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: August 21st, 2009 | Author: Leora Schachter | Filed under: Author - Leora Schachter, Home, Time Management | Tags: laundries, laundromat, laundry, laundry bag, laundry bags, laundry hamper | No Comments »
Laundry. I know this topic isn’t sexy or exciting. This is not about saving money but saving time because of exactly that, laundry is neither sexy nor exciting. For the last 10 years I have lived in old pre-war apartments in NYC that do not have washers and dryers in the buildings. Many of my friends ask, HOW can you live without a washer and dryer? Easily, is my response.
First, you learn to let go of the control over this part of your life, you learn to trust someone else (and pity them) to wash your smelly gym clothes. And then you do a basic cost-benefit analysis (Thank you, NYU Stern School of Business) that shows you that $.85 per pound, less than $10 – $15 per week (depending on your family size), is well worth it. (Here is where I will insert a disclaimer – kids are a game changer, where laundry can be almost a daily habit, and I can’t provide much guidance to those of you with kids!)
You must value these benefits: You don’t have to search around in pockets, purses and couches for quarters, and then spend these quarters for the machines, detergent and fabric softener. You also don’t have to hang out in a laundromat or laundry room for hours, worry if someone else is going to take your stuff out of the machine, or remember not to forget your stuff in the dryer causing your shirts and shorts to get wrinkly, and, most important, NO FOLDING!
The last tip I ever read in a Real Simple magazine recommended that you hire a cleaning person so that you can reduce stress, and I thought to myself, they just don’t get it – it’s stressful for some people just because they know they can’t afford to hire a cleaning person to reduce stress. I do get it, and the extra $5 – $10 it costs to get your laundry done will only provide you happiness and time to run your other errands, spend time with your family and friends, or write a blog post.
Here are my recommendations for having a successful laundry drop-off experience:
- Pick a laundromat that does drop-off/pick-up ONLY. You don’t want other people in the laundromat messing with machines and potentially taking your stuff.
- Round up the bill to include a tip. A tip is always appreciated and since the bill will be small, it’s okay if the tip is small, too. The tip will always pay-off in times of emergency when you need your stuff cleaned the same day, or you forgot your wallet or your receipt, or just because these men and women deserve it after cleaning your stinky stuff.
- Use a laundry bag that is recognizable. Makes life easy for you and the launderers at pick up if you can point out your bag. And if, like me, you sometimes forget your receipt, again, it makes life easier for everyone.
- Own more than one week’s worth of underwear. This holds true for do-it-yourselfers, and drop-offers, sometimes you just don’t feel like doing your laundry or taking it to the laundromat.
So release those laundry bag strings, and leave the laundry to someone else.
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 17th, 2009 | Author: Jen Laskey | Filed under: Author - Jen Laskey, Friendship, Time Management | Tags: creative writing, freelance writing, friendship inspirational, frugal friendship, frugal living, Time Management, writing | 1 Comment »
This may sound strange, but one area of my life in which I’ve been practicing being more frugal lately is in my friendships. I’m not doing this in an effort to save money – though staying home at night and on weekends does have that desirable effect on my bank account – it’s an attempt to conserve time and devote more of it to my writing. Not my freelance writing, but the kind of writing that earned me my MFA.
While I’m quite disciplined about the way I structure my time for my freelance gigs, I sometimes lose steam when it comes to writing in my “non-work” hours. I would much rather go out and do fun things with my friends, especially if they are performing or having art or film openings. Often, the last thing I want to do is sit around and write more after writing all day, even if it is the thing that I most deeply do want to do.
“No human activity I know of takes more time than writing…. Of necessity the writer is unlike those of [her] friends who quit work at five,” wrote John Gardener in On Becoming a Novelist
. For me, it’s a conundrum, and it always has been since I realized I was a writer. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: June 12th, 2009 | Author: Kimberly White | Filed under: Author - Kimberly White, Home, Parenting, Time Management | Tags: frugal family, frugal living, frugal living tips, give up tv, no cable tv, television-free | No Comments »
When I ditched TV ten years ago, it wasn’t for moral reasons. It wasn’t because I was worried that TV was rotting my brain, and it wasn’t because I couldn’t afford the cable bills. It was, purely and simply, a time-management decision. I never would have gotten through grad school if I had continued wasting spending 3 or 4 hours a day in front of the tube. But it took me awhile to pull the plug because I honestly believed that I loved TV. As a latchkey kid, I’d grown up with television, logging 25+ hours a week. The television was a pseudo parent and friend. Even after ten years of living television-free, I still can’t ignore it. If a TV is turned on anywhere near me, I am helplessly drawn to it.
So, when I canceled our cable account, I braced myself for a long painful withdrawl process. 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.