A look into Y&T's closet

I guess this post is dedicated to the shopaholics out there.  That feeling you get when you buy a new pair of shoes or a new pair of pants is sort of addictive.  Something different to your wardrobe, something new, something to shake things up a bit.  You think about when you can wear your new clothing out.  Things are exciting for a while, and then you get the credit card bill.

Your internal voice screams: “What? I paid $150 for these pair of pants? I don’t even wear them that often!”

Then you get the guilt.  When you see that item of clothing in your closet, it calls at you, telling you “Hey! Remember when you thought I was all that and a bag of chips? What happened?”  The wave of guilt courses through your veins again and you close the closet door in remorse.

Aside from the talking clothing, I’m sure that scenario rings a bell.

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I thought I would talk about exercise, especially after I talked about ways to stuff your face get your money’s worth at a buffet earlier this week.  I have been contemplating getting a gym membership. I was always one to say “no!” to indoor exercise, sweaty bacteria ridden gym equipment, and members of the opposite sex gawking at you while you work out.  I have been wavering lately because of my recent expansion in my midsection (that age and metabolism is catching up to me haha), and I was thinking that good exercise habits will do my blood vessels well as I get into my thirties.

However, there are a few things stopping me from signing up for this.

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photo credit rach12

The praise of promo codes then youngandthrifty sung

No need to have paper coupons clipped and flung;

Just google the terms coupon code or promo code,

and hop instantly on the money saving road.

Oh retailmenot, couponloco, and savings.com how you’ve saved me money

I got to vacation for cheap in Hawaii with orbitz with my honey

My favourite is the airline promotional code,

Use them to help you save you your cash by

the bucket load

I hope you enjoyed my attempt at rhyming with my ode to promo codes.  I thought I would get poetic on youngandthrifty.ca to shake things up a bit.

Promo codes really are awesome.  Usually when I make an online purchase (be it for flight packages on Orbitz, Travelocity, Air Canada or whatnot), I just double check on Google to make sure that there aren’t any promo codes that I am missing out on.  I would Google __(whatever I was looking for)__ + promo code and see what comes up.  Oftentimes, the promo codes that I find don’t work, but it’s worth a try anyways!  The “enter your promo code here” box that is blank when you “check out” doesn’t help either.  It’s like begging you to enter something!

They’re like a virtual coupon, they help you save money instantly.  That’s why I love them and why I wrote an ode about them.

One time though (and I am sharing this with you for your personal entertainment, you can laugh at my sad sad state of frugality), my pursuit of saving money via a promo code went EXTREME, and this is an understatement.  I think I was trying to find a coupon code for a motel we were staying at on our way down to San Francisco.  It was only for a one night stay because it was enroute back to Vancouver, and the stay itself wasn’t very expensive… I recall it being about $59 a night or something like that.  For some reason, something came over me and I was DETERMINED to find a promo code.  I think it was because I found a promo code for all the other motels/hotels were were staying at and I wanted to get a deal for each thing I booked for.

Okay, so don’t laught.. but I spent… FOUR HOURS staring at my computer screen, searching and searching for a promo code and finally found one.  Do you want to know how much I ended up saving?? It came up to a grand total of $5 USD.

In hindsight, because hindsight is always 20/20, the time I wasted was definitely not worth saving $5.  I guess at the time, it was the principle of finding a discount, and I was determined to do so.

It begs the question, how much is your time worth to you? Would you spend an hour of your time looking for a discount of X amount of dollars on a purchase?  What’s your X?

Yes.. I mentioned the “D” word. Debt. Just letting that word roll off your tongue makes you feel like you have halitosis.

Well, get that tongue scraper and Listerine out, because as surprising(and somewhat crazy) as this may sound, there is such thing good debt AND bad debt.  And you might want to keep the good debt around longer (that means instead of paying off the good debt first, pay off the bad debt first) because there are some benefits to good debt unseen by the naked eye.

What can good debt do?  Good debt can help you decrease your taxes you owe to the government, and it’s especially better for you if you’re in the higher tax brackets.  If you’re not taxed to the nines by the government, then good debt is not as fantastic as if you were in the 46% tax bracket.

What does bad debt do? Nothing. It just gives you a bad feeling and an ulcer.  It just sits there, grows interest while you tread the deep end trying to keep up with the payments.

Here are some examples of good debt.

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So I went out on the town (just a mixed pub/ dance bar) last night for a girlfriend’s birthday party.  This is probably the first time I’ve been out on the town for a loooong time.  I think I know the reason why I don’t go out partying that much (other than the fact that I feel old compared to the 21-year-old girls wearing next to nothing)…I’m cheap and it’s expensive.

Though going once in a while (I’d say once to a few times a year) is budget-reasonable.  I had fun! =)

Here’s the breakdown of what I spent:

• Cover charge $10
• Coat check $6
• Drinks my friends and I $30 (four drinks, working out to be about $7.50 a drink)
• Tip for the bartender $3
• Taxi ride home $12

Total cost of a night on the town $61.

I used to go out almost every weekend when I was a young-un’ in college.  Now I realize how much money I burned through back then!  Yowza!

Here are some tips to help you make sure you don’t spend more than you want, even under the influence of alcohol.

• Bring only the amount of money you budgeted for your night out.  No more (because it will go “poof!”.  Trust me on that one)
• Don’t bring your credit card
• Don’t go out with so many friends (buying rounds for everyone is not easy on the pocket book)
• If you’re a guy, make sure she’s somewhat interested before you buy her a drink (unless you want to be a good samaritan, of course, because even if she isn’t interested, she’ll still accept a drink from you)

Readers, how much do you spend roughly when you go out?  Am I “on par” with the national average in regards to the amount spent on a night out? =)  Is it safe to assume guys will spend more because they are buying drinks for the ladies?

Alright, so onto some link lovage.

• Financial Samurai makes a good point- Only the Poor or Super Rich Say Money Can’t Buy Happiness
• The Financial Blogger gives some great tips on how to fight the rise in interest rates (in Canada) with your portfolio
• Andrew Hallem talks about why beating the market doesn’t add to his confidence
• Deliver Away Debt focuses on the debt snowball
• Little House ponders whether renting is a financially viable option
• Rainy Day Saver talks about marriage and managing finances (very important- everyone around me is getting married left right and centre!)
• Credit Card Daily has this AWESOME personal finance comic going on- check out his latest edition
• Single Guy Money talks about what he would do if he won the lottery

As promised, here’s an update on the adventures of youngandthrifty while in Nepal.  There’s not really much financial information in this post that would better your life, but if you want to live vicariously through my trip to Nepal, please read on!

I did a trek in eastern Nepal, called the Annapurna Sanctuary (also known as Annapurna Basecamp trek).  We started the trek out in Pokhara.  We had hired a guide and porters through a local Nepali tour company.  It was a 10 day trek and some people do the trek on their own (e.g. lugging around their own backpacks) because there are tea house lodges you can stay at, so you don’t need to bring all your own heavy camping gear etc.  We were deliberating between the Everest Base Camp trek or the Annapurna Base Camp, but glad we decided on the Annapurna Base camp because the scenery we were exposed to was absolutely amazing.  Every day was a different landscape, from lush tropical trees, to rolling hills, to rhododendron forests, to beautiful mountain vistas, and finally to the Annapurna Base Camp.   We also passed by langur monkeys, donkeys, buffalo, sheep herds, children saying “Hello!!! What is your name?!”.  The view at Annapurna Base Camp was absolutely spectacular- it was literally a 360 degree view of the mountains- we were surrounded.  We woke up early (e.g. 500 am) to enjoy the sunrise and its pink rays shining on the Annapurna South mountain.  We were 4130m above sea level, and despite the thin air, we felt so alive with the beautiful view.  We would walk by other trekkers, or locals at the teahouses, and a familiar and friendly “Nameste!” brought warmth to my heart (even though it was occasionally freezing!).  Nameste means “I salute the God within you”.

Nepal is absolutely beautiful.  Nepali people are beautiful! Everyone is so polite and friendly, now I know why so many people who I met traveling in India said they really liked Nepal.  There is a peacefulness about Nepal…I found that when I was there, I was thinking only of the present, not the past or the future…it was indeed a spiritual journey.  People are so tolerant, there many different cultures of people co-habitating harmoniously in Nepal and it was so refreshing to experience that.

The food was delicious (and more importantly, cheap!) in Nepal.  In Thamel (the touristy backpacker area of Kathmandu) there was Thai, Japanese, Chinese, Middle-Eastern food… the list goes on!  I budgeted about $9 USD a day on food (including breakfast, lunch, and dinner) and I was eating like a queen.  Here in North America, you can’t even get ONE meal eating out for $9, really.  I was a happy camper.

We had booked through a local Nepali tour company and were pleased with the results.  I made sure the references were good (very important you do this!!) before we booked with them.  Because we “traveled on the cheap” and cut out the middleman, we saved about 50% (or $500 USD) compared to booking the same guided trek through a company like Gap adventures.  I am pretty sure it would have been even cheaper had we arrived in Nepal, then found a local tour company in Kathmandu.

Thanks for reading about my adventures, hope you enjoyed it!  Here are some pictures to inspire your cheap-traveling wanderlust!

The BARF diet?  Sounds gross, doesn’t it? It’s not what you think (yes, it’s not the “vomit diet”).   It’s an acronym for Bones and Raw Food diet or Biologically Appropriate Raw Food diet which has taken the pet world by storm.  I recently made the switch for my dog (in September 2009) because he was getting unexplainable ring worm yearly (which was a pain in the butt to deal with, believe me!).  Many pet parents have been making the switch from commercially prepared dog food (read: kibble) to raw food.  So, how does the BARF diet work?  The premise of the Bones and Raw Food diet is that your pet dog or cat has a shorter intestinal tract than us humans, and thus they are not meant to digest grains (such as rice and corn).

The main ingredient in dry dog food is corn meal.  This can be a source of allergy for many pets.  Grains are blamed in recent veterinary research to be the cause of a lot of disease in pets such as arthritis, diabetes, and cancer to name a few that weren’t present in dogs BEFORE dry dog food was introduced.

The reason I made the switch was because my dog was so allergic to I-don’t-know-what and I wanted to stop that in its tracks.  I was also tired of having to vacuum like crazy and quarantine the poor bugger every summer when he had ringworm.

Some may feel that the BARF diet is $$$.  It CAN be, but there are ways to make it somewhat easier on your wallet. Certainly, it is much cheaper if you have a small dog!

There may be stores in your city that specifically cater to raw dog food pet owners.  They have already packaged meat (any meat you can think of, be it elk, rabbit, ostrich, chicken, turkey, bison, buffalo) that sometimes are pre-mixed with vegetables.  All you need to do is chop it up into the portions that your pet needs.  This is the convenient and easy way, though it can be pricier… ESPECIALLY if you have a big dog.

The key to save money on the BARF diet is, like everything else, practically is:

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I know a lot of personal finance bloggers have mentioned the Latte Factor at some point or another, but I really like it- it really ‘hits home’ for me so I wanted to write about it too.  What is the Latte Factor, you ask?  The Latte Factor is a phrase coined by David Bach, the author of The Automatic Millionaire.  He says that most people have these small seemingly insignificant purchases daily (like the latte that you get at Starbucks before you head to work) that really add up.

If you spend $3.50 on a latte every day when you go to work, that adds up to be  about $17.50 a week (for a five day work week).  Multiply that by 52 weeks and you get $910 a year.  Yes, that’s almost a grand per year on coffee!

Let’s say for example you decided to sock away the $3.50 per work day into savings instead every year for 25 years.  If you compound interest that amount at a reasonable rate of 6% per year for 25 years, you’d end up with $56,827.91.  So that grand that you end up saving per year becomes 55 grand in 25 years.  Pretty crazy, huh?

If you somehow manage to cut those daily expenses out, you’re saving money big time.  I’m not saying deprive yourself of your life and its perks, like if you absolutely HAVE TO HAVE that latte, maybe you can buy one of those machines to make your own before work.  Compromise, right?

What’s MY Latte Factor?

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When I was younger, my mom once asked me a question that really helps you understand yourself a bit better, and what your values are.

Although it may not seem so blatant and in-your-face, money is the currency of the experiences and material goods that we assign value to.

She asked me if I had a million dollars (yeah yeah, a cool million isn’t that much nowadays–can’t even buy a detached house in Vancouver for that, really), what would I spend it on?  Let’s play ‘pretend’ for a bit.

If you had a million dollars and could only concentrate it on ONE area below, what would you spend it on? (the other areas in your life would be lacklustre to say the least)

The options are:

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This weekend, mr. youngandthrifty and I decided to take our newly acquired bicycles for a ride to downtown and check out the Olympic venues.  There’s been a lot of media buzz about the Olympics because it IS only a few days away, and there seemed to be many free events going on downtown.  I wasn’t a big supporter of the Olympics to be honest because I want to keep Vancouver to myself, of course (BAD youngandthrifty, BAD!) and because the road closures everywhere are a big pain in the butt.  However the Olympic spirit and excitement has since rubbed off on me (hey, if you can’t beat them, join them, right?).

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