Saving time

The Death of Chucklehead DJs and Bad Talk Radio Hosts.

By Brad Beckstrom

Here’s why you should dump satellite radio and chucklehead talk radio shows and start streaming podcasts.

Podcast-a-palooza

I remember when podcasting first got hot. It was around 2006 and people were discovering podcasts via iTunes, listening on their iPods. Podcasting had another growth spurt when the iPhone came out, soon to be followed by Android phones, and lots of options for listening to podcasts on all types of devices. But by 2011, listening to podcasts started to seem dated and there was less buzz about new podcasts.

At the same time, there were lots of new options like streaming radio apps, tunein and iheartradio as well as video blogs. People were busy looking at their phones instead of listening to them. Podcasts didn’t go away, but they stopped growing.

The Resurgence

About a year ago, things started to change. [Read more…] about The Death of Chucklehead DJs and Bad Talk Radio Hosts.

All you need is an on ramp. The 5 minute a day habit to overcome any distraction.

05/14 by The Frug 1 Comment

By Brad Beckstrom

I heard this story twice in the same week on two different podcasts. It’s a simple story about a guy who knew he needed to start jogging but couldn’t find the time to make it happen. It was always something, he was busy, he was traveling, so it was easy to find excuses. No need to list his excuses, we all know them.

One day a friend told him he needed an on ramp to get his run started. He wasn’t talking about the on ramp on the interstate, just a small ramp to get the ball rolling. His friend told him to plan on running five minutes a day. That’s it. Just five minutes per day.

The guy figured “Heck, I can roll out of bed for a five minute run.” Once the shoes were on, [Read more…] about All you need is an on ramp. The 5 minute a day habit to overcome any distraction.

Save Money by Living an Experiential Lifestyle.

03/14 by The Frug Leave a Comment

See More Stuff, Don’t Buy More Stuff

Last week, I went to a free photo exhibit at the National Gallery around lunchtime and hung out there for several hours. At some point late in the afternoon, I got a text message from my boss, SuperK wondering where I was. I was seeing more stuff. I recently attended a conference in Barcelona. I got a early start each day but I put a giant X across the daily conference activities between 1 and 5 PM. I was in Barcelona, after all, and I needed to see more stuff. Seeing more stuff is very important. I think of it as recharging my creative batteries. My one caveat is that I see more stuff, not buy more stuff.

It’s all about your location

The secret to seeing stuff instead of buying stuff is all about the location, and I don’t just mean while traveling. Over the last few years, SuperK and I have been using Amazon Prime, in place of visits to Costco and cutting back on visits to big-box stores. This really works. Even for a very frugal person like myself, it’s hard to walk into a Target or a Costco and not spend over $50. And for someone like SuperK, that figure is more, much more. For some reason, the shiny displays and super deals trigger some I’m going to miss out if I don’t purchase this now and hoard it reflex. You’re guaranteed to come home with extra stuff. Plus going to malls and big-box stores makes me hungry AND gives me hives so there are health benefits to skipping the trip as well.

Just Skip It.

I used to run to Home Depot every couple weeks. I would take the boys and they would play with the vacuums and grills, knock over some stuff. And guaranteed I’d end up with more stuff. At one point, I had four separate toolboxes, not kidding. I am still working on getting rid of all this stuff. An excellent solution I’ve found is to just not go to Home Depot at all. I just skip any home repair that would involve a visit to the hardware store and go for a walk in the woods instead. In the rare instance of some sort of repair emergency (last weekend’s toilet implosion) I visit a small local hardware store and take advantage of their knowledge and customer service to learn something while I also support local business.

If I need something, I now take a hunter’s approach.

I need furnace filters, an item that is absurdly overpriced especially in small quantities.
I jump on Amazon Prime and search my past orders which are auto saved by size, brand, price and rating. No more scribbled lists.
Quickly paste the item name into Google and click “shopping” above the search results to make sure I am getting a great price on Amazon, then pull the trigger. Total time invested – 5 min.
I keep a running list saved in Amazon so I can batch or group my purchases together when necessary. All Amazon Prime items ship 2 day air for free, some other items ship free as part of a larger order.

Done. In the past, buying these filters would have necessitated jumping in the car, sitting in traffic, trying to park, looking at power tools, etc……….If you put a $ value on your time and add the extras like gas, and impulse purchases, the hunter’s approach for stuff you absolutely need makes a lot of sense.

SuperK has spent the last month or so testing this “stay out of Target” theory. She’s confirmed that reducing the total number of visits to malls and big-box stores will save you more money than any sale coupon or circular ever could. The less stuff you see, the less you buy.

So, here are a few more ways to live a more experiential lifestyle and save time + cash.

Stop running to the store the very moment you need something. Do without, skip the chore, skip the errand and go for a walk instead. Your family will survive without duct tape for a day. Your house will still be standing a month from now even if you don’t buy those filters right now.
Go for a walk with your kids or significant other and talk about what you see. Have a conversation instead of buying something.
Nasty outside? Go to a public gallery, museum or library, you’ve paid for them!
Clean out your closet, garage, basement. You’ll find something you lost and something you’d like to give away.
Play with that Frisbee you found in the closet. It’s been a while.
Work from home at least a few days a week. This will keep you out of random places like gas stations, convenience stores, coffee shops, and lunch buffets.
If you’re stuck in a store some reason, practice delayed gratification by putting that purchase off for a few days. Most likely you’ll forget about it.
Skip the trip Use Amazon Prime you can also add Smile.Amazon.com and a percentage of every purchase goes toward your favorite charity.

Here are three related books and posts on:

My one year experiment with Amazon Prime

Working remotely Remote: Office Not Required

Valuing your time The 4-Hour Workweek, Expanded and Updated: Expanded and Updated, With Over 100 New Pages of Cutting-Edge Content.

Frugality and Valuing your Time Your Money or Your Life: 9 Steps to Transforming Your Relationship with Money

I’d love to hear what helps you see more stuff.

The Frug

How to live lean, work lean and travel lean by asking a simple question about stuff.

02/14 by The Frug Leave a Comment

Will this _________ simplify my life? Go ahead, fill in that blank with anything. In this country, we live with an abundance of stuff. You can walk into any big box store and browse upwards of 150,000 different things. We have millions of apps available with one click and many of the good ones are free. Often with things that are free (especially with things that are free), you need to ask the question. Will this “free _____” simplify my life?

As someone who writes about living lean and working lean, I need to ask the simplicity question often. As an entrepreneur, I need to ask this question about any piece of software, new gadget, health plan the list goes on.

Sometimes the answer is yes, but you don’t really know that until you’ve already purchased it. I had no idea my iPhone would replace over 20 things until quite some time after I purchased it. So often you need to ask other people – How’s that __________working out for you?

“Perfection is achieved, not when there’s nothing more to add, but there’s nothing left to take away”

I repeat this quote, as I look at my cluttered basement. You can apply it to anything. Bruce Lee did when he was learning the perfect kick and the perfect punch. He said, “It is not daily increase but daily decrease. The height of cultivation always runs to simplicity.”

Steve Jobs and Jonathan Ive aspired to this when working on the iMac, the iPod, and the iPhone. These devices were revolutionary, not based on what was added, but what was taken away, like excessive buttons, bells, whistles, and keyboards. They were asking the simplicity question over and over, not just about the device but about every element of its design.

Bloatware. Something as straightforward as creating a document or a spreadsheet is often ruined by bloatware like Word, Excel & Powerpoint. The bloat comes from developers trying to best the competition with features and add-ons. Simple wins. Check out Google docs before Google ruins it with feature creep.

Keeping up with the Joneses. Things that start out as something simple, something that just works, become bloated with too many features. For example, cars with talking digital dashboards trying to sync with your phone and laptop. Will that simplify your life or maybe help you end up in a ditch somewhere, because you weren’t looking at the road? At some point you will definitely end up at the dealer amazed at the cost of repairing your talking digital dashboard.

Examples of when to use the simplicity question:

That presentation you’re working on — Try getting rid of some bullet points. Give it a 50% haircut for starters. Use images instead of words.
Working on an app or a piece of software — Start making a list of features that can be removed.
Creating some copy for a website or writing a blog post — Try to remove every other word. See how much you can cut.
Traveling — Use a website like Kayak.com to sort available flights by total travel time. Always include time in the value equation.
Cleaning out closets and garages — Ask the question “Will keeping these things make my life simpler?” You probably already know the answer.
Buying a car — If the owners manual is the size of a textbook, that should be a warning sign. Always go for quality and simplicity over features, especially electronic ones.
Making a big purchase like a new home — Ask the question about your commute, the condition of the home, how much space you really need, the type of loan.
The utilitarian item — Look at quality first, features last. Is it something you’ll use every day? What will it replace?
Exercise — Complex, backbreaking routines often found in programs like P90X, Crossfit others. See what you can cut out and get your workout down to something you can complete in 20 minutes and enjoy. You’ll stick with it a lot longer if it’s simple.
Looking at shiny displays in the big-box store — Ask the question.

So try asking the simplicity question more often. Picture yourself as Bruce Lee executing a perfect kick as you eliminate stuff from your life.
Life can be simple again.

The Frug

How to join the fixer movement.

01/14 by The Frug 2 Comments

How many times have you said or heard this “To repair this would cost more than a new one”? This is part of the problem with buying and owning a lot of cheap stuff. If the toaster or coffee maker breaks, we just run over to the big box store and buy another one. I’ve been guilty of this myself, using it as an excuse or opportunity to upgrade an appliance or other busted item rather than get it fixed.

It seems like we’ve lost the “quality versus quantity” mindset. We’re buying multiple versions of the same poorly made small appliance or computer over a ten-year period rather than buying quality products and taking care of them like they’re going to last a decade or more.

Many items, especially clothing and consumer electronics, come with built-in obsolescence. It amazes me that some smart phones, which have more computing power than laptops of just a few years back, last only a year or two. People start to feel that they are inferior to the latest versions or repairing them is just not a cost-effective option. If you actually have the skills to repair electronics or small appliances, it’s hard to find the time.

Bring in the Fixers

This is starting to change. A recent article in Wired magazine talks about the fixer movement — small meetups of folks who get together and fix stuff. In Brooklyn, they promote their group on Craigslist and people can stop by with a small appliance or computer and have it repaired for as little as $20. People are generally surprised how much extra life can be squeezed out of a old laptop, blender or vacuum with a little TLC. With the advent of affordable three-dimensional printing, some previously unavailable parts will be able to be quickly re-created and installed in a variety of devices. In many cases, repaired or reconditioned items are better than the latest version.

A whole industry has sprung up around reconditioning used iPhones, iPads, and laptops and reselling them online. Retailers are getting into the act as well. The Apple Store will now replace broken glass (in store) and batteries on iPhones and iPads via it’s battery replacement/exchange program.

The 10 Year Hoodie comes with free repairs

On a trip to Fargo North Dakota last spring, I had the opportunity to meet a couple of minimalists. These guys are masters of the minimalist craft. However, even minimalists need things like a jacket or a mobile phone. Being a minimalist requires that you approach each purchase with a long-term view. After all, if you’re only going to own one pair of pants or shoes, you’re not going to purchase something that will fall apart in a year or so.

In Fargo, I learned about the 10 year hoodie. The clothing company Flint and Tinder started with the simple idea that a quality piece of clothing should be guaranteed for 10 years and come with free mending. They can make the guarantee because the hoodie is so well made that it will be worth repairing and they will do it at no charge.

We need more products with less planned obsolescence and more rock solid ten year guarantees. I’m not talking about the BS “materials and workmanship less parts and labor plus shipping” guarantees that most products have today. I’m talking about “we will fix it guaranteed 10 year” guarantee. And you certainly should not need to purchase a warranty or extended service plan.

Here’s how to join the fixer movement even if you are not a fixer, and products with 10 year guarantees are not available at your local big-box store..

Look for rock solid products without a lot of bells and whistles. So, if you’re looking for a new dryer, vacuum cleaner, or blender simpler is better. Avoid lots of add-on features like digital displays, especially on large appliances.
Spend your money on quality versus bling and add ons. A simple quality product is easier to repair than a plastic piece of junk with every feature going.
Search for quality. Amazon says their greatest point of difference is the quality of their customer reviews. Many are over the top, but scanning them will give you a good feel for user experiences with many products.
Shop with a retailer that will repair or replace a product even if a manufacturer won’t. I’ve had this experience with REI.
Look for manufacturers that repair and refurbish their own products and have a established repair network.
Practice “migration” — head of household, parent, older sibling gets a new computer and their old one is wiped clean, repaired/upgraded and passed down.
Search for a local fix it shop with great reviews on Angie’s List or Yelp.
If you’re adventurous, search meetup fixit groups or Craigslist small appliance reconditioning.

As always the goal here is less stuff. The less stuff you own, less time you’ll need to spend fixing it, replacing it, moving it around. For the stuff you do own and use everyday, make sure your experience with it is as simple, long lasting and as pain free as possible.

Simplicity is the whole secret of well being.

01/14 by The Frug 2 Comments

I said more cowbell, not more cowbells.

The holidays are hard for the Frug. Christmas shopping gives everyone a fantastic excuse for buying more stuff. You know the whole gifts and holiday traditions thing going on. Our friends, family, and our extended family fully embrace the holidays. Multiple family get-togethers and other holiday parties take their toll on the wallet. There are also 9 plastic tubs of holiday stuff that emerge from the deepest corners of the storage room shortly after Thanksgiving. Lots of festive pinecones, cowbells, singing Santas, ornaments and knickknacks.

I said more cowbell, not more cowbells!

I can just feel the surge of stuff rolling into the house from all directions. Just thinking about my required half day of frantic holiday shopping also gives me hives.

This holiday season we made an effort as a family to see more stuff instead of buy more stuff.

So here’s the idea. SuperK and I hatched a plan in June to join some other family members on a trip to Mexico for Christmas. This would require some saving, airfare hacks, and creative scheduling as far as the traditional holiday get-togethers are concerned. We also had a goal of scaling back on gifts and having a more traditional utilitarian (I love that word) Christmas celebration.

We would make this holiday season all about family experiences versus stuff. Sure the kids would be disappointed but to be honest they are generally disappointed with most gifts. You can see SuperK’s thoughts on this here. Plus, it would be hard for them to complain while sitting on a beach in Mexico hearing about the icy temperatures at home. So, instead of making the trip a surprise we let them in on it early on. We built excitement with countdown calendars, savings thermometers and photos. We also talked about some of the adventures we would have in Mexico with friends and family.

I am also always playing up the idea that less stuff equals more. Less stuff to shop for, put together, store, repair get rid of, equals more time for adventure. In a year, I’d like to say we are traveling light not just on our adventures but at home, lightening the load that excess stuff puts on you.

Okay so this was a big experiment. Did it work? Here is some of the stuff we saw this holiday season in Mexico.

Family and friends from Baltimore MD, Amherst MA, Minneapolis MN, Los Angeles CA, Brooklyn NY.
A school of gray whales about 30 yards from a boat that was significantly smaller than each of the whales.
Went to Spanish Christmas Mass in a small neighborhood church in Puerto Vallarta.
The Greatest Mariachi Band in the World, as touted by family and friends that had seen them before. I must agree.
Several beach towns including Yelapa Mexico, only accessible by boat.
A taste of some small village life in Mexico by hiking up a trail of crumbling rocks and ancient steps.
Peluchelandia.
Six fantastic sunsets.
A dose of reality for the boys, seeing many kids working selling trinkets on Christmas Day
The famous pie ladies of Yelapa, and some coconut pecan pie on the beach, why not.
Some of the best food Mexico has to offer including a great Fish and Chips place Joe Jacks

So here are a few tips for lightening the load so you can see more stuff next holiday season.

Use the stuff in, stuff out formula. For every new item that comes in the house two items need to leave. This can include toys your kids no longer play with, clothing they’ve outgrown (or I’ve outgrown), items you no longer use, knickknacks you’re just tired of looking at.
Start planning your adventures now. To make this happen, it really does require some thinking in February once you’ve recovered from your holiday $ hangover.
Add up everything you spent this holiday season and take a hard look at what you can move out of the category labeled stuff.
Give things away, It’s easier to part with anything when you believe someone may get some use out of it. We keep a large donation box in the hallway to always remind us of this. Last year we filled about 20 of these.
Keep a record of what you give away, Goodwill, Purple Heart receipts etc. you may be able to write off $500 or more on your taxes.
Make sure you’re using a credit card that produces from 2 to 5 points for each dollar spent. Check out the Chase Sapphire Preferred or the Fidelity American Express that include 2% cash back or points on every purchase.

I’ll be working on the stuff out formula and who knows we may end up in Mexico again next Christmas.