Power To Choose - A Scientific Approach

Here in the great state of Texas, we are able to chose our electricity provider. Sounds great, right? Yeah, it sort of is... but just like anything where you have a choice, that just means, well... that just means, you have to chose. And THAT my friends, is when the analyst in me comes out. Notice the first 4 letters of the word 'analyst'... yeah, I'm about to take it there. It's about to go from zero to full-on-nerd by the end of the next paragraph. 


So here's the thing about the whole "power to chose" scenario. Me as the consumer gets the choice in which electricity provider I use, so that means there's a bunch of competitive offers out there to chose from. My contract is up with my provider in May, so it was time for me to figure out what my next move would be... Either stay with my current provider or change to a new one. I received 2 offers in the mail for $100 and $150 rewards to switch, so I decided to assess what the best option was. 
There's a website called http://powertochoose.org/ that lists all the different contract offers by each electricity provider. The main thing to look at is what each provider is offering for price per kilowatt hour (kwh).  I'm no electrical engineer, but a kwh is the measuring unit that tells the electricity company exactly how much electricity you used per month. So the total price of your bill is the pre agreed upon price per kwh multiplied by how many kwh you used. Allow me to show you in an equation. Let's pretend your rate is 10 cents per kwh.


Total Price of bill = 10 cents/ kwh * 1000 kwh


Allegedly, this bill would be about $100 for the month. Right? 


WRONG


Yeah WRONG. Big fat WRONG!!!!!!!!


Why? Because there are tons of other loopholes and stupid 'gotcha' charges that have to be taken into account.
Let's talk about the first 'gotcha'. This is where the advertised price per kwh only applies when you use 2000 kwh per month. So don't be fooled by the advertised rate... In the last 3 years in this 2500 square foot, 2 story house, keeping the temperature at a balmy 73 even in the hottest months in freaking HOUSTON... I have NEVER EVER used more than 1300 kwh in a month. So this means that attractive advertised "low" rate is totally inapplicable to my situation. 
So what does one get charged instead of that nice low advertised rate? Good question. The answer is A WHOLE LOT MORE. 
Yay! Being green is awesome and it saves me a lot of money! NOT
In order to figure out exactly how much you're getting charged, you must open up the fine print, which is located on the power providers' websites. You'll see that there's a much higher penalty charge for using 500 kwh per month and a slightly higher charge for using 1000 kwh per month. 
Moving on to the next 'gotcha'. That would be the fee for using too little electricity per month. Yes, really... there's a fee for not using enough electricity.
Being green is good.... Being green is good.... Being green is good.
Maybe if I say it enough times, I'll believe it.
This fee ranges from as little as $5.95 to $10.95 per month depending on the provider and is for using anywhere from under 500 kwh to 800 kwh per month. A few providers just charge a flat fee regardless of the usage. Just a data point, I use less than 500 kwh per month about 6 months out of the year, so this fee would apply to me about half the year.
So now that I have explained the loopholes and fees, we can move on to the next topic: the historical electricity usage in my home. I have made a nice little chart for this.

So you can see in the hot months, the price goes up to around $120 per month, and in the cool months, it's around $50. Also, a little over 50% of the time, I paid my electricity provider's fee of $6.95 if my usage was under 500 kwh. 


For the next part of my assessment, I averaged the kwh usage over the course of the last 3 years. And I used that average to project my usage for the coming year. 


This first assessment is if I stayed with my current provider, Amigo.

So you see here that Amigo wants to charge me 9.8 cents per kwh if I used 500 kwh and 8 cents per kwh if I use 1000 kwh. Oh, and that fancy "low rate" they advertise? That was 7.7 cents per kwh. See what I mean about not really getting the promised rate? 
Another loophole that applies to this contract is that they want to charge me $6.95 if I use under 800 kwh a month. I've highlighted in yellow the months that I think this will apply. I've also added into that fee the $3.40 meter fee that every provider now charges each month. This is a fee passed onto the consumer from the power company because of the smart meters that were installed last year. You can read more about it here:
http://www.tnmp.com/about/media/2011/09-19-smart-meters-gulf-coast.htm
Don't even get me started....


So based on previous years' usage, you can see my projected monthly bills in the pink column as well as the "real price per kwh", which includes all the fees and the actual price per kwh that I will be charged. I did not include the taxes, since they cost like $1.50 each month and I don't know how to figure out how much they'll be. That my friends is called a "negligible" expense. Then in comparison to last year, I've done a comparison where I show the delta between what I paid last year and what I project I'll pay this year, if I chose Amigo. Note: "Delta" is an engineer's way of saying "difference". You're smarter now for knowing that.
Ok, so it looks like I'll actually be saving money this year if I chose to stay with my current provider, and I expect to pay around $847 for the next year. 


Moving onto the next provider... Green Mountain sent me a solicitation and said I'd get $100 if I switched to them. Here's my analysis for Green Mountain:

As you can see, Green Mountain's price is a bit higher per kwh, and they charge a $5.95 fee each month regardless of usage (plus the $3.40 meter fee that everyone charges).  The total electricity cost for the year is $971, putting it around $120 more expensive for me to switch to Green Mountain, even if I add in the gift card they were offering.


Lastly, I did the same comparison for Reliant, another company that offered me $150 to switch.

Reliant's cost was slightly lower than Green Mountain for 1000 kwh usage but wanted to charge me $9.95 if I used under 800 kwh (vs. Amigo, who's fee was $6.95 for under 800 kwh usage). Reliant was also going to offer me the largest incentive to switch, but as you can see by looking at the total price, I would only save $1 in the long run. 


In the end, I decided to stay with my current provider. And while this assessment did take a little while to do, I can be confident with my decision. Another plus is now I have it already built, and so next time I want to analyze my electric provider, I can just plug in the numbers to my spreadsheet.


What I learned in engineering school was right.... Don't be swayed by what seems like right answer. Do your work... let the numbers speak for themselves. 


Advertisements don't always tell the full story, but math never lies!


Peace, love, and happy calculations,
Engineeringirl

Frozen Yogurt Is The New Cupcake

Some of you may remember my obsession with cupcakes... the tasty single serving of dessert... the perfect match of cake and sugary icing... a wonderful vehicle for crazy flavor combinations. How I love them so much!

Cupcakes are still a love of mine, but I've started a new favorite dessert affair... Frozen Yogurt! I have to admit, for the longest time, I thought it was some kind of hippie dessert. I mean, really... Frozen Yogurt?! If you're going to eat the calories, why not eat something decadent like real ice cream or better yet, a cupcake. And who are all these dessert wimps eating frozen yogurt anyway? Calories, smalories... sheesh. And so I must admit my flawed thinking, because truly, frozen yogurt is the bomb.
You see, it's really Malibu Ken's fault... that California tree hugger recommended we try it one day (of course he did). So we went to the new frozen yogurt joint across from work. It's called Tutti Fruitti, and it was pretty much my gate way drug into the world of frozen yogurt. Tutti Fruitti stores are all over the place, so you should be able to find it sold all over the country. I think the first flavors I tried were chocolate and mint, and I must have topped it with something naughty like oreos. I couldn't believe how creamy and delicious it was, and frankly I was surprised at how naughty it tasted. I ended looking up the calorie count because I'm all, how can something that tastes so good be good for me? I found out that for about 4 oz of yogurt, most flavors were about 100 calories. So in fact, it was nice, not naughty... which just made it that much better.
So to sum up Tutti Fruitti, I give it a 7 overall.



Picture from http://www.tfyogurt.com/

 Moving on to my next Fro Yo (that's what the kids call it these days) experience, I tried Red Mango in the Dallas airport. BIG MISTAKE. I think I had pomegranate. It just wasn't as creamy as I expected, and it tasted... well it tasted.... healthy and watery. Red Mango is also all over the place. I wouldn't go back but hey, maybe it's your thing. Who am I to judge? (side eye, yes, I secretly judge you). I give Red Mango a 3.

Picture from http://www.redmangousa.com/

Then I tried Berrylicious, and this is when everything changed for me. Berrylicious is a locally operated joint in the area I live in. There are 2 locations, and they should really open up more... like on every block, like Starbucks. Because I could really eat it every day. At Berrylicious, they have tons of flavors all the time, and they change them out every few weeks. So far, I've tried the chocolate, cookies and cream, pistachio, mint, fresh raspberry, coconut, cheesecake, white chocolate macadamia, and fresh strawberry. This yogurt needs no toppings. It is that good. And finally, they have coupons. I give Berrylicious a 10. If you live in the Clear Lake area, you NEED to try this place.



Picture from http://www.berryliciousfrozenyogurt.com/

 
Next, Malibu Ken and I tried Orange Leaf. This is another one of those big chains, and I have to say, definitely the best out of all the big yogurt chains. I really liked their flavors, and they had alot of really different toppings.  I had the chocolate cheesecake and the white chocolate strawberry with no toppings, cause I'm a purist like that. I wished I had just filled up the entire bowl with the chocolate cheesecake after I started eating it. Malibu Ken had the coconut and some other healthy flavor... I did enjoy the coconut though. I have Orange Leaf a 7, so it's tied with Tutti Fruitti.

Picture from http://orangeleafyogurt.com/

Lastly, Malibu Ken and I tried Pinkberry. Pinkberry franchises are all over the place, but I just can't figure it out. Besides not being able to serve your own frozen yogurt or toppings, it seems to cost way more than the other places too! And the fact that it doesn't even taste that great doesn't help me figure out why Pinkberry franchises keep popping up everywhere. I ordered the chocolate swirled with the salted caramel, and I have to give it a 3.5 (slightly higher than Red Mango, but still not a good score). Malibu Ken had the plain with the cinnamon crunch topping and some shaved almonds. Apparently he felt very restricted in his topping choices because he wasn't allowed to top it him self. As a no topping kind of gal with no interest in meshing weird toppings together, I don't really get this, but I'm assuming there's some kind of judging that goes on when someone else adds your toppings.


Picture from http://www.pinkberry.com/

 So this is my synopsis of the frozen yogurt choices that are springing up everywhere. I know there are others out there... does anyone have any comments or preferences? How about toppings? Am I missing out by keeping it simple?

Thrifty Travels - How to save big on vacations and still feel like a high roller

Lately I've been doing a lot of traveling. This is due to the fact that my boyfriend, Malibu Ken, lives 1500 miles away. We manage to see each other about once each month, however this adds up to mega traveling. I've just completed my first trip where my airfare was fully paid for via frequent flier miles, so I feel like I now am officially an expert on the subject of travel. Let me share.

See, I'm clearly a trustworthy traveler... I take cheesy tourist photos in front of  Rodeo Drive signs in Beverly Hills, you should definitely trust me....

When people think about traveling, they mostly consider the major expense of airline tickets and hotels, and yes, this is expensive, but there are many other "gotcha" expenses that get added in. Airport parking, travel to and from the airport, meals out, convenience items at the airport or on the plane, and travel accessories are just a few of the extra costs of travel.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about the costs incurred from traveling to see my honey. Did I mention, he travels just as much (if not more frequently) to see me. Plus it doesn't hurt that I get to travel to sunny Southern California to spend time with him. Not to mention that we both are lucky to live in big cities, so we get to plan to do some really neat things duirng our visits. And we have both been blessed with great jobs that allow us to carry on with this lifestyle. But with all those bonuses, it's important that we handle our finances with care. We certainly look forward to many years together, and after this special time period of 'jet setting' is over, then I hope we have done a good job of using our money wisely and preparing for our future together. So after all that rambling, here are some tips we have learned in the last year. 


Pick an airline and stick with it. My bff of the moment is Southwest (and no, Southwest is not paying me to promote them... I don't think that 18 followers on Google reader really constitutes this blog as worthy of paid advertising). For flights from HOU-LAX, we quickly learned that Southwest was the consistently the best value for our money, and with pretty frequent direct flights, no baggage fees, and flights from HOU instead of IAH (which is farther for me), they are the big winners in my book. When I first started dating Malibu Ken, I made the mistake of searching Expedia and booking a trip with Delta, and although I don't have anything against Delta, I wish I would have flown that trip with Southwest, adding to my airline miles. Because... After about a year of faithfully flying Southwest, I earned a free ticket! Imagine me rollin' through the airport with my hard side flower print spinner carry on... I'm all "High roller right here folks, coming through..." 
No not really (maybe a little bit). 

I thought you would want to know what my carry on looked like, so here it is (the one with the aqua flowers). I know you all want one now, so it's from Overstock. 

Plan Ahead. This is pretty much the theme of all savings tips. But it really really pays off when it comes to air travel. I'm signed up for the Southwest weekly emails announcing sales and deals, and like the deal stalker that I am, I check every. single. one. of those dang emails and perform a search from their website looking for the flight I'm interested in. This requires us to plan about 3 months in advance for all our trips and requires us to re-book flights sometimes 2 or 3 times before we actually ever make the trip, as sales sometimes fluctuate and prices continue to drop (another reason I like Southwest - no fees to re-book). In the end, we average about $230 per trip on airfare. For a 1500 mile direct flight, I'm thinking that's not too shabby. 
Planning ahead pays off when it comes to hotels too. We end up staying in hotels a fair amount. Not in Houston obvi, but when we I visit LA, because it makes more sense to stay in the city where all the action is instead of the desert where Malibu Ken lives, and there isn't even a Starbucks (sorry babe, you know I love LA). We've also gotten the unique opportunity to be able to meet up with each other when one of us is on a business trip in a cool place like Savannah or San Francisco. We typically extend the trip for a few days for the actual visit since one of us is working (duh, it's a business trip). So this also requires us to book a hotel. We usually book the hotels pretty far in advance as well. I'll get into that process a little later. 


Do your research. Also, another common tip for thrify-ness. This comes into play mostly in the hotel arena. Here is our scheme. We go on hotels.com and sort on the hotels in the area we want to stay based on "guest rating". We find that the traveler reviews are better indicators than stars just because they are real people's reviews based on real experiences, not how many restaurants are inside the hotel or some other random point system that is used to determine how hotels get their stars. From the list sorted best to worst traveler reviews, I skip over the hotels that are out of our price range and open up each hotel in our price range starting from the one with the best ratings. The key here is to find the happy medium between price and and rating. When reading the reviews, I look for things like free parking, free breakfast, free coffee, free internet, noise level, cleanliness level, and customer service. When selecting a hotel, beware of fees for extras like internet and parking. When comparing hotels, choosing one that includes these things can save up to $50 per night.  I also look for manager responses to the reviews. It is a good sign when the hotel manager takes a moment to read the reviews and respond to the comments. 

As you can see hotels with virtually the same guest ratings have prices that vary greatly

Don't be afraid to ask. Once we have narrowed down the hotel we'd like, Malibu Ken makes a call to the hotel's direct line and asks to book the hotel at the same price they've advertised on hotels.com. (He takes such good care of me) We do this because we want to protect ourselves if plans change. Hotels are non-refundable or have a penalty fee for cancellations if booked from Expedia or hotels.com. So just in case something happens, we'd like to avoid these charges. 100% of the time, and sometimes after negotiating a bit (thanks, babe), we get the deal listed on the discount site. So far, we've never had to cancel, but you never know what can happen. 



Sign up for ALL the rewards memberships. Hotels, airlines, rental cars... ALL of them. And make sure your membership is tied to your reservation prior to your trip. I'm not particularly married to any particular hotel chain, especially because hotel prices vary so much. I just feel it's best to cover all my bases. We got a free night in Ventura (near the biggest outlet mall of my life) last year which we paid for by combining our hotel membership points for that certain hotel chain. We've learned our lesson by not doing this one or two times, thinking "oh when am I going to stay in a Doubletree again?". And I'm still kicking myself when I realized that I did indeed stay in a Hilton again on another trip. 
Another perk of the memberships is you get little freebies here and there.... free water bottles at check in etc. It's not a lot, but hey, who doesn't enjoy a free water bottle after a long flight?
Another place where this paid off big time was at airport parking. I use the preflight parking garage at HOU (there is also one at IAH) and get rewarded with 1 free day for every 5 days spent parked. Over the last year or so, I've earned 374 points, which equates to 9 free days of parking (about a $72 savings).


Sign up for Groupon and Living Social. As soon as you know you'll be visiting a city, sign up for  the Groupon and Living Social deals of the day. Sure, your inbox will be flooded with daily deals, and you'll spend about 5 minutes every morning sorting through them, but it's totally worth it. Have you caught on yet? SAVING MONEY TAKES TIME. Oh you wanted to save tons of money without having to lift a finger? That's super interesting because I'd really like to lose 10 pounds without ever having to exercise or watch what I eat...
So anyway, Malibu Ken and I have gotten some really sweet deals and enjoyed some very nice meals through these sites. Groupons, coupons, I got 'em all and I'm not afraid to use them!

Dinner in Beverly Hills? Ummm yes please!

So I think I've covered all the major lessons I've learned during this journey. Does anyone have any other tips that I haven't discovered yet?


Peace, Love, and early boarding,
Engineeringirl

Leave it to me to find a coupon for wine

QUICK!! What are two of my favorite things?
Those who know me for a hot minute know that I love a nice glass of wine... sauvignon blanc to be specific. And those know me for about 2 more minutes know that nothing makes me happier than a coupon or a sale. So combine those two and what do we get? 
Wine made of coupons?? No no silly. 
Wine coupons!! 
And who finds coupons for wine? 
THIS GIRL!

Let me take you back to last weekend when Ken and I were planning a nice jaunt up to Sonoma after a work week for me in silicon valley. Like any sane person, I was doing my winery research, and as I was finishing my thesis writing up my findings, I stumbled across a website that advertised wineries and associated coupons. Peeing my pants with excitement, I cross referenced the highlighted wineries that had a coupon with the ones I had already narrowed down to visit (or potentially visit - using a method we'll investigate later in this post). And yes!... Almost every single winery I had on my list also had a coupon!! I texted Malibu Ken (I think he was asleep, oops) with something like OMG I FOUND COUPONS FOR WINERIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




The weekend is over, and I'm still kind of excited about it. Or at least excited about the fact that we saved a ton of $$


So let me share the method to my madness.
I first started here at Sonoma Tourist Guide. I found the website simply by typing "Sonoma Coupon" into the google search. As always with searching for coupons, be patient and check out at least 6 or so links to find the best coupons. I think this one was found on attempt #4. Anyway, after I discovered it and realized most of the wineries I had already written down had coupons, I just researched each contender, looking for the same criteria:

• Tasting fees
• Winery features (view, picnic area, art gallery etc)
• Winery feel (stuffy, friendly, eclectic, etc)
• Tasting room hours
• Current releases - I mostly like whites so I wanted to make sure the had plenty of those on the tasting menu. You can usually tell by looking at a wineries current releases. If they are low on the whites and have only listed 1 or 2, then you can bet its gonna be slim on the pickins. 
• Wine prices - I like to buy when I visit a winery, so if the cheapest release is $36 for their Chardonnay, then it's going to turn out to be an expensive visit. I like to keep it close to $20 per bottle, and definitely under $30.
• Distribution - Because I like to bring home a few bottles (err... 12), I like to only buy them at the winery if I cannot get them at home. It doesn't make sense to schlepp home a bunch of bottles in my luggage that I can get at the local grocery store. 

So how does one find out this info? Well first, I visit the website Wine Country Getaways, which has suggested wine route tours of many California wine country areas. You basically just find the area you are going to and then figure out which trails will meet your needs. For this trip, we knew we were staying in the southern area of Sonoma, so I just looked at the wineries listed on each of those trails. Then I go to each of the winery websites looking for the above qualities, and as one looks good, I write it down. Next I visit Yelp.com and Tripadvisor.com and read the reviews for the wineries. As I'm reading, I am sure to note all the criteria next to the winery's name. You can get a good feel for the atmosphere by reading the reviews. Keep in mind, just because it's got a lot of stars, if it doesn't have the feeling you're after, then it's not a good fit for you. We like laid back wineries, and so even though some of the wineries had really good ratings, if the overall feel was fancy, then it just wasn't going to be my thing. As wineries make the cut, I either star or double star them. Double star means a for sure visit. One star means it needs to be re-reviewed before it goes on the list. Malibu Ken and I reviewed the stared ones and we made our final selections by highlighting them on the map we had printed out. Whew!
It looked like this when we were through.

Lastly, and most importantly, the coupons were printed out from the links to the coupons on the Sonoma Tourist Guide website I found, or I ensured the wineries were on an app that the website mentioned. An App? Yes, an app for wines. I know, this story keeps getting better...
Anyway, the app's name is Winery Finder, and it's AWESOME. 

This is what it looks like (bottom left corner)

The winery app finds where you are and lists all the wineries  with coupon deals

All I had to do was check in on facebook (per the directions on the coupon) and show the coupon to the winery attendant to get a buy one get one free tasting. At first, I kind of felt like a dork doing it (come to think of it, no I didn't, but I guess I should have), but I saw at least 2 people doing the same thing at one of the wineries on Saturday. Overall, we visited 9 wineries and saved $75 on our tastings. And THAT'S no chump change. 


Anyone out there have any tips on how to save on travel or would like to share their winery searching methods?


Peace, Love, and Tannins,
Engineeringirl

When Enough Is Enough - My Pantry Challenge

My pantry, it's a problem... Not the actual pantry, just the contents of the pantry. One of the things I like the best about this house is the storage... there's a lot of it, and the pantry is pretty good example of that. In fact, I can remember when I first moved in, I didn't even know what to do with it all. I had come from an apartment where my "pantry" was pretty much just a floor length cabinet about 12" wide, so this was a major upgrade for me. Well flash forward  about 4.5 years and I've figured out how to fill it to the brim! Between my stockpiling and my general "just put it in the pantry way of living", I've managed to stock it full of ... stuff... Not that it's not all good stuff. It's good stuff, stuff that I'm going to use (one day). But when is it enough stuff?

I think when it looks like this... This seems to be enough.

In fact, I think I've had enough. 

I know, I know, it doesn't look that bad. Well, you haven't seen the whole thing, and you don't know what's lurking inside. 

Allow me to give you a tour. We'll start on the left side as you enter. 

The top shelf is baking equipment. This includes the electric griddle that is used to make pancakes and things for baking like cookie cutters, food coloring, sprinkles and the like. 

The middle shelf is the baking supplies area. These things are flour, sugar, chocolate chips (and many other assortments of chips) marshmallows, and powdered sugar. Additionally, the carousel on the left has jars and boxes of extra seasoning mixes that do not fit in my spice rack on the wall in the kitchen.

The third shelf in this picture is basically the condiments shelf. This is where all my vinegars (which there are many), syrups, and sauces are stored. Also the little area in the corner is where my "bar" is. Right now, this is a half bottle of grape vodka (whaaatttt??) and a tiny bottle of orange vodka. See I told you this pantry is  a hot mess. 

I don't mean to eliminate this area of the pantry. Most of these things are staples that I like to have on hand.  But perhaps it does need to be organized... That might have to be another post.

Below these three shelves is this:

The top shelf has hot coca and other drink mixes, and the bottom shelf is my "stockpile section". This is where I stockpile things that I go through often, like coffee, coffee filters, garbage bags, and foil. On the floor is my onion/potato storage bins, my margarita stand (the goblets and pitcher are on the shelf above, and a crate of wine (I know).

Let's move to the middle section of the pantry shall we?

The top shelf is my stockpile of paper products (napkins and paper towels).

The next shelf houses things in boxes like crackers, breakfast bars, and granola bars. Next to that are the chips. 

The bottom shelf in this picture stores pasta, taco shells, couscous, and rice. This is one area that I've targeted for my pantry challenge. 

Below this we have the bottom middle section:

 This is also another "problem area". The first shelf is the canned good / jar area. And I have many as you can see. 

And the bottom shelf has drinks. I really don't know why I have all those cans of pop. It's a problem, it really is. And the Bud Light Lime? Yeah, that's left over from a party that I had OVER A YEAR AGO. Stop judging me!!     STOP!!

On the floor is my kitchenaid mixer and a bag of food for the food pantry. 

Next is the right side of the pantry, so here we go:

The top is where I have housed my take and go baking containers... one for cakes and pies and one for cupcakes. Next to that is my lunchbox, and next to that is a bunch of other stuff that's not shown in this photo (like wine bottle carriers).

The next shelf down is the breakfast cereal area and the dog food/treat area. Unfortunately the dog food and treat area has taken over the right side completely on this particular shelf.

And below this:

To the right of the cans is my cookbook collection.

Below that are my grilling tools.

And on the floor are Six... SIX gallons of water and a case of Dr. Pepper. The gallons of water may or may not be as old as 2007. Okay, I admit it, they are. Again, stop with the judgement. 

So as you can see, I really have a problem here. So I'm instating what I call the FOOD PANTRY CHALLENGE. This is very serious challenge which means, I am going to try to use up the food I already have in my pantry and in my freezer, instead of buying new (oh, the freezer, we're not even going there, but just imagine the cold version of this pantry) . I am also going to do my best to try to hold off on stockpiling until I feel a severe dent has been made. And lastly, the end result (and the treat for my efforts) is going to be a pantry re-organization including pretty bins and boxes to tidy everything up. 

I will do my part to share my results, stories and successes. Please comment to this post if you have any tips or stories of your own.

Let's start... now. 

Peace, Love, and expired canned goods,

Engineeringirl

$hameless $avings - It Pays To Shop Around

There are few things that I own that are priceless... Some of my personal art that I've created, a few pieces of family heirloom jewelry, some jewelry that's not heirloom but that means a great deal to me, and of course my Oscars. No no no, not those Oscars....  

These Oscars

Oscar de la Renta, that is. Shoes not statues. They're the most beautiful pair of shoes I own. I got them on sale 8 years ago or so at Saks Fifth Avenue Outlet. They're a timeless treasure. Other than that, if push came to shove, or hurricane season required (because that did happen a little over 3 years ago), I could pretty much leave everything else behind. And here's one last thing I would load up in my car during hurricane evacuation...

My most precious possession, Lola.

I've always tried to take the best care of her ... getting her the nicest (most expensive) holistic dog food and treats (heck, I think this dog eats better than I do sometimes), giving her nice showers with extra special pet shampoos, furnishing her with memory foam beds that are easy on her joints, and buying her $20/bag dental chews which she has 1 each week. Lastly I've always made sure she has her heartworm and flee prescriptions on time each month for which she must receive her annual physical each year. 


Needless to say, taking care of a dog is not to be taken lightly... it's a time consuming (and pricey) task. Namely, her yearly physical has cost me on average $130 each year, which includes required shots and physical workup (depending on shots required each year). I liked the vet at the clinic we went to well enough, but I started to feel like things were just a little pricey, especially when it came to teeth cleanings, which are very important as dogs age. Each year, I went back and forth on the teeth cleanings, thinking okay, I'll do it this year. But honestly, the $600 my vet was quoting me for a teeth cleaning felt like a whole lot to spend. Lola's last teeth cleaning was in Sept 2009 (to the tune of $606), so she hadn't had one in a little over 2 years. She goes for her yearly appointments at the start of each year, and so this year, I wasn't going to delay the teeth cleanings any more. I started asking my friends who had pets what their pet expenses were. My friend Jaime said her vet charged MUCH less for cleanings and I decided to do a little digging. 


Since the vets usually require a pre-cleaning appointment to check out the dog, I decided if I was going to make the switch to a different vet, the annual appointment would be the best time. This way, I would save on the pre-cleaning appointment, accomplishing that at the same time as the annual appointment. This eliminates one office visit and saves $50, which is how much it costs per vet appointment. 


My first step was to call the potential new vet and to explain to them that I'd like to switch vets because of a referral from a friend and ask them about their pricing for cleanings. This was to make sure that if I was going to make the switch, I would really end up saving money. Sometimes vets and doctors don't like to quote things over the phone as it is difficult to make quotes with out actually seeing the patient, and they don't want to get stuck quoting a price they can't follow through with if the situation is worse than expected. I get that way of thinking, so I made sure to state that I knew that this would just be a generalization and that I wouldn't take it as a direct quote if Lola's condition ended up being different. Doctors and vets love it when they get referrals. This is how they get a big percentage of new patients, so I knew if I threw that in there, along with an understanding attitude toward the quote, I'd have a good chance at getting the office to tell me about the pricing. Sure enough, I was quoted $225 for a cleaning on a large dog like Lola. Of course, I could expect to pay more for extractions. Well that was good enough for me. We made our appointment for a yearly physical, which was today. 


What I actually found out today is that this vet is a whole lot cheaper than my old vet, which makes me VERY happy.  And it's closer to home, so that's a definite plus. 


Now let's compare apples to apples. Vet 1 is our old vet and Vet 2 is the new one.


Vet 1                                                                           Vet 2
Exam $49                                                                  Exam $49
Heartworm Test $39                                               Heartworm Test $25.75
Intestinal Parasite Screen $32                               Intestinal Parasite Screen $14.75
Nail Clipping $0                                                        Nail Clipping $5
Total $120                                                                 Total $94.50


So just by switching vets, I've saved $25.50, not to mention the extra gas money I've saved by going to a vet closer to home. 


Lola's teeth cleaning is scheduled for next Monday, and she's on an antibiotic from the next week to clear up a little infection she has in her back molars. This cost me $19.80 today, and so I'll add that to her teeth cleaning total for vet 2. Here's how the teeth cleaning is broken down. I'll be using the paper work from the 2009 teeth cleaning at vet 1 to compare with the quotes I was given today by vet 2. 


Vet 1                                                                            Vet 2
Cleaning + Anesthesia $433.10                              Cleaning + Anesthesia $225
2 Tooth extractions $144                                        2 Potential Tooth extractions $110
Pain Meds to take home $29.65                            Pain Meds to take home $30
Total $606.75                                                           Antibiotics $19.80
                                                                                    Total $384.80
                                                                                    
Wow. I'll be saving about $220! I'm pretty excited about it! Now we'll just have to see how it all works out. Fingers crossed that nothing unexpected happens during the cleaning. I expect my very precious cargo to be around for many more years to come!

That's not Lola, I just couldn't resist the urge to use this picture.

Peace, Love, and fresh breath smells,
Engineeringirl

$hameless $avings - Why Phone Insurance Is For Suckers (Or Really Clumsy People)

About a year and a half ago, my life changed... 

I introduce you to EVO.

I know it's just a phone, and to say that it changed my life... well, I guess that sounds a little dramatic. But really, it changed the way I communicate. You see, before EVO, I had a Blackberry. And when I got the Blackberry in 2008, I thought I was pretty cool. I was able to type out text messages really fast with the neat keyboard underneath, and I was able to get on the Internet from my phone (a feature that I had never been able to do before). I even was able to use Blackberry Messaging (BBM) to message with my friends. Now that may sound like a lot of neat stuff but man oh man, none of that compares to what EVO could do. Here's the way I think about EVO... when I got it, I didn't even know about all the capabilities it had, but now that I know what it can do, it's like I needed my phone to be able to do things that I never even knew I needed... Yeah, I know that's pretty deep... just go with it. 

So let's flash back to August 2010 at the Sprint Store when I'm getting my EVO. 

Sprint Guy: Ma'am would you like to get the insurance on your phone? It's only $7/month and it's going to cover everything.

Me: So, I could drop it in the toilet, and bring it in here and you'll replace it for free?

Sprint Guy: Yes, ma'am

Me: Sure

Okay, so you see what happened there? I signed up for something that cost $7 / month thinking oh it's no big deal, it's only $7 each month and heaven forbid I should drop it in the toilet, crack the screen or get it stolen at 'da klub. I don't want to have an accident with my phone and then have to pay to replace it. At the time, the EVO had just come out, and they were going for like $600. After all, I had to pay $200 for it and sign an new 2 year contract when the old contract expired and I replaced my Blackberry. 

What I didn't think about was the fact that $7 each month adds up to be $84 over the course of the year and $168 over the course of 2 years! The life cycle of a phone is about 2 years because that's when your contract expires and you are eligible to get a brand new phone at the lowest cost offered (usually $100-200). So after 2 years, I would have payed almost double  the initial price of the phone just to have insurance!!?? Another thing I didn't consider was the likelihood that any of those above 3 things would happen. In the course of having my Blackberry for 2 years, I had never dropped it in the toilet, cracked the screen, or gotten it stolen. This isn't college where you get your hot pink faux lizard skin purse stolen in 'da klub because you were dancing with your friends and lost track of where your purse was (that may or may have not happened to yours truly almost 10 years ago).  Also, spell check accepts "'da" as a real word... interesting. But I digress, $168 is just not worth it to me to protect against the event that I am clumsy or stupid. 

So flash forward to April of 2011, and I've had my precious EVO about 9 months. And exactly zero cracked screens, toilet damage or robbery experiences have occurred, mind you.  I get a letter in the mail informing me that my insurance that I had been paying $7 for is now increasing to $8. WTF!! Okay, NOW I've had it. I cancelled the insurance, and now I'm out $63 for my stupidity and irrational fears about dropping my phone in the toilet.  But at least I didn't continue to pay for it because you know how much that would have cost me? $183 over the course of 2 years. NOT DOING IT. 

We are now in January of this year, and I've been experiencing lots of fun times with my phone. Namely, it turns itself on and off for about 30 minutes every time I try to play Words With Friends for more than 2 moves (WWF for those "in the know"). If you don't know about it, you should. I take it into the store, and it goes something like this.

Sprint chick: Ma'am we don't know why your phone is doing that, but our technicians say it's an issue that's been reported before so it's just something wrong with the phone. We can get you a new one, but it's going to cost you $35 because you don't have the insurance. 

Me: Umm okay, that's cool (quickly calculating that $35 equals about 4 months of insurance payments)

Sprint chick: So I'll add the insurance to your plan so we can avoid this in the future. 

Me: No lady, I do not want the insurance! What do you think I am some kind of idiot? All I have to do for the next 5 months is not F up my phone. (Since that's when my contract expires). NO THANK YOU. 

(Okay I didn't really say that, but that's what I was thinking.)

Sprint chick: Okay ma'am, I'll go ahead and place that order. 

So what we've learned today is, it is not worth it to purchase the insurance. If there is an issue with your phone that arises that was not caused by you (ie. not exterior damage or theft), the phone will be repaired or replaced for a small fee, in this case $35. Unless you are accident prone when it comes to your phone, do not get scammed by the phone companies. 

Engineeringirl