Brooks & Dunn & Avocados, Oh My!

I am so excited about Avocados this week! Both Vons/Safeway and Sprouts have them on sale for $0.50 (Sprouts is $0.47 I think, but I know most people don't have one of those nearby). I can hear the guac and veggie-focused sandwiches calling my name this week!

I also had the BEST time Tuesday evening. Toyota sponsered a private Brooks & Dunn concert at Club Nokia in LA and my roommate had tickets (it pays to fill out those surveys- she got them free for filling out a Toyota customer service one regarding the recall on her car), so off we went! The venue had maybe 1000 people in it, so everyone was really close up- definately the closest I have ever been to a famous performer.

Parking: $15
Pre-concert dining/beverage (for me and roomie): $40.50
In-concert beverage: $8
Seeing Brooks & Dunn's final (as of now) concert in LA: Priceless!

Gorgeous, frugal weekend!

I desperately need to find my camera cord. I have pictures that I want to put up on here, but I can't seem to locate that magic little thing that connects my camera to my computer. If I did I would have better pictures of this view for you.

This weekend was so beautiful, my friend and I drove to Palos Verdes on Saturday and meandered around some of the hiking trails. You can see the Pacific ocean from basically everywhere, and while it wasn't clear enough to see Catalina very well, the day was flat out gorgeous.

Sunday was a wonderfully lazy day after about 2 p.m. Before that it was a "clean the house" day (after sleeping in of course). I did let a $1 RR expire, but since it was so low (and gas isn't free) I'm OK with that. My neighbors and I grilled out and played cards and Jenga instead, and watched a few episodes of Match game on TV land. Seeing some of the 70's outfits on that show makes me wonder what aspects of todays dress will be made fun of in 30 years, but I digress.

So this was a wonderful weekend, and frugal to boot! My friend and I spent a few dollars on ice cream (well deserved on account of our hike) rather than going out to eat, and my only other expenditures were most of my weekly grocery shopping (~$25), and picking up some of that free Kotex at WAGS.

I am smart, S, M, R, T!

I have not done a lot of couponing lately, since work has been, what's the word? Oh yes. INSANE.

So I'm at work by the port, and right next door is the mercedes lot where they keep the cars between when they're offloaded from the boat and when they take them to the dealership. I could seriously count the number of true mercedes on my fingers. However, the lot had hundreds upon hundreds of those tiny little smart cars.

And I think to myself, "Self, who would by those?". Usually I don't look at other passengers, but sure as the grass is green, I passed a smart car yesterday that I just could not NOT look at. The guy driving must have been well over 6' tall, you couldn't even see the top of his head! Clearly these things were not built for big guys.

Now certainly, they'd be great for retirement communities as one serious golf-cart upgrade, and for going to the grocery store and such if you don't drive often. And they are a very frugal car choice (they start under 10K if I'm not mistaken). But at what hidden cost?

The mileage is good, but not great- my non-hybrid civic actually gets significantly better. You can only have one passenger, and the trunk is teeny. And then there is the safety aspect. I know they scored well in crash tests, but most crash tests only go up to 45 mph, and most are static (where they crash the car into a wall, not another moving car)- so most crash tests aren't very good representations of real-life safety- particularly on the highway. They provide a good baseline comparison to be sure, but I'd be interested to see what consumer reports or a company that really puts cars through the ringer came up with.

Different strokes for different folks I guess. But I'm still going to laugh when I pass a 6'6" guy squished into one of those cars.

EB Usage

I've been a bad hound lately- almost letting EBs expire again! I stopped by CVS yesterday after realizing I had $8.50 in EBs expiring, and picked up a few things.

$3.99 Colgate sensitive toothpaste (EB deal, limit 1)
$0.97 Kleenex tissues
2*$1.00 Lindsay Olives
$2.50 PAM cooking spray
-$3.50 EB
-$$5.00 EB
=$0.96+tax
=$1.39 OOP

If I'd had my Q's on me I could have done better doing the Stayfree deal, but no biggie. The CRT fairies were smiling on me, and I got a $4/2 Stayfree CRT- combined with a BOGO Q and the EB deal going on I will definately be back for some moneymakin' Stayfree this week!

Clearanced Nuts at WAGS

My local WAGS has Deerfield farms bagged nuts on clearance. They were down to $0.50 for a small bag (2 oz for Walnuts and 3 oz for Almond Slivers). That works out to $2.67 a pound for Almond slivers and $4 a pound for walnuts, packaged in convienient little sizes! Definately check your WAGS- mine had these in the pantry aisle near the jello and things, not with the rest of the clearance merchandise.

HTH!

My Retirement Game Plan

I don't have an actual number in mind. Because I'm very young (turning the big 2-5 this year!), I feel like there are so many variables that it is really difficult to get a good feel for what amount of cash I'll need and at what age.
What I do know, is that I want the possibility for the age number to be low! Unless the rules change, I'll be able to withdrawl from tax-sheltered accounts like my 401(k) at 59 and 1/2- but what if I want to go out at 50 or 55 instead?
That's why it is important for me to utilize multiple retirement vehicles. Right now I'm using:

1) My 401(k) with match through my employer- I like this because my employer matches it with some free money, and it keeps California's paws off some of mine- at least for now, and I can't see myself retiring in one of the highest taxed states.

2) My Roth IRA- I like this because it lets me grow earnings tax-free, and with our budget being 48% loaned this year (which makes me sick) federal taxes will certainly be going UP in the future. Also, my investment choices are basically infinate compared with my 401(k). I could use some on a home down payment eventually, but I'd rather let it continnue to grow if I can.

3) My Mutual Fund account- I like this because I could consolidate to cash if I need/want to. This lets me not only keep it as my "before 59.5 nestegg", but I have the option of using it for a down payment on a home, or liquifying some to live on during an extended job loss or something like that. It also allows me to save additional cash in years I max out the other two options.

4) Social Security- HA. Ha. ha. Government's cruel joke for us younger folk. Not a snowball's chance in you-know-where this program will pay me anything in 40+ years, but I'm stuck paying it anyways. Imagine how much that sum could be if my SS payments were invested modestly and the program worked as it was originally intended to... ah, sweet, parallel universe.

I think with very few (if any) exceptions, everyone should max out their employer match first if they have one in their 401(k). From there, it really depends on your situtation and what kind of taxes you pay now vs. what you expect to in the future. Of course, I'm just a regular gal and no expert, so don't go taking my words as gospel.

What about you guys? Thoughts?

A little blog remodeling

I did a good deal of thinking last week about a lot (my cousin's death included), and one of the things I realized was that I wasn't posting much because I had inadvertanly made this blog primarily about couponing without thinking about what else I may want to put in it.

So I may be changing a few things. I started with the formatting, and the name. My real goal is beyond just saving and couponing, though I still intend to do and post about those things! It's about retiring early (to me retirement means having the freedom to do what you want, which may or may not include working) and maintaining a quality of life that I enjoy. If I drop dead in 10 years, I do not want to have pinched so hard for the future that I didn't enjoy my time here the way I could have- so I am working to find that balance.

Things I'm thinking about posting are things like retirement savings- both tax sheltered and not- what kind of investments I look at, why it can be better to rent, basically aspects of personal finance that I haven't talked about on here but think about regularly.

As for the quality of life bit, that goes back to couponing a lot. One aspect of frugality to me is not paying more for something than I need to. $3 may not be a lot of money for shampoo or toothpaste, but I can get them for free, so why wouldn't I? However, if one product is WAY better than another, I'll pay the difference in cost, but I need to have reason. Like whole grain pasta costs more than the regular stuff, and deodorant that doesn't irritate my skin (Dove) costs more than the other things I've tried. I'm still going to get those items as cheaply as I can, but I'm not willing to sacrifice the quality there to save a little bit (provided I am saving a decent chunk, of course).

So, thoughts? It's going to be a little ad-hoc around here til I get the hang of this, but I'm going to try and be around more for sure.