So this is why I'm broke!

This article gives you an idea of the cost of living here in the Bay Area. Essentially, close to 16 percent of residents in the South Bay and Peninsula areas make about $191K per year. Let’s just say, I do not make that. I do not make even close to that. I have never made close to that, lol.

The article makes it sound like everyone who lives here is rich, but the thing is, the other 84% of us are barely scraping by. According to apartments.com, you’d be hard pressed to find a 2 bedroom apartment around here for under $2K a month. If you go by recommended budgeting advice and allot 25% of your income to rent or mortgage, that means you’d need to make about $96K a year just to afford an average 2 bedroom apartment. The BLS claims that the mean national wage in 2011 was $45. That’s HALF of what it costs to live here, meaning roughly 84% of South Bay residents are most likely paying half their income to housing costs. Get laid off and have to collect unemployment? Assuming you were making 96K, then you’d qualify for the maximum amount of unemployment benefits and that would leave you with $1800 in monthly income. And suddenly, job loss means you are homeless. A budget is rendered useless. Good times. The situation is exponentially worse when you’re paying on a mortgage which can average about $750K here for a modest house. I feel for those of you in that boat.

This whole income disparity/cost of living in the Bay Area is a big reason I wanted to start this blog. While 16% of the population is doing okay and can actually afford their housing, the other 84% can’t. And yet, we’re somehow surviving here. We are still living and eating and raising families. But it isn’t easy, and I want to share any and everything I come across that might help someone else keep their head above water here.

So if any of you have figured out how to make six plus figures while sitting at your dining room table, I’m all ears. Just kidding. Sort of. 

Free Valentine's Day

I’m forever searching for a more frugal way to spend Valentine’s Day, as I find it hard to stomach the idea of shelling out $100+ for a special romantic meal that would probably just leave me with heart palpitations over the excessive waste of money being spent. Okay, maybe not a waste because I do love delicious food as much as the next person, but on my current budget, the thought of spending $100 bucks for one meal is just ridiculous.

That being said, I ran across a couple of freebies this morning that can complement your plans for this Valentine’s Day.

Redbox

Today only, Redbox is offering a code for one free night’s rental. The code is SWEET and can be redeemed online or at any kiosk. Find your closest location here, or text FIND to 727272.

Denny’s

Denny’s is offering free coffee today from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. No purchase is required and I’ve seen conflicting evidence if you need a coupon or not. Just to be on the safe side, here’s a link for a printable coupon to bring with.

Also, don’t forget you can still get $1 16 oz. Jamba Juice smoothies, today and tomorrow. My store was dead when we went in on Monday. Unlike what I’d expected, there was zero line and we were able to pick any smoothie and walk right out. They’ll also upgrade you to one of their larger size smoothies at a special price of just $2 per drink, and, they even applied the dollar price to a smoothie for my two year old!

$1 Jamba Juice smoothies!

Monday through Friday this week, Jamba Juice is offering all 16 oz. smoothies for just $1! Between the hours of 9 a.m. and 11 a.m,, Feb 11^th through 15^th, you can get one 16 oz. smoothie per person, per visit for one buck. The offer is only valid in certain states and isn’t valid in Safeway Jamba locations. For a list of all states and participating locations see their website. 

Free admission to the San Jose Museum of Art

The San Jose Museum of Art is holding a special Community Day on Sat., Feb. 9^th to celebrate Chinese New Year. Each Community Day, the museum offers free admission to the public. Saturday’s free hours are from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

According to the Chinese calendar, we are entering the year of the snake. As part of their Community Day, the SJMU will have special New Years’ events including some hands-on art making projects, live music, and a lion dance at 1:00 p. m. All ages are welcome, and admission includes all the museum’s regular exhibits.

If you’re planning on attending, don’t forget to budget for parking near the museum. Alternatively, you could always take lightrail to the Diridon station across from the Shark Tank and walk from there. It’s a short jaunt just shy of a mile. 

Free pancakes!

Tomorrow, Feb. 5^th, is National Pancake Day. To celebrate the holiday, as well as to raise awareness for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals and other local charities, IHOP will be giving away a free short stack of buttermilk pancakes to interested customers. In exchange, they request you leave a donation. Since they began celebrating National Pancake Day this way in 2006, IHOP has raised over $10 million dollars.

Okay, so the pancakes aren’t technically free, because as a rule, I don’t recommend going to a fundraising event and not donating anything. However, I do consider supporting this a frugal move, as you get a double bang for your buck…you get a meal out, and you can feel good about it since whatever you pay for said meal is all going towards charity.

The free pancakes will be offered between the hours of 7 a.m and 10 p.m. Click here to find the IHOP nearest you. 

Lucky Breaks

Every month, Lucky Magazine (I got my subscription for free…more on that another time) holds a decent number of giveaways for everything from lipgloss to cars, clothes to all expenses paid vacations. They list all the giveaways for the month in the back of each issue, as well as on their website. It’s kind of a pain to go through for each giveaway and enter your contact information and double check all the boxes say “do not send me any information” and no I don’t want to subscribe over and over again, but they offer some pretty great stuff each month.

I used to think this was just a spammy scam to get people’s contact information on mailing lists. But the volume of spam in my inbox never seemed to increase from entering any of these. And then about a year ago, I won this! To say I was shocked that I won something is a bit of an understatement. I was even more excited once I received it and found out Sephora was selling it for $50 a tube. And then I was even more excited once I started using it and found out the stuff actually works! Technically it’s to be used to repair sun damage on hands and décolletage (ooh la la), but I use it on my face. I spend a lot of time outdoors, and let’s face it, if you live in California, it’s pretty near impossible to avoid sun exposure. I was starting to get a lot of dark spots on my face. This stuff has almost completely faded them. It’s awesome. It’s totally worth the two minutes I spent filling out my contact information on the Lucky website.

Now winning something like this, while it validated the legitimacy of the contests for me, would not have inspired a post. That being said, yesterday afternoon I received an email that I won again!! This time it’s a Bliss berry-flavored gift set, worth about $30. I’ll let you know how it is once it arrives.

So I’d say that free subscription and “wasted” time I spent online have really paid off with $80+ worth of free product. I’m still kind of surprised I’ve won, not just once, but twice. Now I’m really hoping I win one of those occasional vacation, car, or iPad giveaways they have. I could really use one of those.