frugalinvestor-blog

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Saving money with gift cards

We discussed in the last post how to save some money with credit card rewards. That's not the only way to save some money. There are also gift cards.

Gift card marketplace

Have you ever had a gift card that you don't have any use for? Me neither. But there are some people who just don't want their gift cards and are willing to sell them for a discount. That's great news for us.

I typically buy target gift cards at a discount of 6% to 8% online. There are plenty of them available. Not just target. Pretty much any store that has gift cards. Some of them at a sizable discount. You can also use your cash back rewards card to get even more discounts.

Take an example target gift card worth $50 at a discount of 6%. You get it for $47. Assuming you get 2% cash back, you save approximately $4. Nearly 8% savings. That's not something to scoff at.

Where to find these gift cards?

I typically use the following websites to buy the gift cards:

Gift card granny

Card flip

Gift card zen

Do you use gift cards to save on some purchases? Hit me up with comments.

[frugalinvestor-blog]

Credit card rewards

There are a multitude of websites detailing how to use credit card rewards to get free stuff. I am just going to give some basics here and a few credit cards I recommend/use.

Warnings first. If you open too many credit cards in quick succession, your credit score will take a hit. So, if you are planning some big purchases for which you need a good credit score, hold off on the experiments.

There are basically two types of credit cards rewards: Cash back rewards or Some kind of points system. I will go over the simple Cash back rewards program today. Most companies offer a cash back rewards card for free these days. Way it works is this: you spend $X and you get back Y% of $X. Y varies with the kind of credit card. It is free money. So, why won’t you get one?

Bank of America used to have a pretty meh cash back card. But, they recently upped their game. You get 2% off in Grocery stores and Wholesale shops. And 3% off in one category of your choice (online shopping, dining or gas). And 1% off the rest of the stuff. And if you choose to get the rewards into your Bofa checking account, you get 10% more rewards. That is a sweet deal.

There is also the Fidelity Rewards Visa Signature Card. This gives a sweet 2% flat cash back on all purchases. Small catch: you have to get the rewards into your (free) brokerage account. I have personally not used this card since I have too many already. But, if you are starting new, then you should get one of these bad boys.

Chase is well known for their great credit card rewards. I especially like their Chase Freedom credit cards (5% on rotating categories). Chase Freedom can nicely supplement your Bofa card.

Finally, if you are a Costco member (if you are not, see why you should be one), their Citi Anywhere card has one of the best rewards. It comes free with a Costco membership.

So, what is the ideal combination if you have some of these cards? I like this combination (where you just need two cards):

Citi Anywhere card (4% cashback on Gas)

Citi Anywhere card (3% cashback on Travel and Dining)

Bank of America cash rewards (3% Online shopping category)

Bank of America cash rewards (2% Grocery and Wholesale)

Great part about these two cards is that they are totally free. As in free money.

If you are ok with spending some money every year in fees (you can get it back technically), you can get one of these [American Express Blue Cash Preferred cards](https://www.americanexpress.com/us/credit-cards/card/blue-cash-preferred]. This gives you a whopping 6% cash back on US supermarket purchases (upto $6000). If you buy gift cards for your other shopping needs from these supermarkets, you can pretty much get 6% off everything. You do need to pay a $95 fee. If you hit the $6000 limit, you get $360 large enough to cover your $95 fee.

[frugalinvestor-blog]

A zero dollar phone bill

I used to shell out a lot of money to Verizon for my monthly phone bill. Not any more. There is a new player in town and they only charge $0 (conditions apply).

Xfinity (previously Comcast) has launched their mobile service which charges $12/GB per month. You don’t have to pay a “smartphone” fee or any other fees if you are already using Xfinity internet service. If not, you pay an additional $10. Lucky for me, I am already using them.

So, how do you get a $0 bill you ask? First 100 MB every month is free. That is how.

Tricks to save on data

First trick is to simply to turn off “Cellular data” on your iPhone. So, how do I get by? Most of the time, I am in a place where I have Wi-Fi (home or work). For other times, my device automatically connects millions of Xfinity hotspots available throughout the nation.

If you are a Google Maps user, download offline maps for your city. This should save quite a bit on data.

Install an offline reading app like Pocket that can help you make of use of time more wisely while you are waiting in a, say, grocery line.

All the video streaming services now offer some offline download options. So, even if you want to waste time, you can do it.

Don’t forget to monitor your data usage. I reset my “data usage statistics” at the start of a month so I can keep track of my 100MB quota.

Worst case, if there is no internet and I absolutely need it, I turn it on for a short period of time (carefully enabling Cellular data for only the App I am currently using).

Gotchas

There are some gotchas, as it is always with life.

You have to pay a $10 monthly fee if you are not an Xfinity internet user

You need an existing iPhone (6 or newer) if you want to bring your own phone

Technically, you just need it for the registration. After that you can sim swap it to any Verizon phone. So, find a good friend who will loan you his phone for a bit.

Their app only shows data usage in increments of 0.1 GB. So, you need to keep track.

Are you planning to switch? What do you think about this new plan? Hit me up if you have any suggestions or comments.

[frugalinvestor-blog]

Art of S(h)aving

Men need their shave. But, it is an expensive habit. I was wondering how can I save while still getting a clean shave. I know I have talked about this habit in the past. I am going to admit that I gave some bad advice in that post. Let us see how we can fix it.

It is not super hard. You just need to shave the old fashioned way. If you need a tutorial, you can head over to this the art of manliness page. Or, you can find tons of youtube videos showing you how to do it. But, what about the supplies you ask? That is why I am here. I know I have dissed Amazon in the past. But, I am going to point to a couple of items on Amazon that you need to stock your shaving supplies (nearly for a lifetime depending on how much hair you got).

Shaving cream - $11.34

Safety Razor - $12.66

Safety Blades - $8.99

For $33 and taxes (should give you free shipping without prime as well), you are set for life. This shaving cream does not even need a brush. So, it is quite simple to use. RTFM. I think I have used up 3 blades in 6 months or so. At first you get a lot of nicks. But over time you become an expert and in fact get a better shave than any of those Mach stuff. And every time I shave, I am super thrilled about all the money I am saving. Can’t ask for a better bonus.

[frugalinvestor-blog]

Stock Market is, well, just another market

Stock market is a big beast. But underneath all that fur, it is just a market. In this post, I am going to try to explain how a company's stock gets priced. Imagine a company Acme Inc., Acme wants to raise some money to do some funky stuff. Let us say, they decide to release only one stock and prices it at $25. Now, let us say there are two people, we'll call them Moe and Larry, in the whole wide world who think that $25 is a great price for this company's stock. Of course, they think that the stock's value is more than $25. But, there is only one stock for sale. Now, these two compete to get that one stock. They keep increasing the price till one of them decides that the stock is not worth the price. Let us, Moe paid $30 to become the stockholder. Fair Market Price for the stock is now $30.

Market is suddenly empty. No one is selling or buying the stock of Acme. A few weeks pass. Acme uses the $30 it made by selling the stock and invents an amazing medicine that can cure stupidity. Larry thinks, hey this company is doing something amazing. I want to get in on some of the action. Larry's neighbor Curly also thinks the same after reading the news about the new medicine. They both know Moe is not going to sell it for $30. Obviously, they all took the new magic pill from Acme. Not stupid anymore. So, Larry makes a bid in the market saying that he is willing to pay $35 for the stock. Curly says he can pay $36. Moe could ignore them both and keep waiting or sell it to Curly. Let us say, Moe sells it to Curly for $36. Now, Curly is the stockholder and the fair market price for the stock is $36. And so on, it continues.

To be continued..

[frugalinvestor-blog]

The Importance of Being Prudent

One of the big problems with Credit cards is you never know when money is going out. It's not the same as something physical going out of your pocket. Of course, there are a lot of advantages to it: Security, Rewards, etc., Nothing puts the sense back to you like spending with Cash for a few weeks. That's why we are smart and track our expenses and our net worth by using apps like Mint.

I have been guilty of spending a lot of money on this one thing without realizing. It's on "Passport" photos. Of late, I have been in need of passport photos for a lot of things: Passport renewal (Duh!), Visas etc., I always become lazy and go to my nearest CVS, shell out 10 bucks to get a couple of photos. What a rip-off!

Nowadays, nearly everybody carries a smartphone. Even if you are one of the select few who doesn't have a smartphone, find a friend with one. For iPhone, there is an app called ID Photo Print. Just use it take a photo. As you know, US passport photo size is 2x2. This app gives you an image of size 4x6, with 6 neatly laid out photos. Take it to your nearest CVS or Walgreens and print it for less than 30 cents.

Finally, to neatly cut the photos, you should use a cutter like the one they keep in Fedex or similar shipping stores. In all likelihood, your work place might also have one. There you go! 6 photos for 30 cents which would have otherwise cost you some 12-15$.

[frugalinvestor-blog]

Setting up your Vanguard account

If you are going to invest in index funds, there is no place better than Vanguard. So, your first step (after maxing out your 401k, maxing out your HSA if you have one, and investing in ESPP) would be to invest in index funds.

Why the above order?

401k and HSA are tax-exempt. So, max out your 401k investment first. Next, HSA is also tax-exempt. Some people max-out their HSA, some people don't. It is totally a personal choice. But, remember, the more you put into HSA, more it reduces your taxable income by. So, when April 15 approaches, you can be assured you will save as much as possible. Next, put money into your ESPP. That is a sure shot high return investment.

Rest of your money

If you still have some money to save, you should be saving it in your taxable brokerage account. There are some other options like Roth IRA which I will go over in later posts. For now, open a Vanguard account. You can link it to your bank account and setup direct deposits. One good approach is to do the following: whenever you get a raise, redirect that money into your Vanguard account. For example, say you get a $200 per month raise. Transfer $100 every paycheck. This way you get the benefit of dollar-cost averaging too. To get the investor shares of Vanguard Total Stock Market Shares (VTSMX), you need atleast $3000 worth of investments. Before you can save that much, you can have your money in a money market fund which you can think of as a Checking account. It is also called a Settlement account. Any time you sell some of your funds, you get your money in your settlement fund.

Reinvesting dividends

You have an option of reinvesting your dividends. But, it is a good idea to route the dividends into your settlement account. This way you can reduce the number of buy transactions. This will save you some time while doing your income tax. Of course, you can include your dividends to buy more funds along with your paycheck contribution.

All you need to do is start. Start as soon as possible. Earlier you start, more you will have when you decide to retire.

[frugalinvestor-blog]

Just index it

Lately, I have been running into a lot of articles advocating investing in Index funds. Of course, I know that is the best I can do with the least amount of effort. But, it still makes you feel great to get the expert opinion from various people who have unshakeable credentials.

First, thanks to one of the coworkers, I came across this wonderful document by William Bernstein on why, how and when to save your money. The idea is very bogle-headian, if that is a word. Bernstein is a self-confessed bogle head. Bernstein also has on his website an excel sheet which can help plan you retirement.

Second, there was a piece about index funds on Planet Money which again puts forward the idea behind investing in index funds. There is also a guest appearance by John Bogle (apparently pronounced not-like mind-boggling) himself. This piece is about how Warren Buffett would prefer having an index fund over an advisor.

Finally, there is some slightly old news about Vanguard. We know Vanguard charges the lowest fees in the industry. Apparently, a whistleblower claims that Vanguard is not charging the market rate and hence :

And because it is owned by its mutual funds, for tax purposes, he says, it is required to account for the profits that it could have earned if it had charged the higher fees that the marketplace would have borne.

Emphasis mine. So much for doing good in this country. The whistleblower stands to benefit a lot even though he claims he is not in it for the money. I was thinking about who can investigate this case without a conflict of interest. I am sure everybody in the IRS invests in Vanguard index funds. In all likelihood, this case should fizzle out, experts say. So, don't worry. There won't be any increases to your index fund expenses.

[frugalinvestor-blog]

I’ll have a soy-milk Frappuccino please

Some people are lucky enough to be not addicted to Coffee. Sadly, I am not one of them. As with other problems involving money, I started analyzing coffee-spending to death like a typical Engineer. We all know that paying for coffee outside is a foolish decision. But, we do it anyway. If you are on a trip, it is somewhat understandable. It is absolutely foolish to do it daily. To see the costs, I went ahead and made coffee at home for the past couple of months everyday to see how much it costs. I like my Indian Filter Coffee. I get my coffee powder from my local indian grocery store. It costs me $7.99 for 500 grams which I just realized while researching for this article, is super expensive. Let us discuss that in another post.

I usually drink coffee once a day. On weekends, I get fancy and drink it twice sometimes. So, let us take 9 times a week. That means 36 times a month. Last time, my Coffee pack came for ~35 days. Let us call it 36 for simplicity. So, I spent $0.22 per drink/day. Of course, there is the cost of the milk. I go through 1.25 gallons of milk every month. That costs around $3.50. That’s ~0.1$ per drink/day. Grand total of $0.3 for the best coffee there is. None of the stores make the Indian style filter coffee. And I like the coffee I make. Win-win. Next time, you go and order your Starbucks coffee, imagine the markup you are paying. To read about the fascinating economics behind why Starbucks charge what they charge, read The Undercover Economist by Tim Harford. Simply brilliant.

[frugalinvestor-blog]

February Budget Final Update

This is the final update to my February budget. If you are just joining us, here is the original budget post and the mid-month update. Here are the final numbers:

Category Budget CurrentSpending Gas/Elec $110 $110 Internet $60 $60 Phone $64 $31 Netflix $8 $8 Gas $60 $31 Grocery $110 $97 Food $80 $81.58 Classes $90 $45 Dentist $94 $94 Valentine $0 $158.37 Total $584 $716.66

As we saw before, I nearly kept to my budget on all the planned expenses. Gas was half the expected amount. But food went over the budget a little due to an unexpected friend's visit. Had to go out for a pricey option for one of the meals. Let us see how it goes the next month. I am hoping to use the same budget since we cut things close for almost all the categories. With 2 extra days, who knows what might happen :). How did you do?

[frugalinvestor-blog]

Dude, control your spending

If you want to become financially independent, you have got to control your spending. You start with spending less than you earn. Much less. How can you do that if you don’t control what you spend? You could totally resist the feeling. Here are some more things you can do.

Plan your purchases

You need to plan your purchases even for small things like groceries. In fact, it is the small things that bite you on your rear end if you are not careful. Before you go to the grocery shop, make a list of things you need. Think of how your grocery store is structured. I start with the vegatables & fruits section, go through the bread section, finish it with dairy. Surely, you must have a way of moving around the grocery store. Follow your routine. Grocery stores, like other stores, are structured to make you buy things you don't need. If you have a list, then you don't need to worry about the temptations. Think about what you plan to cook for the next week and buy just enough for the upcoming week. This way you can avoid wasting stuff and stop contributing to the 40% food America wastes.

Amazonian waste

Many people justify their Amazon Prime membership by telling me how much they save with free shipping. I just nod and say to myself how much I save by not buying anything. It just gives you new incentives to buy things you don't need. Just because you can get it sooner doesn't mean you are saving money. Of course, it may make sense for some people (example: family with kids needing a lot of diapers). But, if you are single, stay the frack away from Amazon. You don't need it. Pocket the $99 (and so much more) and let it compound instead.

[frugalinvestor-blog]

Basics of Money

Before you start investing, you need to have a basic understanding of how your money can work for you. I am assuming you are familiar with the concept of simple interest. I will give a quick overview of compound interest.

Compound Interest Recap

If you have $100 in your bank account and if your bank provides a 12% yearly interest rate compounded monthly. At the end of the year, you will have $100 * (1.01)^12 = $112.68.

Expanding it to your 401k

Let us say you are contributing the whole $18000 into your 401k every year. Assume you get the historical S&P 500 returns on your investment which is a very optimistic 10% per year. Let us say you put aside $18000/26 = $692 every paycheck. For simplicity, let us assume you get your interest every month. Instead of calculating this manually, let us whip out our spreadsheet program and input the following:

=FV(10%/12, 10*12, -692)

Year 10 $141752 Year 20 $525483 Year 30 $1.5 Million

In comes the villain

The numbers above are exact. But, there is a small problem. It is called inflation. Prices of goods tend to increase or in other words the value of your money tend to decrease. Even though it is $1.5 Million, it may not be able to buy the same thing as you can today. To account for this enemy, we can reduce the interest rates in our calculation. Assume an inflation rate of 3%. This gives the following numbers:

Year 10 $119754 Year 20 $360481 Year 30 $844219

That is still not bad. Now we are much closer to a realistic numbers.

Knock knock, who's there? Taxman

We have come this far without worrying about Big Sam. But, now that you are done saving and want to do some spending you need to pay the Government. For what? For letting your money grow tax-free. They could have charged tax to begin with and that would have put a big dent on your balance. So, are there any good news? Yes. If you withdraw from your 401k after you turn 59, assuming you don't have any other income, you will most likely fall under a smaller tax bracket. For example, for this year filing taxes married jointly, for incomes between $18551 to $75300, you would pay an income tax of $1855 + 15% * (amount over $18550). Let us say, you withdraw $40000 every year. This means your taxes are

$1855 + 15% * ($40000 - 18550) = $5072.5

You are left with ~$35000 for your spending.

The clincher

Now, notice that you are only withdrawing part of your money. The rest of it will still keep growing. Let us see what happens after the 1st withdrawal assuming you saved for 30 years. To begin with, you had $844219 dollars. On January 1st of your 59th year on Planet Earth, you withdrew $40000. Your balance is $804219. Going back to the future value calculator, there is an option to give an initial amount. Input in the following:

=FV(7%/12, 12, 0, -804219)

So, at the beginning of the next year, you will have ...hold your breath... $862,356.06. What the what? That's right. Assuming your returns keep up, you will never run out of money. That's just remarkable. We will discuss other ways of looking at these numbers in the future posts and also a more realistic interest rate.

[frugalinvestor-blog]

Cutting the cord

There are plenty of awesome ways to spend $60 a month. Paying it for cable is not the best one. Why do you need TV when there is Internet? Anything and everything you want to watch is available for free on the Internet.

News

Most of my news comes from shows like Late show with Stephen Colbert and The Daily Show. Both the shows for available for free viewing (with ads if you go to their sites), without ads if you watch them on Youtube.

Cat videos and such

Youtube. Period.

Other entertainment

Plenty of TV channels offer the latest episodes of their shows for free. CBS offers the latest episode of all their shows for free on their site. So does NBC. ABC offers the latest episode for free one week after the telecast. If you are still adamant on watching all these shows as and when they air, get yourself a TV antenna. You can get HD quality CBS, PBS, NBC, ABC and a few more channels. If you are into football, you have that too. If this still doesn't satisfy you, get yourself a Netflix account and be done with it. That's much better than spending 60$ a month on cable. Atleast, you don't have to sit through the commercials and get tempted to buy things that you don't need to begin with.

But, what about Game of Thrones?

There are plenty of ways to watch all the TV shows you want. I won't point you to any sites. You can easily find them yourself.

How much savings can it be?

Why spend the 60$ when you can invest it and watch it grow? How much will it be worth? A simple Future Value calculation on Excel/Google Sheets will give you an idea. Open your spreadsheet software and input the following formula and see for yourself:

=FV(5%/12,12*30,-60)

I am assuming a very conservative interest rate of 5% per year. Let us calculate the value at the end of 30 years. Since the investment happens monthly, you need to provide 12x30 as the second parameter. Each month we put in $60. Since money goes out, this parameter should be negative. If you have done everything right, you will end up with ... drum roll ... $49,935.52.

[frugalinvestor-blog]

Digit Review

Of late, there has been a sudden uprise of so-called Roboadvisors and related investing apps. I am planning to try some of them and review them one by one. Today, we are going to look at Digit.

What's the deal?

Digit's basic idea is super simple. You connect Digit to your bank account. Their software analyzes your transactions and squirrels money away from your account (just like a Piggy bank) every day. Some days, it saves more and other days it saves less. You can withdraw your money any time you want and there are no fees.

Are there any interest on my savings?

Yes, recently Digit introduced some rewards for keeping your money for a longer period of time in your account. It's 5 cents for every $100 you leave for 3 months. That's 0.05% for 3 months. Excluding compounding (since the amounts are small), that amounts to 0.2% per year. That's actually not a bad interest rate when compared with what some banks offer these days.

Conclusion

It is neat idea to save some money in small quantities. These small amounts quickly add up. One cool way to use Digit is to squirrel money away for a few months and once you have accumulated some, invest the money in any of the investment vehicle you want. I strongly recommend setting up an account with Vanguard and invest the money in some low cost funds. Digit also offers a referral bonus of $5 for every one you invite. Here's my referral link in case you want to say your thanks - https://digit.co/r/Wy3dj?wn.

A word of warning

When connecting your bank account to Digit, make sure you give your checking account information and not savings account. Most banks have a limit on the number of free transactions you can do on your savings account every month.

[frugalinvestor-blog]

Save while you groom

Everybody needs grooming. But, do we need to spend $40 on a haircut? There is a lot of money to be saved here. Before we go on, this article is strictly from a man's perspective. Feel free to post your comments from a women's perspective.

Bijan for men - Copyright NBC

Haircuts

Some people can cut their own hair. If you are one of those, you can skip forward a little. For those of us who can't do that, you can go to a fancy-ass salon and pay $30-$40 for a simple haircut or you can go the sensible route and go to the cheapest place in your neighborhood. To me, that is Greatclips. What's so great about GreatClips? They sell giftcards which you can buy for ~$69 which you can use to pay for 7 haircuts. That to me is a year's worth of haircuts.

Shaving

Just like Haircuts, you can't do away with Shaving. Best thing to do with Shaving is to buy razors in bulk. Bigger the better. Costco sells a 24 count MACH3 razors for $49. That will come for several years. Another trick with razors is get it from a different country. I get mine from India. A six pack cost ~780 Rs last time. Using a conversion rate of $1 = Rs.65, that translates to $2 per razor slightly better than the costco price.

Facewash and everything else...

I was shocked to see the price difference between Walmart brands and other brands for things like Facewash. There is atleast a $2 difference just for the brand name. Both brands use the exact same ingredients and when I use them I can't tell them apart. So, why pay extra? Just like face wash, Walmart is the place to go for all beauty products (Hint: You don't need anything else).

Stay away from Perfumes. They are just bad for your finance. Nothing beats a clean bath everyday. If you still need something, get yourself some deodorant from Walmart.

[frugalinvestor-blog]

Mid month Budget Update

I came across a wonderful quote by Matt Levine today.

The essence of finance is time travel. Saving is about moving resources from the present into the future; financing is about moving resources from the future back into the present - Matt Levine

This is a mid month update to my budget. I have stuck to my guns on the budget till now. Here are the details:

Category Budget CurrentSpending Gas/Elec $110 $110 Internet $60 $60 Phone $64 $31 Netflix $8 $8 Gas $60 $0 Grocery $110 $36.53 Food $80 $24.55 Classes $90 $0 Dentist $94 $94 Valentine $0 $158.37 Total $584 $522.45

Most of the expenses are as expected. As noted in the earlier budget article, I saved some money on the cellphone bill and the food. Saint Valentine threw my budget off a little. I haven't spent any money on Gas as of today. I had to postpone my class a little and turns out I have paid some money for the classes last month itself. So, even with the unexpected expenses, it looks like I can still meet my numbers. Fingers crossed!

[frugalinvestor-blog]

An example budget

In a previous post, we briefly talked about a budget and how to be strict with yourself. It is easy to write about things, harder to follow them. An example always helps. I am planning to cut down my spending for the next 6 months. So, I have come up with the following budget for my monthly expenses. Some expenses are fixed and some are variable. I am planning to cut down on all the variable expenses as much as possible.

Category Budget Gas/Elec $110 Internet $60 Phone $64 Netflix $8 Gas $60 Grocery $110 Food $80 Classes $90 Dentist $94 Total $582

Utilities

My gas/electricity bill is already known when a month starts. So, that is fixed. It is a little on the high side. But, I am working on cutting that expense down (hint: future post). Internet charge is fixed at $60. I used to get a discount when I started off, for two years. Not anymore :(. As for the phone line, I am still on a contract for the shiny new iPhone I got last year. So, I have to keep shelling out the $64 for another 8 months.

Entertainment

I limit my entertainment to just two things: Netflix and my Violin classes. Yes, I agree the classes are a little expensive but I won't cut down on that. As for the television, I got a basic antenna for $5 when there was a deal and get all the basic channels for free. That is enough. For everything else, there is Internet. My denist charged me $94 for a crown. Only entertainig part was that they had Seinfeld on during the treatment.

Food

These are the expenses where I can cut down the most. I used to spend a whole lot on eating out (lunch out everyday). I have started packing lunch for 3 days a week and eat out only 2 days. That means 8 meals outside. Assuming an average of $10 per meal, that comes to $80. Finally, Groceries. $110 was obtained by a careful study of the previous grocery expenses (I have been using Mint to track all my expenses for the past year).

Home and Car

I haven't captured my home related expenses as I see them as an investment since it goes towards my Mortgage. As for the gas for my car, I am trying to minimize my driving habits. As of now, it is mostly driving to and from work. I am hoping to use much lesser than $60 for that. But, let us see.

A little cheating

One of my favorite lunch places is Whichwich. They have a rewards program where I get one meal free for every 10. Luckily, I got my free sandwich this month. VzW gave me a credit of $33 for some issue I had with them. So, I expect the total to be $43 less. On the other hand, I foresee some additional expenses (Damn the Valentine's Day). Hopefully, I won't have any additional expenses.