Free stuff (that’s actually worthwhile)

I like to enrich my life with things that entertain and educate me. Life is more than just work, sleep, eat, and pay the bills. Music, literature, art; there’s so much to life that makes me glad to be alive every day.

The Internet has been a great liberator of music, literature, and art. When I was growing up in the 1980’s and in the early to mid 1990’s, free entertainment meant turning on a radio or television and hoping that something being transmitted on some channel was something I might enjoy. The things that were really good were usually cut down, censored, and littered with commercials, so there was a price to pay. I eventually tired of this fare, and found myself at a public library. There were limitations here as well; how long I could borrow a book before returning it, assuming they had the book I wanted to read.

Things are much better today. There is an abundance of quality free stuff with which to fill my leisure time. With no further ado, I will now present to you free stuff that’s actually worthwhile.

Free Internet

There are ways I can access the Internet without paying anything for it. Most common are free wi-fi hotspots, such as those offered by McDonald’s and Tim Hortons, though these places of business generally expect me to purchase something, so it’s not really free. Some public libraries do offer truly free wi-fi, as well as access to the Internet from their own computers. There are also neighbours who leave their wireless routers unsecured, but this option usually stops becoming viable when they discover they’ve gone over their bandwidth limit and secure their access point, inevitably changing the name of their wireless LAN to something like “Dontstealthis.”

There are other initiatives. Some in my city may have access to Oshawa Free WiFi, while companies like NetZero’s 200MB 4G plan or free 10 hours of dial-up surfing might work for some very light users. Personally, I find free access plans to be too limited for my own tastes, so I turned the entire equation upside down and use competition and technology to my advantage.

I start by assuming the cost of Bell home phone,at $52.95 a month. This comes with the features I expect of a modern home phone. If I assume this as a monthly expense as a homeowner, I can now justify going with a company like Teksavvy and order their high speed DSL for $29.99 and TekTalk premium phone with even more features than Bell’s phone for $14.95. In my area, I also need to pay a “Dry Loop” fee of $10.00 per month, so I end up paying $1.99 more than I would pay with Bell’s phone service. This also requires an investment of approximately $100 in hardware. I consider the hardware cost an investment, given that the alternative is a rental fee, and the extra $1.99 a month exceptional value. Just try to get high speed internet with a 300GB cap for $1.99 a month.

Free Computer

There’s no need to spend hundreds of dollars for a new computer. People practically give them away. Seriously. Just put the word out in a local community, or browse through a local freecycle’s listings. My experience has been mixed; one can expect to receive old CRT monitors and computers that are unable to play the latest games, but are perfectly fine for e-mail and web browsing. These tend to be ridden with viruses and malware, so I tend to bring these up to date quickly and easily by wiping the hard drive clean and installing a modern free operating system like Ubuntu.

Free (worthwhile) Operating System

I recommend using Ubuntu. It’s very mature, at version 12.10 now, and it’s an operating system I like to run. Have an old computer that’s not quite running right? I’ve seen plenty of frustrating Windows XP based computers that run so slow, it makes people want to give them away. Ubuntu makes these computers run like new. It’s remarkably easy to use; easier than Windows XP in my experience. It also opens the door to all kinds of free applications, which then opens the door to all kinds of free online content, which I will get into next.

Free (worthwhile) content

I like to read books. As I get older, I derive even greater pleasure from reading the great classics. Many great classics have become public domain, and as they do, the best works end up at Project Gutenberg. When I bought my first e-Reader, it came with 100 free books that originated from this site. Their library has grown to over 40,000 free e-books.

Sometimes, I would rather have a book read to me. I discovered talking books at my local library when I had my first job that involved a commute by car. Nothing makes the aggravation of sitting in traffic go away like listening to a great story. Now we have LibriVox, which is to audiobooks what Project Guttenberg is to written texts. Its library, while considerably smaller, is still worthwhile at 6,000 titles.

When it comes to music, I’m aware of all the methods to obtain music illegally for free. What is surprising is the amount and quality of legally free music, shared by its creators under a “Creative Commons” license. Creative Commons music spans all genres. A search that includes my genre of choice followed by the words “Creative Commons” results in plenty of material to discover.

In the early 90’s, I started to listen to talk radio. Imagine if there were more programs in that genre that appealed to my specific tastes. Now this dream has come true with podcasts. There must be a podcast out there for every taste imaginable. Much like audiobooks, a good podcast can make a long drive much more interesting.

Free (worthwhile) Software

In my previous blog, I had the habit of posting my top 10 free software picks of that year at the end of the year. LibreOffice is my office suite of choice. For managing Podcasts, I like gPodder. To manage my eBook library (including news feeds), I use Calibre. Generally, I find Souceforge.net to be an excellent resource for games and software of all types. In fact, there’s so much good quality worthwhile software available, I’m going to dedicate that to another blog post.

Conclusion

There’s a lot of good things out there for free if one knows where to look. I’ve just scratched the surface here. What I discovered is that it’s easy to become overwhelmed, so I tend to discriminate when making my choices. Perhaps you know someone who would benefit from the free information I provide in this blog. Feel free to share this with them, and make their lives a little better.

Making credit cards work for me

The holiday season is upon us once again; a concern for many frugal minded individuals. Some frugal bloggers would advocate making a gift; while this might be a good idea for some, making a worthwhile gift will consume time. I’m always looking for the easy way out, but I still want to give gifts that people will actually use and want. A few years ago, I discovered a method that allowed me to get a really nice gift, valued in the $100 range, for someone that didn’t actually cost me a dime. As a bonus, the process of buying the gift saved me time as well. How do I pull this off? With my credit card.

When credit cards can be good

Many frugal-minded individuals would advise against credit card use. After all, the interest rates are horrible, and they make it all to easy to spend. However, there is one important fact about credit cards that the credit card companies don’t want you to know:

• If you pay off your credit card balance in full before the due date, you are under no obligation to pay interest or fees.

Why is this important? Because it means I can put something on a credit card today, but not actually have to pay for that purchase until weeks later. Think of it as a short-term interest-free loan. As long as I have the cash to pay off the balance in full, there’s no expense to me. It means I can leave my money in an interest-bearing savings account a little longer before I actually pay for the gas I use. However, this small amount of interest isn’t what I’m after. More valuable to me are the points.

Some nice things, under 10,000 points

I’ve opted for a credit card that has no annual fees. I don’t opt for the insurance or buyers protection; it’s just the basic points credit card offered by my financial institution. It costs me nothing to have, except for the occasional annoying call with an offer to “Upgrade” with some sort of credit insurance. No thanks, I just want your points, plus the added convenience of “Paying at the Pump” whenever I get gas The time I save not needing to stand in line to pay for my gas alone is worth the price of the annoying phone call. I digress.

I use my credit card to pay for things I would normally pay cash for anyway; gas for my car, bill payments, and even groceries. By the end of the year, it’s not difficult for me to accumulate 12,000 points or more. I’ve estimated each 100 points to be worth roughly one retail dollar. At around the time of the holiday season, I browse the catalogue. There’s usually some nice things to be found. As a last resort, there area always gift cards and movie theater passes that make for great stocking-stuffers and casual “Friend” gifts that always make me look like a swell guy. When I say, “Honestly, it was really nothing,” I’m telling the truth.

Doing the combo

A free night out at the movies for a few air miles

With an air miles card, I can earn even more points on top of the ones I earn on my credit card. I don’t go out of my way just to collect air miles, but if the local Shell station just so happens to have the best price on gas (which does happen on occasion), I’ll swipe the air miles card first, and then the credit card. The points accumulate a lot slower, but they do accumulate over time so that, one day, surprise surprise, I can get something worthwhile totally for free! Air miles don’t need to actually be used for air miles; they can be used for merchandise and gift cards just like the points on my credit card. The beauty is that it still doesn’t cost me anything extra. I’m buying something I need to buy anyway, and the cost of buying is the same no matter how I pay or what cards I swipe.

Arguments against and responses

 

Canadian Tire money is always worth collecting

Some would argue that people who pay cash are subsidizing people who pay by credit card; which is probably true, but I honestly really don’t have the time or resources to fight this. If paying cash means some sort of other reward such as a discount or Canadian Tire money, I’ll go that route; otherwise, I’m going to put myself in the position of the greatest gain. This means that if people using cash really are subsidizing people who are using credit, I want to be on the side that gets that subsidy. Others cite privacy concerns of these companies knowing how much I spend and where. Honestly, where I buy gas for my car and how much I’ve paid isn’t a real big secret as far as I’m concerned. I would think that if I’m really concerned about keeping a purchase private, I always have the cash option. Not being paranoid has its advantages.

Conclusion

I don’t believe that a points card system tied to a single store is worthwhile, unless I frequent that store often, which is rarely the case. The free points credit card works for me because it is unobtrusive, non-demanding, and yields sufficient points at no expense to me to redeem for something nice and worthwhile. To me, this really contributes to better living through frugality. Used properly, credit cards are beneficial to me. Perhaps one day these points systems won’t be worthwhile; but until that happens, I’m going to always put myself in the position of greatest gain with the least amount of effort, which means collecting points when and where it works for me.

The Dollar Store

Lately, I’ve seen many blogs on the Internet touting the benefits of shopping at the dollar store. Indeed, it used to make me wonder; I would ask questions like, “I don’t know how they can stay in business selling things only for a dollar,” “What can you buy for a dollar,” and “I like to shop at dollar stores because I can afford everything in the store.” There are dollar store opponents who proclaim that the safety and quality of the products are questionable at best. I’ve realized that the truth of the matter doesn’t exist anywhere in between, but rather surprisingly out of sight of these two schools of thought.

The Great Illusion

My friendly neighbourhood dollar store

The entire business model of the dollar store is based on an illusion. That illusion is created from the perception that a single dollar isn’t worth much. As a culture, we have become conditioned to consider a dollar to be mere pocket change; something helped along with the transformation of our dollar bill to a “Looney” dollar coin. If we go out for a fast food meal, we feel as though we get a bargain if it’s only $5. The price of a liter of gas soared past a dollar years ago. When we shop at Costco, we’re lucky to get out of there spending less than $100. DVD and videogame “Bargain bins” are stuffed with mediocre to bad movies and games priced at a “Mere” $10. The poor dollar seems to have vanished from our consciousness, creating an excellent opportunity for the creation of this marketing illusion. We so rarely see anything for a dollar, we are intrigued when it shows up in our field of vision.

Four for $2 < $1.00 each

The truth of the matter is, we still buy things for a dollar. We just don’t see those individual dollars because of how products are packaged. Let’s suppose, for example, that you need to buy some glass juice tumblers for your kitchen cupboards. There’s a shelf in every dollar store lined with these glass tumblers priced at a dollar each. Are they losing money on selling these glasses so cheap, or are they manufactured with lead and other bad products that will harm your health should you drink from them? Neither, I should think, as I will now pull the curtain aside to expose this illusion with the picture at right.

These juice tumblers are packaged together and are sold for $2 at Wal-Mart. At the dollar store, one might find glass tumblers exactly these being sold individually for a dollar. The profit margin for these glasses is doubled for the dollar store, answering my questions I once had. Indeed, shopping at the dollar store might not be the frugal thing to do, unless you need only one juice tumbler. Here is a case where a frugal student looking to stock their cupboards with kitchenware would find their dollars stretched further by not shopping at the dollar store.

What I do buy at the dollar store

There are exceptions to every rule, and I don’t think a dollar store is necessarily a bad place to buy certain things. I assume that they make significant profit on every item they sell; they would have to in order to sustain their business with such small volumes. Therefore, I contend that 90% of the stuff sold at most dollar stores generally falls into two categories; those being overpriced garbage or just simply overpriced.

Dollar store batteries

Out of the 10% that’s left, what might I buy at a dollar store? Button cell batteries. These are the batteries that are used in devices like garage door openers, watches, and car remotes. My first PDA, the Sharp ZR-4000, ran on three CR2032 batteries. At the local Wal-Mart, these sell for around $7 for two. The dollar store sells three of them for $1.25. How can they be so cheap? To start, they’re not a brand name like Energizer or Duracell. This doesn’t necessarily make them inferior, it’s just that the big brand names have CEO’s and advertisers to pay, which is very expensive. At $1.25, these off-brands are still a tad more expensive when considering I could buy 5 off-brand lithium CR2032’s for 99 cents from amazon.ca. That said, I still consider them to be a fair price for what they are, and I’ve had good results in using these in various electronic gadgets.

Patch Cord, $1.25

I might also buy simple electronic patch cords. For example, the stereo in my car has a 3.5mm stereo plug, to which I can connect an MP3 player. Once again, here’s an example of a product that’s generally overpriced at electronics stores and the local Wal-Mart, and while I might be able to find it a little cheaper online, it’s not that much cheaper and generally not worth the hassle. This kind of item works just as well as the more expensive brands.

When my son has a project to do for school that involves some sort of arts and crafts, I might give him a few dollars and send him to the dollar store to buy the things he needs. When it comes to materials for arts and crafts, the dollar store is hard to beat. They may lack the variety of a place like Michael’s, but the prices are significantly cheaper and I’ve noticed no difference in quality.

Conclusion

With the mystique of the dollar store removed, I’ve found it to be good for some things, but certainly not all. It is, as I’ve discovered, an example of why it pays to shop around, and plays a surprisingly small role in my frugal lifestyle. It's the first place I go to on those rare occasions I need a button cell battery, patch cord, or arts and craft supplies; but more often than not, I skip on past.

What do you think?

Learning to manage my time

Up until my second year of College, time management was simple. I went by whatever schedule other people gave me, and up until the middle of my second year, they all work out reasonably well. The bus schedule usually worked with the school’s schedule, and my own schedule simply revolved around my own basic needs which filled in wherever there were gaps in the other two schedules. With two part time jobs in addition to being a full time student, time management was becoming complicated. Peer tutoring required me to negotiate times with students that didn’t conflict with my lab technician job and my own school schedule. Further, I was aware of the impending prospect of arranging job interviews and career planning in my future. Cognizant of the usefulness of day planners which I had been ignoring up until this point in my life, I realized it was time for me to implement this time management tool into my daily routine.

Choosing the right one for me

A pocket sized day planner

Day planners come in all shapes and sizes; from the basic, simple pocket-sized compact monthly calendars to the deluxe leather-bounded models that are so large, they have their own carrying handle. Neither extreme would do for me. After carefully considering my needs, I decided to choose something small enough to fit in my pocket so as not to add to the already burdensome load of textbooks and binders I was required to carry every day. It had to be able to contain enough detail that I could store my contacts, to-do lists, and weekday schedules broken down by the hour. I also wanted it to have tear-off page corners so that I could quickly flip to the current day.

I would have thought my ideal day planner would have been much more common than it actually is. I discovered that many were either too complex or too simple, and the tear-off page corners weren’t as popular as I thought they should be. Nevertheless, I found what I was looking for, and immediately set to employing it in my daily life.

Time can make money, but money can’t buy time

My spouse favors the larger day planner

The day planner to me was to my time what the spreadsheet was to my money, with one important difference. While I was well on my way to increasing my monetary income significantly, there was nothing within my power to create any more time. My daily budget of time was, and remains, exactly the same as everyone else’s. Further, I could spend it any way I wanted, with my daily allotment replenished tomorrow.

I started off by filling in my class schedule, followed with the hours I was scheduled to work as a lab technician. I then added times I needed to catch the bus. I left a block open for lunch, and then tried to fill the gaps with peer tutoring sessions. With my day planner on me at all times, I could quickly confirm and book appointments, as well as keep on top of the commitments that were required of me. I was no longer at the mercy of my own imperfect memory.

I soon discovered that, in spite of me doing more in my life, I had more free time. My days, organized into blocks of time, were full of purpose. No longer was I looking for ways to while away the gap hours. Projects were completed well before deadlines, and late night cramming for exams was unnecessary. I always knew what had to be done, and as I filled every hour of my days with purposeful tasks, my evenings and weekends were truly mine to do as I pleased. In my third year, I had enough time to add a third part time job as a software developer and analyst with a local company, which turned into my job placement; as well, I had taken up new weekly routines like swimming once a week and travelling on my weekends. I was truly transforming into the person I wanted to be, and I had my frugal time and money management ways to thank.

Into the future, PDA’s and beyond

My first ever PDA

I had some issues with paper-based time management. The first was that, unless I remembered to constantly check my day planner, it was possible that I might miss an appointment. The other was that it was time consuming entering a repeating schedule, as well as re-entering information every year. I knew both of these issues would be solved with computer technology. Personal Digital Assistants were the promise of the future, but at this time the ones as useful as a paper-based day planner were toys for the rich, while affordable ones lacked a lot of functionality and paled in comparison to even a basic day planner.

My Motorola flipout, an Android phone

Eventually, the Sharp ZR-4000 came along and represented a PDA that was both affordable and useful enough to completely replace the paper-based planners in my life. The computer link added a new dimension as I discovered the usefulness of linking and synchronizing with my desktop, making it easy to enter repeating data.

Today, I favour Google Calendar. It’s free and syncs with my inexpensive Android smartphone. Further, it adds the new dimension of collaboration with other Google Calendar users. When I make an appointment with someone and enter their e-mail address, they can confirm the appointment and it shows up on both of our calendars. It’s so easy and effective, and the benefit of taking back control of one’s life makes the effort well worth the investment of time.

Foretelling the future

In 1979, Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston implemented a computer application on affordable microcomputers which brought the ability to foretell the future into the hands of the average person. Prior to this, such ability was relegated to large, expensive mainframe systems. This became a “Killer App” which sold many home PC’s in its day. The remarkable thing about the application was the fact that the more information it was given by a user, the more accurate the predictions became. Even more remarkable was the fact that the information didn’t need to be that detailed nor even perfectly accurate. Given that every thing we do today affects our future, I consider the ability to be able to see the effects of our actions today as they will unfold to be the most powerful utility my computer can perform. Today, variations of this powerful piece of software can be had for free, and will even run on old, obsolete PC’s dating back to the 1980’s. I did not discover the true power and utility of this powerful application until after my first year of college.

Discovering the tool to predict

My first year of College was cause for a great deal of change in my life, both of how I thought and how I lived. So many things happened so quickly, I lost track of my finances. As I had done in the past, I had quickly calculated on a piece of paper of how much rent I could afford, how much I could afford to spend on groceries, and so forth. As long as I stuck to this budget, I reasoned that I wouldn’t need to worry about cash flow. Imagine my surprise when, a month into the second semester, I had run out of money! I wished I had seen that coming; I would have been able to do something earlier like take on a part time job. Now I was scrambling. Fortunately, I was very resourceful; I got a roommate to help with the rent, I applied for and qualified for a small bursary, and I sold my SLR camera. The bursary was a one time thing, I wasn’t sure if my roommate would be around in the following year, and I really had nothing else of value to sell that I didn’t absolutely need. I certainly wasn’t going to get more money through OSAP in the year following than I got that year. Fortunately, my grades were good enough that I could be a peer tutor for the first year students in my second year, but I still needed some way of ensuring that I wouldn’t run out of money again.

My aging Amiga 500, a computer that got me though the first year in 1993, was no longer up to the task in 1994. With courses like math, communications, word processing, and accounting in my first semester, I managed reasonably well, but my micro computer application course in the second semester required me to spend a greater deal of time in the computer lab at the College than on my own computer. Most of the computers we used were older PC XT’s from the 1980’s, most of which had no more than 640k of RAM; though the College did have a lab of new ‘386’s. I had acquired through my program business applications that ran on a basic 640k PC, but did not run on my Amiga very well, as the Amiga was intended more for games. One of the programs I had learned to use in the middle of my second semester was the Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet. Having dealt with cash flow difficulties, I understood the true power and utility of this software which I will share.

I should clarify that spreadsheet software existed for the Amiga as it did for all microcomputers of the day, but purchasing business applications for the Amiga represented another expense. As well, nothing on the Amiga compared to the standard-setting Lotus 1-2-3, dBase, and WordPerfect on the PC that I had at the time. Finally, it was pretty clear that the Amiga had become a dead platform with Commodore declaring bankruptcy in 1994. I had learned to use Lotus 1-2-3, I had Lotus 1-2-3, and I had a host of other industry standard and recognized business applications and programming languages I used in my course that did not run on Amiga, except very poorly with emulation. I calculated the cost of building a working PC from used parts would be more cost and time effective than would be acquiring and learning the equivalent business software for the Amiga, and that a career in the industry would be more promising by sticking to the standards. Amiga was a leftover from my pre-frugal days, and represented a loss I had to cut.

In the fall of 1994, I set out on a mission: With a budget of only $100, I was going to build a usable PC from used components that I could use at home to run the software used for my course. This would save me on bus fare, as I wouldn’t need to make those extra trips to do homework in the computer lab; it also gave me an edge in that it allowed me to practice any time I wanted. I went over budget by $10, but I had built, out of an Epson Equity case and motherboard, a ‘286 PC with 640k of RAM, a 30MB hard drive, a 1.44MB floppy, and a fairly large and pleasingly crisp amber monochrome display. I loaded up my spreadsheet, and started punching in the data.

A mock-up of my first financial forecast

In some cases, I estimated or rounded up an expense or income source; in others, I had the actual figures. In either case, I always rounded up expenses and rounded down income so that any errors would be in my favour (i.e.; I’d end up with more money than I realized). The more information I provided, the more accurate the predictions became. I had discovered that I would, once again, run out of money before the end of the year. The difference now was that I understood how much I would come up short, and what I had to earn each week and each month to make up the shortfall. In the mock-up example above, I’d have to earn another $40 a week to avoid disaster, which is exactly what I did when I took on an extra part time job as a computer lab technician. That was certainly easier than would trying to come up with an extra $1200 in the middle of my second semester. I also learned that giving up smoking would help out quite a bit; this was something I accomplished in my third year.

My frugal tool of choice to manage my finances

My spreadsheet, as demonstrated in the mock-up above, is not a budget; rather, it’s a real-time tool that provides me with an accurate financial forecast. I think of it as a model with which I can perform “What if” scenarios and from which to derive a budget. With it, I have complete control over the financial resources of my future by making educated choices today. Obviously, the spreadsheet I use today has grown considerably from the first one as pictured above, but the beautiful thing is I didn’t have to do it all in one shot. I started out with something basic just like my first one as mocked up above, and as my income and knowledge developed, I was able to build on that. The other nice thing is that even a simple spreadsheet as pictured above would give me a reasonably accurate prediction.

The one thing the spreadsheet brings me is peace of mind. Ever since I started using it, I’ve never come up short on cash. Further, I’ve been able to use it to plan purchases, such as a house, a car, or a new big screen TV. Best of all, a spreadsheet is reasonably easy to learn to use. It does take an investment of time, but I consider it a worthwhile investment of time which leads to a better quality of life.

I certainly wouldn’t recommend something as archaic as Lotus 1-2-3, unless all one can afford is a 640k PC XT; in which case, it works just as well today as it did back when it was new. Chances are good that most people have access to a reasonably modern PC; in which case I frugally recommend LibreOffice. This is a free download from http://www.libreoffice.org/ . The spreadsheet in this package is called Calc. It’s essentially a modern version of OpenOffice and works exactly the same, so tutorials such as those at tutorialsforopenoffice.org will apply. Another option that I”m starting to favour is the spreadsheet app provided by GMail and Windows Live mail. The spreadsheet program runs in my browser, and the file lives on the GMail/Windows Live server.

Learning to use a spreadsheet and then implementing it for my own purposes was another tool that paved the way to future success in my life, and is something I highly recommend to anyone wishing to improve their own future.

Investing in myself

Investment Value?

The first and most important lesson I learned on my path to bettering my life through frugality was coming to understand the value in investing in myself. This was also quite possibly the most difficult lesson to learn as it required me to step outside of myself and analyze myself critically. This required me to fundamentally change how I thought, which had, up to this point, been shaped partly through my parents, partly through religion and superstition, partly through the teachings of a dysfunctional public school system, and partly through family and other close people in my life. Kind people in my life tried to help me by explaining this to me, and while I thank them as well as my parents for planting the seeds of frugality in my mind at a young age, the contradictions set up in my mind from my religious and supernatural teachings required real life experience to clear my mind and show me the way.

Living for the moment

Ready to sing in the church choir

Up until the age of 20, I was, like many people, living for the moment. Each day came and went, and I was checking my horoscope and looking for other signs from God which, I now admit, wasn’t really work out all that well for me. My well meaning parents insisted I go to College straight from high school, and I did so to please them. Unfortunately, I went to College having been indoctrinated by a rather unfortunate series of experiences during my thirteen years of mandatory education; from weekly beatings by a leather strap against the palm of my hand for “misbehaviour” in the earlier grades, to not quite fitting in during high school, all the while plagued by poor grades as a result of what modern psychology has come to term, “Attention Deficit Disorder,” it’s remarkable that I managed to survive, much less get my Ontario Secondary School Diploma.

By the time I entered College, I had naturally developed a rather negative attitude towards education. More accurately, I was growing weary of the cycle that just didn’t seem to be working for me. After a couple of months, it dawned on me that I was free to leave, which is exactly what I did when I learned that my grades were by the middle of the first semester so dismal, I was not to graduate to the next year with the rest of my class. I took this as a sign, dropped out, and went out on my own to do what I wanted.

There were massive layoffs in the electrical trade I wanted to get into, so it was fortunate that I had a clean criminal record; this enabled me to work as a part time overnight security guard. I supplemented this income with construction work. At one time, I did overnight security at the same site I laboured at the next day, getting by on a mere four hours of sleep. It was exhausting, but the guard job had two important benefits: One, it exposed me to people active in their vocations of choice, and two, it gave me plenty of time to read and think.

Wake-up call in three parts

One cold, rainy November morning, I was sitting in my bachelor apartment in the top floor of an old drafty 2 1/2 story house smoking a cigarette and gazing out the front window as I awaited a slow download using my old 2400 baud modem on my computer. My computer, the center of my entertainment world, was becoming out-dated; I had not been able to afford to update its hardware and operating system, and now the power supply was making strange sounds as it neared failure. I wondered how much that would cost to replace, and where the money would come from when I noticed movement on the street below. Odd, who would be out on this miserable, cold, rainy day? I studied the man; he was clearly in his senior years with a dirty yellow newspaper carrier bag slung over his shoulder with the now defunct “Oshawa Times” emblazoned on its side. He was delivering the local daily newspaper. The poor old fellow wasn’t dressed for the weather at all, wearing a dripping wet jacket, no hat, with water visibly and miserably sloshing in and out of his cheap tattered sneakers.

As he walked out of my sight, it dawned on me that I was going to be him if I continued to live as I was. I couldn’t afford a car, having failed at the experiment a few of times; I had my bike and took the bus when I could afford it, but the rent, food, and cigarettes were eating up much of my income. When I worked two jobs a day for a couple of weeks, I saved up enough to buy a good quality new bike, but I only did so because it saved me money in comparison to taking the bus, and the bike was certainly cheaper than a new computer. How long could I go on like that? That lead me to ponder, how could I expect to manage to even afford proper outer wear for the weather when, after I’m too old and enfeebled to work construction, I’ll be facing the prospect of delivering newspapers in the cold and miserable rain just to make ends meet? The seed of discontent was germinating and taking root in my mind.

Part two occurred after I managed to attain a full time security guard position in a government office tower. I was still making minimum wage, but the full time hours provided some relief. Three young men around my age worked in the data center overnight, and their shifts overlapped mine. By this time, I was running my own Bulletin Board System from my old computer and was familiar with much of what they were doing. In fact, watching them, I knew I was capable of learning and doing their job, and when I discovered they were earning $15 an hour (a good entry level wage for 1991 well in excess of my own $7.00 an hour) sitting around waiting for a light to come on to get up and change a data tape, I asked them how I could get such a job. One of these fellows was very kind and generous and advised me that I had to prove to an employer that I had the skills to handle such a job, and that proof was by way of certification, diploma, or degree. He explained to me that anyone could claim to be capable of doing a job, and perhaps they were, but employers have no way of knowing if they’re being honest or not. Up until this point, I lived in a Godly world where all was fair and guided by the divine and people were honest. It was at this moment that the true value of recognized education became permanently impressed on me.

Part three occurred in the late winter following part two. I called up an old friend whom I went to school with. We had started the same program in College together before I dropped out. I learned that he had stuck with the program, and was about to start a job placement as a manager. Was it really that long ago? It seemed to me as though I had just dropped out of the course a few months ago; as I thought more about it, I understood that three years had elapsed, and suddenly I realized that three years was nothing, no time at all! That’s when it all came together and I was finally able to step outside of myself. Had I had the proper frame of mind three years ago, I could have surely achieved at least a passing grade without too much effort and I would have had the proof necessary to demonstrate to employers advising them that I was indeed capable of handling a more desirable job that required greater intellect, skill, and rewarded that with greater pay.

Recognizing the investment

Reinventing myself, 1993

I decided to go back to College for a 3 year program. I calculated that, at the time, earning what I was making, I might have been able to gross, at most, $14,560 a year. After taxes, deductions, and downtime, I was realistically realizing a mere $11,000 per year. I knew that, between rent for my seedy bachelor apartment, cheap food bought at discount, and riding my bike everywhere, I could eke by on as little as $10,000 a year if I really had to. If I got an OSAP loan to pay for my education and to help to pay my expenses, I could supplement that money with some sort of part time employment and my lifestyle really wouldn’t change from what it already was. The result? If I attained employment at even $12 an hour, my gross income would increase significantly to $25,000 a year. At $15 per hour, I would gross more than double at $31,200. If I continued my low-rent lifestyle after graduation, it would take me only two years to to pay back the loan at $12 per hour. In addition, I would end up with a much better job free of night shifts and weekend work, and once that loan was paid off, I’d be in a position to put enough money away to not ever need to worry about having to deliver newspapers in my retirement.

My car and new house, 1998

My strategy worked much better than expected as I found that, even working at a summer job at an information systems company in 1995, $12 per hour was easily attainable, and part time work as a lab technician during the school year was really not that difficult to attain now that I was able to demonstrate my knowledge and aptitude with a certification after the first year and a diploma after the second. Upon graduating after the third year, $15 per hour became my new minimum wage. Buying and keeping a car was simple after my second year, I was able to pay off my student loan very quickly, and I was buying my first brand new house with my wife two years after graduating. My investment in myself wasn’t just growing; it was exploding at a phenomenal rate.

To sum up the investment in myself: Recognizing that my own true value will grow, given an investment of time and money. It’s also recognizing that I shouldn’t expect others to commit an investment of time and money in me if I’m not willing to do it myself. It’s a key element that governs my life today, and goes beyond time and money; necessarily, it had grown to include my health and relationships. It was a difficult lesson for me to learn, but it was definitely worthwhile as it paved the way for the rest of my life.

Welcome to my new blog

Frugality. What is it, exactly? When I was young, I believed that it meant a lifestyle of doing without. It meant a boring life devoid of good things and fun; in essence, only having money and nothing else. I have since come to learn that my initial assessment of frugality, among so many other things, was wrong.

Defining Frugality

The dictionary definition of frugality is a lack of wastefulness and prudence in saving. Wasting and saving what, exactly? Many people might assume it’s money, but I’ve come to learn it’s not just money, but also time. The dictionary also doesn’t define what constitutes the definition of what is wasteful and what is useful; that’s up to the individual to define for themselves. This means that, to some, playing videogames is a complete waste of time and demonstrates a lack of frugality, while to others the act of playing a videogame represents a pleasurable and cost-effective way to spend leisure time, delivering exceptional entertainment value for the dollar.

I’ve come up with my own definition of frugality, taking the typical dictionary definition of this word to a logical conclusion. Frugality to me means managing one’s finite amount of resources (chiefly time and money) so that one can get the most of what they want out of their life. It’s not about wanting less and having less, it’s about setting goals and making everything count. A part of this includes growing myself and making my investment of time and money today contribute to making myself more valuable to others in the future.

I do whatever I want

Frugality has allowed me to live a life doing whatever I want. That’s the key to what makes frugality so appealing to me. For example, my experience taught me that I didn’t like to work the night shift or weekends; it was simply something I personally didn’t want in my life. This helped me to identify which careers and industries would be congruent with this goal. Realizing that 1/3rd of my weekday life would be spent working (with most of the other 2/3rd’s sleeping, commuting, or doing things to get ready for work), I wanted a career that I would enjoy; something that engages my mind and body, something that blends my desire for artistic expression with my practical logic side, something full of the variety I crave. These are important for me; to live a life that I personally find fulfilling.

There are trade-offs in life. Some might call them compromises. Through the lens of frugality, I’ve come to prefer investments. Frugality means that instead of compromising or trading one dream for another, I can afford to invest money, time, or both to realize an existence where I don’t need to give up on dreams; that I really can have it all and do whatever I want. The trade-off for me has been the discipline of frugality; of resisting the come-ons of advertisers and taking the time to assess what it is I really want. To recognize the true value of the investment of time and/or money, and how every purchase I make or every moment in my life becomes part of the investment. It has to be, because, whether we know it or not, every moment and dollar we spend today is, for better or worse, an investment in ourselves and has an impact on our future.

We often see life as a path we take. Frugality allows me to take control of that path, and even change it mid-life. It’s allowed me to focus on what’s important, eliminate what’s not important, and to recognize the long-term value of how I spend my money and time today.

Hence, I blog

One of the things I enjoy doing is writing. It’s a hobby that, like video games, is a way I enjoy spending my leisure time. I decided I might as well write something that I know about, is worthwhile, and of benefit to others to appease that part of me that feels good when I’ve selflessly contributed something worthwhile to the world. As such, I will share the concepts and ideas of frugality that benefit me in hopes that future generations will come across my blog long after I’ve passed on and improve their own lot in life. If it also helps out people while I’m still alive, then my hopes will have been exceeded.