Today I began the bike commuting era, and it has been a long time coming. I have been thinking about it for months now – 5 months ago today, to be exact (Bike Commuting: Is it for me?) – and today I have finally taken the first pedals on my journey to cycling ~24 miles a day, 120 miles a week. I am a little sweaty, but no worse for the wear.
My first ride consisted of a 1.7 mile joy ride in the cool San Diego morning to the bus stop. Then I hopped aboard my normal ride to within 1.4 miles of work. My total cycling for the morning was only 3.1 miles, a mere quarter of what my normal one-way route would be. I’m still toying with the idea of riding all the way home from the office this afternoon, but I’ll probably make a game time decision on that one. I don’t want to tenderize my tush ont he first day. That would be terrible.
As part of my commuting plan I am cooking my breakfast for the week on Sunday – 4 3/4 cups of oatmeal and 10 hard boiled eggs – and packing it in easily transported containers. This is a pretty frugal breakfast. I’m not exactly sure what it breaks down to, but I’m sure it is. Once I go shopping again I’ll get the specifics.
This month I won’t see any savings on bus fares. After paying out of pocket all last month for fares “expecting” to bike commute by the end of the month I’ve learned my lesson and played it safe. this way if something terrible happens (think hemorrhoids). I won’t worry about wasting money. Once I stop riding the bus I am expecting that I will be able to pocket the $64 a month I spend on fares and turn it into sweet, sweet savings.
But bike commuting is something I am doing only partly because it seems wise financially. The other reason is it sounds like a challenge. I’ve always been pretty athletic and for a large part of my life participating in competitive athletics was a year round deal. That all ended when I left the college where I wrestled a few years ago. I’ve since lost weight and I’d probably gas before my muscles give in – the surrest sign I’m out of shape. I’m hoping that riding to work will at least improve my vascular system and maybe being sweaty when I get home will help me thug it up and actually build some muscles.
Then I can look like this:
Image Credit: irene nobrega
… just … like … that.
The coupon finding, freebie loving Kimberly over at My Good Cents posted a very cool tip that she found via theStreet.com. It is so good and so uplifting that I thought I might share it as well. The tip goes like this:
Instead of throwing unwanted coupons in the trash, take them with you when you go shopping. As you walk down the aisles, place the coupons you won’t use next to the items for which they are good.
When the next person who is going to buy that item grabs it off the shelf, there will be a coupon waiting that can be used to save a little extra money.
I don’t know about you, but I like making people smile and thought that this was a great idea for making that happen.
But, it may not be all goodness for everyone involved. For the most part you could describe my ethics as utilitarian, and thinking about this made me think about how a utilitarian might think about this frugal act in moral terms. I thought the internal discussion I had was interesting so I’ll share it.
In my thought example I said that I placed 25 coupons around my local grocery store. I decided to say that the rate at which others would find and use these coupons in the same day that I place them is about 50%, making the number of found and used coupons roughly 13. Since one of the main things that utilitarians do is they try and measure the happiness created by certain actions among all the people that it will affect I am going to have to quantify the happiness that my actions might cause. Not too keen on the idea of having to quantify happiness, I will give it some abstract value of 
. here represent the average amount of happiness that finding a coupon will create across the board. Some individuals will be happier and others will be less happier, but the average is . So in total terms I created 13 in the individuals I helped with my coupons.
Then I figured my happiness into it. For me personally, I get a sense of satisfaction from helping others even when I can’t see the affects of my actions. However, I generally get more satisfaction when I actually see the affect of my action. The classic example is that I like to watch someone enjoy a gift rather than just knowing that they enjoy my gift. I figure that this is pretty common. Since this is so, I figure that I will only get slightly happier by giving these coupons when I won’t see their benefit – maybe bringing me 2 . The total created is now 15.
On first glance this seems like a win-win from the utilitarian’s point of view because I will get the benefit of being a giver and a group of people will benefit from my actions and 15 is created. But is that really all the people who are affected by my actions? I think not.
We also have to consider the store staff. They are the ones having to clean up the remaining 12 coupons that I left strewn around the store, some high and some low. These coupons could get brushed off the shelves and end up on the floor, possibly causing cart wheels the skin, children to slip, or a manager to yell at an underling. When all is said and done these 12 remaining coupons maybe cause 1/3 
to the three people that have to deal with them resulting in a net 1 .
The net happiness created is really 14 . That is still pretty good.
Now what if I could increase that happiness? Here is how it would work for me. Since I get more happiness out of actually seeing the benefit I give someone and I want to eliminate the 1 I would create by just leaving them around what if I looked for people who are buying what I have coupons for and give it to them personally? That could potentially create way more without any of the . All I would have to say is something like, “Hey, noticed you were buying that Chuck Norris action figure. I got a coupon for it. Here take this.” Seeing them rejoice at the fact that they bought that Chuck Norris action figure with a $1 discount would give me like … 5 . All I would have to do is help 3 people each trip and already I create more happiness just for myself than the other way would for all the people involved. This is definitely a better way.
Each person might be different so consider your own personality and those personalities of the individuals that shop and work at the grocery store near you. Outcomes may vary.
Does anyone have another way to get randomly brighten the day of another person while shopping for food? Leave a comment or feel free to contact me with our handy contact form.
I have a budgeting confession to make, I haven’t touched my family’s budget in over a month. *Gasp*
I know, I know – I am setting the foundation for a cavalcade of kaka if I let things continue down this path, but I have a really good excuse why. It looks just like this:
I have lost the cap to my ever so precious magical stick of information storage. I’m not sure what happened to it, but I’m certain a leprechaun stole it from me … on purpose … because I like to wear orange on St. Patrick’s day. Needless to say I don’t spend very many home hours working on my budget and logging our expenses. What I’ve learned from this little experience is that I only budget at work, ever.
It seems that tracking the minutia of our earning and spending is a welcomed break from the monotony of my job. I might even be able to say that it brightens my day. It is kind of funny actually, if I think about it – what most people despise to do (i.e. budget their money) is actually something I do not to be bored at work.
One of the things that I am most surprised about though is that I still remembered to pay my bills on time without the daily red reminder of that blessed box found to the right of my expense tracker. Late fees on bills can be rather costly. I am very glad good ol’ grey matter got good and accustomed to paying people at certain times of the month or else I’d be doubly disappointed about not keeping tabs on my cash.
As to the question of whether or not we actually kept our spending in budget, I have no idea what the case may be. My hunch is that we are over, but not because of wild spending. I think that our moving expenses – i.e. paint, boxes, fast food, etc. – may have taken us beyond the bounds of our spending plan. Only time will tell and already I am loathing having to backtrack our books. Oh well, c’est la vie.
Photo by : Ambuj Saxena
I have not posted anything here in a very long time, practically a month now. Many things have been going on in the Lucre household, and only a few of them have been money related. I don’t know where exactly to start, so here it is in no particular order:
The gender of our baby is a male. Of course I am now dreading that fact that auto insurance for the little man is going to be practically astronomical by the time he can drive at 18. Boys are crazy drivers and are like a gazillion times more likely to get into an accident than their female counterparts. I personally blame testosterone dementia, but it could simply be the King of Antarctica is out to get boys in general as they pose the only major threat to his world domination.
I am now the owner of a commuter bike. I got the bike last week on Wednesday, rode it for 7 miles on Wednesday and Thursday only to pop a tire Thursday near the end of my ride. I still haven’t gotten it fixed but am planning on doing so soon. Once I can ride 10 miles in an hour everyday I will start home from work until I can get some 20 mile rides in. That way I won’t have to pay a bus far and pocket the difference between bike maintenance and the bus fare of $64 a month. For those interested it is a Panasonic DX-2000 for $160.
I went on a four day vacation for free. My wife and I got hosted by my in-laws at a Gatlinburg cabin rental in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. It was a really nice vacation and super relaxing even though I flew the red eye and left my wife with the in-laws for a couple days to head back to work in the coal mine that is my job. My job really isn’t that bad, it does, at least, pay for my existence and doesn’t give me the black lung.
I have doubled my additional income over the past month. In June I earned a whopping $8.44 from an ever increasing mixture of sites across the internet. Already this month I have more than doubled that to $17.42. If things continue this way I could end the month with $24.50 in revenue (a 190% increase). That is pretty cool if you ask me.
My family is moving out of our rented apartment into a rent free situation. With the baby coming soon and my putting down her coal shovel to raise the kids we would be running a budget deficit each month to the tune of about $200. Luckily, I have a father who is kind and is willing to put up with baby and two adults in his house. With one fell swoop my wife and I have turned our $200 deficit into a projected gain of $700 a month. We have set a year deadline to be out of the house and on to the next thing to stave off stagnation and a case of the live-with-parents-ism. I’ve had mixed feelings about the whole thing but you can’t argue with the financials.
That’s all for now. Posting will continue to be slow as I work on generating some more revenue to create $73 a day in additional income. I’ll try and post about once a week, but I’m not promising anything.