Browse Month: September 2017

How I Saved Over 20% While Shopping For Groceries

AldiLast week, the Wall Street Journal ran an article about the German discount grocery chain Aldi (subscription required).

In the article, author Zeke Turner notes that Aldi already has over 1,700 stores in the United States, and recently announced it would invest $3.4 billion over the next five years to increase its store count to nearly 2,500. If Aldi’s planned expansion is successful, it would rank as the third-largest grocery retailer in the U.S. by locations, behind only Wal-Mart and Kroger.

Aldi entered the U.S. market in the Midwest in the 1970s, and currently has stores in nearly three dozen states. Aldi stores are known for their low prices, small size, limited selection, and focus on their own store brands.

If frugality is your thing, you might like Aldi. If you like to be pampered while shopping, Aldi may not be for you.

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Update: Chase Freedom Announces 5% Cash Back Categories For Q4 17

Financial IndependenceEarlier this year, I wrote about our attempt to optimize our credit card usage to maximize potential rewards.

Since we aren’t frequent travelers, I focused on finding a card with attractive cash back features, rather than a card with great perks for world travelers. We signed up for a Chase Freedom Credit Card in the spring, which has been a smart financial decision thus far.

As a reminder, Chase Freedom offers 5% cash back on up to $1,500 in purchases in specific spending categories each quarter, and 1% cash back on everything else. Our Fidelity Rewards card offers 2% cash back on all purchases.

To date, we’ve earned $260 in cash back since getting the Chase Freedom card, including sign up bonuses, but the pace at which we earned rewards from our new card slowed dramatically during the third quarter.

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Dumb Financial Decisions: Selling My Potential Rental Property

Financial IndependenceAlmost twenty years ago, when I was single and in my mid-twenties, I purchased my first home after several years of renting.

It was not fancy.

It was a simple two bedroom townhouse, with a one car garage, and a postage stamp of a backyard.

I got a great deal on the place, as I was able to purchase it as a foreclosure for well under $50,000. I dumped my life savings (outside of my retirement accounts) into the purchase, so I did not have a mortgage, which was a huge benefit as I tried to rebuild my financial safety net.

After living in my townhouse for over four years, I decided to return to school full time to pursue a master’s degree in an effort to change careers.

And then I made a financial decision I thought was prudent at the time.

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The Financial Advantages of Blogging About Personal Finance

Early RetirementIf you’re reading this post expecting to learn how to make unimaginable riches on the Internet, my deepest apologies, but you are in the wrong place.

I have only been blogging for three months.

Retiring On My Terms has not generated one cent of income, while costing hundreds of hours of my time, in addition to expenses for web hosting.

And I still have no clue how to effectively use Pinterest, even though I have heard it can be an incredible social networking tool.

That said, the discipline required to think and write about our finances on a regular basis has already paid great dividends to the ROMT family. I’ll highlight a few of the ways our finances have improved as a result of the time I’ve spent blogging.

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Solar Energy Update: Another Bill Bites The Dust!

Solar PowerThe ROMT family is now over two months into our solar energy adventure, and the results continue to impress as we move down our path towards financial independence!

For the month of August, our electric bill dropped by 95% from last year! This followed a 91% reduction in our electric bill for July!

Part of the improvement in August was driven by the fact we used a lot less power this year compared to last year. It was much cooler in our area this August, so the central air had to work a lot less, and I’m hopeful our recent move to LED lightbulbs throughout the house is also paying early dividends.

All in, we used almost 30% fewer kilowatt hours of electricity this August relative to last August. Continue Reading