frugal underground

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You probably have some old things that you don’t need or want anymore. You might be able to sell the items and make some money.

The older the item is, the more valuable it may be. Certain limited edition toys, for example, could be worth hundred or thousands if they are still in the packaging. Old video games, out of print books, and other discontinued items might be worth quite a bit to an eager seeker. Comic books, collectible sports cards, made special addition magazines could get you some money. Sign up for an ebay account if you have something that might be valuable.

Photo by lynnieb

You can also have a good old fashioned yard sale. One person’s trash is another person’s treasure. As long as it can still be used or fixed, you can sell it. Not only will you free up some space in your closet, but you will make some extra money, too.

When you make a sale, put the money into an interest-bearing account and reap the benefits every month.

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Have you heard about the cheapest family in the United States? There is a 20/20 special about a family of seven that lives debt free on a household income of $35,000! They don’t use credit cards.

This family owns a home and two cars, and by stretching every dollar, they have saved the thousands and thousands that most of use waste. They stick to the hard and fast rule that you shouldn’t buy anything that you don’t have the money for. Easier said than done in our country, right?

They meticulously plan grocery shopping using coupons and sale fliers. The husband and wife use walkie-talkies to communicate sale options and prices on certain items. They also purchase clothing and furniture used. They never go over budget, and don’t buy things that they can’t afford.

This family proves that financial discipline can truly pay off. You don’t have to have a high salary to make a good living for yourself. It is just important that you use what you do have wisely. They published a book called America’s Cheapest Family and it is in stores now.

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Photo by JonDays

Do you like to take road trips with your family? Does anyone ever complain about their neck hurting? I’m sure that you have seen those comfortable-looking neck pillows that are made for travel. If not, I should tell you that they can be a bit expensive for a pillow. Here is a way that you can provide some comfort without spending the extra money on the luxury.

Use the material from old clothing as the outside of the pillow. Sew the sides into the shape of a pillow, but be sure to leave a whole open to stuff the pillow. You can shape it to be a square, rectangle, or the U shape that neck pillows come in. You can also add a zipper, or use the zipper from the item of clothing you are using, so you can empty it for a wash in the machine.

You can use other pieces of old clothing, rice, collections of lint from the dryer, beans, or cotton balls to fill the pillows.

Once the pillow is stuffed to your liking, seal the opening.

That’s all there is to it. Be creative. It is a fun and easy project!

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You might be throwing away things that you could use again. There are plenty of created ways to make treasure out of your trash. Here are a few ideas:

Use your old mustard or ketchup squeeze bottles as a cake decorating tube.

Use a cardboard box and manila folders for a filing system.

Give the stuffing paper from purses, book-bags or shoes to the kids for drawing paper.

Photo by HagitR

You can use a shoe box as a place to keep your incoming mail.

Keep old book bags, as long as they don’t have holes. You can use them for day trips, or a flight carry-on.

Use paper and plastic bags from the grocery store as garbage bags. You can also reuse the bags to carry new groceries. (Some stores will give you a $0.02 credit for each reused bag.)

Use the Styrofoam from packages to create a model size snow town for your kids’ little toy characters.

The possibilities are endless! Be creative!

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My sister just alerted me to today’s Amazon Gold Box offer: Your choice of either the Pinzon 10-Piece Stainless-Steel Cookware Set or the Pinzon 10-Piece Hard Anodized Cookware Set for $69.99 (free shipping, too).

Conventional wisdom suggests buying cookware a piece at a time, because with sets, you often end up with pieces you don’t really use (but paid for anyway) and sets are often low quality. However, if you actually need pots and pans, I think this case is an exception because both sets are highly-rated and contain the basics without a lot of obscure pieces.

My sister just moved into her own apartment last week and has very little in the way of kitchen stuff, so this is a great option for her (she’s planning on getting them), and if you’re in similar need of cookware, this may be opportunity knocking. Even if you miss the one-day sale, keep an eye on these items; Pinzon is known for producing good quality stuff at low prices, and Amazon frequently has sales on Pinzon products.

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Photo by Creative Kismet

Whether you want to decorate for a party, holiday or just to make your home cozier, there are many inexpensive ways to dress things up.

Go to the dollar store. There are always figurines of people, animals, or flowers in glass, plastic or porcelain that don’t look bad at all. Beautifully handcrafted picture frames, vases and stands are sold for only one dollar each. No one has to know how much you spent. Display them on a pretty shelf, and they will look like priceless antiques. With the proper lighting, you can make a few dollars look like hundreds!

The dollar store also has fabric flowers that look realistic. Stones or sparkling marbles can add a nice touch to the base of a vase, and they can be found at the dollar store by the bag.

Ribbon, table covers, and party favors don’t have to be expensive. Bows, beads, and balloons can cost you plenty if you don’t know where to get them. Discount stores and do it yourself arts and craft store like AC Moore, the Rag shop or Michaels have tons of things that you can use to make decorations yourself. Check them out!

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Consider this my little gift to you. This morning I created a meal plan form that fits my family’s preferences, and if you have similar preferences, I hope it will work for you.

Download my 2-week Meal Plan form

Here’s what makes this form distinctive:

1. It has 14 spaces. We shop every other week, and I only plan one meal per day (breakfasts and lunches are pretty much the same set of options each day). When there are multiple meals that need to be planned, I just stuff them both in one box. But if you regularly plan two meals a day, you can use it as a 7-day plan.
2. On the fly shopping list: it’s much easier to remember those “looks like we’re out of…” items when they’re written down, and it’s easiest to write them down when there’s a clear place to do it (we post ours on the fridge). I grab the current meal plan to plan the next one and the shopping list, so it’s very handy to have all of the weird, non-meal-specific stuff listed out.

Download my 2-week Meal Plan form

Let me know if you’re able to use this or have any suggestions for improvement!

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Menu Plan Monday has rolled around once more, and I have a plan. I was originally expecting to not shop this week, but last week’s shopping trip found the store completely out of the lettuce I wanted, and my husband—very sweetly and completely unaware of my plan—used my apples for an apple pie. So if I’m going to stick with the plan for Friday dinner and Saturday potluck, I’ll be going back in to get those items.
Monday: Pizza

Tuesday: Spaghetti

Wednesday: Sandwiches

Thursday: Mac & cheese

Friday: Haystacks

Saturday potluck: Apple Lasagna, Buttery Bread Machine Rolls, some brownies (from a box)

Saturday dinner: Creamed eggs on biscuits

Sunday: Leftovers

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It’s Menu Plan Monday!

Because I’ll be out of town Thursday through Sunday, and because my husband is perfectly happy eating Spicy Black Bean Burger sandwiches (I stocked up!), the meal plan is a bit bare.

Monday: Burritos

Tuesday: Lasagna

Wednesday: Penne with Rustic Lentil Sauce (we ended up not making it last week)

…

Sunday: Tuna Noodle Casserole

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I just got an email announcing that Brita is now making water filters for refrigerators. It looks like they make them for most brands and models, and to help kick off the sales, they’re offering a $10 rebate on Brita fridge filters purchased at Sears.

I’m not positive this is a good deal (because I don’t know how much they sell for, and how that compares to the filters I usually buy), but if you’re inclined in this direction, by all means, get some money back. (And leave a comment telling us if it’s a great deal!)

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I’ve enjoyed reading the little saving tips that Budget Savvy sends out from time to time (by request, of course). I’ve been too cheap (of course!) to subscribe to the magazine sight unseen, though.

I was pleased to check my email this morning and find the announcement that they’re taking the magazine online (and I believe this will be online only), and not only that, they’ll be offering it for free. They are separating the articles out by “applicable area” (e.g. “living room”, “board room”, “pantry”), which has potential for interesting browsing. Beyond the articles, there’s also what appears to be a blog (though oddly, no way to leave comments that I can see).

It looks like they still have a little tweaking to do, but this new site has great promise and I’ll definitely be checking it out on a regular basis.

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Today’s featured blog is not specifically about financial frugality, but I think you’ll enjoy it. Neat Living is Ariane Benefit’s contribution to a simpler home and lifestyle. Here’s how she describes her blog:

Neat Living is about simplifying, letting go of clutter, organizing, “ThinkBuying,” resisting consumerism, getting healthy, working with passion, charity, ethics, and having time to enjoy your life.

The great thing for you and me is that she provides a ton of great information on her blog that can save your money and your sanity. Like I said, it’s not always about financial frugality, but there’s definitely an element of that (particularly when it comes to over-consumption and clutter).

The bigger picture here is of frugality as a way of life. When applied to the kitchen, it might mean clearing out the gadgets you don’t use anymore and donating them to someone who will love them. When applied to exercise, it might mean finding something you can do simply and close-to-home rather than spending a ton of money on a gym membership you won’t use. When applied to gift giving, it might mean giving a gift of time or an experience rather than a trinket which will add to the clutter.

Ariane has loads of good ideas, and posts fairly regularly (more regularly than me lately!), so check her site out and see if it’s something you’d like to subscribe to.

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Last year, we turned on our air conditioner twice.  At times it was a little hot and sticky (here in the Boise, Idaho area it tops 95° pretty much every day in full-on summer), but in general, Daniel and I acclimated to it pretty well and didn’t mind much.

Other people… well, that is a bit trickier.  My sister lives with us, and her boyfriend often spends Friday and Saturday nights here (on the couch!), and they were both extremely uncomfortable last summer.  I felt kind of bad about it, but we offered to let them run the A/C and pay for the additional cost, and that didn’t go over so well.

This year, I’m working from home (not in a building air-conditioned to about “frigid”), and I’d like to figure out a happy medium—something that will keep the fam happy and still keep the bills reasonable.  I think that a big part of this will just be to actually get up and close the windows when it gets hotter outside than inside (I love fresh air, but it’s sensible to keep the fresh air limited to the night and morning hours in this case).

What I’m really wondering about is air conditioner efficiency.  For instance, right now it’s 87° outside and 82° inside, so only a 5° spread.  I can’t image it would cost much to keep it 5° cooler inside (vs. outside).  But what about days when it’s 100°?  I’d like to know what kind of curve the air conditioner efficiency has as related to inside-outside temperature differences.  For instance, if it costs, say, a dollar per hour to cool the house to 10° below the outside temperature, but $2/hour to get °15 lower, that would be worth knowing.  (I’m sure those per-hour numbers are way off, but you get what I’m saying, right?)

Another thing is that I saw this “Cool-n-Save” gizmo.  It seems pretty smart; it cools the A/C unit itself with evaporation.  A study showed it cut the cost of air conditioning by up to 30%.  However, I don’t know how much the air conditioner costs to operate, so I’m not sure whether the Cool-n-Save is worth $80—the break-even point would be when the air conditioner has accrued a cost of $267.  I’d be surprised if we use that much, just because if we get next month’s bill and it’s about $80 (and the others who benefit from A/C opt not to contribute), I’d expect it to pretty well stop.

The truly aggravating thing about this is that I feel completely uninformed.  I don’t know the best way to use my air conditioner, and that annoys me.  So please, by all means, enlighten me!  If you don’t know anything about air conditioner efficiency, no worries: I mostly want to know how other people handle the cost/comfort balance.  What do you do in the summer?

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I was making a pasta salad yesterday and decided to go all out… I bought sun-dried red bell peppers.  (I know, I’m really living large here!)  The salad was quite tasty, and the peppers were a delicious touch, so this morning I was thinking about the logistic of the peppers.

I have a dehydrator that doesn’t get used as much as it could, and while I imagine it wouldn’t be exactly the same as sun-drying, it seems like it would be a passable imitation.  “Think how much money I’ll save by doing it myself!” I thought gleefully.  Until I actually double-checked my receipt, that is!

Turns out that for me (at this time of year, at the store where I do most of my shopping), buying the sun-dried peppers is less expensive than buying fresh bell peppers and dehydrating them myself (not to mention the extra labor involved!).  The sun-dried peppers were $1.50 for what appears to be about two peppers; the fresh were the same cost per pepper!  Later in the season I expect that the fresh peppers will drop to about $.88 each, but it’s still cheaper to buy them already dried.

Just goes to show that the pricebook can reveal even the surprising deals!

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PC Advisor has some good product recommendations to help you get more value from your CD burner and printer. It’s worth reading the post, but if you just want a quick summary, get the free program SizeMe to reduce wasted space on your CDs (or Picasa for images) and use a Rubber Roller Rejuvenator to give new life to a paper-jamming printer.

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Have a sewing machine or access to one? I’ve just posted a tutorial on Crafty Geek called “How to make a rice bag”. The supplies are just a hand towel (check the dollar store), 5 pounds of rice, and a little bit of thread, so it’s extremely affordable, and it’s a great gift (especially for people who are always cold) because they add comfort to the recipient’s life.

Edit: My Crafty Geek site has gone down (I am consolidating hosting right now), but you can see the Wayback Internet Machine’s copy of the rice bag tutorial in the meantime.

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I’ve posted before on the benefits of meal planning and I hope that you’ve found the value in it. Here’s a simple, quick tool to help the process along: a list of your family’s favorite meals. Yeah, it’s kind of obvious and I felt silly for not coming up with it earlier, but a comprehensive list of favorites can really take the pressure off.

You don’t have to agonize over what to make, where to find a good new recipe (and where to find the time to find it!), and what to do with the leftovers when the family isn’t wild about it. Sure, it’s fun to try new things from time to time, but most families would rather stick with maybe fifteen or twenty “tried-and-true” favorites than constantly be trying “experiments.”

It’s super easy to implement this tip. Just take a piece of notebook paper (or a blank file in your word processor) and start writing down the family’s most requested meals. If you are stuck, go ask your spouse and the kids. My husband was more than glad to register his vote for “normal things” (his words) like spaghetti and tuna sandwiches.

Then just put the list somewhere you can see it when you’re meal planning and also easily add to it. For me, that’s right here. I figure if I try one new dinner meal in a week and pull the rest from the list, that will keep the family happy and still let me experiment. My list is still evolving, and will be for some time, but hopefully you can use this advice to save time as well as money.

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Meal plans are your friends. What is a meal plan? I guess the definition of “meal planning” is simply investing a little time in advance (listing out the food you’ll use in a given time period) to save time and money later.

In particular, you’ll save time by not wondering what to make for dinner each evening (while standing in front of an uninspiring open refrigerator); you’ll save time when you shop because you’ll know exactly what you need; you’ll save money by buying only what you need and not wasting money on things that go bad before you use them. Now that we’re all singing the praises of meal plans, let’s get down to nuts and bolts.
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