friend who was so excellent at it, and had grown up doing it, was one of the best-dressed girls I knew. I had no idea that her family struggled financially until we got to know each other better as roommates and she told me. As she told me later, "You don't stand out, because looking like you dress thrift is in." In any case, my friend definitely demonstrated that if you shop thrift with skill and practice, you can also shop thrift with style.

Natural Air Conditioning

We have found that heating and cooling our home can be quite expensive.  Now that we are in Florida and in a house with an old air conditioning, we've learned the value of opening the windows and turning on the fans.  Our energy company allows us to access our account online to see how much per day we spend on electricity. The graph conveniently also displays the temperature outside, so you can see how the temperature affects your electricity bill.  We've decided that it's sometimes worth being warm to save the $5 it cost to run our A/C for a day.

If you don't have a smart meter or user-friendly power company, you could do the math yourself on how many kilowatt hours per day you are using.  Just figure out which meter is yours and then multiply the daily change by the cost per kilowatt hour.

I realize that it might not be 85 degrees in Virginia right now like it is in Florida, so this may be a tip to tuck away for next year.

Car Maintenance

My dad tried to teach me car maintenance when I was little, but I wasn’t interested. When I became a car owner and no longer had my dad close by, I wished I had listened. I’ve had to teach myself some of the simple stuff, but it’s been well worth the savings. Take oil changes, for example. You can pay Jiffy Lube $35 to do it or you can buy the oil and filter at Walmart for around $15 and do it yourself in 30 minutes. Sure, it’s only a $20 savings, but it’s the little stuff that adds up. There are even bigger savings associated with changing spark plugs and wires, brake pads and rotors, engine air filters, cabin air filters, and other things that are relatively simple. You can find instructional videos on youtube for all of these tasks or you can swallow your pride and ask for help from a friend. There’s a bit of cost up front to get some of the tools, but it pays itself off quickly.

I’m interested to hear what other types of car maintenance readers have done to save money.

Monthly Budget

I have found that one way to save money over time is to make a budget and keep track of what you spend. This may seem very obvious, but sometimes hard to be consistent with. Simply putting a limit on your spending and sticking to it can help items that feel like a necessity become something that would be nice to have, and therefore money is spent on what really is needed.

Writing down monthly expenses can help to create as well as stick to a budget. Fine tuning is then a matter of assessing needs vs wants. Easier said than done, but it works!

Textbooks

Patrick's post about Amazon Prime reminded me that I need to do textbook shopping in the near future. As a law student, textbooks are a huge expense every semester, and not always a predictable one. One semester I may only spend $100-$200 on textbooks, and the next semester the bill might be over $500, depending on what books my instructors pick. For those of you who, like me, cringe when you reach for your wallet to buy textbooks, here are a few tips to saving money:

1) Buy used when you can. The difference in price between a used textbook and a new one is enormous. As an example, the Bankruptcy casebook I am using this semester sells for a whopping $194 new at the William & Mary Bookstore. The used price is $145. Still a chunk of change, but by buying used you can save almost $50. The common objection to buying used books goes something like this: "I have my own system for highlighting/making notes in the margins that I have to give up if I buy a used book with someone else's highlighting in it." That's a fair point. I had my own highlighting system that I used during 1L year, and kind of grew attached to. In the end, though, I didn't feel like it was worth it to pay $50 or more per class for the privilege of using my highlighting system. I dropped my system, and have never looked back. My grades haven't suffered because of it.

2) Shop around. Remember the $194 price tag on that Bankruptcy book? The same book sells new on Amazon for $141. The used price on Amazon? $64. That's a savings of $130 over the new price at the college bookstore. Other websites with good deals on textbooks: Barnes and Noble, Half.com, and Textbooks.com. One trick I've learned is to get the ISBN number for the book, so that I can be sure I'm getting the right edition off the website. Online books aren't always cheaper than the bookstore, but it's worth looking for them.

3) Sell back. Let's be honest: you're not going to use that 1L Constitutional Law Textbook again. Ever. Sell it. The bookstore won't buy it back? No problem--there are a couple of ways you can sell your textbooks online. Amazon will pay $22 for my business associations book. Barnes and Noble is offering $51.50 to take it off my hands. Those are the two online buyback programs I have used, although there are others. Both have you put in the ISBN, and then generate a price for the book. You can then print out a shipping label, put it on an envelope or box with the book(s), and send it away (the shipping label allows you to ship for free). Amazon will put a credit on your Amazon account, which can be used to buy books for the next semester. Barnes and Noble mails you a check. There doesn't appear to be any rhyme or reason to the prices these websites offer for books. Some books will fetch a really good price, and others hardly anything. Some you won't be able to sell back at all. It only takes a minute to find out how much you can get.

4) Make sure you really need the textbook. I bought an expensive Real Estate Transactions book once, only to get to class and find out that the professor wouldn't actually be assigning any readings from it, and only put it on the list because the administration made him list a textbook. When in doubt, email the professor.

Amazon Prime

Amazon is a great place to get cheap books, and just about anything else. The one downside to ordering items online, though, is the shipping costs. Well, with Amazon Prime you can get free two-day shipping on thousands of items, including many textbooks. Amazon Prime usually costs $79 for a one-year subscription, but there are a few ways of getting free limited time subscriptions that are available to young student families.

First, they are currently offering a free one-month trial. This is pretty straightforward, and it includes all of the prime benefits, including free shipping, thousands of movies and TV shows available for instant streaming, and the new Kindle Lending Library.

Second, you can sign up for Amazon Student. This doesn't include the instant video streaming or the Kindle Lending Library, but you get a full six months of free two-day shipping.

Finally, there is Amazon Mom. Despite the name, Amazon Mom is available to dads as well, or anyone else who is responsible for the care of a young child. Amazon Mom doesn't give you the instant streaming videos or the Kindle Lending Library, but you do have access to one other unique benefit: with Amazon Mom, you can save 15% off diapers and wipes through the Amazon Baby Store (or 20% if you sign up for regular purchases through Amazon's "subscribe and save" system). Additionally, you do still get three months of free two-day shipping, and for every $25 you spend in the Amazon Baby Store you add one month of free shipping, up to one year.

Now, a few notes about taking advantage of these offers. I haven't used the free one-month trial of Prime, so I'm not positive that you can use it if you've already used the others, and vice versa. The Amazon Mom offer explicitly says that you don't get the free shipping if you have an Amazon Student account (although you do still get the discounted diapers). As far as I can tell, though, you there is nothing that would prevent my wife from signing up for Amazon Mom when my free shipping with my Student account ends. By utilizing these offers together, you should be able to get quite a bit of free shipping, plus some savings on diapers and wipes along the way.

College Sports => cheap family fun

There are a number of financial perks to studenthood and one of them is that magical ID card that gets you into college sporting venues. I regret not going to more BYU football, basketball, and volleyball games as an undergrad. I went to a few, but it didn’t occur to me that when I left it would cost me a lot of money to see quality sporting events (please, no wisecracks from Ute fans about the quality of BYU sports). At William & Mary, we’ve been to football games, basketball games, field hockey matches, and tennis matches at little or no charge. The really good deals for basketball come during Christmas break, when all the undergrads are out of town so they offer free tickets to fill the seats. For fellow W&M students, check http://tribeathletics.com/ for the calendar of upcoming athletic events.

Buy Per Ounce

Groceries are a huge monthly expense. There are a lot of ways to save here, but one is to simply identify the cheapest items when comparing several brands of the same product. Companies make this tough by selling their products in different quantities than the competitors’ equivalent products. This is especially true of cereals, but also with cheeses, bottled products, and others. For example, one brand of cheerios might be $3 per box. Another brand is only $2.50 but the box is smaller. You can take the time to look at the weight of each and do the math, but fortunately, a lot of stores do this for you. In small print on the price label is often the per ounce price.  This is super helpful for finding the cheapest product, especially with “commodity” type products where one brand isn’t any better than another.

Cheap Dates Aren't Just for Singles

I'm a big fan of marriage, and I'm a big fan of keeping marriage working well. This translates into frequent dating, especially when one spouse is studying full-time. We've found some awesome ways to make sure we get to go on regular dates.

1. Babysitting Exchanges

We're not in a position to pay for a babysitter right now, especially not as frequently as we want to go on dates. So we have worked out with other student couples to go on exchanges. There are probably countless ways to do this. The first year we were here, we had only one child, as did two of our friends. At that point, we did a three-way exchange, so that we got to go out two times for every one time we babysat. As all of our families have grown, we dropped down to exchanging with just one other family. (This means less dates, but more sanity.) Sometimes we do it in the evenings before kids go to bed, which still feels like a nice time watching kids together. A lot of the time now, though, we split up for babysitting after kids are in bed since bedtimes have tended to get earlier. I suspect at most universities you could find other families who would love to make this situation work.

2. Complex Opportunities

One of my very favorite dates was when we dropped our kids off at the home of our friends (who live in our complex) and then my husband blindfolded me and drove me around to disorient me . . . and we found ourselves back at the complex's tennis courts. We don't play tennis there very often, but it's right beside our apartment and we already have the equipment, so it was awesome.

Our complex also has a pool, which could make for a nice date in the summer time. We're not usually here in the summer, so we haven't tried it, but I think it could be awesome for those who have the chance.

3. University Opportunities

I know some people despise spending social time at school with their spouse, but we have gone on some lovely dates up to the law school. The law library has a small student room in the basement where we have played ping-pong and pool. Upstairs in the law school there's a nice chess set where we played chess one day. It's more important to me to get out of the house for a date than it is to keep away from the school!

The university also sends out an email with notices about university-sponsored events. Early in the year the university sponsors the Virginia Symphony in an outdoor concert. It is well-attended and lovely. We went out first year as a family (before we'd arranged our babysitting exchange), but those sorts of events make awesome date opportunities too.

4. A Little Of This and a Little of That

Tonight we're headed out on a date to a sweet local restaurant with a great atmosphere to get pie and then take a walk. We are also happy to go to Chick-Fil-A and get an awesome cookies-and-cream milkshake to share. We've found a treat isn't too expensive and we can enjoy it together (without kids begging to mooch) while having a great conversation without any significant expense.

When we were at the end of the month and trying to stick to our budget in the winter, we made do taking a walk at the tiny little mall. We browsed a bit, but mostly we talked and enjoyed being in the warmth holding hands inside together. Actually, it turned out to be one of my husband's favorite dates and he would have been pretty happy to do it for every date that winter. (It was perfect, too, when we were trying to keep our dates fairly short because we had a nursing newborn.)

Obviously there are countless ideas depending on what's available to you in your area and what your interests are. It would be awesome to hear other successful dates, in fact. Our experience has been that you don't have to have a lot of money to enjoy getting out of the house together and have a great time.

Go Big or Go Home

When you're looking for ways to save money, the best place to start is with your recurring expenses. If you can save a little money every month, every week, or every day, that can add up to huge savings over the course of your degree. Your single largest monthly expense is most likely going to be your apartment, and so that's a great place to start saving a lot of money.

The first place to start when choosing an apartment is to figure out what you need, based on your family situation. My wife and I have two children, and we might have another before we finish school. We decided, though, that our boys could learn to share a room. If we have another kid before I finish school, he will only be a few months old when we leave, and so we decided he could either stay in our room or share a room with his brothers. Since we were willing to do this, we were able to get by with a two bedroom apartment, which will save us thousands of dollars over the four years we'll be here.

Some readers might have other things that are important to them. For example, do you need an office at home? I personally have a very hard time studying at home with two children to distract me, but if you're able to study effectively at home you might decide that being around your family more often is worth the extra $100 a month for another room. Others might need some sort of a yard, where they can let their children go out and play. The important thing is to weigh how much use you will get out of the thing you're paying extra for. If you only plan to use your office on Saturdays, and the difference between the two bedroom you could have rented and the three bedroom you have to rent to get your office is $100 a month, you're paying $25 for each day you study at home. Could you study in your bedroom that one day a week, or at the school or library? If you could, that would save you almost $5,000 over the course of four years.

I recommend starting with a list of the things you would like, and how much are they worth to you. How many bedrooms would you like? Could you get by with one less? How much is that extra bedroom worth to you, in terms of monthly rent? How much is the back yard worth? The apartment swimming pool? How much extra do you need to pay for a washer and dryer in your apartment? How does that compare to what you would pay if you had to do several loads of laundry every week at a laundromat? By putting concrete numbers on these things before you start shopping for an apartment, you are more likely to make a wise decision about where to rent, and you could end up saving thousands of dollars.

Brown Bag Lunches

I have a lot of ideas I’m excited to share, but I’ll start with a simple one. Bringing your own lunch to work or school every day can save A LOT of money.  It has long amazed me how few people bring their lunch from home. I’m not sure if it’s a convenience issue or if it doesn’t occur to most people how much it can save.

A while back I calculated the cost of my routine (but delicious) lunch of a turkey and Swiss cheese sandwich, chips, apple, and sometimes a yogurt or some cookies. It was just over $1 and is more food than I would get for $6 at the school café. Bringing my lunch saves us well over $100 a month.

As a side note, my wife thinks it’s bizarre that I eat the same thing for lunch every day. She’s probably right, but fortunately you can bring just about any lunch from home and it will be way cheaper than buying it at the restaurant down the street from the office.

Introduction

The Provident PhD is a personal financial blog for graduate student families, particularly for families with one spouse raising the children and the other attending school full time. The experience of financing school through savings, student loans, and summer jobs has a refining effect on a family’s financial skills. We hope The Provident PhD will be a forum for sharing practical money saving ideas, including some specific to the unique college family audience. For example, upcoming posts will offer suggestions on couponing, cheap dates, food storage, simple car maintenance, and how to take advantage of the perks of student status. Of course discovering ways to save money should be a universal pursuit and we hope The Provident PhD will be a useful tool to readers outside the graduate student family audience.