AskDong

I’m not very good about throwing my shoes away.  This partly because I’m cheap, and partly because I find old worn shoes extremely comfortable.  At any given time I usually own 4 pairs of shoes - sneakers, brown shoes, black shoes, and some boots.  However, I almost always wear only wear set exclusively, the black or brown ones.  Currently it’s the brown shoes. I’ve been wearing them for about a year and half now.

I actually have some replacement shoes for my trusty old brown shoes, but I still tend to wear the old shoes. I have a hard time letting go, and I feel the longer I wear my old shoes, the longer my new shoes will last.  In college I duct taped my sneakers together after the sole loosened and flopped around.  I can’t bear to throw away shoes that have anything less than a major hole through the sole.  Why?  As I’ve seen it a shoe as long as it encloses my foot, it’s good enough to be worn. Neither my girlfriend or my parents feel this way.  My girlfriend threw away my old sneakers, and my parents did the same back when I was in high school.

Slowly, I’m coming to realize that they might be right. When wearing the same pair of shoes days in and day out it’s difficult to discern inadequacies in the shoes.  However right now as I still have my old shoes and my new new shoes, I can make a direct comparison. My old shoes really don’t offer much support or protection (the soles have small crsck which means they get wet when the sidewalk is wet).  I think I need to bite the bullet and transition to new shoes more often I do right now.

Over Thanksgiving, I gave a good yelling to my dad when I got out of the bathroom.  He had recently stocked the bathroom with probably what was the cheapest toilet paper I have ever used in my life.  It was the generic toilet paper from Market Basket, one of the lower priced Supermarkets in the Boston Area.  I have no problem with either Market Basket or Store branded products.  I think both can deliver fantastic values on some products.  Market Basket toilet paper is not one of these products.

I preach frugality on most things.  I don’t personally believe in owning flashy cars, designer clothes, or most other luxury items.  I do, on the other hand, spend much more than the average person on traveling and I definitely believe in treating my bottom to “luxury” toilet paper.  As a guy I have occasion to use toilet paper on average 5 times a week.  When I do have to use toilet paper, I use a generous amount - I would say at least 20 sheets each visit on average, or about 7 feet.

I can purchase the least expensive toilet paper, Scott’s 1 Ply, available at drugstore.come for $9.99 for 12 rolls or 6000 sheets. The stuff I used at my Dad’s was much cheaper.  He didn’t recall how much it cost, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it at was at most half the price of the Scott’s.  I’ve used the cheap Scott’s 1 ply sheets before, and after using the Market Basket toilet paper, the Scott’s 1-ply would feel like Quilted Northern.  The more expensive and thicker Charmin’s Ultra is offered at $9.99 for 12 rolls, or 2400 sheets.

• Scott’s 1 Ply: 6000/$9.99 = .1666 cents a sheet
• Charmins’ Ulttra: 2400/$9.99 = .41625 cents a sheet
• Market Basket (estimated) = .1666/2 = .08 cents a sheet

Knowing how much toilet paper I use, and the going price of toilet paper, I can figure out how much it really costs me to use the luxury brand over the course of lifetime (I estimate generously that I have about 60 years left on the ticker).

20 sheets X 5 visits X 60 years X 52.15 weeks = 312,900 sheets of toilet paper for the rest of my life

At most I can save a bit $1000 over my lifetime. This doesn’t even take to account the fact that I believe I would probably have to use more sheets of the cheap stuff to do the same job as better toilet paper. My estimate of total sheets is on the  high side as I haven’t accounted for the fact that about half my toilet paper usage is provided free at work.  The actual savings is likely to be much less.

Next time you’re victim of cheap toilet paper consider sending a message with a gift of your own.  Life’s too short, and butt cheeks too sensitive to expose to thin grainy toilet paper.  I certainly rather make my sacrifices elsewhere in life.

Some of us write posts about the simple life, and some play the simple life on tv, but few of us actually do it. This past weekend I spent a good amount time chatting with my brother about an old friend of his from college with whom he had just met up with for lunch. His friend and his wife whom I’ll Joe and Susan both went to the same college with my brother, a top liberals art college in the northeast.  Joe graduated with a degree in Geology, and Susan a degree in Biology. Today they are primarily farmers in New England, and have been so since the day they graduated well over a decade ago. They have taken the road less traveled while many of their classmates went on to become lawyers, doctors and bankers.

They slaughter their own chicken, pigs, and cows. They sell bales of hay, chop cords of wood, make and bottle maple syrup. With three children, ranging in age between 7 years and 6 months, they are tired but happy. Financially, however, they could be in better shape. Joe has a part time job with UPS, mostly for the insurance coverage, and Susan is considering waitressing to earn a little extra money once the children are older.

As much as Joe and Susan love the type of life they lead, the simple life for them is also fraught with risk. For example this year they’ve been able to sell 10,000 bales of hay to the drought stricken southeast. 10,000 bales sounds like a lot, but given that these small bales of hay sells for about $2.45 in the midwest, 10,000 bales does not generate all that much income given the amount of work that goes into each bale. Hay has to be grown, harvested, and dried. While Joe has a tractor attachment that does much of this work, such machinery is not free. A 20 year old bottom of the line baler still costs close to $7,000. While this year they have been fortunate that the demand has been high for hay, they could have just easily been the victim of bad weather.

In addition to the risk of drought, Joe constantly faces physical dangers that I can hardly imagine sitting at my desk job. Apparently last year while he was cutting some trees down, he ended up getting pinned to the ground by two fallen trees. He was alone in the forest that is his backyard, and was only saved when Susan found him after he didn’t come home.  I worry about paper cuts.  Joe worries about trees falling on him.  I don’t know how much life or disability insurance Joe has, but whatever he does have he’s paying out of his own pocket given that he’s mostly self-employed.

Both Joe and Susan wake before the crack of down. Joe logs a couple hours at UPS warehouse and comes home to work the farm. Susan milks the cows, feeds the chickens, and gets the children ready for school. They effectively work from 4 in the morning to 6 at night. That’s a long day in the “office.” It’s not like he and Susan can take time off either. Farming doesn’t lend itself to long vacations even if they could afford it. They have not gotten in a plane in over 10 years. I probably don’t go 10 weeks without stepping onto a plane.

I admire the alternate life style that Joe and Susan have chosen for themselves. They did not subccumb to the many temptations for things and status that so many others do They have chosen a simple existence and one that is very much in touch with nature that I think many of us think about wanting. However their life is also representative of how even living the “simple life” is not as simple as we might think.  It can be fraught with risk and stress.  While Joe and Susan certainly practice a frugality forced upon them by their lifestyle where they grow and raise their own food, the rest of their financial life is under constant assault.  Because they have chosen to eschew more lucrative careers, saving for retirement is difficult. The biggest challenge for them is properly guarding against risks via insurance or a sizeable emergency fund. In their case, the emergency fund is not just personal but one for their farm. Can they survive one bad year? Can they survive a broken tractor? We should all be so lucky to be able to choose the “simple life”, but the choice is also one that requires immense financial preparation and hard work.

The old adage on buying houses is to buy the worst house in the best neighborhood.  The same should be said of hotel rooms.  Many of the nicer hotels and resorts on the beach typically offer at least three different classes of rooms (not including suites).  When I stayed at Caneel Bay, it had in order of best to “worst”, Beachfront, Oceanview, Gardenview, Tennis Court view room. This week at my stay at Hanalei Bay Resorts I had the option of Oceanview, Garden View, and Mountain View.  Personally as long as there’s a view I’m pretty happy.   I’ve stayed in rooms that have looked into a brick wall, and know that I don’t like sleeping in a cave.  However, I’m going to look at the ocean, I’m more likely to step out of my room and do that.

When you’re staying at any hotel you’re paying for more than just the room or the view, especially at nicer hotels and resorts.  You’re paying for access to different facilities.  At Caneel Bay, free snorkel and other watersport rental (such as small catamarans and windsurfing boards) came with every room not just the expensive beachfront rooms. You’re paying for impeccable service.  This service generally remains impeccable even when you stay in the “cheap” rooms.

I compared quickly some the recent quoted rates for some resorts, and the price difference between rooms can be remarkable.

I’ve pulled the rates for the 2nd week of January from the official websites except for Hanalei Bay.  These rates may not be the best rates available.  Hanalei Bay is primarily a condo resort, i.e. many of the rooms are individually owned or part of timeshare, and as result does not have official website that I know.  For Hanalei Bay, I pulled a quote from Yahoo travel.  The price spread at the Marriott in Puerto Rico is much more narrow because the rooms are in large high rise.  The properties in Kauai and St. John are much more varied.  Caneel Bay has individual bungalows for example scattered on the property, and as a result the beachfront properties are unique in being right on the beach.  Still, I’m not sure and extra $425 a night is worth that convenience.  I rather stay near the tennis courts and walk an extra five minutes to the beach.

I’ve never driven a car that’s needed anything but the cheapest gas available.  My family drove a car that ran on regular when it meant leaded well into the 80s.  I’m not sure how to fill up a tank with anything but the cheapy under 90 octane stuff.  I have friends who drive nicer cars than mine, not hard to do given I’m still rolling my windows down by hand, who fill up their cars with the good stuff.  Some places call it super, or supra, and others call it plus or premium.  Whatever it’s name, it’s got more octane, and apparently some cars need more octane.

How many of us actually even know what octane is, or what the difference between 87 octane and 93 octane? The octane referred to at gas stations is technically 2,2,4-trimethylpentane (isooctane), one of the isomers of CH3(CH2)6CH3.  For those who haven’t take organic chemistry, an isomer is a particular configuration for a particular molecule.

Isooctane looks like this (that is if you could actually see it):

Another isomer, 2-methylheptane - (CH3)2CH(CH2)4CH3, meaning is has the same atoms – the same number of hydrogens and carbons but configured differently looks like this:

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