This past weekend, I moved into my new condo. It takes a lot of work to move, and you have to decide if it is better to pay a professional moving company or make the move on your own.

Moving Company

Moving companies’ rates depend on a lot of different factors. How big is your home? How much stuff do you have? Is it already packed up or do the movers have to do it? How far are you moving? How many people are going to be needed to move your stuff? How big will the truck be?

There are a lot of factors. For a cross town move, a one bedroom apartment would cost about $200-$300 in my city.

The biggest benefit of the movers is that you don’t have to do the work yourself. You just pay and someone else does the heavy lifting. It is worth it to some people, but others would rather suck it up and take care of it themselves.

Friends

I decided to skip the moving company and recruited four friends to help with my move. Here was my cost breakdown:

Rental Truck: $65

Moving Boxes/Tape: $15

Pizza: $25

Beer: $20

Total: $125

Moving myself did save me some money, but it was a lot of work. Retrospectively, I would hire someone to do it for me. However, I did enjoy spending the time with my buddies, I did enjoy driving the big truck, and I did enjoy the accomplished feeling at the end of the day.

Your Opinion/Experience?

If you were going to move across town today, would you do it yourself or hire movers to take care of it for you? In the past, how have you taken care of moving? Please share your thoughts and ideas in the comments.

Recent Carnivals/Roundups

Thanks to My Personal Finance Journey and Free From Broke for including me in recent carnivals and roundups.

Photo by james.thompson.

Moving: Friends or Professionals is a post from: Narrow Bridge

Related posts:

1. The Economics of Moving
2. 7 Things to Keep in Mind When Loaning Friends Money

Praire Eco-Thrifter hosted our 10th ever Yakezie blog swap, and it was a good one as always. Along with my fellow bloggers in the Yakezie, I wrote about how going green can both help the environment and your financial situation. Be sure to check out all of the great posts (mine is linked below too) from this edition.

Nickel by Nickel tells us how they read green using ebooks over at Beating Broke.

Everything Finance shares with us his success in growing his own veggies at Retire by 40.

Narrow Bridge Finance tells us how going green has saved him some green at Mom’s plans.

The 60K Project shares 8 ways she has made her kitchen green at Stock Market Basics.

One Cent at a Time shares 23 ways reusing household items can save you money at Sustainable Life Blog.

Prairie Eco-Thrifter shares numerous recipes for making your own cleaning products at Financial Success for Young Adults.

Debt Eye tells us how to eliminate the paper trail at Little House in the Valley.

Sustainable Personal Finance tells us why air sealing your home is a good idea at Financially Consumed.

Stock Market Basics shares 5 ways to go green and save natural resources at Free Money Wisdom.

Financially Consumed tells how you can go green at home incrementally at Sustainable Personal Finance.

Little House in the Valley shares how going car-lite can save money at Debt Eye.

Financial Success for Young Adults shares how you can go green on a budget at Prairie Eco-Thrifter.

Sustainable Life Blog tells us to watch out for a leaky window at One Cent at a Time.

Free Money Wisdom shares why we should avoid country funds at 60K Project.

Mom’s Plans tells how we can eat green at Narrow Bridge Finance.

Retire by 40 shares how living in smaller home is green at Everything Finance.

Beating Broke tells how cycling makes you green at Nickel by Nickel.

I hope you have enjoyed the different posts and have learned some new things you can try in your effort to live a greener life.

Yakezie Blog Swap #10 Roundup is a post from: Narrow Bridge

Related posts:

1. Yakezie Blog Swap #7 Roundup
2. Yakezie Blog Swap #3 Roundup
3. Yakezie Blog Swap #1 Roundup

I am a 26 year old guy. Most weekdays, I leave my apartment around 7:30am and get home around 9:00pm. On weekends, I am busy watching movies, curing hangovers, and de-stressing from the week. Lately, that does not involve a lot of time for cleaning.

The Cost of Having a Maid

I have a fairly small apartment. Cleaning the entire thing very thoroughly takes about two hours. I don’t mind grabbing a Clorox wipe and cleaning off the toilet or counter tops, but I hate scrubbing the tub. I hate mopping. I hate vacuuming. It is something I have always done out of necessity, but it is not something I would ever miss.

I had a maid come by and quoted me $40 per cleaning. At six times per year, that is $240. I am a clean person, so I don’t need my apartment cleaned more often than that.

The Value of My Time

The maid charges about $20 per hour for the cleaning. Do I value my time at more than $20 per hour? My employer does, as I am paid more than that for going to work. If I can earn more in that hour than $20, it is surely worth it.

However, I can’t say for sure that I would always use every hour productively and couldn’t find two hours if I needed to clean the apartment. That means I have to decide what my time is worth to me and whether it is a better use of my time to clean or my money to have it cleaned.

Is two hours of free time worth $40? Even more, is two hours doing something I don’t like worth $40?

I Hired the Maid

Yes. I gave in. Frugalistas can have a field day hating me for this one, but I would rather spend the $40 and have two hours of time to do something I enjoy while skipping something I do not enjoy.

Maybe growing up having a maid come diluted my perception, but I am happy to pay for this service. Some people would be willing to pay me to write freelance articles or do accounting work for them. I don’t mind accounting or writing. I keep the economy going by hiring someone to do something I don’t like at a rate I find acceptable.

Your Experience – Is it, or would it be, worth it?

Do you have a maid? Do you want a maid? Do you think I am lazy and ridiculous? Please share your thoughts and experiences in the comments.

Image by cauchisavona.

To Maid or Not to Maid? is a post from: Narrow Bridge

No related posts.

I have made an amazing discovery.  I am a pretty good cook (I am also humble).  It is also much cheaper, and often better, than going to a restaurant.  I thought I would share a few single guy recipes that have been easy and fun to make.  I am also looking for ideas on other things to cook.  I made my few fallback recipes over the last few weeks that I have been living alone, so I am up for suggestions.

Meal 1: One Pot Asian Stir Fry

Ingredients:

• Tofu, beef, or chicken
• Angel hair pasta or Asian noodle
• Veggies: any combination of onion, green/red/yellow pepper, bok choy (my favorite), cabbage, celery, hot peppers, other fresh vegetables that would work in a stir fry
• Soy sauce, oil, chicken stock (optional)

Directions:

Start by cooking the tofu/beef/chicken sliced up in a pan with a drop of oil for sticking and soy or teriyaki sauce for a base flavor.  At the same time, saute onion and boil water for pasta.  If you have enough pots and pans, you can start to cook the vegetables in a pan with a small amount of water with chicken stock and soy sauce.

Once everything is cooked, start mixing them up in a big pot with a small amount of water at the bottom over medium to medium-high heat.  Douse everything in soy sauce and the optional chicken stock mix.  Keep stirring so things don’t stick or burn to the pot.  Once it is all mixed up, evenly flavored, and soy sauced to taste, take off the heat and eat.

The good thing about this, it is hard to screw up.  Unless you over do the soy sauce, which I think is impossible, you will end up with a tasty meal no matter what.

Meal 2: Fajitas

Again, this one is guy-proof cooking at its finest.  I made mine with tofu because I don’t mix dairy and meat, but the tofu can easily be subbed for beef or chicken.

Ingredients:

• The veggies: Onions, bell peppers, jalapeno (to taste)
• The protein: tofu, beef, or chicken
• The spices: Chili powder, a tash of garlic powder (optional)
• The fixins: Tortillas, chedar cheese, sour cream, green onions (diced), salsa
• For cooking: a splash of olive or vegetable oil

Directions:

Cook the protein with seasonings to taste.  Saute the onion in a pan and mix in other vegetables when the onion is slightly browned.  Let the vegetables cook until you are just about ready to eat them and throw in the cooked tofu/beef/chicken.  Add more seasonings to taste and serve super hot.

Put into a large flour tortilla and put cheese, salsa, etc on top.  Eat.  Delicious.

Meal 3: Breakfast Burrito

Breakfast is easiest meal of the day to sleep through.  It is also tasty when done right.  You can do a little overlap between the ingredients here and the fajitas to have a Mexican themed day with no waste.

Ingredients:

• Eggs
• Tortillas
• Hash browns
• Salsa
• Cheddar cheese

Directions: Cook eggs and hash browns.  Mix everything in a tortilla.

So ends the first ever cooking post on this site.  The fun thing about cooking is being able to change anything you find to taste.  I add salt to just about everything.  Or garlic.  Or onion.  I like strong flavors.  Others might go lighter on spices and flavors.  That is why I didn’t put amounts on any of the ingredients, you can do with this shell what you like.  Add, subtract, and meld the recipe to be your own.

What else should I try?  Nothing that combines diary and meat products, but other than that I will give almost anything a shot.  If you wonder why I don’t mix meat and dairy, here is a good explanation on Kosher eating.

Single Guy Cooking is a post from: Narrow Bridge

Related posts:

1. Picking An Asset Mix

These days, a lot of people in their twenties discuss “cutting the cord.”  That cord, of course, being the cable cord bringing in dozens, if not hundreds, of TV channels.  Reasons for cutting the cord have traditionally been either monetary or usage.  People did not want to spend the money or would not use it enough to make the expense worthwhile.  Nowadays, though, other options exist as a substitute.

One substitute to cable, that is totally free, is broadcast.  A handful of channels, such as ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox, send their shows out for free in cities.  The recent nationwide upgrade to digital broadcasting gives a higher quality than ever before.  Most popular shows come in over network TV, and you can get local news from these channels as well.  If you have a TV and no cable, this is the default option.

However, if you need a fix of “The Hills” or weekly Monday Night RAW, you need cable or a dish.  Those pay channels only come in over cable.  I enjoy being able to watch Law and Order at any given time on one of a handful of channels that always have it on.  Beyond there, for true movie lovers, are the premium subscription channels like HBO, Stars, and Cinemax that give you 24-7 movies.

If you are a movie lover, there is a cheaper option.  For $8.99 per month, you can watch any movie that Netflix offers streaming through your computer, PS3, X-Box, or a Roku or internet Blue Ray player.  With high speed internet, the quality is great and $8.99 is much cheaper than HBO.  If the 20,000 or so Netflix movies don’t include the one you want, that $8.99 gives you unlimited exchanges for 1 movie at a time.  Up that to about $15 for 2.

If you are a TV show lover, most networks offer their shows online at their websites, or you can find most good shows on Hulu.com for free the day after the show airs live.  I use the Hulu queue to ensure I don’t miss new episodes of my favorite shows like Lost and The Office.

So, does Internet let us cut the cord?  Yes, potentially.  However, it depends on what you want.

I like being able to flip through the listings and find a show I want on 100 different channels.  I like being able to turn on a free movie or show on demand.  I like TV.  So, to me, it is worth the cost.  For others, Hulu and Netflix or Redbox might suffice.

It all comes down to what you think something is worth, and what else could you do with that money that would make you happier.  Yes, this is the good old economic concept of opportunity cost.  If you can’t get a better value, or utility, from something else with a similar price tag, cable or a dish is a good way to use your hard earned money.  If there is something you find more value in, do that instead.

Either way, it is good to periodically re-asses cable and other fix cost utilities.  What do you all do?  Cable or no cable?

The Great Cable Debate is a post from: Narrow Bridge

Related posts:

1. Buffet and the Great Tax Debate
2. I Cut the Cord – No More Cable
3. Some Great Posts from Some Great Sites

Whenever I put something in the dryer, I clean the lint trap.  I figured everyone did that.  However, I can easily tell if my roommate was the last to do laundry if the lint trap has an inch thick layer on the screen in our dryer.

I didn’t think much of this, but I started to do a bit of digging.  This is targeted to the guys out there, as (I know it is profiling but I don’t care) most girls seem to know how to do laundry already.

I did a little research on what can go wrong if you don’t clean the lint trap.  It turns out quite a lot can go bad.  There are two main issues with leaving the lint in the trap.  First, the dryer uses more electricity to run and is not as good at drying clothes, often leading to a second run through.  Second, the dryer can easily light on fire if the lint trap is full.

So, to recap (just like on MANswers).  Clean the lint trap because it will save you cash and keep your house from burning down!

Clean The Lint Trap for Money and Safety is a post from: Narrow Bridge

Related posts:

1. Top 50 Small Things You Can Do to Save Money