Frugal

New York State Empire Passport – Summer Saving

Summer’s here! How are you going to spend your time? Will you go to the beach? Maybe a pool or a lake is more your speed? Maybe go to the park for a picnic? How about camping? Perhaps you’ll go for a bike ride or maybe a nice hike through the woods on a historic trail?

If you live in or near New York State then you have access to all of these activities and more in New York’s State Parks!

A great way to take advantage of all that NY State Parks have to offer is to purchase the NYS Empire Passport. For $65 you get access to most of NY State’s parks and facilities. Consider this: parking is easily $8 for Jones beach. That means the pass pays for itself with about 7 visits to the beach! But what’s great is the pass can be used for so much more. In fact it’s good from April 1st until March 30th of next year. Using it 7 times over the year is easy!

My wife has the summer off as she works in education. This gives her all summer to go to beaches such as Jones Beach or Robert Moses State Park. We worked it out a couple of years ago and the Empire Passport easily saves us money! You can also use the passport to pay for parking for concerts at the Jones Beach Theater (park in an adjacent lot and walk over, it will also be easier to leave after the concert)

Outside of summer beaches we’ve also gone to Harriman State Park, Bear Mountain State Park, Fahnestock State Park, and Valley Stream State Park. Harriman and Bear Mountain aren’t too far from the Woodbury Commons shopping center where you can find some frugal deals.

I’ve gotta say, in putting this article together I’m seeing how much we can do and what we’ve been missing out on! I can’t wait to get out with the family again!

You can order an Empire Passport online. The site says it could arrive in 3-4 weeks but we got ours in a week. You can also visit a state park office and buy it direct. Check online to see which parks sell the pass directly. The quicker you get yous the sooner you can enjoy all that NYS Parks have to offer!

How will you use your NYS Empire Passport?

This article is #14 of the Summer Savings Series from the Money Life Network. Check out the article on the MLN site to see how you can participate in the Summer Savings Series and possibly win a $100 Amazon gift certificate! You can see tip #13 at My Investing Blog. Article #10 will be at Milk Your Money tomorrow!

One Hundred Pushups For A Healthy Fit Frugal Summer

Written by Glen Craig 19 Comments

One Hundred Pushups

Ok, I’m in! I’ve been seeing a lot about the site One Hundred Pushups around the blogosphere lately. I first heard about it from Pete at Bible Money Matters via Twitter. Then Pete posted about starting on the program. Then I saw Pinyo at Moolanomy mentioned it. And also JD at Get Rich/Fit Slowly fame. And Wazzy on Twitter. And I’m sure many others I don’t know about yet…

So what is One Hundred Pushups? It’s a site that lists out a six week program for increasing your strength to the point where, in the final test, you do one hundred pushups!

Why Pushups? From the site:

Push ups are one of the basic and most common exercises for the human body. Push ups are not only great for your chest, but do a tremendous job of defining your abs, triceps, shoulders and torso.

Push ups can be performed no matter where you are, and best of all, they are completely free – no expensive equipment or annual gym fees required! If you’re looking to develop a great chest and shoulders, you could do much worse than follow along with the hundred push ups plan. Your core strength will also go through the roof too!

Check out that second paragraph…”they are completely free.” How much is the average gym membership? I would guess you’re paying anywhere from $250 a year to $1200 a year. Free is a whole lot better.

And a pushup is a great measure of your overall fitness.

I’ve been looking for a good workout program for a couple of months now. I have some free weights but I haven’t been able to commit to a consistent plan. I’ll workout for two weeks then stop for two weeks; I don’t keep up with it. I even almost joined a gym about a month ago. That would have cost me about $500 for the year. I didn’t join since I wasn’t sure I’d use it enough to justify the cost.

But with all of the bloggers already on the One Hundred Pushup band-wagon I thought I’d give it a try. Not only is there a framework to follow for the plan (which I need) but by putting it out here on Free From Broke I’m making myself accountable for following the plan (I hope).

I’ve already done the initial test and the first day of week one (already feeling it in my chest). I set up a spreadsheet on Google Docs so I can track my performance. You can follow my One Hundred Pushup progress here. I hope you check it out and help root me on! If fact join in and we can go through this together!

Make sure you have clearance from your doctor before you start any fitness program.

So are you up to the one hundred push up training program?

Disney World Vacation Tips and How We Saved Money

Written by Glen Craig 15 Comments

Disney Bucks

Last Summer we needed to figure out where we wanted to go on vacation.

It would be my wife, our 7-year-old daughter, our 7-month-old son, and myself. Since our son was so young we wanted to keep the flights short.

We decided now would be a great time to go to Disney world!

Why Disney World?

Our daughter grew up on everything Disney. There was a point a few years back when there would always be some Disney princess on the TV. We knew she would have a great time and she was old enough to truly appreciate Disney World.

With our son we figured he was old enough to take on vacation but young enough still that he would spend most of his time in the stroller and not want to run around on his own. Maybe that sounds strange but toddlers have varying moods of staying quietly in a stroller and being fiercely independent. No, he wouldn’t really remember the trip but we didn’t think he’d appreciate it until he was older anyway. The Summer of ’07 was our best window of opportunity to go to Disney World (at least until the little guy was older).

We knew Disney World could be expensive so we needed to do some research.

Ok, a LOT of research. I spent many hours checking various sites for info on where was good to stay and what was the best deal.

We started off with a recommendation from a friend: The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World with Kids.

I checked it out on Amazon as well as at the local bookstore. The book gives a nice detailed review of each park and their rides in DW and provides itineraries that you can use based on your children’s age. It also gives suggestions on what rides to go on, when to see attractions, and general tips for having a good time in Orlando.

What I also liked was the reviews of all the local hotels, Disney and otherwise. (There are a lot of hotels in the area to choose from!) We compared the guide to similar books and liked this one the best (they also have The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World that doesn’t focus on kids).

We bought the book and I went into devouring all of the information.

A big decision to make for a Disney World trip is whether to stay in a Disney resort or stay off site. I had an idea of a couple of places where I wanted to stay. Now to find rates!

I have to jump in for a second and tell you about a great resource site I found: Mousesavers.com!

This site really gave us great info for Disney. They tell you all about the different parks, hotels, vacation packages, various discount codes, freebies, specials, ride closings, etc…

If you plan on going on a Disney trip you should check out the site and sign up for their newsletter which has exclusive discounts. The site really helped me get my head around all of the choices in a Disney World vacation.

We used three main sources for our flight and hotel.

First we went to Liberty Travel agency to see what deals they have. I like starting with them since some of their sales people are real knowledgeable on different vacations and occasionally they get really good packages.

Unfortunately the person we dealt with didn’t know a lot about Disney and couldn’t really tell us much. Too bad for them. (And travel agents wonder why their services are dying.)

Next was to look online. We flipped back and forth between Expedia, the official Walt Disney World site, and Jet Blue.

Would the official Disney site be more expensive?

Not always. And at least you can get an idea of what they are charging versus what other travel sites charge.

Originally we planned on Expedia for the hotel and Jet Blue for the flight (we heard so many good things about them, we wanted to try them). I actually found a good deal for one of the Disney resort hotels on Expedia. We were trying to book it but there was a computer glitch that wouldn’t let the reservation book. Disappointed I poked around the Jet Blue site looking at flights.

I noticed that Jet Blue also had vacation packages!

I never knew that before (we never even flew them previously). I started looking up the hotel I found on Expedia. They had a similar deal but I actually found one that was better! I found a great deal for the Hyatt Regency Grand Cyprus. This is a four star hotel with a ridiculous amount of things to do including a giant pool with two waterslides (this will be important later on). We jumped on the package which was 6 nights at the hotel and flights for the four of us on Jet Blue. (When I checked into the hotel the clerk was actually surprised at the price we got the room for).

The hotel was in the Lake Buena Vista area. They had some transportation to Disney parks but our best bet would be to rent a car. Believe it or not the four main Disney parks aren’t all connected and next to each other. A car would help us get around as well as give us more choices for eating. The area we stayed had a number of other hotels and lots of food choices not Disney. We actually went to Dunkin Donuts a few times to cut down on breakfast costs. A car would also give us the opportunity to go to Target or Wal-Mart a few times to buy water and snacks (rather than buy them at the parks for much more).

So where to get a car?

We actually found some great discount codes on the Mousesavers site. The one we ended up using was a flat fee for a mini-van at Dollar car rental for American Express card holders. We paid less for a mini-van than we would have for many smaller cars. Now we wouldn’t have to worry about installing our car seat (no climbing into a compact to figure it out) and we knew we would have enough room for our luggage and stroller.

This was really the best deal for us out there.

If you ever use Dollar I would suggest signing up for their Dollar Express program. It can save you time at the rental counter as you get your own line (very important with two kids in tow)!

Let’s recap: Hotel – check; Flights – check; Car – check…what’s missing?

Disney tickets!

Disney World is made up of four major theme parks (Magic Kingdom, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Epcot, and Animal Kingdom), two water parks, and a lot of other stuff! We wanted to see the four main parks and we were considering the water parks. Since our hotel had such a great pool with water slides we decided we could do without the water parks (wise decision since we would have seen less of the main parks if we went to the water parks).

So we needed tickets for the main parks.

There’s a lot of ticket options that I won’t go through here. The option we did pick was the Park Hopper option which allowed us to go to more than one park a day (definite plus for us). Again Mousesavers was a great help for ticket advice and discounts. Through their newsletter you can get a code for a discount on the site Undercover Tourist which sells tickets to many diffferent attractions. We saved a lot through Undercover Tourist. Their great price included taxes and were shipped free.

Did we have fun at Disney World?

Growing up I was never a Disney person. I always preferred Bugs Bunny to Mickey Mouse. I figured we were going to Disney World mostly for our princess.

But you know what? It was a blast!

Our daughter wants to go back there this year (maybe in a few years honey) and I wouldn’t mind going back either. We went on roller coasters, rides, attractions, ate, swam…we really had a great time!

If I were going back I would cut out Epcot (was kind of boring; the international food was interesting but not enough to carry the park) and Animal Kingdom (if you have a good zoo in your area, like the Bronx Zoo, then you aren’t going to see too much new).

We would have spent more time at Magic Kingdom and Disney’s Hollywood Studios (maybe my favorite – Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Muppets, stunt show). We would have also spent more time at the hotel. We didn’t even get a chance to take advantage of all of the activities in our hotel.

Was it the most frugal vacation we could have gone on?

No. But it was well worth the money for the experiences we had (like my daughter saying “I lived!” after coming off of Space Mountain) and we found ways to save along the way.

Things to consider/to do if you’re planning a Disney World trip:

Check hotel/flight/car prices in a number of different places for the best price/package.
Check out Mousesavers.com – They really helped save money and they have great advice.
Get yourself a guide for the parks – There’s so much to do you really want to make sure you spend your time in the right places.
Consider renting a car and staying off the Disnet resorts – You can get some great hotel deals and having a car gives you a lot of flexibility on food and supplies. You can even add in attractions like Sea World and Universal if you have a car.
If your child still uses a stroller bring along one that folds and rolls easily We borrowed one from a neighbor). Even with a car you’re still going to have to use Disney transportation to get from the parking lot to the park. If your child is old enough for an umbrella stroller consider buying one in Orlando at Target or Wal-Mart. You can rent a stroller in the Disney parks but I think it’s better to have your own.
Buy water and snacks at Target or Wal-Mart and bring it with you to the parks. It gets hot fast in Orlando and you need to keep hydrated.
Plan your day ahead/build an itinerary – Know where you want to go and what rides you want to go on for each day. Some shows only play at certain times and some parks have later hours on different days.
With a Park Hopper pass you can split your day up and see one park in the morning, go back to your hotel and rest a bit, then see another park in the evening.

Do you have any Disney World tips?

photo by idogcow

Running – Frugal Or Not

Written by Glen Craig 13 Comments

Runner

Last week I went on my first run in a long time.

I ran about 2.3 miles at a leisurely pace. It was good to run again though my body felt it the next day!

As I was running I thought about how simple it is to run!

Here is this wonderful exercise that just about anyone can do. People pay hundreds in gym memberships and buy expensive machines for home to workout when a simple run may be all they need. What’s it take to run? Go out and move faster than a walk!

But then I thought about it and I realized running can be expensive as well. Is running frugal or not?

What you need to run/Equipment:

Not Expensive – Sneakers, t-shirt, shorts. That’s pretty much the basics. I’m pretty sure most of us have that in the house and could go out and run today!
Expensive – Specialty running shoes, performance shirt, sport shorts, running socks, hydrating pack, energy gels, Body Glide, training watch…I could go on.
What I’ve done – When I started to seriously run I researched running shoes (sites such as Runner’s World) to see what was rated well. I wanted a good pair for fear of doing damage to my feet with improper shoes. There are stores that will help you check your running style and can help you choose the right kind of shoe. Shoes don’t have to be expensive ( I went to DSW, a discount shoe store to buy mine) but can easily cost over $100 for some types. For shorts and shirts I tried to buy piece by piece when I could find items on sale. I’ve shopped Target (they have pretty good workout clothes by Champion) as well as specialty shops. I always bought on sale! When I committed to run a marathon I decided to buy running socks. If I was going to be on my feet for 26 miles I needed all of the help I could get!

Training materials/How to:

Not Expensive – Just go out and run! Watch other runners and if you can ask their advice. Watch TV for sports programs that deal with running. There are a number of websites out there, like Active.com, that are full of professional advice. You also can go to the library to take out books on running form. Also check out local running groups and stores in your area. Many offer free groups runs where you can train with others that have similar goals as you.
Expensive – Personal trainers, how-to books, DVD’s, gym memberships. A person can really go all out if they want to learn to run well. Personal trainers are a quick way of making the exercise expensive. I’m not saying it’s not useful, just expensive. It’s also easy to get caught up in all of the instructional books and videos that are out there, many with different training methods. Though I don’t think you need a gym member ship to run, some people supplement their running with alternate workouts or use the gym’s treadmills and other equipment for bad-weather situations.
What I’ve done – I bought a few magazines to get some tips like when they have advice on a first 5K run. The only book I bought was ChiRunning. It was recommended to me and I liked the running philosophy. I scoured online articles for running advice and took in whatever I thought was useful.

Where to run/Races:

Not expensive – Did I already say “Just go out and run?” Tie on your sneaks and head out. Check out your local park to see if they have a trail. Run around the block. One of the beauties of running is that you can basically do it anywhere (though I imagine a hilly city like San Francisco could be tough). Check out this great page from USA Track & Field. You can zoom into your area code and look for trails or just mark off a route that you plan on running to see the distance. In Central Park, here in NYC, you can run routes that are used for actual races (including the finish for the NYC marathon).
Expensive – Joining Running clubs (such as Road Runners Club of America or New York Road Runners). Traveling to races. Running official races. Do you plan on running an official race? You may have to join some sort of running organization or risk paying a premium for the race. For a NYRR member a race can cost $15. Non-members would pay $25. Either is not too bad if you’re only running one race but if you plan on doing more it can add up quickly (even with membership). One benefit of races is the motivation to finish and the excitement of running with the other runners in a timed event. There will also usually be support there in the form of water/hydration stations and first aid. P remium races, like a marathon, can easily cost $100 if not more. And you may have to pay extra for transportation to and from the event. Some even travel to other cities for races (travel, room and board, food, etc…)
What I’ve done – I’m a member of the NYRR association. I had a goal of running the NYC marathon. One of the ways to get in was to run nine qualified/scored races the year before. For that I needed to become a member. Costs added up between the races and the marathon but for me it was well worth it! Most times I’m not running a race though. I usually take advantage of local park trails or I’ll use the USATF map to track a route to run. I’ve discovered beautiful areas near me that I wouldn’t have gone to otherwise and got to explore my city up close (Queens Botanical Garden, Flushing Meadow Park, Kissena Park, Arthur Ashe stadium, Shea stadium, Citi Field – just to name a few sites).

Is Running Frugal or Not?

It really depends on what your goals are.

You don’t have to go crazy buying all of the latest gear and doodads if you want to run a few miles a week to keep fit. If you plan to get more serious then you can upgrade equipment as you see fit. Keep an eye out for sales and only buy what you need. It’s easy to get caught up in all the latest gadgets but you don’t need most of them.

Just go out and fun and see where it takes you! (Make sure you have clearance from your doctor before starting a new workout).

What do you think?

photo by mikebaird

Customer Service Done Right 1800Contacts.com

Written by Glen Craig 6 Comments

Contact lenses in eyes

I needed to order new disposable contacts.

I realized I was on my last couple of pairs. I didn’t want to go to my previous eye care provider since their salespeople, what’s the eloquent word?, oh yeah SUCK! The past few times they have been pushy and do what they can to get you to commit to a purchase. They speak all sorts of double speak when you ask about prices which just leaves you confused and fed up. I’d like to think it was just me but my wife has experienced this as well. I wasn’t going to give them my money again!

That brings me to 1800CONTACTS.com.

I heard all of the commercials and saw the ads online as well as heard great things about them from friends. I had to at least look into them, right?

Right off the bat I saw two things that interested me: Free shipping on online orders over $50 and they price match against other sites and take off an additional 2%.

Now, I usually check out a price in a few locations but this gave me a real incentive! Lo and behold I found my contacts on another site for much less. I was now armed with a price to see if they would match it.

One option the 1800Contacts.com site gives you is to have one of their people call you. You enter your phone number on the site and they call back. I did it and immediately got a call with very little waiting. A real person with little wait? Another plus! Ends up this person was located in Utah.

So I tell the woman that I was interested in ordering contacts and I saw a lower price on another site. I waited a few moments while she looked it up. (She apologized for the wait too, which wasn’t much. Another plus). She found the price and told me they would match it and take off an additional 2%. We were now looking at a price for 8 boxes of contacts that was less than what 1800Contacts and my previous provider offered! I’m real close to sold.

Remember that free shipping on online orders over $50? So I’m on the phone, right? Not online. I mention the offer to the woman and she said that because they were price matching they could give me the free shipping too. Nice!

The next step was to give her the prescription information on my contacts box and give the location of my previous provider who have my eye prescription on file (in New York your prescription is good for a year). She looked up the location and told me they would contact them for verification. Once that was done my contacts would ship out.

I felt really good doing business with them at this point.

The salesperson I spoke with was very clear and polite and did everything she could to help me out. This was how customer service should be handled. She even informed me that if my prescription should change I could return any unused contact to exchange with a new prescription. Now I didn’t have to worry that I might get stuck with contacts if my eyes changed (my eye prescription has leveled out so I wasn’t too concerned about my prescription but I have had to change brands). Now other places will take back an unopened box. 1800Contacts will take back any unopened contacts! This could save some money if my prescription changed mid-box.

This was last night. Today I received an email saying they contacted my old eye-care provider and were told that my prescription expired so they had to put my order on hold.

Remember how bad I told you the old provider was? They just didn’t want to give up my business. I knew my prescription was still good so I called up 1800Contacts to see what could be done. The new person I spoke to looked at my account and explained the situation. She then asked if I would mind being put on hold while she called my old provider. ”Sure,” I said. I could always hang up and call back if it took too long. A couple of minutes later the woman came back on and said that my old provider had made a “mistake” (the mistake was bad service to begin with) and my prescription was indeed still good! They were giving 1800Contacts a hard time but the salesperson would follow up and get the prescription. For the trouble, she was going to upgrade my shipping, which was already free, to next-day shipping! Now I’m getting my contacts faster!

This, my friends, is customer service done right!

Let’s recap the positives here:

They price-matched and took off an additional 2%
They gave me free standard shipping
They were pleasant and helpful at all times
They took care of obtaining my prescription for me
When there was a problem they let me know about it then resolved it
I was upgraded to next-day shipping for my trouble (which wasn’t really trouble at all)
Both customer service salespeople spoke excellent English and I didn’t have to repeat myself once! I’m all for cost-cutting but some call centers outside of the US have people that are very hard to communicate with. It may be cheaper for the company that uses them but it makes for a frustrating customer experience!

There are always options these days. We don’t have to settle for bad customer service!

What companies do you know have great customer service?

photo by Baston