Are We Still Cool? » cheap is cool

Watch me cut my own hair – and I’m talking a major chop

cool mum — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 13:01:26 +0000

Well, I’m falling into the classic mom problem of not having much time to fix my curly/tangly hair. Uncool. On Saturday, with Cool Dad watching the boys, I went to the backyard and chopped it off. Don’t worry, I consulted Google first. I found this post which describes how to cut curly hair into a short bob. It worked really well! Thank you Sheryl Canter!

Here are some video highlights for your entertainment. (Apologies for how grouchy and sleep-deprived I am in this video. Yikes.)

Words of caution: cutting hair without being able to see anything can be difficult (surprising, right?). I made the mistake of opening the jaws of the scissors and chopping against the whole thick ponytail rather than making small snips at a time. This caused strain on my hand (took forever) and on those poor scissors.

The verdict: though I sometimes feel like an old lady with a too-tight perm, ninety-five percent of the time I am loving the cut!

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Will it cost $222,360 to raise Cool Baby?

cool dad — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 12:00:07 +0000

This recent post in NPR’s Planet Money blog points out a government report that estimates it costs $222,360 to raise a child. Some interesting quotes from the report and how they apply to us:

Housing Is the Largest Expense on a Child

One would expect families to increase their housing expenditures as they move to larger residences to accommodate children.

Yes, one would expect!

Based on expenses incurred among all age groups, housing accounted for 32 percent of child-rearing expenses for a child in the lowest income group.

We are transitioning from three people sharing one bedroom to four people sharing one bedroom, so our housing costs for raising children equals 0.

Child-Rearing Expenses Are Highest in the Urban Northeast

Overall, child-rearing expenses were highest in the Urban Northeast, followed by the Urban West and Urban Midwest. Child-rearing expenses were lowest in the urban South and rural areas.

So we moved from the sorta urban, sorta rural South to the Urban Northeast. The estimated annual expenditures for one child 3-5 years old for two regions are:

Midway between Rural South and Urban South: $10,000
Urban Northeast: $13,000

Dagnabbit.

Expenses Increase as a Child Ages

…food, transportation, clothing, and health care expenses on a child generally increased as the child grew older.

Well, food and health care we do not skimp on, which explains why Cool Baby is currently 25th percentile for height and 75th percentile for weight. That means that he is taller than only 25% of his peers, while he weighs more than 75% of his peers. Dude is thick and stocky.

Transportation expenses are minimal, since kids ride the bus and subway for free. I guess the infrequent cost of a new stroller could be rolled in there as well as the cost of pimping a kid’s ride.

And clothing is certainly not much of an expense because we just dress Cool Baby big and let him grow into his clothes.

So, in usual Cool Fam style, we are trying to live on the cheap- well, as cheap as a family living in Manhattan can pull off. We’d love to come way under that $222K mark for raising Cool Baby. NPR is more than welcome to follow us while we try!

My name is Cool Dad, and I’m a Slickdeals addict

cool dad — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 17:15:04 +0000

It’s been said in some circles that I’m a frugal guy. OK, all circles. I rarely make popular and troublesome impulse buys like clothes, music, and toilet paper. But there’s an online threat to my will power, and it’s winning. It’s not a virus – it’s Slickdeals.net.

Slickdeals is a deal-sharing site where users list sales, coupons, rebates, and other money-saving promos. You’ve probably stumbled upon it or a similar site before. Well, I’ve been addicted for about 2 years (thank you, Josh B.)

I’ve found so many deals on SD that I just had to take. Like, it would be financially irresponsible not to. I’ve gotten a 90%-off laptop bag, a nearly-free laptop cooling pad, free software, cheap clothes, and great prices on a TV and all 4 seasons of Futurama [-2 cool points]. I only fall for the best deals, so I’m still a cheapskate, but I wonder how much less money I would’ve spent without SD.

I check SD at least 10 times a day, though I haven’t made it my home page like my friend Josh. If I did, our place may start filling with things like GPS systems and scrapbooking accessories.

Are you a deal-hunter online? Which site(s) do you use?

Cheapo household tricks: Inexpensive laptop cooler

cool dad — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 12:33:39 +0000

Laptop computers take up little space and are easy to grab and go to a cool shindig like a World of Warcraft party. However, cramming a bunch of fancy computer parts into a convenient little package comes at a cost: overheating. One product available to prevent laptop overheating is the notebook cooler pad. It is essentially a couple of fans in a small platform that you set your laptop upon. The cooler pad plugs into an available USB port on your laptop to power the fans. Made by companies like like Targus, Antec, and Logitech, a cooler pad can cost as much as $8!! Who wants to sacrifice their morning Starbucks Super Grande Caramel/White Chocolate Macchipuccino for a cooler, more stable computer?

Lucky for you, we’ve found a cost-effective alternative to cooling your laptop, and hence the top of your lap. Made by companies like Mueller’s, Ronzoni, and Barilla, this cooling option can cost as little as 2/$1.00! I’ve likely piqued your interest, so I’ll go ahead and spill the cannellini. Our cheap, creative cooling consists of placing our laptop on two spaghetti boxes. The space beneath the laptop allows heat to dissipate.

We admit that this is a little MacGyverish, but when you live in Manhattan on one income, you gotta get creative. Just ask other one-income households like the Trumps and the Hiltons.

If you can get over the initial silliness of keeping your laptop on two boxes of pasta, then you can implement our cheap and cool(er) solution. Plus, it goes great with a fresh bolognese sauce!

This is part of Works for Me Wednesday.

Learning NYC cheaponomics at Jamba Juice

cool dad — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 20:23:04 +0000

Last week was the greatest smoothie week of my life. A kindred spirit in our church sent a printable Jamba Juice buy one, get one free coupon around the church Google group. Cool Mum and I took advantage of the deal at least five times. Strawberries Wild, Blackberry Bliss, Peach Pleasure, Peanut Butter Moo’d… Let’s not think about how many kilograms of sugar I sucked up through orange straws last week. For once we felt like normal people who didn’t view Jamba Juice as a luxury reserved for special occasions.

Living on the Upper East Side, I’ve felt like we’re the only cheapskates in New York City. I know people who wouldn’t be caught dead using a coupon – much less one that you actually had to print from your computer.

However, one morning at Jamba, I was taught a lesson.

A few months ago, Jamba Juice introduced oatmeal onto their menu. To get people hooked, they emailed 99-cent coupons for the normally $2.99-priced breakfast. I of course got to printing.

I figured that I would be the only one whipping out a piece of 8.5 x 11″ paper at the Jamba register, but more often than not, another kindred spirit also flashed a coupon as they handed it to the cashier as surreptitiously as possible. I wasn’t the only cheapskate.

Another morning, I made it to Jamba right in time as a long line had formed behind me. The waiting crowd was a classic mix of Manhattanites: casual college grads, Express-model hipster-professionals, and the stodgy old white men whose jobs they coveted.

And then I noticed something: a sign that times might be changing; confirmation that a recession is in full swing; a reminder that I’m not always as different as I think. I saw white sheets of copy paper dangling at people’s side. It was a show of solidarity in uncertain times, like everyone showed up to silently proclaim, “We want a good deal, and we’re proud of it!”

Or not. It was more like the coupon email had finally saturated the Internet, reaching the AOL email users. Either way, it was satisfying to know that there are other deal hunters in the city, even if just for that morning.

We still might be the most frugal people that we know in the city. However, I’ve now seen that everyone, whether they admit it or not, knows that cheap is cool.

How frugal are you compared to the people you know?

Cow Appreciation Day at Chick fil-A revisited

cool dad — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 13:13:16 +0000

Last year, we proudly participated in Chick fil-A’s Cow Appreciation Day. We dressed up like cows, got two free meals, and gave Cool Baby a good two months’ of nightmares about growing up in a pasture. We even posted about it to ensure that CB’s humiliation goes well into his high school years.

Here are the pictures that we posted last year when this blog was anonymous. To stay secretive, we just put up these zoomed-in shots. I mean our costumes were so amazing that you probably couldn’t tell who we were, much less tell that we were actually people, but we didn’t feel like risking it. [click to enlarge the photos]

Sadly, we did not participate in Cow Appreciation Day 2009. There is only one Chick fil-A in Manhattan. It’s part of the New York University student cafeteria, so they might not have even done Cow Appreciation Day. Maybe I should’ve just given it a shot anyway. Showing up on the NYU campus in a cow costume would’ve made for some cool Twitter updates, but I’d probably have my phone taken away when I got to the jail.

Even if there were a Chick fil-A nearby, I admit to wondering if we still would’ve done it. Showing up all bovine to the Gainesville, FL CFA was one thing. Would we be brave enough to pull it off in Midtown Manhattan? I’d like think that just for the sake of you all – yes.

Well, we have to do something to commemorate CAD at CFA, so I am pleased/worried to present these non-anonymous photos from last year. Click them to enlarge, and please cover the eyes of small children and animals.

Cheapo/uncool household tricks: Dangly earring solution

cool mum — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 03:47:03 +0000

Ah, the dangly earring. The desire to wear this super-cool earring style gave me the strength to get my ears pierced at the mall when I was about 10:

Unfortunately, the mall ear-piercer kind of messed up one of my holes. Just enough to make dangly earrings look like they were about to rip through and fall out. So much for the heart-bow-earring plan.

Nineteen non-dangly years later, I made an impulse buy. Then I remembered why I never wore them. Unfortunately, the special behind-the-earlobe-earring fixer things at the store cost about 12 dollars for 60, and each can only be used once.

Enter the Avery Reinforcement Labels from the office supply aisle! They work like a charm AND they are $2.15 for 544 adhesive hole fixers!

And I can’t wait to share how our stapler keeps us from having to pay for alterations. Just kidding. We’ll get some pictures up of these miracle workers in action soon. I love my reinforcement labels! [-8 cool points]

This post is part of Works for Me Wednesday.

Target vs Wal-Mart: I’m just a sucker for cool

cool dad — Wed, 27 May 2009 03:30:00 +0000

To get to and from Connecticut, we rented a ZipCar and packed 5 of us into a peppy Honda Fit. In an actual car, this was our chance to load up on goods without having to lug them across streets and on subways and buses like Cool Pack Mules.

We looked up the nearest Target to Hartford. When we were almost there, we passed a Wal-Mart, and I wondered if we should stop there instead. Then I immediately perished the thought. Why, though? What do I have against Wal-Mart?

WM certainly got me through my college years, with its affordable twin comforters, toilet paper, and underwear. Now, I’m a Target devotee. Am I just a sucker for style? My obsession with being cool might be getting the best of me – Target seems much cooler than Wal-Mart. Four examples:

COMMERCIALS
Target: Red-leather clad guys and girls strut around stylish furniture while the Target bullseye pulsates in the background.

Wal-Mart: A family touts the cheap bags of name-brand chips that one can score for the big game.

STOREFRONT
Target: The clean, red Target and bullseye lure shoppers all day and night.

Wal-Mart: The Wal-Mart sign – burdened with one more letter and a hyphen – often renames the store “Wal-Mrt” or “Wa-art” as letters won’t light up or have just fallen off.

CLOTHING BRAND
Target: Their Merona brand is trendy enough for work and social activities, while comfortably priced.

Wal-Mart: I’m not sure who was in charge of naming their apparel line, but ‘Faded Glory’ doesn’t make me feel good about what I’m wearing. I know I’m getting old; I don’t need my khaki shorts reminding me every time I put them on. I will give WM the benefit of the doubt for the possibility of a veiled, yet unfortunate Moses reference.

PRICE
While I initially had the impression that Target was more expensive across the board, they often give WM a run for our money. We just got 82 size 4 Target diapers for $14, regular price. WM may or may not match with their store brand diapers, which I’m not sure are named. UnderPoos? Fetid Glory?

I’m not knocking Wal-Mart shoppers; I’ve been one for decades. I wish we had one nearby. And cheap chips are a better use of money than pricey, boutique chips.

But as you know, we’re fighting inevitability here and need to hold on to every last shred of cool that we have. If that means propping my red leather-clad legs on stylish ottomans, then I guess we’re aiming for the bullseye.

Where does your discount store loyalty lie: Target or Wal-Mart?

This post is part of Works for Me Wednesday.

Why I love living in a studio apartment with a toddler

cool mum — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 18:00:00 +0000

I spent the past week in my parents’ mansion. It’s not really a mansion at all, but compared to our place, it is. Four bedrooms, two baths, formal living and dining areas, etc. I enjoyed it, but over the course of the week I developed a new appreciation for our very humble abode.

You see, Cool Baby has just learned how to open door handles. Or maybe this is just the first time we realized he already knew how to open door handles. For the latter part of the week, I mainly wandered from room to room trying to find CB as he opened and closed doors behind him to explore the vast expanse of the Cool Grandparents’ house.

Treasures awaited in rooms beyond my view–random computer chips just sitting out in the home office, hair gel bottles in the bathroom, important books and documents in the bedrooms. He could’ve done a lot of damage, but we left right as the novelty of breaking-and-entering was about to end and the destructive stage was about to start.

Our good old NYC studio apartment has one interior door–to the bathroom. That has been covered with a baby-proofing thing for months, so no problems there. The windows are secured with bars (which may be used for both keeping people out and keeping toddlers in, I suppose). All two lower cabinets are filled with tupperware, pots and pans, and other harmless items. Our two chairs fold to store behind the fridge where they can’t be used to climb for table dances. We don’t even have a couch for him to use as a diving board. The 200-something square feet do not allow for much long-distance running/hiding when it’s time to change diapers or clothes either.

My life is suddenly WAY easier. Who knew?

Sidenote to CB: Sorry to spoil your fun, man…I promise I’ll spend many hours at the park with you to make up for this. Thanks for being cool with whatever crazy situation you land in. Oh yeah, and are you telling on us?

Living in NYC on one income–some numbers

cool mum — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 01:49:00 +0000

Gallon of milk
FL: $3.49 on sale at Publix
NY: $3.59 regular CVS price

8 oz block of cheese
FL: $2.00 Kraft, on sale at Publix
NY: $1.99 generic, regular grocery store price

Goya can of black beans
FL: $0.89 regular price at Publix (by memory)
NY: $0.89 regular grocery store price

Health insurance – family coverage
FL: under $200
NY: $1,200.00 or $1,000.00 COBRA

Housing expenses, incl. electricity
FL: ~$1000/mo for 1200 sq ft house
NY: $1450/mo for 250-300 sq ft studio apt in Manhattan (electricity included in rent)

———————-

Groceries are definitely more expensive in general for non-sale items, but we found a favorite grocery store and the staples we buy don’t seem to be much more than we were paying in Florida!

But, in keeping our living expenses under $3000, we don’t have much to work with after paying $1000/mo for COBRA health coverage from the last job and $1450 of rent. Yikes.

More keys to the cheapo life that we hope will continue to work:

1. We don’t have to eat meat with every meal. Cool Dad usually has on-sale deli meat sandwiches for lunch, while I eat a LOT of beans and rice with cheese (I was blessed with an undying love for this meal, which may help us stay here!). Cool Baby has the best and most varied diet–he gets the best stuff and we eat his leftovers. I sometimes shake my finger at CD if he tries to eat some of it before it has been turned down by CB. Sad?

2. We shop at the produce stands on nearby streets–super cheap. Especially if you happen to be there as they are closing down for the day. A shining example–eight large bananas for a dollar! And I didn’t spend any gas money to get there, just a one minute walk from our place.

3. Walk. Everywhere. Cool Dad has been getting his unlimited metro card covered so far, but I don’t have one. So I try to avoid using public transportation ($2 each way) more than twice a week. I like walking, but it may get tough in the dead of winter!

4. Did I mention beans and rice?

Some areas for improvement:

1. Sometimes we can’t resist the 2-3 dollar slices of pizza, which may add up quickly.

2. We need to find a better solution for health insurance. This one item is killing our budget!

3. The occasional thrift shop or clearance rack clothing purchase. Ah, New Yorkers sure do have some cool cast-off clothing.

So there are some numbers for the curious, as promised. Thank you for giving me more motivation to analyze this stuff! Any advice?