Posted: August 4th, 2010 | Author: Kimberly White | Filed under: Author - Kimberly White, Dining, Frugal Resources, Time Management | No Comments »
In my pursuit of frugal utopia, I’ve started to realize that the price I pay for an item at the register doesn’t always reflect its true cost. Take milk for example. If someone had asked me a few weeks ago how much a gallon of milk costs, I might have said, “about $4.” But now that I’ve given it some thought, I see that $4 is the wrong answer. A host of other factors have to be considered when determining the real cost of a gallon of grocery store milk.
First, there’s the opportunity cost. To get the milk, I have to drive my car to the grocery store, find a parking spot, navigate the metal cart through the crowded aisles, wait in line at the register, tell my son “no” to the half dozen items he will beg me to buy, push the cart across the parking lot to my car while trying to keep my son from running off, load up the groceries, drive home, unload. This is one of my most hated chores and it takes an hour or two of prime weekend time. If I didn’t have to go to the store for the milk, I could be using that time to do something I enjoy. So, for me, there is a big opportunity cost attached to that gallon of grocery store milk.
Second, are the costs to the environment that don’t show up in the dollars I pay at the cash register: the pollution wrought by commercial dairy practices; the diesel fuel burned to move the milk across the country to my grocery store; the noxious chemicals used to create the molded plastic container that my milk is shipped in; the energy spent to deal with my discarded milk carton which will be picked up by a garbage truck, carted to a transfer station, put on a barge, taken out to the middle of the ocean, and dumped. When you consider those costs, it makes my glass of grocery store milk a lot more expensive.
Third, are the costs to my family’s health. Many commercial dairy farms think of animals as machines that can be turbo-charged to produce more. The pixie dust they use to shift their cow-machines into overdrive is called Bovine Growth Hormone (BGH). It’s a synthetic hormone that forces the cows’ bodies to produce more milk than is healthy for them. This puts enormous physical strain on the cow, which leads to infection which is then treated with antibiotics. The hormones and antibiotics get in the milk and end up in our bodies. Consumption of milk laced with hormones has been linked to cancer. Canada and the EU have banned BGH because of the significant health risks, but the FDA has not. So chances are good that it’s in my gallon of grocery store milk, and there is also a chance that consuming it could contribute to a life-threatening illness like cancer. If you factor in the health costs, the milk becomes prohibitively expensive. Can you even put a price on health?
Finally, there is the quality of the product itself. The milk in the plastic, or waxy cardboard container isn’t very fresh; wasn’t produced by well-tended cows; and is bland, and vaguely plastic tasting. So for all the effort, cost to the environment, and risk to my health, I’m not even getting a very delicious glass of milk.
But there is a solution – the milkman. I met Tom during a Saturday visit to the farmer’s market. His booth featured local milk in beautiful glass bottles. As I stood there wanting to buy the milk, but thinking about how heavy the glass bottles must be, and if I bought them, I’d have to bring them back the next week, and so buying the milk would mean that every Saturday morning I would have to get in my car and drive to the farmer’s market to exchange my empties for full bottles of milk. As I was wrestling with this in my mind – thinking about the hassle, but still wanting to buy the milk – Tom said, “We deliver you know.”
It took a moment for me to process the implications.
“We also deliver eggs, cheese, butter, and other local farm products,” Tom added. It was one of those moments where the clouds open up and a beam of sunshine emerges.
“You deliver,” I said, not fully believing it. “To my doorstep?”
“Every Wednesday morning,” Tom said, and he gave me the website address for his company, The Hudson Milk Co.. I went home and promptly signed up for my first delivery.
Now every Tuesday night I put a cooler on my front porch with empty glass milk bottles and on Wednesday morning it’s magically filled (Tom delivers at 4:00 in the morning) with farm-fresh milk, cream, eggs, and cheese. The milk has no BGH so it’s healthier for my family. It comes from a local farm, so it hasn’t been shipped thousands of miles creating a monstrous carbon footprint. The pretty glass bottles get reused, unlike their plastic counterparts that end up floating (forever polluting) the oceans. I don’t have to go to the grocery store as often, and when I do, it’s just to pick up a few things. It’s no longer an epic chore. And best of all – the milk is fresh and it tastes great! It costs a few dollars more, but if you factor in the other costs–opportunity costs, health costs, environmental costs–it ends up being the cheapest milk you can buy — and the most delicious!
If you live in Westchester, NY you can ask Tom to bring fresh milk to your doorstep too. Tell him I sent you.
Posted: July 10th, 2009 | Author: Joelle Hann | Filed under: Author - Joelle Hann, Frugal Resources, Money | Tags: Abacus Portfolios, Abacus Wealth Partners, archetypes, Brent Kessel, financial analyst, financial planner, frugal money, frugality, It's Not About the Money, yoga, Yoga Journal, Yoga Journal Conference New York | 1 Comment »
Brent Kessel
I thought it would be appropriate for a site dedicated to frugal living to hear a few words from someone who spends his days and nights advising people on their money–and helping them to use it better.
Financial planner Brent Kessel is the C.E.O. of Abacus Portfolios and President and co-founder of Abacus Wealth Partners. I met him at the Yoga Journal conference in New York in May, where he was presenting at the 2-day “business of yoga” workshop.
Kessel, a long-time yoga practitioner, has been able to combine his wealth of financial experience (pun intended) with the mental discipline and spiritual insight of his yoga practice to come up with some pretty fascinating theories on our relationships to money. And, some helpful techniques for taming the financial beasts within.
In his talk–and in his book It’s Not About the Money: A Financial Game Plan for Staying Safe, Sane, and Calm in Any Economy
–he outlined 8 major money archetypes as he sees them: the Guardian (worry/prudence), the Saver (hoarding/abundance), the Innocent (avoidance/hope), the Pleasure Seeker (hedonism/enjoyment), the Caregiver (enabling/empathy), the Idealist (distrust/vision), the Star (pretentiousness/leadership), and the Empire Builder (greed/innovation).
I was so fascinated that I took another workshop with him a few weeks after the conference. I found out (no surprise for a Frugaltopian) that I’m a Guardian and a Saver—also, to my surprise, an Idealist and a Pleasure Seeker.
Brent was gracious enough to agree to an interview with Frugaltopia. So, I’m happy to pass some of the super interesting insights outlined in his book “It’s Not About the Money” (Buy it! You won’t be sorry!) on to you, dear readers.
Interview with Brent Kessel
Frugaltopia: Do many people avoid looking frankly at their financial situation? If yes, do you know why?
Brent Kessel: Almost everybody avoids looking at some part of their situation. I call it their Money Mask. This is the part of us that hopes the world will see us a bit differently than we know ourselves to be. Most want to appear to have more income and assets than they do, primarily because in our culture, that’s synonymous with approval, success, praise. They are like a drug fix that allows us to avoid emptiness, restlessness, or sadness. However, because they’re ego-driven, they’re completely impermanent. So the only lasting solution becomes an addiction to more and more.
Frugaltopia: How did you come up with the idea of the 8 archetypes that best describe most people’s money issues?
Brent Kessel: Mostly just by observing the patterns that people get stuck in year after year, even if they sell a business or get a big inheritance. And these patterns are almost entirely based on past conditioning. It seemed an easy way to give us a common language for identifying our weaknesses and strengths, and to cultivate more balance.
Frugaltopia: Is there one archetype that seems to do better financially than others? Why is that, in your opinion?
Brent Kessel: It really depends how you define better. If it’s defined as increasing your net worth or financial security, it’s likely the Saver, or sometimes the Guardian. If it’s defined as voluntary simplicity, it’s probably the Idealist. If it’s using money to ease the most suffering in the world, then it’s the Caretaker.
Frugaltopia: Frugaltopians–the 4 of us who run Frugaltopia–are most likely Savers or Guardians, according to your system. (I’m both!) Are there any downfalls to being frugal?
Brent Kessel: The biggest downfall is when we believe that we can obtain ultimate security from our frugality or savings. They are impermanent too. It’s imperative that we stay in touch with our mortality, with the preciousness of life and how quickly security can vanish. This elicits compassion, which is the best antidote to the extreme Guardian (who’s overly anxious about money and safety) and to the Saver (who never gives money away for fear that they might need it one day.)
Frugaltopia: If there’s one piece of financial advice you could give to everyone, no matter what their archetype, what would it be?
Brent Kessel: Look beneath the surface. Your financial life is not dictated by interest rates, investment returns, or budgets. 99% of it is dictated by the unconscious beliefs you have about money. Use my book, or the Cure for Money Madness to uncover the parts you’re not yet aware of.
Thank you, Brent! Learn more about Brent and his work at his web site www.brentkessel.com.
Posted: June 28th, 2009 | Author: Kimberly White | Filed under: Author - Kimberly White, Friendship, Frugal Resources, Time Management | Tags: birthdays, e-cards, greeting cards, Hallmark, holidays, remembering birthdays | No Comments »
click to watch the adorable e-card Kim sent to her sister
I have a difficult time remembering important events like birthdays, weddings, and anniversaries. It’s a failing that bothers me greatly and probably bothers the people who are important to me even more. And it’s not just carelessness. I’m convinced that in this one area I have a yet-to-be diagnosed dyslexia–a simple failing of normal brain function, nothing personal.
Take my sister’s birthday for example–it’s today, and it’s not like I forgot about it. Not exactly. Back at the beginning of June I thought, “Oh, it’s June. Lesley’s birthday is at the end of the month.” Then later in the month I thought about it again. “Hmm, I should get a card.” I looked over the paper cards at CVS. Dismayed at the cheesiness of all of them, I decided to look again at a different store, which I never remembered to do. Anyway, today I woke up and thought, “Yikes, it’s the 28th and I never sent a card.” So I decided to look for an e-card (what else could I do?)
The last time I sent an e-card was for my mother’s birthday (which I forgot about entirely. Yes, I know, very bad daughter.) Anyway, it took me a long time to find a decent e-card because I had this idea that e-cards should be free. After a long search, I found a good one, but it wasn’t entirely free. Sending that “free” e-card signed me up for a relentless and impossible to get rid of mailing list that still plagues me twice a week.
So this morning I relented and took a look at the premium Hallmark e-cards. I was surprised and excited to find tons of stuff that I liked. Unlike the dismal sentiments paper cards proffer (they range from mildly offensive humor to sickly sweet poetry), the e-cards offered something more contemporary and relevant. They are funny yet tasteful, and they are extremely entertaining. After browsing their offerings, I concluded that e-cards had gotten better, much better, than paper cards. So I signed up for a one-year subscription. For only $9.99 I can send as many e-cards as I want. This is an amazing savings since nowadays, a nice paper card costs about $4.00, and a really nice card can cost as much at $7.00.
But the biggest benefit for me isn’t the cost savings, it’s this little gem:
Hallmark's e-card organizer
The Hallmark online organizer REMINDS me when birthdays occur. Never again will I have to suffer the embarrassment, the guilt, the shame caused by improper brain function (which I’ve been calling “important-day dyslexia”). Hallmark e-cards are going to do more than just provide me with fun, affordable, convenient cards–they are going to save me from myself!
Posted: June 22nd, 2009 | Author: Jen Laskey | Filed under: Author - Jen Laskey, Dining, Fashion, Frugal Resources, Travel, Wine | Tags: cheap European travel, Depression-era prices, Free NYC Summer Events, Frugal cheap NYC Bars, frugal cheap NYC restaurants, frugal fashion, frugal newsletters, Frugal NYC foodies, frugal travel | No Comments »
You can Google “frugal,” but that won’t necessarily lead you to these newsletters (or their companion sites). Here’s to finding frugality in some unexpected places!
Tasting Table – The writers of Tasting Table keep me filled in on all sorts of NYC foodie fodder. Their mission is “to deliver the best of food and drink culture to adventurous eaters,” and while that usually inspires worth-the-splurge editorial (in this city, anyway), Tasting Table also offers a fair amount of frugally-minded suggestions for everything from recession-friendly dining deals and cheap $2 tacos to drinks at Depression-era prices and recipes for culturing your own curds.
Epicurious – Because I like making food and assembling meals and I like pairing them with wine or cocktails (and I even like to do all of this on the cheap, whenever possible)…
…because it’s often cheaper to prepare my own food than to pay someone else to do it…
…and because Epicurious sends me recipes from Bon Appétit and Gourmet (which I no longer buy)…
I am a longtime subscriber to the Epicurious newsletters. They currently offer 2 versions. The first, Recipe Flash, is more food and recipe oriented, while the other, Tasting Notes, focuses on wine reviews and pairing recommendations.
Fodor’s Travel – While Fodor’s may still be suffering from its reputation as, well, your parents’ travel guide, I urge you to look at Fodor’s with a fresh eye. Their editorial and design has really changed for the better over the last few years. And I’m not just saying that because I sometimes write for them (though not for their newsletters). I recommend checking out Fodor’s because their editorial focus has shifted to include more sophisticated drinking and dining coverage, a better range of offerings (in general), more compelling features, full-color guidebooks, and a vibrant community. Fodor’s isn’t as interested in traveling on the cheap as they are in getting you the most for your money, but with that being said, their newsletters often offer value-conscious features that are beneficial for both the tourist and the local, alike. Here are a few recent ones for our fellow New Yorkers:
Read the rest of this entry »
In my pursuit of frugal utopia, I’ve started to realize that the price I pay for an item at the register doesn’t always reflect its true cost. Take milk for example. If someone had asked me a few weeks ago how much a gallon of milk costs, I might have said, “about $4.” But now that I’ve given it some thought, I see that $4 is the wrong answer. A host of other factors have to be considered when determining the real cost of a gallon of grocery store milk.
