frugal underground

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In addition to Amazon’s Black Friday sale, I’ve also come across a few more noteworthy online sales. (I’ll update this post as I come across other exceptional deals.)

If you need a new desktop computer, you’ll have a hard time beating this deal from PC Direct; I’m not going to list all the specs here, but in my semi-professional tech opinion, this is the best computer deal I’ve seen in a long time.

Knitters looking to round out their needle collections might want to consider Lion Brand’s great deal on a circular needle set. Less than $20 (plus shipping, I imagine) gets you seven 29″ circular needles from size 10.5 to 35!

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Here in the U.S., the day after Thanksgiving has picked up the moniker of “Black Friday.” Seems a little dismal, but it’s almost a holiday of its own—part frugality, part insanity. It’s a “competitive shopping” extravaganza of too many people clamoring for too little inventory.

Personally, I’m not a big Black Friday shopper. I’m usually too lazy to go buy a paper, find the good sales, and drive all over town. That said, I’ve gotten some great deals in the past, and if you have a list of Christmas present recipients but don’t know what you’re getting them, it can be a good strategy for frugal shopping.

This year, though, I was amused (and secretly delighted) to see that Amazon is doing a big Black Friday sale of their own. No doubt they’ve done this before and I just didn’t notice, but for a homebody like me, it’s good news.

They don’t have details on what’s going to be available, but they promise hourly deals from 6am to 6pm PST. It’s also worth checking out their creative “Customers Vote” deals—it’s the only place I’ve seen a chance of getting a Wii for $79.

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Photo by wild friday

First and foremost, plan well in advance. Survey a few different places to go, and do some quick online searching to get a feel for the costs. We went to Park City, Utah last summer because summer is their off-season, and had a great time in the sun. Check the hotel prices, look into other accommodations, and discount options. Plan the travel method (drive, plane, train, bus). Decide how long you will stay. Also plan what you will eat. Food is one thing people often forget to budget for.

The next step is budgeting the trip. How much will it cost to travel there and stay for x days? How much will the food cost? Will you need transportation to get around in the area? What about souvenirs? Finally, come up with a ball park figure, and set aside a small amount of money to start saving up.

Try to put in some extra hours at work, or cut some luxuries like eating out for several months in advance. Set aside money as “vacation cash” into an interest- bearing account, and don’t use any of it (unless there is a real emergency). You might have to make a couple sacrifices, but it will be worth it if you plan it well.

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Photo by Plates&Packs

Edible presents can be a real treat for some people. Good food, desserts or snacks can definitely say that you care. Here are some gifts of food ideas.

1. Home baked bread (recipe included)
2. Chocolate bars with fancy wrapping
3. Home baked cookies
4. Pancake or waffle mix with genuine maple syrup
5. A home-baked cake personally decorated
6. A home-cooked ethnic meal
7. Home-made cinnamon buns (with extra frosting on the side)
8. Home-made ice cream
9. Gourmet popcorn
10. Coffee beans

A nice basket, bow, ribbon, or nice wrapping paper can dress these gifts up nicely. Add a little note card with a special message, and your gift of food is complete. It is also a nice idea to give the recipe if the item is homemade. Plenty of people would love a gift they can enjoy inside and out. (Just make sure you aren’t ruining someone’s diet!)

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Photo by Megan Troyer

Gifts don’t have to cost you a fortune to come from the heart. Here are some nice ideas for gifts that shouldn’t cost you more than ten dollars. They are sweet, and would probably be more meaningful to that person than the money.

1. A child’s artwork in a frame
2. A coffee mug with a special message (you can add a box of herbal tea)
3. A collage of significant pictures (special memories with that person)
4. A decorative basket of fruit and cheese
5. Cloth napkins with napkin rings (great house warming gift)
6. A decorative container of candy (make sure it is their favorite)
7. Create a simple but fun board game to play with them
8. A nice stationery set (choose a design that shows their personality or favorite animal)
9. An elegant box for keepsakes or jewelry
10. A decorated and hand written recipe book (original recipes are always well-received!)

The more thoughtful you are with the gift, the more special it will be. Remember, it is the thought that counts.

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Photo by k-girl

Everyone wants their wedding day to be special. Unfortunately, most people can’t afford the fairy tale wedding that celebrities have. You can get into serious debt if you don’t know how to get the best deals. Here are some simple, and practical money saving tips for planning a wedding. (This is a subject that’s near and dear to me, since my youngest sister, Leanna, got married last weekend. She followed most of these tips.)

Keep the guest list as small as possible. Invite immediate family and close friends only. If you don’t want a tiny wedding, a guest list of 50-75 is just intimate enough for a brief and personal greeting with each guest.

Make the wedding favors yourself. This doesn’t have to be super labor-intensive. My sister got wedding-themed conversation hearts and some little bags with drawstrings; they cost a tiny bit more than circles of netting with ribbons, but she assembled all the favors in less than an hour.

If possible, have the food set up buffet style instead of served. Leanna got some “sandwich trays” from the local supermarket and it was very easy to arrange them in a buffet line.

Instead of having a special cake designed, you can make it yourself. You can also have a non traditional cake. One idea is to have a couple different cakes prepared, with one special cake with the bride and groom’s names, or something special, so you know which one to cut.

Keep the bridal party small. Just have a best man and maid of honor.

If you can, buy your wedding dress during the $99 gown sale at David’s Bridal or consider Target. Leanna didn’t find anything she loved in those cases, but she did get a gorgeous and fairly inexpensive non-sale dress at David’s Bridal.

Get your shoes from a department store, not a specialty shoe shop. My bridesmaid shoes were on sale for $20.

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I’m writing this from an affordable vacation rental, which happily came with wi-fi—hence the reason I feel free to dole out advice on this subject. Here’s what worked for me:

• Be as flexible as possible. Originally we were thinking about going to Yellowstone. I’ve never been, and we were going to be in the general area for an obligatory trip, so we thought, why not extend it into an actual vacation?

  Good idea, but trying to find someplace we wanted to stay in the general Yellowstone area was downright depressing. First, it’s high season in Yellowstone. Mid-summer is when all the cool kids want to go there. Even the dive motels were relatively expensive and mostly booked solid.

  So what did we do? We considered other options. We consulted a map of to see what was in a reasonable distance of our route back home, and came across several good options. There were two areas that are well-known for their winter activities, and as a result, end up having abundant (and low-season-priced) accommodations in the summer. They’re still very nice areas in the summer, with lots of biking and nature attractions.

  Bottom line: being flexible means can help you find a nice location at low-season rates.

• Carefully consider your needs. Travelling with kids is a lot different than a “just the two of us” getaway. Attraction-centric trips are also very different than trips where the goal is to just lay low.

  Think about your schedule, and what you’ll need out of your accomodations. If you’ll be in or around your lodgings most of the time, it makes sense to find something with a kitchenette—you’ll be able to save on meals. If you’re going to be at Disneyland all day, or meeting friends and family members for meals out, then the extra cost of a kitchenette may be just that: an extra cost.

  Likewise, staying somewhere with a pool may or may not matter to a single guy or someone with a full agenda, but it can be a huge benefit on a family vacation—for the included cost, you have hours of fun and entertainment.

  Bottom line: being specific about your needs will save you time searching and money on your trip when you don’t pay for things you won’t use.

• Look for individuals. Property management companies can be a good resource to find lots of options, but in my experience, working with an individual can save a lot of money. Obviously this isn’t an issue with hotel/motel/lodge kinds of places, but when you’re looking for a house or a condo, you can sometimes find really excellent deals when you move away from the “standardized pricing” of a larger agent.
• Try alternate sources of information. This made the biggest difference for us out of all the tips here. It can be fast and easy to use Travelocity or its competitors to find a place to stay, but you’ll pay for it—especially if you’re looking for something other than a hotel.

  I mentioned our trip idea to my mom, and she told me that her sister has a cabin in the Yellowstone area. The timing didn’t work out (it was already rented for some of the days we were looking for) but it brings up an important point: you don’t know who your contacts know, and this could be a great resource. It’s easy enough to just mention that you’re thinking about taking a trip in such-and-such area, and see if anyone knows someone with an unrented vacation rental.

  The method that was successful for me was craigslist. It eventually occured to me that I use craigslist for all sorts of work-related things (finding freelance gigs, finding contractors to do work for me, that kind of thing) so why not use it for finding a place to stay on vacation? This ties into the “Look for individuals” tip since most listings on craigslist are from individuals.

  Once we’d narrowed our locations down to the two summer-is-low-season spots, I pulled up the respective craigslist sites and looked under vacation rentals. This involves a lot of sorting the wheat from the chaff, because there were all sorts of things listed that were out of our price range, but it wasn’t hard to find several properties in both locations that were within our budget and actually had a lot more features than we expected.

  In the end, we chose a craigslist-located condo that is much nicer than the standard hotel setup, and much cheaper. In fact, when we drove in yesterday, we passed a standard hotel, so I just looked up their rates: a full $60/night more for something comparable. Multiply that over our four-night stay and it really adds up!

I hope these tips help you the next time you plan a vacation… and now I’m off to go enjoy some more of mine!

Related Link: Car rental Malaga Cheap car rental Malaga Spain. All inclusive in Prices.

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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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