October 29th, 2009 at 08:27pm
Under Running
The Philadelphia Marathon is just around the corner and I will not be participating this year. At one point early in the summer, I really wanted to run it. As time slipped by, I thought about going for the half marathon. Then that got demoted to trying to be able to run over 10 consecutive miles on or near the race day, weather permitting. I will be very glad that I’m not running the marathon come 7:30 AM on November 22nd when I’m still fast asleep. But once 11:30 or so rolls around, I will be thinking that I should have taken a crack at it. Around that same time, I will probably give the 2010 marathon some strong consideration.
There were about three days over the course of this year that I gave the 2009 race some strong consideration. But it requires months strong consideration to pull it off.
Today I found myself thinking about what got in the way of staying interested in training. A few things came to mind right away. Running is hard and I don’t own any neon short shorts. Then another thought came rolling in: marathons are expensive. The Philly Marathon runs anywhere between 80 and 125 bucks depending on when you sign up. I consider this to be a lot of money to spend on the privilege of running down a few public streets, very early in the morning, on a day that is likely to have lousy weather. Unless I sell a fire alarm painting for a million dollars or the United States runs into some crazy Zimbabwe style hyper-inflation, $80 to $125 will still be a lot of money a year from now.
So once you are done thinking about how big of a cheapskate I am, continue reading and get prepared to have your mind blown.
It is not that the race costs a lot that kept me from signing up; it is that the race costs a lot and I didn’t pony up the cash right away. If running the marathon only costs $8 to sign up, I, along with a lot of other people, would have signed up right away. Come November, I, along with a lot of other people, would probably opt for sleeping in and skipping the race. $80 on the other hand, is just enough to make me feel stupid if I let it go to waste. $80 would make me feel that I have an investment in the race, something to lose. $80 would make it official that I am going to run that marathon and if I don’t follow through that would make me a big, fat failure.
So next spring, if I find myself giving strong consideration to running the marathon, which I am sure I will at some point, I will be sure to send in my check right away, because if I don’t, I will probably be in for another year of thinking that I should run a marathon some day.
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By Wisdom Lion
October 27th, 2009 at 06:17pm
Under Sprouts
By growing and eating your own sprouts, you get a nutritious meal with a side of cold hard cash piled higher than a pastrami sandwich from the Carnegie Deli. To demonstrate, I put together a little comparison for you. I decided to compare sprouts with some lunch items. This is when I would be more likely to eat a bowl of sprouts as a meal and I figured it would make for a more realistic comparison.
To figure out the sprout cost, I started with a 10 lb bag of seeds for about $32.00. This is about 20 cups of dry seeds (give or take). To make 1 cup of sprouts, you need about ¼ cup of dry seeds. With the help of some basic math, you can figure a bowl of sprouts setting you back about 40 cents. You can buy yourself some sprouts by clicking here.
So check it out…
Sprouts: $0.40
Subway’s $5 Foot-Long: $5.00
Burger-Centric, Fast-Food Value Meal: $5.00 (approximation)
Arby’s 5 for $5 Special: $5.00
Little Caesars Hot-N-Ready Pizza: $5.00
From a lunch perspective, sprouts can save you about $4.60 per day. This translates to the following yearly savings based on how many days per week you eat sprouts for lunch.
1 Day: $239.20
2 Days: $478.40
3 Days: $717.60
4 Days: $956.80
5 Days: $1196.00 (damn!)
What’s that you say? Ramen is cheaper? Well, at about 30 cents a bag, you would be correct. And you could probably slurp up a bowl of ramen every day for lunch for a full year and live to tell about it. By the end of that year, that would net you an extra 26 bucks to go blow at the track. But, that comes at quite a cost. You miss out on all that great nutrition.
So there you have it. Every time you eat sprouts, you win at life a little bit more.
Do you have some hot money saving tips that rival the one given above? Spread the word in the comments section below.
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By Wisdom Lion
October 20th, 2009 at 06:14pm
Under Miscellaneous
Not long ago, I headed to the wine and spirits store from some vodka. I have never been much of a vodka guy, but it is an essential part of the liquor cabinet and we were running low. I was most likely headed for a bottle of something cheap and boring, like Smirnoff. If I had more money to burn, I would be headed for something expensive and exciting like Crystal Head Vodka, which Dan Aykroyd (!) is somehow involved in. Upon stepping through the door, I was greeted with quite a surprise. A friendly young chap was handing out free samples of vodka. This would totally not fly in my native Michigan, but Pennsylvania, who makes you go to separate stores for beer and liquor, somehow let occasional free booze slip through the cracks. So I stopped by for a sip and to my surprise, this vodka was sippable.
Sold! I grabbed a bottle and made a U-turn back for the checkout counter.
And what is this magic vodka you ask? It is called Ed Phillips and Sons Prairie Organic Vodka. It’s made out of corn. And its organic. You know my thoughts about how ubiquitous corn is these days, but as it turns out, lots of vodka is made out of corn. At least they are up front about it. The organic thing is kind of strange. Vodka mixes with most things, but health consciousness was never something that I thought to throw in the shaker. Anyways, the taste test was all it took. So, next time you are looking for a new vodka to scope out, reach for a bottle of Prairie.
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By Wisdom Lion
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