¡cheapions' triumphant resurrection!

hello, you who did not bother to take us off your google reader. we appreciate your loyalty and laziness. cheapions is back and now we're adults. we the cheapions, in order to form a slightly less frivolous blog, present you with cheapions 2.0. we're going big picture. basically, we do a lot of research about money for fun and we're gonna post it on here if you want to read it. get ready to learn about local banking, community investing, credit card fees, wtf is going on in your bank account, and obviously frugal living.

caitlin is living in bellingham, washington and laura in philadelphia. moving to a new place usually involves spending a lot of time on craigslist, am i right? like me, you might be looking for a job, a place to live, food, and free crap. but let's be honest we're always looking for free crap. when you move somewhere new, move your money to a bank or credit union near where you live. credit unions are non-profit banks that are owned by their members. when you put your deposits in a local credit union or bank, it makes loans to your neighbors and community. if your money is in bank of america, it's probably not being loaned out locally. check out these faq from move your money about why and how to make the switch. you might say, but bank of america is so convenient for when i visit my friends in other cities. yeah, well my credit union debit card works with no fee at any 7-11 atm. investigate.

here's another fun fact: your $1,000 deposit enables your bank to make a loan of $9,000. when you make a deposit anywhere, you are letting the bank use that money. your small deposits are powerful! who is using your money right now?

blog over

well, it seems we've reached the end. this has already gone on at least a week longer than we anticipated. we've shared a lot of special times - that time with the turtle cake where i both laughed and cried pretty much covers the extremes. thank you for your clicks, friends. especially that one hit we got from niger - that was great.

goodbye forever, internet! if you want to continue to follow our adventures, laura will be going to china in august and might blog about that or something. i'm either going to kenya or el salvador and may also blog about that. remember, nowhere is cheaper than the developing world.

we are the cheapions

let's go pick some liberries

thanks to my librarian cousin once removed, i bring you something that is too fun not to share.
way too fun.
library savings calculator.

i was displeased to see that there was a category for "puppets borrowed" and i'm glad my library would never set such monsters loose in my neighborhood.

the calculator says i save $719.40 per month. while i am indeed an avid borrower of books, movies, and CDs, that seems high. however, i am pretty chummy with more than one librarian.

freexercising, exercising with freon

some people pay gym memberships. me, i don't like that. laura joined the jcc when they had a deal where you pay your age and that is your monthly fee. too bad she's 45.
the best way to exercise is to not own a car. if i take the bus to work, i walk 10 min to the bus and 10 min from the bus. that is 40 min of built-in walking every day. if i bike, it is a 40 min ride there and 30ish back. when your transportation is self-powered, you are exercising and getting between places for free (or bus fare, which is free for me).
this is rather general. some people like to "get a workout," sometimes me too. i go running in the night, when it is cool out and the world is smaller (like running through a hallway, only the hallway is the world). i go to the drum circle and dance for 2 hours and sweat like peach, if that's a phrase. next week i am going to do a free 7 day trial at the LA fitness next to my work. many gyms and yoga studios have free trials or introductory offers. once you are introduced, break it off, as you don't want to be the sugar mama in the relationship. the problem is that you may have to endure a sales pitch, sort of a blind date where you can't leave. i plan to show up at 8:20 on monday morning and say that i hoped to make the 8:30 yoga class and when they see the hope in my eyes they will say "we'd love to give you a tour when you're done," and i'll say sure but then just sneak out. this must work.
additionally, dc and other large cities abound with free public pools. swim in them. but definitely shower afterward.
there is free yoga in dupont circle on wednesdays at 6:30. there is a free capoeira class every sunday at 11 on U st. sure, if you are into it and want to study capoeira, sign up for an actual class and support the school.
and always remember that the most satisfying workout is dancing alone in your room to ABBA. if you change your mind on the first in line, honey i'm still free, dancing alone in my room.

I got a flucky!

Getting "a flucky" is a Silver-ism for "I got a great deal!"-- it is derived from "getting off lucky" and it can be blamed entirely on my father, as can most of the strange (read: bad) jokes or sayings I know.

Anyway, my flucky was that I went to Giant with a coworker and when we were checking out I noted a container of cupcakes that had mangled icing but that was otherwise intact and in packaging. I commented that those cupcakes looked sad and then asked what they do with goods like that. She said throw them out. The horrors! I love cupcakes and could not let that occur. I asked if I could have them instead and she said yes. I am now the proud owner of 6 delicious Giant cupcakes. They just wanted to be loved, not trashed, and I can do that for them. 

Fair o' Free

Here's a tip: if there is an event of some sort that you want to go to that costs money, see if you can volunteer instead. I did that this weekend-- I volunteered to ride a segway around and to do information at the Celebrate Fairfax country fair. In fairness (ha!), I actually volunteered because I wanted to ride the segway, not because I was seeking free admission to the fair, but I'm pleased on both counts. For a few hours of riding the segway I got a weekend of free food (they had so many things that should have been submitted to This Is Why I'm Fat the blog- chocolate covered cheese cake on a stick? Really?), a fancy hotel room to myself, and a chance to see all of the concerts for free. Sugar Hill Gang has been reduced to playing country fairs, but man was it hilarious.

Oh, and most importantly-- I got to play with sugar gliders. They are being sold as pets and Caitlin wants to get one and name it Johannes Kepler. They are amazing. Look them up and then purchase them and keep them in your pocket. I was unsuccessful at getting any for free-- that was a cheapion fail of the weekend, but it's ok. All things considered, the weekend went quite well.

Addendum: Caitlin requested/demanded a picture of a sugar glider be added and I am happy to oblige. Also, the hotel had a closet full of snacks that you could take for free- Jake and I left w/ a purse full o' candy bars, drinks, and chips. They are now in our cabinets at home. Foard, please note that this means that we have snacks in the house right now-- and that they arrived for free. Count it. 

yard sale valhalla

this weekend all of the houses in dc vomited up their lesser used contents and put tiny price tags on them, or didn't. i don't really need anything as i am moving out in july and leaving the country. however, at the top of my block i saw a dude sitting in his yard surrounded by stuff and i asked if he was moving out very slowly or having a yard sale. yard sale!

i took his 3'x3' mounted cloth painting of shiva the destroyer. i took his double airbed with pump. i took his two fancy moleskine notebooks, empty except for a few lines of arabic. i asked him why he was getting rid of a a pack of 12 AA batteries minus 1 battery. he said he didn't have anything that required batteries. i took them. for these items i gave him $20.

2 hours later (strategy) i returned to fetch the airbed cord. he was packing up and told me i could have whatever. i took a mostly full box of nyquil. i took a mostly full stack of DVDRs. i took a dvd player. i took a calculator, a bunch of drill bits, and a fancy liquid hot/cold my-neck-is-sore pack. for these items i gave him a nice smile.

do i need all of these things? no, definitely not, except for shiva the destroyer being the first thing i see when i wake up. the rest of the stuff i can distribute amongst family and friends who are in want of them.

come get your nyquil! (on closer examination also contains dayquil and mucinex. trifecta achieved)

today i made bread. like the hippo cake that wanted to be a turtle cake, it turned out the bread wanted to be flatbread. i had to yield. oh well still bread.