Monthly Archives: April 2016

Money Matters: Shop Smart and Shop Rarely

This is part of a series on finances. Here’s Part 1: How we live on just $1000/month.

Living in a super tiny indoor space (and a park-like outdoor space) as well as having a careful budget, has really helped to understand what is important and what is not. It has helped me to weigh in whether or not this or that purchase is really worth those valuable dollars, resources or space. In 300 square feet, even a new pair of shoes can take up a pretty large amount of real estate. As I have discussed before, many of our modern problems could be alleviated by simply not buying as much stuff! And we subscribe to this philosophy quite a bit.

But sometimes in this modern landscape we do still need to buy things. This is a point when you need to be careful where your dollars go if you are serious about becoming financially savvy and financially independent. But there can be lots of temptation and marketers that would have you believe that spending gobs of money is the only way for you to get your goods. I recently saw an ad posed as an article in a magazine that made me laugh out loud.

Money matters shopping
Do you see what I see?

At first glance it seems innocent and common enough. There is a list of the must-haves for going to the beach: Laura Prepon’s supposed picks. A tote bag, cover-up, bangle bracelet, bikini and wide brimmed hat. What made me laugh though, was when I totaled up the cost of these items: $298 for the tote, $98 for the cover-up, $75 for 3 bracelets, $225 for a bikini top and $150 for a bikini bottom, and $40 for the hat. Or a total of $886! And that is not including tax which in Puerto Rico would be about $102! So around $1,000 just to wear very little to the beach?!

Outfit
What’s in Cassie’s beach bag?

It got me thinking about my beach gear. Like Laura Prepon, the swimsuit from Marshall’s was the most expensive item at $25 (and both the top and bottom! Imagine that! You don’t have to choose whether to go topless or bottomless -haha). The hat from Me Salvé was $1.99. The tote bag I’ve had for about 15 years and I think cost something like $15 back in the day. The cover up I recently got at a clothing swap, so essentially cost me just cleaning out my clothes that no longer fit me (this is the best idea ever! -thanks Ocean State of Mind!). Regarding bracelets, for one thing I don’t wear any jewelry to the beach, but I just threw them in to be comparable. The green one I got at Kohls in Greeley for about $2 and the bead one was a gift from my momma (thanks Mom!) that I think was something like $10. For a grand total of $53.99! With tax that would be about $60 total. Quite a difference especially when you look essentially the same as if you had spent what the magazines want you to think you need!

Beach outfit
Are you beach ready at $60 or $1000?

So be careful what you buy and be careful what you read. Sometimes just reading or watching things like in magazines, catalogs, TV, internet, etc can make you want things that you would never have thought about before and also plant in your mind a sort of normalcy for spending outrageous amounts of money. Remember, if you are seeking financial freedom, your dollars are your freedom fighters so use them wisely! And while bargain shopping can be a game in and of itself, the truly best way to save money (not to mention the resources it took to make the items!) is to not spend it!

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John Oliver on Puerto Rico

In case you missed it, John Oliver and Lin-Manuel Miranda break down the real reasons Puerto Rico is struggling so much economically: a long history of different, preferential rules and programs for the rich from the states that economically has handicapped the larger community AKA modern colonialism. There are special tax breaks, loop holes and unequal voting, shipping and bankruptcy laws that benefit vultures who feed off of decay, chaos, vulnerability, desperation and collapse. Even the toll roads on the island are owned by Wall Street! If we think there is legalized corruption through an oligarchy in the U.S. proper (which there most certainly is!), Puerto Rico is this on steroids.

What a powerful piece. Now we the people need to stand up and take the power back!

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Snorkeling in Rincón

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Hanging out at Steps Beach before snorkeling

One of our very favorite water activities here in Puerto Rico and Rincón specifically is snorkeling. It is inexpensive -all you need is a snorkeling mask and some fins. I often go out without fins because it is less of a hassle, but if I were to go out for a long session I would wear them as they help tremendously in propulsion underwater. It’s fairly easy to learn how to do too. Pretty much as long as you can swim in the ocean, you can snorkel. It takes a little bit to get your bearings, but once you’ve done it a few times it’s super simple. And it’s also something you can do basically all year round. It is sort of like the  yin to the yang of surfing. They are both an ode to the sea, but in different ways.

Surfing needs waves. Snorkeling needs flat waters. Surfing is floating just above the waterline, snorkeling is just below it. Surfing needs plenty of space to move, snorkeling can be done just floating in one area if desired. Surfing is about focused power and snorkeling is about focused gentleness. Surfing is mainly about the action, snorkeling is mainly about the observation. Surfing is fast and snorkeling is slow. To me, that we have both world class surfing and snorkeling in Rincón is a perfect expression of these two complementary sides of life.

Our favorite place to snorkel is at the Tres Palmas Reserve that is right off Steps Beach. It’s a little of a challenge for some people to enter because it doesn’t have a sandy bottom, but once in, a magical underwater world opens up. It has one of the best Elkhorn coral formations in the world! And with that comes lots of fish and sea turtles too! This has been a long process of conservation and it has really paid off. It is just bustling with life as you can see in the above video. We float around completely immersed in this other world almost like spacemen with minimal gravity on another planet. And then we enjoy learning about and identifying the various strange life forms we see.

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Close up of an Elkhorn coral

We have snorkeled some other places in Rincón, but Tres Palmas is by far the best. Over in Corcega or Almendros the waters are super clear with long sandy beaches, but there’s not nearly as many fish. The Marina can have some good snorkeling as it’s directly connected to Tres, but there are too many boats going in and out and that scares the fish away. At the balneario, there are sandy bottoms so it’s easy to enter, but pretty much only little fish like sardines.

On the other side of the point at Sandy Beach we have seen sea snakes (or maybe eels?) and a few other cool things, but it often has too many waves to have good clarity for regular snorkeling. Overall, though I always enjoy snorkeling pretty much anywhere because by simply putting on a small piece of transparent plastic we suddenly have a little window into a part of the world that is rarely visible. It’s pretty incredible and I am so grateful to live in a place with this wondrous space just under our noses.

 

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Country Bartenders

Mountains of Puerto Rico cropped
Driving through the mountains with gorgeous views lined in coffee plants

We went up to celebrate our friend Papo’s birthday in Maricao. He had a similar party in December for Christmas but instead of lechón, the main meal this time was sancocho de conejo – a very delicious rabbit stew.

Country Cockfighting
Backyard pelea de gallo

We learned from the last party that we needed to have something to do otherwise we would end up milling around aimlessly since we don’t bet on the roosters or dice. Papo set up a domino table for us, but we ended up finding the perfect station for us: bartenders in the little cantina.

I tended to the customers and served up the drinks of Coors Light, Medalla Light, Busch, and Heineken and made change while Britton juiced the fresh oranges for the Finlandia and OJ tragos. The pineapple pitorro and sancocho were free.

Britton juicing oranges
Britton on the exprimidor

We are definitely still the exotic guests of Papo and I overhead quite a few comments about the “Americanos” from Rincón. I also got a lot of questions, attempts at English, “oye rubia” and even a request for the change to be in besos instead of pesos. So of course I had to ask… how much is a kiss worth and they told me…maybe $3? I thought that was pretty funny. When it got really busy even Britton worked the bar passing out drinks using his broken Spanish. His Spanish has really improved since we arrived! He can have a passing conversation fairly easily!

Pap and Cassie Cantina (2)
¡La rubia a la orden!

One thing I noticed as the bartender was that no one paid any tips (besides the requests to buy a kiss). Not even when the total was $4.50 and they handed me a $5. I thought maybe I was doing something wrong but Papo said that it’s just not the custom to tip. He said that these people are too poor to tip (but managed lots and lots of beer and gambling!). I wonder if tipping is just not very common in other service industries like restaurants. We continue to tip when we go out, but it made me question what the cultural standards for tipping are in general here in Puerto Rico (and partially why there is an assumption that all gringos are rich -sort of a hey they just give their money away feeling?).

It’s such a different world especially way deep in the mountains like this but we are starting to get more accustomed and comfortable. In addition to the sancocho we also loved the homemade pasteles and Britton told me he thinks pasteles are one of his favorite foods now! We really enjoyed our short foray into Puerto Rican country bartending and our time at the party. Not a day goes by that I don’t learn something new about my new homeland.

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Rooster ready and waiting with his plastic spurs and partially plucked body (not sure why they pluck them like this)

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Playing Topos (dice) under a huge pana tree

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