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Archives for September 2014

How Much Could You Save By Cutting Your Own Hair?

By Frugaling 22 Comments

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I vividly remember the first and only time my dad gave me a haircut. I was in elementary school, and he got the ambitious idea to save on haircuts by doing them himself. We got a stool and went outside, where he promptly destroyed my social life with a botched bull cut/bowl cut that reminded me of Ursula’s tentacles from The Little Mermaid.

My dad was left in the dust, when I stormed off to seek shelter from follicular destruction. Safety was a sidewalk where I pouted unmercilessly. Dad got the message. From then on, we went to a proper haircut place (Notice I didn’t say salon or barber? Not really sure what to call them). It always had clips in the title: “Sam’s Clips,” “Great Clips,” “Sports Clips.” You get the picture.

The haircuts were always mediocre, but at least they didn’t function as a new wave contraception device. Each time cost about $15-17 after tip. To stay fresh and fly, I would go every two months or so. Conservatively, that came to be about $90 per year — but likely more than that.

It wasn’t until college that I got the brilliantly simple idea of cutting my own hair. After wondering what could possibly be so complex about buzzing off the sides and leaving the top a little longer, I decided to try it out. The first thing I noticed was how inexpensive clippers/buzzers run. You shouldn’t expect to pay more than $20-25 for a complete set, which offers different sized clips, scissors, and sometimes a detailing tool. They require little to no maintenance; albeit, they recommend regularly oiling and cleaning. In one to two haircuts they pay for themselves.

Get Your Haircut
This may be appear to be a mugshot, but I assure you it was simply a pre-haircut photo.

I purchased a Conair set, and began weed-whacking through a bushel of hair. I used a 3 clip around the entirety of my head, which made it impossible to screw up. By the end of it, I had already saved $15, time getting to and from a shop, and had an innate sense of pride in accomplishing it.

It’s been about 4 to 5 years since that fateful haircut. Now, I almost exclusively cut my own hair and/or receive assistance from friends and family. The savings are incredible. If you calculate the it at $90-100 a year (in haircut alone, which doesn’t account for time and transportation costs), I’ve likely kept more than $450 in my pocket since the switch. More money in savings, to invest, and pay off debt — what could be better?

The one major downside is that it’s never perfect. I’m limited in styles and sizes. Cleaning up the little, tiny, microscopic hairs within crevices and in between floor tiles is monotonous. I can’t say I enjoy getting to know the difficulties of cleaning hair off of grout. Alas, these are all but minor inconveniences to the half a grand I’ve saved over the years.

To commemorate my latest haircut, I decided to film it using Instagram’s new app, Hyperlapse. Hope you enjoy and let it inspire you to cut your own hair soon!

Check out another article, which highlights 3 popular grooming mistakes that men make!

Filed Under: Minimalism, Save Money Tagged With: clip, clippers, Conair, hair, haircut, savings

Healthy And Frugal? Hello, Food Co-Op!

By Frugaling 9 Comments

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Food Co-Op Out of Bike Wheels

There are moments in my life where I feel like I’m living in a film. The trees shine greener. Light flickers and casts friendly shadows. It’s cinematic, as if somewhat set up this scene — just for me, us. These moments hit me when I find a simple solitude. Sometimes it’s just a great song. By reducing my possessions, selling my car, buying a bike, and focusing on what’s important, I’ve begun to feel it more often. But there’s one piece that lags behind: my diet and eating habits.

The weakest point for the longest time has been eating out. Generally, it’s expensive, unhealthy, and wasteful. Not a great combination, but a great treat every now and then. Unfortunately, I struggle to make it occasional.

This is all despite watching countless documentaries (i.e., Fed Up, Food Inc, Super Size Me, A Place At The Table) about problems with industrial farming, agriculture, and the various health consequences of our fast eating habits. While I’ve never really had weight problems, my body definitely feels worse depending on what I eat. And more than that, I want to find a frugal way to shop that’s healthy for me, the environment, and the employees of said company.

That inspired me to turn to my local food cooperative (co-op). Co-ops are totally different from most of our capitalistic system. Most of the time, businesses exist to make the owners and shareholders exorbitant amounts of money. But co-ops exist — most of the time — to support the “members” and “consumers” instead. This shift of interests is reflected in pricing, staffing, and profits. As you might imagine, co-ops grew out of the 60s/70s and have a social bent.

Co-ops are present at many credit unions, where members are the shareholders, and even the popular outdoor/adventure company, REI. Sometimes, they pay special dividends at the end of the year to their members, too!

A little over two years ago I moved to Iowa City, Iowa for graduate school. I was in a bit of a food desert. The closest place was a little, local grocery store called New Pioneer. I didn’t understand it, and every time I went shopping there I paid a 5% surcharge on every purchase because I wasn’t a member. When I asked about membership, they told me it cost $60. Spending that amount of money from my budget — not even on food — was troubling. I was hesitant to drop $60 on a piece of paper that called me a member, and wondered why this was any different from Costco (where you have an annual membership due).

Just Coffee Co-Op Company
Just Coffee is a cooperative company that pays growers, roasters, and employees a living wage.

For starters, New Pioneer is a cooperative grocery store, where I receive a dividend check every year they make profits. I get to support a group of people that have more respect for their employees. As for my health, the foods are generally without artificial colors, flavoring, and creepy ingredients that are part of our massive industrial agricultural complex.

Since I sold my car, every time I bike over to the co-op I’m saving gas money and being easier on the environment – it’s a breeze. I load up my backpack with groceries, which are simple, healthy, and natural. Take a peek inside and you’ll find salads, fruits, eggs, pasta, coffee, and rice. They’re ingredients that suit me, my stomach, and are friendly to the world.

With my backpack full, riding home by bike is invigorating. I’ve minimized my impact. But then I think about my budget: can it handle shopping for organic and/or natural foods?

Well, that’s the exciting part about minimalism and my budget! I’m now saving $300 more per month by not having a car, and the food — simple as it is — doesn’t actually cost much at all. That’s what I call a win-win.

Have you thought about joining a food co-op or shopping at a local farmers’ market?

Filed Under: Save Money Tagged With: co-op, collective, cooperative, diet, eating, Food, healthy, new pi, New Pioneer, REI, sharing, Shopping, socialist

August 2014 – Blog Income Report

By Frugaling 10 Comments

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Important: Preamble before profits

Despite being a personal finance website and blog, I’ve hesitated to regularly provide specific earnings. Each time I’ve shared writing revenue — at 6 and 12 months — it’s taken me some time to deliberate whether I should. My revenue isn’t everything, and frankly, it’s been steadily declining since last summer. But while I made less revenue, I saw more traffic — the important metric to me.

Many personal finance blogs share their earnings on a regular, monthly basis with their readers. My fear in regularly doing so may come from an irrational place, but I worry that sharing this information is like eating junk food; the syrupy sweet taste goes down easily, but it has a vapid nutritional value. Last month, I decided to share those income stats and many readers liked seeing how the website was helping my financial goals. Hope these stats help in your own blogging/writing journey!

August 2014 — Blog income report

August was a rough month for earnings. Unfortunately, the continued slump and decline in earnings has not stopped. At one point in January and February of this year, I was making over $5000 per month from the site. Now, I’m lucky to be making over $500. It’s definitely changed how I budget for the future, and I wish there was something I could do to change the situation. Thankfully, my traffic continues to stay strong, along with social media growth. I crossed over 1,400 followers on Twitter, which is a tremendous milestone for me.

Google Analytics Screenshot of Stats
Here’s what my traffic stats looked like this month.

LinkOffers Affiliates
$485 (Up $69 compared to last month)

Again, affiliate sales led for income. Buoyed by two credit cards, Barclaycard Arrival and US Airways, I saw a slight increase in earnings this month. Over the last few months, LinkOffers has steadily cut the commission on credit cards. Consequently, this is much of the reason why these numbers slumped since the beginning of the year. I have not been regularly advertising affiliate deals and links, which may also be contributing to the slide and stagnation of revenue. I have some work to do here.

Google AdSense
$40.47 (Down $207 compared to last month)

Last month I had a hugely viral article that brought in hundreds of thousands of visitors. It was unreal. That spike in traffic artificially cause Google AdSense revenue to expand. Now, it’s back to more realistic values. This value tends to track around $50 per month. For August, I ended up moving an ad space to the beginning of articles to try to keep ads highly visible. Thus far, I’m not seeing any major revenue boost from this switch.

Amazon Associates
$0.20 (Negligible change)

Somebody mentioned that Amazon’s Associates program may have taken a big dive due to the Smile program. This Amazon initiative encourages shoppers to choose a charity to support. By selecting one, a percentage of your purchases go to that charity. It’s a great program, but it looks like it may remove your referral link. This may be reducing any commission possibilities.

Total August 2014 Earnings: $525.55 (Down $139.53 compared to last month)

Forward-looking statements

Last month I mentioned that I’d like to begin reviewing books, films, and media that help diversify the conversation about personal finance. I decided to start with a super ambitious read called All the Presidents’ Bankers by Nomi Prins. I’m about halfway through this impressive tome of financial and banking history. Thus far, I’m loving it, and can’t wait to share it with you all! Likewise, I will be writing a review of a new documentary, Rich Hill. This film is about severe poverty in a small, midwestern town. Look forward to those soon.

As for revenue, I’m not working actively enough to change the financial situation each month. That’s something I need to work on. I’ll likely revamp and republish a couple articles on some of my favorite affiliate links.

Thanks for reading! If you’ve got questions, comments, or advice, I’d love to hear it below!

Filed Under: Make Money Tagged With: ads, August, Blog, Blogging, Google, Income, LinkOffers, money, Write, Writing

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