Ask the Tight Fist: Saving on Moving Costs

Even works for Moving to Atlantis

Dear The Tight Fist,

Love the blog; I'm getting ready to move and was wondering how I can apply your principles to moving, which can be so expensive.

Any tips?

Thanks,

Sarah in Houston (soon to be San Antonio)
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Dear Sarah,

Shame on you: you have clearly not been following Tight Fist principles. If you had, moving would be a breeze as you would own hardly any possessions and no furniture worth moving. Over the last 7 years The Tight Fist has lived in 8 places in four countries. Total moving costs: 0 (beyond the cost of moving myself.) Yes, when all your life fits into two bags, so many things just simplify. 

But I'm going to assume that you have been naughty over the years: slowly acquiring furniture, dishes, electronics, and other modern vices that you just can't part with. 

It's here that you might expect a lengthy comparison of different options for moving your stuff: movers, shipping, those weird pods, etc. But really, this will just waste everyone's time. All the options are stupid expensive except for just renting a truck and driving yourself. A quick look on Budget shows you can get a moving truck for a day and drive it from Houston to San Antonio for around $75. Not too shabby.

Hold on. You honestly expect me to believe that social
protocol dictates we break our backs helping Wolowitz move,
and then he only need buy us a pizza?

But, you say, how can a young lady be expected to haul couches and dressers by herself? Well, that's where a wonderful social equation comes into play: Pizza = Moving. That's right, your burly male friends are required by covenant of friendship to do a day's worth of manual labor with only pizza (and maybe some beer) in return. 

So with pizza and beer on both ends, we're talking about around $125 bucks for your move. Not bad.

But what if you have no burly friends to come to your rescue? Well, fortunately in Texas "friends" are easy to purchase, standing each day outside of Home Depot. You might have to pay your new amigo a bit more than the price of a pizza, but not too much.

Enjoy your move!

Tight Fist Tip #50: Reschedule the Holidays

Tight Fist Thanksgiving: Saturday, Nov 17, 2012

Everyone loves getting the family together for the holidays, but the traveling can be a nightmare. On Thanksgiving weekend especially, roads are clogged and airport lines are long. And perhaps even more important, ticket prices are insane. It makes you wonder whether seeing your family is even worth it at all. So what is a Tight Fisted family supposed to do?

The answer is simple: reschedule the holidays! Say goodbye to all those suckers who think that for some crazy reason thanksgiving HAS to be celebrated on the fourth Thursday of every months, and say hello to low-stress travel, cheap tickets, and a happy family! 

Hat tip the The Tight Fist's Aunt Barb, who promptly rescheduled the holiday after realizing that she could spend $300 less on plane tickets the weekend before Thanksgiving. The turkey never tasted sweeter.

Tight Fist Tip #49: Drinking at the Bar? Drink Beer.

God Bless America

In my last post, we determined that if staying in or pregaming, drinking shots is the Tight Fist friendly way to get drunk. But what if you've been dragged out to a bar, and are being forced to inebriate yourself at sobriety-inducing prices?

As always we use our go-to benchmark: volume alcohol per dollar. Let's start in the US, using the excellent DC dive bar The Mad Hatter as our pricing benchmark. I used happy hour prices (as I assume my followers are doing most of their drinking during happy hour), but the relative prices are indicative of normal pricing as well: a pint of beer and a well mixed drink are priced about equally, with wine being higher. So, how do they stack up?

Budweiser, 16oz: $3. Abv 5% = .8 oz alcohol; 193.3 calories; Calories/Oz alcohol = 241.67; Oz Alc/$ = .27
Mixed Drinks, 1.5 oz: $3. Avb 40% = .6 oz alcohol; 109.5 Calories; Calories/Oz alcohol = 182.5; Oz Alc/$ = .2
Wine, 6oz: $5. Abv 12% = .72 oz alcohol; 125.5 calories; Calories/Oz alcohol = 211.72; Oz Alc/$ = .14

The beer is the winner, by virtue of it containing a bit more alcohol per drink than a mixed drink. But notice that it's pretty close- if you're at a bar with generous mixed drink pours or pricey beers, the balance could easily tip in the drinks' favor. Shot and a beer combo? Don't mind if I do.

But what if you're across the pond in Europe? Well, it's well-known that spirit prices in Europe are totally out of whack.(Especially since most places have the gall to charge extra for the mixer, which I don't even get into here.) Let's do the same comparison at one of my favorite London haunts, The Lexington:

Kronenbourg 1664, 19.2 oz: £3.50. Abv 4.7% = .9 oz alcohol; 227 calories; Calories/Oz Alc = 254.44; Oz Alc/£: .26
Red Wine, 5.9oz: £4.10. Abv 12% = .71 oz alchohol; 149.9 Calories; Calories/Oz alcohol = 211.1; Oz Alcohol/Pound = .17
Smirnoff, 1.69oz: £4.15. Abv 40% = .68 oz alcohol; 123.4 Calories; Calories/Oz alcohol = 182; Oz Alcohol/Pound = .16

Here the beer easily defeats all comers, and the wine even edges out the spirits. And since the ridiculous Weights and Measures Act in the UK assures that you can never get a decent pour of a mixed drink, there is just no chance for the limey cocktail lover.

So kids, the formula has been discovered: take (a lot of) shots before you go out, and then nurse a few beers at the bar. Drunk with a full wallet- it's a good life.