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Let’s get right to it…

What to expect from this site (what’s in it for you).

Are you happy?  Not this moment, but in general?  Are you sure you are?  Oh, you said you were.  Sorry.  Well if you aren’t happy, maybe you can do something about that.  Maybe not.  I’m the Captain of this vinegar jar and would like to share what has helped me over the past not so many months.  After tripping over a site called mrmoneymustach.com and watching the Minimalism documentary, I realized things could be a bit better.  Everything these guys talked about made so much sense.  They figured out the secrets to life that most don’t discover until they have been worked ragged into their 70s and it’s hard to even say that those old timers even realize it then.  My wife and I have been living relatively frugally on and off for about ten  years, but these two resources really helped lock it into gear.

What if you knew that there were options to life that didn’t include working all week to pay off debt?  You could do whatever the hell you wanted to every day.  What if you weren’t stuck making money for someone else or some entity that’s trying to keep shareholders happy.  This isn’t something that just happens but it’s clear that it CAN happen if you work at it.

Our family is not there, or really even very close, but we have made a lot of steps in the right direction in the past few months and things are looking promising right now.

We currently live in a small suburb in western NY with two kids – Darth Vader and Baby Cat.  I’m the Captain of the Jar and my sweet wife will introduce herself here at some point.

Some things that we would like to share on these pages are the steps we took to save and make money, how to start getting rid of shit you don’t need and try to stop buying shit you think you need, and explain how to destroy barriers that are stopping you from gaining everything you really want.

Bam.

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Cleaning Out

We have been whirl-winding through our​ house, getting rid of stuff we don’t need. Recently there has been a focus in the garage, which is mostly my stuff. I fix cars out there a lot and it is a source of income, so I do have a lot of equipment. It’s really hard for me to let go of tools knowing that at some point I was stuck and needed to buy a tool to finish the job. 

I was able to let go of a lot recently though and consolidated several tool boxes into one big one.  There are times when we will spend money in order to consolidate. Clutter is the enemy. It results in wasted time cleaning and reorganizing with a result of trying to make it look like you don’t have the stuff, so why have it?  

Many times you can get rid of a few items that serve the same purpose and replace them with one that you do really like. You can probably sell the old items and get some money for that new one. 

Do not fool yourself into trying to justify why you don’t want to sell something because of how much you paid for it originally. If it was a piece of electronics like a computer, you certainly paid a lot more than it’s worth now if you bought it new. If you aren’t doing anything with whatever the item is, don’t worry about how much you bought it for or how much you will lose on the sale, just get rid of it. It’s just adding to the clutter and stress that you don’t need. 

Remember that your health is priority one. When you die, your euligy isn’t going to include any kind words about your AMG Mercedes or your MK purse. Nobody really cares about that shit. 

So try to focus on what will improve the quality of your life, not what will make you more lazy. This is all about weighing your needs and wants, and if you do want to downsize in some areas, you’ll have to decide whether spending some money will actually make you feel better outside of that original purchase buzz. 

Bike Commuting

When I brought up the idea of getting an ebike to ride to work, my wife thought it was a great idea.  Why not?  You get to be outside more, get some exercise during what would normally be a commute by car, nice scenery, and save on the little gas I use now.  She was one of only a few of those who thought it was a great idea. 

An ebike is a bike with a small electric motor that offers a variable amounting of pedal assistance. This is where people said that that is cheating and it’s lazy. This is also where they were and are wrong. Even in maximum assistance mode, you are still pedaling, and can put as much energy into it as you want. You will just be rewarded with more speed. The whole idea is that with the same energy output, you can travel farther, faster. 

My house is 25 miles from my worksite, each way. I do have some experience riding bikes, mostly as a kid, but I also have ridden in about five MS bike tour with my wife which were 150 miles over two days on hilly terrain. 

Some people said it was the stupidest idea they had ever heard and that it was going to be so dangerous that it didn’t make sense. “What are you going to do in the Winter?”

It is insulting to think that these people feel like that in the seconds after I delivered the idea, they had thought of all if these obsticals that I had been mulling over for months, as though they had never occurred to me. Gee, I don’t hadn’t thought of any of those things!  Come on!  It’s not like they were coming from a truly inquizative place either. It was just your standard negativity coming from those who just do what they think they are supposed to in life. 

It seems much more logical to me than sitting in a car like a slug everyday.  Dangerous?  Nearly the entire way is on bike paths and even if it wasn’t, I have personally been involved in a fatal car crash, so…not sure what makes it more dangerous than driving. The winter?  Oh no. Cold temperatures.  I used to ride my motorcycle the second the roads were clear of snow in February, in the 20*s. People who think things through realize that there are winter sports and dressing appropriately for the conditions is all that’s needed. 

I literally can’t think of any downsides to it. 

I did ride in two weeks ago and totally survived it. Easily in fact. It took me exactly one hour from the trail I stared at. It was awesome!  Nobody was around. I went through the woods for most of the trip, right by the lower falls of the Genesee river. I saw cool parts of the city I’ve never seen before. Rochester NY is actually pretty bike friendly and has recently added something like 25 miles of bike lanes. When I wasn’t on a path, I was usually in a lane. 

Today I brought my bike on the back of my car and will ride home, then back in tomorrow, while leaving my car in the lot overnight.  

This is the first time riding to work in a couple of weeks because we have had a stupid amount of rain and my in laws watch our kids three days a week and I want to get right home to relieve them. 

I am going to take some pictures on my way to show some of the scenes that I see on the bike rather than through my car windows on the expressway. 

I was literally smiling was I rode through a park and rang my bell at a bunch of deer that were hanging out by the river. 

I won’t ride in the rain, but that’s it. This is the way to go. 

Why not go to the gym for a workout?  Because the gym sucks. Why not do something fun and get the workout?  The gym would also require extra time out of my already busy schedule when this is worked right into time I already have planned for anyway. It is only 15-30 minutes more than my regular commute and in some cases it will be shorter, depending on traffic. 

If you live 10 miles or less from your destination, then this should be a no brainer.  

Do it. 

DIY

What do you do when something goes wrong?  Who do you call?  How do you get past the problem?

Sometimes problems cost money, when they don’t have to.  For cripes sake we have the internet!  You can solve a lot of your own problems now. 

There may be unique circumstances where a physical condition gets in the way, or even time, where you have to outsource something, but at least look into the answers and try working through it yourself. 

But you have a well paying job you say?  And it is more cost effective to outsource because of how much you get paid at work?  Well that is bull shit and here is why. Because you aren’t working all the time. If you were working 24/7, that argument would make sense, but the time when you are laying on the couch with half of your​ hand in your pants watching American Idol isn’t a particularly high income hour for you. 

There have been two times that I can remember bringing my car to a shop for repairs in the last 15ish years and both were unique circumstances where I didnt have a place to fix them myself. I am not special. Fixing cars is a matter of data, research, and taking things apart and putting them back together. YouTube can get you through a lot of it. 

I have fixed refrigerators, washers, bicycles, lawn mowers, motorcycles, furniture, snow blowers, and dryers too. So can you!

My wife and I have put in flooring, counters, sinks, tile, toilets, vanitys, and doors. So can you!

I have fixed leaking plumbing, burst pipes, running toilets, outlets that don’t work, toys, built speakers, and added breakers to the electrical panel. So can you!

I cut my own hair and my wife just did a great job cutting my son’s too. So can you!

Again, we are not unique and didn’t just go at this stuff without a plan. The information is all out there and it’s never been so easy to access. There is some initial fear that you have to get past and is probably most easily accomplished by working with someone with experience the first few times. Someone who may have gone through these experiences before, just like you are about to. 

You just have to be willing to give it a try and have some confidence in yourself. Just look at some of the yahoos you pay to have this stuff done. Do you really think you can’t figure it out with a freaking guided video online?

Of course not everything is going to be easy and some things might be best left to a pro, but at least look into what it takes before helplessly picking up the phone. 

It’s all about being resourceful and with the abundance of resources available to us now, if you aren’t resourceful, what the hell are you?

Groceries

This is the one that gets us and most people. Where do you currently shop for food?  At restaurants?  Don’t do that. When we do that we spend a ton of money.  You probably do too. 

Look at a few months worth of food spending and see where you’re at.  I don’t know where that number should be, but I’ve seen some say that their meals work out to be about $2 each, so that sounds like a nice goal. 

I know that we aren’t there right now but we are trying something new soon. Maybe next week, and I’ll post back on what that new approach is if it works well. 

For now, try going to farmers markets and discount stores. My local favorite is Aldi.  You can fill a cart with food for the same price as a hand basket at the other places. Yes, the food is edible and in many cases is better than the alternatives. They also have come a long way when it comes to dietary needs by stocking a lot of gluten free and “healthy” alternative items. 

If you are on a fad diet or something that claims that it’s not a diet but tells you what to eat, along with the purchase of a $200/month equivalent of a carnation instant breakfast, then you can just stop that right now. 

I’m not nutrition expert but I do know that common sense goes a long way here and sticking to the services sizes does too. You know when you’re eating like an idiot and don’t need to pay someone to tell you to eat better, less, and to get exercise. 

No, eating like a caveman will not cure autoimmune disease. Jesus, they had a life expectancy of like 20 years, so what sense does that make?

Stop looking for an easy answer. You already know what the answers are. 

You Don’t Have to Pay To Play

I had a great win on the ol’ eBay the other night.  I meantioned at one point that I downsized all of my photography gear a few years ago and have been using the Canon G15 for a while now. I really love​ that camera but don’t like that it is missing an external mic port and a real viewfinder. 

I didn’t want to buy another camera with detachable lenses so I did a little research and found that the Nikon P7800 had a usable view finder and a mic port. This was the one to have, so I fired up my thinking mill and planned what it would take to own that camera. 

Step one, find out how much it is new and used to get an idea of what is considered a deal. Done. 

New, it was over $600 and we already know I’m not looking for a new one.  Used price was $400, consistently.  So I wanted to find one for under that. But I couldn’t. 

I went to Amazon and paid the $390 to be done with it. Then, just for the hell of it I went back on eBay and happened to see an auction ending soon near $300. I though that if I could win this one for anything less than $400, I’d be saving, so I threw down $316.90 and was immediately outbid. Like a squirrel trying to get out of a garbage can I tried to flip in another bid. I was too slow and lost the auction, at a final price of like $320. I was pissed that I missed that chance to save $80, but just for the hell of it, I looked to see if there were any other auctions going on. I happened to look at the right time, because a guy had just posted his camera for $200,  buy-it-now style, which man’s no auction, you just get it. I thoufht, it must have been for parts or something? That was half the price of what they had been going for. 

Fast forward three seconds and I bought it.  It is home now and doing just fine. We actually recorded a video on it this morning for mother’s day. 

Now my G15 is listed on eBay and has 10 bids on it and two days left at $158. I’m expecting that one to go for around $200, which would mean that I was able to slip right into the camera I wanted, for nothing but a little time and research. I got lucky on this one though. 

I ended up cancelling the amazon order of course. 

The point is to make sure you shop around thoroughly before making a purchase. 

Victim of a Sale, Almost

A few days ago, somebody told my wife that Gander Mountain was going out of business and everything was on sale.  My wife went and scored a few great deals on raincoats for the kids that have been hard to come across, and she picked up a coat for herself. One of those two-in-one coats so she can get rid of a few other jackets. 

I decided I would go check out what they had to see if I could find a deal for myself. I have been wanting to find a coat to replace several for a while now anyway. 

I got there and pretty much everything was at least 20% off. There did appear to be some good deals after all. I went straight to the clearance section and didn’t like the selection they had in my size. I looked at every jacket they had in the place and ended up walking around with two, trying to decide which one to get. I was caught up in the sale-price-moment and was blinded to the point where I forgot that I didn’t have to buy anything at all that day. 

That’s what sales do. They make you feel a sense of urgency. Buy it now or you’ll regret it. 

I wasn’t particularly fond of either of the jackets I was walking around with and realized that I can probably find exactly what I want if I do some more shopping. 

I beat the hell out of the 20% off deal that day by saving 100%. 

Selling vs Spending

There are a lot of people who spend money to get that instant hit of gratification. Everyone has done it. We all know what it feels like to get something new. If you’ve ever gambled, you know how exciting it is to win too. So what is it that you are chasing?  

Let’s focus on gambling for a minute. You go in knowing that you might walk away with nothing, or even less than you went in with. But there is that chance that you leave with more than you had that morning.  If you do win, what will you do with that money?  Buy more things for a little more of that rush?  Does the cycle ever end before you realize that you are a rabbit chasing an imaginary carrot?  The funny thing is that for the rabbit, the carrot would at least be something good. 

The house always wins, right?  Everyone knows that too. They are making big bucks on suckers. Unless you rarely ever gamble and happen to get lucky that one time, you are losing. It’s spending money that you really love and winning more just lets you spend more. 

What if there was something that also gave you a little rush, but you always won when you did it?  This exists and it’s called getting rid of your shit. Sort of. It’s selling things you don’t need on eBay or some other market place. 

Imagine this. You EASILY list an item by downloading the app on your phone, taking a few​ pictures, and finishing up by following some simple instructions. Then, someone places a bid on the item. Depending on how you set up the auction, you may have just made money!  Then another bid comes in and you’ve made more!  Who knows howany more bids you’re going to get before the auction time runs out!  You get a few email notifications trickle through in those last few seconds, and you did it. You got rid of your shit and made a few bucks. 

Now package it up and ship it. Win win. 

Our Kids and Stuff

We took a look around and saw that our house is crawling with toys. The funny thing is that Darth only consistently plays with a few toys. He loves his Bruder construction vehicles, Hess Trucks, Hot Wheels, remote controlled monster truck, and Legos. Other new toys get about 15 minutes of play before they end up in a junk bin stashed in the basement. We had about five if these junk bin filled with pieces of toys, little shit toys like you’d get in a happy meal. 

We made a deal with our son that if he donate or sold what was in those junk bins that he barely blayed with, he could buy one nice toy that he would really like. 

He went for it and we got rid of several of those toy bins. He got the remote controlled monster truck that we like playing with together. We bring it on walks in the neighborhood and in the woods at the park. He has something he really gets use out of instead of the trinket toys. The hard part is getting other people to stop bringing this stuff into our house. 

It was a good way to consolidate​. Less clutter feels better. 

Our Kids and Money

We have had a few different plans and oddly enough, the unplanned is what seemed to make the most sense to young Vader. 

He enjoyed played a computer game with me where you have to win events like racing your vehicle, doing stunts off of jumps with it, and collecting coins. You are able to “level up” your vehicle to make it faster and handle better and you also have the ability to buy new ones and many times you have to earn a certain amount of points before you can unlock the next one. Then you also have to have enough money to buy that new vehicle. 

In the beginning, he​ didn’t understand why he couldn’t just get the firetruck. It was right there. He could see it and saw other people driving it in the game.  Everytime, I explained that we didn’t have enough money and showed him how we earned the money and how much we had in the “bank.” Soon he started asking me if we had enough money to buy the next vehicle in the game and I could see that he was putting it together. 

Making the transition to real money was easy. He knows that he has $11 and now we are working on him not wanting everything in the store and on YouTube. 

If someone told me that they used a videogame to try to teach their kid about money, I probably would have thought it was a bad idea, but, whatever works. 

Two of My Recent Mistakes

Isn’t it nice to be able to learn from other people’s mistakes?

1. I upgraded a part on a friend’s car, which left us with a perfectly fine and functioning original part. He said he didn’t want it and told me I could sell it if I wanted to.

I listed the part on eBay to cast a wide net to prospective buyers and used eBay’s recommended shipping cost to let sellers know how much it would cost to ship it to them. That was the mistake. 

I had received a few bids on the part and it ended up selling for a little over $20, so the buyer sent me $30-something total to cover the shipping. Here is where the first mistake really presents itself…
When I got to the post office, I learned that the box was a little oversized for their standard shipping rates and that when that is the case, they double the shipping weight too. Shipping to FL from NY was $40 using priority shipping, which is what the listing said I would be using. I could have saved a little money using ground but that would have been 6-10 days, with the risk of receiving negative feedback on my eBay account, which has a lot of sales with 100% positive feedback.  I decided to eat this one and learn the lesson.  I will now weigh and measure every box to make sure this doesn’t happen again.

2. This touching story should have never happened. Remember the post where I found all of that scrap metal on a walk and was going to get paid after bringing it to the scrap yard?  Well, it wasn’t aluminum. It was steel, which is nearly worthless. Thankfully, I caught this before making the trip to the junker. I’m not great at identifying metals, but I should have known this wasn’t aluminum tubing while I was loading it into my car. It was too heavy.

The way to avoid this one is to keep a magnet in your car. If the magnet sticks to the metal, don’t pick it up.

Lessons learned. Do you have any that you’d like to share that might help someone out?