Our ‘Attempt’ to Cut Christmas Expenses
Posted by Neko on Dec 16, 2008
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This year, in order to save money, my girlfriend and I decided to send baked goods to loved ones instead of expensive gifts. Most likely we are not alone this year as I suspect many people of having a ‘Homemade Holiday’ given the current economic uncertainty in the world. Here is what we did:
First we determined how many people to bake for; we settled on 5 families. To house the baked goods we purchased 5 medium sized Christmas tins, approx. 8 inches in diameter and 3.5 inches high, at 50% off from Hobby Lobby (~$1.80ea). These were a steal! We also purchased some holiday ‘goodie’ bags for one of the items we baked (Candied Pecans).
We then we set out to explore our options on what to bake and make an ingredient list. My girlfriend wanted to bake 4 or 5 different items but with how small the tins were we ended up choosing only three items: Candied Pecans, Peanut Butter Rollo Cookies, and good ole’ fashion Chocolate Chip Cookies. Now that we had decided on what to bake we set out to procure all of the ingredients. The Ingredients themselves cost around $40 and, having decided that it was time for a new one, an aluminum oversized baking sheet cost us $9.
Now the ‘fun’ part: baking everything. Being a typical guy, I am not one to enjoy baking; however, since I love my girlfriend so much, I sacrificed my Saturday off to help her with the ‘Bake-A-Thon.’ Personally, I underestimated the time it would take to bake everything, by a LOT. I suspected it would take us only 3-4 hours but in fact it took us the entire day! We were so exhausted form baking that we waited until the next day (Sunday) to package everything for shipment. We had to buy boxes which set us back only a few dollars since we already had 2 boxes. All 5 boxes were shipped out of our local USPS using 2nd day postage. Since we sent gifts to the children, shipping was a bit more expensive than if we hadn’t shipped gifts. The total amount we spent on Shipping was $56. Had we not sent gifts to the children we would have paid around $45 for shipping.
Total Costs
In all, we spent approximately $114 on baking the goods, packaging them, and shipping them out ($22.50 per tin). This really astounded me since it seemed like we should have saved more money then we actually did. Also remember that this doesn’t include the hours of personal time that we spent baking everything.
What We Could Have Done Differently
There are several things that we could have done had we wanted to reduce costs even further. Here are a few:
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Use nothing but ‘pre-made’ cookie dough for all of the cookies. (While we did this for the Chocolate Chip cookies we didn’t for the Peanut Butter Rollo Cookies)
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Stick to one or two baked goods, preferably ones with very low expenses. (In our case, Chocolate Chip Cookies)
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Purchase several pre-baked goods in bulk instead of actually baking and assorting them together in the tins to personal save time.
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Ship out the baked goods the same day that they were baked using standard ground shipping to cut shipping costs by about half.
In Retrospect
Looking back on the whole ordeal it seems like we spent way more than we expected to. The Peanut Butter Rollo Cookies were one of the biggest expenses since there were so many ingredients and the pecans for the Candied Pecans cost a lot as well. Despite this I am satisfied with our work. It makes me feel good knowing that everyone we baked for will get a surprise in the mail with something sweet for their tummy!
Photo Credit: Cookie, Anyone by scubadive67.
4 Countries Where The Dollar Is King
Posted by Neko on Dec 11, 2008
I got curious today and started looking into ultra cheap vacation spots. Then I started day dreaming about leaving the rat race and becoming an expatriate (or a ‘long term vacationer’ at the least). What I found was pretty surprising. While not at the top of my dream vacation list, below are four countries that can provide an inexpensive, excellent experience for the long term tourist. So if you are looking to take an extended vacation, consider the following places:
The Philippines
With scenery similar to Hawaii you would expect the cost of living here to be tremendous; apparently it isn’t! Just outside the capital of Manila one bedroom apartments rent for $125 monthly. A bit further out, three bedroom houses go for only $200. Despite the constant A/C use, monthly electric bills average only $50 or so. Public transportation is safe and highly affordable with taxi rides costing as little as .20 cents per mile. You can even go as far as to hire a ‘live-in’ maid for ~$50 a month! Wow! But what really makes the Philippines an excellent place for American Expatriates, other than how far you can stretch your dollar, is how most Filipinos speak near-perfect English.
Argentina
As a result of widespread economic instability afflicting South America, Argentina has become one of the most affordable places for expatriates to call home. Most everything there is amazingly cheap! For example, a ‘classy’ steak dinner for two with a bottle of wine and desert will only set you back $15. A night on the town dancing the Tango or simply catching a movie will cost you as little as $6. Best of all, due to a Cattle surplus in the country, Leather goods cost less than half of what they do here in the U.S.
Paraguay
According to the Annual Cost of Living Survey conducted by Mercer, Paraguay is one of the cheapest countries in the world. Monthly rent for a downtown apartment will set you back only $150 while nice, sanitary hotels are only $5 a night! While your wallet will thank you your liver surely won’t since Beer is a measly $0.60. Furthermore, traditional restaurant dinners, such as a steak and salad, go for $3. With prices like this who would ever want to leave?
Thailand
Just outside Bangkok you will find efficiencies renting monthly for $40. Since these usually don’t have kitchens, a 1-2 bedroom apartment with all the amenities Americans are used may be more desirable. Such units rent for as little as $75 monthly. If you need more room small houses rent out for around $120 a month. But if you really want to go all out luxury dwellings merely command a monthly rent of $235. The food in Thailand is good and cheap; one can expect to spend $4 a day eating out for all meals. Movies are 75% cheaper than in Argentina and Thai massages are only $3 per hour!
In the Background A Consumer Credit Crisis Looms
Posted by Neko on Dec 10, 2008
Andrea Coombes with the Wall Street Journal wrote an interesting article recently examining the likelihood of Credit Card companies retracting over $2 trillion in available credit from consumers in the coming months. She writes
“Already, lenders have cut back on available credit due to their heightened aversion to risk and difficulty in funding loans. Before the financial crisis, consumer loans could be sold on a secondary market and the proceeds could help to spur more lending, but that market has largely dried up.”
As a result, it is believed that
“well over $2 trillion of lines will be pulled over the next 18 months, the result of risk aversion and funding challenges, but also regulatory and accounting changes.”
It’s a very interesting article that examines why this is expected, how companies will go about doing this as well as the consequences we can expect. I highly recommend reading it. There is no doubt that repercussions of such an event would be unfathomable. Here are a few of my thoughts on the situation:
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Families that live day to day on credit will be forced to revisit their lifestyle choices.
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Consumers unaware of this change may incur overage charges and increased interest rates.
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Credit Card Arbitrageurs may incur overage charges if they loose their available credit buffer used for finance charges.
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More companies in the retail sector will go under as consumer spending all but dries up.
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Poverty rates will increase as people who’ve lost their jobs are unable to live off credit cards until they get back on their feet.
Personally, I am curious to know how they are going to handle people whose credit cards are maxed out. If someone maxed out a $5,000 credit card and the card company decides to reduce the credit line to $2,500, does the card holder have to immediately pay back $2,500? While I feel this is a valid question, I also get the idea that perhaps comapnies are going to reduce ‘Available Credit’ only.
I have always believed consumer credit to be a ‘sleeping giant’ that could potentially bring down our economy, especially when you consider that most economic gains, retail especially, are considerably made up of consumer credit purchases. Will consumer credit be the next bubble to burst? Your thoughts?
