My SHINY Nickels

Live Smart. Save Money. Retire Early.

READER MAIL: Hoppin’ Mad in Minnesota

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Occasionally one of my articles gets picked up by a major media outlet. My daily page views will spike to 15,000, I get some awesome new readers and everyone is happy. No, actually, let me take that back. One guy wasn’t happy. At all.

Canada’s national newspaper, the Globe and Mail, picked up my post “Your Starbucks Habit Is Not Why You’re Broke”.   I received this email a few days after it posted.  Maybe it’s just me, but I think I hit a n-e-r-v-e.

“Dear Mrs. Nickels / AKA Laura,

Put this in your pipe and smoke it.  $5.09 at Starbucks PER my wifes 4 PER DAY/& 7 DAYS PER WEEK for the past FU@#ING 9 YEARS.  That’s $66,882.60 ($20.36 per day/ $142.52 per week/ $570.08 per month/$6,840 per year) over the past 9 years!!

So don’t be so biased in your article here. Our cars are paid for….. BY ME, I don’t drink alcohol, and I don’t indulge in Bull$h!t either. We have NEVER had a vacation, we don’t go out to eat.  We have 4 children and a home to pay for.

On top of it all, guess what…….. I am the only income in this family. Take you article and stick it where the sun don’t shine.”

Brad S. –  Minnesota

Oh, where do I begin with this guy? No, seriously. Not sure where to start with this one. (I’ve decided to overlook the spelling and math errors for now.)

I don’t know about you, but my BS meter started flappin off the charts about 15 words in. Maybe his wife goes to Starbucks twice a day (crazy, but somewhat believable), maybe even three times a day (now we’re stretching the bounds of reality), but…4 TIMES A DAY, EVERY SINGLE DAY OF THE YEAR?!?

Sorry, dude. That’s just plain silly.

Maybe he subscribes to the belief that if he exaggerates enough, I’ll just cave and believe him.
But let’s get back to the tall tale by Captain Exaggeration…

“We have never had a vacation, and we don’t go out to eat.”

Again, are you kidding me? Are you trying to convince me that if I took a look at your banking statement for the past 9 years, I wouldn’t see a single meal out? No burger joints, chinese food, sandwich shops…anything? Even my uber-frugal friends still manage to eat out at least a handful of times a year.

There’s my dang BS meter going off again.

I think his goal with all of the inflammatory words was to get me worked up. And it’s true that after I read his email, I cried. Tears from gut-busting laughter.

I get it; he’s frustrated at his wife’s Starbucks habit.  But Brad, if you’re going to yell at me, at least stick to the facts.  I’ll pretend that I believe you for the sake of argument. $500 a month at Starbucks is pretty hard-core, but I still don’t believe it’s why you’re broke.

You poor soul, you missed the whole point. Should anyone be spending $500 a month on Starbucks if they’re in debt or have no savings?  Of course not.  But I don’t think Starbucks is the real problem.  It’s a symptom, but not the problem.

So here is my response to Captain Exaggeration:

Dear Brad aka Captain E,

First, thanks for the kind offer to stuff my pipe, but I don’t smoke.

A $500/month Starbucks habit is pretty crazy. But frankly, it’s not my place to judge where somebody spends their money, if that’s what makes them happy. My only caveat is that all other financial priorities must come first.

  • Downsize your house. We have four kids, and downsized from 2,600 square feet to 980 square feet with one bathroom. Don’t regret it for a moment. Toughen up.
  • Drive reasonable vehicles. Your cars are paid for? Great! Are any of them worth more than $10,000? Sell it and buy something else. Put the cash difference towards debt or savings.
  • Eat out less. Oh wait, you’ve obviously got that one down already. You already told me that you never eat out. * pause for effect *

The truth is, your wife is probably going to Starbucks to escape, not because she truly enjoys the experience. If money wasn’t such a stressful issue, she wouldn’t spend as frivolously to begin with. So reverse engineer that bad boy. Stop spending so much on housing and transportation, and start taking care of your financial priorities (paying off debt, emergency fund, saving for retirement).

Once you’re doing better financially, her need to escape to Starbucks will probably dwindle down to a more reasonable frequency. (Mr. Nickels suggests some marriage counseling as well. You and your wife need to get on the same page when it comes to spending and money.)

But even if I’m wrong, and the Starbucks habit lingers, at least your financial house will be in order.

P.S.  I’ll try sticking my post where the sun don’t shine, but here in sunny California that’s a tall order.

Sincerely,
Laura aka Mrs. Nickels

You Don’t Want To Know What Your LAZINESS Is Costing You

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Two months ago, our washing machine stopped working in the middle of a wash cycle.  It’s 15 years old, so we figured it may actually be time to look for a new one.  But if you know us at all, we weren’t going down without a fight.

After some googling, we found it was a simple 2-minute fix.  Literally.

How many people would have called a technician, or worse…bought a brand new washing machine?  (Strangely enough, just a few weeks later, some friends of ours had the exact same problem.  They were just a hair away from buying a replacement, as they didn’t really believe it could be as simple as we described.  They went home, and sure enough…that was exactly the problem. Saved them from spending an unnecessary $700. You’re welcome, friends-to-remain-unnamed.)

Fast forward to this afternoon.

We returned home from an anniversary weekend in Lake Tahoe, and upon walking in, noticed a slight chill in the house.  Which was great news.  Our super awesome Nest thermostat had sensed we were away so the temperature inside the house had dropped to 60 degrees.

And while 60 is not unbearable, I prefer not to wear a ski parka inside. And as I already said, because the Nest is super awesome, it detected that we were home and automatically turned on the heat to reach our preferred 69 degrees.

The efforts to unpack continued, and about 10 minutes later, I noticed something.  Or the lack of something, rather.  The heat still wasn’t on. I stood in front of the family room vent.  No cozy gusts of warmed air.  I went to our bedroom and stood in front of that vent.  No air flow there either.

So I went back to the thermostat in the hallway.

It did turn it on, didn’t it?  It says the heat is on, but there’s no air coming from the vents. Fabulous.

[Randy walks up to me as I stand at the thermostat]

Randy: Didn’t the heat come on when we came home?

Me:  Yes. Well, it’s trying to come on.  I can hear the furnace buzzing, so I’m pretty sure that at least the power is on, but no air is coming out.

Randy: Great.

Me: Yup.

We were home no more than 20 minutes, and we were already putting our DIY caps on.

I checked a few more things to help rule stuff out.  Does the fan/blower work on the manual setting? Yes.  Are the batteries in the thermostat good? Yes. Did we trip a breaker?  No.

So we knew it wasn’t the fan/blower, or dead batteries or a tripped breaker.

Randy got out the ladder, and I got out my laptop and started googling…

I googled “furnace turns on but no air blows”…

I found a few sites right away that gave a list of things to check before calling the HVAC guy.  After turning off the power at the breaker (of course), Randy climbed on to the roof and removed a few service panels on the unit.

Note: Don’t pay attention to the uncut grass. We’ve been gone, okay? I know you just looked. Dang it.

We went through those initial easy fixes, none of them did the trick.

So I googled the actual brand of our furnace, American Standard, which led to some forums on how to troubleshoot problems with that furnace brand. Turns out there’s a blinking red light on the circuit board of our furnace that helps diagnose the problem.

Me: [yelling up to Randy on the roof] Is there a blinking red light anywhere???

Randy: Yes. It’s blinking 3 times.

So I googled that, and it turns out that means it’s the “pressure switch”.  I described the pressure switch, and after a few moments, he found it.

Me: [still yelling] It says to disconnect the rubber tube that leads from that switch, and blow through it to make sure there is no debris or bugs or water.

Randy blows through the tube, and reconnects it.

See that big orange tube?

I turned the breaker back on.

I ran back in the house and switched the thermostat on to get the heat to kick in.  And we waited…then a few l-o-n-g seconds later…WHOOOOOSH!

Gloriously warm gusts of air were pushing their way through the vents…

IT WORKED!

Our house is now a balmy 69 degrees, just how we like it.

Why do I tell you this silly story?

  1. Fixing it ourselves meant we didn’t have to wait for a service technician to come out.
  2. The fix cost us $0.00.
  3. Not all service technicians are honest.  A “good” one will make the easy fix and charge you just the $50 service call fee.  But a “bad” one will make a small problem seem enormous and charge you for labor and parts you don’t even need, easily meaning a bill of $500 or more. And you can’t always tell the “good” from the “bad”.

So don’t be lazy.

The point is to at least TRY. When something breaks, gosh darn it, just Google it.  Or Bing it.  Or whatever-search-engine-you-use it.  Even just running through the “Top 10 Things to Check Before Calling the Service Tech” may help save you some cash.

 

Because the truth is that money should be invested, earning you more money, and not lining the pockets of Big Al’s Furnace Fixers.

Like I’ve said in nearly every other DIY post, we’ve saved so much money by not throwing money at every creak, clink and rattle.  Even if it means asking a handy friend to come over and look at it with you for a promise of pizza and beer, that works too.

Your laziness is costing you money.  Literally.

I’ve gotta ask, partly because I’m nosy, and partly because well, never mind. I’m just nosy.  Have you fixed anything yourself? How much did you save?

 

 

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Now for one last thing , just so I can sleep a little better tonight…

Disclaimer / Legal Mumbo-Jumbo:

DIY projects, such as those mentioned above, are performed at your own risk.

As with any do-it-yourself/DIY project, unfamiliarity with the tools and process can be dangerous. All DIY-related posts should be construed as theoretical advice and aesthetic inspiration. Improper use of tools could result in damage to your property or serious bodily injuries. MYSHINYNICKELS.com is not liable for any damage or injury resulting from the DIY projects listed or referenced.

Your Starbucks Habit is NOT Why You’re Broke

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I’ve just about had it.  If I see one more article/blog post/tweet telling me that I need to give up my foo-foo coffee habit in the name of finance, I’m gonna…well, I don’t actually know what I’d do. But enough already!

There’s always somebody whining about Starbucks.  It’s wasteful.  It’s indulgent.  It’s unnecessary spending.  Yeah, yeah, yeah.  But it’s about time the budget nazis get back behind the scope of their blame cannon and pick a better target.  (Wow, it felt good to get that out.)

Starbucks (or Peets or Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf or…) is hardly the reason why our piggy banks are empty.

If you’re broke, should you be indulging in foo-foo coffee? Probably not.  But is that the reason you’re broke?  Probably not.

We’re neck-deep in oversized houses and overpriced cars, and we’re worried about what coffee we’re drinking?  Why are we so afraid to tell each other the hard truth?  We’re spending too much in every area of our life.  Plain and simple.

It’s like we’re walking among the wreckage of a tornado, and starting the clean-up by dusting what’s left of the mantel.

The truth?  I enjoy a well-crafted cup of foo-foo coffee all the time.  Sometimes I’m on my own, with just my laptop and a latte.  Or sometimes I meet up with a friend and have a long-overdue catch up over espresso.  I love it all.  The aroma, the soft adult contemporary background music, everything.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. The key is to find what really makes you HAPPY, what gives you the most PLEASURE, and spend more loosely in those areas.  Then cut back on the big stuff that doesn’t make you blissfully content.  You’ll find you have money you didn’t think existed. Does the extra square footage you “had to have” make you smile each morning?  Six months in, does the new car bring you true joy?

Once you start prioritizing your finances according to what’s really important to you, you’ll have money to buy your latte and drink it too.

I Get It. We’re Different. Let’s Move On, Shall We?

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You’re cruising along on your sweet journey to financial independence…your debt is paid off, investment accounts are slowly swelling with the passing of every month, and even the flowers smell a little bit sweeter. Despite your commitment to live frugally, life is good. Super, crazy, wonderfully good.

But the truth is that not everybody in your circle of family and friends will “get it.” They will look at your frugal lifestyle and pity you, imagining that you’re suffering daily under the constraints of driving older cars or living in a house with one bathroom. “I could never live like that,” they proclaim.

That’s fine with me. Don’t live like that. I never asked you to. I won’t apologize for our choice to live in a sweet little 1,000 square-foot, 3-bedroom, 1-bath house. The occasional negative comment only serves to magnify how very differently we view money, life and happiness.

Our humble abode...and we love it.

Our humble abode…and we love it.

And while I’d like to think of myself as emotionally strong, I’m not. (Sorry to blow the superhero image I know you had of me.) I experienced this criticism first-hand just a few weeks ago, and because I deeply care about the person that criticized me, it stung all the more. At first I was hurt. Then I was confused. I didn’t understand why a friend would openly poke fun at me, because I had chosen to live a less material life. Then I finally rounded the corner, and…stopped caring.

I’ll live my life the way I want, they can live their life the way they want, and we can all go back to discussing the latest Pinterest fail, the NFL pre-season or funny cat videos.

We all have priorities, and every lifestyle choice has a corresponding trade-off. Some choose to spend their dollars on extra bathrooms and square footage, knowing (or not knowing) that choice will delay retirement by 20 years. Others choose to live somewhere that just meets their needs, realizing that retirement can be just around the corner.

To each his own.

“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.”
— Henry David Thoreau

Fist bump to you, Mr. Thoreau. I couldn’t have said it better.

 

Frugal? Yay. Unethical? Boo.

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So it’s been a while, eh?  I admit I’ve been squirrelin’ around with some side projects.  One in particular is a big one, that I hope to have wrapped up and ready in a few days, a week at the most.  It’s pretty big news (for me), but I’m going to keep it under wraps for now.  (I know, I know, I hate it when people hint at something and then don’t tell you.  Or put some cryptic status on Facebook like, “My life is over.”  Then crickets.  I really don’t want to be that person; I promise I’ll divulge more information soon.)

But let me get around to my real reason for posting.  I need to vent for a moment, do you mind?  Thanks.  During an afternoon lunch with my momma a few weeks ago, I casually glanced around the restaurant as I waited for my order to be called.  I noticed a man sitting to my left with a water cup.  Filled to the brim with…soda.  I know people do this.  He’s hardly the only one who does.  In fact, I’ve dined with people who have done the exact same thing, but it always makes me get a pit in my stomach.  It’s just that it’s, well, STEALING.

It bothers me so much, that over the years, every time I’ve witnessed this “unethical frugality” it’s seared into my memory.  Especially the memorable ones.

Like the time I went to an all-you-can-eat place here in town called Fresh Choice, and sat down near a couple who were finishing up their meal.  At least I thought they were finished.  Until the man left and returned a short time later with an overflowing plate of muffins, pizza and cookies.  But the next part is where I had to hold up my jaw, to keep it from hitting the floor.   This guy pulled out a top hat (Yes! A top hat!) out from under the table.  He lined it with paper napkins, and swiftly shoved the cornucopia of food into the hat.  He then bent over, lowered his head into the hat, wiggled it on snuggly, slowly stood up, and WALKED OUT.  Like Abraham Lincoln, with a week’s worth of food on his ‘noggin.

…or the time my husband and I were at Taco Bell, when a lady in a shiny new Range Rover pulled in to the parking lot.  She walked into the restaurant with five kids.  The woman orders ONE large drink and 5 water cups, and then proceeds to fill the kids “water” cups many times over.  She must have filled up that large soda 3 or 4 times before they left.

…or the person who will remain unnamed that keeps a fast-food cup in their car and stops in for “free” refills for months after purchase.

…or the person who will also remain unnamed that steals the towels from hotels, clears out the sweetener packets at the coffee station, and stuffs rolls of toilet paper into their bag.

One last one, okay?   The friend of mine who purchased a space heater at the beginning of December, and then returned it to the store at the end of February, just before the 90-day return period was up.  She was bragging to me about her “free” space heater. Aye, aye, aye.

The craziest part?  Some of these people actually think they’re some sort of frugal genius, who has found a “creative” way to save money.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME???  You’re not saving money!  You’re not “creative”!  You’re a straight-up THIEF!  I get being frugal, of course.  I’m all about saving myself a few bucks.  But if you’re so cheap that you’re crossing over into the land of the unethical, that’s just WRONG.  Does this bother anyone else?