Yankee 2.0 : society

Should I leave my local bank?

Anne Cross — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 18:49:00 GMT

A while ago, I posted about an offer I got in the mail that would give me $75.00 if I opened a Bank of America checking account. I planned to do it, and just pocket the $75.00 and go back to my smaller local bank.

I finally got around to doing it today, and I find that bad old Bank of America has a lot to offer, and now I'm thinking about leaving my small local bank and decamping to BoA. I'm ethically conflicted.

My local bank recently went public, so it now answers to shareholders, presumably, more than customers. But, it's still a local bank, with about a dozen local branches. I like to support local businesses! I do! But.... here's what BoA has to offer: a money market savings account giving .85% interest right now (my passbook at the local bank is .025%); that "spare change" thing where they round up your debit purchases to the nearest dollar and put the change into that savings account -- plus they match it 100% for three months, then 50% (or something less) thereafter; and the ability to make transfers between accounts online; no fee for overdraft if it comes from savings (current bank charges $5.00 for that); and my mortgage (which used to be with Countrywide) is now with BoA, when BoA took over the company, so I could see all accounts in one place.

My hesitation.... I really don't like Bank of America. Back when I was a credit card user, I had one with them, and they were awful. I don't like the big bonuses their people got, and I like the idea of a small local bank so much better. But, but, but -- they're offering me serious cash incentives to bank with them.

If my current bank thanked me for being a customer once a year with a nice deposit of even $50.00, I'd stay with them. But I don't see that happening. I'm leaning towards leaving --- anyone have arguments to win me back to the local bank?

Peace of mind for $17.50 per month

Anne Cross — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 10:43:00 GMT

After lots of hemming and hawing, thinking and weighing, I decided to buy pet insurance for my new cat Jerome. He's young and healthy now, and he's an indoor cat, but most of my pets have had pricey health problems at some point in their lives, so I thought it was probably best for me to get it.

I wrote a post here a few months ago wondering if I should get it or not. I talked to my vet. I talked to other people. I read lots of opinions on the Internet. The case against getting the insurance that made the most sense to me was that if one just put the same amount of money in the bank each month, one would have an emergency fund for the pet, and if the pet never got sick, one could just use that money for other things. But the argument that refutes that is two-fold -- (1) what if the pet gets sick right away, and (2) $200 a year won't cover much.

So I got the insurance and now little Jerome The Cat is covered against accident and illness. The night after I signed up for it, I was awakened by a strange squeaking sound -- it was Jerome boxing with a bat that had flown into the house and he had someone caught out of mid-air. Bat and cat were un-injured and the bat eventually left the house, but I felt that really vindicated my decision to get the insurance. I do feel much more peace of mind.

"Transumers not really consumers" -- I disagree.

Anne Cross — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 14:56:00 GMT

I just read an AP article in my local newspaper about "Transumers" -- people who are transient consumers. They don't purchase and consume things, they rent or lease consumer items that are then passed on to the next transumer. Sounds sort of green and sustainable, right? It was billed as a new econonmy type thing. Well, the person featured in the photo and the lead off to the article is budgeting $800 per month to rent designer pocketbooks.

Here's the article: http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2009/06/29/ap6598975.html

Yep, that's right, $800 per month, every month, for pocketbooks, presumably so she isn't seen with the same pocketbook. What???? I admit, I love pocketbooks, but I doubt that in my forty years of loving pocketbooks I've spent a total of $800.00 Another example given is "Wear Today, Gone Tomorrow" where you can rent a designer dress for $49.00 for a week (plus a $10.00 cleaning fee). So that's $60.00 for a dress that you can only wear once, plus someone else has already worn it!

Is it just me, or does this seem like the ultimate antithesis of thrift? How is it that this is a positive reaction to the "economic downturn" (great depression two)? "Less treasure, more pleasure" was the subtitle to this article. Sheesh!

I get almost all of my clothes second-hand (just like those designer handbags and dresses are, if someone else has worn them). I wonder what someone paying $800 per month for handbags thinks about second-hand clothes? Does she really she's using used goods?

The article also talks about renting tools and bicycles and using Netflix for movies -- but these sensible programs were overshadowed for me by the profligate rentals.

De-tech, detox

Anne Cross — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 10:02:00 GMT

I realize the irony of writing a blog post about using less technology. But with that acknowledgement out of the way.... I think I've reached a tipping point with electronics. Everywhere I turn, people of all sorts are in physical contact with some sort of electronic gadget. Senior citizens in the grocery store chatting a cellphone, young kids texting as they walk down the street or ride a bike, commuters checking in with their GPS, parents watching their children's graduation through the lens of a video camera.... heck, the other day I saw a homeless guy talking on a cellphone while he was wheeling a shopping cart down the street!

So.... with a bit of a contrarian spirit mixed in with a dash of frugality and a philosophical yearning for "authenticity" (whatever that may be), I'm partially de-teching. For almost a year, I've had a blackberry-esque device: cellphone, camera, email, web surfer, texter, GPS tool. I'm getting rid of it. I told myself I had it for my business (which I'm "right-sizing" out of an office and into my basement), but I really got it because I thought it was cool. I'm going to replace it with a pay-as-you go cellphone to have on hand for emergencies in the car (not the "wow, I really want a pizza, let me order it on the way home" kind of emergency, but the "I have a flat tire" kind of emergency). Since I can, I'm going to port my business telephone number to the cellphone, so I'll have continuity of contact number.

I thought a lot about replacing the GPS function with a device. Although I lived 39.8 years without a GPS and got along just fine, it was kind of fun and it made getting places easier -- no thinking involved. But then I remembered that I like to discover new places. I like to get lost! I've found some neat places by losing my way in the car. So icksnay on the GPS. I am quite an accomplished map reader, anyway. One less screen in my life.

I noticed that with that handheld electronic thing, I would find myself surfing the web, checking my email, reading the news -- anxiously, hurridly, rushingly -- whenever I had a free moment. I thought I was going to miss something: an important email, a news update, a text from a friend....and on Friday, I reached a tipping point. It was -- it is -- too much. So I turned it off this past weekend. When I had a free moment, I played with my cat and dog. I sat outside and looked at the world around me. I cleaned my house. I did laundry. I read a magazine. I wrote (longhand) in my journal. And I feel great this morning.

So, I'm going to be keeping the computer and the Internet. I need it for work, and to keep in touch with some friends (although I do have one friend with whom I correspond by written letters, which is great). But everytime that I have a free minute and I think "oh, I'll just check my email" or "oh, I'll kill a few minutes reading Consumerist.com or the Dollar Stretcher or the New York Times" -- which turns into half an hour or more, I'm going to try to check in and see if that's what I really want to do, or if I can do something less virtual with my time. Although every now and then a little web surfing is a good fun escape like watching television. But having it in my pocket made it more of a compulsion.

This de-teching over the weekend gave me a bit of peace and serenity, and I haven't (yet) had any tech withdrawl (although here I am writing something on my computer to post on this blog, so maybe I'm in denial). But each time I saw someone attached to an electronic device over the past few days, I thought how glad I was not to be touching something plastic and electronic and ignoring the world around me. I'm going to try to spend more of my time touching people, pets, paper, and nature, rather than beeping, whirring, energy depleting devices.

And with that.... I'm signing off for now.

Career detour, fork in the road, etc.

Anne Cross — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 21:27:00 GMT

Three years ago, I started my own business. I decided to be a corporate language and speech trainer; I got certification in my area, did some market research, rented an office and hung out my shingle. I knew that I wouldn't be able to earn an entire living from this work immediately, so I hung on to my other work, teaching language as an adjunct at my local community college.

I love both jobs, and I love the lifestyle that being my own boss affords me. The idea of sitting at a desk 40 hours a week kills me. I knew that opening my own business was risky, and that even pre-great depression 2.0 only about half of all small businesses last even two years. So I've already beaten the odds, but things are sort of dire, and I am forced to consider working for someone else. One of my major corporate clients decided to do all training in-house (thus getting rid of consultants, like me, upon whom they had relied for much training), and others are cutting back dramatically, due to the recession. I currently only have one client, and my contract with them ends on July 1st.

I just finished reading an article in the NYTimes magazine section about people like me -- self-employed and flailing in the recession/depression/downturn. It made me feel less alone, but it also convinced me to look more earnestly for a "real job" working for someone else. I've been toying with the idea all spring, and have submitted a few applications. I even had an interview for one position this week. I consider myself a really good, hard worker, and my self-concept includes the idea that I can "always just find a job" if self-employment doesn't work out. Well, I think that time has come. I'm hoping to be offered the job I interviewed for, and hoping I can finagle a flexible schedule that allows me to still teach at the community college. Whatever happens, I plan to re-locate my business to a spare room in my house ("right-sizing it"), and laying low for a few years. The economy has to turn around at some point, right? Maybe after a few years of putting in my time working for the man (and earning enough money to live, having health insurance, and making some much-needed home repairs), I'll be able to go back into business for myself.

What I'm doing differently

Anne Cross — Tue, 19 May 2009 11:11:00 GMT

There have been so many stories in the news, on blogs -- everyhwere -- about what people are doing differently in the midst of this "economic downturn," and lots of speculation about what habits will last and what will disappear once the economy recovers.

I started living within my means over a year ago, and made many of the changes talked about in the news. I cancelled my cable, got rid of the Internet at home, went to cheap-o telephone service, cancelled my beloved artisan bottled water delivery, put all my electronics on power strips, and eventually paid off my credit cards (such a good feeling with all the news about increased fees for good customers). These are (I hope, I hope, I hope) life habits that I will always maintain.

But I'm still looking for ways to stretch my dollars. I'm going to greatly expand my vegetable garden this summer (we had frost last night, so I won't be planting until after Memorial Day, just like all the old Yankees advise) and do itas much by swapping as possible. I have set myself a $20 limit for plants this season. I'm sewing more to mend things that I might have turned into rags before (mostly pillowcases and socks).The home-made cleaning and health and beauty products are a huge savings, and I continue to research recipes for things I can make myself. I always look for free first, second hand next, and buying new as a last resort.

And I'm using coupons more. There aren't usually that many coupons I can use, but there are usually a few (some weeks go by with nothing in the Sunday paper for me), and when there's a coupon for batteries or toilet paper or some other common staple, I make sure to cut it out and file it in my little coupon file. The grocery stores around here have started putting triple coupon or $1.00 double coupon promotions on, so I make use of those and am building up a stock of those products. Plus, eggs and frozen pizzas sometimes appear in coupons. And I'm looking on manufacturers web sites for coupons for items I use. And I NEVER use a coupon for something I wouldn't have bought anyway unless it is free.

Lastly, I've started entering sweepstakes. I'm sure more and more people are joining me, so the odds are poor, but somebody's got to win, right? I always check my receipts for sweepstakes opportunities (CVS, Home Depot), and enter online. Parade magazine and Cooking Pleasures magazine also have ongoing sweepstakes, where you can log in every day and enter. It takes less than five minutes a day, and I could really put either a paring knife or $50,000 to good use.

I wonder what other frugalistas are doing differently in the "downturn"?

"Status Anxiety" book highlights

Anne Cross — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 10:42:00 GMT

I've just finished reading "Status Anxiety," by Alain de Botton. In it, he discusses how societies construct status and why (and how) members of those societies can come to feel anxious about their place in the group.

De Botton is one of my favorite authors, and I'm making my way through all his books. His specialty is a type of philosophy/social observation that uses examples from literature and art to illustrate his points, and he writes in "plain English" rather than in overblown and hard to understand academic terminology. He uses a great deal of humor to get his ideas across, and never dumbs down his message. I think he's great, and recommend him to everyone I know.

There were several instances in reading "Status Anxiety" where I thought of the Dollar Stretcher community -- one was when the author considers the meaning of wealth, and describes what Rousseau said were the two ways to make a man richer, "give him more money or curb his desires" (p. 42). I think that what many of us frugalistas are doing is curbing our desires -- rather than wanting to go out to dinner all the time or wanting to buy new designer clothes (or whatever society at large might try to encourage us to want) and feeling bad about not being able to satisfy those wants, we are instead refusing to want them in the first place, and in that way we are richer; we have fewer unsatisfied wants.

A second passage that I thought Dollar Stretchers would appreciate is this one: "One's ability to maintain confidence in a way of life at odds with the mainstream culture will be greatly dependent on the... value system of one's immediate environment, on the kinds of people one mixes with socially and on what one reads and listens to." (p. 277). As long as we have a chance to be in touch with others out there (through things like the Dollar Stretcher community) who think as we do, it strenghtens our ability to curb wants, stay free of debt, and have faith in our own values.

De Botton's basic idea (and the final sentence of the book) is that "there is more than one way of succeeding at life" (p. 293).

There have been film versions made of a couple of de Botton's books, including this one. You can watch snippets of the videos on his web site, I saw them on my local PBS station (with my transponder box and antenna, not on cable ). Although I'm a big library user, I'm buying de Botton's complete works -- these are books that I refer back to a lot -- I was surprised that the hardcover copy of the 2004 version of "Status Anxiety" was remaindered at Barnes & Noble -- $5.95.... maybe escaping from this kind of anxiety isn't as popular with others as it is with us frugalisti.

Slow banking?

Anne Cross — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 23:06:00 GMT

Last night, 60 Minutes had a segment about how insecure the information is that we send across the Internet. The segment suggested that 30% of all computers in the US are infected with "malware" designed to steal our personal information.

I love technology, and feel it has made my life easier in many ways. I was an early adopter of online banking (I've been paying bills online for more than 10 years now), and loved saving the cost of a stamp to pay my bills. When I was in a tight economic spot, I also liked being able to pay my bills at the last minute when I needed to.

But now, at least for now, I'm pretty okay financially (who knows what tomorrow holds for any of us), and I definitely have a much different approach to paying bills.

So I'm thinking of getting rid of online banking in the interest of security. I have never been the subject of identity theft (thank goodness), and my office computer is a mac (less prone to viruses), but I have certainly used wi-fi and multiple computers to check my balances, and I even have used online banking on my cellphone.

The story really scared me. For the moment, I have decided to take the remote banking application off of my cellphone, and to use only my office computer (a Mac desktop with firewall and a wired DSL connection) to access my bank accounts. But I am definitely considering going back to an all-paper banking system. It seems in many ways like a step back, but if it keeps my little earnings safe, it would be worth it.

I also set up an online-only savings account last year (currently earning 2.15% as opposed to my local bank's passbook rate of .05%). I have always felt wary about this account, even though it is FDIC insured, it just seems so remote and anonymous. I'm now considering closing it and moving the little money I've saved in it to my more tangible passbook account.

Does anyone out there have ideas or experiences they'd like to share about "slow banking"?

Waste not, want not?

Anne Cross — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 11:28:00 GMT

As I was doing some baking for my annual New Year's Day brunch, I managed to finish up a jar of ground nutmeg. I have a tin of whole nutmegs, and I was glad to finish off the ground stuff so I could switch over to the less-processed variety. A friend of mine was hanging out in the kitchen with me, and I told her it made me feel virtuous to have used the whole container. "Huh," she replied.

This friend (who is a fellow-traveller in trying to reduce debt) earns about three times what I do and has about the same amount of monthly expenses, but is often caught short on bills and definitely lives paycheck to paycheck. A little while after the nutmeg discussion, she mentioned that she would like to buy some new eyeshadow. I had some sort of reaction which led her to say that she didn't think that using eye makeup until it was empty was a virtue. This got me thinking about waste and want.

I do think that using something up is virtuous, and that throwing something away that is perfectly good is a waste. I have eyeshadow that I remember buying in 1994 -- it doesn't go bad, and it really does last almost forever.

As I've been becoming more frugal and mindful about spending, I've tried to separate needs from wants, and have tried to examine what I really want when I think I want a thing. Is it really eyeshadow that is wanted, or is it glamour? Is it really new shoes that are wanted, or is it to give the appearance of wealth and sophistication? And every time I give my hard-earned money to someone else, I try to be conscious that the same money could be going towards bill payoff or savings so that I won't have to work as much in the future. Certainly, I need groceries, I need heat, electricity, etc. And sometimes buying a new pair of shoes (or eyeshadow) feels great! But in consciously wasting as little as possible (by not throwing things away, by using things up, by buying just what i need for groceries, and cooking up what's in the fridge), I notice that my wanting is also reduced.

Digital TV conversion

Anne Cross — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 21:25:00 GMT

I bet I'm not alone in the Dollar Stretcher community as a person who doesn't have cable and owns an old televsion set. Over the summer, I sent away for my digital converter coupon, and recently purchased my converter box. Even with my $40.00 off coupon, I still had to pay $20.00 for it. I did some consumer research, and found the most recommended box was the RCA one, but none of the local stores carried it, so I got the second-best Zenith one instead. My local PBS station was switching over early, and I didn't want to lose it.

I lost some channels and gained some channels in the conversion. I only have very basic rabbit ears for my antenna, and I have heard it suggested that if I got an amplified antenna I would gain the channels I've lost. I don't really watch much tv, so I think I'll just keep what I have, unless I come across an amplified antenna at a yard sale or thrift store for a few dollars.

The reception is super-clear, but sometimes it gets pixelly and breaks up. What I really like is that my local PBS channel has a bunch of extra channels -- one that's mostly cooking shows, one that has lots of craft and sewing shows, and one that has PBS World -- with really great documentary programming.

So I'm enjoying the new digital world with my 10+ year old tv. It's kind of like having cable for free. There are lots of wires and things involved, and I have to unplug the box and plug in the vcr if I want to watch a video or dvd, but that's okay with me.