Audiobook Announcement: Pinch Like You Mean It

Pinch Like You Mean It- Audiobook Launch!

Pinch Like You Mean It:  The Audiobook is out!

I am excited to announce the release of my first audiobook!  It is the audio version of Pinch Like You Mean It! 101 Ways To Save Money Now.

This book works very well as an audio book thanks to outstanding narration from Peter L. Herrick.  This guy could read a list of names out of the phone book and it would be gripping and compelling...  just imagine how great my book sounds with Pete reading it!

It took about a month to produce the audiobook version, so I hope you will check it out.  I developed this under a cool program by ACX that matches book authors with audiobook producers.  I held some auditions to find the right narrator for this book.  I think you will enjoy the results from all of the hard work that went into this project!



When I got the draft version of the audiobook, I intended to take a few minutes and listen to a few tips, but ended up listening to the entire book non-stop!  I think listening to the book makes a bigger impression than reading it.

If you have an Audible.com account, you will be able to get this audiobook for free as part of your subscription.  Enjoy!

Penny Pincher Journal

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Save Money on Car Rental: How to Avoid Getting Ripped Off!

Car Rental: There Must Be A Better Price!

Let's go to the mailbag today for a reader question about getting gouged by a car rental company:

Rental Car Savings!

"While traveling to Tulsa this week I rented a car from Budget Rental.  The car's cost for two days was $184.

That was extremely high and I refused to do it, so I continued research on the internet and found that all the cars in the middle of the week were as much as $100 a day.  So I went back to Budget and found the next day that they had a car for rent for $100 for 2 days.  I immediately rented that car.  When I got to the airport in Tulsa I went to the counter to get the car from Budget.  At that time they quoted me a price of $184.  I showed them on my phone the email confirmation that said $100.  Budget then told me that quote is from the downtown location which was 4 or 5 miles away. I asked how I was supposed to get down there and if they had a shuttle. 

The answer was simple...you have to take a cab.  Well I was a bit peeved but went outside and a cab was waiting.  I asked the cab driver how much to take me to the downtown location of the Budget Car Rental.  He told me $30. After I got up off the sidewalk, I asked if I had any alternative and he said yes you can walk. 

I thought about that, however crossing the freeways and busy highway is would have been a bit risky.  So I paid the $30, got downtown to the Budget car rental place, and asked if I had to bring it back here and have another cab ride back to the airport explaining the circumstances to the customer service person.  She said, well no we can arrange it for you can take this right straight back to the airport.  When I asked why the prices were so high, I was told by the budget representative that it was a "supply and demand situation".  

I responded to that by telling them that I thought it was a greed situation accompanied by circumstances where people had no choice.

Thank you for your time and hopefully you can get this message to Dr. Penny Pincher so he can go undercover and find out what the deal is... 

Sincerely,
An Anonymous Dr. Penny Pincher Reader"

Thank you AADPPR for sharing your interesting story and providing an idea for an article that can help save people money for car rental expenses.

Week Day vs. Weekend Rates

My first observation is that renting a car during the week can be quite expensive compared with weekends.  I think this really is related to supply and demand.  During the week, there are lots of business travelers with expense accounts who will pay top dollar for rental cars.  On weekends, most car rentals are for leisure and people are more concerned about getting a good price.

If you have a choice, try to rent a car over a weekend instead of during the week.  The prices can be something like half as much.

Try to Get the "Replacement Car" Insurance Company Rate

My next observation is that $184 or even $100 for a two day car rental seems pretty high.  The last time I rented a car, I got a Chevy Sonic for about $25 per day.  I told the car rental agent that my car was wrecked and my insurance would only cover $25 per day, so I needed something in this price range.  I didn't think you could even get a rental car for $25 per day, but they came up with one.

Car rental companies give their best deals for providing a replacement car after your car is in a wreck.  This type of car rental provides some long term rentals with relatively low mileage and is profitable business for the rental company.  Even if your car was not in a wreck, you can still try to get the rental company's best rate.  You can say that your insurance only covers $25 per day and see if they offer you something in this price range.

When I got my $25 deal, my car was actually wrecked, but it seems like this request could work even if your car is not wrecked.

For more on this strategy, see TIP 4 in confessions from a former Enterprise Car Rental Employee.

Supply and Demand vs. Greed

I liked your comment that you thought the reason for the jacked up prices was a "greed situation".  Car rental companies, like other businesses, are going to try to get as much money as they possibly can for their goods and services.

If you are renting a car in a high demand market where plenty of people are willing to pay $184, then the car rental company has no motivation to lower the price.  Why would they take $100 if they could get $184 from the next person to walk through the door?

On the other hand, if the car rental company has tons of cars just sitting there with no one renting them, they might be willing to rent one for a very good deal.  Making some money is better than making no money.  But in order to be able to drive a bargain, you need a situation where there is not a lot of demand.

So, I would always try to bargain on the price for a rental car, but if demand is high it might not work.  Your best chance to negotiate a good deal is by talking with the sales person, being friendly, and talking them into a good price by encouraging them to find something less expensive.

Bargaining on price may or may not work, but is worth a try.  The agents have a lot of flexibility in setting prices, so you might be able to keep asking for something less expensive and end up with a low price.

The Cab Ride

Paying $30 for a cab ride was expensive, but you ended up saving $54 on your car rental even after the cab fare, so this was a good move.

One idea that came to mind when reading about the cab ride is Enterprise.  Enterprise car rental will pick you up for free when you rent a car.  I wonder if you could have the Enterprise a few miles away with a lower rate drive and pick you up at a convenient Enterprise location that has a higher rate?  Maybe you could get the lower rate without paying for a cab ride...

Another idea on saving on a cab fare:  I have never tried it, but Uber and Lyft provide some very cost competitive services if you need a ride.  I would guess these services would be about half the cost of a cab ride, but you might have to wait a bit compared with taking the cab that is already there.

Car Rental Add-on Expenses

Next time I need to rent a car, I'll go undercover like I did in this investigation of Rent-to-Own stores and see what I can learn about how rental car companies extract money from people.  Here are some car rental company tricks to watch out for:

• Supplemental Insurance:  Your existing car insurance likely covers you.  Paying for extra insurance is very profitable for the car rental company.
• GPS fee: You can use your smartphone instead of paying a few dollars a day extra for a GPS in your rental car.  Or use a paper map.
• Satellite radio fee:  I hear that car rental companies are charging a few dollars a day extra for XM or Sirius satellite radio, even if you didn't know your car had satellite radio and didn't use it!
• Gas fee:  If you turn your rental car in without filling up the gas tank, you can get hit with fees and pay extra money for the car rental company to put gas in the car.  Try to fill it up yourself on your way to the rental car lot when you turn the car in.

Overall, it sounds like you saved some money by shopping around and taking a cab to get a much lower rate a few miles away.  Nice work!

Best Wishes,
Dr. Penny Pincher

Penny Pincher Journal

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Make Your Own Cereal at Home- Cheap!

Cereal Is Too Expensive- Make Your Own!

I have complained here on my blog about how expensive cereal is compared with the cost of the ingredients of cereal.  If you do the calculations, cereal has an incredible mark-up.  I didn't think there was much I could do about this, other than choose the most cost effective brands of cereal available.

Then one day, I noticed that my son was making his own cereal, and it is much healthier than the expensive cereal you can buy at the store.

The alternative cereal trend at my house started when my son discovered that some caramel corn that we bought on clearance at the grocery store made great cereal.  Just pour some in a bowl and add milk.  It tastes like Corn Pops, only a little fluffier.

Of course, it is really cheap and easy to make fresh popcorn at home.  We decided to skip the caramel part and just put some popcorn in a bowl with milk.  If you like, you can put some sugar on top to make it taste more like store-bought cereal.

Photo credit:  Heather Lion (CC-SA-30)

Popcorn Revisited

The popcorn we are using for cereal is not like movie theater popcorn.  We are skipping the salt and butter.  Fresh popcorn has a nice flavor even if you don't add anything to it.  We use a little bit of Crisco vegetable oil (it's soy bean oil) for popping.  Peanut oil would also work well.

Fortunately I have my own movie theater popcorn machine that we got as a family Christmas gift one year for about $150.  We have made movie theater style popcorn with melted butter for movie night for years.  If you don't have a popcorn popper like this, you can use an air popper or even pop popcorn in a pan on the stovetop.  Using those microwave popcorn bags wouldn't really work for cereal since that stuff is so salty and oily.

Great Northern Popcorn Machine- Movie Theater Style

It may sound weird to eat popcorn as a meal, but this idea has been around for awhile.  According to Alton Brown on his episode of Good Eats about popcorn, native Americans in the southwest popped popcorn by heating up sand with popcorn kernels in it over a fire.  The anthropologist on the show thought that the ancient people made a gruel by adding water to the popped corn and mashing it up.  Popping the corn allowed the nutrients to be obtained from the hard dense kernels.

Now, fast forward a few thousand years.  One of the first ideas for commercial breakfast cereal in the United States was to ship boxes of pre-popped popcorn. However the Kelloggs brothers decided to go with corn flakes instead since they were not confident that pre-popped popcorn would sell very well.

Popcorn is a whole grain with lots of fiber, and is really cheap to make.  If you don't add salt and butter to it, it is a healthy snack and even a healthy meal in the form of homemade breakfast cereal.  If make your own cereal, you know exactly what artificial colors and chemicals are in it- none!

Penny Pincher Journal

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It's Time to Make Some Extra Money Publishing Articles...

Make Extra Money Publishing Articles

It's Time to Make Some Extra Money!
Dr. Penny Pincher on the cover of Time magazine

OK, so this Time magazine cover featuring my picture is obviously fake, but I am excited that I got an article published on Time.com today!  The article is about 21 times you can spend money to save money.  You can read it here on Time.com.

If you read my newsletter, you know that I am planning on making some extra income this year in addition to pinching pennies as usual.

Last summer I decided to move beyond posting articles on my blog and see if I could get paid to publish articles on other sites.

Having my own blog is great.  Here are some things I like about publishing articles myself on my blog or on HubPages:

1) I can write about anything on my blog
Sometimes I write about my dog.  One time I wrote a fictionalized account of an interaction with my editor just for fun.  I started a blog about coffee because I like coffee.  One time, I even thought of an article topic just so I could show a giant picture of my face on a fake Time magazine cover!

There is no adult supervision at all, I can write whatever I want and it gets published immediately.

2) I own the articles and can make passive income forever
I like the idea of owning something that has value.  When I write articles and publish them myself on my blog, I retain all rights to the articles.  I can make money for years from advertising.

3) No schedule constraints or deadlines
Sometimes I post new articles on my blog every day, or sometimes only a couple times per month.  It is up to me, and no one seems to get upset if I don't post for awhile.

4) Easy money
Who doesn't like making some extra money for doing something really easy?  From my family's perspective, it probably doesn't look like I am working very hard.  They see my relaxing in my chair, looking out at the lake and messing around on my computer.  Not a bad way to work if you ask me.

However there are some limitations to publishing on my own blog, and this is why I was open to trying something new and publishing articles on other sites:

1) I don't have enough readers... yet...
Thousands of people read my blog, and that results in some nice income.  But there are sites around that have MILLIONS of readers.  I took some advice from Jon Morrow to go where the audience is gathered instead of waiting for them to find me.

Publishing on an established site can be a quick way to reach a large audience.

2) It is nice to get an instant paycheck
Selling an article gets you money up front, right away instead of waiting for money to come in over a long period of time from advertising revenue.  It is not unusual for a blog to take many months to make the first few cents.  Selling articles can bring in extra money much faster than that.

3) Build name recognition
Being published on popular sites that people know and trust helps build credibility with readers.  You can check out my About Penny Pincher Journal page to see some of the places my articles have been published.  Some of my articles are syndicated, so you can find them on a lot of popular sites around the internet.

4) Become a better writer
I have learned a lot working with editors as they suggest topics and work with me to refine my ideas for articles.  I l review my articles after they are published to see what edits the professionals made to tune them up.

The "Write" Way to Start Publishing Articles to Make Extra Money

You can find lots of advice around the internet on how to start a blog to make money.  Most of this advice comes with links to sign up for web hosting and domain registration and courses, which all cost money.

I ignored most of the advice and have gone with 100% free web hosting from Google on blogspot.com and use a free domain name as well.  I might be able to make more revenue from my blogs if I were willing to spend more, but it sure is nice to have no bills to worry about paying for hosting my content.

Publishing articles at HubPages is also free in the sense that you do not have to pay them, although they take a 40% cut of your advertising earnings.  I think this is fair since there are expenses involved with running servers and promoting the site.  Here's how to get started publishing articles on HubPages for free.

After starting my blog, I have also published a few books.  It is fun to get a check in the mail once in a while, and my free book generates interest in my blog.  Here is an article I wrote on making money by publishing ebooks:  Can You Get Rich Writing eBooks?

Selling articles to other sites to publish is probably the fastest way to make money, but you will likely need to have some published articles as a portfolio in order to get hired to write articles.  This is a catch-22.  You can work around this problem by starting a blog, publishing some interesting articles, and then approaching other sites about writing for them.

If you enjoy writing and have some patience, selling articles is a great way to do something interesting and make some extra money.

Is it time for you to start writing articles and finding paychecks in your mailbox?  Sign up for my newsletter- sometimes I share details about my writing projects and making money with my subscribers.

Penny Pincher Journal

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Cheap Ways to Deal with Peeling Paint on an Old House

Peeling Paint, Old Siding, What To Do?

Is There A Better Way?

My latest article on Wise Bread triggered a great question from a reader:

"Dr Penny Pincher,

Read your article on the hidden costs of buying an old house.  Very informative, practical, and interesting.  Anyone buying an older house should consider all of the potential costs you mention when buying an older property.

We live in an older home and have for some time.  One of the potential problems we are considering is the painting and upkeep on the outside of the house.  Our home has the original cedar shake siding and requires maintenance every year in addition to periodic painting of the entire house which is two stories. We are reaching an age where using a ladder probably is not a good idea. 

Do you have suggestions for an inexpensive way to maintain the house without the expense of siding??

Thank you,

A Penny Pincher Follower"


Thank you PPF for your question!

A few years ago while painting my 2+ story house, I realized that I have a mild sensitivity to heights.  I had nightmares about falling off of a ladder, and my palms were sweating and my hands shaking when I got much above one story high.  I can understand why you don't want to go up on a ladder to paint!

Unfortunately, going up on a ladder is probably the least expensive way to deal with old siding.  It seems like old wood gets moisture in it and has trouble keeping a good coat of paint more than a few years.  Even a really great paint job might only last a few years.

Here are things you can do to deal with peeling paint on wood siding, in order of cost:

1.  Paint the house yourself
This may cost a few hundred dollars for the paint.  You can reuse paint brushes and ladders for many years.  The drawbacks of painting yourself are that you have to go up on a ladder and spend a lot of time scraping off the peeling paint and repainting.

2.  Hire someone to paint your house
This may cost several hundred to a couple thousand dollars depending on the size of your house and who you hire.  As with hiring someone to do anything, you have to worry about the quality of the work and deal with having strangers around on your property.

3.  Move to a newer house with vinyl siding
Most newer houses have vinyl siding or other zero maintenance siding.  I ended up moving to a newer house after I painted my old house.  The cost to move varies with how much stuff you have and whether you need to hire movers.  My last move cost about $2,000.  It may sound extreme, but moving to a newer house will get you out of painting...

4.  Replace old wood siding with zero maintenance siding
Before I painted my old house, I looked at going over the old wood siding with new vinyl siding.  The estimates to install vinyl siding were in the range of about $30,000 to $40,000.  This was a large house with lots of windows, so these numbers may be higher than for a typical house.  In any case, replacing siding is a major expense.

I hope one of these options works for you.  Go with option 2, 3, or 4 to avoid going up on a ladder.  Best of luck!

Penny Pincher Journal

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Oil Change Interval: Miles and Time

How Often Do You Need to Change Your Oil?

Changing the oil regularly is important to keep your car running well.  Clean, fresh oil does a good job of reducing friction in your engine and protecting it from wear and tear.  Over time, your oil gets dirty and it loses its ability to protect your engine.

But how often do you really need to change the oil in your car?  This topic has been in the news a lot over the years.  The old guideline was to change your oil ever 3,000 miles or 3 months- which ever came first.  Some of the windshield reminder stickers given out by service shops still have this outdated information.

Most modern cars call for oil changes every 5,000 to 10,000 miles, depending on driving conditions.  Short trips that don't get the car fully warmed up are harder on oil.

News organizations including The New York Times, Time Magazine, and Scientific American have all weighed in on this question- and all suggest that a 3,000 mile oil change is no longer needed due to advances in engine design and oil chemistry.

I'll share the question from a reader that inspired this article, and then my answer:

"We bought a Toyota RAV4 on October 20.  It was traded in a few days before that and they did some maintenance stuff on it including changing the oil.  

The sticker on the windshield says they changed it on October 15th and that we should change it again on Jan 15th which I haven't done.  We have driven it 911 miles since Oct. 15th. (We don't drive much any more).  The manual for the car says to change the oil every 5k miles. If we did that we wouldn't change the oil for over a year.

Suggestion on when to change?

Also change at the dealer or the Firestone store or Walmart? The dealer is more expensive..."

Thank you for your question!  Although changing the oil in a car is relatively inexpensive- around $30 for a full service oil change- you don't want to waste time and money changing the oil too often.  Plus changing oil more frequently than is needed results in more dirty oil that has to be disposed of somewhere.

Oil Change Interval- Mileage

I pulled up the recommended service interval for a Toyota Rav4 that I found in the Warranty and Maintenance Guide.  The recommended oil change interval is 5,000 miles or 6 months- whichever comes first.

So if the oil was last changed in October, your oil change is good until April if you have driven less than 5,000 miles.  Unless you go on a major spring break trip, you should be well under 5,000 miles on your current oil change by the time the 6 months is up in April.

Oil Change Interval- Time

Since you have only driven 911 miles, you might be able to run longer than 6 months without changing the oil.  Some other websites I checked indicated that oil should be good for up to 12 months.  Over time, oil can become corrosive due to increased acidity and damage engine parts.  Short trips where you engine is not fully warmed up are especially hard on the oil.

I would probably stay with the 5,000 mile/6 month recommendation from the maintenance log for the RAV4.  In general, I would suggest checking and follow the oil change interval recommendations from your vehicle's manufacturer.

Where to Get Your Oil Changed?

Now for the question of where to get your oil changed.  I have found that dealer service departments tend to be more expensive.  Even though the dealer shops usually have free donuts, I take my car to Midas for routine maintenance.  I have received great service there and I use coupons to save at Midas.  Other similar shops include Tuffy, Jiffy Lube, Walmart and Firestone as you mentioned.

Best of luck!

Penny Pincher Journal

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Home Disimprovement: Downgrade and Save Money

For Cheapskates Only...

Home Disimprovement Can Save Money

When I bought my house a couple years ago, it had two doorbell buttons near the front door.  The funny thing was that neither one worked.  Pushing the buttons did not make the doorbell ring.

Here's what I think happened: the original doorbell button installed when the house was new in 1981 stopped working at some point, so someone installed a second doorbell button.  The replacement was a wireless doorbell button, and was installed right next to the first one.

I didn't pay much attention to the doorbell button situation until Halloween.  Trick-or-Treaters were pushing the doorbell buttons, but nothing was happening and we didn't know anyone was there waiting outside.  Visitors did not know to knock since there were two doorbell buttons.  It was rather confusing.

So what to do?  I thought about putting up a sign that says "Please knock, doorbells don't work".  I decided against this because it would look sort of tacky to post a sign explaining that something doesn't work.  Plus, I thought the sign would get wet and fade over time and would require periodic replacement.  So I needed to figure out another solution to the doorbell situation.

Maybe I should fix the doorbell button?  Perhaps add a third doorbell button next to the existing two broken ones?  But then I would probably need to add a sign to indicate which button works.  Plus I would need to find and buy a doorbell button, install it and get it working.  This sounded like a lot of trouble.  I needed an easier solution, and I found it.

I decided to do a downgrade and save some money.  My dogs usually bark like maniacs whenever someone even thinks of approaching the house.  It would be hard to hear a doorbell ring over the barking of my dogs anyway.  Why not just remove the broken doorbell buttons?  This wouldn't cost anything, and then it would be obvious to visitors that they should knock without the need for signage to explain which doorbell button to press.

I disconnected the doorbell ringer from the transformer and removed both broken doorbell buttons next to the front door.  I used some caulk that matches the siding to fill in the hole.  Problem solved.  Cost: $0.  Time: about 10 minutes.

After "downgrade" I no longer have a doorbell...

In this case, I am better off with zero doorbell buttons than with three doorbell buttons.  Sometimes a downgrade is better than an upgrade, and you can save some money as well.

Penny Pincher Journal

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