Money TLD

Every once in a while, you have to leave on short notice, and the travel industry tries to stick it to you with higher fares. Of course, it’s perfectly understandable since they would like to know as early as possible about whether or not a plane will be full or if they’ll have enough cars on the lot for a rental. However, cost savings are often still available. You just have to know where to look.

Yesterday, I hastily put together some last-minute travel plans for tomorrow for a daytrip down to LA. My schedule is fairly tight, so time generally outweighs cost. However, I think I managed to strike a fairly good balance. Here’s the process I went through.

First, I figured out my non-travel portion of the day and made sure I knew when and where I needed to be. There’s no point to trying to book a cheap flight when you don’t know when you need to be somewhere and how long an appointment will last! Business travelers sometimes book multiple flights for one day if they don’t know when a meeting will end and then just skip the flights they can’t make. Airlines know this, which is why they often overbook flights and charge an arm and a leg for more flexible tickets. If you can solidify your plans for the day, then you can spend significantly less on a less flexible ticket.

Next, I searched for airfares, primarily using Kayak. Kayak is by far my favorite travel search engine, and it has a lot of cool new features that make finding a cheap airfare really easy. For example, after typing in your location and destination, it now displays a calendar showing the lowest available fare for every day! You can also enter in flexible departure and return dates, which makes life really easy.

The good thing is that the SFO-LAX route has a fair amount of competition, so I was able to find a <$100 airfare (roundtrip including taxes) only two days before my trip. If your schedule has enough flexibility, definitely consider flying only on major routes and then using ground transportation to save money. For example, I once flew from Boston to Detroit and then rented a car rather than from Boston to Fort Wayne. Also, consider nearby airports, e.g. if you’re flying into SFO, consider SJC and OAK as well.

Last, I figured out my ground transportation. Since time is tight, I actually decided not to get a rental car, originally opting for a taxi. Standing in line at the rental car company, driving in LA traffic during rush hour, and finding parking all kill a lot of time. Shuttles can also be time-consuming and unpredictable, largely depending on the number of other passengers. I find that public transportation actually tends to be more reliable, but again, it’s a huge time-waster due to indirect routes and a lack of stops right next to where you want to be. Luckily, someone offered to pick me up from the airport, so I’m set for Wednesday morning. Then, when time isn’t as important in the evening, I’ll likely just take public transportation to the airport.

In total, transportation should cost me less than $150, though who knows if I’ll have to shell out for a cab ride at the last minute.

For dinner last night, we ate at Mifune, our usual go to restaurant in Japantown, and my friend ordered inari sushi (see pic in case you have no idea what this is). I, of course, then made a comment about how I thought ordering inari was a total waste of money. Incidentally, he’s our house guest/subletter, and he was paying for dinner as part of our somewhat informal arrangement.

Now that I think back, my comment may have been somewhat rude, but I’ve never been known for my delicate sensibilities when it comes to opening my mouth. Other people’s remarks on my lack of a filter, crossing the line, or TMI are fairly frequent. However, that’s not the point I’m attempting to discuss here.

The point is ordering inari is a total waste of money. The next time you want to eat inari, instead walk into your nearest Asian grocer, preferably a Japanese one for the variety, and buy a can or refrigerated packet of inari (the can’s likely cheaper), a bag of rice, and a bottle of vinegar. Don’t buy inari premade! The markup on those must be like 10,000%. The cost of two inari at a sushi restaurant will likely cost about the same as a can of more than a dozen inari from a grocery store, and it’s the exact same stuff. It’s not like quality sashimi-grade fish, which regular consumers simply can’t buy, as high-end restaurants have a complete lock on the market.

Anyway, the whole experience got me thinking about all the things that I hate ordering at restaurants due to the ridiculous markup. Here we go:

1. Beverages: Markup on wine is usually 100% minimum. A beer is likely 500%. The margins on soda are also crazy, especially if it comes from a soda fountain.
2. Anything Potato-Based: Think about the cost of a potato and the cost of enough oil to fry it. Fries and soda are how fast food restaurants make their money. The money’s not in the burgers. Baked potatoes pain me even more, as baking a potato is at least easier to do at home than deep frying (at least in my opinion).
3. Water: I’m separating this from beverages, because this is even more egregious. Other drinks at least have to be transported by vehicle to the restaurant, which incurs some cost. Water, on the other hand, comes straight from a faucet, incurring a practically negligible cost. Tap water is safe to drink, folks! And your bottle of Evian is killing the environment to boot.
4. Vegetables: That stir-fried dish of bok choy did not cost $10 to make, nor did the standard disgusting vegetable medley at American restaurants. You know what I’m talking about: the cauliflower, carrot, and squash mix that tastes like it came straight from a freezer.
5. Chicken: OK, this one varies depending on the place. 99 cents for a thigh and drumstick at Popeye’s is fine, but $15 for a naked chicken breast à la fine dining is not!

If you want to save money but still dine out, then forget about ordering these things!

The funny thing is I, of course, still order all these menu items (except for non-tap-water) from time to time, but it won’t stop me from fuming when I do. Yes, I realize that there are other costs associated with the food aside from the food itself, but I’m really just comparing the cost of consuming these items at a restaurant versus consuming these items at home. These, to me, appear to be the worst choices in terms of comparative cost while taking availability to the home chef into account. For example, raw geoduck would never appear on my list even though I’m sure it’d cost me less to prepare it. Because where would I even buy that if I wanted to eat it anyway?

Ugh. I logged into my business checking account today and found myself staring at a -$53.00 balance! I had very stupidly moved all of the money except for $1.00 into a savings account and had forgotten that a $20.00 check was still outstanding. Stupid stupid stupid! The bank then happily tacked on a $33.00 overdraft charge.

I should really start balancing my checkbook.

But I won’t.

It’s true. I’m a personal finance blogger who doesn’t actually bother balancing his checkbook. Once a month, I just review all the different accounts I have, put enough money in my checking account to pay everything off, move everything else to a savings account, and forget about it until the next month. What’s funny is I always add a buffer of at least a few hundred bucks in my personal checking account to make sure I don’t overdraw it by accident and for the occasional ATM withdrawal. But for some reason, I had never done that with my business checking account!

Ah, well. Lesson learned. I transferred what I owed along with a small buffer for any future stupidity.

Sometimes, it costs $33 to learn an important lesson. In the scheme of things, $33 is at least not that much in comparison to, say, $33,000 in tuition.

My opinion about how to become monetarily wealthy basically boils down to two possibilities:

1. You’re lucky or
2. You save like crazy.

Since you’re reading this blog, chances are you don’t fall in the first category. To me, being lucky means being born to rich parents, winning the lottery, or tripping over a briefcase full of money from a drug deal gone wrong. 99% of the population doesn’t fall in this category. The other 1% are wealthy by default, though they still have to possess the smarts necessary not to fritter it all away.

As for number two, let me just point to this story that ran on Boing Boing a few days ago: Can scavenger died wealthy.

I love stories like this. “Tin-Can” Curt Degerman, a Swede, died at 60 years old with a stash of 12 million kronor ($1.4 million). Did he amass his fortune by being a plastic surgeon or by becoming the CEO of Ikea? No! He just scrimped and saved like crazy. He was known in his hometown for picking through garbage bins for cans, wearing the same dirty clothes everyday, and reading the newspaper each day at the library rather than buying one.

I mean, good God, really? That’s nuts! While I wouldn’t necessarily go to his lengths as I like wearing different clean clothes each day, the Swede’s story shows that it’s completely possible to amass a nice little fortune as long as you put your mind towards that goal. You don’t have to make millions as businessman of the year to ensure a nice safety net for yourself, nor do you have to be born lucky. You just have to be frugal and use your head. And when you die, your descendents can be the lucky ones.

Today’s Earth Day in case you hadn’t noticed, so if you’re driving around in a Hummer chopping down trees with one hand and littering styrofoam with the other, then you should feel bad.

Something that will make you feel better, though, is driving over to Walgreens and picking up your free reusable shopping bag. The coupon is valid only for today, so hurry! Those on the east coast only have seven hours left!

It does require a purchase, but there are a ton of items in the Walgreens circular and coupon booklet that are enticing and there’s no minimum. Also, the linked coupon gives you an additional discount of 15% off all purchases and 20% off all Walgreens brand products. We decided to buy two bottles of Snapple each and two cans of Pringles. Total cost? $3.42!

That’s ridiculously cheap for four bottles of Snapple, two cans of Pringles, and two reusable shopping bags.

Now, I’m going to drink some Snapple, because walking to Walgreens made me really thirsty.

As implied in my post two days ago, I spent all of yesterday listing stuff on eBay. I now have thirty-two auctions running! Luckily, my schedule is flexible enough to allow me to push everything aside temporarily to take advantage of opportunities like eBay’s occasional fee sales. Unfortunately, that also means that I now have twice as much work to do today.

Anyway, I figure I’ll go over my strategy for the day, as putting together thirty-two auctions from scratch over the course of twelve hours isn’t exactly a cinch. Here are five tips on how to make listing on eBay quick and easy:

1. Use third-party software to create your listings.

It’s really, really time-consuming to use eBay’s web interface. It’s better than it used to be, but it still wastes a lot of time and makes me want to strangle eBay’s executive board even more.

But yesterday, I used iSale for the first time, which I got as part of the MacHeist bundle, and holy crap is it awesome! The software has a few deficiencies, but for creating listings, it’s extremely quick and easy to use. All you do is select a template, enter a description, drag and drop photos, and set up the details of the auction. Much of this can be done automatically, such as setting up shipping preferences for every auction, which saves a lot of time. I used to be able to do a little over one auction per hour. Yesterday, I was able to do three.

You don’t have to use iSale, but do yourself a favor and find a better solution than eBay’s web interface. Before iSale, I used a small script I slapped together to create an auction template and automatically upload photos to my own server (to save money on eBay image hosting costs, of course!).

2. Buy a good electronic scale.

This is one of the best investments I’ve made. It’s paid for itself many times over. Owning your own scale saves you a trip to the post office, UPS, or FedEx. Plus, online postage generally offers a discount. The post office, for example, provides free or discounted delivery confirmation online depending on the service. For UPS, I use my UPS account number, which gets a bulk shipping discount via eBay. I’ve discovered that UPS stores generally can’t (and won’t) link a UPS account for anything slower than 2-day air. Plus, they offer retail rates, which appear to be higher than the online rates.

The scale I have is the Salter Brecknell 325, which weighs to the nearest tenth of an ounce up to 25 lbs. There are cheaper offerings out there, but I find that a generous 25 lb weight limit suits my purposes better. It also works much better than any mechanical scale out there. I’ve tried numerous scales, and mechanical scales tend to be much less accurate. Plus, they’re usually heavy monstrosities. Just get an electronic scale.

When listing an auction, I pack, weigh, and measure the item so I can offer an accurate shipping estimate. Plus, the items stack more easily in boxes, and shipping is a breeze a week later.

3. Save all the boxes and packing materials you get.

People who see my office area are inevitably horrified by the gigantic stack of cardboard boxes (more than forty after packing thirty-two auctions!) and large garbage bags full of bubble wrap (five full bags now), but the thing is these materials are expensive and largely reusable. Boxes can generally survive several trips, and bubble wrap lasts until it pops. Rather than throwing it all in the garbage, hold onto it for future use! Not only do you help the environment, but you also save money. I only discard these items if they arrive in bad shape.

4. Get free shipping materials from your carrier.

If you don’t have a bunch of packing materials lying around, then get them for free! USPS, UPS, and FedEx all offer free shipping materials. There are some restrictions on how they’re used, but you’ll often want to bump people up to those services anyway. For example, boxes from USPS are only free for Priority and Express Mail, but unless you want your items to languish in Parcel Post, then you’ll likely want to ship via Priority anyway!

The only caveat is to do this several weeks in advance of when you’ll need them. Getting these materials to you is extremely low priority for them. If you only need one or two, though, you may be able to just stop by the nearest office for some freebies.

5. Line up your stuff, and take good pictures before listing.

The biggest time-waster is switching from task to task. If you do all like tasks at the same time, then you’ll easily cut out the fat. The biggest one here are the item photos. Taking a photo, transferring it to your computer, incorporating it into your auction, and uploading it is very time-consuming. Instead, take a bunch of photos of all the items first. Then, transfer them to your computer all at the same time. For the last two steps, I just used iSale, which made the process simple.

A promotional email from eBay just landed in my inbox stating that there will be an insertion fee sale tomorrow! All auction listings will cost only $0.15! Normally, insertion fees run from $0.15 to $4.00, but for tomorrow only, they will all only be $0.15. This is a great time to list things that cost more than $0.99.

The sale runs from 12:00:01 AM PT to 11:59:59 PM PT. For ebay.ca, the promotion will instead run from 12:00:01 AM ET to 11:59:59 PM ET.

The fine print states that you must have a 12 month Detailed Seller Rating of 4.5 or higher, but new sellers without a DSR are also eligible. Also, the promotion doesn’t apply to a number of items. Check the promo page for more details.

I don’t know about you all, but I’m clearing my schedule for tomorrow so I can list tons of stuff on eBay. I’ve been sitting on a lot of stuff to sell, and procrastination has finally paid off! It’s time for some spring cleaning!

After seeing this awesome job listing for a wolfman, I started wondering what else was out there. With all the talk of unemployment, I sometimes wonder why all those lazy bums don’t just go out and get one of these quality positions in the Bay Area. Unlike other strange job lists, all of these are actually available now. Notice how only one of them actually lists the company. Hm…

Wanted! Rude, Lazy, Disorganized Slob

Yup, if you “talk fast, [don't] listen well, read magazines a lot, and chew gum loudly”, then this insurance broker position can be yours!

Law “Job”

Here’s a tip: beware of any listing that puts the word “job” in quotes.

Bike Slingers: Exciting Summer Job

The job doesn’t actually say what you’ll do, but it does say it’s physically demanding and requires a loud voice. Sounds like a tour guide. However, to get the job, you must arrive in person at 9 AM sharp on a weekday and announce yourself by yelling, “I’M READY TO BIKE THE BRIDGE!”

SEXY FIRE DANCERS NEEDED

Always be happy when a listing promises you that “there is pay”. However, mild nudity is required, but you get to be on TV! But on an adult network.

Excellent Opportunity for Bodyworker

When all else fails, there’s always the sex industry. Before actual massage therapists get all up in arms about this, note that the listing for a bodyworker is in the adult gigs section and that the job requires “a recent full-body picture of you wearing jeans, shorts or other form fitting attire”, though nudity in the intro pics is not required.

An unscientific poll of one shows that most shoppers would rather be kicked in the crotch than submit rebate forms. Real research indicates that only one in five rebates are actually redeemed.

TiVo’s stock price zoomed in 2005 when it paid $5 million less than it expected to in rebates. Offering rebates may have saved the company, as it had been really struggling until gaining 50,000 subscribers willing to leave money on the table. Interestingly, I happened to be one of the people who did take advantage of the TiVo rebate in 2005, and I ended up with a free TiVo Series2 DVR (after also mailing in a $100 Circuit City rebate), which I still have today.

The point is I think those 50,000 subscribers were stupid. They all walked away from a potential savings of $200 simply because they didn’t bother to put five minutes of effort into correctly mailing in a rebate. Show me someone who makes at least $2400/hr, and I’ll make an exception for his or her intelligence.

Sure, rebates are a pain in the butt, but they really don’t have to be so bad. If you just follow these steps, then you’ll always come out ahead:

1. When shopping, first compare the pre-rebate price. Then, if the post-rebate price is still tempting, ask yourself, “Do I mind waiting three months for a check?”
2. Follow the instructions on the rebate form exactly. If it says to cut out the original UPC and to tape it on a sheet of paper, then cut out the original UPC and tape it on a sheet of paper. My understanding is rebate processors are paid with the proceeds from invalid rebates, so they have great incentive to find any fault possible!
3. Make copies of everything immediately. What I do is scan everything in as a PDF and save it in a folder named “rebates” with the date and name of the product. For example, my TiVo rebates would have been named “2005.04.25 TiVo Rebate.pdf” and “2005.04.25 TiVo Circuit City Rebate.pdf”. I also print to PDF any electronic rebate forms as soon as I see them. I almost missed out on a major rebate once when I didn’t print out the rebate form on the spot and the company removed it from their site. Eventually, I found someone else in a FatWallet forum who emailed me a copy of the rebate form.
4. Set a reminder in your calendar to check on your rebate. Rebate forms generally give a time frame, such as 6-8 weeks, in which the rebate is supposed to be processed. I just set up an alert in iCal to remind me in case I still haven’t received the rebate. A reminder email via Time Cave may be a good alternative if you don’t use an electronic calendar.
5. Collect! I find that most rebates are actually pretty painless these days. They almost always come through. However, in the increasingly rare instance that one doesn’t, call and annoy the crap out of everyone possible until someone sends you a check. First, contact the rebate processor. Then, contact the store where you purchased the item. Although they’re generally not affiliated with the rebate processors, a good retail manager will want to make sure you’re happy. Next, call the manufacturer of the item, especially if they’re the ones offering the rebate. They of course want to avoid bad publicity. Last, contact your local Better Business Bureau and file complaints for all three entities who just failed you. Also, posting negative reviews online can work as leverage against bad rebates, and others who took advantage of the same rebate deal as you may end up posting in online forums about their experiences—both good and bad—so google around for others in the same boat. If you feel like serving some justice, going to small claims court is a good option. Lawyers are frequently not allowed, and you may be able to get a judgment that covers your court fees. Check your local laws for guidance.

I can’t believe it’s already April 19. Tax season’s finally over, and 2009 is looking good! I’ve been writing here at Money TLD since January 20, which means it will have been three months tomorrow, a significant milestone for a young blog. (Additionally, I can’t believe it’s only been three months. It feels like longer!) I’m aiming to continue posting an average of twice per weekday with the occasional weekend post like this one, though I’ll continue experimenting with post frequency and length to better integrate this site into my daily routine.

As for changes around the site, the major one is I’ve completely dropped AdBrite in favor of AdSense and BlogAds. Strike one was the inline ads were pretty pointless. Strike two was video ads with sound without any way to control the ad. Strike three was AdBrite simply stopped working one day, failing even to display AdSense. So goodbye, AdBrite! Your service sucks. No wonder you’re losing to Google.

As for BlogAds, you can purchase advertising for my site by going here. The ad will appear in the top-right of the page and grow to accomodate its full length, pushing everything else in the right column down. Also, do any of you other personal finance bloggers know what in the world happened to the Personal Finance Syndicate hive on BlogAds? I can’t seem to get in touch with the hive administrator.

Anyway, I’ll finish by listing a long list of carnivals I’ve participated in recently. Hopefully, I haven’t missed any. If you notice that I haven’t linked back to a carnival, then please do let me know!

• Carnival of Financial Planning - 4P Edition
• Carnival of Personal Development - April 13, 2009 Edition
• Tax Carnival #52: Time’s Almost Up!
• Carnival of Twenty Something Finances - DC Edition
• Carnival of Everything Money #10
• Money Hacks Carnival #60: The File Your Tax Return Edition
• Festival of Frugality - Last Minute Edition
• Carnival of Internships, Careers & Employment #22