New Low Cost Alternative To Flying - Kind Of
It’s been a while since I’ve road a bus somewhere. From what I recall, the experience wasn’t that great. The tickets were a bit pricey and I arrived at my destination about 30 minutes late. If I have to go anywhere more than 5 hours away these days, I typically fly. This may soon change.
A new bus service has just started offering low cost travel between a few major cities on the east coast. Boltbus, a division of Greyhound, is now selling low-cost tickets in an interesting auction-like format. The tickets will range in price from $1 to $25 dollars. The price you pay depends on how early you get the tickets before your trip. Unlike typical bus service, these buses don’t leave from a station. They leave from a predetermined location in each city. The buses even sound quite nice. All buses will have power outlets and Wi-Fi access, and some buses will be equipped with leather seats.
Currently the buses travel between New York City, Washington, DC and Philadelphia. Starting in April, that list will expand to include Boston.
Would you consider taking a bus on your next trip if the round trip cost was a mere $2?
Saving Even More Money By Ordering Auto Parts Online
Earlier this month I outlined how I saved some money by buying a radiator online and having a local mechanic install it. Well, I’ve once again saved a pretty decent amount of money by shopping online for car parts. This time I had to get a new exhaust. After talking to a mechanic, I quickly discovered that the most expensive part I needed was the catalytic converter. For my particular application, the price ranged from $200 to $350. That didn’t include any of the hardware or gaskets and I still needed an intermediate pipe and a muffler. Those numbers, to say the least, didn’t make me happy.
So I hopped online and visited the same site I bought my radiator from earlier this month. It only took me about 30 minutes to pinpoint all the parts I needed. I ended up ordering the following parts:
Unnecessary Grocery Expenses And The Need For Corrective Lenses
In our never-ending quest to find deals and save money, my wife and I shopped at a locally-based supermarket today. We tried the same thing last week with a regional supermarket - what a letdown. We were less than pleased and ended up spending more money than we normally spend.
Well, the same thing happened today. We spent about $72 when normally we hover right around $60 for a weeks’ worth of groceries. Close inspection of the receipt afterward revealed that my reading skills are less than optimal. We spent $9.99 on a package of 19 hot dogs! We never buy hot dogs. But the sign said $1.99 (I swear!) and I couldn’t pass up a deal like that.
The good news is that we’ve finally found a grocery store with reasonable prices on produce and poultry. We’ll return, but also stock our cupboards with items from the larger regional stores.
More good news. Hot dogs won’t be on the list for a few months.
My Wife And I are Divorcing……Starbucks
Like most people, my wife and I have some habits. One of our more expensive habits was Starbucks. That is, until we decided to divorce the franchise! We seemed to be giving more than we were receiving - a bad situation for any relationship.
Our typical Starbucks bill (give or take a little if I wanted a giant chocolate chip cookie):
| 1 small Chai Latte: | $3.15 |
| 1 large Dark Roast: | $1.92 |
| Total | $5.07 |
We didn’t go to Starbucks every day, but we went frequently enough for it to be pricey. Especially when you go a couple of times a week, then muliple that number by 52 weeks.
So we adjusted our habit. We didn’t drop the habit of drinking tea or coffee. We just decided that it would be cheaper to do so at home. How much cheaper can it be?
| Coffee Filters | $2.00 |
| Coffee | $2.99 |
| Tazo Chai | $3.49 |
| Total | $8.48 |
Now, instead of spending $5.07 every time we visit Starbucks, we spend $8.48 per month. Let’s say we were going to Starbucks ten times per month or 120 times per year - that would set us back $608.40 per year. If we enjoy our coffee and tea at home, we’re only spending $101.76 per year.
Sticking to our plan to divorce Starbucks will save us $506.64 per year. That’s a separation we can deal with. We can add that extra money to our emergency fund or to our savings for the house.
How about you - is there anything you can do to make some changes that’ll save you money?
No More Checks For Me - How I Reduced My Check Usage To Zero
Last month I ran out of checks and forgot to order replacements. I’m forgetful at times, what can I say? So this got me thinking - can I make do without paper checks? Well, I’m not sure why I hadn’t realized earlier, but the only thing I was using checks for was to pay rent. That means I would need 12 checks to get me through all of 2008. I went to the computer and started looking for checks. The best deal I could find was 2 boxes of checks for $22 plus shipping and handling. That’s a total of 300 checks - about 288 more than I needed. That answered my question - I could make do without checks.
Ok - so I’m going to save myself some money, but how am I going to pay my rent each month? To find out, I logged into my Bank of America account and started reading through the FAQs. Lo and behold, they have a service that allows you to pay just about anybody. Just fill in the name and address of the person you need to pay and the bank will fire off a check to that person 4 days before the payment is due. I wish I would of found this feature earlier. No more checks for me!
How about you? Do you still use checks to make payments, or do you let technology and your bank work for you?
How to Save Significant Money on a New Laptop
After six years of great service, my old Dell Inspiron 8100 is finally being retired. It was top-of-the line when I bought it, but it’s now an old dinosaur. It ran well up until a few months ago when the power cord started giving me issues.
After doing hours and hours of research over the past few months, I decided to purchase a Lenovo Thinkpad. I checked out all the popular deal websites to find the best deal possible. So this is what I came up with. I used my account at FatWallet to get 10% back from Lenovo and to have the laptop shipped to me for free. In addition, PayPal gave me $100 for simply using it to pay for the laptop.
| Laptop Cost | $1235 |
| FatWallet Discount | $123 |
| PayPal Discount | $100 |
| Final Cost | $1012 |
So I got a new decked out laptop at a very reasonable price. My laptop has 3gb ram, but only 1gb came installed. I ordered the other 2gb from Newegg. They had a deal running for a single 2gb stick - it was $50 with a $15 dollar mail in rebate and free shipping. Ordering the laptop from Lenovo with 3gb of ram installed would have cost me an extra $300. Ordering the extra ram from Newegg saved me $265 dollars.
So the next time you decide to purchase electronics, be sure to shop around. You could possibly save yourself a lot of money.
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About
Just Squeaking By is a blog about my personal finances and my quest to get them in order. Read more about Just Squeaking By
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