Around the Sun: Blog About Saving Money

Inspirational post from Jonathan at MyMoneyBlog today: Take The First Step Towards Your Goal Today

I like his advice about spending just 5 minutes on a task, whatever you may be procrastinating on. What Jonathan experiences is the same for me: starting a task is the hardest part. And I am constantly amazed at how engrossed I can become on a task that I was so daunted by, once I got past the “starting” part. And how good it feels to look back and see what I’ve accomplished.

I spaced out about setting a goal at MyMoneyBlog, so I will post mine here. I have a high aversion to debt. The only debt I have right now is a mortgage and HELOC. I hate our HELOC. The interest keeps going up, along with my distaste for it. I just want it gone. It’s about $20K right now. My 6-month goal is to double, at least, our payments to the HELOC.

Now to figure out how to set that money aside, and where…

Last night, our local channel 2 news ran a story about the free-item section of Craigslist.

The report focused on Michelle, a local woman who needed to furnish her new home, but had little money to do so. Within a 2-week period, Michelle (an already avid user of Craigslist) found many major items for her home for free, saving her hundreds of dollars if she had purchased the items used, and thousands of dollars had she purchased them new.

You can read and watch the full story here:

 http://www.katu.com/news/4713611.html

Craigslist covers many cities around the country, see if your city is included here: http://portland.craigslist.org/about/cities.html

The free section for Portland can be found here: http://portland.craigslist.org/zip/

Another similar resource is Freecycle: http://www.freecycle.org/

I have both of these sites bookmarked because I am addicted to getting things free. I’ve been able to get a range of free items in the past, from fabric to CDs to bookshelves. Time is typically the biggest barrier to getting things from Craigslist and Freecycle: items can be snatched up very quickly.

With the rain, cold, rain and more rain, winter in Portland is the perfect time to go to the movies. But at $8.50 per ticket and a small fortune for food and drinks, people are foregoing big first-run movie chains in favor of local second-run theaters. Many of these theaters also serve beer, pizza, and in some cases a full pub menu, making the classic “dinner and a movie” date a one-stop no-brainer. And at about $3 a ticket, you don’t feel so bad about splurging on food. So the next time you head out to the movies, why not consider one of these theaters? You’d be helping your wallet as well as the local community.

In Portland, you can’t throw a stone without hitting a McMenamins, our friendly, local brewery-pub-hotel-theater empire. McMenamins has 5 movie theaters in the Portland area. Tickets are $3. All theaters serve pub fare or pizza.

• Bagdad Theater & Pub
• Edgefield
• Kennedy School
• Mission Theater
• St. Johns Theater & Pub

The Laurelhurst Theater is located on East Burnside and 28th. Tickets are $3. And they serve Pizzicato pizza.

The Academy Theater, located on SE Stark, is one I just found out about a couple of weeks ago and hope to find a reason to get out there soon. The website looks great. $3 tickets, 2-for-1 deal on Tuesdays. Yahoo!

For those in the SW burbs, there’s the Valley Cinema Pub on SW Beaverton-Hillsdale Hwy. Tickets are $3.75.

Any others? 

Since becoming a semi-vegetarian in 2002 (to clarify, I eat seafood … and the occasional escargot when the opportunity arises, but no other meat), I haven’t had turkey. Last year, I tried Tofurky for the first time and … it was surprisingly tasty. In case you don’t know what Tofurky is, you can read about it here.

So this year, I’ll be eating Tofurky again. We purchased a Tofurky Roast at Trader Joe’s for $8.49 over the weekend. My husband thought this was a really good deal compared to what we paid last year at Fred Meyer. Not remembering what we paid last year, I called 2 Fred Meyers and unfortunately they were not selling the Tofurky Roast (though they were selling the Tofurky Feast, which contains much more than the little non-bird). Wanting to do a closer comparison, I decided to also call a random assortment of grocers that I was confident would be selling said Roast. Asking for the price of the roast, not the feast, here’s what I found:

• Wild Oats (Capitol Highway): $8.99
• Daily Grind (SE Hawthorne): $10.49
• Food Fight (SE Division): $10.50
• Whole Foods (NW Couch): $9.99
• New Seasons (SE Tacoma): $9.99 on sale, $11.99 regularly (note that New Seasons was the only place that specified whether or not the item was on sale, and I didn’t clarify with the rest of the stores)

Trader Joe’s is indeed on the low side. It’s also interesting to see that the small local stores, Daily Grind and Food Fight, are not far off from the chains.

With that, I hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving and find many things to be thankful for. Cheers!

(Photo from Tofurky website.)

A little fun for the weekend: a video from YouTube on a new way to shop in China. Do you think it encourages or discourages impulse buys?

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlFMv6tSDns

To know me is to know that I love gelato.

So I was very excited when my favorite Portland food blog, ExtraMSG.com, reviewed 9 gelaterias in the Portland area.

How do the shops stack up on price? Looking at the prices posted in the review, it’s hard to make a head-to-head comparison based on price alone, since some shops offer more flavors per serving size than others. But it looks like Staccato Gelato offers the most flavors for the lowest prices overall.

Here is a list of prices based on the review:

Alotto Gelato
Small: $2.75, 2 flavors
Medium: $3.75, 3 flavors
Large: $4.50, 4 flavors

Bombe Gelato
Small: $2.95, 1 flavor
Medium: $3.85, 2 flavors
Large: $4.70, 2 flavors

Kaiju
Small: $2.50, 2 flavors
Medium: $3.25, 2 flavors
Large: $4.25, 3 flavors

Mio Gelato
Small: $2.50, 1 flavor
Medium: $3.25, 2 flavors
Large: $4.25, 3 flavors

Old Town Gelato
Small: $2.25, 2 flavors
Medium: $3.25, 2 flavors
Large: $4.25, 2 flavors

Parisi’s
Small: $2.50, 1 flavor
Medium: $3.25, 2 flavors
Large: $3.95, 2 flavors

Staccato Gelato
Small: $2.50, 2 flavors
Medium: $3.00, 3 flavors
Large: $3.50, 4 flavors

Tutto Bene
Small: $2.75, 2-3 flavors
Medium: $3.50, 2-3 flavors
Large: $4.75, 2-3 flavors
There’s also a “buy one get one half off” coupon on Portland.CitySearch.com.

Via Delizia
Small: $3.25, 2 flavors
Medium: $4.25, 3 flavors
Large: $5.25, 4 flavors

Of course, gelato cannot be judged by price alone. Read how each gelato stacked up on taste, texture and more HERE.

Just got back from a company retreat in Atlanta. After being in the work world for 10 years, this was my first-ever trip on the company (any company’s) dime. Although I am perfectly fine having a no-travel job, I can see there being some financial benefits to a job that involves travel:

• Frequent flier miles, especially if you can use them for personal trips
• Free (and hopefully nice) hotel and amenities
• All expenses paid
• Down time for sightseeing and visiting family/friends, which may fulfill personal travel goals
• Company-paid cell phone, laptop, etc., that you can use for personal purposes as well

Any other financial benefits?

In case you plan to hit the mall between now and the end of the year, it may make sense to use your Discover card.

Between November 1 and December 31, you can earn a $20 Discover gift card for spending $200 on your Discover card at Clackamas Mall or Pioneer Place. You need to present your receipts to the customer service desk to receive the gift card instantly. Maximum is 5 gift cards per account.

To read the fine print:

Clackamas Mall

Pioneer Place

Find participating malls in other states: here.

Thanks to MyMoneyBlog for the heads up: here.