Beating Broke

Restrain Holiday Eating and Spending for a Happier New Year

November 23, 2015 By MelissaB Leave a Comment

Have you been in this situation before?

You want to start a diet and shed a few pounds, but you decide, since it’s November already, you should just wait until after the holidays. You tell yourself you’ll have a fresh start January 1^st. New year, new life, all that.

This plan may sound good to you, but since you keep thinking about the diet you’re going to start in January, you indulge more than you normally would over the holidays and gain 10 pounds. Now, you have an even bigger job ahead of you come January 1^st.

If you had instead started your new eating plan at the beginning of the holiday season, you would have had better control over your eating. You likely wouldn’t have gained weight. If you were doing great and were motivated, you may have even lost weight, but let’s be honest—even remaining the same weight during the holidays is an accomplishment.

We’re in November, which is when most people are at risk of two negatives—eating too much and spending too much.

Just like the decision to lose weight, many people may decide to start focusing on managing their money better after the holidays. After all, there are so many presents to buy and parties to host. Getting on a budget isn’t possible during the holidays, they think. And then, because they’re not keeping an eye on their finances, they spend lavishly and find themselves facing an exorbitant credit card bill that they can’t pay in full.

Sound familiar?

Why not make this year different?

Yes, the holidays are right around the corner, but it’s not too late to keep your finances in check. Here are some simple strategies:

Don’t give gifts to everyone. If you don’t have a lot of money saved up for gifts, don’t go into debt to buy them. Think about it. Do you remember what gifts you received for Christmas last year? Do you remember who gave them to you?

Yeah, I thought so.

I remember only one gift from last Christmas, even though I got several.

Give a gift that you can pay for later. I love this strategy! If you don’t have a lot of money for holiday gifts but still want to give something, consider offering a gift at a later date. For instance, you could offer a close friend a present of dinner and a movie at a time of her choosing. Maybe she decides in March that she’d like to take you up on the offer. You’ve had three months to save the money for that gift.

Don’t give in to peer pressure. There is an enormous amount of peer pressure during the holiday season to go to parties, bring food, buy gifts for everyone. . .It’s okay to step off this spendthrift merry-go-round and simply say no. You don’t have to go to every party. You don’t have to buy a present for everyone you have contact with in your life.

Just say no.

The next four to six weeks can have a significant impact on the first few months of 2016.

Are you going to indulge occasionally in sweet treats but mostly eat healthy, or are you going to let loose and gain 10 pounds?

Are you going to be financially responsible and only give gifts that you have the means to give, or are you going to charge everything and create a hole that will take you three or four months to dig out of, if not more?

Haven’t you had enough of overindulgent holidays? Wouldn’t you like to start 2016 with a truly fresh start and no extra weight or bills?

Saving Money (and Possibly Your Life) With Vaping

November 8, 2015 By Shane Ede 7 Comments

I’ve written about cigarettes and smoking in an offhanded way a few times here. It doesn’t take an accountant to tell you how expensive of a habit it can be. I was smoking about a half pack a day. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Now, I save money with vaping, and I might just be saving my life too.

Why I Switched to Vaping

I was a smoker for almost 15 years. Over those years, I’ve attempted to quit a number of times. I tried the nicotine patches, Wellbutrin, and Chantix on several occasions. All with varying levels of success, and then failure. Of the bunch, Chantix was probably the most successful. I think I managed 6 weeks without a cigarette that time. But, you only take Chantix for about 6 weeks, and then the urge returned, my will power left, and it was back to it.

About a year or so, I started seeing, and reading, articles on Facebook and elsewhere about vaping. For the uninitiated, vaping is the act of vaporizing a liquid called e-juice. Technically, those e-cigarettes you see at the gas stations are vaporizers. Whomever decided that naming them e-cigarettes should be ashamed of themselves though. The e-juice that you vaporize is a mixture of Propylene Glycol and/or Vegetable Glycol, liquid nicotine, and various flavorings. The mix is added to a tank that wicks the e-juice to a coil. You press a button on your Mod (the device that holds the batteries and powers the coil) and the coil heats the e-juice to vaporization. You inhale the vapor, exhale the vapor, and get your nicotine fix without a lot of the chemicals you’ve been getting in your cigarette smoke.

As I read more and more of those articles, a recurring theme started to show itself. There were a lot of people who had started vaping and completely replaced their cigarette habit. And most of the reports I had read seemed to indicate that vaping was a lot safer than smoking cigarettes. I decided to give it a try.

Luckily, for me, I had a friend who I knew used a vaporizer, and I was able to ping him to get suggestions on equipment. If I hadn’t, I would have been completely lost, and probably struggled with the process a lot more. I might have even failed again and written off vaping entirely. I’m glad I had that help.

I ordered my equipment, and some e-juice to get me started, and on May 25th, 2015 I made the switch to vaping. I’ve had a total of two cigarettes since then. And they both tasted terrible. It’s been almost 6 months. The urge to have a cigarette is almost entirely gone. There are still a few triggers that spark the urge, but I can easily overcome those with a few quick vapes. I’m no longer a smoker.

Saving Money with Vaping

In a way, I’m lucky that I live where I do. A pack of cigarettes is only about $5 here. In neighboring Minnesota, a pack will easily cost you $7.50. There are places where it’s more expensive. For comparison sake, I can buy a 15mL bottle of e-juice for somewhere between $7 and $25 (the premium juices are the top end of that range. Average is closer to $10-12). On an average day, I vape my way through about 3-5 mL. So, that 15mL bottle lasts about 3 days. I used to smoke a half pack of cigarettes a day. The cost for e-juice is slightly less overall. Equipment adds a bit more, averaged over time. As the cost of cigarettes continues to go up, over time I’ll save more. That’s assuming that taxes and such aren’t applied to vaping products of course. They might be. If so, it might be a wash.

While some of this is unclear, what I’ve read so far indicates that vaping is a whole heck of a lot safer for you than cigarettes. I fully expect, based on that, so see a lot of the savings from making the switch through my health and health care costs. There’s really no way to calculate those savings, but I believe they are pretty huge. Those savings aren’t just in financial terms either. There’s a very real possibility that my health will improve, my quality of life will improve, and I’ll possibly have saved my life from some nasty cigarette related disease. That’s my kind of savings!

Over the last few months, I’ve found a few ways to apply some standard saving techniques to my vaping as well. I’ve used coupons and sales to buy e-juice at bargain prices. I’ve done the same for some of the equipment. I’ve started making my own coils which reduces the cost of the coils by a great deal. And I’ve found some nice subscription offers to get some good e-juice for a far cheaper price.

Ready to Save Money with Vaping too?

If you’re looking for equipment, I fully recommend an open tank vaporizer set up. All that means is that the tank is refillable unlike those disposable ones you find at the gas station. Reusable and refillable is excellent. I use the eleaf iStick 30w Mod. I wish I had the eleaf iStick 100W TC. It just adds some additional wattage and other options that I would have liked to have had. Cost made it a bit of a stretch though.

As for the tank itself, my favorite right now is the Kanger Subtank Mini. It will take premade coil units in a pinch, but also has the ability for you to build your own coils. It’s the best of both worlds.

e-Juices come in hundreds of different flavors. What you need to know is that you can adjust your level of nicotine. I started off with 18mg/mL and it was too much. Someone who was a heavier smoker might want it that strong. I’ve been using 12mg since, but recently started buying 6mg. One of the coolest things I’ve found is Zamplebox. It’s a subscription box where you get sent a variety of 15mL bottles each month. I’m subscribed to the 6 bottle package. It’s highly customizable, and allows for you to try some flavors that you might not have without. They offer a 3 bottle, 6 bottle, and 11 bottle subscription. They’re $19.99, $24.99, and $44.99 respectively. At $24.99, my 6 bottles are just a hair over $4 each. That’s a pretty good deal. If you’re just beginning, I highly recommend you give them a try for a few months.

Are Good Deals Putting You in Debt?

October 28, 2015 By MelissaB 2 Comments

We all love a good deal, right? There’s nothing better than paying $2.40 for a pair of kids’ shorts that retail for $16 or paying $0.25 for Christmas wrapping paper at an after Christmas sale when it would cost you $2 or more to buy it new.

After all, buying things on clearance is what savvy shoppers do, right? This is an excellent strategy for being frugal with your money, right?

Well, yes. . .and no. Are those good deals putting you in debt? Ask yourself these questions and decide if you really need that good deal.

Do You Buy More Than You Need?

When something is on clearance 80% off, it’s tempting to buy alot. . .more than you need. After all, why buy one sweater at $5.00 on clearance when you could buy 8 for the cost of what just one would cost retail? Besides, you’re not paying any more than it would cost to buy a $40 sweater brand new, and you’re getting 8. What a deal!

But do you NEED 8 sweaters? Will some of them languish in the back of your closet, with the tags still on, until you decide to purge your closet and give them away or try to sell them at a garage sale?

Can You Afford It?

Sometimes, you need to pass up good deals. If you can’t afford the deal and put it on credit card, are you really saving money? By the time you figure in the interest you’ll pay, that clearance sweater may end up costing you nearly as much as it would cost retail, or, if you pay only the minimum payment on your cards, even more!

Some people have gone in debt in pursuit of good deals. Kristine Rogers, who was featured in Money magazine, explains that she went in debt buying children’s clothes on clearance: “Gymboree held a clearance sale in which every item was priced at $7.99. ‘I grabbed clothes my daughter didn’t need. I bought four of the same coat in different colors.’ By the end of the day, Rogers’ compulsion had cost her $800.” Rogers developed a full blown shopping addiction in the pursuit of sales and ended up with $50,000 in credit card debt! Sure, she got good deals, but in the end, after interest, she likely paid much more than she would have if she’d bought the items at retail.

Are You Tying Up Current Cash Flow?

Assuming you don’t go into debt to buy good deals, you may still be tying up your cash flow. If you spend $40 on 8 sweaters that you buy in May but won’t wear until November, you’re tying up cash flow. If you don’t wear some of those sweaters at all, you’ve wasted money despite the good deal.

Be More with Less explains, “If you buy wrapping paper on December 26^th and stock up on sale items year round, you are spending more than you would if you just bought what you needed. Don’t be fooled by the cashier that tells you, ‘you just saved $22.00’ when you just spent $300.”

What do you think? Is it worthwhile to pursue good deals, or can it be a slippery slope to overspending and debt?

Do you buy items on clearance? Do you always use all of the items, or do you accidentally buy too much?