Lazy Man and Money

Five Ways to Save Money with Meal Prep

by 2 Comments

With inflation on the minds of everyone, I realized it’s been a while since I wrote anything about saving money. When I started this blog a billion years ago, I would often write about little tricks to save money. Well, now there are so many websites with so many tips. You can literally for “how to save money on toilet paper” and get a bunch of articles.

However, that doesn’t mean that all those old ideas are invalid and don’t work anymore. As I was looking through my old articles, I thought it might be interesting to highlight a few of them in one post.

  • 5 Cheap and Easy Slow Cooker Recipes

    It’s a little odd to start a top-five list with another top-five list, but sometimes weird is good. The slow cooker is the ultimate in Lazy Man food prep. I can put together some spaghetti sauce, sausages, peppers, and onions and turn on the switch and have a great meal later that night.

  • Meal Prep for College Students
    I didn’t write this one, but I wish I had. Meal Prepify has 54 meal prep ideas for college students. At $2 a meal, it’s a good way to save money. Don’t be embarrassed to eat like a college student. I’m 46 years old and I still eat instant Ramen noodles. (I just use less salt/seasoning.)
  • Budget Hack: Shredded Chicken
    When I wrote that article in 2015, I wrote, “For years now I’ve seen [boneless, skinless chicken breast] at $1.99/lb. price. Who knew that chicken was immune to inflation?”

    The price of boneless, skinless chicken breast is still about $1.99/lb. near me. I can still find the occasional sales cheaper than that. In fact, it’s so cheap that I started to put shredded chicken in my dog’s food instead of cheese. (He’s picky and needs something.) It’s great healthy and versatile. While on the topic of healthy meal prep, Meal Prepify has some healthy, cheap recipes

  • Does Foodsaver Save You Money
    I’m including this article because I almost forgot about the Foodsaver. Back in 2007, we used it for everything. Now, I don’t think we’ve used it in the last 4-5 years. It’s also funny to see what constituted a somewhat quality blog post worth getting 20 comments back in 2007. It’s almost like comparing black and white TV to 4K.

    I’m inspired to get out the food marinator though. You put the meat in a plastic thing with the marinade and suck out all the air so the marinade gets into the meat much more quickly. The key to saving money comes from avoiding the plastic bags and using the wide-mouth jar sealing attachment.

  • Things I love – InstantPot
    I think InstantPots were not super popular back in 2016 when I wrote the article, but they are everywhere now. I still haven’t learned to work it. My wife is great with it though. She belongs to an InstantPot Facebook group and has a bunch of attachments. We had fajitas for Cinco de Mayo. It was much better than going out to the one Mexican restaurant in our area that had a 3-hour wait last year.

    The InstantPot saves us money by helping us avoid restaurants when we don’t have anything defrosted or prepared.

In retrospect, some of these ideas may not be great ways to save money. They may fill a role for some people though. As a bonus, here’s an easy homemade hummus recipe. When I was shopping for hummus for my wife in California back in 2009 it was expensive. Nowadays, we have an Aldi and hummus is cheap there, so we don’t make it from scratch anymore. I think there are a lot of places that don’t have an Aldi option – and inflation may make these prepared foods more expensive – so maybe it’s useful? Let me know in the comments.

Why Homes Should Invest in Solar Energy

by 1 Comment

Solar Energy

The following is a guest post from a reader named Greg Petersen. I have been so busy homeschooling kids and going crazy in isolation that I haven’t been able to get into the flow of writing. I also find it very hard to write on personal finance topics when there are so many things that are more important. However, I was so impressed at the research and references to my other solar articles that I felt it was worth running. At a time like this, I doubt too many people are consider solar energy, but if you have some time on your hands to do the research now, maybe it will make sense when things look better.

The news about the polar shift and different natural catastrophes being experienced in different parts of the world has made the idea of going green and going off the grid seem a lot more appealing. With climate change and other man-made destruction identified as the possible reasons for the earth’s outcry, many people are seriously thinking about using clean energy.

The constant earthquakes in different parts of the world, the sudden drop in temperature in Afghanistan, and bushfires in Australia are all indications of how serious the earth’s condition really is. These global catastrophes are not something one person can solve. Instead, these concerns need a more urgent, unified effort from the people of the world.

If you are still not convinced of the urgency of going green and shifting to solar energy, here are some points of contention that might sway you in the right direction.

Solar power is environmentally-friendly

One common but underrated fact about solar energy is that it’s a green and clean energy source. This means that when you shift to solar power, you are significantly reducing your carbon footprint. With solar power, nothing hazardous is being released to the air that might pollute mother nature. And since solar energy does not release greenhouse gases, it does not use other resources. Given these factors, one can say that solar energy is 100% environmentally-friendly and safe.

In addition, solar power is also self-sustaining. If you install solar panels on your roof, you are on a path to contributing to the earth’s sustainable future. Plus, your home will offer proof of your personal commitment to mother nature.

Solar energy paves the way for a cleaner renewable power source that not only benefits homeowners but also the environment. Compared to other alternative sources of energy, solar power reduces the local and global carbon footprint, significantly contributing to the efforts of reducing greenhouse gases. This energy source is known for its favorable impact and advantages to the environment.

In the U.S. electricity is mostly generated from natural gas, coal, and other fossil fuels. The process of extracting and converting fossil fuels into viable energy sources is not only expensive but also detrimental to the environment. Solar energy, on the other hand, is abundant and free. If you could capture all of the sun’s energy for an hour, you could produce power for the entire world that would last for a year.

If you invest in solar energy, you take a proactive stance in reducing the world’s reliance on fossil fuels. In the process, you’re pursuing a more consistent and abundant energy source — the sun.

Solar energy helps limit the emission of greenhouse gases

If you generate electricity using solar power instead of natural gas or coal, you can dramatically decrease the volume of greenhouse gas emissions, especially carbon dioxide. Greenhouse gases are produced through fossil fuel burning, leading to the rise in global temperatures and climate change. The latter contributes largely to public health and environmental issues; including ecosystem changes, rising sea levels, and extreme weather events.

If you go solar, you can help reduce the rising demand for fossil fuels while shrinking your carbon footprint and limiting your greenhouse gas emissions. A single home that opts for a solar energy system can create a measurable impact on the health of the environment. The U.S. Energy Information Administration stated that an average home using solar panels in Connecticut consumes 8,288 kWh of electricity every year. If that home was switched from fossil fuels to solar power, the homeowners could reduce emissions significantly and create a positive effect on the environment equal to planting 150 trees a year.

The average electricity use in New York homes is at 7,248 kWh per year. If these homes switched to a cleaner energy source like solar power, they could reduce the carbon emissions that result from burning more than 5,000 pounds of coal every year.

Solar energy helps decrease cardio and respiratory health issues

One of the most persuasive reasons why one should invest in solar energy is its effects on our health. With such a clean energy source, you can expect that there will be less air pollutants. According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), with more people shifting to a solar power system, there would be lesser emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxides, and other particulate matter. Aside from this, NREL also found out that solar power helps decrease cardiovascular conditions, respiratory problems, and chronic bronchitis. Worker productivity will also increase as people experience less illness.

With solar power you can go off-the-grid

Compared to electricity, solar panels are less costly. Traditional electricity significantly relies on fossil fuels like natural gas and coal. These substances are all detrimental to the environment. They are also not sustainable energy resources. As a result, the market for energy resources is volatile, with prices fluctuating violently all through the day.

If you choose solar electricity, your independence from electricity will be boosted further. If you invest in a 4KW-size solar system, a common size for domestic use, you can spare yourself from the ever-fluctuating utility prices. With a cheap and clean electricity source, you won’t feel guilty enjoying your appliances all day long. After all, the sun will never increase its consumption rate. The sun will give you the energy security you need.

The moment your solar panels are installed securely on the roof of your house, technically, you already reached the status of a person that’s energy-independent. Plus, the storage systems of your solar battery will allow you to safely store electricity for use during rainy days and nighttime.

Underutilized land can be used with solar power

If after all that has been said you are still not sold on the idea of installing your own solar power, think of the unused lands that have been left unattended. With solar energy, you can transform these untended lands into areas that can be used to generate more solar power.

Energy shortage is a worldwide phenomenon. Especially now that the threats of natural calamities and disasters are almost everywhere, the topic of energy sufficiency is more than timely. And since everyone is using electricity, it is time to join hands in a collective effort to capture more solar power.

People can harvest solar power in large quantities from solar farms. A 45-acre farm is able to provide electricity in more than 2,500 home volume of energy. The amount of solar energy that can be sourced here is more than enough to power a town, city, state, or even country. People and nations will no longer have to suffer from high-priced electricity costs and unclean energy sources that will end up destroying the environment.

Enjoy a lower energy bill

If you don’t want to go completely off the grid, you can still benefit from a solar panel-powered home. The generation of solar power happens primarily in the afternoon when the sun is up. More solar power can also be generated during summertime. This is the perfect answer to the high energy need during this time of the day and season of the year. It’s in the afternoon when it’s so hot that most homeowners turn on their air conditioners.

Solar energy is valuable in the sense that other energy production methods like natural gas plants that are used to meet the highest energy demands end up being overly expensive. Before the new utility pricing scheme was introduced, homeowners were charged with a flat rate for electricity. This means it doesn’t matter what time of the day they used electricity, they pay a fixed monthly rate. If you install and use a solar power system during this time, you can’t really feel the benefit. It’s like the cost of installation of your solar power system offsets the cost of your electricity bill.

Fortunately, a vast majority of the utility companies in the U.S. now adapt a new pricing scheme that charges homeowners different rates for different hours of the day. The ratio behind such a scheme is to reflect the actual electricity production cost at different times of the day. This means that you will be charged higher rates in the afternoon when the demand for electricity is at its peak, and lower rates during the night. The extent of the benefit you enjoy as a solar power system owner depends on when you use your electricity the most. This investment is most beneficial to those living in areas that implement varying pricing schemes over different seasons of the year due to seasonal demand fluctuations. Those who consume more electricity during summer will feel the most benefit from solar power.

Sell solar-generated energy to electrical companies

Apart from a significantly lowered bill, you can also get a credit from the utility company if you sell your extra solar-generated power to utility companies. Net metering plans are common in the U.S. This is where residential consumers are allowed to use the solar power that they put into the grid to offset their use of power at other times. A home is selling power to a utility company when the power that the house puts into the grid is greater than the amount of electricity their household consumed. Your monthly bill will be the basis for your net energy consumption.

As you already know, the net metering mechanism enables utility customers to feed their saved-up and unused solar electricity back to the electricity grid. To fully take advantage of this benefit, you need to educate yourself on the varying net metering policies and regulations across the states. You can also refer to the Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency (DSIRE) or get in touch with the office’s local utility companies to get more specific and thorough information.

A Portland homeowner, for example, saves about $17,000, on average, if they use solar energy for more than 20 years. If you live in Boston, in the span of over 20 years of solar power usage, you can save around $43,000. If you live in Los Angeles, in the same period, your savings can spike up to more than $50,000. To get an estimate of how much you can save, check with DSIRE.

Added home value

Another benefit of using solar energy is the potential increase in the value of the home. Generally, it’s safe to assume that solar panels will raise the market value of most homes. As already discussed above, the homeowner can forever benefit from lower electricity if they buy a house that’s powered by solar energy. Next, there’s a global trend toward green living and this also means there’s an equally increasing demand for houses that are powered by sustainable and clean energy sources that emit smaller volumes of carbon. Lastly, if you buy a home that is already powered by solar energy, the investment will be financed through the mortgage for the homebuyer. Because it’s possible to finance a mortgage for houses with solar panels already installed, this is easier and possibly more affordable than buying a house run by traditional energy sources and choosing to invest in solar panels later.

Take advantage of tax subsidies and grants

Lastly, another worthwhile advantage of going solar is the tax grants or subsidies offered by the state government. You may have already heard of the campaigns run by federal and state governments encouraging homeowners to switch to solar energy. If you do, the government offers a tax grant or subsidy to assist you in having your solar power system installed. The rationale behind these financial incentives is to encourage more homeowners to use solar panels. The final cost of the system after it is installed can be less than its sticker price. Additionally, tax credits are also given for homeowners who use solar power, which can decrease your tax bill.

One thing you want to do is check with your home insurance (such as Allstate Insurance) to make sure that your solar panels are insured. You want them to be safe from hurricanes, tornadoes, and other acts of nature.

Let’s Be Cheap

by 8 Comments

Be Cheap
Let’s Be Cheap!
When I started blogging in 2006, the personal finance blogosphere focused most of their attention on saving money. I remember reading one article where the blogger wrote that he makes sure not to open the refrigerator too many times a day, because he calculated it costs 4 cents to cool it back down.

That’s far too extreme for me.

However, like most bloggers from back than, I have a central area where you can save money on almost anything. (Those articles may be outdated now. I bet a Google search for “save money [x]” will get you better results until I can update it.)

The reason why so many people wrote about those things was simply because there wasn’t a lot written about it before. Also, it’s much easier to write something concrete like “avoid the artisan grocery store” and “bring your own lunch to work” than “work harder and hope for a raise.” It was especially easy for me to focus on the frugal aspects because I had control over many of my expenses. When I put together the case that I was being paid less than 95% of all software engineers according to Salary.com, the answer I got was, “Sorry, there’s nothing in the budget to do anything.” They couldn’t even get creative with stock option compensation or vacation time.

I didn’t have any control when it came to the company’s business or how they were managing their finances. In this new coronavirus world, many people are feeling the same way. The days of asking for a raise are probably gone for awhile. If you are able to keep your income, you are doing well (financially, at least). There’s talk of potentially a 30% unemployment rate which is something I can’t remember in my lifetime.

This is the time to take control of the things you can control. It may not be much, but it might be the best you can do. It’s time to be a little cheap. Or, if you prefer, frugal.

(Side Note: If you have the means to be financially generous, please do so. Support local businesses like restaurants. They need that support. This article is geared towards those who aren’t fully financially secure.)

I was laid off in the dot-com bust of 2001. I was only out of college for a couple of years. Software engineering jobs were impossible to find. I remember on one interview the hiring manager essentially wanted me to rewrite TurboTax from scratch. He’d pay $2000 when it was completed.

During those tough times, being frugal saved me. Or to just call it like it was, I was cheap. From a very young age, my mother taught me to save money. I had always been a saver at heart anyway. I’d save all my Halloween candy until it went bad. I got more comfort knowing that the candy was there for me if I wanted it than actually enjoying the candy itself.

A month ago B.C. (Before COVID-19), there was a lot of talk on personal finance Twitter about earning more money. I understand why. Life is too short to not enjoy it. People love the idea of being able to have everything they’ve ever dreamt of. It’s easy to sell a “earn more money” message if it fits what people already want to hear. I have also seen some bloggers follow it up with, “Buy my book or buy my course.” To put it simply, by its very definition, it is hard to sell products or training to cheap people.

Making more money is certainly half of the financial success equation. I don’t want to dismiss that. However, it’s a difficult half to write actionable advice about. No writer knows what kind of job your are in or what your education is. Maybe making more money is extraordinarily difficult for your situation. I can suggest adding a side hustle, but that’s not what “Lazy Man” is about. I hope everyone can work smarter and get to the point where their money works for them.

I’ve always been an equal fan of both sides – make more money and save money wherever possible. I’ve known people who make crazy amounts of money, but don’t save or invest much. I’ve known people who don’t make a lot of money, which means they can’t save or invest much.

One of my favorite things to do is to thinking about how to be cheap. Not really cheap, but spend less money as a general habit. For example, I looked at my electric bill and thought, “I wonder if solar power makes sense in Rhode Island.” It does! We’re almost on our 5th year of solar power now. We paid a lot up front, but we’ve saved more than half of what we spent. After around 8 years, any electricity our panels generate will be “free” (compared to what we would have paid if we didn’t get the panels).

The other thing I like to do is save money on groceries. Soon after we moved to our house, we lost the local Best Buy. That was terrible for a technology geek like me. However, Aldi moved into the space. It is one of the best grocery stores for cheap, quality food. That’s a great financial trade-off for us. For example, they have so many chicken deals that I’ve been able to write some creative articles like, “McFly, Are You Chicken?” and Rich Chicken, Poor Chicken.

While I’ve had the best luck with Aldi, but occasionally, I can find some deals at our local Shaw’s. The local military base is a good source as well. I don’t go to different stores looking for great deals. I’ll only give it a look while I’m doing the rest of our shopping. It’s easier to “shop our chest freezer” from previous deals.

Why Being Cheap Matters

Here’s an example that many people can relate to. Let’s say you have a $60 cable bill. (Mine is over $100 and I don’t have any premium channels.) A cheap person might say, “Netflix has more television than I could ever watch at $10 a month.” I’m going to cut my cable bill and save $50 a month.

You might be thinking, “Big deal. That’s nothing.”

That $50 a month is $600 a year. This is where we need to apply the Rule of 25. The Rule of 25 states that in order to afford a $600 annual expense, you need to have 25 times more saved. It’s mathematically derived from a bunch of economic analysis that shows people can live on 4% of their saving mostly indefinitely by investing a large sum of money.

At the risk of putting an example in an example, if you have $1,000,000 you can roughly take out $40,000 to live on. And with the rule of 25, if you need $40,000 to live on, you should have $1,000,000 in savings.

When we convert that $600 annual cable bill into Rule of 25 terms, we realize we need to have $15,000 in our investments.

That’s just one bill. If you multiply it by many extravagances you’ll have a hundreds of thousands of dollars in your savings. Being cheap always makes a big difference when it comes to reaching financial freedom.

A bunch of small savings can add up. They have a snowball effect. It is very difficult to try to make an extra percent or two investing in the stock market. Even if you do, it’s likely to be mostly luck. However, by saving 75% on something like food it gives us more money to invest. Getting that money in the market early has been critical to our secure financial position now.

A lot of that started with being cheap.

Four Unexpected Ways We Saved Money on Back To School Clothes Shopping

by 11 Comments

Save Money on Clothing

So many people say that kids are expensive. They certainly can be. However, sometimes they are not. It can run the whole spectrum.

I don’t know where are on that spectrum. On some things we are extremely spendy. On others we are extremely thrifty. In the end, it probably averages out.

Here are some of the things that we don’t spend much money on: clothes, toys, food (they don’t eat much, and they will only eat the cheapest, processed, most unhealthy foods).

Here are some of the things we spend a lot of money on: private school/day care, after school activities.

Today, I’d like to cover about some of the ways we saved money for back-to-school clothing shopping. Typically, I’d give my old standby, “Go to TJ Maxx and Marshalls.” It’s always served me well in the past.

1. Outlet Malls are Back in Style

This year we did something a little different. We found ourselves travelig near the Tanger Outlets in Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire. I didn’t have very high hopes and thought it would be a waste of time, but I decided to humor my wife. Besides, with stores like Gymboree, there will definitely be some cheap clothes.

I hadn’t been outlet shopping in years, maybe even a decade. I used to love it around 2002, but it seemed that the stores caught on and made the deals a little worse and the quality of clothes a little worse.

Well, in my recent experience, the deals are back! Maybe it’s because retail clothing companies have run into difficult times?

My wife and I were tempted so much we ended up upgrading our own wardrobes as well as the kids. We picked up a mix of very frugal clothes (the aforementioned Gymboree) and some “special” clothes. Due to the private school, there’s a certain amount of “keeping up with the joneses” when it comes to clothing. When it’s time to wear more formal clothes, we won’t stick out like sore thumbs.

2. Kohl’s is King

I think that Kohl’s is a strange store. It’s almost like they intentionally price some stuff at $30, just so they can put it at 60% off and sell it for what the real price should be. It’s probably not as bad as I make it out, but we had no problem finding tons of quality clothes on clearance.

The other weird thing about Kohl’s is that they allow you stack discount after discount. My wife has the credit card (the only store card I think we have) and got a mailing for an additional 30% off. Then there’s Kohl’s cash for spending so much money. I think we ended up getting around $300 worth of clothes for $100.

At this point, there’s an argument to be made that we didn’t really save much money at all. It’s very popular in for personal finance bloggers to say that the best way to save is to not spend the money in the first place. I don’t think we overbought considering we have two kids to outfit and could also get some summer clothes for next year.

3. Shopping My Mother’s Closet

My mother has always done a fantastic job combing the a second hand store in her town. Her ability to pick up any kind of clothing, even winter coats, for around $2 or less is one of the reasons why we have never really had to spend much on kids clothes.

The store hasn’t has as many deals as it has in the past, but my mother still had quite a pile of clothes in the closet. I know not everyone has a bargain-hunting grandmother. However, if you happen to have a store like this one and the time to drop-in, it can pay off.

4. That Neighbor Down the Street

I’m pretty friendly with my neighbors. That means that I give them a head-nod and half a wave every now and again. I’m exaggerating that part a bit, but most people tend to keep to themselves.

There’s a couple of neighbors who I talk with a little more… usually while our dogs are running around on the lawn. Earlier this year one of my neighbors offered their kids’ old blazers. I obviously said I’d take them, but it hadn’t come up again in months. Earlier this weekend, we found a present at our door, two blazers that appear as if they were worn only once.

Final Thoughts

I had originally intended to write this article to cover the outlet malls and Kohl’s as a way to get cheap clothes.

However, I felt like it was necessary to point out that we do have a couple of unique sources for cheap clothes that help out. You can consider them bonus ideas such as looking at second-hand stores yourself, or maybe even BEING the helpful neighbor paying it forward.

What are some of the ways you save money on clothes (either kids or your own)? Let me know in the comments.

Solar Power is Still Awesome (Three Years Later)

by 10 Comments

It’s been more than three years since we’ve paid an electric bill… and it feels every bit as good as it sounds.

Yesterday we got our bill for May. It’s amazing to look forward to getting a bill in the mail. This was our best bill yet:

Electric Bill

No, THANK YOU for letting me use your DirectNOPay Program.

For newer readers, I wrote an article here about how and why we transitioned to solar power. Solar power worked out for us based on a confluence of three things: house orientation (facing south), state and federal subsidies, and the price of electricity in general. The last two are Rhode Island related, but it make sense for you in your state. I think the federal subsidies are still in place, but you may want to investigate this quickly. To put it mildly, I don’t think environmental causes are near the top of this administration’s priorities.

We’re currently in the “sweet spot” of solar power. In the spring, the days are long which means a lot of sun. We don’t use much electricity as we don’t need heat or (much) air conditioning. We are starting to get into air conditioning season though, which is when we’ll start drawing down on that negative balance. (Or is it drawing up, because we’re in negatives?)

I think we’ve gotten as close as a -$50 balance, but this recent -$255 bill is the biggest credit I can remember. This June has been cooler than I remember and we were on vacation for part of the month. Maybe we’ll get to -$300.

It’s funny (and weird) to feel as much pride in that number as I do. In the grand scheme of our net worth, $255 is a round off error. Don’t get me wrong, I still run around to several groceries stores to save a couple of dollars, but we’re in a financial place where the difference between $125 and $255 isn’t a big deal… unless you “earn” it in small increments as we have. (I put “earn” in quotes there, because so much of it is passive and has nothing to do our active involvement.)

The best thing about not paying for electricity is just that… eliminating expenses. And as much as I gloat about it here, it’s a little dishonest to say we aren’t paying for electricity. Solar panels are not cheap. We took out a HELOC to cover them. A reasonable person could make the very valid case that we’re just paying someone else (the bank, plus interest) each month and we did not eliminate an expense.

If you want to make that case, at some point, we’ll eliminate the expense. The timeline on that seems to change every few months, but we are making good headway. If not for some other unexpected expenses, we would probably have been down to zero a little back.

Or maybe we won’t truly ever eliminate our monthly electricity bill. We are a couple of months away from paying off both of our SUVs (they were on 5+ years of low/zero interest loans), so in another 8 years maybe we’ll look into an electric SUV. At that point the SUVs will be 13 years old. If we don’t have Uber gPods, we’d likely be looking for an electric SUV with 4-wheel drive (for New England snow), which is a bit of a tall order right now. If it becomes a reality, we’ll shift some of our transportation costs towards our electricity bill. I’m not sure how that will impact things, but we’ve got nothing but time to figure it out.

Have you looked into the cost of solar in your area? Let me know in the comments.