Green Minded Wallet

Some people swear by coupons, while others don’t think they’re worth the effort. Personally, I think it depends on what type of coupons you’re going after, as not all coupons are created equally. Personally, I like to break coupons down into three main categories:

• Newspaper coupons: These are the coupons that come along with the Sunday circular. They are normally colorful and shiny and contain ads to sell you figurines and other keepsakes. I tend to not bother with these as I don’t take a newspaper. Also, many of the coupons are for boxed, packaged food products that I don’t buy so I have found that there’s less and less there that I can use.

• Store coupons: These are the in-store coupons that you pick up by the door, sometimes these can be found online. I like these because since this is a store that I am choosing to shop in (often frequently) there’s more of a chance I will find something of value to me. For example in the past month I’ve saved over 20 dollars (and spent about $45 at Sally’s Beauty Supply). I only shop there every couple of months, but it just so happened that I came at a time when the things I wanted were on sale. Another nice thing about store coupons is that they often advertise for very broad categories. I do some scrapbooking (I know, not the most frugal hobby), and I can frequently find all paper or all acid-free stickers on sale for 50% off at Hobby Lobby. I like this because it generally includes most brands and types, versus only being able to buy Brand X in quantity Y. Hobby Lobby also has an online coupon where you can get 40% off any one non-sale item. This makes me very happy.

• Community Coupons: These are the coupons that you receive in the mail that are catered to your area. Yesterday my roommate and I went to dinner with a one-free-entrée coupon (that had no expiration date!). We paid less than 14 bucks total with taxes and tip. When you’re a student, that’s a great deal. I tend to find good deals for local restaurants and oil changes in those books and fliers. And since the local Jiffy Lube gives free car washes with an oil change, it turns into a smokin’ deal.

Well that’s how I use coupons. I know everyone is different, but I think that with coupons, there’s pretty much something for everyone. I spend very little time on finding coupons and I get plenty of benefit, because I’ve realized where utilizing coupons actually makes sense in my current lifestyle. Does your coupon use fall more heavily into one category over another? Is there another category that I’ve overlooked?

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So I have a roommate for the summer and we both decided that we didn’t need the air conditioner installed. We live in an old house so there is no central air, but there is a window unit that sits in the kitchen window. When our maintenance man came by to give us some missing screens and I told him that we didn’t want the AC unit installed, he thought we were out of our minds. Still I persisted, and we didn’t get it put in though he said that he could come back if we change our minds. Well, that was a month ago and since then it has gotten rather hot. And humid. I tend not to leave the windows open very wide during the day: it’s a safe neighborhood, but I’m afraid that my dog might discover just how easy it is to push the screens out. So when we get home, it is generally rather warm. I think that we could solve the problem by have a fan help circulate the air (there are lots of windows), but lately I’ve been thinking, are we just nuts?

I like the idea of saving money and conserving energy by not using the AC unit. I imagine that the air conditioner would need to be fairly high to cool the entire apartment, making a noticeable difference in our utility bill. But at the same time it seems a bit silly for us to sit around in the heat when we have a perfectly good AC unit in our storage closet. Since I grew up without an air conditioner, and have lived in very few places that have had one, I’m used to it. However, sometimes I wonder if I’m just stuck in an outdated mindset. How do you determine the line between conservation and craziness? Some things seems obvious, like riding your bike during a massive thunderstorm when you have a working car, or eating rotting food just on principle of not wasting resources. But I think other situations, like ours, are a bit more subtle. Perhaps I will get a fan and see if it helps, and then re-evaluate the situation from there. Any suggestions?

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Well I finally got around to opening an online savings account. And I have to say it was really as easy as everyone (personal finance bloggers) said it was. I decided to open a Capital One High Yield Money Market Account. I opted for the debit card but not the checkbook. I don’t think that I will use the debit card, but I am pretty sure that I won’t ever need the checks. I am currently using the account to hold some of my energy fund money. Maybe as time goes on I will add to it money for things like a down payment for a house or funds for a wedding; though the second one should probably go in a much longer-term savings vehicle.

I decided to go with Capital One because they have very competitive rates. While their rates are not the highest, the reviews I could find were mostly positive (at least on the banking end of things), and they have a number of nice features (like the free debit card mentioned above). I opened the account online and it didn’t take very long at all. The only problem I had was that they required your 9-digit zip code and it took me a while to find those last four numbers. I received my trial deposits in a timely manner; I received my mailed correspondence in a timely manner. Everything went rather smoothly. The only thing that was a cause for concern was that I received my pin number a few days before my debit card. Generally, you should receive your card first, but I think that it may have something to do with where you live and where the card is coming from, as I have had this happen to me before. All and all it’s been a good experience though of course it’s only been a few weeks. I need to make sure that I will be receiving online statements as I don’t want to acquire a bunch of needless paper documents, but other than that things really have been very simple and straightforward.

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This is the first installment of the eco versus frugal comparisons, where I’m going to examine some of the items that I buy and see if my purchases are eco, frugal, or somewhere in between.

Body soap. In this category I put both bar soaps and body washes. Prices on soaps can vary widely: you can buy a 3 pack of 4.5 oz bars of Pure & Natural for $1.69 or spend $7.19 on a 23.6 oz bottle of Olay Body Wash. I’ve never thought much about the soap (and generally opted for the cheapest) until the beginning of this year when I moved.

When I first moved to the Midwest I noticed that I was having a real problem with dry skin, which was surprising because I moved here from the arid west. However, every time I move I find that my body needs to adjust to the new conditions. While I can’t control the weather, I can control two other major factors that seem to influence my skin, namely soap and lotion. Well, I thought that I would try experimenting with different soaps to see if I could find something that worked better. I happened upon a number of different bar soaps that contain things like oatmeal, olive oil, aloe, etc. I’m currently using Kiss My Face’s Olive & Chamomile soap that has olive oil and chamomile and four other ingredients (including water). I paid $1.99 plus tax for a 4 oz. bar. It has a somewhat strong smell, but my skin feels great. I could probably have gone with a cheaper brand of bar soap or even a cheap body wash but this soap works better than many things that I have tried before, and it creates much less waste than body wash containers. Our local co-op actually sells a number of soaps (including a fabulous oatmeal bar) that aren’t even packaged, and I like using those as well. Additionally, I like using bar soap because it doesn’t require the use of one of those body sponges, which add extra expense.

There are certainly very expensive soaps out there, but the soap that I buy isn’t really frugal (the Pure & Natural soap mentioned above is around 1/4 the price per once of the Kiss My Face soap). Also considering that the soaps I buy are made from natural ingredients, have little to no packaging, and are animal testing friendly, I would say that my body soap inclinations are definitely in the eco camp.

This makes the current score, eco: 1 frugal: 0.

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I went to a local grocery store to recycle some bottles this evening. It was on my route and I really just wanted to get the containers out of my house. I had a collection of cans and bottles (15 total), bought from various places around town. Well turns out the store that I went to only recycles bottles and cans that they sell. While I can understand why they do this, it was still a frustrating experience as I was only able to recycle 5 of my 15 items and this is the only grocery store in town that takes deposit containers. When I went in to redeem my coupons I asked the lady at the customer service desk if there was someplace else I could take the containers. Turns out there is a bottle redemption place a few miles from my house, and hopefully I can get my containers redeemed there. I will probably try and take my containers to the bottle redemption center in the next week or two, however the problem is that they have very inconvenient hours. I truly support recycling, but I think that if it’s going to be effective, it needs to be convenient. There are some people that will make an effort no matter what, but there are others who won’t be bothered if it seems inconvenient. Plus if the recycling centers aren’t conveniently located then people will just end up wasting money on gas to get there.

Do you live in a bottle deposit state? If so, are the locations easily accessible and accommodating to most container types and brands?

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I had a fabulous frugal weekend. I worked on my screenplay, rode my bike, and hung out with the neighbors at a birthday party. But I also happened upon some great frugal finds. On Saturday when I was heading north to go for a bike ride, I saw some signs for a garage sale, so I went to check it out; I’m a total garage sale junkie. Anyway I found this bike that was old, and red, and just the right height, which is hard to find since I’m rather on the short side. The price: 50 CENTS! Seriously. So naturally I had to buy it. I’m getting some work done on it (more on that soon), but it doesn’t have any major problems. And it was 50 cents. If you’re wondering why I would buy a bike while I had one in the car, the answer is: I have a very, nice shiny expensive road bike, which would not fair well on a college campus. I bought the older bike so that I could ride around town and to campus without worrying about it getting stolen or damaged.

A little backstory. A few weeks ago I was walking my dog, and there were some items on the street; most of the stuff was junk: pieces of carpet, random pieces of wood, etc. but there happened to be a dresser, with all of the drawers. Since it was on the street, I figured it was “trash” and therefore up for grabs. I found one of my neighbors and got a second opinion, because I would hate to take something that someone wanted. Well, she came by, confirmed it was abandoned and we hauled it back to my place in her minivan. If case you’re wondering, I haven’t had a dresser up until this point because I donated mine before I moved. Well while we were picking up the dresser, we noticed that there was a table in the front yard, but it was close to the house, so we weren’t sure what make of it. Anyway, this past Sunday I was walking by the same house and there was someone home. I went by and chatted with the owner. Turns out he had been renting the place out, but the tenants had moved and now he was getting the place cleaned up so he could put it on the market. I asked about the table, and he said he had no use for it and I was welcome to it. So I went back and found my neighbor who was hanging out with one of our other neighbors. We hopped in the pick-up truck (second neighbor) and headed over to the house. By the time we got back the guy was gone, but we had permission to pick up the table. Well the table was actually behind a dumpster that the owner had brought over to collect all the remnants of the house, so we did a little dumpster diving. We picked up (among other things) a fan, a bbq grill (seriously), 1/4 bag potting soil, 1/2 bag peat humus, a plant pot, a snow shovel, and some other garden tools. Everything was in good working condition, though some of it was a bit dusty. And it was all, completely free. One man’s trash, truly is another’s treasure. And oh, my neighbors totally rock.

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