Living More For Less | Living Radically

8 Helpful (and Quirky) Free Websites to Save You TIME

On October 4, 2010, In Business Ideas, Digital Life, Living More for Less, Living Radically Principles, Unique Entrepreneurship, By Vanessa

We need more time. We always need a little help. The Internet can help! Here are some of my favorite technologies to save time.

1) Notakeout and Supercook

When you are scrambling to get dinner together and did not have time to go to the market, this is a life saver. Notakeout.com takes ingredients you already have in the kitchen and gives you recipes that are quick and easy. Supercook is another recipe search engine that lets you search by ingredients you have at home.

2) Stickk

Goals are hard to keep, especially when we are super busy. Stickk.com is a site that helps you stick to your goals by emailing friends and setting requirements that if you miss your goal…you have to donate money to charity. Great, non-intrusive reminders.

3) Whenisgood

Have you ever been stuck in one of those email chains where no one can figure out which time and date works for everyone on the chain? Whenisgood solves that. Whether you are a working and need to coordinate a meeting or wanting to organize a birthday brunch this saves time and headache.

4) Mint

Mint is an amazing free website that helps you budget, keep track of bills and so much more. For anyone trying to deal with finances this is a lifesaver.

5) Google Docs

Google docs are a great way to share documents online. This can be good if you need to check over a report so you do not have to print it out or have multiple versions. You can share bills or ideas with spouses or at work. I have found that it cuts down on my faxes, emails and back and forth when editing home papers and documents.

6) Seatguru

If you are a traveler, this is for you. So often you get on a flight and realize you have the seats with an inch less leg room than everyone else—an inch is a lot on a plane! This free site lets you check out seating charts and tells you which are the best seats on each plane so you get the most bang and space for your buck.

7) Daily burn

If you are trying to lose weight, you should definitely check out daily burn with workout ideas, mixes and help. You are not on your own!

8) Let Simon Decide

If you are at that place where you just can’t decide what to do…Let Simon Decide. This is a decision making site that gives advice to help you decide what option you should choose. For indecisive people, it can save a lot of time.

I hope you will explore some of these awesome, time-saving sites. I think that they can definitely make your life a little bit easier!

How to Find Cheap Flights With Bing Travel – Part 2 of 3

On March 9, 2010, In Living More for Less, Travel, By Scott

Welcome to part 2 of 3 in our series on finding cheap flights to just about anywhere! Today we’re looking at Bing Travel. Bing Travel is basically the descendent of an acquisition Microsoft made of a company a few years back called Farecast. Now you probably don’t care about that acquisition, but you will care about the technology MSFT payed a lot of money to acquire!

That technology uses data Bing Travel has acquired over the years to accurately predict when the best time is to buy your airline tickets. I show you how to use this feature in the video below. Also I show you how to use some of Bing’s flexible travel search tools to determine where you should go, when you should fly and how long you should stay. Enjoy and as always let us know what you think!

Look out next week for part 3 of 3 in our series on finding cheap flights. We’ll show you how we use non flight-search type sites to get the lowest fares out there, period!

How To Find Cheap Flights – Part 1 of 3

On March 2, 2010, In Living More for Less, Travel, By Scott

Probably one of the most frequent questions I get asked is “How do you find such great airfare for your trips?” I have to admit I have found some great fares in the past (LAX-Tokyo-Singapore-Seoul-San Francisco for $800 comes to mind, as well as LAX-Sydney-LAX for $550), but believe it is much more science than art. To help answer people’s questions and show you exactly how I do my searching, I’m going to do a three part series on how I find really cheap flights anytime we use air travel to get where we’re going.

Today is part 1, and I’m showing you how I use Kayak.com to get most of my searching done. I use this site for about 75% of my flight searching activities, and I can’t recall an instance where the fares found on Kayak were higher than I found on some other site. So check out my tour of Kayak and make sure to let me know what you think!

Look for the next part in our series next week where we show you how to use Bing Travel to continue your quest for cheap airline tickets!

How to Renegotiate Your Rent

On February 22, 2010, In Living More for Less, By Vanessa

Yes you can! In the down economy you can get your rent down and save a lot of money while still living in a great place.

Here are some pointers for lowering your rent:

It is much easier to do this if you have an individual landlord rather than one of those huge companies. (It is not impossible, but a bit harder with a company because they do not mind having an empty place).

Do your research first of comparable places in surround areas. Take notes and addresses of apartments in your area, like yours that are charging less. Get the prices, addresses and details.

Find out who to write to. Find out who dictates the rent—the building manager, the landlord out of state, the management company? It is important your letter sees the right person.

Know your limits. If you are going to ask to move, make sure you ask for a reasonable reduction and you know what you will and will not take. Our building offered us lower rent if we signed a new 12-month contract. Know if you are willing to do this before going into negotiations.

Write a letter. You want to write a letter that states:
- 1- Why you are unhappy.
- 2- Why you have been a great tenant.
- 3- Research that backs up why you should be paying less.
- 4- How everyone would win if you stayed (do not have to go searching, no costs, etc)
- 5- How they should contact you to proceed.

Remember, it never hurts to ask. Worse comes to worse they say no and you stay or you move. In this economy, every penny counts, so ask!

Tagged with: living

How to Get Great University Style Lectures for Free

On February 11, 2010, In Business Ideas, Digital Life, Fun, Living More for Less, By Vanessa

Going to college and grad school is expensive and time consuming. If you are in the work world, but still want to learn, hear great lectures and keep your mind fresh there are a ton of great options for you. We encourage our readers to constantly stay curious, here is how we do it:

1. MIT Open Course

MIT offers a great program where you can sign up for some of their most popular lectures and readings for free. I have learned some amazing things from these courses.

2. Kindle Free

If you have a Kindle or e-reader many books and classics are now offered for free. We just finished reading the Count of Monte Cristo and there are so many books like Sherlock Holmes you can get with a click.

3. iTunes U

iTunes U is a specialized area of the Apple iTunes store that allows Higher Education institutions to make audio and visual content available for download. You can get tons of awesome courses on here.

4. TED

TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. TED has amazing conferences, lectures and webinars on topics that you cannot even imagine, but are fascinating.

5. BookMooch

I am an avid reader and hate spending a ton of money on books and having to go to the library and have limits on my books. Book mooch is a great book sharing service where you can discuss books and have much less limits on books you take out!

You never have to stop learning. There are more and more free resources out there to enrich your mind and your life.

Tagged with: Education

7 Tips to Find Cheap and Awesome Local Tour Guides

On February 10, 2010, In Living More for Less, Other Destinations, Travel, By Vanessa

When we used to travel we always struggled between hiring an expensive tour guide through our hotel concierge, going on a long and inefficient shore excursion while cruising or trying to do our own self-guided tours. These choices were either expensive, uninformative and/or extremely frustrating. In Buenos Aires for example we opted out of getting a tour guide and went for the self-guided/tour bus version. Mistake! We were stuck waiting for the ‘tour bus’ to come to designated points for hours, couldn’t get seats and missed information on the barely functioning audio system.

Then we discovered Miri. While traveling to Seoul we decided to try a different route. We posted on local craigslist and some of the university bulletin boards that we were looking for a casual tour guide, who spoke English, knew the city and could research some history and walking tours for a span of two days. In return we paid about $10 per hour (great for student prices), free meals and transportation and they could practice English.

This was a win win situation, we got a great enthusiastic tour guide for an awesome price, the students we hired (also did this in Tokyo and Singapore) practiced their English, got paid to research and travel around the city and made a significant amount of money for a student budget! We highly recommend trying this on your next trip, here is what you can do:

1. Post Right

Post on university boards or the local craigslist. Make sure to specify language requirements, dates and times, price and areas you want to see.

2. Do An Interview

If you are worried about not getting a good tour, talk to them ahead of time like we did. We had an idea of about 7 sites we HAD to see and then were open to suggestions. We sent her the list, asked her to write up a little itinerary with our suggestions and some places she thought we should see.

3. Have Them Do Research

We checked the itinerary over and made small changes and then asked her to do some research on history of these areas before we arrived!

4. Real Places

We love this approach also because they are not tour guides from a company and will show you some of the real areas of your city. We also heard all about schooling, family and home life from our students.

5. Bring A Gift

Make sure to bring a little gift and give this to them in the middle of the tour to show your appreciation.

6. Leave Room

You always want to make sure that you have some wiggle room if it does not go well. We usually book one day and then say if we are not too tired we might do another day if they have time. This way, if it does not go well you can easily say that you saw enough without hurting anyone’s feelings.

7. Stay in touch

We are still in touch with our tour guides and they send us email updates of things going on in Seoul and Tokyo!

Finding students to help show you around is a cost effective and extremely interesting way to see a city. They love meeting new people and you get to experience the real flavor of a place!

Tagged with: Travel

How to Find Gorgeous Clothes for Less

On February 8, 2010, In Fun, Living More for Less, By Vanessa

I love beautiful stylish clothes, shopping and getting dressed up, but do not want to spend thousands of dollars doing it. I found a few amazing alternatives to quench my shopping thirst, have a steady stream of new clothes coming and not break the bank.

Here are a few ideas if you love shopping and looking great, but want to be cost effective:

1. Clothing Swaps

I went to my first clothing swap a few months ago and became addicted. Get a group of females together who you know also have great taste, are similar in size (or not I got some great accessories too) and host a clothing swap. My friends and I do this now every 6 weeks.

-Host often so you never get tired of what you got!

-Saves you space in your closet because you always get to clean out

-Ask everyone to bring their gently used hip clothes and then have everyone pick their favorite items one at a time.

2. Loaning Gowns

There is no reason that a fancy event should stress you out. If you are in wedding season or have a job where you are attending a lot of cocktail and blacktie events where you always have to get dressed up then renting gowns is a great idea! You can do this with shoes, purses and accessories too (how much money do you spend having to get a lilac pair of shoes for that bridesmaid dress!). You can use weartodaygonetomorrow.

3. Ebay

Ebay has some amazing deals esepcially in this economy wear people need cash quick. I got an amazing pair of shoes and a dress I wore to two weddings and then have been swapping them for the past 2 years for new shoes and gowns with that one investment!

4. Designer Outlets

I know some people think ‘outlets’ is a dirty word, but you can save a lot of money in the outlet stores and then use those dresses or accessories to swap or sell on ebay later.

There are tons of options for getting great clothes and accessories so do not let a slimmer wallet curb your love of looking great.

Tagged with: Shoping

How to Apartment Swap While Traveling

On February 5, 2010, In Fun, Living More for Less, Travel, By Vanessa

Apartment swapping is a great way to see the world for less. Apartment swapping abroad has a number of benefits:

-Cheaper

-You get to meet interesting people

-You have a kitchen and often washer/dryer while traveling

-You can travel for longer periods of time

-You can see what it is like to live in a country

There are also some downsides:

-You have to prepare your apartment for guests (cleaning fees, giving them drawer space etc)

-You might have some things damaged or taken (happens very very rarely)

-You might not get your first choice date/location

These are all aspects to consider when deciding if you want to do apartment swapping internationally. If you are going to Apartment swap here is how to do it:

1. Post

You can post your place on craigslist in your city AND in the cities you want to visit. You can also list your apartment on InternationalHomeExchange.com.

2. Description

You want to make a really accurate description of your place and location. Give distance to and from local tourist spots or places of interest. List all of your features including what is in the kitchen, size of bed and any other perks like Cable or washer/dryer etc.

3. Talk to Them

If you find a place you like and people who like your place as well, chat with them. See if you like their style, who they are as people and if they seem trustworthy.

4. Protect Yourself

We have a locked closet that we put anything of great value in, but we have never heard of anything being stolen. We also have a parent or friend check on the place in the middle of our trip especially if it is a long time. You might want to also consider signing contracts with each other that any damage done will be paid by the other party. Some websites have these contracts for you.

5. Deposit

You might want to get a deposit on each other’s places just to make sure no one cancels last minute.

6. Leave Notes

It is great to leave notes for your swap on how to work things in the apartment (dishwashers around the world are quite different), what they can and cannot use in the kitchen, nearby restaurants etc.

Apartment swapping is a great way to see the world and if you do research correctly can be really rewarding.

Tips and Tricks for Cruising

On February 3, 2010, In Fun, Living More for Less, Other Destinations, Travel, By Vanessa

Cruising is an awesome way to see the world and can be very cost effective. We have found amazing deals and ideas to make our cruising experience optimal, whether you are on Carnival Cruise or Azamara. Here are some tips:

Cruising Tips:

1. Always Research Alternative Cruise Excursions

If you want to travel well, and not pay a fortune you should always consider booking off ship for your shore tours. Ship tours are usually expensive, slow and packed with buses not fun.

2. Check Your Luggage Tags

At the end and beginning of the cruise you are often assigned colors or tags for your bags to be brought to your room. Check these thoroughly. Ask what your color means. We were assigned a color that meant “airport” when we were driving on to another city from the port!

3. Bring Your Own Liquor

It is worth it to bring your favorite wine or drink with you.

4. Talk to Your Room Attendant

You room attendants are on your side. If you have something special you want like an extra chocolate or pillows or having ice morning and night, just ask it makes it easier for all of you!

5. Ask Ahead on Tables

If you know you want the early seating or a table for 2 do not wait until you get on board, call ahead.

6. Bring Tupperwear

If you like to snack and do not want to have to always go up to the buffet for fresh fruit or veggies bring some ziplocs or a tupperwear and take them down to the room with you.

7. Pack Right

Besides the usual packlist, there are a few things I always bring when I cruise:

-Slippers

-Headphones (for the gym TVs)

-Seasickeness medication (for rocky nights)

-Ear plugs (rocking and creaking)

-Ziplocs and tupperwear for the buffet

-Poolside bag

-Hat with a string on it so it does not blow off

8. Bring Locks

Lock your bags when they are taken from you. Even if you are coming from the airport, slapping some locks on your bags insures everything stays inside them!

9. Get a Netbook

I know many people cruise without computers, but if you want to write home it might be worth your time to invest in a minicomputer (netbook) and you can write emails offline, journal and then sync up for a minute or two and thats it! Much faster than using their computers and starting from scratch.

10. Bring A Mini DVD Player

There is usually a lot to do, but in room movies are expensive! Bring your own DVD player and DVDs and you will save money and fill those sometimes rainy afternoons.

These are our insider tips, we hope to see you on your next cruise!

Tagged with: Cruising • Travel

How to Capitalize on Dining Week (LA’s is right now!)

On January 29, 2010, In Living More for Less, Relationships, By Vanessa

A little known, but awesome tip is to book your travel around a particular city’s Dining Week. Also, many people miss dining week in their own cities.

Dining Week is a week (sometimes even two weeks) where restaurants offer their menu’s at quarter price. You can often do fixed meals for $28 or less or $35 with wine at the top restaurants in your city. I consider myself a foodie, but do not want to break the bank feeding (literally) my habit.

Here is how you can capitalize on Dining Week…

1) Mark Your Calendars

Look up the Dates of Dining Week in your city and any cities that you travel to often, or plan on traveling to in the next year. Mark your calendars for that week and about 3 months prior to make reservations.

2) Travel

Plan your travel around these dates! I always try to find cheap flights or plan business meetings around Chicago or New York’s Dining week because you can go to all the top restaurants for the cost of Cheesecake Factory!

3) Reserve!

Make reservations really early. About 3 months prior mark all of the restaurants you want to go to and call them to ask if they are taking reservations. Most will. Always ask for a great table.

4) Talk to Friends

Get groups together. Ask friends to come and make a night of it!

5) 2 Week Post, 2 Week Prior

Prepare for two weeks. You will probably spend more that week on eating out because you will be doing it more often. You will also be eating a lot of calories. Make sure to eat in for the two weeks ahead and don’t make plans to go out the two weeks after.

6) Make A Wishlist

When you hear a good restaurant check if you can do it on dining week first. This way you do not have to pay exorbitant prices if you do not like it!

We have eaten at amazing restaurants during dining week and have a little vacation at home that week because we go with tons of friends each night. Don’t waste this great opportunity to be a real foodie!