April 2014 – Frugal Living

Preventive Care

April 22, 2014 by Andrew Leave a Comment

Today was Frugal Boy’s two month checkup and as the old saying goes,

“an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”

Well Baby checks like the one today are considered preventative health care and as such, our insurance covers all of the costs. Quite frugal if you ask me!

Checkups always seem to start with a weigh in and other measurements. After being stripped down to bare buttocks, Frugal Boy tipped the digital scale at 13 pounds and 9 oz (85 percentile?). Holy Moly! He has also grown an inch and half taller since birth to reach 23.5 inches tall/long (79%) and his noggin has been filling up with more brains now that he has a 16″ head circumference (93%).

After getting dressed, Frugal Boy waited for the doctor to give him the once over.

The most important part of the 2 month checkup is the first big round of vaccinations. Thanks to modern medicine, the majority of people my age don’t even know what diseases are being vaccinated against because they have been largely eradicated from the world. Sadly, there is a profoundly stupid anti-vaccination movement (parents who believe the vaccinations cause autism and other side effects) that is letting these deadly diseases to regain a foothold in our society. The comedians/magicians Penn & Teller have a great skit that demonstrates the absurdity of the anti-vac movement.

[caution some strong language]

Anyhoo, we are firmly of the mindset that vaccinations are GREAT and that a little bit of pain now beats the snot out of being dead or disabled later in life. Here is Frugal Boy after 3 shots.

I love that big ole crocodile tear. 😀 He’s now sporting some pretty cool bandaids.

Speaking of the Incredible Hulk, I was happy to hear the doctor comment on how strong FB was. It always feels like a wrestling match when I change his diaper, so I’m glad that someone else finds him to be difficult to pin down.

The pain and tears were short lived. Before we even got in the car for the ride home he had passed out. The doctor did say that the vaccinations had one known side effect. FB was probably going to be sleepy the rest of the day. Oh shucks!

An Easter Adventure

April 20, 2014 by Andrew 1 Comment

Hoppy Easter, Somebunny loves you!

It was another beautiful Spring day and because we didn’t have any real plans we decided to go for an impromptu adventure. We’ve been to Allerton Park before, but it had been awhile and I was hoping to see some flowers in the gardens. If you’re interested in history, this page has some background on the park.

We struck out on flowers, but there was quite a bit to gaze upon in the formal gardens.

It appears that they grow many of their own flowers on site in a greenhouse.

The coniferous hedge maze provides some greenery year round.

This life sized nude statue is a prime spot to people watch (and listen).

The sunken garden at the end is an extremely popular wedding venue. Maybe it was a good thing that we visited before wedding season starts.

In addition to the formal gardens there is something like 14 miles of trails. You should always take a trail map with you when you go hiking so you don’t get lost! If there aren’t any paper maps available, I take a picture with my phone so I at least have something to refer to out in the ‘wilderness’.

There wasn’t much wildlife visible on the trail and the numbers of people dropped off drastically. The river was slow flowing and the trail was quite smooth.

Anyone who hikes with little ones knows that the most important part of any hike is SNACK time!

and with really little ones, snack time is usually immediately followed by potty time.

We were at about the half way mark of our hike, so it was a good time to switch over to a different mode of travel.

We were coming up to another mini garden / statue but there seemed to be a problem. The map didn’t mention any stairs!

Well, it isn’t called an adventure for just any old reason.

With the stairs conquered, we were rewarded with the statue “The Death of the Last Centaur”.

The walk back to the parking area was easy going. It was nice to find some shade and a nice breeze outside of the mansion. Allerton Park is considered one of the seven wonders of Illinois and is well worth a detour to see.

Frugal Boy properly woke up once he was back in the car for the ride home. He slept through almost the entire outing. I guess that just means we’ll have to come back another day!

Patching a Flat Tire

April 19, 2014 by Andrew 1 Comment

Spring has finally arrived in full force and we have been taking full advantage of the warmer weather. One of our favorite activities is going for walks with Frugal Boy and his nifty difty jogging stroller his Aunt gifted him.

You can imagine our sadness when the front tire went flat. Not to worry, patching an inter tube tire (the kind that most bicycles have) is a simple and cheap procedure.

There are only a couple of items needed to complete the repair.

A patch kit (can be found in almost any big box store or your local bicycle shop will have dozens of different brands and styles)
An air pump
A pinch of perseverance.

If you’ve never patched a tire before, just get on Youtube and search. There are dozens of step by step videos that explain it way better than I ever could.

After filling up the inter tube with air, I heard the tell tale hissing sound of a leak. Here it is all patched up.

Before you reassemble the wheel, make sure the inter tube holds pressure. I double checked and it turned out there was another puncture! All in all, patching a tire is a simple and cheap DIY project for all experience levels.

The End!

Evaluating Current Investments

April 17, 2014 by Andrew Leave a Comment

A while back my Mom visited and handed me an envelope full of savings bonds that I had left sitting in my parents safety deposit box. I didn’t know much about the bonds other than most had been birthday and Christmas gifts when I was a kid and that they were all still earning interest.

Today, I finally got online to do a little homework and see whether it was better to redeem them now or hold on to them and keep earning interest. If you have savings bonds tucked away somewhere you can look them up online and see all of the relevant information about them on TreasuryDirect.gov.

I was particularly interested in “Interest Rate”. As you can see, some of the bonds are still earning an excellent 4% return. That is a safe, guaranteed 4%. You’d have a hard time beating that kind of risk/reward anywhere else right now. Some of the bonds however were earning around 1%. While 1% is much better than the average savings account or CD today, I know I can put that money to better use.

So where can you find a safer, higher interest rate? Try your home mortgage. By redeeming all of the bonds that are earning a lower interest rate than our mortgage, and putting that money towards our mortgage in the form of an extra lump sum payment, we can save more money in the long run than if we let the bonds reach maturity date.

By my back of the envelope calculations, we shaved off 4-6 months of payments from our mortgage.

There are a couple of other advantages to doing something like this.

The risk of losing the paper bond is gone
Paying down debt is a mental reward
You are trading one long term investment for another (helps to keep your liquid, semi-liquid, solid percentages stable)

Yes, I know that Savings Bonds are more liquid than real estate, but given the nature that most savings bonds have a maturity date of 30 years and the most common mortgage is also 30 years, I found it to be an apt comparison.

A big thank you to all of my relatives (you know who you are) that gifted savings bonds to me all of those years ago. Kids don’t get the most excited about that kind of gift, but it is an excellent gift that they will appreciate more later on in life.

What’s For Dinner? 4/11/2014

April 10, 2014 by Andrew Leave a Comment

Every week I will share our meal plan for the coming week. Making your own food is a great way to save money, explore new cuisine, and eat healthy (if you choose to make healthy foods). A good meal helps bring people together and as you improve your cooking skills you will impress more and more people! I generally use recipes as a starting off point and then experiment with different proportions or ingredients. Leftovers make great lunches for the 9-5 crowd who might otherwise have to decide between a sandwich or a pricey cafeteria.

It’s been awhile since I’ve done a “What’s for Dinner?” post. Here are some recipes that we have either eaten in the past week or will be eating in the coming week.

This Week For Dinner…

Seafood Salad Supreme

Are you getting tired of the same old seafood recipes week after week? Try this recipe that combines shrimp and (imitation) crab meat in a zesty cold salad. We made a couple of variations, like adding peas and sautéing the red pepper.

Pasta w/ Peas and Sausage

This recipe has been a favorite in our house. It’s not hard to see why!

Broccoli Chicken Divan (Soup)

The last time we made this recipe there were hardly any leftovers. Yum!

Frugal Living

Indulging in life, financially responsible

Month: April 2014