Frugality Archives — Beating Broke

Creative Dating Tips When Broke

August 17, 2020 By MelissaB 1 Comment

When my now husband and I first started dating, I was a graduate student, and he was an undergraduate. We were both broke, but we didn’t let that stop us. We spent nine months mostly going on free dates before we became engaged. If you’re short on cash, don’t let that interfere with your dating life. Instead, follow these creative dating tips when broke and go out and enjoy life. Who said dating has to be expensive?

Free Date Ideas

You may be under the misconception that dating is expensive, and it can be—if you let it. But there are still fabulous ways to spend time together that are free or cost very little and are fun.

Scenic Drive

Why not take a scenic drive and explore the area around you? This is my favorite activity when the leaves are changing in the fall, and the scenery is gorgeous. But a scenic drive can be fun no matter the season.

Free Performances

If you live near a college town, see if they have any free performances. Colleges frequently have free music concerts. Some towns also have free plays in the summer or free movie viewings outdoors in the park.

One of our regular summer dates was a music concert the college held every Wednesday night. We got to spend time together, listen to good music, and, best of all, not spend any money!

Trip to the Beach

You can hit the beach for some daytime relaxation and fun. Or for a more romantic date, try going to the beach an hour before sunset. There’s nothing better on a summer night than walking the beach, feeling the cool breeze, and watching the sunset.

Hike

Hiking can give you a chance to see how adventurous the other person is and to see how he or she handles difficult situations, if you take a more challenging trail. Or, you can opt to take an easier trail and just have fun seeing the scenery and spending time together in nature.

Geocaching

Take your sweetie on an adventure. Using GPS, find the nearby coordinates and the treasure that someone else has hidden. Geocaching is a free treasure hunt that some people are almost cultish about. This is a fun way to spend an afternoon.

Cook Together

Creative Dating Tips When Broke — Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash

You both have to eat, so why not cook together? This activity gives you a chance to see how you work together as a team and delegate responsibility, plus you get to eat something that’s (hopefully) tasty after all of your hard work.

If you do have a bit of money to spend, you can make cooking together more of an adventure by buying a meal kit like HelloFresh. If you can’t afford that, Blue Apron has all of their recipes online for free. Just buy the ingredients you need.

Eat2Explore has boxes that include recipes for three meals from another country. The box includes directions, the sauces and spices you need, and a little bit of information about the country. You supply the ingredient. We’ve used several of these boxes and really enjoyed trying foods from other countries.

My husband and I cooked together at least two or three times a week when we were dating. We both still like to cook, but now we take shifts—one cooks, one does the dishes. We figure when the kids are grown, we’ll have more time to cook together like we did when we were dating.

Star Gaze

If you live in the country, there’s something so romantic about putting down a blanket, lying together on your backs, and watching the stars. Of course, it’s fun to find constellations, but many times, if you stay there long enough, you can even see a shooting star or two. Plus, the stillness and the beauty of the night sky make for a very memorable date.

Go to a Museum

Many museums have one or two days a month when admission is free. Just be prepared that if you go during this time, the museum will likely be packed.

Some libraries also offer culture passes. These can be checked out and used for free admission to museums in your area. If you use these, you can go for free without dealing with the overcrowding that the one free day a month usually brings.

Low-Cost Dates

While the free dating tips when broke can supply you with many great dating ideas, there may be times when you want to go out and spend a little money. These fun date ideas don’t cost much money.

Go Out for Dessert

While getting an entire meal together at a restaurant might be a bit pricey if you’re broke, you can share a dessert for a fraction of the cost. For example, a Caramel Apple Blondie from Applebee’s is only $6.99. Or, their Brownie Bite is just $1.99. Plus, many of these desserts are so large, they’re like a meal in themselves.

Coffee Shop

Going to a coffee shop can be the perfect, intimate date. You can chat and focus on one another while sipping a beverage.

If you’re bookworms, you could get your drink at a bookstore coffee shop and spend an hour or two perusing good books and discussing them. My husband and I loved this type of date. We frequently went to coffee shops from the start of our relationship until after our first child was born.

Paint Together

Though you’ll have to pay for the supplies, that will likely be the only expense when painting together. If you’re both artistic, you could try to paint on your own with no direction. However, if one or both of you are artistically challenged, there’s no shortage of YouTube tutorials to watch. For instance, you can now find many of the PBS Bob Ross tutorials on YouTube.

Final Thoughts

There’s no reason why being short on cash has to kill your love life. If you use some of these creative dating tips when broke, you can continue to enjoy spending time with your romantic interest in a way that doesn’t leave you with even less money. The most important aspect is being together. Doing that doesn’t have to be expensive or boring.

How We Save Money With Ting as Our Cell Phone Provider

July 27, 2020 By MelissaB Leave a Comment

For the longest time, my husband and I had simple Tracfone flip phones in case of emergency. We mainly used them just to keep up with one another, if necessary. We didn’t even have texting. But then my husband found it necessary to have a cell phone for work. We didn’t want to be strapped to a cell phone provider who would charge us a hundred dollars a month or more, so we decided to go with Ting, which has no contract requirement. I love to share with people how we save money with Ting as our cell phone provider because it helps us maintain a modest budget.

How We Save Money with Ting as Our Cell Phone Provider

We’ve upgraded to smart phones. We can now text, call, search the internet, etc. just like most people in the United States. However, by using Ting, we’ve found several ways to cut our costs.

Basic Ting Services and Charges

Ting is a provider who charges based on your usage.

Phone Line Charge

Each line that you have on the plan costs $6 a month. So, for my husband and I, there are two lines. We pay $12 a month for these.

Talk Minutes

There are also base rates for the minutes that you use to talk on your phone.

1 to 100 minutes = $3,
101 to 500 minutes = $9,
501 to 1000 minutes = $18, etc.

Texts

And there are base rates for texts.

1 to 100 texts = $3,
101 to 1000 texts = $5,
1001 to 2000 texts = $8, etc.

In addition, you will also pay taxes and regulatory fees monthly.

Limit Our Usage

Since Ting is basically a pay as you use provider, we try to limit our usage to keep our bills low. From October 2019 to February 2020, our monthly bill averaged $63. The highest bill was $84 in October when I was traveling, and the lowest was $46.

Once the pandemic hit and we began to stay home most of the time, our monthly bill dropped to $30.

If you want to focus on keeping your bill low, you can set up usage alerts, such as an email sent to you once you use 450 megabytes, so you don’t go over the 500 megabyte limit before moving into a different charge rate.

You can also enable settings that don’t allow you to make any more texts after a certain number, etc. This is very helpful if you have teens on your plan. This allows you to keep their usage within the confines of your budget.

Basic Phones

Ting also sells phones. My husband and I try to go with the most basic model available. The current phones we use cost less than $200 apiece. (We bought them during a sale Ting was having.)

We also use a cell phone case to keep our phones in good shape. My husband and I have both dropped our phones, but they were not damaged thanks to the cases.

Final Thoughts

While we wanted more modern cell phones, we didn’t want to pay a lot for them every month. The strategies given above are how we save money with Ting as our cell phone provider. Ting is not in every area, but you can see if they’re in your area by entering your area code on their website.

Is A Costco Membership Worth It When Living Alone?

June 15, 2020 By MelissaB Leave a Comment

I have been a member of Costco for approximately 10 years, and I love it! We typically recoup our membership cost within the first few months of our membership every year. We have a family of five that can easily go through the many bulk items we buy. However, if you’re single, is a Costco membership worth it when living alone? The answer is a resounding yes for most people. However, there is a small percentage who won’t benefit.

Is a Costco Membership Worth It When Living Alone?

A Costco membership isn’t always worth it when you’re single, but for many, there are enough advantages that having a membership is worth the $60 a year. Some of my favorite reasons why include:

Special Diet

If you have a special diet such as food intolerances or allergies or you prefer organic food, Costco is the place for you. Our family has both dairy and gluten intolerances, and I can’t beat the price for almond milk or gluten free pancake mix at Costco.

If you prefer organic food, you’ll definitely want to check out Costco. Over the years, Costco has added more and more organic selections. You can buy a 6 pack of organic Romaine lettuce for less than a 3 pack of the same at a traditional grocery store. Almost all of their organic fresh vegetable and fruit selections are markedly cheaper than a traditional grocery store. In addition, they have large bags of organic frozen fruits and vegetables that are much cheaper than their counterparts at a traditional grocery store.

Alcohol

Is a Costco Membership Worth It When Living Alone? — Photo by Jack Ward on Unsplash

If you love to entertain, Costco is the place for you. I don’t personally drink alcohol, so I don’t have exact prices on this. However, I’ve been told that you can buy wine and hard liquor at Costco at a much lower price than anywhere else. I know each time I go to Costco, I regularly see several customers who have their carts full of alcohol.

My husband does drink beer, and I can buy him a 24-pack of beer at Costco for just a few dollars more than a 12 pack costs at the grocery store. Over a year, the savings really add up!

Electronics

The only place we buy our laptops now is at Costco. Every laptop comes with a 2-year warranty—the first year from the manufacturer, the second year from Costco.

If you have a problem, simply call Costco’s concierge service, and they will assist. I have had issues with my laptops both in the first and second year of owning them. When it was during the first year and my laptop was still under manufacturer’s warranty, Costco acted as a bridge to help facilitate the interaction and repair, making for a seamless process.

During the second year, Costco does the repairs. I almost prefer if something needs to be repaired on my computer during the second year because Costco is so efficient! I always get my computer back quickly, and they do an excellent job keeping me updated on the repair process.

Gift Cards

Costco offers many gift cards at a significant discount.

If you love to dine out, you can get two $50 gift cards or four $25 gift cards to restaurants like Macaroni Grill, California Pizza Kitchen, and Smashburger, just to name a few of the many they offer. These $100 gift cards are available for just $74.99 to $79.99! You are immediately saving 20% or more.

In addition to restaurants, they also have gift cards for weight loss programs, the App store, and more. If you love video games, you’ll find significant discounts for XBOX, PlayStation and others.

These gift cards are great for presents, but they’re also great for you to use for your regular expenditures. If you spend just $300 a year dining out and always use your Costco bought gift cards, you will recoup your $60 membership fee right there!

Travel Benefits

Is a Costco Menbership Worth It When Living Alone? — Photo by Ross Parmly on Unsplash

Do you travel frequently? If so, you may find this yet another way you can quickly recoup the price of your $60 membership. Costco has many special package deals for travel.

While we haven’t yet used Costco for any package deals, we’ve used Costco to book our rental car whenever we travel. By doing this, we easily save at least 10% off the price of booking without our Costco card.

Gas

One of the best perks of being a Costco member is the gas prices. Whenever I’m near Costco, I fill up because gas is routinely 15 to 30 cents cheaper per gallon than anywhere else in town. When you’re filling up your vehicle multiple times per month, that discount can have a real impact.

However, the Costco stations don’t have window cleaner solutions and squeegees. (I wish they did!) Also, because most members know about the bargain gas price, don’t be surprised if you have to wait in line a few minutes before you can pump your gas.

When Having a Costco Membership Isn’t Worthwhile for Singles

As wonderful as Costco is, for some people who are single, a membership just isn’t worthwhile. My mom is one of those people. She doesn’t have a specialty diet, and she doesn’t care about eating organic food. She doesn’t drink alcohol, and she rarely travels. Instead of having a Costco membership, she just asks her friend who does have one to pick her up any items she’d like at Costco.

Another reason why it might not be worthwhile to have a Costco membership is if you’re a bargain shopper who likes to go to a variety of stores to get the lowest prices. While Costco can save many people a significant amount of money on groceries, generally, shopping at multiple stores for the lowest price will save even more.

Final Thoughts

Is a Costco membership worth it when living alone? For most singles, it is worthwhile. If you have a special diet, like to socialize and throw parties, or like to travel, getting a Costco membership will be a smart move. However, if you’re one of the few people who wouldn’t benefit from a membership, simply do what my mom does, and ask a friend with a membership to pick you up a few things.