Author Archives: Laurel Gray

About Laurel Gray

Ever since reading “Cheaper by the Dozen” as a child, Laurel Gray has been interested in efficiency and frugality, while still enjoying the good things in life. Parisian by birth, Virginian by upbringing, and Costa Rican by choice, she has been living abroad for the past six years. Laurel got a perfect score on her SAT verbal and holds a B.A. in English Language and Literature from the University of Virginia. She has written for newspapers, magazines, major telecommunications companies, and various websites. She is married to a frugal pilot who reuses dental floss and is the mother of two young children who are still learning to turn off lights when they leave the room.

Book Lending Options for Bibliophiles and Cheapskates

Posted on by  at  6:00 pm
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Last year, a friend of mine gave me an e-book reader, specifically a Nook from Barnes & Noble. I had been coveting Kindles and Nooks for quite a while, but was too cheap to spring for one. When I got one, I was delighted, but also dismayed at the high cost of e-books.

Unless Aesop’s Fables is your idea of a ripping good read, you will have to pay through the nose for electronic reading matter. Luckily there are a few ways to cut costs on electronic books.

Sharing e-books with Friends

Since my sister also has a Nook, I started looking into the book-sharing feature offered by Barnes & Noble. Lending books is the last thing that Amazon and Barnes & Noble want to promote, so they do it very grudgingly and with cumbersome restrictions.

Some books purchased from Barnes and Noble are categorized as “Lend Me” books. These books can be lent to another Nook user by logging onto the BN website and accessing the “My Nook Library” page. From there, it’s a few simple steps to lend a book to another user by entering their email address.

Easy enough, but books can only be lent once, and only for a 14-day stretch, with no option to extend. During the loan interval, the owner cannot access the book.

The Kindle lending process is essentially identical. Both Nook and Kindle apps are now available for iPad, iTouch, iPhone, Android, PC and Mac, meaning that you can also lend books to friends who don’t own a dedicated e-book reader.

Sharing e-books with Strangers

If you don’t have friend to swap with, don’t despair. You can tap into communities of readers looking to lower costs by sharing books on free sites such as ebookfling.com, booklending.com, lendink.com, and lendle.me.

There are also many book-sharing groups on Facebook. These sites connect lenders and borrowers and can reduce your book expenses by giving you temporary access to one free book for every “lendable” book in your e-library.

When sharing books with strangers, you will have to provide an email address in order to complete the trade. On the sites mentioned above, you can use an email address other than your Nook/Amazon email address for the transaction. It’s a good idea to set up a separate email address strictly for swapping purposes, as an added layer of protection against spam or fraud.

Sharing Printed Books

I know the writing is probably on the wall for traditional printed books, but I admit that I love the feel of the printed page, the heft of a good book, the smell of a musty tome. If, like me, you can’t completely let go of the printed page, then there are still some innovative cost-saving programs for the swapping of printed books.

The site booksfree.com has been around for quite a while, and is a Netflix-type book-lending program. Users add titles they are interested in to a queue the site sends you one, two or more books at a time depending on your plan. Books are mailed to your home and are returned using a postage-paid plastic envelope. There is no time limit or late fees, but they don’t send new selections until you return the old ones. Subscribers can even send in their own old books and accrue credits on their account.

The only downside is that the titles are mainly popular fiction; you won’t find deep repositories of history, literature, biography, and the like using this service. The least expensive plan ($14.49) allows users to check out two books at a time with unlimited rentals. This means that the faster you read, the more books you can rent per month. For voracious readers, this can result in big savings.

Bookmooch.com is a website that shuffles books between owners. This free service is based on a points system. Users post lists of books and accrue points by giving these books away to other users. The accumulated points allow users to request books from other members. The upsides of this site are that it gives a bonus for books sent internationally and has many foreign-language titles available. The downside is that you will incur postal charges for the books you send to other bibliophiles.

Bookcrossing.com is a cross between a book-lending site and a kooky sociology experiment, and was called “a modern-day message in a bottle,” by the San Francisco Chronicle. Users label books with unique IDs and then share them via a system dubbed “catch and release.”

The first step is to label a book with a Bookcrossing.com ID, then give it away to a “friend, a stranger, a strange friend, or a friendly stranger,” as the site says. Books can be lent to other users looking for a specific title (a “controlled release”) or be left on a park bench or in a coffee shop for a stranger to pick up (a “wild release”). The person who “catches” the book, can log onto the site and post and update on its whereabouts. Bookcrossing.com currently boasts over 7 million books floating around in 130 different countries.

Tapping into the Motherlode

Of course the public library is the most obvious resource for the frugal book addict, but if you live in place with an anemic or distant library, or worse, no library at all—like I do—then the options above can be lifesavers.

A huge boon for Kindle owners is also on the horizon: Amazon has plans to roll out a new feature called Library Lending later this year. Kindle owners (all generations) will be able to check out e-books from more than 11,000 libraries in the United States. That should be enough free nightstand material to keep even the most avid reader happy.

This article was written by contributing author Laurel Gray.

Home Exchange: A Frugal Quid Pro Quo

Posted on by  at  5:00 am
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What do Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet and I have in common, you ask? Aside from ravishing good looks, we share an interest in home exchanges. Cam and Kate’s new movie “The Holiday” follows the exploits of two strangers who decide to swap their residences in Los Angeles and England. I am about to take the plunge and sign up as a house swapper too.

I may be a wee bit travel-obsessed. I devour travel books and magazines and spend hours on tripadvisor.com looking at hotels in Suriname and Morocco that I will probably never visit. So when a friend of mine recently mentioned that she is a veteran home swapper, my interest was greatly piqued.

Simply put, a home exchange is when two parties agree to trade homes for a pre-determined interval. There are many types of agreements, including simultaneous and non-simultaneous exchanges, hospitality exchanges, and exchanges with a vehicle option.

Home swappers normally pay a fee to join a home exchange service, but there is no charge for accommodations once a swap is agreed to by both parties.

The concept of home exchange has been around for a long time, but dedicated websites have taken the home exchange concept to a new level. There are many websites dedicated to introducing prospective home swappers to each other. Some have huge databases of potential exchanges, while others focus on niche markets such as luxury homes or home swaps for singles.

The Upside

  • Cha-Ching! Your family can visit countless destinations and pay nothing for accommodations, beyond the nominal fees charged by the exchange service.
  • Local Flavor: You can live like a local by drawing on your exchange family for tips on cultural events, restaurants, shopping, and attractions.
  • No Hotel Hassles: You will be immersed in a community rather than being warehoused in a bleak hotel with impersonal service.
  • Free Wheels? You may be able to negotiate the use of the exchange family’s car, avoiding pricey rental car fees.
  • Convenience: When you stay in someone’s home, you will have use of the kitchen, computer, laundry room, DVD player, toys and games, bookshelf, etc. Cooking and washing at home are huge money savers and all the other items are gravy.
  • Camaraderie: You may develop personal connections and long-lasting friendships with other home exchange families.
  • Safety: In many cases it is safer to have visitors in your home rather than leave it unoccupied during your vacation. Home exchangers can alert you to any problems that arise during your absence (e.g., leaky roof) and their presence will serve as a deterrent to burglars.
  • Free Pet-sitting: Your exchange family may be willing to babysit your pooch while you are on vacation saving you expensive kennel fees.

The Downside

  • Time Suck: It can be difficult and time-consuming to find a suitable exchange property. The sheer volume of listings can be overwhelming, and factors such as location, party size, travel dates, and home amenities and quality can make finding an appropriate exchange a chore.
  • Ick Factor: It might give you the heebie-jeebies to have a stranger in your house or to stay in the home of a stranger.
  • False Advertising: Inaccurate property descriptions are said to be uncommon, but are always a possibility.
  • Tough Sell: Homes in resort or tourist destinations are obviously easier to trade. If your home is in the middle of a wheat field, you might have a harder time attracting potential swap partners.

Other Considerations

Normally homeowner’s policies remain in force during a home exchange. This is because visitors are considered guests as opposed to renters, since no money changes hands during a home exchange. Likewise, car insurance normally covers drivers that are using your car with your express permission.

It’s a good idea to check the details of your specific homeowner’s or auto policy or speak to your insurance agent before committing to an exchange. It’s also acceptable to include parameters for the use of the vehicle such as mileage or travel restrictions and minimum age for drivers.

Most swaps are simultaneous, meaning the two parties occupy each other’s homes over the same time period. However, there are also plenty of non-simultaneous swaps available, especially since many people use their vacation homes for exchanges.

A hospitality swap is when you visit another party’s residence, while they are home—essentially as their houseguests. The type of swap you arrange depends on many factors, including the flexibility of your travel dates, your preferred destination, and personal preferences.

Trust, but Verify

The entire principle of home exchange is based on trust: trust that the homes will be as advertised, that both parties will adhere to the stated timeframes and conditions, and that the properties will be cared for responsibly during the stay. Most veteran home exchangers report that the degree of mutual trust and respect is quite high, and negative experiences are rare.

The most important factors in ensuring a positive home exchange experience are good communication and thorough research. Exchanging details about the properties and researching the area to be visited will keep surprises to a minimum and leave both parties satisfied.

Where to Start

There are loads of home exchange sites on the Internet, but a few popular sites are:

  • homeexchange.com
  • ivhe.com
  • homeforexchange.com
  • digsville.com
  • homebase-hols.com

For newbies like me, it’s also helpful to get advice and tips from experienced exchangers. There are numerous blogs on home swapping, such as homeexchangeguru.com, which provides valuable insights and information.

Now for the hard part—deciding between an apartment in Amsterdam and a cottage in Scotland…

This article was written by contributing author Laurel Gray.

Are Your Carnivorous Habits Too Costly?

Posted on by  at  7:04 pm
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A few months ago, I purchased some lunch meat from the deli counter in my local supermarket…and then almost keeled over when I saw the price. The price of meat has been climbing steadily in recent years, but in that single moment my shopping habits changed forever. I decided to reduce my family’s meat consumption dramatically.

Ribeye steaks on the grill by WmJR on Flickr

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index (CPI), the U.S. city average price of lean ground beef has risen 43% in the interval between Feb. 2001 and Feb. 2011. If your paycheck has not risen at a similar rate, you are probably feeling the pinch in the check-out line at the supermarket too.

There are many reasons to restrict consumption of meat products, including environmental and health concerns. But for me, the pivotal moment was brought on by pure sticker shock.

A quick rundown of some common grocery list items (Feb 2011 figures from the CPI) makes the price disparity abundantly clear:

  • Bacon, sliced, per lb. (453.6 gm) $4.37
  • All Pork Chops, per lb. (453.6 gm) $3.48
  • Chicken breast, bone-in, per lb. (453.6 gm) $2.29
  • All Uncooked Beef Roasts, per lb. (453.6 gm) $4.33
  • Bananas, per lb. (453.6 gm) $0.63
  • Potatoes, white, per lb. (453.6 gm) $0.61
  • Broccoli, per lb. (453.6 gm) $1.89
  • Beans, dried, any type, all sizes, per lb. (453.6 gm) $1.34

These items are just a tiny sampling of the products we consume, but they are indicative of the overall price pattern. Sure, there are plenty of expensive fruits and vegetables (imported, organic, and out-of-season items especially), but if you can live without pomegranates and white asparagus you will come out way ahead by loading up on fruits and vegetables and minimizing your meat purchases.

To reap immediate financial benefits, you don’t have to go totally vegetarian—simply reduce the percentage of meat in your diet. Americans tend to eat about twice as much meat as is necessary; the recommended amount is about 50 g/day for an adult female and 65/g day for an adult male—less than the amount in one chicken breast or pork chop. With adult and childhood obesity on the rise, practicing moderation as a family and instilling healthy eating habits is vitally important.

Here are some ways to cut back:

Reduce Portion Size: Instead of cooking a meal with a chicken breast for each person at the table, prepare a large stir-fry with using one chicken breast and loaded up with vegetables. Prepare a large pot of chili with protein-rich beans and a small amount of ground beef, instead of inch-thick hamburgers for the whole family. Cutting back on meat consumption in this way is economical and your family will barely notice.

Use Meat for Flavor: Try a bean soup with a few slices of cooked minced bacon, or a pasta dish with a small amount of crumbled Italian sausage. These types of dishes are very flavorful but only use a few tablespoons of meat in the whole dish.

Skip Lunch Meats: Lunch meats and other highly processed meats like hot dogs are high in nitrates and other preservatives. Studies have shown that high intake of processed meats increases mortality risk. This fact, coupled with the often hefty price tag, makes this choice a non-starter.

Bye-Bye Filet Mignon: Substitute less expensive cuts of meat. Purchase stew meat instead of a pot roast for a satisfying slow-cooker meal, or opt for pork chops instead of t-bones for your next barbecue. Watch out for grocer’s specials so you can stock up on (and freeze) your favorite cuts when they are on sale.

Once a Day, Max: Think of meat as a once-a-day menu item. There is no nutritional need to eat meat as often as many of us do. Having meat with breakfast, lunch, and dinner is an unhealthy and outmoded way of eating.

Meat free Mondays: We can all take a note from Sir Paul and get on board with Meat-Free Mondays, a campaign launched by former Beatle Paul McCartney in an effort to reduce the impact of the meat industry on the environment. The MFM website provides recipes and encouragement to those interested in exploring the environmental, health, and financial benefits of reduced meat intake.

Triple Benefits

There are not many choices we can make that have the huge triple-whammy benefits that lowering meat consumption has.

Environmental—Eating less meat reduces your family’s carbon footprint and helps curb the meat industry’s ever-increasing demand for grains. The insatiable demand for grains leads to pollution, greenhouse gas production and deforestation, and also leaves insufficient grain reserves for human consumption.

Health—Reducing meat consumption lowers your family’s risk of cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, stomach ulcers and an host of other medical complaints, according to a U.S. National Cancer Institute study.

Financial—You can realize significant savings over the course of the year by making substitutions and changes in your carnivorous habits. The savings in future health care costs, while unknowable, may be the most important benefit of all.

This article was written by contributing author Laurel Gray.

Unconventional (Cheap) Advertising Ideas for a Tough Economy

Posted on by  at  8:35 am
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Whether you are a small business owner or a person launching a side hustle to supplement your regular income, effective advertising is key. But when the economy is in a slump and your revenue has flat-lined, it may be tempting to kill your advertising budget.

Windshield Flyer by Joelk75 on Flickr

Don’t Throw the Baby out with the Bathwater

Look for ways to cut costs, but never stop advertising. You can reduce your advertising expenditures without undermining your marketing strategy. Jay Conrad Levinson’s book, Guerrilla Marketing, published way back in 1984, revolutionized marketing for small businesses by focusing on unconventional, personal, sensational, or interactive marketing techniques. Now, more than ever, guerrilla marketing is the smart way to reach your target audience. The good news is that many of these unconventional techniques are also less expensive that traditional advertising channels such as the yellow pages, newspapers, and direct mail.

Attention spans are getting shorter and shorter and consumers no longer feed at the trough of formerly reliable advertising media such as the Sunday newspaper or TV “events” such as the Olympics or Oscars. Nowadays everything is fragmented, granular and personal. So your advertising needs to be too.

That’s actually good news, because as a small business, you are in a much better position than a larger corporation to connect one-on-one with customers. Here are a few ideas advertize your business using a targeted approach:

Create a Website

Every business should have a website. For a few dollars a month in web-hosting fees you can create and maintain a simple website, as long as you don’t plan to do any e-commerce from the site. Hosts like hostgator.com or godaddy.com have entry-level packages with DIY templates and that will have your business online in a matter of hours. Don’t forget to set up an automatic email signature in your email account that includes your new website, so all of your outgoing messages contain your URL and a blurb about your business.

Try Signage

A sign in your yard, in a window, or on your mailbox can be an effective way to advertise your business within your local community. If your business mainly draws clients from your local area, a tasteful sign is an excellent promotional tool. Check for neighborhood association or zoning restrictions before ordering, and make sure the sign you order will hold up to the elements so that it looks neat and professional.

Hit the Road

Have a magnetic sign made for your car to advertise your business. Keep it simple so it can be read even while you are driving down the road. These signs spread the word about your business, even when you are parked at the grocery store. It also helps you start conversations with potential clients you bump into while making the rounds.

Post Flyers

Flyers under the windshield wiper may be annoying, but they are an undeniable way to get your message into your potential customers’ hands–as long as you have permission from the parking lot owner. Rather than papering the entire parking lot, focus on cars that meet the selection criteria for your business. For example, if you have a daycare business, you can place flyers on cars with car seats inside. Note that the U.S. Postal Service prohibits placing of flyers and other materials in or on mailboxes, and any items placed in or on mailboxes are subject to current postal charges. .

Wear Your Ad

Print t-shirts or hats with your business’ name and contact information, and wear them—a lot. Sites like Vistaprint.com and Zazzle.com have decent prices for even small orders of custom merchandise. Wear your ads to school functions, to the gym, to the kids’ soccer match, and don’t be shy about striking up a conversation about your business.

Take Advantage of Free Sites

While no one likes a Facebook contact who relentlessly spams his friends, restrained self-promotion is perfectly acceptable. Create a Facebook page to highlight your business, and post periodic updates about new products or services, promotions or special deals, and recent awards and recognition. It’s a good idea to also post hints and tips for potential customers to create a congenial atmosphere of trust. For example, a CPA can post tax tips at tax time, and a photographer can offer tips to help customers with their own snapshots.

Promote your business on Craigslist or other free classified ads site. A few kooks may reply, but you’ll also generate serious leads for your business. Craigslist can be especially productive if your business client base includes college students (for example moving services or tutoring).

Avoid the Yellow Pages, Unless…

National and Local Yellow Page advertising is expensive, and many marketing experts think the end is near for this musty device. However, if your business if in one of the top-yielding Yellow Page headings, you might want to think twice before yanking your ad. The most frequently searched yellow page headings result in reliable leads and a steady stream of customers. After all, when the plumbing backs up, most of us still let our fingers do the walking to the Plumbers heading.

Go Viral

Whether it’s a silly youtube video, a guy in a gorilla suit on the street corner, or an airplane banner flying overhead with a pitch-perfect message, try some alternative forms of advertising to create buzz about your business. Like the saying goes: any press is good press, so anything that causes a stir and gets people talking about your business will help generate interest and new leads.

This article was written by contributing author Laurel Gray.

Tips on Finding Cheap Airline Tickets

Posted on by  at  5:00 am
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Airline ticket prices vary wildly, and airlines have perfected the art of bleeding every last nickel from their customers. If your summer travel plans call for travel by air, try the following tips for finding cheap airline tickets for your vacation.

Leverage the Internet

By now, most people are familiar with sites like Expedia and Travelocity for comparing airfares. But comparing fares doesn’t help much if all of the prices are still out of reach. In order to pinpoint the cheapest fare, try an airfare monitoring site such as Airfarewatchdog.com or Yapta.com.

These sites will track your desired itinerary and send you an email alert when the fare dips. Always select the “flexible dates” option to find the combination of departure and arrival dates that results in the lowest fare. Yapta presents the information in a grid which makes it easy to see how fares fluctuate from day to day.

Let’s Hear It for Wednesday

According to Farecompare.com, Wednesday is historically the cheapest day to travel domestically. The next best choices are Tuesdays and Saturdays. We all dread those early morning departures, but leaving on the first flight of the day (or on a red-eye, if available) will also keep your costs down.

Be Flexible

Be flexible not only in your travel dates and times, but also in your destination itself. Airfarewatchdog.com has a function that allows you to find all low fares from your starting point to a variety of domestic or international locations. $455 RT from Philly to London anyone? Using this function is a great way to liven up your travel planning—you might start off expecting Orlando and wind up in Barbados.

Book a Package

Many online travel sites offer superb deals when you book your hotel along with your room. On a trip to Thailand, I got three super-cheap nights in a swank Mandarin Oriental plus airport transfers that I used on arrival and departure. It was convenient, inexpensive, and gave me the chance to stay in a hotel that normally would have been out of my price range.

Sacrifice Convenience

If there are multiple airports in your area, check fares from all airports. Sometimes you can save a bundle by driving an hour or two out of your way (for example opting for MDW instead of ORD or BWI instead of DCA). You can also sometimes save by choosing an itinerary with multiple stops instead of a direct flight.

You will lose some convenience with both choices, but the airfare savings may be too good to pass up. These tips and more can be found on the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Aviation Consumer Protection and Enforcement’s website.

Stay on the Case

Did you know that if you book your tickets and the price of the same itinerary drops after your purchase, that in many cases you can obtain a refund? It’s not a myth! After I purchased tickets for a coast-to-coast trip, I continued to monitor the airline ticket price and found that it dropped by almost $100. I called the airline directly and they honored the lower fare.

Some airlines only grant refunds if the price drop is over a certain threshold ($75, $100, or $150, depending on the airline), but some airlines such as Alaska Airlines and JetBlue offer refunds for any fare reduction. Yapta.com now offers a free automated service that will send you an alert if the price of your airline tickets falls after you book.

Travel Light

My family has no-checked-bags policy. Whether we are traveling for three days or three weeks, we travel with one suitcase and one carry-on bag each. Not only do we avoid the misery of lost bags, pilfered items, and wasted time at the baggage carousel, we also avoid the hefty bag-check fees that some airlines charge.

If you must check a bag, then check the airline’s luggage weight policy online before you pack your bag. Many airlines have brutal surcharges ($50-100) for over-weight bags. Weigh your bag at home before you leave to avoid a nasty surprise at the check-in counter.

Be Prepared

Know ahead of time if a meal will be served on your flight and don’t get caught without snacks, unless you enjoy paying upwards of $3 for a few potato chips or a cookie. On-board adult beverages are also a rip-off—normally costing $6-7.

Insider Tip

When you are searching the Internet for the best fare and filling in your search criteria, you will be asked how many seats you are trying to book. Even if you are booking for the whole family, always start by indicating that you are booking for a single traveler.

Here’s the deal: if there are two seats left at a lower price, and you enter “four passengers” in the search criteria, the system will automatically assign all four travelers the same higher-priced seats, rather than giving you two cheap seats and two at the higher rate. It will take you longer to make the reservation, but if there are cheap seats still available on your flight, this technique will help you snag them.

The Unexpected

Planning a vacation in advance is one thing, but sometimes an emergency arises that makes advance travel planning impossible. If you are traveling due to a death or serious illness, you may qualify for a bereavement fare or an emergency illness fare.

Not all carriers offer these fares, but it is a good idea to inquire, especially since last-minute bookings incur some of the highest fares. Some form of documentation (such as a death certificate or medical records) may be required in order to qualify for the reduced rate.

This article was written by contributing author Laurel Gray.